From ‘With Cyclists around the world’ by Adi B Hakim, Jal P Bapasola, Rustom B Bhumgara

 

(circumnavigating the world on bicycles from 15 October 1923 to 18 March 1928)

There is a saying current about Multan ……Dust, heat, beggars and cemeteries are the four specialities of Multan.

 

……….mountainous territory of British Baluchistan. It is bounded on the north by Afghanistan and by Persia on the west. The whole country is rocky and barren as if condemned to eternal sterility. The mountains in the district provide unique fastnesses to the tribes of dacoits and marauders who infest them with impunity. With insecurity of life and property, it is not surprising that this district is economically poor and otherwise backward. Pax Britannica is almost unknown beyond a radius of 20 miles from Quetta, the capital. Civilization has scarcely encroached upon this region. Law is honoured more in breach than in obedience. The sturdy race in this territory is a race of born-fighters. Accustomed to fight for life at every moment of their existence, the law of survival of the fittest seems to have asserted itself here completely…….We had three enemies to contend within the course of our travel through Baluchistan – mountains, marauders, and intense cold.

 

……….every inspection bungalow throughout the wild Baluchistan has some tale of its own to tell. Almost all of them were scenes of murder some time or the other. Inspection bungalows furnished little security against the ferocity of the Baluchi dacoits….. Cattle-lifting – horses included – was an art in which the Baluchi thief, through continuous practice, had acquired singular perfection. Horse stables, therefore, were a standing invitation to the Baluchi brigand to try his technique and passing a night in this stable was simply inviting otherwise avoidable trouble.

 

Flesh and blood indeed seems very cheap in this semi-barbarous region of Baluchistan. Curious customs and beliefs that cause us to shudder prevail in this country. Even the sacred institution of marriage is reduced to a form of trafficking in women. The average price of a bride varies from Rs 500 to Rs 2000, according to the beauty of the bride. Divorce is easy and cheap, if not free. The husband who feels ‘fed up’ with his wife has only to leave her again at her father’s place. Nor does her father look upon this as a necessary evil. The divorce is a source of income to him. The divorced daughter is put up for auction. The suitor who bids the highest gets the girl. When he in his turn finds that the charm of novelty has vanished, he divorces her; once again the poor wife is auctioned. Each additional divorce enhances the price of the poor creature.

The ties of filial affection are scarcely visible here. Just as the father without compunction auctions the daughter, so is the son anxious to hear about the death of his father. No sooner his ‘old man’ dies than the son, the heir and legal representative , inherits everything, including his mother.

 

At Kachhar we find the Pathans of the Kachhar tribes who are a ferocious race with devilish features. Some of these Kachhar tribes are religious fanatics. They believe in the attainment of heaven through the murder of kafirs or infidels, all persons not professing their faith are considered infidels……..

 

…..Ziarat, a summer resort for well-to-do and nothing-to-do inhabitants of Quetta.

 

……mode of life in Baluchistan…..a man according to the Mohammedan law is entitled to marry four wives, but many of the important preliminaries of the marriage are gone through by proxy…….the bridegroom…..a pawn in the game. The bridegroom is neither consulted in the choice of the bride nor as a rule does he see his bride before the betrothal ceremony…….the father of the bride is always careful to receive half the portion of the selling price of the bride strictly in advance before the betrothal. After the ceremony, the bridegroom is permitted to visit his fiancée; as a rule he does not wait for his marriage for the enjoyment of marital privileges. It is a peculiar custom in these regions and is not regarded as immorality. Only on payment of the full price, or whatever you may choose to call it, is the date for the marriage fixed……. In the event of the death of the bride before the marriage or nikah, half the price paid is refunded to the bridegroom.

