The Kansamah may be classed with the house-steward, and butler; both which offices appear to unite in this servant, who, in his dress, generally imitates the jemmadar, or the chobe-dar. Those who have but rarely seen a table laid out in India, must wonder at the elegance, and perfection, which may there often be found: this must appear still more surprizing, when it is considered, that none of those concerned in the preparation of the viands, would, on any account, taste of them during the course of preparation, any more than when returned from the table. It must not be supposed, that every servant bearing this description is equally acquainted with the several minutiæ the character ought to include: in fact, but very few of them possess such qualifications as should entitle to pre-eminence: generally, some of the more observant, or intelligent, of table-attendants of the lower order, contrive by application, and even by paying those kansamahs who are considered clever in their business, to climb up the ladder of menial rank, and ultimately to reach this station; which is the ne plus ultra in its branch of servitude. The wages are supposed to correspond with the talents; but, there being no scale whereby to regulate estimation, we may be better guided, in this particular, by the rank of the employer; though a few instances may be adduced wherein epicures, of very moderate income, have retained kansamahs at very exorbitant rates. Perhaps I may be right in taking from twelve to fifteen rupees for a common standard; from fifteen to twenty in families of rank, or opulence; and from twenty to forty among the first circle. I have known instances far beyond even that monthly stipend: a few cases might be adduced where not less than a hundred rupees have been given! As that corresponds with £l50. per annum of British currency, a sum which all below princely magnificence could but indifferently afford, it may be concluded, that, in the East, as well as in the West, there are to be found individuals who think no expence too great, when their appetite and taste are to be indulged.
The Sircar is a genius whose whole study is to handle money, whether receivable or payable; and who contrives either to confuse accounts, when they are adverse to his view; or to render them most expressively intelligible, when such would suit his purpose. These rogues are pretty nearly the same as the Madras debashes: I believe all, who have experienced the kind offices of either, will readily confess that no compleater knaves are to be found in any part of the world. And this under the most sedulous appearance both to please, and to serve, those whom they are about to plunder. As peons and hirkarahs rise to be chobe-dars, and jemmadars; and as khedmutgars succeed to the appointment of kansamahs; so may sircars in time become banians, dewans, darogahs, gomastahs, &c. Many of them even set up as shroffs, or bankers, and establish such an extent of credit as would astonish the inhabitants of Lombard Street. There are sircars of all ages, and of all degrees; from the shrewd lad of twelve, to the superannuated monster, whose sixty, or seventy, years of worldly intercourse, may be considered a record of fraud and extortion.
Nothing can perhaps be more forcible in exposing the characteristic traits of sircars, than the fact of their ordinarily tendering their services to young men, under the declaration that they seek for no pay; nor for remuneration in any form, beyond the pleasure of laying out master’s money to the best advantage. I should premise, that, on account of the immense variety of coins current in India, it is customary, whenever any large sum is to be received, to employ an examiner, called a podar; who, having confined his pursuits to the acquirement of a most accurate knowledge of their several values, at once decides upon the correctness of a payment. The precision, quickness, and touch, of these persons, are beyond description. I have been assured that many of them can, even in the dark, distinguish between several kinds of money, whose size and weight bear no great dissimilarity: besides, even those coins that bear the same value, and come from the same mint, differ greatly in both those particulars; some being broad and flat, like a shilling, though not defaced; while others are more dumpy, and, though of purer metal, not so ponderous.
Many of the sircars, especially of late years, unite the office of podar with their own business. This, it will be supposed, should enable them to secure their employer from loss, but is, on all occasions, made the means of injuring both his pocket and his credit, by passing inferior money at an unjust value into his chest, and issuing it at a less rate, if to a native colleague; but, if to an European, then at a higher value; the sircars of each joining in the device: when circumstances fit, this operation is reversed. I am prepared for the following obvious question; viz. ‘If the master knew the rate at which the money was paid to him, how happens it, that, after entering it in his books, he allows it to be paid away at a different, or, at least, at a lower, rate, than that at which it was received?’
This query should appear sufficient to stagger any person to whom it might be put; but to a sircar would not prove in the smallest degree difficult of solution. He immediately tells master, that the batta, i.e. the exchange, is altered, and, in saying that much, he may have the truth on his side. I have already hinted at the fluctuations that take place in all coins, whether gold, silver, or copper. This up and down price of money, if I may use the expression, is managed by the shroffs, or native bankers; who invariably, except on particular holidays, meet towards midnight, compare accounts, and settle the value of money for the succeeding day. Notice is accordingly circulated in an underhand manner; and, throughout the great town of Calcutta, covering perhaps three thousand acres, and well peopled, the whole of the parties concerned, nay, even the ordinary retail shop-keepers, are apprized of the alteration. Sometimes the exchange is allowed to remain at the same rate for a few days in succession: this rarely takes place except when a particular currency, say silver, is to be bought up at a low rate, such as 58 or 60 pice to a rupee, to be sold again when the rate has been, for that purpose, raised to 64, or 65. So soon as either purpose is accomplished, the exchange alters by the same invisible means.
