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LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 

PRESENTED  BY 

MRS.    J.    M.    DILLMAN 


WINTEE  DAYS  IN  INDIA  AND  ELSEWHEKE 


/  ' 

,  WINTER  DAYS 

IN 

INDIA  AND  ELSEWHERE 


BY 

WILLIAM   GEORGE   BLACK 


^ribatelg  ^rinteb 


GLASGOW 
JAMES    MACLEHOSE   AND    SONS 

PUBLISHERS    TO   THE   UNIVERSITY 
IQ08 


OLAROOW  :    PRINTED   AT  THK   UNIVKIWITY    IllKHS 
BY    nOUBRT   MACI.EHOHK    AND  (:0.    LTD. 


UCSB  LIBRARY 


TO 

A.  E.  B.  B. 


NOTE 

Chapters  I.  to  III.  and  V.  to  XI.  appeared  as 
Letters  to  the  Glasgow  Herald,  and  I  have  to 
thank  the  Editor  for  permission  to  reprint  them. 
Chapter  IV.  is  a  summary  from  the  Journal- 
Letters  we  sent  home.  Chapter  XII.  on  Missions 
in  India  was  written  after  my  return  and  has 
not  hitherto  been  printed  in  its  present  form.  It 
formed  the  basis  of  addresses  delivered  to  the 
Aberdeen  Elders'  Association  on  21st  October, 
1907,  and  the  Glasgow  Elders'  Association  on 
17th  February,  1908. 

W.  G.  B. 

Eamoyle,  Dowanhill  Gardens, 
Glasgow,  May,  1908. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Winter  Days  in  India         ...  1 

11.  Hidden  Shrines  and  Sacred  Waters.  9 

III.  A  Native  State 15 

IV.  Up  and  Down  in  India        .        .        .  21 
V.  Burma 43 

VI.  Singapore  and  Johore.        .        .        .  .51 

VII.  Canton  and  Macao       .        .        .        .  59 

VIII.  Shanghai  and  Far  East       ...  69 

IX.  Up  and  Down  in  Japan       .        .        .  77 

X.  The  Japanese  of  To-Day      .        .        .  87 
ix 


K  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XI.  San  Francisco  and  Monterey     .        .  99 

XII.  Missions  in  India 109 

APPENDICES 

I.  Itinerary 133 

II.  Programme  of  Malay  Theatre  .        .  137 

III.  How  Wonder  Mining  Camp,  Nevada, 

sought  a  Minister   .        .        .        .139 


CHAPTER  I 
WINTER  DAYS  IN  INDIA 

Mount  Abu,  Eajputana,  Dec.  5,  1906. 

Undoubtedly  if  dirigible  balloons  become  possible 
the  ideal  plan  of  travel  for  the  luxurious  tourist 
would  be  that  his  air-vessel  should  meet  him  some- 
where in  the  Arabian  Sea,  and  that  from  the  deck 
of  his  P.  and  0.  he  should  be  whirled  to  this 
delightful  mountain.  He  would  avoid  the  very 
marked  inconveniences  of  landing  at  Bombay,  and 
the  sweltering  heat  of  that  beautiful  but  trying 
city.  Bombay  lies  like  an  Indian  Venice  in  and 
on  the  sea,  but  the  temperature  is  oppressively  hot 
and  moist  to  the  stranger,  whose  slightest  exertion 
is  attended  by  profuse  perspiration.  The  conditions 
are  mitigated  by  punkahs  and  electric  fans,  with 
the  result  that  you  are  in  an  incessant  draught, 
and  "  stranger's  cold "  is  (though  in  a  different 
sense)  quite  as  common  as  old  travellers  said  it  was 
in  St.  Kilda.     In    St.   Kilda  the   natives    suffered 

A 


2        WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE   EAST 

from  the  arrival  of  a  vessel ;  in  Bombay  the  visitors 
suffer  from  their  own  arrival.  At  this  time  of  day 
one  does  not  describe  Bombay ;  its  public  buildings 
are  magnificent,  and  the  native  city  is  a  blaze  of 
colour  and  a  hive  of  industry.  The  privilege  of 
membership  of  the  Eoyal  Bombay  Yacht  Club,  with 
its  beautiful  turf  and  its  admirable  arrangements, 
must  make  all  one's  recollections  of  Bombay  pleasant 
— barring  the  heat. 

From  Bombay  we  took  the  night  train  to 
Manmar,  where  we  changed  into  the  Nizam  of 
Hyderabad's  railway,  and  ultimately  at  a  distance 
of  210  miles  or  so  from  Bombay  reached  Daulata- 
bad.  Above  it,  500  feet  high,  rises  a  huge  conical 
granite  rock,  and  on  it,  and  in  it  is  a  thirteenth 
century  fortress.  You  enter  by  great  doors,  spike- 
protruding  to  resist  elephants,  then  through  gate 
after  gate,  each  ingeniously  hidden  and  guarded, 
you  mount  and  pass  the  dwelling  where  the  last 
King  of  Golconda  was  imprisoned  for  thirteen 
years.  Then  you  cross  an  abyss — by  a  light 
stone  bridge — which  used  in  old  days  to  be 
spanned  only  by  planks,  and  enter  the  im- 
pregnable citadel  itself,  and  tlirougli  torch-lit 
tortuous  rock  passages  go  always  upwards  until  a 
small  plateau  is  reached.  At  last  (and  very  tired) 
you  attain  a  pillared  court  or  pavilion,  from  which 


WINTER   DAYS    IN    INDIA  3 

a  glorious  view  is  obtained  over  the  flat  surrounding 
country  and  the  tiger-haunted  slopes  of  the  neigh- 
bouring jungle.  This  pavilion  was  the  favourite 
residence  of  the  Emperor  Shah  Jehan  and  his  son 
Aurangzeb.  The  Nizam  is  said  to  the  present  day 
occasionally  to  administer  justice  on  the  summit  of 
those  wild  precipices.  From  Daulatabad  to  Eoza  is 
only  eight  miles,  but  in  the  rough-hooded  native 
dogcart  or  tonga,  with  all  your  luggage  (including 
your  bedding)  slung  round  it,  progress  is  very  slow. 
The  road  is  steep.  Night  had  fallen,  and  the  moon 
was  shining  brightly  ere  we  entered  the  weird  gate 
of  the  walled  town  of  Eoza,  where  in  a  topmost 
chamber  of  the  gate  some  unseen  singers  were 
pouring  out  indescribable  music  to  the  scented  air. 
We  drove  through  the  town  to  the  Eest  House, 
and  the  following  morning  visited  the  rock-hewn 
Temples  of  Ellora,  twelve  Buddhist,  fifteen  Brahmin, 
and  five  Jain,  works  hewn  from  the  living  rock. 
While  all  are  wonderful,  that  of  Kailasa  is  the  most 
stupendous.  It  stands  in  a  sort  of  pit,  the  back 
wall  of  which  is  a  precipice  100  feet  high.  The 
Temple  is  276  feet  long  and  154  feet  broad,  and 
all  this  is  excavation  and  carving,  not  building. 
Here  are  huge  stone  elephants  and  monsters  and 
the  thousand-and-one  gods  and  god-symbols  in 
which  the  Hindu  mythology  revels.     Up  and  down 


4        WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE    EAST 

the  temples  scampers  with  lightning  swiftness  the 
graceful  Indian  squirrel,  otherwise — but  for  some 
Brahmin  who  appears  for  gifts  out  of  the  darkness 
of  the  chambers  surrounding  the  shrines — there  is 
no  life  at  all  in  this  wilderness  of  imagery,  which 
dates  from  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries.  For 
a  mile  and  a  half  along  the  hillside  there  is  temple 
after  temple  of  the  three  faiths,  none  of  which,  be 
it  observed,  is  in  any  way  a  dead  faith  at  present ; 
they  have  millions  of  devotees.  From  Ellora  we 
stopped  but  a  few  minutes  at  Eoza  to  visit  the 
simple  tomb  of  Aurangzeb,  and  then  drove  back  to 
Daulatabad,  and  took  train  to  Manmar,  where  we 
spent  an  exceedingly  uncomfortable  night  in  the 
waiting-room  till  3.30  a.m.,  and  then  returned  to 
Bombay.  The  excursion  is  one  of  the  highest 
interest,  but  it  is  not  easily  made  owing  to  the 
trains,  the  bad  horses,  and  the  extreme  noise  of 
the  stations  at  night,  where  each  train  stops  half 
an  hour,  and  the  native  travellers,  looking  like  the 
Forty  Thieves  in  a  pantomime,  in  all  the  wildness 
of  Indian  night  attire  (which  is  as  voluminous  by 
night  as  it  is  scanty  by  day)  sit  and  talk  at  the 
pitch  of  their  voices,  assisted  by  all  their  relations 
and  friends.  The  scene  is  one  to  dream  of,  but  it 
effectually  prevents  dreaming. 

From  Bombay  we  started  afresh  for  Ahmedabad  ; 


WINTER   DAYS    IN    INDIA  5 

again  by  night.  On  arriving  we  had  baths  and 
breakfasted  at  the  station,  and  set  out  in  a  victoria 
drawn  by  capable  horses  along  the  dusty  roads  of  a 
typical  Eastern  city.  The  sky  was  spotlessly  blue 
this  December  morning,  and  the  air  sweet  and  not 
too  hot.  We  passed  camels  waiting  for  their  loads 
of  merchandise ;  great  monkeys  came  leaping  from 
tree  to  tree  to  get  the  monkey-bread ;  green  parrots 
perched  on  every  doorway  of  each  white  temple ; 
picturesque  and  slender  pillars  support  little 
chambers  like  dovecots,  elaborately  carved,  and  form 
the  Jain  feeding-places  for  birds,  which  are  among 
the  peculiar  features  of  this  town  of  186,000 
inhabitants,  with  an  area  of  two  square  miles  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  Sabarmati  river.  Travellers  are 
grateful  for  guide-books,  but  they  always  quarrel 
with  them.  Murray  says  it  is  impossible  to  see 
Ellora  in  less  than  two  days,  while  less  will  easily 
suffice  so  far  as  the  caves  themselves  are  concerned. 
On  the  other  hand,  to  give  only  four  hours  to 
Ahmedabad  is  little  short  of  madness.  To  come  so 
far  and  not  see  this  fairy  city  properly  would  be  a 
strange  injustice  to  one's  self.  It  is  above  all  the 
abode  of  cunning  craftsmen  in  stone  and  wood  and 
metals,  and  everything  is  beautiful  and  elaborate. 
Nor  is  the  art  a  dead  art.  The  Hathi  Singh 
Temple  was  only  finished  in    1848  at  a  cost  of  a 


6        WINTER   DAYS   IN   THE   EAST 

million  rupees.  It  is  a  Jain  temple  exquisite  in 
all  its  parts,  full  of  variety  and  infinite  in  its 
expression  of  the  artist's  desire  to  do  honour  to 
the  house  of  his  God.  To  describe  in  what  Jain 
worship  differs  from  other  Hindu  worship  would  be 
here  out  of  place.  To  go  from  the  modern  to  the 
old,  there  is  the  tomb  of  Shah  Alam,  two  miles 
south-east  of  the  town ;  this  Mahomedan  saint  died 
in  1495.  The  tomb  is  covered  (like  many  others) 
by  a  cloth,  which  when  lifted  discloses  the  ex- 
quisite carving,  fresh  as  when  executed ;  the  floor 
is  black  and  white  marble,  the  doors  are  of  open 
brasswork,  and  the  pure  white  marble  walls  are 
pierced  and  carved  in  an  interminable  series  of 
varying  geometric  patterns,  so  that  if  ever  marble 
looked  like  lace  it  is  here ;  at  Sidi  Said's  mosque, 
in  the  city,  likewise  the  windows  are  filled  with 
delicate  stone  tracery  of  tree  stems  and  branches. 
To  enumerate  building  after  building  would  be  a 
vain  task.  It  is  the  unity  of  determination  in  the 
members  of  the  three  faiths  to  make  beautiful 
places  for  their  worship  that  is  the  striking  feature, 
and  the  great  success  with  which,  under  this  cloud- 
less sky,  the  artificers  have  been  able  to  evolve 
indescribable  combinations  of  dignity,  grace,  dazzling 
whiteness,  is  a  refreshment  to  each  religious  sense 
to  which  they  appeal.     Here  too,  as   in    Bombay, 


WINTER   DAYS   IN   INDIA  7 

is  an  Asylum  for  Animals,  which  contains  sheds  for 
about  800  animals.  There  is  a  room,  says  Murray, 
where  insects  are  fed ;  but  we  did  not  penetrate 
there.  We  visited  the  Irish  Presbyterian  Mission 
Church,  which  has  a  native  Christian  village  of 
400  persons,  and  conversed  with  the  headman  of 
that  village.  We  slept  at  the  railway  station  at 
Ahmedabad,  and,  perhaps  we  are  getting  accustomed 
to  Oriental  crowds,  for  the  noise  disturbed  us  not 
in  the  least,  and  the  next  day  we  started  for  Abu 
Eoad  Station,  from  which  (sixteen  miles)  in  two  or 
three  hours  we  drove  to  this  place.  There  is  only 
one  small  hotel,  and  that  hotel  is  not  in  any  way 
European,  but  Mount  Abu  is  the  headquarters  of 
the  Eajputana  administration,  and  the  hot-weather 
resort  of  many  Eajahs,  whose  palaces  crown  the 
hills.  The  mountains  occupy  an  area  of  about 
fifty  miles  in  circumference,  rising  like  an  island 
out  of  the  great,  flat  Indian  plain. 

Here  we  are  4500  feet  above  the  sea,  but  the 
highest  peak  is  over  5600  feet.  The  climate  is 
absolutely  perfect,  fresh  and  invigorating,  under  a 
cloudless  sky.  A  lovely  lake,  with  little  islands, 
lies  in  the  heart  of  the  so-called  plateau,  and  is  a 
lasting  joy  to  the  eye ;  and  in  the  jungle,  which 
covers  all  the  hillsides,  "  bears,  panthers,  and 
tigers  are  to  be  found,"  as  the  railway  guide-book 


8        WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE    EAST 

concisely  puts  it.  In  this  sequestered  mountain 
are  some  of  the  most  celebrated  Jain  temples  in 
India,  all  of  which  we  have  visited.  But  this 
letter  is  already  too  long,  and  must  end.  Yes ! 
to  fly  from  the  Arabian  Sea  direct  to  Mount 
Abu  would  be  paradise  indeed. 


CHAPTER   II 

HIDDEN   SHRINES  AND  SACRED  WATERS 

TJdaipur,  December,  1906. 

In  days  of  railroads  we  are  apt  to  forget  how  distant 
and  hidden  were  the  Jain  temples  of  Mount  Abu. 
The  railway  only  reaches  Abu  Road ;  after  that  you 
have  a  stiff  climb  to  where,  4500  feet  above  the  sea, 
and  a  couple  of  miles  even  from  the  small  modern 
European  summer  resort,  the  temples  of  Dilwarra 
stand.  Nineteen  miles  by  tonga  and  'rickshaw  is  a 
good  distance  for  even  the  tourist ;  think  of  the 
remoteness  of  the  temples  to  the  dwellers  hundreds 
of  miles  away  from  even  the  foot  of  the  mountains, 
who  were  inspired  with  a  desire  to  worship  at  Dil- 
warra in  old  days,  before  a  railway  came  as  it  were 
tolerably  near,  and  when  the  only  road  up  the 
heights  was  a  rough  bridle-path  !  There  are  two 
temples,  one  built  about  1032,  and  the  other  in  the 
century  following.  The  latter  is  a  bewildering 
vision  of  slender  white  columns  elaborately  carved  ; 


10      WLNTER   DAYS    IN   THE    EAST 

around  the  temple  building  is  an  oblong  courtyard, 
with  fifty-five  cells,  each  containing  a  cross-legged 
image  of  Parswanatha.  In  the  centre,  at  the  end 
of  a  portico  of  forty-eight  pillars,  is  the  dark  shrine. 
In  front  of  the  shrine  on  the  day  we  were  there  were 
two  bridegrooms  giving  thanks  for  their  marriages. 
One  was  about  six  years  old,  and  clothed  only  in 
a  smile  and  a  silver  chain  round  his  hips ;  he 
strolled  about  or  played,  his  devotions  being  con- 
ducted by  his  mother.  But  the  other  bridegroom 
was  about  twenty-four  years  of  age,  and  sat  before 
a  portable  harmonium,  which  he  had  brought  with 
him  in  a  large  Peek  and  Frean  biscuit  chest.  He 
played  vigorously  with  his  right  hand,  and  sang 
from  his  service  book  (which  he  held  in  his  left) 
most  stentoriously.  Four  women,  seated  at  corners 
of  his  carpet,  joined  in.  At  intervals  a  priest  near 
the  entrance  banged  two  big  drums ;  other  two 
rang  bells,  and  a  fourth  clanged  pieces  of  metal 
most  sonorously.  The  noise  was  terrific.  After  he 
cauc'ht  sight  of  us  the  melodv  of  the  excited  musi- 
cian  seemed  remotely  to  resemble  "  God  Save  the 
King,"  and  perhaps  the  thank-offerer  was  of  opinion 
that  Parswanatha  would  not  object  to  sympathetic 
loyalty  being  mixed  with  devotion.  The  following 
day  we  went,  partly  by  'rickshaw  and  partly  on 
foot,  to  the  still  more  remote  temples  of  Achilghar, 


SHRINES   AND   SACRED   WATERS    ii 

some  seven  miles  from  Dilwarra,   before  reaching 
which   we  visited   Agri   Kund,  a   tank   famous   in 
Hindu   mythology.     It    is  now   ruined ;    the   tank 
steps  are  broken,  and  the  water  is  low  and  over- 
grown with  green  stuff,  but  on  one  side  stand  three 
large  stone  buflaloes,  and  near  them  is   a  marble 
relief  of  Pramar,  with  his  bow  bent.     In  the  wild 
mountain  jungle  this  ruined  tank   and   the   great 
stone  beasts  by  its  side  are  very  impressive.     Up 
steep  open  stairs  we  go  to  the  temples.     Those  on 
the  very  summit,  commanding  a  magnificent  view, 
are  Jain ;  those  on  the  lower  ground  are  (with  one 
exception)  Hindu.     At  the  topmost  temple  we  met 
the   little  naked  husband  of    the   day  before   still 
going    the    round    of   holy    places  with   his   pious 
mother.     Not  least  remarkable  here  was  a  painting 
on  an  exterior  wall  of  what  might  well  have  passed 
for  a   Hindu  idea   of  the  appearance  of  an  Irish 
peasant,   shillelagh,   tall  hat  and   all ;    and  in  the 
interior  was  the  exact  portrait  of  the  King  of  Clubs. 
Over   all  was   the   glorious   blue   sky,   and   in  the 
delightful  air  the  little  temple  bells  on  standards  on 
the  roofs  faintly  jingled.     We  descended  by  a  rough 
footpath  to  a  cave  in  the  mountain,  where  we  found 
a  fakir  enjoying  a  pipe  in  a  small  cavern — his  home 
for  life.     At  his  invitation  I  examined  the  numer- 
ous adjacent   rough  caves   and   holes  where   other 


12      WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE    EAST 

fakirs  live ;  for  this  hidden  and  distant  place  is  of 
great  sanctity,  and  the  numerous  devotees  give  the 
holy  men  many  gifts.  The  caves  were  not  unlike 
the  caves  in  Mount  Subasio,  near  Assisi,  where  St. 
Francis  and  his  friends  retired  from  time  to  time  to 
meditate. 

After  a  few  delightful  days  at  Mount  Abu,  we 
descended  to  the  plains  and  travelled  to  Ajmere, 
with  its  little  lake,  on  a  high  rock  above  which 
stands  the  Eesidency  of  the  Governor  of  Eajputana. 
No  rain  fell  in  Ajmere  for  seven  years  until  the 
last  rains,  and  the  lake  dried  up,  but  it  is  now  full 
again,  and  very  beautiful  with  the  marble  pavilions 
of  the  Emperor  Shah  Jehan  by  its  side.  While  the 
mosque  "  of  the  two  and  a  half  days "  (from  the 
legend  that  it  was  built  in  that  time)  is  notable  for 
its  glorious  screen  of  seven  arches,  and  the  Dargah 
venerated  alike  by  Mohammedans  and  Hindus  is 
deeply  interesting,  nothing  in  Ajmere  can  move  the 
visitor  so  much  as  a  visit  to  the  sacred  lake  of 
Pushkar,  which  lies  seven  miles  from  it.  This  is 
the  most  sacred  lake  in  India,  and  nmst  at  one 
time  have  been  well-nigh  inaccessible  except  to 
very  rich  or  patient  pilgrims.  Even  now,  though 
there  is  a  well-constructed  road,  it  is  exceedingly 
steep  and  inches  deep  in  iiue  dust.  Eut  what  a 
way  it   is   through   the   stern   mountain    pass   with 


SHRINES    AND   SACRED   WATERS    13 

high  gaunt  rocks  all  around !  You  meet  the 
strangest  company ;  strings  of  camels ;  gaily-tur- 
banned  gentlemen  on  arabs ;  little  native  carts — 
like  boxes — on  which  perhaps  two  women  squat ; 
lines  of  asses  wood-laden ;  and  you  pass  through  a 
village  where  grey  monkeys  sit  by  the  roadside  and 
on  the  overhead  branches.  The  variety  is  infinite. 
When  the  lake  is  reached  you  first  pass  through 
lines  of  sacred  buildings  and  then — through  a  temple 
— emerge  on  broad  steps  which  command  the  whole 
enchanting  scene.  There  is  the  lake  with  lovely 
green  islets  before  you ;  on  all  sides  except  your 
left  is  an  infinite  variety  of  temples  built  by  differ- 
ent sovereigns  in  different  centuries,  all  with  broad 
terraced  steps  to  the  water.  Up  and  down  those 
steps  stroll  peacocks  and  cows  ;  an  occasional  dog  ; 
a  cat  blinks  from  a  ruin ;  the  monkey-god  grins  at 
you  with  his  foot  on  a  jain-idol.  You  follow  the 
Brahmins,  who  guide  you  around  the  lake  (none 
but  Brahmins  live  here) ;  there  are  fakirs  sitting  in 
holes  by  the  sacred  water ;  there  are  vendors  sit- 
ting in  archways ;  everywhere  is  Oriental  colour  ; 
there  are  ruins,  but  there  is  no  filth,  for  the  sun 
takes  care  of  that.  In  one  corner  is  a  tank  where 
half-a-dozen  bronzed  men  are  washing  away  their 
sins ;  in  another  is  a  covered  place  where  queens 
bathe  when  they,  like  others,  seek  regeneration.    On 


14      WINTER   DAYS   IN   THE   EAST 

a  green  islet  lie  six  or  seven  great  alligators.  Our 
Brahmin  throwing  crumbs  into  the  lake  showed  us 
how  the  water  literally  boiled  with  fish,  for,  of 
course,  no  fish  may  here  be  caught.  The  splutter 
and  bubbling  reached  the  ears  of  an  alligator,  and 
he  slipped  gently  into  the  water  and  made  for  us. 
As  he  came  near  the  big  jaws  gave  a  snap,  but — 
according  to  the  Brahmin — the  fish  escaped  (I  was 
not  so  sure).  There  is  no  other  place  in  India  like  this 
templed  lake.  I  do  not  think  there  can  be  a  more 
dreamlike  place  in  the  world  as  the  sun  sets  and 
all  its  marbles  are  flushed  with  colour.  If  to  mere 
English  travellers  the  sheet  of  placid  water  appears 
so  absorbing,  what  must  it  be  to  the  pilgrims  who, 
having  heard  of  it  from  infancy,  make  their  diliicult 
way  to  it,  through  the  wild  mountains,  at  cost,  in- 
convenience, and  hazard, — for  in  the  jungle  there  are 
all  manner  of  wild  beasts. 


CHAPTER  III 

A  NATIVE  STATE 

The  town  and  palaces  of  Udaipur,  the  capital  of 
Mewar,  stand  on  a  beautiful  lake.  Within  the 
town  long  strings  of  camels  pass ;  sacred  cattle 
take  their  quiet  and  honoured  walk ;  great  dogs 
fight  with  each  other  in  clouds  of  dust ;  within 
the  palace  boundaries — as  large  as  the  city — you 
meet  huge  elephants  very  much  at  their  ease, 
and  green  parrots  are  on  nearly  every  roof;  there 
are  rows  of  stables  of  fine  horses.  Grey  monkeys 
leap  from  branch  to  branch  above  the  pillared 
tombs  of  the  kings.  On  the  distant  side  of  the 
lake  we  saw  last  night  just  before  sunset  the  wild 
pigs  fed.  Specially  ferocious  boars  are  kept  in 
cells  in  the  tower  which  overlooks  the  curious 
dust-enshrouded  scene  (such  as  Dante  might  have 
looked  at  in  the  Inferno) ;  and  in  that  tower  is 
a  hugh  pit,  with  a  guarded  balcony  above,  from 
which  one  on  occasion  can  survey  the  local  royal 


i6      WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE    EAST 

sport  of  a  tiger-and-boar  fight.  There  is  no  lack 
of  tigers  on  the  hills  close  to  Udaipur.  The 
Maharana  has  a  few  cages  of  large  leopards,  tigers, 
and  lions  in  the  pretty  public  park.  With  such 
manifold  varieties  of  animal  life,  the  vivid  and 
blazing  colours  worn  by  the  people  in  turbans 
or  robes,  many  of  whom  carry  their  long  swords 
(as  we  bare  umbrellas  at  home),  from  custom,  or 
more  correctly,  as  a  hereditary  Eajput  right, 
make  me  despair  of  bringing  home  to  you  the 
kaleidoscopic  brilliancy  of  life  under  the  bright 
December  sun,  except  by  asking  you  to  imagine 
a  fancy  dress  carnival  held  by  day  in  a  zoological 
garden,  with  nearly  all  the  animals  loose !  And 
above  all  the  dust  rises  the  height  upon  height 
of  the  sovereign's  marble  palaces,  tier  upon  tier, 
colonnaded,  shining,  with  the  blue  glittering  lake 
beneath,  dotted  with  green  islets,  each  with  a 
marble  hall  or  summer  quiet  resting  place,  rich 
in  orange  trees  now  heavy  with  yellow  fruit.  In 
the  town  the  great  Jagauuath  temple  is  the  centre 
of  the  worship  of  46,000  people,  and  its  pyramidal 
roof  is  seen  from  a  great  distance.  Marble  ele- 
phants flank  the  steep  imposing  stairs,  which,  as 
in  all  temples,  make  the  approach.  When  you 
have  not  live  elephants,  or  marble  elephants  here, 
you    have   elephants    painted   on    each   convenient 


A   NATIVE   STATE  17 

space  by  the  road — spirited,  rushing  elephants,  each 
with  a  broken  chain  on  one  of  his  great  hoofs; 
and  in  the  entrance  to  the  royal  apartments  is 
a  gigantic  image  of  Ganesh,  the  elephant-headed 
son  of  Siva,  luck-bringing.  But  fine  in  its  way 
as  the  Jagannath  temple  is  the  true  charm  of 
Udaipur  lies  in  its  palace  courts.  No  lordlier 
pleasure-house  than  this  could  Coleridge  have 
dreamt  of,  with  its  incomparable  lakes,  where  the 
sun-descended  monarch,  who  in  his  own  person 
represents  the  premier  house  of  India  in  point 
of  blue  blood,  takes  his  ease.  His  Highness's 
architects  and  gardeners,  it  must  be  said,  far  exceed 
his  house  furnishers  in  taste,  for  it  is  little  less 
than  lamentable  to  find  so  many  fairy  chambers 
carpeted  with  no  taste,  and  fitted  with  useless 
bric-a-brac,  such  as  would  sell  at  no  English 
bazaar,  each  ticketed  with  its  price  "in  plain 
figures."  A  crystal  throne  with  red  cushions 
provided  for  the  use  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  finds 
its  parallel  in  a  crystal  bedstead,  surrounded  by 
mirror  walls,  for  the  use  of  the  sovereign's  wife. 
But  the  eye  finds  relief  in  each  chamber  of 
unfortunate  upholstery  in  the  paradisaic  view  from 
the  balcony  of  projecting  window  or  terrace. 
Without  all  is  lovely.  There  is  another  or  upper 
lake,  which  in  its  wildness  might  be  a  Highland 


i8      WINTER   DAYS   IN   THE   EAST 

loch,  except  that  Highland  lochs  have  not  marble 
summer-houses  or  a  terraced  marge. 

