In The Afternoon We Explored
The Bazaar, Where We Found Abundance Of Dogs, Dirt, And Idlers,
But Little Else.
What little there was in the way of merchandise
the proprietors seemed utterly indifferent about disposing of, and
after visiting a few shops we went away in disgust.
The people were
a mixture of Cashmeeries, Chinese, Tartars, Bengalees, and Indians of
all sorts and sects, and more idle, good-for-nothing looking scoundrels
I never laid eyes on. One most amusing group of Mahomedan exquisites
reminded one forcibly of PUNCH'S Noah's ark costumes and Bond Street
specimens of fashion. They were dressed in exaggerated turbans and
long white Chogas, or loose coats, which reached down to their heels;
and, as arm in arm, with gentle swagger, they sauntered through the
bazaar, they had, in addition to their heavy swellishness, an air of
Eastern listlessness to which the most exquisite of their European
prototypes could never hope to attain. On reaching our camp we found
another traveller had added his little canvas to the scene; it was
one of the Government Survey, whom the natives invariably designate
by the comprehensive title of "the Compass Wallahs." Wallah is,
in Hindostanee, as nearly as possible an equivalent to "fellow,"
and in explaining the character of this particular order of Wallah,
the accent is always strong on the second syllable of the compass. The
Compass Wallah in question we found quite a wild man of the mountains;
his face, from changes of heat and cold and long exposure, was burnt
and blistered into all sorts of colours, and, to make his appearance
more generally striking, he wore as head-dress, a flyaway, puggery,
or turban of blue cotton, of the most voluminous dimensions and
wonderful construction imaginable.
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