Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/140

124 bluster; and "truth often sticks in their throats." Like their betters they despise work, but, unlike them, will beg, borrow, or steal, with the utmost pleasure in life. They live in a world of—wine and woman. Many of them sleep by day, and make the night hideous by their drunken revels. But against all these vices, common to the Mussalman "about town," they set off some very fine redeeming traits. As friends and servants they are invaluable; and if you treat them kindly they will lay down life in your service. As a rule they are above that meanness, that petty intriguing spirit and want of gratitude so common among their neighbours. Mussalmans in the villages around Gujarát present quite another picture. Their manners and habits correspond to those of Hindus of their position, naturally enough, as they were originally all Hindus, and have mostly to deal with Hindus even now.

A Romance in Real Life.

As an instance of how the Mahomedan gentry of Gujarát have sacrificed what remained to them after the loss of their supremacy to their pride of birth,and as explaining how the mean, insinuating