- Arrived early at Rawul Pindee, and breakfasted at
seven, apparently off guttapercha and extract of sloe leaves.
On
again immediately, and reached Gugerkhan bungalow at seven P.M. hot,
apoplectic, and saturated with dust.
The room smells thoroughly of the plains; an odour, as it were,
of punkhas, mosquitoes, and mustiness, not to be found elsewhere,
and entirely unexplainable to uninitiated sufferers.
The chicken, whose "fate had been accomplished," died as we entered
the yard, and was on the table in the fashion of a warm SPREAD EAGLE
in fifteen minutes! After this delicacy is duly discussed, the doolies
are emptied of dust, the bedding laid down, and jolt, jolt, creak,
creak, grunt, grunt, on we go again, until sleep good-naturedly
comes to make us oblivious of all things. The kahars, or bearers,
however, take a different view of life, and at every relief a crowd
of sniggering darkies assemble, on both sides, with applications for
bukshish. At first one hears, "Sahib, Sahib!" in a deprecating tone
of voice, mindful of sudden wakings of former Sahibs, sticks, and
consequent sore backs, then piu forte, "Sahib!" crescendo, "Sahib,
Sahib!" and then at last, in a burst of harmony, "Sahib purana Baira
kutch bukshish mil jawe?"[33] and the miserable doolie traveller, who
has been, probably, feigning sleep in sulky savageness for the last
ten minutes, makes a sudden dive through the curtains with a stick, an
exclamation is heard very like swearing, only in a foreign language,
and the troop of applicants vanish like a shot, keeping up, however,
a yelping of Sahibs, and Purana Bairas, and Bukshishs, until the new
bearers get fairly under weigh, and have carried their loads beyond
hearing. None but those who have been woken up in this manner from a
comfortable state of unconsciousness, to the full realities of doolie
travelling in Indian heat and dust, can form an idea of the trial
it is to one's temper; and, from my own feelings, together with the
sounds I hear from my companion's direction, I can testify as to the
relief that the use of foreign expletives affords under the affliction.
OCTOBER 17. - Arrived at Jhelum about eight A.M. to all intents and
purposes dust inside and out. Flesh and blood can stand no more for the
present, and we resolve to halt here for the day. The weather appears
quite as hot as when we started, and the wind comes in, hot and dry,
and makes one feel like a herring of the reddest; while an infernal
punkha is creaking its monotonous tune, as it flaps to and fro in the
next room, making one again realize to the full, "the pleasures of the
plains." We begin, in fact, to discover that the thorns which were not
forthcoming on the Cashmere roses are too surely to be found elsewhere.
OCTOBER 18. - Reached Goojerat at cock-crow; thus completing
a distinct circle of travel through Bimber, Sirinugger, Ladak,
Kushtwar, Muree, and back to our present halting-place, from whence
we had originally branched off.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 111 of 158
Words from 57288 to 57799
of 82277
