"We visited two or three bungalows in the resident portion of Madras, and had an opportunity of looking through them. They had wide verandas, and the windows were covered with lattices and Venetian blinds to keep out the heat, while the floor was of brick or cement, for the sake of the superior coolness of those articles. Coir matting was laid over the floor to protect the bare feet of the occupants, and there were several punkas in each room to keep the air in circulation. [Illustration: A PANKHÂ-WALLAH.] "We were quite interested in looking at the punkas, and learning how they work them. There is a certain class of servants, known as _pankhâ-wallahs_ (punka-fellows), who work these fans, and are hired for that purpose at about three dollars a month, they boarding themselves. They stand outside and work the punka by means of a cord passing through a hole in the wall, so that while you are enjoying the strictest privacy, you may have the fan in motion above you. You have a punka over your bed, another over your bath-tub, another at your dressing-bureau, another over your dining-table, and another above your desk. Your body-servant calls out to your punkhâ-wallah, and has him shift from one cord to another as you move about your room, or go from one room to another. You have the punka in motion all day and all night somewhere, and for this purpose you must have two men to relieve each other. When you go to bed a basket of old shoes is placed where you can reach them, and you are fanned to sleep. If you wake perspiring in the night, and find the punka motionless, you may know that the pankhâ-wallah is taking a nap; you throw a shoe in his direction and thus awaken him, and immediately he resumes his duty. "The side where the man pulls is the one that gets the air most vigorously circulated, for the reason that it is brought forward with a certain force, and goes back by its own weight. The people here call the one where the man pulls the Bombay side of the punka, and the other the Bengal side. We asked why it was, and they told us that when the south-west monsoon blows it comes with its full force from the sea upon the shores of the Bombay presidency; crossing the country and going over the mountains to Bengal, it expends its strength and becomes very weak. Therefore you see how the Bombay and Bengal sides of the punka get their names. "They say that a good many inventions have been tried for substituting machinery for man power in working the punka, but none of them have succeeded, for the reason that the peculiar pull or impulse that is needed to put the air in motion can only be given by the human arm. Machinery works with regularity and a steady pull, and the real need of the punka is a jerk or extra force while the cord is being drawn, followed by a complete relaxation of the cord to allow the fan to go back and get ready to be drawn forward again.