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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



in all manner of positions and with all 

 manner of self-torture, are there to draw 

 the coppers from the knots in the corners 

 of the people's clothes. 



When Allagar refuses to go on to the 

 temple of his sister, he decides that he 

 will go to a shrine in a village a couple 

 of miles down the river from which he 

 has received an urgent invitation. All 

 along the way he stops at permanent and 

 temporary shrines and receives the offer- 

 ings of his devotees. A bullock cart with 

 big chests of brass on it follows him, 

 and people vie with one another in try- 

 ing to get at the chests to drop in their 

 copper and silver. This trip takes Alla- 

 gar all day. 



He is carried seated on a golden horse, 

 which rests on a platform carried on the 

 shoulders of about twenty men. They 

 rush him from shrine to shrine to the 

 command of the priests in attendance. 

 As he approaches a shrine, the authori- 

 ties of that place break a bottle of laven- 

 der water over the image (for it is the 

 hot season and the god is warm), and 



he is garlanded with flowers. Presents 

 are given to the priests, and mantrams 

 (Scriptural formulas set to a fixed musi- 

 cal chant or rhythm) are recited, and the 

 god is again picked up and rushed to the 

 next shrine. The priest who rides on 

 the platform with the image looks dread- 

 fully bored, but he sticks to his job. 



The thousands of brightly clad men 

 and women, the interesting ceremonies, 

 the dry river-bed with its borders of 

 waving cocoanut palms, and over and 

 through it all the sense of a divine pres- 

 ence that all the people seem to feel, even 

 in spite of their hilarity and somewhat 

 questionable conduct — all these bewilder 

 the senses and cloud the mind until one 

 is lost in a maze of thought where East 

 and West stand in opposition. 



The practical Westerner sees much he 

 would like to imitate in the child-like 

 faith and simple ceremony. And yet he 

 also sees much that he would like to 

 purify and ennoble. Could the simple 

 faith be linked to a noble ethical code, 

 here would be power indeed. 



TEXAS, OUR LARGEST STATE 



By N. H. Darton 



GeoIvOGist o^ the U. S. Bureau of Mines 



Author of ''The Southwest," "Our Pacific Northwest,'^ ''Bighorn Mountains,'' 

 and "Mexico, the Treasure House of the World," in the National Geographic 

 Magazine. 



ALTHOUGH Texas is larger than 

 ZA France, Germany, or the central 

 X X. Atlantic States, only 15 per cent of 

 its great domain is utilized. Its popula- 

 tion is less than that of Ohio or of Mas- 

 sachusetts and Connecticut together, yet 

 all the inhabitants of the United States 

 could be accommodated in the State with- 

 out its becoming more crowded than New 

 England. 



There are opportunities presented in 

 many lines of industry, but the greatest 

 asset of the State are vast areas of arable 

 lands, with mild climate and other condi- 

 tions favorable for an immense increase 

 in agricultural development. The cities 

 of Texas are not very large, manufactur- 

 ing is in its infancy, and most of the 

 mineral resources are undeveloped. 



Of cotton, the largest single item in her 

 output, Texas supplies one-fifth of the 

 production of the world or one-third of 

 the production of the United States, and 

 still only one-tenth of the area suitable 

 for cotton is under cultivation. Texas 

 has more wheat land than the Dakotas, 

 more corn land than Illinois, more fruit 

 land than California, more timber land 

 than Michigan, and more petroleum than 

 Pennsylvania, but most of these resources 

 are far from being fully utilized. 



The great size of the State is very im- 

 pressive. The transcontinental traveler 

 on the through trains finds that to cross 

 Texas requires time equivalent to all of 

 one night, the next day and night, and 

 part of the following morning. The trip 

 is full of variety. Entering from the 



