own sarree.

Surat toys and sweetmeats. Her idle hours are passed in the manufacture of elephants, lions, and tigers, out of cloth, and stuffed with saw-dust or sandal-wood powder, as rewards to the children, for good behaviour. She can use her needle, but prefers sitting on the floor and teaching your eldest boy how to make a turban out of his father's red sash, or her The Ayeh has often the entire care of the Anglo-Indian family where the mother has been taken away from among them. The one I have sketched here was so situated. She was an old woman, and had grown grey and wrinkled in her master's service. The little ones called her "mother," the elder children "Ayeh dear," for she had been a kind good nurse to all of them. "She is a fine character," said the widowed Dr. Y. to mẹ one day, "and the only person I have about me that I can really trust." Many are the bitter tears often shed, when circumstances compel you to leave behind the poor Ayeh, who has nursed the rising family, now about to sail for England.

The dobie, or washerman, you may engage at so much a month, according to the number, or the wants of your family. He comes to your bungalow once a week, and brings with him his own servants to carry away the articles upon which he is to exercise his detergent art; you give him a list of them, which list your musshall reads over to him in Hindostanee; he marking it off in his own way, and you keeping another list yourself. If your family is a numerous

one, there is a mountain-heap awaiting him at the end of the week; for the preservation of health demands, especially during the hot season, perpetual change of raiment. The dobie takes your belongings out about a mile into the country, where there are some large washing-tanks provided; and after having dipped them in a description of bleaching liquid, he and his men set to work to beat them on stones, till fully cleansed. After this process, they are passed through fresh water, and spread out to dry in the sun; a work which occupies but a few minutes, and which makes them snowy white. Of course this beating process, which is carried on for some time, soon destroys your garments; buttons fly about in all directions, and hooks and eyes are for ever separated. The articles are then taken home to be ironed, which is done by passing over them, in the usual manner, a square brass box, filled with heated stones and charcoal embers. Such things as require starching, or what ladies call "getting up," are dipped into a curious farinaceous compound, called conjee, and prepared from arrow-root and rice. Nor is the Indian dobie ignorant of the mysteries of stiffening lace, cambric, &c., only he never puts any blue into his preparations; water and everything else is a dead white; and, in consequence, everything on which he exercises his skill soon turns yellow, like the lace once thought so valuable. As the destruction of buttons, &c., is carried on, on a ruinous scale, studs are used in India wherever the substitution is practi

cable. They can be purchased from the native jewellers, finely executed in gold, silver, or Cambay pebbles. It is seldom that the dobie loses any of your apparel, for his eye soon becomes familiar with your private mark on them; and until this is the case, you may expect to receive occasionally the property of others. His caste has the reputation of honesty; but, as a precautionary measure, the old AngloIndian strongly advises you always to have a month's pay in hand, in case of accident. I remember one, and I think only one instance of dishonesty on the part of this functionary; and it occurred in the house in which I resided, and which contained a number of boarders. Among other things, some very valuable French lace was carried off, and never recovered.Information was quickly given to the police, but the man of suds had decamped from the island, taking away with him a large amount of property belonging to six other families. The loss to my landlord was about twenty pounds. There is manufactured in Bombay a particular kind of soap, which has the useful property of enabling you to use sea-water for cleansing purposes; and which consequently is much prized by sailors, who seldom fail to lay in a stock of it for their voyage home.

The bheestie, or pawney-wallah, supplies your bungalow every morning with fresh water. He brings it in the skin of a sheep sewed up, with one leg left for a spout; the whole being secured by a leathern cord slung over the left shoulder. He is a

gentleman who stands upon very little ceremony with you, and hurries from one room to another, to fill the bath, chatties, and jugs, whether the apartments be occupied or not. His visits are paid very early in the morning, so that you may have the water as cool as possible; and he troubles himself not at all as to whether you are in bed or out of it-married or single. In he rushes, dripping wet, and leaving behind him a stream of the precious fluid; for his skins are always bad ones, and out gushes the water into your vessels, and away he hurries to the next room. Sometimes, indeed, you meet with a polite pawney wallah; one who will give a grunt outside your door, as a sort of warning to you to be prepared for him; but this is so rare, that you soon become accustomed to the sudden intrusion; I have seen persons newly arrived in this country furiously enraged with these unceremonious water-purveyors, on such occasions; but it is a folly, as they never can understand a word you say; but strangers, who do not know the language, always appear to forget this. The breestie is so much in the habit of finding people in bed, that he seldom takes the trouble to look at them. If he suspects that you are rising, he may give two or three grunts, but you cannot detain him long-aware, as you are, of the many leaks from his antiquated sheep-skin. English ladies in India are obliged to conquer, in some degree, their fine sensibilities in such matters. Liable as they are to perpetual intrusions of this kind, they soon become indifferent

to the customs of the country, and appear practically to recognise the good sense of Edward the Third's well-known motto.

The pawney-wallah (pawney, water-wallah, man) is a man upon whom you must keep a sharp eye.— He is not to be trusted alone in an apartment containing small portable articles; and it is the duty of the muscalche, or table servant, to attend him in his progress over your bungalow. A friend of mine having occasion to leave her room for a few moments one morning, perceived, upon her return, that a very attractive Delhi brooch had been removed from her toilette-table. The servants were summoned; and suspicion was immediately fixed upon the bheestie, who, having been in the room during her temporary absence, was ordered back, to give an account of himself. Of course, he most stoutly denied having touched the missing article. He prostrated himself to the ground, called upon a variety of gods, celestial and terrestrial, to prove his innocence. His kummerband was removed, and his slippers were shaken, and his mouth examined; but no brooch was to be found; and he was about to be dismissed as innocent of the theft, when an accidental derangement of his turban, in the hurry of departure, caused the lost trinket to fall to the floor. The man was sent down to the bazaar-master, and punished; and was banished from the district, as a warning to other evil-doers. It should, however, be considered, that, as a class, water-carriers are often exposed to great temptations.