In the year 1857, during the Mutiny, being then an assistantsurgeon, I suddenly received orders to join Whitlock's column, commonly known as the Sangor Field Force. I was at the time doing duty with the famous Sappers and Miners at Dowlaishwarum, and chumming in the same house with my friend Lieutenant W.

W. was so much cut up at the upset of our bachelor establishment, that he prevailed upon the commanding officer-not a bad fellow in his way-to allow him to accompany me. The Sappers and Miners had one or two companies on field-service with the various columns in Bengal, and to detach another subaltern from head-quarters to go on service was quite in the power of Colonel

H.

So accordingly one fine evening, having said adieu to as pleasant a set of young fellows as ever formed a mess, many, alas, now gathered to their fathers, W. and myself, with each a servant to look after our traps, stepped on board one of the canal-boats, which was to take us down to Cocanada, there to await the steamer which was to take us to Bengal.

The voyage in these canal-boats

is not at all unpleasant; they are large roomy boats with capital cabins, and W. and I, after our evening cheroot and the neverfailing brandy pawnee, turned in and slept soundly till early morning.

I am a very early riser in India, as most men are who have served any time in that country. Residents in this colder climate can scarcely form any idea of the calm beauty of an Eastern sunrise: the first rosy blush of the sky announcing the coming of its lord, followed by the freckles of burnished gold on the light fleecy clouds, the gradual hum of returning life; the charming temperature, which admits of your at once plunging from your bed into this delightful bath of fresh air, without the tedious process of dressing. The earliest blush of dawn found me seated on deck in my pyjamas and night-dress, smoking the morning weed and thoroughly enjoying the delicious scenery around me. I soon became aware that a quantity of wild duck were passing over in flights of five or six at a time, and so flinging aside my cigar I called my boy to unstrap my gun-case and get out my gun.

My repeated shots, most of them successful, aroused W., and the ducks were soon having a warm time of it from our four barrels. The native rowers had stopped the boat and were making capital retrievers, swimming

*In India-at least on the Madras side all male servants, whatever their ages, are called 'boys.'

after such duck as fell into the canal, and bringing others out from the rice-fields around. The fun was fast and furious, and none enjoyed it more than the native rowers themselves, who saw visions of plentiful curry from the slaughter of the ducks. We had killed a sufficient number, and the sun, which had now arisen, was beginning to warn us that if we wished to reach our destination before he became unbearable we had better get on, when a last unlucky shot of mine brought about the disaster which forms the foundation of my story.

It was my last shot, fatal to a beautiful pin-tailed duck, that did the mischief. I was following the bird as it dropped, when I saw some distance off, but in the direct line of fire, the figure of a man arise from the paddy-field yelling like mad. Ah! Ma! Yah!' shouted the fellow, whilst he danced about as if a tarantula had bitten him. Ah! Ma! Yah!' went forth his shouts in piercing

accents.

'Halloa! what's the matter?' exclaimed W.; 'by Jove, a snake has bitten him!'

'No, sar,' said my intelligent boy Ramsawmy. I think master done shoot him.'

And so it turned out. I despatched one of the boatmen to secure the man-a somewhat difficult process, for he seemed to think something more was going to happen to him; but at last he was persuaded to come alongside to the bank whither we had descended. It turned out on examination that two pellets of shot had entered his leg just about the calf; had he worn clothing of any sort over his legs, which natives do not, the shots would have made no impression, for they had barely broken the cuticle and lodged there. They were easily

detached with the point of an ordinary penknife, and the man solaced with a couple of rupees, one for each pellet, and a handful of cheroots. He departed, evidently as pleased with the whole transaction as he had been at first frightened; for he followed our boat some little way down talking to the boatmen, who were the same caste men, and most probably acquaintances. At last he salaamed and took his leave.

