144 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



animated appearance. They are crowded with people, 

 many of them picturesquely attired. There are num- 

 bers of horses, bullocks, and ponies, besides palanquins 

 and those quaint little dome-shaped vehicles so bright 

 in colour, and so Oriental in aspect. 



The office I will leave unnoticed, for, except that it 

 is more untidy, it does not much differ from an ordinary 

 house. Let us pass through to the vernacular record 

 room. This is a later erection, and bears testimony to 

 the powers for destruction of those little creatures the 

 white ants. To protect them from their ravages, the 

 records are tied up in bundles of cotton cloth, and 

 placed on broad stone shelves. Tier over tier of these 

 shelves extends round the walls up to the very ceiling. 

 But even this precaution does not always ensure 

 security. Occasionally, when a bundle is opened, a 

 portion of its contents is found converted by the 

 ants into a powdery earth. 



To facilitate reference, the documents relating to 

 different subjects are tied up in bundles differently 

 coloured. The Indian dyes are brilliant ; the shelves 

 in consequence have something of the gay appearance 

 of the beds of a flower-garden. 



In India all official proceedings, even the most 

 trivial, are conducted in writing. Hence the rapidity 

 with which the records accumulate is something appal- 

 ling. During the Mutiny every scrap of paper that 

 this room contained was either burnt or thrown into 

 the river. Not so many years have since passed, and 

 yet the shelves are now again filled to overflowing. 



The English records are kept in another room. Com- 



