The Bohras, Captain Forsyth remarks, though bigoted religionists,
are certainly the most civilised and enterprising and perhaps also
the most industrious class in the Nimar District. They deal generally
in hardware, piece-goods and drugs, and are very keen traders. There
is a proverb, "He who is sharper than a Bohra must be mad, and he
who is fairer than a Khatri must be a leper." Some of them are only
pedlars and hawkers, and in past times their position seems to have
been lower than at present. An old account says: [394] "The Bohras are
an inferior set of travelling merchants. The inside of a Bohra's box
is like that of an English country shop; spelling-books, prayer-books,
lavender-water, soap, tapes, scissors, knives, needles and thread make
but a small part of the variety." And again: "In Bombay the Bohras go
about the town as the dirty Jews do in London early and late, carrying
a bag and inviting by the same nasal tone servants and others to fill
it with old clothes, empty bottles, scraps of iron, etc." [395]