Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1910-01-14
NOTES OF A TRAVELLER
What Saw i'm Asiatic India. and
Darker Africa.
LAND OF FIRE-WORSHIPERS
BON Y.

)
dia, Cairo. Egypt, and other "out ol
the world places in Asia and Africa.
The first letter from him, written at
Bombay, on 10th of December, has
been kindly placed at our disposal,
and the first .instalment of what
promises to be an interesting series
of articles is given.
Quite little way out at sea we
were boarded by 4 pilot who took
charge of the ship and proceeded to
safely guide us into port. SO far, we
had been ahead of our schedule, and
here there was no exception to the
rule. The English-who are in pow
er here have not acquired the early
rising habit, and this, coupled with
the day of arrival being Sunday. pre-
vented our being able to obtain any
advantage of being ahead of time, as
we had to wait for the health officer S
certificate, so it was a little later in
stead of earlier, than our designated
time when we landed
Several days before we were due in
port. custom house declarations were
handed to us with the request they
be filled out. According to them,
our wearing apparel would be admit
ted free, but there would be a duty
on cameras of five per cent. As there
were more than a hundred of the lat
ter on board, you can imagine it ere
ated quite furry, for some of the in
struments cost much as $500, and
their owners did not want to pay SC
large a sum as the duty would be for
few days use of their machines, and
yet they did not wish to miss the rare
picture taking opportunity India pre-
sentcd. |, like many others, made
declaration of my camera and took it
along with me. Grip in hand and
camera slung over my shoulder,
marched up to the custom-house Off
GERS. They inquired if | had any
fire. arms. or dutiable articles. and ]
told them no and passed through
without even look in my grip or
the payment of a cent duty 1t was
a pleasant surprise. for | thought
would have to pay part of King Ed
ward S salary.
Carriages were in waiting to con
vey us to the Tai Mahal hotel. This
was the finest hotel so far seen on the
journey. 1t occupied an entire block
was five stories in height and fire
proof Here | saw something that
was new to me. Broken pieces of
china had been set in cement, and
this formed the floors. They were
glazed and SO made bright as tile.
Different colors were used, and being
set in patterns, the effect was fine.
| was told they were brought here
from China. On some of the pieces
could be seen the makers name, but
| was not able to make out the
name of the town where the ware
had been originally produced. In
other buildings the same material
had been used and it was certainly a
fine appearing one.
Here we encountered the English
style of serving meals. Tea or cof-
fee with toast was served in the
rooms from to ga. NJ. Meat break
fast is ready ut s A. NJ. Lunch (or
tifiin as they call iU at lP. NJ. At
ternOon tea at and dinner at Z. |
am glad do rot have to live here as
the cooking does not suit my taste.
In addition the water is bad and this
in q hot climate like here is sufficient
to put it in disfavor with me. Be
sides the cooks evidently do not take
much care to keep things clean. One
meal OF rice was served, and as ex.
perience has taught me that during
warm weather weevils are apt to take
up their abode in rice. l examined
my portion and there they were
cooked to be sure, but l prefer my
rice plain and the decoration can be
omitted so | passed on to the next
course. We were served beef several
times and | have since been told it
was horse meat. 1t would not sur
prise me if this were true, but not
knowing otherwise we ate it and did
not seem to be able to detect any diff
ference, SO if it was horse meat then
| will refrain from complaining, as |
have been served worse roasts at
home. 1t was amusing to see the
walters, in this the best hotel in the
city, running around in their bare
feet.
The day of our arrival was the
Hindoo New Year and they were
ending a four days celebration. Not
h wing any fixed programme for the
balance Of the day, we hired cab OF
Gharry as they are termed here and
drove through both the business and
residence sections. In the former
we found thousands of lights strung
for illumination purposes. Gas and
electricity were used by some, but a
large percentage burn Oil, and for
this occasion they had oil in small
bowl which they set inside a large
one so the wind would not cxtinguiSh
it. AS the large bowls were multi
cOlored the effect was pleasing. AT
ali of the temples, music, or rather
noise, was being produced. In some
of them there were a number of
players. One in particular believe
| shall never forget. We were driv-
ing along when in the distance we
heard a loud noise, which, by a
stretch of the imagination. sounded
like music. AS we came nearer and
nearer, louder and louder became the
sound, and finally we imagined we
could detect the the semblancc of a
tune. AT last they came into view
and we saw half dozen players q
cannot call them musicians making
noises with half dozen different in
struments but the tune or rather
semblance of tune, was being pro-
duced by one fellow with a cOrnet
IL, I,l,.,- L., lo.,dorA ,,oo.n ,,dlo-s of