Punkas (also called pankasor tankas) are apparatus that serve for fanning
rooms throughout the entire extent of English India. These devices
consist of a light wooden frame covered with canvas, from the bottom of
which depends a fringe. These frames are suspended from the ceiling in
such a way as to occupy nearly the entire width and length of the room.
To the base of the frame is attached a cord which passes over a wheel,
and which is pulled by a Hindoo domestic. After the frame has been
lifted, a weight fastened to the lower part causes it to fall back again.
The result of the continuous motion of this colossal fan is a coolness
that is highly appreciated in a country where the temperature is at times
incredibly high, and where, without the factitious breeze created by the
punka, living would not be endurable. This breeze prevents perspiration,
or evaporates the same as soon as it is formed. Sometimes it sinks to a
light zephyr; then, if you are reading or writing, you may continue your
work, but in a distracted way, with a moist brow, and with a feeling of
annoyance that soon makes you leave book or pen.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--TENT OR TABLE FAN OR PUNKA.]

Looking around you, you find the punka immovable. The bahi still holds
the cord that pulls it, but it is because he has tied it to his hand. He
has gently slid to the floor in a squatting posture. He is asleep and you
are burning. A vigorous exclamation brings him to his feet all standing,
and he begins to pull the punka with all his might, and you have a
feeling of ease and coolness. It is like the passage from an attack of
fever to a state of comfort in an intermittent disease. So the punka is
seen everywhere--in the temple and court room and other public places, as
well as in private dwellings. It is one of the first things to astonish
the European upon his arrival in India, and it is not long before he has
to bless the happy invention.