mighty river by a ferry-boat, and have
supper on board. On the other side you
fi\id another train with the usual comfort-
able arrangements for. sleeping, which are
almost universal in India. Early next
morning you find yourself at the foot of
the hills, and you mount by a tiny railway
with a two-foot gauge. You sit on a chair,
and in seven hours climb 7,000 feet. I have
heard some people pronounce the journey
tedious, but it was not so to me. There
was sufficient variety in the constantly
changing scenery, in the richness of sub-



DARJEELING 37

tropical vegetation, in the marvellous con-
struction of the line, following the sinuosities
of the mountain road, curving round in
single or in double loops, plunging boldly
into jungle, switching backwards and for-
wards to reach a higher level. An American
engineer who was with us said that it was
the cleverest piece of workmanship in his
line of business that he had ever seen.
Ascending higher and higher, with less antl
less vegetation, and* increasingly warmer
wraps, we reach the summit of the line, near
the village of Ghoom ; and, after turning a
corner, the sunny town of Darjeeling comes
into view, to which we descend in five
hundred feet.

Darjeeling stands at the edge of a cliff .
with the giants of the Himalayas directly
opposite, just as the giants of the Bernese
Oberland rise opposite Mtirren, only at a



38 IMPRESSIONS OF INDIAN TRAVEL

distance five times as great. The largest
house in the place is the Shrubbery, the
villa of the Lieutenant-Governor, the second
is the palace of the Roman Catholic arch-
bishop, and the third is St. Paul's School,
where I was invited to stay. The Rector,
as he is styled, is Mr. A. E. Newton, some
ten years ago one of the most eloquent
speakers of the Cambridge Union, hardly
inferior to the great J. K. S. himself. Brought
out to India by Bishop Welldon, in three
years he has created an English public
school in the heart of India. The boys
wear Eton jackets, play games in flannels,
and even submit to being flogged. These
reforms were not introduced without diffi-
. culty, especially the last. An indignant
parent wired, " Is it true that my son has
had to remove his trousers in order to
submit to corporal punishment ? " The



DARJEELING 39

Rector replied, " Perfectly true ; results
excellent." The telegram and the reply
flashed like wild-fire over India, and the
results were more excellent still.

The morning after my arrival gave us an
unrivalled view of the great Himalayan
chain. I will spare my readers the enumera-
tion of names which I could not spell and
they could not pronounce ; suffice it to say
that its most striking member, the Matter-
horn of the range, a miracle of concentrated
inaccessibility, is marked on the official map
as D.2. Kinchin Junga is of course re-
garded as a god, and sacrifices are offered
to him on Observatory Hill. Embers
smoulder on the sacrificial altar, and lofty

poles bear 'on high white banners inscribed


with the prayers of the faithful. As the

flags flutter in the breeze, the prayers
ascend to heaven. The hillside is covered



40 IMPRESSIONS OF INDIAN TRAVEL

with these curious orisons, raised some in
terror, some in gratitude, some to avert a
dreaded landslip, some to thank the gods
for a limpid stream of pure water. These
mountain devotees are not less nature
worshippers than the Greeks, and the rags
which rustle over many a Cornish well may
once have been inscribed with Celtic prayers.
One day this sacred hill was occupied by

British soldiers in a sham fight, and the

*

shrine of the mountain god was profaned
by the explosion of English gunpowder.
Kinchin was not long in avenging himself.
Next day a large part of Darjeeling was
destroyed by a landslip, which has left many
a warning scar on the hillside.

Next to the mountains, or, as they are

' curiously called by Anglo-Indians, the

Snows, are the inhabitants, and no place

is more favourable for observing them



DARJEELING 41

than the market-place on Sunday. There

g
are Lepchas from Sikkim ; Bhotians from

Bhotan, a terra incognita to Englishmen ;
Nepaulese, straight, sturdy, and resolute ; and
Thibetans, with long pigtails, silken robes
with broad sleeves, and round hats with
turned-up brims, looking like Chinese with
a difference, and redolent of the forbidden
Lhassa. Willingly would I have asked the
origin of each and have addressed them in
their own tongue, but I could only gaze
ignorantly and admire.

