(Think a little,
O careless one, how little certainty there is of this life.) First
some children and then some men collected, chief among the latter
being a venerable and stately old Sikh, the owner of the house and
the religious guru or sodhi of the place.

The song ended, he inquired who we were, and what were our object
and destination; and when he had been satisfied on all these points,
he informed us that, though he had never entertained Christian
Sadhus before, yet if we were ready to be treated like other Sadhus,
he would be very glad to offer us the hospitality of his house. We
thankfully accepted his offer, and he prepared a room for us, and
later on brought us a supper of rice and milk in his own vessels,
which to us, after a long and tiring day, seemed quite a royal repast.

It was not often that I was recognized as a European, until I had
declared myself, but the following occasion was a notable exception. I
was sitting in the little jungle station of Raval, and a party of
gentlemen in semi-Indian costume arrived from a hunting expedition. The
chief was an elderly thick-set man with an iron-grey beard, dark
piercing eyes and gold spectacles. He eyed me narrowly a short time,
and then said to one of those with him in the Persian language:
"That man is an Englishman." I replied, "I recognize you gentlemen
as Afghans." He assented, and I entered into conversation with one of
the Afghans with him, who told me that it was His Highness Yakub Khan,
ex-Amir of Afghanistan, who had thus recognized me.

On the other hand, at Allahabad I was going on my bicycle along a
road which was slippery from a recent shower of rain. In turning a
corner the machine skidded and I fell, and as I was picking myself up,
an English girl who was passing, called out: "O Sadhu! you must have
stolen that bicycle, and that is why you do not know how to ride."

Finally we made our way to Bombay, having been helped the last part
of our journey by a friend who bought us our railway-tickets. Here
we desired to return homewards by taking the steamer to Karachi. We
then had no money, but I was asked to give a lecture on my travels,
and after the lecture several of the audience gave me sums amounting
altogether to eleven rupees. When, however, we went down to the docks
to take passage, we found that our steerage fare cost ten rupees, and
five rupees was demanded for each of the bicycles too! We purchased
our tickets and stood on the quay awai