SECOND ENTERPRISE OF OOMEID THUG.
“About a year ago, in the month of Phagoon, I left my home in Kussooapoor, in company with twenty-two other Thugs, and hearing the sound of an owl, which we regarded as a good omen, we sat down to breakfast, and then took the road to Etawa. Alighting at an inn (sarae) in the night, we found a traveller there, proceeding from Kalpee to Jypoor. My son Gunesh (who was afterwards sentenced to be hung) gained him over to our party, and we set off together the next morning; and travelling towards Agra, we halted at night in the sarae of Juswuntnugar: leaving which place, we stopped near a tank, and in the act of helping some tobacco to the traveller, he was strangled with a noose. His body we threw into the tank. The booty consisted of one brass lota and one thalee, some clothes, and fifteen rupees in cash: these we divided. We arrived next at Huteepoor, and put up in the inn there. Here we fell in with five travellers, proceeding from Jeypoor to Lucnow; of them, two were of the Koormee caste, two Aheers, and one Kuhar. We persuaded them that we were likewise travellers, and were on our way to Lucnow. They readily joined us; and thus, next morning, we started together; and as we were passing by a well, we asked the travellers to rest awhile, and smoke tobacco; and while smoking, we strangled them with nooses, and threw their bodies into the well. The booty, consisting of 100 rupees in cash, and some clothes and utensils, we divided.
“We then went to Sersa Gung, seven cos from Huteepoor, in the way to Mynpooree, and put up in an inn. Here we met two travellers, journeying from Juodhpoor to Byswara. As our custom was, we soon persuaded them to join our party; we started in the morning, and as we reached a well, we stopped there on the pretence of smoking, and strangled the two travellers with nooses. Their property, amounting to sixty rupees in cash, and their clothes, &c., we divided. Travelling five cos more, we came to the inn of Mukhan: here two Buggals arrested our attention; they were travellers, journeying from Jeypoor to Lucnow. From their eluding all inquiries, we naturally concluded that they had money in specie with them; we were not mistaken: they started by sunrise, and we followed them. When they reached near a tank, we found the opportunity friendly to our purpose, and with nooses strangled them. In haste, we threw the bodies into the tank, it being broad daylight, and departed. On examining the booty, we found the bags we had taken contained one thousand five hundred rupees; with this money we came to Agra. We then left Agra, and halting at Bhurtpoor, took the road to Jeypoor; on our way, we were joined by a party of twelve Thugs, and passing Jeypoor, we reached the village of Dosa. Here we saw three men, who were travelling from Juodhpoor to Lucnow; we found no difficulty in prevailing on them to join us, and in the night we killed and buried them. The booty amounted to sixty rupees in cash, and some utensils and clothes. We met four more travellers in a village hard by; they were proceeding to Benares; we invited them to warm themselves by the fire we had lighted, and while warming themselves we strangled them with nooses, and their bodies we buried. Our spoil amounted to thirty rupees in cash, and some utensils and clothes. Some miles from this place, in a village, the name of which I do not recollect, we halted: here we found three travellers going from Nusseerabad to Cawnpore; at night we fell upon and killed them; their bodies we buried in the same place. We found on them sixty rupees in cash, and some utensils and clothes. One cos from this place, under a burgut tree, we met with three Buggals, who joined us; and as we set off by dawn, we killed the Buggals by a jhaoo (tamarisk) field; we despoiled them of fifty rupees in cash, and some clothes, &c.; the bodies were afterwards buried.
“On our return, near to Jeypoor, by a tank, we obtained another prey in a person proceeding to Cawnpore; we gained upon him by soft, tender expressions, and then at night strangled him with a noose; his property amounted to ten rupees in cash, and two bullocks.”
I could not omit inserting the above narrative, on account of the quiet coolness with which the Thug Oomeid relates the murders committed by himself and his gang.
