8 ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 



use in the way of eatables, but these were strange, and 

 needed explanation. On my questioning the cook he said 

 that the things themselves did not exist anywhere out of 

 India that he knew of, so there were no English names 

 for them ; they were very special spices — ' ee-spices ' as 

 he pronounced it — for our complicated curries. 



I was aware that many ingredients did go to the making 

 of a good curry, and believed, but on my asking F. he said 

 that all those words meant the same thing, namely salt over 

 again ! oopoo being the Tamil, nimmuck the Hindustani, and 

 so on. Thus did the cook ring the changes, and, though he 

 may have felt checkmated when told we didn't want so 

 many flavours in our curries, most certainly he scored 

 eventually in some other way, since that was his business. 



I remember, too, being put to bitter shame at dinner 

 one evening when, friends being with us, an extra number 

 of ' accidentals ' had been brought in by F. — his habit, and 

 quite usual : Indian hospitality is very elastic. I had 

 forgotten the new system then being tried, by another 

 friend's advice, namely, to give out the day's supplies on a 

 liberal scale, providing enough for extra heads, and to 

 superintend this matter — until I saw that some of the dishes 

 would not go round ! My husband saw, too, and guessed 

 how it had happened. Thinking the best way to help me 

 was to face it boldly, he asked me if this were another 

 experiment, and so turned the edge of my misery. But 

 never again ! 



After that lesson, which I firmly believe was planned 

 (for left to himself our ' butler ' would have been equal to 

 any emergency), I gave up following any advice except that 

 of F.'s which was not to interfere ; then all would be well ; 

 we should never go through such horrible moments again ; 

 the butler might, perhaps, take toll himself, but he could 

 at any rate be trusted to see that no one else did. A lady 

 friend also said she believed in leaving native servants 



