374 A Sportswoman in India 



so arranged that every breath of air which stirs finds 

 its way through the open verandahs into the lofty 

 rooms. The walls of this airy palace are faced with a 

 material made of sea-shells and mortar, locally known 

 as chunam. It takes an extraordinarily high polish, 

 and in a clear atmosphere it maintains a most perfect 

 whiteness a purity which is only equalled by 

 the Taj. 



Guindy is a snow palace amidst tropical heat, the 

 whitest house in the world. Green lawns and terraces 

 stretch round it, themselves masses of endless varieties 

 of beautiful creepers, begonias, thunbergias of different 

 sorts, yellow allamanders, pink antigonum, passion- 

 flowers, clematis, stephanotis, blazes of bougainvillier, 

 and more flowers than would fill a chapter. 



Madras City is not built upon either of the three 

 great rivers, the Krishna, the Godavari, or the Cauvery, 

 which drain the southern table-land of India, and the 

 want of a river is more or less felt. Not that Indian 

 rivers suggest, like the Thames, boating, picnics, and 

 painted barges : visions of a thousand dhobies wash- 

 ing countless garments, acres of the banks hidden by 

 linen drying in the sun ; visions of turtles appearing 

 and disappearing in the River Jumna below the Taj 

 walls ; visions of muggers (crocodiles) asleep on the 

 rocks of the Cauvery, such are the connections of 

 Indian rivers. 



And the impression left by muggers outweighs all 

 others. It is more an impression than a reality for 

 even if one shoots a crocodile, few are easily secured, 



