Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/499

Rh must be the moral character of Hindustan, as it appears in the eyes of Him in whose sight even the heavens are unclean!

Soon after sunset, we stopped at a traveller's bungalow to cook and eat a meal of rice and curry. We were behind our time, and anxious to press on; but haste is a hard thing to make in India. We must have a change of bullocks, and that was an affair of time; then the musaljee had no torch—at last that was procured; then he must have oil for his torch, but, like the foolish virgins of the parable, at the hour for starting his vessel was empty; off he had to go to a neighbouring village to buy oil. At last all things were ready, and we were on our way again. Darkness brought sleep and forgetfulness; while we dreamed, it may be, of the magical railroad with its fiery steed and lightening speed, our poor shigram-po with its oxen was toiling along at the rate of two miles an hour. On waking before daylight, it occurred to us that our position was rather more perpendicular than was natural, and looking out, we found that we were quietly resting by the roadside, with the pole of the bandy on the ground, and its back pointing to the sky, while our driver and musaljee were seated comfortably