SEPTEMBER 



5306 



SEPTEMBER 



because of the introduction of Western ideas 

 and the disregard of the English for native cus- 

 toms and religious beliefs. The climax came 

 when the English ordered the Sepoys, as the 

 native troops are called, to use greased cart- 

 ridges. The Hindus had religious scruples 

 about tasting anything prepared from the meat 



MEMORIAL, AT CAWNPORE 

 The marble building encloses a well where, on 

 July 15, 1857, during the Sepoy Rebellion, many 

 women and children were massacred. 



of a cow, and consequently about biting the 

 casings from the cartridges, but these ideas 

 were held in contempt by the British officers. 



On May 10, 1857, the native troops at Mee- 

 rut, a town near Delhi, rose in frenzied revolt, 

 freed from prison their countrymen who had 



refused to use rifles loaded with the obnoxious 

 cartridges, and massacred the Europeans; they 

 next seized Delhi. The revolt spread and was 

 encouraged by Nana Sahib, who caused a mas- 

 sacre of men, women and children at Cawn- 

 pore. Lucknow, after a long siege, was finally 

 relieved by Sir Colin Campbell. The revolt 

 was practically crushed by June, 1858, though 

 Oudh was not completely reduced until the 

 beginning ^of 1859. A stately memorial has 

 been erected to the Cawnpore victims. 



Sepoy, from the Hindu word sepahi, meaning 

 a soldier, is the term applied to a native soldier 

 in the British army in India. The name was 

 originally applied to any member of the East- 

 ern armies, and the more familiar form was 

 spahee, from sip, a bow and arrow, the weapons 

 used by the ancient Hindu soldiers. The Se- 

 poys in the British service now number about 

 140,000. They are a very valuable addition to 

 the English forces, as they are courageous, tem- 

 perate and indefatigable fighters. 



Related Subjects. In connection with this 

 discussion of the Sepoy Rebellion, the following 

 articles in these volumes may be referred to : 



Cawnpore 



East India Company 



Havelock, Sir Henry 



India, subhead A Great 



Crisis 

 L.ucknow 

 Outram, Sir James 



r EPTEM'BER. A Canadian poet, Archi- 

 bald Lampman, gives in his September a beau- 

 tiful picture of the month in his northern 

 homeland: 



In far-off russet cornfields, where the dry 

 Grey shocks stand peaked and withering, half 



concealed 



In the rough earth, the orange pumpkins lie, 

 Full-ribbed ; and in the windless pasture-field 

 The sleek red horses o'er the sun-warmed ground 

 Stand pensively about in companies', 

 While all around them from the motionless trees 

 The long clean shadows sleep without a sound. 



This month, the transition month between 

 summer and autumn, partakes of the character 

 of both seasons. . In the southern part of the 

 United States it is one of the warmest months, 

 and even farther north hot days are not infre- 



quent; but nights are likely to be cool, and 

 there is often more than a touch of that golden 

 haze which makes the later autumn days so 

 beautiful. 



It is a busy month in rural sections, for it 

 is the harvest period for many crops, and while 

 the "tilled earth . . . naked and yellow 

 from the harvest lies," the "tanned farmers la- 

 bour without slack," to store away the rich 

 fruits of the fields. In the calendar of Charle- 

 magne September was called the "harvest 

 month," and it still bears that name in Swit- 

 zerland. The Anglo-Saxons were more specific 

 in their choice of a name, and called September 

 the "barley month." 



History of the Month. The old rhyme de- 

 clares that 



