custom to admit women to clubs as they do here.  The wives and daughters of members have every privilege, and can give tea parties and luncheons in the clubhouses, while on certain evenings of the week a band is brought from the military barracks and everybody of any account in European society is expected to be present.  Tables are spread over the lawn, and are engaged in advance by ladies, who sit behind them, receive visits and pour tea just as they would do in their own houses.  It is a very pleasant custom.

All visitors who intend to remain in Bombay for any length of time are expected to call upon the governor and his wife, but it is not necessary for them to drive out to Malabar Point for such a purpose.  On a table in the reception room of the government building down-town are two books in which you write your name and address, and that is considered equivalent to a formal visit.  One book is intended exclusively for those who have been “presented” and by signing it they are reminding his excellency and her excellency of their continued existence and notifying them where invitations to dinners and balls can reach them.  The other book is designed for strangers and travelers, who inscribe their names and professions, where they live when they are at home, how long they expect to be in Bombay and where they are stopping.  Anybody who desires can sign this book and the act is considered equivalent to a call upon the governor.  If the caller has a letter of introduction to His Excellency he can leave it, with a card, in charge of the clerk who looks after the visitors’ book, and if he desires to see the governor personally for business or social reasons he can express that desire upon a sheet of note paper, which will be attached to the letter of introduction and delivered some time during the day.  The latter, if he is so disposed will then give the necessary instructions and an aide-de-camp will send a “chit,” as they call a note over here, inviting the traveler to call at an hour named.  There is a great deal of formality in official and social life.  The ceremonies and etiquette are modeled upon those of the royal palaces in England, and the governor of each province, as well as the viceroy of India in Calcutta, has his little court.

A different code of etiquette must be followed in social relations with natives, because they do not usually open their houses to strangers.  Letters of introduction should be sent with cards by messengers or through the mails.  Then, if the gentleman to whom they are addressed desires, he will call at your hotel.  Many of the wealthier natives, and especially the Parsees, are adopting European customs, but the more conservative Hindus still adhere to their traditional exclusive habits, their families are invisible and never mentioned, and strangers are never admitted to their homes.