obviate the necessity for mosquito-curtains
which are an intolerable nuisance in Calcutta.

Another appendage to a house in the north-
west is the tattie. This is a kind of screen fitted
closely into the space left by the open door, and
composed of a sweet-scented grass called
khuskhus. It is employed only during the hot
winds, in April and May, and the doors are
furnished in this manner according to the direction
of the breeze. Coolies, stationed outside,
dash water against the tatties, and keep them
continually wet, so that the harder the hot wind
blows without, the cooler and more fragrant is
the air which reaches within. Fruit, and water
in porous jars, may be advantageously placed to
cool under this influence; and round the tatties
people gather as round a fire at home. Indeed,
you may occasionally see our countrymen
complete the analogy by cooling themselves as they
warm themselves elsewhere—that is to say, by
standing with their backs to the tattie with
their coat-tails under their arms.

The Mofussilites, as a general rule, lead a far
more primitive life than people live in Calcutta.
They get up earlier in the morning, go to bed
earlier at night, and take more exercise during
the day. The early ride, drive, or walk, is more
general, and the afternoon siesta—generally
admitted to be a bad habit—less frequently
indulged in. Nine o'clock is a common hour for
retiring to rest, and there are few amusements
out of doors to tempt people to stay up later.
Dinner-parties dissolve at about half-past ten.
Amateur theatricals will occasionally induce
later hours, and a ball later. But these amusements
are only a change from ordinary habits.
A billiard-table at a military mess or elsewhere
will keep stray men going till twelve or so; but
these exceptions do not apply to those who
usually pass their evenings at home.

The expenses of an establishment in the
Mofussil are far less than in Calcutta. Your house-
rent will not amount to more than a sixth of the
Calcutta figure. You will keep about the same
number of servants, but their pay is not quite
so high as in the metropolis; the country horses
which you principally employ are much less
costly than the larger kinds; and if you buy them
unbroken, and look after their training yourself,
you may get them wonderfully cheap. But a
great deal of money may be spent upon horses,
in the Mofussil as in most other places, if you
are inclined that way, and some people are.
The great advantage is, that they cost very little
to keep when you have got them.

Your provisions—always excepting those,
which you choose to have from Europe—will
also cost you very little. Anything in the shape
of a bird is nothing comparable in price to the
Calcutta figure (fowls may be had so low as three-
pence apiece), and meat is even cheaper in
proportion. Mutton is most approved, and it is
customary for several persons to club together and
keep a flock and a shepherd: the members of the
club looking after the accounts by turns. When
a member of a mutton-club leaves the station,
somebody is always ready to take his share off
his hands, the advantage of the plan being
indisputable. The mutton of the Patna breed,
generally employed in the north-west, is very
like Welsh, and is as good as any that Wales ever
produced. With regard to beef, you generally
take your chance of the native supply; with
pork sensitive people never have anything to do,
in a country where the pig appears to exert
himself to the utmost to justify the prejudice against
him.

In the matter of ice, some such arrangement
is made as in the matter of mutton. A
subscription is entered into at the beginning of the
cold season, for the manufacture of this inestimable
luxury, and the task is entrusted to a
competent superintendent, who generally
volunteers his services. The modus operaudi is
this: When the cold season begins, large earthen,
pans or dishes, containing water, are laid out at
night in a convenient place, and the ice which
forms upon them is gathered in the morning and
deposited in a large pit. The supply thus daily
obtained for some four mouths during which
ice-making is possible, is sufficient to last the station,
all through the hot weather: the residents being
supplied every day with allowances in proportion
to their subscriptions. The ice is not very solid
or very clear, but it cools your wine, beer, and
soda-water most effectually, and is even available
for ice-puddings and creams. At the principal
Mofussil stations we suppose this manufacture
will soon be abandoned, as the railways will
take the real Wenham Lake Ice daily from
Calcutta, where it comes by ship-loads at a time, and
where it may be had, to any extent, cheaper than
in England.

The housekeeper in the provinces will do
well to guard against a not very improbable
contingency—having his house robbed. The
ordinary bungalows are built on such very
primitive principles, that fastening them up at
night is little more than a ceremony; and even
to that extent the operation is not always
performed. Whether you are robbed or not
robbed, depends entirely on your servants. As
a matter of course, you keep one, and, as a
general rule, two chokedars, or watchmen, who
come on duty after sunset, and whose office it is
to patrol round the house all night, calling out
to one another at intervals, in insane sounds,
by way of furnishing proof that they are not
asleep, and that nothing is the matter. They
carry long staves tipped with iron, the principal
use of which seems to be to keep them on their
legs; for, as regards habits and general
efficiency, they bear a family resemblance to the
British watchman of departed days. Sometimes
they are honest men, and sometimes they
are not honest men. It is to the housekeeper's
advantage that they should be of the latter class,
and for this reason: they are nearly always old
men, and, in the natural course of things, will
now and then sleep at their posts. If they be
honest, the thieves will take advantage of the
opportunity to enter the premises. If, on the
other hand, they belong to the dishonest
fraternity, the house will stand a good chance of