66 TWO YEAES IN THE JUNGLE. 



the devil his due. Those who brought us milk were herdsmen, 

 Brahmins who worship kine, and they believe that by making gifts 

 of milk (with a deposit of black dirt at the bottom) to strangers, 

 they will call down blessings upon their flocks and herds. Major 

 Eoss had so little faith in the dealings of the natives with a sti'anger 

 unused to their ways and unsupported by any shadow of authority, 

 that he sent one of his private peons to keep me company on the 

 river, remarking that a brass plate with the Government stamp 

 upon it often possessed great virtue in bringing surly natives to 

 terms. He referred to the badge worn by all Government peons 

 (messengers or guards), a brass plate engraved with the name of 

 the department and worn upon the front of a colored sash. We 

 were not long in finding out the virtues of the brass plate. I sent 

 Carlo and Wazir, the peon, up to a village bazaar one day to buy 

 some flour. They found where it was for sale and asked for a 

 cei-tain quantity, but with an earthen pot full of flour standing in 

 plain view, the gentle Hindoo stoutly declared he had none to sell 

 at any price. My men pointed to the flour and said they had just 

 seen him sell some of it to a woman and take the money, but he 

 sulkily refused to sell any to them. He had probably heard of 

 my shooting peacocks and saras cranes (also sacred to the Hindoos), 

 and he thought to have a little revenge. But the brass plate 

 brought him around veiy soon. We always procured our drinking 

 water from the village wells, and Wazir always accompanied the 

 water jar to make sure of getting it filled. Once the villagers de- 

 manded pay for the water, a most unheard of proceeding, but the 

 peon caused them to withdraw their claim almost as soon as it was 

 made. 



We noticed several human skulls bleaching upon the sand-bars 

 in the river, and just below Etawah we witnessed a Hindoo fu- 

 neral. The procession came filing along the bank, about twenty 

 low-caste men, four of whom bore the corpse on a litter on their 

 shoulders. They wore their ordinary business suits, simple waist- 

 cloths only, some carried straw, one carried an armful of wood, 

 and all fchanted a monotonous dirge. They reached a spot close 

 to a ruined temple where the bank almost overhung the water, and 

 the current was both deep and swift. There were bare, black spots 

 upon the edge of the bank, as if the same ceremony for which 

 they had come had often been performed there before. 



A bed of straw was spread close to the edge of the bank and 

 the corpse laid upon it. The body was wrapped from head to foot 



