Down and out in London...

...the poor always ye have with you; ...

John 12: 8.

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong ?

Eleanor Rigby (by Paul McCartney)

Don't get me wrong. Things have improved a lot over the years, but wherever you go, these lost souls are still wandering. Most of us will never know them, never want to know them, but a very few see beyond the unshaven chin, the unkempt hair and the outmoded clothes. And are ready to offer a warm meal and a few minutes of companionship even if it means missing an appointment.
Doing the right thing means being sensitive without showing it; the veteran who can't hold down a job, lost his family, doesn't want to talk about anything but will accept a few dollars for helping with yard work.
The bag-lady, pushing her world around town in a shopping-cart, accepts the offer of a warm meal.
When the Vagrancy Act was passed in 1834 concern had been expressed about soldiers returning from the Napoleonic wars with no home, or job to return to, and of course it wasn't long before civic authorities began to see the possibility of applying the terms of the Act to the professional beggars, prostitutes and other undesirable persons in their towns and villages. Of course, not all the individuals living on the streets and by their wits can be justly tarred with the same brush. Some of them inhabit their own incomprehensible world, not dangerous to themselves or others, the municipal asylums are unable to help them so that homeless people like Bert, often known to the local constabulary by a friendly appelation, like Burlington Bertie find themselves being shuffled from district to district. Burlington, at the time when the song was popular (and even at the time of writing) is one of the more respectable suburbs of London, favored by the well-to-do and aristocratic families who maintain a residence in the city in addition to their country estates.
Of course, when the case of a vagrant comes before the court, the individual concerned must be represented by a competent barrister; someone like Mr.David Hunter, or Mr.Reginald Smythe, Justice Lord Rosebery presiding.

I'm Bert, p'raps you've heard of me
Bert, you've had word of me,
Jogging along, hearty and strong
Living on plates of fresh air
I dress up in fashion
And when I am feeling depressed
I shave from my cuff all the whiskers and fluff
Stick my hat on and toddle up West

I'm Burlington Bertie, I rise at ten thirty
And saunter along like a toff
I walk down the Strand with my gloves on my hand
Then I walk down again with them off
I'm all airs and graces, correct easy paces
Without food so long I've forgot where my face is
I'm Bert, Bert, I haven't a shirt
But my people are well off you know.
Nearly everyone knows me from Smith to Lord Rosebr'y,
I'm Burlington Bertie from Bow.

I stroll with Lord Hurlington,
Roll in The Burlington
Call for Champagne, walk out again
Come back and borrow the ink
I live most expensive
Like Tom Lipton I'm in the swim
He's got so much 'oof', he sleeps on the roof
And I live in the room over him.

I'm Burlington Bertie, I rise at ten thirty
And saunter along Temple Bar
As round there I skip
I keep shouting 'Pip Pip!'
And the darn'd fools think I'm in my car
At Rothchilds I swank it
My body I plank it
On his front door step with 'The Mail' for a blanket
I'm Bert, Bert, and Rothchild was hurt
He said ' You can't sleep there' I said 'Oh'
He said 'I'm Rothchild sonny!' I said 'That's damn'd funny,
I'm Burlington Bertie from Bow'

I smile condescendingly
While they're extending me
Cheer upon cheer when I appear
Captain with my polo team
So strict are my people
They're William the Conqueror's strain
If they ever knew I'd been talking to you
Why they'd never look at me again

I'm Burlington Bertie, I rise at ten thirty
And reach Kempton Park around three
I stand by the rail, when a horse is for sale
And you ought to see Wooton watch me
I lean on some awning while Lord Derby's yawning
Then he bids two thousand and I bid Good Morning
I'm Bert, Bert, I'd buy one, a cert
But where would I keep it you know
I can't let my man see me in bed with a gee-gee
I'm Burlington Bertie from Bow!

My pose, Tho' ironical
Shows that my monocle
Holds up my face, keeps it in place,
Stops it from slipping away.
Cigars, I smoke thousands,
I usually deal in The Strand
But you've got to take care when you're getting them there
Or some idiot might stand on your hand.

I'm Burlington Bertie, I rise at ten thirty
And Buckingham Palace I view.
I stand in the yard while they're changing the guard
And the queen shouts across Toodle oo!
The Prince of Wales' brother along with some other
Slaps me on the back and says Come and see Mother
But I'm Bert, Bert, and Royalty's hurt,
When they ask me to dine I say no.
I've just had a banana with Lady Diana
I'm Burlington Bertie from Bow.

References

The Theatre of the British Legal System, Part 1, Part 2
                   

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Terra firma once more

When I disembarked, Christopher, the black giant was playing a merry jig for those of his shipmates that were staying aboard during their off-hours:

Whatever the reason for the pings earlier, I've been spared long enough (just a day or so) to complete my voyage to Panjim, and the difference from Munambam could hardly be more pronounced: from a tiny fishing village to a huge, bustling port city. Where the accents of Munambam were almost exclusively Hindi, walking through the bazaar here my ear detects English, Spanish / Portuguese, Hindi, something that I think might be African, and even Arabian.
And the cosmopolitan character of the city is emphasized by the odd mix of Christian churches, and Hindu shrines which populate the whitewashed stucco streets. Though, I am told, most of the shrines are a fairly recent development: when the Holy Inquisition sent their missionaries to ensure the eternal welfare of the Hindi natives in the sixteenth century, many of the faithful risked torture to smuggle their idols to a safe haven about fifteen miles away in the town of Ponda.

