Haunts and hobbies of an Indian official

Preface

"POURING the latter period of my residence in -*-^ India I kept a diary. The diary was chiefly devoted to observations on the birds, insects, and animals whose acquaintance I made in my garden, or which I beheld on the bed of the river beyond. But it also contained memoranda on the weather and the changes of the seasons, notes of interviews with native visitors, and of any interesting information I happened to acquire. When I finally left India I brought the diary with me, together with a variety of Persian manuscripts and other Eastern books and papers. For many years it remained unnoticed, half forgotten ; then one day the fancy took me to open and peruse it.

I found it interesting, sufficiently so to warrant the hope that if expanded and arranged in the form of a narrative it might prove a volume of entertaining reading. After much delay and many interruptions I have carried this idea into execution.

The insects and animals described in the earlier parts of the narrative are mostly those which in India are very common, very insignificant, and on that account vi HAUNTS AND FiOBBIES

but little regarded. Nevertheless I found them interesting to observe, and I trust that they may be interesting to read about ; and although my observations are quite unscientific, they may perhaps add a little to the store of popular information, and by exciting an interest in the humble creatures with which they deal they may tend to develop kindly feelings towards them.

The animals that I have spoken of towards the end of my narrative are of a grander kind, such as the tiger, the bear, the deer, and the rhinoceros, the shooting of which forms the subject of most sporting works. Such works are popular from the adventures they record, but I think my narrative will show how much interest, even excitement, may be derived from observing these animals without injuring or destroying them,

I have added to my account of the domesticated elephants, as they now are, a description of the far grander position they held in the days of the emperors ; then in trappings of silk and cloth of gold they added to the splendour of the court, and formed one of the most formidable and important accompaniments of the armies.

In regard to the elephants and some other of the larger wild animals, I have noted the fact of their disappearance, within comparatively recent times, from many extensive regions where they were formerly abundant, a disappearance for which in many cases there is apparently no sufficient cause.

PREFACE vii

Although I have devoted much of my narrative to the animals, I have treated also of other matters. Indian society in the hills and at the large stations has been frequently described, and as such descriptions are popular I have thought that a picture of the quiet life of a European official in the plains might also be worthy of record. In order to render my picture accurate I have described, and at some length, many ordinary matters which, in works on India, are usually either left unnoticed or but incidentally alluded to. I have, for example, not only described the appearance of my house, but also the arrangement of the rooms ; I have said much on the weather and the climate and the changes of the seasons; I have besides given a brief account of my office, and also, as in a way connected with it, of the jail and its inmates ; and I have added to my account some weird stories, all true and within my own experience.

In various parts of my narrative I have introduced notices of native habits, institutions, and superstitions, all of which may, I hope, be interesting, and many of them new, to most readers ; some few will be so even to those acquainted with India.

I have concluded my narrative with an account of a tour I made during one cold season through the valley of the Doon, but I have introduced into the account recollections of an earlier period, when the valley was under my charge, and a description of the viii HAUNTS AND HOBBIES

little Sikh monastic establishment, with its tranquil siirrouiKliiigs and bitter internal dissensions ; the Government tea jilantations, as they then existed ; the curious marriage customs prevailing in the adjacent mountains ; and lastly, the discovery of the deserted palace, round which a forest had grown up, and the " beauty " that was found reposing within it

Chapter I. Page

My new station — Arrival at it — Walk round the garden — Discovery of an ant's nest — Habits of the ants — Ants in the house — The little red colony — The day visitors — How the ants discover food — Experiments to ascertain . ... I

Chapter II

My house — Description of it — Also of my garden — How I pass my time — Intensity of the heat and sunlight — Aspect of the landscape—The ants in the garden — Their diligence — Also their stupidity — Ant-lions — How they construct their pits — Animosity of the small black ants towards them . . 15

Chapter III

Illustrations of the extreme heat — A dust storm — The river — Its appearance from the garden terrace — The alligators on the sand banks — Alligator stories — The two varieties of alligators — Appearance of an otter — The burtunga ants — A second dust storm — A shower from a cloudless sky — A shower of muddy rain 32

Chapter IV

Native visitors — Stories told by — Haunted by a ghost — How my landlords acquired their fortune — A cook's promotion — Escape of a Persian noble from the court of Nadir Shah — Birds on the river — The melon beds — Story of the Emperor Babur — Fighting among the ants — Their tracks — How rapidly they are formed . 50

