There came to the beach a poor exile of Erin,
The dew on his wet robe hung heavy and chill;
Ere the steamer that brought him had passed out of hearin',
He was Alderman Mike inthrojuicing' a bill!
_American Song_.
Once upon a time there was a King who lived on the road to Thibet,
very many miles in the Himalayas. His Kingdom was eleven thousand
feet above the sea and exactly four miles square; but most of the
miles stood on end owing to the nature of the country. His revenues
were rather less than four hundred pounds yearly, and they were
expended in the maintenance of one elephant and a standing army of
five men. He was tributary to the Indian Government, who allowed him
certain sums for keeping a section of the Himalaya-Thibet road in
repair. He further increased his revenues by selling timber to the
Railway companies; for he would cut the great deodar trees in his one
forest, and they fell thundering into the Sutlej river and were swept
down to the plains three hundred miles away and became railway-ties.
Now and again this King, whose name does not matter, would mount a
ringstraked horse and ride scores of miles to Simla-town to confer
with the Lieutenant-Governor on matters of state, or to assure the
Viceroy that his sword was at the service of the Queen-Empress. Then
the Viceroy would cause a ruffle of drums to be sounded, and the
ringstraked horse and the cavalry of the State--two men in
tatters--and the herald who bore the silver stick before the King,
would trot back to their own place, which lay between the tail of a
heaven-climbing glacier and a dark birch-forest.
Now, from such a King, always remembering that he possessed one
veritable elephant, and could count his descent for twelve hundred
years, I expected, when it was my fate to wander through his
dominions, no more than mere license to live.
The night had closed in rain, and rolling clouds blotted out the
lights of the villages in the valley. Forty miles away, untouched by
cloud or storm, the white shoulder of Donga Pa--the Mountain of the
Council of the Gods--upheld the Evening Star. The monkeys sang
sorrowfully to each other as they hunted for dry roosts in the
fern-wreathed trees, and the last puff of the day-wind brought from
the unseen villages the scent of damp wood-smoke, hot cakes, dripping
undergrowth, and rotting pine-cones. That is the true smell of the
Himalayas, and if once it creeps into the blood of a man, that man
will at the last, forgetting all else, return to the hills to die.
The clouds closed and the smell went away and there remained nothing
in all the world except chilling white mist and the boom of the
Sutlej river racing through the valley below. A fat-tailed sheep, who
did not want to die, bleated piteously at my tent door. He was
scuffling with the Prime Minister and the Director-General of Public
Education, and he was a royal gift to me and my camp servants. I
expressed my thanks suitably, and asked if I might have audience of
the King. The Prime Minister readjusted his turban, which had fallen
off in the struggle, and assured me that the King would be very
pleased to see me. Therefore, I despatched two bottles as a
foretaste, and when the sheep had entered upon another incarnation
went to the King's Palace through the wet. He had sent his army to
escort me, but the army stayed to talk with my cook. Soldiers are
very much alike all the world over.
The Palace was a four-roomed, and whitewashed mud and timber-house,
the finest in all the hills for a day's journey. The King was dressed
in a purple velvet jacket, white muslin trousers, and a
saffron-yellow turban of price. He gave me audience in a little
carpeted room opening off the palace courtyard which was occupied by
the Elephant of State. The great beast was sheeted and anchored from
trunk to tail, and the curve of his back stood out grandly against
the mist.
The Prime Minister and the Director-General of Public Education were
present to introduce me, but all the court had been dismissed, lest
the two bottles aforesaid should corrupt their morals. The King cast
a wreath of heavy-scented flowers round my neck as I bowed, and
inquired how my honoured presence had the felicity to be. I said that
through seeing his auspicious countenance the mists of the night had
turned into sunshine, and that by reason of his beneficent sheep his
good deeds would be remembered by the Gods. He said that since I had
set my magnificent foot in his Kingdom the crops would probably
yield seventy per cent. more than the average. I said that the fame
of the King had reached to the four corners of the earth, and that
the nations gnashed their teeth when they heard daily of the glories
of his realm and the wisdom of his moon-like Prime Minister and
lotus-like Director-General of Public Education.
