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But he went to his new post, at about the same time that the Blaines left for other parts, with some of the sting removed from his hurt feelings. For he took Blaine's rifle with him a good one; and the horse and dog-cart, and a riding pony more than a liberal return for payment of a three- thousand rupee bet. Pretty decent of Blaine on the whole, he thought. No fuss. No argument.
Without giving a thought to his bleeding nose, the mahout jumped at the rupee with the greediness of a wild beast springing upon its prey. He prostrated himself in the dust before us repeatedly, with endless "salaams," instantly changing his deep sorrow into mad joy.
My husband had been induced to pay a rupee to send a scout up the mountain to look behind rocks and bushes for dangers, but we passed on our way completely unmolested by the shepherdesses, young and old, who were all we met with in the shape of human beings. The valley became narrower, we rose higher, and the cliffs were cavernous.
"I hope you will come again," he said; "but not for another six months, for assuredly you will take away with you pretty nearly every rupee in the fortress. My wife and the other ladies are all well content with their purchases, and agree that they would not have got them cheaper at Seringapatam, or Bangalore." "We try to buy cheaply and sell cheaply," Surajah said modestly.
Three score book-makers howl their bargains in raucous tones, and a whirlwind of rupee paper passes to the strong boxes. The crowd is backing the favorites. Even the Arab horse dealers from the Bhendi bazaar, manly fellows in the garb of desert sheikhs, whose pockets bulge with rolls of notes, comprehend the book-makers' jargon of English that might be incomprehensible to an Oxford don.
The rates of rent and taxation naturally vary according to the productive power of the land, the advantages of climate and rainfall, the facilities for reaching market and other conditions. But the average tax represents about two-thirds of a rupee per acre, or 21 cents in American money.
After much trouble, we got rid of the pack, at the price of one rupee, which was cheap for the amount of relief afforded by their departure. Reached Lahore at ten P.M. and had a night in bed, for the third time only since leaving Cawnpore.
If the good omen has been obtained, they return to their quarters; and the Gooroo takes a handkerchief and, turning his face to the west, ties a knot at one end of it, inserting a rupee, or other piece of silver. This knot is called the goor khat, or holy knot, and no man who has not been properly ordained is allowed to tie it.
The best Cashmere goats are brought from the Thibet country; and then wool sells for a rupee a pound in Cashmere itself. It is spun by the women, and afterwards dyed. The persons employed in making the shawls sit on a bench around the frame. If it be a pattern shawl, four persons labour at its manufacture; but a plain one requires only two.
There were six native clerks occupied with the sale of this nostrum. I deposited my half rupee for six doses I'd have taken a ton with hope some years ago. Then Mr B. showed us his teak logs tethered alongside the banks, waiting for high water to take them on their road south. Some logs are said to take nine years to come down from the upper reaches to Rangoon.