GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 



"Winter India, By Eliza Ruhamah Scid- 



more. Profusely illustrated. Pp. 400. 



5)4 by 8 inches. New York: Century 



Co. 1903. 



The well-known and brilliant author 

 of ' ' Jinrikisha Days in Japan ' ' and 

 " China: The Long-lived Empire," has 

 given a most fascinating description of 

 certain parts of India in her latest 

 work, ' ' Winter India. ' ' Though hun- 

 dreds of books have appeared on the 

 mysterious Indian peoples and their 

 weird customs, practically all the chap- 

 ters of this latest volume describe scenes 

 that are now told for the first time. One 

 is not surprised that Miss Scidmore, who 

 did not hesitate to penetrate to the Klon- 

 dike in 1898, succeeded in leaving the 

 beaten track of tourists. In chapter IX 

 she tells of her visit to Buddha- Gaya, 

 where is the Temple of Mahabodhi, the 

 Place of Great Intelligence, and the Sa- 

 cred Bo-tree. ' ' Not Jerusalem nor even 

 Mecca is held in greater reverence by the 

 millions of Christians and Mohamme- 

 dans than is Buddha-Gaya by many more 

 millions of Buddhists, who, inhabiting 

 every part of Asia save India, look upon 

 the temple at Mahabodhi as their great- 

 est shrine, to the Sacred Bo-tree beside 

 it as their most holy relic and living 

 symbol, the most venerated tree on 

 earth — Bodhi-druma, the Tree of Knowl- 

 edge, beneath which Guatama became 

 the Buddha, the Awakened, the En- 

 lightened. ' ' And yet the place is rarely 

 visited by tourists. 



In chapter XI, " The Greatest Sight 

 in the World," the author describes 

 the worship of the Ganges at Benares. 

 From 25,000 to 50,000 people regularly 

 and on special occasions 100,000 bathers 

 and worshipers, Brahmansof every caste, 

 perform their daily rites in the Ganges. 

 ' ' They sipped handf uls of holy water, 

 rinsed their mouths, lifted the water 

 and let it stream through their fingers 

 or pour back down the arm, facing al- 



ways to the east, and moving their lips in 

 prayer. They filled their water- j ars and 

 poured itovertheir heads, and they drank 

 it 'to purify themselves,' our mentor 

 said, although one group of purity- 

 seekers stood two feet from the mouth 

 of a rapidly discharging sewer, every 

 sort of city filth floating to their hands 

 and water- jars — the bodies of men and 

 animals and decaying flowers floating 

 by. They drank the pestilent fluid, 

 they carried it home for household use, 

 and bottles were being filled to be sent 

 and carried to the remotest part of India. 

 Western education and sanitary science 

 avail nothing against the Ganges super- 

 stition. The British have provided a 

 pure-water supply for Benares, but the 

 people prefer the sacred dilution of sew- 

 erage and cremation- ground refuse, thus 

 inviting and encouraging every dis- 

 ease. ' ' 



' 'A new India for the tourist will date 

 from the great durbar at Delhi in 1903, 

 and India, which has been a winter 

 preserve for visiting English, will be 

 virtually discovered and opened to a 

 wider clientele, made as possible and fit 

 for luxurious travel as Egypt. Equally 

 this day of cheap travel and cheap liv- 

 ing will vanish as completely as on the 

 Nile. 



' ' For one to announce that he will 

 spend a winter in India is hardly more 

 definite or precise than to say that he 

 will winter in Europe. India is a very 

 large country— several large countries — 

 since it equals in area and population all 

 of Europe outside of Russia ; and one 

 travels the 1 , 900 miles of its extent from 

 south to north through as many polit- 

 ical divisions as there are great divisions 

 of Europe, and differing as greatly in 

 climate, physical features, and inhab- 

 itants. The Spaniard does not differ 

 more from the Laplander than the sooty 

 Tamil from the blue-eyed Afridi, the 

 weak Bengali from the fighting Rajput 



