faintness. At times it is not an unmusical cry, but when he howls out
close to your tent, waking you from your first dreamless sleep, you do
not feel it to be so. The _chowkeydar_ has to see that no thieves
enter the village by night. He protects the herds and property of the
villagers. If a theft or crime occurs, he must at once report it to
the nearest police station. If you lose your way by night, you shout
out for the nearest _chowkeydar_, and he is bound to pass you on to
the next village. These men get a small gratuity from government, but
the villagers also pay them a small sum, which they assess according
to individual means. The _chowkeydar_ is generally a ragged, swarthy
fellow with long matted hair, a huge iron-bound staff, and always a
blue _puggra_. The blue is his official badge. Sometimes he has a
brass badge, and carries a sword, a curved, blunt weapon, the handle
of which is so small that scarcely an Englishman's hand would be found
to fit it. It is more for show than use, and in thousands of cases, it
has become so fixed in the scabbard that it cannot be drawn.

[Illustration: HINDOO VILLAGE TEMPLES.]

In the immediate vicinity of each village, and often in the village
itself, is a small temple sacred to Vishnu or Shiva. It is often
perched high up on some bank, overlooking the lake or village tank.
Generally there is some umbrageous old tree overshadowing the sacred
fane, and seated near, reclining in the shade, are several oleaginous
old Brahmins. If the weather be hot, they generally wear only the
_dhote_ or loin cloth made of fine linen or cotton, and hanging about
the legs in not ungraceful folds. The Brahmin can be told by his
sacred thread worn round the neck over the shoulder. His skin is much
fairer than the majority of his fellow villagers. It is not
unfrequently a pale golden olive, and I have seen them as fair as many