by Fanny Parkes
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We hunt jackals in the grounds at Papamhow, and sometimes have a canter after a wolf in the ravines. The gentlemen have a pack of hounds: ten English imported dogs were added to the pack last year. It is disheartening to see those fine dogs die daily. The price now asked in Calcutta for English hounds is considered too high, even by us Indians, being fifty guineas a couple! Of the ten bought last year, two only are alive. Perhaps accidents have occurred; from ignorance at the time that castor-oil, when not cold-drawn, is certain death to dogs. The natives have a great objection to using castor-oil medicinally when the seeds have been heated before putting them into the mill.
March 19th – The arrival of Colonel Gardner pleased us greatly: his boats were anchored in the Jumna, under our bank. He came down from Lucknow to visit the quarries, in order to build a bridge for the King of Oude; and after having spent nine days with us, he departed for Benares. He is a great favourite at present, both with the king and the minister at Lucknow; and if he is allowed to retain the jagīr he now holds upon the same terms for a few years, he will be a rich man. He deserves it all; we found him the same kind, mild, gentlemanly, polished, entertaining companion I have before described him. He was looking ill; but now that his fatigues are over and he is once more at rest, he will soon recover. I requested him to inform me how native ladies amuse themselves within a zenāna, and he gave me the following account:
‘They have ponies to ride upon within the four walls of the zenāna grounds. Archery is a favourite amusement; my son, James Gardner, who is a very fine marksman, was taught by a woman.
‘A silver swing is the great object of ambition; and it is the fashion to swing in the rains, when it is thought charming to come in dripping wet. The swings are hung between two high posts in the garden.
‘Fashion is as much regarded by the Musulmān ladies as by the English; they will not do this or that, because it is not the fashion.
‘It is general amongst the higher and the middle classes of females in Hindustān to be able to read the Qur’an in Arabic (it is not allowed to be translated), and the Commentary in Persian.
‘The ladies are very fond of eating fresh whole roasted coffee. When a number of women are sitting on the ground, all eating the dry roasted coffee, the noise puts me in mind of a flock of sheep at the gram trough.
‘The most correct hour for dinner is eleven or twelve at night: they smoke their huqqas all through the night, and sleep during the day.
‘Nothing can exceed the quarrels that go on in the zenāna, or the complaints the begums make against each other. A common complaint is, “Such an one has been practising witchcraft against me”. If the husband make a present to one wife, even if it be only a basket of mangoes, he must make the same exactly to all the other wives to keep the peace. A wife, when in a rage with her husband, if on account of jealousy often says, “I wish I were married to a grass-cutter”, i.e. because a grass-cutter is so poor he can only afford to have one wife.
‘My having been married some thirty or forty years and never having taken another wife, surprises the Musulmān very much, and the ladies all look upon me as a pattern: they do not admire a system of having three or four rivals, however well pleased the gentlemen may be with the custom.’
Colonel Gardner admired the game of ‘La Grace’. I requested him to take a set of sticks and hoops for the ladies of his zenāna: he told me afterwards they never took any pleasure in the game, because it was not the dasturi, the custom.
The account of the style in which affairs are conducted amused us exceedingly.
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Colonel Gardner tells me that the two boys, Khema Jāh and Feredooa Buckht, whom I saw at Lucknow, and whom the King declared to be his heirs, are now out of favour and are not allowed to enter the palace; I am glad that low-caste boy has no chance of being raised to the throne. The King has taken another wife; his taste is certainly curious, she is an ugly low caste woman. The old Nawāb Hakīm Menhdi has the whole power in his hands; the King amuses himself sitting up all night and sleeping all day, leaving the cares of state to the Hakīm. The revenue, under his superintendence, has increased very considerably; the Hakīm’s passion is saving money, and he appears to take as much pleasure in saving it for the King as for himself.
The Gram Grinder
Colonel Gardner gave us some instructions in archery, for which we have a great penchant; nor could I resist going continually into the verandah to take a shot at the targets, in spite of the heat – 84°, or the annoyance of an ague and fever from which I was suffering. Archery, as practised in India, is very different from that in England; the arm is raised over the head, and the bow drawn in that manner: native bowmen throw up the elbow, and depress the right hand in a most extraordinary style, instead of drawing to the ear, as practised by the English. A very fine bow was given me, which was one of the presents made by Runjeet Singh to Lord William Bentinck; it is formed of strips of buffalo horn, and adorned with bareilly work; when strung, it resembles the outline of a well-formed upper lip, Cupid’s bow.
During the rains, the natives unstring their bows and, bending them backwards until they curl round almost into a circle, fix them between two slips of bamboo until the rains are over, when they re-string them: the string of this bow is of thick silk. To bring back the bow to its proper form is a difficult affair; they warm it over a charcoal fire, and bend it back by fixing two iron chains upon it; after this it is usually strung by taking one end of the bow in the left hand, passing it behind the left leg, and over the shin bone of the right, then bending it by forcing, the upper end round towards the opposite side, when the string, which has been previously secured on the lower horn, is slipped into its place by the right hand.
