Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/170

144 cried “''Padré! Padré!''” after us. At the corner of this road, by the side of a small native house, a slowly-burning rope-match hung from a tree; this showed the piety of the householder, who was laying up treasure in heaven by his benevolence on earth in furnishing a light for segar-smokers! One and another would come up, perhaps making his cheroot (a Tamil word, meaning a roll) as he walked, from the tobacco-leaf in his hand, stop, light his segar with all the gravity of a philosopher, and go puffing on his way. We did not stop, having a different use for our mouths; but making another turn, passed a vegetable garden. Among its beds of spinage, beans, and egg-plants, stood little posts crowned with earthen pots, painted with white and black stripes. These were to protect the crop, not against thieves, but against devils and the evil eye. It is a popular belief that if malicious persons cast an “evil eye” on their fields, in some mysterious way the crop will be destroyed. These pots are stationed prominently among the vegetables, that such noxious glances might