Vigil on the Veld(top).British East Africa."Trolley" Pushers(bottom).Beira, Portuguese East Africa.See page230.
Vigil on the Veld(top).British East Africa.
"Trolley" Pushers(bottom).Beira, Portuguese East Africa.See page230.
Most of the big-game hunting parties are equipped in Nairobi. The guides are about the town every few days, and a lion isguaranteed to be killed or no charge required. Eight lions were killed not far from here during our stay. One may stroll a mile from the center of the town, sit on a hill, and watch herds of gazelle grazing not a half mile away. The black-and-white monkey comes from this section of Africa.
"Boy! boy! boy!" is heard from nearly every room in a hotel in the morning. Everybody has a boy to black his shoes, lace his shoes, put away his clothes after dusting, get his shaving outfit—the sort of waiting on that spoils the white man. The hallways of the hotel are crowded with the guests' black servants. No one thinks of carrying a valise or bundle of any kind. The "boy" is expected to be in the hallway morning, noon and night waiting to serve his master.
Mount Kenia, 18,000 feet high, located directly under the Equator and 80 miles from Nairobi, may be seen from the town any clear day; also Mount Kilimanjaro, 19,000 feet high, about the same distance south of this place.
The Uganda Railway headquarters is located at Nairobi. Some of the locomotives used on this road are of American manufacture, easily distinguishable from English-built engines, for American-built locomotives are the only ones which carry a bell. The locomotive engineers are nearly all Indians. The Uganda Railway is a paying concern, for dividends of 33 per cent. are declared nearly every year. Passenger fare is reasonable, but freight charges are said to be very high. It cost $50,000 a mile to build the Uganda Railway, which is 584 miles in length.
The various native tribes have peculiar marks by which they are distinguished. One tribe may have a certain tooth missing; another the end of their teeth filed to a sharp point; still another may have their teeth nicked, like a saw, done with a stone; or by other marks, easily distinguished.
Horse racing, football, cricket, and other English sports are indulged in. Saturday afternoon is devoted to recreation, as the Saturday half-holiday is observed. Government employees form a considerable proportion of the population.
Nairobi was as far as we intended going when leaving the ship at Mombasa, but, finding the country so new and interesting, with traveling and living expenses reasonable, we decided to press on to the shores of Victoria Nyanza. From Nairobi going westward we rose to an elevation of 7,000 feet. Among the limbs of the trees, while traveling over that part of the railway line, can be seen crude, small barrels made of pieces of wood; these have been put in the trees by natives to intercept itinerant swarms of bees. The stations and surroundings were literally covered with blacks—natives and Indians. With the Mkikuyu woman, in her greased goatskin and plugged ear lobes, and some of the men covered with the greasy, red clay from head to foot, with hair fixed to resemble the turtle; with the Indian wearing his cloth headgear, and the Indian woman with her ankle and wrist bangles; with no Europeans in sight save as passengers—British-East Africa to-day offers more of interest, more for native study, than even interesting South Africa.
At Escarpment a splendid view was afforded, for the railway descends from a high point down the steep mountainside into what is known as the Great Meridional Rift, or Rift Valley, a depression in the earth that is said to extend to Egypt. As the train travels down a woody mountain, to the left and in front is the Rift Valley and Lake Naivasha. Traveling along we come to another game preserve, where gazelles, hartebeestes, wildebeestes, ostriches and zebras are grazing upon and scampering over the great valley, unaware of the pleasure their presence affords passengers while traveling through that stretch of country.
No evidence of habitation is seen from the railway, yet peopleget off at stations—only stations—and often persons are seen waiting at those lonesome spots in that wild land for the train to take them beyond. The same took place when coming up the coast—passengers got off and others got on the ship, though no white settlements were in sight. It is marvelous how white people settle in such untrodden sections in which to make a living, surrounded as they are on every side by the wildest and most uncertain phases of life.
Strange-looking berries were served at an eating station, and on inquiry as to the nature of the fruit, we were informed that an American had crossed two bushes—a strawberry and a raspberry—and the result, half-strawberry and half-raspberry, growing in that far-off land, we were now sampling.
We passed through Masailand, a native preserve, occupied by what was formerly a troublesome tribe. They live on the plains, and are said to own a quarter of a million head of cattle. Passing through attractive mountainous country, from Mau Summit, over 8,000 feet above sea level, we descended to Kavirondo Valley, a flat country.
Naked natives, free from civilization's binding customs, hoeing corn, weeding land, and watching sheep and goats, were seen working in the fields. These were the Wakavirondo, a tribe noted for its industriousness. They are chiefly engaged in farming and gardening, and their products are carried to Port Florence to be sold. Some of them have on a slight covering when they go to town, but it is discarded a short distance from where they left their produce.
Labor agents engage "boys" of the Wakavirondo tribe to work for a certain length of time away from their district. Of course, the men must wear some clothes. Returning in from three to six months, they have become accustomed to wearing covering and wish to continue doing so. Like the Maori women, though, the women of this African tribe insist on maintaining the custom of their ancestors, so the men have to discard the clothes they had become used to and resume their former clothesless existence. It is very warm where the Wakavirondo live—under the Equator.
Port Florence—or Kisumu, as that place is more often called—was now reached, and before us spread the blue, calm, green-island dotted water of Victoria Nyanza. We were at the western terminus of the Uganda Railway—the last railroad piercing Africa in that direction. A railway station, a dak bungalow—the only place at which to stop—and perhaps a dozen houses built on raised ground, with good wharves, a godown and a marketplace, almost completed the "attractions" of Port Florence. Fever is very bad in Kisumu, and smallpox and bubonic plague were holding a levee at the time we visited the place. Bubonic plague is so common here that no one pays much attention to it. Blacks are taken off with the plague in large numbers, but few Europeans die from that pestilence.
Trains run but twice a week from Mombasa to Port Florence, and the lake boats connect with the trains; so if I remained in Kisumu it would necessarily be for three days, and people die in less than that time after having been bitten by the bubonic flea. I did not relish the idea of possibly breathing my last just then, nor at that place. The blue water was alluring, the green islands bewitching, and in fancy we caught an echo of a call from Uganda's shore, inviting us to cross the great African lake and tarry a short while in the land of the Waganda. So, when the vessel moved from the wharf on her voyage across Victoria Nyanza, we were among the passengers.
The boats traversing that sheet of water are from 500 to 1,000 tons' displacement, lighted by electricity and of modern design. Every available sleeping place was occupied, and the vessel's water-line was concealed by the weight of her cargo.
A stranger would not know when he had reached the body of the lake, as the course is through blue-water avenues, bordered with tropical green islands, for a large part of the journey. The distance across is 175 miles, and 24 hours was taken in making the journey. The boats on Victoria Nyanza do not travel at night, which accounts for the slow time. The Equator was crossed and recrossed during the 24-hours' journey, but the game of "Neptune" was not played. The lake is nearly4,000 feet above sea-level, 240 miles in length, and its area 26,000 square miles.
Although very fertile, none of the islands was inhabited. For centuries most of these had been under cultivation, but the sleeping-sickness plague made such havoc among the natives that the British government some years ago forced them to the mainland.
