The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-07-27
IyDIA'S STRANGE PEOPLE.
Rabbi SeTgiuS Tells Of Their Customs,
Manners and Condition.

MUuuJlO anu NUuulLlUut
! The Fireworshipers Of Bombay and
the Inhabitants of Calcutta-The
Elephant the Indian Street Railway.
A Climate that Discounts Savan-
nah's Hottest Days and Mosquitoes
that Rival the Jersey Breed.
Rabbi John Sergius Ben Israel, the
Israelite Christian of East India, enter
tanned a large audience at Wesley MOnu-
mental church last night with a lecture
upon the customs, manners and condition
of the people Of India, among whom he
has spent almost all of his life
His lecture took the place of the regu-
lar church prayer meeting, and after a
song and prayer he was introduced to the
congregation. 1t was announced that he
would speak upon either of two subjects,
one, the history and customs of East In
dia and the other, the conversion of the
ten tribes of Israel 1t was left to vote
of the congregation and was left for him
to decide as to the result of their wishes
The vote appeared to be about half and
half and he decided to divide his lecture
that way between the two subjects.
First, however, he introduced to the
audience his three little girls of the ages
of three, five and ten years, and talked to
them both in Hindoo and in English.
They replied to him readily in both Ian
! guages and sang several songs in the
Hindoo tongue, much to the amusement
Of the congregation.
INDIA's GREAT THRONG.
He announced that he would make some
remarks about the 353 900, GOO people who
! lived in India, and he had a map before
him to indicate localities. Different por-
tiOns of India, he explained, were under
| the rule of different nations, but most of
| the country was under the English rule
| The people in the neighborhood of Bonn
bay were mostly fire-wOrshipers, and
! their language was called mahratti
He had a great deal to say about Zim-
| la, which he said was one of the most
beautiful ana delightful places in India,
or for that matter, anywhere else. 1t
was situated way up in the Himalaya
mountains, 800 feet above the level of
the sea. The climate was delightful,
compared with that of the lowlands, and
yet the vegetation was the most delight
full and luxuriant. He told especiallyof the
different kinds of milk used by the inhab-
itants of that city in the mountains. They
drank goats milk, camels, butfalO's cows,
and dOnkey's milk and the best of these
he said was the donkey's. Everybody
| drank donkey's milk, and he, while up
there, mindful of the old Roman maxim,
partook of it freely along with the ma
! tives.
LIFE IN CALCUTTA.
He gave an interesting description of
! the people and customs around Calcutta
| and also the country occupied by the
! Israelitish Christians. Distance there, he
| said was measured not by miles, as in
| this country, but by how far an elephant
walked in an hour or a day. His descrip-
| tfOn of the use of the elephant in India as
a street railway was highly interesting,
| and he explained how twenty or thirty
| people sometimes rode on the back Of one
| of the huge beasts at the same time.
He had little to say about the principal
English colony in India, but he remarked
that there was plenty of whisky and
beer to be found there. Opium, too, was
grown in great quantities by the English
| people, who sold it to the Chinese. The
! Cinnamon wasted their money on this
! substance, which killed them, just as the
! Englishman or American young man
would spend his money on whisky and
beer, which would also eventually kill
! him.
NO BOARDING HOUSES THERE.
There were no boarding houses or no
tells in Eastern India. Everybody went
to the mission for hospitality. The 'peo-
pie there would never eat pork, as they
considered it unclean, and it had the pc
culiar effect in that country of causing
boils to appear over the entire body.
Savannah heat is not circumstance to
what the people of his country have to
endure. There the normal temperature
is 1876, and there is little let up during
the dry season. The mosquitoes, too, are
to be dreaded, for there they go, not as
one, or a dozen, but in swarms, and it is
only by continual tanning that they can
be kept away.
He closed his lecture with some inter
esting remarks upon the customs of the
Israelitish Christian people, among which
was that of the parents consecrating
their children to Christ before their
birth. He said he would defer his lecture
on the ten tribes of Israel, on account of
! the lateness of the hour. until later date