Then we sat down on clean white cushions, and I was at the King's
right hand. Three minutes later he was telling me that the state of
the maize crop was something disgraceful, and that the Railway
companies would not pay him enough for his timber. The talk shifted
to and fro with the bottles, and we discussed very many stately
things, and the King became confidential on the subject of Government
generally. Most of all he dwelt on the shortcomings of one of his
subjects, who, from all I could gather, had been paralysing the
executive.
'In the old days,' said the King, 'I could have ordered the Elephant
yonder to trample him to death. Now I must e'en send him seventy
miles across the hills to be tried, and his keep would be upon the
State. The Elephant eats everything.'
'What be the man's crimes, Rajah Sahib?' said I.
'Firstly, he is an outlander and no man of mine own people. Secondly,
since of my favour I gave him land upon his first coming, he refuses
to pay revenue. Am I not the lord of the earth, above and below,
entitled by right and custom to one-eighth of the crop? Yet this
devil, establishing himself, refuses to pay a single tax; and he
brings a poisonous spawn of babes.'
'Cast him into jail,' I said.
'Sahib,' the King answered, shifting a little on the cushions, 'once
and only once in these forty years sickness came upon me so that I
was not able to go abroad. In that hour I made a vow to my God that I
would never again cut man or woman from the light of the sun and the
air of God; for I perceived the nature of the punishment. How can I
break my vow? Were it only the lopping of a hand or a foot I should
not delay. But even that is impossible now that the English have
rule. One or another of my people'--he looked obliquely at the
Director-General of Public Education--'would at once write a letter
to the Viceroy, and perhaps I should be deprived of my ruffle of
drums.'
He unscrewed the mouthpiece of his silver water-pipe, fitted a plain
amber mouthpiece, and passed his pipe to me. 'Not content with
refusing revenue,' he continued, 'this outlander refuses also the
_begar_' (this was the corvée or forced labour on the roads) 'and
stirs my people up to the like treason. Yet he is, when he wills, an
expert log-snatcher. There is none better or bolder among my people
to clear a block of the river when the logs stick fast.'
'But he worships strange Gods,' said the Prime Minister
deferentially.
'For that I have no concern,' said the King, who was as tolerant as
Akbar in matters of belief. 'To each man his own God and the fire or
Mother Earth for us all at last. It is the rebellion that offends
me.'
'The King has an army,' I suggested. 'Has not the King burned the
man's house and left him naked to the night dews?'
'Nay, a hut is a hut, and it holds the life of a man. But once, I
sent my army against him when his excuses became wearisome: of their
heads he brake three across the top with a stick. The other two men
ran away. Also the guns would not shoot.'
I had seen the equipment of the infantry. One-third of it was an old
muzzle-loading fowling-piece, with a ragged rust-hole where the
nipples should have been, one-third a wire-bound match-lock with a
worm-eaten stock, and one-third a four-bore flint duck-gun without a
flint.
'But it is to be remembered,' said the King, reaching out for the
bottle, 'that he is a very expert log-snatcher and a man of a merry
face. What shall I do to him, Sahib?'
This was interesting. The timid hill-folk would as soon have refused
taxes to their King as revenues to their Gods.
'If it be the King's permission,' I said, 'I will not strike my tents
till the third day and I will see this man. The mercy of the King is
God-like, and rebellion is like unto the sin of witchcraft. Moreover,
both the bottles and another be empty.'
'You have my leave to go,' said the King.
Next morning a crier went through the State proclaiming that there
was a log-jam on the river and that it behoved all loyal subjects to
remove it. The people poured down from their villages to the moist,
warm valley of poppy-fields; and the King and I went with them.
Hundreds of dressed deodar-logs had caught on a snag of rock, and the
river was bringing down more logs every minute to complete the
blockade. The water snarled and wrenched and worried at the timber,
and the population of the State began prodding the nearest logs with
a pole in the hope of starting a general movement. Then there went up
a shout of 'Namgay Doola! Namgay Doola!' and a large red-haired
villager hurried up, stripping off his clothes as he ran.
