DANGERS OF ISOLATION 285 



merit of cigarettes, Indian merchants in snowy 

 kanzus enter and discuss the opening or extension 

 of credits, some few sales are effected, and about 

 10 o'clock a move is made in the direction of the 

 dwelling-house, a bath is taken, white clothing 

 assumed, and breakfast partaken of. This breakfast 

 is really luncheon — the tiffin of India. Thereafter 

 long chairs are sought, and, as the heat is now 

 appreciable, a more or less prolonged siesta follows. 

 About 2.30 another journey is made to the store, 

 and after a little more business the premises are 

 closed, and towards 4 o'clock comes recreation in 

 the form of an uninteresting walk over well- 

 remembered paths, or a little lawn-tennis on a 

 court whose lines are scarcely distinguishable, and 

 with players whose energies are expended as a rule 

 in other directions. At 7 o'clock comes dinner, 

 preceded as a rule by many aperitifs, and by 9.30 

 it is bed-time. To these days of weary monotony 

 there is rarely the smallest relief. Every five 

 weeks or so a mail comes from Europe, and a day 

 or two afterwards life sinks back into its tranquil 

 groove once more. 



There can be little doubt, therefore, that to an 

 unresourceful person, one, for example, not given 

 to reading or study, conditions of life such as I 

 have just described must not only soon become 

 highly uncongenial, but a positive danger in the 

 facilities which undue leisure provides for the 

 adoption of distractions of a questionable character. 

 I suppose there is no help for it, but I think 

 ill-health would be avoided, and less opportunity 

 given for contracting dangerous and sometimes 



