kept awake the greater part of the time by the mosquitoes, and the
next morning our hands and faces were most beautifully spotted over
with their bites. On this the second day one or two people called;
and when the excise-officer and his daughter came in, the deficiency
in furniture was at once made manifest. There were Mr. and Miss B.,
Mrs. Acland, and I, with only two chairs amongst us, and these,
like all the chairs in India, were arm-chairs, so that we could not
even manage by sitting two on one chair; so Miss B. and my wife had
the two chairs, and Mr. B. and I sat upon the table--rather a high
one it was--so that our feet dangled about half-way between our
seat and the floor. However, there was one great advantage in this
evidence of poverty, for Mr. B., as soon as he got home, sent us a
large bedstead, some chairs, and other things necessary to make us
comfortable.
[Sidenote: PALANQUIN-BEARERS' SONGS.]
I ought to mention the chant of the palanquin-bearers; though they
keep to the same sing-song tune, yet they generally invent the words
as they go along. I will give a sample, as well as I could make it
out, of what my bearers sang the other night; I have tried to render
their words as nearly as I could into English, so as to preserve the
metre. The poetry must be improved. A palkee means a palanquin: it is
the Hindustanee word, though one also generally used in conversation.
Each line is sung in a different voice; in the following, for
instance, the first line would be sung in the usual voice, the second
very high, the third in a sort of gruff tone:--
"Oh, what a heavy bag!
No; it's an elephant:
He is an awful weight.
Let's throw his palkee down--
Let's set him in the mud--
Let's leave him to his fate.
No, for he'll be angry then;
Ay, and he will beat us then
With a thick stick.
Then let's make haste and get along,
Jump along quick."
And then, suiting the action to the word, off they set in a nasty
jog-trot which rattled every bone in my body, keeping chorus all the
time of "jump along quick, jump along quick," until they were obliged
to stop for laughing. The second sample is from the men who carried
Mrs. Acland, and is in quite a different metre. I must tell you that
"cubbadar" means "take care," and "baba" (pronounced "barba") means
"young lady:"--
1.
"She's not heavy,
Cubbadar!
Little baba,
Cubbadar!
Carry her swiftly,
Cubbadar!
Pretty baba,
Cubbadar!
Cubbadar!
Cubbadar!
2.
"Trim the torches,
Cubbadar!
For the road's rough,
Cubbadar!
Here the bridge is,
Cubbadar!
Pass it swiftly,
Cubbadar!
Cubbadar!
Cubbadar!
3.
"Carry her gently,
Cubbadar!
Little baba,
Cubbadar!
Sing so cheerily,
Cubbadar!
Pretty baba,
Cubbadar!
Cubbadar!
Cubbadar!"
At this place very little wood is to be found--not enough for the
people to use for their fires during what is called the cold weather.
The women accordingly go out, and instead of gathering wood they pick
up cowdung. This they knead into flat round cakes about the size of
pancakes, dry them in the sun, and they burn almost as well as the
turf or peat which is used in England, though it is a great nuisance,
for the thick smoke it emits has a very unpleasant smell.
The other day we saw a most beautiful sight on the nearer hills.
Some of the jungle (or wild) men had set fire to the grass and
bushes on the side. The fire spread, shooting rapidly from one part
to another, and as it was late in the evening it produced a most
magnificent scene. The object in doing this was to get rid of the
snakes, bears, and tigers, in order that the people might go and cut
down the few large trees that grew on the hill.
Last night, as my wife and I were having a game of casino, we heard
a low growl in the compound, and directly afterwards a screaming
amongst the fowls, and a hallooing of the servants (we carry fowls
wherever we go, or we should be almost starved); the only words I
could distinguish were "Bargh! bargh!" A tiger! a tiger! I jumped up;
but on examination it proved to be a false alarm. It was only a large
wild animal, something resembling our fox, only with shorter legs
and longer body, which had attacked the fowls; and I had not so much
presence of mind as the Major I told you of, for when I ran out into
the compound to see what was the matter I quite forgot to take my
pistols, so the thief got safely off; but I have now secured my fowls
more effectually.
