GOING ASHORE.
As they reached the shore the boat rose on the crest of a wave, andthe instant she touched the sand the crew sprung out and seized her sides to run her up the beach before the next wave could arrive. Nobody received the least wetting, but the shore was so damp with the spray and surf that walking was not desirable. The boatmen stepped into position to receive the passengers on their backs, and our friends went ashore in a manner that was not altogether dignified, though decidedly comfortable.
NATIVES IN THE SURF.
When the north-east monsoon is blowing in its full force the surf is so heavy that no boat can live in it. The great rollers rush in one after the other in rapid succession, and with a front ten or twelve feet high: foreigners are cautious about venturing into it at such times, but the natives have no such fears, and many of them improve the opportunity for surf-bathing. With a short plank to keep them afloat, they spring into the waves and allow themselves to be tossed here and there by the turbulent waters, and if they are thrown on the sand again and again they sustain no injury.
SCENE NEAR PONDICHERRY.
As they walked along the beach and into the city, Doctor Bronson told his young companions about Pondicherry and its history.
"Pondicherry," said he, "is the capital of the French possessions in India—Les Indes Orientales Françaises. It is a city of barely 50,000 inhabitants, and the French territory attached to it has about 200,000 inhabitants on an area of 112 square miles. There are two or three other small settlements in India belonging to the French, but altogether they do not number 50,000 people in their limits. This is all that is left of the once wide possessions of the French in India. There was a time when the French were more powerful in the East than the English, and about the middle of the last century the latter began to fear that they would be driven out of Hindostan by their rivals. The French held more than half the country, and Madras and the principal cities in the English possession were besieged by the French and their native allies. The genius of one man turned the tide of war, and a succession of victories gave the English practical control of the whole country."
"That man was Lord Clive, was he not?" said one of the boys.
"Yes, Lord Clive. He organized a small force of English and native soldiers, and managed them so skilfully that one after another of the enemy's strong places fell into his hands. I advise you to read the history of his life whenever you have the opportunity, as it is exceedingly interesting, and will amply repay you for the perusal. I cannot, in the time at our disposal, give you even a brief outline of it, as it covers many events of importance, and includes a period of nearly twenty-five years.He fought many battles, and was nearly always victorious: the most important was the battle of Plassey, which occurred on the 23d day of June, 1757."
"I've read about that battle," said Frank; "it was the one that decided the question of the English staying in India or being driven out of it."
"You are right," answered the Doctor; "if the battle of Plassey had gone the other way, the English power would have been completely broken, at least that is what the English historians themselves admit. Clive's army consisted of only 3000 men, and two-thirds of them were native soldiers, the rest being Englishmen. The native army opposed to him was 55,000 strong, consisting of 40,000 infantry, 15,000 cavalry, and having fifty large cannon, drawn by elephants and oxen. It is proper to say that the infantry was armed principally with pikes, swords, and bows and arrows, and the only weapons using gunpowder were some old-fashioned firelocks. The English had the best fire-arms of those times, and their artillery was far superior to that of the natives, though the number of pieces was smaller.
"The native nabob who commanded opened fire on Clive with his heavy guns, but they did very little harm. The English artillery replied with such deadly effect that the nabob ordered a retreat; Clive's army then advanced, and the enemy was thrown into confusion, and the retreat became a disorderly rout. All their artillery and camp equipage fell into the hands of the English, and the victory was complete."
One of the boys asked if many of the combatants were killed.
"No," was the reply; "the loss of life on both sides was very small, especially for such a complete defeat on one side, and a decisive victory on the other. About 500 of the native army were killed, and a great number made prisoners; the English lost twenty-two killed and fifty wounded—when I say English, I mean the entire army under Clive's command.
"Clive's victory at Plassey was followed by another at Patna over the troops of the Great Mogul, and in the year 1759 he defeated an army that was sent from the Dutch East Indies by the Governor of Batavia. Then he went to England, where he remained four years before returning to India to resume his command of the affairs of the colonies. On his final return to England his administration was questioned, but he vindicated himself in a parliamentary examination and died in 1774."