Entebbe, on the western shore of Victoria Nyanza, is the Imperial capital of Uganda, but Kampala, 23 miles north, is the native capital. The British government officials are located at the former place, while the native legislature convenes in the latter. Most of the land of Uganda is owned by natives, but no concessions are granted without the approval of British officials. If one wishes to buy land, he must apply for it through the native legislature. Uganda is a rich country, but little land is under cultivation. Indians and Arabs would quickly buy large tracts, but they are not wanted there, as no one profits from Asiatic holdings but Asiatics; besides they would ill-treat the natives. Uganda was made a British Protectorate in 1894. It has an area of 300,000 square miles, that of British-East Africa 200,000 square miles. Europeans in the Uganda Protectorate number only about 2,000.
Built on a high point of land, with two blue-water bays on each side and a wide sweep of Victoria Nyanza spreading out to the horizon; evergreen landscape beyond the mainland borders of the bays; trees smothered with vari-colored flowers, and the streets carpeted with a floral covering which falls from them; bright and pretty-colored birds enhancing the picture, with their sweet carols "at early morn and dewy eve;" bulky banana bushes and papaw, or mummy-apple, trees growing at every turn; the gardens to the homes of the dwellers glowing with flowers—there, away off in Uganda, on the peninsula overlooking the great lake, at Entebbe, we found one of the grandest settings of both land and water scenery the eye could feast on.
This was the first place we observed natives seeking work. When coming from the wharf to the town, tidy, well-developed Waganda would timidly approach, holding in their hands asmall book or piece of paper. In the book or on the paper was written their records, good or otherwise, the wages they had received, and the length of time worked at various places. The applicant may be a houseboy, cook or land worker. It is customary, in fact a standard rule, when servants leave employment, to give them a note, which is their reference. None of them know a letter of the alphabet, so have no idea of the nature of the writing.
Mention has been made of the uninviting appearance of the Mkikuyu at Nairobi and the naked Mkavirondo living on the eastern shore of the lake. Here, over 400 miles west of Nairobi and 175 west of Port Florence, we found the splendidly-built, tidily-dressed, clean Waganda. The women of this tribe are almost as well developed as the Zulu women. The Maganda also carries loads on her head. It is hard to understand why these natives, so far away from civilization, are so neatly dressed. The Maganda is a good native.
We were but three miles north of the Equator, at an elevation of 4,000 feet, and the comfortable climate, instead of an almost unbearable one one would expect to encounter here, is a surprise. In the evening the air became so cool that the veranda was vacated for a seat inside.
Less than 150 white persons live in Entebbe, but with the Arabs, Indians, and many natives, the population reaches 20,000. Were government employees to leave, very few Europeans would be left in the capital.
This was one place in which the moving picture was not to be seen, and one is getting pretty well out of the world, so to speak, when he has out-trod the sphere of that common means of amusement. But there was a phonograph, owned by an Indian, who lived across the road from where I slept. Indian music is weird with a vengeance. The scale is cast in high C, and the flats and sharps and other "harmonics" that went with the music seemed to be like a clashing of rasps, files and grating iron. At 2 o'clock in the morning the "tormentor" was started, and its weird notes unmercifully pierced the equatorial air until daylight. The police sometimes stopped the musicfor a couple of nights, but it was soon heard again. I became well known at the police station through lodging complaints against the owner of that infamous phonograph.
The wharf at the lake was piled high with merchandise and cotton bales. Some of the imports were to be moved into the interior as far as the Belgian Congo. The means of conveyance was the heads of natives—porters, as they are called. From 300 to 600 porters, all looking half-starved, assembled in front of a shipping agent's office and waited for orders to start on the trip. Horses cannot live in Uganda, so natives take the horses' place. Sixty pounds is the standard load for a porter to carry. The goods are packed and shipped in quantities conforming to that weight, when it is possible to do so. The articles carried may be grubhoes, chairs, a box containing canned vegetables or food, a bed spring, bedding, a table, five-gallon cans of oil—anything in the nature of food, clothing, or household furnishings. When the article exceeds 60 pounds, two, three, and even four porters, with bamboo poles, are assigned to the load. The small army of porters—the African freight train—start, with a stick in their hand and 60 pounds of freight on their heads. The destination is Toro, 200 miles further into Africa. White men are in charge of the "freight train." Each porter takes with him a portion of rice or cornmeal. His meat is furnished by the white men in charge, who carry rifles, and by that means game is shot en route. Thirty days is the time required to travel the 200 miles, and for carrying 60 pounds of goods that distance a porter receives $3. A new "freight train" will take up the goods at Toro and advance the cargo further into the wild country. Certain packs of natives will not go further than the sub-stopping place, as natives beyond are generally hostile to tribes stopping at that point. In that way traders living in remote parts are supplied with goods.
We were right in the heart of the sleeping-sickness zone. It has been estimated that 300,000 natives have been swept away by this strange and fatal disease. Remains of huts and other mute evidences of tribal existence at certain parts of the lakedistricts indicate the wiping out of whole tribes by this pestilence, which accounts for the British government forcing the natives from the lake islands to live on the mainland. Some of these ejected natives try to return to their old home, and it was said to be a pathetic sight when they were forced to change their abode. The islands are infested with the fly whose bite injects the death virus. A strip of territory two miles from the shore of the lake is prohibited ground, and legal punishment is provided for any one found over the fly-infested lines.
Sleeping sickness is caused from a bite of the tsetse fly. It is as large as a horse-fly, and when it bites a victim it usually draws blood. The poison injected infects the blood, and is thought to be extracted from crocodiles by the fly while resting on that beast. It may be weeks, and even months, before the poison affects the victim. Anyway, mopiness will become noticeable, then drowsiness, accompanied by loss of appetite; then an overpowering desire to sleep overtakes the victim. All the time he is becoming emaciated from lack of food. This condition continues for months in some instances, and there are cases where victims have moped and drowsed for years. Some of the deaths are very painful, while others apparently die in their sleep. Three flies, with Latin names, carry the sleeping sickness virus—the Glossina palpalis, the Glossina morsitans, and the Glossina fusca. They are generally termed "morsitans," "palpalis" and "fusca." The most advanced medical scientists may be found in this part of the world trying to find out something definite about the virus and devising means for its eradication, but are as yet in the dark concerning how to combat the suffering and fatalities that follow in the wake of this strange disease. Sleeping sickness is prevalent in some parts of Rhodesia, Central Africa and in other interior sections of the Dark Continent.
The means employed to eradicate the fly is by cutting the brush from the shore of the lake. A fly will not remain in the sun long, so when the brush has been cut and a fly's resting place, the shade, is removed, he leaves the brush-barren districtand seeks shady fields. A grass—lemon grass, it is called—with a leaf a quarter of an inch wide, which grows to two feet high, is often planted on the land from which the brush has been cleared. The grass has an oily, lemon taste, which the tsetse fly does not fancy, and he leaves the cleared section.
In the early days Stanley and those that came later to these parts crossed the lake in canoes, rowed by natives. That was a dangerous undertaking, as the lake then, as to-day, was inhabited by hippopotami and crocodiles. As stated in Leg Two, the "hippo" will not harm a person in the water, but he may overturn a boat that attempts to ride over him, when the crocodile would devour those cast overboard.
