the affections of the natives; I will now give you an instance of
the way in which the Government seek to conciliate them. It must be
remembered that salt is a Government monopoly, that is, no person
is allowed to prepare or sell it except by the appointment of
Government. The cost to them is about eight annas, or one shilling,
per maund of eighty pounds; they sell it for four rupees, or eight
shillings, for the same quantity; and yet so necessary is it to
the natives, that, if any man does not buy the usual quantity of
Government, which is, I believe, about half a seer, or one pound,
a-month, for each individual, he is brought by the police before a
magistrate and sent to gaol, on the presumption that, as he does not
purchase salt, he must smuggle it.
Now the salt-manufacturers receive a portion of their pay beforehand,
and the remainder when the salt is ready. They belong mostly to the
poorest classes, and their mode of working is very simple, merely
collecting the sea-water, and then suffering it to evaporate in the
sun. When they receive the first portion of their pay, they are told
how much they will receive per maund, for the price varies slightly
in different years. Last year they were promised a certain sum; I am
not exactly sure how much, but say eight annas per maund; and when
they came to the salt-agent for their money, they found that an order
had arrived from Government reducing the promised pay to six and a
half annas per maund. Of course they were excessively angry, and
utterly astonished; for one strong idea with the natives is, that an
Englishman will never tell an untruth. I happened to be present at
the time; it occurred at Pooree, in the neighbourhood of which are
some of the principal salt-works, if I may use so dignified a term.
The proper course for these poor people to have taken would have
been, to have brought an action against Government for breach of
contract; but this they could not possibly afford. However, the
magistrates of Pooree sent a strong remonstrance to Government, and
the consequence was, that they authorized the salt-agent this year to
renew the contracts at the higher price, much to the delight of the
poor salt-manufacturers, who still lost a part of the promised price
of last year; yet it is scarcely to be credited that, before the time
for the second payment arrived, another order was sent down, reducing
the price as they did last year, and thus again defrauding the poor
wretches of part of their small pittance, for defrauding it is in the
truest sense of the word. All these things are managed by four or
five men, who compose what is called the Salt Board.[6] I may mention
that the salt-workers have been sadly disturbed this year by the
number of tigers. The natives sometimes keep the claws of those which
they are so fortunate as to kill, to make charms to keep off mischief.
[Sidenote: RELIGION OF THE BRAHMINS--JUGGERNAT'H.]
And now I must describe Juggernat'h. To the temple are attached
about _four thousand_ priests and servants. Of these one set are
called Pundahs. In the autumn of every year they start on a journey
through India, preaching in every town and village the advantages
of a pilgrimage to Juggernat'h; after which they conduct to Pooree
large bodies of pilgrims for the Rath Justra, or Car Festival, which
takes place in May or June--the precise time depends on the moon, as
does the time of our Easter. This is the principal festival, and the
number of devotees varies from about 80,000 to 150,000. About five
years ago there were present, on one occasion, not less than 250,000;
but that numerous meeting was owing to some peculiar sanctity which
is supposed to be diffused once in 200 years. But I ought to have
commenced with some account of Juggernat'h himself. He represents
the ninth incarnation of Vishnoo. I have often wondered whether the
Hindu religion may not, in some portions, be taken remotely from
the Christian. One name of Vishnoo is Chrishna; one appellation of
Juggernat'h is Sri Teo. This Teo, as Chrishna, became incarnate
whilst very young; he was sought after by a king to put him to
death. Many children were killed, but he was removed from place to
place in safety. He was born amongst the shepherds. The Hindus look
for a tenth incarnation, when he shall unite all the world in one
religion, and himself reign over them. I believe I am correct in
giving these as points of faith amongst the Brahmins; and when we
consider that the Hindu religion was probably established long after
St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew had visited India, it certainly seems
allowable to suppose that some portion of the Christian teaching
became mingled with the doctrines of the Hindus. There is one
objection to this supposition, namely, that Vishnoo is represented to
have lived a very wicked and immoral life while on earth.
