36 EVERYDAY LIFE ON A 



law does not allow a coolie to vacate his 

 place without leave unless sixty days wages 

 are due to him. The masters generally take 

 very good care to keep their wages debt 

 within this limit. 



During the afternoon two shots in quick 

 succession made me run out to see what was 

 the matter ; then I found that the Appu had 

 shot an enormous rat-snake six and a half 

 feet long. They are handsome creatures, 

 beautifully marked, and are harmless to human 

 beings, but devour young chickens, and of 

 course rats, hence the name. We often hear 

 them on the roof at nieht in oursuit of the 

 rats, who have a happy hunting ground between 

 the ceiling cloth and the tiles. These rat- 

 snakes are extraordinarily quick in their 

 movements, and may be almost said to run, 

 as they glide, head in air across the ground. 



January 21st. — The poor woman with pneu- 

 monia is I am glad to say much better. One 

 feels so helpless when any of the coolies are ill, 

 for the distinctions of caste make it so utterly 

 impossible to help them. They would rather die 

 than eat any food cooked in our kitchen, and much 

 prefer trying charms, and native medicaments 

 rather than any treatment we could prescribe. 



The great excitement to-day has been the 

 hatching of a brood of turkeys, which we have 

 all been anxiously watching. Five were 



