shroffs, (i. e. bankers) residing in that part of the town inhabited principally by natives: at the baugeechahs, or garden-houses, which generally stand, like our farm-houses, at some distance from other dwellings, chokey-dars are found to be indispensably necessary. Within the Company's provinces no head chokey-dars are to be seen: there the watchman may perhaps be exempt from the imputation of belonging to the local gang : though circumstances do sometimes authorize the suspicion, that he aids the perpetrators of the robbery. Generally speaking, however, there appears no ostensible person who comes forward to guarantee the safety of goods under charge of a chokey-dar : when this most desirable assurance is wanting, the greatest vigilance is sometimes inadequate to the prevention of theft. It is not a very easy matter to defeat the machinations of a most expert banditti, in a country where it is necessary to throw open every door, and window, during the night, lest suffocation should ensue !

I have said that a Durwan, or porter, is star tioned at the gate, on entrance into that, area, (called the compound,) within which most houses in Calcutta are situated. This servant usually receives from four to five rupees monthly, and dresses little better than cooly; though, in Some instances, he may be seen more respectably cloathed. So soon as a palanquin enters the