A Popular Account of the Manners and Customs of India

Oh, what a clash in the jungle at the top of the hill! See! that must be some large animal coming down. Don't let him see you; peep through that bush. How he plunges through the jungle! He has stopped: look now! he leaves the beaters behind him, but he suspects danger in front. You can see his head by the side of that tree, just below that high rock. He is standing still and gazing at us. What a splendid pair of antlers! He must be one of the largest sambres (Indian elk) I ever saw. I am afraid he is hardly within shot; however, I'll try. He is down; the ball struck him just in the centre of his forehead, and one of my men rushes forward to despatch him with his sword.

But look there! Mr. G. is running as fast as he can, and all his men running too. What can be the matter? Quick! see! there is an enormous bear pursuing them. Here, give me my gun; make haste. Look! G. has stumbled, and is rolling head over heels down the hill. Bang! I hit him! See, he turns back. G. shot the female, and was immediately attacked by the male, whilst his gun was not loaded, for he foolishly had but one. We got the body of the female, and brought it to our tents in triumph. It was a black bear, measuring five feet seven inches in length, and its teeth quite worn out.

Cuttack, April 2, 1845

The Government of India orders me to go from Cuttack to Midnapore and back again four times a-year, to Balasore and back twice a-year, and to Pooree and back four times a-year. The distance from Cuttack to Midnapore is one hundred and eighty miles, from Cuttack to Balasore one hundred and three miles, and from Cuttack to Pooree forty-nine miles. I travel about forty-seven miles a-day on the average. The Government allows me twelve annas and two pice per mile for travelling expenses; it costs me four annas and two pice – an anna being one-sixteenth part of a rupee, and a pice one-fourth part of an anna.

SPORTING

I must now mention some of my adventures in the jungle. One day we went with a native Rajah to hunt antelopes. Suppose the shore of the Chelka Lake on one side and the sea on the other, with a strip of sand between them rather more than a mile wide. The antelopes live entirely on the sandy plain, and feed on the scanty plants which grow among the sand. Across this flat a net about seven feet in height and a mile long was staked, and 100 men were stationed along it as guards. About 500 men were then sent out with a similar net about a mile and a half in length, which they stretched at perhaps five miles from the other. These 500 men then walked slowly towards the first net, carrying the other in front of them, and driving lots of antelopes before them. When they came within a mile of the first net they staked the second, and there were perhaps fifty or sixty antelopes enclosed in a space of about a mile square. Mr. G., the Rajah, and myself, went inside with our guns. It was barbarous sport. In two days we killed fifteen, which our servants ate most gladly. But the interesting thing was to see twenty or thirty bound, one after the other, over the net and the men's heads, giving tremendous leaps; the black men striking at them with their swords and spears, and cowering to avoid their sharp-cutting hoofs, and all hallooing and jabbering, and swearing; whilst every now and then the crack of one of our guns would be heard, and the whizz of the bullet as it passed near.

Another day we expected some danger. When we arrived at the ground, which consisted of thick patches of jungle, with open spaces between, we got out of our tonjons and took our guns. There we found a number of men looking for traces of deer, wild boars, tigers, or any other animals. As soon as they found the track of one they followed it until it led into the jungle, and exactly at that spot they pushed in amongst the bushes an enormous bag made of net of thick rope. Its mouth was kept open by a few twigs, whilst a running rope went round the entrance and was fastened to a stake on one side. If then any animal should make a rush along this track, he must go head foremost into the net: the twigs would fall down, the neck would be drawn tight, and the poor creature would be a prisoner. All these preparations were at length concluded, and the Rajah then advised us to mount the elephants, as he said two tigers had been seen in these jungles the day before. We at once asked him whether his elephants had been trained to stand the charge of a tiger, which always springs at its head. He said he did not know; and we agreed that we would rather stand the advance of a tiger on foot ourselves than be on the back of a mad elephant scampering at random through the jungle. So we built up an artificial hedge in front of us, and crouched down with our guns pointed through some loopholes we had left in our fence.

