“A great deal of water is required in the hot weather for bathing and wetting the tatties, and one man is employed in bringing it up from the river to the bungalow in which we lived—he is called a chestie. A different man, however, called an aubdar, takes care that proper drinking water is supplied—we generally used rain water, which was collected in large sheets stretched out between four poles in the rainy season, and drained into earthen jars, where it keeps cool and sweet.
“None of those I have mentioned would clean the rooms, and, therefore, another man a mehter or sweeper was employed. Our clothes were washed by a man called a dhobie; he used to come with his donkey, and carry them off to the river, where he beat them with a flat stick on a wooden slab over and over again till they were clean, and then dried them in the sun.
“When any out-door work was to be done, we hired labourers of the lowest caste, who were called coolies. Then we had a tailor, who made all my clothes as well as Norman’s and his papa’s, and he is called a durize. We had six bearers, who were employed to carry our palanquin, when we went out, and they also had to keep the punkahs at work, besides having other things to do.”
“What a household,” exclaimed Mrs Leslie, “I am glad we have not so many servants to attend to in England. Where did they all live?”
“Some slept rolled up in their sheets on mats in the verandah in front of the bungalow, others in huts by themselves.”
“Had you no maid-servants?” asked Fanny.
“Only one, called an ayah, who acted as my lady’s maid, and took care of Norman, but had nothing else to do,” answered Mrs Vallery.
“Mamma, what are punkahs and tatties?” inquired Fanny, “I did not like to interrupt you when you spoke of them.”
“The punkah is something like an enormous fan suspended to the roof, and when a breeze is required, it is drawn backwards and forwards with ropes by the bearers. Sometimes in hot weather it is kept going day and night, indeed without it at times we should scarcely have been able to bear the heat, or go to sleep at night. The tatties are mats made of a sweet-smelling grass, which are hung up on the side from which the hot wind comes, and being kept constantly wet by the chesties, the air passing through them is cooled by the evaporation which takes place.”
“I suppose you must have lived in a very large house, as you had so many servants to attend on you,” observed Fanny.