ich,
with the lady-owner, is a mark of favour to an equal or inferior: when a
superior pays a visit of honour, the prided seat is usually surrendered to
her, and the lady of the house takes her place most humbly on the very
edge of her own carpet.

Looking-glasses or ornamental furniture are very rarely to be seen in the
zeenahnahs, even of the very richest females. Chairs and sofas are
produced when English visitors are expected; but the ladies of Hindoostaun
prefer the usual mode of sitting and lounging on the carpet; and as for
tables, I suppose not one gentlewoman of the whole country has ever been
seated at one; and very few, perhaps, have any idea of their useful
purposes, all their meals being served on the floor, where dusthakhawns[9]
(table-cloths we should call them) are spread, but neither knives, forks,
spoons, glasses, or napkins, so essential to the comfortable enjoyment of
a meal amongst Europeans. But those who never knew such comforts have no
desire for the indulgence, nor taste to appreciate them.

On the several occasions, amongst Native society, of assembling in large
parties, as at births and marriages, the halls, although extensive, would
be inadequate to accommodate the whole party. They then have awnings of
white calico, neatly flounced with muslin, supported on poles fixed in the
courtyard, and connecting the open space with the great hall, by wooden
platforms which are brought to a line with the building, and covered with
shutteringhie and white carpets to correspond with the floor-furniture of
the hall; and here the ladies sit by day and sleep by night very
comfortably, without feeling any great inconvenience from the absence of
their bedsteads, which could never be arranged for the accommodation of so
large an assemblage--nor is it ever expected.

The usually barren look of these almost unfurnished halls is on such
occasions quite changed, when the ladies are assembled in their various
dresses; the brilliant display of jewels, the glittering drapery of their
dress, the various expressions of countenance, and different figures, the
multitude of female attendants and slaves, the children of all ages and
sizes in their variously ornamented dresses, are subjects to attract both
the eye and the mind of an observing visitor; and the hall, which when
empty appeared desolate and comfortless, thus filled, leaves nothing
wanting to render the scene attractive.

The buzz of human voices, the happy pl