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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (March 20, 1904)
The Real Life of the Hindoo VILLAGK KUEL OATHERER8. " ill "' :;;:;:: ..... "M' 7 r-i'v: 7: . i TirEJT MAKE LACE AS DID THEIR GREAT-GRANDFATHERS. pi 7 A : . -tit; f fc;iL- v. 3r$ (Copyright, 1904, by William Thorp.) A""""""N American and an Anglo-Indian were watching a "dhoby" labor . lously wushing clothes at the Jff3i "fuller's ground" of an Indian ' VnrJ village. "That man," said the Anglo-Indian to his friend, "represents the antithesis of your nodal system. He lias been a washer of clothes for a thousand years. He will wash clothes for another thousand years. He Is bound down by the rigid laws of caste, and he can't rise in the world even if he wishes which he doesn't." "Hut don't such men ever leave their villages and try to get out of their groove? Aren't the boy3 ambitious?" asked the American, who remembered how every Yankee lad aspires to become president. "No," was the response. "This is the Land of No Ambition. Men work hard, but without any expectation or desire of ever being any better off than their fathers were. As you see this village today, so It was a thousand years ago, and so its in habitants were." Everybody has heard of caste In India, but few foreigners realize what caste really means. The village sweeper, who always bel ings to the pariah classes, may not even enter the houses of any of the other vil lagers. He dare not go to the public well for a drink lest he contaminate it. If he Is thirsty, he must stand afar off and wall dolefully until Bomebody takes pity on him and briners wnter to him from the well or from one of the houses. The village has a highly organized social life nnd in many ways it is distinctly so cialistic. The "dhoby," the blacksmith, the barber, the shoemaker, the sweeper and other laborers and artisans are all public servants. Each receives so much per an num from each villager, the sum usually varying according to the wealth of the In dividual. Nobody dreams of paying laundry bills. He pays the equivalent of 12 cents a year to the washerman, and gives him a handful of food now and again, besides other per quisites at weddings, births and other festi vals. This seems small pay for a year's washing, but the "dhoby" Imls another valuable privilege. He and his family can wear the clothes given them to wash, and nobody dreams of objecting. Thus they are always gaily clad one week In the bor rowed plumes of Ram Lai, the next In those of Jhaman Singh. Everything goes on In the village as It has gone on for 1,000 years or more. There are many remote villages in India in which no European hns ever set foot, and In few of them are white men seen from one year's end to the other. The potter makes his pots as he did In the days of Omar Khayyamr His simple machine has remained unaltered for 2,00 years, and he has not the slightest desire to improve It. What was good enough for his ancestors is good enough for him. He cheerfully shapes his ball of clay on a clumsy wooden wheel by tedious labor into forma of exquisite beauty, for if his tools are poor his skill is remarkable. The potters are a simple, meek folk. They never quarrel, and do not even Insist on payment for their goods if the customer bullies them. "As simple as a potter" und "As mild as a potter" are common sayings. It is curious how every man's character in India seems to bo determined by his occupa tion. Bricklayers are always active and energetic; swineherders lazy and immoral; shoemakers poor, ignorant and despised; goldsmiths clever and plausible rogues, and blacksmiths gossips of the llrst water. Carpenters have usually a turn for poetry, and many of the greatest poets of India have come from their class. But the village does not rely upon such amateur talent. It always supports a pro fessional poet of its own. Poetry Is in grained in the Hindoo nature. Even the schoolboys are taught to recite and coin VMM poems before they can spell words of three syllables, and tho very beggars solicit alms with harps in their hands and songs upon their lips. Like most poets elsewhere, the village bard Is usually a poor man; but lie is never in actual need. When he wants a meal ho hitches up his I'egasus and goes to some rich villager a goldsmith or bazar man with a new poem in praise of the patron's wife or house. He is always rewarded with ns much food as ho can eat, and, perhaps, n few annas as well. Ho has no trouble with publishers, no weary waiting to see his books in print. Whenever anything happens in the village he Is always on hand with a few appropriate verses, and always welcome. There is much rivalry and Jealousy among neighboring villages as to the merits of their respective poets, und at certain festi vals during the year they assemble together for a literary tournament. Every Hindoo rajah or "zamlndar" (rich land owner) keeps his own luureute, to whom he some times gives large estates and tho rents or taxes of whole villages. Altogether, the poet's lines are cast in pleasant places In India. These village bnrds