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'Y^LIE«¥]MH¥lEI^Sinr¥" - ILIIBI^^IElf "

Deposited by the
Linonian and Brothers Library

i^n

WORKS BY SIR EDWIN ARNOLD,
M.A., K.C.I.E., C.S.I.
Author of "The Light of Asia," &c.

THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD ; or, The
Great Consummation. A Poem. Crown 8vo,
7J. 6d. net.
Presentation Edition. With 14 Illustrations by
W. HoLMAN Hunt. 410, 201. net.
POTIPHAR'S WIFE, and other Poems.
Crown 8vo, 5^. net.
ADZUMA ; or, The Japanese Wife. A Play.
Crown 8vo, 6s. 6d. net.
SEAS AND LANDS. With 71 Illustrations.
Crown Bvo, y. 6d.

LONDON AND NEW YORK:
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

WANDERING WORDS

Wandering Words

REPRINTED, BY PERIVIISSION
FROM PAPERS PUBLISHED IN THE "DAILY TELEGRAPH"
AND FOREIGN JOURNALS AND MAGAZINES

SIR EDWIN ARNOLD, M.A., K.C.I.E., C.S.L
AUTHOR OF
"THE LIGHT OF ASIA," "THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD"
"SEAS AND LANDS," ETC. ETC.

WITH
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM DRAWINGS BY BEN BOOTHBY
AND FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
AND NEW YORK : 15 EAST 16* STREET
1894
Aii rights reserved

TO
MY COLLEAGUE FOR SO MANY YEARS
AND
EVER KIND FRIEND
J. M. LE SAGE, Esq.
I DEDICATE THESE
"ManDecfng morOa"

CONTENTS

UHAP. PAliE
I. AN EARTHLY PARADISE I
II. WATCHING THE STARS 1 7
III. AN ADVENTURE ON THE NILE 47
IV. IN THE HOLY LAND . 71
V. INDIAN PRINCES AT HOME . 93
VL LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN JAPAN . II9
VII. JAPANESE WRESTLERS 1 45
VIII. AT AN INDIAN CHRISTMAS-TIME. . 1 59
IX. SOME JAPANESE PICTURES . 1 79
X. AND NOT ASHAMED . . . 2 0g
XL A LUCKY NEWSPAPER . . . 227
XII. THE tiger's VILLAGE . .239
Xin. WILD BOARS . . ... 255
XIV. THE WEALTH OF POVERTY . .265
XV. STRONGER THAN DEATH . 279
XVL HOW THE DEAD SAVED THE LIVING . . -293
XVII. DAYS AT SEA . . ... 309
XVIII. ORIENTAL STORY-TELLERS . . '323
XIX. A GENTLE MURDERESS ..... 345
XX. TENT LIFE . ..... 361

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
From the Land of the Rising Sun Frontispiece PAGE
Honolulu ... j
Interior op the Lick Observatory jo
Pyramids at Evening . . -49
The Pyramids op Gizeh .... -58
Jerusalem prom the Mount op Olives . 73
Nazareth .... 82
The Tank, Ulwar Palace . 95
A Japanese Dinner . 121
Japanese Wrestlers .... . . . 147
"At the Lips op the Black Field-Piece" 161
Rice-Cleaning in Japan .... 181
"Near the Little Quay where the Trawlers Lay" . 211
" In Jibing, the Boom Knocked the Skipper Overboard " 229
"Lies a Corpse under his Claws" . . . 241
" He at last puts Aside the Bushes at the Edge op the Patch
and Emerges " . . .257
" He had a Garment op some Sort Spread over a Briar Bush
AND was Tarring it Assiduously " . . 267
" You WOULD notice that Grace Faltered a little as she
CAME UP the Path, even with the Light Weight op a
Bucket op Water " . . . . . . 287
" When the Fog Lifts, he Looks and sees a Litlle Bit op
A Twinkle " . .... . . 295

xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

'A Day of Blue and Gold, Lighting dp an Expanse op
Fresh and Free Sea-Meadows" 311
' Mina-Mina's Knife was Plunged with all the Weight of
HEE Lifted Body into the Shark's Side" . 347
' While the Evening Fell " 3^3

ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT
Kanaka Girl i
The Lick Observatory 19
Dahabeeah on the Nile 51
Evening on the Nile . 7°
Courtyard op the Palace, Ulwar . 103
A Geisha 131
The Emperor op Japan 144
" She suddenly Observed something Pink at the Foot of
THE Rocks" . 221
The "Harelda" 238
"The Look op that Helpless Red God Staring from his
Portico" 251
"I Sank on my Knee, and Fired Quick" 263
" There he pound Clannen, Faint and Soaked with the
Spray, which was now and again Running Green over
his Rock" 287
" A Woman on her Knees by his Side, with a Bible Opened
on the Coverlid" . 305
Ubashima Releases the Tortoise
The Tortoise Reappears as the Princess of the Sea 331
The Princess and Urashima Row to the Fairy Islands
They are Received by the Fish-People

Servants of the Palace

331332
333

Palace of the Sea-Queen ^^4

335

Urashima and the Princess at Home ,,<,
The Gift of the Box . . . ,,,
Urashima back in his Native Village. .,,0

WANDERING WORDS

AN EARTHLY PARADISE

It. is good to be able to date
V a letter from Paradise !
Would you like to know
the exact locality? You
must sail south of west
for 2 1 GO miles from
San Francisco, or south
of east 3440 miles from
Yokohama, and then you
will arrive at the beautiful
Hawaiian Islands, where we
are anchored at present in the
steamship Belgic, of the Oc
cidental and Oriental Line,
Captain W. H. Walker com
manding, bound by way of Hono
lulu to Yokohama. We are come
down to this archipelago out of the
usual direct course to Japan, having 600 Chinese
coolies to deliver, as labourers, upon the sugar plan-

KANAKA GIKL.

2 WANDERING WORDS
tations of Oahu and Hawaii. They were taken on to
San Francisco last month by the steamship Eio de
Janeiro, because small-pox had broken out among
them before arriving here, and now, having been
duly purged in an American quarantine, the un
lucky Celestials must be brought all the way back
again, and we shall disembark them to-night and
to-morrow. It was an unpleasant cargo to carry —
these much-wandering Mongolians — since at any
moment the disease might again declare itself
amidst them, in which case we should have been
obliged to take the 600 on to Yokohama, perhaps to
Hong-Kong. But the Belgic has kept a clean bill of
health from the moment of starting, and we and they
are to-day safely arrived under the green and golden
hills of Oahu, the northernmost of the Sandwich
group. Even from the sea the view is charming and
full of promise of these delightful islands ; none the
less so if, as in my own case, the voyager has recently
traversed by rail 3800 miles of mainly unlovely scenery
between New York and San Francisco, coming by
those dreary, drab wildernesses of Texas, Arizona,
and New Mexico, and has then steamed for a week
without anything to look at except rolling seas
and driving clouds. Of course, therefore, we have
passed every available hour of our detention here
ashore, and seen enough to wonder why people
dwell in the changeful latitudes of London and
New York, when they might breathe the heavenly
air of these ocean paradises, and live in the per
petual Garden of Eden which Nature has laid out

AN EARTHLY PARADISE 3
for her happiest children in these hollows and
uplands. There is always a curious difference between one's
previous idea of any place and the visual realisation
of it. I myself had imagined the Hawaiian cluster
to be composed of densely-wooded islets and isles,
with dark foliage spread all over the plains and
climbing to rounded hills. But I see a broken land
much more open and varied than in my anticipation ;
the lowlands rather bare of trees and vegetation, the
uplands ascending by slopes tinted with the tender
green of coming crops, to a volcanic Sierra, very
rugged, naked, and majestic in outline, seamed and
fissured with innumerable glens, each nursing a
gradually diminishing riband of verdant embroidery.
At one extremity of the long crescent in which
Honolulu nestles amid her groves of cocoa-nut palms
and bananas, rises precipitously the yellow and red
steep of Diamond Head, and on the other soars away
into far distance a lofty line of peaks, lifted from
the bottom of the sea by some ancient and stupen
dous telluric spasm. The golden Sierra fades afar
into a ridge of rose and violet against the horizon,
where the sapphire of the Pacific blends with the
turquoise of the sky. The north-east trade-wind,
which was blowing in a lively way outside, is quite
shut off from our anchorage by those lofty mountains,
rising to 4000 feet of elevation and upwards, so that
the good ship Belgic rides quietly outside the reef to
a single cable. The channel is narrow by which the

4 WANDERING WORDS
quiet inner harbour is reached, and we did not
enter ; but there is plenty of water there, as is
evidenced by the U.S.S. Cliarleston, an ironclad of
the second class, which is moored within, under the
very plumes of the cocoanut groves. Where the
coral reef girdles the island beach there occurs a
sudden and sharply-marked change from the indigo-
coloured waves of the outer deep sea, ruffled with
sparkling wavelets, to the sleeping water of the
lagoon, motionless, and reflecting the trees and
houses in its narrow, unbroken belt of vivid grass-
green. The rampart of coral which thus surrounds
this side of Oahu lies about six feet under the sur
face, yet at that depth it amply suffices to break
the roll of the ocean ; and even the sharks — of which
many are cruising about — seldom or never cross the
barrier. Exposed to air, the coral hardens into a
good building rock, of which many of the Honolulu
edifices are constructed ; but under water it is soft,
and can be broken up easily, so that we observe
a steam-dredger busy upon the entrance-channel,
deepening it by simply scraping, in order to admit
vessels of every burden.
Honolulu from the sea looks a smaller town than
she really is, being so much buried in groves and
gardens; nor indeed at biggest does she number
more than 22,000 citizens, the entire island contain
ing no more than 31,194 inhabitants, and the whole
group about 89,000. Of these about 35,000 are
natives, 15,000 Chinese, 13,000 Japanese, and 8600

AN EARTHLY PARADISE 5
Portuguese; the American residents totalling 1928,
and the English 1344. There are, besides, over 1000
Germans scattered about the group, and 600 other
foreigners, more or less, including seventy French
men — a mixed population, amid which the indigenous
Kanaka race, that well deserved to be perpetuated,
is, alas ! sadly and steadily decreasing.
That this Paradise of the Pacific is not Avithout
its drawback, the voyager will be grievously reminded
as he approaches Diamond Head, and comes round
into the anchorage of Honolulu. Broad on the port
side of the ship, about thirty miles from the little
city, Molokai rises fair and fertile from the ocean —
the Island of Lepers. Here, as all know too well,
banished from the beautiful isles to the west and
south, are imprisoned for the term of their natural
lives more than a thousand victims of leprosy, that
curse of the Hawaiian archipelago ; and here Father
Damien's example of fearless humanity and divine
compassion is being followed by more than one de
voted priest and woman. Molokai itself is beautiful
enough to be a fitting " Purgatorio " to the " Para-
diso " beyond.
You round Diamond Head, as I have said, and,
in the bright Pacific morning, with the fresh strong
breath of the trade-wind bringing you health and
appetite, drop anchor before the town. Then a wild
passion will seize you to land ; and if this has be
come so strong after only a week's run across from
'Frisco, how imperious it must have been with
those ships' companies of Captain James Cook, of

6 WANDERING WORDS
immortal memory, when the Endeavour and Resolu
tion first touched at the Sandwich Islands, and gave
this enchanting scenery to their own eyes and to the
knowledge of the world"? For us there are ques
tions of quarantine and of bills of health, which —
being at last happily settled — leave passengers free
to land. We jump into a native boat,. rowed by two
lusty Hawaiians, and pull quickly to the shore, pass
ing through the channel of the coral reef, and not
ing how the water instantly shifts within it from
dark blue to light green. The U.S. ships of war
San Francisco and Pensacola are lying inside, to
gether with several large Californian merchantmen,
and one or two of the schooners which ply regularly
between the islands.
The waterside wharves are without pretension ;
and the little town in its business portion looks
commonplace and untropical. It disappoints, in
deed, at first, for the shops and ofiices are just like
those of a third-rate American city, with the usual
tram-cars running along the streets, and the inevi
table telegraph poles bordering the side-walks. But
the islanders at once attract your attention ; the
men, well-built, brown as coffee-berries, many walk
ing or riding with " leis " (flower garlands) wreathed
round their straw hats, the women with nice oval
faces, very often pretty, always intelligent, animated,
and gentle, dressed in that long, loose, coloured
night-gown, without a waist, Avhich the early mis
sionaries invented for their too lightly-clad converts.
Those excellent men Avere but poor modistes, and it

^.V EARTHLY PARADISE 7
is to be regretted they did not hit upon something
more becoming. Yet the Kanaka damsels and
matrons manage to Avear such absurd garments with
all the grace of which the attire is capable ; and it is
a pretty sight to see one of them, in this clothes-bag
of a disguise, leap lightly into the saddle, astride,
neatly jerking the lower part of her garb between
her knees, as she settles into her seat, thus making
the loose sac cover her lower limbs to the ankle with
perfect fitness and decorum. The king has lately
died, and many of these robes are, therefore, still
black ; but the Kanakas love bright colours, and you
will encounter girls dressed like humming-birds or
tiger-moths as regards gay tints. We call at the
office of a gentleman well known and respected in
the islands — a great sugar-planter, employing more
than 5000 hands — and in an instant, upon his
cordial greeting, the gates of the place seem all
to fly open. Mr. W. G. Irwin, our very kind and
genial host, puts lips to the telephone — which is
an universal institution here, used in every abode, —
and begins by calling forth, from his high duties of
state, the Prime Minister, the Hon. Samuel Parker,
as if it were the most natural thing in the world,
in these graceful and lazy latitudes, that a Cabinet
should suspend its sittings to make good cheer for
passing unknown friends and visitors. His Excel
lency soon turns up, a handsome native gentleman of
good stature, a dark, highly intelligent countenance,
and soft brown eyes, directly descended — as his
manly carriage might betoken — from the chieftains

8 WANDERING WORDS
of the island whom Captain Cook met 114 years
ago. He plunges genially into the task of making
a festive and instructive programme for us, which is
even to include the honour of presentation to her
Majesty Queen Liliuokalani. Afterwards, drives,
excursions into the country, a dinner with " poi "
and other native dishes, and in the evening the
" Hula " dance, and indigenous songs and music. It
seems a positive delight to the Hawaiians, high and
low, to welcome their guests and to do the honours
of their lovely archipelago.
Our first visit is to the abode of "The Hon. Sam,"
as everybody seems to style the Premier. You soon
get clear of the commonplace little business streets
and horrible tram-cars, and emerge into the Honolulu
of your dreams ; Honolulu proper, with charming,
low-fronted houses, fringing long embowered lanes,
dark and cool with overhanging foliage and gay with
countless blossoms. There is no winter, of course,
in these happy isles, and thus, albeit we are arrived
here in the early part of March, the groves are all
green and the garden-fences everywhere brilliant
with red hibiscus, the splendid lilac loveliness of
the Bougainvilliers, pomegranate, orange, and ohia
blossoms. Fragrances, combined of heliotrope, the Indian
champak, and many another sweet-scented floAver,
fill the soft air. The ample shaded gardens are
stately with all sorts of tropical and sub-tropical
trees, including palms of many varieties, the cocoa-

AN EARTHLY PARADISE 9
nut being most predominant. I observe the koa,
a kind of acacia, the iron-tree, the hala — known in
India as the keora, having the SAveetest of all
perfumes — umbrella-trees, bread-fruit trees, guavas,
bananas, papaAvs, and a hundred others familiar to
memory, together with many Avhich are new. I
noticed eA'eryAvhere an old bird friend, the Indian
myna, hopping about the roads — the lively creature,
it seems, has been imported ; and I meet at once
the sagacious sparrow, that true cosmopolitan, who
has taken up his abode in these fair islands. The
apartment where Mrs. Parker receives us is, like
those of all good houses here, spacious, and open
by Venetian blinds and verandahs to any soft airs
wandering around. This Hawaiian lady — the first
whose acquaintance we are privileged to make —
wears mourning for the late king, and is easy and
charming in her manners, with an unaffected
cordiality and goodwill which seem, we find after
wards, to be universal. She honours me by pre
paring and presenting a lovely bouquet of floAvers
from the garden, in which the yellow roses are of
special splendour and perfection.
Next we drive, with excellent American horses,
along the line of the sea-beach, and through a public
park, prettily laid out, to Mr. IrAvin's rural residence
at Waikiki, where again you behold the Honolulu
of your dreams. On the Avay rice-fields — with the
young plants in their tenderest green tint — alter
nate with copses of ironwood trees, acacias, and
palms, and great breadths of banana- plantation, while

10 WANDERING WORDS
always, on your right hand, thunders softly the
far-off surf, shut from the beach by that girdle of
gleaming emerald, the still water inside the coral
reef Every house along the beautiful highway run
ning round to Diamond Head has this glorious sea-
frontage of the golden sand, the green lagoon, the
coral barrier, and the gleaming open ocean ; and for
bathing, fishing, and boating delights, nothing any
where could surpass it. We see the canoes of the
natives come shooting in, like sea-arrows, from the
main, on the white neck of a breaker ; the paddles
flashing, the men — wild with the pleasure of their
strength and skill — singing at the top of their well-
modulated voices, and no more fearful of the milky
roll of a vast Pacific breaker than if it were one of
their own little white ponies. They are all accom
plished swimmers, and do not seem at all afraid of
the sharks, even if capsized outside the coral barrier.
It is as good and manly a sight as I have ever seen
upon the water, to watch these brown Kanakas drive
their frail craft into the mid-fury of the big wave,
and then come shorewards leaping with it, high in
the air, amidst a storm of spray and broken blue
water, safe and peaceful into the sleeping green
sanctuary of the lagoon.
At 4.30 P.M. we were to have audience of
Queen Liliuokalani. Her Majesty succeeded to the
Hawaiian throne rather more than a year ago, on
the death of her royal brother. King Kalakaua;
but in the first happiness of her reign had the
misfortune to lose her consort. His Royal Highness

^.V EARTHLY PARADISE ii
John OAven Dominis. This deceased Prince was
of foreign extraction, and, leaving no issue, the pre
sent Heir-Apparent to the throne is the Princess
Victoria -KaAvekia-Kailani-Lunalilo-Kalaninui-Ahi-
lapalapa, daughter of Princess Liki-liki and of his
Excellency A. S. Cleghorn. I know it all reads
like the libretto of a fairy-play, where lovely Queens
and Princesses marry Jack and Tom, who land from
the other side of the globe in full possession of the
magic ring ; and I should not have felt greatly
surprised if we had been met in the Queen's garden
by the customary corps de hallet, dressed in feathers
and flowers, with somebody as Captain Cook to
dance a hornpipe. But it is all real, serious, and
solid enough, with a very natural, gracious, and
noble Queen in Liliuokalani, and a Court, modest
but respected, which combines much dignity with
unaffected simplicity. I was a little laughed at by
my American companions for feeling somewhat shy
of entering the presence of her Majesty in my pea-
jacket and shipboard attire. But deshabille is the
custom of the islands, and the " Hon. Sam," First
Minister of the Crown, was himself wearing a
shooting-jacket and straw hat ; while the father of
the Heir-Apparent, also accompanying us, shone
resplendent in a red tie and white waistcoat. In
fact, the audience was rather by way of a friendly and
informal afternoon call, such as the kindly, simple
fashions of the island permit, than of any ceremony ;
although it must not be understood that the Hawaiian
Court does not at times observe the most elaborate

12 WANDERING WORDS
ceremonials, and maintain a very strict etiquette
indeed. As for her Majesty, she is " every inch a qiieen,"
and bears with noble grace and lofty gentleness
the lonely honours of her rank. When we passed
from the anteroom of her palace, guarded by a
Hawaiian soldier in white uniform, and filled with
objects of ancient island royalty and portraits of
island potentates departed, Ave found in a pretty
inner apartment, seated, and attended upon by
two ladies-in-waiting, the good, intelligent, sweet-
faced, and kind-hearted Liliuokalani. The Queen
rose, with all the simplicity of a lady welcoming
friends, to receive us, and shook hands cordially
with each of our party, as each was presented,
addressing also a Avord or two of greeting to him.
Dressed in complete mourning, she Avore a black robe
of silk crape, banded loosely below the bosom after
the native fashion, and she carried a black lace-edged
handkerchief, but displayed no ornaments, except
a magnificent diamond ring. Her countenance —
distinctly handsome, and of the most decided
Kanaka type — has the colour of coffee, and is sur
mounted by thick black hair, growing luxuriantly,
touched here and there Avith silvery flecks. At first
sight the Queen wins anybody's heart, and commands
his true respect and loyalty. Her voice has the
soft musical intonation heard in the speech of all
her countrywomen, and I have seldom listened to
English more perfect or more graceful than that
spoken by her Majesty. She did me the honour to

^A^ EARTHLY PARADISE 13
place me in a chair at her side and to enter upon
an animated conversation. A blue lotus-blossom ex
panded in a silver cup upon the table gave occasion
for us to talk of the flowers, trees, and fruits of the
archipelago, and of ancient flower-fashions there.
This led to mention of the first discovery of the
group, only 1 1 4 years ago, and the Queen became
singularly interested Avhen I ventured to tell her
hoAv, when a boy, I had ofttimes seen, lying
moored as a coal-hulk, amongst the other coal-hulks
in the River Thames, the good and famous ship
Endeavour, which, with her sister vessel the Resolu
tion, made such wonderful discoveries under the
command of that noble navigator, Captain James
Cook, and was the first to cast anchor at the
HaAvaiian group. Afterwards her Majesty Avas
pleased to describe to us her visit to England at
the time of Queen Victoria's Jubilee, renewing the
splendid memories of which her heart and mind
were full. She recounted to me, Avith charming
enthusiasm, how she sat near our Queen in West
minster Abbey, and what the Queen said to her,
and how kind and great-hearted the English
Sovereign was, and about the German Crown
Prince, how soldierly and grand he looked, and
our late departed Prince, the Duke of Clarence,
how courteous and amiable he showed himself to
her. It was delightful to recline in the milk-warm
air, with the broad fans of the bananas waving
at the window, and thus listen to the Ioav, pleasant
tones of this dark Island Queen, so gentle in her

14 WANDERING WORDS
bereavement, so stately and truly royal in her
womanly simplicity. I should judge her to be
about fifty years of age, but her rich black hair is
only just streaked with grey, and her deep soft
brown eyes are as bright and limpid as those of
any Kanaka maiden. I shall always preserve the
flowers which she gave me, and the memory of her
gracious and kindly " Aloha " at parting.
From the Queen's house we went to the lolani
Palace, a large and well-looking, if not exactly an
imposing structure, where we saw the royal apart
ment of state, especially the throne-room. This
last is a spacious and handsome chamber, having
around it portraits of all the Kings and Queens of
Hawaii, from old Kamehameha the First, in his cloak
of red and yellow " oo " feathers, who reigned from
1782 to 1819, doAvn to that of the gracious lady whose
presence we had just quitted. Between the royal
portraits were suspended under glass the various de
corations received by the late King Kalakaua, among
which I noticed the "Chrysanthemum" of Japan.
On either side of the throne — a large arm-chair,
upholstered in crimson and gold — stood the Ha
waiian emblems of sovereignty, tall staves sur
mounted with tufts of " 00 " feathers, and gilt ; from
which the " Honourable Sam " politely detached and
presented to us " leis " or scented gaiiands, made of
some dried flower-seed. By this time the dinner-
hour had arrived, and we sat down Avith quite a
large party, comprising more than one Minister of
State and several of the most prominent gentlemen

AN EARTHLY PARADISE 15
of Honolulu. There Avere tAvo things on the menu
AA'hich merit attention — the golden plovers, a most
delicate and toothsome island-bird, and the chief
native staple of the islands, " poi " — which I tasted for
the first time. Made of the starchy extract of the
" taro," it is a sort of sour gruel, served in large wooden
bowls, Avithout salt or seasoning. It is etiquette to
eat it with the forefinger, which is dipped into the
sticky mass, and emerges charged with a long festoon
of " poi." By a quick motion, easily learned, you
twist this round the finger-point and suck it off, dip
ping the wet digit again and again in the bowl.
There is no real indelicacy in this habit, because the
viscid stuff sticks to what touches it, and thus you
cannot come in contact with any of your neighbour's
portion, beyond the "dollop" on your own finger-end.
All through dinner-time and afterwards we had a
choir of native " boys " singing to us native songs,
with accompaniments on the " tarapatch," a kind of
small guitar. Some of the songs Avere very sweet and
tender, particularly one which we made them repeat
again and again, beginning, "Ninni-mai, apeelee"
¦ — which, being interpreted, is " Come to me close,
close until you touch me." The Kanakas also sang
us the music of the " Hoola " dance, and performed
some of its figures, which were of a decidedly Poly
nesian character, and not quite such as could be
taught in a polite dancing academy of New York or
London. The musicians finally came off to the ship
with us in our steam-launch, and continued their
native chants of love and farewell until the anchor

i6 WANDERING WORDS
was weighed, when they departed with the " Honour
able Sam " and all our other kind and warm-hearted
friends for the shore, singing "Aloha loe" as long as
we could hear, and taking with them our grateful
thoughts. March 8th, 1892.

II
W^ATCHING THE STARS

INTEKIOU OF THE LICK OBSEKVATORY.

P. IQ.

II

WATCHING THE STARS

There was no national institution in all the United
States which I more desired to visit than the famous
Observatory on the top of Mount Hamilton, in Cali
fornia. The great Republic abaunds with noble
monuments of the public spirit and generosity of
her citizens. In almost every town and city of the
sixty or seventy where I have lately delivered my
poetical readings, I saw with admiration schools,
colleges, libraries, hospitals, lecture-halls, music-
halls, lyceums, gardens, parks and picture galleries,

20 WANDERING WORDS
given to the people by rich men who had made their
money among them. No country in the world shows
such examples of civic generosity, and the foreigner
— if an Englishman in America ought ever to bear
that name — grows positively dazzled with the splen
did succession of those bountiful endowments.
But the Lick Observatory appeals in a special
manner to his imagination. He thinks of it as a
gift to the world at large — a magnificent dowry
bestowed on the science of astronomy under circum
stances of advantage hardly to be equalled elsewhere.
The more he knows, no doubt, of that science, the
less exaggerated expectations he will have of what
"the biggest glass in the world" can accomplish
compared with smaller instruments. But all the
same he will want ardently to see it, to look
through it at certain special objects in the heavens,
to hear the official astronomers talk Avho have the
great " optick " in their charge, as well as by a
personal pilgrimage to do homage to the memory of
the California miner, James Lick, AA'ho has his tomb
on that sky-piercing height under the huge telescope
which his Avell-spent wealth planted on the Pacific
Hill. Accordingly, on arriving in San Francisco, at
the close of my engagements I put aside more than
one delightful social attraction, in order to secure
ample time for the visit which I had promised my
self to this most remarkable and interesting spot.
Modern astronomy owes, it must be confessed, a
heavy debt to the vanity — or may Ave say the self-
respect ? — of man. The general mind, perhaps,

WATCHING THE STARS 21
hardly realises, even at this day, what a tremendous
blow Avas dealt at human self-conceit and against
all the Ptolemaic religions founded to suit it, by the
discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo. Well might
the priests of the old orthodoxies stand aghast at the
latter, and even go so dreadfully far as to burn the
gentle and Avise Giordano Bruno ! At a stroke the
Florentine astronomer's ejaculation "E pur se muove ! "
SAvept aAvay all the theology of Dante and his sacer
dotal doctors, made the cosmology of the " Divine
Comedy" impossible and grotesque, and dethroned
the race and this planet which it inhabits from its
imagined pre-eminence to an obscure and insignifi
cant position.
Old-fashioned Christianity had taught that our
world was the centre of things round which the
sun revolved ; for the sake of which the stars were
hung up like Japanese lanterns in the firmament ;
and in direct relations to which all the forces of in
finite space were established. The " scheme of salva
tion," as then understood, fitted in well enough with
such an egotistic view, as also the austere Dante's
basin-shaped Hell and conical Purgatory with the
concentric circles of Paradise upon its top. But as
soon as Copernicus and Galileo exploded the theory,
and proved that we are almost the " last of the least,"
dwelling on one of the smallest bodies in space,
invisible to all but a small number of our closer
neighbours, religions had to suppress such men, or
else, as will hereafter need to be done, to expand their
own doctrines and contract their own previous preten-

2 2 WANDERING WORDS
sions. At present they have only partially per
formed all this. The boldest and truest, even, have
not yet come into step with " star-eyed Science."
Those ancient, mediseval, and so-called orthodox
absurdities of a local "hell" and "heaven," with
the fables of Joshua's miracle and of Hezekiah's
reprieve, linger still, like our popular expressions
of " sunrise " and " sunset " and the belief in the
Mosaic cosmogony. Christianity itself has not yet
sufficiently assimilated Copernican and Darwinian
doctrines. When it does, it Avill earnestly thank
Science for showing how much more glorious it is
to be " least in the kingdom of heaven " than greatest
in that petty sub-kingdom of nature which the priests
constructed ; and of how much nobler promise we
should consider it to be descendants of a mollusc
and afterward of an ape, with all the heights of
creation to ascend to, than creatures suddenly made
out of clay to occupy a garden. But astronomy,
which has so rudely thrust man down from the
pinnacle of his bygone ignorant arrogance, certainly
owes him the reparation of such a scientific solace,
and will, year by year, bring him more and more
of this by perpetually extending his knowledge
of the vastness and splendour and wonder of the
visible universe, of which to be a portion, even
the most humble, is to be incomparably higher and
grander than to be feebly and fixedly alone in that
old absurd cosmogony, and to have the stars for
candles. Astronomy, I indeed think, is the chief present

WATCHING THE STARS 23
hope of humanity, the best teacher of real and
practical religion, which will redeem men from the
folly of materialism by shoAving matter as infinite
and as spiritual as spirit itself To effect her high
and destined work she needs, first, good equipments,
like those on Mount Hamilton, for the prosecution
of research ; and, next, interpreters of insight and
genius to convey with simplicity, but without scien
tific degradation, to the popular understanding, the
immense and elevating generalisations, the stupen
dous conclusions of the professional star-gazers, who
can seldom themselves do full literary justice to
the terrestrial and human purport of the mighty
facts which their skill elicits and establishes.
With these ideas in mind I was very glad to find
at last an opportunity of visiting the Lick Observa
tory. To reach it, you take train from San Francisco,
and travel fifty miles almost due south of the City of
the Golden Gate, as far as to the depot of San Jos6.
From this pretty half Spanish town Mount Hamilton
lies distant, " as the crow flies," not farther than
thirteen miles ; but to reach Observatory Peak, where
the colossal telescope is erected, and where the
founder of the institution sleeps, implies a journey
by coach over twenty-six miles of winding road, so
steep is the range and so hard of access. The actual
elevation of the summit on which the buildings stand
is 4029 feet. It is one of the main eminences of
that inner coast Sierra, called Monte Diablo, lying
between the bays of San Francisco and of Monterey,
and rising due eastward of San Josd.

24 WANDERING WORDS
Just as I was wondering which Avould be the best
method of proceeding, a bright-eyed boy, some fifteen
years of age, with a delightful manner of address
and intelligence sparkling in his brown eyes, ad
dressed me by name, having somehow satisfied him
self as to my identity ; and then announcing himself
as the son of Professor Holden, Director of the Ob
servatory, informed me that he was commissioned to
take me in charge and to deliver me safely on the
mountain, Avhere his father had invited me to pass
the night as his guest. A better guide it would have
been impossible to have found. Glad of his sudden
holiday from the San Josd school, and full to the brim
with information about the mountain, my new friend
did not allow a single moment of the joumey to be
dull or without profit.
A pair of sturdy California horses were soon har
nessed to an open carriage, and off Ave went together
through the great aloes and forest-trees of the city,
and along the straight and well-kept road which
leads to the foothills, passing farmhouses and well-
kept fields, vineyards and orchards, in a country
of splendid fertility. We talked natural history,
sport and travel. He told me hoAv he had trapped
forty-two foxes last year upon the hills and two
coyotes : he had killed, among many others, a rattle
snake with tAvelve rings in its tail ; made me for
the first time familiar with the California robin, the
" wood runner," the black buzzard, the painted jay,
and the ground squirrels, of Avhich there Avere hun
dreds to be seen, and showed me the nest of a golden

WATCHING THE STARS 25
eagle in the fork of a tall fir-tree, from which he had
taken tAvo eggs, so that by the time Ave had reached
Smith's Greek, Avithin eight miles of the top, Ave had
become fast friends.
Up to this point, Avhere Ave shared some lunch,
the winding road had absorbed and entranced me
by its beauty. Like a snake it coils in and out of
lovely thickets and coppices of golden oak, pine
and wild bay trees dressed and festooned with the
Spanish moss. At every turn we gained fresh views
of the green valleys, shut Avithin the folds of the
range — " canyons," as they are here called — some of
them full of grazing herds, others devoted to vine
yards, grain, crops, and orchards of peach and
almond just breaking into tender rosy blossom.
At Smith's Creek there occurs a flat, with houses
and an inn ; and a bridge here also crosses the
" canyon," which brings you into the wilder and
more stony regions of the upper heights, above
which you see the iron dome of the Observatory
now plainly towering. There are still, nevertheless,
seven or eight miles of steep winding road to traverse,
along the edge of a perpetual precipice ; but the
driver was skilful, the horses inured to the dangerous
joumey, and the road all the way most excellently
made. Moreover, a message through the telephone,
which runs all the way to the Observatory, had hos
pitably cheered us.
" I have got Sir Edwin ! " my young friend blew
triumphantly through the mouthpiece at Smith's
Creek.

26 WANDERING WORDS
" Bring him along ! " was the satisfactory reply,
and with a fresh pair of horses we started again.
I noticed that a common English garden bloom, the
escholtzia, grew everywhere as a weed on the rocks
— people say that the Golden Gate gets its name
from the Californian coast being bedecked with this
bright flower when the first discoverers entered
there. On these higher levels groAV also freely the
manzanita and the madrone, from the tough brown
stems of which drinking cups and walking sticks are
turned. Plainer and plainer noAv looms the big dome on
the upward gaze ; more sterile the crags become and
more "qualmy" the precipices as we wind higher
and higher. We pass " Jack's Slide," an awful
slope, where a Mexican teamster rolled OA-er the
edge with his Avaggon and mules, and brought up,
alive but sorely bruised, five hundred feet below,
between tAvo big pine trees. We meet the " stage "
coming down with four horses, for Saturday is the
public day, when the sovereign people have the
right to ascend in any numbers they please and
gaze through the gigantic glass. It is early in the
season, however, and there are few or no visitors
to-day at the summit. We shall have the heavens
to ourselves, and all the Avonders of the proud
temple of science this happy evening, Avhich is as
clear as purple crystal in the east, and in the west
just beginning to prepare for the splendour of a
gorgeous sunset.
Safely landed on the top, under the vast cupola

WATCHING THE STARS 27
of the telescope, I am most cordially greeted by
Professor Holden, and knoAv in a moment that I
shall like him as Avell as I already like his delight
ful boy. Truly the site of the Lick Observatory has
been well chosen ! It occupies the loftiest point of
a long serrated chain, the various peaks of which
have been appropriately named after the most re
nowned ancient and modern astronomers. Near at
hand, for example, are " Kepler," " Copernicus,"
"Tycho Brahe," "Newton," " Huygens," "Herschel,"
and even "Ptolemy." The view all around is, of
course, magnificently extended. To the eastward
you look over a wilderness of rolling hills and em
bosomed valleys to where, one hundred miles away,
the snow-capped line of the Sierra shuts the vast
prospect in. Nearer to the eye, on the westward,
spreads the immense Pacific main, but its shore-
waters are veiled from the gaze by a row of foothills,
which serve, nevertheless, an admirable purpose for
the astronomers, since they intercept and catch the
sea mists, and keep them from obscuring the upper
sky. Even now, near to evening, a white shroud of
clouds spreads all over the San Josd valley, completely
closing out the spacious city and all the works of
men there below.
To a great extent that twinkling of the stars
which troubles the observer, and Avhich is caused by
the refraction of rarified lower air, has been avoided
at Mount Hamilton by the happy selection which
has interposed all this wide valley of San Jos6 be
tween the ocean and the Observatory. Towards the

28 WANDERING WORDS
south and south-west your gaze travels over green
canyons and grey rocky peaks, to the broad low
lands of Salinas, San Benito, and Monterey, and the
lofty range of Pavilan. Lassen Peak, one hundred
miles south of Mount Shasta, may sometimes be
distinguished in the far north, but the giant mount
itself is four hundred miles distant, and of course
invisible at all times.
Turning reluctantly from that majestic landscape,
one notes next the fine group of buildings erected
on the solitary summit. The vast iron dome, within
which the great equatorial telescope Avorks, is the
first thing to fasten attention. The lower part of
this structure is of red bricks, and a considerable
economy was effected herein by the discovery close
at hand of a bed of clay, from which the bricks
for the Observatory and adjacent buildings were
all made. This saved the institution no less than
$46,000, which would have been otherwise expended
in purchasing the bricks below and hauling them up
the steep twenty-seven miles of mountain roadAvay.
That road itself — splendidly engineered, as has been
said — was cut and finished by the Government of the
State at a cost of $10,000, and links the isolated
shrine of science with the busy Avoiid below by a
long white wandering ribbon, which you see appear
ing and disappearing for many and many a league
under your feet.
A range of official buildings connects the great
Observatory Avith a lesser dome, containing a power
ful but much smaller telescope than the equatorial ;

WATCHING THE STARS 29
Avhile near at hand rise the very commodious re
sidences of the director and his staff of assisting
professors. Grouped around are the offices of the
establishment, the cottages for the Avorking-men,
and the rooms for the photographing, carpentering,
engineering, and all the various service of the mighty
glass, Avhile at a distance, under " Kepler," you ob
serve the water-tanks Avhere the rainfall is stored,
and on the crest of that same peak a supplementary
observatory. Water is naturally precious here, since
sometimes long spells of dry weather occur, and a
notice over every tap in Professor Holden's house
bids the guest not to waste the element.
Would it be imagined that one of the principal
nuisances of the place is the rattlesnake ? For my
own part, I had no idea that that noxious reptile could
live at an elevation of over four thousand feet upon
mountain crags so arid ; but in the week before my
visit they had killed three of these serpents within
the great dome itself, and the director told me,
sweeping his hand around a neighbouring canyon,
" There are probably at this moment hundreds of
rattlesnakes in that one hollow." They live upon
squirrels, which abound everywhere, or small birds
and their eggs, and come up to the tanks and
Observatory buildings chiefly in quest of water. It
was by the edge of a water-trough on the roadside
that my young friend Edward Holden had killed
three of the dangerous creatures.
I was told upon this topic something very curious
about the " road runner," the bird already men-

30 WANDERING WORDS
tioned, which is also called the " chapparal cock."
The rattlesnake is the deadly enemy of its species,
always hunting about in the thickets for eggs and
young birds, since the " road runner " builds its
nest on the ground. When, therefore, the " chap
paral cocks " find a " rattler " basking in the sun,
they gather, I was assured, leaves of the prickly
cactus and lay them in a circle all round the ser
pent, which cannot draw its belly over the sharp
needles of these leaves. Thus imprisoned, the rep
tile is set upon by the birds and pecked or spurred
to death.
But now we enter the great dome and stand
under its cover beside the gigantic telescope given
to America and to Science by James Lick, the
Californian miner. The third clause of James
Lick's second deed of trust (September 21, 1875),
authorised the Board of Lick Trustees " to ex
pend the sum of seven hundred thousand dollars
($700,000) for the purpose of purchasing land and
constructing and putting up on such land as may be
designated by the party of the first part a powerful
telescope, superior to and more poAverful than any
telescope yet made."
Among the documents " engrossed on parchment,
placed between two fine tanned skins backed with
silk, shut again between two leaden plates, sol
dered securely in a tin box, and finally deposited
within the coffin itself" of James Lick, AA-hich Avas
laid in the foundation pier of the great equatorial
telescope on the 9th day of January 1887, is one

WATCHING THE STARS 31
recording that "this refracting telescope is the
largest Avhich has ever been constructed, and the
astronomers who have tested it declare that its
performance surpasses all other telescopes." The
diameter of the great glass is 36 inches and its
focal length 56 feet 2 inches, the weight of it
amounting to several tons. Yet, as soon as Pro
fessor Campbell, the very accomplished lieutenant
of !Mr. Holden, has released the machinery, I am
able with one hand to move the enormous Aveapon
of science in either direction, revolving the whole
structure of the cupola, and directing its broad slit —
through which the huge object-glass looks forth like
a Cyclopean eye — toward any quarter of the heavens.
An extremely ingenious arrangement of Avheels work
ing upon oil chambers furnishes this indispensable
mobility, and the spacious floor itself of the dome,
circular in shape, can be also raised or lowered by
turning a little hand-wheel. Against the eye-piece
of the monstrous instrument is established a stair
case, upon which you mount to a sliding seat, so as
to be able always to keep a just position ; and, for
fine movements of latitude and longitude, small
wheels, conveniently placed for the observer's con
trol, permit him to sway the huge "optick" up or
down, this side or that side, with the utmost ease
and accuracy. The ironwork of this great cupola
was furnished by Mr. Scott's firm at San Francisco
— now engaged in constructing ironclad men-of-war
for the United States Government — and appears to
be of an excellent craft.

32 WANDERING WORDS
With my hand upon the colossal tube, lightly
managing it, as if it were an opera-glass, and my
gaze wandering round the splendidly equipped in
terior, full of all needful astronomical resources
and built to stand a thousand storms, I think with
admiration of its dead founder, and ask to see his
tomb. It is placed immediately beneath the big
telescope, which ascends and descends directly over
the sarcophagus wherein repose the mortal relics of -
this remarkable man ; a marble chest, bearing for
inscription, " Here lies the body of James Lick."
From Avhat I gather, he amassed his fortune chiefly
by lucky mining speculations, and was led to dedi
cate a large portion of it to this noble purpose rather
by vague, dreamy, transcendental ideas than upon
strictly scientific grounds. He had come across
some " spiritualistic " books, full of wild theories
about life upon the moon and the planets, and the
possibility of some day or somehow communicating
with them, or at least of demonstrating the existence
of " other races in other worlds." The bigger the
glass the better the chance of this, he thought ; and
so the vast instrument was ordered of Alvan Clarke,
and the trust formed. He Avould be disappointed,
probably, if he could gaze through his own wonder
ful tube, and see how little it can do Avith stars and
suns and far-off depths of space beyond the powers
of a six-inch reflector, but it remains none the less
a magnificent implement of astronomy, Avhich has
already accomplished marvellous Avork, and Avill effect
more ; Avhile, to resolve double or triple stars, to

WATCHING THE STARS 33
define nebulae and study the lunar surface and the
markings of planets and satellites, its capacity is far
beyond all that science ever before possessed.
It Avas still broad daylight, hoAvever, and the time
Avould pot come until after darkness to enjoy the
privilege of searching the heavens with that splendid
memorial of the California miner. We wandered,
therefore, from section to section of the buildings,
examining apparatus, looking at vastly interesting
photographs of the moon, of various planets, of
nebulae, and galaxies, and double stars, and at the
dappled spectra of different celestial bodies.
Under the smaller cupola AAas fixed a heliostat,
and Professor Campbell, quickly adjusting the re
flector to the sinking sun, and holding a white card
against the eye-piece, showed me a limb of the sun
over which a spot was slowly moving. As he
dexterously shifted the card this way and that, you
could see the curious faculcs on the solar disc deli
cately reproduced, like the marks upon watered
yellow satin, albeit these faint shadings were pro
bably far-off aspects of fiery whirlpools and geysers,
inconceivably enormous, unimaginably intense, in
the blazing, seething, roaring garment of incan
descent hydrogen worn by our ceatral orb. Pro
fessor Holden made a remark here which lingers in
my memory. I had been speaking of the curious
suggestion, of Lord Kelvin, to the effect that the
first germ of life might have been conveyed to our
planet upon a meteorite or small asteroid.
" I cannot think him in earnest," said my kind
c

34 WANDERING WORDS
and highly gifted host. " As a hypothetical idea it
is perhaps defensible, but look at that spot on the
sun ! Ever since it appeared a short while ago, and
while it has moved across the disc — a little freckle
in seeming, but in reality a huge and terrible abyss
in the photosphere, with awful forces at work
around and within it — my magnetic needles have
been perturbed by it. We are so close to the
sources of life and light that everything is possible
without any such far-fetched means. The whole
universe is linked in mutual neighbourhood and
mutual influence by the universal forces and laws.
If life is anywhere, it is likely to be everywhere."
We dined four thousand feet above the sea mists
euA'eloping San Josd, as satisfactorily as if in the
plain ; and drank the pious memory of James Lick
in excellent " Crestabianca " of the Napa vineyards.
I am of the opinion that California will some day
supply the world with wine, if her vineyards can
add to the purity which noAV happily distinguishes
their products, education and character. As matters
stand, the white Rieslings, Sauternes, and Crestas
of the State are better than what France and Ger
many supply at twice the price ; and the Zinfandel
clarets and Schramberger Burgundies want only
less youth and less of the soil to be as admirable
as they are cheap. But " this is another story," as
Mr. Rudyard Kipling has taught us to say.
After dinner the longed-for darkness had fallen
upon the mountain ; the last of the very feAv public
visitors had departed ; a glorious night of perfect

WATCHING THE STARS 35
brilliancy and cleai'uess drew its spangled curtain
over the peak, and I repaired Avith my accom-
pUshed entertainers to the great cupola to pass
some happy and privileged hours alone with the
mighty Lick telescope, and with two among the skil
ful and devoted " Magi " who manage it. Professors
Holden and Campbell.
Never shall I forget that memorable night ! It
was not that the huge weapon of science revealed
so much that was new to me, but to hear the
rich and deep astral wisdom of those learned
astronomers, with the great glass under our touch
to illustrate each subject, proved indeed an enjoy
ment. Like a iio-ton gun to look at — but, ah!
how different in purpose and service — the colossal
instrument reclined under our hands, peering
broadly through the black embrasure of that slit
in the cupola, obedient to the wheels and levers
which moved it, as I have written, as though it had
been a lady's lorgnette.
We had been talking much of La Place's famous
nebula theory (widely accepted, though largely
modified and expanded since his day), and Mr.
Campbell deftly swung the huge telescope upon
the nebula in Orion and bade me climb into the
observing chair. That marvellous object of the
heavens was full and clear in sight, defined with
exquisite precision as it could be in no other place
and with no other instrument. I saw, in the well-
known region of "Beta Orionis," the vast separate
system of that world of glory clearly outlined ; a fleecy.

36 WANDERING WORDS
irregular, mysterious, windy shape, its edges whirled
and curled like those of a storm-cloud, Avith stars and
star clusters standing forth against th^ milky white
background of the nebula, as if diamonds were
lying upon silver cloth. The central star, which
to the naked eye or to a telescope of low power
looks single and of no great brilliancy, resolved
itself, under the potent command of the Lick glass,
into a splendid trapezium of four glittering orbs
arranged very much like those of the Southern
Cross. At the lower right-hand border of the beau
tiful cosmic mist there opens a black abyss of
darkness, which has the appearance of an inky
cloud about to swallow up the silvery filagree of
the nebula, but this the great glass fills up with un
suspected stars when the photographing apparatus
is fitted to it.
I had seen at Harvard College Observatory, under
the gifted hands of Mr. Pickering, that fascinating
operation by which all the black spaces of the sky
are made in turn to yield up their secret of hidden
suns and systems to the sensitised collodion film at
the eye-piece of the telescope ; and similar opera
tions, with a view to map out the visible universe,
are constantly in progress at Mount Hamilton. It
was necessary from time to time to raise the sliding
seat on the ladder in order to keep the glorious
prospect of Orion's nebula in the field, but the lateral
motion Avas easily governed by the Avheel moving the
dome. I understood Professor Holden's A'ieAV to be
that we were beholding, in that almost immeasurably

WATCHING THE STARS 37
remote silvery haze, an entirely separated system of
worlds and clusters, apart from all others, as our
OAvn system is, but inconceivably grander, larger, and
more populous with suns and planets and their stellar
allies. Next AA'e lightly turned the mighty astral weapon
of Mr. James Lick to Sirius, and held the splendid
star fast in its field — a Avhite diamond of the dark
ness, incredibly cleai', burning and brilliant. Yet
those almost blinding rays by Avhich it flashed its
glory to our eyes had left its surface many years
ago, and AAhat we saw was but the light of Sirius
emitted in about 1 874, so that, for all our feeble wits
can tell, the star may be extinguished long after Ave
still continue to seem to behold it. I remarked to
myself that, skilful as the labour of Alvan Clarke has
been in preparing the three-foot lens, it is not, and
indeed could not be, entirely achromatic. A faint
tag of pale blue haunts the image of each star,
and paints a pencilled azure ray emerging from
its edge, so that there is therefore a supplementary
lens, also of yard width, kept in the cupola, which
can be fitted for photographic purposes. Of course,
when I speak of the "image" and of the "edge"
of a star seen in the field of vision of the great
telescope, it must be understood that the Lick glass
itself cannot show any disc even of the nearest or
the brightest fixed star. These immensely remote
suns — the closest of which is so distant that its
rays occupy four years in reaching our earth —
reveal themselves to the colossal instrument on

38 WANDERING WORDS
Mount Hamilton, as to all others, merely as a point
of light.
But step by step astronomy wrests fresh secrets
from the starry abysses, and far away as all those
shining, mysterious worlds are which passed that
night before my eyes, fastened to James Lick's magic
lens, it is possible now — as everybody knows who
knows anything at all about the matter — to settle
the questions both of the matter composing them and
also of the special rate of speed at which they are
advancing toward this earth or receding from it. It
is the wonderful spectroscope, in the hands of Dr.
Huggins and others, which has not only largely re
vealed of late the physical constitution of stars,
comets, and nebulae, but added to bygone methods a
totally new one of comparing proper motions in the
heavenly bodies. Probably no star is really a "fixed
star," and Shakespeare, with his usual miraculous
omniscience, was right in making one of his char
acters say —
There's not a single orb which thou beholdest.
But in his motion like an angel sings.
Relatively they move so slowly, that in ten thousand
years it is unlikely any visible alteration would be
detected in such constellations as the Great Bear or
Orion. Positively, they move with immense rapidity,
and when this is in a direction toward or from the
earth, the spectroscope can measure their rate of ad
vance or retreat quite accurately. Sir Robert Ball
has explained this very lucidly in a recent article.

WATCHING THE STARS 39
and the explanation is so good an example of Avhat
I have styled " popularising the methods and facts
of astronomy without degrading them," that I Avill
venture to quote a passage from it. He writes : —
The logic of the new method is simple enough. Our eyes are
so constituted that wlien a certain number of ethereal vibrations
per second are received by the nerves of the retina, the brain in
terprets the effect to mean that a ray of, let us say, red light has
entered the eye. A certain larger number of vibrations per second
is similarly understood by the brain to imply the presence of blue
light on the retina. Each particular hue of the spectrum — the
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet — is associated with
a corresponding number of vibrations per second. It will thus be
seen that the interpretation we put on any ray of light depends
solely, as far as its hue is concerned, on the number of vibrations
per second produced on the retina. Increase that number of vibra
tions in any way, then the hue shifts towards one nearer the blue
end of the spectrum ; decrease the number of vibrations per second,
and the hue shifts along the spectrum in the opposite direction.
From these considerations it is apparent that the hue of a light,
as interpreted by the eye, will undergo modification if the source
from which the light radiates is moving toward us or moving from
us. Let us suppose the existence of a star emitting light of a pure
green colour corresponding to a tint near the middle of the spectrum.
This star pours forth each second a certain number of vibrations
appropriate to its particular colour, and if the star be at rest rela
tively to the eye, then, we assume, the vibrations will be received
on the retina at the same intervals as those with which the star
emits them. Consequently, we shall perceive the star to be green.
But now suppose that the star is hurrying toward us ; it follows
that the number of vibrations received in a second by the eye will
undergo an increase. For the relative movement is the same as if
the earth were rushing toward the star. In this case we advance,
as it were, to meet the waves, and consequently receive them at
less intervals than if we were to wait for their arrival. Many
illustrations can be given of the simple principle here involved.
Suppose that a number of soldiers are walking past in single file,

40 WANDERING WORDS
and that while the observer stands still twenty soldiers a minute
pass him. But now let him walk in the opposite direction to the
soldiers, then, if his speed be as great as theirs, he will pass forty
soldiers a minute instead of twenty. If his speed were half that
of the soldiers, then he would pass thirty a minute, so that in fact
the speed with which the observer is moving could be determined
if he counts the number of soldiers that he passes per minute and
makes a simple calculation. On the other hand, suppose that the
observer walks in the same direction as the soldiers, if he maintains
the same pace that they do, then it is plain that no soldiers at all
pass him while he walks. If he moves at half their rate, then ten
soldiers will pass him each minute. From these considerations it
will be sufficiently apparent that if the earth and the star are
approaching each other, more waves of light per second will be re
ceived on the retina than if their positions are relatively stationary.
But the interpretation which the brain will put on this accession
to the number of waves per second is that the hue of light is
altered to some shade nearer the blue end of the spectrum. In
fact, if we could conceive the velocity with which the bodies ap
proached to be sufficiently augmented, the colour of the star would
seem to change from green to blue, from blue to indigo, from indigo
to violet; while, if the pace were stiU further increased, it is
absolutely certain that the waves- would be poured upon the retina
with such rapidity that no nerves there present would be competent
to deal with them, and the star would actually disappear from
vision. It may, however, be remarked that the velocity required to
produce such a condition as we have supposed is altogether in excess
of any known velocities in the celestial movements. The actual
changes in hue that the movements we meet with are competent
to effect are much smaller than in the case given as an illustration.
On the other hand, we may consider the original green star and
the earth to be moving apart from each other. The effect of this
is that the number of waves poured into the eye is lessened, and
accordingly the brain interprets this to imply that the hue of the
star has shifted from the green to the red end of the spectrum.
If the speed with which the bodies increase their distance be suffi
ciently large, the green may transform into a yellow, the yellow
into an orange, the orange into a red ; while a still greater velocity
is, at all events, conceivable which would cause the undulations

WATCHING THE STARS 41
to be received with such slowness that the nature of the light
could no longer be interpreted by any nerves which the eye con
tains, and from the mere fact of its rapid motion away from us
the star would become invisible. Here again we must add the
remark that the actual velocities animating the heavenly bodies
are not large enough to allow of the extreme results now indicated.
It is a fortunate circumstance that the lines in the spectrum
afford a precise means of measuring the extent of the shift due to
motion. If the movement of the star be toward us, then the
whole system of lines is shifted toward the blue end, whereas it
moves toward the red end when the star is hastening from us.
The amount of the shift is a measure of the speed of the move
ment. This is the consideration which brings the process within
the compass of practical astronomy. In the skilful hands of Vogel
and Keeler, it is possible in favourable cases to obtain determina
tions of the velocities of objects in the line of sight with a degree
of precision which leaves no greater margin for doubt than about
five per cent of the total amount.
The Lick Observatory is very strong in spectro
scopy. This fascinating study is there confided to
most skilful hands, and I believe the astronomical
world wiU be likely soon to hear some very re
markable developments in this branch from the
Cahfornian mountain, in connection with some dis
coveries in spectroscopic manipulation, strangely
simple, yet most productive, hit upon lately by the
staff. The " demon star " Algol, in the constellation
of Perseus, has recently yielded up its secular secret
to Vogel, armed with the spectroscope. It is known
now that Algol advances toward us for thirty-four
hours and retreats from us for the same period, and
that this is the explanation of its strange variability
of light, which is as if a heavenly lamp was alter
nately flashed and shaded. It is also proved that

42 WANDERING WORDS
Algol revolves round a dark companion Avhich occa
sionally shuts off a portion of its luminosity. When
we bear in mind the prodigious distances of the
celestial ocean, these feats of astronomy magnificently
exalt the dignity and demonstrate the poAver of man's
intellect. It has been computed that the sun, Avhich
looms so large for us, would be to an observer on
the nearest fixed star no plainer to behold than to
our own eyes an eagle soaring at an altitude three
times as great as the distance from Japan to New
York ! How little we are — and how large !
We turned the massive telescope from region to
region of that blue Pacific of Infinity.
At each new star-scape I heard, AA'ith an advantage
and delight never to be forgotten, the elucidations,
views, and conclusions of the learned and courteous
gentlemen who took so much kindly interest in my
" intelligent ignorance." Quite a long and lively
discussion arose when the huge reflector was levelled
at the new and astonishing star lately appearing in
Auriga, which has blazed up so quickly and flickered
into dimness again. They were watching and care
fully measuring its variations of lustre at Lick,
comparing it night after night with Polaris, by ex
posures ranging from tAvo to one hundred seconds.
It was Professor Holden's opinion that Ave AA^ere gazing
there, amid the jewelled labyrinths of the Charioteer,
at a world in fiery ruin, flaring to its utter destruc
tion, its elements melting Avith heat unspeakable, its
live things, if it possessed any, scorched to a white

WATCHING THE STARS 43
annihilation. My erudite and kindly friend was in
clined to be pessimistic at the spectacle.
" See ! it is to this that all stars and systems — let
alone planets and asteroids — must come at last. Can
you find much ground for optimism in the sight ? "
I was obstinate in my usual fixed faith — that de
struction is reconstruction and all endings are only
neAv beginnings. " Let the great Mother," I said,
" cast her condemned or discharged materials into
the crucible of change and work them up again to
fresh miracles of beauty and evolution. Flame, and
fury of liquefaction, and elements bubbling in the
furnace of stellar collision, are only terrible to us be
cause we think of them from notions of a burned
finger and the boiling-point of Fahrenheit. To
angelic intelligence the process may be gentle and
pleasant to witness as the weaving of white satin.
We talk of angels as ascending and descending
in interplanetary space, where nevertheless the
temperature must be three hundred degrees below
zero ! Do they therefore wear overcoats and
blankets ] I am not disconcerted by your heavenly
fireworks." Whereupon Astronomy smiled indulgently at
Poetry. From the great cupola we should have repaired
to the smaller one, to see the spectra of stars being
taken, and to measure the speed of a flying orb or
two. But outside the door stood a lighted lantern,
and that was a sign, not to be disregarded, that one
of the professional staff was busy within, taking

44 WANDERING WORDS
stellar photographs. Like an African chief, who
leaves his slippers and his spear outside the hut
where he has sought the society of his mistress, one
of the "Magi" of Lick was closeted there with Urania,
and even Mr. Holden did not dare to enter. Deep
is truly the debt of America first, and next, of all
the civilised world, to these accomplished and de
voted men, Avho on the summit of that lonely moun
tain work patiently through the clear suitable nights,
noting and recording whatever is moving in the
heavens, sleepless and faithful, sufficiently rewarded
when Some new planet swims into their ken.
They come to love their lofty work with a silent
enthusiasm which the visitor will be quick to note.
Lifted on high above the world and its petty pur
suits, immersed in these noble and far-reaching
studies, they contract a positive distaste for the com
monplaces of existence, and are as happy as kings
upon their rocky throne. The director told me that
when any of his professors took leave of absence,
they almost always returned long before the ex
piration of their term, unable to keep away from
their peaceful and exalted temple of science. He
himself had not left his learned eyrie for two months
before accompanying me in my doAvuAvard ride to
San Josd. And sleeping that night in the deep
tranquillity of the mountain crest, four thousand feet
above railways and public readings, politics and
publishers, I, too, felt that " it Avas good to be here,"
and half wished that I, too, might have a little taber-

WATCHING THE STARS 45
nacle builded to dAvell therein with the Avise men
of Lick.
Would that there were words to describe the land
scape AA'hich opened its loveliness in the morning
before the blinking eyes of those high-minded noc
turnal Avatchers and my own not less sleepy vision.
Fai' and neai', the undulating Avilderness of peaks
and canyons rolled at our feet. The light of dawn
caught the snow on the Sierra and edged it with
rosy colour, while the intervening deep hollows were
all dark blue. Over the San Jose valley lay an
unbroken sea of cloud, a vast silver shroud, covering
up everj'thing except a lofty foothill here and there.
Black and idle the great telescope leaned forth in
its iron embrasure, Avaiting again for the darkness,
and the blinds were down in the bed-chambers of its
nightly servitors.
Truly James Lick sleeps gloriously under the base
of his big glass ! Four thousand feet nearer heaven
than any of his dead fellow-citizens, he is buried
more grandly than any king or queen, and has a
finer monument than their pyramids furnish to
Cheops and Cephrenes. Nothing I had seen in the
United States of America impressed me more than
the institution founded by the California miner ; and
I descended the mountain, in the company of Pro
fessor Holden and his son, too full of admiration and
meditation to pay much attention to the precipices
alongside of which we recklessly rattled down, or to
the exquisite prospects of hill and valley Avhich make
Monte Diabolo so varied and so fair.