I secured some curios as trophies a silver
prayer-wheel, a box with a wooden handle,
enclosing a scroll of Thibetan prayers, with
a silver ball attached to its side by a chain.
The worshipper turns the cylinder towards



his heart no easy matter but to turn it
otherwise is to curse, and, as he does so,
he chants in a weird sing-song : " On mane



42 IMPRESSIONS OF INDIAN TRAVEL

padme hum," which means " The jewel is in
the lotus," the quintessence of the religion
and the philosophy of Thibet. Some prayer-
wheels have a round disc of ivory between
the handle and the cylinder, and piety is
measured by the number of discs the
worshipper has worn through. Besides the
prayer- wheel I have a jewel of strange shape,
set with turquoises, and a very holy locket
Containing the ashes of a Lama mixed with
cow dung. Mr. Sven Hedin tells me that
these are all genuine, and that they were
made in Lhassa.

Who ever goes to Darjeeling and does
not ascend Tiger Hill ? I rode up and down
on a Bhotian pony, and the expedition
lasted five hours. You pass through Ghoom,
a native village, famous for a railway station,
a tea-garden, a pig-breeding establishment,
and a witch. Through luxuriant foliage



DARJEELING 43

you mount to the hill of Senchal, and then
to Tiger Hill, a purely European name. _
On Senchal are weird traces of European
masonry, of considerable extent, with pillar
chimneys of weather-beaten brick, looking
like the relics of a deserted monastery. No !
These were English barracks, inhabited by
English soldiers, who lived on this solitary
height in the presence of the eternal snows,
till the solitude and the strangeness ate irjto
their brains, and one by one they threw
themselves over the cliff and died. Their
monument, a Runic cross, rises over * the
hill of Ghoom, and the cantonments are
removed to Darjeeling. From the summit,
Kinchin Junga, with his attendant peaks,
towers more majestically than before ; to the



north-east stretches that long wall of rock,
capped with snow and ice, unparalleled in the
world, which shuts off Thibet from the rest



44 IMPRESSIONS OF INDIAN TRAVEL

of mankind ; and to the north-west are seen
three little peaks, the farthest of which is
Everest, the loftiest mountain of the world,
the pinnacle of its roof. There is no doubt
that this peak is higher than Kinchin Junga,
because the sun tips it first, but there is a
doubt whether it is the real Everest, that
is, the mountain originally called by that
name. At any rate, both have native
n?mes, more suggestive and more musical.
However that may, be, let us ever rest
and be thankful. We have seen the Roof
of the World. We bid adieu to our hospit-
able friends, and we retrace our steps, the
mountains veiled in mist, as if in mourning
for our departure. We go down the hill more
slowly than we came up ; we cross the sacred
Ganges at sunrise, and are not sorry to
bask once more in the sunshine of the plains
after the penetrating cold of the heights.



Nimtola



45



V

NIMTOLA

T7VERYBODY knows that the river

Hooghly, on which the city of

?

Calcutta stands, is a branch of the Ganges,
and that the Ganges is a sacred river, on
the banks of which every pious Hindu
wished either to die, or to be burnt when
dead, and have his ashes thrown into the holy
stream. But burning requires wood, and
wood costs money, so that in time it came
about that the relations brought as much
wood as they could afford, and that, when
the supply was exhausted, the remains of

47



48 IMPRESSIONS OF INDIAN TRAVEL

the body were thrown into the stream,
consumed or singed as the case might be.
This committal of corpses to the Hooghly
was an offence against health and decency,
and was very properly put a stop to,
and now matters are managed in a more
orderly way.

There are three main burning-places on
the banks of the Hooghly at Calcutta
Khalighat, the very sacred spot which I have
already described, Nimtola, and a smaller
place higher up the river. Of these Nimtola
is ( the principal, and the bodies burned
there average forty a day. The ceremony
is most impressive. The body is carried,
a few hours after death, by the relatives
and members of its caste, wrapped in
matting on a bamboo bed. On the floor
of the burning-place, which is surrounded
on all sides by walls, there are a number



NIMTOLA 49

of shallow pits. The relations also bring
logs of wood on their shoulders, which are
carefully laid crosswise over the pit.

During this time the corpse has been
lying at the side, covered with a new
cere-cloth of pure white .muslin, a portion
of which has been torn off for the use of
the chief mourner. Attendants, the duty
of whose caste it is to wait upon the
dead, remove the slight covering of the dead,
man, while he is still covered by the muslin
sheet. The chief mourner now steps forward.
He is the nearest male relative, in the case
which I witnessed the son-in-law. He goes
down to the Ganges with an earthen
pitcher, and fills it with water. Coming
back to the corpse, he sprinkles water over
the muslin cere-cloth, and places some in
the mouth and on the breast of the dead
body. The corpse is then lifted on to the

4



50 IMPRESSIONS OF INDIAN TRAVEL

logs, and more logs are placed over it,
so that the body occupies the centre of the
pyre.

