A Popular Account of the Manners and Customs of India

I went on, with my broad-brimmer hat and brown leather gaiters, followed by twenty or thirty black fellows, forcing my way through the thickest, densest shrubberies, thinking at every instant that I might come suddenly on a large bear. Every now and then a break would occur in the jungle, and I would emerge from the tangled thicket into a broad open space of three or four acres, covered with the smoothest turf, interspersed here and there with the graceful bamboo, and surmounted on all sides with a literal wall of trees and underwood. On their branches sat the splendid wild fowls and the beautiful peacocks, whilst from all sides I heard the soft cooing of the doves.

Then again I would find myself in a similar open space; but instead of the turf there was a broad sheet of water, with the red and white lotus-flowers floating on the surface, and the glittering white paddy-bin (a sort of small stock) stretching along the edge. A little farther on I came suddenly on a large jheel (a piece of shallow muddy water), with the heron and the pelican, and I think the spoonbill, standing on the sides and busily catching their breakfast of fish. Several of the most curious of the birds I shot, in order to preserve their skins, and occasionally, as a hare darted across my path, I would raise my gun and fire. But one bird I must describe more particularly.

I was standing by the side of a large jheel, when a native called out, "A bird, very good: look, sir." I looked in the direction in which he pointed, but could see nothing, and was going to scold him, when he said, "It will come." I continued watching, when presently I saw what appeared to be a long snake rising from the water. It was some little time before I could make up my mind that this was actually part of a bird, and by that time the long neck was again drawn under water, and nothing was visible.

A WATER-RACE

I continued to watch, and presently, at some yards from the spot where it had before appeared, the same snaky form was again elevated into the air. It was almost like shooting at a reed, but however I raised my gun and fired. There was an instant struggle in the water, and then I saw the body of a large dark-coloured bird floating on the surface. Wishing to obtain the body, I turned to the natives and said, "The man that wants a pice, bring that bird to me." The pice is a little more than a farthing, but enough to find a family for a day. Six or eight boys and men dashed into the water, and there was a regular race, struggling and swimming in order to obtain the prize. One boy had just reached the spot, when suddenly it disappeared; now the long neck rose in a different place, and again there was a rush to obtain the pice. The bird, which was evidently much wounded, began to move across the water, keeping its long neck about eighteen inches above the surface, no other part being visible. I was running round the banks to have another shot, when the bird suddenly rose, and, with its long legs extending behind, flew over the jungle. I saw it fall at a short distance, but the bushes were so thickly matted together that I could not get near the place.

As I advanced farther from Balasore the natives of the village appeared astonished at my appearance, many of them probably never having seen a white man before. Some stood still staring at me, others ran and hid themselves in their houses. At last I came to a large open space of a mile or more in diameter, and here a most singular scene presented itself. Throughout the whole extent of the space, large masses of black rock, perfectly smooth and rounded at the edges, rose at intervals to the height of twelve or sixteen feet, at an angle of about 70°. It appeared as if some mighty city had been swept over by a hurricane, and all the walls were tottering to their fall.

Some time after this, to my great satisfaction, I arrived at the tent, which had been sent there the day before, and found a plentiful breakfast ready, and the rest of the party anxiously awaiting my arrival. I had been nearly six hours on foot. Our tent is about eighteen feet square, with one pole in the centre, a table and chairs inside, and our palanquins, in which we sleep at night, standing under a sort of canvas verandah. There is another very small tent for a bath-room, and also a part composed of a single piece of canvas for the servants. The latter is about thirty feet long and fifteen broad.

ENCAMPMENT

And now let us look around the encampment. The immediate neighbourhood consists of rice-fields, from which the paddy has been cut. At about half a mile from the tents on either side is a thick jungle, and in the distance are the rugged and magnificent hills of the Neilghur, which I have already described.