While this conversation was going on our friends were strolling through the streets of Pondicherry, and observing its peculiarities. Fredsaid he expected to see a great fort and many soldiers, but the Doctor told him that when the place was given up by the English, in 1814, it was on the condition that no European soldiers should be kept there, and no fort should be built. The same was the case with the other French possessions in India, and consequently they could never be of any military importance, and would speedily fall into the hands of the English in case of war between the two countries.
HOUSE IN THE EUROPEAN QUARTER.
They found that the European quarter was well laid out along the sea shore, and separated from the native portion by a ditch, which was crossed by several bridges. The streets are broad, and shaded by magnificent trees, and nearly every house has a fine garden attached to it. The squares are large, and there are many temples and pagodas that tell the traveller he is in India. Many of the natives speak French, and altogether they appear content with the foreigners that rule over them.
AN INDIAN WOMAN.
They met many natives, and the boys were impressed with the oddity of the appearance of many of them. The quantity of jewellery worn by the women surpassed what they had seen in Ceylon, or in any of the countries hitherto visited, and one of them remarked that people in India were willing to suffer much inconvenience for the sake of fashion. As he said so he pointed out a woman who had a ring at least two inches in diameter thrust through one side of her nose in such a way that it hung down over her mouth, and reached to the level of the base of her chin.It certainly appeared as though it would be a great hinderance to eating and drinking, but the woman seemed proud of her adornment, and probably would have been unwilling to part with it.
It was further observed that she had her ears pierced with several holes, and each hole contained a ring. The whole front of the ear was filled with rings. As if this were not jewellery enough, she had a double string of beads on her neck, a great necklace of silver coins that hung to her waist, and a couple of ornaments on each arm. Bells tinkled as she walked, and, on glancing at her ankles, Frank and Fred observed that they were beautified with heavy rings of silver.
AN INDIAN MAN.
The fondness for jewellery was not confined to the women by any means, as the boys had occasion to remark before they had finished their discussion of the wearer of the many rings. They saw several men whose ears were pierced in the same way as those of the women, but they were content with filling the holes with delicate pearls. A few of the wealthiest of the native men had diamonds in their ears, but the lower classes could not afford such a luxury.
In front of the principal hotel of the city there was a group of natives around a performer who appeared to be doing something interesting. Our friends stopped to see what the attraction was, and found that a snake-charmerwas exhibiting his power over acobra-di-capello. As the boys had not yet seen a snake-charmer in India, the Doctor motioned to the man to bring his serpent near the veranda of the hotel, where the strangers took their seats. Accordingly the performer brought forward a small basket, about the size and shape of an ordinary cheese, and then squatted in front of it.
A SERPENT-CHARMER.
With an instrument somewhat resembling a flute he began playing a dull, monotonous air; in a few moments there was a movement under the bit of cloth that lay in the basket, and presently the head of a cobra appeared. Slowly the snake elevated himself till nearly half his length was in the air, and as long as the music continued he swayed his headbackward and forward, and apparently tried to keep time to the tune. When the musician laid aside his flute the snake subsided, and crawled under the blanket as though he wished to go to sleep again. The performance was over, and the man advanced with a low bow and extended his hand for his reward. The Doctor gave him a sixpence, another spectator added a similar amount, and the snake-charmer went away satisfied.
"He was only an ordinary performer," said the Doctor; "I can show you some that far excel him before we have been long in India. Their adroitness will astonish you, and some of their tricks will appear like the work of a magician; I will not detract from their interest by telling you what they will do, but would rather have you wait and see for yourselves. The time for our return to the ship is approaching, and we had better move on."
Suiting the action to the word the Doctor rose, and was followed by the youths. In a little while they were passing through the surf and out toward the ship, which they reached without mishap of any kind. A little past noon the anchor was lifted, and the steamer was under way for Madras.
It is about ninety miles from Pondicherry to Madras, and as the steamer was not a fast one, it was well into the night before she arrived at the latter port. The captain announced that she would remain there until evening of the second day after their arrival, and thus they would have two full days on shore. They could do as they liked about coming off to sleep on board or staying at a hotel. As there was a good chance of a wetting in the surf while going back and forth, it did not take a long consultation for them to decide to remain on shore. Rising early in the morning they ate a light breakfast, and then took their satchels with such toilet-articles as they desired during their single night on land. Plenty of boats were at the ship's side, and a bargain was made to the effect that for two rupees each they were to be carried to the shore and back again, with a rupee additional to the crew by way of perquisite.
