Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/72

 is by chance found, he is at least a tame one. If officers, holding such appointments, knew the comfort imparted to a Griff, by a kind demeanor, they would not be niggardly of such trifles.

Cadets are seldom allowed to remain long in Calcutta, but are ordered up to Benares or some upper station to do duty and pass their drill, preparatory to being posted to a regiment. They are generally placed under charge of some senior officer, and their passage is provided at the public expence. Assistant Surgeons are for the most part ordered to do duty at the General Hospital for three or four months. Civilians are also detained in Calcutta to study and pass in the languages.

3. SOCIETY.—Most young officers on arriving in Caicutta see but little of its society, and they may think themselves fortunate in having the entreé to some family circle. Nobody knows a stranger unless he makes the first advances, and calls; and this is so novel and so repugnant to modest young men, that they often prefer living aloof rather than obtruding upon the residents' notice. Moreover, no society undergoes a greater fluctuation than that of Calcutta. Most people are birds of passage, and the greater number are frequently changing appointments, to be replaced by others from the Mofussil (as the interior is called), so that in a few years