Delta chief., 1885-11-25
THE SIGHTS OF CALCUTTA.
4 Walk Through the Native Quarter Of the
Town-Disgusting Practices Of the
Hindnn RAliedon.

800, 900, of which less than 5000 are
Europeans. The first thing that
strikes the visitor in the native part of
the town, writes a correspondent of
The Glasgow Herald, is the multitude
of people. They swarm everywhere,
and If you stop to price an article you
are quickly surrounded by thirty or
forty spectators. many of them ready
to assist IN the purchase, while half-a-
dozen coolies at least will offer to car
ry it for you if you buy it 1t seems
always understood that you want
separate man to carry each package,
however small, SO that if you do not
look out you will have eight or ten
men to pay for carrying your baggage
from your cab to your room in the
hotel. A walk through the native
quarter of the town is both instruc-
tive and interesting. The streets are
straight, and some of them wide, but
the houses are of the most slender
construction. The mboo-the most
useful tree in India-supplies the
framework, and the rest is filled in
with mud or sun dried brick, or even
bamboo mating. The shops are all
open to the front, such thing as a
window being very rare. Generally
you will find shops of class grouped
together, and the establishments are
half workshops, half sale shops, and
the dwelling behind. You will come
upon n street altogether occupied by
tinsmiths, brass ard coppersmiths,
and here the din is fearful Then you
will come npon row of furniture
dealers and cabinet-makers, with
workmen employed in everyone.
hn ,a,ra1arr 10
hind a grating. for obvious reasons.
Each has his little furnace and smelt-
ing-pots, and in a primitive way they
make some Characteristic jewelry.
Then there will be rows of pipe and
tobacco shops, where the hubble.
bubble-the common workman's pipe
OF Bengal-made of cocoanut shell, is
hung up all round. Then iron-mong-
ers' or cutters shops, where they
never work the grindstone by the foot,
but have always a man to turn it al
ternately backward and forward with
= leathern strap. Then grocers' shops,
where with hand-mill they grind the
gram while the buyer waits. Shoe
makers and tailors' shop are numer-
Gus, and generally owned by China
men, who are power here, and
indeed, have a bazaar all to them
selves. The Strand, which CORE
spends to our Broomielaw, is crowded
with bullock carts, for there are no
dray horses or lorries in India. These
rude carts are made of the universally
useful bamboo. The dark-skinned
driver. with the scantiest possible
clothing, sits behind, and his favorite
way Of making his animals go is to
screw their tails. This operation they
don't seem to relish, and it awakens
their natural laziness better than a
whip.
The Hindoos are great in religious
professions, and you can hardly be
long in the street without meeting one
of them. An idol dressed in gaudy
muslin and tinsel Is carried along to
tho sound Of the tom-tom-a melan-
choly sort of drum-and accompanied
by quite a crowd of idlers, evidently
bent on amusing themselves. We fol-
lowed one of these groups toward
evening one day, and found that they
ended by throwing the idol into the
river. Another time we found crowd
following a devotee, a dirty-looking
fellow. holding his right hand on high
in a rigid position. We saw that the
fist had been clenched in so long that
the nails had grown through the hand,
and stuck out at the back fully an inch.
We had read OF such thing, but
thought it no longer existed; but there
it was. IN a crowded street in Calcut-
tn, not a stones throw from the schools
of the church mission. and hundreds
of natives following the man in admi-
ration and reverence. Superstition is
rampant here. Temples are in every
street. They are in general poor cree
tions, with tawdry decorations and
hideous gods and symbols of worship
Brahmin priests are waiting about. and
crowds constantly going in, not in
reverence or silence, but with con-
tinual chatter. which is perfectly deaf
cning. At one temple which we visit
ed they were sacrificing goats. The
head Of tho poor beast was stuck in
between two stick and held down with
pin, and then chopped of with one
blow of heavy knife. This was done
to about twenty-five goats while We
were there. These are the substitutes
for tho human sacrifices that at one
time were made to the idol Kali. and
we believe that more than two hun
dred goats arc daily sacrificed in this
temple. AS the heat was great, and the
whole place very untidy, the smells
were most disagreeable. Whatever
may be the principles of tho Hindoo re-
ligion, We formed the very lowest op-
inion Of its practices. There are many
excellent educational institutions, both
governmental and private, in the ma
tssy., nrtx fa1r n Inv