THE DURWĀN.

What happy wretches the natives are! A man who gets two annas a day (fourpence), can find himself in food, clothing, house, silver finery for his person, and support his wife and children also. My ayha in Calcutta, who received eleven rupees a month, refused any longer to dine with her dear friend the durwān, because, as she expressed it, he was so extravagant and such a glutton he would eat as much as one rupee and a half or two rupees a month; and, as she herself never ate more than one rupee per month, she would no longer go shares in his expenses. The durwān lives at the entrance-gates of his master’s house, and is always in attendance to open them; his wages are usually five rupees a month; and he is always on the watch that nothing may be carried away clandestinely. The man, whose portrait is annexed, bears the marks of his caste in three yellow horizontal lines above the red circle on his forehead; around his neck are two strings of the beads called mandrasee, as represented by Fig. 9, in the sketch entitled “[Jugunnath].” Large heavy rings of silver are on his arms, and the bracelet is also of silver.

THE DURWAN.

‎‏فاني پارکس‏‎

The durwāns are very fond of brilliant colours, and are generally well dressed; their food consists principally of curry made of kid, fish, chicken, prawns, or vegetables, with a great quantity of Patna rice boiled to perfection, every grain separate, and beautifully white. My ayha brought me one day a vegetable curry of her own making, to show me the food on which she lived with her friend the durwān; it would have been excellent, had it not been made with moota tel, i.e. mustard oil.

16th.—The native boys whom I see swimming and sporting in the river of an evening, are much better off than the poor people in England. I wish we had some of them here, on whom to bestow a fine cold saddle of mutton. A round of beef would be of importance to them. You may imagine how much must be thrown away, when you cannot with the greatest care, at this season, keep meat good for more than twenty-four hours; and roasted meat will only keep until the next day.

In Calcutta, the tank water being unwholesome to drink, it is necessary to catch rain water, and preserve it in great jars; sixty jars full will last a year in our family. It is purified with alum, and a heated iron is put into it. Here we drink the Ganges water, reckoned the most wholesome in India; it is purified in jars in the same manner. The water of the Jumna is considered unwholesome, and in some parts, my old ābdār declares, it is absolutely poisonous.

We were glad to quit Allahabad, the small-pox having commenced its ravages at that station. On our arrival at Cawnpore, we found it raging still worse; the magistrate took it, and died in three days. Hundreds of children are ill of this disease in the bazār; and the government, in their humanity, have done away with the vaccine department here. Surely it is a cruel act, where there are so many regiments and so many European children, who cannot now be vaccinated. It is very severe, and numbers of adults have been attacked.

In India wax candles are always burned. A bearer will not touch a mould because they say it is made of pig’s fat. We burn spermaceti generally. The first time the bearers saw them, they would not touch the spermaceti, and I had great difficulty in persuading them the candles were made from the fat of a great fish. Some bearers in Calcutta will not snuff a candle if it be on the dinner-table, but a khidmatgār having put it on the ground, the bearer will snuff it, when the other man replaces it. In the upper provinces they are not so particular.

One of the grass-cutters has been sent to the hospital, dying, I fear, of fever. Every horse has a sā’īs (groom) and a grass-cutter allowed him: the latter goes out every morning, perhaps some four or five miles, cuts a bundle of grass, and brings it home on his head. The men are exposed to the sun so much, and live so badly, it is no wonder they fall ill of fever; besides which, they are extremely fond of arrak (bazār spirits). Wine they delight in: when the empty bottles are carried from the house to the godown, the grass-cutters often petition to have the dregs of the wine. They pour off into their lotas (brass drinking cups) the remains of all the bottles, mixing beer, sherry, claret, vinegar, hock, champagne, in fact, any thing of which they can find a drop; and then, sitting down, each man drinks a portion and passes the cup to his neighbour, often saying “Bahut achchhā, bahut achchhā,” very good, very good, and eagerly looking out for his turn again, and fair play.

I have several times made them put this vile mixture away for another day, or they would have drunk it until the whole was finished.