Ill
AN ADVENTURE ON THE NILE

Ill
AN ADVENTURE ON THE NILE
It is useful, as an educational experience, to have
been so near to death as to see it face to face. This
steadies the nerves for any subsequent incidents
of life, and especially for that last and inevitable
incident, AA'hen the end — which is also, of course,
the fresh beginning — does really arrive. Once, in
the course of holiday wanderings, it happened to
me to come as near to finishing suddenly with the
business of earthly existence as a man could well
come, and yet finally escape alive ; so that, since the
story has some picturesque surroundings, it shall be
narrated here.
We had arranged to sail up the Nile in a daha
beeah as far as the first cataract, perhaps even to
the second. It is now about seven years ago since
we set forth on that memorable journey, the party
consisting of Lady Arnold, my second son Julian, and
my only daughter, together with the writer of this.
The climate of Cairo is delightful in winter, and it
was no loss of time, but a most agreeable novelty —
to at least three out of that happy four — to linger in
the Egyptian capital while the necessary negotiations
and arrangements were being made for our river
trip. We lodged at the pleasant Hotel du Nil in
49 J)

so WANDERING WORDS
the "Muski," where the daily life of Cairo flows
up and down the gay bazaar ; and, though the city
has become wofuUy altered since I remember the
Esbekieh covered with Arab coffee-houses, and
showing none of the new Frenchified buildings now
defacing the Maidan, still Cairo, especially in her
native quarters, is ahvays interesting. A turn to
the right or left hand in any one of the narrow, cool,
silent lanes, will always take you at a plunge, as
it were, into the scenery of the " Arabian Nights,"
where you shall meet one after the other Alnaschar,
and Mesrour the Eunuch and the one-eyed Calendar,
perhaps even a veiled princess going to her bath.
Wandering on foot or by donkey in the " silver
street;" or up the alley, called by dragomans "the
smelly bazaar," where attar of roses, myrrh, gum
labanum and civet make the warm atmosphere deli
cious ; or among the booths, where they sell shawls
and pipes, tobacco and embroidery ; all this amused
sufficiently the ladies, while I transacted our riA'er-
side affairs. It was late in the season to select a
dahabeeah. The best were already all engaged,
and I had to be content with the Bedouin, a craft
of five cabins, with a jenin, or garden, and an upper
deck ; an old but not a bad boat, which had been
up and down the ancient river so often that no one
could have dreamed we were destined to chai-ter
her for the last of her voyages.
A dahabeeah is a large, flat-bottomed vessel of
wide beam, with a mainmast and a short mizen,
upon the former of which is hoisted the great

AN ADVENTURE ON THE NILE

51

lateen sail, Avith its long and toAvering yard of
lashed bamboos. These Nile boats look extremely
graceful, and even imposing, skimming the stream
Avith their vast Avhite or striped wings outspread,
the point of the braced yard forking high up into
the sky, and always terminated by a pretty filigree-
work pennon, Avith a bit of gay coloured silk bear-

D.^HABEEAH ON THE NILE.

ing the name of the ship. Our ill-fated, but not
unhandsome, craft had an ample waist for the
sailors, and a cook's galley midships, with two
cabins on either side of the passage going aft, as
well as another commodious stateroom in the ex
treme stern. The roof of these cabins formed an
upper deck, protected by an awning and approached

52 WANDERING WORDS
by a fiight of steps, where it was very nice to
walk or sit, as the Bedouin glided before the wind,
or was lazily towed against the current by a party
of the sailors.
She was well provided with all needful furniture,
and our dragoman, who bore the name of Khalil, given
anciently to Abraham, and meaning " The Friend of
God "—an inherited appellation wholly undeserved —
set to work to provision her for the trip. Besides all
sorts of tinned and canned goods and groceries, there
were coops full of turkeys and chickens to put on
board, along with the bread for the Arab crew, which
bread they chopped into small pieces, and spread
for two whole days upon the upper deck to dry in
the sun. Sheep and eggs and fruit could be procured
as we sailed along. Guns, clothes, rugs, books and
drawing materials were not forgotten, the latter parti
cularly, for Lady Arnold was an accomplished artist,
and the pure atmosphere and brilliant hues of Nile
landscapes make everybody wish to preserve some
more or less faithful memoranda of them. We
agreed to take the captain and the crew already
attached to the ship, upon the guarantee of recom
mendatory letters from previous employers ; and hired
in the city a skilful Syrian cook, very clever at
curries, with a bright, serviceable young body-serA'ant
named Ali, as well as a pretty Egyptian boy called
Mustapha. . The captain, or Reis, Avas a charming old
navigator, whom Ave soon greAv to like and to call
affectionately " Aunt Mary," for his gentle Avavs.
The crew consisted of about seventeen hands,

AN ADVENTURE ON THE NILE 53
docile and friendly Egyptians, full of quiet mischief,
and fairly ready to do the hard work of the voyage,
which is occasionally very hard indeed, since the
men have to jump overboard every now and then
to push the vessel off sandbanks, to watch and
trim and furl the huge lateen sail, and for hours
together to toil along the bank Avith the toAV-rope
braced round their shoulders, dragging the ponder
ous and lazy craft along at about a mile and a half
or two miles per hour. A very serious and elaborate
document has to be signed before embarking, between
the hirer and the captain, specifying the sums to be
paid and the dates of payment, with certain pledges
of " backsheesh " or presents in money if all goes
well and satisfactorily. As Avill be seen, the Bedouin
was fated never to return. The decree of the god Hapi
was written that she should leave her bones in the
bed of his Nile, among all the countless Avrecks of
ancient and modern craft — Ptolemoean galleys and
Nubian "buglas" — which must fill the hidden slime
of the " Father of Waters." But of this dark edict
of the river deity we happily knew nothing, and
never was any party more joyous or full of antici
pated pleasure than ours when we Avent finally on
board and settled down for a start,- the red ensign of
England fluttering at the mainmast, and the bright
little name-pennon at the point of the lateen yard.
Sailing the Nile thus, day after day, is surely
the very " cream of the cream " of travelling, Avith
a good dahabeeah, a well-fitted company of holi
day-makers and a rightly chosen creAv. Our ship.

54 WANDERING WORDS
though old, Avas stanch and comfortable ; our party
perfect in harmony and numbers, and the hands
won daily more and more our patience and attach
ment, as Ave learned to put up with their absurd
little foibles and to make the most of their simple
virtues. They would " say the thing which is
not " with the most reckless inaccuracy and the
wildest imaginativeness, and would invent the
most humorously false and flagitious excuses to
linger at a pleasant spot, and so cause our social
arrangements to fit in with their own, for they had
friends at every station. But as we were in no
sort of hurry, their stratagems suited our idle
programme well, and very quickly we all got on
together quite perfectly. They Avould do anything
and everything at last for the Sitt and the Sittina,
and since my Turkish decorations gave me the
status of a pacha, they were full of the necessary
respect for the " effendi."
Three or four among their number gained our
especial favour : a strong, good - tempered Arab
named "Salim" — whom Ave almost instantly re-
christened "The Buffalo;" a tall, graceful Nubian lad,
called " Moya ; " a one-eyed Egyptian sailor, known as
Hassan, who wore a red loin-cloth and Avas dubbed
"Scarlet Fever;" the boy Mustapha, and Ali, the
cabin servant. There came, moreover, a black
kitten on board, nicknamed " Sheitan," or the DeA'il,
to which the sailors objected as being unlucky, but
this feeling was rashly overruled. As for the Aveather,
that indispensable factor in a happy AA'ater trip.

AN ADVENTURE ON THE NILE 55
there was no need to be anxious about it. The
Egyptian winter is splendid for steady brilliancy
of sky and pleasantness of temperature, a little too
much cooled, perhaps, each morning when the north
wind blows. But that breeze lulls as the sun draws
westward; and evening after evening the sunsets
on the Nile are beyond all description lovely and
inexhaustible in combination of tender and beauti
ful tints. Night after night the ancient god Ra
sank to his couch in robes of more glorious magni
ficence than we had before seen, so that the hour
of his declination and departure was a regular
rendezvous on the upper deck for us all ; and while
Lady Arnold would seek to fix some of the divine
blendings of gold and crimson, amber and purple,
turquoise green and silvery grey painting the west,
the Reis was on his knees and nose saying his
evening prayer toward Mecca, and half the crew
would be cooking the last meal, while the other
half tramped the broken bank with the tow-rope
over their brown shoulders, singing some song of
the Nile, not always too decent if faithfully trans
lated. The simplicity of manners to which one has to
be accustomed in Nile travelling is, in truth, a little
startling at first. Our men, like all the other sailors
of the river, would at any moment strip stark naked
to plunge in the river or to handle the tow-rope,
and the best way for those who objected, or who en
deavoured in vain to make them wear drawers, was
to regard their brown skin as a real dress, of which

S6 WANDERING WORDS
indeed it gives the idea. The improprieties of Arab
talk were, however, veiled to most ears, and the
river-songs at night or when hauling on the warps
are mostly as innocent as they are melodious.
It is the golden dream of travelling, I say, to glide
along day after day upon that antique water channel
between the two strips of brilliant fertility which
mark the range of the yearly inundation creating
and recreating Egypt. Justly has the old chronicler
Herodotus said that " Egypt is the gift of the Nile."
Exactly so much of the desert valley lying between
the yellow sunburned hills as the wave of the life-
giving stream can touch, by flood or artificial irriga
tion, is transformed as if by magic from a waste to a
paradise. One does not realise what water is to the
earth until many a stroll has been taken along those
emerald strips of barley and millet fields, and those
long, waving groves of palm-trees, which embroider
the Nile all the way from Cairo to the second cataract,
and, indeed,, much higher. In a thousand spots you
may stand in Middle and Upper Egypt with one foot
deep in rich, verdant growing crops, and the other
buried in barren sands. The line is as sharp between
the fertility and the sterility as betAveen the water
and the bank ; in truth, the mid-riA'er itself is accom
panied throughout its course by these tAvo sister
streams of eternal fecundity, and Egypt is that ever-
gleaming ribbon of blue with green edges, now widen
ing, now diminishing, which meanders, always bright
and glad, in the heart of the hot desert, from Korosko
to the Delta.

^xV ADVENTURE ON THE NILE 57
It is a supreme pleasure, I repeat, to make your
way day after day up the grand old river in a Avell-
found Nile boat, Avith pleasant company and a good,
AA'illing, friendly creAv. In the early morning, before
the sun has cleared the hills Avhich shut us from the
Red Sea, the dahabeeah spreads the great white
AA'ing of her "trinkeet" if there be any serviceable
breeze, and gracefully resumes her daily task of
stemming the perpetual doAvuAvard current of the
river. The scene is then charming. The fair
Egyptian dawn has broken, pearly and roseate. The
stream is alive Avith water-birds — cranes, pelicans,
wild geese and ibis — whose happy cries fill the air.
Numerous native boats, of the strangest build and
rig, with tattered but picturesque sails, go up and
down laden with heaped-up grain or chopped fodder
or sheaves of sugar-cane and maize. Their swarthy
crews, in white or blue gowns and red " tarbooshes,"
make water-pictures which you long to preserve ;
while upon the bank an endless procession passes
all day of equally artistic figures — peasant people,
merchants, Arabs, Turkish officials, soldiers and
boatmen, all seen in sharp silhouette against the
clear azure of the Avestern sky.
The river, never running far in. one and the same
direction, constantly shifts the point of view, and
so makes a succession of delightful combinations
out of the otherwise changeless features of the Nile
landscape — the yellow desert hills, the strips of sand
Avaste at their feet, the broad or narroAV belts of culti
vation, the raised banks, and the shining channel.

58 WANDERING WORDS
At every few miles a minaret, jutting its delicate
white needle into the air above the palm-groves, or
a fleet of little cargo-boats fastened to the shore,
betoken a village, which will look like a rubbish
heap alive with human insects, so humble in archi
tecture are the huts of mud with their flat roofs of
maize and dhoura straw, and so all alike the inhabi
tants, in white and blue, swarming about them.
You have left behind at Gizeh the last of the
great group of pyramids, but now and again the
hills on the eastern side show ranges of square
black holes hewn in the limestone or granite, which
are entrances to ancient tombs ; and wherever these
are numerous or famous you will probably land to
examine some of them. Then will you perceive — in
climbing from the palm-grove to the breast of the
yellow crag — what a fast faith those ancient Egyp
tians of the Pharaohs had in the immortal life of
the soul. Otherwise they would not have cut away
the solid rock so patiently into smooth, roomy, im
perishable chambers, to deposit therein two or three
bodies at most, against such time as the respective
souls belonging to them, their fated wanderings
completed, should come back to look for and to
resume the earthly tenement. Joyous and confident
paintings on the tomb wall, as fresh in this dry, pure
air as though drawn and coloured a week, and not
three thousand years ago, symbolise the happy
future of the justified dead. The tombs are now
all rifled, and the patient mummies are gone — some
to museums, some to be manure for farmers or pig-

I

r: ¦< ' -'cS'

m^W-.:/ ¦if -y

a^:

ini

AN ADVENTURE ON THE NILE 59
ments for artists, since there is quite a large trade
done to-day in Nile mummy dust for fertilising,
and for a special brown tint much employed by oil
painters. Yet the significance of those antique,
rock-heAvn graves is the same. It was the land of
resolute belief, the land of an assured and univer
sal conviction that man's real existence is eternal,
of which every one of these elaborately excavated
sepulchres is a monument, noble and pathetic. As
I myself have written to the mummy of an Egyptian
lady, whose burial-chest Ave opened, to find only her
dust and her slippers —
You were born in the Egypt that did not doubt ;
You were never sad with our new-fashioned sorrows ;
You were sure, when your playtimes on earth ran out.
Of playtimes to come, as we of our morrows.
Oh ! wise little maid of the Delta ! . . . .
The pyramids themselves are mighty Avitnesses of
the same firm belief, being, as they were, gigantic
caskets, with astronomical and geodetical meanings,
constructed to preserA'e the dead body of the king,
until His Majesty's soul had need of it for a new
earthly existence.
What with such occasional landings to explore
tombs, to shoot hares and palm-(Joves, and to get
necessary exercise ; and what with the strong cur
rent and the slow pace of these broad-beamed, flat-
bottomed Nile boats, it is not very much progress
that you will make in any one day. From twenty-
five to forty-five miles may be taken as the rate, and
this absence of hurry and this daily sedate advance

6o WANDERING WORDS
suit well the genius of the land and the atmosphere
of peace and philosophy which surrounds the daha
beeah. Never for a moment is the properly consti
tuted mind bored upon that marvellous and delight
ful river. You can read or sketch or write, sitting
on the upper deck under the striped awning, with
the pretty water-wagtails of the Nile running about
between your feet, and the solemn Reis ascending
now and again to say his prayers toward Mecca, at
noon, or at the " Azan," which is our " four-o'clock
tea." The crew alone Avould be a perpetually in
teresting study to a close observer; ours certainly
proved so, especially yvuen they found out that we
liked them to dance and be happy in their own way.
If, as often happens, there is no wind, OA'erboard go
half-a-dozen of the brown " hands," rolling up their
blue coats to their armpits, and the tow-rope is
rigged and hauled for hours and hours. Should a
lively puff of breeze arise, helter-skelter they rush
for the boat, leap and scramble on board, hoist the
huge lateen sail, and away the little ship buzzes
once more, churning the Nile into cream below her
square bows. But you must never allow the main
sheet to be made fast. A trusted sailor must con
stantly squat on the deck holding that in his
hands, with half a hitch only round the cleat, and
at the moment Avhen the helmsman cries " Klialis !"
("Loosen!") he must let the sheet run. Otherwise
the dahabeeah will surely capsize. I Avas very par
ticular and careful, indeed, upon this point, being an
old yachtsman, and it was not from any neglect as

AN ADVENTURE ON THE NILE 6i
to the main sheet that our catastrophe, soon to be
related, befell.
In the delicious afternoon, as the sun sinks nearer
the Avestern horizon, casting long shadoAvs from the
palm stems, the river groAvs more and more entranc
ing. The north wind, which ofttimes blows hard, and
even cold, in the forenoon, is lulled. The chief Avork
of the " sJiadoufs " — the water-wheels — is done, and
their shrill creaking no longer so much grieves the
sensitive ear. The buffaloes, released from the slow
toil of turning the pole, go homeward with the goats
and chickens. Long lines of w^Jd geese, flamingoes,
pelicans, and vast flocks of blue pigeons streak or
cloud the sky, now gradually assuming toward its
western border a delicate tint of turquoise green —
nay, more decidedly green than that — a veritable
del de Nil colour, upon which the gathering cloud
lets of the early evening lie in soft masses of silver
and gold and violet. The cook begins to be busy
with his charcoal fires, and the Arab crew gets ready
the mooring ropes and pins, Down drops the last
faint breeze, and some of them must plunge over
board again to drag the dahabeeah to her berth for
the night, under the palms of the village. As we
pull and pole the sluggish vessel to her resting-
place, the ever-crumbling bank of the river tumbles
in large fat masses of black soil, with loud splash,
into that current which is always eating up the
Egypt that it has created.
The ship is laid alongside the shore, pegs are
driven into the bank and ropes made fast to them.

62 WANDERING WORDS
stem and stern ; a plank is cast from the deck to the
land, and your floating home is as quiet as a church,
under the mud ledge. From the town or the village
now come down coffee-coloured loafers to chat and
question, together with women in long dark blue
gowns, veiled and barefooted, bearing vessels of
milk, grain, fruits, and tobacco leaves. The sky
has lost the sun and has become a curtain of soft
heavenly glory, through which the first stars twinkle.
Opposite the sunset the east is lighted Avith the
lively and wonderful colours of the " afterglow."
The old captain is finishing his evening prayer upon
his little carpet by our side. The " gaffer," the official
watchman, with long staff" and head-cloth, approaches
solemnly and sits on the bank to take charge of the
safety of the ship. Dinner and the divinely placid
Egyptian night ensue ; and, while the Ai'ab crew
dance and beat their drums in the light of the paper
lanterns, and you smoke the long narghileh and sip
the perfectly prepared coffee, your wish is that the
ancient and majestic stream would run for ever and
for ever from the southward in the same tranquil
manner, and that you could go on stemming it for
ever and for ever in the same daily and delightful
peace and ease.
We had sailed and tracked the Nile thus for
twenty-one days, each day adding to the agreeable
experiences and growing contentments of the voyage,
and increasing our friendship Avith the crew, par
ticularly those heretofore named, and the dear old
Reis. Lady Arnold had been very kind to that

AN ADVENTURE ON THE NILE 63
venerable Arab, giving him tea and pills when out
of sorts ; and Reis Achmet had come to regard her
with deep loyalty, though they could exchange no
words of conversation. My son Julian, an enthusi
astic sportsman, had shot much game for the men,
and my daughter had made special and devoted
adherents of Ali, the boy, as well as of Mustapha, and
of a sick Egyptian to whom we had given a passage.
The black cat had been transferred to a passing grain
boat troubled with rats, and all seemed fair and
favourable. But now Ave were doomed to realise the
truth of that Arabic word, yasoul — i.e., " it will come
to an end ; " and very nearly indeed, as will be seen,
did we also, and all the nineteen Egyptians attending
us, come to an end along with those too happy days.
It was an object, that luckless January morning,
to start early and make the whole run to Girgeh, a
considerable town, where we were to take in new sup
plies, and where we had arranged to reward the good
service of the crew with a sheep for a feast and a
''fantasia" of dancing and fireworks. Accordingly,
though a rather too fresh wind was blowing, I rose
early, and, after consulting the captain, gave word to
start. My wife and son and daughter were still in
their cabins, and we had thus far only sailed about
half a league. Coming under some high red cliffs of
sandstone on the eastern shore, named Jebel-esh-
Sheikh, I was on the upper deck watching to see
that Selim did not make fast for one moment the
sheet, the Reis was giving directions for the course,
and his next in command Avas steering, when, on a

64 WANDERING WORDS
sudden, a fury of wind fell from the desert ledge
high overhead upon the lofty lateen sail, sweeping
at the same time across the breadth of the river, which
it lashed into white tumult. The little ship heeled
over, and I rushed down from the upper deck to help
let fly everything and get the sail reefed. As she
righted and rocked over the other way my wife came
hurriedly and half dressed out of the cabins, from
which my son and daughter had not yet emerged, and
called to me in alarm. I Avas saying something con
ventional to reassure her, when another blast laid the
dahabeeah violently down, and my cook, apparently
just risen from sleep, toppled and fell overboard.
Obeying an instinct to render him help, I flung my
self across the gunwale of the Bedouin to clutch and
save him, but missed his hand, and Avas throwing the
bight of a rope toward his sinking form, while I
could feel my wife seizing my coat from behind to
keep me from going overboard, when the ship seemed
suddenly to rear up and plunge, and the next moment
we were all hurled pellmell into the river, the hull
rolling right over and the big sail lying flat upon the
water. Gear, poultry coops, oars, cordage, sailors,
water jars, everything and everybody, Avith one or
tAvo exceptions, Avere violently flung forth from the
dahabeeah into the turbulent river waves, in such a
helpless and sudden confusion and horror of calamity
that it gives me a thrill, even now, to Avrite of that
wild moment.
My part in the miserable instant Avas to see my
Avife sinking at my side, to fling one arm round her

AN ADVENTURE ON THE NILE 65
Avaist and seize her wrist, Avhile striking out for the
wreck Avith the other. A coop of drowning poultry
under my left elbow enabled me to support her and
bring her to the hull, upon which several of the
sailors had already scrambled up from the water ; and
these men, in obedience to my call, drew Lady
Arnold upon the keel. I could not lift myself up
there, being too exhausted, but clung to the ship,
and hearing my son, an excellent swimmer, in the
river near me calling to his sister, I exclaimed de
spairingly, "She is dying under the dahabeeah!"
But as soon as I found strength to raise myself out
of the water upon the side of the Bedouin, there
was my daughter sitting in her night-dress, having
escaped by coolness and good fortune through her
cabin window. This sight greatly inspired me, espe
cially as I also saw my son Julian just then dragging
the old Arab captain out of the river. In effect,
aU but the drowned cook had by this time crawled
back upon the vessel's bilge, and there was a chance
to save at least the ladies before she should fill and
founder. I shouted to the men, therefore, to cease
their ridiculous lamentations and useless curses, and
to listen to orders.
Never did I behold such a limp, miserable, hopeless
lot as my smart Egyptians had become. They wept,
they tore their clothes, they threw their turbans into
the waves. They were most of them abjectly useless
and nerveless. " Attini felucca, ya Reis," I cried
("Give me the little boat"), for we had a dingey
towing astern, which had not capsized and was now

66 WANDERING WORDS
our only hope. " Felucca mafeesli," the old gentle
man plaintively cried, pointing to the thick manilla
rope holding the skiff, the knot of which was far
under water, so that to get the little boat we must
cut that thick cord. " SikMn, sikkin ! "— " A knife,
a knife ! " I called out impatiently, but nobody pro
duced one until Julian drew from his pocket Lady
Arnold's little one-bladed penknife, truly a poor
affair for such a crisis. I tried ; Salim tried ; my son
tried to sever the manilla with that tiny blade, while
the wretched log of a ship was steadily settling down
with us in mid-stream. At last, seeing that the others
would break the blade, I regained it, and, strand by
strand, I painfully cut that rope through ; and then,
after sternly checking an egotistical desire of some of
my Arabs to take the first seats on the skiff — by knock
ing them overboard again — the two ladies, three of
my best sailors, the boy Mustapha, and the sick
Arab to whom we were giving a passage, with Ali,
were all put in, and glad I was to thrust them safely
off from the ship, tossing into the boat some of the
floating oars. Of course they all cried to us — myself
and my son — to come ; but that was inadmissible. Had
Ave gone, the others would have justly wished to escape
also, and the felucca must then have been swamped.
Rejoiced indeed we were to see them draw clear
from the wreck and pull out of the broken water,
while the hapless Bedouin, relieved of the weight of
eight persons, now floated a little higher in the water,
on her side, and might possibly continue to float until
we touched one or other shore. To cut a sad tale

AN ADVENTURE ON THE NILE 67
short, she did continue to drift down-stream with us
for some two miles, finally touching land at a sand
point, Avhere Ave all sprang off and tried to hold her
with a rope round a palm-tree stump. But the rope
broke ; the hull, now almost full of water, whirled
madly away, and sank out of sight in a deep bend
of the Nile, about a quarter of a mile lower.
I had got my poor Egyptians well in hand long
before this time, aided by the eloquent scorn which
the Reis expressed for their conduct, and by the
good example set them by my son, who had behaved
throughout, of course, like a true English lad, admir
ably. They were touchingly grateful to be still alive,
especially the bad swimmers, and bitterly ashamed
of such childish despair as they had exhibited. But,
truly, the fix was ugly enough at its worst, and
although the strongest swimmers might perhaps have
got to shore, the majority of us must have perished
if the felucca had not been freed and the wreck
lightened sufficiently to float a little longer, as it did.
I was grateful for having boated every day at Oxford,
and glad that Julian had studied swimming more
than conic sections at Marlborough.
By-and-bye Selim and " the Buffalo " brought the
boat over to us, and Julian and I rejoined the un
happy ladies, who supposed themselves to have
lost sight of us for ever. The Reis was to march
his men up the left bank to Girgeh. We landed
on the right bank to find our forlorn castaways
sitting under a red rock drying what garments
they possessed. We were in an uninhabited spot

68 WANDERING WORDS
— a naked, unvisited desert, six miles from the
nearest village — with only one pair of slippers
among the party. But it was sweet to be still
living, and the laborious march across the sands
proved even a joyous one. The hot Nile sun soon
dried our clothes, and with limping feet we reached
an Arab hamlet, where the women put warm, dry
native dresses on Lady Arnold and Miss Arnold,
while the old Sheikh lent his own pipe to myself and
my son, and caused provision of parched pulse and
melted butter to be served to us. The feUaheen whom
I had caught on the road, and despatched up and down
the river-banks with messages of our luckless plight,
soon found American and English friends at Girgeh,
and after a long day in the Egyptian huts a boat came
down and fetched us to the friendly shelter of the
dahabeeahs at that town. Boundless was the kind
ness we received ; lavish the help proffered in the
shape of garments, dresses, shoes, &c., and truly
dire was our need, for of that well-stored Bedouin
and the ;^300 or ;^40o in ready cash on board her,
only about seventy piastres remained in my satu
rated pockets when I turned them out that night.
We all found hospitable asylum, and my son, in
deed, afterwards completed his voyage to the second
cataracts, wearing the clothes of the late Lord Henry
Lennox and of a Boston friend. I returned to
Cairo in the shoes of a kind Dutch gentleman and
in an Arab dress, my wife and my daughter also
wearing borrowed plumes. That night the lady
doctors on board the dahabeeah Rachel were for

AN ADVENTURE ON THE NILE 69
some time puzzled by a broad black mark on my
wife's wrist. Suddenly she remembered that it
Avas where I had gripped her in the water at that
abominable and hopeless moment Avhen we were
all flung into the Nile, like gooseberries from a
basket. I held her more tightly than I knew.
One Little incident I must append to the dismal
recital, because it reflects Avell upon Arab politeness,
and I am so sorry to have had to record the ill-
behaviour of our theretofore nice Egyptian crew.
At the instant when the Bedouin was reeling to her
fate, the old Reis, " Aunt Mary," approached Lady
Arnold, and respectfully raising her hand to his lips,
kissed it, and then drew his " kefieh " over his eyes,
to die. It was his supreme and grateful farewell !
Not even in the moment of death Avould this true
Arab gentleman fail in courtesy, especially since, in
his idea, the kind " Sitti " was going, as an un-
believer-^not to Paradise, like himself — but " else
where." It was the touch of Oriental grace and
honour which redeemed for me the ugly business,
and I am glad to finish my Nile story with that
pretty action of the captain of the Bedouin.
I sent a Greek diver afterAvard to the wreck, but
I suppose he soon found my bag of sovereigns and
went off with it, for he reported that the ghost of
my cook and other dreadful " Afreets " haunted the
spot, and that he could and would search no more.
The Bedouin has long ago disappeared in the
muddy bed of the Nile, but her fate is still a legend
of the Nile. For myself, I do not Avish to experience

AIN

IV
IN THE HOLY LAND
Among all the experiences of travel, none, I think,
more deeply impresses the mind or lingers longer
in its memories than a journey through Palestine.
First of all, the country itself is, in its character
and natural aspects, extremely interesting. Esh
Shams — as the Syrians themselves call it — " the
land of the sun," sits well for climate, history,
and influence, on the eastern edge of the great
Midland Sea, the centre of so many empires ;
which, seen from Carmel or any spot along the
coasts thereabout, is almost always of a heavenly
blue colour, changing at sunset to that deep purple
tint which Homer called the " wine-dark wave."
Next, while various regions of travel present here
and there points of ethnological or religious attrac
tion, in Palestine every site, every rock, every
hiU, every valley and stream is full of associations
of the most extraordinary and ajbsorbing kind,
inextricably blended with the concerns of humanity.
Sail down the shores of Asia Minor from Smyrna,
where Polycarp was burned by edict of the Emperor
Marcus Aurelius ; past the seats of the " Seven
Churches" to the little Isle of Patmos, steep and
rugged and gloomy, where St. John found a fit

74 WANDERING WORDS
dreaming place for writing his Apocalypse ; to
Mersina, Avhich was Tarsus, the birthplace of St.
Paul, and to Alexandretta, which is close to the
River Granicus, where Alexander the Great broke
up the Persian Empire ; past the mouth of the
" silver Cydnus," on whose channel Cleopatra met
Antony, and past the Bahr-el-Kelb, where the
rocks bear the inscriptions of Sennacherib ; on to
Beirout, under the majestic Lebanon — the Lebanon
of King Hiram of Tyre and of Solomon. All
that long way the wanderer's thoughts grow
more and more full of the records of those
events which helped or hindered the spread of
Christianity, and so become ripe for disembarking
with him in Palestine and traversing " the paths that
Christ hath trod." From Beirout to Jerusalem and
Bethlehem and Hebron, all through that naiTow
but hallowed land, every step taken in its interior
becomes an emotion, a revelation, an illumination.
At every stage you are vividly led to comprehend,
as was never possible before, the details and sur
roundings of the simple but sublime Oriental story
which has conquered and remoulded the civilised
world. Here, on the slopes of Lebanon, as you
slowly climb them by the Damascus road, grow
the "locusts" of St. John, the caroub tree, with
its pods of sweet beans, though, indeed, he may
well have eaten, as I have done, the insect itself,
fried in butter. In " HoUoav Syria" you shall see
the " Cedars of Lebanon," and that wonderful chaos
of ruined beauty and splendour, "Tadmor of the

IN THE HOLY LAND 75
Wilderness," coming upon the Temple by paths
Avhere every bush and flower is a picture fitted to
Holy Writ. Thence you ride doAvn to the Avhite
and outspread city of Damascus, immensely ancient,
and so fair with its environing apricot gardens and
green watercourses, that the Prophet Mohammed
is said to have turned his eyes away from it at
first sight in order " that he might not forget
Paradise." Here you shall be shown the " street
that is called Straight," where St. Paul was healed
of his blindness ; the spot on the road where he
encountered the heavenly vision ; and the gate from
which he was let down in a basket.
I remember breakfasting there with some Bedawee
Arabs, whose coffee was the finest that could be
tasted, and manners the most polished that could
be beheld, though they were a cut-throat set of
gentry, and had come to pay a tribe fine to the
Governor for a plundered caravan in the Hauran.
On the same day I entered the little village of
the lepers, close by, and sat long with the sad
victims of that mysterious Scriptural maludy, ask
ing many questions about it of the sufferers, to
the horror of my dragoman, who would not accom
pany me into the unclean place, but, nevertheless,
to my own considerable profit and information.
I do not think that leprosy is to any general degree
communicable by contact. It is very prevalent in
Syria, as in many countries of Asia, but more, it
always seemed to me, by personal constitution or
actual inheritance than by contagion or infection.

76 WANDERING WORDS
The hapless lepers reminded us of the Great
Healer, whose name is stamped everywhere upon
the land, and, indeed, as you pass southward from
Damascus and come to the sources of the Jordan
at Banias, in the country of the tribe of Dan, it
is, at each new day's journey, as though the very
pages of the Evangelists turned one by one before
your eyes, with comments made by the hand of
nature and the voice of the desolate country itself.
All through one morning's ride you will be rounding
the green breast of Tabor, and threading the oak
groves of that great and famous mountain which
looks down the whole long vista of the valley of
the Jordan, and can be seen from end to end of
the little territory of Palestine. For very smaU,
mesquin, petty, parochial, the Holy Larid is. The
least of the big American States would swaUow it
up entirely. It is inferior, I suppose, in area to
Vermont or Rhode Island, and therefore so in
tensely condensed in historical associations that
they indeed succeed each other too rapidly for
full realisation. Hardly have you ridden out of
the country of the Judges, and finished thinking of
Deborah and Barak and Sisera, before Carmel rises
out of the sea at your right hand, and jon are
absorbed in recalling Elijah and Elisha and the
prophets of Baal, while to the left, beyond Jordan,
lies Bashan, and the " Country of the Giants," sug
gesting fresh lines of reminiscence.
Only half a day's ride farther— by hills that seem
to stand up proclaiming the great deeds and words

IN THE HOLY LAND 77
of the Son of Mary ; by streams that trickle down
to Jordan or Kishon, murmuring His teachings ; by
groves of oak and oleander and palms, where the
winds AA'hisper His parables and miracles — you come
to Avhere the hill of Safed (the Sepphoris of Pontius
Pilate) rises above the basin of the Lake of Tiberias.
Climbing this, you suddenly behold
His lake, the Sea of Chinnereth,
The AVEA'es He loved, the waves which kissed His feet
So many blessed days.
What waters in all the world can inspire
thoughts and reflections more absorbing or pro
found than that sheet of sleeping silver thus
beheld between the desert hills of Gadara and
the plains of Bethsaida and Gennesaret? Many
and many a well-known inland sea, renowned for
its beauty or its scenes of history, have I visited in
all parts of the world, from Lakes Superior and
Michigan to the meres of Bulgaria and Greece, and
the inland waters of Scandinavia and Japan ; nor can
a candid traveller fail to call the Lake of Galilee well
nigh the least imposing and attractive of them all
as regards outward scenery and surroundings. The
range which bounds it on the east is bare, arid, and
sadly coloured. The highlands to the westward are
rugged and stripped of soil and foliage by the storms
of many centuries ; while southward toward Tiberias
the sheet of lifeless and ill-shaped water is seen
narrowing off under unlovely shores, to let Jordan
pass forth again, for the completion of its gloomy

78 WANDERING WORDS
course into the Dead Sea. Yet that diminutive,
unprepossessing, and non-picturesque expanse of
Syrian hill-drainage counts in the annals of man
kind for more than all the lakes, and even oceans.
Swifter and stronger than the flood of the im
petuous Jordan, which breaks southwards through
the dry nebbuk bushes from its extremity, and not
destined, like that, to be lost in the oblivion of
a " Sea of Lot," a stream of divine and mighty in
fluence has poured over Christendom from this
little Syrian mere, and by the Avords spoken on
those shores has transformed the face of the world.
As you sit on Safed amid chattering Jews and Arabs
ignorant or heedless of the immortal recollections of
the scene, it appears to you, and very truly appears,
that no other locality in the world can crowd
together such commanding, such overwhelming
associations. If you know where to look for them,
in the wide, hot, sterile champaign lying at your
feet, grey with desolate, uncultivated rocks, yellow
with desert sand, and only relieved here and there
by green ribbons and partial patches of verdure
where a watercourse divides or a swamp moistens
the thirsty plain ; provided you have a good map and
a good memory, what a prospect ! Near at hand
below you is Tell Hum, "His City," Capernaum.
Opposite the ruins of that memorable site, beyond
the lake, steam in the sun the crags of Gadara, the
region of the possessed swine ; of the demoniacs ; of
the man in the tombs, who Avas "exceeding fierce."
That small, verdant oasis of reeds, tamaracks, and

IN THE HOLY LAND 79
oleanders, Avith a feAv scattered palms, jutting into
the lake, is Bethsaida, the "house of fish," and
beyond it, where the ancient Roman road cuts deep
into the limestone rock, at yon cluster of huts lurks
El Mejdel, the village of Mary Magdalene. Think
only for a moment what the world owes to that one
pai'ched, obscure, sand-buried Syrian hamlet, where
Mary of Mejdel Avas born, who came to be Christ's
nearest and most faithful of friends, and who heard
from His lips — alone among women, alone of all the
world — her own name spoken at the door of the
empty sepulchre by One who uttered it from the
farther side of the gatcAvay of death, " Conqueror for
us of the unconquerable."
Beyond Bethsaida and El Mejdel, upon the western
border of the lake, opens the plain of Gennesaret,
where a spring of water renders cultivation possible ;
and then, southward still, among peaks and points,
amid which every rock has a record of surpassing
interest, you pass under the " Horns of Hattin,"
by the " Valley of the Doves," over the foot of the
" Mount of the Sermon." Yes, there above your
path on this green headland, where the crocus, the
anemone, and the amaryllis are alone left to tell of
it and to celebrate it, He pronounced, those wonder
ful words which are the eternal code of Christian
ethics, the immortal pandects of man's highest
morality. There, amid those thorn bushes, armed
with the savage tricuspid spikes which were to
make His crown, and among the juniper clumps
creeping dark along the grass, and the deep green.

8o WANDERING WORDS
glossy nebbuk thickets, lit here and there with a
rosy gleam of oleander blossoms. He gave the whole
world that simple prayer to pray which makes us
the family of one Father, and which binds us all to
forgive trespasses as we ask to be forgiven. There,
with His sacred lips, speaking the mild and holy
wisdom of heaven. He abolished those old, hard
laws of Mosaic hatred, revenge, and retaliation, and
substituted for them that guiding rule of life —
" golden " as the sunlight upon the lake, and just as
plain to see and follow — which is the earthly side
of " all the law and all the prophets," and which,
with love and fear of God, fulfils the whole duty of
existence. There, amid those lilies and cyclamens,
He tenderly praised the matchless beauty of the
flowers, and lightly smiled at the want of faith
which fears lest the children of men be not so dear
to the Universe as the " grass of the field." What
fane in all the world can be visited, what famous
site of ancient or modern annals, what sumptuous
cathedral, spacious palace, stately capital, or splendid
and powerful seat of lordship and Avealth, Avhere mind
and heart must become so enthralled and meditative
as here ; where the very camels seem to go wistfully,
swinging you up to the Mount of the Sermon, and you
draw the nose-string of your long-necked beast and
reverently dismount, that you may not presume to
ride where Christ the Lord has walked and taught,
and opened to all mankind the " light of the world 1 "
A little way farther, among those rough but
Avonderful pathways of Galilee, you shall come.

IN THE HOLY LAND 8i
full of all these irresistible and potent recollec
tions, to Cana, to the hamlet of the Miracle of the
Marriage, Avhere a stream of thin crystal still trickles,
from Avhich those drinking pots Avere doubtless
charged, Whose modest water saw the Lord and blushed.
Cana-El-Jelil is a Avell-authenticated spot lying
among the uplands of Nazareth, with a handful of
mean huts clustered near the rivulet, and a strip of
sloping ground painted gay with crocus and cycla
men in the Syrian spring. From its border I remem
ber plucking one of the purple blossoms, which I
afterward presented to a beautiful American lady on
her wedding-day with the accompaniment of these
verses — Only a flower ! but then it grew
On the green mountains which enring
Cana-El-Jelil, looking to
The village and the little spring.
The love that did those bridals bless
Soft upon yours this morning shine !
Make happier all your happiness.
And turn its water into wine !
From Cana to Nazareth is only a step, and, indeed,
all the Holy Land is so small in its proportions, as
has been said, so condensed in its localities, so
minute and geographically insignificant in its areas
and distances, that it seems a mere handful of soil,
so to speak — the last corner in the Avorld man
would have chosen to become the most memorable
and most important ! Yet every furlong of ground

82 WANDERING WORDS
hereabouts is richer with great reminiscences than
hundreds of leagues elsewhere. You journey for
ward after leaving Cana, from the "hill of the
Beatitudes " and the " rock of the feeding of the
five thousand " to a sort of amphitheatre in these
Galilean uplands, and there, suddenly — all white
and small and silent, with its Church of the Annun
ciation, its monastery of Latin monks and its Fountain
of the Virgin, where evening after evening Mary the
Mother and her divine Son drew well-water together
— is Nazareth. Old Quaresimus calls it " a rose
set sweet within the green leaves of its encircling
hills ; " but that is pious flattery. It is a poor,
small, whitewashed collection of mean, flat-topped
houses, with tiny domes, and one steep, dirty, ill-kept
street ; yet is it nevertheless a spiritual metropolis
of the earth, as you must feel when you stand inside
the Church of the Annunciation and read the golden
letters on the rock in the cave, " Hie Verbum Caro
Factus Est"— "Here the Word was made flesh."
There can hardly be a passage of travel so long or
surely remembered as when, evening after evening,
you Avalk down from the hill where the old city
stood, to the Well, and know that you are treading
in the daily steps of the " Carpenter's Son." When
I was at Nazareth I purchased the seven acres of
wild rock and ruins on that hill — the exact and
certain spot where our Lord "opened the Book and
read" — hoping to found a small hospital there;
and at first my humble enterprise prospered. But
the Greek and Latin monks quarrelled about it;

IN THE HOLY LAND 83
difficulties intervened, the sailing ship which carried
the beds, fittings, and inscription-stone went down
at sea. The project had to be abandoned. Latterly,
however, it has been revived, with new hopes and
efforts ; and just before leaving England last year, I
agreed to make over the Sultan's firman, which I
still held, to those who are again endeavouring to
establish the " Katharine Arnold Hospital."
Then, ouAvard from Nazareth, Avith Mount Carmel
still towering on the right and standing grandly
up from the sea, this intensely absorbing and un
equalled journey leads the traveller down the rugged
slope from "His natiA'e city "into the plain of Es-
draelon, over the brook Kishon, with such remarkable
places as Nain, Shunem, ChesuUoth, Megiddo occur
ring by the wayside, to King Ahab's country, to Jezreel
and Gerizim and the regions of Samaria. There
lives in my recollection a memorable ride I took
hereabouts from the walls of Nablous, at the special
request of Dean Stanley, my old tutor at Oxford,
to visit and sketch the alleged tomb of Joshua.
We got into temporary difficulties with the Moslems
at that out-of-the-way spot for breaking off a twig
of a tree growing by the tomb, which, they averred,
was of miraculous character, moving itself once a
year away from the structure in order to allow the
walls to be newly whitewashed. A line of telegraph
posts runs now-a-days between Mount Ebal and Mount
Gerizim, under the gates of Nablous, and actually
skirts the broken and scattered masonry of Jacob's
Well, where our Lord talked with the woman of

84 WANDERING WORDS
Samaria. All the way from Nazareth to Jerusalem
you follow — and must follow — the path trodden by
His feet whenever He went up to the Holy City,
the first sight of which from the hill Scopus, when
you have treaded the " Valley of the Robbers " and
the desolate stone country of the Prophet Samuel, is
more impressive, I think, than that of any other city
on the earth.
All along the road the sorrow-stricken and de
serted land is so poor and depopulated, but its
name and fame so rich ! There are not twenty
miles of good road where you can canter your Arab
horse from Damascus to the Mount of Olives ; and
if it rains too hard to pitch tents, you must put
up every night in the squalid, bare huts of the
miserable peasantry, where the only furniture will
be a roll of bedding, a fcAv brass and clay vessels, a
Koran in a silk bag, and a bottle of antimony, with
a pointed stick in it to blacken the under lids of
the women's eyes. There is no exit for the smoke
of the fire lighted on the floor, except the low door ;
and the cattle share the only apartment with the
family and their guests. One side of a street in
Chicago would buy the fee-simple of all Palestine !
Yet at Nazareth, at Bethlehem, and on that first
view of the City of the Cross and the Passion, lying
under the fair slopes of Olivet, all fatigues, all hard
ships fade from the wanderer's mind, and the bare,
hungry, neglected, ill-governed land seems proud
and rich, powerful and queenly, simply by possess
ing those sites and furnishing those scenes.

IN THE HOLY LAND 85
In Jerusalem itself you sleep, as it Avere, on the
very lap of religious history, and breathe an air
charged Avith imperishable, sacred recollections.
Too probably it Avill be charged Avith a good deal
of fcA'er besides, from such places as the Pool of
Hezekiah, by Avhich your hotel Avill in all likeli
hood stand, and from other unsanitary but deeply
interesting spots. For most pilgrims the interest
of Palestine centres and culminates within the
Avails of Jerusalem, and truly wonderful it is to
mark the deep fervour of adoration provoked among
those crowds of poor and pious votaries from all
nations, Avhich gather in and around the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre. There the irony of history
is shown by the two strange and significant facts
that, spite of the Crusades, the soldiers of the
Sultan of Turkey guard its gates, and that not
a Jew is ever permitted to enter them. Of course
the precise localities pointed out in this edifice
and near at hand are almost ahvays fictitious.
Nobody knows for certain a single spot connected
with the trial and crucifixion of Christ, and
probably great surface changes have effaced the
features of most of them. But enough in and
around the city has been spared to fill and feed
the imagination. The Mount of Olives, Bethany,
the Garden of Gethsemane, Kedron, the site of the
Temple, the Pools of Bethesda and of Siloam, the
road to Jericho and that to Bethlehem and Hebron,
such are surely enough to satisfy, to saturate
rather, the reasonable sojourner. For me, during

86 WANDERING WORDS
those ncA'er- to -be -forgotten days of residence in
Palestine, it was the city and the country itself, its
daily life, the scenes in its valleys, towns, and vil
lages, its air and trees and creatures and landscapes,
which taught me most, and most occupied and en
thralled me.
Meantime all this discursive and irrepressible re
trospect springs from a question asked of me, whe
ther I recollected any special incident of travel in
the Holy Land. I do, indeed, remember a curious
night passed there, full of solemn and far-reaching
thoughts, mingled with the most incongruous scenes
and pursuits. It was a night spent on the plain
of Jericho in shooting Avild boar amid the company
of the Arabs of Er-Riha — that is to say, the "village
of the strong odour" — which place is, by the way,
very justly named. My sister and I had ridden
over the arid hills from Jerusalem to the Ghor,
as the deep depression is called wherein lies the
Dead Sea. We took an escort of Turkish soldiers,
for the district was dangerous, and especially so
about that particular locality on our way Avhere
" the man fell among thieves." From the brow of
the western range, where they locate the " Mount
of Temptation," you look into the deep, hot hollow
of the "Sea of Lot" (Bahr-Lut), and all over the
lower portion of the Jordan's course. The impe
tuous river, hastening to die, rushes through the
thickets of thorn and reed beds into the great,
still caldron of the brimming lake, and makes a
long line of whitish water Avhere it enters the

IN THE HOLY LAND 87
thick and foul basin. Then it perishes, like every
thing else around. There is no exit for the lost
stream, Avhich is sucked up by the hot sun as
fast as it enters, leaA'ing in the scorched and
yellow hollow only that evil, sticky, poisonous,
but beautifully blue and placid sheet of stagnant
slime. The Dead Sea's borders nourish nothing
of either animal or vegetable life, but are fringed
Avith gaunt, dry, white trunks and branches of trees,
carried down by the Jordan, seared and salted by
the asphalt of the " Lake of Death."
If you bathe in it, as I did, you cannot sink,
albeit you may very likely float feet upward and head
beneath the sickly wave, unless you are a prac
tised swimmer. The water — if such hell-broth may
claim that wholesome appellation — tastes like petro
leum, lamp -oil and colocynth blended together.
When you emerge, it is to find your body crusted
all over with a salt deposit, which it is well to wash
off immediately by a good dip and swim in some
quiet part of the Jordan. In the full stream, however,
of that swift river no swimmer could live. I asked
one of my soldiers for what amount he would
ride across the swollen current, and he replied,
" Effendi ! not for all the dollars of the Pacha of
Jerusalem ! "
The surrounding scenery is not without a wild
and desolate beauty. Beyond the Sea of Death
the mountains of Moab present that fine, serrated
ridge called by Lamartine " Une ligne droite trade
par une main trernblante," and in the changing

88 WANDERING WORDS
influences of sunrise and sunset show alternately
rose-pink, purple, blue and blood-red. The vast
plain of the Gh6r stretches from range to range,
apparently rich in vegetation and strangely pretty.
Nevertheless most of the foliage is of the dry glossy
nebbuk, the bush of barrenness, mingled with the
Dead Sea apple, a kind of thorn on the hideous
and acrid fruit of which the Arabs say the damned
in hell daily feed. Still there are springs and trick
ling streams here and there, Avhich render a sparse,
fitful cultivation possible ; and such occasional crops,
together with the natural roots and berries, bring
the Avild pig to the spot, in quest of whom we were
to sally forth as soon as the moon rose, about 9 p.m.
I shall not easily forget that odd, savage, sleepless
night, between solemn hills that shut out Jerusalem
on the west and the dark rampart of the Moabitish
mountains on the east. I had become popular with
the Arabs by reason of having rebuked my Bashi-
Bazouks for tearing down the thorn fence of their
village to. make a fire. I had compelled my armed
escort of rascals to pluck a camel-load of thorns and
repair the damage, and the desert people, unused
to justice, were anxious to show me good sport
with " the accursed beast." We sallied forth in
single file silently under the bright moonlight, and
brought up in an open space Avith the Arabs in
company and eight or ten mangy, prick-eared dogs,
which did not appear very likely to tackle such
boars as I had known in India. I carried a double
gun loaded with buckshot and my cook's green

IN THE HOLY LAND 89
handled knife in my belt. JNIy dragoman had his
sabre only, and the Arabs their matchlocks and
spears. We squatted a long time on the sand,
every dog receiving instantly a tremendous bloAv
Avith a cudgel if he fought his fellows or barked,
for it Avas to be essentially a still hunt.
"What do we wait for?" I presently asked, and
the answer given was, " We are waiting for El-
Nimr." This I supposed Avould prove some doughty
hunter, styled " the Tiger " for his personal qualities,
but it turned out to be a famous dog infallible at
scenting and fighting pigs, which dog presently came
up in the society of a master as ugly as himself. A
one-eared, scarred, battered, cock-eyed mongrel cur
it was, but El-Nimr knew his business thoroughly,
and being by-and-bye ordered to seek for game,
disappeared in the thick bushes, we silently fol
lowing. The method of the strange chase turned out to be
this : — Everybody, including the dogs, had to attend
patiently and respectfully upon " the Tiger," who
again and again emerged from the cover, mute and
wistful, without any results ; but after two miles of
wandering we heard a low yelp from him at a dis
tance, and immediately all the other dogs sprang
silently into the thicket, going off, ventre a terre,
toward the sound. Soon El-Nimr raised a short,
sharp howl of certainty, and my dragoman exclaimed,
" Now we shall get wild pork ! " The rest of the
scratch pack joined hereupon in a hoarse uproar,
making the wandering jackals yell and fly, and we

90 WANDERING WORDS
all ran hard in the direction of the clamour, to find
the centre of it a dense clump of prickly thorns and
nebbuk, where apparently a pig had taken refuge.
Animated by our approach, "the Tiger " went boldly
into the darkness, and soon forth into the moonlight
jumped the unhappy hog, which fell to an easy
double shot at close quarters from my gun. How
ever, as nearly every Arab also blazed off his match
lock, and madly danced in the way of his fellows, I
saw there would be manslaughter as well as " wild
pork" if we continued such a loose, illegitimate
pastime, and therefore gave the word to go back
to camp, especially as we had already obtained a
pair of tusks and enough forbidden meat for all
the Christians in our camp. Needless to say, the
Arabs and Turks would not touch the unclean
creature, which nevertheless affords no bad food
when young.
On our way back to the encampment, El-Nimr had
three or four other alertes, one of which was due
to a roving jackal and the other to a wandering
Bedouin, probably bent on no honest errand, whom
we saved with difficulty from the dogs which had
encircled him. But the chief attraction of that
singular nocturnal chase Avas the scene itself. The
deadly pallid sheet of the Sea of Lot stretching away
to Petra and Egypt ; the hills so full of history and
religion, this side and that ; the dark patches of
bitter thorn glittering in the moonlight, with here
and there a whispering palm-tree standing high
among them, suggesting Zacchaeus and the days of

IN THE HOLY LAND 91
the journey to Jericho, Avith close at hand " Betha-
bara, beyond Jordan," and the very pool of the
ancient river quite near us, Avhere our Lord Himself
underwent baptism. What a locality for a hunting
party ! We Avere too rugged and irregular a lot in
aspect to apply to us that verse —
Oh, why so bold.
In steel and gold,
On the paths that Christ has trod 1
But it did seem ridiculous and well-nigh irreverent
to be chasing Avild hogs over such a sporting ground.
Riding back next day to Jerusalem, we stayed to
lunch at the khan, built near the traditional spot
where the parable of the Good Samaritan had its
happening. There is a beautiful blue hyacinth with
small, dark blossoms which grows in early spring
along this dry, steep road, albeit it was too soon
in the year for the real lily of the Sermon of the
Mount, the scarlet martagon, which —
Decks herself, still.
Mindful of His high words, in red and gold.
To meet the step of summer.
At the little spring near the khan an Arab of
good address and breeding sat down with us, and,
after salutations and a little talk, calmly offered to
buy my sister for his wife at the price of all his long
string of camels. The offer was meant kindly and
respectfully, but the lady, on being acquainted with
her conquest, abruptly declined it, whereupon the
young Sheikh gravely removed the silk and gold

92 WANDERING WORDS
rope from his haick and laid that small offering at
the feet of the English " Sittina" who had charmed
him. No, indeed ! What with the wild pork and
Arabs, and my Avould-be BedaAvee brother-in-law, I
shall never forget the time I passed at Jericho.

