Morning journal and courier., 1883-11-15
The HindOo Gov.
A Riot at DelhI-A Sacred Animal
 EErnrn 4lna Inndorn TslenranIn l

I riot that recently occurred St Delhi be. 1 twsen ths Hindoo and Mohantneda1 rssi- dents of that famous city strikes 8 strange l note in the usual routine of days news | In the midst of the usual intelligence of ac- ! cident and crime, political complications and | social events. the telegraph inforhas us that l our fellewasabfscts lh the Oid-Worid capital I of the Moguls have been fighting about 8 l cow The Mohammedans had been celebra. 1 ting their Fed festival and parties of them
 as usual, had combined for the purchase of animals for the evenings feast. One of the | kine thus obtained however, WAS claimed by l the Hindoos & dependent of 2 temple ds- l voted ta their god, hhd therefore itself sa- l cred. Moreover, they gave certain degree of evidence to provo the sincerity of their statement by offering to buy back the COW l for the sum of hundred pounds-probably twenty times the value of the animal. Fevs ertheless the Mckan1medans refused to part 1 with it, and persisted in dragging the COW of to the slaughter house. The Kiadoos there on attempted rescue, and the result was Q l serious affray which was only quelled by the | appearance of the chief European eftieisls and strong feree Of police. A few years ago tho game cause of quarrel might have sufaced to raise general tumult, or even to kindle in the city blaze, both literally and ! metaphorically. In all India probably nc single act could be perpetreted more likely to ! lead at once to bloodshed and disaster than an insult by Mohammedans to the sacred presence of temple COW.
 No animal in all the range of zoolatry has ever arrived at such dignities as the Hindoo COW. The monkey is sufficiently sacred, and l 1t gees hard with the novice who, unoon- ' scious of his sacrilege, shoots the village peacocks. In other countries as in the case of the dog and baboon, bull and ram, croco- dile, hawk, and ibis of ancient Egypt, or the eagle and crow, snake, wolf, shark and pike foR EIa o1o 1 birds and beasts, reptiles and fishes, have at tractsd to themselves the homage of nations But, putting them all together, whether in 1 fur, feather or scales, they do not collective 1 ly outweigh the stupendous ganctity with which Brahmanism has invested the COW. The bull shares in some degree it's partners ! honors, and in the more exclusively Hindeo towns sacred cattle of both sexes lounge about the streets. No place is forbidden to them, and they are frea of every stall. Wherever they choose to feed there they are at liberty to eat and wherever they choose to lie down that place is theirs The sweet meat seller may bribe the sacred beast with 8 lump of sugar-stuff to pass on to the next stall, or the grain seller may exchange chat ty of cheaper grain for that into which the fsstidious beast has plunged its black mug zle. Yet they are never struck and seldom reproached, except with qualifying phrases of respect in which the merchant deprecates Q1S 1O0r-ieGSeQ V1Sl6OE'S GlSpieasQfe or Apolo gizes for his refusal of more viands OF the
 score of his own poverty. The COW, and not
 the bull, however, is pre- eminently the ob-
 jeot of worship. The latter may be specially
 sacred as the ''vehicIe'' of this god or par ticular symbol of that. but the former pc. : yades the whole religion, and itself adds a
 sanctity to every deity in the Pantheon
 When Brahma, the All-Father. took upon
 himself the benefeent function Of creation,
 he first made gods and then the holy men,
 and the COW and the Brahman were produced by the same act of creative power. So Brah-
 manism and the COW are inseparable, and the
 animal, the twin, as it were, of the holy
 stwice-born, takes rank above many csstes of men. To save the life of 8 COW, to do It
 service, to tend it in sickness, to revere it
 at all times, arc almost as advantageous in l the hereafter as if the same acts had been
 done toward a Brahman. To kill COW, to
 wound 1t or to insult it. is reekoned, in the
 full austerity of Brahmanisna, more hein- ous offence than similar wrongs inflicted upon the lowest castes of human beings.
 The mere act of eating sghee"-clarihed
 butter-condones many sins, while the con-
 sumption of 'tthe five products" of the COW claanses from all pollution. The camel se- Iected to carry the Sultan's annual gift of the new veil to Mecca is, in memory of the beast which the Prophet rode, treated with all the pomp and care that would be extended to