The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-04-11
WOOING
IN INDIA
The Natives Have Their
Own Peculiar
Courtship.

Everybody has heard of caste II
India, but few foreigners realize what
caste really means. The village sweep
er, who always belongs to the parish
class. may not enter the house of any
other villager.
He dare not go to the public well foI
a. drink lest he contaminate it. If he is
thirsty he must stand afar of and wall
dolefuIly until somebody takes pity on
him and brings water to him.
The village has a highly organized
social life. and in many ways it is dis
tinctly socialistic. The blacksmith, the
barber. the shoemaker. the sweeper and
other laborers and artisans are all pub
/ lie servants. Each receives so much
per annum from each vilIager the sum
usually varying according to the wealth
of the individual.
Nobody dreams of paying laundry
bills. He pays the equivalent of u
cents a year to the washerman, and
gives him a handful of food now and
again, besides other perquisitfes at we'd.
dings, births, and other festivals.
This seems small pay for a years
washing; but the dhoby has another
valuable privilege. He and his family
can wear the clothes given them to
wash, and nobody dreams of objecting.
Thus they are always gayly clad-one
week in the borrowed plumes of Ram
LaI. the next in those of Jhaman Singh.
Everything goes on in the village as
it has gone on for a thousand years or
more. There are many remote villages
in India in which no European has ever
set foot, and in few of them are white
men seen from one years end to the
other
The potter makes his pots as he did
in the days of Omar Khayyam. His
simple machine has remained unaltered
for two thousand years, and he has not
the slightest desire to improve it. If
his tools are poor his skill is remark
able
The potters are a simple, meek folk.
They never quarrel, and do not even
insist on payment for their goods if the |
customer DULLES them. ''As simple as
a potter" and .sAs mild as a potter" are
common sayings.
1t is curious how every mans |
character in India seems to be deter |
mined by his occupation. Bricklayers |
are always active and energetic, swine |
herds lazy and immoral, shcemakers |
poor, ignorant and despised; goldsmiths
clever and plausible rogues. and black |
smiths gossips of the first water.
Carpenters have usually a turn for |
poetry. and many of the greatest poets |
of India. have come from their class. |
But the village does not rely upon such |
amateur talent. 1t always supports |
professional poet of it's own.
Poetry is ingrained in the Hindoo |
nature. Even the schooiboys are taught
to recite and compose poems before
they can spell words of three syllables,
and the very beggars solicit aims with
harps in their hands and songs upon
their lips.
Like most poets elsewhere, the village
bard is usually poor man, but he is
l
neal he bitches up his Pegasus and goes
10 some rich villager-a goldsmith or
bazaar man-with a new poem in praise
Of the patrons wife or house.
He is always rewarded with as much
food as he can eat, and. perhaps. few
Lnnas as Wen. He has no trouble with
publishers, no weary waiting to see his
looks in print. Whenever anything
appens IN the village, he is always on
land with a few appropriate verses.
nd always welcome
There is much rivalry and jealousy
Imong neighboring villages as to the
merits of their respective poets, and at !
ertain festivals during the year they l
Issemble for a literary tournament.
Every Hindoo rajah or zamindar erich
and owner) keeps his own laureate, to I
whom he sometimes gives large estates
nd the rents or taxes of whole villages.
the poets lines are cast in
'leasant places in India.
These village bards let their fancy 1
un riot in a bewildering maze of Orien- !
al imagery, and there is no limit to t
heir capacity for fattery. This is the $
ind of poems they compose for the a
ustic Romeo who wants to charm the a
ar of his well-beloved: F
"oh, Lali. thou art sweeter than the T
oney and more graceful than the deer; I
2, II l,..ai :