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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



SAXON PEASANT GIRLS IN FESTIVE 



Photo from "Women of All Nations," Cassell & 

 by courtesy of Amy A. Locke 



just lost a young daughter: "She might 

 be frightened if left out alone, with noth- 

 ing but the sky above her at night." 



SOME OE THE PEOPLE OE NORTH INDIA 



India has become the home of many 

 nations and many tongues ; of many 

 forms of religion and many degrees of 

 civilization. On the one hand there are 

 people who are justly proud of a civili- 

 zation older than that of the nation by 

 which they are governed ; on the other 

 there are tribes living in the forests who 

 are as savage and uncivilized as the 

 Polynesians. 



In its geographical fea- 

 tures the north of India 

 presents every variety of 

 form and climate. There 

 is the plateau, where the 

 blizzard rages in winter 

 and the land is iron- 

 bound in frost ; the arid 

 plain, waterless and sun- 

 scorched ; the snow- 

 capped mountain, inac- 

 cessible to the hardiest 

 mountaineer ; the smiling 

 valley, a veritable para- 

 dise to ease-loving hu- 

 manity ; the poisonous 

 swamp and the dense 

 forest, the home of the 

 wild beast and deadly 

 snake. Most extensive of 

 all are the broad, level 

 tracts of fertile land, 

 which yield two crops a 

 year to the industrious 

 agriculturalist. In such a 

 country there was room 

 for a long succession of 

 invaders without the ex- 

 termination of the weak. 

 Descendants of the differ- 

 ent types are still to be 

 found throughout the 

 breadth of the land. They 

 have adapted themselves 

 to the climate and to the 

 nature of the country in 

 which they have settled, 

 and consider themselves 

 in every respect the inheritors of the 

 land. 



The Rani of Sikkim, a small state lying 

 on the southern slopes of the Himalayas 

 between Nepal and Bhutan, has the ap- 

 pearance (see page 52) of being a child 

 of ten or eleven. The little figure is 

 loaded with rich brocade and masses of 

 jewels. There is no sign in those placid 

 features that she is discontented with her 

 lot, or that she has any thought of a 

 different life. She has the greatly ad- 

 mired wheaten complexion, an olive tint 

 that is common in the south of Europe. 

 Her hazel-brown eyes are darkened on 



COSTUME 

 Co., New York, 



