on the bare floor, traced also with chalk, and divided, like a chess
board, into small quadrangles which were destined for dishes and plates.
Both the latter articles were made of the thick strong leaves of the
butea frondosa: larger dishes of several leaves pinned together with
thorns, plates and saucers of one leaf with its borders turned up.
All the courses of the supper were already arranged on each square; we
counted forty-eight dishes, containing about a mouthful of forty-eight
different dainties. The materials of which they were composed were
mostly terra incognita to us, but some of them tasted very nice. All
this was vegetarian food. Of meat, fowl, eggs and fish there appeared no
traces. There were chutneys, fruit and vegetables preserved in vinegar
and honey, panchamrits, a mixture of pampello-berries, tamarinds, cocoa
milk, treacle and olive oil, and kushmer, made of radishes, honey and
flour; there were also burning hot pickles and spices. All this was
crowned with a mountain of exquisitely cooked rice and another mountain
of chapatis, which are something like brown pancakes. The dishes stood
in four rows, each row containing twelve dishes; and between the rows
burned three aromatic sticks of the size of a small church taper.
Our part of the hall was brightly lit with green and red candles. The
chandeliers which held these candles were of a very queer shape. They
each represented the trunk of a tree with a seven-headed cobra wound
round it. From each of the seven mouths rose a red or a green wax candle
of spiral form like a corkscrew. Draughts blowing from behind every
pillar fluttered the yellow flames, filling the roomy refectory with
fantastic moving shadows, and causing both our lightly-clad gentlemen
to sneeze very frequently. Leaving the dark silhouettes of the Hindus
in comparative obscurity, this unsteady light made the two white figures
still more conspicuous, as if making a masquerade of them and laughing
at them.

The relatives and friends of our host came in one after the other. They
were all naked down to the waist, all barefooted, all wore the triple
Brahmanical thread and white silk dhutis, and their hair hung loose.
Every sahib was followed by his own servant, who carried his cup, his
silver, or even gold, jug filled with water, and his towel. All of them,
having saluted the host, greeted us, the palms of their hands pressed
together and touching their foreheads, their breasts, and then the
f