have little or no knowledge. Ask any common labourer or one of the low
castes about immortality, about salvation, about the higher virtues,
about the yearnings and wishes that every immortal soul at periods
has, and he will simply tell you 'Khoda jane, hum greel admi,' i.e.
'God knows; I am only a poor man!' There they take refuge always when
you ask them anything puzzling. If you are rating them for a fault,
asking them to perform a complicated task, or inquiring your way in a
strange neighbourhood, the first answer you get will, ten to one, be
'Hum greel admi.' It is said almost instinctively, and no doubt in
many cases is the refuge of simple disinclination to think the matter
out. Pure laziness suggests it. It is too much trouble to frame an
answer, or give the desired information, and the 'greel admi' comes
naturally to the lip. It is often deprecatory, meaning 'I am ignorant
and uninformed,' you must not expect too 'much from a poor, rude,
uncultivated man like me.' It is often, also, a delicate mode of
flattery, which is truly oriental, implying, and often conveying in a
tone, a look, a gesture, that though the speaker is 'greel,' poor,
humble, despised, it is only by contrast to you, the questioner, who
are mighty, exalted, and powerful. For downright fawning
obsequiousness, or delicate, implied, fine-strung, subtle flattery, I
will back a Hindoo sycophant against the courtier or place-hunter of
every other nation. It is very annoying at times, if you are in a
hurry, and particularly want a direct answer to a plain question, to
hear the old old story, 'I am a poor man,' but there is nothing for it
but patience. You must ask again plainly and kindly. The poorer
classes are easily flurried; they will always give what information
they have if kindly spoken to, but you must not fluster them. You must
rouse their minds to think, and let them fairly grasp the purport of
your inquiry, for they are very suspicious, often pondering over your
object, carefully considering all the pros and cons as to your motive,