pend on the chance visits of one who itinerates. Blacksmiths are,
for the most part, wandering people who come and settle down near a
village for a few weeks or months, and then, when trade grows dull,
move on to a fresh pitch. The potter is now only to be met with here
and there. It is a sign of the increasing prosperity of India that
brass and copper vessels are largely taking the place of the
earthenware cooking-pots. A carpenter is found in almost every
village, because petty repairs to farming implements are an everyday
need. He is a man of some importance, and wears a sacred thread like a
Brahmin.

When travelling in the train from Bombay to Poona for the first time,
I noticed here and there in the corner of many fields a sort of
litter, about the length of a man, raised on rough poles about six
feet high, and on it a mysterious heap of rubbish. I remember vaguely
to have read that the bodies of the dead in the East are exposed to be
devoured by birds, and I jumped to the conclusion that the platforms
were erected for this purpose, and that the heap of rubbish was the
remains of the corpse, and that solitary places in remote fields were
chosen in order that the dead might not be any annoyance to the
living. As a matter of fact, it is only the Parsees who place their
dead on tower-like structures, built for the purpose, to be disposed
of by the vultures.

I learnt in due course that these rural platforms are for the use of
boys who scare away birds and other creatures from the ripening crops,
and I have not unfrequently accepted the hospitable invitation of some
of the village boys to climb up on to the platform and share their
sport. From their post of vantage they can survey the whole field, and
they sling stones with marvellous force and accuracy to whatever
quarter the birds are attacking. They also make a din by beating empty
oil-tins, and use clappers as the country boys at home do. The heap of
rubbish only consists of the leaves and grass which the boys collect
to make their seat on the perch more comfortable, because they often
keep vigil for the whole of a long day.

The visitor having read that to the Hindu everything is permeated with
religion, thinks that everything that he sees has some religious
significance. Someone describing his first drive from the Poona
station to the Mission-house through the native city at night, said
how much moved he was at seeing the little flickering lamps burning
befor