hich allows four wives in the
present, and holds out such prospects for the future.

Yet there is something winning and attractive about many of these men
with their gentle courteous manners. Passengers coming on board, there
was prospect of business, so saying that they hoped that nothing that
they had said would have caused me any offence, they shook hands and
hurried off, and were soon deeply absorbed in the industry of trying
to see how much they could persuade the globe-trotter to give for
their wares. But their trade is not so good as it was some years back.
The traveller is more wide-awake, and his inclination now is to err
on the side of paying too little. Some shipping lines have also
forbidden traders to board the ships, because it gave an opportunity
for thieves to get on board under the guise of traders, and a good
many things had been stolen from passengers in this way.

Landing in Bombay from the same ship, an Australian lady said to me,
as the passengers were waiting on the Bunder while the luggage was
passing through the Customs, "What is this strange smell?" "It is only
the smell of India," I replied. "Then I don't like it," she said very
decidedly. There is in India a peculiar stale smell which you seldom
get entirely away from, unless on some lofty hills far removed from
the haunts of men. It is the smell of an undrained country, where the
habits of the people transgress the most elementary sanitary rules, so
that even out in country districts, if there are human habitations in
the neighbourhood, the air is tainted.

Whereas it is the English custom to receive a new-comer into office
with great ceremony, the Indian reserves his enthusiasm for the time
of departure. The new viceroy is welcomed with much state ceremonial,
but he departs in comparatively homely fashion. If the arrangements
were in the hands of Indians, it is the outgoing viceroy who would
receive the chief honours. After all, this may be the right way. The
new-comer has not yet been tried, whereas if he has done his duty
during his time of office, it is at the point of his departure that
display of gratitude is becoming. If the head of a mission has to go
to England on furlough, the residents at the mission-station will
probably give him a tremendous send-off, even if he is not
particularly popular. But when he returns, the Indians who saw him off
so enthusiastically will receive him back with gracious smiles and
kindly greeting, and