LADY DUFFERIN'S LIFE IN INDIA.*
THE contrast between Sir Alfred Lyall's view of India and Lady Dufferin's is most striking. To the Poet-Governor, India
is a continent filled with millions who develop as well as believe strange creeds, who had an old and interesting way of life which they are now forbidden to follow, and amongst whom a few laborious Englishmen pursue unceasingly the hopeless task of changing the ideas and wishes of Asiatics into the wishes and ideas of Europeans. His general judgment, as summed up in " The Land of Regrets," is to the last degree depressing. The great lady does not, perhaps, like India better than the poet. There is not an indiscreet line in the book, but there are signs not to be mistaken that Lady Dufferin keenly felt the social dullness of the Empire ; but she is determined to make the best of it, and fastens accordingly on that which most interested her, the high colouring and panoramic effect of the kind of native society with which the Viceroy's wife is almost ex-officio brought in contact. The life of Indian Princes, for instance, is as invisible to Anglo- Indians not in the diplomatic service, as the life of English nobles is to ploughmen. They never think about it, and could very rarely state the name of any Indian Prince whatever. This life Lady Dufferin, of course, was able to see as only a Vice-reine can. Every day there was some change of scene, some great visitor to be entertained, some glittering function in which the authoress could either share, or on which she could look from some point of vantage. The descriptions are not always above the average, but Lady Dufferin never misses the general kaleidoscopic effect. She sees and admires every- thing that is magnificent in the dress, accoutrements, or capitals of the Indian Princes ; she notes every peculiarity in every guest, telling us, for instance, of the friendly manners of the terrible Ameer of Afghanistan, and breaking once into visible laughter as she describes the dress of the great native Princess who wore a gorgeous petticoat in front, so arranged that behind she had, or appeared to have, only tight-fitting drawers. Perhaps the account of the great Durbar given to the Ameer at Rawul Pindee is the most characteristic sketch in the book :-
" For this occasion the division between the durbar tent and the great Shamiana was taken down, and they were thrown into one. A dais, with three thrones on it, was at the extreme end, facing the entrance, while the whole space in both tents was filled with guests, leaving only a broad passage down the middle covered with scarlet cloth. The Punjab chiefs had seats placed for them, and arrived each under his own salute, and each one more splendid than the other. Patiala sat first ; he had a canary- coloured turban with chains of emeralds and diamond drops hanging about it. Bahawalpur surpassed himself. His white puggaree was quite gigantic, and was a mass of jewels, the most enormous aigrettes of diamonds round it, and strings of emeralds and pearls. It came quite over his forehead, and the height of the aigrette in the centre was quite twice that of the face beneath it. His coat was black velvet embroidered with seed pearls, and I believe he was covered with jewels in front, but I could only get a general view of things, and could not see all the details. Besides these chiefs, there were crowds of other durbaries (natives who have the right of attending durbars), officers in uniform, and
• Our Vieere;al Life in Indic: Sete:lions from my journal, 1834-8K By the Marchioness of Dufferin and Av.L. 2 vols. Lou ion: JAin Murray. 1E89.
ladies ; and as the sun shone brightly, everybody and everything looked its best, and we all admired and sat in breathless expecta- tion to see the thrones filled ! At last a boom' sounded from a cannon, and the Viceroy's Staff was seen marching up, and then appeared the Viceroy himself, very gorgeous indeed in his Lord- Lieutenant's uniform, the Star of India and the four collars of his various Orders ornamenting him richly both back and front ! The Duke, who walked on his left, had his stars and collars on, and the
Amir on his right wore a very dull plain brown uniform. When the three were seated, the Viceroy turned slightly to the Amir, and probably said that he was glad to see him, and that he hoped he had slept well ; and the interpreter having passed this on, the Amir most likely made some equally new remarks; and we all watched their nods and bows and 'wreathed smiles,' when a voice was heard to say, The Dresses of Honour for his Highness the Amir !' and then servants poured in with trays full of very nice things which we should all like to possess, and each tray was laid down on the floor till the display reached right down to the door, where horses and elephants, and cannon and mountain-batteries joined the company of presents. Those on the floor consisted of watches and clocks, guns, jewellery, cabinets, musical boxes, silver cups, and quantities of beautiful stuffs ; and I particularly liked a good ebony walking-stick with a watch in its ivory handle. Well, these having been exhibited, the Amir taking pains not to look at them, the trays were all removed, and then more came on for his Highness's sons, and more for his Highness's followers, until we all got quite tired of seeing other people's presents. Though the Amir did not appear to notice these little offerings, I am sure they warmed his heart, for he suddenly began to make a speech, which was translated by the Foreign Secretary, and which proved to be a hearty declaration of friendship for England, with a warlike flavour in the expression of it. This quite fetched' the audience, which broke out into enthusiastic plaudits, such as have probably never been heard in durbar before. I am sorry to say that at this most critical juncture one of the presents behaved badly, and, a birdcage having been brought in, its mechanical inmate set off at intervals to sing a little song, 'Afghanistan will ever be a true friend to England.' Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, said the bird, and so on ! An effective present was a portrait of D., which was borne in by two men, who held it opposite to the Amir for a moment and then backed it out again, and one heard a whisper all over the place, The Viceroy, the Viceroy,' as it was recog- nised all down the line. Last of all the sword of honour was carried in on a cushion, and D., taking it in his hand, said that he presented this to his Highness as a mark of his own personal esteem, and in recognition of the friendship for England which his Highness had just expressed so forcibly. In reply, the Amir was still more friendly to us and more warlike to others, so the British soldier again applauded vehemently."
