Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 1.djvu/349

 CHAPTER XXIV.

THE NUT LOG.

The Hounds—A Gumuki—The Eade—Trelawny—The Rev. J. Wolff—The Nut Log—Balancing Goat—Sirrākee Grass—A Dividend—Earrings of Jasmine—A Rat given to a Cow—The Mādār—Enamelled Grasshoppers—The Shaddock—The Agra Gun—Corruption of words—Variegated Locusts—Beautiful Flowers.

1833, Feb. 1st.—The new hounds have just arrived; such little animals by the side of Jan Peter (Trumpeter) and Racer! Out of eight couple there is not a good dog; the gentlemen say three hundred rupees, i. e. £30, is a long price for dogs not worth their food, and who would be better out of than in the pack.

At the fair to-day, I purchased a gumuki, a sort of loose bag, the shape of a carpenter's square, large enough to admit the hand at one end, but sewed up at the other. It is made of blue cloth, embroidered with figures of the holy cow. A Hindoo will perform pooja seated on the ground, his right hand passed into a bag of this sort. His hand holds, and he counts most sedulously, a rosary of round beads (mālā), containing in number one hundred and eight, exclusive of connecting beads, differently shaped: the attention is abstractedly fixed on the deity, assisted by the rosary. Sometimes it is composed of amber, sometimes of certain rough berries sacred to the gods. Such rosaries, when used to promote abstraction, are called jap-mālā. During the time, a cloth is bound over his mouth, to prevent the entrance of insects; and he is supposed to be in holy meditation.