I suppose I should really have followed tradition and offered a prayer of thanks for safe conduct in the cathedral of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, but I was more concerned with finding someone to continue my education on the subject of traditional Indian music. Guitars seem to be ubiquitous, but as evening drew on I managed to find a duetting pair adding their music to the lilt of the breeze across the marshes on the edge of the city. In all probability I will never know for certain whether they were father and son as I supposed, the elder improvising hypnotic arabesques on a sarangi, and the younger playing the melody of an evening raag on a bamboo flute.

References

Maps of the region, in PDF (not much help to a timetraveller!)
                   

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Morning Raaga

Thank you, my faithful companion, for coming with me on this voyage. The Taoists have a proverb that The journey is the reward, and it certainly seems to have been the attitude of Dispatch in sending us here: barely forty-eight hours since we docked at the small fishing village of Munambam, and already I am getting a ping to warn me that the elastic is being stretched. When I say docked, what I should say is that the ship anchored offshore in the Arabian Sea and we were permitted to go ashore at Munambam.

The first thing I appreciated about Munambam was the variation in diet made possible by our brief stop: bananas! fresh, ripe bananas which must surely be proof that God loves us! Even in a small fishing village like this, there are brilliant colors everywhere, and here and there, small shrines piled with offerings from the faithful. So far, I have seen several shrines to the elephant-headed Ganesha as well as the universal presence of the Buddha.
With the captain's permission to spend the night in the village at the tiny inn to wait for the village market today, I was too excited to sleep much and the constant chattering of the monkeys from the jungle around the village, and the songs of the night birds populated my thoughts with vivid images of ancient temples and mossy stones beside quiet streams. When the sky was just beginning to lighten, I caught the strains of a sitar somewhere nearby and it was then that I left my bed to go in search of the music.
The old man I found, accompanied by his son and nephew, was introduced to me as Baladhi after perhaps three hours of almost hypnotic improvisation repeating the same underlying theme until the music ceased and the spell broke. It is to Baladhi, and Haresh that I am indebted for the following morning raagas, which I hope I have transcribed (more or less) correctly allowing for the differences between the western scale, and Indian thaat. As explained to me briefly, Indian music not only employs more complex rhythmic devices (taals) than can be easily represented in western notation, but much more subtle divisions of the thaat.

The village market was a surprisingly variegated event; a travelling silversmith set up a small workshop with anvil and forge repairing jewelry and selling beautiful work set with turquoise stones and red coral. The local farmers bring yams, peppers, goats and chickens for sale, and buy fish, and a merchant has a stall selling bolts of cotton.
I hope that at some point it will be possible for me to return to India and explore the culture more thoroughly; it seems nonsensical that despite the technology that makes it possible for me to traverse time and space, the constraints of the project do not permit me to linger even though I can return almost to the same instant from which I departed. Being a mere mortal however, I have a limited number of years available to me, no matter how I use them, so perhaps should take care to spend them carefully!

References

If you're interested in Taoist proverbs, there's a small but concentrated collection of them here.

Gaiye Ganapati; (Real Player) a song in praise of Lord Ganesh
Performed by Chandrakantha Courtney.

                   

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Jack fell down and broke his crown

We're almost down to the Cape of Good Hope, and the weather has stayed fair for the last few days, just getting a little cooler. However, I am feeling a strange sense of loss after one of the crew fell from one of the crosstrees. He survived the fall, but took a dent on the noggin when he landed and had it not been for the willingness of our surgeon-barber to accept the assistance of an Indian physician from a trading dhow, I am afraid we would have lost him.
After the unfortunate fellow was diagnosed with bleeding into a part of the brain referred to as the Cave of Brahma by the physician, I suspect it was partly by virtue of being female that I was invited to assist in an operation to relieve pressure within his brain. Overruling the objections of his western counterpart, the physician first produced a natural sponge soaked in a pungent preparation which I learned later.¹
Despite the smell from the sponge which I held over his nose, the patient quieted noticeably and I actually had to make an effort to engage him in conversation and keep him at least semi-conscious while the physician worked with astonishing speed and dexterity, making his incision, trephining a small piece of bone and spilling bloody fluid on the deck.
As soon as he had finished suturing the wound and I was able to remove the sponge, he applied a compress made with the leaves of the Ekdandi to staunch the bleeding. Now, several days later, the patient is recovering well although he complains of a splitting headache which is apparently caused by contamination of his spinal fluid. But he is able to perform light duties, mostly swabbing and sail-mending. But he shows a marked change in personality. Where he had been one of the more exuberant members of the crew, now he is quiet and rather withdrawn and I'm not sure whether it is the result of his injury, the remedy applied, or perhaps, the anaesthesia?
During their off-hours, his shipmates try to engage him in games and songs, looking for traces of their old comrade, but it seems he may not be there any longer. However, in their efforts to kindle the cheery spark of former times, I have learned that there are shanties for:

• Hauling the halyard
• Pumping the bilge
• Winding the capstan or the windlass
• And Fo'c'sle shanties for just making whoopie in off-hours!

The example below is a good Short-drag shanty from one of the African members of the crew:

References

1. • Opium
   • Mulberry juice (from unripe berries)
   • Decoction of Mandragora root
   • Decoction of Ivy stem
   • Decoction of Hemlock stem

                    

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