Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/306

264 of the taliari, (watchman.) On seeing us approach, he drew off to one side of the road; and slipped off his sandals, stood reverently shoeless until we had passed, when he resumed his sandals and went on his way. The putting off of the shoes is universally practised in India as a mark of respect. Should a Hindu enter your house with them on, it would be an evident attempt to treat you disrespectfully, or to presume upon your ignorance of Eastern manners.

The country about Wandiwash is finely adapted to agriculture, and indigo, rice, and other grains are cultivated largely. Good government and true morality among the people only are needed to give prosperity and happiness to the inhabitants. Without these they must be poor. Yet, happily, the wants of the Hindu are few and his patience great. God tempers trials even to his enemies. With his blessing, the Indian cultivator of the soil would be rich upon what would be poverty to the European or American farmer. Their agriculture is laborious, as every thing is done by hand; but it is perseveringly and carefully prosecuted. In the illustration (which is copied from a native drawing) we have one man beating out the grain by thrashing the rice-sheaves