So when he met me at the door his head was uncovered; but I
had no sooner crossed the threshold than he made haste to don his flat
turban,--reflecting, perhaps, that I had never seen him without it, and
might resent his bare head as an indignity. Of course his feet were
unshod. To have worn his sandals in my presence would have been a
flagrant insult; but on the porch I espied those two queer clogs of
wood, shaped to the sole of the foot, and having no other fastening than
an impracticable-looking knob, to be held between the toes.
This is the orthodox Hindoo dress; but the costume for public occasions
of many Hindoos of rank has been for a quarter of a century in a state
of transition from Mohammedan to British. By way of turbans, loose
trousers, Cashmere shawls, and embroidered slippers, they are marching
on toward pantaloons, waistcoats, shoes and stockings, stove-pipe hats,
and tail-coats. A baboo of superlative fashion, according to the code of
Young Bengal, paid me a visit one day in a state of confirmed "pants"
and "Congress gaiters"; and, on seating himself, he took off his turban
and held it on his knee. I need hardly say that he was a fool and an
infidel. And I have seen an intrepid buffoon of this class in an English
shirt, which he wore over his pantaloons, and hanging down to his knees.
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