From  Udaipur  we  travelled  to  the  old  capital 
of  the  State,  abandoned  by  its  rulers  over  three 
centuries  ago.  There  is  no  place  where  one  can 
stay  at  Chitor  itself,  but  at  Chitorgarh,  a  mile 
or  so  away,  there  is  a  rest-house.  A  polite  note 
to  the  Hakim  was  answered  by  the  appearance 
of  his  very  handsome  elephant  at  6.30  a.m.;  but 
we  did  not  start  quite  so  early.  Chitor  lies  on 
a  rocky  hill  500  feet  above  the  surrounding 
country,  and  is  approached  through  seven  successive 
picturesque  gateways ;  the  table  land  of  three  and 
a  half  miles  is  now  almost  entirely  either  jungle 
or  covered  by  ruins.  The  two  great  towers  of 
Fame  and  Victory,  the  former  eighty  feet  high, 
and  dating  from  890  A.D.,  and  the  other  122 
feet  high,  and  dating  from  1440,  are  in  admirable 
preservation.  There  is  a  temple  to  Kali,  fresh 
stained  with  blood  of  sacrifice  every  morning  yet, 
and  ruins  of  a  handsome  palace  with  a  curious 
zenana  arrangement,  which  gave  the  ladies,  who 
occupied  chambers  like  loose-boxes,  an  opportunity 
of  sitting  in  tiny  balconies  which  look  like  eccentric 
external  mangers.  A  long  night  journey  brouglit 
us  to  Indore,  the  capital  of  Holkar's  State,  on 
Friday,   14th,  in  order  that  we  might  be  present 


A   NATIVE   STATE  19 

at  the  opening  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  India,  a  union  formed  of 
all,  or  nearly  all,  the  missions  established  or  main- 
tained by  the  Presbyterian  Churches  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  and  Canada.  Piegarding  missions 
in  India  I  make  some  observations  in  the  last 
chapter. 


CHAPTER   IV 

UP  AND  DOWN  IN  INDIA 

We  left  Indore  on  17  th  December  to  return  to 
the  more  usual  tourist  route,  and  for  some  hours 
the  Canadian  Missionary  to  the  Bhils  of  Central 
India  travelled  with  us.  He  is  a  real  man.  He 
was  formerly  a  non-commissioned  officer  in  the  18th 
Hussars ;  then  a  stationmaster  in  India ;  next  a 
missionary.  He  and  his  wife  and  five  children  live 
far  in  the  wilds.  Some  of  his  experiences  would 
thrill  a  missionary  meeting.  His  people  believe 
in  tree  devils,  and  when  the  official  among  them 
who  had  a  prescriptive  right  to  make  god-images 
and  set  them  up,  became  converted,  and  set  to 
work  to  cut  down  the  sacred  tree  itself,  the  already 
converted  flock  sat  round  in  a  circle  to  catch  the 
"  bong  "  as  it  came  out.  They  come  to  church  each 
with  his  bow  and  arrows.  They  steal  from  each 
other  in  a  systematic  way  ;  thus  if  B  steals  some 
of  A's  cattle,  he   in   turns  steals  from  C,   and  so 


22      WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE    EAST 

on  aud  on  until  A  stecals  from  off  Z's  cattle  and 
everything  is  all  square  again.  Christianity  intro- 
duces a  difficulty,  for  if  one  in  the  chain  becomes 
a  Christian,  he  cannot  steal  to  replace  what  has 
been  stolen  from  him,  and  this  makes  trials. 
One  day  our  friend  heard  that  a  promising 
convert  was  raving  drunk,  and  was  swaggering 
about  with  a  club  declaring  he  would  kill  the 
missionary,  a  square  set,  sturdy,  short  man,  who 
probably  fears  nothing  in  this  world ;  he  at  once 
went  to  meet  him.  The  Bhil  swung  his  club  and 
charged  at  him ;  the  assailed  stood  his  ground  and 
knocked  his  assailant  down.  He  rose  and  charged 
again.  Again  he  was  knocked  down.  Yet  again 
he  charged.  The  return  blow  was  this  time  so 
convincing  that  the  Bhil  lay  stunned.  The  victor 
dragged  his  foe  by  his  heels  to  his  wife  and  left 
him.  The  next  day  the  sobered,  battered  Bhil 
came  to  beg  forgiveness.  "  Certainly  not,"  was  the 
answer,  "  you  tried  three  times  to  kill  me  yesterday, 
but  I  was  stronger  than  you.  You  must  show  by 
your  conduct  that  you  are  really  sorry."  That  was 
three  years  ago,  and  since  that  time  the  Bhil  never 
had  transgressed  in  any  way,  and  was  in  a  sense 
a  pillar  of  the  church.  At  Christmas  the  teacher 
hoped  to  have  a  treat  for  his  Hock  and  had 
suggested   a   Christmas   tree,  but   his  wife   said   it 


UP   AND   DOWN   IN    INDIA  23 

must  not  be ;  they  had  taught  the  people  that  there 
were  no  tree-demons ;  if  there  was  a  Christmas 
tree,  they  would  believe  that  after  all  the  tree 
contained  the  Christian  demon.  A  wise  woman. 
So  fearless  are  the  Bhils  that  according  to  report 
they  are  nowadays  never  sentenced  to  death,  for 
they  regard  death  with  indifference.  The  mission 
to  the  Bhils  is  not  a  widely  known  mission,  but  it 
is  impossible  not  to  believe  in  the  good  done  by  the 
admirable,  energetic  and  sincerely  pious  ex-trooper. 
On  the  18th  we  reached  Jaipur,  the  wonder- 
ful strawberry-cream-tinted  city  of  Eajputana.  A 
letter  from  Major  Showers,  the  Eesident,  was 
handed  me  at  the  station,  which  stated  that  the  Eaj 
had  put  a  carriage  and  pair  at  my  disposal,  with 
other  courtesies,  so  after  tiffin  we  left  in  state  with 
two  sais  and  a  shield-bearer  to  visit  Major  Showers 
and  Sir  Swinton  and  Lady  Jacob.  The  next  day 
we  visited  the  deserted  city  of  Amber,  and  now 
a  munshi  or  government  clerk  accompanied  us  and 
sat  opposite  us  in  the  carriage,  gleaming  through 
enormous  glasses.  He  was  most  polite  and  highly 
conscious  of  his  honourable  duties  as  guide,  but  his 
ideas  and  ours  were  not  quite  the  same  as  to  what 
we  should  see.  He  always  wished  us  to  "  go  to 
see  gas-works ! "  but  strange  as  it  seemed  to 
him,    gas-works    were    the    very    last    things    we 


24      WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE   EAST 

wanted  to  see.  He  told  us  many  a  singular  story 
in  a  slow  and  carefully  pronounced  monotone, 
not  the  least  curious  being  that  of  the  Maharajah's 
elephants,  which  according  to  him  are  always 
ninety-nine  in  number.  Sometimes  an  effort  has 
been  made  to  maintain  an  even  hundred,  but 
always  the  number  reverts  to  niuety-nine ;  with 
such  tales  did  our  muushi — who  informed  me  with 
pride  he  was  "  plucked  B.A.  Bombay  University " 
— speed  our  way.  Amber  has  been  too  often 
described  for  me  to  do  so.  The  day  was  grey, 
but  the  place  is  wild  and  imposing. 

In  the  afternoon  we  spent  hours  in  the  royal 
palace,  which  occupies  one  seventh  of  the  whole 
city ;  never  before  have  I  been  so  completely 
transported  to  the  middle  ages,  for  in  one  corner 
men  were  repairing  chain  armour,  in  another 
scribes  were  copying  MSS. ;  at  the  foot  of  the 
elaborate  and  rather  tiresome  gardens  is  a  moat 
with  huge  alligators  which  were  exhibited  by 
an  old  attendant  who  is  their  very  good  friend ; 
legend  says  it  was  to  this  moat  that  in  pre-British 
days  inconvenient  palace  personages  were  taken. 
Of  the  tombs  of  Jai  Singh  and  the  late  Maharajah 
many  have  written,  and  the  Observatory  of  the 
former  lives  in  one's  memory  as  no  other  observatory 
in  the  world  can  ever  do. 


UP   AND   DOWN    IN    INDIA  25 

From  Jaipur  we  travelled  to  Agra,  and  after  a 
visit  to  the  great  fort,  where  no  native  is  permitted 
to  enter  without  a  pass — beautiful  in  palaces  and 
mosques,  and  in  its  distant  view  of  the  Taj  Mahal 
— we  went  to  the  Taj  itself.  It  is  the  one  building 
in  the  world  that  cannot  disappoint.  Photographs 
distort  and  cannot  suggest  the  true  rich  colour,  and 
pictures  cannot  give  sufficient  foreground  without 
diminishing  the  apparent  size  of  the  principal 
building.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Taj  seems  to 
grow  before  the  eye  as  you  look,  until  you  realise 
that  despite  the  perfection  of  proportion  (which 
misleads  the  eye)  it  is  a  very  great  building ; 
white,  shining  and  glorious,  covered  with  exquisite 
work,  inlaid,  carved,  and  pierced  marbles.  It  is  to 
attempt  the  impossible,  however,  to  describe  the 
effect  of  perfection  which  the  Taj  produces,  aided 
by  the  long,  thin  stream  of  water  which  reflects 
the  front  and  the  blue  of  the  sky  all  around.  It 
has  always  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Taj  is  not 
one  building ;  it  is  part  of  an  elaborate  architectural 
scheme,  with  a  great  gateway  a  long  way  in  front 
of  it  in  red  sandstone,  and  a  mosque  in  red  on  one 
side  and  a  hall  like  a  mosque  on  the  other,  and 
behind,  lower,  is  the  broad  river  Jumna.  All  this 
grouping  cannot,  of  course,  be  shown  in  any  picture 
unless  it  were  of  enormous  size.     On  the  evening 

D 


26      WINTER   DAYS    IX    THE    EAST 

of  Sunday  we  visited  the  Taj  Mahal  again,  which 
we  saw,  quite  alone,  in  moonlight,  when  it  gleamed 
like  whitest  ivory.  Of  course  we  visited  Fatehpur 
Sikri,  a  city  22 i  miles  from  here,  built  by  Akbar, 
and  deserted  by  him  twenty  years  after.  This  was 
our  third  deserted  city.  It  is  full  of  magnificent 
palaces,  and  according  to  local  authorities  is  the 
abode  of  panthers,  porcupines,  serpents,  etc.  A 
young  German  on  a  month's  holiday  from  Burma 
brought  us  back  by  motor  car,  and  we  greatly 
astonished  a  stately  camel,  whose  expression  of 
disgust  at  motor-speed  was  singularly  fine. 

On  Christmas  eve  we  reached  Delhi ;  it  was 
very  cold,  and  I  was  glad  to  be  warmly  wrapt  up 
in  my  fur  coat.  But  on  Christmas  morning  again 
all  was  delightful,  with  the  brilliancy  that  only  is 
found  in  the  East.  When  in  my  bath  I  heard  a 
distant  military  band  playing  "  Bonnie  Dundee," 
and  home  seemed  not  so  very  far  away.  Paulo 
presented  each  of  us  with  a  rosebud  by  way  of 
Christmas  greeting.  St.  James's  Church  was  well 
filled,  and  prettily  decorated  with  flowers.  After 
service  we  went  to  the  Fort,  and  visited  the  lovely 
buildings ;  they  are  of  earlier  date  than  those  of 
Agra,  but  perhaps  even  more  magnificent.  The 
custodier  is  an  old  soldier,  an  Elgin  man  named 
Black,  wlio  left  his  native  citv  in   1SG4.     He  has 


UP   AND   DOWN    IN    INDIA  27 

been  out  here  forty-four  years,  and  I  should  think 
would  never  return  to  Scotland.  Here  the  terrible 
mutiny  time  is  always  with  us.  Behind  us  in 
church  this  morning  was  a  memorial  tablet  to  an 
entire  family — husband,  wife,  mother-in-law,  four 
sisters-in-law,  four  brothers,  nephews,  grandchildren, 
etc. — "brutally  murdered  on  or  about  11th  May, 
1857,"  and  everywhere  are  similar  records.  What 
has  been  so  often  described  need  not  here  again  be 
written  of.  All  we  could  see,  we  saw.  Our  ex- 
cellent friends,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cremer  (he  was 
formerly  Dutch  Minister  for  the  Colonies),  invited 
us  to  accompany  them  one  evening  to  a  private 
nautch.  It  was  of  a  very  sedate  and  demure 
description  given  by  three  girls  and  two  sets  of 
musicians.  The  entertainment  consisted  largely  of 
movements  of  hands  and  fingers,  and  even  of  toes,  but 
very  little  in  the  way  of  steps.  There  was  also  a 
good  deal  of  discordant  singing.  The  principal  girl 
did  a  sort  of  snake-charming  representation  very 
cleverly.  Perhaps  the  funniest  thing  was  the 
promptness  with  which,  at  the  close  of  the  per- 
formance, the  girls  dropped  off'  their  finery  and 
calmly  stood  up  in  a  "  shift "  and  meagre  pants. 
After  a  few  days'  stay  at  Delhi  we  arrived  at 
Amritsar  one  Friday  morning,  and  went  to  the 
Cambridge  Hotel. 


28      WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE    EAST 

We  had  to  wait  an  hour  for  our  room,  and  nearly 
as  long  for  breakfast ;  but  ultimately  we  got  com- 
fortably settled,  and  then  set  off  in  a  carriage  for 
the  Golden  Temple,  the  centre  of  Sikh  religion. 
All  round  a  very  large  tank  is  a  white  marble  plat- 
form, and  at  one  place  a  broad  white  marble  cause- 
way leads  to  the  temple,  which  is  thus  a  sort  of 
island  in  itself.  It  is  all  glittering  without,  and 
inside  continual  prayers  are  offered  over  the  Holy 
Book  of  the  Sikhs ;  of  course  our  shoes  had  been 
removed  before,  and  we  went  about  in  loose  slippers. 
Garlands  of  roses  and  marigolds  were  thrown  round 
our  necks,  and  we  were  presented  with  white  cups 
of  sugar  candy  with  candied  sugar  inside.  We 
went  up  to  a  gallery  and  saw  the  very  extraordinary 
groups  below,  all  picturesque  and  earnest.  In  a 
corner  of  the  gallery  a  holy  man  was  perusing 
another  enormous  copy  of  the  Book.  We  went 
a  long  way  in  slippered  feet  round  the  tank  to  a 
tower,  richly  embellished  with  Sikh  pictures.  At 
tiffin  Mr.  Casson,  the  Commissioner,  called  and 
offered  to  go  with  us  again  in  the  afternoon.  So 
we  went  in  great  state  and  were  received  by  all  the 
chief  priests ;  gold  embroidered  cloths  were  placed 
on  the  places  where  we  sat,  under  the  ugly  red 
Victoria  Memorial  Tower,  while  our  shoes  were 
removed,  and   where    we    received   one   garland   of 


UP   AND   DOWN   IN    INDIA  29 

flowers  before  we  received  two  now,  and  presents  of 
silk  gauze  scarfs.  All  the  treasures  were  exhibited, 
the  golden  doors  used  on  special  occasions,  the 
jewelled  crown  to  be  hung  over  the  Book,  the 
golden  peacocks,  golden  staves  and  gilded  punkahs, 
sacred  swords,  the  treasury,  etc,  A  most  dream- 
like day  in  every  way,  outrageously  and  impossibly 
Oriental,  and  always  the  fakirs  and  beggars,  the 
strange  men  from  Ladak,  the  priests  with  extra- 
ordinary high  hats  like  wizards  in  fairy  tales,  the 
still  water,  the  glittering  temple,  and  the  venerable 
sages.  Then  we  went  to  a  shop  and  made  some 
purchases,  the  seller  squatting  on  the  floor  and  his 
rivals  standing  at  the  door  ready  to  burst  upon  us 
when  we  came  out  with  narratives  and  warnings  of 
the  seller's  well-known  duplicity.  He  presented 
me  with  a  receipted  account,  although,  in  fact,  the 
price  was  not  to  be  paid  until  we  received  the 
things  in  Calcutta.  I  pointed  out  this  to  him. 
He  replied  :  "  It  is  no  matter ;  English  gentleman !  " 
Such  is  the  credit  of  Englishmen  shopping  in  India. 
In  the  evening  we  dined  with  the  Commissioner. 
After  stopping  a  few  hours  at  Lahore,  where  Captain 
and  Mrs.  Elliot  met  us  with  a  carriage,  and  we 
drove  through  the  park  and  to  some  of  the  prin- 
cipal' shops,  we  left  again  for  Eawal  Pindi,  where 
Captain     Charteris     met    us.      After    church     the 


30      WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE   EAST 

following  day,  Captain  Charteris  took  us  a  most 
comprehensive  drive  round  the  very  large  military 
station,  and  in  the  evening  we  went  to  the 
Scotch  service  in  the  Army  Prayer-room  (see 
Chapter  XXL).  There  was  most  beautiful  moon- 
light both  going  and  coming.  "We  went  to  bed  in 
our  waiting-car  at  the  station,  where  Paulo  had  our 
beds  prepared.  At  about  6.30  a.m.  the  train 
started,  and  before  lunch  we  arrived  at  Lahore,  and 
found  that  our  quarters  at  Government  House  were 
for  that  night  to  be  in  tents,  but  this  was  no  hard- 
ship as  we  had  two  large  tents,  with  bathrooms 
attached,  the  second  tent  being  a  combined  sitting- 
room  and  bedroom.  To  the  Governor's  ball  we 
were  conveyed  in  bright  moonlight  in  his  celebrated 
camel  carriage,  drawn  by  four  stately,  soft-stepping 
camels,  each  with  its  driver  in  the  Governor's 
livery.  The  ball  was  given  in  the  Montgomery 
Hall — a  fine  building — and  the  guests  numbered 
something  like  700.  I  don't  know  when  we  have 
enjoyed  a  ball  so  much,  but  we  left  as  soon  after 
the  Governor  as  we  could,  and  were  in  our  tent  by 
1  a.m.  or  soon  after.  The  dancers  kept  it  up 
till  4  or  5. 

Next  day  we  went  to  Nedan's  Hotel  to  meet 
a  friend  from  Peshawar,  who  lunched  with  us. 
A   fortune-teller   read   our   hands.    A.   is   to   have 


UP   AND   DOWN    IN    INDIA  31 

great  luck  about  20  th  January,  including  receiving 
"many  many  picture  post-cards."  She  is  to  live 
to  105,  but  I  go  at  94.  Six  banks  are  to 
keep  my  money,  and  jewels  also  are  to  be  mine  in 
profusion.  I  have  four  friends,  one  of  them  a 
native.  Now,  who  can  that  be  ?  I  am  sometimes 
"  mouth-angry  "  but  never  "  heart-angry."  I  am 
very  "  happy  with  my  lady,"  but  "  a  lady  at  another 
station  is  very  fond  of  me  " — a  rather  embarrassing 
statement  in  A.'s  presence.  All  bad  luck  is  past 
for  both  of  us.  Then  we  went  to  the  Fort  and  saw 
all  the  wonderful  buildings  it  contains,  including  a 
curious  armoury,  chiefly  of  Sikh  weapons,  some  of 
them  very  odd,  such  as  a  big  pistol  which  was  also 
a  short  sword  ;  a  crutch  which  was  also  a  poinard, 
walking-stick  swords,  etc.,  etc.  The  great  mosque, 
built  by  Aurungzeb,  has  a  collection  of  Mahom- 
medan  relics — a  hair  of  the  Prophet's  beard, 
Fatima's  prayer  mat,  etc.,  etc.  At  Government 
House  we  had  been  transferred  to  a  very  spacious 
apartment  about  30  feet  high,  and  we  had  each  a 
large  bathroom  and  dressing-room.  The  centre  of 
this  house  was  once  the  huge  chamber  above  a 
tomb.  Then  it  was  built  round  and  added  to  and 
altered,  and  the  result  is  that  the  dining-room  and 
drawing-room  are  magnificent  indeed.  The  former 
can   dine    80    (that   number    dined   there    a    week 


32      WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE   EAST 

or  two  ago) ;  it  was  decorated  by  Kipling's  father, 
and  the  electric  light  is  very  ingeniously  placed 
in  the  lofty  domed  ceiling. 

We  spent  interested  hours  in  the  museum, 
Mr.  Brown,  the  curator,  showing  us  round.  "We 
saw  what  was  to  us  quite  a  new  section  of  Indian 
archaeology,  namely,  the  examples  from  Peshawar, 
and  elsewhere  of  Graeco-Hiudu  (Graeco-Bactrian) 
art,  taking  one  back  to  the  time  and  influence 
of  Alexander  the  Great,  and  of  the  colonies 
he  left  after  his  brief  victorious  expedition.  The 
"  Fasting  Buddha  "  is  itself  alone  worth  a  journey 
to  Lahore.  Sir  Charles  Eivaz  kindly  gave  us 
the  use  of  the  state  elephant  to  visit  the 
native  bazaars.  Lahore  is  one  of  the  most 
Oriental  of  cities,  and  nothing  could  be  more 
picturesque  than  those  quaint,  narrow,  crowded 
streets.  Often  there  was  little  more  than  room 
for  us  to  pass,  and  repeatedly  our  driver  hacked 
down  strings  of  advertisements  which  obstructed 
our  passage.  From  Lahore  we  followed  the  usual 
course  in  visiting  Lucknow  and  Cawnporc.  In  each, 
the  scenes  of  so  much  horror  are  now  delightful 
gardens.  Of  Benares  everybody  writes.  It  is  at 
once  the  most  fascinating  and  the  most  repulsive 
place  in  India.  The  so-called  monkey  temple  teems 
with  unrestrained  monkeys,  which  make  one  glad 


UP   AND   DOWN    IN    INDIA  33 

to  leave  the  horrid  precincts.     Nor  is  the  temple  of 
the  sacred  cow  much  more  pleasing. 

We  dined  at  the  Central  Hindu  College.  The 
party  consisted  of  Mr.  Arundale,  his  aunt,  and 
Miss  Herrington,  "  all  cranks "  they  described 
themselves  to  be ;  but  the  fact  is  they  are  all 
Theosophists,  and  give  their  lives  to  teaching 
in  their  College  without  fee  or  reward.  Mrs. 
Besant  was  at  Madras.  The  next  morning  after 
breakfast  we  drove  out  again  to  visit  the  School 
and  College.  The  object  is  to  teach  pure  Hinduism. 
It  is  not  a  Christian  College.  It  is  a  college  to 
teach  through  English  the  "  pure  "  principles  of  the 
Hindu  religion  and  is  a  curious  and  interesting 
experiment  which  seems  to  be  successful.  The 
Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales  visited  the  place  last 
year,  and  the  King  has  sent  it  an  excellent  portrait 
with  his  autograph.  All  the  distinctions  of  caste 
are  carefully  observed.  The  bed-rooms  of  the  boys 
(who  get  up  at  4.30  and  5  a.m.,  but  do  not  wash 
till  8)  are  extremely  simple,  but  very  tidy  and 
very  loyal  with  royal  portraits.  No  corporal  punish- 
ment of  any  kind  is  inflicted.  There  is  a  good 
laboratory ;  the  boys  play  cricket,  football,  and 
hockey.  They  have  a  little  temple  in  which  the 
goddess  of  Wisdom  is  to  be  put,  but  it  is  not  yet 
consecrated.     They  have,  however,  their  priest,  and 


34      WINTER   DAYS   IN   THE   EAST 

a  room  for  the  boys'  devotions.  We  heard  some  of 
the  boys  read,  and  saw  them  modelling,  etc.  A. 
alone  was  permitted  to  enter  the  girls'  school, 
which  is  as  secretive  as  a  nunnery.  There  were 
about  ninety  little  Hindu  girls  who  answered 
demurely  to  stately  names,  and  some  six  older  girls, 
but  the  difficulty  is  to  get  girls  to  stay  on,  as  the 
desire  is  to  marry  them  off  at  once.  The  school 
has  a  printing  press  of  its  own ;  the  boys  look  bright 
and  happy.  After  all  the  purpose  of  the  institu- 
tion is  much  like  that  to  which  many  Christian 
missionaries  devote  themselves,  viz.,  secular  educa- 
tion ;  but  the  Theosophists  seek  to  make  no 
converts,  but  only  to  make  Hindus  good  Hindus. 
We  spent  a  morning  on  the  Ganges,  and  floated 
down  its  broad  bosom  about  half-past  seven  a.m., 
past  the  ghats  which  line  one  side  of  the  stream, 
each  with  broad  steps  to  the  water;  above  is  a 
mass  of  temples  and  palaces,  built  by  princes  of  such 
states  as  Indore,  Jaipur,  etc.,  for  their  people  to  stay 
in  when  they  come  to  bathe  in  the  sacred  river. 
The  great  buildings,  some  crumbling,  some  in  good 
order,  extend  for  about  a  mile  and  a  half, 
and  the  shores  were  thronged  with  people 
bathing  and  washing,  and  always  praying,  in  or 
out  of  the  water.  Many  fakirs  were  there.  I  saw 
the  celebrated  one  who  lies  on  a  bed  of  big  nails. 


