The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851Various
History
The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
most extraordinary series of events in the history of the modern world.
Its publication, however, must be, of course, a matter of great
delicacy, and of mature deliberation, and we have not as yet heard even
a rumor on the subject.
These facts are from an interesting paper in the last number of the
Quarterly Review.
THE BUNJARAS.
This most interesting race, the travelling grain merchants of western
India (who lead a life wholly nomadic, and have done so earlier than is
recorded), have their best interests opposed to the introduction of
foreign innovation in the matter of transit. The Bunjaras have no
sympathy with civilized life; from the people of India they move, think,
live apart, varying in dress, language, religion, from all about them.
Rajpoots by origin, they can follow no trade; the Bunjara may _serve_
only as a soldier; in all other callings he must be free and
independent. For hundreds of years we find them, as hordes, encamping in
the open air, and living by the exchange of merchandise. They are owners
of great droves of bullocks, which, laden with grain in the upper
country, they drive to the coast, exchanging their burthens for salt, at
a favorable market, but sedulously avoiding all intercourse with
strangers and their cities. The Bunjaras are a stout, sturdy race;
sturdy and stout in action and resolve as they are in body and form,
Spartan-like in their sense of honor, free in their opinion as the
mountain breeze, keeping apart from men and their cabals, and existing
by their own energies. A short time since, I journeyed on horseback over
the very line of this proposed railway, from the city of Nassiek to
Bombay, and encountered several hundreds of bullocks heavily laden, and
attended by Bunjara families; the men armed with sword and matchlock,
the children propped up among the bullock furniture, and each younger
woman of the tribe looking much as one fancies the Jewish maiden must
have looked when she obtained grace and favor in the sight of King
Ahasuerus, who "made her queen instead of Vashti." It is worthy of
remark, that the choice of colors among the Bunjara women is altogether
opposed to general taste among the Hindoos. Red and yellow among the
latter are always favorite tints, and blue is never worn by any but the
common people, to whom it is recommended by the cheapness of the indigo
used in dyeing. The Bunjara women, on the contrary, select the richest
imaginable Tyrian purple, a sort of rosy smalt, as the ground of their
attire, which is bordered by a deep phylactery of divers colors in
curious needlework, wrought in with small mirrors, beads, and sparkling
crystals. Their saree has a fringe of shells, and their handsome arms
and delicate ankles are laden with rich ornaments The Bunjara women
plaid their hair with crimson silk, and suffer it to fall on either side
of the face, the ends secured with silver tassels, and on the summit of
the head they wear a small tiara studded with silver stars. The reader
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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