V

INDIAN PRINCES AT HOME

V
INDIAN PRINCES AT HOME
This world we live in is becoming sadly mono
tonous as it shrinks year by year to smaller and
smaller apparent dimensions, under the rapid move
ment provided by transcontinental trains and swift
ocean steamships. Along with the ceaseless rush
of " civilisation " go also inevitably the ubiquitous
evening dress suit, the latest fashion plate from
Paris, the tall silk hat, and the other ugly things
which are so convenient because they are so uni
versal. Costumes and ethnological variety are mean
time vanishing before the face of such invasions
from the surface of the globe, and your fellow-
passenger in the Pullman palace car, or in the saloon
of the Cunarder, may be of any European or North
or South American country on the map, for anything
that can now-a-days be gathered from his attire.
The manners of all peoples are getting levelled
down to one dull, dead plane by the same agency,
and differences of language alone preserve a certain
lingering distinction. The graceful mantilla is being
silently abolished from Spain, and the pretty faldetta
from Italy, while even in Japan the city folk have
taken to red socks and wideawakes, and the ladies
think themselves out of the mode on public occasions

96 WANDERING WORDS
if they do not substitute the artificial " confections "
of Paris, London, and New York for the lovely and
always becoming kimono and obi. Posterity more
and more is threatened with residence upon a dismal
orb, where everybody will wear one common style of
garment, Avill talk, think, and live in the same way,
so as to be at last as rigidly and dolefully like each
other as peas in a sack, or ants toiling and moiling
upon a log.
In Asia and Africa almost alone does the Old
World preserve something of its bygone rich and
refreshing variety of existence. The custom, indeed,
of even dressing at all, except, perhaps, in brass
Avire and beads, has yet to invade the greater part of
the " Dark Continent," Avhere there accordingly pre
vails a perfectly delightful dissimilarity of taste and
habit in the coiffure, in the loin aprons, and in fan
tastic methods of treating the ears, the nose, the lips,
and the limbs.
India is also a land where the increasing dreary
sameness of modern times and habits does not and
can not penetrate, or else is lost sight of in the vast
ness and picturesqueness of those antique Hindoo
societies. As in the untouched portions of Japan,
you find all over the Indian peninsula that the
decrees of the great goddess of fashion are unknown
or powerless. The people Avear the beautiful and
seemly garments Avhich their ancestors Avore tAvo
thousand years ago, unaltered in seam, or selvage,
or shape, but alloAving an endless range of indi
vidual choice for tints, materials, richness of adorn-

INDIAN PRINCES AT HOME 97
ment, and charm of general efiect. There men and
women, unlike ourselves, seem to clothe their bodies
as the flowers do, for innate joy of hue and grace of
good-fellowship and animation. A mob of Euro
peans or of Americans differs from a crowd of Asiatics
as a stubble of Avheat, or a prairie grey and grim
with sage brush, differs from a bed of tulips or a
brightly-waving field of poppies and buttercups.
Looking, indeed, at the sombre garb and despondent
aspect of our crowded modern cities, one often sighs,
even in Anglo-Saxon communities, for a return to the
" peach-coloured satin coat with lace ruffles," of
which in good Queen Anne's time Oliver Goldsmith
was so prettily vain. To see popular gatherings alive
and brilliant with happy colours, and to find the
lost repose and delightfulness of daily life extant,
and visible, and placidly prized, one must wander
to-day among Indian cities and enter the precincts
of the temples of their gods and the courts of the
Hindoo princes. Let us, then, " come into the sun "
for a space, and realise a little the peaceful, glowing,
varied, and picturesque daily life in and around the
royal homes of India.
How an Indian city itself, and its everyday sights
and sounds under the continual and exhilarating
sunlight, would astonish some of this overdriven
American public ! No tram-rails cut up the streets,
no importunate clang of the electric bell, no rush and
pelt and rattle of hack and cab and express waggon
or overloaded omnibus upon rugged paving-stones
jar the nerves. The very busiest street in Delhi,

98 WANDERING WORDS
Jeypore, Agra, or Poona is a perfect garden of repose
for its calm and quiet compared to the uproar and
diurnal fever of a byway in any third-rate American
town. The unpaved sand or loam of the broad or
narrow passage between the shops and houses gives
back no echo to the footfall of the men, cattle, and
vehicles that traverse it. They might be moving
flower-beds for their colour and their silence of soft
motion. The men are all diversified with clean, be
coming robes of white or grey, and with brilliant tur
bans surmounting their neat, cool attire — turbans of
purple, lilac, sky-blue, rose-red, green and amber — and
the women draw over their smooth black brows and
shapely shoulders saris of the loveliest contrasted and
blended tints imaginable, bordered with rich pat
terns and threaded with gold and silver embroidery,
or inlaid with little flashing plates of glass and
pearl shell. The bare feet of the women and chil
dren and the sandals of the men and boys create
no noise and the sleepy, patient animals in the ox
carts go up or down the highway with broad, noise
less hoofs and light loads of sugar-cane, fodder, or
cotton, disturbing the long and warm midday lull
with nothing louder than the chafing of the Avooden
yoke beam or the creak of an ungreased Avheel. The
babies astride upon the hips of their mothers never
cry, and never have anything to cry about. The
boys, being, as they are, not Christians, but Hindoos,
never want to be noisy, devilish, or cruel, but always
go about their games or errands gravely and silently.
Here and there a group of friends newly met con-

INDIAN PRINCES AT HOME 99
verse in elevated tones of pleasure, and there is, per
haps, a wrangle someAvhere about a doubtful bargain
or a little harmless quarrel over a bad eight-anna
piece, which ends, as it began, in words. But the
traders in the open shops never vociferate, and never
madly advertise their goods, nor put up rival state
ments of supernatural cheapness, nor struggle fiercely
and perpetually one with the other for the almighty
dollar or its Asiatic equivalent. Placid and digni
fied and self-contained, with the established habits
of thirty centuries, they squat alongside their goods,
not pushing their sale, seeing that what is wanted
will surely be asked for when " Allah wills " or
" Purshuram pleases ; " and meantime, while calmly
awaiting customers, they smoke the drowsily-bub
bling hookah or leisurely balance their accounts Avith
a reed pen, or upon the abacus.
There may be hundreds, nay thousands, perambu
lating a long street like that of the lively and famous
Chandnichowk in Delhi or the Moti Bagh in Poona,
and yet withal not more uproar or hubbub than in
a retired nook of the Central Park at New York.
Nobody is in a hurry, and for everybody alike it is
quite enough prosperity merely to live under such a
glad, bright, existence-gilding sun, and amid so many
sweet and pleasing sights of surrounding nature.
For nature is everywhere present around and among
these Asiatic communities, not terrified out of con
tact by business and the noise and smoke of big
cities, as with us and you. In every corner the palm-
tree lifts its stately feathered head and sings a hymn

loo WANDERING WORDS
from its waving plumes to the cooling breeze ; the
banana hangs her broad green flags over the white
house walls and Avindow lattices. The Indian convol-
vuli, great bells of blue and white, with the splendid
yellow lupins and the tender lilac and gold sprays
of the Bougainvilliers, adorn the very meanest huts ;
and upon the roofs and ridge-poles thus beautified
the animals take part in the general city life. There
will be as likely as not monkeys sitting upon many
a housetop. The four-handed folk come in fi'om the
jungles to squat upon the highest tiles, all talking
jungle gossip, to the disparagement, no doubt, of
their bimanous and over-busy kindred.
The little striped squirrels run up and down the
doorposts of the grain sellers' shop ; the sacred cow
from the nearest temple wanders by each store of open
corn and pulse, putting her privileged muzzle into
the rice bags ; the green parrots flash up and down
the mid-street with a lively clamour, and the great
black bats — the flying foxes — hang in hundreds by
their hooked wings from the bare fig-tree. You
can hear, amid the full tide of the city's traffic, the
" swash" of the clothes being washed and beaten at
the tank, and the scream of the kites as they circle
round and round in the pale, clear sky overhead.
The loudest sounds in the long, thronged, lively but
peaceful street will be the ekJca rumbling along on
two ponderous Avheels with some merchant's familv,
its oxen and its red curtains all covered with bells
which jingle not unmusically, or some half-naked
religious mendicant blowing his big copper trumpet

INDIAN PRINCES AT HOME loi
or beating his cymbals for alms. Peace — the sus
tained, philosophic, contemplative peace of Asia —
broods over the people and the place. Life has of
itself become a luxury in ceasing to be a task, a
mill-grind, a neA'er-ending work and worry. Ah !
if I could only transport some of the nerve-weary
workers, men and women, whose intelligent faces
and kindly eyes I see amid these many splendid
cities of the United States, worn with the fever and
the rush of daily affairs, to the quiet of my Indian
cities and fields, how quickly I could give them back
again la joie de vivre, that lost calm and gladness of
the healthy human soul, which cures everything, and
is an earthly side of the " peace that passeth under
standing." Prominent among the buildings of the city are
the temples and the palaces. These simple Asiatics
neither possess nor desire — nor, indeed, need — the
countless large institutions which fill your cities
with imposing piles of architecture. They want
no town-hall, because the tank, the temple court,
and the market-place serve very well for all the
purposes of such an edifice under weather which
never betrays. They want no vast hotels, because
everybody lodges with his kinsfolk ; .and they want
no big hospitals, because the Govemment looks to
that ; they need no insurance offices, banks, asylums,
or manufactories, because they insure good luck by
giving the gods a cake or two or some flowers ; they
bank by melting their spare silver into ornaments for
wife and children ; they take care of and tenderly

I02 WANDERING WORDS
protect their own imbeciles and indigent, and they
make everything needful with their own fingers.
But the temple will probably be gay, stately, and
beautiful, and the palaces of the Maharajah will
be objects of pride and joy to the populace, and
often very sumptuous, indeed, outside as well as
inside. We will leave the temples and mosques alone
to-day, and penetrate a little within those palace
walls (which everybody, be it understood, may not
very easily do, seeing that the interior life and
domestic surroundings of a Hindoo prince of high.
rank are not usually open even to such energetic
curiosity as that of American interviewers).
Let the visit which we are to pay be in a city of
Rajpootana, say, a very interesting and typical region
of India, and let us choose the court of one of the
Rajpoot princes, the Maharajah of Ulwar, as a speci
men for respectful inspection. His Highness Mangal
Singh, the "Lion Lord of Good Fortune," as the
name signifies (albeit the title has since been sadly
reversed), was one of the immensely far-descended
kings of the great Rajpoot country, who rule their
OAvn chivalrous, gallant, and high-spirited people
under the suzerainty of Her Mightiness the Empress
Victoria, to whom he and all his royal kindred ai'e
most loyally attached. The Maharajah Mangal Singh
is (this was in 1887) a Knight Commander of the
Star of India, a magnate always saluted with a pre
scribed salvo of eleven guns whenever he visits the
Governor of the Presidency. He is a young man of

INDIAN PRINCES AT HOME

103

perhaps tAventy-five years, of an olive complexion,
Avith eyes dark and lustrous, features intensely re
fined and delicate in tint, and indeed presenting the
ideal of a Hindoo prince to look upon — such as

COURTYARD OF THE PALACE, ULWAR.

Eugene Sue tried to depict in his Djalma of the
"Mysteries of Paris." His ruling passions are
horses, the chase and war ; but the last of these is
of course a luxury impossible to indulge in, unless
indeed the Maharani might some day be pleased at

I04 WANDERING WORDS
need to ask her faithful Rajpoots for aid, and then
Mangal Singh would love better than his life to take
the field against Russian, Frenchman, or anybody else,
at the head of a band of fearless, magnificent horsemen.
Notice, as we enter the walls of his inner town,
how the heavy gate doors, hundreds of years old,
are studded with six-inch long spikes of iron. That
is a relic of pre-scientific and old-world belligerency,
such as was prevalent in Asia when elephants were
always first sent forward to batter down the portals
of fortresses with their foreheads ; and the only way
of preventing the great beasts from bursting in a
four-inch oak slab was to put a set of sharp spikes
upon it. Even elephants, it was found, soon had
enough of ramming a front door equipped in this
style. The Rajpoot soldiers at the entrance of the
palace precincts — dark warriors of an unmistakable
fighting breed — wear the leaf of Rama's tree for
their badge, which the god plucked from the Indian
jungle when he was starting forth to recover Sita
from Ravana, the Demon King of Ceylon. Along
the road leading to the palace front you may see
several hunting leopards lying on their bedsteads
lightly chained.
It is a favourite sport of the Prince and of his
fellow-rulers to pursue the black antelope with a
trained cheetah, and I have myself often witnessed
that strange and exciting kind of hunting. The
leopard is carried, in a condition of sharp hunger, to
the open deer-country upon a peasant's bullock-cart,
and when the antelopes are sighted the cart is care-

INDIAN PRINCES AT HOME 105
fully driven in a circle nearer and nearer to some fine
buck Avith good long horns, until the animal is brought
Avithin reasonable distance. Then the hood is taken
from the beast, Avhose savage eyes roam round and
round the plain, and soon fasten upon the deer, by
this time some four or five hundred yards away, and
not in the least suspecting what looks like a simple
country cart with its rural people bent upon agri
cultural pursuits. The leopard, set free, slides down
like a ferret from his straw bed on the cart, and worms
his way unseen through rocks and bushes, until he
has drawn near enough in rear or flank of his victim
for a final rush, which he makes like a lightning flash,
generally surprising and seizing the paralysed buck
before it can gather itself together for escape. If
the deer manages to get away, the cheetah puts forth
no further attempt to follow it, but sulks in the
thicket and is very difficult to catch again.
But if it succeeds in striking down its prey, the
hunters hurry up, and while dragging the growling,
savage jaws away from the bleeding haunch or neck
of the deer, they slip into the crimsoned mouth of
the brute a fresh-cut joint of a goat or calf, and the
leopard, thus deceived and pacified, is soon secured
anew and placed upon the vehicle.
In the Rajah's grounds you will see these royal
cheetahs and the men who have charge of them
peacefully sleeping together on the same " charpoy,"
but, all the same, the beautiful hunting beasts are
in their evil moods fearfully ill-tempered and dan
gerous. Farther on we shall come upon a rhinoceros

io6 WANDERING WORDS
roped up to a stout post and munching cabbage.
He is the survivor of the old, bad practice of beast
fights, in which all the Rajpoot princes, like other
Indian potentates, indeed, and magnates, used to
indulge ; but the Ulwar Maharajah was too well
educated and enlightened for any strong taste
toward this. He has abolished the custom indeed.
Here is, nevertheless, the bygone "Bestiarium" —
the janwa-khana, the place wherein many and many
a combat of jungle gladiators has been beforetimes
bloodily waged— rhinoceros and tiger, rhinoceros and
elephant, elephant with elephant, &c., as well as com
bats between rams, stallions, and buffaloes. There
are princes and rich Zemindars who even now delight
in such barbarous pastimes, and I know of one who,
on a certain festive occasion, fastened a note for a
thousand rupees to the tusk of a male elephant mad
with " must," and another on the horn of a wild bull
buffalo, and offered them as prizes to the daring horse
men who, after two or three perhaps of their rivals
had been gored to death, could secure the tempting
wealth. The palace at Uhvar offers a good example of
Hindoo architecture of the florid and latter modem-
day kind. There is a rich, ornamental frontal wall
with little cupolas over the gates, as Avell as upon
each corner, the exquisite shape of which is directly
borrowed from the curves assumed by the bamboo
when it is bent to form a roof. Inside the wall,
pierced by a vaulted and coloured entrance arch,
spreads a court, flanked on the right and left hand by

INDIAN PRINCES AT HOME 107
halls open on one side, Avith roAvs of beautiful sculp
tured columns, and leading on the far side by broad
and SAA'eeping flights of marble steps to an inner
and highly decorated gateway. Through this Ave
shall make bold to pass into the palace proper
— that is to say, the public chambers of it and
the audience rooms {diwankhanas), for the zenana,
or Avomen's quarter, is of course only for very privi
leged and feminine eyes — and albeit a hundred
pair of them, lustrous and gem-like, may be secretly
watching the strangers who tread these sequestered
Indian apartments, the lattice from which they sur
vey us will betray nothing of the inspection.
It is a pity that the Hindoos should have adopted
from their Mohammedan conquerors the custom of
secluding their women, but this is now a firmly-
rooted habit, Avhich the great ladies themselves
do most to keep up. A piordahnashin, a " curtain-
dweller," that is to say, or Hindoo woman of the
higher classes, would not be seen out of doors, to
save her life, except at religious ceremonies and in
the marriage month. I have myself talked on im
portant business with a Mahratta princess of whose
august person I only discerned the points of the toes
under the edge of an embroidered curtain ; and when
I was staying with the resident physician at Jeypore,
in Rajpootana, a curious thing occurred. He was
the old and trusted friend of the Maharajah, and the
chief queen being taken ill, he was sent for from his
dinner-table ; but when he returned, he stated to us
that he had been obliged to put his head into a

io8 WANDERING WORDS
green baize bag before entering the zenana of his
friend the King, and to feel the pulse of his illus
trious patient and apply the stethoscope to her in
the absurd embarrassment of such an envelope, with
out which he could not ha,ve passed into the women's
quarter of the palace, firm friend and adviser as he
was of all its inmates.
We may have the good fortune to see the little
Prince of the reigning house, the heir-apparent
of the ancient realm of Ulwar, walking with his
hammals and attendants, who wiU sweetly say,
though it is only early morning, " Good evening,
sir," in order to demonstrate at once his politeness
and his mastery of the English language. And we
may even have the honour to salute the Maharajah
himself, if we find him seated in his simple little
chamber of justice, which gives by a carved window
upon an outer garden full of orange and pomegranate
trees, to the sill whereof suppliants and suitors may
come from toAvn and country to ask judgment and
succour from His Highness. Do you perhaps think
that only the West knows Avhat true justice is?
Observe over the arch above the Avriting-table of
the young Maharajah that Persian verse which is
inscribed from the Bostan or " Garden " of Sadi, and
which says : —
Oh, King, take heed unto the poor man's sigh ;
Unheeded, it can climb and shake the sky.
If it be not too busy a day among his somewhat
litigious subjects with the youthful and energetic

INDIAN PRINCES AT HOME 109
ruler of the Uhvar State, he may very possibly him
self show the favoured visitors some of the won
ders of his royal abode. There is, for instance, the
Shish'mahal — that is to say, the "Hall of Mirrors"
— entirely lined Avith dazzling plaques and fragments
of coloured crystal, which reflect the bright entering
beams of the Indian sun Avith such burning and
variegated lustre that it seems an apartment carved
out of some mountain-side where the native rock is
full of jewels.
The Hindoos love light. Those triumphs of West-
em manufacture and gifts of Western science which
they most admire are not our noisy locomotive
engines and complex mill machinery, which are too
restless and hasteful for them, but chandeliers with
a great many branches, and coloured lamps with the
electric light shining among cut glass. Every Indian
palace is apt, indeed, to be almost too much enriched
and illuminated by such foreign importations, for the
usually sombre and cloistered construction of these
abodes of Eastern quiet and luxury is better suited
to the soft gleam of oil- wicks burning in those
brass lamps which the native artificer fashions so
skilfully in the shape of god or goddess, of coiled
serpent or couching tiger, of the sacred bird called
" Hansa," or of the lotus and moonflower. But
even in Rajpootana they will all have immense
glass chandeliers and dropping crystal lustres, of
which, therefore, these Ulwar halls are all found
full. In one of them was to be beheld a remark
able instance of lavish and costly expenditure. It

IIO WANDERING WORDS
Avas a long dining-room table, capacious enough to
seat fifty guests, made entirely — top, frame, and
legs — from solid silver. There must be a ton or
more of the precious metal in this piece of apparent
ostentation, which is, of course, as an article of
furniture, foreign to Hindoo habits, since everj'body
in India sits on the floor to eat, as also in Japan,
or, if any tables be used, they are of the small
Turkish and Arab kind, about the size of a low
music-stool. That is why, when we want dinner
removed in Hindostan, we say " Mez lejao," that is,
" Take away the table." Upon and down the highly
expensive "mahogany" of His Highness run two
broad slots or channels, in which, by some ingenious
clock-work contrivance, a crystal current is driven
perpetually along, carrying with it little fishes of
all colours, fashioned in jewels and enamelled. And
very pretty indeed it is to see these artificial shoals
glide along in the miniature rippled river, between
its mimic banks of glittering silver. It must be,
moreover, understood, before American severity of
taste too much condemns such a use of solid treasure
as that of my royal friend, that it is the habit all
over India to put what you here call "hard money"
into similar tangible and visible shape. I have
seen in Baroda, at the armoury of His Highness the
Guicowar, cannon cast in solid silver, seven and ten
pounders, with wheels and carriages all to match ;
and whenever a Hindoo artisan or peasant possesses
any rupees to spare, he takes them doAA^n to the sonar
— the goldsmith — Avho melts them into a bracelet or

INDIAN PRINCES AT HOME in
a bangle for the Avrist or ankle of the man's wife
or daughter.
If I could only paint for you the inner court
of such a palace, with its walls and alcoves, its
galleries and minarets, its terraces and pinnacles
all gilded by the burning sun above and reflected
below in the still Avaters of the tank that fills up
the middle of the square, all my disengaged readers
would want to go to that picturesque and brilliant
country. Sometimes, remembering the mere "joy
of life " that such scenes give, I wonder why we
all bear to reside so many weary and cheerless
years in the chilly latitudes of the Northern United
States of America or of Great Britain. At the mo
ment when I am writing, in this otherwise cheerful
town of Dubuque, Iowa, a heavy snowstorm is
whitening all the world around. The bitter wind
screams, the stinging blizzard drives, the house
doors are blocked with great wreaths of snow ; and
the pleasant city and goodly hills around about it,
which I doubt not are very fair and bright in
summer-time, look as if only Polar bears could
be content to dwell in such a locality. But, of
course, the colder regions of the world are its real
Avorkshops, and the nurseries of its dominant races ;
while it is only the dreamy religions and the deep
philosophies — not petroleum and lumber and notions
— which come from the sunny East. Still, I think,
as science develops, and as the restless breed of man
realises how great a delight lives in repose and in
those zones of our globe where nature, being largest

112 WANDERING WORDS
and loveliest, lends her aid to that repose, the tropics
and the subtropics will more and more be filled with
emigrant people from the North and West. It may
be reserved for your own mighty community, when
you have filled up the Mississippi Valley with a
hundred millions of prosperous folk, and made all
your Western wildernesses laugh with the harvest
which wells and irrigation works can produce, to
take in hand and civilise, as we have done in India
and Africa, some of the beautiful countries of the
Amazon and Orinoco, and those too sadly wasted
wonderlands of the South American States which
are to-day swarmed over by naked Indians and
jaguars, or by quarrelsome little hybrid Spanish
races, not much more profitable or peaceful.
I said the Maharajah Mangal Singh loved horses,
and he can show us, not far from this stately white
marble palace under the hills, his superb stud of
2000 Arabs and Arab half-breeds, some of them such
lovely and shapely creatures as are scarcely to be
seen elsewhere. An Arab horse is an absolute luxury
to ride, its temper is so sweet, its endurance so great
and its pace so pleasant, thanks to the low, springy
pasterns, which give elasticity to its dancing gait.
But let us now come away from Rajpootana and
go on the wings of fancy to a very different district
— that of Bhaonagar, in the region of Kattiawar,
another independent State, Avhere Takhtaji Singh
is the great and enlightened chief. It shall be
evening, and when the fireworks have all been
finished, to the boundless pleasure of the vast crowds

INDIAN PRINCES AT HOME 113
outside the gates of the palace, avc Avill enter and sit
in the royal circle of the Diwan-Khana watching a
Nautch or native dance.
It is a scene, this, very typical of India, where no
festiA'al or great ceremony is complete Avithout the
quiet and composing pleasure of the dance. Not
that furious, gymnastic exercise in which Ave West
erns, especially our feminine section, rejoice to in
dulge, but the high and grave and distinctly fine
art of rhythmical movement, accommodated to the
lightest and faintest notes of the strange, wild music
of cymbal and sitar, and to a harmony and subtlety
of line and pace and waving limbs and robes to
which the best ballet in Paris, London, or New York
offers but a coarse contrast. The Prince, wearing
rich and costly jewels, Avith a light evening coat of
green satin, sits cross-legged at the top of the hall,
having his guests and great officers beside him or
ranged along the walls. His gorgeously dressed
attendants, standing behind the royal cushion, are
fanning the warm evening air from each face, or noise
lessly bringing refreshments and the fragrant pipe.
Then Zanoub, the Persian girl, or Radha, the
Hindoo nautchni, takes her pan-soopari (the betel-
nut) from her mouth, adjusts her ample draperies,
fastens the scarlet pomegranate-flower tighter in
her hair, and rises to her feet, while the drum
and tamboora begin " Taza-ba-taza " or " Jan-i-man."
Lowly does she salaam to the great personage ;
piously does she touch the silver bells fastened
upon her bare feet with a prayer for favour and
H

114 WANDERING WORDS
success, for dancing is a serious and solemn matter
with these people. And then she softly becomes
a living embodiment of music and of the poesy of
motion ; dancing true scientific dances ; expressing
the very language — by gesture, gait, and eloquent
sway and wave of hand and foot and arm and
body — of that passionate or sorrowful Persian or
Guzerathi song, which she sings in a high falsetto,
full of minor keys and minutely divided notes. Per
haps you will not admire it until you understand
it and have studied its mai-vellous antique grace
and emotional significance. Perhaps the Western
man Avill prefer, after all he sees and hears, to
encircle a tight-laced waist, bound in fashionable
silk or satin, and whirl it round to the better com
prehended strains of Strauss or Godfrey. But the
indolent passions of the Indian blood find their
delight in this measured, sober, refined and sooth
ing pas seul ; and all night long, as dancer after
dancer salaams and sits down, to be succeeded
by another and another and another, these states
men, warriors, merchants, and pundits of the strange
Indian world will watch with undiminished interest
the slow, quiet, musical passages of the Nautch.
I remember, in the days of the great mutiny, when
a famous native regiment, the Twenty-fifth Native
Infantry of Bombay, marched back to our station
covered with glory for faithfully fighting their rebel
brethren, I was commissioned to ask the senior
jemadar what form of entertainment the men would
best like to accept from the ladies and gentlemen of

INDIAN PRINCES AT HOME 115
the station. The ansAver Avas a " Nautch ; " and
AA'hen we had hired the most famous dancing-girls
of the district, and had pitched great shamiana
tents on the plain, and had laid in plenty of betel-
nut to chew, they Avanted no more. All night
long those veteran soldiers, fresh from fierce and
bloody battles, sat in large rings of scores and
hundreds under the moonlight, wearing their fatigue
dress of white cotton, and watching the dancers,
while softly smoking their " pipes of peace." How
different are the races of men !
What would gratify most, no doubt, such gracious
ladies as may honour me by reading these sketchy
recollections, amid all the picturesque surround
ings of Eastern royal life, would be, I think, those
various Tosha'khanas or treasure chambers of the
Indian courts. If I had time and space, I would
also like to describe to American sportsmen the way
in which the Indian princes hunt; and what splendid,
varied, and exciting pastime in this line is afforded
by the jungles of Hindostan, with the grand studs
of trained elephants which such princes possess ; as
well as the really magnificent sport of pig-sticking,
riding the grey wild boar down with the keen spear
upon a quick and intelligent Arab horse. But I
must be content here merely to mention the jewels
of one particular Eastern potentate which dwell in
my memory.
Some of the finest gems in the world are still
to be seen in those Tosha'khanas of the peninsula,
where they are greatly prized and carefully guarded.

ii6 WANDERING WORDS
Many of the best pearls from Ormuz or Ceylon,
of the choicest pigeon-blood rubies from Burmah,
emeralds of extraordinary size, carved with long
inscriptions in Persian, Arabic, and Sanscrit, with
delicate and costly enamels after the style of the
master art of Jeypore, were stored in the royal
collection which I inspected at Baroda in Guzerat.
There Avere swords there whose hilts alone were
Avorth a large estate, so richly were they crusted
with costly stones, while the blades of some among
them Avere of such fine and perfectly tempered steel
as to be occasionally more valuable than the handles.
Certain among the choicest blades had slots cut in
the .damasked steel, up and down which ran costly
pearls or rubies cut to a round bead, and certain of
them were thrust into spiral scabbards, so faultless
were their spring and elasticity. The old Mahratta
Custodian would suddenly open some old marma
lade jar or sardine-box taken from the great barred
vault, and turn out of this unlikely receptacle,
rolled up in an ancient red or green rag, such a
belt of sapphires and diamonds, such a diadem of
Oriental rubies, such a bracelet or anklet, or ring
for the nose or finger, as must have made the
eyes of any lady who had a proper and becoming
passion for beautiful things sparkle like the jewels
themselves. On high public occasions the princes and mag
nates of India vie Avith each other in a dazzling
and gorgeous display of gems, Avith Avhich they
repair on their elephants to durbars or receptions.

INDIAN PRINCES AT HOME. 117
The native classical name for such lovely baubles
is sa)}tosha, the Sanscrit Avord for "contentment,"
as if their Avonderful beauty were calculated to fill
ordinary hearts and minds quite to the brim. It
is better, however, for such as are not millionaires
to talk and think as little as possible about the gor
geous contents of those Indian treasure chambers.
But if you are millionaires, Tiffany in Union Square,
NcAV A'ork, or the shops of Bond Street, London,
can show you jeAvels better set and cut than those
of India, though not so large, ancient, and historical.

VI
love and MARRIAGE IN JAPAN

^^I
LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN JAPAN
I HAVE been taken to task in a good-tempered
way by many critics in England and America for
venturing, in my " Seas and Lands " and " Japonica,"
to call the Japanese women " semi-angelic." The
expression is a strong one, and it is never safe to
generalise or exaggerate, least of all about such
a subject. But, upon sitting down to write this
article about the vt'omen of Japan, I find that I
have nothing to retract. Upon maturest reflection,
bringing together into one focus all the specimens
I know of Japanese Avomanhood, in all ranks and
circumstances of life, in all degrees of education,
in town and country alike, I am still inclined
to believe that the average or abstract Japanese
female comes, all things considered, nearest among
her sex, as regards natural gifts, to what we
understand by an angelical disposition. This, be
it stated, is not advanced in any idea of comparison
or contrast with her sisters in other parts of the
world. I would as soon, in my capacity a,s a writer,
speak disrespectfully of the Gulf Stream or the
Equator, and expect to be forgiven, as imply any
disparaging parallel between A^arious national repre-

122 WANDERING WORDS
sentatives of the fair sex. All I find myself obliged
to maintain is that, taking into account her sur
roundings, this daughter of the Land of the Rising
Sun might pass, I really believe, into a celestial state
of existence with very few changes of nature, man
ners, or heart ; and find herself, and be found there,
quite at home.
Everybody who has become really acquainted with
good Japanese women agrees more or less with what
I here so daringly repeat; and among feminine
opinions there is no better witness to the pleasant
impression made upon kindly and intelligent minds
by them than the admirable little book lately pub
lished by Miss Alice Mabel Bacon, every statement
of which I believe to be as accurate as its style is
graceful and its purpose high. The only people
who do not appear to appreciate the Japanese
women are the Japanese men, and, no doubt, this
ought at once to make us pause before we praise
them too highly, since their oavu husbands, fathers,
and brothers must knoAv a great deal more of social
and domestic life in the country than the best-
informed foreigner can ever learn. But I am in
clined to believe it is really a case where the
gods have been far more beneficent to a people
than that people well understands. Still, since Ave
encounter in Japan a general absence of reverence
to the sex, and a lack of almost all those finer and
higher feelings which have found expression Avith
ourselves in chivalry and the literature of civilised
love, it is natural to ask Avhy outsiders alone should

LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN JAPAN 123
become enthusiastic about the virtues and merits
of Japanese Avomen. From the point of view of
physical beauty it is not to be pretended for a
moment that the Japanese Avoman excels her Chris
tian rivals. Seldom or never, indeed, does one see
among them any example of perfect feminine beauty.
Compared to their stately sisters of England and
America they are Avhat a delicate ivory carving is
to a marble statue. They are nearly all very small,
with short lower limbs, Avith a little nose pressed
into the face, with sleepy, slant-lidded eyes, an
almost ridiculous gait, and for the most part a
very limited education and very narrow ideas. How,
then, shall we analyse and define the secret of the
charm which this unique specimen of her sex
exercises over all appreciative and cultured minds
when they approach and enter her sphere for the
first time 1 It lies, no doubt, in her moral rather
than her intellectual or physical nature. She is,
in point of fact, the most unselfish, the most self-
denying, the most dutiful and the most patient
woman in the world, as well as the most con
siderate and pleasing; and, as I truly believe,
more faithful to her own limited and ancient but
earnest ideal of rectitude than any other of her
sisters among the nations. The civilisation, im
mensely antique and rigid, which has not, with all
its changes, produced so very great a success in
the Japanese man, has, while placing the Japanese
woman in a deplorably unfair and subordinate posi
tion, brought out from her being, by some strange

124 WANDERING WORDS
spell, all the social virtues of which her race is
capable, and made her, even in her subjection, so
gentle, winning, and admirable, that the boldest
advocates of Japanese reform in education and
national development tremble when they ask them
selves whether civilisation and "woman's rights"
may not take away more from this tranquil, con
tented, and delightful creature than it can ever give
to her.
There can be no doubt that socially and civilly the
position of the Japanese woman is low, to the point of
servitude. An American woman, who sits at the top
of the human tree in regard to the rights and privi
leges of her sex, would indeed shudder with sympathy
or redden with indignation if the full truth could
be told about the situation of her Japanese sisters.
Practically they have no personal rights from birth
to death. They belong throughout, in theory and to
a great degree in fact, to some man or other : first
their father, next their eldest brother, afterwards
their husband and his male relations. They hardly
ever hold property, since the family is perpetuated
along the male line . only, • and real and personal
estates pass to the boys. They have little, or no
voice in choosing their husbands, yet take one they
must before they are twenty years old ; but that hus
band, whom they have not Avanted, has an almost
unquestioned right to divorce his wife upon the
smallest reason, or for none at all. There exists
really no true check upon this except what resides
in the force of the opinion of neighbours. Out of

LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN JAPAN 125
500 marriages, 200 at least end in some sharp and
capricious separation ; for the husband can get rid
of his Avife on the ground of too much gossiping or
because of disagreement Avith the mother-in-laAv ; and
the worst of it is that the children afterAvards belong
to him exclusively. That is one reason Avhy these
Japanese Avives are so divinely patient. Too patient
indeed, Ave should all here say ; but there hangs over
their heads that perpetual sword of Damocles, the
fear of dismissal ; and to maintain their position they
must please their lords and masters. In point of fact,
there is no marriage at all in Japan. There are
ceremonies, presents, family dinner-parties, puttings
on and off of pretty dresses ; but the so-called nuptial
alliance is a matter of domestic arrangement, and
has simply no legal or civil force at all. When the
nakodo or agent has arranged a match, and all has
been settled between the two houses, the bride and
bridegroom drink nine little cups of sake together,
and the bride's name is transferred at the registry
office of the Ken from her father's abode to that
of her husband's father, Avhere she Avill henceforth
become her lord's constant body-servant and the
humble attendant of his mother, who might make life
a hell for her, and only seldom does so simply because
Japanese natures are so much better than Japanese
systems ; wherefore for the most part the little brown
people get on very well together. But the father
parts with his daughter for good and all at marriage,
except so far as visits of affection and compliment
go ; and for this reason, as in most Oriental countries.

126 WANDERING WORDS
daughters cannot be so much valued in Japan as
sons. The daughter, dear as she may prove by her
amiability, will some day or other disappear entirely
from the domestic roof; while the son or sons are
a permanent investment, carefully brought up and
treasured by the Japanese father and mother, because,
as old age approaches, it is the regular thing for
the parents to give up the business and cares of life,
and to lead an easy time, maintained entirely by
their male children. This is everywhere an accep
ted rule. The merchant, farmer, or householder so
retiring is called " Go Inkyo," and is treated with
most unbroken respect and indulgence ; for it is
one of the central virtues of Japan unboundedly to
reverence old age. We might almost indeed for
give the vast mischief that Confucius has wrought
for China, and indirectly for Japan, by his abominable
philosophy of Opportunism, when one sees everywhere
in the two countries this noble and tender deference
paid to grey hairs. Truly writes Miss Bacon : " To
the time-honoured European belief that a young man
must be independent and enterprising in early life
in order to lay by for old age, the Japanese will
answer that children in Japan are taught to love
their parents rather than ease and luxury, and that
care for the future is not the necessity that it is in
Europe and America, where money is above every
thing else — even filial love. This habit of thought
may account for the utter Avant of provision for the
future and the disregard for things pertaining to the
accumulation of wealth Avhich often strikes curiously

LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN JAPAN 127
the foreigner in Japan. A Japanese considers his
provision for the future made when he has brought
up and educated for usefulness a large family of
children. He invests his capital in their support
and education, secure of bountiful returns in their
gratitude and care for his old age. It is hard for the
men of old Japan to understand the rush and struggle
for riches in America — a struggle that too often
leaves not a pause for rest or quiet pleasure until
sickness or death overtakes the indefatigable worker."
The Japanese woman herself gets an immense benefit
from it, for when she comes to be ObS,san, that is,
" auntie," or Obasan, which is "grandmamma," the
hard part of her life is OA^er, and she rests among
her children, honoured and cared for, without com
plaint. On the whole, I am afraid that the two
happiest periods in these gentle and self-denying
lives are childhood and declining years.
The early years of the Japanese girl are, in truth,
pleasant enough. Although not so welcome on her
first appearance as her brothers are, she is sure to be
dear both to father and mother: and in the latter
of these she is equally sure to find a nurse and
guardian truly " semi-angelic." She will be bom
into an atmosphere of gentleness, grace, and kind
ness, and after five or six weeks of infantile existence
will pass into the outer world upon the back of some
sister or little female servant, where she will learn
insensibly to grow up like other Japanese babies,
demure, restrained, silent, polite and self-respectful.
When able to toddle about in her geta or waragi, she

128 WANDERING WORDS
Avill never be slapped or put into a corner or told
" not to do so and so." The sternest possible moral
medicine of reproof will be administered to her with
the sugar of gentle voices and tender faces, but at
the same time she will be instructed daily and hourly
in the duty of suppressing herself, and absolutely
obeying her elders and betters, as well as of being
ready on all occasions to sacrifice herself for the sake
of others. Of course the English or American idea
would be that abjectness must result from all this ;
but positively that is not at all the case. The Jap
anese Avoman, like the Japanese man, brings out of
all such early education in a marked degree the
virtues of self-respect, high spirit, and resolution ;
the fact being that she sees in all this the ideal of
her duty, and that which ensues — the submission of
her whole life to her father first, to her husband next,
and then to her grown-up male children — is the
willing and eager compliance with a duty, not the
acceptance of a bond. Japanese history is full of
the most heroic proofs of the nobleness of soul pos
sessed by the women of the land, from the great
queen who conquered Corea to the lovely Oto
Tachibani Hime, who died by leaping into the sea
to appease the tempest and save her husband the
Emperor. In private life, also, the Japanese Avoman
displays no qualities of the slave ; she is steadfast
and heroic in sickness, danger, or poverty. Always
a lady, in whatever rank of life she may be born, she
permits herself no expression of impatience or revolt,
which would compromise her own ideal of the Nihon

LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN JAPAN 129
no onna. She can die as Avell and bravely as she
can live ; and often, at a crisis, recalls in her own
simple way the example of Lucretia, of whom the
poet says that in sinking to the ground she care
fully arranged her garments, " ne non procumbat
honeste." Nor truly do the Japanese men show themselves
so much demoralised by Confucius as openly to re
gard the female sex as inferior. The proof of that
fact is here, that when a family contains only grown
up daughters, and is at the same time of high position,
so that to preserve the name and estates of the line
becomes important, it is the custom to adopt into
the house a bridegroom for the eldest daughter,
who takes her name and passes into almost the self
same position of subordination as does the ordinary
Japanese wife. Such a young man is named Yoshi,
and lives all his life completely under the thumb of
his well-born wife and her mother and father. More
over, no nation has ever yet been able to make slaves
of its women. The function and mission of woman
is to rule, not by outward symbols of authority, but
by the far stronger and subtler control of the inner
affairs of human life ; and Voltaire was never so wise
a philosopher as when he wrote undej the " portrait
d'une femme " at Versailles :
Quiconque tu sois, voila ton maitre ;
EUe est, elle fut, ou elle va etre.
The Japanese woman, like all her sex everywhere,
in dealing with the blundering laws of men, has
I

130 WANDERING WORDS
known how to take advantage of the deplorable
legislation due to Konfutze, and to mould it into a
state of things which furnishes her with an ideal, and
leaves her free to rule the house, and to become in
very many cases indispensable for it. But there is
no denying the fact that they live from birth to
death upon the good-will of those to whom they
practically belong, while they owe the pleasures and
the independences of their generally blameless exist
ence to their own sweet, patient, and self-contained
natures. What has been said will help to show the American
or English reader that there do not enter into the
life of the Japanese girl any of those ideas of flirta
tion, love-making, courting and the rest of it which
count for so much in a European or American girl
hood. In the middle and lower classes she is fairly
free to come and go, to see her friends, male and
female, and to mingle with the gay crowds of holiday-
makers in festivals and at Matsuri ; but she will
have so little to do with the choice of her husband
that her light and gentle mind leaves the subject
entirely alone. Nor is her physical nature in any
degree whatever a passionate one. The Japanese
temperament is too artistic, too measured, too tran
quil, too constantly governed, for wild flights in direc
tion of the desire or imagination ; and I should be
inclined to say that in actual bodily and spiritual
nature the Japanese woman is one of the purest and
most refined on earth. Nevertheless, it is not to
be concealed that her views upon many questions

LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN JAPAN 131
that are called " moral " would startle her civilised
sisters. There are ahvays two moralities, in truth —
the eternally established code of right and wrong
which makes fidehty of mind and purity of thought

A GEISHA.

eternally divine, and those more or less conventional
systems which different nations have constructed
in different ways, and which especially, and often
very stupidly, touch upon the details of the relations

132 WANDERING WORDS
between the sexes. All depends upon the point
of view taken by each race, and it Avill go far to
help outside peoples to understand the Japanese
woman if they get firm hold of the fact that she
regards life and its conduct from a standing-place
wholly diverse from that of her English or Ameri
can sister. Physical honour is for these last the
supreme virtue, and all the perspective of their moral
landscape is more or less constructed with that for
the foreground. Wholly otherwise is the view of
the Japanese maiden. She looks at life from the
eminence of a perfectly ingrained loyalty, of an
obedience which she has trained herself to make
unquestioning ; and when these counsel her to face
any danger, to accept any dishonour, nay, to perpe
trate any crime, she assents sooner than fail in devo
tion to father, husband, and family. Naturally to the
last degree nice in her habits ; delicate, refined, and re
served; she will not hesitate, and never has hesitated,
to sacrifice herself — as we should say — " body and
soul" to the dictate of this devotion and of these
duties. That is, of course, a very exceptional neces
sity in Japanese families, but it does sometimes
arise ; and when it does arise, though the Japanese
woman is by nature as proud of her purity as the
little ermine which dies under the stroke of the
hunter rather than enter a refuge that has been
soiled, she sets utterly aside those dictates of chastity
which are imperative with us, and accepts conditions
of existence justly considered here improper and
repulsive. Yet even these, be it said, cannot alter

LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN JAPAN 133
the original elevation of her nature, and Japan
presents the only examples known to my experience
where women who would be called and thought
" outcast " in any other country remain " ladies " in
spite of leading a life of the loAvest type. It is as
if their placid souls passed through the mire and
dust of depravity on some invisible geta like those
that lift their little feet high out of the mud of the
Tokyo streets during a rainstorm. To go deeply
into such a subject is, however, not possible for me
in these pages. For myself, if I have sometimes
bitterly said that the Japanese men do not deserve
from their gods the splendid gift of the Japanese
women, it is when my mind has been full^of incidents
like the above ; yet, precious as are the qualities of
the sex in that gentle and pleasant land, I would
rather see Japan again wildly revolutionised, and
all her old manners disappearing before the waves
of our modern civilisation, than that the system
should continue which year by year immolates these
high-hearted victims.
If anybody wants to know how deeply the motive
of such self-surrender is blended into the thoughts
of the nation, he should read the story of The Loyal
Ronins, told in Mitford and summarised by Miss
Bacon in her admirable book.
From our point of view, it seems indeed absolutely
discreditable that a noble family like that described
in this ancient tale could possibly consent to such
domestic infamy ; but what I have written above,
and what Miss Bacon says as well, must be borne

134 WANDERING WORDS
in mind, that the point of view in their moral
landscape is wholly different to ours ; that enormous
value is attached to fidelity of soul and comparatively
little, except as its token and touchstone, to fidelity
of body ; and that the father looks upon his daughter
as something born to serve him, and eventually to pass
from his hands into the possession of others, without
his retaining any except the slightest hold upon her.
Positively, the self-dedication of children to parents is
so complete in Japan, as also in China, that the whole
sale acceptance of it by the daughter, as well as by
the son, naturally tends to draw the father into taking
the execution of it for granted to the fullest extent
and the farthest point. The Japanese unmarried
girl in the middle and lower classes makes all the
clothes for her parents, sweeps and cleans the house,
cooks the food and waits at meals ; and many of these
acts are still performed out of tender filial feeling
even in the houses of the upper classes. The odd
thing is, that this devotion is not accompanied by any
particular personal respect, apart from the universal
decorum and etiquette of Japanese domestic life. I
have seen a Tokyo girl who Avould have done all
that has been alluded to for the sake of her aged
father, send him out in the rain to buy fish and
rice ; and it cannot be too often repeated, in order
to understand the Japanese moral code, that it is
Avith the children an ingrained standai'd of action
which has to be and must be observed, rather than
that personal passion of affection which springs up
in our households and might prompt English or

LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN JAPAN 135
American girls to any and every filial service that
Avas not dishonourable. Let me add that among most
of the educated and respectable Japanese, especially
in the families of noblemen and ex-samurai, the
feelings that we ourselves experience of horror and
disgust at the selfish complaisance of parents are
largely shared, while the public sentiment daily grows
in Japan which condemns, and Avill eventually, let us
hope, abolish the possibilities of such a perversion
of one of the noblest of human virtues. Curious it
is also to notice how this intense devotion of the
children thrives in an atmosphere uncheered by any
of those signs and tokens of parental love to Avhich
we are accustomed. Children are embraced ; never
grown-up daughters. But then it is to be understood
that Japanese affection is wholly undemonstrative.
In that land, even with lovers there are no hand
shakings, no ordinary tender expressions, no caresses.
Kissing is as unknown in Japan as Avaltzing ; and is
thought, indeed, when witnessed among Europeans,
to be a very animal and low-minded way of express
ing attachment. You might intimately knoAv a dear
friend of either sex in the land of Japan for twenty
years without once touching them, and perhaps it is
this singular, universal immunity from bodily contact
which helps to keep alive the proud and sustained
reserve of the Japanese woman as regards her person.
Let it be added, that the habit of fidelity and devotion
thus cultivated toward parents passes into the mind
of the Japanese woman and characterises all her
social relations. She is naturally and by education

136 WANDERING WORDS
the most faithful creature imaginable. No infidelity
on the part of her husband or her lover leads her, for
the sake of revenge or despair, to imitate the evil
example. A breach of duty on her part as a Avife
is really almost unknown, and she will extend the
same habitual and established faithfulness to relations
less binding than those sanctioned by such marriage
forms as do exist in Japan. So long as she is well
treated and not perforce obliged to look for the
necessities of life elsewhere, she makes it a point of
honour to maintain her part of any temporary and
irregular alliance, and so long as she can possibly
put up with bad conduct on the part of him who
ought to be equally faithful to her, she tries to
meet every vexation with patience and silence, utter
ing with gentlest lips the constantly heard phrases :
" Damatte," or " Shikata ga nai."
There are many who think that the spread of
education will put right what is wrong at present in
the social and civil life of these quiet and dutiful
beings. Just now, it is not very much that the
average Japanese woman knows, although schools
and colleges are everywhere increasing. They learn
to write in Katakana and Hiragana, and acquire
enough of the Chinese characters to read the signs
on the shops and the commoner phrases used in
correspondence. Then, also, most of them master
the strings of the samisen and k6to, and perhaps
learn the arts of arranging flowers, of keeping ac
counts, of the special etiquettes of social existence,
and above all, needlework. They make, unmake.

LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN JAPAN 137
and remake all their own clothes ; and that is about
the only form of property which the Japanese woman
generally owns. Fashions never change in the
country, and since a girl gets at her marriage a
complete outfit from her family, augmented by pre
sents from her husband, she is provided to the end
of her existence with rnaterials for unpicking and
remaking. Almost the only occupations which a
woman can take up with are those of dressmaking
and teaching, but for the last she must have passed
through some of the new schools and colleges, which
teach Eastern and Western learning together, to the
sad fatigue of many a youthful feminine pupil, who
brings home at night from them a headache as heavy
as the books that her musume carries. Moreover, it
is a fact not to be denied, that this foreign education
does affect in a rather disastrous way the graceful
manners of the girls ; and whether it be desirable or
not, you can always tell the scholars of a missionary
school, or Daigakko, by some slight lack of that
perfect grace and ancient decorum which is observ
able in the unsophisticated Japanese maiden. This
new education, it may be added, too often produces
discontent without providing any way of allaying it.
The instructed Japanese girl knows too much to be
contented any longer with her career, and yet is
utterly unable to find any means of obtaining the
independence that could alone rescue her from it.
As matters stand, it is safe to say that she does not
gain as much from Western learning as she loses in
regard of old-world tranquillity and SAveetness of

138 WANDERING WORDS
manner, with that soft acquiescence in the traditional
state of things which made her pass this life on the
whole so easily, from the hour of the miya maeri, when
she went first into the temple as a baby, to the hour
when they burn her cream-white little body and no
thing is left of the gentlest of human creatures except
a handful of grey ashes. There is another sort of
education, however, which does great good, and that
is the presence and the frequent society of FkigUsh
and American ladies, who, I have always thought,
as wives of missionaries or as residents of the land,
effect more solid amelioration than all the sermons
and all the school-classes put together. In meeting
the best of these, the Japanese girl sees for herself
how perfect freedom may go with grace, goodness of
heart, and humility ; and in such sweet instances she
sees also how the European or American husband
can preserve towards his wife a chivalrous submis
sion and a daily tender attention without forfeiting
his manliness or the natural rights of his sex. This
influence is working steadily for good on the minds
of the people, and it is a curious illustration of it
that a Japanese gentleman in European dress behaves
in public with much more regard and politeness to his
Japanese wife than when they both wear the native
costume. Still, it was no farther back than the nth of
February 1889, that the Emperor for the first time
made his progress through the streets of the capital
with the astounding sight of the Empress riding in
the same carriage. And even his Majesty, enlightened
and progressive as he is, Avhen I had the honour of

LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN JAPAN 139
being present at the imperial garden-party last year,
came upon the lawn where the ambassadors and in
vited guests were waiting his appearance, not arm
in arm with his august consort, but preceding her
by many steps. Let me pay the tribute of an admir
ing sentence to that smallest and sweetest-natured
of all Japanese women, the good and patriotic Em
press. Childless and disappointed, and doomed to
see the diadem of Japan pass to the offspring of
another who is not married to the Emperor, even
as Japanese marriages go, she has taken the whole
country to her motherly heart, and is as true and
dutiful an Empress as she is a tender and faithful
wife to her august lord.
Japanese legislation is slowly seeking to do more
justice to Japanese Avomen. A law has been passed
making it impossible for the son of a concubine to
succeed to a noble title, and that will apply in future
to the imperial household itself Another laAv has
been established granting to wives the right of
claiming a divorce ; but this, in the nature of things,
will almost never be availed of, because there is
literally no future in ninety-nine cases out of a
hundred for the woman who should act upon it.
Outside the law, nevertheless, public opinion is a
considerable force in Japan, and it is this more than
any statute which at present in many ways protects
the Japanese wife from too great wrong. A man who
capriciously turns his wife away, or is unkind or violent
to her (a thing, to tell the truth, almost unknown in
the country), will find his neighbours and friends

I40 WANDERING WORDS
making things decidedly hot and unpleasant for
him. Side by side with education many foreign friends
of Japan rely upon the spread of Christianity in the
country. No doubt, as far as it does spread, it
carries with it ideas of woman's rights and woman's
true mission immeasurably higher than those which
Confucianism has promulgated far and wide in Mon
golian Asia. Eventually I hope it will win a great,
if gradual, social victory on this ground, but as a
creed I believe it will find the necessity of amalga
mating much of the Buddhism which it sees occupy
ing nine-tenths of the area of Japan. • There is
nothing to my mind fundamentally hostile between
Christianity and Buddhism, nor do I think it im
possible that Christianity may do what Buddhism
itself did when it first entered Japan, and take
possession of the hearts of the people by silently
adopting many of their national ideas. Shintoisni,
the religion of the Emperor and the court, is not a
religion at all, but a cult of ancestors derived from
the ancient nature -worship of the land. The Japanese
people themselves are, in matters of theology, the
lightest-hearted in the world. Their religion has
been well defined as " a mixture of fun and fear,"
but the women are, all the same, sincerely pious,
and there is no Japanese home Avithout proofs of
this ; while one sees in the streets the laughing
musume, the gaily-attired geisha, and the hard
working coolie Avoman stop all alike at the gate
of the temple, to enter, to pull the altar bell, to

LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN JAPAN 141
mutter the little devout prayer, with closed eyes
and head bent down, and then to drop into the
temple chest the hard-earned coin, while the small
palms are clapped together to let Heaven know
that its " honourable attention " is no longer
requested. Certainly, if missionaries only knew
how to be enlightened and adaptive, there could
be no richer or better soil to cultivate than that
of all these simple, sweet, and impressionable
hearts. One point in which the Japanese women are
above and beyond all their Christian teachers is
in the tender regard they pay to their dead, and
in the ceremonies, full of a strong and sublime
faith in the future life, which they make at their
graves. One of the duties of the Japanese wife and
daughter, never neglected, is to visit from time to
time the tombs of her husband's ancestors or of her
own parents, and to place there fresh branches of the
pure sakaki, and to see that the little resting-places
are kept neat and clean. Nor has any religious
teacher, however exalted, a single page or line of any
lesson to teach the Japanese woman about the per
fect fulfilment of her duty to her children or to her
parents. There is no Western lady who might not
rather take example by the ceaseless grace of these
domestic relations. Never do the Japanese children
leave or return to the house, in any rank of life,
without prostrating themselves before the tender
mother, and softly asking permission of absence,
" O it6ma." Never does she return, but all the

142 WANDERING WORDS
children and servants throng to the threshold, and
with foreheads upon the mats and soft ejaculations
of welcome, salute the " O kaeri," the " honour
able re-arrival." It is to the mothers that is due
the passing onwards from generation to generation
of that gentle inheritance of Japanese good manners,
and for the most part the children repay this rich
affection. There is almost no end to the indulgence
with which they are treated. The story is told of a
sick girl who had the passion to give a garden-party
under cherry blossoms in the month of December,
and rather than disappoint her wild wish, the father
and mother hired artificers to cover the branches
of the bare trees in the garden with innumerable
delicate blossoms of pink and white tissue-paper,
so that the wilful girl might carry out her fantastic
purpose. That which would most of all make the Japanese
woman mistress in a larger degree of her destiny,
and perhaps bring this about without spoiling the
matchless charm of her devotion, her self-denial, her
inexhaustible grace, her endless delicacy of speech
and act and bearing, would be to reform the laws of
property in her favour. If there were a statute, as
exists in France, obliging the father, under certain
proper conditions, to provide for his daughter as
well as his son, we should see a large number of
Japanese women made independent of the vicissi
tudes of life, and soon a new state of things would
arise. If, again, it were possible to extend to Japan
the movement Avhich in England and America has

LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN JAPAN 143
provided so many Avomen Avith honourable and lucra
tive employments in public and private offices, that
also would open a Avide door for the escape of many
a gentle Japanese maid from the stern necessity that
confronts her now of marrying without love, and
depending all through her life upon her father, her
husband, and her children.
All comes to this, therefore, that in larger and
more generous laws respecting the endowment of
female children, and in the opening up of new fields
of employment to the sex in general, seem to dawn
the best hopes of justice for the Japanese woman.
But even while one breathes such aspirations of
change and noAv times for her, a chilling fear comes
upon the mind lest, in touching with the coarse
hand of Western civilisation that consummate pro
duct of the isolated faiths and systems of Japan,
we find spoiled for ever the old-world charms of
her nature, and see depart beyond recall virtues
and qualities never to be replaced, as they have
never been surpassed. This same Japanese woman,
with all her shortcomings, ignorances, littlenesses,
and absurdities, is like the brilliant and flower-
loving butterfly whose existence she often imitates.
One rash touch upon the light aad glad wing
leaves her still flying, perhaps, but may destroy the
dainty delicacy of that jewelled embroidery upon
its delicate vans. On the whole, she has been up
till now very placidly happy, like her mothers and
grandmothers before her, and that is more than I
quite dare to predict for her daughters and grand-

144

WANDERING WORDS

daughters, when, as seems inevitable, all around
her must alter, and new times bring her new man
ners, while in her astonished little ears " the great
world spins for ever down the ringing grooves of
change."

THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN.

VII
JAPANESE WRESTLERS

K

VII
JAPANESE WRESTLERS
Weestling in Japan has, for centuries past, been
cultivated as a high athletic science, seriously pursued
by a large professional class, and extremely popular
throughout the Empire. This is the special time of
year when, and Tokyo is the central place where,
the chief annual exhibition of the national sport
comes off; and thus, for more than a week past,
nothing has been talked about so much as the great
contest going forward between the champions of the
Eastern and Western side of " Dai Nippon " at Ekoin.
Ekoin is in a north-western central quarter of the
vast Japanese capital, and there, twice a year, the
aU important Sumo Banzuke, or wrestling tourna
ments, are held. The number of registered wrestlers
— sumotori — in Japan may be reckoned, probably,
by thousands, but only picked and certificated men
are privileged to appear at Ekoin ; yet even these,
on the present occasion, amount to no less than 371.
Their status ha,s been solemnly decided at the pre
ceding January contest, and, a few days before the
summer trials, long catalogues are published, giving
the names of the combatants in the rank settled by
the elders of the Wrestlers' Guild. These catalogues
also arrange and notify in what order the contestants

148 WANDERING WORDS
shall be coupled, although a certain element of chance
enters into that. The professional status of each
man remains fixed hereby until January next, when he
will be promoted or degraded in accordance with the
prowess displayed during the present exciting days.
Exciting, indeed, they are ; for no Derby Day at
Epsom, no University Boat Race, no Waterloo Cours
ing Cup awakens at home more widespread interest
than this prolonged encounter of the West and East
in Japan. Everybody has his favourite side, every
body marks his list of cherished champions ; and
during the Banzuke, on all the fine days, the Ginza
and Nihombashi roads are thronged with jinrikshas
trundling down to the scene of action. On the fine
days only, because just at this part of the year the
ume-no-ame, or "rains of the ripening plum," are
frequent, and the management wisely notify that
they will only open the wrestling theatre when the
weather is good. The funds of the great association
are maintained from the show, and it is therefore
necessary to utilise thoroughly its popularity. Twice,
accordingly, this past week, the " Garden " has been
closed ; but we have had several brilliant days of
sport, despite the weather, and metropolitan enthu
siasm is just now at its height, since the time has
come for the deciding matches. It would hardly be
tolerated if I should inflict on the British public a
complete catalogue of these Tokyo lutteurs, but, for
a sample of the titles which they bear, the couples of
the first class shall be here appended. They stand
as follows : —

JAPANESE WRESTLERS

149

Wrestlers of the First Rank.

East.

AVest.

National Champion

Nishinoumi .

—

Champions

Konishiki

Yawatayama.

ist Sub-Champions

Hibikimasu .

Otohira.

2nd Sub-Champions

Ichinoya

Tanino-oto.

ist .

Asashio .

Wakaminato.

2nd .

Hokkai .

Onigatani.

3rd .

Datenoya

Tomonohira.

4th .

Dewanoumi

Hiranoto.

5th

. Imaizumi

Shitenryu.

6th .

Chitosegawa

Ozutsu.

7th

. Odate .

Shinrlki.

8th .

Takanoto

Onigake.

9th .

Sotonoumi

. Chiyenoya.

loth .

Orochigata

. Hibikiya.

Ayanami f

Tsurugizan. f

The Japanese ring-names for the first four are re
spectively Yokozuna, Ozeki, Sekiwaki, and Komusubi
— all technical appellations. Yokozuna, for example,
means the " wearer of the Emperor's belt." The
athletes with a mark to their titles were ill at the
last match, and hold their high rank provisionally.
The Eastern "crack" Nishinoumi has no compeer,
being champion ; and the first on the Western list,
Yawatayama, has been absent, having sprained one
of his mighty arms. These names, so strange to your
eyes, with scores of others like them, are as familiar
to Tokyoites as those of Orme and Flyaway at home ;
and, if you would know what true "fame" is, you
should listen just now to the talk in the tea-houses
and 'riksha-stands about Nishinoumi and Otohira
and Ozutsu. These and Konishiki, who fight with
Nishinoumi for the East, are the four chief favourites.

150 WANDERING WORDS
Very grave and firmly-established are the rules
of the Japanese wrestling ring, and not the slightest
departure is permitted from them by the judges or
the public. There are forty-eight legalised " falls,"
divided into classes of twelve each. One encounter,
unless a draw occur, settles each combat. The
regulations as to where, when, and how each man
may "clinch" the other are sternly laid down, and
the language of the wrestling garden is, in every par
ticular, as clear, positive, and authoritative as the
Code Napoleon. The professional Avrestlers are a
class apart, albeit drawn from all ranks and localities.
They are selected for their bulk and muscle; and
amid a people so nationally small as the Japanese,
the average sumo-tori towers like a giant, and
swaggers through the crowd like an orange junk
among a fleet of fishing sampans. They live hke
" fighting-cocks " — being huge feeders and drinkers,
whom a wire-drawn British pugilist would indeed
batter into breathless helplessness in a round or two ;
but the same skilled pugilist, if clasped in the pon
derous embrace of Nishinoumi or Konishiki, would
feel like a filbert in a nutcracker. They have patrons
Avho train and feed them, and when they have once
taken a good rank in the Tokyo Sumo Banzuke, they
fill up the year by " starring " in the provinces at
local matches. Like all their race, they are, for the
most part, good-tempered and honest Titans, who
wish to win, but seem to have no desire to do it by
cruel or unfair means, albeit there are times and
situations when the victor, if he likes, can easily kill

JAPANESE WRESTLERS 151
his man. I myself saAv a leg broken in an encounter,
but it was obviously by accident. The major portion
of the bouts seems to be decided chiefly by sheer
weight ; for, as has been remarked, the men cultivate
flesh, and even fat, to the point of vast obesity ; but
there is displayed a great deal of solid and educated
skill besides, and one of the most adroit and suc
cessful of the Eastern representatives, Katsuhira
— who in my sight hurled over his knee a colossus
of flesh and bone — was quite a small man, with
muscles of living steel under his smooth brown
skin, and little hands and feet which might have
become a fashionable lady, concealing enormous
strength. But now let us repair to the Ekoin, and see
hoAv the great bi-annual tournament of the Sumo
Banzuke is earned on. Whirling through a maze
of busy Asiatic streets, behind the twinkling legs
of our " kurumaya-san" we reach at last the scene
of action, easily known by thousands of fluttering
flags on all sides and the concourse of bare-headed,
bare-legged Japanese thronging to the entrance.
This is up a narrow lane, where in England nothing
but a large force of police could preserve any
order ; but the Japanese holiday public polices itself.
Everybody is good-tempered, smiling, and willing
to be jostled ; and even if pushed into the tray of
fried bean-cakes, or upon the pan of sizzling star
fish, is readily comforted by a " Go busata " or a
" Go men nasai." No carriages could well approach,
and there are no regulations for any, but my riksha-

152 WANDERING WORDS
man dexterously thrusts his vehicle in between the
stall of an ameya blowing sugar-birds out of paste
and the shop of a dealer in flags and lamps, and
promising the obliging tradesman a penny — two sen
— for taking care of it, passes in with me to the
arena. This is at once the most democratic and
the most conservative land in the globe. The
good fellow, who has pulled me five miles at the
speed of a trotting pony, takes his seat on the
mats in my box with as good a decorum and as
just a self-regard as anybody, and having assumed
charge of my boots and placed at my side the tobacco-
box and the " honourable tea," proceeds to read to
me from the Chinese characters the programme of
the afternoon, Avith many enlightening comments.
The building, if it can so be called, is a vast
improvised circular structure of pine stems and
bamboos, roofed with cotton cloths, and waUed
with the same. Its countless tiers of rude seats rise
interminably one above another from the wrestling
stage in the middle. This is the most carefully
constructed feature of the edifice — a low, circular
floor, strewed thickly with fine black dust, and
surrounded by a ridge of rice-bags, firmly fastened in
their places. At four points of its circumference rise
as many poles, bound round with different coloured
cotton cloth, and under each sits an umpire — one
for north, south, east, and west respectively — very
correctly attired in high-class Japanese fashion,
with hakama, kimono, obi, and all the rest. The
wrestling-ring measures about fifteen or sixteen feet

JAPANESE WRESTLERS 153
in diameter, inside the rice-bags ; and there are two
other officials seen within its sacred limits, the umpire
and the herald. Both are attired in the ancient
Nippon style of a Samurai, with projecting shoulder-
pieces, hair tied back in a cue, and fans with long
strings of purple silk. Round the ring, on the floor
of the building, Avhich is perhaps a foot or eighteen
inches lower than the ring, you see squatted a dozen
or fifteen nearly naked men, of immense bulk in
body and limbs, who are the next batch of com
batants. Scattered about the circles of expectant
people you may discern a good many more of the
same sort, distinguishable by their topknots and
their huge size ; but these, as being for the time
spectators, wear the yukata, an ordinary bathing-
dress of stamped cotton, over their brawny frames.
The place will hold 4000 people, and is full almost
to the fluttering green and purple cloths of the roof.
If we should have a really business-like earthquake
just now to shake down the massive beams of fir
above our heads, there is here the precise arrange
ment for such a sweeping catastrophe as might
almost get into history. But nobody thinks of that.
There are very few women present, since it is not
the " mode " for the female sex to assist at such
spectacles, though you may note here and there the
wife or mother of a champion, or some family party
comprising a Japanese lady or two. There is,
however, plenty of the Japanese heau m,onde.
Here may be recognised to-day, for example, the
two Princes Tokugawa and Konoye near the stage.

154 WANDERING WORDS
with the Marquis Date, and there, opposite, Count
Tsugaru, with many of our foreign notabilities.
Everybody smokes ; everybody reads the list of
the champions, if they only know the crabbed
Chinese characters. A placid chatter fills the
huge interior, mingled with the cries of the
" tea-boys," " Yoroshii ? yoroshii gozaimas ? " — " Is
it well?" "Are you all served?" Empty lunch
boxes go out and full ones come in from the neigh
bouring tea-houses ; 4000 painted fans flutter in the
hot afternoon air, and four little light-blue tangles of
smoke curl upwards from the pipes of the four um
pires sitting cross-legged upon their silken cushions.
But see ! The umpire reads from a long roll
upon a red stick the names of the successive
couples who will next contend before us, and then
the herald, in a high theatrical voice, proclaims
the style and title of the forthcoming pair. This
official is known as the yohi-dashi, or " caller-forth ; "
and, as his loud-pitched falsetto terminates, two
massive athletes step from below upon the stage,
slightly raised above the floor of the hall. They
ascend from opposite sides, for one half of the
building and of the arena is for the East, the other
for the West, and in the contests there is always a
Western and an Eastern man. Two of the same
party are never matched at Ekoin. Each cham
pion is stark naked, save for a linen rag and a
black silk girdle, from which hangs a fringe of
silk cords, much resembling that of leather worn
by the women of Upper Egypt. Each, as he

JAPANESE WRESTLERS 155
slowly and ponderously mounts the platform and
steps Avithin the rice-bags, turns his face round to
his own side of " the house," and, stretching his
left leg high and far into the air, brings down that
foot Avith a thud upon the earth, smites a resound
ing blow with the flat of his palm on his squared
thigh, stretches forth the right leg in balance,
slaps that also, and then, without deigning a glance
at his adversary, Avho is going through the same
performance behind him, stalks to his corner, wets
his lips with water, rubs his mouth with salt,
brushes off the sweat from his arms and breast
with a square of paper, spits, and swaggers to his
place over against his opponent. As they confront
each other, each man squats doAvn upon his heels,
letting his huge dark carcass descend upon the
elastic muscles and ligaments of thigh and calf with
a resilient movement, like a barouche settling upon
its springs. Upon this the umpire, in an ancient
costume of green and gold and purple, with fan
in hand, and hair dressed "to the nines," after
the old Samurai manner, approaches, nicely
measures the distance of his men, ^and, standing
with his white stockings astride, levels his fan,
and says, "Proceed." The two broWn giants lean
forward on their hands, now like two gamecocks,
pitted almost nose to nose, and, with eyes fixed
eagerly upon eyes, watch each other. The inflexible
rule is that the "clinch" must be made simul
taneously. Neither must get the better of either
by any premature motion, and thus, when you

156 WANDERING WORDS
hear a yell and see the giants fly at each other, you
are at first disappointed to find that after all, time
upon time, it is " no start." One or the other will
let his arms drop, or the umpire himself will call
out " Mada ! mada ! "— " Not yet ! not yet ! " The
fierce embrace is unlocked, the brawny rivals saunter
to their corners, where again they wash out their
mouths with water, sake, or soy, take a little salt
for purification, wipe themselves over with paper,
expectorate, and then anew crack their huge
joints, and crouch down face to face. Again and
again this will be repeated. The umpire shouts
the disappointing ''Mada;" one or the other
drops his arms ; the audience patiently fill their
little pipes, but shout "Sa! yare" — "Come,
now ; begin ! " An often-baffled rival will also
be heard to exclaim tauntingly, "Yare! Yari!"
At last it is really a fair grapple. The pride of
the West, Osutsu, and the glory of the East,
Konishiki, are now locked together in the long-
expected and decisive struggle. The umpire, letting
fall his fan to the very end of its purple string,
has cried aloud "Agattel" — "A good grip!" —
and walks round and round the enlaced com
batants, keenly noting every movement of the
strife. The usually placid Japanese public is now all
alight with emotion. When young Konishiki has
been lifted bodily from earth by the prodigious
Osutsu, the West shouts " Hora ! Hora ! " until
the bamboo rafters tremble. When the young
champion of the East tAvines his leg round the

JAPANESE WRESTLERS 157
giant's thigh and slips out of his difficulty into a
new and commanding position, the other side of
the house roars mightily " Konishiki San banzai " —
"Ten thousand years of life for Konishiki!" Nor,
truly, is it otherwise than a good and manly
sight to see those splendid frames matched so
fairly in bloodless battle ; the dusky skin and flesh
trained so hard that you mark the other wrestler's
hand slip from it as from brown marble ; the
muscles working underneath like snakes beneath
a blanket ; the feet so desperately planted, the
grasp so implacably kept, each man glaring through
the eyes of the other to catch at his next mind,
or the coming moment of his weakness. There
arrives sometimes an instant when, perfectly equi
poised in the strife, deadlocked and simultaneously
become quite breathless, the watchful umpire will,
by a movement of his fan and the word " Yoshi ! "
part the gasping combatants. But generally — and
often very quickly — the match is clean wrestled
out. In the bout I am describing the younger
athlete conquered, to the greater glory of the East.
Ozutsu's vast brawn was laid low, and even thrust
outside the rice-bags, and the air rang with the
name of Konishiki, while dozens • of delighted
backers flung their hats and caps upon the stage,
exclaiming " Ageru-zo!" ("I give you this!").
Such votive head-gear is, of course, all duly brought
back again to its owners, and the habit is really a relic
of the ancient times, when it was considered becom
ing to strip yourself to the waist before a superior.

iS8 WANDERING WORDS
In this way combat succeeds combat during many
hours, and the victors of to-day meet each other
inside the rice-bags on the morrow. Each conflict
presents, of course, its special incidents, but they
follow the general character described. Almost all
of them are interesting, but when the chief champions
meet, the excitement becomes extraordinary, and the
foreigner himself cannot keep quite clear of the
prevailing enthusiasm. At present it seems that
the Eastern side must carry off the glories of this
Ekoin summer meeting. It possesses three doughty
fighting men who have not yet sustained a fall,
to wit, the unconquered Nishinoumi, the gigantic
Ho-o, and the lighter but dauntless Konishiki.
The West can only boast of one representative
whom none has compelled hitherto to bite the
dust, but he is a very famous wrestler indeed, the
colossal Otohira. It may seem strange to have to
apply Titanic epithets to Japanese-born men, but,
in truth these Sumo- Tori are a special race. There
may be a sprinkling among them of strong pure-
blood Nipponese drawn from the ranks of sailors,
jinriksha-men, and the like, but the majority
appear a breed apart, and are said indeed to be
of Tungensian extraction, originally from the pro
vince of Idzumo. Many are six feet and upwards
in stature, and of a great natural bulk, artificially
increased. Altogether, the bi-annual Sumo-Ban-
zukes of Tokyo are most certainly " a sight to see."
T6ky6, June lo, 1892.

VIII
AT AN INDIAN CHRISTMAS-TIME

' AT THE LIPS OF THE BLACK FIELD-PIECE." P. l6l.

VIII
AT AN INDIAN CHRISTMAS-TIME
It is natural to think of Christmas-tide as we see
it in England — in most years wintry and white, as if
the earth decked herself in a new and pure mantle
to celebrate the birthday of the Divine Teacher of
"peace and goodwill." But if one travels a great
deal, or reflects only a very little, it will soon be
experienced how there are Christmas-tides of all sorts,
and of every variety of weather, upon this globe.
Christmas Day in the Holy Land, where Christmas
Days began, is, as often as not, very warm indeed.
If it were not so, the shepherds would not have been
watching their sheep out of doors when they heard
that heavenly music. In Cape Colony and at the
Antipodes, December the twenty-fifth, as likely as
not, will prove the hottest day of the Southern
Hemisphere ; and in India, though the, universal
festival of Christendom falls in what is called the
" cold season," the Anglo-Indian has to make an
effort of imagination, amid the sights and sounds of
tropical life, to realise that it is indeed Christmas
time, and that, although climate, prudence, and the
doctor may unanimously forbid, he and his household
must eat plum-pudding and mince-pies, and make
believe to be amid the old surroundings.
l6l , T

1 62 WANDERING WORDS
As one lives, and works, and wanders about the
world, a vista of Christmas-times is gradually formed,
down which the mind casts retrospective glances,
recalling some that were silver with snow, some
which were golden with sun-glare, some which were
of the old homely type, and some which were spent
in wild places ignorant of English ways and English
faces. There is no reason why there should be any
thing sad in the retrospect. AU of them were in
teresting in their way; all brought some fresh reason
to be grateful for the rich delight and beautiful
variety of life ; and if, as is probable, there are more
to come in this existence, or else in a series of much
better existences, why should so much ado be made
by any of us about transient troubles ? It should
not in the least degree affect well-ordered minds
with melancholy to look back along the avenue of
fifty or sixty Christmas Days, even though they wiU
wistfully remember at what points in the long road
this or that true companion turned aside to a higher
but hidden path. It is good to live and good to
die, and the stupidest thing in all philosophy is
pessimism, as the most foolish belief on all the earth
is unbelief Let sensible folk rather learn to say
with Chaucer :
Unto this day it dothe my herte boote
That I have hadde my worlde, as in my time.
I for one recall with a quiet and grateful pleasure
all the particular stages of the vista — the Christ-
mases in England, the Christmases upon the ocean,

AT AN INDIAN CHRISTMAS-TIME 163
the Christmases in India, the Christmases in Egypt,
in Bulgaria, in America, in Greece, in Algiers, in
Japan. Which Christmas-time shall I write about
to-day? Shall it be one out of the hot and sunny
Yuletides ? An Indian Christmas Day, with perhaps
a story to it, not the less useful if it contrasts stormy
epochs of the past with present peace, and primitive
passions with the things which are " lovely and of
good report " ? An Indian Christmas-time let it be I
I was in India during all the dark days of the
Great Mutiny in 1857 and its following years. That
seems, and truly is, a long while ago — so long ago that
another Hindostan has since arisen. At a very early
age I was appointed Principal of the Government
College at Poona, in the Deccan, and the Sepoy
rebellion was in full blaze when I landed at Bombay
with my wife and child. The siege of Delhi was in
progress ; scanty but precious reinforcements were
pouring in from various points to the hard-pressed
British troops. Our own vessel — an old paddle-
steamer called the Pottinger — carried out 300 soldiers
and officers of all sorts ; and during the voyage to
Bombay constant practice with pistols and other
weapons went forward. At Cairo, whence we had
still to cross the desert in vans, we met wounded
officers and men returning home from the first
Indian fights. All kinds of ugly news encountered
us on the way, yet it was a very light - hearted
ship's company on board the old paddle-steamer,
albeit many among us were destined never to see
England again. I especially remember a young

i64 WANDERING WORDS
civilian who was soon afterwards murdered in the
South Mahratta country by a rebel Rajah, and also
an engineer officer named Glastonbury Nevill. The
latter repeatedly assured me that he had a fixed
presentiment he would fall ; and, too truly, the first
round shot fired at Rajgurh cut him in two.
We landed ; and how beautiful, and ncAv, and
wonderful India seemed, despite the desperate crisis
which was pending. Never shall I forget that first
Christmas season in the Deccan, nor, indeed, my first
morning in India. Everybody had to be at his post,
and even I, a mere teacher, was ordered up by " John
Company Bahadur " to my college within an hour
of arrival. Thus all night long we journeyed through
the Concan, and up the Gh^ts, and over the table
land of the Deccan in a mysterious darkness, meeting
long lines of cotton carts, and files of sepoys, and
groups of country people with their heads swathed
up in cloths, but seeing nothing of India except the
white dust and the phantom figures in the starlight,
until the dawn broke over the flat-topped hills of
Poona. But then how bright and strange, and full
with delightful novelty of bird and beast, of tree and
flower, of men and Avomen and children, and their
ways and words, this Eastern Avorld appeared ! I
could hardly be persuaded to go in to breakfast out
of the great hot Indian garden, so absorbed had I
become in the realisation of what I had read about.
The kites circling round and round in the cloudless
pale blue sky ; the mynas, with their yellow beaks
and legs, chattering and strutting ; the bee-eaters.

AT AN INDIAN CHRISTMAS-TIME 165
bronze and green, darting about in chase of the
gorgeous butterflies, whose wings — crimson and black
or blue and silver — they strip away before devouring
the body, until the ground beneath their perch was
like a painter's palette ; the mongoose sniffing around
the snake's hole ; the lively-coloured lizards glancing
in and out among the great blue blossoms of the
convolvuli ; a swarm of rose-necked parroquets flash
ing with loud screams through the mango-trees, and
settling in a green cloud upon the silk-cotton tree ;
the red and emerald " coppersmith " hammering away
on his branch in the tamarind ; the sun-birds, with
plumage of canary and purple, plunging their tiny
bills into the trumpet-flowers ; the vultures grimly
perched in black rows on the wall ; the incessant
crows everywhere busy and noisy ; and also every
where scuttling up and doAvn, in and out, those little
striped squirrels, Avhich you see all over the Indian
Peninsula. Do you know why they are striped with
five long dark grey marks ? It is because the god
Shiva saw one of them once dipping his bushy tail
into the Bay of Bengal time after time, and shaking
it out over the shore. " Absurd little geloori ! " the
god said, " why do you do thus ? " " Oh, Thousand-
Handed," the squirrel replied, " the palm-tree holding
the nest which contains my wife and children has
fallen into the water by reason of a typhoon, and I
am trying to bale the Bay of Bengal dry with my tail,
to save my dear family." Upon that the deity smiled
graciously, and, stooping down, stroked the tiny
beast, leaving on its back five marks of his finger and

i66 WANDERING WORDS
thumb, and afterAvards commanded the ocean to retire
until the little squirrel had recovered his nest and
belongings. Yet, although the glories and wonders of nature in
India absorbed me a great deal more than the slight
personal dangers of the time, even my quiet and
learned retreat was not entirely outside the troubles
of that period. The Government of Bombay has since
built a spacious and splendid edifice for the Deccan
College ; in my time we were housed in an ancient
but picturesque palace of the Peishwas, the old Maha-
ratta kings, in the heart of the city. Its carved teak
columns, green quadrangles, and shadoAvy Oriental
halls used to make me very proud of being "Prin
cipal," and from the very beginning I liked my
dusky students — of whom there were some 500 —
and wished sincerely to be good friends with them.
Yet at the commencement an aAvkward thing oc
curred. I used to repair in the hot morning by
bullock-cart or palanquin to the college, returning
every afternoon on horseback; and one morning I
saw a notice in Marathi writing, unsigned by me,
upon the gateway. I ordered it to be taken down
and read to me, whereupon it proved to be an offer
of 10,000 rupees for the Principal's head. To treat
this seriously would have been a sad mistake ; so,
knowing that Hindoos are as susceptible as children
to badinage, I assembled the classes, had the re
bellious document read aloud, and then made a little
speech, saying hoAV glad I was I did not know the
authors of the offending paper, since if I did they

AT AN INDIAN CHRISTMAS-TIME 167
would have to be denounced, and bloAvn from guns,
or hanged. Not knowing them, nor Avanting to know
them, I was free to express my satisfaction at having
my head estimated at a sum so handsome, and I
thanked my anonymous enemies for the delicate
compliment. At the same time, I added, my hope
was strong that that head would prove more useful
to all of them on my shoulders than off, and I invited
such as were disaffected at least to try the experi
ment. As a matter of fact, even the peaceful Deccan
College, being full of Brahman students, was also
full of foolish and windy elements of rebelliousness,
and a high police authority sent a private application
to me to admit as scholars into the institution two
or three young natives, AA'ho, seemingly intent on
learning, would watch and overhear and eventually
report to the department. I indignantly refused.
I had gone there to teach my pupils, and to be taught
by them — not to betray their temporary follies and
see some of them perhaps cast into prison or exe
cuted. I Avas reported for my obstinate refusal,
but Lord Elphinstone — then governing Bombay for
the Company — privately upheld me, only intimating
that I would have to be personally answerable for
the good behaviour of the students, since I was so
inflexible in their protection. And I think this got,
somehow, to the knowledge of the young Brahmans,
for we did become great friends, and days as happy
as any in my life were afterwards passed in that
ancient Mahratta palace, among my dark scholars,
Avhile outside us the thunder of war rolled, and the

1 68 WANDERING WORDS
gallant English regiments held up against fierce and
frightful odds the flag of John Company, which was
soon afterwards to be transferred to Her Majesty the
Queen, Kaisar-i-Hind ; Adhirajni.
I well remember that particular Christmas, and a
strange and moving story of the Great Mutiny,
which I picked up in the jungle, upon one of the
many hunting excursions I was in the habit of mak
ing from Poona. For many years past I have given
up gun, rifle, and fishing-rod — not because I was,
or am, weary of carrying them, for the passion of
woodland wandering is as strong as ever with me,
but because the beauty, wonder, and delight in life
of the wild creatures grew upon me so much that
I can no longer kill any of them. Yet, although
Emerson justly praises the man who "catalogues
the birds without a gun," it is certain that nothing
makes any one a naturalist so quickly as a sincere
love of the spear and rifle, which lead the sportsman
into recesses and private places of the jungle and
mountain, where neither he, nor any one else, would
otherwise roam. So, in those Indian days, I Avas up
nearly every dawn before the morning star, and away
on horseback to the river to shoot snipe and duck ;
and when a day or two of holiday arrived, off into
the open country, round the city, where antelopes
abounded, and where you were as likely as not to
come across panther, wolf, hyaena, or even bear, and
possibly an occasional tiger, while thinking only of
florikan and quail. In the darkest days of the Mutiny,
Avhen even some of our faithful Bombay regiments

AT AN INDIAN CHRISTMAS-TIME 169
Avere rebelling, and mutineers were being blown
from guns or otherwise executed at Satara, Bombay,
and the surrounding stations, the country proper
was always fairly safe and quiet. The agricultural
people neither understood nor heeded the political
storm. Their grievances were not against the Saheb-
16k — the Government — but against the marwarries,
or money-lenders. If the peasants ever rose any
where, it was to cut the throats of those banias and
burn their books ; after which they would come
back to their oxen and wooden ploughs as tranquil
as good little children who have been to wash their
hands. We rode, therefore, in much calm and com
fort all about the Deccan plains in the very midst
of the great mutiny, though its leaders — Nana
Sahib and Tantia Topee — were both Mahrattas, and
although, in old Mahratta phrase, " the fire was on
the hills."
Glad, and free, and rich in sights and sounds
to rejoice one who loves this beautiful earth, were
those plains of the Deccan at Christmas-time. It
is not a tropical vegetation there, but rather re
sembles the sub-tropical flora of Japan, except that
no fir-trees ever mingled with the bamboos and
acacias. Between the flat-topped ti^p ranges, which
ran round and round the horizon like castles of
giants, vast level tracts extended covered with sheets
of smooth rock and bushes of corinda, dwarf thorns,
and cactus, with long dry yellow grass, all inter
sected by deep or shallow nullahs — watercourses —
then quite dry, but full and floAving in the rainy

170 WANDERING WORDS
season. Here and there a village nestled within
its mud walls, and here and there a green gar
den would shine amid the arid plain, from which
came pleasantly the creak of the well-rope dragging
up the dripping mussuks to irrigate the enclosure,
and the song of the bullock-boy, keeping his slow
white cattle to their lazy work. Pleasant it was
to pitch the tents in such a spot, and to ride forth
at daybreak for a long morning's shooting, while
the peacocks screamed in the thicket, and the
monkeys, newly awakened, scratched themselves by
way of toilet, and went about their four-handed
business. I learned more than any books have ever
taught me from those delicious Indian dawns, noting
the marvellous life of the waste, and the ways of
its living things. Is there any sight more full of
the joie de vivre, the ecstasy of existence, than a
string of black deer — bucks and does and fawns —
pacing at early morning over the unpeopled plain,
the sun sparkling on their sleek golden backs and
shining ringleted horns — wild with perfect physical
health, and vigour of slender limb and shapely
muscle; leaping, circling, gambolling, ready to jump
out of their velvety skins for pure pleasure to breathe
the Avarm air, and feel the good ground under their
little jet-black hoofs ? Keenly as I then loved the
rifle, I have over and over again laid it aside, to the
disgust of my shikari, when we had stalked within
shot of such a troop of lovely and happy creatures, and
from behind a clump of lemon-grass watched their
pretty jealousies and coquetries one with another.

AT AN INDIAN CHRISTMAS-TIME 171
It was about Christmas-time, on one of these
rambles, that I came at night, with Luximan, my
ghora-irallah and constant attendant, to a far-off
village in the Deccan. Long ago have the funeral
flames consumed what was mortal of that faithful
old Mahratta, who kneAv all there was to know about
horses, except that he Avould insist on painting their
tails and manes red at Christmas and other festivals.
We had shot hard and ridden far, and, the tents not
coming up, I was lodged in a temple of Mahadeo,
my cot being placed close beside the red-plastered
image of the god. Thus the villagers, male and
female, approaching partly to make evening offer
ings to the deity, partly from curiosity to see the
saheb, came, one after the other, close in view,
and I noticed among them a comely woman having
a singularly sad, refined face, dressed as a widow,
with her black hair cut short, and wearing no
bangles, nose-ring, armlets, head-disc, or ornaments
of any kind. Yes, there was one. As she lifted her
hands in worship to the god, I observed upon her
wrist the slender iron braclet worn by Mahratta
wives, which, by a kind of instinctive movement,
she hastily pushed back, out of sight, upon her
brown arm. Next morning, again, it was she who
brought the milk in a brass lota, out of which we
sahebs could not drink without defiling it, so she
poured the milk forth into an earthen pot, and once
again I saw the iron bangle slide down from her fore
arm to her wrist, and the woman nervously thrust
it back into her sleeve. This puzzled me, because

172 WANDERING WORDS
she was in Hindoo widow's dress, and yet carrying
the mark of a married woman ; but I am glad I did not
ask questions of her for the reasons which will be
seen. The next night was cold, and I was warming my
self at the camp-fire, where Luximan was also seated,
when my thoughts reverted to the sad-faced woman
at the temple, and I asked my faithful groom if he
knew her by name, and did he understand why she
wore the bracelet of a Hindoo wife, being evidently
a widow? Luximan looked anxiously about to see
if anybody was within earshot. Then he said very
seriously, "Han,main samajhtd hun, Saheb" — "Yes,
sir, I understand— but it is a hidden thing, which
holds the lives of men in its silence. Only if the
Presence will promise never to speak of it may I tell
what I know of Sita, the milk-woman." I readily
undertook to respect his confidence, and then, in his
own way, which must be made here much briefer
and plainer, he related to me what follows : —
Sita was a very pretty Mahratta girl of low caste,
who had been betrothed and married to a sepoy in
one of the Bombay regiments, named Govind ; and
this young man, for his good conduct and soldierly
qualities, rose to be a havildar, or non-commissioned
officer, and was popular alike with the rank and file
and with his superiors. Govind had a half-brother
named Wittoba, almost exactly like him in features
and figure, so much so that people not of the village
Avould easily mistake one for the other ; and whether
from this similarity of nature, or Avhatever cause.

AT AN INDIAN CHRISTMAS-TIME 173
Wittoba also became deeply enamoured of Sita. He
Avas, nevertheless, very much attached to his half-
brother, but, knowing his love to be sinful and fruit
less, after vainly endeavouring to overcome it, which
the daily sight of the beautiful Sita rendered im
possible, he left the village, and enlisted as a soldier
in another regiment of the Bombay army. Thus
matters stood when the summer of the year 1857
brought the great Mutiny, and Govind, who had
been punished and degraded for some trivial fault,
was angry, and allowed the emissaries of Tantia
Topee to undermine his loyalty. He became " faith
less to his salt," attended the secret meetings of the
disaffected in Bombay, and was one of those whose
treasonable designs were overheard and denounced
by Mr. Forjett, the Police Commissioner. AVhen the
regiment moved up into the Deccan, half of it was
ripe for mutiny, but the ringleaders were narrowly
watched, and at a fitting moment were disarmed and
arrested ; so that, the proofs of guilt against Govind
two others being overwhelming, he and they were
sentenced to be blown from guns at Sattara.
Wittoba's regiment, like most of those composing
the Bombay army, remained loyal, and a wing of it
was quartered in the same station. Thus it happened
that on the night before the execution, when Sita
was sitting in her hut, rocking herself to and fro in
her wifely misery, after the manner of Indian women
in deep grief, a sepoy in his white undress uniform
of cotton, with the red Mahratta turban, entered her
house, which had the usual two rooms divided by a

174 WANDERING WORDS
bamboo screen and curtain. It was Wittoba. He
sat down ont he floor opposite to the weeping wife,
and for some time no word was spoken. Then this
dialogue ensued : —
"Evil hath come to thy threshold, Sita! and
sorrow upon thy heart. To-morrow they will kill
thy husband."
" Alas ! it is so. Oh, Shiva ! Shiva ! why did he
listen to those wicked men who bade him betray his
salt?" " They were foxes Avho tricked him, and he was
a hare to be beguiled. It is a dreadful death, Sita !
You will not have his body to burn upon the wood
and the cow-cakes. The breath of the cannon blows
it into dust and air. I have seen it ; the end is
terrible." "I knoAv, Wittoba, I know. Why do you talk
thus? What is the use of breaking a broken
chatty ? My heart is heavy enough already."
" Dilbur mut ho ! Don't let your heart be heavy !
I have come to lighten it ! "
" You ? How ? "
" Sita ! I can save Govind from the mouth of the
big gun."
" Why will you talk lies ? Nothing and no one
can save my husband."
"I speak no lie. I can save him. He lies to
night in the chowki by the artillery-ground, chained
and alone. I am one of the relief guards in the
early morning. I can enter, on this or that pretence,
just before they parade for the execution. I can

AT AN INDIAN CHRISTMAS-TIME 175
open his fetters, can put upon him my uniform, and
give him my musket and bayonet — taking his own
prison clothes ; and we are so alike in face and form
that no man will know, in the early light, and in the
trouble of the hour, that Govind has become the
sentinel and Wittoba the prisoner. The gun will
boom ; I shall be like the chaff you shake from
that winnoAving fan, and my brother will come
here to you at night, and you can go away into
the hills together."
" Brother of my husband ! why do you say all
this?" " Because I love you, Sita, more than life !
Because I would buy with my life one hour of
your love. Listen! This is what I am come to
speak. Let me stay with you here to-night, till the
wolf's tail comes into the sky, and then what
I have told you I swear by the cow that I will
surely do."
" Wittoba ! This is deadly sin."
" It is not sin for you to save the life of your
husband." "It is deadly sin that you should desire his
wife." "I will abide that. I have weired it all. The
three worlds are less to me than once to hold you
in my arms. I say this shall be my sin, not yours.
Will you have your husband live or die ? "
"Govind! Govind!"
"Only one hour — then you shall have saved
him."

176 WANDERING WORDS
" But, Wittoba, if it could be — if it might be —
and afterwards you did not keep your promise ? "
" I am mad with love of you, Sita ; but I am
no liar. I swear to you, by the Great Mother,
that I will do this deed, and stand at the gun's
mouth to-morrow morning instead of Govind.
Decide ! Say yea or no, for the night weareth
away." "Yea, then! For my lord's sake I will do
this grievous wrong to my lord. May Heaven
forgive, for well I know he never will ! But if
thou dost fail in thy pledge, the curse of Chittore
light upon thee."
" I shall not fail."

When the last jackals were stealing homewards
in the grey of that fatal morning, Govind, the
havildar, was awakened by a hand upon his breast.
It was Wittoba, the sepoy, in regimental uniform,
armed, and bearing a bowl of hot conjee and some
chupatties. " Rise, brother," he whispered, " and
be silent ! They bade me bring to thee the last
of thine earthly meals, but while thou dost eat I
will break apart these chains, and take off kapre
and juta, and change.' apparel with thee. We ai'e
as like as two leaves of a milk-bush, and thou shalt
fix bayonet and march forth to keep the ground,
while I take thy place at the gun. Nay ! no refu
sal, and no thanks. This has to be. Afterwards
shalt thou know why." AA'ith hurried explanations

AT AN INDIAN CHRISTMAS-TIME 177
AAlttoba half forced, half persuaded Govind to
comply, and — once thrust forth free from the
guard-house, dressed in uniform, the bugles sound
ing, and muffled drums beating — bcAvildered, won
dering, rejoicing, remorseful — the redeemed man
Avent mechanically through the duty of the day.
They brought forth Wittoba, supposing him to
be Govind, and would have bound him, like the
others, to the gaping cannon-mouth. But he saw
his brother mournfully regarding ; and desiring,
perhaps, that Sita should knoAv how faithfully he
had kept his guilty bargain, he walked directly
to the front of the gun, and, standing close to the
muzzle, erect and proud, waved away with his hand
those AA'ho carried the cords, saying, " Bundhun nuko "
("Do not tie me"). Something irresistibly heroic
in his fearless air made the British officer nod a
chivalrous compliance, and they left him there un
fastened, at the lips of the black field-piece, while
the artillery-man pulled the lanyard.
AVhen Govind and Sita were resting that night
at a temple, on their way to the village in the
hills, she asked what her husband saAv as the
smoke cleared away, and he replied, "I saw only
a red turban, rolling, and a waistband which twisted
and twisted along the maidan — if, indeed, I saw so
much, for my eyes were dim."
And Luximan said that the wife told all to her
husband, and that he left her, neither beaten or
cursed, neither praised or blessed ; for he said,
"Until we come to Swarga I know not to which of
M

178 WANDERING WORDS
us thou art the Avife." And afterwards Sita lived
alone, in widow's dress, but always keeping on her
arm the mark of her marriage. So that was how
I had chanced to see at Christmas-time in the Indian
village the hidden iron bracelet of which I have
never spoken until now, when there is no longer the
slightest danger in speaking.

IX
SOME JAPANESE PICTURES

IX
SOME JAPANESE PICTURES
The children of Japan charm everybody who visits
the country. From the highest to the lowest ranks,
and almost without exception, they are the best-
behaved, least mischievous, most sedate, demure,
correct, amusing, and unobnoxious specimens of
minute humanity to be found on the globe. The
average American boy, especially if born in well-to-
do homes, is an egotistic, noisy, restless little tyrant,
who makes a railway saloon or a drawing-room a
place of torture to his elders. The average English
boy, more shy and silent, is yet by nature full of
mischief and suppressed devilry, and is too often
capable of the most fiendish cruelty. As for girls,
they are everywhere, of course, more docile and
gentle than their brothers, and seldom provoke the
sensitive or nervous mind to thoughts of infanticide.
But the Japanese babies and children — boys and
girls alike— delight and comfort the foreign visitor
by their ideal propriety. The streets, the houses,
the temples, the gardens, the railway lines are free
and open to them, for their playground is "all out-
of-doors ; " yet they never seem to be in the way, or
to damage anything, or to forget their good manners,

i82 WANDERING WORDS
or break flowers and shrubs, or put stones on the
track. They are so pretematurally and prematurely
reasonable ! This does not imply that they are duU,
or indifferent, or lifeless. On the contrary, nowhere
is youth so joyous as with " young Japan ; " these
little ones chirp like sparrows at every comer, and
flit from pleasure to pleasure like butterflies in a
flower-garden. I think such a pretty state of things
is due, first of all, to their gentle, tender, dutiful
mothers. Nowhere in this world have smaU boys
and girls more affectionate, patient, devoted bring-
ing-up than the little Japs get on the breasts and at
the knees of their okkdsan. And this, in after years,
they richly return, the reverence for father and
mother being the very keystone of the national arch.
Filial piety is, next to loyalty, the cardinal virtue of
the land, even carrying the people occasionally to
extravagant or even criminal lengths. The classic
picture of a good son in the Japanese print-shops
represents a certain young man who, in the season
of mosquitoes, stripped himself bare at bedtime, and
so lay down near his parents in order that the mos
quitoes might feed on him, and let the honoured
elders alone. And lately there was a dreadful case
in T6ky6, where a man actually killed his wife
because he had been told that nothing short of that
would bring back to health his sick mother. Such
a deed, of course, shocked public opinion nearly
as much in Japan as it Avould do in England, but it
illustrates the force and prevalence of pai'ental and
filial dutifulness in the Empire.

SOME JAPANESE PICTURES 183
Another reason Avhy the Japanese children grow
up so good, so charming, so candid, so amenable, is,
I think, because they never heard of such a thing as
" original sin," and are never treated on the system
Avhich belongs to it. By Buddhist belief, no doubt,
every little Jap comes into the world with the
mistakes of a previous existence to atone for and
to cancel — it is the doctrine of Karma or Ingwa.
But parents, friends, neighbours, and teachers leave
aU that to Destiny and to the Kami-Sama ; their part
is to treat the small being as a new-come guest into
the garden of life, to be received with grace, kind
liness, and consideration as a stranger, and not to be
bullied and browbeaten into correctness. " Go and
see, Jane ! what Master Reginald is doing, and tell
him not to do it ! "—such was the legend of one of
Mr. Du Manner's child-pictures in Punch — but a
Japanese mother and a Japanese child could never
even have comprehended the joke. They do not
slap, or thwart, or forbid and constrain the little
ones in Japan, although they very strictly train
them to make bows, and to be silent and submissive
and respectful ; and it is a great recommendation
of what may be called the anti-Solomonic plan that
the children repay courtesy with courtesy, and con
sideration by consideration. Moreover, they see so
much of their own world in very early days that
they do not break forth, like those of Europe, into
its wonders and excitements fresh and frisky from
the nursery. At five or six weeks of age the
Japanese baby goes out into the open air, lashed

i84 WANDERING WORDS
on the back of its mother, sister, aunt, or nurse,
and there it rides all day long, except at necessary
intervals of refreshment, taking its slumber in this
peripatetic cradle, and, when awake, seeing every
thing which goes on in the streets with its little
slant-lidded, beady, black eyes, so that, when it
comes to the point of being able to toddle for
itself, nothing is strange to the observant babe.
It owes, also, to that early life in the open air
and perpetual motion on the back of some relation
or other, a large part of the generally robust health
enjoyed by its kind. Japan is of all countries,
except England, that wherein the fewest children
die between birth and the age of five years, albeit
another point in favour of Japanese babies is that
they are nursed at the breast until they are two,
or even three years old. In every way their world
is made very pleasant to them at starting. The
towns and villages are full of toy-shops, where the
most grotesque and ingenious playthings are sold
for their benefit, at the lowest possible cost. When
there happens a temple feast — a matsuri or ennichi
— the precincts of the holy shrine are crowded with
toy-stalls and the portable shops of the ame-ya,
blowing, out of bean-paste, all sorts of " sweeties,"
shaped into dragons, snakes, birds, demons, and
the like. Nobody is too proud or grand to carry
a baby, or to be seen bearing home through the
streets ridiculous creations of fluffy tigers, feathery
cocks and hens, or balls of wool and tinsel. At
the great wrestling-match this year in Ekoin I

SOME JAPANESE PICTURES 185
Avatched a huge sumotori, the champion of his class,
overthrow his opponent after a tremendous struggle,
amid the delighted plaudits of some three thousand
spectators, Avho flung a hundred hats and caps into
the ring. Ten minutes afteinvards I met the same
gigantic hero, outside the Avrestling theatre in the
street, carrying a bit of a baby on his back, by the
side of his little glossy-haired Avife, and feeding it
over his brawny shoulder with salted plums.
The Japanese children have, by the way, a voca
bulary quite their own — just as the jinriksha-men
talk their own patois, and the Court people use a
special form of speech; while even Japanese women
employ many Avords and phrases never heard from
the lips of men. One distinguishing feature of the
children of Japan are their sleeves. After much
observation and meditation in the streets and road
ways of the country, one arrives at last at an expla
nation of the extreme dignity which the little ones
exhibit under almost all circumstances. It is due,
you perceive, to the long flowing sleeves which they
wear. Nothing in respect of dress gives so much
importance and presence to the human figure, grown
or ungrown, as wide and hanging sleeves ; and all
the little Japanese, when habited at all, go about in
tiny gowns very much resembling those worn by
Masters of Art and Doctors of Divinity at Oxford
and Cambridge. If ladies only knew hoAv much
that is graceful and imposing depends upon deep,
long, flowing sleeves, they would abandon the tight
fashions of the present time, and go back in this

1 86 WANDERING WORDS
regard to the beautiful costumes which English
dames wore in the days of the Edwards and
Henries, and which have been universal in Japan
for two thousand years. A whole book might be
written about the aesthetic and social value and
dignity of long sleeves.
Special days are set apart in the Japanese year
for the boys' and girls' festivals. The great day of
the girls is March 3, when all the doll-shops in
Tokyo, Ky6t6, and the other large towns, are full of
what are called 0 hina sama — models on a tiny
scale of the Emperor and Empress, with their court
and domestic belongings. These toy establish
ments are handed down from mother to daughter,
and I have seen high-born children playing with
hina sama three hundred years old and more. The
special day for the boys falls on May 5 every year,
when the air is full everywhere of great, hollow,
floating fish made out of coloured and gilded paper
(which the wind inflates), hoisted high upon a tall
bamboo pole in front of each abode where a male
child has been born. The fish is the carp {koi),
the universal emblem of courage and perseverance,
because he swims so stoutly against the stream,
and hardly consents to die when he is cut into thin
slices for sashimi.
In early years, and, indeed, until the age of
eighteen or nineteen, nothing can be too gay and
brilliant for a Japanese damsel to wear. The little
Nippon maids go about far outvying in splendour
the great butterflies of crimson" and gold, or of

SOME JAPANESE PICTURES 187
saffron and silver, Avhich flit around their heads in
the gardens and bamboo-groves. Parental affec
tion seems to exhaust itself in devising gorgeous
colours and attractive patterns for their little obi
and kimono, Avhile the jiban, or underskirt, cannot
possibly be too magnificent. If these garments be
only of cotton, the mother and father will have
them gay ; but even the poor children generally
manage to Avear fabrics half of silk and half of
cotton, and the well-to-do always have their clothes
composed of silk, or the beautiful silk-crape known
as chirimen. This last takes the most brilliant dyes
quite perfectly, and admits of very lovely decorative
effects, in obtaining which nothing is feared except
inharmonious combinations. You see young maidens
in the streets and the temple-gardens literally glitter
ing with gold, silver, vermilion, sea-green, sky-blue,
rose-red, and orange ; some wearing an upper dress
covered with fans, birds, waving woods, bamboo
boughs, or fish ; and at a garden-party given by
the Princess Mori at Takanawa, I was presented
to a young lady — the lineal descendant of the great
house of TokonaAva Shoguns — whose jiban of azure
silk was an embroidered pool of lotus-blossoms,
while her kimono of tender, creamy 'chirimen had
on it Japanese landscapes of rising moons, rice-
fields, Fuji-yama, with the snow upon its crest,
and suchlike. When the mature age of twenty
or twenty-one is reached, these dazzling glories of
the toilette are exchanged for sober-hued dresses,
grey, dove-colour, tea-colour, faAvn, and brown ; but

i88 WANDERING WORDS
even then the jiban may always be as glorious in
colour and patterns as fancy dictates, and the obi a
splendid piece of figured satin. The attire of the
boys is in every case quieter and more restrained,
and elderly people cannot be clad too soberly.
Japanese girls grow up to be Japanese women
without change in their gentleness, docility, or
good manners ; and Japanese boys continue to appear
attractive, candid, free from mauvaise honte, and
altogether delightful, until they reach the awkward
and gawky age, Avhich for a time spoils most lads.
The Japanese boy is delightful ; the Japanese man
is generally intelligent, polite, and, in his degree,
worthy ; but the Japanese youth, especially in the
middle classes, is wont to prove a hobbledehoy and
a social nuisance. As scholars and students they
are almost faultless. There are no rules of discipline
or punishment in the schools and colleges, because
none are needed. The pupils are only too anxious
to learn, and are always in their places before the
master is ready, and keen to continue work Avhen he
is tired. They are too apt to think they know a
subject Avhen they have only commenced to under
stand its rudiments ; and although ahvays defer
ential to their sensei, the teacher, they Avill dictate
to him, if he permits, the course of study. But a
certain number of them, mingling very imperfect
modern education with very crude political theories,
leave their schools and colleges full of ambitions
and desires which are beyond their range, and
instead of accepting humble and useful Avalks in

SOME JAPANESE PICTURES 189
life, turn into detestable and dangerous agitators,
Avhose Avant of sense Avould be contemptible if their
inherited disregard of personal risk and their
passionate entetement did not render them eA'ils to
be reckoned Avith. These are the soshi. Like our
own young " baboos " of Bengal, and " reformers "
from the Indian Government College, they have
got the Avind of personal and political conceit in
their heads ; but, unlike the " baboos," they are
not in the least timid. For want of other and
better employ, they hire themselves out to un
scrupulous politicians as boyish " sAvashbucklers,"
to break up public meetings, intimidate nervous
statesmen, dominate the voting places with noise
and menace, and sometimes even to commit assault
or murder. It was one of these unlovely youths
who, brooding fanatically over a supposed offence
against the religio loci of a temple at Ise, assassi
nated my enlightened and illustrious friend Viscount
Mori ; and another such threw the bomb Avhich
deprived Count Okuma, the Japanese Prime Mini
ster, of a limb. The worst of them are Avell known
to the Govemment and the police, and when any
rather exciting time is coming forward in Tokyo,
and popular disturbance has to be featred, it is not
unusual for the Administration to clear them out
of the capital by scores or hundreds, obliging
them to spend a little of their ill-used leisure at
Yokohama or elsewhere, until the temporary excite
ment has died away in the seat of Government.
The outdoor games of the Japanese children are

190 WANDERING WORDS
much like those of other small folk in various parts
of the world ; though the ingenuity of the race
refines upon them. The tako, or kite ; the koma, or
top ; the playing-ball, tama ; the stilts, take-uma ;
the hoop, taga ; the swing, bu-ranko ; the skipping-
rope, naiva-koguli ; prisoner's base, o nigoko; and
oyama-no-taisho, king of the castle, are just as
popular, with many other familiar pastimes, in
Tokyo as in London. But the natural skill and
adroitness of the people improve upon the Western
forms of these sports. The kites are much more
scientific than ours, with long streamers at the
lower corners, and strange little contrivances to
produce sounds, explosions, and illuminations in
the sky. Japanese tops, which will spin ever so
long on a string or a knife-edge, are well known;
and as for Japanese ball-play, there is not a httle
maid of five or six years in the streets who cannot
keep two or three of them in the air at once with
one hand, while the other holds the umbrella over
the bald pate of the rocking baby. Some of their
indoor games might be very well introduced among
English children, being graceful and merry, yet free
from boisterousness. For example, there is the
pretty sport of tsuri-kitsune, or "fox-catching," at
which many may play at once. Somebody unwinds
his or her silken sash, and ties it in a half-hitch,
or a reefer's knot, so as to make a running-noose,
of Avhich two players hold the opposite ends, balanc
ing the noose vertically on the floor. Then any
little prize — a sweetmeat or what-not — is laid on

SOME JAPANESE PICTURES 191
the floor on the fai'-side of the noose, and one by
one the outsiders try to snatch the object safely
through the trap, the two players seeking to catch
the fox's paw just as it goes into the noose. Great
fun is elicited from this, and when a fox is caught,
he surrenders all his prizes and takes one end of
the snai-e. Or this is sometimes coupled with our
English game of forfeits. Again, there is a quiet
and amusing Japanese form of blind-man's buff,
'me-gakushi, where the fun is had with a large
soft ball, not hard enough to break anything or
to hurt ; and the blind man — after turning round
three times — throws this very suddenly in a direc
tion as unexpected as possible, any person struck
being obliged to take his place. Another form of
me-gakushi is where the blind man sits in the
centre of a large circle made around him by the
other players, after he has had his eyes covered,
and he is then allowed to talk, make jokes, say
anything he can to provoke a giggle or an ejacula
tion, so that he may specify the exact position in
the circle of somebody, and oblige that one to take
his place. This is called ocha-hoji, and admits of
the most charming developments.
The " grown-ups " have, for their indoor pastimes
— to leave aside music, singing, and, in cultivated
circles, the ever-absorbing composition of uta,
Japanese poetry — two principal games. One is go,
properly called gomoka narabe, Avhich, albeit played
on the same board, and with the same counters or
"men" as gohan, is a very different game from the

192 WANDERING WORDS
childishly easy one hitherto known and played in
this country. It is much more difficult and elabo
rate than chess, and admits of deeper and more
complicated combinations. Everybody plays it,
especially at the hot springs and bathing-places, and
there are p'O-clubs and professors of the art and
mystery of go in all the larger cities, while, what
is more remarkable, blind players and teachers of
remarkable skill may oftentimes be met with. Mr.
Chamberlain has partially described the game, but
it must be taught, and, being taught, would be a
very valuable addition to the sedentary pleasures of
English homes. He says : —
" Go was introduced into Japan from China by
Shimomichi-no Mabi, commonly known as Kibi
Daijin, who flourished during the reign of the
Emperor Shomu (a.d. 724-756). In the middle of
the seventh century a noted player called Honnimbd
was summoned from Ky6to to entertain the Chinese
Ambassador, then at the Court of the Shogun, from
which time forward special go players were always
retained by the Shoguns of the Tokugawa dynasty.
" Go is played on a square Avooden board. Nine
teen straight lines crossing each other at right
angles make three hundred and sixty-one me, or
crosses, at the points of intersection. These may
be occupied by a hundred and eighty white and a
hundred and eighty-one black stones (ishi, as they
are termed in Japanese). The object of the game
is to obtain possession of the largest portion of
the board. This is done by securing such positions

SOME JAPANESE PICTURES 193
as can be most easily defended from the adversary's
onslaughts. There are nine spots on the board,
called seimoku, supposed to represent the chief
celestial bodies, while the white and black stones
represent day and night, and the number of crosses
the three hundred and sixty degrees of latitude,
exclusive of the central one, which is called
taikyoku, that is, the Primordial Principle of the
Universe. There are likewise nine degrees of pro
ficiency in the game, beginning with number one
as the lowest, and ending with number nine as the
highest point of excellence attainable.
"In playing, if the combatants are equally matched,
they take the white stones alternately ; if unequal,
the weaker always takes the black, and odds are
also given by allowing him to occupy several or all
of the nine spots or vantage-points on the board —
that is, to place stones upon them at the outset.
Very few foreigners have succeeded in getting be
yond a rudimentary knowledge of this interesting
game. Only one, a German named Korschelt, has
taken out a diploma of proficiency. The easy Japa
nese game called gobang, which was introduced into
England a few years ago, is played on the go board
with the same ishi, and the only art here is to see
who can first get five pieces into a row diagonal,
vertical, or horizontal."
The other popular indoor-game of the Japanese
is a card-game, called hana-awase, played every
where, always, and by all classes. On any day,
at any jinriksha-stand, you may see the kurumaya-

194

WANDERING WORDS

san squatted down, deep in the delight of hana-
aivase, the well-thumbed cards laid on the footboard
of a " ricksha ; " and just before I left T6ky6 a grave
scandal arose, because a whole bench-full of judges
had been caught playing this fascinating game with
geishas at a tea-house. It is a really fine game,
and deserves to be introduced among us as a quite
possible rival of whist, skill and chance mingling
in it as they do in that classic recreation of the
middle-aged. Hana-awase means " the matching
of flowers," and it is only lately that it has become
universally popular in Japan, though probably far
more ancient than any of our European card-games.
The pack consists of forty-eight karuta, generally
no larger than a visiting-card, having twelve suits
of four cards each, these suits being named after
various flowers, leaves, or trees, Avhich are symbolical
to the Japanese of the twelve months. The following
list exhibits the suits and their symbolism, with the
native names : —

Pine (Matsu) .
Plum (Ume)
Cherry (Sakura)
Wistaria (Fuji)
Iris (Negi)
Tree Peony (Botan) .
Lespedeza (Hagi)
Eularia Japonica (Tsuhi, Bozii)
Chrysanthemum (Kiku)
Maple (Momiji)
Willow (SMgure)
PauUownia (Kiri)

January.February.
March. April.
May.June.
July.
August. September. October.
November. December.

