i84 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



for, although a well was near, it was concealed by trees 

 and bushes, and the traveller had not perceived it. 

 When the raja of the country heard the story he 

 gave orders that the men at the wells should in future 

 sing as they drew the water, that travellers suffering 

 from thirst might know where they could find water 

 to assuage it. 



Usually immediately outside every village there is 

 a large well, and near it one or two great shady trees, 

 and, perhaps, a small white temple. The scene at 

 sunset is then very picturesque. The children play 

 about, the women assemble to draw water and converse ; 

 Indian rural life appears in its prettiest aspect. 



These wells are, however, a great cause of accident 

 and of mortality. The mouth of the well is always 

 left open, and the margin unprotected by fence or wall. 

 It not unfrequently happens that in drawing the water 

 a woman overbalances, or her feet slip, and then she 

 falls. The wells are deep. In most cases, before the 

 woman who falls is rescued, she is drowned. The 

 number of deaths thus caused each year in these 

 provinces must be enormous. I once roughly calculated 

 it, taking the amount in my own district as the standard. 

 I forget the exact numbers, but they amounted to many 

 thousands. The wells certainly cause a far greater 

 mortality than either the snakes or the wild beasts. 



The wells also, I am sorry to say, afford great 

 facilities both for murder and suicide. The flinging 

 children into wells, after robbing them of their orna- 

 ments, was in my time a crime not uncommon, and 

 the leaping into a well and there drowning was the 



