ares IN THE HAST INDIES. 69 
dishes on the floor, where they all walk about in 
dirty bare feet. The filth of the whole country is 
such that you wonder why any one is alive. Here 
is a city of 1,100,000 people and not a single sewer 
excepting the gutter where everything stagnates in 
dry weather and which the rain is supposed to flush 
out. There is no street cleaning department except- 
ing thousand of crows in the day and herds of 
jackals Which come right into the ¢ity after dark 
and make night simply hideous with their snarls 
and shrieks. Many of the inhabitants cook, eat, 
sleep, ete., right in the streets with perhaps an old 
parasol for a house. They seem quite happy. 
Yesterday, a great Mahommedan feast day, every 
one of these same people sported pink turbans, bag- 
wv pea-green silk trousers, yellow or blue (sky color) 
silk coats or a great sort of drapery of some gaudy 
eolor. The streets were simply a blaze of color. To- 
day every one you see almost has on nothing but a 
loose dirty rag wrapped about the waist. They pro- 
fess to be very clean and so they wash regularly, but, 
alas, in some old, ill-smelling tank, or even this same 
gutter perhaps, if it is more handy. This city is 
in Bengal and the people are quite a bit smaller than 
elsewhere and much darker in color; they are a very 
cowardly race. They shave their heads, also in the 
street, with cold water and no soap. They leave just 
one lock right on the top or a few long hairs which 
they stroke and grease most carefully. Each caste 
of Hindus paints itself with distinctive marks, so 
that different castes will not touch each other and 
thus become contaminated. The Chinese here are the 
fine workmen; they are simply wonderful carpenters, 
