Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/573

Rh are more lofty and compact. Nor are these external marks of luxury deceptive. The style of living is suited to the dwelling, combining the luxuries and elegancies of the East with the imported comforts of the West, to a degree probably nowhere surpassed.

Close by these palaces of the ruling race, and even against their compound-walls, you will find a row of the huts of the ruled, presenting in their meanness a striking contrast to the splendour with which they are brought into such close contact. Yet the poor Hindu, with but a bit of cloth about his middle, and an earthen dish of rice and curry for his frugal meal, is as contented, and perhaps far more comfortable than the officer who dines within the palace, fanned by punkahs, waited on by a train of obsequious servants, and stimulated to excess by wines, liquors, and tempting dishes. The one is living an artificial life in a strange and hostile climate; the other is at home, and dips his hand into the dish that his wife sets before him with an appetite and a relish to which his more wealthy neighbour may be a stranger.

The churches are numerous, and some of them have claims to architectural greatness; but to the missionary no place of worship is so