Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/257

Rh slow, sober, and plodding. The bandy has an arched mat-covering, and over this the straw with which the cattle are fed is hung in long rolls. The hire of a man, a pair of bullocks, and bandy, by the month, is at the rate of a quarter of a dollar a-day, out of which sum feed must be found for man and beast.

Our illustration gives us a picture of one of these bandies, with a family on a journey. The driver, seated on the pole just upon the bullocks, has full opportunity to stimulate their spirits with his foot as well as his whip, or to give their tails a wicked twist in an emergency. The patient creatures, all scored and starred with the branding-iron, (for health and ornament,) plod meekly on with the rude conveyance which carries all the goods of the household, as well as the weaker members of the family.

But our bandy was ready. Creeping in at the back, and taking our seats on the mattress, we gave the word to our driver to go to the collector's house. Passing through the Arcot cantonment, with its barracks for troops, and handsome houses in spacious enclosures, occu-