CONTENTS
OF
VOL. II.

PAGES
Great Heats, modes of refrigeration, general plan of building, various kinds of lime and cement, tarras floors[1]-16
Pucka and Cutcha houses, ancient buildings, white-ants, sleeping in the open air, floors on pots, north-westers, bungalows and out-offices, mats of sorts, satrinjes, cheeks, glass windows, talc as a substitute, Chalk-Hills, purdahs[17]-53
Various kinds of timber, modes of floating them, prices, and uses, mango-fruit, and plantations[54]-84
Bamboos, mode of fitting-out trading-boats, toddy-tree, coir rigging, cocoa-nuts, oil from them, meemii-ke-tale, writing on cocoa-tree leaves, hot winds[84]-106
State of society among Europeans, sitting-up, meals, wines, malt liquors. Invalid Establishment, levees, sugar-candy, bread, camp-ovens, milk, ghee-butter, meats, buffaloes[107]-149
Spirits, wines, fish, poultry, table apparatus, furniture, china-bazar, Europe-shops, wax and candles, insects, snakes of sorts, antidotes to their poison, musquitoes, and curtains to repel them, cock-roaches, scorpions, centipedes, wasps, hornets[150]-198
Shampoing, amusements, theatres, races, gaming, music, balls,—Churches, schools, Fort-William, military establishments[198]-223
False ideas of Indian prosperity, anecdote, depreciation of specie, the bore, brackish waters, preservation of rain-water. The several great rivers, physical properties, fossile alkali, streams impregnated with minerals, inundations, Hindu corpses, plague not known in India[223]-267
Tanks and jeels, eleemosynary alligators, seraies, gunjes, durgaws, Hill people, bunds, quicksands, wells on great roads, hot-wells, sol-lunar influence on fevers, huckeems, state of medicine, refrigerating principle, state of learning, Koits, Láláhs, Gooroos, good books[268]-325
Posts, and conveyance of parcels, &c., travelling in a palanquin, rice, mode of expelling weevils, meal from barley, wheat, &c., travelling by water, the Soonderbund Passage, water in jars, fire-wood, New Harbour, entrances of the Hoogly River. Opinions regarding Gour, and the great Delta of the Ganges[325]-366
Salt manufacture[366]-368
Hire of budjrows, rates and distances, precautions, contraband trade, trading and baggage-boats, tracking, Decoits, or pirates, guards requisite, Coolies, Chokeydars, and Dowraws, expert thieves, anecdotes, leger de main, puppet-shows, gymnastic feats, Nuts, or Indian gypsies, curious comparison of their language[368]-420
Slavery, how far tolerated, Indian Lock-Hospitals, summary punishment of adultery, curious incident, dancing-girls[420]-429
Elephants, their points, qualities, prices, &c., camels, the appropriate soils, conveying them over rivers, bullocks, the Company’s regulations, tattoos, or indigenous breed of horses, tanians, tazees, serissahs, horses imported from Persia, the Punjab, &c., stables[430]-467
Tanning, artificers, great improvements made in most professions, newspapers, Persian Akbars, paper[468]-473
The Mocurrery (or perpetual) System of Revenue. The periods for collection, stations of collectors, judges, commercial residents, custom masters, and diplomatic characters[474]-497
Security afforded to private property, inland traders, agency-houses, rates of commission and remittance, trade and situation of Calcutta. Conclusion[498]-506

THE

EAST INDIA

VADE-MECUM.

For some months, generally during the latter part of the rains, the weather is so close and sultry, that universal exudation takes place, even while sitting quiet. The natives, as I remarked in the outset of this subject, have, from experience, adopted a very different mode from that we should have expected to find in use, under such a latitude. We should, no doubt, have been prepared to see airy habitations, through which the wind could pass freely in every direction. But it is far otherwise; and Europeans have, at length, become convinced, that the most insupportable heats are derived from the glare of light objects; or, in other words, from the reflection of surfaces intensely acted upon by a vertical sun.

Some conception may be formed of that intensity, from the fact of meat having been broiled on the cannon mounted upon the ramparts of Fort-William! We, therefore, must coincide with the habits of the natives, to a certain extent, if we mean to retain health, or to acquire comfort. Such, indeed, should, in every country, be held in view: for, however absurd many practices may at first appear, it will ordinarily result that necessity was their parent. I do not mean to say that we should imitate, much less adopt, without discrimination, all we see; but it may be considered an axiom, that, by taking the general outline of indigenous customs for our guide, if we err, it will be on the safe side. Nothing can be more preposterous than the significant sneers of gentlemen on their first arrival in India; meaning, thereby, to ridicule, or to despise, what they consider effeminacy, or luxury. Thus, several may be seen annually walking about without chattahs, (i.e. umbrellas,) during the greatest heats; they affect to be ashamed of requiring aid, and endeavor to uphold, by such a display of indifference, the great reliance placed on strength of constitution. This unhappy infatuation rarely exceeds a few days; at the end of that time, sometimes only of a week, (nay, I have known the period to be much shorter,) we too often are called upon to attend the funeral of the self-deluded victim! The first attack is generally announced by cold shiverings, and bilious vomiting; delirium speedily ensues, when putrefaction advances with such hasty strides, as often to render interment necessary so soon as can possibly be effected.

The glare is certainly far more distressing than exposure to the sun, at some seasons: but nothing can equal the effects of both glare and sun-shine, acting upon the human frame, during a Midsummer’s day; when, perhaps, not a breath of air is moving, when every leaf seems to repose, and every bird, saving the vulture, the adjutant, (or argeelah,) and the kite, retires to some shady spot, to avoid the solar ray. At such times, the peaceful Hindu confines himself to an apartment, from which light is generally excluded: there he sits among his family, enjoying his pipe, refreshing himself occasionally by bathing, drinking the pure beverage afforded by some adjacent spring or well; and, in general, avoiding to eat, except of ripe fruits, especially the turbooz, or water-melon, until the cool of the evening. In the meanwhile, however, he perspires copiously, even though in a state of inactivity, unless when refreshed by a punkah, or fan, moved either by his own hand, or by that of some menial.

The instinct of the birds above named, to wit, the argeelah, the vulture, and the kite, all of which are extremely numerous throughout India, and contribute greatly to the salubrity of the air, by carrying off astonishing quantities of putrefactive offal, &c., is wonderful! About mid-day, when the sun’s beams strike with incredible force upon the earth’s surface, these feathered scavengers ascend, perhaps to the height of seven or eight hundred yards, so that the largest of them, (the argeelah) is scarcely discernible: there they soar beyond the reach of reflection from the heated soil, enjoying the freshness of a cooler atmosphere, and descending only when allured by the scent of prey. Their sense of smelling must, indeed, be acute; for we see them, especially the vultures, flying for miles, and from all quarters, towards some carcase, usually that of a Hindu, floating down the stream, or stranded upon some shelving bank; but so situated as to render it perfectly certain that the visual faculties could have no concern in the discovery.