El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-08-27
&C
The BackWOodS Of India

correspond to the the Anus OF Japan.
They are hairy people, noted for their
drunkenness and laXity of morals. They
dwell in hutS about 10 feet high. with
dOOrwavs so small that one has to crawI
in and out on all fours. Their dwellings
are made of bamboo ard covered with
thateh. They are chiefly herdsmen and
noted for their long horned bUffalOes,
which they drive about from place to
place to pasture. These people worship
the rising sun and the moon, and they
have other gods of various kinds. They
now and then sacrifice calves with the
hope that the COWS will give more milk,
and at funerals they sacrifice buffalOes,
believing that their souls wili 20 with
the dead up to heaven
The TOdaS are allied to the fiTewalk-
ers, people who claim that they can trot
over living Goals without harm. 1 see
an instance of one of their ceremonies
in today's paper. It took place at
Mushirabad. where, 1t is related. the
people, by a great fire OF wood. made
bed of I've charcoal 1 feet in diameter.
While the Goals were still red. two
priests bearing flags jumped barefoot
ed into them and walked to and fro
again and again over the fire As they
did so the people TO the number of hun
dreds walked over the Goals. and among
=
newspaper account says that not q
single one received injury. not even a
| burn, and that the only effect of the
ordeal was to make them perspire pro-
fusely.
Another strange people of India are
the Kandhs, or mountaineers. They
were great in the past and bloodthirsty
and powerful, but since they have come
| under the British they have abolished
many strange customs. They once had
| human sacrifices and Kidnapped the peO-
pie of the plains Their victims were
daintily fed until the day of the sacri-
flee, when they were killed in honor
of the earth god whom they wOrshiped.
The SantalS worship the great noun
| tain, and the Gonds. who think they
are sprung from a certain peak of TIE
HimalayaS, bury their dead with the.
feet turned nOrthward that they may
: be ready TO start home without turning
around.
There are also many strange tribes in
Ceylon and on the Islands off the
HindUStan coasts.
BeIuchistan and Afghanistan.
The whole of northern and western
India has is backwoOds. BeIuchistan Is
largely a desert, with fertile valleys o
date palms and with cameIS and cara
vans. Its people are mostly Arabs or o.
Arab ancestry They are more like
L
servile inhabitants of Bengal. They q
not recognize caste and they are chief,
Mohammedans
Not unlike them are the Afgha1s
who, though not a part of East Indie
live on its outskirts. There are abou'
ten millions of them They claim 70 p
descended from one of the lost tribes
OF Israel, and their genealogical tree
are rooted in both Solomon and David |
The Afghans have a rich country, which
is said to be filled with mineral wealth. |
but as yet is not prospected.s They arc !
a nation of hOrsemen, and send hun
dreds of horses down here 10 Delhi ant
TO other parts of India Zach year.
Afghanistan has a half dozen or more
goOd-sized cities, and some of them arr I
great trading centers. 1t has two car
itals-Kabul, in the east, and Herat. i:
the west 1t is ruled by the amir Whf +,
lives at Kabul and who holds close re |
latiOns to the government in India II |
gets something like s700, 600 per year II |
the way of subsidies from the British |
and his treaties with them provide tha'
he'shal have no relations with any
other power except the empire of India |
At Calcutta 1 visited the foreign of
flee and found that a large part o.
thai bureau was devoted to AfghaniStan F.!
Persia and the other countries which
verge upon India.
Among the Afghars.
I was told that Afghanistan is prac-
tically closed to foreigners as far a
trade is concerned, and that it is not
safe to travel through il without a
special permit from the amir
There are no railroads. The OnlJ
highways are trails for horses ana
camels, although wa gon roads are now
being made from the chief towns 10 the
Russian. Persian and Indian frontiers
Railroads are talked of, and in time
they may come. The railways from
Delhi, where this letter is written, ex-
tend northWard through Lahore to
Peshawar. not far from the Afghan
frontier. There is also a road which
goes through a pass in the mountains
to Quota. in Beluchistan. and another
which has been tunneled under the
Khojak pass to the Afghan border
North OF AfghaniStGn the Russians
have been building railroads. and they
have just crossed the border. II would
take less than 500 miles of new line to
connect these Russian roads with the
Indian system. and thus make a through
route from Paris 10 Bombay and Cal
cutta There is no prospect now of
such a connection, but it viii come in
time. as will also, in all probability. a
through trunk line from here to Con-
stantinopIe.
Frank G. Carpenter