CHAPTER X.

CALCUTTA-CONTINUED.

Roasting Human Bodies-Adjutants in Calcutta-Unpaid Scavengers-Early RisingThe Morning Drive-"The Strand"-Clothing-Country around Calcutta-"Stations"-Dum-Dum-Artillery Mess-An Ameer of Sind-Barrackpoor-The Sepoys -Too much Petted-Some Causes of the Mutiny.

ONE of the most remarkable sights in Calcutta, is the "Burning Ghât;" a piece of ground on the river's bank, in the upper part of the city, used for the incremation of the dead. It is about a hundred feet square, surrounded on three sides by brick walls, eighteen or twenty feet high. On the fourth side toward the river it is open. The enclosure is unpaved and slopes to the water's edge, near which the funeral pyres are erected. At the upper end, against the wall, are miserable huts where those sick Hindoos, who can pay for the privilege, come to die near the sacred Gunga-a consummation which must be materially hastened by the stench of the locality, the exposure of lying in wretched hovels made only of mats, and the custom of keeping them on a very light diet indeed. In some very obstinate cases, the relatives shorten the agonies of their dying relations by stuffing the mouth and nostrils with the sacred mud of the Hoogly. The religious rites connected with the burning are in the hands of certain brahmuns, the practical details being intrusted to the members of a peculiar caste; both drive a thriving trade. Two bodies were burning and frizzling on miserably insufficient piles of fuel, when I visited the place, and the fetid, deadly, odour of the fumes, the horrid, dissecting-room stench of piles of human bones, half covered with flesh, on which birds of prey were feeding, with the groans and cries of pain from the poor wretches in the sheds, soon sickened me with the place, and made me

glad to leave. I have before mentioned that the bodies are generally only half burned. When all the wood that the relatives have paid for has been consumed, the roasted carcase is thrown into the river, and floats away or not, according to the tide. In either case, it is at once pounced on by the loathsome carrion birds, which sit on the wall of the enclosure, motionless as statues, waiting till their meal be cooked. These birds are called hurgilas, but have been nicknamed adjutants by the foreigners from the solemnity and stiffness of their carriage. They form quite a feature of Calcutta, standing motionless on the roofs of houses, and even in the streets and squares. They look like a cross between the stork and vulture, stand about three feet high, and measure about eight from tip to tip. They have a disgustingly roomy pouch under the bill, and are altogether horrid looking creatures. Their demeanour is particularly calm and sedate, and they will stand motionless for hours in the most frequented squares, probably reflecting on the possibility of their soon making a meal on the passers-by. They will let you come as near them as you like, having no fear of man, as a city regulation prevents their being molested. This immunity they owe to their being the only scavengers, except the other carrion birds, of which there are great numbers in Calcutta. No such birds are seen in China, where the dead are all buried, and everything else on which they feed is carefully collected, and made into manure, or turned to some useful purpose. The filthy condition of Indian towns and villages contrasts most disadvantageously with Chinese towns; I do not believe that there are any cleaner cities in the world than the latter, if the narrowness of the streets and the absence of drainage be taken into account.

Europeans in India keep very different hours from those in China. Every house in Calcutta is shut up by ten o'clock, and the whole city is asleep. In this respect the habits of foreigners depend very much upon those of the natives. In China, where the Chinese like to sit up late, foreigners conform, and do not go to bed before twelve, getting up very late. In Bengal, however, all the servants leave their mas

*ter's house by ten, or before, to go to their own homes-and rise very early in the morning, customs which the Europeans are forced to imitate. Up-country, the natives keep later hours, but the requirements of the service compel the officers to rise before day-break, when parade takes place, and in consequence they generally retire to bed by nine o'clock in the evening.

