PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

ORIENTALS PEOPLE FROM INDIA, MALAY A, 'BALI, CHINA

Photographed by Ernest Rathenau

Text selected from writings of

SIR EDWIN ARNOLD • SUBHADRA BIKSHU • PEARL S. BUCK , '

• CONFUCIUS • MIGUEL COVARRUBIAS • GERTRUDE

EMERSON • ELI FAURE • L. J. GALLAGHER • KALIDA SA •

RUDYARD KIPLING· LAOTSE • LUSIN • MENCIUS •

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU· MARCO POLO· LAU SHAW·

RABINDRANATH TAGORE • LIN YUTANG • BERYL DE ZOETE

Edited by Horst

Ll ¥ ~ 1632

J. J. AUGUSTIN PUBLISHER • NEW YORK

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

When you leave the Island of Ceylon and sail westward about 60 miles, you come to the great province of Maabar (the Arabic name for the southeast coast, the Cormandel) which is styled India the Greater; it is best of all the Indies and is on the mainland ....

You must know that in all this Province of Maabar there is never a Tailor to cut a coat or stitch it, seeing that everybody goes naked! For decency only do they wear a scrap of . cloth; and so 'tis with men and women, with rich and poor, aye, and with the King him­self, except what I am going to mention ....

They have in this country the custom which I am going to relate. When a man is doomed to die for any crime, he may declare that he will put himself to death in honour of such or such an idol; and the government then grants him permission to do so. His kinsfolk

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and friends then set him up on a cart, and provide him with twelve knives, and proceed to conduct him all about the city, proclaiming aloud: " This valiant man is going to slay himself for the love of (such an idol)." And when they be come to the place of execution he takes a knife and sticks it through his arm, and cries: " I slay myself for the love of (such a god)!" Then he takes another knife and sticks it through his other arm, and takes a third knife and runs it into his belly, and so on until he kills himself outright. And when he is dead his kinsfolk take the body and burn it with a joyful celebration. Many of the women also, when their husbands die and are placed on the pile to be burnt, do burn them­selves along with the bodies. And such women as do this have great praise from all.

The people are Idolaters, and many of them worship the ox, because (say they) it is a creature of such excellence. They would not eat beef for anything in the world, nor would they on any account kill an ox. But there is another class of people who are called Govy (pariah), and these are very glad to eat beef, though they dare not kill the animal. How­beit if an ox dies, naturally or otherwise, then they eat him.

And let me tell you, the people of this country have a custom of rubbing their houses all over with cow-dung. Moreover all of them, great and small, King and Barons included, do sit upon the ground only, and the reason they give is that this is the most honourable way to sit, because we all spring from the Earth, and to the Earth we must return; so no one can pay the Earth too much honour, and no one ought to despise it ....

They will kill neither beast nor bird, nor anything that hath life; and for such animal food as they eat, they make the Saracens, or others who are not of their own religion, play the butcher.

It is their practice that everyone, male and female, do wash the whole body twice every day; and those who do not wash are looked on much as ·we look on the Patarins (Heretics). [You must know also that in eating they use the right hand only, and would on no account touch their food with the left hand. All cleanly and becoming uses are ministered to by the right hand, whilst the left is reserved for uncleanly and disagreeable necessities, such as cleansing the secret parts of the body and the like. So also they drink only from drinking vessels, and every man hath· his own; nor will anyone drink from another's vessel. And when they drink they do not put the vessel to the lips, but hold it aloft and let the drink spout into the mouth. No one would on any account touch the vessel with his mouth, nor give a stranger drin.k with it. But if the stranger have no vessel of his own they will pour the drink into his hands and he may thus drink from his hands as from a cup.]

They are very strict in executing justice upon criminals, and as strict in abstaining from wine. Indeed they have made a rule that wine-drinkers and seafaring men are never to be accepted as sureties ....

You must know that the heat here is sometimes so great that 'tis something wonderful. And rain falls only for three months in the year, viz. in June, July, and August ....