UP   AND   DOWN    IN    INDIA  35 

He  is  a  stalwart  fellow  and  was  milking  a  sacred 
cow,  for  milk  is  the  only  food  he  takes ;  by- 
and-bye  he  strolled  back  to  his  painful  couch  and 
sat  down  lightly  enough,  and  unwound  his  tre- 
mendous hair,  never  cut  since  he  was  born ;  coiled 
round  his  head,  the  hair  must  make  a  pillow 
proof  against  even  big  nails.  Princes  come  to  pray 
beside  him  and  give  him  gifts,  and  he  blesses  them. 
He  was  virtually  quite  naked  except  for  a  small 
loin  cloth.  Another  fakir  spent  his  time  bending 
backwards  and  forwards  in  a  style  any  exponent 
of  morning  health  exercises  would  much  admire. 
The  scene  in  the  cold  morning  light  was  wonderful. 
At  the  burning  ghat  we  saw  two  corpses  consumed. 
The  relations  sat  on  the  roof  of  a  small  temple 
like  crows  and  watched  silently  and  reverently 
the  pyres.  Sometimes  a  party  of  six  was  passed, 
in  single  file  led  by  a  priest  (wearing  of  course 
no  priestly  robes  of  any  kind) ;  they  were  on 
their  way  to  visit  all  the  sacred  places  on  the 
Ganges;  one  such  procession  consisted  of  four 
ladies  with  two  stalwart  men  servants  behind 
them,  carrying  all  the  party's  bedding,  for  that 
is  never  left  behind. 

After  a  few  days  in  Calcutta,  where  we  dined 
with  Sir  Andrew  Eraser,  Lieutenant-Governor  of 
Bengal,  we  went  to  Darjeeling,  and  were  fortunate 


36      WINTER   DAYS    IX   THE    EAST 

to  have  delightfully  clear  weather,  so  that  Kin- 
chinjanga,  in  all  her  majesty  of  snow  and  peak, 
28,000  feet,  was  always  visible.  One  night  we 
had  in  the  open  an  exhibition  of  weird  Thibetan 
dances  in  the  dark.  The  dances  seem  to  be  a 
survival  of  an  ancestor  of  our  Christmas  panto- 
mime, for  they  excelled  in  huge  animals  of  basket- 
work  presumably,  with  men  inside,  and  in  youths 
who  simulated  both  horse  and  rider,  and  a  peacock 
who  ran  cackling  about,  laying  eggs  (!).  From  Dar- 
jeeling  we  visited  the  Missions  at  Kalimpong 
and  went  on  by  the  Teesta  valley  to  Siliguri, 
whence  we  travelled  to  Dhubri-ghat  on  the  Brahma- 
putra ;  we  had  a  long,  long  wait  on  the  sandy, 
sun-baked,  mosquito-haunted  flat  there  till  about 
3  p.m.  we  got  on  board  the  mail  steamer;  not 
until  4  did  we  leave,  instead  of  at  9  a.m.,  as  we 
had  hoped.  We  were  the  only  Europeans  on 
board,  even  the  captain  being  a  native.  We  had 
excellent  cabins,  and  felt  as  if  we  were  on  board  a 
yacht,  for  this  "Pegu"  is  only  six  months  old ;  built 
by  Denny  of  Dumbarton. 

Our  voyage  lasted  nearly  two  days  on  the 
Brahmaputra,  a  very  great  river,  with  for  the 
most  part  low  grey  shores,  on  the  sunniest  of 
which  lay  many  and  many  a  big  alligator.  At 
first  we  could  scarcely  believe  our  eyes    that    the 


UP   AND   DOWN    IN    INDIA  37 

numerous  log-like  things  were  alligators  at  large, 
but  we  were  quite  close  enough  to  see  them 
stretch  their  legs  and  move  rapidly  into 
the  water  as  we  passed.  Most  of  the  land  was 
arid  waste,  only  varied  by  impenetrable  jungle. 
The  rest  was  delightful  for  us,  after  much  land 
travel  but  we  were  disappointed  to  get  to  Gauhati — 
the  prettiest  reach — when  it  was  dark,  and  we 
were  pressed  for  time.  The  scenery  round  Gauhati 
is  really  fine,  and  there  are  some  good  temples 
could  we  have  seen  them.  From  Gauhati  we 
took  train  to  Titabur,  through  wildest  jungle, 
and  one  recalls  in  particular  the  vision  of  a 
death -like  pool  in  the  forest  where  a  motionless 
bird  sat  on  a  dead  branch  above  the  wan  water. 
At  Titabur  I  visited  my  brother,  who  is  a  tea- 
planter,  and  as  the  house  is  a  typical  tea-planter's 
bungalow  I  may  describe  it.  The  wide  verandah 
forms  a  large  open-air  drawing-room.  The  house 
stands  high  on  posts,  but  the  lower  part  is  not 
entirely  open  space,  for  my  bath-room  was  there  and 
a  bachelor's  bed-room,  and  stores  and  other  places. 
On  the  verandah  level  is  the  drawing-room  to  the 
right,  with  a  regular  tiled  fire-place,  in  which  a 
cheerful  coal-fire  was  kept  burning ;  to  the  left 
is  A.'s  little  boudoir  sewing-room,  and  beyond 
is    the    dinino-room.      Behind    the    dining-room    is 


38      WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE   EAST 

our  host's  very  large  bed-room,  which  was  given 
up  to  us,  with  a  bath-room  for  my  wife  on  the 
same  level,  and  my  bath-room  at  the  foot  of  an 
interior  staircase.  Opposite  our  room  was  our  host's 
room.  The  verandah  in  front  is  very  high,  and 
the  roof  projects  over  the  steps  and  far  out  so 
as  to  take  carriages  under  its  wide  sweep.  Around 
is  cleared  ground,  with  a  level  lawn-tennis  ground 
duly  laid  out,  and  beyond  is  a  vegetable  garden.  At 
the  sides  and  back  are  numerous  subsidiary  build- 
ings, such  as  the  kitchen,  etc.  Two  long-legged, 
broad-winged  adjutant  birds  stood  nearly  all  day 
on  a  roof,  and  there  were  two  monkeys,  each 
with  a  pole  of  his  own,  and  a  sort  of  box  home 
on  the  top  of  the  pole.  Tea  bushes  meet  the  eye 
at  a  reasonable  distance  in  front  of  the  house, 
and  beyond  that  is  thick  wooding,  and  yet 
further,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  is  impenetrable  virgin 
jungle,  not  the  scrubby,  shrubby  jungle  of  Central 
India,  but  the  real  article  of  boys'  story  books, 
with  wild  elephants  at  large,  and  tigers  and 
leopards  "  all  proper."  There  are  dusty  roads, 
half  mud  with  a  day  or  two  of  welcome  rain  (no 
rain  had  fallen  since  October).  There  are  many 
gardens  like  this  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  there 
is  a  village  and  bazaar  which  is  filled  on 
Sundays   by    traders    from   all    the  country  round. 


UP   AND   DOWN    IN    INDIA  39 

The  household  was  thoroughly  well  ordered,  and 
we  got  better  cooked  food  and  much  more  appetis- 
ing than  in  any  hotel  in  India.  The  life  seems 
an  ideal  one  for  a  strong  healthy  man  with  all 
his  wits  about  him  and  his  gun  always  ready  at 
his  hand.  As  we  were  only  three-quarters  of  a 
mile  from  the  station,  one  never  knew  when 
a  guest  might  arrive,  for  in  Assam  all  passers-by 
must  call.  Assam  is  quite  unlike  any  other  part 
of  India  we  visited,  and  the  people  are  as  different 
from  the  Thibetans  as  the  Thibetans  are  unlike 
the  Bengali,  or  the  Bengali  unlike  the  warlike 
Rajpoots  or  fierce  Afghans.  At  Titabur  we  were 
some   70  miles  from  China. 

Wild  elephants  are  a  serious  nuisance  in  Assam, 
but  we  only  saw  one  elephant  here,  and  that 
belonged  to  the  Forest  officer.  Tigers,  jackals, 
and  elephants  and  leopards  are  plentiful,  and 
rhinoceros  is  shot  lower  down  the  Brahmaputra. 

One  day  a  conjuror  performed  in  front  of  the 
verandah.  As  one  of  Eobert's  house  servants 
afterwards  said,  "it  was  true  magic."  To  learn 
such  magic  one  goes  to  the  country  of  Gora,  where 
there  are  no  men,  only  women ;  men  who  go  there 
become  sheep  during  the  day,  and  at  night  they 
learn  magic.  They  cannot  get  away,  because  if 
they  start  in    the   night  they  always  find  in  the 


40      WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE   EAST 

morning  that  they  are  where  they  were  when 
they  started.  But  if  they  go  to  a  very,  very  old 
woman  she  may  help  them  to  escape,  and  then 
they  become  conjurors  in  India.  However,  our 
conjuror  yesterday  made  no  fairy-tale  claims.  He 
professed  to  come  from  Agra.  He  did  the  mango 
tree  trick  very  cleverly  indeed,  and  made  a  little 
duck  of  clay  move  about  in  a  bowl  of  water  to 
his  command ;  extracted  large  iron  balls  from  his 
mouth,  apparently  created  three  pigeons  on  the 
spot,  and  did  many  other  wonderful  things. 

In  the  afternoon  we  went  to  the  village  school 
of  which  Eobert  is  the  over-authority,  and  the 
children  turned  out  to  do  some  sort  of  health 
exercises  on  the  road.  They  were  very  funny, 
for  they  were  adapted  to  Indian  ways,  and  some- 
times the  children  jumped  along  like  frogs  in  a 
way  no  English  child  could  do,  or  crawled  and 
wriggled  Hat  like  alligators. 

The  people  about  here  wear  enormous  hats, 
some  are  nearly  five  feet  broad ;  tliey  are  very 
neatly  made,  and  cost  about  tliree  rupees. 

The  wild  Nagas  of  the  neighbouring  hills  are 
particularly  fond  of  dogs  for  eating,  and  even 
pariah  or  "pi"  dogs  (which  are  not  necessarily 
ownerless  by  any  means)  seem  to  know  this,  and 
give  Nagas  a  wide  berth. 


UP   AND   DOWN    IN    INDIA  41 

On  returning  to  Calcutta  we  were  present  at 
the  State  ball  given  by  Lord  Minto,  where  the 
Amir  of  Afghanistan  was  decidedly  the  principal 
figure. 

After  the  State  quadrille  there  was  a  pause,  and 
the  Afghan  March  announced  the  arrival  of  the 
Amir  at  his  first  ball!  He  looked  as  happy  as  a 
boy.  His  early  trouble  was  whether  to  keep  his 
round  hat  off  or  on.  He  looked  better  with  it  on, 
and  evidently  was  advised  that  it  was  right  to 
wear  it.  Everything  and  everyone  appeared  to 
offer  him  the  utmost  enjoyment.  When  we  left 
about  1  a.m.  he  was  still  there,  and  seemed  likely 
to  stay.  Of  course  the  Mintos  had  to  stay  too. 
We  enjoyed  the  ball  thoroughly. 

Next  morning,  10  th  February,  we  left  for 
Rangoon,  on  the  "  Taroba,"  being  examined  by  a 
lady  doctor  before  going  on  board  in  case  we 
had  plague. 


CHAPTER  V 
BUKMA 

Eangoon,  February,  1907. 
"  Little  they  know  of  England  who  only  England 
know,"  sings  the  poet  with  admirable  truth.  So, 
too,  little  they  know  of  Glasgow  who  have  not 
seen  Burma.  The  headquarters  of  that  great  fleet 
which  carries  civilisation  nine  hundred  miles  up 
the  Irrawaddy  is  in  Glasgow ;  all  its  ships  are 
Clyde  built;  the  machinery  in  the  mills  of  Eangoon 
bear  Glasgow  names ;  the  million  tiny  candles 
which  burn  before  the  shrines  in  the  great  pagoda 
are  said  to  be  manufactured  by  the  oil  company 
which  is  as  distinctively  Glasgow-conceived  as  is 
the  flotilla ;  every  leading  Eangoon  merchant  is  the 
nephew  or  the  cousin  of  some  Glasgow  citizen ; 
it  was  a  Glasgow  youth  who  first  greeted  me 
on  the  lawn  of  the  Gymkhana  Club.  Where 
Glasgow  men  go,  Glasgow  newspapers  will  follow ; 
still,  it  was  with  something  like  surprise  I  recognised 


44      WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE   EAST 

in  Maudalay  market  a  somewhat  familiar  type  in 
a  sheet  underlying  a  pretty  Burmese  girl's  wares; 
it  was  an  ancient  Glasgow  Herald ;  and  on  one 
of  the  shrines  of  the  Shwa  Dagon  itself  I  found 
a  page  of  an  antique  pink  Evening  Times  used 
as  a  cloth  for  offerings  of  Burmese  charity. 
Burma,  as  every  child  knows,  is  a  province  of 
the  Indian  Empire,  but  much  as  India  differs  in 
herself,  widely  dissimilar  as  are,  for  example,  Eawal 
Pindi  and  Benares,  or  Rajputana  and  Assam,  yet 
Burma  is  un-Indian  rather  than  India  varied. 
You  go  to  Burma  by  sea,  as  you  go  to  Great 
Britain.  When  you  arrive  you  are  enveloped  in 
a  sweltering,  moist,  hot-house  air,  which  is  unlike 
the  exhilarating  Indian  winter ;  the  people  are 
plump  and  good-looking  and  merry,  their  religion 
finds  expression  in  the  erection  of  countless  quite 
un-Indian  pagodas ;  they  go  clad  in  pink  silks ; 
the  priests  are  in  yellow  (and  every  Burman  at 
some  period  or  other  of  his  life  is  expected  to 
be  a  priest).  There  is  geniality  and  indolence 
everywhere,  and  luxuriant  Nature  says,  "You  do 
well  to  enjoy  me."  The  trader  scoffs  and  says, 
"  The  Burman  is  a  lazy  beggar ;  he  will  not  work ; 
to  get  men  for  our  business  we  have  to  draw  too 
liberally  upon  Madras  and  Chittagong."  But  wliy 
should  the  Burman  work  for  others  when  his  own 


BURMA  45 

very  simple  wants  are  so  easily  satisfied.  Satis- 
faction !  that  is  the  keynote  of  Burma.  "Be 
content  with  your  lot,"  say  our  preachers  at 
home.  "I  am  content,"  says  the  Burman,  "quite 
content."  The  European  illogically  answers,  "  But 
you  should  not  be  content."  Who  is  to  pronounce 
judgment  upon  those  happy  folk  ?  Time  was 
when  Burmese  armies  poured  into  Assam  and 
devastated  that  fertile  country ;  but  who  wishes 
those  days  back  ?  The  Burman  is  no  longer  a 
soldier ;  he  is  a  contented,  happy  citizen  (with 
the  exception  afterwards  to  be  noted);  he  abhors 
both  milk  and  honey  (as  taught  by  his  religion), 
and  anyone  who  told  him  that  a  land  of  milk 
and  honey  was  to  be  desired  would  fill  him  with 
horror ;  his  fields  yield  richly  to  the  minimum 
of  toil ;  the  rivers  give  him  fish.  He  is  healthy 
and  strong  and  always  a  gentleman  ;  his  women 
have  no  caste  or  other  restriction ;  they  look  after 
his  affairs;  keep  his  accounts — when  he  has  any; 
smoke  cigars  enormously  bigger  than  any  men's,  and 
withal  are  the  perfection  of  neatness,  and  in  their 
gay  dresses  flutter  about  like  gorgeous  butterflies. 
I  can  understand  the  aspirations  of  Rangoon 
merchants  that  Burma  should  be  made  a  Crown 
Colony  independent  of  India,  but  I  am  sure  it 
would  not  aftect  a  Burman  one  way  or  other. 


46      WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE   EAST 

We  went  to  Mandalay  by  train ;  that  city  is 
desolated  by  plague,  and  the  markets  are  half 
empty.  A  malicious  bazaar  rumour  ran  that  a 
Eoyal  personage  who  some  time  ago  visited  Burma 
saw  so  many  Burmans  he  was  afraid,  and  said  the 
number  must  be  reduced.  Hence  the  plague. 
The  fact  is  the  plague  is  not  the  only  trouble. 
The  authorities,  properly  anxious  to  keep  it  within 
limits,  sent  emissaries  far  and  wide  to  warn  the 
people  of  danger  and  to  teach  them  precautions. 
Unfortunately,  those  men  were  Indians,  not  Bur- 
mans,  and  the  Burmans  dislike  Indians  very  much. 
So  between  plague  and  fear  of  plague  and  plague 
precautions,  the  markets  of  Mandalay  are  half 
deserted,  and  people  have  taken  to  the  jungle. 
Hence  want ;  hence  a  recrudescence  of  dacoitry ; 
hence  an  organised  attack  to  upset  and  rob  the 
train  by  which  it  happened  we  were  travelling. 
Fortunately  the  military  police  got  wind  of  what 
was  going  on,  and  our  train  was  boarded  in  the 
small  liours  of  the  morning  by  a  strong  force.  The 
train  was  not  upset,  but  we  were  hours  late  in 
reaching  Mandalay.  There  have  been  several  other 
attempts ;  fortunately  all  have  been  frustrated. 
But  dacoitry  is  exceptional. 

He  who  wishes  to  see   Mandalay  palaces  must 
come  quickly.      In   King  Theebaw's   time   most   of 


BURMA  47 

the  city  was  within  the  picturesque  walls.  Troops 
cleared  this  great  enclosure  of  all  but  the  palaces 
and  royal  tombs,  and  our  Government  built  great 
bazaars  outside.  Thus  the  city  is  entirely  modern, 
with  long,  wide,  straight,  dusty,  unromantic  streets, 
along  which  runs  an  electric  tram  service.  It  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  Kipling's  flying  fish 
might  just  as  reasonably  be  looked  for  at 
Charing  Cross  as  in  Mandalay.  Inside  the  walls 
(girdled  by  a  moat  on  which  grow  the  lotus  lily) 
are  the  palaces  of  Theebaw — empty,  looted,  stripped. 
Here  stood  the  throne  from  which  the  King  through 
an  opera  glass  (a  disconcerting  toy)  surveyed 
Europeans  approaching  him  on  hands  and  knees ; 
there  were  his  audience  chambers ;  here  again  is 
the  graceful  hall  of  his  dancing  girls ;  there  is  the 
dainty  spire  which  Burmans  know  as  "  the  Centre 
of  the  Universe."  But,  remember,  it  is  all  of  teak 
— invaluable,  magnificent  teak,  which  makes  the 
eyes  of  Eangoon  teak  merchants  sparkle  with  desire 
and  envy.  Xow  the  rich  gilding  has  been  stripped 
or  has  faded,  the  jewels  and  silks  are  in  museums, 
and,  despite  the  precautions  which  Lord  Curzon,  to 
his  honour,  instituted,  some  day  or  other  this  last 
shell  of  Burmese  regal  magnificence  will  be  de- 
stroyed by  fire.  Mandalay  will  certainly  flourish 
more    and    more    each    year    as     the    commercial 


48      WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE   EAST 

metropolis  of  Upper  Burma,  but  when  a  confla- 
gration next  rages  it  will  be  no  more  a  place  of 
romance  and  palace  secrets.  The  quaint  magnifi- 
cent Court  dresses  are  already  things  of  the  past ; 
the  wife  of  the  King's  Commander-in-Chief  keeps  a 
curiosity  shop ;  the  daughter  of  one  of  his  great 
nobles  sells  rubies  in  the  verandah  of  the  little 
hotel. 

From  Mandalay  we  went  up  the  Irrawaddy — 
river  of  ages — by  cargo  steamer,  which  is  rather 
three  vessels  than  one,  for  on  each  side  is  a  large 
float,  each  of  which  is  a  floating  bazaar,  the  one  of 
clothes  and  silks  and  hats  and  tools  and  all  such 
things,  and  the  other  of  vegetables  and  fruits  and 
the  like.  Each  night  the  steamer  halts  at  an 
appointed  bank  ;  slim  "  water-boys  "  leap  from  the 
bows  and  carry  ropes  ashore  and  up  the  crumbling 
banks,  on  the  top  of  which  stand  radiant  groups  of 
villagers  in  pink  and  white  and  blue,  with  a  golden- 
robed,  umbrella-covered,  shaven  priest  or  two,  each 
with  his  attendant  youth.  Above  shines  the  roof 
of  a  pagoda,  on  which  a  hundred  little  bells  are 
tinkling,  with  its  corners  guarded  by  four  huge 
monsters,  all  agape.  At  sundown  the  villagers 
come  and  go,  making  their  purchases  and  listening 
to  the  Captain's  gramaphone.  Behind  those  occa- 
sional   villages    is    nothing    but   wild    jungle    with 


BURMA  49 

wilder  beasts ;  teak  forests,  where  the  trees  whose 
wealth  is  to  fall  into  Scotch  pockets  at  home,  are 
tended  by  isolated  groups  of  capable  young  fellows 
— gentlemen  bred,  all  of  them — whose  one  certain 
place  of  meeting,  sometime  or  other,  unfortunately, 
is  Mandalay  Fever  Hospital.  There  is  but  one 
good  carriage  road,  and  that  is  from  the  river  bank 
up  to  the  Euby  mines,  and  it  is  very  good. 

How  magnificent  is  the  scenery  on  this  leisurely 
week's  journey  up  the  river  !  Infinite  varieties  of 
green  in  the  luxuriant  vegetation,  and  again  and 
again  amidst  it  the  "flame  of  the  forest,"  the 
splendid  scarlet  of  the  wild  cotton  tree.  At  night 
you  see  lurid  spots  on  distant  hills  ;  those  are  forest 
fires,  which  gleam  as  if  you  were  gazing  on  some 
burning  mountain.  At  Bhamo  the  Irrawaddy 
passenger  service  ends,  and  one  is  within  thirty- 
seven  miles  of  the  Chinese  frontier.  Here  are 
Shans  and  all  manner  of  curious  folk,  tiny-footed 
Chinese  women,  forest  Burmese.  Shall  I  tell  of 
Burmese  "  football "  played  by  five  or  six  gay,  slim, 
active  youths  with  a  cane  ball,  which  they  catch  on 
their  heads,  their  shins,  their  calfs,  their  necks, 
anywhere  but  on  their  feet  ?  It  is  the  universal 
game ;  I  wished  to  buy  one  of  the  balls,  as  I  might 
easily  have  done,  but  a  youth  promptly  stopped  his 
game  and  presented  the  ball  as  a  gift,  with  the  true 


50      WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE   EAST 

Burmese  courtesy  and  grace.  You  laugh  to  a  little 
naked  boy  sitting  with  his  parents,  and  immediately 
he  is  made  to  stand  up  and  return  the  Sahib's 
salutation  with  a  proper  salaam.  It  is  impossible 
not  to  delight  in  those  charming  people.  They 
may  be  idle,  but  it  does  one's  heart  good  to  see  so 
much  happiness.  I  do  not  forget  the  dacoits,  but 
they  are  a  small  folk,  an  incident  of  the  period  of 
plague,  and  nothing  more. 


CHAPTER  VI 
SINGAPORE  AND  JOHORE 

March,  1907. 

I  CANNOT  but  recall  with  shame  that  in  writing 
from  Rangoon  I  did  not  do  more  than  mention 
the  Shwa  Dagon  Pagoda  nor  its  Golden  sister  at 
Mandalay.  But  who  is  to  describe  the  indescrib- 
able, for  each  of  those  great  temples  is  not  one 
building — each  is  a  courtyard  approached  by  long 
flights  of  stairs,  roofed  with  gilded  and  carved  teak, 
guarded  by  monsters,  and  full  of  stalls  of  devout 
and  secular  dealers.  In  the  centre  of  the  courtyard 
rises  the  main  pagoda,  but  around  it  is  an  infinite 
maze  of  other  pagodas,  small  and  great,  and  shrines 
of  calm  contemplative  Buddhas.  Here  is  a  hall  of 
rich  statues,  or,  again,  one  sainted  figure  sits  by 
himself.  There  are  wood  carvings  of  the  most 
delicate  tracery  ;  there  are  grotesques  which  will 
haunt  your  dreams  all  your  life  long ;  there  are 
aged    pietists    seated    on    the    ground    mumbling 


52       WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE    EAST 

prayers  and  occasionally  clashing  a  bell  to  call 
attention  to  the  manner  in  which  they  are  acquiring 
merit ;  there  are  dainty  groups  of  Burmese  ladies 
all  a-flutter  with  cloud-like  silks  as  they  kneel  or 
prostrate  themselves  at  their  devotions ;  there  are 
naked  children,  cigar-sellers  and  toy-vendors,  all  the 
varieties  of  life  of  Burma.  One  goes  again  and 
again  to  the  Shwa  Dagon,  but  Kipling  got  no  further 
than  its  steps  in  describing  it,  and  one  does  not 
wonder. 