Most of the wild animals in that part of the world are protected from hunters by government laws, but the hippopotamus and the crocodile are left to the mercy of any who wish to kill them. The big water-cows are very destructive to growing grain and vegetables. They come out at night to forage, when they destroy gardens, corn fields and grain. These animals travel a mile or more from the shore for food. The only time when a "hippo" will attack a person is if the latter should be between the water and the beast.
Coffee and rubber plantations have been laid out and promise large returns in the future. The natives raise a great deal of cotton, and cotton gins are located at many of the lake ports. So much cotton is produced that the lake boats cannot keep the wharves and godowns from being overloaded.
Three years' growth is required before the rubber tree is tapped. Several diagonal circles are cut in the bark. A piece of wood, with sharp nails, similar to a hair comb, is pressed against the tender bark. White sap then oozes from the tree and runs down a gutter cut in the bark. At the end of the gutter a tin spout connects, down which the latex runs into a tin cup on the ground. An ounce of sap is produced from a tapping. A tree is tapped every day for a month, then allowed to rest for a month. Sap will run from a tree but half an hour a day. Natives gather the cups from each tree, emptying each ounce in a larger vessel. The latex collected is put in tanksfive feet long and six inches wide. The next day the sap is taken out, when it will have become a white strip, like a piece of fat pork. The slab or sheet of raw rubber is next put through a press twice, which squeezes out water and impurities. The sheet of raw rubber remains unbroken, and its thickness is reduced to a quarter of an inch. It is then rolled together, like belting, put into a drying place, where it remains for a month, after which it is shipped North for refining. Before tapping a tree the bark is cleansed with a carbolic acid wash. The sap is white as milk, and sticky, and remains that color until refined. An average of one pound of rubber a month from a tree is a good yield, and the price ranges from $2 to $3 a pound in the raw state. The trees will produce sap for about ten years, and are from two to eight inches in diameter. Some rubber plantations contain hundreds of thousands of trees, and from 200 to 1,000 natives are employed. The wages paid latex gatherers in Uganda are from $1 to $1.50 a month.
At the market place little cleaning-up was necessary, as vultures pick meat blocks and keep the floors white after the day's business.
A good botanical garden that any city of half a million population would be proud of is found in Entebbe. Often groups of monkeys may be seen jumping from limb to limb and from tree to tree in the garden, each following the same route that the first one traveled.
Missions and missionaries are quite numerous in that section of Africa, almost every religious denomination being represented.
A ricksha is the usual means of traveling. When going from place to place, three natives are assigned to a ricksha, two pushing, with one between the shafts. These have bells tied around their ankles, and they sing from the time they start until they have reached the end of their stage. Each team runs about five miles, when three fresh pullers take charge of the vehicle; then the passenger will again spin along the road at a speed of five miles an hour, cheered by the tunes of the natives.
"Safari" is a word much used in the Protectorates. When one camps out, or goes on a country journey, he will be on "safari." Often a man's standing is gauged by the number of natives that accompany him. In the eyes of the natives the man with the largest safari is the bigger man. For that reason a vain man will have a larger force of natives serving him than would be necessary were his position not gauged on that basis. In that and in other ways white men become slaves to the caprice of native opinion.
Natives living in that part of Uganda are ant-eaters. The white ant, another African scourge, builds, unseen, large chocolate-colored mounds of dirt, some of them eight feet in height and from six to eight feet across the base. After reaching a certain age wings grow on the ants, when they emerge from the hill. The natives, aware of the time the exodus is to take place, build a frame of sticks over the cone of the mound, over which is placed a bark cloth. The cone is covered down the sides to a place below which the ants will not break through the dirt. Between the bottom of the upright frame sticks and the mound will be placed a banana leaf, the center pressed down, forming a trench. The ants, on emerging from the mound, fly upward, when they strike the cloth covering and drop into the banana leaf trench. Once their flight is interrupted they cannot fly again. An hour's time is consumed while migrating from the mound—from the time the ants begin to come out until all have left their old home—during which the natives are busy eating the insects that creep out between the leaf cracks. They gather these by the wings, which are an inch in length, and put the live ants into their mouths, wings and all. The swarm of ants is later scooped from the trench, put into baskets made of leaves, taken to the hut, where the wings are plucked, and are then put into a pan and fried. In keeping with the secret and interesting nature of that insect, they do not begin to leave the mound before sunset, and often not until dark. Also, in keeping with the generosity of the Mganda, a member of this tribe, holding a number of ants by their wings in one hand and putting these in hismouth—having an equal number in the other hand—offered to share the winged delicacies with his white spectator.
A variety of grass, from 6 to 12 feet high, called elephant grass, grows in that country. Some ivory hunters have met their death owing to wounded elephants secreting themselves in the tall reeds. A hunter would naturally follow the tracks of the great beast, though, being close to his quarry, he could not see him; but the elephant could see the hunter. Before he could protect himself or escape, the powerful trunk would come down on the hunter and deal him a death blow. Ivory from the tusks of the female elephant is the better grade. Ivory smuggling is said to be practiced in that part of the world, as opium smuggling is in some parts of America. While the tusks of some elephants weigh 25 pounds, the average is 15 pounds. Export and import duty on ivory is very high, which accounts for alleged smuggling in that product. Elephants take 30 years to attain their full growth.
The two most dangerous animals in Africa are the buffalo and the rhinoceros. Most animals will run from man, but a buffalo may be just inside tall grass or a brush thicket, unseen, when he will charge a hunter. The rhinoceros is almost blind, but what he lacks in sight is made up for by his keen scent. As soon as he scents anything he wishes to impale on his horn, he starts in the direction from which he got his lead. When closely pursued by a "rhino," the hunter will stand still until the big beast is immediately in front; then he will side-step. A man can turn much quicker than a "rhino," and in that way one has a chance to get away, or to keep dodging the animal until help comes.
Plural marriage is the custom with these natives, but a wife in Uganda is one-half cheaper than in Zululand, from four to six head of cattle being the standard price of a helpmate.
Bananas and sweet potatoes grow very bountifully, and these two vegetables comprise the principal food of the natives. The banana is boiled when green and eaten. The soil is rich and a chocolate color.
This was the only place in our tour of Africa where pretty birds were seen and also were heard singing. Birds in South Africa seldom sing. Parrots are on their native heath here.
The sun in that part of the world shines 12 hours a day the year round.
Automobiles, motor trucks, motorcycles and bicycles may be seen spinning along good roads.
My time had been overstayed in Entebbe, so we took our departure for Kampala, the native capital. The lake stopping-place is called Port Bell. Seven miles from the little port is located Kampala, the ancient capital of Uganda, and that distance is traveled in a government motor car. Rubber trees and banana groves line the roadway for the distance. About 75,000 natives live in Kampala, but the huts are so scattered and buried under banana bushes that one would not think there were one-third that number. It is another Rome, so far as hills are concerned. The government buildings are seen on one hill, the King's house and Ministers' houses on another, and a monastery and a mission stand on other hills. Four hundred Europeans comprise the population.
Our next landing from Kampala was Jinja, another port of Victoria Nyanza, and the most interesting of the lake stops, as we had reached the outlet of that body of water, Ripon Falls, where one looks at the starting point of the historical river Nile, the magnet that figured largely in my giving way to the witchery of the foreground when standing on the shore of the lake at Kisumu some weeks before.