Now the chief mourner again comes
forward, he takes the portion of the cere-
cloth which has been retained for his use,
and tears a small piece off it. He descends
once more to the Ganges, and washes himself
in the sacred stream ; removing his loin-cloth
,r dothi, he girds himself with the new loin-
cloth of muslin, whicji he must wear for a
month as a sign of mourning. A plate
of mixed ghee, incense, and sandal-wood is
then brought to him. Moulding it up into
a paste with Ganges water, he places some
of it in the mouth of the corpse, and then
washes his hands in sacred water, and
dries them with the smaller piece of muslin
which he has torn off.

Close by the pyre lie bundles of long



NIMTOLA 51

reeds. The chief mourner takes a handful,
lights them, and places the fire in the
mouth of the corpse. He then solemnly
walks round the pyre, and the flame ascends.
Five times does he make these peregrina-
tions, each time casting his lighted reeds
into the trench, so that the fire is well alight.
His work is then done, and the earthen
pitcher will be broken that it may not
be used again. The open space outside
is covered with the 1 fragments of such

pitchers. The bamboo bed also, on which


the body has been brought, will be thrown

upon the pile, and will explode with loud
reports. In four hours the body will have
been consumed, and the ashes will have
fallen into the pit. A small portion of
them will be thrown into the Ganges, and
it is difficult to distinguish between the ashes
of a man and the ashes of wood. The



52 IMPRESSIONS OF INDIAN TRAVEL

members of the dead man's caste, in this
case the caste of the Kahars, or Bearers,
stand round till the ceremony is complete.
Such is the system of cremation, as it has
prevailed among the Hindus from time im-
V memorial ; as it prevailed amongst the Greeks
j&nd Romans. It has its roots deep down
in the traditions of the Aryan race. To
the sympathetic mind nothing can be more
decent or more dignified. No offence is
given to any sense, the eye sees nothing
unseemly, and the scent of the pure fire
fills the air. The corpse, with its dusky
skin, does not shock as the pallid body
of a white man might shock. There is
no weeping or lamentation, but there is no
indifference. The behaviour of the haeres
and of the gentiles is solemn and decorous ;
they believe themselves to be in the presence
of the dead man's spirit. The victims of



NIMTOLA 53

plague and cholera alike find their destiny
in the purifying flame ; and the smoke which
ascends above the walls of the enclosure
tells not of some barbarous rite, but of
the decent and wholesome annihilation of
the mortal tenement which once held a
beloved soul.

Perhaps less edifying is the Moribund
House close by. When a patient has been
given up by the doctors, he is brought
down to the river, that he may die there
and be immediately consumed. A paternal
government has provided a lodging for triese
incurables ; but doctors are fallible, and the
death which they pronounce immediate often
lingers. Yet to be carried back alive would
be a dire disgrace. The old woman whom
I saw huddled up on the stone floor had
been dying for eight days. Let us hope
that the girl who was watching her gave



54 IMPRESSIONS OF INDIAN TRAVEL

her enough to eat and drink. She cannot
be carried home, but ghat-murder has been
forbidden, and it would be criminal to
hasten her end.



Native Life



55



I



VI

NATIVE LIFE

HAVE lately had an opportunity of
seeing something of native life. A \
lady brought up at Girton is married io \
the son of a distinguished Hindu, who has
himself received an European education.

They live in one of the most beautiful

* //*"
houses of Calcutta, an old palace of John

Company, with spacious grounds, lofty
rooms, and verandahs which form a mansion
by themselves. The night I dined there, six
Indian ladies were present in native dress,



far more becoming, if I may so remark,
than the affectation of European costume,

57



58 IMPRESSIONS OF INDIAN TRAVEL

as brown arms are not as comely as white

when issuing from a silken robe. The lady '

i

whom I had the honour of escorting knows ;
Cambridge as well as she knows Calcutta. '
After dinner there was a reception, attended
by many Indian gentlemen, in a great
variety of costumes, from the severely
buttoned coat, like that of a High Church I

parson, to a robe undistinguishable from a ; J

'
Eedouin blanket. There was also some

Indian singing, tender and graceful, but
disagreeably nasal, presenting intervals
strange to European ears.

The evening passed very pleasantly, but
/ the male and female elements did not seem
to mix. The ladies sat huddled up on a
sofa together, while their lords and masters

wandered about, entirely careless of their

/

existence. Still they seemed happy enough.

