When we were visiting in the native states, the chiefs sometimes
offered us saddle-horses. The first time I rode one of these, I started
off gaily, nothing fearing. From a gentle canter my mount suddenly
broke into a dead run. Supposing that horses in all countries
understood the same language, I said "Whoa," first mildly,
persuasively, then loudly, imploringly; but without the slightest
effect. On he sped faster and faster, until he overtook another horse,
apparently a friend of his, for he slowed down to a walk beside it. I
learned afterward that a sound similar to that used in America to make
a horse go is used in India to make him stop. So the poor dear did not
understand in the least my frantic cries of "Whoa!"
The only other swift-moving animal that it was my misfortune to
encounter in India was a camel. This was in the north, in the desert of
Rajputana. We were going to visit some tombs about five miles from the
city. The others went in carriages, but I preferred to try the
"fleet-footed camel." The creature knelt docilely enough to let me
climb into the saddle back of the driver; then he unfolded his
many-jointed legs and rose, throwing me forward and backward in a most
uncomfortable manner.
He walked haughtily about the grounds of the guest-house a few minutes,
turning up his nose at everybody, then suddenly let his hind legs
collapse, almost throwing me off. The driver succeeded in making him
understand that there was no use making a fuss, that he would have to
take us. Off across the desert he started, at a gait so rough that I
know of nothing with which to compare it. At first, I tried to hold to
the saddle, but it was too slippery, so there was nothing to do but to
throw my arms about the driver, and hang on to him with all my might. I
returned in a carriage!
At Mysore and several other places, we saw camel-carriages. They make a
queer sight, these ungainly, loose-jointed animals shambling along in
the harness. In Bikanir, we watched the camel corps drill. The natives
in this part of India are very finely built men, and they look most
imposing in their gaily colored uniforms and turbans as they sit erect
on the arrogant camels who snub even their masters.
[Illustration: Camel carriages of the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab]
There are so many slow, lazy ways of traveling in India that it is
difficult to say which is the slowest.
Perhaps the bullocks, when they walk, are the slowest of all. They do,
however, sometimes trot, and that at a rather brisk pace. They are
beautiful animals, and very different from those in America. Their skin
is wonderfully soft and silky. Between their shoulders is a large
gristly hump. From their chin down between their fore legs hangs a
loose, flabby fold of skin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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