REGARDING MATTERS IN INDIA. 617 



and asks for bakshish. This fellow is succeeded by two other jug- 

 glers, who spread a cloth before you over the sand, and in some mys- 

 terious way cause a fine large branch of the mango-tree to appear, and 

 grow up under the cloth. It is a curious fact that in Egyptian his- 

 tory we read of the same trick with the lotus-tree as this with the 

 mango-tree. 



Now we come to the snake-charmers, the most wonderful race of 

 men in the whole of India. They take up a cobra, the most deadly of 

 all reptiles, and still hardly ever are bitten. There is the photograph 

 of these snake-charmers before you. The snakes are never still. The 

 poison-bag is in the roof of the mouth ; and, by certain means, this 

 bag is pressed, and the poison ejected. But, when you remember that 

 two hours is about the limit one lives after the bite of a cobra, you 

 cannot help wondering at the carelessness of these fellows. And 

 though nowadays they say that by ejecting certain alkali, ammonia, 

 or something of the kind, into the blood, the bite can be cured and the 

 poison destroyed, yet still, in the wilds of India, who would be able to 

 do this in the short space of time allowed to live after having been 

 bitten? There is one little animal alone that enjoys exemption from 

 the fearful bite of the deadly cobra. It is a favorite amusement to 

 some people to watch the struggle. They will turn a large cobra 

 loose in the room, and then immediately place a mongoose before it. 

 The mongoose instantly attacks the cobra, and a desperate fight en- 

 sues ; the cobra bites the mongoose over and over again, but the poison 

 seems not to have the slightest effect on it, and the battle will certain- 

 ly result in the death of the cobra. If the mongoose dies, it is from 

 sheer loss of blood and exhaustion, and not from the effects of the poi- 

 son, as thousands can testify. Dr. Short has held for many minutes 

 the mouth of a cobra fixed on to a mongoose, but it has got up and 

 run away, without any hurt. What peculiar antidote he possesses 

 science has not yet been able to discover. 



Having now taken a cursory view of Madras and its people, and 

 the jugglers, such as they are, we pass on to consider their religion 

 and their temples. 



First, I must tell you that the word temple does not exist in India. 

 It is merely a word imported by us. The word they use is clevila, 

 and means the house of God. A temple does not consist of one, but 

 four component parts. What we generally call a pagoda is nothing 

 but the gopurum, answering to the Egyptian pylon over the door. 

 The four parts of each temple are the gopurum,, or door ; the munda- 

 pum the teppa kolum, or tank ; the vimanum, or sanctuary. 



Now, I propose to show you these, and give you some idea of what 

 they are. We will take the train at night from Madras, and at twelve 

 next day we find ourselves at Trichinopoly, close to which is one of 

 the largest and finest temples in all India. The view is taken from the 

 gate-way at the south entrance. The pyramids are called the gopura, 



