establishment, though considerable to "set
up," are by no means so great in their current
amount as might be supposed. The Calcutta
establishment will cost less to keep going
than one of similar size and pretensions in
England. The difference in point of economy
amounts to this.—A small income upon which
you may manage very well in London, will
scarcely enable you to live at all in Calcutta;
that is to say, if you live in respectable European
society; but granting that you would enjoy
certain comforts and luxuries in either country,
they are more easily obtained, on a moderately
large income, in India than in England.
You will get less in India, out of three
hundred a year, but you will get more out of
one or two thousand. Your wine will cost you
more, but provisions of all kinds far less: except
those, of course, which people persist in having
out in hermetically-sealed tins from England—
a practice indulged in far more than is necessary
—owing to the fashionable enthusiasm for things
European, and the fashionable depreciation of
things native, prevalent among our countrymen.

An establishment in the Mofussil differs in
many respects from an establishment in
Calcutta. You have a bungalow instead of a
house—that is to say, a kind of a house which is
called a bungalow. It usually covers a good
space of ground, as it well may since it has
no upper floors; and it stands in an enclosure
called a "compound." This may be laid out as
a garden, or may lay itself out in any way it
pleases—which is sure to be in a very lavish
manner as regards rubbish and weeds: a great
crop of rank grass growing up in the rainy
season all of a sudden, to dry up and die out
as the heat sets in. There are a few trees
in it, and a few tombs, perhaps—the latter of
which may not be disturbed without giving deep
offence to the Mahomedan portion of the
neighbouring population; the first signs of which
would be manifested by the running away of
your khansamah, bobachee, khitmutgars, and
any other of your servants who chanced to be
followers of the Prophet. And after these had
run away you need be under no anxiety as to
the chances of their coming back again, or the
probability of getting others in their place;
nothing of the kind would be likely to happen.
You must, in such a case, be content with any
horrible specimens of casteless Hindoos you
could pick up, and your life would be a burden
to you so long as you remained in the station.

Supposing that you do nothing so foolish as to
disturb the tombs, you will have your establishment
about you very compactly. On one side
of the compound are a row of huts, intended for
all the sahib's horses and all the sahib's men, and
there they all live at their ease. The quadrupeds,
it must be confessed, are as well provided for as
the bipeds; and as for the syces, they generally
share the horses' beds, sleeping between the feet
of their charges in a manner which appears to be
mutually agreeable. If pressed for space, the syces
will even bring their wives and small families to
partake of the same accommodation, and none
of them dream of considering the arrangement a
hardship. In the daytime, the ladies of the
family will bring their charpoys (you can always
carry your bed about in India), and recline
thereon pleasantly in the sun, making the
children's toilettes, as far as they can be said
to have any, and occasionally their own, with all
regard to modesty, but with a perfect absence of
constraint. The household arrangements of your
other servants are also transacted at the doors
of their dwellings; and as most of the men have
wives, and most of the wives have children,
there is sometimes no little crowd and
confusion. A whole village talking at once, at
the top of its voice, might give some idea of the
rush of tongues. Mussulmans and Hindoos
agree very well in general intercourse, and
exchange the most intimate confidences
concerning their master's affairs—especially those
of a pecuniary character, with regard to which
they are sometimes better informed than the
sahib himself; but their familiarity extends no
further. They will not eat together. The
Hindoo goes to a retired part of the compound
and cooks his dinner by himself, at a fire made
by means of a couple of bricks and a little hole
in the earth, or he has it brought to him
by his wife, or somebody of his own caste;
and he feeds in silence and mystery. The
shadow of a Christian, or a Mahomedan, or
even a Hindoo of lower caste than himself,
falling on the meal, is supposed to defile it.
Its owner will not taste it after the contamination,
but casts it to the winds, or the dogs,
or any pariah Hindoo who may care to pick
it up. Your Mahomedan servants will not be
so particular about their meals, though they
always take them among themselves. Sometimes
they take them in the middle of the
night, for the sake of the cool air (as do the
Hindoos also, indeed), in which case the united
clatter of tongues and tom-toms (at these
nocturnal feasts music is usually introduced) is
enough to drive a light sleeper to despair. The
Mahomedans prefer not to eat from the master's
table; but conspicuous instances have been
known to the contrary under circumstances of
temptation. Khansamahs and khitmutgars
have been seen, when intruded upon
unexpectedly, deep in overland hams, and imbibing
champagne not wisely but too well—very like
orthodox Christians. But these same men, if
you required from them any little sacrifice of
the kind, might not have the smallest compunction
in murdering you.

As regards their wives, the Mahomedans are
more exclusive than the Hindoos. Indeed, the
original inhabitants of the country never thought
of shutting up their women until their
conquerors came, and made such exclusiveness
fashionable. Now, the wife of your humblest
Hindoo servant will make a show of pulling her
chudda over her face as you pass her charpoy
on your way to the stable, though if she be at
all handsome she will take care to be as tardy
as possible in performing the operation. As for
the Mahomedan women, they do not disdain to