Chapter V

Commencement of the rains — The first shower — Its magical effect — Millions of insects called to life — The " beer-bhootees " — A curious insect — Ground spiders, frogs, crickets, flying bugs — Discovery of four toads immured in garden path — Rapid growth of the vegetation — The bamboo — Used formerly for torture — Forms the fortified walls of a city . . . . 69

X HAUNTS AND HOBBIES

Chapter VI. Pack

The burlungn ants send out a colony— Garden rats— Field rats— kUing of the river— Clearness of the atmosphere— Splendour of the stars at night— Remark of my servant— More showers- Issue of a swarm of young white ants — Most interesting spectacle— Reflections upon it . ... 9°

Chapter VII

Alchemy, an exhibition of— A piece of lead apparently transmuted into a bead of gold — Gold mohurs called from space — Hidden treasures — The vast store of, found by Nadir Shah — The undiscovered treasures of the Emperor Alumgire — Animals in the house — Lizards, various insects, rats, musk-rats, snake found wedged in a padlock, scorpions . ... lo6

Chapter VIII

The month of August— Excessive dampness — Dragonflies— A visit from four jackals — ^Jackals at night — Their cry, what they are supposed to say — A beautiful chrysalis — The month of Septeml>er — More about my garden — The babool tree — Delicious lierfume of its flower — Attar of roses — Commencement of the cold weather — \'ultures, hawks, and kites — Squirrels — An incident in the office — Narcotic drugs, some account of them . 122

Chapter IX

The station, its history — My office — The old records — Paper by Warren Hastings — The jail — Stories — Murder of a magistrate — The captured burglar — The roVjber's head — The Bhuttyarah's well — Snakes, I find a collection of their eggs — Locusts — The beautiful moonlights — The night mirage — The day mirage — I leave for another station . . ... 142

Chapter X

Red ants — White ants — The mounds above their nests — One in course of erection — I move again, and to a station near the Himalaya — White ants abound — Description of their nests — Unpleasant appearance of their combs — The queen — Fireflies and other luminous insects — Bats — Many varieties — Description of some — Weird appearance when hanging from the branches of a tree . 160

CONTENTS xi

PAGE

Chapter XI

My new garden — A praying-mantis — Insect mimicry — Bees and wasps — The Persian wheel — The deep wells — The singing as the water is drawn — Legend regarding — The deep wells a great cause of mortality — Sunrise over the Himalaya — A double sunrise— Flights of aquatic birds — Edible grass seeds — Handmills — Curious birds' nests — Birds, description of some — The rising crops — Landmarks . . . . . . 178

CHAPTER XIL

A cold-weather tour — The first march — Evening in a village — A charitable distribution — Through the forest — The Dak Bungalow — An old acquaintance — Elephants — Sunset view — Night in the forest — The Shewalic mountains — The pass through them — First prospect of the Doon . . .199

Chapter XIII

The Doon — Short description of — The town of Dehra — The tomb of the Gooroo — The Government tea plantations — Mango trees — Immense size of some — Tea manufacture — Unsuccessful endeavours of the Government to induce the native inhabitants to cultivate the tea plant — The " raos," or watercourses — Violence of the torrents through them in the rainy season . 217

Chapter XIV

The Sikh monastery attached to the shrine of the Gooroo— Its internal dissensions — The "Mohunt," the head of monastery, visits me in state — His next visit unceremonious — He has been assaulted — He comes to complain — I present him as a consolation with a new headdress — Sketch of the history of the Doon — The fort of Kalunga — Failure of our attack — Death of Sir Rollo Gillespie — The fort abandoned — Burial place of our soldiers who fell in the attack — Weird incident — Anecdote of Sir Rollo Gillespie . . . ... 238

Chapter XV

The Doon passes under English rule — The potato — Said to have led to the establishment of the hill stations of Landour and Mussoorie — Curious marriage customs prevailing in the mountain tract attached to the Doon — Description of the tract and its picturesquely situated, small capital — Forest sounds — Memorials of suttee — Was to some extent practised by the Mahomedans — Some optical illusions in regard to the mountains . . . . . 251 xii HAUNTS AND HOBBIES

Chapter XVI. Tage

Willi animals — Tigers, leopards, bears, and wolves — Slories of ligers — One enters my camp at night — A devotee and a tiger — Tigers at the native courts — Enormous strength of the tiger — Sad accidents to an English ofticer — Man-eating tigers — Leopards — Their extreme activity — Story of a tame leopard — The bears — They mostly inhabit the mountains —Two bears prowl round my house and break into the larder — My tame bears — Wolves — Superstition of wolf-children . . ... 263

