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CHAPTER XIV.

ALLAHABAD TO CAWNPOOR.

DESCRIPTION OF CARAVAN-ARMED PEASANTRY-CAMAULPOOR-FYZEE MUSSEEH-VISITS FROM ZEMINDAR AND IMAM-MUSSULMAN SOLDIER TURNED SAINT-RYUTS OPPRESSED BY SOLDIERY-FUTTEHPOORSERAI-BEGGARS LIVING IN TOMBS-STORMY MARCH TO KULEANPOOR-DAK JOURNEY TO CAWNPOOR-HOSPITAL AND SCHOOL-DESCRIPTION OF TOWN AND CLIMATE.

Ar length, on Thursday morning the 30th of September, we began our journey, having sent off some hours before our motley train, consisting of twenty-four camels, eight carts drawn by bullocks, twenty-four horse-servants, including those of the Archdeacon and Mr. Lushington, ten ponies, forty bearers and coolies of different descriptions, twelve tent-pitchers, and a guard of twenty sepoys under a native officer. The whimsical caravan filed off in state before me; my servants, all armed with spears, to which many of them had added, at their own cost, sabres of the longest growth, looked, on their little ponies, like something between cossacks and sheriff's javelin-men; my new Turkoman horse, still in the costume of his country, with his long squirrellike tail painted red, and his mane plaited in love-knots, looked as if he were going to eat fire, or perform some other part in a melodrama; while Mr. Lushington's horses, two very pretty Arabs, with their tails docked, and their saddles English (" Ungrigi”) fashion, might have attracted notice in Hyde-park, the Archdeacon's buggy and horse had every appearance of issuing from the back gate of a college in Cambridge on a Sunday morning; and lastly came some mounted gens d'armes, and a sword and buckler-man on foot, looking exactly like the advanced guard of a Tartar army. Rain, however, long prayed for, but which was now an inconvenience to us, prevented our starting all together, and it was late in the evening before we arrived at Cooseah, sixteen miles from Allahabad, where we found two excellent tents, of three apartments each, pitched for our reception, and the tea-kettle boiling under the shade of some stately trees in a wild country of ruins and jungle, now gemmed and glowing with the scattered fires of our cofilah.

This was the first night I ever passed under canvass, and, independent of its novelty, I found the comforts of my dwelling VOL. I.-37

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greatly exceed my expectation. The breeze blew in very fresh and pleasantly through the tent door, the ground, covered with short withered grass, was perfectly dry, though rain had so lately fallen, and my bed and musquito-curtains were arranged with as much comfort as in Calcutta. The only circumstance which struck me as likely to be annoying even to a lady, was the publicity of the situation,-her bed within a few inches of an open door, a body of men-servants and soldiers sleeping all round that door, and a sentry pacing backwards and forwards before it. After all, however, this publicity is more apparent than real. The check of the tent prevents effectually any person from seeing what passes within who does not come purposely up to peep, and this the sentry would not allow.

At five o'clock on the morning of October first we again began our march, and proceeded about twelve miles, to the second customary station, called Cussiah, a grove of neem-trees, more extensive than that which we had left, and at a small distance from a large but ruinous village. We passed through a country much wilder, worse cultivated, and worse peopled than any which I had seen in India. What cultivation there was consisted of maize, growing very tall, but sadly burnt by the continued drought. This, however, was only in patches, and the greater part of the prospect consisted of small woods, scattered in a very picturesque manner over a champaign country, with few signs of habitations, and those most of them in ruins. I was strongly reminded of the country of the Tchemoi-morski cossacks, to which the groups of people in dresses nearly similar, and all armed, who passed us on the road, undoubtedly in a great measure contributed. I had been disposed to wonder at Colonel Francklin's counsel to buy spears for my servants, and at the escort which had been ordered me; but I soon found, that, whether necessary or not, such precautions were at least customary. Every traveller whom we met, even the common people going to market, had either swords and shields, spears, or match-lock guns, and one man had a bow and quiver of arrows, in that circumstance, as well as in his dress and person, extremely resembling a Circassian warrior. The road was rugged; nothing indeed, so far as I had yet seen, could appear more unfounded than the assurances which I have heard in Calcutta, that an open carriage is an eligible method of travelling in the Dooab, on any other ground than cheapness. I have been often told that the road as far as Meerut would answer perfectly for a gig. The fact is, there are no roads at all, and the tracks which we follow are very often such as to require care even on horseback. By driving slowly, no doubt a gig may go almost any where, but it is any thing but an agreeable pastime to drive along tracks which, when beaten, are so poached by the feet of horses

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and cattle, and so hardened by the sun as to resemble a frozen farm-yard, while if the traveller forsakes these roads, he encounters cracks deep and wide enough to break his wheels. Here and there is a tolerably level mile or two, but with a few such exceptions, there is no fast or pleasant driving in this part of India.

Both men and women whom we met on the road, I thought decidedly taller, fairer, and finer people than the Bengalees. Some of the sepoys, indeed, of a regiment who passed us, were of complexions so little darker than those of Europe, that as they approached I really at first took them for Europeans. Every thing seems to assimilate gradually to the scenes and habits of the eastern and southern parts of Europe. The people no longer talk of their daily rice, but say "it is time to eat bread to-day." Instead of the softness and gentleness so apparent in those Indians whom we first saw, these men have a proud step, a stern eye, and a rough loud voice, such as might be expected from people living almost always in the open air, and in a country where, till its acquisition by the English, no man was sure that he might not at any moment be compelled to fight for his property. Much of this necessity is passed away, but something yet remains. The nation is still one of lawless and violent habits, containing many professed thieves, and many mercenary soldiers, who, in the present tranquillity of the country, are at any instant ready to become thieves; and the general sense of moral feeling is, in this particular, so low, that one ceases to wonder that banditti are from time to time heard of, and that every body finds it desirable to take his arms with him on a journey.

I was greatly pleased with my new horse, but I was annoyed in the course of the ride by one of his shoes breaking. At Cassiah I inquired of the "tussildar," or tacksman, a very decent sort of gentleman-farmer, where a smith could be obtained, and he told me to my sorrow that the people of the country seldom shod their horses, and that I should not meet with one nearer than Futtehpoor, a distance of three days' journey. There was no remedy but patience, and I had my horse led as quietly as possible. In other things there was enough to occupy my attention, as I was assailed by complaints from every part of the cofilah, of some deficiency or other in our equipments, or some experienced or apprehended inconvenience. My own tents were found to be so large as to require elephants to carry them, the camels were too few, and some of them very weak, there were no "sitringees," or tent-carpets, and no tent for the sepoys. In the midst of all this hubbub, it began to rain hard, and the camp-followers with one consent began to say that we must halt next day to supply these deficiencies, and to dry the tents, which, being so large, could not be carried in a wet state. To halt on a Saturday I

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was very unwilling, inasmuch as I had always proposed to rest on the Sunday following. I did my best, therefore, to persuade them to get on with all which could be done that day, and since the camels were too few, applied to the tussildar for some hackeries to help them. Even to this, however, the poverty of the village was unequal, and I was glad to obtain four baggage-oxen, to make up the deficiency in the Company's appointments. Meantime arrived a sepoy, with sitringees from General Morley, and I sent back by him some of the most useless articles of our equipage, thus materially lightening one of the heaviest laden camels. The rest were relieved by the accession of the oxen, and if the tents got dry, the "clashees" (tent-pitchers) again allowed that we might proceed in the morning prosperously. The evening was fair and very pleasant, and we all found abundant interest and employment in walking round the motley groups of men and animals which made up our caravan, seeing the camels, horses, and oxen fed, and talking with the tussildar, who, with a little retinue of swords, shields, and spears behind him, again made his appearance. I attempted to have some conversation with the jemautdar, who commanded the sepoys, but found him a very shy and modest man, little disposed to talk, while for asking many questions my language was hardly sufficient; to him and the soldiers I gave up some of the servants' tents, as they had been completely overlooked by the Commissariate at Allahabad.

In the course of this evening a fellow, who said he was a Gaowala, brought me two poor little leverets, which he said he had just found in a field. They were quite unfit to eat, and the bringing them was an act of cruelty of which there are few instances among the Hindoos, who are generally humane to wild animals. In this case, on my scolding the man for bringing such poor little things from their mother, all the crowd of camel-drivers and camp-followers, of whom no inconsiderable number were around us, expressed great satisfaction and an entire concurrence in my censure. It ended in the man promising to take them back to the very spot (which he described) where he had picked them up, and in my promising him an ana if he did so. To see him keep his word, two stout wagonner's boys immediately volunteered their services, and I have no doubt kept him to his contract.

October 2.-The night was drizzly, so that when I arose at four in the morning I found the tent too wet, in the opinion of the Tindals, for the camels to bear it. About eight o'clock, however, a drying wind having sprung up, we were enabled to send off the two small "routees," (or breakfast tents,) to serve as a shelter till the arrival of the larger tents, and partly on horseback, partly in my palanquin, I reached a place a few miles short of

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our destined station before noon. At Coty, our halting place, we remained till the cool of the evening, and then went on to Camaulpoor, near Currah. Here we encamped amid a vast field of tombs and ruins, (of the former our guide said there was lack all save five,") and the whole scene, with its jungle, and deserted appearance, was singularly picturesque and romantic. The inhabited part of Currah is still, however, considerable, and we soon found that there were people in the neighbourhood, by the number of little shops at once set up under the trees around us, with an eye to our custom.

Currah owes its fame, it seems, and stately buildings to a celebrated saint named Camaul Shek, who, with his son and several of his disciples, lies buried here. The tomb is still in tolerable repair, which is more than can be said of any of the others, which have been splendid, but are now mere ruins, in a grave and solemn style of architecture, being a square tower pierced on each front with elegantly formed and carved gothic door-ways, and surmounted with a dome of a very judicious form, and harmonizing with the general character of the building, not being semi-circular but conical, and in the same form of a gothic arch, as is displayed in the other arches of the building. Besides this large chapel are many raised tombs, of different sizes, from small terraces, with kiblas for prayers, down to stone coffins as they are sometimes called in England, and as they are found in similar forms, and with nearly the same ornaments, in our old cathedrals. These ruins and sepulchres reminded me of Caffa; but there was no other similarity; instead of the bare rocks which surround that ancient city, we had a grove of noble trees, under which our horses, camels, and bullocks were disposed in different clusters, and the tents, the fires, the baskets of fruits, rice, ghee, &c., exposed for sale, and the varied and picturesque costume of the crowd assembled under it, the red uniform of the sepoys, the white garments of our own servants, the long veils and silver ornaments of the female villagers, and the dark mantles, dark beards, and naked limbs of the male peasantry and coolies, mingled with the showy dresses, swords, shields, and spears of the Chuprassies, gave the whole scene the animated and interesting effect of an eastern fair; an effect which the east, perhaps, can alone supply, and which I greatly regretted my want of skill to convey effectually to my friends in Europe. My dear wife will, I trust, sooner or later, see many such scenes in my company.

These tombs, ruins, and jungles are favourable to robbery, for which Currah and Camaulpoor bear a very bad name, and an additional body of ten Chuprassies, besides the four sepoy sentries, were thought necessary by the Zemindar of Currah to keep watch at night over our extensive encampment.

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