Hana-awase is a card-game AA^iere the cleverest

SOME JAPANESE PICTURES 195
sharper cannot cheat, because it is impossible to
foresee the end. It is a game fuller of vicissitudes
than poker or bdzique, and repaying attention and
calculation more than ^cartd or nap, while for the
gambler its capabilities are as prodigiously ruinous
as its chequered flow of. good and bad luck is fasci
nating to the player for love. I shall, therefore,
in hope of its ultimate acclimatisation among us,
summarise below an account of the game, derived
by the late General Palmer, of T6ky6, from two
accomplished players, Messrs. Yokoyama and Mori.
Describing the cards the General says : —
"The method of decoration was representative of
the twelve names of the suits, and might either be
rudely printed or hand-painted, in which latter case
cards may cost several yen. As a rule, the greater
the face-value of any card the more elaborately
was it decorated. The first in value were the four
shikomono, or 'brilliants,' namely, the commanding
cards of the matsu, sakura, bozu, and kiri suits.
These were usually more highly decorated than
the others, as, for instance, 'the blossoms in the
Palace garden,' gotenzakura, the kiri-no-00, and so
on. The commanding card of the shigure suite,
o-ame, was equal to a brilliant in counting the
hand (that is, having the value of twenty chips
of one point each), but had no other property of
a brilliant. The commanding cards of the ume,
fuji, negi, botan, hagi, kiku, and momiji suits, and
the second cards of the bozu and shigure suits came
next, having a value of ten points each, except for

196 WANDERING WORDS
the process of reckoning in teyaku, in which the
shigure second card only counted one. These were
called the ike-mono. Next came the tanzakumono,
distinguished by having a coloured bar across the.
decoration to represent a strip of paper, which,
with other cards, have a value of five points each ;
and lastly there came the kasu-mono (trash or refuse),
twenty-four in number, consisting of the last two
cards of the first ten suits, the fourth of the shigure
and the second, third, and fourth of the kiri, which
have a value of one point each."
The paper goes here into the difficult matter of
counting the played cards. It says : —
"The peculiarity of the shigure hand was that
Avhile its cards, for counting the players' hands at the
end of the game, reckoned respectively 20, 10, 5, and
I , they were only valued for the teyaku as kasumono,
counting one each. The value of the 48 cards in all
is 264, 3 times 88, or 22 times 12. As many as
seven persons might sit down, but only three
could come into the game at one time, and each
player played his own game. The deal and the deal
ing went round from the right towards the left.
The sitter on the dealer's left acted as 'pony,' and
shuffled the spare pack for the next deal. In
all, seven cards were dealt to each player, and
six were placed on the table as banco. In the
matter of declaring to play, a complicated system
of forfeits was practised. If there were more than
three players, say five, only three could play, and the
third in order must Avait till the two before him

SOME JAPANESE PICTURES 197
had declared, and then negotiate Avith Nos. 4 and 5
with the vieAv of buying them out, in which case
they Avere exempt from forfeit. Coming now to
the teyaku, each player must at the outset declare
whether he held teyaku, that is, one of twelve
specific combinations, in Avhich each of the four cards
of the shigure counted simply one, as kasumono.
The object of the play Avas for each player to match
as many cards as possible of the same suit, and to
gain as many high-value cards as possible. Dekiyaku
consists in the holding of the four Brilliants and
the o-ame, or one of a limited number of other
combinations. In counting the value of the cards for
hana-awase, every point above 88 counts to a player's
credit, and every point under to his debit. In each
case the deal passes to the highest score in hana-
aivase, and twelve deals make the game. The
counters are of two kinds, kwanki of twelve points
each, and chips, value one point each."
Obviously these particulars can give only an out
lined idea of hana-atvase, but it is truly a first-class
card-game, requiring good memory, good judgment,
skill in calculating chances, and great readiness in
countiiig, all being affected by the element of luck
to about the same extent as Western card-games.
Japanese who are most familiar with poker, declare
that hana-auuse surpasses it in its combination of
skill and luck. An ingenious person who had
learned the Japanese cards and way of counting,
could very readily introduce the pastime here, substi
tuting the rose, oak, snowdrop, violet, &c., for the

198 WANDERING WORDS
native names, and adapting the native represen
tations. Until recently all funerals in Japan were conducted
by Buddhist priests, even those of Shinto dignitaries
themselves ; but now the Shintoists bury their own
dead, in a coffln much like that used in Europe.
The Buddhist " casket " is small and square, and the
corpse is doubled up inside it, in a kneeling or
squatting position, with the head bent down to the
knees — some say in order that the dead man may
repose in an attitude of prayer, others that he may take
again, on being born into a new world, the folded-
up form Avhich he had before his mother gave him
birth. Observe that, notwithstanding the Japanese
reverence for ancestors, the man on the horse by the
side of the procession does not lift his hat off as the
dead body passes. It is not the custom in Japan
to do this, because of the ingrained Buddhist idea
that the earthly tenement is nothing, and the spirit —
the tamashi — all ; and yet that same man would not
dream of speaking to an equal or superior without
uncovering his head. One of the funny sights in
T6ky6 is to see a countryman struggling with the
strings of his big sun-hat, while he Avants to talk
ever so much, but cannot, to the friend or master
whom he has just encountered.
Buddhism did good service throughout ancient
and mediaeval Japan in the matter of funeral obser
vances, besides introducing to the Empire tea-drink
ing and other excellent novelties and noble doctrines.
Formerly, as Mr. Chamberlain tells us in his "Things

SOME JAPANESE PICTURES 199
Japanese," the horrid custom prevailed of burying
the living with the dead. It is related that in the
twenty-eighth year of the Emperor Suinin (b.c. 2 of
the Christian chronology) his brother died. All his
attendants were buried alive round the tumulus in
a standing position. For many days they died not,
but day and night wept and cried. The Mikado,
hearing the sound of their weeping, was sad and
sorry in his heart, and commanded all his ministers
to devise some plan by which this custom, ancient
though it was, should be discontinued for the future.
Accordingly, when the Mikado died in a.d. 3, workers
in clay were sent for to Izumo, Avho made images of
men, horses, and various other things, Avhich were
set up round the grave instead of living beings.
This precedent was followed in later times, and
some of these figures still exist. The Ueno Museum
in T6ky6 contains several specimens, and one (of a
man) is now in the British Museum.
The vast tombs of the ancient Emperors and
Daimios of Japan were called misasagi. The misa-
sagi vary ¦ greatly in size. One measured by Mr.
Satow in Kozuke was 36 feet in height, 372 feet
long, and 284 feet broad. But this is a compara
tively small one. That of the Emperor. Oj in, at Nara,
measures 2312 yards in circumference, and is 60
feet high. Huge stones were reared inside them,
and the industrious inhabitants were forced to labour
unpaid to pile up the rude but costly burial-places.
All this gave way before Buddhism. Mr. Chamber
lain writes : —

20O WANDERING WORDS
" In the eyes of a Buddhist, vast costly structures
were not only a burden to the people, but were ob
jectionable as tending to foster false notions of the
real value of these mortal frames of ours. Many of
the Mikados were earnest devotees of Buddhism.
Beginning with Gemmyo Tenno in a.d. 7 i 5, a long
series of them abdicated the throne in order to spend
the remainder of their lives in pious seclusion. In
several cases, by their express desire, no misasagi
were erected over their remains, and some even
directed that their bodies should be cremated and
the ashes scattered to the winds."
Cremation and burial are both practised in Japan,
the former most extensively. A Japanese cemetery
is full of narrow laths of wood, styled sotoba, set up
round the very narrow grave of the deceased, and
displaying his " death-name," which is quite different
from that borne by him during life. The customs
of the people are very graceful and tender as regards
their dead. For fifty-nine days after the demise of
a parent the children must set fresh flowers every
day at the well-kept tomb, while afterwards fr'equent
visits must be made. But all the dead of a house
hold have their funeral tablets put up in front of the
little family shrine inside the house, and every day
break the inmates softly say their names with folded
palms and heads bent doAvn, and light a senko stick
for each, so that its fragrant odour is the first thing
in the morning which tells you that the Japanese
household is up for the day.
The Japanese methods of taking ducks by decoy

-SOME JAPANESE PICTURES 201
do not greatly differ from the methods employed in
Norfolk and our fen-regions, except that the Japanese
never employ dogs. That is for want of the proper
breeds, not for lack of skill in training, for the
Japanese sportsmen and fishermen are most patient
and adroit, as witness their extraordinary success
in educating cormorants to catch fish. This, which
always takes place at night, and by torchlight, is one
of the strangest and most interesting forms of sport.
It has been faithfully described by the late General
Palmer, to whom I have previously been indebted in
this article. The best place to see cormorant-fishing
is on the river Nagara, near Gifu, in the province of
Owari, and the system is thus explained : —
There are, to begin with, four men in each of the
seven boats, one of whom, at the stern, has no duty
but that of managing his craft. In the bow stands
the master, distinguished by the peculiar, hat of his
rank, and handling no fewer than twelve trained
birds with the surpassing skill and coolness that
have earned for the sportsmen of Gifu their un
rivalled pre-eminence. Amidships is another fisher,
of the second grade, who handles four birds only.
Between them is the fourth man, called kako, from
the bamboo striking instrument of that name, with
which he makes the clatter necessary for keeping
the birds up to their work ; he also encourages them
by shouts and cries, looks after spare apparatus, &c.,
and is ready to give aid if required. Each cor
morant wears at the base of its neck a metal ring,
drawn tight enough to prevent marketable fish from

202 WANDERING WORDS
passing below it, but at the same time loose enough
— for it is never removed — to admit the smaller prey,
which serve as food. Round the body is a cord,
having attached to it at the middle of the back a
short strip of stiffish whalebone, by which the great
awkward bird may be conveniently lowered into the
water or lifted out when at work ; and to this whale
bone is looped a thin rein of spruce fibre, twelve feet
long, and so far Avanting in pliancy as to minimise
the chance of entanglement. When the fishing-
ground is reached, the master lowers his twelve
birds one by one into the stream, and gathers their
reins into his left hand, manipulating the latter
thereafter with his right as occasion requires. No. 2
does the same with his four birds ; the kako starts
in with his volleys of noise ; and forthwith the
cormorants set to at their work in the heartiest and
j oiliest way, diving and ducking with wonderful swift
ness as the astonished fish come flocking towards
the blaze of light. The master is now the busiest
of men. He must handle his twelve strings so
deftly that, let the birds dash hither and thither
as they will, there shall be no impediment or fouling.
He must have his eyes everywhere and his hands
following his eyes. Specially must he watch for the
moment when any of his flock is gorged — a fact
generally made known by the bird itself, Avhich then
swims about in a foolish, helpless way, with its head
and swollen neck erect. Thereupon the master,
shortening in on that bird, lifts it aboard, forces
its bill open with his left hand, Avhich still holds the

SOME JAPANESE PICTURES 203
rest of the lines, squeezes out the fish with his right,
and starts the creature off on a fresh foray — all
this with such admirable dexterity and quickness
that the eleven birds still bustling about have
scarce time to get things into a tangle, and in an
other moment the Avhole team is again perfectly in
hand. The cormorants are caught young, and very care
fully educated. They become almost as humanly
intelligent as their masters, and know exactly their
distinguishing number, and the proper order in
which they should enter the water. If cormorant
No. 5 attempts to go in before cormorants Nos. 3
and 4, the chatter and squawking become terrific.
The leader of the team is always an old grey bird,
called dai ichi, and most jealous of his privileges.
Some of these veterans have taken fish for their
masters during periods of twelve and fifteen years,
and truly comical it is to see them returning in the
early morning, ranged on the gunwale of the boat,
shaking their wet wings, preening their soaked
feathers, flapping their tails, and stolidly digesting
their share of the fish, with a running chorus of
yelps and squawks, wanting nothing to seem like
the blue-coated fishermen themselves, except a little
brass kiseru smoking in their big beaks.
I must say something about those hard-working
fellows, the kuramaya-san, or jinriksha-men. With
out the ever-present aid of the class to which these
belong, locomotion in Japan would be difficult or
impossible. You begin by laughing at the ridiculous

204 WANDERING WORDS
vehicle which he draws, and end by almost living
in the convenient little trundling-machine, which is
seen everywhere now, in the remotest villages of
the Empire as well as in its towns and cities. The
"ricksha," as it has come to be called, is indeed spread
ing all over Asia. It forms the common conveyance
to-day in Hong-Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Penang,
the Dutch colonies, the Indian hill-stations, and else-
Avhere, but will never come, I think, into European
use, partly because of the Avhite man's prejudice
against turning draught-animal (albeit, he will pull
a bath-chair at a Avalking pace), partly because of
horse-traffic, which, in any excess, is fatal to the
"ricksha." Yet this thoroughly acclimatised Japa
nese conveyance has only been in vogue for twenty
years. It was invented in 1870 by an old gentle
man of Ky6t6, who was paralysed, and went about
in a little cart, or perambulator. Now there are
over 60,000 of them in Tokyo alone. The outfit
of a jinriksha-man — coat, drawers, hat, lantern, all
complete — is set down in the T6ky6 police regula
tions at five yen, about eleven shillings. His lawful
rates for pulling you along at five or six miles an
hour are from seven to fifteen cents, the Japanese ri
equalling two and a half miles English. And on
that modest tAvopence per mile the brave fellow
Avill keep himself and his family, his average daily
takings being about fifty cents.
A British cabman or labouring man or artisan
will justly scorn such an ill-paid and patient life,
but there is one point about the loAv-class Japanese

SOME JAPANESE PICTURES 205
AA'hich might be profitably imitated in this country
or in America. I mean the perfect and scrupulous
cleanliness of the people — one and all, from the
highest to the meanest. There are many enviable
traits in the Japanese which we can never hope to
introduce or imitate. W'e cannot import their de-
lightfril politeness, which renders existence a softer
and pleasanter thing for all concerned. We cannot
equal their deep respect for age and profound filial
devotion, which make life quiet and easy for every
parent, since he is sure to be maintained in honour
and comfort by his sons, so that no one struggles to
save, and every one looks forward to old age as the
safest and sweetest period of his years. We cannot
have their artistic perceptions of the simpler beauties
of Nature, nor reach their perfect joy in a cherry-spray,
a maple branch, a stream, or a seaside grove. We
cannot live so refinedly or die so cheerfully as these
children of the far past, whose religion is a fairy-book
and whose social system resembles that of birds and
butterflies. But, oh ! we might be clean ! I love and
honour my countrymen and countrywomen of the
working and middle classes beyond words, and think
them, what they think themselves, the chief of all
races — but, as a people, do they habitually wash?
WiU anybody be bold enough to say that the average
tradesman, or artisan, or handicraftsman, or labourer,
or railway man, or cabman in England, always or
often, or, in many cases, so much as even sometimes,
bathes after his day's labour? Do they even in
variably wash their mouths and hands before kissing

2o6 WANDERING WORDS
the mistress and children and sitting down to meals ?
Alas ! we know that they do not, and, with the
miserable provision made for them in their houses
and towns and villages, that practically they cannot.
But these Japanese — men, women, and children —
would rather go without their food than without their
tub. They could not, and would not, sit down at
home with dirty fingers or unwashed feet. A ricksha-
man's hands or a maid-servant's hands are just as
beautifully kept in Japan as a Minister's or a Court
lady's. The feet of the people are fair and sweet and
symmetrical to behold, and in a crowd they have no
odour because of their superlative purity of skin. If
we suddenly saw bare all the feet and limbs of our
working people — ay, or of many among their betters
— what would they look like in the way of personal
neatness and propriety ? Ask the hospital surgeons
and the attendants at our workhouses ! But you
could not strip the humble dress from the poorest in
Japan and fail to find his skin clean, his hands and
feet trimly kept, his person proudly pure. It is not
due to the climate, for Japanese winters and springs
are as cold and damp as ours. It is due to the noble
and elevating love of cleanliness for its own sake ;
and I wish with all my heart I could make Eng
land Japanese in this one point. Hard work never
spoiled a housemaid's honest hands if gloves were
worn and proper care were taken of them, and with
clean feet and limbs a man can do as much toil as the
one who goes like a pig. In T6ky6 alone there must
be 2000 public baths where adults can bathe for a

SOME JAPANESE PICTURES 207
halfpenny and children for a farthing. It is true
they use the same big tub and the same water, but
then the real washing is performed outside the great
oke, with little tubs, and the bodies of the bathers
ai'e kept so clean that a dip in the general water
does not soil it. It is a medical fact that the Japa
nese escape typhus and many forms of European
maladies by their semi-divine cleanliness — which is
part of the self-respect characteristic of this gentle
and gifted people — so that if I had the power, and
might offer to my country one precious and uni
versal gift from the " Land of the Rising Sun," it
should be the Japanese warm bath-tub, at a half
penny a head, universally accessible out-of-doors
or indoors.

X
AND NOT ASHAMED

rji^*-^

X
AND NOT ASHAMED
It all happened in a village of the West Coast which
I used to know, and to haunt : and I heard it from
an old coastguardsman, as I sate in the hollow of the
red cliffs near to the little quay where the trawlers
lie. I had been reading a noble passage of Mr.
Ruskin's " Modern Painters," which I will hunt up
and quote, because then, whoever peruses these lines,
whether they like my story or not, will be sure to get
something worth their trouble.
The passage was that in Part III., sec. i, ch. xv.,
of "Modern Painters," and it was good and pleasant
to read such wholesome words in the placid hollow
of the cliff, with the Channel Sea rippling underfoot,
beyond the furze and blackberry bushes, in curves
of green and silver, with the goldfinches flitting
among the thistles, the larks carolling overhead,
and the gulls flying hither and thither, more for
pure delight in the power of their wings than for
any hunger. Wrote Mr. Ruskin :
"It is not possible for a Christian man to walk
across so much as a rood of the natural earth, with
mind unagitated and rightly poised, without receiv
ing strength and hope from some stone, flower, or

212 WANDERING WORDS
leaf, or sound ; nor without a sense of bliss falling
upon him out of the sky. And if it be not always
so, that is partly the fault of even holy men, who in
the recommending the love of God to us refer but
seldom to those things in which it is most abundantly
and immediately shown. Though they insist much
on His giving of bread and raiment and health
(which He gives also to the inferior creatures), they
do not require us sufficiently to thank Him for that
glory of His works which He has permitted us
alone to perceive. They bid us often meditate in
the closet, but send us not enough into the fields
at evening. They dwell on the duty of self-denial,
but they do not half enough inculcate the duty of
delight. No doubt many an earnest mind has often
little time or disposition to heed anything more than
the mere toil and obligations of life ; but I think
that of the weaknesses, distresses, vanities, schisms,
and sins which ofttimes in the best men diminish
their usefulness and mar their happiness, there would
be fewer if, in their struggle with Nature fallen, they
sought for more aid from Nature undestroyed. It
seems to me that the real sources of bluntness in
men's feelings towards the splendour of the grass
and the glory of the flowers are less to be found
in ardour of occupation, seriousness of philanthropy,
or heavenliness of desire than in the turning of the
eye at intervals of rest too seriously within ; the
want of courage to shake off anxieties and leave
the way of the world to Him that rules it. ... I
believe the root of almost every failure Christian

AND NOT ASHAMED 213
teachers make has been the effort to force men to
earn rather than to receive their salvation . . . and
to call on men oftener to work for God — Avho needs
it not — than to stand by and see God working for
them." The same high idea is to be found in the poetry
of the Sufis. Their subtle and melodious Persian
bard sings — as I have transcribed him in my " S^di
in the Garden " — about Ma'arifat, the State divine,
AVhere the Soul dwells in light beyond this light,
Xor sees alone Jaldl, Greatness of God,
But Jamdl, Beauty, Grace, and Joy of God,
For which dear splendour we desire Him most,
Not for His terrors nor His majesties.
And so doth Sadi inculcate in song.
It was the right place to sit in and to realise the
meanings both of the British prose-poet and of the
Persian mystic, while admiring how Nature had
led them both to the same great and comfortable
doctrine. The cliffs, ruddy as blood with the old
red sandstone of which they were built — made a
natural amphitheatre of peace and beauty, whose
far vast stage was the Channel, upon which went
and came the " peoples of the sea." Veronicas with
wild roses and the golden sprays of the gorse adorned
its clefts and ledges ; Avhile famihes of rock-pigeons,
living in the recesses of the cliff, filled, the air with
pretty noises of love and bird business, which mingled
with softened sounds of boat-building and of human
doings from the village lying just beyond the head
land. A narrow and steep path wound along the

214 WANDERING WORDS
mid-way bosom of the hollow, down which I presently
perceived an old friend of mine (the coastguardsman)
approaching, his telescope under his arm, and hand
ling an empty pipe. Sitting down beside me, and
borrowing my tobacco-pouch, he cut my philoso
phising short, just as I drop it here ; but something
which he told me then and there about that particular
spot of the coast has made me always remember the
scene, and the page in Ruskin, and the thought that
it is good to be natural, and to get from Nature those
lessons of simplicity, and trust, and truth which she
can impart.
He began out of a little incident which occurred
while we sat there together. A good-looking young
woman, with a pretty boy toddling by her side, came
down the path, carrying a heavy basket — for it was
a short cut to the village — and the grey-headed
sailor and I helped her with her load over a dif
ficult bit of the descent. I noticed she had a
face so comely and frank as to compel observation,
and was struck by the honest directness of her
glance and the fearless look of her beautiful grey
eyes. " Nothing contraband in that big basket, Mrs.
James, I hopes," said the old Bluejacket, making
a semi-official joke.
" La ! Mr. Brown," says the handsome young
matron, "just look for yourself;" and with that
she threw back the napkin from a whole poultry-
yard of chickens and eggs which she was carrying to
the little shop where she sold such commodities, and

AND NOT ASHAMED

215

Avhere her husband kept the post-office, and dealt in
stationery and dry goods.
"'Taint the first time, Mary, be it, as I've had
to have my eye on you here?" said the coast
guardsman, with a kindly softening of his seafaring
tones. I couldn't imagine why the rich blood should
leap as it did into those pretty cheeks. I should
have thought — merely from passing her now and
then, and exchanging a few friendly words — that
she was too composed, and happy, and self-satisfied
a wife and mother ever to have any need or power
to blush. But the wild roses that her skirts brushed
against, as she shook her head archly at the old sailor
and passed away down the path, were pale in their
warmest crimson compared to the burning glow which
went over her cheeks and brow ; and down, indeed,
to her neck and bosom.
"Why, Brown!" I said, "you have managed to
set that handsome Mrs. James's face on fire with a
word ! What did it mean ? "
" It don't mean anything agin the goodness and
the SAveetness of her, sir ! You may take your davy
about that. A better and a truer woman don't walk
these parts. But it do mean something out of the
common that happened in this wery spot and to that
wery Mary James, and what might, p'raps, have
been ever so much worse than it turned out, except
for the chance of my keeping my weather-eye lifted
that day."
And then my marine friend — salted down into

2x6 WANDERING WORDS
sagacity and kindliness by many a hard but useful
year of life — told me the little story which sticks in
my recollection along with that nook in the sand
stone cliff, that passage in Mr. Ruskin, and the
reflections they started about town life and country
life. I must take leave to translate him out of
the Devon vernacular in at least the greater portion
of it.
" You've seen James, sir," he began, " him what
keeps the post-office ; and you've seen what a quiet,
proud, self-respecting sort of young man he is. He
was always the same, and no honester don't live,
and no uprighter ; but the silent ways of him was
nigh to costing him Mary yonder." Whereupon he
narrated to me in his own style, and with many an
intercalated cloud of smoke, how Mary was the
daughter of a farmer — a widower — in a neighbour
ing inland hamlet, and how she grew up the pret
tiest little maid of the district from her childhood ;
and how, out of many admirers, the one she secretly
liked most — almost without her own knowledge —
was this same John James, who was son of the
owner of a trawling vessel, a good-looking fellow
and excellent sailor, but shy and reserved. The
one she liked least — with very full consciousness of
her reasons, for he was a noisy, selfish, self-willed
person, rich as people are reckoned in those parts,
and well-built, and rather finely-featured, but given
to drink, and otherwise objectionable — was the
lawyer of the market-town, named George Barker,
And to understand the matter rightly, he must

AND NOT ASHAMED 217
give me to knoAv that James had never spoken,
nor never dared or dreamed to speak, one Avord
to Mary about the love of which his heart was
full, and had only once, indeed, gone so far as to
ask her, at a dance, for a yellow rosebud which
was in her hair. George Barker, on the other hand,
was always persecuting her with his undesired
attentions, and saying bitter and bad things about
everybody else who ventured to cast an eye in her
direction, trying in every possible manner to worry
her into marrying him. John, Avho kncAV a good
deal that had been shameful about George Barker's
life, was far too honest a fellow to speak against
him behind his back ; and this was the state of
things when a bad season came and Mary's father
made lee-way in his farming accounts and got
behindhand, and had to borrow money by bills at
heavy interest ; until at last the prospect Avas that
he would end by losing his farm for a matter of
^200, Avhere his father and grandfather had lived
before him. This came to be known to most of
the neighbours, and to John James and George
Barker among those ; and the two of them, each
for himself, took characteristic resolutions. John,
who had never ventured to speak to Mary while
she was reputed rich, was inclined to do so now
that her father had no money and might be ruined.
But what he determined upon was to sell his share
in the trawler, realising about one hundred pounds,
and go to sea in a pilot-cutter, where the pay for
a mate is fairly good, saving every penny of his

2i8 WANDERING WORDS
wages, until he could put it to the ^loo, and offer
it all to Mary's father before the crisis ripened.
Barker, on the contrary, who had money and to
spare, secretly bought up whatever bills he could
lay hands upon, signed by Mary's father, and pre
pared a coup. He went to the old gentleman and
demanded his daughter, acquainting him with the
fact that, holding most of the bills, he meant to
sell him up if Mary was refused to him, or to burn
them the day she became Mrs. Barker. There was
a painful scene afterwards at the farm-house. Mary,
who was a dutiful child devoted to her father, was
informed of the alternative, and with her heart
hankering after John, doubted sorely whether it
was not, after all, love lost, because of his silence.
She could not, however, bear to think of her father
bankrupt, outcast, perhaps in prison. George might
turn out better than he promised — he must have
some regard and respect for her to be ready to
tear up ;^200 in bills for the sake of her hand.
She would many him — if it must be ; and the
old coastguardsman hit his pipe so hard upon
the bench when he told me this, that the bowl
flew off.
That same day, he said, John had put ;^i35 into
the bank towards buying off Mary's father from his
creditors ; and was walking home by the beach full
of gentle pride and hope. Mary had been to the
village to sell chickens and eggs and butter — and
was coming the other way, in a very mournful
mood, by this same upper path. " And as it hap-

AND NOT ASHAMED 219
pened," said the old sailor, " I Avas on duty at the
top of the cliff, a-carrying this wery glass. And
what did happen, sir, was most rum," whereupon he
proceeded to recount a certainly remarkable episode.
John James, it appears, was a wonderfully clever
swimmer, and fond to excess of a sea-bath. The
little bay being free of people, the afternoon divine,
and the green water bright and laughing enough
to tempt a tired mermaid, he stripped, and plunged
in from the rocks. After a half-hour in the waves
he was climbing back to the ledge where he
had placed his clothes when that occurred which
often befalls along these Devonian cliffs — a slight
landslip. A ton or two of rock, detached by the
summer rain, rattled down, and one fair-sized frag
ment caught the unfortunate John on the side of
the head and laid him senseless, half in and
half out of the water. " It was just in that nook
down there, sir ! which you can spy from this
seat ; and if you'll look up you'll see the clift is
a fresher red right above us than along the rest
of the brow."
At that moment Mary was slowly pacing down
the path, wrapt in miserable reflections ; having
the day before given herself away, also having that
very day learned in the village that John had
signed articles to cruise in the pilot-cutter Good
Hope, which looked as if he never had cared
for her, and cared less than ever now, since her
father was on the point of bankruptcy. "Now,
sir," said Brown, "what I tells you now is what I

220 WANDERING WORDS
seed with this here glass, though not till it was
half over." Arrived at the place where the bench
is planted, she suddenly observes something pink,
something unmistakably unusual, at the foot of
the rocks. It is half in the wash of the waves,
half leaning against the seaweeds and stones. Ah !
it is a man, a drowned sailor ! She must approach
— she must examine — if possible, if there be any
life, she must help ! Sturdy and healthy as one
of her father's heifers, it is nothing to her to
scramble down the steep face of the slope and to
reach the body. At the last few steps she passes
a heap of clothes upon a stone, and recognises
the pattern of the neck-handkerchief lying upon
the pilot-jacket ; recognises the silver cable-chain in
the waistcoat ! It is the man she secretly loves !
It is John James ! One glance at the pallid face,
down which a thin thread of crimson blood trickles,
confirms what the clothes have told her ; and —
country girl, sea-coast girl, as she is — all is quite
clear to her in an instant. He has been bathing
under the cliffs, a stone has fallen and struck him ;
he may not be — he need not be — dead ! Before
her maidenly eyes he lies, who was too shy to
tell her that he loved her, and, " I alloAv," says old
Brown, "there's plenty of fine London misses who
would have fainted or screamed, or called for salts
or somethink, with that to look on." But being
as pure as rain, and as simple as sunshine, and
as natural as the floAvers, Mary bends over her
lover very tenderly, and feels for his heart. It

AND NOT ASHAMED

beats ! it beats ! and — oh, token of truth stripped
bare ! — right over it, on the Avhite skin, is tattooed,
as sailors use, the word "MARY." MoreoA-er,

' SHE SUDDENLY OBSERVED SOMETHING PINK AT THE FOOT OF THE ROCKS.

hung about his neck in a length of white sennet
is a little silk bag. Being daughter of Eve, she

22 2 WANDERING WORDS
must look — she does look, into that bag. It is
only a tiny string to pull, and inside — "La!"
there is the yellow rosebud he begged from her
hair at the dance ; faded, and soaked by the waves,
but, oh ! the rosebud ! Now, for twenty times
better reason than mere humanity, must she show
herself heroic. If John James lies here many
minutes longer, the incoming tide will choke and
kill him ; nor is there any help to be had except
what she can give. "You'll understand," says
Brown, " that it's only just after this p'int that I
comes into the play ; for I hadn't clapped eyes yet
upon what was going on below." She bends down
over the swooning man, and, placing her great
shapely arms under his, and getting his helpless
chin upon her shoulder, heaved his body up with the
majestic power resident in the loins of country-bred
English girls ; and clasping him tenderly but firmly,
mounted the stones, step by step, until she could
lay him on a place of safety amidst the grass and
sea-poppies. Then, woman-like, the danger being
gloriously conjured, she succumbed, and broke
into tears and weakness — having just force enough
remaining to fetch John's coat and shirt from the
rocks below, and dispose them over her strangely-
confessed sweetheart. " 'Twas so I saw her, sir,"
Brown went on, " sobbing and laughing by turns
by the side of the man that loved her ; and, at
the first, I allow, I didn't understand it. But
when all was made clear, and we wiped the blood
away and see him coming to, I says, ' You're a

AND NOT ASHAMED 223
right good girl, Mary ! ' I says, ' a rare good brave
girl ! and, as this young chap's getting round,
you run off home, and don't say nuthen to nobody,
no more won't I ; then no one won't ever be able
to arst about it — not even John himself "
Her face, he said, became red again like a cliff-
poppy, when this counsel was being given. But she
took it gladly, and went off, leaving Mr. Brown to
bring John to, and to take the business on himself,
which he did. As to the advice of absolute silence,
she did not quite follow that, insomuch as, full of
her new and tender secret, she told her father that
night that he must ask her no questions, but that it
was quite impossible she could ever marry George
Barker. Which piece of sudden news made the old
gentleman deeply perplexed, and George savagely
angry and jealous.
Afterwards, to make up the money wherewith he
intended to aid Mary's father, John — recovered, and
unaware of his rescuer — went off in the pilot-cutter,
and was away for a fortnight or more, during which
time a violent summer storm burst upon the coast.
He went off in his proud, silent way, Avith only just
a hand-shake of farewell to his beautiful loA^e, never
dreaming that those quiet, limpid ey^s had read the
inscription above his manly heart, and that Mary had
borne him, stark naked, in her faithful, fond arms,
like a baby. Men are such fools, for the most part !
The interval was a troubled one up at the farmhouse,
because George Barker went there again and again
to plague Mary and to threaten the old gentleman,

2 24 WANDERING WORDS
whose bills were soon falling due. Then the bad
Aveather came, and one afternoon — when the worst
had blown over, but still no boat could as yet put out,
and the villagers were gathered on the sea-front look
ing to windward, as coast-folk will, for the waters to
bring their own tidings — presently they spy some
wreckage coming in, and then, outside, a boat,
bottom upwards, and, outside that again, what the
look-out man allowed to be a corpse driving. All
this quickly spread into the countryside, and brought
everybody down to the shore ; nor was the excite
ment small when the swamped boat rolled into
reach, and was found to have Good Hope painted
on the stern. Had the pilot-cutter gone down, then,
and Avould the poor human flotsam and jetsam
prove to be some one they all knew — John James,
perhaps ?
It came ashore, bare to the waist, sorely disfigured
by the fish and the waves, so that the features were
wholly indistinguishable. It came ashore, and was
reverently laid on the shingle, amid a croAvd contain
ing Mr. Brown, George Barker, Mary, and a hundred
others, among whom the rumour ran — no doubt
because of the dark hair and strong frame — that it
was indeed John. And poor Mary, seemingly, for
just one agonised moment, thought so too ; since,
obeying an emotion entirely irresistible, she sprang
forward, knelt by the sad relic, and, laying open the
chest of the corpse, exclaimed, " Ah, dear God ! no ;
it's not John ! there's no mark upon his bosom ! "
I had lent the coastguardsman my pipe, Avell filled.

AND NOT ASHAMED 225
but — at this point — he let it go completely out, so
absorbed was he in finishing his story ; which he
did in the following words, as well as I can recall
them :
"They Avas all, sir, pretty much startled-like to
see Mary do such a thing as this — all 'cepting me,
that is to say, because, in course, I wery well under
stood. But it might have gone off quiet, and only
have made gossip, hadn't it been for that man
Barker, who, with the ugliest face you ever see,
burning alive with disappointment and spitfire
jealousy, breaks out, before everybody, at Mary,
saying, ' What do you know, that you ought to know
about the marks on John James's bosom — you  ^? '
Sir, he never got the evil word more than half-way
out before he was clouted on the mouth with three
or four rough sleeves at once, for Mary Avas the
favourite of the village ; and while they was half for
ducking him and half for letting him go, I sings out,
' Hold that 'ere gentleman fast, lads, till I clears this
fog up,' and then and there I says the whole story
over to 'em all, and how Mary come to know what
was wrote upon John's bosom, and the courage and
goodness of the girl."
"They thought more of her than ever, didn't
they?" I asked.
" Lord, sir, they'd have give her the moon out of
the sky if they could, so proud they was of her, and
pleased. But it's a rum thing, too, what happened
soon afterwards."
" What was that ? " p

2 26 WANDERING WORDS
"Why, a message came from John, saying he was
all alive and jolly, and he and his mates, after losing
a boat and having a poor fellow washed overboard,
had done a very pretty piece of salvage in the
Channel-mouth with their pilot-cutter, helping a
treasure-ship into Plymouth, which was going to
be worth to them more than a hundred pounds
a man." "Well, Brown," I said, "I can guess the rest, as
if it was written out on the log-slate."
"Don't doubt you can, sir," responded the old
sailor, demurely lighting his pipe — my pipe rather —
anew. " John came home, and paid the old man
clear, and flew where he had been before, without
knowing it — into Mary's arms — and there was a
wedding and grand doings, and you may judge it's
five or six years ago by the size of yon little toddler
that AA^ent down the path with Mrs. James just now.
She won't let John go to sea any more, if she can
help it, and there ain't no need, for the Squire got
him the post-office, and that salvage job turned
up trumps to the tune, I'm told, of four hundred
pounds." " And George Barker ? " I inquired.
" Oh, George ! oh, he cleared out. We didn't
want him any more, and he didn't Avant us."

XI
A LUCKY NEAVSPAPER

'IN JIBING, THE BOOM KNOCKED THE SKIPPER OVERBOARD." P. 229.

XI
A LUCKY NEWSPAPER
In beautiful old-time May weather those butterflies
of the sea, the yachts of our pleasure-navy, began
their season this year, and all lovers of the noble
pastime were glad that the Prince of Wales, with his
splendid new cutter, the Britannia, carried off two
first prizes in the earliest matches of the spring from
such antagonists as Mr. P. Donaldson's Calluna, Lord
Dunraven's Valkyrie, and the out-classed Iverna.
Mr. A. D. Clarke's cutter Satanita, while stretching
her fresh canvas on the Solent, had sprung her boom,
and could not take part in these contests, which werct
otherwise in many respects so memorable. To Avhat
perfection has not the art of shipbuilding for pastime
been brought, when we can see two such exquisitely-
modelled craft as the Britannia and the new Valkyrie
reach and run all the way from Gravesend to the
Mouse Light and back, and again* from the Nore to
the Goodwins and Dover, and scarcely ever from first
to last have more than a ship's length or two of
distance between them !
I was myself afloat in my own vessel, the Harelda,
a yawl of 80 tons, in the delicious weather of that
opening week, and cruising over those same waters

2 30 WANDERING WORDS
where the matches were sailed, that is to say, at and
beyond the Mouse Light and North Foreland. How
little do those ashore who are unacquainted with
the estuary of the London river understand what is
implied by such a spot and beacon as the Mouse
Light. To the eye of one who simply inspects a
small-scale map, or passes in a passenger-ship down
the river, and out at its mouth, in this or that direc
tion, for foreign travel, those outer waters where
the two estuaries of Thames and Medway melt into
ocean seem to be merely one equal and simple expanse.
But, in reality, they constitute such a labyrinth as
might have puzzled the Minotaur. From Orford Ness
on the northern coast, southwards, right across to the
North Foreland, that watery waste which the two
rivers make is a perfect maze of sands and shoals, of
knolls, oozes, and shifting shingle, which guards the
royal river and the imperial city better than the best
fortifications and strongest war-ships. If in time of
conflict with an alliance of formidable naval enemies,
Ave could afford to remove, and did remove, the buoys,
beacons, and lightships from all those intricate pas
sages that lead through and along the tangle of
shallows, no foeman in his senses Avould dream of
bringing a heavy squadron to bombard Sheerness,
Gravesend, or Greenwich, letting alone the forts that
fringe the river. Or, if any one had the desperate
courage to make such an attempt and succeeded in
it, that could only be by the assistance of some
thoroughly qualified English Channel pilot, supposing
such a traitor Avere to be found. There are, no doubt,

A LUCKY NEWSPAPER 231
men, and even plenty of men, salted down by sea
business from their youth, and conversant a thousand
times over, in every sort of Aveather, with that marvel
lous network of deadly dangers, who, asking nothing
but the deep-sea lead in their hand and a trustAvorthy
compass, could bring the largest vessels through the
baffling intricacies of South Channel or Queen's
Channel ; the Knock Deep, or the Black Deep, or
the Barrow Deep ; the Sledway, or the Shipway ;
going clear of the Inner and Outer Gabbard and the
Galloper and the Kentish Knock and Alborough
Flats, the Tongue, the Shingles, the Girdler, the
Knock John, the North Knob, the Middle Sunk, the
Shipwash, Buxey, Columbine, and Cant ; to say
nothing of the outlying and ever-dreaded Goodwins,
the South Falls, and Sandettie. These are only
some few of the titles given to that wilderness of
Avild water and hidden land which constitutes so
formidable a defence for the mouth of our principal
river. But we dare not ever use them as a defence.
To remove the buoys and beacons, planted by the
hundred in this maritime maze, would be to render the
Thames impenetrable to our own commercial fleet,
and to all the innumerable small peoples of the sea —
smacks, schooners, brigs, barges, and borleys, Avhich
come and go at the mouth of Father Thames. The
consequence is, that those endlessly involved water-
roads, with all their turns and windings, have to be
learned by heart, not only by those who follow the
profession of pilots, but by the fishermen, yachtsmen,
and others who frequent them. The knowledge dis-

232 WANDERING WORDS
played by London cabmen of the names and locali
ties of metropolitan squares and streets is very often
remarkable ; but it comes to nothing as an effort of
automatic memory and proof of the bump of locality,
compared with what a really experienced and quahfied
navigator will carry in his head about such an estuary
as that in which the yacht races of last month were
held. The streets — for all their intricacy — are ever at
the same level and of the same width ; but the rise and
fall of the tides in those waters alter all their aspect
and character, so that for the pilot, who has been
compared to the cabman, there are two or three or
four salt-water Londons to learn by heart. There
is Thames Mouth at high tide, when the flat-bot
tomed barges and vessels of small draught go gaily
over almost everything, and the broad sea-Avays are
brimming full, and free and plain even to the ships
of heavy burden. Then there is the low-water
Thames Mouth, when half- a -hundred important
gateways are quite shut by some narrow but dan
gerous ridge of sand which dries nearly bare, and
upon which in bad weather the sea breaks and
thunders as if it were a Pacific coral-reef. Then
there is the Thames Mouth at half-ebb or half-
flood, most deadly of all, because of the currents
and eddies of the in or out running tide, which will
often lift an incautious navigator upon the brink of
a sandbank, rising abruptly like a railway embank
ment from water six or seven fathoms deep. In
winter-time and wild seasons nothing can be more
mortally perilous than, the position of vessels caught.

A LUCKY NEWSPAPER 233
like flies, in the spider's web of these treacherous
under-water puzzles. If they go aground when
heavy seas are running, she must be a stout ship
that does not quickly bump in her bilge, and crack
and shatter her timTbers with the repeated shock
of her blows upon the hard knoll. And if the
weather be fine, she is often left by a spring tide
so high that nothing the crew can do will get her off.
There is a class of men called Hovellers, of whom
many live in and near Harwich, whose business in
winter, when there is no yachting or other light work,
consists in going out in powerful rough-built cutters
to salvage, where they can, all sorts of craft caught
upon the banks and shoals of the Thames, They
live in constant familiarity with deadly danger, and
earn an occasional windfall by many a narrow escape
and hardship almost unimaginable to the landsman.
I have heard one of them say that the stoutest
mariner afloat, who has been through every ordeal
that the sea could inflict upon the human spirit and
the human stomach, cannot long Avithstand the
terrible sensation of standing upon the deck of a
stranded ship when the sands below, with awful
shock following upon shock, are beating the masts
out of her like loose teeth from -a broken garden-
rake. Immense ingenuity has been devoted by those
in authority to the duty of elucidating the marine
puzzles which such a coast offers ; but to learn to
read the sea-signs of the Trinity House is almost as
long and difficult a study as that of a new language.

234 WANDERING WORDS
The accomplished steersman must know why the
buoys on one hand are conical, and those on the
other flat-topped ; and what their colours mean,
when they are painted white, or black, or green, or
red, or striped vertically, or striped horizontally, or
surmounted by a staff, a ball, a cage, or a bell.
Notable among recent improvements are the large,
ever-burning, automatically-supplied gas-buoys, from
time to time carefully filled with gas at high pressure,
which constantly burns in a well-guarded lamp. By
day, an experienced mariner of such an estuary picks
his way from buoy to buoy — if it be clear weather —
as easily as a cabman taking the right turnings
in town. By night, a succession of these floating
lamps and heedfuUy-planted lighthouses leads him
with reasonable safety through the intricacies of the
place. But if the sky be thick, by day or by night,
it is to the lead that he must chiefly trust. Nor is
there any monument of faithful human service, to
my mind, more striking and more illustrative of how
man may help man by true discharge of daily duty
than the figures on the coasting-charts, which here
abouts, and in a thousand other localities, register
the painstaking and accurate soundings made by
maritime surveyors. All over such an area as this
deadly expanse of sea-traps and tidal perils every
spot on the huge map will be marked with figures
faithfully representing the exact depth of water at
low tide. If, therefore, you only know hoAv to read
intelligently the otherwise bewildering multitude of
marks, you can hardly take three or four consecutive

..I LUCKY NEWSPAPER 235
casts of the hand-lead without knowing to a nicety
Avhere your ship is situated. A special danger,
however, arises from the fact that these sands and
mazes are perpetually shifting their position, closing
up old passages and opening new ones. Eighteen
years ago I Avell remember sailing in a little cutter
which I then owned through the Spitway, that leads
between the Buxey and the Gunfleet Sands, out of
the AA'allet into East Swin. Then, at low water, we
had fifteen feet at that spot, and came through care
lessly ; while only last week I sailed the Harelda
through the same difficult gut Avithin an hour of
flood, and for a dozen casts in succession the utmost
that the leadsman got was "quarter less three," so
that, at the end of the ebb, there would not be five
feet of Avater in that passage uoav.
Desolate beyond expression in the winter months
are these winding water-paths and coasting-lanes by
which the commerce of the world feels its way into
the river. Weird and uncanny to any except the
surest navigator in the strongest ship is it to hear
through the fog or the pitch-black darkness those
particular buoys that are armed with a heavy bell,
against the sides of which the rolling of the sea sets
four or five ponderous hammers for ever banging.
Melancholy in the mid November or December —
beyond the scream of the seagull, the whistle of the
wind, and the seething of the seawaves, is that dirge
like note always pealing from the edge of the sand
or shallow where cold Death sits waiting for the
imprudent crew. Nor is there one of these bells

236 WANDERING WORDS
which has not in its time tolled the funeral-knell of
some hapless ship's company. But in the summer
weather all is different. The breeze, if it blows fresh,
seems to have no spite in it ; the waves, if they roll
free, appear to be at play, like the pleasure-craft that
dance over them with their white sails and glittering
topsides and dainty rigging. It is fun and not danger
to scud or beat from mark to mark and down the
winding water-lanes of green and silver ; though only
by some such hard winter experience can any just
sense be had of the wonderful skill of our coastmen
and mariners, and of the excellent work done all
round our perilous shores by the Admiralty and the
Elder Brethren.
The Mouse Light — so gallantly rounded on
Thursday and Saturday, the 25th and 27th, by the
Prince of Wales's beautiful ship, the Britannia, and
her consorts — is a point not very far advanced into
that complicated Thames labyrinth. You run down
to it from the Nore through the Warp and the West
Swin with great facility, so that it makes an excellent
goal for a river -yacht race ; and all the coasters
coming up from the North and the East reach it by
a road which landsmen could never find — along the
Shipway, the King's Channel, and the Middle Deep
— yet one that is as plain to mariners as Piccadilly
to Londoners. It was a pretty sight to see the fleet
of grand new cutters SAveep round the red markship,
of which I for one must always retain a special re
collection because of Avhat I saw happen there once,
when a lady's kindly thought, and a copy of the

A LUCKY NEWSPAPER 237
Daily Telegraph, betAveen them saved the life of' a
man. On the occasion in question, noAv many years
ago, I Avas on board a club-steamer watching such a
match as that of last week. The yachts had one
by one approached the Mouse Light, and I had
happened to mention to a lady on board how lonely
was the life of the lightkeepers, and what an event
for them would be even the temporary excitement of
the passage of the yachts and excursion steamers.
" I wish I could send them my newspaper," she
said; "there is something in it so very interest
ing ! " and upon that offer, starting with her own
copy of the Daily Telegraph, we collected a whole
sheaf of newspapers and magazines from the pas
sengers, and, waving one of them, hailed the light
ship to send a boat for the bundle of literature.
It was fine quiet weather, and they were glad to
do this — just before the yachts rounded the Light.
The last of the competing pleasure-craft — a power
ful cutter — steered by a famous yacht-captain, was
just turning to run home, when, in jibing, the boom
knocked the skipper overboard. He could swim,
but badly, if at all, in his heavy pea-jacket. His
own vessel had shot far ahead before she could
come to the wind and lower a l\oat, and all the
other yachts in the race were well out of the range
of rescue. But by the good fortune of that gentle
lady who had hit upon the idea of sending her paper
to the Lightship men, there was their boat just half
way back to the Mouse ship, in exactly the proper
place upon the water ; and it only cost two or three

238

WANDERING WORDS

strokes of her oars to come to the spot where the
poor skipper was sinking, and pull him into the
boat with nothing worse than a ducking and a scare.
And so it was, according to the heading of this
paper — that a "lucky newspaper" saved the life of
a man.

THE "HARELDA.'

