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A.D."WDSTH1NGT0H & CCFtTBLISHERS, HARTFORD, CONK.

OUR JOURNEY

AROUND THE WORLD

&n Ellustratrti ftccora of a gear's Crabrl

OF FORTY THOUSAND MILES THROUGH

INDIA, CHINA, JAPAN, AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, EGYPT, PAL-
ESTINE, GREECE, TURKEY, ITALY, FRANCE, SPAIN, Etc.

Rev. FRANCIS E. CLARK, D.D.

^rcsiocnt of ttjc tSnttttJ Socictj of Christian IHntieabor
WITH

GLIMPSES OF LIFE IN FAR OFF LANDS

®s &mx EJrougjj a SHoman's lEgos

Mrs. Harriet E. Clark
Stxpzxhl's %XX\xstxKUd

WITH STEEL-PLATE PORTRAITS, AND UPWARDS OF TWO HUNDRED CHOICE

ENGRAVINGS, MAINLY FROM INSTANTANEOUS PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN

FROM LIFE, REPRODUCED IN FACSIMILE BY EMINENT

ARTISTS; AND A MAP SHOWING THE AUTHOR'S

JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD

SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCRIPTION

HARTFORD, CONN.
A. D. WORTHINGTON & CO., PUBLISHERS

1898

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1894,

By A. D. Wokthington & Company,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

Zo Wbom it /Ifcag Concern:— ^^.'f.^^y.gi^^i^epubus^re^ttte

sale of this book, " OUR JOURNEY AROUND
TFIE WORLD," by subscription only, is protected by decisions of the United States Courts.
These decisions are by the U. S. Circuit Court of Ohio, rendered by Judge Hammond, and by
the U. S. Circuit Court of Pennsylvania, rendered by Judge Butler, and are that " when a sub-
scription book publishing house, in connection with the author, elects to sell a book purely
hij subscription and does so sell it, through agents that are agents in the legal sense and not
i a dependent purchasers of the books, the house and author are entitled to the protection of
the Courts against any bookseller who invades their rights by an attempt to buy and sell a
book so published and sold."

Hence, this is to notify booksellers and the public that all our agents are under contract.
as our agents, to sell this book by subscription only. They have no right whatever to sell it
in any other way, as books are furnished to them only for delivery to individual subscribers;
and any interference with our agents to induce them to sell contrary to their contract obliga-
tions and our rights, or any sale of this book by any one not an authorized agent will entitle
us to the protection of the Courts.

Notice is also hereby given that this copy of " OUR JOURNEY AROUND THE
WORLD " can be identified wherever found together with the name of the agent to whom the
publishers supplied it; and the detection of the person selling it to the trade, and the offer-
iug of it tor sale by a bookseller will be sufficient justification for us to institute summary
proceedings against both bookseller and agent.

We trust this notice will be received in the kindly spirit in which it is given, as it is made
simply 10 protect the author, ourselves, and our agents against infringements which rob us of
the legitimate fruits of our labor and investment.

Agents and atl other persons are requested to inform us at once of the offering of this
dook. for salt by any bookseller, or by any person not our accredited agent.

. THE PUBLISHERS.

De&fcatefc

Zbe jfatber anD dlbotber

WHO

FOLLOWED THIS JOURNEY

WITH

LOVING INTEREST AND EARNEST PRAYERS

*"\

SSmMms

I HIS book is a record of a long
journey, such as, owing to the
peculiar circumstances attending
it, does not often fall to the lot of
man to make. The ordinary trip
around the world — a common
enough thing in these days —
largely follows certain well-de-
fined routes of travel from Amer-
ica to Japan, China, India, Egypt,
Palestine, and thence to America
again, via Europe. The traveler
necessarily is obliged to keep in these lanes of travel,
especially in the far East, and the objects he sees are largely
those which the guide-book and a paid conductor point out
to him.

In the journey described in these pages we were " per-
sonally conducted" by kind friends, familiar residents of
every country which we visited. We were able to see
phases of life and national characteristics usually denied the
hasty traveler, and we have tried to share them with our
readers, and in our tour to conduct them over the same
route made so pleasant for us.

(vii)

V1H PREFACE.

Some months before this journey began we received
numerous pressing and hearty invitations to visit Christian
Endeavor conventions in the different colonies of Australia.

These invitations were supplemented by many others
from missionaries and other residents in J ^an, China, India,
Turkey, Spain, France, and England. It was to attend
these conventions and to visit these mission stations that the
journey was undertaken. At the same time, though the
conventions and other engagements were very numerous,
leisure was afforded between the meetings for sight-seeing,
which was made doubly valuable by our kind and generous
hosts who served so often as our guides, piloting us to the
very spots we wanted to visit, and showing us the oddities
and unique customs and ways of living which otherwise we
should have missed. They often took us into the homes of
the natives, and introduced us to their manner of domestic
life.

To these hosts and guides, whose kindness, if space per-
mitted, I should like to acknowledge in detail, and whose
names I should like to record in full, is due anything of
special or unique interest that may be found in these pages.

Little is said about the special object of the journey, or
the scores of meetings we attended, or the many delightful
conventions in which we had part. The relation of the
journey to the Christian Endeavor movement has been dis-
cussed in other publications, and this volume is distinctly a
book of travel.

Yet, though it contains little moralizing, it is devoutly
hoped that these pictures of life and scenes in many lands
may create a warm interest in the heart of every reader in
the people to whom English-speaking missionaries have
gone, and in the noble work that these missionaries are
doing; and that these pictures may also illustrate the world-

PREFACE.

wide brotherhood, and blessed international and interdenomi-
national fellowship, of the Christian Endeavor movement.

It only remains to be said that the names of two of the
"pilgrims" may be found upon the title page, and that "the
little pilgrim " was a lad of thirteen, who, to say the least,
got quite as much fun out of the trip as did his father and
mother.

As may be imagined, the journey was not, by any means,
a mere holiday trip, though the holiday side of it is usually
presented in these chapters.

A supplementary chapter will give members of En-
deavor societies, and others particularly interested, some
knowledge of the results of the journey ; while the addi-
tional chapters from the feminine pilgrim will show her sis-
ters some glimpses of life in far-off lands, and tell how the
wide world looks through a woman's eyes.

r £,tf*^C

Shown in Red Lines on the Map.

FROM Boston to New York ; thence to San Francisco ;
thence to Honolulu, Sandwich Islands; thence to
Samoa, Navigator's Islands ; thence to Auckland,
New Zealand ; thence to Sydney, Australia ; thence by rail
to Melbourne and Adelaide, and return same way to Bris-
bane ; from Brisbane by sea to Port Darwin ; thence to
Hong Kong ; thence by land to Canton, and return to Hong
Kong ; thence to Yokohama ; thence by rail to Tokio ;
thence by rail to Kioto and Kobe ; thence to Shanghai by
sea ; thence to Hong Kong again by water ; thence to Co-
lombo, Ceylon, through the Straits of Sumatra ; thence to
Tuticorin, in Southern India ; thence by rail to Madras ;
thence bv water to Calcutta ; thence overland across North-
■ern India, via Lucknow and Agra, to Bombay ; thenee
across the Arabian Sea and through the Red Sea to Ismalia ;
thence by rail to Cairo; thence by rail to Alexandria;
thence by sea to Jaffa ; thence to Jerusalem and back to
Jaffa by rail ; thence by sea to Beyrout ; thence by sea to
Mersin ; thence overland through Turkey, through the
Cilician Gates, via Csesarea and Angora, to Constantinople ;
thence by water to Athens ; thence by rail to Patras ;
thence by water to Brindisi ; thence by rail to Naples,
Rome, Genoa, and Marseilles, to San Sebastian in Spain ;
thence to Paris, London, Glasgow, Belfast, and Dublin ;
thence to Liverpool ; thence to Queenstown ; thence to New

York.

(x)

(ttlamfg from Jfyeciaf* (p$oto$vay$B faften from feife erpreesfg for
t§\B HEorfi. QReprobuceb in Sacetmtfe Bg d&minent (Qtti&fs.

Portrait op Rev. Francis E. Clark, D. D. (§uff Cpage), Frontispiece.

Engraved on Steel by John J. Cade, from a Photograph taken expressly for this work.

PAGE.

Ornamental Heading to Preface, . 7

Ornamental Initial Letter, 7

Engraved Autograph op Francis E. Clark, 9

The Steamship Mariposa 9

Ornamental Heading to Itinerary of the Author's Journey, 10

New Imperial Map of the World (Stiff (ftagc 1 , • • To face 10

Showing the Author's "Journey Around the World " from the beginning to the
end. (Engraved and printed by W. & A. K. Johnston, Edinburgh, Scotland,
expressly for this work.)

Ornamental Heading to List of Illustrations, . . . .13

Ornamental Tail Piece, 20

Ornamental Heading to Table of Contents 21

Ornamental Heading, Chapter 1 37

Ornamental Initial Letter, 37

Diagram of a Shuffle-Board, 46

Ornamental Tail Piece 49

Ornamental Initial Letter, 50

Young Swimmers of Honolulu, . 52

Samoan Girls Making Kava 62

All TnAT Remains of the "Adler," 63

A Maori House, 65

Maori Idols 66

Ornamental Tail Piece 67

Orn ament al Initial Letter, 68

(xiii)

XIV

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAG*.

100

104

109

111

114

115

G ON

132

Male Aboriginal Australian,

Female Aboriginal Australian,

Aboriginal Method op Producing Fire,

In the Grounds of Government House, Sydney

In the Bush,

Ornamental Tail Piece, .

Ornamental In it. ., Letter,

In Adelaide,

Ornamental Tail Piece, .

Ornamental Initial Letter,

Aboriginal Australian, .

In one op Melbourne's Parks,

Ready for the Descent into a Gold Mine,

Ornamental Tail Piece, ....

Ornamental Initi ■ l Letter, .

In a Corner of the Steerage Deck — Chinese Gamblin

Shipboard. (§uff Cpage. From an instantaneous photograph.)

To face

Squatting on their haunches in a corner of the steerage deck was another
circle of Chinese Gamblers, throwing dice and playing cards with a dexterity
acquired only by long experience. They were smoking cigarettes, or curious
pipes with minute bowls, which when not in use they tucked behind their ears
until they desired another whiff.

Aboriginal Australian, .

"Backy," "Backy," ....

Ornamental Initial Letter, .

A Young Citizen of Port Darwin,

A North Queensland Aboriginal,

Ornamental Initial Letter, .

A Chinese Forge, ....

A Chinese Execution. {From an instantaneous photograph.)

Placing the Head of an Executed Criminal in a Basket.

(From an instantaneous photograph.) 156

Taking a Condemned Pirate to the Place of Execution.
(Stiff Cbage. From an instantaneous pJwtograph.) . To face
Prisoners under sentence of death wear bamboo yokes when they are taken to
the place of execution. The head of the prisoner is placed between two rigid
bamboo bars, one in front, and the other at the back of the neck, while two
shorter bars rest across the shoulders and fasten the long side bars together.
The headsman accompanies the procession to the field of execution holding his
keen blade aloft, followed by a crowd of spectators.

Coolies Pumping Water for Rice Fields,
Ornamental Tail Piece, .
Ornamental Initial Letter,

125
129
131
135
136
148
151
155

156

Fishing with Cormorants,
Prisoners in a Canton Jail,
Ornamental Tail Piece, .
Ornamental Initial Letter,

159
163
164
169
171
178
179

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE.

On the Pearl River 184

Ornamental Tail Piece, 190

Ornamental Initial Letter, 191

Dress op Japanese Women, showing the Obi 201

A Rural Scene in Japan, 202

A Tea Drinker's Paradise — Gathering the Crop on a Tea
Plantation. (§uff Cbage. From an instantaneous photograph.)

' To face 205

The long rows of tea plants look like the bunches of box with which the
borders of old-fashioned flower gardens were once made, only the tea plants are
much larger. When the crop is matured the tea garden is full of pickers, native
men and women in bright costumes working side by side.

Ornamental Tail Piece, 205

Ornamental Initial Letter, 206

In Winter Costume 211

A NATrvE Japanese Grist Mill. (Suff Cpage. From an instan-
taneous photograph.) To face 215

One coolie threshes the rice straw over the iron teeth of a primitive flail which
looks like a carpenter's wooden horse, while another winnows the grain by pour-
ing it over a rude sieve, allowing the wind to blow away the chaff ; while still
another coolie grinds the rice in a mill laboriously turned by hand.

A Japanese Fruit Store, 216

Japanese Umbrella Makers, . 217

In a Japanese Barber Shop, 219

The Villainous Daikon, 222

The Baby in Japan. (Suff Cpage. From an instantaneous photo-

graph.) To face 225

Sometimes the baby has another doll baby on its back, and I have actually
seen a small doll on the big doll's back, a big doll on the small boy's back, and
a small boy on his big brother's back ; four generations, as it were, together.

A Japanese Peasant,

A JlNRIKISHA,

Ornamental Initial Letter

Dignified Damsels at Tea

A Japanese Ceremonial Tea — The Thirty-third Degree op
Exquisite Politeness. (Suff Cpage. From an instantaneous

photograph.) To face

For three hundred years the "Ceremonial Tea" has been an institution of
Japanese life, and ceremonial tea making is taught in the modern schools of the
government, as it is thought to give dignity and grace and a kind of solemn
lesson in etiquette. It is impossible to describe the preciseness, suavity, and
dignified solemnity with which every movement is performed.

In a Bamboo Forest, ....

Gathering tile Tea Crop,

In the Land of the Japonica,

Entrance to Nagata Temple, Kobe,

A Japanese Idol and Temple,

A BuDDnisT Shrine, ....

226
228
230
231

236

239

240
242
245
246

248

XVI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE.

An Inland Village, 349

A Wayside Shrine, 250

A Japanese Farmer, 353

Japanese Acrobats, 355

Ornamental Initial Letter, 257

A Chxnese Rice Mill 263

A Chinese Paper Mill, 265

"Hitting the Pipe," 267

Opium Fiends, 268

A Leper Girl of Shanghai, 270

A Juvenile Chinese Orchestra, ... ... 271

Ornamental Initial Letter, , 279

Sacred White Oxen, 280

The Bullock Cart, 282

The Famous Basket Trick, 287

Ornamental Initial Letter, 294

Natives op Southern India, 299

A Native Village of Southern India, 301

Jewels op India, 303

Grlndlng Curry, 304

Ornamental Tail Piece, 310

Ornamental Initial Letter, 311

A Band of Native Indian Jugglers and Snake Charmers.

(Stiff Cpcige. From an instantaneous photograph.) . To face 317

"If this snake should bite you," said one of these gentry, at the same time
opening one of the baskets, "you will die in fifteen minutes. If this one
should bite you," opening another basket, "you will die in ten minutes." Open-
ing still another basket, he remarked coolly, " If he should bite you, you will die
in five minutes," and still another basket was opened with the blood-curdling
announcement, " If this snake should bite you, you will die in one minute."

The Great Temple of Madura 318

319
320
321
323
328

The Painted Corridor ln the Temple of Madura,
The Sacred Tank of Madura, ....
Interior of the Great Palace of Madura,

The Sacred Bull of Siva

Weavers ln tile Streets of Madras,

Child on a Leaf of the Victoria Regia 329

The Popular Madras Hunt 330

A Wedding Procession in India. (§uff Cbage. From an instan-
taneous photograph.) To face 330

Three silent treading, knock-kneed, ragged camels led the way, covered with
bright cloths and much tinsel. There seemed to be little life or merriment
about the procession, and I presume the poor young girl who was going to the
home of her aged husband, whom, perhaps, she has never seen, felt as melan-
choly as the solemn procession seemed to indicate.

"Bratty" Making 333

Ornamental Initial Letter, 335

A Calcutta Barber Shop, 338

LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS.

XV11

PAGE.

A Hindu Fakir, 339

A Long-Haired Fakir . 340

The Burning Ghat, 343

345
349
351
352

383

A Tower of Silence, ....

A Hindu Bride,

A Zenana Carriage op Bombay,

Ornamental Tail Piece, ....

Ornamental Initial Letter, ... . 353

A Native "Turnout," 356

In the Monkey Temple, 359

Mosque of the Great Imambara, Lucknow, 365

The Taj Mahal, 368

Ornamental Initial Letter 370

In the Suez Canal, 374

Donkey Boy of Ismall\, 377

On the Banks of the Nile, . 379

A Native Egyptian School. (<§uf? Cpage. From an instantane-
ous photograph.) To face

An Egyptian school is a curiosity. The pupils sit on the floor, study their
lessons aloud, rocking back and forth, and they make the schoolroom about as
noisy as a ward political meeting. I generally knew where a schoolroom was at
least half a minute before I reached its doors. The master squats on the floor,
or stands among fhis pupils, who are seated in rows or promiscuously scattered
through the rest of the apartment.

Water Carriers Filling their Goat-Skins

Ornamental Initial Letter,

Before a Cairo Coffee House. (§uff Cbaeje. From an instanta

neous photograph.) % To face

The strange people, the curious costumes, the unfamiliar cries in the street,
the characteristic crowd of all sorts and conditions of men in front of each
coffee house, the strange manners and customs of the bazaar, all furnished ma-
terial for many days of delight in the capital of Egypt.

Street Musicians and Dancers of Cairo,

Praying in the Streets of Cairo, .

Latticed Windows, Cairo,

Sugar-Cane and Fruit Sellers of Cairo,

Shoe Peddler of Cairo, ....

A Bedouin Family on a Journey, .

In the Bulak Museum, ....

Mummy over Three Thousand Years Old, of Sethi I, Father

OF PiAMESES II, — THE PHARAOH WHO OPPRESSED THE CHIL-
DREN of Israel. (§uf? Opage. From a special photograph.)

To face
Look into that glass case. There, in that royal gilded coffin, lies a shrunken,
withered mummy. The lower limbs are yet wrapped in the cerements of the
grave, but the naked skull is still perfect and visible. The long hooked Roman
nose, the deep sunken eyeballs, the heavy square jaw, tell of the warrior and the
tyrant. There is Moses' playfellow. For more than three thousand three hun-
dred years he lay silent in the earth, until at last the mighty secret of his burial
place was discovered, his coffin was opened, and he was found to tell us the
etory of the awful oppression and tyranny which he inaugurated so many centu-
ries ago.

388
390

390

393
394
395
397
399
401
404

409

Xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE.

Foll Length View op Mummy of King Pharaoh, Rameses II,

{the Pharaoh of the Oppression,) 409

Where TnE Mummy of Pharaoh was Found,— Entrance to

the Tomb 411

Profile of King Pharaoh, 412

Front View of Pharaoh immediately after Unwinding the

Mummy, 413

Ornamental Tail Piece 416

Ornamental Initial Letter 417

The Great Pyramids 419

By the Roadside in Egypt, 422

A Scene on the Nile, 426

The Flight Down the Pyramid 431

The Sphinx, 433

Ornamental Tail Piece, 434

Ornamental Initial Letter 435

Abdallah, Our Dragoman, 444

Ornamental Initial Letter, 447

Jerusalem and the Surrounding Country. (§uff $age. From

a special photograph.) To face 448

There stands the city proudly on its hills as of yore. It has withstood the
decay of centuries, the tramp of conquering armies, and the destruction that
comes in the wake of war and pestilence and conquest. He must be dull jnaeed
who looks on Jerusalem for the first time unmoved, as he remembers all that
has occurred within those time-stained walls.

Begging Dervishes, Jerusalem, 455

A Water Carrier, 458

Ornamental Tail Piece 468

Ornamental Initial Letter, 469

A Street in Jerusalem 470

Absalom's Tomb, 477

A Bedouin Dinner Party. (f u ff $>age. From an instantaneous

photograph.) .... .... To face 480

As we neared the village we passed a group of ragged, filthy, sore-eyed speci-
mens of humanity, squatting on the ground near an old dilapidated tent where
they had been lazily basking in the sunshine. They were engaged in the inter-
esting task of simultaneously extending their dirty hands into the one and only
dish that contained their food.

A Bedouin Woman, 483

Rachel's Tomb, 484

A Girl of Judea, 486

Ornamental Initial Letter, 488

The Mosque of Omar, 491

Wailing Place of tile Jews 50*

Ornamental Initial Letter, °"4

The Famous Cedars of Lebanon. (§uf? Cpage. From a special

photograph) To face 506

The grove here shown is supposed to have furnished the timber for Solomon's
Temple, as recorded in the Old Testament. It is now called " The Grove of the
Lord," and in it are three hundred and ninety-three trees ; of these lonly twelve
are of any great size, and they have received the name of "The Twelve
Apostles " from a tradition that Christ once visited this spot with his Apostles,
wno planted their staves, which grew into these goodly cedars.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS). XIX

PAGE.

Dkuse from Mount Lebanon 509

Our Turkish Passport . 517

A Syrian Woman of the Lower Class, 520

A Syrian Woman of the Better Class, 521

Our Life Preserver (Facsimile of our Bouyouiwddou), . . . 522

Ornamental Tail Piece 524

Ornamental Initial Letter, . 525

A Ship of the Desert 529

Native Kiiurds of Asia Minor 531

A Syrian Poultry Seller 534

An Exciting Moment — Our Ride across Turkey in a Wagon.

(Suff (page.) To face 538

Sometimes the rickety wagon would sway perilously on the verge of a rocky
precipice. Often we would think that it was actually going over, and would
catch our breath as we expected to see wagon, horses, and driver tumble into the
terrible abyss. Then the driver would throw himself from side to side of the
wagon to keep it from toppling over, and the rest of us would throw our weight
on that side to prevent the threatened catastrophe.

Musselman at Prayer 543

The Call of the Muezzin 544

Ornamental Initial Letter, 545

Mosque of El Azar 555

Sidewalk Merchants, Constantinople, ...... 556

St. Sophia, The Marvelous 557

A Whirling Dervish, 559

A Turkish Beauty, 562

A Turkish Woman 565

A Sultan's Tomb 566

ornamental initial letter 568

Ornamental Initial Letter, 582

Ornamental Tail Piece, 590

Portrait of Mrs. Harriet E . Clark (§uff Cpage), • To face 593

Ornamental Heading to Introduction, 593

Ornamental Initial Letter to Introduction, .... 593

Engraved Autograph of Harriet E. Clark, .... 593

Ornamental Initial Letter 595

Ornamental Tail Piece 602

Ornamental Initial Letter, 603

A Japanese Mother 605

A Japanese Maiden 606

Carriage Riding in Japan — A Jinrikisha Man in His Rain
Cloak (Suff Cftcwje. From an instantaneous photograph.)

To face 606
Thus thatched, our jinrikisha man looked almost like an animated haystack.
His rain cloak covered him almost from head to heels. In the crowded streets
he was continually shouting at the top of his voice, " Hi-hi " which may be
translated into English, I suppose, as " Look out there," " Get out of the way,"
in order to clear a passage for our little procession.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Japanese Refreshments, .
Washing Day in Japan, .
Street Children of Japan,
Ornamental Tail Piece, .
Ornamental Initial Letter,
Colombo Children,
A Happy Mother,
Pitiful Little Creatures,
Ornamental Initial Letter,
Ornamental Tail Piece, .
Ornamental Initial Letter,
Good Night,

PAGE,

611
612
613
615
616
617
618
619
625
635

641

f oid Wlumfov of SMustrafion*, 220

z^a^m

CHAPTER I.

OUR START — LIFE ON AN OCEAN STEAMER.

The Journey Begun — Daily Life on an Ocean Steamer — Always Journey-
ing Homeward — Who is "We" — Taking the Reader into our Con-
fidence — A Parting Look — "God he with You till We Meet Again"

— The "Mariposa" — Our Fellow Passengers — Gambling on Ship-
board — Betting on the Day's Run — Where to read "Penny Dread-
fuls" — Lord Blank and his Guardian — One Day on a Pacific Steamer

— A Flexible Bath-tub — Something of which there is Enough — At
the Dinner Table — Sighing for Home-made Bread and Butter —
Wanted, Milk from a Cow instead of from a Tin Can — Mrs. Bostonese
Brains — The Tramp, tramp, tramp of the Passengers — Ring-Toss and
Shuffle-Board — Sunday on the Ocean, ..... ... 3T

CIIAPTEE II.

ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN— SAMOA AND THE SAMOANS—
NEW ZEALAND'S RUGGED SHORES.

The Joys of Terra Firma — The Playground of America — Bewildering
Vegetation — Brown-skinned Divers — Rum and Missionaries — Ten to
One — The Future of the Hawaiian — Our Departure — "Fire, Fire"

— Between the Flames and the Sea — An Exciting Race for Life —
The Navigators Islands — The First Glimpse — The Samoans as Nature
Made Them — Stalwart Oarsmen — On Shore Again —Costumes not
from Paris — Babies in Brown Coats — The Great Event of the Month

— A Splendid Race — The Sabbath Day Holy in Samoa — A Kingly
Romance — A Royal Salary — Tappa and Kava — An Appetizing Pro-
cess—Farewell to the Oasis — An Awful Storm — A Mournful Spectre

— Our Frolicsome Companions — A Week without a Wednesday — An
Exaggerated English Channel — New Zealand's Stern and Rugged
Shores — Goodbye Mariposa, 50

(xxi )

XXII CONTENTS.

CHAPTER III.

OUR WELCOME TO A NEW CONTINENT — FIRST IMPRES-
SIONS OF AUSTRALIA.

A New Continent — A Magnificent Harbor — Torres' Mistake — Th«
Flight of the Dove — "The Endeavor" — An Important Astronomi-
cal Discovery — A Vast Noah's Ark — Great Grandfather Animals —
The Bushman and His Fate — What the Savage could not do — Un-
certain Rain and Certain Drought — Australian Oddities — Confused
Trees — Topsy-Turvyness — Preconceived Notions — The Englishman
the World Over — The Evolution of the Yankee Drawl — Colonial
Days — " The Great American Desert " — Mother and Daughter — How
the Old Lady Treats Her Child — English or American — Architectural
Differences— Big Names — " Elevator " or " Lift " — " Barber's Shop "
"Tonsorial Palace" — American Inventions in Australia — The Home
of Anarchy and Unrest — Country Life versus City Life — The " Bluey"
and the " Billy " — The " Larrikin " — A "New Chum " — Modesty Be-
coming a Literary New Chum 68

CHAPTER IV.

AUSTRALIA AND AUSTRALIANS — INTERESTING MATTERS
ABOUT A GREAT COUNTRY — ITS LIFE, ITS CUSTOMS,
ITS SCENERY, AND ITS PEOPLE.

The Houses the People Live in — Stone Instead of Wood — An English-
man's Castle — Plenty of Soil—" Strathroy" versus "1229 E. 341 St."

— "Bacchus, Cestus, Festus" — How They Travel — The Railways —
Inside the House — At the Dinner Table — A Pleasant Custom —
Scarcity of Cold Water — The Newspapers — Sometimes Dull but
Seldom Sensational — Some Budding Poets — Specimen of Obituary
Poetry — Outdoor Life — National Games — A Mighty Curse — The
Turf Adviser — The Totalisator — Church Life — Great Conventions —
The Singing — Cable Absurdities — A Mexican Invasion — Kissing his
Wife on the Street — Gum-chewing Girls — Chicago Girls and Boston
Maidens — Introducing Friends, ... . . 85

CHAPTER V.

AUSTRALIA THROUGH AMERICAN EYES — OUR VISIT TO A
GOLD MINE — RISKING LIFE FOR A FRIEND.

An Early Definition — A " Personally Conducted" Trip — A Peaceful Land

— One of its Neighbors — Australia's Only Battle — The Eureka Stock-
ade — Unwarlike Weapons — Hot, Hotter, Hottest — Summer the Pre-

CONTENTS. XX111

Tailing Season — Ragged and Tattered Trees — A Eucalyptus Country
— Many "Botany Bays" — Imported Pests — A Pugnacious Little
Briton — One of Australia's Expensive Problems — The Gentle, Peace-
loving Bear — The Kangaroo and the Emu — The Kangaroo's Small
Brother — The Laughing Jackass — A Land of Cities — Tales of Politi-
cal Corruption — An Exploded Boom — Melbourne the Magnificent —
Sydney the Picturesque — Adelaide the Lovely — Ballarat the Golden
— Down in a Gold Mine — Getting Ready to Descend — In Motley
Array — The Cage — Brave Women — United We Drop — Suppose! —
Everything but Gold — A Brave Miner — Risking Life for a Friend —
That Man was a Christian, 100

CHAPTER VI.

THE CRUISE OF THE CHINGTU—AK INTERESTING VOYAGE
IN STRANGE COMPANY — IN THE GOLD FIELDS OF
AUSTRALIA.

Beginning Our Log-book — Mrs. Pilgrim's Resolve — The Chingtu — A
Unique and Unusual Journey — Our Steamer — Our Stewards —
"Loast Beef," " Olange Flittels" and "Lice Cakes" — Preparing for
Hot Weather — Our Fellow Passengers — Life in the Steerage — Mr.
Ah See and his Wives — Mrs. Ah See Number One — Photographing
the Family — The Ruler of the Roost — The Black Fellows — Ce-
lestials Returning Home — Taking Home Their Own Bones — The
Chinaman at Dinner — A Race of Squatters — The Fan-tan "Layout"
— Chinese Passion for Gambling — Within the Barrier Reef — "White
Man, He too Salt" — Glittering Gold Fields — How Gold was Discov-
ered in Australia — Nash and His "Find" — "Welcome Strangers" —
Gold on Brogans — The Romance of the Morgan Mine — A Visit from a
Native Bushman — " Backy, Backy, Backy" — White Ant Hills —
Wrecked on a Coral Reef — Thursday Island, . 113

CHAPTER VII.

THROUGH LITTLE KNOW T N COUNTRIES — LIFE IN THE MA-
LAY ARCHIPELAGO — A BATTLE WITH A SNAKE.

XXIV CONTENTS.

pean Clothes and Civilization — A Snake Story — An Unwelcome
Guest — Dislodging his Serpentship — A Battle with a Python — The
Spicy Breezes — The Noble Work of the Missionary — How the Chief
Took the Census — At His Wit's End — A Shrewd Rajah — Some
Passengers — Some Members of the Feline Tribe — The Tale of Tor-
toise-shell Tommy, 131

CHAPTER VIII.

OUR ARRIVAL IN CHINA — UNFAMILIAR SIGHTS AND
NOVEL EXPERIENCES— CHINESE EXECUTIONS— CHINESE
FARMS AND FARMERS — DOMESTIC LIFE.

Cosmopolitan Hong Kong — The Cabmen of the Orient — A Ride in a
Sedan Chair — Uplifted in Spirit — Sidewalk Shops — Pennsylvania Oil
in China — Fairyland under the Lanterns — Incense Offerings to the
Gods — Novel Sights and Scenes — Oriental Sharpers — Unblushing
Swindlers — Toboggan Sliding — All Aboard for Canton — Justice
Swift and Severe — Executions in China — Heads Chopped off with
Neatness and Despatch — The River God at the Prow — The Fatsltan —
River Robbers and Pirates — A Floating Arsenal — The Rice Harvest —
Threshing Out the Rice — " Chinaman Makee Glow" — Three Crops in
a Season — Water Buffaloes — Christianity and Butter — Up the Pearl
River — Junks and Flower Boats, Sampans and Slipper Boats — The
Higli Road of Canton — A Novel Pontoon Bridge — A Family Picture
— Cantonese Jade — Off in a Sampan, . . 148

CHAPTER IX.

IN CANTON THE CROWDED — CHINA AND THE CHINESE.
— CURIOUS SCENES AMONG A CURIOUS PEOPLE — IN
THE TEMPLE OF HORRORS.

Ah Cum, Jr. — A Courteous and Faithful Guide — Aimless Wandering —
The Birthday of the Fire God — Turning out for a Sedan chair — Close
Quarters — A City of Temples — Streets with Odd Names — "Lon-
gevity Lane " — " Heavenly Peace Street " — A Changing Panorama —
Outrageous Odors — A Pestilential Place without Pestilence — A Puz-
zle for our Doctors — People who Never Heard of a Plumber — The
Live Fish Market — Candy Stands — How Much can you Buy for a
Cash? — Going to Market in Corea — A Royal Present — Juvenile
Curiosity — That Little "Foreign Devil" — The Cat and Dog Meat
Store — The Original of the Willow Pattern — The Five Hundred
Buddhists — Marco Polo among the Gods — Lugubrious Buddhist
Priests — Worshiping the Gods of Good Luck and Prosperity —
Business-like Methods of Worship — The Temple of Horrors — A

CONTENTS. XXV

Necklace of Extracted Teeth — Some of the Tortures — Sawing a
Man in Two— Boiled in Oil — Punishments of the Buddhist Hell —
The Examination Hall — A Pathetic Spectacle 164

CHAPTER X.

OUR JOURNEY UP THE GREAT RIVER — THE DAILY LIFE
OF A CHINAMAN IN HIS OWN COUNTRY — FAVORITE
FOOD AND QUEER DISHES.

An Excursion in a Flower Boat — "Rice Power" — The Stern-Wheeler
and its Motive Power — Sacrifices and Perils of the Missionary — A
Chinese Feast — Chop Sticks and How to Use Them — Lamb and Chest-
nuts — Frogs' Legs and Onions — A Dissipated Prejudice — Shrimps
and Bamboo Root — Our Seventeen Courses — A Chinese Village — A
Village School and Schoolmaster — Studying Aloud — A Pot and its
Contents — How the Ashes of Grandfathers are saved in China — " Fe,
Fi, Fo, Fum, I Smell the Blood of a Chinaman" — Seventeen Dollars
for a Child — A Fire-Cracker Factory — How Fire-Crackers are Made
— Cheap Wages and Cheap Living — A Chinese Flower Garden — A
Mandarin in His Blossom Gown — A Chinese Temple — Waking up
the God — Washstands for a God — Lack of Reverence — Fans for Sick
Relatives — The Voices of the Night — A Contrast 179

CHAPTER XI.

OUR STAY IN CHARMING JAPAN — SOCIAL CUSTOMS — SOME
INTERESTING PERSONAL EXPERIENCES — LIFE AND
SCENES ON A TEA PLANTATION.

The Best Preparation for a New Land — A Terrible Typhoon — Personal
Experiences — "The Lord is Able to Give Thee Much More Than
This" — The Most Beautiful of Mountains — Fujiyama in Spotless
Ermine — "Fiery Jack" — Yokohama — The Rush of Jinrikishas —
The Capture of the Man-of- War's Men — Fun in the Custom House —
" Crossing the Palm " — A Lesson in Japanese Politeness — Bowing in
Japanese — The Shop-keeper's Salaam — The Maid Servant's Obeisance
Receiving Callers — A Hinge in the Spine — The Ohio Statesman's
Mistake— "My Fool of a Wife " — Japanese Railways — Our Fellow
Passengers — Progressive Japan — Telegraph Lines and Electric Lights
— Postal Delivery Six Times a Day — Protecting the Windows — The
Professor's Many Suits — The " Obi" — A Japanese Joseph — What we
Saw from the Car Window — A Tea Plantation — " Father's Pride and
Mother's Joy " — Thatch-Roofed Farm Houses, 191

XXVI CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XII.

A STROLL AMONG THE MIKADO'S SUBJECTS - EVERYDAY
LIFE IN A JAPANESE HOUSE.

Tokio, its Parks, its Temples, and its Palace — Its University — A Study
of Fish Parasites — What Missionaries have done — The Seismological
Department — An Artificial Earthquake — Exceptional Earthquake
Privileges — Wheat and Chaff — Canton and Tokio, or China versu*
Japan — The Frenchman of the East — A Japanese House — No Doors,
No Windows, No Chimneys — A Walk in a Country Village — The
Country Bakery — A Rice Mill — Division of Labor — An Initiation into
the Art of Orange Eating — The Japanese Shoe Shop — The Villainous
Daikon — Prices in Japan — A Pot of Tea for Two Cents — A Japanese
Dinner in a Japanese Hotel — The Curious Crowds at the Window —
The Motormen of the East — The Hilarious Jinrikisha Men — The
Waitress and her Odd Position — Paying our Reckoning, . . 206

CHAPTER XIII.

OUR EXPERIENCE AT A CEREMONIAL TEA — JAPANESE
SOCIAL LIFE — IN THE EMPEROR'S PALACE.

A Ceremonial Tea — " Past Masters" of Politeness — The Emperor's De-
vice — A Dignified Function — A Contest in Politeness — White and
Black Charcoal — With Measured Steps and Rhythmic Motion — Build-
ing the Fire — The Most Solemn Moment — Our Part in the Ceremony

— No Laughing Matter — Smacking Our Lips — From Tokio to Kioto

— The Garden of the World — Industrious and Careful Farmers —
Woman's Rights in Japan — One of Japan's Honored Names — Mis-
sionary Life in the East — Flippant " Globe-trotters " —Cheating the
Gods — Stone Children with Red Bibs— Confucius's Chilly Cult — The
Temple of the Three Thousand Gods — Big Gods and Little Gods —
Rope Made of Human Hair — How Heavy Timbers were Lifted into
Place — Curious Sacrifice of Religious Devotees — In the Emperor's
Palace — Osaka, its Mint, its Castle, and its Fish-Market, . . . 230

CHAPTER XIV.

OUR RETURN TO CHINA— THE SEAMY SIDE OF CHINESE
LIFE — OPIUM FIENDS AND FAN-TAN GAMBLERS — ODD
WAYS OF AN ODD PEOPLE — CURIOUS DISPOSAL OF
THE DEAD.

An Obstructing Bar — The Will of Heaven — Almond Eyes and Pigtails

— Noiseless John — How John Chinaman Treats Americans in Shanghai

— Colossal Conceit —The Future of the Celestial Empire — Shoes Two
Cents a Pair — A Chinese Grocery Store — Dried Kidneys and Chickens'

CONTENTS. XXV11

Livers — Varnished Pig — Allowable Theft — A Chinese Rice Mill —
Arrested Development — How Chinese Paper is Made — Rice Paper —
How it is Produced — Woe -begone, Emaciated Faces — The Seamy Side
of Chinese Life — " Hitting the Pipe " — Opium Fiends — Fan-tan Gam-
blers — Intense Excitement — Chinese Music — Unearthly Screeching —
Prolonged and Awful Caterwauling — In the Suburbs — Human Beasts
of Burden — China and Japan Agriculturally Considered — Rotation of
Crops — Novel Ice Harvesting — Fish Farming — An Odd Way of Fish-
ing — The Old, Old Story of Mortality — A Great Funeral — Funeral
Baked Meats — Baby Towers of Shanghai 257

CHAPTER XV.

A JOURNEY THROUGH TROPIC SEAS — ARRIVAL IN INDIA-
NATIVE JUGGLERS, ACROBATS, AND BEGGARS.

A Delightful Voyage — Liquid Fire — The Sacred White Ox — The Gharri

— The "L Road" and the Bullock Bandy — Fan Palms of Singapore —
A Tree that Casts no Shadow — How the Bandy Driver Stimulates his
Steeds — An Effective Threat — Chewing a Bullock's Tail to make
him go — Picturesque Wharf Venders — ' ' Papa Dive " — Scrambling for
Nickels — A Walk in Penang — Mangosteens and Jack-fruit — Assa-
fcetida and Onions — The Indian Juggler — A Man with a Gizzard —
The Mango Tree Trick and the Girl in the Basket — The Last of the
Chinaman — Ceylon's Spicy Breezes — The Waggish Captain's Joke —
The Odors of Colombo — A Horrible Combination — The Catamaran —
The Two Instincts of the Singhalese — Persistent Shopkeepers — Be-
sieged by Beggars — Baby Merchants and their Wares — The Cinna-
mon Gardens — An Ancient Turtle — Brawny Barbarism and Miss
Nancyism, 279

CHAPTER XVI.

OUR EXPERIENCES IN SOUTHERN INDIA — LIFE IN A MIS-
SIONARY BUNGALOW — A PICNIC IN THE JUNGLE.

A Journey with a Bad Reputation — Landing at Tuticorin — Railway
Traveling in India — A New Use for a Dirty Sock — Preparing for Hot
Weather — House Building in the Tropics — " Give the Sun no Chance "

— Horses under Pith Hats — Barren India — On the Ragged Edge of
Famine — Gaunt Starvation — Disputing with the Ants — Buffaloes
and Long-legged Goats — A Sunset Scene — A Missionary Bungalow —
A Girls' Boarding School — How They Make up Their Beds — An In-
ventory of a Maiden's Jewels — A Missionary's Manifold Labors — A
Picnic in the Jungle — The "Nine Lac Garden" — Serious Duties
Again — A Bicycle Story — The Good Devil and his Terrible Bell —
"Tell Me Your Name, Good Devil" — Bound in the Shackles of the
Caste System — A Brave Brahmin, . 294

XXV111 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XVII.

SOME FAMOUS CITIES OF SOUTHERN INDIA — INDIAN
SNAKE CHARMERS, THIEVES AND ROBBERS — FAMOUS
IDOLS, TEMPLES AND PALACES.

A Fascinating Land — Gorgeous Heathenism — Tattoo Marks and Sacred
Ashes — A Man of the Thief Caste — A Robber Village — Calling the
Roll of Thieves — The Thief Middleman — The Women at the Well —
y The Greasy Fakir — Paying Him for Drifting to Leeward — Blood-
curdling Announcements — A Magnificent Temple — Twenty -five Mill-
ions of Dollars — Dusty Gods and Goddesses — The Holy of Holies — A
Stone Bull in a Stone Bath Tub — The God's Bath — A Beautiful Pal-
ace — The Temple of Tan j ore — Filthy Water as a Purifier of Sins —
The Last Rajah and His Wives — A Wedding Procession — The Kick-
ing Capacities of an Old Smooth-Bore — Vellore and its Temple — Sus-
pense and Terror — A Brave Rescue — The Gallant Horses — Tippoo
Sahib's Relatives — The Madras Hunt — The Punkah Wallah, . 311

CHAPTER XVIII.

ON THE BANKS OF THE SACRED GANGES — HORRIBLE CUS-
TOMS—FUNERAL RITES AND WEDDING CEREMONIES.

The Mouth of the Hoogly — A Precaution — From the Parisian to the
Pariah — The Great Banyan of the Geographies — Ten Thousand
Troops under its Shade — The Burning Ghat — A Sidewalk Barber's
Shop — A Ghastly Group — Innumerable Beggars — Religious Parasites

— The Old Fakir's Offering — The Bathers in the Ganges — A Devoted
Son — Dying at her Leisure — A Burning Ghat — Decorations after the
Bath — Burning the Dead — Hindu Theology — Towers of Silence —
Dreary Biers and Hungry Vultures — A Cannibal Feast — The Jews of
India — Why They Give their Bodies to the Vultures — The Bondage of
Caste — Paying Dear for his Dinners — A Venerable Bridegroom —
Match Makers in India — The Stars Favorable and Marriages Frequent

— A Wedding Procession — A Pathetic Mite of a Bride — A Matter-of-
fact Wooer, 335

CHAPTER XIX.

IN THE COUNTRY OF THE GREAT MUTINY — SOME PAGES
OF BLOODY HISTORY— HEROES AND HEROINES OF
INDIA — MEMORIES OF THE PAST.

Across Northern India by Rail — In an Indian Sleeping Car — Scenes from
our Car Window — Storks and Penguins, Monkeys and Jackals — "It
13 a Beautiful Morning; Come, Let Us Kill Something" — Defiling a

CONTENTS. XXiX

Peddler's Sweetmeats — A Work of Patience and Diplomacy — An
Every Day Conversation in India — The Mecca of the Brahmins — The
Monkey Temple — Cawnpore of Bloody Memory — An Awful Page of
History — The Angel of Remembrance — Memories of Lucknow —
The Gallant Lawrence — Havelock's Troops to the Rescue — The
Hero's Grave — The Cannon Ball that Robbed the Mother of Her Babe
— The City of the Taj Mahal — The Mogul's Promise and How He
Kept It — "In Memory of an Immortal Love" — The Hand of the
Vandal — "Jane Higgiubottom " in the Taj — How the Old King
Played Parchesi, 353

CHAPTER XX.

OUR VOYAGE ACROSS THE INDIAN OCEAN AND THROUGH
THE SUEZ CANAL — ARRIVAL IN EGYPT.

Some of our Fellow Passengers — Missionaries and Men of Mars — The
Little Athletes — Potato Races and Hurdle Jumping — The Red Sea —
A Glimpse of Sinai— "And a Half, Eight" — Waiting our Turn — A
Huge Jack o' Lantern — A Sight Long to be Remembered — A Stu-
pendous Enterprise — A Great Waterway — Canal Diggers before De
Lesseps — In the Canal — Ismalia and her Donkeys — ' ' Yankee Doodle "
and "Washy Washington" — Undeniable Desert — A Woman with a
Supplementary Nose — Our First Glimpse of the Bedouin — A Family
of Arabs — The Land of Goshen — Pharaoh and his Prime Minister —
Bricks without Straw — The Fcllahin and How They Live — Their
Superstitions— " O, Virgin Mary "—" The Sun Do Move"— The
Blessings Brought by John Bull — A Ghostly Reminder — How They
(any the Babies — "Backsheesh, Backsheesh" — "Oh Sugar for a
Nail'"— "God Will Make Them Light, Oh Lemons" — The Little
• Sons of the River," 370

CHAPTER XXI.

IN THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS — THE MOST WONDER-
FUL MUSEUM IN THE WORLD — THE MUMMY OF PHA-
RAOH THE OPPRESSOR, AND HOW THE BODY WAS DIS-
COVERED—LOOKING INTO PHARAOH'S FACE.

Marvelous Cairo — A Vivacious Traveler — Eyes wanted Before and Be-
hind — A Labyrinth of Lanes — Fashion in a Fez — Madam Grundy in
Egypt — At the Sugar Cane Bazaar — A Glimpse of the Khedive — A
Boy in a Fez— A Ride to Heliopolis — The Flight into Egypt — The
Tree of the Virgin — How the Spider Outwitted Herod — Ancient On —
The Only Relic — Joseph's Father-in-Law — Where Joseph was Married
— How arc the Mighty Fallen ! — The Most Wonderful Museum in the
World — A Room Full of Mummies — Sethi I and Rameses II — Moses'

XXX CONTENTS.

Playfellow — What the Bible says of Him — A Mummy over Three
Thousand Years Old — The Pharaoh of the Oppression — Where He
was Buried — The Location a Mighty Secret for Centuries — How the
Tomb was Discovered in 1881 — Unwinding the Mummy — How
Pharaoh Looked — Description of the Body — Its Identity Established
— Where is the Pharaoh of the Exodus ? 300

CHAPTER XXII.

ON THE BANKS OF THE NILE — OUR CLIMB TO THE TOP
OF THE GREAT PYRAMIDS — BESET BY ARABS — AMUS-
ING ADVENTURES AND EXPERIENCES.

An Ancient Proverb — Our First View of the Pyramids — Man-made
Mountains — Monuments Which Never Disappoint the Traveler —
Could They be Built To-day ? — A Blow at the Conceit of the Nine-
teenth Century — Comfort for the Optimist — Why the Pyramids were
Built and How — The Tombs of the Pharaohs — A Small Pyramid for a
Short Reign — A More Intimate Acquaintance — The Road to Cheops
— "Mafish Backsheesh " —Unnecessary Attention — The Comanches of
the Desert — An Appeal to the Sheik — Getting Up-stairs — How the
Stout Lady Reached the Top — Desolation, Dearth, and Death — Life-
giving Father Nile — Beautiful Cairo — An Ancient Story of the Pyra-
mids — Avaricious Arabs — Destroying the Pyramids — Looking Down
on Forty Centuries — A Ride on a Camel to the Sphinx — Boarding
the Ship of the Desert — The Ever-watchful One, 417

CHAPTER XXIII.

ALL ABOARD FOR JERUSALEM — JOURNEYING THROUGH
THE HOLY LAND BEHIND A LOCOMOTIVE— SCENES AND
INCIDENTS BY THE WAY.

A Stormy Day in March — A Test for Brave Hearts and Strong Stom-
achs — Throwing Up Jonah— Going Ashore at Jaffa — How We Got
Down the Ship's Side — Dumping Passengers in the Small Boat — Up
to the Ridge Pole and Down the Side of the Great Tent — A Terrible
Accident — A Highwayman's Demand — " Your Money or Your Life "
— A Near Approach — Unspeakable Filth — The House of Simon the
Tanner — Simon's Vat — View from the Housetop — Our Rural Friend
from New York State — "Them Jimkirridges"— Through the Holy
Land Behind a Steam Engine — The Sentimental Man— The Reward of
Indulging a Sentiment — Our Dragoman — How Abdallah Caught the
Doctors Napping — When the Sun and the Moon Stood Still — The
Dapper Conductor in His Red Fez — The Rose of Sharon, ... 435

CONTENTS. XXXI

CHAPTER XXIY.

"JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM "— OUR SOJOURN IN THE LAND
OF SACRED STORY — INTERESTING SCENES AND TOUCH-
ING MEMORIES.

The Brakeman's Announcement — Incongruous Modernism — Entering
Jerusalem — Thronging Emotions — " The Joy of the Whole Earth " —
A Walk within the Walls — The Modern City — A Pathetic Story —
Plunging into the Heart of the City — The Various Shops — Silverware
from Damascus — Shylock in Jerusalem — A Suggestion of White-Caps
— The Camel and His Sneering Underlip — Water-Carriers and their Goat
Skins — The Dignified Syrian — The Church of the Holy Sepulchre —
A Checkered History — The Short Triumph of the Crusaders — The
Stone of Unction — A Touching Bible Story — Vulgar Facts — Measur-
ing the Stone for Their Winding Sheet — Our Lord's Tomb — The Great
Unwashed — How Adam Came to Life — The Cleft in the Rock — An
Impressive Spectacle — A Disgraceful Easter Scene — An Awful Acci-
dent 447

CHAPTER XXV.

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF OUR LORD — A MEMOR-
ABLE WALK — LIFE AND SCENES IN THE HOLY CITY.

The Via Dolorosa — Fourteen Stations on the Way to the Cross — St. Veron-
ica and Her Handkerchief — Some Touching Inscriptions — Outside the
Gates — Our Golgotha — "The Green Hill Far Away." — Gethsemane —
The Stone of Treason — A Wonderful View — Our Lord's Broken-
Hearted Lament — The Russian Tower — The Dead Sea — A Marvelous
Mirror — Absalom's Tomb — The Fate of an Unfilial Reprobate — The
cave of Adullam — Nebo and Its Lonely Grave — The Village of Mary and
Martha — The Greatest Miracle of the Ages — " Dis Way to de Tomb
of Lazaroos " — The Wretched Inhabitants of Modern Bethany — The
Tomb of Rachel — Where Our Lord was Born — The Marble Cradle —
An Impressive Sight — Wrangling Christians — Turkish Guards at Our
Lord's Cradle — A Sad Suggestion, 469

CHAPTER XXYI.

WITHIN AND AROUND " THE DOME OF THE ROCK "— CURIOUS
TRADITIONS AND PATHETIC SCENES.

XXXU CONTENTS.

of Justice — A Wily Jew — Our Slippers and How We Kept Them On
— Our "Humbug" Sheik — The Great Rock — The Stone of Nails —
How the Devil Drew Them Out — An Easy Way of Buying Heaven —
A Rock Which Rests on Nothing — How Gabriel Held It Down — The
Way to Paradise — What the Pilgrim Found in the Well — Hairs from
the Beard of Mohammed — The Stables of Solomon — The Place of
Final Judgment — Startling and Curious Traditions — The Wailing
Place — Real Grief — A Squalid Scene — The Old Pharisee and His
Lovelocks — A Sad Litany — A More Joyful Keynote — A Marvelous
Race, 488

CHAPTER XXVII.

IN THE HOME OF SAINT PAUL — THE FAMOUS CEDARS OF
LEBANON — OUR EXPERIENCES IN THE LAND OF THE
SULTAN — AT THE MERCY OF INHOSPITABLE TURKS.

Embarking at Jaffa — Americans in Syria — Their Splendid College — An
Interesting Room — The Beginning of Our Tribulations — A Turkish
Custom House — Forbidden Words — The Sapient Censor — A School
Boy's Composition and What Came of it — The Use of Ironclads
— An Ill-Starred Rebellion — " No Mean City" — St. Paul's Well —
Drawing Water from It — St. Paul's Tree — St. Paul's Institute —
Humble Streets — A Walk to the Vali's Palace — "Palace" or
"Sheds"? — In the Presence of His Excellency — " The Bouyou-
rouldou " — Official Handwriting — A Sunday in Adana — A Living
Screen — A Congregation of Fezzes — Squatting on the Floor — How to
Pack a Congregation — Turks and Armenians — "Is America on a
Hill ? " — Preparing for our Overland Journey, 504

CHAPTER XXVIII.

A REMARKABLE JOURNEY ACROSS ASIA MINOR IN A SPRING
WAGON — THRILLING EXPERIENCES BY THE WAY— A
DANGEROUS RIDE.

An Imposing Cavalcade — Foolish "Franks" — An Arsenal of Archaic
Weapons — Ali, the Turk — Anastas, the Errand Boy — ' ' Meat " —
Entrancing Scenery — Snowcapped Lebanon — The Road of Paul and
Cicero — Eloquent Ruins — Our Fellow Travelers — Caravans of Cam-
els — The Patient Donkey — Pleasant Salutations— " Bereket Versin "—
"May the Almighty Cling to your Hand" — The Motto of the Spoons

— The Story of the Dervish — The Holy Ass — A Chip of the Old Block

— Keeping Off the " Evil Eye" — " You Dirty Brat" — A Fond Moth
er's Salutation — The Mother-in-Law in Turkey — A Typical Turkish

CONTENTS. XXX111

Khan — Sharing a Bed with the Camels — Through the Ciliciau Gates
— The "Bad Five Miles" — How We Held the Wagon Crossing the
Taurus Mountains — In the Guest Boom of Selim, 525

CHAPTER XXIX.

ON TO THE GOLDEN HOBN — CONTINUATION OF OUR JOUR-
NEY IN A AY AGON — WHIRLING AND HOWLING DER-
VISHES—VEILED WOMEN OF TURKEY.

Watched by a Curious Crowd — A Brokcn-Hearted Wife — The Lamp-
Dealer's Auspicious Balls — A Genuine Turkish Bath — The Feast of
Ramidan — Waking Up to Eat — The Difference Between a Black
Thread and a White — Cross Officials — A Picked and Singed Turkey

— Carving Up Turkey — Angora Cats and Angora Goats — Tying Up
a Railway Train — Drawing Near to Constantinople — A Famous
College — St. Sophia, the Marvelous — In the Hands of the Vandals

— The Covered Face — The Bloody Hand of the Conqueror — The
"Sweating Column" — The Whirling Dervishes — How They Whirl —
Treading on the Babies — A Strange Ceremony — How the Sultan Goes
to Mosque — Sanding the Road — A Mean-Faced Monarch — The Sultan's
Wives and Daughters — A Timid Tyrant — Rich Stores of Costly
Jewels — Beautiful Broussa — Tomb of Othman the Great, . . 545

CHAPTER XXX.

THROUGH CLASSIC LANDS — FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO
THE COAST OF SPAIN — UNDER BLUE ITALIAN SKIES —
ALONG OLD PATHS — HOMEWARD BOUND.

Off for Athens — On the TcMckatchoff — The Occident and the Orient —
The Sharp Line of Demarcation — Tenedos and Its Wooden Horse —
What Makes Athens Great To-day? — A Charming Journey — The
Ruined City and its Thrilling Story — The Romantic Way of Climbing
Vesuvius — The Lake of Fire and Brimstone — An Awful Accident
— Where the Christians Fought with Wild Beasts — Pisa and its Bell
Tower — The Campo Santo and its Sacred Soil — Lazy Venice and its
Gondolas — Genoa the Superb — All that We Found of Columbus — On
the Borders of Spain — A Royal Swimmer — Ambitious Spanish Girls —
Too Envious to be Courteous — A Memory of Lafayette — Washer-
women Object to Modern Conveniences, 568

XXXIV

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXXI.

OBJECTS AND RESULTS OF OUR JOURNEY — THE FAVORING
HAND OF PROVIDENCE — LOOKING BACKWARD — HAPPY
MEMORIES.

The Great Object of our Journey — Australian Conventions — Unbounded
Enthusiasm — The Y. P. S. C. E. Pennant — Happy Memories — In
Marvelous Japan — A " United Society " for China — Among the Hin-
dus — Obstacles in Turkey — Forbidden Words — Arresting- St. Paul

— Black-Eyed Spanish Endeavorers — Encouragement in Paris — Good
News from the Mother Land — Steady Growth of Endeavor Societies —
Impressions of Missionaries and Their Work — Cruel Misrepresentations

— Globe Trotters' Slanders — A Diversity of Gifts — What are the
Hardships of a Missionary to-day ? — The Most Hopeful Feature of Mod-
ern Civilization — The Anglo-Saxon Missionary and His Noble Work —
Saving the World through Jesus Christ, 583

, Mi

Ss Seen Gbrougb a TKHoman'0 Egee.

^awnd? & ^/i^m^

CHAPTER I.

A WOMAN'S LIFE AT SEA — HOUSEKEEPING IN A FLOATING
PRISON — LIFE UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS.

At Sea — Housekeeping on a Small Scale — Daily Life in a Floating
Prison — A Consoling Stewardess — Tea and Toast in a Stateroom —
A Bed that Never Kept Still — Lucid Intervals — Moving into a New
Home — Arranging our Belongings — Going to Housekeeping Eighteen
Times in One Year — The Back Yard of an Ocean Steamer — Sighing for
a Pine Stump — A Chinese Steward, A Malay Quartermaster, and an
English Captain — Life on the Chingtu— Under the Southern Cross —
A Velvet-footed Steward — Doleful versus Pleasant Memories, . . 592

CONTENTS. XXXV

CHAPTER II.

AMONG THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF JAPAN — A JAPAN
ESE PRAYER MEETING — NATIVE POLITENESS AND ETI-
QUETTE—MY EXPERIENCE WITH CHOPSTICKS.

Compensations — The Brown Babies of India — The Yellow Babies of
Japan — Queensland Lucy — A Forlorn Little Black Girl — The Hottest
Place on Earth — Home Life in Japan — Going to Prayer Meeting in a
Jinrikisha — A Shuffling, Awkward Gait — Where We Left Our Shoe*

— Japanese Etiquette — A Cordial Welcome — Bowing to the Floor

— " Rock of Ages " in Japanese —An Interesting Meeting — Struggling
with a Foreign Language — ' ' Sayonara " to our Friends — Japanese
Refreshments — Eating Bean Soup with Chopsticks — A Difficult
Operation — Drinking Soup from a Bowl — Delusive Beans — New Use
for a Sleeve — A Japanese Pillow — The Professor of Flowers. —
Artistic Bouquets, BOS

CHAPTER III.

AMONG THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF INDIA — NATIVE
DRESS AND ORNAMENTS — LIFE INSIDE A RICH HEATH-
EN HOME — HEATHEN DOLLS, BRIDES, AND WIDOWS.

Ohfldren in Ceylon — Persistent Little Beggars — Curly-Headed Karo —
"My so Poor" — Pretty Brown Babies — Little Hands Stretched out
for Alms — Ceylon Dandies — Picturesque Waiters — A Race of Beg-
gars — Tipping an Army of Attendants — Starting on a Journey at
Three o'clock in the Morning — A Wagon Ride of Seven Miles in the
Moonlight — Through the Streets of Vellore — Arrival at a Mission
Bungalow — A Native Girl's Boarding School — A Bridal Trousseau in
Red and Yellow — Life Inside a Heathen Home — Our Reception by the
"Bo" — A Peep into the "Baboo's" Apartments — A Display of
Jewelry — An American Doll in India — A Heathen Doll — Mrs. Grundy
in a Zenana — Ten-Year-Old Brides — Child Widows, 616

CHAPTER IV.

A WOMAN'S JOURNEY ACROSS TURKEY IN A WAGON — A
MEMORABLE NIGHT IN A TURKISH KHAN — TURKISH
VILLAGE LIFE — INTERESTING PERSONAL EXPERIENCES.

XXXVI

CONTENTS.

— A Novel Cavalcade — In a Turkish Khan — A Memorable Night --
Rooming with Donkeys, Camels, and Horses — Our Wash Basin —
Over the Taurus Mountains — An American Spring Wagon in Asia
Minor — A Dismal Prospect — Filth and Dirt Everywhere — Sickening
Sights in Village Streets — Hobson's Choice — In a Native House —
Putting an Armenian Baby to Bed — A Cheerful Infant — A Peep into
Paradise — Dirty Turks — Eating out of the Same Dish with Them —
A Plague of Fleas — Some Pointed Questions, ... . 625

CHAPTER V.

GOOD-BYE.
"GOD BE WITH YOU TILL WE MEET AGAIN."

The Departure from San Francisco — The Crowded Wharf — " All Ashore
that's Going Ashore " — The Song of Farewell — The Captain's Encour-
agement — Good Cheer for All — A Never-to-be-forgotten Song — In
Moreton Bay — On Board the Chingtu — Our Friends on the Launch —
Chattering Chinese — A Voice from the Tarshaw — An Unappreciative
Listener — Another Precious Memory — At a Railway Station in Oka-
yama — Japanese Courtesy — The Train Waits for the Song — In a
Chinese Schoolroom — The Lively Little Junior — The Dear Old Hymn
in Chinese — In a Little Hill Town of India — Departure in the Early
Morning — Surrounded by Ghosts — "God Be With You "in Hindu
Dialect — A Brown-faced Boy Choir — Sweet, Lingering Echoes — A
Blessed Memory of Friends in Distant Lands, 636

j^f-Ar-.

CHAPTER I.

OUR START — LIFE OX AX OCEAN STEAMER.

The Journey Begun — Daily Life on an Ocean Steamer — Always Journey-
ing Homeward — Who is " We" — Taking the Reader into our Con-
fidence — A Parting Look — "God be with You till We Meet Again"'

— The "Mariposa" — Our Fellow Passengers — Gambling on Ship-
board — Betting on the Day's Run — Where to read "Penny Dread-
fuls " — Lord Blank and his Guardian — One Day on a Pacific Steamer

HE traveler on his way around
the world is always journeying
homeward. Every revolution
of the car wheels, every vibra-
tion of the steamer's propeller
brings him nearer to the point
of his departure. He has no-
weary miles of sea or land to
retrace. When deserts daunt
his spirits, and dreary wastes of
interminable, tumbling waves
oppress the very imagination,
as they are sure to do before his journey ends, he can say
to himself: "I shall not go this way again. I have but
to keep on and the desired home haven will be reached."
I assure my readers that before the wide open doors of
3 (37)

08 "PERSONALLY CONDUCTED."

the Golden Gate had been left many days in the distance,
we had reason to summon all our philosophy and to extract
all the sunshine which we could obtain from such sentimen-
tal cucumbers ; for, to make the best of it, there are, on such
a journey as this book relates, monotonous days and home-
sick (not to say seasick) hours, and discomforts in abun-
dance, to offset the new experiences, novel sensations, and
charming memory pictures which such a journey also affords.
But it shall be my object on this "personally conducted"
trip which I invite my readers to take with me, to elimi-
nate from their journey just as many of these disagreeable
and monotonous features as possible, and to give them the
pleasures of travel without its discomforts ; as many roses
and as few thorns as may be in my power to pluck.

The preface tells the reader of the chief object of this
journey ; and the purpose' of this book is to take my friends
with me over sea and land and show them the objects and
the people, the customs and the manners, the homes, streets,
and native life that most interested me. How often have
I wished that these friends were with me as I have silently
called the roll of their names — hundreds and thousands
of them ; that some fabulously rich Count of Monte Cristo
might put a steamer or a whole fleet of steamers at our
disposal so that we could make the journey together. But
since that could not be, we will go together in the pages of
this volume if they will kindly follow me.

We started — but where shall I say we started ? From
Boston, where our trunks were first checked, or from Jersey
City, where hundreds of generous friends from New Jersey
and New York and Brooklyn gave us occasion to remember
the parting scene as long as we live ; or from Chicago,
where equally warm welcomes and warm farewells were
extended ; or from Denver, or Salt Lake City, or Santa

who is "we. 39

Cruz, or San Jose, or Oakland, or San Francisco? If one
starts from the place where he leaves dear friends and
receives kind and affectionate adieus, then we started from
all these places, and many others which it is impossible to
mention.

However, since the trip across the American Continent
is a matter of daily occurrence to hundreds of travelers, and
since I need not weary you with such a twice-told tale, we
will start, dear reader, as, in fact, " we " actually started from
the Golden Gate on Friday — by no means an unlucky day,
let us hope.

The " we " is not altogether an editorial we, but refers,
when particular designation may be necessary, to the three
individuals whom we will call the Pilgrim and Mrs. Pilgrim
and the Young Pilgrim, whose personality is explained a
little more fully in the preface.

This book is not to be a journal of what these pilgrims
did and said and how they felt and what kind of weather
they experienced, and how many times they paid tribute to
Xeptune, and so forth. Such diaries are apt to become
egotistical and wearisome; but this shall be made up of
experiences and pictures which we would have live in your
memories and ours.

It matters comparatively little whether the Pilgrim had
a fit of indigestion on the 20th of September, or whether
Mrs. Pilgrim had an attack of the blues (as though such a
thing were possible) on the 25th of November, or whether
the young Pilgrim caught the measles from a too close
inspection of the steerage ; such facts may have appropriate
place in a private diary, but only old Samuel Pepys could
make them interesting to other people.

But we shall take you all into our confidence in regard
to matters of common interest. We will, in other words,

40 FAREWELL TO THE GOLDEN WEST.

look for you through the most powerful field-glasses we can
command, at everything high and low, commonplace and
extraordinary, which we think would interest you. "We will
not merely gaze at the sun, moon, and stars, the lofty moun-
tain peaks, and sublime characters which come within our
range. We will look for you at the common people and
their common ways ; at the little street gamin as well as the
lords and ladies of high degree ; at the trivial things which
many travelers think beneath their notice ; and especially
at the unusual and the uncommon which it is necessary to
travel ten thousand leagues of sea and land to view.

Now that we understand each other so fully, dear read-
ers, let us take a parting look at " the land of the free and
the home of the brave," which we shall not see again for
nearly a twelvemonth.

The steamship Mariposa is moving away from her
San Francisco pier. The fluttering white handkerchiefs of
the crowd of Californian Endeavorers on the dock, whose
welcome has partaken of all the unbounded hospitality of
the Golden West, are growing dimmer every moment, their
" God be with you till we meet again " sounds fainter and
fainter, until at last they are lost to eye and ear, and with a
lump in our throats at the thought of the land and friends
we are leaving behind us, we turn to look at the good ship
which for nearly a month is to be our home, and at the
passengers who are to be our neighbors.

Not a matter of small moment is this of home and neigh-
bors on such a voyage as that from San Francisco to Syd-
ney. On a little run of five or six days on an ocean grey-
hound across the Atlantic, it matters little, comparatively,
what are one's surroundings. One can misanthropically
take to his berth or shut himself up in his stateroom for
such a journey ; but when it comes to the magnificent dis-

BBC
McU

GAMBLING ON SHIPBOARD. 41

tances of the Pacific it is quite a different thing, and one
feels almost as much interest in his surroundings as a minis-
ter in his new parish or a freshman in his new classmates.

All modern ocean steamers for passenger travel have
many things in common ; they are all long and narrow, with
staterooms and dining saloon below, and a promenade deck
or social hall above. The Pacific liners, especially those for
the Australian ports, are built more for hot weather than
the Atlantic fleet, with the most desirable staterooms on
the upper deck, and with awnings to keep off the sun which
on the North Atlantic is always more agreeable than other-
wise.

But let us look at our fellow passengers. As all Gaul
was divided into three parts, so all the passengers on an
ocean steamer may be divided into two parts ; the gamblers
and the non-gamblers. I am sorry to say that on our steamer
the former outnumber the latter. Not that they are pro-
fessional gamblers for the most part ; they would be shocked
at any such remote suggestion, but they help make up " the
pool," take a chance in the " Calcutta Sweep," and eagerly
scan the record of the ship's run each day to see whether
they have lost or won.

The moral sense, on the matter of gambling at least.
seems to be blunted on shipboard ; the sea air has a demoral-
izing effect on the finer sensibilities. There is Lord ,

for instance, who looks like a green country youth from the
backwoods of America, only that his clothes do not fit so
well as the average cowboy's fit him. One would think, to
look at his innocent face, that no guile lurked behind it, but
he spends day after day in the reeking atmosphere of the
smoking room, with his pile of money and " chips " before
him, as eager over the cards as though his life depended on
them. There, too, is Sir , a great man in his own

42 REVELATIONS OF CHARACTER.

land, I understand, who, doubtless, poses every year at elec-
tion time as a model of all the virtues, and an example to
all the youth. He can find nothing better to do than to bet
on every day's run, and to abet the young lord whose tem-
porary guardian he is, and before whom he should set a
good example, in all his gambling operations. There, too,

is Mrs. , who doubtless, considers herself a perfect

lady. Alas, I believe the register says she is from Boston !
She is eagerness itself to know whether her little venture in
the Calcutta Sweep is like to yield her any dividends.

But there are some, I am glad to say, who have as much
principle on sea as on land ; who are not tempted to lay
aside their ordinary morals because of the comparative
seclusion of an ocean steamer.

The fact is, a voyage of this sort brings out and accent-
uates the traits which on shore are covered up by the
conventionalities of life. An ocean trip is a kind of a
judgment day in its revelation of character. In this little
company of a few score of people is a little world with all
the hopes, fears, joys, and ambitions of the larger world
from which we have come. The gambler at heart, who on
shore has not a chance because of public opinion to risk a
nickel or turn up a card, is here a gambler in reality ; the
tippler, who at home seldom takes a drink, here without any
reproach can have his bottle at every meal as well as be-
tween meals ; the impatient mother (we almost always find
one such) here has little to do save to scold her unfortunate
babies ; the devoted lover can hold his sweetheart's hand all
day long ; the flashy novel reader, with no bread and butter
to earn, can peruse his " penny dreadfuls " from morning to
night.

The real lady and gentleman, I am glad to say, are also
on board, and their kindness and unassuming unselfishness

IN THE EARLY MORNING. 43

are also accentuated as they show us how, amid the trying
circumstances of life on shipboard, true courtesy can exist.

Perhaps you would like to know how we pass the day.
Sed uno disce omnes (from one learn all) is a Roman proverb
which applies particularly to life on a Pacific Ocean steamer,,
where the monotony of daily life is scarcely ever broken
even by the unwelcome advent of a storm. Bright skies,
brisk but not violent trade winds, dancing white caps, and a
perpetual, long, nauseating swell, are the characteristics of
sea and sky, and one day is as much like another in all out-
ward aspects as the proverbial two peas in a pod.

Before daylight we hear the deck hands washing off the
decks, for scrupulous neatness is one of the virtues of these
ocean steamers, then we know that there is time only to
stretch and yawn and coquette with Morpheus for a little
while before rising, for the early morning hours in these
tropical latitudes are the choicest of the day and we would
make the most of them.

At six will come the salt water plunge. A huge canvas
bath tub is arranged on the after-deck, well screened from
eyes polite by sail cloths ; and toward this novel bath may
be seen stealing in the early hours certain nondescript male
ligures clad in Indian pajamas. A large hose brings the
water in great volume straight from the briny ocean to the
flexible bath, so that every few minutes the water is
changed. Into this cool and wholesome tank we plunge,
while the undulating deck continually splashes the water of
our bath into the sea again. But there is plenty left. We
need not fear a famine of salt water, or be sparing of the
refreshing fluid. If there is one thing of which there is
enough in this world, it is the Pacific Ocean. We are glad
to make such good use of a little of it. After the bath we
dress for breakfast, promenade, read, write, or watch the

44 APPALLING MONOTONY AT MEAL TIME.

ever restless ocean, as the mood seizes us, until the gong for
breakfast sounds.

The meals on shipboard are much like hotel meals on
shore; the different steamer lines vary just as hotels vary,
some having a good, some a bad, and some an indifferent
cuisine; but even on the best of steamers an appalling-
monotony comes to prevail after a little. The meals seem
to accentuate the sameness of the voyage. The fried sole
tastes like the mullet and the mullet like the cod ; the chops
and the steaks seem to be cut off of different sides of the
same animal, and to have been cooked in the same frying-
pan ; the tea and the coffee are often of the railroad eating-
house order, and, on the whole, the less said about breakfast,
dinner, and supper at sea the better. Let the gourmand
and epicure beware of a long ocean voyage. Even the most
uncomplaining man may be excused for sighing for his
mother's home-made bread and butter, and for milk drawn
from a cow instead of from a tin can.

Breakfast is soon over and then the passengers, except
those who find their pleasure in the smoking-room, stretch
out their steamer chairs and in turn stretch themselves out
on them, and the lazy life of a lazy day at sea begins.

" But why do you not arouse yourselves to intellectual
activity?" I hear Mrs. Bostonese Brains inquire. "What
glorious hours to read! What high communion you may
have with Shakespeare and Milton, with Dante and Goethe!
What rare opportunities for writing and meditation and
communion with nature ! " " Ah, yes, my dear Mrs. Brains,
that all sounds very well on paper, and doubtless if this
were a work of fiction it would contain some rare passages
concerning the intellectual activity of its traveling hero and
heroine; how they learned three languages by the Meister-
schaft System and conquered the intricacies of the Integral

LAZY LIFE AT SEA. 45

Calculus, and became proficient in Astronomy and Theoso-
pby during a four weeks' voyage to Australia. But this is a
veracious chronicle of actual fact, and, if it is not very flat-
tering to the voyagers to say it, it must be confessed that
there is very little stimulus to intellectual exertion on ship-
board. Even the best sailors acknowledge this, and the
worst are too much occupied with agonized thoughts of their
stomachs to expend much on the cultivation of their minds.
So, instead of finding the deck transformed into a busy hive
of intellectual workers after breakfast, you will see a long
line of steamer chairs, each with its lolling occupant, who
looks as though the chief end of man was to pass away the
time as comfortably and expeditiously as possible.

"Books and work and healthful play" are represented,
however, even on shipboard; the former, it must be con-
fessed, mostly by volumes drawn from the MariposoCs
library, which is significantly made up, nine parts of novels
and one part of books of travel. The "work" is repre-
sented by the crochet and embroidery of the ladies, and
"the play" by the two or three small boys whose natures
seem to be the same in mid-Pacific as anywhere else.

My young readers will like to know what games are in
vogue on shipboard. The standard games outside of the
smoking-room are ring-toss and shuffle-board. Ring-toss
is too familiar to need description, but shuffle-board seems to
belong peculiarly to the ship's deck, and furnishes excellent
exercise for those who have some little muscle at command.

The game requires not only considerable muscular
power, and hence furnishes good exercise, but gives oc-
casion for much skill in knocking the opponent out, and
occupying the highest squares, for the motion of the ever-
undulating deck must be calculated, the roll to right or left
must be considered, and a light or heavy stroke with the

GAMES UPON DECK.

cue must be given, according as the vessel pitches backward
or forward.

Four usually play the game, and the implements are six
black and six white disks of solid wood, about six inches in
diameter and an inch thick, and four crutch-like cues or
sticks with which to push them along the deck. A space on
the deck is then marked off with chalk and numbered as
follows :

The players stand some fif-
teen feet from this chalk-lined
figure on the deck, place their
disks on a line and try to
shove them into the squares
marked with the highest num-
bers. The great object is to
shove the enemy out, and land
your own disk within the cov-
eted square. At the end of
each bout the whites and
blacks reckon up their gains,
counting only the disks that
are wholly within the squares
and not touching any line, and the side that obtains sixty -one
points first is the winner.

I do not know who the champion shuffle-board player of
the world may be, but he deserves to have his name in-
scribed on the immortal roll of base ball and tennis cham-
pions, who, I suppose, have made up their minds that their
earthly fame, at least, is secure.

At two bells (one o'clock) usually comes lunch, and at
four bells (six o'clock) comes dinner. These are more or less
imposing formalities, the social customs on some steamers
requiring evening dress for dinner. After dinner come the

OFF

SIIUFKI.E-BOARI).

PLEASANT EVENING HOURS. 47"

choice hours of all the day. The glaring tropical sun has
sunk to rest, the monotonous voice of the pool auctioneer is
stilled, the passengers become social and friendly. All
nature is aglow; the phosphorescent gleam appears where-
ever the ship's prow parts the waves, the evening clouds
assume fantastic shapes on the western horizon, the rosy rays
of departing day foretell a bright to-morrow, one by one the
southern stars come out and twinkle down upon a thousand
dancing wavelets, which, like so many tiny mirrors, catch up
their broken light and send it heavenward again.

Back and forth, back and forth, over the unsteady
deck, tramp the passengers, taking their evening constitu-
tionals, while the piano-girl thrums the keys inside the
social room, which is too warm in these latitudes to
attract many visitors. In this way the evening passes
until bedtime comes, early or late, while the good ship
plunges on and ever on into the darkness, and through
the inky waves with their silver edges. Thus one of the
prosaic twenty-five days between San Francisco and Sydney
is numbered with the past.

But one day of the week on sea, as on shore, is unlike
every other. Hard as men try to secularize it, desperate as
the efforts are to degrade it, on sea as on shore it is still
George Herbert's : —

" Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright ;
Bridal of earth and sky."

At least, such is it to the Christian heart. Whether the sun
shines, or the clouds lower, or the winds blow, it is still the
Sabbath, "bridal of earth and skv." Even the inveterate
gambler feels the difference. He dares not outrage the
sentiment of the day by rattling his poker chips, so he puffs
his cigar and sits around disconsolately on deck, complain-
ing that Sunday is the dreariest day of all the week.

48 "there was no more sea."

The ship must plow on her way, the sailors and deck-
hands and stewards must go through their daily routine of
work, but even they seem to feel a different atmosphere, and
some of them join the worshiping passengers, who, at
eleven o'clock, assemble in the social hall for divine service.
How different from our Sunday surroundings on shore I
This unsteady cabin for our sanctuary, a flag-draped shelf for
the pulpit, a few devout souls of different nationalities, and
creeds almost as various as the individuals, for worshipers.
And yet there are some things that are ever the same. God
is here. The boundless sea and infinite sky only seem to
bring Him nearer. Christ is here, and " Jesus, Lover of my
Soul," and " Rock of Ages," never sounded more sweet on
land. The spirit of devotion is the same when accentuated
by the solemn requiem of the sea and the ceaseless swash of
the waves, as when borne aloft by the music of the deep-
toned organ.

What is the meaning of that text — " There was no more
sea"? Some of the homesick, seasick passengers would like
to take it literally and believe that the Revelator meant to
state a fact in the physical geography of heaven. But with
vision clarified by many days on the ocean wave, can we not
see other meanings in the familiar text? The sea is a
symbol of separation. In the fair country of which John
wrote there will be no separation of friend from friend ; for
"there was no more sea."

The ocean is typical of isolation. On this long voyage
we have not seen a single sail for weeks on the far-off
horizon. We have been completely shut off from all man-
kind. The redeemed soul in heaven can never be set apart
by himself. He is not shut up in solitary confinement.
There is no isolation of the " Saints in Light." " There was
no more sea."

ISOLATION — MYSTERY — DANGER.

The sea is symbolic of mystery. Straight on into the
unknown we have been plunging ever since leaving San
Francisco. Only ten or a dozen miles into the west toward
which we are constantly hastening can we see from the
steamer's deck; all beyond the horizon is profoundest
mystery, typical of mysteries no less profound in science
and faith, which surround us on every hand. In the land of
which John wrote all problems will be solved, all mysteries
will be cleared up. " There was no more sea."

The sea, to the landsman at least, will always mean
danger. Until he becomes accustomed to their baseless
terrors the fierce gale, the sudden hurricane, the treacherous
wave, all seem waiting to engulf him. To the ancients in
their little shallops these dangers must have been intensified
and quadrupled. But John in the Revelation saw a
country where the inhabitants were never afraid — " There
was no more sea."

"Lord, bring us, when our voyage of life is ended, to
that blessed Land of Friendship supernal, of Knowledge un-
bounded, of Security eternal," is our prayer on this Sabbath
on the sea.

CHAPTER II.

ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN — WELCOME AUSTRALIA.

— Between the Flames and the Sea — An Exciting Race for Life —
The Navigators Islands — The First Glimpse — The Samoans as Nature
Made Them — Stalwart Oarsmen — On Shore Again — Costumes not
from Paris — Babies in Brown Coats — The Great Event of the Month

— A Splendid Race — The Sabbath Day Holy in Samoa— A Kingly
Romance — A Royal Salary — Tappa and Kava — An Appetizing Pro-
cess — Farewell to the Oasis — An Awful Storm — A Mournful Spectre

— Our Frolicsome Companions — A Week without a Wednesday — An
Exaggerated English Channel — New Zealand's Stern and Rugged
Shores — Goodbye Mariposa.

fully say with Tennyson

HAT the green oases of the des-
ert with their sweet fountains
and their sentinel palm trees are
to the traveler across the sandy
Sahara, such are two ports at
which the Oceanic steamers call,
to the voyager on Pacific waters.
These two oases are Honolulu in
the Sandwich Islands, and Apia
in the Samoan group.

After only seven days on the wil-
derness of waves we can truth-

" We have had enough of action and of motion ; we
Rolled to starboard, roll'd to larboard, when the surge was seething free,
Where the wallowing monster spouted his foam fountains in the sea."

(50)

AN OASIS IN THE DESERT OF WATERS. 51

and now, very early on the seventh morning after the " God
be with you " sounded in our ears from the San Francisco
pier, we see a faint cloud-like form in the dim horizon. Is it
a cloud or a mountain ? Is it a mist-bank or solid terra
firma ? The strengthening daylight soon and joyously
resolves our doubts. That blue cloud-like mountain is land ;
solid, substantial, stable soil ; good gritty ground, which we
are eager to tread at the first possible moment.

We do not have long to wait, for soon the Mariposa
steams majestically into the harbor, dwarfing with her huge
bulk all the little pigmy boats that come out to meet her,
and very quickly she is made fast to the Honolulu pier.

What a new world we are in ! How suddenly our green
oasis has risen out of the blue desert of the waters ! It can-
not be that we are only 2,100 miles from San Francisco.
By all the ordinary analogies of travel we have come, at
least, twenty millions of miles. We could easily imagine
i »urselves on a different planet.

The vegetation is strange, the people are unique, every
thing is different from the land we have left. The drive,
rush, and nervous haste of an American city has given way
to the languor and luxurious ease of a tropical pleasure
resort.

As Switzerland is the summer playground of Europe, the
Sandwich Islands some day will become the summer and
winter playground alike of America, for, with its delicious
air and equable temperature, rarely too warm and never too
cool, all seasons are its own.

What magnificent palm trees are these of almost count-
less varieties! Cocoanut palms, tall and stately, with the
yellow nuts hiding far up under the tufted fronds ; date palms
with their clusters of golden fruit ; royal palms with their
weeping plumes and tassels; breadfruit trees, alligator

DIVING FOR A NICKEL.

pears, tamarinds, and feathery algeroba trees (on whose
" husks " the prodigal of the parable would fain have fed).
The variety is bewildering to a traveler from temperate
climes.

The people, too, always more interesting than trees or
vegetables, are as varied as the trees which wave their
"fronded palms" above them. The little naked, brown-
skinned divers on the wharf attract our attention first,

YOUNG SWIMMERS OF HONOLULU.

Thev are all ready, like little lads of fairer skins, to pick up
an honest penny wherever they can find it. So we toss a
nickel into the water and over they leap. A dozen brown
heads disappear beneath the waves, two dozen whitey-brown
soles appear wriggling vigorously where a second before
the heads appeared, a momentary but unseen struggle for
the coveted nickel takes place beneath the water, and then

VICES AND VIRTUES OF CIVILIZATION. 53

the little brown heads bob up serenely, and the brown hand
of the victorious urchin appears above the brine, holding up
the piece of money to show that he is the winner, before he
deposits it in that ever ready bank — his mouth. Then,
with his companions, he is ready for another dive and
another struggle for the coveted piece of silver.

But we must not linger on the steamer or on the wharf,
for there are equally novel sights on shore. There is China-
town with its swarming Celestials, Portuguese settlements
with their swarthy, gaily bedecked inhabitants, beautiful
American and English homes embowered in palms and trop-
ical plants of all kinds, and the quarters of dusky natives in
scanty clothing and with gay wreaths around their hats,
happy, improvident, good-natured, and lazy.

The lover of the picturesque in human nature, as well as
in nature physical and geographical, can find enough to
interest him for many a day in Honolulu.

Are the natives destined to extinction? Ah, that is a
question that only time will solve. But, if they are, it must
be remembered that it will be due to civilization's vices and
not to civilization's virtues or Christ's religion.

When it is borne in mind that even before Capt. Cook's
advent, the islands and the islanders had passed the climax of
their glory as a race ; that they were engaged in destructive
wars Avith each other which were sometimes wars of extermi-
nation ; when we remember that probably ten ship loads of
rum have been sent out from Christian England and America
for every missionary they have dispatched ; that it has taken
the Latin races eighteen centuries, and the Saxon races
nearly as long, to reach their present unstable Christian
equilibrium, and their still imperfect civilization; we are
surprised, not that the islanders are so imperfect and so
prone to fetishism and idolatry, but that in a few years

54 FROM HONOLULU TO APIA.

they have acquired so much of the Spirit of Him who was
pure and harmless and undehled, and who went about doing-
good. The missionary influence is still strong in this beauti-
ful land, and it shows no signs of waning.

Many of the most beautiful residences are owned by
missionaries' sons, who are loyal to the faith of their fathers,
and much of the business of the islands is in the hands of
these Christian men. They are influential in the halls of
legislation and shape the affairs of government. So long as
such men are to the fore there is confident hope for this
lovely oasis of the Pacific Desert.

But the Mariposa's warning whistle sounds; we must
hasten to the wharf. As we stepped aboard, our friends,
according to the beautiful Hawaiian custom, covered us with
garlands of jasmine and sweet-scented leaves, and loaded us
with fruits and beautiful flowers. The royal Hawaiian band
of forty pieces played "God Save the Queen" and "The
Star Spangled Banner," and we were off once more across
the watery waste, bound for another paradise of the Pacific
— Samoa.

At about equal distances are these two oases situated
between San Francisco and Sydney, — Honolulu twenty-one
hundred miles from America, Apia twenty-one hundred
miles, or seven days, further. But, though we are sailing
over summer seas and there is little to disturb the dreamy
monotony of this particular journey, let not the reader think
that the voyages are always uneventful.

Such was not the case on that voyage of the Mariposa,
when very early in the morning, so early in fact that only
the sailors of the morning watch heard it, the dreadful cry
of " Fire — Are " resounded throughout the ship, and, on
opening the hatchway, a dense volume of black smoke
poured up, stifling all who came too near. The hose was

AN AWFUL SECRET. 55

turned on, but the huge stream of water had no effect on
the burning flax which composed the cargo. Then the
hatches were battened down, a small hole bored through
the partition, and a steam pipe turned in upon the fire, but
that was equally useless. Several men who went below to
hoist up the burning bales of flax were asphyxiated, and
with much exertion were brought back to life again. At
length the captain, seeing that nothing could prevail,
stopped up every possible crevice leading to the cargo,
turned his vessel about, and steamed for Auckland, the
nearest port, more than three hundred miles distant.

What can be more awful than a ship on fire in mid-
ocean ? Between the two devouring elements, who can hope
to escape % The unpitying fire within, the remorseless sea
without! For those who knew it, what an awful secret
must the knowledge of that smouldering cargo have been ?
But few comparatively knew of the disaster. With rare
presence of mind Capt. Hayward and his officers kept the
matter to themselves. The good ship fairly seemed to leap
through the water. Never did she do better credit to her
builders. She seemed to realize that she was racing for life.
The passengers — most of them — did not notice that she
had turned about and was headed west instead of east.
The captain suggested a concert in the evening to divert
attention, and it was carried out in the highest style of
nautical art. The awful secret was blazing in the hold,
and the tell-tale smoke sometimes escaped and wreathed
itself above the deck. And still the Mariposa plowed on
and on and on, until at last the welcome headlands of
Auckland harbor loomed up and the wharf was safely
reached : the treacherous cargo was discharged, and two
hundred lives that hung on a thread so slender were
saved.

56 PALMS AND CORAL REEFS.

It was soon after noon on a gray and squally day that
we first caught sight of the hills that rise behind the town
of Apia, and, after that, with the eagerness of landsmen
long at sea, we could not keep our eyes off the enchanting
spectacle. Little by little, the encircling bay of Apia with its
fringe of majestic palms, its outer coral reef on which the
surf was dashing high, and its row of native huts interspersed
with a few European cottages, came into view, and we feasted
our eyes to our hearts' content on this lovely shore. Imme-
diately behind the village rises a conical hill, some six
or eight hundred feet high, and in front the shore is lapped
by the bright azure-tinted water, whose depths sparkle with
coral and sea anemones and bright-colored fish.

But we are still more interested in the Samoans than in
Samoa ; in men and women and boys and girls, than in hills
and palm trees and coral reefs and fishes. And here they
come : Samoans of both sexes and of all ages, for the arrival
of the monthly mail steamer is a great event in Apia, Some
of them are in neatly painted white rowboats, but most of
them put off to meet us in their native dug-outs, long, shal-
low, and exceedingly narrow boats that would tip over in a
twinkling, even though the oarsman's hair might be parted
in the middle, were it not for the inevitable outrider with
which they are all rigged. This outrider consists of a long
piece of light cork-like wood, nearly the length of the canoe,
attached to it with braces at each end. In these light, frail
canoes the natives ride in the greatest security and go
through the heaviest surf. What a picturesque sight it is !
There is a young girl with a bright shawl about her waist
sitting as composedly and as self-poised as a queen in her
little canoe, while around her feet is a wealth of cocoanuts,
mangoes, pineapples, and bananas, which she offers for sale
in a dignified way ; a whole bunch of the latter " for two

SAMOAN SURF BOATS AND BOATMEN. 57

bits " (twenty-five cents). There is another large boat ap-
proaching bearing some official from the island, and rowed
by half a dozen stalwart, bronze-colored natives, whose bare
skins, rubbed down with abundant cocoanut oil, glisten in
the sunlight. Their muscles stand out like whipcord as
they row in perfect time and splendid form, the despair of
any Yale or Harvard crew that might witness the sight.
There is another native boat loaded with fresh fish, neatly
bundled up in huge green leaves, while sparkling shells and
coral branches make up the rest of her little cargo. And here
is a native who somehow has scrambled aboard the Mariposa
in spite of the efforts of the crew to keep him off, and he
jabbers and gesticulates at us in true hackman style. We
could not understand a word he said, but the unspoken
language of a cabman is the same the world over, so we
accepted his offer, which we understood was to take us
ashore for "two bits," the universal standard of value in
these regions. We crawled down the ship's side by the
rope ladder, aided by two strong pair of arms, and were
soon landed at the little pier.

There a strange and novel sight, indeed, greeted our
eyes. The wharf and the streets were swarming with
natives, young and old, in all kinds of costumes and in no
costumes at all, who had come down to the water's edge to
see the great event of the month, the arrival of the mail
steamer from America. If ever there was a picturesque
throng of people this was one. The Mother Hubbard dress
seemed to be the most popular for the women, and for some
of the men, too, for that matter, but as few could indulge in
such vanities as an everyday affair there were all kinds of
variations from the standard mode.

One man strutted proudly by with as much dignity as a
Beau Brummel or a Lord Chesterfield could assume, with a

58 STALWART AND GENTLE CHRISTIAN PEOPLE.

piece of the native tappa thrown negligently across his
shoulders; another stalked past with a bright red tablecloth
about his loins ; a group of young girls evidently just out
from the mission school, went tripping past arrayed in a
piece of white cloth, with a beautiful garland of flowers
across their shoulders, while babies were invariably arrayed
solely in the beautiful brown coat which nature first gave
them.

The Samoans are a splendid race, physically considered ;
the most stalwart, as well as the most gentle of all the
South Sea Islanders. I did not see a single ugly or ma-
lignant face during my stay at Apia. Homely features
there are as in every crowd, but few malevolent, vicious,
sinister faces; smiling looks, unsuspicious manners, intelli-
gent and even courtly politeness I saw everywhere.

After seeing these men and women I could easily believe
what had been told me — that all the natives were Chris-
tians. About five thousand of them are Catholic, five
thousand more are Wesleyans, and the rest of the forty
thousand inhabitants are under the care of the London Mis-
sionary Society, which, through its excellent missionaries,
most admirably looks after their spiritual interests. "Oh,
but they are only nominal Christians," I can hear my skep-
tical reader exclaim. Well, dear reader, if we may judge
them by their fruits their Christianity is not so " nominal "
as that of most of the people who live in New York and
Boston, Chicago and San Francisco. If our steamer had en-
tered the harbor of Apia on a Sunday not a single canoe or
gaily decked native would have come out to welcome us.
Not a cocoanut or a bunch of bananas would have been
offered for sale. All the canoes would have been hauled up
on the beach, high and dry, and at church time every man,
woman, and child in the place, barring the sick, would have

A COMPARISON IN FAVOR OF THE SAMOANS. 59

been seen wending their way to church. Not such a nom-
inal religion is that which thus remembers the Sabbath day
to keep it holy.

If we should enter any one of these native huts at break-
fast time we should see all the heads reverently bowed
while the Divine Blessing was asked, and afterwards all the
family would come together for morning prayers. If we
should live among them we should find them honest, gentle,
peaceable, kind-hearted, affectionate neighbors. Not merely
nominal Christian graces are these.

To be sure they have their faults. They are lazy and
improvident. The family tie is not observed as it should be,
and doubtless they have minor blemishes. But tell me, dear
Mrs. Beacon Street or Mr. Fifth Avenue, are you ready to
cast the first stone? The white light of Christianity has
been beating upon your head and the heads of your ances-
tors for eighteen hundred years. It is but little more than
sixty years since the Sun of Righteousness arose upon
Samoa. You, all your lives, have been inhaling the air of
Christlike devotion, which once made the martyrs strong to
do and dare for God. These people, until within sixty
years, have lived in the fetid atmosphere of heathenism.
For many generations your forefathers have been growing
strong while feeding on the Bread of Life. Only one gener-
ation has passed away since the symbolic bread was broken
and the emblematic wine was first poured in Samoa. Who
Avill doubt the power of Christianity, or deride the value of
missionary labor after studying the history of Samoa ? And
yet there are self-sufficient, purblind people who, with an air
of knowing all about it, will tell you that the missionaries
have done more harm than good, that they are responsible
for the gradual extinction of the natives, and that when
converted, the natives are not worth the labor expended.

00 ROYAL VICISSITUDES.

One finds many men and women who talk in this way
on the very steamers which visit these islands, and among
those who actually see these transforming wonders of Chris-
tianity. I have always noticed, however, that the men who
talk thus spend most of their time in the smoking-room
playing poker or betting on the ship's run, while the women
who express such opinions seem to have no souls above the
fancy work or the pack of cards they hold in their hands.
I, for one, should be perfectly willing to set off Samoan
morality against theirs.

The Mariposa only remained in Apia long enough to
exchange mails and discharge a little freight, so we had but
one or two brief, delightful hours on shore. But these were
enough to fill us with a longing to spend as many weeks.
1 lowever, we had time to see the long straggling street ; the
new native church, a beautiful and commodious stone struct-
ure; the consulates and land commissioners' offices of
the three powers, America, England, and Germany, that
really govern Samoa ; the beautiful grounds and pleasant
buildings of the London Missionary Society, and the royal
hut of King Malietoa surrounded by palm trees and luxuri-
ant tropical plants of all kinds. This good King, like some
sovereigns of more extensive domains, has had his ups and
downs. Nearly twenty years ago he was elected King, and
for about ten years he reigned in tranquillity, protected by
treaties with Germany, England, and the United States.
Then, however, owing to the interference of the Germans,
who had cast a covetous eye on Samoa, which Uncle Sam
was none too quick to see and to resent, feuds arose, a rival
claimant crisd to seize the sceptre, and King Malietoa was
sent as an exile to a distant island in the western Pacific.
But Germany's avaricious plans were frustrated, the spuri-
ous claimant whom she had supported was defeated, and

CLOTH FROM MULBERRY BARK. 61

Malietoa was brought back and re-established on his throne,
which was then protected by the presence of a man-of-war
from the United States Navy. He is a good and thoughtful
Christian man, who sets a kingly example to all his people.
I am glad to hear tha^ his salary has just been raised and
that he now receives the royal sum of one hundred dollars a
month.

While we were on shore a slight shower arose — a very
common occurrence in Apia — and as we were without
umbrellas or mackintoshes we sought shelter in a friendly
native hut, which consists simply of a thatched roof open on
every side to the winds of heaven. We were received with
the utmost politeness, and though there were no chairs or
lounges, and we were obliged either to stand or to sit on the
floor, we felt none the less welcome. While thus taking
shelter we bought from one of the natives a large square of
tappa, the native cloth, which is ingeniously made of the
inner bark of a mulberry tree. This bark is first laid in the
i>ed of a running stream to soak. After a sufficient time the
pieces of bark are laid, layer by layer, upon a log, and
then beaten out to the width required by heavy wooden
mallets. When the strips have been beaten for some time
they become blended into one mass, which, by the addition
of fresh bark, can be increased in length and width as
required.

In the beautiful museum at Honolulu the Curator has
arranged squares of this tappa, which are dyed in all imagin-
able beautiful colors, in a window through which the
western light shines. At a little distance one can hardly
believe that it is not delicate stained glass.

Another peculiar product of Samoa is kava, the South
Pacific native drink. Miss Emma A. Adams in her pleasant
little book about Fiji and Samoa tells how it is made: —

"WEAK TEA AND MEDICATED SOAPSUDS."

" Kava is prepared from the root of a species of pepper
tree, found on most of these groups. The shrub attains a
height of five or six feet, and has a pretty green foliage,
tinged with purple. The root, having been thoroughly
washed, is cut in small slices, which are distributed to young
persons with perfect teeth to be masticated, by which pro-
cess they are reduced to a complete pulp. Mouthful after

SAMOAN GIRLB MAKING KAVA.

mouthful of these little pulpy masses is thrown into a large
bowl, ceremoniously placed in front of the one who is to
serve the beverage, and water is then poured upon them.
The mass is now worked with the hand until all the strength
and virtue of the fibre is expressed, when it is deftly strained
away with a bunch of long fibre from the inner bark of the
hibiscus, and the liquid is now ready for drinking. Its
appearance is like that of weak tea, its taste like that of
medicated soapsuds." Will you have a cup, my reader ?

THE FURY OF A TROPICAL STORM.

But our brief respite from the desert of the sea is nearly
over. Our hour in the Oasis is spent and the deep-toned
whistle of the Mariposa calls us on board again.

Reluctantly we tear ourselves away from our brief
glimpse of paradise, but go we must. On the way back to
the steamer we pass the gaunt and mournful spectre of the
Adler, one of the unfortunate German men-of-war, which, in
the awful gale of March 15, 1889, was lifted bodily from the
water and with great fury cast upon the top of the reef and

«.'' '•>&.£

."'.

S%>

■ <fs>

ALL THAT REMAINS OF THE "ADLER."

turned over on her side. There she still lies, her poor ribs
exposed and bare, with the daylight shining through them
everywhere, an awful spectacle of the fury of a tropical
storm in this quiet bay. Near by, but under the waves, lies
her companion gunboat, the Eber, and the two United States
steamers, Vandalia and Trenton, which were wrecked and
utterly destroyed in the same fearful gale in which there
perished four American officers and forty-seven men, and
nine German officers and eighty-seven men. Nine hundred
men were saved from the wrecked shipping in the harbor,
who were provided for with the utmost generosity and

64 BOUNDLESS SKIES AND ENDLESS SEAS.

humanity by the native Samoans and the foreign residents.
As the Ma,riposa steams out of the quiet coral reef with the
frail native boats dancing all about her, it is hard to realize
that this peaceful bay was ever the scene of such devastating
fury.

Now we may congratulate ourselves that we are more
than half way to Sydney, more than five thousand miles
behind us, less than three thousand miles before us. Bound-
less skies above us, endless seas around us ; that is the
history of the next six days. Boundless skies flecked by
many a cloud and sometimes gray and angry with the Storm
King's wrath ; endless seas flecked by never a sail and dark-
ened by no trailing steamers' smoke, for, saving the Arctic
and Antarctic seas, we are on the loneliest ocean of all.

Only an occasional school of gamboling dolphins, " skip
jacks " the sailors appropriately call them, enliven the scene.
In the perfect abandon of good spirits they chase each other
through the water, tumble over each other, dive under each
other, and sometimes bear down upon the ship, leaping high
in the air and turning their yellow bellies to the sun for the
mere fun of the thing, as boys dive off a log one after the
other to work off their animal spirits. Then after chasing
the ship for a dozen miles or more they disappear as
suddenly as they came and leave us to the sole companion-
ship of the mild-eyed, curious albatross, which circles
around and around and around and sometimes falls behind
but never allows the steamer to get out of sight. The last
thing at night our albatrosses are there, sometimes follow-
ing in our wake, sometimes circling over our very heads.
The first thing in the morning, however early we rise, there
they are again, the most graceful birds that fly, just lifting
their wings and steering their course and allowing the wind,
appareDtiv. to do all the work of flying for them.

SIX DAYS MAKE ONE WEEK.

Thus convoyed we sailed on over the watery waste.
The necessities of longitudinal reckoning gave us one Aveek
without a Wednesday. We went to bed one Tuesday night
and waked up on Thursday morning and yet we had only
slept our regulation eight hours. My readers, who will
remember that we pass the 180° meridian of longitude
between Samoa and Auckland, will understand the reason

^'■^W'^-. ^ V>\^»: j * **X4#>i>*&;\+ *...£-

A MAOHI HOUSE.

for this week with only six days in it. But this week was
quite long enough. We are very ready to spare one day out
of it, and very willing to welcome the bluff and rugged
shores of New Zealand on the sixth day out from Samoa.

This wonderful island, whose shores look not unlike the
rockbound coast of our own New England, deserves to have
a whole book devoted to it. Its wonderful natural re-
sources, its curious vegetable and animal products, its war-
like race of natives, the fierce Maoris, and its intrepid and
enterprising colonists, who have already made New Zealand

IN THE STREETS OF AUCKLAND.

one of the brightest jewels in Her Majesty's crown, tempt
the chronicler's pen to linger long. But we only had time
to see the fine, solidly built streets of Auckland, with its fine
business blocks, its handsome government buildings, and its
great tabernacle erected by Rev. Thomas Spurgeon, a son of

MAORI IDOLS.

the famous preacher ; to receive a most hearty welcome
from Auckland's ministers, and lay Christian workers, to
attend a thoroughly enthusiastic Christian Endeavor meet-
ing in the Ponsonby Baptist Church, and then we were off
again ; always off, for the restless Mariposa will never
be satisfied until she reaches her dock at Sydney.

Then came five days more of ocean traveling across the

SAFE WITHIN THE HARBOR OF SYDNEY.

wide and turbulent channel that stretches between New
Zealand and Australia. This particular strip of water has
a very bad reputation. It is considered a kind of exagger-
ated English Channel, and my readers who have experienced
the bitterness of that piece of salt water between Newhaven
and Dieppe, or Dover and Calais, will understand all the
miseries which such a voyage implies. Think of spending
five days tossing about like an intoxicated cork on the
English Channel, and you will know something of what the
voyage between Auckland and Sydney often is. But, fortu-
nately, on this voyage Neptune did not seriously test our
courage or our seamanship. We had bright skies and com-
paratively smooth seas, and on the morning of the fifth day
from Auckland and the twenty-fifth from San Francisco,
" land ahead " was the welcome cry ; Sydney Heads loomed
up in the distance ; we found our way through the narrow
channel which Capt. Cook so narrowly missed a hundred
years ago, and, after three and one-half weeks of rolling and
tossing and pitching and heaving on the vast Pacific, found
ourselves safe within the splendid land-locked harbor of
Sydney, to which our good pilot had steered over 7,000 miles
of trackless lonely waves.

Goodbye, Mariposa. Welcome, Australia.

CHAPTER III.

A NEW CONTINENT — FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF AUSTRALIA.

A New Continent— A Magnificent Harbor— Torres' Mistake — The
Flight of the Dove— "The Endeavor" — An Important Astronomi-
cal Discovery — A Vast Noah's Ark — Great Grandfather Animals —
The Bushman and His Fate— What the Savage could not do — Un-
certain Rain and Certain Drought — Australian Oddities — Confused
Trees — Topsy-Turvyness — Preconceived Notions — The Englishman
the World Over — The Evolution of the Yankee Drawl — Colonial
Days — ' ' The Great American Desert " — Mother and Daughter — How
the Old Lady Treats Her Child — English or American — Architectural
Differences— Big Names — "Elevator " or " Lift " — " Barber's Shop "
"Tonsorial Palace " — American Inventions in Australia — The Home
of Anarchy and Unrest — Country Life versus City Life — The " Bluey"
and the " Billy " — The " Larrikin " — A "New Chum " — Modesty Be-
coming a Literary New Chum.

TRAVELER'S first impressions
of a new land, while not always
the most accurate, are usually
the most vivid and interesting.
How many pulses have thrilled
with curiosity and pleasure as
they have seen the rough coast
of old Ireland for the first time
when approaching the Old World
from the New, for there in the
shadowy distance, somewhere be-
hind the frowning cliffs of Erin,
lies all the mystery of antiquity, all the historic associations
of 2,000 years. In fact, the accumulation of 6,000 years of
history and civilization are represented by that little stormy

( 68 )

SYDNEY HEADLANDS AND HARBOR. 69

strip of Irish coast to the voyager from the land which has
few monuments and no ruins, and only a brief history.

"With every new land one approaches, these first impres-
sions are renewed, and so when the bluff lines of Sydney
Heads rear themselves on the horizon we eagerly crane our
necks and strain our eyes for a glimpse of the new Australian
continent which is about to open before us. We do not have
to wait long for a fuller revelation of the fair vision, for
very soon after the headlands are sighted we steam in be-
tween the two sentinels that guard the magnificent land-
locked harbor of Sydney.

No wonder that the New South Welchmen are proud of
their harbor, " as proud as though they had scooped it out
themselves," as some one has ill-naturedly remarked. It is
one of the harbors that cannot be overpraised. A small dic-
tionary of adjectives might be emptied upon the description
and it would scarcely be overdone.

It has hundreds of miles of coast line, and on the map
looks like a great octopus which has been flattened out by
some tremendous kind of hydraulic pressure, whose arms
and tentacles run far up into the country, affording number-
less beautiful bays and lovely retreats, which, in many
places, are as wild and rugged as when Capt. Cook first
sailed by the narrow entrance ; for it is a singular fact that
this bold navigator, though he discovered Botany Bay only
a few miles distant, entirely passed by this most wonderful
harbor, so straight and narrow is the way that leads to it
from the open sea.

In fact, the early navigators all seem to have had diffi-
culty in finding this great continent. One would think that
a magnificent stretch of land which occupies so large a por-
tion of the 3arth's surface could have been easily discovered,
especially by those who are searching for it, but in those

70 SKILLFUL PILOTING OF TO-DAY.

days in the little shallops that were at the command of the
explorers, it was no easy thing to discover even such a vast
island as Australia.

To-day the navigator sets sail from San Francisco, 7,000
miles away, and, precisely on schedule time, to a single hour
probably, with trusty compass and skillful pilot, he will steer
straight through the middle of the narrow passage that
leads to the city of Sydney. But 300 years ago, without
chart or pilot, it was a different thing to feel one's way
across these misty, unknown seas at the mercy of the uncer-
tain sails and the certain gales of the Southern Pacific.
Although it seems that he could not have missed the island
continent he was searching for, yet it is said that Torres, the
hold navigator, sailed directly through the narrow strait
which now bears his name, and which separates Australia
from New Guinea, without knowing that there was land on
cither side ; certainly without knowing that he was almost
within sight of one of the mightiest divisions of the earth's
surface. He missed the glory by a hair's breadth, as it were,
of adding to his laurels and perhaps giving his name to a
continent.

Other early navigators had the same difficulty in finding
this elusive land. The Dutch in the Dreyfhen, or Dove, a
little vessel which stretched its wings and flew away from
Holland in the year 1606, first saw the main land of Aus-
tralia, but the Dutch had no use for it, and did not think it
worth while to claim possession.

Perhaps from their standpoint of a home-land half sub-
merged with water, they did not appreciate such a high and
dry continent as Australia proved to be. At any rate they
made no attempt to explore or colonize the land, and it was
left to Captain Cook, more than 150 years later, to make the
first discovery which was really of value to the European

THE NOAH'S ARK OF THE NATURALIST. 71

world. He set sail in the little ship Endeavor ; suggestive
name that, considering the purpose which has taken the
writer of this chronicle to Australia. His principal purpose
was to make observations in regard to the transit of Venus
which was not visible in the Western Hemisphere, but he
combined discovery with astronomy, and not only proved
from the transit of Yenus that the sun was something more
than ninety millions of miles away from the earth, a dis-
tance which, up to that time, had not been accurately meas-
ured, but also proved that there was a vast unknown land in
in these southern seas waiting for the first occupant who
might raise the national flag and take possession in the
name of modern civilization and Christianity.

Geologically, Australia is said to be one of the oldest
portions of the earth's surface, and in its physical aspects
and natural products it is extremely interesting to the nat-
uralist. In fact, it is a kind of Noah's Ark in which has
been preserved the animals and the plants which long ago
died out of Europe and America. The animals which in
the older world flourished in the secondary and tertiary
period, but which are now as extinct as the Dodo himself,
are still found in large numbers in this land. The kangaroo
and the wallaby and all the allied races of marsupials which
once were common in Europe and America, are distinctive
and characteristic animals of Australia.

The reason, says the naturalist, for this strange survival
of these great-grandfather animals which long ago gave up
the ghost in Europe, is, that Australia has not been sub-
jected to such fearful convulsions of nature as the rest of the
world. She has not been drowned out by the flood or
ground down by the glacier, or had all her animal and vege-
table life frozen up in a great ice age ; so these interesting
animals of a pre-historic period still live and flourish on her

72 NATURE HOSTILE TO THE SAVAGE.

vast inland plains. Australia, however, could never become
a great and important factor in the world's progress without
the aid of civilized men. Her natural resources, though
great, required to be developed. The rainy seasons are
uncertain over a large portion of the continent, and the
droughts alone can be relied upon. They come with pro-
voking regularity.

MALE ABORIGINAL, AUSTRALIAN.

The savage could not tickle this ground with a hoe and
expect it to smile with a harvest. He could not plant a
cocoanut tree and live under its shade and on its nuts all the
rest of his days. The arid soil, the intense heat, and the
lack of moisture were against him, and as he could not cope
with these natural disadvantages without the appliances of
civilization, the poor fellow became a very abject and
wretched specimen of a human being ; not fierce and strong
like the North American Indian, not vigorous and warlike

THE WHITE MAN'S PLOW AND SPADE.

like the Zulu, not gay and careless in the abundance of trop-
ical bounty like the South Sea Islander; he degenerated
into a poor, miserable, abject bushman, who has already
been, for the most part, " civilized " off the face of the earth.
But poor as was the country for the untutored savage
when the white man came with his plow and his spade,
his steam drill and his locomotive, this neglected continent

FEMALE ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN.

became a new land and has yet a great place to fill among
the nations of the earth. Civilized man with the history of
the ages behind him. was able to make the desert blossom as
the rose ; to store the water of the wet season for the exi-
gencies of the dry ; to find in the nutritious buffalo grass the
best fodder in all the world for his sheep, and to discover in
the bowels of the earth the richest stores of gold that have
ever been unearthed since the (lavs of King" Solomon.

PERPLEXING TO STRANGERS.

Where savages could not live the Englishman has built some
of the most magnificent cities on the surface of the globe ;
where the poor bushmen grew thin and emaciated, with
scarcely strength or spirit left to spear a kangaroo, the Eng-
iishman has grown stout and healthy, hearty and happy,
and is founding a new nation which will surely be in the
future ages the greater Britain.

When one first comes to Australia many things strike
him as being strange and out of place, but he soon begins to

ask whether possibly his notions
and ideas are not at fault, and
not the country, and whether he
is not carrying his traditional pre-
judices around with him. Why,
for instance, should not the trees
put forth their buds and leaves
in September instead of in April ?
It looks odd enough at first
when the traveler reaches Australian shores after the scorch-
ing davs of midsummer and the early breezes of fall have
begun to blow, to find that summer is not behind him but
before him, that it is not autumn, but spring ; that the trees,
instead of doffing their fall livery, are donning their spring
dresses, and that all nature is waking up for a new year of
growth and activity.

It is said that the trees that are transplanted from
Europe or North America, are themselves very much con-
fused by this change in their surroundings ; that at first
they make a few feeble attempts to bud forth in May and
drop their leaves in October, but they soon accept the Aus-
tralian seasons as they are made for them.

A most excellent thing it is for a man of unreasonable
prejudices and provincial proclivities, to take such a journey

AHORIOINAI- METIIOD OF
PRODUCING FIRE.

AN OVERTURNING OF PRECONCEIVED IDEAS. 75

as this. All his preconceived notions are knocked on the
head, so to speak. His ideas of what is fit and proper for
Nature to do are completely upset, and if he is a wise man
he will begin to say, perhaps, after all, wisdom will not die
with me, possibly my ancestors did not kno.. everything
there was to be known, and there may be new ways and
methods which are not to be despised simply because I was
not educated in them. I know of more than one good man
whose eminently respectable ideas I would like to have
turned topsy-turvy by some such transition from a northern
to a southern hemisphere of thought.

But it must be confessed that in other ways besides turn-
ing the seasons end to end, Australia works havoc with our
preconceived notions of things. The cherries, for instance,
instead of covering up their stones with a good layer of flesh,
wear their hearts upon their sleeves, so to speak, or at least,
bear their pits upon the outside, instead of beneath the skin,
as all well-regulated cherries are supposed to do. The
Eucalyptus trees, and some other varieties, instead of shed-
ding their leaves, have a strange fashion of shedding their
bark, and one sees great forests of them standing bare and
gaunt, with the bark falling off in shreds and ribbons while
they stretch their white arms heavenward, but their tops are
always covered with a dull green leaf which they never part
with under any circumstances.

Much of the Australian wood, instead of floating as all
well-regulated wood should float when thrown into the
water, sinks to the bottom. Many of the flowers cover the
outside of their petals with bright colors instead of the in-
side, as modest English flowers almost always do, and there
are various anomalies of this sort, which, however, are only
anomalies, I suppose, because of our imperfect and narrow
vision. I did not hear that water ran up hill in Australia, or

76 THE AGGRESSIVE ANGLO-SAXON.

that rain was dry and snow hot, but I should scarcely have
been surprised to learn of such discrepancies before I went
away.

After all, civilized human nature is very much the same,
however natural products and inanimate nature differs in
different parts of the world. Love and hate, joy and sor-
row, fear and hope, I find, are exactly the same at the
Antipodes as in the countries with which I am familiar.
Human nature does not differ in its characteristics by being-
transplanted from one hemisphere to another. The English-
man is very much the same sort of a creature Avherever
he is found, whether transplanted to America to acquire the
alleged "Yankee drawl" and the sharp features which I
must say I think exist largely in the humorist's novel, or
whether he crosses the southern seas to take up his abode in
Australasia ; — he is the same sort of a being — resolute,
aggressive, pushing, fearless ; sometimes haughty and arro-
gant in his treatment of inferior races, often prejudiced and
unjust in his judgment of others, but nevertheless a mighty
and potent factor in the world's civilization. Without him
what would be the vast prairies of America, or the mighty
sea-girt continent of which I am writing ? If ever there was
a providential race raised up of God to do a particular work
in the world and exert a mighty civilizing agency, that race
is the Anglo-Saxon.

I feel that it is necessary to be cautious in recording my
impressions of the English race in Australia lest I lay myself
open to the same charges which I am tempted to bring-
oftentimes against other hasty travelers who have skipped
through America at the rate of a mile a minute and then
made up their minds that they know all about it. My warm
American blood sometimes boils with not a little indignation
as I hear our institutions slurred and our public men de-

IN THE VANGUARD OF CIVILIZATION.

famed by those who know nothing about either one or the
other. So I must be careful not to raise the blood of anvone
else to the boiling point with unfounded criticisms. Still, as
everyone must give his impressions, I would say that the
Colonies, so far as I have seen them and talked with repre-
sentative Australians, strikes me as being in a period corre-
sponding to the Colonial days of America before the glorious
era of 1776 dawned upon us.

Not that the Australian Colonies are 100 years behind

EN THE GROUND8 OF GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SYDNEY.

the times by any means. They are fully abreast of the most
recent civilization. All the appliances and inventions and
elegancies of civilized life are found here, and I imagine that
a new invention of Edison, or a labor-saving contrivance of
McCormick, would be introduced quite as soon into these
progressive, go-ahead colonies as they would in any part of
America, and far more rapidly than they would be likely to
be introduced into England. The fashions, too, are as recent,
for aught I know ; the store windows are certainly as ele-
gant, the streets of such cities as Melbourne are as wide,
and the public buildings as magnificent as any that can be

78 VAST DESERTS AND UNWATERED PLAINS.

found in all the world. Yet I am reminded every day that in
some respects Australia is very much like North America

' ' In the good old Colony days
When we lived under the King."

The population of these Colonies is very nearly the same as
of the 13 original States that made up the Union in 1 776.
something like three or four millions of people forming a
fringe of settlement along the seashore for thousands of
miles. The far interior, for the most part, is a terra incog-
nita, waiting for the hardy pioneer and the adventurous
settler.

When I was a boy, and that is not so very many years
ago after all, the old geographies still had a tract of land
covering nearly the whole area west of the Mississippi,
labeled "The Great American Desert." Gradually this
great American Desert has grown smaller by degrees and
beautifully less until it is now confined to a comparatively
narrow strip of outlying plains, which themselves are not be-
yond hope of ultimate redemption. So I have no doubt the
vast deserts and unwatered plains of the unexplored interior
of this mighty land will one of these days yield to the
prowess of the pioneer and the sturdy toil of the settler until
all Australia blossoms like the rose.

In its political features, too, the Australasian Colonies are
not at all unlike the American Colonies before the Revolu-
tion. Jealous of their rights, the}^ brook no interference
from the Mother Country to which they still owe allegiance.
If she should attempt to impose a tax on tea there would be
the greatest tea-party in Melbourne Harbor that was ever
seen. The Boston tea-party would scarcely be a circum-
stance to this Australian " tea-meeting." If an obstinate
King George III was on the throne instead of her Gracious
Majesty ( " her Goodness-Gracious Majesty " some of the

AN INDULGENT MOTHER. 79

Australian papers call her) Queen Victoria, it would not
be long, probably, before these Colonies would set up house-
keeping for themselves, and cut themselves wholly adrift
from Mother England, that keeps house at home. But, as it
is, they feel no pressure of maternal authority.

The old lady sometimes scolds, to be sure, and is some-
times considered indifferent to her children's welfare, but
she never attempts to "boss" them ("boss," by the way,
is as good Australian as it is American), and so the Colo-
nies give a willing, if not in all cases a very enthusiastic,,
allegiance to the Mother Land.

In the " good old Colony days," too, of which we sing, if
I read history aright, our different colonies were very jeal-
ous of each other — each afraid that the other would gain
the advantage and obtain some predominant power.

History is repeating itself again in this Southern world.
Whether the principle of free trade or protection is the true
one I have no occasion to say in this chronicle, but it does
seem very strange that the Colonies should protect them-
selves so zealously one against another. They are raising
their tariff duties higher and higher, I understand, not only
against all the rest of the world, but against their sister
colonies. The oranges of New South Wales must be taxed
before they can come into Yictoria, and the rugs of New
Zealand must pay a heavy duty before they can be wrapped
round Australian knees. It is as though New Hampshire
should protect herself against the dread incursions of Ver-
mont maple sugar, and Vermont should set up a barrier
against the exportation of New Hampshire granite, and
Florida should object to Maine ice unless it was duly taxed,
and Maine should retort by putting an impost on Florida
oranges. However, federation is in the air just as it was in
the North American air in the latter part of the last cen-
tury.

•80 A PROPHECY OF FEDERATION.

There is federation already in sentiment and purpose
against the aggression of all the rest of the world. There is
federation of Christian sentiment and religious purpose, and,
doubtless, before the 19th century comes to a close there will
be political federation, just as the close of the 18th century
marks the political federation which has ever since been
growing stronger and stronger between the states of the
American Union.

Another impression which I have received is that Aus-
tralia is a mixture in about equal proportions of British
conservatism and American aggressiveness, a splendid mix-
ture that, since both qualities are needed to make up the
ideal race, and either alone, though admirable in itself, can
be carried too far. Sydney is said to be very English, Mel-
bourne very American, and I think there is some reason for
this distinction, which the Australians often comment upon
themselves. Sydney was settled 100 years ago, and its nar-
row streets and crooked lanes remind me of the picturesque
city which, like all loyal Bostonians, I regard, of course, as
the "hub" of the Universe.

Melbourne, on the other hand, is a modern city built
within the last 50 years, and its wide streets and elegant
boulevards, its magnificent public buildings, and extensive
stores, would lead one who was set down in it with his eyes
blindfolded to imagine he was in any one of half a dozen of
our most wide-awake western cities. To be sure he would
find it rather cleaner than most of them, and with no dense
pall of smoke hiding its beauties. He would heave a sigh
and wish that our streets might be as well paved and kept
as clean, but, with the exception of a few minor matters of
this sort, he would be eminently at home in the beautiful
■city of Melbourne.

In Sydney almost every house has its balcony, and this

JOHN BULL Versus BROTHER JONATHAN. 81

is also a common method of architecture in Melbourne.
Houses in Australia are built for hot weather (throughout
the largest part of the American continent they are built for
cold weather) hence the slight differences of architecture
which we notice.

There are, indeed, very many things that remind me of
the old country, but these are all balanced by Americanisms-
which appear at every corner.

For instance, I have more than once seen the sign
"Mangling done here," which always reminded me of the
unfortunate Mr. Mantalini. We should call the establish-
ment a laundry, I suppose. The druggists are almost all
"chemists," and they have no extravagant marble fountain
with forty-two different kinds of American drinks issuing
therefrom, in the front part of their stores. "Beef and
ham" shops 1 have often seen, but why a man who sells
ham should not also sell lamb or other butcher's meat I can-
not quite determine.

The street cars are all "trams." The elevators are all
" lifts," and the railway cars are all "coaches." "Why is it
that you Americans always give such a big name to every-
thing," said an Australian gentleman to me the other day.
"Why do you call a lift an 'elevator,' and why is your
'classroom' a 'recitation hall,' and why is your barber's
shop usually a 'tonsorial palace'?" 1 am still pondering
these questions, and have not arrived as yet at any satisfac-
tory answer.

But, if there is much that is English there is also as
much that is distinctively American about these colonies.
Upon a dozen articles of common use 1 have seen the name
"Salem, Mass.," or "Springfield, Mass.," or "Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania," or Chicago, Illinois." American books,
American watches ne writers, American lamps and

82 AMERICAN INVENTIONS — "AMERICAN BARS."

bicycles, American incandescent lights and telephones, and
alas! many "American bars" from which, as the signs toil
us, American drinks are dispensed, are to be seen every-
where. I am not at all proud of this last Americanism, but
in many of the Continental cities of Europe the American
bar is the only American thing that you will see in all the
city.

On the railway between Sydney and Melbourne, Pull-
man cars of the very best construction are used, and on the
Melbourne streets the swift cable cars which I think must
have been made in Troy, New York, give one the impression
that he cannot be far from Kansas City, or Omaha, or San
Francisco. In one very important way, however, the Aus-
tralian colonies differ from our early American colonies, and
that is in the predominance of the city life over the country
life. I should think that fully 50 per cent, of the people of
Australia live to-day in the cities, large or small ; nearly
one-half of the inhabitants of Victoria are gathered together
along the beautiful streets of Melbourne. So in New South
"Wales, Sydney absorbs a large proportion of the population,
while in South Australia, Adelaide is not only the capital
and metropolis, but the one center for a vast territory.

The rural population of America is in some sections
sadly on the wane. The great cities are great magnets,
everywhere which draw the people from the country to
themselves. Until the poles of this magnet can be reversed
in some way, both in Australia and America, and the people
find that their happiness is not in the crowded streets of an
overpopulated city, but amid the peace and plenty of coun-
try life, a great danger will always menace these two great
continents. Discontent, anarchy, and revolution, with all
their hideous evils, are breathed in the great cities; the fresh
country winds blow the cobwebs out of the brain, and dis-

FREE AND HAPPY COUNTRY LIFE.

content out of the heart. Until both Australia and America
become filled with small landholders, each cultivating his
own little piece of God's earth, the problems of their fu-
ture destiny will not all be solved.

But, predominant as city life is in Australia, the influ-

EN THE BUSH.

ence of the early settler, the squatter, and the bushman is
still felt. Most of the distinctive Australian slang which I
have heard can be traced back to these sources — thus the
" billabong " is the backwater of a river ; the " lagoon," we
should call it at home. The " bluey " is the blanket of the
frontiersman in which he wraps himself at night and lies
down to sleep wherever he may be, under the silent stars.

AUSTRALIAN SLANG.

The " billy " is the can in which he cooks first his tea and
then his meat. We may be sure he relishes them both be-
cause of the splendid appetite sauce which was always upon
his table. These terms have now degenerated to denote the
properties of the tramp, and the bundle which he carries
upon his back is his " swag." The " larrikin " is the street
loafer, and a very unpleasant type of street loafer he is, too,
as developed in these colonies. I, myself, am a " new
chum," as every new arrival is styled in Australian dialect;
and, until I had been here at least five years, I could be
only a " new chum," corresponding to the "tenderfoot" of
our mining camps. It is surely becoming that a new chum
should be careful in his commendations and modest in his
criticisms. Perhaps it is high time, therefore, that I should
bring this chapter to an end, before I commit the usual indis-
cretion of a literary " new chum " in a strange land.

CHAPTER IV.

AUSTRALIA AND AUSTRALIANS — LITTLE MATTERS ABOUT

A GREAT COUNTRY.

The Houses the People Live in — Stone Instead of Wood — An English-
man's Castle — Plenty of Soil — " Strathroy " versus " 1229 E. 341 St."
— "Bacchus, Cestus, Festus" — How They Travel — The Railways—
Inside the House — At the Dinner Table — A Pleasant Custom —
Scarcity of Cold Water — The Newspapers — Sometimes Dull but
Seldom Sensational — Some Budding Poets — Specimen of Obituary
Poetry — Outdoor Life — National Games — A Mighty Curse — The
Turf Adviser— The Totalisator — Church Life — Great Conventions —
The Singing — Cable Absurdities — A Mexican Invasion — Kissing his
Wife on the Street — Gum-chewing Girls — Chicago Girls and Boston
Maidens — Introducing Friends.

OME of the little things that seem

to me to be characteristic of

^^/^•^P^^^^^^k Australian life may seem hardly

worth mentioning in serious con-
verse, and yet it is these little
matters that differentiate our
Australian cousins from their
American relatives.

In other lands it is easy to

paint the picture with broad

touches of the brush, but in a

country so much like our own,

and among a people who, so far as all outward characteristics

go, live across the street, instead of across the Pacific ocean,

we find peculiarities and differences only in minute things.

The house in which the Australian lives, for instance,

6 (85)

86 COMFORT IN SECLUSION.

though a most comfortable one, and often an elegant man-
sion, is different in some slight particulars from that in
which his American relative would take up his abode. It is
almost invariably built of stone or brick, even in the coun-
try, instead of wood; the reason being, I suppose, that
timber is scarce and high, comparatively speaking, and the
native woods do not easily lend themselves to the house-
builder's art.

At any rate, one sees very few modern houses of the
style which make our suburban cities and country villages
so bright and attractive, with their many colors and then-
varied styles of architecture.

Manv of the houses here, even of the better class, are one-
story buildings, with bedrooms as well as parlors and din-
ing-rooms on the ground floor, but they are high and com-
modious apartments and doubtless have some advantages in
this hot climate over the many-storied structures with which
we are acquainted. Moreover, for every Australian his
house is his castle, and in this matter he shows his English
"breeding and training. He shuts himself in from all the
world with high hedges and fences. The crusade for the
abolishment of fences and hedges, with which we are so
familiar, would meet with no favor in this land.

So it comes about that the streets of the suburban towns
have a more forbidding and unsocial aspect than our streets
at home. There is none of the park-like effect which is
ffiven to a beautiful suburban town, bv removing all fences
and obstacles to the view, and allowing the premises of ad-
joining neighbors to come together with only an imaginary
line between them. But after all when you once get behind
an Australian's fence or an Englishman's hedge, there is a joy
in the sense of seclusion and quiet retirement which one can
iiardly experience in the open thoroughfare of an American

SPACE ENOUGH AND TO SPARE.

town. You find, too, that what you took for exclusiveness
is only a national reserve and that the warmest kind of hos-
pitality is extended to those who get behind these forbidding
fences.

The Australian believes in having plenty of land about
him, and why shouldn't he ? If there is one thing of which
there is enough in this great continent, it is Mother Earth.
Only a little fringe of her soil here as yet has been subdued.
No wonder that the Australian householder chooses to have

IN ADELAIDE.

a good generous quota for his house-lot and garden. The
result is that these cities spread out enormously, and Wash-
ington must yield the palm of being considered " the city of
magnificent distances" to Melbourne and Sydney and Ad-
elaide and Ballarat. In Melbourne, for instance, there seems
to be no residential portion of the city for the better classes
within less than three or four miles from Collins street, and
thousands of the business men live half a score of miles or
more away from their offices.

When we get to their houses we find that each one has a
distinctive individuality of its own, which is very pleasing to
one accustomed to residences known only by an unsympa-

88 DISTINCTIVE NAMES.

thetic number. For instance, it is much more pleasing, in
my estimation, to live at " Strathroy," or "St. Kilda," or
" Haroldine," than to have your abode at " 1229 East 31st
street." How can children ever have an affection for " No.
027"? How can the household gods ever be permanently-
set up on a six-story flat in "429£ A, 79th Avenue"?

But to have a home of your own with its distinctive
name which is appropriated by no one else ! Ah ! there is
a sensation of homeliness comes over one when we but see
the name upon the gate post !

However, some of these names, I must say, strike me as
peculiar. In order to get a different home designation from
any one else, children's names are sometimes used, and I
have seen " Emma House " and " Alice Terrace " and
" Maudina " and " Susana." One row of houses which I
have seen was named "Voltaire," " Rousseau," and " Renan."
How any builder could hope to let such houses to a Chris-
tian, I do not understand.

Still another terrace of houses I have seen labeled
"Bacchus," "Cestus, " and "Festus." With all my love
for individuality and for distinctive names, I must say I
think that this is a little overdoing it. I should always feel
ashamed to live in a house that bore the name of the old
inebriate " Bacchus " ; and as for dating my letters from
" Festus," I would pay a largely increased rent rather than
submit to any such indignity.

I have found the modes of roadway traveling in Aus-
tralia much like those to which we are accustomed, with the
exception that our friends here very much affect a certain
species of English trap which I have never seen at home, in
which the driver has the best seat of all, and the people
whom he drives, if there is more than one, get along as best
they can on a kind of perch with their backs to the horses.

A WELL MANAGED RAILWAY SYSTEM. 83

while they are careful to avoid the driver's reins which are
always in close proximity to their ears. However, this trap
has the advantage of being roomy and easy to enter, and for
father and mother and a small family of children is just the

thing.

The railroads seem to me well managed and well
equipped. The road beds are splendidly ballasted, the sta-
tions are substantial though not elegant, and everything
'about the rolling stock is on a par with our first-class Amer-
ican roads.

To be sure they cling to the old, exclusive, English com-
partment system for the most part, but the cars are well
upholstered, and nearly all who can afford it seem to ride
first-class, whereas in England it is a common saying that
only lords, fools, and Americans ever patronize the first-class
railway carriage. I have seen no third-class cars, and the
second-class are very comfortable, though far outnumbered
by the first-class compartments.

On some of the roads Pullman cars are in constant use.
On others, Mann boudoir cars are preferred. Grade cross-
ings are abolished as far as possible, and more care is taken
of life and limb than on our average railway lines. Here
one steps immediately from the platform into the car, in-
stead of going up two or three steps as in our cars, and a
bell about the size of a dinner bell, vigorously rung,
announces the hour of departure.

To show how much custom has to do with our views of
the fitness of things, I was amused to hear an Australian
friend, who had been traveling in America, say that it
seemed strange to her to climb a short flight of stairs before
getting into our cars, and that it seemed preposterous for
the engineer to ring a bell as big as a church bell whenever
the train started. Well, I had always regarded the three

90 FOUR MEALS A DAY.

or four steps as the most natural means of getting into a
railway car myself, and as for the church-bell to which she
alluded, I had never regarded it in that preposterous light.
But I thought I would be careful after hearing her remark
about saying anything about the Australian railway dinner
bell, or any other little peculiarities which struck me as
oddities.

We have found now our Australian home and the means
of locomotion by which we reach it. As we enter the aver-
age home of the well-to-do, we find a large and commodious
parlor, a well-stocked library, a dining-room and a breakfast
room, which in the season (and almost every season in Aus-
tralia is the season of flowers) are gay with blossoms from
the abundant garden.

The dining-room always interests the hungry traveler, so
we will enter it. A beautiful fashion, which I have never
seen practiced to the same extent elsewhere, is that of deco-
rating the table, for it is typical of the Australian as of the
Englishman that he makes a good deal more of the dining
table than is usually done by the average American family.

He indulges in four meals instead of three, though the
late supper at night is often a very informal affair, and he
frequently finds room for a cup of tea between meals. As
for getting along on two meals a day, as some of our more
aesthetic New Englanders are accustomed to do, he would
spurn the idea. The center of the table is beautifully deco-
rated with bright velvet or brilliant cloths of other kinds,
and is gay with flowers, and often in the evening with fairy
lamps, which add to the brilliant effect. The average Aus-
tralian does not indulge in so many hot biscuits, porterhouse
steaks, buckwheat cakes, etc., as his friends across the sea.
but his table is always abundantly and often lavishly spread
with cold meats, bread of different kinds, pastries and pud-

GINGER ALE OR ICE WATER. 91

dings, and " sweets" under which generic term are grouped
marmalade and jam, jellies and syrups of various kinds.

Of course the teapot is there, occasionally the coffeepot,
very often the syphon of seltzer water and ginger ale, and,
most rarely of all, the water pitcher. In fact, I think that
some of my Australian friends scarcely know the taste of
unadulterated water, and, as for ice water, I imagine they
would abominate it as an invention of the arch enemy of
mankind. I have seen hands held up almost in horror at the
thought of the dreadful American practice of drinking ice
water on all possible occasions, and under all circumstances,
and it seems to be a standing w r onder with many, how any
of us manage to survive the period of infancy with all the
various iced drinks and the vast amount of plain water that
we make way with.

After breakfast we, of course, take up our morning paper,
and here it is, damp from the press. I must say, that to my
somewhat vitiated taste, perhaps, some of these daily papers
seem extremely dull, but I am inclined to charge this im-
pression to two facts. In the first place, they contain almost
no American news, unless, possibly, John L. Sullivan, or
some such slugger, happens to have received an unmerciful
pounding (in which result we all devoutly rejoice). In the
second place, a stranger never knows where to look for what
lie wants in an unaccustomed newspaper, so, though it may
contain many morsels which he would be glad to read, he is
apt to throw it aside impatiently with the reflection that it
is dull and stupid.

But if this charge can be preferred with some force,,
there is something far worse than dullness, and that is the
outrageous sensationalism which disgraces many of our own
papers. These papers are at least dignified, and, for the
most part, high in their moral tone. Some of the afternoon

92 DULL BUT DIGNIFIED.

journals, to be sure, are imitating a bad American example,
and deal in "scare heads" and " penny-dreadful' ' stories,
but the leading papers are all comparatively clean, if not
aggressively on the side of religion and morals.

The Melbourne papers pay exceedingly little attention to
religious matters, and seem to ape the " London Times " ki
the silent contempt that they visit upon anything or any-
body that is not patronized by an earl or a lord at the very
least. Their snobbishness is often spoken of by the people
of Melbourne themselves, and it is not shared, I am glad to
say, to any extent by the leading papers of Adelaide or Syd-
ney. These are quite as good as newspapers, and far better
as moral agencies in supporting and advancing the great
religious movements of the day.

In addition to the column of births, marriages, and
deaths, a " memorial " column is published in many of the
papers, and anybody can get his funereal lucubrations pub-
lished at so much a line. I do not know but this is wise
forethought on the part of the newspaper publishers. If
their subscribers work off their poetic afflatus in some dog-
gerel verses concerning a deceased relative, they are not so
likely to deluge the editorial sanctum with poems on
" Spring," " Love," and such threadbare subjects. I think
some publisher could make his fortune by collecting the
choicest of these verses under the title, " Funereal Poetry
as She is Composed." Here is one that I have found, and it-
is quite equal to the average, neither better nor worse. I
commend the use of the verb in the last line to all our bud-
ding poets.

" Farewell, Mother ; we did not know thy worth,
But thou art gone, and now 'tis prized,
Thus angels walked unknown on earth,
But when they flew were recognized."

OUTDOOR LIFE. 93

Another one, for which a friend of mine vouches, read as

follows :

" I heard that my Mother had met with a sprain,
I left Ballarat by the 4.50 train,
At Melbourne a cab took me quick to her side,
But when I got there, alas, she had died ! "

My friend suggests that no wonder the good lady departed
this life before the arrival of a daughter who could perpe-
trate such verse.

After the breakfast and the paper have been disposed of,
we will go out to see something of the national life, for
there is a vast amount of outdoor life in Australia ; too
much, I am told by those who know it best, for the young
men and women, in consequence, often spend too little time
at home. The fine climate makes very much of outdoor life
possible and delightful ; and athletic sports have been
carried to an extent that is not known in America or in
England. This devotion to athleticism will, doubtless, pro-
duce a line race of men physically. May this development
not be gained at the expense of moral qualities which are
vastly more important.

As baseball is the national game in America, so football
is the great national game of Australia. To be sure, cricket
is played and famous elevens have beaten the best English
cricketers. Australian oarsmen are renowned throughout
the world, but football is the national game par excellence.

The betting on these games, and especially the gambling
on the horse races, are the worst features of outdoor life in
Australia. It seems to me that I never saw the gambling
spirit so rampant, even in England itself, as it is here. It
certainly has not taken hold of the better classes in America
as here. In some quarters there seems to be very little
conscience about the matter. The races are patronized by

94 THE CURSE OF AUSTRALIAN YOUTH.

the governor-generals and the leading men in political life,
and the protests which are raised by Christian people are
sneered at by many of the papers as the feeble attempt of
" sniveling parsons." A premier of one of the leading col-
onies, himself not averse, as I found upon the steamer, to a
chance in the " Calcutta Sweep," assures me that the spirit
of gambling is the awful and growing curse of Australian
youth. This testimony, certainly, is not from an unduly
prejudiced source.

Not only do the wealthy classes and the bookmakers bet.
but the clerks and schoolboys and the ragged little boot-
blacks themselves invest a shilling in the sweep. Immense
prizes, sometimes as high as $50,000 each, tempt the cupidity
of rich and poor alike. In fact, these horse-races are simply
huge Louisiana lotteries legalized, and established in all the
colonies, which must debauch the youth by the wholesale if
they are allowed longer to exist.

I have seen a sign over a very respectable looking house
in Melbourne which read "Turf Adviser." It was not, as
the uninitiated might suppose, a landscape gardener's office,
or the establishment of one who gave instruction in regard
to a model lawn, but of one who professed to have some
special knowledge in regard to the races, and gave the
unwary a supposed "tip" as to the winning horse. Such
establishments, under one name or another, are very com-
mon, and even in times of depression and suffering the horse
races and the bookmakers are the last to feel the pinch.
Every little town has its own races and its own betting
establishments, and the work of the Devil goes on in hun-
dreds of different places at the same time.

A very long Australian word, and one which for
some time I could not understand the meaning of, is "total-
isator." The papers are full of arguments for and against

VIGOROUS LIFE IX THE CHURCHES. 95

the " totalisator.'' The ministers denounce it from the
pulpits, and the religious press score it in their columns, for
it is simply a legalization of gambling, in which the govern-
ment steps in and guarantees fair play ; that is, if there can
be such a thing as "fair play*' in gambling. At least the
government guarantees that professional sharpers shall not
"fleece" the immature little gamblers, but that they shall
have an equal chance at the unrighteous winnings of the
lotterv.

But it is pleasant to turn from the horse race and the
gambling hell to the church ; and to record that the church
life of Australia seems to me vigorous, genuine, and aggres-
sive. Nowhere are earnest Christians more numerous; no-
where are the churches better managed or more liberally
sustained. Some of the metropolitan churches are immense
establishments, with lecture rooms and class rooms, large
libraries and parlors, and offices for all kinds of religious
and benevolent enterprises. Some of them are practically
theological seminaries as well, where the minister of the
church, with some assistance perhaps from brother ministers,
instructs young men for their future work.

The singing for the most part is magnificent. No thin
warbling; no operatic airs; no display of organist and
choir, such as is sometimes so painful in churches on our
own side of the Pacific ocean; but hearty, whole-souled,
devotional, congregational singing obtains everywhere.

The ministers, for the most part, are well-educated and
able men, eloquent in defense of the truth, and outspoken
for all righteousness. Especially in connection with the
conventions for the Society of Christian Endeavor, which
it was my happy privilege to attend during almost every
day of my stay in Australia, was this devotional spirit most
delightfully prominent. Never have I seen greater en-

96 A BRIGHT OUTLOOK.

thusiasm or more intelligent piety ; or greater throngs, con-
sidering the population to be drawn upon, or a more intense
interest in the practical phases of religious life. And among
all the happy weeks of my life I count those spent at the
Australian Christian Endeavor Convention among the
brightest and best.

I need not here repeat the story of these delightful gath-
erings, which, in fact, occupied all my time when in this
land. With strong religious fervor and outspoken devo-
tion ; with the vast material resources of the new continent
to draw upon; with the sturdy British character forming
the basis of the population, I cannot help feeling that the
outlook for this fair land materially, morally, and spiritually
is as bright as for any country on all the face of the earth.

There is no spot on earth where democracy is more ram-
pant than in Australia. With all the talk about "home"
(i. e. England) and all the sentimental love for the mother
country, a very sturdy independence is cultivated, and a
kind of individualism which is said by those who know best
to tend to irreverence and disregard for authority. Young
Australia is complained of by old Australia for its precocity
and unpleasant development of beardless mannishness, just as
young America is often twitted with the same fault by its
elders. But I must say I have seen little of this priggish-
ness among young Australians, and I have met many of
them, and, as for young America, I think it has often been
sadly maligned in this same way.

Eor the secret ballot we have to thank Australia, for a
simpler way of registering our deeds, which it is hoped will
soon be universally adopted, and for other improvements in
municipal and civil government which naturally have origin-
ated with this fresh and independent people.

On the other hand, Australia has adopted many Ameri-

UNFAIR REPRESENTATIONS. 9?

ean ideas, and is very ready to credit every new invention
and bright idea as a " Yankee notion," in whatever corner of
the world it may have originated. But there are still many
misunderstandings to be corrected and many prejudices to
be overcome.

There is a great need of a better understanding between
these two English-speaking nations on both sides of the
Pacific ocean. They have far more in common than most
people believe. To understand these common character-
istics, one must be in sympathetic relations to each. The
newspapers on either side of the ocean seem to do their best
to give a distorted and unworthy picture of life both in
Australia and America. In our American papers how little
do we see of real importance concerning the Australian
colonies ? In the Australian, one may search the cable mes-
sages for weeks for information concerning America and
find little besides accounts of horrid murders, desperate
suicides, and brutal prize fights, with here and there a dis-
torted political item miscalled "news."

It has been gravely said to me by a young Australian,
with an air of knowing it all, that no decent man went into
politics in America. He had full means of knowing what
he was talking about, he said, and he was assured that no-
body but scoundrels and " scalliwags " ever ran for a politi-
cal office in the States. As I thought of our Christian gov-
ernors and congressmen, senators and representatives whom
I know are devout men and supporters of their churches, I
oould only smile at his ignorant conceit.

And yet this young man doubtless represents many
whose views of American life have been altogether gained
through the opaque and distorting medium of the submarine
cable. One of the American consuls in Australia told me
that he was convinced that news was willfully distorted by

98 ABSURDITIES OF MISINFORMATION.

cable managers in Great Britain for political effect, to lead
the colonists to think that America is inhabited chiefly by
cut-throats and assassins. This I cannot believe, however,
though the kind of news that is most often cabled gives
some color to the supposition.

This same consul told me that on one occasion he saw a
cable dispatch saying "that the Mexican Garcia and the
black rascal Ormond, with a band of followers, had invaded
Missouri, and had captured and sacked the town of In-
dependence." He could not believe that this was true, since
the town in question was more than one thousand miles
from the Mexican border and the bandits would have to go
through a thickly settled region to reach it. However, he
had no means of disproving the assertion, but a few days
after came the news that the telegraphic cipher had been
misinterpreted, and that it should have been interpreted to
mean that a certain horse owned by the Duke of Westmin-
ster and the black filly Ormond, had captured all the sweep-
stakes at a certain race in England. I do not suppose that
the cable dispatches are often quite so absurdly mistrans-
lated as in this case, but it would be strange if there were
not numberless mistakes.

I remember searching all through the London Times on
one occasion, for news from my own country, and the only
bit of information I could find was to the effect that a man
had been arrested on the streets of Boston for kissing his
wife in public. This absurd canard, the invention of an idle
reporter, was accepted by " The Thunderer" as a solemn
truth, and constituted the sole allowance of American news
for that day.

Said a young man to me, " I understand that all Ameri-
can girls are given to chewing gum, and that they go around
spitting upon the streets promiscuously." He could hardly

HIS IDEAS OF AMERICAN GIRLS.

be convinced when I told him that no American young lady
I had ever seen was guilty of the latter heinous offense
against good manners. He had probably seen some joke in
an American paper about girls chewing gum, and I suppose
that, from the same veracious source of information, he
would make up his mind that the Chicago young ladies all
wear No. 14 boots ; and that every Boston girl is a spinster
in spectacles, with a Greek lexicon under one arm and a
Latin dictionary under the other. Very likely the views
which our papers give of Australian life, whenever they
take the pains to give any (which I fear is not very often),
are equally distorted and fragmentary ; and if this chapter,
in regard to the little things in Australian life and customs
and manners, shall serve to introduce to any of my Ameri-
can friends the country which I have come so highly to
honor and respect, I shall be exceedingly glad.

CHAPTER Y.

AUSTRALIA THROUGH AMERICAN EYES.

An Early Definition — A " Personally Conducted " Trip — A Peaceful Land

— One of its Neighbors — Australia's Only Battle — The Eureka Stock-
ade — Unwarlike Weapons — Hot, Hotter, Hottest — Summer the Pre-
vailing Season — Ragged and Tattered Trees — A Eucalyptus Country

— Many "Botany Bays" — Imported Pests — A Pi ^nacious Little
Briton — One of Australia's Expensive Problems — The Gentle, Peace-
loving Bear — The Kangaroo and the Emu — The Kangaroo's Small
Brother — The Laughing Jackass — A Land of Cities — Tales of Politi-
cal Corruption — An Exploded Boom — Melbourne the Magnificent —
Sydney the Picturesque — Adelaide the Lovely — Ballarat the Golden

— Down in a Gold Mine — Getting Ready to Descend — In Motley
Array — The Cage — Brave Women — United We Drop — Suppose! —
Everything but Gold — A Brave Miner — Risking Life for a Friend —
That Man was a Christian.

STOEY is current here in Aus-
tralia that an American geogra-
phy was once published which
contained this extraordinary piece
of information concerning this
vast continent. "Australia is a
place to which England sent her
convicts, some of whom have been
converted and have become her
leading citizens." It was in this
same geography, doubtless, that
England was described as a
" small island off the coast of France."

Absurd as such a description seems after one -has visited
these colonies with their thriving cities and bustling, cosmo-
politan, modern life, which, for energy and vigor, is not

(100)

A COUNTRY LITTLE KNOWN TO US. 101

surpassed anywhere in the world, it is typical of a vast deal
of misinformation that prevails on both sides of the Pacific
ocean concerning the great countries on the opposite shores.
Far too little of Australia is known in America, far too
little of America is known in Australia. These two peoples
of a common stock, a common language, and a common
destiny, should know each other as they have not as yet
begun to know each other ; and if these notes of a traveler
in Australia shall do anything toward introducing these two
branches of the English-speaking race to each other, the
author will feel (as authors are accustomed to say in pre-
faces) that " his work has not been altogether in vain."

The area of Australia is almost exactly the same as of
the United States, exclusive of Alaska, and about three-
quarters as large as Europe. But do not be alarmed, dear
reader, for I am not going into weary particulars, historical,
geographical, biographical, or ethnological. I am onlv
going to tell you of those things which impress a traveler in
a journey through this new land ; in fact, to take you with
me on a personally conducted trip. You remember how this
great island looks upon the map. It is roughly heart-
shaped, but across the breadth of this heart is a journey of
2,300 miles, while from the top to the bottom in its very
narrowest length it is over 1,000 miles.

It is not a country of vast and stupendous mountains, or
mighty rivers, or belching volcanoes. It is eminently a
peaceful, quiet, pastoral country. It has, to be sure, some
line mountains, and one or two large rivers, and some mag-
nificent scenery, but there is more scenery w r hich a tourist
w T ould seek in a single canton in Switzerland than in this
whole continent of the southern seas.

However, if Australia is not a Switzerland, it has a
Switzerland at its doors, for one of the Australasian colonies,

102 A WIDE DOORWAY.

New Zealand, can boast of as magnificent mountains and
glaciers, lakes and waterfalls as Switzerland, and precipices
and fiords like those of Norway . I have said that this Aus-
tralasian Switzerland was at the doors of Australia, and yet
it is a good wide doorway ; for 1,200 miles of stormy ocean
rolls between these islands. However, this is a country of
magnificent distances and as New Zealand is the largest
neighbor of Australia we may be pardoned for thinking
of her as a near neighbor.

As is becoming a peaceful, pastoral country, the history
of this land since civilized man first came here to abide is
far from warlike. In fact there is no nation on the face of
the earth whose history has been so little stained with blood
as this land. I visited the only battle-ground on Australian
shores, the Eureka Stockade, so called, near Ballarat. This
battle-ground is not a Waterloo or a Gettysburg, by any
means. It is simply the scene of a brisk skirmish between
some riotous miners and the authorities, which resulted in
few fatalities on either side. Nevertheless an heroic monu-
ment marks the spot, and some unwarlike cannon, which
probably could not be fired, show their muzzles from the
historic hillock. Except for this brief skirmish the history
of the country has been absolutely bloodless. The Austra-
lians have no one to fight and no one to fear. No nation
would think of sending an armed force to these shores, and
even if sent it would be routed in even quicker time than the
Hessians who were sent to conquer the American colonies a
century ago.

What is the climate of this country, do you ask, my curi-
ous reader ? Well, you might as well ask, " What is the
climate of the United States." You will have to come down
to particulars, and we shall ask you whether you desire to
know about the temperature of Texas or of North Dakota, of

TALL AND TATTERED TREES. 103

Florida or of Maine. Here, too, there are all climates and
all temperatures. South Australia is hot, New South Wales
is hotter, Queensland is hottest. Victoria has a more tem-
perate climate and so has Tasmania, while some parts of the
mountainous region of New Zealand are Arctic in their
temperature.

But take Australia throughout, we may say that it is a
sunnier clime and far more summer-like than the same area
of habitable North America. Summer is here the prevail-
ing season, and when it is not summer time it is either late
in the spring or early in the fall.

The vegetation of Australia seems to a stranger to be
rather meagre and monotonous ; not that anything will not
grow which is planted and well watered, but indigenous
trees are largely of the eucalyptus class, and though some
of these are the tallest trees in the world, and magnificent
specimens of treehood, yet, for the most part, they are
scrawny and scraggy, and as they shed their bark, they
have a peculiarly ragged and unkempt look, like street
gamins whose clothes are hanging in tatters from their
limbs. The botanists tell us that there are 150 different
kinds of eucalyptus trees, most of which belong to Australia
alone.

But, after all, these are splendid trees for the country,
and are, like most other inventions of Mother Nature, exactly
adapted for the work which they have to do. They have
very long tap roots, which suck up the moisture from a
great depth, and their tough, leathery leaves fit them pecu-
liarly for the dry climate. But though the eucalyptus is
more largely represented in the native forest than any other
tree, yet it is not fair to say that the vegetation as a whole
is of a dull, lifeless, and uninteresting character.

Nowhere have I seen such gorgeous flowers ; no land can

104

BRILLIANT FLOWERING PLANTS.

boast more magnificent gardens. Nature, seeming desirous
of compensating the country for the usual lack of variety in
deciduous trees, has fully made up for this loss in the shrubs
and flowering plants with which she has so plentifully car-
peted the earth, especially during the spring months, when
sufficient moisture makes the blossoms possible. " Botany

ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN.

Bay" may be found in many places along the shores of
Australia. The "Wasatah is a most brilliant, showy, red
flower which grows on a tall spike, while another famous
native of New South Wales is the modest flannel flower, a
beautiful relative of the edelweiss of Switzerland, which it
much resembles.

Many of these brilliant flowering plants are indigenous
and others have been imported, such as the gorgeous golden
gorze, and the equally golden cape-weed, which, however
beautiful it looks when the sun shines upon it of a bright

CAPE-WEED, SPARROWS, AND RABBITS. 105

spring morning, is a pest as utterly detested by the farmers
as the white weed in our northern meadows. By the way,
when will people learn to experiment less recklessly with
the products of other zones % When will we learn the les-
son, that for the most part, the trees and plants and birds
and insects which God has settled in the land, are best
adapted to that country, and that we are running great
risks when we try to naturalize other citizens that are for-
eign to these climes 1

Not only has the cape-weed become an unutterable nui-
sance, but the English sparrow is almost as great a pest in
Australia as in our own country. Why could we not have
been content to have left the chattering, mischievous, pug-
nacious little bird at home, instead of spreading his ravages
through two great continents. The gipsy moth seems to be
a very harmless insect when you look at him with the dis-
passionate eye of a naturalist, and yet what havoc he has
made, and how many thousands of dollars has his unfortu-
nate advent cost the goodly State of Massachusetts !

Could anything be more harmless in appearance than
the timid rabbit, and yet the introduction of a few pair of
these " feeble folk," has cost these colonies millions of pounds,
and the end is not yet. How to exterminate the pests the
colonists know not. They multiply faster than the hunter's
gun and the hunter's dog can extirpate them. A vast re-
ward has been offered to anyone who shall invent a poison
potent enough to rid the country of them, but the reward
has never been earned as yet. The only way to secure
immunity from them is to build a " rabbit fence " around
any particular field, sunk a foot or two below the surface of
the ground under which the rabbits will not burrow. But
to do this on any large scale is manifestly impossible, and
the reward aforementioned still awaits the inventive Pas-

106 RIDICULOUS ANIMALS.

teur or Edison, who may discover the deadly rabbit extermi-
nator.

I have said that the geological and political history of
Australia have been alike of a peaceful character, marked
by no great upheavals of nature or of man. This gentle
characteristic extends to the animal life of Australia as well,
for there are no native animals of a fierce and savage nature,
no lions or panthers, no wild cats or grizzly bears. The
kangaroo is the typical animal, and the emu is the typical
bird, and they are found one on either side of the New
South Wales coat of arms, while both are dignified by a
place on her postage stamps as well. There is, to be sure, a
native bear, called the koala, but it is a mild and peace-
loving animal that climbs sluggishly about at night on trees,
in search of fruits and seeds.

The kangaroo is the typical Australian animal, beyond
all others, and with his smaller cousin, the wallaby, has
afforded me no end of amusement as I have seen them in
the well-kept zoological gardens of the country. With their
puny little forelegs which seem so utterly inadequate to the
occasion, and which as often as they stand up on their hind
legs droop down in a helpless, lackadaisical way, they are
the very pictures of innocence and helplessness ; but I am
told that a blow from the hind leg of an " old man " kanga-
roo, or even a stroke of its powerful tail is not to be des-
pised, and when angry and fearful for their young, they
Avill fight in desperate fashion. The most stupid animal
Avhose acquaintance it was ever my pleasure to make, is the
wombat, a kind of dull, listless woodchuck, with a most
uninteresting countenance, who burrows in the ground like
his American cousin, but is not nearly so vivacious and
enterprising. Among the birds is a very solemn-faced
creature called the laughing jackass, who looks as though he

A STUPID AND SARDONIC BIRD. 107

had not an idea in his head or a friend in the world, as he
sits perched all day immovable in his large cage in the
gardens. But I am told that when in his native haunts, he
is a different sort of a creature, and is gifted with a loud,
sardonic laugh, which is very startling as one passes his
haunts. For just as the traveler has got by his habitat, this
ironical, chuckling laugh bursts out as though some demon
was rejoicing over the traveler's progress to the City of
Destruction.

Much of the human life of Australia, aside from the
Aborigines, is found in the large cities. In fact, far too large
a. proportion, as I have already remarked, of our Australian
friends live in the cities, and too small a proportion for the
best and truest prosperity of the country cultivate the soil.
This fact is acknowledged and mourned over by thoughtful
Australians everywhere. If Paris is France, much more is
Melbourne Victoria, and Sydney is New South Wales, and
Adelaide is South Australia. In fact, not far from 50 per
cent, of the people live in cities, and nearly that percentage
of the whole population is found in these great leading cities
or their immediate environs.

The usual tales are told in the papers about political cor-
ruption and incompetence of premier and councilors and
members of the Colonial Parliament. I have learned to put
very little confidence in these newspaporial wails about the
decadence of legislation and legislators. I have heard so
many of them in my own country that I am inclined to dis-
count those that I read in any other. Like the man who
was not frightened by ghosts because he had seen so many
of them, I am not greatly alarmed when I see the opposition
papers telling the country that it is going to rack and ruin
as fast as the other party can carry it.

However, there have doubtless been some sad revelations

108 AN INDOMITABLE PEOPLE.

of late in political life, and Victoria especially is suffering
terribly from an exploded " boom." Three years since, so
the Victorians tell me, it was supposed that the golden gates
of prosperity were wide open for all the colonies, and would
never be closed, and that all that any one had to do was to
enter in and help himself to as many millions as he was
smart enough to grab. Keal estate went up to a fabulous
price, wildcat schemes were entered into with a recklessness
worthy of South Sea Bubble years. Many men in each
large city were supposed to be veritable descendants of
Croesus and whatever they touched, it was thought, would
turn to shining gold. But the inevitable crash came which
always follows an extravagant boom, and for the last two
years Victoria and New South "Wales, especially the former,
have been suffering sadly from the collapse.

However, this depression must be merely temporary.
With the magnificent country to be developed behind the
large cities, with an indomitable people, and English pluck
and perseverance to work upon, there is no doubt concern-
ing the future history of these colonies. As it is, they
have made marvelous progress during the last forty years,
for it is only since gold was discovered in 1851 that the
great future of Australia has been assured. Within that
time Melbourne has grown from an insignificant village
to a vast and beautiful city. The word "magnificent" is
scarcely too large a word to be used in describing this me-
tropolis. Some of its streets are equal to the best that can
be found in Paris or London, New York or Philadelphia,
and, take it throughout, it has a cleaner, fresher, and more
wholesome appearance than either of these cities. Its public
buildings are massive and imposing, its stores are spacious, and
much of the architecture of its principal thoroughfare. Col-
lins street, can scarcely be matched elsewhere in the world.

A CITY OF HOMES.

109

Sydney is not so well laid out as Melbourne, for, like
Topsy, it "just growed" instead of being planned carefully
by architects and surveyors ; but it is a more picturesque
city by reason of its irregularity, and in most respects fully
as interesting as Melbourne.

Adelaide combines city and country in a charming way,

"Yfe^^ir^^-S^^S-^^&^S^^S

IN ONE OF MELBOURNE'S PARKS.

iiMW

and is surrounded on all sides by a wide park filled with
beautiful trees and brilliant shrubbery. Beyond this park-
enclosed area are the suburban cities and villas, and back of
all is a lovely range of green hills that encircles the city
most lovingly round about. Adelaide seemed to me pre-
eminently a city of homes, and the religious influences are
strong and abiding.

Another remarkable city that I visited is Ballarat, the
center of the gold-mining industries of Australia ; or at least

110 NOT A TYPICAL MINING TOWN.

one of the centers, for Bendigo, which I did not visit, m
equally famous in its way as a golden city.

All my preconceived notions of a mining town were
rudely destroyed by Ballarat, for, instead of belching chim-
neys and barren hillsides, bedraggled streets ana -iirty
houses, such as I have always associated in my imagination
with a mining town, I found here one of the handsomest of
modern cities with splendid streets, tree-lined and statue-
adorned ; fine public buildings and business blocks, and a
charming residential quarter where some of the most v ^ned
and hospitable people on the face of the earth have their
homes. But despite these delightful surroundings, one sees
at a glance that Ballarat is a city of mines. Huge heaps of
yellow earth, almost mountainous in their size, surround the
city in every direction, and these show where the mines
have been and in many cases still are Avorked. From some
of these fabulous sums of gold have been extracted, and the
supply seems practically inexhaustible, for, however far the
miners have gone, they have not found the end of the gold-
bearing quartz.

Let us go down together, dear reader, into this dark hole
in the ground, for we will never have a better opportunity
to see a gold mine. As we go into the office of the com-
pany to don our underground costumes, we see a great pile
of apparent golden ingots, — plaster representations of the
gold that has been taken out of this mine during the last
three or four years. These bars are piled up under a glass
case, and represent hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth
of yellow metal which has come out of this one hole in the
ground.

But we will not linger on the surface, for here are the
clothes that we are to put on, a motley array of all sorts
and sizes : battered hats, ragged coats, trousers that reach

IN PICTURESQUE RAGS.

Ill

only half way below the knee, and boots hopelessly run
down at the heels ; but no matter, for we are not going into
polite society for the next few hours.

So picturesque, however, is our rig, that we pause to have
our photographs taken before descending into the bowels of
Mother Earth. Then we find the entrance to the mine and
the cage waiting to carry us down. It is a pokerish looking

READY FOR TILE DESCENT INTO A GOLD MINE.

hole, indeed, and requires some little nerve on the part of
the ladies of our party. But I have always noticed that a
genuine woman, though she may run from a snake, and pos-
sible give a little scream at the sight of a mouse, always
braces up when her genuine courage is required. And first
of all, the ladies step upon the platform of the cage and
stow themselves away in the smallest possible compass, four
going down at a time. A cord is passed around them, tying
them all together, so that not only united they stand, but
united they drop down into the lower regions which yawn

112 DARKNESS THAT MAY BE FELT.

beneath them. The signal is given and down we go. It is
an awful plunge into the depths of the earth. Light and
hope we seem to leave above us, and a pitchy blackness that
may be felt is all that seems to be below us. However, we
have not time for any very long-continued dismal reflections,
for in less than three minutes we are at the bottom of the
shaft, and picking our way gingerly over sharp pieces of
quartz, and through pools of muddy water, following our
guide who goes before us with his flickering candle at
which we have all lighted our own torches.

If not heroic, there is something picturesque and weird
in the sight of a file of men and women stumbling along in
a narrow passage a thousand feet below the surface, lighted
only by a few gleams that serve to make the darkness visi-
ble. Even the stoutest hearted cannot help thinking:
" Suppose the fire damp should explode ! " " Suppose the
flood gate should give way and pour their whelming floods
of water into this hole while we are here ! " " Supposing
these wooden supports that wall us in should yield to the
tremendous pressure above them and collapse, who would
carry the tale of the imprisoned Yankees in a Ballarat gold
mine % "

However, none of these things occur or are very likely to
occur, for the utmost precaution is taken, and I imagine that
life is quite as safe in this underground hole as it is on
Broadway or "Washington street. After stumbling around
in the different passages for an hour or two, looking for
nuggets which never appear, and searching the walls dili-
gently for specks of gold Avhich we can never see, we return
again to the shaft that will take us up to air and sunlight,
convinced that about the only thing one cannot find in a
gold mine is gold.

Yet all this innocent-looking white quartz which seems

" HEAVY TO GET AND LIGHT TO HOLD." 113

to contain not even a scintillation of the yellow metal, is
charged! with it, and when it is crushed, flooded with water,
and strained through blankets, and treated with quicksilver
whose deft fingers pick out every little particle of the pre-
cious ore, it is found to be extremely rich in that commodity
for which so many men are willing to make slaves of them-
selves all their lives long.

The miners themselves, however, get no extravagant-
wages; though they work in gold and for gold, they can
only daily line their pockets with about $2.50 worth of the
metal for which they delve. So true is it in gold mines as
in every other industry, and every other effort moral, spirit-
ual, and material; "other men labor and we are entered
into their labors."

" That man must have been a Christian," said our guide,
as we were going up from the bottom of the mine to the
daylight again.

""What man?" we inquired.

" Why, the fellow that saved his chum's life in one of the
mines a little while ago."

" Tell us all about it," we said, and before we got up to
daylight we had time to hear the brief and graphic story.
Two miners were recently going up the shaft together in a
bucket, when one of them accidentally fell off. They were
hurrying up to get out of the way of four charges of rend-
rock which had been put into the drilled holes to blast away
a portion of the wall of the mine. The fuse had been
lighted, and these men, scrambling into the bucket, had
given the signal to be hoisted up, when, as I said, one of
them fell out. Quick as thought his brave companion gave
the signal to lower the bucket again.

It had gone some twenty or thirty feet only, and the
man who fell from it, though stunned and bruised, was not

114

A HERO OF THE MINE.

killed. His companion felt around in the awful darkness
for the charges of rendrock in order to pull them out and
prevent the explosion. He found three of them, but the
fourth he could not find in the darkness and confusion of the
moment. He had but a few seconds to work for the fuse
was burning toward the explosive with frightful rapidity.

Finding that he could not lay his hand upon the last
charge, he drew his senseless companion into a niche in the
rock, shielded him as far as possible from the flying frag-
ments, and waited the dreadful moment of the explosion.
Was ever a man placed in a position of more awful ex-
pectancy ? Did ever a braver soul court death for the sake
of saving a fellow-man ? The fearful explosion came. The
mine was filled with suffocating fumes, the rocks flew in
every direction, but, strange to say, neither of these men
were killed. They were bruised and cut, and much shaken
nervously, as can be imagined, but the brave deliverer was
able to crawl to the bucket again when the explosion was
over and to carry his wounded friend with him, and both
were hoisted into God's sunlight again.

With all our hearts we agree with our guide's remark:
" That man must have been a Christian ! "

CHAPTER VI.

THE CRUISE OF THE CHINGTU— AN INTERESTING VOYAGE
IN STRANGE COMPANY — IN THE GOLD FIELDS OF
AUSTRALIA.

Beginning Our Log-book — Mrs. Pilgrim's Resolve — The Chingtu — A
Unique and Unusual Journey — Our Steamer — Our Stewards —
"Loast Beef," " Olange Flittels" and "Lice Cakes " — Preparing for
Hot Weather — Our Fellow Passengers — Life in the Steerage — Mr.
Ah See and his Wives — Mrs. Ah See Number One — Photographing
the Family — The Ruler of the Roost — The Black Fellows — Ce-
lestials Returning Home — Taking Home Their Own Bones — The
Chinaman at Dinner — A Race of Squatters — The Fan-tan "Layout"
— Chinese Passion for Gambling — Within the Barrier Reef — "White
Man, He too Salt" — Glittering Gold Fields — How Gold was Discov-
ered in Australia — Nash and His "Find" — "Welcome Strangers" —
Gold on Brogans — The Romance of the Morgan Mine — A Visit from a
Native Bushman — " Backy, Backy, Backy" — White Ant Hills.

O start fairly with our log-book
we must tell you that the
Chingtu sails from Melbourne to
Hong Kong, but that we did not
join her until she had plowed her
way for a thousand miles along
the waters of the Australian
coast, and had reached Brisbane,
the capital of Queensland.

Mrs. Pilgrim had declared
that nothing would induce her to
go a mile by water that could be
traversed by land. So we had traveled by rail from Ade-
laide to Melbourne, from Melbourne to Sydney, from
Sydney to Brisbane, a long eighteen hundred miles in all ;
had attended most enthusiastic and long-to-be-remembered

(115)

216 NOT AN EVERY-DAY JOURNEY.

Christian Endeavor Conventions in all these cities; and on
the afternoon of October 22 were readv to embark on the
trim and staunch Chingtu ; " the magnificent steamer," as
the newspaper advertisements called her, of the China Navi-
gation Company.

I should hardly term her " magnificent " but she was an
exceedingly comfortable vessel, and for three weeks afforded
us a very restful and pleasant home after the labors of six
weeks of continuous convention-going.

Now before us is a voyage worth taking indeed. None
of your every-day trips across the Atlantic that you can
make in the fraction of a week ; none of vour common
jaunts across the long ferry between San Francisco and
Hong Kong; but a unique and unusual journey is this
within the Great Barrier Reef, and through the marvelous
Malay Archipelago, and the many seas and straits which
form the water-way between two of our five continents.

Here is a new sensation for the Uase traveler ; a journey
at which every scribbling voyager from the time of Colum-
bus has not had a hack. Here is a trip over unruffled
seas and on an even keel, such a trip as one frequently reads
about in flaming descriptions of rival steamboat lines, but
very rarely experiences after one has taken passage on one
of the aforesaid rival steamships.

Before we get out of Moreton bay, into which the Bris-
bane river debouches and which is the point of our embarka-
tion, let us take a look at the Chingtu, our floating home for
the next three weeks. It is a long, low-built, somewhat
rakish-looking steamer, with a huge black smoke-stack, a
large amount of awning to ward off the rays of the fierce
tropical sun, and large steerage accommodations for John
Chinaman, who always extensively patronizes this line, as he
goes back and forth to and from his native land.

ON BOAKD THE " CHINGTU. 127

Being built largely for freight, the first-class passenger
accommodations are somewhat limited, but they are quite
sufficient for the passenger traffic of this remote corner of
the world, and they make up in quality what they lack in
quantity. Everything is exquisitely neat, the table is abun-
dant and excellent, and the service of the Chinese stewards
leaves nothing to be desired. Quick, observant, quiet, cat-
like in their tread, these China boys are the perfection of
ship servants.

All our sailors, as well as cooks, waiters, and stewards
are Chinese or Malays, and even the librarian of the Chingtm
is " Number One Boy " as his fellow-stewards call him. At
the table the watchful " Boy " who is detailed to look after
our comfort stands at our elbow to replenish our tumbler, or
to fill our teacup, or to pass us the toast whenever our empty
cup or plate suggests any lack, and gently to insinuate the
bill of fare under our nose when w T e pause for a moment in
our gastronomic efforts.

Order for "loast beef" and "olange nittels" are continu-
ally sent back to the cook in the galley, and I know of
a small boy who finds it very hard to repress a snicker when
at the breakfast table the frequent order for "lice cakes"
is heard.

In every way we are reminded that the ship is built for
tropical weather. The double awning over the promenade
deck, through which even the awful sun-glare of Northern
Australia finds it hard to pierce ; the heavy Indian punkahs
over each table, which, during the meals, are swung by
invisible coolies ; the hard beds on which are no blankets or
spreads or even sheets, all tell us to make up our minds for
hot weather. And well we may, for the cruise of the
Chingtu is almost wholly within the tropics.

The only drawback (and in this imperfect world there

118 THE AH SEES.

must be some drawback even to such a summer voyage as
this) is the continuous heat. Not that it is remarkably in-
tense at any one moment, but it is so unremitting and ener-
vating that one longs for an ice palace and a toboggan slide
many times every day. Eighty-five degrees in the morning,
and eighty-seven degrees at noon, and eighty-five degrees
again at sunset, and eighty-four degrees at midnight, when
continued day after day, are calculated to reduce the pity
one has always felt for the Esquimau in his snow hut.

Now let us take a look at our fellow passengers of the
Chingtu. Not the Europeans with their continental dress
and their chimney-pot hats and their calf -skin boots : we
will not waste our time upon such common people (by the
way, your point of view makes all the difference in the
world as to who the common people are), but we will look
on the afterdeck and on the poop for the second and third-
class passengers, if we would forage in fresh fields and
human pastures new.

There on the poop deck we shall find Mr. Ah See with
his two wives and his four children ; the prosperous Chinese
merchant of Sydney, who has made his little pile in Aus-
tralia, and is going home to spend it in Canton, where he
will be a great and wealthy man among his almond-eyed
confreres.

Mr. Ah See is fat and good-natured, and seems very fond
of the four little Ah Sees, even though two of them are
girls. Like the model husband that he seems to be, he has
one of the children in his arms most of the time, even
though he has two wives to care for them.

But "Tommy" and "Fleddy," and "Maly" and

" Eliza " are all very nearly of an age, and are quite bright

and pert enough to do credit to their English names. Mrs.

Ah See Number One is a stout woman with a pleasaiis

"TAME BLACKS." 119

motherly face, slant eyes, and two huge shell rings in her
ears, while her hair is done up in a most fearful and wonder-
ful fashion, quite equal to the coiffure of an American belle
when chignons were in fashion a few years since.

She evidently " rules the roost " in the Ah See household,
while Mrs. Ah See Number Two is like an older daughter,
though more submissive and bidable than some elder daugh-
ters whom I know.

When I desire to take their pictures, Mrs. Number One
steps forward, takes little Eliza from Mrs. Number Two, who
is giving the baby her morning meal from the maternal
fount, and is ready to pose before the kodak in her appro-
priate place as the rightful head of the family and the
mother of all the children ; and, in a certain sense, of all
the other wives as well.

Here, also, are three " black fellows " among the third-
class passengers who are going to Port Darwin with a cattle-
drove, and from thence into the uninhabited wilds of South
Australia. Quiet, stolid, undemonstrative fellows are these
" tame blacks," who seem to care for nothing but to be
stretched on the hatchway all day long, and to sit up long
enough to eat an enormous plate of beef and potatoes and
cabbage three times a day. Their skins are jet black ; such
a depth of lustrous blackness as I have never seen except in
Australian aborigines ; their eyes are as black as their skins,
and glow like two stars in a setting of alabaster ; while their
woolly hair that stands up on end is as black as everything
else about them excepting the whites of their eyes.

Their faces are not vicious, however, and they make
faithful shepherds and herdsmen who will defend their mas-
ters against their ferocious brethren, who still infest the
northern portion of Australia.

Interesting as are our second and third-class fellow pas-

120 OUR FRIENDS IN THE STEERAGE.

sengers, our friends in the steerage are more interesting still,
for here we have John Chinaman, in all his heathen unlove-
liness, to be sure, but at the same time, in all his picturesque
barbarity. Here are some fifty or sixty Mongolians going
back to China once more. More than Mecca to the Moham-
medan, more than Paris to the Frenchman, more than
London to the cockney, is China to the Chinaman. His
cupidity will tempt him to go away, but nothing can per-
suade him to stay away from his beloved land, and every
returning ship is loaded with returning Celestials. If, by
any mischance, he dies away from home, his bones are
never allowed to rest in peace except in the soil of the Flow-
ery Kingdom.

So it happens that many of our passengers on the
Chingtu are old men, decrepit and feeble, toothless and
almost blind, who are evidently taking their bones home for
burial, thus getting a last glimpse of their native land and
saving the expense of an embalming surgeon at the same
time.

But others among our passengers are stalwart, lust}"
young Celestials, with neatly-braided pig-tails coiled under
their caps or thrust into a side-pocket of their white blouses.

It is an unending source of enjoyment to go into the
steerage at any hour of the da} r or night, a free play-house, '
where the actors are all entirely unconscious of histrionic
effort, and thus attain the perfection of good acting.

To go down the companion-way which separates the
cabin passengers from the steerage, is a swift descent from
Europe to China, and at meal-times the visit is always espe-
cially interesting. In their very impromptu meals, first a
big wicker basket of rice, the great staple of Chinadom
everywhere, is brought in from the galley and set down
anywhere on the steerage deck. Then a small dish of meat

RICE AND CHOPSTICKS. 121

soused in plenty of gravy follows, then another dish of
boiled greens and a bottle of Chinese wine is set on the deck,
and dinner is served. A dozen bare-legged Chinamen, clad
in shiny black waterproof blouses, squat around these four
dishes and prepare for business. Each has a china bowl and
two chopsticks in his hand. First he fills his bowl to the
brim with boiled rice, and then how he makes the chop-
sticks fly ! Putting the rim of the bowl close up to his Lips,
he shovels his mouth full of rice with his rapid little sticks.
When it can hold no more he pauses for a moment for
breath and for mastication, and then picks up most dexter-
ously a morsel of meat and a wad of greens which he crowds
into the interstices of the rice-filled cavern which he calls his
mouth.

After munching this mixture with evident satisfaction
for a minute or two, he again raises the rice bowl to his lips,
crams the cavern again with the utmost alacrity, adds a
little spice in the way of meat and greens, and enjoys an-
other rapturous period of mastication until that, too, is dis-
posed of. It is wonderful how long these fellows can squat
on their haunches. A position which would cramp our mar-
row bones in half a minute they will maintain throughout a
long meal, apparently with the utmost ease and composure.

Just beyond the dinner party is a circle of gamblers
around the fan-tan "lay out"; for John is an inveterate
gambler. He will work like a slave for years in some
foreign land, save and scrape and hoard and live on next to
nothing; and then gamble away all his little hoard on his
journey back to China. First, he will bet all his money,
then wager his clothes, and then his wife and children,
while, if his soul were at his own disposal, I have no doubt
he would wager that in his passion for gambling.

Squatting on their haunches in a corner of the steerage

122 WITHIN THE BARRIER REEF.

deck is another circle of Chinese gamblers, throwing dice
and playing cards, with a dexterity acquired only by long
experience. They are smoking cigarettes, or curious pipes
with minute bowls, which when not in use they tuck behind
their ears, until they desire another whiff.

But it must not be thought that all the passengers of the
Chingtu are gamblers. A traveler in foreign lands is only
in duty bound to describe the unusual and picturesque, and
he need not waste his space upon the manly but everyday
officers of the Chingtu, or the very pleasant, but quite un-
noteworthy Englishmen and Australians, Americans and
Germans and Frenchmen who make up her small first-class
passenger list.

!Now it is quite time that we turn our thoughts from the
little world of the Chingtu to the larger world around us.

We were just steering out of Moreton bay, were we not.
when we went below to look at our strange assortment
of passengers?

The water is smooth and glassy, and over just such an
unruffled sea the captain tells we are likely to sail for more
than two weeks, for, during the first week, we shall keep
well within the Great Barrier reefs which effectually prevent
the rude Atlantic waves from buffeting our progress ; and
during the second week, the many islands off the coast of
Northern Australia and the Malay Archipelago act as break-
waters for our course, so that, practically, with the exception
of the last three days, the whole cruise of the Chingtu is
within landlocked seas. This assurance is a great delight to
some of our company, for even the most indifferent sailor
cannot fail to enjoy such a trip as this.

Those sunbaked, blistered mountains on our left mark
the coast of Queensland, and what a tremendous colony it
is! More than five times the size of Great Britain and Ire-

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WHITE MAN, HE TOO SALT.

125

land, the geographies tell us, and we can well imagine that
they are not exaggerating the truth, as we sail on, day after
day, day after day, in
vain effort to get beyond
the northern point of
Oape York.

Far off yonder in
Northern Australia are
unexplored wilds and
savage black men, who
would not only take
pleasure, so our captain
tells us, in flaying us
alive, but in eating a
good tender Yankee after
he has been well flayed
and cooked. These blacks
prefer Chinamen, how-
ever, so he assures us, to
Yankees or to people of
European extraction of any kind, for they are much
"fresher" says our epicurean aboriginal. "White man, he
too salt," is the verdict of this fastidious savage. "Well, we
will rejoice in our saline characteristics, for if we should be
cast ashore on this inhospitable coast, salt, as is its nature,
may preserve us.

On the left or Australian side, as we steam northward,
headland succeeds headland; on the right, island succeeds
island, and so all day long and all the days long, we glide on
with never enough of. a pitch or a roll to disturb the most
sensitive stomach.

Early in its history the government of Queensland
offered rewards, varying from a thousand to five thousand

ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN.

126 CAPRICIOUS FORTUNE.

dollars for the discovery of payable gold fields. As can
easily be imagined, this offer, combined with the certain
wealth which a great gold mine would assure, set many men
to searching with all their eyes over the hot plains of
Queensland. But fortune is proverbially capricious with
the gold seeker, and it so happened that not one of these
scientific gold hunters, but a poor vagabond, named Nash,
who toward the end of 1867 was wandering about in an aim-
less sort of way in the neighborhood of Gympie, about 130
miles from Brisbane, found "an auriferous region of great
extent," as the Australian histories put it. In other words,
he had struck gold and struck it rich. In a day or two his
empty pockets were heavier by several thousand dollars
worth of gold than when he made his great "find." At first
he set to work to gather it all in for himself, but his gold
field was near a traveled road, and he was frequently
obliged to crouch among the bushes until the distant foot-
steps told him that the departing traveler was far on his
way. Then he would go to work with feverish haste to
scrape together a few more shining flakes of the precious
metal.

At length, however, he found that he could not keep his
precious gold field all to himself any longer, and, going to
the nearest town of Maryborough, he proclaimed his discov-
ery, and received his reward.

As can easily be imagined, a rush at once took place to
Gympie, and one of the early gold birds found a most re-
markable worm very near the surface of the ground, in the
shape of a nugget of pure gold that weighed nearly a hun-
dred pounds.

Even this nugget, however, is eclipsed by several that
have been found in the colony of Victoria, such as the
••"Welcome Stranger,' 1 found in 1869, which actually

WELCOME NUGGETS FOR WEARY MINERS. 127

weighed in the scales 190 pounds, and was worth about
forty thousand dollars. Besides the "•Welcome Stranger"
was the " Welcome " nugget, found in 1858, and only smaller
by six pounds than the great golden lump I have already
described, while still another, found in 1853, weighed almost
132 pounds.

" Welcome strangers," indeed, were all these nuggets to
the weary and often discouraged miners. But those discov-
eries were made in the golden age of Australian gold min-
ing. A friend of mine who lived in Ballarat during this
golden age, tells me that frequently, when a boy, he has
borrowed the muddy boots of the miners after their return
from a day's work in the alluvial gold fields, for the sake of
scraping the mud off their dirty brogans ; and that he has
frequently scraped five shillings worth of gold from a single
s>air of boots.

He was an honest, truthful man, moreover, who told me
this story, and he would not be guilty of presuming on the
gullibility of a credulous Yankee. So my readers may
accept his astounding story as absolute truth.

But to return to the Queensland gold fields. The
romance of the Morgan mine eclipses all the rest. In 1858,
a young squatter bought from the government a section of
640 acres near Rockhampton. When he came to "squat,"
however, he found that his selection was a barren, rocky hill,
and that it was quite useless for agricultural purposes. So
he thought himself very lucky when he found three brothers
named Morgan, who would take his unprofitable purchase
off his hands for about three thousand dollars. Hugging his
precious three thousand dollars, he left that part of the coun-
try forever, shaking its unproductive dust from his feet.

But the Morgan brothers found, that though they could
not raise cabbages among the dirty gray rocks of their new

128 A PARCHED AND HOWLING WILDERNESS.

purchase, they could get out of them something vastly more
valuable, for in every cart load of the rock there was more
than one hundred dollars' worth of gold ; in fact, they found
that they had on their hands the richest gold mine ever dis-
covered in the history of the world.

A year or two after this the hill was sold for forty mil-
lions of dollars, and already dividends to the amount of
nearly fifty millions of dollars have been paid by the Mor-
gan mine, and still there are " millions in it."

But to skip from shore to sea again. As the Chvrvgt/u
makes her slow and tortuous way along the coast, avoiding
sunken reefs, dodging islands, and threading intricate pas-
sages, we see very little of human life except that which our
polyglot and cosmopolitan passenger list contains. For hun-
dreds of miles there is no white settlement, only a parched
and howling wilderness, into which it is not safe for a white
man to penetrate unless with a strong guard. Here and
there a bush-fire shows us the location of a native encamp-
ment, and once we descried on the water horizon a black
speck which seemed to be moving nearer. Anything
unusual at sea attracts attention, and it was not long before
half a dozen opera glasses were trained upon the spot. The
speck soon resolved itself into a native canoe, and the canoe
was seen to contain four naked blacks. Their craft was
simply a hollowed-out log pointed at the ends, with a long
outrider which prevented it from rolling over as it certainly
would have done otherwise. As the blacks came nearer, we
saw that they were bearing down upon our ship and pad-
dling with all their might. When they got within ear shot
they all lifted up their voices and cried : " backy," " backy,"
" backy " (tobacco).

But the Chingtu majestically kept on her way. The pit-
iful cry, " backy," " backy," " backy," became fainter afcd

THE CONQUERING ANGLO-SAXON.

129

fainter, the log canoe faded into a speck again, and the speck
vanished altogether.

What a perfect type, I said to myself, of the vanishing
bushmen in the presence of the majestic white race. What

' BACKY

BACKY.

the feeble little dug-out is to the full-powered ocean steamer,
so is the remnant of this aboriginal nation to the all-conquer-
ing whites. As the Chingtu contemptuously leaves the
canoe in the distance without even slackening speed to listen
to the appeal of its occupants, so the contemptuous English-
speaking races in all parts of the world leave their colored
brethren behind or spurn them from their presence. As
" backy " was the one corrupted English word which these
black fellows seemed to know, so the vices of the dominant
race first become known and assimilated. As the canoe van-
ished into the hazy distance while the Chingtu held strongly
on her appointed cruise, so the black races are disappearing,

130 THROUGH ALBANY PASS.

while the Anglo-Saxons keep steadily on their way, conquer-
ing and to conquer.

But while we are musing about these black fellows, the
Chingtu has been plowing her serpentine way along the
much-indented coast of this huge colony.

"We have left the sand}' - reach where Capt. Cook more
than a hundred years ago beached his famous ship, the
Endeavor, which had been sadly disabled in trying to find
an entrance through the Barrier Reef ; we have steamed for
a whole week since leaving Brisbane, along these unending-
shores ; and now, just seven days from the start, the Chingk/
cleaves her way through Albany Pass, a narrow strait
between two verdure-clad islands, at the very tip end of
Northern Australia.

On either hand as we went through Albany Pass, we
saw hundreds of curious red mounds, which at first we took
for decaying tree stumps, so regular and symmetrical were
they. But on examining them more closely through our
glasses we found that they were white ant hills, and a most
singular appearance they gave the land, as though it had
been hastily cleared by settlers who had left the stumps
about four feet high to rot away at their leisure.

Soon after passing through Albany strait, the gaunt,
spectral yards of a four-masted, square-rigged ship appeared
on the horizon, fixed and motionless as they have been for
five years past, ever since the good ship Volga struck on the
coral reef and sunk in a few fathoms of water, leaving her
yards and masts above the waves, a sad monument to the
power of the unseen foe beneath.

Then a few more hours of sailing and we drop anchor in
the roadstead of Thursday Island at the northern extremity
of Cape York, and at this safe anchorage, the first part of
the cruise of the Chingtu has come to an end.

CHAPTER VII.
THE CRUISE OF THE CIIINGTU. — CONTINUED.

All the Days of the Week — A Convenient Nomenclature — A Diet of Sea
Worms — Trade in Bloodsuckers — Reminiscences of My Boyhood — A
Hideous Delicacy — The Pearl Fishery — Plums in the Pudding — The
Pearl Diver's Equipment — A Short but not a Merry Life — A Baking
Day and Steamy Night — The Aborigines — In the Celebes Sea — The
Connecticut of the South Sea — The Nutmeg at Home — The Possibili-
ties of a Ball of Twine — How the Bride Wore the Trousers — Euro-
pean Clothes and Civilization — A Snake Story — An Unwelcome
Guest — Dislodging his Serpentship — A Battle with a Python — The
Spicy Breezes — The Noble Work of the Missionary — How the Chief
Took the Census — At His Wit's End — A Shrewd Rajah — Some
Passengers — Some Members of the Feline Tribe — The Tale of Tor-
toise-shell Tommy.

[URSDAY ISLAND is the only
island in the little archipelago to
the north of Australia that con-
tains any considerable settlement
of Europeans, but the other days
of the week are not neglected by
any means, for there is Friday
Island and Saturday Island, Sun-
day Island and Monday Island,
Tuesday Island and Wednesday
Island ; and the Chingtu steams
by nearly all of them in going in
or out of Thursday Island harbor.

A convenient method of nomenclature this, which we
would commend to geographers who have lands to name, if
there remain any new lands to be discovered. Then, when

(131 )

132 NAMING COUNTRIES FROM THE CALENDAR.

the days of the week have been exhausted, they would find
an almost unfailing source of supply in the days of the
month, as, for instance, the " Fifth of November," and the
" Twenty -third of July," and " January Eighteenth,"

Then the hours of the daj r might be resorted to, and we
should read upon our maps " Four O'clock Island," and
" Midnight Bay," and " Six-thirty River." "What a pity
this picturesque system suggested by Thursday and her sis-
ter islands was not thought of before we had disfigured our
maps with so many Smithtowns and Brownsvilles and Jones-
ports, and Clark counties !

Soon the Chingtu is not only anchored, but made doubly
secure by being tied up to an old hulk which is anchored in
the roadstead for a sort of cargo-receiving ship ; and by the
kind thoughtfulness of friends in Sydney, who had "wired"
that we were coming, we are taken ashore by the agent of
the chief mercantile house of the place, and are shown
everything that the resources of Thursday Island have to
offer.

"What are the great staple exports of Thursday Island,
my readers? If I should give you twenty or a hundred
and twenty guesses, you would not solve the conundrum.
Not gold or silver, or tin or copper, or wool or mutton, or
wheat or corn, or machinery or cotton goods, or sugar or
spice, or rice or Yankee notions, but — do you give it up ?
Beclie de mer and mother-of -pearl ; or, in other words, sea
worms and oyster shells.

The Beclie de mer is a long, slimy, nasty (in the Ameri-
can, not the English, sense of the word) slug, which looks
for all the world like an exaggerated leech — the loathsome
bloodsucker that used to fasten itself on my legs when I was
a small boy and " went in swimming." as small boys love to
do. But the Chinese consider this hideous slug a great deli-

THE PEARL FISHERIES AND DIVERS. 133

cacy, and a very large commerce in it has sprung up, for
nowhere does it grow so fat and luscious as on the Aus-
tralian coast and the adjacent islands.

There are various kinds of Beche de nier, which experts
distinguish as white, red, black, etc. ; and it brings from
$150.00 to $750.00 a ton. Just now, I believe, the red
species of hideousness is most affected by Chinese gour-
mands. I saw tons of these slugs dried and baled, and
waiting for transportation to the Flowery Kingdom.
" Dried fish " is the euphonious but commonplace name by
which this article of export is known in Thursday Island.

But the pearl fishery is, after all, the largest industry,
important as is the Beche de m£r trade. Three hundred
small boats are engaged in the pearl fisheries, and very
profitable they often prove to their owners, for not only is
there a steady demand for the mother-of-pearl shell, but
single perfect pearls are sometimes found worth from $1,000
to $3,000 ; so that always there is the excitement of possible
sudden wealth connected with this pursuit.

But the mother-of-pearl is the staple of trade, the pearls
themselves being only the plums that are found in the pud-
ding at rare intervals. Of these shells there seems to be
an inexhaustible supply, and though the three hundred ves-
sels engaged in the trade bring almost countless tons to the
surface, there are still countless tons to be won from the
ocean's depths.

Our own vessel adds to her cargo more than seventy
tons of shells, which will eventually reach Birmingham and
Sheffield, to be made up into knife-handles and card-cases,
inlaid cabinets, and other articles of vertu.

The pearl diver's equipment is a most ungainly and curi-
ous affair, for the shells are found in water many fathoms
deep, and the heaviest of woolen clothes are used to protect

134 ACROSS THE GULF TO PORT DARWIN.

the diver from the pressure of the water, while the shoes
with leaden soles which he uses to sink him to the bottom
weigh fully ten pounds each, and the helmet which he dons
weighs as much as both his shoes put together.

But, even with the best of diving gear and the most v
proved appliances, the diver's life is short and risky. He
seldom is able to follow this pursuit more than five or six
years, and no divers reach old age.

Thursday Island is a place of great expectations rather
than of vast performances. Though at present there is
only a single row of straggling shops, with a few pleasant
bungalows behind them, and a pathetic little " School of
Arts," which contains two pictures, a few dilapidated curios,
and a small library, it expects to be a great metropolis one
of these days ; and, in fact, has an excellent location as
calling port for steamers going to various parts of the world.

Our cargo of mother-of-pearl is soon safely stowed away
in the hold, the Chingtu weighs anchor again, and we are
on our course once more, across the great Gulf of Carpen-
taria and the southern portion of the Arafura Sea, about
eight hundred miles, as the crow flies, to Port Darwin, the
northern capital of North Australia.

If Thursday Island has its greatness in the future, Port
Darwin has had its day in the past. Great dreams were in-
dulged in by its inhabitants in early days. A railroad was
to connect it with Adelaide across the whole length of the
continent of Australia, All European steamers would make
it their port, instead of going around the stormy southern
coast. Passengers and mails would be transhipped hence to
all parts of the world. Its early-discovered gold mine
would make everybody rich, and Palmerston, situated at the
head of the Port, would be one of the great commercial
capitals of the world.

A DISCOURAGED RAILROAD.

135

But this dream has not materialized. The railroad
across the continent has not been built nor is it likely to be
built. The only railroad of which Port Darwin boasts is a
discouraged sort of an affair, that runs a hundred miles into
the interior and then stops, not because it has reached an

A YOUNG CITIZEN OP PORT DARWIN.

important terminus, but because it has not energy to go any
further. It cost a frightful amount of money, on which the
South Australian people still have to pay interest, for it is
a government affair, as all Australian railroads are. The
two trains a day have dwindled down to two a week, and it
bids fair soon to rival the famous " tri-weekly " road, whose
president explained the title by saying that he sent a train
down the line one week and tried to get it back the next.

The gold mines could not be worked at a profit by
Europeans, and have all fallen into the hands of Chinamen,

136

BAKED AND BOILED.

and the five or six thousand Englishmen and Australians
who used to walk the fine, broad streets of Palmerston, and
live in its pleasant houses, have dwindled to a few hundreds,
who grumble at the government and shake their heads

A NORTH QUEENSLAND ABORIGINAL,.

dismally, saying that Port Darwin's golden opportunity has
gone by, never to return.

If it is always as hot in Port Darwin as on baking
day and the steamy night that the Chingtu lay at her
wharf, while we were her passengers, I do not wonder that
Europeans who object to being both baked and boiled m the
same twenty -four hours refuse to make it their home.

The climate, however, seems exactly to suit the Aborigi-
nal Australians who are found here in large numbers. Tall

SAILING OVER TROPIC SEAS. 137

men with long, thin legs, intensely black skins, and wiry
crinkly hair, tall women equally black and equally thin, and
absolutely naked little boys, perched on their mother's necks
or trotting by their mother's side, as happy as boys of a
cloudier clime, are seen everywhere.

A few hours of intensely hot daylight and a long, in-
sufferably hot night were quite enough of Port Darwin for
us, and glad we were to hear the Captain's order the next
morning to " cast off the bow line " and get under way.

For the next twenty-three hundred miles the cruise of
the Chvngtu is between tropic islands and across tropic seas ;
the Arafura and the Banda and the Celebes and the Sulu
and the China seas, one after the other following each other
in quick succession.

A most lovely sail it is, and one that would be taken far
oftener than it is by pleasure seekers if its joys were known.
Scarcely a day of rough weather need be apprehended until
the China sea is reached, and a most wonderful series of
archipelagos is passed, any one of which might well delay
a naturalist or ethnologist for years had he the time to
spare.

Our course at first lies among the Austro-Malayan group
whose forests contain many of the typical Eucalyptus trees,
and whose birds and insects are nearly allied to those of the
great Australian continent which once doubtless extended
much further north than it does at present.

After we get into the Celebes sea we have touched the
borders of the Indo-Malayan region where the islands are
less affected by the blasting hot winds that cross the seas
after sweeping over the Australian deserts, and where the
birds and beasts, the trees and flowers, are more allied to
those of India.

Some of these islands are of vast extent. If you should

138 DUTCH MONOPOLY OF NUTMEGS.

draw a map of Borneo, for instance, you would find that
it was not unlike in shape the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, but vastly larger, for you could set
England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales inside of Borneo, and
have a great rim of green trees and verdure hundreds of
miles wide surrounding that mighty little kingdom.

New Guinea is probably stili larger than Borneo, though
its irregular coasts and unexplored territory make it difficult
to tell to a certainty.

Many of these islands are under Dutch control, and very
good masters on the whole do Dutchmen make. It would
be difficult to know what the doughty little kingdom behind
the dikes would do were it not for these spice islands of the
South seas, where it coins gold out of nutmegs and cloves,
cinnamon and allspice.

The island of Banda is the greatest nutmeg region of the
world, barring Connecticut, and many years ago the Dutch
attempted to secure a monoply of this product by cutting
down the nutmeg trees on the other islands where they
grew naturally, in order that they might be confined to
Banda, where the monopoly could be protected.

Nutmeg trees are very symmetrical in shape, with bright
glossy leaves. They grow to a height of twenty or thirty
feet, bearing small yellow flowers. The fruit looks much
like a peach in size and color. When it is ripe it splits open
and shows a dark brown nut within. Still, we have not got
to the nutmeg itself. The fruit is like a nest of Chinese
boxes, for within the thin hard shell which is now disclosed
is the nutmeg of commerce.

Towards evening of the third day from Port Darwin we
passed between the great islands of Ceram on one side and
Bouro on the other. Nestling in the lee of Ceram is the
little island of Amboyna, which contains one of the oldest

THE MALAYAN AND THE PAPUAN. 139

European settlements in the South seas. Here the Dutch
governor is Lord of all he surveys, and is only disturbed
in his solitude by a few vessels that come on their spice-
laden errands once or twice a year.

The inhabitants of these islands may, in a general way,
be divided into two great types, the Malayan and the
Papuan. A rough classification gives the eastern islands to
the Papuan races; the western, which lie nearer to China
and India, to the Malayan races. The Malay has been
described as of "short stature, brown-skinned, straight-
haired, beardless, and smooth-bodied. The Papuan is taller,
is black-skinned, frizzly-haired, branded, and hairy-bodied.
The former is broad-faced, has a small nose, and flat eye-
brows ; the latter is long-faced, has a large and prominent
nose and flat eye-brows. The Malay is bashful, cold, un-
demonstrative, and quiet; the Papuan is bold, impetuous,
excitable, and noisy. The former is grave and seldom
laughs; the latter is joyous and laughter-loving — the one
conceals his emotions, the other displays them."

Perhaps this epigrammatic description by one who spent
many years among these islands will serve to introduce our
neighbors on either side of the Chingtu to my readers,
better than any words of mine.

There is little need to describe the clothes of either of
these neighbors, for they seldom consult Paris modes or New
York tailors. A friend of mine who once lived in New
Guinea was consulted by a tailor of London as to whether
there would not be a good opening for a man of his craft in
that great island. My friend replied that a ball of twine
would afford ample clothing for half a century for all the
natives on the island, and he could scarcely encourage the
knight of the goose and the shears to remove from the
capitol of cockneydom.

140 EXTRAORDINARY HEADGEAR.

The story is told of a bridegroom "who was presented ori
his wedding-day with a pair of European trousers. In the
exuberance of his early love, he presented them to his bride,
who appeared at the wedding ceremony, heated and per-
spiring, with the trousers drawn on as far as possible over
her head, while the legs hung down like two huge, hollow
tails, on either side.

For my part I do not see the necessary connection of
European clothes and European civilization. The nations
can be civilized and christianized just as quickly, I believe,
while allowed to wear their native costume, a loose piece
of cloth tucked about the waist, as when arrayed in " boiled
shirts " and swallow-tailed coats.

The only grotesque and ridiculous natives I have seen,
are those who ape European costumes and try to combine in
a most laughable way New York and South Sea Island
fashions.

The islands between which we are continually passing,
and whose sides we almost graze at times, abound in bright
plumaged birds, parrots and paroquets, lyre birds and birds
of paradise of every imaginable lovely hue.

Beasts of prey are not very common, though tigers and
orang-outangs are found in some of the large islands, and
huge crocodiles abound in many of them. Snakes, however,
are numerous and venomous, and a sharp lookout must be
kept by the traveler, lest that innocent-looking fallen limb,
on which he is about to put his foot, proves to be a huge
python or boa constrictor.

A famous naturalist tells a gruesome story about a great
snake which he found in the thatched roof directly over his
head one morning as he awoke. He had heard a rustling
noise the night before but paid little attention to it. The
next morning, however, the cause of the noise was revealed,

A SNAKE STORY. 141

for, " looking more carefully," he says, " I could see yellow
and black marks and thought it must be a tortoise shell put
up there out of the way between the ridge-pole and the roof.
Continuing to gaze, it suddenly resolved itself into a large
snake, compactly coiled up in a knot ; and I could detect his
head and his bright eyes in the very center of the folds.

" A python had climbed up one of the posts of the house ;
had made his way under the thatch within a yard of my
head, and taken up a comfortable position in the roof, and I
had slept soundly all night, directly under him.

"I called to my two native "boys' who were skinning
birds below, and said, "Here's a big snake in the roof; but
as soon as I had shown it to them thev rushed out of the
house and begged me to come out at once.

"Finding they were too much alarmed to do anything,
we called some of the laborers in the plantation, and soon
had half-a-dozen men in consultation. One of these said he
would get him out, and went to work in a business-like way.

" He made a strong noose of rattan, and with a long pole
poked at the snake, which then began slowly to uncoil itself.
He then managed to get the noose over its head, and slip-
ping it well over its body began to drag the animal down.

" There w T as a great scuffle as the snake coiled round the
chains and posts to resist his enemy, but at length the man
caught hold of his tail, rushed out of the house so quickly
that the creature seemed quite confounded, and tried to
strike its head against a tree. He missed it, however, and
let go, and the snake got under a dead trunk near by. It
was again poked out, and again the man caught hold of its
tail, and running away quickly dashed its head with a swing
against a tree, and it was then easily killed with a hatchet.

"It was about twelve feet long and very thick, quite
capable of swallowing a do«j or child."

142 "where every prospect pleases."

But this python was only a baby compared with another
which this same veracious naturalist saw a little later, which
was not less than twenty feet long, and fully able to tackle
an ox or a horse if it got the chance.

It would scarcely be proper to sail through this serpent-
infested region without telling at least one snake story, but
the above, vouched for by the highest authority, will per-
haps suffice.

After a twenty-four hours' run across a comparatively
open piece of water we passed between the Spanish convict
island of Mandanao on one side, and Basilan on the other.
On the other side of this passage we found the open waters
of the Sulu sea awaiting us, and then, coasting up the long
shore of the Philippine islands, we have come at length out
into the rough waters of the China sea, and are striking
across this much-dreaded passage to the port of Hong Kong.

All these islands which we pass are famous for their
spicy tropical products.

'"The spicy breezes" blow soft not only over Ceylon's
isle, but across Ceram and Bouro, Banda and Amboyna,
Mandanao and Basilan.

Every prospect pleases and even man is by no means as
vile as he was a hundred years ago, for the missionary is
abroad in most of these islands, the natives have responded
most readily to his kindly touch, and, in many cases, Avhole
islands are Christianized and are occupied by respectable.
God-fearing, church-going races. Even the degradation
which usually follows in the wake of commerce has not been
entirely able to drag down these simple natives to the level
of their white conquerors, and the most godless trader who
knows what he is talking about can sometimes be found who
will acknowledge that the missionarv has transformed manv
a barbarous tribe of cannibals into an intelligent people,

WHAT CHRISTIANITY HAS DONE. 143

living in orderly villages ; in pleasant, whitewashed houses,
with flowering vines growing over the cool verandas.
Moreover, in some places good roads and careful cultivation
of the soil are found, all due to races that have emerged
from the lowest barbarism within the memory of living
men.

I would like to take some of the shallow worldlings
whom I have seen elevate their tip-tilted noses at missions,
and whom I have heard sneer at every effort to make the
heathen better, I would like to take them, I say, to some
of the beautiful, orderly villages of Celebes, and stop their
profane lips with a sight of what Christianity actually has
done and is doing for these savages. I am doubtful if even
this vision would do much good. Such men and women are
too densely wrapped up in their impenetrable conceit to be
disturbed by facts or figures, or convinced even by that
which their own eyes might observe. They would not be-
lieve " though one rose from the dead."

Most of these islands, though nominally under the pro-
tection and control of different European powers, to which
they are obliged to pay some small tribute, are still practi-
cally under the power of these native chiefs and princes, some
of whose dynasties run back for many generations.

A good story is told by the naturalist Wallace of the
way in which one of these native chiefs took the census of
his unsuspecting subjects.

It seems that this chief or Rajah relied for his revenues
upon the rice tax which each one of his people in all the
villages of his domain was supposed to pay into his treasury
every year. But he soon became convinced that his under
officers were not treating him fairly, and that a good deal of
the rice which ought to have found its way into the treasury
of the Rajah was stopped on the way, either by the Kapala

144 COMMUNING WITH THE SPIRIT OF THE VOLCANO.

Kampong, the head man of the village, or by the Waidono
who is over the district, or by the Gustis or head chief, who
received the rice from the Waidono.

But the Rajah could not prove the peculations, because
he did not know how many people there were in his dorr '. ,
and he could not tell how many people there were unless he
took a census, and he could not take a census without putting
all the under officers on their guard, for they would be sure to
make the number of people in their districts correspond with
the amount of rice which they turned over to His Majesty.
So his problem was to take a census without having the
people who were enumerated know anything about it.

The poor Rajah was at his wit's end. He smoked and
chewed betel nut all day long, and still was no nearer to
the desired solution. At length, however, a bright idea
struck him. He would go up into the great mountain of
Lombock that belched out fire and vapor, and consult the
deity of the mountain, for it was in the old days of heathen
superstition and heathen worship. The awe-struck people
followed him part way up the volcano, and then they dared
to go no further. But the Rajah pressed on up into the
region of perpetual smoke, and here he stayed for a long
while, communing with the Great Spirit of the mountain.

When his people who were waiting about the base of the
mountain began to be thoroughly uneasy about their chief,
he appeared again among them, and told them in solemn
tones that the Great Spirit had revealed to him that a time
of terrible pestilence was coming, and that the only way to
avert the pestilence was to make twelve sacred krisses or
daggers, to be sent, in case of need, to the plague-stricken
villages. Moreover, these krisses must be of a peculiar kind*
made of a great number of needles, each needle represent-
ing one man or woman or child in his domain.

THE TELLTALE NEEDLES. 145

There must be no mistake, either, in the number oi
needles, for, if there was, the krisses would not avail, and
the plague could not be averted.

So the Gusti and the "Waidonos and the Kapala Kam-
pongs went to work very busily to collect in their different
villages a needle from every man, woman, and child in all
of Lombock, and they were very careful not to make any
mistake, for fear the kris would not work properly. At
length the needles were all collected, and were welded into
bright, shining daggers before the Rajah's own eyes, and
then carefully wrapped in silk and laid away for use against
the time of pestilence.

The pestilence did not come, however, but the time of
the rice harvest did come ; and when only a small quantity
of rice was presented by any Gustis, the Rajah mildly re-
marked that " there were five thousand needles sent from,
your province, and it ought to yield far more rice than
this." Then the Gustis said the same thing to his Waidonos,
and the Waidonos repeated the remark to the Kapala Kam-
pongs ; and the result was that the following year the Rajah
had four times as much rice as ever before, and he was able
to give all his wives beautiful earrings, and to buy many
more black horses from the white-skinned Dutchmen than
ever in the past — all by reason of the remarkable interview
he had with the Great Spirit in the mountain that sent out
lire and smoke.

I have spoken already of the human passengers of the
Chingtu — the Chinamen, and Malays, Jews, Christians, and
Bushmen. Besides these, we have some dumb passengers
who are quite as interesting in their way. Among them a
flock of merino sheep that were unceremoniously tied to-
gether by their four legs and bundled overboard into a
lighter at Thursdav Island ; a dog whose master, the cattle-

146 OUR DUMB PASSENGERS.

drover, was taking into the bush to herd sheep and fight
the Blacks.

But, poor fellow, he scarcely held up his head after com-
ing aboard. A kick or bruise of some kind just before em-
barkation had injured him internally. lie bore his pain,
which was evidently intense, without a whimper or a groan
for seven days, and on the eighth day turned his patient,
affectionate eyes upon his master with a look of trustful love
for the last time — and died.

" I can't bear to go aft any more where my poor dog
lay," said the cattle-drover, and I didn't wonder.

Besides the dog and sheep, we had, at the beginning, sev-
eral specimens of the feline tribe. Two or three forlorn
little kittens haunted the steerage belonging to the China-
men. For two or three days they prowled disconsolately
about, evidently aware of the fate that awaited them, and
then they mysteriously disappeared, leaving no trace behind.
The gastronomic Chinaman could, perhaps, have explained
their disappearance, for all is soup that comes to his pot.

But besides these wretched, woe-begone little kittens, we
had on board a magnificent, stately, tortoise-shell cat, as
handsome a pussy as ever trod a ship's quarter deck. He
would watch the second-class passengers at their meals in a
very dignified way, and would even accept a gratuity from
their hands in the shape of a savory titbit, once in a while.
He would jump through our extended arms, and do every
trick that a well-educated pussy is supposed to know. One
evening the northeast monsoon was blowing a stiff gale, and
had spattered up the salt spray until every rail was wet and
slippery. Tommy was unusually frisky. He jumped from
spar to hatchway, ran up the rigging, and worked off his
high spirits in every way known to a cat. But, alas ! he
jumped once too often, for leaping from the hatch to the

A TRAGEDY ON ELECTION DAY. 147

guard rail, he lost his balance, clawed for a moment help-
lessly at the wet, slippery wood, and fell off into the engulf-
ing sea.

It is hoped that some passing shark cut short his misery,
and that he was not obliged to struggle for hours with the
waves, drowning by inches.

That day was Election day in the United States. The
mighty quadrennial struggle between the two great parties
was being decided as the hours went by. To the English-
men, Australians, and Chinese, who made up our passenger
list, this struggle was absolutely uninteresting. Though it
affects the lives of nearly seventy millions of people, it did
not create as much excitement as the death of a tortoise-shell
cat. Such is the relative importance of an event. So de-
pendent is it on geography and ethnography.

Our captain had a vague idea that one or the other of
the leading candidates had before been nominated for elec-
tion. When I explained that one of the candidates was then
president, and the other had held that office, he was quite
amazed, but remarked : " Oh, well, hit wont make much
hodds, I suppose, they're both proper rascals."

I resented the imputation against these excellent and
honorable men with the utmost warmth, and yet it is of
little use to wax hot, for the ingrained and unremovable
British opinion of American politics is, that all our politicians
are rogues and knaves. I scarcely wonder at this, for the
British press does its utmost to foster this impression, and
our own sensational journals, with their scurrilous attacks
on public men, only strengthens the same impression.

Three days more with this gentle monsoon blowing
across the wide China Sea will bring us to Hong Kong, and
then the cruise of the Chingtu will be ended.

CHAPTER VIII.

FIRST GLIMPSES OF THE CELESTIAL EMPIRE.

Cosmopolitan Hong Kong — The Cabmen of the Orient — A Ride in a
Sedan Chair — Uplifted in Spirit — Sidewalk Shops — Pennsylvania Oil
in China — Fairyland under the Lanterns — Incense Offerings to the
Gods — Novel Sights and Scenes — Oriental Sharpers — Unblushing
Swindlers — Toboggan Sliding — All Aboard for Canton — Justice
Swift and Severe — Executions in China — Heads Chopped off with
Neatness and Despatch — The River God at the Prow — The Fatslian —
River Robbers and Pirates — A Floating Arsenal — The Rice Harvest —
Threshing Out the Rice — "Chinaman Makee Glow" — Three Crops in
a Season — Water Buffaloes — Christianity and Butter — Up the Pearl
River — Junks and Flower Boats, Sampans and Slipper Boats — The
High Road of Canton — A Novel Pontoon Bridge — A Family Picture
— Cantonese Jade — Off in a Sampan.

^UST as the sun was setting after
a gray and turbulent day, the
Chingtu reached the outer har-
bor of Hong Kong. The waning
light held out barely long enough
to discover our anchorage ground.
What a sight was the first glimpse
of life in Asia! On the Hong
Kong shore were thousands of
twinkling lights, reaching far up
the hillside. The magnificent
warehouses and residences of the
foreign merchants give it the appearance of a modern city, as
indeed it is, but, together with this modern and cosmopolitan
air is mingled the antiquity of the far East. On every side

were Chinese junks, whose stvle is the same as in the days of

(148)

ASIATIC SIGHTS AND SOUNDS. 149

the Mayflower, of the Pinta, and the Nina ; the same
in fact as when the Roman galleys vexed the waters of
the Mediterranean.

Little boats, too, sampans and still smaller row-boats,
swarmed about the Chingtu. As it was now growing
dark they were all illumined with Chinese lanterns of every
variety of style and shape, and yells and cries, and invita-
tions from the occupants to take their boat to the shore,
reminded us of the vociferous cabbies at the Grand Central
Station in New York. But there was little else to remind
us of New York. We had indeed reached the Orient.

Taking a steam-launch sent out by the Hong Kong
Hotel we were soon on shore. Then all the sights and
sounds, to say nothing of the smells, reminded us that we
were on Asiatic soil. A crowd of jinrikisha and sedan chair
men besieged us on every side. A throng of half-naked
coolies jabbered and crowded and fought with each other
and insisted on being our porters. But, though it required
some rough usage on the part of the hotel porters, we at last
escaped their clutches and reached the hotel, which is but
a few steps from the landing. A European hotel, however,
was altogether too commonplace an affair to engage our
attention for any length of time, and after we had taken
a hasty dinner we were soon upon the street again.

Will you not go out with us while we view these unac-
customed sights ?

Now again as we step out of the hotel door, there is a
great hubbub and hullaballoo, for scores of chair-men and
jinrikisha-men rush upon us as their right and lawful prey.
Let us take a chair this evening since it is more in accord-
ance with the genius of the country. The jinrikisha is a
Japanese institution and a very recent importation into
China, and we will patronize home industries.

150 THE BURDEN BEARERS.

So, with many polite gestures and genuflections on the
part of our bearers, Ave crawl into one of the little boxes-*
take our seats, and are immediately hoisted upon the
shoulders of three stalwart coolies, two in front and one be-
hind. The skin on their accustomed necks is hardened and
calloused by many such loads which they have borne, and at
first a feeling of great compassion and pity for them arises
in our hearts, as though we were treating human beings as
we would treat a horse or an ox. "We almost feel as though
we ought to step down from our exalted position and apolo-
gize to the bearers for loading them down as we would
" dumb, driven cattle." But, after all, the sensible traveler
reasons with himself, this is an honorable and reputable way
of earning a living. No opprobrium or disgrace attaches to
the palanquin-man. He would bear the people of his own
race and station in society as quickly as he would bear the
Emperor, and would have no sense of degradation. It
affords a great multitude, who perhaps would otherwise
starve, an excellent living. So we will dismiss our scruples
and enjoy the novel sights around us.

Then, perhaps, so sharp are the revulsions of feeling in
weak human nature, one begins to have a wealthy and
lordly feeling, as though he were being borne through the
streets on the shoulders of an admiring crowd because of
some great achievement. However, the throngs are not
very demonstrative in their admiration, for they take no
more notice of you than a New York crowd would take of a
Broadway street-car. In fact, we who are perched up in
these chairs are far more interested in the crowds beneath
than they are in us, for foreigners are no novelty in Hong
Kong.

Let us go down to the Chinese quarter and get out of
this humdrum European life as soon as possible. It does

OUT-OF-DOOR AVOCATIONS.

151

not take us long to do this, for there are only eight thou-
sand foreigners in the chVy and some two hundred thousand
natives. Everything is of interest to our unaccustomed eyes.
But we must record our impressions quickly before custom
dulls the edge of amazement, or it will seem as though we

A CHINESE FORGE.

had always lived in the midst of these sights, and shall not
be able to describe them with any vividness to our friends at
home.

The first thing that strikes us as strange is, that every-
thing is done out-of-doors. The shoemaker cobbles his-
shoes ; the fish merchant peddles his fish ; the cabinet-maker
fits together his chest of drawers ; the tailor shoves his
needle; the carpenter draws his plane (toward himself in
genuine Chinese style), but all upon the sidewalk as it
seems. There are, to be sure, small recesses which are-

152 LANTERNS AND INCENSE.

called stores and shops, but they are very diminutive and
.scarcely seem necessary to the carrying on of business.

Over every shop door hangs a paper lantern, some of
them huge affairs as big as small balloons, others more mod-
est in size, while here and there one sees a vulgar kerosene
lamp. It is said that the oil wells of Pennsylvania are driv-
ing the old-fashioned lanterns out of the market. All who
desire picturesqueness of effect will certainly regret this, for
there is nothing which gives the streets such a charming,
fairy-like effect as the Chinese lanterns, painted in every hue
•of the rainbow, and twisted into every conceivable shape.

Not only has every shop its lantern, but every shop has
its shrine as well, and the smell of burning incense pervades
the air wherever we go. This is rather fortunate, perhaps,
for it obscures certain other odors which are not so pleasant.

If you look closely, even in the darkness of this first even-
ing's ride, you will see a stick of incense burning beside
every doorway, the little spot of fire at the end glowing like
a tiny jewel in the night. These are all offered to the gods
of prosperity and good luck in the hope that the business
ventures carried on within will turn out successfully.

But after all, novel as are the sights about Hong Kong,
it is one of the least interesting cities, in many respects, in
all China. It is too much Europeanized to afford a true idea
of the way in which the natives live and conduct their busi-
ness. It has all the vices of a city in the far East, and not
all its virtues by any means. Everything is frightfully dear
at the European stores, and in this free-trade possession of
Great Britain, the shop-keepers will unblushingly charge you
four or five times as much as an article is worth anywhere
else. The hotel-keepers will fleece you out of your last
•dollar if they can. Photographers will charge you as much
for a single picture as would buy a dozen better ones in

ASCENT OF VICTORIA PEAK. 153

Japan ; and your morning paper, which will cost you ten
cents, will not contain a farthing's worth of news. Nothing
more barren and meager and utterly uninteresting than the
Hong Kong newspaper has it been my lot to find in any
part of the civilized or uncivilized world. Society is decid-
edly " fast," as in all such foreign settlements, and were it not
for the saving salt of missionary life and influence, I am told
by those who know, Hong Kong, and Yokohama in Japan,
and other such treaty ports, might easily out-rank Sodom
and Gomorrah and the Cities of the Plain.

There is one place, however, which we must visit before
leaving Hong Kong for the far more interesting city of
Canton, and that is Victoria Peak, which towers up for a
thousand feet or more directly behind the city. This is a
beautiful, conical mountain, exceedingly steep and precipi-
tous, but the way up has been made easy by a cog-wheel
railroad, which affords, certainly, the most abrupt climb
with which I am acquainted. Far steeper than the Rigi or
the Mt. Washington railroad or Pike's Peak is the railroad
that climbs Victoria Peak. Nervous women sometimes
grow quite hysterical as the train begins to move up an
incline steeper than the roof of a house. But the railway is
managed with great skill and with every precaution to insure
safety, and there has never been here any loss of life, so far
as I know.

As one climbs this famous mountain, a magnificent pano-
rama unfolds before him, of city and sea, of embracing
mountains and yet higher distant peaks. Every view is a
little more entrancing than the last, until one stands at the
very summit. Then, on every hand, is a landscape which
one can expect to see but seldom in a lifetime. Such a vast
and stupendous combination of ocean and mountain is almost
worth a stormy journey across the Pacific to behold.

15 4 BY BOAT TO CANTON.

We have reached the spot near the top where the rail-
road stops, and where our foot-journey begins, unless we
choose to take a sedan-chair, which, for thirty cents, will
carry us to the topmost point. We refused, however, to be
borne up this magnificent mountain : my such ignominious
way. The chair is all very well for level ground, or for get-
ting through the crowded streets ; but the true mountain
climber would feel ashamed of himself to be borne aloft on
men's shoulders up these rugged paths as long as he has two
good legs to carry him. The road, though very steep, is
well made, and affords so many exquisite views from every
angle and turn of the twenty minutes' climb to the peak
that it is a continual delight.

But the wind is blowing shrewdly from the top, and we
do not linger long, even though the view is entrancing ; but
soon descend, take the train once more, and in eight min-
utes slip down this tremendous toboggan-slide on to level

ground again.

To-morrow morning we will take the river-boat for Can-
ton, a journey of about one hundred miles, and one which
affords us vast delight, The steamers on the Pearl Kiver
are excellent side-wheel boats, not unlike the best river-boats
in America, officered by Europeans, though manned by
Chinese crews. There are some things about them, how-
ever which would remind us that we are still in China. At
the prow is a large image which I took for a figure-head, but
was soon informed that it was the river-god, who must be
propitiated even by this modern steamship company ; so
they had placed his obese figure in a little shrine at the
very prow of the Fatshan.

Looking within the cabin, too, we see a stack of rifles,
and are assured by the Captain that they are necessary in
case the boat should be attacked by the river pirates -a not

FLOATING ARSENALS.

155

inconceivable impossibility. A few months ago one of these
steamers was captured by a swarm of these robbers, who
had come aboard as second-class passengers. The officers
were overpowered, and the passengers were shut up in a
tight and close cabin, where they barely had air enough to

A CHINESE EXECUTION.

(From an instantaneous photograph.)

keep them alive, while their pocketbooks were rifled and the
steamer plundered by these systematic knaves of every pos-
sible thing of value. Then they took themselves off, mak-
ing sure that they should not be pursued until they had
gotten well out of the way. Chinese passengers are not
now allowed in the first cabin, and every steamer goes well
armed with a small arsenal of modern weapons.

X56

CHINESE EXECUTION.

Swift justice is dealt out to Chinese criminals, and only
a short time elapses after sentence before the head of the
condemned person is severed from the body by a single
stroke of the executioner's keen sword.

Prisoners under sentence of death wear bamboo yokes
when they are taken to the place of execution. The head

PLACING THE HEAD OF AN EXECUTED CRIMINAL IN A BASKET.
{From an instantaneous photograph.)

of the prisoner is placed between two rigid bamboo bars,
one in front and the other at the back of the neck, while
two shorter bars rest across the shoulders and fasten the
long side bars together. The headsman accompanies the
procession to the field of execution, holding his blade aloft,
followed by a crowd of spectators. The execution is public,
and generally takes place in an open field accessible to all.

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UP THE PEARL RIVER.

159

The prisoner kneels, bends forward a trifle, bows his head,,
and in an instant all is over.

The sail up the river is a most interesting one, following
the windings of the great stream, which sometimes broadens
out into a lake miles upon miles in extent, and sometimes

COOLIES PUMPING AVATER FOR RICE FIELDS.

narrows again with frowning peaks close overhead. Every-
where are the swarming villages — thirty thousand, I am
told, in a single province — each one occupied by from one
to ten thousand people.

The rice crop was just being cut as we sailed up this
noble river, and down to the very verge hung the ripened
grain on heavy stalks. This was the second crop of the

1G0 PRIMITIVE METHOD OF HARVESTING.

year, and laborers, men and women, were busy everywhere
^harvesting it — just as for three thousand years past, per-
liaps, their ancestors had harvested a similar crop. After
cutting the rice-straw near the ground with a small sickle
and piling it in heaps, they grasp a good-sized handful of
the grain and thresh out the rice by the simple process of
beating the heads over the edge of a stone or a piece of
board armed with iron teeth. A little screen keeps the rice
from flying far in any direction, and on both sides we
<could see hundreds of these little screens and these primitive
harvesters gathering the great staple crop of China.

Wonderful gardeners are these Cantonese in any part of
the world. Whether in America or Australia, the Sandwich
Islands or on their own native heath, they can coax the
ground to } T ield to them Avhat she would never give up
to the more civilized races, who, perhaps, look down on
them as ignorant barbarians Even in tropical Australia, in
the dryest of the dry seasons, they can make things grow if
only water can be had with which to drench the soil. " Me
no likee lain," said a Chinaman to me ; Ci lainey time anyone
laise things ; dly time only Chinaman makee glow."

But here along the banks of the great river they find
not only plenty of water, but a most fertile soil, and an}?-
Chinaman who does not get at least three crops off of every
inch of land which he possesses is thoroughly ashamed of
himself. Two crops of rice and one of vegetables is the
regulation thing, while some farmers force even four crops
every year from the same piece of ground.

Another interesting feature of the landscape is the huge
water-buffaloes which love to wallow along the banks of the
river. They look more like the rhinoceros than like the
buffalo of our plains, with thick welts of hairy skin hanging
on their sides and legs. However, they are a very useful

AT THE WHARF IN CANTON. 161

animal, though rather hideous in appearance. They are
employed in plowing and working the rice fields, and afford
an excellent milk which is used by the foreign residents of
Canton and vicinity, where there are no cows. The Chinese
themselves, however, after they are weaned, have no use for
food of this sort, and look upon the rest of us, I suppose, as
poor " milk-sops " for demanding it on our tables morning,
noon, and night.

Nor can they understand how we find it difficult to
exist without butter and cheese. A recently converted
Chinaman, explaining to his neighbors the joys of Christian-
ity, said to them, " Now Christianity is not like butter, for
you have to learn to like that before you can eat it. It is
horrid tasting stuff when you first try it, and you can only
endure it after a good many efforts. But Christianity is
•something that you do not have to learn to like. It is just
as good the first time you taste it as it is the last." A good
hint here for public speakers to adapt their illustrations to
the people who listen to them.

But all this time we are sailing up the great Pearl river,
with its interminable rice fields and its clustering villages
nestling- behind them at the base of the mountains.

At last the Fatslian reaches her wharf in Canton, and
we find ourselves at once in one of the strangest and most
remarkable cities on the face of the earth. Around us are
swarming junks and flower-boats, sampans and slipper-boats
of all sizes, as thickly as their struggling owners can crowd
about the Fatshan.

They row and pole, and hook on to their neighbors and
grab our steamer's chains in their mad and eager scramble
to get some passengers or freight for other parts of the city;
for this great river is the high road for all Canton. Fully
seventy-five thousand people live in these boats on the river

162 HOME LIFE ON A SAMPAN.

at Canton alone all the year round. The number is usually
put much higher, but 1 am assured that this is a very mod-
erate estimate.

As the steamer is being tied up to her dock let us peer
over into one of these little boats that is struggling to get
near us. It is like a thousand others that are wedged
so closely together that one could easily walk for miles over
their little roofed decks without getting his feet wet. It
seems like a continuous pontoon bridge, though none of the
boats are tied together, and all are struggling to move in
some direction and for some purpose.

But look down into this particular sampan which we
have chosen to interview. A brawny woman wields a long,
heavy oar in front. She is evidently captain, first officer,
and cook, as well as chief engineer of the little craft, On
her back is strapped a baby whose little head bobs and
sways with every motion that its mother makes in sculling
the boat. The handle of the huge sweep which she uses just
escapes the top of his bald little head. Her glossy black
hair is done up with great skill and neatness, into the shape
of a "tea-pot handle," as a little boy by my side declares.
Through this tea-pot handle is stuck a green jade pin, and in
both ears are huge jade earrings. No woman in Canton
seems too poor to afford these precious jewels. Of all the
thousands of women of high grade and low whom I have
seen in Canton, I scarcely remember one without the na-
tional jade ornaments.

On the stern of this little craft are four children, one boy
of eight years of age, who, manly little fellow that he is,
assists his mother with an oar three times as long as him.
self. Another boy of four is feeding with kernels of rice
some chickens which are tied by the leg to one side of the
boat. Still another little olive branch that can just toddle,

CLOSE QUARTERS. 16o

and is possibly two years old, is tied by a string to the roo^
of the deck, which allows him to go to the very edge of the
boat, but insures his being pulled in if he should happen tc>
fall overboard. In the stern of the boat also are all the
culinary arrangements for the family ; all the pots and
kettles and crockery ware and chop-sticks that are needed
for a family of six. Behind the kitchen is the shrine, and as
the door is open we can get a peep within at the gilded god,
who is sitting complacently on his haunches, while two
sticks of incense are burning before him.

In the center of the boat, covered with a low roof, are
seats on two sides for five or six passengers, for it is the bus-
iness of this family, while the husband is at work on shore,
to get all the passengers it can and to eke out their living in
this way. I must fall back on a general reputation which I
trust I have for sobriety and truthfulness when I tell you
that this boat by actual measurement is only fourteen feet
long and four feet wide in the widest part. Even this
sampan is larger than many others which crowd about our
steamer's side, but it looks so clean and roomy, the children
look so good natured, and the mother smiles so pleasantly,
that we will take this boat and give the woman ten cents (a
liberal sum) to take us to our friends some two miles up the
river.

CHAPTER IX.

IN CANTON THE CROWDED — CHINA AND THE CHINESE.
— CURIOUS SCENES AMONG A CURIOUS PEOPLE — IN
THE TEMPLE OF HORRORS.

Ah Cum, Jr. — A Courteous and Faithful Guide — Aimless Wandering —
The Birthday of the Fire God — Turning out for a Sedan chair — Close
Quarters — A City of Temples — Streets -with Odd Names — "Lon-
gevity Lane " — " Heavenly Peace Street " — A Changing Panorama —
Outrageous Odors — A Pestilential Place without Pestilence — A Puz-
zle for our Doctors — People who Never Heard of a Plumber — The
Live Fish Market — Candy Stands — How Much can you Buy for a
Cash? — Going to Market in Corea — A Royal Present — Juvenile
Curiosity — That Little "Foreign Devil" — The Cat and Dog Meat
Store — The Original of the Willow Pattern — The Five Hundred
Buddhists — Worshiping the Gods of Good Luck and Prosperity —
Business-like Methods of Worship — The Temple of Horrors — A
Necklace of Teeth — Some of the Tortures — Sawing a Man in Two —
Boiled in Oil — Punishments of the Buddhist Hell.

E were exceeding fortunate, on our
arrival at Canton, in finding the
best guide it has ever been our
good fortune to secure. Mr. Ah
Cum, Jr., deserves to have his
name embalmed in history. Just
before our visit a famous Ameri-
can traveler had visited the same
city, and he wrote in the guide's
book, a la Isaac Walton : " Doubt-
less God could make a better
guide than Ah Cum, Jr., but
doubtless he never did." We feel like endorsing this com-
mendation to the fullest extent after spending a few hours
in Ah Cum's society. He not only knew ever} T thing in
Canton, but could speak intelligent English to explain to us

( 164 )

AN ENDLESS ARCADE. 165

what we saw. He knew how to keep the land sharks who
snap at every innocent traveler away from us, and though
he doubtless piloted us to stores which paid him a good
commission, he would not let us pay more than twice what
a thing was worth, even to his friends.

As we take this journey through Canton's crowded
streets, the three pilgrims require sedan chairs, with another
one for Ah Cum, Jr. ; but in the train of this short proces-
sion -we can take a hundred thousand of you just as well,
without crowding anyone. At first we say to Ah Cum
that we do not Avish to go anywhere in particular ; " just
take us through the streets ; let us see how the people live,
how they buy and sell and get gain ; let us see how they
pound their meal, and sell their fish, and make their shoes,
and shave their heads, and paint their pictures, and do their
ivory work, and fashion their jewelry, and turn out their
pottery." It is not necessary to stop and go inside of any
building to see all of these things, for, as in all Chinese
cities, these handicrafts are carried on in shops out of which
the front has been completely taken. There is a rear wall
to these shops and two side walls, but no front wall in
the daytime ; and passing through the streets of Canton
seems like going; through a never-ending arcade. The streets
are so narrow and so covered overhead with awnings and
immense signs that one can scarcely realize that he is in
the open air. The dim light streams down from above, mel-
lowing and tempering even the most hideous things, w r hile
the gay costumes and fabrics, and gold-lettered signs, give a
holiday air to the whole city.

Moreover, it is the birthdav of the Fire God when we
chance to go through the city, and the people are celebrat-
ing his nativity with an unceasing fusilade of firecrackers.
Whole bunches of the snappiest kind of crackers are thrown

16G CIVIL ENGINEERING.

recklessly into the streets under the very feet of our coolie
bearers, which, make them dance and caper, though they
take it all very good-naturedly. Each of us on this journey
has three bearers, two in front and one behind ; and the
streets are so narrow that it is with the greatest difficulty
that two chairs can pass each other. Indeed, when two
chairs approach from opposite directions a catastrophe seems
unavoidable, but somehow or other it is always avoided.
The people flatten themselves against the walls on either
side, taking up as few cubical inches as possible ; and at
length, oftentimes with a good deal of turning and twisting
and engineering, the chairs coming from opposite directions
pass one another.

Canton contains about one million people, so conservative
writers say, though the number is placed by many at a far
larger figure. As the more accurate census of later years
is taken, the population of China is dwindling somewhat,
and the enormous figures that were believed by our fore-
fathers are scarcely borne out by the enumerators. Peking
is not so enormously large as has been supposed, while
Canton, which used to be said in many quarters to have
two millions of inhabitants, is found to have only about
one million. However, this is quite enough for the area
that is inhabited.

If ever people were packed together like sardines in a
box, or peas in a pod, it is in this same city of Canton.
]So superfluous room, as I have said, is taken up by the
streets, and this city which, if it was spread out like
Washington or Melbourne, or even New York, would re-
quire a wall something like one hundred miles in length,
\s encompassed by a wall less than six miles in circuit.
This wall was built in the eleventh century, and was
finished as it now stands more than five hundred vears

A CURIOUSLY CHANGING PANORAMA. 107

ago. In it are sixteen gates, besides two water gates.
Canton became a port of foreign commerce more than a
thousand years ago, but it was not until 1637 that a fleet
of English vessels entered the river. Since then the trade
has largely been in the hands of the English, who seem,
in whatever part of the world they go, to get their full
share of the good things of this life.

There are 125 temples in the city of Canton, and every
little shop has its altar, before which the daily incense is
burned. I am told that more is spent for incense and
candles at these altars than is given for foreign missions for
the whole world by the great Congregational and Presby-
terian boards of the United States.

Some of the streets through which we pass have odd
names ; for instance, one of them is " Longevity Lane " ;
another, " Heavenly Peace street," while " High street " and
ik Market street " sound verv familiar. I wish in our own
country we might have more streets of " Benevolence and
Love." We will at least pass through this street in Canton,
even though it belies its names.

We shall never get accustomed to this constantly chang-
ing panorama ; these odd people ; these queer costumes ;
these strange sights ; these outrageous odors ! Cologne
itself, with all its seventy smells, cannot for a moment
compare w T ith Canton.

It is a wonder that the people are not exterminated by
typhoid fever and diphtheria. There is no drainage to
speak of, and what little there is lies immediately below the
flagstones over which we pass, and is very rarely, if ever,
flushed by running water. Strange to say, however, we are
told that the rate of mortality is not especially high in Can-
ton ; that there are many old people in the city and that it is
not often visited by any sweeping pestilence. What wilx

168 IGNORANT OF DRAINS AND CUT-OFFS.

our doctors and sanitary engineers and plumbers, who make
life miserable for the householder, say to this ?

If ever we have a little scarlet rash in the house among
the children, or if the doctor can discover a white patch in
our throat'- he at once declares that the plumbing is out of
order and the Health Department compels us to rip up the
floors and discover the cause of the affliction in some hidden
and undiscoverable lead pipe. The plumber is called in and
he declares that his rival who plumbed the house was a per-
fect idiot and knew nothing about sanitary engineering.
That means a bill of several hundred dollars for the most im-
proved style of pipes and traps and drains, and, as likely as
not, the next vear scarlet fever attacks another child and
a white patch appears on the other side of our throats. Yet
these benighted people of Canton, who never heard of a
plumber, who know not how to build a decent drain, and
are not initiated into the mysteries of patent traps, cut-offs,
and counter vents, live on century after century in their ill-
drained, foul-odored city, in blissful ignorance of what they
escape by not being sufficiently civilized.

Some of the shops which interest us most as we pass
along the streets are the fish markets. The fish are all
brought to the market alive and wriggling. "When a cus-
tomer comes along, he picks out the fish which he fancies in
the tank; the dealer dextrously captures him with a net,
splits and beheads him in sight of the customer who goes on
his way rejoicing, knowing that at least he will have fresh
fish for dinner.

The many little candy stands and booths for selling nuts
and cakes also interest us. There is a kind of soft yellow
cake made of beans which is greatly affected by the lower
class of Chinese, and which always has a Cninese character
stamped on the top : there are peanut venders on whose

CHEAP FOR "CASH.*

169

trays are arranged little piles of peanuts which are worth
one " cash " (one-tenth of a cent) each, while other dealers
confine their attention to betel nuts, of which they carry
a stock in trade consisting of half a dozen nuts cut into
quarters, with some pungent leaves to wrap them in before

FISHING WITH CORMORANTS.

they are masticated. In other places we find row after
row of toy shops and little earthenware establishments,
where the largest thing of value will cost about one cent.

In fact, it would be interesting to see how many things
on the streets of Canton could be bought for a cash. A
collection of such articles would fill a cabinet with rare
curiosities. But let not anv foreigner think he could make
such purchases. The thrifty Chinese dealer is sure that the
said foreigner's pockets are lined with gold and will charge
him at least ten times the true value of any article desired.
He can only get what he wants at a reasonable price by
sending a Chinaman for it and paying him a commission for
buying in the cheapest market.

In the large stores the "cash" is not very much used,

but small silver pieces, pennies and huge, dirty, ragged bank

bills ; but the street venders and cheap Jacks on the side-
ll

170 A COW-LOAD OP COINS.

walk trade, for the most part, in cash alone, and one needs
to carry an extra sedan chair to hold his money if he
expects to make many purchases with these cumbrous coins.
The small coinage, however, is not so large here as it is
in Corea, or at least the precious metals are more used. I
am told that in Corea the purchaser who goes to market
drives a cow before him to carry his cash, and if he expects
to make any considerable purchases, he must load two cows
with the necessary money. The cows carry his coins, but
he can carry his purchases home in his hands.

The royal family of Corea, it is said, desired to make a
missionary a present on the occasion of his marriage, since
the missionary had been serviceable to the emperor's wife
when ill. What was the missionary's surprise to find six
coolies come to his house each loaded down with a huge
chest of money which was all they could stagger under.
When he came to count his treasure, he found that his pres-
ent was a generous donation of $300, all in copper cash.

As we go along the streets in our sedan chairs, we excite
a great deal of comment and amused attention from the
passers by and from the store-keepers as well. The little
Pilgrim, especially, attracts the notice of all the boys and
girls in Canton. When they catch sight of him in his chair,
they chuckle and giggle and point their fingers at him, and
laugh as if he was the funniest object they ever beheld. A
little imp with a long queue will scuttle into the house as we
go by, and call his father and mother, his uncles and aunts,
and his brothers and sisters and cousins, to look at that
strange cavalcade, and especially at that little "foreign
devil," as he persists in calling the juvenile Pilgrim.

One would suppose that foreigners were so numerous in
the vicinity of Canton, they would excite no interest, but, as
a matte" of fact, comparatively few of them are seen on the

AMUSING CURIOSITIES.

171

streets of the native city. Ladies are an especial curiosity,
and American boys are evidently most amusing and long-to-
be-remembered creatures. It is very probable that some of
those slant-eyed little Celestials are still talking about that
small boy in the Boston High School cap, and those absurd
short trousers and long stockings, and that queer American
reefer, who once passed through their streets.

PRISONERS IN A CANTON JAIL,

There are a few " show places " in Canton, as there are
in every city, which the traveler must not neglect, though I
must say that I always prefer first to get an idea of the way
the common people live, rather than to be dragged from
temple to pagoda, and from pagoda to university by the
eager and loquacious guide. But that is one of Ah Cum's
good points. He is willing that you should see what you
want to see, and will not insist upon your seeing only what
he considers wonderful. He lets us have our fill of Canton-

172 GRANDMOTHER'S BLUE CHINA.

ese sights and sounds and odors ; he is willing that we
should gratify our curiosity by looking into very humble
and insignificant shops. He is not ashamed of us if we stop
to glance at the street peddler, and he does not frown upon
us with righteous indignation even when we look into the
cat and dog meat store. Here is one poor pussy, stiff and
cold, and singed of all her hair, awaiting a customer. A
poor puppy that has departed this life, looks ghastly since he
has been dressed and trussed like a pig. In another part of
the store, a wicker basket contains another specimen of the
feline race, which, Ah Cum says, will be sacrificed at noon,
at which time we shall see a great many more cats and dogs
if we happen to pass that way.

First in viewing Canton's famous sights, let us go into
the Guild Hall of the tea merchants. It is a very old
affair, and the carving and terra cotta work is exceedingly
fine; but we are especially interested in a little garden
behind the Guild Hall, for, from this garden the famous
willow pattern was copied, which is found upon the blue
china ware of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers.
The original tree which gave it its name has died, but the
other features are the same which have been perpetuated so
many scores of millions of times, on the plates and cups and
saucers and teapots and teacups, which, in the olden time,
were treasured by the mothers and handed down to the
daughters with such scrupulous care.

From the Guild Hall let us go into the temple of the five
hundred Buddhists. This is a large building around the
walls of which are arranged in two rows great gilt images '
of Buddhist ancestral divinities, five hundred of them in all.
Every face has a distinct individuality of its own, and they
all have long ears that reach down almost to their shoulders,
like a turkey's dewlaps. These long ears indicate longevity.!

FIVE HUNDRED ANCESTRAL GODS. 173

What surprised us most of all, was to find Marco Polo in
this galaxy. This famous traveler has been admitted to the
company of the gods, and he was honored with a stick of
burning incense on the day we were in the temple, which was
more than could be said for most of them. I think if I
had intended to burn any incense in that temple, I should
have put my stick in the little sand box before Marco Polo
also. It is not certain that the features of this image resem-
ble this first globe-trotter's, for whom it is supposed to stand,
but it is probably quite as authentic as many of the pictures
and statues of the famous men of antiquity.

One other old fellow among the gods also attracted my
attention. He had eyebrows that reached almost down to
his chin, and from all that I could gather, he was famous
chiefly for his eyebrows, which have never been duplicated
since.

In the middle aisle of the hall of the five hundred Bud-
dhist gods is a fine bronze pagoda, in which are three great
bronze imaq-es. While we were in the temple a service was
going c.x, and four priests were marching around the bronze
images, beating their tomtoms and chanting in a most dole-
ful and lugubrious tone of voice. Among all the dispirited
fellows I ever saw these priests would carry off the palm.
They had a little curiosity about us, who were the only vis-
itors to the temple at the time, but no interest in the service
that they were performing. They must beat their tomtoms
so many times ; they must wail out their hideous chant so
many times more, but they evidently considered it a most
unpleasant job, and desired to get through it with as little
expenditure of nervous energy as possible. I shall never
forget the faces of two of those priests, so utterly dispirited
were they, so completely and profoundly indifferent to what
they were doing !

174 THE SORDID SPIRIT OF BUDDHISM.

It seems to me that the sight was representative of the
decadence of the Buddhist religion everywhere. Whatever
it may have been in the past, it certainly has little hold on
the affections of the people to-day. The idols are worshiped
with no thought of love or real reverence but with the hope
of gain. The incense is burned and the prayers are offered
for the sake of good luck, and there is no more sense of
reverence or worship, or affectionate recognition of a higher
power on the part of these devotees, so far as I could learn,
than there is in the hearts of those at home, who, partly
for fun and partly because of their superstition, hang out the
horseshoe over the front door, or insist on seeing the moon
over their right shoulder when she first appears. Worship
appears to be universal in such a city as Canton. Every
store, every house, and every boat has its god, its shrine,
and its incense ; yet it is simply the god of Good Luck who
is worshiped ; only the deity of Prosperity who is invoked.

Let us go to another temple before we get through with
Canton. This shall be the "Temple of Horrors," which,
singularly enough, is situated on the street of " Benevolence
and Love." It is the most popular temple in the city,
whether because of the horrors which are artistically ar-
ranged at each side or because of the fortune tellers, ped-
dlers, gamblers, and quacks who have their stalls there, I am
not able to say. This seems to be the favorite resort of the
dentists also, for I saw several of their ilk with long strings
of extracted molars and grinders at least thirty feet in
length, which looked like ghastly necklaces. There were a
few people paying their vows to the idols, but the one who
interested me most was a woman of high caste who toddled
in on the tiniest of tiny feet. If her feet were small she
made up for it at the other end of her person, for her hair
was dressed in the latest and extremest style, ornamented

IN THE HEIGHT OF THE FASHION. 175

with all kinds of rich and costly ornaments. Her face was
painted in most brilliant colors and there was a patch of
brilliant carmine on her lower lip. Her clothing was silk of
various bright colors, and she was evidently gotten up with-
out regard to expense. On her tiny toes she could not walk
alone, but had a servant on each side to steady her as she
went up the steps. She appeared as indifferent to the god
who was grinning from the rear end of the temple as any of
the rest, but coolly sent one of her servants to light some in-
cense and place the bundle of sticks in the sand box beneath
the god's nose. Then she got a slip referring to a number,
which number the priest consulted and gave her the proph-
ecy which she sought. The priestly oracle frequently
couches his words in very ambiguous phrases which will
answer for one thing about as well as another ; but after
getting her slip of paper which told her fortune, she toddled
off once more, evidently well pleased with the news she had
received, while the priests were equally satisfied with the
silver bits which had come into their till.

Everything about these temples is dirty and disorderly.
There is no obeisance or indications of reverence on the
part of the worshipers. They bustle around in the most
business-like way, buy their incense, light it, place it in the
proper receptacle, and then go off perfectly satisfied that
they have done their duty. In all the smaller temples
which I saw in China, the same disregard, indifference, and
irreverence were exhibited. The priests looked utterly
weary and dispirited and evidently thought life was not
worth living. The worshipers only sought good fortune
and success in business. The temples were often littered
and dirty, and priest and worshiper alike were only con-
cerned with what they could get out of the imposture.
'Shis temple is called the Temple of Horrors because of some

176 THE BUDDHIST HADES.

wax-work-like shows on either side of the entrance which
leads up to it. I think Madame Tussaud must have gotten
the idea of her underground Temple of Horrors in London
from this temple in Canton, her's, to be sure, being rather
more artistic and realistic. But this show has the advantage
of being older, and the figures quite as true to life.

In one of the little apartments two fiends are seen saw-
ing a man in two from his head to his feet. The poor man
who is being thus treated is inclosed between two boards,
but he is turned sideways to the audience so that it can see
the saw going through him. In another apartment transmi-
gration is shown, and a man is being turned into a wolf, the
creature as he appears being half man and half wolf. In
still another section of this famous museum is a man
strapped to the ground with the soles of his feet uppermost,
while a hideous devil with a grin on his face bastinadoes
him. Still another poor fellow has a red-hot bell coining
down over his shrinking body which, evidently, will soon be
reduced to a cinder, while another one is being boiled in oil.
These are the punishments of the Buddhist hell.

Another of the show places of Canton which we wish to
see is the Examination Hall. Here every three years the
examination of candidates for the second literary degree is
held. All the students of the first degree in the whole
province are required to compete at this examination, and I
imagine it is the most extensive "exam" that is held in any
portion of the world. As we enter the Examination Hall,
we see on either side rows and rows of little cells which ex-
tend back from the main passageway, seventy-five or a hun-
dred of them in a row. These cells are 5*4 feet long and
3^ feet wide, and number 11,616 ; but even this enormous
number is not enough for all the candidates, and additional
cells were furnished at the last triennial examination.

THE GREAT TRIENNIAL EXAMINATION. 177

In these narrow closets the candidate for the second de-
gree is imprisoned. He is given a chair and a diminutive
table : a little earthen braiser with a few coals in it on
which he can cook his rice and make his tea, and for three
days he is not allowed to leave his cell except to go into the
narrow passage which runs beside it. He must have no
communication with any other student, and if he is caught
with another man's essay or cheating in any way, he may
lose his head, for aught I know. At any rate the punish-
ment would be very severe. The examination begins on the
eighth day of the eighth moon and occupies three sessions of
three days each. The same text is given to all at daylight,
and the essays must be handed in on the following morning.
Out of these 12,000 or more candidates, how many do you
suppose pass the final examination? Only 130 on the
average. The rest of the poor fellows who have used their
time and brains for nothing are doomed to disappointment,
but they can try for the degree again at the end of another
three years if they choose, and again and again, and the
most pathetic spectacle is to see old men of sixty and
seventy years who have tried to pass the examination every
three years since they were twenty, still hoping against
hope.

Those who pass, however, are well taken care of, for
they are booked for promotion in civil offices, and are
always required to go to Peking to compete for the third
degree. If one passes this third degree, he is honored by all
his relatives and by the whole clan. I have seen many
a pole with fluttering flags set up in Chinese villages, indi-
cating that the family which lives about that pole has a
scholar of high rank among them, one who has passed an
examination for the second or third degree.

But what an absurd and useless waste of energy is re-

178

A WASTE OF ENERGY.

quired to pass this examination? Nothing of modern
science is demanded, nothing of modern literature, nothing
that will improve the body or the soul, or that will add to
the sum total of the world's knowledge ; but simply an essay
on some text of Confucius. This is the only door of en
trance to civil service promotion in China. This kind of
civil service reform certainly needs itself to be reformed.

Another interesting place in Canton is the Five-Storied
Pagoda. Strickly speaking, it is not a pagoda at all, but
looks more like a great brick barn. There are five stories to
it, however, and from the topmost platform a magnificent
view of the city, the great river, and the bills beyond can
be seen. These hills are filled with graves of a semicircular
shape, and from this place the tomb of a relative of Ma-
hommed, who died in the seventh century, is visible.

Perhaps we have seen enough for one morning, and after
paying our bearers about twenty-five cents each for their
services and our guide a reasonable sum for his time, we will
find our way back to our friends, with most vivid recollec-
tions of a morning in Canton.

CHAPTER X.

OUR JOURNEY UP THE GREAT RIVER.

An Excursion in a Flower Boat — "Rice Power" — The Stern- Wheeler
and its Motive Power — Sacrifices and Perils of the Missionary — A
Chinese Feast — Chop Sticks and How to Use Them — Lamb and Chest-
nuts — Frogs' Legs and Onions — A Dissipated Prejudice — Shrimps
and Bamboo Root — Our Seventeen Courses — A Chinese Village — A
Village School and Schoolmaster — Studying Aloud — A Pot and its
Contents — How the Ashes of Grandfathers are saved in China — " Fe,
Fi, Fo, Fum, I Smell the Blood of a Chinaman " — Seventeen Dollars
for a Child — A Fire-Cracker Factory — How Fire-Crackers are Made
— Cheap Wages and Cheap Living— A Chinese Flower Garden — A
Mandarin in His Blossom Gown — A Common Temple — Waking up
the God — Washstands for a God — Lack of Reverence — Fans for Sick
Relatives — The Voices of the Night — A Contrast.

OST visitors to Canton confine their
attention to the great city itself,
and think they have seen it all
when they have visited the Exam-
ination Hall, the Temple of the
Five Hundred Gods, the silk-
weaving establishments, and the
Five-Storied Pagoda ; but to me
these were not the most interest-
ing of the sights of this marvel-
ous province, teeming with more
population than any other equal
It was our good fortune to be guests
in a delightful missionary home while in Canton, and to
see not only these stock sights, but to get some glimpses of
Chinese life which not one visitor in a hundred is likely to

(179)

section of the globe

180 KICE POWER NAVIGATION.

One day we had an excursion up the great Pearl River
in a Chinese house boat. This was a most unique experi-
ence. The boat was a great lumbering ark of an affair,
fitted up with kitchen and sitting-room, while the stained-
glass windows, ebony and marble furniture, and tinkling
chandeliers gave it quite a gorgeous appearance. Slowly
and wearisomely the coolies made their way up the river
just as their ancestors had done for a thousand years past.
Our boat, like all the other thousands on the river, was pro-
pelled by " rice power," as one of our friends said. Steam
power has not yet been introduced on the Pearl River,
except for a few steam launches. Electric power is still un-
unknown, but " rice power," exerted through the muscles of
men and women, is still the propelling force on the Canton
or Pearl River.

Every now and then a splashing stern-wheel boat would
pass us. At first it appeared almost like a Mississippi River
steamer of rude design, with water flying from the paddle
wheel behind, but on looking more closely, we could see that
the machinery was worked by sixteen coolies, who constantly
shuffled through their monotonous round like poor horses in
a treadmill. But even this is an invention of very late years,
and is considered a great innovation by most of the inhabit-
ants. A long sweep fastened to a short staple in the bow
of the boat is still the ordinary means of propulsion.

Every few minutes our coolies would stop to refresh
themselves with a cup of tea, or a whiff or two from their
pipes, which, by the way, only hold a pinch of tobacco.
They all seemed to be very good-tempered and able-bodied
fellows. One or two of them had brawny arms that would
rejoice the heart of a pugilist. Past the rice fields, past vil-
lages, past toiling coolies endlessly pumping water for irri-
gation, past luxuriant gardens where every square inch of

COURAGE AND SELF-SACRIFICE. 181

soil is cultivated, we slowly made our way. Some of my
missionary friends spend much of their time in the villages
hundreds of miles up the river, for this is a great water way
which branches out in every direction and affords access to
the very heart of this great province. I would like to intro-
duce the scoffers at missionary work to these self-sacrificing
men and women who have left their home and friends
behind them, and are spending their lives in the foul atmos-
phere of a pagan country, not for a few short weeks or
months, but for a lifetime, in order to win some of these
people to Christ.

Many a time have these missionaries taken their lives
in their hands. Though there is now but little danger in
most of the villages there are some which it is not safe for
them to visit. Many times have some of them been stoned
out of the villages where they attempted to preach the Gos-
pel, but they still persevered and are satisfied that the time
will come when this marvelous people, who have retained
their ancient civilization for so many centuries, will be
equally stable in their new Christian civilization.

At length, in the course of this novel picnic, dinner time

comes and my friends have promised me a genuine Chinese

feast. Let us sit down together to this feast. "We are not

allowed to have knives and forks or spoons, but simply

chop sticks and a little porcelain ladle, with which we help

ourselves out of the common dish in the middle of the

table. Would you learn how to use these chop sticks ?

then follow these directions implicitly. Put the lower stick

across the thumb, holding it firmly between the thumb

and first finger. Place the second chop stick over this,

allowing it to be flexible and to wriggle as you desire it.

After considerable practice you may be able to convey a

piece of fish from the central dish to your mouth without a
12

182 A GENUINE CHINESE FEAST.

catastrophe on the way. The great secret of eating with
chop sticks is to keep the lower stick stiff and inflexible; but
a foreigner's muscles being ill-trained, it is apt to waver and
slip, which is fatal to all successful efforts.

After waiting a considerable time for the dignified cooks
to make ready, oranges and bananas are brought on for the
first course. These required no great skill, for we are
allowed to take them in our hands and eat them as at any
other time. But now comes a difficult task. A soup with
mushrooms, melons, rice, and barley, is next brought on and
placed in a bowl in the center of the table. Each one takes
his little porcelain ladle and dips for himself in the common
bowl, while the larger particles of mushrooms and melons he
must fish out with his chop sticks. The third course is
boiled chicken stuffed with chestnuts and rice. This is so
completely cooked that the least little touch with the chop
sticks breaks it into pieces, and we each fish out for ourselves
what we can from the common dish. When secured it is
most toothsome and savory, I assure you. .

Stuffed pigeons constitute the fourth course. They are
somewhat like the chickens, only dressed in a different way.
Fish wrapped in something that resembles a sausage skin
constitutes the fifth course, and a very good course it is.
The sixth course is lamb and chestnuts; seventh course,
matai, a vegetable that is crisp and very pleasant to the
taste. Duck and ham furnish the eighth course, and with
each new dish our plates are changed, though we are al-
lowed to retain the same chop sticks. Frogs' legs stewed in
onions are then placed upon the table.

Some of the ladies of the party told the Chinese servants
to be sure and let them know when the frogs appeared that
they might decline that course ; but when they thought to
mention the matter, they were politely informed that the

SEVENTEEN COURSES. 183

frogs had already been eaten, and they remembered, when
it was too late to remedy it, that they had enjoyed that
course better than any other. Thus our prejudices are dissi-
pated, sometimes unconsciously. But why frogs should be
any more distasteful than turtles or oysters or fish, I have
never been able to determine.

The tenth course is rice, just simple, unadulterated boiled
rice. Why it should be thus honored in the middle of the
feast, I am not aware. This is followed by a course of
shrimps stewed with onions and bamboo root, which is very
palatable. The twelfth course is pickles ; the thirteenth,
bananas ; the fourteenth, another mushroom soup ; the fif-
teenth, a kind of a dish made of shrimps, pork, and other
meat mixed and boiled together. The sixteenth is sponge
cake, and the seventeenth mandarin oranges. By this time
you can imagine that the capacities of the missionaries were
sorely taxed, and even the gastronomic capabilities of their
quests were tried to the utmost extent. However, this was
not all, for in order to do full justice to the Chinese feast, we
must not forget that we are in the land of tea, and in a little
while, dainty and delicate cups of it are brought on to con-
clude the banquet.

A little way back from the river are many Chinese
villages which for the most part are embowered in trees.
The tiled roofs look so much like the surface of the ground
that it is difficult at a little distance to find where the village
begins and the fields leave off. If we get into the village,
however, we shall find it teeming with life.

On this trip up the Pearl river we have an excellent
opportunity to visit one of these villages. In the missionary
district which is covered by one of my friends who is in the
boat with us, are thirty thousand of these villages. Of
course he could not preach in all of them in one year or

184

STREETS SPANNED BY AN UMBRELLA.

in a hundred years, but they are all open to his ministra-
tions. From a distance these villages look somewhat pictur-
esque, but the enchantment vanishes on nearer approach. If
the streets of Hong Kong are narrow and the streets of
Canton narrower, the streets of these villages should be

ON THE PEARL RIVER.

compared in the superlative degree, for indeed they are the
narrowest of all. Two people can scarcely walk abreast in
many of them. I had in my hand when visiting one of
them, an ordinary umbrella which exactly spanned the dis-
tance from wall to wall in many streets, while the widest
ones were about six inches wider than the length of my
umbrella. The pavement is broken and shattered and horri-
ble filth is everywhere.

As we passed along the street in the village, we heard a
great noise of voices reciting in a humdrum, sing-song way,
something which was of course unintelligible to us.

" That is a school," said my friend ; " let us look in." So
we unceremoniously entered, which we found we were at

A PRIMARY SCHOOL. 185

perfect liberty to do, and saw twenty little urchins who, at
the top of their voices, were shouting some sentences from
Confucius. The schoolmaster did not appear at first, but
after we had been standing looking in at the door for a
moment, finding from the slight cessation of noise, which
was due to curiosity of the students who could not recite
and look at us at the same time, that there was something
going on, he came out of the back room of the school build-
ing.

He was very polite and courteous and invited us to come
in and take a seat. He explained to us that the pupils
learned the words, but that they had no idea of their mean-
ing. After they had thoroughly committed them, he in-
terpreted the meaning of the passage, and then gave them
a new one to learn. They cannot do this silently, however,
but the louder they shout the quicker they seem to learn
their lessons. Most of the schoolmasters throughout the
empire are those who have passed the first examination, but
are among the vast majority of those who have not passed
the second and who, in all probability, never will. It is for-
tunate that some occupation is open to them, though the
teacher of the common school is not a very exalted person-
age in China.

" What does that large earthen pot contain ? " I said to
my friend as we came out of the school. " Oh, that is the
ancestral jar, containing the ashes of the grandfathers of the
people who live in this house," he said.

Thus we made our way through this crowded little
village. The women came to the door of their little hovels
to stare at us, the children scuttled away as though we were
the arch enemies of mankind. Doubtless many of them
have been taught by their parents to believe that foreigners
will make away with all of them if they can only get their

186 FOREIGN OGRES.

hands upon them. Every foreigner, in the estimation of the
lower orders of Chinese, is a great ogre who is constantly
saying, when he comes into a Chinese village,

" Fe, fi, fo, fum,

" I smell the blood of a Chinaman,"

and these little folks had evidently been taught to keep out
of harm's way.

When the heathen Chinese wish to damage the reputa-
tion of the missionary, they persuade their simple-minded
countrymen that the missionaries wish the eyes and hair
and livers of their children to make up into medicine, and
that they must not send their children to the mission
schools. A friend of mine took a poor little child, whose
mother had died and whose father was a worthless scamp,
in order that she might bring up this child in a decent way.
For several months she watched over it carefully, and gave
it the best of Chinese nurses, but one sad day for the baby
the wretched father happened around, caught up the child,
carried it off, and sold it for $17, in order to satisfy one of
his creditors. The selling of children is a very common
thing among the lower class of the Chinese, and infanticide
is still practiced in some of the provinces to a frightful ex-
tent. No wonder, with such Bluebeard-like stories for nur
sery tales, that the little slant-eyed urchins got out of our
way as rapidly as they could.

On our way from the village we passed a firecracker fac-
tory, in which I am sure the boys of America will be inter-
ested. In the rear room of the factory were piles of coarse
brown paper. By a very simple process this paper is made
into tubes of the right size for different kinds of firecrackers,
while in still another room a dozen men and girls were
putting in the powder, tamping in the brick dust on top, and
making a great clatter about it with their little mallets.

CHINESE CHEAP LABOR. 187

Most of this work is done by hand, though some rude
machinery is used. It has been a mystery to me, ever
since the first Fourth of July that I can remember, how fire-
crackers could be made and sent over to America to be sold
for five cents a bunch. The mystery is scarcely diminished
when we see the work performed, and note that so much of
it is hand labor. I suppose the real explanation lies in the
cheapness of labor. Wages, I am told, do not average more
than ten cents per day, equivalent to seven cents of our
money ; but even on this the coolies can supply themselves
with scanty food and sufficient clothing for this climate, and,
perhaps, lay by a few dollars for the rainy day which people
in China, as well as in America, are always fearing.

The real secret of Chinese cheap labor is Chinese cheap
living. Hotels in China which charge $4.00 a day for their
guests and $1.00 a day for European servants will board
Chinese servants for twenty cents a day, and then make
money. I cannot say, however, that this poor and monoto-
nous life, as it doubtless is, has any deteriorating effect,
physically, on the Chinese. They seem usually to be strong
and healthy, and unless addicted to opium smoking, as many
of them are, they are often fine specimens of a vigorous
physical manhood. How a coolie can support life, and do
the tremendously hard labor which is expected of him six-
teen hours out of the twenty-four, on a little rice and fish,
surpasses the foreigner's comprehension ; and yet that it can
be done is proved by the hundred of millions of robust peo-
ple in all parts of the Chinese Empire.

On our way from the village we went into a Chinese
flower garden. These abound in the vicinity of Canton, and
are really verv beautiful. Everything 1 is on a diminutive
scale. Flowering shrubs, orange trees, lemon trees, azalias.
and chrysanthemums are all of the dwarf variety. Many

188 BLOSSOMING MANDARINS.

orange trees growing in pots are loaded with little oranges
no larger than the end of one's thumb. But the most curi-
ous thing about these flower gardens is the shapes into
which the shrubs are trained. On many branches we found
huge goggle eyes pinned, while from the lower branches
porcelain hands reach out to us in a ghostly way. Below
the hands were often a pair of porcelain feet resting on the
soil. We found that in this way was constructed the skele-
ton of a floral mandarin, who, after a few weeks, as the
blossoms opened on the branches, would be clothed in a
gorgeous dress of white or red or yellow bloom. Some of
the mandarins had already blossomed out, and their heads
and hands and porcelain feet appeared from a beautiful
dress of living green and brilliant flowers. There were also
in this garden lions and unicorns, foxes and buffaloes, with
flowery skins, and goggle eyes of porcelain. The whole
effect was very curious.

A Chinese mandarin clothed in flowers, or a lion or uni-
corn in the same beautiful dress, if displayed in a New
York florist's window, would attract such a crowd that the
police would have to clear the way. There were many
other beautiful tilings in this garden, fountains and arch-
ways, bridges over little streams, and flowery pagodas, mak-
ing it as pictures {ue and beautiful a place as could be found
in our most extensive establishments in England or America.

As we came out of the garden we passed along the bor-
ders of canals and roads lined with orange and lemon trees
and the beautiful carambola, with its three-cornered yellow
fruit as large as an apple hanging in rich profusion from its
branches. The carambolas were just ripe at the time of
our visit to Canton, and the deep yellow, luscious fruit shin- f
ing through the green leaves made as pretty an orchard
effect as one would wish to see.

THE GRIMY GODS OF CHINA. 189

On our way back to our missionary home, we stepped
into one of the common temples, not a great, gorgeous
temple such as we have seen in Canton, but a more modest,
suburban shrine. A beautiful grove of trees surrounded it,
but within the temple was the same squalor and dirt, indif-
ference and irreverence, that we have seen elsewhere.
There was, to be sure, a gong to be rung, and a big drum to
be beaten in order to wake up the god, and by his side were
many votive offerings. In one temple that we visited, the
god had been favored with several washstands fitted up with
copper basins. From the looks of his time-begrimed face
we thought he needed to use these presents. Another god
had several suits of clothing presented to him. These hung
on a chair near by, though from their appearance we judged
that he had never put them on. Still another had a hand-
some sedan chair among his gifts, so that he could take a
ride if he wished.

The god of medicine is assiduously fanned by many of
his worshipers, and these fans are taken home to be used by
his friends in fanning their sick relatives, thus bringing the
breath of the god near to them.

That such an intelligent, practical, sensible people, as the
Chinese undoubtedly are in many ways, should still adhere
to these absurd and silly superstitions, can only be accounted
for by the fact that few of them have ever heard of any-
thing better, and that the religion of Christ in this vast
empire has yet had time to make but little headway.

Soon we are again at the kind home which opens to us its
hospitable doors after a most delightful day on the river and
in the country, tired enough, as we thought, to go to bed
and sleep soundly in spite of the voices of the night, which
are not so poetical as in some sections of the globe. Yet we
hear until well on towards midnight the clanging of the

190

IN THE NIGHT WATCHES.

gongs from the Buddhist temples on either side of our
friend's home, alternating with the beating of cymbals, for
this has been a high day and the god must be worshiped far
into the night.

Every now and then a louder bang indicates the report
of a gun, which we are told is fired by the watchman on his
rounds to let the thieves know that he is in their vicinity and
that they had better keep out of his way, a very convenient
thing for the thieves, as it seems to us. Thus, with the bang
of gun and beat of drum, and clash of cymbals, our senses
grow drowsy as we recall to mind the events of the day that
has passed, and we thank God for a religion that appeals to
the head as well as to the heart, to the conscience and not to
superstition, to the love of God and not to an undefined fear
of evil, to the desire for holiness and not to the hope of gain.
These are the lessons which the tom-toms and the fire-crack-
ers, the gongs and the drums of the Buddhist temples, teach
us in the watches of the night.

CHAPTER XI.

OUR STAY IN CHARMING JAPAN — SOCIAL CUSTOMS — SOME
INTERESTING PERSONAL EXPERIENCES — LIFE AND
SCENES ON A TEA PLANTATION.

— Receiving Callers — A Hinge in the Spine — The Ohio Statesman's
Mistake — "My Fool of a Wife " — Japanese Railways — Our Fellow
Passengers — Progressive Japan — Telegraph Lines and Electric Lights

— Postal Delivery Six Times a Day — Protecting the Windows — The
Professor's Many Suits — The " Obi" — A Japanese Joseph — What we
Saw from the Car Window — A Tea Plantation.

^OTHING so well prepares the trav-
eler for an introduction to any
new land as a long and stormy
journey thitherward by sea. Even
the desert of Sahara would be
welcome under such circum-
stances ; how much more the
beautiful shores of smiling Japan-
So far as previous preparation
is concerned, we were made
amply ready by the long and
stormy voyage from Hong Kong.
Rarely has so much tempestuous discomfort been com-
pressed into the seven days between Hong Kong and
Yokohama.

As we neared the coast of Japan, a fearful typhoon

(101)

192 THROUGH THE CENTER OF THE TYPHOON.

which had been following in our wake for several days,
making only a little more rapid time than the steamer itself,
overtook us. The barometer dropped to the lowest point
ever known in these latitudes, and about ten o'clock on the
night of November 23d, the wind began to blow with " ty-
phoon force." For several days before, the wind had been
" blowing a gale," according to the captain's log book, but
on this night the demons of the air seemed to take to them-
selves seventy times seven spirits worse than the first, and
the way they shrieked and howled and screamed through
the rigging will never be forgotten by the passengers of the
Peru. Hoping the storm might blow by, Captain Ward at
first " hove to," to speak after the manner of sailors, but,
fearing that we might drift upon the rocks of the Loochoo
Islands, he soon put on all steam again, and drove his good
ship directly through the center of the typhoon, in order to
£et sufficient sea room.

As is well known, a typhoon is a circular storm of lim-
ited extent, which revolves about a comparatively calm area.
After plowing our way through the eastern edge of the
typhoon for some two hours, we struck the calmer center,
and for a little while the passengers congratulated them-
selves that the storm was over. But, alas ! our congratula-
tions were premature, for, after half an hour of comparative
quiet, the Peru dashed into the western edge of the cyclone,
and all the demons in the rigging began to scream and howl
and shriek with redoubled fury. For two hours more it was
with the greatest difficulty that we kept in our berths, hold-
ing to the storm braces with both hands, and thus prevent-
ing ourselves from being pitched headlong into the mass of
trunks and rugs, tumblers and water bottles, hairbrushes
and life preservers, which were jumbled together in inde-
scribnble confusion upon the state-room floor.

FUJIYAMA, THE BEAUTIFUL. 193

As the gray dawn began to show in what part of the
state-room the window was situated, the wind somewhat
moderated, but the waves were as high as ever. Reaching
down into the confused mass of debris which lay on the
state-room floor, Mrs. Pilgrim picked up one of the calen-
dars which our thoughtful friends at home had given us, with
the folio wing cheering message for November twenty -fourth
(Thanksgiving day, by the way), " The Lord is able to give
thee much more than this."

Never did that promise from Holy Writ have such a sin-
ister significance before. However, as the storm cleared
away and the sun appeared later in the day, and as the
waves somewhat moderated, though still " mountainous,"
according to the log book of the Peru, we felt the promise
was not so inappropriate after all, and there were many
things to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day, even
though the rolling, pitching dinner table did prevent our
doing full justice to the Thanksgiving turkey and cranberry
sauce.

After this experience, it can readily be seen that we
eagerly awaited the first glimpse of the lovely shores of
Japan.

Early on the morning of November twenty -sixth, they
broke upon us. There was Fujiyama, the most beautiful
mountain in the world, which figures on innumerable screens
and fans and teacups, rising before us in all his regal
splendor. No wonder that the Japanese love their sacred
mountain ; a far more dull and phlegmatic people would have
their veins stirred by such a sight.

This first view of Fujiyama which we enjoyed was per-
haps the best that could be obtained. The early snow of
approaching winter clothed him in a spotless ermine mantle
to his very feet. Every part of this most symmetrical and

194 OUR WELCOME TO JAPAN.

lovely cone was of dazzling whiteness, and, as the Eastern
sun arose, a rosy tinge spread its glow from the topmost
crater to the lowest fringe of the glistening garment.

On the other side of the steamer a volcano was puffing
out huge volumes of smoke. " Fiery Jack " the sailors called
it. On both sides the carefully cultivated fields of this park-
like fairy land came down close to the water's edge. Little
sailboats and Japanese junks danced about us on every side.
Everything on sea and shore looked its brightest and best.
The terrors of the stormy passage were forgotten, and we
felt that nature conspired with the experiences of the past
few days to make our welcome to Japan most bright and
memorable.

A few hours later and the Peru dropped her anchor
in Yokohama harbor, and we gladty exchanged the deck of
the ship for more substantial terra firma.

Yokohama, with its large English concession, its substan-
tial warehouses, and its harbor full of the vessels of all
nations, is not a typical Japanese city, and yet there are
many things to interest the traveler, who has not as yet been
sated with the temples and palaces, the picturesque villages
and beautiful natural scenery of fair Japan.

For instance, as we stepped ashore from the steam launch
a whole army of jinrikisha men came after us, each insisting
that we should patronize his particular baby carriage. But
first our baggage had to be passed through the Custom
House, and we were obliged for a time to disappoint our
eager friends, who served as hackmen and horses combined.

While we were undergoing the trying ordeal of a Custom
House inspection some fifty sailors from a British man-of-
war rowed ashore. Then what rushing and jamming and
pushing and shouting there was on the part of the jinrikisha
men! The eager cabmen at Forty-second street station,

CURIOUS OFFICIALS. 195

New York, are not to be compared to their brethren of
Yokohama. Two jinrikisha men pitched upon each jolly
tar and bore him away bodily to one of the little carriages
in waiting, and in less time than it takes to tell the story
every sailor was bundled into a jinrikisha and whisked
away ; we fear to no very reputable abiding place, for land-
sharks abound in Yokohama as in every seaport, and the
jinrikisha men have the reputation of being subsidized by the
worst of them.

Going through the Custom House is oftentimes a serious
matter in Japan, not that the duties are very high, but the
Custom House officials' curiosity is very great. Anything
done up in a bundle seemed to excite their suspicion at once,
and they took a boyish delight in finding out that one pack-
age contained a few worthless seashells, another a set of
chess men, each one of which had to be taken from its box
and examined separately, and still another, a double Chinese
sword, which one official took from its sheath and made
playful lunges at all the others who surrounded him.

However, a little harmless curiosity on the part of these
youthful inspectors is a venial fault compared with the rude-
ness and corruption of many of our customs officials at
home. One can afford to spend a little time at the Custom
House while the inmost recesses of his trunks are being ran-
sacked, if only he is treated with politeness meanwhile,
and is not brazenly asked to " to cross the palm " of the official,
as I have been invited to do ere this in New York city.

Now that we have actually set foot on Japanese soil, we
may as well take a lesson in Japanese politeness, for from
the lowest porter to the emperor himself this is an ingrained
characteristic, and unless we are careful, our brusque and
prompt western way may shock this courtliest of all
peoples.

196 A LESSON IN POLITENESS.

Even the Custom House officials bow low when we
present our keys and request them to examine our trunks,
and the jinrikisha men almost bend themselves to the dust
before us in their polite entreaties that we favor them with
our patronage.

As we go up the street, if we step into a Japanese store
to buy so much as a sheet of paper, we are greeted with
a low salaam by the proprietor, who deems it quite awkward
to go directly to business without a few polite preliminary
genuflections.

"When we reach our boarding-house a smiling man-ser-
vant stands upon the piazza to take our baggage with the
most gracious bow, and the door is opened by a maid-ser-
vant who almost touches the floor with her forehead, so low
is her obeisance as she admits us within the penetralia.

When we go upon the platform to make an address our
audience often rises and bows, and when we begin to speak
it is the proper thing to make as low a salute as our Ameri-
can stiffness and previous training will allow. Upon this
the audience all bow most graciously once more. At the
conclusion of the address the speaker bows again, and the
audience returns the salute.

But it is when we receive callers that the most trying
politeness is expected. The caller bows and we bow, and
then the caller bows again and we bow still lower. Again,
our Japanese visitor bends his body in a third genuflection,
and we follow suit, doing our best to bow in Japanese if we
cannot speak Japanese.

If we were well trained we should not lift up our stooping
figure until our visitor had begun to raise himself from his
salutatory posture, and we furtively glance out of the corners
of our eyes to see if he is not almost through with his bow-
ing. Sometimes a peculiar little gutteral grunt indicates

GENUFLECTIONS AND CIRCUMLOCUTIONS. 19?

that the visitor has finished his genuflections, and that we
can raise our own bodies to an upright posture with pro-
priety. I very much fear that I have many times broken
all the laws in the Japanese code of propriety and courtesy,
but I trust I shall be forgiven, and that my rudeness will be
charged to a lack of early training, and to my imperfect
western notions of civility.

One important factor in the Japanese obeisance is to get
the hinge in the right part of your anatomy. The brusque
Yankee and stiff Englishman bow simply with their heads
and the hinge they use is at the top of their spinal columns,
but no such indifferent bobbing of the head will satisfy the
Japanese demands. One must put the hinge lower down, at
the base of his spinal column, and bow with his whole body
instead of the top of his head. A few days of practice will
make one fairly proficient in this superficial part of the
Japanese code of etiquette.

But not only is their politeness a matter of bows and
genuflections ; it is as fully indicated in their language.
There is a polite language which is quite different from that
used on ordinary occasions, and cannot even be understood
by those familiar only with the colloquial tongue. Even the
humblest people use the politest circumlocutions on every
possible occasion.

For instance, when we knock at the door, the person
inside cries out " Ohairi," which means, " We welcome your
honorable return." When one greets a friend on the street
he says, " Ohayo," which means literally, " Honorable
early " ; or if translated into Irish it would be : " The top o'
the mornin' to yez ! "

It is said an Ohio statesman was once sent to a certain
port in Japan as consul. As he landed on the shores of the
country which was to be his home he heard one and another

198 BY RAIL TO TOKIO.

say in very good English as he thought, Ohio (Ohayo). "1
declare," said this son of the Buckeye state, "I knew they
were a well educated people in this land, but I didn't suppose
they knew the very state I came from."

A friend of mine tells me that his Japanese servant came
to him one day and said, as he bowed low to the floor, "Will
my most worthy master suffer his most humble servant to
visit the honorable bath that he may wash his filthy body?"
It is needless to say that after such a polite request permis-
sion was at once granted.

Japanese politeness consists not only in loading the per-
sons spoken to with all kinds of complimentary adjectives,
but also in depreciating one's self. Such a colloquy as this is
often heard in Japanese highways :

"How is your honorable wife this morning?"

"I thank you, honorable sir, my fool of a wife is very
well this morning."

And yet the second speaker may be a most loving and
exemplary husband ; he only wishes to be properly polite in
depreciating his own.

There is not very much to detain one in Yokohama, and
we will soon take the train, for Tokio, distant one hour by
rail. There seems to be an incongruity between the rush-
ing, bustling life of a railway station, and the Oriental
throngs that crowd it. The wooden clogs, worn by men,
women, and children, clatter on the stone floor of the station
like so many castanets and make almost a deafening sound.
Instead of spruce business men and "tailor-made girls," such
as one is accustomed to see thronging our railway cars at
home, people clad in practically the same garb which was in
fashion a thousand years ago, step into these most modern of
all vehicles to be whirled away as fast as steam can carry
them. Something seems to be out of place; whether the

PROGRESSIVE MODERN JAPAN. 199

Japanese costume and wooden ciogs, or our nineteenth cen-
tury mode of locomotion, I shall not pretend to say.

However, there seems to be no thought of incongruity on
the part of our fellow passengers, for the Japanese have
taken to railroads and steamships, to telephones and electric
lights, as though they were to the manner born.

The modern Japanese is nothing if not progressive.
Every new invention, every latest labor-saving contrivance,
he is ready to examine and adopt if it commends itself to
his judgment. "Well-appointed railroads connect one end of
Japan with another. A perfect network of telegraph wires
connect all leading cities. Incandescent electric lights often
flash from the most humble stores and dwellings. In the
leading cities the postman delivers his message six times a
day, and wherever we go we find that Japan's senses are all
alert to the first intimations of progress in any direction.

In some respects the Japanese railway system is even
better than ours. At least, more care is taken of life and
limb, no grade crossings are allowed at stations, and fatal
accidents are of very rare occurrence.

The cars are mostly after the English pattern, and di-
vided into first, second, and third-class compartments. The
first-class compartments are very rarely used in Japan, even
by "lords, fools, and Americans." In fact, after riding
many hundred miles on Japanese railroads, I remember to
have seen but a single occupant of a first-class carriage.
The second-class is used somewhat sparingly, while the third-
class on every train is crowded with vivacious Japanese
travelers.

As glass is a modern invention which, strangely enough,
has not been largely introduced into country districts, Jap-
anese windows generally being made of rice paper, the glass
oar windows in third-class compartments are crossed with

200 OUR FELLOW PASSENGERS.

lines of white paint, so that native travelers from the rural
districts, who never saw glass before, may not unwittingly
put their heads through the windows. The bills of the Im-
perial Railway Company for broken glass became so large
that at last this device for showing the rural passenger that
there was something between him and the outside world
was adopted.

If you please, my readers, we will take a second-class
car to Tokio, and, without being rude, we can furtively ex-
amine our fellow passengers and their attire. After a few
days we shall become so accustomed to the national dress
it will be difficult for us to describe it ; so we must make
the most of our first impressions.

On the seat in front of us is a Japanese gentleman in
European clothes, but his ill-fitting coat and shabby Derby
hat are not nearly so picturesque as the garments of the
friend by his side. Not being a woman or a man milliner, I
cannot describe these garments with very good effect, but
must content myself with saying that our Japanese-clad fel-
low passenger wears tight-fitting trousers, nearly hidden by
a loose upper garment coming nearly to his feet, and bound
about the waist by a kind of scarf.

In fact, our friend on the opposite seat, since it is cold
weather, seems to wear several upper garments, for this is a
way the Japanese have of keeping warm. They do not
build fires or introduce steam heat, or even close their win-
dows and doors, but they add one garment to another, until
it is difficult to tell how large the kernel under the many
husks may be. The story is told of a professor in a famous
school who had the reputation of Avearing more clothes than
any other man on the faculty. The students, exaggerating
the truth, as students will, circulated the story that he com-
monly wore thirty-one suits of clothes. A friend of mine

SUPERFLUOUS COATS.

301

made bold to approach him on the subject, telling him the
story that was circulating among the students, whereupon
he gravely replied that he could not account for such a
report, as he had never, to his knowledge, worn more than
thirteen suits at one time, unless the students had transposed
the figures (31 for 13), and so the mistake had arisen.

But the gentleman in front of us in the car probably
wears not more than half a dozen garments on this journey,
and makes up for his superfluous coats by wearing nothing

DRESS OP JAPANESE WOMEN, SHOWING THE OBI.

on his head. On entering the car he slips off his wooden
shoes very easily, as they are only held on his feet by a cord
passing between his big toe and the next one ; then, putting
his stocking feet on the foot- warmer filled with hot water,
the only method of heating these cars, he settles himself
comfortably for his journey.

Not far from the gentleman opposite sits his wife. Her
garments are, of course, quite beyond my powers of descrip-
tion. It is only necessary to say that they are loose, flow-
ing, and graceful, and that on her back is a curious affair
13

202

AN INDICATION OF RANK.

called an " obi," or sash, on which she greatly prides her-
self. It is made of finest silk, and her rank in society is
very largely indicated by the obi which she wears. Her
head, too, is bare, though her profusion of black hair is so
fantastically arranged that she does not need any other
head-gear. On her feet are the same kind of clumsy wooden
shoes her husband wears.

Between them is their little child, the joy and pride,

/ . ■

A RURAL SCENE IN JAPAN.

doubtless, of the father's and mother's heart. He is arrayed
in a most gorgeous suit, a miniature reproduction of his
mother's, only in brighter colors. Joseph himself was not
more favored when a boy than this little Japanese lad.

But the objects of special interest are not all within the
car windows, by any means. We never get tired of the
ever-changing panorama without, made up of mountain and
meadow, forest trees and cultivated fields, bright costumes
and quaint cottages, and many a scene of rustic comfort and
content.

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A CHARMING PANORAMA.

205

One of the most interesting sights is a tea plantation.
Many of these we skirt in our railway journeys in Japan.
The long row of tea plants look like the bunches of box with
which the borders of old-fashioned flower gardens were once
made, only the tea plants are much larger. When the crop is
matured the tea garden is full of pickers, native men and
women, in bright costumes, working side by side, their gay
attire contrasting prettily with the fresh green of the tea
/eaves. These bright beings, who, we fear, are not as radi-
ant as they look, stop their work as the train rumbles by, to
gaze after the retreating cars, stirred by the same wonder
which a rushing railway train always excites in every part
of the world, however common the sight may be.

Thus we journey on, stopping at picturesque little vil-
lages, with thatch-roofed cottages ; past miles and miles
of fields cultivated with most accurate nicety, every one
looking like a market garden in the suburbs of a great city ;
past beautiful bamboo forests ; past shrines and large tem-
ples and emblems of Buddhist worship, set up, as in the days
of old, " under every green tree " ; past beautiful hills and
fertile valleys, winding rivers and canals teeming with life,
until, all too soon, so interesting is this brief journey, the
cars roll into the station of the great city of Tokio — the
largest in all the realm, the capital of the kingdom, the Mi-
kado's city of the Mikado's empire.

CHAPTEK XII.

THE MIKADO'S CITY AND THE MIKADO'S SUBJECTS.

Tokio, its Parks, its Temples, and its Palace — Its University — A Study
of Fish Parasites — What Missionaries have done — The Seismological
Department — An Artificial Earthquake — Exceptional Earthquake
Privileges — Wheat and Chaff — Canton and Tokio, or China versa*
Japan — The Frenchman of the East — A Japanese House — No Doors,
No Windows, No Chimneys — A Walk in a Country Village — The
Country Bakery — A Rice Mill — Division of Labor — An Initiation into
the Art of Orange Eating — The Japanese Shoe Shop — The Villainous
Daikon — Prices in Japan — A Pot of Tea for Two Cents — A Japanese
Dinner in a Japanese Hotel — The Curious Crowds at the Window —
Character Studies — The Motormen of the East — Surprising Endurance

— The Hilarious Jinrikisha Men — The Waitress and her Odd Position

— Paying our Reckoning.

IAMOUS and imposing as are its
many "lions,' 1 the one thing that
impressed me most strongly in
Tokio was the Imperial Univer-
sity, To find in this Oriental
land a university in many re-
spects the peer of Cambridge or
Oxford, Heidelberg or Harvard,
is a surprise to most people who
considered themselves tolerably
well versed in Japanese affairs.
The buildings of the Imperial
University, to be sure, are not equal to the venerable piles
which lend their ancient charm to an English or German
University town ; but even in buildings and equipment the

Imperial University of Japan is not far behind many vener-

(206)

A scientist's ambition. 207

able schools of other lands. But when one comes to examine
the work in biology, chemistry, the science of engineering,
and other departments of learning leading to practical re-
sults, he finds this is not a whit behind the great schools of
the world.

In the biological department we saw a graduate student
famous the world over for his studies of fish parasites. For
years he has been making microscopic examinations of these
minute enemies Avhich prey upon the finny tribe, and his re-
searches have provoked the favorable comment of scientific
men in all parts of the world. As I approached his labora-
tory he had just discovered a new parasite, which he showed
me with considerable satisfaction, imprisoned as it was
between the glasses of his slide. He expects to devote his
life to the study of fish parasites, though he is gradually
coming to the belief that his ambition has taken too wide a
range, and that he ought to devote himself to the parasites
of marine fish altogether.

As he is now a very young man, with doubtless forty or
fifty years of hard work before him, I should think that he
might before he dies make considerable progress in the pur-
suit of his favorite study, if he confines himself to a suffi-
ciently narrow range. I sincerely hope that my friend of
the Imperial University will not have the same cause for re-
gret as the famous Greek student of the dative case, who
reproached himself on his death-bed that he had taken so
large a subject and had not devoted himself altogether to
the dative case of the Greek article. This example does not
stand alone. In other departments also the same careful
and highly specialized work is accomplished.

In the early days the University was manned largely by
foreign professors, and the chief credit for its establishment
and progress is due largely to Christian missionaries, as was

208 EARTHQUAKE PRIVILEGES.

the case with almost every high grade college in the far
East. In Japan especial honor is due to Dr. Verbeck of the
Dutch Reformed Board, who, in the beginning, more than
any other man influenced the government in the establish-
ment and development of the university idea. Of late
years, however, as in all other departments, the government
is bringing the Imperial University and all lower schools
more and more under the control of Japanese teachers.
"Japan for the Japanese," is the cry of recent days, and
foreign teachers are largely being discharged and their
places filled by native Japanese, even in the teaching of the
English language itself. "While willing to adopt everything
that they think is best in modern civilization, the Japanese
are evidently bound to be free from dependence on foreign-
ers at the earliest possible moment.

As one walks through the halls, enters the spacious
library, and views the splendid equipment of the engineering
department of the university, he stands amazed at the
modern progress of this ancient nation. There is no phase
of scientific thought familiar to the Western world which is
not almost equally familiar to this Island Empire of the
Orient. Every latest contrivance, every labor-saving ma-
chine is examined and appropriated if considered worthy.
In the Seismological department of the university are prob-
ably the most accurate and delicate instruments for comput-
ing the direction and vibration of earthquakes to be found in
the world. The professor in this department set the delicate
clock-like machinery in motion for us, thus producing a
miniature artificial earthquake that we might see how the
nicely adjusted machines, with their automatic fingers,
marked the slightest vibration in the earth's crust. Tokio,
by the way, is a very favorable place for such a department
of study, for scores of times a year it thrills and quakes with

THE CROWN OF JAPAN'S CIVILIZATION. 209

subterranean movements. In fact its earthquake opportu-
nities are unique and exceptional.

The contrast between the Chinese and Japanese is dis-
cerned by no one more plainly than by him who travels
direct from Canton to Tokio. In the former city is repre-
sented the old educational" system of the Orient, in the
dreary examination hall, with its eleven hundred cells, empty
and deserted, except for nine days, in the course of three
years. The supreme test of scholarship during those nine
days of examination is, as I have already stated, the ability
to write an essay on some text of Confucius ; the sole stand-
ard for civil service promotion, a good literary style, and
aptness to write some incomprehensible pages upon an un-
fathomable subject. No languages are studied there, no In-
ductive Philosophy, no Chemistry, Biology, Geology, Botany,
no engineering or mining departments, no instruction in
ship-building or architecture ; but one dreary monotonous
grind on Confucius and Confucianism. The old sage still
dominates every man, woman, and child in China, except
the few who are emancipated by the religion of Christ.

In Japan how different ! Here are railroads and steam-
boats, the latest electrical inventions, and most modern theo-
ries of ship-building and mining, agriculture and the me-
chanic arts, and the crown of all this modern civilization is
the Imperial University of Tokio. Here Confucius takes
the back seat, and Galileo and Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton
and Herschel, Huxley and Darwin come to the front.

Perhaps this sudden advance in modern civilization is
not altogether an unmixed good. Doubtless many evils
have followed in the train of this nineteenth century civiliz-
ation which has jwept with such a conquering march over
the empire of Japan. Doubtless there has been much chaff
mixed with the wheat, and sometimes, in all probability, the

210 THE FRENCHMAN OF THE OLD WORLD.

wheat has been thrown away, and the chaff of false phil-
osophy and materialism retained. Nevertheless, the con-
trast between the thousand-year-old Examination Hall of
Canton and the Imperial University of Tokio reveals the
inherent difference between the two great nations of the
Orient. English-speaking people are too apt to lump
Orientals together, and to see but little difference between
the almond-eyed nations of the world.

An American religious paper once gravely announced
that " Rev. Mr. So-and-So was about to start as a missionary
to China and Japan,' 1 as though either of these nations were
not quite enough to tax the powers of the average Ameri-
can missionary. As a matter of fact, there is far more dif-
ference between the Chinese and Japanese than between the
Englishman and Frenchman, or the German and Russian.

The Japanese is the Frenchman of the Old World, as has
often been remarked ; volatile, mercurial, easily moved to
adopt a new plan, but often tickle in his rentention of it, he
is endowed with the strong points, and doubtless many of
the weaknesses, of the Celtic nations of Europe. To watch
the development of this new France in these Eastern seas
will be a most interesting study for the future ethnologist.

In one respect, however, Japan is different from France,
for it possesses no vast capital of overwhelming importance,
like Paris. If " Paris is France," Tokio, though the most
important city, is by no means Japan.

A few days after our arrival in Yokohama we took a
journey into rural Japan. Here in the country districts we
find the Japanese at home. He has adopted no foreign cos-
tume, and put on no Parisian airs. He has the telegraph
and electric light, to be sure, and in many places the rail-
road train ; but in all essential particulars the Japan of to-
day is the Japan of a thousand years ago.

A VILLAGE STREET.

211

Let me take you on a walk this bright, crisp December
morning through a village street in Japan — such a village
street as I have seen a hundred times during my brief stay
in that fair land. The village boasts no buildings of archi-

IN WINTER COSTUME.

tectural pretentions, unless, perhaps, it contains an old
palace of Daimio times. Even if it does, the palace is
probably deserted and falling into ruin, though its massive
walls, wide water-filled moats, and pagoda-like stories still
tell of its former magnificence in feudal times.

212 HOUSEKEEPING MADE EASY.

As for the rest of the village, the houses generally are
very humble and unpretentious, usually one-story high, with
a heavy thatched or tiled roof, and defended from the
weather by thin paper screens. A modern writer has said
that " Japanese houses have no walls, no windows, and no
chimneys." Take away these essentials, and one may well
ask what would be left but a huge dry -goods box. This,
however, is somewhat of an exaggeration, for the movable
rice paper screens answer very well for partition walls, and
the rice paper screens themselves, though opaque, answer for
windows, through which a " dim religious light " manages
to find its way. As for the chimneys, what need is there
of them when the stoves contain no blaze and no smoke, but
simply a little handful of coals in the middle of a bed of
sand ? If we get a glimpse into one of the Japanese houses
we are passing, we shall see very little furniture ; two or
three warm quilts for each person, a small flat cushion on
which he may sit, two or three " hibachis " or fire boxes, a
few little tables not more than six inches high, and some
lamps, cups, bowls, tubs, and saucepans complete the house-
hold furniture. One will see no chairs, knives, forks, or
spoons, no carpets nor rugs, no pictures on the walls. How-
ever, there are some very good substitutes for all these neces-
sary articles. The screens are often beautifully painted, and
scrolls on the walls, changed often, add life and color to the
room. There are no chairs, to be sure, but what does one
want of a chair when he can sit on the soles of his feet ?
And as for knives, forks, and spoons, chopsticks are quite as
handy when one knows how to use them, and far less trou-
blesome. What would not our American housewives, who
are " cumbered with much serving," and grow prematurely
old with much dish-washing, give for these neat and inex-
pensive substitutes for table cutlery!

"NO charge for showing goods." 215

"We may not linger too long at the open doorway of this
Japanese house lest we be deemed impolite even by these
people, who themselves have more than their fair share of
"Yankee curiosity," so we will pass on to have a look at
some of the stores, which are open to the inspection of the
passer-by. There are no show windows, for the whole store
is one show window with all its goods on exhibition. Here
is a bakery, for instance, with many kinds of thin, tempting-
looking wafers, and much gaudy candy, which one finds, on
investigation, has for its largest component rice flour with a
very small modicum of sugar. There are bushel baskets
full of rolls and little loaves with variegated streaks of green
and red running through them. If we should go a little
ways into the country we should find the rice flour mill
where the chief ingredient of these showy little cakes was
made. Here, under the same projecting roof, one coolie
threshes the rice straw over the iron teeth of a primitive flail,
which looks like a carpenter's wooden horse, while another
winnows the grain by pouring it over a rude sieve, allowing
the wind to blow away the chaff, while still another coolie
grinds the rice in a mill laboriously turned by hand. Next
to the bakery comes a fruit store, perhaps, where one sees
tempting piles of "kid glove" oranges, great, luscious, rosy
persimmons, yellow loquots, and piles of little oranges not
bigger than the end of one's thumb.

But my readers will pardon a digression here, for while
looking at these tempting piles of Japanese fruit, I will
initiate him into the process of eating a Japanese orange.
Every nation has its peculiar method of extracting the juices
of this tempting fruit. Perhaps nations might be classified
according to their ways of eating oranges. The American,
at least the hotel-patronizing American, cuts his "Florida"
in two in the middle, scoops out the rich juice with his

216

THE POLITE ART OF ORANGE EATING.

orange spoon, and accomplishes his task deftly and neatly.
The Australian cuts into eight sections the product of his
semi-tropical groves and is thus able to eat his breakfast
fruit with great expedition. The small boy of all nations
bores a hole in the end of his orange and unceremoniously
sucks its contents, leaving the fair looking skin dry and
juieeless. The Japanese orange, however, may be eaten like
a grape, as it naturally falls apart into a dozen different

A JArAXESR FRUIT STOUK.

wedge-shaped segments. The expert grasps the thin end of
the wedge firmly between his thumb and first finger, presses
the juicy section, held perpendicularly and not horizontally,
between his teeth, and thus in the twinkling of an eye
extracts all the sweetness from the skin of one section.
Thus he treats section after section of his orange, eating
them as rapidly as so many Hamburg grapes. In fact, an
expert "orangeman" will make nothing of getting through

CLOGS AND STRAW SANDALS.

217

six specimens of this luscious Japanese fruit while the aver-
age American is toilsomely digging out the pulp from a
single native of the orange groves of Florida or California.
Just beyond the fruit store is a barber shop, for hair cut-
ting and shaving is a great business in Japan. As in the
other stores, everything is open to the daylight, there are no
screens, no windows, no partitions. The shop is simply a
recess from the sidewalk where the barber and his customer
are sitting, while other customers are waiting the familiar
"next/ 1

JAPANESE UMBRELLA MAKER.

Then comes a shoe store, perhaps, but we see no " Oxford
ties" or top boots, "Dongolas" or russet tennis shoes dis-
played; but instead we see rows upon rows of heavy
wooden clogs, mud shoes on wooden stilts three or four
inches high, and long festoons of straw sandals hanging
from the ceiling. These sandals are nothing but soles, for
there is no need of an upper to protect the foot, but simply a
strap passing between the big toe and its next neighbor, by

218 BY MARKET AND WORKSHOP.

which the sandal is dexterously held in place. Perhaps the
shoe dealer also trades in stockings and we find a large
assortment of curious foot-wear made of cloth and not knit
like the stockings of foreigners, but sewed together with
a compartment especially made for the big toe by itself to
fit the shoes and sandals already described. Next to the
shoe store is an umbrella factory, and near by is a vegetable
market. Here we find a very good supply of the vegetables
of the season. Sweet potatoes are common and cheap, sold
not only raw but also at almost every street corner, smoking
hot from the pot or nicely browned from the brazier. Pars-
nips and cabbage, onions and celery, spinach and lettuce
also find a place in these stores.

Everywhere one sees piles of the succulent "daikon";
along the railroad stations, in the fields, borne upon the stag-
gering shoulders of men and women, loaded upon bullock
carts, strung upon great ropes and stretched between trees
and posts to dry, cut up and spread upon the house roofs for
desiccation, until one is tempted after all these sights to call
Japan, not the land of the chrysanthemum, but the country
•of the daikon. Of course, the green grocer whose store we
are inspecting has a large assortment of this favorite vegeta-
ble on hand. The daikon is a sort of radish, and is of two
varieties, one very long, sometimes nearly two feet in length
and six inches through, while the other specimen looks like a
turnip of gigantic proportions. How it tastes we shall find
out when we come to eat our dinner at a Japanese hotel.

As we pass another open recess in the street we see a
potter at work with his wheel ; still another alcove shows
an umbrella-maker ; a third reveals a rake-maker plying his
task with strips of stiff bamboo for the rakes' teeth, while a
fourth is busy making the lanterns which form such a pictur-
esque and striking feature of night life in Japan.

THE PARADISE OF LEAN POCKETBOOKS.

219

Let us stop and make a few purchases as we pass some
of these odd and tempting stores. Your pockets and mine,
my reader, are not very large, perhaps, but Japan is the par-
adise of lean pocketbooks. For instance, we will take home
to show our friends the foot gear of this interesting people,
one pair of straw sandals, one of wooden shoes, and still
another of high clogs for muddy weather, and three pairs of
stockings to go with our shoes. Our purchases make quite

IN A JAPANESE BARBEH SHOP.

a formidable looking bundle, and we fear we may not hav^
change enough to pay for our curiosities. But we are quite
relieved to find that all our goods come to only seventeen
sen, five rin, something less than 12£ cents.

Everywhere in Japan, except on the foreign concessions,
these cheap prices prevail. For instance, at the railroad sta-
tion I purchased an earthen teapot, holding at least a quart
of hot tea and with a cup thrown in, for the extravagant
price of three sen, or about two cents, United States currency.

230 A DOZEN ORANGES FOR ONE SEN.

Desiring to have some unnecessary hirsute appendages
removed, I was told that the price of hair cutting in the
Japanese saloon where I proposed to go was two sen, and if
I wanted to be shaved, I must deplete my pocket book to
the extent of one sen more, or something like six and one-
half mills for a clean shave. If, however, I desired the
barber to come to my house to perform his task, I would be
obliged to pay him the enormous sum of six sen (United
States money about four cents) for his extra trouble.

The jinriksha man will run for a good hour toiling up
steep hills and over rough roads, and at the end of the five-
mile journey, with the sweat pouring down his back, will
bow his most gracious thanks if presented with the value of
a ten-cent piece. One feels that he is taking advantage of an
innocent and unsuspecting youth when he first pays such a
trifling sum for such a large service, but these jinriksha men,
like their brethren of the horsey fraternity all over the
world, have their eve teeth cut, and it is more likelv that he
has taken you in to the extent of a few rin, than that he is
in any way underpaid.

At one time I handed a railway platform peddler a cop-
per sen (less than one cent), and with various motions gave
him to understand I desired the value of the coin in the
oranges which he held in his tray, whereupon he passed into
the car window orange after orange until a round dozen lay
on the seat beside me. Had I been aware that I was
making so large a purchase I would have invested but half
the sum at one time. It must be confessed, however, that
the oranges were not very large, and a hungry little boy by
my side soon disposed of the whole purchase.

Now, if we have sufficiently explored our village street,
let us go into a Japanese hotel and have dinner, for sight-
seeing is hungry work. We will leave our shoes at the door.

DINNER AT A TOY HOTEL. 221

for it would be almost profanity to bring our muddy foot-
wear into this immaculate little toy hotel.

The floor is covered with soft, heavy matting, as spotless
as table damask, and three or four hibachis are set around in
different parts of the room to take the chill from the fi ,^ty
atmosphere, which the paper screens very freely admit.
But still we are cold, in spite of the few little piles of glow-
ing charcoal, and our host opens another screen door, show-
ing his kotatsu, simply a square hole in the middle of the
room, filled with sand, upon which is a little larger pile of
glowing charcoal. Over this hole is spread a large, thick
quilt or "futon" and under this futon we all stick our feet,
and the genial warmth from the kotatsu being all econo-
mized, our lower extremities are soon quite warm, while we
hold our hands over the hibachis, and so are soon glowing
with warmth at both extremities, whatever may be true of
the rest of our bodies.

While we have been getting warm, dinner has been cook-
ing, and now a Japanese damsel brings it in on red lacquer
trays. This solemn proceeding is preceded by a very low
bow, the waitress falling on her knees and touching the mat-
ting with her forehead before each one of us. Then she
presents the dinner tray as though making an offering to the
gods.

In the tray is a bowl of steaming rice " without any

trimmings," as one of our party remarked ; no sugar, salt, or

condiments of any kind being eaten with the rice, except

such as we find in the bowl of thin soup accompanying it.

In this soup is a little wad of boiled spinach, several large

mushrooms, and a slice of an indescribable mixture made of

fish and eggs, which is not altogether unpalatable if one has

courage to investigate it.

Besides the soup and rice, the tray contains a large cup
14

222

AN EXECRABLE PICKLE.

of lima beans, hard and unsavory, a saucer of fish, with a
little "soi" by its side, and the inevitable daikon. This
daikon is not the radish in its first estate, fresh from the
dewy fields, but a most execrable kind of fermented pickle.
It looks white and fair enough to tempt the most delicate
appetite, but its taste wofully belies its toothsome appear-
ance. Some one has described it as a cross between spoiled
sauerkraut and decayed Limburger cheese, and perhaps

THE VILLAINOUS DAIKON.

there is no better description, on the whole, for this most
villainous of vegetables.

However, when the gourmand of our own country eats
Ms "high game" and "woodcock trail," and rejoices in
his sauerkraut and Limburger, who shall say the Japa-
nese partiality for pickled daikon is more absurd than the
gastronomic whims of the American or European epicure?
However, the most "difficult" appetite need not go unsatis-
fied even in a Japanese hotel, for the oranges are delicious,
and the tea is always hot and good even if minus milk and
sugar.

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INTERESTING TO OUTSIDERS. 225

While we are eating our dinner in this toy tea-house
a group of inquiring urchins gathers at the window outside.
If they are interested in us, we are quite as much interested
in them, and extract no less fun from the inspection than
they do themselves. As in most such crowds in every land,
the "small boy" predominates. Yery often he has a
smaller boy upon his back, for children are put to work
early in this land. The little fellow on his brother's back,
though but a few months old, is quite content with his
elevated position, and evidently has a mild curiosity in re-
gard to the foreigners who are making such awkward work
with their chop-sticks.

Sometimes the baby has another doll baby on his back,
and I have actually seen a small doll on the big doll's back,
the big doll on the small boy's back, and the small boy on
his big brother's back; four generations, as it were, to-
gether.

But curiosity is not confined to the small fry altogether.
Their fathers and mothers look in upon us with Avondering
eyes ; the street peddler draws near and forgets to hawk his
wares for a few moments; the sword juggler who per-
ambulates the street with loud cries and extravagant antics
for the sake of drawing a crowd to his entertainment, seems
more interested in these strange people who have descended
upon his native village than in his own performance.

By stopping to gaze upon us one curiosity monger at-
tracts another until the whole doorway is filled, and we
begin to feel ourselves the observed of all observers. How-
ever, it is a very good-natured inspection, and as I have said,
we repay it with interest. For every dirty-faced little street
gamin, and every scald-headed baby (for many of them, I
am sorry to say, have some sort of scalp disease), every bare-
headed, open-eyed bumpkin, every black-toothed married

220

BEGGARS AND MOTOR-MEN.

woman, and every sweet-faced "musmee" (for there are
many pretty girls among them) is an especial study.

In this throng at the hotel doorway (if it is proper to
^peak of a doorway when the whole side of the house is one
great duo. way) we are likely to get a glimpse of a Buddhist

priest with his queer head-
gear and closely shaven head.
Yery likely he is a beggar
priest with a little gong
which he continually beats,
and a big receptacle for the
offerings of the faithful.
Other beggars wear a pecu-
liar kind of hat like an in-
verted bushel basket, which
comes down over the head
almost to the shoulders.

We also have among our
auditors several bare-legged
jinrikisha men, with their red
blankets wrapped around
their shoulders, giving a
touch of color to the scene,
and leading one to think for an instant, as he glances out upon
the crowd, that he is on an Indian reservation in the far
"West. These jinrikisha men deserve a whole chapter to
themselves, for they form a very large section of the popu-
lation, besides furnishing a very important convenience to
the traveling public. They are the hack men and motor-
men, the horse-car drivers, and horses and electric motors
combined, of the far East. The jinrikisha was invented
twenty-five years ago, by a Baptist missionary, though the
date and title to the invention is disputed by some.

A JAPANESE PEASANT.

AN EXAGGERATED BABY CARRIAGE. 227

It seems strange that this inventive and progressive
people did not find such an important and convenient means
of conveyance long before, for horses are almost unknown in
Japan, except in the army, mules are entirely a minus quan-
tity, and cows do not afford a very swift or delightful
means of travel. The roads, moreover, are excellent
throughout the empire, and are just fitted for these light
and tiny one-man vehicles. Within a twelve-month after its
''introduction the jinrikisha had become common in the large
cities of Japan, and within two years its use became uni-
versal. After getting along for five thousand years under a
gingle dynasty without any such convenient mode of loco-
motion, the nation was evidently ripe for the int oduction
of this exaggerated baby carriage. As mushrooms spring
up in a night where the evening before there was no sign of
a growing fungus, so the jinrikisha has suddenly appeared in
all parts of Japan, and with it came the jinrikisha-man, who
is now an institution that could not possibly be dispensed
with.

Just as there are cabs and cabs, elegant landaus, and rus-
tic herdics, brightly-polished hansoms and disreputable four
wheelers, so there are jinrikishas and jinrikishas. Get into
one of the better class, with a strong man to pull it and a
good road to travel over, and one is as comfortable as in an
easy chair wheeled over a parlor carpet. But get a rattlety-
bang affair such as one sometimes finds, with a low back
that cuts the spine in two, rattling wheels and a semi-defunct
man to pull it, and the sensation of jinrikisha riding is any-
thing but agreeable. However, most of these men are
strong, quick, and polite. They will tuck you into their
little vehicle with the red blanket around your feet, and
start off as merrily as if going to their own wedding. Espe-
cially when several are hired at the same time for the same

228

HILARIOUS JINRIKISHA MEN.

journey, they seem to take genuine delight in their work. I
have seen ten of these men, two in a jinrikisha, hired by a
party of five, when roads were rough and time limited,
scamper along the road with the utmost glee, as boys just
let out of school go home for a long holiday. They would
crack jokes one to another, laugh uproariously, and then
subside into a steady jog trot and monotonous low chant,
which, beginning with the head man, would be passed back

A JINRIKISHA.

to the next, by him to the next, and so on until the last man
in the procession took up the strain and passed it forward
along the line.

Their endurance is perfectly wonderful. Many a time
have I seen them trot off, a good hour at a time, up hill and
down dale, pulling their heavy loads without a single breath-
ing spell, while at the end of the journey I do not remember
to have seen one exhausted or " winded." How would it do
for our college athletes to take lessons in training from
these Japanese jinrikisha men ? A missionary friend of mine

A CONVENIENT POSITION FOR THE WAITRESS. 229

tells me that on one occasion, when pressed for time, his jin-
rikisha-man made seventy -five miles in one day over a road
far from the best, and was by no means utterly exhausted at
the end of the day. On the following day he was quite
fresh and ready for another long pull. This journey, though
of course exceptional, is by no means unexampled, while
forty or fifty miles is not an unusual day's work, and may
be kept up many days in succession by these hardy little
runners.

But our jinrikisha men have quite run away with us from
that dinner we were describing. By this time we must be
considered to have finished our Japanese meal, drained the
last cup of weak tea, and ready to leave mine host. While
we have been eating, our Japanese waitress, in her spotless
white stockings, has been sitting in the very middle of the
table, or rather, of the dining-room floor, which serves as
our table, so that she may conveniently hand us any edibles
that may be out of our reach. The vision suggested to my
readers by this description of a great, strapping, awkward
Irish Biddy planting herself in the middle of the dining
table, and passing the viands to the different guests, is su-
premely ludicrous ; but not in the least incongruous is the
picture of this delicate and deft Japanese maiden squatting
on her white soles within the inmost circle of guests, that she
might hand the desired dishes to any one in need.

Now we will pay our small reckoning, put on our shoes
again, make a low salaam to the honorable tavern keeper
and his wife and all his servants and waitresses, and find our
way through the dense crowd of curiosity-seekers to the rail-
way station.

CHAPTER XIII.

OUR EXPERIENCE AT A CEREMONIAL TEA — THE THIRTY-
THIRD DEGREE OF EXQUISITE POLITENESS — JAPANESE
SOCIAL LIFE — IN THE EMPEROR'S PALACE.

A Ceremonial Tea — "Past Masters " of Politeness — The Emperor's De-
vice — A Dignified Function — A Contest in Politeness — White and
Black Charcoal — With Measured Steps and Rhythmic Motion — Build
ing the Fire — The Most Solemn Moment — Our Part in the Ceremony

— No Laughing Matter — Smacking Our Lips — From Tokio to Kioto

— The Garden of the World — Industrious and Careful Farmers —
Woman's Rights in Japan — One of Japan's Honored Names — Mis-
sionary Life in the East — Flippant "Globe-trotters" — Cheating the
Gods — Stone Children with Red Bibs — Confucius's Chilly Cult — The
Temple of the Three Thousand Gods — Big Gods and Little Gods —
Rope Made of Human Hair — How Heavy Timbers were Lifted into
Place — Curious Sacrifice of Religious Devotees — In the Emperor's
Palace — Osaka, its Mint, its Castle, and its Fish-Market.

EFOliE we leave the fascinating
empire of the Mikado we mast
all attend u a Ceremonial Tea."
It is not the good fortune of every
traveler in Japan to become ac-
quainted with this unique national
custom, but it is well worth the
time it takes to see the acme of
etiquette, the thirty-third degree
of exquisite politeness, formality,
and ceremony, in which the Jap-
anese are " Past Masters.''' Pro-
fessors of the art of giving- ceremonial teas still exist in
Japan, though I understand the professors and the teas
themselves are not such every -day matters as they used to

be, for most Japanese in these stirring days have not time

(230)

ORIGIN OF THE CEREMONIAL TEA.