The  voyage  from  Eangoon  to  Singapore  took 
some  four  or  five  days.  We  only  stopped  a  couple 
of  hours  at  Penang.  At  Singapore  the  brilliancy  of 
the  green  grass  at  once  surprises  and  delights  the 
eye  accustomed  to  the  burnt-up  soil  of  India.  But 
it  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  while  Singapore 
seems  almost  intolerably  hot  to  the  visitor,  yet  it 
has  a  heavy  tropical  shower  every  day.  Hence  its 
greenness ;  hence,  too,  which  is  less  delightful,  its 
steaminess  as  of  the  moistest  and  hottest  of  hot- 
houses at  home.  The  settlement  is,  of  course,  very 
modern.  In  a  century  a  colony  does  not  gather 
antiquity,  but  it  is  full  of  life  and  vigour.  Tlie 
season  of  depression  from  over-speculation  in  land 
has  passed,  and  Singapore  is  now  on  the  rising  wave 
of  rubber-growing  prosperity.  The  Malay  States, 
too,  of  which  it  is  virlually  the  capital,  are  flourish- 


SINGAPORE    AND   JOHORE  53 

ing  exceedingly.  The  health  of  the  community  is 
very  good  ;  the  mosquitoes  are  intolerable,  but  they 
are  not  malarious ;  there  is  no  plague  or  fever.  I 
was  speaking  to  a  resident,  formerly  of  Glasgow, 
who  has  lived  in  the  island  since  1873,  and  in  all 
that  time  he  has  only,  he  says,  been  one  week  away 
from  business  from  ill-health,  and  he  has  only  once 
gone  home.  Certainly  all  the  white  population, 
ladies  and  men  alike,  look  surprisingly  fresh  and 
vigorous,  and  this  they  attribute  to  the  very  thing 
which  tries  so  severely  their  visitor,  viz.,  the 
excessive  humidity.  There  are  great  wide  roads 
most  beautifully  smooth  and  well  kept,  handsome 
public  buildings,  and  a  general  air  of  prosperity. 
The  universal  carriage  is  the  rickshaw,  drawn  by 
young  Chinamen  with  the  finest  and  strongest  legs 
in  the  world,  one  must  think,  and  next  to  no  brains. 
The  Chinese  are  the  universal  servants,  for  the 
Malay,  like  the  Burman,  does  not  see  why  he 
should  work  for  the  white  man  when  he  does  not 
require  to  do  so  for  his  own  needs. 

We  went  one  night  to  the  Malay  theatre,  where 
the  "  Merchant  of  Venice "  was  played  in  Malay. 
What  Irving  missed !  What  Beerbohm  Tree  has 
to  learn  !  Among  the  incidental  novelties,  Shylock, 
Antonio,  and  Bassanio  sang  their  parts  to  each  other 
to  modern  waltz  airs ;  but  at  intervals  the  action  of 


54      WINTER   DAYS   IN   THE   EAST 

the  play  stopped  altogether,  and  two  weird  children 
came  on  to  sing  an  American  coon  song ;  that 
finished  amid  loud  applause,  Shakespeare  was 
resumed.  Under  such  circumstances  little  wonder 
that  the  performances  usually  go  on  till  two  a.m. 
Portia  was  a  little  difficult  to  identify  at  first,  but 
we  found  her  at  last  in  a  plump  and  serious  Malay 
girl  with  a  wealth  of  heavy  black  hair  hanging 
down  her  back  and  a  very  short  skirt ;  she  had 
however,  magnificent  gold  anklets,  and  sat  in  a 
sahib's  cane  arm-chair  with  the  dignity  which 
befitted  the  lady  of  Belmont.  She  also  sang  several 
ballads  in  Malay,  which  I  cannot  think  were  Shake- 
spearean ;  so,  too,  each  suitor  in  the  casket  scene 
covered  his  sorrow  by  a  judicious  interjection  of  a 
pathetic  or  comic  song,  and  Portia  joined  frankly 
and  openly  in  the  merriment.  I  cannot  say  of 
Shylock  "  this  was  the  Jew  that  Shakespeare  drew," 
but  he  was  vigorous.  The  Malay  scene-painter's 
Venice  had  been  developed  out  of  his  inner  con- 
sciousness of  what  Venice  should  be,  and  certainly 
St.  Mark's  Piazza  might  be  improved  by  a  large 
group  of  tropical  plants  in  the  centre.  A  "  Street 
in  Venice  "  owed  something  naturally  to  Singapore 
— particularly  as  regarded  a  large  Union  Jack  on 
the  top  of  a  small  hillock  at  the  extremity  of  the 
perspective.     But  why  cavil  ?     It  was  a  street,  and 


SINGAPORE    AND   JOHORE  55 

would  not  any  street  in  Venice  or  otherwise  be 
improved  by  the  Union  Jack  in  full  flow  ?  I  am 
glad  I  saw  the  "  Merchant  of  Venice,"  but  I  am 
sorry  I  did  not  see  "  Hamlet,"  for  there  must  be 
great  capabilities  in  it,  from  a  Malay  point  of  view. 
Singapore  was  originally  leased  as  a  marshy  island 
from  the  Sultan  of  Johore,  and  his  descendant  is 
still  an  independent  sovereign  (with  limitations).  A 
short  railway  journey  of  less  than  an  hour,  stopping 
at  jungle  stations  with  such  names  as  Cluny, 
Woodlands,  etc.,  brings  one  to  the  narrow  strait 
which  separates  Singapore  from  the  mainland 
of  Asia,  and  a  ferry  steamer  takes  the  visitor 
quickly  across.  The  Sultan  kindly  sent  a  very 
smart  Malay  A.D.C.,  in  the  smartest  of  khaki 
uniforms,  to  meet  us  with  a  carriage,  and  we  saw 
everything  in  the  State  with  great  completeness, 
except  the  crown,  which  stands  in  a  safe  of  which 
the  Sovereign  keeps  the  key.  We  saw  the  rest  of 
the  regalia,  however,  and  very  handsome  it  is. 
jewelled  sceptres  and  swords,  and  royal  state 
umbrellas  and  spears,  and,  as  a  reminder  of  not 
distant  times,  a  case  of  poisoned  Malay  weapons. 
The  palace  is  very  commodious  and  beautifully 
situated,  and  contains  an  indifferent  collection  of 
British  Royal  portraits,  and  probably  the  most  un- 
recognisable life-size  portrait  of  W.  E.  Gladstone  that 


56      WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE   EAST 

man  ever  saw ;  doubtless  the  climate  has  affected 
those  works  of  art.  The  present  Sovereign  is  a  very 
active  young  prince,  greatly  interested  in  his  rubber 
plantation.  He  has  a  120-h.p.  Mercedes  motor  car, 
and  thirty  miles  of  admirable  road  on  which  to 
run  it.  The  course  must  tend  to  become  a  little 
monotonous.  The  town  is  decidedly  odd,  for  in  its 
way  it  is  a  sort  of  Chinese  Monte  Carlo.  "  Fan- 
tan  "  is  forbidden  in  Singapore,  but  Johore  is  inde- 
pendent, and  so  there  are  several  establishments 
which  are  much  resorted  to,  with  "Gambling  Farm" 
painted  in  English  on  their  fronts.  We  saw  some 
three  Chinese  open-air  theatres,  where  plays  with 
much  clashing  and  noise  were  being  acted  by  actors 
who  appeared  to  have  strayed  out  of  Chinese  vases 
as  known  to  us  at  home ;  the  plays  were  enacted 
on  open  stages  about  ten  feet  above  the  ground. 
The  audience  sit  on  the  ground  or  stand.  I  pre- 
sume a  collection  is  taken  at  intervals. 

I  went  one  morning  to  the  Law  Courts  of  Singa- 
pore and  heard  the  Chief- Justice  deliver  a  considered 
judgment  in  a  very  intricate  case  as  to  certain  rights 
in  a  property,  the  title  to  which  it  was  admitted  by 
both  sides  was  a  forgery.  Courts  at  home  are  a 
trifle  too  warm  for  comfort;  here  the  air  was  delight- 
fully cool,  for  the  Courts  were  great,  wide,  open 
halls,  well  shaded,  and  witli  many  punkahs  uninter- 


SINGAPORE   AND  JOHORE  57 

mittently  waving.  The  Chief-Justice  wore  a  gown 
but  no  wig ;  the  members  of  the  Bar  wore  no  wigs, 
but  as  regards  the  upper  portion  of  their  persons 
they  were  otherwise  immaculately  correct  in  white 
ties,  black  waistcoats,  and  gown ;  but,  without 
exception,  they  all  wore  white  trousers,  for  the  Law 
(which  loves  fiction  even  in  the  tropics)  supposes 
lower  limbs  to  be  invisible.  White,  of  course,  is 
the  universal  dress  of  every  European  in  this  land. 
The  newspapers  are  trenchantly  written  and  in- 
teresting, and  there  can  be  little  wanting  to  the 
happiness  of  those  who  can  stand  the  climate,  where 
turtle  is  the  cheapest  food  and  pineapples  are  a 
drug  in  the  market.  The  present  Governor  is  Sir 
John  Anderson,  an  Aberdonian,  who  was  long  in 
the  Colonial  Office ;  he  lives  in  a  stately  palace  on 
a  height  above  the  town,  and  takes  a  vigorous  and 
discriminating  share  in  the  administration  of  this 
happy  little  Colony,  where,  of  course,  there  ar^ 
many  Scotsmen.  Scotsmen,  indeed,  and  men  of 
Devon  seem  to  share  between  them  nearly  all  the 
positions  of  enterprise  in  the  East,  whether  in  the 
tea  gardens  of  Assam,  or  the  teak  forests  of  Burma, 
or  the  tropical  islands  of  the  Malay  Archipelago. 


CHAPTER  VII 

CANTON  AND  MACAO 

Hong  Kong,  March,  1907. 

Yesterday  I  was  in  Canton,  and  to-day  I  am  glad 
to  be  once  more  in  this  most  un-Chinese,  prosperous, 
cleanly,  bright  British  Colony.  Before  we  went 
into  China  proper,  I  should  have  said,  "  This  is 
Chinese  indeed."  So  it  is  in  a  sense,  but  there  is 
a  world  of  difference  between  Canton,  a  dirty, 
mediaeval  city,  and  the  stately  buildings  of  the 
Colony.  In  Canton  scarcely  a  street  is  wider  than 
seven  feet,  and  the  only  method  of  carriage  is  a 
sedan  chair,  and  loads  are  carried  on  poles  on  men's 
shoulders.  On  every  hand  are  shops,  big  and  little, 
all  open  to  the  street,  all  with  dangling  signs  in 
front,  those  signs  being  long  narrow  boards  of  red 
or  gold,  or  any  other  colour,  with  the  name  of  the 
shopkeeper  in  Chinese  characters.  Between  swing- 
ing signs,  along  narrow  ways,  amid  great  crowds  of 
pig-tailed,  blue-gowned  Chinamen,  the  visitor's  chair 


6o      WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE    EAST 

makes  but  moderate  progress,  though  the  coolies 
have  the  will  to  trot  fast  enough  if  there  were  room. 
We  visited  the  chief  Confucian  temple,  dirty  and 
undignified  as  so  many  Chinese  temples  seem  to  be. 
It  is  much  resorted  to  on  questions  of  health. 
There  are  some  sixty  seated  figures ;  you  select  the 
one  which  represents  your  age,  or  that  of  the  person 
you  are  interested  in,  and  burn  joss  sticks  before  it, 
and  pray.  If  your  age  is  about  sixty  you  begin 
again  at  statue  number  one ;  a  very  convenient 
arrangement,  for  thus  by  a  polite  Chinese  fiction  a 
prayer  is  equally  efficacious  whether  it  be  addressed 
to  No.  2  for  children  of  two  years  of  age  or  as 
representing  veterans  of  sixty-two.  Another  way 
(as  cookery  books  put  it)  is  to  take  a  sheaf  of  small 
bamboo  slips  and  shake  them  about  in  a  jar, 
towards  the  sacred  figures,  until  one  falls  out  of  the 
jar.  You  examine  it,  and  on  it  you  find  a  number. 
You  take  that  number  to  a  neighbouring  magic- 
physician  and  priest,  whose  counter  is  at  your  hand 
in  the  temple,  and  he  hands  you  a  folded  paper 
which  corresponds  to  the  number ;  that  paper  tells 
the  inquirer  what  is  wrong  with  him,  what  caused 
it,  and  how  he  is  to  be  cured.  In  this  twentieth 
century  in  this  vast  city  of  the  Chinese  Empire  this 
hanky-panky  apparently  rules  tlu>  people's  life. 
Near  at  hand  is  a  more  dignified  Buddhist  temple 


CANTON    AND   MACAO  6i 

with  "500  Genii,"  as  they  are  sometimes  called  in 
guide  books,  all  happy,  seated  figures,  with  a  greater 
variety  of  expression  and  pose  than  the  Kings  at 
Holyrood,  and  resembling  more  nearly  rows  of  bald- 
headed  old  benevolent  bankers,  as  English  tradition 
knows  bankers  at  home,  but  all  with  a  minimum  of 
clothes  and  cross-legged.  In  this  odd  company  is  a 
statue  of  Marco  Polo,  of  all  people,  and  as  he  was 
the  only  one  of  the  distinguished  crew  of  whom  I 
had  ever  heard,  I  stuck  three  little  joss-sticks  in  the 
sand-jar  in  front  of  him,  with  the  complete  approval 
of  the  priest  in  attendance. 

By  various  devious  ways  we  shortly  afterwards 
found  ourselves  at  the  place  of  public  execution. 
When  not  so  required  it  is  a  potter's  field,  and 
many  half-baked  pots  stood  on  the  ground.  Against 
the  wall  were  three  or  four  large  black  crosses,  on 
which  the  worst  criminals  are  executed,  but  most 
lose  their  heads  by  a  sword  which  was  shown 
us,  and  the  heads  are  preserved  in  jars.  About 
300  are  said  to  be  executed  annually  in  Canton. 
I  declined  to  look  at  the  heads ;  it  is  a  ghastly 
place  to  remember.  Then  we  proceeded  to  the 
Temple  of  Horrors,  where,  with  the  pious  view  of 
frightening  people  into  goodness,  each  chamber  con- 
tains a  graphic  model  of  the  sufferings  to  be  endured 
in  the  Buddhist  hell  by  the  wicked ;    one  is  being 


62      WINTER  DAYS   IN   THE   EAST 

crushed  by  an  iron  cap  over  his  head,  another  is 
being  boiled,  a  third  is  squeezed  in  a  press,  and  so 
on.  Each  cell  of  this  religious  Madame  Tussaud's 
has  lifelike  figures  of  a  presiding  judge  at  the  back 
and  attendant  executioners  of  justice.  Outside  the 
bars  sit  a  select  congregation  of  fortune-tellers,  a 
highly  respectable  and  remunerative  calling. 

Then,  upward,  we  went  by  the  city  walls — such 
walls ! — to  the  Five-storied  Pagoda,  which  is 
supposed  to  be  more  a  fortress  than  a  place  of 
religion.  There  the  mandarins  meet  to  direct 
affairs  when  a  war  is  in  progress ;  and,  if  so,  it 
explains  a  good  deal.  There  are  two  huge  statues, 
the  God  of  War,  of  a  ruddy  countenance,  and  the 
God  of  Literature.  They  are  seated  side  by  side, 
and  each  has  two  attendants.  In  the  intervals 
of  their  devotions  to  those  big  figures  the  mandarins 
survey  the  crumbling  brick  walls,  with  the  rusted 
cannon,  and  think.     What  do   they  think  about  ? 

Perhaps  their  dead.  It  is  highly  necessary  to 
build  a  suitable  place  of  interment ;  if  you  can't 
do  80  in  your  life  your  relations  may  instal  you 
in  the  mortuary,  perliaps  the  pleasantest  place  in 
Canton,  admirably  clean,  and  gay  with  all  manner 
of  flowers  and  trees  tortured  into  curious  forms. 
There  you  can  have  your  sealed  and  enamelled 
coffin  deposited  in  a  pleasant  chamber,  for    which 


CANTON   AND   MACAO  63 

so  much  a  year  is  paid.  Before  the  coffin  hangs 
a  curtain ;  in  front  of  the  curtain,  facing  the 
entrance,  is  a  table  or  altar  on  which  a  fresh 
cup  of  tea  is  placed  three  times  a  day.  In  some 
cases  there  is  a  handsome  chair  for  the  ghost  to 
sit  in  while  he  takes  his  tea ;  in  every  chamber 
there  are  seats  at  the  sides  for  mourners  who 
wish  to  spend  a  quiet  hour  with  their  dead. 

One  could  write  much  more  on  this  singular  city 
of  Canton ;  so  crowded  with  strong  and  healthy 
men,  a  city  so  dirty,  men  so  ignorant,  so  absorbed 
in  the  contemplation  of  their  own  superlative 
merits.  They  seem  well  nurtured,  they  are  indus- 
trious, they  are  incredibly  numerous  and  prolific, 
they  can  live  on  next  to  nothing,  they  are  not 
afraid  of  death.  Are  they  to  be  the  universal 
hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  of  the  Far 
East,  or  is  it  to  be  as  masters  of  all  other  races 
they  are  to  spread  over  the  earth  ?  The  latter 
is  a  terrible  speculation  for  the  white  races ;  grant 
that  in  our  time  the  yellow  man  may  keep  his 
place  !  It  is  not  for  a  mere  casual  visitor  to  do 
more  than  note  certain  signs  of  the  times. 

Eemarkable  is  the  difference  between  the  colonies 
of  Europeans  which  impinge  on  this  part  of  China. 
No  colony  could  be  more  up  to  date  in  every  way 
than  Hong  Kong,  the  great  international    port  of 


64      WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE    EAST 

the  world.  No  place  could  be  more  somnolent 
than  Macao,  the  ancient  Portuguese  Colony.  Hong 
Kong  is  the  mere  ledge  of  a  precipitous  moun- 
tainous island,  but  the  energy  of  our  wandering 
race  has  scraped  the  hills  so  as  to  form  terraces, 
on  row  above  row  of  which  a  great  city  stands ; 
nor  has  this  been  all,  for  now  the  foreshore  has 
been  dealt  with,  and  imposing  blocks  of  very  high 
buildings  of  the  most  modern  construction  stand 
where  a  few  years  ago  there  was  only  a  marshy 
shore,  electric  cars  run  along  the  level  part  of  the 
town,  and  a  mountain  railway  takes  one  to  the 
fine  heights  of  the  Peak,  a  large  expanse  of  moor- 
like mountain  top  where  the  finest  residences  of 
the  merchants  stand,  commanding  a  glorious  view 
of  seas  and  islands.  The  shops  are  large  and  well 
stocked.  There  is  a  club  of  as  noble  proportions 
as  any  in  Pall  Mall.  On  every  side  there  is 
evidence  of  prosperous  trade  and  of  a  healthy 
place  of  residence  alike  for  European  and  China- 
man ;  and  the  Chinaman  is  of  course  everywhere, 
and  a  respectable  citizen  he  seems  to  be,  and 
sometimes  a  very  rich  one. 

The  voyage  to  Macao  takes  about  three  and  a 
half  hours,  through  scenery  which  is  varied  and 
grand.  Those  great  mountains  might  be  on  the 
shore  of  Loch  Long.     As  a  colony  Macao  is   not 


CANTON   AND   MACAO  65 

a  success  by  any  means,  but  it  is  very  beautifully 
situated,  and  no  more  charming  retreat  than  this 
could  be  imagined  for  anyone  who  desires  to  leave 
the  world  very  much  behind.  It  is  situated  on 
a  narrow  peninsula,  round  which  are  an  innumer- 
able number  of  picturesque  islands.  On  every 
side  the  eye  is  delighted  with  luxuriant  vegetation 
and  high  mountains,  and  sparkling  seas  alive  with 
innumerable  varieties  of  junks.  One  side  of  the 
peninsula  forms  the  landing  place  of  the  harbour ; 
the  other  is  laid  out  as  a  promenade  by  the 
water's  edge,  so  that — but  for  the  rickshaws — one 
might  imagine  oneself  in  Lucerne  or  Geneva,  for 
the  handsome  buildings  which  fringe  the  road  are 
purely  Continental.  The  Portuguese  have  stamped 
the  little  town,  over  three  centuries  old,  with  the 
impress  of  the  Old  World.  There  are  piazzas 
which  might  be  found  in  some  town  of  Central 
Italy ;  there  are,  too,  such  cobbly  roads  as  only 
the  Continent  of  Europe  knows.  But,  unfortun- 
ately, there  is  next  to  no  commerce,  and  the 
upkeep  of  the  Colony  is  derived  mainly  from  the 
license  duty  paid  by  the  keepers  of  fan-tan 
gambling-houses — a  game  forbidden  in  Hong-Kong. 
Hundreds  of  gamblers  travel  every  day  to  this  Far 
East  Monte  Carlo.  I  use  the  word  "  hundreds " 
advisedly. 


66      WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE    EAST 

A  mile  or  so  out  of  the  Colony — i.e.  on  the 
neck  of  the  peninsula — one  reaches  a  large  arch 
and  gate  across  the  road ;  this  is  the  Portuguese 
Custom-house ;  beyond  it  is  half  a  mile  of  neutral 
ground,  almost  wholly  used  as  a  Chinese  cemetery. 
Then  you  reach  a  bamboo  gateway,  and  enter  real 
China.  Behind  the  gateway  is  a  guard-house,  and 
there  the  first  person  to  greet  us  was  a  representa- 
tive of  the  Imperial  Chinese  Customs  in  his 
shirt  sleeves,  who  was,  of  course,  the  inevitable 
Scotsman,  a  Mr.  Baillie,  from  Haddington.  The 
value  of  Hong  Kong  trade  annually  is  estimated 
at  £50,000,000.  In  1905  a  total  of  19,974 
vessels  of  nearly  1,500,000  tons  entered,  and 
18,416  vessels  of  1,000,000  tons  cleared  with 
cargo,  besides  very  many  in  ballast ;  probably 
it  is  now  the  largest  shipping  port  in  the 
world,  and  it  possesses  unrivalled  steam  com- 
munication to  all  the  ends  of  the  earth.  The 
harbour  has  an  area  of  ten  square  miles.  The 
island  itself  has  a  circumference  of  twenty-seven 
miles,  but  the  Colony  includes  a  concession  of 
280  square  miles  on  the  opposite  mainland  and 
various  islands.  The  population  is  about  300,000, 
of  whom  perhaps  11,000  are  Europeans.  Statistics 
as  to  Macao  are  not  very  clear,  but  the  population 
is  about  78,000,  of  whom  some  eighty  are  natives 


CANTON   AND   MACAO  67 

of  Great  Britain.  The  boundaries  have  been  a  sub- 
ject of  incessant  negotiation  between  Portugal  and 
China.  The  harbour  is  said  to  be  silting  up. 
Some  tea,  fire-crackers,  tobacco,  and  preserves  are 
exported.  The  Chinese,  it  must  be  remembered, 
use  an  enormous  number  of  fire-crackers  to  frighten 
devils  and  otherwise.  The  contrast  between  Can- 
ton, an  almost  purely  Chinese  town ;  Hong  Kong, 
Anglo-Chinese ;  and  Macao,  Portuguese-Chinese,  is 
remarkable  and  instructive. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
SHANGHAI  AND  FAR  EAST 

Miyako  Hotel,  Kyoto,  Japan, 
April  3,  1907. 

I  AM  quite  prepared  to  believe  that  in  fine  weather 
Shanghai  is  an  imposing,  beautiful,  and  cheerful 
city,  but  a  week  ago  Shanghai  was  Glasgow  at 
its  very  worst — wet,  cold,  misty,  and  muddy.  As 
we  came  up  from  Woosung  by  launch  from  the 
"  America  Maru,"  the  shores  were  grim  and  grey; 
tall  stalks  sent  out  black  smoke  to  the  murky 
air ;  the  noise  of  factories  and  foundries  was  not 
absent ;  the  water  was  discoloured  as  at  the 
Broomielaw.  In  the  streets  the  muddy  coolies 
drew  rickshaws  through  puddles,  and  roads  were 
upturned  for  the  completion  of  the  electric  tram 
car  line.  Carriages  plied  for  hire — a  departure 
from  the  habits  of  the  Far  East.  The  buildings 
are  tall,  and  in  some  cases  handsome,  and  the 
ground  is  so  valuable  as   to  command — especially 


70      WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE    EAST 

on  the  river  frontage — such  prices  as  are  usually 
associated  with  the  city  of  London  alone.  Even 
our  short  visit  was  enough  to  show  how  great 
and  remarkable  is  this  European  place  of  business 
set  in  the  East.  Anomaly  of  all  anomalies,  it 
is  not  British.  There  is  only  a  British  concession. 
Each  nation  has  its  own  Consular  Court,  and 
there  is  much  consequent  inconvenience.  The  city 
is  really,  truly,  and  actually  Chinese,  and  all  the 
foreigners  have  is  "  conceded "  rights. 

We  have  now  touched  China  at  various  points, 
and  although  it  would  be  rash  to  express  personal 
opinions,  yet  the  impression  may  be  recorded, 
due  to  conversation  with  residents  in  China  of 
long  standing,  that  the  condition  of  many  provinces 
of  the  great  Empire  of  China  must  be  intermittently 
one  of  liability  to  plague,  pestilence,  and  famine. 
For  this  liability,  it  must  be  remembered,  bad 
government  is  not  specially  responsible.  The 
topography  of  China  is  such  that  a  very  large 
extent  of  country  is  absolutely  flat.  In  the  case 
of  the  sudden  rising  of  a  mighty  river,  there  is 
no  chance  of  escape  for  many  an  unhappy 
husbandman.  If  you  live  on  a  billiard  table  you 
must  take  the  consequences.  Every  great  devas- 
tation is  necessarily  followed  by  famine.  Of  course, 
with   so   prolific   a  population,  tlie   wastage   of  life 


SHANGHAI    AND   FAR   EAST        71 

is  soon  rectified,  but  a  new  disaster  affects  some 
other  part  of  the  Empire.  What  a  problem  in 
a  hundred  ways  China  presents !  An  enormous 
supply  of  much-needed,  strong,  honest  labour  is 
available,  and  yet  the  consensus  of  opinion  of 
civilised  European  or  American  States  appears  to 
be  for  the  moment  that  such  labour  should  not 
be  admitted  where  it  is  most  wanted,  and  that 
for  racial  reasons  only.  The  market  for  goods 
manufactured  by  the  white  man  is  thereby  affected, 
for  although  China  should  be  a  most  profitable 
field,  the  United  States  is  practically  boycotted 
at  present.  What  the  future  may  have  for  us 
will  depend  on  the  energy  of  our  British  merchants 
in  making  good  use  of  their  opportunities,  but 
it  was  the  view  of  a  Shanghai  merchant  that  if 
such  a  duty  were  put  by  us  on  foreign  manufactured 
goods  as  would  succeed  in  checking  the  importation 
of  German  goods  into  Great  Britain,  Germany 
would  be  forced  to  find  foreign  markets  such  as 
China  to  the  great  detriment  of  Great  Britain,  which 
is  now  by  a  long  way  the  master  of  the  Chinese 
market,  (although  Germany  has  already  greatly 
strengthened  her  commercial  position  there). 
Fiscal  reform  demands  of  its  students  that  they 
should  take  a  wide  sweep  of  the  possibilities  of 
British     trade    which    has    many    aspects    in     the 


72       WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE    EAST 

Far  East.  To  revert  to  Shanghai,  there  seems 
to  be  some  apprehension  locally  that  on  the 
completion  of  the  new  electric  car  system  there 
will  be  an  outbreak  of  disturbance  from  dissatisfied 
jinrickshaw  men,  whose  business  will  certainly  be 
seriously  affected.  The  occupation  of  a  jinrickshaw 
coolie  in  Shanghai  does  not  seem  a  delectable  one 
at  the  best,  but  poverty  in  China  is  always  very 
near  the  coolie.  It  is  curious,  by  the  way,  to 
remember  that  this  most  convenient  mode  of 
conveyance  has  no  greater  antiquity  at  the  very 
furthest  than  1867,  yet  thousands  upon  thousands 
of  men  now  depend  on  this  human-pony- work 
for  means  of  livelihood.  I  have  travelled  in 
many  a  strange  way  since  coming  East,  but  of 
all  ordinary  modes  of  progression  the  rickshaw  is 
the  quickest,  cheapest,  and  cleanest. 