XII
THE TIGER'S VILLAGE

XII
THE TIGER'S VILLAGE
" Ghora ki badli karna hogaY" — "Do we change
horses here ? "
" Nay ! it is only a miserable village. Protector of
the Poor ! where we may stay a little to buy milk
and get fodder for the cattle."
This conversation took place between an English
Sahib and his servant towards evening upon a
country-road in the Deccan, that wide tableland of
the Bombay Presidency which was called in old
times " Maharashtra." The particular spot was on a
jungle-path passing from Sattara along the lower
slopes of the Ghats, where they rise towards ¦ the
fashionable hill-station of MahabuleshAvar. The
country thereabouts is very pleasant to see, and to
travel through, in the right season. Dense masses
of dark-green foliage cover the rolling hills, which;
have a soil of rich red clay, contrastipg well with the
clumps of sal and tamarind trees and the thickets. of
corinda. The vegetation is not tropical — at least,' to
the hasty observer ; there are no palms or bananas, .
that is to say, and not many bamboo groves upon the .
uplands I am recalling to mind. An ordinary English
bracken flourishes freely upon the bare rounded

242 WANDERING WORDS
elevations which here and there rise among the more
thickly-wooded heights, and the pansy and balsam,
the lupin and marigold, will be perceived in the
jungle, along with all sorts of flowers more strange
to the European eye, the white and deadly datura,
the wild indigo, the coral-lily, and delicate parasites
festooning the trunks and branches of the forest-
trees, some of them of singular loveliness and variety
of form and colour. Although not far removed from
main and well-frequented roads, this jungle-country
of the Western Gh4ts is as wild and sequestered in
many parts as the heart of a wilderness. From the
lonely pools that lie at the foot of the hills the
Indian plover rises, as you pass, with its strange cry
which sounds like "Did you do it? Did you do
it ? " Now and again a family of monkeys, the grey
Hanumans, will cross the forest path, the old man of
the four-handed household angrily chattering at the
sight of strangers, Avhile the child-monkeys jump
upon the backs or breasts of their hairy mothers,
where they will nestle quite securely while she
jumps down a precipice or up into the fork of a tree.
In the sandy patches you may come upon a mon
goose or a porcupine, or see that strange beast the
paradoxurus- — " ood," as the Mahrattas call it —
stealthily grubbing about the cactus clumps for rats
or snakes. The button-quail and rain-quail start
from almost every tuft with sharp whirr of their
little mottled wings, as if they were cricket-balls
exploding ; and the jungle - dove, cream - coloured
with jeAvelled neck, coos soft love-notes in every

THE TIGER'S VILLAGE 243
milk-bush. You will sight no black buck in these
uplands, but, possibly enough, you may start a ravine-
deer, and perhaps a sambar or barasingh. Yet the
underwood conceals many other and fiercer animals,
some of which are the real lords of the manor here
abouts. The bison roams the neighbouring hills, and
the bear is a permanent tenant of them ; wild cats
and leopards live in many a hidden cavern of the
rocks ; while at night you will not pitch your tents
in any region of the district without knowing by
their cries that the hyenas reside there, and the red
hill-fox, and as a matter of course the jackal. But
the true owner and landlord of many a tract of
country in the parts I am revisiting in thought is
that gold-coated and dark-striped tyrant of the
woods, the tiger. There are large ranges on the
ghauts — one might almost call them estates — which
are owned, at least temporarily, by a pair of tigers,
or, it may be, by an old male tiger singly, or by a
tigress which has been left alone to take care of
herself and her cubs, and so develops all the worst
virtues of her fierce maternity. It is one of these
last that has come to my mind in connection with
a summer evening in India, when along the lonely
jungle-road the Englishman with his attendants was
approaching the village, and asked the question with
which this paper commences.
In such a country as I am describing the villages
are few and far between, partly because of many
difficulties as to agriculture and markets, partly
because of the resolute way in which the more

244 WANDERING WORDS
courageous wild beasts dispute with man hereabouts
his pretensions to call himself " lord of the creation."
On the plains, where the country is open and easily
traversed, tigers never stay long in one place, or
are likely to pay with their hides if they do ; but
on the shoulders of the hills, surrounded by thickets
which are the fringe of an interminable forest, the
striped Rajah of the forest is oftentimes master of
the situation, and takes tribute from the cattle,
goats, and dogs of the community, till he can be
trapped or poisoned, or until he departs for some
personal reason elsewhere. It is not so bad for
the country people as long as he retains his natural
dread of man, which is so instinctive that the In
dian herd-boy will often fearlessly save his oxen by
shouting at the attacking tiger, and even flinging his
stick at him ; nor do the slender Indian girls shrink
from leading their goats to the stream or fetching
home wood and grass because a tiger has killed a
cow or kid just beyond the village fields. But at
one time or another a tiger who has been, like the
rest of his kind, terribly afraid of man in any shape,
lays this dread aside on a sudden and for ever, and
then becomes truly formidable. It is perhaps in
most cases the result of an unintended experiment.
The courage of a tiger is the courage not of pride,
but of desperation, like that of a cat. He will get
between the roots of the trees or the cracks in the
earth to escape, but if escape be cut off, he will
attack an elephant with armed sportsmen upon it,
which is as if an infantry soldier should hurl himself

THE TIGER'S VILLAGE 245
against the masonry of a fortress. In some fatal
moment the Hindoo girl going Avith her pitcher, or
the native agriculturist, or the local postman with
his jingling bells has passed some spot where a tiger
lay in Avait watching the distant cattle grazing, or
waiting for night-time to visit some tigress who
has amorously responded to his roar. The beast
has thought himself perceived, has feared to be cut
off from his usual retreat, or the victim has shouted
in terror, making the tiger hysterical with fright ;
and then in a paroxysm of rage and fear, it has
snarled, and sprung forth, and dealt, in frenzy rather
than design, that terrible blow with the forepaw
which will stun a wild boar and dislocate the neck-
bone of a bull. Before his roar of angry surprise
has well echoed through the jungle, the man, or
woman, or child lies a corpse under his claws, yet
instinct forces him to go on, and to crunch the soft
neck with his yellow fangs. Then the secret is
out : the tiger has learned what a " poor forked thing "
this lord of the creation is ; how feeble his natural
forces ; how useless for self-defence that eye that was
so dreaded ; those hands that were so crafty ; those
limbs that bore him so haughtily with his head to the
sky. Moreover, the tiger has tasted man, and found
him as savoury to devour as he is easy to butcher,
and from that time forth the brute neglects no
further opportunity, but becomes step after step a
confirmed " man-eater."
There appeared the other day, in an Indian news
paper, a letter from an English official who had

246 WANDERING WORDS
come across an instance where a young tigress, in
the manner alluded to, had depopulated a district,
killed dozens of men and women, and taken actual
possession of a forest-road and tract. She began
her career in July by killing two women near a
woodland village, and at the end of the following
December had slain at least thirty persons, becoming
bolder and more cunning with each fresh murder.
Her beat lay in some foot-hills, and she roamed over
an area twenty-five miles long by three or four broad.
The country Avas such that she could neither be
tracked for any distance nor driven forth by beaters.
She would not kill a tied buffalo, nor would she go
back to a corpse if once disturbed. She became at
last so bold that she ventured, in open daylight, to
carry off men and women when cutting the crops in
the terraced fields, stalking them from above and sud
denly springing on them. The terror of her fero
city spread through the country. The villagers left
their homes for safer regions, yet even in the forests
the tigress learned to stalk the sound of an axe, and
made many victims, before the woods were proved to
be even more dangerous than the fields had been.
The method of attack adopted was so sudden as
to prevent any possibility of escape ; the blow dealt
so deadly as to render even a cry for help impos
sible. The victim was dead and carried off before
his companions knew what had occurred. Constant
efforts were made for her destruction — poison, spring-
guns, and dead falls Avere ineffectually resorted to,
any number of buffaloes were tied down at night, and

THE TIGER'S VILLAGE 247
many a time the fresh trail of a kill was taken up in
hopes of obtaining a shot at the tigress, but with no
result. At last a file of soldiers were requisitioned
to see what force could do to remove this horrible
animal, cunning having been found of no avail.
The beast was killed, and was found to be a young
tigress, in perfect condition ; the pad of her left
forefoot had at one time been deeply cut from side
to side, but had thoroughly healed, leaving, however,
a deep scar, which proved her presence wherever she
roamed. The same account mentions one instance
in which two cowherds, living in a small grass hut
in a somewhat wild forest, were cooking their food in
the evening when this tigress suddenly sprang upon
one and carried him off. His companion intimidated
the animal with shouts and threats, and succeeded in
making him leave his victim. Carrying his wounded
companion into the hut, the trembling Koombi closed
the entrance and waited for daylight. But this he
never saw, because after a time, the tigress, embol
dened by the increasing darkness, returned, and
forcing her way into the hut, carried off the unin
jured man, who was doubtless doing all he could to
prevent the approach of the brute. The other, who
had been first seized, died of his wounds and of sheer
shock the next day, after relating the story to those
who had found him.
The party of the Sahib that Indian evening came
across just such a scene as is here spoken of All
Indian villages in this part of the Deccan are pretty
much alike. The larger ones will, perhaps, have

248 WANDERING WORDS
rather imposing ramparts and towers made of mud,
with a gateway regularly closed at night, which keeps
out robbers and wild beasts, and may sometimes even
be defended by armed men against troops. But the
ordinary jungle village is either open to the plain and
forest, or has at best a fence of dried thorn-bushes
cut and piled around it, through which there will
probably be many gaps. The huts within, of mud
and wattle, ranged in a long dusty lane, or per
haps in a square, possess very flimsy wooden doors,
sometimes only a hatch and a curtain. There will
generally be seen an old tree in the middle of the
village, and a little temple, perhaps only a mere
porch, or mandal, built of sun-baked bricks and
timber, approached by steps and open on one side.
In the front of the temple will be a pole with a
yellow flag ; within the simple shrine probably a
conical stone painted red, or an image grotesquely
cut in marble or basalt of the monkey-god, Hanuman ;
or of Ganesha, the deity of wisdom. Ordinarily you
would know you Avere coming to the village by the
buffaloes trooping horpe, and as likely as not by lines
of villagers entering Avith wood or fodder, as well as
by the sounds, from the little abodes, of cotton bows
twanging in the hut, where the peasant is fluffing
his cotton before cleaning it in the gin ; of the black
smith beating his copper into shape for a lota ; of the
Avomen singing the mill-stone song at the chark ; or
of the housewife driving backwards and forwards
the beam of the hand-loom. If nobody should be at
work, you would be sure to hear the monotonous but

THE TIGER'S VILLAGE 249
exact rhythm of the tom-toms from somebody's house
or kinsfolk feast ; there would be a wall-eyed, shiny-
hided buffalo wallowing in the village tank, a few
white egrets stalking about its edge, a vulture
perched upon the tree in the square, and much
cawing of the crows watching for bits of chupatty
from the hands of the little naked children.
But as that Sahib's party came down the hill-side
by the widening path to the jungle village no sound
whatever arose from its few and humble habitations.
Nobody came out to make salutation or to offer
supplies ; no cattle were perceived wandering about,
no children, no birds appeared, except indeed many
vultures upon the tree in the square and on the
temple roof The pots in the grain-dealer's shop were
empty and overturned, a piece of cloth just begun was
left with broken threads upon the loom in the next
hut. On the other side of the way the chatties at a
potter's stall were tumbled and broken, and a sheet of
copper lay at the blacksmith's forge half-bent to make
some vessel, but precipitately abandoned. Wherever
one gazed there were signs of a hasty flight on the
part of the inhabitants, who did not seem to have
left anybody to represent them. Yes ! there was one
silent and melancholy representativcj and the sudden
appearance of her would have startled the party very
much more than it did but for a discovery made by
the Sahib's ghorawallah— the groom — close by the
silent and empty temple. There was a muddy patch
there in the square, from which the last of the rain
water had but recently dried up, and, in the black

250 WANDERING WORDS
slime so left, were deeply imprinted the " pads " of
an evidently immense tiger. It was, of course,
evident now to the Englishman, and to those with
him, that the striped Terror which left those foot
marks had given the villagers notice to quit, and was
somewhere or other near at hand, in practical pos
session of the fee-simple of the village. Desolate
beyond expressing was the little unpeopled " place "
of the hamlet, and the look of that helpless red god
staring from his portico upon the huts that he could
not protect, along with the excitement of the hun
gry vultures perched on the cotton-trees, aware, no
doubt, of the deadly secret of the place. For, round
the corner, by the dyer's shop, where two or three
newly-stained turban cloths still hung upon ropes to
dry, they came upon that secret. Across the threshold
of a mud hut, evidently dragged away from the
broken charpoy on the earthen floor, lay the body of a
woman, torn on the brown delicate neck and along the
shoulders and breast, with long red claw-marks. A
dead infant, also mangled by a savage bite, and with
one of its arms nearly torn off, lay half concealed
under the corpse, the appearance of the bodies show
ing that they had been only lately slaughtered. No one
could doubt what had killed them. The sign-manual
upon their bodies was obviously that of the royal
beast, who often in this way disputes the right of his
human rival in India, roaring to scorn the illusion that
man is master of created things. The Sahib's party
wasbadly equipped for tiger-shooting, and passed on —
not without anxiety and the closing-up of the three

THE TIGER'S VILLAGE

251

or four servants and coolies — through the outskirts of
this evicted village. At any moment her ladyship
the tigress or his lordship the tiger, who had taken
possession of the spot, might emerge from a grain-

¦ THE LOOK OF THAT HELPLESS RED GOD STARING FROM HIS PORTICO.

store or a cow-pen, or even from some milk-bush or
jowari-patch, to ask the travellers what business
they had upon the royal property. The English
man hastily put bullets into both barrels of his

252 WANDERING WORDS
shot-gun and walked his horse as quickly as his
men could follow out of the ill-fated gaum. At its
outskirts they were astonished to hear a voice high
above their heads, which came, as they afterwards
found, from a young Hindoo low-caste man sitting
concealed in the branches of a large mango-tree,
from which could be overlooked both entrances of the
village. He had made a rude platform in a fork of
the tree, and watched on it with the long barrel of a
matchlock protruding, and by his side an earthen
jar of water. They invited him to come down and
to tell them the meaning of the extraordinary
spectacle they had witnessed. He descended, and
informed them that for weeks past his village had
been infested and persecuted by a tigress, which,
after killing cattle and goats, had slain and partly
eaten three or four children outside the hamlet, and
had taken, during the past eight or nine days, to
entering the village at night and carrying off somebody
or other sleeping, as Hindoos do, outside their huts
under the verandahs. The woman slain that morning
with her baby was the wife of the poor matchlock-
man, and he had perched himself in the tree, hoping
to avenge her death when the Sahib's party passed.
It was too serious a case not to be reported in the
proper quarters, and an expedition of practised tiger-
shooters was equipped among the officers at the
nearest station. The beast Avas tracked, and Avas
killed after receiving eleven bullets, and then it
turned out that she had a half-grown cub which had
lost a limb, so that the maternal affection of the

THE TIGER'S VILLAGE 253
ferocious parent had driven it to such desperate
Avays. Indeed, the spectacle of that village was full
of philosophical suggestiveness. The dead human
mother had been slain by reason of the very same
instinct AA'hich had made her seek in vain to
preserve her child from the attack of the tigress,
driven to its Avit's ends to find food for its own help
less offspring. The tigress was in her way as ten
der a parent as the loving mother whom she mur
dered : and then, besides, there was the whole village
depopulated, to make one Avonder what sort of a
world it would have been if, as might well have
happened, tigers had evolved as masters 01 the globe
instead of men.

XIII
WILD BOARS

'HE AT LAST PUTS A.SIDE Till", IJUSIIRS AT Till.; |.;DGE OF THE P..\TCH .\ND EMKRGFS. '

P. 257.

XIII
WILD BOARS
In days when I used to fish and shoot and hunt, and
variously kill the beautiful or interesting wild crea
tures of the woods and fields — which now I would not
do — I came to know a good deal about the wild boar.
And you cannot know much about him without very
deeply respecting him. No beast has a higher pride
or finer courage, and none becomes the savage sur
roundings of his home with better lordliness. He is
afraid of nothing, armed as he goes with the twin
scimitars of his gleaming tusks, and cased in bristly
hide, which is a span thick over the withers. The
Indian boar will do battle against the tiger itself, and
not always get the worst of the contest, for one good
rip with those sharp moon-shaped tushes — such as I
have seen slash through saddle-girths and numdah,
letting out a horse's entrails — will start a scarlet stripe
among the black stripes of the tyrant "of the jungle,
out of which he quickly bleeds to death. And if
sportsmen must and will slay — nor can it be main
tained that slaughter is not the present way and law of
Nature — then there is surely no sport in the world
so entirely entrancing and exciting as " pigsticking "
— to have tasted which is to despise evermore all

258 WANDERING WORDS
milder and more commonplace delights of the chase.
In this pursuit, also, the wild hog often shoAvs a
magnificent courage. He hates to come out of the
sugar-canes or the joivari field, where he has put
up with his wife and family for the day. He more
than half suspects the presence of those grey-coated
men on the Arab horses, who are waiting in pairs
outside the cover, with their bright spears balanced
in the right hand, and the left restraining the fidget
ing mouths of their steeds. But the beaters make
such a tumult with sticks and drums and crackers,
that his wife and children have bolted across the
open already, and it is clear that he too must go. It
is at a surly trot, however — disdainful and reluctant
— when he at last puts aside the bushes at the edge of
the patch and emerges — emerges to see with half an
eye that his enemies are mounted and about to pur
sue him, now that they have got between him and
his shelter. Well, he must make for another ; but
he does it with . dignity, for he has supped heavily
on the village crops all night, and the old grey boar
values his digestion. What is this, however? A
horseman on either side presses hard and harder after
him, with the point of a glittering spear held (Jose
and low. It is abominable, but it is serious ; he must
change his trot for a gallop, and lead these insolent
disturbers of his peace into the broken and rocky
ground. Looking back out of the corner of his
small eye, of which the Avhite shoAvs like a speck of
mother-o'-pearl, his pig's heart rejoices to observe
one of his foes come headlong doAvn upon the smooth

WILD BOARS 2 59
trap-rock Avith a crash Avhich will put him entirely
out of the hunt, at any rate until the friendly thicket
can be reached into Avhich the soaV and her litter are
just now safely entering. Meantime the other spear
has approached as the boar slacked a little on the hill
side, and, before he knew it was quite so near, the
sharp point, slightly misdirected, glides on his skull-
bone and goes right through the high-cocked ear.
It does not damage the boar nearly so much as it
infuriates him ; and then you see that grim, grey
dookur set up his bristles like a fence of aloe-stalks,
and champ his foaming jaws, and swing round to
charge the daring pursuer. You have need of a
horse who knows his business at this moment, and
you should well understand how to manage and
recover your disappointed spear. If the Arab is
thoroughly well trained, and you do not chance to
come out of your stirrups with the sudden swing
round — in which case the boar will probably end the
chase by ripping you in a manner to make the doctors
look serious — then the jungle-hog starts off discon
tentedly again for his still distant refuge, and you
may add to the glory of "first spear" the joy of pre
sently feeling the willow-leaf steel slide in a foot
deep behind his gallant brisket ; with" a curious ease,
too, as if the great pig were made of butter. It is
the pace which does that — you need not thrust ! — but
in the small closing eyes of yoyr victim as he rolls
over on the rock you will still see the glare of an
unconquerable and defiant courage.
The mention of any special wild animal which he

26o WANDERING WORDS
has long ago studied and followed usually brings back
to the votary of the woodland and the waste some
particular scene of his remembrance and experience.
When anybody speaks of tigers, for example, I chiefly
recall, as it were by instinct, a wonderful picture
in the Indian jungle, when I saw from a machan —
or platform of boughs, in a tamarind tree — two
young tiger-cubs playing with a peacock which
they had killed. Fortuny himself even could never
have reproduced — for all his superb command of
the palette — the splendid play and savage combina
tion of colours which that hidden comer of the
Indian forest furnished to the eye. The burning
evening sun lighted with mellow gold the coats
of the fierce little tiger-kittens — orange silk with
stripes of black velvet — the broken amethysts and
ruined emeralds of the poor bird's train cruelly
scattered over the trampled grass ; the blood-stained
sapphires of his breast ; the scarlet and silver jewels
of his crest ; his russet and black wings — aU framed
in by the waving boughs of the korinda bush and
the long flags of jungle-grass. We did not interfere
with the little monsters, because Ave were Avaiting
just then for their mamma, who was more than
suspected of having lately killed a village-girl, and
had certainly slaughtered the dead cow over whose
carcass the machan had been established. But
that jungle-picture, Avith its blaze of sunset colour
and wild beauty of death and passion and destruc
tion, ahvays comes again to my mind Avhen there is
talk of tigers.

WILD BOARS 261
As for the boar, he brings to recollection an espe
cial scene of the Eastern wilderness. Of course, in
India, we did not shoot the dookur — at all events,
not near a station, or where he could possibly be
" ridden." That would be as bad as to kill a fox with
gun or poison in any English hunting shire ; and how
nefarious such a deed would seem, of course, no words
could tell. Sydney Smith said once to a friend who
Avas talking freely about a neAV clergyman's opinions,
"Oh, don't call him a Socinian, please ! They think
hereabouts that that means netting pheasants or shoot
ing a fox." I myself, on one sad occasion, killed by
accident a dog-fox in some English turnips, not see
ing him, and taking the movement in the leaves for
the passage of a hare which we had started, and while
we secretly buried Reynard where he fell, the feeling
of remorse was exactly as if we had put to death a
churchwarden ; such is the force of tradition ! But
on that evening, and in that spot which I so well
remember, I was positively obliged to slay a boar
with lead instead of steel, to save a native and my
self. It was amidst the pretty broken country round
Poorundhur, not far from Poona, in the Bombay
Presidency — a country of trap-hills, and vast plains
of black soil, which splits open in summer-time,
with innumerable wide fissures, into which the
lizards and field-rats take headers as you walk, and
where the snakes ghde back and forth. I had been
shooting quail, with none but native attendants,
and as the sun touched the western horizon we
came to the edge of a deep glen, wooded with

262 WANDERING WORDS
rounded clustered bushes, between which showed
patches of yellow grass.
"Down in that nullah, Gharib-parwar ! "^(Pro
tector of the Poor)— "there are plenty of deer and
hares ; and perhaps a leopard," remarked my Mah
ratta shikari.
"Get fifty people of the village," I answered,
"to-morrow morning early, and let us, beat the
nullah from top to bottom. We can do it if  "
" Dekho ! dekho ! " interrupted Raghu ; " look,
Sahib, look ! " And where he pointed I saw some
thing in the upper part of the valley moving down
ward, which might be hyaena, leopard, or anything.
Obeying a not very wise instinct — for the light was
rapidly failing — I snatched my rifle from Raghu's
hand and ran down the slope, he following. AVhat a
lovely and lonely hollow it was in that silent Indian
waste, with its smooth tables of sand and grass, its
green bushy sides, and cascades of. wild parasitical
flowers growing on the tree-stems, while the tiny
grey ringdoves flitted cooing from bush to bush, and
from the. thin string of water at the bottom the Deccan
peewit, who. cries " Did-you-do-it ? Did-you-do-it ? "
rose, aAvare of our presence. Soon, a button quail
bustled out of a cane thicket higher up, and settled
almost at our feet — sure sign that something was
coming. And something did indeed come ! We
were standing on a level patch of clear ground with
dense cover above and beloAv, and the twilight,
which lasts so briefly in India, was already growing
dim, when out blundered a big jungle sow, followed

WILD BOARS

Z6z

by a pack of piglets, bent, no doubt, on a drink of
water in the bottom, and afterAvards the nightly
forage. Motionless although Ave stood, she saw us
from her little eyes, and grunted something perfectly

' I SANK ON MY KNEE, AND FIRED QUICK.

intelligible, beyond doubt, to her little ones, for they
all immediately scurried hard across the open,
hustling their lumbering mother. It was in
telligible, moreover, to another pair of bristly ears.

264 WANDERING WORDS
for again the bushes opened, and forth into the
patch of clear ground thrust a grand old grey boar —
to whom, I believe firmly, his porcine consort had
hastily but quite plainly remarked, " My dear ! there
are hateful men here. Rip them up — if you can."
At all events he did not seem surprised to see us,
but champed his lips, grunted in a quick, angry way,
and came straight for where we stood.
"Maro! maro!" cried Raghu — "shoot, shoot!"
— and, truly, it was no time to have in mind the
regulations of the Poona Hunt Club. I could just
catch the sight of the rifle in the dim evening, as I
sank on my knee, and fired quick, to get both bullets
in. The first caught him on the right-hand tusk and
sent it spinning — itself glancing aside. However,
the boar turned its head away a little at the shock,
and just slackened a bit in a manner to show his
broad neck fair and square, not twelve yards off, so
that my second bullet went clean through the cervi
cal vertebrae. At the cost of a venatical impropriety
Raghu and I were saved.

XIV
THE WEALTH OF POVERTY

HE HAD A GARMENT OF SOMl; SORT SPREAD 0\ER
r.\RRING IT ASSUIUUU.M.V."

A liRlAK HUSH,

AND WAS
P. 267.

XIV
THE WEALTH OF POVERTY
I draa;v fr-om the portfolio, of memory the recollec
tion of a man who, more than any other, taught me
in early days how very slightly human happiness
depends upon material possessions. The tendency of
the present age is, it may be feared, to take the other
view too strongly. If you will listen to the persons
who make most noise on behalf of the working classes,
gind do least for them, you would incline to believe
that . another penny per hour more, or another hour
of labour per day less, must make all the difference
betweeii misery and felicity. Is it not rather true
that a man's life or a woman's life depends for real
happiness upon the inner nature with which they
are born, or to which they have educated them
selves ; that in all ranks and under all circumstances
people can traiii and form their temperaments as
easily as they can make a scarlet-runner climb upon
strings? ; E-verybody has a great deal of reahsed
wealth to start with ; even if there should be no
silverrspoon. ready to.iis mouth. Think only of the
wonderful and beautiful body, with all its inherited
de.velopmeats of exquisite adaptation to common uses
and daily delights. Why need the poorest girl.or boy
267

268 WANDERING WORDS
envy the millionaire's steam-yacht, or the jewelled
opera-glass of the duchess, when they have got their
five senses in perfect order, with such machinery as
engineers can only marvel at, and possess eyes — be
they blue, or grey, or brown, or black — to see with.
Over everybody's head is daily built a roof so glorious,
so various, so arabesqued with fleecy clouds and filmy
mists, that fresco-painted vaults of princely halls are
dull matched with it. The fresh air and the sweet
smell of flowers, and the taste of white water to the
thirsty mouth, and the flavour of a fresh apple or of
bread and cheese when you are hungry ; and the soft,
accommodating, refreshful sleep when you ai'e tired :
and beyond them all the sense — if we will only open
heart to it — of the love, and mercy, and final safeguard
ing of some vast and just Power never to be named,
but never to be doubted — all these things are to
be had by everybody for nothing or next to nothing.
When the charm of a warm and equable climate is
added to such splendid common gifts, one sees whole
nations — like the Malays, the Hindoos, and others
— quite content with life just as it goes, and only
doing such light work as suffices to make to-day feed
to-morrow. Our English climate is not so indul
gent, and consequently there arise here some few
artificial but necessary wants which have to be sup
plied. But the difference between the pleasures of
the rich man and of the poor man need not be nearly
so great as envious people pretend. "The gods sell
everything at a fair price," and the money they take
in exchange is not gold and silver, but goodwill, right-

THE WEALTH OF POVERTY 269
heartedness, honest effort to make the best of all cir
cumstances, and reasonable sweetness of disposition.
The happiest individual I ever knew was the poorest.
His appellation was Draper. That was all there was
of his style and title, for he would have regarded any
thing additional as superfluity, and nobody indeed
would have ever dreamed of asking such a waif
for his Christian name. A Christian name implies
christening, and parents, and god-parents, and
being born beforehand in a regular manner ; whereas
Draper had never, to his knoAvledge, or that of any
body else, been inside a church or chapel, and had
no more idea of who his father might have been
than a cuckoo has. When I enjoyed the advantage
of his acquaintance, he was a person of middle-age,
square build, supremely perfect health — manifested
by his magnificent appetite, Avhite teeth, ruddy face,
and eyes like grey diamonds — abominably bad
clothes, battered hat, gaping boots, and an eternally
radiant smile, with an ever-ready joke. He was
Shakespeare's Autolycus in rags and tatters, gifted
with the same wit and the same philosophy — being
of a long-settled opinion that
A merry heart goes all the way ;
Your sad heart tires in a nlile-a.
But his rags and tatters were peculiar in this, that
they glistened from a distance like the sides of a
fishing-smack, and for the same reason. Draper was
covered with tar inside and out. He was panoplied
in it. What he liked best in the world Avas doing^

270 WANDERING WORDS
nothing. In the winter, whenever he could, he did
this in the nice soft straw of somebody!s barn ; in
the summer he did it, deep in the foxgloves and
ferns of some coppice bank, where he could lie on
his stomach and watch the little creatures of the
insect world go and come over and under their green
bridges of the grass, and along the shady avenues
that stretch beneath the buttercup leaves and gold
balls of the crow's-foot. He knew and liked all
woodland things, large and small, as if he had been
a Faun ; and understood the minds and the ways of
weasels and foxes, hares and hedgehogs, field-mice
and beetles, as if he had been himself in turns
dipterous, coleopterous, quadrupedalian. But though
he agreed with Aristotle that meditation was the
only proper pursuit for a wise man, the need of beer
and tobacco to assist meditation had forced him to a
profession. " There is lots of things," he once observed to me,
" in the hedges wot's good to smoke, and wot makes
werry nice tea — and I knows where to find wittles
and a drink, where them fools" (pointing to the
world in general) " would starve. But 'taint ekal to
twist and porter. That's why I works ! "
What he worked at was tarring the farm-premises
of the yeomen and gentry of that part of Essex. The
profession had immense advantages. It was mainly
practised in the early part of the year ; it Avas very
well paid for, because it was dirty and dangerous ; it
Avanted no capital, since the farmers and squires
supplied tar-kettles, brushes, and ladders ; and it

THE WEALTH OF POVERTY 271
kept its professor in touch Avith the one commodity
which he loved and valued, the scent of Avhich was
the breath of life to his nostrils — namely, what he
designated " Stockhollum tar." The famous philo
sopher who wrote a treatise on " The Virtues of Tar-
water" Avould have found in my resinous friend a
man after his own heart. One day, wandering with
my gun, I came across Draper at the end of a long
green lane, which was called the Pikehull, so busily
engaged that the spectacle of his unusual animation
was astonishing. He had a garment of some sort
spread out over a briar-bush in full and fragrant
blossom, and he was tarring it assiduously with the
long brush used in his avocation. This conversation
ensued :
"Why, Draper! what on earth are you doing?"
"Mornin', sir! Lor, sir! the money that it 'ud
save in soapsuds if people was only up to Avhat I'm
a-doin'." "AVhat is it?"
"Well, dow my bright buttons!" (this was his
usual ejaculation in moments of earnestness) " 'tis a
bad thing for the washerwomen ; and I dessay you'll
have shirts enough not to want me to larn it to you ;
but 'tis my yearly rig-out that I'm gettin' ready."
" Your yearly rig-out ? "
"Yus. Oust a year I goes to Billericay and I
buys a cotton shirt, and I tars him inside and outside
like this 'ere. You mustn't wear him before he's dry
both sides, and has been well crinkled in wood-
smoke ; do, it 'ull never keep good. Arter that's all

272 WANDERING WORDS
done I puts him on, and wears him night and day
till the year comes round again."
"Draper, you must be as tarry as the sidq of the
barn ! "
" There's nothing like it, sir, to keep a man sound.
What's good for the buildings is good for the stuff
we're made of, inside and out. Look here, sir ! you
just give me a drop out of your flask, and I'll fill it
up with ' Stockhollum,' and drink your werry good
health." He did, too ! for there was a broken teacup lying
near, which he washed ; and after I had poured two
fingers-breadth of whisky into it, Draper cheerfully
brimmed the liquor up with tar out of his ladle and
tossed off the mixture with the utmost apparent
gusto. He wiped the brown strings from his lips,
and went on :
"Why shouldn't it be good, sir? 'Tis the life out
of the green woods ; the blood of the trees ! You
can't have no ache in the innards if you takes a Uttle
now and then of real Stockhollum. Not too much,
mind yer ! Smell to it ! What's these yer hedge-
roses to the waft of the tar-pot? I was weriy nigh
going to sea onst, only for the sake of the ropes."
I am afraid he liked the tar, though, all the better
for the whisky underneath it. StiU, he was a sober
man — too fond of the feeling of perfect health to
throw that away for the townsman's costly and
melancholy pleasure of inebriety. There is an art
even in tarring the side of a cowshed or stable, and
Draper in his line was an artist to be depended upon.

THE WEALTH OF POVERTY 273
AA^orking high up upon his ladder, he could make a
kettle of tai" go farther and cover up more weather-
boarding than any ordinary hand, and the farmers
were glad to employ him. Most of his spring and
summer money thus earned was saved for the winter,
when, after wandering about among the works of his
brush — which he always regarded with as much
pride as a Raphael or Perugino could have felt over
any finished canvas — he would retreat to the seaside
and hybemate among the fishing-smacks and the
tarry cordage, doing a little professional job or two
for the fishermen, until spring brought him forth
again to buy a new shirt and renovate the farm pre
mises of half the county.
He was a little too omnivorous for civilised society.
One day he saw me taking a rabbit-trap from a burrow
— I am sorry I ever set one ; I would not do it now !
I drew my hand out quickly with an exclamation of
pain, for it was a hedgehog which had got itself
caught, not a rabbit, and about a score of sharp
needles had been driven into my fingers. He asked
for the poor little trapped beast, and when I next
passed that way he was enjoying a midday meal of
fat bacon, cheese, and the whole bottom of a half-
quartern loaf, with what looked like an open melon
or a split cocoanut. Examining more closely, I
found he had cooked, and was eating with high
satisfaction, the prickly prey begged from me.
" There's nuthin' ain't a better flavy, sir," he said,
joyously, between two mouthfuls, "than a young
hedge-pig. You opens and cleans 'em — did you ever

2 74 WANDERING WORDS
see the inside of a hedge-pig, sir ? 'Tis like a posey
of flowers. Then you rops 'em in a ball of clay and
makes a went-hole and shoves 'em into the middle
of a Avood-fire, and when 'tis done you splits it open,
and the pricks and skin comes away just like the
husk of a chestnut ; and you eats 'em. Won't you
just try a little bit?"
I said I thought I would not ; but I perceived that
Draper could live sumptuously where other people
would go empty. Knowing so completely the habits
of every living thing in the country, this easy-going
philosopher of the tar-bucket would have made a
desperately successful poacher ; but two sentiments
held this innate propensity in check, one was his
profound fear of the squires and magistrates, with
whom it was all-important to stand well — and they
could forgive anything except poaching — the other
was his deep and unaffected love of the wild crea
tures. I found him on one occasion setting the
broken leg of a young thrush with as much tender
ness and solicitude as if it had been his own child.
He had wound the fluff of some thistledown over the
place, and lightly but securely bound two tiny pieces
of split willow-bark round it, making such a good
operation of it that when he let the bird loose it
chirruped what sounded like thanks, and perched
upon a branch near at hand. " There ! " he said,
"that ain't the first job of the sort what Doctor
Draper's done for you and your likes — pooty cree-
turs ! Dow my bright buttons, sir ! I ain't got no
better friends than the birds and the beasts, nor I

THE WEALTH OF POVERTY 275
don't Avant none." Still, I have reason to believe that,
now and again, Avhen somebody's Avife was ill that
had been kind to him, Draper, in the dark, Avould hang
a hare or a couple of rabbits upon the poor woman's
door-handle, and when she got up in the morning
and went out to fetch sticks for fire, there was break
fast, dinner, and supper all provided, with no card to
say that they came from the estates of my illegal friend.
He knew plants and trees and flowers, and their
virtues, almost as well as Solomon, in spite of the
arch-heresy of preferring the scent of tar to the
perfume of a wild rose. An instance of his agri
cultural acumen comes to mind. There was a field
of winter Avheat about which we were anxious, as it
had been sown with doubtful success and was very
late in showing above ground. Out one morning
early about the estate, I met Draper at a stile, tarry
from head to foot, his stubbly beard and short black
hair like tarred oakum, his hands and wrists like
tarred tub-staves, his face streaked with tar strings,
with a bit of the golden sallow-blossom between his
white teeth, and his eyes shining with the delight of
being alive on such a morning,
" We shall have to plough this twelve acres up,"
I said ; " the blade won't come."
"Won't it, sfr?"
" No. Look for yourself It is as brown — well,
as brown as you are, Draper."
Down he went upon his tarry stomach, put his
cheek to the ground, and gazed along the surface for
a moment, then, rising to his feet, exclaimed :

2 76 WANDERING WORDS
"Dow my bright buttons, sir! 'tis five quarters
to the acre your guv'nor will reap off that, if he lets
it alone." And, surely enough, when you looked along the
level of the soil in this cunning manner, catching all
the ridges together, there was a beautiful light green
film of young wheat spreading from headland to
headland, and the whole field had become changed
from brown to emerald.
I am afraid I cannot speak of my bituminous,
but ever-cheerful and resourceful acquaintance, as a
strictly moral character. He was a philosopher, a
naturalist, and a kindly-hearted vagabond ; but to
one who wears only a single shirt from year's end to
year's end, many of our most respected institutions
must naturally present themselves in an otherwise
than sacred light. He was accompanied occasionally
upon his tarring expeditions by a not uncomely
female, whom he called sometimes his " wife," albeit
it was doubtful if she could have shown any legal
claim to that title. A young woman of tastes so
unconventional as to put up with the perpetual society
of Draper and his tarpot was not likely to have been
particular about " lines " or settlements. Yet this
Audrey of my Essex Touchstone seemed positively
attached to her gay, worthless, easy-hearted associate,
and did his biddings as cheerily as he dispensed them.
Riding one day far away from their proper beat, and
in a district where the couple were not known, I
came upon them under a beech-tree in a lane din
ing luxuriously upon cold pork-chops and sausages.

THE WEALTH OF POVERTY 277
Questioned about such unaccustomed luxuries, Draper
put that extra twinkle into his grey eyes which al
ways accompanied a confession of wickedness, and
told me how they had come across the country from
union to union to get to the tarring again.
" But skilly every night, and stones to break every
moming," he said, " gives yer appetite for suthin else.
So my missus here ties her shawl in a lump under her
apron, and we goes together to the big house yonder,
and knocks at the kitchen door, me a limpin' on a
stick, and she lookin' heavy and faint ; and I ses,
ses I, ' Could you give us a little broken wittles ?
the wife's expectin' every minute, and I've turned
my ankle trampin', and 'twould be a good charity.'"
What became of Draper eventually is beyond my
knowledge. The last I heard of him he was in gaol
for poaching, which seemed so unlike his usual
prudence about game that I made inquiries. And
it must be confessed that the true story of this
ultimate transgression was not so very discreditable
to the tarry optimist. He was out on one of his moon
light tramps from farm to farm when he saw an
acquaintance carrying a gun, with a hare and a brace
of pheasants lying beside him. The man had been
poaching, and the keepers being after him, in jump
ing a gate he had hurt his leg and could go no farther.
" Here, Tar-pot," says the poacher, " take this hare
for your dinner to-morrow. They'll have me soon,
for I can't stand up ; and I'm sorry for the sake of
the wife and little ones." " How many chillun ha'
ye got, matie?" "Five, and that's why I was out

278 WANDERING WORDS
to-night. 'Tis too dear to buy the butcher's meat,
and they was pinin' ! " " Look here," says Draper,
" I ain't got nothin' to do till the fore part of March.
If they didn't see the shape of ye, gi' me the gun and
the birds, and you creep in under them hollies. I'll
go up the road and fire the gun, as if I catched her
trigger in a thorn runnin' away, and they'll pounce
out and be satisfied with Draper. You crawl in,
matie ! and give my respects to the missus and the
kids ! "
Which nefarious plot was duly carried out, and
Draper — very demure and contrite in the dock for
his heinous offence, got six weeks, and an awful
warning from the bench. I sent his friend, the real
sinner, a little gift to convey to those sadly immoral
but generous hands when the imprisonment should
be over ; and that was the very last I ever knew
about the light-hearted tar-man.

XV
STRONGER THAN DEATH

'YOU WOULD NOIJCE THAI' Gk.VCE FALTERED A LITTLE AS SHE CAME UP THE
PATH, l.-.VEN WITH THE LIGHT WEIGHT OF A BUCKET OF WATER." P. 281.

XV
STRONGER THAN DEATH
Spring comes upon the sea with almost as much
grace and change and sweetness of season as upon
the land. The meadows of the ocean have their times
of cold, dark fallow in the winter, of re-awaken
ing in the spring, and of large fruitfulness in the
summer, just as the fields ashore have them ; but
you must know the elements well to observe the
various signs which show this. Anybody, of course,
can notice the bettering of the weather, and the
lifting of the sky, and the new colours of the waves
and waters when the last of the east winds has
blown itself out and the days begin to be longer than
the nights. Anybody can feel and Avelcome the
difference in the breeze which comes over the quiet
sea along with the early whisper of May, and those
bitter, howling winter gales which chill and kill.
But only sea-birds and fish and sailors can tell, by
Avhat floats and swims and flies, that the good days are
coming upon the water before they come, and when
it is the season to look out for this, that, and the
other token of the weather Avhich brings the bright
side of the fisherman's and mariner's life. There
was a village which I used to know well — in the
West of England — where you could study all this

282 WANDERING WORDS
sea-lore as advantageously perhaps as anywhere in
the Avorld, and Avhere the fisher-folk were as fair
specimens of the honest, brave, loyal, and industrious
" common people " of England as a man would wish
to meet and be friends with. It is because I remem
ber along with that village a rather touching story of
humble but true love that I draw to-day this particular
little picture forth from the portfolio of memory.
I remember it especially by the wonderfully pretty
girl who lived with an old aunt and two small sisters
in the cottage close under the great cliff which rose
to the westward of the hamlet. Everybody must
have experienced how often a place will associate
itself in the mind with a face, when much more
important localities pass clean out of the thoughts
for want of such a link of human interest. I don't
think anybody Avith eyes could have forgotten Grace
Williams if he had once seen her — she possessed
such real distinction of feature, and such natural
elegance, without being in the least discontented
Avith her station and her lowly daily duties. In fuU
health, she had a mouth like a rosebud, long black
hair, dark shining eyes, and a step along the cliff's
edge like the pacing of a hen-peacock, if you have
ever noticed how grandly that bird walks. But when
I and my wife first saw her near her cottage door she
Avas not quite well. Her comely face was pale, her
lips seemed a little thin and colourless, and, stately
and symmetrical as her figure showed, you could
notice that Grace faltered a little as she came up
the path, even Avith the light Aveight of a bucket of

STRONGER THAN DEATH 283
Avater. This was so evident that I remember taking
the pail — with a joke — from her hand, and finishing
the hill-climb for her, while she talked with my
Avife ; and so we learned that she Avas indeed some-
Avhat weak in the chest, in spite of all her stateliness
and splendid beauty, and seemed to be threatened
with consumption.
All this did not prevent two of the best-looking
and most prosperous of the young fishermen of the
village from falling over head and ears in love with
her, of which we quickly heard, because everybody
knew it, and nobody better than Grace herself
They are a simple and manly breed — down on those
shores — neither ashamed of their emotions nor wont
to give them any very sentimental expression. They
love — as they work, and as they fight, and as they
Avorship God — in quiet earnest, and I expect that
one thing which worried Grace, and helped to pull
her down, for she always showed herself as good
and honest a girl as she looked lovely, was just
the troublesome pleasure of having two such hand
some young fellows as John Petherick and William
Clannen in love with her, and not quite knowing
which she liked best, nor how on earth such a re
solute rivalry as theirs was going to end. Even
Avhen we grew to know her a great deal better, and
the subject of her lovers was quite a permitted one
in conversation, she never would give any sure clue
to her secret feelings. She always spoke of them
both with womanly respect and modesty. From
the very first close observers thought it was William

284 WANDERING WORDS
Avho Avas the favoured swain, but this was a mere
guess, and came out of an incident which happened
one stormy afternoon in the autumn.
The morning had been fine, but at midday a wind
rose up from the south-west suddenly, and rolled a
rough sea along the feet of the cliffs. Clannen had
gone out after his lobster-pots alone, and whether
one of them had drifted, which he was trying to
recover, or whether, skilful boatman as he was, he
misjudged the force of the incoming surge, he got
his dingey flung upon the rocks and stove in, while
he himself, in scrambling out upon a ledge of the
cliff, sprained his ankle, and by the same fall broke
his right arm. This was not known until the broken
boat of Clannen was seen driving over the rollers
eastward, at which time the tide was already half-
flood, and the place where poor crippled WiU was
perched had become perfectly inaccessible from the
sea. How they found out that place Avas all through
Grace, who forgot entirely about her languor, and
went out in the wind and rain with the rest of the
villagers. It seems a smack, scudding across the
bay, had somehow signalled that there was a man
on the ledge of the cliff; but the difficulty was to
find out where. The surf and the wind created too
much uproar for human voices to be heard, and the
cliff in many places overhung its base, so that it
would never have been discovered where the unlucky
Will had lodged but for Grace, Avho hit upon the
idea of throwing great stones wrapped in newspapers
over each possible point, until one thus flung Avas

STRONGER THAN DEATH 285
ansAvered by one thrown with a splash upon the face
of an incoming " smooth," and the anxious village
kncAv just where its man Avas waiting for help.
At first what was to be done appeared obvious
and easy. A light line was lowered over the cliff's
brim Avith a smaU stone and the body of a child's
kite at the extremity ; and, sure enough, by Avalking
along the edge slowly and letting the gale bloAv this
inwards, it was presently seized. Then a strong rope
was lowered exactly in the same spot, with a length
of floating thread at the end, and this also was caught
by the invisible Clannen. All these shore-folk can
climb like goats, and hang to a rope like spiders, so
the folk now quite expected AVill to make a bowline
in his rope, and signal to be hauled up. Instead of
this he jerked hard at the thin cord, which they
could now afford to pull up, and when it came in
sight there was a bit of paper screwed into its
loop, on which was pencilled :
" Broke my arm, and can't stand. Sea over rock
in half hour."
Well, that meant sharp work if Clannen was to be
saved, and the villagers were puzzled, for it would be
probably useless now to lower him even a boatswain's
stool. They were eagerly discussing the problem
when John Petherick pushed the talkers aside, and,
flinging off his sea-jacket and tightening his belt,
said, with a hard look at Grace's quiet but pale face :
" Here ! cast me over, mate, in a bow-line, and
lower a chair along of me. I'll put Bill safe and
sound on the grass, or break my own neck."

286 WANDERING WORDS
They offered no objection, because it was touch
and go, and people thereabouts are not afraid to die,
or to see others die, where they live lives so simple
and faithful. So, over the red rim of the sandstone
crag went Jack, with a coil of spun yam in his hand
and the second rope ; and it was noticed that Grace
picked up his pilot coat and carefully folded it over
her arm. After he was out of sight it was impossible
to hear his voice or to communicate ; but as he slung
himself across the crumbling brink into the gusty air,
he said to the sturdy group holding on to the ropes —
"Haul up when I jerk three times. Hold hard
when I jerk once ; and if I do it twice send me down
another man."
There was a long awful pause, awful because Will
might be Avashed away, or a hundred bad things
happen ; but the rope presently lost its strain — Jack
had reached* the ledge. There he found Clannen
faint and soaked with the spray, which was now and
again running green over his rock, and threatening
to wash him off as he clung with one hand to it. He
managed, however, to help his rival athwart the boat
swain's stool, and to lash him with the light cord to
the rope, after which he gave the three jerks, keeping
his own line quiet until the injured man was well aloft.
Then he put his leg farther into the bow-line, and
shook his own rope thrice, and first AA^iU came to safety,
sadly broken and soaked ; and after him Jack, pretty
nearly drowned with the breakers, which would have
washed anybody off the ledge in another ten minutes.
Days passed ; poor AAlll Clannen went into hos-

STRONGER THAN DEATH

287

pital to be patched up for his winter work, and
Petherick in his hours of leisure hung much about
Grace's cottage, and ahvays had at least kind words
and looks from her. But the day's exposure upon
the cliff had done the girl serious harm. There

"THERE HE FOUND CLANNEN FAINT AND SOAKED WtTH THE SPRAY, WHICH
WAS NOW AND AGAIN RUNNING GREEN OVER HIS ROCK."

was a foolish doctor living near at hand, who had
frightened her already nervous spirits, telling her
she was in a very bad way indeed in regard of her
lungs, and would hardly live out the winter. Possibly

288 WANDERING WORDS
his unlearned croaking might have come true, for the
cottage she inhabited was in a stuffy nook of the
shore, and she was working too hard, by far, upon
indifferent food, for her aunt and little sisters, be
sides the pain it gave her gentle heart to see Jack
and Will glaring like lions at each other, whenever
they met on the quay or the sands, all for her sake.
But one day my wife found her at home crying, and
trying to hide away some needlework upon which
she was engaged. It was black stuff that she was
making up into children's dresses, and she had to
piteously confess that it was mourning, and that, as
she felt sure she should die before long — just when
life was so pleasant, and she had the choice of the
two best young men in the place — why, she was get
ting together .something for her aunt and the httle
ones to wear after she was gone, that everything
" might be respectable." We were both very much
disgusted and angry when we heard what a melan
choly result the doctor's visit and examination had
had upon pretty Grace. What she wanted was merely
change and sunshine, and therefore having made
some very easy and inexpensive arrangements with a
captain whose ship was at Plymouth, we broke into
Ler cottage one day and rallied her into hope, and
happiness, and excitement, something in this brutal
fashion : " Rubbish, Grace ! The doctor is an ass.
You are not going to die — but to Uve and grow stout
and strong ; and come back as fresh as a cabbage-
rose, and marry the lad you love, whichever he is,
and put the other one out of his misery."

STRONGER THAN DEATH 289
And then it was unfolded to her rapidly brighten
ing eyes how there was a fruit schooner going inside of
a week to the Azores, and how her passage was paid for
in it, and a three months' stay ashore in the Sunny
Islands all provided for ; and how she would be with
nice and kind people all the winter, and must eat her
head off, if she could, on the island grapes and pine
apples and beef, and how the African mail-steamer
would bring her home in the late spring fat as a quail.
AU which duly happened, and Grace did, indeed,
come back in May as beautiful as any low-born and
uneducated angel could look, and as strong and Avell
as a Devon heifer in the clover. Jack and Will had
been going on fairly peaceably during her absence,
and had even taken spells of friendly Avork together,
though they never talked about Grace, and once or
twice punched the heads of village chatterers who
ventured to supply this deficiency in daily village
gossip. But when Grace Williams came home in
company with the May-blossom — which was not one
bit sweeter or more fresh- — and took her first walk
along the cliffs and down upon the sands by the
little harbour, the truce was perforce at an end be
tween these two manly young felloAvs, of whose honest
hearts her beauty had made "roast meat." I heard
afterwards that something like the following conversa
tion occurred at the boat-building yard by the quay :
" You'll be clean quit of that crack in your arm-
bone now, I'm reckoning, Bill."
" Ay, Jack. The doctor at Exeter fished it fine.
'Tis sound as a new spar."

290 WANDERING WORDS
" And the leg, Bill ? Is that in good fettle again ? "
' ' I don't to-day know so much as that I ever even
wrenched it. 'Tis wonderful what them hospital
bandages did."
" Well, then. Bill, I want you to do me the big
gest kindness a man could ask of another man."
" Look here. Jack, I'll do for you just anything in the
world — except one thing. I ain't forgotten the day you
come over the clift to fetch me up out of that mess."
" Well, then, now that you're all right and fit
again, I want you to fight me to a regular dead
finish, and see who is the best man, and the man
that loses to clear out of this place, and the man
that wins to be free and lonely to ask Grace
Williams to be his wife."
Those who heard about this and told us, related
that Will hung in the wind a little.
" I know you ain't a coward," Petherick broke out.
"Why don't ye answer? "
" I'm afeard, if we onst begin, I shall kill 'e. Jack !
And then suppose the wrong man won, and Grace
wouldn't have him ? "
"If I chance that," answered Petherick, "you can
chance it. WiU 'e fight ? "
" Ay, lad ! " was Clannen's reply ; " I OAve you too
much. I ain't no right to say no. I'll fight ! "
Thus it was all privately settled, as afterwards
appeared, that the ancient ordeal of combat should
decide the possession of the fair ; and these Devon
shire men were so straightforward and truthful that
I feel sure they would have stuck to the contract.

STRONGER THAN DEATH 291
But Avhile their loving though pugnacious souls pro
posed. Heaven had otherwise disposed. It was said
by the few in the secret that the time and place
were fixed for the duel, and that Grace herself
had heai'd something about it, since she was seen
speaking to Will Clannen outside her aunt's door,
and handing him something in a packet. However
this may be, my little story must have, I regret to
say, a sombre end, for that Homeric combat — as it
must certainly have proved — never came off.
There broke forth a great storm with the early
summer, blowing right on to the coast ; and in the
darkness of one wild night a large barque came
ashore on the reef at the outer horn of the bay.
We had a lifeboat station, and as soon as day
break rendered things at all plain she was launched,
but in such an unseamanlike hurry that some of
the life-belts were left behind. Jack Petherick
and AA^ill Clannen were both among the volunteers
who manned the boat, which was started with great
difficulty, owing to the heavy rollers, but neverthe
less reached the vicinity of the wreck, and pro
ceeded to veer down within rescue distance of her
distressed company lashed in the mizen rigging.
I was not at the village at the time, but was in
formed that pretty Grace AVilliams stood in the
throng at the launching, and was seen to turn
away with tears in her beautiful eyes when Jack
Petherick passed by her to jump into his place.
During that manoeuvre of veering down to the
wreck an enormous wave broke upon the lifeboat

292 WANDERING WORDS
and capsized her, flinging all the crew into the
boiling sea. Petherick was a splendid swimmer ;
but Clannen, like too many seafaring men, was
utterly ignorant of the art. I don't like to think
of what ensued, and will cut short the close and
careful account which afterwards reached my ears.
In the hard rowing and the shock of the capsize
Clannen's sea-shirt had got torn open, it seems,
and they say there was a long wisp of black-
braided hair, tied with a bit of scarlet ribbon —
the colour Grace always wore — hanging round his
bared neck, in a length of thin marline. Whether
poor Jack's eyes lighted upon this in the confusion
cannot surely be known. Some say they did —
some say he expected to see the lifeboat right
herself directly, and felt himself safe enough in
the water to be, as he always was, generous. At
all events what happened, and what was witnessed
and heard, was this : Clannen was sinking, when
Petherick pushed the oar he Avas holding under
the drowning man's arms and called out, " Catch
hold, BiU; that fight's off ! "
They never clapped eyes on him again till his
poor body was picked up by a trawler westward
of the Start, much disfigured with long soaking
in the sea. The coxswain of the lifeboat thought
he could easily have saved himself. I don't know.
I only know that Grace became Mrs. Clannen, and
that she and Will had a boy named Jack Petherick
Clannen the last time Ave visited the village, now
years and years ago.

