HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



CHAPTER VI. 



PAGR 



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

 Rising 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 . ... 90 



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 . . . . 106 



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 

 September — More about my garden — The babool tree — Delicious 

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

 cold weather — Vultures, 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 robber'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 