Oct. 25th.—The sale of the property of a friend took place to-day. Many valuable works in octavo sold for twopence a volume! The furniture went at about one fourth of its value. We took the opportunity of getting rid of extra sofas and chairs; much furniture is a great inconvenience in this climate; it harbours musquitoes.
Through the stupidity of our servants, some animal got into the quail-house last night, and killed seventy-nine fat quail; very provoking,—but as this is the season for them it is not of much consequence, we can replace them; had it been during the hot winds, when no quail are to be procured, it would have been a great loss in the eating department.
All my finery coming from England has been totally lost, about twenty days’ journey from this place, by the swamping of the boat; all my presents gone “at one fell swoop,” leaving me sans pompons, sans souliers, sans everything; my pen is bad, my knife blunt, and my new penknife is feeding the fish at the bottom of the Ganges, off Monghir.
Nov. 8th.—Last night we dined at Mr. F⸺’s; a Capt. W⸺, who is rather a curiosity, was of the party; he brought us a letter of introduction from Col. Gardner. He is the brother of Sir H. W⸺, the late ambassador in Persia; he wears a native dress, with a long beard that hangs half way down his breast; and his imitation of native style is good. He commenced his travels in 1829, passing through Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Persia, and so on to Allahabad, and will return viâ Constantinople; he is a captain in the navy.
This morning, it being a holiday with the Hindoos, and a great bathing-day at the junction of the rivers, we agreed to meet Capt. W⸺ on the spot before sunrise, to witness the tamāshā. He, having started before us, rode down to the bathing-place, and getting into a quicksand on the banks of the river, had a roll in the mud. Mr. B⸺ and I rode down to meet him, and coming on a daldal (quicksand), my horse sank into it up to his tail, struggling violently, and beating up and down like a boat in a short sea; I rolled off, or rather Mr. B⸺ pulled me from the horse, which, with great exertion and difficulty, at length scrambled out. Mr. B⸺’s grey Cabul horse refused to pass the daldal; he snorted, beat the ground with his fore-feet, and stood firm, evidently alarmed. Remounting my horse Trelawny, we pursued our way to the Triveni, where we met Capt. W⸺, and laughed at our misfortunes. This is the first time my horse and I have parted company; I used to boast of never having quitted my saddle.
Capt. W⸺ went to the bathing-place, to see the junction of the three rivers, the Gunga, the Jumna, and the Saraswati; the two first are above ground, the third joins them underground,—at least, so say the pious Hindoos. Capt. W⸺ keeps a journal; if he publish it, I fear he will immortalize this quicksand adventure, and say, “being unable to discover the river Saraswati above ground, we were searching for it in the regions below.”
Nov. 13th.—We were out riding about 5 A.M.; the sky was cloudy, with a rainy appearance, and we saw a great number of meteors falling in every direction; at first I did not know what they were; afterwards I counted eight; two of them fell, leaving a stream of blue light for a second, and then vanished. I never before observed these meteors.
The followers of the Prophet assert, that falling stars are believed by the idolaters to be on account of the birth or death of some great man; but are in reality weapons thrown at the devils. While the friends of Muhammud were sitting with him one night, a very bright star shot; and his Highness said, “What did you say in the days of ignorance when a Star shot like this?” They said, “God and his messenger know best; we used to say, A great man was born to-night, and a great man died.” Then his Majesty said, “You mistook; because the shooting of these stars are neither for the life nor death of any person; but when our Cherisher orders a work, the bearers of the imperial throne sing hallelujahs; and the inhabitants of the regions who are near the bearers repeat it, till it reaches the lowest regions. After that, the angels which are near the bearers of the imperial throne say, ‘What did the Cherisher order?’ Then they are informed; and so it is handed from one region to another, till the information reaches the people of the lowest region. Then the devils steal it, and carry it to their friends, that is, magicians; and these stars are thrown at these devils; not for the birth or death of any person. Then the things which the magicians tell, having heard from the devils, are true; but these magicians tell lies, and exaggerate in what they hear.” Kutadah said, “God has created stars for three uses; one of them, as a cause of ornament of the regions; the second, to stone the devil with; the third, to direct people going through forests, and on the sea. Therefore, whoever shall explain them otherwise does wrong, and loses his time, and speaks from his own invention, and embellishes[97].”
