Trade Is Carried On By Means Of Brokers, Many Of Whom Are Indians:
In
general, the community of Indians is the wealthiest in
[P.191] Mekka. They are in direct intercourse with all the harbours of
Hindostan, and can often afford to undersell their competitors.
Many of them, as has been already observed, are stationary here, while
others are constantly travelling backward and forward between India and
the Hedjaz. They all retain their native language, which they teach
their children, and also many merchants of Mekka superficially, so that
most of the latter understand, at least, the Hindostanee numerals, and
the most ordinary phrases employed in buying and selling. The Indians
labour under great difficulties in learning Arabic; I never heard any of
them, however long resident in the Hedjaz, speak it with a tolerable
accent: in this respect they are inferior to the Turks, whose
pronunciation of Arabic so often affords subject of ridicule to the
Arabian mob. The children of Indians, born at Mekka, of course speak
Arabic as their native language. The Indians have the custom of writing
Arabic with Hindostanee characters.
They are said to be extremely parsimonious; and, from what I saw of them
in the houses of some of their first merchants, they seem to deserve the
character. They are shrewd traders, and an overmatch, sometimes, even
for the Arabians. They are despicable, from their want of charity; but
they display among themselves a spirited manner, which makes them
respected, and even sometimes dreaded, at Mekka.
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