176 RIFLE AXD SPEAR WITH THE RAJPOOTS. 



of mist surround us, and roll along almost touching the 

 ground. It is quite useless to go out shooting, for you 

 cannot see twenty yards before you. 1 sat all the 

 morning wrapped in rugs, with my feet on a hot- 

 water bottle, and managed to keep warm; but the poor- 

 servants look miserable and half frozen. 



The Lumbardar (head-man of the village) called after 

 breakfast, and offered us the shelter of a house. But 

 only stern necessity could drive one to enter a native 

 village, much less a house. Towards evening this 

 necessity arose, for the rain became a deluge, and we 

 were washed out of our tents ; so, saddling our horses, 

 we rode to the village. To enter the serai we had to 

 pass through an outer shed which served as kitchen, 

 then into a muddy yard, at the further end of which 

 was the living house, consisting- of one large room. 

 There were no windows, only a few holes in the walls, 

 now boarded up. and an open timber roof over the mud 

 floor. In the middle of the room was a great iron pot filled 

 with red-hot charcoal. The half-naked native squatted 

 beside it looked like a pantomime demon, as he blew up 

 the fire with bellows of inflated sheep-skin. The glare of 

 the embers and a tiny native light (a bit of cotton 

 floating in oil) just made the darkness visible. Part of 

 the room had been hastily swept for us, but all around 

 it was thick with the dust of ages. The brazier had to 



