It was in vain that Marquis Cornwallis, on receipt of the intelligence, used every endeavor to obtain a revision of the proceedings: the Court were inflexible, and the parties could not, legally, be apprehended. His Lordship was, therefore, left without that redress he thought due to the public, and could only cause the sepoy to be dismissed from the Company’s service, and to be banished from the Company’s dominions.
Where the law gives so absurd a power, it might be expected that scarce a husband would be safe; but that is not the case; for they, in general, act very decidedly, whenever they are made acquainted with the existence of offences against conjugal propriety. The caution used in conducting an amour is not always very great, but there is, in fact, only one difficulty to be overcome, viz. the obtaining admission to the interior while the husband is absent: that being effected, detection is not very easy, because, the immured state in which women are kept, offers the best screen against the curiosity of prying neighbours.
What with the dark color of the mud walls, the sombre complexion of the people themselves, and the shade commonly cast by heavy foliages, standing in the vicinity of villages in general, as well as by the over-hanging thatches, &c., it is not very easy, even for a neighbour, to ascertain, after night-fall, whether a person, having a cloth on the head, entering the sacred enclosure, be male or female.
About the year 1786, a laughable story was current, regarding a young officer who had a very pretty Hindoo girl in keeping, but who, being of a very salacious disposition, always endeavored to prevail with such young women as came to vend fruits, or to sell _choories_, &c., to be his inmate. One of these daily visitors held out against every temptation, which so roused the youth’s passions, that he resolved to obtain that by force which money could not purchase. The struggle made a terrible discovery; the supposed damsel proving to be a young Portugueze drummer!!!
The ordinary mode of conveyance adopted by the generality of _nautch-taffahs_, is the common _hackery_, called a _g’horry_, which has two wheels, with a square body, as has been already described; in one of these, four or five crowd together, sitting almost back to back, and allowing their legs to hang down on every side. The generality are of very decent behavior, but, when they get a little _majoom_ (a sweatmeat prepared with _b’haug_) into their noddles, it is not uncommon to see them proceed in high style, singing away in full chorus, and, occasionally, exhibiting specimens of their profession, by attitudes corresponding with the words of songs purely Cyprian!