If you want to change a ten-pound note, they give you no gold, but
100 rupees; if you want change for a rupee, they give you 64 pice;
and if you change a pice, they give you 24 cowries. But as there are
no shops, and all the people bring their goods to the house, this
does not signify much.
If you were to go to Midnapore, and to ask a native where Acland
Sahib lived (sahib means white gentleman), he would not be able
to tell you; but if you were to ask for the Padre Sahib, he would
immediately direct you to my house.
When I came here I was going to stay with the judge: I told the
palanquin-bearers to take me to his house, mentioning his name, and
we were carried to almost every house in the station; until at last
we met a European, who told the men it was the judge sahib we wanted,
and then they soon found the place. I am called Padre Sahib; Mrs.
Acland is Padre Sahib ke Mem, or Padre Sahib's lady; a married woman,
mem sahib; an old maid is mem; and a young lady is bibi sahib, or
white lady baby.
[Sidenote: EMPLOYMENT OF TIME.]
The weather is now, comparatively speaking, delightful; the
thermometer is 76° in the middle of the day, and about 66° at sunrise
and early in the morning. I assure you we find it quite chilly, and
are obliged to walk very fast to get warm. Our hours are now--up at
six, feed the fowls, and walk till eight; bathe and dress till nine,
then breakfast; write, read, and work till four, then dinner; feed
the fowls and walk till half-past six; tea at seven. My wife works
and I read aloud till half-past eight; backgammon or cribbage till
half-past nine; then prayers, and to bed. Sometimes, however, I have
to go out and see my parishioners between breakfast and dinner, and
then I go in my palanquin. One great disagreeable is, the constant
change of people.
The regiment that was here, of which the Major and his wife were our
chief friends, has just been ordered away, and a new one is come in
its place. The Captain of Engineers has just offered to take us a
trip to the mountains, fifty miles off, on elephants. I do not know
yet whether we shall go or not. The historical name of my parish
would be, the Ooriah district, or the Oresta. Our time is six hours
earlier than in England.
FOOTNOTE:
[2] It is the most common sort of carriage in India.
Midnapore, December 13, 1842.
[Sidenote: DEPARTURE FOR CUTTACK.]
I am on the point of quitting this place for Cuttack. I have sold
the greater part of my furniture, as it is expensive to move; the
remainder is going forward on hackeries, or native carts. I want six
of these carts; about a dozen of them are come, and there is now a
crowd of native savages round the door, disputing as to who shall
go; and they were making so much noise that I was compelled to go
out and stop the cabal. I took a good thick stick in my hand, as if
I were about to beat them. I called out "Choop!" (or silence) as
loud as I could. I then explained that I only wanted six hackeries.
Then began a vociferation as to whose were the best. "Choop!--will
ye choop?" I roared again. I then called the mollee, and desired him
to turn out all the bullocks, for they had unfastened those which
drew the carts, and let them all loose in the rice-ground in the
compound, which was just ready for cutting. This order I hallooed
out loud enough for the men to hear; and told him, as soon as he had
done that, to come to me for a crowbar to break to pieces all the
hackeries but six. This made them submit; and although they still
continued making a great chattering, yet they soon began harnessing
their bullocks. With these people we are obliged to appear very
severe. They despise us as being of no caste; and were we not to be
firm, they would imagine we were afraid of them.
We are now engaged in packing up our things, and shall start on the
25th, reach Balasore on the 28th, and remain there ten days, and then
three days' more travelling will bring me to my head-quarters at
Cuttack.
I have, with much trouble, endeavoured to persuade the people
here that they ought to build a church: the Mohammedans have a
splendid mosque, the Hindoos have a large temple, and yet we have no
consecrated building for the worship of the true God; but, however,
I hope this will be remedied. As I was passing the mosque the other
day, I saw the muezzin shouting out that it was time for prayer,
and stopping his ears with both hands, that he might not hear the
terrible noise which he himself was making.
[Sidenote: GOATS.]
About a fortnight ago the judge went out shooting: he came to a large
hole under the root of a tree, and heard a loud growling. He is a
courageous man, so he was not afraid; but he told an Indian, who was
with him, to get behind the tree, and then poke a long stick into
the hole. Presently the growling became very loud and savage, and
then out jumped an enormous bear, one of the most savage sort--the
large black bear. The judge was ready, and shot it when it came out.
