be seen on the
cotton coats of rustics in the rural area.

The substitution of clothes cut and sewn to fit the body for draped
clothes is a matter of regret from an artistic or picturesque point
of view, as the latter have usually a more graceful appearance. This
is shown by the difficulty of reproducing modern clothes in statuary,
trousers being usually the despair of the sculptor. But sewn clothes,
when once introduced, must always prevail from considerations of
comfort. When a Hindu pulls his _dhoti_ or loin-cloth up his legs and
tucks it in round his hips in order to run or play a game he presumably
performs the act described in the Bible as 'girding up his loins.'

4. Occupation.

The social customs of the Darzis present no features of special
interest and resemble those of the lower castes in their locality. They
rank below the cultivating castes, and Brahmans will not take water
from their hands. Though not often employed by the Hindu villager
the Darzi is to Europeans one of the best known of all castes. He is
on the whole a capable workman and especially good at copying from a
pattern. His proficiency in this respect attracted notice so long ago
as 1689, as shown in an interesting quotation in the _Bombay Gazetteer_
referring to the tailors of Surat: [516] "The tailors here fashion
clothes for the Europeans, either men or women, according to every mode
that prevails, and fit up the commodes and towering head-dresses for
the women with as much skill as if they had been an Indian fashion,
or themselves had been apprenticed at the Royal Exchange. (The commode
was a wire structure to raise the cap and hair.)" Since then the Darzi
has no doubt copied in turn all the changes of English fashions. He
is a familiar figure in the veranda of the houses of Europeans,
and his idiosyncrasies have been delightfully described by Eha in
_Behind the Bungalow_. His needles and pins are stuck into the folds
of his turban, and Eha says that he is bandy-legged because of the
position in which he squats on his feet while sewing. In Gujarat
the tailor is often employed in native households. "Though even in
well-to-do families," Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam writes, [517] "women sew
their bodices and young children's clothes for everyday wear, every
family has its own tailor. As a rule tailors sew in their own houses,
and in the tailor's shop may be seen workmen squatting in rows on a
palm-leaf mat or on cotton-stuffed quilts. The wi