Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-09-22

/ or hill sanitarium, where officers and SOL
diers whose health has suffered in the hot
| plains of Dude and Rohilkund are sent up
| for change of air. A few years ago, be-
fore the branch line from Bareilly to the
| foot of the hills was open, the journey up
! and down had to be accomplished by the
! old post-road. One winter, after an au-
/ tumn and Christmas spent on duty at this
| depot, 1 was ordered to march down to
| Bareilly in command of a party of about
forty convalescents to rejoin the head
| quarters of their regiment. 1t is march
of about seventy miles, the first ten being
a steep descent through rhododendron and
pine forests; then one enters the feverish
| belt of jungle, twenty miles wide, called
the Terai; beyond this again, for ten
miles, stretches dryer expanse of open
grass and scrub; and so one gradually
reaches the cultivated plains which extend
southwards to and beyond Bareilly.
The fourth days march brought us to a
pretty little encamping ground near a
small village, at the point where the grass
jungle ceases and cultivation begins. Di-
rectly the men were settled down in camp
for the evening went off on one of the
baggage elephants to shoot francolin and
hares. which are very plentiful in the
neighborhood. Before / started, my ser
vant-an intelligent Hindu of higher caste
than usual-begged me to return before
sunset, as there was cutious ''Tamasha"
the general expression in India for any
show or spectacle-to be seen near camp.
Half-an-hour before sunset returned,
and asked my servant what the "Tama-
sha" was. SIT is forest temple, sahib,
f1a II IaI a.,,% L
decided, though rather tired, to go and
see. A guide was at hand, and off 1
| started, calling to some of the soldiers to
| come too, and cautioning them to be ST.
| lent, and do nothing to offend the natives
| in any way. After crossing two or three
| fields we came to great hedge of bam-
| boos, about one hundred yards long and
| very dense. A narrow and torturous path
| pierced this wall, which was about twenty
| in an oblong quadrangle of high bamboos,
at one end of which stood little Hindu
temple.
| 1t was a simple, clay-built, white washed
building, the tall peaked roof of straw
being supported on a few old and massive
beams, whose projecting ends were quaint
| ly carved. A fight of six or seven
broken stone steps led up to the temple,
in front of which hung, ON little cross
L u
On either side of the building a little
row of very simply constructed cells or
| cubicles occupied part of the longer sides
of the quadrangle. Before each cell sat a
| priest-naked, saving the waistcloth and
sacred Brahman string-and busy with
the cooking of chupatties, of singularly
\ thick and coarse kind.
The blue smoke from the fires of sticks
and dried manure rose only to the level of
the feathery bamboo shafts, and there
| spread and hung in layers of delicate tilm
AS one often sees in English woodlands
| by gamekeeper's cottage. Above the
| four walls of greenery glowed the sky,
| armament of azure and gold, with mar
blings of regal purple, in dreamy splendor
| of an Indian winters sunset, so different
from the pallid sky of a hot-weather
evening. Away to the northeast the wild
wooded foothills of the Himalayas peeped
over the bamboo barrier, and one tall peak
| of rose-tihged snow was Just visible
through gap where the pellucid Saada
cleaves its mysterious way down from the
'Roof of the World" to join the slow
crawling Ganges far away to the south.
The setting sun struck shafts of light
through the delicate foliage of the top
most bamboos; the priests sat silent and
stolid before their fires and cakes as if ig-
norant of our presence. Then, as the last
rays of the sunset died off the feathers of
the mighty hedge round us, there issued
from the temple man of extreme age,
clad in white robes. and closely shaven as
to his face and head 1t was the CHIEF
priest, and he began 70 toll the bell. Very
sweet and sonorous was its note. The
whole glade iang with the sound; the
bamboo feathers seemed to toss in sympa-
thy, and the now dusky thickets caught
up and repeated the solemn tocsin.
Then all the priests rose, as if for YES
pers, and moved solemnly and in dead 81
lence round the quadrangle, bearing with
them their huge chupatties, which they
broke up and deposited in great pieces on
stones and old tree-trunks and on the
steps of the temple. What could it all
mean. Just then a rustling sound and a
startled exclamation from soldier behind
me made me look down. A jackal, big
and plump, brushed past my leg. with an
upward curl of his lips and an upward
look of surprise and resentment in the red
bronze cleaning eyes, Simultaneously
from every lane and passage in the dark
liLg thicket came other jaclsals, singly and
in pairs, and even whole litters together,
and filed the space before the temple.
Soon the feast was spread, and the head
priest ceased to toll the hell, and then eve
ry jackal, ON a wave of the arm and d
, shout from the chief priest, trotted, with,
out rivalry or snarling, or confusion. Il
what was evidently his allotted place and
, feast, seized the cake III his jaws. turned
and disappeared through the wood
| There was no fondling of the wild ami
: mails, no sign of worship Of them. no Ger
enonial, nothing but this silent business
like almonry
} The rite was over; the priestly spfiic
. performed; and one by one the soldier
moved back tn camp. In vain did l fe
e and question the priests as to the meaning
: of this bounty ''It had always been SO.
I was the answer; the best argument an
$ the most complete raison d'etre for any
thing in the east.
To the old Buddhist all forms of life
q even the most lowly, or simple, OF repul
. sive, were sacred, as being possible abode
g of human soul, nay, even of the gres
! God himself; and il is well known tha
7 from the tenets of Buddha the Brahman
- in turn adopted much of their reverenC
for rnimnls-a reverence strikingly show
in the case of the sacred bull and the moi
;. key and cobra temples of Hindusfan.
!. Whether this jaekal-feeding endOwmeI
u is of that kind know not; or whether
10 is but the freak of some old Hindu, an
similar to the parrot and cat-worship |
!, many a British spinster. Nor can / vouC
for my Hindu servants ingenious legen'
= that "an old-time traveller from the hill
beyond Naini Tai wandered one eyenir
% from his hunting place in the village han
by, and SO lost himself in the then dcni
10 jungle; and, while plunged in despair,
r suddenly heard the distant bowling
l. jackals. and knowing that they usual
E. gather at nightfall and howl round Il
D. dwellings of men, he made for the soun
d and so regained the village, and in graf
g tude built and endowed this temple for Il
n daily feeding of all such INDECENT jacka
r as may come for food"
e. Whatever the origin of the strans
custom, there il fiourishes.
l. The Hindu priests are more honest tbs
those to whom Walther Won der Noge
a weide left money for the daily feeding I
a the song birds he loved SO well to liste
to; for the birds at Wurzburg are now di
IT endowed; while the jackals of Rohikuu
are fed every evening, and doubtless wi
q be, by the priests, till the crack of doom
"A He Routed the Professor.
Reese p Risley. in Texas Siftingsl
re He was a very tall, pompous looking il
dividual, wearing silk hat, gold spectacle