STRANGE PLACES AND PEOPLE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 25 May 1915, Page 3

STRANGE PLACES AND PEOPLE.

IN THE ORIENT.

la its review of a recently published book, the Australasian says that the author\(Mr Clayton Sedgwiek. Cooper) is an American educationist who has in recent years travelled far and. vyide, studying in particular the educational institutions of Eastern countries, from Algeria to Japan and,the Philippines. The book is to a large extent a commentary upon the various systems of education which he saw at work, but it also contains a good deal of interesting information about the social conditions of the different. countries which he visited, as well as some vivid pictures of scenes encountered in the ctfurse of his travels. For instance, Mr Cooper shows that in India—that is to «ay 3 , among Hindus; who fo'rin the vast majority of the population—caste, the bonds of which are still strong, since all family and social life is based upon it, is the chief obstacle in the way of true education in the Western sense of thje word. Even; the educated Hindu dare not, if he would, break caste, and the result only too often is that he has frequently to play the hypocrite. To illustrate this point, Mr Cooper tells an amusing story. One. afternoon a highcjyste Brahmin chanced to be calling upon him as tea was brought into the room for JMr Copper and his wife. At their invitation the visitor, somewhat hesitatingly, allowed Mrs Cooper to give him a cup of tea and a piece of cake, which he proceeded to eat. Before tea was over a rap at the door announced a second ,; visitor. This chanced to be another Brahmin of the same caste as the gentleman who was eating with the foreigners. When the I second caller was announced Mrs Cooper noticed the embarrassment depicted on the face of guest number one, and to his extreme relief tactfully removed his cup and plate of half-eaten cake from before him, carefully hiding fchem from view. Brahirin number two then entered the room, and was invited, to partake of tea aria cake. He re-' fused, saying, with a pious look at his J fellow-Brahmin, "We Brahmins, as you know, are strictly orthodox. We never j eat with those outside our caste." When Mrs Cooper expressed her regret at not being able to show proper nos-J pitality to either of tbe two gentlemen present, a grateful look passed over the face of Brahmin number one. "It was! not.'* observes Mr Cooper, "that either of these gentlemen would refuse, if alone, to. drink tea and eat cake with us, but they were afraid of each other in the tragic fear of caste. They were not unlike certain extreme and radical! temperance advocates, whom I used to! meet in obscure parts' of America, who! would always refuse a drink when their | friend, John Jones, was present, but1 at other times ." Caste, however, is breaking down to some extent under the influence of Western ideas, and under the impulse given by such liberal' leaders as the Gaekwar of Baroda, forj instance, but when caste rules are laid aside few, if any, moral restraints re-| main to control the conduct of the | emancipated Hindu. Among the out-of-the-way places to which Mr Cooper journeyed was the mountain home of the Kabyle hillmen, in the far north of Algeria. These hillmen are proud and turbulent folk, who have fought for generations to preserve their liberty. Turks, Carthagians, Romans and Vandals have successively tried in vain to subjugate them ; btit! the French now seem to be succeeding; where all previous invaders failed. Mr Cooper travelled from Algiers by motorcar, and within a few hours after leaving the city he was in the midst of wild mountain scenery. The road, hewn from the sides of the mountains, is said to have been made, with all its alarming zig-zags, in seventeen days, the French employing for the purpose 30,000 soldiers. "Sometimes," says Mr Cooper, "we looked upon gorges hundreds of feet below us, each hill and peak, as far as we could see, crowned with a small Kabyle village, consisting of a cluster of houses, that seemed perched on the jagged tops like flocks of birds." The chief auxiliaries! of French control are such wonderful strategic roads for the rapid movement of .troops and a system of compulsory education. Mr Cooper found small, white schoolhouses in the villages, and there the' rising generation of these Berber mountaineers were being taught to forget the old-time bai-barism of their race. Every child of school age is obliged to attend, save one, who may be retained as a shepherd boy. - Mr Cooper was particularly struck by the contrast between the French attitude towards these natives and the attitude of British residents towards natives of India. The Frenchman in Kayble Land mixes freely with the natives. He has gone to Algeria, not simply to govern, but to make his home there. "The two peoples sit together in the small cafes of the Kabyle inns, frequently intermarry, and give little evidence of that feeling of social difference which is everywhere evident in Egypt and India between the governing and the governed."

In the village huts Kabyle families! were to be seen living on mud floors with their domestic animals. The huts were built of sun-dried mud bricks, and thatched with straw. They were with- j out windows, chimneys, chairs, tables, | or beds, A slab of mud served for a-1 seat; no ah' came in, save by the door-) way; there was no privacy, no touch of homeliness. In one corner would be a woman weaving, in another a great jar, which held food and clothing—all the household treasures, in fact. For kitchen there would be a cooking-pot .set upon three stones; a donkey would be tied to one wall, while goats would be roped off in a small enclosure on another side of the hovel. A wife is something of a luxury among the Ka- ] byle, for her cost ranges from £4 to £24. The boy who acted as Mr Cooper's guide told him that lie had saved £10, j in ordar that he might buy a wife nndj have a little cottage on one of the i mountains. Indeed, a Kabyle will, it seems, live on sixpence a day, or.c penny of -\vhieh he will spend upon tobacco, h:,s only luxury; and if he has no work will'cut his poor rations in half,, in order that he may save enough to buy a wife. With education, how-j ever, the problem of the new woman presented itself to the Kabyle of a certain village. A young native Christian connected with a mission decided to marry; whereupon the missionaries persuaded him to put off the marriage, and allow the girl to b-3 trained for four years in the mission school, in order that «he might be an example to other village maidens. . The youth agreed, and for four years the gii'l was trained in needlework, housekeeping, cooking, and other accomplishments of the model wife. She was clever and adaptable, and the mission ladies expected that her success would result in other fiancees being brought to the mission for training. During the four years, however, the young woman must have learnt things not deemed advisable for Moslem Kabyle wives to know. One of these things was that a woman is at least a man's equal. On her wedding day she horrified the assembled guests by refusing to kiss the feet of her husband's male relatives. Such unparalleled rebellion on part of a bride created a local sensation. The matter did not end there, for the young wife refused to submit in abject obedience

- feolthß *yri\\ ,OVHeiT' mpther-in-}aw, t a -jvbman\o| j^eT'old aohooh^'Thel cjd; lijly put liir'vfitß'ifer mutinous d'aughier-in-law and -the'pitying-looks of Heriieigh'borsibr a few, months.^ Then, took the law into Her own hands, -with the ■ result that one night the missionaries, were hastily summoned by the young man to save, the life of his wife. She was saved hjt *t>.e effective administration of an arsenid antidote; but since then it has been impossible to persuade any Kahyle of; that district that educa-« tion is good for women.