230 RIFLE AND SPEAR WITH THE RAJPOOTS. 



camels, oxen, and the other tame animals that lie 

 about the streets everywhere. A wild animal, the 

 monkey, is still more numerous, and being sacred 

 must not be molested or even interfered with. He 

 steals what he wants with impunity, and hardly 

 takes the trouble to move out of the way of a passer- 

 by. The tortoise is also sacred, and hundreds of them, 

 some as big as turtles, are bobbing about in the water, 

 or waiting to be fed at the foot of the ghats which 

 line the river front. 



All life is sacred to a Brahman, except of course 

 his fellow-man's. The sect called Jains carry this so far 

 that they wear muslin veils over their mouths lest 

 accidentally they might swallow a fly. Neither of the 

 sacred pets here seems over-grateful. A hungry tortoise 

 occasionally nips off a bather's finger or toe ; and the 

 monkeys evidently consider that the inhabitants hold 

 their houses on sufferance. They tell a tale of a 

 regiment of Ghoorkas passing through the city, who in 

 some way considered they had been insulted by its 

 populace. In revenge the soldiers scattered handfuls of 

 grain on the tiled roofs of the houses. The monkeys 

 crowded to feed, and, hunting for grains which had 

 fallen between the chinks, pulled away tile after tile, 

 until the houses were rapidly unroofed. No one, of 

 course, dared to interfere with the monkeys, even when 