21st.—Finding the night very oppressive, I quitted my chārpāī, and putting on a cambric dressing-gown and slippers, went out on the platform by the river and stayed there an hour, there being a little breeze to refresh me. You may imagine how dry the air must be; I had no fear of cold, no want of a shawl, and my light dress was sufficiently warm. It was as fine a starlight night as I have seen in India. The horses are sick, burnt up in their stables, which are made on a bad principle; they feel the want of the large, cool, loose boxes they had at Allahabad.

August 4th.—It is said, the Earl of C⸺ lost 65,000 rupees a short time ago, by forgeries committed in Calcutta: the person at the head of the forgeries was Rajah Buddinath Roy, a native prince in high favour with Lord Amherst; and I rather imagine his lordship has suffered also by the Rajah’s forged bills. On dit, he used to talk about Christianity as if in time he might be converted; he subscribed to schools and missionary societies, and distributed Bibles—the bait took—in return he was allowed such and such honorary attendance, as by the Company’s regulations a native may not have without permission. This flattered his pride, and his seemingly religious disposition secured him from suspicion falling upon him as a forger, especially of passing forged bills on the Governor-general. The case is now being tried in Court.

People think of nothing but converting the Hindoos; and religion is often used as a cloak by the greatest schemers after good appointments. Religious meetings are held continually in Calcutta, frequented by people to pray themselves into high salaries, who never thought of praying before.

In India we use no bells to call servants; but as the chaprāsīs are always in attendance just without the door, if you want one, you say “Qui hy?” i.e. “is there any one?”—or “Kon hy?”—“who is there?” when a servant appears. For this reason old Indians are called Qui hys.

7th.—The plagues of Egypt were not worse than the plagues of India. Last night the dinner-table was covered with white ants, having wings: these ants, at a certain period after a shower, rise from the earth with four large wings. They fly to the lights, and your lamps are put out in a few minutes by swarms of them: they fall into your plate at dinner, and over your book when reading, being most troublesome. Last night heavy rain fell, and the rooms were swarming with winged-ants, which flew in; their wings fell off almost immediately, verifying the proverb: “When ants get wings they die[60].”

To-night we are suffering under a more disagreeable infliction; a quantity of winged-bugs flew in just as dinner was put on the table, the bamboo screens having been let down rather too late. They are odious; they fly upon your face and arms, and into your plate; if you brush them away, they emit such terrible effluvia it is sickening, and yet one cannot bear them to crawl over one’s body, as one is at this minute doing on my ear, without pushing them off.

21st.—There has been a great fire in the Fort of Allahabad, and the magazine of gunpowder was with difficulty saved. What an explosion it would have caused had it taken fire!

Oh! how I long for the liberty and freshness of a country life in England—what would I not give for a fine bracing air, and a walk by the sea-side, to enable me to shake off this Indian languor, and be myself again! The moon is so hot to-night, I cannot sit on the Terrace; she makes my head ache. A chatr (umbrella) is as necessary a defence against the rays of the moon at the full, as against the sun.

These natives are curious people. Two of our khidmatgārs were looking at the weather; the one said, “It is a good thing that from the pleasure of Allah the rain has been stopped; otherwise, so many houses would have fallen in.” The ābdār answered, “Those are the words of an unbeliever.” Kaffir ke bat. “You are a Kaffir,” exclaimed the first man, in a great rage. It being high abuse to use the term, the ābdār took off his shoe and flung it at the other, on which the first man struck him a good blow with his fist, which cut his cheek open. Here ended the fight—they were both frightened at the sight of blood—it is the only instance we have met with of a native using his fists like an Englishman.

