Travels in India (Tavernier) 8.7

8.7

They have also, for travelling, small, very light carriages, which can contain two persons; but usually one travels alone, in order to be more comfortable, being then able to have his clothes with him; the canteen of wine and some small requisites for the journey having their place under the carriage, to which they harness a pair of oxen only. These carriages, which are provided, like ours, with curtains and cushions, are not slung; but, on the occasion of my last journey, I had one made after our manner, and the two oxen by which it was drawn cost me very nearly 600 rupees. The reader need not be astonished at this price, for there are some of them which are strong, and make journeys lasting 60 days, at 12 or 15 leagues a day, and always at the trot. When they have accomplished half the journey, they give to each two or three balls of the size of our penny rolls, made of wheaten flour, kneaded with butter and black sugar, and in the evening they have a meal of chick-peas, crushed and steeped in water for half an hour. The hire of a carriage amounts to about a rupee a day. The journey from Surat to Agra occupies thirty-five or forty days’ journey by road, and you pay for the whole journey from 40 to 45 rupees. From Surat to Golconda it is nearly the same distance and the same price, and it is in the same proportion throughout the whole of India. Those who can afford to take their ease make use of a pallankeen, in which they travel very comfortably.