manners, comprising the society of the Mussulmauns in India. Aware of the
difficulty of my task, I must entreat your kind indulgence to the
weaknesses of a female pen, thus exercised for your amusement, during my
twelve years' domicile in their immediate society.

Every one who sojourns in India for any lengthened period, will, I believe,
agree with me, that in order to promote health of body, the mind must be
employed in active pursuits. The constitutionally idle persons, of either
sex, amongst Europeans, are invariably most subject to feel distressed by
the prevailing annoyances of an Indian climate: from a listless life
results discontent, apathy, and often disease. I have found, by experience,
the salutary effects of employing time, as regards, generally, healthiness
of body and of mind. The hours devoted to this occupation (tracing remarks
for the perusal of far distant friends) have passed by without a murmur or
a sigh, at the height of the thermometer, or the length of a day during
the season of hot winds, or of that humid heat which prevails throughout
the periodical rains. Time flies quickly with useful employment in all
places; in this exhausting climate every one has to seek amusement in
their own resources, from sunrise to sunset, during which period there is
no moving from home for, at least, eight months out of the twelve. I have
not found any occupation so pleasant as talking to my friends, on paper,
upon such subjects as may admit of the transfer for their acceptance--and
may I not hope, for their gratification also?

The patriarchal manners are so often pictured to me, in many of the
every-day occurrences exhibited in the several families I have been most
acquainted with in India, that I seem to have gone back to that ancient
period with my new-sought home and new friends. Here I find the master and
mistress of a family receiving the utmost veneration from their slaves and
domestics, whilst the latter are permitted to converse and give their