{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_72756/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_72756","id":"gutenberg_72756","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/72756","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Travel Writing","India -- Description and travel","India -- Religion","India -- Social life and customs","Music -- India -- History and criticism","Sri Lanka -- Description and travel"],"text":"Transcriber\u2019s Note: Italics are enclosed in _underscores_. Additional\nnotes will be found near the end of this ebook.\n\n\n\n\n                      FROM ADAM\u2019S PEAK\n\n                                  TO ELEPHANTA:\n\n                      _SKETCHES IN CEYLON AND INDIA_.\n\n\n\n\n                      _WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR._\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n  =ENGLAND\u2019S IDEAL=, and other papers on Social Subjects. Crown 8vo,\n    cloth 2_s._ 6_d._; paper wrappers 1_s._\n\n  =CHANTS OF LABOUR=: A Song Book of the People. With a frontispiece\n    and title-page designed by WALTER CRANE. Music and Words. Imp.\n    16mo, cloth 2_s._; paper wrappers 1_s._\n\n  =CIVILISATION, ITS CAUSE AND CURE=: and other Essays. Crown 8vo,\n    cloth 2_s._ 6_d._\n\n\u201cIn \u2018England\u2019s Ideal\u2019 and \u2018Civilisation\u2019 Mr. Carpenter sets forth in\nprose his criticism (unsurpassed at times by Ruskin, his master in this\nfield) of the diseases of polite society, and his faith as to their\nmeaning and the method of their abatement.\u201d--_Daily Chronicle._\n\n\n                    SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO.: LONDON.\n\n\n  =TOWARDS DEMOCRACY.= Third Edition, 1892, with numerous added poems,\n    pp. 367. Crown 8vo, cloth 5_s._\n\n\u201cA remarkable work.\u201d--_Academy._\n\n                        T. FISHER UNWIN: LONDON.\n\n\n\n\n                      FROM\n                          ADAM\u2019S PEAK\n                              TO\n                                  ELEPHANTA\n\n                      _SKETCHES IN CEYLON AND INDIA_\n\n\n                                  BY\n                           EDWARD CARPENTER.\n\n\n                            [Illustration]\n\n\n                    LONDON: SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO.\n                       NEW YORK: MACMILLAN & CO.\n                                 1892.\n\n\n\n\n                            BUTLER & TANNER,\n                      THE SELWOOD PRINTING WORKS,\n                           FROME, AND LONDON.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nIf asked to write a book about his own country and people a man might\nwell give up the task as hopeless--yet to do the same about a distant\nland in which he has only spent a few months is a thing which the\naverage traveler quite cheerfully undertakes. I suppose this may be\nlooked upon as another illustration of the great fact that the less\none knows of a matter the easier it is to write or talk about it. But\nthere is, it is sometimes said, a certain merit of their own in first\nimpressions; and I trust that this may appear in the present case.\nCertainly though there are many things that are missed in a first\nglance there are some things that stand out clearer then than later.\n\nIn the following pages I have tried to keep as far as possible to the\nrelation of things actually seen and heard, and not to be betrayed into\ndoubtful generalisations. It is so easy in the case of a land like\nIndia, which is as large as Europe (without Russia) and at least as\nmultifarious in its peoples, languages, creeds, customs, and manners,\nto make the serious mistake of supposing that what is true of one\nlocality necessarily applies to the whole vast demesne, that I must\nspecially warn the reader not only against falling into this error\nhimself, but against the possibility of my having fallen into it in\nplaces.\n\nAs far as actual experience of life in Ceylon and India is concerned\nI have perhaps been fortunate; not only in being introduced (through\nthe kindness of local friends) into circles of traditional teaching\nwhich are often closed against the English, and in so getting to know\nsomething of the esoteric religious lore of South India; but also in\nobtaining some interesting glimpses behind the scenes of the Hindu\nceremonial. I have too had the good luck to find friends and familiar\nacquaintances among all classes of native society, down almost to the\nlowest; and I must say that the sectional view I have thus obtained of\nthe mass-people in this part of the world has made me feel with renewed\nassurance the essential oneness of humanity everywhere, notwithstanding\nthe very marked local and superficial differences that undoubtedly\nexist.\n\nThe spectacle of the social changes now taking place in India is one\nthat is full of interest to any one who has studied and taken part in\nthe Socialistic movement at home; and the interest of it is likely to\nincrease. For though the movement in India is not the same as that at\nhome, it forms a curious counterpart to the latter; and being backed by\neconomic changes which will probably persist for years to come is not\nlikely to die out very soon.\n\nFor the rest the book must rely on the description of scenes of nature\nand of ordinary human life, whose unexpected vividness forced me to\nportray them--though to begin with I had no intention of doing so. The\nillustrations are many of them taken from the excellent photographs of\nMessrs. Scowen of Colombo, Messrs. Bourn of Bombay, and Messrs. Frith\nof Reigate.\n\n                                                               E. C.\n\n_Nov. 1892._\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                               _CEYLON._\n\n\n  CHAPTER I.\n\n  COLOMBO.\n                                                                   PAGES\n  The Suez Canal--Port Said--Gulf of Suez--The Red Sea--\n    Colombo--Its streets and population--Picturesque\n    glimpses--Tommy Atkins in a jinrickshaw--The Tamils\n    and the Cinghalese--Costume and Character--Language\n    and Literature--The British and the Eurasians--Social\n    arrangements and amenities--\u201cSpicy gales\u201d--The coco-nut\n    palm--A catamaran                                               5\u201325\n\n\n  CHAPTER II.\n\n  KANDY AND PEASANT LIFE.\n\n  Primitive habits of the Cinghalese--\u201cAjax\u201d arrives from\n    England--A peasant-cabin near Kandy--Marriage-customs--\n    Devil-dancing--Kalua and Kirrah--Their rice-fields and\n    mode of life--The great Buddhist temple at Kandy--The\n    tooth-relic--Ancient MSS.--A Librarian-priest--The\n    talipot palm--The British and the natives--The \u201coyster\u201d--\n    Nuwara Ellia                                                   26\u201339\n\n\n  CHAPTER III.\n\n  KURUN\u00c9GALA.\n\n  Cinghalese views on Politics--Kornegalle--The\n    Elephant-rock--The general landscape in Ceylon--Tanks\n    and irrigation--The Paddy tax--Modern Commercial\n    policy--Poverty of the people--The village bath--Decorum\n    and passivity in manners--The bazaar and the shops--My\n    friend the opium-seller--The policeman--The gaol and the\n    prisoners--A Tamil official and his mode of life--The\n    Bungalow--Mosquitos--Vegetable curries--The Hindu priest\n    in the household--Native servants, their relation to\n    British masters--The pariahs, and our slum-dwellers            40\u201359\n\n\n  CHAPTER IV.\n\n  ADAM\u2019S PEAK AND THE BLACK RIVER.\n\n  Ascent of Adam\u2019s Peak--A night on the summit--The unclad\n    natives endure the cold--Advantage of sun-baths--A\n    society for the encouragement of nudity--Moonlight view\n    from the summit of the Peak--History of the mountain--\n    Sunrise--The shadow on the mist, and other phenomena--\n    Adam\u2019s foot-print--The pavilion on the summit, and\n    the priests--Caliban doing _poojah_--Descent by the\n    pilgrim-track--The great woods--Fauna and Flora--\n    Ratnapura, the city of jewels--Boat-voyage down the\n    Kaluganga to Kalutara--Descent of rapids--Kalua enjoys\n    the voyage--A tea-planter at home--Wage-slavery on the\n    tea-plantations--The tea-factory--Letters from \u201cAjax\u201d\n    about the coolies                                              60\u201385\n\n\n  CHAPTER V.\n\n  BRITISH LAW-COURTS AND BUDDHIST TEMPLES.\n\n  The courts a great centre of popular interest--A means of\n    wreaking personal revenge--The district court--A case of\n    burglary--The British ideal of life does not appeal to the\n    natives--A Tamil student of philosophy--To Dambulla in a\n    bullock-cart--A coterie of Eurasians--The cave-temples\n    of Dambulla--A boy-priest and his cook--Other Buddhist\n    temples                                                        86\u201397\n\n\n  CHAPTER VI.\n\n  ANUR\u00c1DHAPURA: A RUINED CITY OF THE JUNGLE.\n\n  A night in the \u201cmail-coach\u201d--The present village of\n    Anur\u00e1dhapura--\u201cPools of water and a habitation for the\n    bittern\u201d--The remains of the Brazen Palace--The oldest\n    tree in the world--Ruins of enormous _d\u00e1gobas_--Specimens\n    of early sculpture--Temples, porticos, stone troughs,\n    cisterns, bathing tanks--A fine statue of Buddha--The\n    city as it was in the 7th century--Its history--View\n    to-day from the Abhayagiria d\u00e1goba--Moral and sentimental\n    reflections                                                   99\u2013115\n\n\n  CHAPTER VII.\n\n  A NIGHT-FESTIVAL IN A HINDU TEMPLE.\n\n  The festival of Taypusam--The temple, the crowd, and blowing\n    up of trumpets in the full moon--Image of Siva, the raft\n    and the sacred lake--Hymns and offerings to the god--\n    Fearful and wonderful music--Temper of the crowd, and\n    influences of the ceremonial--Interior of Temple--The\n    _lingam_ and the worship of sex--The bull Nandi--Great\n    procession of the gods round Temple--Remindful of Bacchic\n    processions--The Nautch girls, their dress, and dances--\n    Culmination of the show--Revelation of Siva                  116\u2013134\n\n\n                         _A VISIT TO A G\u00d1\u00c1NI._\n\n\n  CHAPTER VIII.\n\n  A VISIT TO A G\u00d1\u00c1NI.\n\n  Two schools of esoteric teachers, the Himalayan and South\n    Indian--A South-Indian teacher--Three conditions for the\n    attainment of divine knowledge or _g\u00f1\u00e1nam_--The fraternity\n    of Adepts--_Yogam_ the preparation for _g\u00f1\u00e1nam_--The\n    _yogis_--Story of Tillein\u00e1than Sw\u00e1my--Democratic\n    character of his teaching--Compare stories of Christ--\n    Tamil philosophy and popular beliefs concerning Adepts--\n    The present teacher, his personality and habits--\u201cJoy,\n    always joy\u201d                                                  137\u2013152\n\n\n  CHAPTER IX.\n\n  CONSCIOUSNESS WITHOUT THOUGHT.\n\n  What is the nature of a G\u00f1\u00e1ni\u2019s experience? Answer given\n    in modern thought-terms--Slow evolution of a new form\n    of consciousness--Many a slip and pause by the way--A\n    consciousness without thought--Meaning of \u201cNirwana\u201d--\n    Phenomena of hypnotism--Theory of the fourth dimension--\n    The true quality of the soul is Space, by which it is\n    present everywhere--Freedom, Equality--The democratic\n    basis of Eastern philosophy                                  153\u2013163\n\n\n  CHAPTER X.\n\n  METHODS OF ATTAINMENT.\n\n  Physical methods adopted by some of the _yogis_--\n    Self-mesmerism, fasting, severe penance--The _Siddhi_ or\n    miraculous powers--Mental methods, (1) the Concentration,\n    and (2) the Effacement of Thought--Difficulties of\n    (1) and (2), but great value for the Western peoples\n    to-day--Concentration and Effacement of Thought are\n    correlative powers--They lead to the discovery of the\n    true Self--Moral methods, gentleness, candor, serenity--\n    Non-differentiation--The final deliverance--Probable\n    difference between Eastern and Western methods of\n    attainment--Through the Will, and through Love               164\u2013182\n\n\n  CHAPTER XI.\n\n  TRADITIONS OF THE ANCIENT WISDOM-RELIGION.\n\n  Difficulty of giving any concise account of Indian teaching--\n    Personal _rapprochement_ to the Guru, but alienation\n    from the formalities of his doctrine--Medi\u00e6val theories\n    of Astronomy and Geology--Philosophy of the Siddhantic\n    system--The five elements, five forms of sensation, etc.--\n    The twenty-six _tatwas_, and the Self which stands apart\n    from them all--Evolution and Involution--The five shells\n    which enclose the soul--Death and Birth--Crudities of\n    Astrology, Physiology, etc.--Double signification of\n    many doctrines--Resemblance of modern Guru to a Vedic\n    Sage--His criticisms of the English and of English rule--\n    Importance to the West of the Indian traditions              183\u2013203\n\n\n                               _INDIA._\n\n\n  CHAPTER XII.\n\n  THE SOUTH INDIAN TEMPLES.\n\n  Colombo to Tuticorin--The plains of the Carnatic--Thirty\n    great Dravidian temples--The temple at Tanjore--Colossal\n    monolithic bull--The pagoda, a fine piece of work--\n    \u201cIt casts no shadow\u201d--Subsidiary temples and frescoed\n    arcades--A regiment of _lingams_--The Tanjore palace--\n    The temple at M\u00e1dura--The _Choultrie_, the Eastern gate,\n    and the Hall of a thousand Columns--Crowds in the temple\n    precincts, gloom and stillness of the interior--Juggernath\n    cars in the streets--The Temple of Chid\u00e1mbaram, a goal\n    of pilgrimage and a den of Brahmans--The weird hall of\n    a thousand columns, haunted by bats--A cranky Brahman--\n    Goldsmiths at work for the Temple--A truculent pilgrim\n                                                                 209\u2013226\n\n\n  CHAPTER XIII.\n\n  MADRAS AND CALCUTTA.\n\n  The streets of Madras--Comparison with Ceylon--Impositions\n    of drivers, boatmen, hotel managers, etc.--A straggling\n    dull city--A centre however of Hindu political and\n    literary life--Visit to Adyar and the Theosophist\n    headquarters--Blavatsky curios--Scenes of native life--\n    The river Hooghly--Calcutta city and population--\n    Festival of bathing in the Ganges--A Circus--Poverty\n    of the people--Meeting of the Dufferin Fund--British\n    philanthropy in India--A native school--A group of\n    Bengalis--Their love of long yarns, and of music--Panna\n    Lall and his gymnast friends--Chundi Churn performs on the\n    _s\u00edtar_--The Indian music                                    227\u2013251\n\n\n  CHAPTER XIV.\n\n  BENARES.\n\n  The plains of the Ganges--The crops, and the peasant life--\n    Sentiment of the great expanse--Sacredness of the river--\n    Far-back worship of Siva--Benares a centre of Hindu life--\n    The streets and shops--The Golden Temple--The riverside,\n    characteristic scenes--A spring festival--A talk with a\n    yogi--The burning ghauts--Panna Lall wants to bathe--\n    Religious ablutions--A self-mutilated fakir                  252\u2013267\n\n\n  CHAPTER XV.\n\n  THE ANGLO-INDIAN AND THE OYSTER.\n\n  Allahabad--Difficulty of really knowing India--The great\n    gulf of race-difference--The Hindu does not understand\n    \u201cDuty\u201d--The duty-loving Englishman does not understand the\n    Hindu--Race-divisions in the United States--We came to\n    India as conquerors--The gulf remains, and will remain--\n    Criticisms by an educated \u201coyster\u201d--Aligarh affords an\n    instance of friendly feeling between the two sections--\n    The M.A.O. College--A convivial dinner-party--Sir Syed\n    Ahmed and the Mahomedan influence--Horse-fair at Aligarh--\n    Cabulees, and a native wrestling-bout                        268\u2013281\n\n\n  CHAPTER XVI.\n\n  DELHI AND AGRA.\n\n  Approach to Delhi--The Fort and the old Palace--The town\n    and population--The Jumma Mosque--The environs of Delhi,\n    a waste of ruined cities--The Kutab Minar and the old\n    fortress of Lalkab--Agra, the Fort and the Palace--The\n    Jessamine Tower--Lovely marble and mosaic--The Taj at\n    twilight--A fairy scene--Flocks of green parrots--\n    Moonlight on the Jumna--\u201cDo we not respect our women?\u201d--\n    A coterie of professors--The population of Agra--Scenes\n    at the railway stations--A favorable specimen of Young\n    India--An incident in the train                              282\u2013298\n\n\n  CHAPTER XVII.\n\n  BOMBAY.\n\n  The native Bombay a wonderful spectacle--Workshops,\n    saleshops, opium dens, theatres, temples, mosques--The\n    population, Mahrattas and Parsees--The modern city and the\n    manufacturing quarter--The Parsee nose--Justice Telang, a\n    Mahratta--The Bunya Caste--Tribhovan Das at home--View\n    from the Malabar Hill--A Bunya wedding--Native theatres--\n    The Salvation Army--Across the harbor to Elephanta--The\n    great cave-temple--Sculptured panels, the Hindu Trinity--\n    The human-divine life of Siva--Impressive effect of the\n    whole--An opium den--Various sorts of \u201cecstasy\u201d produced\n    by these and other drugs--The proletariat at home--Music\n    and conversation--Dream of a \u201cUnited India\u201d--Bombay at\n    night--On the way to Aden--A calm and starlit ocean--A\n    beautiful panorama.                                          299\u2013324\n\n\n                _THE OLD ORDER AND THE NEW INFLUENCES._\n\n\n  CHAPTER XVIII.\n\n  THE OLD ORDER: CASTE AND COMMUNISM.\n\n  Remarkable social movement in India--Complexity and\n    corruption of Caste system--The Brahmans--Defence of\n    caste from native point of view--Specimens of caste\n    regulation--Caste tyranny--Story of a widow re-marriage--\n    Pharisaism of respectability--Caste in its other aspect\n    as a Trade-Guild--Tempering competition--Instances of\n    this--Communism, the second great feature of social life--\n    Village, Caste and Family communism--The last still\n    flourishing--Anecdotes--Old sanctions being destroyed by\n    commercialism--Sacredness of Family tie                      327\u2013344\n\n\n  CHAPTER XIX.\n\n  THE NEW INFLUENCES: WESTERN SCIENCE AND COMMERCIALISM.\n\n  Great spread of Western education--Euclid and Political\n    Economy at Tuticorin--Schools and Colleges throughout\n    India--Cricket and golf--Young India--\u201cWe are all\n    Agnostics now\u201d--Similar spread of Commercialism--Interior\n    of a cotton-mill at Bombay--Large profits, conditions\n    of labor--Numerous trading posts and clerkships--The\n    National Indian Congress--Its ideals and influence--\n    Disliked by the British--The social gulf again--Our\n    future in India--The break-up of village life--Problem of\n    pauperism, Sir Henry Maine--Incongruity of Commercialism\n    with the genius of India--Probable ascendancy of the\n    former for a time--But only for a time                       345\u2013363\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n                                                                    PAGE\n  SEASHORE NEAR COLOMBO                                   _Frontispiece_\n\n  CINGHALESE MAN                                                      14\n\n  A JAFFNA TAMIL                                                      15\n\n  JINRICKSHAW                                                         17\n\n  CINGHALESE GIRL                                                     19\n\n  KALUA                                                               27\n\n  PLOUGHING IN THE RICE-FIELDS                                        32\n\n  BUDDHIST LIBRARIAN-PRIEST                                           34\n\n  KANDY, GENERAL VIEW                                                 36\n\n  NATIVE HUT                                                          42\n\n  NATIVE STREET, WITH SHOPS                                           47\n\n  VEDDAHS, ABORIGINES OF CEYLON                                       56\n\n  RICE-BOATS ON THE KALUGANGA                                         76\n\n  GROUP OF TAMIL COOLIES                                              80\n\n  TAMIL GIRL PLUCKING TEA                                             83\n\n  BULLOCK-HACKERY, OR LIGHT CART                                      87\n\n  CINGHALESE COUNTRY-CART                                             92\n\n  JETAWANAR\u00c1MA D\u00c1GOBA                                                 98\n\n  THUPAR\u00c1MA D\u00c1GOBA                                                   104\n\n  A RUINED BATHING-TANK, ANUR\u00c1DHAPURA                                108\n\n  SMALL GUARDIAN FIGURE, BUDDHIST SCULPTURE                          113\n\n  A TAMIL MAN                                                        119\n\n  NAUTCH GIRL                                                        129\n\n  GREAT PAGODA AT TANJORE                                            208\n\n  TEMPLE AT TANJORE, GENERAL VIEW                                    211\n\n  TEMPLE AND TANK AT MYLAPORE                                        224\n\n  CHUNDI CHURN B.                                                    240\n\n  PANNA LALL B.                                                      243\n\n  WOMAN PLAYING S\u00cdTAR                                                248\n\n  THE GHAUTS AT BENARES                                              260\n\n  THE DEWAN KHAS AT DELHI                                            283\n\n  THE JUMMA MUSJID AT DELHI                                          285\n\n  MARBLE SCREEN-WORK                                                 289\n\n  THE TAJ AT AGRA                                                    291\n\n  STREET IN BOMBAY, NATIVE QUARTER                                   300\n\n  PARSEE WOMAN                                                       302\n\n  PARSEE MERCHANTS                                                   304\n\n  THE GREAT CAVE AT ELEPHANTA                                        311\n\n  PANEL SCULPTURE, SIVA AND PARVATI                                  314\n\n  INTERIOR SHRINE AT ELEPHANTA                                       316\n\n  SIDE-CAVE, ELEPHANTA                                               322\n\n\n\n\nCEYLON\n\n[Illustration: SEASHORE NEAR COLOMBO.\n\n(_Outrigged canoe in foreground._)]\n\n\n\n\nFROM ADAM\u2019S PEAK TO ELEPHANTA.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nCOLOMBO.\n\n\nImagine a blue-green ribbon of water some 60 yards wide, then rough\nsandy dunes 10 or 20 feet high, and then beyond, the desert, burning\nyellow in the sun--here and there partly covered with scrub, but for\nthe most part seeming quite bare; sometimes flat and stony, sometimes\ntossed and broken, sometimes in great drifts and wreaths of sand, just\nlike snowdrifts, delicately ribbed by the wind--the whole stretching\naway for miles, scores of miles, not a moving form visible, till it is\nbounded on the horizon by a ridge of hills of the most ethereal pink\nunder an intense blue sky. Such is the view to the east of us now, as\nwe pass through the Suez Canal (19th October, 1890). To the west the\nland looks browner and grayer; some reeds mark a watercourse, and about\n10 miles off appears a frowning dark range of bare hills about 2,000\nfeet high, an outlying spur of the hills (Jebel Att\u00e1kah) that bound the\nGulf of Suez.\n\nIn such a landscape one of the signal stations, with its neat tiled\ncottage and flagstaff, and a few date palms and perhaps a tiny bit of\ngarden, is quite an attraction to the eye. These stations are placed at\nintervals of about 6 miles all along the canal. They serve to regulate\nthe traffic, which is now enormous, and continuous night and day. The\ngreat ships nearly fill the waterway, so that one has to be drawn\naside and moored in order to let another pass; and though they are not\nallowed to go faster than 4 miles an hour they create a considerable\nwave in their rear, which keeps washing down the banks. Tufts of a\nreedy grass have been planted in places to hold the sand together;\nbut the silt is very great, and huge steam-dredges are constantly at\nwork to remove it. Here and there on the bank is a native hut of dry\nreeds--three sides and a flat top--just a shelter from the sun; or an\nArab tent, with camels tethered by the leg around it. At Kantarah the\ncaravan track from Jerusalem--one of the great highways of the old\nworld--crosses the canal; there are a few wood and mud huts, and it\nis curious to see the string of laden camels and the Arabs in their\nunbleached cotton burnouses coming down--just as they might be coming\ndown from the time of Father Abraham--and crossing the path of this\nhuge modern steamship, with its electric lights and myriad modern\nappliances, the _Kaiser Wilhelm_ now going half-way round the globe.\n\nThe desert does not seem quite devoid of animal life; at any rate along\nthe canal side you may see tracks in the sand of rabbits and hares,\noccasional wagtail-like birds by the water, a few crows hovering above,\nor a sea-gull, not to mention camels and a donkey or two, or a goat.\nNear Port Said they say the lagoons are sometimes white with flocks of\npelicans and flamingoes, but we passed there in the night. It was fine\nto see the electric light, placed in the bows, throwing a clear beam\nand illuminating the banks for fully half a mile ahead, as we slowly\nsteamed along. The driven sand looked like snow in the bluish light.\nThe crescent moon and Venus were in the sky, and the red signal lights\nbehind us of Port Said.\n\nThe canal is 90 miles long, and a large part of it follows the bed of\na very ancient canal which is supposed to have connected the two seas.\nIt appears that there is a very slight movement of the water through it\nfrom south to north.\n\nWe are now nearing Suez, and the heat is so great that it reverberates\nfrom the banks as from a furnace; of course the deck is under an\nawning. The remains of a little village built of clay appears, but the\nhuts have broken down, split by the fierce sun-rays, and some light\nframe-houses, roofed and walled with shingles, have taken their place.\n\n_Gulf of Suez._--The town of Suez is a tumbledown little place, narrow\nlanes and alleys; two-storied stone houses mostly, some with carved\nwooden fronts, and on the upper floors lattice-work, behind which\nI suppose the women abide. Some nice-looking faces in the streets,\nbut a good many ruffians; not so bad though as Port Said, where\nthe people simply exist to shark upon the ships. In both places an\ninsane medley of Arabs, fellahs, half-castes and Europeans, touts,\nguides, donkey-boys, etc., and every shade of dress and absurd hybrid\ncostume, from extreme Oriental to correct English; ludicrous scenes\nof passengers going on shore, ladies clinging round the necks of\nswarthy boatmen; donkey-boys shouting the names of their donkeys--\u201cMr.\nBradlaugh, sir, very fine donkey,\u201d \u201cMrs. Langtry,\u201d \u201cBishop of London,\u201d\netc.; fearful altercations about claimed _baksheesh_; parties beguiled\ninto outlying quarters of the town and badly blackmailed; refusals of\nboatmen to take you back to the ship while the very gong of departure\nis sounding; and so forth. Suez however has a little caravan and\ncoasting trade of its own, besides the railway which now runs thence to\nCairo, and has antique claims to a respectability which its sister city\nat the other end of the canal cannot share.\n\nNow that we are out in the gulf, the sea is deep blue, and very\nbeautiful, the rocks and mountains along the shore very wild and bare,\nand in many parts of a strong red color. This arm of the Red Sea is\nabout 150 miles long, and I think not more than 20 miles wide at any\npoint; in some places it is much less. We pass jutting capes and\nislands quite close on the west of us--great rocky ravine-cut masses\nabsolutely bare of vegetation. On the east--apparently about 10 miles\ndistant, but very clear--stands an outlying range of Sinai--Jebel\nSirbal by name--looks about 5,000 or 6,000 feet high, very wild and\ncraggy, many of the peaks cloven at the summit and gaping as if with\nthe heat; farther back some higher points are visible, one of which\nis probably Jebel Musa. A most extraordinary land; at some places one\ncan discern--especially with the aid of a glass--large tracts or\nplains of loose sand, miles in extent, and perfectly level, except\nwhere they wash up in great drifts against the bases of the mountains.\nAcross these plains tall dark columns can be distinguished slowly\ntraveling--the dreaded sand-clouds borne on eddies of the wind.\n\n_Indian Ocean, Oct. 25th._--Much cooler now. In the Red Sea, with\nthermometer at 90\u00b0 in the cabins, heat was of course the absorbing\ntopic. Everybody mopping; punkahs in full swing. I believe the _water_\nthere frequently reaches 90\u00b0 F., and sometimes 95\u00b0; but here it is\nquite cool, probably not much over 60\u00b0, and that alone makes a great\ndifference. It is a queer climate in the Red Sea: there seems to be\nalways a haze, due to dust blown from the shores; at the same time\nthe air is very damp, owing to the enormous evaporation, clothes hung\nup get quite wet, and there are heavy dews. When the wind is aft the\noppression from the heat is sometimes so great that ships have to be\nturned back and steamed against the breeze; but even so casualties and\ndeaths are not uncommon. Owing to the haze, and the breadth of the\nRed Sea which is as much as 200 miles in parts, little is seen of the\nshores. A few rocky islands are passed, and a good many awkward reefs\nwhich the passengers know nothing of. The Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb\nare curious. The passage between the Island of Perim and the Arabian\nmainland is quite narrow, only a mile or two wide; tossed wild-looking\nhills on the mainland, 3,000 or 4,000 feet high, with French\nfortifications. The island itself lower and more rounded, with English\nfort and lighthouse; but looking very black and bare, though owing\nto the moisture there is some kind of stunted heathery stuff growing\non it. There are a few English here, and a native town of waggon-like\ntents clustered round the fort; some little fishing and sailing boats\nalong the shores. Turning eastwards along the south coast of Arabia the\nsame awful land meets the eye as in the Gulf of Suez. A continual cloud\nof dust flies along it, through which one discerns sandy plains, and\nhigh parched summits beyond. There must however be water in some parts\nof this region, as it is back from here in this angle of Arabia that\nMocha lies and the coffee is grown.\n\n_Colombo._--I fear that the Red Sea combined with mutual boredom had a\nbad effect on the passengers\u2019 tempers, for terrible dissensions broke\nout; and after six days of the Indian Ocean, during which the only\ndiversions were flying-fish outside and scandal-mongering inside the\nship, it was a relief to land on the palm-fringed coast of Ceylon. The\nslender catamarans--or more properly outrigged canoes--manned by dusky\nforms, which come to take you ashore, are indeed so narrow that it is\nimpossible to sit inside them! They are made of a \u201cdug-out\u201d tree-trunk\n(see frontispiece), with parallel bulwarks fastened on only 10 inches\nor a foot apart; across the bulwarks a short board is placed, and on\n_that_ you can sit. Two arms projecting on one side carry a float or\nlight fish-shaped piece of wood, which rests on the water 8 feet or\nso from the canoe, and prevents the vessel from capsizing, which it\nwould otherwise infallibly do. Impelled by oars, or by a sail, the\nboat bounds over the water at a good speed; and the mode of traveling\nis very pleasant. There is no necessity however to embark in these\nfrail craft, for respectable civilised boats, and even steam-launches,\nabound; we are indeed in an important and busy port.\n\nA great granite mole, built five years ago, has converted an open\nroadstead into a safe and capacious harbor, and there is now probably\nno place in the East better supplied with mails and passenger boats\nthan Colombo. It is the calling place for the great lines of steamers\n_en route_ for Australia, for China and Japan, and for Calcutta and\nBurmah, not to mention smaller coasting boats from the mainland of\nIndia, and so forth. The city itself has only the slightest resemblance\nto a European town. There is a fort certainly, and a Government House,\nand barracks with a regiment of infantry (part of whom however are\ngenerally up country); there are two or three streets of two or even\nthree-storied houses, with shops, banks, mercantile offices, etc.; a\nfew hotels and big goods stores, a lighthouse, and a large engineering\nworks, employing some hundreds of Cinghalese and Tamil operatives;\nand then you have done with the English quarter. The land is flat,\nand round about the part just described stretch open grass-covered\nspaces, and tree-fringed roads, with the tiny booths or huts of the\ndarkies on both sides of them. Here and there are knots and congeries\nof little streets and native markets with multifarious life going on\nin them. Here is a street of better built cottages or little villas\nbelonging to Eurasians--the somewhat mixed descendants of old Dutch\nand Portuguese settlers--small one or seldom two-storied houses of\nstuccoed brick, with a verandah in front and a little open court\nwithin, clustering round an old Dutch church of the 17th century. Here\nis the residential quarter of the official English and of the more\naspiring among the natives--the old Cinnamon Gardens, now laid out\nin large villa-bungalows and private grounds. Here again is a Roman\nCatholic church and convent, or the grotesque fa\u00e7ade of a Hindu temple;\nand everywhere trees and flowering shrubs and, as one approaches the\noutskirts of the town, the plentiful broad leaves of coco-palms and\nbananas overshadowing the roads. Nor in any description of Colombo\nshould the fresh-water lake be forgotten, which ramifying and winding\nin most intricate fashion through the town, and in one place coming\nwithin a hundred yards of the sea, surprises one continually with\nenchanting glimpses. I don\u2019t know any more delightful view of its\nkind--all the more delightful because so unexpected--than that which\ngreets the eye on entering the Fort Railway Station at Colombo. You\npass through the booking-office and find yourself on a platform,\nwhich except for the line of rails between might be a terrace on\nthe lake itself; a large expanse of water with wooded shores and\nislands, interspersed with villas, cottages and cabins, lies before\nyou; white-sailed boats are going to and fro; groups of dark figures,\nwaist-deep in water, are washing clothes; children are playing and\nswimming in the water; and when, as I saw it once, the evening sun is\nshining through the transparent green fringe of banana palms which\noccupies the immediate foreground, and the calm lake beyond reflects\nlike a mirror the gorgeous hues of sky and cloud, the scene is one\nwhich for effects of color can hardly be surpassed.\n\nUp and down these streets and roads, and by the side of this lake,\nand along the seashore and through the quays and docks, goes,\nas may be imagined, a most motley crowd. The Cinghalese and the\nTamils are of course the most numerous, but besides these there are\nMahomedans--usually called Moor-men here--and some Malays. The English\nin Ceylon may be divided into three classes: the official English,\nthe planters, and the small trading English (including employees on\nrailway and other works). Then there are the anglicised native gentry,\nCinghalese or Tamil, some of whom occupy official positions, and who\nlargely adopt European dress and habits; the non-anglicised ditto,\nwho keep to their own ways and costume, and are not much seen in\npublic; the Dutch Eurasians, many of whom become doctors or solicitors\n(proctors); and the Portuguese, who are frequently traders in a small\nway.\n\nSpecimens of all these, in their different degrees of costume and\nabsence of costume, may be seen in Colombo, as indeed in almost any\nplace in Ceylon which can be dignified with the name of a town.\n\nHere for instance is a great big Moor-man with high fez of plaited\ngrass, baggy white pants and turned-up shoes; a figured vest on his\nbody, and red shawl thrown over one shoulder. [He is probably a\nwell-to-do shopkeeper; not an agreeable face, but I find the Mahomedans\nhave a good reputation for upright dealing and fidelity to their word.]\n\nHere a ruddy-brown Cinghalese man, with hairy chest, and nothing on but\na red loin-cloth, carrying by a string an earthenware pot, probably\nof palm-beer. [A peasant. The Cinghalese are generally of this color,\nwhereas the Tamils tend towards black, though shading off in the higher\ncastes to an olive tint.]\n\n[Illustration: CINGHALESE MAN.]\n\nAnother Cinghalese, dressed all in white, white cotton jacket and\nwhite cloth hanging to below the knees, with elegant semicircular\ntortoise-shell comb on his head; a morbidly sensitive face with its\nindrawn nose and pouting lips. [Possibly a private servant, or small\nofficial of one of the courts, or _Arachchi_. The comb is a great mark\nof the low-country Cinghalese. They draw the hair backwards over the\nhead and put the comb on horizontally, like an incomplete crown, with\nits two ends sticking up above the forehead--very like horns from a\nfront view! The hair is then fastened in a knot behind, or sometimes\nleft hanging down the back. This is a somewhat feeble face, but as a\nrule one may say that the Cinghalese are very intelligent. They make\nexcellent carpenters and mechanics. Are generally sensitive and proud.]\n\n[Illustration: A JAFFNA TAMIL.]\n\nHere come two Englishmen in tweed suits and tennis shoes--their\numbrellas held carefully by the middle--apparently of the planter\ncommunity, young, but rather weedy looking, with an unsteady, swimmy\nlook about the eyes which I fear is not uncommon among the planters; I\nhave seen it already well-developed in a mere boy of eighteen.\n\nHere a dozen or so of _chetties_ (a Tamil commercial caste), with bare\nshaven and half-shaven heads, brown skins, and white muslins thrown\ngracefully round their full and sleek limbs; the sacred spot marked on\ntheir foreheads, red betel in their mouths, and avarice in their faces.\n\nThere a Tamil coolie or wage-worker, nearly naked except for a\nhandkerchief tied round his head, with glossy black skin and slight yet\ngraceful figure.\n\nHere a pretty little girl of nine or so, with blue beads round her\nneck, and the usual white cotton jacket and colored petticoat or \u00e7ilai\nof the Cinghalese women, walking with a younger brother.\n\nHere three young Eurasian girls in light European costume and straw\nhats, hair loose or in pigtails down their backs, very pretty. [They\nare off for a walk along the Galle Face promenade by the sea, as the\nheat of the day is now past.]\n\nHere also an English lady, young and carefully dressed, but looking\na little bored, driving in her pony-trap to do some shopping, with a\nblack boy standing behind and holding a sunshade over her.\n\n[Illustration: A JINRICKSHAW.\n\n(_Tamil cooly, Eurasian girl._)]\n\nOne of the features of Colombo are the jinrickshaws, or light\ntwo-wheeled gigs drawn by men, which abound in the streets. These\nTamil fellows, in the lightest of costumes, their backs streaming\nunder the vertical sun, bare-legged and often bare-headed, will trot\nwith you in a miraculous way from one end of Colombo to the other,\nand for the smallest fee. Tommy Atkins delights to sit thus lordly\nbehind the toiling \u201cnigger.\u201d At eventide you may see him and his\nEurasian girl--he in one jinrickshaw and she in another--driving\nout to the Galle Face Hotel, or some such distant resort along the\nshore of the many-sounding ocean. The Tamils are mostly slight and\ngraceful in figure, and of an active build. Down at the docks they\nwork by hundreds, with nothing on beyond a narrow band between the\nthighs, loading and unloading barges and ships--a study of the human\nfigure. Some of them of course are thick and muscular, but mostly\nthey excel in a kind of unconscious grace and fleetness of form as\nof the bronze Mercury of Herculaneum, of which they often remind me.\nTheir physiognomy corresponds with their bodily activity; the most\ncharacteristic type that I have noticed among them has level brows,\nand eyes deep-set (and sometimes a little close together), straight\nnose, and well-formed chin. They are a more enterprising pushing and\nindustrious people than the Cinghalese, eager and thin, skins often\nvery dark, with a concentrated, sometimes demonish, look between the\neyes--will-power evidently present--but often handsome. Altogether a\nsingular mixture of enterprise with demonic qualities; for occultism is\nrife among them, from the jugglery of the lower castes to the esoteric\nphilosophy and speculativeness of the higher. The horse-keepers and\nstable boys in Ceylon are almost all Tamils (of a low caste), and are a\ncharming race, dusky active affectionate demons, fond of their horses,\nand with unlimited capacity of running, even over newly macadamised\nroads. The tea-coolies are also Tamils, and the road-workers, and\ngenerally all wage-laborers; while the Cinghalese, who have been longer\nlocated in the island, keep to their own little peasant holdings and\nare not at all inclined to come under the thumb of a master, preferring\noften indeed to suffer a chronic starvation instead.\n\nThe Tamil women are, like their lords, generally of a slighter build\nthan the Cinghalese of the same sex, some indeed are quite diminutive.\nAmong both races some very graceful and good-looking girls are to be\nseen, up to the age of sixteen or so, fairly bright even in manner;\nespecially among the Cinghalese are they distinguished for their fine\neyes; but at a later age, and as wives, they lose their good looks and\ntend to become rather heavy and brutish.\n\nThe contrast between the Cinghalese and the Tamils is sufficiently\nmarked throughout, and though they live on the island on amicable terms\nthere is as a rule no love lost between them. The Cinghalese came to\nCeylon, apparently from the mainland of India, somewhere in the 6th\ncentury B.C., and after pushing the aborigines up into the woods and\nmountains (where some of them may yet be found), occupied the whole\nisland. It was not long however before the Tamils followed, also from\nIndia; and since then, and through a long series of conflicts, the\nlatter have maintained their position, and now form the larger part\nof the population in the north of the island, while the Cinghalese\nare most numerous in the south. Great numbers of Tamil peasants--men,\nwomen, and children--still come over from the mainland every year, and\ngo up-country to work in the tea-gardens, where there is a great demand\nfor coolie labour.\n\n[Illustration: CINGHALESE GIRL.]\n\nIn character the Cinghalese are more like the Italians, easy-going,\nreasonably idle, sensitive, shrewd, and just a bit romantic. Their\nlarge eyes and tortoise-shell combs and long hair give them a very\nwomanly aspect; and many of the boys and youths have very girlish\nfeatures and expressions. They have nearly always grace and dignity of\nmanner, the better types decidedly handsome, with their well-formed\nlarge heads, short beards, and long black hair, composed and gentle,\nremindful of some pictures of Christ. In inferior types you have\nthick-featured, morbidly sensitive, and at the same time dull-looking\npersons. As a rule their frames are bigger and more fleshy than those\nof the Tamils, and their features less cleanly cut. Captain R. Knox,\nin his \u201cNineteen Years\u2019 Captivity in the Kingdom of Conde Uda\u201d (1681),\nsays of them:--\u201cIn carriage and behaviour they are very grave and\nstately, like unto Portuguese; in understanding quick and apprehensive;\nin design, subtle and crafty; in discourse, courteous, but full of\nflatteries; naturally inclined to temperance both in meat and drink,\nbut not to chastity; near and provident in their families, commending\ngood husbandry.\u201d\n\nThe Cinghalese are nearly all Buddhists, while the Tamils are Hindus.\nBuddhism was introduced into Ceylon about the 4th century B.C., and has\nflourished here ever since; and Buddhist rock-temples are to be found\nall over the island. The Tamils have a quite extensive literature of\nconsiderable antiquity, mostly philosophical or philosophical poetical;\nand their language is very rich in vocabulary as well as in its\ngrammatical forms and inflexions--though very terse, with scanty terms\nof courtesy (\u201cthank you,\u201d \u201cgood-morning,\u201d and such like), and a little\nharsh in sound, _k_\u2019s and _r_\u2019s flying through the teeth at a great\nrate. Cinghalese is much more liquid and pleasant in sound, and has\nmany more Aryan words in it. In fact it is supposed to be an offshoot\nof Sanskrit, whereas Tamil seems to have no relation to Sanskrit,\nexcept that it has borrowed a good many words. The curious thing is\nthat, so little related as races, the Tamils should have taken their\nphilosophy, as they have done, from the Sanskrit Vedas and Upanishads,\nand really expressed the ideas if anything more compactly and\nsystematically than the Sanskrit books do. Though poor in literature\nI believe, yet the Cinghalese has one of the best books of chronicles\nwhich exist in any language--the Mahawanso--giving a very reliable\nhistory of the race (of course with florid adornment of stupendous\nmiracles, which can easily be stripped off) from their landing in\nCeylon down to modern times. The Mahawanso was begun by Mahanamo, a\npriest, who about 460 A.D. compiled the early portion comprising the\nperiod from B.C. 543 to A.D. 301, after which it was continued by\nsuccessive authors right down to British times, _i.e._, A.D. 1758!\n\nThere are two newspapers in Colombo printed in the Cinghalese language,\none of which is called _The Buddhist World_; there is also a paper\nprinted in Tamil; and there are three English newspapers. In \u201cplaces of\nentertainment\u201d Colombo (and the same is true of the towns in India) is\nvery wanting. There is no theatre or concert-hall. It can be readily\nunderstood that though the population is large (120,000), it is so\ndiverse that a sufficiently large public cannot be found to support\nsuch places. The native races have each their own festivals, which\nprovide for them all they require in that way. The British are only\nfew--5,000 in all Ceylon, including military, out of a population\nof over three millions; and even if the Eurasian population--who of\ncourse go in for Western manners and ideals--were added, their combined\nnumbers would be only scanty. An occasional circus or menagerie, or a\nvisit from a stray theatrical company on its way to Australia, is all\nthat takes place in that line.\n\nFor the rest there is a Salvation Army, with thriving barracks, a\nTheosophist Society, a branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, and various\nother little clubs representing different sections. Society is of\ncourse very much broken up into sections. Even the British, few as they\nare, are sadly divided by cliques and jealousies; the line between the\nofficial English and the \u201csecond-class\u201d English is terribly severe (as\nindeed all over India); and between these again and the Eurasians. Even\nwhere Cinghalese or Tamil or Eurasian families of old standing attain\nimportant official positions, an insuperable stiffness still marks the\nintercourse between them and the British. \u201cAh!\u201d said a planter to a\nyoung friend of mine who had just shaken hands rather cordially with a\nnative gentleman, \u201cAh! my boy, you won\u2019t do that when you\u2019ve been here\nthree years!\u201d Thus a perfect social amalgamation and the sweetness of\nbrethren dwelling together in unity are things still rather far distant\nin this otherwise lovely isle.\n\nTalking about the beauty of the island, I was very much struck, even\non my first landing, with its \u201cspicy gales.\u201d The air is heavy with an\naromatic fragrance which, though it forced itself on my attention for\nthree or four weeks before I got fairly accustomed to it, I have never\nbeen able to trace to any particular plant or shrub. It is perhaps\nnot unlike the odor of the cinnamon leaf when bruised, but I don\u2019t\nthink it comes from that source. I am never tired of looking at the\ncoco-nut palms; they grow literally by the million all along this coast\nto the north and south of Colombo. To the south the sea-shore road is\novershadowed by them. I have been some miles along the road, and the\nbelt of land, a hundred yards or so wide, between it and the sea, is\nthick with their stems right down to the water\u2019s edge, over which they\nlean lovingly, for they are fond of the salt spray. On the other side\nof the road too they grow, and underneath them are little villas and\nfarmsteads and tiny native cabins, with poultry and donkeys and humped\ncows and black pigs and brown children, in lively confusion; while\ngroups of peasant men and women in bright-colored wraps travel slowly\nalong, and the little bullock gigs, drawn by active little brahmin\nbulls with jingling bells, trot past at a pace which would do credit\nto an English pony--a scene which they say continues much the same the\nwhole way to Galle (80 miles). These palms do not grow wild in Ceylon;\nthey are all planted and cared for, whether in huge estates, or in the\nrood of ground which surrounds a Cinghalese cabin. The Cinghalese have\na pretty saying that they cannot grow afar from the sound of the human\nvoice. They have also a saying to the effect that a man only sees a\n_straight_ coco-palm once in a lifetime. Many of the other kinds of\npalms grow remarkably straight, but this kind certainly does not. In\na grove of them you see hundreds of the grey smooth stems shooting\nupwards in every fantastic curve imaginable, with an extraordinary\nsense of life and power, reminding one of the way in which a volley of\nrockets goes up into the air. Then at the height of 50 or 60 feet they\nbreak into that splendid crown of green plumes which sparkles glossy in\nthe sun, and waves and whispers to the lightest breeze.\n\nAlong this palm-fringed and mostly low and sandy shore the waves\nbreak--with not much change of level in their tides--loudly roaring in\nthe S.W. monsoon, or with sullen swell when the wind is in the N.E.,\nbut seldom altogether calm. A grateful breeze tempers the 90\u00b0 of the\nthermometer. A clumsy-hulled lateen-sailed fishing boat is anchored\nin the shelter of a sandy spit; two or three native men and boys are\nfishing with rod and line, standing ankle-deep at the water\u2019s edge.\nThe dashing blue waves look tempting for a bathe, but the shore is\ncomparatively deserted; not a soul is to be seen in the water, infested\nas it is by the all-dreaded shark. Only, 300 or 400 yards out, can be\ndiscerned the figure of a man--also fishing with a line--apparently\nstanding up to his middle in water, but really sitting on a kind of\nprimitive raft or boat, consisting of three or four logs of wood,\nslightly shaped, with upturned ends, and loosely tied together--the\ntrue catamaran (_kattu maram_, tied tree). The water of course washes\nup and around him, but that is pleasant on a hot day. He is safe from\nsharks; there is a slender possibility of his catching something for\ndinner; and there he sits, a relic of pre-Adamite times, while the\ntrain from Kalutara rushes by with a shriek to Colombo.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nKANDY AND PEASANT LIFE.\n\n\nErnst Haeckel in his book about Ceylon says that the Cinghalese, though\na long civilised race, are as primitive as savages in their dress,\ncabins, etc.; and this remark strikes me as very true. As soon as you\nget off the railways and main roads you find them living in their\nlittle huts under their coco-palms in the most primitive fashion, and\nprobably much as they did when they first came to Ceylon, 2,000 or\n3,000 years ago.\n\nOn the 4th of this month (December), my friend \u201cAjax\u201d landed at\nColombo from England. He is on his way to Assam, in the tea-planting\nline, and is staying a week in the island to break the journey. He is\na thorough Socialist in feeling, and a jolly fellow, always bright\nand good-natured, and with a great turn for music. We came up here\nto Kandy, and shortly after our arrival went to call on a Cinghalese\npeasant whose acquaintance I had lately made--Kalua by name--and found\nhim in his little cabin, about a mile out of the town among the hills,\nwhere he lives with his brother Kirrah. Leaving Kandy by footpaths\nand alongside hedgerows overrun by a wild sunflower, and by that\nextraordinary creeper, with a verbena-like blossom, the _lantana_,\nwhich though said to have been introduced only about fifty years ago\nnow runs in masses over the whole island, we came at last to a lovely\nlittle glen, with rice-lands laid out in terraces at the bottom, and\ntangles of scrub and jungle up the sides, among which were clumps of\ncoco-nut and banana, indicating the presence of habitations. Under one\nof these groves, in a tiny little mud and thatch cabin, we found Kalua;\nin fact he saw us coming, and with a shout ran down to meet us. We were\nsoon seated in the shade and talking such broken English and Tamil as\nwe could respectively command. The brothers were very friendly, and\nbrought us coco-nut milk and _ch\u00e1geri_ beer (made by cutting the great\nflower-bud off the _ch\u00e1geri_ palm, and letting the sap from the wounded\nstem flow into a jar, where it soon ferments; it has a musty flavor,\nand I cannot say that I care for it). Then their father, hearing of\nour arrival, came from half a mile off to have a look at us--a regular\njolly old savage, with broad face and broad belly--but unfortunately,\nas we could not speak Cinghalese, there was no means of communicating\nwith him, except by signs. This little valley seems to be chiefly\noccupied by the brothers and their kindred, forming a little tribe, so\nto speak. Kalua and his father both own good strips of rice-land, and\nare perhaps rather better off than most Cinghalese peasants, though\nthat is not saying much. Married sisters and their children, and other\nrelatives, also occupy portions of the glen; but Kalua and Kirrah are\nnot married yet. It seems to be a point of honor with the Cinghalese\n(and indeed with most of the East Indian races) not to marry till their\nsisters are wedded. Like the Irish, the brothers work to provide a\ndowry for their sisters; and generally family feeling and helpfulness\nare very strong among them. To strike a father or a mother is, all\nover Ceylon (and India), a crime of almost unheard-of atrocity. Kalua\ngives a good deal of his earnings to his parents, and buys additions\nto the family rice-lands--which as far as I can make out are held to a\nconsiderable extent as common property.\n\n[Illustration: KALUA.]\n\nThere was a native king and kingdom of Kandy till about eighty years\nago (1814), when the British overthrew it; and it is curious that\nthe old Kandian law--which was recognised for some time by the\nBritish--contains very evident traces of the old group-marriage which\nis found among so many races in their pre-civilisation period. There\nwere two kinds of marriage treated of in the Kandian law--the Deega\nmarriage, in which the wife went (as with us) to the house of her\nhusband, and became more or less his property; and the Beena marriage,\nin which he came to live with her among her own people, but was liable\nto expulsion at any time! The latter form is generally supposed to be\nthe more primitive, and belongs to the time when heredity is traced\nthrough the woman, and when also polygamous and polyandrous practices\nprevail. And this is confirmed by a paragraph of the Kandian law,\nor custom, which forbade intermarriage between the children of two\nbrothers, or between the children of two sisters, but allowed it\nbetween the children of a brother and a sister--the meaning of course\nbeing that two brothers might have the same wife, or two sisters\nthe same husband, but that a brother and sister--having necessarily\ndistinct wives and husbands--would produce children who could not be\nmore nearly related to each other than cousins. It is also confirmed by\nthe fact that a kind of customary group-marriage still lingers among\nthe Cinghalese--_e.g._ if a man is married, his brothers not uncommonly\nhave access to the wife--though owing to its being discountenanced by\nWestern habits and law, this practice is gradually dying out.\n\nKalua has seen rather more of the world than some of his people,\nand has had opportunities of making a little money now and then.\nIt appears that at the age of twelve or thirteen he took to\n\u201cdevil-dancing\u201d--probably his father set him to it. He danced in the\ntemple and got money; but now-a-days does not like the priests or\nbelieve in the temples. This devil-dancing appears to be a relic of\naboriginal Kandian demon-worship: the evil spirits had to be appeased,\nor in cases of illness or misfortune driven away by shrieks and frantic\ngestures. It is a truly diabolical performance. The dancers (there are\ngenerally two of them) dress themselves up in fantastic array, and then\nexecute the most extraordinary series of leaps, bounds, demivolts, and\nsomersaults, in rhythmical climaxes, accompanied by clapping of hands,\nshrieks, and tomtomming, for about twenty minutes without stopping,\nby the end of which time the excitement of themselves and spectators\nis intense, and the patient--if there is one--is pretty sure to be\neither killed or cured! When the Buddhists came to the island they\nincorporated these older performances into their institutions. Some\ntwo or three years ago however Hagenbeck, of circus celebrity, being\nin Ceylon engaged a troupe of Kandians--of whom Kalua was one--to\ngive a native performance for the benefit of the Europeans; and since\nthat time the old peasant life has palled upon our friend, and it\nis evident that he lives in dreams of civilisation and the West.\nKalua is remarkably well-made, and active and powerful. He is about\ntwenty-eight, with the soft giraffe-like eyes of the Cinghalese, and\nthe gentle somewhat diffident manner which they affect; his black hair\nis generally coiled in a knot behind his head, and, with an ornamental\nbelt sustaining his colored skirt, and a shawl thrown over his\nshoulder, he looks quite handsome. Kirrah is thinner and weaker, both\nmentally and physically, with a clinging affectionateness of character\nwhich is touching. Then there are two nephews, Pinha and Punjha, whom\nI have seen once or twice--bright nice-looking boys, anxious to pick\nup phrases and words of English, and ideas about the wonderful Western\nworld, which is beginning to dawn on their horizon--though alas! it\nwill soon destroy their naked beauty and simplicity. To see Punjha go\nstraight up the stem of a coco-nut tree fifty feet high is a caution!\nHe just puts a noose of rope round his two feet to enable him to grasp\nthe stem better with his soles, clasps his hands round the trunk,\nbrings his knees up to his ears, and shoots up like a frog swimming!\n\nThe coco-nut palm is everything to the Cinghalese: they use the kernel\nof the nut for food, either as a curry along with their rice, or as\na flavoring to cakes made of rice and sugar; the shell serves for\ndrinking cups and primeval spoons; the husky fibre of course makes\nstring, rope, and matting; the oil pressed from the nut, in creaking\nantique mills worked by oxen, is quite an article of commerce, and\nis used for anointing their hair and bodies, as well as for their\nlittle brass lamps and other purposes; the woody stems come in for the\nframework of cabins, and the great leaves either form an excellent\nthatch, or when plaited make natural screens, which in that climate\noften serve for the cabin-walls in place of anything more substantial.\nWhen Ajax told Kirrah that there were no coco-palms in England, the\nlatter\u2019s surprise was unfeigned as he exclaimed, \u201cHow do you live,\nthen?\u201d\n\n[Illustration: PLOUGHING IN THE RICE-FIELDS, WITH BUFFALOS.]\n\nThe other great staple of Cinghalese life is rice. Kalua\u2019s family\nrice-fields lay below us in larger patches along the bottom of the\nglen, and terraced in narrow strips a little way up the hill at the\nhead of it. The rice-lands are, for irrigation\u2019s sake, always laid\nout in level patches, each surrounded by a low mud bank, one or two\nfeet high; sometimes, where there is water at hand, they are terraced\nquite a good way up the hillsides, something like the vineyards in\nItaly. During and after the rains the water is led onto the various\nlevels successively, which are thus well flooded. While in flood\nthey are ploughed--with a rude plough drawn by humped cattle, or by\nbuffalos--and sown as the water subsides. The crop soon springs up,\na brilliant green, about as high as barley, but with an ear more\nresembling oats, and in seven or eight weeks is ready to be harvested.\nBoiled rice, with some curried vegetable or coco-nut, just to give it\na flavor, is the staple food all over Ceylon among the natives--two\nmeals a day, sometimes in poorer agricultural districts only one; a\nscanty fare, as their thin limbs too often testify. They use no bread,\nbut a few cakes made of rice-flour and ghee and the sugar of the\n_ch\u00e1geri_ palm.\n\nThe brothers\u2019 cabin is primitive enough--just a little thatched place,\nperhaps twelve feet by eight, divided into two--a large wicker jar or\nbasket containing store of rice, one or two boxes, a few earthenware\npots for cooking in, fire lighted on the ground, no chair or table, and\nlittle sign of civilisation except a photograph or two stuck on the\nwall and a low cane-seated couch for sleeping on. The latter however\nis quite a luxury, as the Cinghalese men as often as not sleep on the\nearth floor.\n\nWe stayed a little while chatting, while every now and then the great\nhusked coco-nuts (of which you have to be careful) fell with a heavy\nthud from the trees; and then Kalua came on with us to Kandy, and we\nwent to see the great Buddhist temple there, the Devala Maligawa, which\ncontains the precious tooth-relic of Buddha.\n\n[Illustration: BUDDHIST PRIEST.\n\n(_Librarian at the Temple at Kandy, with palm-leaf MS. book in lap._)]\n\nArchitecturally nothing, the temple is interesting for the antique\nappearance of its gardens, shrines, priests\u2019 cottages, library,\nfishponds, etc.; sacred fish and turtles coming to be fed by the pious;\nrude frescoes of the infernal torments of the wicked, not unlike our\nmedi\u00e6val designs on similar subjects; the sacred shrine itself with\nivory and silver doors; the dirty yellow-stoled priests arriving with\nhuge keys to open it, but first washing their feet in the forecourt;\nthe tomtoms and horns blowing; flowers scattered about; and then the\ninterior chamber of the shrine, where behind strong bars of iron\nreposes a golden and bell-shaped cover, crusted with jewels--the\noutermost of _six_ successive covers, within the last of which is the\ntooth itself (reported by Emerson Tennent to be about two inches long,\nand probably the fang of a crocodile!); then the little golden and\ncrystal images of Buddha in various little shrines to themselves; and,\nmost interesting of all, the library with its old MS. books written\non strips of talipot palm leaf, beautifully done in Cinghalese,\nPali, Sanskrit, etc., illuminated with elegant designs, and bound by\nsilk cords in covers of fretted silver. The old librarian priest was\na charming specimen of a Buddhist priest--gentle, intelligent, and\napparently with a vein of religious feeling in his character--and spoke\nwith interest about the various texts and manuscripts. It is a pity\nthat so much cannot be said of the Buddhist priests generally, who are\nas a rule--in Ceylon at any rate--an ignorant, dirty, betel-chewing and\nuninviting-looking lot.\n\nAt the botanical gardens at Peradeniya--three or four miles out of\nKandy--we saw a specimen of the talipot palm in full flower. This\nbeautiful palm--unlike the coco palm--grows perfectly erect and\nstraight; it flowers only once, and then dies. Haeckel says that it\nlives from fifty to eighty years, and that the blossom is sometimes\nthirty or forty feet long. The specimen that we saw in blossom was\nabout forty-five feet high in the stem; and then from its handsome\ncrown of huge leaves sprang a flower, or rather a branched spike of\nnumerous white flowers, which I estimated at fifteen feet high (but\nwhich I afterwards saw described in the newspapers as twenty feet\nhigh). Baker says that the flower bud is often as much as four feet\nlong, and that it opens with a smart report, when this beautiful white\nplume unfolds and lifts itself in the sun. The natives use the great\nleaf of the talipot--which is circular and sometimes eight or nine feet\nin diameter--as an umbrella. They fold it together along its natural\ncorrugations, and then open it to ward off sun or rain.\n\n[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF KANDY.\n\n(_Native street on left, Buddhist temple on right, English church in\ncentre._)]\n\nKandy is very beautiful. It stands nearly 2,000 feet high, by the\nside of an artificial lake which the old kings of Kandy made, and\nembosomed in hills covered by lovely woods full of tropical plants and\nflowers and commanding beautiful views from their slopes and summits.\nThere is a small native town containing the usual mixed population of\nCinghalese, Tamils, and Moor-men; there are one or two English hotels,\na church, library and reading-room; a few residents\u2019 houses, and a\nscattered population of English tea-planters on the hills for some\nmiles round, who make Kandy their _rendez-vous_.\n\nAjax makes great friends with the native youths and boys here; he has\nan easy friendly way with them, and they get hold of his hand and walk\nalongside. Of course they are delighted to find any _Mahate_ who will\ntreat them a little kindly; but I fear the few English about are much\nshocked at our conduct. When I first came to Ceylon my Tamil friend A.\nchaffed me about my way of calling him and the rest of the population,\nwhether Tamil or Mahomedan or Cinghalese, all indiscriminately\n_natives_, \u201cas if we were so many _oysters_.\u201d I told this to Ajax, and\nof course there was nothing for it after that but to call them all\noysters!\n\nWe find the few British whom we have come across in our travels very\nmuch set against the \u201coysters.\u201d There is something queer about the\nBritish and their insularity; but I suppose it is more their misfortune\nthan their fault. Certainly they will allow that the oysters are not\nwithout merit--indeed if one keeps them to it they will often speak\nquite warmly of the tenderness and affectionateness of servants\nwho have nursed them through long illnesses, etc.--but the idea of\nassociating with them on terms of equality and friendship is somehow\nunspeakable and not to be entertained. It seems almost _de rigueur_\nto say something disparaging about the oyster, when that topic turns\nup--as a way of showing one\u2019s own breeding, I suppose; after that has\nbeen done, however, it is allowable to grant that there are exceptions,\nand even to point out some kindly traits, pearls as it were, which are\noccasionally found in the poor bivalve. It strikes me however that\nthe English are the chief losers by this insular habit. They look\nawfully bored and miserable as a rule in these up-country parts, which\nmust almost necessarily be the case where there are only five or six\nresidents in a station, or within accessible distances of each other,\nand confined entirely to each other\u2019s society.\n\nOne day Ajax and I went up to Nuwara Ellia. The railway carriage was\nfull of tea-planters (including one or two wives and sisters), and\nthere were a few at the hotel. It was curious to see some English faces\nof the cold-mutton-commercial type, and in quite orthodox English\nattire, in this out-of-the-way region. The good people looked sadly\nbored, and it seemed a point of honor with them to act throughout as if\nthe colored folk didn\u2019t exist or were invisible--also as if they were\ndeaf, to judge by the shouting. In the evening however (at the hotel)\nwe felt touched at the way in which they cheered up when Ajax and I\nplayed a few familiar tunes on the piano. They came round, saying it\nreminded them of home, and entreated us to go on; so we played for\nabout two hours, Ajax improvising as usual in the most charming way.\n\nNuwara Ellia is 6,000 feet above the sea--a little village with an\nhotel or two--a favorite resort from the sultry airs of Colombo and the\nlowlands. Here the Britisher finds fires in the sitting-rooms and thick\nmists outside, and dons his great-coat and feels quite at home. But we,\nhaving only just come from the land of fogs, did not appreciate these\njoys, and thought the place a little bleak and bare.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nKURUN\u00c9GALA.\n\n\nOn my way here, on the coach, I fell in with Monerasingha, a Cinghalese\nof some education and ability, a proctor or solicitor. He is a cheerful\nlittle man, an immense talker, and very keen on politics. He was very\namusing about the English; says they are very agreeable at first, \u201cbut\nafter three months\u2019 stay in the island a complete change comes over\nthem--won\u2019t speak to us or look at us--_but I can give it them back_.\u201d\nHis idea seems to be that representative institutions are wanted to\nrestore to the people that interest in public life which has been\ntaken from them by the destruction of their communal institutions\nunder British rule. He seems to be a great hater of caste, and thinks\nthe English have done much good in that matter. \u201cI am loyal enough,\nbecause I know we are much better off than we should be under Russia.\nThe English are stupid and incapable of understanding us, and don\u2019t go\namong us to get understanding; but they mean well, according to their\nlights.\u201d\n\nThis place (called Kornegalle by the English) is a little town of 2,000\nor 3,000 inhabitants, fifty miles from Colombo and eleven miles (by\ncoach) from Polgahawella, the nearest railway station. It lies just\nat the foot of the mountain region of Ceylon, and takes its name,\nKurun\u00e9gala or Elephant-rock, from a huge Gibraltar-like rock, 600 feet\nhigh, at the base of which it nestles--and whose rounded dark granite\nstructure, wrinkled with weather and largely bare of trees or any\nherbage, certainly bears a remarkable resemblance, both in form and\ncolor, to a couchant elephant. Ascending its steep sides, on which the\nsun strikes with fierce heat during the midday, one obtains from the\nsummit a fine view--westward over low plains, eastward over mountain\nranges rising higher and higher towards the centre of the island. The\nprevailing impression of the landscape here, as elsewhere in Ceylon,\nis its uniform green. There is no change of summer or winter. (Though\nthis is the coolest time of year, the daily temperature ranges from 85\u00b0\nto 90\u00b0 in the shade.) The trees do not cast their leaves at any stated\ntime, though individual trees will sleep at intervals, resting so. In\nevery direction the same color meets the eye--tracts of green scrub,\ngreen expanses of forest, green rice-fields, and the massed green\nof bananas and coco-palms. A little monotonous this in the general\nlandscape, though it is plentifully compensated on a near view by the\ndetailed color of insect and flower life. One curious feature is that\nthough the country is well populated, hardly a trace of habitation is\nto be seen from any high point such as this. Even Kurun\u00e9gala, which\nlies at our feet, is only distinguishable by its court-house and prison\nand one or two other emblems of civilisation; the native cabins,\nand even in many cases the European houses--which are of one storey\nonly--are entirely hidden by trees. Those clumps however of coco-palms\nwhich you see standing like oases in the general woods, or breaking\nthe levels of the rice-fields, with occasional traces of blue smoke\ncurling up through them, are sure indications of little native hamlets\nclustered beneath--often far far from any road, and accessible only by\nnatural footpaths worn by naked feet.\n\n[Illustration: NATIVE HUT.\n\n(_Among banana and coco-palms._)]\n\nFrom the top of the rock one gets a good view of the tank which\nsupplies irrigation water for the town and neighborhood. It is about\nthree-quarters of a mile long and half a mile broad, and forms a\npretty little lake, over which kites hover and kingfishers skim, and\nin which the people daily bathe. These tanks and irrigation channels\nare matters of the utmost importance, to which I think Government can\nhardly give too much attention. Their importance was well understood in\npast times, as indeed the remains and ruins of immense works of this\nkind, over a thousand years old, in various parts of the island fully\ntestify. A little is being done towards their renewal and restoration,\nbut the tendency to-day is to neglect the interests of the rice-growing\npeasant in favor of the tea-planting Englishman. The paddy tax, which\npresses very hardly on the almost starving cultivator, while tea\ngoes scot-free, is an instance of this. Tea, which is an export and\na luxury, and which enriches the few, is thought to be so much more\nimportant than an article which is grown for home consumption and for\nthe needs of the many. It is of course only an instance of the general\ncommercial policy of all modern Governments; but one cannot the less\nfor that think it a mistake, and an attempt to make the pyramid of\nsocial prosperity stand upon its apex. There is something curious--and\nindeed is it not self-contradictory?--in the fact that every country\nof the civilized world studies above all things the increase of its\n_exports_--is engaged, not in producing things primarily for its own\nuse, but in trying to get other people to buy what it produces!--as\nif we all stood round and tried to shuffle off our bad wares on the\nothers, in the hope that they by some accident might return us good\nstuff in exchange. Somehow the system does not seem as if it would\nwork; it looks too like the case of that island where the inhabitants\nall earned a precarious living by taking in each other\u2019s washing.\nWhat, one may ask, is really the cause of the enormous growth of this\npractice of neglecting production for use in favor of production for\nexport and for the market? Is it not simply money and the merchant\ninterest? Production at home by the population and for its own use is\nand always must be, one would think, by far the most important for the\npopulation and for its own comfort and welfare, though a margin may of\ncourse be allowed for the acquirement by exchange of some few articles\nwhich cannot be grown at home. But production such as this does not\nnecessarily mean either money or mercantile transaction. Conceivably it\nmay very well take place without either these or the gains which flow\nfrom their use--without profits or interest or dividends or anything of\nthe kind. But this would never do! The money and commercial interest,\nwhich is now by far the most powerful interest in all modern states, is\nnot such a fool as to favor a system of national economy which would be\nits own ruin. No; it must encourage _trade_ in every way, at all costs.\nTrade, commerce, exchange, exports and imports--these are the things\nwhich bring dividends and interest, which fill the pockets of the\nparasites at the expense of the people; and so the nations stand round,\nobedient, and carry on the futile game till further orders.\n\nAs a matter of fact in these hot countries, like Ceylon and India,\nalmost unlimited results of productiveness can be got by perfected\nirrigation, and as long as the peasantry in these lands are (as they\nare) practically starving, and the irrigation works practically\nneglected, the responsibility for such a state of affairs must lie with\nthe rulers; and naturally no mere shuffling of commercial cards, or\nencouragement of an export trade which brings fortunes into the hands\nof a few tea-planters and merchants, can be expected to make things\nbetter.\n\nIt is sad to see the thin and famished mortals who come in here\nfrom the country districts round to beg. Many of them, especially\nthe younger ones, have their limbs badly ulcerated. One day, going\nthrough the hospital, the doctor--a Eurasian--took me through a ward\nfull of such cases. He said that they mostly soon got better with the\nbetter hospital diet; \u201cbut,\u201d he added, \u201cwhen they get back to their\nold conditions they are soon as bad as ever.\u201d In fact the mass of the\npopulation in a place like Colombo looks far sleeker and better off\nthan in these country districts; but that only affords another instance\nof how the modern policy encourages the shifty and crafty onhanger of\ncommercial life at the cost of the sturdy agriculturist--and I need not\nsay that the case is the same at home as abroad.\n\nIt is quite a pretty sight to see the bathing in the tanks. It takes\nplace in the early morning, and indeed during most of the day.\nCleanliness is a religious observance, and engrained in the habits of\nthe people. Of course there are exceptions, but save among the lowest\ncastes this is the rule. An orthodox Hindu is expected not only to wash\nhimself, but his own cloth, at least once a day. The climate makes\nbathing a pleasure, and the people linger over it. Men and boys, women\nand children, together or in groups not far distant from each other,\nrevel and splash in the cool liquid; their colored wraps are rinsed\nand spread to dry on the banks, their brass pots glance in the sun as\nthey dip the water with them and pour it over their own heads, their\nlong black hair streams down their backs. Then, leaving the water,\nthey pluck a twig from a certain tree, and, squatting on their hams,\nwith the frayed twig-end rub their teeth and talk over the scandal of\nthe day. This tooth-cleaning gossiping business lasts till they are\ndry, and often a good deal longer, and is, I fancy, one of the most\nenjoyable parts of the day to the mild oyster. In unsophisticated\nplaces there is no distinction of classes in this process, and rich\nand poor join in the public bathing alike--in fact there is very\nlittle difference in their dress and habits anyhow, as far as regards\nwealth and poverty--but of course where Western ideas are penetrating,\nthe well-to-do natives adopt our habits and conduct their bathing\ndiscreetly at home.\n\nThe people never (except it be children) go into the water _quite_\nnaked, and the women always retain one of their wraps wound round the\nbody. These wraps are very long, and the skill with which they manage\nto wash first one end and then the other, winding and unwinding, and\nremaining decorously covered all the time, is quite admirable. I am\nstruck by the gravity and decorum of the people generally--in outer\nbehavior or gesture--though their language (among the lower castes)\nis by no means always select! But there is none, or very little,\nof that banter between the sexes which is common among the Western\npopulations, and even among the boys and youths you see next to no\nfrolicking or bear-fighting. I suppose it is part of the passivity\nand want of animal spirits which characterise the Hindu; and of course\nthe sentiment of the relation between the sexes is different in some\ndegree from what it is with us. On sexual matters generally, as far as\nI can make out, the tendency, even among the higher castes, is to be\noutspoken, and there is little of that prudery which among us is only\nafter all a modern growth.\n\n[Illustration: NATIVE STREET, AND SHOPS.]\n\nThe town here is a queer mixture of primitive life with modern\ninstitutions. There are two or three little streets of booths, which\nconstitute the \u201cbazaar.\u201d Walking down these--where behind baskets\nof wares the interiors of the dwellings are often visible, and the\nprocesses of life are na\u00efvely exposed to the eye--one may judge\nfor one\u2019s self how little man wants here below. Here is a fruit and\nvegetable shop, with huge bunches of plantains or bananas, a hundred\nin a bunch, and selling at five or six a penny; of a morning you may\nsee the peasant coming in along the road carrying _two_ such bunches--a\ngood load--slung one at each end of a long pole, or _pingo_, over\nhis shoulder--a similar figure to that which is so frequent on the\nEgyptian monuments of 3,000 years ago; pineapples, from 1_d._ up to\n4_d._ each for the very finest; the breadfruit, and its queer relation\nthe enormous jack-fruit, weighing often as much as 12 to 14 lbs.,\nwith its pulpy and not very palatable interior, used so much by the\npeople, growing high up over their cabins on the handsome jack-tree,\nand threatening you with instant dissolution if it descend upon your\nhead; the egg-plant, murngal, beans, potatos, and other vegetables;\nand plentiful ready-prepared packets of areca nut and betel leaf for\nchewing. Then there is a shop where they sell spices, peppers, chilis,\nand all such condiments for curries, not to mention baskets of dried\nfish (also for currying), which stink horribly and constitute one of\nthe chief drawbacks of the bazaars; and an earthenware shop,--and\nI must not forget the opium shop. Besides these there are only two\nothers--and they represent Manchester and Birmingham respectively--one\nwhere they sell shoddy and much-sized cotton goods, and the other which\ndisplays tin ware, soap, matches, paraffin lamps, dinner knives, and\nall sorts of damnable cutlery. I have seen these knives and scissors,\nor such as these (made only to deceive), being manufactured in the\ndens of Sheffield by boys and girls slaving in dust and dirt, breathing\nout their lives in foul air under the gaslights, hounded on by mean\ntaskmasters and by the fear of imminent starvation. Dear children!\nif you could only come out here yourselves, instead of sending the\nabominable work of your hands--come out here to enjoy this glorious\nsunshine, and fraternise, as I know many of you would, with the\ndespised darkie!\n\nThe opium-seller is a friend of mine. I often go and sit in his\nshop--on his one chair. He teaches me Tamil--for he is a Tamil--and\ntells me long stories, slowly, word by word. He is a thin, soft-eyed,\nintelligent man, about thirty, has read a fair amount of English--of\na friendly _riant_ child-nature--not without a reasonable eye to the\nmain chance, like some of his Northern cousins. There are a few jars of\nopium in its various forms--for smoking, drinking, and chewing; a pair\nof scales to weigh it with; a brass coconut-oil lamp with two or three\nwicks hanging overhead; and a partition for the bed at the back,--and\nthat is all. The shopfront is of course entirely open to the thronged\nstreet, except at night, when it is closed with shutterboards.\n\nAt the corner of the street stands a policeman, of course, else we\nshould not know we were being civilised. But, O Lord, what a policeman!\nHow a London street arab would chuckle all over at the sight of him!\nImagine the mild and somewhat timid oyster dressed in a blue woollen\nserge suit (very hot for this climate), with a belt round his waist,\nsome kind of turban on his head, a staff in his hand, and _boots_ on\nhis feet! A real live oyster in boots! It is too absurd. How miserable\nhe looks; and as to running after a criminal--the thing is not to be\nthought of. But no doubt the boots vindicate the majesty of the British\nGovernment.\n\nWhile we are gazing at this apparition, a gang of prisoners marches\nby--twenty lean creatures, with slouched straw hats on their heads,\nstriped cotton jackets and pants, and bare arms and lower legs, each\ncarrying a mattock--for they are going to work on the roads--and the\nwhole gang followed and guarded (certainly Ceylon is a most idyllic\nland) by a Cinghalese youth of about twenty-one, dressed in white\nskirts down to his feet, with a tortoise-shell comb on his head, and\nholding a parasol to shade himself from the sun. Why do not the twenty\nmen with mattocks turn and slay the boy with the parasol, and so depart\nin peace? I asked this question many times, and always got the same\nanswer. \u201cBecause,\u201d they said, \u201cthe prisoners do not particularly want\nto run away. They are very well off in prison,--better off, as a rule,\nthan they are outside. Imprisonment by an alien Government, under alien\nlaws and standards, is naturally no disgrace, at any rate to the mass\nof the people, and so once in prison they make themselves as happy as\nthey can.\u201d\n\nI visited the gaol one day, and thought they succeeded very well in\nthat respect. The authorities, I am glad to say, do all they can to\nmake them comfortable. They have each a large dish of rice and curry,\nwith meat if they wish, twice a day, and a meal of coffee and bread in\nthe morning besides; which is certainly better fare than they would\nget as peasants. They do their little apology for work in public places\nduring the day--with a chance of a chat with friends--and sleep in\ngangs together in the prison sheds at night, each with his mat, pillow,\nand night suit; so possibly on the whole they are not ill-content.\n\nMy friend A----, with whom I am staying here, is a Tamil, and an\nofficial of high standing. He became thoroughly Anglicised while\nstudying in England, and like many of the Hindus who come to London or\nCambridge or Oxford, did for the time quite outwesternise us in the\ntendency towards materialism and the belief in science, \u2018comforts,\u2019\nrepresentative institutions, and \u2018progress\u2019 generally. Now however he\nseems to be undergoing a reaction in favor of caste and the religious\ntraditions of his own people, and I am inclined to think that other\nwesternising Hindus will experience the same reaction.\n\nHe lives in an ordinary one-storied stone house, or bungalow, such as\nthe English inhabit here. These houses, naturally cover a good deal of\nground. The roof, which is made of heavy tiles or thatch, is pitched\nhigh in the middle, giving space for lofty sitting-rooms; the sleeping\nchambers flank these at a lower slope, and outside runs the verandah,\nalmost round the house, the roof terminating beyond it at six or seven\nfeet from the ground. This arrangement makes the interiors very dark\nand cool, as the windows open on the verandah, and the sun cannot\npenetrate to them; but I am not sure that I like the sensation of\nbeing confined under this immense carapace of tiles, with no possible\noutlook to the sky, in a sort of cavernous twilight all the while. The\nverandah forms an easy means of access from one part to another, and\nin this house there are no passages in the interior, but the rooms\nall open into one another; and plentiful windows--some mere Venetian\nshutters, without glass--ensure a free circulation of air.\n\nMosquitos are a little trying. I don\u2019t think they are more venomous\nthan the English gnat, but they are far \u2019cuter. The mosquito is the\n\u2019cutest little animal for its size that exists. I am certain from\nrepeated observations that it _watches one\u2019s eyes_. If you look at it,\nit flies away. It settles on the under side of your hand (say when\nreading a book), or on your ankles when sitting at table--on any part\nin fact which is remote from observation; there is nothing that it\nloves better than for you to sit in a cane-bottomed chair. But it never\nattacks your face--and that is a curious thing--_except when you are\nasleep_. How it knows I cannot tell, but I have often noticed that it\nis so. If you close your eyes and pretend to be asleep, it will not\ncome; but as sure as you begin to drowse off you hear the ping of its\nlittle wing as it swoops past your ear to your cheek.\n\nAt night however the mosquito curtains keep one in safety, and I cannot\nsay that I am much troubled during the day, except on occasions, and\nin certain places, as in the woods when there is no breeze. A. is a\nvegetarian, and I fancy diet has a good deal to do with freedom from\nirritation by insects and by heat. The thermometer reaches 90\u00b0 in\nthe shade almost every day here; to sit and run at the same time is\na gymnastic feat which one can easily perform, and at night it is\nhot enough to sleep without any covering on the bed; but I enjoy the\nclimate thoroughly, and never felt in better health. No doubt these\nthings often affect one more after a time than at first; but there\nseems almost always a pleasant breeze here at this time of year, and I\ndo not notice that languor which generally accompanies sultry weather.\n\nA. has most lovely vegetable curries; plenty of boiled rice, with\nfour or five little dishes of different sorts of curried vegetables.\nThis, with fruit, forms our breakfast--at ten; and dinner at six or\nseven is much the same, with perhaps an added soup or side-dish. His\nwife sometimes joins us at dinner, which I take as an honor, as even\nwith those Hindu women who are emancipated there is often a little\nreserve about eating with the foreigner. She has a very composed and\ngentle manner, and speaks English prettily and correctly, though slowly\nand with a little hesitation; approves of a good deal of the English\nfreedom for women, but says she cannot quite reconcile herself to women\nwalking about the streets alone, and other things she hears they do in\nEngland. However, she would like to come to England herself and see.\n\nThe children are very bright and charming. Mah\u00e9swari (three years old)\nis the sweetest little dot, with big black eyes and a very decided\nopinion about things. She comes into the room and lifts up one arm and\nturns up her face and prophesies something in solemn tones in Tamil,\nwhich turns out to be, \u201cFather is very naughty to sit down to dinner\nbefore mother comes.\u201d Then she talks Cinghalese to her nurse and\nEnglish to me, which is pretty good for a beginner in life. Mahad\u00e9va\nand Jayanta, the two boys (seven and nine respectively), are in the\nbubbling-over stage, and are alternately fast friends and fighting with\neach other two or three times a day, much like English boys. They are\ndressed more after the English fashion, though they are privileged to\nhave bare knees and feet--at any rate in the house; and Jayanta has a\npony which he rides out every day.\n\nA. sets apart a little room in this house as a \u201cchapel.\u201d It is quite\nbare, with just a five-wicked lamp on a small table in one corner, and\nflowers, fruit, etc., on the ground in front. I was present the other\nday when the Brahman priest was performing a little service there.\nHe recited Sanskrit formulas, burned camphor, and gave us cowdung\nashes and sandalwood paste to put on our foreheads, consecrated milk\nto drink, and a flower each. The cowdung ashes are a symbol. For as\ncowdung, when burnt, becomes clean and even purifying in quality, so\nmust the body itself be consumed and purified in the flame of Siva\u2019s\npresence. A. says they use a gesture identifying the light (of Siva)\nwithin the body with the light of the flame, and also with that of the\nsun; and always terminate their worship by going out into the open and\nsaluting the sun. The Brahman priest, a man about forty, and the boy\nof fifteen who often accompanies him, are pleasant-faced folk, not\napparently at all highly educated, wearing but little in the way of\nclothes, and not specially distinguishable from other people, except\nby the sacred thread worn over the shoulder, and a certain alertness of\nexpression which is often noticeable in the Brahman--though the trouble\nis that it is generally alertness for gain.\n\nThe priests generally here, whether Buddhist or Hindu (and Buddhism\nis of course the prevailing religion in Ceylon), occupy much the\nsame relation to the people which the priests occupy in the country\ndistricts of France or Ireland--that is, whatever spiritual power they\nclaim, they do not arrogate to themselves any worldly supremacy, and\nare always poor and often quite unlettered. In fact I suppose it is\nonly in the commercially religious, _i.e._ Protestant, countries that\nthe absurd anomaly exists of a priesthood which pretends to the service\nof the Jesus who had not where to lay his head, and which at the same\ntime openly claims to belong to \u201csociety\u201d and the well-to-do classes,\nand would resent any imputation to the contrary. There are indeed\nmany points of resemblance between the religions here--especially\nHinduism--and Roman Catholicism: the elaborate ceremonials and\nservices, with processions, incense, lights, ringing of bells, etc.;\nthe many mendicant orders, the use of beads and rosaries, and begging\nbowls, the monasteries with their abbots, and so forth.\n\n[Illustration: VEDDAHS.\n\n(_Aborigines of Ceylon._)]\n\nThere is one advantage in a hot damp climate like this; namely that\nthings--books, furniture, clothes, etc.--soon get destroyed and done\nwith, so that there is little temptation to cumber up your house with\npossessions. Some English of course try to furnish and keep their rooms\nas if they were _still_ living in Bayswater, but they are plentifully\nplagued for their folly. The floors here are of some cement or concrete\nmaterial, which prevents the white ants surging up through them, as\nthey infallibly would through boards, and which is nice and cool to the\nfeet; carpets, cupboards, and all collections of unremoved things are\ndiscountenanced. A chest of drawers or a bookcase stands out a foot or\ntwo from the wall, so that the servants can sweep behind it every day.\nLittle frogs, lizards, scorpions, and other fry, which come hopping and\ncreeping in during or after heavy rain can then be gently admonished\nto depart, and spiders do not find it easy to establish a footing. The\ngreatest harbor for vermin is the big roof, which is full of rats. In\npursuit of these come the rat-snakes, fellows five or six feet long,\nbut not venomous, and wild cats; and the noises at night from them, the\nshuffling of the snakes, and the squeals of the poor little rats, etc.,\nI confess are trying.\n\nWe have three or four male servants about the house and garden, and\nthere are two _ayahs_, who look after the children and the women\u2019s\napartments. I believe many of these Indian and Cinghalese races love to\nbe servants (under a tolerably good master); their feminine sensitive\nnatures, often lacking in enterprise, rather seek the shelter of\ndependence. And certainly they make, in many instances and when well\ntreated, wonderfully good servants, their tact and affectionateness\nriveting the bond. I know of a case in which an English civilian\nmet with an accident when 200 miles away from his station, and his\n\u201cbearer,\u201d when he heard the news, in default of other means of\ncommunication, _walked_ the whole distance, and arrived in time to\nsee him before he died. At the same time it is a mistake to suppose\nthey will do anything out of a sense of duty. The word duty doesn\u2019t\noccupy an important place in the Oriental vocabulary, no more than it\ndoes among the Celtic peoples of Europe. This is a fruitful source\nof misunderstanding between the races. The Britisher pays his Indian\nservant regularly, and in return expects him to _do his duty_, and to\nsubmit to kicks when he doesn\u2019t. He, the Britisher, regards this as\na fair contract. But the oyster doesn\u2019t understand it in the least.\nHe would rather receive his pay less regularly, and be treated as \u201ca\nman and a brother.\u201d Haeckel\u2019s account of the affection of his Rodiya\nservant-lad for him, and of the boy\u2019s despair when Haeckel had to leave\nhim, is quite touching; but it is corroborated by a thousand similar\nstories. But if there is no attachment, what is the meaning of duty?\nThe oyster, in keeping with his weaker, more dependent nature, is\ncunning and lazy--his vices lie in that direction rather than in the\nWestern direction of brutal energy. If his attachment is not called\nout, he can make his master miserable in his own way. And he does so;\nhence endless strife and recrimination.\n\nThe Arachchi here, a kind of official servant of A.\u2019s, is a most gentle\ncreature, with remarkable tact, but almost too sensitive; one is afraid\nof wounding him by not accepting all his numerous attentions. He glides\nin and out of the room--as they all do--noiselessly, with bare feet;\nand one never knows whether one is alone or not. The horse-keeper\nand I are good friends, though our dialogues are limited for want of\nvocabulary! He is a regular dusky demon, with his look of affectionate\nbedevilment and way of dissolving in a grin whenever he sees one. A.\nsays that he thinks the pariahs, or outcastes--and the horse-keepers\nare pariahs--are some of the most genuine and good-hearted among the\npeople; and I see that the author of _Life in an Indian Village_ says\nsomething of the same kind. \u201cAs a class, hardworking, honest, and\ntruthful,\u201d he calls them; and after describing their devotion to\nthe interests of the families to whom they are often hereditarily\nattached, adds, \u201cSuch are the illiterate pariahs, a unique class, whose\npure lives and noble traits of character are in every way worthy of\nadmiration.\u201d\n\nIt is curious, but I am constantly being struck by the resemblance\nbetween the lowest castes here and the slum-dwellers in our great\ncities--resemblance in physiognomy, as well as in many unconscious\ntraits of character, often very noble; with the brutish basis\nwell-marked, the unformed mouth, and the somewhat heavy brows, just\nas in Meunier\u2019s fine statue of the ironworker (\u201cpuddleur\u201d), but with\nthicker lips.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nADAM\u2019S PEAK AND THE BLACK RIVER.\n\n\n_January 1st, 1891._--Sitting by an impromptu wood-fire in a little hut\non the summit of Adam\u2019s Peak--nearly midnight--a half-naked Caliban out\nof the woods squatting beside me, and Kalua and the guide sleeping on\nthe floor. But I find it too cold to sleep, and there is _no_ furniture\nin the hut.\n\nAltogether an eventful New Year\u2019s day. Last night I spent at Kandy\nwith Kalua and his brother in their little cabin. They were both\nvery friendly, and I kept being reminded of Herman Melville and his\nMarquesas Island experiences--so beautiful the scene, the moon rising\nabout ten, woods and valleys all around--the primitive little hut,\nKirrah cooking over a fire on the ground, etc. We were up by moon and\nstarlight at 5 a.m., and by walking, driving, and the railway, reached\nMuskeliya at the foot of the peak by 2.30 p.m. There we got a guide--a\nvery decent young Tamil--and reached here by 7.30 or 8 p.m. Our path\nlay at first through tea-gardens, and then leaving them, it went in\nnearly a direct line straight up the mountain side--perhaps 3,000\nfeet--through dense woods, in step-like formation, over tree-roots\nand up the rocks, worn and hacked into shape through successive\ncenturies by innumerable pilgrims, but still only wide enough for\none. Night came upon us on the way, and the last hour or two we had\nto light torches to see our route. Elephant tracks were plentiful all\nround us through the woods, even close to the summit. It is certainly\nextraordinary on what steep places and rock sides these animals will\nsafely travel; but we were not fortunate enough to see any of them.\n\nThis is a long night trying to sleep. It is the wretchedest hut,\nwithout a door, and unceiled to the four winds! Caliban makes the fire\nfor me as I write. He has nothing on but a cotton wrap and a thin\njersey, but does not seem to feel the cold much; and the guide is\neven more thinly clad, and is asleep, while I am shivering, bundled\nin cloth coats. There is something curious about the way in which the\nEnglish in this country feel the cold--when it is cold--more than the\nnatives; though one might expect the contrary. I have often noticed\nit. I fancy we make a great mistake in these hot lands in not exposing\nour skins more to the sun and air, and so strengthening and hardening\nthem. In the great heat, and when constantly covered with garments, the\nskin perspires terribly, and becomes sodden and enervated, and more\nsensitive than it ought to be--hence great danger of chills. I have\ntaken several sun-baths in the woods here at different times, and found\nadvantage from doing so.\n\n[Since writing the above, I have discovered the existence of a\nlittle society in India--of English folk--who encourage nudity, and\nthe abandonment as far as possible of clothes, on three distinct\ngrounds--physical, moral, and \u00e6sthetic--of Health, Decency, and\nBeauty. I wish the society every success. Its chief object, as given in\nits rules, is to urge upon people \u201cto be and go stark naked whenever\nsuitable,\u201d and it is a _sine qu\u00e2 non_ that members should appear at all\nits meetings without any covering Passing over the moral and \u00e6sthetic\nconsiderations--which are both of course of the utmost importance\nin this connection--there is still the consideration of physical\nhealth and enjoyment, which must appeal to everybody. In a place like\nIndia, where the mass of the people go with very little covering, the\nspectacle of their ease and enjoyment must double the discomforts of\nthe unfortunate European who thinks it necessary to be dressed up to\nthe eyes on every occasion when he appears in public. It is indeed\nsurprising that men can endure, as they do, to wear cloth coats and\nwaistcoats and starched collars and cuffs, and all the paraphernalia\nof propriety, in a severity of heat which really makes only the very\nlightest covering tolerable; nor can one be surprised at the exhaustion\nof the system which ensues, from the cause already mentioned. In\nfact the direct stimulation and strengthening of the skin by sun and\nair, though most important in our home climate, may be even more\nindispensable in a place like India, where the relaxing influences are\nso terribly strong. Certainly, when one considers this cause of English\nenervation in India, and the other due to the greatly mistaken _diet_\nof our people there, the fearful quantities of flesh consumed, and of\nstrong liquors--both things which are injurious enough at home, but\nwhich are ruinous in a hot country--the wonder is not that the English\nfail to breed and colonise in India, but that they even last out their\nfew years of individual service there.]\n\nThere is a lovely view of cloudland from the summit now the moon has\nrisen. All the lower lands and mountains are wrapped in mist, and\nyou look down upon a great white rolling sea, silent, remote from\nthe world, with only the moon and stars above, and the sound of the\nBuddhist priests chanting away in a low tone round the fire in their\nown little cabin or _pansela_.\n\nThis is a most remarkable mountain. For at least 2,000 years, and\nprobably for long enough before that, priests of some kind or another\nhave kept watch over the sacred footmark on the summit; for thousands\nof years the sound of their chanting has been heard at night between\nthe driven white plain of clouds below and the silent moon and stars\nabove; and by day pilgrims have toiled up the steep sides to strew\nflowers, and to perform some kind of worship to their gods, on this\nhigh natural altar. The peak is 7,400 feet high, and though not quite\nthe highest point in the island, is by far the most conspicuous. It\nstands like a great outpost on the south-west edge of the mountain\nregion of Ceylon, and can be seen from far out to sea--a sugar-loaf\nwith very precipitous sides. When the Buddhists first came to Ceylon,\nabout the 4th century b.c., they claimed the footmark as that of\nBuddha. Later on some Gnostic Christian sects attributed it to the\nprimal man; the Mahomedans, following this idea, when they got\npossession of the mountain, gave it the name of Adam\u2019s Peak; the\nPortuguese consecrated it to S. Eusebius; and now the Buddhists are\nagain in possession--though I believe the Mahomedans are allowed a kind\nof concurrent right. But whatever has been the nominal dedication of\nthis ancient \u201chigh place,\u201d a continuous stream of pilgrims--mainly of\ncourse the country folk of the island--has flowed to it undisturbed\nthrough the centuries; and even now they say that in the month of\nMay the mountain side is covered by hundreds and even thousands of\nfolk, who camp out during the night, and do _poojah_ on the summit by\nday. Kalua says that his father--the jolly old savage--once ascended\n\u201cSamantakuta,\u201d and like the rest of the Cinghalese thinks a great deal\nof the religious merit of this performance.\n\n_Ratnapura, Jan. 3rd._--Sunrise yesterday on the peak was fine, though\n\u201csunrises\u201d are not always a success. The great veil of clouds gradually\ndissolved, and a long level \u201crose of dawn\u201d appeared in the eastern\nsky--Venus brilliant above it, the Southern Cross visible, and one\nor two other crosses which lie near it, and the half moon overhead;\na dark, peaked and castellated rampart of lower mountains stretched\naround us, and far on the horizon were masses of cumulus cloud rising\nout of the lowland mists, and catching the early light; while the lower\nlands themselves remained partly hidden by irregular pools and rivers\nof white fog, which looked like water in the first twilight. A great\nfan-like crown of rays preceded the sun, very splendid, of pearly\ncolors, with great beams reaching nearly to the zenith. We could not\nsee the sea, owing to mists along the horizon, nor was any habitation\nvisible, but only the great jungle-covered hills and far plains\nshrouded in the green of coco-nut groves.\n\nThe shadow of the peak itself, cast on the mists at sunrise, is a very\nconspicuous and often-noted phenomenon. Owing to the sun\u2019s breadth, the\neffect is produced of an _umbra_ and _penumbra_; and the _umbra_ looks\nvery dark and pointed--more pointed even than the peak itself. I was\nsurprised to see how distant it looked--a shadow-mountain among the far\ncrags. It gradually fell and disappeared as the sun rose.\n\nThere is another phenomenon which I have somewhere seen described as\npeculiar to Adam\u2019s Peak; though this must be a pious fraud, or one of\nthose cases of people only being able to see familiar things when they\nare in unfamiliar surroundings, since it is a phenomenon which can be\nwitnessed any day at home. It is that if when there is dew or rain upon\nthe grass, and the sun is not too high in the heavens, you look at the\nshadow of your head on the grass, you will see it surrounded by a white\nlight, or \u2018glory.\u2019 It arises, I imagine, from the direct reflection\nof the sunlight on the inner surfaces of the little globules of water\nwhich lie in or near the line joining the sun and the head, and is\nenhanced no doubt by the fact that the light so reflected shows all\nthe clearer from having to pass through a column of shadow to the eye.\nAnyhow, whatever the cause, it is quite a flattering appearance, all\nthe more so because if you have a companion you do not see the \u2018glory\u2019\nround his head, but only round your own! I once nearly turned the\nstrong brain of a Positivist by pointing out to him this aureole round\nhis head, and making as if I could see it. He of course, being unable\nto see a similar light round mine, had no alternative but to conclude\nthat he was specially overshadowed by the Holy Ghost!\n\nThe _sripada_--\u201csacred foot\u201d--is better than I expected: a natural\ndepression in the rock, an inch or so deep, five feet long,[1] of an\noblong shape, and distantly resembling a foot; but they have \u201cimproved\u201d\nit in parts by mortaring bits of tile along the doubtful edges! There\nare no toes marked, though in \u201ccopies\u201d of it that I have seen in\nsome Buddhist shrines the toes are carefully indicated. The mark is\ncuriously situated at the very summit of the rock--which is only a few\nfeet square, only large enough, in fact, to give space for the foot\nand for a little pavilion, open to the winds, which has been erected\nover it; and on the natural platform just below--which (so steep is\nthe mountain) is itself encircled by a wall to prevent accidents--are\nsome curious bits of furniture: four old bronze standard lamps, of\nlotus-flower design, one at each corner of the platform, a bell, a\nlittle shrine, and the priests\u2019 hut before mentioned. Looking into the\nlatter after dawn, I beheld nothing resembling furniture, but a pan in\nthe middle with logs burning, and three lean figures squatted round it,\ntheir mortal possessions tied in handkerchiefs and hanging from the\nroof.\n\n    [1] Captain Knox, above quoted, speaks of it as \u201cabout two feet\n        long\u201d; but he does not appear to have actually seen it.\n\nThe priests were horribly on the greed for money, and made it really\nunpleasant to stay on the top; but I delayed a little in order to\nwatch Caliban doing _poojah_ at the little shrine I have mentioned. He\nbrought a hot ember from the fire, sprinkled frankincense on it, burned\ncamphor and something that looked like saltpetre, also poured some kind\nof scented water on the ember, causing fragrance. Very ancient gnarled\nrhododendron trees, twenty or thirty feet high, rooting in clefts and\nhollows, were in flower (carmine red) all round the top of the rock. No\nsnow ever falls here, they say; but there are sometimes hoar frosts,\nwhich the natives mistake for snow. I don\u2019t suppose the temperature\nthat night was below 50\u00b0 Fahr., but it felt cold, very cold, after the\nheat of the lowlands.\n\nThe sun rose soon after six, and at 7.30 we started downwards, on\nthe great pilgrim-track towards Ratnapura. The final cone, for about\n1,500 feet, is certainly a steep bit of rock. I have seen it from\nseveral points of view, but the summit angle was always under 90\u00b0.\nSteps are cut nearly all down this part, and chains hang alongside in\nall places of possible difficulty--chains upon chains, things with\nlinks six inches long, all shapes and curiously wrought, centuries and\ncenturies old--the pious gifts of successive generations of pilgrims.\nHere and there are long inscriptions, in Cinghalese characters, on the\nrock-faces; and everywhere signs of innumerable labor of successive\ntravelers in hewing and shaping the path all the way--not to mention\nresting-sheds and cabins built in convenient spots lower down. These\nhowever are largely fallen to decay; and indeed the whole place gives\none the impression that the _sripada_ has come somewhat into disrepute\nin these modern times, and is only supported by the poorer and more\nignorant among the people.\n\nRatnapura is only 150 feet or so above the sea; and for twenty-four\nmiles the path to it from the summit--well-marked but single file--goes\ndown over rocks and through vast woods, without coming to anything\nlike a road. Nearly the whole, however, of this great descent of\n7,000 feet is done in the first twelve miles to Pal\u00e1baddala--a tiny\nhamlet at the very foot of the mountains--and I don\u2019t know that I\never felt a descent so fatiguing as this one, partly no doubt owing\nto the experiences of the day and night before, and partly no doubt\nto the enervation produced by the climate and want of exercise; but\nthe path itself is a caution, and the ascent of it must indeed be a\npilgrimage, with its huge steps and strides from rock to rock and from\ntree-root to tree-root, and going, as it does, almost straight up and\ndown the mountain side, without the long zigzags and detours by which\nin such cases the brunt is usually avoided. All the same it was very\ninteresting; the upper jungle of rhododendrons, myrtles, and other\nevergreen foliage forming a splendid cover for elephants, and clothing\nthe surrounding peaks and crags for miles in grey-green wrinkles and\nfolds, with here and there open grassy spaces and glades and tumbling\nwatercourses; then the vegetation of the lower woods, huge trees 150\nor even 200 feet high, with creepers, orchids, and tree-ferns; the\noccasional rush of monkeys along the branches; butterflies and birds;\nthick undergrowth in parts of daturas, pointsettias, crotons, and\nother fragrant and bright-colored shrubs; down at last into coco-nut\nplantations and to the lovely Kaluganga, or Black river, which we\nforded twice; and ultimately along its banks, shadowed by bamboos and\nmany flowering trees.\n\nAlthough, curiously enough, the fig is not grown as a fruit in Ceylon,\nyet the _ficus_ is one of the most important families of trees here,\nand many of the forest trees belong to it. There is one very handsome\nvariety, whose massive grey stem rises unbroken to a great height\nbefore it branches, and which in order to support itself throws out\ngreat lateral wings or buttresses, reaching to a height of twelve or\ntwenty feet from the ground, and spreading far out from the base of\nthe trunk,--each buttress perhaps three or four inches thick, and\nperfectly shaped, with plane and parallel sides like a sawn plank, so\nas to give the utmost strength with least expenditure of material.\nThis variety has small ovate evergreen leaves. Then there are two or\nthree varieties, of which the banyan (_ficus Indica_) is one, which are\nparasitic in their habit. The banyan begins existence by its seed being\ndropped in the fork of another tree--not unfrequently a palm--from\nwhich point its rootlets make their way down the stem to the ground.\nWith rapid growth it then encircles the victim tree, and throwing out\ngreat lateral branches sends down from these a rain of fresh rootlets\nwhich, after swinging in air for a few weeks, reach the ground and\nsoon become sturdy pillars. I have thus seen a banyan encircling with\nits central trunk the stem of a palm, and clasping it so close that a\nknife could not be pushed between the two, while the palm, which had\ngrown in height since this accident happened to it, was still soaring\nupwards, and feebly endeavoring to live. There is a very fine banyan\ntree at Kalutara, which spans the great high-road from Colombo to\nGalle, all the traffic passing beneath it and between its trunks.\n\nSome of the figs fasten parasitically on other trees, though without\nthrowing out the pillar-like roots which distinguish the banyan; and\nit is not uncommon to see one of these with roots like a cataract\nof snakes winding round the trunk of an acacia, or even round some\nnon-parasitic fig, the two trees appearing to be wrestling and writhing\ntogether in a fierce embrace, while they throw out their separate\nbranches to sun and air, as though to gain strength for the fray. The\nparasite generally however ends by throttling its adversary.\n\nThere is also the bo-tree, or _ficus religiosa_, whose leaf is of a\nthinner texture. One of the commonest plants in open spots all over\nCeylon is the sensitive plant. Its delicately pinnate leaves form a\nbushy growth six inches to a foot in depth over the ground; but a\nshower of rain, or nightfall, or the trampling of animals through it\ncauses it to collapse into a mere brown patch--almost as if a fire had\npassed over. In a few minutes however after the disturbance has ceased\nit regains its luxuriance. There are also some acacia trees which droop\ntheir leaves at nightfall, and at the advent of rain.\n\nThere are two sorts of monkeys common in these forests--a small\nbrown monkey, which may be seen swinging itself from tree to tree,\nnot unfrequently with a babe in its arms; and the larger _wanderoo_\nmonkey, which skips and runs on all fours along the ground, and of\nwhich it is said that its devotion to its mate is life-long. Very\ncommon all over Ceylon is a little grey-brown squirrel, with three\nyellow longitudinal stripes on its back; almost every tree seems to\nbe inhabited by a pair, which take refuge there at the approach of a\nstranger, and utter a sharp little whistle like the note of an angry\nbird. They are very tame however, and will often in inhabited places\nrun about the streets, or even make their appearance in the houses in\nsearch of food.\n\nThe Hindus take no pleasure in killing animals--even the boys do not,\nas a rule, molest wild creatures--and the consequence is that birds and\nthe smaller four-footed beasts are comparatively bold. Not that the\nanimals are made pets of, but they are simply let alone--in keeping\nwith the Hindu gentleness and quiescence of disposition. Even the\ndeadly cobra--partly no doubt from religious associations--is allowed\nto go its way unharmed; and the people have generally a good word for\nit, saying it will not attack any one unless it be first injured.\n\nOn the whole the trouble about reptiles in this country seems to me\nto be much exaggerated. There are some places in the forests where\nsmall leeches--particularly in the wet seasons--are a great pest.\nOccasionally a snake is to be seen, but I have been rather disappointed\nat their rarity; or a millipede nine inches long. The larger scorpion\nis a venomous-looking creature, with its blue-black lobster-like body\nand claws, and slender sting-surmounted tail, five inches long in all;\nbut it is not so venomous as generally supposed, and most of these\ncreatures, like the larger animals--the chetah, the elk, the bear,\nthe elephant, etc.--keep out of the way of man as well as they can.\nOf course native woodmen and others tramping bare-legged through the\ntangles occasionally tread on a snake and get bitten; but the tale\nof deaths through such casualties, though it may seem numerically\nlarge, taken say throughout Ceylon and India, is in proportion to the\npopulation but a slight matter--about 1 in 15,000 per annum.\n\nThere are many handsome butterflies here, especially of the\nswallow-tail sort--some of enormous size--and a number of queer\ninsects. I saw a large green mantis, perhaps six inches long--a\nmost wicked-looking creature. I confess it reminded me of a highly\nrespectable British property owner. It sits up like a beautiful green\nleaf, with its two foreclaws (themselves flattened out and green to\nlook like lesser leaves) held up as if it were praying--_perfectly_\nmotionless--except that all the time it rolls its stalked eyes slowly\naround, till it sees a poor little insect approach, when it stealthily\nmoves a claw, and pounces.\n\nThe birds are not so numerous as I expected. There are some\nbright-colored kinds and a few parrots, but the woods seem quiet on\nthe whole. The barbet, a green bird not quite so big as a pigeon, goes\non with its monotonous bell-like call--like a cuckoo that has lost its\nsecond note--on and on, the whole day long; the lizards cluck and kiss,\nfull of omens to the natives, who call them \u201cthe crocodile\u2019s little\nbrothers\u201d--and say \u201cif you kill a little lizard the crocodile will come\nand kill you\u201d; the grasshoppers give three clicks and a wheeze; the\nsmall grey squirrels chirrup; the frogs croak; and the whole air is\nfull of continuous though subdued sound.\n\nAt Pal\u00e1baddala, the tiny little hamlet at the foot of the mountains,\nI was dead-beat with the long jolting downhill, and if it had not\nbeen for the faithful Kalua, who held my hand in the steeper parts, I\nshould fairly have fallen once or twice. Here we stopped two hours at\na little cabin. Good people and friendly--a father and mother and two\nlads--the same anxious, tender mother-face that is the same all over\nthe world. They brought out a kind of couch for me to lie on, but would\nnot at first believe that I would eat _their_ food. However, after a\nlittle persuasion they made some tea (for the people are beginning to\nuse tea quite freely) and some curry and rice--quite palatable. I began\nto eat of course with my fingers, native fashion; but as soon as I did\nso, they saw that something was wrong, and raised a cry of _Karandi_!\n(spoon); and a boy was sent off, despite my protests, to the cabin of a\nrich neighbor half a mile off, and ultimately returned in triumph with\na rather battered German-silver teaspoon!\n\nI felt doubtful about doing another twelve miles to Ratnapura; however\nthought best to try, and off we went. But the rest had done little\ngood, and I could not go more than two miles an hour. At 4 p.m., after\nwalking about four miles, we came out into flat land--a good path,\nlittle villages with clumps of palm and banana, lovely open meadows,\nand tame buffalos grazing. Thence along the side of the Kaluganga, most\nlovely of rivers, through thickets of bamboo and tangles of shrubs,\nand past more hamlets and grazing grounds (though feeling so _done_,\nI thoroughly enjoyed every step of the way), till at last at a little\nkind of shop (_kadai_) we halted, about 6 p.m. Got more tea, and a\nfew bananas, which was all I cared to eat; and then went in and lay\ndown on a trestle and mat for an hour, after which we decided to stay\nthe night. Kalua stretched himself near me; the men of the place lay\ndown on the floor--the women somewhere inside; the plank shutters were\nbuilt in, and lights put out. I slept fairly well, and woke finally at\nthe sound of voices and with dawn peeping in through the holes in the\nroof. Had a lovely wash in a little stream, and an early breakfast of\ntea, bananas, and hot cakes made of rice, coco-nut, and sugar--and then\nwalked four miles into this place (Ratnapura), where at last we came to\na road and signs of civilisation.\n\nThe rest-house here is comfortable; have had another bath, and a good\nsolid breakfast, and made arrangements for a boat to start with us this\nevening down the river to Kalutara (60 miles).\n\n_Sunday, Jan. 4th._--After walking round the town yesterday, and\ngetting fruit and provisions for our voyage, we embarked about 6 p.m.,\nand are now floating lazily down the Kaluganga. The water is rather\nlow, and the speed not good; but the river is very beautiful, with\nbamboos, areca-palms, and other trees, leaning over in profusion.\n\nRatnapura (the city of jewels) is only a small town--hardly so big as\nKurun\u00e9gala--just about one long street of little booths and cabins,\na post-office, court-house and cutcherry, and the usual two or three\nbungalows of the English agent and officials standing back in park-like\ngrounds in a kind of feudal reserve. The town derives its name from\nthe trade in precious stones which has been carried on here for long\nenough--rubies, sapphires, and others being found over a great part of\nthe mountain district. In perhaps half the little shops of Ratnapura\nmen and boys may be seen squatted on the floor grinding and polishing\njewels. With one hand they use a bow to turn their wheels, and with\nthe other they hold the stone in position. The jewels are also set and\noffered for sale--often at what seem very low prices. But the purchaser\nmust beware; for the blessings of modern commerce are with us even\nhere, and many of these precious stones are bits of stained glass\nsupplied wholesale from Birmingham.\n\nThis boat, which is of a type common on the river, consists of two\ncanoes or \u201cdug-outs,\u201d each twenty feet long, and set five or six\nfeet apart from each other, with a flooring laid across them, and a\nlittle thatched cabin constructed amidships. The cabin is for cooking\nand sleeping--a fire and cooking pots at one end, and mats laid at\nthe other. At the front end of the boat sit the two rowers, and the\nsteersman stands behind. We have a skipper and four crew (an old\nman, Djay\u00e1nis; a middle-aged man, Sign\u00e1pu; and two lads, Du\u00e1nis and\nThor\u00e1nis). The name of the skipper is Pedri. About two miles below\nRatnapura we drew to the shore and stopped below a temple; and Pedri\nand the old man went up to offer money for a favorable voyage! They\nwashed a few coppers in the river, wrapped them in a bo-tree leaf,\nwhich had also been washed, sprinkled water on their foreheads, and\nthen went up. They soon came back, and then we started.\n\n[Illustration: RICE-BOATS ON THE KALUGANGA.\n\n(_A clump of bamboos on the right._)]\n\nHardly any signs of habitation along the river. Now and then rude\nsteps down to the shore, and a dark figure pouring water on its own\nhead. The river varying, a hundred yards, more or less, wide. At about\nseven it got too dark and we halted against a sandbank, waiting for\nthe moon to rise, and had dinner--rice, curried eggs, and beans, and a\npineapple--very good. Then got out and sat on the sand, while the boys\nlighted a fire. Very fine, the gloom on the tall fringed banks, gleams\nfrom the fire, voices of children far back among the woods, playing in\nsome village. After a time we went back on board again, and sat round\nteaching each other to count, and laughing at our mistakes--_ekkai_,\n_dekkai_, _tonai_, _hattarai_--one, two, three, four. The Cinghalese\nlanguage (unlike the Tamil) is full of Aryan roots--_minya_, man;\n_g\u00e1ni_, woman; and so on. The small boy Thor\u00e1nis (12 years) learnt his\n\u201cone two three\u201d in no time; he is pretty sharp; he does the cooking,\nand prepares our meals, taking an oar between times. The man Pedri\nseemed good to the lads, and they all enjoyed themselves till they got\nsleepy and lay in a row and snored.\n\nStarted again at moonrise, about midnight; after which I went to sleep\ntill six or so, then went ashore and had a bath--water quite warm. Then\noff again; a few slight rapids, but nothing much. We go aground every\nnow and then; but these boats are so tough--the canoes themselves being\nhollowed trees--that a bump even on a rock does not seem to matter\nmuch. The lads quite enjoy the struggle getting over a sandbank, and\nDu\u00e1nis jumps down from his perch and plunges through the water with\nevident pleasure. The old man Djay\u00e1nis steers--a shrewd-faced calm thin\nfellow, almost like a North American Indian, but no beak. See a monkey\nor a kite occasionally; no crocodiles in this part of the river, above\nthe rapids; some large and handsome kingfishers, and the fruit-crow,\nwhose plumage is something like that of a pheasant.\n\nKalua enjoys the voyage. It suits his lazy sociable temperament, and\nhe chats away to Pedri and the crew no end. His savage strength and\n_insouciance_ are splendid. All over Adam\u2019s Peak he walked barefoot,\nwith no more sign of fatigue than if it had been a walk round a\ngarden,--would lie down and sleep anywhere, or not sleep, eat or\nnot eat, endure cold or heat with apparent indifference; yet though\nso complete a savage physically, it is interesting to see what an\nattraction for him civilisation, or the little he has seen of it,\nexerts. He is always asking me about Europe, and evidently dreaming\nabout its wealth and splendor. All the modern facilities and inventions\nare sort of wonderful toys to this child of nature; and though I think\nhe is attached to me, and is no doubt of an affectionate disposition,\nstill it is partly that I am mixed up in his mind with all these\nthings. I tried one day to find out from K. his idea of god or devil,\nor supreme power of any kind; but in vain. His mind wandered to things\nmore tangible. Many of the Cinghalese however have rather a turn for\nspeculations of this kind; and at one hotel where I was staying the\nchamber-servant entertained me with quite a discourse on Buddha, and\nended by ridiculing the Christian idea that a man can get rid of the\nresults of sin by merely praying to God or believing in Jesus.\n\nWe have now passed the _n\u00e1rraka-g\u00e1la_ (bad rock) rapid, which is\nabout half-way down the river, and is the only rapid which has looked\nawkward, the river narrowing to five or six yards between rocks,\nand plunging over at a decided slope. We went through with a great\nbump, but no damage! The sun and smells on board are getting rather\ntrying; this dried-fish smell unfortunately haunts one wherever there\nare native cabins. But we shall not be long now before reaching my\nlanding-place, a little above Kalutara.\n\nThere are a good many boats like ours on the river, some laden with\nrice going down, others poling upwards--sometimes whole families on the\nmove. Quantities of ragged white lilies fringing the shore.\n\n_Jan. 6th._--Kalua and I left our friends and their boat in the\nafternoon, and spent Sunday night at P----\u2019s bungalow. P. is manager\nof a tea plantation--a bit of a Robinson Crusoe, living all by\nhimself--native servants of course--with two dogs, a cat, and a\njackdaw (and at one time a hare!) sharing his meals. Some of these\nplanter-fellows must find the life a little dreary I fancy, living\nisolated on their plantations at a considerable distance from European\nneighbors, with very small choice of society at the best, and prevented\nno doubt by their position from associating too closely with the only\nfolk who are near them--their own employees. The more kindly-hearted\namong them however do a good deal for their workers in the way of\nphysicking and nursing them when ill or disabled, advising them when in\ndifficulties, etc.; and in these cases the natives, with their instinct\nof dependence, soon learn to lean like children on their employer, and\nthe latter finds himself, after a few years, the father (so to speak)\nof a large family. There are 200 Tamil coolies permanently employed on\nthis plantation, and a hundred or two besides, mostly girls and women,\nwho come in to work when wanted from neighboring Cinghalese villages.\n\n[Illustration: GROUP OF TAMIL COOLIES, OR WAGE-WORKERS.]\n\nBut the system, like the commercial system wherever it is found\nto-day, is pretty bad and odious in itself, and is no doubt in many\ncases a cover for shameful abuses. The Tamil coolies--men, women, and\nchildren--come over in gangs from the mainland of India. An agent is\nsent out to tout for them, and to conduct them by sea and land to their\ndestination. On their arrival on the tea-estate each one finds himself\nso many rupees in debt for the expenses of transit! An average wage is\n6_d._ a day, but to keep them up to the mark in productiveness their\nwork is \u201cset\u201d for them to complete a certain task in a certain time,\nand if they do not come up to their task they get only half pay; so\nthat if a man is slow, or lazy, or ill, he may expect about 3_d._ per\ndiem! Under these circumstances the debt, as may be imagined, goes on\nincreasing instead of diminishing; the estate is far up country, away\nfrom town or village, and the tea company acts as agent and sells rice\nand the other necessaries of life to its own coolies. Poor things, they\ncannot buy elsewhere. \u201cOh, but they like to be in debt,\u201d said a young\nplanter to me, \u201cand think they are not doing the best for themselves\nunless they owe as much as the company will allow.\u201d He was very young,\nthat planter, and perhaps did not realise what he was saying; but what\na suggestion of despair! Certainly there may have been some truth in\nthe remark; for when all hope of ever being out of debt is gone, the\nvery next best thing is to be in debt, as much as ever you can. At the\nend of the week the coolie does not see any wage; his rice, etc., has\nforestalled all that, and more; only his debt is ticked down a little\ndeeper. If he runs away to a neighboring estate he is soon sent back\nin irons. He is a slave, and must remain so to the end of his days.\nThat is not very long however; for poor food and thin clothing, and the\nmists and cool airs of the mountains soon bring on lung diseases, of\nwhich the slight-bodied Tamil easily dies.\n\n\u201cI dare say 3_d._ a day seems a very small wage to you,\u201d said the\nplanter youth, \u201cbut it is really surprising how little these fellows\nwill live on.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is surprising, indeed, when you see their thin frames, that they\nlive at all.\u201d\n\n\u201cAh, but they are much worse off at home; you should see them when they\ncome from India.\u201d And so the conversation ended.\n\nAnd this is how our tea, which we set so much store by, is produced\nin Ceylon and other places. These plantations are sad-looking places.\nCommercialism somehow has a way of destroying all natural beauty in\nthose regions where it dwells. Here the mountain sides are torn up,\nthe immense and beautiful forests ravaged from base to summit, and\nthe shaly escarpments that remain planted in geometrical lines with\ntea-shrubs. You may walk for miles through such weary lands, extending\nrapidly now all over the mountain region from the base to near the tops\nof the highest mountains, the blackened skeletons of half-burnt trees\nalone remaining to tell of the old forests, of which before long there\nwill be but a memory left.\n\nIt is curious, when one comes to think of it, that such huge spaces of\nthe earth are devastated, such vast amounts of human toil expended,\nin the production of two things--tea and wine--which to say the least\nare not necessaries, and which certainly in the quantities commonly\nconsumed are actually baneful. If their production simply ceased,\nwhat a gain it might seem! Yet the commercial policies of the various\nnations stimulate these, and always to the neglect of the necessaries\nof life. They stimulate the stimulants. We need not be hypercritical,\nbut there must be something peculiar in the temper of the modern\nnations that they make such tremendous sacrifices in order to act in\nthis way.\n\n[Illustration: TAMIL GIRL COOLIE, PLUCKING TEA.]\n\nOn each tea-plantation there are the \u201clines\u201d (rows of huts) in which\nthe coolies live, and the \u201cfactory\u201d--a large wooden building, with rows\nof windows, a steam engine, and machinery for the various processes\nconcerned--withering, fermenting, rolling, firing, sorting, packing,\netc. The tea-bushes (a variety of the camellia) are not allowed to\ngrow more than three or four feet high. In Ceylon the plucking goes on\nalmost all the year round. As soon as the young shoots, with five or\nsix leaves, have had time to form since the last plucking, a gang of\nworkers comes round--mostly girls and women for this job--each with a\nbasket, into which they pluck the young leaves and the little rolled-up\nleaf-bud, most precious of all. When taken to the factory the leaves\nare first spread out to wither, then rolled by machinery (to look\nlike buds), then dried or baked by artificial heat. After this they\nare sorted through a huge sieve, and the finest quality, consisting of\nthe small leaf-bud, is called Flowery Pekoe; the next size, including\nsome of the young leaf, is called Broken Pekoe; and the coarser leaves\ncome out as Pekoe Souchong, Souchong, etc. The difficulty with tea, as\nwith wine, is that no two yields are alike; the conditions of plucking,\nfermenting, firing, etc., all make a difference in the resultant\nflavor. Hence a dealer, say in London, who reckons to supply his\ncustomers with tea of a certain constant flavor, has simply to _make_\nsuch tea as best he can--namely by \u201cblending\u201d any teas which he can lay\nhold of in the market, and which will produce the desired result. The\nnames given in these cases are of course mostly fictitious.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI may as well insert here one or two extracts from letters since\nreceived from our friend \u201cAjax,\u201d which will perhaps help to show the\ncondition of the coolies in the tea-gardens where he is now working. He\nsays:--\n\n\u201cOne gets very fond of the coolies, they are so much like children;\nthey bring all their little grievances to one to settle. A man will\ncome and complain that his wife refuses to cook his food for him; the\nmost minute details of family affairs are settled by the sahib of the\ngarden. The coolies have a hard time, and are treated little better\nthan slaves; most willing workers they are. Still all I can say is\nthat they have a much better time than the very poor at home, such as\nthe factory girls, tailoresses, etc., and laborers. On this garden\nthey have met with exceptionally hard lines; the manager being an\nill-bred man has had no consideration for his men, and they have died\nin hundreds from exposure to weather in the garden and houses, which\nhad all crumbled away from neglect. Many families of ten or eleven\nin number have dwindled away to one or two. In one case, two little\nfellows of eight and nine, living together on five rupees a month, are\nthe only representatives (of a former family)....