Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/451

Rh too, most trying to the patience. Patience, however, is indigenous to India: to sit still is never a misfortune to the Hindu while he has any thing to eat.

The common carts used for the transportation of goods from the interior, which constantly pass the traveller on this road, are many of them exceedingly primitive in their construction. A pole is attached to a simple frame running upon two solid wheels, made sometimes of a circular cut from a tree, sometimes of two pieces clamped together. The yoke merely lies upon the necks of the cattle without being fastened, except that a pin at each extremity keeps it from slipping off. These bandies are drawn sometimes by oxen, sometimes (as in the accompanying illustration) by domesticated buffaloes, whose hairless hide is mercilessly belaboured by the driver. These