Our hostess was radiant with gaiety and



NATIVE LIFE 59

good spirits. It is often said in India
that mixed marriages between Europeans
and natives are a failure. In the cases
which have come under my personal ob 7
servation they seem to be an entire success.

The Maharajah Sir Joteendro Mohun
Tagore, K.C.S.I., is a well-known figure
in , Calcutta society. His family is not \
ancient, his position is that of a wealthy
zemindar or landed proprietor, and hs )
cannot claim to rank with such potentates
as Holkar and Scindiah. But his family ^>

has been attached to the fortunes of the)

{

British Raj, and has risen by slow gradations >
till it has reached the highest pinnacle.
He lives in two large houses in the most

crowded part of the native city. The



second of his mansions is called Tagore
Castle, from its castellated character, and
it has a lofty tower from which the best



\



60 IMPRESSIONS OF INDIAN TRAVEL

view of Calcutta is to be obtained. He has
a large temple in the courtyard of his house,
and he is supposed to pass many hours



. of the day in poojah, or divine worship.


But all his devotion cannot restore to him

the purity of caste, which was lost by an
ancestor touching a dead body, or some
similar misfortune. We drove to visit him
through streets which a full-sized carriage
^passes with difficulty, encumbered, as they
were, with bullock-carts and every kind of
obstruction. After having been received
hbspitably both by father and son, we
drove to the garden-house of another Rajah,
of the Sinha family of Paikpara.

Our carriage was more magnificent than i
those of the Viceroy. A gorgeous coach- ;
man sat on the box, and two servants !
stood behind, prepared to jump off and
run at the shortest notice, while they



NATIVE LIFE 61

r*

shouted at the top of their voices during
our passage. In India one comprehends
the utility of running footmen. In towns
where the streets are narrow and en-,
cumbered, the roadways bad, and the
corners sharp, it is necessary to have
attendants who will pilot you through
these difficulties, and a stout staff is by
no means an undesirable weapon.

The garden-house of an Indian noble*
plays no unimportant part in his economical
arrangements. It is here that he spends
ic hottest months of the summer, removing
with all his household, which in the case
V of our host numbered three hundred persons.
The villa resembles a good-sized Italian
palace, with large halls, marble staircases,
; balconies and verandahs. It is well supplied
with pictures and sculptures, perhaps not
more atrociously misnamed than they would



62 IMPRESSIONS OF INDIAN TRAVEL

be in an English country-house. Behind
the house is a large garden, and it was
here that we were to be entertained. After
yisiting the flower-beds and the forcing-
houses, under the guidance of Mr. Chatter-
jee, the most eminent florist in the
neighbourhood of Calcutta, whose name is
known throughout Europe, we arranged
ourselves for tea upon the lawn. The
ladies of the establishment were, of course,
in the Zenana, well . out of sight, although
we probably caused them some amusement

1 The Rajah then proceeded to photograph
us, and the splendidly framed copy which
he presented to me in state at Government
House is now before me. On the left sits
the Maharaj Kumar Prodyot Tagore, who
represents Calcutta at the Coronation, clad in
silken robes, dignified and handsome. Next
comes the Paikpara, the Rajah's younger



NATIVE LIFE 63

son, a lively, intelligent lad of fourteen,
who is still at school, and happily not
yet married. Behind, in the centre of the
picture, stands the Rajah's eldest son, a
comely young person of twenty summers,
already father of a family. In front are
seated the English guests, my noble self,
and Mr. C. E. Buckland, secretary to the
Government of Bengal. The picture is
completed by the florist Mr. Chatterjee,
and the Baboo Kali Kumar Dey, a
well-known figure in Calcutta, clad in a
gorgeous robe. ,

After tea we were entertained by a
company of Pathan conjurers, and then
the chills of the evening warned us to
depart. The garden-house of the Paikpara
Rajah is more or less modernised, and its
possessor is evidently proud of the fact.
It is not so with the " Emerald Bower,"



64 IMPRESSIONS OF INDIAN TRAVEL

the garden-house of the Maharajah of
Tagore, which we visited a few days
later. This is indeed a dream of beauty,
although its owner is rather ashamed of
it and intends to modernise it on the
earliest opportunity. The house contains a
number of really good pictures, a Murillo
of no mean distinction, and a Northcote
which was once hung at Carlton House.
.The garden also is unchanged. Who shall
describe this wilderness of tangled charm ?
The Zenana has its own avenues and lakes,
the male division its own sanctuaries. On
a mound, surrounded by water, is the temple,
once hung with costly embroideries, where
the Maharajah's aged mother spent her
days in prayer and contemplation. In
the midst of a rocky labyrinth is a domestic
chapel, covered with Sanskrit inscriptions,
consecrated to the busts of the founders