J. H. Speke, an Englishman, in 1858, discovered Victoria Nyanza, but its outlet, hidden by green banks on each side, was not reached until four years later, on his second visit to that section of Africa. He named that neck of water Napoleon Gulf. Speke was the first to reveal the source of the river Nile, which had long been sought by the Egyptians, who had for ages been in the dark concerning the fountain-head of the river that meant so much to them in providing water to grow crops—their life, in fact. When it is recalled that rain hasnot fallen for thousands of years in some sections of the African continent through which the Nile flows, it is little wonder that the Egyptians were eager to learn of the river's source.
Ripon Falls, named by Speke after the president of the geographical society that financed his explorations, is located a mile from Jinja, and is only 12 feet high and 400 feet wide, but when that plunge has been taken the water becomes the river Nile. From Ripon Falls to Albert Nyanza the river is known as the Victoria Nile. On, on it flows through countries inhabited by savage tribes—by elephants, rhinoceroses, lions and hippopotami—through lakes and great swamps; still on and on through the Soudan, and even further northward, where it is halted for a time by the great Assouan Dam. It next passes through the desert to Alexandria, Egypt, where it becomes lost in the salted ocean, nearly 4,000 miles from its source.
Until a few years ago visitors to Ripon Falls were forbidden to go close to the section where the water makes its plunge from Victoria Nyanza to the River Nile, as the brush growing on both sides was infested with tsetse flies. The brush was finally cleared and lemon grass planted. One is not quite safe from being bitten even now, as on the opposite side the brush is dense, and the distance across the river would be none too far for a fly to journey. No one enters that brush unless their hands are covered, and face and neck protected with a heavy veil, to thwart any attack by that winged messenger of death.
From Jinja a railroad, the only one in Uganda, extends northward 59 miles.
Returning by boat to Port Florence, then by train over the mountains to Nairobi, we again feasted our eyes on big game while traveling through the great preserve; next through the Taru Desert, where the leafless trees grow; and finally we rumbled over the trestle spanning the water channel separating Mombasa Island from the mainland.
We now take final leave of Africa, the land of fever and fascination, and start for India. The boat from which I disembarked at Mombasa weeks before had sailed to Bombay, returned to Africa, and was now again on her voyage to the Pearl of the Orient. Only two Europeans were traveling second-class—the only white passengers aboard—the others being black. We had been at sea but a few hours when the captain invited us to quarters in the first-class section without additional charge. Seldom are passengers favored with such kindness. The ship headed for the Island of Mahé, the largest of the Seychelles group.
Before leaving Mombasa passengers had to be vaccinated, as smallpox had broken out in that place. The port doctor snagged my arm with an inoculation needle in three different places, giving as a reason for doing so that he was sure none of them would "take." Later, it became painfully evident his opinion could not be depended upon in a matter of that nature, as three flaming-like eyes appeared on my arm—all three vaccinations had "taken."
A ship may enter the port of Bombay, India, though bubonic plague and smallpox is ravaging the passengers, but if what is known as a jigger is found on the feet or hands of a passenger a vessel would be quarantined for eight days. The jigger is a small insect that crawls under the toenail, deposits eggs if allowed to remain, and then dies; its eggs, however, cause a sore, which spreads over feet and legs, and the hands and body eventually become scaly, somewhat like eczema. African natives are very clever at digging out the jigger. The ship's doctor examines every toe and hand of passengers booked for India. He places a box on deck, when, one at a time, eachpassenger puts first one foot on the box, when the doctor inspects each toe, and then the other, for jigger indications. Several days are devoted to this examination.
"A complete quarantine" was the order of the port doctor when we reached Port Victoria, on the island of Mahé, Seychelles group, the Mombasa clearance papers announcing smallpox prevalent in the African town.
The coco-de-mer—a double cocoanut—is perhaps one of the strangest products in the world; only in the Seychelles group will the nut grow, and there on but two islands. After the shuck has been removed the double nut is found, black as ebony. A striking feature of the coco-de-mer is its resemblance to the torso of a black person. The tree on which it grows is like the cocoanut palm, and the nut is used for decorating homes and clubs. The palm grows in sexes, male and female, only the female tree bearing.
This group is composed of 29 islands, with an area of 153 square miles, and is located in the Western Indian Ocean about a thousand miles east of Zanzibar. The French settled these in 1742, which remained their territory for 50 years, when England added them to her possessions. The 30,000 inhabitants of the islands speak the French tongue. Unlike most sections of Africa, the climate here is healthful, the group being often referred to as the Garden of Eden. Cocoa oil and vanilla are the principal exports; tea, coffee, banana, cocoanut and other tropical growths also flourish. The natives are yellow in color, but not negroid. American five-gallon oil tins are in evidence in that isolated "oasis" of the world.
We traveled northwest from Seychelles, when we recrossed the equator, leaving behind the towering palms of Rio; the circling albatross and pretty Cape pigeons, the whales, flambeau trees, Zulu ricksha pullers, gold and diamond mines, Victoria Falls, and shapely mountains of South Africa; Australia, New Zealand, and the South Sea Islands; the interesting East Coast of Africa and Zanzibar; leafless trees, game preserves, green-island dotted Victoria Nyanza, nimble monkeys disporting in treetops, ant-eating natives, pretty birds, Ripon Falls, the tsetsefly—mindful only of the interesting and fascinating—and, lastly, the Southern Cross, as we say a final good-by to the attractive Southland and the kind people living in that division of the world.
"The anchor rattles down on stranger shores." We had stopped at Morumgoa, Portuguese-India, where most of the black passengers left the ship. Goa is the name of this Portuguese colony, which embraces an area of 1,500 square miles, and has been ruled by Portugal since the fifteenth century. Half a million Portuguese subjects live in Goa, and from that place comes the Goanese. They consider themselves Europeans, dress like Europeans, but are as black as an Indian. Stewards on passenger steamships in the East are generally Goanese, as they make better servants than Indians. The passengers were returning from Africa, where they had earned from $20 to $30 a month, very good wages for them. They had saved enough in Africa to live in ease at home for a long time, and would send friends across the Indian Ocean to take their places.
Another day's travel within sight of the Indian shore, and we sailed into the east bay of Bombay harbor, when a splendid panorama—the city on our left, the bay in front, and green hills and islands to the right—spread out before us. We had reached Asia—Leg Six.
The Parsi (a Persian) is the financial power in Bombay, coming to India a long time ago, when his empire was destroyed by the Mohammedans. Persecuted by Indians for centuries, his progress is entirely due to the protection he has received under England's strong arm. Bombay has been an English possession for 300 years.
The Parsi is lighter in color than the Indian, dresses differently, thinks he is better than the native, will not eat food prepared by others, and does not marry outside his own race. A majority of Parsis wear spectacles—possibly one of the results of tribal intermarriage.
One is surprised, on visiting this Parsi stronghold, at the splendid buildings, rising bulky and high, about the city. The streets in the business section are good and the walks in faircondition. A good system of stone and cement docks impresses the visitor. Ships are so numerous at this port that some of the vessels have to remain in harbor for days, and even weeks, before docking room is available. A large dry dock was under course of construction at this time, and other important improvements were in evidence all along the water front.
