CHAPTER XV. JOURNEY FROM DELHI TO BOMBAY CONTINUED.

The cook always proceeds on his journey at night. As soon as the tents are vacated, they are taken down and quickly removed, and as quickly re-erected: there is no scarcity of hands or of beasts of burden. In the most cultivated countries of Europe, people do not travel with so much luxury and ease as in India.

In the evening, I was obliged to take my departure again. Captain Burdon very kindly offered me the use of his palanquin and the necessary bearers as far as Indos, but I pitied the people too much, and declared that I did not find travelling on camels unpleasant; that in fact, on account of the open view, that mode was to be preferred to palanquins. However, on account of my little portmanteau, I took a third camel. I left the sepoys behind here. This evening we went eight miles towards the little town Patan.

17th February. It was not till this morning that I saw Patan was situated on a romantic chain of hills, and possesses several remarkably handsome temples, in the open halls belonging to which are placed sculptured stone figures, the size of life. The arabesques and figures on the pillars were sharply executed in relief. In the valleys which we passed through, there was a large quantity of basaltic rock and most beautifully crystallized quartz. Towards evening, we reached Batschbachar, a miserable little town.

18th February. Rumtscha is somewhat larger and better. I was obliged to put up my bed in the middle of the bazaar under an open verandah. Upon this road there were no caravansaries. Half of the inhabitants of the town gathered round me, and watched all my motions and doings with the greatest attention. I afforded them an opportunity of studying the appearance of an angry European female, as I was very much displeased with my people, and, in spite of my slight knowledge of the language, scolded them heartily. They allowed the camels to go so lazily, that although we had travelled since early in the morning until late in the evening, we had not gone more than twenty or twenty-two miles, not faster than an ox- waggon would have gone. I made them understand that this negligence must not happen again. I must now take occasion to contradict those persons who affirm that the camel can travel on the average eighty miles daily, and that even when they go slowly, their steps are very long. I examine every circumstance very accurately, and then form an opinion from my own experience, without allowing myself to be misled by what has been written about it. Before commencing a journey, I observe not only the principal distances, but also those between the individual places, arrange a plan of my journey with the help of friends who are acquainted with the subject, and by this means have the advantage over my driver, who cannot persuade me that we have gone forty or sixty miles, when we have not gone more than half this distance. Moreover, I was able, while travelling from Delhi to Kottah by the ox-waggon, to observe several camel equipages, which I fell in with every evening at the same night station. It is true that I had most excellent oxen, and that the camels were ordinary; but in this journey, with good camels, I did not go more than thirty, or at the utmost, thirty-two miles in the day, and travelled from 4 o'clock in the morning until 6 in the evening, without any other stoppage than two hours at noon. A camel which is able to travel eighty miles in a day is an exception to the general rule, and would scarcely perform such a feat the second or third time.

19th February. Ranera is an unimportant place. I was here offered a cow-stall to sleep in. It was indeed kept very clean; but I preferred sleeping in the open air.

Till a late hour of the night this town was very lively: processions of men and a number of women and children followed the noise of the tam-tam, which they accompanied with a wild, howling song, and proceeded to some tree, under which an image of an idol was set up.

We had on this day to cross several ranges of low hills. The uncultivated ground was everywhere scorched up by the sun; {209} nevertheless, the plantations of poppies, flax, corn, and cotton, etc., grew very luxuriantly. Water-dykes were let into the fields on every side, and peasants, with their yokes of oxen, were engaged in bringing water from the wells and streams. I did not see any women at work.

In my numerous journeys, I had an opportunity of observing that the lot of the poorer classes of women in India, in the East, and among coloured people generally, was not so hard as it is believed to be. In the towns where Europeans reside, for example, their linen is washed and prepared by men; it is very seldom that it is necessary for women to take part in out-door labour; they carry wood, water, or any other heavy burdens only in their own houses. At harvest time, indeed, the women are seen in the fields, but there also they only do the lighter kind of work. If carriages with horses or oxen are seen, the women and children are always seated upon them, and the men walk by the side, often laden with bundles. When there are no beasts of burden with the party, the men carry the children and baggage. I also never saw a man ill use his wife or child. I heartily wish that the women of the poorer classes in my own country were treated with only half the consideration which I saw in all other parts of the world.

20th February. Udjein on the Seepa, one of the oldest and best built towns of India, is the capital of the kingdom of Sindhia, with a population of more than 100,000 souls.