An officer in the sixteenth lancers, at Cawnpore, thus describes some meteors he saw on the 12th of this month. “On going to field exercise this morning, soon after daybreak, the air presented a very singular phenomenon, being as it were filled with innumerable meteors, descending like vivid streaks of fire. These continued for about half-an-hour, and one passed so near me as to frighten my horse.”.
Nov. 22nd.—Two days ago there was an immense flight of locusts; we caught a great number. The natives turned out, and with hideous noises, waving flags and sticks, drove them from settling on their plantations.
The jamadar has just brought in a curious pigeon; it has four legs; the pair in front have four toes like all pigeons’ feet, the other pair are placed behind, they are smaller, and each foot has only two toes; all the four legs hang down, after the fashion in which pigeons wear their legs.
What strange people these natives are! A traveller who came here this morning complained to my husband that his coachman and sā’īs had robbed and beaten him. The coachman said, “The traveller was going a short cut to the bazār by a road in your grounds you had ordered to be stopped; we turned him back, therefore we had a quarrel.” The traveller, to spite them, hung himself on a tree opposite the stables, and was cut down by the guard. Natives are fond of hanging themselves for spite when they are sure of being cut down! It is better to let them please themselves, if you do they will seldom kill themselves in reality; a good caning in such circumstances would be of great service.
A man has brought a heron’s plume for sale; the natives put them into jewelled ornaments on their turbans, called jika, and also on the heads of their horses. These feathers are extremely expensive in Paris; I was asked two hundred francs for a small plume.
The pine-apple shaped figure on the Cashmere shawls is the representation of the jewelled jika worn in front of the turban; the plume rises from it.
Speaking of the guard, who cut down the traveller who hung himself, I must remark, we had a guard of twelve sipahīs and a hawāldār; a sentry in front of the guard-room kept the time by striking the hours on a gong; non mi recordo, how I became possessed of the following scientific description of the Ghurī, which I insert on account of its excellence.
“The Brahmanical method of computing time, which is generally followed all over India, is this:—
“60 Nimeshu, or twinklings of the human eye, are considered equal to one Pal.
“60 Pals equal to one Ghurī.
“60 Ghurīs to one day and night.
“60 Days and nights one Ritu.
“6 Ritu (seasons of two calendar months each) one solar year.
“60 Solar years one cycle.
“And during that period they believe that a complete revolution of terrestrial circumstances takes place. The only method of measuring the ghurī is by the simple clepsydra, formed of a brass cup, perforated with a single hole in the bottom, and placed in a vessel of water: the cup floats on the water, filling and sinking by degrees; when full the cup sinks, and the hour is completed. The cup is merely of brass or copper, beaten out very thin, without any marks or gradations upon it. When the cup sinks, the hour is struck upon a gong, which is generally hung upon three bamboos. The ghurī, or copper cup, floats usually in a vessel of coarse red pottery filled with water, called a nān.”
In the plate entitled “[The Thug’s Dice],” figure 1 represents a sipahī, with the stick in his hand, watching the brass cup, which is just on the point of sinking; the moment it disappears, he will strike the gong; a spare cup is on the ground, by the side of the nān, or large earthen vessel that holds the water.
I have received a present that pleases me greatly, a sitar, a musical instrument, in general use all over India; it was made at Lucnow from a hollow gourd, and is very beautifully put together. It has four strings; the first is of steel wire, the two next are of brass wire, and the fourth and smallest of steel. It is played with the first finger of the right hand alone, on which is placed a little steel wire frame, called a misrāb, with which the strings are struck; the left hand stops the notes on the frets, but you only stop the notes on the first string; the other three strings produce a sort of pedal sound as the misrāb passes over them, from the manner in which they are tuned. The instrument is most elegantly formed.