At six o'clock in the evening the sun was just setting as we three sahibs returned from our day's shooting. The magistrate is just washing his hands in a chillumchee, or brass basin, at the door of the tent. In the front-ground, on two chairs, are seated the doctor and myself; the former is having his long leather gaiters or overalls pulled off. I have one foot in a chillumchee of warm water, the other resting on the black knee of one of my servants, who is shampooing and cracking each joint of the toes. Now he has done that, wiped the foot dry, put on the shoe, and is squeezing or kneading each muscle in the calf of the leg. No one but those who have experienced it can have any idea what a luxury this is when you are very tired!

Behind us stands a long-bearded turbaned khitmutgar, with sherry and glasses. Our guns are leaning against the side of the tent, our horses are picketed to a tree close by, and the grooms are busily rubbing them down. A hundred or a hundred and fifty black natives are separating into groups according to their castes, and are lighting fires all around in order to cook their dinners. Behind the servants' tent is a fire of charcoal, over which a black man is turning a hare, some partridges, a peacock, and several other results of our day's sport. Close by is another fire of wood crackling and sparkling, on which are stew-pans with salmon, oysters, &c. &c., which have come from England.

It grows late: the moon rises over the hills; the fires blaze up in all directions; I see the swarthy natives moving around them, and hear them chattering or singing their low monotonous song; everything looks wild; I begin to indulge in all sorts of reveries – when a man approaches with his hands clasped together, and, bending low before me, says "Cana meg" (dinner-table). The peacock takes the place of the reverie; visions of the partridges and oysters flit across my mind; and I run to help in demolishing a most substantial and well-earned meal. I then go to my palkee. The howling of the jackals does not awake me, I am too well used to it; but at last, about two o'clock in the morning, I was aroused by a sort of sniffing and a scratch at the door. I guessed at once what it was, and debated for an instant whether I should open it a little and try the effect of my pistols, or call out so as to rouse my companions, or lie still and leave him to himself. I determined on the latter; as, supposing I had not killed him, my visitor might have come into my palanquin and killed me before I could get assistance. I therefore lay quietly with a pistol in my hand; and I felt much happier when I heard the bear at last trot off.

Barripore, January 16, 1844

THE NEILGHUR HILLS

On Friday morning the magistrate and myself determined to ascend one of the Neilghur hills. The doctor did not think it worth the fatigue, and therefore shot partridges and wild-ducks for our breakfasts. We started from our tents at about half-past five in the morning. For about four miles our road lay through jungle, similar to that I have already described.

As we emerged from this the effect was most extraordinary. We had been suffering much from heat, and the sudden exclamation of both of us was, "Oh, how very cold!" A chilling blast came down from the hills, which entirely altered the temperature of the air; and, moreover, the place where we now were can very rarely, if ever, be reached by the sun. These causes produce a most singular effect upon the vegetation. Behind us was a dense jungle of bamboos, brambles, cacti, &c., through which it was most difficult to force a passage. In front of us for nearly a mile – that is, extending to the foot of the hills – the appearance was altogether different: not a bamboo nor a cactus, not a bramble, scarcely even a thorn; the turf perfectly smooth; the only plants a sort of laurel and a species of wild-apple; and no two plants growing within four feet of each other. It was like a wilderness or a shrubbery in a gentleman's park. We found several marks of bears and also of elephants; and the natives were rather unwilling to proceed. However, we led the way, with our guns in our hands, and soon arrived at the foot of the hill. It rose very suddenly, and in many places we had to climb for several feet up the face of a smooth black rock, similar to that which I have already mentioned.

We had no adventures beyond a tumble or two, but it was a most fatiguing work; and the instant we reached the top we threw ourselves down and called for a cigar and a glass of beer. This hill, which is much the lowest of the whole range, is not, I suppose, more than five hundred feet in height: it rises to a peak, the extreme top being about six feet in diameter. Here we fired off our guns as a signal to the doctor, and then commenced our descent.

