BABYLONIAN PETER PAN

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3183, 6 September 1917, Page 9

BABYLONIAN PETER PAN

: BENGAL ■illi.UlKN IN MESOPOTAMIA. From a pictnrcsqno- description written by Mr. Edmund Candlcr, of the Labour Corps in Mesopotamia, which is recruited from tho Santals, a liilli. tribe of Bengal, wo extract, the- following:— "Tbo other day. I ran into a crowd of Santals on. tho Bridge of Boats in. Bagdad. It was probably the first time that Babylon had drawn into its vortex tho aboriginals of the hill tracts of Bon-al On board 1 ship the bantal saw coal for the first time. Each, man waa given a brickctte with his rations tor fuel, and Jangal Baefci, Goomda lusku, and others put their vessel on tlio htrango black substance and expected it "Wo" went Die Tound of, their' tents, and they played to us on their flutes, the'sumo pastoral strains one hears iu villages all over tho East; and they showed us the Sika, mark burnt into their forearms, always an odd number, which, like Charon's Obol, is supposed, to Rivo them a good send-off in the next world. They burn, themselves, too, when they havo aches and pains. Thero is a curious relicence about names among the Santals. Husband and wife will Dot mention each other's names,; not oven when t-peaking of someone else bearing tho sanio name. When receiving nor allotment from a British officer tho bantal woman has to call in a third person to name the. absent husband. ' ltwoulrt bo a species of blasphemy (o • uvulgo the secret; herself. Of course, it is. 1""« useless to ask ■«. Sautal his age. How old-are you?" tlio O.C. of tho corps asked one of (lioso bearded men of tho woods. 'Sahib,' tho Santai replied, after some iHickcrinsj of the brow in calculation, 'E am at least five years old. •-