f.:'^ THREE JOURNEYS Around the World OR. Travels in the Pacific Islands, New Zealand Australia, Ceylon, India, Egypt AND OTHER ORIENTAL COUNTRIES IN O.VE VOLUME BY J. M. PEEBLES, A.M., M.D., PH.D. Author of "Seers or the Ages," " Immortality," " How to Live a Century," " Criti- CAL Review of Rev. Dr. Ktpp," " Jksus, Myth, Man or God?" "The Soul, ITS Pre-existknce, " 'Did Jesus Christ Exist?" Etc., Etc. " World-weary pilgrims, comfortless — forlorn ? Upl Let us hence depart. 'Tis morning now. No longer let us stay- Where hope will wither, love and life decay: Bright is the world to-day ! Let us on — on then and compass it." BOSTON BANNER OF LIGHT PUBLISHING CO. 9 BoswoRTH Street 1898 Copyright, 1897 By J. M. Peebles PREFACE. What I saw in the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Cey- lon, India, Arabia and other Oriental Countries expresses in a few words the distinctive characteristics of this volume. It abounds in such facts about the people of far-away lands as all Americans and English-speaking citizens ought to know. Owing to extensive travels and a well-trained eye, we were able to see phases of life, national characteristics and religious rites and cere- monies, especially among Brahmins, Buddhists and Parsees, usually denied the hasty traveler ; these we propose to share with our readers. The author has endeavored to describe what came under his per- sonal observation in these so-called heathen lands with fairness and a true moral independence. "Who and where are the heathen ? are serious questions. Ceylon and India are both sending missionaries to America. In this volume appear portions of my book on travels published nearly a quarter of a century since ; and for the reason that truths never perish, and Oriental nations change slowly. The natural tendency of travel is to give breadth to thought and a fresh impetus to the humanitarian sentiments of the soul. " Over space the clear banner of mind is unfurled, And the habits of God are the laws of the world." THE PRELUDE. "Pilgrim footsteps, whither bound? Pilgrim glances, whither bent ? Sandal-shod and travel-gowned, Lo, I seek the way they went.'' Life is a divine gift — a pilgrimage with failures and victories — perils by sea and perils by land. Travel is an educator, giving breadth to thought, depth to re- search, freedom to jihilosophy, strength to religion and a fresh, fiery impetus to the best humanitarian sentiments of the soul. Seeing, in connection with consciousness, reason and the highest judgment, is knowing ; and knowledge is the stepping-stone that leads up to the temple of wisdom. STILL ox THE ROAD. Since traveling and seeing are rungs in the ladder by which we climb, why not see the world we live in, traversing all lands, sailing o'er all seas, exploring all templed caves and studying all archaic ruins to further lift the veil from Isis ? Why not sink cables in all oceans and plant magnetic chain-links the world around ? Are we not brothers all ? The world has two classes : not the sheep and the goats of the parable, but the daring do-somethings, and those that do nothing except to eat, drink, doze, dream, read novels, pamt the im- possible and grumble that things were not done some other way. It tires the worker to drag such laggards along. "Better see the wonders of the world abroad Than, living dully sluggardized at home, Wear out the soul in gruesome idleness." CHAPTER I. HOME LIFE IN CALIFORNIA. " Of tlie beginning that never began is life's tale, And that never-finishing ending to which we all sail — For the cliildren of never and ever we are, And our home is beyond, and our goal is afar." Circumnavigating the globe several times is little more than a matter of well-directed purpose and energy. The iron will never hesitates. It delights to dare and to do. A firm rational individuality is commendable. Every man of genius has a way of his own. Let him have it. Help the world's helpei-s, or stand aside, pout, and be forgotten. Countries, like individuals, have their aural emanations — their idiosyncracies. There is more soul-freedom and less conventional restraint west than east of the Rocky Moun- tains. The climate uniform and bracing, thought free, the intellect clear, liberalism fruits out spontaneously in Califor- nia. Southern California is the Italy of America. Residing anywhere in the stirring, pulsing West broadens the vision, expands the emotional nature and inspires a most generous and fraternal toleration. The Orient with its treasures and the Occident witli its untold energies met upon the Pacific coast, and in its agone years cities, cosmopolitan in character, sprung up as if by some sorcerer's art. Old heads g^uided the feet that trod these cities. Vigor, vigilance and public spiritedness consti- I AROUND THE WOELD. tuted the red globules that flowed in the body politic. And to-day California is one of the grandest States in the Ameri- can Union. CALIFORNIA SCENERY. Switzerland, with its mountain chains and towering Alps, pales before the rich magnificent scenery of the Pacific States. The mountain peaks are weird, grand, defiant ; while the ad- joining plateaus are covered with grass, sage-brush and pines. The air is light, pure and bracing. On the hilltops, in the northern part of the State, white fleec}' snow may sometimes be seen ; but in San Diego, where I reside, there is neither snow nor ice nor frost, and, withal, it is the sunniest and most equable climate in the world. FRUITS AND VINES. Piled-up tons of melons, peaches, pears, figs, apricots and semi-tropical fruits literally blockade the wharves and front streets of the California cities during the autumn and winter seasons. Though oranges, lemons and pineapples grow lux- uriantly and ripen in any yard and garden, only sixty miles away up on the highlands at Julian very choice apples are grown. Passing up and down the coast railways, walnut-groves and apricot-orchards literally reel under their fruitage, while vine- yards everywhere shook their purple clusters. Swiftly whirl- ing by lemon and orange plantations, loaded and golden, they weave and sway like waving forests. Delicious things for the palate, beauty for the eye, lands for the toiler, minerals for the miner, health for the invalid, wealth for the industrious, books for the student, friends for the worthy, and religious toleration for all regardless of ancestral clime or color — these are among the charms of the sunset States. Life and activity flame everywhere. The universe is God's habitation ; this earth, one of the smaller apartments ! enter- RBC NdJ HOME LIFE IX CALIEOEXIA. 3 ing it some seventj^-six years ago, I found it already fur- nished. What a carpet ! — the emerald grass. What a ceil- ing ! — the frescoed sky. What tapestried pillars I — the granite rocks. What a front ! — the flaminsf sunrise. What a rear-door ! — the sunset, through which the day goes down into shadow-lands. What a chandelier ! — the sun and fiery stars. What fields for future explorations I — the interstellar spaces of infinity. Surely, God is infinitely great and good. REQUIRED IMPROVEMENTS. Arise, O land of the west winds — cities encircled with the lemon, the orange and the pomegranate — and deck your- selves in more beautiful garments ! Your gardens and your highways even, so far away from the snows of the north land, might be made to bloom like the rose. A house devoid of shade-trees and flowers reminds one of a salesroom for caskets, with an accompanying perpetual funeral. What opportunities we have in California for land- scape artists ! Transformations and suburban decorations pay even property-holders. If there's a praiseworthy mania, it is the laying out of beautiful gardens, noble avenues, and mam- moth parks. Inspired we feel to preach a sermon to the citi- zens of California upon the importance of putting shade-trees around their houses, and books into them. Home presup- poses a library, a cabinet, a conservatory, an orchard, and a grove with weird, winding paths for walking and meditation. " Who loves a library, still his Eden keeps ; Perennial pleasures plants, and wholesome harvests reaps." How easily the interior towns of this thrifty State miglit be made to rival the villages in the Atlantic States, by put- ting out ornamental shrubber}- ! In a hot, dusty summer's day, what is more inviting than the cooling shadows of grace- ful evergreens, or the serried lines of maples and elms that interlace and arch public highways? And then, why not 4 AEOUND THE WORLD. plant fruit-trees all along the wayside ? Wh}^ not have the gardens of the Hesperides in our midst to-day? Why not have a heaven on earth, with the divine will fully done ? When half-dreaming of heaven, with its homes of love, dreaming of the spirit-gardens that hang and float in ether spaces above us, our brain throbs and brims in ecstasy. Let us, then, make real to-day our divinest ideals. CHAPTER II. MY THIRD VOYAGE. "I cannot rest from Travel : I will drink Life to its lees." — Tennyson. It was on September the 11th, 1872, that I embarked, under an Austi'alian engagement, upon the steamer "■ Idaho " for a voyage around the world, not alone to see, but to teach as I traveled. Five years later I again girdled the globe, via Australia, India, Madagascar, Natal and South Africa, teaching and lecturing as I went upon the great moral reform subjects of the age. And again moved by the missionary spirit, I sailed from San Francisco for a third voyage around tlie world Dec. 5, 1896. Fi'iends, relatives pleaded with me not to undertake such a perilous journey at my age. Age ! I spurned the thought. The soul knows nothing of age. The eternal j^ears past and future are hers. The clay, the shell, the house that the man lives in is not the man himself. I am rollicking, glorjdng in the gorgeous morning of abiding youth. True, there is a momentary sadness in the parting good- byes: " But this I've seen, and many a pang Has pressed it on my mind, — The one who goes is happier Than those he leaves behind. God wills it so, and so it is : The pilgrim on his way. 6 AROUND THE WORLD. Though weak and worn, more cheerful is Then all the rest who stay. And when, at last, poor man, subdued, Lies down, to death resigned. May he not still be happier far Than those he leaves behind ? " The past conspired to mold the present. It was the 5'ester- days that fashioned the to-days. Let us not too rudely crush the rock from whence we were hewn. The old moon is not lost though invisible. It is the invisible helpers that often help the ideal to become the real, and faith to become fruition. The universe is infinite. The wisest have not so much as entered the portal of her temple. The atom no eye hath seen. On — onward, then, oh my soul, like the sandal- footed Solon of Grecian memory ! Why not travel ? Why not lift old manuscripts from their moldy recesses? Why not find and read the historic stories of half- forgotten ages ? Why not unearth the once proud Nijjpurs that were gray with antiquity when ancient Babylon was in her earliest mornings of prosperity ? Courageous energy with rich linguistic culture behind the spade, pushing aside the babyish biblical chronology of Archbishop Usher — has revealed a very polished civilization existing several thousands of years B. C, in the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates. Diving deeper, and going still farther in the line of the Babylonian excavation down to the deeply-buried Assyrian city, Nippur, authentic inscriptions — authentic history written upon bricks, cylinders, tablets and vases, push the existence of a grand civilization back on Time's dial to 7000 years B. C And there must have been millenniums of preceding years to have coined such a mighty civilization. Wisely, Lord Kelvin, recently at the annual meeting of the Victoria Institute, London, of which I have the honor of being a member, said : " The earth could not have been a habitable globe for more than 30,000,000 of years." MY THIRD VOYAGE. 7 Sailing, gazing on the blue depths belosv and now on the bright skies above, I further philosophize. If the universe is one, as Monism affirms, infilled and governed by infinite spirit-causation — if matter is the vestured clothing of this causation — if the spiritual is the one great reality, and all else is illusion, as the higher philosoph}^ teaches, then Spirit- ualism is the one true relisfion — the wisdom religion of the ages. Spirit, whether incarnate or discarnate, responds to spirit by the law of vibration as music responds to music. Life is everywhere. Consciousness and love are universal ; and accordingly all nations, races, tribes necessarily sympathize. There's but one pulse-beat, one heart-throb in the universe. My birds, trees, flowers know me — know and love me. . . . December 9th. — Four days out on the tremulous ocean. Our steamer, though the waters are rough, wriggles along like a revolving auger. Our crew, a nautical commonwealth, is getting social. Games are instituted for the day and a programme for evening literary exercises. December 11th. — How calm the sea is to-day! What a relief. No calls, no correspondence to answer, no diseases to diagnose ! What a quiet life, reading by day, and gazing at the glittering stars by night — those shining altar-lamps set in the heavens by the finger of the Eternal ! A sudden change this evening, — rough and rolling, the ocean ! Would you escape seasickness, diet ; walk the deck in defiance of dashing waves. Exercise a plucky will-power — no compro- mise. Grace aside, it is grit that leads to glory on the ocean. Up higher in thought for a moment ! Afloat on the ocean of boundless being, uncontrollable circumstances affect us, unseen powers influence us. None of us are whoU}^ our own. We did not choose our birth-land, its locality, or climate ; neither did we select the time of coming into this objective existence ; nor the government under which we would live, nor the color oE the skin that should cover us. And yet, deeper, diviner — regardless of circumstance, clime or color. 8 AROUND THE WORLD. humanity senses, weeps the same tears over human suffering. India's late famine was in a measure America's famine ; and so she sent to the far-off Orient her cargoes of wheat. Humanity, be it to the utmost limits of East or West, has one common heart centre, one common aspiration for immortality, one common desire for angel ministries, one God, one law, one origin, one brotherhood, and one grand destiny, ultimately awaiting all human intelligences — such is the interpretation of the vision. As polished mirrors reflect and reveal ; so seers and mystics, standing upon the mountains of the beautiful, wrapped in the seamless mantles of prophecy, reflect and largely outline the future. Neither God nor his prophets are dead. There are prophets of to-day of which the world is not worthy. The worldly proud, the mole-eyed miser can- not see them ; the deaf plutocrat cannot hear their voices ; and our millionaires, dumb save to talking of dollars and dimes, never deign to sing their praises. Those selfish, en- crusted money-makers, such as Jay Gould, Astor, Vanderbilt, Crocker and that morally gangrened gang of Wall-Street gamblers long ago dug their own graves — graves over which willows refuse to weep, or respectable owls to hoot. Pity and pass on, oh, fellow mortals. A scroll is unrolling, a prophecy fulfilling. Thrice or more said the oracle was he to magneticall}^ enzone the world — thrice or more was he to sow the seeds of spiritual truth in all lands and under all skies. What shall the harvest be ? CHAPTER III. THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. " My spirit to yours dear brother. Do not mind because many sounding your name do not understand j^ou, I do not sound your name, but I understand you, I specify you witli joy my comrade to salute you, and to salute those who are with you, before and since, and those to come also, That we all labor togetlier transmitting the same charge and succession, AVe few equals indifferent of lands, indifferent of times, We, enclosers of all continents, all castles, allowers of all theologies, Compassionaters, perceivers, rapport of men. We walk silent among disputes and assertions, but reject not the disputers nor anything that is asserted, We hear the bawling and din, we are reach'd at by divisions, jealousies, recriminations on every side. They close peremptorily upon us to surround us, my comrade, Yet we walk unheld, free, the whole earth over, journeying up and down till we make our ineffable mark upon time and the diverse eras. Till we saturate time and eras, that the men and women of races, ages to come, may prove brethren and lovers as we are." — Walt Whitman. It was good to know the good gray poet, nature's seer. It was in Washington, D. C, that I first met him, being the bearer of a friendly note to him from Emerson, whom I had just visited in his Concord home. At this time Wliitman was a Government emploj-ee, yet a poet by nature and a practical interpreter of the ideal as revealed in nature. In later years I frequently met him in his pamphlet-pressed, book-crowded study room in Camden, N. J., a very Mecca for hi* literary admirers. A class of cheap critics pronounced his " Leaves of Grass " immoral. They were immoral, perhaps, to the immoral — im- moral to the prude and the crone. Men and women gener- ally find what they hunt for. They see in others what is 10 AROUND THE WORLD. most active and seething in themselves. There are those altogether too pure and sweet to attend properly and promptly to the demands of nature, medically speaking. Such die early — die from the transgression of law. Nat- ure is God's divine garment — and glittering with sunshine and gold and silver and crystal, and tropical foliage, is unsul- lied only when contaminated and misdirected by human pas- sions. The good, the cleanly, have no need to personally prate of their cleanliness. Never lived there a cleaner, purer- minded man than Whitman, the peer of Whittier, Holmes and other distinguished American poets. . . . But let us on with our travels. It is December, 1896. Our outward-bound steamer is the "Alameda." "All aboard!" shouted the gruffy Dutch captain. The editor of the Philo- sophical Journal and other friends accompany me to the steamer, tendering fraternal hand-shakes and good-wishes as heartfelt send-offs. It is well to have many acquaintances — and but few friends. Unselfish friendship is immortal — pure love undying. Three days of ocean calm ! Most of the passengers have now settled down into little sympathetic knots : smokers and gamblers in the smoke-room, topers in the bar-room ; the thinking and the cultured to the music saloon, or the library, which, I am sorry to say, is constituted mostly of novels and old antiquated volumes, dry as a Calvinistic sermon of the seventeenth century. Five days on the way and stormy. The steamer is crowded. Several are seasick, and thinking temporarily that life is not worth living. Living and existing are utterly unlike. The stupid oyster exists, men and angels live. I am never lonely when alone : the thronging multitude makes me lonesome. We may touch people mechanically ; but if there's no soul fellowship, there will be an impregnable, impassable gulf between us. We cannot go to them. They cannot as they are come to us. There's no vibrating chain of sympathy between us. They have no balm that heals, no soft, sunny SANDWICH ISLANDS. 11 aura that soothes. Have yon not been hand-touched when you felt no thrill of ecstasy? No rivulets of life leaping down from the ever-OTcen mountains of the soul ? The nearest in body may be the farthest off in soul. One may live in a palace gilded with gold and ivory and mother-of- pearl, and yet be in a social and spiritual dungeon amid the flapping of leprous wings. There are men occupjnng struct- ures plain to severity, free from frescoes and exquisite carv- ings, and yet, spiritually, they are living in Alhambra pal- aces and banqueting with the gods of science and literature. There are flowers so sensitive to the approaching signs and sounds of storm that they close their petals ; so there are mortals that close their delicate natures to the tread and touch of the rough and the selfishly depraved. They are called unsocial. This is injustice. They simply occupy a gentler, higher plane of life attainable by all. As musical notes respond to music in the same key, so these souls, afire with love, respond to the touch of the pure in heart — to the thoughts of the good, the beautiful and the true everywhere. SENATOR STANFORD AND PRESIDENT LINCOLN, SPIRIT- UALISTS. Comfortably settled in my cabin and well on the way to Honolulu and Apia, I renewed acquaintance with Mr. Clark, the chief steward, born in Vermont near my own birth-place. The chief stewardess, Mrs. Graham, a woman of great energy, of culture and of English birth, is exceedingly well liked for her good qualities and many personal kindnesses to the ladies. She was a personal friend of Ex-Governor and Senator Stanford. These Stanfords, eminent and very excel- lent people, moving in what is denominated the highest cir- cles of American social life, were avowed Spiritualists. Often did Mrs. Graham meet them at Mr. Slater's seances. Conversing of Spiritualism, she remarked to me — "I have heard the Stanfords say more than once, ' Had it not have been for our son's passing into spirit life and the messages 12 AROUND THE WORLD. from him and from other spirits, the Palo Alto University, called the Stanford University^ would not have been built.' " It was Spiritualism, too, that inspired Abraham Lincoln to issue that magnificent proclamation of emancipation that struck the chains from the limbs of four millions of slaves. Often when in Washington, D. C, many years ago, did I attend seances at the residence of the Lauries, where Presi- dent Lincoln, listening to teachings and trance utterances from the fathers of our Republic, through the inspired lips of Nettie Colburn, became so fired with justice and the spirit of freedom that the strokes of his pen broke the shackles of millions, and made of slaves, that were being bought and sold, men, with the inalienable right to " life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." SOUL DREAMS AND HOPES. Half-dreaming, pondering, let us philosophize. Conscious of a conscious existence, I fancy myself a sort of a moral equation. Consciousness and aspiration are the algebraic equals ; and eternity is the unknown quantity. Laws are not creative, but methods, — Deific methods of procedure. Mathematical laws are universal. Every atom, every parti- cle of iron circulating in my body, follows the law of its strongest attraction, — follows it mathematically. Results are true to their producing causes. Moral equations, because relating to moral actions and to the moral possibilities of the soul, admit of self-solution only. Personally, I am the prob- lem ; and I, too, must solve myself. As between nations, arbitration is the great word. The genius of this intellectual age requires the abolition of wars, of the crimson flag and cannon ; of school-boy whip and a personal devil — aye, more, the gradual yet almost com- plete reconstruction of jurisprudence, theology and govern- ments. Politicians ! We've had enough of them. Oh, for the coming man, for the constructor ! Oh, for self-denial and moral heroism ! Why cringe and cower ? Why toddle like babes, and lean like half-dipped candles ? Cautiously SANDWICH ISLANDS. 13 inquiring for the winning. Alone, — alone with, the truth, is a majority ! WHEN DOES THE SOUL BEGIN TO EXIST? " I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven," ex- claimed the Revelator John. The harmonial philosophy recognizes this open door, — those golden gates ajar. Sitting with a distinguished medium, he was immediately entranced, and the conversation turning upon pre-existence, the controlling spirit said, that, " While making no preten- sions to infallibilit}^ still I must say that I consider the theory of ' re-incarnation,' that is, the re-incarnating of resur- rected and immortalized souls back into the uterine receptacle, into childhood wi1:h no memory of a past life in mortal form, and on up into gross earthly bodies with embittering experi- ences, as neither necessary in the divine economy nor correct in fact. Over two hundred years have I traversed the regions that you call spirit and I have no desire for a re-conception or a re-birth into mortalit3^ I have heard fraternal spirit intelligences teach this theory, but have never witnessed a practical illustration of it. If necessary there will doubtless be facilities provided to produce the result. But the soul's eternal pre-existence is to me true — an intuitive truth of my inmost being. It is no more true that a this implies a that than that a beginning implies an ending." WHAT IS THE SOUL, SPIRIT KNIGHT? This spirit replied : " The soul is a potentialized portion of God, the divine principle — the spirit esse, the keystone that crowns man with a fadeless immortality. This original soul, commencing to accrete spiritual substance and phj^sical matter, takes the human form germinally from the sacred moment of embryonic conception." . . . "• Our astronomers," said I to Parisi, an Italian spirit, " pronounce the moon uninhabited, having no atmosphere.'" It matters little to me what your astronomers in their 14 AKOUISTD THE WORLD. earthly blindness, may or may not sa^^. There is an atmos- phere pertaining to your earth, to the moon, to the planets, to every orb, every object, and entity in nature. The most refined atmosphere relating to any star in the range of your telescopic system is one of the Pleiades, third of the series. There are other planets in interstellar realms far in advance of this, however. Earthly astronomers know nothing of them ; nor very little, as yet, of their neighbor the moon, with its atmospheric strata, and swarming inhabitants. The science of astronomy among mortals is yet in its swaddling- clothes. They should talk with becoming modesty. . . . " Most certainly. There are old Oriental cities, precious stones, treasures and statuary, buried in deltas, and imbedded under mountains of sands. These, by the aid of claii'voyance, and the citizens of the heavens who lived in remote an- tiquity, might and will be unearthed when mortals become unselfish enough to wisely appropriate such immense treas- ures." Aaron Knight, influencing, said, "Spirits have infinitely better facilities for moral progress than mortals ; but as to how they use them is a matter of choice. I am no fatalist. Neither men nor spirits are mere things, but moral actors. . . . Certainly, there are planets whose surfaces are so re- fined, fruits so sublimated, and atmospheres so ethereal, that the inhabitants peopHng them, though having an outer envelope comparable to the physical body, do not die as the term ' death ' is understood by you. They gradually throw off the external vesture in particled emanations, but do not for a moment cease to be conscious. . . . Spirits are, of course, fallible. Many of them do not understand either the laws or the effects of psychological control as they should. Mediums are both benefited and injured by magnetic in- fluences. This depends upon the wisdom and motives of the intelligences. . . . The guardian, other things being equal, can the most effectually impress a medium. All mediums shoidd have in attendance organized cii'cles of vSANDWlCH ISLANDS. 15 spirits. This is a shield and a safeguard. No effcjctive medium is ever left entirely alone. Some member of the sympathizing circle continues with him, to minister as neces- sity demands. . . . " No : none retrograde as a whole. There is no law of abso- lute retrogression. While mortal or spirit may retrograde morally, they may at the same time be advancing mtellec- tuall}^ ; a man, while declining physically, may be progress- ing spiritually. Action must ultimate in progress in some direction. Upward, as one of your poets wrote, ' all things tend.' " THE SANDWICH-ISLAND GROUP. This ocean-embosomed cluster of isles, nine in number, has some hundred thousand inhabitants. When discovered by Capt. Cook, the group was supposed to contain full four hundred thousand. Remnants of mounds, temples, and ruins indicate it. Diuing the second voyage of this naviga- tor, a difficulty arising, a high chief was killed by one of the captain's party. The slain chief's brother swore revenge. In the midst of the fray, Capt. Cook himself shot a man. The natives, who had pre\dously supposed him a god, found him decidedly human. Though finally killing him thi'ough retaliation, they dissected his body for anatomical purposes. History and legend agree that these natives were never cannibals. The entrance to the harbor is through a passage in the coral reefs that girdle the island of Oahu. Seen from the harbor, Honolulu is exceedingly beautiful. The city, em- bowered in fresh gref.n foliage, numbers six thousand ; the district, twelve thousand, only about two thousand of whom are white. The Hawaiian Hotel, and the public buildmgs generally, would do honor to any larger city. The gardens are decidedly tropical. They are irrigated from mountain streams. Fruit clogs the market. Sugar-plantations and pulu-fields plead for more workmen. The " labor-question '' 16 AROUND THE WOULD. here, as elsewhere, awaits solution. All men are about aa lazy as the}^ can afford to be. It is very common to see native women trooping along the streets horseback. Some were richly though quaintly at- tired in long riding-habits. They all, like the Turkish and Arab women of the East, ride astride their poor-bred horses ; and some deck themselves in ribbons and othelo flowers. Their dresses are entirely loose and flowing, all the weight coming upon the shoulders. On the outskirts of the city, 'mid tropical shrubbery and graceful palms, I saw taro growing, the original Hawaiian food of the natives. It thrives on soil that can be flooded. Exceedingly nutritious, it not only tastes, but, when steamed in their stone ovens, looks, very much like huge, rough Irish potatoes. From this taro, they make their poi by pounding it into a semi-fluid consistency, and then storing it in gourds and calabashes. It is eaten by dipping one — if very thin, two — fingers into the pot of poi, and thrusting them quickly into the mouth. THE MORALS OF THE ISLANDS. These Hawaiians are considered by some ethnologists as vestiges of the Semitic stock. Others think to the contrary. It is certain that the primitive poetry of these natives bears a striking resemblance in style to the Hebraic. They prac- ticed, when discovered, circumcision, and had what corre- sponded to the Israelitish " house of refuge." They had three orders of priests, — Kaula, prophets ; Kilo, magicians or ghost- seers ; and Kahunas, the teachers. They have a tradition among themselves, that they came from Tahita. Europeans brought among them liquors and syphilis, and taught them war upon the principles of Christian civilization. As a people, these aborigines are rapidly dying off fi-om the island. Civilization, such as it is, hastens their inevitable doom. In twenty years there will probably be no Kanackas, SANDWICH ISLANDS. 17 pure-Lloodecl natives, left upon the Hawaiian Islands. Tlieii moral degeneracy has kept pace with their physical. Though nominally Christianized, their " easy virtue " is patent in the flocks of half-castes that throng the city and mountain dis- tricts. If missionaries have not filled the brains of these poor heathen with intelligence, and exalted moral principles, they have managed to fill then- own purses. Morals are at a low ebb. Many white men — Germans, French, Portuguese, and some Americans — live with native women unmarried. This is considered no social disgrace, since commenced many years ago by distinguished officials. Color is no bar to office or position. The government of these islands was a constitutional mon- arch5\ Queen Emma, who traveled through Europe and our country a few j^ears since, became queen by marriage. The Sandwich Islands have now become a republic, and de- sire annexation to the United States. The natives oppose it. Though behef or unbelief in no way affects the truth, still the belief of a man, if held in earnest, and woven into the spiritual frame of mind, must necessarily exert a controlling influence uj)on the springs of action, and leave its impress upon the life. The natives originally believed in good and bad spirits, in a future life, and the return of their departed from the land of shades. Their idols were the images of deified mortals. Dr. Damon, a resident of Honolulu, or some of the Polynesian groups, for thirty years, assured us that these aborigines all believed in a future existence when first visited by missionaries. The belief bubbles up spontaneously in the souls of all tribes and races. HAWAIIAN SPIEITISM. Candid research will ultimately force the concession that the lowest and most degraded tribes have deep-rooted ideas of gods, spirits, and a future existence. Otherwise, they are not men, but monkeys, apes, baboons, chimpanzees, gorillas ! Man devoid the cranial organs of hope, veneration, conscien- 18 AROUND THE WORLD. tioiisness, ideality, and spirituality, is not a wholeness, — is not man. With these organs, he necessarily conceives of another and superior state of existence. His notions may be rude ; still they are germinally bedded in truth. Under all skies, man naturally believes in the superhuman, in the return of departed ancestors, and the care of guardian spirits. This is pre-eminently true of this Hawaiian branch of the Polyne- sians. Faith of this kind is so rooted in their souls' soil, that thirty years' missionary drillings have in no way eradicated it. Bennett, after describing, in his historic sketches, their mythology, and the '■Habu imposed by the chiefs," says there was always a " class among them who practiced sorcery and conjuration, and offered prayers to the spirits." Richardson assures us, that, in all past times, " they dealt in divination, calling upon the spirits of their dead to assist them in war, and bless them in peace. Their gods were the spmts of departed heroes." A strong effort was early made to convert Kamehameha I. to the Christian religion. The purpose signally failed. He listened, however, with great gravity to the churchal argu- ment for the "necessity of faith in Christ;" and then, says Jarvis, he coolly replied, — " By faith in your God, you say any thing can be accomplished, and the Christian will be preserved from all harm. If so, cast yourself down from yonder precipice ; and, if you are preserved, I will believe." It was a clincher ! SINGULAR SOCIAL CUSTOMS. Naturally trusting and affectionate, Hawaiian men, when meeting in their more primitive times, embraced and, kissed, as do women in civic life. Missionaries, forgetting Paul's injunction, " Salute the brethren with a holy kiss," have taught them a different way of salutation. Their priesthood was hereditary. Each chief, before the consolidation in a SANDWICH ISLANDS. 19 kingdom, had his family priest, who accompanied him to bat- tle. In Christian countries this class of men is called chap- lains, pra}dng for victory through war, in the name of the Prince of peace ! In the better period of these islanders, a falsehood was considered a fearful offense, and foeticide was unknown. The male child then born, and now also, takes the prefer- ence. This is the case in the Christian kingdoms of Europe. Lunatics were supposed by these Sandwich Island people to be obsessed by angry spirits. In their old traditionary ages, the man had but one wife. Marriage ceremonies, as such, were unknown. Wooing for a season, the parties commenced living together, and, if reciprocally pleasant, the union was understood to be perma- nent ; if unhappy, however, they mutually agreed to separate. If children were born into their rude homes, it was then considered disgraceful to annul the marital relation. They are exceedingly fond of their children, and in every depart- ment of life are naturally kind and generous. INTELLECTUAL DECLINE. Though doubtless true, " That through the ages one uuceasmg pui-pose runs," still there are lost Edens of civilization and culture. If lit- erature and art, like the nationahties they crowned, have had their ebb and flow, so civilized countries and island tribes have had their golden ages now dead and buried. Extant monuments, mammoth ruins, and exhumed scrolls, substan- tiate the position. Who has not been charmed while reading, in Baldwin's •' Pre-Historic America," of that ancient Peruvian road ex- tending over laarshes, ravines, rocky precipices, and the great chain of the Sierras, — strongly walled on each side, and quite as long is the two Pacific railroads ? These macad- amized roads were constructed, according to Gomara, long 20 AROUND THE WORLD. before the reigns of the Incas. Humboldt, examining them, writes, — " Owe eyes rested continually on superb remains of a pa\ed road of the Incas. The roadway, paved with weU-cut dark porphyritic stone, was twenty feet wide, and rested on deep foundations. This road was mar- velous. None of the Roman roads I have seen in Italy, in the South of France, or in Spain, appeared to me more imposing than this work of the ancient Peruvians." So there are remnants of a magnificently paved road around the Isle of Maui, one of the Hawaiian group. It was constructed long ages ago by a king of the island, named Kahihapilani, who was expecting his sister from the island of Hawaii. This masonry, as well as templed ruins, point to a once high, but now entombed civilization. And, what is equally interesting, the native poets of the Hawaiian Islands were an order by themselves, something like the Druidic bards of Briton. These were called Kahu- meles (poet-bards) in ancient times, and were not unlike the Homeric balladists, and Grecian rhapsodists. Their chant- like poems were handed down from father to son ; and they proudly sung that in the halcyon ages their ancestors came from Asia. Their poems, drawn from natural scenery, were weird and musical, but neither measured nor rhythmical. This is true of those old compositions of the Vedic ages. Declining and degenerate, the Hawaiians have no genuine poets now. Some, however, excel in music and mathematics. Natives constitute the missionaries' chou's. Many of the old Hawaiian chants in praise of their chiefs and their gods have been committed to writing by Judge Fanander, for the pur- pose of publication. Fortunately, while attending a natives' " hula-hula " dance in the queen's gardens, I hstened to some of these meles, or ballad-songs. RECENT PHENOIVIENA. The apostolic " discerning of spmts " is a gift as common in "heathen " as Christian lands. The Sandwich Islanders, SANDWICH ISLANDS. 21 though frequently seeing and conversing Avith departed spirit friends, speak of their manifestations with great re- serve ; because the missionaries have assured them that all such phenomena were the " devices of the Devil." The gentlemanly editor of a prominent daily, and an old resident of Honolulu, Mr. Prescott, narrated to us several interesting incidents relating to Spiritism in his own family, and others among the natives of the islands. My visit to the Leper Hospital, in the suburbs of Honolulu, was deeply interesting. For this disease no specific has been found. . . . Among volcanos, Kilauea is thousands of times larger than Vesuvius. It is seldom quiet, being an over- flowing, ever-bubbling lake of fire, with an area of nearly twenty acres. . . . Called Dec. 17 to see Bishop Willis — a long-bearded English ecclesiastic, wearing long, tight stockings, a sort of knee-buckles and a very long coat — a quaint sixteenth- century figure. He belongs to the past. The present Hawaiian Government, with the Avealthy mis- sionaries, desires annexation to the United States of America. But the masses, especially the natives, are opposed to it. A vote relative to annexation has never been submitted to the people. To-morrow we sail for New Zealand by way of Samoa. CHAPTER IV. THE PACIFIC-ISLAND RACES. " The two kinds of jjeople on earth that I mean, Are the people who lift and the people who lean." How true of this liuman hive, humanity — the workers and the drones, the toiling lifters and the lazy, dragging leaners ! I hate laziness. What a day of bustle, — coaling, loading, transferring, packing ! The beeves have been driven in from the moun- tains by the natives. Panting, frightened, and fevery with heat and rage, the}^ are roped on the wharf by the sailors, beaten, thrown to the ground, and tied with strong hemp- en cords. Then while bellowing, struggling, and frothing at the mouth with very madness, they are dragged by marine taclding up into the vessel to be killed and eaten by pas- sengers on the voyage. And the crew — sadly do we say it — greedily ate the fevered bodies of those poor, bruised, dead animals ! In the year 2000, meat-eating will be consid- ered a monstrous practice, only paralleled by the cannibalism of the South Seas. THE DAILY OUTLOOK. Sunny are these days, sailing 'mong the Pacific Islands, decked in the rich and gorgeous drapery of the tropics. ' ' Oh ! soft are the breezes that wave the tall cocoa, And sweet are the odors that breathe on the gale ; Fair sparkles the wave as it breaks on the coral, Or wafts to the white beach the mariner's sail *" THE PACIFIC-ISLAND RACES. 23 The Bishop of Oxford describes the inhabitants of Poly- nesia as " children of nature, children of the air, children of light, children of the sun, children of beauty, taking their greatest pleasure in the dance." Though these paradisaical isles sparkle hke gems in the Pacific, the origin of the races peopling them is a study. Ethnology and comparative phi- lology can at most but point to the quarries whence nation- alities and tribes were hewn. From the rich table-lands of India, and the undidating valleys of Iran, came those primeval emigrants that gave to the West culture and intel- lectual activity. But the extreme East, the Micronesians and the Polynesians of the Pacific, whence these inter- tropical races? During our week's stay on the Hawaiian group of islands, and others since, the natives, their customs, laws, languages, and rehgious ideas, have been a constant theme of thought and study. It is generally conceded that the languages spoken by the milhons of Polynesians have the same common structure, with such differences as may be resolved into dialects result- ing from long non-intercourse. When a native New Zealander and Hawaiian meet, though more than four thousand miles apart, they are oo closely connected lingually, that they very soon engage in a free interchange of ideas. This, in some degree, is true of the Marquesan, Tahitan, Samoan, and others of the Polyne- sian stocks. The system of "taboos " in some form runs through all the Southern Polynesian famihes. THE SnCROISrESIANS. Glance at the location of your island neighbors in Ocean- ica. Have we not all one father ? Are we not brothers aU ? The numerous Caroline, Ascension, Gilbert Islands, and others adjacent, evidently belong to the ^Nlicronesian division, and were peopled either by the Indo-Chinese, or Northern Malayan races. The ruins on Ponapi, one of the Caroline group, built entirely of basaltic prisms, indicate a marvelous 24 AROUND THE WOELD. civilization in the past. The present natives have no con- ception why nor by whom such massive walls, parapets and vaults were constructed. The present race upon the Gilbert Islands has stout physical developments, high cheek-bones, fine straight hair, black and glossy. The aquiline nose is the rule, and the cerebrum is largely developed. They are less savage than some of their trafficking visitors. SAvarms of children, innocent of any clothing, flock to the harbor upon each landing. So proHfic are they yet, on the greater number of these islands, and so uncontaminated with the diseases of foreign civilizations, that their popula- tion is deliberately limited by practicing abortion to prevent too great a number of hungry mouths. They should study the Malthusian method of depopulation, or welcome to their sea-girt shores Shaker missionaries to initiate celibate com- munities. THE MARSHALL ISLES. These are a large group of the Micronesian family, ranging from 4i° to 12° north latitude. They were first discovered by the Spaniards in 1529, and called by them the "good gardens." The inhabitants were straight, light-colored, and strangely tattooed. Their dress was decidedly Adamic, — fig-leaves and mats about their loins ! At present the men wear full beards, are energetic, and very hospitable. The women are dressed in fine matting, have long black hair, and decorate themselves profusely in shell-jewelry. Ocean travelers con- sider them beautiful, though minus corset and waterfall, pannier and paint. They traverse the seas with large retinues, are eminently clannish, and count nobihty of descent on the mother's side. While worshiping deities, they hold the spirits of their an- cestors in great reverence. They are skilled, say European residents in their midst, in every kind of "incantation and necromanc3\" They consult their mediums when in a state of ecstasy, and heal by beating and striking the diseased THE PACIFIC-ISLA^^D RACES. 25 part. Consecrated groves, and sacred spots, are common among them. Their desolate cemeteries are in waving groves of cocoanut trees ; and weird-shaped paddles lift their blades for tombstones. They are evidently of Japanese extraction. THE SAJMOANS, OR NAVIGATORS. These very important islands, a sort of half-way steamship house in the Pacific, for recruiting, repairing, and re-provis- ioninsj, lie between latitudes 13i° and 14^° south, and about 170° west longitude. Our captain made a short call at this group, — nine in number, — too short for our individual pur- pose. They are volcanic in origin, safe to approach, and partially belted with coral reefs. Pago-Pago is a deep, land- locked harbor on the south side of Tutuila. Upolu is the most thickly populated, containing twenty thousand inhabit- ants. Our gentlemanly commander, of the steamer had permitted us to study his maps and charts of this densely- wooded group of isles — gems of the ocean — before reaching them. The afternoon approach was too grand and gui g"0us for the pen to paint. The sea was a poHshed mirror ; the sky, glass ; the sun, well adown the western spaces, gold ; and the scattering clouds, crimson and purple, were chariots of fire. The steam checked, and the vessel at rest, the natives flocked to us like birds to a banquet. Physically, they are a splendidly-made race, with full, high foreheads, wavy beards, and white, exquisitely-set teeth. They are light in color, and quick in motion. They have dark-brown hair, eyes black and expressive. The occasional reddish haii- seen had been bleached. Honest and trusting, they are evidently of Indo-Malayan origin. The women are well-formed, healthy, handsome, and, what IS more, are famed for their chastity. Both men and women go as naked as new-born babes, except weirdly-woven leaves and sea-grass aprons around their loins. Our passengers bought of them war-clubs, fans, fruits, head-gearings, birds, 2(1 AROUND THE WORLD. baskets, spears, and shells. INIissionaries are among them. Already they exhibit hopeful signs of civilization in wishing to barter for tobacco, whiskey, fancy-colored clotliing, and lime preparations for bleaching their hair. Some of these natives bleach or color the hair red ; Americans, black : tastes differ. The scenery upon these islands is transcendently beautiful. Cascades are numerous, the valleys fertile, and vegetation varied and luxuriant. Tropical fruits, cocoanuts, pine- apples, bananas, citrons, bread-fruit, oranges, limes, sugar- cane, coffee, taro and dye-wood trees abound in rich profusion. The largest portion of Upolo has a fine garden soil, where large springs of pure water bubble up. and flow in thousands of little streams toward the sea. The whole group is ex- ceedingly valuable. Action has already been taken by the United States toward annexation. Among the code of laws drawn by these native chiefs, to be recognized in commercial relations between the United States and the Samoan Islands, are the following : — " 5tli. All trading in distilled or spirituous liquors, or auy kind of in- toxicating drink, is absolutely prohibited. Any person so offending shall be fined one hundred dollars on conviction before a mixed court. All such liquors found on shore, and kept for sale or barter, shall be seized and destroyed. If any native is found intoxicated, the individual who has supplied him ^yith drink shall pay a fine of ten dollars. If any for- eigner be found drunk or riotous, he shall pay a fine of ten dollars. "6th. Any person found guilty of offermg inducement to a native female to prostitute herself to a foreigner, to pay a fine of ten dollars; and any native female found guilty of prostituting herself to a foreigner, to pay a fine of twenty dollars." And these Samoan chiefs are called " savages," " degraded heathen," to whom tobacco-using, wine-drinking Christian missionaries must be sent to save them from hell ! I can but deplore that conceited ignorance which charac- terizes two classes of Americans, — radical rationalists who crankly assert that there " are islanders in the Pacific, and THE PACIFIC-ISLAND RACES. 2T ferocious tribes in Africa, that have not the faintest idea of God or another state of existence ; " and pompous clergymen who everlastingly prate about the "polluted and fiendish heathen " of Oceanica. We spent Christmas at Apia. THE FEEJEES. Islands, like individuals, have their reputations. Those dotting an ocean which covers one-third of the entire surface of the globe should be more thoroughly surveyed and ex- plored. The Feejees, constituting quite an archipelago, contain one hundred and fifty-four islands, seventy of which are in- habited. They are governed by chiefs. The natives, though dark-hued, are noble in mien, shrewd, and enterprising. Missionaries have given them a hard name. Bear in mind the Feejeean side of the story has neither been heard nor pub- lished. They stoutly deny having been aggressors, yet admit themselves good at retaliation. A. G. Findlay, F. R. G. S., says, — " These islanders have been misrepresented. Late visitors speak very highly of their honesty, cleanliness, refinement, and virtue." The men have heavy, bushy heads of hair, and wear full beards. When discovered by the navigator Tasman, they knew nothing of the venereal diseases that accompany Chris- tian civilization. The taint of syphilis is not yet common among them. They had, wheif first visited, no idols. They believed in transmigration and immortality. They wor- shiped in caves and groves. They also had their mediums, who, when in ecstatic states, foamed at the mouth ; but every utterance breathed in this rude trance-condition was carefully noted as the voice of a god. They build their houses in cocoanut groves. Often they are umbrella-shaped, and rudely thatched. It requires little or no labor to sustain life. Enterprise is little more than a dream all through these equatorial regions. The English are aiming to get full control of the Feejee group for cotton- growing, and a military basis. 28 AROUND THE WORLD. HOW WERE THESE ISLANDS PEOPLED ? What the camel is to the Arab, the horse to the Asian Mongul, the canoe is to these islanders. In the construction of their proas ^ — sea-crafts made of bread-fruit wood, — they display great talent. The better class of them will carry a hundred men in the open sea. The sails and rigging are managed with great dexterity. They provision these proas with cocoanuts, taro, preserved bread-fruit, &c. ; which, with their skill in fishing, enables them to sustain voyages for sev- eral months. This partially explains the method by which the different and widely separate Pacific isles may have been peopled. The Malay race — nomads of the sea — whether for adventure, commerce, or plunder, had but to put their wives and utensils into their canoes, and, drifting with the prevailing trade-winds, were sure to reach some island, inter- mingling with the inhabitants ; or, if uninhabited, establish- ing a new race. Not only have these Polynesian natives swift-sailing canoes, but they have rudely-constructed maps of their own inven- tion, made of large tropical leaves, and sticks, tied in straight and curved lines, indicating ocean winds and currents. And, further, Japanese and Chinese junks have been blown to sea, performing long voyages, and finally stranding, with their occupants, upon distant islands. Bancroft tell us that these have even reached the continent of America. In December, 1832, one of these junks was wrecked on Oahu, near Honolulu, after having been tempest-tossed eleven months. Only four, out of a crew of nine, survived. The population of Lord North's Island must have originated in some way similar to this, as it is over a thousand miles dis- tant from any other land. Furthermore, the mariner's compass is not new. Naviga- tion is old as tradition. China was known to Egypt more than three thousand years before the Christian era, and a commercial intercourse maintained between the countries. THE PACIFIC-ISLAND RACES. 29 Africa was circumnavigated by ancient Egyptian mariners ; and among the relics of that old civilization may be traced indications of an acquaintance with the American coast. In that period the geography of the world was well understood. Ancient spirits inform me that many of these Pacific islands are the unburied prominences of a submerged Polynesian continent having an immense antiquity. The speech of this great oceanic nation, derived from the primitive Sanscrit of say fifteen thousand years since, tinged with the Indo-Malay, lies at the base of the present Polynesian languages. Rem- nants of the ancient Sanscrit have been discovered in the highlands of Cential Africa. Our captain, unrolling his Pacific charts one day, directed my attention to the locations of over sixty islands, definitely marked by the old navigators, that have entirely disappeared, sunk in fathomless depths. In consonance with these cata- clysmic changes, Mr. Brace, in his " Races of the "World," as- sures us that both Dana and Hale notice evidences of a gradual subsidence of islands even within the historic period ; the ruins of temples on Banabe, for instance, being found partly submerged by the sea. Biblical dogmatists have sought to trace relations, and draw parallels, between the Israelitish " lost tribes " and the Polynesians. This theory vanishes Hke mist, however, when it is considered that the Hebrews themselves were derivatives, — the refuse and clan- nish outlaws sloughed off from the mature civilization of Egj'pt. Burrowing with, these Hebrews borrowed their religious notions from, the lower castes of the Egyptians. They were afterwards modified into Mosaic theology. And Egypt, be it remembered, received her rehgious doctrines largely from India. CIVILIZED TEEATIVIENT OF THE ISLANDERS. The testimony of missionaries and explorers is alike uni- form, that Pacific traders have, with few exceptions, exhibited the worst traits of meanness, injustice, and rank dishonesty. 