Observations on the Mussulmauns of India Part 30

I have some extracts from this voluminous work, translated for me by my husband, which interested me on account of the great similarity to our Scripture history; and if permitted at some future time, I propose offering them to the public in our own language, conceiving they may be as interesting to others as they have been to me.

The Persian and Arabic authors, I have remarked, subst.i.tute Y for J in Scripture names; for instance, Jacob and Joseph are p.r.o.nounced Yaacoob and Yeusuf.[15] They also differ from us in some names commencing with A, as in Abba, which they p.r.o.nounce Ubba (Father); for Amen, they say Aameen[16]

(the meaning strictly coinciding with ours); for Aaron, Aaroon; for Moses, Moosa.[17] I am told by those who are intimate with both languages, that there is a great similarity between the Hebrew and Arabic. The pa.s.sage in our Scripture 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabaethani,' was interpreted to me by an Arabic scholar, as it is rendered in that well-remembered verse in the English translation.

[1] _Sawari_.

[2] The Padshah Begam was the widow of Ghazi-ud-din Haidar, King of Oudh. On his death, in 1837, she contrived a plot to place his putative son, Munna Jan, on the throne. After a fierce struggle in the palace, the revolt was suppressed by the Resident, Colonel Low, and his a.s.sistants, Captains Paton and Shakespear. The pair were confined in the Chunar Fort till their deaths. See the graphic narrative by Gen. Sleeman (_Journey Through Oudh_, ii. 172 ff.); also H.C. Irwin (_The Garden of India_, 127 f.); Mrs. F. Parks (_Wanderings of a Pilgrim_, ii. 114).

[3] _Khawa.s.s_, 'distinguished': special attendants.

[4] _Mughlani_, a Moghul woman: an attendant in a zenana, a sempstress.

[5] _Kahani_.

[6] _Chausa, chhahsa_, not to be found in Platt's _Hindustani Dictionary_.

[7] The game of Pachisi, played on a cloth marked in squares: see _Bombay Gazetteer_, ix, part ii, 173.

[8] Gambling is one of the greater sins.--Sale, _Koran: Preliminary Discourse_, 89; Sells, _Faith of Islam_, 155.

[9] Fixed punkahs were introduced early in the nineteenth century.--Yule, _Hobson-Jobson_, 744.

[10] Firdausi, author of the Shahnama, died A.D. 1020 or 1025, aged 89 years. An abridged translation, to which reference is made, by J. Atkinson, was published in 1832. It has since been translated by A.G. and E. Warner (1905), and by A. Rogers (1907).

[11] Shaikh Sa'di, born at Shiraz A.D. 1175, died 1292, aged 120 lunar years. His chief works are the _Gulistan_ and the _Bostan_.

[12] Khwaja Hafiz, Shams-ud-din Muhammad, author of the Diwan Hafiz, died at Shiraz A.D. 1389, where his tomb at Musalla is the scene of pilgrimage; see E.G. Browne, _A Year amongst the Persians_, 280 f.

[13] _Gulistan_.

[14] See p. 77.

[15] Ya'qub, Yusuf.

[16] _Amin_.

[17] Harun, Musa.

LETTER XVIII

Evils attending a residence in India.--Frogs.--Flies.--Blains.-- Musquitoes.--The White Ant.--The Red Ant.--Their destructive habits.--A Tarantula.--Black Ants.--Locusts.--Superst.i.tion of the Natives upon their appearance.--The Tufaun, or Haundhie (tempest).--The rainy season.--Thunder and lightning.--Meteors.-- Earthquakes.--A city ruined by them.--Reverence of the Mussulmauns for saints.--p.r.i.c.kly heat.--Cholera Morbus.--Mode of Treatment.--Temperance the best remedy.--Recipe.

