Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/151

Rh virtue, which inculcates a spirit of justice and generosity and total forgiveness, they lack the faculty to appreciate. They know not, the bulk of them, the true nature of charity. No doubt our Shetts are loyal to the British "Crown; but to what ruling power have they ever been disloyal? Loyalty is their policy, their interest. Excepting in this matter, the Parsi Shett of Surat is an honest, peace-loving citizen. He seldom beats his wife, and is otherwise a very pious, moral old gentleman, with a few "old-gentlemanly vices," and many old-gentlemanly virtues.

There are Parsi Shetts in Bombay, too, a shade better than those in Surat. They are more civilised, so to say, but all their civilisation does not save them from priestly influence. Five to twelve Parsi Shetts compose what is called a Puncháyet.

The Puncháyet is a highly respectable body, but it seems to be a body without a soul; for none of its many members, it seems, can call his soul his own. The Puncháyet Shett is often a prim old individual, well shaven, well washed,