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
There are some large birds here called adjutants, about five feet
high, with long white legs, black bodies, bare necks, and a beak like
pelicans. They are generally seen perched on the tops of houses. The
fire-flies are very pretty: on a fine night a number of them are seen
flitting about the lanes and gardens glittering like stars.
The bull-frogs make a noise at night almost as loud as the bark of a
dog. A pretty brown and white bird is to be found here, singing much
like a blackbird; it is called a miner.
Calcutta is well termed the city of palaces, since every house is a
noble mansion. Most of the rooms are at least fifteen feet high and
twenty-six feet square, and along every story there is a verandah,
supported by stone columns. The language of the people here seems to
have retained many traces of the Portuguese, who were here before the
English. For instance, the bishop is called de Lord Padre, and I go
by the name of Padre Sahib.
[Sidenote: NATIVE SERVANTS.]
We have no bells by which to summon the servants, who lie on the mat
outside the room door; when we require them we call out, without
rising from the sofa, "Qui hi?" (who is there?) then the sirdar,
or valet, runs in. We give him our orders, which he reports to the
others. Although I am staying at the bishop's, and dine at his
table, and use his carriage, I am obliged to have five servants. I
have one kitmajar, or waiter, who does nothing but attend at table.
The bishop's kitmajars will wait only upon their own master. Then
I have one ayah, or lady's-maid, for my wife; a sirdar, or bearer;
and a matee-sirdar, or assistant-bearer. These men make the beds
and assist me to dress. I have also a punkah-bearer--that is, a man
who sits outside the room, and is constantly employed in pulling
a string fastened to a punkah, or enormous fan, without which no
Englishman could live in India. Besides these I pay a pooney-bearer,
or water-carrier, and a matranes. When I go up the country I shall
be obliged to have a consummar, or head servant; a dobee, or
washerwoman; a dugay, or tailor; a syce, or grass-cutter; and one or
two others. We cannot do with less, because, if I were to ask the
kitmajar to fetch my coat, he would twist his mustachios, and say,
"Me no sirdar;" or if I were to ask my sirdar to wait at table, he
would say, "Kitmajar no do dat."
August 6, 1842.
[Sidenote: CUTTACK.]
The bishop has changed my appointment from Assam to Cuttack. The
different towns I shall have under my jurisdiction are Midnapore,
Balasore, and Poonee. Midnapore is situated eighty miles south of
Calcutta, and Cuttack two hundred and forty. Poonee stands on the
coast a little to the south of the great plain of Juggernat'h, which
forms a part of my district.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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