At the bottom we were very glad to mount our horses and ride back to the tent. It was a very clear morning, and you can hardly imagine the wild magnificence of the scene from the top. Behind us lay the thick jungle through which we had passed, with Balasore in the distance, and the sea forming the background; in front, a wilderness of brushwood, extending as far as the eye could reach; to the right was a winding river, bordered by the graceful bamboo, with native villages and patches of rice-fields on its banks; whilst to the left, from the midst of the thickets, rose abruptly the other hills, towering to the height of several thousand feet. All these ranges belong to tributary rajahs, and are not the property of the English. We were delighted with our excursion, and it has led to the proposal of another, which we hope to accomplish, with the addition to our party of the doctor and the master-attendant, as soon as I return from Cuttack.

This second expedition is to be to the highest point visible from Balasore. No human being has ever yet ascended it, and the natives pretend that it is impracticable; however, we mean to try. I should like to set my foot where no man has ever trodden. We shall go well armed with guns, pistols, and swords; we are also each to carry a hatchet and a billhook, to cut our way through the jungle.

We intend to take a barometer and thermometer in order to measure the height, and go well attended by natives. It is said that this hill is tenanted by all sorts of wild beasts, but we shall be too well armed to fear them. The inhabitants are a very savage race, and offer up human sacrifices; but they will hardly dare to attack white men. I am very fond of these excursions; the exercise I consider good for me – whilst at Guzzeepuddee I was ten or eleven hours on my feet each day; and another great advantage is, that they cost nothing beyond the price of powder and shot. I must now start for Cuttack. I found in the jungle the skeleton of a small boa constrictor: it is perfect except the lower jaw. I told one of my servants to take care of it. When I returned to Balasore he had lost it; I said, if he did not find it again I should deduct a rupee from his month's wages. His answer was, "O representative of God, you are the father and the mother of your slave, and you must do with him as you think fit." However, he managed to find the skeleton.

Midnapore, February 1, 1844

BHABANESWAR AND CUNDEGANEE

When I returned to Cuttack the last time I found that my wife had been rather poorly for some days; I therefore determined that I would take her out for a little excursion. We accordingly sent out a tent and all necessary apparatus, and then started with some friends of ours – a Captain of Engineers and his wife, and a couple of children – to explore two of the most extraordinary places in India, Bhabaneswar and Cundeganee. At the former there are nine hundred and ninety-nine temples, besides numerous tombs, &c.: at the latter place some very high hills, perforated in every direction with artificial caves; a palace, statues, and animals, cut out of the solid rock; long inscriptions in some language now forgotten; images of gods, of which the Hindus know nothing.

The trip did my wife a great deal of good; but almost immediately after our return to Cuttack I was attacked by one of the fearful diseases of the country. Fortunately I knew what it was by the very first symptoms, and therefore went to the doctor at once. The disease is what we call liver; in England it is called, I think, inflammation of the liver. It is accompanied by a soreness in the side and acute pain in the shoulder. The doctor immediately took most energetic pains to reduce me both in size and in strength, and he succeeded so well that all danger was soon over. Directly I was better I was ordered change of air, starvation, and exercise.

February 15, 1844

I feel quite well again: we start for the hills this afternoon. The party consists of seven Europeans and about one hundred natives. It happened rather curiously that the Rajah to whom the hill belongs called here this morning on business: he is a very intelligent young man. He has volunteered to accompany us, to supply us with elephants if we wish to hunt upon the plain, and to provide us an escort of five hundred men; so we shall go in state. He rode a magnificent white horse with pink eyes. We each take a small axe, a pair of pistols, and two guns.

But before proceeding I would enter into more particulars concerning the excursion that we took for the benefit of my wife's health. On Monday we all started at half-past five in the morning – Captain R. and myself on horseback, and Mrs. R. and my wife in palanquins, having their ponies led by their side. We had about one hundred and twenty servants with us, Captain R. having a good deal of surveying and other work to do.

As we went along the road he stopped to inspect the different bridges, &c. We had one little adventure this morning. It seems that some months ago a beyraghee, or mendicant, sat himself down by the side of the road, a few miles from Cuttack, with nothing but an umbrella to shade him from the sun. There he remained for some weeks, subsisting on the charity of the pilgrims who were proceeding to Juggernat'h. I should have mentioned that our road lay, for a considerable distance, on the direct route for Pooree. After some time the beyraghee made himself a little hut of wicker-work, after the fashion of many of the Indian devotees. These baskets, as I may call them, are just large enough to contain a man in a lying-down position; they are, in fact, mere coverings.

