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2
This term would appear to apply generally to an inhabitant of Hindoostan. it is not meant
only for a dweller in a city, like the Latin Urbanus as opposed to Rusticus.
3
Natural garden flowers.
4
Such as quails, partridges, parrots, starlings, etc.
5
The calls of nature are always performed by the Hindoos the first thing in the morning.
6
A colour made from lac.
7
This would act instead of soap, which was not introduced until the rule of the Mahomedans.
8
Ten days are allowed when the hair is taken out with a pair of pincers.
9
These are characters generally introduced in the Hindoo drama; their characteristics will be
explained further on.
10
Noonday sleep is only allowed in summer, when the nights are short.
11
These are very common in all parts of India.
12
In the `Asiatic Miscellany', and in Sir W. Jones's works, will be found a spirited hymn
addressed to this goddess, who is adored as the patroness of the fine arts, especially of music
and rhetoric, as the inventress of the Sanscrit language, etc. etc. She is the goddess of
harmony, eloquence and language, and is somewhat analogous to Minerva. For farther
information about her, see Edward Moor's Hindoo Pantheon .
13
The public women, or courtesans (Vesya), of the early Hindoos have often been compared
with the Hetera of the Greeks. The subject is dealt with at some length in H. H. Wilson's
Select Specimens of the Theatre of the Hindoos, in two volumes, Trubner and Co., 1871. It
may be fairly considered that the courtesan was one of the elements, and an important
element too, of early Hindoo society, and that her education and intellect were both superior
to that of the women of the household. Wilson says, `By the Vesya or courtesan, however,
we are not to understand a female who has disregarded the obligation of law or the precepts
of virtue, but a character reared by a state of manners unfriendly to the admission of wedded
females into society, and opening it only at the expense of reputation to women who were
trained for association with men by personal and mental acquirements to which the matron
was a stranger.'
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