ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 129 



* would find out immediately ; it was no use asking the 

 dhoby, he would only he/ and she went away on her errand. 



This seemed to me highly irrelevant, but that was only 

 my ignorance, for it was the main point. Mrs. E. told 

 me that had the sheet been any ordinary one no more notice 

 would have been taken than as of an oversight, but being 

 that special one she guessed that it had been kept back for 

 a funeral, to be spread over the corpse on a bier, either 

 hired out, or for use by the dhoby's own family. It would 

 not be burnt or buried, oh dear, no ! but returned honestly 

 the following week, or the next after, according to circum- 

 stances, with ' plenty salaams ' for the ' mistik.' 



The ayah found out that there was to be a funeral that 

 very afternoon, so Mrs. E. decided to take a walk somewhere 

 in the neighbourhood of its route. This was on the Hills, 

 where Europeans do sometimes walk, so her doing so would 

 not be remarked. 



In India one learns to know a man's status unerringly 

 at first sight by the way he wears his cloth or twists his 

 turban, the varying caste marks, threads, etc. ; his very 

 trade has its distinctive signs, which are unnoticeable and 

 meaningless to the eye of a ' grif ' ■ My friend was not a 

 ' grif/ so directly the procession appeared it proclaimed 

 itself to her as a dhoby's funeral. We ourselves — I was 

 with her — were hidden from view. 



The sheet that lay over the bier hung down deeply and 

 was knotted at the corners. Mrs. E. whispered to me, 

 ' It 's something infectious, for turmeric is tied up in the 

 corners, and if it is my sheet we shall know it by that.' 

 She let them pass on, then asked the last straggler of what 

 disease the person had died. ' Ammah ' (smallpox), came 

 the startlingly prompt corroboration of her words. 



When the clean clothes were again brought home by the 

 dhoby, in due course, sure enough there was the sheet with 



1 Anglo-Indian for novice, tyro, greenhorn. 

 I 



