Chapter I: Preface

I went home in 1875 for a few months, after some twelve years' residence in India. What first suggested the writing of such a book as this, was the amazing ignorance of ordinary Indian life betrayed by people at home. The questions asked me about India, and our daily life there, showed in many cases such an utter want of knowledge, that I thought, surely there is room here for a chatty, familiar, unpretentious book for friends at home, giving an account of our every-day life in India, our labours and amusements, our toils and relaxations, and a few pictures of our ordinary daily surroundings in the far, far East.

Such then is the design of my book. I want to picture to my readers Planter Life in the Mofussil, or country districts of India; to tell them of our hunting, shooting, fishing, and other amusements; to describe our work, our play, and matter-of-fact incidents in our daily life; to describe the natives as they appear to us in our intimate every-day dealings with them; to illustrate their manners, customs, dispositions, observances and sayings, so far as these bear on our own social life.

I am no politician, no learned ethnologist, no sage theorist. I simply try to describe what I have seen, and hope to enlist the attention and interest of my readers, in my reminiscences of sport and labour, in the villages and jungles on the far off frontier of Nepaul.

I have tried to express my meaning as far as possible without Anglo-Indian and Hindustani words; where these have been used, as at times they could not but be, I have given a synonymous word or phrase in English, so that all my friends at home may know my meaning.

I know that my friends will be lenient to my faults, and even the sternest critic, if he look for it, may find some pleasure and profit in my pages.

JAS. INGLIS.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Province of Behar.--Boundaries.--General description.--District of Chumparun.--Mooteeharree.--The town and lake.--Native houses.--The Planters' Club.--Legoulie.

CHAPTER II.

My first charge.--How we get our lands.--Our home farm.--System of farming.--Collection of rents.--The planter's duties.

CHAPTER III.

How to get our crop.--The 'Dangurs.'--Farm servants and their duties. --Kassee Rai.--Hoeing.--Ploughing.--'Oustennie.'--Coolies at Work. --Sowing.--Difficulties the plant has to contend with.--Weeding.

CHAPTER IV.

Manufacture of Indigo.--Loading the vats.--Beating.--Boiling, straining, and pressing.--Scene in the Factory.--Fluctuation of produce.--Chemistry of Indigo.

CHAPTER V.

Parewah factory.--A 'Bobbery Pack.'--Hunt through a village after a cat.--The pariah dog of India.--Fate of 'Pincher.'--Rampore hound.--Persian greyhound.--Caboolee dogs.--A jackal hunt.--Incidents of the chase.

CHAPTER VI.

Fishing in India.--Hereditary trades.--The boatmen and fishermen of India.--Their villages.--Nets.--Modes of fishing.--Curiosities relating thereto.--Catching an alligator with a hook.--Exciting capture. --Crocodiles.--Shooting an alligator.--Death of the man-eater.

CHAPTER VII.

Native superstitions.--Charming a bewitched woman.--Exorcising ghosts from a field.--Witchcraft.--The witchfinder or 'Ojah,'--Influence of fear.--Snake bites.--How to cure them.--How to discover a thief.--Ghosts and their habits.--The 'Haddick' or native bone-setter.--Cruelty to animals by natives.

CHAPTER VIII.

Our annual race meet.--The arrivals.--The camps.--The 'ordinary,'--The course.--'They're off.'--The race.--The steeple-chase.--Incidents of the meet.--The ball.

CHAPTER IX.

Pig-sticking in India.--Varieties of boar.--Their size and height. --Ingenious mode of capture by the natives.--The 'Batan' or buffalo herd.--Pigs charging.--Their courage and ferocity.--Destruction of game.--A close season for game.

CHAPTER X.

Kuderent jungle.--Charged by a pig.--The biter bit.--'Mac' after the big boar.--The horse for pig-sticking.--The line of beaters.--The boar breaks.--'Away! Away!'--First spear.--Pig-sticking at Peeprah.--The old 'lungra' or cripple.--A boar at bay.--Hurrah for pig-sticking!

CHAPTER XI.

The sal forests.--The jungle goddess.--The trees in the jungle. --Appearance of the forests.--Birds.--Varieties of parrots.--A 'beat' in the forest.--The 'shekarry.'--Mehrman Singh and his gun.--The Banturs, a jungle tribe of wood-cutters.--Their habits.--A village feast.--We beat for deer.--Habits of the spotted deer.--Waiting for the game. --Mehrman Singh gets drunk.--Our bag.--Pea-fowl and their habits.--How to shoot them.--Curious custom of the Nepaulese.--How Juggroo was tricked, and his revenge.

CHAPTER XII.

The leopard.--How to shoot him.--Gallant encounter with a wounded one.--Encounter with a leopard in a Dak bungalow.--Pat shoots two leopards.--Effects of the Express bullet.--The 'Sirwah Purrul,' or annual festival of huntsmen.--The Hindoo ryot.--Rice-planting and harvest.--Poverty of the ryot.--His apathy.--Village fires.--Want of sanitation.

CHAPTER XIII.

Description of a native village.--Village functionaries.--The barber. --Bathing habits.--The village well.--The school.--The children.--The village bazaar.--The landowner and his dwelling.--The 'Putwarrie' or village accountant.--The blacksmith.--The 'Punchayiet' or village jury system.--Our legal system in India.--Remarks on the administration of justice.

CHAPTER XIV.

A native village continued.--The watchman or 'chowkeydar.'--The temple. --Brahmins.--Idols.--Religion.--Humility of the poorer classes.--Their low condition.--Their apathy.--The police.--Their extortions and knavery. --An instance of police rascality.--Corruption of native officials.--The Hindoo unfit for self-government.

CHAPTER XV.

Jungle wild fruits.--Curious method of catching quail.--Quail nets. --Quail caught in a blacksmith's shop.--Native wrestling.--The trainer. --How they train for a match.--Rules of wrestling.--Grips.--A wrestling match.--Incidents of the struggle.--Description of a match between a Brahmin and a blacksmith.--Sparring for the grip.--The blacksmith has it.--The struggle.--The Brahmin getting the worst of it.--Two to one on the little 'un!--The Brahmin plays the waiting game, turns the tables _and_ the blacksmith.--Remarks on wrestling.

CHAPTER XVI.

Indigo seed growing.--Seed buying and buyers.--Tricks of sellers.--Tests for good seed.--The threshing-floor.--Seed cleaning and packing.--Staff of servants.--Despatching the bags by boat.--The 'Pooneah' or rent day. --Purneah planters--their hospitality.--The rent day a great festival. --Preparation.--Collection of rents.--Feast to retainers.--The reception in the evening.--Tribute.--Old customs.--Improvisatores and bards. --Nautches.--Dancing and music.--The dance of the Dangurs.--Jugglers and itinerary showmen.--'Bara Roopes,' or actors and mimics.--Their different styles of acting.