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 above account reminds me of the exaggerated manner of expression
in use among the Eastern nations. I will give another instance of
it, premising that it is the usual style of language employed by the
natives towards their European masters. At Midnapore, the other day,
I wanted to call on the commanding officer; I accordingly got into
a tanjore,--that is, the body of a gig, supported on two poles, and
carried by men. As they took me up, I told them to go to the Colonel
Sahib's; they spoke together for a few minutes, and then one of them
said in Hindustanee, "O representative of God, your slaves do not
know where the Colonel Sahib lives."
"Well, do you know where the Salt-Agent Sahib lives?"
"Yes, O representative of God."
"Then take me there."
I had turned away a domestic for being impertinent--a case of
very rare occurrence amongst the natives. He was my own personal
attendant, and an excellent servant, but I would not allow him to be
insolent, and therefore discharged him at once. For weeks this man
stood at the gate of my compound, ran for miles by the side of my
palanquin when I went out in it, and, if he saw me walking, threw
himself on the ground at full length before me, extending his hands
clasped over his head, and then crept or rather glided on his stomach
close to me, kissed my feet, placed them on his head, and, whilst the
tears ran from his eyes, exclaimed in Hindustanee, "O great being! O
representative of God, have pity on your slave! punish me, whip me,
but let me be your slave, O great king!" One day he brought his two
little boys with him, and made them also kneel at my feet. He was an
old man with a long beard, and he rubbed it in the dust, and cried
and sobbed. I looked at his sons, and thought of my own children,
and, as I considered he had been sufficiently punished, I told him to
get up and I would try him again. He raised himself on his knees, and
kissed the hem of my garment.[5] He is now the most useful servant I
have. He is a sheikh--Sheikh Ibrahim is his name, and he had served
every one of my predecessors, the chaplains at Cuttack.
[Sidenote: NUMBER AND NAMES OF SERVANTS.]
I do not know the names of all my servants, but I will mention a few.
Ibrahim is my sirdar, or valet, and chief man; my bearer is Maqua
(which, by the way, is a name in use amongst the Indians in North
America); my water-carrier is Rangore; my watchman, or chokedar,
Sieboo; my sweeper, Ramoo. These last four are allowed me and paid
for by Government: I give them a trifle in addition to their regular
pay. The cook, or bowachee, is Callipar; and the table-servant, or
khitmutgar, is Pekhoo. We only keep one table-servant; every one
else keeps two, and many four or five. My syce, or groom, is Saitor;
I do not know the names of the coachman, grass-cutter, tailor, and
carpenter, nor of my wife's woman-servant, or ayah, as she is called.
I think these are all our domestics, except the dobee, or washerman,
but I do not know his name.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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