CHAPTER XXII.
ADVENTURES IN THE EAST.
Gaiety of Allahabad—Lucnow Chutnee—Tails of the Yāk—Horn of the Unicorn—The Looking-glass Shawl—The first flight of Locusts—An Adventure—The Rats’ Granary—Balls—Profiles—The leaf Grasshopper—Appointed to Allahabad—Ramohun Roy—The Bottle of Horrors—Narrative of a Thug—The Quicksand—Meteors and falling Stars—Hanging oneself for spite—The Sipahī Guard—The Ghurī—The Sitar—The Ektara—The Gynee Club—Soonghees—Colonel Gardner.
1832, May.—Allahabad is now one of the gayest, and is, as it always has been, one of the prettiest stations in India. We have dinner-parties more than enough; balls occasionally; a book society; some five or six billiard-tables; a pack of dogs, some amongst them hounds, and (how could I have forgotten!) fourteen spinsters!
2nd.—Colonel Gardner has sent us twelve jars of the most delicious Lucnow chutnee, the very beau idéal of mixtures of sharp, bitter, sour, sweet, hot, and cold!
This station, which in former days was thought one of the least-to-be-coveted positions, has now become, what from the first we always pronounced it to be, one of the most desirable. We have a kind neighbourly society, as much, or even more of gaiety than we sober folks require, and, mirabile, no squabbling. I hope his lordship will not disturb our coterie by moving the Boards of Revenue and of Criminal and Civil Justice higher up the country, which some think not improbable.
A friend has made me a present of a pair of the most magnificent cow-tails, of the yāk or cow of Thibet. They are great curiosities, and shall go with my collection to England. These tails I have had made into chaunrīs by having them fastened into leaves of embossed silver, which have been affixed to the horns of deer of the Himalaya. The hair on the chaunrī (fly-flapper) is on the original bone as it was on the yāk; and the hair, which is perfectly white, is considered the most valuable, the dark coloured hair being reckoned inferior. They were brought by some Hill-men from Bhootan. The horns came from Landour, brought from the interior of the Himalaya, by the Pahārees (Hill-men). Three more of the same sort were also sent me from Almorah, but they are very scarce.
The horn is said to be that of a deer of the Himalaya, which, when first brought down, was supposed to be unicorn. These two horns came from Landour, brought down by Hill-men. Three more were sent me from Almorah. The men described the animal as having but one horn in the centre of its forehead; when questioned particularly on this point, they were firm; and, being ignorant that we believe the unicorn fabulous, could have no motive for the assertion. During my residence in the East, I saw only five of these horns, which are all in my possession, and not one of them will pair with another. The men were requested to bring the head of the animal with the horn upon it; they have not done so, and there is no further proof to convince unbelievers of the existence of the unicorn of the Himalaya. Chaunrīs of peacock’s feathers are emblems of royalty, and are used by servants in attendance on the Governor-general, who stand behind his chair and wave them over his head. The sā’īses carry them of horse-hair, to wisk the flies off the horses; and a very common sort are made of grass. Very beautiful white chaunrīs are also made of strips from the quill of the peacock’s feather. The chaunrīs are represented in the [frontispiece], over the head of Gănéshŭ. The Brahmans use them in pooja, waving them over the idol.
A lady has sent me a great curiosity—a common dark brown-red shawl, worn by low caste women at Hissar. It is worked all over in large flowers, in orange silk; the centre of the flower contains a circular bit of looking-glass about an inch and a half in diameter, round which the flower is worked in coarse silk. The appearance of the dress as the light falls on the looking-glass is most strange and odd. I never saw a shawl of the sort before. It is too coarse to be worn by any but poor people: when working in the fields, in what an extraordinary manner the light must be caught on all those reflecting circles of glass!
June 19th.—We drove into the Fort to call on a fair friend at 5 P.M. No sooner had I entered the house, than we saw clouds of locusts in the air: immediately afterwards a heavy storm of rain fell, and the locusts were beaten down by it in great numbers to the ground. The native servants immediately ran out and caught them by handfuls, delighted to get them to make a curry; for which purpose they may, perhaps, be as delicate as prawns, which are most excellent. I took some to preserve with arsenical soap: they look like very large grasshoppers. I never saw a flight of locusts before; on our return home the air was full of them.