On examining the hole, three young bears, only a few days old, were
found. He sent for some Indians, who carried the dead body, and also
the cubs, home, and then, as he knew that I was fond of animals, he
sent the three little ones to me. They are very ugly, and cannot see
yet. One of my goats had just had a kid, so I told the cook to make
the kid into soup, and I brought the goat to the young bears. One man
held the goat, another covered her eyes with his hands, and a boy
held up the cubs to suck. The goat did not like it at all at first,
but now she is quite contented, almost as much so as if they were her
own young ones. I have given two of them away. In England you never
taste goat's milk: it is most delicious; far better, I think, than
cow's milk: we use it every day. Each goat, after the kid is taken
from her, gives about three-quarters of a pint a-day. The judge has
promised me a bottle full of the pure bear's grease.
Every one here knows that I am very fond of animals, and they are
all very kind in sending them to me. I received the other day from a
gentleman a present of a goat, which is quite as big as a small pony.
If I were to get on its back my feet would not touch the ground; it
is of a dark brown, and of the long-eared Thibet kind.
December 14.
[Sidenote: BIRDS'-NESTS.]
I went out to tea last evening, and a lady gave me two nests made
of platted grass, into which the birds enter through a hole at the
bottom. They are about a yard long, and they hang swinging from the
branch of a tree to which they are fastened. They are built in this
form, in order to keep out the violent rains, and to preserve the
birds from the monkeys.
[Sidenote: COST OF DRESS.]
The commonest articles of dress in Calcutta are at least three times
as dear as they are in England. I bought a silk hat which would have
cost five shillings at home, and paid fourteen rupees for it here;
and some ribbon, which would have been threepence a-yard in England,
cost a rupee and a half here. Then on the other hand many things are
cheaper.
There has been no rain for two months, nor a cloud until the last
day or two; now the clouds will continue to increase for a week, and
then we shall have three days of rain, after that no more till the
middle of June, except about three tremendous thunderstorms in April
and May. The weather is now delightful: the thermometer varies from
60° to 80°; but I am glad of cloth clothes, and at night we have
three blankets and a heavy counterpane. At this time of the year we
have peas, beans, &c., and every one looks happy and cheerful, not
healthy, for Europeans are all of a deadly white, and most of them
exceedingly fat.
December 16.
I was walking in the compound yesterday, and I saw something black,
shaped very much like a small lobster, except that it had a pointed
tail; and as soon as I went near it it turned its tail over its head
and tried to sting me. I managed to get him into a bottle, which I
filled with spirits.
The mungoose is very fond of serpents; he kills and eats them with
great rapidity, and then jumps into my wife's lap to ask for some
milk.
Balasore, Orissa, December 30, 1842.
The ancient house in which I live here is situated, like the rest of
Balasore, on a large flat plain, extending north, south, and west,
as far as I can see. The vegetation is scanty, and the trees are
small. But turn towards the east and the eye is arrested by a most
magnificent sight. At the distance of about seven miles rises quite
abruptly from the plain a splendid range of volcanic hills, about
two thousand feet in height. Judging from their appearance at this
distance, they must be composed of reddish lava without any grass,
but here and there a stumpy bush. I never saw anything to compare
with them before. In England our hills are always rounded at the top;
but here there are points and peaks and edges, as if you had been
trying to cut a piece of paper in zigzag lines.
About fifteen miles beyond these great hills tower a still loftier
range, lifting their deep-blue summits seven thousand feet into the
clouds, and forming a background for the nearer and better-defined
range.
On Monday we start with a picnic party and tents, &c., to explore
these hills. We shall probably be out on our expedition for three or
four days.
[Sidenote: HILL OF THE LARGE WHITE ANT.]
After standing gazing at these magnificent hills, I walked towards
what appeared to be the remains of some mud hut: it was about five
feet high, and in irregular blunt points at the top. When I came
down to it I tried to break off one of the long bits, but it was too
strong, and was as hard as a wall. However, on the other side I found
a smaller projection, which I broke off by kicking against it, and
found it full of round passages perforating it in all directions, the
smallest about the size of a quill, the largest as big as my wrist.