30 AROUND THE WORLD. Dr. Damon of Honolulu said a certain shipmaster, dealing with the Marshall Islanders, agreed to pay for cocoanut-oil a fixed amount of tobacco ; but, in place, delivered " boxes filled with pieces of old tarred ropes cut up to correspond in length with tobacco-plugs." This was civilization ! Anothei merchant trader, dealing with them, sold them for " stipulated brandies, kegs filled with salt water." Two captains of whalers from Massachusetts under friendly pretenses coaxed several chiefs aboard ; then, moving out into the harbor, demanded a heavy ransom for their delivery. Others, aflame with passion, have with basest motives induced the native women to come upon their vessels. And, when these poor natives have retahated, the cry has been "savages," " cannibals," " fiendish heathen ! " When the New-Zealand aborigines were at war, a few years since, with the English for the illegal seizure of their lands, the unsuspecting Maoris were imprepared for an attack, be- cause it was the Christian sabbath. They had been taught that Christian soldiers would neither attack nor fight on the Lord's Day. And yet, on this sacred day, they rushed out well-prepared, attacking and butchering hundreds of the trusting heathen. The wrongs, deceptions, and diseases of ci\dlization have been so burnt into the bodies and souls of these aborigines, that they distrust everybody with a white skin. Are they blamable ? The distinguished Rosser sadly says, — " It is painful to be obliged to report that disease is now being rapidly introduced even among the Ralik Islanders by whale-ships passing the islands, and which now permit natives with females on board their ves- sels. How sad that the safe residences of missionaries among them should be the causes of attracting physical and moral death to their shores ! With but few exceptions, the contact with the representatives of civilization serves to render their diseases more deadly, and their vices more vicious." So far as missionaries have taught these islanders to read and write, taught them the industries of civilization, they THE PACIFIC-ISLAND RACES. 31 have done a good work. On the other hand, their shrewd, sellish conduct, and theological dogmas, have proven a curse to the native mind. To get a correct opinion of the millions peopling the Pacific islands, their manners, habits, purposes, laws, and religious convictions, one must see and converse with them, with old vo3'agers, explorers, and non-sectarian residents. . . . To thoroughly know the Samoan natives is to love them. They are naturally honest, peaceful, affectionate and hos^jitable. What a pity to have them Christianized! They have a soft, warm, brown skin. Their hair is bushy and black unless bleached with lime. They wear mulberry-bark cloth about their loins. The men are generally tattooed. They go through with the process about the time that the youth reaches " pubic virility "' — assuming the toga virilis. The distinguished writer, Robert Louis Stevenson, was buried up near the summit of an evergreen mountain over- looking Apia. He loved the native Samoans, and dying, wished his mortal remains buried upon one of Samoa's sunny isles. CHAPTER V. OCEAN-BOUND TOWAEDS AUCKLAND. " Over space the clear banner of mind is imf urled And tlie habits of God are the laws of the world." Owing to the dictates of latitute and longitude to-day, we dropped a day — going to our berths Tuesday night and waking up Thursday morning. This comes from sailing westward. The sunsets are gorgeous. It is a fitful season for medi- tation. Some jDoet thus sings of man's origin : — "Heaven's exile, straying from the orb of light." Who at times does not feel himself an exile, a prisoner? The world is a hotel. The soul is imprisoned in the body ; and a fashionable conservatism would make us all moral pris- oners by compelling conformity to the shams of society. Why not sleep each alone, as did Pythagoras ? Why not wear linen only, as did Apollonius ? Why not wear the hair and beard long, as did sage and savant in the palmy period of the lost arts ? If sha\dng at all, why not be con- sistent, shaving away the eyebrows, and even the hair, as do the Chinese ? Louis XII. ascended the French throne at the age of nine, beardless. His courtiers, famous for their cringing servility, rushed to the barbers, and came away clean-faced. That stern old state counselor, Sully, refused to shave, as he had previously done under the reign of King Henry IV. These vain, face- scraped courtiers often made merry at the attorney's odd appearance. Sully, bearing their jests for a OCEAN-BOUND TOWARDS AUCKLAND. 33 time, said to the king, " Sire, when your father of glori- ous memory consulted me upon important affairs, the first move he made was to turn awo.y all apes and buffoons from his court ! " This silenced the French dandies. Our floating institution darts like an arrow from crest to crest. The passengers are jolly in defiance of the discom- forts. Why not make the best of every thing ? Why peddle pains and aches to excite and elicit sympathy ? Any thing but a peevish, fault-finding disposition. John the Rev- elator heard " music," not complaining, in heaven. The wise patiently submit to life's destiny, having learned to " labor and to wait." All this mental unrest, this hot seeth- ing, this stern struggling, this toiling up the steeps, this magnetic fire that comes pouring down from the higher realms, is only "The spirit of the years to come, Yearning to mix itself with life." Watching the tremulous waves, this morning, while bap- tized by a dripping shower, I yearned to stand upon their white crests, and have all the world's dust washed away from my garments, making my heart so warm, so sunny, so like a bank of fresh, fragrant flowers, that the careworn and weary earth would delight to thereon rest, in faith and trust. My fellow-passengers have engaged to-day in all kinds of amusements, — sleight-of-hand, trickery, story-telling, and ventriloquizing in imitation of pigs and puppies ; any thing to be heroes. My mania for books makes me an odd one. The pleasure is exquisite. Blessings on book-makers I Oh that men would think more, write more, converse more, and talk less ! Blab and witty words are cheap. Books all afire with the personaUties of their authors nourish the soul. Pythagoras enjoined not only purity and patience, but seven years' silence, upon certain of his students, as preparatory steps to wisdom. This way, this way, O Samian ! 34 AROUND THE WORLD. Public speaking on the ocean is more novel than pleas- ant. Invited by a committee, through the purser, a nice fellow, to address the officers and passengers upon the divine principles of the spiritual philosophy in their rela- tion to immortality, we so did, Dr. following in a most interesting manner. In accordance with an arrangement between the doctor, his attending spirit-guides, and ourself, previous to saihng, we held semi-weekly seances for spirit- communications. In answer to several inquiries, Mr. Knight said, — ' ' We can not well draw the line of demarkation between physical mat- ter and spirit-substance, they so iuterblend and over-lap. There are atoms, and molecular pai'ticles of physical matter, in their highly subli- mated state, more ethereal perhaps than some portions of spirit-sub- stance. This unsteady upward-reaching is seen in every direction. There possibly may be gorillas with reason flaming up to a higher point than in some of the lowest tribes of men. But mark, they^ the goriUas, have reached their acme ; while these lower tribes have but just started in the Une of human possibilities. " All insects, aU venomous reptiles, and brutes, are tottering and im- perfect structm'es ; and it is illogical to predicate immortality of imper- fection. The arch can not stand without the keystone. . . . "By your request, I have inquii-ed of John who was meant by the ' elect lady,' in his second epistle ; and the gist of the response was, the phrase elect lady, a symbolical expression, referred to the Chris- tian rehgion in its purity. This lady elect was the lady of his faith, the most spiritual religion of that age. Spiiituality pertains to the femi- nme, intellectuality to the masculine." A strange controlling intelligence now comes, making the medium exceedingly spasmodic. Listen! It is a weird, unknown tongue. What does it mean ? . . . He has gone, and Mr. Knight comes to explain : — " This spirit was a chief of the Oahu Island, who lived in a morta'l body over a century since. He desired to inform you that himself and his people believed in spu'it-mteroourse when on earth, though it was connected with much superstition. Since his transition, he has pro- gressed rapidly ; and still he cherishes a deep interest in the remnanta of his race. He is very desii'ous to have you I'emain on the islands jou OCEAN-BOUND TOWARDS AUCKLAND. 85 have left, and preach true doctrines, in contradistmction from the false and gloomy theology that is being taught by missionaries." Another change. Swailbach, a German spirit, comes. The accent is unmistakable. " I have just taken possession to say that I had visited these natives as a spirit many times in the past. They are Aryanic rather than Semitic in origin. In a very remote period, this root- race moved south- easterly from the high plateaus of India, through Malayan lands, towards the Pacific islands. ' ' Do you understand the language of these natives ? ' ' Xot as they speak it in their mortal bodies ; and yet I can converse freely with them when disrobed of mortality. Ours is largely soul lan- guage. The movement of a muscle, throbbing of a nerve, or slightest facial expression even, of a spirit, is language, and self-interpreting. Study of many earthly languages, unless for the purpose of teacliing, is time unwisely spent. Languages, earthly in origin, like nationalities, gradually fade away as spii'its ascend and unfold interiorily, the tendency being from the special to the imiversal." Aaron Knight, again controlling, said, — " Those failing to make the right marks along the pathway of human life have to retrace their steps after entering spirit-life. There is a band of explorers with us. They are properly naturalists. Some of them are very ancient spirits. . . . We are now passing over the ruins of a grand old city, which had vast siu-bui-ban forests. The petrified rem- nants indica te a likeness to the mammoth trees of California. They were an enlightened race. The people lived in stone houses, and were engaged in mechanical and pastoral pursuits. They were the progeni- tors of your American momid-builders. Were your clau-voyant eyes opened, you would this moment see under debris, sands, and sea-plants, the scattered remnants of a long-forgotten civilization. As volcanic isles and lofty mountains have been thrust up from the ocean's depths, so islands and continents have sunk 'mid commotions imknown to eai-thly history. The sinking of the new Atlantis continent some nine thousand years before the Platonian period, as mentioned by Plato, Solon, and the Egyptian priests, is no myth." 36 AROUND THE WORLD. USES AHT> ABUSES OF SPIRITUAL SEANCES. " You, and multitudes of others," exclaimed the spirit Knight, " should never sit in circles. Many of the best mediums on earth have never even attended a seance. And yet for scientific observations, or for obtaining physical manifestations, circles help to more readily concen- trate the magnetic forces. But to see clairvoyants, to see the impres- sional, or the truly inspired, sittmg in promiscuous circles, holding hands, and imbibing diverse aural exhalations, is to us mentally pauaful. " Morbid and nervously sensitive natures require, or think they require, a constant change. They have a mania for the stimulus of seances, not understanding that promiscuous magnetic blendings are as injurious to the soul as sexual promiscuity is to the body. These, all these practices opposed to the natural laws of life, yield but thorns for the flesh, and obsessions for the spirit. . . . Every mortal has a guardian, and often this guardian spirit does not wish the individual to become a medium. Spiritualists seem to greatly lack wisdom relating to the nature and mis- sion of mediumship. Only the few are fitted for it." HATS AND BALD HEADS. Overboard went a hat. It broke the lull of the hour. Did the winds reason ? What do men wear hats for, — those tall, silken, stove-pipe, cylinder-shaped hats ? Indians in the West, and Pohmesians in the Pacific, have no bald heads. These natives, taught by Nature, let God's sunshine and cooling breezes fan their bare heads. Is there not much to be learned of " savages " ? In Christ's Hospital, the " Blue-Coat School," London, founded by Edward VI., the boys, even the seniors, all go bareheaded. This was a condition of the endowment. And, though they thread city streets in the hottest weather, there has never a case of sunstroke been known among: them. THE ITALIAN TEACHER. To-day Parisi Lendanta controlled the medium again. He is an Italian spirit, profound and peerless. Among other things he said, — " We are now passing over moimtain ranges towering up from the bot- tom of the ocean. These lofty rocky eminences serve somewhat to hold OCEAN-BOUND TOWARDS AUCKLAND. 37 the waters in check, and render them ' Pacific' This ocean has no such raised plateau across the bed-surface as has the Atlantic. Owing to its uneven depths, and rough volcanic ridges, it would be difficult to cable." His elucidation of the atmospheric and electric stratifica- tions above us was singuhirly philosophical. It is im- possible to fully report him. He flourished near the close of the Middle Ages, — that period which elapsed between the decline of ancient learning, and the revival. The Dark Ages are said to have ceased about the year 1400. They terminated, however, at various times in the different coun- tries of Europe. The destruction of feudalism, the inven- tion of printing, and the discovery of America by Columbus, mark the general period of resurrection from the darkness of the mediseval ages. I find this spirit, Parisi, perfectly familiar with the his- tories of Petrarch, Tasso, Dante, Ariosto, and other Italian litterateurs. Dante's ideal of the old Latin poets was Virgil, much of whose fame was owing to the Fourth Eclogue, interpreted by churchal fathers as a prophecy of Jesus Christ. Virgil quoted Livy and Lucan to prove that gods and angels had wrought spiritual marvels through mortals during all the ages of antiquity. The sibylKne oracles should be exten- sively read by scholars. ONE OF THE SOUTH-SEA ISLANDS. January 1, 1897. — Safely in Auckland, New Zealand, dis- tant from New York nearly nine thousand miles. The city, built upon high land, looks fresh and vigorous. The gardens come down close to the sea. Inclusive of suburbs, it num- bers fifty-five thousand. Natives in the province of Auckland, divided into five tribes, number some twenty tliousand. June and July are the coldest months of the year ; and January and February, corresponding to July and August in England and America, are the warmest. Neither serpents nor noxious reptiles of any species have been found upon the New-Zea- land islands. Toads and frogs are also uidcnown. Has some 38 AROUND THE WORLD. Saint Patrick here lifted his magic wand ? The original in- habitants call tliemselves Maoris. They are a dark race, but athletic, brave, ingenious, and intelligent. Efforts to Chris- tianize them have not been veiy successful. In the New Zealand group they number forty or fifty thousand. Racially they belong to that branch of the Polynesians that are of Indo-Malayan origin. They have handsome black hair, straight or aquiline noses, and well-balanced brains. They tattoo themselves. Auckland remained the capital of New Zealand till 1864, when it was removed to Wellington. The great attraction of Auckland, like San Diego, California, is its harbor. This is simply magnificent, being fringed with evergreen hills and dotted with verdure-clad islands. Its museum abounding in Polynesian curios, its art gallery rich in paintings, and its large free public library unique in manuscripts and rare old books, all combine to present a panorama of the good and the beautiful. An excursion out and up on to Mount Eden, an extinct volcano, was exceedingly enjoyable. All around may be seen the craters of other volcanoes. In some far-away his- toric period tliis must have been a G-ehenna corner of the world. Only three or four hours by steamer from this city are the famous Wairnera Hot Springs, situated in a most charming spot, with inviting scenery in every direction, hot swimming- baths, thickly-wooded hills and lovely evergreen lawns. CHAPTER VI. NEW ZEALAND. " I have come from a mystical land of Light To a strange country ; This morn I came, I must go to-night — But others are coming, women and men. Eternally." Certainly — coming and going, moving in cycles I This is the divine method. If essential spirit, as the sages of the past and the seers to-day teach, is substance — if the spirit- ual is the real, and if this objective life is but the shadow- woi'ld of effects, then, that parliaments of angels should conceive plans above to be executed on earth is botli possible and natural. All conscious intelligences, from archangel down to man, must necessarily sympathize. None of us are wholly our own ; uncontrollable circumstances affect and un- seen helpers influence us. And so I am in New Zealand, north and south at different times. The mental atmosphere of Auckland is unlike that of Syd- ney and Otago. Its aural emanations differ materiall}' from that of Victoria. It is more Scottish. It is stiffer, sterner, and not so flexible. One breathes equally free in jNIelboume and America. Constantly summering, and wintering too, under the South- ern Cross, the evergreen foliage of New Zealand — the Britain of the South — literally charms one. The scenery seems a blending of Swiss with the Scottish Highlands. As I see the clear waters and the fern-clad hillsides from the win- dows of " mine host " — Mr. Redmayne — this sunny Febru- ary morning, they remind me not a little of deeply wooded 40 AROUND THE WORLD. isles reposing under Ionian skies, rough, rugged, and yet inviting, in some respects, as the gardens of the Hesperides. God be praised for every hill and valley, and tree and flower! In these islands the indigenous trees, whether ornamental or valuable for building purposes, retain their native verdure throughout the year. When these islands were discovered by the Dutch navigator, Tasman, 1642, they were inhabited by a bold, athletic, dark-skinned race, supposed, while closely related to the Hawaiians, to have descended from the Malaj^s ; others say from the Central Americans. They are called Maoris ; the word meaning " primitive inhabitants." In Capt. Cook's time, and after, some of the tribes were can- nibals. These natives, though superior, on the whole, to most aborigines, are fading away. They understand their destiny. There have been at times some of these Maoris in the General Assembly. Britain has set Columbia a good example in this matter. May we not hope to see, at no dis- tant day, both Indians and women in our American Congress? New Zealand is nearly on the opposite side of the globe from Great Britain, the precise antipodes being a small island seven hundred miles to the southeast. The two islands des- ignated as the North and the Middle, separated by Cook's Straits, are over a thousand miles in length, volcanic in for- mation, and contain about sixty million acres. Seen from the ocean, the land is rough and barren ; and yet the country has fine plains, open valleys, beautiful springs and rivers, and is unsurpassed in value for agricultural purposes. I have met wool-buyers here from New York and the New England States. Having a seaboard extent of some four thousand miles, with several splendid harbors, this country is destined to occupy a very important position in trade and commerce, in fact it does already. CLIMATE OF XEW ZEALAND. Though one of the finest in the world, the climate is far warmer and more genial on the western than on the eastern NEW ZEALAND. 41 coast of this group. The average rainfall is twenty-nine inches. The atmosjjhere is light and buoyant, while the winds are continually freshened by traversing an immense expanse of ocean. Not a flake of snow is seen in the northern island of this group, save in the highlands. At an elevation of six thousand feet, however, the snow is perpetual. These islands unlike many in the South Pacific, are emi- A Tattooed New Zealander. nently adapted for agricultural and pastoral pursuits. The sunny valley of the Taieri, the undulating plains, the neatly tilled fields in the rural districts, with millions of choice yet unoccupied acres, incline one to ask, " Why do tens of thou- sands remain in Britain to beg or starve ? England has col- onies and provinces enough to supply multitudes Avith homes, thus feeding her over-crowded population. Why do they not emigrate?" And so of New York and other great American 42 AROUND THE WORLD. cities ; millions prefer to stay in them and half-starve rather than to go out on the great prairies of the West and till the soil. BOTANIZING IN FERN-FIELDS. While in Australia and New Zealand, I went out several times with botanizing parties. Though fatiguing, it was thrillingly interesting; and the more so, because — as in Ireland — there are in New Zealand neither frogs, toads, nor serpents. How is this, since no St. Patrick banished them / Fuchser was a German botanist ; and the small, yet beautiful flowering plant in America, named after him, is a native tree in these islands, with a trunk from a few to eighteen inches in diameter. Tramping over the hills, one is continually re- minded of extinct volcanoes and the carbonaceous period. Some of the tree-ferns are over one foot in diameter. They grow straight and erect as chiseled pillars, while their long, arching, thick-ribbed leaves spread out like roofs of dainti- est beauty, through which sun-rays can scarcely gleam. The birds we saw on the mountains were few, but exceedingly tame. These natives, the 3Iaoris^ neither shoot nor other- wise harm them. What a lesson to Christian sportsmen ! The kiwi is the last living representative of the New Zea- land wingless birds. These wild birds, so called, will some- times take crumbs from the hand, and peck at the nails in your boot-heels when sitting down to rest in a thicket. The moa, a gigantic wingless bird, corresponding to the giraffe in the animal kingdom, has long been extinct. The bones are valuable to naturalists. Several skeletons of this bird may be seen in the Christchurch Museum, nine, ten, and even twelve feet high. The flesh was eaten by tlie Maoris ; the feathers were used as ornaments, and their skulls for holding fcattooing-powders. NEW ZEALAND. 43 MAGNIFICENT SCENERY AND MINERAL SPRINGS. Among the natural wonders of this island group, are the geysers, or boiling lakes. They are said to far surpass th^se of Iceland. Columns of steam, rising from these volcano- heated springs, may be seen above the white cliffs while sailing along the coast. Approaching them, the roar seems like mighty engines madly working in the bowels of the earth. And, what is singular, no two throw up water of exactly the same character. Some are clear as crystal, others are dark-hued and mudd}^ ; some are impregnated with acids, some taste of soda, many contain sulphur, and one is salt as the briny ocean ; but they are all intensely hot and boiling. The natives make use of them for all kinds of skin diseases and rheumatic complaints. Not far distant from these springs, on the North Island, are the Tarata Falls, fringed with weird shrubbery and incrusted boughs. The sprays and glassy sheets, pouring over molded alabaster, are strikingly beautiful. Below are delightful baths of different temperatures. The baths of the ancient Romans, so famous in history, could not have surpassed these adjacent to the boiling lakes. The crystallized terraces are absolutely mag- nificent. Te Roto Wanapanapa is a strange-looking greasy lake of yellowish-green water, clear, cold, and deep. There are hot, muddy springs close by, throwing up a gray- colored, greasy clay, which the roaming Maoris call Kaikai^ and eat with avidity. The prettiest hot spring is Nawharua, called the Moss Spring. It is used for cooking purposes. The quantity of sulphur around some of these lakes is enor- mous ; and the mineral impregnations give the waters all kinds of colors. Some of the terraces are pink, some pur- ple, and others white or orange, caused by crystallizations. Names written on them are soon coated over, becoming per- manent ; while fern-leaves, flowers, and the fine swinging twigs, seem to liave been converted into stalactite-shaped crystals of silver and gold. No painter can put this scenery 44 AROUND THE WORLD. upon canvas. A Walter Scott or Bnlwer-Lytton could hardly do the subject justice. The prince of all romancers, Dumas, would fail. WINES AT FUNERALS. Officiating once at a funeral in Dunedin, New Zealand, there were Avines put upon the same table with the uncof- lined corpse. After I had spoken the words of consolation, the sectarian neighbors present, and a portion of the mourn- ers, " imbibed." This is quite common, I am told, at Christian burials. Think of it, — wines at births and wines at f unerais . Think of it, O ye priests ! who, guzzling wines, beers, and brandies, solemnly preach that " no drunkard can enter the kingdom of heaven ! " Is it not to the silly and stupid cus- tom of " entertaining '' by drink that Hamlet alludes, when he says to Horatio, " It is a custom more honored in the breach than the observance " ? The peerless Shakspeare makes Cassio to say, " Oh, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains ! that we should with joy, pleasure, revel, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts f^^ During an English election overthrowing the reigning Gladstone party, both the Scriptures and liquors were used at public gatherings for political purposes. Flags and ban- ners bore this inscription : " Beer and the Bible — a national beverage and a yiational Church!^'' Chinese, Persians, Arabs, "heathens of the East," often taunt and scourge Christians for their habitual drunkenness. One of Buddha's command- ments was, " Drink no liquors, neither wines ; but walk steadily in the path of purity." Mohammed said, " O true believers ! surely wines and games are an abomination, a snare of Satan." The heathen (so called) of Asia, have wines neither upon their sideboards, nor even at their funerals. NEW ZEALAND. 45 CANISTTBALISM. As one stimulus leads to another, why should not meat- eatmg open the way to cannibalit;.m ? If, according to the unphilosophical epicure, flesh is a better food than vegetables, grains, and fruits, and higher, too, in the scale of sustenance, why not subsist upon it altogether ? And so, if human flesh is still higher, more readily assimilating with the juices and forces of the system, because magnetically humanized, why not eat that also ? The Maori cannibals of New Zealand did this very thing. When the giant-like moa-birds failed to supply necessary meat, the natives resorted to cannibalism ; eating, flrst, enemies slain in battle. Animal food they must and would have. One old Maori told me that he had helped eat eighteen human beings. He declared that baked man and baked pig tasted very much alike. Horse flesh is eaten in London and Paris ; and snakes are eaten b}^ certain African tribes. The Rev. Mr. Baker said to me, while at a dinner-partj'' given by the Rev. Dr. Lang, Sydney, " I have visited one hundred and ten of the South-Sea Islands, and am perfectly acquainted with their manners, customs, regulations, and religious notions. They believe in one or more gods, and in an existence hereafter. Those on the Isle of Lifu, Loyalty Group, Western Polynesia, beUeve that the good spirits of their ancestors — whom they sometimes see as apparitions — dwell on the sunny side of the island, and the bad spirits among the lagoons on the other. They are dark complex- ioned, and capable of a high civilization. Some of these islanders yet continue their cannibal practices." This cler- gyman personally knew one old chief who had helped to eat and digest thirty human beings. They generally bake them. It is considered an honor to drink the blood, and feast upon certain parts of the bodies, of those slain "on their l^attle- fields. They believe the silly adage that every part strengthens the part allied to the animal — or to the man- corpse being eaten. 46 AROUND THE WORLD. MAN-EATESrG UNNATURAL. Ammals, only in exceptional cases, devour each other. It was not innate barbarism, nor a monstrous heathenism, that drove the South-Sea Islanders to eat their fellows. It may be accounted for in the extermination of the moa-birds and the native rats, depriving them of flesh-food. Europeans, when shipwrecked and at the point of starvation, have laid hold of and greedily devoured their companions. History re- lates many occurrences of this kind. Before casting too many stones at those " vile savages," it were well to glance at an- tiquity. Donovan, in Lardner's Cyclopedia, assures us that " our own ancestors were of the number of these cannibal epicures." Diodorus Siculus charges the Britons with being anthropophagi ; and St. Jerome, living in the fifth century of the Christian era, accuses the British tribes, not only of a partiality for human flesh, but a " fastidious taste for cer- tain delicate parts of it." Gibbon brings the same accusa- tion against the Caledonians. Allied by a common bond of sympathy, war in Christian nations, and cannibaUsm among the native islanders of the Pacific, must perish together. THEOLOGICAL CANNIBALISM. Did you ever attend the Sunday services of the Ritualists? What a display of millinery ! — the alb, girdle, stole, maniple, and chasuble ; referring, it is said, to the trial and death- scene of Jesus ! After the waving of the incense, comes the administration of the eucharist, which eucharistic elements are declared to be the " veritable flesh and blood of Jesus Christ." The Rev. Mr. Bailey, the English clergyman of Christ- church, New Zealand, says that the "priests of a certain order offer the sacrifice ; and such mysterious authority do they wield, that the real body and blood become infused into the bread and wine upon the altar." These are the teach- ings of the " Prayer-Book." At the words ; " This is mv NEW ZEALAND. 47 BODY, THIS IS MY BLOOD," you must believe that the bread and wine become the real body and blood, with the soul and the Godhead, of Jesus Christ. . . . Except " ye eat my fleshy and. drink my blood, there is no life in you." 'Mid gorgeous vestments, bursts of music, and clouds of incense curling above the altar, the priest asks the members of the church present to eat the miracle-made flesh, and drink the blood of Jesus the son of Joseph, called, in his time, Joshua the Gal- ilean. If this bread 2'.s made "-flesh," as the clergy affirm, eating is cannibalism ! There arc few churchal practices more opposed to the genius of the nineteenth century, than these little select Sunday parties denominated the " Lord's Supper." Open wide your church-doors, O Christians! and spreading out, with liberal hands, good coarse unleavened bread, fresh fruits, and pure cold water, invite in " the poor, the halt, and the blind ; " and then converse of the Naza- rene, his benevolence, his self-denial, his devotion to princi- ple, and his martyrdom upon Calvary ! THE MAORI RACES. The original inhabitants of an island or country must nat- urally interest all thoughtful persons given to ethnological studies. According to Tasman, Cook, D'Surville, and other navigators, New Zealand, when discovered, was thickly inhabited by a most interesting people, — one hundred thou- sand or more in number. In color they were of a yellow brown or olive. Those that I have seen on camp-grounds, or strolling along the streets, were of a light copper hue. Blood, in many of them, is strangely mixed with that of Europeans. In hight they are above middle stature, erect, well proportioned, and muscular. Their countenances are open, eyes dark, foreheads finely develoj)ed, noses large, broad at the l)ase, and often aquiline, and their hair black, waving, and often inclined to curl. Some of them have as 6ne, heavy beards as Americans. Their hair never falls off fiom their heads, but gradually turns gray. The old natives 48 AROUND THE WORLD. affirm that their ancestors lived to be very aged, and then died by slowly wasting away, as a lamp goes out for lack of oil. THEIR HOME MATTERS. These Maoris, as relics demonstrate, were certainly, in the past, more than semi-civilized. Those yet living are the degenerate specimens of a nobler ancestry. In social life they were industrious, good-natured, temperate, and cleanly. They dwelt together in large fenced villages. Rising early, the men went to their land-cultivations or sea-fishing-, and the women to cooking or basket-making. Their house- building, and architectural conceptions generally, were in- finitely superior to those of the Australian aborigines. They excelled in some few manufactures, especially in weaving mats and garments from phormium^ — New-Zealand flax. This plant, growing spontaneous, reminds one of the wide green flag-leaves seen in American marshes. The fiber is wonderfully tough ; and the mats and rude dresses, made from it by the natives, were both useful and ornamental. This flax is now being utiUzed for the English market. Iron was unknown to the New-Zealanders when Capt. Cook landed upon the island. Their stone axes of various sizes, used for felling trees, were made of green jade, basalt, or hard gray stone. For water-vessels, they used the ripened rinds of gourds. Oil they kept in calabashes similar to those we saw in the Sandwich Islands. Their musical instru- ments, such as the flute, were made from human bones, or the hollow stems of wood. They did not buy and sell, but dealt in exchanges and gifts. Priests generally named the children. They practiced polygamy. As a religious animal, man is polygamic and promiscuous ; as a spiritual being, he is monogamic in marriage, and chaste in marital conduct ; and as an angel he is a cehbate. The embryo angel is within. Men may become angelic on earth. This is the resiUTection with God's ^' will done on earth as in heaven." NEW ZEALAND. 49 The chiefs of these tribes were known by iheir tattooing-, dress, insignia, and ornaments. The eldest child was the favorite one, ruling the others. A species of slavery existed among them. Slaves could never reach the rank of patri- cians. When these Maoris met, they did not shake hands, but affectionately rubbed their noses together. This is their present practice. While some American women carry poodles for pets, these natives carry little pigs. They are very hospitable to strangers. Cannibalism was unknown in their earher traditionary times. Their decline commenced with the advent of the missionaries. The " Wanganui Her- ald," in an able editorial upon the " decline of the native race," says, — " Let one get into conversation M'ith any of the old settlers, principally whalers, -whose recollections date back some forty years, and he will be astonished to learn how these tribes have disappeared off the face of the earth, and how the present representatives of these departed races, noble specimens of civilized savages as some of them are, bear compar- ison in stature, appearance, mental qualifications, or social influence among their respective tribes, with their departed ancestors. It is almost saddening to watch the gradual though certain diminution among those once powerful /ia/;us; and it is no less humiliating to have to acknowl- edge, that, in the majority of instances, death and disease can be uner- ringly traced to their intercourse with the less civilized j5a^e7«a, the white man. In Otaki, the centre of missionary influence on this part of the coast, will be found the greatest immorality, the most degraded mental and physical condition, and consequently the most rapid and certain decline, among the natives as a people. . . . Yearly statistics unerringly state, that, so far from the natives being benefited by their religious, political, and social intercourse with ourselves, the reverse is the case- Disease and death are on the increase ; and crimes, often of a heinous natui'e, are committed more frequently in proportion to the progress of their acquaintance with our manners and our customs, our habits and our views, our treachery and our falsehood. This seems an appalling picture, but nevertheless it is a true bill." TATTOOING. The term " tattoo," of Oceanic origin, relates to those indelible devices pricked into the skins of natives. The 50 AROUND THE WORLD. New-Zealanders used originally the wing-bone of a bird, sharpened to a point. This they dip into the juice of a tree, producing the desired color. The tattoo-artists hold a high social position. The process is painful and tedious. Chiefs are very thoroughly as well as weirdly tattooed. Besides being ornamental, the operation is regarded with religious veneration ; the one thus decorated being placed under the protecting care of some spirit. The god of the tattoo is called Tiki. The practice is ancient. Herodotus informs us that " both in Thrace and Lybia the natives were accus- tomed to puncture and color their faces, and various parts of their bodies." WHENCE CAME THESE MAORIS? The native population may be classed into several divis- ions, distinguishable by peculiarities of dialect, physiognomy, and disposition. These divisions are dimly traceable to the crews of different canoes finding their way to these islands. Evidently they came from different Polynesian groups. They certainly did not come from Australia, as their color, habits, religion, and language demonstrate ; neither are they the descendants of the Sandwich Islanders, as some have contended. Among substantial reasons to the contrar}^ the following may be mentioned : The New-Zealanders carrj'' their burdens on their backs, much like our North-Amer- ican Indians ; while the Sandwich-Islanders carry thens on a balance-pole, something like the Chinese. Further, these New-Zealand Maoris have no words for swearing, no tem- ples for religious worship, no idols, no refuge-cities ; nor did they ever practice circumcision. Many of their taboos, tahu, were utterly unlike those of the Hawaiians. But, affirma- tively, the carvings of the Maoris agree wonderfully with those of the ancient inhabitants of Central America. Like those Central-Americans, these aborigines obtain fire by fric- tion ; they steep kernels of Karaka for food ; and have reli- gious as well as many other customs resembling those remote NEW ZEALAND. 51 nations, as late discoveries at Uxmel and Palenque plainly show. THE MAORIS' RELIGION. Men, civilized and savage alike, are naturally religious. The principle is God-implanted. These New-Zealand Ma- oris believed in a plurality of invisible gods, and a future existence, although the tapii took the place of religious observances. They had priests and " sorcerers," and held in- tercourse with their "ancestral dead." They were troubled with demons. The heads of the chiefs were tabooed (tapii)^ no one being allowed to touch them, or hardly allude to them, under fearful penalties. They believed in charms, and wore them. Death, to them, was the passage to the Eeinga^ the unseen Avorld, or the place of departed spirits. They prayed to their gods for aid and direction. They did not fear to ■die, yet preferred living in their mortal bodies. They believed that individuals occupied different apartments in Reinga, according as their earthly lives had been good or ill. Messages Avere frequently given to dying persons to bear away to deceased relatives in tliis shadow-land of souls. All of their funeral wails over their recent dead ended with, " Go, go, dear one, away to thy people !" It is a singular coincidence that the Fijians, Tahitians, Tongans, and Sa- moans, as well as the New-Zealanders, considered the place of departure of the spirits, on their journey to the unseen world, as the western extremities of their islands. Burning Kauri gum for a kind of incense at funerals and festivals, they considered the trees pointing skyward as sym- bolizing life in a higher, better state of existence. This res- inous substance, Kauri^ — imported for making varnish, — is not obtained in the present living Kauri pine-forests, but only in the Auckland province of the north island, M'here such trees originally grew ; yet of such ancient forests no other trac3 remains than the resin now found deep in the soil. 52 AROUND THE WORLD. MAORI SPIRITUALISM. Relation to, and communion with, a world of spirits are beliefs almost, if not completely nniversal. The native tribes and clans of these islands are not only aware of holding intercourse with the so-called dead, but they understand the abuse, often using their mediumistic privileges for selfish ends. During their wars with the English, they were uni- formly made acquainted by vision, clairvoyance, or clairaudi- ence, with the movements of the British troops, before action in battle. Not a plan of her Majesty's officers could be kept from them. The leading chief of the Han Hans was a noted medium and medicine-man. He distinctly said that the " spirits of the dead " guided him to his victories. The Maoris in the north island still own much territory, have their king, believe in communicating spirit intelligences, and hold but little intercourse with pakelia, the white man. The medium-priest in a tribe is called Tohunga. They meet in close apartments, and chant their songs till the flick- ering fire fades away, when the Tohunga goes into his ecstatic state, and the spirit controlling tenders counsel, describes his new habitation in spirit-life, gives the names of those whom he has met, and bears messages in return to kindred in the hio'her life. That these Maoris of New Zealand talk with immortals, no intelligent man having lived among them dis- putes. Are they Spiritualists, then, or Spiritists ? Spiritual- ism is the synonym of the harmonial philosophy. Spiritism is the bare fact of spirit-converse. TOHUNGA, AND \1)ICES OF THE DEAD. The racy writer of " Old New Zealand," * treating of spiritual experiences among the Maoris, says in substance, " A popular young chief, something of a scholar, and regis- ter of births and deaths, had been killed in battle ; and, at the request of friends, the Tohunga had promised to evoke, • Old New Zealand, by the Pakelia, p. 157-161. NEW ZEALAND. 53 on a certain night, his spirit. The appointed time came. Fires were lit. The Tohunga repaired to the darkest corner of the room. All was silence, save the sobbing of the sisters of the deceased warrior-chief. There were thirty of us, sit- ting on the rush-strewn floor, the door shut, and the fire now burning down to embers. Suddenly there came a voice out from the partial darkness, ' Salutation^ salutation to my family^ to my tribe^ to you, pakeha, my friend ! ' Our feel- ings were taken by storm. The oldest sister screamed, and rushed with extended arms in the direction from whence the voice came. Her brother, seizing, restrained her by main force. Others exclaimed, ' Is it you ? is it you ? truly it is j^ou ! aue ! aue ! ' and fell quite insensible upon the floor. The older women, and some of the aged men, were not moved in the slightest degree, though believing it to be the spirit of the chief. " Reflecting upon the novelty of the scene, the ' darkness visible,' and the deep interest manifest, the spirit spoke again, ' Speak to me, m}' family ; speak to me, my tribe ; speak to me, the pakeha ! ' At last the silence gave way, and the brother spoke : ' How is it with you ? is it well Avith you in that country ? ' The answer came, though not in the voice of the Tohunga-medium, but in strange, sep- ulchral sounds : " It is well with me : my place is a good place. I have seen our friends : they are all with me ! " A woman from another part of the room now anxiously cried out, ' Have you seen my sister ? ' — ' Yes, I have seen her : she is happy in our beautiful country.' — 'Tell her my love so great for her will never cease.' — ' Yes, I will bear the mes- sage.' Here the native woman burst into tears, and my own bosom swelled in sj^mpathy. " The spirit speaking again, giving directions about property and keepsakes, I thought I would more thoroughly test the genumeness of all tliis ; and I said, ' We can not find your book with the registered names ; where have you concealed it? ' The answer came instantly, ' I concealed it between the 54 AROUND THE WORLD. tahuhu of my house, and the thatch ; straight over you, as you go in at the door.' The brother rushed out to see. AU was silence. In five minutes he came hurriedly back, with the book in his hand ! It astonished me. '* It was now late ; and the spirit suddenly said, ' Fare- well, my family, farewell, my tribe : I go.'' Those present breathed an impressive farewell ; when the spirit cried out again, from high in the air, ' Farewell ! ' " This, though seemingly tragical, is in every respect liter- ally true. But what was it ? ventriloquism, the Devil, or what ? " This last paragraph is simply a sop thrown out to please the orthodox. It might be paralleled thus : Peter, James, and John heard the spirits of jNIoses and EHas " talking with Jesus" upon the Mount of Transfiguration. " But what was it ? — ventriloquism, the Devil, or what ? " Spiritualism is as common in the isles of the ocean to-day as it was in Palestine when the Nazarene there lived, eigh- teen centuries since. Dillon, commanding the East India Company's surveying ship " Research," visited the island of Vanikovo,— lat. 11° 40' south, long. 166° 40' east, — for the purpose of inquiring into the fate of the French expedition under La P^rouse. At this island Dillon tells us there were large hoKses set apart for the use of disembodied spirits. Markham, in " The Cruise of ' The Rosario ' in the South Seas in 1871," refers to the fact as related by Dillon. The New Zealand mind is naturally skeptical ; and some of the Spiritualists tread upon tlie ver}^ border-lands of ma- terialism. As did the ancient Jews, they continually ask for a " sign " — some astounding spiritual wonder. ^Nlany new- fledged Spiritualists prefer a combative, frisky sensationalism to the historic, philosophic, and pathetic style of lectures. The two methods of public utterance are the solid and the sensational : the one is enduring, the other ephemeral. Straws flash and flame ; but the clear, glistening anthracite warms the apartment, and gives permanent comfort. NEW ZEALAND. t)b NEW Zealand's prosperity. While India suffering from the plague and famine was the poorest country I saw during my third tour around the world, New Zealand was the most prosperous, and among the reasons are the following : The government controls the post-offices and the post- office savings bank. Postage is cheap. The government also owns and manages the telegraph system ; and a ten-word message anywhere upon the islands costs but a six^^ence. The government owns and operates the telephone system which is excellent, and the charges are more than one-third less than they are in America. The government gives State or mutual life insurance, and the premium rates are considerably lower than the average rates charged by the private companies. Accord- ingly, every government policy-holder feels that he has the whole country as a guarantee behind him. Eight hours constitute a legal day's work. The schools are free. The government has expended nearly $2,000,000 in establishing special and technical schools. The government has established a government bank, thus making deposits safe as the government itself. Victoria and South Australia have done the same. The law imposes a tax upon incomes, and an ordinarj^ tax upon land and mortgages, the amount of which is fixed annually by a " rating act," and also an additional graduated tax upon the unimproved value of land held in large blocks or tracts. The government, through parliamentary law, administers and is responsible for all estates, thus insuring justice and safety to the widow and the orphan. The government owns and operates the railroads, and the passenger and freight rates are such as give about three and one-half per cent, interest on the capital invested. Traveling railroad rates are considerably less than in my native country. 56 AROUND THE WORLD. Conciliatory boards have been established by the govern- ment in every city and town where disputes are likely to arise between labor and capital. Each board is comprised of three representative business men of capital and three repre- sentatives from the labor organizations and the district judge — a veritable board of equity ; hence a strike is next to im- possible in New Zealand. New Zealand has also woman's suffrage. Bishop Cowie of these islands, my traveling companion by steamer from Auckland to Sydney, was a devoted advocate of extending full and free suffrage to women. " It had already," he said, " raised the standard of politics, and elected a higher class of officials." Those who most violently opposed the woman's suffrage movement were gamblers, liquor dealers, and the men that owned or patronized houses of ill-fame. Our sainted mothers, wives, sisters, daughters — in a word, women, being the subjects of law, and punishable if violating law, it is but the simplest act of justice that they have a direct voice in the making of law. We had the pleasure of meeting in London one of New Zealand's most worthy citizens, the Hon. Mr. McLean, ex- member of Parliament. A gentlemen by nature, he is a stanch Spiritualist in theory and practice. Pleasant are our many memories of him. Our friend of old sunny recollections in Dunedin, Robert Stout, the erudite lawyer, is now Sir Robert Stout, a member of Parliament, residing in Welling- ton. Whatever position he may occupy relative to either religious or political measures, he is not, neither can he be, a bigot. And, further, he is honest and conscientious. Parlia- ments and Congresses need just such statesmen as McLean and Stout. CHAPTER VII. MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA. " But all through life I see a cross ; There is no gain except by loss, There is no, life except by death, There is no vision but by faith. Nor glory but by bearing shame Nor justice but by taking blame — So, the Eternal Father saith. ' Locked up in a floating prison a month or more over 10,000 miles of sea, it was refreshing to reach Sydney, noted for its handsome harbor, magnificent scenery, parks, recrea- tion grounds and gardens dotted with plants and flowers from every known part of the world. At the steamer's landing I was met by several friends. The welcome was most cordial. Several of their faces were familiar, and their hands just as friendly as when a score of years previous I was lecturing for them upon the phenomena and philosophy of Spiritualism. Disorganized as the Spiritualists of the city are they gave me II most hearty public reception. The hall Avas filled to overflowing ; but before the exercises ended the demon of discord stepped in, and a number of supposed Spiritualists proved themselves to be only spiritists devoid of that for- giveness, that charity, that fraternity and that tender sympa- thy and forbearance that become those who have drank from the fountain of angel communion ; for many Spiritists are quite as human as the orthodox that they condemn. 58 AROUND THE WOKLD. Preferring the solid land to water, I journeyed by railway from Sydney to Melbourne ; observing, as I dashed along, a very superior country for grazing, for farming, as well as vast forests of eucalyptus trees. This is a sort of a national tree, tall, unique, medical. New South Wales is free trade ; Vic- toria is tariff, and so my luggage had to be overhauled and examined at the dividing-line between these two non-feder- ated provinces. REACHING MELBOURNE. Sunny was the morning that I reached this stirring, bus- tling business city. Mr. W. H. Terry, upon whose forehead J*; — / Si- .J B Ikik, %: M ^ '■*• 1 - A' 4 B^W ■ m ^ ■^ W. H. Terry. the angels wrote long ago in letters of gold the word " faith- ful," was at the station to meet me. I was soon taken to his country residence, surrounded by fruit-trees, waving pines, ornamental shrubbery and a great variety of flowers. MELBOUENE, AUSTRALIA. 59 It is several miles out, but of easy access by railway to the city. Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, and the finest city in the Southern Hemisphere, has a population approaching five hundred thousand. It stretches along, dotting and fringing both banks of the Yarra to within a few miles of its mouth. Though quite English in architectural appearance, Mel- bourne, considering its age, is a most magnificent city. Its climate and geographical situation, as well as its extensive suburban parks, lawns and gardens, can elicit only profuse praise and commendation from travelers. CHANGING WITH THE PASSING YEARS. What changes I Avas my common exclamation.^ There had been so man}" changes in the city since my fnst visit to the city, and for the better, that I hardly knew some portions of it. The then suburban fields are now studded with neat cottages — the buildings in some localities have grown up more towering — the tramways now dash along the streets, and thrift marks lawn, garden and grove. The principal streets are wide, well-paved, and brilliantl}^ lighted in evening-time with gas. Along the curb-stones, in some of the streets, run rippling streams of pure water. There is no doubt of its being a decidedly healthy city. Epidemics are almost unknown. It is said that the first case of hydrophobia has yet to occur. Could dogs, pleading, ask for a healthier, better paradise? Nothing surprises me so much in this country as the museums, fine public libraries, and free reading-rooms. The city librar}- contains over five hundred and fifty thousand volumes. Others, connected with the university, or other public institutions, are nearly as large, and accessible daily, free of charge. This is a blessing to the poor. The parliament " Education Bill," making education secular and compulsor}-, was bitterly opposed a few years ago by bishops, priests, and aristo- crats. This was to have been expected. The priesthood in all 60 AROUND THE WORLD. lands aims to keep the people in ignorance, or to so monopo- lize their education as to turn it into sectarian channels. Edu- cation is the key-word of the age. Schools should he free, and education compulsory, under all skies. In the ratio that men- tal and moral instruction is enforced, crime diminishes. To this end Barlow says, " It may be safely pronounced that a State has no right to punish a man to whom it has given 7io previous instruction^ Sir Thomas More writes to this effect in his " Utopia " : '•'• If you suffer your people to be ill-edu- cated, and their manners to be corruj)ted from their infancy, and t\ien punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposes them, what else is to be concluded from this but that you make thieves, and then punish them ? " PARKS AND FLOWER GARDENS. If flowers are the alphabets of angels, gardens are the delight of gods and good men. The Melbourne Botanic Gardens, beautifully situated on the south bank of the flow- ing Yarra, some half a mile from the city, cover an area of a hundred and fourteen acres, and abound in almost an innu- merable number of trees, shrubs, plants, and ornamental flow- ers, snowy, crimson, and golden. The palms and ferns are exceedingly fine ; and the deep emerald of the tropical foli- age is, on this January day, absolutely magnificent. The city and suburbs comprise in the aggregate not less than three thousand five hundred acres. These reserves are not mere enclosures, but most of them are laid out, planted, and ornamented in the most approved style. The eucalyptus abounds everywhere. It is said there are some fifty species, the wood being excellent for ship-building and railroad-ties. The foliage is beautiful ; some are clothed in beautiful blossoms and the leaves are said to have a thera- peutic value. These eucalyptus back in the gullies and mountains rival, if not excel, the renowned forest-giants of California. Through the kindness and financial courtesy of Vice-Consul Stanford, brother of the late Senator Stanford of MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA. 61 California, I journeyed with Mr. Ross up among the eucalyp- tus forests and fern gullies of the mountains. The accommo- dations were excellent, the scenery indescribably grand, and the whole trip was sure to linger in the memory. Mr. Klein measuring a eucalyptus on the Black Spur, found it four hundred and eighty feet high. The minster spire of Strasbourg has been pronounced the highest of any cathedral on the globe, sending its pinnacle to the height of four hun- dred and sixty-six feet ; the great Pyramid of Cheops is four hundred and eighty feet in height ; and yet these eucalyptus trees would completely overshadow spire and pyramid. AMUSEMENTS AND MORALS. Cricket, football, shooting, bay-fishing and boating on the Yarra have their daily devotees. Holidays are frequent. At these seasons, arcades, stores, offices are closed, business put aside, and the old become young again. Horse-racing in Melbourne has become a craze. Somewhere in the vicinitv of the city there is a horse-race every day of the week except Sunday. I wonder what race-horses themselves think of the business. Amusements at proper seasons and places are both right and pleasing. It is well for even the old to unbend, doff their dignity at times and be boys again. It smooths away the wrinkles, sets the blood to bounding and relieves the mind of cankering cares. But amusements should be harm- less. They should be strengthening to the muscular sj-stem and exhilarating to the mind. There is everywhere in social life the sunny side and the shady side. That only is sin that injures. The long, sanctimonious face is a certain symbol of hypocrisy, and prudish social sin-hunters see in others what is most prominent, though veiled, in themselves. Morality is based upon justice and right — and right is that which benefits self and others. The causes of a morally cancerous condition of society in Melbourne or any other city is largely owing to the preva- 62 AROUND THE WORLD. lence, and practical influences of Orthodox theology. If these sinning parties believed in the certainty of retribution, and the abiding presence of ministering spirits, they would immediately turn from the error of their ways. In Spirit- ulism, as a Christ-baptism, is the world's hope. AUSTRALIA CLIMATE. Pale and low in the south-west of clear New England skies swings the sun these wintrj^ d&,js of January. Here, in Victoria, it is nearly vertical, and the heat quite oppressive ; while the maddened dust-clouds that whirl and waltz along the streets of Melbourne are fearful to encounter. The interior of Australia is pronounced largely a desert. The rains extend back only some forty or fifty miles from the coast. When it rains in these regions it pours. Considering the latitude and marine position, Victoria can but enjo}" a climate quite genial to Europeans and Americans. Approximating the trophical, it constantly reminds me of New Orleans, and the Gulf States generally. The weather is excessively warm onl}- during tlie prevalence of the hot northerly winds. They are something like the California winds in the valleys of the interior, only more scorchingly withering. The hottest of all the months is Jauuar}-, the coldest, July. A thin ice, and occasionally frosts, are seen during the winter months June, Jul}-, and August. These frosts vary in different portions of the country, depending upon the elevation above the level of the sea. The haying season is over in January, immediately after which the farmers commence harvesting their wheat. Quite a number of Americans have become permanent residents in Melbourne. A BROAD AUSTRALIAN OUTLOOK. Though an immense island, Australia may reasonably be considered a continent. It length, from east to west, is over two thousand five hundred miles, and its breadth nearl}^ two thousand ; the northern part, approaching the equator, being MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA. 63 about four thousand miles to the south-east of India, and four thousand to the south of China. It is estimated to contain three million square miles ; fifty times the size of England, and one hundred that of Scotland. It is divided into Victoria, — Melbourne, the capital ; New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia. Each of these colonies is governed by councils, — legislative bodies something like the houses of Parliament, — under the superintendence of a governor appointed by the Queen of England. Victoria has an area of 86,831 square miles. It is very nearly as large as all of Great Britain, exclusive of her islands in the sea. A chain of hills traverses the whole colony, called the Dividing Range. The snowy Alps form the boundary between Victoria and New South Wales. They range from five thousand to six thousand feet above the level of the sea. The rivers of Victoria are neither serviceable for steamers nor magnificent in appearance. Many of them dry up during the summer months. To this the Yarra, on the banks of which the metropolis is situated, is an exception. The country back in tlie distance contains numerous salt and fresh water lakes and lagoons. They are generally shallow, except when happening to be the craters of extinct volcanoes. The country is subject to great droughts. Irrigation is required to make the countrj" blossom as the rose. RECEPTION AND LECTURE-WORK. Soon after my arrival, the Victorian Association of Spirit- ualists, of which Mr. Terry is President, gave nie a most cor- dial reception. The room was filled to its utmost capacity. There were present such old pioneers as Ross, Mcllwraith, Terry, Carson and others that greeted me on my first visit to this country. The world needed and still needs such moral heroes. After the music, the speeches and responses, tea was served with choicest foods and fruits — a most enjoyable occasion. 64 AROUND THE WORLD. THE PROGRESSIVE LYCEUM. A few days later tlie Children's Progressive Lyceum, under the conductorship of Mr. Elliot, gave me a reception all afire with enthusiasm. The music, the gymnastic exer- cises, the recitations and the addresses were most interesting — an evening never to be forgotten ! It was on my first tour to this country that I aided in organizing this Lyceum and be it said in praise its flags have never ceased to float nor has its light been dimmed or gone out in indifference. The Lyceum is a royal institute for the young. Children are comparable to sensitive buds and blossoms. Their minds are something like sheets of white paper await- ing impressions ; hence it is morally cruel to send them to sectarian Sunday-schools to be taught theological dogmas that may blight their normal aspirations, or drive them into the maddening whirlpools of insanity or atheism. The Mel- bourne Lyceum is doing most excellent work. Mr. George Spriggs, so well and so favorably known for his mediumistic gifts in both England and Australia, is now conductor. THE HEAD-CENTER. A circumference necessarily implies a center ; and the objective head-center of Spiritualism in Australia is in the "• Harbinorer of Lig'ht " and bookstore office, Austral Build- ing, Collins Street, Melbourne. It was as early as 1861 that Mr. Terry began to investigate the Spiritual phenomena. Tests unexpected and convincing were received. Evidences accumulating from time, he was mentally forced to believe that the dark gulf had been spanned, the Lethean River between the two worlds bridged, and that though a man die, he dies to live again, and is capable of demonstrating his future existence. Oh, grand fact, blessed truth ! Now, hope and belief become knowledge — and faith fruition. Mr. Terry walked in new- MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA. 66 ness of life — a life meaning immortality. Soon becoming mediumistic, he developed fine healing gifts. Diagnosing impressionally, he still treats the sick, using botanic remedies which he imports from Boston. He uses no jpoisonous, dras- tic drugs. The " Glow-Worm," conducted by the venerable Mr. Nay- lor, was at an early date succeeded by the " Harbinger of Light," owned and ably edited by its present proprietor, and which, by the way, was, and continues to be, one of the most excellent and scholarly journals published in defence of Spir- itualism. Among its corps of contributors is James Smith, whose cultured essays, articles and critical reviews long graced the columns of the Melbourne " Daily Argus." The writings of John Ross and Mr. Wilton conspire to make the " Harbinger " an honor to the cause it represents. MEDIUMS IN AUSTRALIA — GEORGE SPRIGGS. " O for the touch of a vanished liand, Or a sound of the voice that is still ! " Multitudes in all ages re-echoed these words. Human life is brief — the future endless ! And which is it to be, a dream- less annihilation, or a conscious, progressive existence in a better, higher land of immortality ? How are definite an- swers to these all-important inquiries to be obtained? — An- swer — through mediumship, and mediumship only! These psychic sensitives alone can roll the stone away from the mouth of the sepulchre. A writer in the Melbourne " Daily Herald " said there were five hundred mediums in the city. This was as right- fully as seriously questioned. It was my privilege, however, to meet several, and among them Mr. George Spriggs, with whom I was privileged to have regular sittings each week, witnessing the trance, and listening to the independent, clear- ringing voice of the Indian Skiwauki. I was acquainted 66 ABOUND THE WORLD. with Mr. Spriggs' honorable record in England before meet- ing hira in Australia. It was in Cardiff, England, that this gentleman began his sittings for mediumistic development. And they were not in vain, as the future revealed. Much of his original success must be credited first to the guardian influences of wise spirits, seconded by the rigid discipline of Mr. Rees Lewis, a solid, substantial, old-time Spiritualist. His conditions, seemingly severe, were sustained by the controlling intelli- gences. All the members of this seance were compelled to strictly abstain not only from wine and from beer, but from all liquors, all tobacco, and all animal food. They were to be, and tvere during the period of all tlieir sittings, straight- out vegetarians. And upon seance days they were required to fast from after breakfast till after the evening's seance. And, further, frequent bathing and cleanliness were de- manded. Each person was required to take a bath before going into the stance room. These regulations and condi- tions were prescribed by the spirits themselves ; and they were as rigid as they were righteous. These conditions being complied with, in connection with calm, aspirational and rev- erential minds„ the finest, perhaps the grandest, manifesta- tion^ were obtained that have gladdened the earth during this century. The materialization of spirits was seemingly perfect, and other phases of manifestations were equally won- derful. Upright in his daily walk, and conscientious, never did the breath of scandal or fraud or trickery touch Mr. Spriggs' garments. He ever considered mediumship sacred ; and felt that its instruments should be consecrated to the uj)building of the ofood and the true. The above (^onditioiis instituted by Mr. Lewis were not un- like those of the old prophet Daniel before one of his great visions. These were his words : " I ate no pleasant bread, neither came there flesh nor wine into my mouth "' ; and he " fasted for three full weeks." MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, 67 How many stances are held in ill-ventilated rooms, by people with unbathed bodies, swine-stuffed stomachs, beer- soaked visceras, and tobacco-scented breaths — a very pool- room of physical and moral stench ; and, then, ask the beau- tiful angels to come with loving messages. Heavens ! Why, you give just the conditions for demons to come — demons and pretentious spirits, with lying lips and great swelling- words of flattery. Such seances are the hotbeds and nurseries of obsession. A stance room should be a consecrated room, and those entering should be clean and sweet, calm and spiritually- minded — consecrated to a conscientious search for that truth and wisdom which cometh down from above. It is with these conditions only that the best results can be secured. If we would have our loved in heaven — if we would have angels in all their spotless brightness and loveliness come into our con- scious presence, we must give them the loveliest and purest conditions possible. " How pure in heart and sound in head, With what divine affections bold Should be the man whose thought would hold An hour's communion with the dead." The Cardiff " Circle of Light," with Avhich Mr. Spriggs was connected as medium, became in England historic ; and the similar manifestations through him in Melbourne will not be forgotten by those who witnessed them. But the mate- rializing phase of mediumship drew so much vital substance from his organization that he abandoned it for the impres- sional, for the trance and for diagnosing and prescribing for the sick. In this he is eminently successful. Occasionally he gives old-time sittings, to special friends. Upon one of these most interesting occasions, the light in the room slightly sub- dued, I heard the independent voices of Ski, Stainton Moses, Frederic W, Evans, the Shaker elder ; all as natural as though in their own mortal bodies. Surely Spiritualism is 68 AROUND THE WORLD. the light not alone of America, Europe and Australia, but of the world. THE MASONIC HALL MEETINGS. " And as ye go, teach ! " was the ancient command. Our public meetings in Masonic Hall under the auspices of the Victorian Association of Spiritualists, Mr. Terry, the presi- dent, proved a very great success. The audiences were over- flowingly large and exceptionally quiet and receptive. Evi- dently the people were hungering for the truth. Sectarian creeds no longer satisfy the souls of thinkers. Manna may have fattened the Israelites ; Nebuchadnezzar may have feasted upon grass, and Calvinists upon the fiery confessions of the murderer of Servetus ; but those babyhood periods are past. The present clamors for living bread — for science, for a rational religion and for demonstrations of immortality. The music at these meetings, vocal and instrumental, was most excellent. At the conclusion of each lecture the oppor- tunity was given for asking questions, some of which if not knotty were amusing. My lectares, too, in the Lyceum Hall in the Unitarian pulpit and in the hall of the Australian Presbyterian Church and the Church of our Father were all equally well attended ; and be it said in praise of the press it reported me fairly ; especially was this true of the " Daily Herald." PROGRESS OF PUBLIC SENTIMENT. Absolute retrogradation is as impossible as for the sun to rise and set. The setting is in the seeming. No truth ever dies. The prodigal son of the parable, though wandering from home temporaril}^ was wandering into such retributive experiences of hunger and raggedness as would enable him to the better appreciate the comforts and liappiness of a lov- ing father's home. Upward all things — all true things tend. The ju'ogress of Spiritualism in Australia is not so vividly manifest in the addition of newly-organized societies and MELBOUEXE, AUSTRALIA. 69 lyceums, as in the increasing liberalitj'^ of opinion and breadth of thought. Spiritualism made the Rev. Mr. Strong's church possible. Spiritualism is a divine force — a diffusive jjower, crushing creeds and leavening the whole theological lump. Spii'itualism and primitive Christianity with its visions, trances, healings and gift of tongues are in perfect accord. The progress of liberalism and Spiritualism were especially noticeable in the general tone of the city press, which was courteous and fraternal, presenting a most marked contrast with that of my first visit. As a matter of historj^ I repub- lish the two succeeding paragraphs from the " Daily Tele- graph " — organ of the clergy, and theological kin to the clergy of the past, whose hands closed dungeon doors, whose lily-white fingers tightened the thumb-screws, whose voices kindled the fires of martyrdom, and whose churchal tongues delighted to lap the blood of heretics — and all. all for Jesus' sake ! But here are the paragraphs appearing in the " Telegraph '' nearly a quarter of a century since. " If the ' Seer of tbe Ages ' get your length in earth-life, you had better treat him well ; for I ean assure you, you will seldom find his equal. If his spirit should get the length of ' Arabula ' before his body reaches N. Z., — I don't know the latitude of this place, viz., ' Arnhula,' but I refer you for information to ' The Arabian Nights,' you should get his hide stuffed, and preserve him to posterity; the 'ages' I fear, shall nevermore look on his like again. I cannot better begin to describe him than by giving a few of the delicate epithets bestowed on this Mr. Peebles in all the newspapers, town and country : an ' impudent American,' an ' impious pretender,' a 'long-haired apostate,' a ' specious humbug,' a ' rabid lunatic,' an 'uncouth revivalist,' a ' vulgar blasphemer,' a ' longhaired apostate ! ' These figures of speech might be indefinitely multiplied, and yet half the truth would not be told. This 'great and good man ' (Peebles) in speaking works himself up to a frenzy, while with bloodshot eyes, and rolling tongue, and foaming mouth, he tells the opinion that some ' heathen Chinee ' had formed of Christianity away somewhere in the Far West. He then maudles over a Yankee story about some poor youth mourning for his granny, whom he had never seen, and who came from ' Arabula,' to pat him on the head. . . . On every occasion of his public appearance, the same hysterical 70 AROUND THE WORLD. females, the same half-crazed, wild-looking men, are to be seen ready to swallow any thing and every thing ; the more absurd the better. They cry, ' The new and beautiful faith I ' ' There is no God, but Peebles is a prophet.' " The distinguished late William Howitt, Spiritualist and author, it is said, of seventy volumes, never wrote a pithier paragraph than this : — " Many persons who have attended Spiritual seances of various kinds, and satisfied themselves of their realilj/, express their surprise that the press, as a body^ remain doggedly unconvinced. Why should they be sur- prised? It is simply an affair of Hodge's razors. Journals, whether of news or literature, like those celebrated razors, are made to sell. So long as the press thinks it w'lW pay better to abuse Spiritism than to profess it, it will continue to do so ; but should the writers for the press hear to-day, or any day, that the public is gone over to Spiritism, they will, all to a man, be zealous Spiritists the next morning. Then, and not a day earlier, nor a day later, will the press be convinced. Their logic all lies in the three cele- brated words, pounds, shillings, pence." CHRISTIANITY AND BIGOTRY. Bigotry has no head and cannot think, no heart and can- not feel. Her praj-ers are curses, her communion is death. Before me lies an evangelical work with the following title : " A Declaration for Maintaining the True Faith, held by all Christians, concerning the Trinity of Persons in one only God, by John Calvin, against the Detestable Errors of Michael Servetus, a Spaniard; in which it is also proved that it is lawful to punish Heretics, as this Wretch ivas justly executed in the City of G-eneva. Printed at Geneva, 1554." In a letter dated February, 1546, Calvin says, " If Servetus come to Geneva, I will exercise my authority in such a man- ner as not to allow him to depart alive." h\ another of Sept. 30, 1561, he writes, " Do not fail to rid the country of such zealous scoundrels, who stir up the people to revolt against us. Such monsters should be exterminated, as I have exterminated Michael Servetus, the Spaniard." This is the real genius of Evangelical Chi'istianity in Melbourne. ]\rELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA. 71 THE SPIRIT OF THE CHURCH. Read the history of Queen Elizabeth. Study the horrible secrets of that English Inquisition known as the High Com- mission Court and the Star Chamber. Through it heretics and scholarly free-thinkers were brought to the block. In after years elohn Bunyan was imprisoned, George Fox hunted and vilified, and Ann Lee banished. Persecutions, fetters, dungeons, fires, swords and inhuman butcheries have ever been the attendants of Christianity. And, what is more, these red-handed Christians have justified their murderous proceedings by quoting the commands of Scripture, " If thy brother, thy son, or the wife of thy bosom . . . sa}-. Let us go and serve other gods, . . . thou shalt surely kill him . . . . thou shalt stone him with stones that he die " (Deut. xiii. 6, 10). " If any man or woman be a wizard or witch, that is, con- sult 'familiar spirits,' they shall surely be put to death" (Exod. xxii. 18; Lev. xx. 27). " If au}^ child or children, above sixteen years old, and of sufficient understanding, shall curse or smite their natural father or mother, he or they shall be put to death " (Exod. xxi. 15, 17 ; Lev. xx.). Also, " A stubborn and rebellious son, above sixteen years of age, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, . . . such son shall be put to death " (Deut. xxi. 18, 21). That reigning Protestant Christian, Heniy VIII., issued, in harmony with Bible commands, this edict : — " Jf any person, by word, writing, &c., do preach, teach, or hold opin- ions, that in the blessed sacrament of the altar, under form of bread and wine, after the consecration thereof, there is not present, really, the 7nit- ural body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, or that in the flesh, under form of bread, is not th>'. very blood of Christ, or that with the blood, under the form of wine, is not the very flesh of Christ, as well apart as if they were both together, then he shall be adjudged a heretic, and suffer death by hurninq." * * Pickering's Statutes, vol. iv., p. 471. 72 AROUND THE WORLD. When persecuting " Bloody Mary " — a devoted Chris- tian by profession — was reproved for those merciless butch- eries perpetrated for Christ's sake, she replied, " As the souls of heretics are hereafter to be eternally burning in hell, there can be nothing more proper than for me to imitaie the divine vengeance by burning them on earth." Wherever a purse-proud Christianity has gained the most power, it has most obstructed the march of civilization, as in Spain and Italy. Guizot, the great historian of civilization in France, tells us that " when any war arose between power and liberty, the Christian Church always planted itself on the side of power, against liberty." This churchal Chris- tianity in our midst is the importation of the dark ages, the horrid niahtmare of the world. It is immoral in its ten- dency ; for it sends good moral men to hell, and the lifelong wicked to heaven, if soundly orthodox. According to the sectarist's belief, a man may commit all manner of crimes, — lie, swear, cheat, steal, and murder, — then comply with the " conditions of salvatio-n," and swing from the gallows to glory ! Consult the records of capital punishment. Nearly every victim attended, during the last weeks of imprisonment, by the clergy, makes full confession, repents, believes, and with a spasm leaps from hemp to heaven. For proof, we are referred to the repentant " thief upon the cross," and \\\ closing up with the hymn, — " While the lamp holds out to bum, The vilest sinner may retm-n . ' ' Some of the most distinguished scientists and learned jurists in England are deists, — disbelieving in immortality, revelation, and the miraculous conception. This, on church- al grounds, seals their damnation. There are many good men in churches, however, — good and excellent in spite of the demoralizing tendencies of their creeds. MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA. 73 The immortal fatliers of American indepeudence were Lheists. Abraham Lincoln was an " infidel." He made no profession of Christianity. He had no *■* saving faith in the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus." He was neither con- verted, " born again," nor baptized. He joined no Chi-intian church, and yet was hurled, with a "fell shot," from a theater into eternity ! And, if the orthodox creed be true, Lincoln, the martyred president, is in hell, — wailing this moment with the damned in hell ! If so, let it be my doom. I would prefer hell — whatever it may be — with Lincoln, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Washington, Shak- speare, Byron, Burns, Shelley, Edgar A. Poe, Dickens, Humboldt, and the whole galaxy of political, intellectual, and moral lights of the world, to that little jasper-walled heaven of the sectarian Christian, where a few lonesome, long-vis- aged saints, saved through another's merits, wave palms and serenade the Jewish Jehovah for ever ! Orthodox Christian- ity, with its fanaticism, superstition, and cramping creeds, is rapidl}' sinking, in enlightened countries^ into hopeless de- cre23itude and remediless decay. It has failed to save the world. Professing Jesus, it has practiced Moses. Its sun is setting, its corpse awaiting burial. Quietly drinking the cup, patiently receiving the poisoned arrows of secular and sectarian spite, I forwarded to the Victoria press in those days of journalistic persecution no retaliatory replies ; neither did I correct the purposed mis- representations of press reporters. Sitting at the feet of the persecuted and martyred Nazarene, I had learned to return good for evil and blessing for cursing. In the economy of the universe I knew that thorns precede moral victories, and Calvarj's ascensions into the Heavens. CHAPTER VIII. AUSTRALIA. ..." A continent of beauty sleeping, on a summer sea, L.ying all at rest and silent, never dreaming what should be, . . . Rich with stores of mineral wealth, And flocks and herds by land and sea. . . . Here through veins with young life swelling, rolls the blood that rules the world; Here as hers, and dear as honor, England's banner floats unfurled. Oh, Australia ! fair and lovely, empress of tlie Southern Sea, AVhat a glorious fame awaits thee in the future's history. Land of wealth and land of beauty, tropic suns and arctic snows, Where the splendid noontide blazes, where the raging storm-wind blows ; Be thou proud, and be thou daring, ever true to God and man ; In all evil be to rearward, in all good take tliou the van ! Only let thy hands be stainless, let thy life be pure and true. And a destiny awaits thee, such as nations never knew." — Agnes Leane. Deep is the bond of sympathy existing between Austra- lians and Americans. Both are English-speaking swarms from the same old hive. The entire population of Australia at the close of 18f>6 was estimated by census to have been 4,325,151. When the cen- sus was taken in 1891, the population of the seven colonies was 3,809,895. Sometimes New Zealand and Tasmania are included in the phrase, ^ the colonies." The above figures show that the increase during the past five years has been much less rapid than formerly. The home-born are considered more desirable citizens than immigrants. By the time of the next census Australia will doubtless number over five million. Australians are rather an uneasy and nomadic-inclined people. Last year 210,000 left Victoria — a few for South Africa, but the most of them for the gold-fields of Western Australia. Many have returned to Victoria, and more will. These gold-fields are doubtless very rich ; but it requires a mint of capital to successfully work them. The principal AUSTRALIA. 75 city is Coolgardie. It numbers about 30,000. This Western Colony has drawn hirgely from all of the other colonies. Tasmania, famous for its fine climate, is fast increasing in numbers. Its last native died a generation ago. Of the col- onies, all considered. New South Wales has excelled Victoria in the increase of population. Why, is not clear to me. Americans universally prefer Melbourne to Sydney for resi- dence or business. The latter is more conservative. New South Wales is the oldest of the colonies. It has free trade. The Kangaroo at Home. It lost 842 more people last year than it gained. It is given to boastino-. A general land boom occurred several years ago, and after collapse, with the failure of banks in Melbourne, detri- mentally affected the whole country. Now, the people are regaining their normal condition of prosperity and the coun- try its consequent attractiveness. Booms are curses, and land speculators are the bane of society. American cities have had, and still have, their fill of them. They are moral pests, heartless and seemingly soulless. Better be a beggar, 76 AROUND THE WORLD. considering the long stretch of years here and hereafter, than a clutching money-loaner or a city-lot speculator. If for no other reason, hell is a necessity to adjudicate and equalize the inequalities of this life : it is the invisible realm of discipline, the realm of revealings, where preys the undying worm of remorse. AUSTRALIAN FEDERATION. This great island continent is just now in the throes of a new birth — a union birth — a federation birth of all the col- onies into one, constituting the United States of Australia. Such federation is considered indispensable for self-protection and internal improvement alike. A single stick, as is said, is easily broken ; a compact bundle of them defies the giant. These colonies now have each its governor, sent from Eng- land ; each, too, has its imposing House of Parliament, and each makes its own local laws. New South Wales, as afore- said, is free-trade ; while Victoria has a protective tariff. Each is a trifle jealous of the other. When I visited Adelaide, March 24, 1897, on my way to Ceylon, the recently elected Federators were in session at Adelaide, the capital of the South Australian colony. Step- ping into their Parliament building, I had the pleasure of seeing this august body in council and of hearing the address of the Hon. Mr. Barton. The resolutions commenced as follows : — 1. That in order to enlarge the powers of self-government of the people of Australia, it is desirable to create a Federal Government which shall exercise authority throughout the federated colonies, subject to the follow- ing principal conditions : . . . Among this body of men elected by the popular vote was the tall manly form of Alfred Deakin, M. P., formerly so well known in the Spiritualistic circles of Melbourne. His soul at present is re-incarnated into politics — a pursuit that God knows needs just such honest and honorable men. Though generally very low and inferior, some of the abo- rigines in Western Australia have Jewish features, and fol- AUSTRALIA. 77 low the circumcising laws of Moses. Professor Holmes, an explorer, says : " Many of the natives have broad, and in some instances, high foreheads, indicating intellectual facul- ties, which, however, it seems in most cases, are more difficult to cultivate than the appearance of the head would i ■ i ■MM i. 1 1 il| R1 V ' ' p.-A-.-^'^ JS^^^^' u ^^^B^'-^^HHB^^^^^^H I^K m ,7 • { 1, HH^^^K Australian Native. lead one to expect. Among the Fraser Range blacks I found one who had a moderately aquiline nose and a decid- edly Jewish appearance." At a station not far distant from Melbourne I witnessed them hurling the boomerang, saw them kindle fires with sticks of dry wood and go through with a sort of wild, wor- shipful dance, not wholly unlike the dances of our North American Indians. 78 ABOUND THE WORLD. THE AUSTRALIAN NATIVES. The aboriginal inhabitants of Australia are called " black men." They are not black, only dark olive complexioned, bearing no real resemblance to African negroes. Seen walk- ing from you, their physical appearance is rather command- ing. They are straight as arrows, and flexible in their motions. The skin is brown and smooth, and the hair straight, black, and glossy. Their foreheads are low, eyes full and far apart, nose broad, mouth wide, and filled with large, white teeth. When sporting, using the boomerang, or throwing the spear, their attitudes are exceedingly graceful. Many of the men not only have sinewy and finely-chiseled limbs, but long beards that would naturally excite the envy of smirking aristocrats. Sir Thomas L. Mitchell says, " They are a fine race of men. Their bodies individually, as well as the groups which they formed, would have delighted the eye of an artist. Is it fancy? but I am far more pleased in seeing the naked body of the black fellow than that of the white man. When I was in Paris, I was often in the public baths, and how few well-made men did I see ! " Dr. Leichhardt, when visiting Australia, gave this descrip- tion : " The proportions of the body in the women and the men are as perfect as those of the Caucasian race ; and the artist would find an inexhaustible source of observation and study among the black tribes." These aborigines, residue of a very ancient race, number little over a thousand now in the colony of Victoria, and probably not many over a hundred thousand in the entire country. The fittest survives. Such is the logic of law. THEaLOGICAL AND SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS. Rehgion is innate, and in some form universal. Theology is man-made, stinging the bosom that hugs it. Belief affects the moral conduct. AUSTEAI.IA. 79 Ethnologists and Australian residents differ in their esti- mates of the native character. Certain missionaries, pro- nouncing them the lowest specimens of humanity, declare that they have "no conception of Jehovah, innate depravity, justification by faith, nor pardon through a sacrificial re- demption." This is quite likely ; all of which, putting the evangelical construction upon these terms, is quite to the credit of these " heathen" aborigines. It is the united testimony of thoughtful, honorable men, however, that aboriginal children are noted for retention of memory, quickness of perception, and readiness to acquire the usual elements of education. This was demonstrated by the experimental school at the Merri-Merri. And, a few years since, an aboriginal boy in the Normal School of Syd- ney carried off the prize from aD his white companions. They are trusting and affectionate among themselves. Re- spect to age is rigidly enforced. Without the hollow fashions and jealousies, without the conventional decorum and re- straints, of civilized societ}^ they sing and gambol in the eveninsc-time as though life were a continuous carnival. Suicide is unknown among them. Some of them tattoo themselves. The women use ochi-e, and other colored ingre- dients, to paint their faces. What of it ? English, French, and American women quite generally paint and powder. What a meroiless tyrant is fashion ! TESTIMONIES IN FAVOR OF THE WILD AUSTKALIANS. These inhabitants, evidently a cross between the African and the Malay, exhibit some excellent traits of character. Archbishop Folding, of New South Wales, said to the Sydney Legislature, " I have no reason to think that the primitive natives, uncontaminated with modern civihzations, are much lower than ourselves, in many respects. The missionary Ridley, noted for his candor, declared that in mental acumen, and in quickness of sight and hearing, they surpass most white people." 80 AROUND THE WORLD. Mr. Batman, not inaptly denominated the William Penn of the colony, finished an interesting account of the original inhabitants, many years since, in these words : " They cer- tainly appear to me to be the most superior race of natives which I have ever seen." This is an extreme view : the Maoris of New Zealand, and certain other races in the Pa- cific islands, are vastly their superiors. European interfer- ence here, as elsewhere, has proved a destructive curse to the original inhabitants. Essayists of materialistic tendencies have strangely, though doubtless undesignedly, underrated the intelligence, the moral and religious position, of the Australian tribes. Mr. Whitman, writing in " The Boston Radical " upon ideas re- lating to immortality, says, — " The intellectual plane of the Hottentots, Andamanas, many of the Australians and Tasmanians, and some of the Esquimaux, is but little, if any, better than that of the ape-like Bushmen just described. It has been said that the Australian savages can not count their own fingers, not even those of one hand." If this writer had ever conversed with old colonial resi- dents, and read the carefully-written works of Mitchell, Sturt, Leichhardt, and Gov. Gray ; or if he were conver- sant with the history of William Buckley, who hved with the Australian natives thirty-two years, never seeing, during this time, a white man's face, — he would not have written thus disparagingly, and unjustly too, of these aborigines. Long acquaintance and study led Sir Thomas INIitchell to exclaim, " They are as apt and intelligent as any other race of men I am acquainted with." Mr. Burke bears this testi- mony before the Committee of Council in 1858 : "I believe," says he, " the intelligence of the aborigines has been much mi'^understood. The introduction of civilization has not tended to develop their character advantageously ; but, on the contrary, they have suffered a moral and physical degra dation, which has re-acted upon their intellectual powers." AUSTRALIA. gj CLOTHESTG. — COOKESTG. — HOMES. Tacitiis informs us that the ancient Germanic tribes spent " whole days before the fire altogether naked." The old Caledonians of Scotland were described by the Romans on this wise : " They live in tents, without shoes, and naked." Gov. Hunter thus mentions his glance at the natives of Jervis Bay, New South Wales, Australia, in 1789 : " They were all perfectly naked, except one young fellow, who had a bunch of grass fastened round his waist, which came up behind like the tail of a kangaroo." The climate being temperate or tropical, they require but little clothing. In the colder portion of the season, they wear rugs made of opossum and kangaroo skins. They are not given to finery. The feathers of the emu, swan, cock- atoo, &c., are their ornaments upon important occasions. Some tattoo themselves. This custom, prevailing quite gen- erally among uncivihzed nations inhabiting warm countries, owes its origin probably to a want of mental resources, and more attractive employment of time, together with a love of ornament. They bore the cartilage of the nose to suspend bones and shells. American ladies prefer having the ears bored. The Chinese compress their feet, French women their waists. Nutrition was abundant till the invasions of the Euro- peans. They pitched their kangaroo meat upon live coals, steamed their fish, and baked their turtles in the shell. Hunting wild honey was a favorite pursuit. The mysnong- root, the ends of tender grass-bulbs, the tops of certain palms, and various wild berries, also constituted articles of diet. Their dwelling-places, though unsubstantial, were suf- ficiently comfortable for such a fine, warm climate. Sticks, reeds, boughs, and blankets, by the side of a rock or tree, with opossum rugs for breakwinds, were about all they de- sired. These homes, though comparatively transient, were made musical and happy in early night-time with the rela- 82 AROUND THE WORLD. tion of droll stories, the appearance of weird apparitions, the song, and the dance. The learned Dr. Laml ie, visiting and spending a long time either with, or in the vicinity of, the natives, gives this interesting description : "In some places, large, well-constructed habitations, shaped in the form of a span-roof, thatched with reeds, pleasantly situated on the verge of a lake, though quite unique, were highly creditable to their industry and skill." They are very warm-hearted in their natures, and kind to their aged ; they seldom have but one wife at the same time ; they will always generously divide with each other, and especially with Euro- peans who visit them. " These Australians drank only water," sajs Mr. Thomas, " till white men introduced their poisonous liquors ; and imported j^rivate diseases also, that are now rapidly sweeping them off from the face of the earth." Mr. Protector Robinson reported officially, that " nine-tenths of the mischief charged to the aborigines is the result of the white men's interference with the native women." RELIGIOUS NOTIONS AND CUSTOMS. Worship is natural to all grades of humanity. There have been found, among the aborigines in portions of Austra- lia, remnants of ancient faiths and traditional mythologies. Caves have been opened along the coast, on the walls of which were drawn unique and telling figures. The bottoms were handsomely paved. Mystic circles have been noticed on the tops of hiUs, the stones of which Avere arranged after the Druidical fashion. Enough has been discovered to indicate their connection with the civilizations of the most early Asiatic races. Though probably dimly conscious of an indivisible deific Presence, they evidently adored the starry hosts, — beheved in a multiplicity of gods, and in some sort of a future exist- ence. " Go down, black fellow ; come up, white man ! " is at present a coromon saying among them. That critical ethnol- AUSTRAIJA. 83 ogist. Strzelecki, says in his exhaustive volume, " The native Australians, recognizing a God, whose duty it is to supply them with all the necessaries of life, regard themselves as his servants. They believe in immortality, and locate their heaven in the stars : they do not dread God, but reserve all their fears for the evil spirit. To this spirit, the ' Debbie,' they render a sort of worship." Upon each returning November, the Australian spring- time, these natives hold the grand festival of the Pleiades, called the " Corroboree." It was a matter of individual regret that I could not have personally witnessed this native anniversary. Those in Northern and North-eastern Australia are far the most interesting. These " corroborees," cele- brated only in the spring, when this cluster of stars shines the most briUiantly, are evidently a kind of worship paid to the Pleiades " as a constellation announcing the spring season." Their monthly festivals and dances are in honor of the moon. An intelligent native said to me in Sandhurst, " The Pleiades are the children of the moon, and very good to us black people." The remark reminded me of a line in that Biblical di"ama, the Book of Job, — " The sweet influences of the Pleiades." These, called by the Romans '' Vergilise," the stars of spring, appear above the horizon at evening-time in November, and are visible in these regions all night. The prophets of the tribes believe that these stars rule natural causes. Some of their festivals are connected with the worship of their dead ancestors. These last three daj^s. FROM WHENCE THESE NATIVES? Their origin is involved in impenetrable obscurity; and those who have attempted to trace their migrations, or detect the links which connect them to the primitive races, have failed of satisfying even themselves. The structure of the language is said to be the most nearly identified with Ihe 84 AROUND THE WORLD. Sanscrit ; others choose to connect it with the nomad .c Tar- tars. In physical type they resemble the Malays, and yet there is not a Malay word in their language. They have religious mysteries, and a fearful method of initiation. Some of the tribes practice, like Jews and Mohammedans, the rite of circumcision. They wear charms upon their persons ; and certain of the old chiefs, looking into rock-crystals, pro- fess to see the future. They find the bodies of murdered men by watching the trail of beetles. Mourning paint to be used for the face is invariably white. Young mothers used to very frequently name their children after flowers. A sur- name was sometimes added, descriptive of personal pecu- liarities. When a child is named after another person, and this person dies, the name dies also. The dead are never spoken of by name, nor referred to only by implication. They refrain from touching a dead body, as did the Jews and ancient Phoenicians. That a bond of brotherhood exists among the dark races of Austraha and the Indian seas, is indisputable ; but whence they originally sprang, and by what cu'cumstances they became scattered over thousands of miles, through seventy degrees of latitude, remains a prob- lem to be solved. Doubtless the Australian country was peopled long before Abraham went down into Egypt, or before the walls of ancient Nineveh and Thebes were raised to their proud position. THE native's belief EST SPIRITS. Spirit is the underlying cause of all motion, energ}'', and moral activity. In the aboriginal " ceremonies, superstitions, and beliefs, there may be traced," says Mr. Parker, " relics of sun-worship, serpent-worship, and the worship of an- cestral spirits whom they profess to frequently see." They believe that one class of spirits dwell in the air, another in the mountain, and others slLll wander about among the tall trees. These natives seldom quit a camp-fire at night, for fear of encountering malignant spirits. Mr. Ben wick, AUSTRALIA. 85 among other marvels, -writes this: " A spirit appeared to a lubra^ — black woman, — announcing her speedy death. She related the occurrence the next day, with serious forebodings. Two days after seeing the apparition she died. Believing in demoniacal possession, the mediumistic ' medicine-men' of the tribe ' exorcise the evil spirits,' something as did J esus and the apostles in New-Testament times. This class of men also alleviate pain, remove disease, and heal the sick, by charms and magnetic manipulations. They dance within the inclosures of mystic rings, fall in the trance, and de- scribe the marvelous visions beheld." The Rev. Mr. Ridley gives the following account of a " corroboree : " "At Burndtha, on the Barwon, I met a company of forty blacks engaging in a ceremony of some mystical pui'pose. A chorus of twenty, old and young, were singing, and beating time with boomerangs. A dozen or more were looking on. Sud- denly, from under a sheet of bark, darted a man, with his body whitened by pipe-clay, his face painted yellow, and a tuft of feathers fastened upon the top of his head. He stood twenty minutes gazing upwards. One of the aborigines, who stood by, said he was looking for the sphits of dead men. At length they came, proving to be evil spirits, and a brisk conflict followed. Others of the party joined in this warfare with the 'powers in the air,' driving the ghosts away." They have a singular ceremony, called Ye pene amie gai, or dance of separate spirits. Holding branches in their hands, they dance in measured tread, and sing, till they fall prostrate in a sort of ecstatic trance. While in this condi- tion, they hold converse with spirits, and utter prophecies. DECLINE AND DESTINY. Nominally the aged men are their chiefs, exercising the principal influence in the tribes. " Civilizatiou " is a very in- definite term. Australian aborigines, believing it to consist ill being and doing like white men, engage in smoking, swearing, tricking, drinking, and gambling. The Rev. J. 86 AROUISTD THE WORLD. C. S. Handt, Lutheran missionary, bears this testimony: "A principal cause of their decrease is the prostitution of theu* wives to the Europeans. This base intercourse not only retards the procreation of their own race, but almost alwaj^s tends to the destruction of the offspring brought into exist- ence by its means." Mr. Cunningham, well known in England and the English colonies of the Pacific, wrote thus: " Personal prostitution, among those associating with the whites, is carried on to a great extent, the husbands disposing of the favor of their wives to the convict servants, for a slice of bread, or a pipe of tobacco. The children produced by this intercourse are generally sacrificed." Infanticide is verj^ prevalent. Tradition says it did not exist in the past. At present half-caste infants appear to be the most exposed to this fate. Chiefs living and roaming back in the mountains, or interior districts, acknowledge that they cannot stop the murderous practice. When the parties are reproved for the unnatural crime, they at once respond, " We have no country now, no good children now, and nothing to keep them on." A glance at the journals reveals the fact that infanticide is not uncommon in Victoria ; while foeticide is a quite common practice in the most aris- tocratic families. It is murder nevertheless. Without hope, without seeming ambition, the remaining Australian natives have sunk down into a state of stupid listlessness. The}^ know they are declining, and are con- scious of their destiny. It seems an inflexible law of nature, that aboriginal races must, in every instance, either perish, or be amalgamated with the general population of the country. In Tasmania, originally known as Van Diemen's Land, there is not a native left. The bell of fate has tolled ; and the last man of his race, putting down his rude pilgrim staff, has gone on to the shadowy land of immortality. CHAPTER IX. FROM NEW ZEALAND ONWARD. "There's a wideness in God's mercy Like the wick'iiess of the sea ; There's a kindness in His justice Which is more than Liberty. "For the love of God is broader Than tlie measure of man's mind, And tlie heart of tlie Eternal Is most wonderfully kind." None choose the hxnd of their birth ; and none can fully fathom the finer forces connected with racial influences. If deer and foxes leave the scent or aura of their footsteps along their beaten paths, why should not aboriginal men im- part a characteristic emanation to the soil their feet pressed and to the atmosphere they breathed ? They certainly do. Seemingly minute causes produce mighty effects. People born in the western portion of America naturally grow tall, and become wiry, angular and active, like our nearly extinct Indians. In South Africa children born of European parents are not only more rounded in features and sluggishly heavy, but they are inclined to be indolent like the Hottentots. The theory is not without confirmation. Sail ing — we are still thinking, reasoning, reflecting. No library, no daily journals : time drags. And what is time ? A series of conscious impressions daguerreotyped upon the spiritual sensorium. And, considered with reference to the primal God-principle, all are equally aged. Each is piv- oted in the centre of eternity. Causes are before effects ; so are souls before bodies. To affirm that bodies make souls, is only paralleled by the position that ignorance is the source 88 AROUND THE WORLD. of knowledge ; that matter may produce spirit, and nonen- tity reality. In dream and trance, memory sometimes sc dispels slumber that the conscious soul recovers recollectiona of pre-existence, of its descent and destiny, TOO TRUSTING, OR NOT ? If, as Lord Bacon said, "reading makes the full man, talking the ready man, and writing the exact man," travel makes the doubting man. The past eight months' experi- ences in the colonies and islands of the Pacific have cooled my ardor as to the immediate approach of any world's mil- lenium. I can but think of these lines in the " Songs of the Sierras : " — " For I am older, by a score, Than many born long, long before, If sorrows be the sum of life." The play of Hector and Achilles is being constantly re- acted in my presence. Though there are tropical sunsets, and gorgeous skies, seen on this sapphire-crowned ocean, "my" and "mine" are the rallying-words. Men are exceed- ingly intriguing and scheming. Why, there are men mean enough, on this Polynesian part of the globe, to steal cocoa- nuts from a blind savage, or the sandals from the feet of Jesut, . It saddens my soul. Reviewing the fading years of half a century, I am certain of having believed too much, trusted too much, and confided too much in others. And yet is it noble or wise to write upon every human forehead, " Cave hominem^^'' — beware of man ? Is there not a golden mean ? Are not the extremes of distrust and suspicion a long way from a just estimate of human nature ? And may not the constant exercise of harrowing fears and doubts be hindrances, rather than helps to the soul's unfoldment ? TEOM NEW ZEALAND ONWAKD. 89 MEN IN AND OP THE WORLD. It quite shocked me, a few hours since, to hear a man say, " Well, the only two principles insuring success in this age are, to look out for one's self first, and, secondly, to con- sider every man a rogue till proved honest." Are riot such words revelators, — voiced echoes out of a grasping, canker- ing selfishness ? Is not a man-distruster a bad man-helper ? Did ever a libertine believe in the wtue of woman ? Or did ever a thief like Ahab fail to keep his locks and keys bright ? The sordid, selfish man, the petty village lawyer, knows no other text than this : " To them that are under the law I became as under the law, and to them that are without law, as without law ; " adding, not as Paul did, " that I might gain them,'" but, " that I might gain their /ees." In this money-worshiping, transition state of society, men seem to be drifting into a set of repulsive atoms, each seeking his own gain and welfare to the neglect of the common weal. This "getting-on system," with the "survival of the fit- test " and the '' Devil take the hindmost," is well expressed in the abominable lines, — *' As I walked by myself, I said to myself, And the selfsame self said to me, Looh out for thyself : take care of thyself For nobody cares for thee." Let us deepen the thought, and widen the vision, of exist- ence ! Essential spirit infills and spans all space. The " image Df God" — the divine spark — is within; and human na- kure-, therefore, sounded to its depths, is good. If there is not a charity that " believeth all things," there is a charity that "hopeth all things;" and, further, there is in the world tender sympathy, genuine friendship, manly honesty, generous benevolence, unselfish love ; and there are beauti- ful characters too : the angels affirm it. Cunning, shrewd, and selfish men, who can not discover it, are comparable to bhnd men who can not see the sun. Be it mine still to seek 90 AROUND THE WOULD. the good of others first, and to believe every man honest till proven to the contrary. If the practice of such principles produce failure, let '•'■failure " be carved on my tombstone. TRUCKLING TRIMMERS. He who removes a thorn, and plants a rose, who brushes away a falling tear, plucks a scale from a theologian's eye, or transforms a bit of chaos into kosmos, is a benefactor of his race. Turn over the picture. Do not the angels weep o'er the platitudes of truckling, two-faced, many-sided hypo- crites, standing in market-places, in pulpits, and upon public rostrums, with no higher aims than gold, or a stamping, sen- sational applause ? Oh for men of principle ! Policy-men fatten to-day, to faint in the to-morrow of eternity. It was a childish weakness in Peter to deny " knowing the man." Erasmus was too much of a trimmer. Luther was a re- former that made Rome tremble. The waters of a dashing cascade are sweet and fresh. A good, screaming fanatic^ with sling and stone, will always floor the greatest giants, though armed with the newest devices of controversy. I sympathize deeply with fanatics. They generally have some- thing to say, and are brave enough to say it. They keep the mental world in motion. John the Baptist was a fa- natic. Fanaticism is not coarse, brawling, blatant, over- bearing egotism, but earnest enthusiasm, steady, stirring self-denial, coupled with a conviction of some living truth as a potent spiritual force. These fanatics, these resurrected souls, preach of heaven on earth, sing of Utopia to-day, and often die early, as did Keats. " Thy leaf has perished in iJie green." CANNIBALISM AND COMMUNISM. Passing an art-gallery in Dunedin, a friend pointed me to a photograph of an old, tattooed Maori, who had assisted in baking and eating seventeen human bodies since his remem- FROM NEW ZEALAND ONWARD. 91 brance. Cannibal eats cannibal, and clinging, parasitic souls feast upon the magnetic life of other souls. Such is selfish- ness, — the devouring, corroding selfishness of the world And yet who has not pictured and prayed for the prophets realization of " Zion " ? or who has not dreamed of that golden age where love shall be law, where the onl}'' rivahy shall be in doing the most good to others, where harmonial souls shall breathe benedictions of peace and good-will, and where a competitive, clutching self-appropriativeness shall have become a half-forgotten tradition ? May we not still hope that, before the sunset of this century, co-operative leagues, and communistic fraternities, may dot the land, as cities of light set upon a thousand hills. PLATO "S REPUBLIC. The most eminent philosophers and sages of antiquity, when mediumistically illumined by heavenly wisdom, either conceived or wrote of a coming communism, — a state of society where every one would be respected according to his worth, where individual happiness would be sought in seek- ing the happiness of all, and where the isolated family would widen out into co-operative combinations, and these into spiritual families, with wisdom and love the governing powers. Among the more prominent of this school was the Grecian Plato. This prince of philosophers, flourishing some time before the Christian era, defined a well-ordered, if not an ideally perfect state of social life, to be known as a " repub- lic." Though treating largely of justice and charity, he considered absolute " communism of property " an indispen- sable condition. He lived unmarried, had no children, died a celibate! SIR THOMAS MORE's UTOPIA. Looseness in the use of phraseology causes many fruitless discussions. " Socialism " and " communism " are not inter- 92 ABOUND THE WORLD. changeable terms. Communism proper should never be con- founded with " Red Republicanism," the " Paris Commune," or any form of ''loose socialism." They are as unlike as Christ and Belial. Socialism implies co-operation, or ary form of association which does not involve the abolition of private property ; Avhile communism in the absolute is that unselfish apostolic system which " holds all things in common.''^ Sir T. More, at one time privy councilor to Henry VIII., and afterwards lord high chancelor, published his Utopian theories in 1516, creating a deal of excitement because of his scholarship and high social position. This distinguished personage painted his conceptions of a commonwealth, or true state of society, as a ^'- Sappy Island,'''' based socially upon the Utopian idea of equality of rights and the com- munism of property. He says, — " Thus have I described to you, as particularly as I could, the constitu- tion of that commonwealth, Utopia, which I do not only think to be the best in the world, but to be, indeed, the only commonwealth that truly deserves the name. In all other places it is visible, that, whereas people talk of a commonwealth, every man only seeks his own wealth; but in Utopia, where no man has any property, all men do zealously pursue the good of the public, . . . for every man has a right to every thing. There is no unequal distribution ; no man is poor, nor in any necessity; and, though no man has any thing, yet they are all rich; for what can make a man so rich as to lead a serene and cheerful life, free from anxie- ties, neither apprehending want himself, nor vexed with the endless com- plaints of others ? ' ' Respecting labor, he speaks as follows : — ' ' They do not wear themselves out with perpetual toil from morning till night, as if they were beasts of burden; which, as it is indeed a heavy slavery, so it is the common course of life of all- tradesmen everywhere except among the Utopians ; but they, dividing the day and night into twenty-four hours, appoint eight hours of these for work, and the re- mainder for rest and individual improvement. Each seeks another's good; and, as to the studies and employments of women, all living in Utopia learn some trade. Industry is honorable: men and women go in large numbers to hear lectures of one sort or another, according to the variety of their inclinations. Women are sometimes made priests, . . . FROM XEW ZEALAND ONWARD. 93 ftnd a peace that the world k:;ow8 not of crowns the d.'.ys of the happy dwellers upon this island." ST. SIMON AND FOURIER. No man could be a socialist or communist, without being moved by a welfare for his fellow-men. It was to Horace Greeley's credit that he took such a deep interest in the North American phalanx. Socialism in Europe, promoted not hy the poor, but for the poor, has generally been espoused by men of generous impulses and liouorable enthu- siasm. Fourier's great idea was to make labor attractive. He thought, that, by rightly grouping people together for work, all the natural passions would fall into harmony, and become utilized for human good. The movement gained but little footing in France. St. Simon, dying in 1825 at the age of sixty-five, had already become quite an author. He contended in his books that all social institutions ought to aim at the amelioration, physical, mental, and moral, of the poorer classes ; that privileges of birth should be abol- ished, and the state be the ultimate owner of all lands, all pubUc works, and all realized property. Associative effort was to be among the prominent teachings of science, the Church, and the State ; while the natural inequalities of men, as primal gradations, were to be made basic pillars in this Simonian order of social life. St. Simon was eccentric, and aflame with humanitarian sentiments. He was far more imaginative than practical. Suffice it, that, while many of tlie ideas put forth were rational, the plan, though eagerly seized by a few trusting disciples, proved a speedy failure. ROBERT OWEN. This philanthropist and great social reformer, while show- ing at New Lanark, Scotland, that he was a clear-headed business-man, proved himself at the same time a genuine humanitarian. If a dreamer, he dreamed grand and golden dreams ; and, what was more praiseworthy, sought to realize 94 AROUND THE WORLD. tliem. As the friend of man, he frequently said to English society, " If 3^ou want the poorer classes to become bettei men, place them in better circumstances ; raise the wages of laborers, diminish their hours of hard work, increase their food, improve their dwellings, expand their range of thought ; let science serve them, culture refine them ; and, above all^ help them to help themselves." Though emperors and kings had listened to Mr. Owen, and though distinguished states- men had been his associates, he never forgot the crowning ideal principle of his life, — communism ! Rising from the miry plains of selfishness, to the mountain- tops of equality and "good-will to men," it may be clearly seen that communism is the voice of God through Nature. Light and air, rain and sunshine, are common. The prince and the pauper child, at the hour of birth, are equal and common. Death is common to king and subject. And the laws of the universe are common. A disorderly, anti-law, anti-marriage " Paris commune " aside, Mr. Owen meant by communism that state of society in which the common fruits of industry, and the common results of science, intellect, and a sincere benevolence, should be so diffused that poverty would be unknown, and crime quite impossible. Though a theist, contending that " the- ology was a mental disease," though loathing pious cant and churchal superstitions, he was nevertheless a religious man in the best sense of the term. Non-immortality did not sat- isfy the wants of his great, manly soul. Investigating the Spiritual manifestations, in the later years of his life, he became a believer in a future existence. He died, or, rather, went up one step higher, a Spirituahst. Robert Dale Owen is the worthy son of such a sire. Many are the pleasant hours that I've whiled away listening to Elder Frederic W. Evans's descriptions of memorable occurrences transpiring in the life of the large-hearted Robert Owen. It may not be generally known that Elder Frederic, one of the prominent Shaker elders at Mount Lebanon, FROM NEW ZEALAND ONWARD. 95 N.Y., was one of the Harmonial brotherhood, settling with Mr. Owen upon the thirty thousand acres purchased of the RajDpites in New Harmony, Ind. This great and good man, a communist and Spirituahst to the last, passed to the world of spirits Nov. 17, 1858. " They made him a grave too cold and damp For a soul so warm and true." Looking with thoughtful, cosmopolitan eye at the state of society in different countries ; considering the poverty of Pekin, the beggary in Constantinople, the infanticide in Paris, the political corruption in New York, and the fifty thousand thieves, one hundred thousand prostitutes, and one hundred and sixty-five thousand paupers, of London, — is it Btrange that noble souls in all lands yearn for social recon- struction ? Are not mediaeval methods already dead ? Are not present political and social systems falling to pieces? What mean these panics, strikes, Internationales, trades'- unions, and co-operative fraternities ? Does not Whittier, writing of recurring cycles, say, — " The new is old, the old is new " ? JESUS THE SYRIAN COMMUNIST. Oh, the moral altitudes attained by those great' practical communists of the past, Jesus and the apostles ! The Naz- arene, gifted with the intellect of man, and the love of woman, loathed that reform which talked platitudes of well- meaning, and did no work. His promise was " to him that do eth the \Yi[l of my Father." The present "landshark" talk about the sacredness of private property constituted no part of Jesus' teaching. The apostles, imbibing his spirit, pro- nounced woes upon the selfishly rich. " Go to, now," says St. James, " ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you ; . . . your gold and silver is can- kered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you." Few need to be reminded of the "gift of tongues," and the 96 ARODND THE WORLD. other rich spiritual gifts showered uidoii trusting hearts on the " Day of Pentecost." The power was so marvelous that " three thousand souls " were moved to repentance. And of these it is recorded, " All that believed were tcgether, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." On this auspicious day the Jewish Apostolic Church, or gen- uine Christian church, under the inspiration and baptism of the Christ-spirit^ began to exist. The communism was absolute. These newly baptized souls, full of fervor, were willing to surrender selfish ownership for the common good. Their principles were peace, purity, and " all things in com- mon," constituting the millennial church, the church of the ages. '■'• Ekklesia,^'' translated ^'•church" means, literally, " assembly." As understood apostolically, it implied a sym- pathizing assembly, convened and welded for a heavenly pur- pose. " Now there were in the church (ekklesia, assembly) that was at Antioch certain prophets " (Acts xiii. 1). These prophets, apostles, " women of Samaria," and believers gen- erally, quickened by the Christ-principle, constituted them- selves into spiritual families, brotherhoods, and communities holding " all things in common." " But," says one, " men nat- urally like to have their own." Granted ; and so some men naturally like to have their neighbors' ! Thieves are of this Idnd. But it is no more natural for thieves on a low j3hysi- cal plane to steal, and misers to clutch and hoard, than for the philanthropic and spiritually-minded to adopt a broad, fraternal communism. The angelic in the heavens are cer- tainly communists. And I have yet to learn that spirits put patches of the summer-land into market, loan money, or speculate in corner-lots. When men pray, " Thy will be done on earth," why do they not go to work, and do it? Jesus came centuries ago. When is salvation coming ? FEOM NEW ZEALAND OXWARIX 97 THE CHINESE PEAYING FOR WIND. Our crew of Chinamen is a source of fruitful study. They have books aboard, and read them, when not playing at chance-games. Their heads are all shaven, save the pig-tail tuft. Rising in the morning, they clean their tongues by scraping tliem, and then sip their black tea. In the latitude of the trade-winds, we were sorely vexed with calms. It had been a dead calm under a scorching sun for five days. As Nature hates a vacuum, so do sailors a calm. Was there a remedy ? On the sixth day, Sunday morning, at sunrise, there came on deck a dozen or more serious- visaged China passengers, with dishes of rice, bowls of tea, different colored paper, slim, dry incense-reeds, slender, red-topped wax-candles, and matches. " What's up ? '* inquired several. Just informed by the "mate," our reply was, " The Chinamen are going to pray for wind." Among the number who had come forward, was the Chinese doctor, and another grave-looking, shaven-headed individual, evi- dently endowed with some priestly function. Putting them- selves in position, they touched matches to the paper, throwing it overboard while in flames ; then, lighting their reeds and candles, they went through with certain pantomimic incantations, becoming their method of prayer, ending by throwing the rice and tea into the ocean. Result, a fine breeze soon from the right quarter. " There ! " exclaimed our exultant Celestials, " the wind-god has heard us ! " Why not just as rational for Chinamen to thus pray for wind, as for Christians bowing over cushioned pulpits to pray in their way for " rain," for the " staying of the grasshopper dev- astation," or the "recovery of the Prince of Wales"? True prayer is not lip-pleading, but silent aspiration. It affects suppliants, and inclines angels to listen, but does not change the deific laT^ s of the universe. 98 AROUND THE WORLD. THE SCIENCE OF SAILING. Navigation lias reached a wonderful degree of perfection How soon will aeronauts sail through the atmosphere in safety ? Air-ships are sure to prove successes. The prin- ciple is perfectly understood in spirit-life. Our captain brings out his " sea-Bibles " each day, — the sextant, quadrant, and chronometer, for observations ; the thermometer, indicating the temperature ; the hygrometer, to show the degree of moistiu:e in the air ; and the barometer, to mark its weight. These, locating positions, foretell approach- ing weather with great exactness. What a perfect system of circulation ! — the aerial wind-currents, and the briny cur- rents of the ocean. It is thrillingly interesting to watch storms at sea. By the way, the typhoons of the China Seas and the cyclones of the Indian Ocean have their fixed laws. When courses of steady winds are obstructed by islands, towering mountains, or other causes, producing whirhng tempests termed tj^phoons, the wind takes a rotary motion, while the storm itself has a progressive motion. These spiral storms, following the law of gyration, sometimes move at the rate of fifty miles per hour. The tjqDhoons prevail in the China Seas from June to October. Sailors dread these storms, and also the " pirate-junks " of Chinamen. The approach of a typhoon is indicated by rolling, uneven swells, the rapid sinking of the barometer, and reddish, hazy clouds deepenmg into purple and black. " No rules can be relied upon," says Capt. R. Mailler, "for the management of a vessel during these terrific tempests." " Give us sea-room," however, is the sailor's cry. THE NORTH STAR AND SOUTHERN CROSS. We are nearly under the equator. The stars, luminous lamps of heaven, are out each evening on parade. The nights are gorgeous. I sometimes picture the constellations as star-ships sailing on the ether-ocean of FROM NEW ZEALAND ONWARD. 99 infinity. The clouds, white and crimson, are the coral-reefs, and the winds the breathings of God. Nearing the equator, on the voyage to Australia, I was thrilled with delight when catching the first glimpse of the Southern Cross glittering, in a peerless beauty all its own, just above the horizon in the south-west path of the Milky Way. Seeing churchmen thought of Calvary ; while scholars, more conversant with antiquity, talked of Oriental phallism. Getting near the equatorial circle again from the south, on this route northward to China, the cross was seen to be nightly receding ; and, at the same time, the Great Dipper was looming up from nearly the opposite direction. Two of its stars point to the North Star, not yet in sight. Most gladly shall I welcome the appearance again of the " pole-star," as it points in the direction of home and friends. I never tire, in these clear, tropical regions, of gazing at those mighty orbs, sailing through the ether-ocean of space, shedding their tremulous beams upon the restless waters. " I sit on tlie deck, and watch the light fade Still fainter and fainter away in the west, And dream I can catch, through the mantling shade, A glimpse of the beautiful isles of the blest. " See ! there is Orion, there Andromeda, there Sirius, brightest of the so-called fixed stars ; and there are the Ple- iades, Alcyon excelling in magnificence, and of which Homer sung nine hundred years B. C. Turn back in thought to the Chaldean shepherds who watched the waning moon from the plains of Shinar ; study the astronomical observations re- corded in the East three thousand years ago, — and ask your- self, O modern! how much the intervening decades have added to the literature or general knowledge of the ancients. THE LOST DAY. Since sailing upon the Pacific westward, the question has been sprung, "Where does day begin?" The general 100 AROUND THE WORLD. answer was, " Here, there, or at that place where the sun- beams first strike the earth during the twenty -four hours." The geographical and nautical answer is, " Day begins al the degree of longitude 180 east or west." Every school- boy knows, that, traveling round the world from east to west, a day is literally lost, and for the reason that there is a dif- ference of one hour for every fifteen degrees of longitude in each day. Accordingly, journeying westward, a certain length of time is added to each day ; and, making the world's circuit, — as many are doing at present, — would amount to an entire day. This is a puzzler to strict observ- ers of " sabbath days." When crossing the meridian 180°, before reaching Auckland, New Zealand, our captain dropped from his reckonings the day we had lost ; and Sunday was this very lost day! How queer, going to bed Saturday night, and getting up on Monday morning ! Invited hj our fellow-passengers on " The Nevada," I lectured upon Spiritualism. But what a babyish notion, — this stress laid upon Sun- day, or Saturday, or any day, as especially '• holy " ! Con- sidering the revolutions of our earth upon its axis, it is absolutely impossible for all its inhabitants to keep the " Christian sabbath " at the same time. If a party of Sec- ond Adventists, Seventh-Day Baptists, and Israelites should sail from San Francisco on Friday (the Mohammedan's sacred day of rest), circling the world, they would all be converts, willing or not, when reaching New York, keeping or observing the Christian's Sunday ! To a Spiritualist, all lands are equally holy, and all days are equally sacred. The observance, however, of one day in the seven for rest, recre- ation, and spiritual improvement, is eminently profitable. SPIRITUALISM IN THE FIJIS. This group of Pacific islands, numbering over two hun- dred, sighted by Capt. Cook, and discovered by the naviga- tor Tasman, has recently become somewhat famous with FEOM NEW ZEALAND ONWARD. 101 Englislimeii, because of its cotton-jDlanting advantages. The climate is tropical. Naviti Levu is the most populous of the isles ; and Thakombau, a native six feet high, and kingly in bearing, is the most influential of the chiefs. Levuka, though having few natural advantages, is the prin- cipal commercial mart. Cotton, sugar, and coffee planters do well. Cocoanuts are abundant, and some wool is ex- ported. The ramie plant, or China-grass, samples of which I remember to have seen in New Orleans, grows finely in these islands. Cannibalism was practiced here till 1854. What Americans there are here, Avere originally from the Southern States. White men are in possession of three hun- dred and fifty thousand acres of these cotton and coffee growing lands. In a recent copy of " The Fiji Times," I find a labored article under this heading : " Spiritualisin in Fiji.'''' The writer, after speaking of the natives as " low and depraved in the moral scale," assures us that, "low and brutal" as they are, they " believe in a future state of existence, in apparitions, and the efficacy of charms ; " their " prophets profess to talk with the dead ; and they cure by striking the diseased part with the hand." This writer, treating of Spir- itualism among the European residents, saA^s, " There is a deep interest, among the more thoughtful of our citizens, upon this important subject. . . . Those who believe, affirm that the phenomena throw new light upon the Scriptures, as well as demonstrate immortality." There is a " want among us," he further says, " of a good test medium." The Fijis may soon fall into the hands of the English. LONGENGS FOR THE LAND. And still a prisoner on this ocean clipper, — a vault, a jharnel-house ; oh, how monotonous ! Nearly two months now at sea, utterly oblivious to all the doings and rushing activities of land-life ; and yet a long distance from Hong Kong ! Each returning day brings fair skies or dripping 102 AROUND THE WORLD. clouds, surging waves or dead calms, finny tribes, sailing sea-birds, chattering Chinamen, and stale, ship-scented food. Sea-birds, weary with flight, light in the rigging. The sail- ors pet them. Oh for the wings of — well, any thing that would drop me down upon terra firma! I term this, cabalis- tically, " concession " route. The luckless position is not without rich lessons ; the blue, unfathomed depths beneath, and the infinite expanse above, kindling the fires of the ideal, incite me to self-examination, to meditation, and hope- ful conceptions of a social state to be ultimately realized by all nations, — a peaceful state rivaUng in moral excellence the Eden of the poets, and the Taoio. of the prophets. But to contemplation. CHAPTER X. A SERIES OF SEANCES UPON THE OCEAN. A.MONG tlie beautiful thoughts of that celebrated German philosopher, Kant, are these : — " The day will come when it will be proved that the human soul is already, during its life on earth, in a close and indissoluble connection with a world of spirits; that their world influences ours, and impresses it profoundhj ; and that we often remain im conscious of it as long as every thing goes right with us." Mediums, necessarily sensitive, are as well aware of this connection referred to by Kant, as thinkers are conscious that sound, healthy bodies, and clear, well-balanced minds, are requisites for the reception of high spiritual inspirations. Mediumship, a powerful mental stimulant, is largely fash- ioned by the controlling spirit-intelligences. Therefore, studying a mediimi's tastes and tendencies, through a term of years, is comprehending the characteristics and purposjes of such spirits as influence and minister to the medium, or psychological subject. DELICACY OF CONDITIONS. It is becoming definitely understood that Spiritaahsm in its phenomenal aspects is a science controlled by laws as fixed and absolute as those that govern the motions of physical bodies. All of Nature's forces are exceedingly subtle. Therefore, in every branch of research, compliance with conditions is indispensable ; and these conditions must 'je 104 AROUND THE WORLD. thought out and experimented upon, until they can be for mulated. Then they are ready for future service. Physicists understand the delicacy of the conditions they impose. It is said that Dr. Kane, while wintering in the extreme polar regions, discovered that three thermometers, agreeing at medium temperatures, disagreed materially at very loio temperatures, though suspended near together. Approaching them suddenly from the windward side affected them. Also a breath, and even the electric emana- tions of the body, would cause fluctuations, and accordingly incorrect readings. The common surveyor, using a deli- cately balanced compass, need not be informed that bodies of iron and steel affect his needle. The presence of a pocket-knife sometimes vitiates results. Sea-captains, using mercury for an artificial horizon in sextant observations, know that a footfall, a loud word, or a quick motion of the body, causes an oscillation of the quicksilver, and necessa- rily incorrect calculations. Alpine travelers tell us, that, on ascending Mont Blanc, strata of snow are held in such won- derful poise that a violent exclamation would precipitate a thousand tons down the declivity. Returning, a few years since, from Pompeii and Herculaneum to the Museum in Naples, I there saw vast rolls of calcined papyri cov- ered with legible writing, though nearly two , thousand years buried ; * and a quiet gentleman, Avith repressed breath and dexterous fingers, identifying, lifting, or un- rolling those long-interred evidences of literary wealth and historic record. A breath might have reduced these chaired leaflets to an impalpable powder. Success lay only in the most delicate manipulations. If compliance with con- ditions are so indispensable, then, in dealing with physical bodies, with known phenomena, — how much more so when investigating partially unknown phenomena, involving the laws of psychic force, and the momentous subject of spirit- ual manifestations! Mediums, sensitive and highly. impres- 6i(tnal, are in circles infinitely more susceptible than Kane's A SERIES OF SEANCES UPON THE OCEAN. lOo thermometers. A harsh word, a disagreeable odor, the sud- den openmg of a door, the introduction of a certain indi- vidual into the seance, — these^ and other disturbing causes, may destroy all the conditions necessary for the influx of thoughts and ideas from that ethereal world of spirits. TEACHINGS OF SPIRITS. The following communications, and many others through the unconscious mediumship of Dr. E. C. Dunn, were received during four-o'clock sittings in our stateroom when the conditions of the treacherous ocean would permit. They were generally given in answer to questions ; though, for want of space, the inquuies are usually omitted. The spirit Aaron Knight, controlling one afternoon, coolly remarked, " I see that my years of labor with you have not produced a very luxuriant harvest." " How so, Mr. Knight ? " " Well, approaching your sphere a while since, I heard you remark that 3 ou had only a slight, or, rather, no posi- tive knowledge, of spirit-life and its pecuHar conditions." " True ; but I referred to daily objective knowledge." " Metaphysical terms are of little avail. You have heard my voice frequently for years. You have felt our magnet- ism upon your brain. You have inhaled the fragrance of spirit-flowers. You have had things borne to you through the atmosphere. You have been made spasmodic when alone, by our electric touch. You have seen spirit-forms improvised, and then vanish from sight. These, with such confirmatory witnesses as consciousness, intuition, and reason, ought to have given j on positive knowledge." " Well, let that pass. Do you hear all I say ? " " No, not necessarily ; but then I could, if desirable, know all you said ; and, further, could know your very thoughts, inasmuch as they produce a reflex action readable by your attending circle. And, Avhat is still more recondite, the effects of your thoughts, aims, and plans are spiritually 106 AROUND THE WORLD. photographed in the sphere you will inhabit when released from mortality. You have no secrets. It would be well if all men thoroughly understood this." "Are you now within this stateroom? " " I am, and others also. We have so fixed the atmos- phere, that, if not congenial, it is endurable." But some clairvoyants tell us that spirits seldom return to earth, to dwell in our midst even for a moment. " Can you conceive or imagine any thing that clairvoyants and psychological sensitives have not taught ? The truth is, millions of spirits have never got away from the earth, spiritually speaking. Their past tendencies, present desires, and undone work, chain, mentally hold them near to your earth. Those more advanced, who have passed to the heavenly abodes of the divine life, can return at will ; while very ancient spirits seldom visit earth, and then only for the holiest purposes." SEANCE n. How long a time has man inhabited the earth ? " Time — indefinite term ! Nations of antiquity reck- oned time by the revolutions of constellations, by the dis- appearance and return of comets, by the sun and moon ; and others less ancient by kingly dynasties. It is difficult to even approximate the period when man first appeared on earth. The most ancient spirits with whom I have con- versed upon the subject tell me it was millions of years in the past. Three times, at least, the earth has been nearly submerged in water, destroying the people. The whole surface has been repeatedly changed and modified by fire and flood, heat and cold. Fossilized elephants and other tropical animals are often unearthed in the frigid zones, proving that those ice-belted regions were once tropical and even equatorial in temperature. ^'- Present man, with the shattered remnants of his primeval civilization, originated in the southern zones more than fifty A SERIES OF SEANCES UPON THE OCEAN. 107 thousand years since. There are traditions and legends extending back full forty thousand years. Types are per- manent. Vegetation there was perennial. Fruits gre^r spontaneous. Tilling the earth was unnecessary. To reach up, pluck, and eat, was the only requisite. From Southern Asia there were radiations east, west, and north, peoplmg foreign lands. After a series of centuries, the Northmen, increased in numbers, and warlike, swept down into Central and Southern Asia. Wars crimsoned hills and mountains. The conquerors drove theu' vanquished foes into that coun- try now known as Hindostan. They were hunters and herdsmen, leading roving lives. Peoples making a second descent from the rich table-lands of Asia into India gath- ered into communities, establishing petty kingly govern- ments. These were denominated Aryans." SEANCE ni. ..." Be punctual to the appointed time of meeting us. Remember that our avocations and appointments are quite as important as yours. . . . Prophecies are often fulfilled by the prophets. I remember of saying to you, in my earliest conversations, that the medium and 3-ourself would be mutual helps, travehng together, even to making the circuit of the globe. . . . Preceding him to spirit-life, you will impress and entrance him with perfect ease because of your earthly associations social and spiritual." . . . Could 3^ou go directly through our globe ? " Possibly ; although, from having no desire, I have never made the attempt." If you were to go, when leaving the medium, to my home in Hamraonton, America, would j^ou take the short cut straight throusfh the earth ? " No : I should pass above the surface of sea and land. This would be the more feasible route. Solid matter, so called, forms little or no obstruction to the movements of spirits. But gross matter, remember, is interpermeated with 108 AROUND THE WORLD. etherealized spirit-substance ; and then, there might be emanations from spirit-strata and various entities, prevent- ing or at least impeding the passage. The walls of a room may be so surcharged with magnetism and spirit-auras that a spirit can not pass them. There are gradations of spirit- substance as of matter. When you are in your library-room, we fix an atmosphere about you, and so infill the walls of your study-room with our positive magnetic spheres that intruding spirits can not enter." SEANCE IV. . . . •' If angel lips are portals to the palace of wisdom, angelic beings are modest and unassuming. Whenever you hear a spirit talk about himself, — what mighty things he did on earth, and what he has done in the supernal spheres, — put it down that the brother is but a pupil in the primary department of immortality. High and pure spirits are dis- inclined to even give their names. And there is nothing more repellant to an exalted spirit, than to refer to himself. In a congress of spirits, I once heard a spirit of sage-like appearance say he had sometimes thought that loss of memory would be a great blessing, thus forgetting self. Selfishness is the root of all the cankering vices of the age. ... A mortal, reaching the better land of immortality, gravitates, or seeks the plane of his choice, something as the immigrant in a new country looks for highlands or low- lands, cultivated fields or heavy-timbered forests ; but a spirit, owing to the condition of the spiritual body and other considerations, can not become a permanent resident of a higher plane than he is spiritually prepared for. . . . The desires, or, rather, the demands of the carnal nature, such as gluttony, and sexual intercourse, do not obtain in the spirit- ual world. These fleshly and animal appetites are laid aside at death. And yet low, undeveloped spirits, from force of habit, vividness of memory, or downward tendencies ac- quired on earth, may enjoy the sight of lasciviousness ; or, A SERIES OF SEANCES UPON THE OCEAN. 109 for some scheming wicked purpose, may psychologically lead mediums into debauchery and the ' unfruitful works of darkness.' Low, selfish, disorderly spirits are at the bottom of the ' free-lust movement,' known by the n ore attractive term, ' social freedom.' This scum, now floating upon the peaceful stream of spirit-communion, will ere long settle away into merited oblivion." SEANCE V. You speak of conditions and employments in the spirit- world : I wish you would be more minute in your descrip- tions. " Hoping to enlighten, I will tr3^ The spirit-world, real and substantial, is the counterpart of your world. The earthly life is rudimentary and preparator3\ The wise of earth ripen up, while in their bodies, for higher planes of existence. As to 'discreet degrees,' referred to by the admirers of the Swedish seer, they do not exist per se. The phrase ' discreet degrees ' should give place to ' states ' and ' conditions ' of being. Logically understood, the spirit- world is all space, because essential spirit fills all immensity. Inhabitants leaving your earth by death occupy the atmos- phere immediately surrounding it, — many of them, at least, for ages. They can in time occupy other places and spheres. The difficulty in passing to remote spaces and regions is at the medial points of conjunction between different planets and systems. Each planet, and system of planets, have their physical, gaseous, ethereal, electrical, and spiritual atmos- pheres. In these atmospheres abound the centripetal and centrifugal forces ; and these forces hold a similar relation to spiritual beings that the physical forces do to human beino's. Therefore thev encounter kindred difficulties in passing and repassing the aural atmospheres, and different strata, of the interstellar spaces, that mortals do in exploring pathless oceans, or aeronauts in their air-ship expeditions. "In the belts tliat encir(;le 3^our earth, the grosser lie the 110 AROUND THE "WORLD. nearest to it. The more refiner! extend outward into the ethereal regions. Coarse spiritual natures inhabit the outer surfaces of tlie inner belts; while t^^e more refined and spir- itual of earth pass on, by virtue nP their refinement and purity, to remote and those more beautiful l)elts in astral spaces. The lower spheral belts, partaking of the earthli- ness of the earth, and embodying the grosser of the spiritual elements, abound in things similar to earth-life, such as lawns and lowlands, fields and swamps, insects and animals. The inhabitants are likened unto these conditions. Here the worldly and the sordid have taken up their abodes. Awak- ening to consciousness, from the event termed death, they found they had entered the new plane of existence mentally and morally as they had left mortality. This realization was at first exceedingly gratifying. Activity is natural to all spheres. In this first spheral zone, the selfish find a satis- faction in the gratification of their desires and tendencies. Those who loved sport, and low theatrical amusements, here find means for their enjoyment. Misers seek and clutch money. Greedy landholders find broad acres. Speculators traffic in spiritual estates. Gamblers engage in games of chance ; and here, too, deceivers and tricksters ply their wily arts during long periods of time. It is their choice. They prefer these groveling planes, because satisfying their de- sires in connection with the influences they are able to exert over the mediumistic of earth. ... It should be remem- bered, then, that shrewd, scheming spirits of the lower spheres cast a powerful psychological influence upon earth's inhabitants ; and that miserly fathers, influencing, often intensify the selfishness of their sons by pointing out rich mineral beds, and otherwise aiding them in earthly specula- tions, which, eventually culminating in hoarded wealth, must be followed ultimately by remorse and deepest suffering. " A SEHBIES OF SEANCES UPON THE OCEAN. \\\ SEANCE VI. What have you been doing in spirit-life to-day, friend Knight? " Accompanied by a sympathizing band of philanthropists, I have been teaching the truly repentant how to make repa- ration for wrongs done on earth ; the ignorant and supersti- tious, how to rise out of their darkened spiritual conditions. . . . There are no arbitrary barriers to coarser, undevel- oped spirits passing to the outer and higher zones of per- petual joy. It is only a law of adaptation that attracts, chains, them to the plane of then- own preferences. Clau- voyants who speak of a summer-land only in spirit-exist- ence, convey an erroneous idea. There are summer-land surfaces on the outer belts, freighted and dotted with mag- nificent forests, fountains, fields, fruits, gardens, and flowers, of the exquisite beauty of which mortals have no conception ; and there are dark winter-lands too, corresponding to the cold, selfish, and perverted natures of those dwelling on earth. " The lower, grosser planes of spirit-existence necessitate animal life ; not the individualized spirits of 7/our animals, but the legitimate productions of the sphere in which they exist ; something as the birds and animals of your physical earth are its natural productions. As you pass outward and upward through almost measureless spaces, you find less of animal life, till in the celestial spheres there are no animal forms whatever. This might suggest a question relating to the unhappiness of certain spirits if deprived of pet animals. If unhappy for this reason, it would only prove that they were yet clogged and tainted with earthly tastes and ten- dencies. Angelic affections do not flow out to animals. This explanation harmonizes the seemingly different state- ments of clairvoyants ; and, more particularly, those who pass out of their bodies, traversing spirit-spheres. Some while thus disinthi'alled, save by the silken cord of magnetic life, beheld animals of a low type, others of a high type, 112 AROUND THE WORLD. and others still none whatever. Briefly stated, they de- scribed such conditions and localities as they had explored. In all the planes and states of infinity, there':5 a marvelous adaptation of means to ends. If discord is the child of the heUs, order reigns in the heavens. . . . Grossness of con- dition, referring not alone to the spiritual body, holds a direct relation to the mind, alias^ the inner spiritual nature, and the influences proceeding therefrom. Coarse, selfish organizations in spirit-Hfe ehminate coarse auras and influ- ences, tending to deception and vice ; while those in high celestial spheres, having more refined spiritual bodies, and more intellectual and spiritual natures, generate conditions of harmony and pmity. These revel in the golden sunlight of perpetual love and happiness. The life that each leads on earth prepares him for the sphere of his own moral like- ness. These spheres — heavens and hells — were vaguely described by the seers of antiquity. All modern theological doctrines are but the shadows that the ancient cast." " These spheres, or zoe-ether zones, related to, sail wzYA, the earth in her revolutions through space. Some spirits take up their immediate abode just above their former homes, casting upon them a powerful psychological influence. Miserly spirits linger about their vaults ; and others, disor- derly, and maliciously inclined, cHng to their previous locali- ties, producing magnetic conditions suitable for haunting houses, for producing obsessions, insanity, and nervous dis- eases." SEANCE vn. " Remember that in the lower spheres are found the coun- terparts of your earth, — its follies and vices, its labors and pursuits, prompted by natural desires ; and spirits here, as mortals with you, are subject to disappointments and fail- ures ; while in the heavens love, — love devoid of all selfish- ness, is the motive that inspires action. Here harmonial spirits reap a rich reward in leading the aspirational into the A SERIES OF SEANCES UPON THE OCEAN. 113 paths of purity, in laboring unselfishly for the good of others and in pointing those who will listen to the " tree of life," that ever buds, blossoms, and bears immortal fruitage. Thh is to them satisfaction, true rest, heaven ! Considering the condition of those in the lower spheres of moral darkness, you see that it is infinitely preferable for mortals to prepare, while on earth, for the higher life, that at death, so called, they may avoid the planes of pride, passion, and Derversions, that, with their seeming gains and joys, bring to their pos- sessors, in the end, mental grief and deepest despair. " Passing from this first spheral belt outward, we pass dif- ferent gradations of indulgence, vice, and discontent, — out- ward and upward, till we reach etherealized planes of spirit- uality, where resurrected souls have no desire to engage in activities beneath themselves. These heavenly inhabitants have become baptized into a celestial life of love, with desires only for the cultivation of the spiritual ; quite forget- ting the things beneath, and seeking the ideal of perfection, which must ever lie in the infinite beyond. " The intermediate spheres between the two just described abound in all the employments and associations conceivable. There is the scholarly plane, where all else is sacrificed to intellectual research ; the musical, and the poetic ; and the inventive, where all things are made subservient to the genius of mechanism, thus sacrificing much that is higher and more divinely beautiful. And there, too, is the domestic plane, where abound the attractions of family and family associations, with the narrow and selfish love for one's own offspring. Family love, as opposed to universal love, is a serious impediment to unfoldment of the soul. Complete happiness is attained by sacrificing present ease, by forget- fulness of self, in labor for others' good. Those thus toiling mold angels from their own forms. "In the more exalted states of existence, it is considered that an equalizing and harmonizing of the mental and moral faculties indicate an approach to the Christ-sphere of im- 114 AROUND THE WORLD. mortality, where we have the highest form of the perfected spiritual being. In advancing from this high moral stand- point to diviner altitudes, extending above and still beyond, souls are inti'omitted into the sphere of virgin puritj'" and love ; the sphere of spiritual balance, properly denominated the holy ; the Christ-sphere of angelic purity, where the spiritual brain-organs, subjecting and over-arching, crown all the others with a matchless glory." CHAPTER XL THE CHINESE ORIENT. " When tlioii haply seest Some rare, noteworthy object in thy travels, "Wish me partaker of thy happiness." — Shakspeare. All nations are brothers. Hong Kong, a rough border- island of the Flowery Land, has been under British control -since 1842. It is properly an English colony, though the people are mostly Chinamen. The sweeping distance we traversed from the southern portion of New Zealand to China was nearly seven thousand miles, meeting necessarily with islands, coral shoals, calms, tempests, burning equato- rial suns, — many bitter experiences ! The passage occupied over two months. I became heart-sick of hearing the guttural gabble, and of looking at our China passengers, with their inevitable cues dangling from their crowns, their shaven heads, almond- shaped eyes, flat noses, high cheek-bones, saffron-colored complexions, and sack-like clothing loosely, awkwardly hung around them. Being from different portions of China, they had among themselves one serious fight, using clubs, bits of wood, and marline-pins, the blood flowing freely for a few moments. While censuring, I must not forget that these are coolies, — the poorer classes. Steaming up the harbor, and landing at Hong Kong, we leaped into a " sam-pan," — a small Chinese skiff, partially I'oofed with bamboo. There were seven residents in thia 116 AROUND THE WORLD. junk-shaped boat, — the youngest, a child, strapped to the mother's back, Indian fasliion. Both grandmother and mother aided in rowing the "sam-pan." These families know no other homes. Hong Kong, in the Chinese language, means " Incense Harbor ; " referring to the junks and proas, that here dis- charge their cargoes of fragrant spices. THE FIRST OUTLOOK. The city is crowded. The country presents every con- ceivable shade of landscape, — rich valleys, alluvial plains, high table-lands, and magnificent mountains. Stretching along the coast-cities, canals, to quite an extent, take the place of roads. Instead of locks, they have what are termed "mud-slides," using cables of bamboo, and windlasses. Men, instead of machinery, turn them. Multitudes are born, eat, sleep, live, and die in these boats. Every thing looks un-American. The people are mainly agricultural, cultivating almost every available foot of the soil. Every object seen indicates an overburdened population. The canals swarm with boats, the shops with artisans, the roads with pedestrians, and the fields with hard-toiling workmen. It is work or starve in China. The empire proper has eighteen provinces, each of which is divided into about ten divisions called Fu; and these are still further divided into Hien. Politically speaking, these correspond somewhat to our districts, counties, towns, only they are much larger than with us in America. The empire contains five millions of square miles. Each provincial cap- ital averages about one million of inhabitants. The great Chinese Empire numbers nearly five hundred millions, — one' third of the whole human race. It has one thousand seveo hundred walled cities. THE CHINESE ORIENT. IIT china's past HISTOEY. Humiliating as it may be to Europe, it is true, that, for a period of nearly three thousand years, China existed in almost complete isolation from other portions of the globe. This made her arrogant and egotistic. During those mediae- val times known as the " dark ages," the very existence of China was unknoAvn to Europeans. The Chinese themselves knew nothing of the term " China." Speaking of their coun- try, they denominated it Chung Kivoh^ the Middle Kingdom, or Chung'Hivo-Kivoh^ the Middle Flowery Kingdom ; because they consider themselves as occupying the middle of the globe, and as being the centers of civilization and intelU- gence. They further believe that their empire, once proud and world-commanding, was established by the " law of Heaven " over forty thousand years ago, and is destined to- stand for ever. Owing to national conceit, Western nations call them " Celestials." The almost measureless antiquity of China is not denied. The point in dispute is as to the boundary-line between the genuinely historic and the mythological. Of this, Chinese scholars are certainly the best judges. MeadoAvs, in his elaborate work upon the Chinese, puts the reign of Fuli-hi B. C. 3327. The reign of the Choio d}Tiasties began about one thousand years before Christ, during which Lau-tsze and Confucius lived. Though Lau-tsze was the oldest, born B. C. 604, they were cotemporaries. Both of these philoso- phers, referring to the wise who lived before them, term them '• the ancients." Herodotus and Ptolemy, treating of this quite unknowu country, referred to these isolated people living in the north- east of Asia as "inventive and prosperous." Marcellinu* the Roman writer, Virgil, Pliny, Tacitus, and other histo- rians, mention these olive-colored people under the name of Seres, dwelling in the land of Serica. They speak of them as "rich in silks " and the " luxuries of life," besides being cumbered with " much useless lore." 118 AROUND THE WORLD. The " Chinese annals " give their nationality an antiquity so marvelously vast, that sectarists sneer. This is a too common argument with the ignorant and the impudent. A learned Chinaman, Le Can, assured me that Confucian scholars put their reliable historic records relating to the creation back full forty-four thousand years ago. The can- did and scholarly John Williams, in his " Observations on Comets," admits the accuracy of the Chinese chronological computations. In his investigations he shows, from the " records in the Shu-King, one of the oldest historical docu- ments of the empire, that the star Cor Hydrce culminating at sunset on the day of the vernal equinox, in the time of Tail, the sun must have been in Taurus, then the equinoctial point. By a simple calculation, Tau can be shown to have lived four thousand one hundred and seventy-six j^ears ago, or two thousand three hundred B. C. ; just after the disper- sion from Babel, according to the common chronology." . . . Dr. Hales long ago pointed out the agreements of the Egyp- tians and Chinese with the Babylonian or Chaldean astro- nomical observations. THE ANCIENT NAMES OF CHINA. The primitive inhabitants of Southern Asia, speaking of the people now known as the Chinese, used the terms, Jin, Chin, Sin, and Sinistse ; referring, evidently, to the Tsin dy- nasty, which took absolute control of the northern portion of the country about 770 B.C. Being ambitious and power- ful, this Tsin family wielded the scepter over the whole empire as early as 250 B.C. This period, and several hun- dred years previous, was famed for its literary men. The prominence of Tsin, and the dimmed records of travelers, confirm the view taken by learned commentators, that the Chinese were referred to in the forty-ninth chapter of Isaiah, — " Behold, thou shalt come from afar, . . . and those from the land of >.S'm/w." Classic writers described the country under the names, Sinse, Seres, Serica. An Alexandrine THE CHINESE ORIENT. 119 monk, writing in the sixth century, called it Tzinistse, which much resembles the Persian appellation, Chinistan. The Turks and Russians knew it as Khitai. The Khitans were of Nanchu lineage, and related to the present imperial fam- ily. In the tenth century they completely conquered the adjoining provinces. From about this period, or before, strange as it may seem, Europe became utterly oblivious of any such great civilized nation in the East. But in the 3'ear 1245, John of Piano Carpini, a native of Umbria, and an- other Franciscan monk, wandering along the Mongolian desert, found their way into Eastern Asia ; and, returning from their mission, told of a highly-civilized people living in the extreme East, upon the shores of the ocean. To this coun- try, so unexpectedly found, they gave the name of Cathay. One of these monks describes them thus : — " The Cathayans are a Pagan people, who have a written character of their own. They are learned in many things. They worship the one God, and have sacred scriptures. . . . They have no beard, and in their features are very much like the Mongols, but not so broad in the face. They have a peculiar language. Better craftsmen, in all the arts prac- ticed by mankind, are not to be found on the face of the earth. Their country, also, is very rich in corn, in wine, gold, silver, and in silk, and in all other things that tend to human maintenance." EAELY EFFORTS TO CHRISTIANIZE THE CHINESE. Portuguese missionaries reaching China by doubling the Cape of Good Hope, near the close of the fifteenth century, despaired of converting self-willed Chinamen to Christianity ; because, said these Romish zealots, " They have a God of their own. Burning incense, they worship their ancestors. They also hold converse with spirits, using the black art, and think that the original tendency of man's heart is to do right." De Rubruquis, an intelligent monk, was the first to iden- tify, in 1253, Cathay with the ancient Seres or Sinim. In 1295 Friar John went on a mission to China. Writing to Home, he says, — 120 AEOUND THE WORLD. "I have bought gradually one hundred and fifty boys, the children of Pagan parents, who had never learned any religion. These I have bap- tized, and taught Greek and Latin after our manner ; also I have written out psalters for them, with thirty hymnaries and two breviaries. . . . And I have a place in court, and a regular entrance, and seat assigned me as legate of our Lord the Pope ; and the Cham honors me above all other prelates, whatever be their titles." All early travelers to this Asian coimtry were stars of the second magnitude, however, compared to the Venetian, Marco Polo ; and yet for a long time he was counted a romancer. This injustice ultimately died away; and this gen- tleman's veracity, and correctness of observation, shine bril- liantly to-day under the recovery of much lost and forgotten knowledge. His descriptions of cities, libraries, civilization, and the general refinement of the people, read to Western nations like fairy-tales. He was the great traveler of his age. Hon. Anson Burlingame, head of the Chinese embassy to our and other countries, said, in his speech delivered in New York, June, 1868, — " China is a land of scholars and of schools ; a land of books, from the smallest pamphlet up to voluminous encyclopedias. It is a land where privileges are common. It is a land without caste; for they destroyed their feudal system over two thousand years ago, and they built up their grand structure of civilization on the great idea that the people are the source of power. This idea was uttered by Mencius between two and three thousand years since, and it was old when he uttered it. . . . They make scholarship a test of merit." HOXG KONG TO CANTON. If not original, the Chinese are certainly unique. Hong Kong has a population of one hundred and twenty-five thou- sand, about four thousand of whom are Europeans and Americans. The buildings are roofed with tiles. The streets, narrow and dirty, swarm like beehives. All nation- ahties dress to suit themselves. Nearly every Chinaman has an umbrella over his head, and a fan in his hand. They are THE CHINESE ORIENT. 121 compelled by law to carry a hand-lamp, if traversing the streets after seven o'clock. Only a portion of the women — the better classes — have small feet. These, in walking, simply waddle as though lame. They think it graceful. After visiting the Chinese temples, hospitals, foundling institutions, and riding upon men's shoulders in sedan- chairs, — a method of locomotion to us as distasteful as unnat- ural, — we took the steamer for Canton. The native name is Yang-Ching^ meaning "the city of rams;" but from sub- sequent mythological circumstances connected with the wise men of the past, and their communion with the gods, it now signifies " the city of genii." Thronging with a population of over a milhon, it numbers less than two hundred foreign- ers. The city is situated on the Pearl River, up the country some ninety miles from Hong Kong. The river, wide, muddy, and moderate, reminding one of the lazy Missouri, flows into the bay at Hong Kong, just under the shadow of Victoria Peak, a mountainous point, towering up nearly two thousand feet above the level of the sea. The flat lands all along this river were covered with rice-fields, banana planta- tions, ly-chee trees laden with ripening fruit, peach-orchards full of promise, and banyan shrubbery, more ornamental in this latitude than useful. Odd-looking villages, lying a little distance away, dotted the river valley. These are more noted for compactness and bustle, than cultivation or beauty. The most important of these minor cities, commercially con- sidered, is Whampoa^ — virtually the port of Canton, — being just at the head of navigation for heavily-laden vessels. Seen from the steamer, agriculture and architecture seemea decidedly primitive. The buildings were generally one story high, and covered with tiles, — no glass in the windows, nor gardens in front of them. Back in the fields^ men and women were plowing their half-submerged rice-lands with water-buffaloes. These huge, hairless creatures are consid- erably larger than our wild droves of the West. Butter made from thrir milk is white as lard. These buffalo-cows, 122 AROUKD THE WOELD. with others, and goats also, are driven to the door to be milked, thus avoiding the city pests of impure milk. CANTON WITHIN THE WALLS. Approach to this, the wealthiest and most elegant city of China, seemed almost impossible, from the wilderness of skiffs, " sam-pans," and junks plying the muddy waters. These junks, clumsily modeled, yet richly decorated, have bamboo sails, and are better adapted to inland harbor and river purposes than European-rigged vessels. Full two hun- dred thousand Cantonese live, traffic, eat, sleep, and die on these river-boats. Their sam-pans, though floating property, are their real estate. The smallest children have bamboo- blocks tied to their bodies, so that, should they tumble over- board, they could be easily rescued. Landing, and presenting letters of introduction from the Rev. Dr. Eitel, and our gen- tlemanly and kind-hearted consul Mr. Bailey, appointed to Hong Kong fi-om Cincinnati, and, by the way, a distant relation, his maternal grandparent being a Peebles, we were made the recipients of the Rev. Dr. Kerr's hospitalities. The streets of Canton, irregularly laid out, are from five to seven and ten feet wide, and generally covered in with fluttering matting and bamboo-reeds, giving them a dull, shad- owy appearance. Broad avenues are yet to be dreamed of by Chinamen. Wheeled carriages out of the question, sedan- chairs carried by coolies are the only means of transporta- tion. It pained me to see that the shoulders of some of these poor burden-bearers were calloused and scarred. The prin- cipal streets, with such lofty names as " Pure Pearl," " Just Balance," " Unblemished Rectitude Street," &c., have ban- ners and gaudily painted signs dangling in front of theii^ bazaars, presenting an aspect at once gay and gorgeous. China has a million of temples. The emperor's iemple is magnificent. Only imperial buildings have yellow tiles. Can- ton's guardian god sits majestically in the city temple. The Confucian temples have images of Confucius. There are few THE CHINESE ORIENT. 123 places more frequented that the Temple of the Five Genii. In this, and the Temple of Horrors, daily congregate magi- cians, diviners, and fortune-tellers, spiritual quacks. Sam- un-Kung is a Tauist temple ; while Hok-hoi-tong is a hall to encourage literary men "by granting prizes for the best com- positions. There are a hundred and twenty-five temples in Canton. The viceroy, the highest civil officer, is appointed from Pekin for the term of three years. Chinese lawyers have no fees ; and yet, when gaining the suit through marked ability, they accept presents. The native dispensary, located in the eighteenth ward, employs three Chinese physicians, besides providing support for widows, coffins for the poor, and funds for the support of free schools. Penalties for treason are rigidly severe. During nine months of the provincial rebellion, in 1855, fifty thousand rebels were beheaded on the " execution- grounds," in the southern suburbs of Canton. China had homes for the aged, asylums for the blind, found- ling hospitals, and retreats for lame and worn-out animals, long before missionary feet touched their soil. Streets lead- ing from the city of Canton into the country should, after a few miles out, be called paths. Poorly paved, if at all, they range from three to seven feet wide. Canals are really the tiioroughfares of the country^ CHINESE AS TBJSY V7EEE AND ARE. Cycles are certainties, pertaining alike to individuals and nations. China had her noonday of prosperity man}^ thou- sands of years ago. To-daj^, and for centuries, she has been in a galloping decline. In that indefinite period known as antiquity, she rightly considered herself the superior race, the center of civilization and learning. It must not be for- gotten by Americans that the Chinese were adepts in astron- omy and medicine over two thousand years since ; that they employed the magnetic needle when Europe was smothering 124 AROUND THE WORLD. under the pall of the dark ages ; that printing, originating with, was used by them for centuries before knrwn in the West; that they discovered electro-magnetism, the curse gunpowder, and that they have excelled in silks, china- wares, and porcelains from time immemorial. It should be further borne in mind that the Chinese inoculated for the small-pox nearly three thousand years before the Christian era, putting the virus in the nostril instead of the arm ; and that a medical work published prior to Christ's time, during the Hau dynasty, treats in part of the circulation of the blood. Chinese scholars are proud of their past. They admit that "Western barbarians" excel them, at present, in science and the mechanical arts ; but they claim the pre-eminence in literature, metaphysics, and the mysterious sciences, such as ontology, geomancy, physiognomy, divination, and necromancy, or methods of conversing with the dead. During the tedious voyage from New Zealand with a crew of Chinese, I was surprised one day to see a young coolie perusing a fine old Chinese volume, thickly embellished with pictures and plates of the human form, the human brain laid open, the curves and facial features indicating character delicately marked, and the fortune-lines of the hand clearly traced. Inquiring through tho, interpreter when written, and by whom, I ascertained that it was one of a series of volumes by an ancient sage, treating of read- ing character by the brain-organs, the facial angles, and the general contour of the person, alias a volume upon phrenol- ogy and physiognomy. It can not be consistently alleged that Christian missiona- ries would be partial to, or inclined to overrate, the virtues and intellectual altitudes of the "heathen" they were sent to save. And yet the Rev. J. L. Nevius, ten years a mis- sionary in China, says in his work entitled " China and the Chinese," " China may well point with pride to her authen- tic history, reaching back through more than thirty cen- THE CHINESE ORIENT. 125 turies ; to her extensive literature, containing many works of sterling and permanent value ; to her thoroughly elaboi- ated language, possessed of a remarkable power of expression ; to her Ust of scholars, and her proficiency in belles-lettres. " If these," says Dr. Nevius, " do not constitute evidences of intellectuality, it would be difficult to say where such evidences might be found." Further, China has given a literature to nearly forty millions of Japanese, and also to the inhabitants of Corea and Manchuria. If the Japanese surpass the Chinese in skill and impulsive action, the Chi- nese excel them in intellectuality and morality. The better classes of Japan use the Chinese classics, much as we do, in our collegiate coui'ses, those of Greece and Rome. For centuries the Chinese have been traversing the down- ward segment of their national cycle. Compared with Americans, they seem dull and phlegmatic. Though their bodies are healthy, they lack energy, muscular force, and mental activity. To see a Chinaman in a hurry would be a marvel. They walk their narrow streets moderately, seldom getting excited about any thing. Gymnasiums, and vigorous athletic exercises, are quite unknown among them. They have the appearance of being timid ; and yet they are per- sistent in accomplishing what they undertake. Most of these Chinese labor sixteen hours a day. Their industry is pro- verbial. THE CHESTESE COOLIE TRADE. Portugal and Spain, Christian (?) nations, commenced the coolie traffic some forty years since. Labor in China was exceedingly cheap. Europeans were quick to discover this. Accordingly, a Spaniard from Peru, while at Macao, China, seeking a cargo, conceived the idea of securing under some pretense a crew of coolies to work in Peru. This he did under the false promise of conveying them to the island of Java, to return in a few years well paid for their services. But they were landed in Callao, South America, never again 126 AROUND THE WORLD. to see their native land. They complained bitterly of the deception ; but no number of Chinese complaints could avail in court against a Spaniard's oath. The reported indus- try of these Chinamen reaching the ears of Cuban planters, ships were sent out bringing cargoes of them to labor on their plantations. But when those who first went out with the Spanish captain on the '• Don Pedro," and those who afterwards sailed for Cuba, and other islands in the west, did not return to their homes and families ; and when rumors returned that these Chinese labor-emigrants had been enslaved, or slain for insubordination, — no more would ship for that land afar over the waters. Then commenced that wretched system of buying, kidnapping, and chaining, which disgraced our comm.on civilization. Ship-owners and traders, sailing into Chinese ports, organized bands of thieves to steal and kidnap coolies by thousands. And these poor Chinamen seized in rice-fields, and boys in schoolrooms, wQve gagged, and dragged by force down into the ill-aired holds of vessels, to be borne away, the veriest slaves, to toil in the guano-islands, or other portions of the distant West. And all this under the flag of European civilization ! Guilty of theft, and red-handed, wholesale murder, these Christian nations have the cool impudence to send missionaries to heathen Chinamen ! Kidnapping is still quite a business in the Sooith-Sea Is- lands. A little prior to our reaching Australia, the brig "Carl,'* owned by Dr. J. P. Murray, sailed under the British flag from Melbourne towards Fiji, for the ostensible purpose, of pearl-flshing ; but really engaged in man-stealing in the southern sea. This was afterwards proved in the court of justice that arraigned Mr. ]\Iount. Dr. Murray, now pro fessedly pious and prayerful, was guilty of deception, of stealing natives, and downright murder. Some of the wounded Bougainville natives were thrown overboard alive. Is it strange that missionaries find it so difficult to convert South-Sea Islanders to Christianity ? THE CHINESE ORIENT. 127 AMERICA LONG KNOWN TO THE CHINESE. A scholarly writer in the " North China Herald " assures us bhat a " superstition " in the provinces of Honan and Hupee declares that America and China are to be sympathetically, if not jDolitically and religioush^ united. This is based upon the testimony of Chinese visionists, who in their ecstatic state see " an immense bridge over to the United States." These clairvoyant visionists further teach that the " Chinese and American nations were once brothers." The manda- rins say they have books under the name of Fusang^ written long ago, that describe America and Occidental scenery with a marvelous precision. Chinamen returning fi'om Califor- nia tell their relatives that they found races in America — the Indians — who could talk some of their own language. These notions, with the admiration that China had for Mr. -Bur]ingame, give them a strong predilection in favor of America, as well as constitute the animus of their emigra- tion to our shores. The French ethnologist Baillet, in a letter to the Royal Society of Antiquarians, makes certain statements, current among the Ting-chause scholars of China, of which the fol- lowing is the substance : — " There was a great family, called Tooloong, which lived in the land of Fukien, and became rich. When a mighty con- queror came from the north, and the emperor Hia was not able to protect his children, Tooloong and his family joined themselves with some barbarians, — Assyrians from the west, — and abandoned their homes in grief. They gave them- seivei; into the hands of the gods. The great dragon watched them by night, and Su-wang-Shangty by day. For more than a thousand days, Tooloong wandered northward and eastward until the icicles grew on the skirts of his gar- ments ; still the gods said, ' Go on,' and Tooloong's heart was stout. Then thej^ found a great bridge as white as the summer's cloud, and very strong. The barbarians Jiesitated, 1-8 AROUND THE WORLD. but Tooloong was brave. They all crossed over. On the other side was a new China, where no one lived. The trees were beautiful, and the beasts kind. Tooloong wondered. But they kept on till a land of flowers was seen in the dis- tance. The barbarians said, ' Let us not go farther : it will burn us.' But Tooloong said, ' I stop not till the dragon- god stops.' So they entered the land of flowers. Here they were blessed. The gods were very kind. Toolong wanted dwellings and a pagoda. He built great cities in the flower country, and died. After a long period, some of his chikben tried to come back to China. But the great bridge was gone. So they all, with the exception of Nung-yang^ were sent back to the flower-country by the gods. He, becoming immortal by death, flew over on a cloud, and told his kindred of the great things Tooloong had done." The Americans, whom the Chinese hear of as living in a great country to the north and east, are believed, says M. Baillet, to be the descendants of Tooloong and the Assyrians that accompanied him. And Mr. Conwell, a Chinese traveler and author, suggests that the " north and east " would very naturally refer to the direction of Behring's Straits ; that the " bridge " might have been ice, or an isthmus covered with snow, since sub- merged; that the " flower-country " might be the land of Mexico ; that the " pagoda, and blocks of stone dwellings," might relate to those wonderful structures, the ruins of which, at Palenque and Uxmal, astonish the antiquarian, as well as favorably compare with those of Upper Egypt and Syria. And what, if possible, is more singular, the images of gods manufactured at Bohea, near Ting-Chan, are the exact counterparts of the idol-gods found in Southern Cali- fornia and Mexico. A striking corroboration of the above hypothesis is furnished by Gen. Crook, in his discovery of ruins, while operating against the Apaches. And Capt. Man- ning, of the regular army, writes from New Mexico under date of July 14, 1874, touching the discovery of ancient THE CHINESE OIMEXT. 129 ruins, and the remnants of a fading race, " This once walled, but now city of ruins, was originally discovered by a Spanish Jesuit, who published his wanderings in America in 1529. His account is quite correct. The demolished structures symbolize, in conception, those of the East. The language of the remnant of this people, so says an eminent archaeologist visiting them last season, resembles the Chinese. And so do some of their minor customs ; such as their rever- ence for the aged, and devotion to ancestors. The women are of the Celestial type, — almond eyes, protuberant bodies, and small feet. The}'' dress much in Chinese fashion. Their religious ceremonials are formal, the priests wearing embroi- dered robes." Were not the Aztecs the racial link, connect- ing this fading race in New Mexico with the migrating Chinese and Assyrians of the Tooloong era? COOLIES IN CALIFORNIA. — WHY THEY COME. The first Chinamen reaching California in 1849 were not gold-hunters, but fugitives from Peruvian masters, hiding in ships en route from New York to San Francisco, via Callao. Others came, ere long, from China in vessels, as Chinese cooks and servants. Hearing of the gold-diggings, these, with those from Peru, hurried to the mining districts. Purses soon filled with the precious metal, they returned to their native country, prodigies^ painting the Pacific coast a very paradise. The news flew. The lower classes, listen- ing, became uneasy. While mandarins and Confucian scholars live m palatial buildings, rich in furniture, sofas, mirrors, and china dishes, the coolies live in houses built of bamboo-matting and mortar, with sliding doors for windows, and no chimneys, neither pulu upon which they may pillow their heads. Often a room in which a family lives is not over ten feet square. Their fires are kindled and kept burn- ing outside their miserable dwellings. In this one room may be found scraps of red paper, as " tablets " to some guardian spirit, a kitchen god, a few stools, and burning joss- 130 AROUND THE WORLD. sticks. Their daily dish is rice, pork, paste rolls, and pulse. Rice the great staple, the}^ cook by steaming. Most of the coolies come from the Canton district. Ship- owners and brokers in Hong Kong send circulars up into the provinces, describing our country in glo^Ying terms. And further, they urge coolies to arrange their affairs, social and .financial, preparatory to embarking for America, where they may soon acquire fortunes, becoming rich as the mandarins. CONSULTING KITCHEN-GODS AND SPIRITS. The Chinese have been educated to believe that communi- cations can be received from the inhabitants of the heavens and the hells, after complying with certain conditions. Dreams and visions are carefully noted. Trance is common in the higher circles of Chinese society. Considering it sacred, and connecting it with their ancestors in heaven, they conceal it, so far as is possible, from the searching, critical eyes of foreigners. A recent writer* says, " I wonder if the Spiritualists of this day in New England ever think that their belief is nothing new in theory or practice, or that it has been known and believed in China for more than twenty- three hundred years. Not only do the Chinese Spiritualists believe in the same agencies and same results which distin- guish Spiritualists here, but they also practice all the methods adopted in this for spiritual manifestions, and a hundred others that do not seem to be known here. . . . During the stay of spirits in that nether world, the lower spheres, they can rap on furniture, pull the garments of the living, make noises in the air, play on musical instruments, show their footprints in the sand, and, taking possession of human beings, talk through them. In a thousand other ways they manifest theii- presence." It is very common for coolies to consult trance-mediums of the cash-taking kind, touching the wish and will of their ancestors, before deciding to sail for the western world * R. H. Conwell's Travels in Cliina, pp. 163, 164. THE CHINESE ORIENT. 131 They also sacrifice to Buddha, and petition the attendance of guardian spirits during their absence from China. THEIR HOME IDEALS. These are, good healtli ; happy families, several living con- tentedly under the same roof ; gardens and fish-ponds, well stocked ; tea fragrant, and grain abundant ; the j^oung Con- fucius of the family preparing for competitive examinations ; ancestral tablets recording honored names ; gilded halls for the wise elders ; violin-shaped instruments with l)ut a single string ; plenty of holiday festivals, cheerful with music, showy silks, savory dishes, flowers, and hanging creepers ; city walls and store-fronts glittering with quotations from favorite authors ; the conscious presence of spirits ; sacred books, treating of old sages, reverentially read : all these, with residences near Confucian, Buddhist, and Tauist tem- ples, and Chinamen are supremely happy. CHINESE CEMETERIES. When approaching Whampoa, we had a fair view of a ■Chinese cemetery, the tombs in which Avere constructed much in the shape of the Greek Omega. They are built upon hillsides, and terraced up to the very summit. It is believed that tutelary gods protect the graves, and guide the spirits of the dead back at certain seasons to their earthly homes and ancestral altars. The captain of our steamer, pointing to this hill of bones and ashes, said, " I have seen on festal days, crowding about those graves, fifty thousand people." At the time of burial, they usually make an offer- ing to hungry and unhappy spirits, believed to haunt burial- places. They clothe their dead bodies in several suits of garments for burial. Fashion demands this, which, if neglected by the children, is construed as a want of filial piety. White is the proper emblem of sorrow and moiu-ning, — red of joy and gladness. Widows are required to wear mourning three years; wliile the widower is expected to 132 AROUND THE WORLD. mourn but one year, wearing a white girdle. The Chinese have not the least fear of death, and really mourn deeper and wail louder at their weddings than at their funerals. The aged procure then* coffins before they die, decorating them with red silk and other costly material, keeping them in their houses as ornamental furniture. One monument in this cemetery, towering above the others, was erected to the memory of a " literary man.'''' Money, oftener than merit, puts up marble shafts in both Europe and America. They are useless expenditures in any country. PAGODAS. Who built them ? and what the original pui-pose ? There are several within the walls of Canton, and we passed a number crowning the hill-tops on the way up the Pearl River. These graceful towers, three, five, and nine storied, are built of brick or stone. The walls are some ten feet thick. Perfect in proportion, they range from seventy to two hundred feet high. Difficult of ascension, terraced with vines, and capped with verdure and tropical foliage, they constitute an interesting feature in Chinese landscapes. The one near Whampoa is only about six hundred years old. Many of them, however, are very ancient, antedating the introduction of Buddhism into China from India, 250 B.C. They originally symbolized aspiration, pointing toward the great Ruler of heaven. At the base, and up their rising stairways, the wise sat for meditation and self-examination. They were also used as outlooks in time of danger, and places of rest for traveling pilgrims. After the visits of Buddhist missionaries, they became the repositories of the ashes of Buddha and various relics. In some localities they are now falling into ruin. Everywhere and in eveiy thing there seems a lack of enterprise. CHAPTER XIT. CHINESE RELIGIONS AND INSTITUTIONS. " Chaiiots are vanity, horses are vanity : the tiling remains, the man departs : a shadow leaves no trace behind. " Station is vanity, office is vanity : when the tide of fortune is spent, the retributions of justice begin, and remorse is without bounds. "It may be said of every thing in earth which affords happiness, after a little time the gratification passes away, and it is, after all, but emptiness. " The conclusion of all is, that only one thing is real, and that is the effect of virtuous deeds leaving their lastmg impress on our individual being." Chinese Essay. CONFUCIAN TEMPLES. Confucianism is not a religion, but rather a system of morals. The best scholars of China to-day are the Confu- cians and Tauists. Mandarins never attend services in missionary chapels : it is beneath their dignity to Hsten to the theological religions of Christian nations. The}^ have no objections to Jesus, the Syrian sage, and would willingly give him a niche in the temples of their gods ; but hypocrit- ical, money-making, warlike Christians they despise. Visit- ing a Confucian temple, I saw a costly image of Confucius. There were also tablets of his most distinguished disciples and commentators. Students occupied rooms in rear of the building. The Chinese no more worship Confucius and hero-gods, than do Americans George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, or High-Churchmen the Bible and prayer- book. 134 AROUND THE "WORLD. Walking up the Highway of Science with Dr. J. G. Kerr, Secretaiy of the Medical Hospital in Canton, to the " Ex- amination Hall," I was filled with wonder and admiration. The hall itself is about fourteen hundred feet in length, by- six hundred and fifty wide. The principal entrance is at the *' Gate of Equity ; " and the first inscription over the avenue reads, " The opening heavens circulate literature." The examination of candidates for the Kii-yan, or second literary degree, is here held triennially. Connected with this mam- moth hall are nine thousand five hundred and thirty-seven stalls, or rooms for the students on trial ; and in rear of these rooms are other apartments for three thousand officials, — copyists, servants, policemen. Each candidate for a degree is put into a stall, with only pen, ink, and paper, and required to write an essay from a given text in the classics. One day and one night only are allowed for the production of the thesis. There is great competition ; and there are thousands of strangers in the city during these examina- tions. The third degree is conferred only in Pekin. WALLS DSr THE EMPIRE. In the declining years of the Mongolians and Chinese, man losing faith in man, reigning dynasties conceived the notion of constructing gigantic walls. For over three thou- sand years, therefore, the Chinese have been a wall-making people. Those around the old city of Canton, as they now stand, were built in 1380 A.D. The one inclosing the new city dates to A.D. 1568. The oldest of the walls surround- ing Canton is thirty feet thick at the base, about thirty feet high, nearly seven miles in length, and four horses may travel upon the top abreast. A recent writer saj^s, " It would bankrupt New York or Paris to build the walls of the city of Pekin. The great wall of China, the wall of the world, is forty feet high. The lower thirty feet are of granite or hewn limestone ; and two modern carriages may pass each other on the summit. It has parapets the whole CHINESE RELIGIONS AND ENSTITUTIONS. 135 length, and frequent giirrisons along the "way, whether run- ning through valleys, or over the crests of mountains. It would probably cost more now to build the great wall of China, through its extent of a thousand miles, than to build the sixty thousand miles of railroads in the United States. This wall, so effectual several thousand years since, is now an incumbrance." Borne in a sedan-chair, one hardly observes the gate that lets pilgrims inside the Canton walls. A sort of a cross-wall surrounds Shameen^ the chief resi- dence of foreign merchants. This wall was finished in 1862. SIGHTS AND SCENES IN THE CITY. Traversing the streets, the olfactories suffering more or less from contiguous meat-markets, gaping crowds would gather around us, commenting upon our dress, beard, and unshaven head, calling us lq Chinese " red-haired men from the west." It is reported that they shout, '''•Fan Kwai" — foreign devils. Though this were true once, it is not now. They treated us with perfect respect. Do they eat '• rats, cats, and puppies," as the old geog- raphy-makers said ? If so, it is an exceptional custom practiced by paupers. I saw no cats, but did see a few dresstjd rats and dogs in the Canton markets. Missionaries are very apt to see in " heathen lands " what they search for. Dr. Kerr informed us that a very small portion of the poorer classes probably ate them, superstitiously connecting them with certain medical effects, upon the principle that " every part strengthens a part." The unjust reports that Chinamen ate " cats and puppies," put in circulation by sensationalists, ^^ ere keenl}^ parried by the fact that Europeans ate swine, shrimps, snails, frogs, horses, and water-serpents ! The Chinese are naturally a rice-eating people ; and in the palmy ages of their old seers they subsisted entirely upon \^egetables, grains, and fruit. Meat-eating, and the shaving of their heads, are modern customs ; the one indicating the moral degeneracy, and the other subserviency to a foreign 136 AEOUND THE WORLD. power. When the Tartars poured down from the north, conquering China, the shaving of the head, except the cue, was imposed as a token of subserviency to the new dynasty. It is now fashionable ; the more foppish adding black silken braids to make their long, glossy cues more conspicuous. The women dress their heads doubtless, as they imagine, yerj artistically, combing the hair straight back, and then putting into it a profusion of tinselings, ornaments, and artificial flowers. The Chinese are naturally polite, the mandarins haughty. The women paint and powder much as they do in America. The two sexes occupy different rooms at night, and also eat separately: chop-sticks take the place of knives and forks. During the first da}^ after reaching Canton, we visited Buddhist temples, a Confucian temple, the Examination Hall, Chinese printing-offices, china-ware manufactories, embroid- ery shops, native schools, the execution grounds, and the *' Temple of Horrors," where are exhibited the pictorial pre- sentations of the ten punishments in hell. This temple is much frequented bj^ tricksters and fortune-tellers. The schools half deafened us, because the scholars all study aloud at the same time ; some literally screaming from beliind their desks. It was Babel. Education in these primary schools consists principally of committing to memory things worth knowing in books ; when well committed, the teacher explains the meaning, and the application to life. In surgery Chinese physicians are far behind European ; and for the reason they do not believe in amputations, or the use of the knife. They diagnose disease by touching the pulse. Some heal by "the laying-on of hands." They per- mit their patients the use of little or no water. INIuch sleep is among their recommendations. They use a vast number of remedies, some ridiculously superstitious and useless. They rely much upon diet, charms, faith, and the driving away of evil spirits. Some consider these Chinese physicians exceedingly skilful : others do not. They certainly are not CHINESE RELIGIONS AND INSTITUTIONS. 137 scientific in the Western sense of the term. But is medicine a science ? Dr. Kerr is doing an excellent work, and China- men have in him great faith. Speaking, at the breakfast- table, of the general intelHgence of the Chinese, Mrs. Kerr remarked, " These Chinese are in some respects in advance of the Europeans and Americans : all they need is the Christian religion." It must be remembered that Chinese literature is not only extensive, but absolutely massive. The Chinese dictionary is a work of one hundred and fifty volumes ; the history of China is a work of three hundred and sixty volumes ; while there are one hundred and twenty volumes in just the cata- logue of the imperial library at Pekin. The learned Lew Heang (120 B.C.) wrote several voluminous works entitled, " The Biography of Famous Women." Two thousand, and even one thousand years previous to Heang's time, women in the Mongolian countries were considered the equals of men. The greatest of these nations was governed by a queen, with a liberal sprinkling of mothers and sisters for officials. No traveler reading ancient literature, and study- ing old ruins, can deny the " fall of man." When the French and English, under their national ban- ners, entered the gates of Pekin in 1860, be it said to the lasting shame of that portion of the " allied army," the French, that they burned a very valuable library connected with the summer-palace of the emperor ; and these French- men are called Christians, and the Chinese "heathen." Not only is Chinese literatui-e, extensive as it is, free from all obscene allusions, but most of it is eminently suggestive and moral. In one of their odes treating of " discontent," the voyage of life is graphically traced from babyish longings to youth, then to ambitious schemes, thence to family associations, to the possession of horses and vehicles, to thousands of fertile acres, to official stations, and finally to positions of rank. Still discontented, he aspires to be prime minister, 138 AROUND THE WORLD. then emperor ; and then he calls for exemption from death, that he may rule empires and worlds. The following are the closing Knes of this ethical ode : — ' ' His numerous and foolish longings know no stopping-place ; At last a coffin for ever hides him, And he passes away, still hugging his discontent." In a Tauist work, treating of " rewards and punishments," I find these Emersonian teachings : — " When you see the way of truth, enter it. What is not truth, avoid it. Watch not in false ways. Do not deceive yourself in committing sins in secret. Add to the store of your virtues, and thus increase your merits. Let yom- compassion extend to every object. Be loyal, dutiful, and affectionate. Reform yourself that you may reform others. Pity the desolate, compassionate the distressed. Honor the aged, be kind to the young. Have a care not to harm either plants or reptiles. Sym- pathize with the unfortmiate, rejoice over the virtuous. Help those who are in difficulty, save those who are in distress. Regard the good fortime and losses of others as if they were your own. Do not make a display either of the faults of others, or of your own excellences. Suppress what is evil, give currency to what is good. Receive abuse without resentment ; receive favors, as it were, with trembhng. Dispense favors without asking a return. Give to others without after-regrets. There is no peace in wrong-doing. The effect follows the producing cause. If a person has been guilty of wicked deeds, and afterwards repents, receive him mto confidence. Forget the past. To appropriate to one's self ill- gotten gains, is like allaying hunger with poisoned food. If desires to do right arise in the mind, divinities are present to aid and bless. "As regards the virtuous man, all men honor him, Heaven protects him, happiness and fortune foUow him, evil influences flee far from him, divine spirits attend him ; whatever he does will prove successful, and he may aspire to being one of the genii of heaven." LAU-TSZE, THE GREAT MAN Circumstances, rather than merit, often weave the crown of fame. Confucius is often termed the sage of China. That he was treasury-keeper to the court of Chow, a gatherer of ancient wisdom, and a wise man, is admitted : but lie was not original, as was the old philosopher Lau-tsze, CHINESE KELIGIONS AND INSTITUTIONS. 139 who founded the Tauist sect or school of thinkers. Tauism is literallj' rationalism. Confucius spoke as a schoolmaster, quoting the ancients of almost forgotten dynasties as authority. Lau-tsze, born 604 B.C., was a radical intuitionist. His great work is called the Tau-teh-king. " Tau " means " truth," or " doctrinal discourse." Most of his works are abstruse and metaphysical. He is represented to have descended from heaven, being begotten in a miraculous manner, as were Pythagoras and Jesus. At birth his hair was already white with age ; and accordingly he was named what the word " Lau-tsze " implies, — " the immortal boy." In a poem aflame with rhapsody, addressed to this personage, these lines occur : — " Great and most excellent Tau, ■Kiou who gavest instruction to Confucius in the east, And called into existence Buddha in the west, Director of kings, and parent of all sages, Originator of all religions, mysteru of mysteries! " Confucius, once visiting him, did not seem to comprehend his transcendental philosophy. Confucius's brain was a cistern ; Lau-tsze's a living fountain. Seeing the hoUowness of education, government, and society, he condemned it ; and then, soaring into the regions of thought, he uttered truths, and lived them. It is a matter of no little surprise to us that friend Steb- bins, in his excellent compilation, " The Bible of the Ages," made no selections from the venerable philosopher Lau-tsze, who, though preceding Confucius by a few years, lived in the sixth century before Christ. The following are gems gathered at random from the volume entitled " Tau-Teh-King : " — " The wise produce without holding possession; act without presuming on the result ; complete their work without assuming any position foi themseh'es; and, since they assume no position, they never lose any.'' 140 AROUND THE WORLD. " The sage has no special love He puts himself last, and yet is first; he abandons himself, and yet is preserved. Is not this through his having no selfishness? When a work of merit is done, and reputation is coming, he gets out of the way. To produce, and have not; to act, and expect not, — this is sublime virtue." " A man on tiptoe can not stand still ; astride his neighbor he ca:i not walk on. He who is seK-displajdng does not shine; he who is self-prais- ing has no real merit. The unwise are full of ambitious desires, lusting for the stalled ox, or for sexual enjoyment. The wise conquer them- selves, putting away all impurity, all excess, and all gayety." " The sage, timid and reserved, blends in sympathy with all, for he thinks of them as his children. There is no greater misery than discon- tent; no greater sin than giving rein to lust. Tau, the spirit, is peima- nent, yet undefinable. Spirits, but from some source of spirituality, would be in danger of annihilation." " The sage wears a coarse garment, and hides his jewels in his bosom. He grasps nothmg, and therefore loses nothing. He does not copy others. He recompenses iujuiy with kindness, and excels in forgettmg himself. ' ' After a long conference between Lau-tsze and Confucius, the latter said to his disciples, " I can tell how the runner may be snared, the swimmer may be hooked, and the Rjer shot by the arrow. But there is the dragon : I can not tell how he mounts on the wing through the clouds, and rises to heaven. To-day I have seen Lau-tsze, and can only compare him to the dragon." RECKONING TIME. The Chinese profess to trace mj^stical relations between time and certain inherent principles in nature. Their yea/ is composed of lunar months, beginning with the new-moon, that is, the first new-moon after the sun enters Aquarius, which occurs between the 21st of Januarv and the 19th of February. This period marks the returning spring : and the first day of the new year is a universal holiday throughout China. In reckoning their time, especially if it relates to astrology, they use a sexagenary cycle, which confers meaning names upon years, months, days, and hours. The Sweden- CHINESE RELIGIONS AND INSTITUTIONS. 141 borgian theory of correspondences takes a wide range with Chinese scholars. They insist that the earth in organization bears a striking resemblance to man ; having veins, arteries, magnetic currents, and a principle of life infilling the whole, which principle is denominsiiedfung-shwui/. CHINA-WOMEN AND SERVITUDE. Women, though occupying a better position than in Mo- hammedan lands, are held in a sort of semi-subjection. Their often-expressed desire to be born men in the next state of existence, reveals their real condition. They paint excessively, are exceedingly polite, and desire to become the mothers of male children. In some localities women are virtually sold. And yet Chinese slavery is much less irk- some than was African slavery in our country, inasmuch as it is not hereditary. When a coolie sells a daughter, he is supposed to convey no right to the services of unborn grandchildren. Nearly all Europeans and Americans doing business in the cities and treaty-ports buy each a China girl as a " mistress," for from three to five hundred dollars, keeping the same till returning to their native countr}'. This, though considered no disgrace by Europeans residing in China, gives the Chi- nese a bad opinion of " Christian " morals in the West. Leaving for their homes, some of these men make provision for their "kept women" and their children; others sell them ; and others still turn them off upon the world's cold charities. JMatches being made by the parents, the luxury of court- ing or love-making is not among the fine arts of the Flowery Land. Betrothals take place at a very early age, and frequently the parties do not see each other till the day of marriage. Living together, they generally learn to love as husband and wife. Though polygamy is permitted, the rule is one wife Taking other wives, though not highly reputable, is excused 142 ABOUND THE WORLD. when the first proves unfruitful. Ancestral worship is fun- damental in the Chinese mind. Nothing can exceed their desire to have male children to visit their graves, and vener- ate their memories. Parents in some of the provinces have the power of life and death over their children. Sons obey their parents the same after as before their marriage. Chil- dren by the second, third, and other wives are legal, and have the same rights as those by the first. Sons, marrpng, bring their wives to the father's house, having different rooms, yet forming one household. The first wife, queen of the shanty, may not only control, but legally beat the others to produce obedience. They are, in fact, her servants ; and she claims the ownership and jurisdiction of their children. The Rev. Dr. Eitel, of Hong^ Kono'. gave us an interest- ing account of a childless couple connected with his church, who came to him begging consent for the husband to take a second wife, hoping to raise a son. The wife was far the most anxious of the two for this consummation. During the importuning, she quoted the Bible case of Abraham and Sarah. The doctor, after advising them to " submit to the will of God," suggested, that if they must have a son, look- ing forward to ancestral worship, they adopt some outcast child. The Christian woman rephed, " This was not Abra- ham's course ; and then, such children usually inherit bad temperaments and dispositions." BUDDHIST TEMPLES AOT) BUDDHISM. Buddha means the "enlightened;" as Christos, Christ, signifies " anointed." Having read for years of Buddhism, and the older religions of Asia, my first visit to a Buddhist monastery, to witness the temple-services of the priests, was thrillingly interesting. Stej)ping inside, and glancing at the brazen trinity of tha " three precious C'ues," the lighted tapers and burning incense, the priests with shaven heads, long robes, — gray, black, and yellow, accordmg to the order, — bowing their CHINESE RELIGIONS AND INSTITUTIONS. 143 heads to the floor, then rising and re-bowing before their images, I mentally said, " Who are the thieves ? " Nothing can be more patent than that Roman rituahsm is stolen jfrom the Buddhists, or that Buddhism is borrowed bodily from Roman Catholicism. Unfortunately for churchmen, Saka- muni^ Gautama Buddha, the original founder of Buddhism, died in the year 543 B.C. One of the earlier Catholic mis- sionaries, traveling in China, wrote and published that " there was no country where the Devil had so successfully counterfeited the true worship of the Holy Church as in China. . . . These Buddhist priests burn incense, hear confessions, and wear long, loose gowns resembling some of the fathers. They live in temples like so many monasteries, and they chant in the same manner as with us." The vesper services in this temple were conducted in the following order : the striking of a tom-tom, ringing of bells, intoning, chanting, genuflections, and marching up and down the gor- geously decorated edifice. The chanting was not only in good time, but really melodious. We had a social chat with these priests, Dr. Kerr interpreting. The abbot who led the service had a solemn visage, and finger-nails nearly an inch in length. Taking our departure, these priests joined each his own hands, and shook them vigorously, instead of shaking oiirs^ — the sweaty, clammy, unclean hands of flesh-eating Christians (?) The appearance of a superior Buddhist temple, exhibiting considerable architectural skill, is to an externalist truly grand and imposing. Symmetrical and well-proportioned, these structures, with their adjoining gardens, are admirably calculated to excite wonder and reverence. The tiled roofs are decorated with fretted- work, — unique figures of dragons, elephants, war-horses, and historical dramas ; while their interiors are ornamented with Oriental carving-work, weird scrolls, m3'sterious inscriptions, and gilt sentences ^vritten over the heads of their divinities. Lotus-flowers adorn mo^t of their altars. This lotus symbol is not understood 144 AROUND THE WOELD. however, by the more ignorant of Buddhist worship- ers. Passing the gates of this temple, we saw on our right a number of pigs wallowing in the choicest food. An inscrip- tion upon the block by the inclosure read, " Save llfe^ All life, in the eyes of Buddhists, is sacred ; one of their chief commandments being, " Thou shalt not take life." And yet travelers, — and among them a member of the " Ameri- can Expedition to China and Japan," — after describing what they term their " sacred pigs," speak of the worship paid to this " sanctified pork." Saying nothing of the injustice done, such a blunder is almost unpardonable. The Rev. Dr. Eitel, a German clergyman of Hong Kong, in publishing a correction of this mistake, adds, " There is not a trace of porcine-worship to be found among Buddhists." Modern Buddhism, bearing but little relation to its ancient grandeur, exists to-day in a degenerate and dying state. This mission- ary, the Rev. Dr. Eitel, treating of ancient Buddhism in his "Three Lectures" delivered and published in Hong Kong, says (p. 37) : — " Ancient Buddhism knows of no sin-atoning power. It holds out to the troubled, guilty conscience no chance of obtaining forgiveness. A Buddha is not a Saviour. The only thing he can do for others is to show them the way of doing good and overcoming evil ; to point out the path to Nirvana by his example ; and to encourage others, by means of teach- ing and exhortation and warning, to follow his footsteps. Do good, and you will be saved : this is the long and short of the Buddhist religion.' CHINAJMEN AS E]\nGRANTS. The written language of this vast empire, understood by the learned of Japan, Loo-Choo, Corea, Manchuria, and Cochin China, reaches and may influence more of the human race than any other in the world. The genius of emigration has touched, and become a kind of inspiration with, a portion of these Asiatics. Ubiquitous by nature, these Chinese are literally the Yankees of the East. For a long period, ingress CHINESE RELIGIONS AND INSTITUTIONS. 145 and egress from the empire were governmental regulations. The policy was eventually changed ; and Chinamen are now everywhere in the great cities of the world, and the out-of- the-way islands of the Pacific, — servants, agriculturists, arti- sans, as circumstances demand. Every Chinese dealer, buyer and seller, has his own scales. They can not trust to others. They live cheap, except on feast-days, and keep their valuables in tall stone buildings called by Englishmen "pawn-shops." In detecting coun- terfeit coin they are experts, depending entirely upon the touch and the ring of the metal. While canals are very common, they have no railways, no telegraphic lines, a,nd no insurance-offices. In money-making they excel, and yet they are not considered miserly. It matters little what rival Irish laborers in America may say or do : Chinamen are certain to flock westward in increasing crowds. Competition in many directions, and ulti- mately an intermingling of blood, an intermixture of the whitish-pink and the olive-brown races, — beneficial perhaps to both the Orient and the Occident, — will be the result. There are no white men on earth. The three original colors were pink, copper, and black, corresponding to the equator, the tropics, and temperate zones. Already in Australia and the Pacific islands marriages are not uncommon between Englishwomen and wealthy Chinamen. This cross of blood and temperament produces handsome as well as very intelU- gent children. Is it a foreshadowing of their future social hfe in America ? MUKDER OF THE INNOCENTS. China is packed with people. Though ambitious crowds emigrate, the old hive continues crammed. The Tai-Ping war took off infatuated multitudes ; and provincial rebellions result not uncommonly in a wholesale slaughter. Still the country swarms with over-population. This fact is father to much of the infanticide. Is there as rational an excuse 146 AROUND THE WORLD. for the prevailing foeticide of America? That infanticide prevails to an alarming extent in some of the poorer locali- ties, is beyond dispute, while in others it is entirely iiU' known. Major Studer, our American consul in Singapore, though residing in this city of sixty thousand Chinamen, says there has not been a case of infanticide before the courts, nor has he as yet even heard of a child's being killed by the parents. Chinese women, like other mothers, natu- rally love their children ; but the family is large, the means of support Hmited, and the country deluged with popula- tion. What must be done ? A check of some kind seems indispensable. The}^ do not destroy the first female infant. If the second born is a female, there comes a struggle between natural affection, and the nuisance of two female chil- dren, with no son to bear the name down to posterity, secur- ing ancestral worship. If the third is a daughter, it seldom escapes strangling by the " woman-nurse " in attendance. There is a tacit understanding between the parties to this effect. The method of destruction is either by strangula- tion or drowning. True, there is a well-defined law against this crime ; and the public sentiment of China is decidedly opposed to it. And what is equally encouraging Chinese scholars write essays and books against the criminal practice. A popular tract has this heading : " A71 Appeal to dissuade from drowning Female Children.'''' In it I find these teach- ings : — " Virtue and vice are connected with their appropriat*. results as the shadow follows the substance. The offending man meets with innumer- able troubles and distresses. Suffering follows him. . . . Suppress what is evil. . . . Avoid displaying the faults of others, doing things in an underhanded manner, and destroying children before or after birth." Not mentioning other authorities, the Rev. Di. Eitel, the German missionary in Hong Kong, assured us that the mor- als of Chinamen would compare very favorably with those of Europeans ; that they were far more chaste, and upright CHINESE RELIGIONS AND INSTITUTIONS. 