insatiable appetite of the demon. There is no doubt that he is under the influence of some powerful drug; his wild bloodshot eyes, his eagerness to receive the heads, and his insensibility to the presence of the excited crowd that surges around him point to the fanaticism produced by bhang and datura poison.
The body of the goat is returned to the owner, who prepares a curry, which is eaten as a love feast by the family party that has accompanied him. All night long the excited worshippers remain in the streets uttering short staccato cries of 'Ah! Hah!' drawing in the breath with the first syllable and sighing out the second. Sweets, coffee, arrack, and toys for children are sold at temporary stalls, and the festival is turned into a fair that lasts several days.
The English residents usually played tennis or some outdoor game between four and six. As I did not join in these games I spent the time in visiting the Eurasians and taking evening drives. Sometimes I went into the town, left the pony-cart and wandered about the evening bazaar, and down some of the narrow streets. The shopkeepers brought their wares into an open space before the old ruined palace where the last Hindu queen lived. The strangest articles were exposed for sale, all neatly spread out upon mats laid upon the dusty ground. I saw old glass, cracked and discoloured ; old brass, copper and iron articles, lamps and candle-shades, native garments, caps, shoes, betel-bags, toys, fans, sweets of native manufacture, and a hundred other objects of no great value, but affording hours of serious bargaining between buyer and seller. The crowd was good-natured and amusing if rather redolent of garlic and oil. There was nothing to fear from Hindu or Mohammedan but infection.
In times of cholera it was not safe to mix with them, nor was it inviting. The careless, contented expression
