Happy Days for Boys and Girls Part 71

"That's about what it is, miss," answered the old seaman.

"Do you think the people are drowned?" I inquired, anxiously.

"Well," replied Captain Bounce, casting, as I thought, rather a contemptuous glance at me, "people don't in general live under water, miss."

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHARLEY'S WELCOME HOME.]

"Perhaps they may have had boats," I said, meekly. "Do you think boats could have reached the sh.o.r.e in such a storm?"

"Well," answered the old captain, "they might have had boats, and they mightn't; and the boats, supposing they had 'em, might have lived through the storm, and at the same time they mightn't."

This was not giving me much information, and I thought to myself that my friend the skipper did not seem so much inclined for a chat as usual. I turned to look at the sea in search of more pieces of wreck, when I discovered in the distance a dark speck rising out of the water. I pointed it out to the skipper at once, who took his gla.s.s out of his pocket, and after looking through it for a moment exclaimed,

"There's something floating there, and a man clinging to it, as I'm alive!"

As he spoke my brother-in-law came on deck, and also took a look through the telescope. Then he, the captain and every sailor on board became eager and excited. You would have thought it some dear friend of each whose life was to be saved. The yacht was headed in the direction of the object, the boat was quickly lowered, the captain himself, with four sailors, jumping into it, and in another minute they caught in their arms a poor little exhausted and fainting boy as he dropped from the mast of a large sunken ship. We could now distinguish the tops of all the three masts appearing above the waves, for the sea was not deep, and the ship had settled down in an upright position.

Poor Charley Standish was soon in the cabin of the yacht, and after swallowing some champagne he revived sufficiently to tell us his story. The sunken ship was the "Melbourne," bound for Australia, and this was Charley's first voyage as a midshipman on board. During the darkness of the night she had been run into by a large homeward-bound merchantman of the same cla.s.s. She sank within an hour of the collision. In the scramble for the boats Charley thought he had but little chance for finding a place; and as the ship filled and kept sinking deeper in the water, an instinct of self-preservation led him to climb into the rigging. Then up he went, higher and higher, even to the topmast; and at last, when the vessel went down all at once, he found himself, to his inexpressible relief, still above the surface.

What most astonished us all was that a boy so young should have been able to hold on for more than an hour to a slippery mast, exposed to the fury of the wind, and within reach, even, of the lashing waves. We sailed home at once to the Isle of Wight, and wrote to the boy's mother, a widow living in London, to tell her of his safety. The boy himself stayed with us two or three days, until we bought him new clothes, and then went to his mother. Great was her joy when she once more clasped him to her loving heart. My brother-in-law took a great fancy to him. He has watched his career, and seen him at intervals ever since. Charley Standish is now a chief mate on board a great merchantman of the same cla.s.s as the "Melbourne."

THE Pa.r.s.eES.

The Pa.r.s.ees are supposed to be descendants of the ancient Persians, who, after the defeat of their King Yezdezerd, the last of the dynasty of Sa.s.san, by the followers of Mohammed, fled to the mountains of Khorasan. On the death of Yezdezerd, they quitted their native land, and putting to sea, were permitted to settle at Sanjan, a place near the sea-coast, between Bombay and Surat, about twenty-four miles south of Damaun.

The Pa.r.s.ees are now chiefly settled in Bombay, numbering about one hundred and fifteen thousand souls, or one fifth of the population.

The most enterprising, in a commercial point of view, of the various races of Bombay, are the Pa.r.s.ees, some of whom are even more wealthy than the most successful of the European merchants. They bear the very highest character for honesty and industry, and are intelligent and benevolent. The late Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy was a faultless model of a merchant prince, in integrity, enterprise, and munificence. He founded a hospital that bears his name, and made himself conspicuous for his active benevolence up to the day of his death.

Great numbers of the poorer Pa.r.s.ees are clerks in the government offices--a species of service for which they are peculiarly fitted, on account of their attention to business, industry, and general intelligence. Their inclinations are essentially pacific; and such a phenomenon as a Pa.r.s.ee soldier is almost unknown.

The Pa.r.s.ees are alive to the advantage of affording a good education to their children; and among the largest seminaries in the city of Bombay are those belonging to this community. A Pa.r.s.ee school is an interesting sight. The children are decidedly pretty; and as they sit in rows, with glittering, many-colored dresses, and caps and jewels, they look like a gay parterre of flowers.

On account of their peculiar religious belief, the Pa.r.s.ees are known also as "Fire Worshippers;" but however great their awe for fire and light, they consider them only as emblems of a higher power. The Pa.r.s.ees pay reverence to two kinds of fire--the Adaran, lawful for the people to behold; and the Behram, which must be seen by none but the chief Dustoor, or priest, and must be screened from the rays of the sun. When required for a new temple, a portion of the sacred fire is procured in a golden censer from Mount Elbourg, near Yezd, where resides the chief pontiff, and where the holy flame is perpetually maintained. The Behram fire is said to have had its origin from the natural bituminous fires on the sh.o.r.es of the Caspian, and to have never been extinguished. It is supposed to be fed with sandal and other precious and aromatic woods, and is kept burning on a silver grating.

The Pa.r.s.ees are the only Eastern nation who abstain from smoking. They do not eat food cooked by a person of another religion, and object to beef and pork.

When a Pa.r.s.ee dies, a dog must be present, as it is supposed to drive away evil spirits, who are on the alert to seize upon the dying man's soul. This precaution is called the _sagdad_, or dog-gaze. One of the chief reasons for the great veneration in which dogs are held by Pa.r.s.ees arises from the tradition that in their emigration from Persia to India their ancestors were, during a dark night, nearly driven upon the sh.o.r.es of Guzerat, and that they were aroused and first warned of their impending danger by the barking of the dogs on board their ships.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Pa.r.s.eE CHILDREN, BOMBAY.]

When a Pa.r.s.ee dies, the body is dressed in clean, but old clothes, and conveyed to its last resting-place on an iron bier; meat and drink are placed at hand for three days, as during that time the soul is supposed to hover around in the hope of being reunited to its late earthly tenement.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Pa.r.s.eE.]

The Pa.r.s.ee sepulchres are of so peculiar a character as to merit particular notice. Should any of my readers ever go to Bombay, he will find two of these _dakhmas_, or Temples of Silence, in a secluded part of Malabar Hill, though admittance is denied within the walls enclosing the melancholy structures to aught but Pa.r.s.ees. The interior is fitted up with stages or stories of stone pavement, slanting down to a circular opening, like a well, covered with a grating, into which the bones are swept, after the fowls of the air, the dew, and the sun have deprived them of every particle of flesh.

The Pa.r.s.ees a.s.sign as their reason for not burying their dead, that, having received many benefits from the earth during their lifetime, they consider it defiled by placing dead bodies in it. Similarly, they do not adopt the Hindoo custom of burning their dead, as another element, fire, would be rendered impure.

The chief distinctive feature of the Pa.r.s.ee dress is the hat, to which the community cling with a pertinacity that would be extraordinary, were it not common. Even the Pa.r.s.ee representative of "Young Bombay,"

dressed from top to toe in European costume, including a pair of shiny boots, cannot be induced to discard the abominable _topee_, or hat, distinctive of his race; though, perhaps, after all, we who live in gla.s.s houses should not throw stones; for what can be more hideous than the chimney-pot hat of our boasted civilization? The Pa.r.s.ee head-dress, which contests the palm of ugliness with its English rival, is constructed on a strong but light framework, covered with highly-glazed, dark-colored chintz. The priests, who dress like the laity, wear a hat of much the same shape as the former, but white, instead of a dark color.

On occasions of ceremony, the ordinary tight-fitting narrow garment is exchanged for one with very full skirts, like a petticoat; and a shawl is usually worn round the waist, which is at other times omitted. The costume of the women is a combination of that of the Hindoos and Mussulmans, consisting of the short body and _sarree_ of the former, with the full trousers of the latter. Both s.e.xes endue themselves, at seven years of age, with the sacred shirt, which is worn over the trousers; the _sadra_, as it is called, is made of a thin, transparent muslin, and is meant to represent the coat-of-mail the men wore when they arrived in India, and with which they believe they can resist the spiritual a.s.saults of Ahriman, the evil principle. The hair of the women is concealed by linen skull-caps, fitting tight to the head.

It is a singular and interesting sight to watch the Pa.r.s.ees a.s.sembled on the sea-sh.o.r.e, and, as the sun sinks below the horizon, to mark them prostrating themselves, and offering up their orisons to the great giver of light and heat, which they regard as representing the Deity. Their prayers are uttered, it is said, in an unknown tongue; and after the fiery face of the orb of day has disappeared in his ocean bed, and the wondrous pillars of light shooting aslant the sky, proclaim that the "day is done," and the night is at hand, they raise themselves from their knees, and turn silently away from the beach, which is left once more to twilight and the murmur, or, if in angry mood, the roar, of the sea as it breaks on the sh.o.r.e.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {The unknown man rescues the girl from the burning building}]

THE CRIPPLED BOY.

FROM THE FRENCH.

"Don't cry any more, Genevieve; you must get married again," said a man in the working dress of a slater, just returning from his day's work, to a poor woman who was sitting at the foot of a camp bed, weeping, and rocking her baby at the same time. "Your husband is dead; he fell from a ladder, and it killed him. It is a great misfortune for you and your family; but crying won't help you."

Saying these words in a rough voice, to hide the emotion caused by the poor woman's despair, the workman brushed away a tear with his coat sleeve.

"My poor George!" said the woman.

"If your son was only good for anything," added the workman, rudely, throwing a glance of disdain upon a poor, pale, weak, and crippled boy, who was seated on the floor in a corner of the room; "if that child would ever grow into a man, I would take him with me, and teach him how to clamber over roofs, and to keep his balance upon the beams, and drop from the end of a rope. But no, he grows worse and worse every day; and now he can hardly bear his own weight. He is almost twelve years old, that son of yours; and if they said he was four, it would be a compliment."

"Is it the fault of Jacques that he came crooked into the world, my brother?"

"No, certainly not. I don't blame him, poor child, I don't blame him; but he will always be a useless mouth in the world. Luckily, he will not live long," he whispered in the ear of his sister. Then he rose, and went out, calling, "Good by till to-morrow," in a tone of voice which betrayed the anxiety he felt at the situation of his sister and her children.

"_Luckily_ I shall not live long," was repeated by a sweet, sad voice, in an accent which only belongs to those who have suffered deeply.

"What are you saying, Jacques?" inquired Genevieve.

"That I am good for nothing. My uncle was right."

"Take courage, my son. When you are older, you will grow stronger."

"Yes, if--" said the boy.

But he left the sentence unfinished, and his mother was too much absorbed in her grief to ask him what he meant. It was late, and in a few minutes the poor family retired. It was hardly light when Jacques went down into the court-yard to see the grooms curry the horses, wash the carriages, and get ready for the day.

It was summer, and very soon a pretty little girl came down into the court. Jacques uttered a loud cry when he saw her.

"Without crutches, Mademoiselle Emilie!"

"So you see, Jacques," replied the young girl, with a sweet smile. "I shall not use them any more. To be sure, I am a little weak here," she added, showing her left arm and foot, which were smaller than the right; "and besides," she said, "I am a little crooked."