Page:Calcutta, Past and Present.djvu/182

 numerous servants were a striking feature in Anglo-Indian life, as they are to this day, although their numbers have dwindled considerably. An establishment of the old days, besides a complement of table servants, bearers, cook and cook's mates, included such dignitaries as a chobdar, or mace-bearer (silver stick in waiting), whose duty it was to marshal the procession when his master took his walks abroad or rode in his palanquin. Even when carriages had superseded palanquins, this functionary remained an ornamental appendage to every household of consequence. Then there were the jemadar and his peons or chupprassies, who formed a body-guard; the palkee-bearers, who cost thirty rupees a month; the mussalchees, now degenerated to a race of scullions, but once, as their name denotes, torch-bearers, who ran swiftly, "at the rate of full eight miles an hour," with blazing torches before their masters' carriages, to light them safely on their way. Still other servants were the barber, whose services received the modest pay of two to four rupees, and the hairdresser, whose artistic skill was recognized in a salary of sixteen rupees a month; the abdar, who cooled the wines; the hookabardar, who had sole charge of the master's, and very often the mistress's, hookah—the Indian pipe, which