The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-07-30
AN INTERESTING LETTER FROM INDIA.
Miss Minnie johnson, Sister of Mrs. J. II. Pitman of
Leon, Writes of ner Experience as Missionary
in india, and it is interesting Reading

it is interesting Reading.
shaped, no two being the same
height, and all the while one peep!
up over the other. If l ever come
to Landour again / shall surely IT,.
to spend part of the time in Dun
alti. In the afternoon Mr.. Scott ha(
charge of the English service ani
Miss Mac Kenzie sang LEAD kindl.
Light
Before supper Miss Lee and l went
up on the hillside just above the dah
bungalow and there had beautiful
view of the old mountains. Surely
mountains remind us of Gods glori.
Gus handiwork and it really is a
spiritual uplift to live in such wond.
erful places. Nature is wonderful
everywhere, but though it seems to
me that in the mountains one can
feel Gods power and see His beauty
through them so easily.
The birds in Tehir have progress
i've festivals. They are so happy
they forget to stop singing when
night comes. The cuckoo was heard
all of the way. He makes us remem-
Der what birds the cuckoos are, how
they lay their eggs in the nests of
other birds and let other birds hatch
their young. Lazy but lovely old
cuckoos. There is bird called the
Kaifil Pakka, which sings four plain
tive notes. l know nothing about
his color or size, but there is a
story current among the Indians
something like this, that once upon
a time man and his wife fell into
a dispute as to whether the kaifil
(blue berries) were ripe or unripe.
The man said "Kaifil Pakka." The
wife said "Kaifil kachha" (pakka;
ripe; kachha, unripe.) After dis
putting for some time the man be
came angry and killed his wife. This
bird was near and was heard sing
ing his four plaintive notes, "Kaitil
Pakka, Kaifil Pakka" and thus OBJ
tanned his name.
We set out early Monday morn
ing leaving beautiful Dunalti behind
us. o, Dunalti the memories of thee
are still with us. Thy quiet beauty
is long to be felt. We are leaving
thee with the hope of returning to
thee a few days hence.
The morning is fine and we feel
as if we can walk the remaining
twenty-five miles without stopping.
At 1890 we are quite willing to
stop for breakfast however. This
place is Khana Tai. We stopped al
the quaint little inn, native inn,
built in two stories, with mud floors,
but quite good place after all. We
had our breakfast on the veranda Of
the second floor and such a Jolly
time we had frying real fried pota-
toes on three spirit lamps, no, on
an angeti Ga little charcoal stove.
We made our coffee on three spirit
lamps. Meal time was always 4
merry time for the Tehri Ten. From
Khana Tai we journeyed on to COM
plete our thirteen-mile march into
Kauria, our second stopping place.
Every turn of the road brought new
and wonderful scenes. Here and
there the hillsides are wooded and
again lined with little fields, terrac-
ed up the entire hillside. In these
fields are planted various grains and
vegetables. In the low ones where
there are springs, rice is planted
and these little irrigated fields are
pretty sights. Surely agriculture in
the mountains is interesting and
shows the ingenuity and labor of the
farmers for, no doubt there is a
great amount of labor expended in
making these terraces. At our last
stop, Khana Tai, there were a lot of
pilgrims cooking their food. We
talked with them d little and found
that they were on their way to Gan
gotri, a place on the Gangese where
pilgrims from all parts of India go
to worship before the sacred shrine
there. Thousands of these pilgrims
go to various points along the Gan
gese for the purpose Of obtaining sal
walton. Oh! that they knew a. bet
ter way. We journeyed on, always
scenes OF interest before us, behind
us and all around us. Wild white
and pink rosies, violets, columbire
maiden-hair and other ferns and
Lmosses, and many, many kinds Of
flowers unfamil q to- me peeped out.
~ On 9loA 40 lstde.
1l1ya ragged