Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-07

next night, nor has he ever come since
The natives about our place were greatly
excited as soon as 1. was learned that the
old man-eater. for whose capture SO many
sahibs had spent the night on the hilltops
with their guns, had been seen and for
days dusky figures crept about near the
house examining the footprints until a
last the marks were washed away by the
rains. or bears we have seen none. but
the apes shave become rather a nuisance.
The first we saw of them W IS when early
one morning We were awakened by the
CHEEKY voice of our Officer"
An Ape Meeting.
20, say, Huzoors. I'm sorry to disturb
your matutinal slumbeys, but don't you
want to see a party of the biggest apes
you ever laid eyes on? Slip anything on
and hurry up. your honors.'' We. having
just had chota hazri, were quite wide
enough awake to hurriedly slip into our
clothes and rush out when were
once led along the mountain side by our
big friend until we came to a little wooa
of Indian oaks, in which we saw thirty OF
forty huge apes. fully as large as ourselves
some of them playing together. some sittins
with their backs against the trees HOLDING
the babies, and some of them climb ng
and down the largest of the stunted oaks
1t really was an amazing sight, and VIC
watched them silently until one gray and
hoary old fellow picked up big stone an,
deliberately threw 1t at us, which We too;
as sign that we must depart 1t seems
that Major N had been taking an early
morning scramble when he came upon the
whole party of great beasts. sitting on tn"
hillside throwing stones and. after wa ch
ing them for time, had hurried off to
On the way back to the house We saw a
beautiful little red fox on the hillside .whic
stopped for a long time to wal CHI us, and
when we reached our own place we discov
cred that several of the apes had raced on
ahead OF us and were seated on the ledge
of rock back of the bungalow. tn. owing
stones down on the roof
1t really had the look Of a serious matter
to us, for how were we to get into the
house? AS soon a. they saw us they began
to rain the stones down on the roof faster
than ever. and we, of course thought that
they would turn their mischievous at ention
on us next. but happily at that moment our
live stock came trooping up the hillside
from their crowded abodes. and with good
deal of chattering the apes hastily fed
Since then We have had numbers of things
stolen from us by these creatures and once
or twice have had rain of stones upOn
our slate roof for several minu es at a time
but the mischievous beasts rarely stay long
We have succeeded in getting one or two
fairly good prints of them, and We we
greatly amused al the note which accom-
panied our last bunch of films from the
native photographer:
Madam Sir:
Il send your filums and prints BY your
bearer the bill of filums and Request to
favour For payment to same"
Shopping Delights.
Though we are fully three miles from
the baZar all three uphill, the cloth, jewel
and brass ware merchants come upon our
veranda at all hours of the day to parade
their wares. We have been anxious to find
a small "Ganesh'' in bronze or BRASS and
were assured by the last calm and lordly
vendor of brasses that he had many such.
L. xr,;%l x,l.
Huzoors?' he said, being a person of many
tongues and fluent.
Then came search among all his goods,
in which very beautiful old brass lamp.
which had originally been used a shrine
for god, came to light but no Ganesh.
Where are the gods?" we asked after a
time. II got only one god left" sorrow
fully answered the native gentleman. Il
selling twenty gods tomorrow yesterday
morning. so all of him is sold. but that
lamp, Huzoors.'' etc. and at last we took
the lamp for thirty rupees $50, its original
price having been double that; the old
cheats that they are!
Natives Help You Out.
1t is amazing with how small a knowl-
edge of Hindustanee one can get on in In
dia. No one here ever really learns the
language and unless it is forced upon them
they spend years here with the knowledge
of only few words How the natives can
understand orders half in wretched Hin
dustanee and half in English, cannot I'M
agine, but they have quick minds, some
of them at least, and they usually seem to
know what is wanted.
"Ayah," called one of us this morning in
great hurry for a short skirt which the
ayah, usual had forgotten to brush:
''Idhar 40, yih iskirt take it and brush it
instantly, JeldiD" The only part of that
sentence ineligible to the relocated and
white-swathed ayah was, Fcome here.
this skirt and quick. but skirt, brush
and wrath would have done the thing with
out one word. / dare say.
"Quitna budgi haiE we asked in the
bazaar when we wished to know the price
of some silver buttons. "Oh, no. L don't
mean those, Yih buttons udhar, the small
ones Quitnar budgi?" and The
mixture of the two languages even by peo-
pie who have lived for years in India is
always funny. If one knows that tejao
means take, and lao, bring; jao go. and 40,
come chup rao, be quiet; phenk DO throw
it away; ahista, slowly, and Jedi, quick;
atcha all right and kharab bad; with
few other words added, one seems to get
on as we'll as If one had an intimate knowl-
edge of the language.
Pleasant Sounds.
It is full of soft and sweet sounds
though a bit nasal and there are count
less dialects, which do not sound like SUCH
but to one unaccustomed to them, seem
like quite different language, out the rev
words 1 have quoted are understood by all,
even the Kashmiri. whose tongue is a very
different matter But we hear small
khitmatgar whining out. "Huzoors khsna
tyarhaI' (your honors dinner is ready, so
we must go to take a glance al our round
table to see if its native tablecloth. which
cost us 81 cents, is spotless and the glass
bowl of lacy ferns, in the center of the