Trucking is done by oxen; horses are never seen drawing heavy loads. The Bombay truck is a two-wheeled cart, thousands of these, loaded with cotton bales and various merchandise, slowly moving about the city all the while. When drivers wish to speed their oxen they twist their tails. From this method of forcing the animals, the pronounced corrugated nature of their tails suggests that the joints had been wrenched apart numerous times.
Bombay cotton mills number about a hundred and furnish employment for over 200,000. Indian cotton is not so good as that grown in the United States, and for this reason hundreds of thousands of bales are imported from America each year to mix with the native product. Cotton is worn mainly by the natives, and, as the Indian woman has a weakness for colors, groups of these make a picturesque showing.
Indian women work side by side with men and receive the same wages. The work engaged in may be carrying earth from an excavation, loading dirt into carts, shoveling coal, or lifting bales of cotton. These are known as coolies, and no distinction is made between male and female, English rule has given some workers in India a short day, but others work 10 and 12 hours. The wages paid coolies in Bombay are from six to eight cents a day. A woman may be carrying material to masons working on a wall of a building and her babe be sleeping behind a pile of bricks. When the child requires its mother's attention the hod-carrier walks over to the infant, remains a short while, then leaves, loads her basket with brick, lifts it to her head, and starts up the ladder with the material.
Thousands of people in Bombay sleep on the sidewalk at night. They completely cover their head and face, placing a piece of old cloth under them—if so fortunate as to have somethingof that sort—lie down, and sleep until morning. One wonders they do not die of suffocation.
Usually the temperature is cooler at night than by day, but such is not the case in Bombay, the weather being hotter at night during the summer season than in the daytime, when a breeze generally blows, and ceases at sundown. Then perspiration seems just to boil out of one's body. Bombay being built on an island, with water on all sides, one would naturally think air would be noticeably stirring at night, but instead the bays at this time of year are usually as calm as a mill pond. We reached this country the end of September, and for three weeks following the weather would not permit of even a sheet covering at night. The weather is indeed hot in India.
The monsoons, or rains, begin the latter end of May, and continue until the first of September. The rain comes in showers, the sun shining between, when steam continually rises from the ground. White women go to the mountains before the monsoons, on account of the trying nature of the weather, and also after the monsoons have ceased. The weather in India is very depressing to white women.
Were one to walk about with bare arms on a cloudy day they would become blistered. If one walked ten feet without head covering, he would be apt to fall from sunstroke as quickly as if felled by a blow.
Bombay, the fourth city of the British Empire, has a population of a million, 15,000 of whom are said to be Europeans, but it is doubtful if there be that number of full-blooded whites in the city. Of this population, it would be interesting to know what percentage wear shoes. Some Parsis do so, others wear sandals; but no Hindus or Mohammedans wear shoes, and but a small minority are seen with sandals. These are worn only while walking, for it is the custom to leave their sandals outside the entrance of a building or home and enter in bare feet. No matter where they may be, the sandals are discarded at all times when they are not actually walking, and when sitting down their feet are partly concealed under them.
Hindus and Mohammedans do not eat pork, as they considerthe meat unclean; neither is beef eaten by Hindus. This is the reason why beef sells for five cents a pound. A cow is considered a sacred animal by the Hindu, and therefore not to be eaten. A shoemaker or saddler, or any one working with leather, is of very low caste, according to Hindu social rating.
In the Five Towers of Silence, located on Malabar Hill, the Parsi dead are disposed of, the method employed being one of the strangest customs practiced. A long, stone stairway leads to where the bodies are placed on an iron grating, which takes four men to carry it. Here are five cylinders, of three compartments each, 276 feet around and 25 feet high, resembling a circular gridiron, with a depression toward the center. Under the depressed portion of the cylinder is a well. Bodies are laid on the grating naked—adult males on the outside compartment, women on the center, and children near the well. Bald-headed vultures being numerous in the trees growing about the Towers, half an hour after a corpse has been placed on the gridiron every particle of flesh will be stripped from the bones by these vultures. The skeleton remains on the grating, exposed to sun and wind, until it has become dry; then the body-carriers, with tongs, remove the bones into the well. This method of disposing of bodies, instead of by cremation, is due to the Parsis regarding fire as too sacred to be polluted by burning the dead, and water and earth are equally revered. The bones and dust going into the same well is in keeping with one of the tenets of their religion—namely, that rich and poor must meet in death. The Parsis are followers of Zoroaster, who is said to have brought sacred fire from heaven, which is still kept burning in consecrated spots, while some of the temples are built over subterranean furnaces.
Bhisti(Water-Carrier).India.See page293.
Bhisti(Water-Carrier).India.See page293.
Parsi.Bombay, India.See page271.
Parsi.Bombay, India.See page271.
The Parsi has a marked weakness for seeing his name engraved on brass plates or shields or cut in polished granite. In order that this whim be gratified, he donates large sums of money to worthy benefactions. Their wealth and power may be inferred when it is stated that the control of the city of Bombay is in the hands of 80,000 out of a population of a million. The poor are well looked after, and a high standardof morality is their boast. The adoption of European customs becomes more noticeable from year to year. The children of that race attend the public schools.
One style of hat or cap worn by the Parsi is of pasteboard, covered with dotted white and red silk cloth, in the shape of a horse's hoof. In the center of the cap a conical piece of the frame points upward, but not so high as the top of the "hoof." That feature of the cap suggests the frog in the horse's foot. No rim, string or tassel goes with this odd headgear. Occasionally a small feather may be seen at one side. Another hat having a high crown, is made of cloth, without a rim, save for what might be called a cuff around the bottom. His "coat" is a long, loose garment reaching to the knees. The Parsi horse-hoof hat, with adornment, will yet be well known beyond the borders of India and Persia, for milliners will induce their customers to adopt that style of headdress.
The city is well provided with parks. On the west side is a large strip of land, on which English sports, including polo games, are common; this park is used also for other forms of recreation. Music is provided in this part of the city every evening. In another section is located Victoria Gardens, a very pretty place, containing a good museum and a creditable zoo. Music is furnished in these grounds several times a week.
An interesting type of the varied nationalities of Bombay is the fisherwomen, who carry their catch in a basket on their heads. They are a different race to the Hindu or Parsi, dress differently, wear no head covering, and a sort of skirt they wear stops at the knees, the center being caught up by a piece of cloth brought between and fastened in front, giving the skirt a baggy, trouser-like appearance; from their knees down their legs are bare, including the feet. While their occupation would suggest untidiness, yet no people in the world are superior, in neatness of step and admirable carriage, to the Bombay fisherwomen.
It may be of interest to note that Bombay "duck," appearing on menus in the Far East, is really fish caught in the ArabianSea, which, after being dried, is shipped to many parts of the world.
Bombay curry and rice is another food seen on menus in cities a long distance from the place whose name it bears. A gherkin is always eaten with this, the chief food of India. Curry and rice is seen on menus all over the country, and it is well for one to acquire a taste for it while in India, as it is said to be good, and there is always plenty of it.
"Lac" is used in India to denote large amounts, as a "thousand" is used in our country. There is a much larger difference in the amount, however, as a lac is 100,000. Five lacs of rupees, or three lacs of cotton bales, is the way the term is used.