'That is he. That is the rebel,' said the King. 'Now will the dam be
cleared.'
'But why has he red hair?' I asked, since red hair among hill-folks
is as common as blue or green.
'He is an outlander,' said the King. 'Well done! Oh, well done!'
Namgay Doola had scrambled out on the jam and was clawing out the
butt of a log with a rude sort of boat-hook. It slid forward slowly
as an alligator moves, three or four others followed it, and the
green water spouted through the gaps they had made. Then the
villagers howled and shouted and scrambled across the logs, pulling
and pushing the obstinate timber, and the red head of Namgay Doola
was chief among them all. The logs swayed and chafed and groaned as
fresh consignments from upstream battered the now weakening dam. All
gave way at last in a smother of foam, racing logs, bobbing black
heads and confusion indescribable. The river tossed everything before
it. I saw the red head go down with the last remnants of the jam and
disappear between the great grinding, tree-trunks. It rose close to
the bank and blowing like a grampus. Namgay Doola wrung the water out
of his eyes and made obeisance to the King. I had time to observe him
closely. The virulent redness of his shock head and beard was most
startling; and in the thicket of hair wrinkled above high cheek bones
shone two very merry blue eyes. He was indeed an outlander, but yet a
Thibetan in language, habit, and attire. He spoke the Lepcha dialect
with an indescribable softening of the gutturals. It was not so much
a lisp as an accent.
'Whence comest thou?' I asked.
'From Thibet.' He pointed across the hills and grinned. That grin
went straight to my heart. Mechanically I held out my hand and Namgay
Doola shook it. No pure Thibetan would have understood the meaning of
the gesture. He went away to look for his clothes, and as he climbed
back to his village, I heard a joyous yell that seemed unaccountably
familiar. It was the whooping of Namgay Doola.
'You see now,' said the King, 'why I would not kill him. He is a bold
man among my logs, but,' and he shook his head like a schoolmaster,
'I know that before long there will be complaints of him in the
court. Let us return to the Palace and do justice.' It was that
King's custom to judge his subjects every day between eleven and
three o'clock. I saw him decide equitably in weighty matters of
trespass, slander, and a little wife-stealing. Then his brow clouded
and he summoned me.
'Again it is Namgay Doola,' he said despairingly. 'Not content with
refusing revenue on his own part, he has bound half his village by an
oath to the like treason. Never before has such a thing befallen me!
Nor are my taxes heavy.'
'O King,' said I. 'If it be the King's will let this matter stand
over till the morning. Only the Gods can do right swiftly, and it may
be that yonder villager has lied.'
'Nay, for I know the nature of Namgay Doola; but since a guest asks
let the matter remain. Wilt thou speak harshly to this red-headed
outlander. He may listen to thee.'
I made an attempt that very evening, but for the life of me I could
not keep my countenance. Namgay Doola grinned persuasively, and began
to tell me about a big brown bear in a poppy-field by the river.
Would I care to shoot it? I spoke austerely on the sin of conspiracy,
and the certainty of punishment. Namgay Doola's face clouded for a
moment. Shortly afterwards he withdrew from my tent, and I heard him
singing to himself softly among the pines. The words were
unintelligible to me, but the tune, like his liquid insinuating
speech, seemed the ghost of something strangely familiar.
Dir hané mard-i-yemen dir
To weeree ala gee,
sang Namgay Doola again and again, and I racked my brain for that
lost tune. It was not till after dinner that I discovered some one
had cut a square foot of velvet from the centre of my best
camera-cloth. This made me so angry that I wandered down the valley
in the hope of meeting the big brown bear. I could hear him grunting
like a discontented pig in the poppy-field, and I waited shoulder
deep in the dew-dripping Indian corn to catch him after his meal. The
moon was at full and drew out the rich scent of the tasselled crop.
