ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 127 



were met with ' plenty salaams/ but such and such an article 

 was ' done finish/ 



It was coffee that was ' done finish ' on one occasion. 

 That did not matter much to us — or ought not to have 

 mattered, though it seems to me now that we were some- 

 times unreasonable — but to a native his ' kafi ' is indispen- 

 sable. After trying to make my ayah content herself with 

 our tea, I found her drinking something that smelt fragrant 

 and coffee-like, though that she had no coffee I knew. 

 She offered me some of her decoction, but, though quite 

 liking it, I could make no guess at all as to its origin, even 

 on seeing the powder of which it was made, and she had to 

 tell me that it was ground-nuts prepared like coffee berries, 

 and I am bound to say it made a rare good substitute. 

 Brunak, a modern health beverage made of roasted wheat, 

 was not yet known, but is so like my ayah's ground-nut 

 coffee that I should not know the difference. 



Though it was a new idea to me that ground-nuts could 

 be used as coffee, I was so fond of them, browned and 

 sprinkled with salt, as to say one day that a coolie-load of 

 them must be brought up, a greedy remark which I forgot 

 as soon as uttered ; but it was taken as an order, and the 

 very next tappdl, when a number of necessaries were ex- 

 pected, two men only arrived carrying thirty pounds of 

 nuts apiece ! That was only half a load each, but the nuts 

 weighed so light that they took up a vast amount of space 

 to be balanced on a man's head. The peon in charge begged 

 to be excused for delay, as he had had to go far to collect 

 the required quantity, no one village affording more than a 

 few seers. 1 Neither had he been able to get more coolies then . 



F. asked the man whose order it was, having quite for- 

 gotten what I had said ; knowing, moreover, that a bagful 

 would have met my utmost desires. It was the Mem-Sahib's 

 1 hookum,' was the reply — then we remembered. 



1 A seer is a varying dry measure, generally about two pounds. 