Ah,

We reached Cocanada somewhat later than we intended, from our double detention of sport and accident, but still in fair time for breakfast. We put up at the residence of the assistant-collector, Mr. H.; for although he was himself out in the district on jumabunda (i.e. collecting the taxes and settling revenue matters generally) he had written, when he heard of our coming, to say his house was at our disposal, and his servants had orders to look after us during our stay. dear old days of Indian hospitality! Are they gone never to return? Has competition, or some other 'ition,' completely knocked them on the head? Have they disappeared, like the rupee of our earlier days; and is eighteenpence henceforth and for ever to represent the two shillings of bygone times? Forbid it, O ye Fates! India is a hot place, and, in many respects, a dull and a trying one; but as long as men were hospitable, cheery, and kind to each other, and the rupee was what it pretended to be, two shillings, it was not an unbearable place. If the present state of things continues, India will soon be Russian; for I venture to prophesy Englishmen will scarcely care to go to India to cultivate la misère; that can be done at home much more profitably.

Our steamer, we found, would not be in for a day or two; so we proceeded to make ourselves as comfortable as we could in H.'s admirably furnished house. Our host and friend, a frequent visitor of the Sappers' mess, was not only a member of that most liberallypaid service, the Civil Service of India, but a man of considerable private fortune besides. His father, and I believe his grandfather before him, had been members of the old Company's Civil Service; and his name was like a household word in the land. I feel tempted almost to digress, and express my views on the powerful hold this same transmission of service from father to son gave us over the people of India; who perhaps more than, certainly as much as, any people in the world, look up to and respect this inheritance of power in the same family. It obtained not only in the Civil Service, but in the army; many a young cadet on arriving in India was sent to a regiment perhaps commanded by his father, or in which his father, and most probably his grandfather, had served. He joined not merely a regiment, but a body of devoted retainers, who were proud and happy to serve him; who looked upon him as a visible embodiment of the Raj whose salt they ate. W.'s (my travelling companion) father and grandfather had both been Company's military servants; and his grandfather on his mother's side had been an eminent civilian, sometime acting governor of the Presidency. The present system of officering our regiments from a staff corps but ill replaces this old custom; indeed is admitted on all hands, now it has had a fair trial, to be a lamentable failure. The present officers, many of whom have commenced their career in European regiments, and

imbibed a contempt for the sepoy they never get over, care little or nothing for the sepoy, and the sepoy entertains much the same feelings for his officer. If a native army is necessary at all, it must be officered, as in the old Company's days, by a class of officers educated for, and devoted to, their particular duty. Perhaps this is not so essential in the Civil Service; the competition system has not in that branch been so great a failure- -even if it has failed at all- -as was predicted of it. But whilst I consider that there was a direct advantage in having men trained to the Services, whose family history and antecedents gave them a great and vital interest in the country, I go further, and think that men who have spent the best years of their lives in India have a greater claim for appointments for their sons than people of the same class who have spent their lives in England. A country squire, or clergyman, or doctor, who has spent his life in some village or town in England, surely gives his sons, from that very residence, an advantage for any career they may choose to adopt in that same locality over strangers who may choose to settle down there and compete with them. If so, why should the Indian Civil servant, or doctor, or soldier, not reap the same advantage for his children? Not only does it seem to me would it be a fair advantage for these servants of the Government to look forward to for their offspring, but I am convinced it would be immensely to the advantage of the Indian Government itself.

Be that as it may, H.'s house, as I was remarking, was a most comfortable one. With a billiardroom, a good swimming-bath, and a plentiful supply of the best ma

gazines and newspapers, we had no difficulty in passing a comfortable day. His cook was, we knew, famous for his curries, and the beer was cooled to perfection; what could a couple of subalterns desire more? We were both brimful of military ardour, and most anxious to join the army in Bengal to see some service; but if the steamer was delayed a day or two more, we were quite determined not to break our hearts over the matter.

On the following morning we had returned from our morning walk, and were enjoying our chota hazree, or small breakfast, that curious but very enjoyable meal so peculiar to India; we were seated in the verandah overlooking the park-like grounds which surrounded the house, when suddenly we became aware of a procession entering them from the road. First came a man beating a tomtom, or native drum, in a slow funereal manner; then a number of men, women, and boys chanting as it were a low dismal sort of song; then more women crying and beating their bosoms, with hair dishevelled, and in their midst, the centre of attraction, a low charpoy or native bed, on which a figure, apparently that of a corpse, lay extended; a promiscuous crowd of ragamuffins of all sorts, men, women, and children, all more or less howling, closed the procession. It seemed to us like a funeral, but we were puzzled to imagine what could lead them to bring it into a European gentleman's grounds. It slowly approached the house, and as it did so our servants came out into the verandah to see what was the matter.

