34 8 A Sportswoman in India 



knew nothing whatever of them ; they had vanished. 

 Next morning two weird figures, wrapped in a pair of 

 sheets and a couple of coloured blankets, were reported 



to have arisen on the astonished horizon of station, 



to have dropped off their ponies and slunk into the 

 ddk bungalow ; while a dacoit roamed the country in 

 a pair of corsets, some embroidered silk stockings, and 

 a gentleman's tie. 

 Was this in 



The State of Kot-Kumharsen where the wild dacoits abound ? 



And the Thakurs live in castles on the hills? 

 Where the bunnia and bunjara in alternate streaks are found, 



And the Rajah cannot liquidate his bills ? 

 Where the agent Sahib Bahadur shoots the black buck for his 



larder, 



From a tonga which he uses as machanl 

 'Twas a white man from the west came expressly to invest- 

 igate the natural wealth of Hindustan. 



The question is worth asking, why in a country of 

 such natural wealth as India the lower classes should 

 wallow in ignorance, degradation, and poverty ? The 

 reasons to go the root of the matter are twofold : 

 the climate, and the fertility of the soil. A hot 

 climate incapacitates men for arduous work, and 

 enforces a food which requires little labour. A fertile 

 soil will grow rice and return an average of at least 

 fifty-fold. 



Abundant food means an abundant population ; an 

 abundant population means abundant labour ; and 

 abundant labour means low wages. If wages are low 

 and the labouring class wretchedly poor, it follows that 