MASULLAH-BOATS IN THE SURF AT MADRAS.
The boat they engaged was of the variety known as themasullah; it was made of long thin planks, and the sides were very high in order to keep out the surf, or as much of it as possible. The planks extended from one end of the boat to the other, and were tied together with coir ropes running through small holes bored in the edges. The seams were calked with the fibres of the cocoa-nut-tree, and daubed with pitch; but in spite of this precaution the craft was a leaky one, and a man was occupied more than half the time in baling her out. The bottom was flat, and covered with a quantity of small twigs to keep the feet of the passengersfrom getting wet; the crew wore neither shoes nor stockings, and consequently it made little difference to them whether their feet were wet or dry.
The captain of the steamer told them that the masullah-boat was a remarkable construction, and though it appeared frail, it was in reality very strong. "It goes on the waves instead of through them," said he, "and is therefore just what is wanted for the surf. The sides are so flexible that they can be brought close together, and then sprung out again without apparent injury, as I have seen them do repeatedly. They bump against the sides of our ship for hours without any more effect on them than on a rubber ball, and they will carry any sort of cargo that can be lowered into them."
Away they went on their trip to shore, the crew singing the same kind of song they had heard at Pondicherry, and rowing with curious-looking oars or paddles that had quite a resemblance to enormous tea-spoons. As they neared the land, the waves rolling in from the sea were not a pleasant sight, and the situation was not improved when the men stopped rowing just outside the line of surf and demanded double pay before going in. This is a favorite trick with the Madras boatmen, and it frequently succeeds where the passengers are timorous: this time it did not work to their satisfaction, as the Doctor peremptorily ordered themto row back to the steamer if they were unwilling to keep to their bargain. Finding themselves foiled, they pulled away at the oars, keeping the head of the boat straight on for the shore. She rose on one wave, and then on the next and the next: there are generally three lines of waves pursuing one another, and the third, counting from the outside, is the one that breaks into surf.
As they struck the sand with the surf the boatmen sprung out and ran the boat out of reach of the next wave. A little water was taken into the stern of the boat in the shape of spray, just as they rose on the crest of the last wave; Frank was slightly sprinkled with it, but the Doctor and Fred escaped without the least wetting.
From the sand they were carried by the men to dry ground, and as soon as they were fairly on their feet a great clamor was raised by the crew for extra pay. The Doctor told them it would be due when they returned to the ship and not before, and without more words the trio walked off with their satchels, to which they had clung.
A CATAMARAN.
The masullah-boat is not the only kind of craft that passes through the surf at Madras. Just as they landed, Frank and Fred saw a sort of raft with two men on it boldly launching into the waves, and it was followed by another with only one man on it. The Doctor explained that these rafts or catamarans were made of three logs that turned up at the ends, and were lashed side by side, and they were chiefly used for taking letters and light parcels from ship to shore, or from shore to ship. The men that manage them have high hats with pockets in the lining, and everything they carry is put there for safety.
At the side of the street, just above the beach, stood a garry, or carriage, which the Doctor engaged to take them to the principal hotel. The crowd of boatmen and beach attendants followed, and pressed so closely that it needed several strokes of the umbrellas of our friends tokeep them even a yard away, and, as they entered the carriage, a dozen hands were thrust into the windows with demands for backsheesh. Some of these fellows followed the carriage for nearly half a mile, shouting their complaints, and making a vain effort to be bought off. Doctor Bronson said they were the most persistent beggars he had ever seen, with the possible exception of the Arabs at the great pyramids in Egypt, and it was quite possible that the latter might learn a lesson from the beach-combers of Madras.
With the crowd shaken off at last, our friends had a chance to look around them and obtain their first impression of Madras.
