and round which stood the bungalows of the military and civil officers of
the station, of the chaplain, and of the one or two merchants who
completed the white population of the place.

Very pretty were these bungalows, built entirely upon the ground floor, in
rustic fashion, wood entering largely into their composition. Some were
thatched; others covered with slabs of wood or stone. All had wide
verandas running around them, with tatties, or blinds, made of reeds or
strips of wood, to let down, and give shade and coolness to the rooms
therein. In some of them the visitor walked from the compound, or garden,
directly into the dining-room; large, airy, with neither curtains, nor
carpeting, nor matting, but with polished boards as flooring. The
furniture here was generally plain and almost scanty, for, except at meal-
times, the rooms were but little used.

Outside, in the veranda, is the real sitting-room of the bungalow. Here
are placed a number of easy-chairs of all shapes, constructed of cane or
bamboo--light, cool, and comfortable; these are moved, as the sun
advances, to the shady side of the veranda, and in them the ladies read
and work, the gentlemen smoke. In all bungalows built for the use of
English families, there is, as was the case at Sandynugghur, a drawing-
room as well as a dining-room, and this, being the ladies' especial
domain, is generally furnished in European style, with a piano, light
chintz chair-covers, and muslin curtains.

The bedroom opens out of the sitting-room; and almost every bedroom has
its bathroom--that all-important adjunct in the East--attached to it. The
windows all open down to the ground, and the servants generally come in
and out through the veranda. Each window has its Venetian blind, which
answers all purposes of a door, and yet permits the air to pass freely.