The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-03-05
Ii THE ''GHAUTs, +"

| QescrlDlng all L GiQ not see, like to
veracious correspondent In the story
But it is at least a partial atonemen
to escape into these grand old hill
and enjoy. at height of more tina
1000 feet above the sea, q FRESHNESS
and GOODNESS which makes the mer
sense of existence q pleasure, Will
the great plain OF India is broilin
and sweltering under q clouG OF hov
ering dust far below. II is a curiou
sensation, certainly, 10 find ones sci
drinking coffee and eating curriet
fowl on the very spot which was ono
the centre of the Mahratta leagu
against England. snd to wake vi
and native bird roosting on one
table, or strapping Hindu lookinJ
down into ones unconscious fac
with big tray of Assam tea anC
sticky, cold cream. like muckun
(butter made from buffalo milk
But one may yet get used to anything
In time, even to hanging. if the Span
ish ballad speaks truth:
And so be mplored his parents
To pray for his SOULS release;
For if they did not grant his prayer,
he couldn't be hanged in peace"
But before I go any further With
my description of life in the Ghauts
to which Bombay officer or civil.
ian looks forward as eagerly, during
the scorchiDg heat of the Easter m
summer, as an OverWorked New
Yorker to his fortnight in the Cats
kills or the White Mountains-I must
turn back to a very different subject.
The day after my arrival "a Bonn bay
was the commencement of the great
Mohamme3so fes iv4l OF the Mohsr-
rem. (mOst sacred. which lasts for
ten days. From whatever point of
view, il is one of the most painfully
interesting spectacles in the world, but
to convey any clear idea of 1t to
Western readers would be simply im-
possible, from the sbsolut3 want of
among ourselves With which
1t might be compared. Possibly the
famous Passion Play" OF Ober-Am
mergau might present a faint shadow
of It; but it would be q very faint one
indeed. Imagine that passion play
intensified a hundred-fold. and acted
amid the burning sunshine and tropi-
Cal richness of India-imagine thou
sands upon thousands OF swarthy.
fantasticslly dressed men taking part
in it at once, yelling and shrieking like
madmep, beating their breasts and
decorating their own flesh till they
fall down from sheer exhaustion, with
distorted faces and foamiug mouths
imagine these commissions supple
mented by the maddening din OF
native drums, the fu,ter of CAV
colored banners, the glittering OF the
tinsel temples which are being borne
IN the procession on every side. I'M
sgine all this going on for days
together throughout the whole length
and breadth of India, wherever any
Mobammedan community exists
and you are still as far as ever from a
full appreciation of the tremendous
of this great reIigionsI
frenzy which works up its fierce dis
Uiples to such a pitch of fury that it is
no uncommon thing for a number of
them to expire from the sheer vio-
Ience OF their own transports.
1t must De owned, however. that the
story OF the martyrdom which this
festival commentaries might stir the
blood of a far holder race than the
isnatical Mosiems of Hindustan. I'M
,he whole range of Arab tradition
fertile though 1t Is In all the elements
d tragic pathos. there is nothing more
ouching than the last scene of Imam
doosein, the son of Mobammed's
svorite daughter, Fatima, and of his
aVorite disciple, Ali. It lie not easv
% read unmoved the few simple words |
q which the old Moslem historian
ellis how the heroic chief of the Fat
n"es. standing alone among tha
20. pse Of the few who were stiIl faith.
/" Ia b n, drank his las. draueht ofl
'ateT AID prayed his last PRAYER -
'od-how he caught in the holiow ofI
lis hand and cast appealing toWard
leaven the lite-blood OF his infant
on, nortally wounded at his side nv |,
ne OF the enemy's thick-fying arrows
mo" the ferocious yeIls of the 4
warming n1urderers drowned the few
olces that pleaded for the life OIL
neir gallant enemy-and how, when
g was at length overpowered by
umoers and his head borne wav on
le point OF lance many aged war
ois among the hostile faction went
tninksthat they had once seen that {
leIess lace pressed by the lips of the {
rophet himself. {
From that fatal day sprang the {
oody and enduring tchlsm which I
III divides the NOLAN nedan world t
9 cnlah sectaries deaouncipg as i'm. b
s'ures the three Oaliphs who inter. Q
geo between Mohammed and Ali Y
e prophets sole successor according Il