THE BOARD OF WORKS.
Nov.—The cold season is a busy time. Having procured a quantity of teak timber and toon wood, we established a Board of Works in the verandah, consisting of five carpenters, two sawyers, two turners, six iron-smiths, one stone-cutter, and one harness-maker. Most excellent and very handsome were the dining-tables, sideboard, horseshoe-table, wardrobes, &c., and a Stanhope made by these men, from our own designs.
The carpenters carve wood extremely well. On my return to England, I saw and admired a round table in a friend’s drawing-room; “Do you not remember,” said she with surprise, “you made up that table yourself?” On looking at it, I recognized the pedestal and claw carved with broad leaves, copied from a model I made for my carpenter of Ganges mud.
The furniture was of various kinds of wood, as follows:—
Teak sāgūn (tectona grandis) or Indian oak—a fine heavy timber, in colour resembling oak; strong and good wood. The teak I made use of came from Ava, and was brought up from the salt-water lake near Calcutta; good sāgūn was also to be purchased at Cawnpore.
The finest is brought from Java and Ava. I saw one plank of Java teak which, even when made up, measured five feet six inches in diameter. It was the top of an oval table. It bears a good polish, and is suited for tables, wardrobes, and the beds of billiard-tables. In the up-country the usual price is one rupee per foot when the plank is one inch in thickness; in Calcutta, the same price when the plank is four inches in thickness. The general size of the timber brought from Ava is eighteen inches in breadth.
Sāl, sānkho or sākoo (shorea robusta)—a heavy strong wood, from the up-country; fit for beams of houses, wardrobes, frames, window-frames, kitchen-tables, &c. Price, when thirty feet in length by seventeen inches in breadth, twenty-six rupees; when twenty-one feet in length by twenty-two in breadth, thirty-two rupees. It is sold cheap at Cawnpore in September and October.
Shīsham, sissoo or sesoo (dalbergia sissoo)—from the up-country; fit for tables, chairs, carriage-wheels and bodies; very heavy, takes a good polish, fine grained. Price, eighteen feet in length by fourteen in breadth, thirteen rupees; good for bullock-collars; cheap in September.
Toon—a light soft-grained wood, very much resembling mahogany; fit for tables, chairs, billiard-table frames, book-cases, &c.; reasonable at Cawnpore.
Soondry—comes from Calcutta; the best wood for shafts and carriage-wheels.
Arnoose, or bastard ebony, also called teenoo—a common timber, found on the banks of the Jumna; used for firewood; three or four mŭns per rupee. In the centre of the wood the ebony is found, which is lighter, both in colour and weight, than the ebony from the hills (abnoos), which is very heavy, hard, and difficult to cut; also of a good blackness; useful for handles of seals, chess-men, &c.
Cocoa-nut tree, naryul—from Calcutta; also one of the best for shafts; the bark is curious; when petrified and polished it is made into ornaments, brooches, &c.
Sutsaul—something like rosewood; comes from the Nepaul Terāee.
Tindoa—hard, tough, and very good for turning.
Rouswood (rous)—from the hills; extremely delicate and fine grained; turns beautifully; colour light. I procured rouswood fit for turning in the jungles near Allahabad.
Neem or neemb (melia azadirachta)—extremely heavy and tough; colour light—almost white; turns well.
Korieah—Benares toys are made of this wood: it is beautifully white, fine grained, and delicate; it turns delightfully, and is very light. The toys are lacquered on the lathe by applying sealing-wax to them; the friction warms the sealing-wax, and it adheres. [See Appendix, No. 11.]
Mango-wood, amrā, (spondias mangifera)—fit for common work, out-house doors and beams, kitchen-tables, &c.
Babul—a very heavy and extremely hard wood (acacia Arabica).
Patang—a red wood, used in colouring cloths.
Lall chundun—a cedar.
Chucrassy—also walnut-wood from the hills.
From the Soane and Cane rivers we procured about half a bushel of pebbles, consisting of chalcedony, moss-agate, tree and fortification agate, cornelian, cinnamon-stone, goree (a sort of spar); and from Lucnow and Agra, bloodstone, lapis-lazuli, jet, petrified cocoa-nut bark, plum-pudding-stone, fossil-stone, gold-stone, and amethyst.
