Show THREE INDIAN RELIGIONS < tA Curiosities of Moslem larseeJ J ant d an-t Brahmin Faiths Bow the Great Festival of the Mo harrem is ObservedHorrors of hthe Tower of Silenca on Mal abar Hill Faces of the primeval Trinity of Hindustan in The Cave Temple IN THE GHAUTS JJ WESTERN INDIA Deo 1 Since I wrote from Bombay on the 1st my surroundings have undergone un-dergone a striking change decidedly for the better In one respect indeed in-deed I have been unlucky The invitations to the great festival at the Court of Baroda are already issued and I shall miss the novel pleasure of tigerbunting at Christmas with a Hindu Prince nod seeing some ol I tbe finest firework and moat picturesque pictur-esque costumes in tbe world I have not even the consolation of minutely describing all I did not see like tbe veracious correspondent in the story I But it is at least a partial atonement to escape into these grand old hills and enjoy at a height of more than 2000 feet above the sea a fresbns8 and coolness whicb makes the mere sense of existence a peasure while i the great plain of India is broiling and sweltering under a cloud of hovering hov-ering dust far below It is a curious sensation certainly to find ones self drinking coffee and eating curried fowl on the very spot which was once the centre of the Mabratta league against England end to wake up and a native bird roosting on ones table or a strapping Hindu looking down into ones unconscious face with a big tray of Assam tea and sticky cold cream like muckun butter made from buflaio milk But one may yet get used to anything in time even to hanging if the Spanish Span-ish ballad speaks truth And so be implored his parents To pray for his souls release For if they did not grant his prayer He couldnt be hanged in peace But before I go any further with my description of life in tbe Ghauta to which a Bombay officer or civilian civil-ian looks forward as eagerly during tbe scorching heat of the Eastern Summer as an overworked New Yorker to his fortnight in tbe Catskills Cats-kills or the White Mountains must turn back to a very different subject The day after my arrival in Bombay wan the commencement of tbe great Mohammedan fes ival of the Mohar i rem most sacred which lasts for ten days From whatever point of view it is one of the most painfully interesting spectacles in the world but to convey any clear idea of it tD Western readers would be simply impossible im-possible from the absoluta want of anything among ourselves with which it might be compared Possibly the famous Passion Play of OberAm mergau might present a faint shadow of it but it would be a very faint one indeed Imagine that passion play intensified a hundredfold and acted amid the burning sunshine and tropical tropi-cal richness of India imagine thousands thou-sands upon thousands of swarthy fantastically dressed men taking part in it at onceyelling and shrieking like madmen beating their breasts and lacerating their own flesh till they fall down from sheer exhaustion with distorted laces and foaming months imagine these convulsions supplemented supple-mented by the maddening din of f native drums the flutter of gay colored banners the glittering of the tinsel temples which are being borne in the nrocesaion on vary nirtR Tm I agine all ths going on for days together throughout tne whole length and breadth of India wherever any Mohammedan community exists and you are still as far as ever from a full appreciation of the tremendous eigification of thia great religions frenzy which works up its fierce disciples dis-ciples to such a pitch of fury that it is no uncommon thing for a number of them to expire from the sheer vio lence of their own transports It must be owned however bat tne story of the martyrdom which this festival commemorates might stir the blooi of a fur bolder race than the fanatical Moslems of Hindustan In the whole range of Arab tradition fertile though it ia in all the elements of tragic pathos there is nothing more touching tban the last scene of Imam Hooeein the son of Mohammeds favorite daughter Fatima and of his I fAVorite disciple AH It is not easy I to read unmoved the few simple words in which the old Moslem historian tells how the heroic chief of the Fat inv pa standing alone among the co pe of tae few who were still faith it > in b m drank his last draught of I wEr and prayed his last prayer to UOQDOW ne caught in the hollow of his hand and cast appealing toward heaven tbe lifeblood or his infant BOD mortally wounded at his side by one of the