It  is  to  the  landscape-gardening  of  a  temple 
at  Shanghai  that  we  are  said  to  owe  the  familiar 
willow-tree  pattern  of  plate ;  before  leaving  Hong 
Kong  we  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  seeing  the 
magnificent  collection  of  the  finest  productions  of 
Chinese  ceramic  and  other  art  which  Sir  Paul 
Chater  has  lodged  in  a  lordly  pleasure-house  on 
the  Peak.  The  Salting  Collection  at  South  Ken- 
sington is  more  easily  available  to  the  Western 
world,    but   the    Hong   Kong    amateur's    collection 


SHANGHAI   AND   FAR   EAST        73 

is  unique,  and  it  is  not  the  least  of  the  many 
pleasures  of  a  visit  to  Hong  Kong  to  hear  Sir 
Paul  lovingly  describe  each  beautiful  object  which 
once  had  its  place  in  the  Imperial  Collection  of 
Pekin. 

We  travelled  from  Singapore  to  Hong  Kong 
in  the  "Zieten,"  a  ship  of  the  North  German  Lloyd, 
and  from  Hong  Kong  to  Kobe  in  the  "America 
Maru  "  of  the  Toyo  Kisen  Kaisha  Line.  On  both 
ships  scarcely  a  word  of  any  language  save  English 
was  spoken  among  the  first-class  passengers,  for 
all  the  German  passengers  spoke  English  when 
not,  of  course,  speaking  among  themselves.  Why 
should  German  and  Japanese  ships  be  full  of 
Englishmen  ?  Put  two  questions — Is  the  supply 
of  British  ships  inadequate  ?  Do  foreign  lines 
afford  superior  attractions  in  the  way  of  comfort  ? 
I  am  afraid  the  answer  is  "Yes"  in  each  case. 
British  ships  by  no  means  cater  fully  for  the 
mighty  Far  Eastern  trade ;  do  the  directors  of 
our  home  lines  note  this  ?  One  hears  it  suggested 
that  they  should  travel  to  the  Far  East  themselves, 
or  not  add  to  their  Boards  any  man  who  has 
not  seen  what  they  should  have  seen.  The  Far 
East  is  full  of  English  life  and  energy  and 
opportunities.  It  cannot  be  said  that  our  home 
directors   seem   to   realise  this,  or  so   much   trade 

K 


74      WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE   EAST 

should  not  go  in  foreisfn  bottoms.  As  to  comfort, 
I  must  reluctantly  own  that  foreign  lines  are 
more  cleanly  and  more  thoughtful  for  the  comfort 
of  travellers  (so  far  as  I  have  seen)  than  home 
lines.  The  nursery  red-tape  regulations  of  the 
"P.  and  0."  are  a  by-word  over  the  world — 
admirable  ships  and  an  autocratic  way  of  treating 
passengers  by,  among  other  things,  childishly 
irritating  restrictions  about  trifles.  The  British 
India  boats  have  captains  who  are  courteous  and 
approachable,  but  the  cockroaches  of  which  Eudyard 
Kipling  speaks  so  tenderly  in  "  From  Sea  to  Sea " 
are  a  good  deal  too  numerous  (there  may  be 
specialities  of  cargo  which  account  for  something), 
and  the  departure  from  Calcutta,  the  arrival  at 
Eangoon,  and  the  departure  from  Rangoon  when 
I  was  there,  seemed  to  a  landsman  as  badly 
managed  and  as  uncomfortable  as  any  tyrant 
could  devise.  On  the  German  and  Japanese 
boats  there  were  neither  mosquitoes  nor  cock- 
roaches ;  there  are  few  regulations,  and  the  food 
is  plentiful,  well  cooked,  and  varied.  Why  should 
we  not  put  our  house  in  order  ?  No  line,  however 
excellently  built  its  ships  or  courteous  its  com- 
manders, can  afford  to  slight  the  lessons  of  comfort 
and  cleanliness  which  its  rivals  offer  it.  Curiously 
enough,    the    rivtir    lines,    whicli    liave    no    rivals. 


SHANGHAI    AND   FAR   EAST        75 

seem  to  a  traveller  more  unexceptionable  than 
the  ocean  liners.  The  Irrawaddy  Flotilla  deserves 
and  receives  commendation  from  everybody,  and 
the  service  on  the  Brahmaputra  is  quite  adequate 
to  the  needs  of  those  who  sail  up  or  down  that 
mighty  river.  I  have  no  special  regard  for  the 
North  German  Lloyd,  for  the  truth  is  the  "  Zieten  " 
was  overcrowded,  and  we  were  among  the  worst 
sufferers,  but,  apart  from  this,  the  conditions  of 
travel  as  afforded  by  the  line  were  deserving  of 
commendation. 

I  date  this  letter  from  the  ancient  capital  of 
Japan,  but  I  am  not  going  to  write  an  account  of 
Japan  after  only  a  very  few  days'  stay.  The 
anonymous  author  of  an  excellent  little  local  guide 
supplied  by  this  first-class  hotel  says  with  gratifying 
frankness — "  There  never  has  been  a  country  about 
which  so  much  absolute  rot  has  been  written  by 
drivelling  idiots,  who  have  neither  sufficient  know- 
ledge to  make  their  works  of  value  nor  gift  of 
language  to  make  them  readable."  With  this 
pungent  warning  in  mind,  let  me  only  say  that 
Japan  is  very  cold  indeed  at  present,  and  that 
this  year's  number  of  visitors  is  phenomenal  and 
far  beyond  the  capabilities  of  its  few  European 
hotels,  if  all  tales  be  true. 


CHAPTER  IX 
UP   AND    DOWN   IN  JAPAN 

Miyanoshita,  Japan,  April  20,  1907. 

"  Japan  is  not  in  the  tropics,"  says  Murray's  Guide 
sagely,  and  the  visitor  in  April  realises  the  truth  of 
its  warning.  We  sailed  through  the  Inland  Sea  for 
the  most  part  in  rain,  and  though  at  Kobe  we  found 
things  a  great  deal  better,  yet  in  Kyoto  a  fur  coat 
was  often  very  useful,  especially  on  an  excursion  to 
the  beautiful  Lake  Biwa,  for  although  the  sky  was 
blue  and  the  sun  shining,  the  air  was  very  cold. 
Kyoto  was  the  capital  of  old  Japan,  the  city  of  the 
semi-sacred  Mikado,  while  the  Shoguns  really  ruled 
the  nation  in  his  name  for  centuries  at  Yedo,  now 
called  Tokyo.  Kyoto  (in  addition  to  the  practical 
advantage  of  having  a  very  excellent  hotel)  is  full 
of  such  palaces  and  temples  and  gardens  as  no  other 
city  of  the  empire  can  show.  And  its  shops  !  Like 
every  other  Japanese  town,  it  is  to  all  appearance  a 
conglomeration  of  wooden  huts  (to  say  "  hovels  "  is 


yZ      WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE   EAST 

perhaps  too  strong),  mostly  of  oue  story,  very  rarely 
of  more  than  two.  There  are  no  shop  windows  to 
speak  of;  but  enter  oue  of  the  hundred  marvellous 
repositories,  and  treasures  of  the  most  beautiful 
work  in  cloisonne,  in  pottery,  in  antique  curios, 
and  exquisite  modern  works  delight  the  eye  and 
empty  the  pocket.  From  Kyoto,  too,  many  expedi- 
tions may  be  made.  We  went  to  Kameoka,  and 
shot  the  rapids  of  the  Katsura-gawa — a  thrilling 
experience — and  we  spent  a  delightful  day  at  the 
park-like  Nara. 

Japanese  palaces  in  Kyoto  and  elsewhere  are 
necessarily  in  some  respects  a  disappointment, 
because,  to  begin  with,  they  have  externally  few 
more  architectural  pretensions  than  other  houses ;  a 
palace  is  simply  a  series  of  one-storied  wood  build- 
ings, with  apartments  opening  into  and  off  each 
other  by  sliding  partitions,  and  entirely  void  of 
furniture  of  any  kind.  The  beauty  and  attraction 
lie  in  the  fine  mattings  on  the  floor ;  the  exquisite 
wood-work,  the  lacquer,  the  carvings,  and  the  rare 
and  valuable  paintings.  So,  too,  as  regards  the 
temples,  whether  Shinto  or  Buddhist.  When  you 
have  seen  half  a  dozen  Japanese  temples  you  have 
seen  them  all  so  far  as  the  plan  of  construction  is 
concerned,  and  it  is  simplicity  itself.  But  as  the 
eye  becomes  educated  by  the  daily  contemplation  of 


UP   AND    DOWN    IN   JAPAN  79 

shrine  after  shrine,  here  as  in  the  palaces,  is  revealed 
the  glamour  of  golden  walls,  the  lacquer  work  which 
is  unique  in  the  world,  the  shrines  on  which  an 
infinity  of  delicate  workmanship  has  been  expended. 
While  it  might  be  a  hard  saying  that  Japanese  art 
cannot  be  appreciated  out  of  Japan,  it  is  true 
enough  that  to  visit  Japan  gives  one  a  more  keen 
appreciation  of  the  meaning  of  her  art — an  art 
which  is  essentially  and  entirely  un-Western,  which 
follows  different  ideals,  and  is  intended  to  serve 
quite  other  conditions  of  life  and  modes  of  thought. 
What  is  true  of  the  buildings  is  not  untrue  of  the 
gardens.  Into  their  arrangement  the  Japanese  have 
carried  a  sentiment  which  must  be  at  least  in  some 
way  guessed  at  (even  if  not  fully  appreciated)  before 
they  can  be  properly  admired.  To  the  English 
eye  nothing  can  ever  be  more  beautiful  than  an 
English  rose  garden  in  June.  But  that  is  very  far 
from  being  beautiful  in  excelsis  to  the  Italian 
gardener's  eye.  So,  too,  in  Japan.  The  story  is 
well  known  of  the  Englishman  driving  through  his 
newly  leased  deer  forest,  and  asking,  "  But  where 
are  the  trees  ? "  "  Wha  ever  heard  0'  trees  in  a 
forest  ? "  was  the  ghillie's  scathing  answer.  So, 
too,  if  you  ask  a  Jap,  "  Where  are  the  flowers  ? "  he 
may  reply  that  you  don't  want  flowers  in  a  garden. 
Outside  the  east  end  of  Kyoto  is  the  country  house 


8o      WINTER   DAYS   IN   THE   EAST 

of  Ashikaga  Yoshimitsu,  built  iu  1479, — when  he 
abdicated  the  Shoguu's  dignity, — and  known  as  the 
Silver  Pavilion.  The  garden  is  extraordinarily 
attractive,  and  yet  on  what  does  the  eye  first  rest  ? 
On  a  curiously  shaped  heap  of  white  sand,  where 
Yoshimitsu,  used  to  sit  and  indulge  his  aesthetic 
tastes  ;  behind  is  another  called  the  "  Mound  Facing 
the  Moon,"  where  he  used  to  moon-gaze.  The  little 
rill  is  "  the  Moon-washing  Fountain,"  and  a  stone 
in  the  tiny  pond  is  "  the  Stone  of  Ecstatic  Contem- 
plation." The  art  of  delicate  adjustment  of  stones 
and  water  enters  largely  into  the  composition  of 
those  gardens,  and  an  overpowering  imagination 
which  gives  every  object  an  aesthetic  sense  or  value 
apart  from  what  we  should  regard  as  its  ordinary  or 
primary  value.  Such  a  nation  of  aesthetes  it  was, 
which,  a  century  after  Yoshimitsu,  saw  the  remark- 
able career  of  Sen-no-Eikyu,  who  was  taken  about 
by  the  great  General  of  the  day  to  preside  at  his 
tea  parties  in  the  intervals  of  battle,  and  who  when 
he  ultimately  fell  into  disfavour  and  was  ordered  to 
commit  harakiri,  did  so  "  in  his  tea-room  after 
making  tea,  arranging  a  bouquet,  and  composing  a 
Buddhist  stanza."  And  such  a  nation  of  aesthetes 
it  still  is  which  travels  long  distances  in  very  un- 
comfortably overcrowded  railway  carriages,  or  on 
foot,  to  see  the  cherry-blossom  at  Kyoto  or  Tokyo. 


UP   AND   DOWN    IN   JAPAN  8i 

Yet  it  is  this  nation  of  sentimentalists  who,  on 
the  other  hand,  have  produced  the  remarkable 
canal,  partly  underground,  which  now  connects  Lake 
Biwa  and  Kyoto  in  the  face  of  very  serious  engineer- 
ing difficulties ;  which  is  building  huge  ships  at 
Nagasaki ;  which  has  made  Osaka  into  a  Chicago 
eight  miles  square ;  which  wears  the  ugliest  Euro- 
pean clothes  with  satisfaction,  and  imports  German 
furniture  for  the  modern  Imperial  palace.  There  is 
nothing  too  sentimental  for  the  Japanese ;  there  is 
nothing  too  prosaic. 

From  Kyoto  we  went  to  Nagoya,  a  flourishing 
city.  It  is  not  for  its  commerce  the  stranger  goes 
to  Nagoya,  but  to  visit  the  remarkable  castle,  one 
of  the  wonders  of  Japan.  It  is  not  old ;  it  was 
only  built  in  1610;  it  never  was  besieged.  But  it 
is  far  older  than  its  date ;  it  is  a  genuine  early 
medieval  stronghold  of  timber,  built  centuries  after 
Europe  had  forgotten  that  such  wood  castles  must 
have  preceded  all  (or  most)  stone  fortresses.  There 
are  huge  stone  walls  as  foundation  ;  all  else  is 
timber,  and  the  walls  are  18  feet  thick,  and  tier 
upon  tier  for  five  high  storeys  the  keep  rises ;  its 
gates  are  cased  with  iron ;  it  is  surrounded  by  a 
moat,  and  full  within  of  ingenious  devices  for 
dropping  burning  metal  on  besiegers,  and  its  walls 
are   pierced  with    holes    for   arrows.     On   top   are 


82       WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE    EAST 

two  golden  dolphins,  valued  at  £36,000.  At 
Nagoya  we  went  to  the  local  theatre,  where  the 
ingenious  revolving  stage  worked  admirably  and 
enabled  the  very  pretty  scenes  to  be  promptly 
changed. 

Next  came  a  few  days  in  the  capital,  a  city  of 
two  million  people,  with  their  Sovereign  living  in 
a  sort  of  island  surrounded  by  a  moat  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  place.  It  is  a  curious  and  pleasant 
thing  in  Japan  that  English  is  virtually  the 
second  language.  Eailway  tickets  are  printed  in 
English  on  one  side ;  all  railway  notices  are  in 
English  as  well  as  Japanese,  and  in  the  interesting 
museums  in  Kyoto  and  Nara  every  article  had 
its  description  given  in  English.  Curiously  enough, 
in  Tokyo,  where  English  newspapers  are  on 
sale  everywhere,  and  English  is  the  daily  medium 
of  communications  between  all  foreigners  (German 
or  French  or  Italian)  and  the  natives,  English 
translations  are  not  invariably  aflixed  to  the 
description  of  objects  in  the  museums.  From 
Tokyo  we  went  to  Nikko,  of  which  the  Japanese 
say  "  do  not  use  the  word  magnificent  till  you 
have  seen  Nikko,"  and  stayed  at  one  of  Japan's 
many  most  excellent  foreign  hotels.  No  Swiss 
hotels  could  be  cleaner  or  better  arranged,  or 
with    more  varied    table.      Our    innkeepers   have  a 


UP   AND   DOWN    IN   JAPAN  83 

great  deal  to  learn  from  the  Japanese  as  to  the  art 
of  making  the  stranger  comfortable ;  and  if  only 
they  would  learn,  it  would  be  to  their  financial 
profit.  Nikko  is  charmingly  situated  amid  a  wild 
and  mountainous  country,  with  the  ever-present 
peculiarly  clear  and  rippling  water  courses,  of  which 
the  country  has  so  many.  The  temples  and  tombs 
associated  with  the  first  and  third  Shoguns  I  must 
pass  over,  wonderful  as  they  are  as  triumphs  of 
national  art ;  nor  can  I  do  more  than  mention  the 
highway  of  ancient  Cryptomerias,  noble  and  magnifi- 
cent as  no  other  tree  can  be.  Passing  the  sacred 
Eed  bridge  one  pleasant  April  morning  we  climbed 
upwards  from  Nikko,  which  is  2000  feet  above  the 
sea,  to  Lake  Chusenji,  which  is  about  2400  feet 
higher.  The  way  is  very  difficult  and  steep,  and 
when  we  reached  the  table-land,  all  the  ground  was 
thick  with  snow,  on  which  the  trees  threw  black 
shadows,  for  the  sun  was  high  in  the  blue  sky. 
Through  this  curious  blinding  landscape  we  passed 
to  the  shores  of  the  delightful  lake  which  laps  the 
foot  of  the  sacred  mountain  Nantai-zan,  which 
women  are  not  allowed  to  ascend.  Though  the 
place  was  remote,  the  hotel  has  a  telephone  to 
Nikko,  and  there  was  nothing  but  commendation 
for  the  dainty  lunch ;  had  time  permitted  we 
should  gladly  have  stayed  there. 


84      WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE   EAST 

Next  day  from  Nikko  we  made  a  journey  by 
'rickshaw,  three  trains,  a  private  tramcar,  and  'rick- 
shaw again,  for  ten  hours,  to  Ikao,  which  stands  on 
a  terrace  on  the  north-east  slope  of  Haruna-san, 
about  2700  feet  above  the  sea.  It  is  a  favourite 
resort  in  summer,  but  on  the  15th  to  17th  April 
we  had  the  little  hotel  and  its  mineral  baths  all  to 
ourselves.  A  grand  view  of  high  mountain  ranges 
and  great  valleys  is  spread  before  the  eye,  and  from 
Ikao  one  ascends  to  the  still  higher  Lake  Haruna, 
the  site  of  an  extinct  crater.  From  a  pass  above 
the  lake,  and  1000  feet  above  Ikao,  we  descended 
to  the  far-hallowed  temple,  set  amid  a  weird 
assemblage  of  fantastic  gigantic  peaks  of  rocks 
such  as  Gustave  Dore  drew  in  his  illustrations  to 
the  Inferno.  It  is  very  appropriately  dedicated  to 
the  Shinto  God  of  Fire  and  Goddess  of  Earth,  and 
even  on  tlie  cold  day  when  we  were  there  many 
pilgrims  came  to  pull  the  bell  which  hangs  in  front 
of  the  temple,  to  throw  a  few  sen  into  the  large  box 
which  receives  money  gifts,  to  kneel  a  few  minutes 
on  the  steps  in  silent  prayer,  to  clasp  hands  twice, 
and  to  offer  a  tiny  parcel  of  rice.  From  a  covered 
stage  opposite  the  temple,  a  priest  with  a  sort  of 
l)amboo  fishing-rod  received  money  in  its  split  end, 
and  returned  to  the  pilgrims  in  the  same  manner  a 
form  of  jtrayer,  which  was  then  offered  at  the  altar 


UP   AND   DOWN    IN   JAPAN  85 

steps,  and  on  the  stage  at  intervals  an  ancient 
priestess,  on  payment  of  ten  sen,  performed  that 
sacred  dance,  with  the  "  tokko "  in  hand,  which 
means  so  little  to  us  Europeans,  and  yet  which  is 
full  of  symbolic  religion  and  teaching,  for  even  the 
"  tokko "  itself  symbolises  the  irresistible  power  of 
prayer,  mediation,  and  incantation.  The  whole  day's 
travelling  was  done  on  horseback,  and  sometimes 
the  way  was  dangerous.  Hazardous  as  sometimes 
were  the  Himalayan  ways,  and  bad  as  was  the  Teesta 
road,  they  were  as  nothing  to  the  breakneck  paths  and 
narrow  ledges  by  the  side  of  precipices  along  which 
our  horses  so  wonderfully  managed  to  keep  their 
feet  on  this  trip  to  Lake  Haruna.  The  following 
day  we  travelled  on  to  Myogi,  having  in  our  view 
for  much  of  the  time  the  smoking  volcano  of 
Asama.  Myogi-san  is  a  series  of  grand,  sharp- 
pointed,  deeply  serrated  dykes,  whose  highest  summit 
is  about  3880  feet.  The  effect  of  those  arrow-like 
jagged  peaks  and  ridges  is  extremely  fine,  and  well 
worth  the  somewhat  troublesome  journey,  but  the 
ascent  of  the  Daikoku-san,  magnificent  though  it  is, 
was  a  case  of  the  roughest  and  wildest  scrambling 
in  a  lonely  land  where  accidents  might  be  attended 
with  the  direst  results.  Fortunately  we  got  back 
safe  and  sound  to  the  little  hotel  of  Myogi,  which  is 
purely  Japanese.     In    its    beautifully   clean    guest 


S6      WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE   EAST 

chambers,  entirely  empty  of  furniture,  we  took  a 
Japanese  dinner  with  chopsticks,  seated  in  Japanese 
fashion,  and  we  slept  on  the  iioor  on  Japanese  quilts, 
and  slept  uncommonly  well,  too  !  Now  we  are  in 
this  lovely  and  famous  Hakone  district,  two  days' 
journey  from  Myogi,  and  it  is  raining  cats  and  dogs, 
as  only  too  often  it  does  in  Japan. 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  JAPANESE  OF  TO-DAY 

Yokohama,  27th  April. 

What  about  Japan  and  her  trade  ?  Japan  is 
not  simply  a  playground  for  tourists,  a  curio-shop 
for  collectors.  The  world  recognises  her  as  a  very 
serious  force  in  the  Far  East.  It  is  not  possible 
for  a  passing  traveller  to  arrive  at  opinions  which 
may  not  be  questioned,  or  which  may  not  be 
vitiated  by  want  of  knowledge  of  some  special 
kind.  But  we  have  seen  a  good  deal  of  Japan 
up  and  down,  and  have  read  the  daily  admirable 
chronicle  of  Japanese  life  in  the  newspapers  in 
the  English  language,  of  which  there  are  so  many. 
The  advance  of  Japan  has  been  wonderful ;  in  the 
opinion  of  her  people,  her  progress  in  the  future  will 
far  outstrip  the  modest  performances  of  the  past. 

But  there  is  another  side.  Is  Japan  travelling 
too  fast  for  her  resources  ?  Is  she  travelling  in 
commercial  unity  with  other  nations  ?  To  the 
first  question  the  answer  undoubtedly  is  that  Japan 


88      WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE    EAST 

has  not  money  to  do  all  she  wants  to  do.  The 
European  is  not  wanted  as  official  or  teacher  in 
Japan,  permanently.  Let  him  teach  what  he 
knows ;  the  Japanese  can  do  as  much  as  the 
foreigner  can  do  whenever  he  has  learned.  And 
so  he  will.  The  Japanese  engineer  will  design  as 
well  as  the  English  engineer  who  taught  him. 
The  Japanese  shipowner  does  not  intend  always  to 
go  to  the  Clyde  for  ships — witness  the  ships  which 
are  now  building  at  Nagasaki.  But  if  Japan 
is  to  execute  all  the  mighty  works  which  she 
contemplates,  she  must  have  money.  Is  the  rest 
of  the  world  going  to  give  Japan  money  to  enable 
her  so  to  develop  her  resources  that  she  may 
compete  with  Europe  in  the  markets  of  Europe's 
merchants  ?  For  Japan  by  no  means  intends  to 
manufacture  only  for  herself  She  is  a  born  trader. 
China  already  is  a  large  customer,  aud  there  are 
others.  The  meaning  of  Japan's  manufacturing 
energy  must  be  clearly  understood  so  far  as  our 
Far  Eastern  trade  is  concerned. 

Japan's  aspirations  have  in  the  meantime  rather 
outrun  her  abilites.  There  were  disagreeable  tales 
in  Japan  of  banks  wliich  were,  or  had  been,  in 
dilliculties.  But  the  following  cutting  from  the 
Japan  Daily  Herald  of  April  18,  1907,  will  serve  to 
indicate   something    of  the    magnitude    of   Japan's 


THE   JAPANESE   OF   TO-DAY        89 

trading   ambitions   since   the   end    of  the    Eussian 
war  (a  yen  may  be  taken  roughly  at  2s.) : 

"According  to  the  investigations  of  the  Nippon 
Ginko,  the  capitalisation  of  new  enterprises  mooted 
during  March  aggregated  ¥70,337,400,  showing 
a  decrease  to  about  one-fifth  of  the  average  capital 
required  for  the  various  new  enterprises  started 
during  the  last  few  months.  The  violent  deprecia- 
tion in  the  share  market  which  set  in  since  the 
latter  part  of  January  has  had  the  effect  of 
dampening  the  industrial  fever,  and  several  new 
enterprises  schemed  during  the  past  months  have 
had  to  be  dissolved,  while  many  more  are  in  a 
state  of  suspension.  It  is  believed  that  many 
new  enterprises  will  drop  through,  the  financial 
inactivity  still  continuing.  The  following  are  the 
new  enterprises  set  on  foot  during  March : 


Newly 

Extension  of 

inaugurated. 

business. 

Yen. 

Yen. 

Banking     - 

- 

- 

-        1,920,000 

21,722,400 

Spinning    - 

- 

- 

— 

525,000 

Electric 

- 

- 

— 

200,000 

Mining 

- 

- 

-      3,000,000 

5,000,000 

Aquatic  products 

- 

-       2,100,000 

— 

Railways    - 

- 

- 

-       1,300,000 

— 

Manufacturing 

industries 

-       5,500,000 

300,000 

Insurance  - 

- 

- 

— 

5,300,000 

Trades,  etc. 

