After Getting Somewhat Over The Novelty And Discomfort Of Being Again
In A House With Doors And Glass Windows, And Other Inconveniences,
We Sallied Out To Inspect The Station.
Like its CONFRERES of the Hills - Simla, Kussowlie, &c. Muree was
a prettily-situated little settlement, with houses scattered about
entirely according to the freaks and fancies of the owners, and with
utter disregard of all system whatever.
The Mall was a fine one,
and its gaily-dressed frequenters, in jhampans and palkees, &c. were
of the unmistakeable stamp of Anglo India in the Hills. Two or three
of the ladies, however, were bold enough to walk, and looked none
the worse for being divorced from their almost inseparable vehicles,
and unattended by their motley crowd of red, and green, and variegated
bearers.
OCTOBER 14. - Spent a quiet day among the hospitalities of Muree, and
became gradually accustomed to CITY LIFE. Going to church seemed rather
a strange process, and the building itself was but a bad exchange
for the grander temples which we had frequented for so many Sundays.
OCTOBER 15. - Laid our dak by doolie to Lahore, and, with our
hospitable entertainer to guide us, started at five P.M. by a short
cut, to meet our new conveyances.
Reaching the main road, we once more packed ourselves away in our
boxes, and, the sun soon setting his last for us upon the Cashmere
mountains, left us to make our way down to the miserable plains as
fast as the flaring and spluttering light of a couple of pine torches
would allow our bearers to patter along.
From this, until we reach Lahore, we are accompanied by an incessant
shuffle shuffle of naked feet through the dusty road; jabbering and
shouting of blacks, flickering of torches, bumping of patched and
straining doolies against mounds of earth, glimpses of shining naked
bodies, streaming with perspiration, as they flit about, and the whole
enveloped in dense and suffocating clouds of dust, which penetrate
everything and everywhere, and soon become, in fact, a part of one's
living breathing existence; occasionally, outstripping our procession,
a vision passes, like the glimmer of a white strip of linen, a
stick, and a black and polished body, it rushes by like the wind,
and disappears in the gloom of dust and night, and, in a second, her
Majesty's mail has passed us on the road! As we near the plains this
vision undergoes a slight change, and takes the form of an apparition
of two wild horses tearing away with a red and almost body-less cart;
this also goes by like a flash, but gives more notice of its coming,
and our torches, for a second, light up the figure of a wild huntsman,
with red and streaming turban, who sits behind the steeds and blows a
defiant blast at us as he also vanishes into the darkness. About seven
miles from Muree, we halted for dinner, and made renewed acquaintance
with that interesting object - the Indian roadside chicken.
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