8 THE SIKKIM HIMALAYA 



The Hindus have been right all along in wor- 

 shipping it. Their worship, with tropical luxu- 

 riance, may have developed to extravagant lengths. 

 But the instinct which promoted this worship was 

 perfectly sound. The river bears within its breast 

 great life-giving properties, and in worshipping the 

 river the Hindus were half-consciously expressing 

 their sense of dependence on these life-giving pro- 

 perties, and of affection and gratitude to the river 

 for the benefits it conferred. Mere fear of its 

 destructive character — fear alone — would not pro- 

 duce the desire for worship. They did and do fear 

 the river, but behind the fear is a feeling that it can 

 be propitiated, that it can be induced to help man 

 and does not want to thwart him. And here they 

 were perfectly right. We are at last learning the 

 way by which this may be done, and now see clearly 

 what the Hindus only vaguely felt, that the heart 

 of the river is right enough — that once it is tamed 

 and trained it can bring untold good to man. 



This the Artist will readily discern. He will 

 enter into the spirit of the river. He will read 

 its true character. Refusing to be terrorised by 

 its more tremendous moods, he will exult in *its 

 might, and see in it a potent agency for good. In 

 these ways the river will make its appeal to him ; 

 and responding to the appeal, the Artist will see 

 great Beauty in the river and describe that Beauty 

 to us. 



Beyond the river, before we reach the moun- 

 tain, we have to pass over absolutely level cultivated 

 plains, without a single eminence in sight. To 



