by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER IX
CONCERNING THE GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA
"Ladies and gentlemen, it affords me very great pleasure to present to youSir Modava Rao, who has kindly consented to give you a lesson on thegeography of India," said Captain Ringgold when the company were seated inConference Hall.
This announcement was greeted with unusually stormy applause, in which theladies joined, and then flourished their handkerchiefs as an additionalwelcome to the handsome Hindu.
"I have also the pleasure to inform you that Lord Tremlyn and Dr. Ferrolanhave indulgently permitted me to call upon them for the instruction inregard to India which they are so abundantly competent to give us,"continued the commander with a very pleasant smile upon his dignifiedcountenance. "Their subjects have been arranged, and I congratulate you andmyself upon the satisfaction with which we shall all listen to these ableexponents of the present condition of this interesting country. Sir ModavaRao, ladies and gentlemen."
The Hindu gentleman was again received with vigorous and long-continuedapplause. His handsome face, the expression of which was intensified by thefascinating smile that played upon his black eyes and around his finelymoulded mouth, was not wasted upon the ladies, or even upon the gentlemen;and it was a considerable time before the plaudits of the company permittedhim to speak; and he stood upon the rostrum bowing so sweetly that he wasirresistible to the assembly.
"Mr. Commander, ladies and gentlemen," he began, "I have no claim upon youfor the exceeding warmth of the reception you have given me, and I thankyou with all my heart for all your kindness to me, a shipwrecked strangeron board of your ship. I shall give you as briefly and clearly as I canwhat I know about the geography of India. I understand that this was thesubject to be treated by Captain Ringgold; and I am confident that he couldhave done it quite as well as I can, though I am 'to the manner born.' ButI will proceed with the subject, without wasting any more of your valuabletime.
"India is a vast territory, forming the southern peninsula of Asia, with apopulation, including the native states, of very nearly two hundred andfifty-four million people," continued the speaker, taking a paper from hispocket. "I have received a hint from your worthy commander that I ought togive a comparison of my figures with those of the United States, and ourpopulation is about four times as great as that of your country.
"The area in square miles is more than a million and a half, enough largerthan your country to cover the State of Georgia;" and the speaker indulgedin a cheerful smile. "I did not know what I am saying now till thismorning; for I have been studying the 'Statesman's Year-Book,' in order tocomply with the commander's request.
"The name of India came originally from the Persians, and was first appliedto the territory about the Sindhu River, its Sanscrit name, the earlyliterary language of India. A slight change, and the river was called theHind, which is still the language of the natives, while the country aroundit is Hind, from which comes Hindu, and Hindustan; but these designationsreally belong to a province, though they are now given very generally tothe whole peninsula," continued Sir Modava, turning to the enormous mapwhich had been painted by Mr. Gaskette and his assistants.
"Hind, or Hindustan, is the territory near the Jumna and Ganges Rivers, ofwhich more will be said later," as he pointed out these great watercourses,and then drew his pointer around Sind, now called Sinde, on the border ofBeloochistan.
"How do you spell Hindustan, Sir Modava?" inquired Mrs. Belgrave. "We usedto write it Hindoostan when I went to school."
"I think the orthography of the word is a matter of fashion, for the letter_u_ in most European and Asiatic languages is pronounced like theEnglish _oo_; but it is now almost universally spelled with a_u_. It is now almost generally absorbed in the name of India, and theapplication of the term to the whole of the peninsula is entirelyerroneous; and English authorities usually pronounce it so.
"The name India is now given to the peninsula lying to the eastward of theBay of Bengal. Siam and Tongking are in native possession, or under theprotection of France, while Burma is a part of the British Indian Empire.It was only last year that the French had a brush with Siam, and materiallystrengthened their position there; and it will not be a calamity when allthese half-civilized nations are subjected to the progressive influenceswhich prevail in India proper, in spite of all that is said about the greedfor power on the part of the great nations of the world.
"But I am wandering from my subject. India is about 1,900 miles in extentfrom north to south, and 1,600 in breadth in latitude 25 deg. north. Theboundaries of this vast country, established by nature for the most part,are the Bay of Bengal (now called a sea in the southern portion) on thesouth-east, and the Arabian Sea on the south-west. On the north theHimalaya Mountains separate it from China, Thibet, and Turkestan; but someof these countries are called by various names, as Chinese Tartary,Mongolia, Eastern Turkestan, and so on. On the west are Beloochistan andAfghanistan, and on the east Siam and China, though the boundaries weresomewhat disturbed last summer in the former."
"We used to pronounce the name of your great northern range of mountainsHi-ma-lay'-a; you do not call it so, Sir Modava," said the commander.
"I have always called it Hi-mal'-a-ya, the _a_ after the accentedsyllable being very slightly sounded; this is the pronunciation of all theIndian officials," replied the speaker, with his pleasant smile. "Thesemountains consist of a number of ranges; they extend 1,500 miles east andwest, and are the sources of the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra. Thehighest is Mount Everest, the loftiest mountain in the world, 29,002 feet;and I could mention several other peaks which overtop any of the Andes.Himalaya means 'the abode of snow,' and the foot-hills are the resorts ofthe wealthy to obtain a cool climate in the summer.
"India is remarkable for its fertility, and its luxuriant growth of plantsof all sorts, from the productions of the torrid zone to those of thetemperate in the hilly regions of the north. It is abundantly watered bythe Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Jumna, the Indus, the Godavari, and othergreat streams. The Ganges, though it does not vie with the great rivers ofAmerica, is 1,557 miles in length. To the natives it is a sacred river, andthe land through which it flows is holy ground. To bathe in its waterswashes away sin; to die and be buried on its shores procures a freeadmission to the eternal paradise of heaven.