Just before we left Midnapore, a large flock of birds, flying in
regular order, amounting, I should think, to several thousands,
passed over the place. They made a great noise, and I thought they
were wild geese; but I hear they were a bird called the cyris, which
stands about five feet high, and is not a water-bird.
[Sidenote: INDIAN SCAVENGERS.]
I was much amused this afternoon whilst I was sitting in the verandah
with watching the crows. I think I have described them to you. They
are very like the carrion-crow in England, but rather smaller. There
is a law which imposes a heavy fine upon any one who kills them; this
is very right, for they carry away a quantity of refuse and filth
which would otherwise putrefy and cause disease; but the consequence
is, that they are more numerous and more impudent than the sparrows
in England. I threw out the bones of a fowl we had had for dinner;
presently about fifty crows came down within a few feet of me, and
began to peck away; every now and then a bird, which people here call
a kite, would swoop down, and send all the crows cawing away. As soon
as it rose, down came the crows again; presently one of them flew
away with a large bone in his beak; the kite saw it, and was off in
pursuit. Backwards and forwards, up and down the poor crow dodged,
but its pursuer followed it, and had nearly reached it, when the
pursued thought it best to drop the bone. The sharp eye of the kite
perceived this, and, although he was some distance above at the time,
yet he made a dart down and caught the bone in his mouth before it
had reached the ground. I have lately seen some kites like the others
in all respects, except that the body and head are white, the wings
being still brown; these are rather larger than the others.
Every sort of filth here is thrown out into the fields, and in a very
few hours the jackals and crows clear it away, assisted by the pariah
dogs. These are the only scavengers in the country.
The rain began on the 24th of December, and we had occasional showers
for two days; but every one is disappointed by the season. Instead of
having nice cool weather in January, the hot weather has completely
set in, although it does not in general begin before the middle of
February. The thermometer in the shade is at this moment above 80°,
although this is considered a cool place.
For my dinner yesterday I had some peacock-cutlets, which the surgeon
of the station had sent me.
Cuttack, February 2, 1843.
[Sidenote: JOURNEY TO CUTTACK.]
I must return now, and give you some account of how we started for
this place from Balasore. On Sunday the 8th of January we had service
in the morning; and at four in the afternoon we entered our palkees
to proceed to Cuttack, a distance of 103 miles.
Throughout the journey not a single European is to be met with, but
the traveller is entirely in the power of the natives, excepting such
assistance as he can derive from his pistols and a thick stick. The
danger however is not great. The Ooriahs, as well as the Bengalese,
are a small and cowardly race; so much so, indeed, that the East
India Company will not allow them to be enlisted as soldiers. A
Bengalee of five feet six is quite a tall man, and in shape he is as
delicate and effeminate as a European lady.
We jogged on most merrily until about half-past five the next
morning, when I was awakened by hearing "Sahib, Sahib;" to which I
sleepily answered by inquiring what my servant wanted. He told me
we were arrived at Barripore, about fifty miles from Balasore, and
they wanted to know whether I meant to go to the dâk-bungalow. I
said Yes: for we had determined to remain at Barripore all day, as
it is not safe to travel in the sun even in January. To the bungalow
we accordingly went; where we eat, drank, and read books which we
had brought with us, and amused ourselves as well as we could, until
four in the afternoon, when off we started again. I only remember one
adventure which happened there. My wife wanted to wash her hands,
and took up a "gomlah" to pour out some water; suddenly she cried
out that she was stung. I ran to see what it was, and, examining the
gomlah, found she had been bitten by a hornet. In comparison with
other insects the sting of this creature is an object of very little
dread. Her hand, however, swelled a little, and for three or four
hours she suffered a good deal of pain all up her arm, but still it
was fortunately only a hornet. At four o'clock in the afternoon we
again started, and arrived at our own house in Cuttack at about eight
the next morning.
It is customary at the end of each stage to make the palkees a
present of four annas (or sixpence) for each palkee. During one
of the stages between Barripore and Cuttack the men did not go so
quickly as I thought they should have done; so when we changed men I
only gave them four annas for the two palkees, telling them why I did
so. The consequence was, that during the next stage the men not only
went much faster, but invented a new song, the whole burthen of which
was, "He has only given them four annas because they went so slowly!