No European, Mussulman, or low-caste Hindu is admitted into the
temple; we can, therefore, only speak on hearsay of what goes on
inside. The idol itself is renewed every twelve years; it consists
of a mere block of sacred wood, in the centre of which is said to be
concealed a fragment of the original idol, which was fashioned by
Vishnoo himself. The features and all the external parts are formed
of a mixture of mud and cowdung painted. Every morning the idol
undergoes his ablutions; but as the cowdung and paint would not stand
the washing, the priests adopt a very ingenious plan--they hold a
mirror in front of the image, and wash his reflection. Every evening
he is put to bed; but as the idol is very unwieldy, they place the
bedstead in front of him; on that they lay a small image, lock the
door, and leave him to come down himself, if he can.
Offerings are made to him, by pilgrims and others, of rice, money,
jewels, elephants, &c.; the Rajah of Knoudah and the priests being
his joint treasurers. About twelve days before the Rath Justra,
Juggernat'h goes to bathe; whilst doing so, he is supposed to be
bitten by a snake, which causes him to be sick until the day of the
festival. During his illness the priests take off his paint and
cowdung, and give quite a new coat; so that at the end of the time he
appears quite healthy and strong.
On the grand day the three cars, which, I should say, were fifty or
sixty feet in height, are brought to the gate of the temple; the
idols are then taken out by the priests--Juggernat'h having golden
arms and diamond eyes for that one day--and by means of pulleys
are hauled up and placed in their respective carriages; to these
enormous ropes are attached, and the assembled thousands, with loud
shouts, proceed to drag the idols to Juggernat'h's country-house, a
small temple at about a mile distant. This occupies several days,
and the idols, having rusticated for some time, are brought back to
their regular station. The Hindus believe that every person who aids
in dragging the cars receives pardon for all his past sins; every
pilgrim who dies within five miles of Pooree will be greatly blessed
in his next life; and every person who swims out to sea, so far as
to see the top of the temple from the surface of the water, secures
great blessings in another life for himself, his father and mother,
his grandparents, and the three next generations descended from
himself! This last experiment, however, is very rarely tried; there
are too many sharks to make it pleasant. One man was drowned last
year in attempting it. As to the people throwing themselves under
the wheels of the car, that I believe to be altogether a European
invention. Some occasionally fall accidentally, and are thus killed;
but I imagine that self-immolation in this way neither is nor ever
was at all a common thing.
I have very little doubt that great wickedness prevails within the
temple. In two cases, lately, it is known that murder has been
committed there; yet we, who have held the country so long, are not
allowed to enter the building. It is said that if we attempted it
we should be driven from the district; this I do not believe. Some
years ago the priests declared that the god would not leave his
country-house until all the English were driven from the province.
The officer commanding at Cuttack directly sent word that, if the
idol was not brought back on the usual day, he would come and blow
both it and the temple to pieces. Juggernat'h immediately came to his
senses, and was back in his temple one day before his regular time.
During the period the pilgrims remain at Pooree they are not allowed
to eat anything but what has been offered to the idol, and that they
have to buy at a very high price from the priests. This food is often
very bad, and from that, combined with other causes, the cholera
makes sad ravages amongst these poor people.
[Sidenote: NUMEROUS DEATHS--EVIL OMEN.]
At the festival that is just past it is calculated that there were
about 130,000 pilgrims. The cholera this year was very mild; but not
less than 650 died at Pooree, or between that place and Cuttack.
Their bodies are generally thrown out to be devoured by the dogs,
vultures, and jackals. One Sunday morning, in coming home from
church, we found that three bodies had been thrown out in front of
our house; two of them were rapidly disappearing in the jaws of these
animals, the other was tossing about in the surf. However, I sent to
the magistrate, and he had them removed and burnt. A vast proportion
of the pilgrims are widows. In India a widow is not permitted to
marry again, but must be supported by her late husband's relations;
and it is said that many of those poor women are sent down to Pooree
in hope of getting rid of them, and no doubt this purpose frequently
succeeds. And to support this system our Government pays 6000_l._
a-year; equal to the salaries of ten chaplains of our Church.