This was the large white ants' hill. Immediately after I had broken
a portion of it there came a rush of the inhabitants from all the
passages to see what was the matter. They examined the parts broken,
and then some of them ran back. Presently a number more came, some
dragging forward the others until they got them quite to the edge,
when a bigger ant took hold of each of these prisoners and bit him in
the neck until he killed him. I suppose the prisoners were those who
had been on guard at that spot, or else those who built that part,
and so were punished for my fault. Soon, however, they turned and
attacked me, for I found many of them on my clothes and experienced
the smart of their bite.
I now walked forward, and the next thing I came to was a human skull.
In this part of the country wood is scarce, and therefore, when
any poor person dies, instead of burning his body, they wait till
evening, and then throw it out of doors, and by the next morning the
jackals and vultures have picked the bones quite clean, and the ants
then destroy all the fibres, whilst the sun bleaches the bones. I
have picked up several of these skulls in the last few days; they
appear very different from the skull of an European, being smaller,
and very much narrower from ear to ear in proportion to the length
from the eye to the back of the head; the forehead also retreats
much more. Presently I came to two bamboo-trees; between them on
the ground was a pair of doves, much smaller than our English ones,
and of a bright reddish purple. They were walking about, whilst out
of one of the bamboo-trees poked the head of a great snake, who was
quietly watching them. I frightened away the doves, as I guessed the
long gentleman's intentions. It is of a kind which does not hurt men,
of a dirty-brown colour, about seven feet long.
Turning towards the house again, I was struck by the very beautiful
plumage of a bird; its wings were striped transversely with black
and white; it was about the size of a blackbird, with yellow neck
and tail, and a very long head. It alighted on the ground and opened
a most beautiful round crest growing fore and aft on its head, the
colour of which, like the body, was an orange yellow, but there was
an edging of white and black. It was the hoopoe. The only other
striking thing I saw was a great vulture, with its naked red head and
its tattered-looking feathers, puffing away at the top of our house,
having most likely stuffed with human flesh till he could hardly
move; and when I threw a stone at him, he hopped a little way along
the roof and grunted.
January 2, 1843.
[Sidenote: NATIVE LEGEND.]
Yesterday was New Year's day. I have just heard the origin of these
hills, and will put it down while I remember it. The story is from
one of the natives here.
"Many, many years ago there lived a giant in Ceylon, and this giant
fell in love with the daughter of another giant at Lucknow, in
Bengal, so he asked her father to let him marry her. But he said No,
as the other lived in a little island, and was no real gentleman at
all. Upon this Master Ceylon determined that, as her father said No,
he would take her without leave, and off he started, seized the young
lady, put her on his shoulders, and carried her across to Ceylon.
But when the papa found that his daughter was gone, he got into a
tremendous rage, and determined to go and punish the Ceyloney. So
off he hurried, until he came to the straits which separate the
island from the mainland. But when he tried to cross over, he found
that he was not quite so tall as the Ceylonese gentleman by a few
hundred yards, and that the water was too deep for him. So he stood
still, and he scratched his head and wiped his forehead with his
handkerchief, and thought and pondered what he should do to get
across and punish the wicked thief. At last an idea struck him, and
he trotted back all up India until he reached the Himalaya mountains,
and, snatching up two of the largest of them, one in each hand, threw
them into the straits, and thus made them shallow enough for him to
pass over. But as he went along some of the rocks and earth slipped
through his fingers, for you may suppose his hands were rather full;
and the chains of hills which extend from Balasore for nearly three
hundred miles are the pieces which he dropped as he went along." The
tale does not inform us whether the giant's daughter was restored to
him.
[Sidenote: NESTS OF WHITE ANTS.]
