Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 2 of 3: or the Central and Western Rajput States of IndiaTod, James
History
Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 2 of 3: or the Central and Western Rajput States of India
Tod, James
Rajasthan (India) -- History; Rajput (Indic people) -- History
permitted to worship the chariot of Kanhaiya. The garments which
decorate his representative are changed several times a day, to imitate
the different stages of his existence, from the youthful Bala to the
conqueror of Kansa; or, as the Surat devotee said in broken English,
“Oh, sir, he be much great god; he first of all; and he change from de
balak, or child, to de fierce chief, with de bow and arrow a hees
hands”; while the old Mukhya, whose office it is to perambulate the
whole continent of India as one of the couriers of Kanhaiya, lifted up
his eyes as he ejaculated, “Sri Krishna! Sri Krishna!” I gave him a
paper [663] addressed to all officers of the British Government who
might pass through the lands of the church, recommending the protection
of the peacocks and pipal trees, and to forbear polluting the precincts
of the god with the blood of animals. To avoid offending against their
prejudices in this particular, I crossed the river, and killed our fowls
within our own sanctuary, and afterwards concealed the murder by burying
the feathers.
=Sagacity of Elephants. Usarwās.=—_October 16._—There is nothing so
painful as sitting down inactive when the mind is bent upon an object.
Our escort was yet labouring in the swamps, and as we could not be worse
off than we were, we deemed it better to advance, and accordingly
decamped in the afternoon, sending on a tent to Usarwas; but though the
distance was only eight miles we were benighted, and had the comfort to
find old Fateh, “the victorious,” floundering with his load in a bog,
out of which he was picking his way in a desperate rage. It is generally
the driver’s fault when such an accident occurs: for if there be but a
foot’s breadth of sound footing, so sensible is the animal, that he is
sure to avoid danger if left to his own discretion and the free use of
his proboscis, with which he thumps the ground as he cautiously proceeds
step by step, giving signals to his keeper of the safety or the reverse
of advancing, as clearly as if he spoke. Fateh’s signals had been
disregarded, and he was accordingly in a great passion at finding
himself abused, and kept from his cakes and butter, of which he had
always thirty pounds’ weight at sunset. The sagacity of the elephant is
well known, and was in no instance better displayed than in the
predicament above described. I have seen the huge monster in a position
which to him must have been appalling; but, with an instinctive reliance
on others, he awaited in tolerable patience the arrival of materials for
his extrication, in the shape of fascines and logs of wood, which being
thrown to him, he placed deliberately in front, and making a stout
resistance with head, teeth, and foot, pressing the wood, he brought up
one leg after the other in a most methodical and pioneer-like manner,
till he delivered himself from his miry prison. Fateh did not require
such aid; but, aware that the fault was not his, he soon indignantly
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