\n\n\u201cI was sorry to leave (the former garden), very; I had got to know the\ncoolies, 300 of them at any rate who were under my charge, and they\nhad got to know me. Many of them wanted to come with me here, but that\nis not allowed. Some said they would \u2018cut their names,\u2019 that is take\ntheir names off the garden labor-register, and go wherever I went,\nbut of course they could not do that. I don\u2019t know why they were so\nanxious to come, because I know I worked them very hard all the time I\nwas there. I think my predecessor used to fine them and thrash them a\ngood deal, often because he did not know what they said, and could not\nmake them understand. I like the coolies very much, and one gets quite\nattached to some of them; they seem instinctively polite; and if you\nare ill, they tend you just like a woman--never leave one in fact. The\nhigher and more respectable class of Baboos are just as objectionable,\nI think.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nBRITISH LAW-COURTS AND BUDDHIST TEMPLES.\n\n\n_Kurun\u00e9gala._--I have come to the conclusion that the courts and\njudicial proceedings out here are a kind of entertainment provided for\nthe oysters at the expense of the British Government, and that the\npeople really look upon these institutions very much in that light.\nPoor things! their ancient communal life and interests, with all the\nlocal questions and politics which belonged thereto, and even to a\ngreat extent the religious festivals, have been improved away; they\nhave but few modern joys--no votes and elections such as would delight\nour friend Monerasingha--no circuses, theatres, music-halls. What\nis there left for them but the sensations of the police-courts? The\ndistrict court here is, I find, the one great centre of interest in\nthe town. Crowds collect in the early morning, and hang about all day\nin its vicinity, either watching the cases or discussing the judgments\ndelivered, till sunset, when they disperse homeward again. Cooling\ndrinks are sold, beggars ply their trade, the little bullock-hackeries\ntrot up and down, and the place is as busy as a fair. There is no\nparticular stigma in conviction by an alien authority; there is a\nhappy uncertainty in the judgments delivered by the representatives of\na race that has difficulty in understanding the popular customs and\nlanguage; and the worst that can happen--namely relegation to prison\nlife--affords a not unpleasant prospect. Besides, these institutions\ncan be used to gratify personal spleen; cases can be, and frequently\nare, cooked up in the most elaborate manner. Damages can be claimed\nfor a fictitious assault; and when an injury has really been done, the\nplaintiff (and this I find is a constantly recurring difficulty) will\naccuse not only the author of the mischief, but Tom, Dick, and Harry\nbesides, who have had nothing whatever to do with it, but who are\nthe objects of personal spite, in the hope of getting them too into\ntrouble. The Cinghalese, as I have said before, are a very sensitive\npeople. Any grievance rankles in their bosom, and in revenge they will\nnot unfrequently use the knife. An Eurasian friend, a doctor, says that\nhe quite thinks cases might occur in which a man who had been wounded\nor assaulted by another would _die out of spite_ in order to get the\nother hanged!--would connive with his relations and starve himself, and\nnot try to heal the wound. He says however that the cases of ruptured\nspleen--of which we so frequently hear--are genuine, as frequent fevers\noften cause immense enlargement of the spleen, which then bursts for a\ncomparatively slight cause, _e.g._ a planter and a stick.\n\n[Illustration: BULLOCK-HACKERY, COLOMBO.]\n\nThe courts in this country are generally large thatched or tiled halls,\nsometimes with glass sides, but often open to the wind, with only a low\nwall running round, over which, as you sit inside, a crowd of bare arms\nand heads and bodies appears. At one end sits the English official,\ndutifully but wearily going through his task, a big punkah waving over\nhis head and helping to dispel the slumbrous noontide heat; below him\nstands the _mudaliar_, who acts as interpreter--for the etiquette\nproperly enough requires that the transactions of the court shall be\ngiven in both languages, even though the official be a native or an\nEnglishman knowing the native language perfectly; at the table in the\ncentre are seated a few reporters and proctors, and at the other end\nare the prisoners in the dock, and the policemen in their boots.\n\nThe cases are largely quarrels, and more or less unfounded accusations\narising out of quarrels, thefts of bullocks or of coco-nuts, and\nso forth. The chief case when I was in court some days ago was\nrather amusing. A few days before, three or four men, having been\naccused, possibly wrongfully, of burglary, and having (on account of\ninsufficient evidence) been acquitted, went off straight from the\ncourt to an arrack shop and got drunk. They then made it up between\nthem that they would rob the man thoroughly that evening, even if they\nhad not done so before, and give him a good hiding into the bargain;\nand taking to themselves some other congenial spirits went off on\ntheir errand. They found the man asleep in the verandah of his cabin,\nand tying him down gave him some blows. But--as it came out in the\nevidence with regard to the very slight marks on the body--before they\ncould have hurt him much, the man, with great presence of mind, died,\nand left them charged with the crime of murder! An old woman--the\nman\u2019s mother--with a beautiful face, but _shaking with age_, came\nforward to give evidence. She said she was nearly 100 years old, though\nthe evidence on this point was not very clear. Anyhow, her head was\nremarkably clear, and she gave her testimony well; identified several\nof the prisoners, said they had broken into the cabin and carried off\nvaluables, and that one, the leader, had motioned her into a corner of\nthe cabin, saying, \u201cStand aside, old mother, or you\u2019ll get hurt,\u201d while\nanother had come up to her and said, \u201cI think I had better take those\nbangles from you, as they are no good to you now, you know.\u201d There were\n_nine_ men charged with the offence, and they were committed for trial\nin a higher court--very decent-looking scaramouches on the whole, just\nabout average types of humanity.\n\nThe English officials that I have seen here and at other places strike\nme as remarkably good-hearted painstaking men; but one feels the\ngulf between them and the people--a gulf that can never be bridged.\nPractically all that a Government like ours does, or can do, is to\nmake possible the establishment of our social institutions in the\nmidst of an alien people--our railways, education, Bible missions,\nhospitals, law-courts, wage-slavery, and profit-grinding, and all the\nrest of it, in the midst of a people whose whole life springs from\nanother root, namely religious feeling. The two will never blend,\nthough the shock produced by the contact of two such utterly different\ncivilisations may react on both, to the production of certain important\nresults. Anyhow for a well-meaning official it must be depressing work;\nfor though he may construct a valuable tank, or what not, from the\nhighest motives according to his own lights--_i.e._ for the material\nwelfare of the people and the realisation of a five per cent. profit\nto Government--still he never comes near touching the hearts of the\nmillions, who would probably pay much more respect to a half-luny\n_yogi_ than to him and all his percentages.\n\nA.\u2019s friend, S\u00e1man\u00e1than, comes to read English with me every day,\nand teaches me a little Tamil in return. He is something of a dandy,\nwith his green silk coat and hair plaited down his back, and delicate\nhands and manners--a fellow over thirty, with a wife and children,\nand yet not earning any livelihood, but remaining on at home with his\nparents, and dependent on them! And what seems to us most strange, this\nis quite an admitted and natural thing to do--such is the familiar\ncommunism which still prevails. He is very much of a student by nature,\nand in his native town (in India) gives lectures, philosophical and\ntheological, free of charge, and which are quite popular. He is reading\nS. Mark with me, and reads it pretty well, being evidently familiar\neven with the more philosophical words, though doubtful about the\npronunciation of some. He is interested in the story of Jesus, and\nthinks Jesus was no doubt a \u201csage\u201d--_i.e._ an adept--or at any rate\nversed in the arcane lore of the East. But he is much amused at the\nChristian doctrine of the redemption, which I suppose he has got hold\nof, not from Mark but the missionaries.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOn the 10th of this month (January), F. Modder and I went off on an\nexcursion from here to Dambulla (35 miles), and thence to Anur\u00e1dhapura\n(42 miles). Dambulla is celebrated for its Buddhist rock-temples, and\nAnur\u00e1dhapura is the site of a very ancient city, now in ruins amid the\njungle.\n\nDespite all sorts of reports about the length of the journey and its\ndifficulty--the chief difficulty being that of getting any exact\ninformation--M. managed to secure a bullock-cart _with springs_, and\ntwo pairs of bullocks; and we made a start about 6.30 p.m. A mattress\nin the cart and a pillow or two made all comfortable. We sat and\ntalked for a couple of hours, then walked, and then went to sleep.\nWith an average speed of _two_ miles an hour we reached the rest-house\nat Gokarella at midnight, changed bulls, and immediately went on.\nAnother six hours brought us to the house of a Government medical\npractitioner--a Cinghalese--where we got an early breakfast, and\nfinally we reached Dr. Devos\u2019 house, at Dambulla, about midday.\n\n[Illustration: CINGHALESE COUNTRY-CART.\n\n(_Thatched with palm-branches._)]\n\nThe little bulls went patiently on during the night, the Tamil driver\nchirruping \u201cJack\u201d and \u201cPitta\u201d to them (corresponding to our carters\u2019\n\u201cOrve\u201d and \u201cGee,\u201d) which some cheerful English traveler is said to\nhave interpreted into the statement that the natives of Ceylon call\nall their cattle either Jack or Peter; the stars shone bright--the\nMilky Way innumerable. The road was bad, with occasional descents into\ndry sandy torrent beds; jungle stretched all around (with here and\nthere, M. says, the remains of some town buried in undergrowth); but\nwe slept--M. slept, I slept, the driver slept, and occasionally even\nthe good little bulls slept. Once or twice we came thus to a total\nstoppage, all sleeping, and then woke up at the unwonted quiet.\n\nJust the first light of dawn, and a few strange bird-calls in the\nbush; the great _ficus_ trees with their mighty buttresses stretching\nwhite stems up into the yet ghostly light; ant-hills, conical and\nspired, all along the road-side; tangles of creepers, and then, as the\nsun rose, quantities of butterflies. I know nothing of butterflies, but\nthe kinds in this country are very various and beautiful. There is one\nwhich is very common, about four inches across, black and white, with\nbody a bright red, and underwing spotted with the same colour--very\nhandsome; and one day, when taking a sun-bath in the woods, an immense\nswallow-tail hovered round me, fully ten inches across from tip to tip\nof wings.\n\nModder is a cheerful fellow, of Dutch descent probably, of about\nthirty years of age, a proctor or solicitor for native cases, well\nup in Cinghalese and Tamil, and full of antiquarian knowledge, yet\ncan troll a comic song nicely with a sweet voice. I find he is a\nregular democrat, and hates the whole caste system in which he lives\nembedded--thinks the U.S. must be \u201ca glorious country.\u201d He says he has\noften talked to the Tamil and Cinghalese people about the folly of\ncaste. At first they can\u2019t understand what he means--are completely at\na loss to imagine anything different, but after a time the idea seems\nto take hold on them.\n\nFound Devos at Dambulla--a fine clear-faced man of about thirty-three,\ngenuine, easy-going, carrying on a hospital in this slightly populated\ndistrict--just a large native village, no more--but the mails come\nthrough this way, and a few English on their way to Anur\u00e1dhapura,\nand other places. Gangs of Tamil coolies also, from the mainland of\nIndia, pass through Dambulla in going up country, and have to be\nmedically examined here, for fear of cholera, etc. Living with Devos\nare two younger fellows, Percy Carron, who is also an Eurasian, and\na Cinghalese youth, both foresters--a small easy-going bachelors\u2019\nhousehold, and all very chummy together. Thought they also treated\ntheir Tamil \u201cboy\u201d John well--actually called him by his name, and did\nnot shout at him. These fellows all talk English among themselves,\nin a close-lipped, rapid, rather neat way. The other two chaffed the\nCinghalese a good deal, who was of the usual sensitive clinging type.\n\nIn the afternoon we went up the rock to see the temples. A great rock,\n500 or 600 feet high, similar to that at Kurun\u00e9gala. Half-way up\nstretches a broad ledge, 100 yards long, commanding a fine view over\nhill and dale, and between this ledge and an overhanging layer of rock\nabove are niched five temples all in a row. No fa\u00e7ade to speak of, mere\nstucco walling, but within you pass into large caverns full of rude\nstatues. The largest of the temples is 150 feet long, 40 deep, and 23\nhigh in front--a great dark space with perhaps fifty colossal images of\nBuddha sitting round in the gloom with their sickly smile of Nirvana,\nand one huge figure, 30 or 40 feet long, lying down in illumined sleep;\nall crudely done, and painted bright yellows and reds, yet rather\nimpressive. The sides too and roof of the cavern are frescoed in the\nsame crude manner with stories from the life of Buddha, and with\nfigures of the Hindu gods. Withal, a fusty smell, a thousand years old,\nof priests none too clean, of flaring oil-lamps, of withered flowers\nand stale incense, oppressed us horribly, and it was the greatest\nrelief to get out again into the open. Devos says the scene is very\nstriking at the great festivals, when multitudinous pilgrims assemble\nand offer their lights and their flowers and their money, on benches\neach before the figure they affect. Tomtoms beat, worshipers recite\ntheir prayers, lights twinkle, and outside the light of the full moon\npours down upon the rock. Monkeys native to the rock are fed on this\nledge in hundreds by the priests.\n\nCeylon is of course mainly Buddhist, and all over the hilly part of the\nisland rock-temples of this sort, though smaller, are scattered--some\nmere shrines with a single seated or recumbent image of Buddha. They\nare commonly built among the woods, under some overhanging brow of\nrock, and the story generally runs that the cavern had in earlier times\nbeen occupied by some hermit-saint, or _yogi_, and that the temple\nwas built in remembrance of him. There is a little one of this kind\nhalf-way up the rock at Kurun\u00e9gala, and it is tended by a boy priest of\nabout thirteen years of age, who, barehead and barefoot, but with his\nyellow priest-robe wound gracefully about him, attends in a dignified\nmanner to the service of the shrine. He is generally followed by a\nlittle attendant (every one has an attendant in the East)--a small boy\nof about nine--who turns out to be his _khoki_, or cook! This sounds\nluxurious, but by rule the Buddhist priests should live the most\nabstemious lives. They are supposed to have no money or possessions\nof their own, and to be entirely celibate. Each morning they go out\nwith their begging bowls on their arm to get their daily food. They\ngo to a house and stand near the door, asking nothing. Then presently\nthe woman comes out and puts a little rice in the bowl, and the priest\ngoes on to the next house. When he has got sufficient he returns, and\nhis attendant cooks the food (if not already cooked) and he eats it.\nFor each priest has the privilege to choose a boy or youth to be his\nattendant, whom he trains up to the priesthood, and who takes his place\nafter him. This perhaps explains the presence of the small boy _khoki_\nabove.\n\nThe Buddhist priests, like the Hindu priests, are drawn mostly from\nthe comparatively uneducated masses, but there is no need in their\ncase that they should be Brahmans. A vast tolerance, and gentleness\ntowards all forms of life, characterises the Buddhist institutions; but\nin the present day in Ceylon the institutions are decadent, and the\npriests, with a few exceptions, are an ignorant and incapable set. The\nefforts of Col. Olcott however, on behalf of the Theosophical Society,\nand of Sum\u00e1ngala, the present high priest of the island, a man of\ngreat learning and gentleness, have done something in latest years to\ninfuse a new spirit into the Buddhism of Ceylon and to rehabilitate its\nesoteric side.\n\nAt Kandy in one of the Buddhist temples outside the town there is a\n_standing_ figure of Buddha twenty-seven feet high, carved in the face\nof the solid rock, and the temple built round it--rather fine--though\nwith the usual crude red and yellow paint. It belongs to the time\nof the kings of Kandy, and is only about 150 years old. Many of the\nordinary cave-temples are extremely old, however--as old as Buddhism\nin the island, 2,000 years or more--and likely were used for religious\npurposes even before that.\n\nAfter looking at the Dambulla temples, which are said to have been\nconstructed by the king Walagambahu about 100 B.C., we gained the\nsummit of the rock, whence you have a view over plains towards the\nsea and of ranges of hills inland, not unlike that from the rock at\nKurun\u00e9gala; and then descended, not without difficulty, the precipitous\nside. Evening fell, and darkies came out with lamps to our aid.\n\nThe same night I pushed on by mail-coach to Anur\u00e1dhapura, leaving\nModder behind, as he unfortunately had to return to Kurun\u00e9gala the next\nday.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nANUR\u00c1DHAPURA: A RUINED CITY OF THE JUNGLE.\n\n\nThe remains of this ancient city lie near the centre of the great\nplain which occupies the north end of the island of Ceylon. To reach\nthem, even from Dambulla, the nearest outpost of civilisation, one\nhas to spend a night in the \u201cmail-coach,\u201d which in this case consists\nof a clumsy little cart drawn at a jog-trot through the darkness by\nbullocks, and generally full of native passengers. Six times in the\nforty-two miles the little humped cattle are changed, and at last--by\nthe time one has thoroughly convinced oneself that it is impossible\nto sleep in any attainable position--one finds oneself, about 6 a.m.,\ndriving through woods full of ruins.\n\nHere, on the site of a once vast and populous town, stands now a small\nvillage. The care of Government has cleared the jungle away from the\nmost important remains and those lying just around the present site,\nso that the chief feature is a beautiful park-like region of grass\nand scattered trees, in which stand out scores, and even hundreds,\nof columns, with statues, huge d\u00e1gobas, fragments of palaces, and\ninnumerable evidences of ancient building. It is a remarkable scene.\nThe present cutcherry stands on the shore of one of the large\nreservoirs which used to supply the city and neighborhood, but which\nat present, owing to want of rain and deficiencies of channels, is\nnearly dry. On climbing the embankment the bed of the lake stretches\nbefore one, with hundreds of tame buffalos and other cattle grazing on\nits level meadows; a few half-naked darkies are fishing in a little\nwater which remains in one corner; on either hand the lakebottom is\nbounded by woods, and out of these woods, and out of the woods behind\none, high above the trees loom green and overgrown masses of masonry,\nwhile below and among them labyrinths of unexplored ruins are hidden in\nthick dark tangle. It is as if London had again become a wilderness,\nabove which the Albert Memorial and S. Paul\u2019s and the Tower still\nreared confused heaps of grassy stone and brickwork, while sheep and\noxen browsed peacefully in the bed of the Thames, now diverted into\nanother channel.\n\n[Illustration: JETAWANARAMA D\u00c1GOBA, ANUR\u00c1DHAPURA.\n\n(_Ruins of a temple in foreground._)]\n\nHere for instance still standing in a great square, on a piece of\nground over an acre in extent, are sixteen hundred rough-hewn columns,\nsolid granite, projecting about ten feet out of the ground, and\narranged in parallel rows at right angles to each other. They are\nsupposed to form the foundation storey of a building nine storeys high,\nno doubt built of wood, but according to the ancient chronicles of the\nMahawanso gorgeously decorated, with its resplendent brass-covered roof\nand central hall of golden pillars and ivory throne, erected in the\nsecond century B.C., occupied by the royal folk and the priests, and\ncalled the Brazen Palace.\n\nClose by is the glory of Buddhism and of Ceylon, the oldest historical\ntree in the world, the celebrated bo-tree of Anur\u00e1dhapura, planted\n245 years before the Christian era (from a slip, it is said, of the\ntree under which Buddha sat when the great illumination came to him),\nand now more than twenty-one centuries old. Extraordinary as the age\nis, yet the chronicles of this tree\u2019s life have been so carefully kept\n(see Emerson Tennent\u2019s _Ceylon_, where twenty-five references from\nthe Mahawanso and other chronicles are given, covering from B.C. 288\nto A.D. 1739), that there is at least fair reason for supposing that\nthe story is correct. The bo-tree, though belonging to the fig family,\nhas a leaf strongly resembling that of an aspen. The mid-rib of the\nleaf is however prolonged some two inches into a narrow point, which\nis sometimes curved into quite a hook. The tremulous motion of the\nleaf and the general appearance of the tree also resemble the aspen,\nthough the growth is somewhat sturdier. Thousands of bo-trees are\nplanted all over India and Ceylon in memory of Buddha (though the tree\nwas probably an object of veneration before his time); the ground is\nsacred where they stand, and a good Buddhist will on no account cut\none down, however inconveniently it may be growing. This particular\ntree, it must be confessed, is somewhat disappointing. It is small, and\nthough obviously old, does not suggest the idea of _extreme_ antiquity.\nIt springs from the top of a mound some fifteen feet high, and the\nprobability I think is that this mound has in the course of centuries\nbeen thrown up round the original trunk to support and protect it--just\nas has happened to Milton\u2019s mulberry tree at Cambridge, and to\nothers--and thus has gradually hidden a great part of the tree from\nview. And this idea seems, to be supported by the fact that six or\nseven other and lesser stems branch out from neighboring parts of the\nsame mound, the terraces and shrines which occupy the mound helping to\nconceal the fact that these also are, or were at one time, really all\nparts of one tree. Anyhow the whole enclosure, which is about an acre\nin extent and is surrounded by an ancient wall, is thickly planted with\nbo-trees, some of really fine dimensions, so that the pious pilgrim\nneed have no difficulty in securing a leaf, without committing the\nsacrilege of robbing the venerable plant.\n\nHere, to this sacred enclosure, and to deposit flowers and offerings\nwithin it, come at certain festivals thousands of Buddhist pilgrims.\nTrudging in on foot or driving by bullock-cart they camp out in the\npark-like grounds in the immediate neighborhood of the present village,\nand after paying their respects to the holy tree go to visit the\nd\u00e1gobas and other monuments which enshrine a bone or a tooth or a hair\nfrom the brow of their great teacher. For the rest of the year these\nplaces are left almost unvisited. There are no guides to importune the\nrare tourist or traveler, and one wanders alone through the woods for\na whole day and sees no one, except it be a troop of monkeys, with\ntails erect, playing leap-frog over the stumps of fallen columns, as if\nin ridicule of the old priests, or sitting like fakirs on the tops of\nthose still standing.\n\nThe d\u00e1gobas, which are by far the most important remains here, are\nbell-shaped structures mostly of solid brick, originally built to\nenshrine some relic. They might ingeniously be mistaken for ornamental\ncandle-extinguishers made on a vast scale, and have mostly in their\ntime been coated with a white plaster and decorated here and there with\ngold or brass. Round them have been courts supported on stone columns;\nand generally at the four points--North, East, West, and South--have\nbeen placed little shrines with well-cut steps and ornamental\nbalustrades leading up to them. The interiors of these d\u00e1gobas--such as\nthey may have been--have never been accessible except to the priests;\nsometimes, no doubt, treasures have been concealed within them, but\nfor the most part probably they have concealed nothing except the\nsupposed relic, and have been built to gratify the pride and add to the\npopularity of the monarch of the day.\n\nThe Thuparama D\u00e1goba, which stands at the northern extremity of\nthe park-like clearings above mentioned, is supposed by Fergusson\n(_Handbook to Architecture_, vol. i., p. 41) to be older than any\nmonument now existing on the continent of India. It was built by\nKing Dewanipiatissa in B.C. 307 to enshrine the right collar-bone of\nBuddha, and was restored some years ago by the pious, so that one gets\na good idea from it of the general appearance these objects originally\npresented. It is white, bell-shaped, and some sixty-five feet high,\nwith a brass pinnacle on the top; and some elegant columns about\neighteen feet high stand yet in admired disorder in the court below.\nIn the accompanying illustration the d\u00e1goba and surrounding columns\nappear some distance in the background, and the stone pillars and steps\nin the foreground are the remains of the Dalada Maligawa--a temple\nwhich was built to receive the sacred tooth of Buddha when it was first\nbrought over to Ceylon from the mainland. Round this tooth battles\nraged, and in the struggle for its possession dynasties rose and fell.\nThe enormous saurian fang, which purports to be the same tooth, is now\npreserved in great state in the well-known Buddhist temple at Kandy,\nas I have already mentioned. The little figure of a gate-keeper or\n_dhworpal_ at the foot of the steps is an excellent specimen of early\nBuddhist sculpture, and is very graceful and tender. It is given on a\nlarger scale in a separate illustration (page 113).\n\n[Illustration: THUPARAMA D\u00c1GOBA, ANUR\u00c1DHAPURA.\n\n(_With ruins of Dalada Maligawa in foreground._)]\n\nThe Ruanweli (or Gold-dust) D\u00e1goba, which rears its unshapely form\nclose to the present village, gives one a notion of the massiveness\nof these ancient structures, and at the same time of the ravages\nwhich lapse of years has wrought upon them. In outline it resembles\na gigantic but ill-made circular haystack, 150 feet high. All the\nupper part of it is covered with thick grass, except where recent\nlapses have exposed the close yet rather soft brickwork of which the\nwhole is compacted. The more accessible lower parts and surrounding\nterraces have lately been cleaned of undergrowth; and at the foot,\namong some well-executed carvings, stand four or five fine statues,\nabout eight feet high--one of King Dutugemunu who is said to have begun\nthe building about B.C. 161, the others apparently of Buddha, and all\ndignified and noble in conception, if not anatomically perfect in\nexecution.\n\nBut the d\u00e1gobas which best show the gradual effacement of human\nhandiwork by Nature are the Jetawanarama and the Abhayagiria, both of\nwhich stand some distance out in the woods, and tower above the foliage\nto the heights of 250 feet and 300 feet respectively. The former of\nthese (see plate at beginning of this chapter) presents a vast cone of\nbrickwork some 200 feet high, surmounted by a cylindrical column of the\nsame; and the conical portion is simply overgrown by dense masses of\ntrees, which inserting their roots into the crevices of the bricks are\ncontinually dislodging portions of this artificial mountain. Cactuses,\nvarieties of fig, and other trees climb to the very base of the column,\nand here, where the brickwork is too steep to be covered with foliage,\nthe omnipresent _wanderoo_ monkey may be seen disporting itself on the\nvery summit.\n\nThe Abhayagiria is of similar shape, but only covered at present with\na shrub-like growth. Originally it was the largest d\u00e1goba in Ceylon,\nbeing 405 feet high--or as high as S. Paul\u2019s--but time has reduced it\nto somewhere about 300 feet. A rather precipitous path leads from the\nbase to the summit, which has recently been restored in some fashion,\nand from thence a fine view may be obtained.\n\nAs you roam through the woods by jungle paths, or along the two or\nthree roads which have been made in late years to open up the ruins,\nyou come upon innumerable smaller remains. Most frequent among these\nare groups of columns still standing, twenty or thirty together,\nsometimes only rough-hewn, sometimes elegantly shaped, with carven\ncapitals, which either formed the foundation storeys of wooden\nbuildings, or being themselves covered with roofs constituted porticos\nfor the resting-places of the gods in their processions, or habitations\nfor the use of the priests. There are very few remains of walled\nbuildings, stone or brick, but plentiful foundation outlines of what\nmay have been public or sacred enclosures of one kind or another--some\nwith handsome flights of steps and balustrades leading up to them, and\nfor the lowest step the frequent half-moon stone carved with elegant\ndevices of the elephant, the lion, the horse, the brahman bull, the\ngoose, and the lotus-flower. Here among the tangle is a flight of\nhalf-a-dozen steps, springing from nowhere and apparently leading\nnowhither. There is a gigantic stone trough, sixty-two feet long by\nfour feet four inches wide, over which the learned are in doubt whether\nit was used to contain food for the royal elephants or boiled rice for\nthe priests! Here at any rate is a cistern ten feet long by five wide,\nelegantly carved out of a single block of granite, which, tradition\nsays, served for the priests\u2019 rice-dish; and which only a few years ago\nwas, by the subscription of a neighboring country side, filled full of\nfood (see S.\u00a0M. Burrows\u2019 _Buried Cities of Ceylon_; London, Tr\u00fcbner\n& Co., 1885) for the pilgrims of the June full moon. There again is\none of the numerous flat slabs which may be found, bearing an ancient\ninscription on its face; and in almost every direction are solid stone\nswimming baths or tanks, ten, twenty, or thirty yards up to (in one\ncase) fully 100 yards in length. Two of these _p\u00f3kunas_, so-called--the\ntwin p\u00f3kunas--stand near the northern circular road, and are still in\ngood preservation; the one given in the illustration on next page is\nforty-four yards long, the other about thirty, and both have handsome\nflights of steps at each end by which to descend to the water, and\nstep-like tiers of stonework round the sides. They were of course not\ncovered, but open to the sun and air.\n\n[Illustration: A RUINED BATHING TANK, ANUR\u00c1DHAPURA.]\n\nAs you go along the road after leaving these tanks, at a turn you\nsuddenly come upon a seated image of Buddha--by the wayside, under\nthe trees. The figure is about seven feet high as it sits. It is of\ndark-colored granite, and though slightly defaced is still by far the\nbest thing of its kind in the place. Most of the images of Buddha\nin the present temples of Ceylon are painfully crude productions;\nbut this has caught something of the grace of the great Guru. The\neyelids are just shut, yet so slightly as to suggest that the figure\nis not lost in the ordinary material sleep, but only in that luminous\nslumber which, while closing itself to the outward and transitory\nworld, opens on the eternal and steadfast consciousness behind. A deep\ncalm overspreads the face--so deep that it insensibly affects the\npasserby. He involuntarily stops and gazes, surrendering himself to its\ninfluence, and to that of the silent forest. His thoughts subside, like\nwaves on water when the wind ceases. He too for a moment touches the\nwell-spring of being--he swims into identity with the universe; the\ntrees flicker in the evening light, the Buddha just gives the slightest\nnod, as much as to say, \u201cThat\u2019s it\u201d; and then--he is but stone again,\nand the road stretches beyond.\n\nCurious that one man should so affect the world that he should leave\nhis bo-trees and his d\u00e1gobas and his images in thousands over half\na continent; that he should gather vast cities round his name, and\nstill, when they have perished and passed away, should remain the most\nglorious thing connected with them; yet Buddha could not have had this\nascendancy had not other people in their thousands and hundreds of\nthousands experienced in greater or less degree the same facts that\nhe experienced. We must forgive, after all, the dirty yellow-robed\npriests, with their greedy claws and stinking shrines. It was Buddha\u2019s\nfault, not theirs, when he explored poor human nature so deeply as to\ninvest even its lowest manifestations with sanctity.\n\nWhere this image now sits perhaps once it looked down upon the busy\nturmoil of a great street. The glories of the capital of the Cinghalese\nkingdom unrolled before and beneath it. Hear how the chronicler of the\nseventh century (quoted by Emerson Tennent) describes--with justifiable\npride--the splendor of the city in his day: \u201cThe temples and palaces\nwhose golden pinnacles glitter in the sky, the streets spanned by\narches bearing flags, the ways strewn with sand, and on either side\nvessels containing flowers, and niches with statues holding lamps. Here\nare multitudes of men armed with swords and bows and arrows. Elephants,\nhorses, carts, and myriads of people pass and repass--jugglers,\ndancers, and musicians of all nations, with chank shells and other\ninstruments ornamented with gold. The distance from the principal\ngate to the east gate is four gows, and the same from the north to\nthe south gate. The principal streets are Moon Street, Great King\nStreet, Hinguruwak, and Mahawelli Street--the first containing 11,000\nhouses, many of them two storeys in height. The smaller streets are\ninnumerable. The palace has large ranges of buildings, some of them two\nand three storeys high, and its subterranean apartments are of great\nextent.\u201d\n\nFa Hian, the Chinese traveler, who visited Ceylon about 413 A.D.,\nalso says: \u201cThe city is the residence of many magistrates, grandees,\nand foreign merchants; the mansions beautiful, the public buildings\nrichly adorned, the streets and highways straight and level, and houses\nfor preaching built at every thoroughfare.\u201d Nor was the civilisation\nof Anur\u00e1dhapura merely material in its scope, for Tennent tells us\nthat beside public gardens and baths, halls for music and dancing,\nrest-houses for travelers, almshouses, etc., they had hospitals in\nwhich _animals_ as well as men were tenderly cared for. \u201cThe corn of\na thousand fields was set apart by one king for their use; another\nput aside rice to feed the squirrels which frequented his gardens;\nand a third displayed his surgical skill in treating the diseases of\nelephants, horses, and snakes.\u201d\n\nFounded by Cinghalese invaders of the island somewhere in the fifth\nor sixth centuries B.C., the city attained its first splendor under\nKing Dewanipiatissa, who came to the throne in B.C. 306. \u201cIt was in\nhis reign,\u201d says Burrows, \u201cthat the royal missionary Mahindo, son of\nthe Indian king Dharmasoka, landed in Ceylon, and either introduced\nor regenerated Buddhism. The monarch and all his court, his consort\nand her women, became ready converts to the new tenets; the arrival\nof Mahindo\u2019s sister, Sanghamitta, with a branch of the identical tree\nunder which Gautama obtained Buddha-hood, consummated the conversion of\nthe island; and the king devoted the rest of his reign to the erection\nof enormous monuments, rock-temples, and monasteries, to mark his zeal\nfor the new faith.\u201d\n\nAfter him troubles began. The Tamils of Southern India--whose history\nhas been for so long entangled with that of the Cinghalese--or some\nbranch of the race, attracted probably by the wealth of the new city,\nlanded in Ceylon about 200 B.C. And from that time forward the history\nof Anur\u00e1dhapura is the record of continual conflict between the races.\nThere was a second great invasion in B.C. 104, and a third about A.D.\n106, in which the Tamils are said to have carried back to the mainland\n12,000 Cinghalese captives, as well as great quantities of treasure.\nBut the peaceful quiet-loving Cinghalese, whose chief talents lay in\nthe direction of agricultural pursuits and the construction of those\nenormous tanks and irrigation works which still form one of the most\nremarkable features of the country, were no match in the arts of wars\nfor the enterprising genius of the Tamils. The latter gradually pushed\ntheir way in more and more, dissensions between the two peoples more\nand more disorganised the city, till at last, for some reason not\nvery clearly explained, in A.D. 769 the then king (Aggrabodhi IV.)\nevacuated his capital and established himself at Pollanarua, now also a\nburied city of the jungle.\n\nFrom that time, it may be supposed, Anur\u00e1dhapura rapidly dwindled away;\nthe streets were no more filled with gay crowds, the slight habitations\nof the populace soon fell to pieces, leaving no trace behind (except\na soil impregnated for miles and miles with the _d\u00e9bris_ of bricks);\nthe stone palaces and temples lapsed into decay. And now Buddha sits\nin the silence of the forest, folded in the ancient calm, just as he\nsat centuries and centuries ago in the tumult and roar of the city;\nnight falls, and the elephant and the bear roam past him through the\nbrushwood, the herds of spotted deer are startled for a moment by his\nlonely form in the moonlight.\n\nIf one ascends the Abhayagiria d\u00e1goba, from its vantage height of\n300 feet he has a good bird\u2019s-eye view of the region. Before him to\nthe west and north stretches as far as the eye can see a level plain\nalmost unbroken by hills. This plain is covered, except for a few\nreservoirs and an occasional but rare oasis of coco-nut palm, by dense\nwoods. On all sides they stretch, like a uniform grey-green carpet\nover the earth; even the present village of Anur\u00e1dhapura hardly makes\na break,--so small is it, and interspersed with trees. Through these\nwoods run narrow jungle paths, and among them, scattered at intervals\nfor miles and miles, are ruins similar to those I have described. And\nthis is all that is left to-day of the ancient city.\n\n[Illustration: SMALL GUARDIAN FIGURE, OR DHWORPAL.\n\n(_At entrance to Dalada Maligawa._)]\n\nI suppose the temptation to make moral reflections on such subjects\nis very strong! For myself I can only say that I have walked through\nthese and other such scenes with a sense of unfeigned gratitude that\nthey belong to a past which is dead and done with. That Time sweeps all\nthese efforts of mortality (and our own as well) in due course into his\ndustbin is a matter for which we can never be sufficiently thankful.\nThink, if all the monuments of human pride and folly which have been\ncreated were to endure indefinitely,--if even our own best and most\nuseful works were to remain, cumbering up the earth with their very\nmultitude, what a nuisance it would be! The great kings caused glorious\npalaces and statues and temples to be made, thinking to outvie all\nformer and paralyse all future efforts of mankind, perpetuating their\nnames to the end of the years. But Time, wiser, quickly removed all\nthese things as soon as their authors were decently out of the way,\nleaving us just as much of them as is sufficient to convey the ideas\nwhich underlay them, and no more. As a vast d\u00e1goba, containing bricks\nenough to build a good-sized town of, is erected to enshrine a single\nhair from the head of a great man, so the glorious temples and statues\nand pictures and palaces of a whole epoch, all put together, do but\nenshrine a tiny atom of the eternal beauty. Let them deliver that, and\ngo their way.\n\nWhat a good thing even that our bodies die! How thankful we ought to\nbe that they are duly interred and done with in course of time. Fancy\nif we were condemned always to go on in the same identical forms,\neach of us, repeating the same ancient jokes, making the same wise\nremarks, priding ourselves on the same superiorities over our fellows,\nenduring the same insults from them, wearing the same fusty garments,\never getting raggeder and raggeder through the centuries--what a fate!\nNo; let us know there is something better than that. These swarms of\nidle priests who ate rice out of troughs at the public expense; these\nendless mumbo-jumbo books that they wrote; these mighty kings with\ntheir royal finery, their harlots, and their insane battles; these\nanimal hospitals; these ruins of great cities lost in thickets; these\nAlexandrian libraries burnt to ashes; these Greek statues broken and\nburied in the earth--all that is really durable in them has endured and\nwill endure, the rest is surely well out of the way.\n\nCertainly, as one jogs through the mortal hours of the night in that\nsaid mail-cart, returning the forty-two miles from Anur\u00e1dhapura to\nDambulla (where one meets with the nearest horse coach), wedged in\nwith five or six other passengers, and trying in vain to find a place\nfor one\u2019s feet amid the compacted mass of baggage that occupies the\nbottom of the cart, or to avoid the side-rails and rods that impinge\nupon one\u2019s back and head--kept well awake by the continual jingling of\nbells and the yells and thwacks of the driver, as he urges his active\nlittle brahminy bulls through the darkness, or stopping to change team\nat wayside cabins where long conversations ensue, between dusky figures\nbearing lamps, on the state of the road and the probabilities of an\nencounter with the rogue-elephant who is supposed to haunt it--all\nthose twelve long hours one has ample time to make suitable reflections\nof some kind or other on the transitory and ineffectual nature of our\nlittle human endeavor.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nA NIGHT-FESTIVAL IN A HINDU TEMPLE.\n\n\nThe festival of Taypusam is one of the more important among the many\nreligious festivals of the Hindus, and is celebrated with great\nrejoicings on the night of the first full moon in January each year.\nIn the case of the great temples of Southern India, some of which are\nso vast that their enclosures are more than a mile in circumference,\nenormous crowds--sometimes 20,000 people or more--will congregate\ntogether to witness the ceremonials, which are elaborately gorgeous.\nThere are a few Hindu temples of smaller size in Ceylon, and into one\nof these I had the good fortune to be admitted, on the occasion of this\nyear\u2019s festival (1891), and at the time when the proceedings were about\nto commence.\n\nIt was nine o\u2019clock, the full moon was shining in the sky, and already\nthe blaring of trumpets and horns could be heard from within as I\nstood at the gate seeking admittance. At first this was positively\ndenied; but my companion, who was a person, of some authority in the\ntemple, soon effected an entrance, and we presently stood within the\nprecincts. It must be understood that these temples generally consist\nof a large oblong enclosure, more or less planted with palms and other\ntrees, within which stands the sanctuary itself, with lesser shrines,\npriests\u2019 dwellings and other buildings grouped round it. In the present\ncase the enclosure was about one hundred yards long by sixty or seventy\nwide, with short grass under foot. In the centre stood the temple\nproper--a building without any pretensions to architectural form, a\nmere oblong, bounded by a wall ten or twelve feet high; unbroken by any\nwindows, and rudely painted in vertical stripes, red and white. At the\nfar end, under trees, were some low priests\u2019 cottages; and farther on a\ntank or reservoir, not very large, with a stone balustrade around it.\nComing round to the front of the temple, which was more ornamented, and\nwhere the main doorway or entrance was, we found there a considerable\ncrowd assembled. We were in fact just in time to witness the beginning\nof the ceremony; for almost immediately a lot of folk came rushing\nout through the doorway of the temple in evident excitement; torches\nwere lighted, consisting of long poles, some surmounted with a flaming\nring of rags dipped in coco-nut oil, others with a small iron crate in\nwhich lumps of broken coco-nut burned merrily. In a few moments there\nwas a brilliant light; the people arranged themselves in two lines\nfrom the temple door; sounds of music from within got louder; and a\nsmall procession appeared, musicians first, then four nautch girls, and\nlastly a small platform supported on the shoulders of men, on which was\nthe great god Siva.\n\nAt first I could not make out what this last-named object was, but\npresently distinguished two rude representations of male and female\nfigures, Siva and his consort Sakti, apparently cut out of one block,\nseated, and about three feet high, but so bedone with jewels and silks\nthat it was difficult to be sure of their anatomy! Over them was held\na big ornamental umbrella, and behind followed the priest. We joined\nthe procession, and soon arrived at the edge of the reservoir which I\nhave already mentioned, and on which was floating a strange kind of\nship. It was a raft made of bamboos lashed to empty barrels, and on it\na most florid and brilliant canopy, covered with cloths of different\ncolors and surmounted by little scarlet pennants. A flight of steps\ndown to the water occupied the whole of one side of the tank, the other\nthree sides were surrounded by the stone balcony, and on these steps\nand round the balcony the crowd immediately disposed itself, while the\nprocession went on board. When the god was properly arranged under his\ncanopy, and the nautch girls round about him, and when room had been\nfound for the crew, who with long poles were to propel the vessel, and\nfor as many musicians as convenient--about a dozen souls in all--a bell\nrang, and the priest, a brown-bodied young Brahman with the sacred\nthread over his shoulders and a white cloth edged with red round his\nloins, made an offering of flame of camphor in a five-branched lamp. A\nhush fell upon the crowd, who all held their hands, palms together, as\nin the attitude of prayer (but also symbol of the desire to be joined\ntogether and to the god)--some with their arms high above their heads;\na tray was placed on the raft, of coco-nuts and bananas which the\npriest opening deposited before the image; the band burst forth into\nrenewed uproar, and the ship went gyrating over the water on her queer\nvoyage.\n\n[Illustration: TAMIL MAN.]\n\nWhat a scene! I had now time to look around a little. All round\nthe little lake, thronging the steps and the sides in the great\nglare of the torches, were hundreds of men and boys, barebodied,\nbarehead and barefoot, but with white loin-cloths--all in a state of\ngreat excitement--not religious so much as spectacular, as at the\ncommencement of a theatrical performance, myself and companion about\nthe only persons clothed,--except that in a corner and forming a pretty\nmass of color were a few women and girls, of the poorer class of\nTamils, but brightly dressed, with nose-rings and ear-rings profusely\nornamented. On the water, brilliant in scarlet and gold and blue,\nwas floating the sacred canopy, surrounded by musicians yelling on\ntheir various horns, in the front of which--with the priest standing\nbetween them--sat two little naked boys holding small torches; while\noverhead through the leaves of plentiful coco-nut and banana palms\noverhanging the tank, in the dim blue sky among gorgeous cloud-outlines\njust discernible, shone the goddess of night, the cause of all this\ncommotion.\n\nSuch a blowing up of trumpets in the full moon! For the first time\nI gathered some clear idea of what the ancient festivals were like.\nHere was a boy blowing two pipes at the same time, exactly as in the\nGreek bas-reliefs. There was a man droning a deep bourdon on a reed\ninstrument, with cheeks puffed into pouches with long-sustained effort\nof blowing; to him was attached a shrill flageolet player--the two\ntogether giving much the effect of Highland bagpipes. Then there were\nthe tomtoms, whose stretched skins produce quite musical and bell-like\nthough monotonous sounds; and lastly two old men jingling cymbals and\nat the same time blowing their terrible chank-horns or conches. These\nchanks are much used in Buddhist and Hindu temples. They are large\nwhorled sea-shells of the whelk shape, such as sometimes ornament our\nmantels. The apex of the spiral is cut away and a mouthpiece cemented\nin its place, through which the instrument can be blown like a horn.\nIf then the fingers be used to partly cover and vary the mouth of the\nshell, and at the same time the shell be vibrated to and fro in the\nair--what with its natural convolutions and these added complications,\nthe most ear-rending and diabolically wavy bewildering and hollow\nsounds can be produced, such as might surely infect the most callous\nworshiper with a proper faith in the supernatural.\n\nThe temper of the crowd too helped one to understand the old religious\nattitude. It was thoroughly _whole-hearted_--I cannot think of any\nother word. There was no piety--in our sense of the word--or very\nlittle, observable. They were just thoroughly enjoying themselves--a\nlittle excited no doubt by chanks and divine possibilities generally,\nbut not subdued by awe; talking freely to each other in low tones,\nor even indulging occasionally--the younger ones--in a little\nbear-fighting; at the same time proud of the spectacle and the\npresence of the divinity, heart and soul in the ceremony, and anxious\nto lend hands as torch-bearers or image-bearers, or in any way, to\nits successful issue. It is this temper which the wise men say is\nencouraged and purposely cultivated by the ceremonial institutions of\nHinduism. The temple services are made to cover, as far as may be, the\nwhole ground of life, and to provide the pleasures of the theatre,\nthe art-gallery, the music hall and the concert-room in one. People\nattracted by these spectacles--which are very numerous and very varied\nin character, according to the different feasts--presently remain to\ninquire into their meaning. Some like the music, others the bright\ncolors. Many men come at first merely to witness the dancing of the\nnautch girls, but afterwards and insensibly are drawn into spheres of\nmore spiritual influence. Even the children find plenty to attract\nthem, and the temple becomes their familiar resort from early life.\n\nThe theory is that all the ceremonies have inner and mystic\nmeanings--which meanings in due time are declared to those who are\nfit--and that thus the temple institutions and ceremonies constitute\na great ladder by which men can rise at last to those inner truths\nwhich lie beyond all formulas and are contained in no creed. Such is\nthe theory, but like all theories it requires large deductions before\nacceptance. That such theory was one of the formative influences of the\nHindu ceremonial, and that the latter embodies here and there important\nesoteric truths descending from Vedic times, I hardly doubt; but on the\nother hand, time, custom and neglect, different streams of tradition\nblending and blurring each other, reforms and a thousand influences\nhave--as in all such cases--produced a total concrete result which no\none theory can account for or coordinate.\n\nSuch were some of my thoughts as I watched the crowd around me.\nThey too were not uninterested in watching me. The appearance of an\nEnglishman under such circumstances was perhaps a little unusual\nand scores of black eyes were turned inquiringly in my direction;\nbut covered as I was by the authority of my companion no one seemed\nto resent my presence. A few I thought looked shocked, but the most\nseemed rather pleased, as if proud that a spectacle so brilliant and\nimpressive should be witnessed by a stranger--besides there were two\nor three among the crowd whom I happened to have met before and spoken\nwith, and whose friendly glances made me feel at home.\n\nMeanwhile the gyrating raft had completed two or three voyages round\nthe little piece of water. Each time it returned to the shore fresh\nofferings were made to the god, the bell was rung again, a moment of\nhushed adoration followed, and then with fresh strains of mystic music\na new start for the deep took place. What the inner signification of\nthese voyages might be I had not and have not the faintest idea; it\nis possible even that no one present knew. At the same time I do not\ndoubt that the drama was originally instituted in order to commemorate\nsome actual event or to symbolise some doctrine. On each voyage a hymn\nwas sung or recited. On the first voyage the Brahman priest declaimed\na hymn from the Vedas--a hymn that may have been written 3,000 years\nago--nor was there anything in the whole scene which appeared to me\ndiscordant with the notion that the clock had been put back 3,000\nyears (though of course the actual new departure in the Brahmanical\nrites which we call Hinduism does not date back anything like so far\nas that). On the second voyage a Tamil hymn was sung by one of the\nyouths trained in the temples for this purpose; and on the third voyage\nanother Tamil hymn, with interludes of the most ecstatic caterwauling\nfrom chanks and bagpipes! The remainder of the voyages I did not\nwitness, as my conductor now took me to visit the interior of the\ntemple.\n\nThat is, as far as it was permissible to penetrate. For the Brahman\npriests who regulate these things, with far-sighted policy make it one\nof their most stringent rules that the laity shall not have access\nbeyond a short distance into the temple, and heathen like myself are\nof course confined to the mere forecourts. Thus the people feel more\nawe and sanctity with regard to the holy place itself and the priests\nwho fearlessly tread within than they do with regard to anything else\nconnected with their religion.\n\nHaving passed the porch, we found ourselves in a kind of entrance hall\nwith one or two rows of columns supporting a flat wooden roof--the\nwalls adorned with the usual rude paintings of various events in Siva\u2019s\nearthly career. On the right was a kind of shrine with a dancing figure\nof the god in relief--the perpetual dance of creation; but unlike\nsome of the larger temples, in which there is often most elaborate\nand costly stonework, everything here was of the plainest, and there\nwas hardly anything in the way of sculpture to be seen. Out of this\nforecourt opened a succession of chambers into which one might not\nenter; but the dwindling lights placed in each served to show distance\nafter distance. In the extreme chamber farthest removed from the\ndoor, by which alone daylight enters--the rest of the interior being\nillumined night and day with artificial lights--is placed, surrounded\nby lamps, the most sacred object, the lingam. This of course was\ntoo far off to be discerned--and indeed it is, except on occasions,\nkept covered--but it appears that instead of being a rude image of\nthe male organ (such as is frequently seen in the outer courts of\nthese temples), the thing is a certain white stone, blue-veined and\nof an egg-shape, which is mysteriously fished up--if the gods so\nwill it--from the depths of the river Nerbudda, and only thence. It\nstands in the temple in the hollow of another oval-shaped object which\nrepresents the female _yoni_; and the two together, embleming Siva and\nSakti, stand for the sexual energy which pervades creation.\n\nThus the worship of sex is found to lie at the root of the present\nHinduism, as it does at the root of nearly all the primitive religions\nof the world. Yet it would be a mistake to conclude that such worship\nis a mere deification of material functions. Whenever it may have been\nthat the Vedic prophets descending from Northern lands into India\nfirst discovered within themselves that capacity of spiritual ecstasy\nwhich has made them even down to to-day one of the greatest religious\nforces in the world, it is certain that they found (as indeed many of\nthe medi\u00e6val Christian seers at a later time also found) that this\necstasy had a certain similarity to the sexual rapture. In their hands\ntherefore the rude, phallic worships, which their predecessors had with\ntrue instinct celebrated, came to have a new meaning; and sex itself,\nthe most important of earthly functions, came to derive an even greater\nimportance from its relation to the one supreme and heavenly fact, that\nof the soul\u2019s union with God.\n\nIn the middle line of all Hindu temples, between the lingam and the\ndoor, are placed two other very sacred objects--the couchant bull Nandi\nand an upright ornamented pole, the Kampam, or as it is sometimes\ncalled, the flagstaff. In this case the bull was about four feet in\nlength, carved in one block of stone, which from continual anointing by\npious worshipers had become quite black and lustrous on the surface.\nIn the great temple at Tanjore there is a bull twenty feet long cut\nfrom a single block of syenite, and similar bull-images are to be found\nin great numbers in these temples, and of all sizes down to a foot\nin length, and in any accessible situation are sure to be black and\nshining with oil. In Tamil the word _pasu_ signifies both _ox_--_i.e._\nthe domesticated ox--and the _soul_. Siva is frequently represented\nas riding on a bull; and the animal represents the human soul which\nhas become subject and affiliated to the god. As to the flagstaff, it\nwas very plain, and appeared to be merely a wooden pole nine inches\nor so thick, slightly ornamented, and painted a dull red color. In\nthe well-known temple at M\u00e1dura the kampam is made of teak plated\nwith gold, and is encircled with certain rings at intervals, and at\nthe top three horizontal arms project, with little bell-like tassels\nhanging from them. This curious object has, it is said, a physiological\nmeaning, and represents a nerve which passes up the median line of the\nbody from the genital organs to the brain (? the great sympathetic).\nIndeed the whole disposition of the parts in these temples is supposed\n(as of course also in the Christian Churches) to represent the human\nbody, and so also the universe of which the human body is only the\nminiature. I do not feel myself in a position however to judge how far\nthese correspondences are exact. The inner chambers in this particular\ntemple were, as far as I could see, very plain and unornamented.\n\nOn coming out again into the open space in front of the porch, my\nattention was directed to some low buildings which formed the priests\u2019\nquarters. Two priests were attached to the temple, and a separate\ncottage was intended for any traveling priest or lay benefactor who\nmight want accommodation within the precincts.\n\nAnd now the second act of the sacred drama was commencing. The god,\nhaving performed a sufficient number of excursions on the tank,\nwas being carried back with ceremony to the space in front of the\nporch--where for some time had been standing, on portable platforms\nmade of poles, three strange animal figures of more than life-size--a\nbull, a peacock, and a black creature somewhat resembling a hog, but\nI do not know what it was meant for. On the back of the bull, which\nwas evidently itself in an amatory and excited mood, Siva and Sakti\nwere placed; on the hog-like animal was mounted another bejewelled\nfigure--that of Gan\u00e9sa, Siva\u2019s son; and on the peacock again the figure\nof his other son, Soubram\u00e1nya. Camphor flame was again offered, and\nthen a lot of stalwart and enthusiastic worshipers seized the poles,\nand mounting the platforms on their shoulders set themselves to form\na procession round the temple on the grassy space between it and the\nouter wall. The musicians as usual went first, then came the dancing\ngirls, and then after an interval of twenty or thirty yards the three\nanimals abreast of each other on their platforms, and bearing their\nrespective gods upon their backs. At this point we mingled with the\ncrowd and were lost among the worshipers. And now again I was reminded\nof representations of antique religious processions. The people, going\nin front or following behind, or partly filling the space in front of\nthe gods--though leaving a lane clear in the middle--were evidently\ngetting elated and excited. They swayed their arms, took hands or\nrested them on each other\u2019s bodies, and danced rather than walked\nalong; sometimes their shouts mixed with the music; the tall torches\nswayed to and fro, flaring to the sky and distilling burning drops on\nnaked backs in a way which did not lessen the excitement; the smell of\nhot coco-nut oil mingling with that of humanity made the air sultry;\nand the great leaves of bananas and other palms leaning over and\nglistening with the double lights of moon and torch flames gave a weird\nand tropical beauty to the scene.[2] In this rampant way the procession\nmoved for a few yards, the men wrestling and sweating under the weight\nof the god-images, which according to orthodox ideas are always made\nof an alloy of the five metals known to the ancients--an alloy called\n_panchaloka_--and are certainly immensely heavy; and then it came to a\nstop. The bearers rested their poles on strong crutches carried for the\npurpose, and while they took breath the turn of the nautch girls came.\n\n    [2] Mrs. Speir, in her _Life in Ancient India_, p. 374, says\n        that we first hear of Siva worship about B.C. 300, and that\n        it is described by Megasthenes as \u201ccelebrated in tumultuous\n        festivals, the worshippers anointing their bodies, wearing\n        crowns of flowers, and sounding bells and cymbals. From\n        which,\u201d she adds, \u201cthe Greeks conjectured that Siva worship\n        was derived from Bacchus or Dionysos, and carried to the\n        East in the traditionary expedition which Bacchus made in\n        company with Hercules.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: NAUTCH GIRL.]\n\nMost people are sufficiently familiar now-a-days, through Oriental\nexhibitions and the like, with the dress and bearing of these\nDevad\u00e1sis, or servants of God. \u201cThey sweep the temple,\u201d says the author\nof _Life in an Indian Village_, \u201cornament the floor with quaint figures\ndrawn in rice flour, hold the sacred light before the god, fan him,\nand dance and sing when required.\u201d \u201cIn the village of K\u00e9lambakam,\u201d he\ncontinues, \u201cthere are two dancing girls, Kanakambujam and Minakshi. K.\nis the concubine of a neighboring Mudelliar, and M. of Appalacharri the\nBrahman. But their services can be obtained by others.\u201d I will describe\nthe dress of one of the four present on this occasion. She had on a\ndark velveteen tunic with quite short gold-edged sleeves, the tunic\nalmost concealed from view by a very handsome scarf or _sari_ such\nas the Indian women wear. This sari, made of crimson silk profusely\nornamented with gold thread, was passed over one shoulder, and having\nbeen wound twice or thrice round the waist was made to hang down like a\npetticoat to a little below the knee. Below this appeared silk leggings\nof an orange color; and heavy silver anklets crowned the naked feet.\nHandsome gold bangles were on her arms (silver being usually worn below\nthe waist and gold above), jewels and bell-shaped pendants in her\nnose and ears, and on her head rose-colored flowers pinned with gold\nbrooches and profusely inwoven with the plaited black hair that hung\ndown her back. The others with variations in color had much the same\ncostume.\n\nTo describe their faces is difficult. I think I seldom saw any so\ninanimately sad. It is part of the teaching of Indian women that they\nshould never give way to the expression of feeling, or to any kind of\nexcitement of manner, and this in the case of better types leads to a\nremarkable dignity and composure of bearing, such as is comparatively\nrare in the West, but in more stolid and ignorant sorts produces a\nmost apathetic and bovine mien. In the case of these nautch women\ncircumstances are complicated by the prostitution which seems to be the\ninevitable accompaniment of their profession. One might indeed think\nthat it was distinctly a _part_ of their profession--as women attached\nto the service of temples whose central idea is that of sex--but some\nof my Hindu friends assure me that this is not so: that they live\nwhere they like, that their dealings with the other sex are entirely\ntheir own affair, and are not regulated or recognised in any way by\nthe temple authorities, and that it is only, so to speak, an accident\nthat these girls enter into commercial relations with men--generally,\nit is admitted, with the wealthier of those who attend the services--an\naccident of course quite likely to occur, since they are presumably\ngood-looking, and are early forced into publicity and out of the\nusual routine of domestic life. All the same, though doubtless these\nthings are so now, I think it may fairly be supposed that the sexual\nservices of these nautch girls _were_ at one time a recognised part\nof their duty to the temple to which they were attached. Seeing\nindeed that so many of the religions of antiquity are known to have\nrecognised services of this kind, seeing also that Hinduism did at\nleast incorporate in itself primitive sexual worships, and seeing that\nthere is no reason to suppose that such practices involved any slur\nin primitive times on those concerned in them--rather the reverse--I\nthink we have at any rate a strong _prim\u00e2-facie_ case. It is curious\ntoo that, even to-day, notwithstanding the obvious drawbacks of their\nlife, these girls are quite recognised and accepted in Hindu families\nof high standing and respectability. When marriages take place they\ndress the bride, put on her jewels, and themselves act as bridesmaids;\nand generally speaking are much referred to as authorities on dress.\nWhatever, however, may have been the truth about the exact duties and\nposition of the Devad\u00e1sis in old times, the four figuring away there\nbefore their gods that night seemed to me to present but a melancholy\nand effete appearance. They were small and even stunted in size, nor\ncould it be said that any of them were decently good-looking. The face\nof the eldest--it was difficult to judge their age, but she might have\nbeen twenty--was the most expressive, but it was thin and exceedingly\nweary; the faces of the others were the faces of children who had\nceased to be children, yet to whom experience had brought no added\ncapacity.