This year an event occurred which the Hindus consider to be very
ominous of evil. As they were bringing the god out, one of the chief
priests was seized with cholera, and was sick all over the idol. The
necessary purifications occupied so long a time, that the procession
was not able to start that day.
I have just had a sad misfortune: all my cloth clothes, cloaks,
&c., with two or three dozen shirts, flannels, waistcoats, drawers,
&c. &c.--in short, everything but what was in actual use--were put
away in a large chest. Whilst we were at Pooree my stupid man never
once looked at them. When I returned I wanted something out of the
chest, opened it, and found that every individual thing had been
almost entirely destroyed by white ants--coats, shirts, flannels,
were eaten through in all directions; and I think there was, at
least, 50_l._ worth destroyed. I have fined my man two months' pay
for his carelessness; but, as that is only 22_s._, it is a very poor
consolation to me.
FOOTNOTE:
[6] We can scarcely imagine that the Supreme Government would lend
itself to such a transaction; we think it far more likely that
it occurred through the culpability or negligence of some of the
inferior agents, who may have misrepresented the case to Government.
Cuttack, August 10, 1844.
[Sidenote: BRINDABUND MONKEYS.]
The weather is now most fearfully oppressive; not so much from the
actual heat, for the thermometer is seldom above 86° or 87°, but
from a dense mass of cloud, which at the height of a few hundred
feet encloses us, as it were, day and night in one vast steamy
vapour-bath. The last two or three months are actually the most
trying that I have felt in India.
I forget whether I have described the Brindabund monkeys. I have now
a pair of them. I do not remember ever to have seen them in England.
They are covered all over with long, thick, black hair; but round the
face, extending from temple to temple, is a very broad, thick frill
of white or rather light grey: the tail is of a middling length,
the snout very short, and the animal himself remarkably docile and
intelligent. Those that I have are not yet a year old, and I should
say the body is about a foot in length. When on their hind legs they
stand nearly two feet.
I have mine in the verandah just outside my study door, and they are
so full of fun that I often sit for a long time watching them. One
runs a little way up the lattice, then the other makes a spring after
him, and up they both go as fast as they can. Presently the lower
one catches hold of the upper one's tail, and brings him down to the
bottom; then he makes a jump and gets away into his kennel and sits
at the door, whilst the other wanders round and round, trying to find
some place where he can get in without being observed; in doing this
he carelessly turns his back, when out jumps the other and catches
hold of his tail or his hind leg, and drags him round and round their
cage. I should tell you that the cage is the end of the verandah at
the back of my house; two sides of it are wall, and the other two are
lattice. It is about ten feet square, twelve feet high at one end,
and eighteen or twenty at the other.
When they are frightened they sit upright on the floor, with their
arms clasped round each other; and if I take one of them out tied
by a string, they both scream the whole time until they are brought
together again, and then they rush into each other's arms. These
two monkeys are very much admired by the Europeans at Cuttack, who
have given them the name of "the gentlemen monkeys," because, from
the great length of their hair, they look as if they were dressed,
besides being quiet and docile. They are almost as rare here as in
England. They are of the most sacred race of monkeys in the eyes of
the Hindus; and indeed the only objection I have to them is, that I
am afraid some of my servants make poojah to them, that is, worship
them, and prostrate themselves before them, and make offerings of
rice to them.
We have a great improvement in the use of our finger-glasses over
those in England. One man waits behind every person at each meal,
even at tea, and as soon as the meal is over he brings his master or
mistress a finger-glass filled with water, with two or three leaves
of verbenum, or bay, or sweet-smelling lime, for the persons to
squeeze between their fingers. In a hot climate like India this is
very pleasant and refreshing.
[Sidenote: INDIAN MARRIAGES.]