A residence in India, productive as it may be (to many) of pecuniary benefits, presents, however, a few inconveniences to Europeans independent of climate,--which, in the absence of more severe trials, frequently become a source of disquiet, until habit has reconciled, or reflection disposed the mind to receive the mixture of evil and good which is the common lot of man in every situation of life. I might moralise on the duty of intelligent beings suffering patiently those trials which human ingenuity cannot avert, even if this world's happiness were the only advantage to be gained; but when we reflect on the account we have to give hereafter, for every thought, word, or action, I am induced to believe, the well-regulated mind must view with dismay a retrospect of the past murmurings of which it has been guilty. But I must bring into view the trials of patience which our countrymen meet while in India, to those who have neither witnessed nor [Transcriber's note: illegible] them; many of them present slight, but living, op[Transcriber's note: illegible] those evils with which the Egyptians were visited for their impiety to Heaven.

Frogs, for instance, harmless as these creatures are in their nature, occasion no slight inconvenience to the inhabitants of India. They enter their house in great numbers and, without much care, would make their way to the beds, as they do to the chambers; the croaking during the rainy season is almost deafening, particularly towards the evening and during the night. Before the morning has well dawned, these creatures creep into every open doorway, and throughout the day secrete themselves under the edges of mattings and carpets, to the annoyance of those who have an antipathy to these unsightly looking creatures.

The myriads of flies which fill the rooms, and try the patience of every observer of nice order in an English establishment, may bear some likeness to the plague which was inflicted on Pharaoh and his people, as a punishment for their hardness of heart. The flies of India have a property not common to those of Europe, but very similar to the green fly of Spain: when bruised, they will raise a blister on the skin, and, I am told, are frequently made use of by medical gentlemen as a subst.i.tute for the Spanish fly.[1]

If but one wing or leg of a fly is by any accident dropped into the food of an individual, and swallowed, the consequence is an immediate irritation of the stomach, answering the purpose of a powerful emetic. At meals the flies are a pest, which most people say they abhor, knowing the consequences of an unlucky admission into the stomach of the smallest particle of the insect. Their numbers exceed all calculation; the table is actually darkened by the myriads, particularly in the season of the periodical rains. The Natives of India use muslin curtains suspended from the ceiling of their hall at meal times, which are made very full and long, so as to enclose the whole dinner party and exclude their tormentors.

The biles or blains, which all cla.s.ses of people in India are subject to, may be counted as amongst the catalogue of Pharaoh's plagues. The most healthy and the most delicate, whether Europeans or Natives, are equally liable to be visited by these eruptions, which are of a painful and tedious nature. The causes inducing these biles no one, as yet, I believe, has been able to discover, and therefore a preventive has not been found.

I have known people who have suffered every year from these attacks, with scarce a day's intermission during the hot weather.[2]

The musquitoes, a species of gnat, tries the patience of the public in no very measured degree; their malignant sting is painful, and their attacks incessant; against which there is no remedy but patience, and a good gauze curtain to the beds. Without some such barrier, foreigners could hardly exist; certainly they never could enjoy a night's repose. Even the mere buzzing of musquitoes is a source of much annoyance to Europeans: I have heard many declare the bite was not half so distressing as the sound. The Natives, both male and female, habitually wrap themselves up so entirely in their chuddah[3] (sheet) that they escape from these voracious insects, whose sounds are so familiar to them that it may be presumed they lull to, rather than disturb their sleep.

The white ant is a cruel destroyer of goods: where it has once made its domicile, a real misfortune may be considered to have visited the house.

They are the most destructive little insects in the world doing as much injury in one hour as a man might labour through a long life to redeem.

These ants, it would seem, have no small share of animosity to ladies'

finery, for many a wardrobe have they demolished, well filled with valuable dresses and millinery, before their vicinity has even been suspected, or their traces discovered. They destroy beams in the roofs of houses, chests of valuable papers, carpets, mats, and furniture, with a dispatch which renders them the most formidable of enemies, although to appearance but a mean little insect.

There is one season of the year when they take flight, having four beautiful transparent wings; this occurs during the periodical rains, when they are attracted by the lights of the houses, which they enter in countless numbers, filling the tables, and whilst flitting before the lights disenc.u.mber themselves of their wings. They then become, to appearance, a fat maggot, and make their way to the floors and walls, where it is supposed they secrete themselves for a season, and are increasing in numbers whilst in this stage of existence. At the period of their migration in search of food, they will devour any perishable materials within their reach. It is probable, however, that they first send out scouts to discover food for the family, for the traces of white ants are discovered by a sort of clay-covered pa.s.sage, formed as they proceed on their march in almost a direct line, which often extends a great distance from their nest.

To mark the economy of ants has sometimes formed a part of my amus.e.m.e.nts in Hindoostaun.[4] I find they all have wings at certain seasons of the year; and more industrious little creatures cannot exist than the small red ants, which are so abundant in India. I have watched them at their labours for hours without tiring; they are so small that from eight to twelve in number labour with great difficulty to convey a grain of wheat or barley; yet these are not more than half the size of a grain of English wheat. I have known them to carry one of these grains to their nest at a distance of from six hundred to a thousand yards; they travel in two distinct lines over rough or smooth ground, as it may happen, even up and down steps, at one regular pace. The returning unladen ants invariably salute the burthened ones, who are making their way to the general storehouse; but it is done so promptly that the line is neither broken nor their progress impeded by the salutation.

I was surprised one morning in my breakfast parlour to discover something moving slowly up the wall; on approaching near to examine what it was, I discovered a dead wasp, which the khidmutghar[5] (footman) had destroyed with his chowrie during breakfast, and which, falling on the floor, had become the prize of my little friends (a vast mult.i.tude), who were labouring with their tiny strength to convey it to their nest in the ceiling. The weight was either too great, or they had quarrelled over the burthen,--I know not which,--but the wasp fell to the ground when they had made more than half the journey of the wall; the courageous little creatures, however, were nothing daunted, they resumed their labour, and before evening their prize was safely housed.

These ants are particularly fond of animal food. I once caught a tarantula; it was evening, and I wished to examine it by daylight. I placed it for this purpose in a recess of the wall, under a tumbler, leaving just breathing room. In the morning I went to examine my curiosity, when to my surprise it was dead and swarming with red ants, who had been its destroyers, and were busily engaged in making a feast on the (to them) huge carca.s.s of the tarantula.

These small creatures often prove a great annoyance by their nocturnal visits to the beds of individuals, unless the precaution be taken of having bra.s.s vessels, filled with water, to each of the bed-feet; the only method of effectually preventing their approach to the beds. I was once much annoyed by a visit from these bold insects, when reclining on a couch during the extreme heat of the day. I awoke by an uneasy sensation from their bite or sting about my ears and face, and found they had a.s.sembled by millions on my head; the bath was my immediate resource. The Natives tell me these little pests will feed on the human body if they are not disturbed: when any one is sick there is always great anxiety to keep them away.

The large black ant is also an enemy to man; its sharp pincers inflict wounds of no trifling consequence; it is much larger than the common fly, has long legs, is swift of foot, and feeds chiefly on animal substances. I fancy all the ant species are more or less carnivorous, but strictly epicurean in their choice of food, avoiding tainted or decomposed substances with the nicest discrimination. Sweetmeats are alluring to them; there is also some difficulty in keeping them from jars of sugar or preserves; and when swallowed in food, are the cause of much personal inconvenience.

I have often witnessed the Hindoos, male and female, depositing small portions of sugar near ants' nests, as acts of charity to commence the day with;[6] and it is the common opinion with the Natives generally, that wherever the red ants colonize prosperity attends the owners of that house.

They destroy the white ants, though the difference in their size is as a grain of sand to a barley-corn; and on that account only may be viewed rather as friends than enemies to man, provided by the same Divine source from whence all other benefits proceed.

The locusts, so familiar by name to the readers of Scripture, are here seen to advantage in their occasional visits. I had, however, been some years in India before I was gratified by the sight of these wonderful insects; not because of their rarity, as I had frequently heard of their appearance and ravages, but not immediately in the place where I was residing, until the year 1825, which the following memorandum made at the time will describe.

