Journal of a residence in India / By Maria Graham. Illustrated by engravings.

  • Maria Graham
Date:
1812
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Journal of a residence in India / By Maria Graham. Illustrated by engravings. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/264 page 4
    On entering the Black Town, which is built in a coco-nut wood, I could not help remarking the amazing populousness of this small island ; the streets appear so crowded with men, wo- men, and children, that it seems impossible for the quiet bullock hackrays, or native carriages, to get along without doing mis* chief; much less the furiously driving coaches of the rich natives, who pride themselves upon the speed of their horses, which are more remarkable for beauty and for swiftness than for strength. I was informed that Bombay contains upwards of two hundred thousand inhabitants. The Europeans are as nothing in this number, the Parsees from six to eight thousand, the Mussulmans nearly the same number, and the remainder are Portuguese and Hindoos, with the exception of about three or four thousand Jews, who long passed in Bombay for a sect of Mahometans, governed by a magistrate called the cazy of Israel; they willing- ly eat and converse with the Mussulmans. A number of them are embodied among the marine sepoys, but most of them are low traders. The dwellings of the rich natives are surrounded by virandas, equally necessary to guard against the intemperate heat of the sun and the monsoon rains ; they are generally paint- ed in flowers and leaves of a green or red colour; those of the Hindoos have usually some of the fables of their mythology re- presented on their walls. The houses are necessarily of great extent, because, if a man has twenty sons, they all continue to live under the same roof even when married ; and uncles, bro- thers, sons, and grandsons, remain together till the increase of numbers actually forces a part of the family to seek a new dwel- ling. The lower classes content themselves with small huts, mostly of clay, and roofed with cadjan, a mat made of the leaves of the Palmyra or coco-nut tree, plaited together. Some of
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