Word: bengals
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NIGHTRUNNERS OF BENGAL (339 pp.)-John Masters-Viking...
...merchants, soldiers and women of the British community in India had little sense of what lay in store for them, those last days of 1856, on the eve of the Sepoy Mutiny. Even sturdy Captain Rodney Savage, 13th Rifles, Bengal Native Infantry, was slow to understand the signs and undercurrents: holy gurus croaking to the crows, the native nightrunners who were carrying from village to village the bread and goat-flesh symbols of Shiva, god of destruction...
...beef fat was mortal offense to the Hindus among them, hog fat to the Mohammedans. Fanatics and profiteers, princes and foreign agents were also working overtime to stir up the sepoys. By the time Savage had it all deciphered, it was too late. The mutiny burst across Bengal, and hundreds of men, women & children were slaughtered before the British brought in enough reinforcements to crush it and execute the mutineers by cannonfire...
...stuffed Bengal tiger, his stripped fur bristling, has a notorious past. "Many districts of India have been terrorized by this species which has acquired a taste for human flesh, but the number has been much reduced at present." It is unclear whether the reduction was in tigers or districts. A lion across the aisle glares from his glass cage. "In the wild state lions usually live up to their reputation of daring and ferocity. They prey upon large animals, especially zebras and antelopes, and in occasional instances have acquired the man-eating habit...
Director Henry (Lives of a Bengal Lancer) Hathaway is never able to overcome that handicap. Whenever the movie's fitful action promises to become as spectacular as its settings, his camera seems to be looking in the wrong direction. The ferocity of Mongol hordes, commanded by a leering Orson Welles, is neatly foreshadowed in scenes of a barbaric tournament. But when they pillage and burn Chinese cities, the picture has nothing to show for it but some lines of post-mortem dialogue and a pillar of fiery smoke on the far horizon. An oily merchant announces that...