140 



In cilies, in the armies, and with Europeans on country ex- 

 cursions, the water for drinking is usually carried in large leather 

 hags, called pacaulies, formed by the entire skin of an ox, sewed up, 

 except at one corner left open for filling them: these arc hung 

 on each side of a bullock, or tame buffalo, and poured into guglets 

 of a porous earth, brought from Persia, Goa, and different parts 

 of India; in these the water soon becomes cool, and, as a great 

 luxury, is sometimes iced with salt-petre. Often during this cam- 

 paign, when suffering from thirst, and panting under the extreme 

 heat, have I envied the village buffaloes, who in such weather 

 seem the happiest beings in the country : they either get under 

 water, or conceal themselves in the thin slimy mud on the margin 

 of the lakes and rivers; there they remain during the sultry hours 

 without any part of them appearing above the surface. 



Good water and ripe mangos were the greatest luxuries I as- 

 pired after in this campaign: the latter arc extremely fine in most 

 parts of Guzerat, though inferior in size to the mangos of Agra, 

 which sometimes weigh two pounds each. A basket of high- 

 flavoured mangos, accompanied by a wreath of mogrees or cham- 

 pachs, were a frequent present from the Mahratta officers to the 

 English gentlemen, and from the peshwa to the commander 

 in chief. 



The mango topes, tamarind groves, and springing crops in 

 the extensive plains round the Mahratta camp, were very delightful 

 during the fair intervals of the rainy season. Few countries equal 

 the Brodera Purgunna in fertility and beauty; but the heat, added 

 to the moisture and fetid smells of the camp, were intolerable, 