The main tribes in Baluchistan are Kakars, Khetrans, Musa Khels, Dumars, Tarins, Saiyads, and Lunis. The masses live in villages of usual Pathan style – mud houses piled up in clusters without the remotest thought to plans and architectural designs. There is prevalent amongst the masses another curious custom relating to hospitality, which fortunately now is fast disappearing. The members of the Sazar Khels, Zakhphels, Dumars, and Pachis tribes consider it an obligation of hospitality to permit a grown-up girl of the family to associate with their guests for the satisfaction of his grosser self. The pernicious conservatism in this respect is so deep-rooted that in the absence of a suitable girl or woman in the family the host procures a girl from his relatives or friends by way of a loan……we may mention here that from the information we derived from various sources we found this crude notion of hospitality was confined to a few tribes only, though many of them have now begun to realize the perverted mentality underlying this custom………….the way in which …..food is prepared is equally remarkable. There is a proverb amongst the Persians something to the effect that it would be wise for a man not to see the place where his food is cooked……We had a peep at the cuisine of a host of ours………..usual procedure is to kindle a fire using the dried excreta of goats and other animals. The dough is then spread out on a hot stone and without much precaution the stone is shoved into the fire; thus particles of the excretion stick to the bread …..

 

Quetta is in many respects a pleasant city. Situated at an altitude of 5,500 ft above the sea level, it has a salubrious climate except perhaps in winter, when the barometer often registers a fall below the freezing point………it has a pleasant summer and a picturesque springtime. The winter is at times exceptionally severe.

 

Generally the roads in Persia are as safe as roads in any country in the West.

 

The Persians are a very polite nation and very well known for their hospitality………The Persians have a high opinion about the Parsi community in India. They imagine that every Parsi who comes to Persia comes for floating a company or undertaking some other commercial enterprise…….. women in Persia very seldom move out without their purdah or veil. This dates back to the times of lawlessness and disorder once prevalent in Persia, when men carried both their lives and their wives in hand. Nobody’s pretty sister or wife was ever safe from the rapacious attention of the highway marauder or what was as bad as that being, the licentious officials of the town. Though the causes that led to the adoption of the purdah system have largely disappeared, the purdah still remains. With certain orthodox Persians the system of purdah is so rigidly observed that none, save the husband, is permitted to lift the veil off the face of the woman.

 

…..Baghdad…..A large number of Hindus and Mohammedans are seen here engaged in government or railway services though now a days the Indian is ousted and way made for the local inhabitants.

 

Cairo, the Egyptian metropolis was humming with throng and activities. The honk of the cars, the hum of the tramcars, the creeking of the cart wheels, the none too polite language of the hack-victoria driver when he finds his progress impeded, the brawls at toddy shops – all vest Cairo with a marked resemblance to Bombay.

 

Our journey from Brindisi to Naples………it totally destroyed the high opinion we held about European countries in general. The roads were bad, houses awful and the people dirty. Little urchins ran about streets as if they were nobody’s children. They wore tattered clothes that bore blots and patches of grease, dirt, soot, mud and everything, and wherefrom a stench of the most unbearable type ensued. No doubt the poverty of the Italian peasants is one reason for the wretched state of existence and social backwardness they are found in. But every allowance being made for economic backwardness one feels a conclusion would hardly be inevitable that the people of Southern Italy as a rule prefer to wear unclean attires to decent ones….. The hotels [in Italy] were little better than the serais of Persia. Both harboured teeming colonies of all imaginable types of vermin; both were receptacles for filth, ire, refuse and all that nobody in the town seemed to need.

The less we refer to the costumes of the Southern Italian peasants the better for your appetite. …..the necktie, which always seemed to have served more than one owner and which invariably was the dirtiest piece in their dirty attire…….The manners of the Italian peasant are none too winning. At times while we were seated at our meals, some rustic would occupy a chair at the same table, pushing our chairs aside without the least courtesy of politely asking us to make room for him. Some other rustic, not content with such rude intrusion, would seek to converse with us – not politely asking permission to introduce himself, but rudely knocking the toes of his feet against ours. Then he would ask us from what country we came and without waiting for a reply ask us if we were Americans or Belgians, Germans, Austrians, or inhabitants of any country which found a place within his limited geography……We were much pestered by the idly curious people.

 

When we used to talk French we were mistaken for the Frenchmen. When we corrected the error saying we came from India, we could perceive a vacant gaze on their faces. Evidently the peasant of Italy does not know where India is or whether India is an island or a lake or a small town or a continent!

