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26 November 1905 — Peshawar | |
Sunday. 26th [November 1905]. Ali having told us that the church was quite close to our hotel we elected to walk there– It turned out that Ali had not the slightest idea of where the church was & finally he walked us round in a circle so that we arrived in the middle of the service. There were very few people at church except some officers & their wives & a detachment of soldiers. We lost our way on walking back to the hotel but were directed by the owner of an English dairy. Miss Wersfold, a friend of the Bruce’s & a lady doing Missionary work called on us & kindly offered to take us into the city tomorrow. We took a drive in the afternoon & dined with Maj. & Mrs Rawlinson in the eveng. He was nephew of our old friend Sir Henry & he is Dep: Commissioner here. They have a charming bungalow nicely arranged in the English fashion with a nice log fire burning in the grate. They had invited 2 officers to meet us, Mr Pepoa & Mr Begnal both officers. The curious thing on going to a house here is to find no door bell– One has to stand & call “kie hie” until a servant appears from round some corner where they have been sitting, squatting & chattering. The servants leave their shoes at the door before entering the house & so the movements are perfectly silent round the dinner table. They wait well—& the cooking is wonderful considering how little they can have learnt. The great fault in their cuisine is their want of simplicity—they attempt too elaborate dishes—but their sweet dishes & sweetmeats are excellent & they make sweet & iced cakes wonderfully well. The tea everywhere is good & the bread wh would not be very good raw, makes excellent toast wh is served at every meal. I am told that meat costs 1d per lb. & is generally tender & good. The rooms in the hotels & houses are built with a view to coolness. They are lofty with windows in each wall round the top– The bedstead is placed in the middle of the room– One has to bring ones own bedding & sheets & blankets. We have brought at Bombay a resai a piece (a wadded coverlid) on wh to sleep & blankets to cover ourselves– These are in a large waterproof cover wh we take with us in the railway for night journies. Ali comes in to our carriage & makes up our beds as we start at night & also makes our beds at the hotels and houses. At the back of the bedroom is always a small dressing room containing a table & looking glass. Behind that is a bathroom. A tin bath stands behind a little curbstone in a corner. When the bath is overturned here the water escapes thro’ a hole in the wall– An individual called a “sweeper” attends to this last apartment—cleans it out and carries away everything there being no system of drainage. A door at the back allows him to come in & bring in water &c– | |
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