The house of a civilian (a magistrate and collector) in the heart of a
district, such as Bijnore, is really worthy of contemplation. With the
exception of a bungalow, which is usually occupied by the assistant,
and which may, therefore, be said to belong to the magistrate's house,
there is no other Christian abode within five-and-thirty or forty
miles. The house is usually well, but not extravagantly, furnished; the
walls are adorned with prints and pictures, and the shelves well stored
with books. In a word, if the punkahs and the venetian blinds, the
therm-antidotes, and sundry other Indian peculiarities were removed,
you might fancy yourself in some large country-house in England.
There was at Bijnore a native moonshee who was a very good scholar;
and, as I was anxious to read Hindostanee and Persian with him (the
more especially as I much enjoyed the society of mine host and his
assistant), I was induced to accept an invitation to remain for a
month. During this period I studied for several hours a-day, besides
attending the Court House regularly, to listen to the proceedings, and
acquire some knowledge of a most extraordinary jargon, composed of a
little Hindostanee, a little Persian, and a good deal of Arabic. This
jargon is known in India as the language of the courts. A good Persian
and Hindostanee scholar cannot understand it, unless he is accustomed
to it. Many magistrates and judges have insisted upon having pure
Hindostanee spoken; but to no purpose. Up to a recent period, Persian
mixed with Arabic was the language in which legal proceedings were
conducted,--Persian and Arabic being as foreign languages to the people
of India as English, German, or French. And, when the order went forth
that Hindostanee was to be used, the native officers of the courts,
and the native lawyers who practised therein, complied with it by
putting a Hindostanee verb at the end of each sentence, and using the
Hindostanee pronouns, retaining in all their integrity (or rascality)
the Persian and Arabic adverbs, prepositions, nouns, adjectives, and
conjunctions. An indigo planter in Tahoot, who spoke Hindostanee
perfectly, having lived amongst the natives for upwards of twenty
years, assured me that he did not comprehend a single sentence of a
decree in court Hindostanee, that he heard read out to him--a decree in
a case to which he was a party. What is even more absurd, each court
has its own peculiar jargon, so that the magistrate or judge, who from
long experience has acquired a thorough knowledge of the jargon of his
own court, has very great difficulty in comprehending the jargon of
another court. This might be altered by fining any officer of court, or
native lawyer, who, in matters connected with a suit, used words and
phrases unintelligible to the mass of the people; but the order would
have to emanate from Government. No magistrate or judge would venture
on even an attempt to bring about so desirable a reform.
Whilst at Bijnore, I was seized with an attack of tic-douloureux, and
suffered all its extreme agonies. One of my host's servants informed me
that there was a very clever native doctor in the village, who could
immediately assuage any pain--tooth-ache, for instance--and he begged
permission to bring him to see me. I consented.
The native doctor was a tall, thin Mussulman, with a lofty forehead,
small black eyes, long aquiline nose, and finely chiselled mouth and
chin. His hair, eye-brows, and long beard were of a yellowish white,
or cream colour. Standing before me in his skull-cap, he was about the
most singular looking person I ever beheld. His age did not exceed
forty-four or forty-five years. He put several questions to me, but
I was in too great pain to give him any replies. He begged of me to
sit down. I obeyed him, mechanically. Seating himself in a chair
immediately opposite to me, he looked very intently into my eyes. After
a little while, his gaze became disagreeable, and I endeavoured to turn
my head aside, but I was unable to do so. I now felt that I was being
mesmerized. Observing, I suppose, an expression of anxiety, if not of
fear, on my features, he bade me not to be alarmed. I longed to order
him to cease; but, as the pain was becoming less and less acute, and
as I retained my consciousness intact, I suffered him to proceed. To
tell the truth, I doubt whether I could have uttered a sound. At all
events, I did not make the attempt. Presently, that is to say, after
two or three minutes, the pain had entirely left me, and I felt what is
commonly called, all in a glow. The native doctor now removed his eyes
from off mine, and inquired if I were better. My reply, which I had no
difficulty in giving at once, was in the affirmative; in short, that I
was completely cured. Observing that he placed his hands over his head,
and pressed his skull, I asked him if he were suffering.
"Yes, slightly," was his reply; "but I am so accustomed to it, it gives
me but little inconvenience."