Chapter XVII

Elephants — A herd passing through the Shewalics — Solitary elephants, or elephants in pairs, dangerous — My adventure — Elephant and police hut — Escaped elephants — Elephant pits — A baby elephant — Elephants in the days of the Emperors — Used in battle — Their advance against the army of Timour — Their valour at the capture of Cheitore — Their magnificent appearance at court ceremonials — The elephant of Prince Daniel — Elephant fights — Elephants as executioners — A " must " elephant — Great age of elephants — Elephant of the Emperor Kuttub-ood-Deen dies of grief when the Emperor was killed . . . 282

Chapter XVIII

Disappearance of the wild animals — The rhinoceros now not found to the westward of the Ganges — Nor elephants in the forests of Central India — Were formerly there abundant — The lions have also disappeared in the Punjaub and Upper India — Stories of lion-hunting by the Emperors Akbar and Jehangire — Description of Indian lion — Animals in the forest — Their old age — Reflections 304

Chapter XIX

Tour continued — March through the Western Doon — Halt by the river — Washing for gold — Ascent of the Shewalics — Last view of the Doon — Fakirs — Description of them — The Goshines — The Jogees — The Nagas — Fakirs at Hurdwar — Austerities — The fakir at Benares — The wonderful performances of the seven Jogees before the Emperor Jehangire — Skill in archery displayed by a young noble — Modern jugglers . . '313

Chapter XX

Tour concluded — View from a peak^Wildness of the mountains — The pass — Singular rock — March to the Jumna — The deserted palace — Tradition regarding it — Its discovery — The " Beauty " within it — The scenery around — The Jumna and the Tonse — March along the canal — The scarcity — Distribution of the relief funds — The great famine . . ... 332

HAUNTS AND HOBBIES OF AN INDIAN OFFICIAL

Chapter I. Ants

SOME few years after the Mutiny, I was appointed to a station up the country. The station stood on the bank of the Ganges. In the early days of our rule it had been to some extent a seat of government. It was the headquarters of several of the chief civil offices, and a strong military force was maintained at it, but as time passed the importance of the station had declined. One by one the great offices had been removed elsewhere, and the number of the troops had been reduced. Just previous to the Mutiny they consisted only of a portion of a native regiment. The station, however, was still a tolerably large one ; but the many unoccupied houses and uncared-for gardens gave to it a rather deserted and melancholy appearance. I arrived at the station about the middle of the month of May, the very hottest period of the year. Some few days were occupied in selecting a house and settling myself in it ; and then one afternoon, when B the sun had set, I took a stroll round the garden. The garden extended to the river, and descended to near the water's edge in a succession of terraces. The garden had originally been a pretty one, and well stocked with flowers, but for many years it had been sadly neglected. In England a neglected garden becomes a wilderness ; in India, where all cultivation depends on irrigation, it assumes much the aspect of a desert. This garden had done so. There were a few magnificent trees, several more of smaller size, some flowering shrubs, and here and there a rosebush ; but generally the surface displayed only one monotonous expanse of bare brown earth. In places, however, there were clumps of pampas grass, forming quite little jungles, and among them were crops of the hardiest of weeds. The appearance of the lower terraces was rather more cheerful, for they were still partly cultivated, though only with native vegetables of the commonest kinds.

It was uncertain how long I should remain at the station. I did not, therefore, think it worth while to put the garden in order ; I amused myself instead by studying its living inhabitants — the insects and other small animals, for all these it contained in great abundance. I directed my attention at first to the ants. My acquaintance with tiiem thus commenced : I was strolling through the garden, as before, soon after sunset, when I noticed on the rough surface of the ground a broad, smooth track ; it was much the sort of mark that the trunk of a tree or a beam of timber would leave, if dragged along.

ANTS 3

I had with me two attendants. I pointed to the track, and inquired if any of the trees of the garden had been lately felled and drawn away. The men smiled, and informed me that the track was not that of a tree, but was the foraging path of an ants' nest.

I was at first incredulous. It seemed to me impossible that such light, diminutive insects as ants could have made so broad and smooth a track as this over the rough, hard earth ; but I was presently convinced. We followed the track ; it extended from the point where I had noticed it for some sixty or seventy yards; then it abruptly terminated in the centre of what had once been a flower-bed. At the point where the track terminated the ground was slightly raised, something in the form of a wide but very shallow inverted saucer.

