Satisfied with the outlook, Hannay crept off to a neighbour's dwelling where the whole family was gathered on the house-top.

She took her seat by the old folk and joined in the conversation.

That conversation was nothing more nor less than the merest gossip,--Indian gossip, as genuine as any that is spoken in modern society; with this difference only, that the circle of facts and ideas accessible to the Indian mind is exceedingly narrow, and that the gossip applies itself therefore to a much smaller number of persons and things.

But it is as venomous, the backbiting as severe and merciless among Indians as among us; and there is the same disposition to criticise everything that does not strictly pertain to us and to our favourites, the same propensity to slander the absent and to be of the same opinion as those present so long as they are within hearing distance.
Gossip has a magic power.

It fascinates more than any other kind of conversation.