Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/146

120 legs. The washing is done by sousing the clothes in water, and beating them on large, smooth stones. It is certainly an alarming sight to housewives to see garments swinging over the dobey's head and descending again and again with no small force on the washingstone. Though the first washing is usually enough to greatly reduce the number of your buttons, and to reveal any weakness in sewing or in fabric, the damage is less than might be expected from such harsh treatment.

Our ironing-man was quite an elegant-looking personage, always well dressed, and with the mark of his sect handsomely painted on his forehead–with his fine turban, gold ear-rings, white robe, and stately mien, he would have passed for something better. Mrs. D. was a little amused one day with his reply to an inquiry as to how many children he had. “No children," he replied with a doleful shrug of the shoulders, “no children; only three girls!" Girls were not to be counted as children, in the estimate of the Hindu, and this is the sentiment not of our ironing-man alone, but of the whole community, both male and female.

The cares of housekeeping in India are at first discouraging. You seem to be spend-