Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 011.djvu/68

Those who have been acquainted with the British possessions and native states of India, for the last twenty or thirty years, must have remarked a change which has been gradually taking place in the appearance, and what may be termed the moral costume, of these countries; since they have become more pervious to and familiarized with the sight of European travellers. An air of magic, a feeling of romance hung in days of yore over every part of this land of promise; a spell framed of novelty and magnificence fascinated every adventurer that touched its strand, and prepared him for scenes of wonder, luxury, and riches; nor was his expectation disappointed. Whatever the price he might pay in loss of time or health, pleasures courted his acceptance, and an almost ideal state of luxury and grandeur opened on his view, calculated to revive in his mind, if not to realize, the wonders of those Arabian tales that delighted his boyhood.

The perfect contrast which every thing that meets the eye of an European when he lands in India affords to all he has left behind him, even in these later days, transports him quite to another world; and how much greater must the effect have been in former times, when little or nothing savouring of Europe was to be seen in any part of that country. "As far as the East is from the West," so opposite is the appearance of the natives and their soil, their complexion, dress, language, manners, character; their climate, sky, vegetation, yea, even the very odours and perfumes that float upon the air, to every thing a native of the British isles can have scen in the country he has quitted. The crowds of natives that hover around him when he lands, with their dark bodies in a state of almost primitive nakedness, offering a strong and strange contrast to their pure white and almost feminine garments; their respect, and offers of service; the novel appearance of the streets through which he passes; the rich fruits offered in profusion to his acceptance, more grateful and inviting from the intense heat of the climate; the spacious apartments to which, when he finds a home, he becomes introduced, with the various inventions of necessity or luxury for rendering this heat supportable; the palanquins, horses, carriages that await his call, all so different from any thing he can have seen before, seldom fail powerfully to excite the imagination of the new corner.

But if this be the case upon his landing in a part of the country deeply tinctured with European manners, how greatly will this excitement be increased if his fate lead him into the interior and to the court of a Native prince. There any thing connected with Europe is lost sight of, and eastern manners and eastern pomp assume its place: the Natives, unchecked by the control of their conquerors, exhibit their inherent taste for luxury and show; numerous and glittering cavaleades, rich costumes, elephants, camels, and horses magnificently caparisoned, with multitudes of attendants gaily attired in all the pride of their various official badges, silver sticks, spears, and arms of all descriptions, flit along and dazzle the eye at every turning; crowded and rich bazaars, with the endless variety of scenery and incident they afford, attract the gaze in passing through the streets, and the increase of glitter and show, of noise and bustle, is striking beyond description. But, besides all this, there is a tone peculiar to such places difficult to describe, de-