appeared to have no religion themselves in order that they might be
the more impartial arbitrators between the people of so many
different creeds and sects who now inhabited the country; that they
must be aware that they never had before been so impartially
governed, and that they must continue to obey these their governors,
without attempting to pry further into futurity or the will of the
gods. Mahadeo performs a part in the great drama of the Ramayana, or
the Rape of Sita, and he is the only figure there that is represented
with a _white face_.[10]

I was one day praising the law of primogeniture among ourselves to a
Muhammadan gentleman of high rank, and defending it on the ground
that it prevented that rivalry and bitterness of feeling among
brothers which were always found among the Muhammadans, whose law
prescribes an equal division of property, real and personal, among
the sons, and the _choice of the wisest_ among them as successor to
the government.[11] 'This', said he, 'is no doubt the source of our
weakness, but why should you condemn a law which is to you a source
of so much strength? I, one day', said he, 'asked Mr. Seaton, the
Governor-General's representative at the court of Delhi, which of all
things he had seen in India he liked best. "You have", replied he,
smiling, "a small species of melon called 'phut' (disunion); this is
the thing we like best in your land." There was', continued my
Muhammadan friend, 'an infinite deal of sound political wisdom in
this one sentence. Mr. Seaton was a very good and a very wise man.
Our European governors of the present day are not at all the same
kind of thing. I asked Mr. B., a judge, the same question many years
afterwards, and he told me that he thought the rupees were the best
things he had found in India. I asked Mr. T., the Commissioner, and
he told me that he thought the tobacco which he smoked in his hookah
was the best thing. And pray, sir, what do you think the best thing?'

'Why, Nawab Sahib, I am always very well pleased when I am free from
pain, and can get my nostrils full of cool air, and my mouth full of
cold water in this hot land of yours; and I think most of my
countrymen are the same. Next to these, the thing we all admire most
in India, Nawab Sahib, is the entire exemption which you and I and
every other gentleman, native or European, enjoy from the taxes which
press so heavily upon them in other countries.[12] In Kashmir, no
midwife is allo