The doctors have found out that some of the worst kinds of fevers come from dirty milk and bad water. So, if you ^ This may be had, translated into Roman Urdu, in a separate pamphlet. 227 228 The Complete Indian keep your milk close to a dirty-smelling kitchen drain, and use water from a gkurra that has been standing in a dirty puddle of that drain, amongst the refuse of vegetables, chickens entrails, and Heaven knows what, you may poison your master or your master’s child, as surely as if you had put arsenic in their food. Cleanliness, then, is no mere fanciful fad on the sahib-logue s part. It may be a matter of life or death. Never forget this. It is not difficult to be clean even in the poor cook-rooms you generally have. First of all, at least once every six months ask leave to have your cook-room thoroughly white- washed, and on such occasions make a general clearance of everything. If the floor is of mud, beg your mistress to have it laid down in broad flat bricks, nicely joined witli mortar. See that the tank or sink where you empty slops has a high rim, and beg some empty kerosene tins of your mistress, cut the lids off, and have a bit of iron wire ])ut across as handles. Three or four of these, kept full of water on one side of the sink, will be much more convenient than ghuiras, especially if you keep a tin dipper by them. Then if you want water in a hurry, you have not to let go of everything, and lift up a heavy ghinra with both hands. Water to be icsed in the cooJcing, as for soups, tea, boiling vegetables, &c., should be kept by a ghurra filter outside. Insist on the bheesti keeping this full ; do not hesitate to report him to your mistress if he gives trouble. Paper your almirahs (cupboards), and have a separate nail in the wall for every saucepan. If you make a point of two things — never hanging up a dirty saucepan, never going to bed till every saucepan is hung up — do you know what will be the result? You will have learned almost everything about cleanliness we want to teach you. Because — 1. Every morning all your saucepans will be clean. 2. Therefore you cannot have left soup, milk, stews, &c., in the saucepan all night. 3. You will have put all the remains of eatables away in their proper place. And if you would only add to this habit that of keeping the cook-room doors and windows open all night, you would Housekeeper and Cook 229 positively have nothing more to learn. For this would mean — 1. That the meat was in its proper place in the safe. 2. That the potatoes were not in a heap in the corner amongst charcoal ashes and old feathers. 3. That the charcoal w^as not loose on the floor. 4. That your favourite hikka was not lying about. 5. That you were not sleeping in the cook-room. Because — 1. If the doors were open^ you would not care to sleep in the cold cook-room. 2. If thieves could get in, you would never have your favourite hukka lying about, to say nothing of other things. 3. If dogs could roam in and out, you would not care to feed them on the meat.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

The doctors have found out that some of the worst kinds of fevers come from dirty milk and bad water. So, if you ^ This may be had, translated into Roman Urdu, in a separate pamphlet. 228 The Complete Indian keep your milk close to a dirty-smelling kitchen drain, and use water from a ghurra that has been standing in a dirty puddle of that drain, amongst the refuse of vegetables, chickens entrails, and Heaven knows what, you may poison your master or your master’s child, as surely as if you had put arsenic in their food. Cleanliness, then, is no mere fanciful fad on the sahib-logue s part. It may be a matter of life or death. Never forget this. It is not difficult to be clean even in the poor cook-rooms you generally have. First of all, at least once every six months ask leave to have your cook-room thoroughly whitewashed, and on such occasions make a general clearance of everything. If the floor is of mud, beg your mistress to have it laid down in broad flat bricks, nicely joined witli mortar. See that the tank or sink where you empty slops has a high rim, and beg some empty kerosene tins of your mistress, cut the lids off, and have a bit of iron wire put across as handles. Three or four of these, kept full of water on one side of the sink, will be much more convenient than ghuiras, especially if you keep a tin dipper by them. Then if you want water in a hurry, you have not to let go of everything, and lift up a heavy ghinra with both hands. Water to be used in the cooJcing, as for soups, tea, boiling vegetables, &c., should be kept by a ghurra filter outside. Insist on the bheesti keeping this full ; do not hesitate to report him to your mistress if he gives trouble. Paper your almirahs (cupboards), and have a separate nail in the wall for every saucepan. If you make a point of two things — never hanging up a dirty saucepan, never going to bed till every saucepan is hung up — do you know what will be the result? You will have learned almost everything about cleanliness we want to teach you. Because — 1. Every morning all your saucepans will be clean. 2. Therefore you cannot have left soup, milk, stews, &c., in the saucepan all night. 3. You will have put all the remains of eatables away in their proper place. And if you would only add to this habit that of keeping the cook-room doors and windows open all night, you would Housekeeper and Cook 229 positively have nothing more to learn. For this would mean — 1. That the meat was in its proper place in the safe. 2. That the potatoes were not in a heap in the corner amongst charcoal ashes and old feathers. 3. That the charcoal w^as not loose on the floor. 4. That your favourite hookah was not lying about. 5. That you were not sleeping in the cook-room. Because — 1. If the doors were open^ you would not care to sleep in the cold cook-room. 2. If thieves could get in, you would never have your favourite hookah lying about, to say nothing of other things. 3. If dogs could roam in and out, you would not care to feed them on the meat.

The complete Indian housekeeper & cook