126 ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 



The spiritual world is close around us, not in a far-away 

 region ; it is only owing to the dulness of our present senses 

 that we do not perceive its sights and sounds, says Canon 

 MacColl, though I am not quoting him literally ; * perhaps 

 it is due to the guiding of some denizen of that world when 

 mishaps are avoided by means of presentiments or pre- 

 monitions. We do not know. 



The certainty I had felt as to the state of the bridge was 

 so definite that it did not occur to me to doubt the warning, 

 any more than if some one, going on ahead, had come back 

 with the intelligence that it was not safe. Below the bridge 

 flowed a river, not deep now, but its bed packed with 

 boulders likely to break up whatever might fall through 

 upon them. We never learned anything as to the fate 

 of the injured animal that had left such painful traces. 

 Most likely, after being extricated, it was made to go on 

 somehow. To prevent a recurrence of such accidents F. 

 had the bridge securely roped across at both ends to give 

 warning of danger ; and passing carts could get by as we 

 did. 



Variety is charming : even our difficulties showed that 

 quality. Something totally unexpected would happen, and 

 soon after, perhaps, something equally awkward in an 

 exactly contrary way. One day no coolies would be forth- 

 coming, the next two gangs would arrive, marshalled by 

 separate peons, and on meeting would seize on the loads 

 and fall to blows, or rather the show of them, while we were 

 waiting anxiously up above for the tappdl (post) that was 

 also to be brought by them. 



As to the stores, they were not supposed to be allowed 

 to get low before being replenished, but to be kept up to an 

 average quantity in a methodical manner. Now and then, 

 however, practice lagged behind theory, and our demands 



1 The Reformation Settlement, by the Rev. Malcolm MacColl, D.D., Canon 

 of Ripon, p. 177. 



