The wives of the native servants are generally industrious. This one,
Karlee boasted, was a notable housewife. Before she went out to service
as an ayah she had cleaned the rice, pounded the curry, cooked all the
meals, brought water from the tank in earthen jars on her head, swept
and scrubbed the floor, cultivated a small kitchen garden, "shopped" at
the bazaar, spun endless supplies of cotton thread on a very primitive
reel, consisting of a piece of wire with a ball of clay at the end of
it, which she twirled with one hand while she fed it with the other; and
every morning she bathed in the Hooghly, and returned home before
daybreak. Sewing and knitting were unknown arts to her,--she had no use
for either; and her washing and ironing were done by a hired dhobee.
True, it was not permitted to her to eat with her husband; when Karlee
dined she sat at the respectful orthodox distance, and waited; and if at
any time they walked out together, ayah must keep her legal place in the
rear. Saith the Shaster, "Is it not the practice of women of immaculate
chastity to eat after their lords have eaten, to sleep only after they
have slept, and to rise from sleep before them?" And again, "Let a wife
who wishes to perform sacred ablution wash the feet of her lord, and
drink the water.
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