Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1899-06-03
IOL-11sl
temper thin, high voice murmured in
English from behind"wmy shoulderar
tsahfbl sahjbltDsySuApot Fn6Wems :
,Sahib, it is Gunaa PASS the telegraph

Ispun round quickly and faced the
speaker.
Gupga Dass Il have, Of course, no
hesitation in mentioning the mans real
name) | had known four years before
as Deccanee Brahman lent by the
Punjab government to one Of the Khal-
STA states. Hewas in charge of a branch
telegraph office there, and when I had
last met him was jovial, full stomach
ed, portly government servant, with a
marvellous capacity for making bad
puns In English, popularity which
made me remember him long after, I
had forgotten his services to me in his
official capacity It is seldom that a
Hindoo makes English punsa ~ IT,.
Now, however, the man was changed
beyond all recognition. Caste mark,
stomach, slate colored combinations
and "unctuous speech were all gone. 1
looked at withered skeleton, turban-
less and almost naked, with long, matted
hair and deep set, Goldfish eyes. But for
crescent shaped scar On the left cheek,
the result Of an accident for which I
was responsible, I should never have
known him. But it was Individually
Gunga Dass and-for this was thank
ful--an English speaking native, who
might at least tell me the meaning of
all that l had gone through that day.
The crowd retreated to some distance
as l turned toward the miserable figure
and ordered him to show me some
method of escaping from the crater. He
held "a freshly plucked crow in his
hand and in reply to my question
climbed slowly on a platform of sand
which ran in front Of the holes and
commenced lighting a fire there in 81
lence. Dried ~bents, sandF poppies1 and
driftwood burn quickly and derived
much consolation from the fact that he
lit them with an ordinary sulphur
match. When they were in a bright
glow and the crow was. neatly spittedi in
front thereof, Gungas Dass began with
out word of preamble:
""There are only two kinds of men,
sar, the alive and the dead. When you
are dead, you are dead, but when you
are alive, you live. :. Here the crow
demanded his attention for an instant
as it twirled before the fire" in danger
of being burned to a=cinder. eff you
die at home, and do not die when you
come to the CHAT to be. burned, you
come here. y $1,000.
The nature Of the reeking village
was made plain now, and all that / had
known or read Of the grotesque and the
horrible Paled before the fact. just com
municated by the ex-Brahman. Sixteen
years ago, when I first landed in Bonn
bay, had been told by a wandering
of the existence, somewhere in
India, of place to which such Rindoos
as had the misfortune to recover from
trance or catalepsy were conveyed and
kept, and Irecollect. laughing heartily
at what was then pleased to consider
a travellers tale. Sitting at the bottom
of the sand trap, the memory of Wat
son hotel, with its swinging punkahs,
white robed attendants and the salloW
aced:Armenian, rose up. in my mind as
wildly as photograph, and l burst in
to loud fit of laughter The contrast
was too absurd! =-'-I1 u II s's r. . IT,
Gunga Dass, as he bent over the un->
clean bird, watched me curiously. Hin
docs seldom laugh, and, his surround
ings- were not such as to move Gunga
Dass to any undue excess of hilarity.
He removed the crow so1emnly from the
wooden1spit and as so4emnly devoured
IT, Then he. continued his story which.
give in. his own words: ,..-.,a. ........L
Gin epidemics of the cholera you are
carried to be burned almost before you
are dead When you come to the river
,ide the cold air perhaps makes you
alive, and then, if you are. only. little
alive, mud is put on your nose and
mouth and you die conc1usively. If you
ire rather more alive; more mud is put,
out if you are too lively they let you
90 and take. you away. I was too lively
md made protestation with anger
against, the indignities that they en-
leav ored to press upon me- In those
lays I was Brahman and proud man,
Now I am, dead man and eat here he |
Eyed the well gnawed breastbone with |
he first sign Of emotion that had seen
n him since we met crows and 9TH
II things. They took me from my Sheets
when they saw that was too lively |
md gave me medicines for one week,
md I survived successfully. Then they
ent me by rail from my place to Okara
tation,- with a man to take care of me,
md at. ,Okara- station we met. two other
men, and they conducted we three on
amels in the night from Okara station
o this place, and they propelled me.
rom the top to the bottom, and the
,ther two succeeded, and ! have, been.
lere. ever since, two and a half years.
ONCE I was Brahman and proud man,
md now l eat crows -
'''There is no way of getting out r.
''None of what kind at all. When
lrst came, I made experiments fire.
Iuently, and all the others also, but we
lave always. succumbed to- the sand
which is precipitated upon our heads,
'But surely" I broke in at this
ooint. ''the river front is open, and it
$ worth while lodging the bullets.
while at night - a4.f 4 %I.
had n Iroo3v ,,,oturod q rouoh 1,lon