This splendid cantonment contains no less than seven thousand two hundred
and twenty acres and might well be termed a magnificent park throughout.
It is in the hilly tracts of the Umballa district that the curious custom
prevails of placing infants beneath little cascades of water so that the
stream of water shall steadily descend on the head. The cool water of
some mountain-rivulet is converted into a number of streams appropriate
for the purpose, by means of bamboo ducts or spouts. The infants are
brought thither in the morning by their mothers and placed in proper
position on beds of grass; the trickling water, pouring on their heads,
keeps the brain cool and is popularly supposed to be efficacious in the
prevention of many infantile diseases peculiar to the country. Children
not subjected to this curious hydropathic treatment are said to generally
die young, or grow up weaklings in comparison with the others.
A sudden freshet in the ordinarily shallow and partially dry bed of the
Donglee River tells of the heaviness of last night's rainstorm among the
hills, and compels a halt of a couple of hours until the rapidly
subsiding water gets low enough to admit of fording it with a native
bullock gharri. A branch of the same stream is crossed in a similar
manner, and yet a third river, a few miles farther, has to be crossed on
a curious raft made of a number of buoyant earthenware jars fixed in a
bamboo frame.
Pages:
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486