THROUGH THE HEART OF HIXDUSTAX 



46" 



The West is never tired of ascribing 

 to the East different standards of thought 

 and action from our own. For the West- 

 erner, this difference is all in his favor. 

 I owe my possession of a lovely Benares 

 scarf to the flexibility of personal con- 

 tact, in which the West is so lacking. 



SHOPPING WITHOUT FUNDS IN BENARES 



Heavy expenses and difficulty in the 

 transfer of money left me almost penni- 

 less in Benares. Had my time been 

 longer, this would have been anything but 

 a calamity. But my schedule was made 

 up in advance and the banks, in spite of 

 enough official letters to choke a mail-box, 

 could advance no funds. 



The most prominent firm of silk mer- 

 chants in Benares had earlier offered to 

 let me have some goods, for which I could 

 pay them when my money arrived. It 

 was Saturday, and to wait for the bank 

 to open on Monday would disarrange my 

 plans ; so I went to the silk store, told the 

 manager that I had no money and no 

 checking account in India, but that I 

 would purchase a better scarf than I 

 could afford if he would advance me 

 enough money for two days' expenses. 



The scarf was quickly wrapped up, a 

 generous supply of rupees was placed in 

 my hands, with offers of more if it would 

 help, and I went out into a large world 

 with a gold-thread scarf under my arm, 

 money in my pocket, and a surety that 

 two days had been saved by Oriental 

 dealing. 



At the station at Benares the hawkers 

 sell small marble paper-weights reading 

 "God is Love" and "Time is Money." 

 Benares gives strange interpretations to 

 both statements. 



At Sarnath, near Benares, Buddha first 

 preached his doctrines. But for present- 

 day Buddhists one must go beyond the 

 Brahmaputra or climb to the Himalayan 

 foothills, except for the small group in 

 the rest-house of Buddh Gaya, near the 

 sacred pipal tree where Sakyamuni gained 

 freedom from the unceasing circle of re- 

 births. Asoka is said to have erected a 

 temple here in the third century before 

 Christ, but the present pyramidal temple, 

 restored forty years ago, probably does 

 not antedate the seventh century of our 

 era, when the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen 

 Tsiang saw it. 



Hindu pilgrims who visit the temple of 

 Vishnupad in Gaya also visit the famous 

 Buddhist shrine, but after Allahabad and 

 Benares, Hindu pilgrims have lost some- 

 thing of their novelty. I found much 

 more interest in the Burman and Hima- 

 layan pilgrims who were staying in the 

 rest-house which the Gaya District Board 

 has provided for Buddhist visitors. 



ENTERTAINED BY A HIMALAYAN PRINCESS 



A princess from the Himalayan border- 

 land was staying there on the day of my 

 visit. Her son spoke excellent English, and 

 together they made me very comfortable ; 

 but even more interesting were the young 

 Buddhist nuns, whose shaven heads pro- 

 claimed the ceremony they had just com- 

 pleted, but whose laughing eyes marked 

 them as creatures apart from the sullen 

 Indians who live in this region. Buddh 

 Gaya is charming because of its peaceful 

 quiet, just as Benares is interesting be- 

 cause of the constant throb of life and 

 the eternal pall of death which hangs 

 with the smoke of the funeral pyres above 

 the busy city. 



CALCUTTA, AT THE END OP THE STREET 



After Lahore and Benares, after the 

 gay colors of Amritsar and the dun 

 crowds of Allahabad, Calcutta is of little 

 interest. The docks teem with life in 

 spite of inaction resultant upon the mys- 

 tery of foreign exchange. There is a 

 race-track more famous than most, and 

 one night I attended the Duke of Con- 

 naught's ball in the Government Building, 

 to which a Nepali nobleman with a body- 

 guard in headdresses heavy with pearls 

 added an exotic note to an affair which 

 was democratic but commonplace. 



The district made infamou by the 

 Black Hole is now as imposing with solid- 

 looking bank buildings as any Occidental 

 financial district, and no more so. Kali- 

 ghat almost, but not quite, reminds one 

 of Benares. The theaters almost, but not 

 quite, recall Picadilly Circus or Times 

 Square. Yet Calcutta, queen city of 

 India, is proud of herself. "Second City 

 of the Empire" is a phrase which is al- 

 ways left in type by the Calcutta papers. 



The Maidan at Calcutta is a great 

 breathing space for a breathless city. It 

 has a tall monument that looks like a 

 prodigal light-house which wandered over 



