- Reached Lahore before sunrise, and got our letters
and papers from the post once more.
Afterwards we laid our dak for
Cawnpore, and made all arrangements for a start in the evening.
OCTOBER 21. - Arrived at Umritsur about three A.M., and remained in
our coaches until sunrise, when we set off for a stroll through the
city. This we found the cleanest, if not the only clean, town we had
seen since landing in India. The streets were well drained and built,
and were guarded by a force of yellow-legged, red-turbaned Punjabee
policemen, who were provided, like their brother blue-bottles at home,
with staves and rattles instead of the more usual insignia of sword
and shield. The houses were almost all decorated, outside and in, with
grotesque mythological and other paintings, such as Vishnu annihilating
Rakshus, or demons of various kinds, or wonderful battle-pieces,
wherein pale-faced, unhealthy-looking people, in tailed coats and
cocked hats, might be seen performing prodigies of valour, assisted
by bearded and invincible Sikh warriors of ferocious exterior. The
shops were built with verandahs, and the piazza character of some of
the streets, in conjunction with the unusual cleanliness, gave one a
very agreeable impression of Umritsur and its municipal corporation,
whoever that body may be. The inhabitants are principally Sikhs,
fine-looking men generally, with long beards turned up at either
side of their faces, and knotted with their hair under the voluminous
folds of their turbans.
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