Selected Stories (96 page)

1
.
Lispeth
: First published in the
Civil and Military Gazette
, 29 November 1886; collected in
Plain Tales from the Hills
.

2
.
Kotgarh
: A small settlement north-east of Simla.

3
.
Moravian missionaries
: Representatives of a Protestant sect which originated in Czechoslovakia in the eighteenth century.

4
.
Diana
: The virgin goddess of hunting.

5
.
Narkunda
: About ten miles from Kotgarh.

6
.
P
. &
O.
: The Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company, whose ships plied between England and India.

7
. pahari: Hill-man.

8
. Tarka Devi: A Hindu goddess.

1
.
Venus Annodomini
: First published in the
Civil and Military Gazette
, 4 December 1886; collected in
Plain Tales from the Hills
,

2
.
Number Eighteen in the Braccio Nuovo
: Presumably the copy in the Vatican gallery of the statue by Praxiteles of Venus Anadyomene (rising from the sea), with a pun on ‘Annodomini' used as slang for old age.

3
.
Bengal Civilian
: Member of the Bengal Civil Service.

4
.
Mrs Hauksbee and Mrs Reiver
: Characters in other ‘Plain Tales'.

5
.
Ninon de L'Enclos
: A seventeenth-century Frenchwoman famous for her wit and beauty even in her old age.

6
.
Darjiling
: The Hill Station for the Government of Bengal.

1
.
His Wedded Wife
: First published in the
Civil and Military Gazette
, 25 February 1887; collected in
Plain Tales from the Hills
.

2
.
giants or beetles
: ‘And the poor beetle that we tread upon / In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great / As when a giant dies'(
Measure for Measure
, Act III, Scene 1).

3
.
Shikarris
: Literally, ‘Hunters'; a fictional regiment.

4
.
broke
: Cashiered.

1
.
In the Pride of his Youth
: First published in the
Civil and Military Gazette
, 5 May 1887; collected in
Plain Tales from the Hills
.

2
.
weight-cloths
: Used in handicapping horses.

3
.
Gravesend
: Where passengers embarked by tender on P. & O. liners for India.

4
.
at 1—
: An exchange rate of one rupee for one shilling, six and seven-eighths pence (old currency, at twelve pennies to the shilling and twenty shillings to the pound).

5
.
screw
: Slang for salary; in billiards an element of spin on the ball.

1
.
The Daughter of the Regiment
: First published in the
Civil and Military Gazette
, 11 May 1887; collected in
Plain Tales from the Hills
.

2
.
Jhansi
: A town south-west of Cawnpore.

3
.
Pummeloe
: A large, orange-like fruit.

4
.
Presidincy
: In the days of the East India Company Bengal, Bombay and Madras and the territories they controlled were known as Presidencies, each being governed by a Council headed by a President.

5
.
Saint Lawrence
: Martyred by being broiled on a grid-iron.

6
.
tope
: Grove.

7
. lotah: A small brass pot.

8
.
a three-year-ould
: A short-service soldier.

9
.
Perhaps I will tell you…
: See ‘In the Matter of a Private',
Soldiers Three and Other Stories
.

1
.
Thrown Away
: First published in
Plain Tales from the Hills
, 1888.

2
.
lunge
: Make a horse canter in a circle while controlling it by a long rope.

3
.
two-goldmohur
: The goldmohur was a coin worth fifteen rupees (about £1 sterling), so a two-goldmohur race would be an unimportant one.

4
.
maiden
: A horse that has never won a race.

5
. ekka: A one-horse carriage often used by Indians.

6
.
Rest House
: For the use of officials travelling on business, but available to other travellers.

7
. tetur: Partridge.

8
. shikar-
kit
: Shooting-clothes.

9
.
A country-bred
: As opposed to imported horses.

10
.
Valley of the Shadow
: See Psalms 23:4.

1
.
Beyond the Pale
: First published in
Plain Tales from the Hills
, 1888.

2
. bustee: Quarter.

3
. dhak: A tree sometimes known as ‘Flame of the Forest'.

4
. boorka: A long enveloping garment often worn by Moslem women.

1
.
A Wayside Comedy
: First published in the
Week's News
, 21 January 1888; collected in
Under the Deodars
, 1888, and subsequently included in
Wee Willie Winkie and Other Stories
.

2
. jhils: Marshy lakes.

3
.
Samson… Gaza
: See Judges 16:29–30.

4
. dâk: Stage of journey; used here in the sense of arrangements for travelling post (i.e., by relays of horses).

5
. terai
hat
: A felt hat with a wide brim.

6
. purdah: Curtain.

7
. sais: Groom.

1
.
Dray Wara Yow Dee
: First published in the
Week's News
, 28 April 1888; collected in
In Black and White
, 1888; subsequently included in
Soldiers Three and Other Stories
.

2
.
Thirteen-three
: Thirteen hands, three inches in height (4 feet 7 inches to the shoulder, the upper limit for a polo pony).

