Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/232

198 those trees.” The wise Grecians may have thought this a traveller's tale; but from that day to this, the half-civilized Hindu has woven in his mud-walled hut, muslins and other fabrics, from the fleece of the wonderful cotton-plant that have been sought by every nation of the commercial world. Now, however, the tide is turning, and the weavers of India find themselves hardly able to compete with some of the manufactures of England and America. The bazaars show not only an array of Arnee and Dacca muslins, and Madras handkerchiefs, but also of English calicoes and American longcloths; while hardware, china, stationery, glass, and other articles of trade from Europe, entirely fill some of the shops.

The money-changers, seated on their counters with piles of gold, silver, and copper before them; the sellers of areca-nut and betel-leaf for chewing; the confectioners; the sellers of bangles, (glass-bracelets;) the potters, and others, draw their stock in trade purely from Indian sources, and wear a purely Indian appearance.

At certain festival seasons, as in the Holi, celebrated in honour of their god Krishna, when the men sprinkle each other with a red fluid