Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/125

 CHAPTER XLVI.

SKETCHES IN BENGAL—THE SUNDERBANDS.

Toll at Jungipūr—Bengālee Women—Palace of the Nawāb of Moorshadabad—Mor-pankhī—Snake Boats—Casim Bazār—Berhampūr—Cintra Oranges—Cutwa Cloth—Culna—The Timber Raft—Chandar-nagar—Sholā Floats—The Hoogly—Chinsurah—Barrukpūr—Serampūr—Corn Mills—The Shipping—Chandpaul Ghāt—River Fakīrs—M. le Général Allard—Assam Leaf Insect—The Races—Kalī Mā'ī—Dwarkanath Tagore—The Foot of a Chinese Lady—Quitted Calcutta—The Steamer and Flat—The Sunderbands—Mud Islands—Tigers—The Woodcutters—Kaloo-ray[)u]—Settlements—Culna—Commercolly—Rājmahal—Monghir—Coolness of a Native—Pleasures of Welcome—The Vaccine Department—The Gaja Rājā performs Pooja as a Fakīr—The Eclipse—The Plague—The Lottery—Conversations in the Zenāna—The Autograph—Delicacy of Native Ladies—Death of the King of Oude—The Padshah Begam—Moonajāh—The King's Uncle raised to the Throne.

1836, Dec. 9th.—Arrived at Jungipūr, where a toll was levied of six rupees on my bajrā, usually called budjerow, and two rupees on the cook boat,—a tax for keeping open a deep channel in the river. During the hour we anchored there, and the servants were on shore for provisions, I was much amused watching the women bathing; they wade into the stream, wash their dresses, and put them on again all wet, as they stand in the water; wash their hair and their bodies, retaining all the time some part of their drapery, which assumes the most classical appearance. They wear their hair fastened behind in the Grecian fashion, large silver nose-rings, a great number of white ivory churees (bracelets) on their arms, with a pair of very large silver bangles on the wrists,