Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1899-05-25

English from behind my shoulder
sSahibl Sahibl Do you pot know met
sahib. it is Gunga Dass. the telegraph
master.
spun round quickly and faced the
speaker.
Gunga Dass Il have, of course, no
hesitation in mentioning the mans real
name) had known four years before
as a Deccanee Brahman lent by the
Punjab government to one of the khal-
pia states. He was in charge Of branch
telegraph office there, and when | 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 |
had forgotten his services to me in his
official capacity. 1t is seldom that
Hindoo makes English puns
Now, however. the man was changed
beyond all recognition. Caste mark,
stomach, slate colored combinations
and unctuous speech were all gone.
looked at a withered skeleton, turban-
less and almost naked with long, matted
hair and deep set, Goldfish eyes. But for
a crescent shaped scar on the left cheek,
the result Of an accident for which l
was responsible, 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 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 sand peoples and
driftwood burn quickly. and l derived
much consolation from the fact that be
lit them with an ordinary sulphur
match When they were in a bright
glow and the crow was neatly spitted in
front thereof. Gunga 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 cinder. eff you
die at home, and do not die when you
come to the CHAT to be burned, you
come here
The nature of the reeking village
was made plain now. and all that l 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 | first landed in Bonn
bay, | had been told by wandering
Armenian of the existence, somewhere in
India, of place to which such Hindoos
as had the misfortune to recover from
trance or catalepsy were conveyed and
kept, and recollect laughing heartily
at what | was then pleased to consider
a traveller tale. Sitting at the bottom
of the sand trap. the memory of Wat
sons hotel, with its swinging punkahs,
white robed attendants and the sallow
faced Armenian, rose up in my'mind as
wildly as a photograph, and | burst in
to loud fit of laughter The contrast
was too absurd
Gunga Dass, as he bent over the I'M
clean bird, watched me curiously. Hin
docs seldom laugh, and his surround
ings were not such as to move Gungs
Dass to any undue excess of hilarity
He removed the crow solemnly from the
wooden spit and as solemnly devoured
il. Then he continued his story, which
| give in his own words;
''In epidemics of the cholera you are
carried to be burned almost before you
are dead When you come to the river
side 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 conclusively. If you
are rather more alive, more mud is put
but if you are too lively they let You
go and take You away. | was too lively
and made protestation with anger
against the indignities that they en-
deavored to press upon me. In those
days was Brahman and proud man
Now / am dead man and at''-here he
eyed the well gnawed breastbone with
the first sign of emotion that | had seen
in him since we met-''crows and 9th
er things. They took me from my sheets
when they saw that / was too lively
and gave me medicines for one week.
and | survived successfully. Then they
sent me by rail from my place to Okara
station, with man to take care Of me,
and at Okara station we met two other
men. and they conducted we three on
camels in the night from Okara station
to this place. and they propelled me
from the top to the bottom, and the
other two succeeded. and have been
here ever since, two and half years
Once l was Brahman and proud man.
and now eat crows.
"There is no way of getting outr
None of what kind at all When l
first came. | made experiments fire.
quently, and all the others also, but we
have always succumbed to the sand