By degrees the basket became a good-sized mud hut; then the beyraghee began to enclose a small piece of ground, which he cultivated, and built himself a granary of bamboo to contain the rice given him by the pilgrims. Now, although a man with an umbrella does not much matter, yet a hut with a little field, around which a village is likely enough to spring up, cannot be allowed upon the roadside, which belongs to Government.

The man had been warned, but paid no attention to what was said; and accordingly, when we reached the spot, Captain R. directed the chuprapees, or Government messengers, to pull down the fence and destroy the hut, granary, &c. We sat on our horses while these men obeyed the order. In a quarter of an hour the whole was level with the ground. I knew that Captain R. was perfectly right, yet I could not help pitying the poor man, who came and laid himself down at our horses' feet, with his hands clasped over his head. Like many of the beyraghees, he was entirely naked. They are a worthless, wicked set of men, and peculiarly obnoxious to Europeans. It was a singular scene. Captain R. and myself, with our broad-brimmed hats, sitting quietly on our sturdy ponies; a half-naked groom at the head of each; the naked beyraghee at our feet; and a dozen chuprapees, in the white native dress, with red badges, hewing the house and fence to pieces, and scattering the remains on all sides under the grove of mangoes with which the road was bordered. In the distance were the palanquins, whilst the wild song of the bearers faintly reached our ears.

ENCAMPMENT AT BENGWHARRIE

Nothing of interest occurred after this until we arrived at Bengwharrie, a small village, where our tents were pitched under a grove, or, as we call it, a "tope," of splendid trees. I have already described the appearance of a private encampment; the only difference here was that we had a greater number of men about us, and more tents. Mine contains one room, about twenty-four feet square; in the centre rises the high pole which supports our canvas house. At each end are cloth doors, made to roll up. The tent has a double fly or covering, one much larger than the other; it is like a small one inside a large one. This tends to keep it warm at night, and cool during the day; the outer fly forms a verandah round the inner room. In the latter are two small camp bedsteads, a camp table, camp chairs, &c. By camp bedsteads, &c., I mean such as will double up for the convenience of carriage. In the verandah are our palanquins, a chest of wine, beer, &c., some cooling apparatus, and various other articles. At one side there is an entrance into a small tent, which serves for a bathing-room.

After breakfast, we were very much interested in watching the monkeys. The tope swarmed with a grey species, some of which appeared almost as large as men. They are peculiarly sacred in the eyes of the Hindus, who imagine that one of their gods once assumed a similar form. They are called Hunnamuns, which was the name of that deity. My wife and I stood at the door of the tent watching them for hours; they do not appear to be afraid of men. Many of the females had young ones with them, and they came and sat down close to us with their little ones in their laps. First they would suckle them, then they would hush them to sleep, or turn them over and over, pulling off all the dirt that adhered to their skins, and making them clean and comfortable.

A little farther off you would see four or five males picking the fruit off a low bush, and chattering to one another all the time. Then a half-grown one would jump down, and give a hard pull at an old one's tail, for which he generally received a good box on the ear, unless he was nimble enough to get out of the way in time; presently one of the old fellows would get angry, and spring into the tree after his little tormentor, and a regular chase would ensue. The leaps they take are tremendous; they will often spring from the top of a lofty tree into the middle of the next without falling.

I saw one of the females shot; it was a cruel sight, and struck all the natives with horror. They refused to touch the dead body. The ball did not kill her instantly, and she cried piteously, whilst she pressed her little one to her bosom, and tried to get into the tree. To the last she would not relinquish her young one, and died in endeavouring to save it. I could not shoot a monkey, their actions and their cries are so like human beings. I know of a case in which an officer shot one, and the whole herd instantly sprang from the trees and attacked him; it was with difficulty he was saved. They are most interesting creatures.

