Far Off; Or, Asia and Australia Described: With Anecdotes and IllustrationsMortimer, Favell Lee
Religion
Far Off; Or, Asia and Australia Described: With Anecdotes and Illustrations
Mortimer, Favell Lee
Asia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Description and travel
What a confused noise do you hear as you pass along! barking, whining,
and squalling, loud laughing, and incessant chattering. It is a heathen
village, and the sweet notes of praise to God are never sung there.
Yet in every village there is a little temple with an idol, and a priest
to take the idol, to lay it down to sleep, and to offer it food, which he
eats himself.
The poor people bring the food for the idol with flowers, and place it at
the door of the temple.
APPEARANCE.--The Hindoos are pleasing in their appearance, for their
features are well-formed, their teeth are white, and their eyes have a
soft expression. The women take much pains to dress their long black
hair, which is soft as silk: they gather it up in a knot at their heads,
and crown it with flowers. They have no occasion for a needle to make
their dresses, as they are all in one piece. They wind a long strip of
white muslin (called a saree) round their bodies, and fold it over their
heads like a veil, and then they are full dressed, except their
ornaments, and with these they load themselves; glass rings of different
colors on their arms, silver rings on their fingers and toes, and gold
rings in their ears, and a gold ring in their nose.
The men wear a long strip of calico twisted closely round their bodies,
and another thrown loosely over their shoulders; but this last they cast
off when they are at work: it is their upper garment. On their heads they
wear turbans, and on their feet sandals. The clothes of both men and
women are generally white or pink, or white bordered with red.
FOOD.--The most common food is rice; and with this curry is often mixed
to give it a relish. What is curry? It is a mixture of herbs, spices, and
oil.
Very poor people cannot afford to eat either rice or curry; and they eat
some coarse grain instead. A lady who made a feast for the poor provided
nothing but rice, and she found that it was thought as good as roast
beef and plum pudding are thought in England. The day after the feast
some of the poor creatures came to pick up the grains of rice that were
fallen upon the ground.
The rich Hindoos eat mutton and venison, but not beef; this they think it
wicked to eat, because they worship bulls and cows.
A favorite food is clarified butter, called "ghee," white rancid stuff,
kept in skin bottles to mix with curry.
Water is the general drink, and there could not be a better. Yet there
are intoxicating drinks, and some of the Hindoos have learned to love
them, from seeing the English drink too much. What a sad thing that
Christians should set a bad example to heathens!
PRODUCTIONS.--There are many beautiful trees in India never seen in
England, and many nice fruits never tasted here.
The palm-tree, with its immense leaves, is the glory of India. These
leaves are very useful; they form the roof, the umbrella, the bed, the
plate, and the writing-paper of the Hindoo.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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