The East India Vade-Mecum

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: It is observed as a general rule, always to make a purdah full a foot wider on each side than the door way it is to conceal; also to carry it a foot above the door plate, and to have a portion, about a foot in depth, without any lath, at the bottom, so as to trail a little on the ground. Those purdahs...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: It is observed as a general rule, always to make a purdah full a foot wider on each side than the door way it is to conceal; also to carry it a foot above the door plate, and to have a portion, about a foot in depth, without any lath, at the bottom, so as to trail a little on the ground. Those purdahs which are made of karieah, or other cotton stuff, are generally quilted with cotton, or are composed of many folds, or have coarse blankets inlaid between their outer coatings. The last is by far the most effectual, most neat, and most durable mode of construction; but, at the best, purdahs are a very indifferent make-shift; and, though often, from necessity, applied to windows, are by no means answerable to their intention. Their best use is certainly to deaden sounds; hence, they are advantageously suspended outside the doors of sleeping, or other retired apartments; when, by closing the doors, privacy and quiet may usually be effected. The presence of a purdah usually indicates the exclusion of males; and that the apartments, within that entrance, are devoted to the accommodation of ladies; except when rolled up, and tied, as has been explained in regard to cheeks. The best timber for building, in whatever branch, is the sygwam, or teak; but its dearness prevents its general use, especially since naval architecture has been so much an object of speculation at Calcutta. However, it can generally be purchased at about a rupee, or a rupee and a quarter, per foot: making its utmost price about three shillings and three-pence. Those who build houses of the first class, rarely fail to lay all their tarrases upon teak joists; both because they possess superior strength, and that they are far less likely to be attacked by the white- ants. This has been attributed to the quantity of ...