But of all Orientals, the most antipathetical companion to an Englishman is, I believe, an East-Indian.  Like the fox in the fable, fulsomely flattering at first, he gradually becomes easily friendly, disagreeably familiar, offensively rude, which ends by rousing the “spirit of the British lion.”  Nothing delights the Hindi so much as an opportunity of safely venting the spleen with which he regards his victors.[FN#11] He will sit in the presence of a

[p.38]magistrate, or an officer, the very picture of cringing submissiveness.  But after leaving the room, he is as different from his former self as a counsel in court from a counsel at a concert, a sea captain at a club dinner from a sea captain on his quarter-deck.  Then he will discover that the English are not brave, nor clever, nor generous, nor civilised, nor anything but surpassing rogues; that every official takes bribes, that their manners are utterly offensive, and that they are rank infidels.  Then he will descant complacently upon the probability of a general Bartholomew’s Day in the East, and look forward to the hour when enlightened Young India will arise and drive the “foul invader” from the land.[FN#12] Then he will submit his political opinions nakedly, that India should be wrested from the Company and given to the Queen, or taken from the Queen and given to the French.  If the Indian has been a European traveller, so much the worse for you.  He has blushed to own,-explaining, however , conquest by bribery,-that 50,000 Englishmen hold 150,000,000 of his compatriots in thrall, and for aught you know, republicanism may have become his idol.  He has lost all fear of the white face, and having been accustomed to unburden his mind in

“The land where, girt by friend or foe,
A man may say the thing he will,"-

he pursues the same course in other lands where it is exceedingly misplaced.  His doctrines of liberty and

[p.39]equality he applies to you personally and practically, by not rising when you enter or leave the room,-at first you could scarcely induce him to sit down,-by not offering you his pipe, by turning away when you address him; in fact, by a variety of similar small affronts which none knows better to manage skilfully and with almost impalpable gradations.  If-and how he prays for it!-an opportunity of refusing you anything presents itself, he does it with an

“In rice strength,
In an Indian manliness,[FN#13]”

say the Arabs.  And the Persians apply the following pithy tale to their neighbours.  “Brother,” said the leopard to the jackal, “I crave a few of thy cast-off hairs; I want them for medicine;[FN#14] where can I find them?” “Wa’llahi!” replied the jackal, “I don’t exactly know-I seldom change my coat-I wander about the hills.  Allah is bounteous,[FN#15] brother! hairs are not so easily shed.”

Woe to the unhappy Englishman, Pasha, or private soldier, who must serve an Eastern lord!  Worst of all, if the master be an Indian, who, hating all Europeans,[FN#16] [p.40]adds an especial spite to Oriental coarseness, treachery, and tyranny.  Even the experiment of associating with them is almost too hard to bear.  But a useful deduction may be drawn from such observations; and as few have had greater experience than myself, I venture to express my opinion with confidence, however unpopular or unfashionable it may be.