Futtygunge, Jan. 17, 1838.
We have had a Sunday halt, and some bad roads, and one desperate long
march. A great many of the men here have lived in the jungles for years,
and their poor dear manners are utterly gone--jungled out of them.
Luckily the band plays all through dinner, and drowns the conversation.
The thing they all like best is the band, and it was an excellent idea,
that of making it play from five to six. There was a lady yesterday in
perfect ecstasies with the music. I believe she was the wife of an
indigo planter in the neighbourhood, and I was rather longing to go and
speak to her, as she probably had not met a countrywoman for many
months; but then, you know, she might not have been his wife, or
anybody's wife, or he might not be an indigo planter. In short, my dear
Mrs. D., you know what a world it is--impossible to be too careful, &c.
We never stir out now from the camp; there is nothing to see, and the
dust is a little laid just in front of our tents. We have had a
beautiful subject for drawing the last two days. A troop of irregular
horse joined us at Futtehghur. The officer, a Russaldar--a sort of
sergeant, I believe--wears a most picturesque dress, and has an air of
Timour the Tartar, with a touch of Alexander the Great--and he comes and
sits for his picture with great patience. All these irregular troops are
like parts of a melodrama. They go about curvetting and spearing, and
dress themselves fancifully, and they are most courteous-mannered
natives. G. and I walked up to their encampment on Sunday.
They had no particular costume when first we came in sight, being
occupied in cleaning their horses--and the natives think nature never
intended that they should work with clothes on; but they heard G. was
coming, and by the time we arrived they were all scarlet and silver and
feathers--such odd, fanciful dresses; and the Russaldar and his officers
brought their swords that we might touch them, and we walked through
their lines. My jemadar interpreted that the Lord Sahib and Lady Sahib
never saw such fine men, or such fine horses, and they all salaamed down
to the ground. An hour after, this man and his attendant rode up to W.'s
tent (they are under him in his military secretary capacity) to report
that they certainly _were_ the finest troops in the world--the Lord
Sahib had said so; and they begged also to mention that they should be
very glad to have their pictures drawn. So the chief man has come for
his, and is quite satisfied with it.
Bareilly, Saturday, Jan. 20.
This is one of our long halts: we are to be here till Tuesday. Yesterday
we halted at Furreedpoor, where there was an excellent plain for the
native horse to show off their manner of fighting, and we all went out
in the evening to see them. They stick a tent-pin in the ground, drive
it in with mallets, and then going full gallop drive a spear in it and
draw it out again. They drop their bridles when the horse is going at
his utmost speed, and then suddenly turn round in the saddle and fire at
their pursuers. Then they tilt at each other, turning their horses round
in a space not much more than their own lengths. Walter Scott would have
made some fine chapters out of them, and Astley would hang himself from
the total impossibility of dressing and acting like them.
The only other incident of the day was a trial _by rice_ of all my
servants. I had ten rupees in small money--coins worth little more than
sixpence each--which I got in the distressed districts to give to any
beggars that looked starving. I had a packet of them unopened, the last
the sircar had given me, sealed with his seal, and I put this in my
workbasket on the table. One of the servants very cleverly took it out.
It was not loose money lying about: I consider they have almost a right
to take _that_: but this was sealed up and hid; so J. made a great fuss
about it, and when all enquiries failed, he and Captain D., who manages
the police of the camp, said they must try the common experiment of
eating rice. The priest weighs out so much rice powder according to the
weight of a particular rupee, an old coin which the natives look upon as
sacred. The men all say their prayers and wash themselves, and then they
each take their share of rice. It is not a _nice_ experiment. Those who
are innocent spit it out again in a liquid state, but the guilty man is
not able to liquefy it in the slightest degree.
J. came in with an air of conviction. 'Well! we have found the thief:
the last man you would have suspected--your chobdar.' He is a sort of
upper servant next in rank to the jemadar, and this man is a remarkably
respectable creature, and, though still young, has been fifteen years at
Government House--ever since he was twelve years old. The poor wretch
came in immediately after, his mouth still covered with flour: he had
not been able even to touch it, but he protested his innocence, and I
believe in it. He is naturally very timid, and always trembles if
anybody speaks quickly to him, and he might have robbed me at any time
of any trinkets, or money, as he always takes charge of my room, or
tent, when the jemadar is away. I am so sorry for him, he was in such an
agony; but, luckily, it would have been impossible to send a man away
merely on that sort of evidence, and to-day all the others have come
round to him and say they are sure it was not him, for they all think
too well of him. Yesterday they were glad to put it on anybody, and they
have all great faith in the trial. It is very odd; twenty-two took the
rice without the slightest reluctance, yet this man could not touch it.
Rosina told me that Ameer, my little boy, said to her, 'It must be the
chobdar, Rosina. What for he shake so and not eat rice? Me eat my rice
directly; me have nothing in my heart against ladyship; me never take
none of her money; me eat rice for ladyship any day.' I never shall let
them do it again, but it was done to satisfy them this time. In general
the poor _dry_ victim confesses directly.
Bareilly is famous for dust and workboxes. The dust we have seen, but
the boxes have not yet appeared.
There has been some quarrel about our encamping ground. Captain P. put
the tents in the right place, and the Brigadier said it was the wrong
one, and had them moved again, and put between two dusty roads; and now
we again say _that_ is quite wrong, and that we _will_ be on the
Brigadier's parade ground; so last night's camp, when it came up, was
pitched there and with much dignity, but with a great deal of trouble in
moving all our goods and ourselves. It was quite as bad as two marches
in one day; but then, you know, we could not stand the idea of
Brigadier ---- presuming to interfere with the Governor-General's camp.
The thieves at Bareilly are well educated, and pilfered quantities of
things in the move. Still, Brigadier ---- had the worst of it!
This is the most absurd country. Captain N. has a pet monkey, small and
black, with a long white beard, and it sits at the door of his tent. It
had not been here an hour when the durwar and the elders of the village
came on deputation to say that it was the first of that species which
had ever been at Bareilly, and they begged to take it to their temple to
worship it. He did not much like trusting it out of sight, but it was
one of the requests that cannot be refused, so 'Hunamaun' set off in
great state with one of N.'s bearers to watch him. He came back
extremely excited and more snappish than ever. The bearer said the
priests carried the monkey into a temple, but would not let him go too.
I suspect if N. washed the returned monkey, he would find the black come
off.