en
mouth. Before the children have acquired this dexterity in eating
and drinking, they are not permitted, even when they wear the
girdle, to come to the table of the adults.

The most common drink in Bombay is called sud or toddy, a kind of
light spirituous beverage which is made from the cocoa and date-
palm. The taxes upon these trees are very high; the latter are, as
in Egypt, numbered and separately assessed. A tree which is only
cultivated for fruit, pays from a quarter to half a rupee (6d. to
1s.); those from which toddy is extracted, from three-quarters to
one rupee each. The people here do not climb the palm-trees by
means of rope-ladders, but they cut notches in the tree, in which
they set their feet.

During my stay here, an old Hindoo woman died near to Herr
Wattenbach's house, which circumstance gave me an opportunity of
witnessing an Indian funeral. As soon as she began to show signs of
death, the women about her every now and then set up a horrible
howling, which they continued at short intervals after her decease.
Presently, small processions of six or eight women approached, who
also commenced howling as soon as they discovered the house of the
mourners. These women all entered the house. The men, of whom
there were a great number present, seated themselves quietly in
front of it. At the expiration of some hours, the dead body was
enveloped in a white shroud, laid upon an open bier, and carried by
the men to the place where it was to be burnt. One of them carried
a vessel with charcoal and a piece of lighted wood, for the purpose
of igniting the wood with the fire of the house.

The women remained behind, and collected in front of the house in a
small circle, in the middle of which was placed a woman who was
hired to assist in the lamentations. She commenced a wailing song
of several stanzas, at the end of each of which the whole joined in
chorus; they kept time also by beating their breasts with the right
hand and bowing their heads to the ground. They executed this
movement as quickly and regularly as if they had been dolls worked
by a wire.

After this had been carried on for a quarter of an hour, there was a
short pause, during which the women struck their breasts with both
their fists so violently, that the blows could be heard at some
considerable distance. After each blow, they stretched their hands
up high and bowed their heads very low, all with great regularity
and rapidity.