nd and round, working
the mill which squeezes the juice out of the sugar cane, or, in the
same fashion, causing the great stone wheel to revolve which grinds
the mortar, their master alternately whips them and sings to them. I
once listened to the song which the man sung when they were making
mortar. It was something like this--"Oh bullocks! what a work you are
doing. Going round and round making mortar for the masons. Oh
bullocks! go faster, go faster! The masons will cry out, oh bullocks,
for more mortar--more mortar. So, go faster, go faster," etc., etc.

On bright moonlight nights large parties of men and women come
trotting briskly along the Yerandawana road, bearing baskets of fruit
on their heads for the Poona market. Indians nearly always go at a
trot if they have an unusually heavy burden to carry far, and it
appears to make their task easier. I do not know whether other nations
have the same custom. There are many reasons why travelling by night
is preferable. The air is cool and pleasant, there is no scorching sun
to injure the fruit, and it gets into market in good time before the
rush of business commences. A charitable Hindu has built a rest-house
for the benefit of travellers, just opposite the gateway of the
village mission. Such rest-houses are to be found all over India.
They are only what we in England would call a shed, but they provide
as much shelter as the climate demands, and they are a great boon to
the many who travel the roads on business or pleasure. The Yerandawana
rest-house is often thronged with people, because it is so near Poona
that they can get some hours sleep, and yet get into market early. But
the travellers, who go swiftly along the road with their burden of
fruit, often sing delightfully in chorus for the greater part of the
way, so that what is really a task of great toil seems almost
transformed into a cheerful excursion.

Indian soldiers on the march are sometimes allowed to sing as they go,
or occasionally to whistle, which has a delightful effect. Some years
back, when visitors could only reach certain hill-stations by being
carried in a palanquin, unless they were sturdy climbers, because the
steep paths were not practicable for wheels, the team of six or eight
coolies who acted as bearers, turn and turn about, sung a good deal,
especially in the more difficult parts of the journey. They did not
realise that the Sahib they were carrying sometimes understood the
vernacular