by Fanny Parkes
In India we use no bells to call servants; but as the chaprāsīs are always in attendance just without the door, if you want one, you say ‘Qui hy?’ i.e. ‘is there any one?’ – or ‘Kon hy?’ – ‘who is there?’ when a servant appears. For this reason old Indians are called Qui hys.
August 7th – The plagues of Egypt were not worse than the plagues of India. Last night the dinner-table was covered with white ants, having wings: these ants, at a certain period after a shower, rise from the earth with four large wings. They fly to the lights, and your lamps are put out in a few minutes by swarms of them: they fall into your plate at dinner and over your book when reading, being most troublesome. Last night heavy rain fell and the rooms were swarming with winged-ants which flew in; their wings fell off almost immediately, verifying the proverb: ‘When ants get wings they die.’
Tonight we are suffering under a more disagreeable infliction; a quantity of winged-bugs flew in just as dinner was put on the table, the bamboo screens having been let down rather too late. They are odious; they fly upon your face and arms, and into your plate; if you brush them away, they emit such terrible effluvia it is sickening, and yet one cannot bear them to crawl over one’s body, as one is at this minute doing on my ear, without pushing them off.
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August 22nd – They tell me the people in Calcutta are dying fast from a fever resembling the yellow fever. The European soldiers, here are also going to their graves very quickly; three days ago, six men died; two days ago, six more expired; and one hundred and sixty are in the hospital. The fever, which rages, tinges the skin and eyes yellow; perhaps only the severe bilious fever of India brought on by drinking brandy and arak, a bazaar spirit extremely injurious, to say nothing of exposure to the sun. Almost every evening we meet the two elephants belonging to the hospital carrying each about ten sick men, who are sufficiently recovered to be able to go out ‘to eat the air’, and for exercise; the poor fellows look so wan and ghastly.
The Darwān
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What can be more wretched than the life of a private soldier in the East? His profession employs but little of his time. During the heat of the day, he is forced to remain within the intensely hot barrack-rooms; heat produces thirst, and idleness discontent. He drinks arak like a fish, and soon finds life a burden, almost insupportable. To the man weary of the burden of existence, to escape from it, transportation appears a blessing. The great source of all this misery is the cheapness of arak mixed with datura, and the restlessness arising from the want of occupation; although a library is generally provided for the privates by the regiment.
You at home, who sleep in gay beds of carved mahogany with handsome curtains, would be surprised at sight of the beds used by us during the hot winds. Four small posts, and a frame, on which very broad tape (nawār) is plaited and strained very tight, over this a sītal-pātā, a sort of fine cool Manilla mat, then the sheets, and for warmth, either an Indian shawl, or a rezai, which is of silk quilted with cotton, and very light. We use no mosquito curtains, for each chārpāī is placed just before an open window, with the east wind blowing on it, and a pankhā, with a deep double frill, is in full swing over the beds all night, pulled by a string which passes through a hole in the wall – the wind it creates drives off the mosquitoes, and the man who pulls the pankhā is relieved every two hours.
[ … ]
The Governor-General left Calcutta on the 11th inst., and proposes to be at Benares on the 10th December. Lady William Bentinck accompanies him in his tour. They say that she is dreadfully nervous about him. His unpopularity is increasing and some ill-regulated person, in a moment of disappointment and frenzy, might perhaps cause a scene. The events of the last few years, since Mr Canning’s death, have been astounding. I wonder if there is more room for amazement. I hope his Grace the Duke will not take us under his charge. We are satisfied with King Log, provided he stands in the way of King Stork.
Lord William has been doing away with all the good appointments in the Civil Service; and the army have been cruelly treated, with respect to the half-batta. Perhaps, when the renewal of the charter is concluded, the directors will again be enabled to treat those living under their command with the generosity which has ever distinguished them, and which has rendered their service one of the finest in the world.
