The ground was so
saturated in these terraces that ploughing was carried on by means of
a large scraper, like a fender, which was dragged along by bullocks,
the ploughman standing up in the machine as it floundered and wallowed
about, and guiding it through the sea of mud.
JUNE 18. -- Reached Thanna at nine A.M. and came to a halt in a shady
spot outside the village. There was an old serai about half a mile
off, but it was full of merchants and their belongings, and savoured
so strongly of fleas and dirt, that we gave it up as impracticable.
This was the first instance of our finding no shelter; and, as ill
luck would have it, our tents took the opportunity of pitching
themselves on the road, a number of coolies broke down, and one
abandoned our property and took himself off altogether. Under these
interesting circumstances, we were obliged to spend the day completely
AL FRESCO, and to wait patiently for breakfast until the fashionable
hour of half-past two P.M. The inhabitants took our misfortunes very
philosophically, and stopped to stare at us to their heart's content
as they went by for water, wondering, no doubt, at that restless
nature of the crazy Englishman, which drives him out of his own
country for the sole purpose, apparently, of being uncomfortable in
other people's.
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