The other affair was this: my sā’īs (groom) had bought some ganja, an intoxicating herb, which he put into his hooqŭ to smoke, and offered it to the other sā’īses. To refuse to smoke from an offered hooqŭ, is a high offence. The sā’īses would not smoke the ganja, abused the man for buying it, and getting intoxicated daily from its effect. He said, “I will not stay in service, if you will not smoke with me.” “Well, go and give warning,” said the head groom. My sā’īs gave him gālee (abuse); at which the head groom took a stick and beat him. The sā’īs immediately said, “My life be on your head,” and running to the well, he let himself drop down into the water; but when at the bottom, he began to halloo for assistance, the well being very deep, and the water also. He was drawn up by ropes. I do not think he meant to kill himself; and yet dropping down such a distance was a great risk. He said, if he had died of the fall, the head groom would have been hung, and he should thus have had his revenge. The next time he plays such a prank, he is to remain at the bottom of the well.

22nd.—They tell me the people in Calcutta are dying fast from a fever resembling the yellow fever. The soldiers, European, here are also going to their graves very quickly; three days ago, six men died; two days ago, six more expired; and one hundred and sixty are in the hospital. The fever, which rages, tinges the skin and eyes yellow; perhaps only the severe bilious fever of India brought on by drinking brandy and arrak, a bazār spirit extremely injurious, to say nothing of exposure to the sun. Almost every evening we meet the two elephants belonging to the hospital carrying each about ten sick men, who are sufficiently recovered to be able to go out “to eat the air,” and for exercise; the poor fellows look so wan and ghastly. The sā’īs before-mentioned added the leaves of hemp (cannabis sativa) to his tobacco, and smoked it to increase its intoxicating power. Bhang, an intoxicating liquor, is prepared from the same leaves. Pariah arrak, an inferior sort of spirituous liquor, is sold extremely cheap, from one to four ānās a quart: it is most unwholesome, and mixed with most injurious articles to increase its intoxicating power, such as the juice of the thorn-apple and ganja. There are many kinds of arrak; that distilled from cocoa-nut toddy is, they say, the least injurious. Who can be surprised at the number of deaths that occur amongst men in the habit of drinking this heating and narcotic spirit, called rack by the soldiers? Flax is grown in great quantities in India, but is little used for cloth. Taat, which is made from sunn (hemp), is manufactured into paper. Linseed oil is extracted from the seed, and the remainder, the cake, is given to cows. The waste land in our compound (grounds around the house) was covered with thorn-apple plants. I had them rooted out, leaving only two or three of different kinds in the garden. Abdārs have been known to administer this plant (datura) to their masters in the hooqŭ: an over-dose produces delirium.

There are several species of this beautiful plant:

Common datura(Datura stramonium), thorn-apple.
Kala datura(Datura fastuosa), a triple flower of a most beautiful dark purple.
Suffeid datura(Datura metel), flowers white, hairy thorn-apple.
Another(Datura ferox), flowers yellow.
Ditto(Datura canescens), a variety, flowers always single, and of a yellowish white colour.

Qualities, intoxicating and narcotic.—The Mahomedans give kala datura in those violent headaches that precede epilepsy and mania. It produces vertigo when taken in large doses, and has the effect of dilating in a singular manner the pupil of the eye. Some writers call it “Trompette du jugement,” and “Herbe aux sorciers.” The leaves of the datura ferox are sometimes used to make arrak more intoxicating: its seeds produce delirium. Stramonium is an abbreviation of the Greek “Mad apple,” on account of the dangerous effects of the fruit of that species. Metel is an Arabic name, and expresses the narcotic effect of the plant.

What can be more wretched than the life of a private soldier in the East? his profession employs but little of his time. During the heat of the day, he is forced to remain within the intensely hot barrack-rooms; heat produces thirst, and idleness discontent. He drinks arrak like a fish, and soon finds life a burden, almost insupportable. To the man weary of the burden of existence, to escape from it, transportation appears a blessing. The great source of all this misery is the cheapness of arrak mixed with datura, and the restlessness arising from the want of occupation; although a library is generally provided for the privates by the regiment.

