TOLD BY THE DOCTOR 77 



one of the largest I have ever seen, I strolled back in more 

 cheerful mood towards camp, shooting a couple of peafowl 

 en route. The old Koli came with me. I could see he 

 wanted badly to say something, and shortly out it came. 



" ' The sahib returned very early/ he said. I assented. 

 A silence. 



"'Did the sahib keep awake all night?' 



" The pertinacity of the old man annoyed me unaccount- 

 ably, and I answered shortly and evasively. 



" ' Without doubt/ he replied, ' the sahib is a rajah and 

 I a poor man.' 



" Nearer camp he spoke again. ' I will show the sahib 

 something if he will follow me/ and he led the way into 

 a tangle of low thorn and scrub. Chopping a prickly 

 tendril with his kulhdri, he dragged aside a mass of 

 creepers, and there at our feet lay a weather-beaten rect- 

 angular laterite slab. In its upper surface was cut an 

 oblong depression, in which lay traces of mortar. 



" * Marble slabs make nice curry-stones/ thought I. 



" * What was the sahib's name ? ' I said, seating myself 

 on a boulder. 



" * How should I know ? ' was the reply. ' When I was 

 so big ' and the old Koli lowered his skinny hand ' he 

 came here and wounded a tiger that tiger, they say ; but 

 it jumped on him, and in two days he was dead. And the 

 servants put him in the earth here. Next year another 

 sahib came, and he brought a smooth white stone, and had 

 this big one cut, and put it on the top, and departed. 

 There are badmash people who might steal such stones, 

 sahib; who knows?' ' Paldi was a basti then. It has 

 now long been deserted, many days many days/ And 

 he slowly wagged his head in ruminative mood. 



" Moved by a sudden shamefaced curiosity, I put him 

 a question 



"' You are a Koli?' 