The quiver, which is of crimson velvet embroidered with gold, is very handsome. The arrows are steel-headed and bound with brass rings to render the pile more secure; the shafts are made of beautifully smooth, straight, hard reeds; the heads are either plain, or of a fish-hook shape; and the whole are highly ornamented with bareilly work.
The natives do not draw the bow with two or three fingers, as practised in Europe; they make use of a thumb-ring, of which I have seen two kinds.
Whistling arrows are reeds on which, in lieu of a pile of steel, a hollow bit of wood is affixed, in form not unlike a small egg; when shot perpendicularly into the air they produce a shrill whistling sound. Sometimes a slip of paper is rolled up and put into the hole in the head, when the arrow is shot into a zenāna garden, over the high wall, or into a fortress.
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Sorcery is practised with a charmed bow. At a sati, bamboo levers are often brought down over the whole pile, to hold down the woman, and the corpse of her husband; and several persons are employed to keep down the levers, whilst others throw water upon them that the wood may not be scorched.
A person sometimes takes one of these bamboo levers after the bodies are burnt; and, making a bow and arrow with it, repeats incantations over it. He then makes an image of some enemy with clay, and lets fly the arrow at it. The person whose image is thus pierced is said to be immediately seized with a pain in his breast.
April 1st – What would the people at home think of being up at five o’clock, and in church by six o’clock! This is the usual hour for divine service at this time of the year. To us Indians accustomed to early rising, it is no fatigue.
April 7th – This morning I cantered down to see our fields of oats by the side of the Ganges, which they have just begun to cut; such a fine crop! When they are stacked, we shall have three or four large ricks.
CHAPTER XXII
ADVENTURES IN THE EAST
MAY 1832 – Allahabad is now one of the gayest and is, as it always has been, one of the prettiest stations in India. We have dinner-parties more than enough; balls occasionally; a book society; some five or six billiard-tables; a pack of dogs, some amongst thempforgotten!) fourteen spinsters!
May 2nd – Colonel Gardner has sent us twel
ve jars of the most delicious Lucknow chutnee, the very beau ideal of mixtures of sharp, bitter, sour, sweet, hot and cold!
This station, which in former days was thought one of the least to-be coveted positions, has now become what from the first we always pronounced it to be, one of the most desirable. We have a kind neighbourly society, as much or even more of gaiety than we sober folks require, and, mirabile, no squabbling. I hope his lordship will not disturb our coterie by moving the Boards of Revenue and of Criminal and Civil Justice higher up the country, which some think not improbable.
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June 19th – We drove into the Fort to call on a fair friend at five o’clock. No sooner had I entered the house, than we saw clouds of locusts in the air: immediately afterwards a heavy storm of rain fell, and the locusts were beaten down by it in great numbers to the ground. The native servants immediately ran out and caught them by handfuls, delighted to get them to make a curry; for which purpose they may, perhaps, be as delicate as prawns, which are most excellent. I took some to preserve with arsenical soap: they look like very large grasshoppers. I never saw a flight of locusts before; on our return home the air was full of them.
The food of St John in the wilderness was locusts and wild honey: very luxurious fare, according to the natives, who say either in a curry or fried in clarified butter, they are excellent. I believe they divest them of their wings, and dress them after the fashion of woodcocks.
Some assert that St John did not live upon locusts, but upon the bean of a tree called by the Arabs Kharroùb, the locust tree of Scripture (the carob tree, St John’s Bread, Ceratonia siliqua) – a point too difficult to be decided by a poor hājī (pilgrim) in search of the picturesque.
May 20th – At five o’clock I rode out with a friend and met the hounds under the Mahratta Bund; no other persons were present, and we had not gone twenty yards before two jackals crossed the road just before the dogs: away they went in the prettiest style imaginable. Mr B— galloped off across a ploughed field: the horse had scarcely gone ten yards when his legs sunk into a deep soft hole; the creature could not recover himself; over he went, falling on his back, with his rider under him; and there the horse lay, kicking with all four legs in the air for a short time, ere the gentleman had the power to extricate himself from under the animal. I was not five yards behind and, jumping off my horse, went to his assistance. The blood was pouring from his mouth and nose, and his right shoulder was dislocated. Two natives came up. Leaving the fainting man in their care, I galloped off for a surgeon. During my absence, a medical man fortunately arrived at the spot: he found the gentleman senseless. Having set his shoulder and bled him, he put him into a palanquin and sent him home. My search for a surgeon was unsuccessful for a length of time: at last I rode into the court of the Hospital at Kydganj, in search of Dr S—, when the first object I beheld was the corpse of a man being carried out, marked with blood on the head; it made me shudder: the medical man was just on the point of opening the head of a European who had died suddenly. This was rather a nervous adventure and a frightful sight. My friend was so much stunned by the blow and the dislocation of his arm, he could make but feeble efforts to extricate himself from his horse. I thought at first he was killed by the way in which the two streams of blood poured from the corners of his mouth when I raised his head. It was unfortunate being alone at such a moment.
