hishtee is therefore an inhabitant of Paradise, a cherub, a seraph,
an angel of mercy. He has no wings; the painters have misconceived
him; but his back is bowed down with the burden of a great goat-skin
swollen to bursting with the elixir of life. He walks the land when
the heaven above him is brass and the earth iron, when the trees and
shrubs are languishing and the last blade of grass has given up the
struggle for life, when the very roses smell only of dust, and all
day long the roaming dust-devils waltz about the fields, whirling
leaf and grass and cornstalk round and round and up and away into
the regions of the sky; and he unties a leather thong which chokes
the throat of his goat-skin just where the head of the poor old goat
was cut off, and straightway, with a life-reviving gurgle, the stream
called _thandha pani_ gushes forth, and plant and shrub lift up their
heads and the garden smiles again. The dust also on the roads is laid,
and a grateful incense rises from the ground, the sides of the water
_chatti_ grow dark and moist and cool themselves in the hot air,
and through the dripping interstices of the _khaskhas_ tattie a
chilly fragrance creeps into the room, causing the mercury in the
thermometer to retreat from its proud place. I like the Bhishti and
respect him. As a man he is temperate and contented, eating _bajri_
bread and slaking his thirst with his own element. And as a servant
he is laborious and faithful, rarely shirking his work, seeking it out
rather. For example, we had a bottle-shaped filter of porous stoneware,
standing in a bucket of water which it was his duty to fill daily;
but the good man, not content with doing his bare duty, took the
plug out of the filter and filled it too. And all the station knows
how assiduously he fills the rain-gauge." With the construction of
water-works in large stations the Bhishti is losing his occupation,
and he is a far less familiar figure to the present generation of
Anglo-Indians than to their predecessors.

Bhoyar

1. Origin and traditions.

_Bhoyar, [359] Bhoir_ (Honorific titles, Mahajan and Patel).--A
cultivating caste numbering nearly 60,000 persons in 1911, and residing
principally in the Betul and Chhindwara Districts. The Bhoyars are not
found outside the Central Provinces. They claim to be the descendants
of a band of Panwar Rajputs, who were defending the town of Dharanagri
or Dhar in Central India when it was besieged by Aurangze