Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/138

122 MAHOMEDANS.

Mahomedans were lords of Surat, and more or less of Gujarát. But at present, generally speaking, they are probably the poorest as a class. Their aristocracy live without aim or ambition, men crushed by their own "pride of birth," men who would borrow rather than earn, and starve rather than beg. They are ever ready to "grasp the skirts of happy chance." But that chance never comes to them. Their life is a round of inane pleasures and idle ceremonials, and the little substance now left to them is being exhausted in "playing the king." They are pining for the "good old times," and being desperate hopers they hope away life with astounding patience; they hope and hope and still they hope for "the good times coming."