.212 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AXD SPORT. 



with those of the man who is obliged to have re- 

 course (as we sometimes have in Western India) to 

 one of the ordinary cultivators' bullock-carts, which 

 might be thrown over a precipice without sustaining 

 much harm, and the wheels of which are segments of 

 solid wood ! All Giizerat is famous for its cattle, and 

 certainly my bullocks had a largeness and calmness 

 about them which was delightful to contemplate, and 

 made them contrast beautifully with the shrivelled 

 little opium-eater, their nominal superior. 



At the small gaum or village of Bhandviri, where 

 we stopped for the night, I found a chamber above 

 the gateway prepared for me ; but it was so full of 

 loopholes that I preferred to sleep in one of the half- 

 open houses below, my cot being stretched facing a 

 large wood-fire which was kindled in the court. But 

 the houses of Hindus, especially of Brahman s, are 

 defendu. In India one does not see the house-life as 

 in China and some other countries of the East. Only 

 among the poorer classes, and on occasions like this, 

 we get glimpses of it, and perceive its meagreness. 

 What a contrast the starry heavens presented that 

 clear, cold night of January to the meanness of my 

 human surroundings ! There are nights when the 

 earth's position on its orbit, our place on its surface, 

 the position of the larger planets, and the clearness of 

 the atmosphere, all combine to afford, nearly at the 

 same moment, a view of the more magnificent con- 

 stellations and individual heavenly bodies. Such a 



