The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1905-11-03
t in the banyan tree.

it in the banyan. tree.
These monkeys and all Of their kind
the grayish brown, short tailed common
monkey Of northern India-are sup
posed to be the descendants Of Hunu-
man, the monkey god Of southern In
dia. According to the myth Of the
Brahmans. Thurman aided Rama to
conquer Ceylon by building bridge of
rocks from India to that island. His
Image is to be seen in most Hindoo
temples in the form of man with a
black monkeys face and tail.
Sacrel monkeys scamper along the
streets and over the housetops in most
Indian cities and villages. The shop
| keepers are constantly worried by their
forag.ng escapades, but they dare not
resent them any more than those Of the
sacred bull. These monkeys are often
the companions Of the hermits and
fakirs with which India swarms, and
they are the chief part of the congre-
CATION in many temples where they are
fed ard protected.
Tanks in which sacred crocodiles are
kept are attached to some temples in
Benares. In former days they were fed
with children and other human sacri-
fees, but the British government,
though very indulgent toward native
superstitions, VIII, Of course, not allow
that now. Some Anglo-Indians assert,
however, that such sacrifices are still
| 10 81 -,
or not. it is fact that many fanatical
Hi.ldoos would not kill crocodile
which had killed their wife or child
Some Hin DOS are unspeakably cruel
to animals that are not sacred, but in
general the faiths of India enjoin kind
ness to dumb animals as a religious
/ duty. Buddhism does so most en-
phatically, for the whole tendency of
its teaching, rightly given, is to make
man gentle and mild. The Parsees
/ are noted for their kindliness to all
creatures, man and beast, and they
give largely out of their boundless
wealth to the support of the Jain tenn
| pies, which are perhaps the most de-
lightful places in all India.
All the best elements in Brahmanism
flock to the Jain cult as the needle
flies to the magnet. The jams recog-
nize all the gods of the Hindoo creed,
wear the Brahmanical thread and ad-
here to Hindoo caste law. Yet they
are utterly unlike the average Brah-
man. They have agreed to ignore all
that is vile in Brahmanism and to de-
vote themselves to all that is noble.
They reverence the sacred animals,
but they give to the worship prac-
teal twist by adoring all animals, all
living creatures, and by making veter-
mary surgery at once their vocation
and their religion.
Every Jain temple is hospital for
the lame, the blind, the sick and the
maltreated among animals The priests
go around the streets of the crowded
city picking up dogs with broken legs
cats that have been nearly starved to
death and birds with broken wings.
If they see an ass or horse that is
overworked and cruelty beaten, they
will buy it from the brutal owner All
the animals thus rescued are taken to
the temple grounds and tenderly and
patiently treated and nursed back to
health.
India is, Of course, not the only
oriental country in which animals are
regarded as sacred. In almost all
eastern lands, save those which are
tightly in the grip of Islam, certain
dumb creatures are the objects Of rev.
erence or Of superstition, If not of
actual worship. Slams sacred white
elephant-a curious superstition graft
ed upon a debased form of Buddhism
is the best known example, but dozens
of others could be given.-William
Thorp in New York Post.