CHAPTER XV
THE THUG’S DICE – EXECUTION OF ELEVEN THUGS
OCTOBER 16TH 1830 – In the Government Gazette of this evening is an account of the execution of eleven Thugs in a letter from a man up the country to the editor. The account is so interesting, I cannot refrain from copying it.
‘SIR – I was yesterday present at the execution of eleven Thugs, who had been seized in the neighbourhood of Bhilsa, convicted of the murder of thirty-five travellers (whose bodies were disinterred as evidence against them at the different places along the lines of road between Bhopāl and Saugor, where they had been strangled and buried), and sentenced to death by the agent to the Governor-General, Mr Smith.
‘As the sun rose, the eleven men were brought out from the jail, decorated with chaplets of flowers, and marched up to the front of the drop, where they arranged themselves in line with infinite self-possession.
‘When arranged, each opposite the noose that best pleased him, they lifted up their hands and shouted, “Bindachul ka jae! Bhawāni ka jae!” i.e. Glory to Bindachul! Bhawāni’s glory! Everyone making use of precisely the same invocation, though four were Mahomedans, one a Brahman, and the rest Rajpoots, and other castes of Hindus; they all ascended the steps, and took their position upon the platform with great composure, then, taking the noose in both hands, made same invocation to Bhawāni, after which they placed them over their heads and adjusted them to their necks; some of the younger ones laughing at the observations of the crowd around them.
‘One of the youngest, a Mohammedan, impatient of the delay, stooped down so as to tighten the rope, and, stepping deliberately over the platform, hanged himself as coolly as one would step over a rock to take a swim in the sea! This man was known to have assisted in strangling a party of six travellers at Omurpatan, in the Rewah Rajah’s territories in December last, and closely pursued to have gone off, joined another gang, and, in less than a month, to have assisted in strangling thirty more in Bhopāl; he was taken at Bhilsa, the last scene of his murders. Omurpatan is one hundred miles east of Jabalpur, and the place in which the Thug assisted in strangling in the Bhopāl territories, a month afterwards, is two hundred miles west of Jabalpore. Such is the rapidity with which these murderers change the scene of their operations, when conscious of keen pursuit! He was taken at Bhilsa by the very man whom he found upon his trail at Omurpatan, three hundred miles distant.
‘On being asked whether they had any wish to express to the magistrate, they prayed that for every man hanged, five convicts might be released from jail, and that they might have a little money to be distributed in charity.
‘Their invocation of Bhawāni at the drop was a confession of their guilt, for no one in such a situation invokes Bhawāni but a Thug, and he invokes no other deity in any situation, whatever may be his religion or sect. She is worshipped under her four names, Devi, Kālee, Doorga, and Bhawānī, and her temple at Bindachun, a few miles west of Mirzapur on the Ganges, is constantly filled with murderers from every quarter of India, who go there to offer up a share of the booty acquired from their strangled victims in their annual excursions.
‘This accounts for the invocation – “Jae Bindachul!” made use of by these men in approaching and ascending the drop. These pilgrimages to the temple are made generally at the latter end of the rainy season, and whilst on the road from their homes to the temple, nothing can ever tempt them to commit a robbery. They are not, however, so scrupulous on their way back.
‘The priests promise the Thugs impunity and wealth, provided a due share be offered to the goddess. If they die by the sword in the execution of murders, she promises them paradise in all its
most exquisite delights; if taken and executed, it must arise from her displeasure, incurred by some neglect of the duties they owe her and they must, as disturbed spirits, inhabit midair until her wrath be appeased. After they have propitiated the goddess by offering up a share of the preceding year, and received the priest’s suggestions on the subject, they prepare for the next year’s expedition.
‘The different members who form the gang assemble at the village of the leader at a certain day and, after determining the scene of operations, they proceed to consecrate their kodalee, or small pickaxe, which they use to dig the graves of their victims and which they consider as their standard. They believe that no spirit can ever rise to trouble their repose from a grave dug by this instrument, provided it be duly consecrated, and they are fearfully scrupulous in the observance of every ceremony enjoined in the consecration, and never allow the earth to be turned with any other instrument. It is a neatly made pickaxe of about four or five pounds’ weight, six or eight inches long, and with one point.
