Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-06-05

| Q.-You have seen now the Burmese. tn,
| Chinese, the Japanese, the English and The
| Americans. Physically how do these com
pare with your people?
| A.-None are so well DEVELOPED as the
| Indian. There is something defective in
| their physique. There is something de-
| fective in organization-in prominence Of
| feature. | believe they are all spiritually
| interior TO the PersianS and Indians. They
spend most of their time thinking of mat.
| ter and not of the spiritual So l believe
YOU are all too material Buddhism is
| materialism, and Brahminism is spiritual
| So the Christian is like the Buddhist when
! they say do, act, do good The Brahmin>
practice self-denial. and say do no harm
| We mean we want TO reduce our wants t.
lessen the animal desires.
Q.-You eat no meat?
A.-The Brahmin never eats meat, nei-
ther do we drink liquors.
Q-Why do you eat no meat?
A.-To do so we must take life to do SC
is sinful Wewould prefer 10 be compelled
to kill man than beast.
Q.-But you would kill a wild beast in
self-defense?
A.-Oh, as an animal, Id resist; as Il hui
man being, not. How can we kill We
can carry no weapon, only permitted a
little stick. The Indian belief is that the
serpent is the most sensible, We believe
they will not harm us if we do themgno
harm. We believe the cobra guards eur
buried wealth. oh, we know it. Nv
grandfather dug for house and found a
pot of gold. \ cobra guarded it, and
raised his bead 10 warn the laborcrS off,
But they killed him, and the jar being
opened was found to have only charcoal.
The I-alua bIeS had chuDpp1
Q.-Do you, now that you have read and
learned, believe that?
A.-Wen, l cannot help having reyer-
enee for the cobra. 1t is Unborn. We he
lieve if one strikes a cobra. that wise ser
pent can thereafter hunt ont and pick out
that man and punish him.
Q.-You have seen the practices of the
iugglers of India?
A.-Oh, yes.
Q.-And believe them to be true in their
claims?
A.-Well, they make manifestations that
should convince reasonable man.
Q-rhen you believe they have super
natural powers?
A.-Not supernatural exactly, but they
acquire some kind of power over forces by
people. They live near burial-groundS
and deal with evil spirits, and get control
over forces we have not, by their aid. But
the jugglers are Il low class. The better
classes pay no attention to them But the
American curiosity and marvelousneSs
makes me think that here they would
make money, So they would be million
aires. But the lower classes do not come
| away. They say why labor or spend now
i'll hope OF doubling our money. Better TO
enjoy il now and take no chances.
Q.-Haye many Brahmins travelled
abroad?
Avery few 1t is difficult for us to
live here. 1t is hard to get proper food for
us. Yet a few have come out. An ac-
quaintance of mine, a Shudra-Mr. Pratab
| Chandra MuZumdra-visited this country
last year and was well received in San
Francisco, but he was not a Brahmin. He
was a welI-informed man.
Some Of the stories told by Joshee of the
jugglers, healers and snake-charmers are
| marvellous. and pass belief but the relator
is so earnest and circumstantial that no
one who converses with him doubts his
sincerity. His views OF the English in
tluence upon India are strongly antagonis-
tic to the English, for whom he expresses
bitter hatred. They have been the bane of
his country he says, and his proof of this
he marShals in a strong array of statistics
and physical evidences.