Books: Himalayan Journals (Complete)

J >> J. D. Hooker >> Himalayan Journals (Complete)

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At Kota we were nearly opposite the cliffs at Beejaghur, where coal
is reported to exist; and here we again crossed the Soane, and for
the last time. The ford is three miles up the river, and we marched
to it through deep sand. The bed of the river is here 500 feet above
the sea, and about three-quarters of a mile broad, the rapid stream
being 50 or 60 yards wide, and breast deep. The sand is firm and
siliceous, with no mica; nodules of coal are said to be washed down
thus far from the coal-beds of Burdee, a good deal higher up, but we
saw none.

The cliffs come close to the river on the opposite side, their bases
clothed with woods which teemed with birds. The soil is richer, and
individual trees, especially of _Bombax, Terminalia_ and _Mahowa,_
very fine; one tree of the _Hardwickia,_ about 120 feet high, was as
handsome a monarch of the forest as I ever saw, and it is not often
that one sees trees in the tropics, which for a combination of beauty
in outline, harmony of colour, and arrangement of branches and
foliage, would form so striking an addition to an English park.

There is a large break in the Kymore hills here, beyond the village
of Kunch, through which our route lay to Beejaghur, and the Ganges at
Mirzapore; the cliff's leaving the river and trending to the north in
a continuous escarpment flanked with low ranges of rounded hills, and
terminating in an abrupt spur (Mungeesa Peak) whose summit was
covered with a ragged forest. At Kunch we saw four alligators
sleeping in the river, looking at a distance like logs of wood, all
of the short-nosed or mugger kind, dreaded by man and beast; I saw
none of the sharp-shouted (or garial), so common on the Ganges, where
their long bills, with a garniture of teeth and prominent eyes
peeping out of the water, remind one of geological lectures and
visions of _Ichthyosauri._ Tortoises were frequent in the river,
basking on the rocks, and popping into the water when approached.

On the 1st of March we left the Soane, and struck inland over a rough
hilly country, covered with forest, fully 1000 feet below the top of
the Kymore table-land, which here recedes from the river and
surrounds an undulating plain, some ten miles either way, facing the
south. The roads, or rather pathways, were very bad, and quite
impassable for the carts without much engineering, cutting through
forest, smoothing down the banks of the watercourses to be crossed,
and clearing away the rocks as we best might. We traversed the empty
bed of a mountain torrent, with perpendicular banks of alluvium 30
feet high, and thence plunged into a dense forest. Our course was
directed towards Mungeesa Peak, the remarkable projecting spur,
between which and a conical hill the path led. Whether on the
elephants or on foot, the thorny jujubes, _Acacias,_ etc. were
most troublesome, and all our previous scratchings were nothing to
this. Peacocks and jungle-fowl were very frequent, the squabbling of
the former and the hooting of the monkeys constantly grating on the
ear. There were innumerable pigeons and a few Floricans (a kind of
bustard--considered the best eating game--bird in India). From the
defile we emerged on an open flat, halting at Sulkun, a scattered
village (alt. 684 feet), peopled by a bold-looking race (Coles)* [The
Coles, like the Danghas of the Rajmahal and Behar hills, and the
natives of the mountains of the peninsula, form one of the aboriginal
tribes of British India, and are widely different people from either
the Hindoos or Mussulmen.] who habitually carry the spear and shield.
We had here the pleasure of meeting Mr. Felle, an English gentleman
employed in the Revenue department; this being one of the roads along
which the natives transport their salt, sugar, etc., from one
province to another.

In the afternoon, I examined the conical hill, which, like that near
Rotas, is of stratified beds of limestone, capped with sandstone.
A stream runs round its base, cutting through the alluvium to the
subjacent rock, which is exposed, and contains flattened spheres of
limestone. These spheres are from the size of a fist to a child's
head, or even much larger; they are excessively hard, and neither
laminated nor formed of concentric layers. At the top of the hill the
sandstone cap was perpendicular on all sides, and its dry top covered
with small trees, especially of _Cochlospermum._ A few larger
trees of _Fici_ clung to the edge of the rocks, and by forcing
their roots into the interstices detached enormous masses, affording
good dens for bears and other wild animals. From the top, the view of
rock, river, forest, and plain, was very fine, the eye ranging over a
broad flat, girt by precipitous hills;--West, the Kymore or Vindhya
range rose again in rugged elevations; South, flowed the Soane,
backed by ranges of wooded hills, smoking like volcanos with the
fires of the natives;--below, lay the bed of the stream we had left
at the foot of the hills, cutting its way through the alluvium, and
following a deep gorge to the Soane, which was there hidden by the
rugged heights we had crossed, on which the greater part of our camp
might be seen still straggling onwards;--east, and close above us,
the bold spur of Mungeesa shot up, terminating a continuous stretch
of red precipices, clothed with forest along their bases, and over
their horizontal tops.

