The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-07-31
THINGS AS THEY SEEM TO BE
For to behold and for to see
The wonders of this world so wide

November 14th. The Gulf of Alden
lies to the Eastward and we are now
in the Arabian Sea- Tn one side of
the Red Sea is Egypt with bare noun.
tains resembling in color the noun.
tains about the Grand Canyon in Ari-
IONA; on the other side, Arabia, with
Mt. Sinai in the hazy distance. You
cannot imagine anything more DESC
Red Sea. We have passed number of
islands today; on one of them a gold
mine is lately being worked, after
remaining idle since the days of the
Queen of Sheba. A few years ago, the
p. & o. Company thought it would be
a good scheme to fit up one of its old
ships for the Pilgrim trade. The ship
was advertised to start from Singa.
pore, and after fifteen hundred Mo-
hammedans anxious to go to Mecca,
purchased tickets. One of the officers
of our ship was an officer of the pill
grim ship, and told me about the voy-
age. The passengers furnished their
own food, and the ship soon became
so filthy that the plague broke out.
Hundreds of them died before Jidda,
in the Red Sea was reached, and they
were thrown overload almost every
hour. Arrived at Jidda, the pilgrims
who survived the voyage started for
Mecca on Camels. Not half of them
ever returned to their homes. Many
of them were stranded at strange
ports, filthy with disease, and the
venture became an international
scandal.
November 10Th. Evers body was up
and dressed early to go ashore at
Bombay. We could see in the distance
the shore line and the outline of the
city in and against the sky, but we
lunch The middle of the day, al
though no hotter apparently than our
eastern cities, seemed to have a bad
effect in well-fed Americans, so we
are handled with care and brought in
and taken out at hours when the
suns rays are slanting properly.
Bombay is a CITY to the greater
part of which-distance lends en-
chantment. 1t has a notable Hotel,
the Tai Mahal, named for the famous
marble tomb at Arga. My room at the
hofoI hoo ,,oocofo A0nr and fbo on
tire structure lastly puts the Waldorf,
in New York to shame. Near the Tai
Mahal on the waterfront was tenn
porary landing pier for the use of the
king and queen who were to disem-
bark here to attend the Dunbar at
Delhi. The city was being magnif1-
Gently decorated for the event;
triumphal Arches were being built
and preparations for Illuminating the
city on a grand scale. Some of the
finest residence are along the shore
drive, and so the misery is pushed
back from the water front, giving one
a pleasant impression as he enters
the city. We anchored out in the bay,
and were taken ashore in tenders.
We landed at Apollo Bunder and
there took carriages for two-then
our troubles began. When drivers
English is limited to two words, and
you can't understand those two, and
your own knowledge of their Ian
guage is minus two words, one sits
back after a few efforts at giving or
ders and trusts to fate. We drove
along Broad street under the banyan
trees, with our objective point, Mala-
Dor Hill. First we stopped at Gre
nation CHAT, and found them in the
act of cremating a body; the sticks
were piled about five feet high, and
in the middle of the pyre was body.
The head and feet protruded, so 1t
was sure enough cremation, and
not a display pyre as we at nrst
thought. A brisk fire was burning
and one could we'll imagine what
might have happened if the English
government had not put stop to the
practice of Suffice. At the Towers OF
Silence the friends of deceased per-
son can go no further than the en-
trance. The Tower of Silence is sit
uated back in an open space behind
some trees, and around the top wait
ing like Poe's Raven, sat a grim row
of vultures, silent, expectant, and to
our minds horrible sight. No one
but the bearers go down the path to
the tower, and then only as far as the
entrance, where they are met by two
old men, whose duty it is to take the
body and prepare it for the last rest
ing place. After the body is placed
on the tier of gratings the door is
closed, and in about two hours the