Highroads of Geography Part 5

10. Millions of the Indian people love the Ganges, and they have good reason to do so. It gives water and food to more than twice as many people as dwell in the British Islands.

11. Many Indians think that every drop of water in the river is holy.

They believe that if they bathe in its waters their souls will be washed clean from sin.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Town on the Ganges}]

12. There is a town by the side of the Ganges which the Indians say is the holiest place on earth. It is full of temples. Millions of Indians visit these temples every year.

13. All along the river bank there are stone steps leading down to the water. Standing in the stream are men and women and children who have come from all parts of India. They wash themselves in the stream, and pour the holy water over their heads as they pray.

14. People who are very ill are carried to this place, that they may die by the side of "Mother Ganges." They die happy if they can see her or hear the sound of her waters during their last moments.

15. When they die their bodies are taken to the steps. There they are washed in the river water, and are placed on piles of wood. Friends set fire to the wood, and soon the bodies are burnt to ashes. These ashes are thrown into the stream, which bears them to the distant ocean.

14. INDIAN BOYS AND GIRLS.

1. I am very fond of going about the streets with your uncle. The Indian children always amuse me.

2. When Indians grow up they are rather grave and sad. The children, however, are always bright and merry. Indian fathers and mothers are very fond of their boys. They care very little for their girls.

3. Boys soon become men in India. They begin work at an early age, and they are married when they are about sixteen. Girls are married a few years younger.

4. Almost every boy follows the trade of his father. A farmer's son becomes a farmer, a weaver's son becomes a weaver, and so on.

5. Many of the boys go to school, but not many of the girls. They, poor things, begin to work in the house or in the field almost as soon as they can walk. Much of the hard rough work in India is done by poor women and girls.

6. A rich father keeps his girls shut up in the back part of his house.

Their faces are never seen by any man except those of their own family.

If they go out of the house, they cover themselves from head to foot with a thick veil. Sometimes they are carried from place to place in a closely shut box on poles.

7. Are you not sorry for these poor rich girls? I am. They can never play merry games with boy friends, or go for long walks in the country.

8. They know nothing of the beautiful world in which they live. Their rooms are fine, their dresses are grand, and their jewels are lovely; but they are only poor prisoners after all.

9. Yesterday I went with your uncle to see a village school. There were only twenty boys in it. The roof was off the schoolhouse, so the cla.s.ses were held in the open air.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {A village schoolhouse}]

10. The boys sat on forms, just as you do. The teacher wrote on a blackboard, and taught the children to do sums with a ball frame. Each boy had a reading-book. It was not printed in English, but in the tongue spoken in that part of the country.

11. Some of the boys wrote in copy-books, but most of them wrote on thin boards, which they used instead of slates. Instead of a pencil they used a pen made of a reed.

12. Chalk was ground up and wetted in a little cup. The boys dipped their reed pens into the cup, just as you dip your steel pen into the ink. The letters and figures which they wrote were very different from ours.

13. Some of the boys read their books very well, and worked hard sums.

They sang "G.o.d save the King" for me in their own tongue.

14. In the towns there are large and good schools. Some of the scholars are very clever indeed. I think Indian boys are much fonder of their lessons than our boys.

15. ELEPHANTS AND TIGERS.

1. In his last letter Tom asked me to tell him something about elephants and tigers. I will try to do so.

2. Yesterday your uncle and I went out to shoot pigeons. An Indian chief, or rajah, lent us an elephant to carry us to the shooting ground.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN INDIAN RAJAH.]

3. A driver sat on the neck of the huge animal. Instead of a whip he had a goad of sharp steel. I did not see him p.r.i.c.k the elephant with this goad. He guided the animal with voice and hand.

4. On the elephant's back there was a large pad upon which we were to sit. I could see no ladder, so I wondered how I was to climb up. Just then the elephant knelt down on his hind legs.

5. Your uncle showed me how to get up. "Here," he said, "is a ladder of two steps. The first step is the elephant's foot, the second is the loop of his tail."

6. He held the end of the elephant's tail in his hand and bent it to make a loop. When I put my foot on it he lifted the tail, and in this way helped me on to the elephant's back.

7. When your uncle had climbed up, the elephant jogged off at a good pace. He went along rough, narrow paths, over ditches and the beds of streams. Never once did he make a false step.

8. An elephant costs a great deal of money. Only princes and rich men can afford to keep them. Sometimes a great prince has as many as a hundred elephants in his stables.

9. When a prince rides through a city in state his elephants wear rich cloths, which are studded with gems. Sometimes the elephants' heads are painted and their tusks are covered with gold.

10. In the drawing-room of your uncle's house there is a beautiful tiger skin. The tiger that used to wear this skin was shot by your uncle about three years ago.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Tiger skin rug}]

11. It was a man-eating tiger--that is, an old tiger that could no longer run fast enough to catch deer. This man-eater used to hide near a village. He would creep up silently behind men and women, and stun them with a blow of his paw. Then he would drag them away and eat them.

12. The people of the village came to your uncle and begged him to kill the man-eater. He agreed to do so. Near to the tiger's drinking-place a little hut was built in a tree. One night your uncle sat in this hut with his gun on his knee, waiting for the tiger to come.

13. Slowly the hours went by, and your uncle felt sure that the tiger had gone to another place to drink. Just as he was thinking of going home to bed the huge animal crept into the moonlight.

14. Nearer and nearer he came. Then your uncle lifted his gun, took a steady aim, and shot the tiger through the heart.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Tiger being shot}]

15. In the morning there was great joy among the people of the village because their fierce foe was dead. They hung garlands of flowers round your uncle's neck, and sang his praises in many songs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Tiger Shoot.

(From the picture by Edgar H. Fisher, in the Royal Academy, 1911.)]

16. Now I must close this very long letter.--Best love to you all.