A PANKHÂ-WALLAH.
"We were quite interested in looking at the punkas, and learning how they work them. There is a certain class of servants, known as pankhâ-wallahs (punka-fellows), who work these fans, and are hired for that purpose at about three dollars a month, they boarding themselves. They stand outside and work the punka by means of a cord passing through a hole in the wall, so that while you are enjoying the strictest privacy, you may have the fan in motion above you. You have a punka over your bed, another over your bath-tub, another at your dressing-bureau, another over your dining-table, and another above your desk. Your body-servant calls out to your punkhâ-wallah, and has him shift from one cord to another as you move about your room, or go from one room to another. You have the punka in motion all day and all night somewhere, and for this purpose you must have two men to relieve each other. When you go to bed a basket of old shoes is placed where you can reach them, and you are fanned to sleep. If you wake perspiring in the night, and find the punka motionless, you may know that the pankhâ-wallah is taking a nap; you throw a shoe in his direction and thus awaken him, and immediately he resumes his duty.
"The side where the man pulls is the one that gets the air most vigorously circulated, for the reason that it is brought forward with a certain force, and goes back by its own weight. The people here call the one where the man pulls the Bombay side of the punka, and the other the Bengal side. We asked why it was, and they told us that when the south-west monsoon blows it comes with its full force from the sea upon the shores of the Bombay presidency; crossing the country and going over the mountains to Bengal, it expends its strength and becomes very weak. Therefore you see how the Bombay and Bengal sides of the punka get their names.
"They say that a good many inventions have been tried for substituting machinery for man power in working the punka, but none of them have succeeded, for the reason that the peculiar pull or impulse that is needed to put the air in motion can only be given by the human arm. Machinery works with regularity and a steady pull, and the real need of the punka is a jerk or extra force while the cord is being drawn, followed by a complete relaxation of the cord to allow the fan to go back and get ready to be drawn forward again.
"We went through the bazaars, but did not find them very interesting. The shops are small, and the best goods are hidden from sight; at all events we were not able to see anything of great value, and we had neither time nor inclination to compel the merchants to display their wares when we had very little thought of buying anything. We did not find the streets particularly clean in the native quarter, and a short stay among them was quite sufficient. There was some very pretty brass-ware in a few of the shops, and they showed us a lot of handsome filigree work in silver, which was said to have been made at Trichinopoly. The latter place is famous for its silver work, and the result is that a good deal of what is made in other places is sold for the genuine article.
NATIVE MERCHANT OF MADRAS.
"There are many natives of Madras engaged in business with Englishmen, and they have a considerable amount of the import and export trade in their hands; and nearly every European house has one or more natives attached to it, somewhat after the manner of the compradores in China and Japan, as they save the manager a great deal of trouble in dealing with the inhabitants of the country. These native merchants are said to be very shrewd in their operations, and anybody who supposes they are verdant would find out his mistake as soon as he began to bargain with them.