Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/151

Rh was asked if she was a Dēva-dāsi, because that class kept their ears natural. Now, with the change of customs all round, even dancing-girls are found with long ears. "The dancing-girls are," the Rev. M. Phillips writes,* "the most accomplished women among the Hindus. They read, write, sing and play as well as dance. Hence one of the great objections urged at first against the education of girls was 'We don't want our daughters to become dancing-girls'."

It is on record † that, in 1791, the Nabob of the Carnatic dined with the Governor of Madras, and that, after dinner, they were diverted with the dancing wenches, and the Nabob was presented with cordial waters, French brandy and embroidered China quilts. The story is told of a Governor of Madras in more recent times, who, ignorant of the inverse method of beckoning to a person to advance or retreat in the East, was scandalised when a nautch girl advanced rapidly, till he thought she was going to sit in his lap. At a nautch in the fort of the Mandasa Zemindar in honour of Sir M. E. Grant Duff,‡ the dancing-girls danced to the air of Malbrook se va t'en guerre. Bussy taught it to the dancing-girls, and they to their neighbours. In the Vizagapatam and Gōdavari jungles, natives apostrophise tigers as Bussy. Whether the name is connected with Bussy I know not. Of Dēva-dāsis at the Court of Tippoo Sultan, the following account was published in 1801. § " Comme Souverain d'une partie du Visapour, Tippoo-Saīb