CHAPTER I

Life at Kalivali

HEN I had been in India a few months, I decided to leave the comfortable mission house and the society of English-speaking friends, and try life among the heathen in a native village. It was my plan to learn to speak the language "like a native"; and I felt that in order to do this, for a time I must hear nothing else. The superintendent soon found a building that had been used as a travelers' rest house, or chowdie, for natives in the village of Kalivali. Every Indian village has such a house for natives to stop in overnight. Two of us young missionaries, bent on the same object, decided to use this house, and prepared to move in.

Kalivali is ten miles from the nearest railway station. We were driven over the country in native bullock carts till we came to a large stream. The cart men took our goods over, and we were carried across on the backs of big, strong natives, who asked only a few pice for their labor.

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We had not seen the house we were to occupy, till we drove up in front of it. say the least, we were surprised to see this native "mansion," which consisted of one big room, about twenty feet long by fifteen feet wide. The house was made of dried mud, with a floor of the same material. When we walked over the floor, our shoes broke up the dry crust that was its surface, and it soon looked like an ash heap.

The way in which the natives keep down the dust is to smear the floor over with a slime made of water and fresh cow manure. This mixture is prepared in a pan, and spread on evenly by hand. If applied once or twice a week, it furnishes a fresh, thin, green carpet of cow dung, that is effective for the purpose, but the odor is sickening. The natives always go barefooted indoors, so they do not break up their floors. I I suppose the use of so much water on the floor made the house more unhealthful than usual. A tent, which we could have placed under a large shade tree, would have been cleaner and far safer.

We had scarcely reached our new quarters when a crowd of curious natives flocked around to look us over. We said "Salaam,"

and they soon departed. The house had but three walls, with a row of posts in front; so we had no privacy whatever. At first, we sat and pondered the situation, and planned what to do to make ourselves comfortable. As soon as one learns how to get on with little or nothing, it is easy enough; but the learning takes time.

Finally we concluded to tack up sheets at one end of the room, and place our cot beds there for privacy. But this was not a sure protection; for if a native wanted to see us, he did not stop to knock,- that being a European custom,- but deliberately pulled aside the curtain and walked in.

We had employed a native Christian cook named Bapu,- an honest fellow, but untrained, and so filthy that we lost our appetites when he brought our food to the table. He had no house to sleep in, so made our front steps his place of abode for some time. We were glad to have him there as our interpreter. He cooked our food on one end of the front steps; and when the wind blew in our direction, the smoke came also, and frequently brought with it strong whiffs of garlic and frying onions.

Sometimes we kept a little food or milk overnight; and as we had no doors, the village dogs and cats entertained us from sunset till dawn. Finally we secured some bamboo matting and nailed it across the opening in front, piling up our table and chairs for a door at night. We were frequently aroused by the dogs pushing over the pile of furniture, which would come down with a crash. Then we would lie in bed and hear the dogs scratching on the matting, and sniffing at the food in our screen-covered box.

Our front yard was also a gathering place for donkeys; and when several of them brayed half the night, we had a restless time of it. The rotten ceiling rafters made a good hiding place for sparrows, which lived on the crumbs that fell to the floor; and at times, our house was like a large bird cage.

Gradually we became accustomed to these somewhat unpleasant surroundings, and slept on untroubled by minor disturbances, with one exception bedbugs. Natives had used the house for years, and the posts and the rafters were alive with these pests. All our goods were covered, and there was no way of getting rid of them.