The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1922-04-12
PROF. C|ST GEE
WRITES FROM INDIA
interesting Letter About Customs of
Country
COUNTRY is REMARKABLE
Thinks Natives Will Boycott English
lnstitutlons-Plenty of Tropical
Fruit Always in Evidence
Calcutta, India, Feb, 2nd, 1922

ihere are SO many things that are
new and strange here that it is hard
| 20 know just what you woulu be in.
! terested in and therefore it is hard 70
select the things to tell, then. too,
without pictures it is hard to make
the ideas clear.
yesterday | took trip down the
river, Hooghly, to the Botanical Gar
oeh. The one sight there that was of
most interest was the big Banvan
tree, said to be the biggest one in
iinaia, put this part of it do not be-
lleVe, for l.havc read of descriptjons
OF larger ones in the tropics and the
undlscovered forests Of India must
surely have larger ores than this
! The circumference of the foliapc of
the tree is 997 feet and the area un-
der this is well shaded so that it fur
nlshes good cool place at any time
OF the day. There were in 1918, 582
aerial root!ets that had taken root in
inc ground and many of these are
very large, in fact, so large that it is
difficult to tell which is the main trunk
or the tree if it were not marked.
Many of the rootlcts are straight.
having been trained by bamboo poles
and the whole thing is kept very trim
ana cican under the gardeners super
VISION. l am sending leaf of the
tree to Gertrude. Of course. there
! are many other tropical trees and
shrubs there too that would be new
to US, but / found that my time was
so limited that | did not stay long in
the garden.
All along the river banks the people
were seen bathing as YOU see them
in the Illustrations of India This
river is branch of the Gangcs and
the Gangcs is a sacred river so the
bathing is made a religious rite as
we'll as means of getting clean. At
srnclal places along the river, called
Gnats, where the banks are conven-
iently sloping, you may sec hundreds
at the proper time Of the day. They
go in with their bodies covered with
their garments. These consist of
about three yards Of cloth which they
gather tightly around the waist and
and then cross it and roll it at the
, waist and put one of the ends under
the legs and tuck it in the back at the
waist, the other end they allow to
hang free i'm front. The cloth reaches
down to the knees in front, but be-
hind II exposes them considerably.
ihcn for the upper part Of the body
they have another, in case they use
any at all, similar cloth which they
wrap around their bodies in Roman
toga style. Some of them wear shirts
without collars and hanging free over
the garment for the lower half of the
body. The servants in the hotels wear
trousers and are altogether better
covered than the collics on the streets.
They go barefoot however. These
garments arc washed while they wash
their bodies and then they either sit
IN the sun and dry these or bring a
change and put this. on while the 9th
cr one Is drying. This makes the
matter Of having Il wash day and a
bath simultaneous and it is GOOD
plan: Even in the middle of the win
ter it is not here like our summer
time. wear the thinncst clothes |
nave, palm beaches, and am vet not.
Inc people here go around with wool
en- clothes on and seem to think il
cool, but guess their blood has been
thlnned out and they need it. | would
burn up clad as they are. At nights
1T does get comfortably cool and
several nights have had to phil up
the sheet, but | am on the warm side
OF the house and have the sun on my
room all the afternoon. These peo-
pie, the Indians make Of bathing a
kind Of worship and my TRAVELLING
companion, Mr.. Banner jcc, tells me
that he supposcs at least fifty per
cent make it altogether this while
the other half do not think of the re-
ligious side Of it but do it Just to-
keep clean. 1t is quite common to sec
them finish their bathing then take
up the dirty yellow water and drink
1T. Then to think that the river also
has all kinds of filth in it, it is hard
to understand how they can do tnis
and not get sick-poSsibly many Of
them do
In the parks and open spaces. of
which there are many here, you can
always see people lying out in the
hottest kind of sun sleeping, often
even without a bit of covering over
Their faces, though some take the pre-
caution to cover themselves over with
their garments. They do not seem to
be hurt at all by it, yet they say that
foreigner exposing himself even for
Il very short while without a topcc
plth haD will almost surely get sun
stroke; | had a little feeling of head
ache the first few days when | went
out in the sun for any length of time,
but now l go about even in the mid
die of the day and walk without any
feeling of fear at all. BY the end of
my stay out here, | guess I will be
like an old timer.
TO see the burdens that these peo-
pie carry on their heads is most
amazing. / saw man yesterday with
n big round basket like affair on his
head and it must have been five feet
in diameter at the top on down at the
bottom to round flat surface to sit
N NC