The Moonstone - Page 402/404

The Statement of MR. MURTHWAITE (1850) (In a letter to MR. BRUFF)

Have you any recollection, my dear sir, of a semi-savage person whom you

met out at dinner, in London, in the autumn of 'forty-eight? Permit me

to remind you that the person's name was Murthwaite, and that you and

he had a long conversation together after dinner. The talk related to

an Indian Diamond, called the Moonstone, and to a conspiracy then in

existence to get possession of the gem.

Since that time, I have been wandering in Central Asia. Thence I have

drifted back to the scene of some of my past adventures in the north

and north-west of India. About a fortnight since, I found myself in

a certain district or province (but little known to Europeans) called

Kattiawar.

Here an adventure befell me, in which (incredible as it may appear) you

are personally interested.

In the wild regions of Kattiawar (and how wild they are, you will

understand, when I tell you that even the husbandmen plough the land,

armed to the teeth), the population is fanatically devoted to the old

Hindoo religion--to the ancient worship of Bramah and Vishnu. The few

Mahometan families, thinly scattered about the villages in the interior,

are afraid to taste meat of any kind. A Mahometan even suspected of

killing that sacred animal, the cow, is, as a matter of course, put to

death without mercy in these parts by the pious Hindoo neighbours who

surround him. To strengthen the religious enthusiasm of the people, two

of the most famous shrines of Hindoo pilgrimage are contained within the

boundaries of Kattiawar. One of them is Dwarka, the birthplace of the

god Krishna. The other is the sacred city of Somnauth--sacked, and

destroyed as long since as the eleventh century, by the Mahometan

conqueror, Mahmoud of Ghizni.

Finding myself, for the second time, in these romantic regions, I

resolved not to leave Kattiawar, without looking once more on the

magnificent desolation of Somnauth. At the place where I planned to do

this, I was (as nearly as I could calculate it) some three days distant,

journeying on foot, from the sacred city.

I had not been long on the road, before I noticed that other people--by

twos and threes--appeared to be travelling in the same direction as

myself.

To such of these as spoke to me, I gave myself out as a Hindoo-Boodhist,

from a distant province, bound on a pilgrimage. It is needless to say

that my dress was of the sort to carry out this description. Add, that

I know the language as well as I know my own, and that I am lean

enough and brown enough to make it no easy matter to detect my European

origin--and you will understand that I passed muster with the people

readily: not as one of themselves, but as a stranger from a distant part

of their own country.