We pass booths in which native jewellers sit hard at work
fashioning rings, brooches, and other articles of personal
adornment. Their dexterity is marvellous; without elaborate
appliances of any kind, with only a small blow pipe and a few rude
tools, they will take a gold coin from you and before your eyes
shape it into any form selected. But it is said they must have a
model to copy from; no original design emanates from them. The
booths, or little shops, are curious affairs. They are built of
mud, with neither window nor door, the floor on which the artisans
sit being about four feet above the narrow street level.
I never was more thoroughly impressed with the position of the
European of India than to-day when pushing through the crowded,
narrow lanes of Benares. Our native guide went before us carrying
a whip which he cracked and brandished among the crowd, calling
out "Sahib! Sahib!" and the people, casting one glance behind, at
once hurried out of our way, making a clear track for our august
person supposed to represent the conquering race. The respectful
salaams, as we caught the eye of one native after another, their
deferential, not to say obsequious, attitude as we passed--all
this tells its story. That "all men are born free and equal" will
not enter the Hindoo mind for centuries--not till England has
brought it up to the standard of self-government, which it is
gradually doing, however, by its schools and colleges.
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