This arrangement was hardly completed before we began to hear the sounds of the drums and the trumpets, and the yells of the people, as nearly a thousand of them marched through the jungle towards us, driving before them every sort of game. I should tell you that we kept our elephants close at hand in case of the worst. You cannot imagine the excitement in such watching as this. Two or three miles off the most fearful yells from 1000 men, close around you utter silence; your eyes roaming in every direction, not knowing at what point a deer or a tiger may break out.

Ha! listen! there's a crack among the branches, and out rushes a noble stag. Bang goes G.'s gun. We had agreed that he should have the first shot. He's down! "Hush! here's something else in this patch of jungle." "Where?" he whispers, as he loads. "There, I see it now: look out; here it comes!" And sure enough out rushed seven pigs, followed almost immediately by three others. Now a wild boar is a most awkward animal to fight on foot, and we had agreed we should not fire at them. However, they rushed right towards us. What's to be done? "Get on the elephant," says G. "No time," said I; "follow me: " and we both fairly turned tail, pursued by a herd of pigs until we came to a bush, or rather a patch of bushes, round which we could make a short turn to escape them, and then back to our own station, laughing as hard as we could. But really a wild boar is no laughing matter as he rushes along tearing up the earth. If he charges, as he almost invariably does, with one movement of his head he could cut both legs to the bone, dividing the arteries, and probably killing the man.

Presently a young stag rushed into one of the bags with such force as to break both his horns close off. There we found him when we examined the nets. We were sitting watching for what should come next, when G., raising his finger, whispered to me, "What's that down there in the plain? That's a deer: no, it can't be: do you see how it slouches along? Depend upon it it's not a deer." "Well, at any rate it's coming this way; we shall soon get a look at it." Another pause of half a minute and the beast was concealed in a little patch of jungle a few hundred yards from us. I now had time to examine it. "I'll tell you what, G.; that brute's a regular tiger." "Well, so I thought, but I hardly liked to say so: what shall we do if he comes this way?" "I say keep close where we are." "But suppose he should make a spring over the hedge in front of us?" "Lie flat down, and let him go over us: yet I think I could hardly resist having a shot while he was in the air." "Oh! pray don't fire; what in the world could we two do on foot against a wounded tiger?" However, our fears were needless: as the beaters advanced, the animal slunk away into a more distant piece of jungle, and we saw no more of him. Two of our people were rather hurt to-day – one by a deer leaping over him, and cutting his head with his hoof; a rupee, however, made him quite happy again: the other was a man who, as a large stag rushed past, made a spring at its horns, thinking to pull it down, whereby he got a severe fall and prevented us from firing.

Pooree, April 26, 1845

FATAL ILLNESS OF AUTHOR

I have had another attack similar to last year; it came on in the same way and whilst I was in the pulpit. In the midst of the sermon my teeth began to chatter; I could not speak; my face became perfectly white; a cold blast seemed to enter my left side and spread over the surface of my body, and then gradually penetrate to the very innermost part, whilst I was obliged to cling to the sides of the pulpit for support. It did not last above a minute and a half, and I managed to finish my sermon; but it was enough to astonish the congregation and to warn me of what was coming. All my old symptoms returned, though not so strongly as before – utter restlessness at night and heavy sleepiness during the day, a painful cough when I lay down, and other alarming signs. We came down to Pooree, where my favourite doctor lives, and I already feel much better.

There is a billiard-table in the house where we are now staying, and the doctor desires me to play as much as I can every day. Of course playing for money is never allowed. The game of billiards is about the best exercise for India. It is not too violent, yet it gives a man about three miles of walking in the hour, and brings all the limbs into play.

May 8, 1845

I am too weak to write much, and shall therefore continue at another time.

[Note. – On the 17th of May the author's life was closed.]

THE END

1

It is doubted whether the injury does not rather arise from the damp night-air than from the effect of the moon-beams.

2

It is the most common sort of carriage in India.

3

A gap occurs here in the narrative, from a portion of it having gone down in the "Memnon" in the Red Sea.

4

Plenty of barley is grown in Bhootan.

5

This man continued most faithfully attached till his master's death, and was then inconsolable.

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.