Truly, two annas is worth
much more in some circumstances than one hundred rupees in others!

We then wheeled comfortably along the interesting Grand Trunk Road,
now to the north and now to the south of the railway-line. The crisp
morning air of a Panjab winter has an exhilarating effect on the
appetite, and we were only exceptional in that we had the appetite
but no wherewithal in our wallets to satisfy the same. To tantalize us
the more, it was the feast-day succeeding the great Muhammadan fast,
and in all the villages the men were feasting, and the children, gaily
dressed in their gala clothes, were amusing themselves on numerous
swings, hung up on the trees round the villages, or in playing about
on the roads. My Afghan companion, who had been having the fast
without the feast, finally went up to a party of merrymakers, and,
after saluting them with the customary "Salaam alaikum," said that he
was very hungry, and would be glad of a share of the 'Id cakes. The
man addressed surveyed us in a leisurely fashion from head to foot,
and said: "You! you call yourselves faqirs, ride bicycles, and beg
your bread! Phew!" and turned his back on us. My companion turned to me
with a very un-Sadhu-like expression on his face, saying: "We Afghans
used always to say that Panjabi Muhammadans are only half Mussulmans;
but now I see we were wrong: they are not a quarter. In our country
we call in every stranger and traveller to share our feast." The
latter part of his statement was certainly true; as to the former,
I must leave those who know them best to judge.

Shortly after midday we reached Lala Musa, and, visiting the station,
found the train had just come in. We mingled with the bustling crowd,
and watched the native sweetmeat and refreshment vendors going from
carriage to carriage, calling out: "Garm chapati! garm chapati awe
dal!" (Hot rolls! hot rolls and pulse!); "Ghi ki pakorian!" (Vegetable
fritters fried in butter!); "Garm dudh!" (Hot milk!), and various
other delicacies; and we watched the fortunate possessors of pice
selecting some tempting sweetmeat or panake. Then we passed on to
the refreshment-rooms, where the European passengers were taking a
hurried meal, and I remembered many occasions when I had been into
that same refreshment-room without being a tithe as hungry, and now,
how could I venture inside? Should I not be greeted with: "Now then,
out of this; no faqirs wanted here!" So I wandered back among the
thir