Let us make haste and go along quickly, and then we shall get eight
annas and have a good supper."
[Sidenote: FRUIT-TREES.]
My house here belongs to Government, and I am in great hope they will
allow me to occupy it free of rent; it is the best in the cantonment,
the compound contains about twenty acres, and there are in it several
beautiful clumps of trees. In front of the house is a fine group of
cedars; in one part is a hill, on the top of which are several trees:
I do not yet know their names, but their foliage is of a bright
green, more bright than any ever seen in England. We have an orchard
containing mangoes, custard-apples, waunpearls, mulberries, guavas,
&c. &c., with one chur-tree--that is, the true India-rubber tree,
and, I believe, the only one in this part of India; that at Jelasore
is a very inferior sort.
[Sidenote: ALLIGATORS.]
We have a grand house in the compound, and have, besides, a
flower-garden with orange and lemon trees, &c. A river three miles
broad flows near, and a ghaut, or landing-place, for pilgrims
proceeding to Juggernat'h, a Hindu holy temple. We can see in the
distance a range of hills, rising abruptly from the other side of the
river, which are a continuation of those at Balasore. On the sands
are storks, wild-geese, and all sorts of aquatic birds; even all the
tanks here abound with alligators. The other day one of the officers
was returning home from mess; it was dark, and in his compound he
fell over something which proved to be a large alligator, making
its way from the river to a tank, probably with a view of there
depositing her eggs. About three weeks ago a poor woman went to fetch
water from one of these places, on the surface of which were weeds;
she was engaged in clearing a space with her hands, when one of these
animals, with its jaws open, caught her arm and stripped off all the
flesh below the elbow. She was compelled to have her arm amputated.
[Sidenote: HUMAN REMAINS.]
I saw to-day a large hyæna gliding across the compound. I suppose he
smelt some dead body on the beach. The Juggernat'h pilgrims come from
very great distances, and many die on the road. In my compound alone,
if I were to collect the skulls, bones, &c., I think I could make up
eight or ten human skeletons. The other evening one of my servants
came to me, and said, "If you please, sir, there is a dead pilgrim
in the compound, and the matee wants to know if he shall throw it
away;"--that is, throw it down on the bank for the jackals, &c. I
would not let him do this, but sent notice to the commanding officer,
who sent for the body, and, I suppose, threw it away. About two hours
after this my wife was gone to bed, and I was sitting reading, when
I felt something on my foot; I examined, and in my stocking found a
large centipede. I contrived to kill him without being stung.
The Government allow me a guard of soldiers; and a sentry, with
musket and bayonet, parades up and down the front verandah; they also
allow three servants for the use of the church. The soldiers present
arms to me and salute; and when any one comes at night, they call
out, "Hookum dar?" to which the answer is "Exprin:" these phrases
are corruptions of the English. The church is very nicely fitted
up; there is a door leading into it from my study, which serves on
Sundays as a vestry. The greatest inconvenience here--as in all the
churches in India--consists in the punkahs. Over the pulpit, altar,
and reading-desk are three small punkahs, and over the body of the
building three very large ones, extending over the whole breadth.
These are kept constantly in motion, and they sadly intercept the
voice of whoever is preaching. The house, being a bungalow, has, of
course, only the ground-floor; the roof is a thick thatch, extending
over the verandahs, which in England would be called porticoes,
and these are supported on thick white columns. The ceilings in a
bungalow are nothing but large sheets of canvass whitewashed. As in
India people are glad to keep all the doors within the house open,
there is placed between the different rooms a framework covered with
crimson or green silk, which the natives call a half-door. The beds
are nine or ten feet wide, with short posts, on which you may hang
mosquito-curtains, which are a sort of large sacks made of gauze,
without any opening. They are supported on the posts and tucked in
closely all round, so as to prevent the mosquitoes from stinging the
people in bed; the only covering, generally, is a sheet, and the
gentleman's sleeping-dress is a flannel jacket and a pair of calico
drawers with feet to them, to keep off the mosquitoes if they should
by chance get inside the curtains. Some people also throw a gauze
over the face for the same purpose. There are no feather-beds, but
the mattresses are generally stuffed with the fibres from the outside
rind of the cocoa-nut, called "coir.". The usual plan is to leave
the glass doors (French windows you would call them) all open, but
to shut the Venetian blinds, and to have a punkah over your head
going all night. At about six in the morning all the glass doors are
closed, and kept shut all day to exclude the hot air. If, however,
there should be any wind, one of them is opened and a tattie hung up
in its place; the tattie is a thick mat the size of the doorway, made
of the sweet-scented cuscus-grass; this is kept constantly wetted on
the outside.
