Twenty years around the world

by John Guy Vassar

I saw one marriage party in the country, a few days since; they marry young, and ordinarily in the presence of a witness, and according to caste; where they are of any rank, the parents arrange the matter. The girl in this instance carried presents to the house of the groom, when both parties sat around a pail of paddy and ate with their hands, exchanging balls of rice and cocoa-nut milk, with presents of clothes and jewels. The order of things is reversed here, for it is quite common for women to have two husbands, who seem to live happily together; they think it polite to do so, besides being less expensive; while in the event of the death of either husband, the family is provided for. Boodh came from the east, consequently in life they lie in that direction, but in death they turn the body; the higher castes here burn the corpse, the lower bury it in shallow graves. The funeral pile of the former is a layer of cocoa-nut shells, a layer of husks of the same, then a layer of wood; the nearest relative fires the heap in presence of a priest, and then returns home. Strips of young cocoa-nut stalks split are put up to mark the locality, which is visited after seven days; stones are erected to mark the spot, and a devil called “Sohou-Yaka” is appointed to the care of the burial grounds; at night, the natives will not approach these places, fearing malignant influences. The Boodhists have a great variety of devils, and have the greatest fear of evil spirits, some of which preside over the cocoa-nut, toddy and other trees. The favorite devil of the Kandians is called Gaveleyaka. He takes care of the children, cattle, and grounds, and the people feed him well with rice and curry, to keep him in good temper, otherwise he gets vexed, and they are attacked by the misfortunes against which they strive to propitiate him.

The other morning, at an early hour, in the country, I heard music, and saw lights beaming in the wood. It was, I found, a devil-dance. Some one having fallen sick, it was attributed to witchcraft, and a devil-priest was called to cure him. They had made a house of bushes and put the sick man in it, and had commenced dancing at eight o’clock at night, and the priest was just concluding, and performing a charm of some sort. Taking the leaves of a certain tree, they make up several dishes, and put rice on top with a lighted match, that the surrounding devils may inhale the odor; the priest then says another charm, and commands all other devils to “vamose.” He then says they have “put out,” and they throw everything in the bushes and leave them there, and he gets well paid for his trouble.

This is a remarkable country for elephants; the government employs them for heavy work on the roads; the immense carts and wagons are drawn by them, and the rollers for flattening the earth are made in proportion to their strength. I visited the stables and saw them on the road, but none have crossed my track, though they are still very numerous in the jungle, and sometimes very destructive to the plantations. I was informed that eleven were taken from this region and shipped to New York not long since, and presuming that you are familiar with the manner in which they were caught, I will not attempt a description. We are subject here to a land leech, which during wet weather is very troublesome, and makes leggings necessary for protection in the grass and woods. A gentleman travelling in our company found the blood flowing freely, not having provided himself with leggings; the natives have remedies against the bite. Ceylon is famous for the variety of rare and precious stones found in Galle and Colombo, which are a source of considerable traffic with vendors. The pearl fishery of the coast was formerly very productive, but of late years it is of little value; the cause is supposed to be over-fishing the original stock of oysters when nearly exhausted.

LXVII.

Calcutta, India, Oct. 8, 1851.

I left Ceylon by the steamer Hindostan, on her way from Suez, with the overland mail, having about forty passengers, mostly from England. I now find myself in the so-styled city of palaces, upon the banks of the Hoogley, one of the many branches of the Ganges, and about one hundred and forty miles from the Sand Heads of hazardous navigation, while the jungle, on its lower banks, is haunted with the famous Bengal tiger, a terror to the shipwrecked mariner. Strong indications of a heavier storm than we had already encountered, two days below the entrance, induced our captain to turn back and run south, which was most unusual and unwarrantable, with a well-found steamer of fourteen hundred tons burden, and caused a delay of thirty-six hours, proving an error of judgment.

This city, the capital of the Bengal Presidency, is said to contain from five to six hundred thousand inhabitants, the foreign population not exceeding one thousand, besides the troops. The public buildings of the East India Company, inclusive of the Governor’s palace, and private residences of the employees of government, are well constructed, and discover a good deal of taste in their erection and site. The course or esplanade, and general drives along the river banks to Garden Reach (the out of town residences), are extensive and beautiful, and display more luxurious vehicles, and finer horses with outriders, and bearers in costume, than can be found for the same population anywhere in the world. The evening six o’clock drive before dinner being the greatest means of enjoyment in this hot climate, every sacrifice is made on the part of all classes to sport their equipages. I arrived here just after the commencement of the annual Hindoo festival called the Doorgah Poojah, during which all business is suspended. The heat is most oppressive, and no white man of any means is seen walking in the streets during the day, but palanquins are in general use. They are not unlike small houses with sliding doors on each side; they contain a mattress to lie upon, covered with matting, and sofa pillows of light material upon which to recline the head, and are supported on the shoulders of four Hindoo bearers, whose black shining skins, reeking with perspiration, denote the fatigue they endure. It is astonishing how fast they get over the surface; they are to be found in all public places and anxious for employment. It is a luxurious mode of travel, and long journeys are performed by Dawk, so called, with relays of men, but to me it is a painful mode of conveyance, and scarcely fast enough for an American. The Punkah here is indispensable; in the large hotel where I am staying, and which equals in size some of our large New York hotels, all the rooms are furnished with them, suspended from the ceiling, and necessity obliges each occupant to employ a punkah driver, who by means of his cord and pulley in the passage, keeps up a constant circulation of air. The great diversity of caste among the Hindoos, makes it necessary that housekeepers should employ a multitude of servants. The punkah driver being inferior, cannot be employed as bearer or body-servant, and he in turn will not wait at table. They must be employed as grooms, coachmen, footmen, cooks, water-carriers, washerwomen, and an infinite number of occupations. In dining with an official in the East India Company’s service, of large appointment, who had been a fellow passenger, and who had a large retinue of servants, he informed me that he required fifty for his establishment. Their wages are low and they furnish their own supplies, which are mostly rice and curry, as they disdain the food of the Christians. The Mussulmans, of which I have one, are not so tenacious, and turn their attention to different kinds of work. The expenses of life here are enormous, exceeding those of all other oriental cities. They grow out of the luxurious extravagance of the East India Company’s servants, through its extensive patronage, and the officers of the Queen’s troops, who not only exhaust their liberal salaries but are heavily in debt.

The native portion of the city, which extends for miles, exhibits a striking contrast to the palaces of the European quarter. The bazaars are worthy of being seen, but having visited those of Constantinople and Grand Cairo, they were no novelty to me. The other evening I attended the “nautches,” a species of ball or entertainment given by the native princes some three miles distant from the hotel; driving my buggy through immense masses of the populace, with the continual cries of my servant and footman to clear the track, I made my way slowly, coming in contact with a variety of vehicles in the darkness and confusion. At last I emerged from this chaos of equipages, and managed to get up to the extreme end of the lane to the Sohha Bazaar, where my vision was dazzled with the immense number of torches. The illuminations of the princes were intended to out-rival each other, and were got up with a good deal of fanciful display in oriental style. On pressing among the crowd through the spacious arena of the building amid the display of tinsel and torchlight, I found a large assembly of mixed nations and great variety of costume. The interior was covered with matting and chairs, with divans around the wall for the multitude. The Rajah was very polite, offering his divan with refreshments, and ordered the “nautch” or dancing girls before us to perform their different evolutions, which delight the natives, but to a European are anything but chaste or graceful. They were loaded with ornaments in their ears and noses, and on their necks, arms, wrists, and ankles; their voices were put upon a nasal half key, which enabled them to keep it up much longer.

The Hindoos burn their dead, but the funeral pile is not desecrated as formerly with widows of deceased husbands. In the upper part of the city is found a hollow square on the river bank, enclosed by three high walls, the water-side being open; a large gateway receives the remains of all Hindoos whose friends can afford to furnish the wood for burning. I saw them congregated thither and throwing, according to custom, small broken sticks upon the burning bodies. It was a revolting and disgusting sight to witness the burning bodies, particularly when fuel enough is not provided for their destruction, in which cases they are devoured by hundreds of carrion birds, like the adjutant and vulture. Very many are thrown into the river, and not unfrequently you meet them in passing up and down, though that method of disposing of them is contrary to law. We have just had the great annual Tumasha, and the worship paid to the goddess Kallee, by immersion. I suppose there must have been one hundred shrines mounted on platforms and supported on men’s shoulders, representing the goddess in tinsel of gold and silver, surrounded by artificial flowers, with her six arms, and a variety of other figures upon the pedestal. The procession of votaries to consign this inanimate but adored goddess to the holy waters of the Ganges, consisted of thousands of men, women, and children, with bands of music; the tops of houses, terraces, and balconies were filled with human beings. The different priests of the goddess came from different parts of the city, and congregated at the strand, where this rash tide of humanity despatched their deity on her cloudy voyage in the muddy waters of the sacred stream.

The drive up the river to Barrackpore, some fourteen miles, over a perfectly level road, with rows of trees almost the entire length, is beautiful, and a great relief from a heated city. It is a military station, and the country residence of the governor, besides being the finest park in India; there is also found there a large collection of wild animals, among which the giraffe, the tiger, and ostrich are seen in perfection. Ten miles higher up, the French have a small possession called Chandernagore, which they have retained during all the conquests and battles of Europe. It is antiquated, but prettily situated, a small town without back country; their whole force consists of twenty Sepoy soldiers, but the tricolor is floating from the government house. It is a favorite asylum for unfortunate debtors and persons of small means, and is a nuisance in the eyes of the English, but the rights of France and treaties must be respected. The Danes had a settlement near by, which the English bought, but “la grande nation” declined selling.