The Parsees who engage as domestic servants seldom dress well;
the ugly chintz cap will always be a disfigurement, and it is not
often redeemed by the ample robe and handsome shawl which distinguish
the better classes.
The Mohammedans do not wear the beautifully plaited turbans and
well-fitting vests so common in Bengal, while the sailors' jackets
and trowsers, almost universally worn by the Portuguese, a few only
assuming the swallow-tailed coat, are any thing rather than
handsome or becoming. The inferiority of dress exhibited is the more
inexcusable, since the wages of servants in Bombay are much higher
than those of the same class in Bengal, while the difference in
point of number does not make up for the difference in the rate. The
youngest table-servant demands twelve rupees a month, no one will
engage as a butler under twenty, and the remainder are in proportion.
The ayahs' wages are also very high, amounting to from fifteen to
twenty rupees a month; they are certainly, however, more efficient
than the same class of persons in Bengal, undertaking to wash silk
stockings, lace, and fine muslin; they are, generally speaking,
well-conducted and respectable. The dirzees or tailors are very
inferior to their brethren of Bengal, though paid at a much higher
rate, fifteen rupees a month being the common demand.
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