In The Evening We Made The
Acquaintance Of A Loquacious And Free-And-Easy Gardener, Entirely
Innocent Of Clothes, Who Came And Seated Himself Between F. And Myself,
As We Were Perched Upon A Rock Enjoying The Prospect.
According to his
account, the Maharajah's tenants pay about seven rupees, or fourteen
shillings, per annum for some five acres of land.
In the middle of
the night we came in for another storm of thunder and lightning,
which took a good many liberties with our house, but cooled the air;
and only for the mosquitoes, and other holders of the property, whose
excessive attentions were rather embarrassing, we would have got
on very well. As it was, however, I hardly closed an eye all night,
and spent the greater part of it in meandering about the Bauli Bagh,
VESTITO DA NOTTE - in which operation I rejoice to think that, like
the Russians at the burning of Moscow, I at least put the enemy to
very considerable inconvenience, even at the expense of my own comfort.
JUNE 16. - About half-past four A.M. we got under weigh again,
heartily delighted to leave the sparrows and their allies in undisputed
possession of their property.
The "kotwal," and other authorities, who had been extremely civil in
providing supplies, coolies, &c., according to the Maharajah's order,
took very good care not to let us depart without a due sense of the
fact, for they bothered us for "bukhshish" just as keenly as the lowest
muleteer; and when I gave the kotwal twelve annas, or one shilling and
sixpence, as all the change I had, he assured me that the khidmutgar
had more, and ran back to prove it by bringing me two rupees. I gave
the scoundrel one, and regretted it for three miles, for he had robbed
the coolies in the morning, either on his own or his master's account,
of one anna, or three-halfpence each, out of their hardly-earned
wages. To-day we find ourselves once more among the rocks and pines,
and as we progressed nothing could exceed the beauty of the views
which opened upon us right and left. A mountain stream attended our
steps the whole way sometimes smoothly and placidly, sometimes dancing
about like a mad thing, and teasing the sturdy old battered rocks and
stones which long ago had settled down in life along its path, and
which, from the amount of polish they displayed, must themselves have
been finely knocked about the world in their day. Rounding a turn of
the river, where it ran deeply under its rocky bank, we came suddenly
upon the ghastly figure of a man carefully suspended in chains from a
prominent tree. His feet had been torn off by the wolves and jackals,
but the upper part of the body remained together, and there he swung
to and fro in the breeze, a ghastly warning to all evildoers, and
a not very pleasing monument of the justice of the country.
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