|
Aleister Crowley Diary Entry Wednesday, 30 April 1902
The following day we went on to Gundisarsingh. We got off the coolies, 150 in number, as ponies were not to be had at this stage without any great difficulty.
I should explain here the system on which we worked. With such a large party of men it was impossible to keep the same men for more than two or three days; in any case it is impossible to know them all by sight, the more so that one is changing repeatedly. We therefore gave each man a ticket with his name and the number of his load, on the production of which and the load in question he was paid. Had we not done so, of course, every man in the neighbourhood would have hurried up like vultures scenting the carcass and claimed his pay as a coolie. Some of these naïve persons actually travelled four days in order to collect one day's pay which they had not earned!
Though this stage is only 14 miles I arrived in a complete condition of collapse, a state which I always reach after doing a very little work.
|