From Sulkun the view of the famed fort and palace of Beejaghur is
very singular, planted on the summit of an isolated hill of
sandstone, about ten miles off. A large tree by the palace marks its
site; for, at this distance, the buildings are themselves
undistinguishable.

There are many tigers on these hills; and as one was close by, and
had killed several cattle, Mr. Felle kindly offered us a chance of
slaying him. Bullocks are tethered out, over-night, in the places
likely to be visited by the brute; he kills one of them, and is from
the spot tracked to his haunt by natives, who visit the stations
early in the morning, and report the whereabouts of his lair.
The sportsman then goes to the attack mounted on an elephant, or
having a roost fixed in a tree, on the trail of the tiger, and he
employs some hundred natives to drive the animal past the
lurking-place.

On the present occasion, the locale of the tiger was doubtful; but it
was thought that by beating over several miles of country he (or at
any rate, some other game) might be driven past a certain spot.
Thither, accordingly, the natives were sent, who built machans
(stages) in the trees, high out of danger's reach; Mr. Theobald and
myself occupied one of these perches in a _Hardwickia_ tree, and
Mr. Felle another, close by, both on the slope of a steep hill,
surrounded by jungly valleys. We were also well thatched in with
leafy boughs, to prevent the wary beast from espying the ambush, and
had a whole stand of shall arms ready for his reception.

When roosted aloft, and duly charged to keep profound silence (which
I obeyed to the letter, by falling sound asleep), the word was passed
to the beaters, who surrounded our post on the plain-side, extending
some miles in line, and full two or three distant from us.
They entered the jungle, beating tom-toms, singing and shouting as
they advanced, and converging towards our position. In the noonday
solitude of these vast forests, our situation was romantic enough:
there was not a breath of wind, an insect or bird stirring; and the
wild cries of the men, and the hollow sound of the drums broke upon
the ear from a great distance, gradually swelling and falling, as the
natives ascended the heights or crossed the valleys. After about an
hour and a half, the beaters emerged from the jungle under our
retreat; one by one, two by two, but preceded by no single living
thing, either mouse, bird, deer, or bear, and much less tiger.
The beaters received about a penny a-piece for the day's work; a rich
guerdon for these poor wretches, whom necessity sometimes drives to
feed on rats and offal.

We were detained three days at Sulkun, from inability to get on with
the carts; and as the pass over the Kymore to the north (on the way
to Mirzapore) was to be still worse, I took advantage of Mr. Felle's
kind offer of camels and elephants to make the best of my way
forward, accompanying that gentleman, _en route,_ to his
residence at Shahgunj, on the table-land.

Both the climate and natural history of this flat on which Sulkun
stands, are similar to those of the banks of the Soane; the crops are
wretched. At this season the dryness of the atmosphere is excessive:
our nails cracked, and skins peeled, whilst all articles of wood,
tortoiseshell, etc., broke on the slightest blow. The air, too, was
always highly electrical, and the dew-point was frequently 40 degrees
below the temperature of the air.

The natives are far from honest: they robbed one of the tents placed
between two others, wherein a light was burning. One gentleman in it
was awake, and on turning saw five men at his bedside, who escaped
with a bag of booty, in the shape of clothes, and a tempting strong
brass-bound box, containing private letters. The clothes they dropped
outside, but the box of letters was carried off. There were about a
hundred people asleep outside the tents, between whose many fires the
rogues must have passed, eluding also the guard, who were, or ought
to have been, awake.

CHAPTER III.

Ek-powa Ghat -- Sandstones -- Shahgunj -- Table-land, elevation, etc.
-- Gum-arabic -- Mango -- Fair -- Aquatic plants -- Rujubbund --
Storm -- False sunset and sunrise -- Bind hills -- Mirzapore --
Manufactures, imports, etc. -- Climate of -- Thuggee -- Chunar --
Benares -- Mosque -- Observatory -- Sar-nath -- Ghazeepore --
Rose-gardens -- Manufactory of Attar -- Lord Cornwallis' tomb --
Ganges, scenery and natural history of -- Pelicans -- Vegetation --
Insects -- Dinapore -- Patna -- Opium godowns and manufacture --
Mudar, white and purple -- Monghyr islets -- Hot Springs of Setakoond
-- Alluvium of Ganges -- Rocks of Sultun-gunj -- Bhaugulpore --
Temples of Mt. Manden -- Coles and native tribes -- Bhaugulpore
rangers -- Horticultural gardens.