-     10,170,000 
23,990,000 

M 

13,300,000 
46,347,000 

90      WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE    EAST 

This  brings  the  total  capitalisation  for  the  new 
post-bellum  enterprises  up  to  Yl,566,004,530, 
of  which  ¥1,107,149,180  is  the  amount  in- 
volved in  entirely  new  enterprises,  while  the 
balance  is  for  the  extension  of  businesses  already 
existing." 

The  second  question  arises,  is  Japan  travelling 
on  terms  of  commercial  unity  with  other  nations  ? 
In  other  words  is  she  a  fair  competitor  ?  It  is 
more  easy  to  state  the  question  than  to  answer 
it.  The  Japan  Advertiser,  in  an  interesting 
article,  refers  to  "  a  thoroughly  unworthy  and 
un-American  fear "  in  the  United  States  that 
Japan  is  to  be  the  States'  most  formidable  com- 
mercial competitor,  and  says  the  fear  must  be 
due  to  "  the  rife  and  rapidly  growing  impression 
throughout  the  States  that  in  some  way  or  another 
Japan  is  not  going  to  play  fair  in  the  great 
competitive  struggle  impending."  "  That  it  exists 
is  undeniable,  and  it  remains  for  Japan  to  show 
that  it  is  unwarranted."  Hero  I  must  leave  the 
matter.  The  Chinese  merchant  has  long  had,  and 
still  has,  an  enviable  reputation  for  integrity  and 
fairness  in  the  Far  East,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
the  Japanese  mercliant  in  his  haste  to  be  rich 
will,  nevertheless,  prove  himself  to  be  possessed 
of    the    sann;    cliaracteristics.     But    China   learned 


THE   JAPANESE   OF   TO-DAY        91 

her  European  trade  from  generations  of  honourable 
traders.  In  feudal  Japan  trading  was  not  an 
honourable  calling,  and  when  international  trading 
was  forced  on  Japan  she  was  made  the  prey  of 
most  unscrupulous  adventurers  from  the  American 
side  of  the  Pacific.  Japan  has  therefore  the  two- 
fold disadvantage  of  no  hereditary  associations  with 
the  honest  dealers  of  Europe  and  of  having  herself 
been  tricked  and  beguiled  before  she  knew  her  way 
about  in  commerce.  She  needs  no  teaching  now. 
The  Japan  Daily  Mail  reports  its  native  con- 
temporary, the  Yorodzu  Cholio^  as  printing  the  name 
of  eight  brokers  of  the  Tokyo  Stock  Exchange  as 
implicated  in  a  plot  for  "  deliberating,  concocting, 
and  spreading  all  sorts  of  alarming  rumours"  in  the 
"  bear "  interest.  They  are  said  to  have  been 
responsible  for  the  run  upon  the  Asakusa  Bank, 
and  to  have  been  "  contriving  a  similar  manoeuvre 
against  the  Tokai  Ginko  when  their  schemes  were 
discovered."  "  The  Tokyo  police  are  now  actively 
interfering,  and  so  is  the  Department  of  Agriculture 
and  Commerce,  under  whose  jurisdiction  the  Stock 
Exchange  falls." 

The  peril  of  Japan  lies  in  her  cleverness  in 
adopting  full  civilised  ways  without  the  training 
which  teaches  how  European  ways  (in  trade  as 
in  other  things)  were  arrived  at.     A    friend  gave 


92       WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE   EAST 

me  an  amusing  account  the  other  day  of  a  per- 
formance of  "  Hamlet "  in  Japanese  which  he  had 
recently  seen.  Hamlet  wore  a  frock  coat  and 
silk  hat,  and  Polonius  entered  on  a  bicycle !  The 
Japanese  would  see  nothing  unreasonable  in  that. 
Hamlet  was  a  Prince  of  Denmark,  and  European 
Princes  all  wear  frock  coats  and  silk  hats  at 
Imperial  garden  parties.  So,  too,  Polonius,  as  a 
trusted  counsellor  of  State,  would  naturally  have 
an  up-to-date  bicycle.  This  is  a  good  illustration 
of  the  danger  of  importing  European  ways  without 
having  had  time  to  understand  the  growth  of 
things.  Take,  too,  the  hotels.  The  purely  Euro- 
pean hotels  in  Japan  are  as  near  perfection  as  they 
can  be,  for  they  are  modelled  on  the  best  hotels 
of  Europe.  But  the  hotels  which  are  half  Euro- 
pean and  half  Japanese  are  very  bad ;  that  is  to 
say,  the  Japanese  half  is  spotlessly  clean,  but  the 
European  half  is  apt  to  be  most  indifferent.  The 
idea  seemingly  is  that  people  who  wear  boots  in 
hotels  cannot  be  particular  as  to  cleanliness,  and  con- 
sequently the  rooms  leave  a  great  deal  to  be  desired. 
In  trade  it  is  the  same.  The  merchant  who  deals 
with  the  best  houses  of  Europe  will  do  business 
as  they  do  it,  adopting  their  ways  in  toto.  But 
it  is  (juite  a  different  thing,  obviously,  when  you 
have  a  native  manufacturer  pitting  himself  against 


THE   JAPANESE   OF   TO-DAY        93 

a  foreign  manufacturer  either  in  Japan  (where  the 
foreign  manufacturer  is   in  rapid  process  of  being 
crowded    out)    or    in    markets   open   to   both.     In 
such   cases   the  Japanese  manufacturer  has  passed 
through   no   probation   of  the    trade   of  centuries ; 
he  sees  a  thing  is  wanted,  and  he  imitates  it  and 
supplies  it ;  and  there's  an  end  on't.     Devil  take 
the  hindmost,  and  I   am  afraid  in  that   case   the 
European  is  the   hindmost.     The  surprising  thing 
is  that  with  all  the  Japanese  cleverness  in  imitat- 
ing  European  models,  they  apply  no  native  taste 
to  modifying  European  designs.      Beautiful,  indeed, 
are    the    products    of   Japan    in    things    Japanese. 
But    ugly,    with    an    exceeding    and    unmitigated 
ugliness,   are    European    articles    manufactured    by 
Japanese.     This  applies  to  art.     The  picture  gallery 
in  the  Tokyo  Exhibition  is  full  of  curious  imitations 
of   French    and    English    artists.      You    can    in    a 
moment    say  "  this    is   an   attempt  to   paint   after 
the  manner  of  this  or  that  European  artist,"  bat 
of  real  inspired    painting   in    the    European    style 
there  is  very  little  indeed,  and  as  to  the  portraits 
of  men  in  European  dress,  they  defy  description. 
The   wages  paid  to   women  in  Japan   are  very 
small,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  following  table,  which 
I  cut  from  a  Yokohama  newspaper  (a  sen  is  about 
a  farthing). 


94      WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE    EAST 

Female  Government  Employees. 

The  number  of  female  workers  employed  in 
the  various  Government  establishments,  and  their 
daily  average   wages,  are  as  follows : 

Name  of  Establishment. 

Printing  Bureau     - 

Tobacco  Monopoly  Bureau 

Tokyo  Arsenal 

Osaka  Arsenal 

Senju  Woollen  Cloth  Factory 

Military  Provision  Depot 

Military  Cloth  Office      - 

Naval  Arsenal 

Naval  Shimose  Gunpowder 
Magazine 

Imperial  Iron  Foundry  - 

Printing  Office  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Communications  30         22 

Kobe  Workshops  of  the  Rail- 
way Bureau     -         -         -  17         30 

We  made  a  delightful  tour  from  Miyanoshita 
over  the  wild  region  where  sulphurous  fumes  rise 
from  the  ground  in  all  directions  around  us,  and 
boiling  water  bubbles  in  pools  at  our  feet,  to 
the  calm  beauty  of  Lake  Hakoue,  with  Fuji 
(mostly  in  clouds)  high  above  us.  On  the  way 
down  we  stopped  at  a  little  village  famous  for 
its    hot   springs,    and    were    invited    to    look    into 


Number. 

Wage 
Sen. 

1,405 

25 

11,930 

16 

3,120 

32 

1,436 

24 

1,247 

21 

48 

39 

34 

20 

73 

29 

22 

23 

9 

22 

THE   JAPANESE   OF   TO-DAY        95 

one  pool  under  cover,  where  men  and  women 
and  children  were  sitting  together  in  steaming 
water.  In  another  place  about  twenty  persons 
of  both  sexes,  entirely  naked,  were  exposing  their 
spines  to  the  heating  influence  of  a  hot  torrent 
in  the  open  air.  There  was  no  indecency;  there 
was  simply  nature,  unashamed.  But  the  spectacle 
could  probably  be  seen  in  no  other  country  in 
the  world.  At  the  end  of  Lake  Hakone  a  boat 
awaited  us,  curiously  rowed  by  standing  rowers, 
and  in  it  we  went  from  end  to  end  of  the  lake, 
then  by  chairs  were  carried  by  coolies  over  the 
high  mountain  passes  until  we  had  on  our  right 
the  blue  Pacific  and  the  exquisite  coast  line  of 
Japan,  and  on  our  left  still  looked  down  on 
Hakone.  By  a  long  but  very  beautiful  road  (if 
road  it  can  be  called  that  road  was  none)  we 
reached  Atami,  on  the  Japanese  Eiviera ;  oranges 
were  on  the  trees,  while  wisteria  was  in  full 
bloom.  The  place  is  exquisitely  beautiful.  The 
following  day  we  pursued  the  coast  road,  which  is 
just  as  lovely  as  the  Corniche  road  above  Mentone, 
or  more  so,  affording  with  constantly  changing 
glimpses  of  bays  and  promontories,  islands  and 
fishing  boats,  rocky  heights  and  leaping  streams. 
Then  by  rail,  and  so  at  last  to  Enoshima,  a 
singularly   charming   island,    or,    rather,   peninsula. 


96      WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE   EAST 

for  only  at  high-water  is  it   completely  separated 
from   the   mainland.     We   spent    the    night   again 
in   a   Japanese   inn,   and    visited   the   cave   of  the 
dragon  which  Benten,  the  goddess,  descended  from 
the   sky   to    marry,    and    thus    effectually   stopped 
his    devastating    ways.     While    we    were    in    the 
great  cavern  an   earthquake   was   taking   place   in 
Yokohama,  and  perhaps  it  is  just  as  well  in  Japan 
not    to    go    into    deep    caves,    for    an    earthquake 
might  close  them  for  ever.     The  volcanic  character 
of  the  country  accounts  for  the  bad  roads  in  the 
mountains ;     constant     seismic     disturbances,    and 
torrential  showers  cause  landslips,  large  and  small, 
very   frequently,   and   they,   of   course,   overwhelm 
the  narrow  paths.     With  all  her  civilisation,  Japan 
has    always    Nature's    forces    to    contend    with    to 
an  extent  undreamt  of  by  the  fortunate   dwellers 
in  the  British  Isles.     From  Euoshima  we  travelled 
to  Kamakura,  once  the  capital  of  Eastern  Japan, 
but  now  a  small  place,  yet  remarkable  above  all 
other  places  in    the  land  for  the   tranquil    magni- 
ficence of  the   Daibutsu,  or  image  of  Buddha  (in 
this  case  Auiida).     There  are  many  such  gigantic 
figures  in  Japan,  but  none  more  impressive  amid 
its   beautiful   trees.      Pictures   give   an   idea   of  its 
size     and     position,     but     a     perfectly    inadequate 
conception    of    its    calm,    eternal    majesty.       We 


THE   JAPANESE    OF   TO-DAY        97 

have    seen   nothing    more    absolutely    beautiful    in 
Japan. 

Outside  the  gate  is  this  inscription  in   English  : 

NOTICE. 

Stranger,  whosoever  thou  art,  and  whatever  be 
thy  Creed,  when  thou  enterest  this  Sanctuary,  thou 
treadest  upon  ground  hallowed  by  the  worship  of 


This  is  the  Temple  of  Buddha,  and  the  gate 
of  the  Eternal,  and  should  thei'efoi'e  be  entered 
with  reverence. 

By  Order  of  the  Prior. 

Yesterday  we  were  guests  at  the  annual  garden 
party  "  to  view  the  cherry  blossom "  given  by 
the  Emperor  to  the  Diplomatic  Corps  and  the 
highest  Japanese  official  society.  The  Emperor 
and  Empress  and  their  suite  walked  slowly  through 
the  gardens,  and  the  guests  fell  in  behind  them 
and  viewed  the  blossom.  Then  the  Emperor  took 
his  seat  in  a  pavilion,  and  numerous  presentations 
were  made  to  him.  All  ladies  must  wear  European 
dress,  and  while  many  Japanese  Princesses  and 
ladies  looked  charming  enough  in  their  Parisian 
creations,  it  is  but  the  truth  to  say  that  the  Japanese 
woman  always  looks  her  daintiest  and  sweetest 
in  her  native  dress.  All  men  (except  the  Chinese 
Embassy)   wore   uniform,    or    frock-coats    and   silk 


98      WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE   EAST 

hats,  the  latter  the  ugliest  costume  in  the  world 
under  certain  circumstances.  After  the  presen- 
tations came  refreshments — Moet  and  Chandon's 
champagne,  and  turkey,  and  all  things  European. 
The  scene  was  very  animated  and  picturesque  in 
that  Imperial  garden  of  white  cherry  blossom 
and  pink  peach  blossom,  with  its  pretty  lake  and 
beautiful  view  of  the  blue  sea.  We  were  fortunate 
enough  to  end  our  visit  to  India  as  guests  at 
the  Viceroy's  State  ball  in  Calcutta,  and  we  are 
fortunate,  too,  in  saying  farewell  to  Japan  at  the 
Sovereign  of  Japan's  most  typical  and  fascinating 
garden   party. 


CHAPTER  XI 

SAN  FEANCISCO  AND  MONTEREY 

We  arrived  at  San  Francisco  from  Yokohama  by 
the  Union  Mail  steamer  Mongolian,  an  American- 
built  ship.  It  was  her  thirteenth  voyage;  she 
sailed  on  a  Friday :  she  ran  aground  leaving  'Frisco 
on  her  outward  trip ;  she  ran  on  a  rock  in  the 
Inland  Sea  of  Japan ;  she  had  a  case  of  smallpox, 
which  necessitated  quarantine  at  Yokohama.  But, 
despite  those  depressing  things,  she  got  safely  to 
port  with  the  largest  number  of  saloon  passengers 
ever  brought  from  the  Far  East  to  California.  It 
cannot  be  said  that  the  table  was  good,  and  the 
crew  of  Chinese  and  mongrel  nationalities  did  not 
impress  one  favourably,  nor  was  civility  (which 
is  common  alike  to  British,  German,  and  Japanese 
ships)  apparent  on  this  American  ship.  The  voyage 
was  calm,  but  quite  uninteresting,  for  on  the  Pacific 
day  succeeds  day  with  nothing  seen  save  sea,  and 
sea,  and  yet  more  sea.     The  stop  at  Honolulu  was 


100    WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE   Ex^ST 

a  delightful  change.  The  Sandwich  Islands  are 
exquisitely  beautiful,  the  hotels  are  good,  the  climate 
perfect.  Where  else  in  the  wide  world  can  one 
bathe  in  a  sea  as  sparkling  as  that  before  the  Moana 
Hotel  ?  Where  can  one  watch,  astonished,  such 
startling,  wonderful,  iridescent  fish  as  in  the  little 
Aquarium  ?  Where,  elsewhere,  does  the  cactus 
grow  into  such  great  gnarled  trees  ?  The  native 
is  in  course  of  rapid  disappearance,  and  the  Japanese 
and  Chinese  have  taken  his  place.  Some  hundreds 
of  Portuguese  settlers  have  been  brought  in  to 
counterbalance  the  Asiatic  immigration. 

From  the  sea  San  Francisco  does  not  appear  a 
stricken  town,  for  the  fire  did  not  affect  its  water 
front.  When  you  emerge  from  the  Custom-House 
shed,  however,  the  awful  spectacle  defies  description. 
Four  square  miles  of  business  city  were  swept  by 
fire,  and  those  four  square  miles  are  covered  with 
heaps  of  ruins  to  this  day,  with  here  and  there,  by 
rare  exception,  a  great  slim  sky-scraper  rising  like 
a  commercial  lighthouse  out  of  the  dismal  surround- 
ings. India  has  miles  of  forgotten  dwellings  around 
Dellii,  and  Amber,  near  Jaipur,  Fatelipnr-Sikri, 
near  Agra,  and  Chitor  are  all  abandoned  cities 
centuries  old,  but  all  of  them  time  has  beniguantly 
touched,  and  the  white  marble  temples  and  beautiful 
towers   which   survive   make    one   forget   the   dead 


SAN    FRANCISCO    AND    MONTEREY    loi 

civilisation.  Luxuriant  vegetation  covers  all  that 
was  mean,  or  it  has  crumbled  to  earth.  But  San 
Francisco  in  its  ruins  is  stark,  staringly  modern, 
pathetically  ugly.  It  was  not  the  earthquake  which 
did  the  mischief — at  least  not  directly — a  few 
million  dollars  would  have  rectified  all  the  harm 
the  earthquake  did,  and  it  providentially  happened 
at  an  early  hour  in  the  morning  before  domestic 
fires  were  lit,  otherwise  the  mischief  would  have 
been  still  greater  (for  95  per  cent,  of  all  the 
chimneys  fell).  But  after  the  earthquake  came  the 
fire,  and  the  water  supply  was  so  unfortunately 
arranged  that  the  earthquake  put  it  entirely  out  of 
gear,  with  the  result  that  the  fire  once  lit  could  not 
be  extinguished.  Then  dynamite  was  used  to  blow 
up  buildings  in  advance  of  the  flames,  and,  so  mad 
were  all  men  that,  it  is  said,  dynamite  was  freely 
used  where  it  was  quite  superfluous ;  thus  it  came 
about  that  where  earthquake  and  fire  failed  to  destroy, 
dynamite  added  a  third  cause  of  ruin.  Fortunately 
the  sea  front  was  safe,  and  so  was  the  city  of  Oak- 
land across  the  bay,  which  is  as  Birkenhead  is  to 
Liverpool.  The  energy  of  the  citizens  would  very 
soon  have  raised  a  new  San  Francisco.  Unfortun- 
ately their  public  spirit  has  been  paralysed.  The 
municipality  is  involved  in  a  complicated  tangle  of 
"graft,"  bribery,  and   dishonesty.     Americans  who 


102     WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE    EAST 

prize  municipal  purity  when  they  can  get  it  (but  they 
do  not  seem  to  expect  it)  might  have  stood  even  the 
dreadful  state  of  municipal  corruption,  and  gone  on 
rebuilding  San  Francisco,  but  Labour  now  stepped 
in  with  snch  demands  that  all  enterprise  was 
virtually  throttled.  In  May,  on  our  arrival,  the 
tram  car  men  were  on  strike,  and  in  sympathy  with 
them  the  masons  and  builders  threw  bricks  and 
"  rocks "  (i.e.  stones)  from  the  walls  of  houses  in 
course  of  construction  at  and  on  the  few  cars  driven 
by  "  scabs,"  regardless  of  the  danger  to  innocent 
passers-by.  Passengers  were  followed  up  on  leaving 
a  car  and  assaulted,  sometimes  to  the  point  of 
death,  or  they  were  traced  to  their  homes,  and 
inquisition  made  as  to  what  influence  could  be 
brought  to  bear  by  threats  to  deter  them  from 
travelling  by  car.  The  cement  workers  passed  a 
resolution  imposing  a  fine  on  any  of  their  body  who 
travelled  by  car.  The  barbers  refused  (in  instances) 
to  shave  a  passenger  who  alighted  from  a  car. 
Bombs  were  placed  on  the  car  track  and  on  cars ; 
lumber  and  rails  and  piles  of  brick  were  set  in  the 
way,  stones  were  freely  thrown  at  motormen,  and  a 
sailor  who  ventured  to  say  that  though  he  was  a 
"  Union  sailor  "  he  was  glad  the  cars  were  running, 
was  set  upon  at  once  by  half  a  dozen  men  and 
struck  senseless  by  a  terrific  blow  from  a  cleaver. 


SAN   FRANCISCO   AND   MONTEREY    103 

"When  the  ambulance  from  the  Harbour  Emergency 
Hospital  arrived,  the  place  was  deserted  except 
for  Bowling,  who  lay  in  a  pool  of  blood  upon  the 
floor.  At  the  hospital  Dr.  Roche  pulled  several 
pieces  of  bone  and  a  collection  of  other  foreign 
bodies  from  the  man's  head."  Yet  bear  in  mind 
that  San  Francisco  is  a  city  of  such  immense 
distances  and  steep  hills  that  unless  workpeople  use 
cars  they  cannot  get  to  their  places  of  employment. 
As  cars  did  not  try  to  run  after  dark  for  many 
days,  shopkeepers  and  offices  closed  about  five 
o'clock  that  the  employees  might  get  home  as  best 
they  may.  The  well-to-do  were  not  much  better 
off.  There  are  few  cabs,  and  the  drivers  charged 
two  dollars  and  a  half  (say  ten  shillings)  to  go  from 
the  Custom  House  to  a  hotel.  Motor  cars  were 
used  by  private  owners,  but  to  hire  one  cost  £10 
sterling  a  day.  Further,  the  telephone  girls  were 
on  strike ;  the  postal  service  was  very  irregular ; 
all  the  laundries  were  on  strike,  and  one  could  get 
nothing  washed,  so  that  some  restaurants  used  paper 
table  covers  instead  of  linen.  The  police  appeared 
to  do  nothing  to  repress  disorder.  Contractors 
could  not  make  any  binding  arrangements  either 
for  clearing  away  rubbish  or  erecting  new  buildings, 
as  at  any  moment  the  workmen  might  demand  fresh 
terms.     The  result  was  anarchy  of  the  worst  kind. 


104    WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE    EAST 

Wliile  things  are  as  we  saw  them,  it  is  useless 
for  capitalists  to  put  money  into  restoring  San 
Francisco,  The  shops  have  migrated  to  Van  Ness 
Avenue,  which  is  very  much  as  if  Argyle  Street 
and  Buchanan  Street  shops  were  re-erected  in 
wooden  shanties  in  front  of  Kew  and  Grosvenor 
Terraces,  while  all  eastward  to  the  Broomielaw 
remained  a  wilderness  of  dusty,  broken-up  streets, 
with  ruins  and  rubbish  on  every  plot  which  once 
was  the  site  of  a  business  block.  It  is  sometimes 
said  the  hotels  are  just  as  they  were.  This  is  not 
so.  The  Fairmount  Hotel  is  a  magnificent  building, 
like  the  Carlton  in  London ;  it  was  finished  before 
the  fire,  and  burnt  out  but  not  otherwise  destroyed ; 
it  was  opened  in  May,  but  only  100  of  its  500 
rooms  were  ready ;  also,  owing  to  the  car  strike,  it 
was  practically  inaccessible  except  by  motor  car  or 
its  own  omnibus.  The  Palace  Hotel,  once  an 
enormous  building,  is  represented  by  a  very  modest 
country-looking  inn,  where  we  stayed  in  most 
suburban  quiet,  though  it  is  in  the  very  heart  of 
the  former  city.  The  St.  Francis  is  a  collection  of 
wooden  sheds  opposite  the  great  hotel  which  is  to 
be.  Had  the  Labour  leaders  recognised  that  here 
was  a  chance  for  good  wages  for  a  long  period  for 
thousands  of  men,  San  Francisco  would  to-day  have 
been  something  very  different   from    the  appalling 


SAN   FRANCISCO   AND    MONTEREY    105 

city  it  is.  They  are  said  to  have  made  enterprise 
impossible  and  destroyed  trade ;  and  if  trade  unions 
frighten  away  the  money-spender,  what  use  is  the 
union  to  the  workmen  ? 

With  things  as  they  are  in  San  Francisco  every- 
one was  anxious  to  get  away  as  soon  as  possible, 
and  we  travelled  to  Del  Monte,  100  miles  south- 
ward on  the  Pacific  Coast.  There  was  constant 
sunshine,  gardens  with  flowers  of  every  shade  and 
perfume,  and  laundrymen  who  consent  to  work 
(with  mighty  high  remuneration).  Close  at  hand 
is  Monterey,  the  original  capital  of  California, 
revered  for  its  ancient  buildings.  One  realises  on 
visiting  them  that  antiquity,  after  all,  is  a  thing 
not  of  centuries  but  of  circumstances.  A  rickety 
timber  cottage  is  much  reverenced  because  it  was 
the  first  house  of  the  kind  in  Monterey,  built  in 
1848  with  lumber  brought  from  Australia;  the 
first  theatre  of  California,  built  shortly  after- 
wards, is  also  an  archaeological  remnant ;  it  is  a 
shed  somewhat  resembling  the  sheds  built  at 
Heligoland  at  the  time  of  the  Crimean  War  for 
the  then  enlisted  Foreign  Legion  (who  were  never 
sent  to  the  field) ;  but  the  Monterey  theatre  has 
this  added  interest,  that  here  Jenny  Lind  sang. 
Near  at  hand  is  the  house  where  Robert  Louis 
Stevenson    lived,    and    where     he    married.     The 


io6    WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE    EAST 

inscription  painted  ou  the  front,  "  E.  Stevenson 
House,"  does  not  convey  much  to  the  travelling 
Scot  without  local  explanation.  At  Carmel,  a  few 
miles  away,  is  the  Mission  del  Eio  Carmelo,  founded 
in  1771,  and  in  Monterey  itself  is  the  San  Carlos 
Borromeo  Mission  Church  of  1770.  Scarcely 
ancient  are  those  days  in  Scotland,  but  they  are 
fragrant  with  remote  historical  associations  to  Cali- 
fornians.  There  are  136  acres  of  garden  and 
forest  in  the  hotel  grounds,  with  lake  and  golf 
course  and  maze,  and  a  ranch  eighteen  miles  away 
up  in  the  mountains  also  owned  by  the  hotel. 
There  was  nothing  in  this  lovely  corner  of  the 
earth  which  did  not  minister  to  the  delight  of 
all  the  senses,  and  yet  even  here  the  unfortun- 
ate San  Francisco  labour  troubles  reached  out 
a  retarding  hand.  Newspapers  did  not  arrive 
until  nearly  one  o'clock,  sometimes  long  after. 
The  Southern  Pacific  Eailway  offers,  on  paper, 
a  great  variety  of  trains  to  and  from  San  Francisco, 
yet  a  notice  in  the  hotel  hall  politely  asks  guests 
to  travel  by  a  train  leaving  here  at  8  a.m. — "  all 
other  trains  are  subject  to  transfer  or  great  delay, 
and  should  not  be  used  except  when  absolutely 
necessary  and  the  inconvenience  is  thoroughly 
understood  in  advance." 

