Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/242

206 out, a rattan basket hangs, containing a tumbler and gurglet, or earthenware bottle. On the top may be fastened a camp chair and table, for use when away from such conveniences.

At dusk the bearers made their appearance, twenty-six for the two palankeens; sturdy fellows with sinewy limbs, trained from boyhood to their work. While we finished our preparations, they stretched themselves on the brick floor of the verandah to catch a nap before their night of toil began. But the hour for starting comes, and Pakkiyer, the head-bearer, is told to call his men. Slowly they rise and gird themselves for their journey. Each bearer applying one end of a piece of cotton cloth several yards long to his waist, gives the other to a companion to hold, then turning round and round he wraps himself in it, till reaching the end, he takes it from his assistant and tucks it firmly within the roll; tightening his turban, he places his long staff and his leathern sandals with his little bundle on the palankeen, and stands ready for the start. The musaljee lights his torch, a tight roll of cloth three or four feet long, and impregnated with turpentine, which he feeds by pouring oil upon it from the tin vessel carried in his other hand.