X HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



CHAPTER VI. 



PACK 



The burlungn ants send out a colony— Garden rats— Field rats— 

 kUing of the river— Clearness of the atmosphere— Splendour 

 of the stars at night— Remark of my servant— More showers- 

 Issue of a swarm of young white ants — Most interesting 

 spectacle— Reflections upon it . ... 9° 



CHAPTER VII. 



Alchemy, an exhibition of— A piece of lead apparently transmuted 

 into a bead of gold — Gold mohurs called from space — Hidden 

 treasures — The vast store of, found by Nadir Shah — The un- 

 discovered treasures of the Emperor Alumgire — Animals in the 

 house — Lizards, various insects, rats, musk-rats, snake found 

 wedged in a padlock, scorpions . ... lo6 



CHAPTER VIII. 



The month of August— Excessive dampness — Dragonflies— A visit 

 from four jackals — ^Jackals at night — Their cry, what they are 

 supposed to say — A beautiful chrysalis — The month of 

 Septeml>er — More about my garden — The babool tree — Delicious 

 lierfume of its flower — Attar of roses — Commencement of the 

 cold weather — \'ultures, hawks, and kites — Squirrels — An in- 

 cident in the office — Narcotic drugs, some account of them . 122 



CHAPTER IX. 



The station, its history — My office — The old records — Paper by 

 Warren Hastings — The jail — Stories — Murder of a magistrate — 

 The captured burglar — The roVjber's head — The Bhuttyarah's 

 well — Snakes, I find a collection of their eggs — Locusts — The 

 beautiful moonlights — The night mirage — The day mirage — 

 I leave for another station . . ... 142 



CHAPTER X. 



Red ants — White ants — The mounds above their nests — One in course 

 of erection — I move again, and to a station near the Himalaya — 

 White ants abound — Description of their nests — Unpleasant 

 appearance of their combs — The queen — Fireflies and other 

 luminous insects — Bats — Many varieties — Description of some — 

 Weird appearance when hanging from the branches of a tree . 160 



