Читать книгу Views in India, chiefly among the Himalaya Mountains онлайн

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Runjeet Singh, though owing the greater portion of his acquisitions to craft of the lowest kind, and of the most unjustifiable nature, is possessed of talents of no common order, which, if properly cultivated, would have secured for him an ascendancy based upon a more honourable foundation; but with too many of the vices of the Asiatic character, he has also a very large proportion of those ridiculous notions which are obsolete in countries illuminated by the light of science. The Seik ruler is a great believer in omens, and not only consults the stars, but also the chirpings of birds, previous to any measure of importance. He has lately suffered from ill health, but the remedies prescribed by European physicians have been neglected, for the advice of soothsayers. These personages took upon themselves to discover the cause of the malady of the sovereign, which some old beggar-woman had naturally enough attributed to the oppression of his people. Upon consulting the stars, they found Saturn in the ascendant, a planet which, according to general belief, always exerts a baleful influence. There was no difficulty now in tracing the liver complaint and dysentery of the lion of the Punjab, to its true source: but what was to be done in such an emergence? the dislodgment of a planet from the sky being beyond the power of the maha-rajah, great as he undoubtedly is. Nevertheless, it was necessary to hit upon some method to get rid of the malignant influence, and it was determined to transport the planet in ​effigy out of the Seik dominions into the British territory, in the expectation, that on its arrival on the coast, the Governor-General would evince his friendship by transporting Saturn beyond the kalapance, or salt ocean. The credit of this ingenious device is due to Mudhsoodun Pundit, and other learned men, who, according to the statement in the Lahore ukhbars, recommended his highness to cause an effigy of the planet Saturn to be made of gold, set with sapphires, and to give the same, with a black shawl, to a brahmin of some other country, who should be placed in a rath, or car, of a dark colour, drawn by buffaloes instead of bullocks, and transported along with the image across the river, when, with the blessing of Providence, the maha-rajah would speedily recover.