The tree-agate, or tree-stone, is so called by the natives from the marks on the surface resembling trees and flowers. In other agates the marks lie deep in the stone, in these they are all on the surface, and in grinding and polishing are easily destroyed, unless care be taken not to go too deep; they reminded me of a stone I saw in England, called Mocha-stone, which was set in small brilliants.
The pebbles from the Soane river are generally esteemed more than those of the Cane.
The process of cutting, and grinding, and polishing pebbles is as follows:—
The pebble is kept firm by being fastened on a board by a bit of lac—not sealing-wax. It is cut in halves by a small bamboo bow, strung with fine iron wire; powdered kurand patthar and water are put upon it during the time. The bow is used by the hand. The natives cut the pebbles by this simple method wonderfully even.
The Indian lathe for grinding and polishing stones is turned by the hŭkāk, or stone-cutter, with a long bow in his right hand, whilst with the left hand he applies the pebble to the wheel.
It has four wheels—three of them are made of kurand patthar: the first wheel is of coarsely-pounded particles; in the second the particles are finer; and, in the third, are reduced to a fine powder. The wheels are merely kurand patthar mixed with glue, and formed into a large broad flat cake; in the centre a hole is cut to allow their being put upon the lathe. The pebble having been cut by the stone-cutter, is now ready for grinding, which is performed by pressing it against the first wheel with the right hand, and using water and pounded kurand patthar at the same time, until the most uneven parts on the surface are removed; the second wheel is then put on, and the surface a little more reduced; after which the third wheel is used, and the stone becomes perfectly even: the kurand patthar, in powder, and water, is used with all the three wheels.
It is now to be polished, which is done upon a wooden wheel. The kurand patthar is but very little known to stone-cutters and cutlers in England; for a further account of it, [see Appendix, No. 12].
The pebbles, bloodstone, lapis-lazuli, and agates which I had cut and polished for bracelets, brooches, and snuff-boxes, were beautiful, and did honour to the hŭkāk.
During the time of the burra mela (great fair) at Prāg, natives used to come round to the houses of the gentry with boxes full of polished pebbles for sale—in sets for necklaces and bracelets, and large stones for snuff-boxes.
Raj Ghāt is on the banks of the Ganges, about a mile and a half above the Fort of Allahabad, and the village of Daragunge extends along the side of the Mahratta Bund above for some distance. To the right of the spot where travellers land on coming from Benares is a fine building, called a dhrumsālā, or place to distribute alms; it is dedicated to a form of Māhadēo, which stands in the shiwālā, or little temple, above: the form of this octagonal temple, as well as that of a similar one, which stands at the other side of the building, is very beautiful. On the left are the remains of a very large and curious old well. “Why is a woman like a Hindoo temple[49]?”
After sketching this dhrumsālā, we ascended the bank to Daragunge, to see the inner court, and found it filled with elephants, tattoos, cows, and natives. It is used as a sarāe, or abode for travellers. I saw there a most beautiful and exceedingly small gynee (a dwarf cow), with two bars of silver round each of her little legs; she looked so pretty, and was quite tame. Through the doorways of this court you look into the little octagonal temples, and, through their arches, on a fine expanse of the Ganges which flows below.
You cannot roam in India as in Europe, or go into places crowded with natives, without a gentleman; they think it so incorrect and so marvellous, that they collect in crowds to see a beebee sāhiba who is indecent enough to appear unveiled. A riding-habit and hat, also, creates much surprise in unfrequented bazārs, where such a thing is a novelty.
We proceeded through the bustee (village) on foot, and up a dirty alley, through which I could scarcely pass, to the Temple of Hŭnoomān, the black-faced and deified monkey, and found there an enormous image of the god painted red and white, and made either of mud or stone. A great number of worshippers were present. The bearers hold Hŭnoomān in the greatest reverence.
In another apartment were forty or fifty large and small figures, representing Ram and Seeta his consort, with his brother Lutchman, Hŭnoomān, and all his army of monkeys. Seeta was carried off by the giant Ravuna, Hŭnoomān fought for and restored her to Ram, therefore they are worshipped together.
These figures were decorated with coloured cloth and tinsel, much in the same manner in which the saints are clothed in the churches in France. I had never but once before seen idols, in India, tricked out after this fashion. Many lamps were burning before the shrine. We were allowed to behold them from the door, but not to enter the apartment.
The evening was very fine; my companion, as well as myself, enjoyed rambling about and exploring such queer, curious, and out-of-the-way places.