‘They sacrifice a goat and offer it up, with a coconut, to Bhawānī; they then make a mixture of sandal and other scented woods, spirits, sugar, flour, and butter, and boil it in a cauldron.
‘The kodalee, having been carefully washed, is put upon a spot cleared away for the purpose, and plastered with cow dung, and the mixture is poured over it with certain prayers and ceremonies.
‘It is now wiped and folded in a clean white cloth by the priest, and the whole gang proceed some distance from the village upon the road they intend to take and stand until they hear a partridge call, the priest having in his mind someone as the bearer of the sacred deposit. If the partridge calls on their right, he places it in the hands of that individual, and in a solemn manner impresses upon him the responsibility of the charge. If a partridge calls on the left, or one does not call until the sun is high, they all return and wait until the next morning, when they proceed to another spot, and the priest fixes his mind upon some other individual; and so every morning, until the deity has signified her approbation of the choice by the calling of the partridge on the right.
‘If the kodalee should fall to the ground at any time, the gang consider it as an evil omen, leave that part of the country without delay, and select another standard-bearer. If no accident happen, the man first elected bears it the whole season; but a new election must take place for the next. The man who bears it carries it in his waistband, but never sleeps with it on his person, nor lets any man see where he conceals it during the night, or whilst he takes his rest.
‘All oaths of the members of the gang are administered upon this instrument, folded in a clean white cloth, and placed on ground cleared away and plastered with cow dung: I have heard the oldest of them declare, that they believe any man who should make a false oath upon it would be immediately punished by some fatal disease. If any man be suspected of treachery, they make him swear in this manner.
‘The standard-bearer, immediately after his election, proceeds across the first running stream in the direction of the country to which the gang intend to proceed, accompanied by only one witness, to wait for a favourable omen. When they come to the Narbada, Jumna, or any other river of this class, the whole gang must accompany him. A deer on the right of the road is a good omen, especially if single, according to the verse –
Leela Mirga daena – Suda daena Tas.
Kishunrut hark doo, bhule kure Bhugwan.
‘If a wolf is seen to cross the road, either before or behind them, they must return, and take another road. If they hear a jackal call during the day, or a partridge during the night, they leave that part of the country forthwith. An old man once told me, in proof of the faith to be placed in these signs, that he was, in his youth, one of a gang of fifty who were sleeping under some date trees between Indore and Ojeya, when a partridge was heard to call out of one of them about two in the morning. They got up in great alarm, moved off instantly, but about daylight met a party of horse going from Ojeya to Indore. Some dispute took place between them, and they were taken back to Indore.
‘They had murdered the guru (or chief priest) of the Holcar family and his followers; and their leader, taking a liking to a parrot of his, had brought it with them.
‘On arriving at Indore the parrot began to talk, and was almost immediately recognised by one of Holcar’s family as the parrot of the guru who had gone off for Ojeya some days before. One of the youngest of them was immediately tied up and flogged, and after a couple of dozen, he confessed the robbery and murder. The bodies were taken up and recognised, and five-and-forty Thugs were blown off at once from the mouths of cannon. He was one of the five who were pardoned on account of their youth and taken into service.
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‘In the territories of the native chiefs of Bundelkand, and those of Scindia and Holkar, a Thug feels just as independent and free as an Englishman in a tavern, and they will probably begin to feel themselves just as much so in those of Nagpur now that European superintendency has been withdrawn. But they are not confined to the territories of the native chiefs; they are becoming numerous in our own, and are often found most securely and comfortably situated in the very seats of our principal judicial establishments; and of late years they are known to have formed some settlements to the east of the Ganges, in parts that they formerly used merely to visit in the course of their annual excursions.