Then I heard the anguished bellow of a Himalayan cow, one of the
little black crummies no bigger than Newfoundland dogs. Two shadows
that looked like a bear and her cub hurried past me. I was in act to
fire when I saw that they had each a brilliant red head. The lesser
animal was trailing some rope behind it that left a dark track on the
path. They passed within six feet of me, and the shadow of the
moonlight lay velvet-black on their faces. Velvet-black was exactly
the word, for by all the powers of moonlight they were masked in the
velvet of my camera cloth! I marvelled and went to bed. Next morning
the Kingdom was in uproar. Namgay Doola, men said, had gone forth in
the night and with a sharp knife had cut off the tail of a cow
belonging to the rabbit-faced villager who had betrayed him. It was
sacrilege unspeakable against the Holy Cow. The State desired his
blood, but he had retreated into his hut, barricaded the doors and
windows with big stones, and defied the world.
The King and I and the Populace approached the hut cautiously. There
was no hope of capturing the man without loss of life, for from a
hole in the wall projected the muzzle of an extremely
well-cared-for gun--the only gun in the State that could shoot.
Namgay Doola had narrowly missed a villager just before we came up.
The Standing Army stood. It could do no more, for when it advanced
pieces of sharp shale flew from the windows. To these were added from
time to time showers of scalding water. We saw red heads bobbing up
and down in the hut. The family of Namgay Doola were aiding their
sire, and blood-curdling yells of defiance were the only answers to
our prayers.
'Never,' said the King, puffing, 'has such a thing befallen my State.
Next year I will certainly buy a little cannon.' He looked at me
imploringly.
'Is there any priest in the Kingdom to whom he will listen?' said I,
for a light was beginning to break upon me.
'He worships his own God,' said the Prime Minister. We can starve him
out.'
'Let the white man approach,' said Namgay Doola from within. All
others I will kill. Send me the white man.'
A rabbit-faced villager, with a blush-rose stuck behind his ear,
advanced trembling. He had been in the conspiracy, but had told
everything and hoped for the King's favour.
The door was thrown open and I entered the smoky interior of a
Thibetan hut crammed with children. And every child had flaming red
hair. A raw cow's tail lay on the floor, and by its side two pieces
of black velvet--my black velvet--rudely hacked into the semblance of
masks.
'And what is this shame, Namgay Doola?' said I.
He grinned more winningly than ever. 'There is no shame,' said he. 'I
did but cut off the tail of that man's cow. He betrayed me. I was
minded to shoot him, Sahib. But not to death. Indeed not to death.
Only in the legs.'
'And why at all, since it is the custom to pay revenue to the King?
Why at all?'
'By the God of my father I cannot tell,' said Namgay Doola.
'And who was thy father?'
'The same that had this gun.' He showed me his weapon--a Tower musket
bearing date 1832 and the stamp of the Honourable East India Company.
'And thy father's name?' said I.
'Timlay Doola,' said he. 'At the first, I being then a little child,
it is in my mind that he wore a red coat.'
'Of that I have no doubt. But repeat the name of thy father thrice or
four times.'
He obeyed, and I understood whence the puzzling accent in his speech
came. 'Thimla Dhula,' said he excitedly. 'To this hour I worship his
God.'
'May I see that God?'
'In a little while--at twilight time.'
'Rememberest thou aught of thy father's speech?'
'It is long ago. But there is one word which he said often. Thus
"_Shun_." Then I and my brethren stood upon our feet, our hands to
our sides. Thus.'
'Even so. And what was thy mother?'
'A woman of the hills. We be Lepchas of Darjeeling, but me they call
an outlander because my hair is as thou seest.'
The Thibetan woman, his wife, touched him on the arm gently. The long
parley outside the fort had lasted far into the day. It was now close
upon twilight--the hour of the Angelus. Very solemnly, the red-headed
brats rose from the floor and formed a semicircle. Namgay Doola laid
his gun against the wall, lighted a little oil lamp, and set it
before a recess in the wall. Pulling aside a curtain of dirty cloth
he revealed a worn brass crucifix leaning against the helmet-badge of
a long forgotten East India regiment. 'Thus did my father,' he said,
crossing himself clumsily. The wife and children followed suit. Then
all together they struck up the wailing chant that I heard on the
hillside--
Dir hané mard-i-yemen dir
To weeree ala gee.
