THE CULTIVATOR'S HOME 231 



'You will find the owner resting, smoking, on a 

 wooden platform, where he sees visitors, carries on 

 his business, and dispenses a rude hospitality ; and 

 the unexpected visitor will catch, perhaps, on his 

 arrival a glimpse of a bright-coloured petticoat or 

 mantle, and hear the tinkle of a bangle or the giggling 

 of the girls, which announce the presence of the 

 w^omen-folk close at hand. Here the pretty naked 

 babies wander about, and are petted by their male 

 relations. In a lower-class household the women 

 will be found hard at work in the courtyard, grinding 

 barley, husking rice, cooking, spinning, and chattering 

 all the time to each other. 



* Further to the east, where there is less danger of 

 damage from hail, the roof of the principal rooms is 

 usually made of tiles, which admit a much freer pas- 

 sage of air and render the dwelling-rooms much less 

 stuffy than in the western districts. To these the 

 chief danger is from the ubiquitous, mischievous 

 monkeys, who scamper in every direction, and though 

 they are an emphatic nuisance, are protected by a 

 most efficient sanction. It is only by spreading a 

 layer of thorns over the tiles or thatch that they can 

 be prevented from bounding over the roof and groping 

 for the grain which has been dropped by the ever- 

 present, vigilant, restless crow. 



' The prevailing atmosphere, especially in one of the 

 western houses, is one of stuffy frowsiness. Here 

 masses of foul bedding are stored, the air is full of 

 acrid smoke from the fire of cow-dung fuel, the cattle 

 are stabled close at hand, litter is scarce, dry earth 

 conservancy unknown. The result is that the subsoil 

 becomes saturated with filth, and the contempt for 

 sanitary precautions shows itself in a foul drain, for 

 the removal of the kitchen refuse, often in dangerous 

 proximity to the well from which the water-supply of 

 the family is drawn.' The Indian peasant ' has a rooted 

 objection to the destruction of rubbish ; this and the 



