Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 1.djvu/374

 baboos, and dependent and independent Rajahs, and some have given their thousands.

The interference with the Company's charter, that people in England may drink their tea cheaper, which result, however, appears doubtful, and that the surplus population may come out to colonize, and cholerize, has done the Service no benefit. Economy is still the rage, and we of the present day have nothing to look to but the pension from our Civil Annuity Fund, after twenty-two years' actual residence, of £1000, for which we are to pay one-half, or 50,000 rupees, when we can hoard up as much. The generality of men's lives after twenty-two years' residence, and twenty-five of service, three years of these being allowed for furlough, which few are able to take, is scarcely worth five years' purchase. Numbers, of course, do not live out their time; and if they have subscribed for twenty-one years and eleven months, the whole goes to the fund, principal and interest.

Nov. 3rd.—There are some most wondrous animals called Gungun Medha, or Bāgh-sira, the latter Hindoo word meaning tiger-headed, from the shape of the animal's horrible head. I was told they could be dug out of the sands on the river-side. I therefore sent the jamadar and a cooly across the river this morning, and they brought back eight or nine of these beasts; their wings curl up in a most singular fashion, and make them appear as if they had four curly tails, all close together; their great jaw-*bones are edged like a coarse saw. They are very fierce; they fight, kill each other, and the conqueror eats up his adversary. Their legs and wings are most remarkable. We put two under a wire dish-cover, and they fought fiercely, although, from having been dug up some hours, they were not as active as at first. They bite terribly; it is necessary to seize them by their backs like crabs to avoid a bite.

I had some Sarāta lizards dug out of the sands near the Parade ground; they are not half as curious as these tiger-headed beasts, which are in thousands in the sand-banks, their holes six or seven feet deep. A Rajpūt Rana of high degree