Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-14
GOSSIP OF THE HILLS
Housekeeping and Social Ar
rangements in India.
MAIL BY CO0LIE RUNS
A GAY LITTLE TOWN WHERE PEG
PIE LIKE TO TALK.
A Pretty Girl is Often snubbed by Her
Equals and Avoided by
Others.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star
DALHOUSIE, India, october 8, 1908.
Living 5000 feet up in the Hlmalayas h,'
so far to us held no drawbacks, Tor the an
is deliciously exhilarating and 1uH ol 'iie
fragrance of the pines, the views are uh
equaled and our friends have proved per-
fectly willing to come up the three hliieS
from Dalhouste, either by danny UT oh
horseback to see us. Our supplies nave
not been difficult to get, as the cho'a
bazaar" as they call it, the small pazaai
on the hillside, contains always fresh lrui
apples, very bad peaches and pears ana
vegetables, beans, corn, potatoes Squash
and a sort of vegetable marrow, squash
turnip, okra and onions. The sweeper brings
us really fresh eggs at cents each' an APP
palling price after Kashmir where they
were cents dozen. He also PROVIDES
fowls. Milk we get from the usufpiis
cows and buffaloes in our godoWns, anu
charcoal, which we use entirely for cooking
purposes, is all made on the mountains
about us and brought down by coolles, VINO
carry it in huge, picturesque baskets, proau
at the top and narrowing down to point.
These baskets are borne on the back.
When our supply is running low the COOK
is sent down the winding path through the
deodars to the main road, where he waits
until a charcoal coole appears and brings
him up with his load. We get mama and
a quarter goo pounds) every ten or twelve
days for 33 cents. Never having priced
charcoal in any other land, l cannot tell
whether it is a low or high rate for it.
A week or two ago the bearer-cook came
to US with a very long face and told us that
the charcoal was nearly all gone, and that
1t was impossible to get any, as there was
a wedding among the charcoal burners on
the mountains, and none would be brought
down for four days.
We were at loss to know what to do,
but finally sent cOolie down the three
miles and had him bring some from the
big bazaar, where they had stock in store
apparently.
Mail by Runners.
The mail is all brought up every day as
far as Doneira, twenty-eight miles from the
railway, by tonga, and from there by coolies
with bells on their ankles, who run up the
mountain road for four miles at dog trot.
These toss the mail bags to other coolies,
and on for the remaining twenty two
miles to Dalhousie. 1t is an interesting ex-
perience to wait at the post Office at u in
the morning for the mail.
One first hears faint tinSle and thud
thud of bare feet far away in the distance,
which grows rapidly louder, and finally
two coolies, clad only in loin cloth, dirty
Waistcoat, turban and necklace, come run
ming in abreast, their bells jingling, their
feet pounding loudly and their faces shining
with the exercise. They unstrap the bags
from their backs instantly, tossing them
down on the floor of the post Office varanda,
and make way at once for the next two.
The four-mile run uphill does not seem to
hurt them at all, for they are the most
cheerful-lookng of all the coolies of the
bazaar. The mail carriers, natives in red
coats, with wide leather belts, deliver the
letters twice day, even on our hilltop.
Wanted Colored Butter.
When we first came to our bungalow we
found that we must use buffalo milk If we
wished to make our own butter, to which
we had strong objections; but finally we
decided to try it, and found that it made
perfectly white butter and tasteless After
making it for a week or two we concluded
that 1t looked too much like lard and we
could stand it no longer; so we now send
down to the environments, fully four miles,
once week to the military dairy, where
we pay rupee a pound and get really good
butter.
The women who take care of the COWS
and buffaloes are a picturesque feature of
the place. They are rather fair, with silky,
curling hair and fine, big figures. Their
costumes might have been originally any
known color but are now washed COR left
unwasheO to a dull, dirty gray.
They wear cotton skirts, pleated in front,
a sort of long. sleeveless waistcoat and the
dirty chudda over their hair. and they have
pounds OF silver jewelry hung about them,
toe rings anklets, bangles twenty or
thirty of them), little silver button in the
side of one nostril, huge earrings hung
from the top of the ear, with big fligree
balls dangling from them, and five or six
necklaces of silver beads or red and green
beads made Of nuts and hardened berries
strung on greasy silk cords, with large,
square pieces Of silver beaten and en-
bossed in sometimes very good designs.
used as charms against the demons.
Sold Her Charms.
We bought very pretty necklace the
other day from the neck of very pretty
young woman-a string of small square
silver beads, with three thin silver charms.
also square, roughly but prettily enameled,
hanging from 1t. One of them represented
a hideous god, with six arms and six legs,
rather like large spider and another had
for it's simple design the soles of two feet
done In green enamel.
Their greens are almost invariably good
but their blues and yelOws are crude and
hideous. The scenes along the main road
down the hillside to Dalhousie are certainly
very different from those one sees in the
western part Of the world, and never fail
to interest u.s.
1t is quite a usual thing to see a mother
with her childs head in her lap, elaborately
removing obnoxious insects, while the child
now and again takes large bites from a
huge cucumber
Indeed, all the natives make at least one
meal from these big, green, murderous-
looking fruit; or, If not these, they will be
seen eating unripe pears or apples, with a
peaceful expression Of countenance.
Hillside Scenes.
Then here and there along the bank will
be groups of coolies squatted on the ground
playing game for money, their huge bas-
kets still on their backs. Sometimes in the
middle of the steepest part Of the biIl tho