or tea and then open their shops for the day's business. If his trade
permits it, the middle-class Memon will himself go a-marketing, taking with
him a "jambil" or Arab-made basket of date-leaves in which to place his
vegetables, his green spices, his meat and a little of such fruit as may be
in season. His other requisites,--flour, pulse, sugar and molasses,--come
to him in what he calls his "khata,"--his account with a neighbouring
retail-dealer. He is by no means beloved of the Bombay shop-keeper, for he
is strict in his observance of the "sunna" which bids him haggle "till his
forehead perspires, just as it did in winning the money". The Bombay
shop-keeper commences by asking an exorbitant price for his commodities;
our Memon retorts by offering the least they could possibly fetch; and the
battle between the maximum and the minimum eventually settles itself
somewhere about the golden mean, whereupon the Memon hies him homewards as
full of satisfaction as Thackeray's Jew. In many cases the mother of the
house or the sister, if old, widowed and in the words of the Koran
"despairing of a marriage," performs the business of shopping and proves
herself no less adept than her kinsman at driving a bargain.

About mid-day the Memon or Rangari has his chief meal consisting of
leavened or unleavened bread, meat curry or stew or two "kababs" or fried
fish, followed perhaps by mangoes, when in season; and when this is over he
indulges in a siesta whenever his business allows of it. The afternoon
prayers are followed by re-application to business, which keeps him busy in
his shop until 8 or 9 p.m., when he again returns home to a frugal supper
of "khichdi." It is hardly a satisfying meal, and many young Memons indulge
in a fresh collation before retiring to rest. The "khichdi" finished, the
young members of the family set forth for their evening resorts, nor
forbear to take such refreshment as the city offers on their journey. They
purchase a glass of ice-cream here, accept a cup of tea offered by a friend
there or purchase a tumbler of "faludah," which plays the same part in the