231

to devote the hours and hours necessary to imbibing a cup
of tea in the most approved and correct manner.

This custom is said to have been introduced by HideyoshL,
the great conqueror of Corea, who, after his armies had re-
turned triumphant, felt obliged to provide some occupation
for his soldiers which should take their time and remove
their thoughts from warlike scenes. So, shrewd man that
he was, he centered their minds upon pouring and imbib-
ing the '•' cup that cheers," feeling sure that any one whose

DIGNIFIED DAMSELS AT TEA.

attention was taken up for five hours at a stretch by the
delicate and intricate ceremonies centering around a tea-
pot would have no room for bloodthirsty thoughts or over-
leaping ambitions.

For three hundred years the Ceremonial Tea has been an
institution of Japanese life, and ceremonial tea-making is
taught in the modern schools of the government, as it is
thought to give dignity and grace and a kind of solemn les-
son in etiquette to all who study its intricacies. When we
asked the aged professor who had been a teacher of the art
all her life, and who poured for us the ceremonial cup, how

232 PRELIMINARY COURTESIES.

long it took to become perfect in her profession, she told us
that a bright scholar studying one hour a day for three
years continuously might become fairly proficient ; but she
emphasized the word "fairly" to show that only a very com-
parative degree of proficiency was attainable by any such
short apprenticeship.

But now for the tea. There were five of us favored with
the ceremony in the old Daimio city of Okyama. After
carefully removing our shoes, we stepped reverently upon
the straw matting of the professor's little toy house, which,
by the way, was a perfect specimen of the average Japanese
abode. I said stepped, but it would be more proper to say
kneeled, for we were told that it would be almost profane
to come into the room in our usual upright position. So we
left our shoes on the ground below and kneeled up into the
first floor sitting-room of our hostess' apartments. Here we
saw a gray-haired old lady awaiting us with sweet serenity
and great dignity of mien. She also was upon her hands
and knees, and she bowed very low before us, while her
pathetic gray hairs swept the matting at our feet. We were
not to be outdone in politeness, however, so putting our
hands before us on the matting, we bowed low until the very
crowns of our heads rested on the soft matting of the floor.
After remaining in that position as long as we thought
strict etiquette required, we rose to our feet, and followed
our hostess up the steep and narrow stairs to the room above,
the room sacred to the ceremonial tea.

In this room a fire was glowing in the kotatsu, and the
steaming earthen jar of hot water looked altogether cheer-
ful and home-like as it bubbled and simmered above the coals.

This pre-arrangement, however, was only a concession to
our Western spirit of haste, for our ceremonial professor
had been told we had but one hour at our disposal, and the

STATELY AND DIGNIFIED CEREMONIES. 233

tea must be made and served in that short space of time, or
not at all. Otherwise, she would have kindled the fire
before us, and have placed every drop of water in the honor-
able pot, which is the true and ancient way to prepare for a
ceremonial tea.

Motioning us to take our seats upon the mats provided,
she set about her task in the most serenely grave and digni-
fied fashion. First she entered the screen door with a little
bronze dish filled with charcoal, some sticks being painted
white, while others were left the natural color of the coal.
"When she reached the door she turned around and very
gravely pulled the door partly to with one hand, transferred
the charcoal dish to the other hand and pulled the door a.
little farther with the hand thus left free, then changed
hands once more, and finally shut the door with the hand
first in use. Then, with six short and measured steps, only
six and no more, she made her way to the fire-hole in the
floor. Then turning around, with solemn precision, she
dropped upon her white stocking soles, and with the utmost
reverence and care deposited the charcoal in front of her.
Taking from a large basket by her side a pair of curious
black tongs, slowly and with the gravest dignity she placed
two black and two white pieces of charcoal on the glowing
coals. Then, though there was not a particle of dust to be
seen, she took two turkey feathers and slowly and with
rhythmic motions brushed the black polished edge of the
kotatsu. With a specially dedicated spoon she then took the
saucer of damp ashes and sprinkled them all about the glow-
ing coals, that the fire might not spread. As I write this
description the words naturally used seem to imply some-
thing of hurry and undignified haste. The very word
" sprinkle " from its sound seems to imply a hasty and flip-
pant action, but I beg my readers to understand it was any-

234 A SOLEMN MOMENT.

thing but this. Slow and moderate, dignified and rhythmic,
was every motion of her hand and spoon and tongs, and as
the damp ashes dropped upon the hot sand they seemed to
partake of the spirit of the occasion, and to fall in a very
dignified and methodical manner. Then, with the same slow
and solemn movement she rose to her feet, and grasping the
chosen vessel with the utmost tenderness, taking six meas-
ured steps to the door, no more and no less, she set down the
bronze dish and opening the door, first with one hand and
then with the other, and then with the first again, and bow-
ing her gray hairs to the floor, she glided out into the next
room.

In rising from the floor she must get upon her- left foot
first, and it would be an unpardonable breach of etiquette to
put her right foot forward before the left had preceded it.

In the same way, with slow and measured half-dozen
steps, she brought in two cups, and then a slop-bowl, and
then a little bamboo dipper with which to fill her hot water
pot, and last of all the sacred lacquer box containing the
powdered flowers of the tea plant. This was, possibly, the
most solemn moment of the whole ceremonv. Even with
fifty years' experience our hostess evidently found it difficult
to live up to her lacquer tea box. Taking from her girdle a
red silk napkin, she smoothed and folded it with extremest
care, tenderly and seriously, and then dusted the top of tha
tea box, on which there had been before not the slightest
suspicion of dust ; then unfolding it again in another peculiar
manner, which took months of constant practice to learn to
perfection, she laid the cloth aside.

Following this came another serious ceremony. Taking
a bamboo dipper carefully in both hands, she placed it in
just the right position on the teacup, the handle resting on
the floor. Then, with her other hand again grasping the

NO CAUSE FOR LEVITY. 235

handle of the dipper, with dignified reverence she poured
a small amount of water into the teacup. Into this half
a teaspoonful of the powdered tea flower was put, and
stirred in with a long bamboo whisk which looked not unlike
an egg-beater.

Then with slow and measured tread she approached the
first guest in the row, and, sweeping the soft matting with
her white hair, she placed the cup before the honored guest.
Do not suppose that anything was done except with the ut-
most precision and care. It is impossible, since life is short,.
to describe the preciseness, suavity, and dignified solemnity
with which every movement Avas performed. Xot a smile
passed over her weather-beaten features. Every act was no
less serious than a religious rite to her.

However much cause for levity her guests may have
found, our hostess herself was evidently performing a duty
which admitted of no frivolity. "Worldly chatter seemed
out of place. Laughter which came into our hearts died
away before it rose to the lips; and every smile was-
smoothed out before the dignified procedure of our cere-
monious host.

Then came our part, which was, alas ! performed so much
more awkwardly than hers. A native Japanese lady, how-
ever, was present to coach us, and under her direction Ave
first touched the matting with our foreheads ; then solemnly
raising the cup, touched it to our brows first and next to our
lips. We were told it was good form to drain the cup in
three swallows, drawing in the breath after each swallow
and smacking the lips loudly to show our appreciation of the
delicious nectar. After the last swallow a peculiar noise
must be made by drawing in the breath with the pursed up
lips; a noise for which I have often heard children reproved
by their elders when discovered making it at the dinner

236 THE ORDEAL OVER.

table. I have forgotten to say, however, that before raising
the cup to our lips it was necessary to put it in the palm of
the left hand, while the right lovingly clasped the cup, then
it must be turned half way around, after which it might be
slowly raised to the lips.

After drinking, the outside of the cup must be wiped
with the thumb, while the inside of the cup must be simi-
larly wiped with the forefinger. Then it must be turned
half way round on the palm once more, and reverently set
down on the matting.

In the same way tea was prepared for each one of the
five guests, every one of whom must go through exactly the
same motions, or be forever disgraced in the eyes of our
hostess.

Then taking up the dipper and ladle, tea caddy, slop
bowl and cups, fire tongs and bronze charcoal basket, one by
one, she carried them into the next room, pacing most sol-
emnly each time over the six steps between the fire hole and
the door ; opening the door in the same way with both
hands, and then coming back to say "Adieu" to her guests.

By this time our hostess had relaxed a little ; a weight
was evidently off her mind ; she had gone through a severe
ordeal once more and had acquitted herself most creditably.
Her teacups had no reason to be ashamed of her, and she
even smiled a dignified smile, and condescended to chat
most graciously. We could not, however, remain for any
gossip, but pressing our crowns to the matting once more,
with many a bow and genuflection, we backed out of the
presence of etiquette personified, put on our shoes, bobbed
through the low Japanese door, and were able to stand erect
and take a good informal breath of fresh air, thanking God
that no such thing as ceremonial tea existed in the world
of nature into which we had emerged.

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INDUSTRIOUS AND HAPPY FARMERS.

239

The journey from Tokio to Kioto, from the modern
secular capital to the ancient sacred capital of Japan, was a
most delightful one. Such a panorama of mountain and
valley, seashore and bluff, beautifully cultivated rice fields
and garden spots, forests of bamboo, orange groves, and tea
plantations, mulberry bushes and persimmon orchards, rice
fields and vegetable gardens, would be hard to find in any
other section of the globe. England and France with their
careful culture are not so thoroughly tilled as the arable

IN A BAMBOO FOREST.

portions of Japan, and even little Belgium, with its teeming
population, does not seem as thoroughly subdued as the cul-
tivated parts of the Mikado's empire. On these little islands,
only one-ninth part of which has yet been brought under
cultivation, very much of whose area is bare rock and moun-
tain crag which can never be tilled, thirty-seven millions of
people find room for existence. While a few discontented
peasants in Ireland are always in a state of famine and
appealing to the sympathy of the civilized world with their
woes and lamentations, ten times as many contented, indus-
trious, and happy farmers and trades-people make a living in
Japan and never send to America doleful tales of want and
woe.

240

JAPANESE VILLAGES.

By a very careful system of storage of water and irriga-
tion most of the cultivated regions of Japan are beyond the
reach of drought, and where the American farmer would
starve, and the English grumble, and the Irish get up a riot,
the Japanese farmer will live in comfort and plenty. To
be sure, his wants are simple, but he is quite able to
supply those wants. One sees few gaunt, hungry beggars
in the large cities of Japan, fewer still in the country dis-
tricts. Beggars there are, to be sure, but most of them are
fat and rosy, and by no means unhappy looking or lone-

^m0M^^^^i0^.-

GATHERING THE TEA CROP.

some, for usually they resemble the famous family of
martyrs in having nine small children and one at the breast.

As one rides along the railway between Tokio and Kioto
he passes innumerable small villages, all built on the same
principle. The houses with thatched or tiled roofs, pictur-
esquely turned up at the end, oftentimes a large Buddhist
temple, frequently a number of shrines, and a street of
stores, such as I have described in a previous chapter, make
up the village.

In the fields we see women working side by side with
the men, and often on the streets we see them pulling heavy
loads of rice or vegetables. But after all their lot is no-

GROVES AND GARDENS. 241

more unenviable than that of peasant women on the con-
tinent of Europe, and I am told that these field women,
though they work hard and apparently toil from morning
till night, have far more freedom and influence in their own
homes than the women of the richer classes, and their lot is
quite as easy to be borne.

The fields, are small, and divided from one another by
low embankments with narrow ditches between, but all
under the most exquisite culture, with furrows straight and
even, and no inch of soil wasted. The liquid manure stored
at every field's corner is malodorous, to be sure, but without
it the Japanese farmers could not exist, and what they can
endure year in and year out, surely the passing traveler can
whiff without murmuring. Under almost every green tree
and clump of bushes stands a Euddhist shrine, while the
bamboo groves with their straight and slim fish-pole-like
stems and feathery tops, make pleasant and picturesque
additions to the landscape.

Soon after leaving Yokohama by rail, beautiful" "Fuji"
towers into view, quite as lovely when viewed from the
shore as from the sea. Symmetrical and lordly beyond all
description, it must be seen to be appreciated. Neither
glowing words, nor even the most faithful canvas can do
justice to it. For many miles it dominates the landscape,
and it is several hours after it first comes into view before
we get the last glimpse of this glorious mountain.

As we approached Kioto the beautiful gardens of azalias.
japonicas, and chrysanthemums for which it is noted, be-
came numerous, and though at the time of our visit they
were not in their glory, we could get some conception of
what they must be when every spray is a nodding plume of
flowers.

Kioto is noted for its temples, its ancient palace, and to

242

KIOTO S MAGNIFICENT UNIVERSITY.

all Christian hearts, for its splendid Christian university, the
Doshisha. If this were the only monument of Christian
missions in all the world, it would be a satisfactory proof
that they are not a failure. Here on the soil of Japan,
reared within a quarter of a century, we find a university of
which any state in the Union might be justly proud. Here
are taught not only the classics and sciences, but philosophy
of the most pronounced Christian type, theology, and medi-
cine in connection with a splendidly appointed hospital.

IN THE LAND OF THE JAPONICA.

morning

The hundreds of young men who assemble at
prayers would do credit to Dartmouth or Oberlin, and in all
respects this university not only accomplishes the prime
object of its establishment, the formation of Christian char-
acter, but is fully abreast of the times, and is second in popu-
larity and influence among the Japanese themselves only to
the Imperial University of Tokio itself.

The founding of this school is due very largely to the
talents and influence of Joseph Neesima, whose name is a
household word among Christian people on both sides of the
Pacific ocean. His lamented death did not weaken the

THE INFLUENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY. 243

prestige or power of the university, but he finds a worthy
successor in President Kozaki, the former pastor of a lead-
ing Congregational church in Tokio. Most of the professors
in the university are Japanese, though eminent scholars
from among the missionaries have from the first given to
the school the best features of an Occidental University.

Any candid and intelligent traveler, whether a profess-
edly religious man or not, can but note and give due credit
to the mighty power which has wrought for the regenera-
tion and civilization of these Eastern nations. To hear the
flippant commentaries of the average " globe-trotter,'' as I
have before remarked, often makes one's blood boil with in-
dignation. A man who goes no farther than Yokohama or
Kobe, who sees the missionaries living in good houses, and
having servants to wait on them, immediately writes home
to the papers that the missionaries are living in luxury and
doing no good, and that their influence is not appreciably
felt in the empire. Such a man is no more a fit judge of
that concerning which he writes so fluently than the keeper
of a Chinese josshouse in San Francisco is fitted to write of
the influence of the Sunday-School movement, or a citizen of
the South Sea islands of the spread of temperance sentiment
in New England.

More than all other influences together has the Christian
missionary moulded and directed the new civilization of
Japan. Commercial treaties could never have wrought the
change. Open ports for trade in rice, tea, and lacquer ware
could never have sent the new blood of Western civilization
bounding through the veins of old Japan. But the mission-
ary and the Bible, and everything for which the missionary
and the Bible stand, have in less than a generation accom-
plished what centuries of mere commercial intercourse with
other nations could never have brought about.

244 NOT TRUTH, BUT SENSATIONALISM.

I have met missionaries of almost every denominational
board in Japan, and in not a single instance have I found
them other than devoted, consecrated men and women, who
have dedicated their lives completely and forever to the lift-
ing up of this people and the glory of God. I have seen in
our daily papers strictures and criticisms upon the mission-
aries which a single half day's investigation would prove
false. But these flippant penny-a-liners, who write their
first impressions for the daily papers, never stop to investi-
gate. The truth is not what they are after, but a sensation,
and my readers may set down any such ill-natured remarks
which they may read in the future about missionaries and
their work, as the result of ignorance and maliciousness.

The temples of Kioto are very numerous and exceedingly
beautiful. Of these perhaps the Kyonizu Sanjusangendo
and Hongwanji temples are the most famous.

The Kyonizu temple is built on enormous piles, and on
one side is raised scores of feet from the ground. It is ap-
proached by a long flight of stone steps, and as we went up
the steps we were approached, not only by numerous beg-
gars, but also by many money changers, who offered to
change our sens into rins. As a sen is worth less than a
cent and a rin less than a mill, it is evident that the ostenta-
tious worshiper who wishes to make his charity rattle loudly
in the temple treasury, can get a great deal of credit for lib-
eral gift-giving out of a very few pennies. There are, more-
over, debased iron coins, a hundred of which equal one son,
and these are very popular at the entrance of some temples.
After all, this is the same principle by which light weight
and punched and clipped silver coins find their way into con-
tribution boxes at home, and I have sometimes heard it
rumored that buttons in America answer the same purpose
as iron rins in Japan ; they make as much noise as gold.

A FAMOUS TEMPLE.

245

JV^c wo rro nil t.Vip ste^S of til 1 ? ^L^OHIZI! t6H?.T>l(? W( ? S66 9.t

regular intervals stone lanterns, into which candles are
thrust to light the pilgrim on his toilsome way, and every
now and then we pass a medicine god whose features are
worn smooth by the devout worshipers, who have rubbed
their hands over the parts of the idol's body in which the
diseases of their afflicted friends were located, in order that
they might carry the healing touch home with them.

Eye diseases and rheumatism seem to be the prevailing

ENTRANCE TO NAGATA TEMPLE, KOBE.

distempers in this part of Japan, for the eyes of some of
these old gods are completely scratched out, and their knees
and thighs worn smooth by centuries of ceaseless rubbing.
Nothing is more pathetic among all the superstitions of
heathendom than these efforts on behalf of invalid friends,
so impotent and yet so touching, showing that whether in
Christian light or heathen darkness, the heart's affection is
the same the world over.

Another most pathetic sight in the Kyonizu temple is the
corner devoted to images of children. Hundreds and hun-

246

SUPERSTITION RATHER THAN DEVOTION.

dreds of these little stone images are ranged in rows, with
little red bibs about their necks, votive offerings, we are told,
to the god of the temple, in behalf of children sick at home.
The red bibs indicate, if I am not mistaken, that the children
recovered, and are put on as thank offerings over the little
stone image when the child gets well.

These temples and this idol worship, however interesting
to the casual observer, seem to take very little hold of the
national life. Little true devotion is apparent in China or

A JAPANESE IDOL AND TEMPLE.

Japan, the prevalent skepticism having in many places taken
the place of the old-time reverence for Buddha and the lesser
duties.

The gods seem to be worshiped more often as a matter of
gain, as a superstitious offering to good luck and prosperity,
and even while they are worshiped they are laughed at, I
am told, by the more intelligent Japanese, just as the super-
stitious Christian will often refuse to eat with twelve others
at table, will fret if he sees the moon over his left shoulder,
or breaks a looking-glass, laughing at the same time at his.

A TEMPLE CROWDED WITH GODS. 247

own superstitious fears. Doubtless, with many people, the
worship of these heathen deities is a most serious and heart-
felt affair, and is to them far more than a superstition to be
sneered at. Japan is not now a land under the absolute
dominion of either Shintoism or Buddhism ; the real conflict
of Christianity is not with the false religions of the East, but
the skepticism of the West, not with Confucius and his
" chilly cult," but with the infidelity of Paine and Voltaire,
Kosseau and Renan.

The Sanjusangendo temple is interesting chiefly because
of the great number of deities packed away beneath its roof.
It is sometimes called the temple of the three thousand gods,
at other times of the thirty -three thousand, while it is some-
times even known as the abode of the three hundred and
thirty-three thousand, three hundred and thirty-three, all
depending upon how one counts the gods.

Inside are long, long rows of large figures, some thousand
in all, if I counted correctly, each with many hands, and a
multitude of smaller gods springing from the heads and
fingers, while in the center is a huge Buddha with a hundred
hands each covered with a multitude of smaller deities.
Counting all the gods, large and small, there are certainly
over three thousand, and as certainly less than three hundred
and thirty-three thousand, but what the exact number may
be, an arithmetician must decide.

Back of this temple is an interesting spot where, in the
early days, the stalwart youth of Japan practiced archery,
the great feat being to send an arrow in a horizontal line,
without too much elevation, the entire length of the temple.
The whole temple roof and the space under the eaves were
formerly shot thick with arrow heads which had strayed
from the mark ; but these are now mostly removed by relic
hunters, and we saw but few still sticking in the roof.

248

SKILLFUL WOOD CARVERS.

remaps the most interesting temple in Kioto, all things
considered, is the Hongvvangi. It is asserted by come
recent writers that no new Buddhist temples are being built,
and that the old ones are tumbling into decay. The Hong-
wangi temple, however, disputes this assertion, for it is still
incomplete, and was begun only a few years since. It is
erected by one of the most liberal sects of the Buddhists, for
the Buddhists, like the Christians, are divided into many
sects and parties, which regard each other with far more

A BUDDniST SHRINE.

rancor than Christian denominations ever felt one for
another. In this new temple are some of the finest speci-
mens of Japanese wood carving to be found in any part of
the Empire. Birds and fish and flowers and foliage of
exquisite workmanship abound, though often hidden under
the eaves, where they are seen with the utmost difficulty.

One of the most interesting sights about this temple is
the great coils of rope, made of human hair, with which the
heavy beams were hoisted into their places. This hair was
contributed as the offering of thousands and thousands

ROPES MADE OF HUMAN HAIR.

249

of devoted women and girls, and after being used to hoist
the beams and rafters into their places is preserved in these
great coils, six inches through and thousands of feet in
length, for the veneration of future devotees. The most
pathetic of these coils were made of gray hair, evidently the
contribution of old grandams whose faith had survived the
weary years that had whitened their locks.

AN INLAND VILLAGE.

The pillars of this temple are made of the beautiful
Keyaki wood, the most famous building material in all
Japan. These pillars are immensely tall and straight, often
three or four feet in diameter, and beautifully polished.

There is an interesting history connected with one of the
most elegant of these pillars. The tree grew in an inland
village and was the pride and delight of all the villagers.
The priests wanted it for the new temple, but could not

250

A SELF-SACRIFICING DEVOTEE.

obtain it for love or money, until one devoted Buddhist, for
the sake of rendering it worthless where it stood, hung him-
self from its branches, thus making it accursed and at the
disposal of whoever desired to cut it down. In consequence
of the self-sacrifice of that devotee the Hongwangi temple
rejoices to-day in its most beautiful pillar.

| The priests

have a fashion

of saying that

these pillars

WM V^^==^^^d were not hauled

to the temple,

but made their

L^V, ^Lc^fe own way thith-

^^^mn^^mft^^m^^^M^;^ one village, in
^^^^fel their enthusias-

^PJ3^^5^¥^^^^^^^^&'^ ; I'flll * ] c ^ ' rvor ' would
s^MlS^fl^^^^Pl^ haul the log to

the nearest vil-

¥ |w)Mi lage,theytothe

'f^ fit^t W I i ' • 'j - ^-I'.-- i \ y. next, and so on,

until at last it
reached Kioto,

A WAYSIDE SHRINE. , , ,

and was estab-
lished in its place among the stately columns of the
Hongwangi temple.

Another of the lions of Kioto is the royal palace, where,
until twenty-five years ago, for a full millennium abode His
Imperial Majesty, the Mikado of Japan. Not that he and
his ancestors occupied this particular palace, for the build-

AN AMUSING NOTICE. 251

ings were often destroyed by earthquake and fire, but
were as often rebuilt in the same fashion as of old ; and
as one enters he can see to-day how the Mikados lived a
thousand years ago.

After having received a special permit, we awaited in
the cold vestibule the pleasure of our guides, who are never
in any hurry in Japan to do the honors of their show places.
While waiting we had ample time to read the notice which
in English and Japanese confronts every visitor. Here it is :

"visitors who have been authorized to visit the
imperial palace must before entering present at the
entrance their visiting cards and request to be con-
ducted into the palace. also sign their names, giving
full information as to official and dignitary titles,
visitors are not allowed to wear boots or shoes in
the palace. visitors should leave their overcoat,
mitten, stick, walking stick, cane, or whatever they
take with them either to the attendant or to the
servant of the palace before they enter the palace."

Not being encumbered with any " mitten " we only took
off our shoes, deposited them at the door, and left our " stick,,
walking-stick, and cane," all combined in one, with the
attendant, and entered within the royal precincts.

Though one would not wish to miss the sight, I must
admit there was exceedingly little to see. After living a
thousand years in such a draughty suite of rooms, I do not
wonder the Mikados were readv to move to Tokio, though I
do not know that their present abode is superior to the old
palace. Cold corridor succeeded cold corridor, and room
after room, each as bare of furniture as the other; no
pictures nor bric-a-brac, no cozv homelike fireside, no shelf
of well-worn books, no rocking-chair for the old grand-

252 IN A JAPANESE ROYAL PALACE.

mother, or hie-h-chair for the baby, no bed or lounge or rue*
or hassock to give them a habitable look. Every room and
hall and corridor is covered with matting of exactly the
same pattern, in strips exactly three feet wide by exactly six
feet long, and bound with red or blue braid. To be sure,
there were finely-painted screens in almost every room,
which would have been the envy of all connoisseurs in.
Japanese art. In one room, too, was the throne, which was
& very uncomfortable but highly carved and gilded piece of
the modern cabinet-maker's art, while before it were three
low stools on which the maces, wands, and other insignia of
•office were laid.

In the imperial study were beautiful screens decorated
on all sides with wild geese in full flight. Whether this
indicated that the study of Confucius which formerly occu-
pied the young Mikados in this room was a " wild goose
•chase," or not, I am not sure. Yery likely, however, the
young Mikados of old were of the same opinion as Solomon
and the modern school boy that "much study is a weariness
unto the flesh." Who can tell how many successive Mikados
have whiled away the tedious hours by watching the wild
geese flying about the room on these screens?

The Emperor's bedroom, like all the other rooms except
the throne-room, was entirely bare and empty of everything
that could be called furniture. In one corner was a square,
six or eight feet across, made of cement, on which dirt was
sprinkled every morning, so that the Emperor might wor-
ship the shades of his ancestors on the soil (as his religion
demanded), without leaving his own bedroom. Thus, even
before the days of cushioned pews and high-priced choirs,
was worship made as easy as possible for those who can
afford it.

In the great open square, around which the royal rooms

THE LEGEND OF A CHERRY TREE.

253

are built, were some feeble attempts at landscape gardening.
A little stream and rockery and a few clumps of bamboos-
are maintained there, just as they have been for hundreds of
years. Near the Emperor's bedroom was a cherry tree, the
progenitors of which were planted by a great Mikado hun-
dreds of years ago, and
when that rotted away
a plum tree took its
place; then another
cherry tree succeeded
by another plum tree;
but always in that par-
ticular spot there has
been for ten hundred
and thirty-two years a
fruit tree for successive
Mikados to gaze upon.
This dynasty of the
Japanese Mikados is
the oldest ruling house
in all the world. For
twenty-five hundred
years the same family
has occupied the
throne. Before Eng-
land, or France, or Ger-
many, or Russia were
so much as dreamed
of, Japan's Emperor held royal sway. When the Greeks-
were at the height of their power the present reigning fam-
ily of Japan had begun to bear sway. The present Mikado^
if I am not mistaken, is the one hundred and twenty -fifth
who has occupied the throne in direct succession. How

A JAPANESE PARMER.

254 TEMPTING THE TOURIST'S PURSE.

does that strike you, ye aristocrats, who can trace your
lineage back at most for a few paltry centuries, or perhaps
for only a few scores of years? Ye are parvenues, indeed,
beside the royal family of Japan, even though ye came over
with "William the Conqueror himself.

Nagoya is a seat of manufacture of much of the finest
ware exported from Japan, and the beautiful conceits and
unexpected forms into which cups and teapots, bowls and
plates are cast, makes them the despair of the connoisseur in
•china. Each new article seems lovelier than the last, and
tempts the lean purse to open once more, even though the
vision of a long voyage and imperious Custom House
officials at the end teach caution and economy.

The ravages of the great earthquake of 1891 are now
pretty well repaired, but cracks and huge fissures in mud
walls, buildings, and even in the ground itself remain to
show the havoc wrought by the wrestling of the subter-
ranean demons.

The most beautiful castle in existence in Japan is found
in Nagoya. It is used now for barracks for the Imperial
troops, and is surmounted by two huge golden dolphins
whose scales are made of large Japanese golden coins. The
whole value of the dolphins is not less than $180,000. One
•of them was once on exhibition at a great European ex-
position. It was wrecked and lost on the way home, in the
Bay of Biscay, and great was the rejoicing on the part of
all loyal Japanese, when a famous diver fished it from its
watery bed (for which the dolphin evidently had an affinity),
and it was perched once more, high and dry, upon the pin-
nacle of the Nagoya castle.

In some of these busy towns through which we pass, we
are very likely to find that some gala day is being cele-
brated, and that half the inhabitants are gathered in the

JAPANESE JUGGLERS AND ACROBATS.

255

public square to watch the jugglers and acrobats, who, on
high ladders, balanced in the most ticklish fashion, are
•dancing and turning somersaults and standing on their
heads and cavorting around generally, yet always landing
right side up on their feet when the show is over.

Osaka is famous for its castle, too, and also for its mint,
an institution carried on upon the most approved modern
plans, and which turns out as finely finished and beautiful
coins as are made by any country in the world. What inter-
ested me most in Osaka was, perhaps, the fish market. This

JAPANESE ACROBATS.

I went to see early in the morning, and if there is any
variety of the finny tribe which was not on sale in the
Osaka fish market that morning, I should like to see it. It
is said that two hundred species of edible fish are found off
the Japan coast, and not one of them, I am convinced, was
missing from that Eastern Billingsgate. Blue fish and green
fish, red fish and yellow fish, and fish combining all the
colors of the rainbow, long fish and short fish, fat fish and
lean fish, thin fish and stout fish, abounded in every stall.
Squids and cuttle fish, devil fish and skates were found, and
every variety of octopus, especially that with the long, jelly-

256 IN A JAPANESE FISH MARKET.

like, cruel tentacles, which, if they get hold of a man under
water, would evidently hold him fast until the life blood was
sucked dry.

Besides these were sculpins and spine lish, eels, big and
little, sea snails and suckers, and all kinds of hlche de mer.
Dolphins, too, seemed to play a prominent part in this fish
market, and the great red chunks of meat cut out of them
and exposed for sale gave the stalls the appearance of a
butcher's shop where Texas beef was the staple article. It
was most interesting to watch the way in which the fish
were auctioned off. The auctioneer will present a tray of
cuttle fish or squids, for instance, praising them up in true
auctioneer style, and knock it off to the highest bidder all in
a quarter of a minute, for he has a hundred trays to dispose
of, and cannot dwell long on any one lot. His shrill voice,,
added to the shouts of the fishermen and the objurgations of
the buyers, always inseparable, as it would seem, from Bil-
lingsgate, whether in Japan or England, made a pandemo-
nium not soon to be forgotten.

"We take off our hats and make our best salaams to the'
receding shores of these lovely islands which we have so-
much enjoyed visiting. "We can only pray that as Japan
grows great in material affairs, as it surely will as it adopts
the civilization of Western nations, it may also adopt the re-
ligion and the Bible which alone have made those nations
truly great.

CHAPTEE XIV.

OUR RETURN TO CHINA — THE SEAMY SIDE OF CHINESE
LIFE — OPIUM FIENDS AND FAN-TAN GAMBLERS— ODD
WAYS OF AN ODD PEOPLE —DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD.

An Obstructing Bar — The Will of Heaven — Almond Eyes and Pigtails

— Noiseless John — How John Chinaman Treats Americans in Shanghai

— Colossal Conceit — The Future of the Celestial Empire — Shoes Two
Cents a Pair — A Chinese Grocery Store — Dried Kidneys and Chickens'
Livers — Varnished Pig — Allowable Theft — A Chinese Rice Mill —
Arrested Development — How Chinese Paper is Made — Rice Paper —
How it is Produced — Woe-begone, Emaciated Faces — The Seamy Side
of Chinese Life — " Hitting the Pipe " — Opium Fiends — Fan-tan Gam-
blers — Intense Excitement — Chinese Music — Unearthly Screeching —
Prolonged and Awful Caterwauling — Human Beasts of Burden —
China and Japan Agriculturally Considered — Rotation of Crops —
Novel Ice Harvesting — Fish Farming — An Odd Way of Fishing —
A Great Funeral — Funeral Baked Meats — Baby Towers of Shanghai.

~N the clay after Christmas, the
steamer Yokohama Maru which
bore us from the beautiful shores
of Japan, steamed up to her
dock in Shanghai, and we found
ourselves once more in China.

Shanghai is probably the
greatest commercial port of the
far East. Vessels bearing the
flags of every nation discharge
their cargoes at her warehouse
doors. At least, they do this
figuratively speaking, and would be glad to do it literally,
were it not for the obstructing bar near the mouth of the
Yang-tse-Kiang river.

This bar the Chinese government allows to fill up with

16 ( 257 )

258 VELVET-FOOTED CHINAMEN.

silt from the upper river, and never makes any effort to re-
move it, or. to form a new channel, as might easily be done.

" It is the will of heaven," say these fatalistic Celestials;
" we will not interfere."

I strongly suspect, however, that it is the will of the high
Chinese authorities as well, who are not at all averse to
keeping the " foreign devils " out of their territory even at
the expense of ruining their best seaport.

Be that as it may, the port of Shanghai is already inac-
cessible to the largest vessels, and even moderate-sized
steamers sometimes must wait for days before they can cross
the bar at Woosung, where all the large steamers take on
and discharge their cargo.

Shanghai consists of three cities united by contiguity
and commercial interests ; the American and English con-
cessions which are under one municipal government, the
French concession which is a municipality by itself, and the
native city, enclosed by a high wall, into whose narrow
streets are crowded hundreds of thousands of human beings.

Do not suppose, however, that English, American, and
French Shanghai are largely inhabited by Englishmen.
Americans, and Frenchmen. A few people of these nation-
alities there are, a few thousands among hundreds of thou-
sands, but to search for a foreigner even in many parts of
the foreign concessions, is like looking for the traditional
needle in the hay-mow.

Everywhere are almond eyes and pig-tails ; long, flapping
blouses, loose, baggy drawers, and thick felt slippers, whose
wearers seem to steal along like cats, so noiselessly they go.
Especially is this noticeable to those who come from Japan,
where the noisy wooden shoes clatter over the hard roads
and across the asphalt platforms of the railway stations like
ten thousand castanets, each playing a different tune.

AN EYE TO BUSINESS. Z59

To be sure, there are some fine foreign business blocks in
Shanghai, and two or three conspicuous churches ; and the
bund or water front, with its beautiful botanical garden and
substantial banks, warehouses, and residences, it would be
difficult to surpass in any city ; but, after all, the prevailing
impression of Shanghai is of a huge Chinatown with a small
admixture of San Francisco. In fact, the tables are quite
turned on the metropolis of our Pacific coast. Here China
very evidently bears sway, and the little handful of Ameri-
cans must say " By your leave."

However, in spite of the general shabby treatment
accorded to John in the United States, there seems to be no
antipathy to Americans in Shanghai. The average John
Chinaman is too shrewd to cut off his nose to spite his face,
and he knows that the presence of Englishmen, Americans,
and Frenchmen means trade and commerce, cash for his till,
jinrikisha money, and small change generally, which other-
wise he must go without.

Moreover, so far as Americans go, he knows that while
he has ample reason to resent their presence in his native
land, he has far greater cause to abominate other foreigners
who have imposed still heavier burdens upon his patient
shoulders. So, instead of beginning his warfare upon
brother Jonathan, he will begin with Johnny Bull or
Johnny Crapaud, as undoubtedly his worst enemies.

Until within a few years, Americans have stood highest
in the estimation of the Chinamen. Of late years, not
unnaturally, their stock has declined in the Chinese market,
and now the Germans (perhaps because they have had fewer
opportunities to abuse China) are the favorite people through-
out the Celestial Empire.

"What the future of China will be, is yet an unsolved
mystery. That she should always maintain her stolid indif-

260 UNRESPONSIVE CHINA.

ference to Western civilization seems impossible. In spite of
her impenetrable husk of prejudice and self-satisfied conceit,
her settled conviction that her ways are the best ways, and
that no untutored barbarian can teach her anything, it
seems to me that the rushing, seething, nineteenth century
life which is continually beating against her shores must
eventually make an impression. Sooner or later the instincts
that are being awakened in the breasts of all the rest of
mankind for a larger, freer, better life will find a response in
the heart of Chinadom as well.

But I am convinced that there is only one touch that can
awaken the unresponsive heart of China, and that is the
touch of Christ's hand.

Commerce has been knocking at her doors for nearly a
thousand years, and has not aroused her from her lethargy.
Foreign cannon have thundered at the gates of all her chief
cities and they have not awakened her. Foreign inventions
and labor saving contrivances; railways and steamboats,
electric lights and modern conveniences, have been presented
to her in vain ; and all have failed to shame her out of her
stolid self-conceit. She has gone back to her wheelbarrow
and her sedan-chair, her paper lantern and her clumsy junk,
convinced that " we are the people and wisdom will die with
us," and that the paltry inventions of "foreign devils" are
not worth copying.

What chance then is there for such a nation except that
which lies in the arousing of her dormant spiritual energies ?
This is the mission of the missionaries of the Cross. Already
many of them tell me that they see indications of a " break " in
this benumbing national self-sufficiency, and when the break
does come, what a torrent of spiritual activity may we not
hope to see. To be sure this good day may not come in
this generation or the next, but some day I believe the holes

A WALKING SHOE SHOP. 261

already made in the dike of prejudice will widen until the
whole nation is flooded with the life-giving waters of the
Gospel.

Let us take a walk this brisk December morning through
the crowded streets of Shanghai. Until the edge of novelty
is dulled every common shop is filled with marvels. He
who only looks for the treasures of the Orient in the ex-
pensive curio stores, which abound at the seaports, will miss
most of them. To be sure he will there find exquisite
carved ivory and lacquer ware, marvelously beautiful
bronzes, figures in wood that are almost beyond price, and
pieces of china and porcelain of fabulous cost. Nearly all
these treasures, or their duplicates, he could find in almost
any large American city. But the treasures we look for are
found in every common shop and home in China, and really
represent Oriental life and ways.

Here, for instance, comes a man bending under the
weight of two hundred pairs of shoes, made of honest,
undisguised rice straw ; uppers, soles, shoe-strings and all, of
braided rice straw. Wishing to take home a pair as a
souvenir of the Shanghai shoe dealer, we inquire the price,
and, after not a little difficulty with his language and he
with ours, find that his charge is thirty " cash," about two
American cents per pair. Thinking this is not extravagant
we purchase a pair, but find out afterwards from our friends
that we have been sadly overreached, and that his price to a
Chinaman would not have been over fifteen or twenty cash,
or a trifle over one cent a pair.

But here is a store from which, though it is interesting,
we can take no souvenirs home, for it is a provision store,
and the greasy, unwholesome looking provender exposed for
sale would, we fear, turn the stomachs of our more fastidious
friends.

262 DRIED KIDNEYS AND VARNISHED PIG.

In the next store are many festoons of chickens' livers,
dried and strung like huge ill-shaped beads. Other strings
of dried kidneys hang from the ceiling, and many long
rosaries of skinny chickens' legs tied together and hung up
in loops, like great, uncanny necklaces, dangle from the
roof.

In these provision stores are also seen suspended from
the roof, as our grandmothers suspended dried apples and
pumpkins, strings of ducks, split open and pressed flat as
pancakes in the drying process. Here, too, are greasy look-
ing sausages, each one on a little stick of its own, and near
the doorway is usually a pig, varnished and roasted whole,
until he is of a most delicious-looking brown.

If the porker tastes as he looks, I do not wonder that he
is a favorite article of consumption among the followers of
Confucius. The proprietor of the provision store sits in front
behind a little railed-in desk, and seems in no hurry for cus-
tomers. In fact, it is quite your own matter whether you
buy or not, and he often affects supreme indifference as ,
though he was beyond the mercenary considerations of trade. ,
Before him is an abacus, and great strings of copper cash
coiled one over the other, — twenty pounds weight or more.

But do not think that this indifferent shopkeeper is not
shrewd at a bargain. American though you may be, with
generations of bargaining blood in your veins, he is a match
for you. Look out for him if you have any transactions to
make, for his code of morals does not demand any fine de-
gree of scrupulosity. He will not cheat you very much, but
a little sharp practice he will regard quite within the estab-
lished limits of legitimate trade. In fact, petty peculation is
such a recognized custom, that if a servant does not steal,
more than a certain per cent, of his master's substance, he
is never even threatened with the law.

A NOVEL PLEA.

263

I was told that a certain master, new to the country,
having detected his servant in a small dishonesty, brought
him before the court. Whereupon the servant admitted his
guilt but claimed and proved that his peculations had not
amounted to more than fifteen per cent, of his wages. Upon
this astounding plea of comparative innocence, the judge
ftilly acquitted him without even a reprimand.

A CHINESE IUCE MILL.

As we continue our walk through Shanghai, we come to
a miller's establishment next door to our provision dealer.
Here are a dozen men working in a treadmill, which raises,,
as they tread their monotonous round, a row of huge mal-
lets. These mallets, poised high in air, descend into a stone
well, partly filled with unhusked rice or paddy. After being
pounded by these mallets for a sufficient time, the grain is
separated from the chaff and is then taken out and winnowed
by hand. There are other kinds of rice mills, but even the

264 HOW PAPER IS MADE IN CHINA.

commonest processes are yet very primitive in this great
empire of the East.

All China seems to furnish an example of arrested devel-
opment. Before any other nation, doubtless, China used
paper and gunpowder, movable types, and the mariner's
compass, but she has never improved upon her first rough
draughts. As she made these articles a thousand years ago
she makes them now. With most nations a new invention
of any kind is only a beginning of inventions. A great dis-
covery in physics or chemistry in other nations only sets
men's minds on the alert for other discoveries and improve-
ments in the same line. Outside of China no invention is
complete at first. The perfect machine is the product of
many minds and of much experimenting. In the middle
kingdom, however, a machine once invented is invented for
all time. No improvements appear, no rivals set their wits
ut work to find a better and cheaper way to produce the
same result. When once a method is pointed out, it is imi-
tated by unreasoning generations for countless future years.

For instance, a well-informed writer who spent many
years in China in the consular service of Great Britain, tells
us of the present-day process of making the ordinary Chi-
nese paper. " There is an entire absence of machinery," he
says, " for washing and shredding rags ; there are no troughs
of pulp, chemicals for bleaching, resin for watering, wire
molds for receiving, and drums for firming the paper as it
comes from the pulp troughs. Bamboo stems and paddy
straw are steeped with lime in deep concrete pits in the open
air, and allowed to soak for months. When nothing but the
fibre remains, it is taken out and rolled with a heavy stone
roller in a stone well until all the lime has been removed.
A small quantity of the fibre is placed in a stone trough full
of water and the whole stirred up. A close bamboo mold is

IN A CHINESE PAPER MILL.

265

then passed through the mixed fibre and water, and the film
which adheres to it emerges as a sheet of paper which is
stuck up to dry on the walls of a room kept at a high tem-
perature. The sheets are afterwards collected and made up
into bundles for market."

A CHINESE PAPER MILL.

Contrast this primitive method of paper making with the
mills of New England. Yet, in the idea of paper making,
€hina had the start of us by a round dozen of centuries.

The most beautiful paper which I saw in China is the so-
called rice paper ; a soft, delicate, velvety substance, which
takes colors to perfection, and which is very much in demand

266 A CURIOUS PROCESS.

for the brilliant water-color paintings in which the Chinese
are so expert.

I often wondered how this paper was made, so different
is it from any other similar product I have ever seen, and
have only just learned that it is not paper at all, but the
pith of a large-leaved, bush-like plant, which grows luxu-
riantly in the province of Kuei-chow. My informant was
invited to visit a worker in pith after night-fall. Although
somewhat surprised at the hour named he accepted the in-
vitation. On his arrival he was ushered into a badly lighted
room where a man was sitting with his tools before him.
These consisted of a smooth stone about a foot square and
an inch and a half thick, and a large knife or hatchet with a
short wooden handle. The blade was about a foot long,
two inches broad and nearlv half an inch thick at the back.
It was sharp as a razor. Placing a piece of round pith on
the stone and his left hand on the top, he rolled the pith
backwards and forwards for a moment until he got it into
the required position. Then, seizing the knife with his right
hand, he held the edge of the blade, after a feint or two,
close to the pith, which he kept rolling to the left with his
left hand until nothing remained to roll; for the pith had,,
by the application of the knife, been pared into a square,,
white sheet of uniform thickness.

The process seemed so easy that the visitor determined
to try it himself, and, posing as a professional worker, he
succeeded in hacking the pith and in nearly maiming him-
self for life. He was convinced that a keen eye and a
steady, experienced hand were needed for the work. For
this reason these sheets of pith are manufactured only at
night when the city is asleep and the makers are not liable
to be disturbed.

As we make our way through the crowded city we see

IN AN OPIUM DEN.

26?

woe-begone, emaciated faces which indicate more surely
than the red nose of the drunkard, the victim of the opium
habit. One who has lived any length of time in China can
tell an "opium fiend" at a glance, and even to the stranger
the olfactory organs give immediate and conclusive proof of
one's approach to an opium den. In fact the prevailing
odor of China, the one that lingers longest in the tourist's
memory, is the sickening stench of the opium pipe that
seems to be wafted along every street and alley and court.
In the center of a circle of depraved Celestials, swarthy.

HITTING THE PIPE.

half-naked barbarians, assembled in a filthy den, is a dim oil
lamp, with a smoky chimney. One of the Chinamen has an
opium pipe with a very large stem (so large that he has to
distend his mouth to the widest capacity to take it in) and a
very small aperture in the bowl. With a long knitting
needle he takes from a little jar a wad of sticky opium
about the size of a pea. This he melts over the flame, and
then, after rolling it about on the bowl of the pipe for
several minutes, he inserts it deftly in the little hole.

Then he lies down at full length, puts the orifice contain-
ing the opium over the flame, and for two blissful moments

268

OPIUM FIENDS AND FAN-TAN GAMBLERS.

draws in the smoke, swallowing it and exhaling it through
the nose.

Not more than three or at the most four whiffs of smoke
seem to be contained in the pipe without reloading, but
when these whiffs have been exhausted the almond eyes
close with a sleepy animal-like content, the pipe is taken
by some other " opium fiend," and the same slow process of

OPIUM FIENDS.

preparation, followed by the three whiffs of Nirvana, fol-
lows, and so on around the circle.

Gambling is another besetting sin of John Chinaman.
It is a weird and uncanny sight to watch a group of fan-tan
gamblers in their dark den. Four lanterns containing
smoky candles, and placed one at each corner of a strip of
matting, serve to illuminate the scene. Around this are
huddled a motley crowd of slant-eyed Mongolians, mostiy
possessing only one garment, either a loose shirt or a very

HOW FAN-TAN IN PLAYED. 269

baggy pair of trousers, but very seldom a combination of
these useful habiliments. Either one or the other is full
dress for a fan-tan gambler.

The banker's assistant, or whatever he may be called (I
must confess to a sad lack in the way of fan-tan nomen-
clature), takes a heaping handful of Chinese pennies called
cash (little brass pieces with a square hole in the center
and worth about a tenth of a cent apiece), puts them down
in the center of the square of matting, and places on top
what looks like a big brass paper-weight.

Then with a sharp-pointed stick he picks the pennies
away in little piles of four. Until he takes the brass weight
off of the central pile any one in the circle is at liberty to
bet, by putting his on the center, corner, or edge of a square
of cloth. If there proves to be an even number of fours in
the pile of pennies, one position wins ; if one, two, or three
more than an even number of fours, some other position on
the cloth wins.

After the weight is removed there is no more betting.
Then the excitement grows intense. Every squatting figure
leans forward breathlessly over the matting. All have eyes
only for the counter, who, with his pointed wand, is pulling
away the little quartettes of cash, slowly and deliberately
from the big pile. Gradually the pile lessens ; twenty only
are left, a dozen, eight, four, none, and then it is more than
likely the banker rakes all the silver and gold of the
gamblers into his capacious till. For in fan-tan as in
gambling of a higher degree, the lambs get fleeced very
systematically, and are only allowed to win often enough
to whet their appetite for the fatal table.

Victims of loathsome skin diseases are frequently met
with in our walk, and even those who are suffering from a
mild kind of leprosy, which, however is not considered con-

270

SOME CHINESE PRESCRIPTIONS.

tagious. "Where there is disease to be combatted there are, of
course, doctors to ply their remedies ; and, very likely, we
shall meet more than one of these wise looking disciples of
Galen, with finger nails some six or eight inches long —

most inconvenient digits, one
would think, with which to
feel the pulse.

If we fall sick in China
may we be spared the added
torture of a Chinese doctor!
Sharks' eyes, powdered chick-
ens' livers, and the last hairs
on a rat's tail are some of
the favorite elements in their
materia medica, I understand.
An unearthly screeching
and unholy sawing away upon
some dreadful stringed instru-
ment not far off proclaims that
some of the Celestials are mu-
sically inclined ; and, sure
enough, we soon stumble upon
a group surrounding the min-
strel, who is playing upon an
instrument that resembles a double-headed hammer with two
strings stretched from the head to the handle.

The head of the hammer is made of parchment, and from
this undeveloped kind of a fiddle he tortures such awful
music as was never heard on sea or land. If the instru-
mental part of the concert is hideous, the vocal accompani-
ment is still more appalling. It cannot be represented in
English characters, but a faint attempt is something as
follows : " Kyii, kyi, kyiii, yi, ya." Imagine all the tom-

A LEPER GIRL OF SHANGHAI.

STREET SCENES IN SHANGHAI.

271

cats you ever heard pooling their issues to make night
hideous from a neighbor's roof, and you will have some
idea of the prolonged and awful caterwauling which John
Chinaman calls "music."

It is difficult to know when to stop in our walk or in our
description of it. The streets go on for miles and miles ; one

A JUVENILE CHINESE OKCHESTRA.

street succeeds another in interminable succession ; fish
dealers and green grocers ; crockery stores and wood carv-
ers ; quilt makers (for quilt making is a great industry in
Shanghai) ; undertakers, with piles of huge, clumsy coffins
in their warehouse ; these, to say nothing of restaurants and
barber shops, and other trades and callings, would fill this
volume, should I attempt to describe a Chinese street as I
have seen it.

272 HUMAN BEASTS OF BURDEN.

As we are obliged resolutely to turn our faces homeward
from our walk in the streets when duty calls to other things,
so I must resolutely turn my attention and yours, dear
reader, to other things than these very commonplace, but
very interesting, streets of Shanghai.

Let us visit the country suburbs of this great city, and
see what odd sights are visible ihere. The first cause for
wonderment is, perhaps, the immense loads which the
coolies bear. Scores of them are coming to market this
early morning with a long pole over their shoulders, from
each end of which is suspended a great basket of produce.

It is surprising what tremendous loads these human
beasts of burden can stagger under. Many a time have I
seen a coolie with a basket of green vegetables holding not
less than three bushels, or more than an ordinary flour
barrel, suspended from each end of his shoulder pole.
Sometimes his basket contains eggs, which are scarcely less
heavy. Let my readers think of raising two barrels of eggs
to their shoulders and trotting off with them at a lively
pace and they will have some idea of the burdens imposed
on these two-legged horses.

But the most unpleasant and ubiquitous of all are the
men carrying liquid manure. "Whole processions of these
human night-carts do we meet with their two odoriferous
buckets, holding nearly a barrel each, balanced on brawny
shoulders. We need not complain, however, of the passing
whiff, if the coolies can spend their lives amid such stenches,
and we are the less disposed to complain when we remember
that it is owing to this careful fertilizing and minute cultiva-
tion of the soil that the hundreds of millions of China are
kept on the existence side of the starvation point.

At this time of year (late December) everything in an
agricultural line is at its worst, and we must make allow-

CHINESE FARMS AND FARMERS. 273

ances for the bleakness of the season, for there is "an eager
and a nipping air " in Shanghai as well as in Vermont and
Michigan at this time of year. The traveler, coming from
Japan, is struck by the fact that the cultivation of the soil is
much less careful and systematic in China than in the
Mikado's empire. In Japan every square inch is utilized,
the furrows are as straight as mathematical precision can
make them ; every corner and edging is carefully trimmed
and squared, until the whole country looks like one great,
carefully-tended, kitchen garden.

About Shanghai, however, there is more slovenliness
visible, less care in little things, more ragged edges and
fewer kitchen-garden effects. Nevertheless, the average
Chinaman, in spite of the lack of picturesqueness in his
fields, is a famous farmer, and if Horace Greeley's dictum is
true, and if that man deserves well of the world who makes
two blades of grass grow where only one grew before, then
John Chinaman should have a high meed of praise.

He has learned to perfection the system of rotation of
crops, and in many places, as I have before remarked, he
would be ashamed not to get three if not four crops out of
the soil every twelve months. Moreover, if he cannot get
one crop he will take another ; he is not particular so long
as it brings rice to his chop-sticks.

Look over yonder this frosty December morning, and
you will see twenty men wading out into a shallow pond
which is covered with ice of the thickness of window glass.
They seem to be whipping the surface of the pond with long
bamboo poles and then raking something toward them with
long bamboo rakes. For a time these strange antics puzzle
us. The men cannot be fishing, neither can they be thrash
ing the surface of the pond for fun. Chinamen do not take
their sport in any such athletic way. They need all their

;374 THRIFTY JOHN.

. muscle and energy for the stern realities of life, and have no
superfluous vital energies to expend on out-door games.

What, then, can they be doing % A nearer inspection re-
solves the mystery and shows that they are gathering one of
their yearly crops — the ice harvest. The ice dealers of the
Kennebec and the Penobscot would laugh at the very idea of
such ice gathering. What ! they would say, store such ten-
uous coldness as that ! Harvest ice no thicker than your
finger nail ! You might as well scrape the rime off of the
window pane for next summer's consumption or brush the
hoar frost from the grass for use next July.

But John Chinaman knows what he is about, and, not
-deterred by any contemptuous remarks which his visitors may
make, he goes right on thrashing the thinly-coated water
with his long bamboos, raking his brittle harvest together,
and storing it in great straw-thatched ice houses. Then he
salts it all down, literally, not figuratively, and thus freezes
it anew into a solid compact mass ; and, though his ice is not
good for drinking purposes, he has a product that answers
very well for refrigerating uses, and which lasts far into the
long hot months of the coming summer.

But this is only one crop that the thrifty Celestial ob-
tains from the same patch of soil, for before he flooded it
with water for his ice crop, he had taken a harvest of rice
ind one of vegetables, and very likely one of fish, from the
same two-acre field,,

" A fish crop from a temporary pond which only covers
the soil for a quarter part of the year," you say ; " why, it
is impossible ! " Not at all, my reader, and this is the way
it is done. The ova are hatched in a sluggish stream or
< litch near by, and when the fish have attained an inch or
two in length, the field is flooded and the small fry are
turned loose into it to feed as best they may in the sub-

CANNY FISHERMEN. 275

merged rice stubble. The fast-growing fish soon attain an
eatable size (about six inches in length) and the canny China-
man may then be seen wading into the water which comes
half-way to his knees, armed with a fish pole and a bottom-
less bamboo basket with a hole in the top.

Bat the fish pole is not for the purpose of catching fish,
as might naturally be supposed, at least, not in the ordinary
way, nor is the basket to hold the finny captives, since it is
open at both ends. But this is the modus operandi. With
his pole he thrashes the water, and when he sees a sudden
gleam and something dart into the black mud, he quickly
caps the spot with his bottomless basket, and putting his
hand through the hole in the top, he gropes around in the
mud until he finds the imprisoned fish. This he transfers to
another basket which is slung on his back, and then goes on
thrashing the mud and water until he sees once more the
silver gleam of a fish darting into the mud.

It will be strange if, on this walk through Shanghai's
streets and suburbs, we do not see at least one of the sad
processions which, in every part of the world, tell the old, old
story of mortality and decay. I saw many of these funeral
corteges in China, but none that interested me more than
one I met in Shanghai.

A wealthy resident had lost his only daughter, and he
was determined to show her every token of barbaric honor.
He was evidently intent on having what our Hibernian
friends would call " an iligint funeral." Long before the
mourners came out of the house were the preparations begun,
and bearer after bearer arrived, each bringing some contri-
bution to the solemn occasion. First came two coolies carry-
ing the inevitable roast pig, varnished and crisp and brown,
his ears and tail decorated with red and white and silver em-
blems. Then came two others bearing a dressed kid, un-

276 A CHINESE FUNERAL.

cooked and standing in a most pathetic attitude with his
mouth open and head hanging down to his knees. Following
the bearers of the kid were others carrying little platforms
covered with rice, vegetables, and sweetmeats, while on the
sweets were toy butterflies and dragon flies, emblematic of
the soul which had taken its flight.

Then other palanquins came upon the scene. In one were
two huge paper images which were to be burned at the
grave, and through whose ascending smoke the soul might
find its way above this sordid, cloudy world. Another palan-
quin contained the ancestral tablets ; and still another, a
great string of mock money, made of paper in the form of gold
and silver ingots for the spirit's use. These, I was told, were
to be burned to propitiate the gods, and that the deceased
might have some change for her long journey. At last, after
much delay, the coffin, preceded by six Buddhist priests in
flaming yellow robes, was brought out of the house of mourn-
ing. It was quite different from our coffins or caskets, and
tapered gradually from the head to the feet, looking not un-
like the mummy caskets which one sees in the British museum.
Over the coffin a brilliant canopy in red and gold cloth was
then raised, and on the canopy a paper stork at least three
feet in height, was fastened. Usually, a paper cock has this
post of honor, I am told, but on this occasion it was an unmis-
takable life-size stork. Then came out the familv friends, and

■

a truly pitiable sight they presented, for grief is the same in
all lands. The grotesqueness of the surroundings could not
altogether disguise the sorrow, though of course, I am not
prepared to say that the excessive weeping and wailing and
agonized outcries were all of genuine grief. But who will
dare say that they were not !

The father of the damsel came first, almost bent to the
ground by his sorrow, while on either side he was supported

STRANGE FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 277

by a mute, who was arrayed, like the father, in sackcloth
and white linen. Then came the mother likewise supported,
followed by the brothers all bent double with their sorrow,
groaning and weeping and wringing their hands. Thus the
pitiful procession moved along, the roast pig and the un-
cooked kid, the vegetables and the sweetmeats, the paper
images and the flesh-and-blood mourners, the mock money
and the narrow house with its lonely occupant, surmounted
by the many-colored paper stork ; all moved slowly on,
followed by the more distant mourners in jinrikishas.

How unspeakably sad is such a sight ! Mortality un-
cheered by any true hope of immortality ! Death irradiated
by no reasonable assurance of life! The grave with the
stone still at its dismal entrance, not yet rolled away.

No wonder, O father and mother, that ye are bowed
down with grief even to the ground ! 'No wonder that ye
weep and wail as those without hope !

At the grave the paper images and the mock money are
burned, and the paper stork reduced to ashes. Some por-
tions of the food are left at the grave for the dead to feed
upon, but most of it is eaten by the survivors, who remark
as they masticate the generous provisions, " How strange it
is that this pork has no taste ! " " How singular that the
spirits should have taken all the goodness out of these vege-
tables ! " " The departed have evidently been helping them-
selves to these sweets, for there is no taste left in them."

However, in spite of the assumed tastelessness of the
funeral baked meats, which is always remarked upon, the
mourners manage to make a very good meal upon the crisp
roast pork and toothsome confections. Oftentimes the
bodies of the dead are kept for months, hermetically sealed,
in the house of the relatives, and in the neighborhood of
Shanghai the body is always buried only where the priests

278 THE BABY TOWERS OF SHANGHAI.

indicate. There seem to be no cemeteries set apart for the
dead, but the whole vicinity of Shanghai is one vast grave-
yard.

On this walk into the country, which we have been
taking together this December morning, we have seen scores
and hundreds of little mounds unmarked except by a slight
swell in the uneven soil, each of which tells where many
bodies have been deposited. Scores of coffins, too, are seen,
either carelessly set down by the roadside, or half buried
under a few spadesfull of soil in the fields near by.

But the most pathetic sight in the neighborhood of
Shanghai is the baby towers, into which are unceremo-
niously thrust the bodies of children who die before they
have attained their first birthday. According to the Chinese
idea they have no souls before they cut their first teeth. It
matters little, therefore, what becomes of these tiny, soul-
less waifs, and so they are thrown, almost before the life is
out of their little bodies, into these dismal, eyeless towers,
which here and there dot the horizon. When the tower is
filled to the roof, the little bones are shoveled out as uncere-
moniously as they were thrown in, and another lot of infant
bodies fill the horrid cavity.

What else could be expected with Chinese views of
infant life? What respect is due a soulless infant? How
different this treatment from that of Him who took little
children up in his arms and blessed them, who said : " Suffer
the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for
of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."

CHAPTER XV.

A JOURNEY THROUGH TROPIC SEAS.

A Delightful Voyage — Liquid Fire — The Sacred White Ox — The Gharri*
— The "L Road" aud the Bullock Bandy — Fan Palms of Singapore —
A Tree that Casts no Shadow — How the Bandy Driver Stimulates his
Steeds — An Effective Threat — Chewing a Bullock's Tail to make
him go — Picturesque Wharf Venders — "Papa Dive" — Scrambling for
Nickels — A Walk in Penang — Mangosteens and Jack-fruit — Assa-
foetida and Onions — The Indian Juggler — A Man with a Gizzard —
The Mango Tree Trick and the Girl in the Basket — The Last of the
Chinaman — Ceylon's Spicy Breezes — The Waggish Captain's Joke —
The Odors of Colombo — A Horrible Combination — The Catamaran —
The Two Instincts of the Singhalese — Persistent Shopkeepers — Be-
sieged by Beggars — Baby Merchants and their Wares — The Cinna-
mon Gardens — An Ancient Turtle — Brawny Barbarism and Miss
Nancy ism.

}HE journey from Hong Kong to
Colombo occupies about thirteen
days over tropic seas. The first
few days from Hong Kong, with,
the northwest monsoon blowing-
half a gale, are apt to be rather-
uncomfortable for lovers of"
terra firm a; but, as we travel
southward, the weather grows
gentler, the sea grows smoother,,
and before we reach Singapore
we vote this journey to be one of
the most delightful on any ocean. There are usually few
signs of life at sea, but on this voyage flying fish flit from
wavelet to wavelet, and at night the phophorescent animal-
cula turn all the surrounding ocean into waves of liquid fire-

(279)

-JSO

THE SACRED WHITE OX OP INDIA.

as our good ship plows its way through this brilliant but
harmless flame.

Occasionally a passing steamer causes all the passengers
to unstrap their field glasses and level them at the distant
stranger. Occasionally, also, a helpless sailing vessel is seen
in the distance, in a dead calm, with flapping sails and
drooping pennant ; its crew devoutly wishing, doubtless, for
the aid of steam, which carries us so swiftly along.

Singapore, in the Straits Settlements, is the first stopping
place for steamers bound for India, and here we have our

SACRED WHITE OXEN.

introduction to Indian life. Here for the first time we see
the typical white oxen with humps on their backs, just
behind their necks, and with gaily painted horns, one red
and one blue; a sight which becomes very familiar after a
few days in India, for the ox is not only sacred in this land,
but is also the indispensable beast of burden. Here, too, we
are first introduced to the universal Indian vehicle, the
gha/rri.

Nothing is more indicative of the character of a people
than the vehicles in which they ride. We are tempted to
perpetrate a second-hand aphorism to the effect that if you
will show us the carriages in which a people ride we will tell

A TREE THAT CASTS NO SHADOW. 281

you the character of the people who ride in them. The " L
road" and electric street car are as typical of the hurrying,
impatient American character as the ram-shackle bullock
bandy is of the careless, easy, happy-go-lucky Hindu of
Southern India.

In Japan the universal jinrikisha is always with us at
every railway station and in almost every country village
throughout the empire. In Hong Kong the sedan chair
bears the traveler aloft above the heads of the nocking
throng. In Shanghai the wheelbarrow, with its large cen-
tral wheel and its seat on either side for two persons, shows
the highest aspiration of the average Chinaman, so far as
locomotion goes. But in Singapore and throughout India,
the gharri is the common carriage for the better classes. It
is not a bad one either, for a hot country, with its double
roof, and latticed, movable blinds on all sides, which admit
the air and exclude the sun. It seems to be, on the whole,
the best public carriage that can be devised.

In Singapore, however, jinrikishas are also used and are
most gorgeously painted with huge gold Chinese figures on
their broad backs.

The most interesting drive is to the Botanical Gardens,
which are extensive and well Avorth visiting, especially for
their beautiful fan palms, whose leaves radiate from a com-
mon center, forming a huge representation of our common
palm-leaf fan, with a great trunk for the handle and the
branching leaves for the fan. It would take a giant, to
be sure, to wield such a fan, but the representation is com-
plete on a colossal scale.

When these palms are planted at different angles they
form a very picturesque addition to the landscape of a
garden. Looked at edgewise the tree is almost as thin as a
sheet of paper and can hardly cast a shadow in the brightest

282

CHEWING A BULLOCK'S TAIL.

sunlight, but looked at from the front or from behind, the
huge spreading fan presents a perfect shield to all within its
shade.

Here, in Singapore, too, we see the great straw-thatched
bandy with patient bullocks hitched to it; and in this
bandy, when gharris were not to be had, we have been more
than once glad to ride, shielded as we were from the hot
Indian sun, and getting over the road, not at lightning

THE BULLOCK CAHT.

speed, but at the rate of three or four miles an hour, which
is very good trotting for these little animals.

The bandy driver usually stimulates the speed of his
bullocks not only by judicious application of a short stick,
but more often by twisting their tails, in a way that seemed
to us most cruel and inhuman ; while one driver, who could
not get sufficient speed out of his bovine steeds, in his de-
spair actually grasped the tail of one of them in his teeth
and began to chew it vigorously as "a discourager of hes-
itancy" on the road. We were obliged more than once
to threaten our bandy-drivers and " gharriwallahs " with the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, unless
they desisted from their practices.

AT THE WHARF AT SINGAPORE. 283

Whether our threats were understood or not, or whether
"the society with the long name" is known in Singapore I
am not sure, but in every case our vigorous protest seemed
to have its desired effect, and the poor animals trotted along
without so much applied stimulus from the outside.

But more interesting to us than the busy streets of Singa-
pore with their squalid inhabitants, or even beautiful botan-
ical gardens, were the crowds of young adventurers that
swarmed to the wharf with various wares and temptations
for our pocketbooks.

Here were boats loaded with most curious and beautiful
shells, lovely nautilus shells, huge, flat, pearly mussel shells
(so thin it seemed impossible for any living animal to find a
home between the two discs), crinkly, curly, spiral shells of
every hue and possible curve. From other boats great
branches of coral, red, white, and pink, tempted the pur-
chaser. Still other men, with gaudy turbans and brilliant
cloths round their waists, offered for sale parrots of even
more gaudy plumage than themselves ; while others came
down to the wharf with great baskets of delicious pine-
apples, for the straits are the very home of the " pine," and
nowhere else is it found of finer flavor or of larger size.

In the water about the steamer were scores of naked
boys ready to dive for a piece of money which the amused
traveler might throw them. Every grown-up stranger to
them is either " papa " or " mamma," according to the sex of
the person addressed ; while all European boys are yclept
" Charlie " by them, however they were christened by their
parents. So, as we three pilgrims looked over the side of
the vessel, scores of vigorous voices would cry out, "Papa
dive," "Papa dive," "Mamma dive," "Mamma dive,'*
"Charlie dive," "Charlie dive." This did not mean that
the pilgrims should take headers into the water, as the im-

284 A SCRAMBLE UNDER WATER.

perative mood seemed to indicate, but that these brown-
skinned natives in the boats would exhibit their powers if
only the inducement of a five-cent bit was thrown into the
water. As at Honolulu and other places where we have
watched the performance, when the little silver piece began
to flutter down beneath the waves, what a commotion there
was among the twenty boats ! Twice twenty supple, clean-
limbed little fellows would jump into the water, their wrig-
gling toes and the white soles of their feet would appear for
a moment above the waves, while underneath the disturbed
waters would prove that they were grabbing and scrambling
after the silver bit. Soon one brown hand would appear
above the surface followed by another and another, until
gradually the whole upper surface was brown with hands
and heads, and, puffing and blowing, the whole little regiment
of divers would come bobbing to the top ; the strongest and
most expert usually having the silver piece safely tucked
away in his cheek.

In the meantime, their little dug-out canoes would, very
likely, float off to quite a distance, some of them would fill
with water, others would disappear in different directions ;
but they would soon collect their property, get into their
several canoes, bale them out with a quick, dexterous motion
of the foot, which shoveled out sufficient water to keep
them from sinking, and then their occupants were ready for
another dive, if " Papa," or " Mamma," or " Charlie " would
only favor them with a five-cent piece.

Two days after leaving Singapore we reached Penang,
and as we looked out of our cabin porthole early in the
morning, we found our steamer at anchor and surrounded by
gaily painted sampans ; red and white and blue of the most
vivid hues were the prevailing colors.

"Mahommed Baboo" had his name painted in flaring

A MOST HORRIBLE COMBINATION. 285

letters on one of these brilliant boats, and for the sake of his
name, perhaps, more than for any other reason (it sounded
so distinctly Oriental), we chose his sampan and were rowed
ashore for the modest sum of five cents each.

Penang is an uninteresting place, and its few sights
scarcely pay for the necessary walk in the hot sun. Such
gorgeous costumes as one here sees, such Oriental disregard
of any costume at all, would be startling in any other port
of the world, though here these scanty garments seem by
no means so inappropriate as in cooler latitudes.

The fruit stores are filled with strange products which
look very odd to our unaccustomed eyes. "We indulged in
some of them, and found, that while a few were delicious,
others required a long course of education in order to appre-
ciate them. The mangosteen, for instance, a fruit about the
size of an apple, with a dull, reddish color, is most spicy and
fragrant and refreshing. One never is obliged to learn to
like the mangosteen.

The jack fruit, on the other hand, which our loquacious
guide persuaded us to buy, asserting that it was most deli-
cious, proved to be a most horrible combination of bad onions
and assafcetida. After hanging a specimen of this fruit up
in our stateroom for an hour of two, the cabin became
utterly uninhabitable for several hours, until it had been
fumigated and opened in all directions to the breezes of
heaven. We are told by old inhabitants of the country,
however, that our guide was not far wrong, that the jack-
fruit is really by no means so bad as its odor indicates.
However, we were satisfied with what one of our senses told
us concerning it, and we did not attempt to find out whether
it tasted as badlv as it smelled.

Here in Penang, too, we saw our first Indian juggler.
He came aboard the ship while she was lying at anchor, and

286 THE UNCANNY INDIAN JUGGLER.

performed all his stock of tricks, which are decidedly inter-
esting -when first viewed, but which became somewhat stale
when, one after another, a dozen jugglers did exactly the
same tricks in the same way ; each one talking cheap-jack
patter to attract or distract the attention of the spectators.

In spite, however, of the sameness of his tricks, the
Indian juggler is a very clever fellow. He will cause a little
pebble to make its way under a brass cup, without hands,
when he is apparently six feet away, and when the spectator
is willing to take his oath that the cup is absolutely empty.
He will pick another pebble out of your shoe or a large stone
out of your pocket, though you are very confident you are
not carrying a small quarry about your person. He will
show you an innocent little ball of yarn in his hands, as big
as a large bullet, and after speaking to the ball for a moment,
it will be transformed into a little paroquet, which opens its
bill and squeaks and makes a " salaam " at the command of
its master.

He will put an egg shell in a little cloth bag, slap the bag
around in the most vicious manner on the deck, against his
own shins, or on a projecting spar, will then take the bag
in both hands and wring it so vigorously that you are sure
that not even a fly could live within its folds ; then coolly
opening the mouth of the bag, the egg shell, unharmed
and sound, will roll out upon the deck at your feet.

He will open his mouth and take out one pebble after
another, until you are convinced that he has a gizzard like a
turkey's, and that he keeps a store of stones for digestive
purposes in his gullet, for they all seem to come up from the
depths of his throat. One, two, three, four, up to nine of
these pebbles he will disgorge, and then, with a convulsive
effort by which he seems to be throwing up his Adam's
apple itself, will come, one after the other, four large stones

FOLLOWERS OF THE "BLACK ART."

287

as big as hens' eggs, which he will add to the pile of the
smaller stones at his feet.

Before your very eyes he will plant a dry, withered
mango-stone. After pronouncing a few conjurer's incanta-
tions over this stone, and passing a handkerchief over it, you
find, to your surprise, that it has sprouted into a little mango
tree with four tiny leaves. Another incantation and the
tree has grown into a sizeable bush with three or four

THE FAMOUS BASKET TRICK.

branches ; still another spell is pronounced and the bush has
become a tree, from which he will pluck and hand you a ripe
and luscious mango, even if it be not in the mango season.

The "basket trick" is also a favorite with these followers
of the " black art." A young girl, often a very pretty girl,
is tied together with long, stout ropes, which seem to be
knotted most securelv. The girl is then crowded into a
wicker basket, larger at the bottom but growing smaller
towards the top, where the hole is just large enough to

288 THE FAMOUS BASKET TRICK.

admit her body. Then the conjurer takes an ugly-looking
sword, which is, however, probably far more harmless than
it appears, and deliberately jabs right and left, up and down,
backwards and forwards, into the basket. Through the center
and out at every side the sword is seen to stick, while one is
willing to aver, by all that is true, that it is impossible for
the sword to escape the body of the imprisoned girl. Most
recklessly the juggler lunges at the basket. For the sake
of heightening the effect, the girl emits timid little squeals
once in a while, and sometimes red fluid, that looks like
blood, pours from the side of the basket. But, a few mo-
ments after, the girl, who has apparently been stabbed in a
hundred places, steps forth from her prison-house smiling,
unbound, and unharmed.

Five days from Penang brings us to Colombo, where we
have our first glimpse of genuine Indian life. Hitherto, the
ubiquitous Chinaman has been before us everywhere. He
has monopolized the markets, crowded out the natives,
trundled the jinrikisha, and cheated us with bare-faced impu-
dence. But before getting to Colombo he seems to stop
short, and there we see only the natives of the soil. To be
sure there are many people from the mainland of India, who
have come to the more fertile island of Ceylon to find work
when their crops have failed. But the Singhalese and the
natives of Southern India speak the same language, and
resemble one another very much in customs and costumes.

The glorious missionary hymn, which every young Chris-
tian learns as soon as he knows the Lord's Prayer, has
thrown a peculiar halo of romance around this beautiful
island of the coral seas, and more romantic day dreams have
centred here than upon any other spot on the face of the
earth. One is quite prepared to detect the " spicy breezes '*
long before he sights the palm-girt shores of Ceylon.

ceylon's fragrant isle. 28D

A waggish captain of whom we have heard, taking
advantage of this universal expectation born of the old
hymn, while the passengers were at "tiffin," smeared the
rail of the upper deck with oil of cloves and cinnamon. Just
as the vessel neared the land, the passengers came up from
their lunch one after another ; the spicy odors were strong
and pungent, and were cited by the captain as proof positive
that the breeze was blowing "soft o'er Ceylon's isle." It
was not till he reached Calcutta that he explained the little
joke, and dispelled the romantic notions of fair Ceylon.

One is sure to believe, when he first lands at Colombo,
that the breezes are anything but spicy, for all sorts of
odors which make up the usual smells of a large seaport city
greet one as he steps ashore. Moreover, if one penetrates
far into the native town, he will be still more convinced that
there are other odors besides those of clove and cinnamon
which are wafted abroad in Ceylon.

As every place has its characteristic vehicle, so every sea-
port has its characteristic native boat. The slipper boat of
Canton gives way in Kobe to the larger and clumsier lighter
of Japan. This in turn is displaced by the gorgeously
painted sampan of Penang, while in Colombo none of these
styles of boat building are seen, but a curious double-keeled
catamaran, with large out-riders, and so narrow that a
passenger can barely squeeze his two legs between the sides
of the very rakish-looking little craft. However, the cata-
maran is by no means so insecure as it appears, but, owing
to the large out-rider, it is able to brave almost any sea
in safety.

The harbor of Colombo, though protected by a long and
expensive breakwater, is not, by any means, a quiet haven,
and such boats as these are the only ones, besides the steam

tugs, that will lie in the turbulent surf that sometimes breaks

290 THE SWARMING STREETS.

on the shore. "We were seized upon as we stood upon the
deck of the Malwa by half a score of importunate boatmen,
and were almost pulled limb from limb in their anxiety to
secure us for their little craft. At last, asserting our right
to ownership in our beleaguered persons, we transferred our-
selves and our baggage to the least importunate of our
boatmen and were rowed safely to the pier.

Here, again, the struggle to possess us and our baggage
was renewed. Bandymen and coolies, hotel runners and
guides, besiege us from every quarter, jabbering and pulling
and jostling and pushing, with all the importunate imperti-
nence of cab drivers at Niagara in the olden time. Again
we are compelled to assert our claim to our own personality,
and, after seeing our baggage duly installed in a bullock
bandy, we walk on behind after the custom of travelers in
Colombo, until we reached our roomy and comfortable hotel.

Even the walk to the hotel reveals a conglomerate
picturesqueness in the swarming streets, which promises well
for the interest of our stay in Colombo. Here are white-
turbaned Hindus, with long white cloths over their shoulders
and round their loins ; Brahmins with little spots of sacred
yellow ashes on their foreheads ; Sivites with three vertical
lines, two white and one red, to indicate that they are wor-
shipers of Siva, the cruel goddess; and many other Hindus
with different lines and spots of sacred ashes to show the
particular brand of their heathenism. Here, too, Mahom-
medans in red fezzes and Parsees in high glazed hats mingle
with the throng, and here and there a European, shaded by
an immense pith helmet, which often comes down over his
features like a mushroom over a diminutive toad. Naked
children, many of them with beautiful black eyes and be-
witching curly hair, swarm everywhere. Before they are
able to speak they learn to hold out their little hands in

BESIEGED BY BEGGARS. 291

beggary, for two instincts seem to have been fully developed
among the inhabitants of Colombo — the commercial in-
stinct and the faculty for begging. Beggars swarm every-
where, with all sorts of claims on human sympathy, revolt-
ing and disgusting enough oftentimes, thrusting their de-
formities and loathsome diseases into your very face and
eyes in order that they might excite your pity.

Of all traders that I have ever seen, the Colombo shop-
keeper is most persistent, vivacious, and vigorous. Certain
lines of business seem to be overstocked in this little city,
especially the trade in precious stones, — moonstones, sap-
phires, and rubies. It is safe to say that every second man
whom we meet on the street has his pocket full of precious
stones, either real or imitation, most likely the latter, which
he is bound you should buy, if his eloquent persistency can
induce you to part with your rupees. From every shop
door and window comes the beseeching invitation, " Lady
buy" ; "Master come in" ; " Master look, just look, need not
buy"; "Do come, master"; " Mamma, please look here."
Every few steps a proprietor of a jewelry bazaar will rush
out at you with a handful of moonstones and sapphires,
which he will insist on your taking. If you assert you have
no money to spare, he will tell you that he will trust you,
and that you can take the jewels home with you to America,
and send him the money when you are convinced of their
value. Such confiding trust in human nature I have not
seen elsewhere, and when I asked for the reason of this con-
fidence in a passing traveler, I was assured that the dealers
could well afford to take the risk involved in the offer, and
that, though they occasionally lost their jewels, they made up
for it amply by the enormous price which they obtained
from other people for comparatively worthless stones.

Even the children scarcely out of babyhood acquire the

292 A MANIA FOR TRADING.

mania for trading, and they will run by the side of your
gharri by the half hour with bouquets of bright-colored
flowers and canes and every imaginable trinket, with which
they think they can beguile the unwary traveler. If you
refuse to buy they will throw the bouquet into the carriage
at you, crying out in their childish treble : " Take it, master,
it's yours"; "It's a gift, mamma." If, however, you take
them at their word and actually accept the bouquet as a
gift, they will follow you weeping and wailing and beseech-
ing you to pay them for it, and make your life miserable
until you either throw back the worthless little bunch of
flowers or give them a half anna as its price.

The Cinnamon Gardens just outside the busy streets of
Colombo are by no means as impressive and as beautiful as
their romantic name indicates to foreign ears, for the cinna-
mon bush is rather a scraggy shrub, without any special
characteristics in outward appearance to distinguish it from
a hundred other bushes in the jungle. As one crushes the
leaves in his hands, however, or scrapes the tender bark
from the branch, the delicious odor of the cassia plant is per-
ceived, and one is tempted to buy all the gnarled and ugly
sticks which are for sale, for the sake of the spicy fragrance.

Here, too, every tropical fruit grows with the utmost
luxuriance. Unlike Southern India, Ceylon is frequently
visited by refreshing showers which wash Nature's face and
keep it always smiling. Long rows of cocoanut, bread-fruit,
and jack-fruit trees line the country roads, and some mag-
nificent views tempt one to linger beneath their shade.

A few miles from Colombo is a fine estate, noted among
other things for its ancient turtle, which is known to be at
least 400 years old ; since it has been upon the title deeds of
that property for that length of time. It lies in a little
pool of fresh water in a valley near the seashore, and never

AN ANCIENT AND HONORABLE TURTLE. 293

attempts to wander away to greener fields and pastures
new. In the hot weather, however, the pool dries up, and
then his turtleship every morning marches majestically up
to the bungalow to have cold water thrown over his parched
and dusty carapace. When he has been sufficiently re-
freshed with many buckets of water he goes back to his
valley again, until he is ready for another refreshing
shower bath.

As in other Eastern countries, everything here is done out
of doors. In Colombo the fruit stores and shoe shops, the
barber, cabinet makers, and jewelry dealers all do their
trading and bargaining and mechanical work with as few
partitions between them and the general public as possible.

Everywhere we meet semi-naked coolies carrying huge
baskets of vegetables and other provisions, dry goods and
hardware, and every article known to commerce, upon their
stalwart shoulders. Loads which would crush an average
European to the ground they hoist to their shoulders or lift
to their heads, and trot off with them as though burdened
only with a feather duster.

The Singhalese men wear high tortoise-shell combs,
which give them a very odd appearance. To see a stalwart,
muscular man with a little girl's tortoise-shell comb perched
on the top of his head is a combination of brawny barba-
rism and Miss Nancyism, which is very amusing.

But we have lingered as long as our journey will permit
amid the soft breezes of Ceylon, and must take the steamer
across the turbulent strait that separates us from the main-
land of India.

CHAPTER XVI.

IN SOUTHERN INDIA.

Journey with a Bad Reputation — Landing at Tuticorin — Railway
Traveling in India — A New Use for a Dirty Sock — Preparing for Hot
Weather — House Building in the Tropics — " Give the Sun no Chance "
— Horses under Pith Hats — Barren India — On the Ragged Edge of
Famine — Gaunt Starvation — Disputing with the Ants — Buffaloes
and Long-legged Goats — A Sunset Scene — A Missionary Bungalow —
A Girls' Boarding School — How They Make up Their Beds — An In-
ventory of a Maiden's Jewels — A Missionary's Manifold Labors — A
Picnic in the Jungle — The "Nine Lac Garden" — Serious Duties
Again — A Bicycle Story — The Good Devil and his Terrible Bell —
"Tell Me Your Name, Good Devil " — Bound in the Shackles of the
Caste System — Encouragement for the Future — A Brave Brahmin.

HE journey from Colombo to Tuti-
corin has anything but an envia-
ble reputation, but it is like some
people whose reputation is worse
than their actual character, or
who at least have lucid intervals
when their better natures pre-
vail. We found the short journey
of a day and a night between
the two ports very pleasant and
restful. The British India
steamer was large and com-
fortable ; the sea was smooth and smiling ; and even the
dreaded landing at Tuticorin, which had been pictured to us
as a most harrowing experience, was by no means as bad as
we expected.

(294)

RAILWAY TRAVEL IN INDIA. 295

On all this southern coast of India there is not a good
harbor, and Tuticorin, like the great capital of Madras, is sit-
uated on the stormy, surf-beaten shore of the open ocean.

At Tuticorin passengers are taken ashore by a small,
puffing, bobbing tug-boat, whose gyrations often try even
the strongest stomach. Calm as was the day on which
we landed, the little steamer which came to take us off
jumped and bumped against her larger sister, and threatened
to tear away the gangway which had been let down for us
to descend. However, by skillful manoeuvring, we got away
from the great ship's side without any serious damage, and,
in course of time, we landed at the tiny wharf which ran out
from the shore.

Tuticorin is a long, low, rambling, native town, contain-
ing about twenty European inhabitants. It does not invite
the traveler to linger long in its hot and dusty streets. We
found our way to the railway station and were soon aboard
the train for Madura, the largest city of Southern India.

Railway traveling in Southern India has some peculiari-
ties which distinguish it from travel in other parts of the
world. The distances are long, the trains are slow, and
much of the journey must be done at night, so that every
first and second-class car has a sleeping compartment. But
do not imagine for a moment, my reader, that a Pullman or
Wagner have cast their inventive spell over the Indian rail-
ways. Far from it, as you will find before you have spent a
night on one of them. There are two tiers of berths on each
side of each compartment running lengthwise with the car,
and sometimes three tiers, and on these narrow shelves one
must curl up, providing his own blankets and pillows, and
thus pass as comfortable a night as circumstances will permit.

Many travelers take their own servants with them, who*
make up their beds and look after their baggage, and even.

296 A NEW WAY TO MAKE COFFEE.

provide them with lunches from, the capacious hampers,
which are usually taken along on such journeys. A servant
is not necessary, however, but is often felt to be rather in
the way by those who are accustomed to wait upon them-
selves. There are occasional eating houses provided at the
stations along the route, and any number of coolies may be
hired at a moment's notice, who, for a quarter of an anna,
or one cent, will carry your baggage for any reasonable
distance.

The ideas of some of these native servants who are picked
up by the round-the-world traveler, as to the proprieties of
civilized life, are sometimes startling. To this, that traveler
will testify who woke up one morning and looked aghast as
he saw his servant straining his morning coffee through one
of his socks which had been discarded the night before.
Springing from his berth the traveler cried out : " What are
you doing, you rascal, what are you straining that coffee
through ? " " Oh, master, master," replied the terrified ser-
vant, " it is not master's clean stocking, it is master's dirty
stocking. Coolie will not use master's clean stocking for
coffee." The master, however, was hardly reassured by this
information, and lost his appetite for his usual morning
beverage, as can be easily imagined.

These railway cars, like everything else in India, are built
for hot weather which, in the southern part of the continent
at least, prevails for eleven months in the year. So every-
one prepares for the hot weather, and the people suffer as
little, I imagine, from the extreme heat as inhabitants of a
northern clime suffer from extreme cold. The pity that is
lavished upon dwellers in the tropics on account of the heat
they endure and on the inhabitants of Arctic regions on
account of the cold they suffer, is largely misplaced, as these
inhabitants themselves would assert.

"give the sun no chance. 29?

As I said, in India even the railway cars are built for hot
weather. The double roof keeps the sun from beating
directly upon the passengers ; the wide, projecting blinds
ward off his beams from the windows, which are often made
of smoked glass, the better to protect the traveler ; the seats
are not upholstered in plush and woolen, but in cool leather
or still cooler straw, and often at the stations water by the
bucketful is thrown over the top of the cars and allowed to
trickle down their sides that evaporation may keep the occu-
pants cooler.

This regard for the season, too, regulates the building of
the houses, which for the most part are high-posted dwell-
ings of one story, with ample verandas, and wide doors
which are seldom closed, day or night. A screen with a
wide space at the top and bottom of the doors affords
ample privacy, and in every way air is encouraged to circu-
late above and below, and wherever a breath of wind can be
prevailed upon to blow.

The airy costumes of the people emphasize the fact that
they live in the tropics, while foreigners usually provide
themselves w T ith huge pith hats, which, though far from
comely, protect the sensitive skull of the European from the
burning rays of the sun.

" Give the sun no chance," is one of the proverbs on
every person's tongue. If he once shoots his rays upon you,
so that you are even partly stricken by them, it is very diffi •
cult ever after to live in India. Even horses in many cities
are protected by pith helmets. At the best, these poor
creatures do but little work when compared with their
Northern brethren. Eight or ten miles a day for a horse,
unless he be one of the hardy native ponies, is considered a
sufficient daily task for these tropical latitudes. Men and
women, too, learn to take life more easily here than in the

298 ON THE VERGE OF FAMINE.

North. Early morning tea, often in bed, a late breakfast,
with a nap in the middle of the day, and dinner towards
sunset, is the usual routine of family life. Work, both in-
tellectual and physical, must be done in the cool of the day ;
exercise must be taken when the sun is sinking below the
horizon, or not at all.

Southern India was much more barren and desert-like
than we had supposed. " India's coral strand " had always
been pictured to our imagination as clothed in living green
and begirt with waving palm trees. When we saw it vegeta-
tion was as withered and much of the land was as parched as
the desert of Sahara itself. Gaunt, bleak mountains rose in
the distance, and as we came nearer we could see that they
were treeless and pastureless ; no gurgling brooks ran down
their thirsty sides, no growth of spruce and hemlock, pine or
fir, which make our American hills so beautiful, clothed
their ragged spurs, but, arid and bare, they stood out in the
blazing sunlight, the bleached monuments of many cen-
turies of drought.

Many dry seasons have succeeded one another in some
parts of Southern India, and in not a few places the people,
always on the verge of famine, had crossed the terribly nar-
row line which separates them from poverty or actual
starvation.

In many places in the fields we could see men and
women digging eagerly for dry roots, which in times when
the crops fail and dire necessity urges, are used for food, but
which are, at the best, very coarse and distasteful fare. In
other places we could see old women crouching over and
hobbling along the road, picking up, grain by grain, a few
scattered kernels of rice which had fallen from the scanty
sheaves which the men had borne along before them. A.
missionary friend told me that he had more than once seen

ROBBING THE ANTS OF THEIR STORES.

299

the people scratching in the ant-hills for grain hidden by the
industrious insects for future use, so reduced and poverty-
stricken are the masses of the people.

The government had started relief-works in some parts
of India, anticipating a famine, and the missionaries were
busy, even in the early spring, in distributing what they
could afford, to keep their people from actual starvation.

NATIVES OF SOUTHERN INDIA.

The price of rice, which in seasons of plenty goes as low as
sixteen measures to the rupee, now has gone up to five and six
measures to the rupee, and it can be imagined how little the
people whose crops have failed get for the few "pice" they
have at their disposal for their daily rations. Those who
live in more favored lands, where famine is unknown and
the rains never fail, can scarcely comprehend what it is to
see the gaunt form of Famine stalking along the highway.

300 SEEN FROM THE CAR WINDOW.

Scenes from the car window, however, are not altogether
•sad and gloomy. The railway stations are alive with dusky
people in many colored garments. Even the dry fields seem
to afford some nourishment for the hump-backed cows, and
the smooth-haired, rhinoceros-like buffaloes; while great
herds of long-legged goats, which appear to be walking on
stilts, show the sky line plainly beneath their bellies, as one
looks out upon the fields where they are grazing in every
direction.

The goatherds, as in Scripture times, are watching over
their flocks, and sometimes, as they go on before to better
pastures, they are followed by long lines of their gaunt
flocks marching in single file a quarter of a mile long, over
the dry and dusty fields.

Here and there we pass tanks and reservoirs of water
which are not entirely dry. Occasionally we see treadmill
bullocks, hitched to long ropes by which water is raised
from the depths below and poured into the open ditches,
whence it is conveyed to the few rice fields which the inhab-
itants are still trying to cultivate.

As the day goes on the evening coolness steals over us,
and with the setting sun the most delightful period of the
Indian day approaches. The whole western sky is suffused
with brilliant light; a delicate pink above shades off into
vivid crimson and purple near the horizon. Not a particle
of vapor is in the air, and the clear, transparent sky above,
unfleckecl with clouds, is made strangely luminous by the
brilliancy of the departing "King of Day." Lower and
lower sinks the sun, and the glories above the horizon be-
come less pronounced but more delicate in their tone, while
even now is rising the full, silvery moon. At least, on this
journey to Madura she rose as the sun went down and
flooded the plains with her mellow light.

A missionary's bungalow.

301

And now everything is glorified ; the squalid hovels of
the pariahs are touched with silver ; the rugged outlines of
the hills are softened and mellowed ; the dry and parched
rice fields, which would bear not even a cupful of precious
grain for their cultivators, look, under this silvery radiance,
like the favored gardens of the gods, and everything is
changed from the harsh brilliance of sunlight to the mellow
glories of the evening.

A journey of two hours after sunset brought us to some

A NATIVE VILLAGE OF SOUTHERN INDIA

dear friends in the first missionary bungalow which it was
our privilege to visit in India.

Imagine a long, low building with wide verandas, sup-
ported by large pillars. The out-lying buildings are quite
impressive, not by reason of their magnificence or architec-
tural beauty, but because of their extent, for the sleeping
rooms must be large and airy to be in anywise tolerable in
the hot season, and the missionary is often expected to enter-
tain guests, which compels him to have a house of generous
size. The irreverent globe-trotter who goes home to deride

302 THE DISPENSARY AND BOARDING SCHOOL.

missionary life, and to tell about the luxury and extrava-
gance of missionaries' homes, is frequently very glad to take
shelter beneath this hospitable roof when he finds himself in
.an Indian city with no other place in which to spend the
night than the indifferent traveler's bungalow.

A little away from the first bungalow, into which we
were introduced to missionary life, stands another house,
that of the medical missionary. Here, tens of thousands of
suffering natives every year obtain medicine or surgical
treatment which restores them to health and strength.
There is no more powerful auxiliary of missionary effort
than the surgeon's knife, and the well-stocked dispensary.
On either side of the central bungalow are the teachers'
houses, where the unmarried ladies of the mission have their
abode, and near by is the dormitory for the girls' boarding
school. "We find no dainty, carpeted, and curtained bou-
doirs such as Vassar, Smith, and Wellesley can boast, but a
low shed-like building, which affords shelter and the few
necessary conveniences to the girls who are here obtaining
.an education.

ISTo four-posted, spring beds, with hair mattresses, are
required for these damsels, for, if we look closely, we shall
see the beds for fifty of them rolled up and stuck into a little
case like an umbrella rack. Each maiden has one mat for
her bed, and all she has to do when bedtime comes is to
unroll her mat, spread it on the floor, and go quietly off to
the Land of Nod. What a saving, this, of chambermaids
and household annoyances, to be thus independent of sheets
and blankets and spring mattresses ! And here are the girls
themselves in their schoolroom, gathered for evening pray-
ers, a hundred bright-eyed, earnest, intelligent damsels,
many of them exceedingly pretty, and showing in their
faces their capacity for intellectual discipline. To be sure,

A schoolgirl's jewels.

303

their clothes and their ornaments look strange to unaccus-
tomed eyes. A long piece of brilliant cloth affords ample
clothing to answer all the demands not only of decency, but
modesty. The ears of many of them are full of jewels from
the upper to the lower rim.

Let us take an inventory of the jewels which bedeck one
of these little maidens.,

On her wrists are seven bracelets, on each ankle three
more tinkling silver
circlets, her nose is
pierced with rings
and is glowing with
sparkling jewels,
which are probably
paste, but in any
event are most pre-
cious in the eyes of
this unsophisticated
damsel, while in her
ears are no less than
five rings, some of//,
them of enorinous/w^
size. Some of these ^
girls have their ears
not only pierced, but
slit open so widely that three or four fingers of one's hand
might easily be thrust into them, and heavy pewter bangles
dangle from them, resting oftentimes upon their shoulders.

The Christian girls, however, eschew these ornaments
more and more as they are brought under missionary in-
fluence, and not a few of them have had their ears sewed up
again, as they have learned to appreciate the barbarity of
their ornaments. In another part of the mission compound

JEWELS OP INDIA.

304

AN INEXPENSIVE EDUCATION.

is a row of little cell-like rooms, where the girls retire every
morning and evening for private devotions, not being able to
have much privacy in the common sleeping room. Their
bill-of-fare is not the elaborate menu of a girls' college at
home, of which the comic papers are so fond of making fun,
but is a very simple one, consisting largely of rice and grain
and curry. The girls grind their own grain in primitive
stone mills, such as were used in Bible times; while the

curry, which is made
of various ingredi-
ents, peppers, saffron,
cardamon seeds, co-
coanut, etc., mixed
together, is rolled un-
der a heavy stone in.
much the same way,
. and thus prepared for
j/ table use. As can be
imagined, their sim-
ple living, which sat-
isfies every want and
is all that they are
accustomed to, costs
exceedingly little.
Twelve dollars a year will support one of these dainty
maidens, or one of her brothers in the boys' school, in
another part of this same missionary compound. What do
you think of that, O students of Yale and Harvard. The
twelve dollars would be considered by most of you a scanty
supply for the expenses of one week, to say nothing of the
other fifty-one in the year.

About the walls of this mission bungalow lizards are
crawling, deftly catching the flies and mosquitoes, proving

GRINDING CURRY.

BISHOP, PASTOR, TEACHER, PHYSICIAN. 305

themselves very good insect exterminators. On this account
they are often welcomed by the inhabitants, and live for
months and years in the same room without being disturbed.
Crows, with slate-colored necks, go hopping about every-
where, so tame and audacious that they will fly into the very
dining-room and pick the food off of the tables. In the open,
compound the white bullocks, which are used to draw the
missionaries' bandies, are grazing, and before the door
beautiful flowers and groups of bright-leaved plants are
growing.

Altogether it is a very comfortable and pretty picture^
which the missionary bungalow presents to the visitor's eyes.
If he stays long enough to get into the missionary spirit he
will see the vast amount of hard, self-sacrificing work which
is accomplished every day, — a work which, though its results
seem small and meagre at times, is laying the foundation for
a great Christian empire in India, — a work which will bear-
fruit a hundredfold in this world and a thousand times a-
hundredfold in the world to come.

To attempt to relate the manifold work of the mission-
ary's most interesting and varied labors would be impossible
in this connection. He is not the pastor of a single flock, as-
is the minister at home, but rather the bishop of a district
containing hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millions of
souls. Under him are catechists, pastors, Bible women, and
helpers of both sexes ; schools for boys and schools for girls ;
relief work for those who are in dire poverty, and hospitals-
where thousands of out-patients and hundreds of in-patients
are treated every year.

But it must not be thought by any of my readers that

the missionary is so wholly given over to the affairs of the

other world, that he has no regard for the good things of

this life. He is not by any means an ascetic if he is a true
19

306 PESTS OF THE JUNGLE.

missionary of Christ, for his Master set him no such ex-
ample. His mission in part is to live among the people as a
man among men ; to show them by example what a Chris-
tian home may be, and to elevate them to his own standard
sis far as he may be able.

There is much hearty good cheer and fellowship in these
stations, especially when missionaries come together for the
annual meeting, from their different fields of labor. It was
our privilege to be present at some of these annual meetings
of different missions in India, and to know something of the
good cheer as well as of the hard work of missionary life.

A missionary picnic in the jungles of Southern India will
long live in our memories as a pleasant picture. The jungle
is not always an impenetrable tangle of tropical shrubs and
climbing creepers, as perhaps many of my readers imagine,
but is a common name often given to the forest land of India,
and is sometimes a delightful place for a holiday excursion,
as in this case. Though, to be sure, one must keep a bright
•eye out for cobras and other venomous snakes, and he need
not travel far from any city of Southern India to find the
dreaded cheetah or panther of the jungle.

This particular picnic which I have in mind was in the
"•Nine Lac Garden," as it is called. A "lac" is a hundred
thousand, and the "Nine Lac Garden" was the garden
of nine hundred thousand trees, planted by the prince of
Arcot many years ago. The reckless prince squandered his
patrimony, and lost the Nine Lac Garden with the rest
of his property, and now all his nine hundred thousand
■cocoanut trees and palmyra palms, mangoes, tamarinds, and
guavas, have passed into the hands of aliens. It still affords,
Jiowever, as delightful a place as ever for a summer holiday.

Here, under the spreading banyan trees, were laid the
snowy white tablecloths, while the bachelor missionaries, by

PICNICKING IN INDIA. 30?

whom the picnic was given, exercised their skill in providing
many toothsome dishes; ending the entertainment with a
grand surprise, which was no other than some bricks of ice
cream from Madras. To be eating various kinds of ice
cream on a hot February day in the jungle of Southern
India, did not at all correspond with our preconceived ideas
of life in the forests of India, but railways and express
messengers and telegraphic communication have made it
possible to have all the necessities and many of the luxuries
of civilized life in regions where a few years ago they were
unheard of. After an hour or two of hearty good cheer, we
took our places in our gharris once more, and were driven
back to one of the serious duties of missionarv life — a meet-
ing for the educated Hindus, in a village near by. Thus
the day was ended as it had begun, and was continued in
earnest effort for the people round about, as every day is
spent by our missionary friends. The picnic was an episode
and breathing spell, as necessary and deserved as a parson's
holiday at home, or a student's outing after a long term of
study.

Thus we rode back to meetings and services with which
all our days in India were filled; some in open carriages,
some in bullock bandies, and some of the missionaries on
their favorite steed, the bicycle.

Many amusing stories are told of the effect upon cred-
ulous natives of the first appearance of a missionary upon
his wheel.

As one of the missionaries was riding along at night
on his high wheel, he met a Hindu, who, in the gloom
of the evening, could see only his high-perched form sup-
ported, apparently, by nothing, moving at a tremendous
pace over the macadamized road. As the missionary ap-
proached he rang his bell that the Hindu might get out of

308 AN AMUSING STORY.

the way. This completely paralyzed the poor fellow, and
falling upon his knees he cried out : " Oh ! good devil, good
devil, tell me your name, tell me your name, good devil.
Oh ! Oh ! ! Oh ! ! ! I never did you any harm, good devil.
Go away, go away ! Oh ! Oh ! ! Oh ! ! ! " Then he began to
scream and run, and just kept ahead of the wheel in what
seemed to him its demoniacal course. Seeing that he could
not gain on the "good devil," and hearing the terrible bell
sounding in his ears and proclaiming his destruction, as it
doubtless did to his excited imagination, he broke inconti-
nently across the fields and ran with all his might to the
nearest village, to tell how he had been chased by an evil
spirit, who was sounding the very tomtom of Hades in his
ears. No wonder that such a sight thus affected his un-
tutored imagination.

The morning of the day on which we enjoyed this unique
picnic in the Indian jungle had been spent in visiting mission-
ary schools, dispensaries, hospitals, and evangelistic work.
And the evening concluded, as I have said, with a meeting
of educated Hindus.

This movement among the educated classes of India is
most interesting and hopeful. Though few of the higher
castes are as yet directly connected with the Christian
church, the leaven of the Gospel is evidently working among
them. For the most part they are very friendly to the mis-
sionaries, and open to their influence in social and educa-
tional matters, while in efforts for the temperance cause, the
Brahmins, who by religion and heritage are strict teetotalers,
work together with the missionaries for the uplifting of their
fellow men.

In some places the missionaries have established lyceums
and debating societies, and in connection with these, high
caste people are brought, to some extent at least, under

A DARING BRAHMIN. 309

the influence of the Gospel of Christ. As yet the great
masses of Hindus are bound hand and foot by the fetters
of their caste system, which is more inexorable than any
other social system that ever existed, probably, in the
history of the world. But it is interesting to notice that
these shackles are giving way.

In one of the villages of Southern India, a Brahmin, who
had become convinced of the degrading and benumbing
influences of his people's prejudices, recently advertised pub-
licly in the papers, that he would accept the invitation of
any cleanly vegetarian of a lower caste who should invite
him to dine with him. This was a challenge thrown in the
very teeth of public opinion. Kot long after it was accepted,
and a low-class Hindu gave an invitation to the Brah-
min to dine with him at his house in Madras. True to his
word the Brahmin accepted the invitation, and on his next
visit to Madras, where his profession as a lawyer frequently
called him, he dined with this man of lower caste, not
secretly, but in the most public way, giving notice in the
papers that he would do so, and inviting other Brahmins to
see that he dared to resist the crushing force of public
opinion.

Of course, he was read out of their synagogues, his wife
and all his family connections left him, as he knew they
would; even his cook refused longer to prepare his food.
For two weeks he was actually obliged to live on milk and
plantains, which require no cooking.

But his courageous example is infectious, and two other
brave Brahmins in his native city have given notice that they
are willing to dine with him whenever he returns to his
home, though they know it means to them loss of caste,
social ostracism, and public disgrace in the eyes of all their
old companions. It means that their wives will leave them,

310

THE BATTLE AGAINST CASTE BEGUN.

their cooks will desert them, and they will be practically
outcast wanderers on the face of the earth. Nevertheless,
there are some of these men who are willing to endure
this obloquy for the sake of freeing their nation from the
galling chains which enslave her.