On the 3rd of March I bade farewell to Mr. Williams and his kind
party, and rode over a plain to the village of Markunda, at the foot
of the Ghat. There the country becomes very rocky and wooded, and a
stream is crossed, which runs over a flat bed of limestone, cracked
into the appearance of a tesselated pavement. For many miles there is
no pass over the Kymore range, except this, significantly called
"Ek-powa-Ghat" (one-foot Ghat). It is evidently a _fault,_ or
shifting of the rocks, producing so broken a cliff as to admit of a
path winding over the shattered crags. On either side, the precipices
are extremely steep, of horizontally stratified rocks, continued in
an unbroken line, and the views across the plain and Soane valley,
over which the sun was now setting, were superb. At the summit we
entered on a dead flat plain or table-land, with no hills, except
along the brim of the broad valley we had left, where are some
curious broad pyramids, formed of slabs of sandstone arranged in
steps. By dark we reached the village of Roump (alt. 1090 feet),
beyond the top of the pass.

On the next day I proceeded on a small, fast, and wofully
high-trotting elephant, to Shahgunj, where I enjoyed Mr. Felle's
hospitality for a few days. The country here, though elevated, is,
from the nature of the soil and formation, much more fertile than
what I had left. Water is abundant, both in tanks and wells, and
rice-fields, broad and productive, cover the ground; while groves of
tamarinds and mangos, now loaded with blossoms, occur at
every village.

It is very singular that the elevation of this table-land (1100 feet
at Shahgunj) should coincide with that of the granite range of Upper
Bengal, where crossed by the grand trunk road, though they have no
feature but the presence of alluvium in common. Scarce a hillock
varies the surface here, and the agricultural produce of the two is
widely different. Here the flat ledges of sandstone retain the
moisture, and give rise to none of those impetuous torrents which
sweep it off the inclined beds of gneiss, or splintered quartz.
Nor is there here any of the effloresced salts so forbidding to
vegetation where they occur. Wherever the alluvium is deep on these
hills, neither _Catechu, Olibanum, Butea, Terminalia, Diospyros,_
dwarf-palm, or any of those plants are to be met with, which abound
wherever the rock is superficial, and irrespectively of its
mineral characters.

The gum-arabic _Acacia_ is abundant here, though not seen below,
and very rare to the eastward of this meridian, for I saw but little
of it in Behar. It is a plant partial to a dry climate, and rather
prefers a good soil. In its distribution it in some degree follows
the range of the camel, which is its constant companion over
thousands of leagues. In the valley of the Ganges I was told that
neither the animal nor plant flourish east of the Soane, where I
experienced a marked change in the humidity of the atmosphere on my
passage down the Ganges. It was a circumstance I was interested in,
having first met with the camel at Teneriffe and the Cape Verd
Islands, the westernmost limit of its distribution; imported thither,
however, as it now is into Australia, where, though there is no
_Acacia Arabica,_ four hundred other species of the genus
are known.

The mango, which is certainly _the_ fruit of India, (as the
pine-apple is of the Eastern Islands, and the orange of the West,)
was now blossoming, and a superb sight. The young leaves are
purplish-green, and form a curious contrast to the deep lurid hue of
the older foliage; especially when the tree is (which often occurs)
dimidiate, one half the green, and the other the red shades of
colours; when in full blossom, all forms a mass of yellow, diffusing
a fragrance rather too strong and peculiar to be pleasant.

We passed a village where a large fair was being held, and singularly
familiar its arrangements were to my early associations. The women
and children are the prime customers; for the latter
whirl-you-go-rounds, toys, and sweetmeats were destined; to tempt the
former, little booths of gay ornaments, patches for the forehead,
ear-rings of quaint shapes, bugles and beads. Here as at home, I
remarked that the vendors of these superfluities occupy the
approaches to this Vanity-Fair. As, throughout the East, the trades
are congregated into particular quarters of the cities, so here the
itinerants grouped themselves into little bazaars for each class of
commodity. Whilst I was engaged in purchasing a few articles of
native workmanship, my elephant made an attack on a sweetmeat stall,
demolishing a magnificent erection of barley-sugar, before his
proceedings could be put a stop to.

