Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/191

 walk, their ride, or their drive, or their duty as circumstances admit. The stranger will find few pedestrians to keep him company, but, as it is probable that his pay will not admit of his keeping a horse, let him not give way to the absurd prejudice of thinking walking infra dig, and injure his health by remaining in-doors. Let him, therefore sally out every morning, and take a moderate walk, enough to tire, but not to fatigue. He will see many an individual deeply impressed with the advantages of a morning walk padding along with their horses led behind them, or their buggy at their heels; not that they have any intention of using either, but that they dread being seen by vulgar eyes shorn of their establishment or being taunted with niggardliness for trudging through the dust like a coolie to save their horses shoes or their buggy wheels.

The evening is the grand season of recreation; every one who can set a couple or two of wheels in motion turns out to his constitutional drive; the course is crowded with carriages of every description; nor do they withdraw till the shades of evening close over them, rendering it difficult to recognise the faces of their friends as they pass. It is one of the anomalies of India that Europeans think it infra dig to take exercise on foot; to walk they are ashamed, even to preserve their precious health; yet many of the ills they