The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1883-12-15
THE HINDoo COW.


has ever arrived at such dignities as the
Hindo0 COW The monkey lis sufficiently
sacred and il goes hard with the novice
who. unconscious Of his sacrilege, shoots
the village peacocls In other countries,
as in the ease of the dog and baboon, bull
and ram, crocodile, hawk, and ibis Of an
cient Egypt. Or the eagle and crow, snake,
wolf, shark, and pike of the modern clan
animal worship, many birds and beasts,
reptiles and fishes, have attracted to them-
selves the homage Of nations. But, put
ting them all together, whether in fur,
feather, or scales they do not collectively I
outweigh the stupendous sanctity with /
which Brahinanism has invested the COW. /
The bull shares in some degree its part
ners honors, and in the more exclusively |
Hindoo towns sacred cattle Of both sexes
lounge about the streets. No place is for
hidden to them, and they are free of every
s5all. WheSSger they choose to feed, there
they are at liberty to eat, and wherever
they choose to lie down, that place is theirs. /
The sweetmeat-seller may bride the sacred /
beast with lump of sugar-stuf to pass on
10 the next stall, or the grain-seller may
exchange ehatty of cheaper grain for that
into which the fastidious beast has plunged |
Its black muzzle, yet they are never struck
and seldom reproached, except with quail
fying phrases of respect, in which the mer-
chant deprccates his four-legged visitors
displeasure, or apologies for his refusal Of
more viands on the score of his own power
ty. The COW and not the bull, however, is |
prominently the object of worship. The
latter may be specially sacred, as the Eve
hicle'' of this god or particular symbol OF
that, but the former preyades the whole
religion. and itself adds sanctity to every
deity in the Pantheon When Brahme,
the alI-father, took upon himself the bene-
ficent function Of creation, he first made
the 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 inseperable and the
animal, the twin, as it were, of the holy
sstwice-born," takes rank above many castles
Of men. To save the life of COW, to do
it a service, to tend it in sickness, to revere
it all times, are almost as advantageous In
the hereafter as if the same acts had been
done toward Brahman. Tokill cow, to
wound it. or to insult it, is reckoned, in the
full austerity of Brahmanism, a more helm
Gus offence than similar wrongs inflicted
mon the lowest castles of human beings.
The mere act Of eating ssghee" clarified
butter-condones many sins, while the con-
sumption of 'sthe FIVE products of thecow
cleanses from all pollution. The camel Sc
lected 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 ex-
tended to majesty itself, and the COMPETE
ton for the honorable posts of attendance
upon the brute is sometimes very keen.
So, too, in Egypt once a year the sacred
animals become, by priestly condescension,
the objects of public solicitude and recip-
tents of public service. Among the Hin
docs every COW lives in the same sanctity
perennially, and enjoys universal tender
ness of treatment from years end to years
end. During all the rest of the twelve
month. when it is not lettering along the
caravan route to the Holy city, the camel
of Islam receives but scant respect from
provoked rider or short-tempered owner.
So. toe, the furry obliquities Of Egyptian
alteration relapsed in the majority of cases
and for the greater part Of the year into
their proper places in the animal world
But the glory of the COW Of Hindostan,
like that of its prototype in Vedlc legends,
is never in eclipse. 1t is always at the
meridian. In the old primitive fancies
with which geological mythology so largely
concerns itself, the COW was, beyond all
comparison, the most conspicuous feature.
It was the sun, moon and stars, thunder
and lightning, rain and wind and mist.
Everything that could be seen in nature,
andnearly everything that could be guessed
at, found symbolical representation in the
same idea Of the cow-''the mother of the
Gods. goddess of abundance, "cherisher
of man. SO to this day we fndit in Hin
doc zoolatry as the supreme expression of
The kindness Of the powers Of nature to
man, and authentic proof of the goodness
of the gods Though all the herds that
other peoples worshipped have gone from
the earth with the credulities upon which
they pastured, the bull of SILVA and the
COW of Brahma have still their affairs in a
thousand temples, and arrogate the central
dignity in religion which has two hun
bred millions Of believers To this day
Hindoos devoutly believe in Kamadhuk,
the "Cow of Plenty" which yields in
Heaven, from her exuberant udders, every
Gift and blessing which the spirits of the
dead can demand
In Difference to the extraordinary sane
= -...G1 .14-o.
ment that beef should only be prepared for
the market, for European and native alike,
at certain specified spots, as far as possible
from every risk of offending Hindoos and
selected very often by the Hindoos them
selves as the least Objectionable place for
the abominable act. The driving of cattle
to slaughter-yards is the same way protect
ed by regulations, so that the worshippers
of the horned things shall not bedistressed
BY seeing the objects of their reverence
subjected to drover's rough treatment or
hearing them insulted by his abusive Ian
guage. After death, again, the carcass can
only be exhibited within certain premises
the special beef market set apart for the
purpose. So that as far as administrative
vigilance can accomplish it, the sentiments
of the Hindoo in the matter Of its sacred
cattle are carefully guarded against the
chances of affront The mutual bitterness
of the two great religions, however, in spite
of the prodigious results attained by edu
cation and the comparative modernization
of the upper classes of native society, is still
terribly keen, and Hindoo and Moham
medan alike are perpetually on the alert to
suspect an insult or avenge one. The No
hanmedan drover, therefore, if in partic- |
ularly wilfll humor, will sometimes so
manage it that his FESTIVE charge escapes,
and that, being. carefully hunted by him in
the direction of the Hindoo bazaars some
popular temple, or bathing CHAT it shall
parade its misfortunes and proclaim the
fate which awaits it to as many Hindoos as
N.nRsible. Every chance he gets of striking
it with his '.lathe is nimbly seized, and
when the animal is not within reach of
staff or stone he vociferously assails it with
abuse; for he knows that many who see
him strike the cow would willingly submit
thems<to the blow if the beast could
escape e. I'D that every insult he throws