That is, of course, letter-writing ; but sometimes, too, Lady Dufferin's criticism rises altogether out of the ordinary, as in the following attempt to describe the peculiar and inexplicable fascination which the Taj exercises on all beholders' minds, which induced Dr. W. H. Russell to declare that description of it was desecration, and which has left it to this hour the - worst-described building in the world :— "I won't attempt to describe it further. It is as if the building had a soul, as if it had been created, and not made, so mysterious is its fascination. You can't imagine a time when it was not there, or a time when busy workmen, or noise, or untidiness, or bustle, surrounded it ; you feel that you could not bear to see a hammer or a tool of any kind approach it, and that it is only as a dream, as something unreal and almost sacred, that you can think of it. And there is nothing anywhere to mar the effect. When you enter and look upon the graves of Shah Johan and his Chosen of the Palace,' surrounded by a marvellously beautiful screen of white marble, some one sings a chord which bursts forth in a volume of sound from the roof like an organ or a choir of angels. The echo lasts for fifteen seconds, and so quickly do the sounds succeed each other that the chord given out note by note below comes in one harmonious whole from above, and when one note alone is sung it is impossible to say where the human voice ends and the echo begins. So the Taj exerts its charm upon you, and having seen it by day you return to see it by moonlight, and wish to see it again try sunrise, and feel that, did you live at Agra, whenever you wished for peace or rest, whenever you felt sad or sorry, you would come and commune with the Taj. That is why I say that it is like a building with a soul; it exerts a fascination over every one who sees it that its pure white colour and perfect proportions are scarcely sufficient to account for."
That will seem to many English readers overstrained ; but it will delight those who have seen the Taj, and who have wearied their minds in the effort to understand not only why all descriptions fail, but why models executed with the greatest care and skill in reproduction give so faint an impression of its living charm. The soul is out of the models.
Lady Dufferin says little of Indian scenery, of which, indeed, no traveller in India, so far as we know, ever does say anything, and little of the ordinary life of Indians, which, indeed, she scarcely ever saw. She had, however, the opportunity of seeing one or two scenes in which Europeans of lower rank are never present ; and one of them, a native lady's dinner-party, will, we think, interest our. lady-readers. It is, so far as we know, and we have read most Anglo-Indian books, absolutely original and new:— "Our first proceeding was to dress ourselves properly for this festival, and as soon as we got to the house we were taken into a dressing-room, were divested of our own gowns, and were draped in saris. Mine was a most successful arrangement. The sari was lovely, being made of a sort of silk muslin with silver borders ; and I submitted entirely to the hands of the costumier, so that when I was finished I found myself in a very pretty and cool costume. We also put on a little extra jewellery, which was lent us, and proceeded to the dining-room. The floor-table was very large, for each person requires a great space to dine in this fashion ; the cloth laid on the carpet nearly filled the room, and on it were candelabras, an*in front of each seat from twenty-five to thirty little silver bowls filled with all sorts of, to our eyes, rather messy foods. One large silver dish, with a pile of rice in the centre of it, was before each person, and the edges of this we had to use instead of ordinary plates. I was seated at the top of the 'table' by myself, with a velvet cushion behind me, and I was afterwards much complimented on the ease with which I managed my dinner, seated like a Buddha on a mat. I was told that I did it as well as any Bengali,' and that I looked like a 'Hindu goddess.' It was difficult to eat, for the food had to be manipulated with unaided fingers, and yet the dishes were of rather a soft and greasy kind, and some of them would have required a spoon rather than a fork to lift them with, had either implement been allowed. The native ladies showed great dexterity in working up these savoury morsels with the dry rice, so as to form little balls, but we were not equal to that, and had to eat in a much more untidy fashion. I can scarcely tell you what the things were, but there were very small portions of a great number of dishes, and when one came to eatables which one could recognise, one found about twenty samples of fruits on the same plate. Two strawberries, two slices of cucumber, two bits of tomato, a few almonds, part of a rose- apple, a bit of melon, a pistachio nut, &c. ; homceopathic helpings of each variety. Then in the way of sweets there were dishes of all sorts of sugary cakes, and cocoanut-paste fruits, and bowls of a sweet milky stuff with bits of green nut floating in it. I dipped my greasy fingers into one dish after another, and finally washed them in a silver basin provided for the purpose. We all enjoyed this dinner very much, and when it was over we received, in addition to the wreaths of flowers which already adorned our necks and heads, large bouquets, and a piece of pan, to say nothing of bits of spice handed round in a silver vessel. Our hostess's sweet- looking mother, pretty young sisters, and sister-in-law talked to me in the drawing-room, while the band played outside ; and about ten o'clock we took off our native costume and returned home, our hostess insisting upon presenting us each with the saris we had worn."
That is the true East, silver to eat out of, innumerable delicate messes to eat of, but all eaten on the floor, and with the fingers only.
Throughout the book, Lady Dufferin is bright, lively, and entertaining ; but if a second edition is called for, it should be issued in one volume, with the descriptions brought more closely together, and the details of daily life, which are not those general to Anglo-Indians, omitted. We are not sure. too, that we should not add to things to be omitted the frightful account of Theebaw's sister-Queen, though it is the one narrative giving the other side of Oriental nature, and does so much of itself to explain why the dynasty of Alompra. fell.
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