In one of these public meetings for educated Hindus of
which I have spoken, I have heard a Brahmin denounce the
caste system with all the fire and fervency and elevation of
sentiment that a devout Christian missionary could use.

The same man, Nayna Sastri, a lawyer of Cuddapa, who
risked his all in dining with a lower caste family, has since
issued several Social Reform pamphlets, which are well
worth perusal by Englishmen and Hindus alike, for the
sake of the high moral sentiments which they inculcate.

All honor to such brave men wherever we find them.
The martyr spirit is not yet dead in the world. There are
some among the Brahmins who will not bow the knee to
the Baal of caste
spirits of India. May their number multiply

Thank God for the courageous and heroic

CHAPTER XVII.

FAMOUS CITIES OF SOUTHERN INDIA.

Fascinating Land — Gorgeous Heathenism — Tattoo Marks and Sacred
Ashes — A Man of the Thief Caste — A Robber Village — Calling the
Roll of Thieves — The Thief Middleman — The Women at the Well —
The Greasy Fakir — Paying Him for Drifting to Leeward — Blood-
curdling Announcements — A magnificent Temple — Twenty-five Mill-
ions of Dollars — Dusty Gods and Goddesses — The Holy of Holies — A
Stone Bull in a Stone Bath Tub — The God's Bath — A Beautiful Pal-
ace — The Temple of Tanjore — Filthy Water as a Purifier of Sins —
The Last Rajah and His Wives — A Wedding Procession — The Kick-
ing Capacities of an Old Smooth-Bore — Vellore and its Temple — Sus
pense and Terror — A Brave Rescue — The Gallant Horses — Tippoo
Sahib's Relatives — The Madras Hunt — The Punkah Wallah.

}VEN the most vigorous traveler
would find it difficult to explore
every interesting city of this mar-
velously fascinating land of India.
I must be content to take my
readers to a few of the places
which have most interested me.
Not always are they the "show
places " of India, or those over
which the traveler always goes
into raptures ; these places you
will find described in scores of
books of travel, and I may well leave them to those who are
most impressed by their wonders and beauties, while I de-
scribe those which have most strongly appealed to me.

The city of Madura, to my mind, is one of the most inter-

(311)

312 THE SIGN UPON THE FOREHEAD.

•esting cities in all India. Here we find the people in all the
gorgeousness of their native costumes, splendidly bejeweled,
and bedecked, and becrimsoned with the gay cloths which
they wear in most picturesque fashion. Here, too, the deg-
radation of heathen worship is seen as perhaps nowhere else
in India.

In the North, Brahminism seems to be a more refined
and occult religion than in the South. In the South the
religious doctrines appeal to the senses, and the magnificent
temples and innumerable gods which are everywhere wor-
shiped, tell of centuries of idolatry and superstition.

As one walks along the street, he is struck not only by
the costumes, but by the tattoo marks and by the signs on
the foreheads of the people whom he meets, which tell of
the god they worship and of the caste to which they belong.
Each morning they smear their foreheads with sacred ashes
in red or white or blue, and sometimes with a combination
of all the colors. Many wear a single spot just above the
bridge of the nose. Others bedeck themselves with three
lines running from their eyebrows to their hair, while the
foreheads of others are decorated transversely from temple
to temple with the sacred ashes mingled with oil. One who
lias lived long in the country and has become expert in the
signs on the forehead, can tell at a glance to what great
caste each man belongs, though it is impossible to distinguish
the minor castes, as they are almost numberless.

As I was sitting in a mission bungalow one day, a bright,
intelligent Hindu entered the door, and spoke to the mis-
sionary in charge in regard to some church work which had
been committed to him. As he went out, my friend said to
me, " That man belongs to the thief caste. 1 ' I was quite sur-
prised at this piece of information, for the man appeared to
me to be a very respectable citizen, and he was clad in

A CONVERTED THIEF. 313

snow-white cloth and spotless turban. Instead of playing
the thief on this occasion he made me a most respectful
" salaam," as he came into the room, laying the flat of his
hand against his forehead, and then very courteously stated
his business, not attempting to deprive me or my friend of
any of our possessions.

Before he departed he placed a little lime, the symbol of
friendship and good will, in the palm of my hand and then re-
spectfully retired. " That man belongs to the robber caste,"
said my friend. " What do you mean by that i " I asked.
" Just what I say," he replied. " He is a Christian man
now, and since his conversion he has had nothing of the thief
in his nature, having put aside the ' works of darkness.'
But it is none the less true that he belongs to the thief caste
and lives in the village where all the inhabitants belong to
the same caste. Some years since we established a mission
for them m that village, a number have left their thieving
practices, but the great majority of the inhabitants still con-
tinue in their former evil ways. The reputation of this vil-
lage is so bad, that every night at midnight the police call
the roll of every adult male citizen, and every man of them
must answer to his name at the roll call, and show that he
is in his own proper habitation at the hour of midnight.
But they are wily fellows," continued my friend, " and as
soon as the police inspection is over and they have answered
to their names, they are off on their marauding expeditions
once more."

" Nearly every native house in Madura pays tribute to
this caste," he went on to say. " They go around at stated
intervals, demanding a rupee or some small piece of money.
If the tax is not paid by the household on whom the demand
is made, soon it is found that a cow is missing, or a bullock
is hamstrung, or that in some way their property has suf-

314 PAYING TRIBUTE TO ROBBERS.

fered damage." " But why do they not apply to the police ?"
I asked. " Oh ! " said my friend, " the police are oftentimes
corrupt and in league with the robbers themselves, and it is
more trouble and annoyance to seek the aid of the police, or
to go to law about their loss, than it is to pay the small trib-
ute demanded by the thieves. When anything is missing,
the natives go to the middlemen who abound in these vil-
lages of the thief caste, and for one-third of the actual price of
the missing article they buy it back. For instance, if a cow
valued at thirty rupees is stolen, the owner knows that ten
rupees ransom money paid to the middleman will secure
the cow. To apply to the police and go through the tedious
operations of law in getting back their property, would cost
so much more, that the middleman's services are usually
employed, demoralizing as the effect must be upon the peo-
ple who are subject to such extortions."

One of the characteristic sights of Madura, as of all other
cities of Southern India, is that of the women at the well
with bright brass water jars, which they are filling at the
public fountain, and which they then carry home on their
heads or in a basket of braided rope.

How often this scene has reminded us of our Master's
conversation with the woman of Samaria as he met her
drawing water for her family needs, in just the same way so
many hundreds of years ago.

Another common sight is that of the religious mendicants
or fakirs, who adopt every conceivable method of attracting
attention.

Here is one with long hair, whose greasy, dirty ringlets
reach to his very toes. Another with filthy, matted hair
thrusts himself upon you hoping that his very offensiveness
will lead you to buy him off and pay him for getting well to
the leeward.

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SNAKE CHARMERS OF INDIA. 317

Here is another with a tomtom and a curious one-
stringed fiddle, making what he calls music, but what any
other person would call the essence of hideous noise. Here
is a snake charmer with a basket of wriggling, writhing, red-
tongued reptiles on his head. He will sometimes open this
in close proximity to your very eyes, and you involuntarily
start back amazed and disgusted at the contents of his
basket.

" If this snake should bite you," said one of these gentry,
at the same time opening one of the baskets, "you will die
in fifteen minutes. If this one should bite you," opening
another basket, "you will die in ten minutes." Opening
still another basket, he remarked coolly, " If he should bite
you, you will die in five minutes," and still another basket
was opened with the blood-curdling announcement, "If this
one should bite you, you will die in one minute." By this
time my friend had gotten almost out of sight and hearing,
for he did not care to try any experiments in the interests of
science.

The temple of Madura is probably the most magnificent
in Southern India, as it is certainly the largest which can be
found in any part of this land of temples. It is impossible
to describe the thousands and thousands of sculptured pillars,
the beautiful tessellated pavements, the painted ceilings, and
the rich ornamental stone-work which abounds everywhere.
The mind is confused by the very richness and gorgeousness of
the effect, while at the same time one is tempted to laugh at
the grotesqueness and weep over the indecency of many of
the figures.

The great towers or gopurams of this temple are covered
with most elaborate figures in stone. This mighty monu-
ment of heathenism is said to have cost five millions of
pounds sterling, or twenty-five millions of dollars. The outer

318

GRIMY GODS AND THEIR GRIMY WORSHIPERS.

court of the temple is occupied by those who buy and sell
and get gain, as the Jews of old plied their business in the

temple courts of Je-
rusalem. But there
is no occasion for a
divine reformer with
a scourge of small
cords to drive out
these traffickers, for
the worship that
goes on within the
Holy of Holies is
more degrading than
the business of the
outer corridors. It
contains no spiritual
element. Various
gods and goddesses
are seen in dusty lit-
tle niches, dripping
with oil and grease,
and filthy with the
dust of ages, while
before them is some
times prostrated a de-
vout worshiper al-
/, most as filthv and as
greasy as the gods
themselves.

But for the most
part I saw little re-
spect paid to the temple or the gods of the temple by the
people who were roaming through its aisles. If they re-

THE GREAT TEMPLE OF MADURA.

A CHARACTERISTIC DIVINITY.

319

garded the place as sacred, they kept their opinions very
much to themselves, for it seemed to have little more sanc-
tity for those whose religion was here embodied, than it
had for us of Western education who regarded it as repre-
senting gross superstitions and abominable idolatry.

In the very Holy of Holies, where the chief god has his

habitation, no stranger is allowed to go, but as we wandered

THE PAINTED CORKIDOK IN THE TEMPLE OF MADURA.

about the temple the High Priest, with a numerous retinue
before and behind, passed on into this holy place.

In the center of the temple is a stone bull, which is the
characteristic divinity of Southern India. This particular
bull sits in a stone bath tub, which was built around him at
the time of the last great famine in 1877, in the hope, I
suppose, that if he sat in the water himself he would cause
the rains to descend upon the parched fields over which he
presided as the tutelary divinity. His tub has remained

320

AN IDOL S YEARLY OUTING.

there ever since, though when I saw it it was very dry and
dusty.

In another part of Madura is a vast sacred tank, which
holds a large amount of water. In the middle of this
artificial lake is a beautiful little island containing a most
elaborate and costly temple. To this temple, once a year,
over the green and slimy waters of the tank, the chief god
of the Madura temple is carried in great state on a raft.
This great event causes a vast commotion among the people,
who flock to see the god take his yearly airing, his ride on
a raft to the temple and, if I mistake not, his bath in the

THE SACRED TANK OF MADU11A.

sacred tank. Certainly all the gods that I saw in the
Madura temple looked as if they were sadly in need of at
least an annual bath.

The palace of Madura is another building remarkable
for its architectural grandeur and imposing effect. It rivals,
in my opinion, the Vatican of Rome. In fact, I have rarely
seen in any land a building which so impressed me with its
lofty arches and its noble Byzantine columns.

It is supposed that a Mahommedan architect must have
designed this building for the immensely wealthy rajah
who erected the temple and the palace. Now, however,
even the memory of the architect, who, in his way, must
have been a prince of the guild, has pnssed away. The

THE TEMPLE AT TANJORE.

321

palace is no longer in the hands of the family that built it,
but is occupied by the British government for its court
rooms and offices, and for this purpose it affords a most
admirable building. The old harem of the king is now one
of the high courts of the Madura district, a far worthier use

INTERIOR OF THE GREAT PALACE OF MADURA.

to put the apartment to than that for which it was origin-
ally designed.

Another interesting city of Southern India is Tan j ore.
Here, too, the temple is the great attraction of the place,
though not so vast and elaborate as the temple of Madura.
It stands by itself and impresses the observer by its solitary
magnificence more than the swarming towers and endless

322 A STATELY TOWER.

pillars and corridors of the Madura temple. The central
tower of this temple is 280 feet high, and covers the holy
of holies in which is the chief idol. This central tower is, to
my mind, the most magnificent piece of architecture which
I have seen in Southern India. Next to the Taj Mahal, per-
haps, it will take the palm from all other architectural
wonders of the empire. So symmetrical is it, that its
shadow at noon does not project beyond its base, and the
tradition is, as our guide told us in his broken English, that
"it never cast a shadow," but this perpetual miracle is not
borne out by the facts of the case.

At the top of the tower is a huge dome, a solid granite
block. How it could ever be placed in such a position is
beyond my conception. Tradition says that an inclined
plane five miles in length was built, up which the stone
was rolled by forced labor. Everything about this gopuram
from base to pinnacle is of granite, sculptured in the most
elaborate way, with figures of men, animals, gods, and
demons. One of these figures is sometimes called "John
Bright." It represents a man of European type of counte-
nance, with an unmistakable English hat on his head. The
tradition for many years before the British occupancy was
that men with such features and such "tiles" on their heads
would sometime conquer and bear sway over India.

Some have supposed that this figure represents the
famous traveler, Marco Polo. "We found Marco Polo among
the five hundred Buddhists' effigies in the great temple of
Canton. Here we find his possible effigy in Southern India.
These traditions show at least how this enterprising traveler
affected the imagination of many nations.

Of course we saw here the famous Nandi, the sacred
bull of Siva, in this temple as in others. This bull is the
biggest and most remarkable of all his stony companions.

NANDI, THE SACRED BULL.

323

He is sixteen feet long and twelve feet high, and is sculpt-
ured from a singie block of syenite. He is daily anointed
with oil, and, as the dust accumulates upon his back, he
is anything but a pleasant and wholesome object to look
upon. The huge stone from which he is carved weighs hun-
dreds of tons and must have been brought at least four
hundred miles, for there is no stone of this description
within this distance from Tanjore.

A sculptured water-spout in another part of the temple.

ro am ~mwmwmT.&MmMM^

a<* ''iiiiiiiiJItMiiiiiiai^MtHBiM WiiiiMiMiii^ iiiPWMiu^MmiiiiiiwwTOiiiiBiiaiiiamiBiiifJk (I iwffl^*J(lA.'8lili|B7»i—

THE SACKED BULL OF *1\A

brings the greasy water which is poured over the principal:
idol which has his habitation in the most hidden recesses of
the temple visited only by the high priests, out to the light
of day, and this water is eagerly caught and drank by hun-
dreds of devout worshipers. Loathsome and impure as it
looks, this water is supposed to purify them from all their
sins. One would rather suppose that it would breed all
sorts of noxious disease.

There are other interesting sights in Tanjore besides the
temple. The palace of the former king of Tanjore is well.

worth visiting. Rather a dilapidated affair it is at present.

324 A DILAPIDATED PALACE AND USELESS GUN.

und even in its best estate it must have been somewhat
tawdry in its decorations, but it is vast in its circumference
and substantial in its architecture, and not unimposing.
Here, to this day (though the last rajah died thirty-seven
years ago), still live some of his many wives and concubines.
The wives still have a monthly allowance of eight hundred
rupees from the old estate, and the concubines a grant of
two hundred rupees a month.

We saw the place where the women were confined,
though we did not see the aged matrons themselves. One
of them, formerly the chief wife, is now about sixty years of
age, and the younger ones, who as mere children were
■betrothed to the rajah, ma} T still have many years to live,
though their husband has been dead for nearly two scores
of summers. The father of the last rajah was a noted man
an Tanjore; a man of great strength of character and
•ability, which was not inherited by his son. This old rajah
was a friend of the celebrated English missionary, Schwartz,
w T ho is buried in an old church near by, and who, more than
almost any other man of his time, furthered the establish-
ment of the English government and of English civilization
in the land to which he had devoted his life.

Our vivacious guide, anxious to please and to earn his
salary of a rupee for his day's work, then took us to the big
gun of Tanjore. It is a monster, indeed, but about as useless
as any Quaker gun that was ever bored out of a big cotton-
wood. This cannon is more than twenty-four feet long,
made with huge rings of iron welded together with brass.
Its circumference is more than ten feet and its bore two feet
two inches. In all its history it was never fired but once,
and then so frightened were the gunners and so convinced
were they of the kicking capacities of their old smooth-bore,
that they laid a train of powder two miles long, which took

THE SCENE OF A FAMOUS MUTINY. 325

forty minutes to burn to the gun. That was the first and
last time that the ancient cannon was used. Since then it
has been worshiped as a god in times of peril. It now
brings to the guides and its keeper some small revenue as an
object which every traveler must see, and is probably quite
as useful as ever it was in its peaceful and uneventful life.

Another interesting town of Southern India is Vellore.
It is probably little visited by the average traveler, but as a
city of missionary work it is of decided interest, and also for
its historic associations, which are well worth recording.
Here, also, is found a famous old temple, now entirely
deserted save by owls and bats, its silence never broken by
the footfall of a single worshiper. But most interesting to
me was the old fort of Vellore, which was the scene, many
years ago, of one of the mutinous uprisings of Southern
India. The English officers and their wives who were sta-
tioned here were surprised and overpowered, and confined in
the narrow room over the gateway of the fort. Here they
waited their expected doom in fear and trembling. Their
captors, however, before putting them to death could not re-
strain their desire to sack the fort and make way with the
gastronomic dainties which they found therein. While they
were rioting amid the unaccustomed luxuries of the officers'
quarters, one of the beleaguered prisoners was let down over
the wall, and, making his way stealthily from the fortress,
ran with all his might to the nearest garrison, which was
stationed at Ranipet, some fourteen miles away. It was a
long, hard road, but the man was running for his life and for
the lives of all his companions, and, breathless and excited,
he at last reached the garrison at Ranipet. In a few seconds
the troops were all in their saddles, galloping as fast as their
steeds could carry them to the rescue of their companions.
Vellore was fourteen miles away ; the road was by no means

326 THE WELCOME SOUND OF TRAMPLING HOOFS.

an easy one ; the bed of a sandy river a mile and a half in
width must be crossed ; the sand was ankle deep, and was
very difficult for the horses. But the good steeds and their
riders pressed on, for they knew that a minute of delay
might mean death to all their friends at Yellore. The be-
leaguered prisoners in the room over the gateway counted
the slow minutes as they dragged on. They knew that soon
the rioters would be satiated with their plunder, and would
return to massacre them in their cell-like prison. They
could not count upon many minutes of respite. They heard
their keepers discussing how they should be put to death.
They knew they were about to fall upon them and cut them
to pieces without mercy, when, in the far distance, they
thought they heard the hoofs of advancing horses. Nearer
and nearer came the rescuing troops. The sound of tramping
feet was never more grateful to strained and wearied ears.
At last the horsemen were seen galloping along the road which
led to the castle gate. They pressed into the courtyard and
cut to pieces the mutineers who were about to crimson their
blades with the blood of their officers. Scarcely a man
among the mutineers was left to tell the tale, but the officers
and their wives in the room over the gateway were saved ; and,
as they looked at their watches to see how long the rescuing
troops had been in coming to their relief, it was found that it
was just fifty minutes from the time that they vaulted into
the saddle at Ranipet to the moment that they were at the
gates of the castle of Yellore. They had ridden fourteen
miles, a wide river bed had been crossed, their companions
rescued, and their enemies put to flight all within an hour.
No wonder that a full share of praise was bestowed upon the
gallant horses, panting and reeking with their hard gallop
across the hot plains under the broiling sun of India.

As I look upon this fortress, which now is quite deserted

THE CRUMBLING FORT OF ARCOT. 327

of all its troops, and saw the wide moat around it, which
formerly was filled with hungry alligators who snapped up
any besieger who attempted thus to get within the castle
gateway, the whole scene seemed to pass before me, and I
could almost see the strained and eager faces of the beleag-
uered families looking through the barred gateway. I
could almost hear the wild tramp of the rescuing troops.

To this day, the relatives of Tippoo Sahib, the famous
mutineer, though he was not implicated in the outrage I
have described, are confined in the jail within the confines
of this old castle.

Another most interesting town of this region is the
famous old capital of Arcot. Now it is a decadent city and
the fort itself, so bravely captured and held by Clive, is
quite deserted and is crumbling to ruins. The massive
masonry of the old fort, which looks as though it was built
for all the centuries, is gnawed in many places by the re-
morseless tooth of time. But it still shows in its massive
rug-credness what it must have been in the middle of the
eighteenth century, when it was taken by the brave young
clerk from Madras, who afterwards became Lord Clive, the
man who established British supremacy throughout India.

Clive seems to have had the faculty possessed by Napo-
leon and Alexander, of inspiring unbounded confidence in
those under his command. Even the native troops acknowl-
edged this mighty supremacy, and were ready to lay down
their lives to obey his slightest behest. When besieged and
sorely pressed by the French, and when famine stared them
in the face, the natives came to him, inspired with his own
valor, and said, " Do not surrender ; we will live on the very
water in which the rice is cooked, while the English soldiers
eat the rice, if you will but hold the fort against our com-
mon enemy."

328

ON A SURF-BEATEN SHORE.

Such valor and leadership would prevail anywhere. No
wonder that bv such men as Clive and Warren Hastings,
and the great men who have succeeded them, the English
government is established so strongly throughout this mighty
empire. The paramount importance of individual leadership
was never more distinctly shown than in the history of the
British occupancy of India. That one great leader is worth

WEAVERS IN THE STREETS OF MADRAS.

a hundred thousand men, is a lesson that may be read upon
every page of India's history.

The place from which most travelers in Southern India
embark for the North is the city of Madras ; a great metrop-
olis with nearly a million of inhabitants, situated on the
wind-swept and wave-beaten Coromandel coast. Until re-
cently there has not been even a breakwater to partially
defend the surf-washed shore. "With the greatest difficulty

A DIFFICULT LANDING PLACE.

32£*

at times vessels are loaded and unloaded even with the
breakwater, which now defends the artificial harbor to some
extent. The surf beats upon the shore most violently when
the wind is in certain quarters. The travelers who are
about to embark are still borne upon the brawny shoulders.
of coolies, and deposited in deep native boats, which are
composed of planks bound together with thongs and caulked
with cocoanut fibre, in which no nails or rivets are used.,

CHILD ON A LEAF OF THE VICTORIA REGIA.

since they would soon be wrenched out of their places by
the buffetings of the heavy surf.

Some beautiful government buildings there are in
Madras; the law courts being especially fine. This build-
ing, designed after the architecture of a Mahommedan
mosque, is crowded with minarets and domes projecting
from every angle. But this splendid structure, and a few
others like it, only emphasizes and makes more marked the
squalor of the native section. However, the climate is not
severe. Little shelter and less energy are required in order
to live ; the wants of the people are few, and perhaps they

■330

LIFE IN THE STREETS OF MADRAS.

are as happy as their more favored companions in other
cities and climes.

Here in the tanks and reservoirs are found not only the
sacred lotus flowers with their broad leaves, but the Vic-
toria Kegia, many of which are quite strong and large
enough to hold a child three to four years of age. A little
brown-faced baby, when weighed, tipped the scales at just
twenty-eight and a half pounds, and the leaf upon which he
sat hardly shipped a cupful of water under his weight.

s tit f ? S » jji tPfWf

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THE POPULAR MADRAS HUNT.

In the streets of Madras as in all these Eastern cities
3may be seen every possible occupation going on before the
face and eyes of the world. Here are the weavers and the
carpenters and the shoemakers and the barbers, and every-
where the inevitable throng of loafers.

It is not at all uncommon to see a row of old men and
women, and younger ones, too, for that matter, sitting in
the glaring sunlight engaged in "the Madras hunt," where
the unhappy hunting grounds are each other's heads.

One day a wedding procession passed by. Three silent-

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bratty" makers and "punkah-wallahs."

533

treading, knock-kneed, ragged camels led the way, covered
with bright cloths and much tinsel. There seemed to be
little merriment or life about the procession, and I presume
the poor young girl who was going to the home of her aged
husband, whom perhaps she had never seen, felt as melan-
choly as the solemn procession seemed to indicate.
The extreme pov- ;^[ ',

erty of the people is ':^jm
perhaps nowhere more Jy%(M$1

indicated than by the '}?$>

■ \l$m
women whose business v\j^

it is to pick up every
particle of manure from ^
the streets, and to make
it into flat cakes (" Brat-
ty" as it is called),
which they dry upon
the sides of the walls
of the houses. Then it
is picked off and sold
for fuel. Hundreds of
these women with high-
piled baskets of this
fuel are met with every-
where as one goes about
the streets.

The " punkah- wallah," too, or the man who pulls the
huge fans with which every office, dining-room, parlor, and
church is provided, is a well-known character in Madras, as
in all Southern India. I must say I have seen days in New
York and Boston when a punkah was as necessary as it
even is in hot Madras. This occupation often descends from
father to son, for many generations, and the true punkah-

BRATTY MAKING.

334 EXTREMES OF SOCIAL LIFE.

wallah by instinct and training becomes so expert that,
tying the string to his toe, he will go to sleep and still keep
jerking away at the cord to fan the hot brows of the Euro-
peans within, who may be dining, or reading, or writing, or
sleeping, as the case may be.

In the streets of Madras I have frequently seen the
women and dogs lying together in the glaring bright sun-
light, one apparently as happy and as unconscious of degra-
dation as the other.

On the other hand, many among these people are well
educated, and bright and intellectual. The magnificent law
courts are crowded with native lawyers, who are as fine
a body of men in their gowns and wigs as can be met with
in any hall of justice in the world.

Nowhere does one meet with greater extremes of social
life. Nowhere is there greater need or greater scope for the
life-giving religion of Christ than in this swarming city of
India. Here, in Madras, I am glad to say there is much
missionary activity. In some parts of the Presidency the
Telugu people are flocking to the standard of the Cross
by tens of thousands, and it seems to be only a question
of time when the walls of caste prejudice shall be broken
down and when the empire of India shall take its place
«imong the great Christian empires of the world.

CHAPTER XVIII.

PEN PICTURES FROM NORTHERN INDIA.

— The Old Fakir's Offering — The Bathers in the Ganges — A Devoted
Son — Dying at her Leisure — A Burning Ghat — Decorations after the
Bath — Burning the Dead — Hindu Theology — Towers of Silence —
Dreary Biers and Hungry Vultures — A Cannibal Feast — The Jews of
India — "Why They Give their Bodies to the Vultures — The Bondage of
Caste — Paying Dear for his Dinners — A Venerable Bridegroom —
Match Makers in India — The Stars Favorable and Marriages Frequent

— A Wedding Procession — A Pathetic Mite of a Bride — A Matter-of-
fact Wooer.

| ROM Madras to Calcutta the voy-
age is comparatively uninteresting
until one draws near to the great
political Capital of India. As we
near the mouth of the Hoogly
river, one of the great Deltas of the
Ganges, which pours its muddy
waters into the Bay of Bengal, for
manv miles the eve can follow the
distinct line of demarkation be-
tween the fresh water of the sacred
river and the salt water of the bay.
After a little the low line of palm trees on one side
shows that we have entered the vast and capacious mouth of
the Hoogly, which of all rivers is most difficult of navigation

on account of its shifting sands and its treacherous shoals.

(335)

33G THE MOTLEY POPULATION OF CALCUTTA.

While the passengers were at "tiffin" the stewards closed
all the ports of the vessel, and when we asked the reason for
this summary shutting off of our supply of fresh air, the
captain informed us that we would have a better chance of
escape if the vessel should strike a sandbank and keel over, as
more than one vessel had been known to do.

A distressing disaster of this kind occurred not many
months since when all the passengers were below, either
in their cabins or the public saloon, and many of them were
drowned like rats in their holes.

However, a good Providence favored us, no accident or
delay occurred, and, on the morning of the 3d day after
leaving Madras, the " Chusan " steamed up to her dock in
the busy port of Calcutta.

This city is one of the most interesting in all the East,
interesting not solely or chiefly on account of its splendid
government buildings or fine warehouses or expensive docks,
but more especially to the traveler because of its conglomerate
population of every shade and color, every nationality and
costume on the face of the earth, from the Parisian-clad
European to the Pariah in all his squalid nakedness.

In some particulars the zoological gardens in Calcutta are
quite beyond any of their European rivals ; the collection of
parrots, for instance, is surprisingly large, their plumage
most gaudy ; and the pigeons, some of them as large as
Guinea hens, with tufted crests and fan-like topknots, were
the most unique I have ever seen.

The botanical gardens are even larger and finer than the
zoological. The most interesting feature here is the great
banyan, which is said to be the model from which the
banyan of the old geographies was drawn. It is stated that
10,000 troops can be mustered under the shade of this tree.
How many hundreds of thousands of school boys and school

THE BANYAN OF OUR SCHOOL DAYS. 33?

girls have in imagination gathered beneath its umbrageous
shade it would be impossible to reckon.

But here it stands just as it looked in the geography of
our school days, with its drooping pendants, which, after a
time, take root and develop into huge trunks, only to send
out other pendants, which, in turn, develop into other trunks,
and so on, ad infinitum. There seems to be no limit to the
growth of a well-developed and carefully cultured banyan
tree. Theoretically, at least, it might cover a province or a
nation, or grow indefinitely until it reached a climate or a
soil in which it could no longer flourish.

The " burning ghat " is another famous place in the en-
virons of Calcutta. This is a huge, one-storied, shed-like
building, in which the bodies of deceased Hindus are
burned. As this particular "ghat" is situated on the banks
of the sacred Ganges it is a very famous one, and the fires
within are perpetually kept burning.

Let us take a drive there this bright February morning.
Our little party will just fill a gharri, one of the character-
istic vehicles of this Eastern land. We will put up the
blinds on every side so that we can look out in every direc-
tion, and miss none of the sights and bits of scenery which
are sure to greet our eyes.

The sun has just risen, for the early morning is the best
time to visit the ghat. The poorer part of the native popula-
tion is shaking itself awake after the slumbers of the night.
It does not take the poor people of Calcutta long to make
their toilets. Their mats are spread in little recesses from
the sidewalks which they call their homes, and all that is
necessary for them to do in the morning, is to straighten up
from their recumbent position, roll up their mats, wash
their faces at the nearest fountain or public faucet, or, in
default of one of these, at the nearest pool of stagnant water

338

ON THE WAY TO THE BURNING GHAT.

or mud puddle. They seemed to take great pains with their
teeth, and we see scores of them this early morning brushing
and washing their mouths most assiduously ; the bright,
brass water jars near by holding the little water that is nec-
essary for this internal ablution.

Even at this early morning hour, Calcutta's swarming
myriads are beginning their daily toil. Shop doors are
opening, early birds are looking for the unwary worms, and
the bustle and hum of life begins. Here, for instance, quite

A CALCUTTA BARBER SHOP.

on the sidewalk, a Hindu barber, in white cloth and turban,
is sitting on his haunches, assiduously scraping off the hirsute
growth of another Hindu who, during the operation, gazes
on his own homely face in a glass which he himself holds.
Could a more uncomfortable barber's chair be imagined ?

As we draw near to the sacred Ganges, the crowd of pil-
grims that is also wending its way thither grows larger,
more cosmopolitan and more interesting. Here are Hindus
from every part of India and of every conceivable caste.
Here are fakirs whose holiness ar»d sanctity are measured by

A PARADISE OF TRAMPS AND MENDICANTS.

339

the length of their hair, and apparently, by the thickness of
the coat of dirt upon their vile bodies ; and here also are
many common people representing all classes and conditions
of Hindus. In one place beside the road is a curious group
gathered around a pile of sacred ashes. They look pecu-
liarly ghastly in the bright sunlight of the early morning, for
they have anointed themselves
with oil from top to toe, and
have then besmeared themselves
with the ashes. A singularly
gray and grizzly look is given to
them by this operation. Still
others have gone down to the
waters of the sacred stream
which flows near by, and have
covered themselves over, from
the crowns of their heads to
the soles of their feet, with the
slime and mud from the river's
banks. By the side of the road
are numberless beggars with
little piles of rice before them.
This has been given them by
the devotees who have just
bathed in the Ganges, for it is
considered a peculiarly meritorious act to give something in
charity after the morning bath in the holy waters. Of
course beggars take advantage of such generosity, and swarm
in almost innumerable throngs to this spot, which may be
considered the very paradise of tramps and mendicants.

It also goes without saying that the superstition of the
people is taken full advantage of by the religious parasites
who live on the fears of the ignorant.

A HINDU FAKIR.

340

HOW TO OFFER A GIFT TO THE GANGES.

Here is an old fakir with long, ropy hair and a thick
crust of dirt on legs and arms, and hairy breast, who has a
little shrine in which are three brass gods. We try to buy
one of the gods to take home to our friends as a sample of
what is actually worshiped on the banks of the Ganges, but
the wily old fellow tells us that these gods have been conse-
crated and that they are not for sale,
but that if we will go to the bazaar
we can get images just like them for
a few annas apiece. He further
intimates that if we wish to make
an offering to the gods, he will not
object.

" But what would you do with a
rupee, if we should give it to you ? "
we asked. " Why, I would make
an offering of it to the Ganges," he
replied. "But you do not mean
that you would throw good silver
into that muddy river? "No," he
replied, " I would buy rice with it
and eat the rice, but I would throw
some grains of it in the river and
thus dedicate your rupee." Perhaps
the man's honesty demanded a re-
ward, but it was very evident, even if he had not told us so,
that the offering to the Ganges would be made in a meta-
phorical and Pickwickian sense.

Beside this old fakir was a poor fellow who was born
without arms ; next to him, a man with his legs cut off above
the knees ; a woman came next with a puny, shivering, sickly
baby in her arms ; all appealing to the generosity and com-
passion of the devotees, who, as they passed by, were very

A LONG HAIRED FAKIR.

BATHING IN THE SACRED STREAM. 341

likely to throw them a quarter of an anna piece or at least a

handful of rice.

As we look toward the river, we see it thronged with.

bathers, men and women alike, in scant bathing clothes.,
dipping and splashing and sousing the sacred water over
their bodies with great abandon. After a few moments in?
the water they come up to the bank to dry themselves ii
the sun, and put on dry clothes, a very easy process of dress-
ing, where the only garment consists of a single strip of
cloth, while some of the poorer ones walk off to their homes,,
dripping and shivering with their wet wrappings clinging tc*
their limbs.

One old woman whom we saw thus journeying home-
ward, her dripping cloth marking every footstep, shivered in
the cold morning air as though stricken with palsy. Poor
old devotee! I fear that she will not stand many such
baths even in the sacred Ganges, for, as she trudges off to-
ller home in her dripping garments, her consumptive cough
and emaciated body tell us that she is near her end. Perhaps
the next time she comes she will be brought by her childwri
to breathe her last gasp on the holy bank, for it is thought
to be a very meritorious thing to die on these sacred shores,.

Just before the breath is thought to be about to leave the-

body, dying Hindus are often brought hither. Sometimes,

however, there is miscalculation, and the person is not so-

near his end as is supposed. In such circumstances it is

said, though I cannot vouch for the truth of the story, that

the mouth of the dying person is filled with sacred mud, and

the end is thus hastened ; for it is not within the bounds ol

custom (and custom here is as the laws of the Medes ami

Persians) for a person who has once been brought to the

banks of the Ganges to be taken home again, however long;

he may obstinatelv persist in living.
21

342 DECORATING AFTER THE BATH.

One devoted son of whom I have heard, has built a little
house for his mother, whom some years ago he brought to
the river's bank on the supposition that she was about to
give up the ghost. She did not die, however, as was ex-
pected, but persisted in getting better; so there was nothing
for this filial son to do, as she could not be taken back to her
house again, but to build a little house for her on the banks
of the river, where she might wait her end and die at her
leisure.

At one place which we pass, a wealthy Hindu, as an act
of religious merit, has built a " bathing ghat." As we look
into this ghat or bath house, which is open to all sight-seers,
as well as to the four winds of heaven, being simply a
covered shed with a tessellated stone pavement, we see the
pilgrims who have just bathed in the river receiving their
morning shampoo.

Men who understand the business are rubbing and knead-
ing the bathers most assiduously, after which they are
anointed with oil, their eyebrows and finger nails are
stained with the proper pigment, and sacred ashes in red and
white and yellow are mixed with oil and rubbed upon their
foreheads in a most artistic way, in lines and circles and
little spots, which often have the effect of a coarse kind of
tattoo.

But all this time we have been drawing near the " house
of burning," though our progress has been slow on account
of the number of interesting sights on every hand which
claim our attention.

Here is the famous ghat at last. After being conducted
through one or two small ante-rooms we come to a large,
shed-like building which opens upon the Ganges on one side,
while the side next to the public road is entirely closed to
view. There is no roof to intercept the passage of the

THE BURNING GHAT.

343

smoke from the burning bodies to the stars. In the soil
around which the walls of the enclosure are built are eigh-
teen hollow places about six feet long and two feet wide.
Here the bodies are laid ; wood and straw is piled around,
over and under them ; the nearest relative lights the fire ;
the poor, human clay, deserted of its spiritual tenant, is
wrapt in flames, and in about two hours nothing is left but

THE BURNING GHAT.

a little pile of ashes, which is carefully swept up and thrown
into the sacred waters which flow near by.

Poor people who cannot afford to burn their relatives
light a little wisp of straw, blacken their faces with it, and
throw the bodies unceremoniously into the Ganges. For-
merly it was said that travelers up the river met many of
these deserted human tenements floating down the stream.
Now, I think, the practice is forbidden by law, and the
sight of floating bodies is uncommon, but by no means
unknown.

344 PAYING FOR THE REPOSE OF THE DEPARTED.

On the day of our visit to the burning ghat there was
but one body undergoing cremation, and that the body of a
little child. The morning before, however, the attendant
told us that no less than eleven of the eighteen ghastly fire-
places were filled with burning bodies at one time, and an
average of twenty each day are brought to this particular
ghat for cremation.

Hindu theology- says that after the body has been burned,
the parts all are joined once more and must march through
a river of mire and blood, but if the friends of the dead man
will give the Brahmin a cow, his journey will be much
easier ; this is certainly a very convenient doctrine for the
Brahmin priest to promulgate.

After the dead man gets beyond this unpleasant spot he
must walk over ground like fiery hot copper, and if a pair of
shoes is donated to the priest it would be more pleasant for
the departed spirit. Next the spirit comes to a road full of
spikes, and if the friends will only give the Brahmin a bed-
spread, the spirit need not lie upon the spikes. By this time
the priest is pretty well fitted out, and the departed spirit is
allowed to get along as best it can. Thus do these mercen-
ary religionists prey upon the fears and superstitions of their
ignorant followers. What a contrast this to the unselfish
invitation, " Come unto Me and I will give you rest."

If, now, in imagination, we pass over the 1,500 miles of
mountain and valley and spreading plain that stretch be-
tween Calcutta and the commercial capital of India,
Bombay, we shall find still another very peculiar process of
disposing of the dead, for in Bombay are 80,000 Parsees,
who neither bury nor burn, but expose their dead on towers
built on hill tops, called " Towers of Silence." The Towers
of Silence in Bombay number five, and are situated in the
midst of a beautiful garden. It is a most impressive and

THE TOWERS OF SILENCE.

345

solemn place, and, though exceedingly revolting in some of
its particulars to the Western mind, is nevertheless a place
of intense interest.

After death the body of the Parsee is taken to the lowest
floor of the house in which the dead person was born. There
the priests pray for the soul that has left the body, and a
dog is brought in to look at the corpse. Afterwards it is
wrapped in a sheet, laid on an iron bier, and carried to one
of the Towers of Silence. The friends follow on foot, as no
carriages are allowed at a Parsee funeral. The mourners

A TOWER OF SILENCE.

are all dressed in white and walk in pairs, each pair holding
a white handkerchief between them.

The largest tower of silence in Bombay is a round build-
ing, in which are 72 spaces for the bodies of men next to the
wall, just below the spaces for the men are 72 more small
places for the bodies of women, and, below them, 72 still
smaller grooves for the bodies of children. Between the
spaces for the men, women, and children, are little footpaths.
On these dreary biers are laid the dead bodies of the de-
parted, and, before the attendant Parsees have left the
silent tower, the hungry vultures, which are always sitting

346 THE FEAST OF THE VULTURES.

like horrid Harpies on the edge of the tower, swoop down
and tear the flesh from the bones and fly back to their filthy
perches. Thus they dispute for the last morsel of the dead
body until only the bleaching bones remain. After the
skeleton of the dead man has been left for some three or
four weeks on the tower, the bones are thrown into a well
in the middle of the tower, where they decompose after a
while into lime, and are washed out by the descending rains,
and are thus finally disposed of. There is something pecu-
liarly disgusting to many minds about such a disposal of the
dead, but, from a sanitary point of view, the physicians say
that it is not by any means the worst of methods.

On the day of our visit fully one hundred of the thou-
sand vultures which are said to haunt the towers of silence
were sitting in a dreadfully suggestive way on the edge of
their stone parapets, waiting for the horrible feast which
would be spread for them before the day was over.

There are many things of living, healthful interest in this
great city of Bombay. The streets are wide in some por-
tions of the chYy, and lined with really magnificent build-
ings. As one drives along the street he sees not only
Hindus of everv caste and condition of life, but Parsees with
their curious glazed caps, Jains with their two-cornered
turbans, and Arabians in voluminous garments with coils of
camel's hair around their heads.

Brilliant colors, too, abound everywhere, — red, and
green, and blue; while the higher class women in their
graceful, transparent, silken robes, interwoven with delicate
figures in subdued colors, add a very picturesque element to
the crowded streets.

The Mohammedans are of course very numerous. It is
said that there are more Mohammedans in Bombay than in
any other city in the world.

A POLYGLOT POPULATION. 347

Of all this polyglot population, the Parsees are the
most interesting. Many of them are well-to-do and some
of them are very wealthy. Their cast of countenance is
decidedly Jewish, and their long aquiline noses and shrewd
business features would not look out of place in the Jewish
quarters of Amsterdam or Frankfort. Their great teacher
was Zoroaster, who lived 1,200 years before Christ, and their
religion has few of the revolting, idolatrous elements which
characterize the mass of heathen religions.

They are sometimes called fire- worshipers, which is not,
however, a correct designation. In worshiping God they
say one ought to look at some of the wonderful things that
He has made, such as the sun, the moon, the water, or fire,
not that these elements are gods but in them they see God
revealed.

This idea lies at the root of their burial practices. They*
cannot put the bodies in the ground according to their
notions, or else the earth would be defiled. They cannot
burn them, for fire is a sacred element. They cannot throw
them into the river, for the water would be desecrated, but
the vultures, being unclean birds, can dispose of the dead
bodies without defiling land or water, fire or earth.

If one walks in the beautiful Victoria Gardens towards
sundown, he will see the greatest variety of Eastern peoples
to be found on any spot on the face of the earth. Accord-
ing to the latest census, in Bombay alone, sixty-one different
languages are spoken, and the castes are almost innumer-
able. The distinctions of caste are giving way to some
extent in Bombay as in other parts of India, but very, very
slowly, and among the great masses of population it is still-
considered a most disgraceful and outrageous thing to lose
one's caste.

A mother will turn her child out of doors if he eats a

348 THE RIGORS OF CASTE.

particle of food that is prepared by a woman of lower caste.
A woman will desert her husband whom she suspects, not of
marital unfaithfulness, but of having dined with some one
of lower rank than himself. Even the cooks in the kitchen
will shake the dust from off their feet and indignantly lpave
the service of him who has in any way broken his caste and
defiled himself by forgetting the strict ceremonial observ-
ance which the bondage of the ages has imposed.

Here is a paragraph which I have just clipped from an
Allahabad paper. " In order to be allowed the privileges of
the caste to which he belongs, a young Bengalee barrister,
who had just returned from England, performed the other
day an exceedingly unpleasant Prayaschitta ceremony, in
the presence of pundits and many Hindu gentlemen. It is a
distinctive feature of the Hindus of the present day that
they are not reluctant to re-admit into their fold those
whom they regard as social sinners of the blackest dye.
But how that barrister's English friends would have stared,
if, while he was eating his dinners in London, he had told
them what he would have to eat on his return home."

What this ceremony of regaining caste is, is not to be
explained here. It would not be possible to enter into
details for they are not for ears polite, and we will only say
that this young barrister had to eat the vilest compound
which can be possibly imagined, to pay for the gay dinners
of which he had partaken in the land across the sea.

Here is another paragraph from one of these progressive
papers, which shows the impatience of modern Hindu life
with the ceremonial shackles of the past : " He is aged 82
and he is to marry a girl of the same sect, aged 10. They
are both Madhwas, and the holy rite of matrimony will be
performed at Madras ; yet people say we live in a progress-
ive age!"

MATCH-MAKING AS A PROFESSION.

349

Though the bridegroom is not often so old as the vener-
able party here alluded to, the bride is often quite as young,
and frequently much younger than the ten-year-old girl who
was sold into matrimonial slavery at Madras. The usual
age for a man to marry is sixteen or seventeen, the frequent
age for a girl, eight or nine. Not uncommonly she is

lift v;Jm

A HINDU BRIDE.

married when three or four years of age, though she does
not go to live at once in her husband's house.

The business of the match-makers in India is not a secret
and clandestine affair as in America, nor are match-makers
looked upon as meddlers with other people's business, but it
is an open, honorable, and avowed occupation.

These match-makers spend their time in going about
arranging for marriages. "When they have found a boy and
a girl that they think will make a good couple, they go to

350 A WEDDING PROCESSION.

the parents and talk the matter over, praising up the little
girl to the parents of the boy, and lauding the beauty and
the wealth and the good disposition of the boy to the girl's
parents. Of course their descriptions are taken with a grain
of salt, and the matchmakers' glowing accounts are not
altogether trusted, but they are usually the intermediaries
through whom the youthful pair are brought together.

When we were in Bombay, the stars were favorable, and
the priests proclaimed that for many months to come there
would not be such desirable heavenly auspices for connubial
bliss. On this account weddings were very frequent, and we
could scarcely go along any of the crowded streets where
Hindus most do congregate without seeing one or more
wedding processions.

They were most gorgeous affairs. First would come a
brass band blaring with its trumpets and beating its cymbals
and drums. Then would come the family friends of the bride
and bridegroom arrayed in all their finery of bright-colored
silks; their arms, wrists, noses, and ears bedecked with
chains and bracelets, jewels, and rings, large and small, of
most elaborate designs. Then frequently we would see the
bridegroom trying to look grave and dignified with all the
burden of his sixteen years resting heavily upon his
shoulders. Often he would be decked and garlanded with
flowers and chains and jewels so that his face was scarcely
visible. Sometimes a companion would walk by his side
solemnly fanning him.

The bridegroom is usually perched upon a high horse,
and if the later stages of the wedding have been reached
the little bride is often seen behind her husband. Frequently
she is a tiny, pathetic little mite indeed. She ought to be in
the nursery playing with her dolls, or in the kindergarten
learning her A B C's, but instead of this the responsibilities

EXPENSIVE CEREMONIES.

351

of womanhood have been thrust on her in her infancy, and
she is borne off to her husband's house to live the stupid,
uneventful life of the zenana.

The wedding ceremonies last many days, and are accom-
panied by great expense to the father and mother of the
bride at whose house they take place. Oftentimes the poor
man will spend his last rupee, mortgage his property, and go
in debt for years to come for the sake of giving his daughter
a proper wedding feast.

Though he lives in rags, dirt, and poverty, the little girl

A ZENANA CARRIAGE OP BOMBAY.

must for once be decked in silks and jewels before she is
carried off to her husband's home. The missionary is fre-
quently called upon to act as matchmaker between the
Christian boys and girls. One of my friends was recently
asked by a promising young man to speak to a girl of whom
he had heard good reports as likely to make a suitable wife.
He had never seen her but once in his life, and then at a
distance.

The missionary undertook the delicate matter, but the
girl refused the offer point-blank. The ardent swain, how-
ever, was by no means discouraged, for when my friend told

352

MAKING THE BEST OF IT.

him of his fortune, he remarked that he was glad to know
of the matter without any unnecessary delay, since he
already had another damsel in mind for the position, to
whom he hoped the missionary would make his next applica-
tion. No doubt final success smiled upon this persistent
though somewhat nonchalant lover.

These matchmakers' marriages do not always turn out as
unhappily as might be supposed, by any means. The young
couple, thus brought together, make the best of their circum-
stances and of each other. The husband is usually affection-
ate, and the wife, from the very force of circumstances, faith-
ful. If love's passionate young dream is not experienced,
neither is the frequent disillusionment and reaction of mar-
ried life in more northern climes, and it is pleasant to believe
as we leave this subject that behind the walls of many of the
poor mud huts of India, as everywhere else in this old world,
is much conjugal felicity, parental affection, and filial
devotion.

CHAPTEE XIX.

IN THE COUNTRY OF THE GREAT MUTINY.

Across Northern India by Rail — In an Indian Sleeping Car — Scenes from
our Car Window — Storks and Penguins, Monkeys and Jackals — "It
is a Beautiful Morning ; Come, Let Us Kill Something " — Defiling a
Peddler's Sweetmeats — A Work of Patience and Diplomacy — An
Every Day Conversation in India — The Mecca of the Brahmins — The
Monkey Temple — Cawnpore of Bloody Memory — An Awful Page of
History — The Angel of Remembrance — Memories of Lucknow —
The Gallant Lawrence — Havelock's Troops to the Rescue — The
Hero's Grave — The Cannon Ball that Robbed the Mother of Her Babe
— The City of the Taj Mahal — The Mogul's Promise and How He
Kept It — "In Memory of an Immortal Love" — The Hand of the
Vandal— "Jane Higginbottom " in the Taj— How the Old King
Played Parchesi.

|ROM Calcutta to Bombay, as the
crow flies, is not much more than
a thousand miles, but by the way
that most travelers journey it is
fully twice that distance, since a
considerable detour must be made
to take in the historic cities of
Benares, Allahabad, Lucknow,
Cawnpore, and Agra.

It is a journey well worth tak-
ing, I assure you, dear reader, for
it leaves upon the memory of
every traveler indelible photographs of marvelous temples
and incomparable mausoleums ; of fortresses and battle
grounds, made sacred by the blood of heroic men and
women; besides many more peaceful pictures of smiling

(353)

354 THE RAILWAYS OF NORTHERN INDIA.

fields and thronging villages, and gaily dressed crowds of
people that are constantly moving in a kaleidoscopic way
across our picture.

The railway train in which we set forth, like all Indian
railway trains, is divided into first, second, and third-class
compartments, with an intermediate class corresponding to
the third-class, for European travelers only. The fares are
exceedingly cheap except in the first-class compartments, and
even there they are not extravagant according to our West-
ern notions. Tickets in the third-class carriages cost less
than one-half cent a mile, in the second-class about one cent
a mile, and in the first-class about two cents for the same
distance. As a result of these fares, the third-class carriages
are always crowded with native travelers ; the second-class
are sparingly used by Europeans, and the first-class compart-
ments are run at a dead loss to the railway company. You
need not expect any remarkably luxurious accommodation
even in the first-class cars, as we warned you when writing
of railway travel in Southern India No deft porters make
up our sleeping berths for us ; no luxurious arm chairs invite
rest and repose ; no nickel-plated lavatories and toilet rooms
fitted up with all kinds of Yankee contrivances need we
expect. If we take our own servant, as many travelers in
India do, he will spread our blankets and quilts, which we
must carry with us, upon the seats when night comes, and
arrange our pillows as comfortably as may be. He will
then seek his own place in a third-class carriage while we
betake ourselves to the Land of Nod as quickly as possible,
for the dull and smoky lamps afford no inducement to sit up
to read after the evening lamps of the sky have been set
aglow.

"While daylight lasts, however, there is plenty to attract
ais in the varied scenery through which we are continually

BEAUTIFUL AND FEARLESS WILD BIRDS. 355

passing. Village succeeds village, a curious throng at one
station is succeeded by a more curious throng, as it seems to
us, at the next station, and all is life and bustle wherever
the train stops.

Looking from the car window one sees more wild birds
and beasts in an hour when passing over the plains of North-
ern India than he would see in twenty-four hours in Amer-
ica. The Hindu regard for life has caused birds and beasts to
multiply and abound everywhere. Saucy crows with grey
necks, and bright, bead-like eyes, will almost pluck food out
of your very hands as you are eating your midday lunch ;
green parrots by the hundred will scream at you from the
telegraph wires ; owls will hoot from their undisturbed
perch on the top of the telegraph poles ; beautiful birds in
blue and crimson plumage will flutter about the branches
wherever a tree is to be seen ; great, red-headed storks,
standing almost as high as a man, will unblinkingly contem-
plate the rushing train as they stand upon one foot gazing
after us ; solemn penguins with heavy bills and huge pouches
beneath, will watch us from the bogs in which they are get-
ting their noonday meals ; herds of spotted deer will scamper
away as the train approaches ; jackals will sneak out of
sight, and monkeys will grin and chatter at us from the
overhanging branches ; while the familiar and impudent
blackbirds and jackdaws will perch on the horns of the goats
and cattle as we rush by the pastures, so sure are they, after
centuries of protection, that they will not be disturbed.

What a pity it is that in America every cruel schoolboy,
before he reaches the age of mercy and humanity, is allowed
to have his rifle and shotgun to pop away at the poor, harm-
less creatures which God has made, driving them into the
solitary wilderness where alone they can expect to rear their
young in safety and peace.

356

AN EDUCATION IN CRUELTY.

" It is a beautiful morning ; come, let us kill something,"
is the sarcastic Frenchman's comment on the average
" shooting " Englishman ; a comment which will apply as
well to the average American, I am sorry to say. Some-
thing besides game laws and legislative enactments are
necessary to preserve the sylvan life of our woods and fields.
Better is the superstitious dread of the Hindu in regard to
life-taking than the indifferent cruelty of the Anglo-Saxon.

When we stop at the stations and show ourselves on the

A NATIVE TURN-OUT

platform, a motley throng gathers about us. Here is the
fruit vendor with his yellow bananas, his loose-jacket
oranges, his guavas which require a considerable course of
education before one can enjoy them. Our taste is educated
up to bananas and oranges and we can buy as many as
we please for a quarter of an anna, or about half a cent
apiece.

Here comes some other railway vendors, with trays full
of cakes and sweets of a very doubtful and curious character
to our unaccustomed eyes.

AN UNFLATTERING ESTIMATE. 35?

The peddler sets them down from his head, where he
always carries them, as every other bundle is carried in
India, and we are about to take one of them from his tray
to see what it is, when with a gesture of horror, he prevents
us from doing so, and insists upon our pointing to what we
want from a respectful distance. We soon learn that we'
should defile all his tray-full of goods by so much as touch-
ing one of his sweetmeats with our little finger, so polluted
are we in his Hindu eyes; and yet the same peddler is-
doubtless a sweaty, dirty, ragged, and generally disreputable
fellow, who, from his appearance, has not had a decent bath
for a year.

It raises our Yankee ire somewhat to be regarded as
an unclean pariah by this dirty specimen of humanity, but
we submit to the inevitable, point to the particular goods
that we want, pay for them with a few small copper coins*
and take our place once more in our carriage to enjoy our
unaccustomed feast.

Besides these peddlers of fruits and sweets, every large
station abounds with venders of more substantial wares;
brass-work from Benares, inlaid marble curios from Agra,
curiously painted metal plates and cups from Moradabad,
and clay figures of all kinds and shapes and sizes from
Lucknow.

To buy any article in India is a work of patience and
diplomacy, on the part of both buyer and seller. In this
land I have often thought of Solomon's description of the
purchaser : " It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer, but
when he is gone his way, then he boasteth." Here is the
conversation that is usually preliminary to a purchase in
India. "How much for this clay figure?' 1 asks the buyer.

" One rupee," answers the seller.

"Too much," is the invariable reply of the buyer; and so
22

358 DRIVING A BARGAIN.

it is, for the seller always asks at least three or four times
as much as he expects to take.

"How much will you give then?" asks the merchant.

"Two annas" (one eighth of a rupee), says the prospect-
ive buyer, thinking he will be sure to make his offer low
enough.

With a gesture of surprise and almost indignation the
vender repudiates the offer, as much as to say: "This is
simply outrageous. Do you insult a man by offering him
one-eighth of what a thing is worth % However, seeing that
it is you, and since I regard you as a very good friend, I
will throw off a little something; you may have it for
twelve annas."

"No, no," says the buyer, "I will give you two annas,
take it or leave it as you choose."

"What a hard-hearted, cruel individual you are," the
merchant by every look and gesture seems to say; "you
would rob the dead of their grave clothes, you would take
the orphan's last crust of bread out of his very mouth ; but,
seeing I want to make a sale, I will let you have the image
for eight annas."

Again the buyer shakes his head resolutely : "Two
annas, only two annas."

"Well, you may have it for four," says the seller, but
another resolute shake of the head sends him off for a few
minutes.

He has no idea of leaving, however ; you may count on
seeing him back almost instantly, with an expression of ,
injured innocence on his face, especially if there are other
peddlers near by, saying by his looks: "Well, rob me if you
will, take the last anna from a poor starving merchant, but
if you will only give two annas for this beautiful image,
why, here it is, take it, it is yours."

THE HINDU'S HOLY CITY.

359

Then very likely he goes off, chuckling over his bargain,
having obtained twice as much from the unsuspecting trav-
eler as the thing was really worth.

Beguiled by such varied scenes as here described the
time passes rapidly away until we come to the end of the
first stage of our pilgrimage, the sacred city of Benares,

,, ill I ■;! j I L ^MMfil

"IflTflg

"""IJHUBt'-* 5 ?

IN THE MONKEY TEMPLE.

which is also the end of their journey for many other pil-
grims beside ourselves.

This city on the banks of the Ganges is to the Hindu the
holiest place in all the world, and the Holy of Holies is the
well full of dead flowers and rice and Ganges water, which
is worth to the devout Hindu any amount of money per tea-
spoonful, so sacred is it in his eyes.

The Hindus think that Benares is 80,000 steps nearer
heaven than any other place, and it is the Mecca of every
devout Brahmin. Here, besides the Golden Temple, is the

360 AT THE MINGLING OF THE SACRED STREAMS.

great Monkey Temple, where scores of monkeys are con-
tinually running in and out. Here, too, is the Cow Temple,
which is only less sacred than the abode of the monkeys.

Not many miles beyond Benares is the great city of
Allahabad, a very important place in Central India. When
the Hindu pilgrim first comes to Allahabad, we are told,
he sits down on the bank of the Ganges and has his head
shaved, holding it over the waters so that every hair may
fall into the river, and he believes that for every hair he
shall get a million years in heaven. So if a man is only rich
enough to take the journey to Allahabad, and has a good
head of hair to spare, he is sure of a very considerable time
in Paradise. The view from the port of Allahabad is most
extensive and interesting. Just beyond the fort is the
juncture of the two sacred rivers, the Ganges and the
Jumna. The Ganges flows down dark and muddy, the
Jumna bright and sparkling, and here where they mingle
their water is the place of places for all Hindus, the most
sacred, except Benares, in all the world.

Here Brahmin priests and fakirs have built their huts.
Here the barbers ply their trade in order that the hairs may
fall into the sacred stream and thus secure an eternity of
bliss. Here, at 1 he junction of the two rivers, on the vast
plain which, in the wet season, is swept by the rushing water,
and which is left bare when the dry season returns, a great
fair is annually held. Once in six years it is of larger pro-
portions than on other years, and fully a million people, it is
said, are sometimes encamped on the banks of these sacred
rivers.

Here, superstition, ignorance, and ancestral traditions
combine to fleece the pilgrims of their money, and to give to
them for their hard cash unsubstantial promises of bliss in
the Brahmin's heaven. Allahabad, also, is a great military

THE MUTINY AT CAWNPORE. 361

station for English and native soldiers, and here, best of all,
the American missionaries, both of the Presbyterian and
Methodist boards, have flourishing and important schools
and churches.

But our journey is a long one, and we must hurry on
until we reach Cawnpore, a name forever associated with
hideous deeds of cruelty and acts of highest heroism. Not
only have Englishmen an historic interest in this city, but
Americans as well have part in the traditions of the place,
for four American missionaries with their wives and their
children were among the first to suffer martvrdom in the
great mutiny.

As we recall the awful story of the mutiny, it wil 1 be
remembered that for many days the little British garrison
had defended the helpless women and children who had
taken refuge within the fort, with great bravery and de-
termination. But there was no great general to direct
operations at Cawnpore. Individual courage abounded, but
the directing mind was absent. The besiegers pressed more
and more closely, until, at last, the garrison capitulated
under promise of safe conduct for all the men, women, and
children to Allahabad.

But the treacherous villainy of the bloodthirsty Nana
Sahib was not then known ; his promises were believed, the
fort was surrendered, and the men, women, and children em-
barked on boats for passage to Allahabad. No sooner were
they well aboard before orders came from Nana to fire on
the boats and to burn the straw thatch with which they
were covered.

A murderous volley was poured upon the unprotected
boats, and of all the hundreds of soldiers and civilians who
made up their human freight, only four escaped by swimming
and diving and dodging the bullets until they reached the

362 THE HOUSE OF MASSACRE.

opposite shore. At this juncture orders came from Nana
Sahib to save the women and children alive, after all the
men had been killed.

The women were crowded together in a little building,
afterwards known as the "House of Massacre." Two hun-
dred and one were thrown into two rooms, twenty feet by ten
in dimensions. Here they were kept in mortal and momen-
tary terror of their lives for a few days, until at last the
Nana, hearing that Havelock was on his way to the rescue,
and thinking that he would not be so eager to make the
attack if he knew that all were dead whom he had come to
rescue, sent his soldiers to murder the women who were
confined in their narrow quarters.

The soldiers would not obey his orders, and then the
bloodthirsty wretch sent five professional butchers with
knives and hatchets to kill these frail and beautiful English
women and their lovely daughters. It took the butchers an
hour and a half to finish their horrid task, and for each
woman killed they received one rupee. Then when the
awful massacre was completed and the clotted blood, ankle
deep in the House of Massacre, began to ooze out under the
doorsills, the bodies were rudely dragged out of the door
and thrown into a well near by.

From some of the bodies the breath of life had not yet
departed, but all were ruthlessly thrown into the horrible
pit. "What a contrast to these scenes of blood and carnage
is the peaceful Cawnpore of to-day! No rude alarms of
raging foes to-day disturb the silence of the beautiful garden
which surrounds the spot where the House of Massacre once
stood, and the well hard by into which the bodies were
thrown. Around the well is a tasteful stone enclosure
several feet high, through which one enters by an iron gate-
way into the precincts of this most melancholy and pathetic

THE ANGEL OF REMEMBRANCE. 363

of all spots in India. Over the well rises a beautiful white
marble angel with outstretched wings, bearing in either
hand a triumphant palm branch, — a beautiful design most
beautifully executed.

Around the mouth of the old well, beneath the marble
angel, is the inscription in old English characters :

"Sacreo to tbe .flfcemorp of tbe Great Company of Cbristtan fl>eo=--
ple, Cbfefrg TKHomen anD CbllDren, Cruellg /ifcaseacreo Bear tbte-
Spot bg tbe IRebel IRana Sabib anD ubrown, tbe H>Etng witb tbe
DeaD, into tbe Well aBeneatb, on tbe I5tb Dag of 3ulg, 1S57."

In the beautiful Memorial church which marks the spot
where the heaviest fighting occurred before the capitulation.
of the fort, are many inscriptions which stirred my soul as I
read them with the memory of the horrible butchery, per-
petrated so near, fresh in mind. One of these inscriptions on
a tablet reared by a widow in memory of her husband who
had here lost his life, is: "Vengeance is mine, I will repay,
saith the Lord." Another : " We reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed." Still another, most appro
priate and touching of all: "These are they which have
come out of great tribulation."

Only about forty miles from Cawnpore is the still more
famous city of Lucknow, for here were gathered together in
the "Kesidency," which was hastily fortified at the begin-
ning of the mutiny by Sir Henry Lawrence, no less than
2,242 persons, men, women, and children. Here for eighty-
seven days, by a small handful of troops as compared with
the tens of thousands who besieged them, they were de-
fended, until the brave General Havelock, with his " Saints/ v
who could always be relied upon for bravery in action ane:
clemency in victory, relieved the place and rescued their
countrymen.

364 THE RESTING-PLACE OF HEROES.

Soon after the investment of the city by the mutineers,
the brave Lawrence, who divides with Havelock the honors
of Lucknow, was struck by a sheU, and, after two days of
suffering, during which he directed and advised and inspired
his troops, he died, crying out: "Never surrender. Remem-
ber Cawnpore. Save the women and children." Here, the
.scene of his heroism, is Lawrence's fitting monument with
the world-famed inscription upon it :

"1bere lies one
limbo trieo to oo bis outs."

Never did man better deserve this simple but compre-
hensive eulogy. His dying directions were carried out to
tne letter; the brave spirit which left his body on July 4,
1857, seemed to find a dwelling-place in every common
soldier during the awful months of the siege.

General Havelock's troops, which at first came to raise
the siege, were themselves invested and beleaguered by the
xabel Sahib's scores of thousands; but at last Sir Colin
•1 'ampbell, with a still larger force, came to the rescue of the
rescuers, and, under Havelock's supervision, the women and
children were all conveyed in safety from their long im-
prisonment and taken to Allahabad.

Only a few days after the successful completion of this
bravest rescue in the annals of history, the noble Havelock,
yielding to mortal illness which had come to him in the per-
formance of his duty, was laid low, and he is buried, not in
IVestminster Abbey, as his bravery and devotion deserve,
but in a lonely grave some three miles from the Residency
which he rescued and defended.

Seldom have I been more deeply moved than when visit-
ing this scene of heroic and pathetic memory. The Resi-
* lency is now a mass of ruins situated in the midst of beauti-
iul gardens; but well preserved ruins they are, for great

THE RUINED RESIDENCY.

365

pains are taken by the English government to mark and pro-
tect every reminder of the defense and relief of Lucknow.

Beautiful vines and creepers, all ablaze with blossoms,
cover the ruined walls of the Residency. Here is the spot,
we said to ourselves, where men and women of the same
flesh and blood as ourselves, for weary day after weary day,
heard the whiz of bullet and the shriek of whirring shell.

Here was the banqueting hall transformed into a hospital,
where hundreds of poor fellows with mangled limbs, bleed-

MOSQUE OF THE GREAT IMAMBAKA, LUCKNOW.

ing and dying, were brought to spend their last weary days
under the broiling sun of tropical India.

Here most interesting of all is the " Tyekhana," where
the women were imprisoned during the siege. This is an
underground cellar with lofty walls, which was deemed the
safest place in any part of the Residency. Two hundred
and ninety-nine women were crowded into this one cellar for
many dreadful weeks. The fierceness of the siege and the
way in which every exposed portion was battered by the
sharpshooters of the Rebel Army, are well indicated in this

366 SUFFERINGS OF IMPRISONED WOMEN.

room of suffering and death. Only three or four very small
windows at the top of this room admit the light and air.
They all slope upwards and are overshaded by the projecting
buildings overhead, so that it seems impossible for a bullet
or a cannon-ball to find its way within this secure retreat.
However, the battered walls show that many and many a
shell exploded within the cellar.

One hole is pointed out to us by the guide (an old sol-
dier, by the way, who came to the rescue with Havelock's
army), made by a cannon-ball which swept a baby out of its
mother's arm without injuring the mother, while it pinned
the bleeding, mangled remains of the little one against the
wall near which the mother was leaning, spattering all the
walls, as well as the mother's breast, with the baby's gore.
No wonder that the legends of the place go on to say that
the mother went insane.

Another hole in the wall is shown us, made by a cannon-
ball which whizzed so near a woman's ear that she fell dead,
killed by fright, though unharmed by so much as a scratch
from the ball.

During this dreadful siege, eight or ten babies were born
in the Tyekhana, most of whom, strange to say, lived to the
estate of manhood and womanhood. To scores of the brave
men who defended the Residency during that awful siege, as
well as to Sir Henry Lawrence and Gen. Havelock, may be
applied the thrilling verses :

" Here rest thee, Christian warriors, rest from thy two-fold strife ;
The battle-field of India, the battle-field of life."

"While of the two great generals and commanders who lie
interred near by may be sung with full assurance of faith :

" The gallant chiefs of gallant men are more than conquerors now."

One more city we must visit before we end this most

THE PERFECTION OP ARCHITECTURAL ART. 367

interesting and memorable journey — the city of the Taj
Mahal — a city justly famous for the one perfect work of
architectural art in all the world.

Agra, the city of the Taj, lies about a day's journey from
Lucknow. Its chief gem is the one building that never dis-
appoints the traveler ; the one glorious pile that fulfills every
anticipation. The Taj bursts upon the bewildered view as a
thing of beauty and remains a joy forever. It is not a tem-
ple, as many people suppose, but a mausoleum built by the
great Mogul, Shah Jehan, over his beautiful Empress
" Mooin-taj," who, by her beauty, her grace, her intellectual
ability, and her winning ways, had obtained such power over
the Emperor, that when she came to die she made him prom-
ise that he would not marry again, and that he would build
the most beautiful tomb in the world over her remains to
perpetuate her name.

She died in 1631, and immediately the bereaved Mogul
set about the task of fulfilling his promise, and of building
the wonderful tomb which is known by all the world as the
" Taj Mahal." It is situated in the midst of a beautiful gar-
den of palms and banyan trees, flowering shrubs and bril-
liant creepers, fountains and marble tanks full of gold fish.

On three sides are huge mosque-like gateways of brown
sandstone inlaid with marble, so that one does not see the
glories of the Taj until he enters through these massive lofty
portals, and the magnificent building breaks at once upon
his gaze. As the traveler beholds it first against the intense
blue of the Indian sky, the white dome seems to be soaring
into the sky, so light and airy is the substantial architecture.

We were struck dumb by the beautiful spectacle, and
dropping upon a marble seat at the very entrance of the
gardens, we feasted our eyes upon this most splendid of
buildings. As we enter the mausoleum, astonishment at the

368

MARVELOUS DECORATIONS.

magnificence and beauty of the building gives place to
amazement at the delicate work which is inwrought in every
part of the structure. Polished marble and precious stones
of every description abound and are wrought into the white
marble both without and within. On the Empress's tomb,
worked into figures of flowers, are all kinds of precious
stones, bloodstones and agates, jasper and turquoise and

g[Hflii§§giBiig§gBginiHW^i;y

THE TAJ MAHAL.

lapis lazuli of fabulous cost. In one flower alone, in an
obscure corner of the tomb, are thirty-five specimens of
brilliant carnelian ; in another leaf forming a single petal of
a carnation are twenty-three different stones. In still
another flower are 300 different jewels formed into an exqui-
site rose.

But the hand of the vandal had not been withheld even
from this most exquisite production of the ages. Some of
these jeweled flowers have been picked to pieces, and the

DESECRATED BY TOURISTS. 369

precious stones of which they were made carried away;
while on the small crystal windows the tourist has frequently
cut his commonplace name. Here we find that " TV. C.
Smith " and " Jane Higginbottom " have tried to immortal-
ize themselves. I wish that I could hold them up to perpet-
ual ignominy for their vandalism.

Before we leave Agra one more place claims our atten-
tion, the palace where the beautiful queen lived. It was
built by her husband's grandfather, but largely beautified by
her own taste and her husband's generosity. The private
rooms of the queen are embellished in the same way as her
tomb. Her bathroom is called the " room of mirrors," and
is ornamented with thousands of tiny looking-glasses. In
the niches of the walls were placed fairy lamps over which
water flowed in an illuminated stream to the bath beneath.
In another part of the palace is the place where the king
played parchesi with his twenty-four wives, sitting in the
middle square himself, while each of his wives in a different
colored costume, occupied one of the twenty-four squares of the
tesselatecl pavement, and moved backward and forward as
he commanded, until at last she got into the " home circle "
which surrounded his august majesty. From this royal
model has come the game so popular with the children of
America. In still another part of the palace we saw the
raised dais from which the king and his beautiful queen
looked over the parapet into the valley beneath, where the
elephants and tigers were compelled to fight for their delec-
tation. Those were barbaric days in which the palace and
the Taj were built.

But we must not linger. Our time for the wonders of
Northern India is exhausted, and we must hurry on to the
seaport of Bombay, carrying with us throughout all our lives
enduring memories of the exquisite "Jewel of Agra."

CHAPTER XX.

ACROSS THE INDIAN OCEAN — THROUGH THE GREAT

DITCH.

Some of our Fellow Passengers — Missionaries and Men of Mars — The
Little Athletes — Potato Races and Hurdle Jumping — The Red Sea —
A Glimpse of Sinai — "And a Half, Eight" — Waiting our Turn — A
Huge Jack o' Lantern — A Sight Long to be Remembered — A Stu-
pendous Enterprise — A Tarnished Name — Canal Diggers before De
Lesseps — In the Canal — Ismalia and her Donkeys — ' ' Yankee Doodle "
and "Washy Washington" — Undeniable Desert — A Woman with a
Supplementary Nose — Our First Glimpse of the Bedouin — A Family
of Arabs — The Land of Goshen — Pharaoh and his Prime Minister —
Bricks without Straw — The Fellahin and How They Live — Their
Superstitions— "O, Virgin Mary"— "The Sun Do Move"— The
Blessings Brought by John Bull — A Ghostly Reminder — How They
Carry the Babies — "Backsheesh, Backsheesh" — "Oh Sugar for a
Nail"— "God Will Make Them Light, Oh Lemons" — The Little
"Sons of the River."

E who makes the voyage across

the Indian Ocean from Bombay

to Ismalia has nothing of ocean

horrors to dread, at least in the

month of February, when it was

our good fortune to make the

journey. The majestic steamer

sailed steadily on, day after day,

over rippling blue seas, while at

night she seemed to be cutting

her way through wavelets of

molten silver, so bright is the

phosphorescence of these Eastern waters. Even the poorest

sailor suffered no qualms of seasickness, and men, women,

and children all enjoyed themselves in their own way, as

their tastes and habits dictated.

(370)

A FROLIC ON DECK. 371

Among our passengers were many officers of the English
army, who were going home on a furlough, and whose ev-
ident delight at the thought of seeing the green fields and
cooling fogs of old England, after years on the arid plains of
India, was as keen and fresh as that of a schoolboy on his
way home for his Christmas holidays. Among the passen-
gers, also, were many faithful missionaries, whose service is
far more arduous and far less remunerative than the work
of the men of Mars. These brave soldiers, too, deserve an
occasional holiday, and some of them, worn and wearied
and quite broken in health, after } T ears of service, were going
back for a short period of rest to their homes in America
and England.

It so happened that among these missionary and military
families were many children of all ages and sizes, and a very
happy day was given them when we all arranged for a
series of races between the little folks, with bright rupees
for prize money. There were straightaway races round the
deck, in which an eager-faced little girl, not more than five
years old, won most triumphantly, passing the line red-
cheeked and panting, but full of gladness that she had
beaten her older brothers and sisters, even though she was
given a long start at the beginning. Then there were three-
legged contests and potato races, marvelous juvenile feats in
hurdle-jumping, and all kinds of games for all ages to partici-
pate in. A brave major, with battle-scars seaming his face,
was the starter, a warlike captain was the time-keeper, and
a heroic missionary was the judge; and it is strongly sus-
pected that the warriors and the missionaries enjoyed the
afternoon quite as much as the children themselves.

After four or five days of smooth seas and pleasant
weather the Victoria entered the Ked Sea, which is so wide
in many parts that the sensation is not that of sailing

372 THROUGH THE RED SEA.

through a narrow canal with land on either side, as one
would think when studying the map, but, for the most part,
one imagines that he is on the boundless, shoreless sea. To
be sure, once in a while, we see some bold promontory in
the distance or some towering mountain looming up on the
hazy horizon, and occasionally we pass near a rocky, surf-
beaten island ; but, until the steamer reaches the narrow
Gulf of Suez, at the northern end of the Red Sea, there is
but little difference between one's sensations here and upon
the broadest ocean. In fact, the north wind, which often
draws through this channel between the mountains quite
fiercely, frequently makes the sea rougher than the surface
of the neighboring Indian ocean.

As we approached Suez the eyes of all the passengers
were strained to catch sight of Mount Sinai, that mountain
which more than any other on the earth's surface has
affected the destinies of mankind ; but it is very rarely that
one gets eveu a glimpse of the Mountain of the Law, for
only on the clearest day, when the air is absolutely trans-
parent, can it be seen from the steamer's deck. This condi-
tion rarely prevails in these latitudes, and the captain of our
steamer told me that only on three occasions, although he
had sailed up and down the shores of the Red Sea for half
his lifetime, has he caught a glimpse of the mountain that
once quaked and smoked with fire and brimstone.

Toward evening of a beautiful bright day in February
we approached the low shores of Suez, and could descry the
magnificent embankment which indicates the entrance to the
Suez canal, that marvel of modern engineering skill. The
channel by which the approach is made to the canal is nar-
row, the currents are treacherous, and the water on either
hand is shallow, so that great care must be taken by the
larger steamers in approaching the entrance. For some

REVELATIONS OF THE SEARCHLIGHT. 373

time before we anchored, waiting for our turn, the quarter-
master on either side of our steamer was casting the lead,,
and singing out in musical accents to the pilot on the bridge
the depth of water beneath our keel. One quartermaster
would cry out, "And a half, eight." The next instant the
quartermaster on the other side would respond, "And a half,
seven," showing that the water was rapidly growing shallow
and a fathom less was between us and the bottom than a
moment before. Then the first quartermaster would chant.,
" And a quarter, seven," while the one on the other side, in
a kind of antiphonal response would answer: "And three
quarters, six."

Thus we felt our way along, avoiding the shoals and the
sandbanks, and then had to cast anchor for several hours.,
waiting for our turn to come to enter the great ditch.

Night came on, and the stars came out, but even the stars
were paled by the brilliant electric searchlight from the
tower at the entrance of the canal, which swept around in
every direction, bringing out every yardarm, sail, smokestack,
and huge trumpet-like ventilator on the vessels about us, in
startling relief. Suddenly, as we were gazing out into the
darkness, thinking that no object was within the range of
our vision, the great fan-like wave of light would sweep
towards us and rest for an instant upon a full rigged vessel,
which would seem to start out of the blackness like a ghostly
visitor. For an instant the light would play over its huge
bulk like a vast enveloping jack-o'-lantern, and then would
sweep on to reveal other objects beyond.

It was a sight long to be remembered and worthy even
of the marvelous days of the Pharaohs themselves, who were-
supposed to be versed in all the occult wonders of mystic
lore. This ghastly white light, sweeping about, apparently
at its own pleasure, seemingly undirected and erratic in its

374 UNION OF THE RED SEA AND THE MEDITERRANEAN.

movements, ferreting out all things within its range, glorify-
ing the floating seaweed and the flotsam and jetsam borne
by the tide, as well as the huge man-of-war and leviathan
■merchant ship ; this modern miracle, I believe, would have
astounded the miracle-workers of old with all their Egyptian
learning.

- The 16th of November, 1869, was a day long to be re-
membered in the history of the world, for that day witnessed
the wedding festivities of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.

IN THE SUEZ CANAL.

On that day was inaugurated the vast enterprise of which
the ages had dreamed and which the ingenuity and persever-
ance of the great French engineer had made possible.
Nearly one hundred million dollars had the canal cost ; and
it is said that the Khedive spent no less than twenty millions
-of dollars in the ceremonies of the inauguration.

It will be readily seen of what inestimable value ^the
*canal is to the commercial world, when we remember that it
xeduces the distance from London to Bombay from 12,500
to 7,000 miles, a saving of nearly one-half. From London

THE FIRST WATERWAY BETWEEN THE TWO OCEANS. 375

to Hong Kong the distance is over 15,000 miles by the Cape
of Good Hope, and only 11,000 miles by the canal ; while
from Marseilles to Bombay, the distance by the Cape is over
12,000 miles, by the canal only 5,000, a saving of nearly
sixty per cent. But not only is the canal a stupendous and
successful enterprise from a commercial point of view, but it
is as successful financially as in every other aspect. The
tolls amount to many millions of dollars every year, and are
constantly increasing.

But it must not be thought that in the nineteenth cen-
tury was first conceived the project of a waterway between
the two oceans, or that De Lesseps' fertile brain was the first
to evolve this gigantic scheme. From the very earliest
days there was an overland route between the Mediterra-
nean and the Red Sea, but it is said that Sethi I, the great
prince of the nineteenth Egyptian dynasty, desirous of trans-
porting his navies from one sea to the other, built the first
canal. A representation of his time on the wall of the ban-
quet hall of Karnac, tells us that on his victorious return
from Egypt the conqueror traversed a canal, swarming with
crocodiles and defended by bastions.

But Father Time has a great fashion of defacing and de-
stroying the mighty works of man. If with his tooth he
can gnaw away the pyramids, he has little difficulty in fill-
ing up a ditch, however vast it may be, or however impor-
tant to the commerce of the world. And so it came about,
as the centuries went on, and lesser men occupied the throne
of the Pharaohs, and the people relapsed into commercial in-
difference, that this canal was obliterated, and even its
course cannot be discovered to-day.

But eight hundred years after the Pharaoh who built the
first canal, came Pharaoh Nekho, who was very desirous for
the welfare of his country. He began to construct a canal

376 ANCIENT CANALS, EGYPTIAN, PERSIAN, AND ROMAN.

between the Nile and the Red Sea, and it is said that no less
than 120,000 Egyptians perished while engaged in this work.
It was afterwards abandoned, because the oracle told Pha-
raoh that the barbarians alone would profit by the work.
However, the work already accomplished, and the lives
lost, did not go altogether for nothing, for the canal was
completed by Darius, the great founder of the Persian
Empire, the same Darius of whom we read in the Book of
Daniel, who has left in many ways the impress of his mighty
personality upon the world.

Even as late as the century immediately before the
Christian era, there is no doubt that the remains of this old
canal were still found, for history tells us that after the battle
of Actium, Cleopatra made an effort to convey her ships
across the Isthmus of Suez, in order to escape with her treas-
ures from Octavius. If there had been no canal, she would
not have been foolish enough to try to transport her ships
over the land, though it is probable, as the historians tell us,
that the canal was in a very dilapidated condition.

Afterwards, it is said that the Romans, and later still, the
Arabs, reconstructed the old canal or dug a new one; but the
only thing that seems to be certain about this vast hole in
the ground is, that it became unserviceable after the eighth
century, and for a thousand years the merchants toilsomely
sent their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, until De
Lesseps proved the feasibility of the present canal, the possi-
bility of its construction, and with unbounded faith and
energy overcame the countless obstacles which lay between
him and triumphant success.

But during all this time our vessel has been anchored
near the entrance of the canal, waiting for the signal to be
given that the channel is clear, and that it is our turn to
enter. At last it comes, and, weighing anchor, stealthily

THROUGH THE GREAT DITCH.

377

and slowly, the great ship swings within the breakwater
which defends the mouth of the canal, and very slowly feels
its way between the sandy banks that stretch away on either
side. The great ditch is twenty-five feet wide at the bot-
tom, while on the surface it is much wider, and sometimes
stretches out into broad natural lakes, which saved the con-
structors of the canal much digging on their way from sea
to sea. There is very little of special interest in the journey
to Ismalia.
It takes

about eight

hours time,
so slowly do
the steamers
proceed, lest
the wash of
waves which
they create
should de-
stroy the
banks. But
at last in the
early morn-
ing light, the
little modern
town where

we are to leave our floating home conies in sight, and a
steam launch soon bears us to the shore.

There is almost nothing to see in Ismalia except the
donkeys and the donkey boys. The latter are ubiquitous
and most persistent. They meet you at the landing; they
thrust their donkey in your face and eyes as soon as you
step ashore. They plant him before you, broadside on, to

DONKEY BOY OF ISMALIA.

378 "YANKEE DOODLE*' AND " WASHY-WASHINGTON."

bar your further progress, unless you mount and ride.
They sound his praises in every note of the gamut. After
all other recommendations fail, they plead with you to take
him because of his "lovely black eyes." One boy even rec-
ommended his donke} r to us as a "riglar masher." If they
suspect you of being an American, they will cry out, " Take
my donkey, Master," " My donkey is Yankee Doodle," " My
donkey's name is Washington," while one boy gravely as-
sured us, thinking that he surely would secure our patronage
thereby, that his animal rejoiced in the name of "Washy-
Washington."

We tarry in Ismalia no longer than is absolutely nec-
essary, for stranger sights lure us on to the City of the
Califs.

Taking the railway at Ismalia, a journey of a few hours
brings us to the ancient city of Cairo. The first part of the
way lies through the desert, and a most uncompromising
and undeniable desert it is. The yellow sand hems in the
narrow railway track on every side, and there is scarcely a
green thing far or near to refresh the eyes. Still, barren as
is the country, its people are of never-failing interest.
Every railway station is bright with the colors of the curious
costumes of men and women. Here is an orange seller, for
instance, with her face entirely covered by a hideous black
veil, with only a slit large enough for two piercing black
eyes to shine through. Over her nose is a curious brass
contrivance like a great supplementary nose, which seems to
attach the veil to the upper part of the headdress. Here is
another woman with a heavy water jar on her head, which
she carries, standing proudly erect, in a way that shows
that she has been used to such burdens from her earliest
girlhood. At another station we see a whole family of
Arabs squatting upon the platform, the women veiled as

GREEN FIELDS AND WAVING PALMS.

3? »

those we have already described, though the little girls are
allowed to go with uncovered faces. For the most part,,
they are a stupid, degraded lot of human beings, with noth-
ing of aspiration in their eyes, and no desire to be anything:
but the hewers of wood and the drawers of water which
they and their ancestors have been for so many centuries.

After a few miles of this desert journey, we grow rather
listless and indifferent to that which may be seen outside the

ON THE BANKS OF THE NILE.

car window, but suddenly we are aroused from our indiffer-
ence by an entrancing sight of green fields and fertile gar-
dens and waving palm trees. It is as though we had come
into a fairy land, out of a very prosaic workaday world.
And indeed we have entered fairy land, and the magician;
that works the wonder is none other than old Father Nile..
lie sends out his life-giving waters, and whatever he touches
springs into new life and blossoms like the rose. The line of
demarcation between the desert and the well-favored lands-

380 IN THE LAND OF JOSEPH AND MOSES.

of the Nile is clear and distinct ; one moment the train is in
the arid purgatory of the desert, the next it is in the smiling
paradise of the oasis.

And this first fertile tract to which we have come is none
other than the Goshen of the Bible. JSo wonder that the
aged Jacob rejoiced when his long pilgrimage was over and
he entered into this fair land. We can understand better
than ever before the great power that Joseph must have en-
joyed to be able to secure this goodly land for his father and
his unbrotherly brothers.

Off in the distance, but a little way from the railway
track, are the fields where the Israelites made bricks without
straw, and perhaps our eye rests upon the very place where
Moses, rendered indignant beyond the power of control at
the cruelties which were heaped upon his suffering fellow
countrymen, slew the Egyptian, and became an exile from
the court where he might have reigned as a prince, "choos-
ing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." Our hearts throb
within us as we look out on these historic sights, and realize
that these were the same sandy plains, the same green fields,
watered then as now, "with the tears of the Nile," while the
same cloudless Egyptian sky bent over them as over us.
Out here rode in majestic state the famous Prime Minister
of the Pharaohs, the young man who, by his own virtue and
force of character, raised himself from the position of a
captive peasant to a prince of the realm. These roads, too,
were trodden by the feet of Aaron, the High Priest, by
Miriam, the tuneful singer; and along these same highways
rumbled the chariot wheels of the great Pharaohs, who, as
world-conquering rulers, have never been equaled by Greek
or Roman, Turk or Briton.

We see very little, however, to remind us of the magnifi-

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THE EGYPTIANS OF TO-DAY. 383

cence of the Pharaohs, or of the state in which Joseph trav-
eled in those early days. Most of the villages which we
pass are mean collections of wretched mud houses. Their
four walls rise scarcely higher than the head of a man, and
except for an occasional mosque, with its slender minaret,
there is no attempt at architectural beauty or embellishment
of any kind. Most of the lower classes who swarm at the
railway stations, and whom we see from the car windows,
wear around their necks charms, written on paper, and sewn
up in leather. They are ignorant and superstitious to the
last degree, and not only protect themselves, but their cattle
in the same way. Every man, as he passes a saint's tomb, it
is said, mumbles a prayer without stopping, and, saints'
tombs being very numerous, a mumbled prayer is always on
his lips. Some of the great saints are appealed to on every
possible occasion. If a man sneezes, or is afflicted with the
hiccoughs, or turns his ankle in the streets, he adjures his
favorite saint. Even if his legs are stiff as he rises from his
seat, he exclaims, " O Virgin Mary ! " Their ignorance is
beyond all comprehension, the education even of the upper
classes being confined to the narrow limits of the Koran.
Not one of them can be convinced that the earth is not flat,
while they agree thoroughly with Parson Jasper in his dic-
tum that " the sun do move."

An Egyptian school is a curiosity. The pupils sit on the
floor, study their lessons aloud, rocking back and forth, and
they make the schoolroom about as noisy as a ward political
meeting. I generally knew where a schoolroom was at least
half a minute before 1 reached its doors. The master squats
on the floor, or stands among his pupils, who are seated in
rows or promiscuously scattered through the apartment.
Then* lessons are given to them upon slates or large cards,
and they sit rocking back and forth and studying aloud.

384 THE DESPISED EUROPEANS.

A learned priest, which means a man learned in the mys-
teries of the Koran, indignantly walked out of an examina-
tion hall in Cairo recently, when told that the scholars were
there taught that the earth was round. No such heresy
would he allow to have place even for a moment in his the-
ology. Every other man is to a Mohammedan an infidel ;
and not only an infidel, but a miserable and despicable infi-
del, at that, who deserves stoning and torture and death,
though the laws unjustly interfere in his behalf. Even the
children will greet the Europeans on the street with the
exclamation : " Ya Nusrani ! " (O Nazarene). The donkey
boy calls out to his ass, as he prods him with a sharp stick :
" Go along, you son of a pig, get on, you son of a Nazarene ! "

It is said by those who have lived long in Egypt, that the
centuries of oppression under hard task masters, and the
subserviency to a false and degrading religion, have not only
dulled the moral and intellectual faculties of the Egyptians,
but have deadened even their physical senses as well. A
traveler and resident for ten years in Egypt says that the
sense of pain is very small among the lower classes, that their
olfactory nerves are also extremely dull, that they cannot
distinguish one person from another by his footsteps, and
not easily by his voice, and that they never hear a slight or
distant sound, or notice a whisper.

In the interior of the poor houses, whose outer walls we
see from the train, is no furniture worthy of the name. A
few mats, a sheepskin, a basket or two, kettles for heating
water, and a small array of wooden dishes, is all that we
find within the hut, and this hut is shared by the hens and
the ducks, the goats, and the sheep of the establishment, as
well as by the human inhabitants, while the cows and buffa-
loes would have no hesitation in pushing their way within
the doors, were they wide enough to receive them.

FOOD OF THE LOWER CLASSES. 385

Almost the only food of the laboring classes is a kind of
bread made of sorghum flour or of Indian corn, wheatec
bread being eaten only by the wealthy classes. For supper,
however, we are told, even the poorest cause a hot repast to
be prepared. This usually consists of a highly salted sauce
made of onions and butter, or, in the poorer houses, of butter
and linseed oil.

Around the low table the various members of the family
sit, while each member dips his piece of bread, held in his
fingers, into this common family sauce. In addition to this,
buffaloes' and goats' milk, and in the summer, cucumbers and
pumpkins are the only addition. Of course, this meagre bill
of fare and this wretched manner of life applies to the
lower classes only. There is an aristocracy in Egypt, as
there is everywhere else, that clothes itself in purple and fine
linen and lives upon the fat of the land. But the poverty of
the masses is almost beyond description.

Poor as it is, the common people of Egypt were probably
never so well off as they are to-day. From the time of the
Israelites they have lived the lives of serfs. Oppressed by
the original Pharaohs, doubly oppressed by each succeeding
dynast} T , their lives held cheaper than the very dirt of the
street, hundreds of thousands of them sacrificed in the dig-
ging of every great canal and the building of every gigantic
pyramid ; it is only within the memory of the present gener-
ation that attention has been called to the wretched con-
dition of the Fellahin, and that anything has been done for
their relief. Since the English have acquired a dominating
control in Egypt, their beneficent rule has been felt as in
other Eastern lands. Order has come out of chaos, justice
has succeeded to tyranny, and theoretically, at least, the
tiller of the soil can assert his rights as well as the proudest
descendant of the Pharaohs. As a matter of fact, there

386 DISTINGUISHING COLOR OF THE TURBAN.

is doubtless still very much, of oppression and iniquitous
taxation, for the work of centuries cannot be undone in a
moment, or the rights of a people secured by a single decree.
However, Egypt is on the high road to recovery. Every
succeeding year sees a better state of affairs in the land of
the Nile, and the common people, at least, should devoutly
give thanks for the interference of John Bull and his red-
coats.

But among our fellow-passengers are many others be-
sides the Fellahin of the Nile. There are grave Mohamme-
dan dignitaries. Some of these Moslems wear green
turbans, showing that they are descendants of the great
prophet himself, for no others are allowed to wear this
color. The scholars wear a broad, evenly-folded turban of a
light color, and it is said that the orthodox length of a
believer's turban is seven times that of his head, being
equivalent to the whole length of his body, in order that the
turban may afterwards be used as the wearer's winding-
sheet, and that this thought may familiarize him with the
prospect of death.

The Copts, some of whom we also see among our fellow-
passengers, or among the loungers at the railway station,
wear a dark blue turban, and the Jews a turban of yellow,
since these were the colors decreed in the fourteenth cen-
tury.

One of the most characteristic things of any country is
the wav in which the children are carried. As mav well be
believed, such luxuries as baby carriages are unknown in the
East. In China and Japan the babies are strapped upon
the backs of their mothers; in India they are carried upon
their thighs; while in Egypt they are perched upon their
mother's shoulders, the little legs hanging down before and
behind, while they lean over on their mother's head, and

CLAIMANTS FOR CHARITY. 38?

frequently go to sleep in this seemingly uncomfortable
position.

Of course beggars are very common. You cannot step
off the railway trains, or into the mosques, or turn the
corner of the streets, without being besieged by some new
claimant for charity. Thin, scrawny, diseased hands are
thrust into your face at every turn, and your loathing re-
pugnance is more often excited than pity, by the horrible
specimens of humanity that dog every footstep. Men with
noses and chins eaten away by cancer, with eyes sealed and
corroded by countless sores, with finger joints twisted and
gnarled by rheumatism, or with handless stumps gradually
being eaten away by leprosy, confront us at every turn until
one has to harden himself against these sights, or else flee
incontinently within doors, and lock himself away from all
his fellow-men.

Instead of politely saying good morning to the passing
stranger, the beggar cries out to every European, "Back-
sheesh, backsheesh ! " (A gift, a gift.) The wise traveler
responds to all such salutations, " Ma fish, ma fish ! " (I have
nothing for you). Or, if he wishes to vary the formula, he
will say, " Allah yatik " (May God give thee). This often
answers in place of backsheesh, and the beggar will go away
quite as contented as if he had received what he asked for.

A very common sight in the great cities, as well as in the
smaller towns, is the water carrier with his goat-skin of
water, which looks like the great bloated carcass of an
animal carried on his back. He still plies his trade in the
city of Cairo, although the city is well supplied with water
from the new water-works. Still, he passes along the street,
with his heavy goat-skin on his shoulders, crying out at the
top of his lungs, "Ya auwad Allah ! " (May God recompense
me). Nevertheless, notwithstanding his pious cry, he will

388

DISPENSING THE DRINK OFFERING.

be very much disappointed if any one took a draft from his
goat-skin and left all the recompense to Allah.

On feast days, especially the birthdays of the saints,
pious Moslems, desirous of securing an easy entrance into
paradise, frequently hire one of these water carriers to
supply all comers with water gratuitously. Then the water
carrier shouts in a loud tone, "Sebil Allah ya' atshan ya
moyeh ! " In this way he invites all to drink freely, but he
is very careful to turn to his employer, who usually stands

"WATER-CARRIEHS FFLLTNG THEIR GOAT SKINS.

near him with a good deal of ostentation, saying, "God for-
give thy sins, oh dispenser of the drink offering, God have
mercy on thy parents ! " To which they who are partaking
of the water reply, "Amen. God have mercy on them and
on us." After numerous blessings of a similar kind have
been interchanged, the sakka hands the last cup of water
to his employer with the words: "The remainder for the
liberal men, and paradise for the confessor of the unity. God
bless thee, thou dispenser of the drink offering."

STREET CRIES OF THE ORIENT. 389

Many of the other cries that one hears in the street or in
the railway station are equally curious. The cry of the
orange merchant and the itinerant fish peddler at home are
quite unintelligible, though spoken in one's own language,
and it can easily be imagined that the street cries of Egypt are
quite beyond the comprehension of the passing tourist. So,
without shame, we must confess that we have consulted our
guide book at this point for the interpretation of these cries.

There is a man with a thin jelly made of starch and
sugar. He is crying out, " O sugar for a nail, O confec-
tion ! " which unintelligible cry indicates that he is willing
to barter his jelly for a nail or piece of old iron.

There is a vender of lemons, who calls out to us as we
pass by, " God will make them light, O lemons ! " We turn
to Baedeker to find that he means to say, in his highly
figurative and poetic language, that God will help him to
sell his lemons, and thus make his baskets light.

Another long cry of twenty syllables rings out on the air,
which, being interpreted, reads as follows : " Help, O help,
tiie lupins of Embabeh are better than almonds! O how
sweet is the little son of the river ! " This crv, too, must be
interpreted, when we find that it means that the peas which
this vender has to sell require to be soaked in river water
some time before they are boiled. On this account they are
called " Sons of the river," and their praises are thus sung
by this poetical child of the desert.

By these various sights and sounds and cries of street
vender and beggar, we are welcomed to Cairo, the magic
city of the Orient, and find ourselves in the country of the
Arabian nights, the capital city of the Cailifs.

CHAPTER XXI.

IN THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS — THE MOST WONDER-
FUL MUSEUM IN THE WORLD — THE MUMMY OF PHA
RAOH THE OPPRESSOR, AND HOW THE BODY WAS DIS-
COVERED—LOOKING INTO PHARAOH'S FACE.

Marvelous Cairo — A Vivacious Traveler — Eyes wanted Before and Be-
hind — Fashion in a Fez— Madam Grundy in Egypt — At the Sugar
Cane Bazaar— A Glimpse of the Khedive — A Boy in a Fez — The
Flight into Egypt— The Tree of the Virgin — How the Spider Out-
witted Herod — The Only Relic — Joseph's Father-in-Law — Where
Joseph was Married — The Most Wonderful Museum in the World —
A Room Full of Mummies — Moses' Playfellow — What the Bible says
of Him — A Mummy over Three Thousand Years Old — The Pharaoh
of the Oppression — Where He was Buried — The Location a Mighty
Secret for Centuries — How the Tomb was Discovered — Unwinding
the Mummy — How Pharaoh Looked — Description of the Body — Its
Identity Established — Where is the Pharaoh of the Exodus ?

E who travels around the world
is apt to become somewhat sated
with wonders before he reaches
Egypt. The glories of Japan,
the wonders of China, the ancient
magnificence of India, in some
degree exhaust his capacity for
sight-seeing; his mind becomes
glutted with marvelous memo-
ries, and it requires a place of
unusual interest to arouse his
somewhat flagging enthusiasm.
But Cairo is such a place. Coming to it from the East
or the "West, its strange charm is alwavs felt. No traveler
can be so blase as not to acknowledge the magic of this mar-
velous city. The strange people, the curious costumes, the

(390)

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IN THE STREETS OF CAIRO.

393

mingling of the Occident and the Orient, the unfamiliar
cries in the street, the characteristic crowd of all sorts and
conditions of men in front of each coffee house, the strange
manners and customs of the bazaar, all furnish material
for days of delight in the capital of Egypt. Before we go

STREET MUSICIANS AND DANCERS OF CAIRO.

out of the city to see the more marvelous wonders beyond —
the pyramids and the sphinx, which alone of all the crea
tions of man have defied the ravages of centuries — let us
spend a little while within the city itself.

Cairo has been compared by a vivacious writer to a
mosaic of the most fantastic and bizarre description, in which
all nations, customs, and epochs are represented, a living
museum of all imaginable and unimaginable phases of exist-

394

VIGOROUS AIDS TO LOCOMOTION.

ence, of refinement and degeneracy, of civilization and bar-
barism, of knowledge and ignorance, of paganism, Christian-
ity, and Mohammedanism. " In the boulevards of Paris,
and on London bridge," says one, " I saw but the shadow,
and at Alexandria heard only the prelude of the babel of

Cairo, to which the Roman or
Yenetian carnival is tame and
commonplace."

In order to enjoy these
things thoroughly, one desires
eyes behind as well as before,
and the steady power of forc-
ing one's way possessed by the
camel. However, as a camel
is a bulk too huge for these
narrow streets, we will hire a
donkey, with which, and the
help of a vigorous and viva-
cious boy behind to prod him
with a sharp stick, and twist
his tail occasionally (a means
of urging to locomotion which
we cannot altogether prevent,
although we are sure that the
Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals would dis-
approve), we can manage to get through the crowd.

The experience of the traveler, Goltz, is so graphically
told, and so true to the experience of many another traveler
in Cairo, that I cannot help quoting a paragraph from his
pleasant description. " Having carefully learned the ex-
pressions ' ana' a wiz humar ' (I want a donkey) and ' bikan
kirsh deh ' (how many piasters ?), I yielded to the temptations

PRATING EN THE STREETS OF CAIRO.

THE DONKEY BOYS OF CAIRO.

395

of plunging recklessly into the thick of Arabian life, its con-
versation and its equestrianism. I therefore pronounced the
mystic words with the satisfaction of a child which utters
articulate expressions for the first time, when I was instantly
so perfectly understood by a score of donkey boys that they
all offered me their donkeys at once ; though perhaps they
would have done so had I
not spoken at all. I felt
like a magician who has
succeeded in discovering
an effectual formula of
conjuration. After this
display of my abilities, I
vaulted into the saddle
with as much ease and
assurance as if Cairo had
been my home. The don-
key boy then probably
asked me ' Where to % '
whereupon, feeling that
my stock of Arabic phrases
and cabalistic f ormluae was
nearly exhausted, I replied
in a very abbreviated
form : 'Kullo, Kullo'
(everything), meaning

that I wanted to see everything. The donkey boy then
nodded to this, 'All right, I understand,' and I now felt
perfect confidence in my powers of speech.

" My donkey now set off at a gallop and plunged into
the midst of a labyrinth of lanes full of riders and walkers,
but where I was going, or how far, or why, I was unable to
tell. That, however, was precisely the joke of the thing."

LATTICED WINDOWS — CAIRO.

396 FASHIONS IN FEZZES.

It is altogether probable, however, that our wide-awake
traveler found himself before long in the bazaars, for the
donkey boys have a secret understanding with the proprie-
tors of these bazaars that they shall bring every unsuspect-
ing traveler within their web as soon as possible. So pictur-
esque is the sight that the traveler is usually quite ready to
be caught, even though it means that he will be despoiled of
a few francs, and have very little to show for them.

"We passed through one street which seemed to be very
largely given up to the fez makers. Here is the universal head
covering of the Turk in all stages of manufacture. New
fezzes are being shaped, and old fezzes are being re-ironed,
just as silk hats are put into good condition in the hat shops
of other countries. A truncated cone of brass is the mould
on which the fez is built, and since scarcely any other kind
of head gear is used in this or any other part of the Moham-
medan world, it will be seen that these little factories trans-
act a very large business. In fact, the fez is the sign of

national subjection to the Turk, and Christians and Jews in
Turkish lands were originally obliged to wear it, if I mistake
not, on pain of being treated as heretics and traitors. In
these days the servitude expressed by the fez is largely for-
gotten, and in church and on the street, in the mosque and
in the parlors, in the railway train and on the house-top,
wherever one sees a subject of the Sultan, or anyone belong-
ing to a tributary nation, he will, doubtless, see his head
covered with the red, conical cap, with the black tassel hang-
ing down behind.

It would seem that there could not be much difference in
fezzes, that there was very little scope for the fashionable
hatters in this style of head gear ; but human nature is very
much the same in all lands, and there is a chance for Dame
Fashion to exercise her powers, and for Madame Grundy to

A CHANCE FOR MADAME GRUNDY.

397

make her remarks even upon fezzes. To the unpracticed
eye they all look alike, but some are a little higher than
others, as we shall find if we look closely ; some are of a
darker shade of red ; others come more nearly to a point at
the top; and just as one funereal silk hat differs from an-

SUGAR-CANE AND FRUIT SELLERS OP CAIRO.

other funereal silk hat in its solemn lines of ugliness, so one
fez differs from another, and the changing fashion makes the
fez-makers' business good.

