New Arrival, Dak ing into the Factory, etc. 5 



know a trick or two, and he must not be surprised 

 at somewhat violent and exciting starts full speed 

 reckoning as the very lowest order of velocity, gra- 

 duating from that upwards, to the sensation of 

 being shot out of a rocket with an amount of 

 " backing and filling," which would satisfy even a 

 Yankee skipper trying to get up the river Hooghly 

 without the aid of steam. 



A favourite way of starting the old dak gharry 

 horses which, in times now long gone by, used to 

 transport the traveller all over India, was to have no 

 nonsense at all about it. When the animal sat 

 down, and obstinately " refused " to go, the mild 

 Hindu attendants with characteristic Oriental in- 

 difference to suffering, quietly, but promptly, collect- 

 ed straw, sticks, and dry grass, and lit a fire under 

 the wretched animal. Under these circumstances the 

 difficulty about starting did not admit of any further 

 argument, and was at once got rid of. If in a mail 

 cart * one horse in the shafts, and occasionally an 

 auxiliary one rigged stun-sail-boom-fashion ' instead 

 of a dak gharry, one had to hold on pretty tight when 

 the horse did start, which he generally did at one bound, 

 and without giving the least previous notice, even by 

 so much as a cock of the ear. Although some of the 

 factory hacks are difficult to manage both in harness 

 and saddle, it will hardly be found necessary, except 