The city stands on a plain close to the sea, and extends seven or eight miles along the coast. The view, as one approaches it from the water, is quite picturesque; between the beach and the first line of buildings there is a wide street, in which we see a good deal of activity in the early and late hours of the day, but very little when the sun is at or near the meridian. The densest part of the city is in the neighborhood of the long pier, and for nearly a mile up and down the shore the line of buildings is almost unbroken. This part of Madras is called the Black Town, and nearly all the business of the place is conducted here; in the rest of the city the buildings are much more scattered than in the Black Town, and, altogether, Madras is said to cover an area of about thirty square miles.
Frank wondered how many inhabitants there were in Madras, and what was the proportion between the natives and foreigners.
HINDOO NATIVE OF MADRAS.
"There are about 400,000 people living here," Doctor Bronson answered, "and the majority of them are Hindoos. There are less than 2000 people of English birth here, exclusive of the garrison, and there may be four or five hundred German, French, Greek, and other European nationalities. It is an odd spectacle to see so small a population governing a large one, but you must bear in mind that this is the case in nearly all the cities of the East where Europeans have obtained control."
What Frank and Fred saw and did during their visit to Madras is best told in their own words.
"After running the gauntlet of the crowd of natives on the beach, and getting a carriage, we drove to the principal hotel of the city. We found it a series of houses disconnected from each other, and the rooms that they gave us were in the building most distant of all from the dining-room. Peddlers and jugglers followed us to the door, and we had hard work to keep them out of our rooms till we called a servant, and told him to drive them away.
WESTERN ENTRANCE OF FORT GEORGE.
"We rode about Madras,and the first thing we went to see was the fort, which we reached by crossing a bridge at its western entrance. It covers a great deal of ground, and was a strong enough place before the improvements of the last twenty years in artillery. Its full name is FortSt. George,and it is designed to resist attack both by land and sea; on the side facing the sea it has a front of 1500 feet,and on the land side it has a double line of bomb-proof defences built of stone and covered with earth.
"We were surprised at the quantity of things in the fort. There were small guns of all the kinds you ever heard of, and some you never did; there were cannon captured in the various wars with the native princes and kings, cannon from China and other parts of the Far East, swords, pistols, muskets, firelocks, flags, wagons, saddles, spears, and a thousand other things that the auctioneers would say are too numerous to mention. The fort is large enough for a garrison of 1000 men, and in time of war it could hold many more. All the European inhabitants of Madras could be taken inside in case of trouble, but they would be crowded rather closely when their numbers were added to those of the garrison.
GOVERNOR'S RESIDENCE, FORT GEORGE.
"The Governor of the Presidency of Madras lives here, and his house is inside the fort. It is a great building two stories high, and has wide verandas, where there is plenty of air without the necessity of sitting in the sunlight. We saw elephants in the enclosure of the fort, some with soldiers on their backs, and others with great burdens of freight that they were employed in bringing inside. As we crossed the bridge we met an elephant, and a little farther on a camel, while down by the bank of thecanal a couple of hump-backed oxen were looking into the water, and possibly admiring themselves. We have seen quite a lot of these oxen and cows to-day, and wherever they were grazing or standing idle under the trees the crows were perched on their backs, and seemed to be on good terms with the beasts. The crows here are as impudent as those of Ceylon, and we are told that we shall find them so all the way through India.
HUMP-BACKED COW.
"We went into the English church, which is a pretty building, but does not contain many objects of interest. The thing that attracted our attention most was a statue of Bishop Heber, who was formerly Bishop of Madras, and died at one of the interior cities of this presidency. He is best known to Americans as the author of the famous missionary hymn beginning,
"'From Greenland's icy mountains,From India's coral strand.'
"The story is that one Sunday he was to deliver a missionary sermon, and could not find an appropriate hymn to be sung after he had finished preaching. Half an hour before it was time to go to service he took his pen and wrote the hymn, which he handed to the leader of the choir as he entered the church. It was afterward printed, as we now see it, with the alteration of only three or four words.
"The statue of the bishop represents him standing and looking kindly on a native convert who sits at his feet. An odd thing about the church is the array of punkas, or large swinging fans, over the desks and pews; they are operated by pagan servants, who stand outside during service, and keep their employers cool while the latter are at their devotions.
MADRAS DHOBIES, OR WASHERMEN.