You at home, who sleep in gay beds of carved mahogany, with handsome curtains, would be surprised at sight of the beds used by us during the hot winds. Four small posts, and a frame, on which very broad tape (newār) is plaited and strained very tight, over this a sītal-pātī, a sort of fine cool Manilla mat, then the sheets, and for warmth, either an Indian shawl, or a rezai, which is of silk quilted with cotton, and very light. We use no musquito curtains, for each chārpāī is placed just before an open window, with the east wind blowing on it, and a pankhā, with a deep double frill, is in full swing over the beds all night, pulled by a string which passes through a hole in the wall—the wind it creates drives off the musquitoes, and the man who pulls the pankhā is relieved every two hours.

“A NEW SERVANT WILL CATCH DEER[61].”

A gentleman in the Civil Service had succeeded, after much trouble, in rearing some very fine strawberry plants, and he visited his garden daily to admire the blossoms. One day, when he called a chaprāsī, a new man, a stupid fellow, came into the room; the gentleman would not tell him what he wanted, but said, “Send another servant to me;” the man went out, and after some time returned with his hands full of the beautiful strawberry-blossoms! Had you seen how the countenance of the sāhib fell when he saw them, you would have laughed as I did. He desired the man to put his chaprās on the table, and quit his service at once. The gentleman was an excellent linguist, but the new servant would willingly have caught deer.

The Governor-general left Calcutta on the 11th inst., and proposes to be at Benares on the 10th December. Lady William Bentinck accompanies him in his tour. They say that she is dreadfully nervous about him. His unpopularity is increasing, and some ill-regulated person, in a moment of disappointment and frenzy, might perhaps cause a scene. The events of the last few years, since Mr. Canning’s death, have been astounding. I wonder if there is more room for amazement. I hope his Grace the Duke will not take us under his charge. We are satisfied with King Log, provided he stands in the way of King Stork.

Lord William has been doing away with all the good appointments in the Civil Service; and the army have been cruelly treated, with respect to the half-batta. Perhaps, when the renewal of the Charter is concluded, the Directors will again be enabled to treat those living under their command with the generosity which has ever distinguished them, and which has rendered their service one of the finest in the world.

CHAPTER XV.
THE THUG’S DICE.

The Thug’s Dice—Execution of Eleven Thugs.

1830, Oct.—Mr. S⸺, the acting magistrate, has sent me a present of the dice used by the Thugs; they were taken from a Thug in the magistrate’s office. There are three dice, made of brass roughly filed. In the sketch entitled “[The Thug’s Dice],” (Fig. 3.) they are represented exactly of the size and shape of the originals, which are all of one size and shape. Two sides are perforated by a large hole that goes through the centre.

Two of the sides are marked with three small circles placed in a triangular form; one side has two circles, and four are on the other side.

THE THUG’S DICE.

On Stone by Major Parlby

‎‏فاني پارکس‏‎

When the Thugs are going out on a strangling expedition, they throw these dice to see what days will prove lucky or unlucky.

Oct. 16th.—In the Government Gazette of this evening is an account of the execution of eleven Thugs, in a letter from a man up the country to the editor: the account is so interesting, I cannot refrain from copying it.

“Sir,—I was yesterday present at the execution of eleven Thugs, who had been seized in the neighbourhood of Bhilsa, convicted of the murder of thirty-five travellers, (whose bodies were disinterred as evidence against them at the different places along the lines of road between Bhopaul and Saugor, where they had been strangled and buried,) and sentenced to death by the agent to the Governor-general, Mr. Smith.

“As the sun rose, the eleven men were brought out from the jail, decorated with chaplets of flowers, and marched up to the front of the drop, where they arranged themselves in line with infinite self-possession.

“When arranged, each opposite the noose that best pleased him, they lifted up their hands and shouted, ‘Bindachul ka jae! Bhawānī ka jae!’ i.e. ‘Glory to Bindachul! Bhawānī’s glory!’ every one making use of precisely the same invocation, though four were Mahomedans, one a Brahman, and the rest Rajpoots, and other castes of Hindoos; they all ascended the steps, and took their position upon the platform with great composure, then, taking the noose in both hands, made the same invocation to Bhawānī, after which they placed them over their heads and adjusted them to their necks; some of the younger ones laughing at the observations of the crowd around them.

“One of the youngest, a Mahomedan, impatient of the delay, stooped down so as to tighten the rope, and, stepping deliberately over the platform, hung himself as coolly as one would step over a rock to take a swim in the sea! This man was known to have assisted in strangling a party of six travellers at Omurpatan, in the Rewah Rajah’s territories, in December last, and closely pursued—to have gone off, joined another gang, and, in less than a month, to have assisted in strangling thirty more in Bhopaul; he was taken at Bhilsa, the last scene of his murders. Omurpatan is 100 miles east of Jubulpore; and the place in which the Thug assisted in strangling in the Bhopaul territories, a month afterwards, is 200 miles west of Jubulpore. Such is the rapidity with which these murderers change the scene of their operations, when conscious of keen pursuit! He was taken at Bhilsa by the very man whom he found upon his trail at Omurpatan, 300 miles distant.

“On being asked whether they had any wish to express to the magistrate, they prayed that for every man hung, five convicts might be released from jail, and that they might have a little money to be distributed in charity.

“Their invocation of Bhawānī at the drop, was a confession of their guilt, for no one in such a situation invokes Bhawānī but a Thug, and he invokes no other deity in any situation, whatever may be his religion or sect. She is worshipped under her four names, Devi, Kalee, Doorga, and Bhawānī, and her temple at Bindachun, a few miles west of Mirzapore on the Ganges, is constantly filled with murderers from every quarter of India, who go there to offer up a share of the booty acquired from their strangled victims in their annual excursions.

“This accounts for the invocation—‘jae Bindachul!’ made use of by these men in approaching and ascending the drop. These pilgrimages to the temple are made generally at the latter end of the rainy season, and whilst on their road from their homes to the temple, nothing can ever tempt them to commit a robbery. They are not, however, so scrupulous on their way back.

“The priests promise the Thugs impunity and wealth, provided a due share be offered to the goddess. If they die by the sword in the execution of murders, she promises them paradise in all its most exquisite delights; if taken and executed, it must arise from her displeasure, incurred by some neglect of the duties they owe her, and they must, as disturbed spirits, inhabit mid-air until her wrath be appeased. After they have propitiated the goddess by offering up a share of the preceding year, and received the priest’s suggestions on the subject, they prepare for the next year’s expedition.

“The different members who form the gang assemble at the village of the leader at a certain day, and, after determining the scene of operations, they proceed to consecrate their kodalee, or small pickaxe, which they use to dig the graves of their victims, and which they consider as their standard. They believe that no spirit can ever rise to trouble their repose from a grave dug by this instrument, provided it be duly consecrated, and they are fearfully scrupulous in the observance of every ceremony enjoined in the consecration, and never allow the earth to be turned with any other instrument. It is a neatly made pickaxe of about four or five pounds’ weight, six or eight inches long, and with one point.

“They sacrifice a goat, and offer it up, with a cocoa-nut, to Bhawānī; they then make a mixture of sandal and other scented woods, spirits, sugar, flour, and butter, and boil it in a cauldron.

“The kodalee, having been carefully washed, is put upon a spot cleared away for the purpose, and plastered with cow dung, and the mixture is poured over it with certain prayers and ceremonies.

“It is now wiped and folded in a clean white cloth by the priest, and the whole gang proceed some distance from the village upon the road they intend to take, and stand until they hear a partridge call, the priest having in his mind some one as the bearer of the sacred deposit. If the partridge call on the right, he places it in the hands of that individual, and in a solemn manner impresses upon him the responsibility of the charge. If a partridge call on the left, or one do not call until the sun is high, they all return, and wait until the next morning, when they proceed to another spot, and the priest fixes his mind upon some other individual; and so every morning, until the deity has signified her approbation of the choice by the calling of the partridge on the right.

“If the kodalee should fall to the ground at any time, the gang consider it as an evil omen, leave that part of the country without delay, and select another standard-bearer. If no accident happen, the man first elected bears it the whole season; but a new election must take place for the next. The man who bears it carries it in his waistband, but never sleeps with it on his person, nor lets any man see where he conceals it during the night, or whilst he takes his rest.

