is kept going day and
night, indeed without it at times we should scarcely have been able to
bear the heat, or go to sleep at night. The tatties are mats made of a
sweet-smelling grass, which are hung up on the side from which the hot
wind comes, and being kept constantly wet by the _chesties_, the air
passing through them is cooled by the evaporation which takes place."

"I suppose you must have lived in a very large house, as you had so many
servants to attend on you," observed Fanny.

"When we were at a station up the country, we resided in a bungalow,
which was a cottage, with all the rooms on the ground floor, in the
centre of an enclosure called a compound. It was covered with a sloping
thickly-thatched roof, to keep out the rays of the sun. In the centre
was a large hall which was our sitting-room, with doors opening all
round it into the bedrooms, and outside them was a broad verandah. I
spoke of doors, but I should rather have called them door-ways with
curtains to them, thus the air set moving by the punkahs could circulate
through the house, while the sun could not penetrate into the inner
room, it was therefore kept tolerably cool."

"I think we are better off in England, where even in the hottest weather
we can keep cool without so much trouble being taken," observed Fanny.
"How I pity the poor men who are obliged to work at the punkahs."

"They are accustomed to the heat, and it is their business," observed
Mrs Vallery; "they would not have thanked us had we dismissed them, and
told them that for their sakes we were ready to bear the hot stifling
atmosphere, or to refrain from going out in our palanquins."

"What are palanquins, mamma?" asked Fanny.

"A palanquin may be described as a litter or sofa without legs, and with
a roof over it, carried by means of long poles, one on each side, the
ends resting on the shoulders of the bearers. A person travelling in
one can recline at full length, and sleep comfortably during a long
journey. When travelling by post, or _dak_, as it is called, fresh
bearers are found ready at each stage, just as post-horses are in
England.

"When we went out to pay visits for a short distance only we used a
_tanjahn_, in which a person, instead of reclining, sits upright. It is
somewhat like an English sedan-chair. We, however, at most of the
stations where the roads were good, used open carriages sent out from
England.

"Your papa used occasionally, also, to go o