The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-11-04
A New Indian Novel.


Clure Company. SD
A New Indian Novel.
The Hosts of the Lord is new novel
by Mrs. Flora Annie Steel, whose first
romance of life in India made her famous
| Her latest book fully sustains her repu-
tation as writer of this type of fiction
and is in some respects the most delight
full of her three novels dealing with life in
India.
AS in the other novels, the charm OF
this book lies more in the character
drawing, the descriptions of people and
places. and the authors evident intimate
knowledge of native life. than in the
plot. Almost on every page one finds
some little, subtle touch of description
OF of Interpretation which proves how
thoroughly Mrs. Steel knows her ground
and how much more delicate her intuition
is than that of the average writer on these
subjects. In this respect she outranks
Kiplirg himself. In none of his Indian
tales save perhaps two or three has he
displayed such accurate and sensitive APP
probation of the various phases of ma
tive character.
The Hosts of the Lord deals with that
old and most fascinating theme which
must always occupy the attention of the
! writer on East Indian life, the contact
of two civilizations. A great reception is
to be given to the viceroy, and by chance
it falls On the date when pilgrims in
great throngs make their annual visit
to the same place. There figure in the
story the usual contingent of British Of
ficers and civilians, and the usual ma
tive who apes the fashions of the Eng
lish. Outside this all is new. There is
an old Jesuit, known to the natives as
Pidar Narayan, who is one of the most
interesting men in the book: there is a
young English mission teacher who is the
heroine. in so far as the book may be
said to have one; there is a girl who is
a strange mixture of native and Italian
blood, and is the ward of the old priest
there is her cousin, native officer, and
there are two or three specimens of the
aboriginal Gond, the curious Mowgfi-like
people who were the first inhabitants OF
the land, and are closer to nature than
anyone else in India. The characters are
many, as is usual in the work of this
author and they move to and fro in a
Kaleidoscope maze which reminds one
somehow of the complicated designs on
Indian tapestries. What one may call
the chiaro- cscuro of the book is managed
with wonderful skill. Moreover, one has
continually the feeling, subtly induced
more by the general atmosphere of the
story than by any specific hint. that all
the characters are in the near neighbor-
hood of a powder magazine not as care
fully protected as it ought to be. The
sense OF ever-present danger. dark, in
comprehensive, and smoldering. ready at
any instant to break forth. is inseparable.
perhaps, from any story of Indian life,
but Mrs. Steel contrives to indicate it
with an utter absence of any striving after
effect, yet with unmistakable intention.
Here and there are flashes of epigram
which show her absolute sureness of
thought. In a chapter about half way
through the book she speaks of
that curiously light hearted almost reckless
frivolity of Indian society-a not unnatural re-
coil, perhaps. from the perpetual presence of the
greatest social problem the world has ever scen
OF Is likely to see that is, the mutual assimila-
ton Of East and West without injury to either
the little company of English men and women
empire makers ana breakers, drfted out into the
sunshine.
And here is another little scrap of de-
scription which is suggestive:
They had to pass the solitary visible occupant
OF the wide, sunlit courtyard This was man
OF what rank education, occupation none could
'ell-who having raised square of twonch high
mud wall between his twice-born purity and the
world was preparing his daily food. Naked,
save for his waist cloth. and the thread of the
twice-born his left shoulder be was iso-
lated even from his kindred. Alone with himself
and his God.
Before him in the mud plastered square, as he
sat immovable, was the mud fireplace IN which
his wheaton dough-cake cooking; beside him
was eaf-platter of curds, brass vesse. Of milk;
sight 10 be seen hundred times n day in
India; one which should never be forgotten
The noon was almost shadowless; yet, even.
sheer habit, swerved TO step further from the
sacred square. Doing so, his foot slipped for m
instant on the lower step. He gave an impatient
exclamation and passed on. minute later the
door Of the fort changed behind the little party,
cutting short English laugh.
Then, and not till then, the man in that
square Of purity showed signs Of life. He rose
quietly, almost unconcernedly, took the half
baked cake from the enbers the leaf-platter O..
curds the vessel Of milk, and going down TO the
rivers edge flung his dinner into it, TO feed the
fishes.
In that stumble, the plumclike fringe Of Vim
cent behring's high peaked turban had sent a
shadow TO ov.rtop the twoinch barrier between
and his fellows.
One of the most interesting OF the REQ
pie in the book. and perhaps in all indian
fiction, is Laila Bonaventura, the ward
of the old priest. Granddaughter of
Begun, with all the strange impulses of
that complex personality warning In her
veins with the decorous habits of con-
ventual education. she is creature of
absorbing interest.
Sometimes the mere picturing OF places
and people by this author holds the at
tention like beautiful painting. The de-
scription of the old palace garden, in this
book, is exquisitely fine and skillful So,
also, is the picture of Am-ma, the aborigi-
nal fisherman. Nothing better in the
chronicling of primeval man has been
done in literature. The portrait is alive:
ANNA was fishing. Breast deep in the water
which in the early dawn stretched like shin
ing shield TO meet the pale primrose vestmen,s
Of the coming day. his bodies head and shout.
ders slid sedatcly over the surface like some
strange kind of wild-fowl, for his hands, clasp.
ed at the back of his curly friz Of hair, held
the apex Of a concal, reed, distended net, shaped
despite all lack of visible movement, the tense
ness Of every muscle. the strained look of every
curve. showed that he was on the alert for some
thing, that something being the first hint Of
possible prey sent by his hidden feet as they
felt like hands, over the bottom. Felt light
w. buoyantly with scarce more pressure than
the water itself. until. at the first suspicion OF
q fsh lying half-buried in the sand, they would
fling themselves airwsrds to change places with
his head; and that. with the net twirlcd dexter
ously above II, would go down like an ex-
t.nguisher over the suspicious ridge o. iurrow.
Sometimes-most often, of course-they proved TO
be nothing else; but sometimes. again, there
would be q pause, during which the black legs
would remain uppermost, and then, once more
the black head would come airwards with wrig-
Cling fsh, held. if 1t happened to be a small
been provided by nature with pouch. like the
veIIn.ns xbo were fishing hard by and. being