The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1895-01-09

- "-S ANAho Vi a WOTlu VI WHlCh ~ Wh1
the costliest adornment But prom
ised to show you not only tomb OF
India, but a unique heather temple and
1t Is a temple under ground.
With miners candle we had seen
something of the underside of Austria
liza, as at Gimple; and 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 In
dia' 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 Bonn
bay, and between enchanted 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 morning had been full of thun'
der 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
to make the skies as grandly pietur-
esque as the earthly scenery amid which
we moved. After an hours cutting
through the waters 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 islanl is one tangle of foliage
and verdre; 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 incendiary's trying to set
the groves on fire; cactus and acacia
yying as to which can most charm the
beholdcr; tropical bird meeting parti-
colored butterfly in jungles planted the
same summer the world was born.
We stepped out of the boat amid
enough natives to afford all the help
we needed for landing and guidance.
You can be carried by coolies in an neasy
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 talIeth no
pleasure in the legs Of man." We
passed up some stone steps, and be-
tween the walls we saw awaiting us a
cobra, one of those snakes which greet
the traveller oftimes in India. Two OF
the guides left the cobra dead by the
wayside They must have been Mo
hammedans, for Hindoos never kill
that sacred reptile.
And now we come near the. famous
temple hewn from the rock of porphyry
at least eight hundred years ago, On
either side Of the chief temple is a
chapel, these cut out of the same stone.
So vast was the undertaking, and to the
Hindoo was so great the human i'm
possibility that they say the gods
scooped out this structure from the
rock and carved the pillars, and hewed
its shape into gigantic idols, and dedi,
Gated 1t to all the grandeurs. We
climb many stone steps before we gel
to the gateways The entrance to thi,
tempie mas sculpJured do0rkeeper,
leaning on sculptured' devils. How
strange! But have seen doorkeeper;
Of churches and auditoriums who
seemed to be leaning on the demons Of
bad ventilation and asphyxia. Door
keepers ought to be leaning on the
angels of health, and comfort and life
All the sections and janitors of earth
who have spoiled sermons and lectures
and poisoned the lungs of audiences by
ineficiency ought to visit this cave of
Elephanta and beware of what those
doorkeepers are doing, when, instead
of leaning on the angelic, they lean or
the demoniac.
In these Elephanta Caves everything
is on a Samsonian and Titanian scale
With chisels that were dropped from
nerveless hands at least eight centuries
ago, the forms of the gods, Brahms
and Vishnu and silva, were cut into the
everlasting rock. silva is here repre-
sented by figure sixteen feet nine
inches high, one-half man one-half wo
man. Run line from the center o.
the forehead straight to the floor o.
the rock, and you divide this idol into
masculine and feminine. Admired as
this idol is by many, it was to me
about the worst thing that was ever
cut into porphyry, perhaps because
there is hardly anything on earth Sc
Objectionable as being half man anC
half woman Man is admirable ant
woman is admirable, but either in hesI
or trip rock compromise of the two
is hideous. Save us from effelninatC
men and masculine women.
Yonder is the King Ravana worship
ing Yonder is the sculptured repre-.
sentation Of the marriage of SILVA and
Parhiti. 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
a god with three heads. The center
god has crown wounds with necklaces
of skulls. The right hand god is in q
paroxysm Of rage, with forehead Of
snakes, and in its hand is cobra. The
left hand god has pleasure in all It's
features, and the hand has flower
But there are gods and goddesses in ali
directions
The chief temple of this rock is one
hundred and thirty feet square and has
twenty-six pillars rising to the roof
After the conquerors of other lands,
and the tourists from all lands have
Clipped, and defaced, and blasted, and
carried away curios and mementos fol
museums and homes, there arc enough
entrancements left to detain one unless
he is cautious, until he is down with
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