166 THE EASTERN HUNTEKS. 



but usually brief fits of the elements, such as occa- 

 sionally occur during the hot season in the interior 

 of India. 



Early in the afternoon, and while the vultures 



were yet busily employed in completing their 



banquet, the camp was alive with the movements of 



all its inhabitants, and several outsiders from the 



village. The tent-pegs to leeward were driven deep 



into the ground ; all those towards the quarter from 



which the storm was expected, and those at all the 



corners, were lushed. A bough of a tree or bush 



was cut and embedded in the soil, the thick end 



only appearing above it, thus affording a securer 



hold to the rope than that afforded by the peg alone, 



which becomes loosened when the earth is first 



saturated. Advantage was taken also of such 



depending branches, the shoots from the parent 



tree's limbs, as had struck root. Little trenches 



were cut just outside the base of the tent- walls all 



round, and the debris heaped against them ; thus 



forming a small embankment to prevent the entrance 



underneath of either wind or water. A deeper and 



larger cut was made towards the lower ground, so as 



to carry off the accumulation of water in the 



trenches. The boxes inside the tents were already 



raised on stones to prevent the inroads of that pest 



of India, the white ant ; but larger stones were now 