"In one part of our ride we passed the place where thedhobies, or washermen, perform their work. As we saw them, we understood how it is our clothes get so sadly knocked to pieces in this part of the world. They make your shirts up into a sort of club, and then pound with it on a rock till the linen is clean. No boiling and no rubbing; nothing but pounding and rinsing, and sometimes they help things along by folding some gravel in with the linen. We have had lots of handkerchiefs sent home with holes in the centre where they had been torn through by the gravel inside, and many of our socks have been burst open at the toes and ruined before being washed a third time. Half a dozen visits to the dhoby generally make the end of a shirt or other under-garment, and sometimes they will manage to finish it in three or four.
"The necessity for frequent change of linen, and the destructive manner of washing, makes the single item of under-linen a very costly one. Shirts should be made of the strongest material consistent with comfort, and not of the fine linen which most Americans are fond of. If you know anybody who is about starting on a journey around the world by way of India, tell him to get a dozen of the strongest whiteshirts he can before starting—or, if he does not bring them, he should have them made up in Yokohama or Hong-Kong.
"Madras covers an enormous extent of ground, for the reason that all the houses stand in large yards, or 'compounds,' as they call them here. Everybody has a whole army of servants to run his house, and these servants must be cared for; and they generally manage to have their families lodged somewhere on the premises, though the master is not supposed to know it. We met a gentleman to-day who is a bachelor, and lives with another bachelor, and he said that together they had fifteen servants. Another gentleman, with his wife and two children, said he had twenty-six servants in all, and at times he employed as many as thirty. We would write about this matter in detail, but Doctor Bronson suggests that we had best wait till we have seen more of East Indian life, and had a practical experience of existence in a land of castes and curious customs; so we'll put it off for a while.
A MADRAS BUNGALOW.
"A house where people live in India is called a bungalow, and a warehouse is named a godown. Bungalow is a Hindostanee word, and godown is a corruption of the Malaygadong, which means a warehouse. All through India these words are very generally used by Europeans, to the exclusion of the English names for the same things. Properly speaking,a bungalow is a house only one story high, and, owing to the great exertion required for climbing stairs in these hot countries, you rarely see a building of more than one story except in the cities.
"We visited two or three bungalows in the resident portion of Madras, and had an opportunity of looking through them. They had wide verandas, and the windows were covered with lattices and Venetian blinds to keep out the heat, while the floor was of brick or cement, for the sake of the superior coolness of those articles. Coir matting was laid over the floor to protect the bare feet of the occupants, and there were several punkas in each room to keep the air in circulation.
A PANKHÂ-WALLAH.
"We were quite interested in looking at the punkas, and learning how they work them. There is a certain class of servants, known aspankhâ-wallahs(punka-fellows), who work these fans, and are hired for that purpose at about three dollars a month, they boarding themselves. They stand outside and work the punka by means of a cord passing through a hole in the wall, so that while you are enjoying the strictest privacy, you may have the fan in motion above you. You have a punka over your bed, another over your bath-tub, another at your dressing-bureau, another over your dining-table, and another above your desk. Your body-servant calls out to your punkhâ-wallah, and has him shift from one cord to another as you move about your room, or go from one room to another. You have the punka in motion all day and all night somewhere, and for this purpose you must have two men to relieve each other. When you go to bed a basket of old shoes is placed where you can reach them, and you are fanned to sleep. If you wake perspiring in the night, and find the punka motionless, you may know that the pankhâ-wallah is taking a nap; you throw a shoe in his direction and thus awaken him, and immediately he resumes his duty.
"The side where the man pulls is the one that gets the air most vigorously circulated, for the reason that it is brought forward with a certain force, and goes back by its own weight. The people here call the one where the man pulls the Bombay side of the punka, and the other the Bengal side. We asked why it was, and they told us that when the south-west monsoon blows it comes with its full force from the sea upon the shores of the Bombay presidency; crossing the country and going over the mountains to Bengal, it expends its strength and becomes very weak. Therefore you see how the Bombay and Bengal sides of the punka get their names.