3
.
Kurshed…
: The reference is obscure.

4
.
Imams
: Religious leaders and agents of divine illumination for Shi'ite Moslems.

5
.
Tirah
: A valley in the North-West Frontier area.

6
.
this accursed land
: Kipling was now working in Allahabad, far from the Punjab and the Frontier.

7
.
Kamal
: A notorious freebooter whom Kipling later celebrated in ‘The Ballad of East and West'.

8
.
Jumrud
: A fort near Peshawar on the North-West Frontier.

9
.
the Amir
: The ruler of Afghanistan.

10
.
Thana
: Police station.

11
.
Allah-al-Mumit
: God the Giver of Death.

12
.
Rahman
: An eighteenth-century Moslem sage.

13
.
the Pindi camp
: At Rawalpindi where the Amir of Afghanistan visited the Viceroy in 1885; the Uzbegs were his cavalry escort. Kipling attended this Durbar as a special correspondent.

14
.
the Fakr to the Isha
: The dawn prayer to the prayer after sunset.

15
.
the Devil Atala…
: Reference unidentified.

16
.
charpoy
: Bedstead.

17
.
your Law
: The Arms Act which forbade the carrying of arms in British territory.

18
.
Ali Musjid
: A fort in the Khyber Pass, beyond the bounds of British territory.

19
.
Ghor Kuttri
: A Hindu temple in Peshawar, which was under British rule.

20
.
not
Jamun
but
Ak: Not ‘fruit tree' but ‘twisted shrub'.

21
. Alghias: Woe(?).

22
. Djinns: Spirits or demons of Moslem mythology.

23
.
Chenab
: One of the great rivers of the Punjab.

1
.
Little Tobrah
: First published in the
Civil and Military Gazette
, 17 July 1888; collected in
Life's Handicap
, 1891.

2
.
a forced voyage
: To penal servitude in the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal.

3
.
the other Black Water
. The ocean.

4
. Bapri-bap: O Father – an exclamation of grief.

5
.
bunnia-folk
: Corn-merchants.

1
.
Black Jack
: First published in
Soldiers Three
, 1888; subsequently collected in
Soldiers Three and Other Stories
.

2
.
Robert Buchanan
: Poet and novelist (1841–1901), author
of London Poems
, 1866.

3
.
Corner Shop
: The Guard-Room cells.

4
.
whip him on the peg
: Put him on a charge.

5
.
kiddy
: Dish in which sailors measure their ration.

6
.
peg
: Drink with soda.

7
.
the Tyrone
: A fictional Irish regiment which figures, often as the Black Tyrone, in several of Kipling's works.

8
.
wishful for to desert
: See ‘The Madness of Private Ortheris' in
Plain Tales from the Hills
.

9
.
the woman at Devizes
: Said to have been struck dead on committing perjury in 1753.

10
.
crackin' on
: Swearing.

11
.
palammers
: Slang for cards?

12
.
stiffin
': Swearing.

13
.
Martini-Henry
: The new rifle which had superseded the Snider as standard issue in the British Army.

14
. dooli: Covered litter.

15
.
stoppages
: Stoppages of pay to cover the cost of damage to Government property.

1
.
On the City Wall
: First published in
In Black and White
, 1888; subsequently collected in
Soldiers Three and Other Stories
.

2
.
Lilith
: Adam's first wife, according to Rabbinical tradition.

3
.
jujube-tree
: A bush with plum-like fruit.

4
.
chunam
: Plaster.

5
.
Shiahs
: Adherents of one of the two main branches of Islam, as opposed to the more orthodox Sunnites.

6
.
Sufis
: Adherents of a mystical and pantheistic Moslem sect.

7
.
the Athenians
: See Acts 17:21: ‘For all the Athenians… spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.'

8
.
a Demnition Product
: ‘Demnition' is a favourite epithet of Mr Mantalini in Dickens's
Nicholas Nickleby
.

9
. sitar: Indian guitar.

10
.
a great battle
: Pannipat in 1761, where the Afghans defeated the Mahrattas under the Peshwa or Chief Minister. See Kipling's poem ‘With Scindia to Delhi'.

11
. laonee: Ballad. The verses are from a novel
Lalun the Baragun or The Battle of Paniput
, by Mirza Murad Ali Beg (Bombay, 1884).

12
.
Wahabi
: A member of a fanatical Moslem sect.

13
.
Subadar
: Indian officer; ‘Subadar Sahib' is a respectful form of address.

14
.
Begums and Ranees
: Moslem and Hindu princesses.

15
.
Sobraon
: Battle in which the British defeated the Sikhs in 1846.

16
.
the Kuka rising
: The Kuka Movement was a Sikh sect which came into conflict with the British Government and fostered a rebellion in 1871–2. This was ruthlessly suppressed: its leader was imprisoned in Burma and many others were blown from cannons.

17
. ‘
57
: The year of the Indian Mutiny.