enemys thickflying arrows how the ferocious yells of the swarming murderers drowned the few voices that pleaded for the life of f their gallant enemyand how when be was at length I overpowered by numbers and his head borne away on the point of a lance many aged war more among the hostile faction wept to think that they had once Been that lifeless face pressed b7 the lips of the Prophet himself From that fatal day B rang the blood and enduring tchiem which still divides the Mohammedan world the Bbiah sectariea denouncing as im pi stares the three Caliphs who inter vetted between Mohammed and Ali the prophets sole successor according to their belief while their + nents reject AH himself uni oPPo the destruction of fcs family and approve of justice After the as an act lapse of twelve centuries the quarrel is 8 still as fierce as ever the hatred of the pith rte Mus su man toward the foreign unbeliever being as nothing compared with detestation of the Moslem ao ba schismatic It would have + gone hard with ani Suni who had been detected an the frenzied Shiahs whose arnong cYa Hooseinl 1 Ohm Hooaein howl of Oh-m ade Bombay echo last Friday inn att contrariwise the anna l + of Afghan warfare record numerous insane i of En 1i8h es English infidels being while Shiah spared sepoys were D1rcile5sly put to death by the bigoted Aunts 7f of Kabul and Kandahar Nor has toe stimulating influence of the great 5 tragedy itself been less undyng than l > i the enmity which its results have bequeathed be-queathed to after ages The military history of British India points to the Mobarrem festival as the chosen time of headlong attacks and feat of superhuman daring on the part of the fierce Moslem warriors of Hin dustan The sun baa never looked 1 down upon a more desperate battle than that worth raged around Arc of I i on the day of Inman Haoaem rnn y daybreak till long pas noon 129 years ago As each wave of furious i attack broke in vain against the granite firmness of tne defenders new thousands came rushing on till at length tbe little handful of Englishmen English-men that held the breach had scarcely a man left unwounded and one of the guns was being served by the commandant himself a sallow taciturn harshfeatured young boot keeper from Madras nicknamed Fighting Bob by his few adsoat but better known to history as L irdf Clive Side by side with the wild and clamorous excitement of f Moslem de vo ion but in tbe strangest possible contrast to it stands the gloomy and silent ritual of a faith which drove from PersiA 1200 years ago only that it might arise and live again beyond the Himalaya among the Pdrseea of Hindustan Ol all tbe wails stranded upon the shore of the present by the ebbing of toe past these descendants of the aacien tireworshipers are the most remarkable What the Jew is to Europe tbe Parsee is to AIIIIla thrifty patient skillful trader wherever J wher-ever buaiiaeea can be transacted and i profit made keen and wary in pushing push-ing any commercial advantage to the utmost while often lavishly r generous in relieving the needa of blown bl-own race with the wealth which his superior shrewdness haa wrung from 1 the alien The liberality of the wealthier Parsees has left tokens of i itself in every part ol India Their wellfurniahed houses and beautiful gardens are to be seen in every street of the fashionable quarter of Bombay It is certainly no easy matter to realize rea-lize that the portly bsnevolentlojkmg gentlemen who greet you in such irreproachable ir-reproachable English and who bays i little or nothing but their peculiar tower shaped cap to distinguish them from Europeans still uphold in il 1 its fullness me of tOg most hideous and Ica b9oms superstitions of the ancient world Such however is actually the case Haltway up the wooded ridge of Mal abar Hill as you halt on the edge of the winding road in the freshness of early morning to look down upon the sea of darkgreen foliage below and the distant towers ot Bombay standing stand-ing out sharp and clear in the growing grow-ing light over a boundless expanse of smooth bright water you suddenly see filing past you up tbe ascent a Sheri train of whiterobed figures tira ng their march to a low nunouajas dirge half chanted and half mattered mat-tered Following this strang pageant you paes through a buere white eate way up a steep slope and to the foot of a long flight of stone steps set in the hillsde But at this point you are stoppd short by two gaunt swarthy onpkiiara native policemen in dark military looking frocks and scarlet