Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/222

192 is the way to the central court in which she is stabled.

Here and there, either in the middle of the street or at one side, you see wells dug for public use. These wells are usually circular, and protected by a wall two or three feet in height, and surrounded by a plastered chunam floor, where, as in our illustration, a bath can be had by pots of water being poured over the head. At these wells, no rope, bucket, or windlass is in readiness, so that each must bring his or her water-pot and rope. The water is drawn by lowering the earthen or brazen vessel, the drawer standing beside the well, or, to avoid the risk of striking the fragile chatty against its side, standing with one foot on the well-wall, and the other on a plank, laid across it for this purpose. Women may at all times be seen clustered about these wells, chatting, laughing, and gossipping, each with her water-jar and a cord suited to the depth of the well. One is forcibly reminded by these scenes of the reply of the woman of Samaria to our Lord, when, weary and wayworn, he sat down at noon beside Jacob's well, and told her of living water that he would give: “Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep."