—Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar.
FROM DIARY:
February 14. We left at 4:30 P.M. Until dark we moved through rich vegetation, then changed to a boat and crossed the Ganges.
February 15. Up with the sun. A brilliant morning, and frosty. A double suit of flannels1 is found necessary. The plain is perfectly2 level, and seems to stretch away and away and away, dimming and softening3, to the uttermost bounds of nowhere. What a soaring, strenuous4, gushing5 fountain spray of delicate greenery a bunch of bamboo is! As far as the eye can reach, these grand vegetable geysers grace the view, their spoutings refined to steam by distance. And there are fields of bananas, with the sunshine glancing from the varnished6 surface of their drooping7 vast leaves. And there are frequent groves8 of palm; and an effective accent is given to the landscape by isolated9 individuals of this picturesque10 family, towering, clean-stemmed, their plumes11 broken and hanging ragged12, Nature’s imitation of an umbrella that has been out to see what a cyclone13 is like and is trying not to look disappointed. And everywhere through the soft morning vistas14 we glimpse the villages, the countless15 villages, the myriad16 villages, thatched, built of clean new matting, snuggling among grouped palms and sheaves of bamboo; villages, villages, no end of villages, not three hundred yards apart, and dozens and dozens of them in sight all the time; a mighty17 City, hundreds of miles long, hundreds of miles broad, made all of villages, the biggest city in the earth, and as populous18 as a European kingdom. I have seen no such city as this before. And there is a continuously repeated and replenished19 multitude of naked men in view on both sides and ahead. We fly through it mile after mile, but still it is always there, on both sides and ahead—brown-bodied, naked men and boys, plowing21 in the fields. But not a woman. In these two hours I have not seen a woman or a girl working in the fields.
Those are beautiful verses, and they have remained in my memory all my life. But if the closing lines are true, let us hope that when we come to answer the call and deliver the land from its errors, we shall secrete22 from it some of our high-civilization ways, and at the same time borrow some of its pagan ways to enrich our high system with. We have a right to do this. If we lift those people up, we have a right to lift ourselves up nine or ten grades or so, at their expense. A few years ago I spent several weeks at Tolz, in Bavaria. It is a Roman Catholic region, and not even Benares is more deeply or pervasively23 or intelligently devout24. In my diary of those days I find this:
“We took a long drive yesterday around about the lovely country roads. But it was a drive whose pleasure was damaged in a couple of ways: by the dreadful shrines25 and by the shameful26 spectacle of gray and venerable old grandmothers toiling27 in the fields. The shrines were frequent along the roads—figures of the Saviour28 nailed to the cross and streaming with blood from the wounds of the nails and the thorns.
“When missionaries29 go from here do they find fault with the pagan idols30? I saw many women seventy and even eighty years old mowing31 and binding32 in the fields, and pitchforking the loads into the wagons33.”
I was in Austria later, and in Munich. In Munich I saw gray old women pushing trucks up hill and down, long distances, trucks laden34 with barrels of beer, incredible loads. In my Austrian diary I find this:
“In the public street of Marienbad to-day, I saw an old, bent35, gray-fheaded woman, in harness with a dog, drawing a laden sled over bare dirt roads and bare pavements; and at his ease walked the driver, smoking his pipe, a hale fellow not thirty years old.”
Five or six years ago I bought an open boat, made a kind of a canvas wagon-roof over the stern of it to shelter me from sun and rain; hired a courier and a boatman, and made a twelve-day floating voyage down the Rhone from Lake Bourget to Marseilles. In my diary of that trip I find this entry. I was far down the Rhone then:
“Passing St. Etienne, 2:15 P.M. On a distant ridge36 inland, a tall openwork structure commandingly situated37, with a statue of the Virgin38 standing39 on it. A devout country. All down this river, wherever there is a crag there is a statue of the Virgin on it. I believe I have seen a hundred of them. And yet, in many respects, the peasantry seem to be mere40 pagans, and destitute41 of any considerable degree of civilization.
“ . . . . We reached a not very promising42 looking village about 4 o’clock, and I concluded to tie up for the day; munching43 fruit and fogging the hood44 with pipe-smoke had grown monotonous45; I could not have the hood furled, because the floods of rain fell unceasingly. The tavern46 was on the river bank, as is the custom. It was dull there, and melancholy—nothing to do but look out of the window into the drenching47 rain, and shiver; one could do that, for it was bleak48 and cold and windy, and country France furnishes no fire. Winter overcoats did not help me much; they had to be supplemented with rugs. The raindrops were so large and struck the river with such force that they knocked up the water like pebble-splashes.
“With the exception of a very occasional woodenshod peasant, nobody was abroad in this bitter weather—I mean nobody of our sex. But all weathers are alike to the women in these continental49 countries. To them and the other animals, life is serious; nothing interrupts their slavery. Three of them were washing clothes in the river under the window when I arrived, and they continued at it as long as there was light to work by. One was apparently50 thirty; another—the mother!—above fifty; the third—grandmother!—so old and worn and gray she could have passed for eighty; I took her to be that old. They had no waterproofs51 nor rubbers, of course; over their shoulders they wore gunnysacks—simply conductors for rivers of water; some of the volume reached the ground; the rest soaked in on the way.
“At last a vigorous fellow of thirty-five arrived, dry and comfortable, smoking his pipe under his big umbrella in an open donkey-cart-husband, son, and grandson of those women! He stood up in the cart, sheltering himself, and began to superintend, issuing his orders in a masterly tone of command, and showing temper when they were not obeyed swiftly enough.
“Without complaint or murmur52 the drowned women patiently carried out the orders, lifting the immense baskets of soggy, wrung-out clothing into the cart and stowing them to the man’s satisfaction. There were six of the great baskets, and a man of mere ordinary strength could not have lifted any one of them. The cart being full now, the Frenchman descended54, still sheltered by his umbrella, entered the tavern, and the women went drooping homeward, trudging55 in the wake of the cart, and soon were blended with the deluge56 and lost to sight.
“When I went down into the public room, the Frenchman had his bottle of wine and plate of food on a bare table black with grease, and was ‘chomping’ like a horse. He had the little religious paper which is in everybody’s hands on the Rhone borders, and was enlightening himself with the histories of French saints who used to flee to the desert in the Middle Ages to escape the contamination of woman. For two hundred years France has been sending missionaries to other savage57 lands. To spare to the needy58 from poverty like hers is fine and true generosity59.”
But to get back to India—where, as my favorite poem says—
It is because Bavaria and Austria and France have not introduced their civilization to him yet. But Bavaria and Austria and France are on their way. They are coming. They will rescue him; they will refine the vileness62 out of him.
Some time during the forenoon, approaching the mountains, we changed from the regular train to one composed of little canvas-sheltered cars that skimmed along within a foot of the ground and seemed to be going fifty miles an hour when they were really making about twenty. Each car had seating capacity for half-a-dozen persons; and when the curtains were up one was substantially out of doors, and could see everywhere, and get all the breeze, and be luxuriously63 comfortable. It was not a pleasure excursion in name only, but in fact.
After a while we stopped at a little wooden coop of a station just within the curtain of the sombre jungle, a place with a deep and dense64 forest of great trees and scrub and vines all about it. The royal Bengal tiger is in great force there, and is very bold and unconventional. From this lonely little station a message once went to the railway manager in Calcutta: “Tiger eating station-master on front porch; telegraph instructions.”
It was there that I had my first tiger hunt. I killed thirteen. We were presently away again, and the train began to climb the mountains. In one place seven wild elephants crossed the track, but two of them got away before I could overtake them. The railway journey up the mountain is forty miles, and it takes eight hours to make it. It is so wild and interesting and exciting and enchanting65 that it ought to take a week. As for the vegetation, it is a museum. The jungle seemed to contain samples of every rare and curious tree and bush that we had ever seen or heard of. It is from that museum, I think, that the globe must have been supplied with the trees and vines and shrubs66 that it holds precious.
The road is infinitely67 and charmingly crooked68. It goes winding69 in and out under lofty cliffs that are smothered70 in vines and foliage71, and around the edges of bottomless chasms72; and all the way one glides73 by files of picturesque natives, some carrying burdens up, others going down from their work in the tea-gardens; and once there was a gaudy74 wedding procession, all bright tinsel and color, and a bride, comely75 and girlish, who peeped out from the curtains of her palanquin, exposing her face with that pure delight which the young and happy take in sin for sin’s own sake.
By and by we were well up in the region of the clouds, and from that breezy height we looked down and afar over a wonderful picture—the Plains of India, stretching to the horizon, soft and fair, level as a floor, shimmering76 with heat, mottled with cloud-shadows, and cloven with shining rivers. Immediately below us, and receding77 down, down, down, toward the valley, was a shaven confusion of hilltops, with ribbony roads and paths squirming and snaking cream-yellow all over them and about them, every curve and twist sharply distinct.
At an elevation78 of 6,000 feet we entered a thick cloud, and it shut out the world and kept it shut out. We climbed 1,000 feet higher, then began to descend53, and presently got down to Darjeeling, which is 6,000 feet above the level of the Plains.
We had passed many a mountain village on the way up, and seen some new kinds of natives, among them many samples of the fighting Ghurkas. They are not large men, but they are strong and resolute79. There are no better soldiers among Britain’s native troops. And we had passed shoals of their women climbing the forty miles of steep road from the valley to their mountain homes, with tall baskets on their backs hitched80 to their foreheads by a band, and containing a freightage weighing—I will not say how many hundreds of pounds, for the sum is unbelievable. These were young women, and they strode smartly along under these astonishing burdens with the air of people out for a holiday. I was told that a woman will carry a piano on her back all the way up the mountain; and that more than once a woman had done it. If these were old women I should regard the Ghurkas as no more civilized81 than the Europeans. At the railway station at Darjeeling you find plenty of cab-substitutes—open coffins82, in which you sit, and are then borne on men’s shoulders up the steep roads into the town.
Up there we found a fairly comfortable hotel, the property of an indiscriminate and incoherent landlord, who looks after nothing, but leaves everything to his army of Indian servants. No, he does look after the bill—to be just to him—and the tourist cannot do better than follow his example. I was told by a resident that the summit of Kinchinjunga is often hidden in the clouds, and that sometimes a tourist has waited twenty-two days and then been obliged to go away without a sight of it. And yet went not disappointed; for when he got his hotel bill he recognized that he was now seeing the highest thing in the Himalayas. But this is probably a lie.
After lecturing I went to the Club that night, and that was a comfortable place. It is loftily situated, and looks out over a vast spread of scenery; from it you can see where the boundaries of three countries come together, some thirty miles away; Thibet is one of them, Nepaul another, and I think Herzegovina was the other. Apparently, in every town and city in India the gentlemen of the British civil and military service have a club; sometimes it is a palatial83 one, always it is pleasant and homelike. The hotels are not always as good as they might be, and the stranger who has access to the Club is grateful for his privilege and knows how to value it.
Next day was Sunday. Friends came in the gray dawn with horses, and my party rode away to a distant point where Kinchinjunga and Mount Everest show up best, but I stayed at home for a private view; for it was very cold, and I was not acquainted with the horses, any way. I got a pipe and a few blankets and sat for two hours at the window, and saw the sun drive away the veiling gray and touch up the snow-peaks one after another with pale pink splashes and delicate washes of gold, and finally flood the whole mighty convulsion of snow-mountains with a deluge of rich splendors84.
Kinchinjunga’s peak was but fitfully visible, but in the between times it was vividly85 clear against the sky—away up there in the blue dome86 more than 28,000 feet above sea level—the loftiest land I had ever seen, by 12,000 feet or more. It was 45 miles away. Mount Everest is a thousand feet higher, but it was not a part of that sea of mountains piled up there before me, so I did not see it; but I did not care, because I think that mountains that are as high as that are disagreeable.
I changed from the back to the front of the house and spent the rest of the morning there, watching the swarthy strange tribes flock by from their far homes in the Himalayas. All ages and both sexes were represented, and the breeds were quite new to me, though the costumes of the Thibetans made them look a good deal like Chinamen. The prayer-wheel was a frequent feature. It brought me near to these people, and made them seem kinfolk of mine. Through our preacher we do much of our praying by proxy87. We do not whirl him around a stick, as they do, but that is merely a detail.
The swarm88 swung briskly by, hour after hour, a strange and striking pageant89. It was wasted there, and it seemed a pity. It should have been sent streaming through the cities of Europe or America, to refresh eyes weary of the pale monotonies of the circus-pageant. These people were bound for the bazar, with things to sell. We went down there, later, and saw that novel congress of the wild peoples, and plowed90 here and there through it, and concluded that it would be worth coming from Calcutta to see, even if there were no Kinchinjunga and Everest.
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1
flannels
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| 法兰绒男裤； 法兰绒( flannel的名词复数 ) | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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softening
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| 变软，软化 | |
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strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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gushing
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| adj.迸出的；涌出的；喷出的；过分热情的v.喷，涌( gush的现在分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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varnished
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| 浸渍过的，涂漆的 | |
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drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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plumes
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| 羽毛( plume的名词复数 )； 羽毛饰； 羽毛状物； 升上空中的羽状物 | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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cyclone
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| n.旋风，龙卷风 | |
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vistas
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| 长条形景色( vista的名词复数 )； 回顾； 展望； （未来可能发生的）一系列情景 | |
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countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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myriad
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| adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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populous
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| adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的 | |
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replenished
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| 补充( replenish的过去式和过去分词 )； 重新装满 | |
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plow
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| n.犁，耕地，犁过的地；v.犁，费力地前进[英]plough | |
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plowing
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| v.耕( plow的现在分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过 | |
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secrete
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| vt.分泌；隐匿，使隐秘 | |
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pervasively
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| adv.无处不在地，遍布地 | |
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devout
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| adj.虔诚的，虔敬的，衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
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shrines
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| 圣地，圣坛，神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 ) | |
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shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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toiling
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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saviour
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| n.拯救者，救星 | |
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missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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idols
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| 偶像( idol的名词复数 )； 受崇拜的人或物； 受到热爱和崇拜的人或物； 神像 | |
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mowing
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| n.割草，一次收割量，牧草地v.刈，割( mow的现在分词 ) | |
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binding
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| 有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的 | |
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wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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munching
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| v.用力咀嚼（某物），大嚼( munch的现在分词 ) | |
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44
hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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46
tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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47
drenching
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| n.湿透v.使湿透( drench的现在分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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48
bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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50
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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51
waterproofs
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| n.防水衣物，雨衣 usually plural( waterproof的名词复数 )v.使防水，使不透水( waterproof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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52
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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53
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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54
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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trudging
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的现在分词形式） | |
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deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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needy
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| adj.贫穷的，贫困的，生活艰苦的 | |
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generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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vileness
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| n.讨厌，卑劣 | |
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luxuriously
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| adv.奢侈地，豪华地 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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enchanting
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| a.讨人喜欢的 | |
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shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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70
smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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72
chasms
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| 裂缝( chasm的名词复数 )； 裂口； 分歧； 差别 | |
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73
glides
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| n.滑行( glide的名词复数 )；滑音；音渡；过渡音v.滑动( glide的第三人称单数 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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74
gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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75
comely
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| adj.漂亮的，合宜的 | |
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76
shimmering
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| v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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77
receding
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| v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
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78
elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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79
resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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80
hitched
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| （免费）搭乘他人之车( hitch的过去式和过去分词 )； 搭便车； 攀上； 跃上 | |
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81
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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82
coffins
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| n.棺材( coffin的名词复数 )；使某人早亡[死，完蛋，垮台等]之物 | |
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83
palatial
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| adj.宫殿般的，宏伟的 | |
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84
splendors
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| n.华丽( splendor的名词复数 )；壮丽；光辉；显赫 | |
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85
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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86
dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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87
proxy
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| n.代理权，代表权；（对代理人的）委托书；代理人 | |
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88
swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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89
pageant
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| n.壮观的游行；露天历史剧 | |
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90
plowed
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| v.耕( plow的过去式和过去分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过 | |
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