The following vivid description of a nor’wester, as the storms so common in Bengal in the hot season are called, occurs in Mr. Vaughan’s “The Trident, The Crescent, and The Cross”:
“For days, it may be for weeks, the sky has been burdened with clouds charged with the needful watery stores. Millions of longing eyes have watched their shifting course and changing forms. Ever and anon it has seemed as if their refreshing streams were about to descend, but, as if pent up, and restrained by an invisible hand, the clouds have refused to pour down the desired blessing: at length one point of the sky gathers darkness: a deep inky hue spreads over one-half the heavens: the wild birds begin to shriek and betake themselves to shelter: for a few moments an ominous death-like calm seems to reign: Nature appears to be listening in awful expectancy of the coming outburst: in another instant a dazzling flash of lightning is seen, followed by terrific rolls of thunder: a hurricane sweeps across the plains: sometimes uprooting massive trees in its course, and darkening the air with clouds of sand and dust: a deadly conflict seems to rage amongst the elements: the lightning is more brilliant: the crashes of the thunder more awful: yet the rain does not come. But the strife does not last long. Now isolated big drops begin to fall: then torrents of water pour down from the bursting clouds: driven along the wings of the storm, the rain sometimes appears like drifting cataracts, or oblique sheets of water. Speedily parched fields are inundated, and empty rivers swollen. All this takes place in less than an hour: then the storm abates, the darkness passes away, the sun once more shines forth: the atmosphere is cooled and purified, thirsty Nature is satisfied, and all creation seems to rejoice.”
Before court-fee stamps came into use, attorneys were personally liable for fees payable to the court, and in default of payment they were punished with suspension.
The name given to a continuous supply of Ghee dropping through seven courses at certain of the Hindoo ceremonies, such as a child’s first eating rice, at investiture with the sacred thread, and at marriage.
On one night in the month of Phalgun a lamp is kept burning in all Hindoo households, and if it is extinguished misfortunes are expected to happen.
The fear that a Hindoo feels lest he shall have no one to offer the customary libations to his manes and those of his ancestors is expressed in “Sakuntala.” King Dushyanta says:—