147 every way, in the country than in the cities ; and that, just so far as traders and foreigners generally exercised any influ- ence, it was in tendency demoralizing. CHINESE BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. Churchmen are inclined to boast of their charitable asy- lums and reform-institutions as proofs of the divinity of the Christian religion. When premises are assumed, erroneous conclusions quite naturally follow. Many hundreds cer- tainly, and in all probability thousands, of years before the Chrisiian era, China not only had her universities of learn- ing, but her public charities and extensive benevolent insti- tutions. And though China is, intellectually and nationally, in her dotage now, these have not ceased to exist. No+^^ "^"b' every city, but every country village of any importance, has its free school and orphan-asylum. Some wealthy citizen leading the enterprise, others unite in raising funds, which are often increased from the government treasury. " In Hang Chow," says the Rev. Mr. Nevius, " I found, in connection with a variety of benevolent institutions, an asy- lum for old men, which had about five hundred members." It was my good fortune to visit one foundling-hospital. By diligent inquiry I learned that there were many societies for the relief of aged widows, and also for cripples, but none for the insane, and for the plausible reason that it is among the marvels of the country to see or hear of an insane person. Charity-schools are very common in China. And then there are numerous medical hospitals, where medicines are administered to the pcor gratuitousl}*. " There is a society in Suchow," writes the missionary Nevius, "for the suppres- sion of the publication and sale of immoral books." The mandarins contributed largely to this establishment. I was repeatedly informed by hunters and travelers that in the interior of the country the people were exceedingly hospitable, bringing tea and rice to the roadside to refresh 148 AROUND THE WORLD. the wanderer. Turanians and Semitics are proverbially less acquisitive than Europeans. Just in proportion, however, as they mingle with the Western civilizations, do they become scheming and mercenary. Heaven knows, I despise a grasp- ing selfishness ! There are individuals of Aryan descent mean and selfish enough to suck the moon from the sky, bag the golden sun, and, pocketing the stars, wait for a rise in fire-mist matter, hoping for a " bargain " at world-building.. Selfislmess breeds devils. THE MOSAIC OF GIVE AND TAKE. Scholastic Chinamen, given to egotism, think meaner of us than we possibly can of them. Their map of the world puts China in the center, and America in a small compass adrift on the border-lands of the globe. If we laugh at their shaveo' heads, thick-soled shoes, and sack trousers, they sneeringly smile at our shaven faces, short-cropped hair, stovepipe hats,, gloved hands in summer-time, and tight-fitting pants half revealing the anatomy of the organism. If we refer to^ the small feet of women among the Chinese nobility, they sarcastically point to the wasp-like waists, swinging hoops,, uncouth chignons, and tawdry manners, of the Americans. And then, to walk arm in arm, man and woman, is considered by them exceedingly vulgar. Lecture the more intellectual: upon the subject of morals, and they will push in your faces an old copy of " The New-York Herald," with flaring sub- headings oi poisonings, forgeries, murders, drunkenness, thiev- ing, suicide, divorces, adulteries, foeticide, &c. Chinamen and Japanese, attending school or traveling through America, see in the city hotels printed cards of warning, " Valuables must be handed to the clerk to be locked in the safe.'' Sallying out into the streets, they see club-bearing policemen arrest- ing disorderly and drunken men, and occasionally a drunken woman. These vices, and others so common in Christendom, they report to their countrymen when returning, and then' inake merry over the mock civilization of Chistian nations CHINESE RELIGIONS AND INSTITUTIONS. 149 Cool and reflective, these Asiatic Chinese are not slow to forget that foreign Christian nations introduced opium into their empire, against the positive remonstrances ( f the Pekin government. Out of this opium-trade business, grew the first war, with a great slaughter of life. They also well understand that their countrymen have not been allowed to testify in the civil and criminal courts of America only under certain crippled conditions ; and, further, they take a sort of demoniac satisfaction in reminding Western nations of their frequent drunkenness, their houses of prostitution, their city dancing-dens, their immodest pictures, and their publication of obscene books. On the whole, they think Christian nations not only terribly immoral, but downright hypocrites. Sir John Davis sensibly wrote thus to Englishmen : " The most commendable portion of the Chinese system is the gen- eral diffusion of elementary moral education^ among even the lower classes. It is in the preference of moral to physical instruction that we might perhaps wisely take a leaf out of the Chinese books, and do something to reform this most immoral age of ours." THE IklANDARINS AND SCHOOLS. Those known as mandarins are all scholars, having passed the prescribed examinations. The important offices of the empire are filled with mandarins only. They may be recog- nized by their costly costume, insignia, and train of attend- ants. Money does not, as in America, buy " honorable " positions. Bating the "blue-button" mandarins, — those who, because of some signal service rendered, have received a sort of " side honor, " — the others, the genuine, are often popular in consideration of their scholarly attainments and munificent gifts. The court language is mandarin, being spoken by all officials ; and although it is important as a written language, being sjjoken all over Northern China, it is nevertheless but one of the dialects of the empire. As the Latin may be read 150 ABOUND THE WORLD. and spoken by the very learned of universities in all lands, so the written language of China may be understood by the literati of North-eastern Asia. As a nation, China is eminently literary. The first degree conferred upon the scholar is A. B., " beautiful ability ; " the second is A. M., literally "the advanced man;" while it is only after the most critical and rigid examination that students receive the crowning degree at the capital. Free " day-schools " for boys are common. Girls are neglected; and yet in some of the provinces there are free schools estab- lished for them also, with female teachers. Nearly all of even the poorer classes in this vast empire are versed, to some degree, in writing, reading, arithmetic, and memorized passages from the classics. Japan has a compulsory system of education, equally binding upon the children of both sexes. Religion in these lands is free. Church and State are unmeaning terms. Their great teachers, such as Lau-tsze, Confucius, and others, were moralists rather than rehgion- ists. Thousands of the truly learned are pantheists. Many of their statements are as transcendental as Emerson's. They believe in Tau, — the absolute Unity, manifest as duality in the positive and negative forces of the universe. There are three great systems of morals and religions in the country. Tauism savors of metaphysical pantheism ; Confucianism, of practical morals ; and Buddhism, of the old religions of India ; and yet these different religionists frequently worship in the same temples. And why not ? Is not this a lesson of toler- ance to Christendom ? " Heathen " may well say of Chris- tians, " Behold how they love one another ! " GOD-WORSHIP AND GENERAL WARD. Nearly every office and shop in China-lands has its image, .its sacred altar, and its smoking incense as a " sweet-smelling savor." Rightly understood, however, worship in all Mon- golian countries implies little more than respect paid to uiperiors. Besides ancestors, whose spuit-presences China- CHINESE RELIGIONS AND INSTITUTIONS. 151 men evoke, scholars worship the god of letters, soldiers the god of war, business-men the god of wealth, medical men some Chinese Esculapius ; and even gamblers have their altars and their gods, to whom they appeal, pleading for good luck. Lau-tsze and Confucius rank highest among their gods. The latter, generally called by them the Ancient Teacher, the Perfect Sage, is the most popular. All these gods whom they worship were once men, famous and renowned as heroes or sages. It will be remembered by Americans that John Ward, originally a Massachusetts sailor, and afterwards in league with Walker in the wild undertaking of conquering Nica- ragua for slavery-extension purposes, took an active part in the Tai-ping rebellion, fighting on the side of the emperor, rather than in behalf of a more democratic government. The rebellion, calling to its aid many scholars, soon assumed gigantic proportions. These Tai-pings in their manifestoes indorsed the Christian religion, abolished slavery, encouraged education, and cautioned their soldiers against the inhuman treatment of prisoners. Victories attended them. But the American Ward, introducing into the emperor's army European discipline and tactics, proved a martial success, and a help to the imperial cause. Still the rebellion continued. At first the French and English sym- pathized with the Tai-pings. But when the emperor, trem- bling for his throne, invited foreign assistance, the French and English, in consideration of more open ports, and other mammon-like interests in the line of finances, turned at once against the " Christianity " and promised constitutional government of the Tai-pings, in favor of the imperial reign, and co-operated with the Chinese army in the capture of cities held by the Tai-pings. Blood flowed in torrents. During this Titanic struggle, in which a religio-spiritualism formed a powerful element, Ward married a mandarin's daughter, became immensely rich, and was promoted to the army position of general. But, while recounoitering a rebel 152 AROUND THE WORLD. fort, a bullet from the enemy proved fatal. He closed hia mortal career a few days thereafter, at Ningpo, and was interred in accordiince with the Chinese method of burial. Kis body was afterwards removed to Soong-Kong, and then to the inclosure near the Confucian temple, where there is a tablet erected to his honor. New deified, he is one of the warrior-gods of China. His widow and three children reside in a palatial mansion at Shanghai. THE SPIRITUAL ASPECT OF THE TAI-PING REBELLION. This daring movement originated with Hung-sew-tswen, born near Canton, — a clairvoyant seer from infancy. When a lad, he was considered strange and eccentric. Returning to his home, when a young man, from an unsuccessful exami- nation, he was attacked with a severe sickness, during which he declared that he had been favored with super- natural manifestations and revelations. He felt that he had been washed from the impurities of his nature, and introduced into the presence of an august being, who exhorted him to live a virtuous hfe, and exterminate demons. This immortalized man, whom he often saw, of middle age and dignified mien, further instructed him how to act. Hung called this visitant his ••' elder brother." About this time he read the New Testament, and declared immediately thereafter that this imposing personage seen in his visions was Jesus Christ, the Sent-of-God. A scholarly friend of his, named Xe, uniting with him, they commenced preaching, baptizing, and making converts. During their inflammatory discourses, persons would fall into the trance, speak in strange tongues, and utter alleged revelations and prophecies. They organized to protect themselves, and punish their persecutors. This lecl to war ; the insurrection became formidable, and for a time successful. Multitudes perished by sword and famine ; vacafed fields, and burned cities yet in ruins, remain to tell the tale of war. The primal purpose was to overthrow the reigning d}' nasty, destroy the idols of the land, and establish a ^was-i-Christianit}'. CHINESE RELIGIONS AND INSTITUTIONS. 153 Hurg-sew-tswen, now putting himself at the head (>f the new kmgdoxD, was styled Tai-ping tien Kwoh, assuming tho title, " Son of Heaven." He professed to have direct com • munications from God, and spoke very familiarly of Jesun as his brother. He continually read the Old Testamenf. and observed religious worship in his camp. He assured missionaries that his revelations were as authoritative as those of the Bible, and he could prove it by his divine gifts. He further declared that spirits aided him in his victories. Loyal Chinamen called him and his soldiers, " long-haired rebels." Successes corrupting his leading officers, with envies and jealousies in different camps, the emperor's armies aided bv Gen. Ward and the English and French in com- bination, the Tai-ping rebellion was put down. The struggle continued fourteen years. The leading spirit of the rebel- lious host committed suicide. Those caught by the govern- ment officials were tortured and massacred. Hung-sew-tswen's teachings continued to produce their legitimate results. His admirers believed him to have been God-inspired for a pur- pose, as was Moses of Hebrew memory. TEA. Of tea-cultivatioii and the tea-districts I have little to say, and because everybody does who is privileged to put a foot down in China. Suffice it that the Chinese themselves, though great tea-drinkers, do not drink " green tea." Further, in preparing tea, they steam it a long time, in preference to boiling. There is a delicious, invigorating freshness to the black tea, when thus prepared by the people who cultivate the shrub. They use their best teas themselves. Stepping into their silk-shops, or bazaars of any kind, they present you a cup of tea instead of a glass of int(^xicating liquor. "Why should Americans drink tea ? Why should so much pure crystal water be spoiled by putting into it tea, coffee, and other Eastern drugs? Why import either Asiatic herbs or religions ? 154 AROUND THE WORLD. The spirit of progress, wMch flashes up in the political heavens of the West, has touched with intellectual intensity our antipodal kinsmen of the East. Commerce, whitening all seas, is a great civihzer. " Transition " is the great word now in China and Japan. Europeans and Americans are not only flocking into the original " five treatj^-ports " of China, but are exploring the interior and the highlands of the Mongolian regions. The central government, in admitting foreign ministers to Pekin, in sending an embassy to Western nations, in estabhshing a universitv and schools with European teachers, and treating other nations with the respect becoming the fraternity of humanity, is taking a step in the right direction. Bating a national egotism, and a certain innate reserve, I place a much higher estimate upon the China races, intellectual and moral, since seeing the better classes in their native country. Mandarins and officials, so far as I heard, spoke in great commendation of the Hon. Mr. Burlingame, our former minister to the capital. It may not be generally known, even in America, that he was a Spiritualist. This writer in the Atlantic Monthly, however, must have known it : — " As an example of the influence of a single man, attained over an alien race, whose civilization is widely different, whose religious belief is totally opposite, whose language he could not read nor write nor speak, Mr. Burlingame's career in China will always be regarded as an extraordinary event, not to be accounted for except by conceding to him a peculiar power of influencing those with whom he came in contact ; a power growing out of a mysterious gift, partly intellectual, partly spiritual, largely physical ; a power whose laws are unknown, wliose origin can not be traced, and whose limits can not be assigned ; a power which we designate as magnetism." When the Chinese government received official notice of Minister Burhngame's death, they gave him a tablet in a Pekin temple, thus preparing the way to deification. CHINESE RELIGIONS AND INSTITUTIONS. 155 CHINESE SPIRITUALISM. Conversing with consuls, missionaries, the older European residents, and the Chinese themselves, concerning their be- lief about gods and demons, genii and spirits, with the rela- tions they sustain to mortals, the inquiry arises, " Where shall I commence ? what say first ? " The Rev. Dr. Mac- Gowan, returning to America, said when lecturing in Chicago, " China is a nation of Spiritists." Dr. Damon re- iterated the same thing to me in Honolulu. Mr. Bailey, our Hong-Kong consul, assured me that the lower classes were very superstitious ; that the Fimg-shwuy was a mystery ; and that they all believed in the presence of their ancestors, and their power to hold converse with them." A delineation of the Fung-shiv^iy in its relations to the selection of burial- places, to the ethereal principles of the universe, to atmospheres, emanations, and vitalizing forces under the influence of gods and spirits, would require a chapter rather than a passing paragraph. When foreigners look at the sky, or at a beautiful landscape in the distance, Chinese bystanders are sure to remark, "■ They are looking at the Fung-shivuy .''"' These Orientals have their trance mediums, mostly -females J their writing mediums, using a jDointed, pen-like stick, and a table sprinkled with white sand ; their perscgi- ating mediums, giving excellent tests; their seers, wno professedly reveal the future ; and their clairvoyants, who, to express their meaning in English, " see in the dark." It may be affirmed without dispute, that Spiritism in some form is an almost universal belief throughout the Chinese Empire. It seems natural to the Turanian and Semitic races. In making this broad affirmation, I use the term " Spiritism " in preference to " Spiritualism," because the lat- ter implies not only phenomena, but philosophy, religion, and the practice of true living. 156 AROUND THE WORLD. WHAT MISSIONARIES SAY OF THEIR SPIRIT-INTERCOURSE. Hear their testimonies : — " There is no driving out of these Chinese," says Father Gonzalo, " the cursed belief that the spirits of their an- cestors are about them, availing themselves of every oppor- tunity to give advice and counsel." " They burn incense, beat a drum to call the attention of the desired spirit," writes Padra De Mae, " and then, by idolatrous methods, one of which is a spasmodic ecstasy, they get responses from the dead. . . . They have great fear of the evil spirits that inhabit forests." In two volumes entitled "Social Life Among the Chinese," by the Rev. J. Doolittle, the author informs us that " they have invented several ways by which they find out the pleasure of gods and spirits. One of the most common of their utensils is the Ka-pue^ a piece of bamboo-root, bean- shaped, and divided in the center, to indicate the positive and the negative. The incense lighted, the Ka-pue properly manipulated before the symbol-god, the pieces are tossed from the medium's hand, indicating the will of the spirit by the way they fall." . . . The following manifestation is more mental : " The professional takes in the hand a stick of lighted incense to expel all defiling influences; prayers' of some kind are repeated, the fingers are interlaced, and the medium's eyes are shut, giving unmistakable evidence of being possessed by some supernatural and spiiitual power. The body sways back and forward; the incense falls, and ,the person begins to step about, assuming the walk and peculiar attitude of the spirit. This is consid- ered infallible proof that the divinity has entered the body of the medium. Sometimes the god, using the mouth of the medium, gives the supplicant a sound scolding for invoking his aid to obtain unlawful or unworthy ends." . . . Another "method of obtaining communications, is for the applicant to make his wishes known to a person belonging CHINESE RELIGIONS AND INSTITUTIONS. 157 to a society or company established for facilitating such con- sultations. Upon these occasions, the means employed consist in the use of a willow or bamboo pen, placed upon the top of the hand over a table of white sand ; the arm becomes tremulous, and the writing is produced. And still another course is " for the female medium to sit by a table on which are two lighted candles, and three sticks of burning incense. After inquiring the names of the deceased, and the time of their death, she bows her head upon the table with the face concealed. Soon lifting it, the eyes closed, the countenance changed, the silence profound, she is sup- posed to be possessed by the spirit of the dead individual, and begins to address the applicant ; in other Avords, the dead has come into her body, using her organs of speech to com- municate with the living. . . . Sometimes these mediums profess to be possessed by some specified god of great heal- ing powers, and in this condition thej^ prescribe for the sick. It is believed that the god or spirit invoked actually casts himself into the medium, and dictates the medicine." Rev. Mr. Nevius in his work, " China and the Chinese," declares that '' volumes might be written upon the gods, genii, and familiar spirits supposed to be continuall}^ in com- munication with the people. The Chinese have a large number of books upon this subject, among the most noted of which is the Liau-chai-che-i, a large work of sixteen vol- umes. . . . Tu Sien signifies a spirit in the body. And there are a class of familiar spirits supposed to dwell in the bodies of certain Chinese who became the mediums of com- munication with the unseen world. Individuals said to be possessed by these spirits are visited by multitudes, particu- larly those who have recently lost relatives by death, and wish to converse with them. . . . Remarkable disclosures and revelations are believed to be made by the involuntary movements of a bamboo pencil, and through those that claim to see in the dark. Person? considering themselves endowed with superior intelligence are firm believers in those and other modes of consulting spirits." lo8 AKOUND THE WORLD. It was my privilege to see these coolie Chinamen convers- iijg with their sphit-ancestors in several temples. Theii methods are numerous ; and the prevalence of this belief among them astonished me. It is almost universal ; and yet with the lower classes it has degenerated into absurd superstition^, SPIRITISM VERY OLD IN CHIIsrA. " The practice of divination," writes Sir John Barrows, " with many strange methods of summoning the dead to instruct the living, and reveal the future, is of very ancient origin, as is proven by Chinese manuscripts antedating the revelations of Scripture." The " eight diagrams, with directions for devination, were invented," says the Rev. Mr. Nevius, " by the Emperor Fuhi, probably nearly 3000 B.C. About 1100 B.C., Wen- Wang, the Literary Prince, and his son Chow-Kung, further developed the system with explanations." The Yih-King is a sort of an encyclopedia of spiritual marvels and manifestations. It was denominated in the time of Confucius, the " Book of Changes." Gliddon writes, " The emperor of China, Yao, who reigned about 2337 years B.C., in order to suppress false prophecies, miracles, magic, and revelation, commanded his two ministers of astronomy and religion to cut asunder all communications between sky and earth, so that, as the chronicle expresses it, there should be no more of what is called ' this lifting up and coming down.' " This missionary, Mr. Nevius, further assures us that in the " latter part of the Chan djmasty, which continued to 249 B.C., Kwei-Kuh-Sien-sz applied the Yih-King to the use of soothsaying, and is regarded as among the fathers of augurs. During the past and the preceding dynasty, many books have been written upon this subject, among the most noted of lehich is the Poh-shi-ching-tsung^ a work of six volumes on CHINESE RELIGIONS AND INSTITUTIONS. 159 the " Source of True Divination." Here are a few passages from the preface : — " The secret of augnry consists in communication with the gods. The interpretations of the transformations are deep and mysterious. The theory of the science is most intricate, the practice of it most important. The sacred classic says, ' That which is true gives indications of the future.' To Icnow the condition of the dead, and hold with them intelligent inter- course as did the ancients, produces a most salutary influence upon the parties. . . . But when from intoxication or feasting or licentious pleas- ures they proceed to invoke the gods, what infatuation to suppose that their prayers will move them! Often when no response is given, or the interpretation is not verified, they lay the blame at the door of the augur, forgetting that their failure is due to their want of sincerity. ... It is the great fault of augurs, too, that, from a desire of gain, they use the art of divination as a trap to insnare the people," &c. Naturally undemonstrative and secretive, the higher classes of Chinamen seek to conceal their full knowledge of spirit intercourse from foreigners, and from the inferior castes of their own countrymen, thinking them not sufficiently intelli- gent to rightly use it. The lower orders, superstitious and money-grasping, often prostitute their mediumistic gifts to gain and fortune-telling. These clairvoyant fortune-tellers, surpassing wandering gypsies in " hitting " the past., infest the temples, streets, and roadsides, promising to find lost property, discover precious metals, and reveal the hidden futm-e. What good thing is not abused ? Liberty lives, though hcense prowls abroad m night-time. Christianity wore the laurels it wove, though Peter denied and Judas betrayed. Spirit-communion is a reality, and, wisely used, a mighty redemptive power, as well as a positive demonstra- tion of a future existence. Though wars are to be deprecated, and the war-spirit made subject to arbitration, it must nevertheless be admitted that the recent war between China and Japan had a very salutary effect upon the Chinese. It cooled their self-esteem and humbled their pride. The}' already begin to have a higher appreciation of Western civilization. CHAPTER XIII. * COCHIN CHINA TO SINGAPORE. Aboard " The Irrawaddy," a magnificent French steamer the sea. calm and smooth as polished glass, richly did I enjoy sailing down the coast of Cochin China to Anam. THE ANAMITES. Though the French are wretched colonists, they have made a success at Saigon, Anam, the southern part of Cochin China. The city, numbering several thousand inhabitants, has a naval station, situated up the lazy, serpentine Saigon River, some fifty miles from the beautiful bay. Three miles from this French town, where we land facing bristling soldiery, is the old China city itself, claiming from seventy to a hundred thousand. During the latter part of the Bourbon reign, the Jesuit missionaries from France had difficulty with the Anamites in this portion of Cochin China, whose king resides up the River Hue, in an old walled city. France, in accordance with her usual policy, sided with the priests, sending a fleet to adjust a settlement, and enforce claims. The king was frightened. Demands were made, and a fine slice of territory was ceded to the French. This occurred during the reign of Louis XVI., noblest of all the Bourbon rulers. The Anamites — - evidently a mixture, afar in the past, of Malays and Chinese — are small in stature, and slovenly in ipj^earance : chewing the betel-nut, which colors their lips. COCHIN CHINA TO SINGAPORE. 161 teeth, and tongue a dark, inky brown. Women are more excessive chewers than the men. Though a subject of discus- sion by our party, it was decided by a slight majority that their sooty, shriveled mouths excelled American tobacco- chewers in nastiness ! These women wear rings on their toes, ankles, wrists, and generally one in the nose. They sling the nude young child astride the hip, throwing the right arm around it as a pro- tection. Their complexion is a dark olive or copper. Those residing back on the highlands, and in the interior, away from French civilization, are not only physically larger, but superior mentally and morally. Historj' writes these people down as the original Chinese, — bold, brave, and uncon- quered by the Tartars. They do not shave their heads, nor wear clothing save around their loins. The principal language spoken is French. The religion of the natives is Buddhism. The Bonzes are very cour- teous, allowing foreigners to inspect every thing in their temples. We are only a few degrees north of the equator. Intensely hot, it is the paradise of gnats and mosquitoes. Fahrenheit, 88°. The country along the Saigon River is low, flat, and densely wooded, but excellent for rice-culture, the gum of lacquer, cinnamon, and many of the precious woods. The highlands afar back from the valley abound in fertile fields. Tropical fruits burden the markets. The city and valley-lands are unhealthy. This is acknowledged by the French. On account of the heat, business is suspended in the French part of the city from ten o'clock, a.m., till five o'clock, p.m. FRENCH FASHION AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. The French are reported polite and fashionable. But what is fashion ? How far is it authoritative ? and who are subjects of the fickle goddess ? Sitting at the table aboard our steamer, the doctor ^vas i-eminded, and I was twice asked, by the gar^on, to appear in certain suits at certain times of 162 AROUND THE WORLD. the day, — saj^ the dinner-honr. It was a piece of imperti- nence ; and I sent the following note to the navy olficer in command of the steamer : — Commander of ' 'Irrawaddy. " Sir, — It is, in my estimation, nobler to be a man, maintaining true moral independence, than to be a French- man or an American. And as the two legitimate purposes of clothing are to cover the body, and conduce to its comfort, will you have the kindness to instruct your servants to give neither myself nor Dr. Dunn further annoyance by suggesting what hour we dress for the day, or in what style of dress we appear at the dining-table? Fashion, a heartless tyrant, has no international standard ; and, if it had, I should be guided entirely by my own judgment and good sense of propriety. Respectfully thine, J. M. Peebles. The reply, prompt and gentlemanly, saved us from future annoyances. Society is like a light honeycomb, pretty but empty, while fashion is the ruling queen of the nations. Rich and poor, the stupid and the intelligent alike, fawn around, and bow down to this stupid goddess. And if any individual, man or woman, conscious of that moral independence inhe- rent in the God-given nature, refuses allegiance to, or rises to overthrow the mandates of fashion, a pig-headed public raises the cry at once, " He's eccentric ! " " He does it to attract attention ! " And the poor soul, finding no moral support, is often whipped back into the popular rut, to sheepishly trot along with the dawdling multitude. Down in my soul's depths I detest, despise, loathe, and hate this cringing worship paid at the shrine of fashion ; and be it known to France in particular, that I will shave or not, wear my hair long or short, and dress precisely as I please, regardless of fashionable dandies or dictatorial aristocrats. SINGAPORE. Sing of Cuba, queen of the Antilles, if you choose ; but I'll sing of Singapore and its spice-fields, Singapore and its COCEIIN CHINA TO SINGAPORE. 163 waters of crystal and sapphire. The word, literally Slnga- pura, from the Sanscrit singa, touching, and pura, city, implies the ancient "touching-city" for commercial traders between China and the countries west. Nestling down to within some seventy miles of the equa- tor, one would naturally suppose, though imbosomed in flowers and fadeless foliage, that Americans from the North- ern States could not here live ; and yet they do. The green isles, the sea-breezes, the atmospheric moisture from fre- quent showers, and the financial facilities for traffic, reveal the reasons. There are really no seasons here, — not even the wet and dry of California and Asia Minor ; but a per- petual summer, with a remarkable equableness of tempera- ture, crowns the year. All this said, nevertheless the climate must be enervating. Just before reaching this unique city of 150,000, made up ■of Chinamen, indigenous Malays, Klings from Madi-as, Bur- mese, Siamese, Parsees, and Arabs, we crossed the 180th meridian west from New York, being almost directly oppo- site our home in New Jersey; and yet, though feet to feet with Americans, we did not fall off into space, nor did the law of gravitation cease to fasten us to Mother Earth. Making into the harbor, the steamer passed between a large island covered with palms, and a cluster of little islets put- ting up from coral depths. At the feet of these were glit- tering white sands, while their summits were crowned with rich green jungles. Others had been cleared, their sides serried something like potato-fields, and planted with pine- apples. The isle of Singapore is owned by the English. While there are about five hundred Europeans in the city, mostly English, it seems a general landing-place for the waifs of the world. Races are terribly mixed. This is a famous mart for articles in the line of jewelry. Their coral, sea-shelis, precious stones, tiger's claws, birds-of-paradise, Chinese .porcelain, and carvings in sandal-wood, are exceedingly beau 164 AROUI^D THE WORLD. tifiil. Many Oriental imitations are sold by these natives foi the genuine. A daily-expected steamer, bound for India in the opium-trade, detained us over two weeks. It is at present (June 22) the season of the monsoons in this lati- tude. Junks are turning Chinaward. NATURAL BEAUTY OF THE MALAY LANDS. - In these Eastern archipelagoes and oceans, Nature puts human language to shame when it attempts a description of her luxuriance. These islands of loveliness, comparable to emeralds set in seas of silver, or gems glittering upon the bosom of hushed waters, their foliage reaching to the shim- mering edge, where they dip their broad leaves in heaving waves ; these Indies, the lotus-lands of the East, consid- ering the geological formations, the Oriental vegetation, the magnificent forests musical with birds of gaudiest plumage, the cocoanut-palm (prince of j^alms for beauty and nobility), the groves of spices, where one eternal summer gilds hill and dale, — all these conspire to constitute the loveliest region on earth. It is not strange that certain theologians, ethnologically inclined, have fixed the Adamic paradise in the Malay Archipelago. Other islands have their charms^ but these bear away the palm. Perfumed isles and aromatic airs are no fabled dreams. Stepping out under brilliant skies in evening-time, when the land-breezes were coming in, I have been literally fanned by soft winds laden with most delicious perfumes. The Malays proper inhabit the Malay Peninsula and nearly all the coast-regions of Borneo, Sumatra, Celebes, and many of the smaller islands. In this equatorial latitude, and the islands adjoining it, Alfred R. Russell, the distinguished naturalist and Spiritual- ist, spent eight years collecting an immense cabinet of plants, insects, birds, and animals. Though the ]\lalay Peninsula abounds in bananas, mangoes, inangosteens, gambler, nutmeg, pepper, bamboo-groves,. COCHIN CHINA TO SINGAPORE. 165 gutta-percha forests, pine-apple plantations, tapioca uplands, clove and cinnamon gardens, it has its drawbacks in the way of insects, lizards, serpents, and tigers. Mosquitoes sing the same bloodthirsty tunes as in America. Though tarrying at the best hotel, our rooms are infested with flies, beetles, fleas, and slimy lizards, crawling upon the walls and ceiling. The other morning, upon rising, and lifting my pillow, out darted from under it a wretchedly ugly lizard ! All poesy lands have their prose sides. THE MALAYS AN OLD RACE. Though the Malay Peninsula was unknown to Europeans till the arrival of the Portuguese in India about the year 1500, the race for weary ages possessed the knowledge of letters, worked metals, domesticated and utiHzed animals* cultivated flelds, and led the commerce of the Pacific Ocean. Their language crops out not onlj^ in very remote islands to the east, but according to the EngHsh ethnologist, Mr. Brace, " in Madagascar, three thousand miles distant, the Malay words form one-seventh of the vocabulary of the islanders." Br. Prichard regarded it as settled that there was a Malay-Polynesian race, which, at a period before the influx of Hindooism, existed nearly in the state of the present New Zealanders. Marsden declares that the main portion of the old " Malay is original, and not traceable to any foreign source." Humholdt considered the Malay-Polynesian languages to have been " primitively monosyllabic, with marked resem- blances to the Chinese." Crawford, who has made the Malays a study, says, after speaking of the "immemorial antiquity of their language," that the art of converting iron into steel has been immemo- rially known to the more civilized nations of the Malay Archi- pelago. There are Sanscrit inscriptions in Java, and some of the other jNIalay-peopled islands. The Mala}' annals, a 166 AROUND THE WORLD. blending of fact and fable, date back nominally to the reign of Alexander the Great. Among relics found, while exca- vating in some of these islands, are very ancient Chinese coins. MAIiAY FEATURES, DRESS, AND DISPOSITION. Standing upon the steamer before landing in Singapore, you see a motley crowd dressed in every possible costume, from the simple white hip-rag of the nearly naked Kling, the silken attire of the well-to-do Malay, and the everlasting blue of Chinamen, to the flowing dress of the Mohammedan Hadjee. Wealthy Chinamen dress, however, in fine style, having on these islands their carriages, and scores of servants. The Chinese coolies carry every thing, from pails of water to cook-shops, on balancing shoulder-sticks ; while the Klings, from Madras and the Coromandel coast, and the Malays also, carry their cakes, fruits, and wares in trays upon their heads. The Chinese in these islands are not permitted to be policemen because of their belonging to secret societies among themselves. These coolies are frequently brought into the criminal courts ; but a Malay seldom appears as a culprit. The Malayan costume consists of a haju^ or jacket, a pair of short trousers, with a sarong, i.e., a piece of silk, wide at the top as at the bottom, gathered close around the waist. In addition to the sarong, the women wear a loose, sash-like garment thrown over the shoulders, called a kabia, which, to say the least, is cool and comfortable. In complexion they are fairer than the men, — a handsome light oHve. In married life they are noted for chastity, and the love of family. Owing to the comeliness of their fea- tures, their delicate hands, drooping lashes, fair faces, lus- trous eyes, and ruby lips, many Europeans are charmed with th(3m ; and who, if they do not, ought, by every principle of justice, to marry them. Though a degenerate race at present, they are naturallj COCHIN CHINA TO SINGAPOllE. 167 proud, frank, generous, true to their friends, and affectionate in disposition. In physique they are well-proportioned. They step with an independent gait. They are not industri- ous. They have no acquisitiveness. In an ungenial clime, among seljBsh worldlings, they would starve. They exem- plify the command, " Take no thought for the morrow." Some of them are endowed with rather a hicjh order of intellect. Their foreheads, though full, are larger in the per- ceptive than the reflective range. The Malay nobility, usually exceedingly wealthy, are called Rajahs. These, with the Maha Rajahs., a rank higher, are now educating their children in Europe. The Rajah of Johore has eighty thousand subjects. His posi- tion is nearly equal to that of a petty king in Continental Europe. WHENCE THE MALAY RACE? America, young and ambitious, is not all of the world. Who were the mound-builders of the West ? From whence the aborisfinal red Indians ? Before the American Continent had been pressed by human feet, Asian civilizations had flourished and died. Saying nothing of theories pre-historic, there are solid reasons for believing that the Malays were originally a composite of Central Africans and Mongolians. In fact, both tradition and inscription unite in teaching, that, long ere the Pyramids reared their mighty forms, the Malays were conquered by powerful kings from the north. Twice brought under the yoke of foreign rulers from the north and north-east, they inherited from that nationality now known as the Chinese. Each invasion necessarily left the racial effect upon the posterity. Do not shruij the shoulders at the mention of Africa. Neither Congo nor Congo negroes constitute all of Afi'ica. And, further, all Ethiopians did not originally have thick lips, a flat nose, and short, knotty hair. Cushite history proves this. The color, however, was always dark, or jet 168 AROUND THE WORLD. black. There is a lingering Aryan element in Central Africa. The New Guineans, set down by all ethnological writers as Malayans, have curly, crispy hair ; it is also long and bushy, and of it they are very proud. Whenever the negro ele- ment comes in collision with the Mongolian or Malay race, in its advanced stages, as in Asia, and more recently some of the Philippine Islands, it melts away much as do wild animals before civilization. HOW CAME THE IVIALAYS INTO NATIONAL POSITION? Subjective thinkers, as well as geologists, care little for Jewish records. Usher's, or any other theologian's calcula- tions. Ruins, monuments, inscriptions, and lingual roots, — these determine eras of civilization and the colonization of races. Eastern traditions state that many, very many thousands of years since, when a traveler entered a distant country, having a different colored skin, he was supposed by the more superstitious to have been dropped from a star, to people a new portion of the earth ; and accordingly the tribe that he visited gave him several wives, and sent him adrift to replenish and populate. But to approach the historical, with inferences from monumental ruins, inscriptions, and sugges- tions from attending unseen intelligences, some eight thou- sand years since the Malay Peninsula, and a vast tract of country north of it, was the great half-way halting-ground between the Central Africans of the west, and the Chinese or more northern Mongolians of the east. On these rich table-lands, abounding in wild grasses, grains, and fruits, intercrossing caravans with their merchandise rested and recruited. Settlements commenced, intermarriages followed, villages, then cities ; and finally an opulent kingdom was the result. Becoming proud and depredatory, this kingdom warred with, and was conquered by, Tartar hordes and Mon- golians ; gef'ing, among other consequences, a fervid infusion of Northern blood through the lax social relations then pre- vaihng, COCHIN CHINA TO SINGAPORE. 169 After the lapse of a few hundred years, they were again conquered by the Chinese and their allies, the conquerors iu considerable numbers remaining in the country, softening the skin to a light copper, and straightening the hair, through intermixture in their social relationships. These causes, with various climatic conditions, constituted the Malay race, which about six thousand years ago were in their palmy periods. Their language, ever flexible, shows plainly that it has been acted upon both by the monosyllabic Chinese and the Sanscrit. The very word " Malay " is Sanscrit. Inheriting Mongolian energy, and naturally sailors, these Malayans began at a very early period to emigrate, and colo- nize islands to the south and east. The north-east monsoons would take them first to Sumatra ; and then, considering the oceanic currents and prevailing winds, they would grad- ually drift southward and to the east. Evidently the mound- builders, and the descendants of these, the North- American Indians, were largely Malayan in origin. This long-unsolvec problem admits of ethnic demonstration. THE MALAYANS A]VIERICA-WARD. While cruising across the Pacific, Capt. Blythen pointed out to us, on his North and South Pacific charts, sixty islands reported and located by navigators some two hundred years since, that have sunk from bftman sight. Some of these were said to have been inhabited. Cataclysms and convulsions were ever common along the volcanic zones of the tropics. A vast continent, something like the New At- lantis spoken of by Plato, was submerged in the Pacific, save the mountainous peaks, several thousands of years ago. Such of the aborigines as survived, upon the mountain-sum- mits and high lands, intermingled maritally with roving, eastward-bound Malays. They crossed from island to island in crafts corresponding somewhat to their present lyrahus. Traversing the islan north- ward, through Mexico, to the great chain of northern lakes. Ruins, symbols, and the crumbling jDottery of the last of the mound-builders and Mexicans, are almost identical with ruins, carvings, and old roads in Malaj'-peopled lands. The acute ethnological writer, D'Eichtal, declares that " the Pol^mesian is an original civilization, and apparently the earhest in the world ; that it spread to the east and the west from its focus in Polynesia, or in a continent situated in the same region^ hut noiv submerged ; that it reached America on the one side, and Africa on the other, where it embraced the Fulahs and Copts." He further suggests " that a germ from the Polynesian cradle, falling into the valley of the Nile, originated the ancient Egyptian civilization." CUSTOMS COMMON TO MALAYS AND INDLAJ^S. The Rev. Mr. Keasbury, thirty years in the East, and one of the best Malay scholars in the world, has, in keeping with another gentleman, a list of words found both in the Malay and the original dialects of the American continent. But we have no space to adduce the argument from the similar- ity of language. Since starting upon this tour, I have seen no Pacific Islanders, no people anywhere, that in general features, color of skin and hair, carriage in walking, method in sitting, and government by chiefs and sub-chiefs, so closely resembled our better Indian tribes of the West and South-west. Traveling out into the country from Johore, and also up the Peninsula (starting in at the Wellsley Province, oppo- site Penang), where monkeys and the ruder of the Malays inhabit ahke fields and forests, I either observed, or learned from others, that these degenerate Malays, instead of shaving the beard, pluck it out, as do the Indians of America. Walking in streets and forest-paths, the woman strides aloiig in advance, the man following to ward off beasts of prey. So with the Indians. In this country, by the way, COCHIN CHINA TO SINGAPORE. 171 tigers, stealing up behind, pounce upon the victim, the fore* paw striking the back of the neck. Deaths by tigers are frequent. The Malays generally bury their dead in a sitting position, interring with them implements of war, and food, as do some of our Indian tribes. The Malay women, back in the mountainous districts, per- form all the hard labor, while the men hunt and fish. So with our Indians. The Malayan-dyaks of Borneo, and others of the more warlike tribes, put showy feathers in their hair, and take a portion of the scalp from the head of the slain enemy as a trophy ; and so with our Indians. They wear their black hair loose and long, paint their faces in war-time, use the bow and arrow, are fond of tinsel jewelry, and never forget an injury, — all of which traits characterize American Indians. The above comparisons refer to the rustic tribes, however, rather than the higher classes of Malays. THE " FALL OF MAN." Under the droll drapery of -^sop's Fables nestle lessons sunny with moral beauty ; so concealed in the Mosaic myth, " Adam's fall," there is a germ of truth. All through the East are moss-wreathed ruins, telling of golden ages and higher civilizations. " In the province of Kedu," writes A. R. Wallace, " is the great temple of Borobodo. It is built upon a hill, and con- .sists of a central dome, and seven ranges of terraced walls covering the slopes of the hills, forming open galleries. Around the magnificent central dome is a triple circle of seventy-two towers ; and the whole building is six hundred and twenty feet square, and about one hundred feet high. In the terraced walls are niches containing: four hundred fiof- ures larger than life ; and both sides of aU the terraced walls are covered with bas-reliefs carved in hard stone, occupying 1T2 AROUND THE WORLD. an extent of nearly three miles in length. The Great Pyra- mid of Egypt sinks into insignificance," says Mr. Wallace, " when compared with this sculptured hill-temple in the inte- rior of Java." There are other templed ruins and inscrip- tions, remember, in Malay-peopled countries and islands, long antedating this. Who were the projectors? — who the constructors ? Ask the Malays : echo ! Appeal to history : it is silent as the chambers of death. THE RELIGION OF THE MALAYS. In the thirteenth century, Mohammedan missionaries con- verted the Malaj^s in the Straits of Malacca to Islamism, using persuasion instead of the sword. Their original reli- gion, however, was entirely different. John Cameron, F.R. G.S., assures us that " such Malaj^s as have embraced none of the more modern religions believe in some divine person- ality, corresponding to God ; and a future life, where good men enjoy ecstatic bliss, and the wicked suffer purgatorial punishments." But " their religion," he adds, "is strangely mixed up with demonology. They beheve that every person is attended by a good and a bad angel ; the latter leading to sickness, danger, and sin, while the good angel seeks the individual's health and happiness." In their " lives, they are influenced more by fear than hope." They propitiate the wicked angel and the evil spirits. It is only at death that they ask the especial care of their good angel. They stand in no fear of the transition. Some of their ruins indicate a relationship theologically to the sun and serpent worshipers. MALAY HOSPITALITY. — THE "ORANG-UTAN." " The higher classes of Malays," writes Mr. Wallace, " are exceedingly polite, and have all the quiet ease of the best- bred Europeans." To this I will add, they are very kind, warm-hearted, and hospitable. Calling at a Malacca-Malay's palm-thatched dwelling, we were at once treated to tea, fruit, cocoanut-milk, and durians. This latter fi'uit is quite COCHIN CHINA TO SINGAPORE. 173 generally considered the choicest and most luscious fruit in the world ; and yet, like tomatoes, one must cultivate a taste for it. The odor of the shell is truly disgusting. The eat- able substance is of a yellowish creamy consistence, tasting like a mixture of mashed beech-nuts, bananas, onions, strawberries, pumpkin-seeds, and sweet apples. The children three, five, and seven years of age, playing about, perfectly nude, were quite shy of us. Though abso- lute nakedness in this climate is comfortable, the custom is quite too Adamic. These Mohammedan Malays circumcise between the years of eleven and fifteen ; and old and young strictly abstain from opium and liquors of all kinds. Mr. Hewick, Chief of Police in the Wellsley Provinces, accom- panying us into the country to see Malay life, amused us, when returning, by sending a baboon species of the monkey up a smooth, limbless cocoanut-tree to pick some fruit. The ingenious method the cunning brute devised to twist the nuts from the tree showed a striking intelligence. In the Malay language " muniet " is the term for monkey, " karra " for baboon, and " orang " for man. " Orang-laut " implies sea-people, or seafaring men ; " orang-gimung " is defined mountaineer, or a rustic, uncultivated man ; while •' orang-utan " signifies literally a man of the forest, or the aboriginal people. The famous " man-like ape," to which Darwinian sympathizers give this name, is never so called by the natives, but is known among all Malay-speaking races under the name of " 7wzas." How easily words mislead, especially when an extreme theory is to be maintained ! Evolution — the great doctrine of evolution is true. But Darwin's straight-jacket method of interpreting it was not true. Man's inmost Spirit did not originate in, or spring up, from tlie monkey. Alfred R. Wallace is right — follow liini — not Darwin. CHAPTER XIV. MALACCA TO ESTDIA. The little kingdom of Johore lies just across the straits from tne isle of Singapore. Accompanied by our American Consul, ]Major Studer, a gentleman ever alive to the com- mercial relations of America, we called to see his majesty, the Maha-Rajah ; who, if he does not sit "High on a throne of royal state, which far Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind," has a fine palatial mansion, constructed in truly Oriental style. His " royalty " was absent, which left the secretary to do the etiquette of the palace. The drive across the island of Singapore, with the exception of the poor, vicious horses, was richly enjoyable. The Britains are famous in all foreign lands for excellent thoroughfares and an effective police. The Dutch are too rigid in their measures. This excellent road above referred to is dotted and lined with bungalows, plantations laid out in exquisite taste, bam- boo-hedges, and fan-palms, quite as useful as ornamental, called " the traveler's fountain." The out-jutting stems of these broad palm-leaves, collecting the night-dews, tender their cups of crystal water the following day to the weary, thirsting traveler. Surely God's living providence is every- where manifest. MALACCA TO INDIA. 