Presently they had reached the gravel walk just in front of where we were seated, and putting down the bed the cries of the women

and howls of the men ascended in one sustained chorus, and then suddenly ceased.

'What is the matter, boy? for goodness' sake ask them,' was our natural query.

Then commenced an excited conversation between our servant and the people, who all seemed desirous to talk at once. We could perceive, however, that our boy was getting somewhat excited, and plying one of the men with rapid questions: this lasted about a minute or more, when he turned and thus addressed us :

"This bad business, sar! Master remember shooting one man yesterday. They saying he gone dead, sar; native doctor look at leg, sar, saying that mortify, and man must die, sar!'

On hearing this I approached the cot, and there extended on it was our friend of yesterday. His face had been whitened with chunam, a sort of liquid lime or whitewash, his jaw was tied up, and his body covered with a cotton sheet, so that only the face was visible. A moment's glance showed me the man was breathing, and slipping my hand under the sheet, I soon satisfied myself that his pulse was beating, with the measured and equable force of health. We were witnesses of a monstrous sham.

I held my own counsel, however, and proceeded by means of my boy, for my knowledge of Tamil was very limited, to make inquiries. Why had they not taken the man to the European dispensary and shown him to the English doctor? Preferred the native doctor. Good; but what had he done besides saying the man must die? Telling must take him and show to the burra sahib, collector gentleman,' and so forth.

I succeeded, after some little

conversation, in persuading the people the man at any rate was not yet dead, a conclusion in which the impostor himself at length joined, by opening his eyes and taking a visible interest in my proceedings. For I had turned down the sheet and was commencing an examination, luckily in this case not a post-mortem examination, of the injured limb. It had been bandaged up in an enormous quantity of rollers and cloths of different sorts, many of them not the most cleanly. Having with the assistance of his friends removed one or two, we came upon a bandage saturated with some red fluid, now dry, however, which certainly had a very ghastly appearance, and produced a howl of commiseration from the bystanders. The patient shut his eyes here and assumed once more the corpse-like aspect, which he seemed to think more suitable for the occasion, and my assistants seemed unwilling to continue. However, with the help of my servant and my knife I managed to remove this cloth; it had most probably been smeared with the blood of a fowl killed for the occasion, and we soon came down to the injured limb itself.

There it lay extended before me in, what my practised eye told me at once, the fair proportions and symmetry of health. It was smeared over, after the manner of the country, with the pulp of green leaves beaten up in a mortar with a little water, but its temperature, size, and shape told me at once it was a perfectly sound limb, and as free from 'mortification' as any one of my own limbs. I called W., who, after the manner of non-professional men, had rather stood aloof from close contact with a sick man, to come over and look at the limb, and explained to him in

a few words what a frightful deception and lie the whole thing was. Now,' I said, 'we must get the man on his legs, and make him walk, and convince the people the whole thing is an imposture.'

This was more easily said than done; the man, however, who had found the use of his tongue, stoutly denied his ability to stand, and it was only by the assistance of one or two of his friends and our servants that we managed to raise him from his recumbent to a standing position. From this, however, he would immediately have fallen had we withheld for a moment our support.

I pointed out to the people and W. that the leg was in no way mortified, that indeed it was as sound and well to do as the other; and sending one of the servants of the house for some warm water I intended to wash off a small portion of the leaf plaster with which the leg was covered, and demonstrate the exact nature of the very trifling wound he had received.

But W.'s patience was exhausted. Confound the fellow!' I heard him exclaim; and the next moment he delivered from his left foot as smart a kick on the fellow's seat of honour as I ever remember to have seen administered.

The effect was magical; the whilom dead man and then com. plete cripple bounded off with the agility of an antelope. Away across the park he sped, running as I never before saw a man run, and almost immediately pursued by his duped friends, or at any rate friends who pretended to have been duped, for they pursued him with execrations and vituperations. The few who remained behind were loud in their protestations of indignation at the scoundrel's conduct, who they suddenly remembered had