“All oaths of the members of the gang are administered upon this instrument, folded in a clean white cloth, and placed on ground cleared away and plastered with cow dung: I have heard the oldest of them declare, that they believe any man who should make a false oath upon it would be immediately punished by some fatal disease. If any man be suspected of treachery, they make him swear in this manner.

“The standard-bearer, immediately after his election, proceeds across the first running stream in the direction of the country to which the gang intend to proceed, accompanied by only one witness, to wait for a favourable omen. When they come to the Nurbudda, Jumna, or any other river of this class, the whole gang must accompany him. A deer on the right of the road is a good omen, especially if single, according to the verse—

“Leela Mirga daena—Suda daena Tas.

Kishunrut hark doo, bhule kure Bhugwan.”

“If a wolf is seen to cross the road, either before or behind them, they must return, and take another road. If they hear a jackal call during the day, or a partridge during the night, they leave that part of the country forthwith. An old man once told me, in proof of the faith to be placed in these signs, that he was, in his youth, one of a gang of fifty, who were sleeping under some date-trees, between Indore and Ojeya, when a partridge was heard to call out of one of them about two in the morning. They got up in great alarm, moved off instantly, but about daylight met a party of horse going from Ojeya to Indore. Some dispute took place between them, and they were taken back to Indore.

“They had murdered the gooroo (or chief priest) of the Holcar family and his followers; and their leader taking a liking to a parrot of his, had brought it with them.

“On arriving at Indore the parrot began to talk, and was almost immediately recognized by one of Holcar’s family as the parrot of the gooroo who had gone off for Ojeya some days before. One of the youngest of them was immediately tied up and flogged, and after a couple of dozen, he confessed the robbery and murder. The bodies were taken up and recognized, and five-and-forty Thugs were blown off at once from the mouths of cannon. He was one of the five who were pardoned on account of their youth, and taken into service.

“The handle of the kodalee is made and put on when it is required, and thrown away the moment the work is done, so that it forms no essential part of the consecrated instrument.

“The investiture of the roomal (or handkerchief) is the next religious ceremony performed. No man can strangle until he has been regularly invested by the priest with the cloth with which it is performed. Cords and nooses are no longer used. A common handkerchief or cummerbund is all that men north of the Nurbudda will now use, though it is said, that in some parts of the Peninsula the cord and noose are still in use, owing to the Thugs there being less liable to be searched.

“After a man has passed through the different grades, and shown that he has sufficient dexterity, nerve, and resolution, which they call ‘hard breastedness,’ to strangle a victim himself, the priest, before all the gang assembled on a certain day, presents him with the roomal, and tells him how many of his family have signalized themselves by the use of it, how much his friends expect from his courage and conduct, and implores the goddess to vouchsafe her support to his laudable ambition and endeavours to distinguish himself in her service.

“The investiture of the roomal is knighthood to these monsters; it is the highest object of their ambition, not only because the man who strangles has so much a head over and above the share which falls to him in the division of the spoil, but because it implies the recognition, by his comrades, of the qualities of courage, strength, and dexterity, which all are anxious to be famed for.

“The ceremony costs the candidate about forty rupees; and is performed by a gooroo, or high priest of the gang, who is commonly an old Thug, no matter whether Musulmān or Hindoo, who has retired from service, and lives upon the contributions of his descendants and disciples, who look up to him with great reverence for advice and instruction, and refer to his decision all cases of doubt and dispute amongst themselves.

“Many attain this degree of knighthood before the age of twenty, having been taken out by their masters when young, and early accustomed to assist by holding the hands of the victims while the roomal-bearers strangle them; and a man must show good evidence of the ‘kura chatee,’ or hard breast, before he is admitted even to this office; some men never attain to this honour, particularly those who have adopted the profession late in life, and remain all their lives as decoys, watchmen, grave-diggers, and removers of bodies. An attempt has been made, and with some success, to impress Thugs with the belief that the souls of their victims attain paradise, as in the case of other human victims, offered in sacrifice to this goddess, and become the tutelar saints of those who strangle them.

