I had to make a five days' journey at the worst season of the year to marry a couple, and I returned with a bad cough, which became more violent after the cold had left me. I am very weak, so that I walk like an old man. The doctors here are paid by the Government for attending all persons in the service. The Company also find medicines, but not the bottles, which sometimes leads to curious circumstances. The other day I wanted some medicine, and sent to the doctor for it; presently my man brought me back a black-draught in an old eau-de-cologne bottle, with a roll of paper by way of cork, and a request that I would return the bottle, as it was the only one he had.
I am about to apply for leave of absence. I shall go up to Calcutta, spend a fortnight with my friends there, Mr. and Mrs. S.; they will then come down here, when Mrs. Acland will join us, and we shall go to the Chelka Lake and the black pagodas.
I have another monkey now, which is kept at the stable; it is a horrible animal, about a foot and a half high, of a light greenish brown colour, no hair on its head, and very much inclined to be savage. I keep it to please my stable-people, who have a superstition that this kind of monkey prevents the horses getting unwell. Not long ago a young officer turned a very savage one loose; it took up its abode in my compound. In one night it killed three of my fan-tailed pigeons, and it chased my goats backward and forward so incessantly, that one of them died of fatigue. I told my stable-people to catch the animal, and get rid of him. This they did not do; so I then gave them notice, that, if the monkey was not in the jungle on the other side of the river by seven o'clock the next morning, I would cut them all a month's pay. This is the best method of punishing the natives, and in the present instance it was most effectual, for I have not seen the fiendish-looking face of the exile since that day.
In India the cow's milk is very bad, poor, and thin; that of the buffalo is of a bad colour and rank; but what is furnished by the goat is delicious, and many people, ourselves among the number, keep flocks of goats. I flatter myself that mine (twelve goats and seven kids) are very handsome. The male kids we eat when they are old enough to leave their mother; they are very nice indeed. Our goats are much larger than those in England, but all other animals are very small. I have heard it said at table, "Will you take a shoulder or leg of lamb?" Beef and veal in this bigoted part of the country are quite forbidden things. Yet how curious this is! No animals are worse treated than the bullocks, which are here the only beasts of burden. They are starved and ill-used in every way. I have seen a man dislocate several joints successively of his bullock's tail; yet, if I were to fire my gun at the poor animal to put it out of its misery, I should probably have my house burnt over my head.
I saw a most extraordinary sight last night. It was in the evening very hot, and a great deal of electricity in the air. There were two very heavy clouds, one at a considerable distance above the other. Suddenly some vapour separated itself with a whirling motion from the upper, assuming the shape of a waterspout until the point touched the lower; then a commotion began, the lower cloud rushing in large white masses up the sides of the spout and uniting with the upper. This continued for nearly forty minutes, until the lower was absorbed.
[Cuttack, November 14, 1844.]
I sowed some melon-seed one Friday morning; on the Monday when I went into the garden most of the melon-plants were two inches in height. In three days, in the open ground, from being mere dry seeds they had germinated and sprung up into strong healthy plants. The same rapidity of growth is remarkable in almost all vegetation in this country. I sowed some English peas the day before yesterday; this morning they are all above the ground. Thus we see that the effect of the climate is to hurry all these things forward, so that they naturally decay and die much earlier than they would in Europe.
EARLY MATURITY AND DECAY OF NATIVES.