The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1891-03-06
AMONG THE HINDoos.
A chlcaso Man Visits an Old Temple
Of the Pagans.


RIatrhford Kayanagh writes from Del
hi. India, to The Chicago Postiabcut
visit among the Hindoos as follows
have been to Ahnedabad. It is small
Mace and almost filed with mosquesand
temples. The mosques belong to tho
Molammedans and the temples to the
Hindoos. Most of the mosques ane exqui-
sitely carved. In one place there is
window of marble with tree pierced
out of it. The carving is wonderful
These Hindeos are something like the
Chinese They win spend years OF their
life in carving some little thing. Its
beautiful when it's done, but an Amen
lean wenldnt spend as many days ON 1t
as they do years.
In one Hindoo temple they let us walk
all through with our shoes ON, and when
we got through and came outside we
found great crowd of natives making
an uprosr. Then we found out what
was the matter. We had defiled the
temple by going in with our shoes on.
Then man came up and said in En-
gfHh that the temple would have to be
all washed out before they could wor-
ship IN it again, and we had to pay three
rupees-about SLIT IN our monsy-to
have the*place washed, so we are not go
ing into any more temples with our
shoes on.
FHE SACRED LAKE
We stopped t-Ajmere, aaman town,
for about twenty-for hours. There are
some mosques and Temples there, but
they are not so pretty as those a4Ah-
medabad. Ajmere is very picturesque
on a sunshiny day. but it rained almost
all the afternoon very hard. Itstopped
for about two hours and we drove out tc
Pushkar lake. This is about seven mikes
from the city, through a pass. The as
cent is about 200 feet. This is the place
where tho princes come to worship.
They each build a small palace to stay
in while they are here. The lake is a
sacred one, and the Hindoos believe any
one bathing in it viii go to heaven.
I wote you about how the Hindoos
burn their dead. Well, took photo
graph with my little camera of the caste
of men who take care of dead bodies.
1t was just after they had burned one
up, and got them to all stand ina row
with their white aprons on. They didn't
seem to mind it a bit, and stood I'D as if
they were quite used to it.
We left. Ajmere about 1 o'clock in the
morning and arrived here about 8 in the
evening. The sleeping cars are not the
same as ours. One car will accommo-
date eight people. The cars are divided
into two compartments, each compart-
ment accommodating four persons We
do not undress, but just take off our
coats and lie down for a little while.
The cars are a good deal like those in
England. Our servant forgot to wake
us up until we got into the station.
The train only staid there seven min
utes, and you ought to have seen US
scramble out of the car. Mr.. Getty and
have couple of suits made alike, and
in the'scrimmage he got my coat on, and
he looked too funny for anything. 1
rusiied-out of the car in my shirtsleeves,
with my helmet on, and he was bare
headed. guess the natives thought we
were crazy. We got to the bungalow
all right and slept until 9 o'clock. We
are going to see a palace. We go half
of the way on elephants.
DOG STOLE THE SACRED CAKE.
1 tried to give you description in one
of my former letters of our lazy life on
shipboard coming from Suez to Bombay.
There wasn't much to do but lie around
and read books and try to keep cool, and
Ihave often thought of you people in
Chicago going around with heavy over
coats and furs, while we were tanning
ourselves.
saw funny sight at Bombay
poor mans wedding. The man and his
bride paraded around the streets, he
with his sword over his shoulder He
was bowlegged, she lnockkneed, and
what do you think their ages We're? He
was SO years old and his bride only Ii
yearsi They were tied together by their
garments They had a ceremony in the
street that was very queer. They placed
on q stone some peas and a pancake and
then bowed before it.
Just as they got through a dog stuck
his head through the crowd and made a
rush for it. Such commotion younever
saw. Of course he got between the
groom's legs, and altogether broke up
the ceremony. He got the holy pancake
just the same, and then the groom didn't
seem to care for it any more. laughed
until ached all over.
You viii remember wrote you about
the Hindoo musician in Bombay, who
played on four different instruments at
one time-two in his nose and two in his
mouth. I took picture of him one day
as he was squatting on the ground play
ing away with all four instruments go
ing at-once. The funniest thing about
Bombay and all India is that they only
have one mail day week, which is
Saturday, and when the mail closes all
the shops close also, and the people have
half holiday. While we were in Bonn
bay they had mail day, and everywhere
we went we were informed that it was
"English mail day."