I then begged of him to explain to me how it was that he had the power
to afford me such miraculous relief. That, he said, he was unable to
do. He did not know. I then talked to him of mesmerism and of the
wonderful performances of Dr. Esdaile, in the Calcutta hospital. He
had lately heard of mesmerism, he said; but, years before he heard of
it, he was in the habit of curing people by assuaging their pain. The
gift had been given to him soon after he attained manhood. That, with
one exception, and that was in the case of a Keranee--a half-caste--no
patient had ever fallen asleep, or had become beehosh (unconscious),
under his gaze. "The case of the half-caste," he went on to say,
"alarmed me. He fell asleep, and slept for twelve hours, snoring like
a man in a state of intoxication." I was not the first European he had
operated upon, he said; that in Bareilly, where he formerly lived, he
had afforded relief to many officers and to several ladies. Some had
tooth-ache, some tic-douloureux, some other pains. "But," he exclaimed,
energetically, "the most extraordinary case I ever had, was that of a
Sahib who had gone mad--'drink delirious.' His wife would not suffer
him to be strapped down, and he was so violent that it took four or
five other Sahibs to hold him. I was sent for, and, at first, had great
difficulty with him and much trembling. At last, however, I locked his
eyes up, as soon as I got him to look at me, and kept him for several
hours as quiet as a mouse, during which time he had no brandy, no
wine, no beer; and, though he did not sleep, he had a good long rest.
I stayed with him for two days, and whatever I told him to do he did
immediately. He had great sorrow on his mind, poor man. Three of his
children had died of fever within one short week, and he had lost much
money by the failure of an agency-house in Calcutta. There was a cattle
serjeant, too, an European, whom I also cured of that drinking madness
by locking up his eyes."
"What do you mean by locking up his eyes?"
"Well, what I did with you; I locked up your eyes. When I got his eyes
fixed on mine, he could not take them away--could not move."
"But can you lock up any one's eyes in the way that you locked up mine?"
"No; not everybody's. There was an artillery captain once who defied
me to lock up his eyes. I tried very hard; but, instead of locking up
his, he locked up mine, and I could not move till he permitted me. And
there was a lady, the wife of a judge, who had pains in the head, which
I could not cure, because she locked up my eyes. With her I trembled
much, by straining every nerve, but it was of no use."
"Do you know any other native who has the same power that you possess?"
"Only three; but, I dare say, there may be hundreds in these provinces
who have it, and who use it. And now, Sahib," said the native doctor,
taking from his kummerbund (the cloth that encircles the waist) a
bundle of papers, "I desire to show you some of my certificates, at
the same time to beg of you to pardon my apparent want of respect in
appearing in your presence in this skull-cap instead of a turban; but
the fact is, that when I heard you were in such great pain, I did not
think it humane to delay until I had adorned myself."
I proceeded to examine very carefully every one of his many
certificates; not that I was in any way interested in them, but
because I knew it would afford him great pleasure. In all, they
were quite as numerous as those which English charlatans publish in
testimony of their skill in extracting corns. They were more elaborate
however; for it is by the length of a certificate that a native judges
of its value--just in the same way that Partridge, when Tom Jones took
him to see _Hamlet_, admired the character of the King, because he
spoke louder than any of the company, "anybody could see that he was a
king." As for myself, I sat down and covered a whole sheet of foolscap
in acknowledgment of my gratitude to Mustapha Khan Bahadoor, for having
delivered me from unendurable torments. To my certificate I pinned a
cheque on the North-West Bank for one hundred rupees (ten pounds),
and, presenting both documents to the doctor, permitted him to take
his leave. Some months afterwards, on discovering that this cheque had
not been presented for payment, I wrote to the assistant-magistrate,
and asked him, as a favour, to send for the native doctor, and obtain
some information on the subject. In reply, I was informed that the
doctor preferred keeping the cheque appended to my certificate as an
imperishable memorial of the extraordinary value in which his services
had been held by an European gentleman, and that he would not part with
it for ten times the amount in gold or silver. Such a strange people
are the natives of India! Their cupidity is enormous certainly, but
their vanity (I am speaking of the better class) is even greater.
One hundred rupees was equal to half a year's earnings of the native
doctor, and yet he preferred holding the useless autograph of an
insignificant Sahib like myself for the amount rather than realize it.
The native doctor evidently reasoned thus:--"I might spend the one
hundred rupees, might not be believed if I made the assertion that I
had received it; but here is the voucher." Some may imagine that he
kept it as a sort of decoy-duck; but this I am perfectly satisfied was
not the case.
I was now about to leave Bijnore, and, as time was of no object to me,
I made up my mind to travel no more by palkee, or horse dâk, but in the
most independent and comfortable manner. I therefore provided myself
with two small tents, and two camels to carry them, two bullocks to
carry the tent furniture, my baggage, and stores; a pony for my own
riding, and a similar animal for a boy khitmutghur, who was also my
personal servant or bearer.
