Sketches of native life and character in southern India . untry, he is loud in his compassion for the poor people,and indignant of the dishonesty of younger peons, who,unknown to the sahib, would rob the villagers of a fowlor a handful of grain. There is but one way to avoidthe practice of such iniquities, he declares—give every-thing over to him, the money especially, and he will seeeverything paid for, to the uttermost fraction. Alas ! 17 130 THE PEON. for the honesty of grey hairs. His experience of hisprofession is such, that where a younger peon wouldthrash a villager with whips, he would
Sketches of native life and character in southern India . untry, he is loud in his compassion for the poor people,and indignant of the dishonesty of younger peons, who,unknown to the sahib, would rob the villagers of a fowlor a handful of grain. There is but one way to avoidthe practice of such iniquities, he declares—give every-thing over to him, the money especially, and he will seeeverything paid for, to the uttermost fraction. Alas ! 17 130 THE PEON. for the honesty of grey hairs. His experience of hisprofession is such, that where a younger peon wouldthrash a villager with whips, he would thrash him withscorpions, and he will rob his master and villagertogether, where another peon would only rob he is a pleasanter peon to employ than one of theornamental type, for age has worn out his passions forflirtations and prying, and his latter day thoughts areconcentrated on rupees. He is affectionate too, andweeps copiously when his master goes to England ; butwho can say how much his tears partake of the man,how much of the Saurian ?. THE NATIVE GROOM, —9^&3t&&4*r~~ \Y asked to point out the salient characteristics of fthe Ghorawalla, we should without hesitationanswer, drunkenness and domestic disunion, forwe never yet had the good fortune to be possessed of aperfectly sober horse-keeper, or one who either did notbeat his wife or was beaten by her. A late EnglishJudge in a horse case, gave it as his opinion, amidst theloud laughter of his Court, that there was a dishonestyin horse flesh infectious to mankind, but, if his Lord-ship had sat upon the Indian bench, he might haveadded a dipsomania also, for our horse-keepers areundoubtedly the greatest tipplers among our , on a certain occasion, of an otherwise toler-ably decent specimen of his class, why he was so con-stantly intoxicated, he made reply, that the fault wasentirely due to that bad womans, his wife, and beingrequired to give further explanation, stated, that hisgood lady, who f
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