On the third of July, between four and five o'clock in the afternoon, I observed a dusky brown cloud bordering the Eastern horizon, at the distance of about four miles from my house, which stands on an elevated situation; the colour was so unusual that I resolved on inquiring from my oracle, Meer Hadjee Shaah, to whom I generally applied for elucidations of the remarkable, what such an appearance portended. He informed me it was a flight of locusts.

I had long felt anxious to witness those insects, that had been the food of St. John in the Desert, and which are so familiar by name from their frequent mention in Scripture; and now that I was about to be gratified, I am not ashamed to confess my heart bounded with delight, yet with an occasional feeling of sympathy for the poor people, whose property would probably become the prey of this devouring cloud of insects before the morning's dawn. Long before they had time to advance, I was seated in an open s.p.a.ce in the shade of my house to watch them more minutely. The first sound I could distinguish was as the gentlest breeze, increasing as the living cloud approached; and as they moved over my head, the sound was like the rustling of the wind through the foliage of many pepul-trees.[7]

It was with a feeling of grat.i.tude that I mentally thanked G.o.d at the time that they were a stingless body of insects, and that I could look on them without the slightest apprehension of injury. Had this wondrous cloud of insects been the promised locust described in the Apocalypse, which shall follow the fifth angel's trumpet; had they been hornets, wasps, or even the little venomous musquito, I had not then dared to retain my position to watch with eager eyes the progress of this insect family as they advanced, spreading for miles on every side with something approaching the sublime, and presenting a most imposing spectacle. So steady and orderly was their pace, having neither confusion nor disorder in their line of march through the air, that I could not help comparing them to the well-trained horses of the English cavalry.[8] 'Who gave them this order in their flight?' was in my heart and on my tongue.

I think the main body of this army of locusts must have occupied thirty minutes in pa.s.sing over my head, but my attention was too deeply engrossed to afford me time to consult my time-piece. Stragglers there were many, separated from the flight by the noises made by the servants and people to deter them from settling; some were caught, and, no doubt, converted into currie for a Mussulmaun's meal. They say it is no common delicacy, and is ranked among the allowed animal food.

The Natives antic.i.p.ate earthquakes after the visitation or appearance of locusts. They are said to generate in mountains, but I cannot find any one here able to give me an authentic account of their natural history.

On the 18th of September, 1825, another flight of these wonderful insects pa.s.sed over my house in exactly a contrary direction from those which appeared in July, viz. from the West towards the East. The idea struck me that they might be the same swarm, returning after fulfilling the object of their visit to the West: but I have no authority on which to ground my supposition. The Natives have never made natural history even an amus.e.m.e.nt, much less a study, although their habits are purely those of Nature; they know the property of most herbs, roots, and flowers, which they cultivate, not for their beauty, but for the benefit they render to man and beast.[9]

I could not learn that the flight had rested anywhere near Futtyghur, at which place I was then living. They are of all creatures the most destructive to vegetation, licking with their rough tongue the blades of gra.s.s, the leaves of trees, and green herbage of all kinds. Wherever they settle for the night, vegetation is completely destroyed; and a day of mournful consequences is sure to follow their appearance in the poor farmer's fields of green com.

But that which bears the most awful resemblance to the visitations of G.o.d's wrath on Pharaoh and the Egyptians, is, I think, the frightful storm of wind which brings thick darkness over the earth at noonday, and which often occurs from the Tufaun or Haundhie,[10] as it is called by the Natives. Its approach is first discerned by dark columns of yellow clouds, bordering the horizon; the alarm is instantly given by the Natives, who hasten to put out the fires in the kitchens, and close the doors and windows in European houses, or with the Natives to let down the purdahs.

No sound that can be conceived by persons who have not witnessed this phenomenon of Nature, is capable of conveying an idea of the tempest. In a few minutes total darkness is produced by the thick cloud of dust; and the tremendous rushing wind carries the fine sand, which produces the darkness, through every cranny and crevice to all parts of the house; so that in the best secured rooms every article of furniture is covered with sand, and the room filled as with a dense fog: the person, dresses, furniture, and the food (if at meal times), are all of one dusky colour; and though candles are lighted to lessen the horror of the darkness, they only tend to make the scene of confusion more visible.