They have many experts in an art which they call Physiognomy, by which they discern a man's character and qualities at once. They also know the import of meeting with any particular bird or beast; for such omens are regarded by them more than by any people in the world ....

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As soon as a child is born they write down his nativity, that is to say the day and hour, the month, ana the moon's age. This custom they observe because every single thing they do is done with reference to astrology, and by advice of diviners skilled in Sorcery and Magic and Geomancy, and such like diabolical arts; and some of them are also acquainted with Astrology ....

All Parents who have male children, as spon as these have attained the age of 13, dismiss them from their home, and do not allow them further maintenance in the family. For they say that the boys are then of an age to get their living by trade; so off they pack them with some twenty or four-and-twenty groats, or at least with money equivalent to that. And these urchins are running about all day from pillar to post, buying and selling. At the time of the pearl-fishery they run to the beach and purchase, from the fishers or others, five or six pearls, according to their ability, and take these to the merchants, who are keeping indoors for fear of the sun, and say to them: " These cost me such a price; now give me what profit you please on them." So the merchant gives something over the cost price for their profit. They do in the same way with many other articles, so that they become trained to be very dexterous and keen traders. And every day they take their food to their mothers to be cooked and served, but do not eat a scrap at the expense of their fathers ...

In this kingdom and all over India the birds and beasts are entirely different from ours, all but one bird which is exactly like ours, and that is the Quail .. . Another strange thing is that they feed their horses with boiled rice and boiled meat, and various other- kinds of cooked food. That is the reason why all the horses die off ....

They have certain abbeys in which are gods and goddesses to whom many young girls are consecrated; their fathers and mothers presenting them to that idol for which they entertain the greatest devotion. And when the monks of a convent desire to make a feast to their god, they send for all those consecrated damsels and make them sing and dance before the idol with great festivity. They also bring meats to feed their idol withal; that is to say, the damsels prepare dishes of meat and other good things and put the food before the idol, and leave it there a good while, and then the damsels all go to their dancing and singing and festivity for about as long as a great Baron might require to eat his dinner. By that time they say the spirit of the idols has consumed the substance of the food, so they remove the viands to be eaten by the~selves with great jollity. This is performed by these damsels several times every year until they are married.

The reason assigned for summoning the damsels to these feasts is, as the monks say, that the god is vexed and angry with the goddess, and will hold no communication with her; and they say that if peace be not established between them things will go from bad to worse, and they never will bestow their grace and benediction. So they make those girls come in the way described, to dance and sing, all but naked, before the god and the god­dess. And those people believe that the god often solaces himself with the society of the goddess.

The men of this country have their beds made of very light canework, so arranged that, when they have got in and are going to sleep, they are drawn up by cords nearly to the . ceiling and fixed there for the night. This is done to get out of the way of tarantulas which

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give terrible bites, as well as of fleas and such vermin, and at the same time to get as much air as possible in the great heat which prevails in that region. Not that everybody does this, but only the nobles and great folks, for the others sleep on the streets ...

Lar (approximately the modern Kingdom of Mysore) is a Province lying towal·ds the west when you quit the place where the Body of St. Thomas lies; and all the Brahmans in the world come from that province.

You must know that these Brahmans are the best merchants in the world, and the most truthful, for they would not tell a lie for anything on earth ... They eat no flesh and drink no wine, and live a life of great chastity, having intercourse with no women except with their wives; nor would they on any account take what belongs to another; so their law commands ....

These Brahmans are Idolaters; and they pay greater heed to signs and omens than any people that exists. I will mention as an example one of their customs. To every day of the week they assign an augury of this sort. Suppose that there is some purchase in hand, he who proposes to buy, when he gets up in the morning takes note of his own shadow in the sun, which he says ought to be on that day of such and such a length ; and if his shadow be of the proper length for the day he completes his purchase; if not, he will on no account do so, but waits till his shadow corresponds with that prescribed ....

