Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1895-01-18

I'VE TAI Mahals. It has one appearance at
sunrise, another at noon, another at sunset
ana another by moonlight. Indeed the
silver troWel OF the moon, and the golden
troWel OF the sunlight, and the leaden
troWel OF the storm build and rebuild the
giory, 50 that it never seems twice alike
IL has all moods, all compilations. all pran-
deurs: From the top of the Tai, which is
z k3O feet high, springs spire thirty feet
higher, and that is enameled gold, What
an anthem IN eternal rhythm Lyrics ana
eiegies In marble ScuIptured hosanna.
Masonry as of supernatural hands Mighty
doxoloSy in stone. I shall see nothing to
equal 1t till | see the great white throne,
and on it Him from whose face the earth and
heavens fee away.
The Tai is the pride of India, and especi-
ally OF Mohammedanism. An English off,
Ger at the fortress told US that when during
the general mutiny in 1857 th Mohamme-
dans proposed insurrection at Agra the Eng
llsh Government aimed the guns of the fort
at the Tai and said, "You make insurrection.
and that same day we will blow your Tai to
atoms, and that threat ended the disposition
for mutiny at Agra.
But thought while looking at that palace
Tor the dead all this constructed to cover a
handful Of dust, but even that handful has
probably gone from the mausoleum. How
much better it would havo been to expend
S60 ,0OO, 900, which the Tai Mahal cost, for the
living. What asylums it might have built
Tor the sick, what houses for the homeless
What Improvement our century has made
upon other centuries in lifting in honor of
the departed memorial churches, memorial
hospitals, memorial reading rooms, me-
moriai ohservatories. By all possible means
let us keep the memory of departed loved
ones fresh in mind, and let there be an ap-
proprlate headstone or monument in the
cemetery, but there is a dividing line be-
tween reasonable commemoration and
wicked extrav gance. The Tai Mahal has
its uses as an architectural achievement,
ecipsing all other architecture, but as me-
mortal Of a departed wife and mother it ex-
presses no more than the plainest slab in
many country graveyard. The best monu-
ment we can any Of US have built for us
when we are gone is In the memory Of those
whose sorrows we have alleviated, in the
wounds We have healed, in the kindnesses
we have done, in the ignorance we have en-
ightened, in .he recreant we have reclaimed,
In the souls we have saved. Such monu-
ment is built out of material more lasting
than marble or bronze and will stand amid
the eternal splendor5 long after the Tai Ma
hal OF India shall have gone down in the
ruins of a world Of which it was the costliest
adornment. But L promised to show you
not only tomb of India, but a unique
heather temple, and it is a temple under
ground
With miners candle we had seen some
thing Of the underside of Australia, as at Gin
pie, as with guides torch we had seen at
different times something of the underside
of America as in Mammoth cave, but we are
now to enter one of the sacred cellars Of
India, commonly called the Elephanta caves.
We had it all to ourselves, the steam yacht
that was to take US about fifteen miles over
the harbor Of Bombay and between enchant-
cd islands, and along shores whose curves
and gulches and pictured rocks gradually
prepared the mind for appreciation of the
most unique spectacle in India. The morn
ing had been full of thunder and lightning
and deluge, but the atmospheric agitations
had ceased, and the cloudy ruins of the
storm were piled up in the heavens, huge
enough and darkly purple enough to make
the skies as grandly picturesque as the
earthly scenery amid which we moved.
After an hours cutting through the water
we came to the long pier reaching from the
island called Elephanta. 1t IS an island small
of girth, but 600 feet high. 1t declines into
the marshes of mangrove. But the whole
island is one tangle of foliage and verdure:
convolvulus creeping the ground; MOSES
climbing the rocks vines sleeving the long
arms Of the trees red flowers here and there
in the woods, like incendary's torch trying
to set the groves on flre-cactus and acacia
vying as to which can most charm the be-
holder; tropical bird meeting particolored
butterfly in jungles planted the same sum-
mer the world was born. We stepped out Of
the boat amid enough natives to afford all
the help we needed for landing and guild
ance. You can be carried by coolies III an
easy chair, or you can walk, if you are
blessed with, two stout limbs, which the
psalmist evidently lacked or he would not
have SO deprecated them when he said
''The Lord taketh no pleasuoe in the legs of
a man" We passed up some stone steps,
and between the walls we saw awaiting US
cobra, one of those snakes which grset the
traveller ofttimes in India, Two of the guides
left the cobra dead by the wayside. They
must have been Mohammedans, for Hindoos
never kill that sacred reptile.
And now we come near the famous temple
hewn from one rock of porphyry at least 800
years ago. On either side of the chief tenn
pie is chapel these cut out OF the same
stone. So vast was the undertaking and to
the Hindoo was so great the human imposSi-
bility that they say the gods scooped out
this structure from the rock and carved the
pillars and hewed its shape into gigantic
idols and dedicated it to all the grandeurs.
We climb many stone steps before we get to
the gateways. The entrance to this temple
has sculptured doorkeepers leaning on
sculptured devils. How strange! But 1
have seen doorkeepers Of churches and audi
toriums who seemed to be leaning on the
demons of bad ventilation and asphyxia.
Doorkeepers ought to be loaning on the
angels of health and comfort and life. All
the sections and janitors of the earth who
have spoiled sermons and lectures and pois-
oned the lungs Of audiences by Ineff1ciency
ought to visit this cave of Elephanta and be-
ware of what these doorkeepers are doing,
when instead of leaning On the angelic they
lean on the demoniac.
In these Elephanta caves everything is Oh
a Samsonian and Titanian scale. With CHS
els that were dropped from nerveless hands
at least eight centuries ago, the forms OF the
gods Brahma and Vishnu and silva were cut
into the everlasting rock. silva is here rep
resented by a figure sixteen teet nine inches
high, one-half man and one-half woman.
Run line from the center OF the forehead
straight to the floor of the rock, and you di-
vide this idol into masculine and feminine.
Admired as this idol is by many, it was to me
about the worst thirg that was ever cut into
porphyry, perhaps because there fs hardly
ANYTHING on earth so Objectionable be- |
ing half man and half woman. Do be one or
other. my hearer. Man Is admirable and wo- |
man is admirable, but either in flesh or trap |
rock a compromise Of the two is hideous.
Save US from effeminate men and masculine
women!
Yonder is the King Ravana worshiping.
Yonder IS the scultured representation OF
the marriage of silva and Parhati. 1onder Is
Daksha. the son of Brahma, born from the
thumb of his right hand. He had sixty
daughters Seventeen of those daughters
were married to Kasyapa and became the
mothers of the human race. Yonder Is a
god with three heads. The center God has
q crown wound with necklaces of skulls.
The right hand god is in a paroxysm OF rage,
with forehead of snakes, and in its hand Is a
cobra. The left hand god has pleasure In all
its features, and the hand has flower. But
there are gods and goddesses in all direc-
lions. The chief temple of this rock Is 13o
teet square and has twenty-six pillars rising
10 the roof. After the conquerors OF
other lands and the tourists from all
lands have defaced and chippei and blast
ed and carried away curos and mementos
for museums AMI homes, there
are enough entraacements left TO detain one
unless he is cautious until he is down with
some of the malarias which encompass this
island or get bitten with some OF its snakes.
Yes, l felt the chilly dampness OF the place
and left this congress of gods; this ptade-
monfum Of demons, this pantheon OF lndlf,