The merchant vessel : a sailor boy's voyages around the world . the Hindoo stevedores affordedme much amusement. It is necessary, in the first place, to havedouble the number of them that would be required of Euro-peans (as all whites are called in the Indies). The gang isunder the command of a scrang, whose orders are implicitly-obeyed, and who is amenable to the captain for the good con-duct of his men. They make much noise, singing and shout-ing, but work very slowly. Besides the tools for working,which they bring aboard, and their cooking utensils, each gangis the possessor of a large pipe
The merchant vessel : a sailor boy's voyages around the world . the Hindoo stevedores affordedme much amusement. It is necessary, in the first place, to havedouble the number of them that would be required of Euro-peans (as all whites are called in the Indies). The gang isunder the command of a scrang, whose orders are implicitly-obeyed, and who is amenable to the captain for the good con-duct of his men. They make much noise, singing and shout-ing, but work very slowly. Besides the tools for working,which they bring aboard, and their cooking utensils, each gangis the possessor of a large pipe, with a long flexible tube, calleda hookah, and by the sailors denominated a hubble-bubble, onaccount, I suppose, of the peculiar bubbling made by the waterin the lower bowl, through which the smoke is drawn into thetube The hubble-bubble is lit early in the morning, and doesnot again go out during the day, the gang relieving each otherregularly at it, one being always smoking. This is considereda matter of course, and no surprise is felt to see a man break. THE NATIVE LABORERS. 179 •?off in the middle of a severe lift, to relieve his companionthe pipe. They have their own cook, their own galley, their ownutensils and provisions, and even have assigned to them aspecial water-cask, from which none of the Europeans are al-lowed to use. The law of caste enforces this upon them, andalthough they are the very lowest of the population, they havethe utmost abhorrence to eating anything which a white manhas touched. The sailors are strictly forbidden from playingtricks upon them, as they would be too likely to do otherwise,practical jokes being something that Jack is exceedingly fond of. To facilitate communication with the shore, the ships havenative boatmen hired, who, for a certain sum, are always, dayand night, at hand to transport persons to or from shore. Theseare called dingy wallahs, wallah being a term signifying mer-chant or trader, and of universal application to all mann
Size: 1487px × 1681px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., booksubjectvoyagesandtravels, booksubjectvoyagesaroundtheworld
