of those polluted beings, whose profession and blandishments are exerted to
“Make vice pleasing and damnation shine,”
but whose guests are in the depths of hell.
We next present to the reader one of the upper class of Hindoo society just as he would appear at a “Durbar,” or State ceremonial, or in receiving guests at his palace, or in connection with some public display.
The dress of a gentleman in India is regulated as to its quality by his wealth and position, and in its variations of form by his creed and locality; but the Maharajah costume here shown may be regarded generally as that of his countrymen.
Their dress is free and flowing, adapted to the climate, and leaving to the limbs a greater freedom of action, with more circulation of air, than the American style of dress can ever know. Although to our imagination it appears somewhat effeminate in its aspect, yet it is eminently graceful and becoming to the wearers, as any one who has seen a company of Hindoo gentlemen together will have observed. There is something so conservative and biblical in the aspect of it, that you feel at once that the fluctuations of the fashions can have no influence upon it. Here is something that is at once suitable and unchanging—a style of comfort and elegance which the past five hundred years has not varied, and which will probably remain unaltered when five hundred more years have passed away.
The dress here represented shows a vest of “Kinkob”—cloth of gold—slightly exposed at the breast; a loose-fitting coat falling below the knees, made of rich yellow satin from the looms of Delhi, bordered with gold embroidery; a Cashmere shawl of great value encircles the loins, and the usual “Kummerbund” binds all to the waist of the wearer. The turban is made of several yards of fine India muslin, twisted round the head, heavily adorned with chains of pearls, and aigrettes of diamonds and precious stones. These, with the pearls encircling his neck, are of large size and extraordinary beauty and value, the heir-looms of many generations.
