LANDS OF THE MOONLIGHT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2130, 20 December 1894, Page 26

LANDS OF THE MOONLIGHT.

(Specially written for the Witness Christina*

If umber of 1594-)

By BERNARD EBPINASBE.

INDIA. I.— THE CITY OE KALI.

Editorial restrictions limit me to a space inadequate to permit of my traversing even a portion of that wonderful empire, India, of which it has been said, in respect to its acquisition by England, " there is but one thing more wonderful — her retention of it." Travellers, in recalling their experiences of many countries, have spoken to me of India In the simile of a veil of dark and curious texture, spangled with gems, and thrown in a twisted knot across the mirror of their recollections. It Is a land where it Is always afternoon. And the brooding spirit of eternal mystery appears to be ever hovering above it with out-stretched, sun-shading wings. Ita myriad temples and numberless cities, around which winds so vast a chain of association?, memories, and legends— mighty links between time and humanity — cannot be lightly skimmed by the flying pen. To select our place from the many is a task of self-denial ; nevertheless I have chosen that one for the subject of this article which, being tke British capital, is most close to the Western heart. To most who read and havo not seen, Calcutta is India. But those wherein throbs the true pulse of the East — Benares, tbe Holy City of the Pilgrims ; Delhi, with its age-worn ruins of buried cities ; Oawnpore, the Couch of Death ; Agra, wrapped in the shade of a mighty sovereignty passed away ; Lucknow, that from the hills still flames redly in the twilight; Poona, the Valley of Diamonds ; Lahore, tho Splendid ; Dahra, in the lap of the hoary Himalaya, the homes of the gods;— all these must wait, unwritten of by me, until a future tiaae, I trust.

CALCUTTA, THE CAPITAL OF BEITIBH INDIA,

is situated not on the Ganges, as is often supposed, but upon the Hocgbly, the principal tributary of the Gangetic Delta. Ganga, the great mother, is pre-eminently the saored river of the East. To die on its banks is the first step towards entering the gate* of the Hindu Paradise. To wash in itn waters is to cleanse both body aad soul. Upon the waters of the Ganges are the Brahmins sworn in the British courts of justice, and no oath that could be devisei by mortal mind would be one half as binding. Along all the course of this weird, wonderful river, from Gungatri to the island of Sagur, there prevails an indescribable atmosphere of sanctity.

It has eight mouths, only one of which (the Sunderbund passage, opening into the Hooghly) presents a navigable channel for vessels drawing 15ft of water. We anchored off the Sundorbunds, a dreary alluvial level, from 100 to 200 miles in breadth, at about 4 o'clock iv the morning. A dense grey fog rested upon the face of the water, and out of the haze came the dull roar of a tiger, deep-mouthing m a welcome from the jungle. With the first light our eyes chilled us with the sight of a dead body floating down the stream— common enough, we learnt, where so many fanatically cant themselves upon the broad bosom of the Ganges, with assurance of thereby taking a short cat to Heaven — via, first of all, it must not be forgotten, the greedy maw of a crocodile, whereof most ferocious specimens teem in tbe neighbourhood of the Snnderbunds. On either hand, as we steamed forward, spread out vast fields of riceglorious prairioa of green slioota Here and there rnastes of grey granite, piled one upon another, wers crowned with gaunt temples, the picturesque abodes of innumerable fakirs. Tall trees— domen of foliage— reared their stately trunks aloft, reflecting their gently-waving shadows in the placid water, tanderly reddened by .the early sunlight. The passage of the Hooghly ia enlivened at on© Dciut b7 the Jamea and Mary, a dan-

