IN THE EAST INDIES. 43 
Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. 
Bombay, November 4, 1906 
Dear Mother : 
Such a wonderful time as we are having. Our 
rooms are where I have marked the cross, overlooking 
the harbor you see, and all my spare moments I am 
hanging out of the windows watching the passersby 
on the road below and the crowds of people that are 
always at this pier which you see in the above illus- 
tration. They are very gayly dressed in every shade 
and color imaginable and are always walking to and 
fro. <A friend of the Palmers met us at the boat and 
has simply laid himself out ever since, dining and 
lunching us out every day. He is a member of the 
best club here, the Yacht Club; you will see it on one 
of the picture postals I sent you, and that is where we 
meet him every day. Yesterday he took us out to the 
Caves of Elephanta; they were most interesting. They 
were built in the eighth century and are wonderfully 
hewn out of a great cliff. The pillars supporting them 
are very handsome, square at the base, fluted at the 
neck and round at the capital. Around the walls are 
enormous carved gods. The temple is still used and 
the Hindus’ sacred places or things, are always 
smeared with red paint; the result is naturally that 
most of the statues are covered with it. We have seen 
the Parsis Tower of Silence, where the Parsis bury 
their dead. We walked about in the Victoria Gardens 
and we took an auto ride for hours into the country. 
You would so love to see the natives; each religious 
sect dresses entirely different from the other; the re- 
sult is that you hardly ever see two costumes alike. 
The men wear only loin cloths around their waists. 
