When shall I feel energy enough to mount my horse again? for three months I have been unable to ride. Nothing is going forward, stupid as possible, shut up all day, languid and weary: this India is a vile country!
“The heart knoweth its own sorrows, and no man interfereth with its joys.”
Woe is me that I sojourn in this land of pestilence, that I dwell afar from the home of my fathers!
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE BRAHMANICAL THREAD.
The Janao—The Fakīr—The Fair—Pooja of the Cow—Cusa Grass—The Flying Fox—Air Plants—Musk Deer—Nāg-panchamī—The Snake—The Pinnace—City of Allahabad—The Pillar in the Fort—Sealing-wax—Butea Frondosa—The Dewālī—The Bower—Climbers and Creepers—The Humming Birds—The Pellet Bow—White Ants—Chintz—The Horseradish Tree—The Ichneumon—The Garden—The Bouquet—Cold Mornings for Hunting—The Moustache.
1834, June.—This morning I was on the sofa, fancying myself not quite well, when Ram Din came in with a Brahmanical thread; as soon as I had any thing to amuse me, all my illness vanished; the history thereof is as follows:—The name in common use for what we call the sacred thread is janao; it is not confined merely to Brahmans, for in the Veda called Bhagavat, which relates to Krishnŭ, it is allowed to be worn by three out of the four great tribes into which the Hindoos are divided. The three privileged tribes are the Brahmans, the Chuttri or Rajpūt, and the Khuttri or Vaisya. However, many others now wear the sacred thread who by the Vedas have no right to do so. The janao must be made by the hands of a Brahman; it is worn one month, and then either thrown into the Ganges, or hung upon the sacred peepul-tree, when a fresh one is made. After six years old, a boy may receive the janao, from which time he must observe all the rules respecting eating and drinking, according to the custom of his tribe.
The janao is composed of three threads, each measuring, as the Hindoos say, four less than one hundred—that is, ninety-six—hāt: one hāt is the length measured twice round the breadth of the hand, or one cubit. These three threads are twisted together, and folded into three, then twisted again, making it to consist of nine threads; these are again folded into three, without twisting, and each end fastened with a knot.
It is put over the left shoulder next the skin, and hangs down the right thigh as far as the fingers can reach; two of these threads are worn by a Brahman. After a certain age, if a boy be not invested with the janao, he becomes an outcast.
There are four great tribes amongst the Hindoos, which are subdivided into innumerable classes; in the second tribe there are, they say, upwards of five hundred subdivisions!