FOR NORTHERN INDIA 105 



England. No sound is more pleasing to the 

 human ear than the drumming of the first 

 monsoon rain. 



But alas ! the physical relief brought by 

 the monsoon is only temporary. The tempera- 

 ture rises the moment the rain ceases to fall, 

 and the prolonged breaks in the rains that 

 occur every year render the last state of the 

 climate worse than the first. The air is so 

 charged with moisture that it cannot absorb 

 the perspiration that emanates from the 

 bodies of the human beings condemned to 

 existence in this humid Inferno. For weeks 

 together we live in a vapour-bath, and to the 

 physical discomfort of perpetual clamminess 

 is added the irritation of prickly heat. 



Moreover, the rain brings with it myriads 

 of torments in the form of termites, beetles, 

 stinking bugs, flies, mosquitoes and other 

 creeping and flying things, which bite and 

 tease and find their way into every article 

 of food and drink. The rain also awakens 

 from their slumbers the frogs that have hiber- 

 nated and sestivated in the sun-baked beds 

 of dried-up ditches and tanks. These awakened 

 amphibia fill the welkin with their croakings, 

 which take the place of the avian chorus at 



