The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-01-23

RlOEy, 30 tudt IL uoNoE sooWe t"AoO ohAo'
Il has all moods, all compilations, all gran
deurs. From the top of the Tai, which is
$50 feet high, springs a spire thirty feet
higher, and that Is enameled gold. What
an anthem in eternal rhythm! Lyrics and
elepies In marble. SculptuIed hosanna.
Masonry as OF supernatural hands. Mighty
doxology In stone. I shall see nothing to
equal It 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 especl-
ally of Mohanmedanisn. An English ofh-
Ger at the fortress told US that when during
the general mutiny IN 1857 the Moaamme-
dams proposed insurrection at Agra the Eng
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 I thought while looking at that palace
for the dead all this constructed to cover
handful Of dust, but even that handful has
probably gone from the mausoleum. How
much better II would havs been to expend
$50, 600, 900, which the Tai Mahal cost, for the
living. What asyluns 1t might have built
for the sick, what houses for the homeless
What improvement our century has made
upon other centuries In lifting IN honor OF
hospitals, memorial reading rooms, me-
moriaI observatories. By all possible means
let us keep the memory OF departed loved
ones fresh In mind, and let there be an ap-
propriate headstone or monument IN the
cemetery, but there Is dividing line be:
tween reasonable commemoration ana
wicked extravaganza. The Tai Mahal has
its uses as an architectural achievement,
eclipsing all other architecture, but as me-
mortal Of 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 ns have built ior us
when we are gone Is In the memory OF those
whose sorrows we have allevlated, In the
wounds We have healed, In the kindnesses
we have done, in the ignorancewe have en-
lightened, 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 splendors long after the Tai Ma
hal of India shall have gone down In the
ruins OF world OF which 1t was the costltest
adornment. But promised to show you
not only a tomb OF India, but q unique
heathen temple, and 1t Is a temple under.
ground t,..
With miners candle we had seen some
thing OF the underside OF Australia, as at Gim-
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 1t all to ourselves, the steam yacht
that was to take US about fifteen miles over
the harbor OF Bombay and between enchant-
ed 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 aRitattons
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 las 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. It Is an island small
Of girrh, but 900 feet high. It 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 andthere
in the woods, like incendlary's torch trying
to set the groves on hre-cactus and acacia
vying as to which can most charm the be.
holder; tropical bird meeting particolored
butterfly In 3ungles 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 catried by coolies In an
easy chair, or you can WALK, II you are are
psalmist evidently lacked, or he would not
have 80 depreciated them when he said:
sThe Lord taketh no pleasuoe In the legs Of
man" We passed up some stone steps,
and between the walls we saw awaiting us
cobra, one Of those snakes which CREST the
traveller ofttimes In India, Two Of the guides
left the cobra dead by the wsyside. 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 g chapel, these cut out OF the same
stone. 80 vast was the undertaking and to
the Hindoo was 80 great the human tmpossi-
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 gatewa1 ptrance to this temple
has ss 6oorkeepers leaning on
scuAfcled hs. How stranRei But
have seen doorkeepers Of churches and audi
forums who seemed to be leaning on the
demons Of bad ventilation and asphyxla.
Doorkeepers ought to be leaning 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 lneficiency
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 on
a Samsonian and T1tanian scale. With CHS
els that were dropped from nerveless hands
at least eight centuries ago, the forms Of the
gods Brahma and Yishnu and silva were cut
into the everlasting rock. silva is here rep
by figure sixteen feet nine inches
high, one-half man and one-half woman.
Run a 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 thiEg that was ever cut into
porphyry, perhaps because there ts hardly
ANYTHING en- earth 80 Objectionable as q 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 q compromise Of the two Is hideous.
Save US from effeminate men and masculine
women!
Yonder Is tho King Ravana worshiping.
Yonder Is the scultured representation Of
the marriage Of silva and Parhati. Yonder 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 q
god with three heads. The center God has
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
cobra. The left hand god has pleasure In all
its features, and the hand has a flower. But
there are gods and goddesses in all direc-
tions. The chief temple OF this rock Is 130
teet square and has twenty-six pillars rising
to the ROOT. After the conquerors Of