A garrywaller is a cabdriver, but "garry" is the general term used when speaking of that class. The term "waller" is used in the place of the word "smith" in the United States. It would be tinwaller for a tinsmith, woodwaller for a cabinetmaker, saddlewaller for a saddler, and so on.
Cab fare is cheap in Bombay. The charge for the first hour is 25 to 30 cents, and 16 to 20 cents an hour after the first. Short trips cost from 10 to 16 cents. One engaging a "garry" should know the exact fare before starting, for a driver may demand double the regular fare when the journey is finished. The cab horses are a hungry-looking lot—like those of Paris, France.
Jewelry and copper wallers form a considerable proportion of skilled workers. Copper cups and vases are much used in connection with religious customs, and Indian women will starve themselves to save money to buy silver ornaments. As many as six or eight ankle, wrist, and arm bangles are worn by these women, besides heavy pieces of jewelry depending from the ears, and flat ornaments covering the mouth. These last are attached to a pin that has been pierced through the nose. Mothers even have bangles on the arms and ankles of their babies.
An Indian woman's dress is often composed of but one piece of cloth—cotton or silk, as the case may be. On the amountof money a woman has at her disposal depends the bulk of the dress she wears. The strips of material are sometimes 20 feet in length; they are caught up by deft hands and made into a full fold, a half fold, or a V-shaped hook design, until a covering of what seems an inch of cloth is around the figure, worked out in shapes and designs to suit her fancy. None of the women wear shoes or hats, the head covering being made of the bolt of cloth composing her dress. The brighter the color of the material the better she is pleased.
Several English daily newspapers are published in Bombay; the leading one sells at six cents a copy. Employed in that particular office are 1,100 persons, and out of that large force were only nine Europeans working in the mechanical departments, these directing the work of the several divisions. Here were linotype machines and other modern appliances that mark the advancement which has taken place in the printing industry during the past 25 years. The "aristocratic" workers of that office were the linotype operators, their wages varying from $14 to $18 a month—big salaries for India. A typist or linotype operator would not hold a job long in America were he to bump down and up the keys of these machines with but one hand; yet that is the way the Indian linotype operator manipulates a keyboard. Unlike coolies' hours, the working day in a publishing house is but eight hours. The wages of other Indian skilled mechanics in that office ran from $3 to $8 a month.
Modern machinery in any branch of industry in India, however, is often run at a loss. In a large publishing house a modern paper-folding machine had been installed at considerable expense. After the machine had been in operation for several weeks it occurred to the management there was little, if any, financial gain noticed by the results. When the original cost, wear and tear and ultimate replacement had been figured out, the figures proved that the work could be done 600 per cent. cheaper by hand. The folding machine was immediately abandoned and the work again done by boys receiving from 4 to 6 cents a day.
The Bombay policeman's hat is yellow in color and resemblesa thick pancake, with a firm rim. He carries a club, and a small stick is another symbol of authority. He wears sandals, and is not officious. If he be on a day assignment, his time on duty is eight hours. The night policeman has much shorter hours—two hours on and two hours off. This unusual practice is maintained owing to an officer being very apt to go to sleep while on duty. Mention has been made of the weather being hotter at night than in the daytime, which may explain the night policeman's tendency to become sleepy. These protectors of the law receive $3.25 a month.
Electric street railways run to every part of the city, but few Europeans ride in them. Not long since a white person seen riding on a street car would be thought little of, but social restrictions in this respect have relaxed to a noticeable degree. Formerly Europeans were expected to maintain their position by riding in a carriage. Street railway fare is cheaper in Bombay than in Sydney, Australia—from 2 to 3 cents for a long ride. The city is lighted by gas, but it does not reflect much credit on the lighting department.
Every European living in India must be identified with the local militia. It matters not whether one be a Britisher, a German, a Frenchman, or an American—all white male residents must be instructed in the use of arms. It is the fear of native uprisings that demand the training of each European, to be able to give the best account of his ability if confronted by hordes of blacks intent on the most cruel forms of massacre. A large garrison of British soldiers is stationed in Bombay, and even a larger number at Poona, 100 miles east.
The food is nearly the same variety as one gets in other parts of the world. One would expect to come across different vegetables, but, with a few exceptions, potatoes, beans, peas, tomatoes, onions and pumpkins rule the day. One does not fare so well with eggs, however, as these are one-third less in size than European or American eggs. The Indian breed of chickens have long legs and a wide breast, so there is more white meat than dark to the Indian fowl.
Elephanta Caves, located seven miles from Bombay, on theopposite shore of the eastern bay, is one of the attractions of that city. Caves of this character are numerous in Southern India, and most of them are worth a visit. The caves are underground temples, and the sculpture, as seen in the gods carved out of solid rock; pulpits, shrines, and images symbolic of their faith, speak well for the people's skill in that art. The roofs of these caves are supported by large stone columns. Nothing has been overlooked to make these large underground places of worship emblematic of their religion, no work or expense having been too great to bring about that end. Elephanta and other wonderful subterranean temples bespeak the Buddhist faith. They were chiseled out in the eighth century. Thousands of Buddhists visit and worship in the caves to-day. The Caves of Ellora, however, are the greatest and most notable.
One would not expect to find away off in Bombay the prettiest railroad station, perhaps, in the world; yet Victoria Station, the western terminus of the Great India Peninsula Railroad, in architectural beauty, will withstand critical examination. The style is Italian Gothic, with Oriental designs. The building is elaborately ornamented with sculpture and surrounded by a large central dome. The station was built in 1888, and cost $1,500,000. We know of a number of larger railroad stations, but have seen none to compare with its rich architectural appearance. Though Victoria Station is the prettiest structure in Bombay, other splendid buildings would surprise a visitor on his visit to the Parsi city.
A flat or an apartment for Europeans costs $30 a month. Office rent is nearly as high in Bombay as it is in New York.
Good hotel accommodation can be had from $2 to $3 a day. Usually a room is composed of three "compartments"—a sitting room, dressing room, and bath room, but no running water. Hot water for the bath is brought in copper kettles and emptied into a wooden tub. It requires three Indians to look after a room—a room "boy," bath "boy," and "sweeper." The room "boy" is of higher caste than the bath "boy," and the bath "boy" of higher caste than the "sweeper"; neither will do work out of their caste position. Ceilings are high, andmany hotels are lighted by electricity. At sundown the room "boy" sees that the bed is enclosed with mosquito netting, supported on a frame. Most of the beds are of iron, with modern springs.
One will not be in this city long before the large number of black crows, with steel gray backs, flying about comes under observation. At daylight their presence is forcibly brought home, the medley of "caws" coming from these Indian scavengers preventing further sleep of a newcomer.
America was prominently represented here in a sewing-machine office, a cash register office, and the ever-present American five-gallon oil can.
The native quarters is a black and busy place. Bombay is perhaps more cosmopolitan than other Indian cities. Here are seen the Arab, Afghan, Zanzibar negro, Persian, Beluchi, Chinaman, Japanese, Malay, and representatives of other countries and other sections of India. Bright-colored clothes appear occasionally, but the denizens of the native quarters are more naked than dressed. The bazaars are located here—the brass workers, coppersmiths, and jewelers; and here everything native-made may be purchased. Candy makers are among the "wallers" of India, and the smell from these shops and the native cooking-places—well, if one were blind, and at all used to Indian life, he would know he were in the bazaar by the odors.