I engaged also a cook and a sweeper, or general helper; so that, when
the sawans (camel drivers), the bullock-man, and the syces (grooms),
were included, my establishment numbered, in all, eight servants,
whose pay in the aggregate amounted to fifty rupees (five pounds) per
mensem. This, of course, included their "keep," for they provided
themselves with food. The expense of keeping the camels, the bullocks,
and the ponies, was, in all, thirty-five rupees (three pounds fifteen
shillings) per mensem; while my own expenses, including everything
(except beer and cheroots), were not in excess of fifty rupees per
month; so that I was thus enabled to travel about India at a cost
of not more than two hundred pounds per annum, or two hundred and
twenty-five pounds at the very outside. The reader must remember that
in almost every one of the villages in India, fowls, eggs, rice, flour,
native vegetables, curry stuff, and milk are procurable, and at very
small prices, if your servants do not cheat you, and mine did not; for
I made an agreement with my boy khitmutghur to that effect; indeed, I
entered into a regular contract with him previous to starting, touching
the purchase of every article that would be required during my journey.
This boy was, in short, my commissariat department. His name was
Shumsheer (a word signifying in the Persian language, "a sword"), but
he generally went by the name of Sham. He had been for several months
in the service of the assistant magistrate of Bijnore; who, as a very
great favour, permitted the boy to accompany me on my travels; he was
so clever, so sharp, so intelligent, and so active a servant. He was
not more than sixteen, and very short, for his age; but stoutly built,
and as strong as a young lion. He was, moreover, very good-looking, and
had, for a native of Hindoostan, a very fair complexion. He had been
for several years the servant, or page, of an officer on the staff of
a governor-general, and he spoke English with considerable fluency,
but with an idiom so quaint, that it was amusing in the last degree to
listen to him. He had been "spoilt," in one sense of the word, while at
Government House, not only by his own master, but by the whole staff,
who had encouraged him to give his opinions on all subjects with a
freedom which was at first very disagreeable to me. But, ere long, I
too encouraged him to do so; his opinions were so replete with such
strong common sense, and were expressed in such an original fashion.
If an inquiry touching a certain administration had been called for
by Parliament, what an invaluable witness would that boy have been
before a Committee of either house--provided he had not been previously
"tampered with!"
When all my preparations had been completed, I took leave of my
friends, and left Bijnore at three o'clock one morning. My destination
was Umballah. I did not take the main road; but a shorter cut across
the country, conducted by a guide who knew the district well, and who
was enjoined to procure for me another guide as soon as his information
failed him.
By seven o'clock we had travelled over twelve miles of ground, and
as the sun was beginning to be very warm, I commanded a halt. Our
tents were then pitched beneath a tope (cluster) of mango-trees whose
branches formed a dense shade. Having bathed, breakfasted, smoked,
and read several pages of a Persian book, I fell asleep, and was not
awakened until noon, when Sham came into my tent and reported that
there was an abundance of black partridge in the neighbourhood: he
then proposed that I should dine early--at one P.M.--and at half past
four take my gun; and, permitting him to take another, sally forth in
search of the game. To this proposal I at once assented, and removing
my camp stool to the opening of my little hill tent, I looked out into
the fields, where I saw some men ploughing. For the first time during
my travels I was struck with the appearance of the instrument which the
natives use for tilling the soil; an instrument which, in fact, closely
resembles that used by the Romans, according to the directions laid
down in the Georgics:
"Curvi formam adcipit ulmus aratri," &c., &c.,
and at first I felt some surprise that an implement so apparently
ill-fitted for the purpose for which it is designed, should answer
all the requirements of the cultivator. The substitution of the
English plough for this native hùr has been several times projected by
gentlemen who were zealous in the cause of agriculture; but without
any success, or reasonable hope thereof; for when we consider the
cheapness, and the great amount of labour always available, the general
lightness of the soil, the inaptitude of the natives of India for great
or continued physical exertion, the inferiority of the cattle, all of
which are the marked characteristics of India, it would not only be
undesirable, but impossible to introduce the English plough generally
as an implement of husbandry--an implement requiring physical strength,
manual dexterity, and a superior breed of cattle for draught. Rude and
simple as the native hùr is, or as it may seem to the casual observer,
cursorily viewing the operation of ploughing, it has still many good
qualities which render it peculiarly suited to the genius of the Indian
cultivator; and it is not in any immediate endeavour to improve it
or alter it that any real benefit can be conferred on the cause of
Indian agriculture. All the efforts, therefore, that have been made in
that direction have been time and trouble expended to no purpose. It
has been said that all improvement to be real must be spontaneous, or
take rise within itself; and it would seem to be more reasonable to
improve such means and appliances as the natives use and understand,
without running counter to the ideas and shocking the prejudices which
they entertain, by endeavouring to compel their adoption of European
modes of culture, which, however well suited to the land of their
origin, have not the quality most necessary to their practicability,
that of being comprehensible to the people of India. The true end of
agriculture:
"with artful toil
To 'meliorate and tame the stubborn soil,
To give dissimilar yet fruitful lands
The grain, or herb, or plant, that each demands,"
is best to be attained by aiding and assisting the development of those
resources of the soil which have already been made visible by the
people themselves.