Beyond this fez merchant is the sugar-cane bazaar, where,
leaning up against the sides of the building, we see stacks of
tall canes from which jointed sections are cut off for any

398 A PEEP AT THE KHEDIVE.

passing customer. The small boy, as can be easily imagined,
especially enjoys this succulent, sugary product, and he may
be seen at almost any of these numberless stalls trying to
get the very largest possible piece of sugar-cane for the
smallest possible piece of money.

A veiled beauty (we will give her the benefit of the
doubt), with numerous strings of huge beads around her
neck, is waiting on the small boy, and very likely in the
foreground is a thick-lipped, woolly-pated Nubian, who in
his rags and dirt will lie out in the sun all day long, with
never a thought that it is uncomfortably warm.

As we were looking in at one of these shops, we saw an
unusual commotion taking place in the street beyond us.
People were hurrying to shop doors, and scurrying from the
side streets to the corner of the larger thoroughfare, as
though some unusual sight was about to be exhibited. We
could not understand the meaning of the commotion until
our donkey boy pulled us excitedly by the sleeve, and, point-
ing to the street, said something about the Khedive, which
gave us to understand that this youthful successor of the
Pharaohs was about to pass.

Our surmise concerning the donkey boy's information
was correct, and very soon four or five soldiers clashed by,
followed by an open carriage drawn by a span of splendid
horses. In this carriage were two men of very ordinary ap-
pearance, one much older than the other. Both wore red
fezzes of the ordinary type, but otherwise were dressed as
European gentlemen. The younger of these two was the
boyish Khedive of Egypt, the ruler whose predecessors five
thousand years ago built the pyramids and dug the ancient
canals, and erected the most magnificent monuments which
the world has ever seen, monuments which even time and
vandalism cannot destroy.

A STROLL THROUGH THE BAZAARS.

399

Going on from this bazaar, from whose doorway we have
watched the passing of the Khedive, we soon enter a perfect
labyrinth of passageways, lined on every hand with little
stalls where every imaginable article, and a good many
things which until recently have been unimaginable to us,
are sold: brass ware and silver filagree work, amber and
sandal wood, fish and vegetables,
fruit and statuettes, donkey bells
and evil-eye beads for the camels,
cakes and sugar for the boys, fod-
der for the donkeys, saddles for
the horses, veils for the women,
earrings and gewgaws for the
Arabs of the desert, and every-
thing which Eastern and Western
ideas have rendered necessary.

Many of these bazaars open out
of passageways that are entirely
covered overhead, and are dark,
gloomy recesses into which a ray
of sunlight never struggles. Still,
dirty and dark, vermin-infested
and beggar-haunted as they are,
they are extremely interesting,
and in their mazes any one who
delights in the study of human nature can lose himself for
days at a time, but never lose his interest in the strange
sights around him.

Before leaving this fascinating city there are three ex-
cursions which we must make, — one to Heliopolis where-
Joseph lived, another to the marvelous museums of Bulak .,
the most remarkable depository of antiquities in all the
world, and the third to the pyramids of Gizeh.

SHOE PEDDLER OF CAIRO.

400 TRADITIONS OF THE PAST.

We can visit Heliopolis in a single half day. A pleasant
road, winding oftentimes between gardens of oranges and
lemons, and shaded much of the way by these fragrant
trees, takes us to this famous City of the Sun. On the way
we pass the village of Matariyeh. Here is the tree and well
of the Virgin. My readers, who are acquainted with their
.New Testament history, will remember that the mother of
our Lord, to escape the cruel persecutions of Herod, fled into
Egypt with the child Jesus and her husband Joseph. The
pathetic picture which is so common in Christian art of the
Flight into Egypt, has done scarcely less than the Bible
itself to impress this scene upon the imagination of the
world. Those who have once seen this picture, or any of
the innumerable copies of it, will never forget the sweet
face of the Virgin Mother, as she rides along the dusty road,
baaring the infant Jesus in her arms, while the dignified and
manly Joseph walks by their side.

A modern traveler has said that if Joseph and Mary
were modern Bedouins, Joseph would be riding the ass,
while Mary would walk and carry the child. But we are
glad to believe that Joseph and Mary had very little in
common with the modern Bedouin, and that the western
ideas of respect to motherhood and womankind prevailed in
that journey undertaken so long ago to the land of Egypt.
In this little village to which we have come, tradition says
the virgin and child once rested, and the tree under which
she rested — a large, spreading sycamore, with decayed
trunk and gnarled limbs — is still pointed out. Of course,
even the most credulous know that this particular tree must
have been planted many centuries after that famous journey
was undertaken ; but it is very certain that a most ancient
tradition connects the Holy Family with this very spot, and
though it is known that this tree was not planted until 1672,

AN INTERESTING TREE AND ITS STORY.

401

and that its predecessor died in 1665, it is not by any means
impossible that near this spot came the Blessed Mother and
the Holy Child, with their stalwart protector, from the land
of Judea.

A BEDOUIN FAMILY ON A JOURNEY.

The water for the garden in which the tree is planted
comes from a shallow pool near by, and, as we visited the
spot, a blindfolded ox was pacing his weary round, raising
the water by a series of endless buckets, which poured
their contents into the ditches that irrigated the garden.
Unlike most of the water in this vicinity, which is brackish,

402 A spider's veil and what it concealed.

the water from this reservoir is sweet and good for drinking,
and before we left the garden we took a draught from the
same pool at which the Virgin and her husband may have
quenched their thirst eighteen hundred years ago.

Tradition has been busy with this place, as with every
other that is connected with the Holy Family, and one
pretty legend tells us that when persecution was rife, the
mother concealed herself with the child in the hollow trunk
of the tree which stood on this spot, and that a spider wove
its web so closely across the opening that no lynx-eyed per-
secutor could see the mother and the child beneath the
spider's veil.

Half a mile beyond this garden we see all that is left of
the famous Heliopolis, or the City of the Sun. This is the
place which the Bible calls On, and here we are told that
Pharaoh gave Joseph the daughter of a priest of Heliopolis
in marriage. In early days the Temple of the Sun at Helio-
polis was the most famous sacred place in all Egypt, and was
the scene of the most notable ceremonies connected with the
worship of the sun. No less than 12,913 priests and officials
were connected with this temple, it is said. As one thinks
of the former magnificence of this spot and contrasts it with
its present decay, he realizes how absolutely Time destroys
the mightiest works of man.

Few places have been so utterly wiped out of existence.
All that is left now of this famous temple is a single
obelisk, and even that is not impressive, for it is half
buried in the accumulated mud and soil of the centuries,
which have been deposited around it. On two sides the bees
have built their cells in the deep-cut hieroglyphics, so as to
fill them up completely and obliterate the characters, and
the only signs of life about this temple, which once swarmed
with thousands of priests and myriads of worshipers, are two

THE RAVAGES OF TIME. 403

or three blind, lame, halt, and loathsome beggars, who limp
after one at every step, and hold out filthy hands, distorted
and twisted by disease, for backsheesh.

Companion obelisks to the one which stands here have
been taken by successive conquerors of Eg} 7 pt to grace their
capitals, and this alone is left to tell the tale of the glory of
Heliopolis. On this obelisk, doubtless, Joseph looked;
beneath the shadows of this monument and its tall com-
panions he led the Mother and Child. To the temple, which
stood on this spot in its more than royal magnificence, came
the Pharaohs, one after another. Every Pharaoh considered
himself the human embodiment of the sun, and it is only
natural that he should have brought offerings worthy of a
Pharaoh to this magnificent temple, to increase with every
reign of every dynasty its growing magnificence.

There is to-day in the National Museum at London a
papyrus which gives a marvelous list of presents donated to
this temple by Rameses III alone. But now, for more than
two thousand years, Heliopolis has been but a name. Even
the famous university which once flourished here, though es-
tablished long after the temple had ceased to exist, and only a
hundred years before the time of Christ, is utterly obliterated.
Nations have come and gone, kingdoms have waxed and
waned, steadily the star of empire has moved westward, but
this one lonely monolith remains, half imbedded in mud,
not even respected by the bees themselves, resorted to by
only a few tourists, on whom beggars fatten — this only
remains of the magnificent City of the Sun.

Our next excursion shall be to the Bulak Museum. As a
rule, the traveler finds a museum a tiresome weariness to the
flesh, unless he is engaged in some particular branch of
research and desires to make use of the treasures which the
museum contains, in his particular investigations ; he is apt

404

A WONDERFUL MUSEUM.

to wander through the endless corridors in a stupid and per-
functory way, casting a glance to the right and the left, for
the sake of performing his duty, and being able to say that
he has " done " the museum. Eye and brain, as well as feet
become tired, the confined atmosphere at last becomes unen-
durable, and one vows that he will see no more curiosities
" while the world standeth," if they are to be bought at the
expense of such utter weariness and ennui. Then, as one

IN THE BULAK MUSEUM.

emerges into the open air, he has a dim remembrance of a
tomb here and a scarabeus there, of a collection of arrow
heads over yonder, of .a case of butterflies on the north wall,
and another of ancient coins on the south wall. But where
the butterflies first flew, or where the coins passed current,
or who occupied the tombs, or at whom the arrow heads
were pointed — of these details he is apt to have a very
mixed and hazy idea.

But the museum at Bulak is not an ordinary museum by
any means. The most wearied and travel-hardened tourist

ANCIENT TREASURES, ANTIQUITIES, AND MUMMIES. 405

finds here enough treasures to keep his mind alert, and to
drive the weariness from his brain and his feet.

We did not linger, however, for many minutes over the
bronze cats and jackals, the ibises in copper, or the shrine of
Osiris. We did not take any great joy in the sight of the
green porcelain deity in the shape of a distorted child stand-
ing upon two crocodiles and strangling two snakes, neither
did we go into raptures over the dog-faced ape, the emblem
of the god Thoth, or even over the golden diadems and
chains and alabaster vases, and granite hawks with human
heads, for we were anxious to spend all the time at our dis-
posal in the apartment of the royal mummies.

Until within the memory of many of my youngest read-
ers, the existence of these mummies was not suspected by
the civilized world. The Arabs, to be sure, knew of them,
but as the royal tombs furnished them with a perfect mine
of curios, seals, coins, statuettes, and rolls of papyrus, they
carefully concealed their knowledge from investigating trav-
elers. At last the antiquities were found, and treasures
such as the world had not believed to exist, were unearthed.
As we enter the museum we see several mummies and coffins
belonging to priests and kings and princes of the twenty-first
dynasty. But this was an inglorious dynasty, so history
tells us. The priest-kings were unable to enforce their
claims, and they are particularly interesting to us only on
account of their connection with Solomon ; for it was with
this dynasty that Solomon made affinity, and took Pha-
raoh's daughter and brought her into the city of David.
It was a Pharaoh of this dynasty, too, that took Gezer
and burned it with fire, and slew the Canaanites that
dwelt in the city, and gave it for a present to his daughter,
Solomon's wife, as we are told in the ninth chapter of
I Kings. In the time of these Pharaohs, Solomon had

406 A ROOM FULL OF ROYAL MUMMIES.

horses and linen yarn brought out of Egypt. "We are told
that an Egyptian chariot in those days cost 650 shekels of
silver, and a horse 150 shekels.

As we pass on further into this most interesting funereal
apartment, we find priests and kings of older dynasties.
Here is the coffin of Thothmes III. These were more glori-
ous Pharaohs than their successors. They flourished more
than 3,500 years ago, extended their conquests as far as the
Tigris, exacted heavy tributes from the nations whom they
vanquished, and embellished Thebes, their capital, with mag-
nificent edifices.

But most interesting of all in this marvelous room are
the coffins and the mummies of Sethi I and his son Rameses
II, for these are the " Pharaohs of the Oppression," whose
cruel story is told to us so graphically in the Book of Exodus.

Sethi, it is known, caused his son Rameses to be educated
with the other young Egyptian nobles, and it is altogether
probable that one of these Egyptian nobles was Moses, the
great Lawgiver of Israel. How Pharaoh's daughter found
him as she went to bathe in the Nile ; how, by the sister's
gentle ruse, the child's mother was called to be the nurse,
we all remember. "Who has not felt glad when the princess
said to the anxious mother : " Take this child and nurse it for
me, and I will give thee thy wages." Never was such a
congenial task given to a nurse before ! " And the woman
took the child and nursed it, and the child grew, and she
brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her
son, and she called his name Moses, and she said : Because I
drew him out of the water." Now, after reading this brief
Biblical story, let us turn to our museum again. Look into
that glass case. There, in that royal gilded coffin, lies a
shrunken, withered mummy. The lower limbs are yet
wrapped in the cerements of the grave, but the skull is ex-

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MUMMY OF MOSES'S PLAYFELLOW,

409

posed and still perfect. The long, hooked, Roman nose, the
deep-sunken eyeballs, the heavy, square jaw, tell of the war-
rior and the tyrant. There is Moses's playfellow.

For more than three thousand years
iie lav silent in the earth, until at last the
spade of the antiquarian broke into his
dark resting place, his coffin was opened, >'SSP%
and he was found to tell us with his firm, ^§j||lg~?*
determined lips, the story of the awful
oppression and tyranny which he inaugu-
rated so many centuries ago.

1 "Rameses II, the " Pharaoh of the Op-
pression," died about 3,300 years ago. His
body was embalmed, placed on board the
royal barge, and floated up the Kile to
the Theban City of the Dead, where it
was laid to rest in the great sarcophagus
which had been cut from the limestone
of Biban-el-Mulouk. The location of the
tomb was well known then, because it had
been the habit of the monarch to visit
it frequently during its excavation, but
for centuries the exact spot remained a
mighty secret.

" According to custom, after the burial
the doorway to the tomb was walled up
and so disguised bv rocks and sand as FULL LENGTH VIEW

... OP MUMMY OF KING

to make it impossible for any but the pharaoh, rameses ii.
priests to discover its whereabouts. It (The Pharaoh of the o P -
was not until 1881 that the real hiding- P re8810n -)

place was discovered. For a number of years the officials of
the Bulak Museum had seen funeral offerings, and other
antiquities, brought from Thebes by returning tourists, which

1 Edward L. Wilson in The Century.

410 FINDING THE MUMMY OF PHARAOH.

they knew belonged to the dynasty of Rameses II, of his
father Sethi I, and of his grandfather Rameses I. The
clear-headed officials argued that the mummies of those
royal personages must have been discovered by some one.
The Director-General of the Museum at once organized a
detective force to help him discover the hiding-place.

" Arrest after arrest was made among the natives, and
the bastinado was applied to many a calloused sole which
.had never felt either shoe or sandal. Early in 1881 circum-
stantial evidence pointed to an Arab named Ahmed Abd-er-
Rasoul as the one who knew more than he would tell. He
was arrested and confined in prison for many months, mean-
time suffering the bastinado repeatedly. Finally his brother
made a clean breast of the whole affair, and was induced to
conduct the Curator of the Museum to the hiding-place so
long looked for.

" Up the slope of a western mountain a huge isolated
rock was found. Behind this a spot was reached where the
stones appeared to have been arranged 'by hand' rather
than scattered by some upheaval of nature. Arabs were
employed to remove the loose stones from the well into
which they had been thrown. When the bottom of the
shaft was reached a subterranean passage was found which
ran westward about twenty-four feet, and then turned
directly northward, continuing into the heart of the moun-
tain for about two hundred feet. This passage terminated
in a mortuary chamber about thirteen by twenty-three feet
in extent, and six feet in height.

"There was found the mummy of Rameses II, the
Pharaoh of the Oppression, and his identity was subse-
quently established beyond question. In the same chamber
were found nearly forty other mummies of kings, queens,
princes, and priests.

HOW PHARAOH LOOKED.

411

"The following June the mummy of Kameses II was
released from its bandages. After the unfolding of the
mummy the merciless camera was turned upon it, and in
that sort of picture, which is notorious for never flattering
nor ever detracting,

5¥-' -f- ,.

. >^

' ■

rata

...-.3*ii

■v'

we have a proof of
the very original
himself, enabling all
to 'see how Pha-
raoh looked.' No
doubt exists about
the genuineness of
the mummy, for, in
black ink, written
upon the mummy
case by the high
priest and King Pin-
otem, is the record
testifying to the
identity of the royal
contents. The cov-
erings were all re-
moved by the care-
ful hands of one of
the professors of the
Bulak Museum, in the presence of the Khedive and other
distinguished persons."

The head is long, and small in proportion to the body.
The top of the skull is quite bare. On the temples there are a
few sparse hairs, but at the poll the hair is quite thick. "White
at the time of death, they have been dyed a light yellow by
the spices used in embalming. The forehead is low and nar-
row ; the eyebrows are thick and white ; the eves are small
25

WHERE THE MUMMY OF PTTATtAOH WAS FOUND.
ENTRANCE TO THE TOMB.

412

DESCRIPTION OF THE MUMMY OF PHARAOH.

and close together ; the nose is long, arched, and thin, and
slightly crushed at the tip by the pressure of the bandages.
The temples are sunken ; the cheek-bones very prominent ;
rthe ears round, and pierced like those of a woman for the

PROFILE OP KING PHARAOH, PAJIESES II.
(The Pharaoh of the Oppression.)

wearing of ear-rings. The jaw-bone is massive and strong ;
the mouth small, and when first exposed was full of some
kind of black paste. This paste being partly removed dis-
closed much worn teeth, which, however, are white and
well preserved. The mustache and beard are white and
thin. They seem to have been kept shaven during life, but

LOOKING INTO PHARAOH'S FACE.

413

were probably allowed to grow during the king's last illness,
or they ma} T have grown after death. The skin is of earthy
brown, spotted with black. Finally, it may be said, the face
of the mummy gives a fair idea of the face of the living
king. The expression is unintellectual, perhaps slightly

FRONT VIEW OF TTIARAOH TirMEDTATELY AFTER UNWINDrNG THE MUMMY.

(From a special photograph.)

animal ; but even under the somewhat grotesque disguise of
mummification, there is plainly to be seen an air of sovereign
majesty, of resolve, and of pride. The rest of the body is as
well preserved as the head ; but, in consequence of the reduc-
tion of the tissues, its external aspect is less lifelike. The
neck is no thicker than the vertebral column. The chest is
broad ; the shoulders are square ; the arms are crossed upon

414 A WICKED RECORD.

the breast ; the hands are small and dyed with henna. The
legs and thighs are fleshless ; the feet are long, slender,
somewhat flat-soled, and dyed, like the hands, with henna.
The corpse is that of an old man, but of a vigorous and
robust old man. "We know, indeed, that Barneses II reigned
for sixty-seven years, and that he must have been nearly one
hundred years old when he died.

He had his good points, to be sure, had Rameses the
Great. He exhibited great zeal as a builder, as a patron of
art and of sciences, and erected monuments of victory in
various parts of Egypt. But his monuments have all crum-
bled, his buildings are leveled with the ground, the arts and
sciences which he encouraged are outgrown, and have been
succeeded by nobler arts and sciences. But the one thing
that he will be known for in all the future history of the
world, is that which is recorded of him in the first Book of
Exodus. Surely, it is true, in this case, that " the evil that
men do lives after them, while the good is oft interred with
their bones."

" And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased
abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty ;
and the land was filled with them.

" Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which
knew not Joseph.

" And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the
children of Israel are more and mightier than we ;

" Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multi-
ply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any
war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us,
and so get them up out of the land.

" Therefore, they did set over them task-masters to afflict
them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh
treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.

HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN. 415

" But the more they afflicted them, the more they multi-
plied and grew. And they grieved because of the children
of Israel.

" And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve
with rigour ;

" And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in
mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the
field ; all their service, wherein they made them serve, was
with rigour.

" And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son
that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter
ye shall save alive."

A sad record, surely, is this for any man to leave after
him, and yet we can believe it of this old Pharaoh, as we
see him grim and determined even in death, lying in his
coffin, which is exposed to the curious gaze of every sight-
seer. None so poor now as to do reverence to this ancient
ruler of the world. He, at whose beck kings rallied to his
standards, or concluded peace at his command, lies there, a
mere spectacle for every curiosity monger. The poorest
vagabond of the realm can now criticise his hooked nose and
his retreating forehead, and his long and scrawny neck with
impunity. The one on whom kings dared not look without
trembling, is now known only as a persecutor and oppressor,
who is hated and despised by Jews and Christians alike,
though he has lain in his coffin for more than three thou-
sand years. The old rule is forgotten, and no good and
only evil is spoken of this man who has been so long dead.

Near by is the coffin and the mummy of his father, Sethi
I, who also shows in the very contour of his head that he
was a Pharaoh born to rule. And here is the scriptural
account of the end of this man whose mummy we see before

416 WHERE IS THE PHARAOH OF THE EXODUS ?

us. " And it came to pass in the process of time, that the
king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed by rea-
son of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up
unto God, and God heard their groaning, and God remem-
bered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with
Jacob, and God looked upon the children of Israel, and God
had respect unto them."

We know the tragic history that followed, the groanings,
the oppression, the plague, the deliverance, the passage of
the Red Sea, the overwhelming of Pharaoh and his chariots
in the waves. The Pharaoh of the oppression lies before us
in the museum of Bulak ; but the Pharaoh of the Exodus,
whom the Bible declares found a watery grave under the
Red Sea's waves, has never been found among the royal
mummies of Egypt.

CHAPTER XXII.

ON THE BANKS OF THE NILE— OUR CLIMB TO THE TOP
OF THE GREAT PYRAMIDS — BESET BY ARABS — AMUS-
ING ADVENTURES AND EXPERIENCES.

An Ancient Proverb — Our First View of the Pyramids — Man-made
Mountains — Monuments Which Never Disappoint the Traveler —
Could They be Built To-day ? — A Blow at the Conceit of the Nine-
teenth Century — Comfort for the Optimist — Why the Pyramids were
Built and How — The Tombs of the Pharaohs — A Small Pyramid for a
Short Reign — A More Intimate Acquaintance — The Road to Cheops
— " Mafish Backsheesh " — Unnecessary Attention — The Comanches of
the Desert — An Appeal to the Sheik — Getting Up-stairs — How the
Stout Lady Reached the Top — Desolation, Dearth, and Death — Life-
giving Father Nile — Beautiful Cairo — An Ancient Story of the Pyra-
mids — Avaricious Arabs — Destroying the Pyramids — Looking Down,
on Forty Centuries — A Ride on a Camel to the Sphinx.

iVERYTHING fears time, but time
fears the pyramids," is an old
Arabian proverb that has been
current in the Land of the Pyra-
mids for more than seven hundred
years. Our first glimpse of these
time-feared monuments was from
the railway train as we ap-
proached Cairo. We knew that
somewhere off in the distance,
out of the sandy desert, arose
these marvelous monuments of a
past age, and for some time before the domes and minarets
of Cairo appeared in sight, we strained our eyes to get the
first glimpse of them.

At length a bend in the road brought them into view,,

(417)

418 ONE OF THE WONDERS OF THE WORLD.

somewhat dwarfed by distance, to be sure, but unmistakably
the pyramids of picture-book and fancy, of boyhood's
dream and manhood's anticipation. They are so unique and
unapproached by any other species of architecture, so easily
represented, and so readily compassed by the imagination
that one thinks he is seeing old, familiar friends, as they first
loom up on the horizon. The pyramids of the old geogra-
phies and of more modern photographs are here before us,
in solid, substantial stone. They look as we thought they
looked. They do not surprise us by their vastness on the
one hand, nor disappoint us by their insignificance as com-
pared with previous anticipations, on the other.

For almost every other famous sight one is somewhat
unprepared, however familiar he may be with pictures and
descriptions and measurements. The Taj Mahal of India,
for instance, goes beyond the greatest expectations. No
photograph can tell the traveler of its graceful lines, its
aspiring minarets, its dazzling white marble, or its incrusta-
tions of precious stones. The temples of Southern India are
only feebly portrayed by photographs. Of the Colosseum,
one can get but a sectional and partial view, and one has to
stand within its vast sweep of stones to appreciate its magni-
tude. Saint Peter's disappoints most travelers by its seem-
ing want of size, as compared with his great expectations.
But for the pyramids one is well prepared. Not that they
do not grow on the imagination. Almost every stupendous
work of architecture does thus improve upon acquaintance.
The mind must have some time to adjust itself to its propor-
tions, and the longer one gazes upon the pyramids, and the
nearer he approaches their towering bulk, the more im-
pressed is he with these wonders of the ancient and modern
world, the more he marvels how they could possibly be
built in rude ages when labor-saving machinery was compar-

TIME-DEFYING MONUMENTS.

419

atively unknown, the more be begins to suspect that, after
all, these ages which could have built the pyramids were not
so rude as his modern conceit is prone to suppose.

It is doubtful if they could be built to-day with all the
appliances that modern invention has rendered familiar,
with the aid of steam and electricity, and every contrivance
which the ingenuity of four thousand years has been able to
supply. It is doubtful if those vast blocks of stone could be

THE GREAT PYRAMIDS.

quarried or transported, or raised to their present position,
or laid so accurately, by any master mason of to-day.

When we think that the building of the pyramids was
only an index to the civilization of the centuries that saw
them erected, our inflated notions concerning the importance
of the nineteenth century in the roll of the ages grows
somewhat smaller. The pyramids are like isolated peaks in
some vast sea, which still remain above the surface to tell of
the mighty continents which have been submerged. Every-
thing perishable has been swept away, cities and farms,
canals and roadways, the accumulations of centuries of

420 WHY WERE THE PYRAMIDS BUILT ?

wealth, the arts and sciences of the ages long gone by, are
all buried under the sand of the desert. The pyramids
alone remain to tell us what the world then was, and to
dwarf the pigmy products and enterprises of the present
day. Surely there is a law of degeneration, as well as a law
of evolution at work in the world. In some respects the
world is going backward instead of forward.

In some particulars, we cannot equal our great-great-
great ancestors who flourished in Moses' time, but the op-
timist may well believe, — and there is nothing to dispel the
pleasant thought, — that if in material grandeur we cannot
compete with the ages of the past, in moral and spiritual
matters this old world never attained such an eminence as
since the time when the light from the face of Christ shone
upon her. If we build no pyramids in these days, we do
build hospitals and colleges and orphan asylums on a vast
scale. If there are no magnificent palaces of the Pharaohs,
there are innumerable temples consecrated to the relief of
suffering and the uplifting of humanity. If we can erect no
Cheops in these days, it is at least true that we do not sacri-
fice the lives of a hundred thousand peasants every year in
the erection of a senseless funereal monument, built to
gratify individual vanity; for it is very certain that the pyr-
amids of Gizeh, and all the other pyramids that have made
the land of Egypt famous, are simply funereal monuments,
huge tombs for the kings ; and, though some fanciful writers
have professed to find in them the embodiment of all the
sciences, the standards of weights and measures, and even a
prophecy of the birth of Christ, these theories have very
little weight among scholars of the present day, and it is
generally believed that these huge monuments were simply
receptacles for the mummies of the Pharaohs who built
them.

MISERY VENDERS AND VILE IMPOSTORS. 421

Each succeeding Pharaoh began work on his own tomb
as soon as he ascended the throne. At first the monument
which he built over his sarcophagus was comparatively
small, and if he died after a short reign, it remained a small
and insignificant pyramid. This accounts for the smaller
pyramids which dot the desert. If, however, his reign was
longer, he added one course of stone to another, building
always from the outside, and in such a way that the pyr-
amid would be complete in itself whenever he might die,
after the course of stone which had been begun was finished.
Every succeeding incrustation of stones was, of course, a
larger and more stupendous undertaking than the last, and
it was only the Pharaohs who lived to the greatest age who*
could construct such monuments as Cheops and Cephron.

But we have lingered quite too long already in the dis-
tance. It can be imagined that an excursion to the pyra-
mids was one of the very first pleasures that we enjoyed in
Cairo. We could not see those giants looming up in the
distance without desiring more intimate acquaintance, and
so, taking a carriage at our hotel, a drive of an hour and
a half brought us to their very base. "We had heard har-
rowing tales of the importunate beggar, and so we had
practiced, before leaving the hotel, and on the route, the im-
portant phrase, "Mafish backsheesh," which was all we knew
and all we needed to know of Arabic. At the same time we
steeled our hearts against all kinds of miseries and persistent
pleadings, comforting ourselves in our hardheartedness with
the fact that all our friends and all our guide books told us
that these misery-venders were mostly imposters, and that it
was the most mistaken kind of charity to heed their im-
portunate cries ; that some of them were very well-to-do in
the world, and were better able to give backsheesh to their
victims than was the average traveler to give it to them.

422

NEARING THE PYRAMIDS.

The road from Cairo to Cheops is, for this desert land, a
very pleasant road, being broad and well made, and lined
with trees on either side. The pyramids occupy a low
plateau about fifteen hundred yards square ; and a con-
siderable ascent leads from the level road to the foot of the
great pyramid.

BY THE ROADSIDE IN EGYPT.

Long before we reach this spot, however, our troubles
with the Bedouins begin. For rods they run along beside
the carriage, some on two legs, some on one, and some on
three or four ; for crutches and canes are part of the stock in
trade of these beggars, with all lands of deformities and
diseases — the more disgusting and loathsome, the larger is

BESET BY BEGGARS. 423

their capital. In some places they even strew unnecessary-
sand and gravel before the horses for the alleged purpose of
making it more easy for them to ascend the hill, but for the
real purpose of having a pretext for making some exorbitant
demand on the traveler. However, we are able to resist
these importunities, and it is only when the carriage actually
stops, and we are obliged to dismount, that matters become
serious. Here we are surrounded apparently by all the
Bedouins of the desert, congregated together for the purpose
of boosting our precious selves up the pyramid. They sur-
round us like a tribe of hostile Comanches on the war-path.
They gesticulate and scream, seize us by the arm, and
apparently intend to capture us by main force, while they
try to frighten off all other claimants for the booty.

At length, however, our manhood asserts itself, and our
womanhood too, for that matter — for it must be remem-
bered that there is a feminine pilgrim in this party — and
summoning all our Arabic, in the most impressive tones we
can summon, and with gestures that are meant to be as
emphatic as their own, we cry out, " Iscut walla mafish
backsheesh ! " (Be quiet or you shall have no fee.) What we
lack in accuracy of pronunciation, we make up in vigor of
expression. At any rate the Arabs seem to understand us,
and, falling back a step or two, there is a temporary lull in
the babel. "We then appeal to the old Sheik, who stands in
the thick of the crowd, a venerable, white-bearded old man,
trying to bring some little order out of the chaos, and he
assigns to each of us two swarthy, half-naked Bedouins, to
take us by either arm, while he tells us that we can have
another, without extra charge, to push behind if we desire.

The huge blocks of stone which form the outer coating
of Cheops are usually more than three feet in height, while
some of them reach nearly to the chin of a full grown man.

424 A HARD EARNED VICTORY.

It will be seen that it is with no mincing step that one can
mount these enormous stones. But somehow or other one
course after another is surmounted, a little hollow will afford
a place for the toe, the muscular Bedouin will climb like a
cat, and, reaching down, will lift one to his height, while his
companion below pushes one upward. Then, following
along this course for a few yards, we find a place where it is
possible to mount to the next course of stones, and then to
the next, and so on until we stand on the very summit.

The day that we ascended was honored by the ascent of
an enormously stout lady, who, though she started some
time before we did, was soon overtaken. In spite of her
" too, too solid flesh," her spirit was brave and resolute, and
she had determined to conquer the pyramid and stand on its
apex. Most tourists would have been discouraged from the
attempt by so much superfluous avoirdupois, but not so with
our fair and fat excursionist. Her courage was evidently
quite as large as her body, and though she puffed and
panted, and caused all her numerous retainers to puff and
pant in sympathy, yet she persevered. Lighter and more
agile tourists started long after she began the ascent, caught
up with her and passed her almost at a gallop, but she still
puffed and panted on. As many Bedouins pulled in front as
could get hold of a finger or an arm — as many more pushed
behind, and at last mind triumphed over matter, and our
Amazon stood upon the peak, and was able to wave her
handkerchief in triumph to her timid friends below who had
not dared to make the ascent.

It must not be thought, however, that even the most
agile tourist bounds like a young gazelle from one course of
stones to another, without stopping until he stands upon the
top. Though our guides are in a hurry to get up and get
down again, we are in no haste, and we insist upon sitting

VIEW FROM THE TOP OP THE PYRAMIDS. 425

down to rest wherever we choose, for the view is growing
more and more superb the higher we ascend.

The yellow sand of the desert lies beneath us like a vast,
silent, petrified sea, lapping the very feet of the pyramids.
On the plateau near by are two other huge pyramids, while
one or two little ones — the children of the family — lie at
our feet. Near by, too, is the incomprehensible Sphinx, the
wonder and mvsterv of the a^es, calm and resolute and
silent, yet smiling still, though sadly battered and mutilated
by the vandal hands of iconoclasts.

In every direction except one, as far as the eye can reach,
is a scene of absolute desolation and death. Interminable
reaches of yellow sand, no oasis, no green ribbon of a grass-
like stream, no solitary palm tree waving its fronds in the
air — the most mournful country upon which the sun of
heaven shines. In the far distance, to the south, rise the
pyramids of Abusir and Saccara, where were made some
wonderful "finds" of hidden treasures. But these monu-
ments of dead kings only seem to emphasize the desolation
of the landscape. The only object which breaks its mo-
notony are these majestic tombs — the monuments of a
civilization which has been dead for three thousand years.

But in another direction the scene changes. Beautiful
Cairo, mellowed and glorified by the haze of distance, rises
in the east with its countless minarets and beautifully
rounded domes, and all about the city, which is laved by the
life-giving Nile, is the deep-hued vegetation which makes a
city possible here in the midst of the desert. Wherever the
river goes, or a branch of the river, or a canal from that
branch, or an irrigating ditch from the canal, thither is
spread in fan-like lines the refreshing green that forms such
a blessed picture of life and health as contrasted with the
deadly sands upon which this little fan of green is laid.

426

A STRANGE AND CURIOUS SIGHT.

"When we draw nearer to Father Nile we shall see many
strange and curious sights. Possibly we shall get a glimpse
of a crocodile, and we may be so fortunate as to come upon
one of these ugly saurians who has devoured his last infant
Egyptian, and who, bound, stunned, and helpless, is at the
mercy of his captors. His hide will serve a more useful
purpose than ever before when it is turned into a scaly grip-
sack for the use and behoof of some American drummer.

, * u .m;:!i«l„.i'.« l . i .;u:i: i • ".'■.•■'."

Up!P^|il«P«l|||Wiftmli|l|i'iiii|| n^n I!«!<^WMMM!

A SCENE ON THE NILE.

Of course such scenes are more common on the upper Nile
than they are near Cairo.

"While we are sitting here on the pyramid-top, looking at
the view from one of the upper courses of stone, it will be a
good time for us to learn something of the construction of
the great monument we are ascending, and something of
its ancient history.

I was much interested in the account that Herodotus
gives of the building of Cheops, for no one can be more
accurate or reliable than the great historian in regard to
objects which he himself saw. Here is his account of it :
" This pyramid was first built in the form of a flight of steos.

HOW THE PYRAMIDS WERE BUILT. 427

After the workmen had completed the pyramid in this form,
they raised the other stones used for the incrustation by
means of machines made of short beams, from the ground to
the first tier of steps, and, after the stone was placed there,
it was raised to the second tier by another machine, for there
were as many machines as there were tiers of steps, or per-
haps the same machine, if it were easily moved, was raised
from one tier to the other, as it was required for lifting the
stones. The highest part of the pyramid was thus finished
first, the parts adjoining it were taken next, and the lowest
part, next to the earth, was completed last.

"It was recorded on the pyramid in Egyptian writing
[the stones which recorded these facts, I may say, have long
been removed, and there is now no writing visible] how
many radishes, onions, and roots of garlic had been dis-
tributed among the workmen, and if I rightly remember
what the interpreter who read the writing told me," says
Herodotus, "the money they cost amounted to sixteen hun-
dred talents of silver [more than $170,000]. If this was
really the case, how much more must have been spent on the
iron with which they worked than the food and clothing of
the workmen."

This account of the ancient historian of the manner in
which the pyramid was constructed has been entirely con-
firmed by modern researches.

It can very easily be believed that these vast structures,

with their hidden recesses, early excited the cupidity of the

successors of the Pharaohs. It is said that the pyramids

were first opened and examined b}^ the Persians about five

hundred years before Christ, and it is very certain that

Arabs made many attempts to get within the treasure

chamber. These vast receptacles of the bodies of the

kings of ancient Egvpt were like the forbidden room in
26

428 WHAT WAS DISCOVERED IN THE PYRAMIDS.

Bluebeard's palace, or the box or closet which the anxious
mother tells the curious child must not be investigated.
The very fact that it was sealed excited the cupidity and
curiosity of these children of the desert, and they were for-
ever trying to pry open the doors, and get at the fabulous
treasures which they believed were concealed within. The
vastness and the strength of the pyramids is in no way
better indicated than by the fact that for so long they
resisted the prying curiosity of these Khalifs, who had noth-
ing better to do than to pull down what the Pharaohs had
built up.

But it is very certain that they discovered within the re-
cesses of the pyramids, when, after hundreds of years, they
were able to force an entrance, very little to pay them for
their time and trouble. It was not until the year 1820,
fully twelve hundred years after the first attempt was made
that Khalif Mamun got within the great pyramid, and it is
said that the gold found within was exactly enough to pay
for the cost of breaking and entering. Along with the
treasure, so runs the Arabian tradition, was found a marble
slab bearing an inscription which said that the money beside
it sufficed to pay for the work of the inquisitive king, but
that if he attempted to go further, he would have his labor
for his pains, for he would find nothing worth taking.

It is altogether probable, as historians have suggested,
that if this gold were found, it had been previously placed
there by the calif who made the investigation, in order that
his people might not be able to chide him with having
expended so much money for nothing.

Some of the vandals who succeeded Khalif Mamun were
not content to search the supposed treasure chamber further,
but set out deliberately to destroy with malice aforethought
the gigantic mementoes of the past. Sultan Othman, who

SEEKING TO DESTROY THE PYRAMIDS. 429

lived at the close of the twelfth century, and whose name
ought to be forever execrated by all lovers of the magnifi-
cent, set to work with the fell purpose of destroying the
third pyramid, which we can see from the top of Gizeh a
little to the west of us. He actually organized a party of
workmen to undertake this destruction, pitched a camp at
the base of the pyramid, and labored incessantly for eight
months; but the pyramid was stronger than the puny
Othman. His eight months of labor, and the enormous
sums which he spent in the work of destruction practically
effected nothing, except as one historian says, "the shameful
mutilation of the pyramid and the demonstration of the
weakness and incapacity of the explorers. When the stones
that were removed are regarded at the present day, one
would think that the structure had been entirely destroyed ;
but when one then looks at the pyramid itself, one sees that
it has suffered no material damage, and that a part of its
incrustation has been stripped off on one side only." This
fact, concerning the impotence of this iconoclast, tells vol-
umes of the strength and solidity and might of the pyra-
mids. A great force of men, working incessantly for eight
months, could only scar and mutilate its face on one side.
The Pharaohs could build what their successors could not
overthrow.

Now we are sufficiently rested to pursue our journey to
the top ; following the zigzag line, planting our toes in the
convenient crevices, jumping and springing as best we can,
allowing our guides to pull and push us wherever it may be
necessary, we at last reach the summit, and the view which
was before partial and incomplete is now full-orbed and
most magnificent. Nowhere is there such a contrast of life
and death; nowhere else can we look down upon such
mighty hieroglyphics of the ages.

430 VENDERS OF SPURIOUS CURIOSITIES.

As we stand below, " forty centuries look down upon us,"
as Napoleon reminded his troops, when they stood under the
shadow of the pyramids. As we gaze from the top, we look
down upon forty centuries. Every mighty pyramid is
eloquent with the tale of a past civilization, forever forgot-
ten and blotted out. Even the silent Sphinx seems to have
a tongue to tell us of the glories of the past, over which she
looks with her solemn, unblinking eyes. Every grain of
sand, if it could tell its tale, would have a story more
marvelous than the fictions of Scheherezade.

We are aroused from these reveries concerning the great-
ness of the past and the desolation of the present, by the in-
evitable Bedouins and their exasperating cry for baksheesh.
"We arise in our wrath, and tell the miserable horde that if
they say another word about backsheesh before we reach
the bottom of the pyramid, they will not get a single piaster
beyond the strictly legal limits of their pay. Though this
speech is delivered in queen's English, unadorned with a
single word of Arabic, they seem to understand its purport,
and subside to some extent.

But we are not relieved from the pestiferous attention of
the curiosity vender or the dealer in spurious coins, who
haunts the pyramid. He claims, of course, that his coins
were found in the vaults of this very pyramid, though we
know very well that they were undoubtedly made in Bir-
mingham or Sheffield. But what cares he for truth or
poetry ! What cares he for the story of the pyramid, or the
tale of the Sphinx ! All these things are old fables to him,
and he is only concerned to work off upon us his spurious
relics, his "antikkers" as he calls them, in his Arabian
English.

One of our guides insists that his name is Mark Twain,
"Abdul Mark Twain," he solemnly informs us, and when

A WONDERFUL FEAT.

431

we accuse him of prevarication, and tell him that we left
Mark Twain at the foot of the pyramid, and did not engage
him for the ascent, he unblushingly informs us that there are
three Mark Twains among the guides, but that he is Abdul
Mark Twain. We cannot shake his faith in his own iden-
tity, and then he solemnly informs us that he is the Mark
Twain, who, when the humorist visited the pyramid, ran
down Cheops and up
the side of Cephron
and back again, all
within ten minutes.
He offers to do the
same feat for us for
the sum of four
francs, but we refuse
his blandishments.

When we reached
the bottom, we set-
tled the bill for the
ascent, not with our
importunate guide,
but with the grey-
bearded Sheik who
awaited us, paying
the regular fee and a
reasonable baksheesh to each of our guides. Of course this is
not done without protestations and the howlings of impotent
wrath that they cannot extract from us ten times what is
their due. But we are oblivious to their threats, as-
sume utter ignorance of their language, which is not difficult
to do, escape from their clutches, and make our way to the
Sphmx.

Of course we must go thither in as romantic a way as

THE FLIGHT DOWN THE PYRAMID.

432 RIDING A CAMEL.

possible, and so we mount one of the ragged camels "which
are waiting to convey travelers to the silent stone woman,
and in this manner make the short journey.

In order to allow tourists to mount, the camel unlimbers
himself, doubles in his fore legs and shuts them up like a
jackknife, does the same thing with his hind legs, and is
then sufficiently low, so that with some difficulty we can
reach the saddle. When we are safely seated astride his
hump, he begins to undouble himself, first unjointing his
hind legs, then getting upon his knees, and finally upon his
great, splay-footed, spongy feet. Preserving our equilibrium
as well as possible, and holding on with both hands, so as not
to be thrown over his head, we await his next movement.
This is even more trying than the first, for as he stretches
his front legs, we rock back and forth, as though we were
astride a miniature earthquake, but at last he is on his feet
again, and plods off solemnly with his nose high in the air,
towards the Sphinx of which he seems a fitting counterpart.

It is only a short journey, and is accomplished in a few
minutes, and we find ourselves face to face with this silent
wonder of the ages. The Sphinx was doubtless far more
impressive before she had her nose battered off, her ear
amputated, and her eyes blackened, by the combined spite of
iconoclasts and relic hunters.

An old Mohammedan Sheik, who took the second com-
mandment too literally, and vowed that the world should
not have any graven images if he could help it, is responsible
for much of this mutilation. The Mamelukes accomplished
much more in this direction, having used the Sphinx as a
target for their cannon-balls, and relic hunters have added
their puny might by chipping away here and there bits of
stone to adorn their wretched little museums. We can
scarcely get an adequate idea of this magnificent monument

THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE SPHINX.

433

of the ages when in its pristine glory, but we can easily be-
lieve what an old writer tells us who saw the statue when in
perfect preservation ; that its face was very pleasing, and
was of a graceful and beautiful type. " One might almost
say," he adds, " that it smiles winningly." The Arabs have
a very significant name for the Sphinx, which may be trans-
lated "The Watchful." This is the impression that she
still gives to every beholder. There is still a wakeful intel-
ligence in the mutilated face ; there is still a calm suggestion

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THE SPHINX.

of limitless vision in the eyes. There is still a calm poise in
the outstretched lions' feet and in the whole attitude of the
unfinished body, which leads one to say, "This is the
watcher of the desert." From her fathomless eyes she has
looked out upon everything that has happened for four
thousand years, and she will still watch over the sands of
the desert, in spite of iconoclast and relic hunters, down to
"the last syllable of recorded time."

A few feet from the Sphinx is a great temple composed
of granite and alabaster, and in the vicinity are other

434

ADIEU TO THE EGYPTIAN DESERT.

wonders as well. But we are satisfied with our day's work.
This stupendous pyramid and the magnificent Sphinx satisfy
all our aspirations for sightseeing. We can absorb, to-day,
no more of the marvels and glories of the ancient world, and
we will return to our hotel in Cairo, and later to our home
in America, to think over and to dream of the wonders of
the Egyptian desert.

CHAPTER XXIII.

ALL ABOARD FOR JERUSALEM.

A Stormy Day in March — A Test for Brave Hearts and Strong Stom-
achs — Throwing Up Jonah — Going Ashore at Jaffa — How We Got
Down the Ship's Side — Dumping Passengers in the Small Boat — Up
to the Ridge Pole and Down the Side of the Great Tent — A Terrible
Accident — A Highwayman's Demand — " Your Money or Your Life"
— A Near Approach — Unspeakable Filth — The House of Simon the
Tanner — Simon's Vat — View from the Housetop — Our Rural Friend
from New York State — "Them Jimkirridges " — Through the Holy
Land Behind a Steam Engine — The Sentimental Man — The Reward of
Indulging a Sentiment — Our Dragoman — How Abdallah Caught the
Doctors Napping — When the Sun and the Moon Stood Still — The
Dapper Conductor in His Red Fez — The Rose of Sharon.

E sailed from Alexandria one
stormy day in March, and, after
a journey of some four and
twenty hours, reached ancient
Jaffa, the chief seaport of Jeru-
salem.

Joppa, or Jaffa as it is now
called, deserves its bad reputa-
tion as the worst port in all the
world. Brave travelers who
will not blanch at any other ter-
rors which a journey around the
world has in store for them, confess to an unworthy fear of
this landing place, and strong stomachs which never rebel
under ordinary circumstances, however boisterous the seas,

turn themselves inside out when they go ashore at this port.

(435)

436 ON SHIPBOARD WITH JONAH.

" Throwing up Jonah " becomes more than a figurative
phrase in the roadstead of Jaffa, for it will be remembered
that it was from this very town that the famous navigator of
old set sail, when, attempting to run away from God's com-
mand, he took ship for Tarshish.

Modern navigators on the Syrian coast have not forgotten
the Bible story, for, whenever the sea is unusually rough,
they say to this day, that Jonah has taken ship and the
waves will not subside until he is landed.

Evidently, Jonah was on board when we sailed up to
Jaffa's gates, for the waves danced and leaped about our
steamer and grew every moment more boisterous, though
the rain had ceased and the sun was shining brightly over-
head.

"When the good steamer of the Egyptian or Khedival
line on which we were embarked came to anchor, the health
officer, after some delay, declared that we might land. Then
we could see half a score of stout boats, each armed by half
a dozen rowers, start out from behind the line of rocks which
flank the coast and form a poor apology for a breakwater.

There is great rivalry between the boats, for all the pas-
sengers are regarded as legitimate prey by the representa-
tives of tourist companies, and the boat that first comes to
the steamer is first served with its quota of passengers.

As they near the steamer, the boatmen pull with re-
doubled energy, and then ensues such a tumbling and scramb-
ling and rushing and snatching of baggage as defies de-
scription.

Most of us, however, have purchased our landing tickets
in advance, from one of the aforesaid tourists' companies, at
an absurdly high price, it must be confessed. The boatmen
of one of these rival companies wear red shirts, the other
blue, and we have little difficulty in picking out our blue-coat

A PERILOUS DESCENT. 437

or our red-coat, as the case may be. We have to use vio-
lence, however, to get our small packages out of the hands
of the wrong man and into the hands of the right man, who
finally dumps them into one of his own boats, and then pro-
ceeds to dump us in after the baggage. It is an exciting
operation, especially for women and fat people.

The little boats are dancing about the big steamer like
pith balls on an electric plate. Now they mount on the
crest of a wave almost to the bulwarks, and then they sink
down, down, down, far below the usual water line.

It requires no little dexterity and agility to get over the
steamer's side and into the little boat under these circum-
stances. One must watch his chance, and when the landing
boat rises on the wave to its highest point, he must rush
down the gangway and throw himself into the arms of the
boatman who is waiting to receive him below.

All this is done amid shouts of sailors and shrieks of
frightened tourists and dashing of waves and creaking of
windlasses and whistling of wind in the rigging until it
seems that Pandemonium itself is let loose.

At length, however, the last passenger has been swung
over the ship's side, and the last trunk has been dropped into
the capacious boats, which, with the greatest difficulty, are
kept from grinding themselves into kindling wood on the
iron hull of the steamer. Our boatmen shove off, and then
begins a royal struggle with the waves.

Up, up, up, we go, to the very ridgepole of a great billow
which slopes away on either side like a vast tent. Then we
slide down, down, down the billowy side of our watery tent,
until we reach the trough of the wave, only to mount the
side of the next wave that is rushing our way, as though it
would collapse and overwhelm us in its capacious folds.

Thus we mount one billow after another, our sturdy boat-

438 A DISTRESSING ACCIDENT.

man always putting the prow of the boat into the wave, and
never allowing it to strike us broadside, until at last we
round the edge of the protecting rocks and hear that
" blessedest of sounds," the keel of our boat grating on the
pebbles of Jaffa's shore.

"With all its seeming frightfulness, there is probably little
real danger in this landing, and comparatively few accidents
occur except by reason of gross carelessness.

A few weeks before we reached Jaffa, however, a very
distressing accident of this sort had occurred. A large party
of travelers, mostly Russian pilgrims, had embarked on one
of these boats for the shore. The day was stormy and the
sea tempestuous ; very much such a day, we imagine, as that
on which we landed. The passengers had all agreed with
the boatmen to be taken to the shore for half a napoleon
(nearly two dollars), a sum which, for the distance carried, is
exorbitant. But no sooner was the boat in the middle of the
boiling, seething waters, half way between the ship and the
shore, when the avaricious boatmen demanded double fares
and threw up their oars, declaring that they would go no
farther until their demands were met.

This was no better than highway robbery, and naturally
the passengers refused to accede to it. In the dispute that
ensued, a tremendous wave struck the boat, and, in the
twinkling of an eye, overturned it, and after a few vain
struggles with the engulfing waves, it sank to the bottom.
Not one of the pilgrims was saved, though all the greedy,
rascally boatmen, being strong swimmers, succeeded in reach,
ing the rocks.

It is a satisfaction to know that all these murderers were
apprehended and lodged in jail, where we hope they will
remain for many a year before they are released to risk the
lives of other tourists by their grasping cupidity.

JAFFA AS IT IS. 439

Jaffa is an imposing looking city from the sea. Its white-
washed stone houses swarm up the side of a steep hill, and
spread themselves out over its crest until one fondly believes
that he is gazing upon a city of palaces.

But in this case, as in so many others, distance lends en-
chantment to the view, and when we actually land and thread
the narrow, tortuous streets, we find that it is about the filthi-
est and most unkempt city on which the sun shines.

The streets are full of swaying camels and pushing little
donkeys and unwashed ragged Syrians of every degree of
poverty and wretchedness.

It is almost inconceivable how some of the narrow streets
can remain as filthy as they are. One would think that even
an occasional shower would wash some of the accumulated
dirt of the ages off them, and that a rainy season would sen-
sibly sweeten these filthy thoroughfares.

Apparently, however, nature has given up in despair.
The dirt of the days of Jonah still clings to one's feet in
greasy clods. The mud and filth of the time of Dorcas is
comparatively modern. We have always supposed that Dor-
cas was a model housekeeper as well as a good lady of
most charitable purposes, and we have no doubt that she
kept the street in front of her own house clean and sweet.
But what is one woman against a whole city full of dirty
Arabs ? "Very likely Dorcas and all the good women who
have lived there before and since her day have become dis-
couraged, and have allowed Jaffa to go on at the slovenly,
down-at-the-heel gait, which is now so characteristic of it.

Though we cannot find any very authentic memorials of
Dorcas, the traditional house of Simon the Tanner is pointed
out to us, and a pretty well authenticated tradition it is as
traditions go in this land.

In the first-place, we are conducted into a dark, thick-

440 THE HOUSE OP SIMON THE TANNER.

walled apartment, where we need a candle even to see the
outlines of the room, and are told that this was the very spot
where the ancient house existed, and that the stones we see
constituted its walls eighteen hundred years ago.

Just outside this room is a courtvard, in one corner of
which is a well and a stone trough, which tradition says is
the vat in which St. Peter's friend of old soaked his leather.

In the well hangs an old oaken bucket from which we
drank a full draught of the sparkling water, as perhaps
Simon and Peter had done many a time in the past.

From one corner of this courtyard a flight of stairs leads
to the housetop, the most famous part of this establishment,
for here it is said St. Peter slept when he had the wondrous
vision which was fraught with such momentous meaning to
all the world.

Here he saw the sheet let down from heaven which con-
tained all manner of four-footed beasts while at the same
time came the command, " Rise, Peter, kill and eat."

But Peter demurred, saying, " Not so, Lord, for I have
never eaten anything common or unclean."

Then came the significant command which wrought such
a wondrous change in the heart of the narrow, conventional
Jew, and which made him the broad-minded, generous apos-
tle whom all ages delight to honor.

" What God hath cleansed that call not thou common."

Was ever a vision accompanied by greater results ?

Is any place fraught with deeper significance than that
humble housetop from which was proclaimed to Peter and
through Peter to the world the momentous lesson that the
Fatherhood of God involves the Brotherhood of Man?

The view from this housetop makes it well worthy of a
visit apart from its historic significance.

Here one looks out upon the waves of the same port that

"starving all around the world." 441

has been historic since Hiram, King of Tyre, by this route
sent cedar wood and all manner of precious gifts to Soicmon.

Between these same encircling rocks the little vessel on
which Jonah had embarked must have steered her course ;
over these waves half the famous men of old made their way,
as they came and went through this ocean gate of Syria.

After viewing this really fine view from Simon's house-
top, after visiting the site of Napoleon's hospital prison,
where, if historians are to believed, at his orders a horrible
butchery of sick French soldiers occurred ; after spending
a few sentimental moments in the vicinity of Dorcas's
reputed abode, we did not care to stay in this squalid city.

We did stay long enough, however, to meet a typical
character from New York state, a good old man, who,
though he had been around the world, and tasted the food
of every clime, had not shaken the hayseed out of his hair or
got used to his best "store clothes," which sat upon him
awkwardly and loosely.

As we looked across the table, at Jaffa's very indifferent
hotel, where a bowl of thin onion soup had been succeeded
by a dish of garlic-scented meat, our rural friend looked
across at us and said, with a pathetic wail in his voice, "I
have been starving all around the world ; in Japan, China,
and India we have been half starved to death, for we are
Americans, you see, and ain't used to this sort of thing."
"We sympathized with him with all our hearts, for, although
it had been our happy lot to spend most of our time among
friends where we felt almost as much at home as at our own
table, we realized what it must have been to this wandering
Jonathan who had left the hayfields to see the world, in his
old age, when he was too far advanced in years to adapt
himself to the circumstances with which he found himself
surrounded, and to eat the food that was set before him.

442 ALL ABOARD FOR JERUSALEM.

He went on to tell us about his experiences. ''I did
kind o' like it in Japan," be confided to us. "They were
sort o' smart, and up and coming and seemed a good deal
like tbe Yankees I was used to at home, and I did like tbem
jimkirridges tbat they ride in," be went on to say. " Yon
mean tbe jinrikisbaws," said bis better balf, wbo sat by his
side. "Yes," be replied, "jimkirridges or jinrikisbaws or
whatever tbey call 'em, it's all one to me."

We soon bade good-bye to tbe rural New Yorker and
took tbe first train available for Jerusalem. At tbe first
blush it does seem sacrilegious to think of driving through
the Holy Land behind a snorting locomotive, to have an im-
pertinent railway ticket thrust into your hatband by a
jaunty conductor in a Turkish fez, and to steam across the
sacred valleys and over the sacred mountains, even though
we travel at tbe alarming speed of fifteen miles an hour.

However, when tbe question actually comes as to
whether one will take two days to make the journey for the
sake of indulging a pious sentiment, or will make it in three
hours, thus gaining more time in the Sacred City, the prac-
tical man will doubtless decide to postpone his sentimental
aspirations for a short time, and take advantage of tbe new
French railroad which has been constructed from the sea-
shore almost to the very gate of the City of King David.

I have heard of one man who was bound not to yield to
the blandishments of rapid transit, but to nurse his poetic
sensibilities in solitude as he entered the Holy City, or at
least with the companionship of his faithful steed alone.
He would transport himself back to the twelfth century as
far as possible. He would enter the city like the Crusader
of old, riding upon his chosen charger. Though he might
patronize the railway for a short distance, he would abandon
it before it approached the sacred gates.

SENTIMENT VERSUS COMFORT. 443

So when within two stations of Jerusalem, about twelve
English miles distant, he left the train and the com-
panions with whom he had journeyed, and hired a horse,
which proved to be a sorry nag indeed, for the rest of
the journey. But the skies were unpropitious — they evi-
dently did not sympathize with his sentiments, for, before he
had gone a mile, black clouds covered the face of the
heavens, the sun retired from view and the rain descended in
torrents. Though wet to the skin there was nothing to do
but to plod on over the steep and rocky roads. He could
not spur his jaded steed to any greater exertion, and he ar-
rived, wet and bedraggled, with all the sentiment soaked out
of his system, some three hours after his more unpoetic
companions, who stuck to the railway, had reached Jeru-
salem.

On the day that we took this famous railway ride our
fellow-passengers consisted of some half-dozen Americans, as
many more Englishmen, a few hilarious Turks, who had
been breaking their temperance pledge by indulging in
strong waters, and one or two fat and unctuous priests.

But most picturesque of our fellow-passengers was Ab-
dallah, the dragoman, who was taking some of our fellow-
passengers to their hotel. Alert, keen, quick-witted, he was
a typical Syrian in every feature and characteristic.
Around his head was a beautiful purple silk kaphileh, while
over his shoulders was a loose flowing garment of fine text-
ure, shot through and through with silver threads, the envy
and despair of most of the ladies in the car.

A common saying in the East is, " A Greek will get the

better of ten Europeans, a Jew will beat ten Greeks, an

Armenian will equal ten Jews, and a Syrian is more than a

match for a Greek, Jew, and Armenian together," We

could well understand this saying as we looked at this keen,
2;

444

ABDALLAH, OUR DRAGOMAN.

self-reliant, ready dragoman, who had the history, geogra-
phy, and archaeology of Palestine at his tongue's end.

At least he had enough of it to answer his purpose and
to make himself quite indispensable to the party who placed

themselves under his guid-
ance. What he did not know
about the land through which
we journeyed was evidently
not worth knowing, in his
opinion, and he managed to
impress the same idea upon all
of us who listened to him.

Pointing out of the win-
dow, as the train drew a little
beyond the station at Jaffa,
he said, " There is the place
where Samson tied the foxes'
tails together and let them
loose in the standing corn.
And there, just over the hill,
is the land of the Philistines,"
he informed us, with the ut-
most confidence in his own
geographical accurac} T , what-
ever doubt explorers and
scholars might feel in their
own conclusions.

As he spoke he imparted
his confidence to all the party, and we could almost see a
muscular Goliath showing his shaggy head above the hill-top.
" Over yonder," he went on to say, " is the place where
the moon stood still in the Valley of Aijalon." " Ah," said
we to ourselves, " now we have got you, Mr. Dragoman,"

M V &i

ABDALLAH, OUR DRAGOMAN.

LILIES OF THE FIELD. 445

and half a dozen voices spoke out with the gleeful assurance
of boys who have caught their professor napping; "Oh,
Abdallah, you have made a mistake this time, it was the sun
that stood still, and not the moon." But Abdallah was more
than a match for the professors and the ministers who sought
to correct him, for, whipping out a pocket Bible, he turned
at once to the passage and read from the twelfth verse of the
tenth chapter of Joshua : " Then spake Joshua to the Lord
in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before
the children of Israel. And he said in the sight of Israel,
Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou, Moon, in the
Valley of Aijalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon
stayed, until the nation had avenged themselves of their ene-
mies." Evidentlv, Abdallah had the Book on his side and
there was nothing for the Reverend Divines to do but to
subside and to look more dignified than they felt.

For the first few miles out of Jerusalem the railway runs
over smiling, cultivated fields, green when we saw them with
the rich verdure of springtime, and gay with the rose of
Sharon, for this is none other than the celebrated land of
Sharon of Bible times. Another brilliant flower which is
found in the utmost profusion, is the scarlet anemone,
called in Matthew, " the lily of the field," of which Christ
said : " Behold the lilies of the field, how they grow, for
they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you,
that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
these."

At the infrequent stations where the train stopped, mak-
ing up for their infrequence, however, by a long stop at every
station, the passengers would get out and pluck great hand-
fuls of these beautiful flowers. Then the dapper little con-
ductor with his red fez, and the inevitable cigarette in his
mouth, would wave his hand and off would start the train

446 OVER THE MOUNTAINS OF PALESTINE.

across other historic scenes whose very thought filled our
hearts with emotions which cannot be recorded, as we remem-
bered that we were in the land of David and Solomon and
Samuel and Joshua, and that we were approaching the city
whose rough pavements had been pressed by the feet of our
blessed Lord and Saviour.

A few miles from Jaffa the railway begins to ascend a
steep and rugged mountain side, and for the rest of the
journey it climbs over the hills and rumbles through rocky
chasms that would not discredit the heights of the Kockies
or the Sierra Nevadas themselves. Even where railways are
common, this rock-built roadway, twisting around the base
of perpendicular crags, and toiling by slow approaches over
the flanks of inhospitable mountains, would be considered no
ordinary feat of engineering ; there in this land of oppression
and hopelessness, any such enterprise is truly marvelous.

When we remember that thirty years ago there was no
wheeled vehicle of any kind in Palestine ; when we remember
not only the engineering difficulties, but the governmental
obstacles which were thrown in the way of this railroad, and
the innumerable petty hindrances which it met, our only
marvel is, that its projectors persevered, and that now the
modern locomotive and railway train rumble up to the very
walls of the City of David.

Not only France, but England, Germany, Sweden, and
Italy, as well as Syria and Turkey, were represented in
some part of the construction or equipment of this road ;
while America is not left out, for engines from the Baldwin
Locomotive "Works rumble up these steep grades, and shriek
with their shrill whistles at every dangerous crossing.

Thus, each one among the cosmopolitan list of passengers
who daily patronize this road, may feel that he has some
especial interest in its welfare.

CHAPTEE XXIV.

"JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM"— OUR SOJOURN IN THE LAND
OF SACRED STORY — INTERESTING SCENES AND TOUCH-
ING MEMORIES.

The Brakeman's Announcement — Incongruous Modernism — Entering
Jerusalem — Thronging Emotions — " The Joy of the Whole Earth " —
A Walk within the Walls — The Modern City — A Pathetic Story —
Plunging into the Heart of the City — The Various Shops — Silverware
from Damascus — Shylock in Jerusalem — A Suggestion of White-Caps
■ — The Camel and His Sneering Underlip — The Dignified Syrian — The
Church of the Holy Sepulchre — A Checkered History — The Stone
of Unction — A Touching Bible Story — Measuring the Stone for Their
Winding Sheet — Our Lord's Tomb — The Great Unwashed — How
Adam Came to Life — The Cleft in the Rock — An Impressive Spec-
tacle — A Disgraceful Easter Scene — An Awful Accident.

EEUSALEM, Jerusalem," cries out
the railway guard, and amid the
noise and bustle that always sur-
rounds a station, the cracking- of
'I I] )• <Hk\^ iaIf whips of the impatient cab-drivers,

the snorting of the locomotives
that run back and forth, making
up their empty train, the trundling
of trucks, and the tumbling about
of baggage, we have our first intro

CO O '

duction to the Holy City.

Could anything be more incon-
gruous? is our first thought, and we are inclined to wish
that we had followed the example of our friend of whom I
wrote in the last chapter, and had ridden into Jerusalem
more as the Master of old rode into the city, even though it

( 447 )

448 A FURROW ON THE LANDSCAPE.

might be under lowering skies and in drenching rain. How-
ever, these are only the passing thoughts of the anxious trav-
eler who is naturally solicitous for his trunk and his valise,
his bandbox and his bundle, and who knows not what sort of
lodging may await him at his journey's end.

After all, Jerusalem cannot be dwarfed or diminished by
any such scenes of modern bustle and commotion. There
stands the city proudly on its hills as of yore. It has with-
stood the decay of centuries, the tramp of conquering armies,
the vandalism of the Saracen, and the destruction that comes
in the wake of war and pestilence and conquest. How can
it be affected then by this puny invention of the nineteenth
century ? The much boasted railway makes but a scratch on
the side of the eternal hills. Viewed from a little distance,
it seems to turn but a single furrow on the vast landscape,
which is as wide as the horizon on either side. The wearied
train that crawls slowly up the hills looks like a mere speck
when viewed from the walls of Jerusalem — a fly upon the
nose of the Sphinx, a beetle on the face of the pyramids. It
does not affect the real life of Jerusalem.

The railway stops short, and it is well that it should, a
good mile from the city, and, getting into rickety carriages,
which have evidently done duty in some more civilized com-
munity, we have come at last to our hotel at the gates of the
most famous city in the world. I do not envy the man
whose heart does not beat a little faster, and whose pulses do
not thrill as he approaches the Jaffa gate and sees the Tower
of David rearing its massive head above the time-stained
walls of the city. As he remembers all that has occurred
within those walls ; as he calls to mind that here David sang
and Solomon held his court ; that here the Queen of Sheba
was obliged to declare, as she looked on all the treasures that
had been gathered together, that the half had not been told

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" BEAUTIFUL FOR SITUATION." 451

her of the riches that were heaped within those walls ; as he
remembers the prophets who here spoke the warning words
of God, of Nehemiah who reared again the prostrate walls,
of the people who worked willingly, sword in one hand and
trowel in the other, to bring back the ancient glory to the
deserted city ; above all, as one remembers the Divine trag-
edy that was here enacted of the trial, the scourging, the
indignities and cross-bearing of the Son of God ; he must be
dull and insensate, indeed, who looks on Jerusalem for the
lirst time unmoved.

But even were there here no supreme historical associa-
tions for the Christian, Jerusalem would even be an interest-
ing citv. Even then would the sentiment of the Psalmist be
true, that she is beautiful for situation, even if not at present
the joy of the whole earth. Imagine a bare and rocky
plateau, thickly studded with stone houses, and surrounded
to the very edge, where it dips off into the steep valley, by a
high wall. On all sides imagine bleak, gray, granite hills,
overtopping the plateau. Imagine between these distant
hills and this little table-land on which we are standing,
black and cavernous valleys, the upper and lower pools of
Gihon on one side, the valley of Jehoshaphat on another,
running into the valley of the Kedron to the east. Every-
where imagine bare, precipitous hills, scowling rocks denuded
of all soil and vegetation, gray and forbidding but majestic
in their very barrenness, and you have a picture, drawn very
imperfectly and rudely, to be sure, but giving some rough
idea of modern Jerusalem.

In ancient days there was doubtless much more here to
make the heart glad. The hills were covered with smiling
vineyards, terraces rising tier above tier on the hillside
afforded standing ground for corn and grain and various
vegetation; frequent villages dotted the hillsides and the

452 PROUD, EVEN IN DECAY.

valleys ; and, in every way, the country showed that it was
not unworthy of the eulogies pronounced upon it, the land of
milk and honey, of corn and wine, and of everything that
typified prosperity.

But the feet of trampling armies have done their work,
the oppression of tyrannical governments and the gradual
decay of national spirit have reduced the land to a poverty-
stricken dependency of the Sublime Porte. The mighty are
fallen, indeed, but with all these changes, political, industrial,
and agricultural, Jerusalem still rears its proud head among
the surrounding valleys, and even in its decay and ruin tells
every passing traveler what a lordly city it used to be.

From without nothing could be prouder or grander than
this city of the kings ; from within nothing could well be
meaner or more beggarly. Let us enter by the Jaffa gate.
Even when well within the walls we are not transported
back to the early centuries by sudden leaps or bounds, for
the first sign that stares us in the face is that of the Prince
of Dragomans, Thomas Cook, whose name, it is safe to say,
is more familiar than that of any other man in the far East.
Then our eyes rest upon a modern hotel, which even in this
ancient city rejoices in the name of " The New Hotel." In
the stores beneath this hotel and on the streets adjoining are
various shops where all kinds of articles of olive wood are
sold, — candlesticks and inkstands, penholders and book-
racks, and every possible thing that can be carved or whittled
out of the beautifully-grained olive tree. Here, too, we find
dealers in Bethlehem mother-of-pearl, and in Jerusalem
crosses of silver, in phylacteries and ancient manuscripts,
and all kinds of bric-a-brac.

But these places have comparatively little significance or
attraction for us. As soon as possible we will dive into the
heart of the city and see Jerusalem as it is.

THE ANCIENT FORTRESS — THE MODERN CITY. 453

First, however, let us get a little idea of the history of
this most famous citv of all the ages. It will be remembered
that the city is built on the ancient frontier line between
Judah and Benjamin, and for many years before it was made
the capital of Judea by the conquest of David, it was a
strong fortress of the ancient Canaanites. Some have sup-
posed that it was a very large city even before David's time ;
but it is altogether probable that it was only one of the
many mountain fortresses that were found in different parts
of Palestine, and which were used as places of refuge in the
stormy times that prevailed.

But the conquest of the city by David and its magnificent
enlargement and embellishment by Solomon made it "the
joy of the whole earth," and this, in a religious sense, it has
continued to be to millions of devout hearts, in spite of sieges,
wars, famines, and manifold disasters.

The modern city may be said to date from the time of
the Crusades, for the principal streets are the same now as
in the Twelfth Centurv. They are arched over in many
places, and the markets and parts of the Yia Dolorosa are
completely covered. There are now four quarters, of which
the Mohammedans occupy the northeast, the Jews the
southeast, the Armenians the southwest, and the Christians
the northwest ; the most disreputable, uncleanly of all being
the Jewish quarters. For many years the population
steadily decreased until, in 1838, but 11,000 people re-
mained. Now, however, within the walls and without,
there are some 47,000 people, of whom 27,000 are Jews.
Comparatively small as is the Jewish population in this
spiritual capital of Judaism, it is far larger than in former
years, and at the present rate of increase it is only a matter
of time before the cry, "Jerusalem for the Jews," will be
something more than an empty sentiment.

454 JERUSALEM AT THE EASTER FESTIVAL.

A pathetic story tells us that six hundred years ago there
were not Jews enough in Jerusalem to make up an audience
for a synagogue meeting, which, according to their law, re-
quires ten persons, and when in despair the nine forlorn
strangers came together in the home-land of their fathers,
wailing and lamentation was heard because there were not
enough of them in the once proud city to conduct the service
according to their usual form. Just at this juncture, when
their depression and sorrow was at its height, the tradition
goes on to say that Elijah appeared, making the tenth per-
son in the company, and at the same time making the meet-
ing possible.

At certain periods of the year the population is very
largely increased by visiting pilgrims, several thousands of
whom come, especially at Easter time, to worship in the
sacred city. On this occasion, as has been said by a traveler
who recently visited the city at the time of this great
festival : " The streets of Jerusalem present a strange spec-
tacle from the numerous national costumes seen together.
The European tourists, the Turkish nizam, the hooded Ar-
menian, the long-haired Greek monk, are mingled with the
native peasants in yellow turbans and striped mantles, with
Armenian pilgrims wearing broad red sashes, Jews in
Oriental costume or with the fur cap and lovelocks of the
Pharisee, Eussians in knee boots and padded robes, and
native ladies in white mantles and black veils. The
architecture of the city, Oriental, Gothic, Byzantine, or
Italian, tells the same story — that Jerusalem has been for
eighteen centuries a holy city in the eyes of Jew, Christian,
and Moslem alike, and the religious center of half the
world."

But let us plunge into the heart of the city, not at Easter-
tide when it has on its holiday attire, but on an ordinary day

THE CITY'S EVERYDAY ASPECT.

455

of the year, when Jerusalem, so to speak, is in its working
clothes, and very dirty working clothes they are. The
narrow streets are filled with rubbish and dirt which, after
a soaking rain, render them almost impassable. The narrow

BEGGING DERVISHES, JERUSALEM.

side streets are worse still, for garbage of every kind, cats,
dead and alive, goats, cattle, and donkeys make locomotion
anything but a luxury.

If not a luxury, however, a walk through Jerusalem is at
least full of absorbing interest. Some of the streets, as has
been said, are completely roofed over, and the traveler feels

456 STREET SCENES IN THE HOLY CITY.

that he is walking through a continuous market-place, with
little stalls on either side for the sale of an almost unimagin-
able variety of goods. Amber beads occupy one stall, and a
hundred strings hanging from the roof and dangling from
the sides tempt to a purchase the lover of this beautiful sub-
stance. Next, perhaps, is a shop filled with old shoes in all
varieties of dilapidation, which were worn out ten years ago
and have never seen blacking-brush since the day they were
made. Next to this is the cavernous den of a baker, with
his glowing oven in the rear, from which he pulls out every
now and then, with a wooden shovel, a long cake of dirty-
looking bread, which he piles up on the counter before him
like so much cordwood cut into three-feet lengths.

Next to the baker a dealer in incense has his shop, for the
incense merchant is an important personage in Jerusalem.
His wares come in cakes and sticks and broken nuggets, and
are of all varieties of flavor and spiciness. Next we see a
dealer in crucifixes and religious emblems, and horrible
pictures of the Sacred Heart. Still another shop is devoted
to rosaries ; and strings of beads of every variety and com-
plexion and substance of which beads can be made are
displayed for sale. Then comes a butcher's shop, possibly
with a grinning and bloody calf's head protruding over the
doorway, as a sign of the goods that are kept within.

Here, too, are the dealers in the beautiful Bethlehem
mother-of-pearl work, in silver ware of Damascus, and in-
numerable shops where articles carved from olive wood may
be purchased. At every street corner is the money-changer
with his little pile of gold and silver and copper before him,
ready to turn your napoleons or pounds into chereks and
mejidieh at a most ruinous discount, for Shy lock has his own
home here in Jerusalem, and will always take his pound of
flesh if he can get it.

THE PASSING CROWD. 45?

As we walk along the streets the passers-by are quite as
interesting as the shops on either hand. Here comes a lordly
Kavass, gorgeous in his red and yellow kafileh, who carries
off his startling costume with the utmost dignity.

There are few people in the world who can stand so much
barbaric ornamentation as the Syrian Kavass without betray-
ing self-consciousness. Behind the Kavass, perhaps, is a
veiled beauty robed in white from top to toe, with only her
black eyes peering out from under the rim of her head gear.
Sometimes she wears a black mask of some thin material
drawn closely over her face, through which she can see, but
behind which she is utterly invisible to prying eyes that may
look upon her.

In any other city it would be startling to see these white-
robed, black-masked creatures suddenly turn a corner upon
the unsuspecting traveler. He almost imagines that he is in
the land of the " white caps," and that the masks mean mur-
der and robbery and all kinds of personal violence. But the
maskers noiselessly glide away without offering to molest
the quietest of travelers. Behind them, perhaps, comes a
beggar with a tale of woe not only committed to heart, but
often written on his dirty, repulsive features as well.

There are, of course, no wheeled vehicles within the walls,
for the narrow streets would not admit of such carriages.
All the loads are carried by donkeys or camels, or on the
brawny backs of men and women. Often we meet a donkey
scarcely bigger than a Newfoundland dog, with a big Turk
or Jew sitting far back, almost on its very tail, while the
man's feet nearly drag on the ground at every step. These big
feet he keeps swaying back and forth, and at every move of
the poor little animal his cruel heels dig into the donkey's
side and urge him to further exertion.

The camels naturally have the right of way in these nar-

458

CAMELS AND WATER CARRIERS.

^oto 1

row roads. Their huge bulk preoccupies the whole street.
The donkeys have to make themselves small in side passage-
ways, while pedestrians flatten themselves against the wall
on either side as best they can and let the splay-footed ship
of the desert, with his sneering under lip and nose high in
air, showing contempt for every smaller creature, pass through
at his leisure.

Behind the beggars and the camels often come the water-
carriers, their goat-skins almost
bursting with a dirty liquid
supposed to be water, and that
drips upon the ground from
every tiny crevice. Add to
these objects, sheep and many
dogs, and children, lying pro-
miscuously about the streets in
every dirty doorway, and crowd-
ing every side alley from wall
to wall, and you have some idea
of Jerusalem in its everyday
apparel.

After all is said there is
something dignified and impres-
sive about many of the people
whom we meet in the streets,
for the Syrian, though indolent
and deceitful, is polite and gen-
tlemanly at the same time. "When he meets you and
desires a word, he will lay his right hand on his forehead,
lips, and head, for a moment, which means, in the expressive
symbolism in the country, "in thought, word, and deed, I
am your servant. 1 ' If he wishes to show special respect, he
will stoop down and then raise his right hand over his head,

A WATER CARRIER.

SACRED ASSOCIATIONS. 459

which means that he is casting dust and ashes over himself
as a mark of humility. But he does all this with such a
gracious and dignified air that, servile as are its symbols, he
seems to be doing himself an honor quite as much as the one
to whom he speaks.

Now let us view the people of Jerusalem at their worship,
for in the churches we find the chief characteristics of the
Holy City underscored and accentuated.

The first church to which almost every traveler wends
his way, is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and here are
crowded together more traditions, relics, and sacred associa-
tions than in any place of similar size in the world. Not
that the traditions are for the most part trustworthy, not
that the sacred associations are really associated with sacred
facts ; not that the relics are free from suspicion as to their
genuineness, but despite all this doubt and uncertainty, the
very fact that devout souls of many nations, however mis-
taken and superstitious, have here fed their faith and rever-
ence for generations past, make it in some sense a holy
place to those who come after them in succeeding years.

Whatever may be the absolute facts in the case, and they
are very difficult to determine, millions of devout hearts have
believed that under the roof which covers the Church of the
Sepulchre is the spot where our Lord was crucified, the
very stone on which he was laid for burial, the new tomb of
rock in which He was placed when He descended into hades,
the stone on which He sat when He was crowned with
thorns and scourged with thongs, and the stocks in which
His feet were thrust during the cruel night of trial.

Every other sacred tradition which could find lodgment
has been crowded into this one spot, even to the tomb of
Adam himself, which is located here.

To be sure, it is altogether probable that the place of

460 THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE.

crucifixion was nearly half a mile away, outside the walls of
the present city. The sacred places and relics within the
church rest upon a very shaky tradition, to the effect that
Helena, the mother of Constantine, had a dream that here
she should find the true cross. Causing: her servants to dig
in the place the dream indicated, she found not one cross, but
three, one of which spoke to her, and by this token, she knew
that it was the true cross.

On this poor and meagre soil, which bears upon its very
face the marks of its untrustworthiness, are the traditions of
the sacred place built, and yet they have been hallowed
by the faith, the prayers, and tears, and rapturous joy of
myriads of pilgrims.

It is very sure that near this place, if not upon this actual
site, our Lord suffered and bled and died. These monu-
ments which are here erected give the eye of faith something-
visible to behold, and the heart something tangible to cling-
to, and, if one can but prevent his reverence from degener-
ating into superstitious awe, his soul will surely be blessed
by a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

One thing is certain, a sumptuously decorated church was
erected here in the early part of the fourth century, and even
then it was supposed to cover the Holy Sepulchre.

Many ups and downs, destructions, and rebuildings have
come to this famous church. In 614 it was destroyed by the
Persians. It was immediately rebuilt and was over and over
again destroyed or greatly damaged by the Moslems. In
1099, the Crusaders entered the church, and what a pictur-
esque sight it must have been when, barefooted and ragged,
but bearing crowns of palms and uttering songs of praise, in
the last year of the eleventh century which had seen such
heroic struggles to regain the holy city, they marched in
under the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

VIGILANT TURKISH GUARDS. 461

As can be easily imagined, they were not content with
the meagre little church which they found guarding the
holy tomb, so they enlarged it and beautified it and built
many chapels around it.

A century later the Arabs nearly destroyed the buildings
once more.

A^ain the warriors of the Third Crusade rebuilt it.

Fifty years later it was again destroyed, only to be
rebuilt during the next half century. Thus it met with
many fluctuations of fortune, good and bad, until, in 1808, it
was entirely burned down, the dome fell in and crushed the
chapel and almost nothing was saved except the east wing
of the building. But two years later the Greeks and Ar-
menians erected a new church, which is substantially the one
which we are now to visit.

As we enter, the first persons whom we see are not the
pilgrims who have come from all parts of the world to do
honor to their Lord, but the Turkish guards who have
charge of the place, and we are sadly reminded of the fact
that the Greek and Latin and Armenian Christians cannot
be trusted to live together in unity, even within sight of the
place of their Lord's supreme sufferings, but must be kept
from knocking each other's heads and cutting each other's
throats by a cordon of Mohammedan custodians, who are
never able to relax their vigilance lest the Christians come
to blows.

The first sacred object that we see is the stone of unction
or anointment on which the body of Jesus is said to have
been laid when it was anointed by Nicodemus.

Let us recall the pathetic story. "After this" (after
our Lord's death) says the Sacred Xarrative, "Joseph
of Arimathea being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear
of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the

462 WHERE THE BODY OF JESUS WAS LAID.

body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave. He came, there-
fore, and took the body of Jesus, and there came also Nico-
demus, which at first came to Jesus by night, and brought a
mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pounds
weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in
linen cloths with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to
bury."

How often in imagination we have seen this pathetic
picture when just at twilight beside the new rock tomb these
two secret disciples of Jesus came to do their last reverence
to Him whom in life they loved but never dared to own.

They were both noted men and members of the San-
hedrim They both recognized in Jesus the spotless Lamb of
God. Their hearts had been touched by His holy life and by
His gentle words, but not until He died for them and for all
the world were they willing to acknowledge their secret
faith. But then they came together, neither apparently
knowing of the other's intention, to bury Him who had re-
ceived such scant reverence in His life. And this was the
spot at which tradition and the belief of innumerable eccles-
iastics said they met. And here on this stone over which
are burning many gold and silver lamps, they reverently
laid His body.

To be sure it detracts from our interest somewhat to be
told by our guide-book that this stone has often been
changed and has been in the possession of numerous re-
ligious communities in succession. In the fifteenth century
it belonged to the Copts, in the sixteenth to the Gregorians,
from whom the Latins purchased permissions for 5,000
piastres to burn candles upon it. The present stone, this
same hard-hearted guide-book goes on to say, is of reddish
yellow marble, eight and a half feet long, four feet broad,
and was placed here in 1808.

THE angel's room. 463

But what care we for its dimensions to an inch ? Who
would care to know of its geologic formation? How im-
pertinent are vulgar facts when we remember that upon
this stone have fallen the hot tears of hundreds of thousands
of pilgrims, that it has been passionately kissed by myriads
of devoted lips, and has received the consecration vows
of a multitude of devout hearts whose creeds indeed are
different, but whose love for the supreme Lord never wanes.

A pathetic touch of interest is added to this stone when
we remember that formerly pilgrims were in the habit of
measuring it with a view to having their winding sheets
made of the same length.

A few steps to the left of the stone of unction we see a
small enclosure built around a stone, which is said to mark a
spot where the women stood and watched the anointing of
Christ's body.

As we go on toward the center of the church we come to
the supreme object of worship, none other than the spot which
is believed to be the place where our Lord's body lay in its
rock cavern for three days. Over this spot is erected a
marble chapel which in some respects is beautiful, but very
much marred for sober eyes by the amount of tinsel and the
number of gewgaws that are lavished upon it.

The first part of the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre is
called the Angel's Koom. In the center is a stone set in
marble, which our guide solemnly avers is the one which
the angel rolled away from the mouth of the sepulchre and
on which he afterwards sat. In this chapel are burning fif-
teen gold and silver lamps, five of which belong to the
Greeks, five to the Latins, four to the Armenians, and one to
the Copts, and the air is thick and heavy with burning in-
cense and other odors which are more easv to imagine than
to describe.

464 INTERESTING BUT ABSURD TRADITIONS.

But even yet we have not come to the most holy place,
for, squeezing through a very low and narrow door which is
merely a hole in the wall, in fact, and through which one has
to back in a very undignified attitude, we come to the chapel
of the sepulchre itself.

This is only about six feet by six and when crowded with
half a dozen people, as it always is, it can be imagined that
even devotion and reverence does not allow one to tarry
long, since the half dozen other pilgrims besides himself are
apt to be greasy Russians, dirty Copts, filthy Poles, or un-
washed Italians.

All around this central and most sacred chapel are other
chapels of less significance and holiness, but yet each one of
which enshrines some interesting tradition. Here, for in-
stance, is the chapel of Saint Longinus, the soldier who
pierced Christ's side with his spear. The tradition says that
he had been blind of one eye, but that some of the water
and blood from the side of our Lord spurted into his blind
eye and he recovered sight, whereupon he repented and
became a Christian. Next is " The Chapel of the Parting of
the Raiment," whose name indicates the tradition associated
with it.

Then " The Chapel of the Crowning with Thorns," where
the very stone is shown on which Christ sat when the cruel
thorns were crowded upon His brow. Here, also, are such
chapels as Saint Mary, dedicated to the Virgin, the chapel of
Adam, where tradition says the first man was buried, though
how his bones came to be transported to Palestine nobody
seems to know. But no tradition is too wild or absurd for the
credulous people who cluster here to believe, and they
solemnly assure us that when Christ was crucified His blood
flowed through a cleft in the rock on to the head of Adam,
and he was immediatelv restored to life.

THE TRADITIONAL GOLGOTHA. 465

But as if it was not enough to bury Adam here or to
invent all kinds of silly traditions about our great forefather,
they have placed the tomb of Melchizedek here also. "We
have not yet come to the most sacred spot, for the traditional
Golgotha yet remains to be visited.

Catholic historians have placed not only the tomb and the
place of Christ's suffering, but Mount Calvary itself within
the limits of this sanctuary. It may very naturally be asked
by the reader how this can be, since the Bible distinctly tells
us that Christ suffered " without the walls."

The Papal historian, however, is ready with his answer,
for he tells us that in the former times the site of this church
was outside of the second walls of Jerusalem, and that the
modern walls do not conform to the ancient predecessors.
This statement, however, must be received with a very large
interrogation point, and it has been recently proved, all but
conclusively, by modern scholars, that the present walls
follow the ancient outlines very nearly, and that the site of
the church of the Holy Sepulchre could not by any possi-
bility ever have been found without the walls of the city.

However, as we said before, this spot has been hallowed
by the faith of innumerable Christians whose belief was sup-
ported, at least in ancient times, by very scholarly authority.
Hundreds of books have been written on the subject to prove
that this was the veritable spot where our Lord bled, suffered,
and died, and even the tradition-breaking Protestant need
not be too eager to disillusionize the world when he comes
within these sacred precincts.

Here in the living rock we see an opening faced with
silver, where the cross on which our Lord died was said to
be inserted. Five feet distant on either side are the crosses
of the two thieves, the penitent thief on the right and the
impenitent thief on the left. While about the same distance,

466 THE RIVEN ROCK.

covered with a brass slide, is the cleft in the rock about
which Saint Matthew tells us in these solemn words : " Jesus,
when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the
ghost ; and, behold the veil of the temple was rent in twain
from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the
rocks rent, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of
the saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after
His resurrection and w T ent into the Holy City, and appeared
unto many."

This cleft is said by the superstitious to reach to the very
center of the earth, although the practical eye of the scien-
tific man says it is only about six inches deep.

As I have said, when we visited the Holy Sepulchre it
was not on a feast day, but on one of the ordinary Sundays
of the year, and yet it was a strange and striking scene
which we beheld even then. The whole floor of the church
seemed to be filled with black-bearded priests in gorgeous
vestments and jeweled robes, from which the flashing light
of the innumerable lamps glanced and sparkled. "With
solemn intonations and measured tread they marched about
the Holy Sepulchre, slowly waving their golden lamps and
their jeweled vases, from which the smoking incense curled
up in dense clouds to heaven.

Back and forth and around they marched, solemnly
chanting their dirges, while the wondering crowd, gathered
from every quarter of the world, looked on in awe-struck
silence.

Here were Koords in their sheep-skins, Russians in their
pilgrim rags, Armenians in their picturesque meal-bag-like
garments, Greeks in their curious hats and skirts, Europeans
of every degree of civilization, and Asiatics of every degree
of barbarism. And yet all were drawn together by a com-
mon sentiment.

QUARRELSOME PILGRIMS. 467

Though they sometimes fall out and fight among them-
selves like cats and dogs, yet, after all, there is a common
purpose manifested to honor the common Lord, and to do
reverence to Him who died for all the world. We can
almost forgive their wranglings and disputings as we see
the genuine devotion which seems to fill many of the hearts
that beat under the rough and ragged pilgrim's garb. There
must be something of good even in the most ignorant and
suspicious of them all, to bring them on this long and toil-
some pilgrimage for the sake of doing reverence to Him to
whom their hearts are blindly reaching out.

If we have some regard, however, for the pilgrims them-
selves, we have very little patience with the priests and relig-
ious leaders who work on their superstitions and trade on
their prejudices.

On Easter are often enacted many disorderly scenes,
which produce a painful impression when the Church
of the Sepulchre is crowded with pilgrims of every nation-
ality, and especially when the so-called miracle of the " holy
fire " is produced. " On this occasion the church is always
crowded w T ith spectators," we are told. " It is said that the
priests besmear the wire by which the lamp is suspended
over the sepulchre with resinous oil, and that this oil is set
on fire from the roof. Large sums are paid to the priests by
those who are the first to be allowed to light their tapers
from the sacred flame sent from heaven. The w T ild and
noisy scene begins on Good Friday. The crowd passes the
night in the church in order to secure places, some of them
attaching themselves by cords to the sepulchre, while others
run round it in anything but a reverential manner.

" About two o'clock on Easter afternoon a procession of
the superior clergy moves around the sepulchre, all lamps
having been carefully extinguished in view of the crow T d.

468 THE DESCENT OF THE SACRED FLAME.

The patriarch enters the chapel of the sepulchre, while the
priests pray and the people are in the utmost suspense.

" At length the fire which has come down from heaven
gleams from the sepulchre, the priests emerge with a bundle
of burning tapers and there now follows an indescribable
tumult, every one endeavoring to be the first to get his taper
lighted. Even from the gallery, tapers are let down to be
lighted, and in a few seconds, the whole church is illuminated.
This however, never happens without fighting, and accidents
generally occur owing to the crush."

In 1834 an awful accident occurred. Six thousand peo-
ple were in the church, when the Turkish guards, thinking
they were attacked, sprang upon the pilgrims, beat many of
them to death, and in the scuffle that followed, three hun-
dred lives were lost.

Yet, with all these excrescences and unpleasant manifes-
tations of religious zeal and fanaticism, it must be remem-
bered that there is something intensely real to all these pil-
grims in these traditional sights. People do not undergo
sufferings to see that which they do not believe with intense
devotion. They will not fight for that which does not appeal
strongly to their faith and love, and even the disgraceful
riots which have blotted the history of the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre more than once, show the abiding strength
and dominating influence of the cross of Christ over the lives
of the world's millions.

~^vl^

CHAPTER XXV.

A MEMORABLE WALK.

The Via Dolorosa — Fourteen Stations on the Way to the Cross — St. Veron-
ica and Her Handkerchief — Some Touching Inscriptions — Outside the
Gates — Our Golgotha — " The Green Hill Far Away." Gethsemane —
The Stone of Treason — A Wonderful View — Our Lord's Broken-
Hearted Lament — The Russian Tower — The Dead Sea — A Marvelous
Mirror — Absalom's Tomb — The Fate of an Unfilial Reprobate — The
cave of Adullam — Nebo and Its Lonely Grave — The Village of Mary and
Martha — The Greatest Miracle of the Ages — ' ' Dis Way to de Tomb
of Lazaroos " — The Wretched Inhabitants of Modern Bethany — The
Tomb of Rachel — Where Our Lord was Born — The Marble Cradle —
An Impressive Sight — Wrangling Christians — Turkish Guards at Our
Lord's Cradle — A Sad Suggestion.

NE of the most impressive and
memorable walks that we took
within the Holy City led us along
the Via Dolorosa, through St.
Stephen's gate, thence out to the
Mount of Olives and Bethany.
Before Ave leave the sacred city,
let us all take such a walk to-
gether.

This traditional " Street of
Pain " seems worthy of its name,
for it is a dark and gloomy road-
way, arched overhead through much of its course with
vaulted roofs, and reminding one at almost every footstep of
the suffering and indignities endured by the Son of Man.

To be sure, the ancient Way of the Cross, even if it fol-

(469)

470

ALONG THE WAY OF THE CROSS.

lowed the general line of the modern street, which is by no
means certain, must have been many feet below the surface
of the present roadway, for the accumulated rubbish of the
ages and the many sieges to which Jerusalem has been sub-
ject have buried the old city from ten to forty feet below the
modern city.

However, from very early centuries, the way which our

Lord took as He bore

the cross to his own
crucifixion, has been
supposed to follow
the general direction
of this street.

Ecclesiastical au-
thorities have estab-
lished what they call
" stations," at points
which are supposed
to represent some
particular event in
the sad journey of
Jesus to the cross.
There are fourteen of
these stations in all.

A STREET IN JERUSALEM.

One of them indicates the spot where Simon of Cyrene took
the cross from Christ. Another where St. Yeronica wiped
the sweat from our Saviour's brow, the image of his face
being imprinted on her handkerchief forever afterwards.
The eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth stations,
are in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre itself, to which the
Via Dolorosa leads, and show where our Lord was nailed to
the cross, where He was taken from the cross, and finally
where He was laid in the new rock tomb.

INSCRIPTIONS ON THE WALLS. 471

Though they do not add to the authenticity of the events
recorded, yet the Latin sentences with which many of these
stations are marked, add a certain dignity and appearance of
reality to the street. For instance, a tablet on the house
which is called the House of Pontius Pilate reads as follows :

Ad Arcum Ecce Homo
TJbi Pontius Pilatus
Christum
Judwis Tradidit ut crucifigeretur

A little farther on, a marble slab let into the rough wall of
the street tells us :

Locus in quo
Apprehtndit Pilatus Jesum
et Flagellant.

While near the outer gate we find the inscription :

Et Milites Plecentes Coronam
Be Spinis imposuerunt.

All this sonorous Latin simply tells us the story which in
simple language we have read a thousand times in the Nine-
teenth chapter of John, where the beloved disciple tells us
that " Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged Him and the
soldiers platted a crown of thorns and put it upon His head.
And they put on Him a purple robe, and said, Hail, King of
the Jews, and they smote Him with their hands. Pilate,
therefore, went forth again and said unto them, Behold I
bring Him forth to you that you may know that I find no
fault in Him. Then came Jesus forth wearing the crown of
thorns, and the purple robe, and Pilate said unto them,
Behold the man."

Now we are not far from the wall of the city, and pass-
ing out through St. Stephen's gate, which is surrounded by
cripples, lepers, and beggars in all stages of dilapidation and

472 THE HILL OF THE CRUCIFIXION.

disease, we find ourselves in an instant out of the reeking
streets of the filthy city in the sunlight and fresh air of
God's wide country.

Over there, a little to the left, we see the site upon which
modern Protestant scholars are largely agreed is the site of
the crucifixion and burial of Christ. There, indeed, is the
" green hill far away, without the city wall." There is the
gently rounding hilltop which might well be called by the
picturesque and imaginative Orientals " the place of the
skull." There, underneath this hillside, near to the reputed
grotto of Jeremiah, is a rock tomb, hewn out of the solid
stone, a tomb which has never been finished, and which
answers in every particular to what we might expect of
Joseph's new tomb.

Here our imagination is fully satisfied. Here our feelings
of reverent devotion ask for nothing more. There is no
gaudy church with its tinsel and its second-rate paintings, its
mosaics and its incense-scented chapels to distract our minds
and weary our senses. No quarreling bands of hostile
Christians, no Moslem guards to keep the peace are here
required, no gorgeously bedecked priests to distract our
thoughts from the Man of Sorrows whom they ignorantly
worship, and whose life of suffering for mankind they, with
their elaborate ceremonials, obscure rather than illumine.

Here is nothing over our heads but the blue arch of
heaven, a few fleecy clouds sailing across it. Under our feet
is the green grass of springtime, the daisies and the anem-
ones, the lilies of the valley, and all the flowers of the field
with which our Lord so often illustrated His discourses.

To be sure, on this very hill are some Mohammedan
tombs which at first seem to desecrate our Golgotha, but, as
we think of it, we remember that if it were not for these
tombs this hill would doubtless have been covered with

THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE. 473

buildings and the site entirely lost for many generations
before modern scholars could have identified it as the spot
where our Saviour suffered His last agony ; so from this point
of view we may consider these Moslem tombs a blessing in
disguise, for wherever a Mohammedan is buried his country-
men regard it a sacred ground for all the future ages.

But sweet as are the associations of this hallowed hill we
cannot always linger here, but must go on down the road
which leads us across the Valley of Kedron and then up the
slopes of the Mount of Olives.

On the further side of the valley we see a small grove of
dark and gloomy cypress trees, and, near by, a number of
gnarled and twisted olive trees. Almost by intuition we say
to ourselves this must be the Garden of Gethsemane ; and
so it is.

This is one of the sacred places about w T hich there is com
paratively little dispute. To be sure, the claim of the monk
who shows us the garden, that these great olive trees with
trunks "burst from age and shored up with stones" date
from the time of Christ, may not be true, and it is possible
that the actual garden which saw the bloody sweat of our
Lord, and witnessed his agony and arrest may not have been
upon this very spot ; but, undoubtedly, it was near to this
spot, and it requires no stretch of imagination to believe that
the checkered moonlight fell through the branches and
leaves of these very olive trees on the night when the
disciples could not keep open their sleepy eyes to watch with
our Lord " even one hour/'

We can readily believe that at this very spot which is
pointed out to us, marked to-day by the fragment of a stone
column, the treacherous Judas kissed our Lord, and received
therefor his thirty pitiful pieces of silver.

A sharp climb of fifteen minutes brings us to the top of

474 A SCENE OF SURPASSING BEAUTY.

the Mount of Olives from the garden of Gethseraane. When
about half way up the hill we turn around and the magnifi-
cent view bursts upon our eyes. There is the Holy City en-
closed by its four-square walls. There is Jerusalem, " the
joy of the whole earth." It is builded "as a city which is
compact together." Its squalidness and wretchedness are no
longer visible. The filth of its narrow streets is forgotten.
Its walls from this distance look indeed like the ramparts of
Zion. Its churches and mosques dominate it with a lordly
air, and even its stone houses, which look so mean and
squalid on near approach, have from this point almost the
look of palaces as the afternoon sun and the clear air of
Palestine lend their enchantment to them.

It is indeed a scene of surpassing beauty, and here, accord-
ing to one of the best authenticated traditions, our Lord
stood when he looked with love and pity upon the sacred
city, while the hot tears fell upon his cheeks, as he cried out,
" If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day,
the things which belong unto thy peace ! " Then his emotion
overcame him. He could not continue the sentence, but, with
choking voice, he added, after a momentary pause, as he
thought of the awful destruction which awaited the beautiful
city, " But now are they hid from thine eyes.

" For the day shall come upon thee, that thine enemies
shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and
keep thee in on every side.

" And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy
children within thee ; and they shall not leave in thee one
stone upon another ; because thou knewest not the time of
thy visitation."

But now we will turn our eyes upward and climb the
Mount of Olives once more. In a few moments we find our-
selves upon its very summit.

UPON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. 475

The highest point of the hill is 2,723 feet above the sea
level, so that by ordinary geographical measurements it is
no slight elevation, but deserves the name of mountain.
When compared with the neighboring city of Jerusalem,
however, it is not a lofty hill, for it rises but 196 feet higher
than the temple plateau which we recently visited, and
where now is found the mosque of Omar.

For many centuries the Mount of Olives has been con-
sidered the spot from which Christ ascended into Heaven,
but Luke seems to contradict this idea, for he tells us that
He led them out "as fa,r as Bethany and lifted up His hands
and blessed them. And it came to pass while He blessed
them that He was parted from them and carried up into
Heaven." Now Bethany is a good half mile on the other
side of the Mount of Olives. However, if this is not the
place of the ascension of Christ, the Mount of Olives has
sufficient historical and sacred attractions to satisfy the most
exacting, and the view from the top is one of the most
magnificent and attention-compelling which can be found in
any part of the world.

The Russians have built a high tower on the very crest
of the hill whose top is reached by a narrow, winding stair-
case. It is a hard climb which takes us to the top of this
bell tower, but it well repays us for our trouble. Surely
from no spot in the world can be seen so much of lasting
and touching interest to all mankind.

Hour after hour can we spend on the top of this tower
and still find food for our imaginations, stimulus for our
highest religious aspirations, and memory photographs
which never fade, of sacred historical sights such as no other
view in the world can give. To the west is the view of the
Holy City which we have already seen at the point where
Christ our Lord wept over it, only it is more magnificent

476 JORDAN AND THE DEAD SEA.

still from this high perch which we have attained. Beyond
stretches the land of Judah and the land of Benjamin, run-
ning into the country of the Philistines, which borders the
seacoast towards Jaffa.

To the east is an entirely different scene, but one scarcely
less striking. Deadness and sterility, a treeless and appar-
ently uninhabited waste greets the eye. These are the hills
of Moab in the far distance, and there, just this side of these
mountains, a silver ribbon which glances and glitters in the
sunlight, shows us where the rippling waters of the Jordan
are making their way to the Dead Sea, which looks in the
afternoon sunlight like a huge mirror lying at the base of
the frowning mountains of Moab.

It is impossible to believe that we cannot reach this sea
of glass by a walk of an hour, or at the most of two hours,
across the hills and valleys that lie between us and it, and
when we are told that it is a hard horseback ride of full
seven hours over barren and uninhabitable hills, and that
that strip of looking-glass is almost four thousand feet below
our present altitude, we are still more surprised, but we
are obliged to take the word of geographers, surveyors, and
travelers who have actually made the distance, rather than
our own unauthenticated impressions. That little lake,
gleaming in the sunlight, is none other than the Dead Sea,
one of the most extraordinary bodies of water in all the
earth. It has no outlet, as is well known, but the lake is
kept at its present level by the evaporation of the sun,
which day after day sucks up thousands of tons of water
from this intensely hot hole in the surface of the earth.

The dimensions of the sea and its volume of water are
constantly growing smaller and its density is growing
greater. No fish can swim in its briny waves, but few birds
flit along its barren shores, and the traveler who takes a

"WHERE SHEPHERDS WATCHED THEIR FLOCKS."

477

morning bath in its heavy waters finds that he cannot sink,
and that when he comes out he is covered by a saline in-
crustation, which makes him think that he may possibly be a
relative of Lot's unfortunate wife.

Off to the north
we can catch a
glimpse of Bethle-
hem and the plains
where the shep-
herds kept their
flocks by night, and
where they heard
out of the blue
heavens the gloria
in excelsis.

Just at the foot
of the hill, but out
of sight because it
is so near, is the
little town of Beth-
any, which we re-
member as the
place that of all
others Christ loved
the best.

On the other
side of the hill
toward Jerusalem,
also hidden by its
very nearness, is the Olive Garden of Gethsemane which
we have just visited, and the reputed tomb of Absalom, at
which every devout Jew throws a stone as an indication of
his detestation of filial impietv. It is said that this tomb is

AB6ALOM 8 TOMB.

478 THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT.

the same one spoken of in Second Samuel : " Now Absalom
in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar
which is in the king's dale, for he said, I have no son to keep
my name in remembrance, and he called the pillar after his
own name, and it is called unto this day Absalom's place."

If this is indeed the tomb which Absalom built it has
served its purpose better than he perhaps intended, for while
it has preserved his name it has at the same time preserved
it as the name of an ungrateful, heartless, reprobate son, the
scorn and derision of every one who passes by, and none can
express their contempt in any way more striking than by
flinging a derisive stone at the pillar which its builder fondly
thought would keep his name in grateful remembrance.