"They say that a good many inventions have been tried for substituting machinery for man power in working the punka, but none ofthem have succeeded, for the reason that the peculiar pull or impulse that is needed to put the air in motion can only be given by the human arm. Machinery works with regularity and a steady pull, and the real need of the punka is a jerk or extra force while the cord is being drawn, followed by a complete relaxation of the cord to allow the fan to go back and get ready to be drawn forward again.
"We went through the bazaars, but did not find them very interesting. The shops are small, and the best goods are hidden from sight; at all events we were not able to see anything of great value, and we had neither time nor inclination to compel the merchants to display their wares when we had very little thought of buying anything. We did not find the streets particularly clean in the native quarter, and a short stay among them was quite sufficient. There was some very pretty brass-ware in a few of the shops, and they showed us a lot of handsome filigree work in silver, which was said to have been made at Trichinopoly. The latter place is famous for its silver work, and the result is that a good deal of what is made in other places is sold for the genuine article.
NATIVE MERCHANT OF MADRAS.
"There are many natives of Madras engaged in business with Englishmen, and they have a considerable amount of the import and export trade in their hands; and nearly every European house has one or more natives attached to it, somewhat after the manner of the compradores in China and Japan, as they save the manager a great deal of trouble in dealing with the inhabitants of the country. These native merchants are said to be very shrewd in their operations, and anybody who supposes they are verdant would find out his mistake as soon as he began to bargain with them.
"The natives of Madras are said to be of darker complexions and smaller figures than the inhabitants of the country farther north; some of them are almost as dark as negroes, but their features do not resemble those of the African in any way. They are very picturesque in their gay-colored robes and large turbans, and as you see them with their vast head-coverings you wonder how they can endure so much weight on their heads in this hot country. The turban, as it is worn here, contains many yards of muslin, and it is not an easy matter to wrap it so that it will stay in place. It is doubtful if a European could endure a turban which prevents the circulation of air around the brain; undoubtedly the best head-covering for the foreigner is thesola-topee, or sun-hat, which every European wears, and could not be persuaded to get along without; but you never see one of them on the head of a native unless he has adopted the entire European dress.
"We have seen a good many Eurasians, or people descended from European parents on one side and Asiatic on the other. Their position is an unhappy one, as they will not associate with the natives, and, on the other hand, they are not allowed to associate with the Europeans. Despising the one, and despised by the other, they have no recognized social standing, and no one speaks well of them.
"The saddest thing we have seen is a camp of the victims of the famine. Every little while in America we read of famines in India, but none of us know much about them, as the country is far away, and we are not bound to it by any ties of kindred. The people are so poor and so heavily taxed that it takes all they can earn to support them in times of plenty; when the crops fail they have nothing laid by to live upon, and must starve. This year they have had famines in two parts of India, one in the Madras presidency and one in Bengal, that of Madras being the worst. It is said that a million of people have died of starvation in Madras, and half that number in Bengal. Think of a number as great as all the inhabitants of New York city perishing of hunger, and then judge what a calamity it must be!
"A great many persons are inclined to blame the British authorities for the famines in India, and it is undoubtedly the fact that the high taxation has much to do with the poverty of the people. On the other hand, the Government has done a great deal in the way of constructing irrigation works that will keep the land fertile in times of drought, and it has built roads so that provisions may be carried from the places where they are abundant to where they are most needed. The failure of the rains is the cause of the famines; the south-west monsoon (which brings the rain) is looked for with great anxiety all over India, and is considered of so much importance that its arrival is telegraphed to the newspapers of Europe and America. When you read in the telegraphic column that the monsoon has burst in the provinces of Central India, you may know that all fears of famine for the year are over, unless, as sometimes happens, the rains are so great in quantity that they flood the fields, and prevent the farmers from performing their work.
"Notwithstanding the poverty of the people, we are told that the land-tax in India is increased every few years, and in many districts it is absolutely impossible for the people to pay it. Doctor Bronson says that thoughtful persons, who have studied the relations between England and India, say the latter country is fast going to bankruptcy in consequence of the oppressions that are steadily increasing. The taxes have grown so great that they are now more than one-eighth of all that the country produces,and in some parts of India they are one-sixth! Think of what would happen in America if one-sixth of all the wheat, corn, cotton, and other products, and a sixth of all that is manufactured was paid over for taxes. We should be in a state of poverty quite equal to these people in a short time.
