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swering in the negative, it was observed that one fertile cause of boatmen's desertion was the ill conduct of Europeans, who often stimulated them to do things which, in their weak and clumsy boats, were really dangerous, and, against all law or right, beat them when they refused or hesitated. A general officer was some time since heard to boast, that when his cook-boat lagged behind, he always fired at it with ball! I suppose he took care to fire high enough, but the bare fact of putting unarmed and helpless men in fear, in order to compel them to endeavour to do what was, perhaps, beyond their power, was sufficiently unfeeling and detestable. They are, I suppose, such people as these who say that it is impossible to inspire the Hindoos with any real attachment to their employers! I am pleased with all I see of Mr. Lushington, who is gentlemanly, modest, and studious; he is going to Nusseerabad, so that it is possible we may see a good deal of each other.

August 15.-Mr. Corrie read prayers, and I preached and administered the sacrament in the hall of Dr. Tytler's (the garrison surgeon's) house. There were, I should guess, sixty persons in the congregation, among whom were two or three natives. The Monghyr proselytes were very young persons, probably brought over by the Baptist missionaries; Mr. Lesley and the greater part of his flock attended, but did not stay the sacrament. There were, however, between twenty and thirty communicants, all deeply impressed and attentive. In the evening I again preached to pretty nearly the same congregation. During this stay at Monghyr, I was advised by many old Indians to supply myself with spears to arm y servants with in our march. Colonel Francklyn, particularly, told me that the precaution was both useful and necessary, and that such a show of resistance often saved lives as well as property. Monghyr, I was told, furnished better and cheaper weapons of the kind than any I should meet with up the country: they are, indeed, cheap enough, since one of the best spears may be had complete for twenty anas. I have consequently purchased a stock, and my cabin looks like a museum of Eastern weapons, containing eight of the best sort for my own servants, and eight more for the Clashees who are to be engaged up the country. These last only cost fourteen anas each. This purchase gave me a fair opportunity of examining the fire-arms and other things which were brought for sale. My eye could certainly detect no fault in their construction, except that the wood of the stocks was slight, and the screws apparently weak and irregular. But their cheapness was extraordinary; a very pretty single barrelled fowling-piece may be had for twenty S. rupees, and pistols for sixteen the brace.

CHAPTER XI.

MONGHYR TO BUXAR.

CATTLE SWIMMING ACROSS THE RIVER-BRAHMIN LABOURERS

PATNA-BANKIPOOR-GRANARY-HACKERIES-DINAPOOR

CANTONMENT-DIGAH FARM-CHUPRA-FLOATING SHOPS --FORTNATIVE CHRISTIANS SCHOOLS--CURREEM MUSSEEH-VARIETIES OF COMPLEXION.

AUGUST 16.-There was no wind this morning till near 12 o'clock, but we had then just enough to help us out of the eddy of Monghyr and across the river to the other side, along which our boatmen had a painful day's tracking against a fierce stream. The Curruckpoor hills on the left hand continued to offer a very beautiful succession of prospects. A chain of marshy islets seemed to extend nearly across the river towards the end of our course, by the aid of which a large herd of cattle were crossing with their keepers. The latter, I conclude, had been ferried over the principal arm, but when I saw them they were wading and swimming alternately by the side of their charge, their long gray mantles wrapped round their heads, their spear-like staves in their hands, and, with loud clamour, joined to that of their boys and dogs, keeping the convoy in its proper course. scene was wild and interesting, and put me in mind of Bruce's account of the passage of the Nile by the Abyssinian army. The bank at the foot of the hills seemed fertile and populous as well as beautiful; that along which we proceeded is very wretched, swampy, without trees, and only two miserable villages. Several alligators rose as we went along, but I saw none basking on the many reedy islets and promontories, which, during the hot months, are said to be their favourite resorts. Mr. Lushington's budgerow kept up with my pinnace extremely well, but the Corries were far behind.

The

We moored for the night adjoining a field of barley, the first I had seen in India; the ground was recovered, as it seemed, from a sand-bank in the river, and full of monstrous ant-hills, looking at a little distance like large hay-cocks. The peasant had just finished thrashing his barley, and was busy burying it in the dry soil. A small shed as usual stood to watch where the straw with the grain in it had been collected. The high ground of Peer Puhar above Monghyr was still in sight. Just before we stopped a very large crocodile

CROCODILE-FRUIT TREES..

vi

213 swam close to the boat, and showed himself to the best advantage. Instead of being like those we had seen before, of a black or dusky colour, he was all over stripes of yellow and brownish black like the body of a wasp, with scales very sibly marked, and a row of small tubercles or prominences along the ridge of his back and tail. He must, I should think, have been about fifteen feet long, though, under the circumstances in which I saw him, it was by no means easy to judge. My cabin was extremely infested with insects this evening. particularly with a large black beetle which I had not seen before, and which was very beautiful, having a splendid mixture of jet, copper colour, and emerald about it. I had also a pretty green lizard, which I carefully avoided injuring, knowing it to be an enemy to ants and cockroaches, both of which plagues are increasing, and unfortunately do not now seem to check each other. Yet I was a little perplexed how thehonest man should have found his way into my closet."

