[Illustration]

The blacksmiths, with the exception of those who use the sledge-hammer, sit as do the carpenters while they hammer the iron.  I wish you could see them at work with their simple apparatus.  They have small anvils, which they place in a hole made in a log of wood which is buried in the ground.  They do not use such bellows as you see in America.

Theirs consist of two leather bags, about a foot wide and a foot and a half long, each having a nozzle at one end.  The other end is left open to admit the air.  When they wish to blow the fire, they extend these bags to let in the air.  They then close them by means of the thumb on one side, and the fingers on the other, and press them down towards the nozzle of the bellows, which forces the air through them into the fire.  I should have said before, that the nozzle of the bellows passes through a small semicircular mound of dried mud.

I mentioned that the natives do not use tables and chairs in their houses.  Neither do they, as a general thing, use bedsteads.  They have no beds.  They sleep on mats, which are spread down on the floor.  Sometimes they use a cotton bolster for their heads.  More generally their pillows are hard boards, which they put under the mat.  In addition to cooking, the females have to prepare the rice for this purpose, by taking it out of the husk.  This they do by beating it in a mortar about two feet high.  The pestle with which they pound it, is about five feet long, made of wood, with an iron rim around the lower part of it.  Three women can work at these mortars at the same time.  Of course they have to be very skilful in the use of the pestle, so as not to interfere with each others’ operations.  Sometimes, while thus engaged, the children, who are generally at play near their mothers, put their hands on the edge of the mortars.  In such cases, when the pestle happens to strike the edge, their fingers are taken off in a moment.

The Hindoos have many modes of salutation.  In some places they raise their right hand to the heart.  In others, they simply stretch it out towards the person who is passing, if they know him, for they never salute persons with whom they are not acquainted.

In many places there is no show of salutation.  When they meet their acquaintances they content themselves by saying a friendly word or two in passing, and then pursue their way.  They have borrowed the word salam from the Mohammedans.  They salute both Mohammedans and Europeans with this word, at the same time raising their hand to the forehead.  When they address persons of high rank, they give them their salam thrice, touching the ground as often with both hands, and then lifting them up to their foreheads.

The other castes salute the Brahmins by joining the hands and elevating them to the forehead, or sometimes over the head.  It is accompanied with andamayya, which means, Hail, respected lord.  The Brahmins stretch out their hands and say, aaseervaathum—­benediction.