The houses tenanted by such a people could not be very attractive. The streets were narrow, dirty and ill-drained. The rows of houses were not regular, some houses starting forward, others receding backward, some tottering, some leaning against a neighbourhood tenement as if for support, some damaged, many lacking repairs and all dirt. Many streets were nothing short of a maze of dirty squalid buildings, with unwholesome smell steaming from the surface, swarming with half-nude urchins and ‘whole worlds of dirty people.’

On the first day of our journey from Brindisi we covered 60 miles. There was not a signboard or a milestone to tell us the distance. …..with the roads getting worse and worse.

 

There is a proverb ‘see Naples and die.’ We have seen Naples and we do not understand what the proverb means. There is not much to be seen in the city itself though the environments are interesting, historically.

 

As George-Stillman Hillard says, ‘By day the Coliseum is an impressive fact; by night it is a stately vision. By day it is a lifeless form; by night a vital thought.’

 

‘The Swiss people,’ says an author, ‘are the Dutch of the mountains, the same cold, unimaginative, money-seeking, yet vigorous, determined, energetic people.’ While we came across many with a canine intelligence, always eager to knock a little dough out of the tourist, on the whole they were more cleanly, mannerly and kind than the Italians. The Swiss people follow mainly agricultural vocations and still retain their rustic simplicity.

 

The rude attire of the villagers and the poverty-striken appearance of the towns bore testimony to Austria’s departed prosperity. Austria had evidently not recovered from the setback she received in the World War and one doesn’t know how long it will take her to attain to her pre-war eminence…..Lax morality is perhaps but a necessary concomitant of dire poverty. Due to stark poverty, one finds a number of women and girls in streets, soliciting at times with a persistence that rouses at once our pity and anger. Vienna with a population of 2000,000 people ranks fourth in the list of largest cities in the continent. Vienna has all the attractions that go with the large cities…….

 

Hungary is less densely populated than Austria, as the comparatively larger distance between the villages indicates. The cultivation of the land is rude and the population poor.

 

Various writers have spoken of Holland discouragingly. Phillip II defined it as ‘the country nearest to hell.’ But out of that uninhabitable tract, the patience and perseverance of the Hollanders created a beautiful country, though artificial. Nature has denied to this land most of her blessings. Holland had miles of sand and clay and barren soil. The Hollanders imported fertile soil and made her plains smile with abundant harvest. Holland was denied iron and coal; Hollanders imported these and constructed a beautiful country. The unfavourable position of the country costs her very much. A huge army of engineers and labourers continually stand sentinel over the dikes to see that no breach is made by the enemy……

 

…..London is not the capital of England alone; it is the most important city in the world, with perhaps a rival only in New York…….display of wealth and display of poverty, display of the brilliance side by side with display of drabness. Wherever we turned out gaze we saw men, women and children…… Here west is mingled with the east, falsifying Kipling’s prophecy ‘East is East and West is West. And never the twain shall meet.’ There is the Englishman who is all silk and starch; the factory operative all black and grease; the Chinaman with his peering almond eyes; the Japanese with his high cheek bones; the Lascer with his weather-beaten face; the Arab in long robes; the Hindu Westernized but Easterner; the Persian beautiful and white; the African with curly hair and white teeth; Princes, Dukes, Earls, Counts, Lords and Knights; Chinese coffee houses, Jewish synagogues; tourists chatting; foreigners enjoying; endless miles of buses, taxis, Rolls Royces and Fords, headlamp to tail-lamp, tail-lamp to head-lamp, one undending line…….streets and miles of streets

 

In England one can be sure of anything but the weather. One does not know when the brief spell of bright weather will yield place to rains. In fact the whimsical weather is given first preference in all dialogues.

 

Iowa’s Lake District stands favourably in comparison with lake districts of Switzerland and England. In some districts there are thousands of lakes many of which make a landscape off enchanting beauty at all hours of the day. Sunsets in these regions are glorious. They reveal nature in one of her most sublime and dazzling aspects, but alas, with so few of God’s creatures to admire her.