The number of pice in a rupee constitutes its value; as the number of rupees and annas do that of a gold mohur; which, if sicca, from the Calcutta mint, ought invariably to pass at sixteen rupees. But the regulations of government have too often been openly trespassed, in the most daring manner. This was carried to such a pitch, that the whole of the silver currency at one time disappeared; the shroffs and sircars had bought it all up; so that persons in business were induced to offer premiums for silver; without which mercantile concerns could not proceed. It is a well known fact, that, for some months, the troops at the presidency were paid in gold, issued to them at par; but which, owing to the infamous combinations above described, would not pass in any part of the market, unless a deduction of one-eighth was allowed! Sircars contrive to defraud all parties with whom their masters may have concerns; thereby disgracing them on many occasions, especially in payment of card-debts; which are soon distinguished by this Argus race.
Besides the advantages thus made, the sircars derive a very considerable emolument from all purchases made in the markets, of whatever description. Whenever an European, even in person, buys goods of a native, his servants have, from time immemorial, a claim on the vendor of half an anna in every rupee the latter receives. This, which is called dustooree, or customary gift, being a thirty-second of the disbursement, amounts to no less than 3⅛ per cent.: it may therefore be imagined what immense sums these gentry must pocket, when serving gentlemen who have large establishments to support, and whose servants are numerous: for even from the very domestics does the sircar claim the above gratuity, when paying their wages!
Military persons have little occasion for such servants; therefore, unless in eligible circumstances, and of a very liberal disposition, a sircar will not think it worth his while to serve an officer on a small salary. But it is quite different where a young civilian is in question; to him the rogue’s purse is instantly opened; not only with a view to make him, like the steward in Gil Blas, pay interest for his own money, but under the hope of attaching firmly to the rising sun, and ultimately of being banian, naib, dewan; of course, ascending to the very acmé of prosperity. Those sircars who are employed by mercantile, or manufacturing persons, derive the advantages attendant on the foregoing transactions in a less degree than when serving an individual divested of such concerns; but they gradually acquire large property, and are often placed in situations of great trust; such as darogahs and gomastahs. In such establishments they are, for the major part, relatives to the banian, who assists with his purse on emergency; therefore, though they may feel the necessity of paying attention to their ostensible employer, they pay their court, under the rose, chiefly to the former. The rates of wages are, in this branch, progressive; some receiving a bare livelihood, such as from five to eight rupees monthly; while those of longer standing, or who are more in favor with the banian, sometimes receive from fifteen to thirty.
The dress of sircars is extremely simple: their heads are shaved, with the exception of one lock, about two inches in diameter at the base, which is held sacred, and is tied in a kind of loose bow-knot. The turban is white, of fine muslin, wrapped perhaps fifteen or twenty times round the head, leaving the crown nearly bare, and the lock of hair protruding. Round the waist a piece of cloth is passed, so as to allow freedom of motion; then tucked in, in a peculiar manner, and one skirt, passing between the thighs, is, in like manner, secured behind. Unless in cold weather, the body and arms are left entirely bare; in moderate seasons, they are covered by means of a cloth sewed into two breadths, thrown over the shoulders: a chintz quilt is likewise worn at times.
For the convenience of keeping accounts, and of making payments, one sircar is allowed by the Company to each battalion of sepoys. It is surprizing to see how these men, whose utmost legal receipts can amount to only twenty rupees monthly, get forward, and become possessed of property. Much money goes through their hands, and, as before observed, every finger is a file which takes off a trifle en passant. This class of servants rarely associate, in any degree, with the others; they form, in fact, a separate tribe of Hindus, and devote their time to one object, viz. making money. They generally read English well enough to know the contents of a bill; but, in giving receipts, usually sign their names in the Bengallee character: few of them undertake to write English accounts; but, in their own way, which appears to us prolix, they are extremely regular. The superiors seldom touch a pen, leaving that office to those servants who are entitled to confidence, and causing the less expert to act as collecting clerks; an employ in which they are eminently punctual, as most young debtors throughout the East must acknowledge. It is a peculiar circumstance, that scarcely an instance has been known of a sircar absconding with the money entrusted to him: from this, however, I exempt the vile crew of tide waiters, who are by no means scrupulous; though, for the sake of perpetuating their game, which any open act of felony might break up, they prefer extracting the money from the novice’s pocket, by means of extortion and fraudulent accounts.