I have not been up the hills to-day, because some of the party
were frightened at the number of bears and tigers which are said
to be there; but I am in hopes we shall go in a few days. I have
been looking about me a good deal lately, and have noticed one very
curious thing. The ground for five or six miles from our house in one
direction seems to be covered with mounds of earth and small bushes;
on examining these closely, however, I find they are all the nests
of white ants. The green ones are those that are deserted, and over
which the grass has grown--the others are still inhabited. In the
plain visible from my window there must be many hundreds of thousands
of these hills, varying in height from three feet to ten or twelve,
and many of them six feet in diameter; and all of these are formed
by little insects no larger than the common English ant. One part
of their manner of building is most extraordinary: their nests are
always completely covered in, so that without kicking them you cannot
see a single ant inside; there are one or two doors in different
parts of the building, but they are seldom used.
Their mode of building is as follows:--One day, perhaps, you will
perceive a single pinnacle of an ants' nest. You go and see it one
day, and you find it slightly raised, but curved, like a headstone.
So it increases daily until it reaches the size I have described. It
is like a man building a house--as if he made a little closet with a
roof on it, and then went inside and stayed there, while the closet
swelled and swelled until it became a perfect house. At the foot of
these ant-hills are a number of large black ants on the watch for
any straggling white ants, which they kill and eat. These creatures
abound in all our houses, and run about the floors: they are about an
inch in length, and bite, but do not sting.
January 3.
[Sidenote: MODE OF TRAVELLING.]
I ought to give you some account of our voyage to this place. We
quitted Midnapore, after a hard week's packing, at nine o'clock on
Tuesday evening, December 27th. On the Monday we went to dine and
sleep at the house of the Captain of Engineers, because our own was
in such a condition from packing; and after dinner on Tuesday at nine
o'clock we entered our horrible palanquin. I flatter myself that
most of the people at Midnapore were very sorry when we left. We had
sixteen men to carry us, two mussalchees, or men who carry mussals
(torches made of long strips of cotton bound tightly together and
dipped in oil), and two banghy-bearers, to carry each two tin boxes
with our clothes in them.
We soon got clear of the station of Midnapore, and then the scene
became most wild and romantic--a narrow road, bounded on each side
by an interminable jungle, or plain covered with low bushes so
thickly matted together as to afford only passage to the deadly
cobra, the snarling jackal, and the ravenous tiger. On the road
our own palanquins, one a hundred yards in front of the other,
carried by black men with merely a cloth round their loins, the red
glaring torches showing the others who ran swiftly by their side,
the banghy-bearers trying to keep up with us, and all keeping up
a loud monotonous sing-song tune, which was varied occasionally
by the shrill cry of the jackal, the grinning snarl of the hyæna,
or in the distance the deeper roar of the tiger in search of his
prey--and yet in the midst of all this we both slept well, awakened
only occasionally by the plashing of the men through the fords of the
river or the stopping at a village to change bearers.
[Sidenote: JELASORE.]
In the latter case we were not detained an instant, the fresh
relays being in attendance with as much patience and regularity
as if they were horses waiting for a coach. Thus we travelled on
without interruption until we reached Danton, called Dantoon. This
was about nine o'clock in the morning. At this place there is a
dâk-bungalow--that is, a bungalow, or thatched house, built by
Government for the accommodation of travellers. In Turkey it would
be called a caravanserai. Here there is a man with fire and water,
but the traveller brings his own provisions, wine, tea, bread, &c.,
in his palanquin, though he can generally get eggs. We stayed here
about two hours, and had some tea, eggs, and biscuits, and no one who
has not experienced it can have any idea of the comfort of a short
rest after a night of dâk travelling. Although you lie down in the
palanquin, yet every limb gets cramped, and the incessant jolting is
most painful to the bones, even of one so fat as I am, and I have
increased sadly in bulk since I came to India. Off we started again
a little before eleven, and at about one we reached the house of an
Indigo-planter at Jelasore. I never saw him before, but he received
us most hospitably. His wife was rejoiced to see us--she had not seen
a European lady for seventeen months, for their nearest neighbours
live at a distance of forty miles, or about twelve hours' journey.
Here we spent a most agreeable day, delighted with everything. In the
evening I took a walk with our kind host to see an old fort.
