top cloth,
then a waist cloth, and finally the owner at station, collapsed,
palpitating. R. asked him what he had seen. "It was a ghost" came after
him. "What was it like," said R.; "had it arms?" "No;" "Legs?" "No."
"How did it get along?" He couldn't tell. It was _a shape_ came after
him. So these ghosts are positive facts here to be dealt with by
superintendents and workman between them.

_R._--Spoke as follows:--

"Now, my man, what I have to tell you about ghosts is this--you must
remember, it is very important. These ghosts you see here that frighten
you and your friends, as they have frightened you this morning, cannot
so much as touch you, or even be seen by you at all _if you walk between
the railway lines_! The _iron_ on each side of you prevents their having
the least influence over you; I will not say this about tigers or bears,
but ghosts--on the word of the Sahib, they cannot touch you between the
rails!" So they go away and believe in the Sahib's magic, just as they
believe his magic turns out the cholera devil when he pulls their tiles
down and disinfects their houses. Also they stick between the lines and
consequently to their patrol work, and don't go smoking pipes by little
cosy fires beside the aloes. I think R.'s prescription was fairly
shrewd. Many men would merely have laughed at the men's fears, and would
neither have shaken their beliefs nor given them something new to think
of. That was the way the great Columba scored off the Druids and Picts.
"I don't know about your astronomy or your fine music, or tales of
ancestors and heroes, but I'm telling you, old Baal himself, with all
his thunder and lightning, will not be so much as touching the least
hair on your head if you were just to hold up this trifle of two sticks
of wood. And if you do not believe me you will be burning for ever, and
for evermore!"

Saturday, 23rd.--Wrote to a friend in Madras to engage rooms and walked
to the European Stores; they are excellent, you can get pretty nearly
everything--I even found sketch books to my taste. The roads are the
things to be remembered, their breadth and splendid trees are
delightful, but their length is terrible. Not again will I take a long
walk in cantonments! "The 'ard 'igh road" in the west is bad enough, but
when it's glaring sun on this red, hard soil, however bright and light
the air, you soon get fatigued on foot.

Met D. and G. at shops, they were shopping on their own account and I