A Holiday in the Happy Valley with Pen and Pencil Part 29

There is little more to say.

All Thursday we rushed through the wide landscape; saw the parched plains stretch far into the dusty horizon; saw the lean men and leaner cattle, to whom the grim spectre of famine is already foreshadowed; flew past populous villages and creaking water-wheels, noting every phase of a scene now familiar, yet always delightful.

Late in the evening we changed at Baroda, and dawn next morning saw us speeding across the swamps and inlets, which gave place ere long to the palm groves and cl.u.s.tering houses which marked the farther limits of the suburbs of Bombay.

We found the heat--damp and oppressive--very trying after the drier air of Rajputana, and the Taj Mahal Hotel below our expectations in all respects save price. It is undoubtedly better than most Indian hotels, but yet it is not good!

Bombay is chiefly connected in our minds with the inevitable fuss and worry of packing and departure.

As we left the Taj Mahal Hotel, in a conveyance piled high with miscellaneous baggage, we saw the last of our faithful and indispensable Sabz Ali, as he hurriedly quitted the hostelry in our wake, fearful lest undue delay should jeopardise the possession of the spoils he was carrying off, wrapped in bulging bundles of goodly size.

Jane and I were sorrier, I think, to part with him than he with us. After all, we were but troublesome charges, for whose well-being he had to answer to "General 'Oon Sahib,"--charges who had not been quite so lavish with their incalculable riches as they should have been, and who doled out rupees, and even annas, with a sorely grudging hand; still I think Sabz Ali, as he made his way to the station, with many rupees lining his inmost garments, and a flaming "chit" carefully stowed away, felt a certain regret at parting from the "sahibs," who had really shown a very fine appreciation of his merit, and were sending him back with much honour to his own country.

Late in the afternoon, as the spires and roofs of the city stood dark against the sky, and the many steamers and native dhows showed black upon a flood of liquid gold, the _Persia_ got under way, and we slowly left the anchorage, steaming out into the fading light.

We stood long, leaning over the bulwarks and watching the lights of Bombay, at first so distinct, melt gradually into a line of tiny stars as the gulf widened that separated us from the land where we had spent so many happy days.

I wonder if we shall ever revisit it? I trust so ... and yet----

"As a rule it is better to revisit only in imagination the places which have greatly charmed us ... for it was not merely the sights that one beheld which were the cause of joy and peace. However lovely the spot, however gracious the sky, these things external would not have availed but for contributory movements of mind and heart and blood--the essentials of the man as then he was."[6]

[1] These notes on the history of Chitor are taken, it need hardly be said, from Tod's _Rajast'han_, he being _the_ authority on Rajputana. An account of the above incident is given somewhat differently by Maurice in his _Modern History of Hindostan_ (1803), who also relates that Akbar used the same trick to enter Rhotas in Behar, after being long baffled by the apparent impregnability of that fortress.

[2] The Jain Tower of Fame was also left standing, it dates from about A.D. 900.

[3] It is also attributed to Lakha Rana, A.D. 1373.

[4] And sister of the Rahtore queen, Jowahir Bae.

[5] The infant Oodi Singh being threatened with death by conspirators, his Rajputni nurse hid him in a fruit-basket, and, covering it with leaves, had it conveyed out of the fort, subst.i.tuting her own child just as Bimbir, the usurper, entered the room and asked for the prince. Her pallid lips refused to utter sound, but she pointed to the cradle and saw the swift steel plunged into the heart of her child.

[6] "Henry Ryecroft"

APPENDIX I

BIG GAME LICENSE No. I, Price Rs. 60 (sixty only).

This license will remain in force from the 15th of March 190 to the 15th November 190, and is subject to the Kashmir Stata Game Laws; it permits the Licensee to shoot the undermentioned game in the Districts and Nullahs open to sportsmen, and, subject to Rules 8 and 9 of these Laws, small game between the above dates.

----------------------+---------------+--------------+---------+--------- No. permitted No. actually Size of District.