"In the camp that we visited we saw some poor wretches who were just able to crawl, and some that had been brought in on stretchers, because they were too weak to stand. There was hardly any flesh on their bones, their cheeks were sunken and hollow, and their eyes seemed to be half forced from their sockets. They lay on the ground—some under the tents, and some in the open air—and many of them were so far gone that they had not strength to feed themselves. They did not appear to complain, and one of the officers in charge of the camp told us that they were exceedingly patient, and rarely caused any trouble. Poor creatures! they were too weak to do so, however much they might have had the inclination.
"These people had been brought to Madras from the famine districts, and we were told that similar camps were scattered along the line of the railway wherever the crops had failed. It had been found easier to feed them in camps than to distribute food to them in their villages, as there was a great deal of loss by theft, and in other ways, in making the distribution. The natives seem to have very little regard for each other, and, if half that has been told us is true, it is an eternal disgrace to this people. Large sums of money were raised in England for the sufferers by the famine, and the British Government made a heavy contribution for the same purpose. With this money rice was bought in Rangoon and shipped to Madras, and from there it was sent by rail to the famine districts. The boatmen at Madras demanded exorbitant prices for landing it, and two or three times they struck for extra pay because they knew that the Government was anxious to get the rice forward as rapidly as it could. They tore open the sacks and stole a large share of what they took on shore, and when they had done so they did not take the trouble to sew the sacks again, but let the rice spill on the ground. The carters who took it to the railway-station continued the theft, and in some instances fully ten or fifteen per cent. of the rice was lost between the ship and the railway-station, and there were cases where the loss was more than thirty per cent.
"Well, that's enough about this unpleasant subject. We'll turn to something else.
A MADRAS PALKEE.
"For the first time in our lives we have seen people riding in palanquins,or palkees, as they call them here. The vehicle is a box about seven feet long and four wide, and it has lattice sides to allow the air to circulate. The bottom is covered with a neat mat, and the passenger who is to ride in it must lie down and place his head on a pillow with which the palkee is provided, while he puts his hat on a shelf above his feet. We have not yet tried a palkee ride, and when we do we'll be able to tell more about it. In a general way it looks like a very uncomfortable thing to ride in, and you can see very little from the windows on account of your position. There is a pole at each end, which is braced by iron rods, so that it can sustain the weight of the box and a person inside. Four men are required to carry it; and at night there are one or more torch-bearers, whose duty it is to light the way and frighten off any wild animals that come near. These fellows are not very brave; and at the first indication of danger they run away, and are followed by the bearers, who drop the box on the ground and leave the inmate to take care of himself.
"The people of Madras have tried hard to make a harbor, so as to avoid the terrible surf that breaks on the coast, but all their efforts have not amounted to much. They began to make a harbor, some years ago, by running a couple of breakwaters out from the shore; but somehow, as fast as they built them, the sea made a protest by 'silting,' or filling up the enclosed space with sand. Next they built an iron pier running out beyond the breakers: it stands on piles, and has a lot of cranes along its sides for hoisting goods out of the large flat-boats, or lighters, that areused here. But the pier cost a great deal of money, and they have been obliged to make so high a toll for using it that it is almost abandoned when the weather is at all suitable for passing through the surf.
"We came back to the steamer by this pier, and paid a toll of about ten cents each for using it. Our boat was at the foot of some long stairs, and it bobbed up and down about three or four feet each time, and very rapidly. We had to watch our chances and jump when it rose. Two of us got in all right, but the third did not jump soon enough by a couple of seconds, and when he struck the bottom of the boat he went sprawling on the brushwood and in the water that splashed up through it; but we escaped without a wetting, and that is more than everybody does.
"The captain of the steamer says, when the sea is so rough that they cannot pass the surf, and the boat dances too much at the foot of the stairs, people are landed by means of the cranes that they use for hoisting goods. The boat goes in under the crane, and a bucket is lowered down and allowed to rest on the boat's bottom; then the passenger gets into the tub, sits down and clings to the handles, and when all is ready the men on the dock hoist away. It is rather trying to a nervous person; but at any rate it is better than being half or wholly drowned in the surf."