I was puzzled no longer. Again and again they crooned as if their
hearts would break, their version of the chorus of the _Wearing of
the Green_--
They're hanging men and women too,
For the wearing of the green.
A diabolical inspiration came to me. One of the brats, a boy about
eight years old, was watching me as he sang. I pulled out a rupee,
held the coin between finger and thumb, and looked--only looked--at
the gun against the wall. A grin of brilliant and perfect
comprehension overspread the face of the child. Never for an instant
stopping the song he held out his hand for the money, and then slid
the gun to my hand. I might have shot Namgay Doola as he chanted.
But I was satisfied. The blood-instinct of the race held true.
Namgay Doola drew the curtain across the recess. Angelus was over.
'Thus my father sang. There was much more, but I have forgotten, and
I do not know the purport of these words, but it may be that the God
will understand. I am not of this people, and I will not pay
revenue.'
'And why?'
Again that soul-compelling grin. 'What occupation would be to me
between crop and crop? It is better than scaring bears. But these
people do not understand.' He picked the masks from the floor, and
looked in my face as simply as a child.
'By what road didst thou attain knowledge to make these devilries?' I
said, pointing.
'I cannot tell. I am but a Lepcha of Darjeeling, and yet the
stuff----'
'Which thou hast stolen.'
'Nay, surely. Did I steal? I desired it so. The stuff--the
stuff--what else should I have done with the stuff?' He twisted the
velvet between his fingers.
'But the sin of maiming the cow--consider that?'
'That is true; but oh, Sahib, that man betrayed me and I had no
thought--but the heifer's tail waved in the moonlight and I had my
knife. What else should I have done? The tail came off ere I was
aware. Sahib, thou knowest more than I.'
'That is true,' said I. 'Stay within the door. I go to speak to the
King.'
The population of the State were ranged on the hillsides. I went
forth and spoke to the King.
'Oh King,' said I. 'Touching this man there be two courses open to
thy wisdom. Thou canst either hang him from a tree, he and his brood,
till there remains no hair that is red within the land.'
'Nay,' said the King. 'Why should I hurt the little children?'
They had poured out of the hut door and were making plump obeisance
to everybody. Nanigay Doola waited with his gun across his arm.
'Or thou canst, discarding the impiety of the cow-maiming, raise him
to honour in thy Army. He comes of a race that will not pay revenue.
A red flame is in his blood which comes out at the top of his head in
that glowing hair. Make him chief of the Army. Give him honour as may
befall, and full allowance of work, but look to it, O King, that
neither he nor his hold a foot of earth from thee henceforward. Feed
him with words and favour, and also liquor from certain bottles that
thou knowest of, and he will be a bulwark of defence. But deny him
even a tuft of grass for his own. This is the nature that God has
given him. Moreover he has brethren----'
The State groaned unanimously.
'But if his brethren come, they will surely fight with each other
till they die; or else the one will always give information
concerning the other. Shall he be of thy Army, O King? Choose.'
The King bowed his head, and I said, 'Come forth, Namgay Doola, and
command the King's Army. Thy name shall no more be Namgay in the
mouths of men, but Patsay Doola, for as thou hast said, I know.'
Then Namgay Doola, new christened Patsay Doola, son of Timlay Doola,
which is Tim Doolan gone very wrong indeed, clasped the King's feet,
cuffed the standing Army, and hurried in an agony of contrition from
temple to temple, making offerings for the sin of cattle maiming.
And the King was so pleased with my perspicacity that he offered to
sell me a village for twenty pounds sterling. But I buy no villages
in the Himalayas so long as one red head flares between the tail of
the heaven-climbing glacier and the dark birch-forest.