When    we    travelled    in    the    Yosemite    Valley 


SAN   FRANCISCO   AND   MONTEREY    107 

a  few  days  later  we  were  shown  the  place  where 
all  the  stage  coaches  one  day  last  year  were 
stopped  by  one  masked  robber  and  the  passengers 
forced  to  hand  over  their  valuables.  It  seemed 
incredible.  Yet  in  June  this  year,  shortly  after 
we  left  California,  the  same  thing  happened  again 
at  the  same  place.  Running  north  to  Portland, 
Oregon,  a  wooden  trestle  bridge  over  a  gully  took 
fire,  and  our  train  was  detained  for  twenty-six 
hours  at  a  little  village  until  a  new  one  was  built, 
and  we  have  had  many  other  uncomfortable 
reminders  of  how  dangerous  railway  travelling  in 
America  is.  In  the  first  five  months  of  1907 
thirty-eight  serious  railway  accidents  occurred  in 
the  United  States,  and  273  persons  were  killed  and 
925  were  injured.  Is  it  wonderful  that  there 
should  be  serious  accidents  if  the  position  of 
matters  in  New  York  State  is  typical ;  here,  in 
the  first  four  months  of  this  year  the  number  of 
broken  rails  removed  from  tracks  was  836,  the 
failure  being  principally  in  rails  recently  rolled. 
The  New  York  Times  suggests  as  a  remedy  the 
removal  of  the  import  duty  on  rails,  so  that  the 
competition  of  foreign  manufacturers  should  induce 
the  Steel  Trust  to  improve  the  quality  of  its  rail 
output.  But  bad  rails  are  not  the  only  cause  of 
accidents  on  American  railroads. 


io8     WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE    EAST 

A  tour  in  America  is  made  pleasant  by  the 
unstinted  hospitality  and  kindness  of  friends  in 
the  cities  where  one  stays,  but  the  practical  incon- 
veniences of  life  in  the  west  of  the  great  Republic 
are  so  numerous  that  one  may  be  pardoned  for 
thinking  that  the  travelling  American  who  criti- 
cises Scottish  ways  conveniently  forgets  a  good 
deal  of  the  discomfort  he  lightly  endures  at  home. 


CHAPTER  XII 

MISSIONS  IN  INDIA 

I  WAS  asked  to  act  as  a  delegate  to  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  India 
from  the  Foreign  Missions  Committee  of  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  (of 
which  Committee  I  was  not  a  member)  along  with 
the  Eev.  the  Hon.  Arthur  Gordon,  then  acting 
Chaplain  of  the  Church  at  Simla ;  but  I  was  not 
charged  with  any  duty  of  visitation  or  inspection 
of  missions,  and  I  knew  none  of  the  missionaries 
personally.  My  observations  are  therefore  only 
those  of  a  fresh  inquirer,  and  subject  to  correction 
by  those  who  know  better  than  I. 

We  must  remember  in  going  to  visit  mis- 
sionary fields  that  although  the  days  of  missionary 
hardships  are  not  past,  yet  the  missionary  in  India, 
at  all  events,  does  not,  as  a  rule,  either  war  with 
beasts  nor  run  the  risk  of  being  beaten  with  rods 
or   imprisoned.     In    some   aspects   the   life   of  the 


no    WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE   EAST 

Indian  missionary  is  just  as  monotonous  and  void 
of    excitement   as   that  of  any  man  in  our  midst. 

Hegesippus,  who  cannot  have  died  later  than 
A.D.  192,  tells  us  how  the  grandsons  of  Jude, 
the  brother  of  our  Lord,  were  sent  to  the  Emperor 
Domitian,  who  examined  them  as  to  their  land 
and  money.  For  land,  they  said  they  had  only 
39  acres  and  cultivated  it  themselves,  and  they 
showed  their  hands,  and  their  worn  bodies  as 
proofs  of  their  real  character  of  ordinary  hard- 
working men.  This  is,  in  a  sense,  what  we 
must  say  of  our  missionaries ;  they  are  ordinary 
men ;  no  halo  surrounds  them ;  theirs  is  the 
common  round,  the  daily  task ;  their  possessions 
are  small,  and  their  trials  are  written  in  their 
flesh. 

The  home  attitude  to  Missions  has  within  my 
own  time  taken  three  distinct  aspects.  Very  many 
of  us  were  brought  up  on  the  missionary  literature 
which  dealt  largely  with  the  horrors  of  the  car 
of  Juggernaut,  suttee  and  so  forth.  All  Indians 
were  ignorant  heathens  and  it  was  the  duty  of 
boys  and  girls  at  home  to  subscribe  to  enable 
missionaries  to  bring  civilization  and  humanity  to 
them.  A  very  marked  change  followed  upon  the 
lectures  of  Max  Miiller,  and  the  publication  of 
the  sacred  books  of  the  East,  and  especially  among 


MISSIONS   IN    INDIA  iii 

reading  men  there  was  a  direct  movement  to  the 
opposite  extreme.  We  were  told  that  the  philosophy 
and  the  learning  of  the  East  were  the  best  adapted 
for  Eastern  peoples ;  that  every  nation  really  had 
the  religion  that  suited  it  best ;  that  caste  was 
after  all  little  more  than  a  trades-union,  and  that 
Christianity  only  made  useless  native  Christians. 
A  third  phase  we  have  now  reached.  We  recognise 
all  the  merits  of  Eastern  philosophy,  but  so  far  as 
the  practical  life  of  the  people  is  concerned  that 
high  philosophy  has  little  influence.  The  essence 
of  Hinduism  is  veneration  of  local  deities ;  the 
superstition  is  as  gross  as  the  old  missionaries  told 
us;  there  is  urgent  need  for  wise  missionary  effort 
which,  while  recognising  the  high  ideals  of  Hindu 
Mahometan  and  Buddhist  in  their  philosophies, 
goes  direct  to  the  root  of  the  matter  in  the  daily 
life  of  the  people.  It  may  be  said,  generally,  that 
all  modern  missionary  effort  in  India  is  conciliatory, 
educative  and  beneficial.  How  far  it  leavens 
the  whole  lump  is  a  great  question  on  which 
missionaries  may  not  be  the  best  authorities, 
absorbed  as  they  are  each  in  his  own  sphere  of 
influence.  The  government  of  India  is  a  Christian 
government,  but  it  wisely  exerts  no  influence  which 
would  be  felt  as  oppressive  by  the  millions,  who, 
sincere  in  their  own  faiths  (as  they  understand  them 


112     WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE    EAST 

or  misunderstand  them),  would  be  roused  to  the 
bitterest  antagonism  by  government  compulsion. 

The  country  is  more  or  less  allocated  among 
the  Churches  for  missionary  effort.  Thus  the 
Church  of  Scotland  is  in  evidence  in  the  Punjab, 
Poona,  Madras,  and  at  Kilimpong  (touching  almost 
Thibet,  Bhutan,  and  Independent  Sikkim). 

Central  India  is  largely  a  field  of  the  Canadian 
Church.  At  Ahmedabad  I  visited  the  flourishing 
Church  of  the  Irish  Presbyterian  Mission.  At 
Udaipur,  in  the  native  State  of  Mewar,  Dr.  Shep- 
herd's mission  is  maintained  by  the  U.F.  Church, 
He  has  worked  there  for  many  years.  His  church 
was  filled  in  the  morning  at  the  Hindi  service, 
and  his  evangelists  go  into  the  bazaars  in  the 
afternoon  and  repeat  his  sermons.  In  the  evening 
he  reads  the  service  of  the  Church  of  England 
and  preaches  in  English.  I  read  the  Lessons  for 
him. 

It  is  curiously  indicative  of  the  varied  nature 
of  missionary  effort  in  India,  that  while  at  Ahmed- 
abad the  converts  live  in  a  separate  village ;  in 
Udaipur  the  Christians  live  among  the  pure 
Hindus. 

I  arrived  at  Indore  in  December  to  attend  the 
third  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  India. 
Nearly  all  the  Presbyterian  Missionary  agencies  of 


MISSIONS   IN    INDIA  113 

Scotland,  England,  and  Canada  are  united.  The 
union  is  more  religious  and  mutually  helpful  than 
incorporative.  Each  Church's  missionaries  are  still 
legally  responsible  alone  to  the  Church  which 
sends  them  out,  but  the  true  teaching  of  Presby- 
terianism  as  to  the  equality  of  all  in  the  work 
of  the  ministry,  with  the  necessary  accompaniment 
of  mutual  helpfulness,  is  well  brought  out  by  the 
union.  There  was  never,  of  course,  any  real  diver- 
sity between  the  belief  or  the  objects  of  the 
missionaries,  and  "  union "  here  is  certainly 
strength. 

The  Assemblies  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
cannot  be  attended,  as  are  our  own  Assemblies, 
by  clergymen  from  all  the  country,  for  the 
distances  are  great  and  money  is  scarce ;  but  on 
each  occasion  a  large  number  of  men  are  brought 
together  for  religious  and  social  purposes  who 
otherwise  would  know  very  little  of  each  other. 
I  understand  the  Assembly  of  1905,  at  Nagpore, 
was  largely  a  U.F.  missionary  gathering,  and  the 
Assembly  of  1906,  at  Indore,  certainly  was  largely 
a  Canadian  missionary  gathering.  The  meetings 
were  held  in  the  large,  cool,  Bronson  hall. 

Dr.  Youngson,  of  the  Church  of  Scotland's 
Mission  at  Jammu,  was  the  Moderator  in  1905, 
and  in  1906,  by  a  vote,  a  native  pastor  of  Bombay, 


114     WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE   EAST 

Mr.  Nakombi,  was  elected  Moderator.  With  Dr. 
Graham,  of  Kalimpong,  by  his  side  as  Clerk  of 
Assembly,  his  duties  were  made  light,  and  it  was 
an  impressive  sight  to  see  men  of  such  diverse 
races  willingly  met  under  the  presidency  of  a 
native  minister.  The  delegates  from  other  Churches 
received  a  hearty  welcome  from  a  large  meeting, 
and  addressed  the  Assembly.  The  representatives 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland  were  as  already  men- 
tioned the  Eev.  the  Hon.  Arthur  Gordon,  B.D., 
and  myself.  The  Presbyterian  Church  of  Canada 
was  represented  by  the  Eev.  E.  P.  MacKay,  D.D., 
secretary  of  that  Church's  Mission  Committee. 
The  opening  meeting  was  also  addressed  by  the 
Right  Hon.  Samuel  Smith,  formerly  member  for 
Liverpool,  and  Mr.  William  Jones,  M.P.  for  Car- 
digan. The  representatives  of  the  United  Free 
Church,  Sir  Alexander  Simpson,  M.D.,  and  his 
son,  the  minister-elect  of  Cove  United  Free  Church, 
arrived  on  Saturday  evening.  On  Sunday  there 
was  a  large  attendance  at  a  Hindi  service  at 
8  a.m.,  and  at  9  a.m.  Mr.  Gordon  preached  to 
a  crowded  congregation,  many  of  whom  from  year's 
end  to  year's  end  as  a  rule  hear  no  discourses  but 
their  own,  and  then  almost  without  exception  in  some 
native  tongue.  At  tlirce  o'clock  Holy  Communion 
was  celebrated.     A   number    of  Scotch,   Canadian, 


MISSIONS   IN    INDIA  115 

and  native  ministers  took  part,  and  the  officiating 
elders  were  Sir  Alexander  Simpson  and  the  Eight 
Hon.  S.   Smith. 

From  Indore,  Mr.  Gordon,  my  wife  and  I  visited 
Eusselpura,  an  industrial  mission  under  the  charge 
of  Mr.  Cock,  formerly  of  Klondyke,  for  the  training 
of  native  boys  whose  parents  died  of  famine. 
Owing  to  the  strong  Indian  feeling  of  caste,  men 
dying  of  famine  would  often  rather  perish  than 
receive  food  from  any  one  but  a  Brahmin,  but 
in  the  case  of  the  poor  orphan  children,  who  were 
saved  from  starvation,  the  Church  has  some  hope- 
ful material.  The  mission  is  conducted  with  great 
wisdom.  The  children  live  as  other  Indian  children 
do,  in  the  simplest  way.  They  sleep  most  of  the 
year  in  the  open  air,  and  eat  the  ordinary  native 
meals.  They  learn  simple  arts  of  weaving,  car- 
pentry, etc.,  in  order  that  they  may  go  forth  in 
life  equipped  with  the  best  sort  of  skill  for 
procuring  their  livelihood  in  the  villages.  A 
ready  market  exists  in  London  for  all  they  can 
produce.  And  more.  And  herein  lies  one  of  the 
difficulties  of  such  a  mission.  Is  it  to  become 
an  industrial  centre  for  the  supply  of  Indian 
goods  to  England,  in  which  case  it  must  grow 
enormously  and  the  workers  be  retained  into  man- 
hood, and  a  small  town   be  allowed  to  go  up,  or 


ii6     WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE    EAST 

is  it  to  remain  a  training  school,  a  native  technical 
college  ?  The  temptation  to  increase  the  revenue 
for  general  missionary  purposes  by  accepting  home 
orders  on  an  extensive  scale  is  great ;  on  the 
other  hand,  the  whole  benefit  of  the  scheme  would 
be  imperilled  so  far  as  the  missionary  influence 
is  concerned  of  the  boys  themselves  when  going 
into  native  villages.  On  the  whole  the  sensible 
men  who  govern  the  mission  are  disposed  to  keep 
Eusselpura  strictly  to  its  benevolent  and  educa- 
tional purposes,  and  the  Church  will  not  be  lost 
in  the  manufactory. 

I  had  not  intended  to  go  further  north  than 
Lahore,  but  we  were  very  strongly  urged  by  Captain 
Charteris  of  the  Bengal  Sappers,  a  nephew  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Charteris,  to  visit  him  at  Rawal  Pindi,  and 
we  arrived  there  on  Saturday,  29  th  December,  and 
as  there  was  a  case  of  enteric  fever  in  Captain 
Charteris's  bungalow,  we  became  the  guests  of  Mr. 
Roche,  the  Cliurch  of  Scotland  Chaplain  to  the 
troops.  On  Sunday  morning  we  attended  service 
at  the  English  military  church — a  beautiful  and 
spacious  building — and  in  the  evening  we  attended 
the  Presbyterian  service.  A  former  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  the  l*uujab  caused  at  certain  stations, 
small  houses  to  l)c  erected  called  I'rayer-rooms 
for  the    use  of  those    who    niisht    desire   to   retire 


MISSIONS   IN    INDIA  117 

to  meditate.  Such  a  hall  is  all  the  Church  of 
Scotlaucl  has  at  Pindi ;  the  Government  have 
undertaken  to  give  a  site  for  a  proper  church, 
and  certain  difficulties  having  arisen  as  to  the 
site,  it  was  to  view  it  that  Captain  Charteris 
had  pressed  me  to  visit  Pindi.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  the  site  is  one  of  the  best  in  Pindi,  and 
I  am  glad  to  say  the  church  is  now  to  be  built. 
We  Scotch  are  a  long-suffering  race  as  regards 
church  facilities  for  our  Scottish  soldiers  in  India. 
I  confess  I  cannot  understand  our  patience.  The 
next  station  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  which 
I  visited  was  at  Darjeeling,  in  the  Himalayas, 
where  Mr.  Kilgour  is  missionary,  with  Mr.  H.  C. 
Duncan  and  Mr.  Arthur  Tulloch,  assisted  by 
their  wives  and  four  native  ordained  missionaries, 
fourteen  native  catechists,  and  thirty-five  Christian 
teachers.  There  are  rather  less  than  1000  native 
Christians  in  thirteen  stations,  and  fifty-five  schools 
with  about  1800  scholars.  Several  of  the  cate- 
chists are  supported  by  congregations  and  Sunday 
schools  at  home  at  a  cost,  it  is  said,  on  an 
average  of  £20  a  year  for  each.  The  Goorkha 
Mission  to  Nepal  is  carried  on  by  the  Dar- 
jeeling native  Christians  themselves,  and  this  is 
a  very  happy  sign.  It  was  pleasant  to  hear  at  the 
Indore  Assembly  that  several  of  the  native  churches 


ii8     WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE    EAST 

represented  there  were  also  actively  engaged  in 
evangelical  work  at  their  own  cost.  Unless  this  is 
done,  Christianity  is  in  danger  of  remaining  an 
exotic  in  India.  At  this  point  I  must  explain  how 
this  is  more  precisely.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
Christianity  is  not  the  only  converting  Church ;  on 
the  contrary  the  Mahommedaus  are  very  earnest 
proselytisers.  In  many  respects  it  is  impossible  to 
deny  the  purity  of  their  creed  as  compared  with 
village  Hinduism  and  its  confusion  of  native 
powers.  The  Mahommedan  has  many  advantages 
over  the  Christian.  He  is  a  man  of  like  physical 
frame  and  the  like  modes  of  thought  as  the  Hindu, 
and  he  can  clinch  his  argument  very  effectively  by 
such  an  appeal  ad  hominem  as  this  :  "  If  you  become 
a  Mahommedan,  I  will  give  you  my  daughter  in 
marriage."  This  he  will  certainly  do.  The  Chris- 
tian— if  a  European — can  only  say  :  "  And  when 
you  are  a  Christian,  you  will  be  my  brother."  But 
after  all  it  is  only  a  quasi-fraternal  link,  for  the 
white  man  and  the  black  must  for  ever  remain 
separated,  so  far  as  social  life  is  concerned ;  it  is 
against  nature  that  the  races  should  intermarry. 
If,  tlierefore,  native  Christians  will  themselves 
become  missionaries,  and  support  missionary  efforts, 
they  are  able  to  deal  with  social  problems  much 
more  successfully  than    we    can.     Tlio   white   man 


MISSIONS    IX    INDIA  119 

living  in  a  white  man's  house,  wearing  white  man's 
clothes,  going  "  home,"  sending  his  children  "  home," 
may  be  a  teacher  and  a  friend,  but  he  can  never  get 
to  the  heart  of  things  as  the  native  can. 

The  DarjeeUng  mission  works  among  many 
races,  but  it  is  well  to  remember  that  it  is  also 
one  of  our  strongest  posts  of  Presbyterianism  in 
India.  The  Church  of  Scotland  is  in  no  back 
water  in  a  place  where  three  successive  Governors 
of  Bengal  have  been  among  the  regular  congrega- 
tion during  the  summer  season. 

From  Darjeeling  we  travelled  to  Kalimpong ;  no 
easy  journey.  The  landscape  was  glorious  in  the 
extreme.  We  were  travelling  on  narrow  paths 
cut  in  the  side  of  great  mountains,  amid  an  im- 
pressive and  awe-inspiring  silence ;  occasionally 
a  great  bird  floated  in  the  air  of  the  vast  valleys 
by  which  we  passed ;  otherwise  all  was  silence. 
Kot  a  breath  stirred  the  branches,  not  a  bird's 
note  was  heard.  The  first  night  we  rested  at 
Pashok,  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Lister,  a  tea  planter, 
who  gives  a  cordial  welcome  to  all  friends  of 
Dr.  Graham.  Here  I  had  a  slight  recurrence  of 
fever  from  which  I  had  already  suffered  in  Calcutta 
before  lea%'ing  for  Darjeeling,  and  was  in  bed  all 
the  time  we  stayed  in  Pashok.  The  next  morning, 
however,  we  were  again  on  the  road,  and  by  the 


120     WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE   EAST 

afternoon  we  saw  the  Church  of  Kalimpong  on 
its  height.  It  strongly  recalls  a  Scottish  village 
church  of  the  best  type.  The  ascent  is  long 
and  trying,  but  we  received  a  warm  Scottish 
welcome  from  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Graham.  What  is 
known  as  the  Guild  mission,  Kalimpong  and 
Dooars,  has  2700  native  baptised  Christians  in  23 
stations.  There  are  39  schools  with  1100  scholars. 
The  Bhutan  Mission  is  carried  on  by  the  Kalim- 
pong native  Christians  themselves.  While  we  were 
at  Kalimpong  the  death  of  Mr.  Edward  Taylor,  of 
the  Universities  Mission,  on  Christmas  day,  1906, 
was  yet  recent.  He  died  in  the  Dooars  of  black 
water  fever,  a  true  martyr  of  the  Church.  He 
was  greatly  beloved.  The  schools  at  Kalimpong 
are  supplemented  by  technical  teaching,  and  it  is 
pretty  to  see  the  native  girls  learning  to  make 
lace.  While  we  were  there  they  were  making 
the  lace  for  the  gown  of  the  Moderator,  Dr. 
Mitford  Mitchell.  I  trust  they  may  make  the 
lace  for  successive  Moderators.  Working  with 
those  gentle,  clever  native  maidens  were  two  of 
the  little  girls  of  Dr.  Graham's  family.  A  Women's 
Industries  House  for  girls  from  a  distance,  and 
to  provide  a  residence  for  the  ladies  in  charge, 
is  wanted.  It  will  cost  £1000  to  build  and 
finish.     Government  will  t^ive  £600.     The  other 


MISSIONS   IN    INDIA  121 

£400  will  be  found  at  home.  There  is  an 
excellent  infirmary,  the  beds  in  which  were  pre- 
sented by  various  Scottish  parishes,  as  notices 
above  the  ends  testify.  Tibetans  who  are  injured 
now  know  their  best  course  is  to  come  to  Kalim- 
poug,  and  many  a  strange  visage  we  saw  above 
Scotch  bed-clothes.  Besides  Dr.  Graham,  there 
are  at  Kalimpong  a  medical  missionary  and  a 
lay  evangelist  to  the  Tibetans,  nine  ladies,  two 
ordained  native  missionaries,  twenty-four  native 
evangelists,  sixty  Christian  teachers,  and  five 
medical  dispensers.  Dr.  Graham  oversees  the 
whole  large  establishment,  has  monthly  meetings 
with  the  various  teachers,  and  goes  round  visiting 
the  native  stations.  The  St.  Andrew's  Colonial 
Homes  at  Kalimpong  are  given  in  the  year-book 
as  under  this  mission,  but  they  are  not  strictly 
speaking  Presbyterian  missions.  What  to  do  with 
Eurasians,  i.e.  the  children  born  of  white  fathers 
and  native  mothers,  is  one  of  the  direst  of  the 
minor  problems  of  the  East.  Those  unfortunate 
children  are  only  too  likely  to  be  neglected,  while 
they  particularly  require  judicious  care.  They 
are  looked  down  on  by  the  pure  whites,  and 
they,  themselves,  hold  themselves  immeasurably 
superior  to  the  brown  race.  They  are  apt  to 
have  the  faults  of  both  races  and  the   virtues   of 

Q 


122     WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE    EAST 

neither.  They  don't  want  to  work,  and  they  have 
no  means  of  maintaining  themselves  decently  with- 
out work.  Dr.  Graham,  six  or  seven  years  ago, 
founded  the  St.  Andrew's  Colonial  Homes  at 
Kalimpong,  where  in  eight  cottages  some  two 
hundred  children  are  now  being  trained  in  habits 
of  self-reliance  and  order.  Each  house  has  its 
"  Auntie  "  and  her  assistant,  and  no  servant  of  any 
kind  is  employed.  The  boys  must  do  their  own 
work,  besides  going  to  school.  In  one  house  was 
an  excellent  lady  from  Aberdeenshire,  who  had 
acquired  thorough  training  in  Dr.  Barnardo's 
homes.  A  pile  of  Aberdeen  newspapers  was  in  a 
corner,  and  from  it  I  gleaned  a  good  deal  of  interest- 
ing information  as  to  an  approaching  election  in 
the  South  Division  of  Aberdeen  in  which,  at  the 
time,  I  had  some  personal  interest.  In  another 
were  a  husband  and  wife  from  Airdrie.  There 
is  a  capital  teacher  of  joinery  and  similar  crafts, 
and  a  good  agricultural  superintendent.  Here,  far 
lifted  from  all  ordinary  temptations  and  in  a  pure 
and  healthy  atmosphere,  those  neglected  children 
are  brought  under  the  best  influence,  and  it  is 
pleasant  to  know  tliat  nineteen  of  them  are  now 
being  trained  on  board  H.M.S.  "  Southampton " 
at  Hull  for  the  Royal  Navy  which  others  have 
already    entered.     The    Homes    are    supported    by 


MISSIONS   IN    INDIA  123 

Scotsmen  and  Englishmen  all  over  India,  and 
are  not  sectarian  in  any  way.  They  are  purely 
benevolent,  iDut  the  wise  and  simple  govern- 
ment is  that  of  Dr.  Graham  and  the  Guild 
Mission.  At  Kalimpong  is  also  the  headquarters 
of  the  Training  Institution  of  the  Universities 
Mission,  founded  in  1886,  and  supported  by  the 
University  Association  of  the  four  Scottish  Univer- 
sities and  St.  Cuthbert's  congregation,  Edinburgh. 
The  particular  field  of  work  is  Independent  Sikkim. 
The  Institution  buildings  are  quite  new,  and  were 
built  to  the  designs  of  Mr.  Taylor,  who  did  not 
live  to  teach  in  them.  Besides  the  missionary 
specially  maintained  by  St.  Cuthbert's,  there  are 
eight  catechists  and  nineteen  Christian  teachers. 
In  the  Institution  there  are  some  thirty  students. 
Under  the  superintendence  of  the  mission  are 
nineteen  schools  with  350  scholars,  and  the  native 
Church  in  the  assigned  field  of  work  is  said  to 
contain  305  baptised  Christians  in  eight  stations. 
I  emphasize  haptised  Christians.  One  of  the 
greatest  difficulties  in  obtaining  support  to  Indian 
missions  is  the  allegation  commonly  made  that 
Christian  servants  are  bad  servants,  and  that  native 
Christians,  as  a  rule,  are  a  bad  lot.  For  two  and  a 
half  months  we  had  a  servant,  a  Madras  Eoman 
Catholic,  and  a  more  honest  or  straightforward  and 


124     WINTER   DAYS    IN   THE   EAST 

willing  servant  no  one  could  have.  Every  article 
in  my  luggage  was  known  to  him,  and  nothing  ever 
went  missing  in  his  hands.  Dr.  Graham  told  me 
that,  hearing  again  and  again  of  the  bad  character 
of  the  Christians  employed  in  tea-gardens  in  the 
Dooars,  he  made  a  personal  census  of  the  Christians 
employed  there.  Of  all  the  "  bad  lots  "  he  found 
only  two  were  baptised  Christians.  The  others 
were  either  men  of  the  lowest  castes  who  had 
adopted  the  name  of  Christian  to  give  them  a 
spurious  rise  in  the  world,  or  men  who  had  been 
expelled  from  higher  castes  for  serious  reasons,  and 
who  adopted  "  Christian "  as  a  caste  name  which 
barred  inquiry.  Therefore,  when  you  hear  the 
native  Christian  disparaged,  ask  your  informant  if  he 
personally  knew  the  man  whose  character  he  speaks 
badly  of,  and  if  he  ascertained  whether  the  man 
had  really  any  right  at  all  to  be  called  a  Christian. 
It  is  sometimes  said  by  the  apologist  for  the  bad 
Christians  that  the  example  of  our  countrymen  in 
India  is  such  that  they  regard  Christianity  as  little 
more  than  a  social  brand  associated  with  the 
dominant  race.  If  this  means  that  the  British  in 
India  are  not  all  active  missionaries,  it  is  true,  but 
if  it  means  that  the  British  in  India  set,  as  a  rule, 
a  bad  example  to  the  native,  it  is  emphatically  not 
true.      All  the  virtues  of  tlie  English  in  India  are 


MISSIONS   IN    INDIA  125 

Christian  virtues — not  that  they  are  the  monopoly 
of  Christianity  in  theory,  but  that  in  practice  the 
English  in  India  are  the  active  practisers  of  Chris- 
tianity in  the  largest  sense — they  are  strictly  just, 
they  are  honourable,  they  are  humane.  The  word 
of  a  Sahib  is  honour  itself  with  the  natives.  But 
what  about  a  Sahib's  vices  ?  As  regards  drunken- 
ness, it  is  enough  to  say  that  the  white  man  who 
drinks  immoderately  in  the  heat  of  India  has 
already  dug  his  grave.  India  is  no  place  except 
for  the  clean-living  European.  Individual  excep- 
tions only  prove  the  rule.  If  there  is  occasionally 
drunkenness  or  other  fault  on  the  part  of  the 
British  soldier,  it  is  due  to  want  of  a  little 
elementary  physiological  teaching  at  home  and  the 
human  frailty  of  the  young  soldier.  The  Indian 
native  is  no  fool,  and  I  should  be  extremely 
surprised  to  hear  that  he  judged  Christianity  by  the 
very  occasional  individual  lapses  of  an  extraordi- 
narily well-behaved  body  of  young  men. 

