One of
his favorite devices was to tie a quantity of oiled cotton round each of
a man's fingers and set light to these living torches.
Another, used with a man whom he considered lazy, was the tank. Between
the dockyard and the river, separated from the latter only by a thin
wall, was a square cavity about seven feet deep covered with boarding, in
the center of which was a circular hole. In the wall was a small orifice
through which water could be let in from the river, while in the opposite
wall was the pipe and spout of a small hand pump. The man whom the
overseer regarded as an idler was let down into the tank, the covering
replaced, and water allowed to enter from the river. This was a potent
spur to the defaulter's activity, for if he did not work the pump fast
enough the water would gradually rise in the tank, and he would drown.
Desmond learned of one case where the man, utterly worn out by his life
of alternate toil and punishment, refused to work the pump and stood in
silent indifference while the water mounted inch by inch until it covered
his head and ended his woes.
Desmond's diligence in the dockyard pleased the overseer, whose name was
Govinda, and he was by and by employed on lighter tasks which took him
sometimes into the town. Until the novelty wore off he felt a lively
interest in the scenes that met his eye--the bazaars, crowded with
dark-skinned natives, the men mustachioed, clad for the most part in
white garments that covered them from the crown of the head to the knee,
with a touch of red sometimes in their turbans; the women with bare heads
and arms and feet, garbed in red and blue; the gosains, mendicants with
matted hair and unspeakable filth; the women who fried chapatis {small,
flat, unleavened cakes} on griddles in the streets, grinding their meal
in handmills; the sword grinders, whetting the blades of the Maratha
two-edged swords; the barbers, whose shops had a never-ending succession
of customers; the Brahmans, almost naked and shaved bald save for a small
tuft at the back of the head; the sellers of madi, a toddy extracted from
the cocoanut palm; the magicians in their shawls, with high stiff red
cap, painted all over with snakes; the humped bullocks that were employed
as beasts of burden, and when not in use roamed the streets untended;
occasionally the basawa, the sacred bull of Siva, the destroyer, and the
rath {car} carrying the sacred rat of Ganessa.
Pages:
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155