ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 9 



alone. That counsel proved the best of all. Yet it was 

 not always easy to follow it literally if you saw what went 

 on. 



Things wanted hot and crisp, such as toast, are often 

 made just outside in the back verandah which every bun- 

 galow possesses. That was the case one morning when I 

 happened to leave the breakfast-table and step outside for 

 an instant. Beside a clear charcoal fire, ideal for making 

 toast, a busy servant was squatted rather awkwardly, one 

 foot stuck out sideways, the better to serve for a toast-rack, 

 and three bits of toast, ready for our breakfast, were stand- 

 ing in it already ! Ingenious devices such as this are not 

 apt to make one feel like an angel : I took up a bit of toast, 

 meaning, no doubt, to throw it away, but threw it at him 

 instead. For this impulsive action on my part my husband 

 had to pay some £12, the expenses of purification ceremonies 

 entailed on the man. He bore me no malice, nor even 

 minded very much ; but he, a man, had been hit by a woman, 

 in the presence of others ; no matter if the woman were an 

 English dursani, the disgrace to him was the same. 



Flitting about the back premises the tunny-ketch may often 

 be seen. She is a kitchen helper, generally of the cook's 

 providing, sometimes his wife, but that is inadvisable. 

 Tunny is Tamil for water, and has reference to some of her 

 duties, but the composite word is untranslatable, at any rate 

 it has no English equivalent. She it is who feeds the fowls, 

 offering to bring her own to peck with yours, that you may 

 get more eggs, she says ; and who has to be prevented from 

 sticking feathers through the nostrils of broody hens — her 

 idea being that it will fidget them and so put them off their 

 instinct to sit on their eggs ; who washes the vegetables 

 and the rice (woe to her if she leave a stone in it for your 

 teeth to find !) ; who makes the most delicious, hot chupatties 1 



1 Chupattties are cakes made of flour and water, light as feathers, though 

 unleavened, and must be eaten hot. 



