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MARWARREES.
(201)

THESE, for the most part, are originally natives of Jondhpoor and Jeypoor, in Rajpootana, though they come from all parts of those provinces which bear the general title. They are Vaisya Bunneas, men of good caste, and, as a class, by far the most energetic and persevering of native merchants, whether as wholesale or retail dealers. They have been termed, not inaptly, the Scotchmen of India. Their country is naturally poor, producing little but what suffices for local consumption, and, indeed, hardly that in many respects; and this induces emigration to a great extent. Gradually but surely the Marwarree Bunnea has penetrated to most parts of India. He is found in Bengal, though not perhaps very numerously, for the Bengali Bunnea is as sharp in business as himself, and, as a pithy Hindi proverb expresses it, "two swords cannot stay in one scabbard." The Marwarree, therefore, has gone south. He has spread all over Malwah and Bundelcund; over Nagpoor, Berar, and the Deccan generally; and, if not to Mysore as yet, he is not far from it. At Hyderabad the fraternity is in immense strength. They count among them many, if not most, of the principal bankers, grain merchants, dealers in all sorts of produce, and importers of English manufactures, and sellers of them by wholesale and retail. By the Photograph it is evident they are at Delhi, and the group is employed checking off an invoice of English piece goods with the goods themselves. In Bombay the Marwarree merchants are as great as at Hyderabad, if not greater, and perhaps the chief speculators in that immense place of trade. Marwarrees make time bargains for opium, for cotton, for grain, for oilseeds, and every possible product of the country; but their principal trade is in opium and in cotton. They have agents in Malwah, who expedite the opium to Bombay upon relays of camels, now most likely by the railway; and it is shipped at once in clipper ships for China. It is a race, in fact, with opium, from the day it is packed till it reaches the China market; and the Marwarrees speculate for and against time, and gamble, as it were, in this stock, with a boldness unknown to other merchants. It is the same with cotton and