A RUN THROUGH KATHIAWAR. 269 



selves, smoked their hubble-bubble, and so went off 

 to sleep. Xo human being disturbed us ; but I was 

 awakened during the night by some creature about 

 the weight of a large cat crawling over my face and 

 head. It had a cold slimy feeling, and so at first I 

 thought it was a snake, and kept perfectly still in 

 case of accident. But it seemed to have short legs 

 of a kind, and soon it fell off my head with a flop 

 upon the ground, from which the cot was elevated 

 only a few inches. I immediately got up on the 

 other side of the cot, and made a little noise in order 

 to keep off my visitor, whatever it might be. Un- 

 fortunately I could not at once find my matches, and 

 before I could strike a light the creature had left ; 

 and the ground was too hard to leave any traces of 

 it. It may have been a cat, or a bandicoot a large 

 unsavoury species of sluggish rat ; but my decided 

 impression is, from the kind of feeling it conveyed 

 to my head, that it was an inquiring young crocodile 

 which had come out of the lake. I do not know, 

 however, that there were any crocodiles in the lake, 

 though, on my inquiring, the Puggis said that there 

 were ; but they did so in a sleepy way, not wanting 

 to be disturbed, and would probably have assented 

 to anything, in order to continue their slumber. 



Sleeping in this tent at the lake, with the Puggis 

 beside me, and such a curious creature crawling over 

 my head, I was quite prepared to give a favourable 

 reception to all the superstitions of Kathiawar, and 



