Ramazan, the Rajah

ISBN: 9781331527718 出版年：2016 页码：321 Vere Lockwood Forgotten Books

Poona, capital of the district of the same name, a town eighty odd miles south-east of Bombay, basked in the increasing heat of a rising Eastern sun. Situated in the midst of a vast stretch of green-brown, sun-burned land it looked immense, as Indian cities will, yet from the temple-crowned hill of Parbati the cantonment was plainly visible, lying an unspoken warning to the rebellious native who, in the past, had striven to make of it a hotbed of unrest. Low, grey-misted mountains half-encircled the slightly elevated stretch of tropical land, while patches of blue and emerald green, caused by field or water, and splashes of vermilion, brick-red and orange, broke the vast drab green.The paved streets and houses of stone and brick, some finely designed, including the old palace of the peishwas now converted for modern use, raised Poona far above an Indian village, and yet it was far less advanced, far more Eastern and native than Bombay. Nearly every breed of brown and yellow foreigner could be met there and over forty languages and dialects were known to be spoken in the bazaars. The motley gathering of people who moved about the streets, the murmur, the clamour, the mingling of strange sounds, and, above all, the vivid, ever-changing colours, were distinctly of the East.