\n\nThese four waifs of womanhood, then, when the procession stopped,\nwheeled round, and facing the god approached him with movements which\nbore the remotest resemblance to a dance. Stretching out their right\nhands and right feet together (in itself an ungraceful movement) they\nmade one step forward and to the right; then doing the same with left\nhands and feet made a step in advance to the left. After repeating\nthis two or three times they then, having first brought their finger\npoints to their shoulders, extended their arms forward towards the\ndeity, inclining themselves at the same time. This also was repeated,\nand then they moved back much as they had advanced. After a few similar\nevolutions, sometimes accompanied by chanting, they wheeled round\nagain, and the procession moved forwards a few yards more. Thus we\nhalted about half a dozen times before we completed the circuit of the\ntemple, and each time had a similar performance.\n\nOn coming round to the porch what might be called the third act\ncommenced. The platform of the bull and the god Siva was--not without\nstruggles--lowered to the ground so as to face the porch, the other\ntwo gods being kept in the background; and then the four girls, going\ninto the temple and bringing forth little oil-lamps, walked in\nsingle file round the image, followed by the musicians also in single\nfile. These latter had all through the performance kept up an almost\ncontinuous blowing; and their veined knotted faces and distended cheeks\nbore witness to the effort, not to mention the state of our own ears!\nIt must however in justice be said that the drone, the flageolet,\nand the trumpets were tuned to the same key-note, and their combined\nmusic alone would not have been bad; but a chank-shell can no more be\ntuned than a zebra can be tamed, and when _two_ of these instruments\ntogether, blown by two wiry old men obdurately swaying their heads,\nwere added to the tumult, it seemed not impossible that one might go\ngiddy and perhaps become _theopneustos_, at any moment.\n\nThe show was now evidently culminating. The entry of the musicians into\nthe temple, where their reverberations were simply appalling, was the\nsignal for an inrush of the populace. We passed in with the crowd, and\nalmost immediately Siva, lifted from the bull, followed borne in state\nunder his parasol. He was placed on a stand in front of the side shrine\nin the forecourt already mentioned; and a curtain being drawn before\nhim, there was a momentary hush and awe. The priest behind the curtain\n(whom from our standpoint we could see) now made the final offerings of\nfruit, flowers and sandalwood, and lighted the five-branched camphor\nlamp for the last time. This burning of camphor is, like other things\nin the service, emblematic. The five lights represent the five senses.\nAs camphor consumes itself and leaves no residue behind, so should the\nfive senses, being offered to God, consume themselves and disappear.\nWhen this is done, that happens in the soul which was now figured in\nthe temple service; for as the last of the camphor burned itself away\nthe veil was swiftly drawn aside--and there stood the image of Siva\nrevealed in a blaze of light.\n\nThe service was now over. The priest distributed the offerings among\nthe people; the torches were put out; and in a few minutes I was\nwalking homeward through the streets and wondering if I was really in\nthe modern world of the 19th century.\n\n\n\n\nA VISIT TO A G\u00d1\u00c1NI\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nA VISIT TO A G\u00d1\u00c1NI.\n\n\nDuring my stay in Ceylon I was fortunate enough to make the\nacquaintance of one of the esoteric teachers of the ancient religious\nmysteries. These Gurus or Adepts are to be found scattered all over\nthe mainland of India; but they lead a secluded existence, avoiding\nthe currents of Western civilisation--which are obnoxious to them--and\nrarely come into contact with the English or appear on the surface\nof ordinary life. They are divided into two great schools, the\nHimalayan and South Indian--formed probably, even centuries back,\nby the gradual retirement of the adepts into the mountains and\nforests of their respective districts before the spread of foreign\nraces and civilisations over the general continent. The Himalayan\nschool has carried on the more democratic and progressive Buddhistic\ntradition, while the South Indian has kept more to caste, and to the\nancient Brahmanical and later Hindu lines. This separation has led to\ndivergencies in philosophy, and there are even (so strong is sectional\nfeeling in all ranges of human activity) slight jealousies between the\nadherents of the two schools; but the differences are probably after\nall very superficial; in essence their teaching and their work may I\nthink be said to be the same.\n\nThe teacher to whom I allude belongs to the South Indian school,\nand was only sojourning for a time in Ceylon. When I first made his\nacquaintance he was staying in the precincts of a Hindu temple. Passing\nthrough the garden and the arcade-like porch of the temple with its\nrude and grotesque frescoes of the gods--Siva astride the bull,\nSakti, his consort, seated behind him, etc.--we found ourselves in a\nside-chamber, where seated on a simple couch, his bed and day-seat in\none, was an elderly man (some seventy years of age, though he did not\nlook nearly as much as that) dressed only in a white muslin wrapper\nwound loosely round his lithe and even active dark brown form: his\nhead and face shaven a day or two past, very gentle and spiritual\nin expression, like the best type of Roman Catholic priest--a very\nbeautiful full and finely formed mouth, straight nose and well-formed\nchin, dark eyes, undoubtedly the eyes of a seer, dark-rimmed eyelids,\nand a powerful, prophetic, and withal childlike manner. He soon lapsed\ninto exposition which he continued for an hour or two with but few\ninterjections from his auditors.\n\nAt a later time he moved into a little cottage where for several\nweeks I saw him nearly every day. Every day the same--generally\nsitting on his couch, with bare arms and feet, the latter often\ncoiled under him--only requiring a question to launch off into a long\ndiscourse--fluent, and even rapt, with ready and vivid illustration\nand long digressions, but always returning to the point. Though\nunfortunately my knowledge of Tamil was so slight that I could not\nfollow his conversation and had to take advantage of the services of a\nfriend as interpreter, still it was easy to see what a remarkable vigor\nand command of language the fellow had, what power of concentration\non the subject in hand, and what a wealth of reference--especially\ncitation from ancient authorities--wherewith to illustrate his\ndiscourse.\n\nEverything in the East is different from the West, and so are the\nmethods of teaching. Teaching in the East is entirely authoritative and\ntraditional. That is its strong point and also its defect. The pupil\nis not expected to ask questions of a sceptical nature or expressive\nof doubt; the teacher does not go about to \u201cprove\u201d his thesis to the\npupil, or support it with arguments drawn from the plane of the pupil\u2019s\nintelligence; he simply re-delivers to the pupil, in a certain order\nand sequence, the doctrines which were delivered to him in his time,\nwhich have been since verified by his own experience, and which he can\nillustrate by phrases and metaphors and citations drawn from the sacred\nbooks. He has of course his own way of presenting the whole, but the\nbody of knowledge which he thus hands down is purely traditional, and\nmay have come along for thousands of years with little or no change.\nOriginality plays no part in the teaching of the Indian Sages. The\nknowledge which they have to impart is of a kind in which invention is\nnot required. It purports to be a knowledge of the original fact of\nthe universe itself--something behind which no man can go. The West\nmay originate, the West may present new views of the prime fact--the\nEast only seeks to give to a man that fact itself, the supreme\nconsciousness, undifferentiated, the key to all that exists.\n\nThe Indian teachers therefore say there are as a rule three conditions\nof the attainment of Divine knowledge or _g\u00f1\u00e1nam_:--(1) The study of\nthe sacred books, (2) the help of a Guru, and (3) the verification of\nthe tradition by one\u2019s own experience. Without this last the others\nare of course of no use; and the chief aid of the Guru is directed to\nthe instruction of the pupil in the methods by which he may attain to\npersonal experience. The sacred books give the philosophy and some of\nthe experiences of the _g\u00f1\u00e1ni_ or illuminated person, but they do not,\nexcept in scattered hints, give instruction as to how this illumination\nis to be obtained. The truth is, it is a question of evolution; and\nit would neither be right that such instruction should be given to\neverybody, nor indeed possible, since even in the case of those\nprepared for it the methods must differ, according to the idiosyncrasy\nand character of the pupil.\n\nThere are apparently isolated cases in which individuals attain to\n_G\u00f1\u00e1nam_ through their own spontaneous development, and without\ninstruction from a Guru, but these are rare. As a rule every man who\nis received into the body of Adepts receives his initiation through\nanother Adept who himself received it from a fore-runner, and the\nwhole constitutes a kind of church or brotherhood with genealogical\nbranches so to speak--the line of adepts from which a man descends\nbeing imparted to him on his admission into the fraternity. I need\nnot say that this resembles the methods of the ancient mysteries and\ninitiations of classic times; and indeed the Indian teachers claim that\nthe Greek and Egyptian and other Western schools of arcane lore were\nmerely branches, more or less degenerate, of their own.\n\nThe course of preparation for G\u00f1\u00e1nam is called _yogam_, and the person\nwho is going through this stage is called a _yogi_--from the root\n_yog_, to join--one who is seeking junction with the universal spirit.\nYogis are common all over India, and exist among all classes and in\nvarious forms. Some emaciate themselves and torture their bodies,\nothers seek only control over their minds, some retire into the jungles\nand mountains, others frequent the cities and exhibit themselves in the\ncrowded fairs, others again carry on the avocations of daily life with\nbut little change of outward habit. Some are humbugs, led on by vanity\nor greed of gain (for to give to a holy man is highly meritorious);\nothers are genuine students or philosophers; some are profoundly imbued\nwith the religious sense, others by mere distaste for the world. The\nmajority probably take to a wandering life of the body, some become\nwandering in mind; a great many attain to phases of clairvoyance and\nabnormal power of some kind or other, and a very few become adepts of a\nhigh order.\n\nAnyhow the matter cannot be understood unless it is realised that this\nsort of religious retirement is thoroughly accepted and acknowledged\nall over India, and excites no surprise or special remark. Only some\nfive or six years ago the son of the late Rajah of Tanjore--a man\nof some forty or fifty years of age, and of course the chief native\npersonage in that part of India--made up his mind to become a devotee.\nHe one day told his friends he was going on a railway journey, sent\noff his servants and carriages from the palace to the station, saying\nhe would follow, gave them the slip, and has never been heard of since!\nHis friends went to the man who was known to have been acting as his\nGuru, who simply told them, \u201cYou will never find him.\u201d Supposing the\nG.O.M. or the Prince of Wales were to retire like this--how odd it\nwould seem!\n\nTo illustrate this subject I may tell the story of Tillein\u00e1than Sw\u00e1my,\nwho was the teacher of the Guru whose acquaintance I am referring to\nin this chapter. Tillein\u00e1than was a wealthy shipowner of high family.\nIn 1850 he devoted himself to religious exercises, till 1855, when he\nbecame \u201cemancipated.\u201d After his attainment he felt sick of the world,\nand so he wound up his affairs, divided all his goods and money among\nrelations and dependents, and went off stark naked into the woods. His\nmother and sisters were grieved and repeatedly pursued him, offering\nto surrender all to him if he would only return. At last he simply\nrefused to answer their importunities, and they desisted. He appeared\nin Tanjore after that in \u201957, \u201959, \u201964 and \u201972, but has not been seen\nsince. He is supposed to be living somewhere in the Western Ghauts.\n\nIn \u201958 or \u201959, at the close of the Indian Mutiny, when search was being\nmade for Nana Sahib, it was reported that the Nana was hiding himself\nunder the garb (or no garb) of an \u201cascetic,\u201d and orders were issued to\ndetain and examine all such people. Tillein\u00e1than was taken and brought\nbefore the sub-magistrate at Tanjore, who told him the Government\norders, and that he must dress himself properly. At the same time the\nsub-magistrate, having a friendly feeling for T. and guessing that he\nwould refuse obedience, had brought a wealthy merchant with him, whom\nhe had persuaded to stand bail for Tillein\u00e1than in such emergency. When\nhowever the merchant saw Tillein\u00e1than, he expressed his doubts about\nstanding bail for him--whereupon T. said, \u201cQuite right, it is no good\nyour standing bail for me; the English Government itself could not\nstand bail for one who creates and destroys Governments. I will be bail\nfor myself.\u201d The sub-magistrate then let him go.\n\nBut on the matter being reported at head-quarters the sub. was\nreprimanded, and a force, consisting of an inspector and ten men\n(natives of course), was sent to take Tillein\u00e1than. He at first refused\nand threatened them, but on the inspector pleading that he would\nbe dismissed if he returned with empty hands T. consented to come\n\u201cin order to save the inspector.\u201d They came into full court--as it\nhappened--before the collector (Morris), who immediately reprimanded T.\nfor his mad costume! \u201cIt is you that are mad,\u201d said the latter, \u201cnot\nto know that this is my right costume,\u201d--and he proceeded to explain\nthe four degrees of Hindu probation and emancipation. (These are, of\ncourse, the four stages of student, householder, yogi and g\u00f1\u00e1ni. Every\none who becomes a g\u00f1\u00e1ni must pass through the other three stages. Each\nstage has its appropriate costume and rules; the yogi wears a yellow\ngarment; the g\u00f1\u00e1ni is emancipated from clothing, as well as from all\nother troubles.)\n\nFinally T. again told the collector that he was a fool, and that he\nT. would punish him. \u201cWhat will you do?\u201d said the collector. \u201cIf you\ndon\u2019t do justice I will burn you,\u201d was the reply! At this the mass of\nthe people in court trembled, believing no doubt implicitly in T.\u2019s\npower to fulfil his threat. The collector however told the inspector to\nread the Lunacy Act to Tillein\u00e1than, but the inspector\u2019s hand shook so\nthat he could hardly see the words--till T. said, \u201cDo not be afraid--I\nwill explain it to you.\u201d He then gave a somewhat detailed account of\nthe Act, pointed out to the collector that it did not apply to his\nown case, and ended by telling him once more that he was a fool. The\ncollector then let him go!\n\nAfterwards Morris--having been blamed for letting the man go--and\nBeauchamp (judge), who had been rather impressed already by T.\u2019s\npersonality, went together and with an escort to the house in Tanjore\nin which Tillein\u00e1than was then staying--with an undefined intention,\napparently, of arresting him. T. then asked them if they thought he was\nunder their Government--to which the Englishmen replied that they were\nnot there to argue philosophy but to enforce the law. T. asked how they\nwould enforce it. \u201cWe have cannons and men behind us,\u201d said Morris.\n\u201cAnd I,\u201d said T., \u201ccan also bring cannons and forces greater than\nyours.\u201d They then left him again, and he was no more troubled.\n\nThis story is a little disappointing in that no miracles come off, but\nI tell it as it was told to me by the Guru, and my friend A. having\nheard it substantially the same from other and independent witnesses\nat Tanjore it may be taken as giving a fairly correct idea of the\nkind of thing that occasionally happens. No doubt the collector would\nlook upon Tillein\u00e1than as a \u201cluny\u201d--and from other stories I have\nheard of him (his utter obliviousness of ordinary conventionalities\nand proprieties, that he would lie down to sleep in the middle of the\nstreet to the great inconvenience of traffic, that he would sometimes\nkeep on repeating a single vacant phrase over and over again for half a\nday, etc.), such an opinion might, I should say, fairly be justified.\nYet at the same time there is no doubt he was a very remarkable man,\nand the deep reverence with which our friend the Guru spoke of him was\nobviously not accorded merely to the abnormal powers which he seems\nat times to have manifested, but to the profundity and breadth of his\nteaching and the personal grandeur which prevailed through all his\neccentricities.\n\nIt was a common and apparently instinctive practice with him to speak\nof the great operations of Nature, the thunder, the wind, the shining\nof the sun, etc., in the first person, \u201cI\u201d--the identification with, or\nnon-differentiation from the universe (which is the most important of\nesoteric doctrines) being in his case complete. So also the democratic\ncharacter of his teaching surpassed even our Western records. He would\ntake a pariah dog--the most scorned of creatures--and place it round\nhis neck (compare the pictures of Christ with a lamb in the same\nattitude), or even let it eat out of one plate with himself! One day,\nin Tanjore, when importuned for instruction by five or six disciples,\nhe rose up and saying, \u201cFollow me,\u201d went through the streets to the\nedge of a brook which divided the pariah village from the town--a line\nwhich no Hindu of caste will ever cross--and stepping over the brook\nbade them enter the defiled ground. This ordeal however his followers\ncould not endure, and--except one--they all left him.\n\nTillein\u00e1than\u2019s pupil, the teacher of whom I am presently speaking, is\nmarried and has a wife and children. Most of these \u201cascetics\u201d think\nnothing of abandoning their families when the call comes to them, and\nof going to the woods perhaps never to be seen again. He however has\nnot done this, but lives on quietly at home at Tanjore. Thirty or forty\nyears ago he was a kind of confidential friend and adviser to the then\nreigning prince of Tanjore, and was well up in traditional state-craft\nand politics; and even only two or three years ago took quite an active\ninterest in the National Indian Congress. His own name was Ramasw\u00e1my,\nbut he acquired the name El\u00fakhanam, \u201cthe Grammarian,\u201d on account of his\nproficiency in Tamil grammar and philosophy, on which subject he was\nquite an authority, even before his initiation.\n\nTamil is a very remarkable, and indeed complex language--rivaling the\nSanskrit in the latter respect. It belongs to the Dravidian group, and\nhas few Aryan roots in it except what have been borrowed from Sanskrit.\nIt contains however an extraordinary number of philosophical terms, of\nwhich some are Sanskrit in their origin, but many are entirely its own;\nand like the people it forms a strange blend of practical qualities\nwith the most inveterate occultism. \u201cTamil,\u201d says the author of an\narticle in the _Theosophist_ for November, \u201990, \u201cis one of the oldest\nlanguages of India, if not of the world. Its birth and infancy are\nenveloped in mythology. As in the case of Sanskrit, we cannot say when\nTamil became a literary language. The oldest Tamil works extant belong\nto a time, about 2,000 years ago, of high and cultured refinement in\nTamil poetic literature. All the religious and philosophical poetry\nof Sanskrit has become fused into Tamil, which language contains a\nlarger number of popular treatises in Occultism, Alchemy, etc., than\neven Sanskrit; and it is now the only spoken language of India that\nabounds in occult treatises on various subjects.\u201d Going on to speak\nof the Tamil Adepts, the author of this article says: \u201cThe popular\nbelief is that there were eighteen brotherhoods of Adepts scattered\nhere and there, in the mountains and forests of the Tamil country, and\npresided over by eighteen Sadhoos; and that there was a grand secret\nbrotherhood composed of the eighteen Sadhoos, holding its meetings in\nthe hills of the Agasthya K\u00fatam in the Tinnevelly district. Since the\nadvent of the English and their mountaineering and deforestation, these\noccultists have retired far into the interior of the thick jungles on\nthe mountains; and a large number have, it is believed, altogether left\nthese parts for more congenial places in the Himalayan ranges. It is\nowing to their influence that the Tamil language has been inundated,\nas it were, with a vast number of works on esoteric philosophy. The\nworks of Agasthya Muni alone[3] would fill a whole library. The chief\nand only object of these brotherhoods has been to popularise esoteric\ntruths and bring them home to the masses. So great and so extensive is\ntheir influence that the Tamil literature is permeated with esoteric\ntruths in all its ramifications.\u201d In fact the object of this article is\nto point out the vast number of proverbs and popular songs, circulating\namong the Tamils to-day, which conceal under frivolous guise the most\nprofound mystic truths. The grammar too--as I suppose was the case in\nSanskrit--is linked to the occult philosophy of the people.\n\n    [3] Or those ascribed to him.\n\nTo return to the Teacher, besides state-craft and grammar he is well\nversed in matters of law, and not unfrequently tackles a question of\nthis kind for the help of his friends; and has some practical knowledge\nof medicine, as well as of cookery, which he considers important in\nits relation to health (the divine health, _Sukham_). It will thus\nbe seen that he is a man of good practical ability and acquaintance\nwith the world, and not a mere dreamer, as is too often assumed by\nWestern critics to be the case with all those who seek the hidden\nknowledge of the East. In fact it is one of the remarkable points of\nthe Hindu philosophy that practical knowledge of life is expressly\ninculcated as a preliminary stage to initiation. A man must be a\nhouseholder before he becomes a yogi; and familiarity with sexual\nexperience instead of being reprobated, is rather encouraged, in order\nthat having experienced one may in time pass beyond it. Indeed it is\nnot unfrequently maintained that the early marriage of the Hindus is\nadvantageous in this respect, since a couple married at the age of\nfifteen or sixteen have by the time they are forty a grown-up family\nlaunched in life, and having circled worldly experience are then free\nto dedicate themselves to the work of \u201cemancipation.\u201d\n\nDuring his _yoga_ period, which lasted about three years, his wife\nwas very good to him and assisted him all she could. He was enjoined\nby his own teacher to refrain from speech and did so for about a year\nand a half, passing most of his time in fixed attitudes of meditation,\nand only clapping his hands when he wanted food, etc. Hardly anything\nshows more strongly the hold which these religious ideas have upon the\npeople than the common willingness of the women to help their husbands\nin works of this kind, which beside the sore inconvenience of them,\noften deprive the family of its very means of subsistence and leave\nit dependent on the help of relations and others. But so it is. It is\ndifficult for a Westerner even to begin to realise the conditions and\ninspirations of life in the East.\n\nRefraint from speech is not a necessary condition of initiation, but\nit is enjoined in some cases. (There might be a good many cases among\nthe Westerners where it would be very desirable--with or without\ninitiation!) \u201cMany practising,\u201d said the Guru one day, \u201chave not\nspoken for twelve years--so that when freed they had lost the power\nof speech--babbled like babies--and took some time to recover it.\nBut for two or three years you experience no disability.\u201d \u201cDuring my\ninitiation,\u201d he added, \u201cI often wandered about the woods all night, and\nmany times saw wild beasts, but they never harmed me--as indeed they\ncannot harm the initiated.\u201d\n\nAt the present time he lives (when at home) a secluded life, mostly\nabsorbed in trance conditions--his chief external interest no doubt\nbeing the teaching of such people as are led to him, or he is led\nto instruct. When however he takes up any practical work he throws\nhimself into it with that power and concentration which is peculiar\nto a \u201cMaster,\u201d and which is the natural corollary of the power, of\nabstraction when healthily used.\n\nAmong their own people these Gurus often have small circles of\ndisciples, who receive the instruction of their master and in return\nare ever ready to attend upon his wants. Sometimes such little parties\nsit up all night alternately reading the sacred books and absorbing\nthemselves in meditation. It appears that Elukhanam\u2019s mother became his\npupil and practised according to instructions, making good progress.\nOne day however she told her son that she should die that night.\n\u201cWhat, are you ill?\u201d he said. \u201cNo,\u201d she replied, \u201cbut I feel that I\nshall die.\u201d Then he asked her what she desired to be done with her\nbody. \u201cOh, tie a rope to it and throw it out into the street,\u201d was\nher reply--meaning that it did not matter--a very strong expression,\nconsidering caste regulations on the subject. Nothing more was said,\nbut that night at 3 a.m. as they and some friends were sitting up\n(cross-legged on the floor as usual) reading one of the sacred books,\none of those present said, \u201cBut your mother does not move,\u201d--and she\nwas dead.\n\nWhen in Ceylon our friend was only staying temporarily in a\ncottage, with a servant to look after him, and though exceedingly\nanimated and vigorous as I have described, when once embarked in\nexposition--capable of maintaining his discourse for hours with\nunflagging concentration--yet the moment such external call upon his\nfaculties was at an end, the interest that it had excited seemed to be\nentirely wiped from his mind; and the latter returned to that state of\ninterior meditation and absorption in the contemplation of the world\ndisclosed to the inner sense, which had apparently become his normal\ncondition.\n\nI was in fact struck, and perhaps a little shocked, by the want of\ninterest in things and persons around him displayed by the great\nman--not that, as I have said, he was not very helpful and considerate\nin special cases--but evidently that part of his nature which held\nhim to the actual world was thinning out; and the personalities of\nattendants and of those he might have casual dealings with, or even the\nscenes and changes of external nature, excited in him only the faintest\nresponse.\n\nAs I have said he seemed to spend the greater part of the twenty-four\nhours wrapt in contemplation, and this not in the woods, but in\nthe interior of his own apartment. As a rule he only took a brief\nhalf-hour\u2019s walk mornings and evenings, just along the road and back\nagain, and this was the only time he passed out of doors. Certainly\nthis utter independence of external conditions--the very small amount\nof food and exercise and even of sleep that he took, combined with\nthe great vigor that he was capable of putting forth on occasion\nboth bodily and mentally, and the perfect control he had over his\nfaculties--all seemed to suggest the idea of his having access to some\ninterior source of strength and nourishment. And indeed the general\ndoctrine that the g\u00f1\u00e1ni can thus attain to independence and maintain\nhis body from interior sources alone (eat of the \u201chidden manna\u201d) is\none much cherished by the Hindus, and which our friend was never tired\nof insisting on.\n\nFinally, his face, while showing the attributes of the seer,\nthe externally penetrating quick eye, and the expression of\n_illumination_--the deep mystic light within--showed also the\nprevailing sentiment of happiness behind it. _Sand\u00f3siam, Sand\u00f3siam\nepp\u00f3tham_--\u201cJoy, always joy\u201d--was his own expression, oft repeated.\n\nPerhaps I have now said enough to show--what of course was sufficiently\nevident to me--that, however it may be disguised under trivial or even\nin some cases repellent coverings, there _is_ some reality beneath all\nthese--some body of real experience, of no little value and importance,\nwhich has been attained in India by a portion at any rate of those who\nhave claimed it, and which has been handed down now through a vast\nnumber of centuries among the Hindu peoples as their most cherished and\nprecious possession.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nCONSCIOUSNESS WITHOUT THOUGHT.\n\n\nThe question is, What is this experience? or rather--since an\nexperience can really only be known to the person who experiences\nit--we may ask, \u201cWhat is the nature of this experience?\u201d And in\ntrying to indicate an answer of some kind to this question I feel\nconsiderable diffidence, just for the very reason (for one) already\nmentioned--namely that it is so difficult or impossible for one\nperson to give a true account of an experience which has occurred to\nanother. If I could give the exact words of the teacher, without any\nbias derived either from myself or the interpreting friend, the case\nmight be different; but that I cannot pretend to do; and if I could,\nthe old-world scientific forms in which his thoughts were cast would\nprobably only prove a stumbling-block and a source of confusion,\ninstead of a help, to the reader. Indeed, even in the case of the\nsacred books, where we have a good deal of accessible and authoritative\ninformation, Western critics though for the most part agreeing that\nthere _is_ some real experience underlying, are sadly at variance as to\nwhat that experience may be.\n\nFor these reasons I prefer not to attempt or pretend to give the exact\nteaching, unbiassed, of the Indian Gurus, or their experiences; but\nonly to indicate as far as I can, in my own words, and in modern\nthought-forms, what I take to be the direction in which we must look\nfor this ancient and world-old knowledge which has had so stupendous an\ninfluence in the East, and which indeed is still the main mark of its\ndifference from the West.\n\nAnd first let me guard against an error which is likely to arise. It is\nvery easy to assume, and very frequently assumed, in any case where a\nperson is credited with the possession of an unusual faculty, that such\nperson is at once lifted out of our sphere into a supernatural region,\nand possesses every faculty of that region. If for instance he or she\nis or is supposed to be clairvoyant, it is assumed that _everything_\nis or ought to be known to them; or if the person has shown what seems\na miraculous power at any time or in any case, it is asked by way of\ndiscredit why he or she did not show a like power at other times or in\nother cases. Against all such hasty generalisations it is necessary to\nguard ourselves. If there is a higher form of consciousness attainable\nby man than that which he for the most part can claim at present, it is\nprobable, nay certain, that it is evolving and will evolve but slowly,\nand with many a slip and hesitant pause by the way. In the far past of\nman and the animals consciousness of sensation and consciousness of\nself have been successively evolved--each of these mighty growths with\ninnumerable branches and branchlets continually spreading. At any point\nin this vast experience, a new growth, a new form of consciousness,\nmight well have seemed miraculous. What could be more marvelous than\nthe first revealment of the sense of sight, what more inconceivable\nto those who had not experienced it, and what more certain than that\nthe first use of this faculty must have been fraught with delusion and\nerror? Yet there may be an inner vision which again transcends sight,\neven as far as sight transcends touch. It is more than probable that\nin the hidden births of time there lurks a consciousness which is not\nthe consciousness of sensation and which is not the consciousness\nof self--or at least which includes and entirely surpasses these--a\nconsciousness in which the contrast between the _ego_ and the external\nworld, and the distinction between subject and object, fall away. The\npart of the world into which such a consciousness admits us (call it\n_supramundane_ or whatever you will) is probably at least as vast and\ncomplex as the part we know, and progress in that region at least\nequally slow and tentative and various, laborious, discontinuous, and\nuncertain. There is no sudden leap out of the back parlor onto Olympus;\nand the routes, when found, from one to the other, are long and\nbewildering in their variety.\n\nAnd of those who do attain to some portion of this region, we are not\nto suppose that they are at once demi-gods, or infallible. In many\ncases indeed the very novelty and strangeness of the experiences give\nrise to phantasmal trains of delusive speculation. Though we should\nexpect, and though it is no doubt true on the whole, that what we\nshould call the higher types of existing humanity are those most likely\nto come into possession of any new faculties which may be flying about,\nyet it is not always so; and there are cases, well recognised, in\nwhich persons of decidedly deficient or warped moral nature attain\npowers which properly belong to a high grade of evolution, and are\ncorrespondingly dangerous thereby.\n\nAll this, or a great part of it, the Indian teachers insist on. They\nsay--and I think this commends the reality of their experience--that\nthere is nothing abnormal or miraculous about the matter; that the\nfaculties acquired are on the whole the result of long evolution and\ntraining, and that they have distinct laws and an order of their\nown. They recognise the existence of persons of a demonic faculty,\nwho have acquired powers of a certain grade without corresponding\nmoral evolution; and they admit the rarity of the highest phases of\nconsciousness and the fewness of those at present fitted for its\nattainment.\n\nWith these little provisos then established I think we may go on\nto say that what the G\u00f1\u00e1ni seeks and obtains is a new order of\nconsciousness--to which for want of a better we may give the name\n_universal_ or _cosmic_ consciousness, in contradistinction to\nthe individual or special bodily consciousness with which we are\nall familiar. I am not aware that the _exact_ equivalent of this\nexpression \u201cuniversal consciousness\u201d is used in the Hindu philosophy;\nbut the _Sat-chit-\u00e1nanda Brahm_ to which every yogi aspires indicates\nthe same idea: _sat_, the reality, the all pervading; _chit_, the\nknowing, perceiving; _\u00e1nanda_, the blissful--all these united in one\nmanifestation of Brahm.\n\nThe West seeks the individual consciousness--the enriched mind, ready\nperceptions and memories, individual hopes and fears, ambitions, loves,\nconquests--the self, the local self, in all its phases and forms--and\nsorely doubts whether such a thing as an universal consciousness\nexists. The East seeks the universal consciousness, and in those cases\nwhere its quest succeeds individual self and life thin away to a mere\nfilm, and are only the shadows cast by the glory revealed beyond.\n\nThe individual consciousness takes the form of _Thought_, which is\nfluid and mobile like quicksilver, perpetually in a state of change\nand unrest, fraught with pain and effort; the other consciousness is\n_not_ in the form of Thought. It touches, sees, hears, and _is_ these\nthings which it perceives--without motion, without change, without\neffort, without distinction of subject and object, but with a vast and\nincredible Joy.\n\nThe individual consciousness is specially related to the body. The\norgans of the body are in some degree its organs. But the _whole_ body\nis only as one organ of the cosmic consciousness. To attain this latter\none must have the power of knowing one\u2019s self separate from the body,\nof passing into a state of _ecstasy_ in fact. Without this the cosmic\nconsciousness cannot be experienced.\n\nIt is said:--\u201cThere are four main experiences in initiation, (1) the\nmeeting with a Guru, (2) the consciousness of Grace, or _Arul_ (which\nmay perhaps be interpreted as the consciousness of a change--even of\na physiological change--working within one), (3) the vision of Siva\n(God), with which the knowledge of one\u2019s self as distinct from the body\nis closely connected, (4) the finding of the universe within.\u201d \u201cThe\nwise,\u201d it is also said, \u201cwhen their thoughts cease to move perceive\nwithin themselves the Absolute consciousness, which is _Sarva sakshi_,\nWitness of all things.\u201d\n\nGreat have been the disputes among the learned as to the meaning of the\nword Nirwana--whether it indicates a state of no-consciousness or a\nstate of vastly enhanced consciousness. Probably both views have their\njustification: the thing does not admit of definition in the terms of\nordinary language. The important thing to see and admit is that under\ncover of this and other similar terms there does exist a real and\nrecognisable fact (that is a state of consciousness in some sense),\nwhich has been experienced over and over again, and which to those who\nhave experienced it in ever so slight a degree has appeared worthy of\nlifelong pursuit and devotion. It is easy of course to represent the\nthing as a mere word, a theory, a speculation of the dreamy Hindu;\nbut people do not sacrifice their lives for empty words, nor do mere\nphilosophical abstractions rule the destinies of continents. No, the\nword represents a reality, something very basic and inevitable in human\nnature. The question really is not to define the fact--for we cannot do\nthat--but to get at and experience it.\n\nIt is interesting at this juncture to find that modern Western science,\nwhich has hitherto--without much result--been occupying itself with\nmechanical theories of the universe, is approaching from its side\nthis idea of the existence of another form of consciousness. The\nextraordinary phenomena of hypnotism--which no doubt are in some\ndegree related to the subject we are discussing, and which have been\nrecognised for ages in the East--are forcing Western scientists to\nassume the existence of the so-called _secondary consciousness_ in the\nbody. The phenomena seem really inexplicable without the assumption of\na secondary agency of some kind, and it every day becomes increasingly\ndifficult _not_ to use the word consciousness to describe it.\n\nLet it be understood that I am not for a moment assuming that\nthis secondary consciousness of the hypnotists is in all respects\nidentical with the cosmic consciousness (or whatever we may call it)\nof the Eastern occultists. It may or may not be. The two kinds of\nconsciousness may cover the same ground, or they may only overlap to a\nsmall extent. That is a question I do not propose to discuss. The point\nto which I wish to draw attention is that Western science is envisaging\nthe possibility of the existence in man of another consciousness of\nsome kind, beside that with whose working we are familiar. It quotes\n(A. Moll) the case of Barkworth who \u201ccan add up long rows of figures\nwhile carrying on a lively discussion, without allowing his attention\nto be at all diverted from the discussion\u201d; and asks us how Barkworth\ncan do this unless he has a secondary consciousness which occupies\nitself with the figures while his primary consciousness is in the thick\nof argument. Here is a lecturer (F. Myers) who for a whole minute\nallows his mind to wander entirely away from the subject in hand, and\nimagines himself to be sitting beside a friend in the audience and to\nbe engaged in conversation with _him_, and who wakes up to find himself\nstill on the platform lecturing away with perfect ease and coherency.\nWhat are we to say to such a case as that? Here again is a pianist\nwho recites a piece of music by heart, and finds that his recital is\nactually hindered by allowing his mind (his primary consciousness) to\ndwell upon what he is doing. It is sometimes suggested that the very\nperfection of the musical performance shows that it is mechanical or\nunconscious, but is this a fair inference? and would it not seem to be\na mere contradiction in terms to speak of an unconscious lecture, or an\nunconscious addition of a row of figures?\n\nMany actions and processes of the body, _e.g._ swallowing, are attended\nby distinct personal consciousness; many other actions and processes\nare quite unperceived by the same; and it might seem reasonable\nto suppose that these latter at any rate were purely mechanical\nand devoid of any mental substratum. But the later developments of\nhypnotism in the West have shown--what is well known to the Indian\nfakirs--that under certain conditions consciousness of the internal\nactions and processes of the body can be obtained; and not only so, but\nconsciousness of events taking place at a distance from the body and\nwithout the ordinary means of communication.\n\nThus the idea of another consciousness, in some respects of wider range\nthan the ordinary one, and having methods of perception of its own, has\nbeen gradually infiltrating itself into Western minds.\n\nThere is another idea, which modern science has been familiarising us\nwith, and which is bringing us towards the same conception--that namely\nof the fourth dimension. The supposition that the actual world has four\nspace-dimensions instead of three makes many things conceivable which\notherwise would be incredible. It makes it conceivable that apparently\nseparate objects, _e.g._ distinct people, are really physically united;\nthat things apparently sundered by enormous distances of space are\nreally quite close together; that a person or other object might pass\nin and out of a closed room without disturbance of walls, doors, or\nwindows, etc.; and if this fourth dimension were to become a factor of\nour consciousness it is obvious that we should have means of knowledge\nwhich to the ordinary sense would appear simply miraculous. There is\nmuch apparently to suggest that the consciousness attained to by the\nIndian g\u00f1\u00e1nis in their degree, and by hypnotic subjects in theirs is of\nthis fourth-dimensional order.\n\nAs a solid is related to its own surfaces, so, it would appear, is the\ncosmic consciousness related to the ordinary consciousness. The phases\nof the personal consciousness are but different facets of the other\nconsciousness; and experiences which seem remote from each other in the\nindividual are perhaps all equally near in the universal. Space itself,\nas we know it, may be practically annihilated in the consciousness of\na larger space of which it is but the superficies; and a person living\nin London may not unlikely find that he has a backdoor opening quite\nsimply and unceremoniously out in Bombay.\n\n\u201cThe true quality of the soul,\u201d said the Guru one day, \u201cis that of\nspace, by which it is at rest, everywhere. But this space (Ak\u00e1sa)\nwithin the soul is far above the ordinary material space. The whole of\nthe latter, including all the suns and stars, appears to you then as\nit were but an atom of the former\u201d--and here he held up his fingers as\nthough crumbling a speck of dust between them.\n\n\u201cAt rest everywhere,\u201d \u201cIndifference,\u201d \u201cEquality.\u201d This was one of\nthe most remarkable parts of the Guru\u2019s teaching. Though (for family\nreasons) maintaining many of the observances of Caste himself, and\nthough holding and teaching that for the mass of the people caste rules\nwere quite necessary, he never ceased to insist that when the time came\nfor a man (or woman) to be \u201cemancipated\u201d all these rules must drop\naside as of no importance--all distinction of castes, classes, all\nsense of superiority or self-goodness--of right and wrong even--and the\nmost absolute sense of Equality must prevail towards every one, and\ndetermination in its expression. Certainly it was remarkable (though\nI knew that the sacred books contained it) to find this germinal\nprinciple of Western democracy so vividly active and at work deep down\nbeneath the innumerable layers of Oriental social life and custom. But\nso it is; and nothing shows better the relation between the West and\nthe East than this fact.\n\nThis sense of Equality, of Freedom from regulations and confinements,\nof Inclusiveness, and of the Life that \u201crests everywhere,\u201d belongs\nof course more to the cosmic or universal part of man than to the\nindividual part. To the latter it is always a stumbling-block and an\noffence. It is easy to show that men are not equal, that they cannot\nbe free, and to point the absurdity of a life that is indifferent and\nat rest under all conditions. Nevertheless to the larger consciousness\nthese are basic facts, which underlie the common life of humanity, and\nfeed the very individual that denies them.\n\nThus repeating the proviso that in using such terms as cosmic and\nuniversal consciousness we do not commit ourselves to the theory that\nthe instant a man leaves the personal part of him he enters into\nabsolutely unlimited and universal knowledge, but only into a higher\norder of perception--and admitting the intricacy and complexity of\nthe region so roughly denoted by these terms, and the microscopical\ncharacter of our knowledge about it--we may say once more, also\nas a roughest generalisation, that the quest of the East has been\nthis universal consciousness, and that of the West the personal or\nindividual consciousness. As is well known the East has its various\nsects and schools of philosophy, with subtle discriminations of\nqualities, essences, god-heads, devilhoods, etc., into which I do\nnot propose to go, and which I should feel myself quite incompetent\nto deal with. Leaving all these aside, I will keep simply to these\ntwo rough Western terms, and try to consider further the question of\nthe _methods_ by which the Eastern student sets himself to obtain\nthe cosmic state, or such higher order of consciousness as he does\nencompass.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nMETHODS OF ATTAINMENT.\n\n\nThe subject of the methods used by the yogis for the attainment of\nanother order of consciousness has its physical, its mental, and its\nmoral sides--and doubtless other sides as well.\n\nBeginning with the physical side, it is probable that the discounting\nor repression of the physical brain--or of that part of it which is\nthe seat of the primary consciousness--is the most important: on the\ntheory that the repression of the primary consciousness opens the\nway for the manifestation of any other consciousness that may be\npresent. Thus hypnotism lulls or fatigues the ordinary brain into a\ncomplete torpor--so allowing the phenomena connected with the secondary\nconsciousness to come out into the greater prominence. It need not be\nsupposed that hypnotism _induces_ the secondary consciousness, but only\nthat it removes that other consciousness which ordinarily conceals or\nhinders its expression. Some of the methods adopted by the yogis are\nundoubtedly of this hypnotic character, such as the sitting or standing\nfor long periods absolutely fixed in one position; staring at the\nsun or other object; repeating a word or phrase over and over again\nfor thousands of times, etc.; and the clairvoyant and other results\nproduced seem in many respects very similar to the results of Western\nhypnotism. The yogi however by immense persistence in his practices,\nand by using his own will to effect the change of consciousness,\ninstead of surrendering himself into the power of another person,\nseems to be able to transfer his \u201cI\u201d or _ego_ into the new region, and\nto remember on his return to ordinary consciousness what he has seen\nthere; whereas the hypnotic subject seems to be divided into a double\n_ego_, and as a rule remembers nothing in the primary state of what\noccurred to him in the secondary.\n\nOthers of the yogis adopt prolonged fasting, abstinence from sleep,\nself-torture and emaciation, with the same object, namely the reduction\nof the body, and apparently with somewhat similar results--though in\nthese cases not only insight is supposed to be gained, but added powers\nover nature, arising from the intense forces of control put forth and\neduced by these exercises. The fact that the _Siddhi_ or miraculous\npowers can be gained in this way is so universally accepted and taken\nfor granted in India that (even after making all allowances) it is\ndifficult not to be carried away on the stream of belief. And indeed\nwhen one considers the known powers of the will--cultivated as it is to\nbut a feeble degree amongst most of us--there seems to be an inherent\nprobability in the case. The adepts however as a rule, though entirely\nagreeing that the attainment of the Siddhi powers is _possible_,\nstrongly condemn the quest of them by these methods--saying with great\njustice that the mere fact of a quest of this kind is a breach of the\nlaw of Indifference and Trust, and that the quest being instigated\nby some desire--ambition, spiritual pride, love of gain, or what\nnot--necessarily ends either by stultifying itself, or by feeding the\ndesire, and, if some powers are gained, by the devotion of them to evil\nends.\n\nThus the methods that are mainly physical produce certain\nresults--clairvoyances and controls--which are largely physical in\ntheir character, and are probably for the most part more or less morbid\nand dangerous. They are however very widely spread among the inferior\nclasses of yogis all over India, and the performances which spring\nfrom them, by exciting the fear and wonder of the populace, often\nbecome--as in the case of mesmeric performances in the West--a source\nof considerable gain to the chief actor.\n\nThere remain two other classes of methods--the mental and the moral.\n\nOf the mental no doubt the most important is the Suppression of\nThought--and it is not unlikely that this may have, when once\nunderstood, a far-reaching and important influence on our Western\nlife--over-ridden and dominated as it is by a fever of Thought\nwhich it can by no means control. Nothing indeed strikes one more\nas marking the immense contrast between the East and the West than,\nafter leaving Western lands where the ideal of life is to have an\nalmost insanely active brain and to be perpetually on the war-path\nwith fearful and wonderful projects and plans and purposes, to come\nto India and to find its leading men--men of culture and learning and\naccomplishment--deliberately passing beyond all these and addressing\nthemselves to the task of effacing their own thoughts, effacing\nall their own projects and purposes, in order that the diviner\nconsciousness may enter in and occupy the room so prepared.\n\nThe effacement of projects and purposes--which comes to much the same\nthing as the control of desire--belongs more properly to the _moral_\nside of the question, and may be considered later on. The subjection of\nThought--which obviously is very closely connected with the subjection\nof Desire--may however be considered here.\n\nThe _G\u00f1ana-yogis_ (so called, to distinguish them from the\n_Karma-yogis_ who rely more upon the external and physical methods)\nadopt two practices, (1) that of intense concentration of the thoughts\non a fixed object, (2) that of the effacement of thought altogether.\n\n(1) The thoughts may be fixed on a definite object, for instance, on\none\u2019s own breathing--the inflow and outflow of the atmosphere through\nthe channels of the physical body. The body must be kept perfectly\nstill and motionless for a long period--so that it may pass entirely\nout of consciousness--and the thoughts fixed on the regulated calm\ntide of respiration, to the complete exclusion of every other subject.\nOr the name of an object--a flower for instance--may be repeated\nincessantly--the image of the object being called up at the same\ntime--till at last the name and the image of the object blend and\nbecome indistinguishable in the mind.\n\nSuch practices have their literal and their spiritual sides. If\ncarried out merely as formul\u00e6, they evidently partake of a mesmeric\n(self-mesmeric) character, and ultimately induce mesmeric states of\nconsciousness.[4] If carried out with a strong sense of their inner\nmeaning--the presence of the vast cosmic life in the breathing, the\nendeavor to realise Brahma himself in the flower or other object\ncontemplated--they naturally induce a deeper sense of the universal\nlife and consciousness than that which belongs to the mesmeric state.\nAnyhow they teach a certain power and control over the thoughts; and\nit is a doctrine much insisted on by the Gurus that in life generally\nthe habit of the undivided concentration of the mind on that which one\nis doing is of the utmost importance. The wandering of the mind, its\ndivision and distraction, its openness to attack by brigand cares and\nanxieties, its incapacity to heartily enjoy itself in its work, not\nonly lame and cripple and torment it in every way, but are a mark of\nthe want of that faith which believes in the Now as the divine moment,\nand takes no thought for the Morrow. To concentrate at all times wholly\nand unreservedly in what you are doing at the moment is, they say, a\ndistinct step in G\u00f1\u00e1nam.\n\n    [4] The Rev. H. Callaway, in a paper on \u201cDivination among\n        the Natives of Natal\u201d (_Journal of the Anthropological\n        Institute_, vol. i. p. 176), says that the natives, \u201cin\n        order to become clairvoyant, attempt to effect intense\n        concentration and abstraction of the mind--an abstraction\n        even from their own thoughts.\u201d And this is done by herdsmen\n        and chiefs alike--though of course with varying success.\n\n(2) The next step, the effacement of Thought, is a much more difficult\none. Only when the power of concentration has been gained can this\nbe attempted with any prospect of success. The body must be kept,\nas before, perfectly motionless, and in a quiet place free from\ndisturbance; not in an attitude of ease or slumber, but sitting or\nstanding erect with muscles tense. All will-power is required, and the\ngreatest vigilance. Every thought must be destroyed on the instant\nof its appearance. But the enemy is subtle, and failure--over a long\nperiod--inevitable. Then when success seems to be coming and Thought is\ndwindling, Oblivion, the twin-foe, appears and must also be conquered.\nFor if Thought merely give place to Sleep, what is there gained? After\nmonths, but more probably years, of intermittent practice the power of\ncontrol grows; curious but distinct physiological changes take place;\none day the student finds that Thought has gone; he stands for a moment\nin Oblivion; then _that_ veil lifts, and there streams through his\nbeing a vast and illumined consciousness, glorious, that fills and\noverflows him, \u201csurrounding him so that he is like a pot in water,\nwhich has the liquid within it and without.\u201d In this consciousness\nthere is divine knowledge but no thought. It is _Sam\u00e1dhi_, the\nuniversal \u201cI Am.\u201d\n\nWhatever people may think of the reality of this \u201cSam\u00e1dhi,\u201d of the\ngenuineness or the universality of the consciousness obtained in it,\netc. (and these are questions which of course require examination),\nit is incontestable that for centuries and centuries it has been an\nobject of the most strenuous endeavor to vast numbers even of the very\nacutest and most capable intellects of India. Earthly joys paled before\nthis ecstasy; the sacred literatures are full of its praise. That\nthere lurks here some definite and important fact of experience is I\nthink obvious--though it is quite probable that it is not yet really\nunderstood, either by the East that discovered it or the West that has\ncriticised it.\n\nLeaving however for the present the consideration of this ultimate and\ntranscendent result of the effacement of Thought, and freely admitting\nthat the Eastern devotees have in the ardor of their pursuit of it\nbeen often led into mere absurdities and excesses--that they have in\nsome cases practically mutilated their thinking powers--that they have\nrefrained from speech for such prolonged years that at last not only\nthe tongue but the brain itself refused to act--that they have in\ninstances reduced themselves to the condition of idiots and babbling\nchildren, and rendered themselves incapable of carrying on any kind of\nwork ordinarily called useful--admitting all this, it still remains\ntrue I think that even in its lower aspects this doctrine is of vast\nimport to-day in the West.\n\nFor we moderns, while we have dominated Nature and external results in\nthe most extraordinary way through our mechanical and other sciences,\nhave just neglected this other field of mastery over our own internal\nmechanism. We pride ourselves on our athletic feats, but some of\nthe performances of the Indian fakirs in the way of mastery over\nthe _internal_ processes of the body--processes which in ordinary\ncases have long ago lapsed into the region of the involuntary and\nunconscious--such as holding the breath over enormous periods, or\nreversing the peristaltic action of the alimentary canal throughout its\nentire length--are so astonishing that for the most part the report of\nthem only excites incredulity among us, and we can hardly believe--what\nI take it is a fact--that these physiological powers have been\npractised till they are almost reduced to a science.\n\nAnd if we are unwilling to believe in this internal mastery over the\nbody, we are perhaps almost equally unaccustomed to the idea of mastery\nover our own inner thoughts and feelings. That a man should be a prey\nto any thought that chances to take possession of his mind is commonly\namong us assumed as unavoidable. It may be a matter of regret that\nhe should be kept awake all night from anxiety as to the issue of a\nlawsuit on the morrow, but that he should have the power of determining\nwhether he be kept awake or not seems an extravagant demand. The image\nof an impending calamity is no doubt odious, but its very odiousness\n(we say) makes it haunt the mind all the more pertinaciously--and it is\nuseless to try to expel it.\n\nYet this is an absurd position--for man, the heir of all the ages, to\nbe in: hag-ridden by the flimsy creatures of his own brain. If a pebble\nin our boot torments us we expel it. We take off the boot and shake\nit out. And once the matter is fairly understood it is just as easy\nto expel an intruding and obnoxious thought from the mind. About this\nthere ought to be no mistake, no two opinions. The thing is obvious,\nclear, and unmistakable. It should be as easy to expel an obnoxious\nthought from your mind as to shake a stone out of your shoe; and till a\nman can do that, it is just nonsense to talk about his ascendancy over\nNature, and all the rest of it. He is a mere slave, and a prey to the\nbat-winged phantoms that flit through the corridors of his own brain.\n\nYet the weary and careworn faces that we meet by thousands, even among\nthe affluent classes of civilisation, testify only too clearly how\nseldom this mastery is obtained. How rare indeed to meet a _man_! How\ncommon rather to discover a creature hounded on by tyrant thoughts\n(or cares or desires), cowering wincing under the lash--or perchance\npriding himself to run merrily in obedience to a driver that rattles\nthe reins and persuades him that he is free--whom we cannot converse\nwith in careless _t\u00eate-\u00e0-t\u00eate_ because that alien presence is always\nthere, on the watch.\n\nIt is one of the most prominent doctrines of the G\u00f1\u00e1nis that the power\nof expelling thoughts, or if need be of killing them dead on the spot,\n_must_ be attained. Naturally the art requires practice; but like\nother arts, when once acquired there is no more mystery or difficulty\nabout it. And it is worth practice. It may indeed fairly be said that\nlife only begins when this art has been acquired. For obviously when\ninstead of being ruled by individual thoughts, the whole flock of them\nin their immense multitude and variety and capacity is ours to direct\nand despatch and employ where we list (\u201cfor He maketh the winds his\nmessengers and the flaming fire his minister\u201d), life becomes a thing\nso vast and grand compared with what it was before that its former\ncondition may well appear almost antenatal.\n\nIf you can kill a thought dead, for the time being, you can do anything\nelse with it that you please. And therefore it is that this power is\nso valuable. And it not only frees a man from mental torment (which\nis nine-tenths at least of the torment of life), but it gives him a\nconcentred power of handling mental work absolutely unknown to him\nbefore. The two things are correlative to each other. As already said\nthis is one of the principles of G\u00f1\u00e1nam. While at work your thought is\nto be absolutely concentrated in it, undistracted by anything whatever\nirrelevant to the matter in hand--pounding away like a great engine,\nwith giant power and perfect economy--no wear and tear of friction, or\ndislocation of parts owing to the working of different forces at the\nsame time. Then when the work is finished, if there is no more occasion\nfor the use of the machine, it must stop equally absolutely--stop\nentirely--no _worrying_ (as if a parcel of boys were allowed to play\ntheir devilments with a locomotive as soon as it was in the shed)--and\nthe man must retire into that region of his consciousness where his\ntrue self dwells.\n\nI say the power of the thought-machine itself is enormously increased\nby this faculty of letting it alone on the one hand and of using it\nsingly and with concentration on the other. It becomes a true tool,\nwhich a master-workman lays down when done with, but which only a\nbungler carries about with him all the time to show that he is the\npossessor of it.\n\nThen on and beyond the work turned out by the tool itself is the\nknowledge that comes to us apart from its use: when the noise of the\nworkshop is over, and mallet and plane laid aside--the faint sounds\ncoming through the open window from the valley and the far seashore:\nthe dim fringe of diviner knowledge, which begins to grow, poor\nthing, as soon as the eternal click-clack of thought is over--the\nextraordinary intuitions, perceptions, which, though partaking in some\ndegree of the character of thought, spring from entirely different\nconditions, and are the forerunners of a changed consciousness.\n\nAt first they appear miraculous, but it is not so. They are not\nmiraculous, for they are always there. (The stars are always there.) It\nis we who are miraculous in our inattention to them. In the systemic\nor secondary or cosmic consciousness of man (I daresay all these\nought to be distinguished, but I lump them together for the present)\nlurk the most minute and varied and far-reaching intuitions and\nperceptions--some of them in their swiftness and subtlety outreaching\neven those of the primary consciousness--but to them we do not attend\nbecause Thought like a pied piper is ever capering and fiddling in\nfront of us. And when Thought is gone, lo! we are asleep. To open your\neyes in that region which is neither Night nor Day is to behold strange\nand wonderful things.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAs already said the subjection of Thought is closely related to the\nsubjection of Desire, and has consequently its specially moral as\nwell as its specially intellectual relation to the question in hand.\nNine-tenths of the scattered or sporadic thought with which the mind\nusually occupies itself when not concentrated on any definite work\nis what may be called self-thought--thought of a kind which dwells\non and exaggerates the sense of self. This is hardly realised in its\nfull degree till the effort is made to suppress it; and one of the\nmost excellent results of such an effort is that with the stilling of\nall the phantoms which hover round the lower self, one\u2019s relations to\nothers, to one\u2019s friends, to the world at large, and one\u2019s perception\nof all that is concerned in these relations come out into a purity and\ndistinctness unknown before. Obviously while the mind is full of the\nlittle desires and fears which concern the local self, and is clouded\nover by the thought-images which such desires and fears evoke, it is\nimpossible that it should see and understand the greater facts beyond\nand its own relation to them. But with the subsiding of the former the\ngreat Vision begins to dawn; and a man never feels less alone than when\nhe has ceased to think whether he is alone or not.\n\nIt is in this respect that the subjection of desire is really\nimportant. There is no necessity to suppose that desire, in itself, is\nan evil; indeed it is quite conceivable that it may fall into place\nas a useful and important element of human nature--though certainly\none whose importance will be found to dwindle and gradually disappear\nas time goes on. The trouble for us is, in our present state, that\ndesire is liable to grow to such dimensions as to overcloud the world\nfor us, emprison, and shut us out from inestimable Freedom beneath\nits sway. Under such circumstances it evidently is a nuisance and has\nto be dominated. No doubt certain sections of the Indian and other\nascetic philosophies have taught the absolute extinction of desire, but\nwe may fairly regard these as cases--so common in the history of all\ntraditional teaching--of undue prominence given to a special detail,\nand of the exaltation of the letter of the doctrine above the spirit.\n\nThe moral element (at which we have now arrived) in the attainment of\na higher order of consciousness is of course recognised by all the\ngreat Indian teachers as of the first importance. The sacred books,\nthe sermons of Buddha, the discourses of the present-day Gurus, all\npoint in the same direction. Gentleness, forbearance towards all,\nabstention from giving pain, especially to the animals, the recognition\nof the divine spirit in every creature down to the lowest, the most\nabsolute sense of equality and the most absolute candor, an undisturbed\nserene mind, free from anger, fear, or any excessive and tormenting\ndesire--these are all insisted on.\n\nThus, though physical and mental conditions are held--and rightly--to\nbe important, the moral conditions are held to be at least equally\nimportant. Nevertheless, in order to guard against misconception which\nin so complex a subject may easily arise, it is necessary to state\nhere--what I have hinted before--that different sections and schools\namong the devotees place a very different respective value upon the\nthree sets of conditions--some making more of the physical, others of\nthe mental, and others again of the moral--and that as may be easily\nguessed the results attained by the various schools differ considerably\nin consequence.