The rats during the harvest-time collect grain in holes; and the poor people dig wherever they think they may chance to find a rat’s store, for the sake of the grain: sometimes on one spot they find 20lb. weight secreted by these provident animals, generally in the midst of the fields. The natives steal the grain, and leave the holes open, which are very dangerous for horses. The place into which Mr B—’s horse fell was an opening of the sort, filled by the rain of the day before with light mould, therefore he could not see he was upon treacherous ground. I escaped from being five yards in the rear of his horse; had he passed over I should, in all probability, have gone in; the ground appeared perfectly good, instead of being like a quicksand.
The other night, for the first time up the country, I saw a glow-worm; it was very thin, about half an inch in length, and more like a maggot in a cheese than anything else.
August 14th – Last week we were at a ball given by the officers of the 6th Native Infantry to the station; in spite of the heat, the people appeared to enjoy dancing very much, and kept it up until very late. A ballroom in India, with all the windows open and the pankhās in full play, is not half so oppressive as a ballroom in London: the heat of pure air is much better than the heat of a number of persons, all crowded together and breathing the same atmosphere over and over again. Balls up the country take place principally during the hot winds and rains; they make a variety at a quiet station. During the cold months the people are dispersed on duty in divers parts of the district.
I amuse myself turning profiles in rous wood on my lathe; the likenesses of Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington are good, because it is less difficult to turn a strong profile. I look at the drawing whilst turning the wood; when finished it is cut open, and the profile, if properly done, is exact.
Snakes are in abundance: I caught a small venomous whip-snake in my dressing-room today and put it into the bottle of horrors. A lady stepped upon the head of one a short time ago; the reptile curled round her leg; when she raised her foot in a fright, it glided off, and was found half killed in the next room.
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Our great Bengal Lion Rajah Rammohun Roy appears to have created no small sensation on the other side of the water. He is one of the few well-educated natives we possess and is, decidedly, a very remarkable person. He holds his title of Rajah from the King of Delhi, the great Mogul, whose ambassador he is to the British Court in a suit versus John Company.
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October 25th – The sale of the property of a friend took place today. Many valuable works in octavo sold for twopence a volume! The furniture went at about one fourth of its value. We took the opportunity of getting rid of extra sofas and chairs; much furniture is a great inconvenience in this climate; it harbours mosquitoes.
Through the stupidity of our servants, some animal got into the quail-house last night and killed seventy-nine fat quail; very provoking – but as this is the season for them it is not of much consequence, we can replace them; had it been during the hot winds, when no quail are to be procured, it would have been a great loss in the eating department.
All my finery coming from England has been totally lost, about twenty days’ journey from this place, by the swamping of the boat; all my presents gone ‘at one fell swoop’, leaving me sans pompons, sans souliers, sans everything; my pen is bad, my knife blunt and my new penknife is feeding the fish at the bottom of the Ganges, off Monghir.
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I have received a present that pleases me greatly, a sitar, a musical instrument in general use all over India; it was made at Lucknow from a hollow gourd and is very beautifully put together. It has four strings; the first is of steel wire, the two next are of brass wire, and the fourth and smallest of steel. It is played with the first finger of the right hand alone, on which is placed a little steel wire frame, called a misrāb, with which the strings are struck; the left hand stops the notes on the frets, but you only stop the notes on the first string; the other three strings produce a sort of pedal sound as the misrāb passes over them, from the manner in which they are tuned. The instrument is most elegantly formed.
The ektāra, a one-stringed instrument as the name implies, is used by wandering minstrels. A man of this description, the veritable Paganini of the East, appeared before me the other day; he was an Hindu mendicant, carrying an ektāra which was formed of a gourd; and on its one string he played in a strange and peculiar style. From the upper end of the ektāra two peacock’s feathers were displayed. The man’s attire was a rope around his waist and a bit of cloth; a black blanket hung over his shoulder; on his forehead, breast, and arms were th
e sectarial marks, and the brahmanical thread was over his shoulder; three necklaces and one bracelet completed the costume. His hair fell to his shoulders and, like all natives he wore a moustache. My friends laugh at me when I play on the sitār, and ask, ‘Why do you not put a peacock’s feather at the end of it?’
December 1st – We have become great farmers, having sown our crop of oats and are building outhouses to receive some thirty-four dwarf cows and oxen (gynees), which are to be fed up for the table and produced after some eight months’ stuffing. The gynee club consists of eight members, and it gives us better food than we could procure from the bazaar: ‘Whose dog am I that I should eat from the bazaar?’
A little distance from the stacks the unmuzzled bullocks are treading out the corn: ‘Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn’. This patriarchal method breaks and renders the straw soft and friable; the corn is winnowed by taking it up in a basket and pouring it out; the grain falls to the ground, while the west wind blows the chaff into a heap beyond. The corn is deposited in a large pit, which has been duly prepared by having had the walls well dried and hardened from a fire burning in it for many days. These pits are carefully concealed by the natives and their armies have people, called soonghees or smellers, whose business it is to find out these underground and secret granaries.