10 



THE INDIAN ECLIPSE, 1898. 



junction on our route, the country became a little better wooded, 

 and possibly in consequence we noted that the dust-haze was 

 less apparent and the sky was bluer. 



Talni proved to be quite a small village of a very ordinary 

 type ; but not entirely without some picturesqueness in appear- 

 ance. A mass of small mud huts closely packed together, and 

 intersected by the narrowest of lanes, save where a number of 

 lanes converged to an open space in the centre of which was the 

 village well. Two buildings of greater consequence were alone 

 to be seen : the house of the patel or head man, neat, white and 

 square, with battlemented roof : and the mud fort, the latter in 

 utter ruin. 



Of the smaller huts and their inhabitants the photograph 

 gives a good impression. It was taken early one Sunday 



A HUT IN TALNI VILLAGE. 



morning by the senior member of our little party. That it was 

 early may be readily inferred from the mufned-up appearance 

 of some of the group. For though the thermometer ran up 

 during the day to 90 in the shade, the nights and early morn- 

 ings were most decidedly chilly, and the natives were evidently 

 not proof against the cold. It struck us as interesting to 

 note how they seemed- to find it amply sufficient when the 

 temperature was low to wrap up their heads and cover their 

 mouths. The body and limbs might take care of themselves. 



Talni village was some little distance from Talni station, 

 though a few huts and houses in which the station officials lived 

 stood close to the line. The station was of the smallest, and 

 did not even possess a platform, and in the ordinary way only 

 the slowest trains stopped there two each way during the 

 twenty-four hours. Still the station buildings were at least as 