\n\nThe higher esoteric teachers naturally lay the greatest stress on the\nmoral, but any account of their methods would be defective which passed\nover or blinked the fact that they go _beyond_ the moral--because this\nfact is in some sense of the essence of the Oriental inner teaching.\nMorality, it is well understood, involves the conception of one\u2019s self\nas distinct from others, as distinct from the world, and presupposes\na certain antagonism between one\u2019s own interests and those of one\u2019s\nfellows. One \u201csacrifices\u201d one\u2019s own interests to those of another, or\n\u201cgoes out of one\u2019s way\u201d to help him. All such ideas must be entirely\nleft behind, if one is to reach the central illumination. They spring\nfrom ignorance and are the products of darkness. On no word did the\n\u201cGrammarian\u201d insist more strongly than on the word Non-differentiation.\nYou are not even to differentiate yourself in thought from others; you\nare not to begin to regard yourself as separate from them. Even to talk\nabout helping others is a mistake; it is vitiated by the delusion that\nyou and they are twain. So closely does the subtle Hindu mind go to the\nmark! What would our bald commercial philanthropy, our sleek \u00e6sthetic\naltruism, our scientific isophily, say to such teaching? All the little\nself-satisfactions which arise from the sense of duty performed, all\nthe cheese-parings of equity between oneself and others, all the tiny\nwonderments whether you are better or worse than your neighbor, have\nto be abandoned; and you have to learn to live in a world in which the\nchief fact is _not_ that you are distinct from others, but that you are\na part of and integral with them. This involves indeed a return to the\ncommunal order of society, and difficult as this teaching is for us\nin this day to realise, yet there is no doubt that it must lie at the\nheart of the Democracy of the future, as it has lain, germinal, all\nthese centuries in the hidden womb of the East.\n\nNor from Nature. You are not to differentiate yourself from Nature. We\nhave seen that the Guru Tillein\u00e1than spoke of the operations of the\nexternal world as \u201cI,\u201d having dismissed the sense of difference between\nhimself and them. It is only under these, and such conditions as these,\nthat the little mortal creature gradually becomes aware of What he is.\n\nThis non-differentiation is the final deliverance. When it enters in\nthe whole burden of absurd cares, anxieties, duties, motives, desires,\nfears, plans, purposes, preferences, etc., rolls off and lies like mere\nlumber on the ground. The winged spirit is free, and takes its flight.\nIt passes through the veil of mortality and leaves that behind. Though\nI say this non-differentiation is the final deliverance (from the bonds\nof illusion) I do not say it is the final experience. Rather I should\nbe inclined to think it is only the beginning of many experiences.\nAs, in the history of man and the higher animals, the consciousness\nof self--the local self--has been the basis of an enormous mass of\nperceptions, intuitions, joys, sufferings, etc., incalculable and\nindescribable in multitudinousness and variety, so in the history of\nman and the angels will the consciousness of the cosmic and universal\nlife--the true self underlying--become the basis of another and far\nvaster knowledge.\n\nThere is one respect in which the specially Eastern teaching commonly\nappears to us Westerners--and on the whole I am inclined to think\njustly--defective; and that is in its little insistence on the idea\nof Love. While, as already said, a certain gentleness and forbearance\nand passive charity is a decided feature of Indian teaching and life,\none cannot help noting the absence--or less prominence at any rate--of\nthat positive spirit of love and human helpfulness which in some\nsections of Western society might almost be called a devouring passion.\nThough with plentiful exceptions no doubt, yet there is a certain\nquiescence and self-inclusion and absorbedness in the Hindu ideal,\nwhich amounts almost to coldness; and this is the more curious because\nHindu society--till within the last few years at any rate--has been\nbased upon the most absolutely communal foundation. But perhaps this\nfact of the communal structure of society in India is just the reason\nwhy the social sentiment does not seek impetuously for expression\nthere; while in Europe, where existing institutions are a perpetual\ndenial of it, its expression becomes all the more determined and\nnecessary. However that may be, I think the fact may be admitted of a\ndifference between the East and the West in this respect. Of course\nI am not speaking of those few who may attain to the consciousness\nof non-differentiation--because in their case the word love must\nnecessarily change its meaning; nor am I speaking of the specially\nindividual and sexual and amatory love, in which there is no reason\nto suppose the Hindus deficient; but I am rather alluding to the fact\nthat in the West we are in the habit of looking on devotion to other\nhumans (widening out into the social passion) as the most natural way\nof losing one\u2019s self-limitations and passing into a larger sphere of\nlife and consciousness; while in the East this method is little thought\nof or largely neglected, in favor of the concentration of one\u2019s self in\nthe divine, and mergence in the universal in that way.\n\nI think this contrast--taking it quite roughly--may certainly be\nsaid to exist. The Indian teachers, the sacred books, the existing\ninstruction, centre consciously or unconsciously round the development\nof Will-power. By will to surrender the will; by determination and\nconcentration to press inward and upward to that portion of one\u2019s\nbeing which belongs to the universal, to conquer the body, to conquer\nthe thoughts, to conquer the passions and emotions; always will,\nand will-power. And here again we have a paradox, because in their\nquiescent, gentle, and rather passive external life--so different from\nthe push and dominating energy of the Western nations--there is little\nto make one expect such force. But while modern Europe and America\nhas spent its Will in the mastery of the external world, India has\nreserved hers for the conquest of inner and spiritual kingdoms. In\ntheir hypnotic phenomena too, the yogis exhibit the force of will, and\nthis differentiates their hypnotism from that of the West--in which\nthe patient is operated upon by another person. In the latter there\nis a danger of loss of will-power, but in the former (auto-hypnotism)\nwill-power is no doubt gained, while at the same time hypnotic states\nare induced. Suggestion, which is such a powerful agent in hypnotism,\nacts here too, and helps to knit the body together, pervading it with\na healing influence, and bringing the lower self under the direct\ndomination of the higher; and in this respect the Guru to some extent\nstands in the place of the operator, while the yogi is his subject.\n\nThus in the East the Will constitutes the great path; but in the West\nthe path has been more specially through Love--and probably will be.\nThe great teachers of the West--Plato, Jesus, Paul--have indicated this\nmethod rather than that of the ascetic will; though of course there\nhave not been wanting exponents of both sides. The one method means\nthe gradual dwindling of the local and external self through inner\nconcentration and aspiration, the other means the enlargement of the\nsaid self through affectional growth and nourishment, till at last it\ncan contain itself no longer. The bursting of the sac takes place; the\nlife is poured out, and ceasing to be local becomes universal. Of this\nmethod Whitman forms a signal instance. He is egotistic enough in all\nconscience; yet at last through his immense human sympathy, and through\nthe very enlargement of his _ego_ thus taking place, the barriers break\ndown and he passes out and away.\n\n    \u201cO Christ! This is mastering me!\n    In at the conquered doors they crowd. I am possessed.\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    I embody all presences outlawed or suffering;\n    See myself in prison shaped like another man,\n    And feel the dull unintermitted pain.\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Enough! enough! enough!\n    Somehow I have been stunned. Stand back!\n    Give me a little time beyond my cuffed head, slumbers, dreams,\n        gaping;\n    I discover myself on the verge of a usual mistake.\n    That I could forget the mockers and insults!\n    That I could forget the trickling tears, and the blows of bludgeons\n        and hammers!\n    That I could look with a separate look on my own crucifixion and\n        bloody crowning.\u201d\n\nBut such expressions as these--in which the passion of humanity wraps\nthe speaker into another sphere of existence--are _not_ characteristic\nof the East, and are not found in the Indian scriptures. When its time\ncomes the West will probably adopt this method of the liberation of the\nhuman soul--through love--rather than the specially Indian method--of\nthe Will; though doubtless both have to be, and will be in the future,\nto a large extent concurrently used. Different races and peoples\nincline according to their idiosyncrasies to different ways; each\nindividual even--as is quite recognised by the present-day Gurus--has\nhis special line of approach to the supreme facts. It is possible\nthat when the Western races once realise what lies beneath this great\ninstinct of humanity, which seems in some ways to be their special\ninspiration, they will outstrip even the Hindus in their entrance to\nand occupation of the new fields of consciousness.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nTRADITIONS OF THE ANCIENT WISDOM-RELIGION.\n\n\nI have dwelt so far on the nature of certain experiences (which I\nhave not however attempted to describe) and on the methods by which,\nspecially in India, they are sought to be obtained; and I have done\nso in general terms, and with an endeavor to assimilate the subject\nto Western ideas, and to bring it into line with modern science and\nspeculation. I propose in this chapter to dwell more especially on the\nformal side of our friend\u2019s teaching--which will bring out into relief\nthe special character of Eastern thought and its _differences_ from our\npresent-day modes of thought.\n\nI must however again warn the reader against accepting anything I\nsay, except with the greatest reserve, and especially not to broaden\nout into sweeping generalities any detailed statement I may happen to\nmake. People often ask for some concise account of Indian teaching\nand religion. Supposing some one were to ask for a concise account\nof the Christian teaching and religion--which of us, with all our\nfamiliarity with the subject, could give an account which the others\nwould accept? From the question whether Jesus and Paul were initiates\nin the Eastern mysteries--as the modern Gurus claim that they were,\nand as I think there can be no doubt that they were, either by\ntradition or by spontaneous evolution; through the question of the\nsimilarity and differences of their teaching; the various schools of\nearly Christianity; the Egyptian influences; the Gnostic sects and\nphilosophy; the formation and history of the Church, its organisations,\ncreeds and doctrines; medi\u00e6val Christianity and its relation to\nAristotle; the mystic teachers of the 13th and 14th centuries; the\nascetic and monastic movements; the belief in alchemy and witchcraft;\nthe miracles of the Saints; the Protestant movement and doctrines,\netc., etc.; down to the innumerable petty sects of to-day and all\ntheir conflicting views on the atonement and the sacraments and the\ninspiration of the Bible, and all the rest of it--who would be so bold\nas to announce the gist and resume of it all in a few brief sentences?\nYet the great Indian evolution of religious thought--while historically\nmore ancient--is at least equally vast and complex and bewildering in\nits innumerable ramifications. I should feel entirely incompetent to\ndeal with it as a whole--and here at any rate am only touching upon the\npersonality and utterances of one teacher, belonging to a particular\nschool, the South Indian.\n\nThis Guru was, as I have said, naturally one of those who insisted\nlargely--though not by any means exclusively--on the moral and\nultra-moral sides of the teaching; and from this point of view his\npersonality was particularly remarkable. His gentleness and kindliness,\ncombined with evident power; and inflexibility and intensity\nunderlying; his tense eyes, as of the seer, and gracious lips and\nexpression, and ease and dignity of figure; his entire serenity and\ncalm--though with lots of vigor when needed; all these were impressive.\nBut perhaps I was most struck--as the culmination of character and\nmanhood--by his perfect simplicity of manner. Nothing could be more\nunembarrassed, unselfconscious, direct to the point in hand, free\nfrom kinks of any kind. Sometimes he would sit on his sofa couch in\nthe little cottage, not unfrequently, as I have said, with bare feet\ngathered beneath him; sometimes he would sit on a chair at the table;\nsometimes in the animation of discourse his muslin wrap would fall from\nhis shoulder, unnoticed, showing a still graceful figure, thin, but by\nno means emaciated; sometimes he would stand for a moment, a tall and\ndignified form; yet always with the same ease and grace and absence\nof self-consciousness that only the animals and a few among human\nbeings show. It was this that made him seem very near to one, as if the\nordinary barriers which divide people were done away with; and if this\nwas non-differentiation working within, its external effect was very\nadmirable.\n\nI dwell perhaps the more on these points of character, which made me\nfeel an extraordinary _rapprochement_ and unspoken intimacy to this\nman, because I almost immediately found on acquaintance that on the\nplane of ordinary thought and scientific belief we were ever so far\nasunder, with only a small prospect, owing to difficulties of language,\netc., of ever coming to an understanding. I found--though this of\ncourse gave a special interest to his conversation--that his views of\nastronomy, physiology, chemistry, politics and the rest, were entirely\nunmodified by Western thought and science--and that they had come\ndown through a long line of oral tradition, continually reinforced by\nreferences to the sacred books, from a most remote antiquity. Here\nwas a man who living in a native principality under an Indian rajah,\nand skilled in the learning of his own country, had probably come\nacross very few English at all till he was of mature years, had not\nlearned the English language, and had apparently troubled himself but\nlittle about Western ideas of any kind. I am not a stickler for modern\nscience myself, and think many of its conclusions very shaky; but I\nconfess it gave me a queer feeling when I found a man of so subtle\nintelligence and varied capacity calmly asserting that the earth was\nthe centre of the physical universe and that the sun revolved about it!\nWith all seriousness he turned out the theory (which old Lactantius\n_Indicopleustes_ introduced from the East into Europe about the 3rd\ncentury A.D.)--namely that the earth is flat, with a great hill, the\ncelebrated Mount Meru, in the north, behind which the sun and moon\nand other heavenly bodies retire in their order to rest. He explained\nthat an eclipse of the moon (then going on) was caused by one of the\ntwo \u201cdark planets,\u201d R\u00e1ku or K\u00e9tu (which are familiar to astrology),\nconcealing it from view. He said (and this is also an ancient doctrine)\nthat there were 1,008 solar or planetary systems similar to ours,\nsome _above_ the earth, some _below_, and some on either hand. As to\nthe earth itself it had been destroyed and recreated many times in\nsuccessive \u00e6ons, but there had never been a time when the divine\nknowledge had not existed on it. There had always been an India (_g\u00f1\u00e1na\nbhumi_, or Wisdom-land, in contradistinction to the Western _bhoga\nbhumi_, or land of pleasure), and always Vedas or Upanishads (or books\ncorresponding) brought by divine teachers. (About modern theories of\nsubmerged continents and lower races in the far past he did not appear\nto know anything or to have troubled his head, nor did he put forth any\nviews on this subject of the kind mentioned by Sinnett in his _Esoteric\nBuddhism_. Many of his views however were very similar to those given\nin that book.)\n\nHis general philosophy appeared to be that of the Siddhantic system,\ninto which I do not propose to go in any detail--as it may be found\nin the books; and all such systems are hopelessly dull, and may be\nsaid to carry their own death-warrants written on their faces. The\nIndian systems of philosophy bear a strong resemblance to the Gnostic\nsystems of early Christian times--which latter were no doubt derived\nfrom the East. They all depend upon the idea of emanation--which is\nundoubtedly an important idea, and corresponds to some remarkable facts\nof consciousness; but the special forms in which the idea is cast in\nthe various systems are not very valuable.\n\nThe universe in the Siddhantic system is composed of five elements--(1)\nether, (2) air, (3) fire, (4) water, and (5) earth; and to get over\nthe obvious difficulties which arise from such a classification, it\nis explained that these are not the _gross_ ether, air, fire, water\nand earth that we know, but _subtle_ elements of the same name--which\nare themselves perfectly pure but by their admixture produce the gross\nelements. Thus the air we know is not a true element, but is formed by\na mixture of the subtle air with small portions of the subtle ether,\nsubtle fire, subtle water, and subtle earth; and so on. This explains\nhow it is there may be various kinds of air or of water or of earth.\nThen the five subtle elements give rise to the five forms of sensation\nin the order named--(1) Sound, (2) Touch, (3) Form, (4) Taste, (5)\nSmell; and to the five corresponding organs of sense. Also there are\nfive intellectual faculties evolved by admixture from the subtle\nelements, namely, (1) The inner consciousness, which has the quality of\nether or space, (2) Thought (_manas_) which has the quality of aerial\nagitation and motion, (3) Reason (_buddhi_) which has the quality of\nlight and fire, (4) Desire (_chittam_) which has the emotional rushing\ncharacter of water, (5) The I-making faculty (_ahank\u00e1ra_), which has\nthe hardness and resistance of the earth. Also the five organs of\naction, the voice, the hands, the feet, the anus, and the penis in the\nsame order; and the five vital airs which are supposed to pervade the\ndifferent parts of the body and to impel their action.\n\nThis is all very neat and compact. Unfortunately it shares the\nartificial character which all systems of philosophy have, and which\nmakes it quite impossible to accept any of them. I think our friend\nquite recognised this; for more than once he said, and quoted the\nsacred books to the same effect, that \u201cEverything which can be thought\nis untrue.\u201d In this respect the Indian philosophy altogether excels\nour Western systems (except the most modern). It takes the bottom out\nof its own little bucket in the most impartial way.\n\nNevertheless, whatever faults they may have, and however easy it may\nbe to attack their thought-forms, the great Indian systems (and those\nof the West the same) are no doubt based upon deep-lying facts of\nconsciousness, which it must be our business some time to disentangle.\nI believe there are facts of consciousness underlying such unlikely\nthings as the evolution of the five subtle elements, even though the\n_form_ of the doctrine may be largely fantastic. The primal element,\naccording to this doctrine, is the ether or _space_ (_Ak\u00e1sa_), the two\nideas of space and ether being curiously identified, and the other\nelements, air, fire, etc., are evolved in succession from this one\nby a process of thickening or condensation. Now this consciousness\nof space--not the material space, but the space within the soul--is\na form of the supreme consciousness in man, the _sat-chit-\u00e1nanda_\nBrahm--Freedom, Equality, Extension, Omnipresence--and is accompanied\nby a sense which has been often described as a combination of all the\nsenses, sight, hearing, touch, etc., in one; so that they do not even\nappear differentiated from each other. In the course of the descent of\nthe consciousness from this plane to the plane of ordinary life (which\nmay be taken to correspond to the creation of the actual world) the\ntranscendent space-consciousness goes through a sort of obscuration\nor condensation, and the senses become differentiated into separate\nand distinct faculties. This--or something like it--is a distinct\nexperience. It may well be that the formal doctrine about the five\nelements is merely an attempt--necessarily very defective, since these\nthings _cannot_ be adequately expressed in that way--to put the thing\ninto a form of thought. And so with other doctrines--some may contain a\nreal _inhalt_, others may be merely ornamental thought-fringes, put on\nfor the sake of logical symmetry or what not. In its _external_ sense\nthe doctrine of the evolution of the other elements successively by\ncondensation from the ether is after all not so far removed from our\nmodern scientific ideas. For the chief difference between the air, and\nother such gases, and the ether is supposed by us to be the closeness\nof the particles in the former; then in the case of fire, the particles\ncome into violent contact, producing light and heat; in fluids their\ncontact has become continuous though mobile; and in the earth and other\nsolids their contact is fixed.\n\nHowever, whatever justification the formal analysis of man and the\nexternal world into their constituent parts may have or require,\nthe ultimate object of the analysis in the Indian philosophy is to\nconvince the pupil that He is a being apart from them all. \u201cHe whose\nperception is obscured mistakes the twenty-six _tatwas_ (categories\nor \u2018thats\u2019) for himself, and is under the illusions of \u2018I\u2019 and\n\u2018mine.\u2019 To be liberated by the grace of a proper spiritual teacher\nfrom the operation of this obscuring power and to realise that these\nare not self, constitute \u2018deliverance.\u2019\u201d Here is the ultimate fact\nof consciousness--which is the same, and equally true, whatever the\nanalysis of the _tatwas_ may be.\n\n\u201cThe true quality of the Soul is that of space, by which it is at rest,\neverywhere. Then,\u201d continued the Guru, \u201ccomes the Air quality--by\nwhich it moves with speed from place to place; then the Fire-quality,\nby which it discriminates; then the Water-quality, which gives\nit emotional flow; and then the Earth or self-quality, rigid and\nunyielding. _As these things evolve out of the soul, so they must\ninvolve again, into it and into Brahm._\u201d\n\nTo go with the five elements, etc., the system expounded by the Guru\nsupposes five shells enclosing the soul. These, with the soul itself,\nand Brahm, the undifferentiated spirit lying within the soul, form\nseven planes or sections--as in the Esoteric Buddhism of Sinnett and\nthe Theosophists. The divisions however are not quite identical in the\ntwo systems, which appear to be respectively North Indian and South\nIndian. In the North Indian we have (1) the material body, (2) the\nvitality, (3) the astral form, (4) the animal soul, (5) the human soul,\n(6) the soul proper, and (7) the undifferentiated spirit; in the South\nIndian we have (1) the material shell, (2) the shell of the vital airs,\n(3) the sensorial shell, (4) the cognitional shell, (5) the shell of\noblivion and bliss in sleep, (6) the soul, and (7) the undifferentiated\nspirit. The two extremes seem the same in the two systems, but the\nintermediate layers differ. In some respects the latter system is the\nmore effective; it has a stronger practical bearing than the other,\nand appears to be specially designed as a guide to action in the\nwork of emancipation. In some respects the other system has a wider\napplication. Neither of course have any particular value except as\nconvenient forms of thought for their special purposes, and as very\nroughly embodying in their different degrees various experiences which\nthe human consciousness passes through in the course of its evolution.\n\u201cIt is not till all the five shells have been successively peeled off\nthat consciousness enters the soul and it sees itself and the universal\nbeing as one. The first three are peeled off at each bodily death of\nthe man, but they grow again out of what remains. It is not enough to\npass beyond these, but beyond the other two also. Then when that is\ndone the student enters into the fulness of the whole universe; and\nwith that joy no earthly joy can for a moment be compared.\u201d\n\n\u201cDeath,\u201d he continued, \u201cis usually great agony, as if the life was\nbeing squeezed out of every part--like the juice out of a sugar-cane;\nonly for those who have already separated their souls from their bodies\nis it not so. For them it is merely a question of laying down the body\nat will, when its _karma_ is worked out, or of retaining it, if need\nbe, to prolonged years.\u201d (It is commonly said that Vasishta who first\ngave the sacred knowledge to mankind, is still living and providing for\nthe earth; and Tillein\u00e1than Sw\u00e1my is said to have seen Tiruv\u00e1lluvar,\nthe pariah priest who wrote the _Kurral_ over 1,000 years ago.) \u201cIn\nordinary cases the last thoughts that cling to the body (\u2018the ruling\npassion strong in death\u2019) become the seed of the next ensuing body.\u201d\n\nIn this system the outermost layer of that portion of the human being\nwhich survives death is the shell of thought (and desire). As the body\nis modified in every-day life by the action of the thought-forms\nwithin and grows out of them--so the new body at some period after\ndeath grows out of the thought-forms that survive. \u201cThe body is built\nup by your thought--and not by your thought in this life only, but by\nthe thought of previous lives.\u201d\n\nOf the difficult question about hereditary likeness, suggesting that\nthe body is also due to the thought of the parents, he gave no very\ndetailed account,--only that the atomic soul is carried at some period\nafter death (by universal laws, or by its own affinities) into a womb\nsuitable for its next incarnation, where finding kindred thought-forms\nand elements it assimilates and grows from them, with the result of\nwhat is called family likeness.\n\nSome of his expositions of Astrology were very interesting to\nme--particularly to find this world-old system, with all its queer\nformalities and deep under lying general truths still passively\n(though I think not actively) accepted and handed down by so able\nan exponent--but I cannot record them at any length. The five\noperations of the divine spirit, namely (1) Grace, (2) Obscuration,\n(3) Destruction, (4) Preservation and (5) Creation, correspond to the\nfive elements, space, air, fire, water and earth, and are embodied in\nthe nine planets, thus: (1) R\u00e1ku and K\u00e9tu, (2) Saturn, (3) the Sun and\nMars, (4) Venus, Mercury and the Moon, (5) Jupiter. It is thus that the\nbirth of a human being is influenced by the position of the planets,\n_i.e._ the horoscope. The male semen contains the five elements, and\nthe composition of it is determined by the attitude of the nine planets\nin the sky! There seems here to be a glimmering embodiment of the\ndeep-lying truth that the whole universe conspires in the sexual act,\nand that the orgasm itself is a flash of the universal consciousness;\nbut the thought-forms of astrology are as indigestible to a mind\ntrained in Western science, as I suppose the thought-forms of the\nlatter are to the philosopher of the East!\n\nWhen I expostulated with the Guru about these, to us, crudities of\nAstrology, and about such theories as that of the flat earth, the\ncause of eclipses, etc., bringing the most obvious arguments to attack\nhis position--he did not meet me with any arguments, being evidently\nunaccustomed to deal with the matter on that plane at all; but simply\nreplied that these things had been seen \u201cin pure consciousness,\u201d and\nthat they _were_ so. It appeared to me pretty clear however that he\nwas not speaking authentically, as having seen them so himself, but\nsimply recording again the tradition delivered in its time to him. And\nhere is a great source of difficulty; for the force of tradition is\nso tremendous in these matters, and blends so, through the intimate\nrelation of teacher and pupil, with the pupil\u2019s own experience, that\nI can imagine it difficult in some cases for the pupil to disentangle\nwhat is authentically his own vision from that which he has merely\nheard. Besides--as may be easily imagined--the whole system of\nteaching tends to paralyse activity on the thought-plane to such a\ndegree that the spirit of healthy criticism has been lost, and things\nare handed down and accepted in an otiose way without ever being\nreally questioned or properly envisaged. And lastly there is a cause\nwhich I think acts sometimes in the same direction, namely that\nthe _yogi_ learns--either from habit or from actual experience of a\nsuperior order of consciousness--so to despise matters belonging to\nthe thought-world, that he really does not care whether a statement is\ntrue or false, in the mundane sense--_i.e._ consistent or inconsistent\nwith other statements belonging to the same plane. All these causes\nmake it extremely difficult to arrive at what we should call truth as\nregards matters of fact--appearances alleged to have been seen, feats\nperformed, or the occurrence of past events; and though there may be no\nprejudice against the _possibility_ of them, it is wise--in cases where\ndefinite and unmistakable evidence is absent, to withhold the judgment\neither way, for or against their occurrence.\n\nWith regard to these primitive old doctrines of Astronomy, Astrology,\nPhilology, Physiology, etc., handed down from far-back times and still\nembodied in the teaching of the Gurus, though it is impossible to\naccept them on the ordinary thought-plane, I think we may yet fairly\nconclude that there is an element of cosmic consciousness in them, or\nat any rate in many of them, which has given them their vitality and\nseal of authority so to speak. I have already explained what I mean,\nin one or two cases. Just as in the old myths and legends (Andromeda,\nCupid and Psyche, Cinderella and a great many more) an effort was made\nto embody indirectly, in ordinary thought-forms, things seen with the\ninner eye and which could not be expressed directly--so was the same\nprocess carried out in the old science. Though partly occupied with\nthings of the Thought-plane, it was also partly occupied in giving\nexpression to things which lie behind that plane--which we in our\nWestern sciences have neither discerned nor troubled ourselves about.\nHence, though confused and defective and easily impugnable, it contains\nan element which is yet of value. Take the theory of the flat earth for\ninstance, already mentioned, with Mount Meru in the north, behind which\nthe sun and moon retire each day. At first it seems almost incredible\nthat a subtle-brained shrewd people should have entertained so crude a\ntheory at all. But it soon appears that while being a rude explanation\nof external facts and one which might commend itself to a superficial\nobserver, it is also and in reality a description of certain internal\nphenomena seen. There are a sun and moon within, and there is a\nMount Meru (so it is said) within, by which they are obscured. The\nuniverse within the soul and the universe without correspond and are\nthe similitudes of each other, and so (theoretically at any rate) the\nlanguage which describes one should describe the other.\n\nIt is well known that much of the medi\u00e6val alchemy had this double\nsignification--the terms used indicated two classes of facts. Sometimes\nthe inner meaning preponderated, sometimes the outer; and it is\nnot always easy to tell in the writings of the Alchemists which is\nspecially intended. This alchemical teaching came into Europe from the\nEast--as we know; yet it was not without a feeling of surprise that\nI heard the Guru one day expounding as one of the ancient traditions\nof his own country a doctrine that I seemed familiar with as coming\nfrom Paracelsus or some such author--that of the transmutation of\ncopper into gold by means of solidified mercury. There is a method he\nexplained, preserved in mystic language in some of the ancient books,\nby which mercury can be rendered _solid_. This solid mercury has\nextraordinary properties: it is proof against the action of fire; if\nyou hold a small piece of it in your mouth, arrows and bullets cannot\nharm you; and the mere touch of it will turn a lump of copper into gold.\n\nNow this doctrine has been recognised by students of the medi\u00e6val\nalchemy to have an esoteric meaning. Quicksilver or mercury--as I think\nI have already mentioned--is an image or embodiment of Thought itself,\nthe ever-glancing, ever-shifting; to render quicksilver solid is to fix\nthought, and so to enter into the transcendent consciousness. He who\ndoes that can be harmed neither by arrows nor by bullets; a touch of\nthat diviner principle turns the man whose nature is but base copper\ninto pure gold. The Guru however expounded this as if in a purely\nliteral and external sense; and on my questioning him it became evident\nthat he believed in some at any rate of the alchemical transmutations\nin this sense--though what evidence he may have had for such belief did\nnot appear.\n\nI remember very well the evening on which this conversation took place.\nWe were walking along an unfrequented bit of road or by-lane; the sky\nwas transparent with the colors of sunset, the wooded hills a few miles\noff looked blue through the limpid air. He strode along--a tall dark\nfigure with coal-black eyes--on raised wooden sandals or clogs--his\nwhite wrapper loosely encircling him--with so easy and swift a motion\nthat it was quite a consideration to keep up with him--discoursing all\nthe while on the wonderful alchemical and medical secrets preserved\nfrom ages back in the _slokas_ of the sacred books--how in order to\nsafeguard this arcane knowledge, and to render it inaccessible to\nthe vulgar, methods had been adopted of the transposition of words,\nletters, etc., which made the text mere gibberish except to those who\nhad the key; how there still existed a great mass of such writings,\ninscribed on palm and other leaves, and stored away in the temples and\nmonasteries--though much had been destroyed--and so forth; altogether a\nstrange figure--something uncanny and superhuman about it. I found it\ndifficult to believe that I was in the end of the nineteenth century,\nand not three or four thousand years back among the sages of the Vedic\nrace; and indeed the more I saw of this Guru the more I felt persuaded\n(and still feel) that in general appearance, dress, mental attitude,\nand so forth, he probably resembled to an extraordinary degree those\nancient teachers whose tradition he still handed down. The more one\nsees of India the more one learns to appreciate the enormous tenacity\nof custom and tradition there, and that the best means to realise its\npast may be to study its present life in the proper quarters.\n\nHis criticisms of the English, of English rule in India, and of social\ninstitutions generally, were very interesting--to me at any rate--as\ncoming from a man so perfectly free from Western \u201ctaint\u201d and modern\nmodes of thought, and who yet had had considerable experience of state\npolicy and administration in his time, and who generally had circled a\nconsiderable experience of life. He said--what was quite a new idea to\nme, but in the most emphatic way--that the rule of the English in the\ntime of the East India Company had been much better than it had become\nsince under the Crown. Curiously enough his charge was that \u201cthe Queen\u201d\nhad made it so entirely commercial. The sole idea now, he said, is\nmoney. Before \u201957 there had been some kind of State policy, some idea\nof a large and generous rule, and of the good of the people, but in the\npresent day the rule was essentially feeble, with no defined policy\nof any kind except that of the money bag. This criticism impressed\nme much, as corroborating from an entirely independent source the\ngrowth of mere commercialism in Britain during late years, and of the\nnation-of-shopkeepers theory of government.\n\nGoing on to speak of government generally, his views would I fear\nhardly be accepted by the schools--they were more Carlylean in\ncharacter. \u201cStates,\u201d he said, \u201cmust be ruled by Justice, and then they\nwill succeed.\u201d (An ancient doctrine, this, but curiously neglected\nall down history.) \u201cA king should stand and did stand in old times as\nthe representative of Siva (God). He is nothing in himself--no more\nthan the people--his revenue is derived from them--he is elected by\nthem--and he is in trust to administer justice--especially criminal\njustice. In the courtyard of the palace at Tanjore there hung at one\ntime a bell which the rajah placed there in order that any one feeling\nhimself aggrieved might come and ring it, and so claim redress or\njudgment. Justice or Equality,\u201d he continued, \u201cis the special attribute\nof God; and he who represents God, _i.e._ the king, must consider this\nbefore all things. The same with rich people--they are bound to serve\nand work for the poor from whom their riches come.\u201d\n\nThis last sentence he repeated so often, at different times and\nin different forms, that he might almost have been claimed as a\nSocialist--certainly was a Socialist in the heart of the matter; and\nat any rate this teaching shows how near the most ancient traditions\ncome to the newest doctrines in these respects, and how far the unclean\ncommercialism out of which we are just passing stands from either.\n\nAs to the English people he seemed to think them hopelessly plunged\nin materialism, but said that if they did turn to \u201csensible pursuits\u201d\n(_i.e._ of divine knowledge) their perseverance and natural sense of\njustice and truth would, he thought, stand them in good stead. The\ndifficulties of the gnosis in England were however very great; \u201cthose\nwho do attain some degree of emancipation there do not know that they\nhave attained; though having experience they lack knowledge.\u201d \u201cYou\nin the West,\u201d he continued, \u201csay _O God, O God!_ but you have no\n_definite_ knowledge or methods by which you can attain to see God. It\nis like a man who knows there is _ghee_ (butter) to be got out of a cow\n(_pasu_, metaph. for soul). He walks round and round the cow and cries,\n_O Ghee, O Ghee!_ Milk pervades the cow, but he cannot find it. Then\nwhen he has learned to handle the teat, and has obtained the milk, he\nstill cannot find the ghee. It pervades the milk and has also to be\ngot by a definite method. So there is a definite method by which the\ndivine consciousness can be educed from the soul, but it is only in\nIndia that complete instruction exists on this point--by which a man\nwho is \u2018ripe\u2019 may systematically and without fail attain the object\nof his search, and by which the mass of the people may ascend as by a\nladder from the very lowest stages to such \u2018ripeness.\u2019\u201d\n\nIndia, he said, was the divine land, and the source from which the\ndivine knowledge had always radiated over the earth. Sanskrit and\nTamil were divine languages--all other languages being of lower caste\nand origin. In India the conditions were in every way favorable to\nattainment, but in other lands not so. Some Mahomedans had at different\ntimes adopted the Indian teaching and become G\u00f1\u00e1nis, but it had always\nbeen in India, and not in their own countries that they had done so.\nIndeed the Mahomedan religion, though so different from the Hindu,\nhad come from India, and was due to a great Rishi who had quarrelled\nwith the Brahmans and had established forms and beliefs in a spirit of\nopposition to them. When I asked him what he thought of Christ, he said\nhe was probably an adept in g\u00f1\u00e1nam, but his hearers had been the rude\nmass of the people and his teaching had been suited to their wants.\n\nThough these views of his on the influence of India and its\nwisdom-religion on the world may appear, and probably are in their\nway, exaggerated; yet they are partly justified by two facts which\nappear to me practically certain: (1) that in every age of the world\nand in almost every country there has been a body of doctrine handed\ndown, which, with whatever variations and obscurations, has clustered\nround two or three central ideas, of which perhaps that of emancipation\nfrom self through repeated births is the most important; so that\nthere has been a kind of tacit understanding and freemasonry on this\nsubject between the great teachers throughout history--from the Eastern\nsages, down through Pythagoras, Plato, Paul, the Gnostic schools,\nthe great medi\u00e6val Alchemists, the German mystics and others, to the\ngreat philosophers and poets of our own time; and that thousands of\nindividuals on reaching a certain stage of evolution have corroborated\nand are constantly corroborating from their own experience the main\npoints of this doctrine; and (2) that there must have existed in India,\nor in some neighboring region from which India drew its tradition,\n_before all history_, teachers who saw these occult facts and\nunderstood them probably better than the teachers of historical times,\nand who had themselves reached a stage of evolution at least equal to\nany that has been attained since.\n\nIf this is so then there is reason to believe that there is a distinct\nbody of experience and knowledge into which the whole human race is\ndestined to rise, and which there is every reason to believe will bring\nwonderful and added faculties with it. From whatever mere formalities\nor husks of tradition or abnormal growths have gathered round it in\nIndia, this has to be disentangled; but it is not now any more to be\nthe heritage of India alone, but for the whole world. If however any\none should seek it for the advantage or glory to himself of added\npowers and faculties, his quest will be in vain, for it is an absolute\ncondition of attainment that all action for self as distinct from\nothers shall entirely cease.\n\n\n\n\nINDIA\n\n[Illustration: GREAT PAGODA IN TEMPLE AT TANJORE.\n\n(_192 feet high._)]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nTHE SOUTH INDIAN TEMPLES.\n\n\nLeaving Colombo by steamer one evening in the later part of January, I\nlanded on the sandy flat shores of Tuticorin the next day about noon.\nThe deck was crowded with 250 of the poorest class of Tamils, coolies\nmostly, with women and children, lying in decent confusion heaped upon\none another, passively but sadly enduring the evil motion of the ship\nand the cold night air. One man, nameless, unknown, and abjectly thin,\ndied in the night and was cast overboard. I was the only Englishman on\nboard beside the captain and officers. Said the second officer, \u201cWell,\nI would rather have these fellows than a lot of English emigrants.\nThe lowest class of English are the damnedest, dirtiest, etceteraest\netceteras in the world.\u201d\n\nTuticorin is a small place with a large cotton mill, several Roman\nCatholic churches and chapels, relics of Portuguese times, and a\nsemi-christianised semi-wage-slaving native population. From there\nto Madras is about two days by rail through the great plains of the\nCarnatic, which stretch between the sea-shore and the Ghauts--long\nstretches of sand and scrub, scattered bushes and small trees, and\nthe kittool palm; paddy at intervals where the land is moister, and\nconsiderable quantities of cotton on the darker soil near Tuticorin;\nmud and thatch villages under clumps of coco-palm (not such fine trees\nas in Ceylon); and places of village worship--a portico or shrine with\na great clay elephant or half-circle of rude images of horses facing\nit; the women working in the fields or stacking the rice-straw in\nstacks similar to our corn-stacks; the men drawing water from their\nwells to run along the irrigation channels, or in some cases actually\ncarrying the water in pots to pour over their crops!\n\nThese plains, like the plains of the Ganges, have been the scene of an\nadvanced civilization from early times, and have now for two thousand\nyears at any rate been occupied by the Tamil populations. Fergusson\nin his _History of Architecture_ speaks of _thirty_ great Dravidian\ntemples to be found in this region, \u201cany one of which must have cost\nas much to build as an English cathedral.\u201d I visited three, those of\nM\u00e1dura, Tanjore, and Chid\u00e1mbaram; which I will describe, taking that at\nTanjore first, as having the most definite form and plan.\n\nI have already (chap. VII.) given some account of a smaller Hindu\ntemple. The temples in this region are on the same general plan. There\nis no vast interior as in a Western cathedral, but they depend for\ntheir effect rather upon the darkness and inaccessibility of the inner\nshrines and passages, and upon the gorgeous external assemblage of\ntowers and porticos and tanks and arcades brought together within the\nsame enclosure. At M\u00e1dura the whole circumference of the temple is\nover 1,000 yards, and at Sri Rungam each side of the enclosure is as\nmuch as half a mile long. In every case there has no doubt been an\noriginal shrine of the god, round which buildings have accumulated,\nthe external enclosure being thrown out into a larger and larger\ncircumference as time went on; and in many cases the later buildings,\nthe handsome outlying gateways or _g\u00f3puras_ and towers, have by their\nsize completely dwarfed the shrine to which they are supposed to be\nsubsidiary, thus producing a poor artistic effect.\n\n[Illustration: TEMPLE AT TANJORE, GENERAL VIEW.\n\n(_Portico with colossal bull on the right, priests\u2019 quarters among\ntrees on the left._)]\n\nIn the temple at Tanjore the great court is 170 yards long by 85\nwide. You enter through a gateway forming a pyramidal structure 40 or\n50 feet high, ornamented with the usual carved figures of Siva and\nhis demon doorkeepers, and find yourself in a beautiful courtyard,\nflagged, with an arcade running round three sides, the fourth side\nbeing occupied by priests\u2019 quarters; clumps of coco-palms and other\ntrees throw a grateful shade here and there; in front of you rises the\ngreat pyramidal tower, or pagoda, 190 feet high, which surmounts the\nmain shrine, and between the shrine and yourself is an open portico on\nstone pillars, beneath which reposes a huge couchant bull, about six\nyards long and four yards high, said to be cut from a solid block of\nsyenite brought 400 miles from the quarries. This bull is certainly\nvery primitive work, and is quite brown and saturated with constant\nlibations of oil; but whether it is 2,700 years old, as the people\nhere say, is another question. The difficulty of determining dates in\nthese matters is very great; historical accuracy is unknown in this\nland; and architectural style gives but an uncertain clue, since it\nhas probably changed but little. Thus we have the absurdity that while\nnatives of education and intelligence are asserting on the one hand\nthat some of these temples are five or even ten thousand years old, the\nWestern architects assert equally strongly that they can find no work\nin them of earlier date than 1000 A.D., while much of it belongs to the\nsixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Probably the architects are in the\nmain right. It is quite probable however that the inner shrines in most\nof these cases _are_ extremely old, much older than 1000 A.D.; but they\nare so buried beneath later work, and access to them is so difficult,\nand if access were obtained their more primitive style would so baffle\nchronology, that the question must yet remain undetermined.\n\nClose to the bull is the _kampam_ or flagstaff, and then, beyond, a\nflight of steps leading up to the main sanctuary and the tower or\npagoda. The sanctuary is all fine and simple work of red sandstone in\nwhich horizontal lines predominate. At its far end and under the pagoda\nwould be no doubt the inner shrine or holy of holies--the _vimana_ or\nwomb of the temple, a cubical chamber, in which the _lingam_ would\nbe placed. Into these mysteries we did not penetrate, but contented\nourselves with looking at the pagoda from the outside. It is a very\ndignified and reposeful piece of work, supposed by Fergusson to belong\nto the early part of the fourteenth century; ninety-six feet square at\nthe base, with vertical sides for about fifty feet, and then gradually\ndrawing in narrower through thirteen stories to the summit (see plate\nat head of this chapter). The red sandstone walls at the base are\nfinely and quietly paneled, with statues of Siva--not grotesque, but\ndignified and even graceful--in the niches. Higher up in the pyramidal\npart the statues are fewer, and are mingled with couchant bulls and\nflame-like designs composed of multitudinous cobras and conches and\ndiscs (symbols of the god--who is lord of Time, the revolving disc, and\nof Space, represented by the sounding conch) in tiers of continually\ndiminishing size to the summit, where a small dome--said to be also a\nsingle massive block of stone--is surmounted by a golden pinnacle. The\nnatural red of the stone which forms the lower walls is artificially\ndeepened in the panels, and the traces of blue and green tints\nremaining, together with silvery and brown incrustations of lichen in\nthe upper parts, give a wonderful richness to the whole. I am afraid\nhowever that the pyramidal structure is not stone, but brick covered\nwith plaster. The frequency of the bull everywhere throughout this and\nother Saivite temples reminds one of the part played by the same animal\nin Persian and Egyptian worship, and of the import of the Zodiacal sign\nTaurus as a root-element of the solar religions. The general structure\nand disposition of these buildings might I should think also recall the\nJewish and Egyptian temples.\n\nAll round the base of the great sanctuary and in other parts of the\ntemple at Tanjore are immense inscriptions--in Telugu, says one of the\nBrahmans, but I cannot tell--some very fresh and apparently modern,\nothers nearly quite obliterated.\n\nThe absolute incapacity shown by the Hindus for reasoned observation\nin religious matters was illustrated by my guide--who did not in other\nrespects appear to be at all a stickler for his religion. When he first\ncalled my attention to the pagoda he said, adding to his praise of its\nbeauty, \u201cYes, and it never casts a shadow, never any shadow.\u201d Of course\nI did not trouble to argue such a point, and as we were standing at the\ntime on the sunlit side of the building there certainly was no shadow\nvisible _there_. Presently however--after say half an hour--we got\nround to the other side, and were _actually standing in the shadow_,\nwhich was then quite extensive, it being only about 9 a.m., and the\nsun completely hidden from us by the pagoda; I had forgotten all about\nthe matter; when the guide said again and with enthusiasm, \u201cAnd it has\nno shadow.\u201d Then seeing my face (!) he added, \u201cNo, this is not the\nshadow.\u201d \u201cBut,\u201d said I, \u201cit _is_.\u201d \u201cNo,\u201d he repeated, \u201cthis is not the\nshadow of the _pagoda_, for that never casts any shadow\u201d--and then\nhe turned for corroboration to an old half-naked Brahman standing\nby, who of course repeated the formula--and with an air of mechanical\nconviction which made me at once feel that further parley was useless.\n\nIt might seem strange to any one not acquainted with the peculiarities\nof human nature that people should go on perhaps for centuries calmly\nstating an obvious contradiction in terms like that, without ever so to\nspeak turning a hair! But so it is, and I am afraid even we Westerners\ncan by no means claim to be innocent of the practice. Among the Hindus,\nhowever, in connection with religion this feature is really an awkward\none. Acute and subtle as they are, yet when religion comes on the field\ntheir presence of mind forsakes them, and they make the most wild and\nunjustifiable statements. I am sorry to say I have never witnessed a\nreal good thungeing miracle myself. We have all heard plenty of stories\nof such things in India, and I have met various Hindus of ability and\nculture who evidently quite believed them, but (although quite willing\nand ready-equipped to believe them myself) I have always felt, since\nthat experience of the shadow, that one \u201ccouldn\u2019t be too careful.\u201d\n\nOn either side of the great pagoda, and standing separate in the\ncourtyard, are two quite small temples dedicated, one to Gan\u00e9sa and the\nother to Soubram\u00e1niya, very elegant, both of them; and one or two stone\n_pandals_ or porticos for resting places of the gods in processions.\nOne can imagine what splendid arenas for processions and festivals\nthese courts must afford, in which enormous crowds sometimes assemble\nto take part in ceremonials similar to that which I have described in\nchapter VII. Owing however to former desecrations by the French (who in\n1777 fortified the temple itself), and present treatment by the British\nGovernment, this Tanjore temple is not so much frequented as it used to\nbe. The late Rajah of Tanjore, prior to 1857, supported the place of\ncourse with handsome funds; but the British Government only undertakes\n_necessary_ repairs and allows a pension of four rupees a month to the\nexisting temple servants. They are therefore in a poor way.\n\nThe arcade at the far end and down one side of the court is frescoed\nwith the usual grotesque subjects--flying elephants trampling on\nunbelievers, rajahs worshiping the god, women bathing, etc., and is\nfurnished the whole way with erect stone _lingams_--there must be at\nleast a hundred of them. These lingams are cylindrical stones a foot\nand a half high or so, and eight or nine inches thick, some bigger,\nsome smaller, standing in sort of oval troughs, which catch the oil\nwhich is constantly poured over the lingams. Women desiring children\npay their offerings here, of flowers and oil, and at certain festivals\nthese shrines are, notwithstanding their number, greatly in request.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe palace at Tanjore is a very commonplace round-arched whitewashed\nbuilding with several courts--in part of which the women-folk of the\nlate rajah are still living behind their bars and shutters; the whole\nplace a funny medley of Oriental and Western influences; a court of\njustice opening right on to one of the quadrangles, with great oil\npaintings of former rajahs; a library; a harness and dress room,\nwith elephants\u2019 saddles, horses\u2019 head-gear, rajah\u2019s headgear, etc.;\na reception room also quite open to a court, with sofas, armchairs,\nabsurd prints, a bust of Nelson, and a clockwork ship on a troubled\nsea; elephants wandering about in the big court; painted figures of\nEnglish officers on the sideposts of one of the gates, and so forth.\n\nRound the palace, and at some little distance from the temple, clusters\nthe town itself with its narrow alleys and mostly one-storied cottages\nand cabins, in which the goldsmiths and workers in copper and silver\nrepouss\u00e9 ware carry on their elegant trades.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe ancient city of M\u00e1dura, though with a population of 60,000, is\neven more humble in appearance than Tanjore. At first sight it looks\nlike a mere collection of mud cabins--though of course there are\nEnglish bungalows on the outskirts, and a court-house and a church\nand an American mission-room and school, and the rest. The weavers\nare a strong caste here; they weave silk (and cotton) _saris_, though\nwith failing trade as against the incoming machine-products of\ncapitalism--and you see their crimson-dyed pieces stretched on frames\nin the streets.\n\nThe _choultrie_ leading up to one of the temple gates is a colonnade\n110 yards long, a central walk and two aisles, with carven monolithic\ncolumns--a warrior sitting on a rearing horse trampling shields of\nsoldiers and slaying men or tigers, or a huge seated king or god,\nin daring crudeness--and great capitals supporting a stone roof.\nChoultries were used as public feeding-halls and resting-places for\nBrahmans, as well as for various ceremonies, and in old days when\nthe Brahmans were all-powerful such places were everywhere at their\nservice, and they had a high old time. This choultrie has however been\nturned into a silk and cotton market, and was gay, when I saw it, with\ncrowds of people, and goods pinned up to the columns. Emerging from\nit, the eastern gate of the temple stands on the opposite side of the\nroad--a huge _g\u00f3pura_, pagoda form, fifteen stories or so high, each\ntier crowded with figures--Siva hideous with six arms and protruding\neyes and teeth, Siva dancing, Siva contemplative, Siva and Sakti on the\nbull, demon doorkeepers, etc.--the whole picked out in the usual crude\nreds, yellows, greens, blues, and branching out at top into grotesque\ndragon-forms--a strange piece of work, yet having an impressive total\neffect, as it rises 200 feet into the resplendent sky over the little\nmud and thatch cottages--its crude details harmonised in the intense\nblaze, and its myriad nooks of shadow haunted by swallows, doves and\nother birds.\n\nThere are nine such g\u00f3puras or gate-towers in all in this temple, all\non much the same plan, ranging from 40 to 200 feet in height, and\napparently used to some extent as dwelling-places by priests, yogis,\nand others. These, together with the various halls, shrines, tanks,\narcades, etc., form a huge enclosure 280 yards long by nearly 250 wide.\n\nOn entering the huge doorway of the eastern g\u00f3pura one finds oneself\nimmediately in a wilderness of columns--the hall of a thousand\ncolumns--besides arcades, courts, and open and covered spaces,--a\nlabyrinth full of people (for this temple is much frequented)--many\nof whom are selling wares, but here more for temple use, flowers\nfor offerings, cakes of cowdung ashes for rubbing on the forehead,\nembroidered bags to put these in, money-changers, elephants here and\nthere, with bundles of green stuff among the columns, elephant-keepers,\nthe populace arriving with offerings, and plentiful Brahmans going to\nand fro. The effect of the numerous columns--and there are fully a\nthousand of them, fifteen feet high or so--is very fine--the light and\nshade, glimpses of sky or trees through avenues of carved monsters, or\ncavernous labyrinths of the same ending in entire darkness: grotesque\nwork and in detail often repulsive, but lending itself in the mass\nto the general effect--Siva dancing again, or Gan\u00e9sa with huge belly\nand elephant head, or Parvati with monstrous breasts--\u201call out of one\nstone, all out of one stone,\u201d the guide keeps repeating: feats of\nmarvelous patience (_e.g._ a chain of separate links all cut from the\nsame block), though ugly enough very often in themselves.\n\nAnd now skirting round the inner sanctuary to the left, we come into a\nsort of cloister opening on a tank some fifty yards square, from whence\nwe get a more general view of the place, and realise its expanse. The\nfive or six g\u00f3puras visible from our standpoint serve to indicate\nthis--all painted in strong color but subdued by distance, roofs of\nvarious portions of the temple, clumps of palm and other trees, two\ngold-plated turrets shining brilliantly in the sun, the tank itself\nwith handsome stone tiers and greenish waters where the worshipers\nwash their feet, the cloisters frescoed with elaborate legendary\ndesigns, and over all in the blue sky flocks of birds--swallows,\ndoves, and bright green parrots chattering. Once more we plunge into\ndark galleries full of hungry-eyed Brahmans, and passing the shrine\nof Minakshi, into which we cannot gain admittance, come into the very\nsombre and striking corridor which runs round the entire inner shrine.\nThe huge monoliths here are carven with more soberness and grace,\nand the great capitals bear cross-beams which in their turn support\nprojecting architraves. Hardly a soul do we meet as we make the circuit\nof the three sides. The last turn brings us to the entrance of the\ninner sanctuary itself; and here is the gold-plated _kambam_ which I\nhave already described (chap. VII.), and close behind it the bull Nandi\nand the gloom of the interior lit only by a distant lamp or two. To\nthese inner parts come only those who wish to meditate in quiet; and\nin some secluded corner may one occasionally be seen, seated on the\nfloor with closed eyes and crossed legs, losing or endeavoring to lose\nhimself in _sam\u00e1dhi_.\n\nOutside the temple in the streets of M\u00e1dura we saw three separate\nJuggernath cars, used on occasions in processions. These cars are\ncommon enough even in small Hindu towns. They are unwieldy massive\nthings, often built in several tiers, and with solid wooden wheels\non lumbering wooden axles, which look as if they were put on (and\nprobably are) in such a way as to cause the maximum of resistance to\nmotion. At Streevelliputhur there is a car thirty feet high, with\nwheels eight feet in diameter. The people harness themselves to these\nthings literally in thousands; the harder the car is to move, the\ngreater naturally is the dignity of the god who rides upon it, and the\nexcitement becomes intense when he is at last fairly got under weigh.\nBut I have not witnessed one of these processions.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe temple of Chid\u00e1mbaram is in some respects more interesting than\nthose of Tanjore and M\u00e1dura. It is in fact more highly thought of as\na goal of pilgrimage and a place of festival than any other South\nIndian temple, and may be said to be the Benares of South India. The\nword Chid\u00e1mbaram means _region of pure consciousness_, and Siva is\nworshiped here under his most excellent name of N\u00e1tar\u00e1ja, _lord of the\ndance_. \u201cO thou who dancest thy illimitable dance in the heaven of pure\nconsciousness.\u201d\n\nThere is a little railway station of Chid\u00e1mbaram, but it is two or\nthree miles from the temple and the town; and though the town itself\nnumbers some 20,000 to 30,000 inhabitants, there is not a single\nEnglishman resident in the place or within some miles of it, the only\nwhite-faced inhabitant being a Eurasian druggist who keeps a shop\nthere. When I was there the whole temple was in course of repair, and\nthe Brahmans were such a nuisance that I really did not get so good\nan idea of the place as I could have wished. These gentry swarm here,\nand descend upon one like birds of prey, in quest of tips; indeed the\nphysiognomy of a great many of them suggests the kite family--sharp\neyes, rather close together, and a thin aquiline nose; this with their\nlarge foreheads looking all the larger on account of the shaven head\ndoes not give a very favorable impression.\n\nThe ascendancy of the Brahman caste is certainly a very remarkable\nhistorical fact. It is possible that at one time they really resembled\nthe guardians of Plato\u2019s ideal republic--teachers and rulers who\nthemselves possessed nothing and were supported by the contributions\nof the people; but before so many centuries had gone by they must have\nmade the first part of their functions subsidiary to the second, and\nnow--though a good many of them ply trades and avocations of one kind\nor another--the majority are mere onhangers of the temples, where they\nbecome sharers of the funds devoted to the temple services, and bleed\nthe pockets of pious devotees. When a Hindu of any worldly substance\napproaches one of these places, he is immediately set upon by five or\nsix loafers of this kind--each of whom claims that his is the Brahman\nfamily which has always done the priestly services for the visitor\u2019s\nfamily (and indeed they do keep careful note of these matters), and\nthat _he_ therefore should conduct the visitor to the proper quarter\nof the temple, take his offerings to the god, and receive his reward\naccordingly.\n\nThis temple is I should think about the same size as that at M\u00e1dura,\nbut more open like the Tanjore temple. There are four g\u00f3puras of about\nequal size--120 feet high or so--at the four points of the compass.\nOn entering by the eastern one the hall of a thousand columns stands\naway in the court to the right, and gives the idea of a complete temple\nin itself. The sides and back end are closed in, but the front forms\na sort of portico, and columns similar to those of the portico--every\none a monolith--extend through the entire interior. There is a lane or\naisle down the middle, and then on each side they stand thick, in rows\nperhaps ten feet apart. As you go in the gloom gets deeper and deeper.\nOnly here and there a gap in the external wall throws a weird light.\nThe whole suggests a rock cave cut in multitudinous pillars to support\nthe overlying weight, or a gloomy forest of tree-trunks. But the\ncolumns are commonplace in themselves, and their number and closeness\ntogether under a flat roof of no great weight is not architecturally\nadmirable. When you reach the interior sanctum, where you might expect\nto find the god at home, you discover a mere bare cavity, so dark that\nyou cannot see the roof, and occupied by innumerable bats who resent\nyour intrusion with squeaks and shrieks. But my guide explained to me\nthat twice a year the god _does_ come to dwell there, and then they\nclean the place up and decorate it with lamps for a season.\n\nA large tank stands just west of this hall--a tank 200 feet long I\nshould think--in which men (and women) were washing their feet and\nclothes. These tanks are attached to every temple. At M\u00e1dura there is\na very beautiful one, \u201cthe golden lotus tank,\u201d two miles away from the\ntemple, with a pagoda on an island in the midst of it--to which they\nresort at the Tayp\u00fasam festival. Also at Mylapore, Madras, there is a\nhandsome tank with pagoda just outside the temple; but mostly they are\nwithin the precincts.\n\n[Illustration: TEMPLE AND TANK AT MYLAPORE, MADRAS.]\n\nEntering the inner inclosure at Chid\u00e1mbaram you come to various arcades\nand shrines, where Brahmans and chetties raged. The chetties have great\ninfluence at Chid\u00e1mbaram; their caste supplies I believe the main funds\nof the temple--which is practically therefore in their hands. I was\npresented with flower garlands and a lime, and expected to make my\nmoney-offering in front of a little temple, of Vishnu I think, which\nthey seasonably explained to me was to be roofed with gold! On the\nother hand--to the left--was a temple to Siva--both these forms being\nworshiped here. Into the shrine of Parvati I did not penetrate, but it\nlooked ancient and curious. Fergusson says that this shrine belongs\nto the 14th or 15th centuries, and the inner sanctuaries to somewhere\nabout 1000 A.D., while the hall of the thousand columns--which shows\nMahomedan influence--is as late as the 17th century.