let their fancy run riot in a bewildering maze of Oriental imagery, and there is no limit to their capacity for flattery. This is tho kind of poem they compose for the rustic Romeo who wants to charm the ear of his well beloved: "O Lali! Thou art sweeter than the honey and more graceful than the deer; I faint and die for thy love! "O, thou dove! O, thou swan! In still waters I see thy face, in the night wind through the feathery bamboos I hear thy voice, and the gloom of my thoughts goes from me. "Thy words are as drops of honey, nnd thy voice is as the voice of the 'kull' (tho Indian nightingale). When thou walkest before me thou art beautiful as the spread ing peacock. "O Lali! O beloved! Thy forehead is as the new moon, and thy face like the rising sun for glory!" So the lovesick swain goes on for half an hour, enumerating the beauties and graces of every purt of her body and every trait of her character. When ho is quite certain he has left nothing out, he gets down to business. "O Lali! I can give five bracelets of fine silver, two bullocks and three donkeys as the price for thee. I will work for thee and for thy father and mother, and all thy house, forever." Negotiations with the father ensue, and Jf the terms are satisfactory, the marriage is arranged. The young people cannot marry out of their caBte and rank in life without becoming outcasts. If tho man is a "dhoby" washerman he must wed a washerwoman, the daughter of a "dhoby." And they have both descended from a countless line of "dhoby" ancestors. It Is the same with the barber, the potter, tho farmer, and all the other trades and pro fessions. Love-making in the "dhoby" class is con ducted In a curious way. The young people meet at the river or at the "fuller's ground" where they wash the clothes, nnd fall In love. They may not speak directly to one another, but they ping love songs, In which they enumerate the other's vir tues and graces and express their own feelings. Here are two of these songs, as they were taken down by Ilabu I'andlan, an educated Hindoo: She: "O, thou young man, black as oil, sweet as sugar cane, I cannot ever forget thy face. Whenever I think of thee. I be come useless to do the work of my parents. Thy love makes me uneasy in the day and restless In the night. My mother hns prom ise.! to rive me the young and beautiful colt as roy dowry, and my father has prom ised tna the right of washing tho clothes of the whole village when h gets old and helpless, for I am the only daughter to my thor. I Raw thy footprint and the foot int of thy black donkey, and my heart was glad. When will tho day co-mo In which I may get a handful of betelnuts from thy hands?" (This is a marrlago lite.) He: "O, swan! O, dove! Thy love kills me. I can give my four donkeys as a price for thee. 1 will work for thy father and for thee nil the days of my life. If I have thee In my house there is no need for a light. O, thou dove! show me thy face in the waters by my sldo to remove the gloom of my thoughts." This seems fairly direct courtship, but as a matter of fact, the lovesick young sters have not spoken to one another. They have sung with an nlr of careful detach ment and there is nothing on the surface to show to whom the songs referred. Hut their parents notice thtir mutual nffect'oii, and if the match is a satisfactory one, arrange for them to be run ri lid and set up in the profession of village "dhobles"" The choice upn to the young man and maiden Is narrowed by the strict rule of caste, and narrowed still further by til's fact that the vast niajoiity of the people of India seldom, or never, travel beyt.nd the village In which they nro born. Tlicy must choose strictly within their own class in their own village, or In one of tho villages close by. Iiul, indeed, the chol.o Is usually made for them. In porno cutoi It Is made by their pirents in their In fancy. As a rule, the iholce is cheerfully accepted and the marriage Is a happy one. "We grow up to think that such a one belongs to us," an Indian village girl ex plained to nn English woman known tj the writer. "We take the relationship ai you take your brothers und your sisters. You do not choose them, but you do not therefore hate them." The village is not without its umuse ments. They nre cheip and l Icntiful und life need never be dull. There aro no trav eling circuses, but in the summer time after the harvests are garnered und the hardest work of the yeir Is riouo an Itin erant dramatic company Is pretty sure to visit the villagers. The worst of Amer ican barnstormers would disown profes sional kinship with the.