Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/186

170 with his better part. But so successfully does he wrestle with himself, that before thirty he has ceased to be a human being. Before thirty he is a money-grubbing machine. He will do anything for money, get money from everything. He works greater havoc in the mofussil than in the Presidency towns. More minutes and reports have been written on the Márwári than on all the wild beasts and venemous reptiles put together. But the Márwári still flourishes. He threatens to be an evergreen.

Next to money the Márwári loves his home in Márwár, then his mother, then his wife and children, then his national music. The Márwári seldom smiles under Rs. 100, but the loss of a pie will bring tears into his eyes. He has not much religion in him; and though as a Vaishnava he is bound to visit the Máhárájás, he seldom does so, unless under inducement of a dinner or a loan. He has not much respect for his gods, and will prefer a Queen's coin to the best of them. In all his habits of life simplicity, that is, a love of cheapness, is the leading trait. He loves his holidays, and during the Holi the