\n\nAn elderly stoutish man, half naked, but with some authority\nevidently--who proved afterwards to be the head of the\nchetties--announced in a loud voice that I was to be treated with\nrespect and shown as much as possible--which only meant that I was\nto give as large an offering as possible. Then an excited-looking\nfellow came up, a medium-sized man of about forty, and began talking\ncockney English as fluently and idiomatically as if he had been born\nby the Thames, rattling off verses and nursery rhymes with absurd\nfamiliarity. The rest said he was a cranky Brahman with an insane gift\nfor language--knew Sanskrit and ever so many tongues.\n\nEscaping from these I left the temple and went into the village to see\nthe goldsmiths who are employed (by the chetties) on work connected\nwith its restoration. Found a large workshop where they were making\nbrass roof-pinnacles, salvers, pedestals for images, etc., and\nplating the same with gold leaf or plates--also store of solid gold\nthings--armlets and breastplates for the gods, etc.--another touch\nremindful of Greek life. The gold leaf was being beaten out between\nthin membranes--many leaves at once--with a hammer. All handwork, of\ncourse.\n\nMy guide--who is the station clerk and a Brahman, while his\nstation-master is a Sudra (O this steam-engine!)--told me on the way\nback that the others at the station often advised him to give up his\ncaste practices; but he had plenty of time in the middle of the day,\nbetween the trains, to go through his ablutions and other ceremonies,\nand he did not see why he should not do so.\n\nAs we walked along the road we met two pilgrims--with orange-colored\ncloths--coming along. One of them, a hairy, wild, and obstinate-looking\nold man, evidently spotted the hated Englishman from afar, and as he\npassed put his tongue gently but firmly out at me!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nMADRAS AND CALCUTTA.\n\n\nIndia beggars description--the interminable races, languages, creeds,\ncolors, manners, costumes.\n\nThe streets of Madras (Blacktown) are a blaze of color--predominant\nwhite, but red, orange, brilliant green and even blue cloths and\nturbans meet the eye in every direction. Blacktown reminds one of\nPompeii--as it may have been in its time--mostly one-storied buildings,\nstuccoed brick with little colonnades or lean-to thatches in front,\ncool dark stone interiors with little or no furniture--a bit of a\ncourt somewhere inside, with a gleam of the relentless sun--a few\nmango leaves over the door in honor of the Pongal festival (now going\non), and saffron smeared on doorposts; a woman standing half lost\nin shadow, men squatting idling in a verandah, a brahman cow with a\nbright brass necklace lying down just in the street--(sometimes in the\nverandah itself); a Hindu temple with its queer creepy images fronting\non the street, and a Juggernath car under a tall thatch, waiting for\nits festival; or a white arabesqued and gimp-arched mosque with tall\nminarets pinnacled with gold spiring up into the blue; absurd little\nstalls with men squatted among their baskets and piled grains and\nfruits; and always this wonderful crowd going up and down between.\n\nI should think half the people have religious marks on their\nforeheads--black, white, or red spots on the frontal sinus--horizontal\nlines (Saivite), vertical lines (Vaishnavite)--sometimes two vertical\nwhite marks joined at the base with a red mark between, sometimes a\nstreak of color all down the ridge of the nose--and so forth. It is as\nif every little sect or schism of the Christian Church declared itself\nby a symbol on the brow.\n\nHow different from Ceylon! There is a certain _severity_ about India,\nboth climate and people. The dry soil, the burning sun (for though so\nmuch farther north the sun has a more _wicked_ quality about it here),\nare matched by a certain aridity and tension in the people. Ceylon\nis idyllic, romantic--the plentiful foliage and shade everywhere,\nthe easy-going nature of the Cinghalese themselves, the absence of\ncaste--even the English are softened towards such willing subjects.\nBut here, such barriers, such a _noli-me-tangere_ atmosphere!--the\nlatent feud between Hindu and Mussulman everywhere, _their_ combined\ndetestation of the English springing out upon you from faces passing;\nrigid orthodoxies and superiorities; the Mahomedans (often big and\nmoderately well-conditioned men) looking down with some contempt upon\nthe lean Hindu; the Hindus equally satisfied in their own superiority,\ncomforting themselves with quotations from _Shastras_ and _Puranas_.\n\nAs to the boatmen and drivers and guides and servants generally, they\ntorment one like gadflies; not swindling one in a nice open _riant_\nway like the Italians of the same ilk, but with smothered dodges and\nobsequious craft. The last hotel I was at here was odious--a lying\nIndian manager, lying and cringing servants, and an idiotic old man\nwho acted as my \u201cboy\u201d and tormented my life out of me, fiddling around\nwith my slippers on pretence of doing something, or holding the towel\nin readiness for me while I was washing my face. On my leaving, the\nmanager--as he presented his bill with utmost dignity and grace--asked\nfor a tip; so did the head-waiter, and all the servants down to the\nbath-man; then there were coolies to carry my luggage from the hotel\nsteps (where the servants of course left it) to the cab, and then when\nI had started, the proprietor of the cab ran after it, stopped it, and\ndemanded a larger fare than I had agreed to! On one occasion (in taking\na boat) I counted eleven people who put in a claim for _bakshish_.\nSmall change cannot last for ever, and even one\u2019s vocabulary of oaths\nis liable to be exhausted in time!\n\nIt requires a little tact to glide through all this without exposing\noneself to the enemy. Good old John Bull pays through the nose for\nbeing ruler of this country. He overwhelms the people by force, but\nthey turn upon him--as the weaker is prone to do--through craft;\nand truly they have their revenge. Half believing in the idea that\nas _sahib_ and ruler of the country he must live in such and such\nstyle, have so many servants, etc., or he would lose his prestige, he\nacquiesces in a system of impositions; he is pestered to death, and\nhates it all, but he must submit. And the worst is one is conscious\nall the time of being laughed at for one\u2019s pains. But British\nvisitors must not commit the mistake--so commonly made by people in a\nforeign country--of supposing that the classes created in India by our\npresence, and who in some sense are the reflection of our own sins, are\nor represent the normal population--even though we naturally see more\nof them than we do of the latter.\n\nThere are however in the great cities of India little hotels kept\nand frequented by English folk where one is comparatively safe from\nimportunities; and if you are willing to be altogether a second-rate\nperson, and go to these places, travel second class by train, ride in\nbullock-hackeries, and \u201cundermine the empire\u201d generally by doing other\nsuch undignified things, you may travel with both peace of mind and\nsecurity of pocket.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMadras generally is a most straggling, dull, and (at night) ill-lighted\nplace. Blacktown, already described, and which lies near the harbor,\nis the chief centre of native life; but the city generally, including\nother native centres, plexuses of commercial life, knots of European\nhotels and shops, barracks, hospitals, suburban villas and bungalows,\nstretches away with great intervals of dreary roads between for miles\nand miles, over a dead flat on whose shore the surf beats monotonously.\nAdyar, where the Theosophists have their headquarters--and which\nis still only a suburb of Madras--is seven miles distant from the\nharbor. The city however, though shorn of its former importance as\nfar as the British are concerned, and slumbering on its memories of\na hundred years ago, is a great centre of native activity, literary\nand political; the National Indian Congress receives some of its\nstrongest support from it; many influential oysters reside here; papers\nlike the _Hindu_, both in English and vernacular, are published here,\nand a great number of books printed, in Tamil and other South Indian\nlanguages.\n\nAt Adyar I saw Bertram Keightley and one or two others, and had some\npleasant chats with them. Col. Olcott was absent just at the time.\nThe Theosophist villa, with roomy lecture-hall and library, stands\npleasantly among woods on the bank of a river and within half a mile\nof the sea. Passing from the library through sandalwood doors into\nan inner sanctum I was shown a variety of curios connected with\nMadame Blavatsky, among which were a portrait, apparently done in a\nsomewhat dashing style--just the head of a man, surrounded with clouds\nand filaments--in blue pigment on a piece of white silk, which was\n\u201cprecipitated\u201d by Madame Blavatsky in Col. Olcott\u2019s presence--she\nsimply placing her two hands on the white silk for a moment. Keightley\ntold me that Col. Olcott tested a small portion of the silk so colored,\nbut found the pigment so fast in the fibre that it could not by any\nmeans be washed out. There were also two oil portraits--heads, well\nframed and reverently guarded behind a curtain--of the now celebrated\nKout Houmi, Madame Blavatsky\u2019s Guru, and of another, Col. Olcott\u2019s\nGuru--both fine-looking men, apparently between forty and fifty\nyears of age, with shortish beards and (as far as I could see, for\nthe daylight was beginning to fail) dark brown hair; and both with\nlarge eyes and what might be called a spiritual glow in their faces.\nMadame Blavatsky knew Col. Olcott\u2019s Guru as well as her own, and the\nhistory of these two portraits (as told me by Keightley) is that\nthey were done by a German artist whom she met in the course of her\ntravels. Considering him competent for the work--and he being willing\nto undertake it--she projected the images of the two Gurus into his\nmind, and he painted from the mental pictures--she placing her hand\non his head during the operation. The German artist medium accounted\nfor the decidedly mawkish expression of both faces, as well as for the\nconsiderable likeness to each other--which considering that Kout Houmi\ndates from Cashmere, and the other (I think) from Thibet, might not\nhave been expected. All the same they are fine faces, and it is not\nimpossible that they may be, as I believe Madame Blavatsky and Col.\nOlcott considered them, good likenesses. Keightley was evidently much\nimpressed by the \u201cold lady\u2019s\u201d clairvoyant power, saying that sometimes\nin her letters from England she displayed a knowledge of what was\ngoing on at Adyar, which he could not account for. Altogether I had an\ninteresting conversation with him.\n\nAmong other places in Madras I visited one of the little Pompeiian\nhouses in Blacktown, which I have already described--where a Hindu\nacquaintance, a small contractor, is living: a little office, then a\nbig room divided in two by a curtain--parlor in front and domestic\nroom behind--all cool and dark and devoid of furniture, and little\nback premises into which I did not come. He is an active-minded man,\nand very keen about the Indian Congress to which he was delegate last\nyear, sends hundreds of copies of the _Hindu_ and other \u201cincendiary\u201d\npublications about the country each week, and like thousands and\nhundreds of thousands of his fellow-countrymen to-day, has learnt the\nlessons taught him by the British Government so well that the one\nthing he lives for is to see electoral and representative institutions\nembedded into the life of the Indian peoples, and the images of Vishnu\nand Siva supplanted in the temples by those of John Stuart Mill and\nHerbert Spencer.\n\nWhile I was there two elderly gentlemen of quite the old school\ncalled--innocent enough of Herbert Spencer and of cloth coats and\ntrousers--with their white muslins round their bodies, and red shawls\nover their shoulders, and grey-haired keen narrow faces and bare shins\nand horny feet, which they tucked up onto their chairs as they sat; but\nwith good composed unhurried manners, as all Easterns of the old school\nseem to have. This habit of the mild Hindu, of tucking his feet under\nhim, is his ever-present refuge in time of trouble or weariness; at the\nrailway station or in any public place you may see him sitting on a\nseat, and beneath him, in the place where his feet ought to be, are his\nred slippers; but of visible connection between them and his body there\nis none--as if he had already severed connection with the earth and was\non the way toward heaven.\n\n_Calcutta._--Arrived 6th Feb., about 4 p.m.--steaming all day since\ndawn up the Hooghly, 130 miles from the light-boat at its mouth to\nCalcutta--a dismal river, with dismal flat shores, sandy and dry in\nplaces and only grown with scrub, in others apparently damp, to judge\nby the clumps of bamboo; landscape often like Lincolnshire, trees of\nsimilar shape, stacks of rice-straw looking just like our stacks, mud\nand thatch villages; in other places the palmyra and coco-nut palm;\nand doubtless in parts wild tangles and jungles haunted by tigers;\naboriginal boats going up and down; and the Hooghly narrowing at last\nfrom four or five miles near its mouth to half a mile at the Howrah\nbridge of boats.\n\nNearing Calcutta brick-kilns and the smoky tall chimneys of\ncivilisation appear along the banks, and soon we find ourselves\namong docks and wharfs, and a forest of shipping alongside of a\nmodern-looking city (that part of it).\n\nCalcutta is built on a dead flat. There is a considerable European\nquarter of five-storied buildings, offices, warehouses, law-courts,\nhotels, shops, residences, wide streets and open spaces, gardens, etc.;\nafter which the city breaks away into long straggling lines of native\ndwellings--small flat-roofed tenements and shops, crowded bazaars and\ntram-lines--embedding almost aboriginal quarters, narrow lanes with\nmere mud and tile cabins--labyrinths where a European is stared at.\n\nThe white dome of the Post Office, like a small St. Paul\u2019s, dominates\nthe whole riverside city with its crowded shipping and animated\nquays--fit symbol of modern influences. Round no temple or mosque or\nminster does the civilising Englishman group his city, but round the\nG.P.O. It would almost seem, here in Calcutta, as if the mere rush of\ncommercial interests had smashed up the native sanctions of race and\nreligion. The orderly rigor of caste, which is evident in Madras, is\nnot seen; dress is untidy and unclean, the religious marks if put on at\nall are put on carelessly; faces are low in type, lazy, cunning, bent\non mere lucre. The Bengali is however by nature a versatile flexile\ncreature, sadly wanting in backbone, and probably has succumbed easily\nto the new disorganising forces. Then the mere mixture of populations\nhere may have a good deal to do with it. A huge turmoil throngs the\nbazaars, not only Bengalis, but Hindustanis, Mahomedans, Chinese, and\nseedy-looking Eurasians--in whom one can discern no organising element\nor seed-form of patriotism, religion, or culture (with the exception\nperhaps of the Chinese). It seems to be a case of a dirty Western\ncommercialism in the place of the old pharisaism of caste and religion,\nand it is hard to say which may be the worst.\n\nSunday (the 8th) was a great day for bathing in the river. I did not\nknow that the Hooghly was for such purposes considered to be a part\nof the Ganges, but it appears that it is; and owing to an important\nand rare astronomical conjunction, announced in the almanacs, bathing\non that day was specially purificatory. In the morning the waterside\nwas thronged with people, and groups of pilgrims from a distance could\nbe seen coming in along the roads. Wherever the banks shelved down to\nthe water, or the quays and river-walls allowed, huge crowds (here\nmostly dressed in unbleached cotton, with little color) could be seen\npreparing to bathe, or renewing themselves afterwards--beggars at all\nthe approaches spreading their cloths on the ground to catch the scanty\nhandfuls of rice thrown to them; everywhere squatted, small vendors\nof flowers for offerings, or of oil, or sandalwood paste for smearing\nthe body with after the bath, or of colored pigments for painting\nsect-marks on the forehead; strings of peasants followed by their\nwives and children; old infirm people piloted by sons and daughters;\nhere a little old woman, small like a child, drawn in a clumsy wooden\nbarrow to the waterside; there a horrible blind man with matted hair,\nsquatted, yelling texts from the holy books; here family groups and\nrelatives chatting together, or cliques and clubs of young men coming\nup out of the water--brass pots glancing, and long hair uncurled in\nthe wind. If you imagine all this taking place on a fine summer\u2019s day\nsomewhere a little below London Bridge, the scene would hardly be more\nincongruous than it is here by the handsome wharfs of Calcutta Strand,\nunder the very noses of the great black-hulled steamships which to-day\nperhaps or to-morrow are sailing for the West.\n\nThe evening before the festival I went with Panna Lall B. to a\nEuropean circus which happened to be in the place--same absurd\nincongruity--dense masses of \u201coysters\u201d perched or sitting cross-legged\non their benches--their wraps drawn round them, for the night was\nreally cold--watching under the electric light the lovely and decidedly\nwell-developed Miss Alexandra in tights performing on the trapeze, or\nlittle \u201cMinnie\u201d jumping through rings of flame. Considering that,\nexcept among the poorest classes (peasants, etc.), the Bengalis\nkeep their women closely shut up, and that it is a rare thing to\nsee a female (unless it be a child or old woman) in the streets of\nCalcutta--a scene of this kind at the circus must cause a sufficient\nsensation; and indeed the smile which curled the lips of some of these\nrather Mephistophelean spectators was something which I shall not\neasily forget.\n\nBut the mass of the people of India must be wretchedly poor. These\nhalf-starved peasants from the surrounding country wandering\nabout--their thin thin wives and daughters trailing after them, holding\non to the man\u2019s unbleached and scanty cotton cloth--over the _maidan_,\nthrough the Asiatic Museum, through the streets, by the riverside--with\ngaping yet listless faces--are a sad and touching sight; yet it only\ncorroborates what I have seen in other parts. \u201cWide and deepening\npoverty all over the land, such as the world has never before seen on\nso vast a scale,\u201d says Digby; and with some testimony to show that the\npeople in the native states are in a better condition than those under\nour organisation. Even if the poverty is not increasing (and this is a\nmatter on which it is most difficult to form a definite opinion), there\nseems to be no evidence to show that it is decreasing. The famines go\non with at least undiminished severity, and the widespread agricultural\nparalysis is by no means really compensated by a fallacious commercial\nprosperity, which in the larger centres is enriching the few at the\nexpense of the many.\n\nAfter watching these pathetic crowds on Sunday, I went the next\nday to a meeting of the Countess of Dufferin\u2019s Fund for the Medical\nEducation of Indian Women--a well-meant movement, which after being\nlaunched with all advantages and _\u00e9clat_ has only met with moderate\nsuccess. A very varied spectacle of dress and nationality. Rajahs and\nnative chiefs of all sorts of hues and costumes; yellow silk tunics\nfigured with flowers, flowing purple robes, dainty little turbans\nover dark mustachioed faces, sprays and feathers of diamonds; English\nladies in the pink of fashion, military uniforms, and the Viceroy and\nLady Lansdowne in the centre in quiet morning costume. The English\nspeakers belauded the native chiefs present, and the native chiefs\ncomplimented the English ladies; but after the spectacle of the day\nbefore the general congratulations fell rather flat upon me, nor did\nthey appear to be justified by the rather melancholy and inefficient\nappearance of the bevy of native women students and nurses present. Sir\nChas. Elliott, the Lieut.-Governor, made a kindly speech, which left\non one the unpleasant impression that one sometimes gets from those\nbig-brained doctrinaire persons whose amiability is all the more hard\nand narrow-minded because it is so well-intentioned. Lord Lansdowne\nunderneath an exterior (physical and mental) of decadent aristocracy\nseems to have just a spark of the old English high-caste ruling quality\nabout him--which was certainly good in its time, but will be of little\nuse I fear to the half-starved peasants of to-day.\n\nI fancy, with all respect to the genuine good intention shown in\nthese zenana missions, medical education funds, etc., there must be\nsomething rather comical to the natives themselves in philanthropic\nefforts of this kind, made by a people who understand the country so\nlittle as the English do; just as there is something rather comical\nto the masses at home in the toy \u201ccharities\u201d and missions of the lady\nand gentleman here, and suggestive of an old parable about a mote\nand a beam. In a lecture given by the Maharajah of Benares, in July,\n1888, he chaffed these philanthropists somewhat--recounting how one\nsuch lady \u201cactually regretted that the peasant cultivators could not\nprovide themselves with boots! while another had a long conversation\nwith a Rani on the ill effects of infant marriage, and was surprised\nto hear that the Rani had been married at the age of seven, and had\nsons and grandsons, all of whom were happy and contented. The Rani\nthen turned to the lady, and observing that her hair was turning grey,\ninquired whether no one had ever offered her proposals of marriage, and\nsuggested that the _English_ laws required some modification to insure\nladies against remaining so long in a state of single blessedness.\u201d\n\nBut the most interesting people, to me, whom I have met here, are a\nlittle _c\u00f4terie_ of Bengalis who live quite away in the native part of\nthe city. Chundi Churn B. is a schoolmaster, and keeps a small school\nof thirty or forty boys, which lies back in a tangle of narrow lanes\nand alleys, but is quite a civilised little place with benches and\ndesks just like an English school--except that like all the schools in\nthis part of the world it is quite open to the street (with trellised\nsides in this case), so that passers-by can quite easily see and\nbe seen. Chundi Churn told me that he started the school on purely\nnative lines, but had poor success until he introduced the English\ncurriculum--English history, science, Euclid, Algebra, etc.--when he\nsoon got as many boys as he wanted. As in all the Indian schools they\nwork what appear to us frightfully long hours, 7\u20139 a.m.; then an hour\nfor breakfast; 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and then an hour for dinner; and\nagain from 3 till 6. I fancy they must take it fairly easy; and then\nit is certain that the native boys--though they have active little\nbrains--are much more quiescent than the English, are content to sit\nstill, and the master has little trouble in keeping order.\n\n[Illustration: CHUNDI CHURN B.]\n\nI have been round several evenings after school hours and chatted with\nChundi Churn and his brother and various friends that dropped in--an\nintelligent little community. Two of them are Brahman fellows of about\nthirty, with the eager tense look that the Brahmans mostly have, but\ngood imaginative faces. We discuss the Indian Congress, English and\nIndian customs, the child-marriage question (which is raging just now),\nand the great question of Caste. They insist on my eating various sweet\ncakes of native preparation, but will not eat with me; and they smoke\nhubble-bubble pipes, which they pass round--but the Brahmans must have\na hubble-bubble to themselves! At the same time they are careful to\nexplain that \u201cno one believes in all this now\u201d; but as they are at\nhome, and only trellis-work between us and the lane, it would not do\nto violate the rules. And this, I believe, is largely the state of\naffairs. The anglicising population, for the sake of parents\u2019 feelings\n(and they are tender on this point), or respectability, or commercial\nconnection, keep up a show of caste rules which they have ceased or are\nceasing to believe in; and it is an open secret that Brahman gentlemen\nof high standing in their caste, not unfrequently when traveling, or in\nplaces where they are not known, resort to British hotels and have a\nhigh feed of beefsteaks and champagne!\n\nOne of the Brahmans is clerk in a mercantile establishment in the\nEnglish part of Calcutta, and some of the others are students at the\nMetropolitan College. Western education is going on at a tremendous\nrate--so much so that there will soon be an educated proletariat (what\nGrant Duff calls \u201cthe worst of evils\u201d) in the great cities of India.\nTwo or three of the party are very quick at mathematics--which seems to\nbe a subject in which the Bengalis excel--and readily picked up the key\nto one or two little problems which I presented to them. They all seem\nto be much impressed with the greatness of Western civilisation--for\nthe present at any rate, but will react probably before so very long.\nFinding I knew something of astronomy they pelted me with questions\nabout the stars, and insisted on going out at night and trying to\nhunt up the ecliptic among the constellations! Then after a time they\nwould relapse into tale-telling and music. The fellows still show\na truly Oriental love of long stories, and would listen with rapt\nattention to one of their party relating some ancient yarn about the\nchild of a king who was exposed in the woods and ultimately came back\nafter many convolutions of adventure and claimed his kingdom--just\nas if they had not heard it before; or about the chaste Draupatha\n(in the Mahabh\u00e1rata) who--when Duriyodhana, desiring to insult her\nbefore a large assembly, gave orders that she should be stripped of\nher cloth--thought of Vishnu, and her cloth went on lengthening and\nunwinding indefinitely--their stories lengthening and unwinding like\nDraupatha\u2019s cloth, in a way that would have delighted the heart of\nWilliam Morris.\n\n[Illustration: PANNA LALL B.]\n\nPanna Lall, Chundi Churn\u2019s brother, is a bright-mannered youth of about\ntwenty, of a modest affectionate disposition, and with a certain grace\nand dignity of bearing. He doesn\u2019t care about books, but has a good\near and plays one or two musical instruments in an easy unstudied way;\nlives in quite primitive style with his father down in one of these\nback lanes--but has a tiny little room of his own where he takes me\nto sit and chat with friends. There is _no_ furniture, but you squat\ncross-legged on the floor--so there is plenty of room for quite a\nparty. There may be a box or two in a corner, and on the walls some\nshelves and a few prints. Indeed it gives one a curious sensation to\nsee crude colored woodcuts, framed under glass and exactly resembling\nthe pictures of the Virgin or of Christ common in Catholic countries,\nand then on nearer approach to find that they represent Siva or\nParvati, or among the Bengalis Chaitanya, or some other incarnation of\nthe divinity, standing or seated on a lotus flower and with benign\nhead encircled by an aureole. These pictures are printed in Calcutta.\n\nPanna Lall is quite an athlete, and interested in anything in that\nline. He took me one day to a little bit of ground where he and some\nfriends have their horizontal bars, etc.; they did some good tumbling\nand tight-rope walking, and with their golden-brown skins and muscular\nbodies looked well when stripped. The Bengali Babu is often of a\nlightish-brown colour. The people generally wear more clothing than\nin South India, and at this time of year throw a brown woollen shawl\nover their shoulders, _toga_ fashion; their heads are almost always\nbare, but they have taken a great fancy lately in Calcutta to wearing\nnarrow-toed patent-leather shoes, which look sufficiently absurd and\nmust be fearfully uncomfortable on their well-developed broad feet.\nOnly it is a mark of distinction and civilisation! Panna Lall every\nnow and then, when walking, entreats me to stop and rest under a tree,\nand then takes off his shoes and waggles his toes about to soothe and\nrefresh them! I am never tired of admiring the foot in its native\nstate. It is so broad and free and full and muscular, with a good\nconcave curve on the inner line, and the toes standing well apart from\neach other--so different from the ill-nourished unsightly thing we are\naccustomed to. I sometimes think we can never attain to a broad free\nand full life on our present understandings in the West.\n\nAnother absurd custom of the young Babus here (I am speaking of the\nmass of the people) is that of putting on a Manchester cotton shirt,\npure and simple, when they wish to appear in full dress! As they do\nnot wear trousers, the effect (combined with the patent-leather shoes)\nis very na\u00efve and touching.\n\nOn the whole Calcutta does not impress me very favorably. There is\nthe official society, and the trading and commercial ditto, and the\neducational and legal sections, and a considerable racing population,\nincluding a great number of jockeys and horse-trainers who come over\nwith their girls from Australia for the season; there-is a fine\nzoological garden and a botanic garden, and the Asiatic Museum, and\nvarious public buildings, and two or three colleges, including a\ncollege for native women; but all these interests seem to serve chiefly\nin the direction of _disorganizing_ the mass of the people and the\nprimitive sanctions of their life. Taking it at its worst the general\npopulation is dirty, lazy and rapacious. As in our slums, a kind of\nlistlessness and despair marks the people in the poorest quarters--who,\ninstead of congregating as with us round a beershop, may be seen\nperching about on doorsteps and even on the tops of walls, sitting on\ntheir heels with knees drawn up to the chin, and a draggled garment\nabout them--looking painfully like vultures, and generally chewing\nbetel, that common resource against hunger. One notes however, even\nhere, a few fine faces, and a good many very pathetic ones, of old\npeople.\n\nChundi Churn plays a little on the _s\u00edtar_--the original of our\n_guitar_ I suppose--an instrument with a long neck and small belly\nmade of a pumpkin shell, and four or five wires (originally three\nwires, from _si_, three, and _tar_, string). The frets are movable,\nso that keeping the same key-note you can play in major, minor, or\nother modes. I am beginning to understand the Indian music better now,\nafter having heard a little in different places; but have not very\nmuch systematic knowledge about it. It appears that they divide the\noctave into twenty-two exactly equal parts, called _sruti_--each part\nhaving its own special name. An interval of four _srutis_ may then be\nsaid to constitute a major tone, three _srutis_ a minor tone, and two\na semitone--though this is not _quite_ exact; and out of these three\nintervals, major tone, minor tone, and semitone, a seven-step scale is\nconstituted very nearly similar to ours, and having the semitones in\nthe same places. The key-note of this scale is called _Sa_ or _Ansa_,\nand corresponds to our _Do_, and though not exactly a key-note in the\nmodern sense of the word, it is the most accentuated note and \u201crules\nthe others.\u201d By adopting any of the other six notes as key-note scales\nare got very nearly corresponding to the seven Gregorian scales of the\nold church music; and one very commonly in use, if I am not mistaken,\ncorresponds to the Phrygian mode--_i.e._ that which we produce on the\npiano by using E as tonic and playing all the white keys.\n\nThese seven scales constituted the first system of Hindu music; but\nthey had a second system in which the notes, though preserving their\nnames, could be, any of them, raised or dropped by a _sruti_; and a\nthird system in which one or two notes being omitted, five or six-step\nscales were produced.\n\nOut of the hundreds (or thousands) of possible scales thus producible,\nthe Oriental mind, unable to find the scientific root of the whole\nbusiness, made a fantastic selection. There were six sons of Brahma\nand Sar\u00e1swati called R\u00e1gas--the genii of the passions. Six principal\nscales were named after these genii and called _Rags_, and then each of\nthese had five feminine sub-scales or _Raginas_ attached to it; and so\nforth. Then the numbers five, six and seven became typical of divisions\nof the year, days of the week, the number of planets, etc., and very\nsoon a most fanciful system was elaborated--the remains only of which\nhave lingered to the present day. The old notation appears to have died\nout; but a vast number of time-honored melodies, or rather phrases, in\nthe different modes and scales, have been preserved by tradition--and\nare now called _rags_ and _raginas_, though these names were formerly\napplicable to the scales only. These _rags_ and _raginas_ are not what\nwe should call tunes, but are brief or extended phrases, which have\nbeen classified as suitable for various occasions, emotions, festivals,\ntimes of day, seasons of the year, and the like; and these the musician\nuses and combines, within limits, to his taste; and in the hands of a\nskilful person they are very effective, but become abominably insipid\nand conventional if treated in a mechanical way.\n\nBesides the regular notes belonging to any given scale, the Hindus\nuse the quarter tones, or _srutis_, a good deal in the little turns\nand twanks of which they are so fond; and sometimes by slurring they\npass through every intermediate gradation of tone. The slur, which is\ncongenial to the mystic vague melody of the East, and so foreign to\nthe distinct articulation of Western music, is often used in singing;\nand on the _s\u00edtar_ a slight slurring rise of tone is produced by\ndrawing the string sideways along the fret--a device which recalls the\nclavichord of which Sebastian Bach was so fond, in which instrument the\nhammer which struck the string was also the bridge which defined its\nlength, so that an increased pressure by the finger on the key after\nthe first striking of the note raised the bridge a little, tightened\nthe string, and so produced a plaintive rise of tone.\n\n[Illustration: WOMAN PLAYING S\u00cdTAR.]\n\nAll this gives the idea of a complicated system of music; and it will\nbe seen that in the range of mere melody the Hindu music has really\na greater capacity of subtle expression than ours. But in harmony\nit is deficient--the ground idea of their harmony being the use of a\ndrone bass--which bass, though it may change not unfrequently, always\nseems to preserve the drone character. And of course the deficiency in\nharmony reacts on and limits the play of melody.\n\nThe general character of the music, like that of much of the Indian\nlife, reminds one of our own medi\u00e6val times. The monkish plain-song\nand the early minstrel music of Europe were probably very similar to\nthis. There was the same tendency to work from a droning bass rather\nthan from a key-note in our sense of the word, the same tendency to\nsubordinate the music to the words, causing vague and not always\nbalanced flights of intricate melody, the same love of ornamental\nkinks, and the same want of absolute definition in the matter of time.\n\nThe instruments most commonly used, besides the _S\u00edtar_ and its\nrelative the _Vina_, are the _Manda_, a horizontal harp somewhat\nresembling the Tyrolese _zither_; the _Sigara_, a small clarinet; a\nbamboo flageolet, which has a very sweet and mellow tone; the _Tabala_,\na small kettledrum; and the _Taus_, a four-stringed fiddle played with\na bow. This last is a very curious instrument. Beneath the four main\nstrings are stretched a number of other fine wires, which by their\nvibration lightly reinforce and sustain the notes played. The effect\nwhen not played too fast is very graceful and clinging, with subtle\nharmonics; and I have heard some most bewitching phrasing on this\ninstrument--a dialogue one might say between it and the voice--with\naccompaniment of the little Tabala. The Tabala itself is very\ncharming, with its gurgling and bell-like sounds and sudden explosions\nand chattering accompaniments, executed by the fingers and the butt end\nof the hand on two drums simultaneously. The great effect of the s\u00edtar,\nwhose tone on the whole is thin, is undoubtedly the side tension of the\nstrings, which gives much expression to it.\n\nAt its best the Indian music seems to me to produce a powerful\nimpression--though generally either plaintive or frenzied. On the deep\nbackground of the drone are wrought these (Wagnerian) phrases, which\nare perfectly fluent and variable according to the subject conveyed,\nwhich are extraordinarily subtle in expression, and which generally\nrise in intensity and complexity as the piece progresses, till the\nhearers are worked into a state of cumulated excitement. When there are\nseveral instruments and voices thus figuring together over the same\nbass, the effect is fine. The little tambours with their gurgling notes\nrecord the time in a kind of unconscious way and keep the musicians\ntogether. The big drums and the lower strings of the _vina_ give the\nrequired basses, the _taus_ and _s\u00edtars_ and voices fly up and down\nin delightful intricacy, quarter notes touched here and there create\na plaintive discord, and even the slur judiciously used adds a weird\neffect as of the wind in the forest.\n\nWhen not at its very best however it is certainly (to me) damnably\nrambling, monotonous and wearisome--notwithstanding chromatic effects\nof admitted elegance and occasional passages of great tenderness. What\nthe music most seems to want is distinct form and contrast, and the\nruder rockier elements--nor is their time-system sufficiently developed\nto allow change of accent in successive bars, etc. They all say however\nthat the art is not cultivated to-day, and indeed is greatly decadent\nand to some extent actually lost. Like all branches of learning in\nIndia, and the caste-system itself, it has been subject to intense\npedantry and formalism, and has become nearly stifled amid the otiose\nrules which cumber it. On the other hand it is interesting to find that\nthe Hindus call our music not only monotonous (as we call theirs, and\nwhich may be accounted for by mere unfamiliarity--as a town-bred man\nthinks all sheep alike), but also coarse and rude--by which I fancy\nthey mean that our intervals are all very obvious and commonplace, and\nthe time-system rigid--while probably our sequences of harmony are lost\nupon them. Panna Lall, I find, picks up our tunes quite easily; and\nseems to like them fairly, but always adds a lot of little kinks and\ntwanks of his own.\n\nAfter all, though the vaguely-floating subtle recitative style of the\nIndian music has its drawbacks and makes one crave for a little more\ndefinition and articulateness, it presses upon one as possible that\n_our_ music might gain something by the adoption and incorporation of\nsome of these more subtle Eastern elements--if only at times, and as an\nenhancement of our range of expression by contrast with our own generic\nstyle.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nBENARES.\n\n\nThe great plains of the Ganges are very impressive; so vast--with\na stretch, roughly speaking, of a thousand miles, and breadth from\n200 to 300 miles--so populous,[5] yet with such an ancient world-old\nvillage life; and dominated always by these tremendous powers of sun\nand sky. All the way from Calcutta to Delhi (and beyond) this immense\nplain, absolutely flat, spreads in every direction, as far as eye can\nsee the same, dotted park-like with trees (mangos many of them), which\nthickening here and there into a clump of palmyra palms indicate the\npresence of a village. The long stretches of bare land with hardly a\nblade of grass, shimmering in the noonday heat; oases of barley and\ndhol (a shrub-like lentil) looking green at this time of year, but soon\nto be reaped and stowed away; patches of potatos, castor-oil plant,\npoppy in white flower, small guava trees, indigo, etc.; here and there\na muddy pool or irrigation channel; a herd of slow ungainly buffalos\nor the more elegant humped cow\u2019s, browsing miraculously on invisible\nherbage; a woman following them, barefoot and barehead, singing a\nsad-toned refrain, picking up the precious dung (for fuel) and storing\nit in a basket; long expanses of mere sand with a few scrubby trees,\nbrown crop-lands without a crop, straggling natural roads or tracks\ngoing to the horizon--not a hedge for hundreds of miles--strings of\npeasants passing from distant village to village, donkeys laden with\nproduce, and now and then a great solid-wheeled cart labouring and\ncreaking by over the unbroken land. The villages themselves are mostly\nmere collections of mud huts, looking when partially broken down very\nlike anthills; and some villages are surrounded by rude mud walls\ndating from older and less settled times, and having a very primitive\nappearance. The people on the whole (after Southern India) look rather\ndirty in their unbleached cotton, but here and there one meets with\nbright colors and animated scenes.\n\n    [5] With an average density of population of 500 per square\n        mile, or nearly double that of the United Kingdom!\n\nHere are two peasants drawing water all day from the well to irrigate\ntheir rice-field; one guides the bucket down to the water, the other\nruns out on the long lever arm of a horizontal pole--holding on to the\nbranches of a neighboring tree as he does so--and so brings the bucket\nup again. And thus they continue from earliest dawn to latest dusk,\nwith a few hours\u2019 rest at midday.\n\nHere is one watering his fields by hand, carrying pots and emptying\nthem over the thirsty plants--a fearful toil!\n\nHere again is the classical picture--the two mild-eyed cows harnessed\nat the well mouth. The rope passes over a pulley and draws up a huge\nskin full of water as the cows recede from the well; then, as they\nremount the slight slope, the skin again falls to the water. To and\nfro go the cows; one man guides them, another empties the skins into\nthe water channel; and so day-long the work continues.\n\nBut out on the great plain you may go for hundreds of miles, and mark\nbut little change or variation. Flocks of green parrots, or of pigeons,\nfly by, or lesser birds; kites perpetually wheel and float overhead;\noccasionally you may see an antelope or two among the wilder scrub, or\na peahen and her little family; the great cloudless blue (though not by\nany means always cloudless) arches over to the complete circle of the\nhorizon, the whole land trembles in the heat, a light breeze shivers\nand whispers in the foliage, the sun burns down, and silence (except\nfor the occasional chatter of the parrots or the plaintive song of the\npeasant) reigns over the vast demesne.\n\nIn many of these villages the face of a white man is seldom or never\nseen. Even such centres as Allahabad are mere specks in an ocean;\nthe railway is a slender line of civilisation whose influence hardly\nextends beyond the sound of the locomotive whistle; over the northern\nborders of the plain the great snows of the Himalayas dawn into sight\nand fade away again mornings and evenings, and through its midst wind\nthe slow broad-bosomed waters of the sacred Ganges.\n\nOver all this region, when night comes, floats a sense of unspeakable\nrelief. The spirit--compressed during the day in painful self-defence\nagainst the burning sun above and the blinding glare below--expands in\ngrateful joy. A faint odor is wafted from the reviving herbage. The\nflat earth--which was a mere horizon line in the midday light--now\nfades into nothingness; the immense and mystic sky, hanging over\non every side like a veil, opens back into myriads and myriads of\nstars--and it requires but little imagination to think that this planet\nis only an atom in the vast dome of heaven. To the Hindu, Life is that\nblinding sun, that fever of desire and discomfort, and night is the\nblessed escape, the liberation of the spirit--its grateful passage into\nNirwana and the universal.\n\nOne understands (or thinks one does) how these immense plains have\ncontributed to the speculative character of the Hindu mind. Mountains\nand broken ground call out energy and invention, but here there is\nno call upon one to leave the place where one is, or to change one\u2019s\nhabits of life, for the adjoining hundreds of miles present nothing\nnew. Custom undisturbed consolidates itself; society crystallises\ninto caste. The problem of external life once solved presents no more\ninterest, and mechanical invention slumbers; the mind retires inward\nto meditate and to conquer. Hence two developments--in the best types\nthat of the transcendental faculties, but in the worst mere outer\nsluggishness and lethargy. The great idea of Indifference belongs\nto these flat lands--in its highest form one of the most precious\npossessions of the human soul, in its lowest nothing better than\napathy. The peasant too in these plains has for several months nothing\nto do. He sows his crop, waters it, and reaps it; works hard, and in\na few months the rich land rewards him with a year\u2019s subsistence; but\nhe can do no more; the hot weather comes, and the green things are\nburnt up; agriculture ceases, and there remains nothing but to worship\nthe gods. Hence from February to the end of May is the great time for\nreligious festivals, marriages, and ceremonies and frolics of all kinds.\n\nThat the Ganges should be sacred, and even an object of worship, is\neasily intelligible--not only on account of its fertilising beneficence\nto the land, but there is something impressive in its very appearance:\nits absolute tranquillity and oceanic character as it flows, from half\na mile to a mile wide, slowly, almost imperceptibly, onward through\nthe vast hot plain. The water is greenish, not too clear, charged even\nin the lower portions of its course with the fine mud brought from the\nmountains; the banks are formed by sandy flats or low cliffs cut in the\nalluvial soil. As you stand by the water\u2019s edge you sometimes in the\nstraighter reaches catch that effect--which belongs to such rivers in\nflat countries--of flowing broad and tranquil up to and _over_ the very\nhorizon--an effect which is much increased by the shimmer of heat over\nthe surface.\n\nIn the Mahabh\u00e1rata Siva is god of the Himalaya range--or rather he _is_\nthe Himalayas--its icy crags his brow, its forests his hair. Ganga,\nthe beautiful Ganga, could not descend to earth till Siva consented\nto receive her upon his head. So impetuously then did she rush down\n(in rain) that the god grew angry and locked up her floods amid his\nlabyrinthine hair--till at last he let them escape and find their way\nto the plains. The worship of Siva is very old--was there perhaps\nwhen the ancestors of the Brahmans first found their way into these\nplains--though we do not hear of it till about 300 B.C.--one of those\nfar-back Nature worships in which the phenomena of earth and sky are so\nstrangely and poetically interwoven with the deepest intimations of the\nhuman soul.\n\nOn the banks of the Ganges, in the midst of the great plain, stands\nBenares, one of the most ancient cities of India, and the most sacred\nresort of Northern Hinduism. Hither come pilgrims by the hundred and\nthe thousand all the year round, to bathe in the Ganges, to burn the\nbodies of their friends or cast their ashes in the stream, and to\nmake their offerings at the 5,000 shrines which are said to exist in\nthe city. Outside the town along the river-side and in open spots may\nbe seen the tents of pilgrims, and camels tethered. The city itself\nstands on the slightest rising ground--hardly to be called a hill--and\nthe river banks, here higher than usual, are broken and built into\ninnumerable terraces, stairs, temples, and shrines. The scene is\nexceedingly picturesque, especially as seen from the river; and though\ntaken in detail the city contains little that is effective in the way\nof architecture--the shrines and temples being mostly quite small, the\nstreets narrow, and the area of the place circumscribed considering its\nlarge population--yet it is the most characteristic and interesting\ntown of India that I have hitherto seen.\n\nThe English make no show here--there are no residents, no hotels--the\nEnglish quarter is four miles off, the names of the streets are not\nwritten in English characters, and you hardly see a shop sign in the\nsame. And I must say the result of all this is very favorable. The\nsense of organic life that you immediately experience is very marked\nin contrast to a mongrel city like Calcutta. As you thread the narrow\nalleys, along which no vehicle can pass, with houses three or four\nstoreys high forming a close lane above you, balconies and upper floors\nprojecting in picturesque confusion not unlike the old Italian towns,\nyou feel that the vari-colored crowd through which you elbow your\nway is animated by its own distinct standards and ideals. A manifold\nancient industry little disturbed by modern invention is going on in\nthe tiny shops on either hand--workshops and saleshops in one. Here is\na street full of brass-workers. The elegant brass pots which the whole\npopulation uses--for holding or carrying water or oil, for pouring\nwater over the head in bathing, for offering libations in the temples,\nand so forth--and which form such a feature of Indian folk-life--are\nhere being made, from miniature sizes up to huge vessels holding\nseveral gallons. Then there are little brass images, saucers to carry\nflowers in, and other fancy ware of the same kind.\n\nAnother street is full of sandal and leather workers; another of\nsweetmeat or sweet-cake confectioners; another is given to the sale\nof woollen and cotton wraps--which are mostly commercial products of\nthe West; stone and marble effigies, and gems, form another branch of\nindustry; and cookshops--innocent fortunately of the smell of meat--of\ncourse abound. There are many fine faces, both old and young, but\nespecially old--grave peaceful penetrative faces--and among the better\ntypes of young men some composed, affectionate, and even spiritual\nfaces--withal plenty of mere greed and greasy worldliness.\n\nNiched among these alleys are the numerous shrines and temples already\nmentioned--some a mere image of Vishnu or Siva, with a lingam in front\nof it, some little enclosures with several shrines--the so-called\nGolden Temple itself only a small affair, with one or two roofs plated\nwith gold. In many of the temples brahman cows wander loose, quite\ntame, nosing against the worshipers, who often feed them; and the smell\nof litter and cowdung mingles with that of frankincense and camphor.\nVulture-eyed Brahmans are on the alert round the more frequented\nsanctuaries, and streams of pilgrims and devotees go to and fro.\n\nThe river-side is certainly a wonderful scene. A mere wilderness of\nsteps, stairs, terraces and jutting platforms, more or less in disorder\nand decay, stretching for a mile or more by the water. Flights of\na hundred steps going up to small temples or to handsome-fronted\nbut decayed palaces, or to the Mosque of Aurungzebe, whose two tall\nred-sandstone minarets (notwithstanding the incongruity) are the\nmost conspicuous objects in this sacred metropolis of Hinduism; the\nsteps covered with motley groups going down to or coming up from the\nwater--here an old man, a wanderer perhaps from some distant region,\nsitting perched by himself, his knees drawn up to his chin, meditating;\nthere another singing hymns; groups under awnings or great fixed straw\numbrellas, chatting, or listening to stories and recitations; here a\nstring of pilgrims with baskets containing their scanty bedding,\netc., on their heads, just emerging from one of the narrow alleys;\nthere on a balcony attached to a big building appear half a dozen young\nmen, stripped, and with Indian clubs in their hands--their yellow and\nbrown bodies shining in the early sun; they are students at some kind\nof native seminary and are going through their morning exercises; here\nare men selling flowers (marigolds) for the bathers to cast into the\nwater; here is a _yogi_ squatted, surrounded by a little circle of\nadmirers; there are boats and a quay and stacks of wood landed, for\nburning bodies; and there beyond, a burning ghaut.\n\n[Illustration: THE GHAUTS AT BENARES.]\n\nOne morning Panna Lall--who had come on with me from Calcutta--wanted\nto bathe at a particular ghaut (as each family or caste has its\nspecial sanctuaries), so we went off early to the river-side. He\nlooked quite jaunty in his yellow silk coat with white nether garment\nand an embroidered cap on his head. As it happened, a spring festival\nwas being celebrated, and everybody was in clean raiment and bright\ncolors, yellow being preferred. As we approached the river the alleys\nbegan to get full of people coming up after their baths to the various\ntemples--pretty to see the women in all shades of tawny gold, primrose,\nsaffron, or salmon-pink, bearing their brass bowls and saucers full of\nflowers, and a supply of Ganges water.\n\nThe ghauts were thronged. Wandering along them we presently came upon a\n_yogi_ sitting under the shade of a wall--a rather fine-looking man of\nthirty-five, or nearing forty, with a kindly unselfconscious face--not\nat all thin or emaciated or ascetic looking, but a wild man decidedly,\nwith his hair long and matted into a few close ringlets, black but\nturning brown towards his waist, a short unkempt beard, and nothing\nwhatever on but some beads round his neck and the merest apology for\na loin-cloth. He sat cross-legged before a log or two forming a small\nfire, which seemed grateful as the morning was quite cold, and every\nnow and then smeared his body with the wood-ashes, giving it a white\nand floury appearance. For the rest his furniture was even less than\nThoreau\u2019s, and consisted apparently of only one or two logs of firewood\nkept in reserve, a pair of tongs, and a dry palm-leaf overhead to ward\noff the sun by day and the dews by night. I looked at him for some\ntime, and he looked at me quietly in return--so I went and sat down\nnear him, joining the circle of his admirers of whom there were four or\nfive. He seemed pleased at this little attention and told me in reply\nto my questions that he had lived like this since he was a boy, and\nthat he was very happy--which indeed he appeared to be. As to eating he\nsaid he ate plenty \u201cwhen it came to him\u201d (_i.e._ when given to him),\nand when it didn\u2019t he could go without. I should imagine however from\nhis appearance that he did pretty well in that matter--though I don\u2019t\nthink the end of his remark was mere brag; for there was that look\nof _insouciance_ in his face which one detects in the faces of the\nanimals, His friends sat round, but without much communication--at any\nrate while I was there--except to offer him a whiff out of their pipes\nevery now and then, or drop a casual remark, to which he would respond\nwith a quite natural and pleasant laugh. Of any conscious religion or\nphilosophy I don\u2019t think there was a spark in him--simply wildness, and\nreversion to a life without one vestige of care; but I felt in looking\nat him that rare pleasure which one experiences in looking at a face\nwithout anxiety and without cunning.\n\nA little farther on we came to one of the burning ghauts--a\nsufficiently dismal sight--a blackened hollow running down to the\nwater\u2019s edge, with room for three funereal pyres in it. The evening\nbefore we had seen two of these burning--though nearly burnt out--and\nthis morning the ashes only remained, and a third fresh stack was\nalready prepared. As we stood there a corpse was brought down--wrapped\nin an unbleached cloth (probably the same it wore in life) and slung\nbeneath a pole which was carried on the shoulders of two men. Round\nabout on the jutting verges of the hollow the male relatives (as we had\nseen them also the day before) sat perched upon their heels, with their\ncloths drawn over their heads--spectators of the whole operations. I\ncould not help wondering what sort of thoughts were theirs. Here there\nis no disguise of death and dissolution. The body is placed upon the\npyre, which generally in the case of the poor people who come here is\ninsufficiently large, a scanty supply of gums and fragrant oils is\nprovided, the nearest male relative applies the torch himself--and then\nthere remains nothing but to sit for hours and watch the dread process,\nand at the conclusion if the burning is complete to collect the\nashes and scatter them on the water, and if not to throw the charred\nremains themselves into the sacred river. The endurance of the Hindu is\nproverbial--but to endure such a sight in the case of a dear and near\nrelative seems ultra-human. Every sense is violated and sickened; the\nburning-ground men themselves are the most abhorred of outcasts--and as\nthey pass to and fro on their avocations the crowd shrinks back from\nthe defilement of their touch.\n\nWe did not stay more than a few minutes here, but passed on and\nimmediately found ourselves again amongst an animated and gay crowd\nof worshipers. This was the ghaut where Panna wished to bathe--a\nfine pyramidal flight of stairs jutting into the water and leading\nup to the Durga Temple some way above us. While he was making\npreparations--purchasing flowers, oil, etc.--I sat down in the most\nretired spot I could find, under an awning, where my presence was not\nlikely to attract attention, and became a quiet spectator of the scene.\n\nAfter all, there is nothing like custom. One might think that in order\nto induce people to bathe by thousands in muddy half-stagnant water,\nthick with funeral ashes and drowned flowers, and here and there\ndefiled by a corpse or a portion of one, there must be present an\nimmense amount of religious or other fervor. But nothing of the kind.\nExcept in a few, very few, cases there was no more of this than there\nis in the crowd going to or from a popular London church on Sunday\nevening. Mere blind habit was written on most faces. There were the\ncountry bumpkins, who gazed about them a bit, and the _habitu\u00e9s_ of\nthe place; there were plenty with an eye to business, and plenty as\ninnocent as children; but that it was necessary for some reason or\nother to bathe in this water was a thing that it clearly did not enter\ninto any one\u2019s head to doubt. It simply had to be done.\n\nThe coldness of the morning air was forced on my attention by a group\nof women coming up, dripping and shivering, out of the river and taking\ntheir stand close to me. Their long cotton cloths clung to their limbs,\nand I wondered how they would dress themselves under these conditions.\nThe steps even were reeking with wet and mud, and could not be used for\nsitting on. They managed however to unwind their wet things and at the\nsame time to put on the dry ones so deftly that in a short time and\nwithout any exposure of their bodies they were habited in clean and\nbright attire. Children in their best clothes, stepping down one foot\nalways first, with silver toe-rings and bangles, were a pretty sight;\nand aged people of both sexes, bent and tottering, came past pretty\nfrequently; around on the various levels were groups of gossipers, and\nparties squatting opposite each other, shaving and being shaved. Nearly\nopposite to me was one of the frequent stone lingams which abound here\nat corners of streets and in all sorts of nooks, and I was amused by\nthe antics of a goat and a crow, which between them nibbled and nicked\noff the flowers, ears of barley, and other offerings, as fast as the\npious deposited them thereon.\n\nWhile I was taking note of these and other features of the scene, my\nattention was suddenly arrested by a figure standing just in front of\nme, and I found that I was looking at one of those self-mutilating\nfakirs of whom every one has heard. He was a man of a little over\nthirty perhaps, clothed in a yellow garment--not very tall though\nof good figure; but his left arm was uplifted in life-long penance.\nThere was no doubt about it; the bare limb, to some extent dwindled,\nwent straight up from the shoulder and ended in a little hand, which\nlooked like the hand of a child--with fingers inbent and ending in\nlong claw-like nails, while the thumb, which was comparatively large\nin proportion to the fingers, went straight up between the second\nand third. The mans face was smeared all over with a yellow pigment\n(saffron), and this together with his matted hair gave him a wild and\ndemonish appearance.\n\nOne often reads of such things, yet somehow without quite realising\nthem; certainly the sight of this deliberate and lifelong mutilation\nof the human body gave me a painful feeling--which was by no means\nremoved by the expression of the face, with its stultified sadness,\nand brutishness not without deceit. His extended right hand demanded\na coin, which I gladly gave him, and after invoking some kind of\nblessing he turned away through the crowd--his poor dwindled hand and\nhalf-closed fingers visible for some time over the heads of the people.\nPoor fellow! how little spiritual good his sufferings had done him.\nHis heavy-browed face haunted me for some time. For the rest he was\nwell-liking enough, and it must be said that these fellows for the\nmost part make a fair living out of the pious charity of the people,\nthough I would not be understood to say that all of them adopt this\nmode of life with that object.\n\nWhen Panna came up out of the water and had dressed himself, and I\nhad satisfied the curiosity of one or two bystanders who wanted to\nknow whether I had come with him all the way on this pilgrimage out of\nfriendship, we went up to the temple above--where a little band was\nplaying strange and grisly music, and a few devotees were chanting\nbefore an image of Siva--and having made an offering returned to our\nhotel.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nTHE ANGLO-INDIAN AND THE OYSTER.\n\n\n_Allahabad._--It certainly is a very difficult thing to see the real\nIndia, the real life of the people. You arrive at a railway station,\ngive the name of a hotel, and are driven there. When you wake up in\nthe morning you find yourself in a region of straight shady avenues,\nvilla residences, hotels and churches, lawn-tennis and whisky pegs.\nExcept that the residences are houses of one storey instead of three,\nand that the sun is rather glaring for February, you might just as well\nbe at Wandsworth or Kew. In some alarm you ask for the native city and\nfind that it is four miles off! You cannot possibly walk there along\nthe dusty roads, and there is nothing for it but to drive. If there is\nanything of the nature of a \u201csight\u201d in the city you are of course beset\nby drivers; in any case you ultimately have to undergo the ignominy of\nbeing jogged through the town in a two-horse conveyance, stared at by\nthe people, followed by guides, pestered for _bakshish_, and are glad\nto get back to the shelter of your hotel.\n\nIf you go and stay with your Anglo-Indian friend in his villa-bungalow,\nyou are only a shade worse off instead of better. He is hospitality\nitself and will introduce you cordially to all the other good folk,\nwhom (and their ways) you have seen more than once before at\nWandsworth and at Kew; but as to the people of the country, why, you\nare no nearer them physically, and morally you are farther off because\nyou are in the midst of a society where it is the correct thing to damn\nthe oyster, and all that is connected with him.\n\nThe more one sees of the world the more one is impressed, I think, by\nthe profundity and the impassibility of the gulf of race-difference.\nTwo races may touch, may mingle, may occupy for a time the same land;\nthey may recognise each other\u2019s excellencies, may admire and imitate\neach other; individuals may even cross the dividing line and be\nabsorbed on either side; but ultimately the gulf reasserts itself, the\ndeepset difference makes itself felt, and for reasons which neither\nparty very clearly understands they cease to tolerate each other. They\nseparate, like oil and water; or break into flame and fierce conflict;\nor the one perishes withering from the touch of the other. There are a\nfew souls, born travelers and such like, for whom race-barriers do not\nexist, and who are everywhere at home, but they are rare. For the world\nat large the great race-divisions are very deep, very insuperable.\nHere is a vast problem. The social problem which to-day hangs over\nthe Western lands is a great one; but this looms behind it, even\nvaster. Anyhow in India the barrier is plain enough to be seen--more\nthan physical, more than intellectual, more than moral--a deepset\nineradicable incompatibility.\n\nTake that difference in the conception of Duty, to which I have\nalready alluded. The central core of the orthodox Englishman, or at\nany rate of the public-school boy who ultimately becomes our most\naccepted type, is perhaps to be found in that word. It is that which\nmakes him the dull, narrow-minded, noble, fearless, reliable man that\nhe is. The moving forces of the Hindu are quite different; they are,\nfirst, Religion; and second, Affection; and it is these which make\nhim so hopelessly unpractical, so abominably resigned, yet withal so\ntender and imaginative of heart. Abstract duty to the Hindu has but\nlittle meaning. He may perform his religious exercises and his caste\ninjunctions carefully enough, but it is because he realises clearly\nthe expediency of so doing. And what can the Englishman understand of\nthis man who sits on his haunches at a railway station for a whole day\nmeditating on the desirability of not being born again! They do not and\nthey cannot understand each other.\n\nMany of the I.C.S. are very able, disinterested, hardworking men, but\none feels that they work from basic assumptions which are quite alien\nto the Hindu mind, and they can only see with sorrow that their work\ntakes no hold upon the people and its affections. The materialistic and\ncommercial spirit of Western rule can never blend with the profoundly\nreligious character of the social organisation normal to India. We\nundertake the most obviously useful works, the administration of\njustice, the construction of tanks and railways, in a genuine spirit\nof material expediency and with a genuine anxiety to secure a 5 per\ncent. return; to the Hindu all this is as nothing--it does not touch\nhim in the least. Unfortunately, since the substitution of mere open\ncompetition for the remains of _noblesse oblige_, which survived in\nthe former patronage appointments to the I.C.S., and with the general\ngrowth of commercialism in England, the commercial character of our\nrule has only increased during the last thirty years. There is less\nbelief in justice and honor, more in 5 per cent. and expediency--less\nanxiety to understand the people and to govern them well, more to make\na good income and to retire to England with an affluence at an early\ndate.\n\nCurious that we have the same problem of race-difference still\nutterly unsolved in the United States. After all the ardor of the\nAbolitionists, the fury of civil war, the emancipation of the slaves,\nthe granting of the ballot and political equality, and the prophecies\nof the enthusiasts of humanity--still remains the fact that in the\nparts where negroes exist in any numbers the white man will not even\nride in the same car with his brother, or drink at the bar where he\ndrinks. So long does it take to surpass and overcome these dividing\nlines. We all know that they have to be surpassed--we all know that the\nultimate and common humanity must disentangle itself and rise superior\nto them in the end. The G\u00f1\u00e1ni knows it--it is almost the central fact\nof his religious philosophy and practice; the Western democrat knows\nit--it is also the central fact of _his_ creed. But the way to its\nrealisation is long and intricate and bewildering.