The immediate business of a head-bearer is to prepare for his master’s dressing; seeing that the linen is all properly in order, boots and shoes cleaned, coat, &c. brushed, side-arms, &c. bright; also that the palanquin is clean, and free from defect; that the water used for drinking be purified; that the kettle is put on in due time: in general, the inferior bearers clean the furniture, and carry the _chowry_, (or whisk,) and swing a kind of _punkah_, (or fan,) made either from a large palm leaf, or with split bamboo, and printed cotton; of which pieces are to be had stamped expressly for that purpose; they are swung backwards and forwards to cool a room: the butt of the _punkah-stick_ resting on the ground. A _punkah_ is, by some, used instead of a _chattah_, (or umbrella); but it is very inferior as a defence against either sun, wind, or rain. The natives in some parts, especially to the northward, use these _punkahs_ very generally; but, of late, they seem to have rather changed in favor of the _chattah_, great numbers of which are now conveyed, as an article of merchandize, from the lower provinces to Benares, Lucknow, &c. The dress of the _cahar_, by which I mean the up-country bearers, usually consists of a colored turban, blue being, if anything, the prevailing color; the head-bearer generally has a short _coortah_, not unlike that of the _mosaulchy_, and, as well as all the inferiors, wears a _doty_, in the usual manner: though some few wear a kind of petticoat-trowser, not unlike the Highland kelt. _Cummer-bunds_ are also in general use; though, with few exceptions, of a very coarse quality. Many gentlemen present their _bearers_, _hirkarahs_, _peons_, _syces_, _khedmutgars_, and _mosaulchies_, annually, with a set of _turbans_ and _cummer-bunds_, all of the same color; so that the whole appear, to a certain extent, in livery. In this indulgence many of the natives take great pride: on the whole, indeed, they are as vain as our beau-footmen; and, like them, can assume wondrous airs, when they have to deal with the servant of a person inferior in rank to their own master. While speaking of bearers, I shall describe the various kinds of palanquins in use; observing, that the greatest improvements, which perhaps ever took place in any vehicle, have been brought forward in the construction of this _sine quâ non_ of Indian luxury. In order to preserve due order, I shall commence with a description of the _naulkeen_, or _naulkee_, it being the first in rank among the contrivances of this description.