The ektara, a one-stringed instrument, as the name implies, is used by wandering minstrels. A man of this description, the veritable Paganini of the East, appeared before me the other day; he was an Hindoo mendicant, carrying an ektara, which was formed of a gourd; and on its one string he played in a strange and peculiar style. From the upper end of the ektara two peacock’s feathers were displayed. The man’s attire was a rope around his waist, and a bit of cloth; a black blanket hung over his shoulder; on his forehead, breast, and arms were the sectarial marks, and the brahmanical thread was over his shoulder; three necklaces and one bracelet completed the costume. His hair fell to his shoulders, and, like all natives, he wore a moustache. My friends laugh at me when I play on the sitar, and ask, “Why do you not put a peacock’s feather at the end of it?”
Dec. 1st.—We have become great farmers, having sown our crop of oats, and are building outhouses to receive some thirty-four dwarf cows and oxen (gynees), which are to be fed up for the table, and produced after some eight months’ stuffing. The gynee club consists of eight members, and it gives us better food than we could procure from the bazār: “Whose dog am I that I should eat from the bazār?”
A little distance from the stacks the unmuzzled bullocks are treading out the corn: “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.” This patriarchal method breaks and renders the straw soft and friable; the corn is winnowed by taking it up in a basket and pouring it out; the grain falls to the ground, while the west wind blows the chaff into a heap beyond. The corn is deposited in a large pit, which has been duly prepared by having had the walls well dried and hardened from a fire burning in it for many days. These pits are carefully concealed by the natives, and their armies have people, called soonghees or smellers, whose business it is to find out these underground and secret granaries.
Our friend Col. Gardner is still at Lucnow, which, in all probability, will speedily be taken into the hands of the British government for its better protection! The King has lately dismissed a man of great talent, who was his prime minister, and put in a fool by way of a change. The consequence is already felt in the accounts of the royal treasury. It is said it is impossible to collect the revenue without force, and that where that has been used, his Majesty’s forces have been beaten.
A friend writes from England, “I shall always regret having quitted India without having seen Col. Gardner and the Taj.”
He is a very remarkable man; his age nearly seventy, I believe. I had a long letter from him two days since, full of all the playfulness of youth, and of all kindness. I never met so entertaining or so instructive a companion; his life, if he would publish it, would be indeed a legacy, and shame our modern biography.
20th.—For the first time this year it has been cold enough to collect ice; during my early ride this morning I saw the coolies gathering it into the pits.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE GREAT FAIR AT ALLAHABAD.
“TALKING TO A MAN WHO IS IN ECSTACY (OF A RELIGIOUS NATURE PRACTISED OR FEIGNED BY FAKĪRS) IS LIKE BEATING CURDS WITH A PESTLE[98].”
Booths at the Fair—Diamonds, Pearls, Shawls, Sable, Coral—The Triveni—Suicide—Religious Mendicants—The sacred Ginī—Consecration of an Idol—Household Gods—Rosaries—Pilgrims, Carriers of Holy Water—Snakes—Arrival of Lady Wm. Bentinck—Visit to the Fair—Description of the [Frontispiece]—Chamelee, the Brahmanical Bull.
1833, Jan.—The burā melā at Prāg, or the great fair at Allahabad, is held annually on the sands of the Ganges below the ramparts of the Fort, extending from the Mahratta Bund to the extreme point of the sacred junction of the rivers. The booths extend the whole distance, composed of mud walls, covered with mats, or thatched. This fair lasts about two months, and attracts merchants from all parts of India, Calcutta, Delhi, Lucnow, Jeypore, &c. Very good diamonds, pearls, coral, shawls, cloth, woollens, China, furs, &c., are to be purchased. Numerous booths display brass and copper vessels, glittering in the sun with many brazen idols: others are filled with Benares’ toys for children. Bows and arrows are displayed, also native caps made of sable, the crowns of which are of the richest gold and silver embroidery.
