160.—SIR SALAR JUNG, K.S.I.
“Hindoos turn all their little capital into jewellery. This habit springs from a medley of vanity and superstition, the latter leading them to consider trinkets as talismans against spells and witchcraft.
“It was also, under the ancient Mogul dynasty, a means of preserving their property from the rapacity of Mussulman tyrants, whose religion forbade them to appropriate women’s chattels.
“The Hindoos are very tenacious of their prerogatives, and India has frequently been convulsed by sanguinary struggles occasioned by some one of its castes refusing to conform to traditional custom. Terrible conflicts have, ere now, been caused by an inferior caste attempting to wear slippers of a certain shape, the privilege of a higher one, or because it wished to use, in its religious rites, certain musical instruments hitherto reserved for the worship of the superior divinities.
“The Hindoos may lay claim to a refined politeness and elegant manners; but the smallest concession in the respect to which their social position entitles them, the least relaxation in the prescribed etiquette are considered a sign of weakness and an avowal of inferiority.
“The conversational formulæ used towards a native vary according to his station. Nothing is easier than to affront their susceptibility. Never speak to an Oriental of his wife or of his daughters. To do so, is contrary to custom. To use the left hand in bowing, in eating, or in drinking, is to offer an insult; the right hand alone is reserved for the higher uses, and the left, the ignoble hand, is used for ablutions.
“In Europe, it is a sign of respect to uncover the head, in the East, to take off the turban is a disrespectful act. On entering a house, conversely to us, they keep their heads covered, but leave their shoes at the threshold. This habit seems to me a most sensible one. A white cloth is stretched on the floor of their apartments, on cushions placed on which they sit cross-legged. It appears to me that shoes were invented to preserve the feet from the roughness of the ground, from the mud and from the dust of the roads. Are they not then objectionable, or, at any rate, useless in the interior of a well-kept house?
“When paying a visit, the Hindoo waits until his host bids him adieu. They very properly suppose that a visitor can be in no hurry to leave the friend whom he has purposely come to see. The host, on the contrary, may have urgent business claiming his immediate attention. The forms of this dismissal vary:—‘Come and see me often,’ or ‘Remember that you will always be welcome.’ Presents of flowers and fruit generally terminate these visits, and betel is invariably handed round.