Across India; Or, Live Boys in the Far East

by Oliver Optic

  CHAPTER XVIII

  A SNAKY SPECTACLE IN BOMBAY

  On the way to the temple the carriages stopped at a horse bazaar, in whichMr. Woolridge was especially interested, for some very fine animals were tobe seen, including some choice Arabians. They were looked over and admiredby the party. The best of them were valued at from six hundred to twelvehundred dollars; and the cheapest were hardly less than two hundreddollars. None but the wealthiest people of the city could afford to rideafter these animals.

  Around these stables were numerous cafes, and a collection of people ofvarious nationalities were gathered in front and within them. Arabs,negroes, Bedouins, and others were consuming spicy drinks; a group ofPersians in picturesque costumes were regaling themselves with greatdough-balls, made of flour, sugar, and milk; and dirty visitors from Cabulwere feeding themselves on dates.

  Still in the Black Town, the carriages stopped at the Chinese Bazaar,though the tourists did not alight. It extended to the shore of the bay,and was crowded with all sorts of people. On the quays were no end ofAsiatic goods, mostly of the coarser kind,--the horns of cattle, tortoiseshells, elephants' tusks, and bags of pepper, spices, and coffee.

  "This looks like Constantinople," said Miss Blanche, as four big coolies,bearing a large box of goods suspended from a pole resting on theirshoulders, passed them, struggling under the burden they bore.

  "Oriental customs are much the same wherever you find them," replied SirModava.

  "But if they had a hand-truck, such as they use in the stores of ourcountry, they could do their work with far less labor," suggested Scott.

  "Those coolies would not use them," added the Hindu gentleman. "I have seenthem in London, and these laborers would regard them as an invention of theEvil One to lead them away from their religion."

  Parsees and other merchants were circulating in the crowd, making notes ofthe prices; and the great variety of representatives of different countrieswas surprising to the visitors. Not far from this bazaar is the greatmosque of the Mohammedans. After all the magnificent buildings of this kindthe party had visited in Turkey, Egypt, and Algeria, it was not a greatattraction. It was not to be compared with many mosques they had seen. Asusual, the party were invited to remove their shoes, though the sighthardly paid for the trouble. The scene was the same as in others of thekind. A venerable Moollah was expounding the Koran to a group of truebelievers.

  His audience were all seated on the pavement, and they seemed to be givingexcellent attention to the discourse. Sir Modava explained that theMohammedans of Bombay were more orthodox, or strict, in the observance ofthe requirements of their religion than in Bengal; for a considerableproportion are direct descendants from the original stock who had emigratedto India from Persia. They are bitterly opposed to the Hindus, and aserious riot had occurred not long before.

  There are many Hindu temples in Bombay, though not many of them areaccessible to strangers; but the party drove to one in the Black Town. Ithad a low dome and a pyramidal spire. Both of them were of the Indian styleof architecture, very elaborate in ornamentation. It looked like a hugemass of filigree work.

  The visitors next found themselves at Girgaum, which is a forest ofcocoanut-trees extending from the Bazaars to Chowpatti, at the head of theBack Bay. Among the trees, as the carriages proceeded along the Queen'sRoad, they found a great number of Hindu huts, half hidden in the densefoliage. They paused to look at one of them.

  The walls were of bamboo and other tropical woods, and the roof wasthatched with cocoanut leaves, which required poles to keep them in place.It had several doors, and cross-latticed windows. There was no particularshape to the structure, and certainly nothing of neatness or comelinessabout it. A large banana tree grew near it; a woman stood at one of thedoors, staring with wonder at the strangers, and a couple of half-nakedcoolies were at work farther away. The morality of the residents of thissection could not be commended.

  "In the evening this grove is lighted up with colored lamps," said theviscount. "Taverns and small cafes are in full blast, the sounds of musicare heard, and a grand revel is in progress. Europeans, Malays, Arabs,Chinese, and Hindus frequent the grove. Far into the night this debaucherycontinues, and I trust the authorities will soon clean it out."

  The carriages continued on their way to Malabar Hill, and made a thoroughsurvey of the locality. At the southerly point they came to the village ofWalkeshwar, whose pagoda-like towers they had seen from the ship, filledwith residences, though not of the magnates of the city. Most of thebuildings here were very plain. The hill is not a high one, but along itssides the elaborate bungalows of the merchants and others were erected, allof them with fine gardens surrounding them.

  Breach Candy, on the seashore, in front of Cumballa Hill, is the mostaristocratic neighborhood, and contains the finest mansions. Tramways,which is the English name for horse-cars, extend to this locality, as wellas to most other important parts of the city; and there is a station on thesteam railroad near it, though most of the wealthy residents ride back andforth in their own carriages.

  The Tower of Silence, in which the Parsees expose their dead to be devouredby birds of prey, was pointed out to them. No one but the priests areallowed to enter it; and the relatives leave the body at the door, fromwhich they take it into the building. It is placed between two grates,which allow the vultures to tear off the flesh, but not to carry off thelimbs. It made the Americans shudder when their guides told them about itmore in detail than when it was described in the lecture.

  Passing by the cemeteries of the English and the Mussulmans on their returnto the city, they halted at the Hindu Burning-Ground, on the shore of theBack Bay. Here the natives are burned to ashes. For some distance they hadnoticed funeral processions on their way to this place. The remains areborne on open litters. A granite platform is the base of the funeral pyre,and the bodies wait their turn to be reduced to ashes; and the cremation isfar more repulsive than that in our own country.

  Dealers in wood for the combustion sell the article to the relatives. Someof them are cutting up fuel and arranging the pyre, while others seated onthe walls play a lugubrious strain on the native instruments. The disposalof the body of an old man was in process while the tourists looked on; andthe corpse was placed on the pile, the friends covering it with bits ofwood till it was no longer in sight.

  Then the eldest son came to the scene, howling his grief and beating hisbreast. Grasping a torch prepared for him, he set fire to the corners ofthe pile that covered the remains. The flames rose high in the air, and theattendants fed the fire by throwing on oil. Soon the body reappears, ablazing mass, which is soon reduced to ashes. Water is then thrown on thepyre, and a portion of the ashes cast into the sea.

  There is nothing very repulsive in the rite of burning the dead; though thevisitors had some difficulty in keeping out of the reach of the foul smoke,which brought with it a disagreeable odor. The carriages continued on theirway to the city; and when they entered a street, Lord Tremlyn called theattention of those with him to a couple of native women who had stopped tolook at them, for the party excited no little curiosity wherever they went.It had become known by this time that a dozen American ladies and gentlemenwere circulating through the place, engaged in sight-seeing.

  They had comely features of a brownish hue, and were dressed in the looserobes of the country, reaching to the ground; one of the garments extendedto cover the head, though not the face. Both of them wore heavy goldbangles on their arms, but both were barefoot.

  "They are not Mohammedans," suggested Mrs. Woolridge.

  "They may be for aught I know," replied his lordship. "The women of thissect here do not veil their faces as a rule."

  "They are quite good-looking," added the New York magnate. "What caste orclass do they belong to?"

  "I should say they were in the Vaisya caste, agriculture and trade. Theyare well dressed, and therefore not Sudra. Probably they are the wife andd
aughter of a shopkeeper.

  "What is this crowd in the square?" asked Morris, who had been lookingabout him.

  "We will drive over there and see," replied the viscount as he directed thecoachman.

  "Festival of Serpents," said the driver through the window.

  "You have an opportunity to see one of the sights of Bombay; but we shallbe obliged to leave the carriages, for it is a great performance, and therewill be a large crowd." They alighted at a convenient place, and movedtowards the square. The ladies were in doubt as to whether or not theycared to see such an exhibition; but the three gentlemen who wereaccustomed to them declared that there was no danger.

  "This affair is in the nature of a religious festival," said Sir Modava."There are scores of snakes brought before you; but they have had theirpoison fangs extracted, and they could not harm you much more than aplayful kitten. This is a day appointed to make prayers and offerings tothe snakes, in order to conciliate them and to insure immunity from theirbites. Though these occasions occur all over India, I don't believe thereis a single bite the less for them."

  "It is the anniversary of the killing of the great serpent Bindrabund,which was creating terrible havoc on the shores of the river Jumna, anevent in Hindu mythology, which is as true as any mythology," added LordTremlyn. "You observe that it calls together a great crowd of people of allclasses, and you see fat Brahmin ladies here in palanquins, very richlydressed, and looking as sweet as sugar. You notice the rich standards andthe torches, the trumpeters, and the girls playing on tom-toms and cymbals.But we must get nearer to the centre of the show."

  "Not too near," pleaded Mrs. Woolridge.

  The crowd opened for the sahibs and the ladies, treating them with theutmost deference, as though they were superior beings; and they obtained aposition where they could see the entire performance. A group of_sapwallahs_, or serpent-charmers, each bearing a basket about fifteeninches in diameter at the bottom, but not more than ten at the top, eachcontaining several cobras, marched into the centre of the crowd. PiousHindus brought forward bowls of the milk of buffaloes, of which theserpents are very fond, and placed them on the ground. The snakes werereleased from their confinement, and they made for the bowls of milkwithout any delay.

  Some of the tourists had never seen a cobra, though they are found inEgypt. The ladies shrank back when they appeared, and some of themshuddered at the sight of the reptiles. The body was somewhat enlarged nearthe head, and the spectacles could be distinctly seen in this part. Theinstruments played, the standards and the torches were waved; but thesnakes continued their milk feast undisturbed.

  The principal _sapwallah_ had a wand in his hand, which he flourishedwhile he repeated a volume of gibberish which none of the party but SirModava could understand. When Mrs. Belgrave asked what he said; he repliedthat he was uttering invocations to the serpents, and entreating the wholetribe of snakes not to bite the people.

  One of the _sapwallahs_, who wore nothing but a turban on his head anda fringed cloth about his loins, went to one of the bowls from which half adozen cobras were feeding, and taking hold of one of them, pulled him awayfrom the milk. The serpent thus treated was furious with anger, andinstantly opened out his hood, showing the spectacles in full. Anothercobra was put in his place at the bowl, and his persecutor sat down on theground with him, fooling with him as though he had been a kitten or a petdog.

  In turn the snakes remaining in the baskets were released, and allowed tofeast on the milk as others were removed. There was a great crowd of_sapwallahs_ in charge of them, and none of them were permitted toescape. The reptiles showed their temper as they were taken from the milkby spreading their hoods; but they were so skilfully manipulated that theyhad no chance to bite.

  "I think I have had enough of this thing," said Mr. Woolridge, with a lookof disgust on his face. "There is no fun at all in it, and I should like tomake them a target for my revolver."

  "It is about time for tiffin, and we had better return to the hotel," addedLord Tremlyn. "I shall keep you busy this afternoon; and while you areresting you shall take in a Nautch dance, which is one of the institutionsof this country. After that we shall go to the island of Elephanta."

  The live boys of the party were rather pleased with the spectacle, thoughthey had had enough of it; while the ladies, whose flesh had been"crawling" at the uncanny sight, were glad to escape. They all reached thehotel, and were hungry enough after the long jaunt of the forenoon toappreciate the "tiffin."