175 JOHOEE. Reaching this unique city of five thousand, we became the guests of James Meldrum, many years in the country, and owner of the largest steam saw-mills in Asia, employ- ing five hundred men. His bungalow^ situated upon a shady eminence, spans an extensive arc of enchanting scenery. " Bungalows," by the way, a term applied to all kinds of East- ern dwelling-houses having lofty ceilings and broad veran- das, are built with reference to ventilation and coolness. Mr. Meldrum saws the famous teak^ as well as cedars, mahoganies, maraboos, kranjees, chungals, rosewood, sandal' woods, camphor- woods, &c. A report before me says, — " The Johore forests cover an extent of about ten thousand square miles, and contain upwards of one hundred different kinds of timber- trees. These forests are being opened up by his highness the Ivlaha- Rajah of Johore, K.C.S.I., K.C.C.I., &c., who is constructing a wooden railway into the interior. It will pass through dense virgin forests abounding in all the various kinds of timber-trees known in the Straits." The Malay 3Iaha-Rajah of Johore, being a strict Mohamme- dan, uses no wines, no liquors of any kind ; and, fui-ther, he will permit the existence of no " house of ill-fame " in his dominion. Just previous to our arrival, he had broken up a den of prostitution established in New Johore by some Cath- ohc Chinamen. Jesuit missionaries had converted these Chinese from Confucianism to Christianity ! Is it strange that Mohammedans think Christians very immoral ? The Malays of these regions never, — no, never ^ drink intoxicating liquors of any kind. Such practices are forbidden by the Koran. Would not an infusion of Islamism into Christianity improve it, at least practically ? The Arabian prophet taught no scape-goat atonement, no salvation through another's merits. Neither do Mohammedans in their mosques have " infidels " to fan them while they worship. Not so with Christians. In the Singapore English Church, 176 AROUND THE WORLD. built by convict-labor, sixteen "heathen" natives stand out under a scorching noonday sun on the " Lord's Day," pull- ing punkas to fan these ritualistic English Christians, while they drawlingly " worship God," saying, very sensibly, " Save mercy upon us miserable sinners." During this trip over to Johore, we saw monkeys leaping on trees, birds of rich plumage, a young elephant, a huge, slimy boa-constrictor just killed by the wayside, and the fresh skin of a tiger, which, while covering the ravenous brute, had concealed the remnants of many a man. In his stomach was found part of a breastbone, and several human hands. Gov- ernment pays a handsome bounty upon tiger-kilhng. A JUNGLE. — TIGERS. What American has not read of the East-India jungles? Permit the pen to paint one. A jungle is a heavy forest of gigantic trees with a compact foliage of dark-green leaves. Under these grow up another tribe of trees, shorter, more umbrageous, and loaded with such wild fruit as mangosteens, mangoes, and jumbus. Beneath and around these again, there's a prolific growth never seen outside the tropics, — palms, rattans, ferns, and indescribable plants, literally woven together, like the "lawyer-hedges" of New Zealand, by a net-work of creepers and parasites. Such a forest is a jungle, the home of the tiger. I never passed one without thinking of tigers and boa-constrictors. Serpents — cold, slimy, treacherous, and poisonous — I loathe and despise. Eden's fable has nothing to do with this inborn dislike to crawling things. Men that tame and handle serpents, and women that pet poodle-dogs, reveal what they might as weU conceal ! It was estimated, a few years since, that one man a day fell a victim to the crushing stroke of the tiger in Singapore, an island of about two hundred square miles. These tigers swim across the straits from Johore to the island. The dis- tance is about two miles. The tiger stealthily strikes, and MALACCA TO INDIA. 177 seizes tJie person by the back of the neck. Like otlier wild beasts, he is too cowardly to face a man. The Malays have the saying, " If you will only speak to a tiger, and tell him he can get better food in the jungle, he wiU spare you." SPICY GROVES. — BEGGARS UNKNOWN. Descriptions of cinnamon-trees, clove-trees, and others of this nature, might be interesting. Let a brief sketch of the nutmeg-tree suffice. Handsomely formed, and beautiful in proportion, it grows from twenty-five to thirty feet high, and is thickly covered with polished dark -green leaves, which continue fresh the year round. The fragrant blos- soms are thick, wavy bells, resembling the hyacinth or lily- of-the-valley. When the fruit is ripening, it might be mis- taken, say the old cultivators, for the peach, bating the pink or yellow cheek. When the nut inside is ripe, the fruit splits down, remaining half open. If not now picked, it soon falls. On the same branch — as with the orange — may be seen the bud, blossom, and the ripening fruitage. Nut- ting-fields in the Singapore region have nearly gone to decay. A cureless blight has rendered their spice-gardens unprofitable. Want of energy in the Malay Islands, and other portions of the East, has become a proverb. There is little induce- ment to labor where Nature is so unsparing. All individuals are about as lazy as they can afford to be ! Two hours of daylight in the Malay Peninsula is enough for a native to build a decent " shanty," and thatch it. Beggars are un- known away from seaports and cities. They have but to lift the hand, to pluck ];)lenty of fruit. Most delicious pine-apples sell for fifty cents a hundred in the Singapore market. VOLCANIC BELTS, AND MINERALS. One of the great volcanic belts of the globe stretches along across these IMalayan Islands. The breadth of the belt 178 AROUND THE WORLD. is about fifty miles. Java alone has over forty active vol- canoes. Borneo and New Guinea are just outside of the volcanic zone. Peru and South- American coasts faintly com- pare with these islands in terrible lava upheavals. The Javanese eruption occurring at Mount Galunggong, in 1822, destroyed twenty thousand inhabitants. A gentleman just from Batavia informs me that there has recently been another serious convulsion upon the island. Instead of liquid lava, as at Vesuvius, heated sands, stones, and red-hot ashes were thrown up with great violence. " Why," is it asked, "do Europeans live upon these islands?" The love of money, is the only answer. Gold in this century is god. A granitic mountain-chain runs the whole length of the Malay peninsula. It has thermal springs, but no active volcanoes. The mountains are not over a third as high as those in Sumatra and Java. This region is famous for min- erals, — iron, copper, tin, and gold*. Malacca and Siam are said to be the greatest tin countries in the world. I met several times " Charlie Allen," the young man who accompanied Mr. Wallace during his prolonged explora- tions in the East Indies. He had just come down from the Chindrass gold-mines in Malacca. These are forty-five miles from the old city of Malacca, and fifteen from Mount Ophir. They promise " rich," as Californians say. " Oh for Ameri- can energy to work them ! " exclaimed Mr. Allen. What interested me more than the quartz specimen he exhibited, was the description of an ancient, yet substan- tially built road during some important excavations. It lies embedded deep under a modern thoroughfare, yet revealing an entirely different kind of constructive conception. Who, what people, built it ? Echoing ages are dumb. bird's-nest soups. As turtle-soup is a great dainty with English epicures, so are bird's-nest soups among Chinamen at Singapore and elsewhere. The Indian Archipelago, and adjacent rocky MALACCA TO INDIA. 179 isles, are the harvest-fields for these delicacies. The nests, a sort of gluey, gelatinous substance, seen in China markets, are found along the rocks, in deep and damp caves, and are the choicest if gathered before the birds have laid the eggs. The nests resemble in shape those of the chimney-swallows in America. The finest qualities of nests are when they are clear and white as wax : the poorest are those gathered after the young birds have flown away. THE UPAS. That terrible Grueva Upas, — the valley of poison, — writ- ten about many years ago by a Dutch surgeon at Batavia, and afterwards by others, without inspecting the locality, proved to be a hoax. True, there is a valley, grim, bare, and as destitute of vegetable as animal life, caused by the deadly nature of the carbonic and sulphurous acid gases that continually escape from the crevices and soils in this vol- canic region. There are numerous plants and shrubs more poisonous than the Upas. Geographies, as well as Bibles, ^ced revising. BETEL-NUT. — GUTTA-PEKCHA. — COCOANUT-GROVES. The bewitching betel-nut, used by and so staining the lips and teeth of the natives, is common in Cochin China, Sumatra, Java, and tropical Indies. Its exhilarating fascina- tion is said to excel even tobacco. Penang is the more com- mon name of the nut ; accordingly Pulo-Penang signifies betel-nut island. While growing on the graceful and slightly tapering trees, they look something like nutmegs. When ripe, and broken into small pieces, the natives prepare them with the siri-leaf and the unslacked lime of shells. Though producing a dreamy, stimulating effect, it must necessarily injure the membranous surfaces of the mouth. Gutta-ijercha abounds in both Singapore and Penang. The Malays term the tree tuban. It grows large, has a smooth bark and wide-spreading branches. The tree is not 180 AROUND THE WORLD. only tapped to get the juice, but often literally girdled, destroying the tree itself. This forest vandalism is now for- bidden. The juice — life-blood of the tree — is caught in coeoanut-shells, poured into pitchers made from the joints of large bamboos, and then conveyed- to caldrons for boiling and the further preparations for sale. Cocoanut-groves^ being planted in horizontal lines, pre- sent a most beautiful appearance. These trees, running up some forty feet, unbroken by leaf oi branch, are roofed with deep green foliage. The nuts grow in clusters between the roots of the leaves and branches at the top. If not picked when ripe, they drop, and are broken. Planters of large groves tell me that the noise of falling nuts in night-time breaks the silence with sounds " weird and ghostly." Fall- ing upon the skulls of the natives, they sometimes break them. When the oil is sought, they are allowed to ripen. The nuts sell for a penny each. The watery milk within them is considered as cooling and healthy as nutritious. FIRE-FLY JEWELRY. Lower races and tribes in all lands are fond of pearls, precious stones, jewelry, — display of all kinds. The Malays, unable to purchase diamonds, have a little cage-like fixture, in which they imprison a fire-fly. This, excited, continues to give out perpetual flashes, quite excelling in brilliancy the diamond itself. The natives are sufficiently humane to set them free when the evening party is over. The poor things are not, as some writers have said, impaled on golden needles, that, by increasing the agon}^, the glitter of the flash may be intensified. The flash has more the appearance of electricity than phosphorescence. But what an idea ! — im- prisoning harmless insects to attract attention, and ministei to human vai ity ! MALACCA TO INDIA. 181 OFF TO CALCUTTA, VIA PENANG. Left Singapore, June 27, on the steamer, " The States- man," under the command of Capt. Valiant. This line — running between China and Calcutta — is engaged in the opium-trade. The accommodations are excellent ; both the captain and his interesting lady, Mrs. Valiant, striving to their utmost to make the voyage pleasant and homelike. Penang, a nearly circular island, off from the Malacca coast, contains some seventy thousand acres ; and its history is the history of the " British East India Company" in its efforts to get a foothold in the Malay Peninsula. The island, laying high claims to beauty of scenery, seems a mass of hills, rising like cones from the water's edge, near the sum- mits of which are the neat, tasty bungalows of the residents, surrounded by palms, pepper-vines, fruit-trees, and cocoanut- groves. In the harbor hardly a ripple dances upon the glassy waters. Crossing it to visit Mr. Hewick, an oflBcial over in the Wellsley Province of Malacca, the phosphores- cent flames (when returning) flashing up at the dipping of the natives' oars, gave it the seeming of sailing through a sea of fire. Penang, like all the Oriental cities in these lati- tudes, is peopled with Malays, Chinese, Klings, and other Hindoo derivatives. The town covers about one square mile. The approach to it, through emerald isles, was magnificent. >rouNT OPHIR. Rounding the most southern point of land in Asia, and hugging the Malacca coast toward Burmah and India, we had a fine view of Mount Ophir, four thousand feet high. Whether this be the biblical Ophir, or not, is unimportant ; but who honeycombed the mountain with shafts ? who here searched for gold in the distant past ? This is an interesting inquiry. Of the location of the scriptural Ophir, nothing is known that will positively fix the geographical position. It was a place with which the Jews and Tyrians carried on a 182 AROUND THE WORLD. lucrative trade in the time of Solomon, twenty-eight hun- dred years since. At this period the J ews were unacquainted with iron, knowing only bronze, silver, and gold. Their bronze they received from the Tyrians. Half barbarous, they had no commerce till David conquered Edom (or Idumea), giving them some coast on the Red Sea. The Jewish crafts that traded with Ophir may have been the " navy of Tar- shish ; " and this Tarshish may have been a Tjanan port on the Red Sea, — the part known, perhaps, as the Gulf of Suez. The celebrated German Orientalist, Lassen, places Ophir somewhere about the debouchement of the river Indus. His theory is founded upon resemblances between the He- brew and Sanscrit names of the commodities brought from Ophir. There is no resemblance, however, between the ancient method ( f working the Ophir mines, and the copper mines bordering Lake Superior — worked by whom ? The mound-builders. But who were the mound-builders ? When — who by — and how were the Pacific Islands peopled, are still unsettled questions. It was my privilege to meet on this last voyage Hon. S. W. Baker, late Premier of Tonga, whose brain Avas an encyclopaedia of knowledge relating to the customs of the Malays and the Pacific Island- ers generally. He is now a resident of Auckland, New Zeal- and. His description of seeing the formation of a volcano near Tongatuba was thrillingly interesting. It was preceded by an earthquake shock. The volcano opened up from the ocean, and volumes of steam, of carbonic and sulphurous gas shot up in fiery jets over a thousand feet. Immense quanti- ties of matter were thrown up. The crater soon became two miles in circumference. Yolcanos and islands are ever rising and sinkino- in the ocean. CHAPTER XV. SPIRITUAL SEANCES ON THE INDIAN OCEAN. Out on the waters restless and sea-tossed, deprived of daily journals and libraries, how naturally the mind turns to that inexhaustible field of research, spirit-communion ! Dr. Willis, a medical spirit, controlling the medium, said in his off-hand, epigrammatic manner : — " Disease is obstruction. Vital phenomena are profound studies. The human system is interpermeated by a very complex network of nerves. The brain, comparable to a sounding-bell, echoes through these nerves the condition of every portion of the physical organism. This is why I touch the head in diagnosing disease through the Doctor. Certain nerves allied to the medulla oblongata throw their sensitive branches across the back of the neck. A current of air striking this part is quite certain to produce colds, catarrhs, and serious neuralgic affections. Wearing long hair, therefore, is a preventive. The ancients in Oriental countries understood this. ... I see no deleterious effects ifi your abstinence from meat-eating. And yet considering the formation of the teeth, with the make-up of the whole organic structure, I favor it ; that is, considering humanity as it is. The system requires oils, as well as materials for muscle. But ani]nal oils are more clogging to the brain than vegetable. . . . Color affects the health. Red should never predominate in the sick-room, especially if the patient »s nervously sensitive. It is an excitant. Pale blue and 184 AROUND THE WORLD. cream colors are quieting. Sunlight is a natural stimulant Pure air is indispensable. Diet, and the right use of water, are helps. The ancient Romans indulged in tepid baths, followed by sun-baths. The will-power is a wonderful restorative. Our treatment, including the above, is, you know, magnetic and medicinal. Chronic complaints require medi- cines : these we magnetize and vitalize. Nervous affections readily yield to magnetic treatment, providing mediums are healthy, and temperamentally adapted to patients. Promis- cuous mingling of magnetisms is deleterious, inducing ner- vous unbalance, and opening the way for obsessions. Those so inclined pursue the study of medicines in spirit-life, that they may benefit the inhabitants of earth." SEANCE n. Mr. Knight, entrancing, said, — ..." I see, looking at the mental workings of your brain, that the extreme contradictions in the teachings of spirits disturb you. ... In previous conversations, we have told you that the spirit-spheres — hundreds in number — are inhabited by those just adapted to them intellectually and morally ; and, as the spheres, such the aims and acts of the spirits peopling them. Death is not a Saviour ; nor does it produce any immediate, miraculous change. . . . Those basking in the higher conditions of purity, truth, and love, shed or impart the divine influence of the sphere from which they come. And the same law apphes to the lower spheres. As there are evil-minded men, so are there evil spirits, self ish, scheming, wicked spirits ! And to offer suggestions relative to the means of avoiding the influences of these, is the object of my present visit. "I. In order to know men, you must try them : so to fathom the real purposes of spirits, try them^ test them by rigid observation and patient experience ; and, further, study the effects they produce upon their mediums. " n. All mediums, not controlled by a fixed and reliable SPIRITUAL SEANCES ON THE INDIAN OCEAN. 1 8o circle of three or more spirits, are subject to such dele- terious influences as low spirits may choose to throw aroun(? them. And the control of this class of spirits is often beyond the power of the guardian spirit, who may not have the advantage of an established circle. The immediate power of control lies not in superior intelligence or spiritu- ality, but in magnetic force, or the great will-power of the spirit. Entrancement is the result of the mesmeric influ- ence of spirits ; and it excels that of mortals only in this, that it proceeds from spiritual beings, relieved from the grossness of the flesh. The inference is, that persons hold ing indiscriminate intercourse with spirits through mediums unprotected by circles of pure, exalted spirits, are liable to be flattered, and to receive false communications from spirits under assumed names. " III. Guardian spirits with fixed circles, and deep desires to promulgate truth, seldom allow their mediums to be con- trolled by others than members of their own circle. Each mortal has a guardian spirit ; and the assistants of this guar- dian are properly denominated guides. A guardian spirit, giving communications from spirits outside the circle to mortals, — his own circle acting as means of conveyance, — always states his non-responsibility relative to the message. " The laws of mental science should be diligently studied, and applied to mediumship. And all persons developing as mediums should seek from their guardian the immediate formation of a sympathizing circle in which they have faith, and upon whom they can rely. When this is not done, mediums, if not seriously injured, are often led into vice and crime, — crimes instigated by low, undeveloped spirits. And, further, they produce perversions, nervous diseases, obses- sions, and insanity. Entering upon the career of mediumship, therefore, is treading a pathway of danger and responsi- bility. Incipient development should be carefully guarded. Much depends upon mediums themselves. They should not only carefully remain away from improper society, but 186 AROUND THE WORLD. should keep their minds upon subjects high and spiritual, in prayer seeking such controlling intelligences as must necessarily benefit humanity. On the other hand, if they take the opposite course, — seeking such spirits as promise wealth by finding treasures, such as promise fame and worldly glory, or such as will pry into the secrets of others from selfish motives, — they will certainly be led to ruin. As self-denial, as abnegation of good to one's self, and earnest labors for others' benefit, gives that for which one has not sought, — happiness ; so the converse is true, that seek- ing for comfort and for self-aggrandizement at the expense of others, leads to one's utter defeat and destruction. " The reality, the philosophy, of spirit-control, then, are matters of almost infinite importance. And the subject should be approached with care and caution, and be used only by the wise, by the pure in purpose, for mental growth and higher spiritual attainments. These ends sought, and humanity will reap the rich reward for which the faithful few have toiled, — the universal ministration of angels, the enlightenment of the races, and the redemption of the world ! " SEANCE in. A French Normandy spirit, claiming to have been in the higher existence some three hundred years, coming by per- mission of the circle, advocated these theoretical dogmas ; — 1. " There is no God ; nothing in the universe of being but matter, and the negative forces in matter." 2. " Annihilation is true ; or, a conscious future existence, in the sense of endlessness, is a farce. Spiritual beings, by becoming more pure and etherealized, are finally absorbed in the great ocean of refined matter, — Bnuffed out, losing their consciousness and their identity." 3. " Fatalism is a truth. Man is not responsible for an act of his life. All things, including men and their actions, are fated, or necessitated to be precisely as they are. Man is a thing." These exploded theories, once popular among atheists in France, are still taught by this shrewd, intelligent spirit. SPIRITUAL SEANCES ON THE INDIAN OCEAN. 187 They were grounds of sharp debate between us duiiiig several sittings. It was a drawn battle. Grant him his premises, and he will succeed admirabl}' in the argument. Dispute them, demanding the proof of his proofs, and the foundation of his premises, and he fails to estabhsh his untenable posi- tions. He is evidently sincere and conscientious, delighting to propagate his metaphysical theories in spirit-life. Can any one conceive of notions that spiiits have not taught ? The lesson of these controversies was this : Spirits are falli- ble, and many of them long continue, though disrobed of mortality, to hug their earthl}' ideas and idiosyncrasies. Therefore, in listening to the teachings of immortals, we must be governed entirely by our intuitions and maturest judgment. Reason is the final judge. SEANCE IV. The spirit Aaron Knight present, the following conversa- tion ensued : — Now that you have come, I desire your opinion upon the subject of my thoughts for the past few days. " I should be happy to hear the substance of them." Spending the winter in London, a few jea,vs since, I was deeply interested, listening to ^Ir. Tyndall's famous lecture upon " Dust," delivered in the Royal Institution. The pro- fessor clearly proved that the air is filled with fine atoms and living germs, which, inbreathed, enter the human body. He also explained how dust, and other unseen particled sub- stances, might be filtered away by means of cotton-wool tightly impacted, and worn over the mouth. And M. Pasteur, a French scientist, carrying the investigation a step further, made filters of gun-cotton, usuig that variety which is soluble in ether. The filters, having done their work, were dissolved in ether ; and the solution, when microscopically examined, was found to contain millions of organized germs, — living entities. These could not only be seen, but the genera and species could be detected. Therefore the very atmosphere 188 AROUND THE WORLD. we breathe is full of air-borne germs and living life-cells. And these, for some wise purpose, must be continually entering into the human organization, must they not ? "Certainly: and you have suggested a subject of vast importance ; one relating to, if not involving, the very origin of living beings. Logically speaking, there is no creation, — that is, the creation of something from nothing. Surveying earth and spirit-life, I see only evolution or unfoldment ; and so pre-existence is true. The minutest monad in space is intelligent on its plane. Intelligence, or mind, is a result, or an effect of essential spirit and matter. But as these were never separated, and as the cause was eternal, so was, and so must be the effect also ; which effect was and ^s intel- ligence. There are no vacuums. Interstellar spaces are filled with the life-principle, with infusoria, cells, and unseen atoms. Nothing but life can sustain life. Infusorial animal- cula, and monadic germ-cells of life, pass into the cranial sen- sorium by organic attraction and imbibation. In the human organism they become more thoroughly vitalized ; and in the brain itself they receive necessary magnetic influences prior to the projected descent by will-power, through the spinal column and seminal glands, to their conceptive desti- nies. The brain, remember, cradles, rather than generates spermatozoic germs aflame with conscious life. These, pre- existent, were afai back in the measureless past aggregating, throwing off, accreting, pulsing, and passing through vari- ous occult processes preparatory to incarnation. As in the acorn, germinally hidden, lies the oak, so in the spermato- zoic life-germ, the future man." SEANCE V. — QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY THE SPIRITS. " The cross is the most angular of geometrical figures ; and, though connected with the martyred death of Jesus, it originated as an objective symbol in the phallic ages, and veferred primarily to generation." . . . • " Emanations electic and magnetic, from the physical and SPIRITUAL SEAXCES ON THE INDIAN OCEAN. 189 spiritual bodies, extend outward from the person quite a dis- tance; and, although indicating, they do not unmistahably index the mental characteristics. And so the aural lights, and odjlic sprays from the brain, give onl}^ the general bent and tendency of the mind." . . . " Undoubtedly I could go to the planets ; but Fve no desire to so do. My work as yet is connected with the earth. Parisi's researches lead him in such du^ections. I think he has visited Jupiter and other planets." . . . '' The future is more important than the past ; the destiny than the origin of humanity. Though generally outhned by your guardian angel, your future, morally considered, is not irrevocably fixed. Man is a mental and moral, as well as a physical being. To all moral beings endowed with reflection, there is a field of moral action. You are now paving the highway your feet must press in spirit-life, and laying, too, the foundation-stones of the temple you will inhabit. That chain of pearls was not a mythic farce, but a reality put around your neck when reaching the years of accountability by Parisi Lenclanta, who for a time was John's medium. These pearls magnetically reflect, otherwise spiritually mir- ror, the deeds of your whole life, — deeds and events that you will be necessitated to read when entering the higher state of existence. Personal identity implies memory, and memory retribution. This is the judgment, — the opening of the books." . . . " Living a celibate hfe for the purpose of boastingly say- ing, ' I am a celibate, I am pure : stand by, for I am holier than thou,' is selfish, and therefore morally deleterious; but if in laboring, on the other hand, to save others from pas- sion, from fleshly gratifications, and all that opposes chas- tity and absolute purity, men become virgin celibates pure- minded and spiritual, then are they truly angehc. Such, having been raised from the dead, walk in the resurrection.' 190 AROUND THE WORLD. SEANCE VI. Memory serving me, Mr. Knight, you once informed me tliat you had been privileged to attend councils of the glori- fied in supernal spheres, — that you there saw sages, seers, martyrs, and among them the Apostle John, with whom, as a pupil, you had held many interviews. This deeply interested me ; and, if consistent, will you answer certain inquiries relating to matters with which John, in his period of time, must have been conversant ? " Certainly, to the best of my ability." Where was John born ? " In Syria. The Assyrians were once a great and truly enlightened nation, occupying a prominent position in Asia. But, by formidable combinations of foreign powers, their territory was conquered, and their national name abbreviated to Syria. He lived in that mountainous portion of Syria known as Judea ; which word was abridged from Jew-deity, so called because of Jewish reverence for Jehovah, the tutelary god of the Jews." Did he travel in different countries ? " Yes ; he traveled not only into the remotest provinces of Assyria, but even into Egypt and Persia. John was a lin- guist, highly educated for that period, and conversant with the teachings of Plato and Buddha. John and James were most intimately associated in their apostolic life. Occasion- ally John served as an interpreter for Jesus. " Returning from a long season of travel in the East, he found his parents in great disrepute from connecting them- selves with the Nazarenes, known at that time as Nazarretas, a poorer branch of the Jews, charged with sensualism, with holding intercourse with familiar spirits, and believing in the immediate coming of the Messiah. This sect originated long before Jesus' time." Did the prophet Daniel impress these visions upon John's mind ^ SPIRITUAX, SEANCES ON THE INDIAN OCEAN. 191 " No : John was not only highly inspirational, but was a trance-medium ; often leaving his body, and traveling as a spirit in the highest spheres. Those Apocalyptic images symbolized eras and principles. "• Written in the mystic language of correspondence, and little tampered with by scribes and Christian copyists, John's revelations are capable of an outer and inner interpretation. Inspirational men of those times understood them. Jesus and the apostles constituted a sort of secret society among themselves. The similarity of Daniel's and John's visions are traceable to oneness of nationality, and similarity of culture in the schools of the prophets." What were the " deeds of the Nicolaitans " that Jesus "hated"? " John was Jesus' medium after he passed to the heavenly life from Calvary ; and he inspired John to write to the seven churches, i.e., the seven sj'mpathizing assemblies of believers in Asia. The " deeds of the Nicolaitans " were hypocrisies and the " unfruitful works of darkness." The clan originated with one Nicolas, who sought to compromise the principles of Jews and Christians. They were policy- men, fuU of flattery, and given to hypocrisies and licentious practices ; which ' deeds Jesus hated.' " Who was Melchisedec, King of Salem? " There were two, and hence the confusion. One was a spirit. The other, a distinguished personage remote from the tenting Abraham, was called the ' King of Peace,' because baptized of the Christ-spirit. To him Abraham paid tithes. The ancestors of Abraham were Aryans given to war and piUage." Who were the Essenians ? " A rigid and exclusive people, originally known as As- senians. Strictly constructing the moral law, they were stern reformers, very industrious, and inclined to be self- righteous. Those entering the inner court of the order were diviners and celibates. Joseph, John the Baptist, Jesus, the 192 AEOUND THE WORLD. apostles John and James, and nearly all of the disciples, were Essenes." Who were the spirit-guides of Jesus? " He had a large circle, over two hundred attending spirits, — 'a legion.'' They were mostlj^ from the earlier Jewish prophets ; and among them were Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, as well as sages from India, China, and Persia." Do the prayers of sectarian Christians affect Jesus ? " Yes : the millions of Christians praying to and persist- ently calling upon Jesus, very slightly and indirectly affect him ; and I must say not pleasurably, because of incorrect ideas concerning him and his mission, and because they ask him to do what they themselves should do. . . . The scriptural records of Jesus are very imperfect. He did not whip the money-changers out of the temple, but so sharply rebuked them that they voluntarily left. Neither did he call men 'swine,' 'dogs,' and 'whited sepulchres;' but said, ' If you persist in your unrighteousness, others will compare you to whited sepulchres.' . . . Jesus was overshadowed by spirit-presences from the sacred moment of conception, and therefore the prophetically expected of the Nazarettas. After the anointing, and descent of the baptismal Spirit, he was Jesus Christ, pre-eminent ; the greatest medium ever born upon this earth. And in him , as apostolically expressed, •dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily,' — that is, the full power of the Christ-spirit. And the races will ulti- mately" acknowledge the subhmity of his precepts, as well as his moral superiority among the ■\\'orkrs Saviours. The great moral battle in the future as we see it will not be between Spiritualism and true Christianity, but between Spiritualism and a cold, chilling, dreamless materialism. Christianity is becoming more broad, spiritual and tolerant, and Spiritualism is becoming more Christly and constructive. In the coming centuries, therefore, the twain shall become one. CHAPTER XVI. IXDIA: ITS HISTORY AND TREASURES. Englajstd's flag waves over India ! The republic that is to come will be founded in justice, equality, and peace. We have spent the day rolling and tossing upon the Bay of Bengal. I shall spell it hereafter Bengali, emphasizing the last syllable. It deserves the bitter epithet. For three full days we endured a terrible monsoon-storm. It was a cyclone, save the rotary motion usually attending these hurri- canes. The frightened Jews aboard rushed for Moses and the Prophets, and began to intone the psalms in Hebrew. The wind, increasing, came in maddened gusts; the waves surged and heaved ; the lightnings flashed ; the rain fell in sheets ; the fore-stay-sail struggled in tatters ; trunks, tables, upset ; the dishes jingled in scattered fragments ; the Fates and the Furies seemed, in fact, to have let loose the very artiller}' of the hells ! Oh, it was fearful ! The following day we passed a wreck. What became of the crew — what? Our ship, under the command of Capt. Val- iant, behaved valiantly. It was a relief to sail into the Hoogly, one of the river-mouths through which the Ganges empties into the ocean. INDIA. Oh, marvelous country ! Land of tree-worship, serpent- worship, the lotus-flower, and the mystic Zm^-land of the ancient Vedas, and those unparalleled epics the Ramayana 194 AROUND THE WORLD. and the Mdhabharata with its hundred thousand stanzas ! hind of the ascetic Rishis, the eighteen Puranas, and the Tri-Pitaka of the Buddhists ! land of pearl-built palaces, templed caves, marble pillars, dust-buried ruins, walled cities, mud villages, and idolatrous worship ! These, all these, are among the sights, the lingering memories, of India's mingled glory and shame. When legendary Rome was a panting babe, and proud Greece a boasting lad, overshadowed by Egyptian grandeur, India was gray-bearded and venerable with years, worship- ing one God, and using in conversation the musical Sanscrit, a language not only much older than the Hebrew, but con- ceded by all philologists to have been the richest and most thoroughly polished language of the ages. Well may India have been considered the birthplace of civilization, and the primitive cradle-bed of the Oriental religions. APPROACHING THE LAND OF THE BRAHMAN. Steaming through wind and wave out of the Bay of Ben- gal, India ward, we entered the broad mouth of the sluggish Hoogly, one of the outlets of the Ganges, and conse- quently to Hindoos a sacred stream. Calcutta is something like a hundred miles from the mouth of this river. Though the banks are low and nearly level, the stretching jungle thickly shaded, and the cultivation only ordinary, the stately palms, cocoanut-groves, and luxuriant vegetation, along this winding Mississippi of the East, rendered the scenery decid- edly attractive. Just previous to reaching the city, we passed the roj^al mansions of the ex-king of Oude. This prisoner of state, though despising the English, as do the rajahs generally, maintains much of his kingly magnificence, and gets, besides, a yearly stipend from the English government. A Moham- medan in religion, preferring polygamy to monogamy, his social instincts are said to be decidedly animal. Several Eu- ropsan women grace — rather disgrace — his harem. Within INDIA: ITS HISTORY AND TREASURES. 195 fhe inciosure of bis private, high-walled grounds, he keeps quite a menagerie of wild beasts, and continues in repair a large artificial mound, said to contain two thousand hissing serpents. It was feared, at one time, that he would let loose beasts and serpents upon the city. CALCUTTA. Quite early in July, by the steamer " Statesman," we reached the capital of British India, — the famous City of Palaces. The impertinence of custom-house officers, dilated upon by some of our fellow-passengers, proved a fraud. They were simply gentlemen doing their duty. The hot, rainy season had just commenced. It was truly oppressive the first few days. In the city, and along the Delta of the Ganges, the mercury frequently rises to one hun- dred and twenty degrees, reminding one of the sun-scorched clime of Africa. In landing, half-naked coolies clamored loudly for our baggage ; actually they excel the New-York hackmen ! Dr. Dunn, fighting his wa}' through the crowd bravely, soon saw the trunks safely aboard the Grharrie for " The Great Eastern." The rooms in these Asiatic hotels are high, commodious, and Oriental, even to the punkas. TERRITORY AND ENGLISH RULE. The empire of India, extending over a territory of a mil- lion and a half square miles, equals in size all Europe except the Russias. Swarming with two hundred millions of peo- ple, exhibiting almost an endless diversity of soils, produc- tions, and climate, the deltas of India's great rivers are befitting granaries for the world. And England, claiming that the sun never sets upon her dominions, holds direct rule over three-fourths of this vast country. Early in the seventeenth century, British cupidity, look- ing at the immense wealth of Indian kings and princes, cov- eted their possessions. Under the pretext of Christianizing, and other reasons, a cause for war was manufactured. Reck- 19G AROUND THE WORLD. less of justice, fraternity, and the New-Test£ment principles of peace, England, in brief, decided upon a war of conquest for territory and trade, for gold, diamonds, and precious stones. No historian pretends to whitewash Britain's course of crime and infamy in the East. Learned Brahmans under- stand that history well, and, understanding, secretly hate English rulership. Still they prefer Englishmen to INIoham- medans for masters. Disguised in any way, however, slavery is slavery^ — a condition to be hated ! The " mild Hindoo " is a common term in the Orient; and while the Hindoo is mild, forbearing, peace-loving, and con- templative, the Englishman is ambitious, stern, and dictato- rial. The theistic reformer, Keshub Chunder Sen, sensibly said, in a late Calcutta speech, " Muscular Christianity has but little to do with the sweet religion of Jesus ; and it is owing to the reckless, warhke conduct of these pseudo- Christians, that Christianity h.n's, failed to produce any whole- some moral influence upon Tny eountrymeny There was a monstrous mutiny in 1756 ; there have been minor mutinies since ; and, mark it well, there is destined to be another, eclipsing in blood and carnage all the others. The Aryan-descended Indians love liberty and self-govern- ment. WHENCE THE HINDOOS ? The Aryan tribes inhabiting Central Asia entered India by the northern passes, and descended first the valley of the Indus, and then that of the Ganges, attaining their full strength and develoj^ment along the rich alluvial valley- lands of the latter river. They brought with them agricul- tural implements, some of the fine arts, and the elegant Sanscrit. " Brought it from where ? or in what country did it originate? " The inquiry, natural enough, shall be noticed hereafter. In this great and fertile country, the Aryans — primitive Hindoos — located themselves in comparati\ e security. The INDIA: ITS HISTORY AND TREASURES. 197 aborigines, supposed by some to be of " Turanian descent," fled, in many cases, to the mountain fastnesses before them, as though conscious of their physical inferiority. The Aryan type, including the pre-historic races of Cen- tral and Northern Africa, the Caucasians of Europe, the Ass}rrians of Western Asia, and the fair-skinned, Sanscrit- speaking people who entered India from the north, devel- oped, wherever it settled, marvelous civilizations. The purest Aryan blood at present is found in Northern India ; but wherever within the bounds of the Indian Empire to- day you find light-coraplexioned, noble-featured Brahmans, you find direct descendants of the ancient Aryans. The non-Aryan natives, called, in the Rig-Veda, Dasyns, Rakshasas, Asaras, and others with outlandish-sounding names, were dark-complexioned, yet timid, spiritually-minded tribes. Remnants of them, ever the physical inferiors of their northern invaders, are still found in the mountainous districts of Interior and Southern India, known now under the names Todas, G-onds, Bheels, Kols^ ICorkus, Bi/gds, Ohamars^ down to the Pariahs. Some of these tribes have curly hair and protruding lips. The infusion of the Aryan element into the aboriginal stock took place rapidly ; and yet the observant traveler among them will come upon stratum after stratum, showing in a distinct manner the intermediate stages between the two races. Generally, the physical tj^e diverges from aboriginal features and manners towards Brahmanical Hindooism. Some of these aboriginal races have so verged towards the status of Brahmanism that they have assumed the "sacred thread," claiming member- ship with the " twice-born caste." GROWTH AND LITERATURE OF THE ARYAN HINDOOS. None of the other Oriental countries have clung to so many of their primitive customs, retained so much of their early literature, experienced so few internal dissen- sions, or suffered so little from ancient Vandal in^■asions, ag 198 AROUND THE WORLD. the Hindoos. Strongly sea-guardecl on three points of the compass, the dangerous defiles and mountainous ranges along the northern boundaries of India presented formidable barriers to conquering hordes from Northern Asia. Accord- ingly, while the nationalities of Central and Northern Afi"ica, in pre- Pyramidal times, as well as the populous countries of Central and Eastern Asia, were engaged in wars both civil and aggressive, destroying, so far as possible, all the historic monuments of antiquity, and exterminating every vestige of literature within the enemy's reach, the Aryans of India seem to have been left m comparative peace and isolation, — left to work out the problem of civilization and mental culture, unaffected by foreign influences or ravaging internal revolutions. The advancement for a time was all that could be desired. The Aryan Hindoos stood upon the world's pinnacle of progress. This was the era of the Mahabharata, 1300 B.C., of Manu the lawgiver, and Panini the great grammarian, of the Sanhitas and Brahmanas, of the Vedas and of the Sastras, all something like 1000 B.C. Brahmans educated in English colleges, and learned in the Sanscrit, insist that Homer modeled his verses after their ancient poets. Putting it plainer, they boldly affinn that Homer's Iliad was " prigged," — largely borrowed from the Mahabharata. Though this was the golden age of Aryan learning, mental friction was wanting. The national intellect, at this point, became either stationary, or shaded off into the metaphysical and the speculative. The inductive method of research was abandoned. Mystical theorizing ran rampant. Though the Vedas distinctly taught the existence of one Supreme Being, a dreamy mythology slowly sprung into existence, and fastened its fangs upon the national mind. Chieftains and heroes were made gods. Imagination painted, and tradition ascribed to them valorous deeds and marvelous attributes as unnatural as monstrous. The ignorant masses, carving their images in stone as keepsakes, finally fell to wo'-shiping nSTDIA : ITS HISTORY AND TREASURES. 199 them ; while the higher classes either cultivated philosophy and deductive abstractions, or mentally merged away into a passive self-meditation, looking for final rest in Nirvana. MEN IN THE CITY. The first movement, after landing in Calcutta, was to re- port in person to the lately appointed American cionsul, whom we found a most genial and sunny-souled gentleman. His family residence is Grand Rapids, Mich. Gen. Grant was singularly fortunate in his consular appointments at Calcutta, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Melbourne. Having made the acquaintance of Keshub Chunder Sen in London, several years since, to inquire about Spiritualism and the progress of the Brahmo-Somaj in India, I sent him my card, receiving in reply a most cordial welcome to his country. Our future interviews, I trust, were mutually pleasing and profitable. Though singularly noii-committal upon the causes of Spiritual phenomena, he extends the hand of fellowship to Spiritualism, because a phase of liberalism. Knowing something of the Unitarian missionarj^ Rev. C. H. A. Dall, through " The Liberal Christian," and being the bearer of a letter from Rev. Herman Snow of San Francisco. Cal., I called upon him at No. 24 Mott's Lane, Calcutta, where he has a flourishing school for boys, with several native teachers. He has joined, so I was credibly informed, the Brahmo-Somaj, preaching at present little if any. Uni- tarianism, American-born, had nothing new in the way of religion to send to the Brahmans of India. Busily counting money, Mr. Dall was at first not very communicative, although he warmed up a bit when the conversation turned upon progress, and the natural rela- tions existing between radical Unitarianism and true Spirit- ualism. Having read of "free love," "fanaticism," and other rubbish floating upon the spiritual river of Ufe, if not prejudiced, he certainlj' lacked a knowledge of the Spiritual 200 AROUND THE WORLD. philosophy. Our chat became quite spicy. In uo residence, priestly presence, or princely palace, during these round-the- world wanderings, have I evaded or hidden my belief in Spiritualism. No one principled in truth, or fired with a spark of genuine manhood, would so do, even though shunned by the sham god of the age, — " society y Policy, cunning, and craft, are kin of the hells. Worldly gain is spiritual loss. Calcutta, founded by the " Old East India Company," near the close of the seventeenth century, on the site of an ancient city called Kali-Kutta^ sacred to the goddess Kali, has a population of about eight hundred thousand, some seventeen thousand of which are Europeans. CITY SUBURBS AND SIGHT-SEEING. The gardens, the bright foliage, the luscious fruitage, and the palm-crowned suburban scenery generally, win at once the traveler's admiration. The Government House, the High Court, the massive Museum, yet unfinished, and other city buildings, are magnificent structures. The Post Ofi&ce, imposing in appearance, is built upon the site of the notori- ous " Black Hole " of mutiny memory, where one hundred and forty-six prisoners, thrust into a room eighteen feet square, were left in a sultry night to smother and perish. Only a few survived. The act was infamous. The Maiden below the gardens, crowned with a Burmese pagoda, is the fashionable resort in evening-time. The drive skirts the river; and, for gayety and costly equipage, Paris can hardly parallel it. Through the kindness of our consul-general, I was privileged with a carriage-ride in the gray of twilight, down the river, and around the square, to the music-stand, where the Queen's Band nightly discourses delicious music. The scenic surroundings, the blending of Occidental style with Oriental grandeur, can not well be described. Many of the costumes were singularly unique, and the social inter- course remarkably free from any stiff provincialisms. All had INDIA: ITS HISTORY AND TREASURES. 201 fashions and styles of their own. The rich baboos — Hindoo gentlemen — occupied prominent positions in the gay pro- cession and motley gathering. Lower-caste Hindoo life is seen in the bazaars ; and though there are disgusting sights and rank odors, along tlie narrow native streets, we neither heard nor saw the Calcutta jackals so often described by romancing writers. Crows, however, may be numbered by myriads. Nestling at night in the ornamental shade-trees of the city, they engage early in the morning at the scavenger business, and often mistake the kitchen for their legitimate field of operations. Tall, stork-like birds, called " adjutants," also do scavenger-work. At night they perch upon the tops of the public buildings, standing like sentinels on guard. The city is watered from immense reservoirs. The natives bathe in them, wash their garments in them, and then, filling their goat-skins for domestic purposes, and slinging them under the arm, supported by a strap, they trudge moodily away to their employer's residence. Drinking- water is drawn from wells in a very primitive way. Women have but few privileges. They seldom appear in the streets ; and then, if married, they veil their faces. One is continu- ally reminded, while studying the Hindoo socially, of Old Testament manners and customs. RIVER SCENES. — JUGGERNAUT. — THE BANYAN-TREE. Occupying a place in Gen. Litchfield's barouche, we drove along, early one morning, by the river's side some four miles, witnessing the bathing and worshiping of the Hin- doos in the flowing Hooghly. Gesticulating, bowing, sprink- ling themselves, and intoning prayers, these worshipers counted their beads much as do the Catholics. Paving no regard to the Christian's Sunday or the Mohammedan's Friday, these sincere Hindoos hold in great reverence festi- val days of their gods. The English government grants the different religionists of the country some sixty holidays dur- ing the year. 202 AROUND THE WORLD. Unfortunately, we reached India just too late to see the yearly Juggernaut festival, during which the great idol-cai in Eastern India is drawn with such gushing enthusiasm. Believing devotees do not, however, throw themselves voluntarily under this idolatrous engine to be crushed, as falsifying churchmen have widely reported. While the excitement is at a high pitch, careless devotees may acciden- tally fall under the rotating wheels, and perish. This actually happened the present year. And so similar acci- dents often occur on Fourth of July occasions in America. That a few impulsive fanatics in the past may have pur- posely rushed under the ponderous wheels, — much as Christian pilgrims in the Crusade period walked through Palestine with bared feet, to die by the Holy Sepulchre, — is quite probable. Fanaticism has been common to all reli- gions. But crossing the river on this delightful morning, by the banks of which nestled neatness and filth, — Christly and demoniac men in close proximity, — we were soon strolling through the Botanical Gardens, admiring tropical flowers, with the lilies white, golden, and purple, on our way to the crowning glory of the gardens, the great banyan-tree, alias the bread-fruit tree of the East. This grand old tree fully met our expectations, only that it bore berries about the size of acorns, instead of bread. The natives are very fond of them. While this gigantic tree is not tall, it is wide-spreading and symmetrically shaped ; and, though not an evergreen, it is clothed in a dark-green, glossy foliage, reflecting at sunrise a thousand vivid tints, varied as beauti- ful. This Calcutta banyan-tree, throwing down to the soil one hundred and thirty creeper-like hmbs, all forming trunks, — symbol of the American Union, many in one, — would afford shade or shelter in a light rain-storm for two thousand persons. No traveler in the East should miss of seeing it Tradition says that Alexander's army of ten Toddy Palms of India. INDIA: ITS HISTORY AND TREASURES. 