The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-06
Where the I Hnnalayas Seem
to Be Overhead

ward to space unsounded. So high and awful does
it rise that the behoder, far, far away though be-
must crane his neck to look toward its summit.
Suddenly, high tip the peak of the WALL there
startling something that is not light, but
only Tightening of the heavy gloom.
Scarcely has the eye caught it before it has melted
into llac-a lilac delicate, evanescent that it
seems to dissolve into unnameable tints even as one
looks And then the lilac suddenly grows strong and
10! it is pink. And the pink burns into
The clouds part like rven veil; the rose burns
now over all their high-hung masses, and behold
there clouds UP there; they have vanished
and did not mark it; in their place, suspended in
high heaven very heads, with silver mists
wreathing deep below, hangs the peak of the White
King of Himalaya-Mount Everest 10000 feet high
and I2o miles away We are looking clear across the
State of Nepa and the peak seems to be amos1
us
Vast, unimpassioned pure; spotless in its solemn
beauty so mighty in its tender morning grandeur
you stand in world that still is black and stricken
with night, and in that far-off play of pearl and
lapis-lazuli you the tremendous mystery of the
day move on world that lies as white and still as
if this were, indeed, the First Day. when terrible
voice spoke and said, "Let there be 1ightr'
Not only Everest thus produces Natures Passion
mountain city, across plucky, defiant Sikkim, over
y fifty miles of mountains in tremendous ranks the
eye sees Mount Kiehinjunga Twenty-eight thou
sand feet high is its peak Tanu and Kebru, one
25,ooo the other $4,000 feet in air, CLEAN in the
morning, catching the suns burning eye while it is
still sunken deep below the horizon of the dweers
of lower earth.
And as you look at those peaks, swimming in the
pure air, you realize that you are looking upon the
most truly virgin land of the world; for in all the
countless centuries since the Hinnaayan chain first
piled to cut into the hard, clear blue sky OF
Mongolian Asia, through all the generations of man.
they have stood untarnished by human foot-un-
tarnished, unassaable, primeva1.
Sometimes Mount Everest condescends to unve
himself completely, and then he stands clear to sight
from peak to base to the people in Darjeeling as
if they were dwelling at his foot. Then the might
of the Himalayas seems very present thing in the
little town. the SUBMITS look down into the Streets
and wherever one turns the white mountains COM
mand the day.
The visitor realizes then why this place, that
looks like Alpine village transpanted into Asia,
is called Darjeeling, which "the Wide Island
of Meditation.
An island of meditation it is to-day to which the
lama goes from Thbet and the Hindu from the
south. A place of pilgrimage, it is, too, for the
has come to conquering them
1t is refreshing to the people, different
from the people of the plain In Darjeeling swag-
ger the strong tribesmen of the mountain States
huge and black and bearded. Wrapped in rags
top of rags, and furs top of furs, squat the ugly,
sit-eyed from cold, snow-bitten Thibet, with
pleasant articles of Thibetan demon worship, such
as drums made from human skulls warranted to call
demons from the other world and delightful trump
cts made from human thigh bones.
In the half open bazaars sit with the skins of
tigers panthers, sables foxes and the beautiful long
haired snow leopards. High turbaned Kabulis offer
rugs and embroideries carried by hazardous noun
tain pass and ambushed defe from far Bokhara.
The beauties of Dareeing are the girls from
Bhotan, the neighboring mountain State. They have
merry faces, full of dimpes and garbed in glory;
for, though they do cultivate cleanliness MOTTO
ably, they do know how to set off their charms with
rich color.
SO Bhotan girl, who presently will act as Jour
coo1ie, is garbed in wne-red skirts Turquoise ear
rings sometimes as long seven inches, hang to her
shapely shoulders. Her arms and wrists are fes-
tooned with brass and iron and shell bracelets many
of them buried deeply into the flesh and ntergrown
with it. because the ornaments removed
after they put in youth
Silver chains hang all Some of them serve
to grid up the dress Others hold toilet articles
chief among which is a broom with which the Bho-
tan girls whsk each others hair on the streets when
there is no baggage to move; for these magnificent
creatures are the baggage carriers of Darjeeling.
The Bhotan have been good enough to turn
their folk into coolies. The female does all
the work, such carrying loads up and down the
mountains transporting goods and carrying bag
gage in Darjeeing.
1t is cheaper than horses and the women appear
to thrive under it. Certainly they are the jolliest
and most independent and powerful lot of females
that a man can find anywhere in India