"Then I should recite a mantram, and, if that produced no good
result, I should be fair to consider it as the finger of Fate, and
quietly leave this body for another."
These were the words of a man who was educated to a certain extent,
and very well read. When we pointed out that no gift of Nature
is aimless, and that the human teeth are all devouring, he answered
by quoting whole chapters of Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection
and Origin of Species. "It is not true," argued he, "that the
first men were born with canine teeth. It was only in course of
time, with the degradation of humanity, - only when the appetite
for flesh food began to develop - that the jaws changed their first
shape under the influence of new necessities."
I could not help asking myself, "Ou la science va-t'elle se fourrer?"
- - - - - - -
The same evening, in Elphinstone's Theatre, there was given a
special performance in honour of "the American Mission," as we
are styled here. Native actors represented in Gujerati the ancient
fairy drama Sita-Rama, that has been adapted from the Ramayana,
the celebrated epic by Vilmiki. This drama is composed of
fourteen acts and no end of tableaux, in addition to transformation
scenes. All the female parts, as usual, were acted by young boys,
and the actors, accord-ing to the historical and national customs,
were bare-footed and half-naked.
