Seven Legs Across the Seas Part 29

An umbrella is the sign of authority in this section of the world where a group of natives are engaged at work. Whether the weather be wet, cloudy, or clear, the Indian foreman is known by his holding an umbrella.

A finger bowl is placed at the side of every plate when serving food in India.

The word "calico" had its origin in India. The city of Calicut, whence the word calico is derived, was a cotton goods manufacturing center in early times.

Madras, the third largest city in India, is composed mostly of Hindus, and where that sect is found the sacred cows and bulls will be in evidence, as well as the miserable widows, the burning ghats; the mothers who give their young daughters to depraved priests who persuade the parents they will gain special favor in the sight of the G.o.ds for so doing; the goat-slaughtering places, the idols of monkeys, snakes, and other characters, and juggernaut cars. The Hindu has little to recommend him in either person or religion, and yet the best-fed things we saw in that country were connected with the church--the sacred bulls and cows.

The native quarters and the temples were the same as have been touched on in our Indian notes. The bazaars were the same, and there seemed to be more nearly naked people, owing to the weather on the Coramandel coast being warmer than that further north. One wonders how Europeans stand the heat, as few cool breezes blow in the hot sections of that country to refresh the jaded.

Mention has been made on several occasions of the appalling mortality from fevers and pestilence. A considerable portion of the mortality may be accounted for, however, when the reader learns that there is practically no sewerage from east to west and from south to north in this thickly populated country. With no sewerage, and the habits of the people as a race being the opposite of clean, together with all of the Hindus holding in reverence venomous snakes and mad dogs, and some sects bedbugs, mosquitoes, and vermin, the wonder is not at the great number that fall victims to these various causes, but how to account for so many being alive.

Madras was the last stop in India, as a train was boarded for Tuticorin. We pa.s.sed through a country that is celebrated for its splendid temples, which are strange to understand when one sees the crude tools and archaic methods employed to do ordinary kinds of work.

In the artistic designs and richness of construction of some temples and mosques one sees the acme of art, and in mechanism the mien.

Judging from the latter, it might seem that some skilled race of people had made their abode in that country during the period of construction of some of the buildings, and then had pa.s.sed out, unseen, as it were. The people of India, as they appear to Europeans, with their marble and gold buildings, seem to be a contradiction. The country was flat to Tuticorin, half of it being under water, the monsoons just having ended.

CHAPTER VI

The sail from Tuticorin to Colombo, Ceylon, is 147 miles. The first thing one notices in Colombo, the capital of Ceylon, is the large number of natives wearing very little clothing. Ricksha pullers are as numerous as flies and very annoying, as they follow one about the streets for an hour in the hope that the visitor will patronize the two-wheeled sulky. Where men and women are dressed, it is hard to tell which from which, as a large number of the men wear long hair, tied at the back in a knot. In addition, the high-caste Singhalese wears an amber-colored comb just under the crown of his head; it is what women call a backcomb. A great many of these are made from turtle sh.e.l.l and are very expensive, based on the wealth of the wearer. Men's clothes look more like a dress than man's apparel, so, when men are seen wearing long hair, a backcomb, and a sort of dress, one looks on them as half-women. The women are much given to wearing clothes of flaring-colored cloth, but there is still a strong reflection of India on all sides. The best way to appreciate Ceylon is to visit that island before visiting India, for after one has pa.s.sed through India and then visits the lesser country he will not absorb some of the beautiful and interesting things for which Ceylon is famed, because of the noted mosques, temples, mountains, and teeming millions found in the greater country.

The congested population of Ceylon may be inferred from its area--25,000 square miles--containing over 4,000,000 people. The island is 270 miles long and 140 miles wide at its broadest part.

Since 1796 the island has been under British control. The exports are interesting, as they include tea, coffee, cinnamon, cocoa, cocoanut oil and rubber, besides other tropical products. Ceylon is administered by a governor, who is subject to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in London.

Scaffolding used in Ceylon and other Eastern countries when erecting buildings is odd. The supports to which the floors of the scaffolding rest are bamboo poles, and the crosspieces and other material used to work on are held together by rope, no nails being used. The scaffolding is so bulky, crude and shaky that the walls of a building look as if they were out of plumb, but the scaffolding nearly always hides the new building entirely from view.

Most of the ships plying Eastern seas stop at Colombo, and, with the exception of Port Said, it is perhaps one of the most popular maritime stations in the world.

The buildings of Colombo would not suggest being in far-off Ceylon.

They are composed of brick, stone, and mortar, several stories in height. The streets are clean. Colombo, however, is the rosy apple with the decayed center, as a mile from the European or business center is the Pettah, or native town, with its squalid quarters, narrow streets, ox carts, absence of sidewalks, people barefooted, and many of untidy appearance. More English is spoken in Ceylon than in India. The population of Colombo is nearly 200,000.

A splendid driveway and promenade runs along the ocean front, and is paved from the city to a well-known hotel. Also a good park and museum that is interesting. Cinnamon trees grow in the park, and from the bark of the trees a cinnamon odor arises. There are two qualities of the cinnamon, known as quills and bark. The quills look like bark strips taken from a sapling, and are over a foot in length, tied in bundles. The export of cinnamon from Ceylon is 120,000,000 pounds of bark a year. All the vegetation about Colombo is tropical.

One of the social gauges by which a European is measured is the cla.s.s of railway coach in which he travels. If it be a second-cla.s.s coach he is thought little of by the natives, and is apt to get the cold shoulder from Europeans. When a white man has become a victim to the liquor habit and loses self-respect in the black countries a collection is generally taken up among Europeans to buy his pa.s.sage to some other country.

Some 6,000 Europeans live in Ceylon, which accounts for the newspapers being well patronized, both in the city and throughout the island.

One of the prettiest trips in the world is from Colombo to Kandy, 75 miles separating the two cities. One meets with cocoanut palms and other tropical growths in the hot countries along the sea coast, but to travel through a tropical section on a railway train for that distance is unusual. The train pa.s.ses through a stretch of heavy vegetation, then an open strip of country, with bright green-colored rice paddies (fields or patches) on both sides of the track. Next the train is flanked by groves of cocoanut palms, which disappear when the train darts into a tunnel. Emerging, on the side of the hill will be seen growing the broad-leafed breadfruit tree, and a similar looking one, the jacfruit tree, with large, rough-looking shuck, is also a product of the soil. Down in the valley the pale-green paddies will be found, the rice growing in a foot of water. Into another tunnel the train suddenly disappears, and an upward grade is traveled, when short, stubby rows of tea bushes appear. Then, looking to the right, rise mountains to a height of 2,000 feet. On another side natives may be seen in a large grove, with small tin cups in their hands, devoting their time to the trees; these are rubber-tree tappers and sap collectors. The air has now become clearer and cooler than the humid atmosphere of Colombo. Along the roads that parallel the railway track may be seen a light wagon, or trap, with two fast-stepping bullocks. .h.i.tched to the vehicle. These are known as "trotting bullocks," and are the fastest means of pa.s.senger transportation away from the more populous centers. All landscape scenes and vistas on the route from Colombo to Kandy are luxuriantly tropical.

Kandy has a population of 25,000, but if the same place were located in Europe or in the United States, considering its attractiveness, half a million people would occupy one-story bungalows on the verdure-drooping hillsides and the pretty valley would be lined by homes of wealthy people far beyond the limited s.p.a.ce now built upon.

Splendid roadways and paths, embowered with tropical leaves, have been cut into the hillsides, and from these one looks down on a pretty lake in the valley. When the beauty and attractiveness of places cannot be truly portrayed by modern photographic appliances, it is difficult to reflect their characteristics with the pen. The alt.i.tude of Kandy is nearly 2,000 feet above sea-level, which insures a better atmosphere than is usually found on the coast in tropical climes.

Kandy was the capital of what was known as the Kandy Kingdom, and was subjected to attacks by both the Portuguese and Dutch from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, when England added that section of Ceylon to her possessions, in 1815.

Buddha's tooth and other sacred Hindu relics having been brought to Kandy at an earlier date was the means of bringing that pretty place in Ceylon to the fore. It has not been made clear whether Buddha had but one molar or a full set, but the inference is that he had but one tooth, as the sacred bone is referred to as Buddha's tooth. There is no question about Buddha having been quite a traveler, as the imprints of his foot will be shown visitors at places separated by many hundreds of miles. And in connection with the foot imprint, it is always designated as Buddha's foot, so, if the one-tooth theory is to be entertained, his having but one foot, or one leg, would be equally as tenable. The tooth, anyway, like the Koh-i-Noor diamond, was considered a treasure, and for that precious reason it had been stolen on several occasions, but the original molar seems to have got lost, or some one is secreting it until the price of that particular bone advances to a fabulous figure. But the Hindus of Ceylon had to have a Buddha tooth, so an imitation "grinder" was made--a piece of discolored ivory two inches long and about an inch in diameter, which looks more like a crocodile's tooth than that of a man. The sacred tooth is said to repose now under a golden lotus flower, and the flower is hidden by seven metal shrines containing jewels in a sacred building in the courtyard of Maligawa Temple. In front of the temple is a tank containing tortoises, from whose "coverings," perhaps, the Singhalese will make haircombs later.

Taking a short trip from Kandy, a river was reached, and the ferry boat was slowly pulled from one side to the other by men with ropes.

The boat was crowded with ox teams and almost naked natives. A short distance from the ferry landing seven elephants were seen bathing in the river. Continuing along a tropical overgrown road, at a bend we were confronted with three elephants in charge of mahouts, each carrying by its teeth four sacks of copra. A rope had been placed around the center of the bags, was pulled tight, and a short end of it was held by the elephants' grinders. The products were being brought to the ferry by the big beasts, and oxen would then draw this to Kandy, the nearest railroad center. By the same means tea and other products are transported, and provisions from Kandy are delivered at the other side of the river, from which point elephants advance the wares beyond. The elephants are owned by an heir of the old Kandy rulers, and on certain holidays they are brought to the city, when they parade about the former capital fifteen times.

Women standing in water nearly to their knees were engaged at transplanting rice stalks in paddies. The paddies, or beds, which are banked with earth from 6 to 12 inches on all sides to retain water, range in area from a s.p.a.ce six feet square to a plot containing acres.

In these the rice is sown, and when the stalks have grown to about a foot high most of them are transplanted. In some parts of the paddy the rice will be too thickly sowed, and in other sections not thick enough. The stalks in the thickets will then be pulled out, those left being the regular growth. The surplus stalks will next be transplanted in thinly sowed places of the bed. By this means the paddy would be equally sown; and it was interesting to observe the alertness with which the work progressed. At a place in India a dozen men were seen baling water from a ditch into a paddy with their hands, ill.u.s.trating the crude methods in use. Rice is the staple food of natives in Ceylon.

In both India and Ceylon one never sees a woman servant engaged at housework in European homes or hotels. Men are exclusively employed at this occupation, women doing the harder work in the fields, carrying water, bricks, etc.

The Royal Botanical Garden, located a few miles from Kandy, was the most interesting one seen. We had visited the clove groves at Zanzibar, and specimens were growing in the Kandy garden, but we had not seen the nutmeg tree before. The nutmeg grows on a tree as large as the buckeye, or horse chestnut, and is of the same nature, differing in one respect, however, the nutmeg being protected by an inner shuck. It falls from the tree, when the outer shuck cracks, but is protected by the inner or second covering. It is then the size and color of a pink peach, but when the second shuck has been removed the nutmeg of commerce is seen. The vanilla bean hung from vines in the garden; the pepper vine was seen among the plants growing; the sago palm grew there, also the "candlestick" tree, besides other rare growths. Some of the larger trees in this garden were bare of leaves, which tropical oddity was accounted for by the presence of flying foxes--the same as those mentioned in Leg Four--hanging by the claws of one leg from the limbs during the day. There were thousands of these large bats, and, as in Tonga, they were considered sacred, and no one would kill them.

In this part of Ceylon most of the land was under tea cultivation. Tea exports from the island are nearly 190,000,000 pounds a year.

While oxen are the means of transportation in both India and Ceylon, automobiles may be seen skimming about the good roads in both countries.

A return was made to Colombo, where a ship, on which pa.s.sage had been engaged, was about due to leave that port. I had sailed on English, Swedish and German vessels till I had reached Bombay; but from Colombo I started east on a j.a.panese ship.

LEG SEVEN

CHAPTER I

Hearing pa.s.sengers refer to incidents that took place aboard ship "three weeks ago" sounded far-fetched in these days of speedy travel, yet those on this j.a.panese ship had been at sea over four weeks when the vessel sailed from Colombo on her Far Eastern voyage. The European pa.s.sengers were nearly all English, and not a single American was met with. Some j.a.panese and Chinese were traveling second-cla.s.s, but Europeans were a.s.signed certain tables and the "yellow" men had tables to themselves. Steamship fare is reasonable for long voyages, but the fare from intermediate ports in this section of the world is expensive. The ship was loaded to the water-line with cargo, and every berth was occupied. The deck was covered with a double canvas as we traveled through a tropical sun over the Indian Ocean. Some of the pa.s.sengers were going to Siam and Cochin-China, others to the Federated Malay States, a few to Borneo, and a number to Java; also others bound for Hongkong, Manila, and Shanghai, the southern j.a.panese ports, and the remainder for Yokohama, j.a.pan, the last stop. The voyage was from Antwerp, Belgium, to Yokohama, a nine weeks' journey.

