DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5829#0200
176
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL.
The merchants of Hydrabad are reputed to be
very wealthy, and are, for the most part, persons of
good family, of education, and influence. They are
almost exclusively Mohummedans ; but a traveller
who visited the city about twenty years since, has
given, in his sketches of India, an entertaining
account of an eccentric Englishman who had esta-
blished himself in the city, and enjoyed a thriving
business. He writes :—" I passed one morning,
and took tiffin with a famous English merchant, who
holds a singular sort of durbar every morning, at
which you see shroffs and merchants, officers and
nobles, coming to beg, borrow, lend, or transact
business ; all which is done according to the native
customs. These Mr. P. observes, in everything
connected with his establishment; even when alone,
to the sitting on the floor to a dinner served in
their fashion ; reading the Arabian Nights with his
Moorish wives; and (de ffitstibus noil est disputan-
dum,) listening with pleasure to the musical sounds
of the native tom-tom.
" lie is a man of uncommon talent and great
information,—very popular among the natives, of
course, and with the British also, for his liberality,
ready and obliging politeness, and unbounded hospi-
tality to all; to the poor also he is very charitable.
The choice of an Eastern mode of life is, with him,
not altogether unnatural. He was born of a native
mother, a female of Delhi, of good descent. He was
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL.
The merchants of Hydrabad are reputed to be
very wealthy, and are, for the most part, persons of
good family, of education, and influence. They are
almost exclusively Mohummedans ; but a traveller
who visited the city about twenty years since, has
given, in his sketches of India, an entertaining
account of an eccentric Englishman who had esta-
blished himself in the city, and enjoyed a thriving
business. He writes :—" I passed one morning,
and took tiffin with a famous English merchant, who
holds a singular sort of durbar every morning, at
which you see shroffs and merchants, officers and
nobles, coming to beg, borrow, lend, or transact
business ; all which is done according to the native
customs. These Mr. P. observes, in everything
connected with his establishment; even when alone,
to the sitting on the floor to a dinner served in
their fashion ; reading the Arabian Nights with his
Moorish wives; and (de ffitstibus noil est disputan-
dum,) listening with pleasure to the musical sounds
of the native tom-tom.
" lie is a man of uncommon talent and great
information,—very popular among the natives, of
course, and with the British also, for his liberality,
ready and obliging politeness, and unbounded hospi-
tality to all; to the poor also he is very charitable.
The choice of an Eastern mode of life is, with him,
not altogether unnatural. He was born of a native
mother, a female of Delhi, of good descent. He was