caparisoned -- (adj. describing beasts of burden) decorated with lots of fancy saddle-cloths and saddles and other bits and pieces.

Ne varietur is Latin for "let it not be altered". I don't know if that helps or not.

Dewas -- dewa is the Indonesian for god (in polytheistic religion), probably from Sanskrit. I don't know if that helps or not. I believe Dewas is also a place name.

wideawake hat -- I've seen this before but I don't know exactly what it is. At a guess, a hat with a turned up brim so you can't use it to shade your eyes while you have a doze?

Lusus naturoe -- I suspect this is a misprint for the Latin lusus naturae (or it represents Father Victor's pronunciation, or a dig at him being uneducated or trying to appear more educated than he in fact is, I don't know I haven't read the book), which would mean a game of nature, usually anglicised as a sport of nature, meaning one of a kind.

wry-necked -- complicated, not straightforward, probably deliberately so.

caravanserai, serai -- inn. Whether a caravanserai would be bigger than a serai (to cope with caravans?) I don't know.


Bingley

Bingley