India is the home of the rupee. As stated earlier, its value is 32 cents in United States money. Then there is the half rupee, 16 cents; the anna, two cents; the pice, one-half a cent, and the pie, one-sixth of a cent. Millions of people in India have never had a rupee in their hands, being more familiar with the pice and pie coins and cowrie shells, the latter being legal currency in some parts of India. The value of cowrie shells varies from 80 to 85 to the pie, or 500 to the American cent.
European data in connection with Bombay and southwestern India is taken from the year 1498, when Vasco da Gama, the daring Portuguese explorer, sailed around Cape of Good Hope to Calicut. Portugal then assumed control of this section for twelve years, when it was wrested from her, again coming intoher possession twenty-four years later. In 1608 England appeared on the scene, and in 1661 Bombay was ceded to Britain as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza. A few years later the East India Company established itself here, and it has remained a British possession ever since.
Our next move was by rail to Baroda, 248 miles north of Bombay. The railroad coach was of the compartment type, but wide, the road gauge being 5¼ feet. Fare in India is cheap, first-class being three cents a mile, second-class a cent and a half a mile for short journeys and a cent and a quarter for 300 miles or more, and third-class fare one-sixth of a cent, or a pie, a mile. To learn what heavy passenger travel is one must go to India and note the jammed condition of the third-class cars. Natives seemed to travel on railway trains to show their friends they had money to spend on luxuries. At certain towns a sub-station is located near the regular station, where third-class passengers cook their food and sleep until the train arrives. If they oversleep, it matters little, as they camp out until the next train stops. Some of the coaches are equipped with shower baths and luxuriously furnished; all of the through trains are lighted by electricity and provided with electric fans. To add to the comfort of passengers, ice is carried to cool the drinks. The schedule time of some trains is 40 miles an hour. Coaches are provided with free sleeping berths, as in South Africa.
My compartment companion was a sepoy (soldier) and a Mohammedan, who had seen 24 years' military service, and spoke fairly good English. He had laid in a supply of food before leaving Bombay, and, when eating small cakes, offered to share them with his European traveling companion; next a cigar was proffered, and, not being a smoker, this kindness was also declined. Indians are vain concerning scented water, and this sepoy had saturated himself so thoroughly with lavender or rose-water that the compartment smelled like a perfume factory. He next offered fragrant water to put on my handkerchief, but I did not take kindly to his taste. He carried two pillows, andwas disposed to divide these with his companion. Some interesting facts concerning Mohammedan customs were gathered from him during the journey, and when Baroda was reached the sepoy asked, apologetically, if his presence had been objectionable. In answer, he was handed a picture of one of the high buildings in New York City.
One-third of the area of India is composed of what are termed native States, the State of Baroda being among these. The Gaekwar of Baroda rules over 2,000,000 subjects, and is reputed to be the second wealthiest man in India. The richest native ruler is the Nizam of the State of Hyderabad (Deccan).
A much better appearance was offered by the Gaekwar's subjects than by the natives seen in Bombay. Baroda has a population of 100,000, and a street-car line is among the city's attractions, the cars being drawn by horses. Away from the bazaar, or business center, Baroda is provided with good streets, with trees growing on each side. A creditable park is located near the city, the grounds containing a museum, an art gallery, and a zoo.
A visit was made to the palace, in which is included the legislative halls. We had been through palaces in Europe, but the Gaekwar's bed was the most costly seen anywhere. It is of solid silver, the posts being two inches in diameter, and everything else connected with this democratic ruler's bed was fully in keeping with the silver frame. Electric fans are placed throughout the palace; while mosaic-tiled floors, mahogany furniture, most expensive rugs, and drapings were also seen about this Indian ruler's dwelling-place. The palace is surrounded by attractive grounds.
Native rulers may govern their States, but England really holds the reins of power. The ruler of the State of Mysore, for instance, had his domain taken from him, but it was afterwards returned. That will serve as an indication of what is likely to take place if a maharaja opposes England's idea of how to conduct her dependencies. The Gaekwar himself was scotched by the British whip for turning the wrong way in thepresence of the King of England at the Durbar held in Delhi several years since. Previously the Gaekwar's standing had been recognized by a royal salute of 21 guns, and seven of these were cut off. He now receives but a 14-gun salute for his unfortunate turn at the Durbar.
Dak bungalows take the place of hotels in the smaller cities of India, but even these are absent in remote towns. In order that European visitors to Baroda may not be put to any inconvenience concerning accommodation the Gaekwar has built a special hotel, called the Rest House. Financially it is a loss, but the Gaekwar is too big-hearted to allow his European friends to undergo any discomfort while staying at his capital.
Large monkeys, two feet high, inhabit the trees here. They are sacred animals to the Hindu, and, although destroying garden and flower plants, no Hindu would venture even to strike one of the tricky animals. If one of them was killed by a European, that person, probably, would not get out of the place alive.
The next stop was at Ahmedabad, where some of the best temple and mosque architecture in India is to be seen. The city has a quarter of a million inhabitants, and is noted for its goldsmiths, jewelers, ivory carvers, lacquer workers, cotton-cloth factories, calico printing, gold and silver lace, and other industries that require high skill.
Feeding-places for birds—boxes on posts—ornamented with carving and sometimes brightly painted, naturally arouse the curiosity of visitors to Ahmedabad. A sect of the Hindu faith in this city is known as the Jains; they erected the feeding-places and supply food for the birds. This Buddhist sect believes all inorganic matter has a soul, and that a man's soul may pass into stone; but it is their concern for animal life, more than their other beliefs, that interests. They will not kill an animal, bird or insect. To maintain life in flies, bedbugs, mosquitoes, fowl, dogs, and monkeys is a strict tenet of their religion; they also believe bodily penance is necessary to salvation. This sect numbers a million and a half.
The Jain temple—Hathi Singh Temple—is one of theprettiest church buildings we have seen. Though it has not the imposing appearance of the Cathedral of Milan, Italy, a view of the Jain temple of Ahmedabad will long remain in one's mind. The church, built of white marble, surmounted by 53 domes, will bring to mind, as a poor illustration, the handsomely ornamented Christmas or wedding cakes seen in bakers' windows. Woolen slippers must be worn on entering. The interior is in keeping with the richness of the exterior. The gods in the temple where the Jains worship seem to be made of gold, although they may be of brass; they are two feet high, and some are ornamented with what looks like precious stones.
In a mosque of that city there is a marble window, with delicate tracery on stone of stems and branches. This beautiful craftsmanship is in every detail equal to what one would expect if the same design was worked by a deft hand lace-worker. The window is six or seven feet across, and of the same height. The tracery was executed nearly 300 hundred years ago. Formerly there were two, but one was removed from the mosque and taken to London, and is now in the British Museum.
In all the larger centers of India a garrison, or cantonment, is located just outside the city, some of them composed largely of native soldiers, with European officers in charge. Europeans living in these centers occupy homes near the cantonments.
