The Front Of The House Was Thickly Covered With Iron Horseshoes -
The Best Precaution Against Evil Spirits And Evil Eyes.
At the foot of a broad, carved staircase we came across a couch
or a cradle, hung from the ceiling by iron chains.
I saw somebody
lying on it, whom, at first sight, I mistook for a sleeping Hindu,
and was going to retreat discreetly, but, recognizing my old friend
Hanuman, I grew bold and endeavored to examine him. Alas! the poor
idol possessed only a head and neck, the rest of his body was a
heap of old rags.
On the left side of the verandah there were many more lateral rooms,
each with a special destination, some of which I have mentioned
already. The largest of these rooms was called "vattan," and was
used exclusively by the fair sex. Brahman women are not bound to
spend their lives under veils, like Mussulman women, but still
they have very little communication with men, and keep aloof.
Women cook the men's food, but do not dine with them. The elder
ladies of the family are often held in great respect, and husbands
sometimes show a shy courteousness towards their wives, but still
a woman has no right to speak to her husband before strangers, nor
even before the nearest relations, such as her sisters and her mother.
As to the Hindu widows, they really are the most wretched creatures
in the whole world. As soon as a woman's husband dies she must
have her hair and her eyebrows shaven off. She must part with all
her trinkets, her earrings, her nose jewels, her bangles and toe-rings.
After this is done she is as good as dead. The lowest outcast would
not marry her. A man is polluted by her slightest touch, and must
immediately proceed to purify himself. The dirtiest work of the
household is her duty, and she must not eat with the married women
and the children. The "sati," the burning of the widows, is abolished,
but Brahmans are clever managers, and the widows often long for
the sati.
At last, having examined the family chapel, full of idols, flowers,
rich vases with burning incense, lamps hanging from its ceiling,
and aromatic herbs covering its floor, we decided to get ready
for dinner. We carefully washed ourselves, but this was not enough,
we were requested to take off our shoes. This was a somewhat
disagreeable surprise, but a real Brahmanical supper was worth
the trouble.
However, a truly amazing surprise was still in store for us.
On entering the dining-room we stopped short at the entrance - both
our European companions were dressed, or rather undressed, exactly
like Hindus! For the sake of decency they kept on a kind of
sleeveless knitted vest, but they were barefooted, wore the snow-white
Hindu dhutis (a piece of muslin wrapped round to the waist and
forming a petticoat), and looked like something between white
Hindus and Constantinople garcons de bains. Both were indescribably
funny, I never saw anything funnier. To the great discomfiture
of the men, and the scandal of the grave ladies of the house, I
could not restrain myself, but burst out laughing. Miss X - -
blushed violently and followed my example.
A quarter of an hour before the evening meal every Hindu, old or
young, has to perform a "puja" before the gods. He does not change
his clothes, as we do in Europe, but takes off the few things he
wore during the day. He bathes by the family well and loosens his
hair, of which, if he is a Mahratti or an inhabitant of the Dekkan,
he has only one long lock at the top of his shaven head. To cover
the body and the head whilst eating would be sinful. Wrapping his
waist and legs in a white silk dhuti, he goes once more to salute
the idols and then sits down to his meal.
- - - - -
But here I shall allow myself to digress. "Silk possesses the
property of dismissing the evil spirits who inhabit the magnetic
fluids of the atmosphere," says the Mantram, book v., verse 23.
And I cannot help wondering whether this apparent superstition
may not contain a deeper meaning. It is difficult, I own, to part
with our favorite theories about all the customs of ancient
heathendom being mere ignorant superstitions. But have not some
vague notions of these customs being founded originally on a true
knowledge of scientific principles found their way amongst European
scientific circles? At first sight the idea seems untenable. But
why may we not suppose that the ancients prescribed this observance
in the full knowledge that the effect of electricity upon the organs
of digestion is truly beneficial? People who have studied the
ancient philosophy of India with a firm resolve to penetrate the
hidden meaning of its aphorisms have for the most part grown
convinced that electricity and its effects were known to a
considerable extent to some philosophers, as, for instance,
to Patanjali. Charaka and Sushruta had pro-pounded the system
of Hippocrates long before the time of him who in Europe is supposed
to be the "father of medicine." The Bhadrinath temple of Vishnu
possesses a stone bearing evident proof of the fact that Surya-Sidhanta
knew and calculated the expansive force of steam many centuries ago.
The ancient Hindus were the first to determine the velocity of
light and the laws of its reflection; and the table of Pythagoras
and his celebrated theorem of the square of hypotenuse are to be
found in the ancient books of Jyotisha. All this leads us to
suppose that ancient Aryans, when instituting the strange custom
of wearing silk during meals, had something serious in view, more
serious, at all events, than the "dismissing of demons."
- - - - -
Having entered the "refectory," we immediately noticed what were
the Hindu precautions against their being polluted by our presence.
The stone floor of the hall was divided into two equal parts.
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