When a man in India, I mean a European gentleman, wants a wife, he
says to his friend, "I should like to get married." "Well," says he,
"why don't you?" and forthwith he applies for leave of absence for
a month. A month consists of thirty days, of which, say five are
occupied in his journey to Calcutta, and another five on his journey
back, leaving him just twenty days in which to make his selection,
get introduced, make himself agreeable, propose, court, and be
married. A nice prospect he has for future happiness. But there is
one curious result in this sort of marriage, and a result, too, which
spreads among other people also. After a few years the wife loses
her health and is ordered to England. The husband cannot afford to
go with her, but he allows her about half his salary. At the end of
two or three years, or whatever time may have been fixed, he writes
to his wife to make arrangements for her return to India; and I have
known two instances in which the husband was obliged to stop the
allowance in order to compel the wife to return.
I have often wished to have some peacocks in my compound, but every
one told me that they would fly away; however, I found that those who
had tried to keep them had obtained the young birds from the jungle.
I thought I would try another plan, and therefore I got some eggs
and set them under a hen. I have three young ones coming on nicely,
perfectly tame, and which, I think, will look very well among the
trees in front of my house. Two are peacocks, the other a peahen.
Cuttack, September 14, 1844.
[Sidenote: A NIGHT'S REST.]
My wife and I were sitting, after tea, playing at backgammon and
enjoying the cool breeze that came through the open Venetians, when
suddenly it began to rain. In an instant the room swarmed with
insects of all sorts. There was the beautiful large green mantis;
and, as we were watching his almost human motions, a grasshopper and
a large brown cricket flew against my face, while a great cockroach,
full three inches long, came on my wife's neck, and began running
about her head and face and dress; the flying-ant, which emits a
most nauseous effluvia; and the flying-bug, black, and about the
size of an English one, which, if you crush him, will make your
fingers smell most dreadfully for many hours;--and with these our
clothes were covered, and we were obliged to keep brushing them away
from our faces, but with very gentle handling; and then came two
or three hornets, which sent Mrs. Acland to bed to get under the
mosquito-curtains, where none of these horrid creatures can get at
her. I sat up trying to read, but buzz came a mosquito on the side
of my face, up went my hand a tremendous slap on the cheek to kill
the tormentor, and buzz he went on again. Then I felt something big
burying itself in my hair, and then came buzz on the other side, and
then all around.
Presently, with a loud hum, a great rhinoceros-beetle dashed into my
face. I now began to take some of the animals out of my hair; and
the first that I touched was a flying-bug: the stench was dreadful.
I rushed out of the room, brushing the horrible creatures from my
hair with both hands. I nearly fell over a toad on which I trod, and
reached my bed-room to find eighteen or twenty great toads croaking
in different parts of the room, and five large bats were whirling
round and round the bed. Having washed my hands in eau-de-cologne, I
quickly undressed and fell asleep.
In the course of the night a troop of jackals surrounded the house,
and by their frightful yells soon drove away all idea of rest; and
then, about four o'clock, as we were just dozing off again, comes
the roll of the drum and the loud voice of the trumpet, the tramp of
the soldiers, the firing, and all the bustle of the parade; and, as
soon as that is over, comes the changing guard, and the "_shoulder
harrm_," and the "_quick marrch_," near our house; and so we got up.
[Sidenote: THE BATH.]
Then comes the bath, the greatest luxury of the day (the water just
cooler than the air), into which I get with a book, lie there an hour
reading, get out and partly dress, and then admit my man to wash
my feet in cold water, and to shampoo me and brush my hair, whilst
another brings me a cup of delicious coffee or a glass of sherbet;
and then breakfast, with an enormous fan swinging to and fro over
our heads; and the heat, and the discomfort, and languor till five
o'clock, agreeably diversified only by a bottle of beer cooled with
saltpetre and water; and then a drive, and tea, and mosquitoes again,
and so on.
Cuttack, October 13, 1844.
[Sidenote: THE DOCTOR.]