turbans whe plant themselves rigbtia your way and inform you in shrill Hindustani that this is a Parses place of burial and that no one is allowed to enter while the funeral rites an being performed Meanwhile the corpse is born slowly up the stair and as you watch its ascent you vainly endeaver to recall what you have read or heard respecting the way in which the Paraees dispose of their dead All at once you begin to notice with a vagae halfconscious feeling of horror thai the trees overhead ara literally black with kite vultures carrion crows and other ravenous birds and that these foul creatures seem to cluster moat thickly aroasd a massive white building with hags windows the upper part of which a vii + Is above the wall that surmounts toe ridge Then in one moment the ghastly truth flashes upon yoa This building is one of the hideous Towers of Silence fnr which India is famous where tbd Parse deadlala upon gratings ranged in a circe lithe li-the spokes of a wheelthe outer ring containing the bodies of men the inner those of women and the inmost those of children are devoured piecemeal piece-meal by the birds of prey that hover day and night around the ihomened spot Such is the solemnity attached to these horrible burials the the neff clothes which it is customary to gie to every one who takes part in i the funeral procession are invariably destroyed as soon as the ceremony 1J over It is even said erroneous lft one would fain hope that more than one unfortunate who had bren carried car-ried to the fatal tower in a state of trance and there discovered by b3 bearers to be still alive was m lolf put to death by them in coznoi ance with some real or fancied precept M i f their founder Zoroaster 000 Dante himself have conceived any 4 thing to surpass such a resurrection cut abort by each a death The tnrd and most ancient member 3 a j mem-ber of the curious trinity of religions which subdivides native India haa its e appropriate symbol in the celebrated a I caretemple on Elephanta Island which Hee close to the mainland r about bevcn miles from Bombay A visit to this weird old stronghold of i Brahmin euperuntution is tha fitting 7 sequel to the Mobarrem festival and the Tower of Silence but apart altogether alto-gether rom its haitorical and anti quari n importance the Elephanta 1 Lave < well deserves attention if only I 1 from tre matchless pictareequeness j of its own aspect and that of its 1 < urrGunfiing3 Just as the church r clock = of Barr bay are chiming 6 you tyke hour seat under the awning of the tiny steam launch which lilies across the bay from the foot of Apollo street aa often aa there are passengers enough on board to make it worthwhile worth-while Away you go puffing and snorting in and out of a perfect labyrinth laby-rinth of steamerB barges tug clippers clip-pers highsterned native bugga lows and small craft of every kind I including countless rowing hoata Wb1C seem to be always on tae move without eer arriving anywhere The launchs steam power is of a decidedly seatbetic kind and you oenerally take at leaat one hour to seven D miles no matter how smooth the water may be but the panorama of f one of the finest bays in the world with the quaint halftropical architecture architec-ture ol BJmbay on one side and the glorious mountain landscape of the mainland a shore on other is an ample atonement for the delay At length tbs bold ridge of Ele P Banta Iland clad from the waters edge to tbe very summit in all the splendor of tropical vegetation hangs right overhead The launch runs along side a little oausuway 01 stone just level with the water and you leap ashore at the foot of a great wall of dark glossy leave piled up terrace ter-race above terrace into the very sky The tall slender palmroyal shooting shoot-ing up straight as a lanceshaft for nearly a hundred feet and then breaking fortn into one great gush of green feathery leaves the broad leaved teak whose iron surface can defy storms and teas that would rend the stoutest oak in Britain toe graceful grace-ful fanpalm and the spreading mango man-go the fernlike leaves of the golden aiohur named from the supposed reeembitncBof its magnificent yellow flowers to the quaint old Hindu coin which is now as rare as a Russian halfimperUl the flaning poinsettia the tender green pawn the vast umbrella like leaf Joftbe banana the spiky catu9 the endless links of the spinearmed prickly pear mass themselves along tbe slope as far as the eye can reach Mounting a narrow nar-row stone stair almost hidden by the great waves