CHAPTER V.

The sun was already high in the heavens when I left the rest-house, and pursued my way along the highroad, trusting to luck and to my Friend to lead me to some village where I could beg for food. So hungry was I that I tightened my belt to relieve the poignant pangs. I must have run a great distance the preceding night: for I now saw clearly, in the distance, a trail of rising smoke, and understood that I was not very far from the railway. In an hour I might be at that station on the Madras line where travellers going to, or returning from, the hills join the trains which take them east or west. I had never journeyed behind a locomotive: my master and I kept ever to the roads.

I was weary, footsore, and faint for want of food, when I at length reached the traveller's bungalow. It was a short distance from the railway station, and stood by itself within a dusty compound, wherein were a few areca and date palms. There was a pleasant, shady verandah to the bungalow, and I gazed wistfully towards its cool shelter. The junction swarmed with natives; those who possessed tickets were upon the platform; behind the gates which barred it from the roadway were beggars. They hung about, crying aloud for alms; pressing small wooden bowls upon the passers-by, craving for rice or money. Having no cash with which to buy a ticket; nor knowing whither it were best to journey, I turned towards the traveller's bungalow intending either to beg a breakfast, or win one by offering my services for the day as a domestic help.

A pair of grey monkeys were playing with their offspring in the sandy enclosure. A little European girl stood on the shady verandah, watching the apes, and laughing at their quaint antics. She was a thin, long-legged child, gowned in a tussore, embroidered overall, and wearing sandals on her naked feet. Her dark and abundant hair was cut square on the forehead, and fell straight, from behind her ears, over her shoulders. She had a winsome, sunburnt little face, and large brown eyes like those of a young heifer. She clapped her hands as she witnessed the amusing gambols of the quadrupeds.

An ayah stepped forward from behind one of those screens made of turkey-red cloth-which divide the bed and livingrooms of bungalows from the verandah-and joined the little maid.

She was a grand and stately creature. Her short-sleeved bodice was of emerald satin. Her full, widely-pleated skirt and shoulder-cloth were of bright, rose-pink muslin. She wore ear-rings and a long chain; upon her wrists were solid silver bangles. Her somewhat austere face was good and kindly. She bore herself with great dignity and walked as might an empress. This, truly was a queen of ayahs.

"Ayah; see the funny Bander-log!" cried the child. "Look at that comic monkey-man! Ha, ha!"-she laughed aloud, and jumped, clapping her eager hands.

"Not monkey-man; it is only an ape," retorted ayah in a tone of mild rebuke.

Stepping forward, I made my salaam to the child and to

her nurse.

"What do you want?" asked the latter coldly.

"A situation," I responded, speaking rapidly. "Service with master: I have certificates."

Removing my cloth cap, I shewed papers wrapped up in oilskin recommendations from the Government inspector and Mahomedan merchant-good ones too.

"Go round to the back verandah," commanded ayah, "and ask for Martin butler: he is my husband; say I sent you to him. We need a chokra: ours fell sick and we left him behind in Gobilamal."

Once more I made obeisance, and retired to the back premises.

Upon the servants' verandah, sat, or lay about, a small crowd of retainers, resting and dozing after their mid-day meal. A pungent odour of curry hung upon the air, and made me feel faint and famished. Most of the domestics smoked cigars or country cigarettes. All quietly digested their large breakfast: they were somnolent and silent. No doubt master and missus reposed within the bungalow: master might be smoking, and sipping whiskey-soda in a long arm-chair; missus would certainly be sleeping. I had observed the habits and customs of the English during my

service with the merchant. He had offered his wares at their habitations.

I cast my eyes over the group of servants, searching eagerly for the butler. Being off duty, all had thrown aside their turbans and shoulder-cloths; thus the chief was undistinguishable from his brethren. Approaching the cook's matey -a youth with a low, animal face who was occupied in combing out his long, oily locks with a tooth-comb-I asked: 66 Who is Martin butler ?"

"Him over there," replied the boy, and pointed to a stout, grey-bearded man, whose long moustaches twisted upwards like the feelers of a stag-beetle. He was clothed in white ample folds of muslin from his waist downwards, and wore a drill coat. A large silver watch-chain revealed his high position. Of course this grandee must be butler! He smoked in silence, meditating upon household matters: loss and gain. Stepping up to him I made a profound salutation. He eyed me, studying my whole person carefully, but made no response nor any motion. I informed him most respectfully that ayah had sent me round for an interview: that I sought service in his master's household. Still making no reply, he took my well-thumbed credentials and read these leisurely. Wrapping them up very deliberately in their cover, he handed them back to me. Presently he spoke.

