The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-02
ESTABLISHED 1872.

at Wimbledon as a temporary shrine
of Kali, where Sleeps and goats are
slain every morning for the use of the
Indian Princess and their suites. The
priest, or Lord High Executioner, is
a magnificent fellow, feet inches in
hight. He uses a keen Jaipur sword
and does his work most efficiently and
mercifully. Being a priest by caste,
he is rather a superior parsonage, and
does no more than STAY the beast, the
rest of the work being done by me-
malls. sH'-
The method of cooking the food is as
important as the food itself. 1t is an
absolute caste law that no Hindu can
eat anything cooked by a man lowerI
in caste than himself. Hence cooks
in high-caSte' families are nearly all
members of the Brahminical or priest
ly caste, which claims superiority over
all others; naturally, however, they
are men in reduced circumstances. or
otherwise unable to follow their usual
priestly calling. So rigorous is this
law that even the shadow of a stranger
of low caste or no caste falling upon
the food renders it unfit, for use. Hence
the kitchen at Moray Lodge is really
beyond the ken of curious eyes-being
accessible only to one who is himself
a high-caSte Hindu.
The one exception to. this law is in
regard to ripe fruit. Ripe fruit, which
can be eaten without being cooked is
direct bounty of Mother Earth. Low
caste, or alien, hands canhot affect it,
since all that she supplies is deemed
to be sanctified
The kitchen utensils employed for
cooking are rather curious, and, in
English estimation, somewhat weird
and fantastic They are all of beaten
brass, earthenware, or copper well
timed; all of strange shapes The
stove is primitive concern, being
merely three sides of a hollow square
of bricks, filled with wood or charcoal.
But it is the gradual cooking over this
slow fire that gives to most Indian
dishes their exquisite fiavor-at least,
exquisite to the writer's estimation.
An expert Hindu cook is somewhat
of a versatile genius. Limited by caste
laws to the simplest ingredients, he
can yet create the most elaborate
dishes. Consider the use of milk,
sugar, flour, tamarind; from milk he
VIII make cream, curd, junket, cream
cheese, from these is conjunction with
sugar, -four, and tamarind-to say
nothing of almonds, raisins, CHINA
mons, cardamoms-he will make hall
luah, luddoe, sondace, and forty 9TH
er delicate sweetmeats.
Forty more dishes he could create
from fruits alone. From mango (the
king of fruits), custard-apple pineap-
pie, guava, banana-in union with the
various products of milk mentioned
above-he could make such a menu
Tor dessert as would astonish many a
first-class chef
What then shall 1 say of the thou
sand. savories that, in conjunction with
THESE and fish meat, are even now
sendlng up their sweet fragrance into
the atmosphere of Campden Hill? PHI
Tau, that mysterious connection. of
meat, rice, and a thousand spices !:
kurma. that toothsomg delicacy, fit
TOT ihdras court, in which cream and
curd and tamarind blend themselves
with meat and cardamQm and raisins.
And what about hoe ,bindalc and
sweet kahsandi? But L must leave
or; After four yearsg0f absence from
IHoia ana abstinence from these deli
cacies, my dream is about to- he FIJI
filled.