Page:The Industrial Arts of India.djvu/124

 and gold and silver vessels for eating and drinking, and the ward- robes and caskets, and graven images of the gods. But you ate simply entranced by the perfect proportions of the rooms, the polish of the ivory-white walls, the gay frescoes round the dado, and the beautiful shapes of the niches in the walls, and of the windows; and by the richness and vigour of the carved work of the doors and projecting beams and pillars of the verandah* You feel that the people of ancient Greece must have lived in something of this way ; and the houses of the rich in the old streets of Bombay, built before the domestic architecture of the people was affected by Portuguese influences, constantly remind you, especially in their woodwork, of the houses of the Ionian Greeks, as the learned have reconstructed them from their remains ; and the woodwork is the essential framework, the solid skeleton, of native houses in Bombay, and is put up complete before a stone or brick is placed on it* The strict rectangular ground plan also of Bombay gardens, and the orderly and symmetrical method in which they are planted, two different species of trees, it may be the cocoa-nut palm and mango, or the cocoa-nut palm and areca-mit palm, being planted alternately all round the boundary, with other trees, pomegranates, oranges, jasmines, guavas, roses, cypresses, oleanders, and custard-apples, in regular rows and sections, is identical with the ground plan of the ancient Egyptian and Assyrian gardens* Your host has nothing on but a muslin wrapper, for he is about to have prayers performed, and, as he throws the wrapper off bis shoulders and head, and girds it round his waist and sits down, a Brahman enters, and places the gods and sacred vessels before him, burning incense, and going through the customary forms and ceremonies; while your friend, if you are interested, explains them in their order* So an hour has passed, when a frugal meal, chiefly of unleavened bread and milk, is taken, and then, it being nearly two In the afternoon, an attendant comes in and dresses his master for the Legislative Council of which he is a member. First he puts on him a soft