August 17.-We had a fine breeze part of the day, and stood over to the other bank, which we found, as I had expected, really very pretty, a country of fine natural meadows, full of cattle, and interspersed with fields of barley, wheat, and Indian corn, and villages surrounded by noble trees, with the Curruck poor hills forming a very interesting distance. If the palm trees were away, (but who would wish them away?) the prospect would pretty closely resemble some of the best parts of England. In the afternoon we rounded the point of the hills, and again found ourselves in a flat and uninteresting, though fruitful country. The last beautiful spot was a village under a grove of tall fruit trees, among which were some fine walnuts; some large boats were building on the turf beneath them, and the whole scene reminded me forcibly of a similar builder's yard, which I had met with at Partenak in the Crimea. Many groups of men and boys sate angling, or with their spears watching an opportunity to strike the fish, giving much additional beauty and liveliness to the scene.

I have been much struck for some days by the great care with which the stock of fruit trees in this country is kept up. I see every where young ones of even those kinds which are longest in coming to maturity, more particularly mangoes, and the toddy or tara palm (the last of which I am told must be from thirty to forty years old before it pays any thing) planted and fenced in with care round most of the cottages, a circumstance which seems not only to prove the general security of property, but that the peasants have more assurance of their farms remaining in the occupation of themselves and their children, than of late years has been felt in England.

214

BRAHMIN LABOURERS-CATTLE SWIMMING.

The village near which we brought to for a short time in the evening, belonged to brahmins exclusively, who were ploughing the ground near us, with their strings floating over their naked shoulders; the ground was sown with rice, barley, and vetches, the one to succeed the other. Abdullah asked them to what caste of brahmins they belonged, and on being told they were Pundits, inquired whether a mixture of seeds was not forbidden in the Puranas?" An old man answered with a good deal of warmth, that they were poor people and could not dispute, but he believed the doctrine to be a gloss of Bhuddha, striking his staff with much anger on the ground at the name of the heresiarch. The brahmin labourers are now resting after their toil, and their groups are very picturesque. The ploughman, after unyoking his oxen, lifted up his simple plough, took out the coulter, a large knife shaped like a horn, wiped and gave it to a boy, then lifted up the beam and yoke on his own shoulders, and trudged away with it. These brahmins, I observe, all shave their heads except a tuft in the centre, a custom which not many Hindoos, I think, besides them observe.

Having a good wind we proceeded a little further before sunset; we passed a herd of cows swimming across a nullah about as wide as the Dee ten miles below Chester, the cowman supporting himself by the tail and hips of the strongest among them, and with a long staff guiding her in a proper direction across the stream. We soon after passed a similar convoy guided by a little boy, who, however, did not confine himself to one animal, but swam from one to another, turning them with his staff and his voice as he saw proper. So nearly aquatic are the habits of these people, from the warmth of the climate, their simple food, their nakedness, and their daily habits of religious ablution. I saw a very smartly dressed and rather pretty young country-woman come down to the Ghat at Monghyr to wash. She went in with her mantle wrapped round her with much decency and even modesty, till the river was breast high, then ducked under water for so long a time that I began to despair of her re-appearance. This was at five o'clock in the morning, and she returned again at twelve to undergo the same process, both times walking home in her wet clothes without fear of catching cold. The ancient Greeks had, I am convinced, the same custom, since otherwise the idea of wet drapery would hardly have occurred to their statuaries, or, at least, would not have been so common.

We again brought to about seven o'clock, by a field just ploughed ready for the rising inundation; we are now not quite half way from Monghyr to Patna. The women here

FESTIVAL OF JUNMA OSMEE.

215

are still more adorned with trinkets than those in Bengal. Besides the silver bracelets, their arms are covered with rings of a hard kind of sealing-wax which looks like coral, and another ornament either of silver or bright steel is common, in shape something like a perforated discus; it is worn above the elbow.

August 18.-This morning, after leaving the nullah, we proceeded with a fine breeze, along the left-hand bank of the river, which is very fertile and populous, with a constant succession of villages, whose inhabitants were all washing themselves and getting on their best attire, it being the Hindoo festival of Junma Osmee.

The day was a very brilliant one, and, though hot, rendered supportable by the breeze, while the whole scene was lively and cheerful, all the shops having their flags hoisted; little streamers being spread by most of the boats which we passed, and a larger banner and concourse of people being displayed at a little pagoda under the shade of some noble peepul and tamarind trees.

The river is all this time filled with boats of the most picturesque forms; the peasants on the bank have that knack of grouping themselves, the want of which I have heard complained of in the peasantry of England. Two novel circumstances were seen this morning; the one the appearance of considerable herds of swine, of a small kind resembling the Chinese breed, which were grazing near most of the villages; the other a system of planting tara palms in the trunks of decayed peepul-trees. The first which I saw I supposed had been sown there by accident; but I soon found that the practice was frequent, and that the peepul thus treated had generally the greater part of its branches, and all the tops cut away to favour the intruding plant, which stands as if it were in a rude flower-pot. The hollow part of the tree must, I suppose, be previously filled with earth. A very excellent fence is thus obtained for the young tara plant; but I conclude that they are not Hindoos who thus mangle and violate the sacred tree of Siva.

Towards noon the banks became again, though not rocky, high and precipitous, and full of holes for the Muenas' nests. We are fortunate in having a breeze, for the towing here would he dangerous, the bank being crumbling and undermined, and the stream flowing with great rapidity. A friend of Mr. Corrie's had two dandees drowned in this place last month. I was astonished when he told me this, since it seemed almost as possible to drown an alligator as men of their habits. I was answered, however, that the poor fellows were worn out with towing, and that the current washed

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