It must have been once very strong, and was probably built by the
Mahrattas as a depôt for plunder when they overran this part of the
country. In the inner court is a three-domed building, resembling,
except in ornament, a mosque. The walls are several feet thick,
built of hard stone strongly clamped together with iron. High up in
the interior of the centre dome are four niches, which I hope to
explore on some future occasion. The inner enclosure is surrounded
by a strong stone wall and a deep moat now dry. Beyond this is a
level space of a few yards in width, and then again, in another part
of the wall, there are signs of a narrow sallyport, and opposite to
this, between the trenches, as if it might have been reached by a
drawbridge, is a very high mound of earth. Over the sallyport there
has evidently been a strong tower, and above the central entrance
into the interior building is a stone with an inscription. It
appears very perfect, but no one can read it; it is neither Ooriah,
Hindustanee, Sanscrit, nor Persian. I have called this a Mahratta
fort, because that is the general opinion amongst Europeans. I
myself doubt it, and from its age and appearance think it much more
likely that it was erected by the Moguls when they first invaded the
country; how I wished, as I stood there, that I could have seen it
as it was in former ages, with its garrison, and its horsemen, and
its despotic governor. The next time I go I shall provide myself with
some paper covered with charcoal, and try to take an impression of
the inscription. We were in some fear, during our examination, lest
we should be interrupted by the natives, as they have very recently
got the idea that it was once inhabited by one of their gods, and
therefore consider it a sacred place. I fancied, as well as the
darkness would allow me to see, that far back in one of the niches I
could dimly perceive a coloured statue of a female. Before we went
to see this ruin my kind host took me into his garden to show me the
India-rubber tree. We scraped the bark with a piece of rough glass,
and a white sticky juice oozed out; this we took between our fingers
and squeezed until it became a sort of brown gluey substance. In
this state it is used by the native hunters as birdlime. After being
exposed to the air for some time it gradually hardens and becomes
what we call India-rubber. A large part of this garden was planted
with arrow-root.
[Sidenote: ATTACK BY A TIGER.]
At half-past eight we again entered the palanquin, and started for
Balasore, where we arrived at half-past seven the next morning,
and were set down at the Circuit-house--a large house belonging to
Government, and kept for the convenience of officers, including the
chaplain, who have to travel the district every year. I can conceive
nothing more wild than the dâk travelling; but I have described
it all, except that in each palanquin we carry a brace of loaded
pistols. I will relate an instance, and a very remarkable one, of
the advantage of carrying loaded pistols in this country. Major M.,
now the second in command at Midnapore, was one day out with some
friends, sitting quietly under the shade of a bank, when suddenly a
tiger sprang out of a jungle, seized the Major by the leg, threw him
over his shoulders, and trotted off with him. The Major's companions
raised a loud shout; but the beast was hungry, and did not choose
to be frightened from his meal. The Major, however, fortunately had
a brace of loaded pistols in his belt; he pulled out one, and fired
it at the head of the tiger as it carried him off. It flashed in the
pan; and almost in despair he seized the other, and shot the tiger
dead on the spot. The only injury the Major received was a broken and
lacerated leg, which has rendered him in some measure a cripple ever
since. This story I know to be true, both from the Major himself and
from those who were with him.
[Sidenote: A HUNGRY BEAR.]
A small party went out for a day's pleasure a little while ago from
Midnapore. They went to the Ghape, a most beautiful spot at about
five miles' distance. After rambling about they went into an old
house which is there, with an excellent appetite for dinner. The
"cook-room" was about a hundred yards from the house. They waited
and waited, and no dinner came; so at last one of the gentlemen
went to see the cause of the delay, when lo! as if watching for the
dinner, there was an enormous black bear sitting half-way between
the house and the cook-room. They shouted, and tried to drive him
away; but no, master Bruin only growled; he did not see why he should
not have something to eat. None of the party had guns; and they say
that they were kept waiting five hours without their dinner before
the beast's patience was exhausted and he stalked off. We were, as
I before said, set down at the "Circuit-house." This I expected to
have found tolerably furnished; but, alas! when we went in, we found
nothing but one mat, three tables, and two chairs. We then had the
palanquins taken into a bed-room, and determined to make ourselves as
comfortable as we could. I then went out to make calls--for in India
the new comers call upon the old residents, reversing the English
custom. This did not take me long, as the whole station consists of
the magistrate and his wife, the excise-officer and his daughter, the
postmaster, doctor, and deputy-magistrate.