XVI
HOW THE DEAD SAVED THE LIVING

XVI
HOW THE DEAD SAVED THE LIVING
Ix times that are past I was myself a sea-gleaner
occasionally, going out now and then by night as
well as by day in those little sailing craft of the
Thames and Medway called "borleys;" or, in the
winter, on sprat-boats ; or putting the trawl down
on moonUt evenings or bright cold mornings from
some little vessel of my own. At the present season,
when the fishing for the lordly salmon is just recom
mencing, it might seem trivial to talk of such smaU
fry as flat-fish, shrimps, sprats, crabs, and the like.
But if you had once known anything about these
minor industries of the water, and made any close
acquaintance with the honest, hardy men and boys
who pursue them ; if, above all, you have sailed in
their tiny but well-handled craft, the interest in
their labours and their lives could never quite depart.
Besides, it is more true of them and their ways than
of almost any set of toilers by la*id or sea, that
" many a little makes a mickle." Small as their
daily catch may be, the dwellers on shore would
miss their service very soon and very much if they
were not almost always out upon the tide, at the
mouths of our rivers, gathering up the " unconsidered
trifles of the deep." And it " runs into good money "

296 WANDERING WORDS
for them and theirs when the winter, as now, proves
an open one, and when the " little fishes " are fairly
plentiful. Of late, for instance, there has been an
excellent time all round the Kentish and Essex
coasts with the sprat, which is not, as was once
supposed, the young of the herring, but a separate
species, distinguished by its size and serrated ventral
edge. True whitebait, also a great resource of the
winter river-fishermen, should consist of young sprats
and young herrings ; for there is no such specialised
fish, as naturalists once thought, giving it, indeed,
a Latin name " all to itself" The whitebait, as
it comes to table, comprises, under its fair mask of
fried batter, all sorts of fry, including those of gobies,
weevers, sand-eels, plaice, dabs, shrimps, and stickle
backs. Sprats, if they were only more expensive,
would be regarded, probably, as the greatest dainty
of the deep ; more toothsome, as they are far more
nourishing, than salmon, sole, whitebait, or than
smelts among ourselves, than blue fish and lake-trout
in the States, than even the Bombay " duck," or the
Japanese tai. And when the sprats come, it is " in
battalions." The average catches lately made among
the forty-five to fifty boats employed from Deal round
to Dungeness have been 3000 measures for each boat
on each tide, which means j^y, los. a day per craft,
since there is a ready sale, now that factories near at
hand have taken to potting and tinning the little
fish. When the takes have been paid for, there
will also be scores of women kept busy in preparing
the sprats, and other hands engaged in soldering up

HOW THE DEAD SAVED THE LIVING 297
the tins. At Deal recently the boatmen cleared
;^475 among themselves from a catch of three days
only ; and there are three hundred people employed
in one factory at that town, so that the sprat is
becoming locally more and more important.
It was not an unpleasing experience in the crisp
wintry weather of bygone years to sit in the well of
a sprat boat, when the " stow-net " had been shot.
The men fish from November to February, and the
mouth of the Thames is as good a place for the busi
ness as any in the world. The stow-net is immensely
long, a full- sized one measuring from fifty to sixty
yards. First there is a great square mouth, 30 ft.
high and 20 ft. wide, called the " quarters ; " then
comes the " enter," a sort of network tunnel 80 ft.
or 90 ft. long and 6 ft. in diameter, followed by
another long tube of 80 ft. or 90 ft., comprising first
the " sleeves" and then the " dock-hose ". or " cod,"
where the net fines down into a mere point and the
meshes grow very small. The smack takes up her
position at the beginning of the tide in a spot where
she can see signs of fish, or knows that they will
come ; casts anchor, downs canvas, and puts the
vast net overboard, under the vessel. There is a
line fast to the anchor from the bridle-rope, and net
and ship thus ride by the same tackle, while the
" quarters " can be raised or lowered by means of
upper beam-ropes to the proper elevation, the lower
beam being weighted so as to hang down and keep
the square entrance wide gaping. Into this open
gateway of meshes drives the shoal, and myriads of

298 WANDERING WORDS
the little ffsh swim, or get thrust deeper and deeper,
along the "enter," till the "cod" begins to stream
out, full and heavy, astern of the smack. As likely
as not the anchor may drag a little with the weight
of the ship, of the close-wove net, and of the gather
ing fish ; but that matters little. So long as the tide
runs, the stow-net continues to stream, and the sprats
to croAvd in, until the first sign comes of slack water,
Avhen the chain is tightened which lies across the
mouth of the net, thus closing it ; the beams are
hauled up under the bolt-sprit, the long brown
tunnel of meshes is drawn on board with the help
of iron hooks until the "cod" is reached, and then
that also is dragged in-board by the tail-rope. This
rope being cast loose, out flashes a living river of
silver, which the master, like a maritime alchemist,
stirs and puddles and measures out, three bushels
at a time, using a wooden implement called the
"mingle." Tons and tons of the tiny silvery prey
may thus be taken in a few hours, and while the
weather is steadfast it is agreeable enough to rock
in the Avell of the smack, Avaiting for the slack water,
and well assured by the excited screaming of the
gulls that the sprats are moving, and that the
patience of the hour will be rewarded. With sudden
squalls and a quick-rising sea the stow-net is an
awkward affair to handle, and there are times when
the "cod," with all its Avater-Avealth of glittering
food, must be cut open and emptied to save net and
ship. In the wide open Avaters of the Thames and

HOW THE DEAD SAVED THE LIVING 299
INIedAvay mouths, AA'here these " little people of
the sea," the sprat-smacks and borleys, gather in
humble fleets, there shows no such majesty of the
element as Victor Hugo has so wonderfully described
in his " Travailleurs de la Mer." No wild play of
billoAvs occurs among such rocks and caverns and
rugged reefs as the great French poet has painted.
No iron-bound coasts arise Avith a fierce line of
leaping breakers at their feet. There are no
mysterious caverns full of sea secrets, Avhere dead
men are lost to sight, and marine monsters lurk.
The shores are almost everywhere low-lying saltings
and marshes, of immense expanse, of monotonous
character, of the most desolate and lonely scenery
which could be imagined. Interminable creeks and
ditches intersect these salt and sour meadows of
the North Sea ; their waving growth of weeds and
rushes is the breeding places of wild-foAvl ; their
muddy banks are perforated everywhere with the
holes of mjrriads and myriads of crabs, Avhich, along
with water-rats, shrimps, and small flat-fish, tenant
the melancholy streams. These prodigious wastes
of rank sea-grass, samphire, and salted mud — espe
cially where they lie outside the sea-walls — are so
solitary that it seems "a land where no man comes,
or hath come since the making of the world." Many
and many such a tract exists Avithin sixty miles of
London town amongst these amphibious wastes,
half water and half gull's ground, where a man can
be more alone than in the desert of Sahara. He
might die there, and remain longer undiscovered

300 WANDERING WORDS
than if his bones had been deposited on a reef of
the Roccas, or a cay of the Bahamas, or a sandbank
of the Pescadores. And they possess their own
dangers, too, these nameless, unvisited, far-extending
saltings of the Kent and Essex and Suffolk coasts —
dangers to landsmen as well as to seamen.
There is a place I remember where a vast, flat,
lonely, outlying island is cut off from the main
land by a broad strait, miles across, which goes dry
at low tide, but fills up on each flood, and, at spring
tides especially runs very deep and strong. , The
spot is well known, and the track across the sands
is marked with willow-poles planted here and there,
if the winds and waves have not carried them adrift.
The spratters and shrimp-boats sometimes steal up
this passage on the flood, and a barge or two may
blunder through it for a short cut. But ordinarily
the place is as lonely as any sea-front at Cape Horn,
its solitude intensified by the wail of the gulls, the
cry of the curlew and peewit, and the croak of some
crow flying homewards, full of cockles. AA'oe to the
wild-fowl shooter or belated traveller AA'ho comes to
that passage, that dry strait of sand, without know
ing its peculiarities ! He would think nothing safer
or simpler. There is the Avide yellow stretch of
apparently firm crossing ; upon it, perhaps, the
track of footmarks or the impression of AA'heel ruts.
Beyond, a few miles away, rises dimly the green
outline of the Essex farms and woods. The light
is good, the sea is down ; why should he not go
over? But he Avill cross at peril unless he notes

HOW THE DEAD SAVED THE LIVING 301
the time of the flood-tide and the direction of the
wind, for the speciality of the spot is terrible. It
will beguile you to the passage, and then midAvay,
before you can see the far edge of the flood-tide
making, or hear the low hissing murmur of it creep
ing into the creeks, the sands under your feet will
suddenly become wet, glistening, sodden ; the sea
will enter, as it were, from beneath ; the ground
which was firm becomes shivering and soft ; and
when the tide makes, it will come sweeping in,
breast deep, neck deep ; at last, sometimes, and in
places overhead, bringing volume enough to drown
not only a pedestrian, but even a horse and cart with
its driver.
Lying up in that very creek one day on board
a smaU smack, near to a solitary fisher's cottage
which stood on the edge of the land-wall, I re
member inquiring of our old skipper why he had a
lighted candle and an open book rudely carved upon
the beam of the half-deck.
"'Tis odd ye should ask that here, sir," he said,
taking his black clay-pipe out of his mouth and
pointing with the stem of it to the cottage, "for it's
all along of that werry house there, and so's this
boat all along of it, too ! "
" How can that be ? " I inquired.
"Well, it's like this !" the grey-headed fisherman
answered; "the name of this boat, as ye know,
is the Grateetood, and that 'ere open book on the
beam, why 'tis a Bible ; and that there candle figured
is a candle what saved a man's life and built the

302 WANDERING WORDS
Grateetood; leastways, she'd never have been
launched without it."
And then, in response to my natural curiosity,
he narrated, with frequent clouds of retrospective
tobacco-smoke, this little marsh-story, here greatly
condensed, and freely translated from his Essex
dialect :
" 'Tis many years ago, now, sir, for I've sailed
this little boat off and on for twenty-six seasons.
And 'twas a gent that came down on horseback to
these parts, making pictures of the sea, and the
boats, and the ' mushes,' though what he could find
in the mushes to put into colour I can't say. And
seems like he wanted to paint the island, or to shoot
there, for he went over one day alone, and earned
with him on his saddle a fowling-piece, along with
his paintbox and his paper. He must have gone
over by hisself early, because the flood, I know,
made about ten that day. And he must have rode
about in the mush and , painted picters aU that
winter's day pretty near, starting to get back again
at night. Well, there was a moon, and he'd find
the other end of the passage quick enough; and
having a strong horse, he'd think it an easy matter,
don't ye see, to gallop back across the hard sand to
the main ; not knowing that the flood was doo at
ten, and that the sea comes in, as ye know, under
neath; afore it rolls in a-top."
"Hadn't anybody informed the poor man?" I
asked. "He never see nobody to inquire. Do, it 'ud a

HOW THE DEAD SAVED THE LIVING 303
been all right. He comes on to the flats, between
them Avillow-sticks, and I dessay he takes it quiet
at the beginning, being so sure of hisself and his
horse. But by-me-by up drives, all of a sudden, one
of our long-shore sea-fogs which blurs out the moon,
and before he could get any bearings, being nothin'
like half-way over, he misses the sticks, and goes
here and there groping for the road."
"AA'hat should you have done yourself, then?"
said I.
"Me! sir? You wouldn't catch nobody born
about these here parts, crossing Foulness Crikk
on a winter's night with a rising tide. But was I
that gent, I should have got off and hunted for my
own foot-marks, and then rid back to the mush as
quick as I could. He didn't. He kept a searchin'
for the road, till presently he notices that the sands
is all aUve and soaky, not being aweer before of the
deadly natur' of the place. That makes him think
he's a-going too fur seaward, so he turns back ; but
everywhere he finds the sands turning sloppy, and
begins, I suppose, to hear the sob of the sea a-comin'
in under the fog."
"A horrible position, skipper."
" Couldn't well be worse, sir, for- anybody that
didn't know the ropes — as they say. Well, he was
wastin' the time away, and pretty soon in comes the
first water of the flood, and the horse was soon over
his fetlocks in it, snorting, poor thing ! and scared ;
and the gent, by this while, more frightened than
the beast."

304 WANDERING WORDS
"WeU, and then?"
" Then he goes hither and thither, galloping up
and down in the gathering water, that was, by this
while, over his nag's knees ; the birds screaming
about him, the night as thick as wool, the dreadful
sea pouring in with more and more vollum, for it
was a' easterly wind outside, which aUus makes a
quick flood. A right bad job 'twas become, if you'll
think of the unfortunate gentleman cavortin' about
in the swelling tide, not knowing which way to turn
his bridle, now and then plunging into a hole, and
out again all wet and cold, and the horse screamin'
and shudderin'."
" I don't see what chance there was left for the
poor fellow."
" There wasn't no chance, sir, only in God
A'mighty's mercy, and that's just what, happened ;
for when the horse was beginning to give in, what
with terror, and Avhat with cold, and what with
tearin' up and down, the easterly breeze comes over
the flats and blows the fog away, just like a curtain
rollin' up."
"Well, but even then, captain, it was up to the
girths with them by this time, and no guide back to
the lost road."
" 'Twas so, sir ! but, when the fog lifts, he looks
and sees, quite away from Avhere he was trying to
go, a little bit of a twinkle, might be a mile, or half,
or two miles off, he couldn't tell ; nor he couldn't
tell whether 'twas a boat's light, or a mush-glare, or
what it was. But he makes for it, for a last chance.

HOW THE DEAD SAVED THE LIVING 305
spurring his horse, Avhich catches sight of the gleam,
too, and goes headlong through the sand and water,
more like a porpoise a-roUin', I allow, than any
shore-travellin' beast. And what with shoutin', and
spurrin', and beatin' the horse Avith the brich of his

"a WOMAN ON HER KNEES BY HIS SIDE, WITH A BIBLE OPENED ON
THE COVERLID."

gun, he gets him through the raffle of the tide till
they comes to a willow-stick, and then another, and
the sand begins to shallow under his hoofs and treads
harder, and just when both of 'em was pretty nigh
a

3o6 WANDERING WORDS
done they draws out on to the dry, close under that
cottage there, on the wall."
" What did he do ? "
"Why, sir; he rides straight up to the light,
which he sees now is a candle shining through a
winder. And here's where me and the boat comes
in, 'cause he opens the door, which was on the latch,
and a'most falls into the room, and there he spies a
dead man a-lyin' in a cot, and a Avoman on her
knees by his side, with a Bible opened on the cover
lid, and she a tryin' to read words of comfort by the
glimmer of the candle at the window."
i " How strange ! how sad ! Who was the woman ? "
"'Twas my own mother, sir! and that was my
dead father what she was a watchin', and we boys
was gone away to 'range with the neighbours about
the buryin', seeing that he had been drowned in the
wreck of his borley and washed ashore."
" I think I can guess the rest, skipper."
"No manner of doubt you can, sir. The dead
had saved the living ! The gent Avas very grateful-
like about that candle and the reason of it ; which
had saved his life. And he behaved very handsome
to mother — sending her bank-notes enough to build
this 'ere wessel and fit her out. ' Only,' ses he,
' mind you cuts a Bible and a lighted candle some-
wheres or other upon the new boat.' And that's
how the Grateetood come to have them carvings
what you noticed."
Such recollections make one think kindly of the
" stow-nets," and the " shove-nets," and all those

HOW THE DEAD SAVED THE LIVING 307
small folk of the sea, who used to ply in the mouths
of Thames and Medway — and still ply, as I suppose.
A^ery skilful in their way, very observant they are,
and excellent boatmen in their own waters. Nor is
their labour any little matter to the community. Of
shrimps alone as much as two thousand gallons will
sometimes be sent to London in a day from Leigh in
Essex, and the annual take of those humble crusta
ceans round our coasts is worth at least ;i{^ 120,000.
I used to admire — sitting in the shrimp-boat and
trawling for Crandon vulgaris — a device which only
deep study of the waters could have inspired. The
difflculty is to catch the shrimps in the fragile net,
and not also to catch the sea-slush, broken bottles,
culch, and stones and weed which would break it
and spoil the take. How would the naturalist ashore
manage that ? The simple fisherman, by observation,
has solved the problem. He has noticed that, on
the approach of danger, the shrimp always leaps
upward about six inches from the sand where he
crawls. Accordingly the shrimper leaves an open
space between the lower edge of the net and the
little ground beam, and all the shrimps hopping up
are caught in the meshes, while the rubbish from
the bottom passes harmlessly through the aperture.

XVII
DAYS AT SEA

XVII
DAYS AT SEA
If books, poetry, and journalism had not claimed me
for their own, I should have been a sailor. Born
by the waterside, and accustomed from earliest
times to boats and shipping, I have always loved
the sea and everything connected with it — so
much so, that I can never, even noAv, keep long
away from the sight and smell of the ocean, and
am always full of secret and indefinable pleasure
when I go on board a vessel for a visit or for a
voyage. As a little lad, I could cut out a boat
from a chunk of deal Avood with any of my age,
and rig it too, in a fairly correct manner, either
as a cutter, yawl, or schooner — since types of all
these craft were constantly passing before my eyes.
Above all, her Majesty's Navy filled my thoughts
with wonder, reverence, and loyalty. Living near
two great dockyards, the ships of that navy, then
of the grand old three-decker pattern* — some of them
still even paddle-wheels — grew deeply familiar to
me, until I knew their names and looks much
better than I knew those of my cousins and aunts.
I read with eager admiration the stories of all our
sea-fights, from the Armada down to Navarino, of
which latter action an immensely big and, to my
3"

312 WANDERING WORDS
eyes, superb painting was suspended in my father's
dining-room, showing the Asia line-of-battle ship
— Admiral Sir Edward Codrington — passing at
the head of the British squadron down the iU-
fated Turkish lines in a storm of thunderous ar
tillery flashes and battle-smoke. Above all, I
learned to adore the memory of Lord Nelson,
whom I still faithfully consider to be the bravest,
noblest, gentlest, and most perfect of all our British
heroes. And this strong love of the sea, as well
as of all connected with it, which has never yet
quitted me, Avas fed by a small event in my boyish
days, that came very near to being decisive as
to my future career. My father, who was a man
of large ideas, as well as of boundless kindness, had
observed me very deeply absorbed in the perusal
of an old book of travels called " The Adventures
of Philip Quarles, Mariner." " If you so much
like books of travel and adventure," he said, "to
morrow they shall bring you some." And the very
next day his serving-man came into my room with
a large washing-basket upon his shoulders full to
the edge with huge folios and quartos. These old-
fashioned volumes lent a special, almost a majestic,
charm to reading. Unlike the many hastily-printed
and flimsy productions of to-day, they were massive,
large-typed, serious tomes, solemnly dedicated to
"the King's most gracious Majesty," or to some
imposing personage of the time, and embelUshed
with quaint, elaborate plates, and amazing maps
and diagrams. When "John" shot out that

DAYS AT SEA 313
precious cargo upon the carpet, I felt like the
possessor of perfectly unlimited wealth. There
Avere the two stately quartos of " Captain Cook's
A^oyages of Discovery;" there was "The Expedi
tion of La Perouse ; " piled up in golden wealth
of joy and novelty before me were the Voyages of
Dampier, of Anson, of Drake and Frobisher, Sir
AA'alter Raleigh's Expeditions, the " Discovery of
America by Christopher Columbus," and many
others now clean forgotten. Most of them were
too ponderous to handle for such childish strength
as I had. I used to push them along the floor
into a sunny corner, and there lie full length, my
chin upon my hands, devouring the glorious par
ticulars of these ancient seafarers.
Captain James Cook especially became enshrined
in my admiration, as the worthy counterpart of
Nelson. What courage ! what resources ! what
seamanship ! what unfailing humanity and equity in
that noble Yorkshireman, destined to the splendid
duty of opening up half the world to civilisation,
and perishing so sadly at the hands of those
island-people to whom he was so true a friend !
In later years I used often to see one of his
famous ships, the Endeavour, lyirtg as a coal-
hulk in the river Thames, and never passed her
without the same profound feeling of reverence
with which the sight of the grand old Victory
in Portsmouth Harbour always to this hour fills
me. Day after day I revelled in that rich feast
of ocean adventure, and day after day wished

314 WANDERING WORDS
more and more, for myself also, to sail the sea
and to cast eyes upon those fair and various
lands, those strange peoples, those lovely islands
set like jeAvels in the silver of the main, and shining
under such, glad and warm skies. Especially do I
remember one prodigious volume which described
some old worthy's travels in India, and which
contained a plate that charged my imagination
brim-full of wonder and interest. It represented
a scene upon the Malabar coast, with the sea
gently breaking along a sandy bay, the curve of
which was fringed with cocoanut trees and tropical
vegetation. Monkeys were climbing the stems of
the palms, or perched in their frondage ; and
curiously shaped and coloured birds hovered over
the edge of the waters or waded in the lagoons.
It saturated me, that ancient picture, with the
passion and the purpose to see India some day
and to study the trees and flowers and birds and
beasts and inhabitants of such a surprising country.
All which has since duly befallen, for books are
mighty in guiding and controlling us. I recall
one hot, silent, memorable day in the Concan of
India, when we came down from the hills where
we had been shooting, to take passage in a
pattimar for Bombay. We sate under the shade
of some cocoa-palms by the edge of the rippling
Indian Ocean. Where had I seen that beautiful,
wild, quiet scene before ? When had I before
visited that sleeping, sunny bay of the Malabar
shore, with its long curving lines of cocoanut

DAYS AT SEA 315
trees fringing the blue water, its milky wavelets
breaking upon the golden sand, washing the shells,
and star-fish, and clumps of bronze seaweed, and
blood-red rocks ? AVhat made the spot, upon which
I was certainly now for the first time planting my
delighted feet, so impossibly familiar, so unreason
ably known? I seemed to recognise every feature
in the landscape and the seascape ; the very boats
fishing were such as I had viewed in the very same
places, and the cut of the mat- sails on the trading
barks, and the dress of the sailors and fishermen
bore no new appearance. Puzzled and meditative,
I was wondering if the Hindoo doctrine of former
existences was indeed true, when my Mahratta
shikaj'i called out, " Bandur I6k ! dekkho, Saheb ! "
"Look at the monkeys." Behind us, in a near
clump of cocoa-palms, some of the four-handed
folk were demurely ascending a tree full of nuts,
and two of them were already ensconced in its
crown plucking the green fruit. In a moment I
remembered. It was the veritable scene depicted
in that old book of travels ! By accident — if
anything in human life can so be called — my
boy's dream and desire had come precisely true.
There was the place before my eyes over which
I had hung entranced in the nursery ; it was the
actual spot realised ; if King George's artist had
limned it by my side he could not have hit off that
lovely nook of Malabar with happier precision.
But books hold so much more in them than
geography and maritime adventures, that when I

3i6 WANDERING WORDS
went wider and deeper into the world of them I
was lost to the sea. To this day I half regret my
early and too eager studiousness. I might have
been captain of an Indiaman or a Cunarder, or
possibly of an ironclad — perhaps even an Admiral !
To this day there seems to me no post so splendid,
so honourable, so utterly satisfying to the heart
of a loyal Englishman, as to walk a quarter-deck,
bearing the Queen's commission, under the glorious
flutter of the White Ensign. But the books — the
marvellous, absorbing books — led me inland farther
and farther away from those early and happy visions
of Anson chasing the galleons, Cook picking up
the jewelled islands, Columbus and Raleigh sailing
to find new worlds, and Nelson's genius making
England great and safe. I read too much. I was
over-successful — I should say to-day sadly successful
— except for the beautiful poetry of Homer and A^rgil,
of Shakespeare and Keats and Shelley, of Ariosto
and Tasso, of Calderon and Camoens, of Hafiz and
Sadi, and the dark wisdom of the Sanskrit Upani-
shads and the Mahabharata, which came afterwards,
and are more mighty and delightful than even the
ocean. I gained an important scholarship at my
school, and was, therefore, marked off for Oxford
and a literary life — sic visum Deis !
But the salt has ahvays been a little in my blood,
and whenever I could, in a life Avithout much
leisure, I have ahvays gone back to play with the
sea. If I come anyAvhere near it at any time,
something of the crab in me makes me sidle aAvay

DAYS AT SEA 317
from fashion and land pursuits to the handiest quay
or harbour wall. My one and chief objection to
London — which otherAvise is to my mind the dearest
old foggy, muddy, dingy city on the globe, as well
as the biggest and the grandest — consists in the
inconvenient fact that King Lud planted it too far
from any green water. I have generally, however,
managed to own and use a craft of some sort. First
it Avas the Stai- of the Sea, a little 2^-tonner, which
was, nevertheless, "all boat," and made her way
in her time from the Thames to the Land's End.
Then it was the Catharine, of 1 2 tons, on board of
which, with good old Harry Pocock, the Upnor
fisherman, we took much pains to get drowned,
but unsuccessfully. Then came the Fannie, a cutter
of 19 tons, in which, with a friend. Sir Thomas
Miller, a born seaman, albeit a Scotch Baronet, I
learned the East Coast almost as thoroughly as any
collierman ; and afterwards the schooner yacht Had-
assah, of 120 tons, which used to take us on charm
ing cruises to the Scilly Islands, to Guernsey and
Jersey, and up and down the Channel ; and the yawl
yacht Harelda of 80 tons. Yachting is a noble pas
time, whether you race or cruise, and all the more so
because it is unconnected with the pain or destruction
of any beautiful and happy living creatures. Avast
heaving, though ! Yes, we used to trawl, it must be
avowed ; and many a time have I myself helped — up
to the knees in slush — to haul the " purse " of the
great ground-net on board, and see it gush forth
upon the planks with an avalanche of soles, skates,

3i8 WANDERING WORDS
dabs, flounders, tom-cods, lobsters, crabs, oyster-shells,
star-fish, broken bottles, dead men's fingers, jelly
fish, seaweed, stones, and oozy mess unspeakable.
It comes as near, perhaps, to faultless physical
happiness as earth can bring, to sail, under fair
weather and with pleasant company, in such a
little ship as the Hadassah, and on such brief but
sufficient voyages as the Channel in summer-time
permits. I hate bad weather at sea. If you meet it,
it must be faced ; but the sea in her bitter and
dangerous moods is horrible, ugly, infamous, treach
erous, deadly, detestable. North and south of
latitude 32 degrees, the ocean is indeed never to be
trusted ; inside these parallels alone you almost
always get such weather and such waters as the
best days of our British summers but partly suggest.
Many of those " best days " do I recall with gratitude
and lasting pleasure. Sail over-night, for instance,
or in the very early morning, from Dartmouth for
Guernsey, keeping a sharp look-out in the first twenty
miles of open water for the coasting steamers, which
will run you down if they can. Then, let the morning
break over the Channel, as it often will in July and
August, a day of blue and gold, lighting up an
expanse of fresh and free sea-meadows, ploughed
into shallow furrows of silver and green by the
share of a north-easterly breeze, free on your quarter.
No land is in sight, but a line of fishing-smacks
astern marks the limits of the trawling-water, and
the mid-Channel will be diversified with more than
one sailing-ship and with steamers trailing their

DAYS AT SEA 319
flags of smoke across the sky. You have break
fasted Avith a sailor's appetite, and the easy heave
of the water, running long Avith the Avind over an
ebbing tide, lulls you in your deck-chair into peace
with yourself and all the world. Forget that in
the wild AA'inter-time this very passage of the sea
can be a hell of angry Avaves and cruel weather,
the tides secretly dragging the ship into peril, the
fierce billows leaping up to Avash her seamen to
their watery graves, the clouds and mist blotting
out the sight of land and the pleasant lights of
home from their gaze. To-day it is a heaven of
peace and bright circumstance, the little ship
seeming really to live, with her white wings and
white deck, as the green milky- crested rollers leap
up at her bow, and the sea-lace weaves and unweaves
itself in fathom-breadths on the broken faces of the
waves in her wake. If you will not steer her your
self — and what, after all, is horse-riding or bicycling
to the holding of the tiller of a lively, answerable,
weU-trimmed yacht ! — repose under the shadow of
the ivory-textured mainsail and read, while the wind
fans you and the waters lull. Read the Odyssey in
the glorious Greek ; it is the best book in the world
to take yachting, and suits aU the seas. Or, if you
do not read Homer in the only way in which he
should be enjoyed, then don't waste your splendid
hours upon a trashy novel or some scandal-loving
society paper, but open one of the noble sea-poems
in prose of Mr. Clark Russell — of which he has
given so many and such admirable examples to his

320 WANDERING WORDS
time — and, while you hang over his perfect pages of
manly adventure and maritime romance, you shall
have the great sea interpreted to you by one of the
very few who knoAV its mysteries and its majesties;
you shall enjoy the subtlest of all intellectual delights
— that is to say, the translation of Nature into a
living thing by the magic of genius ; and you
shall be gratefully aware that England, to whom the
ocean belongs, has found a Marryat of the Red
Ensign in these latter days to keep up in aU our
hearts the love which we must never lose for the
" Great Green Mother."
Somehow or other I have in a desultory and
occasional manner managed to sail or steam in
almost all the seas north of the Equator. I have
crossed the Pacific from continent to continent three
times, the Indian Seas many times, the Black Sea,
the Baltic Sea, the ^Egean, Adriatic, North Sea,
China Sea, Bay of Bengal, Atlantic, Bay of Biscay,
and every nook and corner of the Mediterranean.
One cannot accumulate even such a mere landsman's
small experience and not have witnessed some rather
bad weather ; and, indeed, I myself have witnessed
boats washed away and decks swept, bulwarks
smashed and davits twisted, ships battened down
and canvas torn cracking from its bolt-ropes, and
have been even Avrecked by the capsizing of my
own craft. I have been on board a steamer afire at
sea, 900 miles from the nearest land, and stood by
while the honest felloAvs who fought the flames
were dragged suffocating from the crackling hold.

DAYS AT SEA 321
So I dread as Avell as love the Avonderful waters,
Avhich hold death in a hundred forms, as well as life
in its most lovely and perfect combinations and
conditions, within those kissing circles of dark blue
sea and light blue sky that make the mariner's
home. Nevertheless, I have a secret conviction,
which I would not like to utter when afloat, that
the grandeur and majesty of the ocean are vastly
exaggerated. AVaves " mountains high " are myths.
The sea can, no doubt, swamp the biggest vessel
that was ever launched — and will, if you allow it —
but the means by which she does this are brutal
and clumsy rather than colossal or imposing. I
have watched the Bay of Biscay slop itself, green
and grey, in a solid mass across the deck of a great
liner, but it was, after all, only a " slop," though it
lifted boats out of their chocks, and washed the
waist clear. There was plenty of misery and mess
in it, but, to my thinking, very little sublimity.
Similarly, the largest rollers of the Atlantic always
appeared to me too ugly, and Ioav, and monotonous
for praise or admiration, though one must confess
and respect their power of dull mischief It is the
summer sea one loves — the sea in its obedience to
man, and not in its rebellion ; the Greek sea ; the
sea as Aphrodite rose from it — ^joyous, pearly, and
benign ; the sea such as it sweeps and sparkles
through the clusters of the South Pacific, under the
palms of Malabar, and along the yelloAv sands of
Ceylon and Singapore ; or even sometimes beneath
:the red hills of the Riviera, and among the island
X

322 WANDERING WORDS
groups of the Levantine Archipelago. Therefore I
well know I shall go down to it again and again
while I live ; and so must every Englishman who
has once felt the meaning of the music in the
hollow of an ocean-shell, and once taken into his
veins the spell and magic of the "cool blue Avine
of the seas."

XVIII
ORIENTAL STORY TELLERS

XVIII
ORIENTAL STORY-TELLERS
I SOMETIMES wonder that, among the many new
forms of public entertainment in this and other
European countries, nobody has thought of intro
ducing from the East the good old profession of
story-teller. Of course I do not allude to any branch
of the science of saying "the thing Avhich is not."
That is practised with quite sufficient frequency and
ease in the AVest as Avell as the East ; and, indeed,
the generally prevailing idea that Orientals are a
less truthful race than Occidentals might be com
bated with many remarkable facts to the contrary.
The "story-telling" of which I am thinking is that
charming ancient art of spoken fiction which has
for many centuries, it may be for thousands of years,
taken the place of our novel. Not many people in
the East can read at all fluently even to-day, and in
bygone times the number of literates was naturally
fewer, so that the masses were shut off from know
ledge of their sacred writings, and from all that
wealth of fanciful and fabulous literature which in
the shape of manuscript made the mediaeval Orient so
rich. There were the traditional tales and legends,
of course, passed along from tongue to tongue, which
everybody knew ; but it is only children who like

326 WANDERING WORDS
to hear the same stories over and over again, and
besides, the glory of a story for Eastern minds is in
its detail, which gets rubbed off by the friction of
many years and many mouths. Consequently, the
professional story-teller of the Eastern World arose,
who had read, or had caught from the lips of good
readers, the exact form in which the piety or genius
of his World had embodied its ideas, traditional,
philosophic, historical, or fantastic. In many coun
tries he survives to this day — not only a public de
light and pastime, but an educational necessity in
his way, serving the purpose of a circulating library,
condensed into one energetic and retentiA^e memory.
Why should we not profit by the example? A
striking story, well narrated, with proper methods,
tact, and taste, is a very fascinating form of pubhc
pleasure, and in India, Japan, Egypt, and Arabia
has become quite an indispensable one. An initial
difficulty would occur, no doubt, in the fact that, as
everybody on our side of the earth reads, stories
perfectly unknown to the audience would be hard to
select. Another would arise from the circumstance
that the reciters of the East permit themselves a
range of subjects and a freedom of language which,
while immensely enhancing the piquancy and amus
ing nature of their entertainments, Avould be swiftly
suppressed by our Lord Chamberlain, and, indeed,
forbidden by public propriety. They are very candid
in the East, and talk plainly about many simple
and natural things Avhich AVestern prudery never
permits to be even mentioned, though in many

ORIENTAL STORY-TELLERS 327
respects this is a modern squeamishness with us, as
anybody may see Avho studies Chaucer and Shake
speare ; and does not necessarily lead to better man
ners and morals.
AVe could not publicly put up, of course, even
from Chaucer, Avith certain of the brilliant and Avitty
stories of the Canterbury Tales, and we probably do
not possess many, or any, performers of such genius
in fiction that — like the Hanashika of Japan, or the
wandering Byrajis of India — they could go on for
hours spinning perfectly original tales out of their
heads, to an entranced circle of all ages and both
sexes. But a qualified hand might provide himself
Avith a rich and varied repertoire, and thereby charm
thousands with this neglected yet delightful Art ;
for who can deny that a fresh and well-told story
would be ever so much more attractive than duU
recitations and tedious readings, where almost every
body knows Avhat is coming? Music might be
pressed very advantageously into the serA'ice of the
performance, with appropriate costume, and, per
haps, a little suitable scenery. At all events, it is
an idea, a suggestion towards that urgent reform —
far more desirable than anything connected with
parish councils and parish pumps — the increase and
amelioration, I mean, of the amusements of the
people. The Hanashika, or story-teller of Japan, is a highly
popular personage in town and country, who, possess
ing a good voice and tuneful ear, and being primed
full of the legends and records which best suit native

328 WANDERING WORDS
taste, gives his primitive, but very alluring, entertain
ments in one spot after another, as he trudges along
the Tokaido, or any other main road of the empire.
The general place for the performances is a large upper
room over the principal shop of the village street.
In front of the entrance will be planted bamboo
flagstaffs, with dark-blue banners laced verticaUy to
them, bearing the name of the performer, and perhaps
the titles of some of the tales or songs which he pro
poses to offer. During the day an assistant will
perambulate the village beating a drum and blowing
a horn, after which he proclaims at every corner the
eminent gifts of his sensei, and invites the public to
be present. At evening you go with the crowd,
dropping off shoes or slippers at the foot of the
polished ladder leading to the yose, as the hall of
entertainment is called. You may enter for the
modest price of four sen, or twopence ; after which,
if desirous to be ranked with the " quality," an
additional payment of ten sen, or fivepence, will
give you a right to the very best situation upon the
mats, and to a cushion on the floor, as well as a
tobacco-box and teapot, with perhaps a fan. The
narrator sits cross-legged before a low desk, tsukue,
holding in his left hand a fan, or bamboo paper-
knife, with which he beats energetically upon his
desk at the critical passages of his story. The
company listen, with the admirable patience and
politeness of the race ; and, if at all bored, smoke
extra pipes and drink incessant tea. Generally they
are very much amused, and that too by the simplest

ORIENTAL STORY-TELLERS 329
stories, for the reciter intersperses his prose with
vivid gestures, snatches of singing, and ejaculations
that wake up the sleepiest ; Avhile, if there be many
children present, he Avill perhaps narrate one of the
old fairy-tales of Japan, AA'hich everybody loves, like
this, which ^Mrs. James so well translated, of the
fisher-boy who married the princess.

THE FISHER-BOY URASHIMA.
Long ago there lived, on the coast of the sea of
Japan, a young fisherman named Urashima, a kindly
lad and clever with his net and line. One day he
went out in his boat to fish. But instead of catch
ing any fish, he caught a big tortoise, with a hard
sheU, a wrinkled ugly face, and a foolish tail. Tor
toises always live a thousand years — at least Japanese
tortoises do. So Urashima thought to himself: "A
fish would do for my dinner just as well as this tortoise ;
in point of fact, better. Why should I kill the poor
thing, and prevent it from enjoying itself for another
999 years ? No, no ! I Avon't be so cruel." And
with these words, he thrcAv the tortoise back into
the sea. The next incident that happened was that
Urashima went to sleep in his boat, for it was one
of those hot summer days when the sea rocks its
children to slumber. And, as he slept, there came
up from beneath the waves a beautiful girl, who
climbed into the boat and said, " I am the daughter
of the Sea-God, and I live with my father in the

330

WANDERING WORDS

URASHIMA RELEASES THE TORTOISE.

ORIENTAL STORY-TELLERS

331

Dragon Palace beyond the Avaves. It was not a
tortoise that you caught just noAv, and so kindly
thrcAv back into the water in
stead of killing it. It was
myself. jNIy father, the Sea-
God, had sent me to see
whether you Avere good or
bad in your inmost heart. We

THE TORTOISE REAPPEARS AS THE PRINCESS OF THE SEA.

now know that you are good and kind, and do not
like to do cruel things ; and so I have come to fetch
you. You shall marry me, if you please ; and we

332

WANDERING WORDS

will live happily together for a thousand years in the
Dragon Palace beyond the deep blue sea." So Ura
shima took one oar, and the Sea-God's daughter
took the other, and they rowed till at last they came
to the Dragon Palace Avhere the Sea-God lived, and
ruled as king over all the dragons and tortoises and

THE PRINCESS AND URASHIMA ROW TO THE FAIRY ISLANDS.

crabs and fishes. The walls of the palace Avere of
coral, the trees had emeralds for leaves and rubies
for berries, the fishes' scales were of silver, and the
dragons' tails of solid gold. All the most beautiful
glittering things that have ever been seen met to
gether there, and the liveliest imagination Avill never

ORIENTAL STORY-TELLERS

333

picture Avhat this palace looked hke. It aU belonged
to Urashima. Here they lived very happily for
countless years, wandering about every day among
the beautiful trees Avith emerald leaves and ruby

THEY ARE RECEIVED BY THE FISH-PEOPLE.

berries. But one morning Urashima said to his
wife, " I am quite happy with you, delightful one !
Still I want to go home and see my father and

334

WANDERING WORDS

mother and brothers and sisters. Permit me to
depart for a short time, and, by the truth of my love,
I will soon be back again." " I don't like you to go,"

PALACE OF THE SEA-QUEEN.

said she ; " I am very much afraid that something
dreadful wUl happen. However if you wiU go, there
is no help for it ; only you must take this box, which

ORIENTAL STORY-TELLERS 335
wiU protect you, on condition that you are very careful
not to open it. When you open it you will never be

SERVANTS OF THE PALACE.

able to come back here." So Urashima promised to
take great care of the box and not to open it on any
account; and then, getting into his boat, he rowed

336

WANDERING WORDS

URASHIMA AND THE PRINCESS AT HOME.

ORIENTAL STORY-TELLERS

337

off, and at last landed on the shore of his own
country. But much had happened AvhUe he had been
away. AVhither had his father's cottage gone ?
AA'hat had become of the village Avhere he used to

THE GIFT OF THE BOX.

hve? The mountains indeed were there as before,
but the trees on them had been cut down. The
little brook that ran close by his father's cottage was
still running ; but there were no women washing
clothes in it any more. It seemed very strange that

338

WANDERING WORDS

everything should have changed so much in three
short years. Just then two men chanced to pass
along the beach, and Urashima went up to them and
said, " Can you tell me, if you please, to what spot

URASHIMA BACK IN HIS NATIVE VILLAGE.

Urashima's cottage, Avhich used to stand here, has
been moved ? " " Urashima ? " said they ; " why, it
is 400 years ago since he AA-as droAvned, out fishing.
His parents, and his brothers, and their great-great
grandchildren are all dead long ago. It is an old.

ORIENTAL STORY-TELLERS 339
very old story. Hoav can you be so foolish as to ask
after his cottage ? It fell to pieces hundreds of years
ago." Then it suddenly flashed across Urashima's mind
that the Sea-God's palace beyond the waves, with its
coral walls and its ruby fruits and its dragons with
tails of solid gold, must be part of fairyland, and
that one day in that land was probably as long as a
year in this world, so that his swift years in the Sea-
God's palace had really endured for hundreds of
years. Of course, there was no use in staying at
home, now that all his friends were dead and buried,
and even the village had passed away. So Urashima
was in a great hurry to get back to his wife, the
Dragon Princess, beyond the sea. But which was
the way ? He could not find it without any one to
show it to him. "Perhaps," thought he, "if I open
the box which she gave me I shall be able to learn
the road." So he disobeyed her orders not to open
the box — or, possibly, he forgot them. Anyhow, he
opened the box, and out of it came — what ?
Here the fan of our story-teller would furiously
beat the desk.
Nothing but a white cloud which floated away
over the sea ! Urashima shouted to. the cloud to
stop, rushed about and screamed with sorrow ; for
he remembered now what his wife had told him, and
how, after opening the box, he should never be able
to go to the Sea-God's palace again. But soon he
could neither run nor shout any more. Suddenly
his hair grew as white as snow, his face got wrinkled,

340 WANDERING WORDS
and his back bent like that of a very old man. Then
his breath stopped short, and he fell down dead
on the beach ! Ah, Zannen ! Zannen ! Woe for
Urashima ! He died because he had been foolish
and disobedient. If only he had done as he was
told, he might have lived another thousand years.
If we could only go and see the Dragon Palace
beyond the waves, Avhere the Sea-God lives and rules
as king over the dragons and the tortoises and
the fishes, where the trees have emeralds for leaves
and rubies for berries, where the fishes' tails are of
silver and the dragons' tails all of solid gold — never
would we open that stupid box. No ! Anata-kata !
Ne? In Egypt, Persia, Syria, and Arabia the cafes are
the chief places to see and hear the professional
story-teller, who is long-Avinded, noisy, and inde
corous, but very clever and very various. If he be
a favourite, the evening hour will bring great profit
to the cafedji, and many piastres or krauns to his
own girdle ; while, when he has finished a thrilling
adventure, or come to a full stop, everybody near at
hand will reach out the mouthpiece of narghileh or
kallian to him, that he may draw solace and refresh
ment from the reposeful herb. At portions of his
legend, too wild for credence, he will piously disarm
scepticism by ejaculating, " And Allah, Avho is All-
wise, alone knoweth the truth," while sometimes,
when he arrives at a particularly exciting moment of
his plot, and all the customers are hanging upon the
fate of his dark-eyed heroine, he Avill abruptly break

ORIENTAL STORY-TELLERS 341
off with, Fi Aman Illah (" God have you aU in His
grace !"), and bow his way out of the coffee-house,
sufficiently assured that everybody must come again
to-morrow to hear how the story ends.
In Egypt many a tale from the "Thousand and
One Nights" is still almost textually reproduced.
In Persia the Mahbfib-u-Kuloob, or "Heart's Delight,"
the "Book of Sindibad," the Shumsah, and such-like
literature, are largely drawn upon ; but the profes
sionals have their own repertoire, and often affect
a flowery metaphorical style, largely borrowed from
the old fantastic Persian romances. There is an
admirable translation from the Shumsah by Mr.
Rehatsek which exemplifies very well this elaborate
and artificial manner of the story-teller in Shiraz and
Ispahan. It is the opening of the " Tale of the
Three Wise Women," who are thus described : —
" Once upon a time there were three whales of the
sea of fraud and deceit ; three dragons of the force
of thunder and the quickness of lightning ; thriee de-
famers of honour and reputation, namely, three men-
deceiving, lascivious women, each of whom had from
the chancery of her cunning issued the mandate of
turmoil to a hundred cities and countries, and in the
arts of fraud they accounted Eblis as an admiring
spectator in the theatre of their stratagems. One of
them was sitting in the court of justice of the Kazi's
embrace ; the second was the precious gem of the
bazaar-master's diadem of compliance ; and the third
was the bezel and ornament of the signet-ring of the
life and soul of the superintendent of police. They

342 WANDERING WORDS
were constantly entrapping the deer of the field of
deceit with the net of cunning ; and plundered the
caravan of heart-tranquillity of strangers and acquain
tances by means of the edge of the scimitar of fraud.
One day this triplicate of roguery met at the public
bath, and, according to their nature, they entered the
basin of argument. After a while, when they had
brought the pot of concord to boil by the fire of mutual
laudation, they tempered the bath of association with
the breeze of kindness, and came out. In the dress
ing-room all three of them happened simultaneously
to observe a ring, the gem of which surpassed the
imagination of the jeweller of destiny, and the like
of which had never been beheld in the storehouse of
possibility." Afterwards the reciter proceeds to tell how the ring
was to be the prize of the one among the three wives
who should most cleverly deceive her husband — for
it is the settled maxim of most of these Oriental
excursions of fancy and romance that
Never -wearies death of slaying ;
Nor the seas of drinking rivers ; nor the bright-eyed
of betraying.
The bazaar-master's Avife is particularly audacious
and successful in her trick upon her lord. There is
a household diversion in Persia much resembling
our " Philippiua," where, if you accept any gift
without first pronouncing the safeguarding word,
you are made ridiculous and must pay a forfeit. The
wife of the bazaar-master invites her would-be lover.

ORIENTAL STORY-TELLERS 343
the son of a banker, to put on a Avoman's veil and
come to a feast at her house. On his arrival, she
takes him into the inner apartment, speaks loving
words to him, and tells him to remain comfortably
there until she shall have returned, bringing with her
requisite refreshments. She then leaves him, and
instructs one of her female attendants to cause it to
arrive to the ears of the bazaar-master that his wife
has brought a strange man to the house. This being
done, she returns to her lover, and is engaged in
talking to him when she hears her husband approach
ing. The young man is dreadfully alarmed, the lady
opens a chest and says, " Conceal yourself in this box
until I see what will come of this affair." Accord
ingly she locks up the young man, and then goes to
meet her husband, to whom she pretends to confess
all ; and finaUy presents him with the key of the box,
which the husband accepts from her hand. The lady
hereupon bursts out laughing, and exclaims, " I re
member, but you forget. Give me a present." The
husband, disgusted at losing the Persian " Philip
piua," and thinking it a joke of his wife, throws
back the key of the chest, pays his forfeit, and quits
the house in a huff, leaving the crafty dame at ease
with her lover.
In India it is principally the wandering mendicants
and joshi who follow this ancient profession ; and
the tales which they find most popular are antique
passages of war and miracle, of wild religious legend
and Aryan chivalry, drawn from such inexhaustible
sources as the Ram^ana and the Mahabharata. It

344 WANDERING WORDS
is characteristic of the serious genius and philo
sophic tastes natural even to the peasantry of India
that all the people of a village — women and men,
girls and boys alike — will sit in hushed and attentive
circles round tlie half-naked Brahman, hearing him
interpret to them from the old-world Sanskrit text of
those immense and extraordinary poems the majestic,
if often grotesque, fictions of Hindoo fancy. Nala
and Damayanti ; the tale of Savitri who begged her
husband's soul back from the God of Death ; or of
young Rishyasringha, who had never looked upon a
woman's face; or of the "Great Journey;" or of
the " Entry into Heaven," such things — far too grave
and earnest for Paris, or Shiraz, or Constantinople, or
London — will keep the placid Hindu folks squatted
all night at the mandala, insatiable to hear of the
greater and the lesser gods, and of the holy saints,
and of the glorious bygone kings of the land ; of the
jewelled snake-people, the magicians, the Asuras,
and the great Bird Garilda, who carries off mountains.
Why should we, of the West, so totally neglect this
branch of the divine art of fiction ? There is a whole
wide field of popular pleasure and instruction open
to duly-qualified entertainers who would take up
amongst us the forgotten but fascinating profession
of Story-telling.

XIX
A GENTLE MURDERESS

XIX
A GENTLE MURDERESS
This is only a little story ! I picked it up upon the
beach of Oahu, among the fishing-huts under Dia
mond Head ; in those beautiful Sandwich Islands,
where a set of commercial and political sugar-fili
busters have temporarily taken away her crown from
the rightful sovereign, Queen Lilioukalani. I shall
teU the story imperfectly, knowing so little as I do
about the locality and the language, but I asked
three or four questions afterwards as to the Hawaiian
words and phrases, and what follows is, as far as I
can remember, the manner in which it was related.
They are wonderful swimmers in the Sandwich
Islands, as in almost all those clusters of the Pacific
archipelagoes ; and no finer sight can be for such as
love healthy m9,nhood than to watch the amphibious
people play with the sea. It is as much their home
as the land. Fishing is quite as important to them
as agriculture, and they all know the ways and the
whereabouts of the creatures of the deep and of the
reef, as Avell as those of the birds of the grove and
mountain-slope. With nets of the olona fibre and
sweep-ropes of ki leaves, they draw the countless
variegated finny tribes into the shallows of the
lagoon and out upon the sands, and have a trick —

348 WANDERING WORDS
where it is permitted — of placing under heavy stones
beneath the water the bruised roots of a plant — the
auhuhu — which intoxicates every fish coming within
the influence of its juice. Excellent boatmen, in
spite of the primitive character of the native canoes,
they make adventurous runs from island to island,
and are especially skilful in handling a little craft in
the midst of surf or great breaking billows. It is a
treat to see a Hawaiian canoe coming ashore, with
or Avithout the ama, an outrigger of light wood
which steadies the frail craft. The sea-birds skim
ming over the rollers do not seem more at home in
the middle of the huge Pacific surf than the brown-
skinned Kanakas paddling to land from a fishing or
sailing excursion in the evening. They understand
the tricks and dangers of the coral barrier which
they must cross, and take the enormous Avave which
rolls over it with shouts of excitement and delight.
If they are capsized, it is nothing to them so long as
no sharks are about. They really make the white
and blue breakers their play-fellows in their popular
sport of hee nalu, or surf-swimming, Avhere a party
of these laughing water-babies of all ages, naked
except for a wreath of sea-weed, or a Avisp of bark-
cloth, will go down to the reef's edge at sunset,
carrying long light boards of koa-wood, eight feet
long and eighteen inches broad, stained black, and
highly polished. Clasping these, they swim boldly
out to seaward, diving, plank and all, under each
incoming roller as they meet it, until they have
gone as far out as Avhere the ocean feels the first of

A GENTLE MURDERESS 349
the coral bottom, and swells for its outer line of
long billow. Then, turning their faces shoreAvard,
they lie down flat upon the plank, balancing them
selves upon it and holding it with feet and hands
straight along the glassy back of the great roller,
which foams, curls, leaps, and thunders under them
as they tear along, tossed like bubbles amid the
milky spume and the whirling sea-lace, until they
come drenched and shining to the shore, or into the
placid green water inside the reef The very babies
learn to swim almost before they are able to toddle ;
and as for the grown boys and girls of the islands,
and its men and women, the waves are as much
their playground as the woods and meadows, and
there are instances where Hawaiians have been
thirty hours in the sea after a capsize, and have yet
come safely to land.
But one must be strong, and well, and unen
cumbered for these long swims, and a sick man
cannot sport with the ocean in such a fearless way ;
which is why Mina-Mina lost her first-born, and
bought with his little life her husband's safety. AA^e
passed her, walking with a string of fish, and a tiny
child upon her arms, under the palm-trees near
Leahi, and my friend — an old resident — gave her
good-day in the musical Hawaiian, calling her by
the name I have mentioned.
"What a pretty word that is," I said, "to call a
woman by ! What does it mean ? "
"Oh," he ansAvered, "that's not her right name,
but one Avhich the neighbours have given her ever

3SO WANDERING WORDS
since a sad adventure that she met with off Koko
Head, round yonder. Mi-na-mi-na signifies ' regret
for the memory of anything,' ' sadness,' ' something
precious that is gone,' 'sorry to lose.' She is a
good and brave girl, and she has got another baby
noAV to play with, but she can never forget the boy
she was obliged to leave to the sharks in the bad
rime." Of course I asked him for the story, and this is
how he told it : —
One day in the season of the change of weather,
Mina-Mina, with her husband, and their little boy
of about a year-and-a-half old, had gone in a canoe
over to Molokai to fetch ironwood and shells. The
man Avas Aveak and ill with fever, though recovering ;
but the Avife, like most of these Hawaiian women,
could handle a paddle with the best, and Mauae,
her young partner, was quite strong enough to take
his part in loading the craft and steering her. So
they were making the voyage homewards under the
little sail of mat spread on the bamboo mast, with
the red bird painted upon it, and Mina-Mina Avas
suckling her son of eighteen months forward, while
her husband directed the boat ; and all had gone
safely up to about midway in the broad channel.
Perhaps he was singing her an ipo, a love-Averse —
for the people are like birds, and are ahvays chirrup
ing ; or she, perhaps, was cooing a sleep-song to her
small son, in the dove's voice, which the island-
mothers have. But, all in a moment, one of those
circular gusts that sweep the sea at the change of

A GENTLE MURDERE€S 351
Aveather, came upon them Avithout Avarning out of
the clear sky and OA'er the smooth surface. He Avas
languid and sIoav Avith his fever ; she was engaged
with her child, and had no time to let the sail fall
or to fling overboard the heavy stuff in the bottom
of the canoe. The gust forced the gunwale of it
under, though they both leaned Avell to AAdndward,
and although Mina-Mina reached over and cut the
halliards with her knife. In a moment the little
craft filled and sank from under them, drawn down
by its load, leaving the three floating on the agitated
sea, with only one paddle, which Mauae held. Mina-
Mina had swung her baby over to her back, and his
little round head, like a cocoanut, peeped well forth
from the water as his mother struck out by the side
of her husband for the shore under Koko Head.
Although this lay fully tAvo leagues away, there
was nothing in the situation greatly to disconcert
an Hawaiian family. If only the young husband
had been in his proper strength, he would have
shifted the baby to his own shoulders, and side by
side, while the sea grew quiet again, they would
have managed to make their long swim to the land,
supposing no shark intercepted them. For any one
less familiar with the open ocean than .these islanders
no doubt it would have seemed a dreadful plight.
Even from a boat the wide and naked face of the
sea appears terrible in its spread and flatness. The
long, huge, ponderous swell of it, which you did
not notice from the deck of a ship or steamer, gives
a new and awful impression of its elemental weight

352 WANDERING WORDS
and bulk. In the very quietest weather there is a
throb of solid motion in the shining surface, which
drops a small boat into vast, shaUow valleys, and
again lifts it upon the breast of gradual but far-
reaching slopes, so that the actual peace of the sleep
ing element becomes dreadful. But when a swimmer
beats the salt sea, far from la^d or help, his chin
upon its shining top, his eyes just level with the
long glitter of the sea-floor, the vastness and bare
ness and deadliness of it become to all but the
hardiest absolutely terrible. There is no man who,
swimming in the ocean, has not experienced, even
when he had safety close at hand, that irresistible
horror at the littleness of his powers and at the
largeness of the chilly death lapping and washing
all around him, before and behind, on the right and
the left, as far away on every quarter as to where the
sky comes down to the sea. And it is worse when
he thinks of the deep abyss of liquid beneath his
feeble feet — although, for the matter of that, seven
feet of water will choke the life from a wearied
swimmer as well as the four thousand fathoms of
the mid-Pacific. Actual death by drowning is,
probably, like most other forms of dying, not at
all painful ; but never does death appear more
visible and dreadful than when you look along
the face of the sea, struggling with its waters for
every breath that is drawn and every yard that is
won, while the dance of the brine washes over the
lips and nostrils, and flings its bitter menace into
the blinded eyes.