of dark green foliage that surge up on either side you turn a sharp corner and come upon a tiny cluster of bamboo huts almost smothered beneath an enormouo projecting pro-jecting thatch of palm leaves Behind Be-hind these the green hillside is broken by one huge scar of bare gray rock in the midst of which supported by those low massive pillars which loom through the twilight of the great Hindu temples aa their mighty founders loom through the dimness of prehistoric ages yawns the gloomy j entrance of the famous cave itself i The sudden change from the blistering blis-tering glare of the sunshine to the black shadows of the interior is too bewildering to give you a chance of seeing anything at all for the first few momenta But gradually the outline of a colloseal face grows out of the darkness in front of youa face of stern majestic calmness grand passionless pas-sionless unchanging as the Egyptian Sphinx or the giant idols of Abu 8im bel The deep rock niche which forms the agpropriate frame of this mighty portrait leaves nothing else visible for a time but at length two other heads begin to shape themselves to right and left of tbe central image and you become aware that you are face to faob with the primeval trinity of Hindustan Brahma the Creator Vishnu the Preserver and Siva the Destroyer We talk complacently of the marvels mar-vels of civilization but what civila tion would not stand abashed in the presence of a marvel before which the whole history of Europe itself with all itq struggles and achievements shrieks into nothingness Ages before be-fore toe first sails of Western commerce com-merce had dotted the blue waters of tne Indian Ocean these shadowy monarchs sat enthroned hero in the heart of the mountain as the chosen symbol of a mighty and ancient creed upheld by countleEB millions of men Centuries upon centuries nave rolled away since that time Vast empires have flourished and fallen Toe Afghan tbe Mogul the 1 Persian the Mahratta have swept over India in successive waves of conquest con-quest The Portuguese invader has come hither in the fury of his destroy ing fanaticism as these shattered pLara and mutilated images too plainly attest The Dutchman has succeeded to the Poriugaeg0the Eng lishman to the Dutchman The bat tiethunders of Olive and Wellington the tramp of Pindarri horsemen the warshout of the Sikh and tho Mah ratta the shrieks of helpless women 1 butchered by Sepoy mutineers and Spy mutineers blown to atoms by toe avenging blast of English cannon have shaken every corner of India without breaking the rest of these dreaming giants or ruing for an instant the btony eternal calmness of their eyes And when the might i oi England herself shall in turn be trampled in the dust and the repnbr ics of Russia and America shall i i divide the world between them these mighty faces may still look down upon tbe travelers of tbe thirtieth century as they once looked down on the devotees of the first the same yeeer day today and forever But it needs only qneglmce at this rockhewn trinity of toe East to see bow thoroughly that idea of overwhelming over-whelming power untempeied by mprcy which 8 the leading l ture of Oriental history id also that 01 I Oriental religion All the beauty all the grandeur that draped toe in oieat faith of India is nut us the clustering clus-tering leaves which hide the lurking tiger Stripped of its gorgeoMa sym holism it i is bs complete and revolting revolt-ing a deification of merciless forces and lawless lusta as human superstition supersti-tion ever devised Brahma the all creationwiib his sacred cru Vishnu the ailpreserving with nia lotus flower and pomegranate are merely foils to enhance tbe tremendous prominence of the orutl f and destroying destroy-ing Siva with the dtadly cobra writhing In his bunrfa and hair and forehead Look where you will his terrible form mt eta you 1ft every turn now bringing down his eaorifinial sword upon a struggling infant now rushing a val qUIsbe j unut beneath his ponderous throne now looking duw1 horn amid his attendant dwarfa with a amile of l itssiouleta scorn upon hoagouiesjf the stricken world ibe graceful softness which halt redeemed lit wort corms of classic superstition is i wholty wanting here The dainty caytbd of Greece blossomed and faded like flowers wbich were their natural emblem while the gloomy creed of Jindusianbarren and enduring asthe eternal ocksof its native mountains has survived in a petrified immortality immortal-ity wnich has not enough of life to die Cor New York Times |