NATIVE LIFE 65

of the family. The Emerald Bower is
worthy of its name, and we hope that
Indian procrastination will long defer the
date when these sacred groves will fall
beneath the axe, when its impressive gloom
will be dissipated, when some "Capability /-
Brown " of India will transform this paradise :
of loveliness into the trim suburban neatness
of Hampstead or Dulwich. ^



Government House



VII

GOVERNMENT HOUSE

r I ""HE greater part of my time in India
was spent in Government Housq
Calcutta, and it is therefore fitting that
something should be said about it. It is
undoubtedly the most important and con-
spicuous building in the city ; its front court _.
faces one of the busiest streets, and its 4
garden stretches far down into the Maidan.
As it stands, with its majestic staircase, in
the view of every passer-by, its four wings
spread out to the four corners of the

heavens, it is a fitting emblem of, perhaps,
69



70 IMPRESSIONS OF INDIAN TRAVEL

the most complete example of concentrated

authority which the world has ever seen.



In this respect Calcutta can hardly have:

freen surpassed by Salona and Versailles.

The house was built by Lord Wellesley
at about the beginning of the last century,



and admirably does it fulfil its purpose.
It is said that there is not sufficient
accommodation for entertaining visitors,
bachelors having to be relegated to tents
on the lawn, and that the guest-chambers \
are too spacious for convenience. Certainly
in % Lord Wellesley's time travellers to India
were less numerous than at present, and
probably the business of the Government
required a smaller staff and less room.
But for purposes of entertainment and
representation, no building could be more
convenient. It is said to have been
modelled by a Government architect upon



GOVERNMENT HOUSE 71

the plan of Kedleston Hall> Derbyshire, '
the ancestral home of the present Viceroy,
and the masterpiece of Adam. But at'

Kedleston there are only two wings, while

s,
at Calcutta there are four, and the likeness

X

is in other respects more superficial than

profound.

The chief or northern front is approached
by a lofty stone staircase, reaching down
to the gravel, guarded day and night by f~
troops of the body-guard with lances. This \
approach is not used except on special
occasions, as when the Viceroy retnrns

from tour, and is received in state by the ,

>
heads of the Government and of society. \

It was also employed, on one memorable x
occasion, for the funeral of the Earl of
Mayo, who was stabbed by a convict in
the Andaman Islands. The usual entrance,
as at Kedleston, is underneath the stair-^



72 IMPRESSIONS OF INDIAN TRAVEL

case, where there is a spacious carriage,-'

f
drive.

The building is of three stories, which
resemble each other, the central portion con-
sisting of two marble vestibules, divided by
a long hall supported by columns. On the
ground floor the vestibule contains the visitors',
book, and is tenanted by large numbers
of red-coated but dusky servants, the chief
of whom, a stately figure, speaks English, .
to the great conveRience of the guests.
These domestics are generally squatting or
asleep, but they rise reverently and salaam
at your approach. The columned hall on
the ground floor is always cool and shady,
and the vestibule at the other end is the
Viceroy's private entrance, opening on to
the spacious garden. The gravelled space
in front is often occupied by the mounted
body-guard, waiting for the Viceroy to drive



GOVERNMENT HOUSE 73

out, as it is quite unthinkable that the
Viceroy or his lady should ever take a
drive, except with the attendance of lancers.
They are a splendid body of men, recruited, ~
from the whole of India, but they are /
sometimes a source rather of danger than
defence. The rooms which were assigned
for my occupation were also approached
from this vestibule, and were underneath
the Viceroy's private apartments. They* * .
consisted of an ante-room, a sitting-room,
a bedroom, and, what is the glory of India,
a luxurious bathroom, it being the habit
of most Anglo-Indians to take a warm
bath at least twice in the day.

Mounting to the second floor, we find a

similar arrangement two large apartments



united by a central hall. The room over !

the entrance is used for breakfast and lunch \

)

one or more tables being set out as the



74 IMPRESSIONS OF INDIAN TRAVEL

number of the guests demands. At the-
farther end is the throne-room, where levees
and drawing-rooms are held, and which
_is generally used for dining. The golden
throne under a velvet canopy is the elephant
seat of Tippoo Sahib, but, whatever its