On my return I asked the sentry on my boat, “What hour is it?” The man answered, “When Honey is perpendicular over the mast it is midnight; it must now be eleven.” His Honey are the three stars in Orion’s belt.
27th.—Anchored below Sooty on the Bhagirathī. I was awakened from my sleep at 10 P.M. by the servants saying my cook had been missing since 7 in the evening; his age is twenty; and he had never quitted the boats before. We looked over all the boats, and searched the jāngal for miles around, and we began to fear a tiger might have taken him off, knowing that gentlemen are in the habit of coming to this part of the country tiger-shooting. My friend became uneasy, and was anxious to go to the opposite side of the river; to this I objected, offering to keep a bonfire blazing before the boats all night, but refusing to quit the spot until the boy’s fate was ascertained. At last he was discovered on the top of my boat, hanging over the side as if he had fallen there; on moving him he groaned as if in severe agony, and appeared senseless; his jaw was locked, his eyes were fixed, and turned up under the lids. The poor fellow had been exposed in this state to the dews of a Bengal night for three hours. They brought him into my cabin, he fell into the most violent convulsions, and appeared dying. All the remedies for fits were applied; we placed him in a warm bath; after three hours and a half his jaw relaxed, his eyes moved as if the pressure was off them, and being better, the servants carried him, still apparently senseless, into the cook-boat. I had been up with him four hours in a damp foggy night, anxious for his recovery; his father was our cook, and this young native had been with us eleven years under his father. Mrs. B⸺ said, “I heard a native hint to another that the boy is not in a fit; and I have heard natives will sham illness, and deceive any body.” I called a servant, and asked him if it were true. The man, standing on one leg, with the palms of both hands clasped together, said, “What can I say? will you forgive me? If you were my master I would tell you; but how can I utter such words of shame to my mistress? Say you will forgive me for uttering such words, and I will tell you, if you order me to do so.” He then related what had passed, and said, the boy, hearing himself called, became alarmed, hid himself, and, on being discovered, shammed illness.
I desired the chaprasī to take a little riding whip in his hand, and accompany me into the cook-boat; the boy was better, but had not recovered from his fit,—the violent convulsions had gone off. I ordered the head man to cut off his hair, and apply leeches to his head; during the operation the itching of his head made him put up his hand and scratch it. I saw from his countenance he was angry, for the shaving of the head is, I believe, the sign of complete slavery with a native, and he found it difficult to sham illness. The operation over, the khalāsī gave him a sharp cut with the whip over his hand, desired him to leave off shamming, and come on deck. Finding his imposition was discovered, he got up, and in the most impudent manner said, “What fault have I committed?—what have I done that is wrong?” When I told a chaprasī to take charge of him, and take him to the nearest magistrate, the cook fell at my feet, confessed his crime, and begged I would not send him away; requesting a panchāyāt might be held on his conduct, or that I would punish him according to my pleasure. I told the people to hold a panchāyāt according to their own customs, to report the sentence to me, and it should be carried into execution. The whole of the people assembled in council under a sacred tree on the bank, and deliberated on the case: at the termination of the consultation the elders came to me saying they had decided as follows:—The cook was to receive twenty-two lashes, that he was to lose caste, and to have his hukka panī bāndh—that is, they would no longer allow him to associate with themselves, eat or smoke with them, or worship with the faithful. They requested I would turn him out of the boats, that they should be allowed to take him on shore, put him on an ass with his face to the tail of the animal, and followed by drums, and the hooting of the rabble, they should lead the donkey through the village, and then turn him off for ever. This was a severe sentence, and showed how angry the people of his own caste had become: they gave him the twenty-two lashes, he lost caste, and was not allowed to worship on deck as usual. I would not turn him out of service, knowing it would be his ruin, and I felt compassion for his pretty young wife, whom he had left at Allahabad; nor would I allow them to parade him on an ass. The panchāyāt took into consideration the conduct of the under-woman; the servants had told her if she had hidden the cook any where, if she would tell he should be released, and nothing should be said about it: that they would not awaken me; they only wanted to find him. She swore she had not seen him at all; she was present during the four hours he was pretending to be ill,—she saw how much alarmed I was,—also that during this time I was exposed to the night air; and she aided in the deception. They condemned her according to law, but as the sentence was very severe, I only allowed a part of it to be put into execution. She was obliged to blacken her own face with soot and oil as she sat on deck; all the servants came round her,—they laughed, hooted, and complimented her on her beauty; she cried bitterly,—the punishment was severe enough; she was afraid she should be paraded on the donkey, and was very glad to find I would not allow it. The next day she wanted the cook to marry her, and make her a Musalmanī, saying, her husband on her return would cut off her nose, and break into the zenāna of the cook. However, she was disappointed in her wish of becoming a follower of the Prophet, it being discovered she had another lover: this extra lover also lost caste, and had his hukka panī bāndh.
Knowing the natives are apt to administer poison in revenge, I mentioned the circumstance to my khansaman, and said, “It is immaterial to me, but, in case of my death, you will be answerable to the sāhib.” The man made his salām, saying, “On my head be it: you have punished the man justly; there is nothing to fear: had he been punished unjustly he might have revenged himself by putting poison in your food.” “Very well,” said I, “it is your concern, not mine;”—and I finished my dinner.
29th.—Arrived at Berhampūr, at which place a bearer of mine related the following history:—
“In former times, when the English first came to Kalkut (Calcutta), a very rich merchant resided at Moorshedabad, by name Jugger Seit: this man was a great harām-zāda (rascal), never obeyed the orders of the Nawāb, was very rich, and had two hundred soldiers as a body-guard. One day he boasted that he could day by day dethrone such a Nawāb as the one at Moorshedabad, and daily place a new one on the throne: these words having been reported to the Nawāb, he sent two soldiers to seize the merchant. While the man was bathing in the river, away from his attendants, the soldiers fell upon him; and one of them having stabbed him in the side, they carried him before the Nawāb. He offered as his ransom to strew the road from Moorshedabad to Delhi with gold mohurs; but the Nawāb was inflexible. The merchant was fastened into a palanquin, placed in a small boat, carried out into the river in front of the Nawāb’s house, and thrown palkī and all into the stream, where of course he was drowned.” So ends the tale of the Nawāb, the Merchant, and the Palkī.
30th.—Remained at Berhampūr, to write letters, buy silks, also figures of men and animals beautifully carved in ivory, and to procure food.
31st.—Quitted Berhampūr. I have suffered so much during the last twelvemonth from the death of relatives and friends, that I now bid adieu to the past year without regret. May the new one prove happier than the last!