Note 7 — Chapter VII · [CONTINUATION OF STERN’S COMPOSITION.]

The Resident had said that Madam Slotering was a “native woman.” This needs some explanation for readers who are not acquainted with India; for otherwise they would be apt to come to the wrong conclusion—that she was a Javanese woman. European society in India is very sharply divided into two different parts, the Europeans proper, and those who, though lawfully belonging to the same jurisdiction, were not born in Europe, and have more or less Indian blood in their veins. In honour of the notions of humanity prevailing in the Indies, I hasten to add, that however clearly in social intercourse the difference between the two classes of persons, both having, in contradistinction to the native, the name of Europeans, may be marked, this separation has by no means the barbarous characteristic which predominates in America. I do not deny that there is still much injustice and exclusiveness in the relation of the parties, and that the word liplap7 sounded often in my ears as a proof how removed the white man, not being a ‘liplap,’ often is from true civilisation. It is true that the ‘liplap’ is only by exception admitted into society; that he is generally considered, if I may be allowed to make use of a very vulgar expression, “as not being thoroughbred;” but such an exclusion or slight is seldom defended as a principle. Every one is at liberty to choose his own companions, and one cannot take it amiss in the European proper, if he prefers the conversation of persons of his own nationality to that of persons who, not to speak of the greater or less esteem in which they are held in society, do not agree with his impressions or ideas, or—and this is perhaps the main point,—whose prejudices have taken a different direction from his own.