e. Perhaps the man of the family may sit
a while at dusk on his mud door-sill, with his bubbling water pipe (if
he has one), and watch the stars slowly swing across the arch. A pinch
of very bad tobacco is slowly consumed; then he enters the hunt
[Transcriber's note: hut?], flings himself upon his matting (perhaps a
cotton rug, more likely a bundle of woven water reeds) and sleeps. No
one wakes him; habit rouses him at dawn. He scrubs his teeth with a
fibrous stick. It is a part of his religious belief to keep his teeth
clean. The East Indian (Hindu or Mohammedan) has the whitest, soundest
teeth in the world if the betel-nut is but temperately used.

Beyond this village lay a ruined city, now inhabited by cobras and
slinking jackals.

Dawn. A few dung fires smoldered. From the doorway of one of the mud
huts came a lean man, his naked torso streaked with wet ashes, his
matted hair hanging in knots and tangles on his emaciated shoulders.
His aspect was exceedingly filthy; he was a holy man, which in this mad
country signifies physical debasement, patience and fortitude such as
would have adorned any other use. A human lamprey, sticking himself
always at the thin and meager board of the poor, a vile parasite, but
holy!

The holy man directed his steps to the narrow beaten pathway which led
to the temple, where, every morning, he performed certain rites which
the poor benighted ryots believed would some day restore the ruined
city and the prosperity which attends fat harvests. The holy man had
solemnly declared that it would take no less than ten years to bring
about this miracle. And the villagers fell down with their foreheads
in the dust. He was a Brahmin; the caste string hung about his neck;
he was indeed holy, he who could have dwelt on the fat of the land, in
maharajahs' courts. The least that can be said is that he performed
his duties scrupulously.

So, then, the red rim of the March sun shouldered up above the rolling
jungle as he came into the beaten clay court which fronted the temple.
The lion stalked only at night, rarely appearing in the daytime. Once
a month he was given a bullock, for he kept tiger and leopard away, and
the villagers dwelt in peace. The lion had escaped from Allaha, where
the species were kept as an additional sport. Since he had taken up
his abode in the temple there had been fewer thefts from the cattle
sheds.

The holy man was about to assume his squatting posture i