He
waits to be dismissed, or rather to receive permission to withdraw. The
etiquette supposes that his inclination is to prolong the enjoyment he
derives from the society of so agreeable a gentleman; it is, therefore,
not until rose-water has been presented to him, or betel-leaf, or
sweetmeats, that he will venture to take his sandals and his leave.
The style of Hindoo politeness is format and imperturbably grave,
utterly devoid of heartiness or impulsiveness; and the cordiality which
distinguishes the intercourse of American friends appears to the native
gentleman boisterous and vulgar. I never saw Karlee laugh; and if I had
happened to snatch him from sudden death by fire or water, I think he
would have acknowledged the obligation with precisely the same
mathematical salaam, or at most the same sententious obsequiousness,
with which he accepted a buksheesh of a half-rupee; and yet in both
good-humor and gratitude he was as cheerful and as worthy as the most
giddy and gushing of damsels. But I must acknowledge there was something
truly corpsy in the solemnity with which he would "lay out" a clean
shirt. Even so, in the midst of all the jolly uproar of a mess dinner,
our Kitmudgars would stand in grim deadliness at our backs, like so many
executioners, only waiting for a sign from the ruthless Kousomar, who
was just then horribly popping the champagne corks, to behead us,--each
his own doomed Sahib.
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