[Sidenote: THE MOHURRUN--POSITION OF CUTTACK.]
From the 1st to the 11th of February is the Mohammedan festival
of the Mohurrun, which is a grand scene. Every night drums beat,
and dancing and merrymaking are kept up among the men only, as the
Mohammedan women are kept in seclusion. In the compound the other day
I saw about a dozen men, one of them thumping away on the horrible
native drum called a "tomtom." Two others held by heavy chains a
tall sepoy (this word means a native soldier, and ought to be spelt
"sepahi"), who was covered all over with a dress of calico, fitting
tight to the skin--so much so that at first I thought he was naked.
The calico was painted in alternate stripes of red and yellow, and
he had two little yellow horns. I imagine it must have been intended
to represent the devil conquered and chained by Mohammed. He made
a number of antics, and ended, as all these people do, in begging
for a few pice; I gave him three annas. The station of Cuttack is
situated on a small island formed by the confluence of two rivers;
during the hot weather this island becomes a peninsula joined to the
main land by a narrow neck of sand. The advantage of this insular
position is that, whilst we abound in alligators, we are free from
bears and tigers, neither have we so many pariah-dogs as there were
about Midnapore. The opposite bank swarms with tigers, and with a
small telescope we can sometimes see them coming down to drink by
moonlight. On the opposite bank, all round the island, except to the
south, rise the rugged hills which dropped from Vishna's fingers.
There is one great comfort here: the sea is about fifty miles from
us, in a straight line towards the south, and every evening, at
about five o'clock, a deliciously cool sea-breeze sets in from that
direction. About seven it becomes quite gusty, and continues to blow
until about one in the morning. It is necessary to have lived in such
a climate as this to know how truly luxurious such evenings are after
the intense heat of the day, which is now rapidly increasing; the
thermometer in the shade is about 82° or 84°, and this is only the
beginning of February.
[Sidenote: FORT OF CUTTACK.]
A walk round the compound early in the morning is quite delightful.
On each tree are three or four of the beautiful little striped
squirrels, whilst in the branches are many paroquets, parrots, &c.
All about on the ground are numbers of a bird of a bright green,
with a red breast and head, about the size of a love-bird, and very
much like it, except that the beak is straight and rather long, and
from the centre of the tail project two long straight feathers of
a reddish green. There is also the beautiful mango-bird with its
bright yellow plumage and its glossy black head. Occasionally may be
seen an alligator lying asleep, with his head and shoulders on the
bank and the rest of his body in the water, while a lung-bird has
just alighted on his head and twitters to its mate by the side of
the tank. They are about the size of the amadavad, but shaped like
the swallow, and their plumage is alternately a glossy black or a
deep crimson, according as the sun shines on it. Then there is the
India-rubber tree, and skulls bleached in the sun. I saw one with
its little teeth in the front that had not yet pierced the gums:
they are the second teeth, and the skull, which is very small, must
have belonged to a mere child. The house belongs to Government, and
there are therefore three wells in the compound; but the water is
not good. The plan for watering this large orchard and garden is
as follows:--From the edge of the wall to the cistern is a wooden
trough, into which the water is thrown as it is drawn from the well.
By this means the cistern is filled. A brick gutter runs from the
cistern and separates it into so many branches; round each bed and
every here and there are little openings which let the water run out
on the bed. Suppose they only want to water one, they just take up a
little earth in a spade and stop up the other branches of the gutter.
