Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 1.djvu/23

 CHAPTER VIII.

LIFE IN THE MUFASSIL.

1827, January.

First Visits in the East—Papamhow—Runjeet Singh's Illness—Death of Lord Hastings—Lord Amherst created Earl of Arracan—Marriage of a Neem to a Peepul—The Bacäin—A Koord Arab—Visit to Lucnow—His Majesty Nusseer-ood-Deen Hyder—Lord Combermere—Kywan Jab—Presents not allowed to be accepted—Fights of Wild Beasts—Quail—Departure of Lord Combermere—Skinner's Horse—Return to Prāg     70

CHAPTER IX.

RESIDENCE AT ALLAHABAD.

1828.

Sinking a Well—Hurriannah Cows—Delhi Goats—The Jumnapār—Doomba Sheep—Buffalo Humps—Water-cresses—Marrowfat Peas—Carrots—The Chatr—The Oleander—The Ice-pits—Cream Ice, how to freeze—Burdwan Coal—Indian Fevers—Mr. Bayley, Viceroy—Fear of the Invasion of the Russians and Persians—Intense Heat—Deaths in the Farmyard—Chota Jehannum—The Verandah at Noon—Mad Pariah—Trelawny—Châteaux en Espagne—Height of the two Rivers—Death of the Bishop of Calcutta—An Hummām—The first Steamer at Prāg     77

CHAPTER X.

LIFE IN THE ZENĀNA.

1828, October.

Zenāna of the King of Oude—Regiment of Females—The Favourite Wife—The English Begam—The Princess of Delhi, the Begam ''par excellence''—Colonel Gardner—Mirza Sulimān Sheko and his fifty-two Children—The Forty Princesses—Mootee, the Pearl of the Desert—Hunting Season at Papamhow—Jackals and Foxes—A Suttee at Prāg—Report of a Suttee—An Ill-starred Horse     87

CHAPTER XI.

RESIDENCE AT PRĀG.

1829.

March to Benares—Misfortunes en suite—The Hummām of the Rajah—Flowers of Wax and Ubruk—Return to Prāg—Storm en route—Gram—A Central Government—Thieves, Domestic—Snake in the Stable—Death in a Pālkee—Power of the Sun to change the Sex—Lord William