AN INDIAN RIP VAN WINKLE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1896, 25 May 1889, Page 4

AN INDIAN RIP VAN WINKLE.

Under the heading, "An Indian Kip Van Winkle," the Calcutta Statesman writes:—" In the, Calcutta High Court, the wonderful history of a Hindoo ' claimant' occupied the attention of Mr Justice Norris for lome day». Nundo Lall Pal, according to his story, left the family house in Joraaanko, Calcutta, some 47 years ago, in consequence of the harsh treatment lie received from his brothers. Ho was then 17 years of age, and after wandering for some days in the streets, and sleeping at nights in the sweetmeat shops, he fell in with an emigration agent, who pereuadeed hira to ship to the Mauritius, nnder the name of Peer Bukkus He took service there as a coolie eirdar under his Mahommedan name, and in time forgot the laaguage of his fathers, but retained a recollection of the family history. For many years he continued to serve in a strange land, finding himself unable U save enough money for his return passage; and after sending Home one letter be relinquished as hopeless the attempt to communicate with his relatives. Eventually he obtained a passage to India from the Emigration Agency, on account of his being too old to work, and he then made his way to tho ancestral dwelling house, where he found his nephews in possession. His ; contemporaries, with the exception of some of the ladie* of the family, were all dead, but the latter professed to recognise bim, and introduced him as 'Uncle.' On his putting in a clam to a share in the family property, he was, however, met with a good many questions, and it was dec ded to treat him as an impostor. Eis story, as told in the witneas box in broken Hindustani, or! the events of his boyhood, bore upon it the semblance of truth ; but it was urged with some force that the claim, even if a true one, was barred by limitation under the act of 1859, as the plaintiff had not participated in the profits of the joint family estate during his absence from India. Whether this act or the subsequent ones applied to the case is a vsry difficult question, which it became unnecessary to decide, asthe nephews agreed to allow their ancient relative an acuity for the remainder of his life. It is not -often in this country that a Btp Van Winkle returns to life after a prolonged aojourn in a foreign laud, having survived two generations during an expatriation of nearly half a century. Nundo Lall Pal's absence covers a period that has witnessed the complete transformation of India."