 

……..we were promenading about some unfrequented quarter of the ship watching the billows as one bigger than the rest swept across the deck, we found several Japanese girls taking their bath in the open with not an inch of clothing. What was more, on seeing us as they exhibited neither discernment nor surprise, regarding us with total indifference. In fact, they stood enjoying their bath. Experience in Japan later on, showed us that the Japanese regards his bath as a function to be performed open to the public gaze and whether there be crowds or none, it does not make material difference to him.

 

Japan like China is a topsey-turvy land, at least as the foreigner sees it. The Japanese appear to do things in an upside-down manner. Babies are carried slung across the back and not in front in arms as we do; the baby is considered a year old on the day it is born, so that the child born on the last day of the year is reckoned two years old, the next day; their books are read commencing at the back in lines running vertical; footnotes are placed at the top and not at the bottom of the page; they build the roofs of the house first and then construct the sides; they shudder at the immodesty of the scanty dress of Miss America, but enjoy a mixed bathing with men without clothes in the same hot spring; their theatres are without seats; their drawing rooms are without chairs; their dining rooms without forks, spoons, table cloths and tumblers; belching while dining is height of good manners; the houses have paper walls; they call bed, and rest their head on a pillow of wood; their cherries have no stones; oranges no pips, and the bells have no tongues; their screws work in reverse way, their locks open the reverse way and their ships are beached stern foremost; women blacken their teeth instead of whitening them; the babies are solemn like men; and the men are like babies, simple. The Japanese are born grown-up and remain children all their lives; their cab-men are cab-horses too; and common horses are quite uncommon; the Japanese baby never washes with soap and never gets kisses; Japanese have buttons three inches long; but no button-holes; their domestic servants are honoured, and merchants are regarded as outcasts; on entering your room you take off your boots and not your hat; and if it is hot, your host removes the front of the house for your benefit; the Japanese sells his goods to pay his debts as all debts must be paid of before New Year Day so that he can start contracting debts afresh; some of their temples are more famous for the beautiful groves of cherry-trees than their Gods. The Japanese wife gives precedence to her husband; it is place aux homes for place aux dames in Japan; the Japanese on receiving a guest bows several times instead of one; and the call of a visitor extends anything from 5 to 10 hours.

 

The love of flowers is the most predominating sentiment in the Japanese race.

 

Though the Japanese house is scantily furnished it invariably bears evidence of tender loving care bestowed upon it.

 

But ‘Japan is a man’s country where women are regarded as conveniences.’ In this respect Japan is antipodes of America which is a woman’s country where men are regarded as conveniences either carrying women’s poodles or furnishing defendants in divorce suits. But in Japan the woman is an obedient slave. Ever since she was tiny mite playing shuttlecock with her next brother-baby slung across her back, she is taught obedience to father while a child, obedience to husband while a wife and obedience to a grown-up son while a mother.

 

The Japanese trader has unfortunately an evil repute. Deception is his monopoly mainly, though the rickshaw boy has made encroachments upon it.………..His vocation has endowed him with a sturdy physique. No ordinary man can draw a rickshaw for miles like a horse and yet bear a smile on his face at the end of the journey.

 

He does not take his religion very seriously. Often Japanese is both a Shintoist and a Buddhist. Buddhism has found favour in Japan as it did not preach any dogma conflicting with any principle of the Shinto religion. It is supplementary in character. The gods are common; the temples of both faiths are often found side by side and often managed by the same priests. There are very few pure Shintoists or pure Buddhists in Japan…….Broadly speaking, writes an author ‘the peasantry are rather Shintoist than Buddhist, the Samurai and town people rather Buddhist than Shintoist in their faith; while the literature are mostly indifferentists.’

 

The Koreans though in such proximity of China and Japan do not resemble either the Chinese or the Japanese in their attire or mode of life…The Koreans fume and fret at Japanese domination, not without good cause.

 

Strange as it may seem, the inhabitants of the Hermit Kingdom as a rule are exceedingly courteous to foreigners though their land has been brought into contact with the outside world in very recent times…..Koreans are a gay people when they are out to enjoy life, and if the thermometer indicated 7 degrees below the freezing point, to them it mattered little……The Koreans are courteous and realize the language difficulty of the foreigners, hence they are always eager to learn from gestures and facial expressions of their guests of honour what they desire to convey……the unfailing courtesy of the Koreans manifest itself towards the foreigner in many ways…….the average Korean is habituated to talk loudly. Talking loudly is height of good manners in Korea; Koreans have good lungs………a trait of the Korean character, which strikes even a casual observer, and that is filial devotion……….most curious in Korea is perhaps an incomprehensible tradition that sons of the noble families or the Yangban as they are called must not work for livelihood. A nobleman may beg, but working, bah, that would be below his dignity………..we felt sorry for leaving a quaint nation behind us, which displayed, in spite of all its quaintness, an innate good nature.

 

…….Manchus differ physignomically much from the Chinese of the south, being also taller and better built than the people whom they subjugated.

 

……some of the natives take pride in partaking of a special dish. This consists of little mice dipped alive in honey and eaten while yet life is not extinct from the poor creatures. If Japanese eat live fish, it is no surprise the Chinaman should go one better and take a delight in devouring live mice.

 

Though Manchuria passes off usually as a limb of mighty China, in fact it is but a separate country with a race of people essentially different from the Chinaman of the south.

 

….The blazing sun began scorching even our sheltered heads. Village after village were passed. We could not procure food anywhere. The superstitious Chinamen regarded us with considerable suspicion. Though often the villager had enough and to spare and though we exhibited our willingness to pay cash for whatever we took, we were denied any help or food. The ‘Foreign Devil’ is not a harmonious figure in the Chinese landscape…….Often we rested at places which reminded us of the Persian caravansrai. It would be difficult not to assign them a place below that of the Persian inns. White lice and mosquitoes were in abundance. At every halt quite a colony of the former would creep into our packages and would venture out in the heat of the sun and overrun our bodies……….The further southward we went, we encountered increasing resistance from the natives. Foreigners are evidently disliked by every Chinaman ……….The conflicting news of strifes and warfare had instilled in them a fear for everything that was not Chinese. At times we were mistaken for robbers.

 

Most of the railway stations along this route have been built by Germans. In fact, wherever roads have been built by them they are found to be in much better condition than those built by the British. The latter always degenerate into mule tracks.

 

In many places in China, we were mistaken on account of our clean shaven faces for Russians……….We turned to villagers for food, but they would have nothing to do with us as we were mistaken for Russians.

 

…….Shanghai …….The city has a population of over a million and a half and is composed of International Settlement, French Town and the Chinese City. Wherever the tourist goes, his eyes rest upon a serging mass of humanity that flows into tortuous and sticky streets or lies nestling in narrow dingy lanes, like caterpillars. Everywhere the vast mass of humanity seems to be moving, pale-faced, bare-breasted, eager, pressing, heedless of everything else save their own little affairs, evidently taking a grim part in the struggle for existence ……..The delicacies which the shopkeepers expose with pride and by way of advertisement, consists among other things, of varnished ducks, dogs with skins flayed, lacquered rats, decayed eggs and decomposing fruits. Hygiene does not seem to have made much progress even in a centre of civilization, like Shanghai……….There is observable in the Chinese quarter of Shanghai a civilisation quite different from that observable elsewhere, degenerating at times into monotony. As one moves from street to street, he sees the same shops, same sellers, same bloodless faces, same eager looks, same dilapidated houses, same temples and same goods. One section of the city is but a faithful duplication of the other.

 

There are many dialects in China and a Chinese of the north is as much at sea in southern China as any Englishman or Tartar.

 

Generally speaking it is futile to expect hospitality in China. But all deserts have their oasis. It seems absence of hospitality is more attributable to their superstition, ignorance, and suspicion of the foreigners than an innately bad human nature. There would seem some justification for the Chinamen taking to the foreigner with a strong aversion. In fairness to the Chinamen it should be acknowledged he never was fairly treated by the foreigner and he is a little to blame if impelled by an instinct of self-preservation, he displays hostility towards those whom he looks upon as his born enemies.

 

….we had a duck cooked. This was not the type of varnished duck left hanging for sale, in dirt and filth at a Chinese stall; but live duck slaughtered for the occasion.

 

The Chinese are industrious, gentle and pleasant people, with a philosophy of life very different from that of the West. …….is a curious mixture of child-like simplicity and cunning; of fetishes and wisdom; of superstition and commonsense……..In China everything seems topsy-turvy though the Chinese have good reasons for behaving in what seems to us an eccentric manner. You find Chinamen putting on skirts and women wearing trousers; men carry umbrellas but women carry walking-sticks; men fly kites and children just look on; the pupil says his lessons with his back turned towards the master, and not his face; it is height of bad manners to take off one’s cap in the presence of superiors or even to wear spectacles; the years are reckoned not backwards and forwards from Christian era, but with every emperor’s reign they are computed……..the Chinaman writes from bottom to top and from right to left; his novels run into scores of volumes; his alphabet has 40,000 letters or pictures which he paints with a brush; his theatres are least artistic; his dramas seem to be without beginning or end, lasting over a year at times; he eats with chopsticks; his delicacies are our emetics; men must be served first and not ladies; he shakes his own hands when he meets you and not yours; the place of honour at the dining table is on the left; his boats are towed with horses; but his field wheel-barrows may have sails; coffin is the commonest article of domestic furniture and his greatest ambition is to be buried in a ‘swell’ coffin; though monogamy is the rule, there is no shame in taking as many additional concubines as he can support; husband and wife will not sit at the same table nor can the wife be audacious enough to hang her clothes on her husband’s peg; boys of seven will be served with food separately from their sisters and women will not be reckoned often in counting the members of the family; the Chinaman takes delight in extremely long nails, and women, till recently, were made small-footed; the Chinaman carries a visiting card nine inches long; he has a ‘milk’ name, a ‘school’ name, a ‘trade’ name and a ‘degree’ name; anyone can contract a debt on the guarantee of a son; for the grandson is liable to pay his grandfather’s debts; until recently the Chinese warring armies used to stop fighting on all holidays; if it rained hard, fighting might be carried on, the soldiers holding umbrella in one hand; at night there would be no fighting………..his mourning colour is white and not black; he wails near the coffin for seven days and removes the corpse not on hygienic grounds, but on a lucky day, at the dictation of an augur; beggars like trades people have powerful guilds; Chinaman’s music is ear-splitting, the actors like barbers are regarded as social outcasts………..the honour conferred by an emperor does not descend to a Chinaman’s descendants, but ascends to as many dead ancestors as the Imperial will may dictate; the Chinaman will create noise when an eclipse occurs beating a drum to frighten away the ‘Heavenly dog’ from swallowing up the moon…….The houses of the masses are poorly built and present little idea of comfort. Usually these are mat-shed houses made of coarse woven or plaited bamboo leaves, shoved upon bamboo framework and secured rudely by fibre……… The rooms are often over-heated and always under-ventilated. There is usually a courtyard at the entrance of which we find painted monstrosities of wood or stone, designed to frighten away evil spirits. But consistently with the sense of contrariness, these horrid figures are regarded by the Chinaman as ornaments…… Wall decorations are conspicuous by their absence. Usually there is a courtyard attached to a house, but unlike the Japanese courtyard it may contain a dunghill instead of a pretty little garden. The house of upper classes of mandarins or wealthy Manchus contain numerous articles of luxury and are well-built where even a Westerner may feel quite comfortable……… sampan dwellers. China has an immense floating population, literally floating. The Yangtze, the Hoang-ho, the Canton River and many others hold millions of junks and sampans, very inconvenient little crafts, in which men and women lie huddled up in intimate proximity……..On these little sampans births, death, marriages and all important domestic events take place……. Their lot is miserable, but still they seem to be cheery and contented, and not unoften quite merry.

The Chinese have very curious social customs……..Tight-fitting clothes, which reveal the outlines of the body, are considered indecorous. The higher classes of women cover their heads with beautiful headgears; the poorer ones go bareheaded……. The wife is a household drudge, under the iron-rule of the mother-in-law. Her inferior status is symbolized by her prostration at her husband’s feet at the time of her marriage. The husband is far above the wife to eat together with her……..