\n\nWe must not therefore be too ready to find fault with the Anglo-Indian\nif he only (so to speak) touches the native with the tongs. He may\nthink, doubtless, that he acts so because the oyster is a poor\ndespicable creature, quite untrustworthy, incapable, etc.--all of\nwhich may be true enough, only we must not forget that the oyster has\na corresponding list of charges against the Anglo--but the real truth\non both sides is something deeper, something deeper perhaps than can\neasily be expressed--a rooted dislike and difference between the two\npeoples. Providence, for its own good reasons, seems to have put them\ntogether for a season in order that they may torment each other, and\nthere is nothing more to be said.\n\nAnd, putting race-difference aside, it is obvious that the\ncircumstances of our presence in India make any fusion of the two\nparties very difficult. Certainly the spectacle of our domination of\nthis vast region is a very remarkable one--something romantic, and\nalmost incredible--the conquest and subjection of so many tribes and of\nsuch diverse elements under one political rule and standard, the mere\nhandful of foreigners holding the country at such a vast distance from\nhome and from their base of operations, the patience and pluck with\nwhich the problem has been worked out, the broad and liberal spirit of\nadministration with less of rapine than perhaps ever known in such a\ncase before, and even an allowance and tenderness for native customs\nand institutions which are especially remarkable considering the\ninsular habits of the conquerors--all this makes one feel how wonderful\nan achievement the thing has been. But as far as intercourse between\nthe two peoples goes, the result has been inevitable. We came to India\nas conquerors, we remain there as a ruling caste. There is a gulf to\nbegin with; how can it be bridged over?\n\nA young man at the age of twenty-two or twenty-three comes out to\njoin the official ranks. He finds two societies existing, quite\nsundered from each other. He cannot belong to both. He may have the\nmost cosmopolitan ideas; he might even _prefer_ to associate with the\nsubject race, but that would be obviously impossible; he must join his\nown people--which means the use of the tongs when a native gentleman\ncalls. As a mere lad, even though of strong character, it is impossible\nfor him to withstand the tremendous pressure which the Anglos will\nbring to bear on him. When he is forty, he will have accommodated his\nviews to his position. Thus the gulf remains as wide as ever.\n\nThen the people themselves are the conquered, and _they_ have learned\ntheir lesson only too well. Walking through an Indian city is as bad as\nwalking through a Devonshire parish, where the parson and the squire\nhave done their deadly work, and the school-children curtsey to you\nand the farm-laborer pulls his forelock and calls you \u201cSir,\u201d if you\nonly ask the way. I have walked alone through a crowded city in this\npart of India for two or three hours without seeing a single white\nface--one among scores of thousands--and the people officiously pushing\neach other out of the way to make room for me, the native police and\nsoldiers saluting and shouldering arms as one went by, and if one\nchanced to look too straight at a man he covered his face with his\nhands and bowed low to the ground! This does not happen fortunately\nin the great centres like Bombay and Calcutta, but it does in some of\nthe up-country cities; and it is a strange experience, impressing\none no doubt with a sense of the power of the little mother-country\nten thousand miles away, which throws its prestige around one--but\nimpressing one also with a sinister sense of the gulf between man and\nman which that prestige has created. It may be imagined that a long\ncourse of this kind of thing soon convinces the average Anglo-Indian\nthat he really does belong to a superior order of being--reacting\non him just as the curtseys and forelock-pulling react on the\nclass-infatuation of squire and parson--and so the gulf gets wider\ninstead of lessening.\n\nAt dinner last night I met a dozen or so of the chief officials here,\nand thought them a capable, intelligent and good-hearted lot--steeped\nof course in their particular English class-tradition, but of their\nclass as good a sample as one could expect to meet. Talking with\na Bengali gentleman who was present--one of the numerous Bannerji\nclan--he reiterated the usual complaint. \u201cThe official people,\u201d he\nsaid, \u201care very good as long as the governed submit and say nothing;\nbut they will neither discuss matters with individual natives nor\nrecognise the great social movement (National Congress, etc.) that is\ngoing on. Their methods in fact are those of a hundred years ago.\u201d\n\u201cIt is a great pity,\u201d he continued, \u201cbecause in a few years the\ngrowing movement will insist on recognition, and then if that leads\nto altercation and division the future will be lost, both for the\nEnglish and the native. The people of India are _most_ friendly to the\nGovernment, and if the official classes would stretch out a hand, and\ngive and take so to speak, they would be loyal to death.\u201d\n\nWith these last expressions I am much inclined to agree, for having\ntalked with oysters of all classes on this subject--from the lowest\nto the highest--I have always found but one sentiment, that of\nsatisfaction with the stability and security which our rule has brought\nto the country at large--not of course without serious criticisms\nof our policy, but with the general conviction, quite spontaneously\nexpressed, that a change of government--as to that of Russia--or even a\nreturn to the divided rule of native princes, would be a decided change\nfor the worse. While however thus gladly and unasked expressing their\nloyalty, my interlocutors have (I think in every case) qualified their\nremarks by expressing their dissatisfaction at the personal treatment\nthey receive from the English. As one friend mildly expressed it, \u201cThe\nEnglish official calls upon you, and you of course take care to return\nhis call; but he takes care to confine the conversation to the weather\nand similar topics, and makes you feel that it is a relief when the\nvisit is over, and so there is not much cordiality.\u201d\n\nNo doubt as rulers of the country and inheriting, as I have said, a\ntradition of aloofness and superiority over the ruled, it is difficult\nfor our Anglo-Indian folk to act otherwise than they do. Some of them\nI think feel really grieved at the estrangement. One of the officials\nhere said to me in quite a pathetic tone, \u201cThere is a gulf between\nus and the people which it is very difficult to bridge.\u201d The native\ngentleman on the other hand is, very naturally, extremely sensitive\nabout his dignity, and not inclined--under such conditions--to make\nadvances; or, if not sensitive, tends in some cases to be a toady\nfor his own ends; in either case further estrangement results. If the\nEnglish are to keep India together (supposing that really is a useful\nobject) they must _rule_ no doubt, and with a firm hand. At the same\ntime the rapidly growing public opinion beneath the surface _has_ to\nbe recognised, and will have to be recognised even more in the future.\nI myself am inclined to think that timidity has a good deal to do with\nthe policy of the English to-day. Conscious that they are not touching\nthe people\u2019s hearts, and cut off from them so as to be unable to fathom\nrightly what is going on in their minds, they magnify the perils of\ntheir own position, and entrenching themselves in further isolation and\nexclusiveness, by so doing create the very danger that they would avoid.\n\n_Aligurh._--This place affords a striking example of a _rapprochement_\ntaking place between the rulers and the ruled. It is the only place\nin India which I have visited where I have noticed anything like a\ncordial feeling existing between the two sections; and this is due\nto the presence here of the Mahomedan Anglo-Oriental College, run by\nEnglishmen whose instincts and convictions lie a little outside the\nAnglo-Indian groove. And the fact shows how much might be done by even\na few such men scattered over India. Our friends Theodore Beck and\nHarold Cox, both Cambridge men, and the latter a decided Socialist in\nopinion, being connected with the college at its first start a few\nyears ago, naturally made a point of cultivating friendly relations\nnot only with the boys but with their parents--especially those who\nmight happen to be residing in the place. Being also, naturally, on\nfriendly terms with the Anglo-Indians and officials of Aligurh, they\n(and the college) became a point of contact between the two sections\nof the community. At cricket matches, prize-givings, supper-parties,\netc., the good people of both sides met and established comparatively\ncordial relations with each other, which have given, as I say, a quite\ndistinctive flavor to the social atmosphere here.\n\nLast night (Feb. 17th) I came in for a dinner-party, given in\nthe college reception-room by one of the Mahomedan _taluqdars_,\nor landlords, of the neighborhood--a little grey timid man with\ngold-braided cap and black coat--somewhat resembling the conductor of a\nGerman band. Very amusing. Gold caps on beaked and bearded faces, and\ngorgeous robes; speeches in Hindustani by Englishmen, and in English\nby Mahomedans; a few Hindus present, sitting apart so as not to eat\nat the table with us; healths enthusiastically drunk in tea, etc.!\nand to crown it all, when the health of the Mahomedans and Hindus\npresent was proposed, and the English--including officials, collector,\nand all--stood up and sang, \u201cFor they are jolly good fellows\u201d--the\nastonishment of the natives, hardly knowing what it all meant and\nunaccustomed to these forms of jollification, was quite touching.\n\nBut the influence of Sir Syed Ahmed here must of course not be\noverlooked. He is the originator and founder of the M.A.O. College, and\none of the leading Mahomedans of India, as well as a confidant of the\nBritish and of the Government--a man of considerable weight, courage,\nand knowledge of the world, if a little ultra-Mahomedan in some of\nhis views and in his contempt of the mild Hindu. He was a member of\nLord Ripon\u2019s Council and opposed Lord Ripon with all his might in the\nmatter of the proposed system of popular election to Local Boards and\nMunicipal Councils. The Mahomedan is poles asunder from the modern\nRadical, and Carlylean in his contempt of voting machinery. His fingers\nstill itch, even in these degenerate days, to cut the Gordian knot of\npolitics with the sword. He hates the acute and tricky Bengali, whom he\ncannot follow in his acuteness, and whom he disdains to follow in his\ntricks, and cannot away with his National Congress and representative\nreforms. But all this perhaps recommends him the more to Anglo-Indian\nsympathies. There is something in the Mahomedan, with his love of\naction and dogmatic sense of duty, which makes him more akin to the\nEnglishman than is the philosophical and supple-minded Hindu. And one\ncan easily understand how this race ruled India for centuries, and\nrejoiced in its rule.\n\nYet to-day it seems to be the fact that the Mahomedan population\nis falling into considerable poverty, which--according to some\nopinions--must end either in the extinction of their influence or their\nadoption of Western ideas and habits. With the advent of commercialism\nthe stiff-necked son of Islam finds himself ousted in trade by the\nsupple chetty or Brahman. Hence the feud between the two races, which\nto a certain extent in the country parts was scarring over with mere\nlapse of time, seems likely now in the more advancing districts and\ncommercial centres to break out afresh. \u201cIn Bundelkhand,\u201d says Beck in\nhis _Essays on Indian Topics_, \u201cwhere society is very old-fashioned,\nthe Rajas are quite Islamized in their customs and thoughts; while in\nCalcutta, where English influence has been longest, the anti-Mahomedan\nfeeling reaches its greatest height.\u201d That is to say, that in Calcutta\nand such places the English have brought with them commercialism\nand a desire among the Hindus for political representation, both of\nwhich things have only served to enrage the two parties against each\nother--Hindu against Mahomedan, and Mahomedan against Hindu.\n\nWhen a man of authority and weight could make such a jingo speech as\nthat of Sir Syed Ahmed at Lucknow in 1887--who in the extremity of\nhis contempt for the Hindu said, \u201c_We_ do not live on fish; nor are\nwe afraid of using a knife and fork lest we should cut our fingers\n(cheers). Our nation is of the blood of those who made not only Arabia\nbut Asia and Europe to tremble. It is our nation which conquered with\nits sword the whole of India, although its peoples were all of one\nreligion\u201d--one realises how deep-set is the antagonism still existing.\nThough forming a minority, fifty or sixty million descendants of a\npowerful race sharing such sentiments cannot be ignored; and it is\nobvious that the feud between the two races must for a long period yet\nform one of the great difficulties and problems of Indian politics.\n\nA few years ago the Hindus tied a pig at night-time in the midst of\nthe Jumma Mosque at Delhi, where it was found in the morning by the\ninfuriated Mahomedans. They in retaliation cut up a brahman cow and\nthrew it into a well used by Hindus. Street fights and assassinations\nfollowed and many people were killed--and the affair might have grown\nto a large scale but for the interference of British troops. Such\nlittle amenities are not infrequent, at any rate in certain districts.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThere is a big horse-fair going on here just now. A hundred booths\nor more arranged in four little streets in form of a cross, with\ndecorations. All round, bare sandy land with horses tied up for sale.\nThe Cabulees--great tall men with long hair and skin coats, fur\ninside, and ramshackle leggings and shoes--ride in with their strings\nof horses, 300 or 400 miles from the frontier--where they are obliged\nto pile their arms until they return, as they would play the deuce in\nthe country if they were to bring their guns with them. They look tidy\nruffians, and no doubt would overrun the country if not held back by\nthe English or some military power.\n\nOutside the fair is a wrestling arena, with earth-banks thrown up\nround it, on which a motley crowd of spectators was seated to-day.\nSaw several bouts of wrestling. The Aligarh champion\u2019s challenge was\naccepted by a big Punjaubee, a fellow from Meerut, over sixty years of\nage, but remarkably powerful--burly, with small nose, battered ears,\nand huge frontal prominences like some African chieftain or Western\nprize-fighter--good-humored too and even jolly till accused of unfair\nplay, when he raged among the mob, and the meeting broke up in insane\nnoise and blows of sticks--a small whirlwind of combatants eddying\naway for some distance over the plain. It was characteristic though,\nthat when they had had enough of fighting, the two parties came back\nand appealed for fair play to Beck and me--the only two Englishmen\npresent--though there did not seem the least reason why they should,\nand we were quite unable to afford them any proper satisfaction.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\nDELHI AND AGRA.\n\n\nThe train rushes over an iron girder bridge, crossing the Jumna, into\nDelhi. There are sandy flats and bits of garden by the river-side, and\nthen the great red-sandstone walls of the fort, 30 or 40 feet high,\nsurmounted by remnants of the old white marble palace of Shah Jehan,\nlooking out eastward over the great plain. Here are the Pearl Mosque--a\nlittle pure white shrine--the Shah\u2019s private audience hall, the zenana\napartments, and the royal baths, still standing. The women\u2019s apartments\nare certainly lovely. White and polished marble floor and marble walls\ninlaid with most elegant floral and arabesque designs in mosaics of\ncolored stones, and in gold; with marble screens of rich lace-like\nopen work between the apartments and the outer world; and a similarly\nscreened balcony jutting over the fort wall--through which the river\nand the great plains beyond are seen shimmering in the heat. The\nprivate audience hall is of like work--a sort of open portico supported\non some twenty marble columns, with marble floor and rich mosaic\neverywhere (see illustration), and the baths the same. Indeed the old\nShah with his fifty queens must have had some high old times in these\nbaths--one for himself, one for the queens, and one for his children,\nall opening conveniently into each other.\n\nBehind the fort used to be the densest part of the city; but after the\nMutiny this was cleared away, and now an open space extends from the\nfort walls up to the Jumma Mosque and the present Delhi.\n\n[Illustration: DEWAN KHAS, OR AUDIENCE HALL, IN PALACE AT DELHI.]\n\nA large city of narrow alleys and courtyards--here and there a broad\ntree-planted avenue with disheveled little two-storey houses on each\nhand, and occasional banks, hotels, and offices. Crowds of people. A\nfiner-looking race than southwards--more of the Mahomedan element--and\nabout the Hindus themselves more fling and romance and concreteness;\nsome handsome faces, verging a little towards the Greek or Italian\ntypes--but looking fine with their dark skins. I suppose that in the\nPunjaub the men are finer and taller still, and look down a little\non the folk at Delhi. Cows and brahman bulls throng the streets, and\ncome out of courtyards in the mid-city. Some of these bulls are public\nproperty, belong to no individual and live on the highways and mingle\nwith the herds of cows. When they want food they go into the market,\nand the Hindus feed them with their hands.\n\nThe Jumma Mosque is the first large mosque I have seen in India, but I\nam a little disappointed with it. These Indian mosques differ a little\nfrom the Turkish--being quite open to sun and sky. The idea seems to\nbe, first a large open square, 100 feet across, or 100 yards, or more,\npaved with marble if possible, with a tank in the middle for worshipers\nto wash their feet in, and an arcade round three sides, very likely\nopen-work of stone, with fine gateways in each side--and on the fourth\nside a sort of very handsome portico, with its floor raised above the\ngeneral court, and surmounted by three domes. Right and left of the\nportico stand the two tall minarets. To be perfect the whole should be\nof white polished marble inlaid with arabesques and scriptures from\nthe Koran. One of the main points is the absolute purity of the place.\nThere is nothing whatever under the portico--no likeness of beast or\nbird--only three recesses in which one might fairly expect to see an\naltar or an image, a flight of three steps on which the reader stands\nto read the Koran, and that is all. Attendants continually dust the\nwhole courtyard with cloths to keep it clean.\n\nFrom a distance the effect of the domes, the minarets, the open-work\nof the arcade, the handsome gateways, and the little kiosks is very\nattractive; but within one misses something. It seems as if the portico\nought to open back on a vast interior; but it doesn\u2019t. There is no\nmysterious gloom anywhere--not a cranny for a hobgoblin even. There is\nno nice Virgin Mary in the niches, or nasty gurgoyle on the angles,\nno meditative Buddha or terrifying Kali with necklace of skulls, no\nsuggestion of companionship human or divine, no appeal to sense. It\ndoesn\u2019t give one a chance of even having a make-believe god. How\ndifferent from Hinduism with its lingams and sexual symbols deified in\nthe profound gloom of the temple\u2019s innermost recess!\n\n[Illustration: THE JUMMA MOSQUE, DELHI.]\n\nWhat an extraordinary region is this to the south and west of Delhi--a\nhuge waste sprinkled with the ruins of six or seven previous Delhis!\nEmperors in those days had a cheerful way--when they thought they\nhad found a securer or more convenient site--of calmly removing a\nwhole city from its old location. Now you pass through an arid land,\nhere and there green with crops, but running up into stony ridges\nand mounds, and dotted with ruins as far as the eye can see. Stumpy\ndomes of decayed mosques in every direction looming against the sky,\nmere lumps of brickwork, now turned into barns and farmyards, or with\nherds of goats sheltering from the sun beneath their arches--the land\nin some parts fairly covered with loose stones, remnants of countless\nbuildings. Here and there, among some foliage, you see a great mosque\ntomb in better preservation--kept up by the Government--that of Safdar\nJung, for instance, who died 1753, Akbar\u2019s Vizier, or of the Emperor\nHumayoun, or the marble shrine of the poet Khusro. Along the roads go\nbullock-carts of all kinds, some with curtains to them, concealing\nwomen folk; and camels with loads of grass, and donkeys with huge\npanniers of cowdung; and by the wayside are ash trees and peepul trees,\nand wells worked by brahman cows drawing up water in huge skins.\n\nEleven miles south of Delhi stands the great Kutab Minar, a huge tower\n240 feet high and 50 feet diameter at its base--tapering through five\nstoreys to its summit, which unfortunately has lost its four-columned\nwatch-turret and has only now a wretched iron rail--a kind of multiple\ncolumn breaking out into a sort of scroll-work capital at each\nlanding--not very beautiful, but impressive in its lonely vastness.\nThe twin column or _minar_--hardly to be called a minaret--was never\nfinished; its base alone stands to a height of 40 or 50 feet. Between\nthem lie the remains of a handsome mosque, and _within_ the courtyard\nof the mosque the columned arcades of an ancient Hindu temple; while\nthe whole group stands within the lines of the old Hindu fortress\nof Lalkab built about A.D. 1060. The mosque and minar were built\nby Kutab-ud-din about 1200 A.D.; but the Hindu temple is no doubt\nconsiderably older. Within the latter stands the celebrated iron pillar\n(22 feet high above ground--and said to be an equal depth below the\nsurface--by 16 inches diameter at base)--whose construction at that\nearly date is somewhat of a puzzle. It evidently is not a casting, but\nhammered. It is of pure iron, and was probably, I should say, welded\nto these huge dimensions piece by piece. A Sanskrit inscription on it,\nrecording a victory over the Bahilkas near the seven mouths of the\nIndus, fixes its date at A.D. 360\u2013400.\n\nThis huge Kutab Minar is supposed to have been built as a kind of\nglorification of the triumph of Mahomedanism over Hinduism; but now\nfrom its top one looks out over a strange record of arid lands and\ndeserted cities--both Mahomedan and Hindu--fortified places built one\nafter another in succession and razed to the ground or deserted. The\ncircles of their old walls are still however mostly traceable. One of\nthese, which was called Toglakabad, and was destroyed by Tamerlane\nin 1398, lies to the south-east. Another, which the English call the\nold Fort, and which lies nearer Delhi, I visited on my way back to\nthe city. Like most of the villages it stands on an eminence composed\nof the _d\u00e9bris_ of former habitations. The walls, 40 feet high, of\nthis little fortress, whose irregular sides are none of them probably\nmuch more than a quarter of a mile in length, are very rude but\nbold stonework, and command a dry ditch. Within there are now only\na hundred or so mud huts, and a red-sandstone mosque of rather good\nappearance--from the terrace of which you look out over the Jumna and\nsee the minarets of the present city only three or four miles off.\nOwing however to the dust flying in the air the views were by no means\nvery clear.\n\n_Agra._--The fort here is quite on the same lines as that at Delhi,\nbut of earlier date--built by Akbar in 1566 or so--and even finer in\nconception. There is indeed something very grand about this bold stern\nand practical Mahomedan structure with its lofty seventy-foot walls\nand solid gateway of red sandstone, surmounted by the glitter of the\nmarble and gilt-roofed domes and arcades and terraces which formed the\nroyal palace within. All these buildings of the royal palace, like\nthe Taj and other monuments, are now kept and repaired by the British\nGovernment, and with tender care, and are open for visitors to walk\nthrough at their own sweet will--subject to the trivial importunities\nof a few guides. One may wander for a whole day through the many courts\nof the palace at Agra and keep finding fresh beauties and interest.\nAfter one guide has been exhausted and paid off the others leave one\nrespectfully alone, and one may sit down in the lovely arcade of the\nDewan Khas, or in the canopied balcony called the Jessamine Tower,\nand enjoy the shade and coolness of the marble, or the sight of the\nbrilliant landscape between the arches--the river banks and the busy\nfolk washing themselves and their linen--or study the beautiful floral\nmosaics upon walls and columns, at one\u2019s leisure.\n\n[Illustration: PERFORATED MARBLE SCREEN IN PALACE AT DELHI.]\n\nIn marble and mosaic it is impossible to imagine anything more\nelegant than the Mahomedan work of this period--as illustrated by\nnumbers of buildings--the brilliant coloring and richness of inlaid\nstone in coral, agate, jade, bloodstone, turquoise, lapis-lazuli,\nor what not; the grace of running leaf and flower; the marble\nreliefs--whole plants--in panels, the lily or the tulip or the oleander\nconventionalised--one of the most beautiful in the Dewan Khas being a\ndesign of the tomato plant; and then the inimitable open-work screens\n(often out of one great slab of stone)--of intricately balanced yet\ntransparently simple designs--some in the zenana apartments here\nalmost as elaborate as lacework; and the care and finish with which\nthey have all been wrought and fitted. It was from this fort and among\nthese arcades and balconies that 500 English during the early days of\nthe Mutiny watched the clouds of flame and smoke going up from their\nburning homes.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHere at Agra I find myself as usual at least an hour\u2019s walk from\nthe native city, measuring by milestones--but how far I am from any\npossibility of converse with the people there, considering that I\ncannot speak their language, that they bow to the ground if I only look\nat them, and that my view of _noblesse oblige_ as a Britisher should\nforbid my associating freely with them, is more than I can calculate.\nTo go and see the Taj Mehul is easy: enough; but to explore what lies\nbehind some of these faces that I see on the road--beautiful as they\nare, something more wonderful than even the Taj itself--is indeed\ndifficult. All this is very trying to people of democratic tendencies;\nbut perhaps it will be said that such people ought not to visit India,\nat any rate under its present conditions.\n\nOne must I suppose console oneself with the Taj. I saw it for a few\nbrief minutes this evening under the magic conditions of deep twilight.\nI was standing in the middle of the garden which opens like a lovely\npark in front of the tomb. Cypresses and other trees hid its base;\nthe moonlight was shining very tenderly and faintly on the right of\nthe great white building; and on its left a touch of the blush of\nsunset still lingered on the high dome. The shadows and recesses and\nalcoves were folded as it were in the most delicate blue mist; the four\nminarets were (in the doubtful light) hardly visible; and in the heart\nof the shrine, through the marble lacework of doors and screens, was\nseen the yellow glow of the lights which burn perpetually there.\n\n[Illustration: THE TAJ, AT AGRA.]\n\nI think this is the best point of view. The garden foliage hides the\nsquare platform on which the Taj stands--which platform with its four\ncommonplace minarets is an ugly feature, and looks too obtrusively like\na table turned upside down. Indeed the near view of the building is not\naltogether pleasing to me. The absolute symmetry of the four sides,\nwhich are identical even down to the mosaic designs, and the abrupt\nright angles of the base give the thing a very artificial look. But the\ninlaid work of colored and precious stones--only to be seen on a near\nview--is of course perfect.\n\nThe Taj stands on a terrace which falls perpendicular into the Jumna\nriver (behind the building in the above illustration). A mile and a\nhalf away to the west lies the sombre line of the fort walls crowned\nwith the marble kiosks and minarets of the royal palace. A mile or\ntwo beyond that again lies the city of Agra, with one or two spires\nof English churches or colleges; while to the east the lovely tomb\nlooks out over a wild ravine land, bare and scarred, which suggests a\nlandscape in the moon as much as anything.\n\nIn the daytime the ornamental garden of which I have spoken, with its\ngay flowers, and water-tanks, and children at play, sets off the chaste\nbeauty of the building; while the reflected lights from the marble\nplatform, with their creamy tints, and blue in the shadows, give an\nadded aerial charm. The thing certainly stands solid as though it would\nlast for centuries--and might have been built yesterday for any sign\nof decay about it. Indeed I was startled--as if my own thoughts had\nbeen echoed--when I heard a voice behind me say in good English, \u201cThis\nis rather a different style from your English jerry-building is it\nnot?\u201d--and looking round saw a somewhat jerry-built native youth, whose\nstyle showed that he came from one of the great commercial centres,\nsaluting me in these mocking tones.\n\nThe small green parrots (the same that one commonly sees in cages\nin England) which are common all over India, and which haunt the Taj\nhere and its garden, billing and chattering close by one, are quite a\nfeature of the place; their flight, with the long tail straight behind,\nis something like a cuckoo\u2019s or a hawk\u2019s. Occasionally one may see\na vulture perched upon some point of vantage looking down upon them\nwith an envious eye. In Delhi, walking through a crowded street, I\nsaw a kite swoop down and actually snatch something--some eatable I\nthink--out of a child\u2019s hand a little in front of me. It then soared\nup into the air, leaving the little one terrified and sobbing on a\ndoorstep.\n\nThis great river (the Jumna, and the Ganges the same) and the plain\nthrough which it slowly winds have a great fascination for me--the long\nreaches and sandy spurs, the arid steep banks and low cliffs catching\njust now the last red light of sunset--here and there a little domed\nbuilding standing out on a promontory, with steps down to the water--or\na brown grass-woven tent on the sands below; the great vultures slowly\nflapping hitherward through the fading light; a turtle splashing into\nthe water; the full moon mounting into the sky, though yet with subdued\nglory, and already the twinkle of a light in a house here and there;\nand on my right this great mountain of marble catching the play of all\nthe heavenly radiances.\n\nShe must have been very beautiful, that queen-wife \u201cthe crown of the\npalace,\u201d to have inspired and become the soul of a scene like this; or\nvery lovely in some sense or other--for I believe she was already the\nmother of eight children when she died. But indeed it does not matter\nmuch about external or conventional beauty; wherever there is true love\nthere is felt to be something so lovely that all symbols, all earth\u2019s\nshows, are vain to give utterance to it. Certainly if anything could\nstand for the living beauty of a loved creature, it might be this dome\npulsating with all the blushes and radiances of the sky, which makes a\ngreater dome above it.\n\nAcross the river, just opposite, you dimly distinguish the outline of\na vast platform--now mainly ploughed up and converted into fields--on\nwhich the good Shah intended to have built a similar or twin tomb for\nhis own body; fortunately however he died long before this idea could\nbe carried out, and now he lies more appropriately by the side of his\nloved one in the vocal gloom of that lofty interior.\n\n\u201cYou say we Mahomedans do not respect our women, yet where in all\nEurope can you point out a monument to a woman, equal to this?\u201d said\nSyed Mahmoud triumphantly to me one day. And then one remembers that\nthis precious monument (like so many others that the world is proud of)\nwas made by the forced and famine labor of 20,000 workmen working for\nseventeen years--and one thinks, \u201cWhat about them and _their_ wives?\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCalled on a coterie of professors connected with the university college\nat Agra--A.\u00a0C. Bose, who is professor of mathematics; Gargaris,\nprofessor of physics; Nilmani Dhar, law lecturer; and A.\u00a0C. Bannerji,\njudge of small cause court--an intelligent and interesting lot of\nfellows. I found Bose reading a book on Quaternions; when he learnt\nthat I had known W.\u00a0K. Clifford at Cambridge he was much interested,\nand wanted to hear all about him--has read his book on \u201cThe Common\nSense of the Exact Sciences,\u201d and was interested in the theory of\n\u201ccrumpled space\u201d and the fourth dimension. They told me a good deal\nabout family communism as it exists among the Bengalis, and spoke\nrather feelingly of its drawbacks--in respect of the incubus of poor\nrelations, etc. They also asked some questions--rather touching--about\nsending their sons to study in England, and what treatment they might\nexpect at the hands of the English at home--\u201cif it were the same as we\nreceive here, we would never consent to send our sons.\u201d Of course I\nassured them that their reception in England would be perfectly cordial\nand friendly. At the same time I said that they must not think ill of\nthe English people generally because of the unfortunate gulf existing\nbetween the two races in India; because after all the officials and\nAnglo-Indians generally--though an honorable body--could not be taken\nto represent the whole people of England, but only a small section;\nand that as a matter of fact the masses of the people in England made\nmuch the same complaint against the moneyed and ruling sections there,\nnamely, that they were wanting in good manners. Bannerji asked me if I\nsaw the Lieut.-Governor (Sir A. Colvin) at Allahabad, and I said that\nI had had some conversation with him, and that I thought him a man of\nmarked ability and culture, and probably having more liberality in his\nreal opinions than his natural reserve and caution would allow him to\ngive rein to.\n\nGargaris is a big-headed logical-minded slowish man who inquired much\nafter the Positivists, and apparently thinks much of them--being indeed\nof that type himself. Nilmani Dhar seemed very enthusiastic about the\nBrahmo Somaj, which I cannot say I feel any interest in. He is of\ncourse a Theist, but most of the folk now-a-days who go in for Western\nlearning and ideas are Agnostics, and adopt the scientific materialism\nof Huxley and Tyndall.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe men in the streets here--and I noticed the same at Nagpore--are\nvery handsome, many of them, with their large eyes and well-formed\nnoses, neither snub nor hooked, and short upper lips. With great\nturbans (sometimes a foot high) on their heads, and fine moustaches,\nthey look quite martial; but like mermaids they end badly, for when you\nlook below you see two thinnest shins with little tight cotton leggings\nround them, and bare feet. How they get these leggings on and off is a\nquestion which I have not yet been able to solve. Anyhow I have come to\nthe conclusion about the Hindus generally that their legs are too thin\nfor them ever to do much in the world.\n\nThe people sitting by the hundred at all the railway stations in\nthis part of India, waiting for their trains, are quite a sight.\nThey congregate in large sheds or areas--hardly to be called waiting\n_rooms_--reserved for this purpose; and whether it be that their notion\nof time is so defective, or whether it be for the sake of society or of\nrest or shelter that they come there, certain it is that at any hour\nof day or night you may see these compacted crowds of thin-shanked\nundemonstrative men, with wives and children, seated squatting on their\nhams, talking or meditating or resigning themselves to sleep, as if the\narrival of their train was an event far remote, and of the very least\nimportance. They must however really enjoy this method of traveling,\nfor the third-class carriages are generally crowded with the poorer\nnatives. They squat on the seats in all attitudes, and berth-like seats\nbeing let down overhead, they sometimes occupy these too--forming\ntwo storeys of cross-legged mortals. The women and children have a\ncarriage to themselves--a fine exhibition generally of nose-rings\nand ear-rings. It is the third class that pays; first and second are\nonly scantily used; the first by English alone, the second by mixed\nEnglish and higher class natives. Though the distances to be covered\nby the traveling Englishman are generally large the conditions are not\nuncomfortable. Journeys are made largely by night, for coolness; first\nand second class are generally small saloons with couch-like seats; and\nthese couches with the berths available above generally allow of one\u2019s\nhaving a good stretch and a sound sleep.\n\nTraveling second class one meets (though not always) with some pleasant\nbivalves. As a specimen (and a favorable one) of the Young India that\nis growing up under modern influences I may mention a railway goods\nclerk who was my companion in the train between Nagpore and Bombay; a\nvery bright face with clear well-balanced expression, and good general\nability,--said he worked ten hours a day on the average, Rs. fifteen\na month, but would be raised next year; was leaving Nagpore district\nbecause it was so out of the way--no papers, etc. \u201cIn Bombay you\nknew what was going on all over the world. Why he had only heard of\nMr. Bradlaugh\u2019s death yesterday--two months after date.\u201d The English\nrule was very good. \u201cUnder the Mahrattas you were liable any day to\nhave your goods stolen, but now there was general security, and peace\nbetween the different peoples instead of dissension as there would be\nif the English were to go\u201d--a real nice fellow, and I felt quite sorry\nwhen he left the train.\n\nLater on the same evening, in the same train, a little incident\noccurred which may be worth recording. I and another Englishman were\nthe sole occupants of the compartment; it was in fact near midnight,\nand we were stretched on our respective couches, when our slumbers were\ndisturbed by the entrance of a family of four or five Parsees, among\nwhom were a lady and a child and an old gentleman of somewhat feeble\nbut refined appearance. Of course, though we were not disturbed, there\nwas a little conversation and discussion while couches were being\narranged and berths let down, etc.--till at last my fellow-countryman,\nlosing his little store of patience, rolled over among his rugs with\na growl: \u201cI wish you would stop that chattering, _you Parsees_.\u201d To\nwhich, when they had settled themselves a bit, one of them replied,\n\u201cPlease to sleep now, _Mr. Gentleman_.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\nBOMBAY.\n\n\nThe native city of Bombay is really an incredible sight. I walked\nthrough some part of it I suppose every day for a week or more, trying\nto photograph its shows upon my brain, yet every day it seemed more\nbrilliant and original than before--and I felt that description or even\nremembrance were nothing to compare with the actual thing. The intense\nlight, the vivid colors, the extraordinarily picturesque life, the\nbustle and movement; the narrow high tumbled houses with projecting\nstoreys, painted shutters, etc., and alleys simply _thronged_ with\npeople; the usual little shops with four or five men and boys squatted\nin each, and multifarious products and traffic--gold and silver work\nof excellent quality, elegant boxes and cabinets, all being produced\nin full view of the public--embroidery and cap shops, fruit shops,\nsweetmeat shops, cloth merchants, money-changers; such a chattering,\nchaffering and disputing, jokes shouted across the street from shop\nto shop; Hindu temples, mosques, opium dens, theatres, clubs; and at\nnight, lights and open casements and balconies above with similar\ngroups; handsome private houses too scattered about, but some of them\nnow converted into warehouses or lodging-houses, and looking dirty\nenough.\n\n[Illustration: STREET IN BOMBAY, NATIVE QUARTER.\n\n(_Little shops on each side, a mosque on the left._)]\n\nImagine a great house towering above the rest, with projecting storeys\nand balconies and casements--the top tiers nothing but painted wood\nand glass, like the stern of a huge three-decker. The basement storey\nis open and fronted with great carved wooden columns. Here are a few\nplants standing, and among them--his gold-brown body thrown up against\nthe gloom behind--stands a young boy of eight or nine, nearly naked,\nwith silver wristlets and string of blue beads round his neck. The\nnext houses are low, only two or three storeys, and their basements\nare let out in tiny shops only a few feet square each. Here squatted\namong cushions, smoking his long pipe, sits an old money-lender with\nwhite cap and frock and gold-rimmed spectacles. Near him are boys and\nassistants, totting up accounts or writing letters on their knees. The\nman is worth thousands of pounds, but his place of business is not\nbigger than a dining-room table--and there are scores like him. The\nnext few shops are all silversmiths--four or five in each shop, couches\nand cushions as before, and cabinets full of trinkets. Further on they\nare hammering brass and copper--a score of shops at least consecutive.\nNow we come to an archway, through which behold a large reservoir,\nwith people bathing. There is a Hindu temple here, and they do not\nlike us to enter; but under the arch sits an old ascetic. He has sat\ncross-legged for so many years that he can take no other position;\nsometimes for extra penance he gets them to lift him up and seat him on\na spiked board; but I fancy he is such a hardened old sinner that he\ndoes not feel even that much! He is a well-known character in the city.\n\n[Illustration: PARSEE WOMAN.]\n\nA little farther on, in a balcony, is a group of girls, with\nhenna-black eyes, somewhat daintily got up, and on the look-out for\nvisitors. Now a covey of Parsee women and children comes by, brilliant\nin their large silk wraps (for even the poorer Parsee females make a\npoint of wearing these)--pale-green, or salmon color, or blue--drawn\nover their heads and depending even to their feet--their large\ndark eyes shining with fire and intelligence, not the timid glance\nof the general run of Indian women. Many of the Parsee fair ones,\nindeed--especially of the well-to-do classes--are exceedingly handsome.\nBut the women generally in Bombay form quite a feature; for the\nMahrattas, who constitute the bulk of the population, do not shut up\ntheir women, anymore than the Parsees do, and numbers of these--mostly\nof course, though not exclusively, of the poorer classes--may be seen\nmoving quite freely about the streets: the Mahratta fisher-women for\ninstance, dressed not in the long depending cloak of the Parsees, but\nin the ordinary Indian _sari_, which they wind gracefully about the\nbody, leaving their legs bare from the knees down. Of the Parsees I\nunderstand that they are very helpful to each other as a community, and\nwhile leaving their women considerable freedom are at pains to prevent\nany of them falling through poverty into a life of prostitution.\n\nIf you take this general description of the native Bombay, and add\nto it a handsome modern city, with fine Banks, Post and Government\noffices, esplanades, parks, docks, markets, railway stations, etc.; and\nthen again add to that a manufacturing quarter with scores of chimneys\nbelching out smoke, ugly stretches of waste land, and all the dirt of\na Sheffield or Birmingham (only with coco-palms instead of oak-trees\nshriveling in the blight); then distribute through it all a population,\nmainly colored, but of every nation in the world, from sheerly naked\nwater-carriers and coolies to discreet long-raimented Parsees and\nEnglish \u201cgentlemen and ladies\u201d--you will have an idea of Bombay--the\nmost remarkable city certainly that I have visited in this part of the\nworld.\n\nThe Parsee nose is much in evidence here. You meet it coming round the\ncorner of the street long before its owner appears. It is not quite the\nsame as the Jewish, but I find it difficult to define the difference;\nperhaps though larger it is a little suaver in outline--more _suaviter\nin modo_, though not less _fortiter in re_. It is followed by a pair of\neyes well on the alert, which don\u2019t miss anything that the nose points\nout. At every turn you meet that same shrewd old gentleman with the\nbeautifully white under-raiment falling to his feet, and a long China\nsilk coat on, and black brimless hat--so collected and \u201call there\u201d; age\ndims not the lustre of his eye to biz. Somehow he strangely reminds\none of the neighborhood of the London Stock Exchange, only it is a face\nof more general ability than you often see in the City.\n\n[Illustration: PARSEE MERCHANTS.]\n\nAnd (what also is more than can be said for his city _confr\u00e8re_) he is\nup early in the morning for his religious exercises. At sunrise you\nmay see him on the esplanades, maidans, and other open places, saying\nhis prayers with his face turned towards the east. He repeats or reads\nin an undertone long passages, and then bows three times towards the\nlight; then sometimes turning round will seem to go through a similar\nceremony with his back to it. The peculiarity of the physiognomy\n(not forgetting the nose of course) seems to lie in the depth of the\neye. This together with the long backward line of the eyelid gives a\nremarkable look of intelligence and earnestness to the finer faces.\n\nThe younger Parsee is also very much to the fore--a smartish fellow\nnot without some Brummagem self-confidence--pushing in business and\nin his efforts to join in the social life of the English; who in\nrevenge are liable to revile him as the \u2018Arry of the East. Anyhow they\nare a go-ahead people, these Cursetjees, Cowasjees, Pestonjees, and\nJejeebhoys, and run most of the cotton mills here (though one would\nthink that they _might_ manage to get on without quite so many \u201cjees\u201d).\nJustice Telang spoke to me highly one day of them as a body--their\nhelpful brotherly spirit and good capacity and versatility. He said\nhowever that they were not taking the lead in _business_ quite so much\nas formerly, but turning rather more to political life.\n\nTelang himself is a Mahratta--a sturdy well-fleshed man, of energy and\ngentleness combined--able, sound, and sensible, I should say, with\ngood judgment and no humbug. He of course thinks the creation of a\nunited India a long and difficult affair: but does not seem to despair\nof its possibility; acknowledges that the Mahomedan element is mostly\nindifferent or unfriendly to the idea, but the Parsees are favorable.\n\nI was in Telang\u2019s court one day, and admired much the way he conducted\nthe business. On the whole I thought the English barristers present\nshowed up only feebly against the native judge and pleaders. I\ncertainly am inclined to think the educated oysters quite equal or if\nanything superior to the Englishman in matters of pure intellect (law,\nmathematics, etc.); where they are wanting--taking the matter quite in\nbulk, and with many individual exceptions--is in that quality which is\nexpressed by the word _morale_; and it is that defect which prevents\nthem being able to make the best use of their brain power, or to hold\ntheir own against us in the long run. So important is that quality. The\nAnglo-Saxons, with deficient brains, have it in a high degree, and are\nmasters of the world.\n\nI called another day on Tribhovan Das, who is head of the Bunyas\nhere--a large and influential merchant caste. He occupies the house\nwhich belonged to his father, Sir Mungal Das, who was member of the\nBombay Legislative Council and a great man in his time both in wealth\nand influence. The house is a large one standing in the native city.\nWe went and sat in state in a big drawing-room, and then made a tour\nof the other reception rooms and the library, and solemnly inspected\nand admired the works of art--oscillating models of ships in a storm,\npictures with musical boxes concealed behind them, a huge automatic\nmusical organ, wax-flowers and fruits in the library, fountains in the\ngarden, etc.--all quite in the style of the reception rooms of wealthy\nnatives twenty years or so ago. Tribhovan showed me over it all with\nthat mingled air of childlike pride and intense boredom which I have\nnoticed before in Orientals under the same circumstances; then took me\nout for a drive in his swagger barouche, with white horses and men in\nsky-blue livery--along the Malabar drive and up to the reservoir on the\nhill-top, a very charming seaside road, and thronged at that hour on\nSunday evening with carriages and the motley aristocracy of the city.\nThe view from the reservoir is famous. The Malabar hill is a promontory\njutting southward into the sea, and occupied largely with villa\nresidences. Westward from its summit you look over the open ocean,\ndotted with white sails; eastward, or south-eastward, across a narrow\nbay, is seen the long spit of flat land on which modern mercantile\nBombay stands, with its handsome public buildings and long line of\nesplanade already at that hour beginning to twinkle with lamps. Beyond\nthat spit again, and farther eastward, lies another much deeper and\nlarger bay, the harbor proper, with masts of ships just discernible;\nand beyond that again are the hills of the mainland. At the base of the\nspit and a little inland lies the native portion of Bombay--largely\nhidden, from this point of view, by the masses of coco-nut trees which\ngrow along its outskirts and amongst its gardens.\n\nTribhovan said he would much like to come to England, but that as head\nof the caste it was quite impossible. He told me that many people think\nthe Bunyas took their dress (the cylindrical stiff hat like an English\nchimney-pot hat without a brim, and the long coat buttoned close round\nthe neck) from the Parsees; but it was just the opposite--the Parsees\nwhen they came to India having adopted the dress of those Hindus\namongst whom they first found themselves, namely the Bunyas.\n\nWhilst driving back through the city we came upon a marriage ceremony\ngoing on--a garden full of lights, and crowds of people conversing and\ntaking refreshments. Two houses opened on the same garden, and one of\nthese was occupied for the occasion by the bridegroom and his friends,\nand the other by the bride. This is the orthodox arrangement, enabling\nthe bridegroom to descend into the garden and go through the ceremony\nof taking his bride; and my host explained that houses thus arranged\nare often kept and let solely for this purpose--as few people have\nhouses and gardens of their own large enough for the array of guests\nasked, or suitably built for the ceremony. In the thick of the city the\nbridegroom will sometimes manage to hire or get the loan of a house\nin the same street and opposite to that in which his bride dwells,\nand then the street is turned into a temporary garden with ornamental\nshrubs and branches, and lanterns are hung (for the ceremony is always\nin the evening) and chairs placed in rows, and a large part of the\nprocessions and festivities are as public as the gossips can desire.\nAll this adds much to the charm of life in this most picturesque city.\n\nThe native theatres here are a great institution--crowded mostly by\nmen and boys of the poorer sort--the performance a curious rambling\nbusiness, beginning about 9 p.m. and lasting say till 2 or 3 in the\nmorning! Murderous and sensational scenes carried out by faded girls\nand weak ambrosial youths, and protracted in long-drawn agonies of\noperatic caterwauling, with accompaniment of wondrous chromatic runs on\nthe _taus_ and a bourdon bass on some wind-instrument. Occasionally a\nfew sentences spoken form a great relief. What makes the performance so\nlong is the slowness of the action--worse even than our old-fashioned\nopera; if the youth is madly in love with the girl he goes on telling\nher so in the same \u201crag\u201d for a quarter of an hour. Then she pretends\nto be indifferent, and spurns him in another \u201crag\u201d for fifteen minutes\nmore!\n\nAnother feature of Bombay now-a-days, and indeed of most of the towns\nof India, including even quite small villages, is the presence and work\nof the Salvation Army. I must say I am Philistine enough to admire\nthese people greatly. Here in this city I find \u201cCaptain\u201d Smith and\nyoung Jackson (who were on board ship with me coming out), working away\nnight and day in the \u201ccause,\u201d and always cheerfully and with a smile\non their faces--leading a life of extreme simplicity, penury almost,\nhaving no wages, but only bare board and lodging--with no chance even\nto return home if they get sick of the work, unless it were by the\nGeneral\u2019s order. \u201cI should have to work my way back on board ship if I\nwanted to go, but I shall not want to go, I shall be happy here,\u201d said\nJackson to me. These two at any rate I feel are animated by a genuine\nspirit. Whatever one may think of their judgment or their philosophy, I\nfeel that they really care for the lowest and most despised people and\nare glad to be friends and brothers with them--and after all that is\nbetter philosophy than is written in the books. They adopt the dress of\nthe people and wear turbans and no shoes; and most of them merge their\nhome identity and adopt a native name. Of course it is easy to say this\nis done out of mere religious conceit and bravado; but I am certain\nthat in many cases it springs from something much deeper than that.\n\nOne day I joined a party of five of them on their way to the Caves\nof Elephanta--\u201cCaptain\u201d and Mrs. Smith, \u201cSikandra\u201d (Alexander), and\ntwo others. Mrs. Smith is a nice-looking and real good woman of about\nthirty years of age, and Sikandra is a boy of ability and feeling who\nhas been out here about three years. They were all as nice and natural\nas could be (weren\u2019t pious at all), and we enjoyed our day no end--a\nthree hours\u2019 sail across the bay in a lateen-sailed boat with two\nnatives--the harbor a splendid sight, with its innumerable shipping,\nnative fish-boats, P. and O. and other liners, two or three ironclads,\nforts, lighthouses, etc.--and then on beyond all that to the retired\nside of the bay and the islands; picnic on Elephanta Island under the\nshade of a great tamarind tree--visit to the caves, etc.; and return\nacross the water at sundown.\n\nVery _Indian_ these islands--the hot smell of the ground covered with\ndead grass and leaves, the faint aromatic odor of sparse shrubs, with\nnow and then a waft of delicious fragrance from the little white\njessamine, the thorns and cactus, palms, and mighty tamarinds dropping\ntheir sweet-acid fruit. Then the sultry heat at midday, the sea lying\ncalm and blue below in haze, through which the ridged and rocky\nmountains of the mainland indistinctly loom, and the far white sails of\nboats; nearer, a few humped cows and a collection of primitive huts,\nlooking, from above, more like heaps of dead palm-leaves than human\nhabitations.\n\n[Illustration: THE GREAT CAVE AT ELEPHANTA.\n\n(_Some of the rock-pillars being restored, sculptured figures visible\nin background._)]\n\nThe great cave impressed me very much. I have not seen any other of\nthese Indian rock-sanctuaries, but this one gave me a greater sense\nof artistic power and splendid purpose than anything in the way of\nreligious architecture--be it mosque or Hindu temple--that I have seen\nin India. It is about half-way up the hillside from the water, and\nconsists of a huge oblong hall, 50 yards square, cut sheerly into the\nface of the rock, with lesser halls opening into it on each side. Huge\npillars of rock, boldly but symmetrically carved, are left in order to\nsupport the enormous weight above; and the inner roof is flat--except\nfor imitations of architraves running from pillar to pillar. The\ndaylight, entering in mass from the front, and partly also by ingenious\narrangement from the sides, is broken by the many great pillars, and\nsubdues itself at last into a luminous gloom in the interior--where\nhuge figures of the gods, 18 feet high, in strong relief or nearly\ndetached, stand out from the walls all round. These figures are nobly\nconceived and executed, and even now in their mutilated condition\nproduce an extraordinarily majestic effect, making the spectator fancy\nthat he has come into the presence of beings vastly superior to himself.\n\nOn the back wall immediately opposite the entrance are three huge\npanels of sculpture--the most important objects in the temple. The\nmidmost of these consists of three colossal heads--Brahma, Vishnu\nand Siva--united in one; Brahma of course full faced, the others in\nprofile. Each head with its surmounting tiara is some twelve feet\nhigh, and the portions of the busts represented add another six feet.\nThe whole is cut deep into the rock so as to be almost detached; and\nthe expression of the heads--which are slightly inclined forwards--is\nfull of reserved power and dignity. It is Brahm, the unrealisable\nand infinite god, the substratum of all, just dawning into multiple\nexistence--allowing himself to be seen in his first conceivable form.\n\nIn this trinity Vishnu of course represents the idea of Evolution--the\nprocess by which the inner spirit unfolds and generates the universe of\nsensible forms--as when a man wakes from sleep and lets his thoughts go\nout into light and definition; Siva represents the idea of Involution,\nby which thought and the sensible universe are indrawn again into\nquiescence; and Brahma represents the state which is neither Evolution\nnor Involution--and yet is both--existence itself, now first brought\ninto the region of thought through relation to Vishnu and Siva.\n\nEach figure with a hand upturned and resting on the base of its neck\nholds an emblem: Vishnu the lotus-flower of generation, Brahma the\ngourd of fruition, and Siva a cobra, the \u201cgood snake\u201d whose bite is\ncertain dissolution. Siva also has the third eye--the eye of the\ninterior vision of the universe, which comes to the man who adopts\nthe method of Involution. There is good reason to suppose, from marks\non the rock, that the recess in which this manifestation of deity is\ncarved was closed by a veil or screen, only to be drawn aside at times\nof great solemnity. A hollow behind the triple head is pointed out, in\nwhich it is supposed that a concealed priest could simulate the awful\ntones of the god.\n\n[Illustration: PANEL OF SIVA AND HIS CONSORT PARVATI, ELEPHANTA.]\n\nOf the three forms of the trinity Siva is the most popular in Hindu\ndevotion, and he forms the centre figure of all the other panels here.\nThe panel on the right of the principal one just described portrays\nthe next devolution of godhead--namely into the form of humanity--and\nrepresents Siva as a complete full length human being conjoining the\ntwo sexes in one person. This idea, of the original junction of the\nsexes, though it may be philosophically tenable, and though it is no\ndoubt supported by a variety of traditions--see the Bible, Plato,\netc.--and by certain interior experiences which have been noticed (and\nwhich are probably the sources of tradition) is inartistic enough when\ngraphically portrayed; and the main figure of this panel, with its left\nside projecting into a huge breast and hip, is only a monstrosity. As\nto the sexual parts themselves they are unfortunately quite defaced.\nThe cloud of moving figures however around and above, who seem to be\nwitnessing this transformation, are very spirited.\n\nThe third panel--on the left of the principal one--in which the\ndifferentiation is complete, and Siva and his consort Sakti or Parvati\nare represented side by side as complete male and female figures, in\nserene and graceful pose--he colossal and occupying nearly the centre\nof the panel, she smaller and a little to one side--is a great success.\nRound them in the space above their heads a multitude of striding\nclean-legged figures bear witness to the energy of creation now fully\nmanifested in this glorious pair.\n\nThe rest of the panels though still colossal are on a slightly smaller\nscale, and seem to represent the human-divine life of Siva: his actual\nmarriage, his abandonment of home, his contest with R\u00e1vana, his\nterrible triumph over and slaughter of his enemies, his retirement\ninto solitude and meditation, and his ultimate reabsorption into\nBrahm, figured by his frenzied dance in the \u201chall of illimitable\nhappiness\u201d--that most favorite subject of the Hindu sculptors. This\nlast panel--though the legs and arms are all broken--has extraordinary\nvigor and animation, and is one of the very best. The whole series\nin fact, to those who can understand, is a marvelous panorama of the\nhuman soul. The work is full of allegorical touches and hints, yet\nhardly ever becomes grotesque or inartistic. It provides suggestions\nof the profoundest philosophy, yet the rudest peasant walking through\nthese dim arcades could not but be affected by what he sees. In every\ndirection there are signs of \u201cgo\u201d and primitive power which point to\nits production as belonging to a time (probably about the 10th cent.\nA.D.) of early vigor and mastery and of grand conception.\n\n[Illustration: INTERIOR SHRINE, ELEPHANTA.]\n\nI should not forget to mention that in a square chamber also hewn out\nof the rock, but accessible by a door in each of the four sides, is a\nhuge lingam--which was probably also kept concealed except on great\noccasions; and round the exterior walls of the chamber, looking down\nthe various aisles of the temple, are eight enormous guardian figures,\nof fine and composed workmanship. (See illustration--in which a man\nis standing beneath the torso of the nearest figure.) Altogether the\nspirit of the whole thing is to my mind infinitely finer than that of\nthe South Indian temples, which with their courts and catacomb-like\ninteriors suggest no great ideas, but only a general sense of mystery\nand of Brahmanical ascendancy.\n\n_March 6th._--A little after sunset yesterday \u201cSikandra\u201d took me to\nsee an opium den in the native quarter. It was rather early, as the\ncustomers were only just settling in, but the police close these places\nat nine. Much what I expected. A dark dirty room with raised wide bench\nround the sides, on which folk could lie, with little smoky lamps for\nthem to burn their opium. For three pice you get a little thimbleful of\nlaudanum, and by continually taking a drop on the end of a steel prong\nand frizzling it in the flame you at last raise a viscid lump hardly as\nbig as a pea, which you put in a pipe, and then holding the mouth of\nthe pipe in the flame, draw breath. Two or three whiffs of thick smoke\nare thus obtained--and then more stuff has to be prepared; but the\npoison soon begins to work, and before long the smoker lies motionless,\nwith his eyes open and his pipe dropping out of his hand. I spoke to\na man who was just preparing his dose, and who looked very thin and\nmiserable, asking him if he did not find it damage his health; but he\nsaid that he could not get along without it--if he gave it up for a day\nor two he could not do his work, and felt nervous and ill.\n\nThe effect of these drugs, opium, haschisch (hemp or ganja),[6] as well\nas of laughing gas, sulphuric ether, etc., is no doubt to produce a\nsuspension of the specially bodily and local faculties for the time,\nand with it an inner illumination and consciousness, very beatific and\nsimulating the real \u201cecstasy.\u201d Laughing gas (nitrous oxide) produces a\nspecies of illumination and intuition into the secrets of the universe\nat times--as in the case of Sir Humphry Davy, who first used it on\nhimself and who woke up exclaiming, \u201cNothing exists but thoughts! the\nuniverse is composed of impressions, ideas, pleasures and pains.\u201d The\nfeelings induced by opium and haschisch have often been described\nin somewhat similar terms; and it has to be remembered that many\nmuch-abused practices--indulgence in various drugs and strong drinks,\nmesmeric trance-states, frantic dancing and singing, as well as violent\nasceticisms, self-tortures, etc.--owe their hold upon humanity to the\nsame fact, namely that they induce in however remote and imperfect a\ndegree or by however unhealthy a method some momentary realisation of\nthat state of cosmic consciousness of which we have spoken, and of the\nhappiness attending it--the intensity of which happiness may perhaps be\nmeasured by the strength of these very abuses occurring in the search\nfor it, and may perhaps be compared, for its actual force as a motive\nof human conduct, with the intensity of the sexual orgasm.\n\n    [6] As a curiosity of derivation it appears that these two\n        words _hemp_ and _ganja_ are from the same root: Sanskrit\n        _goni_, _ganjika_; Persian, Greek and Latin, _cannabis_;\n        French _chanvre_; German _Hanf_; Dutch _hennep_. _Canvas_\n        also is the same word.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOne evening two or three friends that I had made among the native\n\u201cproletariat\u201d--post-office and railway clerks--insisted on giving me a\nlittle entertainment. I was driven down to the native city, and landed\nin a garden-like court with little cottages all round. To one of these\nwe were invited. Found quite a collection of people; numbers increasing\non my arrival till there must have been about fifty. Just a little\nfront room nine feet square, with no furniture except one folding chair\nwhich had been brought from heaven knows where in my honor. A nice rug\nhad been placed on the ground, and pillows round the walls; and the\ncompany soon settled down, either inside the room (having left their\nshoes at the door), or in the verandah. A musician had been provided,\nin the shape of an old man who had a variety of instruments and handled\nthem skilfully as far as I could judge. But the performance was rather\nwearisome and lasted an unconscionably long time.\n\nIt was very curious to me, as a contrast to English ways, to see all\nthese youngish fellows sitting round listening to this rather stupid\nold man playing by the hour--so quiescent and _resigned_ if one might\nuse the word. They are so fond of simply doing nothing; their legs\ncrossed and heads meditatively bent forward; clerks, small foremen and\nbookkeepers, and some probably manual workers--looking very nice and\nclean withal in their red turbans and white or black shawls or coats.\n\nThere is a certain tastefulness and grace always observable in India.