Among Hindus, men of different castes cook and eat apart. A Brahmin must have his separate fireplace, prepare his own food and eat alone. Other castes are not so particular and can employ cooks. In an Indian regiment each company or double company is generally composed of men of one race; and Government allows and pays two cooks and a _bhisti_ or water-carrier to each company, these menials, with Hindus, being necessarily of the same caste as the sepoys they serve. Thus in my own battalion we have a double company of Rajputs, one of Gujars, and one of Rawats--all these being Hindus. The fourth is composed of Mohammedans. Each company is officered by men of their own caste, a _Subhedar_ or captain, and a _Jemadar_ or lieutenant; and every two companies are under a double company commander and a double company officer, who are British, and with the commandant, adjutant and quartermaster make up the European officers of the regiment. My double company in Buxa was composed of Rajputs; but, having had to detach signallers, bandsmen, clerks, and other employed men to go with the headquarters to Dibrugarh, some Mussulmans were temporarily attached to bring it up to its original strength of two hundred men. The Rajputs' method of eating their meals is rather peculiar. Before each they must bathe and put on a clean _dhotie_, a cotton cloth wrapped round the waist, passing between the legs and falling to the knees. They must eat inside the _chauka_, a space of ground marked out and swept clean. Food which they wish to carry away and consume outside the _chauka_, as, for instance, if they are going on a long march, must be prepared in a particular way with water instead of _ghee_, which is generally used by them in cooking.