Name of Animal. to be shot. heads. shot. ----------------------+---------------+--------------+---------+--------- Markhor of any variety 2 Ibex 4 Ovis Hodgsoni (Ammon) 1 Ovis Vignei (Sharpu) 4 Ovis Nahura (Burhal) 6 Thibetan Antelope 6 Do. Gazelle 1 Kashmir Stag 2 Serow 1 Brown Bears 2 Tehr 6 Goral 6 Pigs, Black Bears and No limit. Leopards ----------------------+---------------+--------------+---------+---------

_Name of Licensee____________________________________________ _Address_____________________________________________________ _Signature of Licensee on returning License__________________

N.B.--This portion of the License to be returned to the Secretary, Game Preservation Department.

------------------------------------------------------------------------- NAME OF s.h.i.+KARIES, &c., EMPLOYED ------+-------+--------+-------+----------------------------------------- Name of Nature _Place of Residence_. Serial s.h.i.+kari Father's of +---------+--------+----------+ REMARKS.

No. or Name. employ- Village Tehail District Coolie. ment. ------+-------+--------+-------+---------+--------+----------+----------- ------+-------+--------+-------+---------+--------+----------+-----------

This License does not permit the Licensee to shoot in any of the closed tracts or preserves mentioned in Rules 2 and 10, Kashmir State Game Laws, nor in the Gilgit district, nor in the Astor or Kaj-nag districts, without the special permit laid down under Rule 2.

_Dated_ ____ (Sd.) AMAR SINGH, GENERAL, RAJA, _The_ ______ _Vice-President of Council, Jammu and Kashmir State_.

I certify that a copy of Kashmir State Game Laws, 190, has been issued herewith,

_Signature of Official granting License_ ___________________

NOTE--This License will be shown on demand and is not transferable.

A fee of Re. 1 will be charged for a duplicate copy.

APPENDIX II

From the earliest times the Kashmiris have been objects of contempt and derision, whilst the women have been--perhaps unduly--lauded for their looks and general excellence.

The Kashmiris themselves are of opinion that "once upon a time" they were an honourable and valiant folk, brought gradually to their present condition by foreign oppression.

To a certain extent this is probably true, but, according to the _Rajatarangini Kulan_, they were noted for dishonesty and cunning long before the evil days of conquest and adversity. Bernier speaks well of the men, calling them witty and industrious. Doubtless the Kashmiri character, originally none too good, was ruined during the long years of cruelty and injustice to which he was subjected by the Tartars, Afghans, and Sikhs, who, from the day when Akbar put him into women's clothes, treated him as something lower than a brute.

Forster, writing in 1783, abuses the Kashmiri, whom he stigmatises as "endowed with unwearied patience in the pursuit of gain." He speaks of the vile treatment to which he was subjected by his then rulers the Pathans, observing that Afghans usually addressed Kashmiris by striking them with a hatchet, but, he concludes, "I even judged them worthy of their adverse fortune."

Elphinstone (1839) is of opinion that "the men are excessively addicted to pleasure, and are notorious all over the East for falsehood and cunning;"

and again, "The Cashmerians are of no account as soldiers."

"Many fowls in a yard defile it, and many Kashmiri in a country ruin it,"

says the proverb. Lawrence goes very fully into the Kashmiri character, and dwells upon its few good points, giving him credit for great artistic feeling, quick wit, ready repartee, and freedom from crime against the person. He considers the last merit, though, to be due to cowardice and the state of espionage which exists in every village!

I was told (but perhaps by a prejudiced person) of a Kashmiri who, during the great flood of 1903, he being safely on the sh.o.r.e, saw his brother being swept down the boiling river, clinging to his rapidly disintegrating roof. The following painful conversation ensued:--

"Whither sailest thou, oh brother, perched upon the birch bark of thine ancestral roof?"

"Ah! brother dear. Save me quick! I drown!"

"Truly that can I; but say, what recompense wilt thou give me?"

"All I have in the world, brother--two lovely rupees."

"Tut, tut, little one; thou takest me for a fool. Two rupees, forsooth, for five perchance I will deign to save thy worthless life."

"Three, then, three, carissimo--'tis all I have--and make haste, for I feel my timbers parting, and I know not how to swim."

"Farewell, oh, dearest brother! I could not possibly think of taking so much trouble for three rupees, especially as, now I come to think of it, I can borrow a singhara pole, and, in due time, will prod for thy corpse in the Wular! Mind thou wrappest the lucre snugly in thy c.u.mmerbund, that it be not lost--farewell, little brother!"