A CIRCULAR BEAT. 243 



laneous following taking possession of half-a-dozen others 

 around me, and at once falling to eating, smoking and talking 

 loudly for the space of about two hours, while many men 

 armed with old guns and matchlocks, passed to and fro with 

 orders or news; all hands coughing, spitting and hawking 

 as loudly as if in the enjoyment of a feast of choice viands 

 under their master's roof, the air filled with the reek and the 

 gurgling sounds of many water-pipes, from the silver-mounted 

 " goorgooree " of the Zameendar down to the simplest cocoa- 

 nut " hookah " of his humblest retainers. 



The spacious " machans " were solidly constructed of 

 stout " sal " posts, fully ten or eleven feet above the ground ; 

 moreover, in order that due honour might be done on this 

 occasion, they were thatched over with straw and leaves and 

 walled round similarly, resembling somewhat the houses of 

 the hill tribes on our eastern frontiers. But this was not all, 

 for they were provided with a lower storey, or a ground floor, 

 by the supports being enclosed within screens of branches and 

 leaves of trees. Thus the chief taking possession, with two or 

 more attendants, of the upper floor of a comfortable little 

 bungalow, lodged in the basement as many more of his 

 humbler retainers, all chattering and chewing " pan " to their 

 perfect contentment. 



On mounting my own " shooting-box " my first care was 

 to remove the heavy roof and to substitute for it a lighter 

 one of freshly cut branches to give a more natural look to the 

 structure. The next step was to change the thickly woven 

 walls, in which small peep-holes were left on all four sides, 

 for green screens only breast high ; and then, arranging my 

 guns and rifles conveniently to my hands, and making mental 

 notes of the runs of animals and of the vistas between the 

 trees around me, I seated myself on a low cane " morah " or 

 stool, and prepared to spend peacefully the next three or four 

 hours with the help of a book, without which I never venture 

 upon a big beat, and a case of cheroots. One attendant sat 

 with me upon the " machan " to watch the rear, while two 

 others, who had brought up my canteen, drinking-water, and 



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