The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-03
HOW STORIES SPREAD IN ORIENT,
False Rumors That Have Caused British
Much Trouble, Ns-

A remarkable story is being told in Man
dalay to account for the ravages of this
plague. The city has been sorely afflicted
A month age people were dying at the rate
| of sixty a day. Business was practically
at a standstill, and two-thirds of the popula-
ton had fed. Not the worst feature
of the panic was the credence given to a
widespread r,imor that the pestilence was
the result of the royal visit.
While their Royal Highnesses, it was
said, were in Mandalay. the Princess had
dreamed that some Burmese hAa tried to
murder her. She told no one, the story
| goes. at the time, but when the royal party
reached Rangoon, on the way back to India,
she informed the Prince, who gave orders
to the Lieutenant Governor Of the province
to have a number of Burmese in Mandalay
put to death. In obedience to thisr ruthless
command men were sent up country
such Ia the legend. to poison the wells and
strew poison about the roads; hence the
terrible mortality. Even makers Of soda
water we're bribed, it is alleged, to put
| poison into all bottles sold to the Burmese. m
The scare, ridiculous az it may SEEM;
SAWS the London Erening Standard, has taken
hold of the credulous natives and they
have gone so far as to appoint a committee
of safety, which sends out parties of young
men. armed with slaves and -dahs' at
night, to look out for suspicious strangers
The panic has extended. we are told, to the
villages in the vicinity of Mandalay, and
three Europeans, who were out shooting
recently. were accused by the country folk
of being prisoners, and had to fly for their
lives.
How stories Of this kind first get abroad
it is seldom possible to discover. but every
one who has lived in the East knows how
readily they are swallowed by an ignorant
and credulous people. No invention is too
preposterous to find believers. Sometimes
the gossip of an Indian bazaar is that the
Government requires quantities of human
blood wherewith to anoint the foundations
OF a bridge or other public building which 1t
ia about to erect. Every family in the
district will be in a fever of apprehension
lest it's children shall be seized and murdered
for the purpose. Many old travellers relate
Instances of such panics, which have also
occurred within quite recent times.
In some parts Of the Punjab people have
gone in terror of the Mummy Sahib,' an
atrocious European who is supposed to alb
bored in their skull, using the extract in
the preparation Of a particularly valuable
and eficacious medicine. The Mummy
Sahib" is reputed to pay a fee to the Gov
eminent for license to carry on his nefarious
trade. Not many years ago a native official
in Assam was prosecuted for circulating a
report to the effect that the Government
had ordered a list OF manageable girls to
be compiled, in order that they might be
distributed as a reward to the officers and
men OF a military force serving on the
frontier. ~.
In this case the origin Of the rumo or could
be traced. and its inventor had evidently
~purpoeed to make a little money by promise
ing, for a consideration, to withhold the
names Of any girls whose friends and rela-
tives desired to save them from such a fate.
AS a general rule, however, the agency
which starts the libel remains a mystery.
Nor does any one know to this day who
despatched the first of the i'll omened cakes
which were sent about from village to VII
lage, as a warning of trouble to come, on
the eve OF the mutiny of 1857. What is GER
tain Is that horrible and malignant mnorsr
like that current in Mandalay meet with
ready acceptance, and that, once in ~oiroula-
ton, they are not quickly eradicated.
Whatever the authorities may do, it is quite
likely that as long as the royal visit to
Burma is remembered it will be connected
with the plague, and that graybeards who
are now children will be ready to explain
how the affair came about.
The Eastern idea of justice is not that
which prevails in the West. A Persian
historian relates OF the Sultan Alptegin
| that, when one Of his followers had been
found guilty OF stealing poultry, be sen.
fenced the mar to death, but, relenting.
ordered him to be driven through the
army, with the purloined fowls, still alive,
hung by their legs TO his ears. The writer
| gives a graphic description of the tortures
| suffered by the thief as the birds in their
fright tore at his face, and he adds: The
news of this fact having reached the ears
Of the people, they agreed that 30 upright
and Just a sovereign was worthy to be their
ruler" 1t would not be surprising if the
story OF the poisoned wells at Mandalay
came eventually to be told with the corol-
| larry that 1t only proved the sagacity and
l statecraft Of the Shahzadah.