that herds of cattle every evening return to the homestead, and during the night share the same quarters with their masters. The soil is thus in the course of years saturated with impurities, and, as it is the custom to sleep either on the ground or on a very low pallet, it is no matter for surprise that the annual victims of fever are more than of all other diseases combined.
In the majority of cases it is not altogether poverty that is responsible for the utter want of domestic comfort, but rather an apathetic acquiescence in a degraded standard of social life arising from ignorance that anything better is obtainable. The characteristic oriental craving for decoration is frequently indicated by the carving of the wooden eaves and brackets and by the plaster niches and mouldings of the doorways, which, though rude in execution, are often of appropriate and picturesque design; but there is no appreciation whatever of cleanliness or ventilation, and no effort is made to secure them. In a really rich man's house the latter defect is equally conspicuous; the courtyards are larger and the buildings are more substantial, but the arrangements for conservancy are not a whit better, and there is generally much less evidence of taste, in consequence of a vicious tendency to abandon the indigenous style and copy the hideous vulgarisms of the Public Works Department. Before the people of India can claim to rank on an equality with Europeans, it is above all things necessary that they should reform their domestic habits of life: when they have learnt to order these matters aright, their political enfranchisement will follow spontaneously on their capacity for it; the reverse process must be unreal and can only eventuate in failure.
Next to the unhealthy condition of their homes, the two institutions that most conduce to the propagation of disease are pilgrimages and marriage-feasts. Both practices have their root in the intolerable monotony of ordinary existence, which grasps at any change for a relief, but disguises the real motive by an affectation of religious or social obligation. Closely packed in bullock carts or some other equally clumsy vehicle, the guests start in straggling procession, and jog along the weary roads for the distance of a hundred miles or more, halting only for an hour or two at an occasional well for a draught of water and a mouthful of parched grain. Aching in every limb from the jolting of the springless cart and the cramped position into which they have been squeezed, choked with dust, dizzy from the glare of the sun and want of sufficient food—for they purposely starve
