The Music of Hindostan c7.2

c7.2

AT Allahabad I came across some Garhwālīs who had been got down from Mussouri in the Himālaya for the Exhibition as *riksha-wālās* because they would be in good training, and because they were cheerful and honest. They said they could not sing in the daytime because they were thinking about their work, so we had a very merry evening in a hot tent from nine o’clock to past midnight. There was great competition to sing into the phonograph and have their performance given back to them; but unfortunately only one phonogram has survived the railway journey. The subjects of their songs are given for what they are worth; I was able to get them only at fourth hand. The men sang in Bālī; this was translated by one of them into bad Hindostani, retranslated into good Hindostani by a bystander, and from that a version was given me by a (most patient) English boy of fourteen who spoke Hindostani like a native; his actual words are given here.