DEHLI AND AGRA                        259

or workshops for the artisans. In one hall embroiderers
are busily employed, superintended by a master. In an¬
other you see the goldsmiths; in a third, painters; in a
fourth, varnishers in lacquer-work; in a fifth, joiners,
turners, tailors, and shoemakers; in a sixth, manufac¬
turers of silk, brocade, and those fine muslins of which
are made turbans, girdles with golden flowers, and
drawers worn by females, so delicately fine as fre¬
quently to 'wear out in one night. This article of dress,
which lasts only a few hours, may cost ten or twelve
crowns, and even more, when beautifully embroidered
with needlework.

The artisans repair every morning to their respective
Kar-kanays, where they remain employed the whole day ;
and in the evening return to their homes. In this quiet
and regular manner their time glides away ; no one aspir¬
ing after any improvement in the condition of life wherein
he happens to be born. The embroiderer brings up his
son as an embroiderer, the son of a goldsmith becomes a
goldsmith, and a physician of the city educates his son for
a physician. No one marries but in his own trade or pro¬
fession ; and this custom is observed almost as rigidly by
Mahometans as by the Genliles, to whom it is expressly
enjoined by their law. Many are the beautiful girls thus
doomed to live singly, girls who might marry ad¬
vantageously if their parents would connect them with a
family less noble than their own.

I must not forget the Am-Kas,^ to which you at length
arrive, after passing the places just mentioned. This is
really a noble edifice : it consists of a large square court
of arcades, not unlike our Place Royale, with this difference,
however, that the arcades of the Am-Kas have no buildings
over them. Each arcade is separated by a wall, yet in
such a manner that there is a .small door to pass from one
to the other. Over the grand gate, situated in the middle
of one side of this court, is a capacious divan, quite open
^ Am-Khas, place of audience.    See p. 261.