Mr. Felle's bungalow (whose garden smiled with roses in this
wilderness) was surrounded by a moat (fed by a spring), which was
full of aquatic plants, _Nymphaea, Damasonium, Villarsia cristata,
Aponogeton,_ three species of _Potamogeton,_ two of _Naias, Chara_
and _Zannichellia_ (the two latter indifferently, and often together,
used in the refinement of sugar). In a large tank hard by, wholly fed
by rain water, I observed only the _Villarsia Indica,_ no
_Aponogeton, Nymphaea,_ or _Dammonium,_ nor did these occur in any of
the other tanks I examined, which were otherwise well peopled with
plants. This may not be owing to the quality of the water so much as
to its varying quantity in the tank.

All around here, as at Roump, is a dead flat, except towards the
crest of the ghats which overhang the valley of the Soane, and there
the sandstone rock rises by steps into low hills. During a ride to a
natural tank amongst these rocky elevations, I passed from the
alluvium to the sandstone, and at once met with all the prevailing
plants of the granite, gneiss, limestone and hornstone rocks
previously examined, and which I have enumerated too often to require
recapitulation; a convincing proof that the mechanical properties and
not the chemical constitution of the rocks regulate the distribution
of these plants.

Rujubbund (the pleasant spot), is a small tarn, or more properly the
expanded bed of a stream, art having aided nature in its formation:
it is edged by rocks and cliffs fringed with the usual trees of the
neighbourhood; it is a wild and pretty spot, not unlike some
birch-bordered pool in the mountains of Wales or Scotland,
sequestered and picturesque. It was dark before I got back, with
heavy clouds and vivid lightning approaching from the south-west.
The day had been very hot (3 p.m., 90 degrees), and the evening the
same; but the barometer did not foretell the coming tempest, which
broke with fury at 7 p.m., blowing open the doors, and accompanied
with vivid lightning and heavy thunder, close by and all round,
though no rain fell.

In the clear dry mornings of these regions, a curious optical
phenomena may be observed, of a _sunrise_ in the _west,_ and _sunset_
in the _east._ In either case, bright and well-defined beams rise to
the zenith, often crossing to the opposite horizon. It is a beautiful
feature in the firmament, and equally visible whether the horizon be
cloudy or clear, the white beams being projected indifferently
against a dark vapour or the blue serene. The zodiacal light shines
from an hour or two after sunset till midnight, with singular
brightness, almost equalling the milky way.

_March_ 7.-Left Shahgunj for Mirzapore, following the road to
Goorawal, over a dead alluvial flat without a feature to remark.
Turning north from that village, the country undulates, exposing the
rocky nucleus, and presenting the usual concomitant vegetation.
Occasionally park-like views occurred, which, where diversified by
the rocky valleys, resemble much the noble scenery of the Forest of
Dean on the borders of Wales; the _Mahowa_ especially
representing the oak, with its spreading and often gnarled branches.
Many of the exposed slabs of sandstone are beautifully waved on the
surface with the _ripple-mark_ impression.

Amowee, where I arrived at 9 p.m., is on an open grassy flat, about
fifteen miles from the Ganges, which is seen from the neighbourhood,
flowing among trees, with the white houses, domes, and temples of
Mirzapore scattered around, and high above which the dust-clouds were
coursing along the horizon.

Mr. Money, the magistrate of Mirzapore, kindly sent a mounted
messenger to meet me here, who had vast trouble in getting bearers
for my palkee. In it I proceeded the next day to Mirzapore,
descending a steep ghat of the Bind hills by an excellent road, to
the level plains of the Ganges. Unlike the Dunwah pass, this is
wholly barren. At the foot the sun was intensely hot, the roads
alternately rocky and dusty, the villages thronged with a widely
different looking race from those of the hills, and the whole air of
the outskirts, on a sultry afternoon, far from agreeable.

Mirzapore is a straggling town, said to contain 100,000 inhabitants.
It flanks the river, and is built on an undulating alluvial bank,
full of kunker, elevated 360 feet above the sea, and from 50 to 80
above the present level of the river. The vicinity of the Ganges and
its green bank, and the numbers of fine trees around, render it a
pleasing, though not a fine town. It presents the usual Asiatic
contrast of squalor and gaudiness; consisting of large squares and
broad streets, interspersed with acres of low huts and groves of
trees. It is celebrated for its manufactory of carpets, which are
admirable in appearance, and, save in durability, equal to the
English. Indigo seed from Bundelkund is also a most extensive article
of commerce, the best coming from the Doab. For cotton, lac, sugar,
and saltpetre, it is one of the greatest marts in India. The articles
of native manufacture are brass washing and cooking utensils, and
stone deities worked out of the sandstone.