\nHere I could not but notice, not only the Mahratta dress, but all the\ninterior scene; plain color-washed walls edged with a running pattern,\nthe forms of the various instruments, a few common bowls brought in to\nserve as musical glasses, the brass pot from which water was poured\ninto them--all _artistic_ in design and color, though the house was of\ntiniest proportions--only apparently two or three rooms, of the same\nsize as that one.\n\nAfter the music a little general conversation ensued, with coffee\nand cigarettes, talk of course turning on the inevitable Congress\nquestion and the relations of England and India--a subject evidently\nexciting the deepest interest in those present; but not much I think\nwas added to former conversations. One of the company (a post-office\nclerk) says that all the educated and thoughtful people in India are\nwith the Congress, to which I reply that it is much the same with the\nsocialist movement in the West. He thinks--and they all seem to agree\nwith him--that the condition of the agricultural people is decidedly\nworse than it used to be; but when I ask for evidence there is not\nmuch forthcoming, except references to Digby. I guess the statement is\non the whole true, but the obvious difficulty of corroborating these\nthings is very great; the absence of records of the past, the vastness\nof India, the various conditions in different parts, etc., etc., make\nit very difficult to come to any general and sweeping conclusion.\nThe same friend pointed out (from Digby) that mere statistics of the\nincreasing wealth of India were quite illusive \u201cas they only indicated\nthe increase of profits to merchants and foreigners, and had nothing to\ndo with the general prosperity\u201d; and to this I quite agreed, telling\nhim that we had had plenty of statistics of the same kind in England;\nbut that this was only what might be expected, as the ruling classes\nin both countries being infected with commercialism would naturally\nmeasure political success by trade-profits, and frame their laws too\nchiefly in view of a success of that kind.\n\nSeveral of those present maintained that it was quite a mistake to say\nthe Mahomedans are against the Congress; a certain section of them\nis, but only a section, and education is every day tending to destroy\nthese differences and race-jealousies. I put the question seriously to\nthem whether they really thought that within 50 or 100 years all these\nold race-differences, between Mahomedan and Hindu, Hindu and Eurasian,\nor between all the sections of Hindus, would be lost in a sense of\nnational unity. Their reply was, \u201cYes, undoubtedly.\u201d Education, they\nthought, would abolish the ill-feeling that existed, and indeed was\ndoing so rapidly; there would soon be one common language, the English;\nand one common object, namely the realisation of Western institutions.\nWhether right or not in their speculations, it is interesting to find\nthat such is the ideal of hundreds of thousands of the bulk-people of\nIndia now-a-days. Everywhere indeed one meets with these views. The\nBritisher in India may and does scoff at these ideals, and probably\nin a sense he is right. It may be (indeed it seems to me quite likely\nto be) impossible for a very long time yet to realise anything of the\nkind. At the same time who would not be touched by the uprising of a\nwhole people towards such a dream of new and united life? And indeed\nthe dream itself--like all other dreams--is a long step, perhaps the\nmost important step, towards its own realisation.\n\nThus we chatted away till about midnight, when with mutual compliments,\nand the usual presents of flowers to the parting guest, we separated.\nThese fellows evidently prize a little English society very much;\nfor though they learn our language in the schools and use it in the\nbusiness of every-day life, it rarely, very rarely, happens that they\nactually get into any friendly conversation with an Englishman; and I\nfound that I was able to give them useful information--as for instance\nabout methods of getting books out from England--and to answer a\nvariety of other questions, which were really touching in the latent\nsuggestion they contained of the utter absence of any such help under\nordinary circumstances. It struck me indeed how much a few unpretending\nand friendly Englishmen might do to endear our country to this people.\n\n[Illustration: SIDE CAVE, ELEPHANTA.]\n\nIt is quite a sight at night walking home--however late one may\nbe--to see on the maidans and open spaces bright lamps placed on the\ndusty turf, and groups of Parsees and others sitting round them on\nmats--playing cards, and enjoying themselves very composedly. Round\nthe neighborhood of the Bunder quay and the club-houses and hotels the\nscene is rather more gay and frivolous. How pleasant and cool the night\nair, and yet not too cool! The darkies sleep out night-long by hundreds\nin these places and on the pavements under the trees. They take their\ncloths, wrap them under their feet, bring them over their heads, and\ntuck them in at the sides; and lie stretched straight out, with or\nwithout a mat under them, looking for all the world like laid-out\ncorpses.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_Indian Ocean._--On the way to Aden. The harbor of Bombay looked very\nbeautiful as we glided out in the SS. _Siam_--with its variegated\nshore and islands and shipping. I went down into my berth to have a\nsleep, and when I awoke we were out of sight of India or any land. Most\nlovely weather; impossible to believe that England is shivering under\na March sky, with north-east winds and gloom. The sea oily-calm; by\nday suffused with sunlight up to the farthest horizon--only broken,\nand that but seldom, by the back-fin of a porpoise, or the glance of\nflying-fish; by night gleaming faintly with the reflection of the\nstars and its own phosphorescence. Last night the sea was like a vast\nmirror, so smooth--every brighter star actually given again in wavering\nbeauty in the world below--the horizon softly veiled so that it was\nimpossible to tell where the two heavens (between which one seemed\nsuspended) might meet. All so tender and calm and magnificent. Canopus\nand the Southern Cross and the Milky Way forming a great radiance in\nthe south; far ahead to the west Orion lying on his side, and Sirius,\nand the ruddy Aldebaran setting. Standing in the bows there was nothing\nbetween one and this immense world--nothing even to show that the\nship was moving, except the rush of water from the bows--which indeed\nseemed an uncaused and unaccountable phenomenon. The whole thing was\nlike a magic and beautiful poem. The phosphorescent stars (tiny jelly\ncreatures) floating on the surface kept gliding swiftly over those\nother stars that lay so deep below; sometimes the black ocean-meadows\nseemed to be sown thick with them like daisies. The foam round the bows\nlay like a luminous necklace to the ship, and fell continually over in\na cascade of brilliant points, while now and then some bigger jelly\ntossed in the surge threw a glare up even in our faces.\n\nOne might stand for hours thus catching the wind of one\u2019s own speed--so\nsoft, so mild, so warm--the delicate aroma of the sea, the faint far\nsuggestion of the transparent air and water, wafting, encircling one\nround. And indeed all my journey has been like this--so smooth, so\nunruffled, as if one had not really been moving. I have several times\nthought, and am inclined to think even now, that perhaps one has not\nleft home at all, but that it has been a fair panorama that has been\ngliding past one all these months.\n\n\n\n\nTHE OLD ORDER\n\nAND\n\nTHE NEW INFLUENCES\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\nTHE OLD ORDER: CASTE AND COMMUNISM.\n\n\nThere is certainly a most remarkable movement taking place in India\nto-day, towards modern commercialism and Western education and ideas,\nand away from the old caste and communal system of the past--a movement\nwhich while it is in some ways the reverse of our Western socialist\nmovement answers curiously to it in the rapidity and intensity of its\ndevelopment and in the enthusiasm which it inspires. The movement is of\ncourse at present confined to the towns, and even in these to sections\nand coteries--the 90 per cent. agricultural population being as yet\npractically unaffected by it--but here again it is the old story of the\nbulk of the population being stirred and set in motion by the energetic\nfew, or at any rate following at some distance on their lead; and we\nmay yet expect to see this take place in the present case.\n\nKnowing as we do at home the evils which attend our commercial and\ncompetitive order of society it is difficult to understand the interest\nwhich it arouses in India, until we realise the decay and degradation\ninto which caste and the ancient communism have fallen. On these latter\ninstitutions commercialism is destined to act as a solvent, and though\nit is not likely that it will obliterate them--considering how deeply\nthey are rooted in the genius of the Indian people, and considering\nhow utterly dissimilar that genius is to the genius of the West--still\nit may fairly be hoped that it will clean away a great deal of rubbish\nthat has accumulated round them, and free them to be of some use again\nin the future, when the present movement will probably have had its\nfling and passed away. On all sides in India one meets with little\npoints and details which remind one of the Feudal system in our own\nlands; and as this passed in its due time into the commercial system\nso will it be in India--only there is a good deal to indicate that the\ndisease, or whatever it is, will not be taken so severely in India as\nin the West, and will run its course and pass over in a shorter time.\n\nThe complexity into which the caste system has grown since the days\nwhen society was divided into four castes only--Brahmans, Kshattriyas,\nVaisyas, and Sudras--is something most extraordinary. Race, occupation\nand geographical position have all had their influence in the growth\nof this phenomenon. When one hears that the Brahmans alone are\ndivided into 1,886 separate classes or tribes, one begins to realise\nwhat a complicated affair it is. \u201cThe Brahmans,\u201d says Hunter in his\n_Indian Empire_, \u201cso far from being a compact unit are made up of\nseveral hundred castes who cannot intermarry nor eat food cooked\nby each other.\u201d Of course locality has a good deal to do with this\nsub-division; and it is said that a Brahman of the North-West is the\nmost select, and can prepare food for all classes of Brahmans (it\nbeing a rule of all high caste that one must not touch food cooked\nby an inferior caste); but family and genealogical descent also no\ndoubt have a good deal to do with it; and as to employment, even among\nthe Brahmans, though manual labor is a degradation in their eyes,\nplentiful individuals may be found who follow such trades as shepherds,\nfishermen, porters, potters, etc. Dr. Wilson of Bombay wrote two large\nvolumes of his projected great work on Caste, and then died; but had\nnot finished his first subject, the Brahmans!\n\nIn the present day the Brahmans are I believe pretty equally\ndistributed all over India, forming their own castes among the other\nraces and castes, but of course not intermarrying with them, doing as\na rule little or no manual work, but clustering in thousands round\ntemples and holy places, full of greed and ever on the look-out for\nmoney. Though ignorant mostly, still they have good opportunities in\ntheir colleges for learning, and some are very learned. They alone\ncan perform the temple services and priestly acts generally; and\noftentimes they do not disguise their contempt for the inferior castes,\nwithdrawing their skirts pharisaically as they pass, or compelling an\nold and infirm person to descend into the muddy road while they occupy\nthe narrow vantage of the footway.\n\nThis pharisaism of caste marks not only the Brahmans, but other\nsections; a thousand vexatious rules and regulations hedge in the\nlife of every \u201ctwice-born\u201d man; and the first glance at the streets\nof an Indian town makes one conscious of something antagonistic to\n_humanity_, in the broad sense by which it affords a common ground to\nthe meeting of any two individuals. There are difficulties in the way\nof mere human converse. Not only do people not eat together (except\nthey belong to the same section); but they don\u2019t _touch_ each other\nvery freely; don\u2019t shake hands, obviously; even the terms of greeting\nare scanty. A sort of chill strikes one: a _noli-me-tangere_ sentiment,\nwhich drives one (as usual) to find some of the most grateful company\namong the outcast. Yet the people are disposed to be friendly, and in\nfact are sensitive and clinging by nature; but this is the form of\nsociety into which they have grown.\n\nThe defence of the system from the native religious point of view is\nthat Caste defines a man\u2019s position and duties at once, limits him to\na certain area of life, with its temptations and possibilities and\nresponsibilities--(caste for instance puts a check on traveling; to go\nto sea is to break all bounds)--and saves him therefore from unbridled\nlicense and the insane scramble of the West; restricts his outward\nworld and so develops the inward; narrows his life and so causes it\nto reach higher--as trees thickly planted spire upward to the sky.\nCaste, it is said, holds society in a definite form, without which\nvague turmoil would for ever ensue, distracting men to worldly cares\nand projects and rendering them incapable of the higher life. When\nhowever this last is developed within an individual, then--for him--the\nsanction of caste ceases, and he acknowledges it no more. As to the\ncriticism--so obvious from the Western point of view--of the unfairness\nthat a man should be confined all his life to that class or stratum in\nwhich he is born, to the Indian religioner this is nothing; since he\nbelieves that each man _is_ born in those surroundings of life which\nbelong to his stage of progress, and must get the experience which\nbelongs to that stage before moving farther.\n\nHowever this may be, the rigidity of caste as it yet exists gives a\nstrange shock to one\u2019s democratic notions. \u201cOnce a _dhobi_ always\na _dhobi_,\u201d says the proverb. The washerman (dhobi) is one of the\npoorest and most despised of men; the word is in fact a common term\nof reproach; but once a washerman, a washerman (save in the rarest\ncases) you will remain. And once a pariah always a pariah--a thing\nthat no caste man will touch. Yet--and here comes in the extraordinary\ntranscendental democracy (if one may call it so) of the Hindu\nreligion--Brahm himself, the unnameable God, is sometimes called\nthe _dhobi_, and some of the greatest religious teachers, including\nTiruvalluvar, the author of the Kurral, have been drawn from the ranks\nof the Pariahs.\n\nThe English themselves in India hardly realise how strong are the\ncaste feelings and habits among all but the few natives who have\nfairly broken with the system. At a levee some few years back a\nLieut.-Governor, to show his cordial feeling towards a native Rajah,\nput his hand on the prince\u2019s shoulder, while speaking to him; but the\nlatter, as soon as he could decently disengage himself, hurried home\nand took a bath, to purify himself from the touch! Nor to this day can\nthe mass of the people of India get over the disgust and disapprobation\nthey felt towards the English when they found that they insisted on\neating _beef_--a thing that only the very lowest classes will touch;\nindeed this habit has not only done a good deal to alienate the\nsympathies of the people, but it is one of the chief reasons why the\nEnglish find it so hard or next to impossible to get servants of good\ncaste.\n\nAn acquaintance of mine in Ceylon who belongs to the Vell\u00e1la caste told\nme that on one occasion he paid a visit to a friend of his in India who\nbelonged to the same caste but a different section of it. They had a\nBrahman cook, who prepared the food for both of them, but who being of\na higher caste could not eat _after_ them; while _they_ could not eat\ntogether because they did not belong to the same section. The Brahman\ncook therefore ate _his_ dinner first, and then served up the remainder\nseparately to the two friends, who sat at different tables with a\ncurtain hanging between them!\n\nI myself knew of a case in which an elderly native gentleman was quite\nput to it, and had to engage an extra servant, because, though he had\na man already who could cook and draw water for him to drink, this man\nwas not of the right caste to fill his bath! Can one wonder, when caste\nregulations have fallen into such pettiness, that the more advanced\nspirits hail with acclaim any new movement which promises deliverance\nfrom the bondage?\n\nAnother curious element in the corruption of caste is the growth of the\ntyranny of respectability. Among certain sections--mainly I imagine the\nmerchant and trading castes--some of the members becoming rich form\nthemselves into little coteries which take to themselves the government\nof the caste, and while not altogether denying their communal\nfellowship with, do not also altogether conceal their contempt for,\nthe poorer members, and the divergence of their own interests and\nstandards from those of the masses. Of course with this high-flying\nrespectability goes very often (as with us) a pharisaical observance of\nreligious ordinances, and a good deal of so-called philanthropy.\n\nI have before me a little book called \u201cThe Story of a Widow\nRe-marriage,\u201d written by a member of the Bunya caste, and printed (for\nprivate circulation) at Bombay in 1890. The author of this book some\nyears ago married--in defiance of all the proprieties of high-caste\nHinduism--a lady who was already a widow; and he tells the story of\nthis simple act and the consequent caste-persecution which he had to\nendure in a style so genuine and at once na\u00efve and shrewd that the\nbook is really most interesting. The poor girl whom he married had\nlost her husband some years before: he in fact was a mere boy and she\na child at the time of his death. Now she was an \u201cunlucky woman,\u201d a\nwidow--one of those destined to spend all her life under a ban, to\nwear black, to keep away from any festivity lest she should mar it by\nher presence. \u201cWhat happiness in the world have I,\u201d said she, when the\nauthor at their first meeting condoled with her on her fate; \u201cnothing\nbut death can relieve me of all my woes. I have abjured food for the\nlast twelve months; I live only on a pice-worth of curd from day to\nday. I starve myself, in order that any how my end may come as soon\nas possible. I have often thought,\u201d she continued, \u201cof committing\nsuicide by drowning myself in the sea or in the neighboring tank of\nWalkeshwar, or by taking opium. But there are many considerations which\nhold me back. According to our Brahmans the Shastras say that those who\ncommit suicide are doomed to die a similar death seven times over in\ntheir future existence. Moreover I myself believe that taking one\u2019s own\nlife is as sinful as taking the life of any other person. This gives\nme pause, and I do not do what I would do. I have however forsaken all\nfood, in order that the happy deliverance may come to me in a short\ntime. I have nothing in this life to live for. If I had a child of my\nown, I would have had some cause for hope.\u201d\n\nMoved by the sufferings of the unhappy Dhunkore, as well as by her\nyouth and beauty, Madhowdas fell genuinely in love with her; and she,\nin return, with him; and ere long they determined--notwithstanding\nthe relentless persecution of the more influential members of the\ncaste, which they knew would follow--to get married. Madhowdas was in\nbusiness, and there was the utmost danger that he would be boycotted\nand ruined. To Dhunkore her chief trouble was the thought of the grief\nthis step would occasion to her mother (with whom she lived). She might\nbe intimate with Madhowdas \u201cunder the rose\u201d--that would be venial; she\nmight if there were any serious consequences go a \u201cpilgrimage,\u201d as so\nmany widows do, to some quiet place where a delivery would not attract\nattention; but to be publicly married--that could never be forgiven.\nNot only her wealthy relations, but even her mother, would never see\nher again. So inexcusable would be the act, so dire its consequences.\n\nNevertheless the pair decided to go through with it. With the utmost\nsecrecy they made their preparations, knowing well that if any\nrumors got abroad the arrangements would likely be interfered with\nby mercenary violence; the young woman might even be kidnapped--as\nhad happened in a similar case before. Only sympathisers and a few\nwitnesses were invited to the actual ceremony, which however was safely\nperformed--partly owing to the presence of a European officer and a\nbody of police! The next morning the _Times of India_, the _Gazette_,\nand other Bombay papers were out with an account of the widow\nre-marriage, and the native city was convulsed with excitement--the\ncommunity being immediately divided (though very unequally) into two\nhostile camps over their views of it.\n\nThe mother\u2019s alarm at the mysterious disappearance of Dhunkore was only\npartly allayed when she found among her daughter\u2019s trinkets a little\nnote: \u201cBe it known to my dear mother that not being able to bear the\ncruel pangs of widowhood, I forsook all kinds of food, and ate only\na piece of curd every day. The consequence was that I became very\nweak, but did not die, as I hoped.... My dear mother, it is not at all\nlikely that we shall meet again hereafter. You may therefore take me\nfor dead. But I shall be very happy if I ever hear from the lips of\nany one that you are all doing well. I have not done this thing at the\ninstigation of any one, but have resolved upon it of my own free will;\nso you will not blame anybody for it. I have taken away nothing from\nyour house, and you will kindly see for yourself that your property is\nquite safe....\u201d And the alarm was changed into dismay when the news\ncame of what had really happened. A meeting of wealthy relations and\ninfluential members of the caste was called; everything was done to\ndamage the credit and ruin the business of Madhowdas; and finally he\nand his wife were solemnly excommunicated!\n\nThe pair however struggled on, contending against many difficulties and\ntrials, and supported by a few friends, both among their own caste and\nthe resident English, for some years. Though crippled, their worldly\nprospects were not ruined. Gradually Madhowdas established himself\nand his business, drew round him a small circle of the more advanced\nspirits, settled in a roomy house at Girgaon, and snapped his fingers\nat his enemies. Indeed his house became a centre of propaganda on the\nsubject of widows\u2019 wrongs, and an asylum for other couples situated\nas he and his wife had been; meetings, of both English and native\nspeakers, were held there; quite a number of marriages were celebrated\nthere; and it appears that the house, to confirm its mission, now goes\nby the name of \u201cWidow Re-marriage Hall!\u201d\n\nBut what I set out to note in telling this story was the curious way\nin which wealth asserts itself even in the caste system of India to\nform a tyranny of so-called respectability and of orthodoxy--dividing\nthe caste, in some cases at any rate, into distinct parties not unlike\nthose which exist in our society at home. \u201cThe real opponents of\nwidow re-marriage,\u201d says Madhowdas in his book, \u201care not generally\nthe simple and poor members of a caste, but its Shetthias. They pose\nbefore the public as the most enlightened members of their caste. In\ntheir conversation with European or Parsi acquaintances they declare\nthemselves to be ardent advocates of social reform, and they pretend\nto deplore the folly, the stupidity, and the ignorance of their\ncaste-fellows. But as a matter of fact it is these same Shetthias,\nthese leading citizens, these enlightened members of society, who\nare really the bitterest and most uncompromising enemies of social\nprogress.... Can the reformer turn to the educated classes for help? I\nam grieved to say, yet the truth must be told, that their moral fibre\nis capable of a great deal of strengthening; and as to their active\nfaculties, they still lie perfectly dormant. They have indeed the\nintelligence to perceive social evils. But their moral indignation on\nthe tyranny and barbarism of custom evaporates in words.... A race of\nidle babblers these. They will speak brave words from the political\nplatform about their country\u2019s wrongs and their countrymen\u2019s rights.\nBut talk to them of something to be done, some little sacrifice to\nbe made, they will shrink away, each one making his own excuse for\nhis backsliding.... The world generally believes them; and if they\noccasionally give a few thousand rupees towards some charity, their\nreputation for liberality and large-mindedness is confirmed still more,\nand their fame is trumpeted forth by newspapers as men of munificence\nand enlightenment.\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt must not be thought however, because the caste-system is in many\nways corrupt and effete, that it is without its better and more\nenduring features--even in the present day. Within the caste there\nis a certain communal feeling, which draws or tends to draw all the\nmembers together, as forming a corporate body for common ends and\nfellowship, and giving every member a claim on the rest in cases of\ndistress or disability. Moreover a great many of the castes, being\nfounded on hereditary occupation, form trade societies, having their\nown committees of management, and rules and regulations, fines,\nfeasts and mutual benefit arrangements, almost quite similar to our\nold trade-guilds and modern unions. Thus there are the goldsmiths\n(a powerful caste which in South India, says Hunter, for centuries\nresisted the rule of the Brahmans, and claimed to be the religious\nteachers, and wore the sacred thread), the brass-workers, the weavers,\nthe fishers, and scores of others--each divided into numerous\nsub-sections. The caste-guild in these cases regulates wages, checks\ncompetition, and punishes delinquents; the decisions of the guild being\nenforced by fines, by causing the offender to entertain all his fellows\nat a feast, and by other sanctions. The guild itself derives its\nfunds not only from fines, but also from entrance fees paid by those\nbeginning to practise the craft, and from other sources. In any case\nwhether trade-guild or not, the caste--while it assures its members\nagainst starvation--exercises a continual surveillance over them, as we\nhave seen in the case of Madhowdas--extending to excommunication and\neven expulsion. Excommunication being of three kinds: (1) from _eating_\nwith other members of the caste, (2) from _marriage_ with them, and\n(3) from use of the local barber, washerman, and priest. Expulsion is\nrare; and it is said that it seldom takes place unless the offender is\na real bad lot.\n\nAs an instance of trade-unionism in caste, Hunter mentions the case\nof the bricklayers at Ahmedabad in 1873. Some of the bricklayers were\nworking overtime, and thus were getting a few pence a day extra, while\nat the same time others of them were unemployed. The guild therefore\nheld a meeting, and decided to forbid the overtime--the result of which\nwas that employment was found for all.\n\nWhen I was at Kurun\u00e9gala in Ceylon, an amusing dispute took place\nbetween the barber caste and the Brahmans of the locality. The\nbarbers--though a very necessary element of Hindu society, as shaving\nis looked upon as a very important, almost religious, function, and is\npractised in a vast variety of forms by the different sections--are\nstill somewhat despised as a low caste; and it appeared that the\nBrahmans of the place had given offence to them by refusing to enter\nthe barbers\u2019 houses in order to perform certain religious ceremonies\nand purifications--the Brahmans no doubt being afraid of contaminating\nthemselves thereby. Thereupon the barbers held a caste meeting, and\ndecided to boycott the Brahmans by refusing to shave them. This was a\nblow to the latter, as without being properly scraped they could not\nperform their ceremonies, and to have to shave themselves would be an\nunheard-of indignity. _They_ therefore held a meeting, the result of\nwhich was that they managed to get a barber from a distant place--a\nkind of blackleg--who probably belonged to some other section of the\nbarber community--to come over and do their scraping for them. Things\nwent on merrily thus for a while, and the blackleg no doubt had good\ntimes, when--in consequence of another barbers\u2019 meeting--he was one\nday spirited away, and disappeared for good, being seen no more. The\nbarbers also, in defiance of the Brahmans, appointed a priest from\namong their own body to do their own religious choring for them--and\nthe Brahmans were routed all along the line. What steps were taken\nafter this I do not know, as about that time I left the place.\n\nWhen at Bombay I had another instance of how the caste-guild acts as a\ntrade-union, and to check competition among its members. I was wanting\nto buy some specimens of brass-work, and walking down a street where\nI knew there were a number of brass-workers\u2019 shops, was surprised\nto find them all closed. I then proposed to my companion, who was\na Hindu, that we should go to another street where there were also\nbrass-workers\u2019 shops; but he said it would be no good, as he believed\nthis was a half-holiday of the brass-workers\u2019 caste. \u201cBut,\u201d I said, \u201cif\nit is a half-holiday, there may yet be some who will keep their shops\nopen in order to get the custom.\u201d \u201cOh, no,\u201d he replied with a smile at\nmy ignorance, \u201cthey would not do that; it would be against all caste\nrules.\u201d\n\nThus we see that the caste-system contains valuable social elements,\nand ancient as it is may even teach us a lesson or two in regard to the\norganization of trades.\n\nWhen we come to the other great feature of Indian social life,\nCommunism, we find it existing under three great forms--agricultural,\ncaste, and family communism. Of the first of these--agricultural\ncommunism--I know personally but little, having had no opportunity of\nreally studying the agricultural life. The conditions of village tenure\nvary largely all over India, but apparently in every part there may be\ntraced more or less distinctly the custom of holding lands in common,\nas in the primitive village life of Germany and England. In most Indian\nvillages there are still extensive outlying lands which are looked upon\nas the property of the community; and of the inlying and more settled\nlands, their cultivation, inheritance, etc., are largely ruled by\ncommon custom and authority. Maine, however, points out in his _Village\nCommunities_ that the sense of individual property, derived from\ncontact with the West, is even now rapidly obliterating these ancient\ncustoms of joint tenure.\n\nOf the second, the caste communism, I have already spoken. It no doubt\nis less strongly marked than it was; but still exists, not certainly\nas an absolute community of goods, but as a community of feeling and\ninterest, and some degree of mutual assistance among the members of\nthe caste. The third is the family communism; and this is still pretty\nstrongly marked, though the first beginnings of its disintegration are\nnow appearing.\n\nIn speaking of the Family it must be understood that a much larger\nunit is meant than we should denote by the term--comparatively distant\nrelations being included; and there seems to be a tacit understanding\nthat the members of this larger Family or Clan have a claim on each\nother, so that any one in need can fairly expect support and assistance\nfrom the others, and without feeling humiliated by receiving it. This\nhas its good side--in the extended family life and large-heartedness\nthat it produces, as well as in its tendency to keep wealth distributed\nand to prevent people playing too much for their own hands; but it\nhas its drawbacks, chiefly in the opportunity it affords to idle\n\u201cne\u2019er-do-weels\u201d to sponge upon their friends.\n\nI have mentioned the case (p. 90) of a young man who came to read\nEnglish with me in Ceylon, and who, though married and having children,\nturned out to be living with and dependent on his parents. I must not\nspeak of this as a case of a ne\u2019er-do-weel, as the fellow was genuinely\ninterested in literature, and was in the habit of giving lectures on\nphilosophy in his native place--and if one began calling such people\nnames, one might not know where to stop; but to our Western notions it\nwas a curious arrangement. Certainly a Bengali gentleman whom I met\none day complained to me very bitterly of the system. He said that he\nwas in an official position and receiving a moderate salary, and the\nconsequence was that his relatives all considered him a fair prey. He\nnot only had his own wife and children, and his father and mother, to\nsupport--of which he would not make a grievance; but he had two or\nthree younger brothers, who though of age had not yet found anything\nto do, and were calmly living on at his cost; and besides these there\nwere two aunts of his, who had both married one man. The husband of\nthe aunts had died leaving one of them with children, and now he, the\ncomplainant, was expected to provide for both aunts and children,\nbesides the rest of his family already mentioned! To a man once bitten\nwith the idea of \u201cgetting on\u201d in the Western sense of the word, one\ncan imagine how galling it must be to have indefinite strings of\nrelations clinging around one\u2019s neck; and one can guess how forcibly\nthe competitive idea is already beginning to act towards the disruption\nof family communism.\n\nIn Calcutta and other places I noticed considerable numbers of\ngrown youths loafing about with nothing to do, and apparently with\nno particular intention of doing anything as long as their friends\nwould support them. And this no doubt is a great evil, but I think it\nwould be hardly fair to lay it all at the door of the family communal\nhabits. It is rather to the contact of the old communal life with\nthe new order of things, and to the dislocation of the former which\nensues, that we must attribute the evil. For under the old order a\nyouth growing up would no doubt, by the obligations of his caste,\nreligion, etc., have his duties and calling so distinctly set out\nfor him, that the danger of his giving himself up to idleness and\ninfringing on the hospitality of his family would seldom arise; but now\nthe commercial and competitive r\u00e9gime, while loosening his old caste\nand religious sanctions, often leaves him quite unprovided with any\nopening in life--indeed forbids him an opening except at the cost of a\nstruggle with his fellows--and so tempts him to relapse into a state of\ndependence.\n\nThe closeness of the family tie still subsisting is, when all is said,\na beautiful thing. The utmost respect is accorded to parents; and to\nstrike a father or mother is (as I think I have already remarked) an\nalmost unheard-of crime. I was much impressed in talking to Justice\nTelang at Bombay by the way in which he spoke of his parents. I had\nasked him whether he intended coming over to England for the National\nCongress--to be held in London in 1893--and reply was that he should\nlike to, but his parents \u201cwould not let him\u201d (no doubt on account of\nthe loss of caste in crossing the sea). This from a man of forty,\nand one of the leading Mahrattas, indeed one of the most influential\npoliticians in Bombay, was sufficiently striking; but it was said with\na tenderness that made one feel that he would forego almost anything\nrather than wound those of whom he spoke.\n\nThus as in the social progress of the West the sword descending\ndivides, with often painful estrangement, brother from sister, and\nchild from parent; so is it also in the East. Only that in the East the\ncloseness of the parental tie makes the estrangement more odious and\nmore painful, and adds proportionately to the obstacles which lie in\nthe path of progress.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\n\nTHE NEW INFLUENCES: WESTERN SCIENCE AND COMMERCIALISM.\n\n\nThe first objects that I saw in India--indeed I saw them while still\nwell out at sea--were a lighthouse and a factory chimney! This was at\nTuticorin, a little place in the extreme south; but afterwards I found\nthat these objects represented remarkably well the vast spread of\nWestern influences all over the country, in their two great main forms,\nscience and commercialism.\n\nI had no idea, until I landed, how Western ideas and education have\nof late years overrun the cities and towns, even down to the small\ntowns, of India; but I was destined to be speedily enlightened on this\nsubject. Having a few hours to spare at Tuticorin, I was walking up and\ndown by the sad sea-waves when I noticed a youth of about seventeen\nreading a book. Glancing over his shoulder, to my surprise I saw it\nwas our old friend \u201cTodhunter\u2019s Euclid.\u201d The youth looked like any\nother son of the people, undistinguished for wealth or rank--for in\nthis country there is no great distinction in dress between rich and\npoor--simply clad in his cotton or muslin wrap, with bare head and\nbare feet; and naturally I remonstrated with him on his conduct. \u201cO\nyes,\u201d he said in English, \u201cI am reading Euclid--I belong to Bishop\nCaldwell\u2019s College.\u201d--\u201cBishop Caldwell\u2019s College?\u201d--\u201cYes,\u201d he said,\n\u201cit is a large college here, with 200 boys, from ages of 13 or 14 up\nto 23 or 24.\u201d--\u201cIndeed, and what do you read?\u201d--\u201cOh, we read Algebra\nand Euclid,\u201d he replied enthusiastically, \u201cand English History and\nNatural Science and Mill\u2019s Political Economy, and\u201d (but here his voice\nfell a semitone) \u201cwe learn two chapters of the Bible by heart every\nday.\u201d By this time other boys had come up, and I soon found myself\nthe centre of a small crowd, and conversing to them about England,\nand its well-known scholars and politicians, and a variety of things\nabout which they asked eager questions. \u201cCome and see the college,\u201d at\nlast they said, seeing I was interested; and so we adjourned--a troop\nof about fifty--into a courtyard containing various school-buildings.\nThere did not seem to be any masters about, and after showing me some\nof the class-rooms, which were fitted up much like English class-rooms,\nthey took me to the dormitory. The dormitory was a spacious room or\nhall, large enough I daresay to accommodate most of the scholars, but\nto my surprise it contained not a single bit of furniture--not a bed or\na chair or a table, far less a washstand; only round the wall on the\nfloor were the boys\u2019 boxes--mostly small enough--and grass mats which,\nunrolled at night, they used for sleeping on. This (combined with J.\u00a0S.\nMill) was plain living and high thinking indeed. Seeing my look of\nmingled amusement and surprise, they said with a chuckle, \u201cCome and\nsee the dining-hall\u201d--lo! another room of about the same size--this\ntime with _nothing_ in it, except plates distributed at equal distances\nabout the floor! The meal hour was just approaching, and the boys\nsquatting down with crossed feet took each a plate upon his lap, while\nserving-men going round with huge bowls of curry and rice supplied them\nwith food, which they ate with their fingers.\n\nIt certainly impressed me a good deal to find a high level of Western\neducation going on, and among boys, many of them evidently from\ntheir conversation intelligent enough, under such extremely simple\nconditions, and in so unimportant a place as Tuticorin might appear.\nBut I soon found that similar institutions--not all fortunately\ninvolving two chapters of the Bible every day, and not all quite so\nsimple in their interior instalments--existed all over the land. Not\nonly are there universities at Madras, Calcutta and Bombay, granting\ndegrees on a broad foundation of Western learning, and affiliated to\nOxford and Cambridge in such a way that the student, having taken his\nB.A. at either of the Indian universities, can now take a further\ndegree at either of the English ones after two years\u2019 residence\nonly; but there are important colleges and high schools in all the\nprincipal towns; and a graduated network of instruction down to the\nnative village schools all over the land. Besides these there are\nmedical colleges, such as the Grant Medical College at Bombay; women\u2019s\ncolleges, like the Bethune College at Calcutta, which has fifty or\nsixty women students, and which passed six women graduates in the\nCalcutta university examinations in 1890; and other institutions. In\nmost cases the principals of these higher institutions are English, but\nthe staff is largely native.\n\nAnd as a part of Western education I suppose one may include our games\nand sports, which are rapidly coming into use and supplanting, in\npopulous centres, the native exercises. It is a curious and unexpected\nsight to see troops of dark-skinned and barefooted lads and men playing\ncricket--but it is a sight one may meet with in any of the towns\nnow-a-days in the cooler weather. At Bombay the _maidans_ are simply\ncrowded at times with cricketers--Parsee clubs, Hindu clubs, Eurasians,\nEnglish--I reckoned I could count a score of pitches one day from the\nplace where I was sitting. The same at Calcutta. The same at Nagpore,\nwith golf going on as well. Yet one cannot help noticing the separation\nof the different sections of the population, even in their games--the\nEnglish cricket-ground, the \u201csecond-class\u201d English ground, the Eurasian\nground, the Hindu and Mahomedan--all distinct!\n\nThe effect of this rush of Western ideas and education is of\ncourse what one might expect--and what I have already alluded to\nonce or twice--namely, to discredit the old religion and the old\ncaste-practices. As my friend the schoolmaster said at Calcutta, \u201cNo\none believes in all this now\u201d; by no one meaning no one who belongs\nto the new movement and has gone through the Western curriculum--the\n\u201cyoung India.\u201d\n\nThe question may be asked then, What does the young India believe in?\nIt has practically abandoned the religion of its fathers, largely\nscoffs at it, does it accept Christianity in any form in its place? I\nbelieve we may reply No. Christianity in its missions and its Salvation\narmies, though it may move a little among the masses, does not to\nany extent touch the advanced and educated sections. No, the latter\nread Mill, Spencer and Huxley, and they have quite naturally and in\ngood faith adopted the philosophy of their teachers--the scientific\nmaterialism which had its full vogue in England some twenty years\nago, but which is now perhaps somewhat on the wane. As one of these\nenthusiasts said to me one day, \u201cWe are all Agnostics now.\u201d With that\nextraordinary quickness and receptivity which is one of the great\nfeatures of the Hindu mind, though beginning the study so much later\nin the day, they have absorbed the teachings of modern science and\nleapt to its conclusions almost as soon as we have in the West. That\nthe movement will remain at this point seems to me in the highest\ndegree unlikely. There may be a reaction back to the old standpoint,\nor, what is more hopeful, a forward effort to rehabilitate the profound\nteachings of their forefathers into forms more suited to the times in\nwhich we live, and freed from the many absurdities which have gathered\nround the old tradition.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe second great factor in modern India is the growth of Commercialism.\nThis is very remarkable, and is likely to be more so. Not only at\nTuticorin, but at a multitude of places are factory chimneys growing\nup. At Nagpore I saw a cotton-mill employing hundreds of hands. At\nBombay there are between thirty and forty large cotton-mills, there is\na manufacturing quarter, and a small forest of chimneys belching forth\ntheir filth into the otherwise cloudless blue.\n\nI visited one of the largest of these mills (that of the United\nSpinning and Weaving Co.) with a friend who at one time had worked\nthere. It was the counterpart of at Lancashire cotton-mill. There was\nthe same great oblong building in three or four storeys, the same\nspinning jenny and other machinery (all of course brought out from\nEngland, and including a splendid high-pressure condensing engine\nof 2,000 H.P.), the same wicked roar and scream of wheels, and the\nsame sickening hurry and scramble. But how strange to see the poor\nthin oysters working under the old familiar conditions of dirt and\nunhealth--their dark skins looking darker with grease and dust, their\npassive faces more passive than ever--to see scores of Hindu girls with\nhuge ear-rings and nose-rings threading their way among the machinery,\nlooking so small, compared with our women, and so abstracted and dreamy\nthat it hardly seemed safe. And here a little naked boy about 10 years\nof age, minding a spinning jenny and taking up the broken threads, as\nclever and as deft as can be. Fortunately the Hindu mind takes things\neasier than the English, and refuses to be pressed; for the hours are\nshamefully long and there is but little respite from toil.\n\nThere is no doubt that great fortunes have been and are being made\nin this cotton business. It can hardly be otherwise, for as long as\nManchester is in the market the goods of Bombay are in a line as\nto price with the products of English manufacture; but they are\nproduced at very much less cost. I suppose the average wage for\nadults in one of these mills is not more than 8_d._ a day (if so\nmuch), and the difference between this and 2_s._ 8_d._ a day say as\nin England, gives 2_s._ per diem saved on each employee. In the mill\nthat I visited there are 1,100 hands--say 1,000 adults; that gives\na saving of 1,000 \u00d7 2 shillings, or \u00a3100, a day; or \u00a330,000 a year.\nAgainst this must be set the increased price of coal, which they get\nall the way from England (the coal of the country being inferior) at\nRs. 15 to 17 per ton--say 25 tons a day at 20_s._ added cost to what\nit would be in England--_i.e._, \u00a325 a day, or \u00a37,500 a year. Then it\nis clear that despite this and some other drawbacks, the balance in\nfavor of production in India is very great; and the dividends of the\ncotton-mills at Bombay certainly show it, for they run at 20, 25, 50\nand even 80 per cent., with very few below 20.\n\nIt is clear that such profits as these are likely to draw capital\nout to India in rapidly increasing degree, and we may expect a vast\ndevelopment of manufacturing industry there during the next decade or\ntwo. The country--or at any rate the town-centres--will be largely\ncommercialised. And as far as the people themselves are concerned,\nthough the life in mills is wretched enough, still it offers a specious\nchange from the dull round of peasant labor, and something like a\nsecure wage (if only a pittance) to a man who in his native village\nwould hardly see the glint of coin from one year\u2019s end to another; the\nbustle and stir of the town too is an attraction; and so some of the\nsame causes which have already in England brought about the depletion\nof the land in favor of the congestion of the cities, are beginning to\nwork in India.\n\nThen beside the manual employment which our commercial institutions\nprovide there are innumerable trading posts and clerkships, connected\nwith merchants\u2019 houses, banks, railways, post-offices, and all manner\nof public works, all of which practically are filled by natives; and\nsome of which, with the moderate salaries attached, are eagerly sought\nafter. One hardly realises till one sees it, how completely these great\norganizations are carried on--except for perhaps one or two Englishmen\nat the head--by native labor; but when one does see this one realises\nalso how important a part of the whole population this section--which\nis thus ministering to and extending the bounds of modern life--is\nbecoming. And this section again is supplemented by at least an equally\nnumerous section which, if not already employed in the same way, is\ndesirous of becoming so. And of course among both these sections\nWestern ideals and standards flourish; competition is gradually coming\nto be looked on as a natural law of society; and Caste and the old\nFamily system are more or less rapidly disintegrating.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSuch changes as these are naturally important, and indeed in an old and\nconservative country like India strike one as very remarkable--but they\nare made even more important by the political complexion they have of\nlate years assumed. In the National Indian Congress we see that not\nonly the outer forms of life and thought, but the political and social\nideas which belong to the same stage of historical development, have\nmigrated from West to East. The people--or at least those sections\nof it of which we are speaking--are infected not only with Darwin\nand Huxley, but with a belief in the ballot, in parliaments and\ntown-councils, and in constitutionalism and representative government\ngenerally. The N.\u00a0I.\u00a0C. brings together from 1,000 to 1,500 delegates\nannually from all parts of India, representing a variety of different\nraces and sections, and elected in many of the larger towns with the\nutmost enthusiasm; and this by itself is a striking fact--a fact\nquite comparable in its way with the meetings of the Labor Congresses\nin late years in the capitals of Europe. Its conferences have been\nmostly devoted to such political questions as the application of the\nelective principle to municipal and imperial councils, and to such\nsocial questions as that of child-marriage; and these subjects and\nthe speeches concerning them are again reviewed and reported by a\ngreat number of newspapers printed both in English and the vernacular\ntongues, and having a large circulation. Certainly it is probable\nthat the Congresses will not _immediately_ lead to any very striking\nresults--indeed it is hard to see how they _could_ do so; but the fact\nof the existence of the N.\u00a0I.\u00a0C. movement alone is a pregnant one, and\nbacked as it is by economical changes, it is not likely--though it may\nchange its form--to evaporate into mere nothingness.\n\nIn fact--despite the efforts of certain parties to minimise it--it\nseems to me evident that we are face to face with an important social\nmovement in India. What the upshot of it may be no one probably can\ntell--it may subside again in time, or it may gather volume and force\ntowards some definite issue; but it certainly cannot be ignored.\nThe Pagetts, M.P., may be ponderously superficial about it, but the\nKiplings merry are at least equally far from the truth. Of course\nin actual numerical strength as compared with the whole population\nthe party may be small; but then, as in other such movements, since\nit is just the most active and energetic folk who join them, their\nimport cannot be measured by mere numbers. It is useless again to\nsay that because the movement is not acknowledged by the peasants,\nor by the religious folk, or because it is regarded with a jealous\neye by certain sections, that therefore it is of no account; because\nsimilar things are always said and always have been said of every new\nsocial effort--in its inception--however popular or influential it may\nafterwards become.\n\nThe question which is most interesting at this juncture to any one who\nrecognises that there really is something like a change of attitude\ntaking place in the Indian peoples, is: How do the Anglo-Indians regard\nthis change? and my answer to this--though given with diffidence--since\nit is a large generalisation and there may be, certainly are, many\nexceptions to it--is: I believe that taken as a whole the Anglos look\nupon it with a mingled sentiment of Fear and Dislike. I think they\nlook upon the movement with a certain amount of Fear--perhaps not\nunnaturally. The remembrance of the Mutiny of \u201957 is before them; they\nfeel themselves to be a mere handful among millions. And I am sure they\nlook upon it with Dislike, for as said above there is no real touch,\nno real sympathy, between them and the native races. However it may be\nfor the liberalising Englishman at home to indulge in a sentimental\nsympathy with the aspiring oyster, the Britisher in India feels\nthat the relation is only tolerable as long as there is a fixed and\nimpassable distinction between the ruler and the ruled. Take that away,\nlet the two races come into actual contact on an equality, and ... but\nthe thought is not to be endured.\n\nAnd this feeling of race-dislike is I think--as I have hinted in an\nearlier chapter--enhanced by the fact that the Britisher in India is a\n\u201cclass\u201d man in his social feeling. I have several times had occasion\nto think that the bulk-people of the two countries--though by no means\nagreeing with each other--would, if intercourse were at all possible,\nget on better together than the actual parties do at present. The evils\nof a commercial class-government which we are beginning to realise so\nacutely at home--the want of touch between the rulers and the ruled,\nthe testing of all politics by the touchstone of commercial profits\nand dividends, the consequent enrichment of the few at the expense of\nthe many, the growth of slum and factory life, and the impoverishment\nof the peasant and the farmer, are curiously paralleled by what is\ntaking place in India; and in many respects it is becoming necessary\nto realise that some of our difficulties in India are not merely such\nas belong to the country itself, but are part and parcel of the same\nproblem which is beginning to vex us at home--the social problem,\nnamely. The same narrowness of social creed, the entire decadence\nof the old standards of gentle birth without their replacement by\nany new ideal, worthy to be so called, the same trumpery earmarks of\nsociety-connection, etc., distinguish the ruling classes in one country\nas in the other; and in both are the signals of coming change.\n\nAt the same time it would be absurd to assume that the native of\nIndia is free from serious defects which make the problem, to the\nAnglo-Indian, ever so much more difficult of solution. And of these\nprobably the tendency to evasion, deceit, and underhand dealing is the\nmost serious. The Hindu especially with his subtle mind and passive\ncharacter is thus unreliable; it is difficult to find a man who will\nstick with absolute fidelity to his word, or of whom you can be certain\nthat his ostensible object is his real one; and naturally this sort of\nthing creates estrangement.\n\nTo my mind this social gulf existing between the rulers and the ruled\nis the most pregnant fact of our presence in India--the one that calls\nmost for attention, and that looms biggest with consequences for the\nfuture. Misunderstandings of all kinds flow from it. \u201cWhen this want of\nintercourse,\u201d says Beck in his _Essays on Indian Topics_, \u201cbetween the\ncommunities or a reasonable number of people of each, is fixed on my\nattention, I often feel with a sinking of the heart that the end of the\nBritish Indian Empire is not far distant.\u201d\n\nI have already pointed out (p. 276) how clear it is by the example\nof Aligarh that friendly intercourse is _possible_ between the two\nsections--though we have allowed that it is difficult to bring about.\nMr. Beck corroborates this in his _Essays_ by strong expressions. He\nsays (p. 89), \u201cAn Englishman would probably be dubbed a lunatic if he\nconfessed that the only thing which made life tolerable in his Indian\nexile was the culture, the interest, and the affection he found in\nnative society. Such an Englishman will therefore at most hint at his\ncondition\u201d; and again--\u201cAs one whose circumstances have compelled\nhim to see more of the people of India than the average Englishman,\nI can only say that the effort repays itself, and that, incredible\nthough it may appear, all degrees of friendship are possible between\nthe Anglo-Indian and his Eastern fellow-subject.\u201d And further on,\nafter urging the importance, the vast importance, of cultivating this\nintercourse, and so attempting to bridge the fatal gulf, he says:--\u201cTo\nknow the people, and to be so trusted by them that they will open out\nto us the inmost recesses of their hearts; to see them daily; to come\nto love them as those who have in their nature but an average share of\naffection cannot help loving them when they know them well--this is our\nideal for the Indian civilian. Some Englishmen act up to this ideal: in\nthe early days of our rule several did. If it become the normal thing\nthe Indian Empire will be built upon a rock so that nothing can shake\nit. Agitation and sedition will vanish as ugly shadows. Had it existed\nin 1857 the crash would not have come.\u201d\n\nThe writer of the above paragraphs thinks nothing of the N.\u00a0I.\u00a0C.\nmovement, or rather I should say thinks unfavorably of it; but of\nthe importance of bridging the social gulf he cannot say enough--and\nin this latter point, as far as I feel competent to form an opinion\nat all, I entirely agree with him. But will it ever be bridged?\nUnfortunately the few who share such sentiments as those I have quoted\nare very few and far between--and of those the greater number must as I\nhave already explained be tied and bound in the chains of officialdom.\n\u201cThe Anglo-Indian world up to the hour when the great tragedy of \u201957\nburst upon them was busily amusing itself as best it can in this\ncountry with social nothings\u201d--and how is it amusing itself now? The\nmost damning fact that I know against the average English attitude\ntowards the natives, is the fact that one of the very few places\nbesides Aligarh, where there is any cordial feeling between the two\nparties, is Hyderabad--a place in which, on account of its being under\nthe Nizam, _the officials are natives_, and their position therefore\nprevents their being trampled on!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf the Congress movement is destined to become a great political\nmovement, it must it seems to me eventuate in one of two ways--either\nin violence and civil war, owing to determined hostility on the part\nof our Government and the continual widening of the breach between\nthe two peoples; or,--which is more likely--if our Government grants\nmore and more representative power to the people--in the immense\ngrowth of political and constitutional life among them, and the\ngradual _drowning out_ of British rule thereby. There is a third\npossibility--namely the withdrawal of our government, owing to troubles\nand changes at home. Either of these alternatives would only be the\nbeginning of long other vistas of change, which we need not attempt\nto discuss. They all involve the decadence of our political power in\nIndia, and certainly, situated as we are--unable to really _inhabit_\nthe country and adapt ourselves to the climate, and with growing social\nforces around us--I can neither see nor imagine any other conclusion.\n\nThe Congress movement being founded on the economical causes--the\ngrowth of commercialism, etc.--it is hard to believe that it will not\ngo on and spread. Certainly it may alter its name and programme; but\ngranted that commercialism is going to establish itself, it is surely\nimpossible to imagine it will do so, among so acute and subtle a\npeople as the Hindus, without bringing with it the particular forms of\npolitical life which go with it, and really belong to it.\n\nOne of the most far-reaching and penetrating ways in which this\nWestern movement is influencing India is in its action on the sense\nof _property_. The conception of property, as I have already pointed\nout once or twice, is gradually veering from the communistic to the\nhighly individualistic. In all departments, whether in the family\nor the township or the caste, the idea of joint possession or joint\nregulation of goods or land for common purposes is dying out in favor\nof separate and distinct holding for purely individual ends. It is\nwell known what an immense revolution in the structure of society has\ntaken place, in the history of various races and peoples, when this\nchange of conception has set in. Nor is it likely that India will prove\naltogether an exception to the rule. For the change is going on not\nonly--as might fairly be expected--in the great cities, where Western\ninfluence is directly felt, but even in the agricultural regions, where\never since the British occupation it has been slowly spreading, partly\nthrough the indirect action of British laws and land settlements, and\npartly through the gradual infiltration, in a variety of ways, of\ncommercial and competitive modes of thought.\n\nNow no estimate of Indian affairs and movements can be said to be of\nvalue, which does not take account of the weight--one might say the\ndead weight--of its agricultural life: the 80 or 90 per cent. of the\npopulation who live secluded in small villages, in the most primitive\nfashion, with their village goddess and their Hindu temple--hardly\nknowing what government they live under, and apparently untouched\nfrom age to age by invention and what we call progress. Nor can the\nconservative force so represented be well exaggerated. But if even this\nagricultural mass is beginning to slide, we have indeed evidence that\ngreat forces are at work. If the village communities are going to break\nup, and the old bonds of rural society to dissolve, we may be destined\nto witness, as Henry Maine suggests, the recurrence of \u201cthat terrible\nproblem of pauperism which began to press on English statesmen as soon\nas the old English cultivating groups began distinctly to fall to\npieces.\u201d \u201cIn India however,\u201d he says, \u201cthe solution will be far more\ndifficult than it has proved here.\u201d\n\nAll this assumes the continued spread and growth of the commercial\nideal in India--which is a large question, and wide in its bearings.\nConsidering all the forces which tend now-a-days in that direction, and\nthe apparent inevitableness of the thing as a phase of modern life at\nhome, its growth in India for some years to come seems hardly doubtful.\nBut it is a curious phenomenon. Anything more antagonistic to the\ngenius of ancient India--the Wisdom-land--than this cheap-and-nasty,\npuffing profit-mongering, enterprising, energetic, individualistic,\n\u201cbusiness,\u201d can hardly be imagined; and the queer broil witnessed\nto-day in cities like Bombay and Calcutta only illustrates the\nincongruity. To Hindus of the old school, with their far-back spiritual\nideal, a civilisation like ours, whose highest conception of life and\nreligion is the General Post Office, is simply _Anathema_. I will quote\na portion of a letter received from an Indian friend on the subject,\nwhich gives an idea of this point of view. Referring to the poverty of\nthe people--\n\n\u201cAll this terrible destitution and suffering throughout one-seventh\nof the world\u2019s population has been brought about without any benefit\nto the English people themselves. It has only benefited the English\ncapitalists and professional classes. The vaunted administrative\ncapacity of the English is a fiction. They make good policemen and keep\norder, when the people acquiesce--that is all. If this acquiescence\nceases, as it must, when the people rightly or wrongly believe their\nreligion and family life in danger from the government, the English\nmust pack up and go, and woe to the English capitalist and professional\nman! I feel more and more strongly every day that the English with\ntheir commercial ideals and standards and institutions have done far\nmore to ruin the country than if it had been overrun periodically by\nhordes of savage Tatars.\u201d\n\nThat Commercialism is bringing and will bring great evils in its train,\nin India as elsewhere--the sapping of the more manly and martial\nvirtues, the accentuation of greed and sophistry, the dominance of\nthe money-lender--I do not doubt; though I do not quite agree with\nthe above denunciation. I think if the English have infested and\nplagued poor India, it is greatly the fault of the Indians themselves\nwho in their passiveness and lethargy have allowed it to be so. And\nI think--taking perhaps on my side a too optimistic view--that this\ngrowing industrialism and mechanical civilisation may (for a time) do\nmuch good, in the way of rousing up the people, giving _definition_,\nso much needed, to their minds and work, and instilling among them the\nWestern idea of progress, which in some ways fallacious has still its\nvalue and use.\n\nOnly for a time however. We in England, now already witnessing\nthe beginning of the end of the commercial _r\u00e9gime_, are becoming\naccustomed to the idea that it is only a temporary phase; and in India\nwhere, as I have said, the whole genius of the land and its traditions\nis so adverse to such a system, and the weight of ancient custom so\nenormous, we can hardly expect that it will take such hold as here,\nor run through quite so protracted a course of years. Commercialism\nwill no doubt greatly modify and simplify the caste system--but to the\ncaste system in some purified form I am inclined to think the people\nwill return; it will do something also to free the women--give them\nback at least as much freedom as they had in early times and before\nthe Mahomedan conquests, if not more; and finally Western science will\nstrongly and usefully criticise the prevalent religious systems and\npractices, and give that definition and _materialism_ to the popular\nthought which is so sadly wanting in the India of to-day; but the old\nunderlying truths of Indian philosophy and tradition it will not touch.\nThis extraordinary possession--containing the very germ of modern\ndemocracy--which has come all down the ages as the special heritage and\nmission of the Indian peoples, will remain as heretofore indestructible\nand unchanged, and will still form, we must think, the rallying point\nof Indian life; but it is probable and indeed to be hoped that the\ncriticism of Western thought, by clearing away a lot of rubbish, will\nhelp to make its outline and true nature clearer to the world. However\nthere we must leave the matter.\n\n\nTHE END.\n\n\nButler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s Notes\n\n\nPunctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a\npredominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they\nwere not changed.\n\nSimple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation\nmarks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left\nunbalanced.\n\nIllustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs\nand outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support\nhyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to\nthe corresponding illustrations.\n\nThe \u201cillustration\u201d under \u201cWORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR\u201d is just a\ndecoration. The illustration on the Title page is the publisher\u2019s logo.\n\nPage 110: \u201cchank shells\u201d was misprinted as \u201cchanks hells\u201d; corrected\nhere.\n\nPage 177: \u201cisophily\u201d was printed that way.","title":"From Adam's Peak to Elephanta : $b Sketches in Ceylon and India","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":90452}