In this low mound I noticed that there were four small holes. These holes, my attendants informed me, were the entrances to the passages that led down to the nest. A few ants only were about. The rest, my attendants said, had retired below for the night ; but in the morning, about sunrise, they would be out again and in full activity.

In India during the hot weather we all rise at earliest dawn. By six o'clock the sun is high in the heavens, and his rays unpleasantly penetrating. It was about this time the next morning that I returned from my ride. I went at once to the ants' nest. It was situated, I may mention, on the uppermost of the terraces — the one nearest to the house. The track now presented a very different appearance to that of the previous evening, for, broad and long as it was, it was nevertheless completely covered with ants going out and returning. The track, I now found, led from the nest to one of those clumps of pampas grass I have above alluded to. Here it widened out and ended, and the ants dispersed themselves among the grass and weeds to gather their seeds.

Having collected their seeds, the ants returned to the nest, each ant, as I imagined, carrying a single seed. It was a scene of peaceful industry most interesting to behold, so interesting that, notwithstanding the heat, I sent for a chair and sat down to observe it. I am sorry to say that I had not looked long before I became aware that the ants were neither so peaceful nor so industrious as I had at first supposed. Although the seeds were abundant, not one ant in six took the trouble to gather any. Many of the ants, indeed, never proceeded to the clumps at all. Instead, they lay in wait in different places along the track, and robbed of their seeds the industrious of their comrades who had been there and were returning laden.

If the industrious ant was much the smallest, he usually accepted the situation. He dropped his seed, turned, and with wonderful patience went back to the grass clumps to gather another. If the ants were at all of equal size, the affair generally ended by both conveying on the seed together. Sometimes, though rarely, the small ant would hold on to his seed so resolutely that the larger, robber ant had to drag him along with it to the nest.

I had supposed at first that, as the ants were foraging among the grass clumps, it was the seed of the grass

ANTS 5

that they were gathering. To make sure, however, on this point, I sent for my magnifying-glass, and with it I examined the seeds. I found, rather to my surprise, that the seeds were not the seeds of the grass, but those of the akawa, a small, juicy wild plant that grew among the grass clumps, and also elsewhere near them.

I remained for a long time watching the ants ; in fact, I remained till the rays of the sun got too hot for endurance. Then I retired to the house. The servants told me that in another hour or so the ants would retire also. They would enter their nest, and there remain till the day declined. They would then reappear, forage as before, and a little before sunset return again for the night.

I was curious to ascertain if this statement was correct. I waited till a full hour had elapsed, and then, shaded by a thickly wadded umbrella, I went back to the nest. Not an ant was visible. The track was as bare and deserted as I had seen it on the previous evening. And not only had the ants retired, but the entrances to the nest were also closed ; and I noticed that over each a little mound of pellets had been erected. The pellets were minute fragments of brick or small pieces of hard earth, the like of which were everywhere strewed about the garden.

The mounds were so neatly constructed that I imagined at first that they were the work of some of the children of the servants who lived on the premises ; but I was assured by my attendants that they were erected by the ants themselves. It was the custom, they said, of these ants always thus to close and cover over the entrances to their nests whenever they retired within them. They added that if I would come out when the ants retired again at sunset, I could witness them doing so.

This account of my attendants so interested me that I looked forward to the afternoon with some little impatience. In fear lest I might be too late, I left the house while the sun was yet well above the horizon. I found the track still covered with ants, but all were returning. Their numbers were so great that it was a considerable time before the whole had entered the nest. A small party, however, some twenty or thirty, remained without ; and these now, to my extreme satisfaction, set about the work of closing the entrances. Their mode of procedure was as follows : —

They first separated themselves into four groups of about equal numbers. Each group appeared to undertake the duty of closing one of the four entrances. The ants next dispersed, and collected pellets from the fragments of brick and hard earth lying around. With these pellets they then commenced to cover over the entrance holes. It was a work requiring some care, for, small as were the entrance holes, a good many of the pellets were even still smaller. But all the while I looked on I did not observe a single pellet fall in.

The ants worked rapidly. Before many minutes had passed, all the four entrances were closed. In the covering over one entrance a small aperture was left. The other three entrances were closed completely, and over these three the ants now proceeded to erect the

ANTS 7

mounds. When the mounds were completed, all the ants but one retired into the nest, through the aperture left, as above mentioned, in the covering over the fourth entrance. One ant remained, and now, all unaided, he set about erecting a mound over this last entrance. I noticed that as he placed the pellets he was verycareful to preserve the aperture. As the mound rose around it, the aperture assumed something the appearance of a roughly constructed, most diminutive well.