There is little native vegetation, the country being covered with
cultivation and extensive groves of mango, and occasionally of guava.
English vegetables are abundant and excellent, and the strawberries,
which ripen in March, rival the European fruit in size, but hardly
in flavour.

During the few days spent at Mirzapore with my kind friend, Mr. C.
Hamilton, I was surprised to find the temperature of the day cooler
by nearly 4 degrees than that of the hills above, or of the upper
part of the Soane valley; while on the other hand the nights were
decidedly warmer. The dewpoint again was even lower in proportion,
(72 degrees) and the climate consequently drier. The atmosphere was
extremely dry and electrical, the hair constantly crackling when
combed. Further west, where the climate becomes still drier, the
electricity of the air is even greater. Mr. Griffith mentions in his
journal that in filling barometer tubes in Affghanistan, he
constantly experienced a shock.

Here I had the pleasure of meeting Lieutenant Ward, one of the
suppressors of Thuggee (_Thuggee,_ in Hindostan, signifies a
deceiver; fraud, not open force, being employed). This gentleman
kindly showed me the approvers or king's evidence of his
establishment, belonging to those three classes of human scourges,
the Thug, Dakoit, and Poisoner. Of these the first was the Thug, a
mild-looking man, who had been born and bred to the profession: he
had committed many murders, saw no harm in them, and felt neither
shame nor remorse. His organs of observation and destructiveness were
large, and the cerebellum small. He explained to me how the gang
waylay the unwary traveller, enter into conversation with him, and
have him suddenly seized, when the superior throws his own linen
girdle round the victim's neck and strangles him, pressing the
knuckles against the spine. Taking off his own, he passed it round my
arm, and showed me the turn as coolly as a sailor once taught me the
_hangman's knot._ The Thug is of any caste, and from any part
of India. The profession have particular stations, which they
generally select for murder, throwing the body of their victim into
a well.

The Dakoit (_dakhee,_ a robber) belongs to a class who rob in
gangs, but never commit murder--arson and housebreaking also forming
part of their profession. These are all high-class Rajpoots,
originally from Guzerat; who, on being conquered, vowed vengeance on
mankind. They speak both Hindostanee and the otherwise extinct
Guzerat language; this is guttural in the extreme, and very singular
in sound. They are a very remarkable people, found throughout India,
and called by various names; their women dress peculiarly, and are
utterly devoid of modesty. The man I examined was a short, square,
but far from powerful Nepalese, with high arched eyebrows, and no
organs of observation. These people are great cowards.

The Poisoners all belong to one caste, of Pasie, or dealers in toddy:
they go singly or in gangs, haunting the travellers' resting-places,
where they drop half a rupee weight of pounded or whole _Datura_
seeds into his food, producing a twenty-hours' intoxication, during
which he is robbed, and left to recover or sink under the stupifying
effects of the narcotic. He told me that the _Datura_ seed is
gathered without ceremony, and at any time, place, or age of the
plant. He was a dirty, ill-conditioned looking fellow, with no bumps
behind his ears, or prominence of eyebrow region, but a remarkable
cerebellum.

Though now all but extinct (except in Cuttack), through ten or
fifteen years of unceasing vigilance on the part of Government, and
incredible activity and acuteness in the officers employed, the Thugs
were formerly a wonderfully numerous body, who abstained from their
vocation solely in the immediate neighbourhood of their own villages;
which, however, were not exempt from the visits of other Thugs; so
that, as Major Sleeman says,--"The annually returning tide of murder
swept unsparingly over the whole face of India, from the Sutlej to
the sea-coast, and from the Himalaya to Cape Comorin. One narrow
district alone was free, the Concan, beyond the ghats, whither they
never penetrated." In Bengal, river Thugs replace the travelling
practitioner. Candeish and Rohilkund alone harboured no Thugs as
residents, but they were nevertheless haunted by the gangs.

Their origin is uncertain, but supposed to be very ancient, soon
after the Mahommedan conquest. They now claim a divine original, and
are supposed to have supernatural powers, and to be the emissaries of
the divinity, like the wolf, the tiger, and the bear. It is only
lately that they have swarmed so prodigiously,--seven original gangs
having migrated from Delhi to the Gangetic provinces about 200 years
ago, and from these all the rest have sprung. Many belong to the most
amiable, intelligent, and respectable classes of the lower and even
middle ranks: they love their profession, regard murder as sport, and
are never haunted with dreams, or troubled with pangs of conscience
during hours of solitude, or in the last moments of life. The victim
is an acceptable sacrifice to the goddess Davee, who by some classes
is supposed to eat the lifeless body, and thus save her votaries the
necessity of concealing it.