NIGHT VISITS OF COOLIES. 
taking a run to the bungalow and back by himselL, 
but they don’t like going out in the dark alone. It 
may be also some undefined fear or dread of evil 
spirits, a something which cannot well be expressed, 
a feeling not altogether confined to coolies, but which 
is generally allied to ignorance, a fear of something 
in the dark of they don’t know what. Again, in the 
early part of the night, when they would be visiting 
from on© set of huts to another, much to our alarm 
during the dry season, for fear of fire, they would have 
a lighted firestick waving about in the hand, from 
which the wind would blow sparks all round. This 
could quite well be understood as a necessity during 
a very dark cloudy pight, but it was very often just 
the same during a bright clear full moon, when there 
could be no manner of doubt that they would have 
seen very much better without the tire-stick or torch- 
light at all. During a dark night while sitting in 
our verandah we have often seen a bright red spot 
far away in the murky black. On calling the servant 
to ask what it could be, he would gaze in consterna- 
tion, and firmly pronounce it to be some devil or evil 
spirit, something that boded us no good, and beseech- 
ingly implore the master not to look at it. After 
ordering him off as a fool, we would proceed to take 
observations. The light, being a good distance off, 
seemed stationary. But having drawn a chair and sat 
down in a position so that the verandah post was be- 
tween us and the light, so as to obscure it completely, 
in a very short time the light would slowly appear : 
it was then, of course, perfectly evident in what direc- 
tion it was proceeding, as, although, from its distance, 
we did not see it moving, yet the verandah post was 
stationary. We would then set another fixed mark 
against the light, until we had a very correct idea 
where it had come from, and where it was going, as 
also our own surmises what it was going to do. The 
next day we would roundly tax some of the inhabit- 
ants of one set of lines, with visiting another during 
unseasonable hours of the night, which they could 
not deny. 
But their curiosity used to be great as to who 
could have told, when we used quietly to affirm we 
had the gift of second sight, which in many cases was 
believed ! A quick observant master, keeping his 
own thoughts secret and putting “ this and that to- 
gether,” could sometimes manage to pump out a good 
deal of what was going on, having joined a few con- 
necting links, and then boldly taxing the coolies with 
the conclusion he had mentally come to, would ver\ 
frequently bring out the truth. 
These old-fashioned huts sometimes took fire, indeed; 