CROW-PHEASANT

In the evening I went out with my gun, accompanied by Captain R. I got nothing, however, but some doves and some crow-pheasants; the latter are not eaten by Europeans, though much relished by the low-caste natives. It is a bird, as the name signifies, between a crow and a pheasant. The colour is black, tinged with a deep dull red. It has a long tail, and runs like a pheasant; but I believe that its food is the same as a crow's, that is, carrion and animal food.

GAME

On the Tuesday morning Captain R. was lazy, so I started by myself at six o'clock to try and get some jungle-fowl. When I say by myself, I of course mean with three or four servants. I, however, shot nothing but a few doves and one green pigeon. The latter is a large bird, of a pale-green colour, and is most delicious eating, which is more than can be said of any of the game in India. The partridges are dry and flavourless; the deer have literally not a particle of fat upon them; the hares are fit for nothing but soup. A leveret is good, and so is a very young peacock, but, old or young, they must be eaten the same day that they are killed. By the by, the black partridge is pretty good: it has a black neck, shading into deep red on the head; the back is dark; the breast and tail are most beautifully covered with minute white spots.

I may as well mention now that we shot the other day a double-spurred partridge; it was of a dingy red colour, with a crest on its head; the legs were bright red, and each armed with two long sharp spurs. As I walked along I observed a bird of a species which I had never seen before; I tried to shoot it, in order to have it stuffed, but missed, and sadly frightened some monkeys who were in the same tree. As far as I could judge, every feather was a bright blue, giving a most splendid appearance to the bird.

MANGO-BIRD

After breakfast Captain R. and I stood at the door of the tent amusing ourselves with his air-gun. I killed with it three or four birds, whose skins I should like to preserve; one especially, though I believe I have before described it, namely, the mango-bird. I fancy the European name is the golden oriole. It is of one uniform brilliant yellow, with the exception of the head, which is perfectly black. Its note is very peculiar, as indeed are the voices of many of the Indian birds. I cannot describe the sounds on paper, but I have learned to imitate many of them well enough to hold a long conversation with them. Once or twice, when Captain R. wanted to get near to a bird without being observed, he asked me to continue talking to it. It is curious to observe them hopping from branch to branch replying to my call, and looking round on every side for the bird from which they suppose the sound to proceed.

On Tuesday evening Captain R. and I rode about four miles to try and find some peacocks. His pony had hurt its foot, so he took one of mine. We were going along quietly enough through some rice-fields, when suddenly the pony he was on shied; he spurred it, and it immediately reared and fell over backwards. Most fortunately he managed to throw himself off, so as to escape being under the horse, though, as it was, he got a heavy tumble. It is a very nice pony, a little inclined to rear; but I am too heavy for it to do so with me. I am getting thinner now. We came at last to a beautiful bit of bamboo-jungle, where we dismounted, inside of which was a paddy-field; in the centre were two fine cocks and five hens feeding. Beckoning to the servants to stay behind, I crouched down on the ground and crept slowly forward, until I came very near to the jungle-fowl, when I cautiously raised my gun to fire; from some cause or other it did not go off, though the cap exploded, and the birds flew away. Now, a regular Indian sportsman would not fire at a bird on the ground, but would first make a noise to frighten him, and would then fire as he was flying away; however, I am not practised enough for that, and like to get what they call a pot-shot whenever I can.

SPORTING

A little while ago a party of officers went out from Cuttack to shoot. Their men were beating the jungle, when suddenly all the wild cry ceased, and a man came gliding to where all the sahibs were standing to tell them that there was a tiger lying asleep in his den close at hand. A consultation was instantly held; most of the party were anxious to return to Cuttack, but Captain B. insisted on having a shot at the animal. Accordingly he advanced very quickly until he came to the place, when he saw – not a tiger, but a large leopard lying quite still, with his head resting on his fore paws. He went up close and fired, but the animal did not move. This astonished him, and on examination he found that the brute was already dead. One of his companions had bribed some Indians to place a dead leopard there and to say that there was a tiger asleep. You may imagine what a laugh there was, though it was very wrong of the Europeans to encourage the natives to say what was not true.