Hospitable Preparations. 465 



reception room, and was also furnished with every conceivable 

 appHance to promote our comfort. His lordship was even so 

 attentive as to send his own travelling canteen for our use on 

 the excursion. This tent, likewise, had double walls, with a 

 passage between ; the exterior wall being lined with blue, by 

 means of which the glare of the sun and of the blinding white 

 sand was rendered less painful and more tolerable to the eye. 

 A number of coolies were employed in sprinkling water from 

 time to time upon the fine-grained sand, which produced a 

 most refreshing coolness all around. The Government Peon, 

 as also the chief of police of the district, wore their best 

 uniforms of white, with bran new bandoliers over their 

 shoulders, of broad deep-red scarves, with gold-lace edgings, 

 and, in the centre, a gilt plate, with the words, " Government 

 Peon " engraved on it. A number of men and children ran 

 hither and thither, — in a word, the whole village seemed in an 

 uproar to see the strange gentlemen, and supply them with 

 flowers, in the hope of receiving some trifling present. At 

 12.30 P.M., the thermometer suspended within the tent 

 marked 84° Fahr., although a gentle breeze was blowing from 

 seaward through the fragrant luxuriant grass {Kus-kus, or 

 Vetiveyr), which hung like a curtain over both entrances. It 

 is an exceedingly happy idea to use this fragrant Kus-kus, 

 {Andropogon muricatum) in the manufacture of mats, which 

 are intended to be suspended in the entrance-halls of houses, 

 and to be sprinkled with water, whereupon the penetrating, 

 hot, parching wind is passed through the fine damp texture, 



H H 



