The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-04-22
SOME OTHER JEYPoRE SIGHTS.

day was a street fight. The two COM
batants were very angry and had a ring OF
hackers around them. but used no blows.
1t was an effort to throw dust in each
others faces, which. when it was accom-
plished, seemed to satisfy them.
The holy men" OF Jeypore are very nu-
merous. They are religions ascetics who
seem to think that nothing pleases their
gods more than to have their disciples
smear themselves with ashes and cowdung
and stand on one leg in the hot sun and
pray for hours together. On the other
hand I saw, after this foolishness, some
genuine worship. AT a roadside little tenn
pie, not much bigger than a dog kennel,
thirty or more women had gathered for
prayer and worship. They We're all neat
and well-dressed, with good faces. In
their hands they held cakes of rice and
small plates of clarified butter and per-
haps other offerings. Inside of the little
temple was the elephants head of Garish,
the god of wisdom He had before him
little pan of red paint, and as each woman
or girl said her prayers and made her Of
fering the priest smeared a little upon her
forehead This custom is universal. Hori-
zontal marks indicate one sect and verti-
cal another, and seldom is real Hindoo
seen without some paint, either red or
white, upon his forehead, indicating that
he has done his duty. But. unfortunately,
the matter ends here. After he has made
his prayer and anointed his god with but
ter and had his forehead marked he can
lie or steal without the least thought of its
wrongfulness. OF sin as we know it the
Asiatic has but little conception. They are
all kindly people. native Hindoo who is
in a position to know told me that the
Hindoo women were saints on earth, with
their husbands as their gods, and that they
live noble and devoted lives. He did not
speak thus kindly of the men, who have
the usual vices of mankind, save one-li-
centiousness. In Hindoostan there are no
unmarried men. A boy of fifteen will have
a WIFE So young do girls marry that the
British government had to interfere and
fix the girls age at thirteen years. But
one thing they have never been able to
control-cruelty to widows. In olden times,
up to seventy-fve years ago, the widow
was burned as a matter of religion with
her husbands corpse. While this cannot
now be done, still, when the man dies the
widow is held to have no further business
in this world. She cannot marry again
and becomes a social outcast. AS yet no
remedy has been found for this most un-
natural practice.
1 shall do a great injustice to the Maha-
rajah did not mention his charities. Fam
inc is sore in India. They have had no
rain now for two or more years and thou
sands are starving to death. With his
usual generosity this fine-looking Mahara-
jah is importing into the capital large
quantities of grain and is selling it to his
people for nominal sum- In all the pub
lie squares are great crowds of Hindoos
sauatted in circles around petty off,
ciai, who with a pair Of scales weighs out
a fixed quantity to each person. This
grain they take and pound up, hulls and
ALL into flour and make bread of it. 1t
is of about the quality that our own farm
ers in Indiana feed to their stock.
EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES.
Jeypore has a splendid public library, a
superb museum set in seventy acres of the
most beautiful gardens in India. Also the
Maharajah supports at his own cost three
large colleges, one for general students
one for Sanscrit and one for the sons of
noblemen. I visited the last one and enjoy
ed an hours talk with quiet and ably
educated gentleman-a HindoO-who also
spoke good English and gave me a most
interesting insight into higher education in
India Each of its larger cities has first
class college where a boy can get free
education. They have no Latin or Greek.
but instead teach the Arabic, Persian and
Sanscrit languages. Their courses in Eng
lsh are very complete and would do credit
to any American school, Yale and Harvard
not excepted. And yet / am sorry to say,
no provision is made, to speak of, for girls
I am glad to add that in the province of
Jeypore an excellent beginning has been
made for poor children; out of population
of two and one-half millions Is per cent
can read and write.
Not the least of the attractions of this
Partisan city is the uniformity of it's build
ing and their gay colors. Thursday I
stumbled through a court of abomination
and up four pairs of stairs to the shop of
the leading jeweler in Jeypore. He was a
big, fat man, with a good-humored face.
There was not thing visible except him
self and half a dozen attendants in his
little dog kennel of shop. Seating at a
rickety old table, the first thing that he
showed was a pearl necklace, the price of
which was $4,000. Then he began to send
his boys after the expensive articles, and
in few minutes he had 100000 worth of
jewels and gold spread out in a Offering
array before us. OF course he does not keep
such articles for fun or for his health, but
because some one is ready to purchase. And
yet, as we left, swarm of naked beggars
fiocked around US and were perfectly salts
fed with copper coin which is worth one
twelfth part Of our cent. Such is life in the
gorgeous East. d. Z. BALDWIN.
On Twenty-Seven Cents Day.
Washington Star.
ooh. yes: there are plenty of fellows in