Here it is that the duty of the Government begins. The precariousness
of the land tenure is one of the greatest impediments to the outlay
of capital by the tenant in the improvement of the land; and as
there is but little prospect of the removal of this objection, the
Government should fulfil what would, were the case different, be the
obvious plans of the landholder in developing the resources of the
soil. Irrigation and manure are the two great points most deserving
of attention. On both points the resources of the country are
incalculable; the advantages evident and immediate; both require system
and an outlay of capital, which the zemindar (native landholder) is
often unable, and oftener unwilling, to adopt and incur--from want of
confidence in the administration of the law and the law itself. With
the ryot, or cultivator, the case is very different. The law, or the
administration thereof, affects him in a very slight degree compared
with the zemindar. The land tenure matters very little to him; his
rights have been secured; he profits by the outlay of capital on the
land. Risk he has none. His advantage is immediate. But he does not
possess the means of improvement in any way. He may build a well, dig
a tank, or plant a grove to the memory of a departed ancestor, and by
so doing enhance the value of the land to the zemindar; but he almost
always ruins himself by the act, leaving his debts to be paid by his
descendants, and the well, tank, or grove mortgaged to the banker
for the extra expenses incurred in its establishment! It behoves an
enlightened Government to do for the people and the country what they
are unable to do for themselves. An inquiry properly set on foot, and
undertaken by competent persons on the part of the Government, to
investigate all particulars regarding the state of agriculture, would
bring to light many facts, which, if made fitting use of, would not
only greatly redound to the honour but adduce greatly to the advantage
and profit of the State. The information thus acquired, and not founded
on the reports of native (Government) collectors, police officers,
and peaons (messengers), but ascertained by the personal inspection
of European officials, and from the opinions of the zemindars and
cultivators themselves, would enable the Government to know and devise
remedies to obviate the evils arising out of the gradual decline of
the agricultural classes in our earliest occupied territories. It
would show the Government many places where the expenditure of four
or five thousand rupees (four or five hundred pounds) in the repairs
or erection of a dam, for the obstruction of some rain-filled nullah
(a wide and deep ditch), would yield a return yearly of equal amount,
besides affording employment, and the means of livelihood to hundreds
of persons. It would show where the opening of a road, or the
building of a bridge, involving but a small expenditure, would give a
new life to a part of the country hitherto forgotten, and render the
inhabitants flourishing and happy, by throwing open to them a market
for their produce--a market at present out of their reach. It would
prove incontestably that the means of irrigation--the true water-power
of India, has been even more neglected than the water-power of that
(in comparison with the United States) sluggish colony, Canada. The
initial step once taken--the march of improvement once fairly set on
foot--private enterprise, duly encouraged, will follow in the wake of
the Government; and capital once invested, land in India will become
intrinsically valuable, and thus obtain the attention it merits.
Agricultural improvement would induce lasting and increasing prosperity
of the cultivating classes (the bulk of the population) and of the
country itself.
* * * * *
"What! Sham! Dinner ready?" I exclaimed, on observing the boy
approaching the tent with a tray and a table-cloth.
"Oh, yes, sir; quite ready. And very good dinner."
"What have you got?"
"Stewed duck, sir--curry, sir; pancake, sir. And by the time you eat
that, one little quail ready, sir, with toast. I give dinner fit for a
governor-general, sir; and the silver shining like the moon, sir."
(It was in this way that he ran on whilst laying the table.)
"But why are you preparing covers for two, when I am dining alone?"