A GENTLE MURDERESS 353
Mina-Mina soon found that her man could not
keep the baby's head and his oavu at the same time
above the Avater. The little broAvn imp was, never
theless, laughing and crowing at the sparkling waves,
without any mark of fear or tremble, and when she
drew him down beside her in the sea, and let him
paddle for a cable's length or so, the tiny castaway
swam like a small fish, and all three were making
fair progress. In the moment of the capsize they
had fallen into the sea, of course fully clothed, but
both had since loosened and cast aside in the water
their garments of tapa for freer swimming, although
Mina-Mina still retained her waist-band, in which
she kept her fishing-knife. The ocean was quieting
down again after the sudden blast, and it was not
difficult to rest sometimes by floating, the wife hold
ing up their small companion. Only this Avould not
do for any long time together, because a current was
running before the light trade wind, and they might
drift too far to reach the land at last.
Presently Mina-Mina's bright eyes perceive upon
the water to the right — on her husband's side — a
dark edge, moving slowly, like a blade of black sea
weed tilted up.
" Oh ! MokuhaUi ! (great God of the Fish), help us
now," she cried. " He kokua ! help ! here is he mano,
the shark."
" Your aumakua * is the great fish," said Mauae.
* Tutelar ancestor. The natives still believe that the spirits of their
relations enter special animals, which become the totem accordingly of
particular families. Z

354 WANDERING WORDS
"He will not hurt you, wife, but he will take me
or the little one."
Being of the Fish-God's line, she was indeed tabu
to sharks, and they to her, and to injure the tyrant of
the deep was forbidden to her, for there is plenty of
ancient belief still among the islanders, in spite of
missionaries. But now she was thinking only of her
husband and her baby, and superstition fled to the
winds for the dear sake of those she loved. Of all
examples of similar religious courage in Hawaiian
women, none is better known than that of Kapiolani,
the daughter of the chief of Hilo, who broke the
spell of Pele, the Guardian of the great Volcano,
eating the sacred berries of the dreaded goddess,
and flinging stones into the seething fiery crater of
Mauna Loa, thereby converting the people from their
antique fears. But " that is another story."
" Beat hard upon the water. He Luna ! Master !
Beat when he comes near, and keep him a little off.
I will kill my aumakua ! Otherwise will he eat my
precious son."
At any other moment these words would have
seemed too impious to hear or pronounce. Now,
however, the enfeebled and weary husband could
only sign silent assent, and put his elbow under the
child's arm, while Mina-Mina drcAv her knife from
her belt and held it in her pearl-like teeth, silently
paddling to meet the shark. There is a spot in
these murderous brutes Avell knoAvn to the islanders,
where the stroke of a long blade driven hard into
the Avhite belly Avill find the swim-bladder ; and

A GENTLE MURDERESS 355
Avhen that is pricked the shark sinks or becomes
disabled. The cruel fish had seen or divined the
baby as a dainty prey, though ordinarily this
HaAvaiian species is too well fed or too particular
to care much for broAvn meat. As he came within
twice his oavu length of the father and child, he
turned sloAvly over and slipped below the surface,
the pale-coloured underside gleaming up through
the green Avater ; and just when you could discern
the horse-shoe-shaped mouth opening to show the
sharp-notched jaws and red palate of the man-eater,
Mina-Mina's knife Avas plunged with all the weight
of her lifted body, into the shark's side, Avhereupon
the saA'age creature bounded half its length into the
air, and then, with a furious threshing of its tail,
vanished into the depths, leaving streaks of oily
scarlet blood upon the foam Avhich its leap had
caused. " Give me the child," she said ; but before placing
him on her back again, for the baby had grown
somewhat wearied and chilled, she rubbed her nose
hard against the little nose, after the fashion of
Hawaiian kissing, and "Aloha ino, oh, my darling,"
she cried, " Hiwa-hiiva, my sweet little black pig!
my life is nothing to give for thee."
The land — which meant rest ; which meant safety,
rescue, comfort, life — had come nigher by this time,
and there would not be more than a mile and a half,
or three-quarters to traverse. Mina-Mina, with the
long black hair knotted on her head, still full of
soaked hibiscus flowers, was swimming bravely, keep-

356 WANDERING WORDS
ing the boy's tiny hands upon her shoulders ; and the
sea was still and the current safely passed, when her
ear missed the regular beat of Mauae's arms behind
her. She turned her head over her shoulder, and
saAv that he was treading the water in the manner
of a strong swimmer exhausted, his chin thrown
back, his mouth open.
"My king! he alii moe," she cried, "come on!
Yet a little more, and we shall touch the coral ledges
with our toes."
" Olua!" he answered, "go forward, you two. I
must die ! The fever has taken all the manhood
from my muscles. Mai huli oe. Do not turn round
again. Good-bye ! I must go down into the night
of the sea."
"No ! father of my son ! no," Mina-Mina passion
ately exclaimed. " The land is so close, I can see
the doors of the huts. The reef is so near, I can see
the seaweed waving on the outside shelves of the
reef Oh, a little farther, and we shall aU be saved ! "
The poor fellow struck out courageously again ;
but as she watched — herself gallantly breasting the
sea, Avhich broke gently on either side of her
bosoms as from the boAvs of some dark ship — she
saw his hands fall doAvn, and the sea-water spill
from the top of a wavelet into his mouth. Her
Mauae was spent ; he could never traverse by his
own strength the distance still to be dealt with.
These island women are placid and slow on shore,
but in moments of crisis quick to act as a sea-bird is
to decide upon its course of flight.

A GENTLE MURDERESS 357
" Fall on your back, friend, fall, Makamaka ! " she
said, "I will giA'e you some rest," and then she
executed a wonderful piece of water-learning, fan
ning the sea beside him, so that in each stroke her
returning arm gave him a sufficient support, while
she kept herself and the baby still steadily moving
in the right direction. But she was too much ac
customed to the water not to know that her man
was beyond hope if he should be left to himself
Hastily her fond heart made up its purpose. She
could not keep them both above the waves ; the
effort she was making must soon come to an end.
She must accordingly choose between the life of
the father of her child, and the life of the son of
her husband. A Hawaiian woman of her character
would never hesitate. Mina-Mina did not hesitate.
" Swim now by yourself for a little, Mauae ! " she
moaned, with water in her black eyes, which Avas
not from the sea. " I can help one of the tAvo to
land, but I cannot help both. My son — Kahaha !
thou must die for him that gave thee beginning."
"Ah, wife! wife! no!" cries the Hawaiian,
striking out anew ; "let he kama live — let him come
to be a man, and keep you when you are old.
I must go. It is I will die. I cannot swim one
canoe's length farther."
At this moment the baby, from its mother's back,
chuckled out, from fun or habit, the word of the
little Sandwich Island children when they go to their
mats for sleep at night.
"Listen," said Mina-Mina, "he knows it is all

358 WANDERING WORDS
right. He says farewell to you. Oh ! my manu, my
bird, you will take so long to drown, you are so
hearty. You will struggle, and cry for me, and call
the sharks to you before you are dead. And there
is no time left. Good-bye ! rub my nose hard with
your little nose. Kuh honi ala aloha ; Oh, my last
sweet loving kiss to you ! Good-bye ! "
With that she buried the knife-blade in her boy's
heart, and let him slide dead into the sea. Two
thin lines of blood from his little sinking body
trailed backward to the spot where Mauae was just
sinking, and a large blot of bright crimson darkened
the green water where he disappeared. The father
saw, comprehended, but was too far spent to speak.
Almost gone herself with grief and physical
strain, she drew his hands over her shoulders, and
setting her chin hard for the shore, flung out her
strong shapely arms in splendid strokes, supporting
her helpless lord ; and gradually neared the coral
reef. Where it opened into the lagoon a couple of
fishermen were drawing their nets inside. They
heard in the evening stillness the beat of her hands,
started up, and saAv Mina-Mina on the point of
giving in within a stone's throw of the ledge, quite
exhausted. The two Hawaiians dashed into the sea
and dragged the pair safely to land, Avhere both lay
for a time speechless. When they recovered power
to speak and move, the fishermen were astonished
to see the husband kiss the wet feet of his Avife, and
say, very softly, " For my life I am your debtor and
my son's."

A GENTLE MURDERESS 359
Afterwards, Avhen all understood well what had
happened in the water, they called her Mina-Mina,
and praised her exceedingly ; and she has — as you
saw — by this time another little baby-boy. But
there is never out of her look a wistfulness, such as
you may have noticed in passing her, and she will go
doAvn of evenings to the sea- edge at Koko Point, or
Waikiki, and say things to herself. We think she
perhaps says, " Darling ! he hiwa-hiwa ! oh, my little
black pig that I had to cast away ! If only I could
have died for thee ! "

XX
TENT LIFE

XX
TENT LIFE
Cruising this week about the pleasant waters of the
Solent, on board my yaAvl the Harelda, we landed
one afternoon for a ramble on shore hard by Calshot
Castle. Everybody who knows the locality at all
will identify the little edifice, half fortress, half
dwelling-house, standing on the spit of marsh to the
westward of the entrance of Southampton Water.
For. the homeward-bound traveller from the Cape of
Good Hope or the West Indies it is, after the Needles,
the first sure landmark which tells him that he has
really reached England ; and now that the great
Atlantic liners which we used to call the City of
Pans and the City of New York come and go this
way from and to America, Calshot Castle must
become to many visitors a very familiar and almost
famous object. As a fort it is nought. Solidly built,
indeed, of a. circular shape in well-laid masonry,
with neatly-riveted loop-holes an(J cannon-ports, a
symmetrical ditch, and a half-moon glacis, over
which frown . numerous embrasures, the little for-
talice looks very business-like, no doubt, and might
have been useful in the days when it was constructed.
But to-day it does not boast a sin,gle gun ; the draw
bridge, which anybody can cross, is immovable, the
363

364 WANDERING WORDS
enceinte was full, at the time we saw it, of children's
garments hung out to dry, and the only symbol of
that warlike service from which it seems definitely
to have retired, was the white ensign floating peace
fully from its sunlit Avails. If an enemy came by
this road, something else besides Calshot Castle
Avould have to stop his insulting career. A shell
from any one of the huge modern guns which ships
of Avar now carry would knock the shapely little
building into " a cocked hat," although it occupies a
spot Avhich might very well be formidably fortified,
and which would then command two extremely
important waters, the West Solent and the channel
leading up to the populous and wealthy port of
Southampton. The site itself seems, however, in
summer weather, too delicious for thoughts of beUi-
gerence. If there be such a magnate as the Governor
of Calshot Castle, and he does not often reside there,
he must be a personage singularly devoid of taste, or
else too busy to " take the goods the gods provide
him." Seascape and landscape show themselves
alike delightful, as you stand upon the gently sloping
mound of shingle and sea-shells upon which the small
stronghold is planted, and look north, south, east,
and west.
A broad avenue of silvery water leads between
green banks inwards to Southampton, Avhere masts
and towers and spires may be just discerned. All
along the left side stretches the verdant embroidery
of the New Forest, vandyked here and there with
parks and pastures, or indented Avith narrow creeks.

TENT LIFE 365
On the right hand, across the water, Ilamble River
steals into the sea, Avith its sleepy little maritime
viUage, living principally upon a trade in crabs
and lobsters, brought thither from all sorts of distant
places for transmission to London. They are kept
until Avanted in huge floating cages, the big crabs
being then packed alive in hampers after a fashion
very neglectful of their private feelings. A mile or
two above Hamble the red fagade of Netley Hospital
faces the water, embowered in woods, a goodly place
for the military invalid, and one where many a gallant
victim of war and hard service has placidly breathed
his last. Turning southwards, the Solent's broad and
beautiful expanse stretches far upon either hand,
shining westwardly to Yarmouth and Lymington, and
eastwardly to Ryde and Stokes Bay ; while imme
diately opposite lies the yachting metropolis of the
kingdom, Cowes, and the adjacent towers soar of
Osborne and Norris Castle. Cowes, as we stood on
Calshot Spit, was a perfect forest of masts, rising from
a fleet of yachts of all sizes and rigs, from half-raters to
the splendid schooners and steamers, and, amidst them,
the majestic Hohenzollern lay moored like a white
wall under the lawns of the Medina. The sky over
head was cloudless, but cloudlets of white smoke were
lazily drifting with the light south-westerly air as we
gazed, by reason of the Royal salute that was being
fired from the guardship to welcome the Kaiser back
to his yacht after the Portsmouth visit. Turning to
walk along the sea-face which runs westwards to
wards Lymington, we traversed as lonely a bit of fore-

366 WANDERING WORDS
shore as could well be wished for. The people of the
Castle and the Coastguard cottages adjoining pursue
an exiguous agriculture with potatoes and cabbages,
which realise perpetually the fate of the seed that
fell upon stony ground. Deriving their sustenance
from sand and pebbles, only the hardiest plant here
and there pushes a leaf or two ; but the blackberries
like the sort of place that it is, and the wild roses
also, and the golden-rods and sloe bushes. More
beautiful than any flowers could be are the branches
of the last-named, full of their small acrid thickly-
clustered plums, bearing a lovely purple bloom ; and
though the Avild roses are over, and the blackberries
at present merely green and red, they make with the
unripe cranberries exquisite clusters. On the rim of
the sands, where the wiry grass marks the limit of the
land, sea-thistles rear their handsome branches, with
thorny and corrugated leaves like metal-work wrought
in copper and aluminium, and with blue prickly
flowers. The yellow sea-poppies speck the shingle
Avith gold, and there pushes to the sun, in places,
through the sandy turf, tufts of a little wort bearing a
delicate pink floAver, as pretty as a jewel ; Avhile, for
further colour and beauty, there are cuckoo-pints,
orange antirrhinum, the meadow-sweet, the scabious,
and purple heather. About the wild blossoms hover
and flit light- winged butterflies — the chalk-white, the
painted lady, and the meado\A'-blue. It is a free,
open, and quiet pleasaunce of Nature, well beloved
by the rabbit, the snake, and the water-rat, Avhose
paths are countless in the Aveed-spread ditches.

TENT LIFE 367
Yes ; it would be good to be made Governor of
Calshot Castle just for a Aveek or tAvo about the date
of CoAves Regatta !
At the far edge of the expanse of this sandy flat —
before reaching Count Batthyany's woods — Ave came
upon an encampment numbering some six or eight
tents, with a large marquee, and it is these that have
set me Avriting. A blue ensign floated from a small
staff" in front of one of the tents, Avhich bore a placard
inscribed " The Rectory." Other tents displayed
other fanciful appellations — " St. Augustine's Villa,"
" St. Anselm's Priory," and such like, while the
juxtaposition of a Bible, a coffee-pot, a surplice, and
an empty bottle of Bass carried out the odd admix
ture of clerical and gipsy elements pervading the
" pitch." Nobody was to be seen about except a
sailor lad, who had charge of the camp, and he soon
explained to us that what we witnessed was the
temporary home of some forty young men from an
Association in the inland country, whose clergyman
brought them year by year down to this spot, to get
eight or ten days of pure air and exercise. They
were all away at church at the moment, for the day
was Sunday, and their idle bicycles, cricket-bats,
walking-sticks, and heavy boots were lying in or
about the tents. Yet you could see at a glance
how jolly they had been during the past week, and
would be until the outing was over; and the idea
was borne in upon us all how much wiser and
happier such a plan was than to be mewed up
in plundering and unwholesome seaside lodgings.

368 WANDERING WORDS
Pitched in this delicious nook of shore and sea,
upon a sandy table-land, where they could do no
sort of harm to any rights of property — and yet where
they had the sea and the sky and the wild heath to
themselves, as if they owned them all — I thought
they set a good example to town -folk, especially
young folk, planning a holiday at this season of the
year, since there are thousands of places round our
coasts where such encampments might properly and
harmlessly be erected, and such bell-tents as this
party possessed are very cheap to buy or hire, being
apparently cast-off military stores.
Nobody knows, who has not tried it, how pleasant
and healthy it is to live under canvas. Of course
one wants settled weather for the perfection of such
alfresco life, but the English summer is not ahvays
rainy, and you may be as dry in a tent as in a house
if the canvas be good and well set up, and if you
dig a trench in the proper fashion round the flies.
That little group of healthy gipsy homes upon the
Calshot Spit set me thinking of the happy days I
have myself passed in India under canvas. There
the art of tent-life is carried to its utmost limits of
comfort and delightfulness, and I should be inclined
to say — taking all in all — that the very pleasantest
and most delicious Avay of life in the AA-hole world is
that of the Indian official who in the "cold Aveather"
goes " into the districts " for tAvo or three months
of existence under canvas in the lovely and ever-
diversified jungles of Goozerat, or the Deccan, or the
Central Provinces. Ah ! the glorious and joyous

TENT LIFE 369
days and nights that I myself remember in beautiful
and wonderful India ! Ah ! the rides and expe
ditions in that fair and Avarm Poona country, amid
the hills of Sivaji and the temples of Mahadeo, in
years when I could talk Murathi like a gaum-
urdlah. and lived week after week under my
bichoba! It is something, hoAvever, to have had
such experience even once in a life !
The way is this. The tents made for such use in
India are of cotton, and very strong and durable —
put together after many patterns, of which what
we used to style the " Cottage " was, perhaps, most
commodious. They were largely manufactured at
Jubbulpoor by convict Thugs, and we would buy or
hire a double set of these, including a sort of " lean-
to" for the servants, with " bath tents," and, of course,
the necessary cattle and ox-carts — or sometimes
camels — to carry them and the kit. Then, on an
appointed day, when all had been organised down to
the smallest gindi by the proper servants, the first
set of tents was sent forward two marches, the second
set one march, and in the cool of the Indian after
noon we galloped our horses out to the nearest
stopping-stage. Under some splendid mango grove
or tamarind tree, near to a tank or running stream,
and within sight of some picturesque Deccan viUage,
we found our white jungle homes pitched and await
ing us. Good it was to dismount in the shade from
our sweating Arabs, to shake off the heavy riding
boots, to find the " tub " ready, nicely softened with
a chatty of hot water, and then to sit down to a well-
2 A

370 WANDERING WORDS
spread board in the wilderness, while the evening
feU, And all the Indian sky grew purple peace.
Then, after tobacco and chat, what faultless sleep
we had upon the camp " charpoys," nowise disturbed
by the familiar yells of the inevitable jackals and
the hootings of the small Deccan owl, goobud, who
hated to have his sylvan solitudes invaded ! Inside
the clean, cool, pretty tent, with its Persian carpets
and light furniture of camp utensils, guns, rifles,
and saddles, the glimmering butti shed a faint light,
enough to show if thief or snake entered ; scorpions
and centipedes you could not always keep at a dis
tance. Outside the canvas the sounds of the night,
other than those mentioned, would be the beUs tink
ling round the necks of the feeding cattle, the horses
stamping at their heel-ropes, the soft chatter of the
servants and coolies round the fires, and from the
viUage hard by the rhythmical beat of the tom-toms
and the barking of the pariah dogs. In the morning
we were up before the dawn, while the " wolf's tail,"
as they call the first gleam of grey light, Avas stiU
long in the sky ; and there Avas the hot coffee and
the bit of toast or biscuit before we mounted for the
jungle ride, not forgetting gun and rifle. The glo
rious mornings that they were — the superb sunrises,
when the dam-i-sabh, the "breath of morning,"
moved across the plain, and Avoke up Asia ! AA'e
would see the jackals and wild boar stealing guiltily
home from their nocturnal trespass ; the monkeys

TENT LIFE 371
going through their forest toilet Avith a mutual scratch
or two, and a cuff all round from the elders for the
youngsters ; the golden coats of the black buck
shining amidst the bajri and jowari, and the clamo
rous, variegated grouse flying in wedges across the
pale, Avarm sky to drink. And arriving, after three
or four hours' ride through the ever-interesting jungle,
with its endless variety of animal and floral life, we
would find our second set of white woodland homes
awaiting us, pitched in some spot as charming as
that of the night before, with bath and breakfast
read5^ There would we pass the bright and hot
Indian day, doing what duty — educational or ad
ministrative — we had in the neighbourhood ; while
last night's set of tents and kit crept across the
country past our new stage, and forward to the next,
so as to be pitched in time for our arrival after the
evening ride. Sometimes it would be cool enough
to stroll out, before the start, along the banks of
some lovely river, or among the quail and snipe in
the green rice-grounds ; sometimes only the vultures
and crows could abide the full glare of that mid-day
sun, and we were fain to wait until the shadows grew
long. Hereafter I may, perhaps, recall to memory
some of the curious civil and crirninal cases that
I have heard adjudged round the " kanauts " of
these Indian tents ; some of the odd interviews
with rajahs and dusky magnates which befell there ;
some of the deeper mysteries and marvels of that
wild and silent jungle of Asia. They were all
brought back to me by the tents upon Calshot

372 WANDERING WORDS
Spit, and I am the more inclined to say, the more
I think about it, that half enough use is not made
by English tourists and holiday-seekers of the de
lights, the comforts, and the pleasures afforded by
life under canvas.

THE END

Printed by Ball.vntyne, HANSON & Co.
Edinburgh and Lotidoti

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PUBLISHED BY

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1894.

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and New AVorks.
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3-
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Teachers.
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i-PRtTERITUS;.;-:-,')!:, -,»».. .
ruTURius-
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W^^^j^^^gl^^^^^^t
r^w^:^^^
INDEX OF AUTHORS.

Abbott (Evelyn) -

Page 3,14

Green (T. Hfflf '- '^ -'

Page 11

Poole (W, H. and Mrs.) -

Page' 23

 (T. K.) - -

' 10

Greville (C. C. F.) - -

. • 4

Praeger(F.) - - - -- -

7

Acland (A. H. D.) .. ' -

3

Haggard (H, Rider)

--I7, 21

Prendergast (J. P.) - . .' i

5

Acton (Eliza)

22

Halliwell-Phillipps (J. O.)

7,23

Proctor (Richard A.) 10,19,

22,24

.i^ischylus

14

Harrison (Mary)

23

Raine (James)- - . -

4

Allhighain (W.)

- 13. 23

^(JaneE.)- - - -

14

Ransome (Cyril)

3

Anstey (F.) -

16

Hart (A. B.) .

4

Reader (E. E.)

21

Aristophanes

14

Harte (Bret)

17

Rhoades (J.) - - - , -

14, Ig

Aristotle -

- 10, II

Hartwig (G.) -

- iS, 19

Ribot (T.)

12

Apnstrong (E.)
 (G. F. Savage-)

3

Hassall(A..Hill) - - .

6

Rich (A.) - - - -

14

15

Hawker (Col. Peter)

10

Richardson (Sir B. Ward) -

'24

 (E. J.) - -
Arnold (Sir Edwin) -

6, 15. 23

Hearn (W. E.) - -

4. II

Rickaby (John)

12

7, 15. 21

Heathcote (J. M. & C. J.)

9

 (Joseph) - . -
Riley (J. W.)

12

 (Dr. T.) -

3

Helmholtz (Hermann von)

19

16

Ashley (W.J.)- - -

13

JJodgson (Shadworth H.)

11,23

 (A.) - -

8

Atelier du Lys (Author of)

16

Hooper (G.) -
Hopkins (F. P.)

6

Robertson (A.)

jS

Bacon - - - -

- 6, II

10

Rockhill (W. W.) -

&:

Bagehot (AValter)

6, 13, 23

Horley (E.) - -

4

Roget (John Lewis)

.24;

Bagwell (R.) -

3

Howard (B. D.)

8

 (Peter M.)

13;

Bain (Alexander)

II

Howitt (William)

8

Romanes (G. J.)

14

Baker (James) -

l5

Hullah (John) -
Hume (David) -

23

Roberts (C. G. D.) -

16

 (Sir S. W.) -

7

II

Ronalds (A.) - ,

.IO-

Ball (J. T.) - -

3

Hunt (W.)

4

Roosevelt (T.) -

4

Baring-Gould (S.) -

21

Hutchinson (Horace G.) -

9

Rossetti (M. F.) - -

22,24

Barnett (S. A. and Mrs.)-

13

Huth (A. H.) -

14

Round CJ. H.) -

5

Barrow (Sir J. Croker) -

15

Ingelow (Jean)

15, 20

Saintsbury (G.)

10

Battye (Aubyn Trevor)

23

James (C. A.) - . -
Jelferies (Richard) - - 21

23 ; Seebohm (F.) -

5.7-

-Baynes (T. S.)

-- 23

22, 24 1 Sewell (ElLz. M.) -' -

. 18

Beaconsfield (Earl of)

17

Johnson (J. & J. H.)

24 j Shakespeare -

16

Beaufort (Duke of) -

9

Johnstone (L.)

II , Sharpe (R. R.)

5

Becker (Prof.) -

14

Jones (E. E. C.)

II Shearman (M.)

9

Bell (Mrs. Hugh) -

15

Jordan (W. L.)

.13 I Sheppard (Edgar)

5

Bent (J. Theodore) -

7

Joyce (P. W.) -

4 Shines (L. P.) -

13

Besant (Walter)

3

Justinian -
Kant (L)

II Sidgwick (Alfred)

12

Bjbrnsen (B.) t

15

II < Sinclair (A.) - ; - -

9

Boase (C. W.) -

4

Killick(A. H.)-

II Smith (R. Bosworth) - -

5

Boedder (B.)

12

Kilchin (G. W.)

4 ;  (W. P. Haskett) :-

8

Boothby (Guy)

7

Knight (E. F.)

8, 22 I Sophocles , -

14

Boyd (A. K. H.)

- 6,23

Ladd(G. T.) - ' -->

II i Southey (R.)

24

Brassey (Lady)

7

Lang (Andrew)

Stanley (Bishop)

19

 (Lord)

3. 13

4, 10, 14, 15, 17, 20

22, 24 Steel (A. G.) -

9

Bray (C. and Mrs.) -

II

LasccUes (Hon. G.)

10 Stephen (Sir James)

7

Bryden (H. A.)

8

Lear (H. L. Sidney)

23

Stephens (H. C.) .-

5

Buckle (fj. T.)

3

Leckv (W. E. H.) -

4, 15

 (H. Morse) -

Bu11(.T:) -

22

Lees '(J. A.) -

8,22

 (T.) 

8

Burrows (Montagu)

4

Leonard (A. G.)

24

Stevenson (Robert Louis) 16,

8, 21

Bury (Viscount

Leslie (T. E. C.)

13

Stock (St. George) -

12

¦Butler'(E. A.) -

18

Lewes (G. H.) -

II

Stuart-Wortley (A. J.) ;-

10

 , (Samuel) -

23

Leyton (F.)

15 1 Stubbs a. W.) : - -

5

Canaibetl-Walker (A.)

8

Lodge (H, C.) -

4 Suffolk and Berkshire (Earl of)

9

Caroe (W, D.) - - -

4

Loftie (W. J.) - .-

4 Sully (James) - , -

12

Cholmondeley-Pennell (H.)

9

Longman (F. W.) -

10 . Sutherland (Alex, and George)

6

Cicero

14

Lubbock (Sir John)

14 Suttner (Baron von)

18

Clarke (R. F.) -

12

Lyall (Edna) -

17 1 Swinbiu-ne (A. J.) -

12

Gierke (Agnes M.)

14

Lydekker (R.) -

19 Symes (J. E.) -

13

Clodd (Edward)

14

Lytton (Earl of)

16

Theocritus

14

Clutterbuck (Vv'. J.)

8

Macaulay (Lord) - 5

16, 22

Thompson (Annie) -

ll-

Comyn (L. N.)

17

Macfarren (Sir G. A.)

24

 (D. G.) - -

6, 12

Conington (John) -

14

Mackail (J. W.) -

14

Thomson (Archbishop) -

12

Conybeare (W .J.) Howson

(J.T.)2I

Macleod (H. D.) -

13, 22 i Tirebuck (W.) -

18

Cox (Harding)

9

Macpherson (H. A.)

10 ] Todd (A.) - '-

6

Crake (A. D.) -

20

Maher (M.)

12 1 Toynbee(A.) -

13

Creighton (Bishop) -

3.4

Marbot (Baron-de)

6 1 Trevelyan (Sir G. O.)

6

Crozier 0. B.) -

II

Marshman (J. C.)
Martin (A. P.) -

6 Trollope (Anthony)

18

Crump (A.)

3. 13

7 1 Tupper (C. L.)

6

Curzon (Hon. G. N.)

Maunder (S.) -
20 \ Tyrrell (R. A".) - -
14
Cutts (E. L.) , -
4
Max Miiller (F.) - 11
13, 24 Verney (Francis P.)
7
Dante - - :
IS
May (Sir T. Erskine)
5 Virgil - - -
14
Davidson (W. L.)
- II, 13
Meath (Earl of) -
13 ] Von Hohnel (L.)
. 8
Deland (Mrs.) -
17
Meade (L. T.) -
20 1 Wakeman (H. 0.)
6
Dent (C. T.) -'
9
Melville (G. J. Whyte)
17 Walford (Mrs.)
7. Iff
Derby (Earl of)
3
Mendelssohn (Felix)
24 Wallaschek (R.)
24
De Salis (Mrs.)
- 22, 23
Merivale (Dean)
5 Walker (Jane R.)
23
De Tqcqueville (A.)
3
Mill (James)
 (John Stuart)
12 Walpole (Spencer) -
6
Devas (C. S.) -
13
12, 13 Walsingham (Lord)
9
Dougall (L.) -
17
Milner (G.)
24 Waher(J.) - - -
7
Dowell (S.)
13
Molesworth (Mrs.) -
21 Watson (A. E. T.) -
9
Doyle (A. Conan) .
17
Monck (H. S.) -
12 Webb (Sidney and Beatrice) -
13
Falkener (E.)
10
Montague (C.) -
8 Webb (T. E.) - - - -
12
Farnell (G, S.)
14
Nansen (F.)
8 1 Weir (R.)
9
Farrar (Archdeacon)
- 13. 17
Nesbit (E.)
16 West (B. B.) - -
18,24
Filzpatrick (W. J.) -
Ford (H.) - -
3
O'Brien (W.) -
5 ' Weyman (Stanley J.) s
18
10
Oliphant (Mrs.)
17 Whately (Archbishop)
12
Forster (F.),
16
Osbourne (L) -
18  (E. J.) . -
13
Fowler (J. K.) - -
10
Parkes (Sir H.)
5 i Whishaw (F. J.)
8
Francis (Francis)
10
Parr (Mrs.)
18 : Wilcocks a- C.)
10
Francis (H. R.)
23
Payn (James) -
l8 Wilkins(G.) -
9, 10 Willich (C. M.)
It
Freeman (Edward A.)
- 3.4
Payne-Gallwey (Sir R.) -
20
Froude (James A.) - 4, 6, 8, 17
Peary (Josephine and Robert)
Pembroke (Earl of )
8 Wilson (A.J.) -
13
Furneaux (W.)
18
9 Wishart (G.) -
6
Gardiner (Samuel Rawson)
4
Perring (Sir P.)
24 , Wolff (H. W.)
8,13
Gilkes (A. H.) -
17
Phillipps-Wolley (C.)
Piatt (S. & J. J.)
9, 18 Woodgate (W. B:) -
9
Gleig (G. R.)
7
16 (Wood a. G.) - . . .
19"
Goethe -
15
Plato
14 i Wordsworth (Bishop Charles)
7
Graham (G. F.)
13
Pole(W.) - -
10 i Wylie (T. H.) ¦ - - . »
9 1 Zeller (E.) . - . :,
6
Granville (Harriet, Countess) 6
Pollock (W. H.) -
12
Graves (R. P.) -
61
•1
MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

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Biography, Personal Memoirs, etc. -
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Classical Literature, Translation,
etc.
Cookery, Domestic Management, etc.
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PAGE 96
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14
22 1416

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23 151318
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History, Polities, Polity, Political Memoirs, &e.

Abbott. — A History of Greece. By
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Part L — From the Earliest Times to the
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Acland and Eansome. — A Handbook in
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Armstrong. — Elizabeth Farnese ; The
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Arnold.— Works by T. Arnold, D.D.,
formerly Head Master of Rugby School.
Introductory Lectures on Modern
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T. Ball. 8vo., 6s.

Besant. — The History of London.
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Brassey. — Papers and Addresses. By
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vols. Crown 8vo., los.
Buckle. — History of Civilisation in
England and France, Spain and Scot
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vols. Crown 8vo., 24s.
Creighton. — History of the Papacy
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large paper edition, 12s.
Thought and Word, and Ashby
Manor : a Play. With Portrait of the
Author (1865), and four Theatrical Scenes
drawn by Mr. Allingham. Fcp. Svo., 6s. ;
large paper edition, 12s.
Blackberries. Imperial i6mo., 6s.
Sets of the above 6 vols, may be had in uni
form Half-parchment binding, price 30s.
Armstrong. — Works by G. F. Savage-
Armstrong. Poems : Lyrical and Dramatic. Fcp.
8vo., 6s.
King Saul. (The Tragedy of Israel,
Part I.) Fcp. 8vo., 5s.
King David. (The Tragedy of Israel,
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King Solomon. (The Tragedy of Israel,
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Ugone : a Tragedy. Fcp. Svo., 6s.
A Garland from Greece : Poems.
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Stories of Wicklow : Poems. Fcp.
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Mephistopheles in Broadcloth :
a Satire. Fcp. Svo., 4s.
One in the Infinite : a Poem. Crown
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Armstrong. — The Poetical Works of
Edmund J. Armstrong. Fcp. Svo., 5s.
Arnold.— Works by Sir Edwin Arnold,
K.C.I.E., Author of ' The Light of Asia,' &c.
The Light of the World: or the
Great Consummation. A Poem. Crown
8vo., 7s. dd. net.
Presentation Edition. With 14 Illus
trations by W. Holman Hunt, 4to.,
20S. net.
Potiphar's Wife, and other Poems.
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Adzuma: orthe Japanese Wife. A Play.
Crown Svo., 6s. dd. net.
Barrow. — The SevenCitiesofthe Dead,
and other Poems. By Sir John Croker
Barrow, Bart. Fcp. 8vo., 5s.

Bell.— Works by Mrs. Hugh Bell.
Chamber Comedies : a Collection of
Plays and Monologues for the Drawing
Room. Ciown Svo., 6s.
Nursery Comedies : Twelve Tiny Plays
for Children. Fcp. Svo., is. dd.
Bjbrnsen. — Works by Bjornstjerne
Bjornsen. Pastor Sang : a Play. Translated by
William Wilson. Crown Svo., 5s.
A Gauntlet : a Drama, Translated
into English by Osman Edwards. With
Portrait of the Author. Crown Svo., 5s.
Dante. — La Commedia Di Dante. A
New Text, carefully Revised with the aid of
the most recent Editions and Collations.
Small Svo., 6s.
Goethe. Faust, Part I., the German Text, with
Introduction and Notes. By Albert M.
Selss, Ph.D., M.A. Crown Svo., 5s.
Faust. Translated, with Notes. By T. E.
Webb. Svo., 12s. dd.
Faust. The First Part. A New Trans
lation, chiefly in Blank Verse ; with In
troduction and Notes. By James Adey ,
Birds. Crown Svo., 6s.
Faust. The Second Part. A New
Translation in Verse. By James Adey
i Birds. Crown Svo., 6s.
Ingelow. — Works by Jean Ingelow.
"'Poetical Works. 2 vols. Fcp. Svo.,
I2S.
Lyrical and Other Poems. Selected
from the Writings of Jean Ingelow.
Fcp. 8vo., 2s. dd. cloth plain, 3s. cloth
gilt.
Lang. — Works by Andrew Lang.
Ban and Arri^re Ban : a Rally of
Fugitive Rhymes. Fcp. Svo., 5s. net.
Grass of Parnassus. Fcp. Svo., zs. dd.
net.
Ballads of Books. Edited by Andrew
Lakg. Fcp. Svo., 6s.
The Blue Poetry Book. Edited by
Andrew Lang. With 12 Plates and 88
Illustrations in the Text by H. J. Ford-
and Lancelot Speed. Crown Svo., 6s.
Special Edition, printed on India paper.
With Notes, but without Illustrations.
Crown 8vo., 7s. dd.
Lecky.— Poems. By W. E. H. Lecky.
Fcp. Svo., 5s.
Leyton. —Works by Frank Leyton.
The Shadows of the Lake, and other
Poems. Crown Svo., 7s. dd. Cheap
Edition. Crown Svo., 3s. dd.
Skeleton Leaves : Poems. Crown-
Svo. 6s.

16 MESSRS. LONGMANS &¦ CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

Poetry and the Drama — continued.

Lytton. — Works by The Earl of Lytton
(Owen Meredith).
Marah. Fcp. Svo., 6s. dd.
King Poppy : a Fantasia. With i Plate
and Design on Title-Page by Ed. Burne-
Jones, A.R.A. Crown Svo., ios. dd.
The Wanderer. Crown Svo., ios. dd.
LuciLE. Crown Svo., ios. dd.
Selected Poems. Crown Svo., ios. dd.
Macaulay. — Lays of Ancient Rome, &c.
By Lord Macaulay.
Illustrated by G. Scharf. Fcp. 4to., los. dd.
 :  Bijou Edition.
iSmo., 2s. dd. gilt top.
 Popular Edition.
Fcp. 4to., dd. sewed, is. cloth.
Illustrated by J. R. Weguelin. Crown

Svo , 3s. dd.
Annotated Edition.
IS. dd. cloth.

Fcp. Svo., is. sewed.

Nesbit. — Lays and Legends. By E.
Nesbit (Mrs. Hubert Bland). F'irst
Series. Crown Svo. , 3s. 6^7. Second Series.
With Portrait. Crown Svo., 5s:
Piatt. — An Enchanted Castle, and
other Poems: Pictures, Portraits, and
People in Ireland. By Sarah Piatt.
Crown Svo. 3s. dd.

Piatt. — Works by John James Piatt.
Idyls and Lyrics of the Ohio
Valley. Crown 8vo., 5s.
Little New World Idyls. Cr. Svo. 55.
Rhoades. — Teresa and other Poems.
By James Rhoades. Crown 8vo., 3s. dd.
Riley. — Works by James Whitcomb
Riley.
Old Fashioned Roses: Poems. 121110.,
5s.
Poems: HereatHome. Fcp.8vo.,6s.Kei.
Roberts. — Songs of the Common Day and
Ave ! An Ode for the Shelley Centenary. By
Charles G. D. Roberts. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
Shakespeare. — Bowdler's Family
Shakespeare. With 36 Woodcuts, i vol.
Svo., 14s. Or in 6 vols. Fcp. Svo., 21s.
The Shakespeare Birthday Book. By
Mary F. Dunbar. 32mo., rs. dd. Draw
ing Room Edition, with Photographs.
Fcp. Svo., IOS. dd.
Stevenson. — A Child's Garden of
Verses. By Robert Louis Stevenson.
. Small Fcp. Svo., 5s.

Works of Fiction, Humour, &c.

ATELIER (THE) DU LYS : or, an Art
Student in the Reign of Terror. Crown
Svo., 2s. dd. By the same Author.
Mademoiselle Mori : a Tale of
Modern Rome. Crown 8vo., 2S. dd.
That Child. With Illustrations by
Gordon Browne. Crown Svo., 2s. dd.
Under a Cloud. Crown Svo., 2S. dd.
The Fiddler of Lugau. With
Illustrations by W. Ralston, Crown
Svo., 2s. dd.
A Child of the Revolution. With
Illustrations by C. J. Staniland.
Crown Svo., 2s. dd.
Hester's Venture. Cr. Svo., 2s. dd.
In the Olden Time : a Tale of the
Peasant Warin Germany. Cr.Svo.,2S.6rf.
The Younger Sister. Crown Svo.,
2s. dd.

Anstey. — Works by F. Anstey, Author of
'Vice Versa '
The Black Poodle, and other Stories.
Crown Svo., 2s. boards, 2s. dd. cloth.
Voces Populi. Reprinted from ' Punch'.
First Series. With 20 Illustrations by
J. Bernard Partridge. Crown Svo.,
3s. dd.
The Travelling Companions. Re
printed from 'Punch'. With 25 lUust.
by J. Bernard Partridge. Post 4to., 5s.
The Man from Blankley's: a Story
in Scenes, and other Sketches. With 24
Illustrations by J. Bernard Partridge.
Fcp. 4to., 6s.
Baker. — By the Western Sea. By
James Baker, Author of 'John Westacott'.
Crown Svo., 3s. 6rf.

MESSRS. LONGMANS &¦ CO.'S. STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS. 17

Works of Fiction, Humour, &c. — continued.
by the Earl of

Beaconsfield.— Works
Beaconsfield. Novels and Tales. Cheap Edition
Complete in 11 vols. Cr. Svo., is. dd. each,

Vivian Grey.
The Young Duke, &c.
Alroy, Ixion, &c.
Contarini Fleming,&c.

Henrietta Temple.
Venetia. Tancred.
Coningsby. Sybil.
Lothair. Endymion.
Novels and Tales. The Hughenden
Edition. With 2 Portraits and 11 Vig
nettes. II vols. Crown Svo., 42s.
Comyn. — Atherstone Priory : a Tale.
By L. N. Comyn. Crown Svo., 2s. dd.
Deland. — Works by Margaret Deland,
Author of 'John Ward'.
Sidney. Crown Svo., 2S. dd.
The Story of a Child. Cr. Svo., 5s.
Mr. Tommy Dove, and other Stories.
Crown Svo. 6s.
Dougall. — Works by L. Dougall.
Beggars All Crown Svo., 3s. dd.
What Necessity Knows. Cr. Svo., 6s.
Doyle. — Works by A. Conan Doyle.
MicAH Clarke: A Tale of Monmouth's
Rebellion. With Frontispiece and Vig
nette. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
The Captain of the Polestar, and
other Tales. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
The Refugees : A Tale of Two Conti
nents. Cr. Svo., 6s.
Farrar. — Darkness and Dawn : or.
Scenes in the Days of Nero. An Historic
Tale. By Archdeacon Farrar. Cr. Svo.,
7s. dd.
Forster. — Major Joshua. By Francis
Forster. Crown Svo., 6s.
Froude.— The Two Chiefs of Dunboy :
an Irish Romance of the Last Century.
by J. A. Froude. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
Gilkes.— The Thing That Hath Been :
or, a Young Man's Mistakes. By A. H.
Gilkes, M.A., Head Master of Dulwich
College, Author of 'Boys and Masters'.
"Crown 8vo., 6s.
Haggard.— Works by H. Rider Haggard.
She. With 32 Illustrations by M.
Greiffenhagen and C. H. M. Kerr.
Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
Allan Quatermain. With 31 Illus
trations by C. H. M. Kerr. Cr. 8vo.,
3s. dd.

Haggard.— Works by H. Rider Haggard.
— continued.
Maiwa's Revenge : or. The War of the
Little Hand. Cr. 8ro., is. boards, is. dd.
cloth.
Colonel Quaritch, V.C. Cr. Svo.
3s. dd.
Cleopatra. With zg Full-page Illus
trations by M. Greiffenhagen and R.
Caton Woodville. Crown Svo., 3s.
dd.
Beatrice. Cr. Svo., 3s. 6rf.
Eric Brighteyes. With 17 Plates
and 34 Illustrations in the Text by
Lancelot Speed. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
Nada the Lily. With 23 Illustra
tions by C. H. M. Kerr. Cr. Svo., 6s.
Montezuma's Daughter. With ^4
Illustrations by M. Greiffenhagen.
Crown Svo. , 6s.
Allan's Wife. With 34 Illustrations
by M. Greiffenhagen and C. H. M.
Kerr. Crown Svo., 3s. dd.
The Witch's Head. With Illustra
tions. . Crown Svo., 3s. dd.
Mr. Meeson's Will.. With Illustra
tions. Crown 8vo., 3s. dd.
Dawn. With Illustrations. Crown
Svo., 3s. dd.
Haggard and Lang.— The World's De
sire. By H. Rider Haggard and
Andrew Lang. With Illustrations by
M. Greiffenhagen. Cr. Svo. 3s. dd. '
Harte. — In the Carquinez Woods and
other stories. By Bret Harte. Cr.
Svo., 3s. dd.
KEITH DERAMORE. By the Author
of ' Miss Molly '- Cr. Svo., 2s. dd.
Lyall. — The Autobiography of a Slan
der* By Edna Lyall, Author of ' Dono
van,' &c. Fcp. 8vo., IS. sewed.
Presentation Edition. With 20 Illustra
tions by Lancelot Speed. Crown 8vo.,
2s. dd. net.
Melville.— Works by G. J. Whyte Mel
ville.The Gladiators.
The Interpreter.
Good for Nothing.
The Queen's Maries.
Cr. Svo., IS. dd. each.
Oliphant.— Works by Mrs. Oliphant,
Madam. Cr. 8vo., is. dd.
In Trust. Cr. Svo., is. dd.

Holmby House.
Kate Coventry.
Digby Grand.
General Bounce.

i8 MESSRS. LONGMANS &• CO.'S STANDARD' AND GENERAL WORKS. '

Works of Fiction, Humour, &e. — continued.

Parr, — Can this be Love ? By Mrs.
Parr, Author of ' Dorothy Fox '. Crown
Svo. 6s,
Payn.— Works by James Payn.
The Luck of the Darrells. Cr. Svo.,
is. 6d. ^
Thicker than Water. Cr. Svo., is.
dd.
PhilUpps-Wolley.— Snap : a Legend of the
Lone Mountain. By C; Phillipps-Wol
ley. With 13 Illustrations by H. G.
Willink. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
Robertson. — The Kidnapped Squatter,
and other Australian Tale's. By. A.
Robertson. Cr. Svo., 6s.
Sewell. — Works by, Elizabeth M.
Sewell.
A Glimpse of the World. Amy Herbert.
Laneton Parsonage. Cleve Hall.
Margaret Percival. Gertrude.
Katharine Ashton. Home Life.
The Earl's Daughter. After Life.
The Experience of Life. Ursula. Ivors.
Cr. Svo., is. dd. each cloth plain. 2s. dd.
each cloth extra, gilt edges.
Stevenson. — Works by Robert Louis
Stevenson. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde. Fcp. Svo., is. sewed, is. dd.
cloth.
The Dynamiter. Fcp. Svo., is. sewed,
IS. dd. cloth.
Stevenson and Osbourne.— The Wrong
Box. By RoBEkT Louis Stevenson and
Lloyd Osbourne. Cr. 8vo., 3s. dd.
Suttner.— Lay Down Your Arms (Di«
Waffen Niedcr) : The Autobiography of
Martha Tilling. By Bertha von Sutt
ner. Translated by T. Holmes. Cr.
Svo., IS. 6d.

Thompson. — A Moral Dilemma: a
Novel. By Annie Thompson. Crown
Svo., 6s.
Tirebuck.— Works byWiLLiAM Tirebuck.
DoRRlE. Crown Svo. 6s.
Sweetheart Gwen. Crown Svo., 6s.

TroUope.- lope.

-Works by Anthony Trol-

The Warden.

Cr. Svo., IS. dd.
Cr. Svo., IS.

Barchester Towers.
dd.

TRUE (A) RELATION of the
Travels and Perilous Adventures
OF Mathew Dudgeon, Gentleman :
Wherein is truly set down the Manner of
his Taking, the Long Time of his Slavery
in Algiers, and Means of his Delivery.
Written by Himself, and now for the first
time printed. Crown Svo.
Walford. — Works by L. B. Walford,
Author of ' Mr. Smith '.
The Mischief of Monica : a Novel.
Cr. Svo., 2s. dd.
The One Good Guest : a Story. Cr.
Svo., 2s. dd.
West. — Half-Hours with the Million
aires : Showing how much harder it is
to spend a million than to make it.
Edited by B. B. West. Cr. Svo., 6s.
Weyman. — Works by Stanley Weyman.
The House OE THE Wolf: a Romance.
Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
A Gentleman of France. Cr. Svo., 6s.

Popular Science (Natural History, &e.).

Butler. — Our Household Insects. An
Account of the Insect-Pests found in
Dwelling-Houses. By Edward A. Butler,
B.A., B.Sc. (Lond.). With 113 Illustra
tions. Crown 8vo., 6s.
Furneaux.— The Outdoor World ; or
The Young Collector's Handbook. By W.
Furneaux, F.R.G.S. With 18 Plates, 16
of which are coloured, and 549 Illustrations
in the Text. Crown 8vo., 7s. dd.

Hartwig.— Works by Dr. George Hart
wig. The Sea and its Living Wonders
With 12 Plates and 303 Woodcuts. Svo.,
7s. net.
The Tropical World. With 8 Plates
and 172 Woodcuts. Svo., 7s. net.
The Polar World. With 3 Maps, 8
Plates and 85 Woodcuts. Svo., 7s. net.

MESSRS. LONGMANS &• CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS. 19

Popular Science (Natural History, &e.)— continued.

HartTOg. — Works by Dr. George Hart
wig — continued.
The Subterranean World. With 3
Maps and So Woodcuts. 8vo., 7s. net.
The Aerial World. With Map, S
Plates and 60 Woodcuts. Svo., 7s. net.
Heroes of the Polar World, ig
Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 2s.
Wonders of the Tropical Forests.
40 lUustrations. Cr. 8vo., 2s.
Workers under the Ground. 29
Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 2s.
Marvels Over our Heads. 29 Illus
trations. Cr. Svo., 2s.

Sea Monsters and Sea Birds.
Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 2S. dd.

75

Denizens of the Deep. 117 Illustra
tions. Cr. 8vo., 2s. dd.
Volcanoes and Earthquakes. 30
lUustrations. Cr. Svo., zs. dd.
Wild Animals of the Tropics. 66
Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
Helmholtz. — Popular Lectures on
Scientific Subjects. By Hermann von
Helmholtz. With 68 Woodcuts. 2 vols.
Cr. Svo., 3s. dd. each.
Lydekker. — Phases of Animal Life,
Past andPresent. By. R. Lydekker,
B.A. With 82 Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 6s.
Proctor. — Works by Richard A. Proctor.
Light Science for Leisure Hours.
Familiar Essays on Scientific Subjects. 3
vols. Cr. 8vo., 5s. each.
Chance and Luck : a Discussion of
the Laws of Luck, Coincidence, Wagers,
Lotteries and the Fallacies of Gambling,
&c. Cr. 8vo., 2s. boards. 2s. dd. cloth.
Rough Ways made.Smooth. Familiar
Essays on Scientific Subjects. Silver
' Library Edition. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
Pleasant Waysin Science. Cr.8vo.,5s.
Silver Library Edition. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
The Great Pyramid, Observatory,
Tomb and Temple. With Illustrations.
Cr. 8vo., 5s.
Nature Studies. By R. A. Proctor,
Grant Allen, A. Wilson, T. Foster
and E. Clodd. Cr. Svo., 5s. Silver
Library Edition. Crown Svo., 3s. dd.

Proctor.— Works by Richard A. Proctor.
— continued.
Leisure Readings. By R. A. Proc
tor, E. Clodd, A. Wilson, T. Foster
and A. C. Ranyard. Cr. Svo., 5s.
Stanley. — A Famiwar History of Birds.
By E. Stanley, D.D., formerly Bishop ol
Norwich. With Illustrations. Cr. Svo.,
3s. dd.
Wood.— Works by the Rev. J. G. Wood.
Homes without Hands : a Description
of the Habitation of Animals, classed
according to the Principle of Construc
tion. With 140 Illustrations. Svo., 7s.,
net._
Insects at Home : a Popular Account
of British Insects, their Structure, Habits
and Transformations. With 700 Illustra
tions. Svo., 7s. net.
Insects Abroad: a Popular Account
of Foreign Insects, their Structure, Habits
and Transformations. With 600 Illustra
tions. Svo., 7s. net.
Bible Animals : a Description of every .
Living Creatures mentioned in the Scrip
tures. With 112 Illustrations. Svo., 7s.
net.
Petland Revisited. With 33 Illus
trations. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
Out op Doors; a Selection of Original
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With II Illustrations. Cr. 8vo., 3s. dd.
Strange Dwellings: a Deicription of
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' Homes without Hands '. With 60 Illus
trations. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
Bird Life of the Bible. 32 lUustra-
tionl. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
Wonderful Nests. 30 Illustrations.
Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
Homes under the Ground. 2S Illus
trations. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
Wild Animals of the Bible. 29
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Domestic Animals of the Bible. 23
Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd:
The Branch Builders. 2S Illustra
tions. Cr. Svo., 2s. dd.
Social Habitations and Parasitic
Nests. iS Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 2S. .

20 MESSRS. LONGMANS &¦ CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

Works of Reference.

Maunder's (Samuel) Treasuries.
Biographical Treasury. With Sup
plement brought down to iSSg. By Rev.
James Wood. Fcp. Svo., 6s.
Treasury of Natural History : or>
Popular Dictionary of Zoology. With
900 Woodcuts. Fcf. Svo., 6s.
Treasury of Geography, Physical,
Historical, Descriptive, and Political.
With 7 Maps and 16 Plates. Fcp. Svo.,
6s.
The Treasury of Bible Knowledge.
By the Rev. J. Ayre, M.A. With 5
Maps, 15 Plates, and 300 Woodcuts.
Fcp. Svo., 6s.
Historical Treasury : Outlines of
Universal History, Separate Histories of
all Nations. Fcp. Svo., 6s.
Treasury of Knowledge and Library
or Reference. Comprising an English
Dictionary and Grammar, Universal
Gazeteer, Classical Dictionary, Chrono
logy, Law Dictionary, &c. Fcp. Svo.. 6s.

Maunder's (SamueDTreasuries-i^oB'JMw^rf.
Scientific and Literary Treasury.
Fcp. Svo., 6s.
The Treasury of Botany. Edited by
J. Lindley, F.R.S., and T. Moore, F.L.S.
With 274 Woodcuts and 20 Steel Plates.
2 vols. Fcp. Svo., I2S.
Roget. — Thesaurus of English Words
AND Phrases. Classified and Arranged so
as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas
and assist in Literary Composition. By
Peter Mark Roget, M.D., F.R.S. Re-
composed throughout, enlarged and im
proved, partly from the Author's Notes, and
with a full Index, by the Author's Son,
John Lewis Roget. Crown Svo., ios. dd:
Willich. — Popular Tables for giving in-
information for ascertaining the value of
Lifehold, Leasehold, and Church Property,
the Public Funds, &c. By Charles M.
Willich. Edited by H. Bence Jones.
Crown Svo., los. dd.

Children's Books.

Crake.— Works by Rev. A. D. Crake.
Edwy the Fair ; or, The First Chro
nicle of .ffilscendune. Crown Svo., 2s. dd.
Alfgar the Dane : or, the Second
Chronicle of jEscendune. Cr. Svo. 2s. 6rf.
The Rival Heirs : being the Third
and Last Chronicle of .lEscendune. Cr.
Svo., 2s. dd.
The House of Walderne. A Tale of
the Cloister and the Forest in the Days
of the Barons' Wars. Crown Svo., 2s. dd.
Brian Fitz-Count. A Story of Walling-
ford Castle and Dorchester Abbey. Cr.
Svo., 2s. dd.
Ingelow. — Very Young, and Quite An
other Story. Two Stories. By Jean
Ingelow. Crown Svo., 2s. dd.
Lang. — Works edited by Andrew Lang.
The Blue Fairy Book. With 8 Plates
and 130 Illustrations in the Text by H. J.
Ford and G. P. Jacomb Hood. Crown
Svo., 6s.
The Red Fairy Book. With 4 Plates
and 96 Illustrations in the Text by H. J.
Ford and Lancelot Speed. Crown
Svo., 6s.

Lang. — Works edited by Andrew Lang.
— continued.
The Green Fairy Book. With 11
Plates and 88 Illustrations in the Text by
H. J. Ford and L. Bogle. Crown Svo.,
6s.
The Blue Poetry Book. With 12
Plates and 88 Illustrations in the Text by
H. J. Ford and Lancelot Speed. Cr.
Svo., 6s.
The Blue Poetry Book. School Edi
tion, without Illustrations. Fcp. Svo.,
2s. dd.
The True Story Book. With 8 Plates
and 58 Illustrations in the Text, by H. J.
Ford, Lucien Davis, C. H. M. Kerr,
Lancelot Speed, and Lockhart Bogle.
Cr. Svo., 6s.
Meade. — Works by L. T. Meade.
Daddy's Boy. With Illustrations.
Crown Svo., 3s. dd.
Deb and the Duchess. With Illus
trations by M. E. Edwards. Crown Svo.,
3s. dd.
The Beresford Prize. With Illustra
tions by M. E. Edwards. Crown Svo.,
3*- ' ' ¦;

MESSRS. LONGMANS &- CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS. 21

Children's Books— continued.

Molesworth,— Works by Mrs. Moles-
worth. SiLVERTHORNS. Illustrated. Crown
Svo., 5s.
The Palace in the Garden. Illus
trated. Crown Svo., 5s.
The Third Miss St. Quentin. Crown
Svo., 2s. dd.
Neighbours. Illustrated. Crown
Svo., 2s. dd.
The Story of a Spring Morning, &c.
Illustrated. Crown Svo., 2s. dd.

Reader. — Voices from Flower-Land :
a Birthday Book and Language of Flowers.
By Emily E. Reader. Illustrated by Ada
Brooke. Royal i6mo., cloth, 2s. dd. ;
vegetable vellum, 3s. dd.
Stevenson. — Works by Robert Louis
Stevenson.
A Child's Garden of Verses. Small
Fcp. Svo., 5s.
A Child's Garland of Songs,
Gathered from ' A Child's Garden of
Verses' Set to Music by C. Villiers
Stanford, Mus. Doc. 410., 2s. sewed ;
3s. dd., cloth gilt.

The Silver

Crown Svo. 3s.
Arnold's (Sir Edwin) Seas and Lands. With
71 Illustrations. 3J. 6d.
Baker's (Sir S. W.) Eight Years in Ceylon.
With 6 lUustrations. 3s. 6d.
Baker's (Sir S. W.) Rifle and Hound in Ceylon.
With 6 Illustrations, v- ("i.
Baring-Gould's (Rev. S.) Curious Uyths of the
Middle Ages. 3s. 6d. '
Baring-Gould's (Rev. S.) Origin and Develop
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Brassey's (Lady) A Voyage In the ' Sunbeam '.
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Clodd's (E.) Story of Creation : a Plain Account
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Conybeare (Rev. W. J.) and Howson's (Very
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Dougall's (L.) Beggars All : a Novel. 3J. dd.
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Library.
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Jetferles' (R.) The Story of My Heart: My
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Jefferies' (R.) Field and Hedgerow. Last
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22 MESSRS. LONGMANS &¦ CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

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Acton. — Modern Cookery. By Eliza
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MESSRS. LONGMANS &• CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS. 23

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24 MESSRS. LONGMANS &¦ CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

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