After all, a number of players were disgruntled, and a few more were gruntled.

Rotisseries are essentially self-basting because most of the juices stay on the meat and distribute across it while the rotisserie is being turned.

They left the drive and stood among the wild tannia under the saman tree. Mrs Tulsi held a liana and offered it to Mr Biswas. While he felt it, she held a thinner liana and pulled it down. ‘As strong as rope,’ she said. ‘The children could skip with this.’

From these delusions to those still more fashionable deceptions, practised by the whole tribe of magnetisers, the transition is very natural.