These Brahmans are very long.lived, owing to their extreme abstinence in eating. And they never allow themselves to be let blood in any part of the body. They have capital teeth, which is owing to a certain herb they chew, which greatly improves their appearance, and is also very good for the health.

There is another class of people called Yogi, who are indeed properly Brahmans, but they form a religious order devoted to the Idols. They are extremely long. lived, every man of them living to 150 or 200 years. They eat very little, but what they do eat is good; rice and milk chiefly. And these people make use of a very strange beverage; for they make a potion of sulphur and quicksilver mixt together and this they drink twice every month. This, they say, gives them long life; and it is a potion they are used to take from their childhood.

There are certain members of this Order who lead the most ascetic life in the world, going stark naked; and these worship the Ox. Most of them have a small ox of brass or pewter or gold which they wear tied over the forehead. Moreover they take cow-dung and burn it, and make a powder thereof; and make an ointment of it, and daub themselves withal, doing this with as great devotion as Christians do show in using Holy Water. (Also if they meet anyone who treats them well, they daub a little of this powder on the middle of his forehead.)

They eat not from bowls, or trenchers, hut put their victuals on leaves of the Apple of Paradise and other hig leaves; these, however, they use dry, never green. For they say the green leaves have a soul in them, and so it would he a sin. And they would rather die than do what they deem their Law pronounces to he sin. If anyone asks how it comes that they

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are not ashamed to go stark naked as they do, they say, "We go naked because naked we came into the world, and we desire to have nothing about us that is of this world. More· over, we have no sin of the flesh to be conscious of, and therefore we are not ashamed of our nakedness, any more than you are to show your hand or your face. You who are con­scious of the sins of the flesh do well to have shame, and to cover your nakedness."

They would not kill an animal on any account, not even a fly, or a flea, or a louse, or anything in fact that has life; for they say these have all souls, and it would be sin to do so. They eat no vegetable in a green state, only such as are dry. And they sleep on the ground stark naked, without a scrap of clothing on them or under them, so that it is a marvel they don't all die, in place of living so long as I have told you. They fast every day in the year, and drink nought but water. And when a novice has to be received among them they keep him awhile in their convent, and make him follow their rule of life. And then, when they desire to put him to the test, they send for some of those girls who are devoted to the Idols, and make them try the continence of the novice with their blandish­ments. If he remains indifferent they retain him, but if he shows any emotion they expel him from their society. For they say they will have no man of loose desires among them.

They are such cruel and perfidious Idolaters that it is very devilry! They say that they burn the bodies of the dead, because if they were not burnt worms would be bred which would eat the body; and when no more food remained for them these worm~ would die, and the soul belonging to that body would bear the sin and the punishment of their death. And that is why they burn their dead!

Marco Polo

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KING. In which direction lies the hermitage of Marichi's son? MATALI (pointing). See!

Where stands the hermit, horridly austere, Whom clinging vines are choking, tough and sere; Half-buried in an ant-hill that has grown About him, standing post-like and alone; Sun-staring with dim eyes that know no rest, The dead skin of a serpent on his breast: So long as he stood unmoved, insensate there That birds build nests within his mat of hair.

KING (gazing). All honour to one who mortifies the flesh so terribly. MATALI (checking the chariot). We have entered the hermitage of the ancient sage,

whose wife Aditi tends the coral-trees. KING. Here is deeper contentment than in heaven. I seem plunged in a pool of nectar. MATALI (stopping the chariot) . Descend, 0 King. KING (descending). But how will you fare? MATALI. The chariot obeys the word of command. I too will descend. (He does so.)

Before you, 0 King, are the groves where the holiest hermits lead their self-denying life.

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KING. I look with amazement both at their simplicity and at what they might enjoy.

Their appetites are fed with air Where grows whatever is most fair; They bathe religiously in pools Which golden lily-pollen cools; They pray within a jewelled home, Are chaste where nymphs of heaven roam: They mortify desire and sin With things that others fast to win.

MATALI. The desires of t1Ie great aspire high. Kalidasa

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

INDIA BOMBAY

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA