CHAPTER XVII

BOMBAY TO CEYLON'S ISLE

Oh, for the trail, wherever it may lead,
From small credulity to larger creed,

Till we behold this world without detraction
As God did seven times with satisfaction.

BLISS CARMAN

To the traveler who has seen as much of the real India as the foregoing pages present, Bombay will have comparatively little to offer. It is a big overgrown city of great wealth with a population approximating a million, having a greater diversity of racial types than any city in the world. One thoroughly enjoyable experience is a leisurely walk through the native city, so-called. Here may be seen specimens of every race and nation of the immemorial East: Afghans from the northern frontier; Persians from the Gulf; black, shaggy Beluchis; Arabs from Mucsat; Zanzibar negroes, Malays, Chinese, Jews, Lascars, in addition to the Parsees who, by reason of their great wealth and ability, control the city financially. Special mention might be made of the Arab horse mart in the Bhendi Bazaar, which is worth an early morning visit. Here you may see some of the finest bred horses in the Orient, including the picturesque Arabs who bring them to Bombay for sale. After a drive to Malabar Hill which includes the residential section, there remain but two points worthy of serious consideration: the Parsee Towers of Silence and the Island of Elephanta.

The Parsees, as a people, are more interesting than anything else in Bombay. They are descended from the ancient Persians who emigrated to India in the eighth century.

You'll recognize them on the street, with their long cloaks, olive complexion, aquiline features, black, snappy, penetrating eyes, small black mustaches, and odd-looking, shiny turbans resembling a Derby hat minus a brim, with a retreating crown. They are good-looking, well set-up, and probably the keenest business men in the world, which latter has earned them the colloquial appellation of 'The Jews of the Orient.' Several of them have amassed great fortunes and are widely known for their great charities.

A Parsee must be born on the ground floor of the house, his religious teachings being that only through humility and a clean life can he attain any elevated position either in this world or the next. On the seventh day after birth an astrologer is called in to cast his horoscope. At the age of seven he goes through his first religious ceremony-purification by washing in cow urine, followed by his being invested with the kusti or girdle of his faith a cord of seventy-two threads representing the seventy-two chapters of the ZendAvesta, in the sanctity of which he is bound and received into the Zoroastrian religion. From that time on he is morally responsible for his own acts. Parsee funeral ceremonies are among the most characteristic feature of Bombay life. Something closely resembling extreme unction is administered to the dying man, after which an appropriate sermon is delivered by the priest. The body is then taken to the ground floor where it was born washed, perfumed, and laid on an iron bier. A dog is brought in to take a last look at his deceased master in order to drive away the evil spirits. When put on the bier, the remains are completely covered and turned over to professional pall-bearers, clad in white. A procession is formed by the male friends, headed by the priests in full dress, which proceeds to the Towers of Silence, in a beautiful garden covering several acres on the summit of Malabar Hill, the trees of which

swarm with vultures. There are five of these towers, constructed of stone, cylindrical in shape, about two hundred and seventy-five feet in circumference and twenty-five feet high. The interior is like unto a gridiron in three circular sections, separated by walls with footpaths on the top, the gratings all slanting toward the center in which is a deep well five feet in diameter. And right here is where the Parsee's religion comes in. Being practically worshiper of fire, earth, and water, he does not believe that any of those elements should be polluted by the disposition of a dead body and so he commits his dead to the vultures. Having arrived at the Towers of Silence, the cortège is joined by two bearded men who carry the remains up a flight of steps and through a small gateway in the wall upon which, in the meantime, a flock of vultures have taken their accustomed perch in anticipation of the feast. The bodies are arranged as follows: men on the outer row of gratings, women next, and children nearest the center. It takes about half an hour for the vultures to devour one body. The bones are left exposed until thoroughly dry, after which the bearded men, who are the only ones allowed to enter the enclosure, go in with tongs and cast them into the well in the center where they crumble into dust. Thus they literally fulfill one of the tenets of their belief: that both the rich and the poor must meet in death, which, so far as the observation of a Philistine like myself goes, is about the only place they ever do meet on a par. Just at the foot of the hill on which the Towers of Silence stand, there is a Parsee almshouse which will accommodate two hundred inmates. One must at least admire the efficiency of these remarkable people. There is no lost motion between the inmates of the 'Parsee Dharmasala' the reverberating name by which this institution goes - and the hearty welcome that awaits them on the hill-top after it's all over.

Fed-up with temples as you may be, you must, nevertheless, visit the Caves of Elephanta on Elephanta Island, about six miles from Bombay. It is a pleasant trip in a motor-boat- which Cook's will furnish- and you'll be glad you went. This remarkable spot was discovered about the middle of the eighth century. The term 'cave' is a trifle misleading. It consists of a series of shrines to the Hindu deity Siva that have been hewn out of the solid rock in different rooms, so to speak, of fifteen to seventeen feet in height and one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet square. These shrines are filled with heroic sculptures and carvings of great antiquity, including Siva's usual phallic trade-mark in a separate and enclosed niche. In fact, no one knows how old they are. The workmanship is unusually fine, particularly the supporting pillars of the caves, around which the excavations were made. There are but two cave temples of note in all India: Elephanta and Ellora. The chances of your seeing the latter are a bit slender as you have left them behind. Elephanta being close at hand should not be overlooked. You will doubtless have your guide-book which will give you all the necessary details impossible in a book of this character. It is a mistake to go anywhere without that invaluable help, whether it happens to be by a well-known author or a purely local product. It sometimes happens that the latter are more reliable for the reason that certain guide-books covering the Far East are written by persons who have never been there, who glean their material from a variety of sources generally close at hand. There are two excellent guides published covering India: Murray's Handbook which includes Burmah and Ceylon, and the little brochures published by Major H. A. Newell of the Indian Army, which cost but a few pennies. You can get them both at almost any of Cook's offices or at your hotel, which will probably be

either the Great Western, or the Taj Mahal, the latter having a fine outlook on the bay.

There are two different departures from Bombay west, open to the traveler: he may sail direct for the Suez Canal, or via Ceylon. If he elects the latter, he has the choice of going by steamer to Colombo or down through southern India to the very end of the peninsula by rail. We chose the latter, notwithstanding the fact that there is not a real hotel south of Madras. There are, however, thoroughly satisfactory rest-houses and dak bungalows in every city. We got along splendidly and were mighty glad we went. That portion of India from Madras south, known as the Carnatic or lowlands district, is the 'India's coral strand' of the old missionary hymn. It is the southern headquarters of the worship of Siva as Benares is of the north. The same old degenerate orgies resulting from phallic adoration are carried on here to an even greater extent than in the north.

The Dravidian architecture of the temples, and their general plan and scope, are entirely different from those of northern India, just as the Tamil or southern Hindu is an entirely different breed from his northern brother. Also, it may be said that there are exceeding few Mohammedans in the south, whereas in the north it is almost an even break between them and the Buddhists. The temples are commonly built in the middle of a quadrangle equivalent in area to several city blocks, and enclosed by walls from fifteen to twenty-five feet high, which conceal them completely from the public view, as they are never raised above it. Each outer wall has one entrance consisting of an immense pyramidal stone pylon or gateway from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet in height, known as a gopuram, on which are displayed a vast