Here near by, also, is the tomb of Jehoshaphat and St.
James, and all the monuments and memories which crowd
so full the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Not far away is the hill
of Herod, as it is called, and, underneath, the cave of Adul-
lam, where three thousand years ago David collected " every
one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and
every one that was discontented, and became a captain over
them," and formed them into the nucleus of what was after-
wards his conquering and irresistible army.

As we look far off towards the south we see the hilltop
Mizpeh where Samuel judged the Children of Israel, and
where he won such a signal victory over the Philistines, for
here we are told, "And as Samuel was offering up the burnt
offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel :
but the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that clay
upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were
smitten before Israel.

" Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh
and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying,
Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.

SACRED MEMORIES. 479

" And Samuel judged Israel all the years of his life.

"And he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel,
and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those
places."

Thus our eyes are surfeited with wondrous sights and
our memories are wearied to recall everything that has made
these places memorable.

But before we descend from the tower, our eyes sweep
around once more to the narrow Jordan and the "flittering 1
Dead Sea, and rest upon the bleak mountains of Moab.
Among them is one hilltop of surpassing interest. There on
Mount Nebo, four thousand feet above the Dead Sea which
lies at its base, the great lawgiver of Israel looked upon
the Promised Land which he was never to enter.

Going down the sacred hill toward the east, crossing a
gentle spur, and following a winding path across flowery
fields, we come at last to a village which perhaps centers
within itself more touching sacred memories than any other
spot in all the region, for in this village was the home of
Mary and Martha, whose door was so often left ajar for
Christ to enter.

Here was the house of Simon the Leper where Mary
washed the blessed feet that continually went about doing
good, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Here,
too, Lazarus lived, and in this little hamlet the greatest
miracle of the ages was wrought when Lazarus heard the
Divine voice saying to him in the tomb, " Come forth."

But alas, the passing centuries have taken all the poetry
and romance out of this little hamlet. The natural in-
dolence of the inhabitants, their hopeless lives, for many
generations ground down under the heel of the Turks, and
their unenterprising, fanatical disposition, have all contrib-
uted to make this at the present day as squalid, mean, and

480 AN OVER-SUPPLY OF GUIDES.

uninteresting a town as can be found in any one of the five
continents which, we are visiting together.

As we neared the village we passed a group of ragged,
filthy, sore-eyed specimens of humanity, squatting on the
ground near an old, dilapidated tent, where they had been
lazily basking in the sunshine. They were engaged in the
interesting task of simultaneously extending their dirty
hands into the one and only dish that contained their food.
They stretched out their gaunt, diseased hands to us, crying
" backsheesh," the only word, apparently, which they knew
and which stood for the only thing they cared for.

What is Mary or Martha, Lazarus or Simon to them,
except so many pretexts for extorting more backsheesh from
the traveler who comes their way ? What is Christ himself,
except a personage whose wondrous attractiveness turns
the feet of many a pilgrim Bethanyward, and gives these
petty robbers a chance to practice their arts upon a fresh
set of travelers every day ?

However, they know the stock places of interest in their
village by heart, and, starting up from all sides, they run on
before the pilgrims crying out, " Thees way, thees way to de
house of Mary and Marrta," rolling their r's with great
vigor, and vociferating and gesticulating as only Orientals
can, lest some one else should capture their travelers and
show them the way.

" Dis way to de tomb of Lazaroos, dis way to de tomb of
Lazaroos," cries a shrill treble voice in our ear, as a little
damsel not more than eight or nine years old came skipping
over the rough stones, eagerly pressing upon us the fact that
she will be our guide to the tomb of Mary's brother.

All that we have to do is to follow the crowd, for all
Bethany seems ready to act as our guide this morning, and
every one knows as well as we where we wish to go.

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THE HOUSE OF MARY AND MARTHA.

483

So following our many cicerones we soon come to a
dilapidated ruin into which we are admitted by a small
wooden gate. This, we are assured by a chorus of voices, is
none other than the house of Mary and Martha, "We are
not prepared to dispute the fact, for it is as likely a place for
the residence of the famous sisters as any in the village. It
is perhaps a shade more clean and respectable than any
other ruin in the vicinity, but
we are very confident that in
the days of old, Martha left no
such piles of rubbish and gar-
bage at her front door as now
decorate it; that she kept the
dead cats and live donkeys off
her premises, and that the blear-
eyed children who now clamber
all over her dining-room and
parlor walls would have been
obliged to wash their faces and
comb their hair before she ad-
mitted them within her doors
in the days of old.

The tomb of Lazarus is
equally disappointing and per-
haps no more authentic. The
narrow entrance shows us a long flight of stairs which
leads us down into the very bowels of the earth, and, here,
by the aid of a smoky, flaring taper and a vigorous imagina-
tion we are supposed to see the place where for four days the
body of Lazarus lay before the Redeemer's voice put life and
vigor into the decaying limbs.

Bethany is decidedly disappointing from every point of
view, and does not invite us to linger long within its wretched

A BEDOUIN WOMAN.

484

A DISCOURAGED PROPHET.

streets. Since we stay here so short a time, we can on this
same day visit Bethlehem, which lies on the other side of
Jerusalem, about an hour and a half by carriage from the
gates of the city.

The road from Jerusalem lies over rocky hills which are
spotted here and there with little patches of soil, laboriously
enclosed by rocks, where some scanty crops are raised by
the primitive agricultural methods of the day. Half-way

RACHELS TOMB.

out to Bethlehem, we see the place where it is supposed
Elijah lay down under the juniper tree and asked to die. He
must have lain down with considerable force, one would
think, for he has left a hole in the solid rock about the size
of a man's body, which is pointed out as the very spot where
he threw himself down in his unrighteous despair.

A little further on we come to the tomb of Rachel, which
is better authenticated than most historic sites in the vicinity.
It is a place greatly reverenced, especially by the Jews.
Fortunatelv, the custodian of the tomb was there when we

BETHLEHEM OP SONG AND STORY. 485

went by, and we enjoyed the privilege which many travelers
do not have, of entering the tomb and seeing the great rock
sepulchre in which it is not altogether improbable that the
beloved wife of Jacob is still resting.

" And Rachel died," says the sacred narrative, " and was
buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And
Jacob set a pillar upon her grave ; that is the pillar of
Rachel's grave unto this day."

Not many minutes beyond this historic tomb we see a
long, straggling Eastern village, and our pulses beat a little
quicker as we remember that this is none other than Bethle-
hem, Bethlehem of prophecy and of history, Bethlehem of
song and story, Bethlehem Ephrata, of which it was said
seven hundred years before our Lord was born, " Though
thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee
shall He come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel,
whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."

The town now contains about five thousand inhabitants,
most of them Christians, but among them only fifty Protes-
tant Christians. Here, the Latins and Greeks and Armeni-
ans all possess huge monasteries, and the inhabitants live by
raising cattle, by making images of saints and fancy articles
in olive wood, mother-of-pearl, and coral. The one supremely
interesting spot in this little town is covered by the Church
of Saint Mary, which is erected over the traditional birth-
place of Christ.

Our carriage rattles down through the principal street,
over the horribly rough pavements which sometimes give out
altogether, and are only replaced by holes and hummocks
which threaten to break every spring in the wagon. But
the driver paid no attention to such little obstacles. He
wants to show off to the best advantage, and cracking his
whip and urging on his horses, he flies through the narrow

486

THE PLACE OF THE NATIVITY.

streets, while the inhabitants flatten themselves against the
walls to escape his threatening wheels. Finally, he brings
up with a great flourish in front of the aforesaid Church of
Saint Mary, or, of " The Nativity," as it is usually called.

Of course the exact sites which are here pointed out are,
in all probability, spurious. Some of them are manifest
absurdities, and yet, very near to this spot, and quite proba-
bly within the space that is
covered by the roof of this
church, the Redeemer of Man-
kind was born. Here we can
afford to give our imagina-
tions full play and need not
try to curb our religious emo-
tions.

After passing through a

church which is grandly sim-

ilMm W ill mvml&Mt fviit' '/ H 1 ' m ' ts design, we come to

the Chapel of the Nativity
itself. The pavement is of
marble and the walls also are
lined with marble, while under
the altar a silver star marks
the place of Jesus' birth. The
inscription tells us : " Hie de
Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est."

For centuries and centuries, devout hearts have traveled
hither to worship at the cradle of our Lord, and from the
time of Constantine this spot has been richly decorated,
and golden lamps with their undying flame are constantly
swinging over the silver star.

Near by is the Chapel of the Manger, where the marble
cradle of Christ is pointed out to us. It does not meet our

A GIRL OF JUDEA.

GUARDING THE CRADLE OP OUR LORD. 487

ideas, however, of the rough stall from which the horses fed,
and which Protestant Christians always associate with the
birth of the Redeemer.

While we were looking at these relics, twenty-one Fran-
ciscan monks came into the chapel, carrying huge candles
and chanting the praises of the Virgin Mary. Behind them
followed a priest arrayed in most gorgeous vestments, and
followed by two attendants. As the priest approached the
place of the Nativity, he took a golden censer in his hand,
and then from a silver vase he took some powdered incense
and with a golden spoon sprinkled it on the living coals.

The fragrant smoke curled up to heaven, while the monks
chanted, and the priests with rhythmical motion swung the
golden censer, and the thirty-one lamps of gold and silver
shed their subdued light upon the scene. But even while we
looked we could see the grim figure of a Turkish soldier sta-
tioned beside the marble cradle itself to keep the peace
between the warring Christian factions.

How much of the beauty and harmony of the scene was
dissipated by this soldier's suggestive attitude ! How much
it told of warfare and bitterness where all should be peace
and harmony ! How much it suggested even of jealous and
envious sects who cannot even clasp hands across the cradle
of our Lord !

"We were glad before long to leave the Church of the
Nativity, and, as we rode home, we found more joy and sat-
isfaction in the sight of the peaceful plains where the shep-
herds watched their flocks by night, where Boaz left the
" handfuls of purpose," and where David kept his flocks, de-
livering them with the help of God out of the paw of the
lion and out of the paw of the bear, than in the gaudy
and tinsel-decked church over which quarrelsome Christians
have spent so much blood and treasure.

CHAPTEE XXVI.

WITHIN AND AROUND "THE DOME OF THE ROCK."

The Mosque of Omar — A Rock of Wonderful Traditions — Abraham's
Sacrifice — Our Retinue — Mohammed's Broomstick Ride — The Wily
Jew and the Pilgrim — The Wise Judge — The Marvelous Iron Chain
of Justice — A Wily Jew — Our Slippers and How We Kept Them On
— Our "Humbug" Sheik— The Great Rock — The Stone of Nails-
How the Devil Drew Them Out — An Easy Way of Buying Heaven —
A Rock Which Rests on Nothing — How Gabriel Held It Down — The
Way to Paradise — What the Pilgrim Found in the Well — Hairs from
the Beard of Mohammed — The Stables of Solomon — The Place of
Final Judgment — Startling and Curious Traditions — The Wailing
Place — Real Grief — A Squalid Scene — The Old Pharisee and His
Lovelocks — A Sad Litany — A More Joyful Keynote — A Marvelous
Race.

^EKHAPS the mosque of Omar
combines more of authentic his-
toric interest than any other one
place in the world. The Church
of the Holy Sepulchre, to be
sure, would be more interesting
to the Christian heart than the
site of the Temple of Solomon, if
we could put full and implicit
trust in the rather shady tra-
ditions which give it its fame.
But around the holy rock
over which the mosque of Omar is built few doubts linger.
We know something of the wonderful temple which once
overshadowed it. "We know what the rock itself was used

for, and though in these degenerate days the place has fallen

(488)

THE HOLY ROCK. 489

into impious Moslem hands, it is still of supreme and pathetic
interest to Jew and Christian, Catholic and Protestant, Ar-
menian and Mohammedan alike.

Even unsentimental Baedeker melts a little when he
comes to the Haram, as the whole place is called, and says,
with a suspicion of sympathy in his professional guide-
book phrase, "We now stand on one of the most profoundly
interesting spots in the world."

In Abraham's day the stone under this great dome was
an altar of sacrifice, and in that most touching of Biblical
stories we read that God said to Abraham, " Take now thy
son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee
into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt
offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of."

This was the mountain, so full since then of pathetic but
blessed memories to Jew and Christian alike, that God told
Abraham of.

This, too, was undoubtedly the threshing floor of
Araunah, the Jebusite, which David bought for fifty shekels
of silver, and where he built an altar unto the Lord and
offered burnt offerings and peace offerings because of the
plague which was devastating Israel. Here, temple after
temple was erected ; here David collected the vast treasures
for the magnificent house of worship which he was not per-
mitted on account of his blood-stained hands to build ; here,
Solomon, the most exalted monarch of his day, built the
grandest temple of the ages ; here Nehemiah and his faithful
compatriots on their return from exile built a less splendid
house for God's worship ; and here Herod, just before the
birth of Christ, erected a stately edifice whose stones were
being laid and whose beams were springing into their places
even while our Lord walked the streets of Jerusalem. He
must have watched the growth of the third temple.

490 AN IMPOSING PROCESSION.

For many centuries, as all know, Jerusalem has been in
the hands of Mohammedans, and the temple precincts have
been their especial treasure. Until within a few years the
" infidel dogs," as they politely designate all Christians,
were not allowed to set foot within the enclosure, but the
waning power of the Sultan could not resist the increasing
demands of Christian nations, and since the Crimean war,
travelers have been admitted to the Haram.

Even now there are some imposing formalities to be gone
through with before we can visit the sacred mosque. "We
applied to our United States Consul for a permit, and for his
kavass, who on the payment of five francs from each mem-
ber of the party accompanies us, to see that no harm befalls
us from infuriated Moslems who still have to be held in
check when their sacred places are invaded even by the
peaceful tourist. "We also were obliged to take a soldier to
defend us in case of attack, who expects a fee of three or
four francs, a small boy to carry our slippers which must be
donned before we enter the sacred precincts, while in ad-
dition to this array of followers, is our guide or dragoman,
who explains the significance of the sacred sights.

It was quite an imposing procession which set off one
bright March morning from the hotel just within the gates
of the city for the mosque of Omar. Leading the way was
the gorgeous kavass, arrayed in all his Oriental finery, car-
rying off his gaudy plumes with the utmost indifference and
dignity. Then came the soldier guard, scarcely less wonder-
fully arrayed, whose Winchester rifle, long sword, short
dirk, and brace of bull-dog pistols, were supposed to strike
terror to the heart of every pugnacious Turk who might dis-
pute our passage.

Following him was Abdallah, our dragoman. Then
came our modest selves, some half-dozen English and Ameri-

MEMORIES OF THE GREAT FALSE PROPHET.

491

cans. Our slipper boy followed after, and, as his only-
function was to put on our shoes when we removed the
slippers, and guard the shoes while we were in the mosque,
he was not obliged to appear in uniform.

Through the narrow, filthy streets we walked, passing the
Armenian monastery overshadowed by lofty and gloomy
cypresses, past the Turkish guard who unceasingly stands at
the gate of the Haram to prevent any unaccredited infidel
foot from pressing the sacred soil. At last we stood on the

THE MOSQUE OP OMAR.

very rocks made sacred by the feet of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob ; of David and Samuel ; of Judges, Prophets, Apostles,
and Martyrs, and of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, himself.

One soon gets the impression, however, that these pre-
cincts, in the minds of present owners, are more sacred to
the memory of Mohammed than of any one else, for at every
step we are reminded of the great false prophet by some
absurd tradition.

For instance, as we enter the grounds a spot enclosed by
marble pillars is shown us as the very spot from which
Mohammed started on his flying horse to visit Damascus

492 THE CHAIN OF JUDGMENT.

and Mecca, a journey of many hundred miles which occupied
him only five or six minutes. He had evidently anticipated
not only Darius Green and his flying machine, but all the
aerial inventions and electrical contrivances of the nineteenth
century. If he had only left to his devoted followers the
secret of his airy journey, how many would have called him
blessed ! The Atlantic would now have no terrors for
the timid landsman. The Mediterranean might wax never
so wrathy and yet it would not keep us at home. Even the
landing at Jaffa would have no fear for us, and traveling in
Palestine, which is now so wearisome, would be only a joyous
flitting from sacred spot to sacred spot.

But, alas ! Mohammed did not reveal the secret of his
flying horse, and we must still walk about on two feet, be
they never so weary.

Before the east entrance to the mosque of Omar is an-
other covered, dome-shaped pavilion surrounded by marble
pillars, and here we paused long enough for Abdallah to tell
us the story of the place. With his snapping, black Syrian
eyes, his expressive gestures and mobile face, he could make
the most untrustworthy and improbable traditions glow with
a living interest. Suspended from the roof of this pavilion,
says Abdallah, there used to be a chain of heavy iron links,
under which all accused persons must stand. If the chain
fell on them they were guilty ; if, however, the chain did not
fall, but remained suspended, they were innocent.

On one occasion there came to this place of judgment a
Mohammedan and a Jew, the Jew being accused by the
Mohammedan of robbing him of the gold which he had com-
mitted to the Jew on his departure for Mecca, whither he
had gone on a pilgrimage, for it is not permitted a pilgrim
to carry with him more money than is sufficient to meet the
necessities of life.

ABDALLAH'S STORY. 493

"When I came back from Mecca," said the Mussulman
at the trial, " this dog of a Jew would not give me back my
property, but swears that he never received it from me."

" Stand under the chain," said the just and inflexible
judge to the Jew, " and if you have your neighbor's money
its heavy links will fall on you and crush you to the dust."

" Most willingly," answered the Jew, " for I assure vou I
have not a penny of my neighbor's money." Upon this he
handed the judge a heavy cane that he carried in his hand
and briskly stepped under the avenging chain.

Sure enough, the Jew appeared to be right, the chain
remained strong and firm, not even by a wriggle of one of
its links did it show its desire to crush the accused.

" Ha, ha," said the judge to the Mohammedan, " you
have borne false witness, you must stand under the chain
yourself and it will soon show which is the perjured man."

Upon this the Jew received his cane back again and the
Mohammedan stepped under the chain, and still it did not
fall, neither did the links show any motion, or desire to
avenge a wrong.

" There must be some mistake about this," pondered the
judge, " the chain never made a mistake before. Either one
or the other of these men must be guilty."

Then a sudden light gleamed upon the mind of the
sapient dispenser of justice, and, taking the cane once more
out of the hand of the wily Jew, he broke it across his knee
and all the Mohammedan's gold rolled out from its hollow
interior.

Thus the secret stood revealed. The Jew did not have
a penny of the Moslem's money while he was under the
chain, for it was all in the judge's hands, and the chain could
not fall upon him, neither could it crush the Mohammedan,
for he was right in his accusation, and thus the wisdom of

4-94 SLIPPERS FOR INFIDEL FEET.

the great judge was re-established and the reputation of the
chain was preserved.

It was on this spot, too, according to Abdallah, that
Solomon discovered the true mother of the babe when he
took his sword and was about to cut the little one into two
pieces, and discovered by the heart-rending sobs and pikers
of one woman that the life of the child might be spared,
which the true mother of the infant was.

Here at this east door, near which the pavilion of the
chain is situated, we stopped to take off our shoes. A most
miscellaneous assortment of slippers was brought for those
who had no slippers with them by one of the attendants of
the mosque. These slippers were in all degrees and stages
of dilapidation. The only kind that we did not find among
the whole lot brought us to choose from, were those that
made any pretention to respectability. Great splay-footed
sides of leather, out at the toes and heels, were presented to
us ; equally disreputable pieces of carpeting which were
once slippers, but which now bear scarcely a resemblance to
soles and uppers were laid at our feet ; while, in other cases,
pieces of booking with a string run through the hole at the
top, into which the feet are supposed to be thrust, did duty
as foot coverings, and prevented our infidel feet from defil-
ing the sacred sanctuary of the Moslems.

The only thing about these slippers which is universal is
their conspicuous roominess. However, by careful manage-
ment, never lifting our feet from the ground, and shuffling in
the most awkward way, we were able to keep them on our
feet and to follow our guide, our kavass, and our soldier, into
the mosque. The crowd of attendants was here increased by
the old sheik of the mosque himself, and by several of his
retainers who followed us about in order that they might
have an excuse for demanding backsheesh.

COMPLIMENTING THE SHEIK. 495

Our new attendant, the sheik of the mosque, spoke only
Turkish. Our dragoman, Abdallah, is equally at home in
Turkish and English. Turning to us he said, with the ut-
most solemnity, " This sheik is a very great man, I assure
you, and he greatly honors us with his presence." This
complimentary explanation he translated into Turkish, and
then turning to us once more said, in English alone, for our
own private delectation, " And he is one great big humbug,
too, and no more use to us than two tails to a cat."

The sheik evidently considered this another compliment,
but fortunately, did not insist upon its being translated.

The mosque of Omar, or dome of the rock, as its Turkish
name may be translated into English, is an octagonal build-
ing, each of whose sides is sixty-six feet in length. The
upper part is covered with porcelain tiles of a subdued blue.
The effect is considered by artists to be remarkably fine.

The lower part of the building is covered with marble,
and passages from the Koran, written in interwoven charac-
ters, run around the building like a frieze.

Within, the building is not particularly remarkable, ex-
cept for the great rock in the center, and the traditions
which cluster around this rock, which, by hundreds of mil-
lions of people, is regarded as the central point of the world.

Just how large the claim on your reverence may be
which this rock should have, it is difficult to tell, but, in any
event, it will always hold its preeminence as one of the most
sacred spots to Jew and Mohammedan and Christian alike.

Authentic Jewish tradition tells us that on this very rock

Abraham offered sacrifice. Here Isaac lay, bound and ready

for the sacrificial knife which his father held in his hand

when the arresting voice of God was heard. Some scholars

say that on this spot the Holy of Holies of the ancient temple

stood, while still others declare that the great sacrificial altar
30

496 A SATANIC LEGEND.

stood here, and have discovered on the rock what they be-
lieve to be traces of a channel for carrying off the blood.

Many of the traditions which now cluster about this place
are undoubtedly of Mohammedan origin, and are of little
interest to Jew or Christian except as curious freaks of the
imagination.

But we will follow our old sheik about, as, with implicit
faith in his own story, he tells the tale to us. The great
rock which gives its name to the mosque is enclosed by a
screen which was put up in the days of the Crusaders, but
through the holes in the screen we can stick our fingers and
touch the sacred stone itself.

Just outside the screen, on the east side of the mosque, is
a stone in which are some nail-holes, while two or three nails
seem to be still driven into the stone and there remain
imbedded. Here, our ancient " humbug " of a sheik pauses
impressively and points with his fat fore-finger to these nails,
" Do you see this stone ? " he says, while his Arabic is trans-
lated into English by Abdallah. " There used to be thirteen
nails in this stone, and the devil knows very well that when
all the nails are drawn out the end of the world will come.
Of course, he is anxious for this so that he may escape from
torment himself. One day he came into the mosque with
his ugly forked tail and dreadful hoofs and began to pull out
the nails. He had pulled out ten of them and another was
half out when Gabriel saw what he was about, and stopped
him in the midst of his occupation. You can see that what
I am telling you is true," added the old sheik, "for there
are only two and one-half nails left, and you can see that
the devil pulled out all the rest before he was stopped."

This avaricious old sinner went on to say, "If anyone
puts some backsheesh down on this stone he is sure of going
to heaven." After this solemn assurance, we threw down a

WHERE PATRIARCHS AND PROPHETS PRAYED. 497

copper, and turning to the old Moslem, asked him if that
would assure us entrance into Paradise, but the sheik was
too shrewd to commit himself. " You may possibly squeeze
in," he said, "but if you would only give two francs, it
would make it sure." However, we declined to purchase
bliss at any such price as this.

This whole huge rock is supposed by Mohammedans to
rest on nothing, and when one goes down into a kind of
crypt or cellar- way underneath the rock, and shows them the
substantial stone pillars which support it, they claim that
underneath the crypt it is entirely hollow, and prove it by
pounding on the floor, which makes a hollow rumbling sound
as though there were a cavern beneath our feet.

In this subterranean chamber our dragoman points out
the places where David, Solomon, Abraham, and Elijah were
in the habit of praying. Here Mohammed used to pray
also, and, being a tall man, when he rose from his knees he
would surely have bumped his head against the ceiling, but
very considerately the stone rose out of his way, and there
is a hollow over our heads of exactly the shape of Moham-
med's turban.

In this rock is also a round hole through which, the
faithful assure us, that Mohammed ascended into heaven.
The stone could not bear to be deprived of his company, and
so it was following after him when Gabriel put his hand on
it and stopped it from going any further. Upon this, the
obedient stone settled back into its place, and blessed the re-
straining hand.

Our credulity is somewhat strained by this legend, but
when we expressed any doubt, our old guide settled the mat-
ter once for all by showing us a whitish quartz fragment in
the heart of the rock, which he declared to be the tongue of
the stone with which it blessed the hand of Gabriel.

498 THE WELL OF PARADISE.

Moreover, he showed us a depression in the stone itself,
upon which Gabriel's hand rested when it prevented the rock
from flying heavenward. What more could be said in vieAV
of such incontrovertible evidence '(

Going outside of the mosque again, we followed our
numerous guides to another building which is scarcely less
sacred than the dome of the rock. This is the mosque of
El Aksa, a long, rectangular building, much inferior to the
octagonal mosque that covers the sacred rock, but yet, hav-
ing its own relics of supreme interest to the Mohammedan.

Here is the sacred well of Paradise. As we look down
into its cavernous depths, we can see nothing but a great
black hole in the floor. We are assured, however, that this
is none other than the way to Paradise itself, for on one
occasion, a pilgrim who was here drawing water, lost his
bucket, and going down to get it, he saw two angels at the
bottom of the well, who told him that this was the way to
Paradise, and who at the same time, gave him two leaves
from the Tree of Life. These he stuck behind his ear, and
then came up to the surface once more, to prove by these
incontrovertible signs that what he said was true ; and from
that day to this, that precious romancer has been believed.
Evidently, it is not always certain that truth lies at the bot-
tom of the well.

In another part of this same mosque are two pillars
through which a tolerably stout man can barely squeeze
himself. The story connected with these pillars is that any
one who can crowd through between them is sure at last of
crowding into Heaven. Alas for the fat man ! There is no
more chance for him to enter Paradise through this gate
than for a camel to crawl though the eye of a needle.

However, neither the stout man nor the lean man nor
the middle-sized man could be deterred on any consideration

THE STABLES OF SOLOMON. 499

from trying to crowd his way between the pillars, until at
last, so scandalous became the crowding and pushing of
those who tried to get into Paradise in this cheap and easy
way, that the Governor of Jerusalem was obliged to fill up
the space with an iron frame which still remains between
the pillars, so that now neither fat nor lean can enter
Heaven by this door.

In this mosque there is a very beautiful carved pulpit,
some ancient copies of the Koran, which are well worth ex-
amining if the custodian can be persuaded to let us have a
glimpse of them, and there are also some hairs from Moham-
med's beard, carefully preserved in green wooden boxes.
These, I understand, are never visible to infidel eyes, and we
must take it on trust that wrapped up in innumerable
cloths and reposing in a large wooden box, is an actual hair
from the very beard of the marvelous man who so deeply
impressed the world by his fanaticism and strange person-
ality.

Underneath the mosque of El Aksa are the so-called
" stables of Solomon," huge subterranean caverns supported
by stone pillars in which one would think a thousand horses
might easily find accommodation, but whether one of Solo-
mon's gaily caparisoned steeds ever munched his hay and
oats in these caverns is an open question. They were un-
doubtedly, however, used by the Crusaders and Templars in
the middle ages, and the rings to which they tied their
horses are still found in the stone pillars.

Now let us go out into the open air once more. It is re-
freshing to breath God's sweet zephyrs, and to stand in His
sunlight once more, after the dismal, oppressing shadows of
the Mohammedan mosque. As we look around we find
that both of these mosques and the other buildings of the
Haram stand on a broad plateau, much of which is given up

500 THE PLACE OF THE LAST JUDGMENT.

to coarse grass and coarser weeds, with here and there a
pretty wild flower peeping out of its green bed.

From the top of the wall we can get a magnificent view
of the valley of Jehoshaphat and the Mount of Olives be-
yond. The whole hillside, which slopes down to the deep
ravine and then rises suddenly on the other side, is dotted
with tombs, — Moslem tombs on the side next to the city,
Jewish graves on the further side, for Jews and Moslems
alike agree that here at the resurrection day the nations will
assemble to be judged for the deeds done in the body.

To them this is the most solemnly sacred place in the
world, and the suggestion from the wall which surrounds
the temple area is surpassingly awful to their imagination.
Projecting over the wall and built in horizontally is a pros-
trate column. The Mohammedans say that from this column
a thin wire rope, when Gabriel's trumpet blast proclaims the
last judgment, will be stretched to the Mount of Olives.
Christ will sit on the wall, they say, and Mohammed on the
opposite mountain as the judges of all the nations of the earth
who will be gathered in the valley beneath. All men must
pass over the valley on this rope. The righteous will be
miraculously kept from falling, and will fly across the rope
like lightning, while the wicked will fall into the abyss
below and there will writhe in torment forever.

There are many more traditions, wonderful and startling
and curious, which cluster around this temple area.

Not far from this mosque, which is so crowded with
Moslem traditions, is a place which is still more interesting
and far more pathetic in my eyes than the one where we
have spent the morning ; as much more pathetic as is real
grief than doubtful traditions and simulated sorrow. I refer
to the wailing place of the Jews. To this sorrowful spot
let us take our way through the dirty, crowded streets.

JEWS AT THE WAILING PLACE.

501

It is Friday afternoon that we visit this most doleful place,
and after winding in and out through narrow streets and
lanes we find our way barred by a high Avail composed
in its lower courses of huge blocks of stone. This wall is 56
feet in height and 150 in length and consists of 24 layers of
stone, several of the stones being from 12 to 16 feet in
length.

As we come into the narrow courtyard bounded by this

WAILING PLACE OP THE JEWS.

high wall we find it filled with Jews of all ages, and of all
conditions of life. Men, women, and children ; well-dressed
Jews and ragged Jews ; dirty Jews and clean Jews ; dudish
Jews dressed in the latest Paris style, and old patriarchs in
sheepskin jackets and baggy trousers; fresh young faces
whose beauty is not wholly spoiled by the inevitable Roman
beak which so often makes the Jew look like a bird of prey,
and old weather-beaten Pharisees with love-locks curling
about each ear, and dangling down under their round caps.

502

THE SOLEMN LITANY.

Sitting on the ground were several old rabbis, reading
from well-thumbed books of the law the appropriate pas-
sages of lamentation and woe, while others responded in
grief -striken accents, " We sit in solitude and mourn."

But the most pathetic sight to me was that of old
women whose grief could not be restrained and was evi-
dently as genuine as it was uncontrollable. Spreading out
their withered hands on the rough stones of the wall, with
tears running down their cheeks, they would passionately
kiss the stones worn smooth by the lips of countless pilgrims,
and cry out in very bitterness of spirit as they thought
of the glories which had forever departed and the shame
and contumely which had come to their once great nation.

Here is the litany that was chanted, and my readers can
imagine the weird and sorrowful scene as the leader, with
the great book of the law opened before him, wails out his
agony, and the people, many of them with tears streaming
down their faces, utter the responses. Here is this strange
responsive service which every week for many generations
has been heard by the stern gray walls that overlook the
scene and seem forever to bar the progress and happiness of
the Jewish nation.

Leader. "For the palace that lies desolate,"
Response. " We sit in solitude and mourn."

Leader. " For the palace that is destroyed,"
Response. " We sit in solitude and mourn."

Leader. " For the walls that are overthrown,"
Response. " We sit in solitude and mourn."

Leader. " For our great men who lie dead,"
Response. " We sit in solitude and mourn."

Leader. "For the priests who have stumbled,"
Response. " We sit in solitude and mourn."

Leader. " For our kings who have despised him,"
R<">ponse. " We sit in solitude and mourn."

A MORE JOYOUS STRAIN. 503

At this point the service rises from this minor key for a
moment. The tears of the wailing multitude are dried for a
little while. Thev cease to beat the wall with their with-
ered hands, as, for a moment, the joy of the coming kingdom
in which they still hope Israel may have a share, breaks
upon their vision; and, while their leader reads: "We pray
thee have mercy on Zion," the response comes back,
" Gather the children of Jerusalem."

Leader. " Haste, haste, Redeemer of Zion."
Response. " Speak to the heart of Jerusalem."

Leader. "May beauty and majesty surround Zion."
Response. "Ah, turn thyself, merciful to Jerusalem."

Leader. " May the kingdom soon return to Zion."
Response. " Comfort those icho mourn over Jerusalem."

Leader. " May peace and joy abide with Zion."
Response. " And the branch of Jesse spring up at Jerusalem."

As one listens to this sad wail, even though relieved at
times by a more joyous strain, he cannot help believing that
the Jews are not cast off forever, that a people of so much
moral earnestness and intensity have a great future as well
as a great history behind them, and that a nation that has
resisted the encroachments of every enemy that could be
marshaled against them and still retain in their integrity so
many of their national characteristics, have a strength and
tenacity of purpose which will be used by Providence in
working out in the future His great design.

Mean and squalid as is the wailing place of the Jews, one
returns from a visit there not only impressed and saddened
by the concentrated grief of a great people, but also im-
pressed with the possibilities of such a people when regen-
erated and redeemed by the Saviour whom now they reject,
when they shall take their place among the united, progress-
ive Christian nations of the world.

CHAPTER XXVII.

IN THE HOME OF SAINT PAUL — THE FAMOUS CEDARS OF
LEBANON — OUR EXPERIENCES IN THE LAND OF THE
SULTAN — AT THE MERCY OF INHOSPITABLE TURKS.

Embarking at Jaffa — Americans in Syria — Their Splendid College — An
Interesting Room — The Beginning of Our Tribulations — A Turkish
Custom House — Forbidden Words — The Sapient Censor — A School
Boy's Composition and What Came of it — The Use of Ironclads
— An Ill-Starred Rebellion — " No Mean City" — St. Paul's Well —
Drawing Water from It — St. Paul's Tree — St. Paul's Institute — .
Humble Streets — A Walk to the Vali's Palace — " Palace " or
"Sheds"? — In the Presence of His Excellency — "The Bouyou-
rouldou " — lOmcial Handwriting — A Sunday in Adana — A Living
Screen — A Congregation of Fezzes — Squatting on the Floor — "Is
America on a Hill ? " — Preparing for our Overland Journey.

^Uli way from the Holy City to the
land of the Sultan proper, led back
once more to Jaffa, where we
found the sea smiling and calm as
though it had never thought of
frightening poor pilgrims, or in-
gulling their frail boats as it so
often seems to do. Our embarka-
tion was as quiet and peaceful as
the landing was stormy, and the
next morning after leaving Jaffa,
we found ourselves anchored in

the roadstead of Beirut, the most enterprising and populous

seacoast city of Syria.

While Beirut has many points of interest to the passing

traveler, that which impressed us most strongly was the work

(504)

TRANSLATING THE BIBLE INTO ARABIC. 505

of the American Presbyterian Mission with its great printing
presses, its churches, its school, and above all the magnificent
American college which is the outgrowth of missionary work
and influence, and which now boasts of buildings and equip-
ment and faculty of which neither Yale nor Harvard nor
Dartmouth nor Princeton need be ashamed.

The Hospital of the Knights of St. John is here under the
care of the medical faculty of the college, and is a most use-
ful and worthy institution. This fine university only goes
to show that modern ideas of American Christian education
are just as good for the Orient as for the Occident, that the
same training and Christian nurture which develops well-
rounded, symmetrical character in the American youth
accomplishes the same for the young men of Syria ; for
never have I seen a more manly or interesting body of stu-
dents than assembled in the American College of Beirut.
One of the most interesting historical sights to every Ameri-
can Christian is that of a low and bare attic-room in one of
the mission buildings where the translation of the Bible into
Arabic was begun and completed by two American scholars.
A marble tablet on the wall bears this inscription :

In this Boom

The Translation of the Bible

Into the Arabic Language

Was Begun in 1848,

by Bev. Eli Smith, D.D.,

and prosecuted by him until his death in January, 1857.

It was then taken up in October, 1857, by Bev. C. V. A. Vandyck, D.D., and

completed by him August 23, 1864-

Away to the north, over a rough and difficult road, are
the famous Cedars of Lebanon.

They are in a valley which is dominated by the high
peaks of the range, and stand on a little hill or knoll, so that
they are visible from a considerable distance.

506 THE FAMOUS CEDARS OP LEBANON.

Though there are other cedar groves m Syria, the one
here mentioned is the most important, for the reason that it
is supposed to have furnished the timber for Solomon's Tem-
ple, as recorded m the Old Testament.

There is a great deal of romantic interest attached to these
trees. One has heard of them from childhood, and has pic-
tured to one's self trees of more than ordinary beauty, and
of an exceptional fragrance. These ideas probably arise
from knowing that Solomon considered no other wood
worthy of being used in the adornment of the Temple, and
that Tiglath-Pileser, having conquered Carchemish, came
hither for the express purpose of carrying away a goodly
number of these forest treasures to beautify his palaces.

It is probable, that at a very distant date the slopes of
Lebanon were clothed with forest ; but from time to time so
many trees have been cut down by the Syrians themselves,
as well as by their conquerors, that at the present day they
exist only in small isolated groves. The most extensive of
these, known to us as " The Cedars of Lebanon," is called by
the Syrians " The Grove of the Lord," and in it there are
three hundred and ninety-three trees ; of these, only twelve
are of any great size, and they have received the name of
" The Twelve Apostles," from a tradition that Christ once
visited this spot with His apostles, who planted their staves,
which grew into these goodly cedars.

Kind friends made our two days in Beirut memorable,
and crowded them with pleasant memories. Then we again
took ship, and, after skirting the Mediterranean coast, touch-
ing for a few hours at Tripoli, Latakia, and Alexandretta, we
came to anchor in the harbor of Mersin, and found ourselves,
beyond all peradventure, in the land of the Sultan of Sultans,
and within the very borders of the unspeakable Turk.

To be sure, Syria is nominally ruled by the Sultan and

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AT THE MERCY OF OFFICIOUS TURKS.

509

pays tribute to Turkey, and though this rule is severe enough
in all conscience, and his oppression and tyranny sufficiently
galling, yet no one knows the full extent to which outrageous
tyranny can be carried, until he actually sets foot in Asia
Minor, and finds himself in the Turk's own proper domain.

Our tribulations began
with the Custom House.
Though we had three or
four kind friends who ex-
erted themselves to their
utmost to see us safely
through, their offices did
not altogether avail. Our
trunks were rummaged,
our traveling bags were
turned inside out, and
everything in the nature
of a book, even innocent
Badaeker and Murray, was
confiscated by this pater-
nal government which is
so careful in regard to the
reading matter of its sub-
jects. And here, as first
we land upon the inhos-
pitable shores of Turkey,
may, perhaps, be as good

a time as any to tell my readers something of the tyranny
which is only typified by the Sultan's custom house.

It can be well imagined that the work of the Christian
missionary comes in for the especial and particularly un-
favorable notice of the Turkish government. An old treaty
with the Christian powers prevents the Ottomans from

DRUSE FROM MOUNT LEBANON.

510 OBSTACLES THROWN IN OUR WAY.

crushing out Christianity entirely from their land, as they
would be glad to do. This treaty guarantees liberty to
worship God as the people choose, but in every way in which
it can be made a dead letter it is annulled. Churches which
are already established cannot be very well destroyed, but if
a congregation wishes to build a new church or schoolhouse,
or to put up any mission building of any kind, the most
needless and exasperating obstacles are thrown in the way.
One of the laws requires that permission shall be granted by
the government authorities for any such new building, and
some of our missionaries have been waiting for years and
years for the permission, w r hich they can never get, to erect
their church or schoolhouse, even though the money is
raised and the material on hand for the structure.

The chief object in my journey across Asia Minor, as my
readers know, was to speak in various large centers where I
had been invited in behalf of the Society of Christian En-
deavor, and to visit societies already established. But I
found at once that obstacles and restrictions in the way of
Christian work had so multiplied of late that it would be
very difficult to do what I had intended. I was told that I
must not use in public address the words "organization,"
"society," "fellowship," "brotherhood," or anything which
told of the union of young people for religious or other
purposes; that it was against the policy of the Turkish
government to allow the people to unite or combine for any
purpose whatsoever in any society or organization, and that
everything was being done that was possible to break up
all religious organizations.

In every audience which I addressed, and I had the
pleasure of speaking to many during my four weeks in
Turkey, I was told that a Turkish spy was in the congrega-
tion, and that any ill-considered word might land myself and

TURKISH STUPIDITY AND IGNORANCE. 511

half my audience in a Turkish jail. Everything in the way
of printed matter which comes into Turkey has to pass under
the close scrutiny of a stupid and ignorant censor of the
press. So absurd are his objections, and so rigid is his
inspection, that very little literature of any kind is allowed
in these days.

As illustrations of the stupidity which reigns in the
censor's office many amusing stories are told. For instance,
a Sunday-school lesson, which bore the Scriptural title
"Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners," was
amended by the censor so as to read, " Jesus Christ came
into the world to save Christian sinners," since he wanted it
plainly understood that the Redeemer had nothing to do
with Turkish sinners. A daily Bible reading, which was
headed " Trouble in the Palace," referring to the palace
which is spoken of in the Book of Esther, was forbidden
because trouble and a palace (the Sultan's palace, of course)
could not be spoken of in the same breath. Another Bible
reading which bore the inoffensive title, "The People En-
couraged," was likewise absolutely forbidden, with the sug-
gestive comment that the government did not wish the people
to be encouraged.

Doubtless the truth was spoken in this comment if in no
other, but this extreme rigor of the censor applies not only
to religious books, but to school text-books as well, and here
even more absurd and amusing stories of the censor's stupid
caution are told. A book on chemistry, which of course
contained the familiar formula, "H 2 0," was forbidden,
because it was supposed to have some occult reference to the
reigning sovereign, who is Hamid 2d, and it was interpreted
to mean " Hamid 2d is nothing." A geographical text-book
was forbidden because it referred to the junction or union of
rivers, and the author was told that his Majesty desired the

512 A DISCREET ARMENIAN.

youth of his country to know nothing about union or com-
bination. A chapter on star fishes was stricken out of a
text-book of natural history, because some hidden reference
to the Sultan's " Star palace " was suspected.

But these emendations and objections of the censor might
easily be dismissed with a laugh, as the vagaries of an
ignorant man having in his hands for a brief time the reins
of office, did they not show a studied and deliberate effort on
the part of the officials to prevent all learning and advance-
ment along the line of Christian civilization. The policy of
the government is evidently oppressive and reactionary, and
it means to do everything that it can to crush out the sparks
of Christian education.

"When it comes to absolute torture, imprisonment, and
death, this oppression is no longer a laughing matter, and to
this point it has come to hundreds of the subjects of the
Sultan. An intelligent and well-educated native Armenian
Protestant pastor whom I visited had recently received a
letter from Prof. Henry Drummond of Glasgow, in which
the writer spoke of his desire to visit " Armenia" The poor
man who received the letter did not dare to keep it in his
house with that compromising word on the title page, so he
had carefully cut out the word " Armenia," and written over
the place where it had formerly appeared the word " Turkey."
Even the possession of that letter with that compromising
word might have meant for him years of imprisonment in a
Turkish dungeon.

Another man of whom I know was imprisoned for two
years simply because the Turkish police found among his
effects, when they were searching his house on one occasion,
a school-boy composition which spoke of freedom and liberty,
and expressed some natural sentiments for a larger and more
untrammeled life than he was then leading. This composi-

A COWARDLY TYRANT. 513

tion, written fifteen years before his arrest, had been thrown
one side and entirely forgotten until it was resurrected by
the prying Turkish officials. But it was enough to compro-
mise its author, and for two years he languished in a Turkish
jail in consequence of that innocent boyish effusion. These
are only a few incidents from many that might be cited to
illustrate the outrageous tyranny of the weak and timid ruler
who reigns on the banks of the Bosphorus. They are
enough, however, to show the terror under which many of
" the sick man's " subjects live, and they are enough to
arouse the indignation of every freedom-loving American
and Englishman on the face of the earth.

Only by a combined protest of the Christian powers of
the world, backed up by the necessary ironclads, can this un-
happy state of things be changed ; but such a protest would
be effective, and very quickly would the cringing tyrant, in
whose name these outrages are perpetrated, issue different
orders from those which now go forth from his palace, if he
saw that the Christian powers " meant business." The pre-
text for these especially oppressive measures which have
disgraced the government during the past year, is found in
the so-called Armenian rebellion, an ill-timed, fruitless, and
abortive uprising which was fomented largely by a society
of Armenians whose motives were anything but patriotic.

They represented, however, only a very small proportion
of their countrymen, and the chief result of their ill-starred
rebellion has been to make their fellow countrymen feel
more severely than ever before the crushing heel of the
tyrant of Constantinople.

But we have not yet got beyond the custom house at
Mersin, so long have we been in unburdening our souls of the
righteous indignation that has taken possession of them.

Mersin is an uninteresting seacoast town, where some fine

514 IN THE HOME OF SAINT PAUL.

missionary work is being accomplished by the Keformed
Presbyterian Church of America among the Arabic-speaking
Syrians. As soon as we could collect the belongings which
the government allowed us to keep, we boarded the train on
the little railway which runs between Mersin and Adana.
What is the name of this place which we hear the brakeman
calling out with stentorian lungs ? " Tarsus, Tarsus.' 1 Can
it be that this is the famous city of Bible history, the birth-
place of the greatest man who ever lived, the Apostle to the
Gentiles? It certainly is no other. This was the city of
the great tent-maker, who here wrought with his own hands,
and who, with a touch of pardonable pride in after years,
spoke of Tarsus, his birthplace, as " no mean city."

The first thought that is apt to occur to the traveler in
modern days is that whatever Tarsus may have been in the
days of Saint Paul it is certainly a very mean city in some
of its aspects to-day. Its streets are many of them narrow
and exceedingly filthy. Few of its houses present any
claim to architectural excellence. The roads leading to it
are washed and almost impassable in many places, and yet
in all these particulars it is not only no worse, but probably
far better than the average Turkish city. Comparatively
speaking, it can still be said that Tarsus is no mean city.

Everything of chief interest in this ancient place clusters
about the name of the great apostle. To be sure, the re-
puted tomb of Sardanapalus is here, but it attracts only a
momentary and languid interest compared with anything
that relates to Saint Paul. These relics are few and meagre
enough, and probably, in the whole collection, there is noth-
ing that is absolutely and beyond question authentic.

Here, however, is the so-called house of Saint Paul,
which of course we visited. In the ample courtyard there is
an ancient well which goes by the name of "Saint Paul's

THE HOUSE AND WELL OF SAINT PAUL. 515

"Well," whose curbstone is worn deep in many places by the
ropes which for countless generations have drawn the water
from its liquid depths. We also drew a bucket of water
and quenched our thirst and looked down into the silent
depths which reflected the eye of the sun as it doubtless
did when the boy Saul peered down into its depths, for these
ancient wells are among the most authentic as they are the
most indestructible evidences of antiquity.

The house of Saint Paul, which occupies one side of this
courtyard, is no doubt a comparatively modern structure, but
it is quite possible that it stands upon the site of Saint Paul's
own domicile. It was formerly the residence of the Ameri-
can Vice-Consul at Tarsus, and we were very hospitably
welcomed by his widow into their sitting-room, a comfort-
able apartment surrounded on three sides by broad Turkish
divans, but containing no very noticeable features or me-
mentoes.

In another part of the city is a fine Armenian church
and school, near which stands a gnarled and rugged tree
which tradition for many generations has called "Saint
Paul's tree." For many years it has been withered and
utterly dead, and it is not altogether impossible that it may
have been growing eighteen hundred years ago, and that
the boy Saul played under its shady branches. At any rate,
its wood seems to be almost indestructible, for when, with
the permission of the authorities which owned it, I tried to
cut a sliver from its trunk as a memento, it almost turned
the blade of my penknife, so compact was the iron fibre of
the wood.

But of all the institutions connected with the name of
Saint Paul the one most interesting to me was Saint Paul's
School, which was founded by the late Col. Elliott F. Shep-
herd. On the very day of our arrival in Tarsus news of his

516 DIRT AND FILTH EVERYWHERE.

lamented death had been cabled across the sea, and teachers
and scholars alike were in profound sorrow in consequence.
However, their sorrow was mitigated when it was learned
after a little that he had endowed the school with $100,000
by his last will and testament. A fine, manly, courageous
set of boys were these who were gathered together to the
number of nearly one hundred in this historic city, and
according to their ability and opportunity, many will go out
from this school in the future with the spirit of Saint Paul
to do for their land what he did for all the world.

From Tarsus to Adana is twenty miles further by rail, and
in this latter city we spent two or three memorable days, for
they introduced us largely to missionary work in Turkey,
and acquainted us with several brave hearts who are here
quietly and unostentatiously working for the Master. Here,
too, we got our first extended view of genuine Turkish life.

Here Turkey is neither at its worst nor at its best. Pro-
testant influence has leavened and elevated the tone of the
city to some extent, but the many minarets from which five
times a day at the hour of prayer the muezzin sounds his
call shows that the predominating influence is still most
strongly Mohammedan. The horrible streets full of pitfalls
and miry clay, the filthy alleys which serve as receptacles
for rubbish and swill, garbage and dead animals of various
kinds, show that insufferable dirt is one concomitant of
Turkish rule.

One of our errands while in Adana took us to the Vali or
governor of the province, for we desired of him passports
and a safe conduct across the country to Constantinople.
Let us take this walk and visit the Yali together this morn-
ing. As we turn out of the mission house, where we are
making our home, we see at a glance that we are in the
very heart of Turkey. Every person whom we meet, even

THE UBIQUITOUS TURKISH FEZ.

517

the occasional foreigner, if he is of the male persuasion,
wears the inevitable red Turkish fez, and most of them are
clad in baggy trousers and long loose garments which reach
below the knee. In one of the narrow streets though which

OUR TURKISH PASSPORT.

we pass we see the weaver of goat's hair plying his trade
almost on the sidewalk.

This was the very same material, doubtless, of which
Paul made his tents, and perhaps he wove the cloth in the
same way as this man who runs back and forth from one
end to the other of his long: loom, deftlv twirling his bobbin

518 IN THE STREETS OF A TURKISH CITY.

and twisting the strands of goat's hair which afterwards will
be made up into a rough and serviceable cloth.

On the other side of the street from the goat's hair man-
ufacturer is a mill in which sesame oil is being expressed.
The sesame seed is run into a great hopper after being
soaked for a sufficient time in the vats, and is then ground
very fine beneath the revolving stones which are turned by
a tread-mill ox, while the oil, thick and dirty, runs out into
the vats beneath from a crevice in the mill-stone. This oil is
very much prized by the natives, and is used largely in mak-
ing a popular kind of sweetmeat, which one cannot fail to
appreciate if he spends many days in Turkey, so toothsome
and nourishing is it.

And now in our walk, we come to the market-place of
the town, a long covered street lined with little booths on
either side, in which everything imaginable and many things
unimaginable are sold. Hardware and crockery, dry goods
and groceries, fish, flesh, and fowl, and good red herrings,
too, for aught I know, are all sold in this busy bazaar. Here
are money changers and shoemakers, fez manufacturers and
kettle makers, all jostling one another side by side in their
narrow booths. It is a scene of infinite life and variety, and
would long delay our footsteps, if we were not hurrying on
to see his Excellency, the Vali of Adana, to learn whether or
not we may be allowed to make the journey on which we
have set our hearts.

Not far beyond the market place is the so-called " palace,"
but a sorry looking palace it is, indeed, for it strikes us that
it might more properly be called the "sheds," since it consists
of a long row of poor wooden structures around a large
quadrangle. However, it is more picturesque and impress-
ive to speak of the Yali's "palace" rather than the Vali's
" sheds," so we will stick to the Turkish nomenclature.

OUR INTERVIEW WITH THE VALI. 519

Passing many Turkish guards and a large number of im-
portant looking officials, who push aside for us numerous
stiff hangings of heavy quilted stuffs which take the place of
doors, we find ourselves soon in a large shabby room hung
with faded red tapestry, and in the presence of the Vali him-
self. He is a grave looking man of fifty years, or therea-
bouts, with a good face which indicates that he is willing to
do what he can for our comfort and convenience. First, he
politely passed us a cigarette, which we as politely declined,
and then, apologizing for not giving us coffee and other
refreshments because it was Kamidan, he talked very pleas-
antly for a little while of various matters, while our mission-
ary guide interpreted his Turkish into our English. Then
insisting that we should not go to Constantinople by way of
Marsovan, which just then was the center of the Armenian
disturbance, but that we should go by way of Angora which
was more peaceful, he very readily gave us the necessary
passports or tezkereis, and also a safe conduct, or " bouyou-
rouldou." This document was written in huge Turkish
characters, not straight across the page, but in a slanting,
irregular, reckless kind of a fashion in which all official
Turkish documents are written, for it is not at all avfait to
write such papers in ordinary epistolary style.

Such bold and vigorous penmanship is supposed to strike
terror to the hearts of all evil doers who may be confronted
by it. It shows them that it is an official document, and, as
we proved more than once during the long journey before
us, there is nothing like a governor's bouyourouldou to insure
a safe and happy transit across the fields of Turkey.

One of the two days which we spent in Adana was Sun-
day, and I had the pleasure of preaching to a very large and
intelligent congregation gathered in the American Mission
Church. The church itself is not an extremely large one,

520

PREACHING TO A TURKISH CONGREGATION.

but as seats are done away with, and as the congregation
squats on the floor as closely as men, women, and children
can be wedged together, many hundreds of people can be
gathered into a comparatively small area. Of course it is not
proper for men and women to sit together promiscuously in
the same part of the church. In many churches women are

A SYRIAN WOMAN OF THE LOWER CLASS.

relegated to the gallery, or are confined behind the lattice
screen in the back part of the church through which they
can peep at the preacher, but through which they cannot be
seen by preacher or congregation.

In Adana, however, the middle wall or partition between
the men and women was made in a different way. The
long row of benches ran through the center of the church

AN AUDIENCE OF SQUATTERS.

521

from the pulpit to the door. On these benches sat a close
line of men with their backs ungallantly turned toward the
women, who occupied the space on the right hand side of the
church, screened from the other men by the backs of the
husbands and fathers who thus afford an effectual barrier
between the two sexes.

These high seats in the sanctuary are much coveted, I
understand, by the older
and more dignified men of
the congregation, and no
one is averse to doing duty
as a living screen. All the
men wore red fezzes while
the chief speaker was dis-
tinguished by a jaunty em-
broidered blue cap which
looked something like a
smoking cap. This he re-
moved during the services
at which he officiated.
"When I thought that every
possible inch of squatting
room was occupied on the
women's side of the parti-
tion, woman after woman would come in, stand on one foot
for some little time in the smallest possible space, until her
sisters before and behind and on either side pulled away their
skirts, drew their knees a little closer together, and so made
room for the late comer.

At last the church was absolutely full, the service began.
and a very helpful, reverent, and stimulating service it was
so far as I could judge ; though I could not understand the
hymns or the Scripture readings or the notices, and the ser-

A SYRIAN WOMAN OF THE BETTER CLASS.

522

THE COLLECTION BOX IN TURKEY.

mon, which I fear was the poorest part of the service, was
laboriously translated from English into Turkish. I did
understand the collection box, however, which is the same in
all languages.

It is very certain that such a congregation as this repre-
sents the very best elements in a Turkish town. Not that

-/j>j

*&*#

'sv-\£jb

?»-

'■»J?J^t>

*Mk£|

**>-s£

f <~3j~

OTJR LIFE PRESERVER.
(Facsimile of onr " Bouyourouldou.")

the Armenians themselves are superior to the Turks as a
race, in fact, it would be strange, if, after these centuries of
oppression and tyranny their national characteristics should
be very manly or strong. Those who live in Turkey say
that the Turk, when found free from government influence
and not under government employ, is the most honest,
manly, and straightforward man in the empire. He makes

REMARKABLE IGNORANCE AND AMUSING QUESTIONS. 523

a faithful servant and a true friend, but he belongs to the
present order of things. He is part of the machine which is
used to crush the life out of this poor land and the manliness
out of the subject races who inhabit it. The only hope
which I see for Turkey is found in these mission churches
and mission schools which are always connected with them.
When the upheaval comes, as surely it will come one of these
days, the educated Armenian Protestants will hold the key
of the situation in their hands. Then will be seen the value
of missionary influence and missionary work during these
long decades, and that which has been sown in tears will be
reaped in joy, and many a faithful missionary will sing the
" Harvest Home," bearing himself the largest sheaf which
it is possible for mortal to reap.

The ignorance of the average Turk concerning places and
people beyond him is most extraordinary and amusing.
Many of them have very little idea that Turkey does not rule
all the rest of the world, including America, and many of
the Turks have only just begun to wonder if it is possible
that all the people of the world are not Mohammedans. One
of these conceited and ignorant natives said to a friend of
mine a little while ago : " You are constantly talking
about America. Now is this America on a hill or is it situ-
ated in a valley?" Another, when walking outside of a
Turkish city, in a most flat, uninteresting suburb, which was
chiefly noticeable for its rubbish and its dead cats, where my
friend assured me he had to hold his nose in order to escape
the stifling stench, was asked by a native friend by his side :
" Did you ever see anything as beautiful as this in America?"
It is difficult, indeed, to enlighten such dense ignorance.

Two days in Adana sufficed to make all our preparations
for the coming journey. In fact, the friend who had come
f rom the interior to meet us with his faithful Turkish servant,

524 PREPARING FOR OUR JOURNEY ACROSS TURKEY.

had already made most of these preparations before we had
come. The spring wagon, the pride of the touring mission-
ary, had come all the long journey across the mountains to
carry us back within its capacious interior. Our passports
and our safe conduct were all correctly vised. Our Turkish
guard, the soldier who was to protect us from all the robbers
and dangers in the way, armed cap-a^pie, was to meet us at
Tarsus next day, whence we should set out for our long over-
land trip, fraught as it was with unknown dangers and
difficulties.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

A REMARKABLE JOURNEY ACROSS ASIA MINOR IN A SPRING
WAGON — THRILLING EXPERIENCES BY THE WAY— A
DANGEROUS RIDE.

An Imposing Cavalcade — Foolish "Franks" — An Arsenal of Archaic
Weapons — Ali, the Turk — Anastas, the Errand Boy — "Meat" —
Entrancing Scenery — Snow-capped Lebanon — Eloquent Ruins — Our
Fellow Travelers — Caravans of Camels — The Patient Donkey —
Pleasant Salutations — "May the Almighty Cling to your Hand" —
The Motto of the Spoons — The Story of the Dervish — The Holy Ass

— A Chip of the Old Block — Keeping Off the "Evil Eye" — "You
Dirty Brat" — A Fond Mother's Salutation — The Mother-in-Law in
Turkey — A Typical Turkish Khan — Sharing a Bed with the Camels

— Through the Cilician Gates — The "Bad Five Miles" — How We
Held the Wagon Crossing the Taurus Mountains — In the Guest Room
of Selim.

T was a bright spring morning
when Ave set out from Tarsus for
the long journey across the Tau-
rus mountains and over the
plains of Asa Minor for the
beautiful city on the Golden
Horn. "We formed quite an im-
posing cavalcade for these roads
unaccustomed to wheeled ve-
hicles. The camel drivers stared
at our wagon, the donkey boys
pricked up their ears as they saw
us approaching, and gazed at us until we had disappeared in
the dim distance, wondering, we suppose, why those
; ' Franks " should be so foolish as to start across the countrv

in wagons when they could so much more easily go by sea.

( 525 ) *

526 A NATIVE TRAVELING OUTFIT.

In front of us pranced our Turkish soldier, or Zabtiyeh,
who had made himself a perfect arsenal of obsolete weapons.
Then came the two-horse wagon into which was packed not
only our three selves and our missionary guide and driver,
but four cot beds with appropriate bedding, pillows, blank-
ets, and coverlets for the cool nights, and a huge basketful
of provisions which our kind host had packed for us with
the utmost care, and which was supposed to be enough,
when supplemented by occasional draughts on native stores
by the way, to last us to Caesarea, six days distant.

Following this wagon came a disreputable-looking spring-
less cart drawn by two specimens of Turkish horse flesh,
and carrying two trunks and various provisions in the way
of bedding and provender for men and beasts. The driver
and owner of this cart was a native who wished to get to
Caesarea and who was glad to earn a few chereks on the
way.

With him was our faithful servant Ali, a character in his
way, shrewd, kindly, competent, and faithful to the last de-
gree, a man who, I verily believe, would lay down his life
for his master or for any one in the party if danger came in
the way. Nominal Turk though he was, his allegiance to
the false prophet evidently sat very lightly upon him, for he
always appeared at prayers morning and night, and seemed
to be among the most devout worshipers at the Protestant
church services on the way. To avow himself a convert to
Christianity would doubtless have compelled him either to
forfeit his life or his country. His courage as yet was not
quite equal to this supreme test, though I have no doubt that
in heart he was a sincere Christian.

Together with Ali and the driver was an assistant, a sort
of general errand-boy, fire-builder, wood-carrier, and water-
drawer, named Anastas. He had run away from home

" MEAT, MEAT." 527

some weeks previously, but was now heartily sick of his fool-
ish adventure and was quite willing to work his passage
back to Caesarea once more. The little pilgrim seemed to
have a wonderful attraction for him. Anastas could
scarcely keep his eyes or his hands off him. He would fol-
low him about all day like a big, good-natured shepherd dog.
He would run races with him and chase hamsters and en-
gage in stone-flinging matches, and every now and then he
would come up to him and taking his hand would say very
impressively, "Meat, meat." For a long time we could not
understand the significance of this word, until it was at last
explained to us that he thought this was the little pilgrim's
name, as he had heard some one asking him to pass the meat
at the dinner table. Jumping at this conclusion from such
uncertain premises he was not able to get the idea out of his
head during all the long journey, but in every way possible
showed his interest and affection in his little friend "Meat."
For a short distance from Tarsus we were escorted by
two of the faithful teachers of Saint Paul's institute to
which I have before alluded. Then they turned their horses,
bade us adieu, and galloped back to Tarsus, leaving us alone
with the long three-weeks journey before us. For a little
way out of Tarsus the road is tolerably good as Turkish
roads go, and in some places it is possible for horses which
are fresh and ready for the journey to trot for a little way.
But soon the hills begin and the roads become unutterably
rough and rugged. The air, however, is clear and bracing,
our spirits are good, and the view becomes at every step
more entrancing. As we look back we see the fertile plain
of Adana stretched before us, and beyond the snow-capped
mountains of Lebanon, while before us, rising peak on peak,
are the magnificent heights of the Taurus. There are few
more magnificent mountain ranges in the world and few are

528 A COUNTRY OF WONDERFUL INTEREST.

less frequently visited in these days than this mighty range
which forms the backbone of Asia Minor.

In ancient times, to be sure, it was different. The com-
merce of a good part of the world poured through these
rocky defiles, and the Cilician Gate through which we shall
soon pass, was the highway for innumerable caravans of
costly goods, for armies, and for travelers of all degrees and
conditions in life.

Across these mountains traveled the Apostle Paul more
than once. This same way came Cicero and other Roman
statesmen scarcely less distinguished, while the armies of
emperors frequently defiled through these narrow gorges.

"We are not only in a country of surpassing natural beauty
but one of wonderful historic interest. These craggy peaks
and hilltops, if they could speak, would a tale unfold of wars
and rumors of wars, of civilization advancing and retrograd-
ing, of nations waxing and waning, of armies marching and
countermarching, which could not be told by any other
mountain peaks in the world. In these silent fields and be-
neath these occasional ruins are, doubtless, buried historical
treasures of the rarest and most unique interest. But the
oppressive government regulations make it impossible for
any archaeologist to dig for hidden treasure, and, while the
present regime lasts, the world will be none the wiser con-
cerning these relics of the past.

The fellow travelers whom we meet or pass on the road
are all of one description ; no hacks or four-in-hand turn-
outs do we see, no tally-ho coaches or gigs or buggies, no
bicycles or tricycles, no phaetons or landaus, not even a
baby carriage or anything else on wheels, do we meet, but
long processions of knock-kneed, ragged camels, carrying,
strapped to their patient backs, and dangling on either side,
a heavy load of some five or six hundred pounds in weight,

CARAVANS OF KNOCK-KNEED CAMELS.

529

which, for many weary days, they must bear as they go
swaying and stumbling across the country from sea to sea.

These camels are very rarely met with singly, but usu-
ally in caravans of from ten to one hundred, loosely tied
together by a string or small rope which can easily be
broken, so that in case one of the camels wanders out of the

A SHIP OF THE DESERT.

line or falls over a precipice, the whole caravan may not go

with him.

Usually preceding the camels and leading the whole train

by a chain attached to his bridle, is an absurdly diminutive

donkey on whose back is often perched a very large Turk,

whose huge feet (they all seem to wear number eighteen in

this country) sway back and forth and dig viciously into the

sides of the little beast with every step he takes.

One is never tired of these strange processions of men and
32

530 TURKISH GREETINGS.

variously assorted beasts. It always seems to us as if the
huge camel would be ashamed of the long-eared little guide
which leads the way, and as though the look of supercilious
scorn which he always wears, was assumed to show his in-
difference to the indignities that are heaped upon him.

Our fellow travelers, however, we find are by no means
destitute of politeness or cordiality. In fact, they could give
many points to the boors of our crowded modern thorough-
fares in the way of gentle courtesy on the road. Almost
every camel driver and donkey boy whom we pass makes a
kindly bow to us, and cries out as we get within earshot,
" Oughourlar olsoun," which means when translated, " A
pleasant journey to you." If we are sufficiently up in our
Turkish to respond in a proper manner, we shall reply to
him, " Sagh olsoun," whereby we mean to say, " Long life to
you my friend."

These greetings which one receives upon the way in
Turkey, and in every house which he enters, at every table
at which he sits, and on all possible occasions, are exceed-
ingly pleasant and show an inbred courtesy which speaks
well for the fundamental character of the race which has
coined and adopted them as a part of its common verbal cur-
rency. For instance, when we enter a Turkish house we are
often greeted by this kindly phrase, "Khouda el inden
yapusha," which, being interpreted, means, "May the
Almighty cling to your hand," a most beautiful way of ex-
pressing greeting and good will and continued blessing.
The response very often is, " Akubetin Khair olsoun," which
means, " May your end be good," or, in other words, as
every Mohammedan interprets it in his own mind, "May
you become a good Moslem before you die." "When one
rises from the table where he has partaken of all the good
things which his host can offer, if he is versed in Turkish

ORIENTAL POLITENESS.

531

politeness he will say, " Bereket versin," " Let it give a bless-
ing."

When we receive a present, however slight it may be, the
recipient says, " Elenize dagh luk " which is not our meagre,
conventional " Thank you," but is a poetic expression mean-
ing, " Health to your hands, my dear sir."

For special and peculiar services there are special and pe-
culiar expressions of appreciation and thanks, and not one

NATIVE KHURDS OF ASIA MINOR.

unvarying meaningless formula, as in Western languages.
For instance, when a Turk receives a drink from a friend of
anything but coffee, he remarks as he hands back the empty
cup, " Afiyet olsoun," by which he means to say, " May it be
for your health." Why he does not make this same response
when treated to coffee I have never vet been able to under-
stand.

Even the wooden spoons with which we dip into the com-
mon bowl which always graces the center of the Turkish
dinner table, are decorated with a motto of hospitality and

532 A GOOD STORY.

good cheer, such as, " Eat, my friend, eat," or " Pardon our
poor fare and call it not entirely tasteless." Or, perhaps it
may be, " Consider not the poor food which is set before
you, but the spirit in which it is given."

As we journey along, we frequently see by the roadside
a scrubby tree, from every branch and twig of which flut-
ters a rag. Some of the rags are bleached and weather-
beaten, and have evidently been tied to the tree for many a
long day, while others look as though they had been just
attached. These trees mark the sacred spot where the grave
of some holy man is supposed to be, and every pilgrim who
passes that way ties a new rag to the tree to propitiate the
saint buried beneath, and to insure for himself a speedier
entrance into heaven.

The old dervishes frequently make a very good living by
establishing themselves near one of these trees, and asking-
alms of all who pass by.

A good story is told of a poor old dervish who lost all
his worldly goods, and set out on a new pilgrimage with his
familv and his faithful donkey. For a time thev lived in
great poverty, but in the course of a few years a new-made
grave under a spreading tree by which the dervish had en-
camped, obtained a great reputation for sanctity. Many
were the pilgrims who resorted hither. Many were the dis-
eases that were healed, and the good fortunes that were told
beside that holy grave. The tree became decorated with all
sorts and sizes and colors of rags, for most of the pilgrims
who pass that way are clad in an abundant supply of tat-
tered and filthy garments. The old dervish became pros-
perous and waxed fat, but after a while his son became un-
easy and dissatisfied with the way he was living, so he
started out for himself to make his own fortune in the world.
Thinking there was no easier way than that which his father

EMBLEMS OP GOOD LUCK. 533

had pointed out, he established a holy place of his own not
far off, and seated himself by another grave under another
green tree.

So popular did this new resort become that the old
dervish's popularity began to wane, so he went to visit his
son, and, when he found him, he asked him the cause of his
sudden popularity. " Well," said the youth who had bettered
his father's instructions, " you tell me who is buried in your
holy grave and I will tell you who is buried in mine." "My
old donkey died," frankly confessed the father. " I mourned
over her and buried her under the green tree. People came
to worship at the new-made grave, and it was not my busi-
ness to tell them who was buried there since they received
so much benefit from their pilgrimage. And now tell me,
my son, who occupies the grave over which you keep watch? "
" Ah," answered the chip of the old block, " I followed your
example, and in my grave is buried the foal of your ass."

This story, which is told with great gusto in different
parts of Turkey just as the tales accredited to Abraham
Lincoln are heard in all parts of America, illustrates the
superstitious ignorance of the common people. In a hundred
other ways are these superstitions manifest. Every camel
and donkey that we meet has upon his neck a string of blue
glass beads, which are supposed to keep off the " evil eye,"
and no camel driver would think for a moment of leaving
home without decorating every animal in his caravan with
these emblems of good luck.

Very often mothers are seen slapping their children in a
most vicious way, and calling them "ugly brutes," and
"dirty brats," and all kinds of opprobrious names. We
soon find, however, that this shows no lack of maternal
affection, but is simply the mother's way of warding off evil
and blight from the child. She thinks that if the evil spirits

534

INDIGNITIES BORNE BY TURKISH WOMEN.

hear her disparage her child and call him an " ugly brute,"
they will not think it worth while to trouble him, and so the
evil eye will be averted.

But, at the best, women and children in this land, as in
all heathen and semi-heathen lands, have a hard time. The

women are looked upon as
beasts of burden. Doubt is of-
ten expressed as to whether or
not they really have souls, and
even by the most enlightened
Turk their souls are not sup-
posed to be of the same dimen-
sions as those of their husbands
and brothers and sons. No ac-
count is taken of the girls by
many men when they reckon
up their families, and the mise-
ries of a bride in a Turkish
house are often unutterable.
Abused and despised, beaten
and forsaken, with no redress
and no opportunity to tell her
woes, she can only gain com-
fort from the thought that some-
time she will be a mother-in-
law herself, and can take it
out in abusing her daughter-
in-law to her heart's content, just as freshmen, when they are
harrowed and hazed, put under the pump, and initiated into
the horrors of the secret society, comfort themselves with the
thought that next year they will be sophomores, and there
will be another class of freshmen for them to haze.

It must not be thought that we make any remarkable

A SYRIAN POULTRY SELLER.

IN A TURKISH GRAVE-YARD. 535

speed in this journey across the Taurus mountains. We are
not trying to solve the problem of rapid transit, and an
average of three miles an hour, and of from thirty to thirty-
five miles a day we consider very good traveling.

The first day out from Tarsus we stopped at a place
which rejoiced in the euphonious name of " Grave Yard
Spout," and, in spite of its name, it was one of the pleasantest
places where we made our camp in all the journey.

Let me introduce you to this typical Turkish khan at
" Grave Yard Spout." We have not yet reached the old
Cilician Gates, but have been climbing the slopes of the
Taurus mountains all day long, and by nightfall are well up
toward the line of everlasting snow. From these limitless
snow fields the brooks of sparkling water come dancing
down. Their narro\7 channels down the steep mountain
sides have something the appearance of eaves-troughs on a
house, hence the " spout." On one side of the hill where we
are to spend the night are a number of Turkish graves with
rude, unhewn stones set up to mark the last resting place of
the Moslem, hence the " grave-yard." A low, stone building
on one side of the road, mostly buried out of sight on its
lower side by huge piles of rubbish and manure, indicates
the spot where we are to spend the night. Into the open
doorway camels and donkeys, horses, drivers, and pilgrims
all enter, for the Turk believes that what is good enough for
his beast is good enough for him, and he never begrudges
his own quarters to his patient camel or faithful ass.

However, there is one room divided by a slight board
partition from the rest of the khan, and into this the more
fastidious pilgrims are allowed to go to spend the night. To
be sure, it is a filthy place almost beyond description, and
swarming with vermin. It has not been washed since the
day the khan was built, and, perhaps, has not been swept out

536 ROUGHING IT.

for a y ear. But it is the best place which the region affords,
and we will not grumble. Besides, have we not cot beds
which can be set up out of the way of the dirt and largely
out of the way of the fleas as well? Have we not clean
sheets and bedspreads, and a good supply of wholesome
provisions of our own % Then what more can we ask, with
fresh and invigorating mountain air to breathe, sparkling-
cold water in which to bathe, and all out-doors in which to
exercise ? Appetite lends a splendid sauce to every meal,
and this bread and cheese, these eggs which Ali boils in the
fireplace, and the pilaff which he concocts with rice and
other ingredients, though mysterious, are most toothsome
and nourishing. So we eat our evening meal, say our even-
ing prayer of thanksgiving and petition for protection, and
lie down to pleasanter dreams than any surfeited millionaire
ever enjoyed.

In the morning we are up betimes, sometimes long before
daylight, for the success of the day's journey depends upon
getting a good start. By the light of the gray dawn we
drink our morning coffee, tie up our beds and bedding, pack
the wagons, harness the horses, and are off just as the rising
sun illuminates the frosty mountain peaks, and turns the
descending rivulets into ropes of sparkling diamonds.

About noon we stop for a hasty midday meal, and then
press on again in order to reach the khan where we are to
spend the night before sundown, Avhere the same process of
unpacking and setting up the beds, getting supper and eat-
ing it, going to bed and getting up in the morning, repack-
ing and starting on our journey, is repeated day after day
until the journey ends.

The second dav out we came to the Cilician Gates,
and here culminates the magnificent scenery which has
been growing grander and grander with every passing mile.

THROUGH THE CILICIAN GATES. 537

Here is a narrow gorge between two towering precipitous
cliffs which stretch up, up, up, for hundreds of feet above us
on either side. There is absolutely no other way of crossing
the mountain except at this point. Here, beyond a question,
we are on historic ground. Paul must have come through
this very gorge in the mountains. This old Roman road
over which we are traveling was here in his time, probably a
far better road than it is to-day ; this soil and these stones
his feet must have pressed, and for the monarchs and am-
bassadors, the conquered and conquering armies, the mer-
chants and the diplomats of many centuries, this has been
the highway.

Just as we went through the Cilician Gates, where the
pathway is most narrow and precipitous, for a rushing tor-
rent disputes the roadway for passage, we met a long train
of at least a hundred camels, floundering over the rugged
road and through the muddy slough. It seemed as though
our wagon could never make its way past these "ships of
the desert," but we had learned by this time to have un-
bounded faith in our missionary guide, and, sure enough,
without accident or serious delay we forded the stream,
wallowed through the mire, climbed the banks, brushed the
flanks of the startled camels, and at length were through the
historic mountain gorge, and had passed out of old Cilicia
into Cappadocia.

The third day out from Tarsus was the most exciting
and dangerous part of the journey. For a little ways after
we left the khan, where we spent the night, a good road en-
abled us to get on at a brisk pace and cheered us with the
illusive hope that our worst difficulties were over ; but alas !
this piece of good road was only the pleasant prelude to the
very worst piece of roadway to be found in any one of the
five continents which we are visiting. For five miles this

538 AN EXCITING AND DANGEROUS RIDE.

road is simply indescribable. No one who has made this
journey could possibly believe that a wagon could ever be
transported over it, or that horses or drivers could live to tell
the tale on the other side of "the bad place," as it is signifi-
cantly called by all in this region.

In fact, there is no road at all. The government has not
even pretended to make a road here as it has in some places.
It does not degenerate into a squirrel track and run up a
tree, simply because there is no tree for it to run up, for the
country is as bare as the desert of Sahara. This bad five
miles takes us over the very peak of the Taurus mountains,
and the only animals which with any degree of safety can
make this journey are the sure-footed camels and donkeys
who monopolize the trade of this district. Even they some-
times lose their footing and roll down the steep mountain-
side into the abyss below, where we saw the carcass of more
than one animal which had thus met its death.

In the course of the centuries the unceasing caravans of
camels have made a track along which, with careful steering
and with abundant providential care, a wagon can sometimes
make its way. We know this because we have seen a
wagon go over this trail. On no account could we other-
wise have believed it possible, but seeing is believing in the
Taurus mountains as well as everywhere else.

When we went down the hill on the other side of the
"bad five miles," all the male members of the party hung on
to the tail-board of the wagon to prevent it from tumbling
end over end over the heads of the horses. Sometimes the
rickety wagon would sway perilously on the verge of a
rocky precipice. Often we would think that it was actually
going over, and would catch our breath as we expected to
see wagon, horses, and driver tumble into the terrible abyss.
Then the driver would throw himself from side to side of the

AN EXCITING MOMENT - OUR RIDE ACROSS TURKEY IN A WAGON.

Sometimes the rickety wagon would sway perilously on the verge of a rocky precipice.
Often we would think that it was actually going over, and would catch our breath as we
expected to see wagon, horses, and driver tumble into the terrible abyss. Then the driver
would throw himself from side to side of the wagon to keep it from toppling over, and the
rest of us would throw our weight on that side to prevent the threatened catastrophe.

ON THE VERGE OF DESTRUCTION. 541

wagon to keep it from toppling over, and the rest of us
would throw our weight on that side to prevent the threat-
ened catastrophe. Thus we made our way down the peril-
ous mountain side and drew a long breath when we found
we were in the valley and realized that the worst of our
journey was behind us.

To be sure, it was only comparatively speaking that we
could find any betterment in the road as we went farther on,
for oftentimes, sometimes twenty times a day, we were
obliged to get out of the wagon when the careful driver
took it around some narrow, precipitous cavern, or drove
over a heap of stones and boulders which had slid down
from the mountain side, or forded a shallow stream which
sometimes almost carried the horses off their feet. Forty
times a day we would throw our weight on the up-hill side
to prevent the wagon from going over the bank, or stand on
the step for half a mile at a time to counterbalance in some
degree the attractions of gravitation on the other side.

But after passing this last spur of the Taurus mountains
we never thought of complaining of any piece of road,
nor do we ever expect to complain again, whatever highways
fate may have in store for us. Toward dark of the fourth
day out from Tarsus, we came to the little village Baila,
and as the khan was full of other guests we sought for
shelter in the guest-room of Selim, the elder and priest of the
village. Let not the idea of a "guest-room," my readers,
call up any luxurious notions of downy beds and costly car-
pets and furniture, for though this guest-room was the best
the village afforded, there is no New England cellar or
Yankee coal bin which it was ever our fortune to inspect,
that we should not have preferred to occupy.

Fortunately the room is dark, and the narrow slits
which serve as windows are covered with newspapers which

542 A FILTHY AND HORRIBLE PLACE.

are pasted over them, so that we cannot see the iilthiness of
the place in all its hideousness. We do not wish for more
light, and after getting supper and setting up our beds we
turn in, to sleep the sleep of the weary.

This typical Turkish village where we have come to
spend the night is like hundreds and thousands of others
scattered all over the Empire. Perhaps there are two hun-
dred people within its borders, crowded together in little
huts of stone, which are but little higher than a tall man.
The roofs are flat and covered with dirt, which does very
well as a roofing in dry weather, but becomes very filthy
and leaky when a wet season sets in.

There are no streets in the village except such as are
made by the pathways between the houses, and these path-
ways are often full of pitfalls into which the unwary traveler
will stumble if he is not careful. In these pits are stored in
winter the hay on which the goats and cattle live during the
cold weather. In the springtime they are mostly empty, for
the store has been exhausted, and very frequently at the
bottom of them I saw dead goats and sheep, which during
the early spring had probably starved to death and which
the unenterprising inhabitants had not even carried out of
the roadway, but had left to rot and pollute the air, and
breed pestilence and disease in their very streets.

Could anything be more depressing than life in these
wretched villages? Here are no books, no newspapers, no
meetings, no intellectual life of any kind. Few of the
houses show any light through their paper windows after
darkness sets in. The inhabitants have nothing to do but
to herd their goats all day and go to bed when darkness
comes. No wonder that the people grow up ignorant and
debased and absolutely devoid of ambition. The only
wonder is that they are not more vicious than they are, and

AN IGNORANT AND DEBASED PEOPLE.

543

that after these centuries of intellectual torpidity and gov-
ernmental oppression there is anything of manliness to
appeal to in their natures.

And yet, that there is a natural substratum of generosity
and nobility in the Turkish character cannot be denied. It
can be accounted for very largely, I think, by the good

MUSSULMAN AT PRAYER.

features of their religion, for, mixed with superstition and
imposture as the faith of Mohammed is, there is something
in it of strength and virility. It demands unquestioning
obedience and outspoken allegiance from all who profess to
be governed by it. No Mohammedan is ashamed of his
faith. Our soldier guard, who always accompanies us, when
the hour of prayer comes will dismount from his horse and
prostrate himself towards Mecca, by the roadside, or will

544

DEVOUT MOHAMMEDANS.

even go to the top of the house to pray when we are resting
at noon, no matter how many pairs of curious eyes are upon
him. Many and many a time have I seen a camel driver,
poor, untutored man that he is, but confident of his faith in
God and in the great prophet, kneeling in the grass by the
wayside, while his tethered camels browse near by, offering

his prayer to the great God,
with no fear of ridicule to re-
strain him from his oft-repeated
devotion.

As we lie down to rest in
the guest chamber of the elder
of Baila we hear the musical
voice of the muezzin floating
from the humble minaret near
by, calling out to all the faith-
ful, " God is great, God is great.
There is one God and Moham-
med is his prophet. Come to
prayer, come to prayer."

As these sounds strike our
drowsy ears we learn the secret
of the vitality of the Turkish
nation and the Mohammedan religion. There is truth
enough in it to keep it sweet and from going to utter decay,
There is truth enough within it to maintain in the nation
the germs of a resolute, uncompromising manhood, and, as
we drop off into the land of Nod, a new hope springs up
in our hearts for Turkey and the Turks, as the cry of the
dervish mingles with our dreams, "God is great, God is
great. Come to prayer, come to prayer."

■If-,. J i j J x5

,,. • — , -If

THE CALL OF THE MUEZZIN.

CHAPTER XXIX.

ON TO THE GOLDEN HORN — CONTINUATION OF OUR JOUR-
NEY IN A WAGON — WHIRLING AND HOWLING DER-
VISHES—VEILED WOMEN OF TURKEY.

Watched by a Curious Crowd — A Broken-Hearted Wife — The Lamp-
Dealer's Suspicious Balls — A Genuine Turkish Bath — The Feast of
Ramidan — Waking Up to Eat — The Difference Between a Black
Thread and a White — Cross urficials — A Picked and Singed Turkey

|OR thirteen days our journey across
Asia Minor was, with certain vari-
ations, a repetition of the days I
have already described. An early
start, a long ride of ten or twelve
hours, a hasty midday meal often
eaten in the wagon, and, about
night-fall, a new setting-up of our
movable household gods in still
another Turkish khan which
^3^^- 1r— = * psy always seemed a shade dirtier and

a trifle more full of the concen-
trated essence of unpleasant odors than the last one.

There were, however, some noticeable breaks in our
journey which must not be passed over in silence. On the

fourth day, after passing over an immense plain, guarded on

(545)

546 WATCHED BY A CURIOUS CROWD.

all sides by snow-capped mountains, we came to the ancient
city of Tyana, which, in former centuries, was a most nota-
ble place. Here a fine old Koman aqueduct brought deli-
cious, sparkling water from the hills far away. Many of its
arches are standing still, as fine in their ruinea magnificence
as the aqueducts about Home itself. Under the shadow of
these broken arches with their beautiful columns and carved
capitals we ate our lunch, surrounded by a curious, open-
eyed throng of modern Tyanites, who, to-day, very rarely
see a stranger from the outside world, famous and much-
visited as their city used to be in ancient days.

Three hours beyond Tyana we came to Nigde, a thriving
town of several thousand inhabitants. Here, many of the
houses are of two stories, and have glass in their windows,
and here it was our good fortune to rest during the Lord's
Day in the house of the Protestant pastor of the town.

Here, too, we had a new illustration of the awful tyranny
under which the subject races of Turkey live. No sooner
had we gone into the house than a poor broken-hearted
woman came to see the missionary who accompanied us, to
tell him that her husband, the pastor of a native Protestant
church, had suddenly disappeared while on his way to the
village where his church was situated. No one knew any-
thing about him from that sad day, though it was suspected
that he had been arrested and imprisoned, and perhaps
murdered for supposed complicity with the Armenian upris-
ing. Of his innocence his poor wife was well assured, but
for three months she had been waiting and hoping against
hope, telling her little child that every footstep might be the
long-lost father. But now she had almost given up in de-
spair, and with streaming eyes came to ask us if something
could not be done to end her dreadful uncertainty as t~
whether her husband was alive or dead.

SOME MYSTERIOUS LAMPS. 54?

To offset this pathetic incident of Nigde, a rather amus-
ing story was told us by one of the merchants of the place to
the effect that one of his fellow shopkeepers had been a few
weeks before arrested and imprisoned on some mysterious
charge, whose nature neither he nor his neighbors could
exactly determine. After a few weeks, however, he was
released, and it was learned that his arrest was caused by
some very innocent lamps which, in the line of business, he
had imported into Nigde. These lamps had been meant to
hang from the ceiling, and, in order that they might be raised
and lowered, a metal ball about the size of a small cannon
ball came with them. These balls were considered suspicious
by the Turkish authorities. It was thought they might be
some terrible dynamite explosives destined to blow the whole
country into atoms ; so the poor lamp-dealer was arrested and
imprisoned without trial until the case should be investigated
and his suspicious balls could be declared harmless.

In the middle of our long journey, came a most delight-
ful break, for at the end of our seventh day from Tarsus,
after having: traveled some two hundred miles, we came to
the large Cappadocian chVy of Caesarea, which is a great cen-
ter not only of trade but of missionary operations, and where
the good friends who had sent one of their number for us ;
with their famous spring wagon, had their abode. This, too ;
was an important town in Roman days and was named for
Caesar Augustus. Ever since it has retained its pre-eminence
in all the vicinity as a commercial center.

The country about, though bare of trees, is fertile and
capable of sustaining a large population. Our interest in
Caesarea was not dependent upon beautiful scenery or the fer-
tility of the soil, but centered in the charming American
homes which are here established so far from their native

land and from all that most of us hold dear. Here, for more
33

548 A DEVOTED MISSIONARY.

than forty years, has one of the missionaries of the American
Board been laboring through good report and evil report.
Oft^n at the risk of his life, and always amid perils and
hardships of which the average American knows very little,
he has keot on his way, winning by force of a gentle, digni-
fied, and devoted Christian life the hearts of hundreds of
people who are opposed to his creed, and who regard other
Christians as infidel dogs to be kicked out of their country
' vhenever opportunity affords.

This veteran missionary has been joined in later years by
his son-in-law and family, and b} r one or two other mission-
ary families, among them a most devoted and skillful doctor,
who would make his fame and fortune in any country where
he might choose to practice. Giving up the allurements of
professional success and large income in his own land, he
has come to this remote city where he can cure the bodies of
the Turks and heal their souls as he finds his way to their
affections and confidence.

WMle we are here together we will look in upon a
genuine Turkish bath in the very center of Turkey. Many
of my readers have been in the elegant establishments which
abound in all our large cities, with their tiles and marbles,
vaulted ceilings and fountains, plunges, hot rooms and cool-
ing couches, but none of them, perhaps, have ever taken a
Turkish bath in the land of its nativity. We will go to-
gether this evening to this bath in Talas, a suburb of
Caesarea. It has been built by one of the few enterprising
inhabitants, who. as a young man left his early home, be-
came famous in government circles, made his fortune in
Constantinople, and instead of building a library in his
native town as he would have done in America, showed his
filial affection by establishing this Turkish bath.

Into a narrow ante-room we go to leave our clothes, but

A GENUINE TURKISH BATH. 549

instead of locking up our valuables in a fire-proof safe, as
we are accustomed to do at home, we roll our watches,
pocket-books, and other articles of value in our clothes, and
leave this bundle on the divan of the dressing-room. Surely
this speaks well for the honesty of Turkish human nature.
Then we put on some high wooden clogs, in which we find it
very difficult to shuffle about, and follow our attendant into
the hot room. It is not very hot, but by staying there long
enough we get into a gentle perspiration. In the middle of
the room is a round stone dais under which the fire is built.
Around all sides of the room are faucets of hot and cold
water which we can turn on at our pleasure, and on one side
of the large central room is a smaller apartment into which
steam has been turned and where we can obtain a vapor
bath if so disposed.

For a little while I was alone with my friend in this
great, round, tomb-like building, with the vaulted dome
overhead which caught up and sent back and re-echoed our
words, as though it was peopled with a hundred mocking
spirits. But we were not long alone, for, one after another,
the natives came trooping in until under that resounding
roof there must have been at least fifty hot, sweating, vil-
lainous-looking Turks. Moreover, they were in high spirits,
for it being the time of Ramidan their day of fasting was
over, and nightfall had brought the hour of feasting. They
had evidently come from a good supper and were full of
hilarity and glee. Laughing and talking and yelling at one
another in their good spirits, while the echoing roof quad-
rupled their noise, it seemed as though we were in pande-
monium itself. However, it was a very good-natured pande-
monium, and we very soon got used to the din. Then the
shampooer came in and rubbed us down and kneaded us
and punched us and thumped us like so much dough, work-

550 CURIOUS CUSTOMS.

ing every muscle, pulling out every finger-joint, and then
sousing us with soap and hot water until all the cuticle
seemed in danger of coming off. Then the process was re-
newed, and after a little breathing spell was again repeated.
Then we were rubbed with coarse gloves, soaped and washed
and sprayed once more, and the process was declared to be
complete.

On the whole, it was very enjoyable, though I would
prefer hereafter to take my Turkish baths in America rather
than m Turkey.

I have said we were in Caesarea during the feast of Ram-
idan. A very notable occasion is this, corresponding some-
what to the lenten season of the Catholic church. It begins
with the new moon of March or April and lasts for forty
days. If it is cloudy the authorities, curiously enough,
apply to the heretical missionaries, whose religion they hate,
but whose astronomical science alone tells them when the
new moon has come.

All day long for forty days the strict Moslem religiously
fasts. From early dawn until sunset not a mouthful passes
his lips, not a sup moistens his parched throat, not even a
whiff from the inevitable cigarette is allowed. But at sunset
a great gun is fired, the muezzin proclaims from the minaret
that the sunset hour for prayer has come. But he does not
linger long about his call this time, for he is as hungry as
any of his devotees, and hastening down from his watch-
tower, with all the other good Mohammedans, he hurries to
the dinner table to make up for his long day of fasting.

This is not the only feast of the night by any means. If
the religious Moslem fasts all day he makes up for it at
night, for at eleven o'clock, after a few hours of sleep has
been enjoyed, a great beating of pans and blaring of tin
horns is heard and all the faithful wake up to eat once more.

FASTING AND FEASTING. 551

Then a little more sleep, and at three o'clock in the morning
another gun is fired to waken the followers of the prophet to
another feast.

But when the first streak of morning gray appears, when
the time comes that they can detect " the difference between
a black and white thread," as the law requires, then the
fast begins again and not another mouthful must they eat
until the sunset gun is fired. Those who can afford the
time and do not need to work, sleep away as much of the
day of fasting as they can and only wake up in season for
the evening feast. We found, to our cost, that our whole
stay in Turkey coincided with the fast of Ramidan, for the
officials were either asleep when we called on them for any
favor, or so surly from their long fasting that it was with
difficulty we could get what we wanted. But our precious
" bouyourouldou " which the governor of Adana had given
us, usually overcame even the crustiness of the half-starved
magnates, and we suffered but little detention or trouble in
our journey.

After leaving our good friends in Caesarea our route lay
along the northern edge of Cappadocia, then into Galatia,
where were the churches to which Paul wrote his eloquent
epistle, then into Bythinia, which borders on the Black sea
and the Bosphorus. Nowhere did we find a road so rough
as the " five bad miles," but it was always sufficiently out of
repair to remind us that we were still in Turkey. Though
the government levies taxes of thousands of pounds every
year upon the oppressed peasantry for the repair and main-
tenance of this road, yet year after year no piastre is ex-
pended and no shovel is lifted to make the road better.
Much of the way over which we journeyed lay across an
elevated table land where the scenery was monotonous and
uninteresting, and the khans where we spent the night were

552 CARVING UP TURKEY.

very much like those with which we had previously become
acquainted in Cilicia and Cappadocia.

For days and days on this journey we saw no trees or
bushes, and scarcely a shrub as big as a lead pencil. This
Turkey has evidently not only been picked and singed, but
even the pin feathers have been plucked out of the poor car-
cass. It is evident that when the poor bird is roasted in the
next war, it will be in order for the European nations to
carve it among themselves. The only thing which prevents
them from doing this to-day is, that each fears the other
and that each wants the best cuts and largest slices of white
meat and the tender second joints for itself. England will
not let Russia have all the breast and all the dressing, Russia
is bound to keep England away from this platter which it
regards as altogether its own, while Germany and France
each think that they have something to say in the matter.

In the meantime, the old bird is not yet carved up among
the nations, and, as a consequence, the people of Turkey
remain in ignorance and superstition, Christians are perse-
cuted, progress is delayed, inventiveness and enterprises are
checked, and everything is going backward in the land of the
Sultan, while all the rest of the world is moving forward
with the lightning rapidity of the nineteenth century.

" The United States has citizens, England has subjects,
Turkey has abjects," is a true and witty saying which every
one fully appreciates after crossing Asia Minor.

Six days after leaving Caesarea we came to Angora, a
famous city both in ancient and modern times. Here we
saw many cartloads of political prisoners who had just been
released, going back to their homes again. Hundreds of
these men had been arrested merely on suspicion, had been
hurried away from their homes, manacled and chained, to
prisons many days distant from their own villages ; and now,

ANGORA AND ITS FAMOUS CATS. 553

without trial or hearing, but apparently at the caprice of the
Sultan and the reigning powers they had been released,
probably because His Majesty fearing to kill them lest he
should get into trouble with foreign nations, and not know-
ing what else to do with them, had sent them home again.

A few of their fellows, however, had been retained in
prisons, and, at their subsequent trial which took place at
Anjrora, seventeen were sentenced to death : but when the
Christian powers remonstrated and suggested that an iron-
clad might make the remonstrance effectual, the Sultan
yielded the point and pardoned most of his prisoners.

Angora is noted not only for its beautiful fluffy-haired
cats, which are famous all the world over, but also as the
seat of the mohair trade. The handsome goats which furnish
the hair dot the plains on every side, tens of thousands of
them, with their long, crinkly wool hanging to the very
ground. Beautiful, gentle-faced little creatures they are, as
different from the ordinary vicious goat as a week-old lamb
is different from his ugly progenitor.

A new railroad has just been completed from Angora to
Constantinople. It carries us at the rate of eight or ten
miles an hour. Its trains do not run at night, but when
darkness comes on they tie up wherever they happen to be,
and start on again early the next morning. After two days
of such journeying, during which we make but a little over
two hundred miles, we reach at last beautiful Constantinople,
the city which has the most superb situation in the world.

As we draw near to this marvelous city, especially after
spending many days in the barren interior, and amid the
rugged mountains of Cappadocia ; as we see the smiling val-
leys and well-clothed hilltops that surround it ; as we catch
a glimpse of the Golden Horn and the silver waves of the
sparkling Bosphorus, we acknowledge that Byron is quite

554 AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS IN CONSTANTINOPLE.

right when he describes Constantinople and its environs as,

" The land of the cedar and vine,

Where the flowers ever bloom and the beams ever shine,

Where the light wings of zephyr oppressed with perfume,

Wax faint in the gardens of Gul in her bloom,

Where the citron and olive are, fairest of fruit,

And the voice of the nightingale never is mute,

Where the tints of the earth and the hue of the sky,

In color though varied, in beauty may vie,

And the purple of ocean is deepest in dye."

It would take many a chapter adequately to describe the
beauties and wonders of this imperial city, its magnificent
situation, its unsurpassed mosques. Among them the famous
Saint Sophia, with its curious and unending labyrinthine
bazaars filled with rugs and silks, silverware and bric-a-brac,
and everything that can tempt the cupidity and unloose the
purse strings of the average traveler.

Americans, too, may well have a particular interest in
Constantinople, for here they have made their mark through
their missionaries. The most important educational institu-
tions and almost all the Christian work of the city is in the
hands of American educators and missionaries. Here is sit-
uated the famous Robert College which gathers its students
from half a dozen nations, sets its seal of educated manhood
upon them, and sends them out to be leaders and pioneers of
civilization in their own lands. The most strategic position
of any educational institution in the world, is that which is
occupied by Robert College.

Across the Bosphorus, on the Asiatic side in the suburb
of Scutari, is the American College for girls, a school which
I believe in the future will do for the young women of
Turkey, Bulgaria, Roumelia, and Armenia what Robert Col-
lege has done and is doing for their brothers.

Here in Constantinople, too, is the famous Bible House,

EDUCATING THE TURKS.

555

with its immense printing establishment, from which go
forth every year so many printed leaves for the healing of
the nations. So careful and wise are the directors of this es-
tablishment that even the critical censor of the government
cannot object to much of their work. To be sure they are
hampered and hindered. Every obstacle is thrown in their
way, and many of the g
publications which
they would be glad to
issue are altogether
prohibited ; but in spite
of these obstacles a
vast amount of Chris-
tian literature gets into
the hands of the sub-
ject nations of Turkey
from year to year
through this channel.

"We must not fail
to visit the mosque of
St. Sophia, one of the
most impressive
churches in any land.
As my readers doubt-
less know, it was a
Christian church in the time of Constantine and for many
centuries afterwards. When Constantinople fell into the
hands of the Turks St. Sophia became a Turkish mosque;
all the images of the saints were broken, every piece of
carved stone work which bore any likeness to any creature
in the air above or the earth beneath or the waters under
the earth was chipped away ; the sign of the cross which ap-
peared innumerable times in different parts of the cathedral

MOSQUE OF EL AZAR.

556

THE GREAT MOSQUE OF ST. SOPHIA.

was everywhere chiseled out, and all the magnificent win-
dows and mosaics were either broken or covered up with
hideous yellow paint or plaster. Yet in spite of all this
vandalism of fanatical image-haters, St. Sophia retains its
ancient glory and impressiveness to a large degree. Its
proportions are magnificently symmetrical. The dome,

which hangs like a
huge substantial bub-
ble in the air, it is im-
possible to describe
with any adjective
which the dictionary
furnishes.

The floor is now
covered with prayer
rugs, all of them point-
ing toward Mecca, so
that the devout Mos-
lem when he pros-
trates himself on his
rug knows which way
to face, as he mumbles
his monotonous peti-
tion.

Not only for its
present magnificence, however, is St. Sophia interesting,
but because of its historic associations. Over this famous
church, for many a century, has Moslem and Christian
quarreled, and it bears within itself many a mark of the
hands of its successive conquerors. High up on the wall,
at least ten feet higher than a man on horseback can
reach, the print of a bloody hand is pointed out, and we
are told by our guide that that is the mark which was made

SIDEWALK MERCHANTS, CONSTANTINOPLE.

THE STAIN OF A BLOODY HAND.

557

by the conquering Sultan, who finally wrested Constanti-
nople from the grasp of the Christians. As the last mark of
his triumph he rode into this magnificent Christian church
on horseback, after having slain hundreds of worshipers who
were there assembled, and so high were the bodies of the
victims piled one upon another, that when he reached up
and struck his bloody palm against the wall it made the
mark which now we see far above our heads.

ST. SOPHIA, THE MARVELOUS.

On the other side is a stone column which we are assured
was cleft at the same time by the sword of this conquering
monarch. Here the one who has faith enough may see the
curbstone of the well of Samaria on which Christ sat. Here
is a " sweating column," which is almost worn away by the
fingers of the credulous, who find in the moisture which
the stone exudes an ointment for all kinds of diseases.
Some poor sufferers are always fingering this stone.

558 THE FAMOUS WHIRLING DERVISHES.

But most impressive of all in this great church to the
Christian, is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ in mosaic on
one of the walls, which has been smeared over and covered
up by Turkish paint, but which in the slow process of the
centuries is beginning to show through the veil with which
the enemies of Christ sought to cover his face. The outline
is now distinctly visible and growing more and more dis-
tinct, we are told, as time wears away the paint and the
years roll on. No Christian heart can look upon it without
seeing in that picture a prophecy of the day when light from
the face of Christ shall shine through the ignorance and
superstition of the Moslem's faith, by which his perfect
countenance has been obscured for so many centuries.

Another famous sight which we shall be sure to see
before leaving Constantinople is the whirling and the howl-
ing: dervishes. The whirlers whirl and the howlers howl
every week, though in different mosques, and it is a sight
which once seen is not easily forgotten. On the day that
we went to see the whirlers we had to wait a long while
before the first of the dervishes appeared. The mosque in
which they perform their curious gyrations is a small build-
ing with a circular space railed off in the center of the floor.
Outside of the fence which incloses this circle, and in the
gallery above which commands a fine view of it, there are
always crowds of spectators.

When we had been waiting some half hour or more, two
dervishes in tall, cream-colored felt hats like sugar loaves
with the top cut off, entered the mosque solemnly and
slowly. They were covered with long, dark cloaks and
were very solemn and sedate, and, on the whole, good-look-
ing men. Then a few more dervishes entered the mosque,
and then more, until there were in all twenty-seven men in
dark cloaks and tall sugar-loaf hats. Then three high der-

BEFORE THE WHIRL.

559

vishes, one of whom wore a broad green veil around bis

sugar-loaf fez, showing that he is a direct descendant of the

Prophet himself, entered the charmed circle. They seated

themselves on the floor while all the others stood about the

sides like carved statues. Then the statues unlimbered

and began to march around, two by two, each member of

each couple bowing low

to the other as they

came in front of the

high dervishes. Then

they bowed once more

before the descendant

of the patriarch and his

companions, and march

again around the circle.

This process is re-
peated three times, and
each time a very low
salaam is made by the
man in front to the der-
vish immediately be-
hind him, and by the
dervish behind to the
one who marches imme- '
diately in front of him
Then to the discordant and creaky music of some pipers in
the gallery they begin to whirl, slowly at first, but as the
music increases in rapidity they whirl more swiftly and more
swiftly still, until in a perfect frenzy they swing around their
narrow circle.

Before beginning this operation they cast off their long
cloaks and appeared clad in skirts which reached consider-
ably below their knees. As they whirled the skirts of the

A WHIRLING DERVISH.

500 A STRANGE CEREMONY.

most energetic stood out stiff from their bodies like encom-
passing balloons, just as I have seen the skirts of little girls
fly out when whirling about in the process familiarly known
as "making a cheese." Some of the dervishes whirl much
better than others, and it seems to be the height of their am-
bition to revolve so rapidly and smoothly that not one of
them shall touch the other, and that their skirts shall stand
out from their bodies as though distended by a huge crino-
line. How they keep it up is a mystery, but keep it up
they do minute after minute for fully ten minutes at a time.
Then after resting a little they march round once more and
whirl again, and this strange religious ceremony is over.

At least this was all we saw the dervishes perform,
though frequently babies are brought in in the arms of their
infatuated parents and laid upon the floor of the mosque for
the holy men to walk over. They step lightly and gingerly
as though treading on eggs, and it is said that they rarely
hurt the little victims under their feet ; still, it cannot be en-
tirely pleasant for the babies.