We  visited  many  other  churches  in  India,  and 
met  missionaries  and  clergymen  of  all  denomina- 
tions. In  Calcutta  I  was  able  to  pay  only  one 
visit  to  the  General  Assembly's  College,  where  the 
best  secular  education  is  given  and  religious 
instruction  in  Bengali  and  English.  There  is  a 
house    of    residence    for    students.      I    visited    the 


126     WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE   EAST 

"Women's  Mission  at  Bow  Bazaar  with  Miss  Mungle, 
one  of  its  heads.  The  house  is  delightfully  spacious, 
but  unfortunately  it  is  not  the  property  of  the 
mission,  who  have  been  required  to  remove.  There 
are  eight  Hindu  schools,  with  about  a  thousand 
scholars,  taught  by  thirty  native  Christian  teachers 
and  two  Hindu  pundits.  Many  Zenanas  are  visited 
for  Bible-reading  and  hymn-singing  only,  while  in 
over  seventy  houses  secular  teaching  is  also  given. 
The  work  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  and  other 
Churches  in  India  is  not  to  be  judged  by  one  who 
has  only  been  a  few  months  in  India,  but  it  is 
possible  to  form  a  definite  opinion  as  to  the  needs 
of  all  evangelising  agencies.  Missionaries  should 
be  young,  and  thoroughly  sound  in  health.  The 
case  of  young  women  who  marry  young  missionaries 
is  full  of  danger.  They  may  be  far  from  medical 
aid  at  their  most  trying  times ;  they  will  quite 
certainly  be  without  many  of  the  ordinary  comforts 
of  home,  and  subject  to  a  thousand  discomforts 
incident  to  Eastern  life.  Their  young  cliildren 
must  go  home.  They  themselves  will  incur  expense 
going  backwards  and  forwards.  It  is  true  a  wife 
may  be  the  greatest  of  helpmates  to  a  missionary, 
but  I  am  not  sure  that  over  all  a  celibate  missionary 
class  is  not  the  best ;  there  is  however  a  native 
preference  for  married  men.     To  organised  settle- 


MISSIONS    IN    INDIA  127 

ments   like    Kalimpong  where    ladies    have    every 
comfort  my  remarks  do   not   apply.     Missionaries, 
should    be    most     thoroughly     imbued,     not     only 
with    the    spirit    of    Christianity,    but    with    that 
exhibition  of  it  which  is  enforced  in  the  apostolic 
injunction,   "  Be   pitiful ;   be  courteous."     Nowhere 
is  intolerance  so  offensive  as  when  it  may  chance 
to    be    exhibited    by    a    Christian    minister    in    a 
land  like  India.     The  religions  of  the  Hindu  and 
the  Mahommedan,  the  Sikh  and  the  Buddhist,  are 
great  powers  for  good.    Theirs  is  the  moral  standard 
of  millions  of  men.     By  their  guidance  they  lead 
upright  and  honest  lives,  according  to  the  measure 
of  instruction   which   has   been  given  them.     The 
partial  revelation  of  God  which  such  religions  give 
is   not  a   matter   for  gibe  or  joke.     A  missionary 
should  be  a  man  with  the  widest  possible  knowledge 
of  the  faiths   he  proposes  to  supplant,  and  should 
as    rapidly     as    possible    acquire    the    vernacular. 
To    teach    Christianity    through    the    medium    of 
English    alone    is    a    slow,    slow    job.     Tolerance, 
fairness,  comprehension,   sympathy,  are  necessities. 
European  clothes  are  no  necessary  part  of  Christi- 
anity,   either    for    teacher    or    taught.     But    it    is 
very   difficult   for  the    missionary   to   abandon   not 
only    kindred    and    friends,    but    also    his     modes 
of   life    and    the    costume    which    marks    him    as 


128     WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE    EAST 

one  of  the  dominant  race.  I  do  not  judge ;  I 
am  in  no  position  to  do  so ;  but  for  all  the 
reasons  I  have  given  I  urge  again  that  the  hope 
of  Christianity  in  India  lies  in  its  native  clergy, 
who  are  men  of  the  like  habits  with  their 
people,  and  therefore  the  missionary  educational 
work  which  fits  earnest,  self-convinced  natives  to  be 
themselves  apostles  to  their  brethren  is  of  the  very 
highest  service. 

I  am  not  blind  to  the  fact,  that  if  the  object 
to  be  attained  is  an  entirely  native  Church,  it 
does  not  follow  that  the  native  Church  will  not 
take  forms  different — it  may  be  widely  different — 
from  Presbyterianism  at  home.  Neither  the  theory 
of  Presbyterian  government,  nor  its  practice  in 
modern  Scotland  (nor  indeed  congregational  worship) 
are  allied  to  Indian  ideas,  but  those  are  problems 
of  the  future ;  of  their  existence  we  are  warned 
by  the  various  transformations  of  the  theistic 
movements  associated  with  the  once  famous  name  of 
Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  and  by  the  manner  in  which 
the  native  Christians  of  Madras  liave — very  much 
against  the  wish  of  the  Roman  Church — developed 
a  caste  of  their  own.  (Our  own  Christianity  as  an 
Eastern  religion  has  taken  forms  in  the  West 
of  Europe  widely  different  from  the  gathering  of 
the  saints  in  Jerusalem,  or  the  groups  of  believers 


MISSIONS   IN    INDIA  129 

to  whom  Paul,  a  Semitic  Eoman  citizen  imbued 
with  Greek  philosophy,  addressed  his  pastoral 
letters.)  In  this  connection  I  must  remark  in 
passing  upon  the  influence  exercised  by  Mrs. 
Besant  and  the  Theosophists  of  the  Central  Hindu 
College  at  Benares,  which  is,  perhaps,  as  yet 
little  appreciated  in  Britain,  It  is  a  curious 
fact  that  two  women,  Mrs.  Eddy  in  America 
and  Mrs.  Besant  in  India,  should  unquestionably 
be  the  religious  teachers  of  the  widest  influence 
in  the  modern  world.  The  effort  of  the  teachers 
is  to  teach  pure  Hinduism  instead  of  corrupt 
village  Paganism.  The  view  taken  by  mis- 
sionaries of  the  work  of  the  College  is  not 
uniform.  Some  regard  it  as  mischievous,  since 
it  is  non-Christian ;  others,  with  whom  I  range 
myself,  regard  with  favour  every  movement 
adapted  to  native  modes  of  thought  which  makes 
for  the  better  spiritual  life  of  the  people,  i.e.  which 
puts  doctrine  before  ceremonial,  and  the  search  for 
truth  before  simple  satisfaction  in  temple  worship, 
often  intensely  degrading.  A  recent  number  of  the 
Hihbert  Journal  puts  very  clearly  the  importance 
of  a  deep  study  of  this  Theosophical  movement, 
which  appeals  keenly  to  the  intensely  metaphysical 
mind  of  the  educated  Indian.  We  do  not  know  that 
at  its  best  this  movement  may  not,  indirectly  but 

B 


I30    WINTER   DAYS    IN    THE    EAST 

ultimately,  lead  to  Christianity,  as  being  far  more 
satisfying  than  Theosophy,  and  at  its  worst — even 
its  bitterest  opponents  admit  that  its  apostles  are 
teachers  of  pure  and  earnest  minds,  and  that  it 
is  better  to  be  a  good  Hindu  than  a  bad  Hindu. 
With  the  singular  comprehensiveness  of  Hinduism, 
the  Theosophical  movement  does  not  appear  to 
be  regarded  as  an  alien  cult,  though,  to  our  minds, 
it  appears  as  widely  separate  from  Hinduism  as 
practised  as  it  is  from  Christianity. 

If  we  say  that  the  chief  work  of  missionaries 
must  be  educational,  it  must  be  understood  that 
by  education,  reading  and  writing  are  not  alone 
meant.  Taken  by  themselves  those  arts  would 
be  small  objects  of  missionary  effort.  We  mean 
by  education,  the  training  of  mind  towards  the 
Christian  ideals  of  honesty,  fair  dealing,  and  truth- 
fulness, and  the  abolition  of  all  customs  which 
are  incompatible  with  the  teaching  of  Christ.  The 
Government  abolished  suttee,  and  the  marriage 
of  widows  is  legal.  But  how  few  widows  will 
public  opinion  allow  to  marry  ?  There  is  no 
power  in  law  that  can  forbid  child  marriages, 
but  there  could  be  most  potent  influence  used  in 
modifying  its  abuses  without  interfering  with  racial 
doctrines ;  respect  for  life  should  be  shown  to  be 
compatible  with  the  death  of  such  sorely  afllicted 


MISSIONS    IN    INDIA  131 

creatures  as  an  abuse  of  a  good  teaching  will 
not  allow  a  Hindu  at  present  to  put  out  of 
their  misery ;  obscene  and  extravagant  festivities, 
and  temple  abuses — those  are  but  a  few  of  the 
many  customs  which  are  alien  to  Christianity, 
which  can  scarcely  be  touched  by  law  without 
great  danger  to  the  whole  fabric  of  an  ancient 
civilisation,  but  which  may,  in  time,  yield  to  the 
gentler  doctrines  of  Christianity.  The  problems 
of  the  East  are  very  great ;  our  duties  as  the 
governing  class  are  manifold.  The  success  of  our 
missions  is  in  many  respects  highly  gratifying, 
but  over  all  we  must  remember  that  East  is  East 
and  West  is  West,  and  therefore  once  more  I 
venture  to  say  to  all  who  travel  in  the  cause 
of  Christianity  in  the  Far  East,  "  Oh  be  pitiful, 
be  courteous ! " 


r2 


APPENDICES 

I.   ITINERAEY 

1906. 

Nov.  6.  Left  Glasgow. 

7.  Left  London. 

9.  Left  Marseilles  on  P.  and  O.  Macedonia. 

23.  Arrived  Bombay  :  Hotel  Taj  Mahal. 

26-28.  Delautabad:  Temples  of  EUora ;  Eoza. 

29-30.  Bombay  :  Hotel  Taj  Mahal. 

Dec.  L  Ahmedabad. 

2-6.  Mount  Abu,  Dilwarra,  etc. :  Rajpntana  Hotel. 

7.  Ajmere. 

8-lL  Udaipur. 

12-13.  Chitorgarh  and  Chitor  :  Dak  Bungalow. 

14-17.  Indore  :  Guests  of  Rev.  Mr.  Wilson. 

18-20.  Jaipur  :  Hotel  Kaiser-i-Hind. 

21-24.  Agra  :  Hotel  Metropole. 

25-27.  Delhi :  Maidens  Hotel. 

28.  Amritsar  :  Cambridge  Hotel. 

29-30.  Rawal-Pindi :  Guests  of  Rev.  E.  S.  M.  Roche. 

31.  Arrived  at  Government  House,  Lahore  :   Guests 
of  H.H.  Sir  Chas.  Rivaz. 
1907. 

Jan.  3.  Left  Lahore. 

4.  Arrived  at  Lucknow  :  Wutzlei-'s  Royal  Hotel. 


:} 


Titabur  Tea  Estate  :  Guests  of  Mr.  R.  G.  Black. 


134  APPENDICES 

1907. 

Jan.  5.  Cawiipore  (<lay  excursion). 

7.  Left   Luckiiow :    arrived   at   Benares :    Clarke's 
Hotel. 

7-9.  Benares. 

10-13.  Calcutta  :  Guests  of  Mr.  H.  C.  Begg. 

14-15.  Darjeeling  :  Woodlands  Hotel. 

16.  Pashok,  on  way  to  Kalimpong  :   Guests  of  Mr. 
Lister. 

17-18.  Kalimpong  :  Guests  of  Rev.  Dr.  Graham. 

19.  Sovoke  :  Silliguri. 

20.  Arrived  at  Dhubri-ghat,  on  river  Brahmaputra. 
20-21.  On  river. 

21.  Arrived  at  Gauhati,  Assam. 
22  to' 

Feb.  4. 

4.  Left  Titabur. 

5.  Cachar  Valley. 

6.  On  river. 

7-9.  Calcutta  :  Guests  of  Mr.  H.  C.  Begg. 

10.  Left  Calcutta  on  B.I.  Taroha. 

12-14.  Rangoon  :  Royal  Hotel. 

15-16.  Mandalay  :  Sal  ween  House  Hotel. 

17-25.  On  Irrawaddy  flotilla  steamers  to  Bhamo  and  back. 

18.  Kyoiickmyoung. 

19.  Tagoung. 

20.  Tigyang. 

21.  Katha. 

22.  Arrived  at  Bhamo. 

23.  Left  Bhamo. 

25.  Arrived  at  Mandalay. 

26-28.  Rangoon  :  Royal  Hotel. 

28.  Left  Rangoon  on  B.I.  Bharata. 

March  4.  Penang. 

8-9.  Singapore  :  Rattles'  Hotel. 

7.  Visit  to  Johore. 


ITINERARY  135 

1907. 

March  10.  Left  Singapore  on  German  Lloyd  Ziethen. 

15-23.  Hong  Kong  :  Hong  Kong  Hotel. 

18.  Canton. 

20-21.  Macao  :  Macao  Hotel. 

23.  Left  Hong  Kong  on  Japanese  America  Maru. 
26.  Shanghai. 

28.  Nagasaki. 

29.  Arrived  at  Kobe. 

.,      i  Kyoto  :  Miyako  Hotel. 

2.  Lake  Biwa. 

3.  Rapids  of  Katsura-gawa. 
5.  Nara. 

8-9.  Nagoya  :  Nagoya  Hotel. 

9-12.  Tokyo  :  Imperial  Hotel. 

12.  Arrived  at  Nikko  :  Kanaya  Hotel. 

13.  Excursion  to  Lake  Chuzenji. 
15.  Left  Nikko. 

15-17.  Ikao  :  Lake  Haruna,  etc.  :  Ikao  Hotel. 

17-18.  Myogi :  Hotel  Hisihi-ya. 

18.  Isobe  to  Tokyo  :  Imperial  Hotel. 

19-21.  Miyanoshima  :  Fugi-ya  Hotel. 

21.  Lake  Hakone  :  Ten  Province  Pass,  etc.,  to  Atami. 
22-23.  Atami  to  Enoshiraa,  etc.  :  Kin-ki-eo  Hotel. 
23-27.  Yokohama. 

24.  Tokyo. 

26.  Tokyo  :  Imperial  Cherry-Gazing  Garden-Party. 

28.  Left  Japan  on  Mongolia. 

May  2.  Double-Day  :  the  second  is  Antipodes  Day. 

7-8.  Honolulu  :  Moana  Hotel. 

15-17.  San  Francisco  :  Palace  Hotel. 

17-21.  Del  Monte  :  Monterey,  etc.:  Hotel  Del  Monte. 

22.  San  Francisco  :  Palace  Hotel. 

22-27.  Yosemite    Valley :     Sentinel    Hotel :     Wawona 
Hotel. 


136  APPENDICES 

1907. 
May  28.     San  Francisco  :  left  San  Francisco. 

29-31.     Train  delayed  at  Hornbrook  :  bridge  burned. 
31.     Portland,  Oregon,  and  Seattle  :  Stander  Hotel. 
June  1 .     Left  Seattle. 

2-4.     Banff:  Rocky  Mountains  :  Banff  Springs  Hotel. 
5-7.     Winnipeg  :  Royal  Alexandra  Hotel. 
9.     Train  delayed  at  Scotia  Junction  :  train  coming 
from  east  had  been  upset  on  track. 
9-10.     Toronto  :  King  Edward  Hotel. 
11-12.     Niagara  :  Clifton  Hotel. 
12-13.     Toronto  :  King  Edward  Hotel. 
14-16.     Quebec  :  Chateau  Frontenac. 
16-17.     Montreal :  Windsor  Hotel. 

17-18.     Left  Montreal  for  Plattsburg  :    steamer  Vernon 
down  Lake  Champlain  :    Ticonderoga :    Lake 
George  and  Albany  :  Hotel  Ten  Eyck. 
19.     Voyage  down  Hudson  to  New  York. 
19-26.     New  York  :  Waldorf-Astoria  Hotel. 

26.     Left  New  York  on  Hamburg-Amerika  Dcutsch- 
land. 
July  3.     Arrived  at  Plymouth. 
10.     Home. 


MALAY   THEATRE  137 


II.     MALAY   THEATKE  (page  53). 

The  following  was  the  programme  of  the  Malay  Theatre  at 
Singapore  two  days  after  our  visit : 


WAYANG  KASSIM. 

TO-NIGHT  ! ! 

Friday,  8th  March  1907. 

Don't  forget  !  Don't  forget  ! ! 

A  Special  Performance 

NOW  COME         NOW 

LOSE    NO  TIME 

THE  ^ 

INDEA-ZANIBAR    ROYAL  THEATRICAL   CO. 

OF  Singapore. 


AT  THE  ALEXANDRA  THEATRE  HALL, 
NORTH  BRIDGE   ROAD. 

WELL  PRODUCE  THE  SPLENDID  PLAY 


BAHMAN    KHALEK. 

THE  TWINS 

NO  SHOW  ON  SUNDAY  NIOHT. 

A  king  has  no  children  and  makes  an  oath  that  he  will  give  his  first 
child  to  the  church.  A  geui  appears  to  him  while  he  is  making  the 
oath,  and  promises  that  he  will  have  a  child,  on  condition  he  gives  it 
to  him.  He  agrees,  and  the  geni  gives  him  a  flower,  telling  him  to 
dilute  it  in  water  and  give  it  to  his  wife. 

He  does  so  and  his  wife  gives  birth  to  twins.  They  are  named 
Bahman  and  Khalek,  but  Bahman  the  eldest  is  born  mad. 

He  sends  Bahman  to  the  genii  in  charge  of  his  men,  but  the  Geni 
does  not  want  him  as  he  is  mad,  so  he  sends  word  to  the  king  ordering 
him  to  send  the  other  boy  or  he  will  destroy  hie  property. 

Fearing  the  Genii,  the  king  orders  Khalek  to  go  to  him,  and  leaving 
his  father  he  goes  away. 

A  king  of  bird's  daughter  is  in  a  wood  and  a  tiger  springs  out  and  is 


138  APPENDICES 

about  to  attack  her,  when  Khalek  appears  on  the  scene,  killing  the 
tiger  rescues  her.     To  show  her  gratitude,  she  takes  him  home. 

When  her  father  and  mother  come  to  meet  her,  they  did  not  find 
her  seeing  the  dead  tiger,  conclude  it  has  eaten  her. 

When  they  go  home,  they  see  Khalek  and  thinking  he  has  killed  the 
girl  they  are  about  to  sla}-  him  when  she  appears  and  informs  them  of 
his  brave  deed.  They  reward  him  by  making  her  his  wife,  and  he 
shortly  after  leaves  them  to  contenue  his  search  of  the  geni  the  bird 
king  gives  him  his  wings  saying  it  will  help  him  on  his  journey. 

On  his  way  he  meets  two  fairies  who  fall  in  love  with  him,  but  as  he 
is  troubled  about  the  geni  he  tell  them  so  and  giving  them  his  ring  he 
leaves  them. 

He  now  meets  the  geni  and  giving  himself  to  him,  he  adopts  him  as 
his  son,  he  gives  Khalek  a  hair  of  his  head  telling  him  to  use  this  when 
he  is  in  trouble  and  he  will  appear  they  then  part. 

The  king  sends  for  a  physician  to  cure  Bahman  of  his  rusaiut  and 
while  they  are  examining  him  he  decamps. 

He  meets  two  fairies  who  are  betrothed  to  two  genii  and  they  have 
some  fun  with  the  mad  prince,  while  this  is  going  on,  there  intended 
husband  the  genii  appear,  and  bring  angry  with  the  prince  take  him 
before  their  king. 

The  king  orders  them  to  take  him  to  a  wood  and  kill  him.  While 
they  are  about  to  do  so,  Khalek  his  younger  brother  passes  that  way 
and  stops  them  telling  them  he  is  his  brother.  They  refuse  to  listen 
to  him  and  he  summons  the  geni  whose  hair  he  has  together  they 
thrash  the  two  genii  the  geni  now  cures  Bahman  and  taking  the  fairies 
with  them,  they  all  return  home  to  the  king. 

Admission  Prices. 

Reserved-        -        -        -    §2.00    |    Second  Class  -        -        -     50  cts. 

First  Class       -        -        -   „  1.00    |    Third      „      -        -        -    25  „ 

Ladibs,  Ist.  Class  50  cts.  2nd.  Class  30  cts. 

Overture  8  p.m.  —  Curtain  9  p.m.  —  Carriages  12  p.m. 

No  show  on  Sunday  night.  S.  Kassim,— -So^  Proprietor. 

Alwoe  Brothers,  Printers,  Singapore. 


An  advertisement  in  a  Penang  newspaper  ran  as  follows  ; 

To-night  I  To-night! 

Dedicated  in  loving  memory  of  our  beloved 

Wm.  Sliakespeare. 

The  Opera  Indra  Permato  Company  of  Selangor  will  stage 

the  Sensationul  Tragedy  Prince  Hamlet, 

By  the  best  actors  and  actresses  jirocurftblo  in  Java. 

Our  clowns  are  without  rivals! 

Tliis  is  actually  the  best  re])resentation  of  a  European 

Opera  by  a  Native  Company. 

Chow  Cjionu,  Proprietor. 


WONDER   MINING   CAMP  139 


III.     HOW  WONDER  MINING  CAMP,  NEVADA, 
SOUGHT  A  MINISTER. 

The  following  is  an  excerpt  from  the  San  Francisco 
Chronicle  of  Saturday,  May  18,  1907 : 

MINING  CAMP  SEEKS  PREACHER. 

■Wonder  Citizens  want  Minister  of  any  Creed  except  Baptist. 

Special  Dispatch  to  the  "  Chronicle." 

Reno  (Nev.),  May  17. — Wonder,  the  promising  mining  camp  in 
Churchill  county,  wants  a  preacher,  and  wants  one  bad.  In  fact,  the 
citizens  of  that  camp  have  sent  James  E.  Pelton  to  Reno  to  endeavor 
to  secure  a  minister  of  the  gospel  to  take  up  his  abode  at  Wonder. 
They  are  not  particular  about  the  creed,  as  long  as  he  can  say  a  few 
prayers,  sing  a  song  or  two  and  preach  a  funeral  sermon,  except  that  a 
Baptist  is  disqualified  from  the  conditions  of  the  camp.  Not  that  the 
miners  of  Wonder  have  any  particular  objection  to  a  Baptist  minister, 
but  they  doubt  if  a  preacher  of  that  denomination  could  secure  any 
converts,  and  if  he  did  he  could  not  baptise  them  according  to  the 
rules  of  his  church  when  an  ordinary  bath  costs  $21  a  head,  owing  to 
the  scarcity  of  water. 

In  speaking  of  his  mission  yesterday  Pelton  said:  "It  is  just  this 
way.  A  few  days  ago  one  of  the  boys  died  and  we  had  no  minister  to 
officiate  at  the  funeral.  I  decided  to  act  if  some  one  would  find  me  a 
prayer  book  or  Bible,  but  the  camp  was  searched  in  vain.  I  remem- 
bered the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  this  was  the  only  service  we  were  able  to 
give  our  comrade. 

"  Right  there  the  boys  of  the  camp  decided  we  must  have  a  preacher, 
and  they  have  sent  me  to  obtain  one.  Now  I  want  a  sky-pilot  who  is 
young  and  a  good  fellow,  one  who  can  handle  a  gun  if  necessary.  The 
boys  told  me  that  they  wanted  a  preacher  who  had  forgotten  how  to 
swear,  but  that  they  wouldn't  mind  if  he  drank  and  smoked  a  bit  and 
was  a  real  good  fellow. 

"Now  I  have  nothing  against  a  Baptist  minister,  but  water  for 
immersion  at  $5  a  barrel  would  sort  o  hinder  his  good  work.  Any 
kind  of  a  minister  but  a  Baptist  will  do.  We  will  pay  his  fare  to 
Wonder,  build  him  a  church  and  pay  him  a  good  salary.  He  couldn't 
ask  for  more  for  a  starter,  could  he?" 

The  same  jovirnal,  a  few  days  afterwards,  announced  that 
Wonder  had  secured  its  desired  minister. 


GLASGOW  :  PRINTED  AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS  BY  ROBERT  MACLEHOSE  AND  CO.  LTD. 


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