I had to make a five days' journey at the worst season of the year
to marry a couple, and I returned with a bad cough, which became
more violent after the cold had left me. I am very weak, so that I
walk like an old man. The doctors here are paid by the Government
for attending all persons in the service. The Company also find
medicines, but not the bottles, which sometimes leads to curious
circumstances. The other day I wanted some medicine, and sent to the
doctor for it; presently my man brought me back a black-draught in an
old eau-de-cologne bottle, with a roll of paper by way of cork, and a
request that I would return the bottle, as it was the only one he had.
I am about to apply for leave of absence. I shall go up to Calcutta,
spend a fortnight with my friends there, Mr. and Mrs. S.; they will
then come down here, when Mrs. Acland will join us, and we shall go
to the Chelka Lake and the black pagodas.
I have another monkey now, which is kept at the stable; it is a
horrible animal, about a foot and a half high, of a light greenish
brown colour, no hair on its head, and very much inclined to be
savage. I keep it to please my stable-people, who have a superstition
that this kind of monkey prevents the horses getting unwell. Not long
ago a young officer turned a very savage one loose; it took up its
abode in my compound. In one night it killed three of my fan-tailed
pigeons, and it chased my goats backward and forward so incessantly,
that one of them died of fatigue. I told my stable-people to catch
the animal, and get rid of him. This they did not do; so I then gave
them notice, that, if the monkey was not in the jungle on the other
side of the river by seven o'clock the next morning, I would cut them
all a month's pay. This is the best method of punishing the natives,
and in the present instance it was most effectual, for I have not
seen the fiendish-looking face of the exile since that day.
In India the cow's milk is very bad, poor, and thin; that of the
buffalo is of a bad colour and rank; but what is furnished by the
goat is delicious, and many people, ourselves among the number, keep
flocks of goats. I flatter myself that mine (twelve goats and seven
kids) are very handsome. The male kids we eat when they are old
enough to leave their mother; they are very nice indeed. Our goats
are much larger than those in England, but all other animals are
very small. I have heard it said at table, "Will you take a shoulder
or leg of lamb?" Beef and veal in this bigoted part of the country
are quite forbidden things. Yet how curious this is! No animals are
worse treated than the bullocks, which are here the only beasts of
burden. They are starved and ill-used in every way. I have seen a man
dislocate several joints successively of his bullock's tail; yet, if
I were to fire my gun at the poor animal to put it out of its misery,
I should probably have my house burnt over my head.
I saw a most extraordinary sight last night. It was in the evening
very hot, and a great deal of electricity in the air. There were two
very heavy clouds, one at a considerable distance above the other.
Suddenly some vapour separated itself with a whirling motion from
the upper, assuming the shape of a waterspout until the point touched
the lower; then a commotion began, the lower cloud rushing in large
white masses up the sides of the spout and uniting with the upper.
This continued for nearly forty minutes, until the lower was absorbed.
Cuttack, November 14, 1844.
I sowed some melon-seed one Friday morning; on the Monday when I went
into the garden most of the melon-plants were two inches in height.
In three days, in the open ground, from being mere dry seeds they
had germinated and sprung up into strong healthy plants. The same
rapidity of growth is remarkable in almost all vegetation in this
country. I sowed some English peas the day before yesterday; this
morning they are all above the ground. Thus we see that the effect
of the climate is to hurry all these things forward, so that they
naturally decay and die much earlier than they would in Europe.
[Sidenote: EARLY MATURITY AND DECAY OF NATIVES.]
Now just put man in the place of a vegetable, and the case is
precisely the same. A native boy has generally good-sized mustachios
by the time he is fourteen, and a girl becomes a woman at eleven
or twelve; then, again, at thirty the woman is old and shrivelled,
and at forty the man is white-haired and decrepit. Who can wonder,
then, that a climate like this should have such serious effects on
Europeans, or that our constitutions should be soon worn out by the
burning sun?
However, this month I have no right to complain; I am far better than
I have been for some time. The weather is delightful; we are glad of
a thick blanket and counterpane at night; at six, when I get up, the
thermometer is rarely above 72°. I have no objection to a cloak when
I am sowing seeds in the morning. The thermometer now, two o'clock
P.M., is in my room exactly 80°, but there is a delightful cool
breeze.