Considering That Our Entertainer Was A Hindoo, And
That His Dinner-Giving Appliances Were Limited, Each Person Having
To Bring
His own knife, fork, spoon, and chair, we fared very well,
and after having drunk his health, again assembled in
The court,
where we found Rumbeer Singh still occupied with the wearisome nach,
and reattired in a gorgeous dress of green velvet and gold. After a
short stay he got up, and we all followed his example, glad enough
to bring the entertainment to an end, and betake ourselves to our
boats. At the stairs there was a desperate encounter with innumerable
boatmen, each boat having six, eight, or ten sailors, and all being
equally anxious to uphold the credit of their craft by being the
first to land their masters safe, at home. We were fortunate enough to
reach our own at once, and, with a shouting crew, away we dashed up
the river, leaving the others struggling, fighting, and flourishing
their paddles in the air, in a way which was more suggestive of an
insurrection scene in Masaniello than the departure of guests from
a peaceable gentleman's own hall door on the night of an evening party.
On the stairs there was an extraordinary assemblage of slippers, which
seemed to hold the same relative position that hats and cloaks do in
more enlightened communities - that is, the good ones were taken by
the owners of the bad, and the proprietors of the bad ones were fain
to make the best of the exchange. Next morning our khidmutgar came up
with a most doleful countenance and presented to our notice a pair of
certainly most ill-favoured slippers, which a fellow true-believer had
INADVERTENTLY substituted for a pair of later date. The lost ones had,
in fact, only recently been received from the boot-maker; and the
blow was difficult to bear with resignation, even by the saintliest
follower of Islam - a reputation which our retainer came short of
by a very long way indeed.
JULY 4. - Having an accumulation of letters to answer, we devoted the
day to writing - merely enjoying a little OTIUM CUM DIG. - in the
evening, reclining in our boat while serenaded by the crew of boatmen.
JULY 5. - Walked up, before daybreak, to the Tukht e Suleeman,
or Solomon's throne, "the mountainous Portal," which Moore speaks
of in LALLA ROOKH, and which forms the most striking landmark in
the valley.[8]
From the summit there was a curious view of the multitudinous wooden
houses and the sinuous windings of the river, which could alone be
obtained from such a bird's-eye point of inspection. An old temple
at the top was in the hands of the Hindoo faction, being dedicated
to the goddess Mahadewee, and in charge of it I found two of the
dirtiest fukeers, or religious mendicants, I ever had the pleasure
of meeting. One was lying asleep, with his feet in a heap of dust and
ashes, and the other was listlessly sitting, without moving a muscle,
warming himself in the morning sun.
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