The pearl merchants offer long strings of large pearls for sale, amongst which some few are fine, round, and of a good colour. The natives value size, but are not very particular as to colour; they do not care to have them perfectly round, and do not object to an uneven surface. They will allow a purchaser to select the best at pleasure from long strings.
The deep red coral is valued by the natives much more than the pink. I bought some very fine pink coral at the fair: the beads were immense; the price of the largest, eleven rupees per tola; i.e. eleven rupees for one rupee weight of coral. The smallest, six or four rupees per tola; it was remarkably fine. Some years afterwards the Brija Bā’ī, a Mahratta lady, a friend of mine, called on me; she observed the long string of fine pink coral around my neck, and said, “I am astonished a mem sāhiba should wear coral; we only decorate our horses with it; that is pink coral, the colour is not good; look at my horse.” I went to the verandah; her horse was adorned with a necklace of fine deep red coral. She was quite right, and I made over mine to my grey steed.
Some of the prettiest things sold at the Melā are the tīkas, an ornament for the forehead for native women. The tīka is of different sizes and patterns; in gold or silver for the wealthy, tinsel for the poorer classes; and of various shapes. The prettiest are of silver, a little hollow cup like a dew-drop cut in halves: the ornament is stuck with an adhesive mixture on the forehead, just in the centre between the eyebrows. Some tīkas are larger, resembling the ferronnière worn by European ladies.
The Allahabad hukāks are famous for their imitation in glass of precious stones. I purchased a number of native ornaments in imitation of the jewellery worn by native ladies, which were remarkably well made, and cost only a few rupees. I also bought strings of mock pearls brought from China, that are scarcely to be distinguished from real pearls, either in colour or weight.
The toys the rich natives give their children, consisting in imitations of all sorts of animals, are remarkably pretty; they are made in silver, and enamelled: others are made of ivory very beautifully carved; and for the poorer classes they are of pewter, moulded into the most marvellous shapes.
At this time of the year lākhs and lākhs of natives come to bathe at the junction of the Ganges and Jumna; they unite at the extremity of a neck of land, or rather sand, that runs out just below the Fort. On this holy spot the Brahmans and religious mendicants assemble in thousands. Each fakīr pitches a bamboo, from the end of which his flag is displayed, to which those of the same persuasion resort. Here they make pooja, shave, give money to the fakīr, and bathe at the junction. The clothes of the bathers are put upon charpāīs to be taken care of, for so many pāisa. Every native, however poor he may be, pays tribute of one rupee to Government before he is allowed to bathe.
Two boats, by order of Government, are in attendance at this point to prevent persons from drowning themselves or their children. The mere act of bathing in the waters of the Gunga, on a particular day, removes ten sins, however enormous, committed in ten previous births. How much greater must be the efficacy at the junction of the Gunga and Yamuna, which the Saraswati, the third sacred river, is supposed to join underground! The benefit arising from bathing at the lucky moment of the conjunction of the moon with a particular star is very great, or at the time of eclipse of the sun or moon.
The holy waters are convenient for washing away a man’s sins, and as efficacious as a pope’s bull for this purpose. Groups of natives stand in the river whilst their Brahman reads to them, awaiting the happy moment at which to dip into the sacred and triple waves. They fast until the bathing is over. Suicide committed at the junction is meritorious in persons of a certain caste, but a sin for a Brahman!
The holy men prefer the loaves and fishes of this world to the immediate moksh or beatitude, without further risk of transmigration, which is awarded to those who die at the sacred junction.
Bathing will remove sins, gain admittance into heaven, and the devotee will be reborn on earth in an honourable station.
A married woman without children often vows to Gunga to cast her first-born into the river: this in former times was often done at Prāg, it now rarely occurs. If the infant’s life is preserved, the mother cannot take it again.