Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/216

 CHAPTER L.

PLEASANT DAYS IN CAMP.

Jellalabad—Menhdī Bridge—The Resident of Gwalior—Difficulty of crossing the Sands of the Ganges—Imrutpūr—Marching under the Flag of the Resident of Gwalior—Khāsgunge—The Tombs of Colonel Gardner and his Begam—Mulka Begam—Style of March—Pleasure of a Life in Tents—The Fort of Alligarh—The Racers—The 16th Lancers present a Shield to Mr. Blood—The Monument—The Kos-minār—Koorjah and Solitude—Meeting of old Friends—Meerut—The Officers of the Artillery give a Ball to the Governor-General and his Party—The Sūraj Kūnd—The Buffs add to the gaiety of the Station—The Artillery Theatre—The Pilgrim Tax abolished at Allahabad.

1838, Jan. 8th.—Arrived at Jellalabad without any adventures. Went to hear the band in the evening, but felt weary from not having slept the night before on account of the yells of the packs of jackals in every direction round the tent, and the noise of the sentries keeping off the people from Kanauj. We were in a complete jangal: a wolf came up to my tent at mid-day, then trotting over to the opposite tent, carried off my neighbour's kid.

9th.—Early this morning I overtook Colonel M, who was marching with his regiment, and rode with him some miles: we passed over a most curiously built suspension bridge, thrown over the Kala-nadī by the late Nawab Hakimm?] Menhdī; the pillars through which some part of the workmanship passes are remarkable. The sight of the river put me in mind of the excellence and large size of the arwarī fish it contains. Afterwards, speaking of this sort of mullet to Captain O, he told me he had sent out a man to shoot arwarī fish, who had