 

Foot-binding though gradually dying is yet in evidence. As a rule the Chinaman takes to babies kindly, but at places a baby-tower is seen, where the unwanted baby girls are left to exposure to die. A rude, windowless and roofless structure is seen in some solitary part, with an aperture in a wall some five to six feet above the ground. Here the unfortunate offspring is placed. The next comer pushes the infant into the tower – the fall probably completing the work if not done by the exposure and starvation – and places his child there. This system has the redeeming feature of no parent being compelled to kill his own child……..

 

The most notorious is the Beggar’s Guild. This guild levies a rate upon every shopkeeper. The rate duly paid, no beggar will approach the shop. Any inclination on the part of the trader to resist the demand of the guild would be instantly visited with punishment. Horribly disfigured and diseased beggars would be let loose upon him, who will soon pester him, into submission. …………a Chinaman has no religion, three hold the field. Confucianism is really nothing more than a theory of applied ethics. Taoism is more philosophy than religion; but there is Buddhism with all its elaborate paraphernalia and four million gods. …..There are numerous joss houses, or small idol temples to which the devotee turns for prayer or relief from his worries. The devotee rings gongs and bells, and in answer a priest comes with a few papyrus rolls of which the devotee selects one at random. This roll contains the answer to the devotee’s petition to his god; the answer may be uncertain, equivocal or irrelevant. If the devotee is not satisfied with the divine reply, he pays another coin and tries his luck again, until either his purse is exhausted or he gets a reply he likes to have.

 

……when we crossed over into Indo-China we did not feel very sorry for having finished with China and the Chinese. In no country in the world we were pestered so much or ill treated to such an extent as in China. Yet we firmly believe this is more due to ignorance, illiteracy and superstition than innate evil nature; that given the light of knowledge and culture, the Chinaman may prove as good as any other human being in the world.

 

The rude savage Arab has a better ethical code than what prevails in Indo-China, a land over which the tri-coloured flag of France flies, and where liberty, equality and fraternity, mean just a regime of sham liberty, sham equality, and sham fraternity……….Indians in Indo-China are made to labour under humiliating disabilities the like of which no civilized government seeks to impose even upon a conquered race. The immigration rules are designed with a devilish ingenuity to keep Indo-China free from Indian and Chinese immigrants. Directly the Indian enters the Saigon port, his passport is confiscated and he is marched into a lock-up. If he can furnish a security, well and good. Otherwise detention is inevitable. Then follows the terrible ordeal of filling up ‘forms’ wherein the Indian immigrant is subjected to a searching cross-examination. The immigrant, no matter what his social status and position are, is asked to furnish fingerprints of all his fingers. As if this were not enough a heavy poll tax is levied for the terrible offence the Indian has committed of having been born an Indian.

 

In some places in America there are exhibited sign-boards, ‘Japs, Indians, Chinese, dogs and cats not allowed.’

 

………..entered Cambodia. When we arrived at Phnom Penh we found we had once gain to put up with humiliating Immigration rules. Fingerprints had to be given again.

 

In the jungles of Siam you do not find men to appreciate an undertaking like ours……We could not deliver lectures; there did not seem enough intelligent men worth talking to.

 

The Burmese as a race are essentially different from any of the Indian communities, showing nearer resemblance to the Chinese with the prominent flat physiognomy. Around 85 per cent of the people are Buddhists though most of them retain primitive beliefs in the Nats or spirits of forests and mountains. Burma is full of pagodas and monasteries.

 

………….Naga Hills form a sort of natural boundary between the state of Manipur and Assam.

 

……Madras Presidency. The caste system is extremely rigid and untouchability, in its most inhuman forms is common here……In matters of caste system they are extremely rigid and orthodox.

 

The Mysore Palace of the maharaja is the outstanding feature of this old capital. Silver doors give you entrance to the main building. There is an armoury in the palace which is particularly interesting……It contains the sword of Sultan Tipu, and the wag-nakh or tiger’s claws alleged to have been used by Shivaji.