News From Other Lands

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 72, 17 December 1938, Page 11 (Supplement)

News From Other Lands

(CORRESPONDING with boys and girls of other lands is a hobby full of interest, as you will see by these extracts from penfriends letters.

yjY sister and 1 left London early one morning with a friend, who vv;igoilig up to Recilliain in Norfolk mid he look us with him to see the cnuiurx It was very different from New Zen land. There were moors mid no nillWe passed through nimi\ towns and country villages, some of which wen Norwich. Cambridge and l.uion \s we came to them we climbed out to see the cathedrals mid universities and in

teresting things Al about * p.m we remlied l{eedli:im. a little coiintry village on Hie Wmene.t River We had dinner, or suppei as H is called there, mid I hen we both went to l a walk across Hie fields to see the Reedliaiu t'linrili We could not go in. but it looked ver.) pi'ett.) from the outside, h became dark so qllickl.) that we had lo retrace our steps brick to the inu where we were staying The inn looUed out across the narrow river neymud which lint mill swampy grassland lor miles around could lie seen, o-'l t'asbioneil windmills, mid entile grazing

The next morning we decided to go to Yarmouth. Hie great fishing village The beaches were crowded with ho 1 ! day makers The lug fishing season had not slarted. so all we saw wen Hie hundreds of nets tied up on rhe fences waiting for llie next catches

Next day we look a bus to Sandringham. There were -’umbel’s of people around the gates when we arrived: they were all hoping to see Queen Mary. Unluckily, we arrived a day i<>> late, for the public had been allowed into the grounds. We had to content ourselves with what we saw from the gates, tiut we were able to walk through the pretty little church used by the Royal Family when there. Behind the church are the huge grounds of Sandringham, where there are many deer. From here we walked along the asphalt road, with pines growing on either side, toward Castle Rising. It was lovely walking along beside open moors-and pink heather. I picked some and still have it. We walked right to Castle Rising; it is just another estate given the name because of the famous castle (now in ruins) where Queen Isabella lived. The stair-cases up to the towers were very narrow and winding. While I stood in Queen Isabella's room I looked out of the narrow window looking across the moor, as the Queen had done many, many years ago, watching for her riding knight to bring her the answer of a very important letter she had written to London.

Before leaving Castle Rising we had tea at a little cottage with hollyhocks growing all round the fences.

Prayer Day on Top of the World.

Where tlie sacred city of Lhasa stands on the Roof of the World the prayers of the Tibetans have ascended to Buddha for twenty days without ceasing.

In the Tibetan year praying never ceases. Daily the prayer mills twirl in thousands of hands, and from thousands of throats the mystic words "Om Padme Um" are hundreds of times repeated. But once a year the Tibetans throng from their villages to Lhasa to join in the Great Prayer. Thirty thousand monks emerge from the monasteries to join witli the common folk of the capital and the incoming villagers from all parts in the squalid streets below, the hill. The monks pray and chant and walk in processions. When all reverence had been done there was an interval for a kind of Saturnalia. The 30,000 monks withdrew themselves from it, and were shut up in their monasteries, and prayer gave place to revelling, dancing and singing. When the revelling was over Lhasa settled down again to religious rites, shared by priests and people. A huge image with a grinning skull to represent the demons was built up and placed for all to see. Soldiers and priests threatened it. An oracle worked himself into a frenzy like that of a dancing dervish before it. and collapsed in a trauce. That was the signal to the populace, who seized the image, carried it to tlie gate of Lhasa, and burnt It. Thus the demons were driven out from the sacred city, on which quiet then fell. A Superstition in Texas. In Texas, U.S.A., there is .n old saying that if the chipmunk comes out of his winter den ou February 2 and does not see his shadow, his instinct tells him that winter is over. But if his shadow appears he returns to his hole and does not venture forth for another six weeks. Of course, no one really believes that this is a true sign of a late or early spring, but everybody is interested, and even the newspapers comment on the probable apjiearance of the chipmunk. In Texas State, February 2 is named after that small animal.—From an American penfriend’s letter to Peter (16), Havelock North.