usy groups are squatted round some acute
accountant. Totals are being totted up on all hands. From greasy
recesses in the waistband a dirty bundle is slowly pulled forth, and
the desired sum reluctantly counted out.

From early morn till dewy eve this work goes on, and you judge your
Pooneah to have been a good or bad one by the amount you are able to
collect. Peons, with their brass badges flashing in the sun, and their
red puggrees shewing off their bronzed faces and black whiskers, are
despatched in all directions for defaulters. There is a constant going
to and fro, a hurrying and bustling in the crowd, a hum as of a
distant fair pervading the place, and by evening the total of the
day's collections is added up, and while the sahib and his friends
take their sherry and bitters, the omlah and servants retire to wash
and feast, and prepare for the night's festivities.

During the day, at the houses of the omlah, culinary preparations on a
vast scale have been going on. The large supplies of grain, rice,
flour, fruit, vegetables, &c., which were brought in as _salamee_ or
tribute, supplemented by additions from the sahib's own stores, have
been made into savoury messes. Curries, and cakes, boiled flesh, and
roast kid, are all ready, and the crowd, having divested themselves of
their head-dress and outer garments, and cleaned their hands and feet
by copious ablutions, sit down in a wide circle. The large leaves of
the water-lily are now served out to each man, and perform the office
of plates. Huge baskets of _chupatties_, a flat sort of
'griddle-cake,' are now brought round, and each man gets four or five
doled out. The cooking and attendance is all done by Brahmins. No
inferior caste would answer, as Rajpoots and other high castes will
only eat food that has been cooked by a Brahmin or one of their own
class. The Brahmin attendants now come round with great _dekchees_ or
cooking-pots, full of curried vegetables, boiled rice, and similar
dishes. A ladle-full is handed out to each man, who receives it on his
leaf. The rice is served out by the hands of the attendants. The
guests manipulate a huge ball of rice and curry mixed between the
fingers of the right hand, pass this solemnly into their widely-gaping
mouths, with the head thrown back to receive the mess, like an
adjutant-bird swallowing a frog, and then they masticate with much
apparent enjoyment. Sugar, treacle, curds, milk, oil, butter,
preserves, and chutnees