United States or Denmark ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
At the end of the reaping send us a man to lead before the judge, a man of infirm mind against whom the trumped-up case will break down, Thus we shall save our honour. To this talk the dacoits agreed, and we had no trouble at the Thana, and could eat melons in peace, sitting upon our charpoys all day long. Sweet as sugar-cane are the melons of Howli.
The native also cured himself, and now firmly believes the tricycle possessed of some magic properties. Reliefs of punkah-wallahs are provided for the barracks, a number of punkahs being connected so that one coolie fans the occupants of a dozen or more charpoys.
The newcomer a tall, thin, lanky Maratha arriving at Desmond's shed, put his head in at the little window space, and flashed his lantern from left to right more carefully than the man whom he had just replaced. The nine forms lay flat or curled up on their charpoys all was well. Coming back an hour later, he fancied he heard a slight sound within the shed.
We could hardly sleep, though we had on our whole wardrobe. The weak point was our having only two thin quilts underneath on the charpoys. As these bungalows are all made after one design on the principle of a meat-safe, to keep you cool in the low hot levels, they are only too effective up here. So we turned out very early to find a spot where the sun shone hot on the Empire's wall.
Our speech forsook us, and without waiting to remark whether the lady of the house was an ogress, or possessed of a "rose-coloured body" and face like the full moon, we fairly turned tail, and drove in all haste to our despised dak bungalow, where, meekly and with softened feelings towards that edifice, we were glad to deposit ourselves on a couple of charpoys, or "four-legs," as the bedstead of India is called, and endeavour to sleep the best way we could.
Our own immediate effects took four, viz. bedding two, guns one, and clothes, &c. one; the kitchen required four more; tent one, charpoys one, servants' reserve supply of food one, brandy, one, plank for table and tent poles one, and last though not least, the twelve ducks took up the services of the fourteenth all to themselves.
It was about the year 1875, when I was a young Assistant Commissioner in the Punjab, that I was ordered to the small up-country station of Akalpur, and took possession of the Assistant Commissioner's bungalow there. On the night of our arrival in the bungalow, my wife and I had our charpoys light Indian bedsteads placed side by side in a certain room and went to bed.
There was no ladder, so it was rather hard to climb up the side in that uneasy sea. My first care was to scramble up ropes and various other things to survey the little deck, sure that Saleh had taken care of himself. There were two charpoys or stretchers tied one to each side of this little deck, and we determined that Imam Sharif should have one, and the 'botanist' the other.
As I passed through it on my way to be presented to his Majesty, the aspect of the "chosen" troops was not imposing. They wore no uniform, and differed in no perceptible item from the common coolies of the outside streets. They were lying about on charpoys and on the ground, chewing betel or smoking cheroots, and there was not even the pretence of there being sentries under arms.
These same troops had rather astonished us in the morning by filing up in stage style in front of our two charpoys just as we awoke, and delivering a "Present arms" with great unction as we sat up in a half-sleepy and dishevelled condition, rubbing our eyes, and not exactly in the style of costume in which such a salute is usually received.
Word Of The Day