Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/241

Rh nished exterior, looked like a handsomely-finished box, six feet long and three feet deep, standing upon four short legs. On pushing back the sliding doors in the sides, you find that you have a neat little berth-like apartment, furnished with mattress and pillow covered with red morocco. At the foot is a small movable strip of wood, against which you brace yourself, and over this a shelf containing two drawers. The whole is carried by two stout poles, firmly fixed to the ends of the palankeen by iron rods. The price of a palankeen varies, with its workmanship, from twenty to fifty dollars: if richly plated, its cost will be greater.

As your palankeen, or, more familiarly, your "palkee,” is to be your home, your trunk, your library, and your carriage, packing it is quite a momentous affair. Lifting out the mattress, you spread a blanket upon the rattan floor of the palankeen, and on it lay your clothes; then, replacing the bed, you stow away books and loose articles at your head and behind the pillow. In the drawers there is room for pen, ink, paper, and other little matters. From the ceiling hangs a net in which your cap, a few oranges, a brush, &c., find a place, and in each corner you can put some useful article. With-