Whenever it crosses a path, it is carried underneath by means of a
small drain. The muller takes two long bamboos, having at one end a
heavy weight and at the other a large gomlah suspended by a cord. One
muller pulls one cord downward to make the gomlah reach the water,
the other fills the gomlah, and, letting go the cord at the other end
of the bamboo, draws it up. This work proceeds with great rapidity,
and so the cistern gets filled and the garden watered. At a very
short distance from our garden stand the remains of a fort. When the
English took Cuttack this fort was garrisoned by the Mahrattas. They,
however, soon gave it up. The angles of the bastion were rectangles,
which prevents it being so strong as if they had been obtuse angles,
for then the balls would have had a tendency to glance off; but its
great strength consists in the ditch, which is about a hundred or a
hundred and fifty yards wide, with the perpendicular side faced with
bricks, full of water and swarming with alligators. The water is
most foul and offensive, but the medical men say that, if they were
to empty and drain it, it would make for many months a most fearful
pestilence. The natives have offered us 30,000_l._ to be allowed to
drain it, because they say there is a vast quantity of treasure in it.
[Sidenote: ORIGIN OF THE MOHURRUN.]
I have just learned the origin of the Mohurrun. It is a festival,
or rather commemoration of the death of Hussein and Houssein, the
sons of Ali, Mohammed's nephew. These two were pursued towards the
desert by their enemies; they took shelter in a well, and a spider
immediately wove a web across the top. Their enemies came up, and,
seeing the web, thought that Houssein and Hussein could not be in the
well. However, one of them looking down observed a number of lizards
all hastening up the sides, so then they thought there must be some
one at the bottom who frightened the lizards, and, searching, they
got up the two brothers and killed them. It is to commemorate this
fact that they have instituted the festival of the Mohurrun, and in
consequence the Mohammedans all reverence the spider, while they kill
the lizard.
The fort here is of great extent, comprising, I should think,
at least 100 acres. The walls have been demolished, and a great
portion of the interior is now occupied by a botanical garden and a
racket-court.
The winds have risen to-day with tumultuous fury, as though they
had been long confined and in one fearful moment had burst their
prison-house. There is something very grand, though awful, in these
furious tempest-bursts within the tropics. A few minutes back not a
leaf rustled; now the trees are waving to and fro, small branches are
whirled into the air, and leaves and rubbish are carried far away by
the revolving eddies of almost a hurricane. I could scarcely see the
river through the volumes of sand which are tossing about mixed with
the spray.
Monday, February 13, 1843.
I am going to cross the river into the jungle in a day or two, with
two other gentlemen. Our object is to plan a new village for some
native Christians. We each take a gun and a brace of pistols, and
have no doubt that we shall bring home some venison. We shall also
look out as we go along for two tigers, which have recently committed
terrible depredations about Condah, whither we are going. The other
day they carried off two men.
Gold-dust is mixed with the sand of the river, but the quantity is
very small, and is therefore not considered worth the trouble and
expense of collecting.
Cuttack, March 4, 1843.
One of my servants came to me this morning, and told me that there
was a boa-constrictor in the garden. I immediately desired all
the men to take long bamboos, and we sallied forth to attack the
monster. By the time we got to the place, however, he had retreated
into his hole in the ground; we had therefore to dig him out, and as
soon as he appeared all the men struck him with their bamboos until
they killed him. It proved not to be a boa, but a yellow snake about
seven feet long, and was not venomous. We killed it, however, lest it
might endanger the poultry-yard.
[Sidenote: EXCURSION TO CHOGGA.]
On Wednesday the 15th of February we started on our trip--myself and
Mr. L., a missionary: Captain W. was not able to accompany us on
account of the parade, but was to join us in the evening. On Tuesday
afternoon we got our guns in readiness, and sent off some camp
furniture, viz. a bedstead, table, &c., which fold up so as to be
easily portable. My bed, food, clothes, &c., were carried by two men,
each of whom was to receive two annas, that is three pence, a-day.
Chogga, and not Condah, is the name of the place to which we were
going, and it would be impossible to obtain anything there to eat
except what we shot ourselves.