"The Ganges Canal, constructed in 1854, is 445 miles long, and is used forboth navigation and irrigation. Doubtless you will sail upon it, and learnmore about it. Near the Indus are two deserts, one 500 miles long, and theother 400, though the grains may be cultivated in the valleys and other lowplaces; and perhaps these regions will be reclaimed by artificialirrigation. In ancient times gold-mines were worked in the south-west, andthe currency consisted of this metal instead of silver, as at the presenttime; but the veins were exhausted, and the Mysore mines are all that isleft of them.
"I suppose you Americans have been accustomed to regard India as anexceedingly hot country; and this is quite true of a considerable portionof it. In a region extending from the almost tropical island of Ceylon,nearly 2,000 miles to the snow-capped summits of the highest mountains inthe world, there must necessarily be a great variety of climate. India hasthree well-defined seasons,--the cool, the hot, and the rainy. The coolmonths are November, December, January, and a part of February.
"The rainy season comes in the middle of the summer, earlier or later, andends in September. Winter is the pleasantest season of the year; butautumn, unlike England, is hot, moist, and unhealthy. Monsoon comes from anArabian or Persian word, meaning a season; and you have learned somethingabout it by this time. It is applied to the south-west winds of the IndianOcean, changing to the north or north-east in the winter. This windproduces rain, and when they infrequently fail, portions of the country aresubjected to famines.
"At an elevation of 7,200 feet the temperature is an average of 58 deg.Fahrenheit, as I shall give all readings of the thermometer. At Madras, onthe so
uth-east coast, it is 83 deg.; at Bombay, 84 deg.; Calcutta, 79 deg.; and inDelhi, in latitude 29 deg. (about the same as the northern part of Florida), itis 72 deg.. These annual average temperatures will not seem high to you; but Ibeg you not to form a wrong impression, for the heat of summer is generallyoppressive, and the average temperature is considerably reduced by thecoolness of the winter months. In Delhi, quoted at 72 deg., the glass oftenindicates over 100 deg..
"The rain varies greatly in different regions. In the north-east it exceeds75 inches, and in one remarkable year 600 inches fell at an observatory innorth-east Bengal. In some of the western parts it is only 30 inches, whileit is hardly 15 on the southern shores of the Indus. I think I must havesufficiently wearied you, ladies and gentlemen."
"No! No! No!" almost shouted the company with one voice; and perhaps therewas something so fascinating in the manner of the distinguished Hindu whichexorcised all weariness from their minds and bodies.
"Thank you with all my heart; but really you must permit me to retire, forI am somewhat fatigued, if you are not, and I shall be happy to contributeto your entertainment at another time," replied the speaker; and he retiredfrom the platform.
"I shall next call upon Mr. Woolridge, who will speak to you of the faunaof India," said the commander.
The magnate of the Fifth Avenue, not much accustomed to speaking in public,was somewhat diffident about addressing the company in the presence ofthose who were so well versed in Indian lore; but he conquered his modesty,and took his place on the stand. In expressing his appreciation of the lastspeaker, he mentioned that he occupied a difficult position in the presenceof those who knew India as they knew their alphabet, and begged them toconsider his talk as addressed only to the Americans of the party. Theguests declared that they should be very glad to hear him; and he bowed,smiled, and proceeded with his remarks:--
"Fortunately I have not much to say, for it will consist mainly of themention of the names of the principal animals in the fauna of India," hebegan.
"Are all the animals fawns?" asked Mrs. Blossom, who evidently mistook themeaning of the term used.
"No, madam; some of them are snakes. But I shall refer the serpents to SirModava; for I am very anxious to hear the views of a native on thatsubject. The cattle are cows, buffaloes, and oxen, the two latter used asdraft animals, and as agricultural workers. Bulls and cows are sacredbeasts, and the Hindus never kill them for food."
"Except Christianized natives, like myself," interpolated Sir Modava.
"Thank you. The native breeds of horses have been greatly improved underthe direction of the horse-fancying Briton; but they are never used on thefarm. Ponies, donkeys, and mules are in use for various purposes. There areplenty of sheep and goats--so there are of hogs; but the higher of themiddle class, like the Jews, regard them as unclean beasts, and would assoon take poison as eat the flesh of a pig. I don't sympathize with them,for I like roast pork when it is well brought up and kept clean.
"Monkeys are as tame as they are mischievous; and doubtless they are tamebecause they are held to be sacred, and have a better time than they do inAfrica and elsewhere. But all the fun of the fauna is concentrated in thewild animals, such as the tiger (about the gamiest 'critter' that exists),the panther, cheetah, boar, bear, elephant, and rhinoceros. Two kinds ofcrocodiles (not alligators) live in the mud and water of the rivers; and Isuppose they snap up a man or woman when they get a chance, as they do inthe Philippine Islands and other countries. I advise you all to give them awide berth; for their bite is worse than their bark, like that of some menwe know of.
"There are plenty of deer to furnish a dainty and healthy diet for themeat-eating wild animals, including the lion, which is not much of a kingof beasts here, the hyena, the lynx, and the wolf. All of these last take aback seat compared with the tiger. Game and other birds would make ahunter's paradise if it were not for the snakes and tigers, which areunpleasant to an American when his piece is loaded with only birdshot.
"In the towns on the sea the fish are excellent, and an important industryis curing and smoking them for the markets. In the mountain streams thefishing is very good; but in the warm waters of the streams on the plains,as in Egypt, the fish are soft, and neither palatable nor healthy. Leavingthe snakes to the tender mercies of the gentleman from Travancore, I willmake my bow," which he did, and stepped down.
He was politely applauded, and the strangers seemed to enjoy his discoursemore than the rest of the party.