SWINGS AND SWIMMING POOLS 263 



to swing in the rains," as I read once in some 

 modern Indian book. In the damp, stifling air, 

 when not even the watered fibre screens — ^the 

 kas - kas tatties — can keep the rooms fresh, 

 because there is no wind to blow through them, 

 a swing under the trees wafts a cool, reviving air, 

 and children and women, from the highest to the 

 lowest, all have their swings. Sometimes it is 

 but a rope thrown over the branch of a mango 

 tree or slung between the pillars of a little court- 

 yard, but in the palace gardens the swings were 

 beautiful, elaborate constructions, their pointed 

 arches forming one of the most charming garden 

 ornaments. These arches were built of stone 

 or white marble like that in the palace gardens 

 at Deeg. They were finely carved, and when used 

 in the month of Sawan were fitted with swings 

 whose ropes were made of scented fibre and 

 covered with wreaths of flowers. That at Deeg 

 is placed on a platform under the trees at the 

 end of one of the canals, where the swinger, swing- 

 ing vigorously, could sway through the nearest 

 fountain spray. 



Swimming baths are another delightful and 

 invariable feature of an Indian garden ; and the 

 ladies had their swimming tanks as well as the 