"Yes, sir. But only poor mans has table laid for one. That place
opposite is for company sake. And suppose some gentleman come--not
likely here, but suppose? Then all is ready. No running about--no
calling out, 'Bring plate, knife and fork, and spoon, and glass,'
and all that. And if two plates laid, master, if he like--when I am
standing behind his chair keeping the flies off while he eats--may
fancy that some friend or some lady sitting opposite, and in his own
mind he may hold some guftoogoo (conversation). That's why I lay the
table for two, sir."
I had been warned by the gentleman who permitted Sham to accompany me,
that he was such an invaluable servant, it was only politic to let
him have his own way in trifling matters; and therefore instead of
objecting to his proceeding, I applauded his foresight.
Whilst discussing the stewed duck, which was excellent--as was indeed
every dish prepared by Sham, when he had "his own way--" and while
he was standing behind me, keeping the flies off with a chowrie (a
quantity of long horsehair fastened to a handle), I talked to him
without turning my head:
"You say you wish to take a gun. Have you ever been out shooting?"
"Oh, yes, sir. When my master went up from Calcutta to Mussoorie and
Simlah with the Governor-General, I went with him. And I often went
out shooting in the Dhoon, with my master, who was a great sportsman,
sir. And I was out with my master--on the same elephant--when the
Governor-General shot the tiger."
"What! Did the Governor-General shoot a tiger?"
"Oh, no, sir. But my master and the other gentlemens make him think he
did, sir."
"Explain yourself."
"Well, sir, the Governor-General said he had heard a great deal of
tiger shooting, and should like to see some for once. So my master, who
was a very funny gentleman, went to an officer in the Dhoon--another
very funny gentleman--and between them it was agreed that his lordship
should shoot one tiger. And so they sent out some native shikarees
(huntsmen), told them to wound but not kill one big tiger in the
jungle, and leave him there. And the native shikarees did shoot one
big tiger in the jungle, and they came and made a report where he was
lying. Then next morning when all the elephants and gentlemens was
ready, and the Governor-General had his gun in his hand, they all went
to the jungle; and when they got to the place and heard the tiger growl
very angrily, my master called out; 'There, my lord--there he is;
take your shot!' and my lord fired his gun, and my master cried out
very loud: 'My lord, you've hit him!' And my lord, who was very much
confused--not being a sportsman--said, 'Have I?' And all the gentlemens
cried out: 'Yes, my lord!' And then some of the gentlemens closed
round the tiger and killed him, by firing many bullets at him. And my
lord had the tiger's skin taken off, and it was sent to England to be
make a carpet for my lord's sitting-room. And for many days all the
gentlemens laughed, and asked of one another, 'Who shot the tiger?' And
the Governor-General was so happy and so proud, and wore his head as
high as a seesu-tree. But he had enough of tiger-shooting in that one
tiger; for he was not a sportsman, and did not like the jolting of the
elephant in the jungle."
My repast ended, and the table-cloth removed, I lighted a cigar, and
took my camp-stool once more to the opening of the tent, when, to my
surprise, and somewhat to my dismay, I found myself besieged by a
host of ryots, cultivators of the soil, each bearing a present in the
shape of a basket of fruit or vegetables, or a brass dish covered with
almonds, raisins, and native sweetmeats. These poor creatures, who
doubtless fancied that I was a Sahib in authority (possibly, Sham had
told them that I was a commissioner--a very great man--on a tour of
inspection), prostrated themselves at my feet, and in the most abject
manner imaginable craved my favour and protection. I promised each and
every one of them, with much sincerity, that if ever it lay in my
power to do them a service, they might depend upon my exerting myself
to the utmost; and then I made a variety of inquiries touching their
respective ages, families, circumstances, and prospects, in order to
prove that I had already taken an interest in them. I then asked them
some questions touching the game in the locality, and was glad to hear
the report made by Sham confirmed to the letter. I was assured that
the light jungle in the rear of my tents literally swarmed with black
partridges.
It was now nearly time to go out, and in the course of two hours I
brought down no less than seven brace, while Sham distinguished himself
by killing five birds. By the time I returned to my tent I was weary,
and retired to rest, having previously given orders that I was to be
called at two A.M., insomuch as at that hour I intended to resume the
march. It is one thing, however, to retire to rest, but it is another
thing to sleep. What with the croaking of the frogs in a neighbouring
tank, and the buzzing and biting of the musquitoes in my tent, I could
not close an eye. I lay awake the whole night, thinking--thinking of a
thousand things, but of home chiefly; and right glad was I when Sham
approached my bed, holding in one hand a cup of very hot and strong
coffee, and in the other my cigar-case, while the noise outside,
incident on the striking of the tents and the breaking up of the little
camp, was as the sweetest music to my ears.