“This is, however, somewhat at variance with their notion, that the spirits of those who have been buried with the consecrated pickaxe can never rise from their graves; but it reminds me of an opinion that prevails amongst the people in wild and mountainous parts of India, that the spirit of a man destroyed by a tiger, sometimes rides upon his head and guides him from his pursuers.

“The person invested with the roomal has long used it in play before the practised eye of his gooroo, and has been long accustomed to see others use it in earnest; but it is still thought necessary to select for him easy victims at first, and they do not employ him indiscriminately, like the others, until he has shown his powers in the death of two or three travellers of feeble form and timid bearing. The maxim that ‘dead men tell no tales’ is invariably acted upon by these people, and they never rob a man until they have murdered him.

“In the territories of the native chiefs of Bundelcund, and those of Scindia and Holcar, a Thug feels just as independent and free as an Englishman in a tavern, and they will probably begin to feel themselves just as much so in those of Nagpore, now that European superintendency has been withdrawn. But they are not confined to the territories of the native chiefs; they are becoming numerous in our own, and are often found most securely and comfortably situated in the very seats of our principal judicial establishments; and of late years they are known to have formed some settlements to the east of the Ganges, in parts that they formerly used merely to visit in the course of their annual excursions.

“I should mention that the cow being a form of Doorga, or Bhawānī, the Mahomedans must forego the use of beef the moment they enlist themselves under her banners; and though they may read their khoran, they are not suffered to invoke the name of Mahommed.

“The khoran is still their civil code, and they are governed by its laws in all matters of inheritance, marriage, &c.

“Your obedient servant,

“H.[62]”

I have been greatly interested in the above account: there are numerous Thugs in and around Cawnpore; they never attack Europeans; but the natives are afraid of travelling alone, as a poor bearer with one month’s wages of four rupees has quite sufficient to attract them. They seldom bury them in these parts, but having strangled and robbed their victim, they throw him down a well, wells being numerous by the side of the high roads.

In 1844, I visited the famous temple of Bhawānī at Bindachun, near Mirzapore. See the portrait of the Devi, entitled “[Bhagwan];” and the sketch of the “[Temple of Bhawānī],” in the Second Volume.

CHAPTER XVI.
RESIDENCE AT CAWNPORE—THE DEWĀLĪ.

1830.—Āghā Meer the Nawāb—Elephants swimming the Ganges—Cashmere Goats—Discontent of the Soldiers—Buffaloes—Methodism—Desertion of Soldiers to Runjeet Singh—Marks of age on stud-bred Horses—Abolition of Sŭtēē—Pilgrim Tax—The Dewālī—The Phŭlŭ-hŭrēē Festival—Arrival of Āghā Meer and his Zenāna—Vicious Horses—Turquoise mines in Persia—Lament of the Hindoo Women—Burning the dead—The Mug Cook—Brutal punishment—Plagues of Egypt—Conversion of Hindoo Women—The Races—The Riding School—Kishmish Bakhshish—Apples and grapes from Cabul—Arab Merchants.

1830, Oct.—Mooatummud-ood-Dowlah, generally known as Āghā Meer, the deposed Prime Minister to the King of Oude, Ghazee-ood-Deen Hyder, is coming over to Cawnpore; his zenāna, treasures, two lacs of shawls, &c. &c., have arrived on the other bank of the Ganges, escorted by the military. The ex-minister has not yet arrived; and a large detachment of the military from this station has been sent to escort him in safety to the Company’s territories.

This morning, from the verandah, I was watching what appeared to be a number of buffaloes floating down the stream, with their drivers; but, as they approached, found them to be sixteen of Aghā Meer’s elephants swimming over.

The distance from the Camp on the opposite side the river to our garden, under which they landed, must be four miles, or more. Elephants swim very low, and put down their trunks occasionally to ascertain if they are in deep water. Their heads are almost invisible at times, and the mahāwats strike them with the ānkus (goad) to guide them.

