THE LOST SAFARI. 269 



patience we had, listening to the intermittent 

 tinkling of the little bell. At the end of fully 

 fifteen minutes the devotee appeared. He proved 

 to be a mild, deprecating little man, very eager 

 to help, but without resources. He was a Hindu, 

 and lived mainly on tea and rice. The rice was 

 all out, but he expected more on the night train. 

 There was no trading store here. He was the 

 only inhabitant. After a few more answers he 

 disappeared, to return carrying two pieces of 

 letter paper on which were tea and a little coarse 

 native sugar. These, with a half-dozen very small 

 potatoes, were all he had to offer. 



It did not look very encouraging. We had 

 absolutely nothing in which to boil water. Of 

 course we could not borrow of our host ; caste 

 stood in the way there. If we were even to touch 

 one of his utensils, that utensil was for him defiled 

 for ever. Nevertheless, as we had eaten nothing 

 since four o'clock that morning, and had put a 

 hard day's work behind us, we made an effort. 

 After a short search we captured a savage pos- 

 sessed of a surfuria, or native cooking pot. 

 Memba Sasa scrubbed this with sand. First we 

 made tea in it, and drank turn about, from 

 its wide edge. This warmed us up somewhat. 

 Then we dumped in our few potatoes and a single 