I watched this ant's proceedings with great interest, wondering much how when the mound was completed, and he retired himself into the nest, he would manage to close the aperture behind him. My curiosity on this point was not destined to be gratified. Before the mound was completed, I was called away to the house by the arrival of a visitor. I have a vague recollection that on another occasion I did see the mound completed, and this last ant retire ; but how the aperture was closed I do not remember, nor, I am sorry to say, do my notes record.

I had hitherto visited the ants ; before very long the ants returned the compliment, and visited me. It was in the late afternoon, the sun was just sinking, the outer doors had been opened, and I was sitting in the verandah waiting to take my evening drive. I happened to look down, and saw that the floor was covered with a multitude of small moving, dusky spots. On nearer inspection I perceived that these spots were ants, and ants of one of the diminutive red varieties. I had seen none previously. From whence had these come ?

On searching about I discovered that these ants were issuing from a crack in the cemented floor, and they were not only issuing from the crack, but they were returning to it again and descending. With the aid of my magnifying-glass, I further ascertained that each ant as he came out of the crack carried in his jaws a minute pellet of mortar. The ants ran along the floor, deposited their pellets upon it, and then raced back to the crack, and disappeared within it. The reason of their presence was now explained. They had come not merely to visit, but to reside. They were engaged in excavating chambers and galleries, in which to establish a colony. In this work of excavation they must have been engaged for some hours, for the floor of the verandah, to the distance of many feet from the crack, was covered with the little pellets of mortar which they had brought up from beneath and deposited.

The sight suggested some speculations. From whence did these ants come? for I had seen none exactly like them in the garden. Then why, with so much space of earth all around, should they have selected this solid masonry floor in which to excavate their residence? And, lastly, how did such soft, diminutive little creatures manage to tunnel through it? To none of these problems am I able to afford any solution.

These small red ants having arrived, they remained for the rest of the season ; and I was glad that they did, for the watching their proceedings was a source of constant interest. They were followed by other ants ; but these later arrivals, though much varying in size, belonged all to the black varieties. They also, for

ANTS 9

some reason or other, almost entirely confined themselves to another verandah — the one which faced to the north ; and, with few exceptions, they were only day visitors. They came in the morning, and departed again as the sun declined. Those that remained permanently were ants of the most diminutive species. They also, like the small red ants, excavated residences for themselves in the solid masonry flooring.

The larger ants, the day visitors, were to be numbered by thousands. Whenever I entered the verandah I found the entire surface of the floor and walls thickly speckled with them. Their activity, too, was wonderful. They appeared to pass their time in ceaseless wanderings, hardly ever, that I could observe, resting even for an instant. The object of their wanderings was not apparent. I suppose it was in search of food, though what food they could find in the verandah was a puzzle, for the room that served as a larder was on the other side of the house.

Except in the larder, ants are one of the few Indian insects that are not an annoyance. They are so clean ; they confine themselves so entirely to the walls and floors, and mostly to those of the verandahs ; but in the larder, or wherever else there is anything eatable, then there they are a pest. However carefully food may be hidden away or protected, the ants are sure before long to discover and devour it. The only receptacle that will protect food from the ants is a safe with wire gauze sides, and supported on long legs, the legs resting in wide stone saucers kept filled with water ; and this requires constant attention, for the dust, with which the air in the hot season is ahvays thickly laden, soon forms a film on the water, and over this film, thin as it is, the ants are able to pass.

But now a question arises: By what means do the ants discover the food ? Is it by sight or by scent ? Or in the course of their incessant wanderings do they come on it by accident ? This question has been much debated, but never, that I am aware, been quite satisfactorily determined. Having so many ants about, I resolved to try some experiments to throw, if I could, some light on the subject. My experiments were very numerous ; one or two of them I will relate.

The first experiment was performed in this north verandah. It was suggested by a long, thick nail that projected from the wall, driven in by some former occupant of the house. The nail was about six feet above the floor, and projected some three inches from the face of the wall. From the end of this nail I suspended a piece of stiff paper by means of some fine twine. I passed the twine through the four corners, so that the paper hung flat like a small platform. Then on the upper surface of the paper I placed a little heap of powdered sugar. I did this one day on returning from my early morning ride.

For three days the sugar remained untouched ; not an ant came near it. Then I varied the experiment. It was in the morning: the floor, as usual, was covered with ants ; I carefully lifted one with a card and placed him on the paper. He ran at once to the sugar and commenced to eat it. Towards sunset, when the heat had diminished, I went again to the verandah. I found a