From Madras the steamer continued her course up the coast, and touched at two or three ports, where the boys went on shore and wandered for a few hours about the towns and villages; but they did not find much to interest them after what they had already seen. As they returned from one of these excursions the captain of the ship informed them that he had an interesting piece of intelligence to convey, as he was about to stop at a port which was not on the regular programme.
Frank asked what the place was, and on learning its name he immediately went to Doctor Bronson to tell the good news.
"The captain says we are to stop at Pooree," the youth exclaimed; "and Pooree is another name for Juggernaut."
"And we'll see the famous idol of Juggernaut," said Fred, "that crushes thousands of people under its wheels every year."
The Doctor smiled, and asked if they wanted to see the great procession and witness the crushing. Thereupon Frank and Fred turned pale, and began to wish that the steamer would not stop there, as they did not desire to see any suffering that it was in their power to prevent. The deaths of these hundreds of fanatics who throw themselves under the wheels of the car of Juggernaut would be a horrible spectacle, and they wanted to be as far from the scene as possible.
"I may as well tell you now as later," said Doctor Bronson, "that the story of the car of Juggernaut and its terrible slaughter is almost entirely a fiction. The car exists, and it makes its annual procession from the temple to the country-house of the god, where it is dragged by thousands of worshippers. Here are the facts of the case as given by Mr. W. W. Hunter, who lived a long time in the district of Orissa, and was director-general of the statistical survey of India. He published a book on Orissa a few years ago, and gave particular attention to the history of the car of Juggernaut. Here is what he says of the slaughter of the pilgrims:
INHABITANTS OF POOREE.
"'In a closely packed, eager throng of a hundred thousand men and women, many of them unaccustomed to exposure or hard labor, and all of them tugging and straining to the utmost under the blazing tropical sun, deaths must occasionally occur. There have, doubtless, been instances of pilgrims throwing themselves under the wheels in a frenzy of religious excitement; but such instances have always been rare, and are now unknown. At one time several unhappy people were killed or injured every year, but they were almost invariably cases of accidental trampling. The few suicides that did occur were, for the most part, cases of diseased and miserable persons, who took this means to put themselves out of pain. The official returns put this beyond doubt. Indeed, nothing could be more opposed to the spirit of Vishnu worship than self-immolation.'"
"In that case," said one of the boys, "we shall be very glad to visit Pooree, and see the car of Juggernaut. The romance is gone from it, but it will be an interesting sight on account of the story that has so long been connected with it."
"One of your countrymen," said the captain of the steamer, who had been listening to the conversation—"one of your countrymen was a passenger with me last year on the voyage we are now making. When I told him we were not to visit Pooree he was greatly disappointed, as he wanted to see the famous car, and also hoped that he might witness the traditional slaughter of the pilgrims. When I told him what you have just learned he was still more angry, and said that all the poetry of the East was gone. He had hoped to see a widow burnt by the side of her dead husband, and to witness the Juggernaut procession with its old-time attractions; the loss of these interesting spectacles was too much for him, and he heartily wished he had never left home."
"We won't be so cruel in our tastes as all that," one of the boys answered, and then the conversation on this topic came to an end.
In due time they reached the port in question, and anchored in front of the town. Doctor Bronson and the youths engaged a boat, and were taken ashore; and with the consent of the captain they were accompanied by one of the servants of the steamer, who spoke English and could serve them as guide. They found that the town was not a large one, its population being estimated at about 30,000; but its streets were crowded with people, and they were not surprised to learn that it was annually visited by more than a million pilgrims.
Their guide took them to the principal street, which is very wide, and bordered on each side by religious establishments calledmaths, wherepilgrims are lodged, and where certain ceremonies of purification are performed by them before they enter the temple. These maths are low buildings of a single story, with wide verandas in front, and a plentiful supply of shade-trees; they are built of stone, and their occupants are not required to pay any kind of rent to the Government on account of their religious character. At the end of this street is the great temple, and the boys quickened their steps as they approached it, so anxious were they to look at its interior.