gerona quicksand shoal, named after a barque that was swallowed up at that spot a century ago. Our lordly vessel, one of the largest of the P. and 0. fleet, bumped twice in going over, and we were consoled with the interesting information that had she bumped athird'imeshewould undoubtedly have stuck fast and been gradually drawn down and engulphed. We were glad to be told this, otherwise we might have regretted her not bumping the third time. The Hooghly, it may ba remarked, is one of the most wickedly treacherous rivera known to nnv'gation, and the Horghly pilots are perforce the cleverest men in their profession to be found any whore in the world. The currents and depths of water are continuously shifting, not only daily, but ho rn ly, and what was an exposed shoal in the a.m. ia often a crafty stretch of swirling yellow water by the p.m. Ilooghly pilots have to know the river by instinct, to almost foresee its change*, and their memories are prodigious. The beat of these men draw between 2000 and 3000 rupees a month, and— since thoy are often in charge of ships and cargo to the value of nerrly a million pounds— are not, by any means, overpaid. An interesting apparition by the riverside is a bulk oE long, etraggling stone buildings, surmounted by the inevitable pomegranate cupola, which is the holdfast of Indian architecture. This ia the palace of the late King of Oudh. One Item in connection with the personal history of this defunct potentate provides the reflective mind with food for thought. The gentleman in question when alive was a Jiiu. That is the individual appellation of a sect whose religious belief in the sacredness of life forbids them to kill any living creature. This restriction, which is carried out to the most rigid extent., must posaefle peculiar phases of inconvenience. His Gleominess of Oadh, while adherirg to this embarrassing tenet of his faith, plainly found his patience sorely tried at times, when Bleeping in a strange bed for instance. He therefore caused to bo erected in a corner of the grounds adjoining his palace a small stone building, not unlike the conning tower in an observatory, which ho filled with — Fleas 1 One of his retainers received a large annual salary for performirg a special duty In connection with these rojal pots. He had to shut himself inside every evening and allow these " sprightly chamois," as M irk Twain calls them, to make a table d'hote of him. I ehould like to bave met that man. How many thousands there were has never been computed, but it is said that at Oudb'B death they were let out, and this may account for the fact that there is no city anywhere, not even in Italy, in which the human catiole has a livelier time than in Calcutta.

And so we steam up the broad river to an anchorage amid a perfect juggle of masts, and before us are great quays heaving with undulating crowds, white, brown, and shiny black forms miogHng together, clad in bright colours which dazzle the eye, ever moving to and fro like busy ants. Before us also id a mighty crescent of elegant white buildings, witb flat, ornamented roofs and wide balconies ; a great fort bristling witb the black mouths of cannon, encircled by green ramparts and crenulated walls ; and, rislt gin all directions, columns, belfries, spires, stately bungalows, and tufted palms. And the captain says, as the chain rattles through the hawae-hole, " That, gentlomeD, is Calcutta, the City of Palaces 1 "

11. Calcutta takes ita name from Kftlighat, the ghat or shrino of Kali, the goddess of death aud wife of the ferocious Siv*, the third member of the great Hindu trinity, which includes Brahma tha Creator and Vishnu the preserver. (Thus does the Eastern theology attempt, logically at leaaf, to clamber over the terrible BtumbliDg block to tbe Christian Btudent, by worshipping a god and goddess of evil, whose very enßence keeps them ever warrir g against the powers of good.) Kalighat, evidently the original site of the modern city, is a suburb of Calcutta, only remarkable for a temple which contains a hideous imago with a black face, red eyebrows, four arms, the figures of two dead bodies depending from the ears, and a necklet of skulls. This is the dead divinity in whose honour the frightful ceremony of tbe chnrulipqja used to be celebrated before it was forcioly interdicted by the British Government.

The first noticeable fact about Calcutta which strikes the newly-arrived visitor is its smella. For breadth and variety of concentrated effluvia I think it might compare favourably with any city of its size in the globe. Chinatown in Ban Francisco is preferred by some, and Cologne runs it very close, but Calcutta, I think, always wins by a nose. It distils some complicated odours which defy analysis, and conveys the impression during the hot season that an exhumation on a large scale has taken place somewhere in the vicinity.

Having got over this after a day or two, it will then strike you that Calcutta ia an unusually spacious and airy city. Some of the squares are imposing, and not a few of the wide thoroughfares, lined with sumptuous shopp, notably Old Courthouse street, would not be unworthy of London — in fact the exiles, who bave lost their heritage, as Kipling puts it. take off their hats to Calcutta, the magnificent, with a sense of being at home again. Yet it possesaes features essentially its own. The heart of its outdoor life is the celebrated Maidan, an enormous parallelogram of open common. At one extremity stands the stately white marble residence of the Viceroy, with its Grecian portico and winged lions. In tho centre rises the huge mass of Fort William, which commands the town and overawes the eight millions of natives in and around Calcutta. Along one side runs the Ilooghly, thronged with ships and lateen-sailed boats, and the other is faced by the lorg sweep of the Cbouringhi road. This is the Rotten Row of Calcutta. And here, when the hot day is ended, and tho sun is near its setting, comes pouring down a rush of light gigs, neat buggies, trim broughams, shining Victorias, rattling ticca-gharris, and equestrians and equestriennes on high-steppirjg Waters', alt streaming forth In the cool of the evening to gossip and flirt and listen to the bansi. Chourlnghi is lined with the mansiona of the great and wealthy — massive bungalows, two-3toreyed and flat-roofad. surrounded