Until recently marine insurance companies would not take any risk with j.a.panese-manned ships, for which reason the merchant fleet of j.a.pan had been under the direction of British captains and chief engineers.

In order that j.a.panese could command j.a.panese ships, examinations for the position of captain or chief engineer was made more severe than that required by other countries. By this means the services of British officers are gradually being dispensed with, insurance companies now recognizing the efficiency of j.a.panese navigators.

Three days out from Colombo land was seen to the south--Sumatra, a Dutch possession, where the natives cause much trouble. Entering the Straits of Malacca, bounded on the north by the Malay Peninsula and on the south by Sumatra, for 500 miles--the length of the Straits--we sailed in sight of land. (The Indian Ocean had been crossed and recrossed on the trip to Australia and back to South Africa, then to Mombasa and over to Bombay.) We have now left the Straits and the Indian Ocean, and the ship is sailing through an island-dotted stretch of sea; a city appears ahead--Singapore, the maritime junction of the Far East.

What a difference in the condition of the people in this city to those seen in India and Ceylon! None looked starved, there were no deformed people, no beggars, and the natives were tidier and better dressed.

The native Malay is much lighter in color than the Indian and Singhalese. Though the Malay is the native of Singapore, Chinese far outnumber them or any other race.

The business section of Singapore is as flat as the Indian plains, and when a heavy shower of rain falls some of the streets are under water two feet. The population of the Straits Settlements metropolis is over 300,000 and, as in India, there is no sewerage in the city. The streets in the native and Chinese quarters were better looked after than those in Indian cities in similar sections. Some of the business buildings are good and substantial, with elevators in the larger structures. Many of the sidewalks are covered by balconies to buildings in the business district, which is accounted for by the hot weather in that section the year round, Singapore being located 80 miles north of the equator.

All vessels sailing in that part of the world stop at Singapore--those going to Java, Borneo, Siam, Cochin-China, south or north of the Philippine group, and vessels that continue to China and j.a.pan. Some vessels go no further east than Singapore, and again start from that point west.

The Straits Settlements comprise the island of Singapore, the Province of Malacca and a number of other islands in that district. The Federated Malay States are embraced in the Malay Peninsula, all of which is under British rule. The governor of the Straits Settlements also has jurisdiction over the Federated States. The city of Singapore was selected as an English settlement by Stamford Raffles in 1819, at that time a small native colony. Singapore island is 28 miles long and 14 miles wide.

Irish potatoes do not grow in that section, and one seldom has fresh milk, condensed milk being the lacteal generally used in many sections of the tropics. It looked strange to see a big ship unloading for days cases containing tins of milk, brought from Europe, to a country where gra.s.s is always green.

Thousands of acres of Singapore Island are under pineapple cultivation, and large quant.i.ties of that fruit are shipped from this port. The bountiful yield of this product has been brought about almost entirely through the industriousness of Chinese.

Pa.s.sing a cocoanut grove, trees, almost uprooted, will be seen lying flat on the ground, the fronds being as fresh and green as those standing. Nothing can inspire hope so much as the cocoanut palm. It is often blown down by storms, twisted and wrecked, but as long as there is left even a thread of root the palm will continue to grow. As soon as it has recovered from the shock, so to speak, the bushy top that had been flattened on the earth from the fall will be seen pointing upward. Pa.s.s the same dethroned palm later, and the fronds will be found to be in a direct line with the rays of the sun at midday. Under any adversity its head will be pointed straight upward. A large tonnage of copra is also shipped from this port, there being extensive cocoanut plantations on Singapore and adjacent islands.

This part of the world is rubber mad. Rubber grows in some sections of the Federated States better than anywhere else. Questionable rubber companies operate here, however, stock being issued and dealt in, after which the "sharpers" get aboard-ship and disappear. As much as 400 pounds of rubber an acre is gathered yearly, the price running from $3 to $4 a pound. Much of the tin used in the world is mined in this district, which, with rubber, are also staple exports from this port.