Coral beads are in high estimation throughout Hindostan, as applicable to the construction of necklaces and bracelets for women. Notwithstanding they are manufactured from the red coral, fished up in various parts of Asia, these beads are very costly, especially when they run to any size. They are generally sold by the sicca-weight, or _tolah_; that is, by their weight in silver, two and a half rupees weighing about one ounce; or eighty to the seer of nearly two pounds avoirdupoise. A _tolah_ of high colored, sound beads, as large as a marrow-fat pea, may commonly be had for about three, or four, rupees; sometimes cheaper: consequently, an ounce of coral beads, called _moongahs_, will cost near a guinea. This, which is four times the value of silver, appears to be a high price, considering the low wages of laborers, and proves that coral cannot be advantageously imported from India to England. The ladies of Asia are very particular in often steeping their _moongahs_ in pigeon’s blood; under the firm belief of their color being heightened by such immersions! This recipe may, however, be matched by many, of equal efficacy, highly valued among ourselves.
The lowest, and most poverty-struck woman in Bengal, would consider herself truly wretched if she could not, now and then, anoint her head with oil, of some kind. The ladies of affluence invariably use scented oils, of which those impregnated with the bale, the jasmine, and sandal, are most in use. Doubtless, custom reconciles ‘the rancid fragrance’ to the nostrils of an Asiatic; but, to an European, nothing can be more offensive. A full dressed Hindostanee lady is the living type of that sarcastic couplet of Swift.
‘Enrich’d with all the gay perfume, She wafts a stench around the room.’
The sale of these oils, as also of the _missy_, which is applied by both sexes to their teeth, and, by forming a black coating, or varnish, is supposed to preserve their enamel from the action of the lime contained in the _pawn_, or beetle, they generally chew, as also of the _soormah_, or levigated antimony, used for blackening the edges of the eye-lids, together with a variety of rubbish, is confined to a class of men called _gundies_, who carry their ware about in small baskets. The oils, and especially the _utr_, or _ottah_ of roses, are very carefully packed in cotton-wool, and every pretence is made of their being of great value. It is wonderful what deceptions this class of hawkers practise! They are most consummate in the arts of flattery and intrigue; from the exercise of one or the other, not unfrequently of both conjoined, they could not fail to become very rich, did they not generally lead most dissipated lives, and often take payment _in kind_ for their wares.