Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 4, 2025
Through the gardens we go to see the bananas and pine-apples and tomatoes ripening in the sun, and make sure that the malis are doing their work; then on to the wash-house, where the dhobi is finishing the weekly wash; to the kitchens, to see that the cooking-pots are clean; finally, to stand on the verandah while the syces bring the ponies and feed them before our suspicious eyes.
The Extremists showed their contempt for the new assembly by putting up one or two "freak" candidates in breach of the boycott they were preaching, and actually got in a dhobi, or laundryman, at Jubbulpur.
And if she had not been in such a hurry for the water she WOULD have beaten her. Then she went and fetched the great big chatty that the dhobi used to boil the clothes in. "Take this," said she, "and mind you don't break it, or I WILL beat you." "But I can't carry that when it is full of water," said Little Black Mingo. "You must go twice, and bring it half full each time," said Black Noggy.
One of our lads, mimicking the dhobi by bashing wet laundry on a flat stone was put on a charge for damaging government property; he was acquitted after enlightening the officer who obviously had never done his own laundry.
But they had not been under instruction long enough to really learn the art, and without any competent person to take the lead, their efforts soon became so unsatisfactory that the industry had to be unwillingly abandoned. The Indian dhobi always, by preference, washes clothes in a stream of running water where such is to be had.
Not being very great at the latter accomplishment, he rides home on the bullock, which is a necessary part of the stock and trade of every prosperous dhobi. The bullock carries the clothes, which are formed into a sort of huge bolster, which, when put on the back of the bullock, nearly touches the ground on either side. Bullocks almost invariably have a bell hung round their necks.
The Tolis are indeed a relic of pure Hinduism of aboriginal spirit-belief, and have in the course of centuries been gradually associated with the great Mahomedan Festival of Tears. "Albida, re albida, Ya Huseini albida." "Farewell, farewell, ah, my Husein, farewell!" It was quite evident that something was seriously wrong with Abdulla the Dhobi.
The water is generally reduced to a modest stream, running amongst rocks and stones, with deep pools here and there, and long stretches of dry sand or gravel, or even green grass, on which the clothes can be spread to bleach. The dhobi stands in the stream and rinses the linen in the running water, sometimes using a little soap.
All the Mission washing would provide a good means of livelihood for several lads. And in India it is men who run the laundry. Their womenkind help, but in almost every case it is the man who is the responsible person. There was at one time a Christian dhobi in the Mission.
The major-domo consulted on the point could only suggest that Abdulla's ill-temper was typical of the inherent "badmashi" of the Dhobi nature and that probably Abdulla had taken to nocturnal potations, while the youngest member of the household unhesitatingly laid down that Abdulla had been seized by a "bhut" or in other words was possessed of a devil.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking