Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/185

THE LUXUEY OF OLD GOA 137 male society, they lounged half-dressed through the tropical day, singing, playing, quarrelling, gossiping with their flattering slaves, " and especially devising means to elude the vigilance of their husbands." Such is the statement of Da Fonseca on the authority of Linschoten and Pyrard in the sixteenth century. A European zanana life grew up and produced ugly con- sequences. A lady valued herself in her female coterie upon the number and daring of her intrigues. The travellers who visited Goa during its prime tell strange tales of the hardihood with which the Portuguese ma- trons pursued their amours not scrupling to stupefy the husband with drugs, and then admitting the para- mour to his chamber. The perils of such interviews gave zest to jaded appetite, and the Goanese became a byword as the type of an Orientalized community, idle, haughty, and corrupt. But the Portuguese of Goa, although clad much like natives in their own houses, save for the large rosaries round their necks, and with their children running " up and down the house naked till they begin to be old enough to be ashamed," made a splendid appearance when they stirred abroad. The ladies in gorgeous ap- parel were carried in not less gorgeous litters, guarded by domestics, to the great functions of the Church their " dress mostly of gold and silver brocade adorned with pearls, precious stones, and with jewels on the head, arms, hands, and round the waist; and they put on a veil of the finest crepe in the world, which extends from head to foot." They wore no stockings, but slip-