The servants are all Hindoos, and a great number are kept; and this is necessary, because each servant will only do one kind of work.
Each horse has two servants, one to take care of it, and the other to cut grass: even the dog has a boy to look after it alone. The servants do not live in their master’s house, but in small huts near. The place where they live is called “the compound.”
When English people travel they do not go in carriages, but in palanquins. A palanquin is like a child’s cot, only larger; and there a traveller can sleep at his ease.
The men who carry the palanquins are called “Bearers.” The nurses are called Ayahs. Babies are carried out of doors by their ayahs, but children of three or four are taken out by the bearers.
There was once a little girl of three years old who taught her bearer to fear God.
Little Mary was walking out in a grove with her heathen bearer. She observed him stop at a small Hindoo temple, and bow down to the stone image before the door.
The lisping child inquired,—“Saamy, what for, you do that?”
“O, missy,” said he, “that is my god!”
“Your god!” exclaimed the child, “your god, Saamy! Why your god can no see, no can hear, no can walk—your god stone! My God make you, make me, make everything!” Yet Saamy still, whenever he passed the temple, bowed down to his idol: and still the child reproved him. Though the old man would not mind, yet he loved his baby teacher. Once when he thought she was going to England he said to her,—“What will poor Saamy do when missy go to England? Saamy no father, no mother.”
“O Saamy!” replied the child, “if you love God he will be your father, and mother too.”
The poor bearer promised with tears in his eyes that he would love God. “Then,” said she, “you must learn my prayers;” and she began to teach him the Lord’s Prayer. Soon afterwards Mary’s papa was surprised to see the bearer enter the room at the time of family prayers, and still more surprised to see him take off his turban, kneel down, and repeat the Lord’s Prayer after his master. The lispings of the babe had brought the old man to God: Saamy did not only bow the knee, he worshipped in spirit and in truth, and became a real Christian.
There are three great cities which may be called English cities, though in India: because Englishmen built them, and live in them, and rule over them. Their names are Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay.
The capital city is Calcutta. There the chief governor resides. Part of Calcutta is called the Black Town, and it is only a heap of mud huts crowded with Hindoos. The other part of Calcutta is called the English town; and it consists of beautiful houses by the river-side, each house surrounded by a charming garden and a thick grove.
Madras is built on a plain by the sea, and is adorned by fine avenues of trees, amongst which the English live in elegant villas and gardens. Here also there is a Black town. It is very hard to land at Madras, because there is no harbor.