Norman Vallery Part 7

Norman after walking about looked very angry for some minutes. Seeing, however, the cook take up a dirty cloth and draw a pin from her dress, he thought it wiser to walk off, and made his way back into the garden.

"I do not see why f.a.n.n.y should have a beautiful doll and I only a stupid bit of leather," he muttered to himself. "If I can get hold of that doll of hers, I know what I will do to it, and then she won't be a bit better off than I am."

Instead of attempting to overcome the spirit of envy, which sprung up in his heart, he went on muttering to himself that he would soon spoil Miss Lucy's beauty.

He had not improved in temper, when he was summoned in to dinner.

Neither Mrs Leslie nor his mamma said anything about f.a.n.n.y's garden, and he himself was not inclined to introduce the subject. His grandmamma did not speak to him, for she was anxious if possible to make him ashamed of his conduct. Discerning as she was, she was little aware of the obstinacy of his disposition, and that all he cared for, was to avoid punishment.

f.a.n.n.y had talked to him and tried to amuse him after dinner; as it was still too hot to go out, she invited him to come into the drawing-room, and listen to a pretty story she would read to him out of a book.

After she had read a little time, her grandmamma invited her to sit by her side, that she might go on with some work that she was teaching her to do.

"Come with me, Norman," said f.a.n.n.y, jumping up immediately, "granny will let you sit near me on a footstool, and if you hold the book, I can tell you some of the stories by merely looking at the pictures."

Norman, who liked having stories told to him, made no objection, and sat down quietly on a footstool near f.a.n.n.y.

"I think Norman, you should now tell f.a.n.n.y something about India," said Mrs Leslie, after f.a.n.n.y had told him several stories.

"It's a finer country than this, and people do as they are told, that's one thing I know about it," observed Norman. "A very good thing too,"

said Mrs Leslie, "I always like little boys and girls to do as they are told."

"But big people do as they are told, our _kitmutgars_ and _chapra.s.sey_ ran off as quick as lightning to do anything I told them, and if not I kicked them."

"I hope that you will not do so to any one in England, my dear," said Mrs Leslie.

"I am sorry to say that Norman did sometimes attempt to do as he tells you," observed Mrs Vallery. "The people he speaks of were our servants. A _kitmutgar_ is a man who waits at table, and a _chapra.s.sey_ is another servant, whose duty it is to run on messages, to attend on ladies when they go out, and to perform the general duties of a footman, though he does not wait at table. You must know, f.a.n.n.y, in India each person has especial duties, and he considers it degrading to perform any others.

"A groom is called a _syce_, but he will not cut the gra.s.s for his own horse, and requires another man to do so. The head servant, who performs the duty of butler, and purchases all the food for the family, is called a _rhansaman_.

"A great deal of water is required in the hot weather for bathing and wetting the tatties, and one man is employed in bringing it up from the river to the bungalow in which we lived--he is called a _chestie_. A different man, however, called an _aubdar_, takes care that proper drinking water is supplied--we generally used rain water, which was collected in large sheets stretched out between four poles in the rainy season, and drained into earthen jars, where it keeps cool and sweet.

"None of those I have mentioned would clean the rooms, and, therefore, another man a _mehter_ or sweeper was employed. Our clothes were washed by a man called a _dhobie_; he used to come with his donkey, and carry them off to the river, where he beat them with a flat stick on a wooden slab over and over again till they were clean, and then dried them in the sun.

"When any out-door work was to be done, we hired labourers of the lowest caste, who were called _coolies_. Then we had a tailor, who made all my clothes as well as Norman's and his papa's, and he is called a _durize_.

We had six bearers, who were employed to carry our palanquin, when we went out, and they also had to keep the punkahs at work, besides having other things to do."

"What a household," exclaimed Mrs Leslie, "I am glad we have not so many servants to attend to in England. Where did they all live?"

"Some slept rolled up in their sheets on mats in the verandah in front of the bungalow, others in huts by themselves."

"Had you no maid-servants?" asked f.a.n.n.y.

"Only one, called an _ayah_, who acted as my lady's maid, and took care of Norman, but had nothing else to do," answered Mrs Vallery.

"Mamma, what are punkahs and tatties?" inquired f.a.n.n.y, "I did not like to interrupt you when you spoke of them."

"The punkah is something like an enormous fan suspended to the roof, and when a breeze is required, it is drawn backwards and forwards with ropes by the bearers. Sometimes in hot weather it is kept going day and night, indeed without it at times we should scarcely have been able to bear the heat, or go to sleep at night. The tatties are mats made of a sweet-smelling gra.s.s, which are hung up on the side from which the hot wind comes, and being kept constantly wet by the _chesties_, the air pa.s.sing through them is cooled by the evaporation which takes place."

"I suppose you must have lived in a very large house, as you had so many servants to attend on you," observed f.a.n.n.y.

"When we were at a station up the country, we resided in a bungalow, which was a cottage, with all the rooms on the ground floor, in the centre of an enclosure called a compound. It was covered with a sloping thickly-thatched roof, to keep out the rays of the sun. In the centre was a large hall which was our sitting-room, with doors opening all round it into the bedrooms, and outside them was a broad verandah. I spoke of doors, but I should rather have called them door-ways with curtains to them, thus the air set moving by the punkahs could circulate through the house, while the sun could not penetrate into the inner room, it was therefore kept tolerably cool."

"I think we are better off in England, where even in the hottest weather we can keep cool without so much trouble being taken," observed f.a.n.n.y.

"How I pity the poor men who are obliged to work at the punkahs."

"They are accustomed to the heat, and it is their business," observed Mrs Vallery; "they would not have thanked us had we dismissed them, and told them that for their sakes we were ready to bear the hot stifling atmosphere, or to refrain from going out in our palanquins."

"What are palanquins, mamma?" asked f.a.n.n.y.

"A palanquin may be described as a litter or sofa without legs, and with a roof over it, carried by means of long poles, one on each side, the ends resting on the shoulders of the bearers. A person travelling in one can recline at full length, and sleep comfortably during a long journey. When travelling by post, or _dak_, as it is called, fresh bearers are found ready at each stage, just as post-horses are in England.

"When we went out to pay visits for a short distance only we used a _tanjahn_, in which a person, instead of reclining, sits upright. It is somewhat like an English sedan-chair. We, however, at most of the stations where the roads were good, used open carriages sent out from England.

"Your papa used occasionally, also, to go out hunting tigers on the back of an elephant. He did not, however, bestride it as he would a horse, but sat with one or two other persons in a sort of box, called a _howdah_, fastened on the animal's back. The huge creature was guided by a man called a _mahout_, seated on its neck, with a sharp-pointed stick in his hand. To get into the _howdah_ a ladder is placed against the animal's side, which stands perfectly quiet, till ordered by the _mahout_ to move on.

"I have on several occasions travelled on the back of an elephant in a much larger _howdah_ than is used for hunting, when I had a _chattah_ or umbrella held over my head."

"But do the huge elephants gallop after the tigers?" asked f.a.n.n.y.

"I should think not," observed Norman, now speaking for the first time.

"Papa used to carry a gun, and beaters and dogs went into the jungle to drive out the tigers, and then he used to shoot them. He has often told me about it, and promised to take me when I am big enough. I should like to shoot a tiger."

"You would not like to see a tiger spring up at the _howdah_, and try to drag you out of it, as happened when your papa was out shooting one day, and the poor _mahout_ was so dreadfully torn that he died?" observed Mrs Vallery. "Tiger shooting is a _very_ dangerous amus.e.m.e.nt, and I was always anxious till your papa came back safe. It was no amus.e.m.e.nt to me in the meantime."

"Women are silly things, and are always being afraid," said Norman, with an impudent look.

"That was not a proper remark, Norman, and it was especially rude in you to make it in our presence," observed Mrs Leslie.

"When I am big I intend to go out tiger shooting, and if other people are afraid, I shall not be," persisted Norman.

His grandmamma made no further remark, but she cast a look of pity at the boy.

"But are not the elephants frightened, mamma, when they see the tigers?"

asked f.a.n.n.y, anxious to draw off attention from her brother.

"They are wise creatures, and seem to know that their riders have the means of defending them, so that they very seldom run away," answered Mrs Vallery, "occasionally they take flight. Nothing can be more uncomfortable than having to sit on the back of an elephant under such circ.u.mstances. The creature sticks out its trunk and screams as it rushes onward, trampling down everything in its way. Should it pa.s.s under trees, it happens occasionally that a branch sweeps its riders with their _howdah_ from its back. Elephants are, however, generally so well-trained, that I never felt any fear when seated on the back of one.

They are, indeed, wonderfully sensible creatures, and can be taught to do anything. They sometimes convey luggage and even light guns over rough country, which wheels cannot traverse. With their trunks they lift up enormous logs of wood, and place them exactly as directed when roads are being formed, and they will even build up piles of logs, placing each with the greatest exactness. I have heard of elephants taking up children in their trunks and playing with them, and putting them down again, without doing them the slightest injury. They can, as the natives say, do everything but talk, indeed they seem to understand what is said to them, and I have seen a _mahout_ whisper in his elephant's ear, when the creature immediately obeyed him, though he possibly may have used some other sign which I did not observe."

"I should like to travel on the back of one of the well-trained elephants you speak of, mamma, because I could then look about and see the country, though I think that I should at first be somewhat afraid until I got accustomed to it," remarked f.a.n.n.y.

"You may be able to try how you like riding on the back of one of them at the Zoological Gardens, where perhaps your papa will take you some day," said Mrs Leslie, "it is among the places I thought you would like to see, and I told him that I was sure you would be very much interested in going there?"

"I will go too, and take care of you," said Norman, with a patronising air, "I have ridden on an elephant in India, and if there are any tigers we will shoot them."

"There are several tigers in the Zoological Gardens, but the owners would object to your shooting them, Norman," observed Mrs Leslie.

"They are safely shut up in cages."

"I suppose the people are afraid of them," said Norman, "I am not afraid of tigers, and when I go back to India I intend to shoot a great many."