66

Can you talk English?"

66 Yes, master."

"Do accounts ?"

"Oh, yes."

"Run quickly: lay a cloth: wait at table: draw corks?" I told him humbly that I had had no experience in these important duties, but was intelligent, not slow, and hoped soon to learn.

Of course he saw immediately that I was no Mahomedan; and informed me that, if I became his chokra, I must wear muslins; master did not like Hindus in trousers. To this I gladly assented, but told him I had no money wherewith to buy the approved drapery. He promised me that, if I pleased him upon the journey, he would give me the necessary advance' when we got home.

"Master goes to Madras?" I questioned.

VOL. XLIII.-No. 500.

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66

No; to Tiroderam: Malabar coast. We start at sunset as Missus is too delicate to travel by day: too hot for Missus." After a further parley, I was engaged for the sum of five rupees a month. Out of this I must pay by degrees the money advanced by butler for my outfit; and also give him two rupees a month as long as he was teaching me my duties as a chokra. The affair was concluded in forty minutes. This was quick work, but Martin needed help; otherwise he might have taken much longer to think the matter over. For it is always undignified to settle weighty domestic subjects in a hurry: a chewing of the cud is essential for wise decisions which will digest well and turn out wholesome and profitable.

I was now too famished to be conscious of hunger any longer; therefore I asked humbly for a drink of rice water, and was referred to the cook-matey, who was now occupied in coiling his luxuriant hair into a tight knotted twist. He gave me what I desired, and, better still, cold curry, rice, plantains, and cucumber. The latter I saved for consumption upon the journey. After this welcome and refreshing meal, I promptly fell fast asleep, and slumbered until the matey kicked my skins, telling me to go to butler as preparations for the move were now in hand.

We travelled to Tinnevelly by the night mail; and thence took bullock carts to Nagercoil-a city once dedicated to the worship of the sacred Cobra. We arrived there in the dawn; spent the day in the traveller's bungalow, and started in the evening coolness for Tiroderam: this town was arrived at in the succeeding morn.

On the journey Martin kept me well in the background. He observed me narrowly; testing my capabilities; proving whether or no I were worth my salt-not to mention my wage and railway ticket. He would not present me to his employer before I had bathed in hot water and was suitably dressed; until I had conquered my habit of betel spitting on all occasions; until I knew how to stand and how to refrain from grinning at a joke; until I had learned, in fact, how to behave. A severe and unbending master of deportment was Martin butler.

In the meantime I gleaned much information, respecting

my master and mistress, from cook's matey.

We talked

them over at Nagercoil whilst we sat under a mango tree, smoking after our noontide siesta.

It would seem that master was much older than missus and of a different caste-so to speak. He was a professor in the Royal College: part of the large building was completely under his control and management. Matey took tiffin daily to the college and saw strange happenings there. Master had a big lecture room; and close to it was another apartment -the home, most probably, of devils. For therein were bottles which contained genii, and were liable to explode when their captives were enraged. There was a furnace, hot and terrible, yet master boiled vessels on it and was not scorched nor overpowered by heat. Once he had seen his employer set cold water in a blaze by casting minute particles upon it. Doubtless master was a magician who adored English devils-he never went to the Christian Church with Missus-but he was kind, and generous, and just; very rarely annoyed, and ever good to the poor and needy. One thing, however, made him plenty angry,' and I had better be advised about it: a foul water goglet* made him turn pale and use unutterable language, full of wrath and clamour. A dirty filter produced rage which he even dared to vent upon the butler: then woe betide the luckless chokra! Blows and kicks were freely dispensed by Martin.

Master feared one thing only in sky or earth. To thunder and lightning he paid no heed; in an earthquake he slept calmly and serenely. One thing alone alarmed him, and then terror made him furious: this was stagnant, unboiled, unfiltered drinking water. Except for toilet purposes-and even then he was armed with caution-water frightened

master.

Once matey had asked ayah about this mysterious terror. She told him that impure water did not often hurt the native, but it contained an awful power which slew the white folk.

Matey was certain that there was devilry in this: that typhoid and cholera were but fancy names for invisible and potent demons, who waged war upon the English and tried to drive them out of Hindustan.

* Terra-cotta flagon.