‘I should mention that the cow being a form of Doorga, or Bhawāni, the Mahomedans must forego the use of beef the moment they enlist themselves under her banners; and though they may read their Qur’an, they are not suffered to invoke the name of Mahommed.
‘The Qur’an is still their civil code and they are governed by its laws in all matters of inheritance, marriage, etc.
‘Your obedient servant,
‘H’*
I have been greatly interested in the above account: there are numerous Thugs in and around Cawnpore; they never attack Europeans; but the natives are afraid of travelling alone, as a poor bearer with one month’s wages of four rupees has quite sufficient to attract them. They seldom bury them in these parts, but having strangled and robbed their victim, then throw him down a well, wells being numerous by the side of the high roads.
* From the Calcutta Literary Gazette, inserted in the Government Gazette of October 7th 1830.
CHAPTER XVI
RESIDENCE AT CAWNPORE – THE DEWALI
OCTOBER 1830 – Mooatummud-ood-Dowlah, generally known as Aghā Meer, the deposed Prime Minister to the King of Oude, Ghazee-ood-Deen Hyder, is coming over to Cawnpore; his zenāna, treasures, two lacs of shawls, etc. etc., have arrived on the other bank of the Ganges, escorted by the military. The ex-minister has not yet arrived, and a large detachment of the military from this station has been sent to escort him in safety to the Company’s territories.
This morning, from the verandah, I was watching what appeared to be a number of buffaloes floating down the stream, with their drivers; but, as they approached, found them to be sixteen of Aghā Meer’s elephants swimming over.
The distance from the Camp on the opposite side the river to our garden, under which they landed, must be four miles, or more. Elephants swim very low, and put down their trunks occasionally to ascertain if they are in deep water. Their heads are almost invisible at times, and the mahouts strike them with the goad (ānkus) to guide them.
On reaching the bank just below our verandah, they set up a loud bellowing, which was answered by those still struggling to get to land, a work rather difficult to accomplish on account of the rapidity of the river.
What would not the people at home give to see sixteen fine elephants swimming four miles over a rapid river, with their mahouts on their backs, the men hallooing with all their might, and the elephants every now and then roaring in concert! It was an interesting sight, and my first view of their power in the water.
October 2nd – A friend, just returned from the hills, brought down with him some forty cashmere goats; the
shawl goats, such as are found in the hills: they die very fast on quitting the cold regions; he has lost all but three females, which he has given to me; they will scarcely live in this burning Cawnpore.
Report says the Governor-General has put off his journey for a month longer; it is supposed he will, if possible, avoid this large military station; the soldiers are in so discontented a state, he may perchance receive a bullet on parade. The privates here have several times attempted the lives of their officers, by shooting and cutting them down, sometimes upon the slightest cause of complaint and often without having any to provoke such conduct.
October 7th – I have just returned from calling on a friend of mine, and overheard the remarks of a gentleman who was speaking of her to another; they amused me.
‘Really that is a noble creature, she has a neck like an Arab, her head is so well set on!’
Buffaloes from Cawnpore swim off in the early morning in herds to the bank in the centre of the river, where they feed; they return in the evening of their own accord. The other evening I thought a shoal of porpoises were beneath the verandah – but they were buffaloes trying to find a landing-place; they swim so deeply, their black heads are only partly visible, and at a little distance they may easily be mistaken for porpoises.
Sometimes I see a native drive his cow into the river; when he wishes to cross it, he takes hold of the animal by the tail, and holding, on, easily crosses over with her; sometimes he aids the cow by using one hand in swimming.
‘What is that going down the river?’ exclaimed a gentleman. On applying a telescope, we found fifty or sixty buffaloes all in a heap were coming down with the stream, whilst ten natives swimming with them kept thrashing them with long bamboos to make them exert themselves, and keep all together: the natives shouting and urging on the animals and the buffaloes bellowing at every blow they received. At what a rate they come down! The stream flows with such rapidity during the rains! This is the first time I have seen such a large herd driven in this curious fashion.