THROUGH THE HEART OF HINDUSTAN 



437 



than 400 persons to the -square mile, al- 

 though this is largely an agricultural 

 land. 



A PANORAMA OF" RACKS 



Races are strung out along the road like 

 ethnological exhibits, but the constant 

 flow of life along this boulevard of people 

 is such that the various stages in the tran- 

 sition, from the Turko-Iranians, whose 

 handsome faces fill the Kabul Bazaar at 

 Peshawar, to the Mongolo-Dravidians, 

 who dominate the racial complex of cos- 

 mopolitan Calcutta, are difficult for the 

 stranger to detect. 



From the Pashto of Peshawar, which 

 a Persian can understand, one enters the 

 linguistic area of Lahnda, or Western 

 Punjabi, with plenty of Kashmiri, an- 

 other of the Outer-Aryan tongues, heard 

 in the Rawalpindi bazaar. Then Punjabi, 

 shading or! to Hindustani, the lingua 

 franca of a much larger region than that 

 where it is common speech. Eastern 

 Hindi, Bihari, and Bengali complete the 

 needs of the man who would thread the 

 road from Peshawar to Calcutta and 

 understand the general conversation 

 throughout. Faced with such un-Ameri- 

 can demands for glossological versatility, 

 I fell back on English and sign language 

 and found that both were understood, the 

 latter far better than in any part of my 

 native land. 



Along the whole road, one finds Hindus 

 and Mohammedans in imposing propor- 

 tions. Between Lahore and Delhi the 

 Sikhs, with their military bearing, Greek 

 noses, and uncut hair, reveal themselves 

 in considerable numbers, and at Buddh 

 Gaya the yellow robe of the Buddhist 

 adds a touch of variety to the religious 

 complex. 



Honeycombed though it be with many 

 other faiths, India is predominantly a 

 Hindu land. There are times in the 

 bazaars of Peshawar and Rawalpindi 

 when one forgets this. A visit to Lahore 

 or a Friday noon at Delhi may cause one 

 to think that the praying Moslems have 

 as wide an influence in religion as their 

 warring forefathers once had in politics; 

 but an hour at the junction of the Jumna 

 and the Ganges at Allahabad or ten min- 

 utes in the crowded streets or along the 

 lively river front at Benares will convince 

 one that monotheism is still a thin veneer 



A PATHAN 



© R. B. Holmes and Company 

 WOMAN OF THK NORTHWEST 



Pathan women, who customarily are rigidly 

 secluded, are often handsome, with a Jewish 

 cast of countenance. Many of them have rosy 

 cheeks and fair complexions. 



