for anyone involved in our transport. My sole idea is to get to the Mast at the quickest speed. Sometimes we would walk for miles and by the end of the day our groins would be sore. A village remedy is to apply moistened gram [lentil] flour to the sore parts. Once the mandali applied it to me and since we were all tired we went to sleep without washing it away. Next morning the mandali had a hard time trying to remove the sticky stuff that had dried stiff on me overnight.

"Kaka and Baidul were the chief Mast hunters. Not always did they bring Masts. At times they would bring madmen to me." Baba jokingly said, "Kaka and Baidul would always disagree with each other regarding whether the man was a Mast or a madman. When Kaka would bring a man whom he thought was a Mast, Baidul would fiercely disagree by saying that it was merely a madman! Masts have a volcano of love within themselves. One Mast would smoke bidis (Indian cigarettes) and then pass them on to me. I would puff at them as I would not refuse a Mast's offer. He went on giving me bidis until I felt giddy! At last I would throw away the bidi after one puff.

We usually went to meet Masts at night, for we were sure there would be no disturbance from their followers at that time. During the day we would be travelling and during the nights we would be seeing the Masts. Thus the mandali hardly got any sleep or rest.

"Once we arrived at a Dak bungalow for a night's rest, which was rare during these travels. The keeper said that it was not possible for him to permit us to stay in it as the executive officer was residing in it. After much argument he agreed to give us a room if the officer permitted. One of the mandali got his sanction and we got the room. It was 9:00 P.M. and all were happy to go to sleep at once. The officer in the next room was busy with his work and had a ceiling fan going due to the heat. The fan was making a creaking noise and I felt disturbed. I asked one of the mandali to go and ask him to turn off the fan! The officer felt annoyed at our audacity, but finally agreed to turn it off. After some time, I could not stand the noise of his movements in his room and sent one of the mandali to tell him that it would be better if he stopped making noise. This was the last straw for the officer. In his fury he forgot that he could drive us out of the bungalow, and acceded to the request to be quiet. Next morning much to the amazement of the keeper, the officer came to me to pay his respects, when he came to know it was I who had been the cause of his fury."