by gardens and low walls of pukka masonry pierced with a single gate. Mount to tha roof and look abroad, and you will ccc in the distance, aoross the Hooghly bridge, Howrab, the teeming and the ever busy, and beyond t^at ai?ain the Mofuesil, which is India. We will take a walk thr- ui^h Cnju'ta streets and see. the sights Wo 5h.,11 n,t go far without meeting a bheestie, or watercarrier. AU bheestienare Mohammedans, and very hairy and dirty followers of the propheb they are, too. Eich one carries under his left arm, liko a bagpipe, slung over hfa Bhonlder by a strap, a mussack, or bag of undressed pigskin, filled with water, which ha squirts into the grouad as he walks, a perambulatir.g water cart which lays tho dust much more effectually than the municipal machines for the same purpose which issuo forth in Australian cities— directly it commencea to rain. Calcutta supports a few hundred bheesties, whi so wago is the equiva- | lent of. about £8 a year.

Hero, stalking across the ros»d, ia an argilah, or adjutant bird, a species of b-ggecl stork. This bird is a mild satire on tha Calcutta Board of Health, for, being strongly possessed of the philosophical maxim that " dirt ia matter in the wrong place," it constitutes itself the natural scavenger of tho city, and transfers cveiy morsel of off tl and refuse lying around into its violet-tinted pouch. And as it does not appear to be anybody's bu&inesß to oleanse the roads, tho argilah is a heaven-sent benefactor, to the European at all events. This long-legged bird, with its bald head and huge pointed beak, is a sight peculiar to Calcutta. A discordant creaking apprises u« of the approach of a haekerie, or bullock cart. This antiquated vehicle is loosely constructed of bamboo, and ia drawn by a pair of patient bullocks, yoked together by a pole laid across the neck in front of the hump. As the whole weight resta upon this pole the animals mußt guffrr excessively, and to tha humane mind the hnchsTie is an instrument of torture which should be suppressed. Passing down Beutinck street, which Is tho special haunt of the Chinese, into whose hands the boot-making trade has exclusively passed, and where fan-tan dens abound, we oome to a Hindu bazaar in the native quarter. Thiß is aph.ee pulsatirg with life. The narrow streets are lined with" little shops, entirely open on a level with the un.even, cobbly pavement, shaded with striped awning*,- and in which the merchants sit cross-legged in the midst of their wares. Here are a score of nationalities mingled together, and chattel ing in unknown tongues— * Bombay Serangs with brass rings in their ears; Madraf eep, with black, cloven bearda ; furry Afghans from beyond the frontier, Burmese ; and yellow Malay*, Armenian Jew*, "Tommies," and Jack tars; rotund Babusl, fat and oily ; pretty Hindu girls in pink Earees, with here and there a scowliug Chuprassie in a gold-laced jackot— a motley throng characteristically colouring with its brilliant hues a thoroughly Eastern sci'no. There are still many sights to see, such as tbegreat underground bazaaT, which stretches under Dhurrumtollah street for quite half a mile, and is reached by descending a couple of dozeu broken stone steps, which seemingly dip into the bowels of the cartii. Hero, in thi» extraordinary place, which is veritubly a second city under the city, one may buy anything from a steam engine to a live baby. Most of the goods have been stolen or smuggled, and theprices are miraculous. Excellent linen shirts (I am wearing one now) may be purchased for one rupee (about Is 4d) apiece. A dress suit, after due haggling, can be got for five rupees, and I Baw an English top hat, worth £1 at least, go for three rupees. Then I left.

There are also the Botanical Gardens, five miles out of the city, where stands in all its grandeur of many hundred years, the great Banyan tree, who»e main trunk boasts a girth of 142 yards, and whose 328 lateral branches, taking renewed root after the fashion of this marvellous king of trees, form a dense grove covering half an acre I There are the Burning Ghatß on the banks of the Ganges, where on the rude pyres of faggots, piled high, the Hindu dead are cansumed in flames, and their ashes thrown upon the waters of the Saored river. But I may not overbttp the spaoe assigned me, and can only bring to a oloae tbia hurried visit to au interefctiog Indian city with the hope that at uome future day I may be able, to take you with me to others still more weird and wonderful in that most strange of all the Lands of the Moonlightmystic India.

— WLer.cver an ancient Egypti.-n died tuo record of his life* had to be scruMnii-ed by a tribunal of judges before he could be buried with his ancestors.