On reaching the bank just below our verandah, they set up a loud bellowing, which was answered by those still struggling to get to land, a work rather difficult to accomplish on account of the rapidity of the river.

What would not the people at home give to see sixteen fine elephants swimming four miles over a rapid river, with their mahāwats on their backs, the men hallooing with all their might, and the elephants every now and then roaring in concert! It was an interesting sight, and my first view of their power in the water.

2nd.—A friend, just returned from the hills, brought down with him some forty Cashmere goats; the shawl goats, such as are found in the hills: they die very fast on quitting the cold regions; he has lost all but three females, which he has given to me; they will scarcely live in this burning Cawnpore.

Report says the Governor-general has put off his journey for a month longer; it is supposed he will, if possible, avoid this large military station; the soldiers are in so discontented a state, he may perchance receive a bullet on parade. The privates here have several times attempted the lives of their officers, by shooting and cutting them down, sometimes upon the slightest cause of complaint, and often without having any to provoke such conduct.

7th.—I have just returned from calling on a friend of mine, and overheard the remarks of a gentleman, who was speaking of her to another; they amused me.

“Really that is a noble creature, she has a neck like an Arab, her head is so well set on!”

Buffaloes from Cawnpore swim off in the early morning in herds to the bank in the centre of the river, where they feed; they return in the evening of their own accord. The other evening I thought a shoal of porpoises were beneath the verandah—but they were buffaloes trying to find a landing-place; they swim so deeply, their black heads are only partly visible, and at a little distance they may easily be mistaken for porpoises.

Sometimes I see a native drive his cow into the river; when he wishes to cross it, he takes hold of the animal by the tail, and holding on, easily crosses over with her; sometimes he aids the cow by using one hand in swimming.

“What is that going down the river?” exclaimed a gentleman. On applying a telescope, we found fifty or sixty buffaloes all in a heap were coming down with the stream, whilst ten natives swimming with them kept thrashing them with long bamboos to make them exert themselves, and keep all together: the natives shouting and urging on the animals, and the buffaloes bellowing at every blow they received. At what a rate they come down! the stream flows with such rapidity during the rains! This is the first time I have seen such a large herd driven in this curious fashion.

Methodism is gaining ground very fast in Cawnpore; young ladies sometimes profess to believe it highly incorrect to go to balls, plays, races, or to any party where it is possible there may be a quadrille. A number of the officers also profess these opinions, and set themselves up as New Lights.

9th.—I was remarking to an officer to-day, I thought it very unlikely any one would attempt the life of the Governor-general. He replied: “The danger is to be feared from the discharged sipahīs, who are in a most turbulent and discontented state. Squadrons of them are gone over to Runjeet Singh, who is most happy to receive well-disciplined troops into his service.”

I have just learned how to tell the age of a stud-bred horse. All stud horses are marked on the flank, when they are one year old, with the first letter of the stud and the last figure of the year. Our little mare, Lachhmī, is marked K. 0., therefore she was foaled at Kharuntadee in 1819, and marked in 1820—making her age now eleven years.

Oct. 10th.—I see in the papers—“A member in the House of Commons expressed his satisfaction that so abominable a practice as that of sŭtēē should have been abolished without convulsion or bloodshed. Great credit was due to the noble lord at the head of the Government there, and to the missionaries, to whom much of the credit was owing.”

How very absurd all this is, was proved to me by what came to my knowledge at the time of the sŭtēē at Allahabad. If Government at that time had issued the order to forbid sŭtēē, not one word would have been said. The missionaries had nothing to do with it; the rite might have been abolished long before without danger.

Women in all countries are considered such dust in the balance, when their interests are pitted against those of the men, that I rejoice no more widows are to be grilled, to ensure the whole of the property passing to the sons of the deceased.

The Government interferes with native superstition where rupees are in question—witness the tax they levy on pilgrims at the junction of the Ganges and Jumna. Every man, even the veriest beggar, is obliged to give one rupee for liberty to bathe at the holy spot; and if you consider that one rupee is sufficient to keep that man in comfort for one month, the tax is severe.