The "howlers" are very much of the same order, but
instead of whirling they sway their bodies violently back-
ward and forward and from right to left as though they
would jerk their heads off their bodies, at the same time
chanting a weird cr}^ which degenerates at times into a
frightful yell. Their exertions are more violent than that of
the whirlers and their healing efficacy in treading upon in-
fants is said to be even greater than that of their brother
dervishes.

One more scene which we shall witness before leaving
Constantinople is the weekly ceremony, which when trans-
lated into English means the going to mosque of the Sultan.
Every visitor who is in the city on Friday makes it a point
of getting a permit from his consulate which will enable him

HOW THE SULTAN GOES TO CHURCH. 561

to see this wonderful sight. The ceremony of going to
church is nowhere else attended by so much pomp and mag-
nificence, or with so much fuss and feathers as that of the
ruler of the faithful here in Constantinople.

For hours beforehand the soldiers begin to assemble.
From all parts of the city they come, infantry, cavalry, and
artiller} r , bands of music, and flaunting horse tails, which in
former } T ears were the ensigns which led the Turks to
victory. Every street and approach within half a mile of
the mosque is lined with soldiers four deep, and even on
ordinary occasions it is said that ten thousand men guard
the sacred person of His Majesty every Friday.

Half an hour before the Sultan's carriage appears upon
the scene a half score or more of carts filled with sand of
the finest quality sprinkle the roadway over which the royal
wheels will trundle. Every little pebble larger than a pea
is picked out by careful attendants. We only wish, as we
see all this preparation, that the Sultan could have gone over
some of the horrible roads in the interior of his dominion,
and have his royal bones shaken up as ours were shaken on
his wretched highways. There would be some poetic justice
in this.

While we are waiting for the royal carriage all is bustle
and activity, scores and scores of elegant equipages drawn
by prancing horses draw up in front of the mosque, and out
of these carriages step most gorgeous human butterflies in
bewilderingly magnificent raiment. Generals and commo-
dores and ambassadors of the highest rank are here blazing
with their decorations and jeweled insignia of office. Here
come three or four beautiful carriages in which are the
Sultan's wives and some of his daughters. They are not
allowed to step out of the carriages, and we can just see their
black eyes gleaming above their veils as they look out curi-

5GS

THE SULTANS WIVES AND DAUGHTERS.

ously upon the scene, for this is one of the few outings
which they have in their lives. Then conies the Sultan's
nephews, the heir apparent to the throne, and his younger
brothers and cousins, the smaller ones attended by ugly
black eunuchs whose long arms seem to hang down nearly
to their knees.

A TURKISH BEAUTY.

Into the mosque are now taken the Sultan's library
chair, a box containing his clothes, a white dinner service,
and numerous other things, until one thinks he is about to
move into the mosque to live ; but, no, they will all be taken
out again in half an hour and carted home, but everything is
placed there in readiness so that if he expresses the slightest
wish it mav at once be fulfilled.

A MEAN AND CRAFTY-LOOKING RULER. 563

And now look! The band strikes up a martial air of
welcome, a look of expectancy comes upon every face, and
ten thousand necks are craned to see the carriage which
comes slowly down the hill from the palace to the mosque.
On the front seat of this carriage is a noble-looking man in
splendid military costume covered with decorations, who
appears every inch a king. But he is not the Sultan. The
other man who sits on the back seat of the carriage, — that
mean, crafty-looking fellow, with the red beard and hooked
nose, and the scared look in the deceitful eyes which he lifts
to the crowd of European spectators as he passes the em-
bassy, — that is "The Sultan of glorious Sultans, Emperor of
powerful Emperors, distributer of the crowns of infidel
rulers that are seated upon thrones, the shadow of God upon
earth. I, who am the Emperor, the Asylum of Justice and
the King of Kings, the centre of victory; I, who, by the
real Almighty, the Fount of happiness, am adorned with the
title of Emperor of both lands, and, by the crowning
grandeur of my caliphate, am graced by the title of Sov-
ereign of both Seas."

He dismounts at the door of the mosque, enters the
sanctuary just as the old howjeh from the minaret overhead
calls to noonday prayer, is absent for about half an hour,
presumably at his worship, and then returns, takes the reins
from his coachman and drives himself slowly up the hill to
his palace.

It is said that he regards this feat of driving himself

from the mosque to the palace up a somewhat steep hill

with ten thousand soldiers to come to his rescue if necessary,

as a feat of surpassing courage. It is the only brave thing

that he attempts to do, and most of his time,. it is said, is

passed in abject fear lest he lose his life, and his empire be

wrested from his unworthy hands.
34

564 THE SULTAN'S FEAR OF ASSASSINATION.

How different this from the brave days of old when
Othman and Suleyman and their successors led their own
troops in the thickest of the fray from victory to victory !
We can have some respect for these old warriors, cruel and
fanatical and bloodthirsty as many of them were, — at least
they ruled with kingly dignity and in kingly splendor.

In the old time the Sultan had in his seraglio a first lord
of the stable under whom were nearly seven thousand
grooms to take care of the royal steeds. He had also a
"Chief Falconer " and "Chief Hawker," and even a "Chief
Sparrow Hawker." The "Chief of his Tent Pitchers" had
under him nearly eight hundred men whose duty it was to
pitch the Sultan's tents wherever he might wish to spend the
day. He also had a "Chief Taster," with fifty sub-tasters
under him who tried all the Sultan's dishes.

His " Chief Baker " was the master of five hundred other
bakers, and the " Chief Confectioner " had five hundred who
were subject to him. Besides these, there was the " Master
Vesturer," who had charge of the Sultan's clothes, and whose
duty it was to follow him when he went abroad and scatter
silver coins before him. The " Master of the Turbans " had
charge of the imperial head-dress, one of which he carried in
procession, inclining it to right or left as a salutation to the
people. There was even a " Master of the Napkins," a
" Master Ewer Keeper," who poured water on the Sultan's
hands, a " Chief Turban "Winder," a " Chief Coffee Server,"
and a " Chief Barber," with many subordinates under each
of them. We even read of a " Chief Nightingale Keeper,"
and " Chief Parrot Keeper," whose duties may be guessed
from their very names.

A trustworthy author who visited the royal treasure
chambers as late as 1886, tells us that there he beheld " huge
emeralds as large as one's hand, garnets positively plated

RICH STORES OF COSTLY JEWELS.

565

with great table diamonds, maces, and daggers whose hilts
held gems as large as hens' eggs. Jeweled aigrets and robes
of state standing up stiff with gold and precious stones."

All these are the relics of the more prosperous past. All
indicate an era of splendid though barbaric magnificence.
All show a period of virility and manly strength in rulers
and conquering people alike. How, indeed, are the mighty
fallen, when, from this period of grandeur, we come down to

A TURKISH WOMAN.

the timid, mean-faced Sultan of the present day, who dares
not go to mosque without ten thousand soldiers to insure his
safety, and who, with all his cruel tyranny, is ready to col-
lapse with terror, when a foreign nation so much as whispers
the word " ironclad " in his ear !

Before we leave Asia for the shores of Europe, we must
make a brief excursion to Broussa, one of the most remark-
able as one of the most beautiful cities of the Ottoman
Empire. A lovely sail of half a day brings us. to the port of

560

A BRAVE AND WISE SULTAN OF OLD.

this ancient capital of the Moslem. Here we find Moham-
medanism at its best. The mosques are spacious and mag-
nificent. Quite an attempt is made in the line of education,
and the magnificent scenery, the pure air, and grand old
Olympus (not the Olympus of classic fable, but a very re-
spectable mountain, nevertheless) which forms a background
to the city, all seem to have left their impress upon the rul-

A sultan's tomb.

ing race, and nowhere are Moslems more courteous and less
fanatical than in this their ancient capital.

Here, as long ago as the year 1326, after a ten-years
siege, Broussa capitulated to the troops of Othman, and here
the great Sultan was buried soon after, for it was his dying
wish that he should be interred at Broussa, the new capital
of his mighty empire. The sword of Othman is still sacredly
treasured at Constantinople, and each Sultan in his turn, as
he comes to the throne, has the sacred blade of the founder
of his empire buckled to his belt by way of coronation.

THE TOMB OF "BLACK OTHMAN."

567

Happy would it have been for his successors, and the em-
pire which they govern, if his descendants had been as brave,
as far-seeing, and as simple in their habits as their great
ancestor. Simple in his dress, his figure was imposing.
Like Longimanus, his arms reached below his knees, his
thighs were those of a horseman, and his prominent nose,
black hair and beard, and swarthy hue, procured him the
name of " Black Othman," for black is a color of honor in
the East and indicates strength of character as well as bodily
vigor and energy. Black Othman transmitted his physical
characteristics to several generations of his successors, and,
for at least three hundred years, there sat no Sultan on the
Ottoman throne who was not distinguished for personal
courage.

The beautiful tomb of the brave Othman is well worth a
visit even from Christians, who detest his creed and abomi-
nate the ways of his descendants. Several of the other great
Sultans are also buried at Broussa, in finely -preserved mauso-
leums, in which the tombs are covered with heavy black
draperies, which give a singularly dignified and sombre
aspect to these halls of death.

CHAPTER XXX.

THROUGH CLASSIC LANDS— FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO
THE COAST OF SPAIN — HOMEWARD BOUND.

Off for Athens — On the Tchickatchoff — The Occident and the Orient —
The Sharp Line of Demarcation — Tenedos and Its Wooden Horse —
What Makes Athens Great To-day? — A Charming Journey — The
Ruined City and its Thrilling Story — The Romantic Way of Climbing
Vesuvius — The Lake of Fire and Brimstone — An Awful Accident
— Where the Christians Fought with Wild Beasts — Pisa and its Bell
Tower — The Campo Santo and its Sacred Soil — Lazy Venice and its
Gondolas — Genoa the Superb — All that We Found of Columbus — On
the Borders of Spain — A Royal Swimmer — Ambitious Spanish Girls —
Too Envious to be Courteous — A Memory of Lafayette — Washer-
women Object to Modern Conveniences — The Best Part of the Trip.

>E must be an audacious author in-
deed, who thinks that he can
compel the attention of the world
to what he may say about much-
written Europe, when library
shelves groan with books con-
cerning it, and thousands of vol-
umes are added to their list every
year. My temerity is not of
such large proportions as to
undertake this task. So, in a
single chapter, we will take our
hasty journey from the Bosphorus to the coast of Spain.
"We will embark, if you please, my reader, as it was our

good fortune actually to do. on the Russian steamer Tchick-

(568)

ON BOARD ONE OF THE CZAR S STEAMERS. 569

atchoff, which sails from Constantinople to Athens. One of
the finest steamers on which we have sailed since we left
home, is this same Russian vessel with the unpronounceable
name. The staterooms are large and airy, the table is most
bountifully spread, the decks are clean and broad, and the
saloons fitted up in the most elegant style of naval architect-
ure and decoration. "We are almost ready to relent and to
shade down our deep-seated antipathy to the tyrannical Czar
when Ave find that he charters so fine a steamer to carry us
from the Orient to the Occident, for this trip is nothing less
than such a journey. The line of demarcation is sharp and
distinct. The Orient sweeping eastward comes as far as
Constantinople and ends there, the Occident sweeping west-
ward breaks with its waves of nineteenth century progress,
unavailingly on the shores of Bosphorus. It makes but little
impression even upon Constantinople, and none at all upon
the country beyond.

!Not only do we go from the Orient to the Occident, but
from the middle ages into modern times, from the twelfth
century into the nineteenth, from conservatism, stagnation,
retrogression, to progress, advancement, and the seething,
vigorous life of modern days, when we journey from Con-
stantinople to Athens.

Past ancient Troy we sail, where, with the help of a
powerful spy-glass and a still more powerful imagination, we
almost make ourselves believe that we can see the excavations
of Dr. Schliemann ; past the barren island of Tenedos, where
in ancient times the Greeks made the wooden horse by
means of which they conquered Troy.

Tenedos, however, in ancient days must have been a dif-
ferent island from what it is to-day, for there are not enough
trees upon it now or upon any of the islands in the vicinity
to make a hobby-horse for a baby, much less an animal with

570 IN FAMOUS ATHENS.

such a capacious interior as that in which the Greeks made
their famous entrance into Troy. How the Greeks managed
to get this huge wooden monstrosity across the wide stretch
of turbulent sea which runs between Tenedos and Troy is
another of the mysteries upon which history is silent. But
we are not iconoclasts, and we do not wish to suggest harrow-
ing doubts concerning cherished fables to the future genera-
tions of classical scholars.

"We passed through the beautiful Hellespont early in the
morning and not a great while thereafter reached the Py-
reus, the harbor of Athens. To attempt to " do " Athens in
the space of a few pages is such a manifestly absurd task
that I will only say that we stood reverently upon the Par-
thenon while our souls did reverence to the genius of ancient
days, embodied in the Propylaeum and the Erechtheum with
its stately caryatides ; that we visited the Tower of the Winds
and the arch of Hadrian and the Temple of Theseus ; that
we stood upon the Pnyx where Demosthenes delivered his
world-famous speeches, and that especially our souls did
homage to the place most full of great memories to us, when
we stood upon Mars Hill. Here, in imagination, as we
looked off upon the historic city lying at our feet, with its
temples and its altars and its crowded thoroughfares, filled
as they were in ancient times, with a volatile, excitable, but
intellectual people, we heard St. Paul saying, as he stood
upon this very spot : " Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in
all things ye are too superstitious, for, as I passed by and be-
held your devotions I found an altar with the inscription :
'To the unknown God.' Whom, therefore ye ignorantly
worship, Him declare I unto you."

That speech, with all that it revealed of the fatherhood
of God, and the brotherhood of men whom God made " of
one blood to dwell upon all the face of the earth," did more

BY SWORD AND PEN. 571

for mankind and for the perpetuation of the memory of
Athens, than all the works of Phidias and the conquests of
Hadrian and the orations of Demosthenes, which also have
made the city memorable.

The thought is sure to come to every thoughtful man
who stands on the heights of the Parthenon, " "What has
made this little city famous in all the ages of the world ? "
Its situation, while beautiful, is no more remarkable than
that of scores of other cities on the blue Mediterranean. Its
natural advantages are not so great as those of other cities
of ancient and modern times. The tributary country is
comparatively barren and poor, the population was never
large, as the great modern nations count populations.

What, then has made Athens so famous in all the history
of the world \ There is but one answer to the question.
She was the mother of heroes and the mother of historians.
Brave men won her battles and true patriots ornamented her
public squares and erected her famous buildings, and, more
than that, poets were born to sing their virtues, and histo-
rians to record their deeds of praise. The sword alone could
not have made little Greece memorable among all the nations
of the world, but the sword supplemented by the pen, the
great deed not only done but sung, has given her an imper-
ishable name, and attracts to her to-day scholars and lovers
of everything that is noble and beautiful and true.

The railway journey from Athens to Patras is one of the
most charming which can be taken in any continent. All
the way the railroad runs within sight of the sounding sea,
affording most picturesque glimpses of the famous mountains
of Greece, every one of which has been glorified in song and
story.

Mount Olympus and Mount Parnassus, Pentelicus, and
Hymettus, we see them all, and what classic memories they

572 NAPLES AND VESUVIUS.

evoke ! Some of these memories are a little cloudy, like the
mists which hover about the tops of the mountains them-
selves, but, nevertheless, the mountains are very real things
behind the mists, and so are the school-dav memories which
cluster around them very real to us, though hid by the haze
of succeeding vears.

Another delightful journey is the sail by steamer from
Patras to Brindisi over the Ionian Sea, a journey of some
thirty hours, with a stop by the way at Corfu, one of the
most lovely spots which the whole map of the world affords.

From Brindisi to Naples is an all-day's ride over one of
the slow Italian railways, but a ride full of enjoyment, as we
see the fertile fields, the smiling vineyards, and the flower-
decked pastures of sunny Italy. At last, Vesuvius, with
a thin wreath of smoke curling from its peaks, breaks updn
our view. We rumble past the buried city of Pompeii,
rattle over the tomb of Herculaneum, and go puffing into
the great station of Naples just as the setting sun makes
doubly glorious the always beautiful blue bay.

Naples has few attractions in itself, but is noted for the
beauty and interest of its surroundings ; and while Pompeii
lies at its very door, with the paint of nineteen hundred
years ago still fresh upon its ruined walls, with the ruts
worn by the chariots of old still visible in its streets, with the
shops of its bakers and its oil merchants and its wine sellers,
just as they left them when they sold their last loaf of bread
and flask of wine nineteen centuries ago, Naples will never
lose its attractiveness for the traveler and the antiquarian.

More full of unique and thrilling interest than almost
any spot on earth is this ruined city which was overwhelmed
by the wrath of God in a single night ; its polluted streets
and houses, which even now indicate depths of depravity
that have seldom been witnessed in the history of the world,

A LAKE OF MOLTEN FIRE. 573

ruined and utterly destroyed as habitations for the living.
Surely the moralist will be excused for drawing his lesson
from the destruction of this comparatively modern Sodom
and Gomorrah.

There are two ways of ascending Vesuvius. The old-
fashioned way takes us on horseback from the guides' house
near Pompeii through vineyards and villages, and across the
ashes and pumice and scoriae of a hundred eruptions, to the
base of the volcanic cone itself. Then we dismount from our
horses, leave them in the hands of some villainous-looking;
guides who are waiting to devour as much of the substance
of the average traveler as they can lay hands on without
getting into jail, and then make the sharp, steep climb on
foot to the very summit. This is not a holiday task, by any
means, and I do not recommend it to those who do not have
stout muscles and strong lungs and a good degree of physical
endurance. It is, however, the more picturesque and ro-
mantic method, for the other way takes us by railway t©
within a few rods of the very top. Then we pick our way
cautiously over the steaming vent holes and across the hot
sulphur and burning ashes until we stand on the ridge of
the crater, and hear below us the sullen, awful "swash" of
the lake of fire and brimstone.

One cannot always see the seething lake itself because it
is generally hidden by the almost continuous sulphurous
fumes which rise from its surface. But that which is not
visible to one sense is audible to another, and the beating- of
that lake of molten fire upon the sides of the imprisoning
mountain seemed to me the most awful sound I ever heard.
More vivid than ever before was the dreadful Scripture
imagery which typifies of the final destruction of those who
hate all that is good and true.

A few days after a visit which I once paid to this crater

574 WHERE CHRISTIANS FOUGHT WITH WILD BEASTS.

two gentlemen were standing on the very edge, where a little
while before I had stood unconscious of any danger, when
the fumes from the pit being blown that way by a pecu-
liarly strong gust of wind they were overcome by it.
Blinded and suffocated thev fell headlong 1 into the dreadful
lake which boiled and blistered beneath. The only circum-
stance which mitigates the dreadful accident was that their
sufferings must have been absolutely momentary.

"When we reach Rome, as we shall after three days in
Naples, how can we hope to even touch upon its grandeur
and beauty! "We are filled with the hopelessness of our
task at the very beginning, and the longer we stay roaming
through its miles of picture galleries, visiting its acres of
statuary, strolling into church after church, each one of
which is worth a week of study, roaming among the ruins of
the palaces of a score of Caesars, we are ready to aver that
one cannot hope to see Rome thoroughly unless he has
months at his disposal.

Among all the sights of ruined Rome the Colosseum
impresses me most deeply. Here the imagination has
full play. Here the poetic fancy can ask for nothing
more. Story on story rise the tiers of seats for the spec-
tators who rejoiced in the bloody tragedies of those cruel
days. Eighty thousand people could here be accommodated,
and in the ampitheatre upon which all these tiers of seats
look down, how many dreadful tragedies were enacted !

Here came the Christians to fight w r ith the wild beasts.
Here came the gladiators to struggle in mortal combat, with
never a merciful thumb raised from the spectators who
enioyed their agony. Here assembled the beauty and
chivalry, the aristocracy and royalty of Rome in her most
glorious days, but at the heart of this royalty and chivalry
and beauty was the corrupting worm of selfishness, cruelty,

THE LESSON OF A RUIN. 575

corruption, and tyranny. The Colosseum is a type of all
that is grandest and of all that was basest in ancient
Rome. It is the living exhibition in substantial stone and
mortar of her grandest days and her weakest days, of
her power and her poverty alike.

"We are glad that it is now a ruin, for the Colosseum
was always dedicated to that which was mean and base.
"We are glad that the ruin still stands, for it teaches the
whole world that material power and grandeur and wealth,
beyond anything which the ages have known before or
since, are not sufficient of themselves to make a nation truly
great or permanently powerful.

Of course we will go into St. Peter's before we leave the
ancient city. It is the fashion for many travelers to say that
they are disappointed in St. Peter's, and no doubt such a
feeling does come to one as he looks first at the unworthy
and meaningless facade which greets him as he walks up to
the entrance. But all sense of disappointment disappeared,
so far as I was concerned, when I entered its vast por-
tals and found myself beneath its mighty domes. Every-
thing that marble and gilding; frescoing and mosaic
work can do to make a building sublimely, grandly beautiful,
has here been done. The wealth and genius of the ages
have been lavished upon this wonderful church, and we do
not wonder that it is the Mecca of every devout Catholic.

To the Protestant, however, accustomed to the more
severe simplicity of his own modest sanctuaries, there is very
much that is wanting, even in this magnificent church,
to make it all that he dreams concerning the constant
abiding place of God. Here the Pope seems to be glorified
more than the Master of the Pope. St. Peter is more
conspicuous than the one who said to him, " Henceforth
thou shalt be called Peter, for on this rock will I build

570 A STORY OF THE CRUSADERS.

my church," and the Virgin Mary is vastly more honored
than her Divine Son. With an unsatisfied, hungering sense
of want, the Protestant Christian is likely to go out from
this gorgeous cathedral, feeling that amid all the gilding and
painting, the statuary and the famous shrines, he has
not found God or drawn any nearer to the Saviour's side.

Where else shall I conduct my readers in this land of
Italy, crowded as it is with places of supreme historic
interest? Shall we go to Pisa and visit its cathedrals
and its baptistry, its Leaning Bell Tower and its Campo
Santo ? We should certainly enjoy the day there, for all
its sights are crowded close together, and one has no
wearying walk to take in going from one to another.

The Campo Santo, or sacred place of burial, is to me the
most interesting spot in little Pisa. Here, seven centuries
ago, the Crusaders brought shipload after shipload of sacred
soil from Jerusalem, whither they had sailed from Pisa
when it was a great commercial port. Their ships went out
crowded with eager, adventurous youths, many of whom,
alas, were to lay their bones in the land of Palestine or on
the way thither, and the ships which sailed forth bearing the
pride and bloom of Italian chivalry came back loaded only
with dust and ashes from the Sacred City. Fifty-three
shiploads of this sacred soil were deposited in this great
rectangular enclosure, and here many Crusaders and other
famous men were buried. From the walls around the
Campo Santo, on every side, look down pictures of Biblical
scenes painted by the most famous artists centuries ago,
pictures which are still bright and fresh and vivid as though
the colors were laid on but yesterday.

Shall we go to Florence together and visit the miles of
picture galleries, its beautiful park and its lovely drives
along the historic Arno? Shall we feed our souls on the

IN COLUMBUS'S BIRTHPLACE. 577

memories of the great deeds which were done by the great
men of Florence in the days of her pride and strength?
"When my readers do take this journey, not in this hasty
fashion, but in reality, they will agree with me, I am
sure, that no days are more pleasantly spent than those that
are devoted to charming Florence.

But we must hurry on, not even stopping to spend a few
lazy days in the gondolas of Venice, feeding the pigeons in
St. Mark's Square, or watching the glass-blowers in the
factories which line the great canal, for we must tarry at
least a time in Genoa, the Superb. With our souls fired
with admiration for Columbus, Genoa presents a magnet
quite too strong to be resisted, and yet when we reach the
city of his birthplace, we find remarkably few memorials of
the great discoverer. The house in which he was born, or in
which he is said by some people to have been born, is
situated several miles beyond the city limits, and an auto-
graph letter in one of the museums is about the only
authentic memorial of him which we find.

But, after all, these material relics and memorials im-
pressed me not nearly as much as the intangible things all
around which are connected with his memory. Under these
blue Italian skies the little Columbus played, and this lovely
view of earth and sea and sky doubtless impressed his
imagination and nourished the poetic germs within his soul,
which made him the great discoverer of the ages.

As we mounted to the heights of the beautiful park and
looked off over the housetops at the blue Mediterranean
wimpling and dimpling in the sunlight, we said to ourselves,
" Upon these- very wavelets looked Columbus. His boyish
eyes were strained to see the furthest limits bounded by
the whitecaps in the distance, and his eager imagination,
perhaps, as he stood upon this very height of land, asked,

578 ALONG THE RIVIERA.

' What is beyond the limits of the blue sea and the white-
caps which bound my horizon ? ' The answer to this ques-
tion, which in some form or other every generous youth puts
to himself as he grows older, was, in the case of Columbus,
the discovery of America and the opening of a new world
to commerce and civilization, and the religion of Christ.

After leaving Genoa our journey took us along the
Riviera, where charming views are marred somewhat by
innumerable tunnels through which the railroad passes.
Through Nice and Mentone, famous the world over as win-
tering places for the aristocracy of Europe, through Monte
Carlo and Monaco, the plague spot of Europe, whose wonder-
ful natural beauties are more than matched by the unnatural
depravity of its chief business ; through busy Marseilles,
through Narbonne and Pau and Cette, until at last we come
to the very borders of Spain, and, crossing the boundary
line, we enter into the country of the haughty cavalier.

At San Sebastian, one of the border towns, which is most
delightfully situated on the Bay of Biscay with green hills
surrounding it on every side, is the new palace of the Queen
of Spain, and we were permitted to go over this abode of
royalty from garret to cellar. Though it is a fine building
and worthy of the gracious queen Avho will occupy it during
the summer months, yet it is no more imposing or magnifi-
cent than the houses of a hundred millionaires which I have
seen in the United States.

Some of the rooms in the palace are designed for the
occupancy of generals in the army and the courtiers, and
are decidedly mean and narrow. They are plainly furnished,
only a few feet square, and frequently have but one window
in them. The room which her Majesty herself is to occupy,
and the adjoining room of the Baby King whose face appears
on all Spanish postage stamps, are fine apartments, and so

A LITTLE KING'S PASTIME. 570

are the state parlors and banqueting rooms. But there is
nothing extravagant or lavish, or even particularly sump-
tuous, about the whole place.

The most notable thing about the palace is the view from
the front entrance. It looks out upon the beautiful Bay of
San Sebastian, with a broad, sandy beach stretching in the
foreground, while off in the distance is the entrance to the
harbor with bold, precipitous bluffs on either side, crowned
by picturesque forts and lighthouses. The queen is a fa-
mous athlete in her way, and especially enjoys bathing in
the surf. So strong a swimmer is she, that she is said fre-
quently to swim out to the beautiful island in the bay, a
good mile from the shore. The little king meanwhile plays
upon the sand with his painted tin pail and little shovel, at
least as happy, we hope, as any little Spanish ragamuffin
whose privileges in sand and water and fresh air and de-
lightful scenery are just as great as those of the small royal
personage himself.

The object of supreme interest to us in San Sebastian,
however, was not the palace or any of the trappings of
royalty, or even the most beautiful bay with its encircling
mountains, but the Institute for Spanish girls which has here
been planted by American missionaries. Here are gathered
several scores of black-eyed, bright, intelligent Spanish
maidens, who will lead the way in the education of the
women of this country, which I believe is about to awaken to
a new period of youth and vigor.

Such an institution is particularly needed in this land, for
women here, as in every Catholic country, have been system-
atically kept in ignorance and bound by superstitious
fears. For the first time in all the history of Spain, a few
months ago, some of the girls from this institution dared to
present themselves for examination at the Government uni-

580 "ADVANCED YOUNG WOMEN IN SPAIN.

versity, competing for the same honors which their brothers
had formerly monopolized altogether. It was a great day
for the American Institute for Girls and a prophetic day for
Spain, for several of the girls passed the examinations and
came off with flying colors. They were not allowed to for-
get, however, that they belonged to an inferior sex, for as
they went up to receive their diplomas they were hissed by
the unchivalrous young men. This ungracious act, however,
reacted on the heads of the young boors who perpetrated it.
The professors of the university compelled them to offer a
suitable and humble apology for their treatment of the girls,
and the precedent was established that hereafter, in some
parts of Spain at least, a young lady of intelligence and
attainments will be recognized by the educational authorities
of the land of Ferdinand and Isabella.

How better could America repay the debt which she
owes to Spain than by liberally endowing this school,
and by aiding to establish others for the education of the
long-neglected women of Castile?

A very few miles from San Sebastian is the old Spanish
seaport of Passages, a port which was once famous in its
way, and from which Lafayette slipped away when, in
opposition to the wishes of the government and his friends,
he espoused the cause of American liberty and decided to
stand side by side with "Washington and Franklin and Jeffer-
son. For many years the entrance to the harbor has been
almost impassable, so filled up has it become with the silt
washed down from the mountain sides which hem in the
narrow passage on every hand. Of late years, however, new
attention has been paid to the harbor, dredging machines
have made an entrance for steamers of considerable size, and
the old place is renewing its youth.

It retains its ancient characteristics, however, and its one

A CONSERVATIVE OLD TOWN. 581

street which crawls along at the base of the hillside against
which the town is built is so narrow as to be impassable to
wheeled vehicles and to afford scarcety room for two passing
donkeys. Here old Spanish customs and prejudices flourish
with all the force of ancient times, just as though the thriv-
ing, bustling, modern city of San Sebastian was not within
hailing distance. Here the people live, move, and have their
being, bake their bread and eat their garlic and wash theii
clothes, just as they did five hundred years ago.

The latter operation is performed by women who stand
in the water up to their knees, and cold, icy spring water it
is, too, while they pound and rub and beat the very life out
of their garments on flat stones in the bed of the stream. A
few years since, the town provided a better place for them,
but this thoughtful provision almost provoked a riot. They
declared that what had been good enough for their grand-
dams was good enough for them, that they would have none
of the new-fangled, modern wash tubs even though they
were provided at public expense, and that they would still
stand up to their knees in water if they chose to do so.
The authorities had to give way, and the new and beautiful
stone wash tubs fell into innocuous desuetude.

"We will follow Lafayette's example, and, leaving well-
known Paris and the old mother country to those who have
seen and described them so often, we will embark for
America in imagination from this very Spanish port, echoing
the sentiment which has been ringing through our hearts a
hundred thousand times during this long journey, that no
country is for us so precious as the land over which the
Stars and Stripes wave, and that nothing about going
abroad is so altogether delightful and satisfactory as the
getting home again.

CHAPTER XXXI.

OBJECTS AND RESULTS OF OUR JOURNEY — THE FAVORING
HAND OF PROVIDENCE — LOOKING BACKWARD — HAPPY
MEMORIES.

The Great Object of our Journey — Australian Conventions — Unbounded
Enthusiasm — The Y. P. S. C. E. Pennant — Happy Memories — In
Marvelous Japan — A " United Society " for China — Among the Hin-
dus—Obstacles in Turkey — Forbidden Words — Arresting St. Paul

— Black-Eyed Spanish Endeavorers — Encouragement in Paris — Good
News from the Mother Land — Steady Growth of Endeavor Societies-
Impressions of Missionaries and Their Work — Cruel Misrepresentations

— Globe Trotters' Slanders — A Diversity of Gifts — What are the
Hardships of a Missionary to-day? — The Most Hopeful Feature of Mod-
ern Civilization — The Anglo-Saxon Missionary and His Noble Work —
Saving the World through Jesus Christ.

HE great object of the journey
which has been described in the
previous chapters, was the ad-
vancement of the Christian En-
deavor movement in foreign
countries, and the visiting of
missionary stations in heathen
and Mohammedan lands, for the
purpose of acquainting members
of these societies in America
more thoroughly with the needs
and privileges of missionary

work all the world over.

In every particular, the journey has been more blessed of

Providence and prospered by God's favoring hand than I

dared to believe would be possible when we undertook it.

(532)

ENTHUSIASTIC AUSTRALIANS. 583

No accident or serious detention or illness delayed us during
our year of travel. No appointment was missed, no address
failed to be delivered among the two hundred and fifty
which made the year such a busy one. Everywhere the
Christian Endeavor idea was received with surprising favor.

To be sure, we went only where we were asked to go, and
addressed meetings that had been previously arranged by
kind friends. And yet with all these favoring circumstances,
I did not dare to hope for such enthusiastic conventions, such
eager throngs of earnest young men and women, and such
large favor as was accorded to this youngest child of the
church, The Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor.

In Australia the conventions were, beyond all precedent,
large, enthusiastic, and inspiring. The greatest audience
rooms that could be obtained in such places as Melbourne,
Ballarat, Adelaide, and Brisbane, were crowded to their
utmost, and the spirituality and intense earnestness and devo-
tion of the conventions were quite as noticeable as the large
throngs which attended them. The conventions usually be-
gan, practically if not formally, at the railway stations, which
were usually crowded with singing Endeavorers when we
arrived, and who carried their good cheer and gladness and
contagious enthusiasm with them wherever they went.

Even the railway officials and the city authorities of the
town often seemed to catch the spirit of enthusiastic youth,
and accorded us courtesies and kindly consideration which
were far beyond the merits of the humble individuals who
came to advocate the claims of Christian Endeavor ; and yet
we realized from the beginning of our journey to the end,
that not the individuals who brought the message, but the
society which they represented, was honored, and every
greeting and welcome and hearty hand-grasp told chiefly of
the love which the young people and their pastors and their

584 A SIGNIFICANT WELCOME.

fathers and mothers had for this new agency which God has
raised up " For Christ and the Church."

One of the most significant of these welcomes, and one
whose kindly thoughtfulness we shall never forget, greeted
us when first we reached the bluff headlands of Sydney
harbor, where we saw a steam launch approaching our
steamer, flying two pennants, from one masthead the Stars
and Stripes, and from another a flag bearing the letters
" Y. P. S. C. E." From that moment to the day when, six
weeks later, we sailed from the harbor of Brisbane for the
port of Hong Kong, when the last sound that we heard was
the sweet music of Brisbane Endeavorers, singing, " God be
with you till we meet again," every hour was crowded with
pleasant experiences, and lives as a happy memory of the
great Island Continent.

During the months which have elapsed between that visit
and the date of the publication of this book, Christian
Endeavor Societies have multiplied at a most gratifying rate
throughout all the colonies, until now there are probably at
least seven hundred societies in this group of sister nations
which lie under the Southern Cross, while their numbers
are increasing quite as rapidly in the land whose people look
up at the familiar constellations of Orion and the Great Bear.

In the mighty land of Asia with its uncounted millions,
in Japan, China, and India, we found a large and most en-
couraging field also for the growth of Christian Endeavor
societies. In Japan, that marvelous new land which is
springing forward by leaps and bounds into the family of
great nations, there are already some forty Endeavor soci-
eties established in connection with the missions of the
various Protestant denominations. Several little booklets
have been translated into Japanese and widely circulated,
and much hope is expressed by missionaries and native

OUR WORK IN INDIA AND CHINA. 585

pastors of the future efficiency of this new agency of Chris-
tian nurture.

In China a United Society of Christian Endeavor has
been established with its headquarters at Shanghai. The
constitution and other literature has been translated into
several dialects, and two or three largely circulated Chinese
papers give constant attention, by means of special depart-
ments, to the work of the society and its possibilities in the
Flowery Kingdom.

In India much satisfactory work is being planned and
executed. The constitution of the societv has been trans-
lated into Tamil and Telugu and Bengali and Hindustani
and Marathi. Many vigorous societies already exist in con-
nection with various missions, and it is hoped that a multi-
tude of struggling communities of Christians and out-
stations where only a few can be gathered together, and
where there are not a sufficient number of Christians to form
a regular church, an organization of this sort with its pledge
and its obligations of voluntary religious service may do
much in the way of establishing firm and steadfast the
much-tried faith of the new converts.

In Turkey all religious work meets with greater obstacles
than in any other land at the present time, and the Christian
Endeavor Society comes in for its full share of persecution
and opposition. Many societies have been broken up, and
many others which would have been formed have been
delayed because of the threatening attitude of the govern-
ment toward every possible plan for the union of young
people in religious work.

A humorous story is told to the effect that a copy of the
Epistle of Paul to the Galatians was submitted to the
Turkish censor for his inspection. He was at once greatly
alarmed and incensed thereby, for he interpreted it as being

586 A HUMOROUS STORY.

a letter to the inhabitants of Galata, which is one of the
divisions into which the modern city of Constantinople is
divided. In his hot wrath he at once sent a constable to the
mission to apprehend this agitator Paul who was writing in-
cendiary letters to the people of Galata. When told that
the said Paul had been dead for fully 1800 years, and that
he could not answer to the summons of the Turkish govern-
ment, and that all the people to whom he wrote had
also been in their graves for almost two milleniums, his
wrath cooled somewhat, and he concluded to dismiss his
posse of constables without arresting the apostle.

This story simply shows, as do other instances which
were related in previous chapters, the absurd prejudices and
stupid ignorance with which religious work of all kinds has
to contend in the Ottoman Empire, and the end of many of
these stories is more tragic than humorous.

Still, in spite of tnese obstacles, Christian Endeavor work
and all other kinds of Christian enterprise are holding on their
way, waiting and hoping for better times in the Dominion of
the Turk.

In Spain, we found among the Spanish girls and their
teachers enthusiastic Endeavorers, and these girls will carry
the plans and methods of the society, as they finish their
education and return to their home, into all parts of the
ancient kingdom of Castile.

In France, too, we found very much to encourage us. A
large mass meeting drawn from the seven Christian En-
deavor societies of Paris, whose numbers have since been
multiplied, greeted us in the hall of the Y. M. C. A., and
hundreds of French Protestant pastors and religious workers
came together in one of the halls of the McCall mission to
talk over the adaptabilities of Christian Endeavor to their
work and workers.

MEMORABLE MEETINGS. 58?

My visit to England on this occasion, which is not re-
corded in the chapters of this book, since it is so difficult to
find "fresh fields and pastures new" in the well-traveled soil
of the mother country, was the third which I have made
within the last few years in the interests of the Christian
Endeavor movement, and was by far the most encouraging
of all.

I had the pleasure of speaking to large and enthusiastic
audiences in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Ipswich,
Glasgow, Belfast, Chester, and Liverpool, and of attending
the third annual Christian Endeavor convention of the
British societies — an admirable and memorable meeting.
Everywhere I found the same spirit, devotion, and loyal zeal
which I am accustomed to find in America, and everywhere
pastors gave me their assurance, that though the growth of
the society was less rapid at first than in its home-land, it
was destined to do no less good and to become quite as im-
portant a factor in church life in England as in America.

"Within a vear of the time of this last visit, the societies
have multiplied from less than three hundred to nearly seven
hundred ; strong Christian Endeavor Unions have been estab-
lished in most of the leading centers of population, and the
outlook for the future was never so bright as to-day.

I must add, in a few words, my general impression in re-
gard to missionary work the Avorld over ; for to rectify and
clarify and intensify these impressions in my own mind and
the minds of others who might read or hear of this journey,
was one great object for which it was undertaken. I rejoice
to say, that with every mile of the journey my belief in mis-
sions and missionary work has been strengthened, my love
for the missionaries increased, and my confidence in the final
triumph of the religion of Christ throughout all the world
has been more surely established.

588 MISREPRESENTATIONS OF SHALLOW CRITICS.

Many and cruel misrepresentations of missionaries and
missionary work find voice in the press, and in the comments
of returned travelers who often return to their own laud
hostile and abusive of missionary work. I have paid my re-
spects to these globe-trotters more than once in the course of
these chapters, and no language is too strong with which to
score their superficial and utterly false estimates of mission-
ary service.

These unsympathetic travelers who live in luxury and
comfort at home, who go abroad simply for their own con-
venience and pleasure, who have never sacrificed a dollar for
the advancement of the cause of Christ, presume to criticize
with vulgar sneers these brave soldiers of the Cross who have
given up home and native land and dear friends, and many
of them brilliant prospects in life, for the love which they
bear the Master and the men for whom He died. Patience
ceases to be a virtue when one considers these shallow critics
of men whose shoe latchets they are not worthy to unloose.
To be sure, missionaries differ as good men differ everywhere
else in intellectual capacities, in natural gifts, in education,
and in devotion. Some are far more efficient than others.
Some are more wholly given to their work than their fellow
missionaries, and some are more successful and have larger
results to show for the time and money and force which they
expend in foreign lands.

But this is only saying what is equally true of ministers
and Christian people at home. There is a diversity of gifts,
but it is also true that a genuine spirit of loyalty to Christ
and of love to men, and a desire to lift them up, in everyway
pervades the ranks of missionaries of the cross in all lands,
and is their one controlling motive. During the past year 1
have visited these faithful men and women in China and
Japan, in Northern India and in Southern India, in the Sand-

MISSIONARIES AND THEIR WORK. 589

wich Islands and Samoa, in Egypt and Syria, in Turkey,
Greece, France, and Spain, and without hesitation I can say
no nobler, more devoted, self-sacrificing, and intelligent body
of men and women has it ever been my privilege to meet in
any land. In wit and worth, in intellectual capacity and
administrative ability, in intelligence and in a large, states-
manlike grasp of the situation, their numbers cannot be
duplicated, I believe, in any walk of life.

They are, for the most part, well-equipped before they
leave home ; they have been broadened by travel, polished by
contact with many men of many minds, sweetened by love
and devotion to Christ, ennobled by supreme and lofty life
purposes, and are men and women who are fit to stand
before kings, for they have felt the ennobling touch of ser-
vice for the King of Kings.

Much of the misapprehension of missionary work arises
from the fact that the difficulties and hardships are not in
these days as they were at first, largely physical and mate-
rial. Few missionaries now suffer for lack of sufficient food
or srood clothes or convenient shelter. Some of them live
almost as comfortably as they would live at home, and their
abodes, clothing, and table fare are above the average of the
debased tribes among whom many of them work. This dif-
ference of social condition has given rise to many of the
cruel jibes of unsympathetic and slanderous travelers, who
accuse the missionaries of living in stately style in palaces,
while their converts grovel in miserable hovels.

But the object of the missionary, as I understand it, is to
lift his convert out of the hovel, and not to degrade himself
to the level of the heathen. "While it is true that the average
missionary lives for the most part in comparative comfort, it
is not true that he lives extravagantly or lavishly. He is
always willing to go down among people for whom he works;

590

LAST WORDS.

he is willing to wear their clothes, eat their coarse fare, and
live in their filthy huts, if necessary, and he often does all
these and more ; at the same time he is constantly trying to
raise the people unto whom he has been sent to a higher
level of respectability and Christian manhood.

I am glad to have my last words in this book testify to
the fact that missionary work of all the various Protestant
denominations in all parts of the world is, in my eyes, the
most promising and hopeful feature of modern civilization.
For the enlargement of commerce, for the spread of civiliza-
tion, for the uplifting of humanity, for the redemption of the
world, there is no such force as that which is exerted by the
Anglo-Saxon missionaries of the Cross, the ministers of the
Lord Jesus Christ.

'A /

gis gun (ihraujgh a Roman's <%s.

INTRODUCTORY.

^HE^N" a man and a woman are
journeying " Around the World "
together they are likely to see
all things through different
glasses. The man may, per-
haps, have a clearer vision and a
wider outlook; but the woman,
with more leisure, and with
more opportunities in some di-
rections because she is a woman,
will notice little things which
have escaped the larger vision,
and yet are none the less interesting.

It is with the hope that some of the experiences and
observations of an American woman in strange lands may
be interesting to her sisters in the home-land, that she has
ventured to present these glimpses of life and scenes among
the women and children of other countries than ours, as-
they appeared to her.

(593)

ffia^n&f & ^/ta/rn^

Bs Seen Gbrougb a TKaoman's JEges.

CHAPTER I.

A WOMAN'S LIFE AT SEA — HOUSEKEEPING IN A FLOATING
PRISON — LIFE UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS.

At Sea — Housekeeping on a Small Scale — Daily Life in a Floating
Prison — A Consoling Stewardess — Tea and Toast in a Stateroom —
A Bed that Never Kept Still — Lucid Intervals — Moving into a New
Home — Arranging our Belongings — Going to Housekeeping Eighteen
Times in One Year — The Back Yard of an Ocean Steamer — Sighing for
a Pine Stump — A Chinese Steward, A Malay Quartermaster, and an
English Captain — Life on the Ohingtu — Under the Southern Cross —
A Velvet-footed Steward — Doleful versus Pleasant Memories.

|OW many pleasant memories of
our life on ocean steamers come
back to me as I write! After
traveling for weeks on land, liv-
ing in trunks meanwhile, stop-
ping two days in this place and
one in the next, a homelike feel-
ing always came over me when
we moved our worldly posses-
sions into the little stateroom of
a steamer and settled down to
housekeeping for a few days.
To be sure, it was housekeeping on a small scale, but only
think of the delight of having one room that you can call
your very own for eight or ten or twelve days, and on one
occasion even for twenty-four days. Just think of it, O ye

(595)

59G RESTFUL DAYS.

housekeepers, who can spread your possessions over a whole
house and keep them there all the time, with never a
thought of change save that of pleasing your own fancy.

Life and travel on land was usually a rush, a hurry, and
bustle; conventions and tea meetings, sight-seeing, recep-
tions and visiting, wrestling with trunks, waiting at railroad
stations, changing cars, whirling through city streets in
jinrikishas, or jolting in jutkahs, led us a busy life on shore.
How welcome the change to an ocean steamer and the
prospect of a sea voyage, long or short, after four or five of
such busy weeks ! How quiet it seemed, as we pushed the
steamer trunk under the berth, after taking out the favorite
articles that would be wanted first and disposing of them in
different places! To be sure, my wrapper was usually the
first thing needed, and my berth the first place I sought,
but what of that ! After the bustle and confusion on land,
was it not restful to spend a few days in perfect quiet on
the berth or the lounge ? As for food, what could be more
soothing than the cup of tea and the slice of cold toast
served by the hands of the stewardess three times a day.
What could be more comforting than her assurance that
" the sea is growing smoother and probably it will be quite
calm by to-morrow." True there are no visible indications
that the sea is growing calmer, and you think it is quite
probable that she only says it is from a desire to make herself
agreeable; still, it is a comfort to have her say so, even if
you do not believe it. All this may suggest rather a doubt-
ful kind of rest, but it was rest nevertheless, and I always
looked forward longingly to my floating prison.

Besides, I frequently had lucid intervals when I could go
on deck and enjoy life with the rest of the party that made
up our little world. There were days when the sea was
calm and peaceful and I could promenade up and down the

THANKFUL FOR SMALL FAVORS. 597

deck, and sing in my heart that old tune our fathers and

mothers sung years ago,

" Fly like a youthful ka-a-art or roe,
Over the hi-i-i-ils where sp-i-i-i-ces grow."

There were rough and stormy days, it is true, when the
ship tossed and pitched, and I lay on my back in my berth
with closed eyes, and sighed, " Oh, for a lodge in some vast
wilderness," or, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove." But
even this was an episode, and if the voyage was long a few
days of seasickness now and then served to break the monot-
ony. Think of this, ye weary housekeepers, who can take
your rest every night, and every day if you will, in a bed
and keep still, and in a room which boasts at least one good-
sized window !

If I have learned nothing else in this long journey I have
learned to be thankful for small mercies.

There was always a pleasant excitement in going on
board a steamer and starting on a new voyage. Where was
our stateroom situated ? Was it an outside room ? Was it
on the pleasant side of the ship, where we could have the
port open < How far was it from the dining-room and how
far from my seat at table? How many seconds would it
take to go from the table to my berth if I should suddenly
decide that I did not want any breakfast '.

Then came the pleasure of unpacking our goods and
settling down to housekeeping again. It was like moving
into a new house. We looked about to see how large the
stateroom was, what conveniences it possessed, and con-
sidered how to make the most of them. This berth shall be
my room ; this net which holds so many little things shall
be my bureau ; this hook shall be my wardrobe, or " almira,"
as they call it in India. Perhaps I can even have two hooks.
This trunk will make a good divan when it is pulled out

598 HOUSEKEEPING AT SEA.

from under the berth, and it can be pushed under again
when it is not wanted. This lounge shall be the spare room,
for the use of the family, or for an occasional guest. This
little shelf under the glass shall be the dressing-table, and
this camp stool the easy chair. This narrow space between
the berths and the lounge will hardly do for the parlor, but
perhaps we'll call it the hall, and, when the divan is pulled
out, it will do for the family sitting-room. " Now we are all
settled," as a certain small boy, the little pilgrim of the
party, always said when he had everything arranged to his
satisfaction, and we were ready to sail.

It is not everyone who has the privilege of going to
housekeeping eighteen times in the course of one year, and
each time in a different land, or, rather, on a different sea.
The spirit moves me to write a whole chapter on the Yellow
Sea, and a doleful chapter it would be, I am afraid. I would
like to write a chapter on " Housekeeping at the Equator,"
or " Life on the Tchickatchoff? or " At Home on the Araf ura
Sea," or " Days in the Doldrums," but a compassionate spirit
comes over me and I forbear.

A certain traveler, who has recorded his experiences,
speaks in praise of the one steamer on which he traveled, and
his delight in coming back always to the same steamer and
the same traveling companions ; but his experience was not
ours, and to us a change of steamers seemed much pleasanter.
Perhaps, however, this may not decide the question, but may
only serve to show a commendable desire, both on his part
and on ours, to be content in whatever state (or steamer) one
is compelled to take, and to accept the gifts the gods provide
and be thankful. Suppose your stateroom is small, and on
the wrong side of the ship so that the ports must often be
closed. Never mind, you will have better fortune next
time, and " it's an ill wind that blows nobody good." Sup-

THE BACK YARD OF A SHIP. 599

pose your fellow passengers are not the most agreeable people
in the world? Never mind, they are only going on this
voyage, and you will leave them at the next port. Suppose,
on the other hand, that they are all very agreeable people,
and you are sorry to leave them. Never mind, you will
make other delightful acquaintances on the next steamer,
and we shall be sure to meet them again, sometime, some-
where ; and oh, how many delightful friends we shall have
before the year is over ! Suppose you do not find the table
or the service quite satisfactory. Never mind, they are sure
to be better next time.

Think, too, of the delights of keeping house in a different
place each day. Oh, tired housekeeper in the dear home-
land, did you ever weary of looking out upon the same
sights day after day ? Did you ever get tired of the tree in
front of your kitchen window and wish it were a post or a
rock, a flower-bed or a fountain ? Did you ever weary of
looking into your neighbor's back yard? Then you will
understand how delightful it is to find your house in a new
place every morning. If you do not like your front yard
to-day, you can console vourself with the thought that it
will be your back yard to-morrow. If you are not pleased
with the Banda Sea this week, you know you will have the
Sulu Sea next week. If Thursday Island does not suit you,
wait a day or two and you can have Friday Island, or
Saturday Island.

It is true that all water looks very much alike, whether
it is the Yellow Sea or the Bosphorus, but then you can
always assure yourself that it is not the same, and that you
are looking out upon a different place from yesterday.

I must confess to an occasional wild desire to tie our
house to a tree somewhere, and keep it still for a little while,
and to certain unappeased longings for an old stump that I

600 A MOTLEY CREW.

have often looked upon as a disfiguring blot upon the land-
scape. There were days when I should have considered that
stump " a thing of beauty and a joy forever," if I could have
been set down suddenly beside it. However, this only goes
to show what discontented creatures we mortals are. When
we have a stump we sigh for something else, and when we
have something else we pine for a stump. Such is life !

I remember three or four different steamers which
seemed to me particularly delightful. I shall never forget
the day I climbed up from the Tarsliaw — a little steam-tug
that had brought us out from Brisbane — over a high railing
and down on to the deck of the Chingtu, thence into our
stateroom, which was to be our home for three weeks. We
were all tired after a long series of meetings for nearly six
weeks, and the prospect of rest was comforting. As we
arranged our household effects in the little stateroom, what
a delightful feeling of peace and quietness came over us !
No more meetings, no more hurrying to catch a train, no
more packing and unpacking, nothing to do but to rest and
keep house for three weeks with everything new and
interesting, for the steward of the Chingtu was a Chinaman,
the quartermaster was a Malay, the captain was an English-
man, with a general disregard of his h's, and the passengers
were mostly Chinese.

Nothing can be more delightful than early morning in
the tropics. After the hot night in the little stateroom
below it was refreshing to go up on the cool deck, and,
reclining lazily in a steamer chair, look off upon the land and
sea, for we were inside the Great Barrier reef and were
almost always in sight of land. Often a soft footfall on
deck announced John Chinaman, our table steward, bringing
a cup of delicious tea and some dainty little pieces of toast,
hot, crisp, nicely buttered, and tempting to the appetite.

DAILY LIFE AT SEA. 601

At half-past eight came breakfast in the cool dining-saloon,
with punkahs moving briskly to make a breeze, and Chinese
stewards, in their white jackets, flitting about the room
attending to the wants of the passengers.

The forenoons always passed quickly with reading and
writing and sewing, for this was an easy, lazy kind of house-
keeping with no household cares to attend to. Before it
seemed possible that it could be so late would come the call
to tiffin, and we were always ready to respond, for there is
nothing like a sea breeze to give one an appetite. Then an
afternoon nap, a game or two of quoits on deck, a little writ-
ing, and, almost before we know it, it is " eight bells," and
John Chinaman again appears with more tea and toast.
Strange as it may seem, we are ready for it again, and the
tea is so good and the toast so hot and so daintily served
that it would tempt the poorest appetite.

Dine:, done;, — two bells. Can it be five o'clock ? Almost
dinner time, and we have only time enough for a little
promenade.

How delightful the cool, evening breeze, and what a
gorgeous sunset ! If morning in the tropics is always
beautiful, the long, moonlight evenings on the steamer's
deck are no less so, with the Southern Cross looking down
upon us ! It was hard to realize on those warm summer
evenings that our friends at home were shivering in the chill
November blast, while we sat lazily in our steamer chairs
enjoying the cool soft air and dreading the descent into our
stuffy little stateroom.

Then there was the Empress of China with its large,
convenient staterooms, which seemed to us like palatial
apartments, with its broad, shady decks, and little English
children running about under the care of their Chinese
Ammahs. There was the Japanese steamer, the Yokohama

602

MEMORIES OF OUR LIFE AT SEA.

Maru, on which we spent such a dismal Christmas on the
Yellow Sea, and the Peru, which carried us safely through
a Typhoon on Thanksgiving eve, and the Russian steamer
Tchickatchoff, one of the very pleasantest steamers of them
all, and the Victoria, and many others which might be
mentioned. All of these floating homes of ours have pleas-
ant memories connected with them, besides not a few gloomy
ones. What a fortunate thing it is that the doleful memories
fade away and only the bright ones linger.

CHAPTER II.

AMONG THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF JAPAN — A JAPAN-
ESE PRAYER MEETING — NATIVE POLITENESS AND ETI-
QUETTE—MY EXPERIENCE WITH CHOPSTICKS.

— Japanese Etiquette — A Cordial Welcome — Bowing to the Floor

— " Rock of Ages " in Japanese — An Interesting Meeting — Struggling
with a Foreign Language — ' ' Sayonara " to our Friends — Japanese
Refreshments — Eating Bean Soup with Chopsticks — A Difficult
Operation — Drinking Soup from a Bowl — Delusive Beans — New Use
for a Sleeve — A Japanese Pillow — The Professor of Flowers.

OME of the compensations that

come to a woman who for the

sake of taking a journey around

the world has given up her own

home, are the delightful glimpses

she gets of other homes, and the

pleasant acquaintances made with

other women and children. If

she cannot cuddle her own babies

she can cuddle the little brown

ones in India or Ceylon, or the

yellow ones in China and Japan,

and in talking with their mothers she cannot help but feel a

sympathy with home life in other lands such as never could

have been awakened by books or travelers' tales.

One of my first native acquaintances was little " Queens-

( 603 )

004 LITTLE " QUEENSLAND LUCY."

land Lucy " (as we called her), on the Mariposa^ the steamer
which carried us from San Francisco to Sydney. Her sad
little face was the blackest one I ever saw, and she was so
thin and poor that I wondered if she ever had enough to
eat. As I became better acquainted with her, I found that
the sober face could light up with a smile, and that in spite
of her forlorn appearance she had a comfortable home. She
was an aboriginal Australian girl from North Queensland,
who had been adopted by white people, who cared for her as
if she had been their own. She was a most forlorn little
miss to look at, however, and seemed to have very little idea
of life as happy, rolicking children in America know it.
During all those twenty -four days on the Mariposa, I never
saw her run about and play like other children. She would
sit alone most of the time Avith her patchwork in her lap,
sometimes sewing a little, sometimes reading, and often with
her hands folded, doing nothing. She seemed to be happy,
however, in her own quiet way, and an occasional walk on
deck seemed to be recreation enough to satisfy her. After-
wards we saw more of these aboriginal inhabitants of
Australia at Port Darwin. They are repulsive looking
people, most of them as thin as skeletons, all of them with
very black faces, but seeming happy and contented with
their lot in life.

It seemed to me that Port Darwin was the hottest place
on the face of the earth, but a few European people manage
to live there, and the natives seemed to like the terrific heat.
Groups of mothers and children sat on the ground basking
in the sun. The mothers seemed to be very fond of their
black babies, and some of them were bright looking little
tots, though none were pretty. In every other country I
invariably found bright, pretty, attractive children, no
matter what their color or their costume might be, but

HOME LIFE IN JAPAN.

605

among all these little black babies in North Australia I did
not see one that looked kissable or even as though it could
be made so.

So far as I could learn, but little is being done to civilize
or Christianize these people, though I believe there are a few
missionaries among them. My heart went out to those poor,
dirty, black babies, and I wished with all my heart that I
could do something for them.

We had delightful glimpses
of home life in Japan. On one
occasion I was invited by a mis-
sionary lady to attend a wo-
men's prayer meeting in Yoko-
hama, an invitation I was glad
to accept. She called two jin-
rikishas, which soon appeared
at the door, and after the jinrik-
isha men had Avrapped their
red blankets about us we started
off. This is a comfortable way
of traveling ; indeed, it is almost
the only way in Japan, though
there are now a few horses in
Yokohama, and also in Tokio.

How I wish the friends at
home could have seen the people we met that afternoon !
The demure Japanese maidens with their pretty costumes
and obis, shuffling along on their wooden shoes ; the little
bovs and girls with babies tied on their backs,- — the babies'
heads bobbing about in every direction as the children ran
and played ; the old women with their wrinkled faces and
their black teeth ; the jinrikisha men waiting at every cor-
ner, standing by their little carriages or sitting between the

A JAPANESE MOTHER.

(JOG

AN ANIMATED HAYSTACK.

shafts with their gay blankets wrapped about them ; and
occasionally a stylish Japanese lady out for a ride, or an
Englishman out for a walk.

It began to rain a little while we were upon this our first
journey in a jinrikisha, and while we were quite well pro-
tected by the covering overhead, our carriers protected
themselves by putting on their rain-coats — not mackin-
toshes, dear reader, or rubber
monstrosities such as we wear
at home, but a cheap and con-
venient affair made of rice-
straw, which sheds the water
like the feathers of a duck.
Thus thatched, our jinrikisha
man looked like an animated
haystack. His rain cloak cov-
ered him almost from head to
heels. In the crowded street
he was continually shouting,
at the top of his voice, " Hi-
hi," which may be translated
into English, I suppose, as
"Look out there," "Get out
of the way," in order to clear
a passage for our little procession.

Some of the Japanese maidens who passed us in the
street were very pretty, though I wished they might learn
to walk more gracefully instead of shuffling along in an
awkward manner in their clumsy wooden shoes.

After a half-hour's ride, we arrived at last at the private
house where the class-meeting was to be held. Before
entering we sat on the doorstep, took off our boots, and put
on some soft felt slippers which we had brought with us.

A JAPANESE MAIDEN.

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AT A JAPANESE PRAYER MEETING. GOO

As soon as we were inside the house, I understood why cus-
tom required us to take off our boots, for the floor, which
was covered with dainty, soft straw matting, was immacu-
lately neat and clean.

Japanese women wear wooden shoes, which are held on
by a strap across the top of the foot and are easily slipped
off at the door : they wear only stockings on their feet while
they are in the house.

A little company of women sat on the floor waiting for
us. They politely pointed to some cushions which had been
placed ready in anticipation of our coming, whereupon we,
too, sat down on the floor. It was a cordial Japanese wel-
come, our hostesses bowing down until their foreheads
touched the floor. "We returned the salutation as well as we
could, though it was not easy to do it gracefully.

The meeting opened by singing the hymn, "Rock of
Ages." My hymn book contained a translation of the hymn
in Japanese, and I joined with the others in singing :

" Chiyo heshi iwa yo,
Ware wo kakushi ne,
Sakareshi waki no,
Mizu to chishio ni,
Waga tsumi toga wo,
Arai Kiyomeyo.''

I realized as never before that we were all children of
the same Heavenly Father and that Christian men and
women owe something to their brothers and sisters in other
lands, whether we recognize the obligation or not.

Christ's last command, "Go ve into all the world and
preach the Gospel to every creature," simply means, find out
your brothers and sisters everywhere, help just as many of
them as you can, tell them of their Heavenly Father and of
His love for them. I wish that those people who think mis-

610 MY FIRST LESSON IN JAPANESE.

sionaries are not accomplishing anything could have been
present at this little meeting !

One after another Japanese woman took part. They
spoke earnestly and freely of their religious experiences. I
could not understand their words, but I could see the rever-
ent spirit they showed and could unite with them in prayer.

When I was asked to speak a few words to them I re-
alized the difficulty missionaries experience in struggling
with a foreign tongue. It is never easy to speak through an
interpreter. As this was my first day in Japan I had not
learned even one word of their language. The meeting
closed with another hymn, and after many salutations and
much bowing we departed.

Sitting on the doorsteps once more, we put on our boots,
and my missionary friend turned and said to our hosts,
" Sayonara" (good-bye). I thought I could manage as much
as that, so I, too, said "Sayonara," and the good sisters
laughed and bowed and seemed much interested.

Afterwards I visited other Japanese homes, and all were
attractive places. Clean, white, soft matting on the floors,
the ever-present vase of flowers, the pretty screens, even the
absence of furniture was pleasant to one who had been
accustomed to see so many over-furnished and over-decorated
American homes.

I cannot say that I enjoyed Japanese refreshments. I
took several lessons in the use of chopsticks, but never be-
came proficient in managing them. It must require years
of practice to use them skillfully and gracefully.

I remember especially one experience soon after we
reached Japan. I had been at a woman's prayer meeting
and at the close refreshments were brought in. "We sat on
the floor in true Japanese style, not a very comfortable
fashion for one who is not accustomed to it. Our hostess

AN EMBARRASSED GUEST.

611

served refreshments on little square trays of lacquer work,
setting one tray on the floor in front of each guest. On
each tray was a little bowl of bean soup, a pair of chop
sticks, a cup of tea, some little cakes, two oranges, and four
persimmons. I looked at mine in despair, for I was not
hungry and did not know just how much native etiquette
required me to eat.

Evidently the bean soup was the thing to begin with. I
watched the others and then began on mine as they did on

JAPANESE REFRESHMENTS.

theirs, eating the beans and the rice cakes with the chop-
sticks and drinking the soup from the bowl. The rice cake
was too big to eat whole and it was certainly rather hard to
manage with the chopsticks. Moreover the soup was sweet-
ened, and as I prefer salt and pepper in soup, I did not en-
joy it very much.

However, I struggled with my chopsticks and fished out
as many beans as I could, and drank the soup. But those
beans were a delusion and a snare. After wrestling with
the chopsticks and at last catching a bean I would raise it to

612

CHOPST1CK GYMNASTICS.

my lips, my mouth would open to receive it — and down
would go the bean into the soup. Then I would drink a
little soup and try again. I succeeded in capturing several
beans, but it was the work of time and patience, and at last
I gave it up ; for I found that the others had all finished
theirs and had leisure to observe my frantic efforts.

The tea was very strong, without milk or sugar, but it
was served in such dainty china cups that one could hardly

WASHING DAY IN JAPAN.

refrain from drinking it. The little cakes, too, were good,
and the oranges and persimmons delicious, but must I eat
them all?

As I watched the other guests, I saw that they ate what
they pleased and put the rest in their sleeves. My sleeves
were not large enough to be very useful in that way, but
my missionary friend produced a handkerchief which she
had thoughtfully provided for the occasion, and the left-over
dainties were carried home.

After we had partaken of refreshments came the leave-

A CEREMONIOUS LEAVE-TAKING.

G13

taking, which could not be hurried. One at a time the
ladies rose and bowed to the floor, first before the hostess
and then before each of the other guests. As there were
twenty-five or thirty ladies present it was some time before
the proper amount of bowing was done ; but at length the
last farewell was spoken and stepping into our jinrikishas
we were trundled through the narrow streets and back to
our home.

I have never experi-
enced sleeping in a Jap- %£&
anese bed, but I saw a
good many of them and
they looked inviting.
Thick comfortables were
laid on soft, white straw
matting, but the hard,
round pillow did not seem
conducive to rest. The
Japanese wooden pillow
never had any attractions
for me, though unless one
tries to copy the fearful
and wonderful style of
hair-dressing adopted by many Japanese women there is no
need of using it.

A missionary school in any foreign land is always an in-
teresting place. I remember going into one of them in
Japan just at the time when the floral professor (if that is
his title) was giving lessons in the arrangement of flowers.
It was a pretty sight to watch a demure Japanese maiden as
she took up a little flower stalk, or a dry twig broken from
a leafless tree, and tried it first in one position and then in
another, turning her head prettily to one side and then to

STREET CHILDREN OF JAPAN.

614 THE ART OF ARRANGING FLOWERS.

the other, all the time looking anxiously at the flower to
study the effect, while the professor looked gravely on or
offered an occasional suggestion.

From one pupil to another the professor went just as I
have seen a teacher of drawing go around among his pupils,
giving a word of praise here, offering a suggestion there, or
a criticism somewhere else. How earnestly the girls worked
at their task, and how pleased they were with a word of
commendation !

At first, one is inclined to question whether their time
might not be more profitably employed ; but as I saw the
results of their skillful and artistic work in the graceful ar-
rangements of flowers, and thought of some of the useless
fancy work I had seen girls do in American homes, it
seemed to me that this part of a Japanese maiden's educa-
tion is worthy of all praise and could well be followed by
girls of other lands. Such a tasteful arrangement of flowers
was new to my American eyes. "Who would have thought
that four or five dry twigs broken from a leafless tree would
make such an artistic bouquet, or that a vase with only
three sprays of chrysanthemums could be so beautiful %

After looking at these dainty vases, each one holding but
three or four sprays and only one kind of flower, each spray
arranged with careful reference to the others and all droop-
ing in the most graceful manner, — how coarse and awkward
our great round American bouquets seemed, with all kinds
of flowers, arranged often without the slightest regard to
color or harmony. I shall never look at another bouquet
without thinking of the beautiful flowers, always artistically
arranged, that can be seen in so many homes in Japan.

Twice a week, in some of the schools, the girls spend an
hour with the floral professor in studying this science ; for it
is a real science as they take it up, and there are definite

NOT FAR BEHIND THEIR SISTERS.

615

rules governing not only the arrangement of each flower
spray, but its relation to all the other sprays and to the vase
that is to hold them.

Let it not be thought, however, that this is the only or
most important study taken up by the Japanese girls.
Many of these mission schools would rank well with our
own high schools and seminaries at home, and the girls at
Kobe College or the Doshisha would compare very favor-
ably with the girls at Wellesley or Smith or Vassar.

CHAPTER III.

AMONG THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF INDIA — NATIVE
DRESS AND ORNAMENTS — LIFE INSIDE A RICH HEATH-
EN HOME — HEATHEN DOLLS, BRIDES, AND WIDOWS.

Children in Ceylon — Persistent Little Beggars — Curly-Headed Karo —
"My so Poor" — Pretty Brown Babies — Little Hands Stretched out
for Alms — Ceylon Dandies — Picturesque Waiters — A Race of Beg-
gars — Tipping an Army of Attendants — Starting on a Journey at
Three o'clock in the Morning — A Wagon Ride of Seven Miles in the
Moonlight — Through the Streets of Vellore — Arrival at a Mission
Bungalow — A Native Girl's Boarding School — A Bridal Trousseau in
Red and Yellow — Life Inside a Heathen Home — Our Reception by the
"Bo" — A Peep into the "Baboo's" Apartments — A Display of
Jewelry — An American Doll in India — A Heathen Doll — Mrs. Grundy
in a Zenana — Ten-Year-Old Brides — Child Widows.

NE does not always realize, when
looking at the little spot on the
map marked "Ceylon," what a
big island it is. In Colombo I
was much interested in the little
brown-faced, black-eyed children,
many of them beggars, and the
most persistent, irresistible beg-
gars I ever met. Whenever any
of them intercepted me in my
walks I was wholly at their
mercy, for it was almost impos-
sible to say " no " to such winsome, tiny pleaders.

I remember especially one small maiden who told me her
name was Karo. Her tangled curlv hair fell to her

shoulders, her black eyes sparkled, and her merry brown

(616)

A MERRY LITTLE BEGGAR.

617

face made a most interesting picture. She wore a bright red
cloth, gracefully draped, and her brown arms and hands
were covered with bracelets, bangles, and rings.

She was among the first to greet us when we left the
steamer, and persistently followed us to our hotel, which
was only a few steps away, begging all the time. " Mama,
give my a penny, my so poor.
Please, mama, just one penny.
I make you salaam, you just
give one penny, my very hun-
gry, my so poor, you got plen-
ty money, my so hungry."
Then she would draw down
the corners of her mouth and
put on a pensive look, and in
spite of herself would break
into a merry smile. She did
not appear to be suffering
from hunger, neither was she
very poor as one reckons pov-
erty in Ceylon, yet it was
almost impossible to resist her
importunities. She was quick
to see my helplessness and was
always lying in wait for me.

The little brown babies in Ceylon were attractive, too.
Almost every woman carried a baby sitting astride her hip,
while she threw one arm around it to keep it from fulling,
and the little creatures looked around with as much interest
and wonder as any American baby would show.

It was simply impossible to pass them by without speak-
ing to them, and at least patting their chubby hands.
Generally the little hand opened for a penny, for they learn

COLOMBO CHILDREN.

618

MEN IN GIRLISH ATTIRE.

to beg before they learn to walk. It is comparatively easy
to resist a larger beggar, but when a little hand is stretched
out for alms the temptation to give is very strong.

The people in Colombo are all interesting, because so
many different nationalities are represented — Hindus, Por-
tuguese, Malays, Singhalese, and many others, each one
seemingly more picturesque than the others. Many of the

men wore their hair long and
done up in a pug behind, while
others wore round combs on
the top of their heads, such as
little girls at home often wear
to keep their hair out of their
eyes. Imagine a tall, full-
bearded, imposing looking
man, brown faced and bare-
footed, dressed in a white jack-
et, with a plaid skirt reaching
down to his knees, a round
comb on the top of his head,
and a generous pug behind.
This is a picture of all the
waiters at the hotel, and they
make the dining-room so pic-
turesque that there seems to
be no need of using other decorations.

Then there are men with long, black, curly hair parted
in the middle, and falling in ringlets on their shoulders, and
young men of eighteen or nineteen, who look so much like
girls that it is hard to tell whether they are men or women.
All wear ear-rings, and many of them wear bracelets, too.
One man was adorned with half a dozen silver bangles hang-
ing from each ear, just such bangles as young ladies in

A HAPPY MOTHER.

FIVE MILES IN A LITTLE BOAT.

619

America would wear for bracelets. The babies wear little
or no clothing, just a string of beads around the neck, and
sometimes a string around the waist, but plentifully decorated
with bangles and bracelets.

The voyage from Colombo to Tuticorin is short, and it
hardly seemed worth while to unpack our goods and set up
housekeeping again just for a single night. Everyone had
promised us a rough passage, but we were wonderfully

PITIFUL LITTLE CREATURES.

favored and succeeded in getting across without seasickness
or tribulations of any kind.

It was a trial to me to have to anchor five miles from
land and go ashore in a small boat. The water was rough,
but we all survived a thorough shaking up and rejoiced to
find ourselves safe on terra fir-ma again.

What a difference all at once in the people and their cos-
tumes ! The pretty babies, merry children, and curly-headed
men had vanished, and in their places were men, women, and

620 FEEING A REGIMENT.

children, with brown faces, to be sure, but neither good look-
ing nor picturesque. The men were dressed in white cloth,
instead of bright red skirts, and the babies were most pitiful
little creatures. The women and girls were adorned with
cheap brass finery, ear-rings, finger-rings, toe-rings, anklets,
bracelets, necklaces, and nose jewels, all in such abundance
that they reminded us of the old nursery rhyme,

! ' Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
And she shall have music wherever she goes."

There were no English-speaking people to be found, and
we were not well versed in Tamil ; but by means of gestures
and the use of vigorous English, we succeeded in engaging
some of the natives to carry our luggage to the custom house>
and then to the station, and after a hasty tiffin and a ride
through the hot, dusty little town, we were glad to find our-
selves seated in the train for Madura.

Then what a retinue of men gathered around us begging
for remuneration for some real or fancied service which thev
had rendered us ! There were the four men who had brought
our luggage to the station ; the man who gave us our tiffin ;
the man who waited upon us at table ; the man who cooked
the food ; the men who stood by and watched us eat it ; the
punkah-wallah, who pulled the punkah for us ; the man who
stood by our luggage while we were gone to tiffin ; the man
who drove us around the town ; the men who lifted our lug-
gage from the platform into the car ; the man who picked
up a key which had been dropped ; the man who stood and
looked on Avhile he did it ; to say nothing of all the men who
wanted to do something for us, and who also wished to be
remembered.

Fortunately none of them expected a large sum, and they
were paid off and dismissed just as the train started on the
long, slow journey to Madura.

A TRIP TO VELLORE. G21

A visit to the girls' boarding school at Yellore afforded a
glimpse of girl life in India at once interesting and instruct-
ive. We started from Madanapali at three o'clock in the
morning. The boys of the mission school were up, even at
that early hour, to see us off, and, escorting us to the gate,
they sung us a farewell song as we started off in the moon-
light for the seven-mile drive to the railroad station, where
we arrived just after sunrise.

The cars of the South Indian railway are not the most
comfortable in the world, and after a long, hot, dusty ride,
we arrived at Vellore at three o'clock in the afternoon. To
one who only looks at the map, the two little dots which
stand for Madanapali and Yellore look very near together,
but the journey takes nearly twelve hours.

After lingering around the station, wondering how we
were going to find our missionary friends, we were accosted
by a native, dressed in a white cloth and a white turban,
who held a piece of paper in his hand. He could not speak
a word of English, nor we of Tamil, but as the paper bore a
familiar name we took it for granted that he had been sent,
and followed him to a carriage which stood near by with
seats for three.

He indicated to us by gestures that we were to get in and
drive, and although we had no idea which way to go we
seated ourselves in the carriage and drove off, the native
running on behind or on one side, occasionally going on in
front to clear the way. After a delightful drive through
the cool, shady streets of Vellore, we drew up at last in
front of the mission bungalow, where a cordial welcome
awaited us.

The Girls' Boarding School numbers about one hundred
and fifty girls from fourteen to twenty years old. If the
mission schools of India had done nothing else they would

622 BOARDING SCHOOL GIRLS.

be deserving of liberal support for having saved so manv
girls from the evils of child marriage. But that is very
little compared with what the missionaries have done and
are doing for the girls and women of India.

Some of the older girls were getting ready to be married,
and were making their wedding skirts of bright yellow cloth
with large red figures. Others were busy with their books
or their sewing.

A run over the building, and a peep into the sleeping
rooms, dining-room, kitchen, and school-room followed.

All the girls sleep in one large room. Each bed consists
of a long, wide board over which is laid a piece of straw
matting. The board is laid on the floor, the matting is
thrown over it and the bed is made. Each girl has also
a sheet and a blanket that she can use if the weather is cool.
A large brass dish, about the size and shape of a wash basin,
and a brass drinking cup, comprise all the dishes furnished
to each girl. Rice, curry, and plantains constitute the usual
food. They are neat in their habits, and although they eat
with their fingers, they do so in the prettiest and daintiest
manner. As for clothing, all they really need is a cloth of
any bright color, which they know how to drape very grace-
fully. Many of them, however, do wear a skirt as well as a
cloth.

Toe rings and anklets seem to answer all the purpose of
shoes and stockings.

These girls receive a fair education, learn to sew and to
care for their homes and families, and best of all, most of
them return to their homes as Christian girls.

Going one day with a missionary friend in Calcutta to
visit some of her Zenana friends, I had a rare opportunity to
see life in a rich heathen home. The house was a large
three-story one with an open court in the center into which

THE "BO AND HER TREASURES. G23

rooms opened from all sides of the building. A servant
answered our knock at the door, and in reply to our
inquiries told us that the " bo " would be glad to see us up
stairs. I wondered why the "bo" did not come to meet us,
but soon discovered for myself that it would not have been
proper for anyone in her scant attire to come downstairs.

She met us at the top of the stairs and invited us into her
private apartments on the third floor. She was proud of
her parlor, which was furnished with three chairs, a mirror,
and a book-case with glass doors, in which she kept her
special treasures and bric-a-brac, consisting of little pewter
and china tea sets, toy match-safes, cheap vases and images ;
and on the top shelf, far out of reach of little fingers, was
an American doll which had been given as a prize for regu-
lar attendance and good behavior at the mission school.
The little owner of the doll looked at it wistfully, but she
was never allowed to touch it. " Do you ever play with
it ? " I asked, through the interpreter who accompanied us.
" No, she only looked at it." "When I asked if she had a
doll that she did play with, she brought me such a poor con-
sumptive image of green and red clay that my heart was
moved with pity, not only for her but for the little brown
maidens all over India, who know so little of the delights of
childhood.

" Would I like to see her jewelry ? " the mother asked me.
Of course I would. "Whereupon, she brought forth her jewel
box, and spread before us such an array of gold and silver
and precious stones and strings of pearls rarely seen outside
of a jewelry store. There were rings, bracelets, anklets,
nose jewels, earrings, finger rings, and chains, most of them
of solid gold or silver. The heavy bracelets were of solid
gold, and so were the costly anklets and earrings which
looked as though they would be burdensome to wear.

624 "MRS. GRUNDY" IN INDIA.

" Would I let her look at my jewelry ? " she asked. Cer-
tainly I would. I showed her my watch and plain gold
ring, remarking, that while her ornaments were very pretty,
I should think they would be troublesome to carry, adding,
that mine were all I cared to wear.

" Yes," she said reflectively, " Your way is the best and
my bracelets and anklets hurt me, and I do not like to wear
them very often, but must sometimes or people would not
know I had them." So I found that even in the Zenana
Mrs. Grundy holds sway.

Before we left the " bo " invited us into the " baboos "
apartments, which were on the second floor and were much
more elegant than his wife's. She also showed us her son's
room, and a poorer, smaller one where her little daughters
slept. Then escorting us to the top of the stairs, she bade us
good-bye, and we were left to find our way out alone.

So we left this poor " bo " to live her secluded life, the
monotony of which was broken only by combing her hair,
doing a little embroidery, gossipping with neighbors who
chanced to call, and looking at her jewelry.

We were in India in February, the popular month for
weddings, and almost every day we heard the sound of music
announcing a wedding procession, and often saw the youth-
ful bridegroom and his tiny bride. My heart was moved
with pity for these little brides. The little widows, too,
aroused my deepest sympathy. Just think of it, mothers at
home ! Think of a ten-year-old widow, doomed to a life of
misery and woe, because it is supposed to be her fault if her
husband dies. When I think how we cherish and guard our
own daughters at home, doing our best to keep sorrow and
trouble away from them, and then remember these poor
little children, my heart cries aloud for help to rescue the be-
nighted women and innocent children of India.

CHAPTER IV.

A WOMAN'S JOURNEY ACROSS TURKEY IN A WAGON — A
MEMORABLE NIGHT IN A TURKISH KHAN — TURKISH
VILLAGE LIFE — INTERESTING PERSONAL EXPERIENCES.

Learning by Experience — My Traveling Companions — "Coming out
Strong " — Mark Tapley's Opinion of the Sea — Our First Experiences in
a Turkish Custom House — Searching for Concealed Books and Papers
— A Novel Cavalcade — In a Turkish Khan — A Memorable Night —
Rooming with Donkeys, Camels, and Horses — Our Wash Basin —
Over the Taurus Mountains — An American Spring Wagon in Asia
Minor — A Dismal Prospect — Filth and Dirt Everywhere — Sickening
Sights in Village Streets — Hobson's Choice — In a Native House —
Putting an Armenian Baby to Bed — A Cheerful Infant — A Peep into
Paradise — Dirty Turks — Eating out of the Same Dish with Them —
A Plague of Fleas — Some Pointed Questions.

T is hardly possible for women in
America, accustomed to journey-
ing in express trains and luxuri-
ous drawing-room cars, to under-
I J^ . ^p j 4ff* stand just what a journey of sev-
11 W^ -Cr ^NfKll era ^ nun( ired miles across Turkey
I /' W ^H) KJ 4, llSnu in a wagon was to the one " lone,

lorn woman" who accomplished
it, and whose companions were
seven men ! How she counted up
the comforts and blessings of life
in the homeland, and how often
she resolved, that if she ever lived to see her native land
again she would never complain of any hardships or tribula-
tions which come to an ordinary housekeeper in America !

How many lessons she learned of thankfulness for small

( 625 )

G2G "jolly" experiences.

mercies ! How soon she learned, too, that it was possible to
live without a good many things that most people count
among the necessities of life.

The whole trip across Turkey from the landing at Mersin
to our departure from Constantinople, was what Mark Tap-
ley would have called " jolly." " I'm always a thinking,"
said that cheerful philosopher, " that with my good health
and spirits it would be more creditable in me to be jolly
where there's things a going on to make one dismal. It ma} r
be a mistake of mine, you see, but nothing short of trying
how it acts, will set it right. I don't believe there ever was
a man as could come out so strong under circumstances that
would make other men miserable as I could, if I could only
get a chance."

Some of our experiences on the Mediterranean Sea were
very like Mark Tapley's description of life at sea.

" The sea," he continues, " is as nonsensical a thing as
anything going. It never knows what to do with itself. It
hasn't got no employment for its mind, and is always in a
state of vacancy. Like them polar bears in the wild beast
shows, as is constantly nodding their heads from side to side,
it never can be quiet, which is entirely owing to its uncom-
mon stupidity,"

" Is that you, Mark ? " asked a faint voice from another
berth.

" Its as much of me as is left, sir, after a fortnight of
this work," Mr. Tapley replied. " What with leading the
life of a fly ever since I've been aboard (for I've been perpet-
ually holding on to something or other, in an upside down
position), what with that, sir, and putting a very little into
myself, and taking a good deal out in various ways, there
ain't too much of me to swear by. It is creditable to keep
up one's spirits here. Virtue's its own reward. So's jollity."

RUDE CUSTOM HOUSE OFFICIALS. G27

To at least one of the three pilgrims, the Mediterranean
Sea has left some jolly memories. The landing at Mersin
was " jolly " ; trying to walk down the steps from the steamer
into the little boat which takes passengers ashore, was not the
easiest thing in the world ; the tossing about on the rough
waves, and the landing at the steps, and the rough greeting
from the Turkish Custom House officials, all these things
were sufficiently "jolly".

No one who has not tried it can quite realize how trying
to a woman's soul was the treatment given to those trunks
in that Turkish Custom House. Unfortunately for the pil-
grims, one of the first discoveries made by the inspectors was
a book. Then, alas for the travelers, and alas for the trunks !
Such rummaging, such unrolling of bundles and opening of
boxes and packages, such searching for concealed books or
papers, until at last every book had been seized, and our
crumpled clothing and crushed bundles and packages were
tossed back into the trunks in one confused mass ! From the
first moment those rude inspectors opened our trunks until
our dismantled and disheveled belongings were thrown into
them again, one woman lost all the respect she ever had for
the Turkish government. And that experience in the Cus-
tom House was only a sample of all the courtesy and kind-
ness, or the lack of it, that was shown to the travelers by
Turkish officials in all that memorable journey across the
country.

I think we all breathed a great sigh of relief when at last
we shook the dust of Constantinople from our feet, and
sailed away through the Dardanelles to Italy and the Ionian
shores.

The journey began at Tarsus, that ancient city where
Paul was born. The wagon, which was a palatial affair for
Turkey, was very much like an emigrant's wagon, a large,

628 THE "emigrant train."

heavy, baggage wagon with a white canvas top. The pro-
cession started off in great style, first the Turkish " Zabtieh "
" saddled, bridled, and fit for the fight," as the nursery
rhyme has it, then the white-covered wagon which carried
the three pilgrims and their missionary friend who was also
guide, conductor, and driver, with bedding and food enough
to last the four for a week ; and last, the clumsy native
wagon which carried the trunks, two Turks for drivers, and
Ali, our Turkish servant and trusty helper.

The jouncing and jolting and the thousand and one dis-
comforts, big and little, soon began to make themselves felt,
and we realized that we had a chance " to come out strong."

Twenty or twenty-five miles a day would not seem to
the American mind to be much of a journey, but it made up
in quality what it lacked in quantity. "When at noon the
wagon drew up before a Turkish khan, it was a great sur-
prise, to one of the wayfarers at least, to be invited to alight
and go inside to eat dinner.

What ! go into such a place as that, eat dinner there, rest
there ! Never, so long as she had the spirit of a woman
would she so demean herself ! " Come one, come all, this
rock shall fly from its firm base as soon as I," was the feel-
ing 1 in her heart as she meeklv answered, " Would it not be
pleasanter to sit right here in the wagon and eat our lunch
in the open air ? "

Her suggestion was accepted and the first dinner was a
pleasant picnic lunch. But when twilight came and the
wagon drew up before another khan even more unattractive
in its appearance than the first, and a dismount was
inevitable, the one forlorn woman in the party felt like a
veritable " Mrs. Gummidge " when she found it was really
expected, not only that she would go into such a place, but
that she would eat her supper and sleep there.

A NIGHT IN A TURKISH KHAN. 629

However, there was no help for it, and she meekly
accepted the situation, and gathering her skirts about her,
she tiptoed her way through the dirty stable-yard into a
little low, dark room opening out of it, and tried to be

"jolly".

Who shall describe that first night in a Turkish khan !
It is impossible for any American woman to appreciate the
situation.

Imagine a little, low stone building mostly under ground,
with a square courtyard in the middle, out of which three
rooms open. One of these rooms was assigned to the pil-
grims, one to the Turkish drivers and a few other Turks, and
the third to the donkeys and camels and horses.

Can you imagine what the best room in the khan is
like ? The carpet is of a dark brown color and is what is
commonly known as dirt. If our visit had happened to be
in rainy weather it would have been mud.

There was one small mercy to be thankful for, it did not
rain. Along each side of the room, about two feet from the
floor, were wooden platforms about four feet wide with just
room enough to walk between them. On one of these plat-
forms we set up a narrow cot bed, and arranged our
trunks, boxes, and food ; for all our valuables must be
kept in the same room with us or they would probably
be stolen. On the other platform were two other tipsy
cot beds which also served for sofas and tables.

The walls of the room were of rough stone and mortar,
frescoed with smoke. The ceiling was of rough rafters also
frescoed with smoke. The chandelier was a tallow candle.
This room was to be not only sleeping-room, but sitting-room
and dining-room and parlor for all of us ! The other occu-
pants of the room were fleas and other objectionable room-
mates. This room was a fair sample of the quarters in

G30 THE WEARIEST WOMAN IN TURKEY.

which, we ate, and slept every night during the whole
journey across Asia Minor. There was abundant oppor-
tunity " to come out strong ".

In the morning there was sometimes a mountain stream
to wash in, and that was a great luxury. Oftener there was
a tin or brass vessel, something like a teapot, from which a
little water could be poured on our hands and an unsatis-
factory apology for a bath could be obtained.

Nevertheless, the journey over the Taurus mountains
was delightful and interesting, and the scenery was grand
enough to make up for all the weariness, discomfort, and
annoyance. All that any wagon could do, that wagon did ;
but there are limits to the possibilities of even an American
spring wagon in Asia Minor, and when the road was
absolutely impassable, as was frequently the case, we were
obliged to walk. Anyone who could have looked across the
lands and seas at the close of the last day of that wagon
journey would have seen one of the most forlorn-looking
women in Turkey.

After traveling for days across a barren, treeless plain,
Ave at last saw indications of approaching civilization, and it
was evident that we were drawing near to the land of
railways. The villages became more frequent and life more
interesting. "We had been riding all day from six o'clock in
the morning till six o'clock at night, stopping at noon at a
little Koordish village for lunch, which we had eaten in the
wagon. Our lunch consisted of bread — which was rather
dry, after having been carried in the wagon for six days —
some native butter, which, at its best was never inviting,
boiled eggs, cold meat, and doughnuts, all of which were
stale enough after their long journey. It was cold in the
wagon, but it was so much cleaner than any other place
in the neighborhood that it seemed desirable to stay there.

AN UNATTRACTIVE OUTLOOK. 031

Ali, our trusty servant, succeeded in finding a fire some-
where, sufficient to brew some tea, which made the repast a
trifle more cheerful, for the tea at least was hot. The
village was one of the poorest and dirtiest on the route.
From my seat in the wagon were to be seen, by actual
count, thirteen dead sheep, a dead camel, a dead dog, and a
dead donkey, all lying in the village streets, left there for
nature to take care of. Some of them had evidently been
dead a good many days. Not a pleasant outlook, to be sure,
nor one that contributed to the enjoyment of our frugal
meal.

It hardly seems possible that people could really live
amid such surroundings. And yet the little, dirty, ragged
children trotted about the streets, picking their way past
dead animals and live dogs with equal indifference, and
apparently as happy as any other children anywhere, and
looking hale and hearty, too, in spite of the filth and dirt.

We often found compensation for all the jolting over
rough roads in the great beauty of the scenery, after leaving
the barren plain and getting into the hilly region again.
"With a north wind blowing in our faces all day we found
ourselves so cold, as the night drew near, that we were glad
enough when at last we reached the little village where we
were to spend the night, knowing full well what kind of
quarters we should probably find.

Did it ever happen to you, my sister, to take a long, cold,
wearisome journey, and then to find when you reached home
at night, a warm, pleasant room, with a bright, cheery open
fire, and a good hot supper waiting for you ? Did you not
forget all the weariness of the journey in the pleasant home-
coming? Visions of that sort entranced us occasionally as
we journeyed, but alas, they were only visions. What we

usually found at the end of the day's journey was the same

632 A NIGHT IN A STABLE.

little dirty Turkish village of low stone buildings, occupied
by surly Turks. I remember one night, especially, when the
owners of the miserable house were so cross that they either
could not or would not find the key to the only guest
chamber in the village. They were tired and hungry, for it
was the month of " Kamazan ", — they had been keeping fast
all day — and they did not feel amiable enough to do any-
thing for those " Giaours ".

At last, however, after patient waiting, the key was found
and the door unlocked. Passing through the stable, which
was worse than any American stable could possibly be, then
up a flight of dirty stone steps, we were ushered into a little
room directly over the stable. Leaving me to my own
meditations, the men hurried out to unpack the wagon. I
looked around for the cleanest place in the room, but there
wasn't any. There was no place to sit down, so I stood up,
glad that it was so dark that I couldn't see how dirty it was.
How I longed for my own cellar at home, or my neighbor's
barn chamber ! I even felt a sympathy for the prodigal son
when he envied his father's servants. Fortunately there was
not much time for the dolefuls, for soon the tramping of feet
on the stairs proclaimed the arrival of the bed and trunks
and provisions. It seemed to be absolutely necessary either
to laugh or cry, and with a " Herculaneum effort," as Mrs.
Partington would have said, I decided to laugh. The cot
beds were soon set up, and one of them served for a table
and the other for a lounge. The one small candle gave a
feeble light, reminding one of those lines of Milton's,

"No light but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover scenes of woe."

The canvas-covered, rickety cot bed made a table that
was never to be depended upon, and neither was it so
attractive as some ; but when it was covered with a table-

IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN WORSE. 633

cloth it answered the purpose very well, and harmonized
with the surroundings. Ali succeeded in getting some hot
water, and made something which he averred was cocoa, and
though we had neither milk nor sugar to go with it, we
supped and ate our dry bread and stale butter, and tried to
be thankful that things were no worse.

"When the door of the room was shut it kept out some of
the odors of the stable. There were three tiny little win-
dows in the room, each about eight or nine inches square
and completely covered with paper tightly pasted on.
After bearing it as long as we could, we broke some of these
paper panes for the sake of fresh air, though the outside air
was not much better than that on the inside.

Perhaps my readers may wonder why we were willing
to sleep in such a "place, but such wondering is easily an-
wered. In the first place it must be said that we did not
sleep much, we only stayed there, and in the second place it
was only "Hobson's choice" — it was that or nothing.
That was the best room in the village, and the next village
was twenty miles away.

"We were thankful when the night was over and were
perfectly willing to rise early in the morning and go on our
way. The experience of each day and night was very
much alike. "We enjoyed the interesting glimpses of home
life to be seen nowhere else than on such a journey as this,
and one or two days spent with native Armenian families
added variety to the experiences. "We were cordially wel-
comed in these native Christian homes and were treated
with great hospitality, and although Armenian ways are not
American ways, and some of their customs were not easy to
adopt, yet we retain only pleasant memories of those visits
with our Armenian friends.

It was an interesting sight to see a tiny Armenian baby

634 IN ARMENIAN HOMES.

put to bed in one of these homes. A little blanket was first
laid in the cradle, then a small sheet, then some warm, dry
sand, and last the baby. The sheet, blanket, and two or
three little quilts were then drawn around him, and the
baby was securely tied down, blankets and quilts and all,
and there he must lie till morning, with no power to move
anything except his head. The little one usually accepted
the situation cheerfully and submitted with good grace.

The women in these Christian families were treated
kindly by their husbands, but their position was an inferior
one. They waited upon their husbands and their guests
at the table, and then took their own meals by themselves
afterwards. They appeared happy and contented, but to an
American woman their lives seemed hard and narrow.

But what a joyful company we were when the first part
of the journey was over, and we arrived at the homes of
missionary friends in Caesarea and Talas. It was like a peep
into paradise to come into a clean Christian home.

How we appreciated the common, every-day mercies that
we had so often forgotten before. Did you ever count up
your mercies, good housekeepers at home ? Do you know
how good it is to live in a house and sleep in a bed ? Are
you sufficiently thankful for clean dishes, or for the privi-
lege of making them clean? Are you grateful for cold
water and a clean glass to drink it out of? Did you ever
think how pleasant it is to have a plate all to yourself to eat
breakfast from, instead of having one dish set in the center
of the table for all the family to dip their spoons into? Are
you thankful enough for the good bread that you eat every
day? Do you ever thank the Lord that you have not a
house full of fleas? Are you thankful that your neighbor
has clean hands so that you can shake them without a
shiver ?

DISCOMFORTS OF THE MISSIONARIES.

635

If my experiences on this overland journey through
Turkey serve to make any one more thankful for the bless-
ings of home, or to make any of us feel more sympathy for
our missionary friends who have to endure many more dis-
comforts than have been hinted at here, and who endure
them cheerfully and gladly for the sake of the work, then
the purpose for which this brief record has been written will
have been accomplished.

CHAPTER Y.

GOOD-BYE.
'GOD BE WITH YOU TILL WE MEET AGAIN."

The Departure from San Francisco — The Crowded Wharf— " All Ashore
that's Going Ashore "— The Song of Farewell — The Captain's Encour-
agement — Good Cheer for All — A Never-to-be-forgotten Song — In
Moreton Bay — On Board the Chingtu — Our Friends on the Launch —
Chattering Chinese — A Voice from the Tarshaw — An Unappreciative
Listener — Another Precious Memory — At a Railway Station in Oka-
yama — Japanese Courtesy — The Train Waits for the Song — In a
Chinese Schoolroom — The Lively Little Junior — The Dear Old Hymn
in Chinese — In a Little Hill Town of India — Departure in the Early
Morning — Surrounded by Ghosts— " God Be With You "in Hindu
Dialect — A Brown-faced Boy Choir — Sweet, Lingering Echoes — A
Blessed Memory of Friends in Distant Lands.

fHE good steamship Mariposa is
just ready to sail from San Fran-
cisco for Sydney. The last
warning has beten given — " All
ashore that's going ashore" —
and the wharf is crowded with
people who are waiting to wave
a last good-bye to friends on
board. The last whistle sounds
and the steamer is off. But as
she starts, some earnest Christ-
ian Endeavorers on the shore lift

up their voices, and the sweet strains of " God be with you

till we meet again," float on the air.

The passengers are walking up and down the deck talking

busily together, but they pause a minute as they hear the

(636)

BEGINNING THE LONG JOURNEY. G37

sweet sounds. The captain is full of serious thoughts of the
long voyage before him, and of the great responsibility that
rests upon him, and there is a lump in his throat, so he tells
us afterwards, as he stops to listen to the words :

" When life's perils thick confound you,
Put His loving arms around you."

and the "God be with you" will linger in his mind for many
a day as he sails over the lonely seas.

The sailors who are hoisting the Stars and Stripes, pause
a minute as they catch the sound of

" Keep love's banner floating o'er you,"

and the timid passenger who feared the dangers of the long
voyage was cheered as she heard the reassuring words.

Fainter and fainter grow the sounds, but three pilgrims
still linger, looking longingly towards the shore to catch the
very last strains. They are starting on a long, long journey,
and their hearts are sore at the thought of all they are leav-
ing behind them, and of the long year that must intervene
before their return. As the last faint

" God be with you till we meet again "

dies away upon the air, their hearts are cheered and com-
forted, as they go on their way.

Perhaps those Christian Endeavorers will never know
just how many were helped and strengthened by their song
that hot August day, but those who were helped will not
soon forget the song or the singers.

IN AUSTRALIA.
Once more the scene is on shipboard, but this time the
crew and many of the passengers are Chinese. The steamer
Chingtu, which has been anchored for a few hours in More-
ton Bay, is just starting on a three-weeks voyage from Aus-
tralia to China. Near by is a little steam launch which has

G38 THE PARTING SONG.

come from Brisbane, to bring some passengers ; and a com
pany of our friends, who have come so far with us, are wai*
ing for a last good-bye.

The captain stands on the deck talking with one of the
passengers. The crew are busy in their several places, and
the Chinese passengers on the forward deck are jabbering
fast and loud. Three pilgrims on the upper deck are leaning
over the rail for a last look at kind friends whom they are
leaving, and, just as the steamer starts, a voice from the Tar-
shaw strikes up the tune " God be with you till we meet
again."

A gentleman who is standing near, turns to the captain
and remarks : " You never had such a send-off as this before,
did you ? " " No," says the captain, gruffly, " and I don't
want to again," and they both turn away and walk to the
other side of the deck, but, as he turns, the captain cannot
help hearing the sweet " God be with you," and it may be
that the words still linger in his memory to help him in some
future hour, though he cares not for them now.

The few first-class passengers seem indifferent, and the
Chinamen on the lower deck cannot understand the song;
but to the three pilgrims, who are still looking lovingly
across the water as the Tarshaw sails away, the words have
another precious memory associated with them, and they lis-
ten eagerly till the very last note dies away in the distance.

IN JAPAN.

This time the scene is in a railway station in Okayama.
We have taken our seats in the train, and while we rejoice to
be facing homewards, yet our joy is tinged with sadness as
we say a last good-bye to dear missionary friends and Jap-
anese friends alike.

We wonder when or where we shall meet again these

THE SONG IN JAPAN AND CHINA. 639

friends who are so dear to us, when suddenly, the sweet
notes of " God be with you till we meet again," ring out on
the air. Japanese voices and American voices take up the
strain, and the Japanese railway guards stop to listen. It is
past the hour for the train to start, but Japanese politeness
will not interrupt the sweet good-bye, and even the " Impe-
rial Japanese Railway" waits for that song.

As the last " God be with you " dies away, the train starts
on its journey, while the three pilgrims go on their way
with a song in their hearts.

IN CHINA.

Imagine a large schoolroom not very unlike an old-
fashioned New England schoolroom. The desks are not of
the latest style, and the room is not very elegant, but it has
been prettily decorated. On the walls hang bright-colored
scrolls, with Chinese characters inscribed on them, express-
ing cordial greetings. In the back of the room are pretty
floral decorations, also in Chinese characters, giving a Chinese
welcome. The rows of benches are filled with bright-eved
boys and young men, dressed in Chinese costume, and with
their long queues hanging down their backs.

In the back of the room are a few Chinese women, and
one little Chinese babv, who has come to this Christian En
deavor meeting, probably to represent Junior Endeavor.
The meeting is a very interesting one though it is all in
Chinese, and the little junior adds to the interest by creeping-
down the aisle and expressing his applause by patting on the
platform with his baby hands.

Just before the close of the meeting, some slips of red
paper on Avhich are inscribed some Chinese characters, are
passed around among the audience. A twelve-year-old
Chinaman takes his place at the cabinet organ, and the audi-
ence all rise and begin to sing. The complicated Chinese

640 OUR GOD-SPEED FROM INDIA.

characters on the red paper are unreadable, and the unpro-
nounceable words have no meaning to American ears, but
there was no mistaking the tune. Once more the three pil-
grims listened to the beautiful " God be with you," and
though they could not join in singing the Chinese words, yet
they understood the tune and in the spirit could join in the
song. Then in Chinese and English, the prayer arose,

" By His counsel's guide, uphold you,
With His sheep securely fold you.
God be with you till we meet again."

May that prayer be answered, and may all who sung it
that day in that great heathen city be ready always to fol-
low the teachings of the " Good Shepherd," and be led by
Him in the paths of righteousness !

IN INDIA.

It was early morning in the little hill town of Madana-
pali, so early that even the first rays of the sun could not
yet be seen, and the moon was still shining brightly in the
heavens. It is three o'clock in the morning, and the three
pilgrims are just starting on their homeward journey. The
large old-fashioned missionary wagon, drawn by diminutive
white oxen, stands at the door, for they are seven miles from
the nearest railway station.

As they climb up into the high wagon, and start on their
long drive, they take one last look around them. How quiet
and peaceful it all looks ! There is the mission bungalow
and the long, low school building, and the little church on
the other side of the compound. Suddenly, some ghostly
figures rise before them in the moonlight and surround the
wagon. Before they have time to be alarmed, they recog-
nize the ghosts, for these are the boys from the mission
school. Draped in their white clothes, some with white tur-

GOD BE WITH YOU TILL WE MEET AGAIN.

041

bans and some with brown caps on their heads, they have
come out at this early hour for a last good-bye

As the little white oxen start, the boys run along by the
side of the wagon, singing their farewell :

"God be with you till we meet again.
When life's perils thick confound you,
Put His loving arms around you,
God be with you till we meet again."

This time the song is sung in the Telugn tongue, but it
sounds sweetly in the ears of the pilgrims as they ride away
over the hills, and they will not soon forget the bright,
brown-faced Indian boys who sung it.

Many more memory pictures might be given if time
and space allowed. To these three pilgrims the song, "God
be with you till Ave meet again, 1 ' will always bring up many
delightful memories of their journeyings in other lands.

Grand Canon of the Colorado Kiver.

The Titan of Chasms.

A mile deep, 13 miles wide, 217 miles long
— — and - —

Painted Like a Flower.

THE GRAND CANON of the Colorado River in Arizona is now easily ac-
cessible to tourists. A regular stage line is in operation from Flagstaff,
Arizona, on the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, making the trip from Flagstaff to the
most imposing part of the Canon in less than 12 hours. The stage fare for the
round trip is only $20, and meals and comfortable lodgings are provided throughout
the trip at a reasonable price. The view of the Grand Canon afforded at the termi-
nus of the stage route is the most stupendous panorama known in nature. The
descent of the trail leading dowu the Canon wall, more than 0,000 feet vertically to
the river below, is a grander experience than climbing the Alps, for in the bottom
of this terrific and sublime chasm are hundreds of mountains grander than any of
the Alpine range.

A Book Free.

A BOOK describing the trip to the Grand Canon, illustrated by many full
page engravings from special paintings by Thomas Horan, and furnishing all
needful information may be obtained FREE upon application to GEO. T.
NICHOLSON, Room No. 762, Monadnock Block, Chicago, 111.

RARK BOOK
COLLECTION

THE LIBRARY OF I 111
UNIVERSITY OF

NORTH CAROI.IN \

CHAPEL HILL

Travel
G440
.C59
1896

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