CH. v TROUBLES WITH THE WORKMEN 



mason to earn his forty-five rupees a month and 

 a little more if he felt inclined and would cut down 

 the impostors to about their proper pay as coolies. 

 Now, as is often the case in this world, the impostors 

 were greatly in the majority ; and accordingly they 

 attempted to intimidate the remainder into coming 

 down to their own standard as regards output of 

 work, in the hope of thereby inducing me to 

 abandon the piece-work system of payment. This, 

 however, I had no intention of doing, as I knew 

 that I had demanded only a perfectly fair amount 

 of work from each man. 



These masons were continually having quarrels 

 and fights amongst themselves, and I had frequently 

 to go down to their camp to quell disturbances and 

 to separate the Hindus from the Mohammedans. 

 One particularly serious disturbance of this sort had 

 a rather amusing sequel. I was sitting after dusk 

 one evening at the door of my hut, when I heard a 

 great commotion in the masons' camp, which lay 

 only a few hundred yards away. Presently a 

 jemadar came rushing up to me to say that the men 

 were all fighting and murdering each other with 

 sticks and stones. I ran back with him at once and 

 succeeded in restoring order, but found seven badly 

 injured men lying stretched out on the ground. 

 These I had carried up to my own boma on charpoys 

 (native beds) ; and Brock being away, I had to play 



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