Besides, they are used to the climate and we can do nothing in this fearful heat.

From The Great Mutiny by Christopher Hibbert. Page 31.

Officers newly arrived in India - known to the old hands as 'griffins' - took some time to grow accustomed to the attention which native servants were expected to bestow upon their masters, to being shaved in bed when still half asleep, to be 'fussed over' - as Lieutenant Henry Campion was - by attendants who wanted to fasten their braces or even wipe their whiskers dry after washing, to having huge umbrellas opened over their heads whenever they left their tents, to being surrounded by ministering hands when having a bath. 'If one's washing they hand one the soap and then stand each with a towel ready to slip it into one's hand directly it is wanted,' Robert Poore wrote home to his family in England. 'When you begin to dress each man stands with something ready to put into your hand the instant you feel inclined for it.' 'You have to have all these servants, though,' another officer explained, 'for they will not do one another's work; a syce would never lose caste by sweeping the floor or a khansaman do the work of a mally. Besides, they are used to the climate and we can do nothing in this fearful heat.'