-ie half-nakoJ, 111. fed, oil-smeared Thespians, but often their acting has great force and pathoi. Tho repertoire gives them little trouble, and there uro no royalties to pay, for tilnety nlne out of a hundred of these companies perform only tho two famous classical dramas, "Harlshandra" and Markanda." The villagers know the stories by heart, but they weep for the twentieth time over the sorrows of Queen C'handramadl, a Hindoo Nlobe, and watch with f ated breath the struggle between Siva and tho Angel of Death for the beautiful young Mar kanda. No charge is made for the entertainment, but ut the close of the performance a cloth Is opened on which the villagers thro money, according to their means. As ouch coin is thrown, one of the actors calls out the name of the donor and wlhes a bless ing on his or her head. Naturally, thut Stimulates generosity. Then, too, there are dances and concerts In the moonlight, nrrunged by bands of young men who correspond, somewhat, to the "waits" on Christmas eve. They choose a leader, who trains them carefully in danc ing and in singing interminable sm gs, usu ally taken from those groat lndim epics, the "Ramuyatm" and tho "Mahabaraa." After they aro perfect, they parade tho village, dancing and singing, on some mo n llght night. Their great aim is to attract the admiration of the girls; nnd they Hre Just ns vain as any of the amateur actors of western civilization. There are cock-fights and bull-fights nnd rum-fights, foitune tellers nnd astrologers, wrestling matche.i and games which closely resemble cricket, foothull and quarter-staff. The villagers of Southern India are keen tportrmen, who never lose a chance of hunting hogs, deer, elephants and even tigers. Tho poorest dweller In the forest and mountain villages, where game is plea tiful, owns a dog and a spear. There ure in braver hunters than soma of llicsc poor peasants. Many of them will face a man-eating tiger with nothing but a spear or a bow, and slay him or bo slain. "I have seen an Indian villager actually wrestle with a tiger," suld a native mis sionary who has traveled widely in South ern India. "The left hand of the man was In tho mouth of the tiger, and the rlnht leg of the beast was round the back of tho man, while the man, with his rlht hind, was lifting the upper Jaw of the tiger. The tiger tried his best to extiliate his upper Jaw, but the man held on grimly un til another hunter came up with his gun nnd shot tho heart." Every Indian village has Its school, and tho lot of the pupils is a hard one. Iet no American boy complain of his school hours. Tho Hindoo youngster goes to school at 8 o'clock In tho morning, works at his les sons for a couple of hours, ami then goes) home to breakfast. He goes back to school at nine, studies until noon, has two hours for tho midday meal, and then works until 6 In the evening. Ills "home lessons" take him nn hour each evening, and he has to bring a note to school next morning to show that ho uclually spent that time over them. There are no long vacations, but single holidays are frequent. They, are given on all Hindoo festivals, which are numerous, ut tho new mo mi and the full moon, and whenever a new buy enters the schisil. Tho punishments given to tho hoys are very severe, und even barbarous. Sometimes they nre hung up by the hands, or farced to Stand for hours on one leg. Hindoo schoolboys are mischievous, like schoolboys nil the world over. Their favor Ito trick Is to hide thorns In the palm-leaf mat on which thiir teacher Is wont to take his afternoon n ip. The villagers are the most charitable of oople. They take the keenest pleasure in giving arms to the secular beggars nnd religious mendicants who swarm all over India. Kveiy village maintain:! a "chatl ram," or public Inn, ul which all comers receive free board and lodging. Charity Is ungrudging; it is a privilege to give, not nn unpleasant obllgat'on. The beggar does not cringe or Implore. "Give and acquire merit," ho imperiously demands. Ho is doing you a favor by helping you on the path to salvation, und lie thinks you ought to be much obliged to him. The village government Is presided over by the "munslf," a kind of Justice of the peace appointed by tho lirltish government, and by the village accountant, whose office Is hereditary. It does not mutter whether the latter has a head for llgiires, so long ns he is the son of his father. These two ofllclals are apt to lie petty tyrants, who seize every opportunity for "graft." Hut their iiv.ers are circumscribed by the "pnnchayet." or court or urbltratlon, which is comoscd of village elders elected by the Inhabitants. This putrlarchal tri bunal decides nil family disputes und most of the petty civil und criminal cases. Does a man fall to pay his debts or lient his wife, or neglect to support his mother, or maliciously damage an enemy's prop erty, or sneer at n not her man's gods he has to reckon with the "panchayet." Di vorces are granted by that court with a celerity nnd nonchalance unequaled even in South Dakota. WILLIAM THORP. The Lctlucc Habit Medical Talk declares that lettuce eaten once a day will Insure Immunity from scurvy, smallpox and all scorbutic dis eases, and that patients suffering from aueh diseases will recover promptly and surely if given lettuce to eat. Whether used as a prevention or a remedy, the pre scription Is not a difficult or expeni-lve one to fill. Hot-house culture makes it pi &lbl to eat lettuce every day In the year If one desires it, and It Is said that a taste can be acquired for It that will render it as es sential to the daily bill of fare a bread iUclf.