XXXIOFF TO THE HIMALAYAS
DURING the convalescence of Mrs. Cultus the physicians recommended that she be taken to a more salubrious climate, a higher altitude; and suggested Darjeeling in North Bengal near the borders of Sikhim as an admirable sanitarium. Adele was delegated to suggest it to her mother. She entered the sick-room in great glee, drawing Paul in with her.
“Little Mother, we’ve all been ordered off; Paul and I have already thought of flying upwards to the Himalayas, and now we all must go.”
“What’s that you say about flying away? Who’s ordered it? I didn’t.”
“The physicians,” said Paul much amused. “We need to take the usual Oriental prescription for foreigners—Vamoose the ranchibus; get out!”
“Do Hindoos prescribe in Latin? What does it mean?”
“To be taken instantly,” said Miss Winchester, laughing, “and all take the same dose.”
“Where did you say we are to go? Up where?” persisted Mrs. Cultus, now beginning to enter into the spirit of the thing.
“To the mountains,” said Adele joyfully, “up to Sikhim.”
“Sic ’em!” and Mrs. Cultus’ eyes twinkled. “Is it a hunting scheme for Paul and the Doctor? Are there dogs up there?”
Evidently mental alertness had returned to the invalid. Adele thought so, and nodded to Paul:
“Come, boys! get your guns, and call the dogs—I mean your tickets for the trip; I’ll attend to the rest.”
Paul vanished to make arrangements for the journey.
Never did a more interested and hilarious party start northward towards Kunchingunga; towards the foot-hills of Sikhim, between Nepaul and Bhootan. From the crest of these foot-hills they hoped to see the Himalaya range stretching east and west, like unto a barrier insurmountable, towering aloft into thin air which no man could breathe and yet live; terra firma supporting glaciers a mile in vertical height;terra incognita, for no man had yet been able to tread thereon. Region of the seen, yet unseen, because unlivable to mortals as at present constituted.
No other portion of their tour gave better opportunity to bring out individual traits of character than this; for nature herself was to be met in many moods. Professor Cultus suggested that each member of the party should select a specialty for personal observation.
Miss Winchester jumped at this idea, like a reporter for a woman’s home journal. She selected the varied ejaculations of the natives; “grunts,” as she called them.
“Every race seems to grunt differently, and every idol swears differently. I suppose prayers are diverse also, but the grunts will be enough for me. We shall have hot-weather sighs, and cold-weather shivers; torrid zone lassitude and temperate zone platitude; Hindoo shuffles and Mongolian shrugs, each accompanied by its appropriate ejaculation or grunt. It is astonishing how much grunting is heard. Asia is like a Florida razor-back settlement on a large scale. I shall be kept quite busy; and no doubt myself become quiteaccomplished.” Miss Winchester was evidently in high feather, finding her surroundings inspiring from a literary point of view.
“The Himalayas will suit your purpose admirably,” remarked the Doctor.
“How so?”
“You may write a dialect story on your way—all grunts, and nothing else.”
Paul thought the subject of the rapid changes from one kind of vegetation to another would suit him as a specialty. “There ought to be enough variety in ferns, palms, and natural shrubbery, to say nothing of tea, quinine and poppies (opium) to excite or soothe as we require doses.” Paul was evidently hoping to obtain some plants for his Florida Garden, his winter home, between Pelican Lodge and the salt waves. There the Pelicans were omnivorous birds, not being restricted to ordinary pelican diet.
Adele said she expected to be engaged chiefly in “looking up.”
“Not guide-books, I hope?” quizzed Miss Winchester.
“Only when I lie down, to take a siesta; they will serve as a sedative.”
“Whatever you do,” said Mrs. Cultus, ever practical and worldly-wise, “be sure to jot down notes. You remember my report on Tangiers to our Politely Civil League? Memoranda came in splendidly then; I’ve just received a note of thanks for my ‘communications.’”
“You mean your ‘proceedings,’ my dear,” grunted the Professor.
Miss Winchester at once made mental note of the Professor’s mode of ejaculation, as indicative of the Occidental grunt in contradistinction to the Asiatic.
“Miss Cultus is correct,” interrupted the Doctor, champion inquisitor and note-jotter of the party. “No brain could remember,much less assimilate, all that we are going to see, without taking notes.”
At this point they were interrupted by the call to take their places in the railway carriage at Calcutta, for their first four hours by rail to Damookdea on the Ganges.