Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/13

 evidences of the friction which exists between the governing and the governed race. It is to be hoped that the hauteur of the one and the irritation of the other are decreasing; but the European who goes to sleep with his boots in an Indian gentleman's lap while travelling in the same compartment of a carriage on an Indian railway, is, it is to be feared, not wholly extinct; and wherever he exists he spreads around him an atmosphere of discontent in which good feeling finds it impossible to breathe.

Among the more general and lighter descriptions there are many sketches that will be new to English readers, as, for instance, the manner in which the people of India enjoy their holidays, the elephant-fights in the arena at Baroda. Many of these more interesting passages have drifted into the later chapters, and might be overlooked unless pointed out by reviewers. Of pure literary interest is the chapter on the Hindú epic, the Rámayana, which the author, struggling, perhaps, a little beyond his depth, compares with the Sháhnámah, and even with the Iliad.

What is said about English law may not, perhaps, be acceptable to English readers, and