The custom of rising early in Calcutta, enables the residents to get a ride before breakfast-the early morning being the only part of the day, until after sunset, when exercise is pos sible in the Indian climate. From five till seven in the morning the Maidan is covered with ladies and gentlemen on horseback; but the greatest show is in the evening, from half-past five to seven. Between these hours, every one in Calcutta, who can muster any vehicle, betakes himself to the Strand, which is then as crowded as Hyde Park in the season. The equipages are, some of them, very handsome, but entirely English in style, even when they belong to rich natives. The coachmen are all natives, and generally wear long beards. They drive remarkably well. Each carriage has as many saeeses or grooms, as there are horses. They are Moosulmans of a peculiar caste, and wear a short tight-fitting jacket and flat turban, the lower part of the body being covered by a tightly wound dhotee which leaves the legs bare. They carry in their hands the chouree, or tail of the Thibet goat, fitted with a short handle; with this, running along side of the horses, they brush away the flies. These saeeses will run for almost any distance with a carriage, or after the horse upon which their master rides, and up-country their endurance is often put to severe tests. In Calcutta, however, as the roads in the Maidan are very crowded, the saeeses are generally allowed to sit on the footboard. Beside the neat turn-outs of the Europeans, one sees on the Strand the equipages of the rich natives, which are also in the English style, but much gayer, each carriage being often accompanied by six or eight servants, including a "silver-stick." The owner of all this splendour will sit alone on the back seat of the carriage, divested of all clothing, if a Bengalee baboo, except a fine

linen dhotee from the waist downward. These baboos, or native merchants, are often enormously rich, and live in as handsome houses, and in as elegant style, as the most wealthy Europeans. They ape the English customs to a great extent. The native princes, many of whom live at Calcutta on large pensions from the Company, also appear on the drive. Their carriages and attendants are commonly similar to those of the baboos, but with them dress is a great consideration, and their costume is frequently magnificent. Beside these large carriages, there are crowds of buggies, containing officers and gentlemen; and a great many caranchees, a miserable, brokendown sort of garrhee, unpainted, unwashed, drawn by a single animated skeleton of a horse, and driven by a naked nigger, who perches on the narrow box-seat, holding the rope-reins with one hand, and with the other plying the whip with unremitting diligence. These caranchees are a sight such as can be seen nowhere else than in Calcutta. They are commonly filled with Bengalee clerks, or a drunken party of sailors from the ships in the harbour. In contrast with these are the Arab horse-dealers, who come to Calcutta with Arab horses for sale, and who take advantage of the evening to show off their steeds, riding them at full speed across the grassy esplanade. They dress in loose and graceful robes of brightly-contrasted colours, their horsemanship is magnificent, and their horses combine every perfection but size, which is the one drawback to an Arab horse.

English horses will not stand the climate of India, and the native animal is a coarse, heavy-boned, big-headed beast, with an ugly temper. Many horses are consequently brought from Arabia, but their price is very high. The best, and cheapest breed is that raised at the Honourable Company's stud stables, from which officers have to buy their chargers. The studhorses combine the good qualities of the Arab and native breeds, of which they come; being larger, and more bony than the pure Arab, but possessing all his suppleness, speed, and good temper.

Perhaps, no one thing surprised me so much, on first landing in India, as the complexion and features of the natives. I

had always supposed them to be of a brownish colour, and to have something like a Caucasian countenance. I found them in Bengal nearly black, and with a very low cast of countenance. Up-country, the features become finer, but even in Hindoostan, the mass of the people are very dark. Towards Bombay, the complexion of the inhabitants is lighter, but they never have the clear skin, which is a distinctive mark of the Caucasian race, and which is found even among its darkest variety, the Spaniards, when the blood is unmixed by Moorish, or Negro contamination.

The mass of the people in Bengal wear no clothing, but a narrow cloth around the loins. The women, however, and the men of the better classes, dress in a wide long piece of the finest muslin, which is disposed around the body so as to form a skirt, or loose trowser below (the dhotee), and is then brought up over the shoulders, completely covering the whole body, and falling nearly to the ground, in graceful folds. This is a most picturesque costume, especially when seen in the country, but a most unmanageable dress to do any work in.

The country around Calcutta, though very level, is yet pretty, and in some places even beautiful, from the luxuriance of the vegetation. The roads are broad, and finely made, and the trees which border them are of great size. The whole was a scene of exuberant vegetable life, which, perhaps, impressed me the more, because I had become accustomed to the utilitarian neatness of China, where nothing is allowed to go to waste, and not a tree or bush permitted to encumber the ground, except it is directly useful to man. Agriculture in India is quite a different thing from Chinese cultivation, being conducted in the most lazy and careless manner, and the whole of the crops are often pledged to some native banker for sums advanced before the ground was planted. In fact, while I remained in India, I became daily more impressed with the inferiority of the people to the Chinese, and their want of that economy, order, and industry which enables the latter nation to be comfortable, even on the smallest means. The huts of the natives of India are miserable mud hovels, unfit for pigs, wretchedly thatched, and afford a most insuf