A Popular Account of the Manners and Customs of IndiaAcland, Charles
History
A Popular Account of the Manners and Customs of India
Acland, Charles
India -- Description and travel; India -- Social life and customs
The following afternoon we were able to revisit the caves. But I will
first describe our journey. On the Monday and Tuesday we had plenty
of shooting; the Wednesday, New-Year's day, we spent in-doors. At six
o'clock on the morning of Thursday, the 2nd, we started for Jonkia.
We went on horseback, riding fourteen miles before breakfast. Our
manner of travelling is most delightfully independent: we encamp at
any place we wish to see; Mr. G. transacts his necessary business as
magistrate and revenue-collector; then we have one, two, or three
days' exercise in hunting and shooting, the time depending chiefly on
the abundance of game.
When we feel inclined to start we send forward an order to the
principal man at the next place, say twelve or fifteen miles distant,
to build one room, about thirty feet square, in a shady place, for
ourselves; for the walls we use cocoa-nut and palm leaves, bound
together with bamboos, and the ceiling is made of the same material
with a few pieces of matting to keep out the sun. The evening before
we start we send on a cart with some of our chairs, tables, and other
necessaries and provisions, which it would be very awkward to forget,
under charge of some of our followers: we have about one hundred and
twenty of them with us.
Then, in the morning, we get up at five; we have a bit of toast, an
egg, and a cup of coffee or a glass of sherry; give orders for the
tents to be struck and everything to be brought on as quickly as
possible, and then we mount our horses; a groom runs by the side, and
a little way behind come our palanquins and tonjons.
We are also attended by men carrying our guns and powder, by many
other servants, and about half the inhabitants of the last village
through which we passed. If we feel tired we get into our tonjons;
if the sun is too hot we call for our palanquins. Every now and then
we see five or six peacocks feeding in a rice-field, or we come to a
place where there are plain tracks of deer. Then we give our horses
to the grooms, and creep along gently with our heads down and our
guns in our hands, whilst my wife either watches the sport or trots
gently on. At last we arrive at our encamping-place; there we find
our leafy house ready, and similar ones provided for the servants and
horses; eat a hearty breakfast, at which we sometimes substitute beer
for tea, and by the time that is over the tents are arrived.
We have them put up, arrange them comfortably, perhaps have a game
at chess, and then go out for a stroll about our new ground. Our
dinner-hour varies, but is generally between seven and eight. We
are usually up about five, and often walk from ten to twenty miles
a-day. This has done me a great deal of good. I feel already quite a
different person from what I did when I was in Cuttack. I have not,
however, lost my cough.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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