Ahmedabad streets are well shaded, and some of the houses, though none too tidy in appearance, are beautifully ornamented on the outside with wood carving. Beggars are numerous. A wall, in some sections 40 feet high, with 12 entrances, surrounds the old city. A good park is another feature, and the old wells are an example of art in a high degree in the past. The necessity for these wells will be understood when it is stated that rain does not fall from the termination of the monsoons until rain is again due, a period of eight months; but the sacred tamarind trees do not die. All the cities of India put one in mind of a rosy apple rotten in the center: the outskirts are beautified with nice parks, good roads, and shady trees, but the inside is always spoiled by a dirty, bad-smelling bazaar.
Packs of big monkeys and homeless dogs—pariah dogs, they are called—stand on the roads in the suburbs until a horse almost steps on them. They are waiting for the Jains to come with food. The pariah dog is generally mangy, scaly, starved, and half mad when he is not actually snapping. Though a menace to human life, if a European were to kill one it might lead to an uprising in India. The mortality from rabies is appalling.
Lizards were seen sliding about the walls, crickets were piping from the corners, and frogs were hopping about the floor of the room I occupied in Ahmedabad. No one of this sect will kill a lizard, as he is a house scavenger—puts in all his time catching flies and mosquitoes. The lizard is evidently not a Jain.
A 24-hour ride was ahead of us before Agra could be reached. The country passed through was as level as a table, with patches of rice growing on each side of the railway track. Now and again an irrigation trench is seen, and trees in cultivated fields, while often separated by considerable space, give the landscape a timbered appearance. Four poles, from eight to ten feet above the ground, may be seen standing in fields where grain is growing, on top of which a shaky platform has been built. An Indian is assigned to this "look-out," to protect the growing and ripening crops from invasions of destructive fowl and animals. Rice will grow only in from three to twelve inches of water. If the monsoons be limited, there will not be enough water to grow the rice, and the dreaded famine results. Though the monsoons had been good, the people looked half starved; so we have no desire to travel through India in a famine year. The Indian plough is perhaps an improvement on what was in use 5,000 years ago, as it has a pointed iron bolt in a stick of wood, but in the murky past the point of the plough might have been wood. Oxen, with big humps on their shoulders, draw the stick and bolt, and two Indians—generally a woman and a man—seem to be required to work the device. A long pole sticking in the air, with half a dozen to a dozen Indians around—each woman with a baby astraddle herhip—is scaled by two or three men, a cloth no larger than a pocket handkerchief about their loins, the top of the pole bending to the ground as the men approach the end of it. A sort of bucket—generally of earthenware, but sometimes an American five-gallon tin oil can—is seen appearing on the surface with water dripping from it. This is the windmill of India. When the monsoons fail them, this is their only hope of getting water from the wells to nourish the rice "paddies," and it is borne on the head for long distances for the purpose of maintaining life.
Very few people drink water in India, as in most rivers it is polluted by dead bodies, is used by "dobeys" (washermen), and in other ways made unfit to drink, all of which causes typhoid fever. For this reason much whisky, also soda water, is drunk. Soda water on trains sells at four cents a bottle to a second-class passenger and eight cents to a first-class passenger. In this country one pays according to his position for any and everything he buys.
Stations are not announced in India, and noticing "Agra" on a board, in large letters, that place being a Mecca for travelers, we fell in line with custom and left the train.
The chief attraction of Agra is the Taj Mahal, the greatest tomb ever erected to the memory of a woman, and this in a country where women are looked upon as merely servants of men. The monument was erected by Shah Jahan, Emperor of Delhi, to one of his wives, Mumtaz Mahal, "the pride of the palace," as she was termed. Work began on the monument in 1630, which was completed in 1652, 22 years being required to finish the grand pile of marble. The sum of money expended on its erection was $10,000,000.
The grounds in which the tomb stands are entered by an imposing gate that would be a creditable monument in itself to any great personage. When inside, the visitor is confronted with a beautiful garden. A marble walk, in black and white, leads to the noted monument at the other end, on the bank of the Jumna River, where it rises in striking beauty, its stately marble dome, marble walls, and marble minarets demonstrating the grandeur in architecture for which the Taj Mahal is famed.The marble platform on which the tomb stands is 313 feet square, and the top of the dome rises to a height of 213 feet. At each corner of the tomb is a minaret of white marble, 137 feet high, delineated by black lines. Some parts of the tomb are inlaid with precious stones. Trellis work also plays a conspicuous part in this magnificent monument.
The fort of Agra, built of red sandstone and nearly 70 feet high, with a circumference of a mile, contains some magnificent buildings of the Moguls, although portions have been demolished. It was behind these walls 6,000 Britishers took refuge during the Mutiny of 1857. The walls of the fort and the buildings were erected between 1550 and 1640. Shah Jahan, the Emperor of Delhi, who built the Taj Mahal, also erected the greater number of fine buildings here within the great sandstone walls. Among the material used in the erection of the palaces is white marble with blue and gray veins worked in with black marble, and white marble inlaid with mosaic and valuable stones, rich reliefs enhancing the design. As in Nero's day, there was an enclosure built, in which wild beasts tore each other to pieces for the amusement of the Mogul. Artificial flowers, made of valuable red gems, inlaid in white marble; marble lattice work, treble marble domes, marble fountains, walls embossed with gold—practically all marble—beautified with red sandstone pillars and splendid vistas, with green parrakeets flitting about the surroundings all the day, may also be seen in this grand scheme of architecture. Such elegance, and the vast amount of money spent in erecting these handsome buildings, contrasted strongly with the dirty, squalid living quarters of the poor, low-caste Indian, certainly indicates a striking disregard of their interests.
Here one finds a creditable park, good driveways, shade trees and large lawns in front of Europeans' homes. These dwellings are bungalows, one storied, high roofed, with wide verandas, and often covered with grass or reeds. The kitchen is not inside, but a building in the rear is used for that purpose. Nearly every one owns a horse and trap of some sort, and there is astable included in the buildings. A fence generally surrounds the grounds, and the inclosure is called a "compound."
Agra has a population of 200,000, and the articles manufactured are gold and silver embroidery, carving in soapstone and imitation of old inlay work on white marble.
The Mohammedan place of worship is a mosque, and the Hindu place of worship is a temple.
A Mohammedan may have four wives, besides concubine slaves. The celebration of a Mohammedan marriage costs the father of the bridegroom about $150, which is used to buy presents for the bride and to furnish a feast for friends. Any prospective father-in-law attempting to shave that sum would be thought little of by the bridegroom's acquaintances. Mohammedans bury their dead, but use no coffin. They place the corpse on the bottom of the grave, build over a frame, which is covered with timber, cloth or stone, and then fill in earth. Prayers are offered five times a day—at sunset, nightfall, daybreak, noon, and afternoon. All work is abandoned at time for prayers. Mohammedan priests use their voices to summon worshipers to prayers, because Jews and Christians use bells and trumpets for the same purpose. Mohammedans believe in a resurrection, heaven, and hell, but also believe there is a separate heaven for women. The Koran forbids the drinking of wine or eating of pork. This sect wash their hands, mouth, and nose before eating or praying. Mohammed, the prophet of Allah, was born in Mecca, Arabia, 570 A. D., his father being a poor merchant. Sixty-three million of the population of India are Mohammedans, and the Mogul dynasties prevailed from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries.