of the public buildings. The Town Hall looks not unlike many American
city structures--as it is classic, with Doric pillars and an imposing
flight of steps; but nearly all the other buildings are of Indian
architecture, with cupolas and domes, recessed windows and massive,
pointed gateways. They are built of a dark stone, and the walls (three
and four feet in thickness) seem destined to last forever. The rooms are
from sixteen to twenty feet in height; above the tall doors and windows
are transoms; the floors are of mosaic or stone; everything about the
buildings appears designed to endure. The streets are very wide and the
sidewalks are arranged under colonnades in front of the buildings, so
that one may walk an entire block without coming out into the fierce
Indian sunshine.
All the main streets converge into the Apollo Bunder, a splendid
driveway like the Maidan in Calcutta. It sweeps around the sea wall and
if any breeze is stirring in Bombay one may get it here at nightfall.
From six o'clock to eight thirty or nine o'clock all Bombay turns out
for a drive on the Apollo Bunder. The line of fine carriages and motor
cars is continuous for miles, going out the Esplanade to Queen's road,
which runs for five miles to Malabar head, the favorite residence place
of the wealthy foreign colony. What will astonish any one accustomed to
Calcutta and other East Indian cities is the large representation of
Parsee families in this evening dress parade. Two-thirds of the finest
equipages belong to the Parsees, who are very richly dressed in silks
and adorned with fortunes in diamonds, rubies and other precious stones.
Here and there may be distinguished rich Hindoos or Mohammedans out for
an airing. The women of the latter sect are concealed behind the
carriage covers, but the Hindoo and Parsee women show their faces, their
jewelry and their beautiful costumes with evident pleasure. Nearly all
these women wear fortunes in diamonds in their ears or in bracelets on
their arms. In no dress parade in any other city have I noted so many
large diamonds, rubies and emeralds as in this procession of carriages
in Bombay.
[Illustration:
One of the Main
Avenues of Bombay.
This Broad Street
Leads to the City
Market. The View
Shows the Florid
Architecture of Public
Buildings and the
Variety of Native
Costumes]
Another thing that impresses the stranger in Bombay is the sympathy and
the good feeling that seems to exist between the leading Europeans of
the city and the prominent natives. This is in great contrast to the
exclusiveness that marks the Briton in other East Indian cities. Here
the President and a majority of the members of the Municipal Council
are Parsees; while a number of Hindoos and Mohammedans are represented.
When the King and Queen of England were received, the address of welcome
was read by the Parsee President of the Council, while a bouquet was
presented to the Queen by the President's wife, dressed in her graceful
sari or robe of ecru silk, edged with a black border, heavy with
ornamental gold work. This mingling of the races in civic life is due to
the domination of the Parsee element, which came over to Bombay from
Persia three hundred years ago, when driven from their old homes by
Moslem intolerance. Here these people, who strongly resemble the Jews in
their fondness for trade and their skill in finance, have amassed
imperial fortunes. The richest of these Parsee bankers and merchants,
Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, left much of his great fortune to charity. He
founded a university, schools and hospitals and his name figures on a
dozen fine buildings. Other prominent Parsee families are the Sassoons
and Jehangirs. Yet, despite their wealth and their association with
Europeans, the Parsees have kept themselves unspotted from the world.
They do not recognize any mingling of their blood with the foreigner. A
Parsee who marries a European woman must accept virtual expatriation,
while the wife (although she may bear him children) is never allowed any
of the privileges of a native woman in this life and when she dies her
body cannot be consigned to the Parsee burial place. She is always an
alien and nothing that she can do is able to break down this racial wall
that separates her from her husband's people. The marriage of Parsee
women to foreigners is practically unknown. The Parsee wears a
distinctive costume. The men dress in white linen or pongee trousers,
with coat of dark woolen or alpaca; they like foreign shirts and
collars, but their headgear is the same as that used by the refugees
from Persia over three hundred years ago. One cap is of lacquered
papier-mache in the form of a cow's hoof inverted. Another is a round
cap of gray cloth, finely made, worn over a skull cap of velvet or
embroidered cloth, which is worn indoors. The women wear the sari or
robe, which consists of one piece of silk or brocade, with an
embroidered band. This garment is draped around the body and brought up
over the head, covering the right ear. They all wear shoes and
stockings.
The Parsees are all well educated and most of them possess unusual
refinement. So strong is the pride of race among them that they do not
tolerate any mendicancy among their own people. Their charitable
associations care for the few Parsees who are unable to make a living,
so that their paupers never make any claim upon the municipal government
for aid. They also boast that none of their women may be found among the
denizens of the red-light district. Most of the educated Parsees speak
English, French and German, besides Gugerati (the native dialect) and
most of them read and write English, Gugerati and Urdu, which is the
written form of Hindustani. Yet the Parsees are genuine Orientals. They
sit on chairs, but most of their houses are scantily furnished. They are
remarkably fond of sweets, fruits and nuts. They seem insensible to the
surroundings of their homes, many living in crowded streets and up many
flights of stairs. In their homes all their treasures are kept in the
family safe. If you are fortunate enough to be received in one of these
Parsee homes you will be amazed at the wealth in jewelry and personal
ornaments which are possessed even by families of modest fortune. A
Parsee woman of this class will have invested five thousand dollars in
jewelry, much of which she will wear on festive occasions.
Many of the big shipping and cotton merchants of Bombay are Parsees and
they also control much of the banking of the city. It was due largely to
the liberality of the Parsees that the city of Bombay was able to
present to the King a memorial in gold and silver that cost seventeen
thousand rupees, or over five thousand five hundred dollars in American
money. This reception to the King and Queen when they landed at Bombay
on their way to Delhi Durbar was very typical of the life of the city.
Remarkable preparations had been made; a series of arches spanned the
principal streets, all designed in native style. At the end of the
Apollo Bunder was erected a pretty, white pavilion that looked like a
miniature Taj, while a splendid avenue, lined with pillars, led up to
the great amphitheater, in front of which, under an ornate pavilion,
were the golden thrones of the King and Queen. This amphitheater was
reserved for all the European and native notables, as well as the
Maharajahs and chiefs from the neighboring States.
After the reception to the royal party came a parade through the
principal streets and when this was concluded all restrictions were
relaxed and the populace and the visitors from surrounding towns gave
themselves up to an evening of enjoyment. The buildings were
illuminated, some with white and others with red electric lights, while
many large structures were lighted by little oil lamps, in a cup or
glass. The main streets were filled with long lines of carriages,
crowded with richly dressed natives and Europeans, although the natives
outnumbered the foreigners by one hundred to one. Never in my life have
I seen so many valuable jewels as on this night, when I roamed about
the streets for two hours, enjoying this Oriental holiday. At times I
would stop and sit on one of the stands and watch the crowd flow by in a
steady stream. Walking by the side of a Parsee millionaire and his
richly dressed family would pass a Hindoo woman of low caste, one of the
street sweepers, in dirty rags, but loaded down on ankles and arms by
heavy silver bangles and painted in the center of the forehead with her
caste mark. She was followed by a poverty-stricken Mohammedan leading a
little boy, stark naked, while a girl with brilliant cap held the boy's
hand. A naked Tamil, with only a dirty loin cloth, brushed elbows with
three Parsee girls, beautifully dressed. And so this purely democratic
human tide flowed on for hours, rich and poor showing a childlike
pleasure in the street decorations and the variegated crowd. And in the
midst of all this turmoil native parties from out of town squatted on
the deserted tiers of seats, ate their suppers with relish and then
calmly composed themselves to sleep, wrapped in their robes, as though
they were in the privacy of their own homes. It was a spectacle such as
could be seen only in an Oriental city with a people who live in public
with the placid unconsciousness of animals.
RELIGION AND CUSTOMS OF THE BOMBAY PARSEES
The Parsees of Bombay--a mere handful of exiles among millions of
aliens--have so exerted their power as to change the life of a great
city. Proscribed and persecuted, they have developed so powerfully their
aptitude for commercial life that they represent the wealth of Bombay.
Living up to the tenets of their creed, they have given far more
liberally to charity and education than any other race. Some idea of the
respect in which the Parsee is held may be gained from the fact that
customs officers never search the baggage of one of these people; they
take the Parsee's word that he has no dutiable goods. The commercial
success and the high level of private life among the Parsees is due
directly to their religion, which was founded by Zoroaster in ancient
Persia three thousand years ago. As Max-Muller has well said, if Darius
had overthrown Alexander of Greece, the modern world would probably have
inherited the faith of Zoroaster, which does not differ in most of its
essentials from the creed of Christ.
The popular idea of a Parsee is that he worships the sun. This is a
misconception, due probably to the fact that the Parsee when saying his
prayers always faces the sun or, in default of this, prays before a
sacred fire in his temples; but he does not worship the sun, nor any
gods or idols. His temples are bare, only the sacred fire of sandalwood
burning in one corner. The Parsee recognizes an overruling god,
Ahura-Mazda, the creator of the universe; he believes that Nature with
its remarkable laws could not have come into being without a great first
cause. But he believes that the universe created by Ahura-Mazda was
invaded by a spirit of evil, Angra-Mainyush, which invites men to wicked
deeds, falsehood and ignorance. Over against this evil spirit is the
good spirit, Spenta-Mainyush, which represents God and stands for truth,
goodness and knowledge. The incarnation of the evil spirit is known as
Aherman, who corresponds to the Christian devil.
The whole Parsee creed is summed up in three words, which correspond to
good thoughts, good words and good deeds. If one carries out in his life
this creed, then his good thoughts, good words and good deeds will be
his intercessors on the great bridge that leads the spirit from death to
the gates of paradise. If his evil deeds and thoughts and words
overbalance the good, then he goes straight down to the place of
darkness and torment. If his good and evil deeds and thoughts exactly
balance, then he passes into a kind of purgatory.
Fire, water and earth are all sacred to the Parsee; but fire represents
the principle of creation and hence is most sacred. To him fire is the
most perfect symbol of deity because of its purity, brightness and
incorruptibility. The sacred fire that burns constantly in the Parsee
temples is fed with chips of sandalwood. Prayer with the Parsee is
obligatory, but it need not be said in the fire temple; the Parsee may
pray to the sun or moon, the mountains or the sea. His prayer is first
repentance for any evil thoughts or deeds and then for strength to lead
a life of righteousness, charity and good deeds.
The most remarkable result of the Parsee religion is seen in the
education of children. This is made a religious duty, and neglect of it
entails terrible penalties--for the parents are responsible for the
offenses of the badly-educated child, just as they share in the merit
for good deeds performed by their children. It is the duty of a good
Parsee not only to educate his own children but to do all in his power
to help in general education. Hence the large benefactions that rich
Parsees have made to found institutions for the education of the poor.
Disobedience of children is one of the worst sins. The Parsees are also
taught to observe sanitary laws, to bathe frequently, to take all
measures to prevent the spread of contagion. Cleanliness is one of the
chief virtues. To keep the earth pure the Parsee is enjoined to
cultivate it. He is also admonished to drink sparingly of wine and not
to sell it to any one who uses liquor to excess.
The Parsee creed urges the believer to help the community in which he
lives and to give freely to charity. Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, the
richest Parsee Bombay has known, set aside a fund of four million seven
hundred and forty-three thousand rupees for charity and benevolence
among all the people of his city, regardless of race or creed. The
Parsee gives liberally to charity on the occasion of weddings or of
deaths. The charity includes relieving the poor, helping a man to marry
and aiding poor children to secure an education. The influence of the
Parsee religion upon the literature and life of the people is very
marked. There is no room for atheism, agnosticism or materialism. Faith
in the existence of God and in the immortality of the soul is the
corner-stone of the creed, but the Parsee spends no money and no effort
in proselyting others.
Marriage is encouraged by the Parsee religion, because it encourages a
virtuous and religious life. The marriage ceremony is peculiar. It is
always performed in a large pavilion, whatever the wealth of the couple.
In the case of the rich many invitations are issued and a fine wedding
feast is spread. On the day set for the wedding, the bride and groom and
the invited guests assemble in the pavilion. The bride as well as the
groom is dressed in white. When the time comes for the ceremony the
couple sit in chairs facing each other and a sheet is held up between
them by friends, so that they cannot see each other. Then two priests
begin intoning the marriage service. After several prayers a cord is
wound around the two chairs seven times and the chairs are also bound
together with a strip of cloth. More prayers and exhortations follow,
both priests showering rice upon the couple. Finally the sheet is
withdrawn, they and their chairs are placed side by side, each is given
a cocoanut to hold that is bound to the other by a string, emblematic of
the plenty that may bless the new home, and they are declared man and
wife. Then they sign a document certifying that they have been united
according to the Parsee ritual and witnesses sign their names.
Far stranger than the wedding customs of the Parsees are their burial
rites. They believe that neither fire, earth nor water must be polluted
by contact with a dead body, so neither burial nor cremation is
permitted. Instead, they expose their dead to vultures which strip the
flesh from the bones within an hour. This occurs in conical places,
called towers of silence, which are shut off from human gaze. The Bombay
towers of silence are on Malabar head, a beautiful residence district
overlooking the city. Here, in a fine garden planted to many varieties
of trees and shrubs, are five circular towers, each about twenty feet
high, made of brick, covered with plaster.
While you are admiring the flowers and trees a funeral enters the gates.
The body is carried by four professional bearers and is followed by two
priests and the relatives and friends. All the mourners are clothed in
white. They walk two by two, no matter how distant may be the house of
death, each couple holding a handkerchief as a symbol of their union in
sorrow. When the procession reaches the top of the hill the mourners
diverge and take seats in the house of prayer, where the sacred fire is
burning, or they seat themselves in the beautiful garden for meditation
and prayer. The priests deliver the body to the two corpse bearers, who
throw open the great iron door and enter with the body. The floor of the
tower is of iron grating, arranged in three circles--the outer for men,
the next for women and the inner for children. As the bearers lay the
body down, they strip off the shroud. Then the iron door closes with a
clang. This is the signal for a score of vultures to swoop down upon the
body. No human eye can see this spectacle, but the imagination of the
visitor pictures it in all its horror. Within a few minutes the gorged
vultures begin flapping their way to the top of the tower, where they
roost on the outer rim.
The bones of the corpse are allowed to remain for several days exposed
to the fierce sun. Then they are thrown into a great central well, where
the climate soon converts them into dust. This is washed by the rains
into underground wells. Charcoal in these wells serves to filter the
rain water before it enters the ground. Thus do the Parsees preserve
even the earth from contamination by the ashes of the dead. No expense
is spared by the Parsees in the construction of these towers of
silence, which are always placed on the tops of hills. According to the
testimony of some of the ablest medical men of England and America, who
have examined these burial grounds, the Parsee method of disposing of
the dead is the most sanitary that has ever been devised. It avoids even
the fumes that are given off in cremation of the dead. It is also cheap
and absolutely democratic, as the bones of the rich and poor mingle at
last in the well of the tower of silence.
There is nothing offensive to European taste in the towers of silence
except the vultures. These disgusting birds, like the Indian crow, are
protected because they are admirable scavengers. The Parsees see nothing
offensive in exposing their dead to these birds nor apparently does it
shock them that alien hands should bare the bodies of their beloved
dead; but to a foreigner both these aspects of Parsee burial are
repellant and no argument has any weight to counteract this sentiment.
Many sensational accounts of these Parsee burial rites have been
printed. Nearly every writer lays stress on the fact that pieces of the
dead bodies are dropped by the vultures within the grounds or in the
streets outside. This is an absurdity, as the vulture never rises on the
wing with any carrion--he eats it on the spot and he will not leave
until he is gorged to repletion. An effort was made several years ago to
remove these towers of silence on Malabar hill because of complaints
that fragments of corpses were found in the neighborhood. When two
competent medical experts investigated the matter they reported that
there was no foundation for the complaints. So the towers have remained
and thousands of Parsees have been borne to them for the last rites of
their creed.
[Illustration: PLATE XLI
One of the Main Gates to Government
House, Calcutta. This Gate is of Beautiful Proportions
and Has a Fine Lion. Government House is
Situated in a Fine Park of Six Acres]
[Illustration: PLATE XLII
A Street Scene in
Calcutta. The New
Building at the Right
Has a Staging of Bamboo.
On the Left is
the Burka Bazaar, One
of the Sights of India,
Each Dealer Having
a Small Shop of His
Own. The Goods Are
Classified As in An
American Department
Store]
[Illustration: PLATE XLIII
The Great Burning Ghat at Benares.
Here Are Four Funeral Pyres Arranged for Burning, the
Heads of the Corpses May Be Detected Among the
Wood. The Pyre in the Middle Foreground is
Partly Burned. Relatives Watch the Cremation
From the Temple Above]
[Illustration: PLATE XLIV
View of the Bathing
Ghats at Benares. Here
May Be Seen Natives
Bathing in Mother
Ganges, While Above
Are the Line of
Splendid Palaces and
Temples Built by the
Maharaja Princes]
[Illustration: PLATE XLV
A Holy Man of
Benares Under His
Umbrella. Each of
the Fakers at Benares
Has His Own Clientage,
But No One
Bathes Without
Yielding Tribute to
Some Holy Man]
[Illustration: PLATE XLVI
The Residency at
Lucknow. This, the
Most Impressive
Relic of the British
Mutiny In India,
Is Now Only a
Beautiful Ruin, But it
Recalls the Heroic
Defense Made By a
Handful of English
Against Hundreds
Of Natives. In Front
Is a Memorial Erected
by Lord Northbrook
to Loyal Native
Soldiers]
[Illustration: PLATE XLVII
Tomb of
Itmad-ul-Daulet
at Agra. This
Tomb Was Erected
in Honor of the
Prime Minister of the
Emperor Jahangir. It
Is of Carved and
Inlaid Marble and
Overlooks the Jumna
River]
[Illustration: PLATE XLVIII
The Mutiny Memorial
at Cawnpore. This
Memorial Was Erected
Over the Well Into
Which Were Thrown
the Bodies of One
Hundred and Twenty-Five
English Women and
Children, Butchered
By Order of the
Nana Sahib]
[Illustration: PLATE XLIX
Detail of Carving in the Jasmine Tower, Agra.
This View Gives a Good Idea of the Wonderful Work
in Marble Carving and the Inlaying of Precious
Stones, Which Makes This Little Pavilion
a Rival of the Taj]
[Illustration: PLATE L
The Jasmine Tower In
Agra Fort. This Is
a Marble Pavilion, the
Home of the Chief
Sultana, Overlooking
the Jumna River. The
Lattice Work Decoration
In Marble Is Remarkably
Beautiful]
[Illustration: PLATE LI
Snap-shot of a Jain
Family at Agra. Mr.
Upham's Camera
Caught This Woman
as She Peeked From
Behind the Curtain
of the Ekka, or
Native Cart]
[Illustration: PLATE LII
The Fort at Agra
Which Encloses Many
Palaces. This Fort
Has a Circuit of Over
a Mile, With Two
Octagonal Towers
of Red Sandstone.
Enclosed are Mosques
and Palaces Which
Rival the Taj In
Beauty of Design and
Richness of
Ornamentation]
[Illustration: PLATE LIII
Kutab Minar, the Arch and the Iron Pillar, near Delhi.
The Arch Formed Part of a Mosque built by Kutab, a Viceroy,
in 1193 A. D. The Pillar Stood in the Mosque and is of
Wrought Iron, Twenty-three Feet High. The Monument
is Two Hundred and Thirty-eight Feet High
With Three Hundred and Seventy-nine Steps]
[Illustration: PLATE LIV
Shah Jehan's Heaven
on Earth, Delhi.
The Diwan-i-Khas, or
Hall of Private
Audience, Is One of
the Most Richly
Decorated Buildings In
India. The Ceiling
Was Originally Silver.
Over the Two Outer
Arches Is the Persian
Inscription:
"If Heaven can be on
the face of the earth,
It is this, oh! it is this,
oh! it is this"]
[Illustration: PLATE LV
Street View In Delhi,
With the Juma
Mashid. This Shows
the Variety of Life
In Delhi Streets. The
Juma Mashid Is One of
the Finest of the
Mohammedan
Mosques]
[Illustration: PLATE LVI
A Parsee Tower of
Silence at Bombay. This
Shows One of the
Unique Burial Places
at Malabar Head,
Where Dead Bodies
Are Exposed. Vultures
Strip the Flesh From
the Bones In a
Few Minutes]
EGYPT, THE HOME
OF HIEROGLYPHS, TOMBS
AND MUMMIES
PICTURESQUE ORIENTAL LIFE AS SEEN IN CAIRO
The first impression of Cairo is bewildering. None of the Oriental
cities east of Port Said is at all like it in appearance or in street
life. The color, the life, the picturesqueness, the noises, all these
are distinctive. Kyoto, Manila, Hongkong, Singapore, Rangoon, Calcutta,
Bombay and Colombo--each has marked traits that differentiate it from
all other cities, but several have marked likenesses. Cairo differs from
all these in having no traits in common with any of them. It stands
alone as the most kaleidoscopic of cities, the most bizarre in its
mingling of the Orient and the Occident.