203 thousand, in the fourth century B.C., sheltered itself, while in Northern India, under the far-reaching branches of a princely banyan. Jast after leaving this kingly tree, there fluttered up before us, from a clump of date-palms a fine flock of green-plumaged parrots. Descriptions of one part of India will not serve for all portions of it. The country is immense. It is reported that 8,000,000 perished during the late famine in India — but what is this in a country of nearly 300,000,000 ? The government allowed as little as possible to get out about the famine, as it might incite to mutiny. The Hindoos depend more upon the monsoons than upon cisterns or wells for water. A rain fail- ure means famine. Rice culture requires great flooding, and the Madras presidency has vast irrigation works. As these works increase throughout the country, carefully conserving the water, famines will cease. Calcutta has a population of nearl}- 900,000 ; some 20,000 or more are nominally Christians. It has been, not inaptly, called the City of Colleges. It is reported that 10,000 Ben- galese students take their entrance examinations here every 3-ear. The religions of India are frequently in conflict. The Mohammedans are naturally aggressive. There are nearly 60,000,000 of Mohammedans in India. They quite generally do not favor the National Indian Congress, thinking it too favorable to Biahminism. Buddhism is making an effort to re-instate itself in India. Mr. Dharmapa, a Buddhist monk, has already established the temple of the Buddha-Gya as a Buddhist shrine in Calcutta. Buddhism will certainlv return to India and become a great spiritual power. CHAPTER XVII. India's religions, morals, and social characteristics. The higher classes of these Asiatics have fine-looking faces. Tall and rather commanding in person, easy and graceful in movement, they have pleasant, open counte- nances, dark eyes with long eyebrows, glossy black hair, — of which they seem proud, — thoughtful casts of expression, and full, high foreheads. The complexion is olive, shaded, according to caste and indoor or outdoor exercise, towards the dark of the Nubian, or white of the Northman. In Northern India they are nearly as fair as Caucasians ; and, what is more, English scholars have been forced to admit that the Hindoo mind, in capacity, is not a whit behind the European. In hospitality they have no superiors. The lower, oppressed classes, as in other countries, are rude, rus- tic, and vulgar ! As a people I have found the Hindoos exceedingly polite. When two Brahmans meet, lifting each the hand, or both hands, to the forehead, they say, " Namaslcar " (I respect- fully salute you). Sometimes the inferior bows, and touches the feet of the higher personage, the latter exclaim- ing, '•'• I hless you : may you he hapiyyl''^ The Hindoo, natu- rally mild, meek, and fond of peace, will sooner put up with oppression than engage in a battle of recrimination and vio- lence. An English ethnologist considers him sufficiently " womanly to be considered effeminate." Certainly, his patience and cool self-possession, inclining him to sail tran- INDIA'S RELIGIONS AND SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS. 205 quilly along the placid waters of life, present a striking contrast to the impatience, ambition, and dictatorial spirit of Anglo-Saxons. Each and all, however, fill their places in the pantheon of history. THE KALI GHAUT AND SLAIN GOATS. Religion, when unenlightened by education and unguided by reason, degenerates into superstition. The Kali temple, situated in the suburbs of Calcutta, sacred to the ugly-look- ing, bloodthirsty goddess Kali^ was to me a deeply interest- ing sight, because showing unadulterated Hindooism in its present low, degraded state. The shrines and the altars, the flower-covered ling^ and the crimson yard all wet and dripping with the blood of goats sacrificed at the rising of the sun, forcibly reminded me of the Old Testament sacri- fices offered as sweet-smelling savors to Jehovah, the tute- lar}'- god of the Jews. The bowing of the face to the earth, the kissing of cold stones, the smearing of the face with mud, the liturgical mutterings, and the howling beggary by the wayside, were all repulsive in the extreme. The temple was only a coarse, ordinary structure. Being Christians, we were not permitted to pass the threshold. These temples are not constructed, as are churches, to hold the people ; but rather as imposing shelters for the gods, priests, and sacrifi- cial offerings. The worshipers around them are generally of the lower castes. Conversing on the spot with one of these officiating Brahman priests, he assured me that the throng present did not worship the Kali image. " It is a symbol," said he, " leading the mind to the higher and the invisible." Doubting his statement, and pondering, I silent- ly said, Here is retrogression^ for the most ancient of the Vedas taught the existence of one infinite God. The Ori- entalist, Prof. Wilson, says, " The Aryans believed in one God, who created the world by his fiat, and organized it by his wisdom." After the composition of the first Vedas, with the post-Vedic priesthood, came mythology, and the different castes. 206 AROUND THE WORLD. THE BUENING GHAUTS. — CRE^M ATION. How are the dead best disposed of ? Certain American Indians, lifting their dead warriors into forest-trees, leave them to assimilate with the elements ; Christians inter the mortal remains of their loved ones beneath the turf; Per- sians expose the bodies of the dead to the sun on their " towers of silence," while the Hindoos burn theirs in r/hauts consecrated to this purpose. Many scientists and hygienic reformers consider the last the preferable method. With Gen. Litchfield for guide, we repaired one afternoon to the ashy ghaut of flame to witness the burning of the dead. Entering the brick-wall-inclosed arena, the eye fell upon several piles of smoldering ashes ; while near by was the corpse of a pleasant-faced young girl of some eleven years, awaiting the priestlj^ preparations for burning. The red- paint spot on the maiden's forehead indicated that she was married. A tearless mother sat b}'" the rude bier, with a naked babe at the breast. A sad stillness pervaded the scene. When the dry hard-wood, intermixed with light sticks of bamboo and sandal, was laid across the shallow trench, and the pile ready for the cremation, the priests anointing the head with oil, and sprinkling the body with sacred water, placed the poorly-clad and ghastly corpse upon the rough pyre. Then, bending the limbs to occupy as little space as possible, and putting seeds, boiled rice, and bananas to the mouth, the lighted torch was applied to the husky bamboo. Soon the fire, flame, and smoke, curling and hissing around the sandal-scented pile, transformed the organized dust to its original dust and ashes. During the burning, the priests paced around the fiery pyre, chanting theii" prayers of consolation. Thousands flock to the Ganges to die and be burned. Nothing can be sweeter than for a Hindoo to die with his eyes resting upon the sacred river. The funeral pyres of the wealthy are made of the sandal- tree, spice-wood, fragrant flowers, incense, and ointments; India's religions and social characteristics. 207 aad, while the body is being consumed, priests and distant friends chant the Rig and the Sanaa Vedas. The immediate mourners stand around, dressed in white. Often the ashes are gathered up, and preserved in urns. HOW SHALL WE DISPOSE OF OUR DEAD? Touching the removal of the dead, these have been the common methods : interment, exposing upon towers of silence, mummification, and incinerating or burning upon the prepared pyi'e. Considering the loathsome changes of decomposition, with the liberation and discharging of poi- sonous gases into the atmosphere, the burying of deceased bodies is open to serious objections. It is well known that sulphuretted and phosphuretted gases are active poisons ; and their influence, when breathed even in infinitesimal quantities, must be deleterious to health. Dr. Walker, a London surgeon, shows in his " Gatherings from Graveyards," that from the surface of the ground, above dead bodies, there are continually rising poisonous miasmas. These impregnate and infect the germ-cells and dust of the air breathed ; and thus disease is borne upon the winds. There are few unhealthier places than the cemeteries of crowded cities. In them epidemics and pestilences often originate. People should avoid rather than visit them. In the early history of Judaism, to merely touch a dead body rendered the person " unclean for seven days." Extravagant coffins, pompous ceremonies, costly monu- ments, gloved priests, expensive mourning apparel, and bearing corpses long distances for burial, all violate the genius of that Spiritual philosophy which sees that the spirit ' ' Sings now an everlasting song Amidst the trees of life." The opposition of churchmen to cremation arises from their theological behef that graveyards are temporary resting- 208 AROUND THE WORLD. places for bodies awaiting the trump of the resurrection. It is evangelical teaching, that the departed are " locked in the embrace of death ; " that they have " fallen asleep in Jesus ; " or have disd "in the hope of a glorious resurrection" of their decomposing, putrefying bodies. As the shirt of Nes- sus, so cliags superstition to the sectarist. The tendency of solid thinkers, however, is turned towards cremation, because a quicker method of turning dust to dust, as by the " refiner's fire " of Malachi ; because less expensive than burial ; because conducive to the general health ; because preserving portions of the ashes in urns is less costly than gravestones ; and because it obviates all fear of being buried ahve. Science will readily devise means to deodo- •rize the gases given off during the process of burning ; while the ashy debris will the more readily revert back to usefulness as fertilizers of the soil. CASTE, AND BRAHMAN PRIESTS. Under any sky, caste is an unmitigated curse. Buddhism in the sixth century B.C. was a brave inspirational protest against Brahmanical assumption and caste. Though Buddh- istic preaching and practice quite checked this caste system for a time, it revived again with the revival of Brahman- ism, 200 B.C. ; and, intensified by an unrelenting social despotism, it is to-day the scourge of India. Women feel the chains more keenly than men. This great nation is slow to feel the pulsations of progress. English rule has done little, nothing^ to tone down or overthrow the caste-venom of the ages ; and how could it, when caste in English society is nearly as marked as in Hindostan ? This social pest pervades all gradations of life in India. Each servant has his own sphere, and out of it he will not budge. This necessitates in wealthy English families a large retinue of servants. Brahmans, though sometimes poor, never " sink" to be tradesmen ! They are generally clerks and draughtsmen. And then there is the messenger, the P u»x«<^ %-{%', \l/S0 ^"^^ Taj Mahal, Agra. INDIA'S RELIGIONS AND SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS. 209 butler, the cook, tailor, coachman, market-man, washerman, palanquin-bearers, sweepers, and others, down to pariahs. As is well known, there are four general castes, — Brah- ma7is, priests and writers ; Chattries, soldiers ; Vj/shes, mer- chants ; and Sooders, tradespeople and toilers, — with scores of subdivisions. Castes never intermarry, though there is occasionally an elopement. All Brahmans are not priests; but all priests must be Brahmans. When a Brahmanian lad reaches the age of nine, a thin, light cord, called Jayieo, is given him after religious ceremonies and a family festal feast. This, going over the right shoulder, is continually worn around the body. It is symbolical. From the time of its adjustment by the priest, he must abstain from defilement, and engage in stated bathing and worship. Brahmans, living abstemiously, eating no meat, ignoring war, avoiding the sight of human blood, drinking no liquors, and punctually attending to worship, are considered, by the Hindoos, holy men. These Brahman priests, called Shastris, read the Vedas and the laws of Manu to the people. They also preside at festivals, celebrate marriages, and affix the sacred cord upon the young. If a Brahman becomes defiled, losing caste, it can only be regained by the most mortifjdng penances, and submission to a tedious system of purification. We saw one of these unfortunates doing penance by crawling serpent-like on the ground, and then rising and falling again ; he actually meas- ured his length in the streets on his way to the temj^le. The poor dupe was pitiably filthy. After his penances comes the bathing for purification. ; India originally rooted her caste-system in the priesthood ; England based her caste upon ancestral " blue-blood ; " while America is grounding hers upon wealth. The prin- ciple is abominable, and means just this: three men are ascending a ladder ; the middle one licks the dust from the boots of the one above him, and kicks the one below him ! 210 AKOUND THE WORLD. VILLAGE LIFE. — BATHING IN THE GANGES. The longer that missionaries and merchantmen remain in the " land of Ind," the more do they become attracted to the people, and attached to the country. Old men residing in India can hardly be induced to return to England. Book- making travelers, of the Rev. Prime school, are shamefully partial in their descriptions of the effeminate Orientals. It is chronic with these clergymen to write contemptuously of the "heathen." Idolatry in any form is deplorable ; but it is just as absurd to idolize a hooh labeled " holy," as a bit of carved stone. The native Indians are not only exceedingly social, but trusting and reverential. They are not as moral, however, as they were in the days of Warren Hastings and Sir Wil- liam Jones. Their habitations, afar back from the great cities, are all clustered in villages. None reside by them- selves on farms. Ditches, rather than fences, indicate bound- aries. Many of their houses are mere mud hovels, the flooring matting, the furniture scarce and oddly-shapen. The wealthy clothe themselves in costly apparel ; while the dresses of the poor are mere breech-cloths, the children sporting in utter nakedness. Wages are exceedingly low. Women do outdoor work the same as men, even to the carrying of dirt in baskets upon their heads, where railroads are in process of construction. Saying nothing of the filth of the poverty-stricken classes, the Hindoos, as a nation, are noted for physical neatness. Watching them, the other morning, by the river, I silently said, " Your bathing is as natural as your breathing." Brah- mans frequently bathe three times per day. The Ganges' banks, along the Ghauts, are often lined by the faithful before sunrise, performing theu' ablutions. The women are clad in loose, robe-like garments ; the men are nude, save close-fitting lingatees. These Brahmans, by the way, wear- ing shoes open upon the top, bathing frequently, being INDIA'S RELIGIONS AND SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS. 211 thorough vegetarians, and considering themselves, in conse- quence, physically sweet and pure, complain that Europeans emit an unsavory smell — a filthy, beef-eating oc?or — from their persons, exceedingly offensive and loathsome to all true Brahmans. The Shakers of Mount Lebanon are no stricter peace-men or vegetarians than are these high-caste Brah- mans. Often, at the family table, Hindoos stop eating for a few moments, to chant Sanscrit sloka — a sort of jolly thanks- giving song. Genuine Hindoos wear neither pantaloons nor coats, but dhotars. Parsees wear trousers, robes, and tall, pyramidal shaped hats ; and Mahommedans, long beards and turbans. Noting these costumes, the prominent races of India are easily distinguishable. The earnest desire of even the lower castes to secure an English education is manifest by their studying along the public streets in Calcutta b}'- gas-light. This is a nightly practice. Such Brahmans as have acquired an education teach others gratuitously. Temperate themselves, wonder- ing at the liquor-drinking customs of Christians, and the downright drunkenness of Western nations, they even blame Jesus for " turning water into wine." Out of the cities, profanity is unknown among the Hin- doos. They have too much reverence for the Christian's " Our Father," and for their own gods, to curse and profane their names. Wealthy Hindoos have their favorite symbol- gods in their houses. A certain room is set apart, flower- perfumed, and consecrated to the household deity, once a hero or saint. On festival days of remembrance, they invite in their European acquaintances. Departing, they put garlands upon their necks, and throw flowers at their feet. In courts of justice, Hindoos brought upon the stand make a solemn affirmation. If there are doubts of their speaking the truth, " they swear them by the Ganges, or the sacred Toolsi- flower." For some of these singular customs, I am indebted to a personal acquaintance, seven years in India, inspector 212 AROUND THE WORLD. of schools in Ommeraottix, — famous in England only as a cotton-market. THE ASIATIC SOCIETY. No place in Calcutta so completely chained me as the Royal Asiatic Society, with its Museum of Ancient Art and Sculpture. If the command had read, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's library," I should long ago have com- mitted the " unpardonable sin." That eminent scholar, Sir William Jones, who went to India in 1783, established the institution, and Warren Hastings was the first president. In this immense collection of volumes, manuscripts, scrolls, and unread Oriental rolls, are treasured the priceless memorials of the past. The original building, long ago over- flowing with its shelved lore, necessitated the storing of manuscripts elsewhere, with many of the precious relics. We found the assistant secretary, a native Hindoo, a most schol- arly and gentlemanly man. Gladly we exchanged several books, his treating of Brahmanism, and ours of Spirituahsm. All library-books were free to us during our stay in the city. But time was flying. Longingly, regretfully, we left this library, — a very monument of research and reflection, — to penetrate the heart of the country. It was nearly nightfall when we left the City of Palaces, crossing the Hoogly to Howrah, taking the East-India Railway train for the north and west. The depot was dimly lighted, the confusion disgusting, but the cars cool and comfortable. Travelers by English railways painfully miss their accustomed sleep- ing-cars. UP THROUGH THE COUNTRY. The railroad extends along the Ganges Valley up the country in a north-westerly direction, and ultimately reaching Allahabad, between the Ganges and the Jumna, where these rivers form a junction. They both rise in the Himalayas. The scenery, with its vast unfenced rice-fields, clumps of India's religions and social characteristios. 213 deeply- wooded jungles, hedges of cactus, grazing herds, and nestling native villages, was decidedly attractive, though dulled by sameness. Occasionally broad, rolling ridges reminded us of our fertile prairie-lands in the West. Though camels and elephants are pressed into farming-work, hump- shouldered Asian bullocks do most of the plowing, rather a light scratching of the soil. The flocks of sheep along the way were, with hardly an exception, black. Shepherds with bamboo rods, instead of " crooks," tended them. Northern India produces large quantities of wheat and corn. The cultivation of the Ganges Valley is of an inferior kind. This must necessarily continue till the Hindoos become landholders, owning the proceeds of the fields they cultivate. Though the vast plains of India have scattered groves of acacia, guava, mango, palms, and other Oriental trees, there is a destitution of deep, dense forests, from the fact that, in past centuries, they were ruthlessly cut, and the fields tilled to support the over-population of the coun- try. The telegraph-poles along the way are either of iron or stone, to prevent destruction by white ants. The prying, greedy nuisances soon found their way into our trunks. BENARES THE BLESSED. Reaching Mogul Serai Junction, we were soon transferred to the branch-road leading to the river whose waters were anciently thought to insure eternal life. Tread lightly, speak softly ; this is the winding Ganges, and that magnifi- cent and moss-crowned city on the western bank, with its temples, mosques, palaces, tapering domes, sacred shrines, and the Golden Temple of Siva, — guardian divinity, — is Benares, holiest city of the Rindoos ! All sincere religionists are to be respected. What Mecca is to the Mohammedan, Jerusalem to the Christian, and Rome to the Catholic, Benares is to the Hindoo ; and the Ganges, that washes its feet, is the Eden river of immortal life. The grayed pen of antiquity failed to record the 214 AROUND THE WORLD. names of its founders. But, full two hundred years before the Grecian Plato discoursed in the groves skirting classic Athens, Benares was summering under the sunshine of her palmiest days, boasting of seven hundred flourishing semi- naries of learning, with ambitious students from all portions of the Orient. Here metaphysicians, both Brahmans and Buddhists, held their. discussions upon philosophy, the duty and destiny of humanity ; and, in all probability, no keener logicians ever met upon the field of controversy. The city of Benares, — anciently called ICasika, — having five thousand sacred shrines, is supposed to number some five hundred thousand inhabitants ; but during festivals, or in the season when pilgrims flock thither, the population is greatly increased. Sekrole, the European part, about three miles from the old city, is handsomely laid out with government buildings, two English colleges, finely shaded streets, and a broad esplanade for military practice and display. The mention of Sekrole must ever remind us of the hos- pitality and favors of Dr. Lazarus and his estimable family. His son, a collegiate youth, aflame with genius, informed us that his college class had quite a number of natives, ranging in years from sixteen to nineteen, nearly all of whom were married, some being the fathers of two, three, and four chil- dren. " Do these Hindoos keep up with their classes ? " we inquired. " Certainly," said this student : " they even excel in mathematics, metaphysics, and moral philosophy, and would be wranglers in English colleges." EUROPEAN METAPHYSICS OLD IN INDIA. An English professor in Queen's College, Benares, asssured us that, reading of new methods in metaphysics, or recent mental phenomena in Germany considered new, and referring them to the pundits (learned Hindoos in Benares), they would turn to their Sanscrit scrolls, and, finding the same formula in metaphysics, or similar phenomena, they pro- -^>iLA_^1r. ^f^^Bfw .^ / f~ rw-'V' h h Hindoo Fakir. India's eeligions and social characteristics. 215 nounce them old; and then, smiling among themselves, would add, " Western scholars are tardily following in the footsteps of our sages who lived full three thousand years ago." The streets of Benares, as in all old Asian cities, are ex- ceedingly narrow ; but the palaces of the wealthy, the mossy ruins, the massive masonry fringing the river, and the mag- nificent architecture, gorgeous even in decay, beggar descrip- tion. Taking an open dinghy^ and drifting down the Ganges one morning by the city, we not only saw floating corpses, but saw them bring their dead to the burning Ghaut ; saw them take the muddy waters in their mouths ; saw them perform their religious ablutions and immersions, expecting, like sectarian Baptists, to wash away their sins ; and saw them bring their offerings, and lay them upon the altars of their gods ; and then, climbing a long stone stairway, we went up the Mohammedan Man-Mandil, on the roof of which are astronomical charts, drawn by old Indian sages ; then to the Golden Temple, the domes of which are literally washed with gold ; and then to the Monkey Temple, sacred to Durgha, where hundreds of monkeys are kept and petted, if i>ot worshiped, by the lower-caste Hindoos. EASTERN FAKIRS. Like the dervishes of Islam, these fakirs go by various names, and belong to different orders. Some continually chant praises to Vishnu. Others, inflicting tortures upon themselves, engage in constant prayers ; and others still seek to suspend the breath, restrain natural desires, and abstract the mind, preparatory to deeper communion with Brahm. While smiling at their superstitions, let us not forget their sincerity. Their subdued hearts seem to continually sing this sad refrain, — " Oh ! -where shall rest be found, — Rest for the weary soul V " 216 ABOUND THE WORLD. One of these fakirs, stopping for a night in a quiet Hin- doo village, is received vs^ith profound respect. They con^ sider him a holy man ; and, after washing his feet, they supply his wants. Some of these ascetics, renouncing homes, giv- ing away their propert}^, fast, pray, sleep on beds of stone, and practice other severe austerities. During our second day's wanderings in Benares, we saw in the street, under a burning sun, one of the Hindoo fakirs, — a Grosain, holy beggar ! This branch of fanatics do penance and work merit for others, by standing on one foot, or holding up one hand, for a term of years ; repeating the while pleading prayers. The one we saw, sitting cross- legged, with a three-forked tripod by his side, was exceed- ingly filthy. His coarse, uncombed hair was sprinkled with ashes, rice, leaves, and lotus-flowers. He kept the index finger open and fixed ; his body, nearly naked, was smeared with clay ; his ghastly eyes, almost closed, were turned up- ward ; and he seemed striving to cease breathing. He speaks to no one, but '• aims," said Hindoo bystanders, " to do works of merit, separate the soul from the body, and com- mune with God." The next morning, with one of the Benares missionaries, we strolled away some four miles, to the ruins of Sarnath, once a very extensive Buddhist estab- lishment, supposed by some to have been the birthplace of Buddha ; a grand old monument, with its architectural designs and elegantly carved images, still standing, and com- memorating the event. We confess to admiration and ven- eration for such time-defying ruins. But why so dumb, O tongue of tradition ? Speak, and tell us by whom, and for what purpose, were these acres of templed stone and mighty ruins once built I ALONG THE WAY TO BO]MBAY. It is fifteen hundred miles, by rail, from Calcutta to Bom- bay, the two rival cities of India. Previous to reaching Bombay from Jubbulpore, famous for marble rocks, there is India's religions and social characteristics. 217 mountain scenery sufficiently bold and diversified to show a sti-iking contrast to the valle}^ of the Ganges, and others of India's lowlands through which we had passed. The coun- try now rougher and higher, the cultivation of the lands changed, becoming better as we approached the western '^oast, rice-fields giving place to wheat, millet, and other grains. In Northern India, corn (^Indian maize) does finely. There is an extensive network of railroads in this coun- try ; and, what may seem singular, they are liberally patron- ized by the natives. Brahmans, Mohammedans, Sikhs, and poor Christians, rush into the " second-class " cars, riding as cozily as the caged "happy family" of Barnuir memory. The steep grades, dark tunnels, dancing cascades, and heav- ily-wooded hillsides, reminded us of home scenery in New England. Reaching Bombay in the waning part of the day, a glance convinced us that it was a seaport mart, aflame with busi- ness. Numbering over six hundred thousand inhabitants, this city is considered by the unprejudiced the most stirring and progressive of any in India ; while the Parsees, whose forefathers brought their holy fire with them from Persia in the seventh century, now constitute one hundred thou- sand of the city's population. Acquisitive and enterprising, much of the mercantile traffic of the East is under their management. As there are no beggars among Shakers, Quakers, and Jews, so there are none among the Parsees. Going out leisurely upon the esplanade in early evening, the streets are thronged with multitudes of Hindoos, ]Mus- sulmans, Parsees, Indo-Europeans, Enghsh half-castes, with occasionally a straggling American ; and all either on foot, on horseback, or in gharries, or queer, gaudily-decorated and covered-in carriages drawn by bullocks. Costumes are gay and varied. Jewelry, even to rings in the nose, is worn in costly profusion. Wealthy Hindoos are lavish in dress, pre- cious stones, pearls, and diamonds. The bazaars here, with their narrow streets, and filth, their trade and traffic in trin- 218 AROUND THE "WORLD. kets, silks, brocades, &c., are but a repetition of those in all Asian cities. Bombay, built upon a cluster of islands connected one with the other and with the mainland by causeways, form- ing a sort of peninsula, and fanned by invigorating sea- breezes, is considered the most desirable residence for Europeans in India. The city is supplied with excellent water from Vehar Lake, some two miles out, at the foot of the Salsette Hills. Rich Europeans, and some of the mis- sionaries, reside at the fashionable suburb, Malabar Hill, from December to February ; but during the rains and hot weather, from June to September, they migrate to the high- land plateaus and cool mountains. Jesus, worn and weary under Syria's scorching skies, went up on to the mountains, not to escape the heat, and do a bit of cozy lolling around champagne-tables with Peter, James, and John, but to pray, and to heal the sick. It is dehciously comfortable to be a " Christian " in the nineteenth century. But what about that old apostolic word, the "cross"? — " bearing the cross," and suffering for the " truth's sake " ? ORIGIN OF BRAHMANISM. The Aryans, more properly Aryas^ meaning, in the Zend language, honorable men, — occupying the high table-lands of Central Asia, known in later times as the Plateau of Iran, — left in the pre-historic past their ancient agricultural seats, traveling westward and southward in the character of emigrants, explorers, and conquerors. The Aryan conquest of Hindostan, effected before and during the period treated of in the Mah4bharatd., and the Ramayana, was mainly accomplished in the palmy days of those kingly chieftains known as the Mdh4r4jds. These in the pre-Vedic period were their own priests, kindling their own altar-fires. As Thales, Solon, and Socrates were called Sophoi, — knowers, — the wise among the Aryans were denominated Rishis, and, in a much later period, Gymno- ^ophists. India's religions and social characteristics. 219 It is conceded by Oriental scholars that 1200 B.C. the Aryans were not only a powerful people alon? the banks of the Indus, but around the mouths of the Ganges, on the extreme east of India. This was the latest period that can possibly be assigned to the Rig-Veda, oldest of the four Hindoo sacred books. And yet these Aryan seers whc composed tiie Veda speak, in their sacred works, of " older hymns which the fathers sang," of "ancient sages and elder gods." " They were old," says Samuel Johnson, " at the earliest epoch to which we can trace them. Their religion, like their language, was already mature when the Rishis of the Veda were born." Marriages in this period were per- formed by the Mdharajas, or by the father of the bride ; while the Rishis — seers or wise teachers — instructed the children, offered sacrifices, and spoke comforting words over the dead. Sacrifices have in them an underlying truth. On the higher planes of thought, they imply the consecration of the dearest possessions to the liighest ideal. On the lower, superstitious stratum of life, the term " sacrifice " is made to mean the shedding of blood, and the remission of sins. The primitive Aryans offered three gifts as sacrifices, — fire, clarified butter, and the plant whose juices stimulate to a new life. The Jews offered goats and kids, heifers and rams. Certain superstitious Hindoos, in their degenerate present, engage in similar sacrifices. Enlightened men and women sacrifice strength, ease, comfort, to educate and bless humanity. Owing to wealth, luxury, and multiplying responsibilities of the earliest Maharajas, they employed the Rishis as sub- stitutes in religion, — employed them to attend to the sacri- ficial gifts, and serve as mediums of communication between them and their gods. How natural for Rishis, seers, proph- ets, to slide into the attitude of priests ! Thus emploj^ed, these seers, alias priests, soon assumed authority, and pro- fessed supernatural powers; and knowing something of 220 AEOUND THE WORLD. philosophy, magic, astrology, and seership, they perfected an organization which resulted in the priestly or Brahman caste, the features of which were defined in the laws of Manu. As the Brahman priests believed in Brahm, molded the rising thought, and officiated at religious ceremonies, the religion of Hindostan was naturally denominated Brah- manism. Aryanic in origin, 13.4 per cent of the world's religion- ists are Brahmans, and 31.2 per cent are Buddhists. These together make a decided majority over any religious sect on the globe. Buddhism bears something the same relation to Brahmanism that Christianity bears to Judaism. I class them together because Aryan in their origin and growth. BELIEF OF THE ANCIENT BEAHMANS. (( There is," says Max Miiller, " a remembrance of one God, breaking through the mists of idolatrous phraseology, — a monotheism which precedes the polytheism of the Veda." * Mr. Miiller, who as authority is unrivaled, further says, " A Hindoo of Benares, in a lecture delivered before an English and native audience, defends his faith, and the faith of his forefathers, against such sweeping accusations " as polytheism and .idolatry. "'If by idolatry,' says this Hindoo scholar, 'is meant a system of worship -which confines our ideas of the Deity to a mere image of clay or stone ; which prevents our hearts from being expanded and elevated with lofty notions of the attributes of God, — if this is what is meant by idolatry, we disclaim idolatry, we abhor idolatry, and deplore the ignor- ance or uncharitableness of those that charge us with this groveling system of worship. . . . We really lament the ignorance or uncharita- bleness of those who confound our representative worship with the Phoenician, Grecian, or Roman idolatry as represented by European writers, and then charge us with polytheism in the teeth of thousands of texts in the Puranas, declaring in clear and unmistakable terms that there is but on 3 God, who manifests himself as Brahma, Vislmu, and Rudra (Siva), in his functions of creation, preservation, and destruc* tion.' " t * Miiller' s Sanscrit Literature, p. 559. t Miiller' s G irman Workshop, p 17. India's religions and social characteristics. 221 It is the common reply of the modern Hindoo to the mis- sionary, when accused of worshiping many gods, " Oh ! these are various manifestations of the one God ; the same as, though the sun be one in the heavens, yet he appears in multiform reflections upon the lake." That there are ignorant Hindoos who worship images, is doubtless true ; and equally true that there are Roman-CathoHc Christians who worship pictures and the Virgin Mary, and Protestants who worship the Bible, instead of accepting its inspired truths. Defined in general terms, Brahmans believe in Brahm, the One self-existent, manifesting himself in the relation of creator, destroyer, preserver. Up to the present time, there have been, say these Hindoos, nine incarnations ; the ninth is that of Christna, son of the virgin Devanaguy. He was begotten by the thought of Vishnu ; and, at the moment of his birth, celestial music filled earth and heaven. Christna signifies, in Sanscrit, sacred. "The initiated Brahman," says Manu, "should take the vow of chastity, that he may present himself at the holy sacrifice with heart and body pure." The Catholic mission- ary Dubois says in his work entitled " Jloeurs des Indes,"" — " Justice, humanity, good faith, compassion, disinterested- ness, all the virtues, in fact, were familiar to them, and taught to others both by precept and example. Hence it comes that the Hindoos profess, at least speculatively, nearly the same moral principles as ourselves ; and, if they do not practice all the reciprocal duties of men towards each other in a civiHzed society, it is not because they do not know them." The sacred books of the Brahmans are rich in moral teachings ; to wit : — " Love of his fellow-creature should be the ruling princi- ple of the just man in all his works ; for such weigh most in the celestial balance." " As the body is strengthened by muscles, the soul is forti- fied by virtue." 222 AROUND THE WORLD. " As the earth supports those who trample it under foot, and rend its bosom with the plow, so should we return good for eviiy " The virtuous man is like the gigantic banyan-tree, whose beneficent shade affords freshness and life to the plants that surround it." Brahmans further believe the soul emanating from Brahm to be divine and immortal ; and, as it was given pure from all stain, it can not re-ascend to the celestial abode till it shall have been purified from all faults committed through its union with matter. They teach universal charity, — teach that self should be secondary, and that selfishness leads to hells and re-births ; while happiness and ultimate redemp- tion come through purity and entire self-renunciation. Benevolence and good deeds lead to homes among the gods. Some of the Vedic " hymns are addressed to deified men who had attained their divinity through beneficent work." Other of these ancient hymns treat of charity and good works as means of salvation. Listen : — " He who keeps his food to himself has his sin to himself also." " He who gives alms goes to the highest heavens, — goes to the gods." "To be kind to the poor is to be greater than the greatest there." " Mortal life ended, go thou home to the fathers, and, if thou hast deserved it, dwell in a shining body with the gods." The religious hymns of the Rig- Veda date back to 1500 B.C. — but were not put in writing until about 500 B.C. They were retained in memor}^ and transmitted to others before book-making. The Vedas abound in Spiritualism. The Devas Avere the " bright ones gone beyond." Departed ancestors were called Pitris. Converse with these Pitris led at a later period to ancestral worship. CHAPTER XVIIT. THE RISE OF BUDDHISM IN ESTDIA. Buddha, of the family of the Sakj-as and clan of the Guatamas, was not properly a Brahman by birth, but be- longed to the line of royalty. History pronounces him the son of a rajah of Kapilavastu, a kingdom probably in Nepal, near the foot of the Himalaya Mountains, north of Oudh. As a boy he was beautiful and brilhant, as a youth remarkable for his candor and contemplation. His wife was the accomplished Gopa. Riding as a prince in his father's city, in a chariot, observ- ing the poverty, misery, and death around him, and contem- plating upon the vanity of earthly things, he contrasted all this anxiety, this misery, with the calmness and true freedom of a religious devotee, a sort of an ascetic beggar, sitting at the city gate. The sight opened in his soul a new fountain ; and, though a proud prince, he threw aside his royal attire, crushed caste under his feet, and retired to a hermitage for six years. Brahmanical theology, with its sacrifices, ceremonial prac- tices, and Pharisaic conceits growing out of caste, early dis- gusted this rehgious enthusiast. The world was selfish and hollow. He renounced it, — renounced all pleasure^, and, through humiliation and meditation, sought to conquer .him- self. Subjecting the lower nature to the higher, engagmg in fasting, prayer, and penances, he was blessed with ecstatic visions which pointed to true knowledge — the way of sal- 224 AEOUND THE WORLD. vation. Scon he became divinely illumined, and claimed the title of Buddha. His first pubUc ministry, attended with spiritual marvels, was at Benares, where he made many converts. This accounts, in all probability, for the Buddhistic ruins at Sar- nath, near this sacred city of the Hindoos. Scholars generally agree in placing his death 543 B.C. BUDDHISTIC ETHICS. The gist of Buddha's teaching was this: all earthly objects, cognized by the senses, are unreal. All is change^ all is vanity. There's nothing but sorrow in life. This sor- row is caused by ignorance, and the flow of the passions. Accordingly, the passions must be subdued, the affections toned down, the mind enhghtened, and the life consecrated to good works : these moral and meritorious altitudes gained, and the soul is at the threshold of salvation, the gate of divine repose, conscious rest and peace in Nirvana. In addition to its j)rohibitory commandments, not to kill, nor steal, nor commit adultery, nor lie, nor be drunken ; it enjoined such positive virtues as purity, charity, integrity^ contemplation, forgiveness of injuries, equanimity of temper, and self-abnegation. In brief, holiness of life released from further transmigrations, and secured eternal salvation. Nirvana ! Buddhism was never nihilism or atheism. Nirvana — derived from the negative nir, and va, to blow as the wind — implies calm unruffled, the peace and rest of a spent breeze, perfect felicity. Until this high position is attained, transmigrations are moral necessities. " Buddhism," says Dr. Wuttke, " stands in history as a religion not of one people, but of humanity. It conceived in the commencement the grand idea of peacefully converting the world." While maintaining the right of religious free- dom, its rejection of war and bloodshed has been absolute. Priests and others, both men and women, ministering in spiritual things, must live celibate lives. Buddha's doctrines THE RISE OF BUDDHISM IN INDIA. 225 spread rapidly. After his death, some 543 B.C., occurring while sitting under a sal-tree, the first general council of his followers was held to settle theological dogmas. At a third council, held in the reign of King Asoka, commencing 263 B.C., when Buddhism had become the state religion of India, the canon, or holy Scriptures, — Trl-Pitaka, — of the Buddhists, were drawn up, and pronounced canonical. THE REV. Murray's " civilized heathen." This distinguished Congregational clergyman, in a lyceum lecture delivered through New England upon the " Civilized Heathen," said in substance : — " Christian civilization might profit from Buddhism, and New England and Boston might go to school to China and Canton. The underlying idea of Buddhism is a belief in the infinite capacity of the human intellect ; belief in the avail- ing of true merit, and in the development of all the human faculties. It is not a heavy, sensual religion, but one purely rational, appealing to consciousness and intellect for support. While Old England and New England have used the rack, the cell, the dungeon, the inquisition, and thousand implements of torture, there were twenty-three hundred years of Buddhism with not a drop of blood in its onward march, nor a groan along its pathway. It has never persecuted. It has never de- ceived the people, never practiced pious fraud, never discour- aged literature, never appealed to prejudice, never used the sword. If the Buddhists are heathen, are they not civilized heathen 9 . . . Their priests depend upon voluntary subscrip- tions. We have homes for the sick, the poor, and the aged. But the heathen Buddhists go one step farther, and provide hospitals for sick and worn-out animals. The}^ plant shade- trees along the way to shelter men and animals from the scorching sun. Grazing herds and all insect-life represent the divine thought. All life in their eyes is sacred. Chris- tians entertain travelers at hotels if they pay their bills. Ton are respectfully received by the wealthy if you bring 226 ABOUND THE WORLD. with you letters of introduction from aristocratic circles; but the door of the Buddhist is ever open to the stranger, with the mat and waiting pot of rice. The Burmese missionary Smith, said he ' could traverse the whole kingdom without money ; ' and during his missionary stay he saw no drunken- ness, not an indecent act, nor an immodest gesture. Com- pare this with the gross, filthy, night-walking prostitution of New York or London. Unselfishness, or forgetfulness of self, is a cardinal virtue. Struggles, sufferings, and sacrifices for others' good, purify and prepare the soul for heavenly rest." And these, these^ are the heathen Buddhists, whom Orthodox theologians have for centuries preached to perdi- tion for not believing in Christianity, — this American Chris- tianity that speculates, loans money, persecutes heretics, rents pews, cheats, fights, and gambles at fairs and festivals, for religion's sake. I am not writing of the Christianity of Jesus, but the civilized Christianity of America, that sendfi missionaries to Asia's coral strand " to convert the Budd- hists." BUDDHA AND JESUS. The Buddhists consider Sakya Muni Guatama Buddha a much greater Saviour than Jesus Christ ; because the latter, born in poverty, a carpenter's son, sought, upon Jewish authority, to enthrone himself as king ; while Guatama Buddha, a king's son, laying aside royalty and a prospective crown, humbled himself, walking the conjpanion of beggars, that he might the more effectually break down caste, reach- ing and enhghtening the lowest classes of humanity. In preaching, Buddha continually magnified the " wheel of the law," the four great principles : — I. There is sorrow, want, pain. II. Examining the source of pain, b'/illing enough to believe in Jesus as one of the Asiatic saviors and prophets, they can not believe ia the immaculate conception and vicarious atonement. Oh that there wee self-sacrifice, sufficient liberality, generous enthusiasm, ?-,nd missionary spirit, among Americans, to send Spiritualist papers, pamphlets, books, and lecturers even, to India, to 'iisseminate the beautiful principles of brotherhood, free thought, and a present spirit ministry ! The seed has alrear^y been sown by the angels ; there are many Spiritual- ist-* m different parts of this great country: can they, will ih(*y not perfect organizations, and thus come into working or-^er? 7qE ABORIGLN'ES OF INDIA. — A SAGE-LIKE SPIRIT's COM- MUNICATION. As the present is born of the ^as^, I am ever anxious, so ""ar as possible, to get at the foundations of the old civiliza- tions and religions ; and for the reason that many of them were so far in advance of ours in this boastful nineteenth century. Comparative philology, coins, and inscriptions upon monuments, with the testimony of ancient spirits, — these must decide upon the status of the pre-historic periods. Sitting one evening by the side of Dr. Dunn aboard the steamer " Aretusa " in the Arabian Sea, reflecting how the rude, stalwart Northmen descended upon cultured Rome in the long ago, and pondering upon the thought that physical ■'might makes right," the doctor all unexpectedly became entranced. The controlling spirit, bowing low after the Oriental manner, said, — " Grood evening, stranger. I see you are ■WTapped in meditation ; pel" haps my coming is an intrusion." Not in the least, sir ; am glad to welcome you. 236 AROUND THE WORLD. "The origin and destiny of races is a subject of vast import. I lived in Ilindusta, the land of plenty, — now called India, — about four thou- sand years ago. We spoke the Sansar, the language of the sun, — vul- garized into Sanscrit. It was the language of sounds, and compassed the uttered emotions of man, beast, insect. The most learned savants of my time professed to understand the out-breathed and meaning sounds — pleasure, pain, desires — of all animated life. Generally poets under- stood one part, Rishis anothei*, metaphysicians still another; but none knew it all, for it was the study of more than a single life. Our govern- ment, embracing a portion of Africa, Egypt, Assyi'ia, Persia, and India, was patriarchal ; the emperor being considered a father, under whom were kings over smaller divisions, lords of cities, and head men of villages. This extensive government, having no coin currency, and transacting business, even of a commercial character, upon the pi-inciple of equiv- alents, was largely sustained by voluntary contributions. A moderate competency was regarded a sufficiency with my countrymen. "Indeed, it was a maxim among us that man wants only what he lives upon ; and accordingly at the end of the year each city, village, and family paid over to the government all its surplus produce and treasures of every kind. And then, in times of scarcity or famine, the government, upon the principle of compensation, supported the people from its public granaries and accumulated stores. Disputes were settled by arbitration. Capital punishment was unknown among us. " The Aryans, or rather the .4/-^rt.^i ;*((>**•' Mahommedan Hermit. STUDY OF THE PYRAIMIDS. 279 THE INTERIOR STRUCTURE. Though the climate of Egypt is tropical, and generally dry, time with its disintegrating forces has rapidly changed the pyramidal monument of Gheezeh since the outside casings of polished lunestone and marble were torn off by the Arab sul- tans of Cairo. Entering the pyramid at a descending angle of twenty-seven degrees, and wending our way downward at first half-bent, led by Arab guides, and then up the ascend- ing passage for a long distance, we entered the King's Chamber, the floor of which rests upon the fiftieth course of stone forming the whole pyramidal mass. This chamber is a magnificent oblong apartment thirty-four feet in length, seventeen feet broad, and nineteen feet high, formed of mon- strous yet elegantly polished blocks of granite, but utterly destitute of ornament, painting, or every thing save that plain, puzzling, yet time-defying coffer. The glaring lights gave the room a dismal appearance ; and our voices sounded fearfully strange and sepulclu-al. The granite walls of the chamber surrounding the coffer are divided into five horizon- tally equal courses ; and there is also_^ sign of the " division into five " over the doorway outside. Five, it is well known, is the ruling and most important number in mathematics. THE PORPHYEITIC COFFER. But this hollow, lidless, rectangular box, chest, or coffer of imperishable stone in the center of the King's Chamber, — what of this 9 Why so very plain ? Why lidless, and minus any inscriptions? And, further, why much of the pyramid made as though in subservience to it ? When this pyramid was first broken into, remember, by Caliph Al 3Iamoon, more than a thousand years since, he expected to find immense treasures, with the key to all the sciences. Tradition has it that this pyramid had been pre- viously discovered, explored, and robbed by the ancient Romans. Be this as it may, the Moslem caliph, to his great 280 AROUND THE WORLD. disappointment, found nothing but the empty porphyry coffer, — the riddle of riddles ! CONTINUED INVESTIGATIONS. Dropping all preconceived theories, this Edinburgh pro- fessor, after noting the sloping key-line stones in the passage, the mystic number five, and the seven overlappings of the grim walls, began his series of measurements by measuring the size, shape, and position of every stone in the passages ; also the walls, the floor, the roof, and the ceiling of the King's Chamber ; and, to guard against any possible error, he repeated these measurements at three different times. " It was not until after two months of apprenticeship at pyramid mensuration," says this savant^ " that I undertook that most importa,nt question of the precise angle of the grand gallery." The mathematical mensuration finished, he ordered his assistants to carry the boxes containing the instruments — the large altitude azimuth circle and telescope — to the top of the structure, that, in connection with his geometrical calculations, he might make the necessary astronomical observations. This must have been a sublime spectacle ! — a profound scholar studying the rising and cul- minating positions of different stars, those stellar mile- stones along the ethereal spaces, in the silent night-time, under those clear and cloudless skies of Egypt. RESULTS OF RESEARCH. Besides solving puzzling problems, these investigations of John Taylor, Profs. Greaves, Smythe, and others, with the mathematical calculations of A. Beverly, Esq., Dunedin, N. Z., demonstrate, clearly demonstrate, the marvelous fore- sight and wisdom of the most ancient Egyptians, especially in the application of symbolism, by a speaking arrangement of parts to science, and to pictorial expressions of the recondite principles of nature. T. — The heaviest winds of the Orient, especially in 1 he STUDY OF THE PYRAMIDS. 281 monsoon seasons, are from the south-west and north-east. These strike the corner angles, rather than the facial fronts of the pyramids, thus tempering the storms to the preserva- tion of the structures. And then they are located in that latitude best designed to prevent the African sands from swooping down upon certain fertile localities of the Nile. Further, the form of their structures is founded upon the extreme and mean ratio, so well known to geometricians. II. — The size of the Great Pyramid, Cheops, is so nicely proportioned upon mathematical and architectural principles, as to indicate the number of revolutions made by the earth on its yearly axis in terms of a certain unit of linear measure ; while other numbers measure the length of the semi-axis of the earth's rotation. III. — The angle of inclination towards its central axis is such that its vertical hight is to the continued length of the four sides of its base as the radius to the circumference of a circle ; and this is a fractional quantity lying at the very base of mathematics. IV. — This unit of linear measure, alias unit of length, was the same as the cubit of the Hebrews, and identical with the inches of our ancestral Anglo-Saxons, and the present British inch, into less than a thousandth part. Practically, then, the unit of linear measure in the pyramid is the same in length as the American inch. Thus may our mensuration be traced through Britain, Rome, Greece, to Egypt of the pyramidal era. V. — The geometrical knowledge of the pyramid-builders began where Euclid's ended ; for Euclid's forty-seventh problem, said to have been discovered by Pythagoras, and to have caused the sacrifice of a whole hecatomb of oxen, is sommon all through the pyramids. " When the gi*eat Samian sage his noble problem found, A hundred oxen dyed with their life-blood the ground." 282 AROUND THE WORLD. VI. — The subterranean chamber shows the extraordinary way in which it points out the pyramid's axis, thus indicating a solution of the problem which has occupied the attention of geometers in all ages, viz., the trisection of angles ; while the metrical square shows how the unit measures of the pyramid are related to one another, to the earth's radius of curvature in lat. 30°, and the pyramid as a unitary structure. VII. — The polished coffer in the heart of the pyramid, representing the cube of a marked linear standard, is based upon principles referring to the specific gravity of all the earth's interior substance ; and, to use the language of the celebrated John Taylor, " It precisely measures the four cheoners of the Hebrews, and also the one chalder, or four quarters, of the Anglo-Saxon system, to such a nicety, that the present quarters " in which British and American farmers measure their wheat are the veritable quarters of the stone coffer in the King's Chamber. In brief, while the Great Pyramid indicates astronomically that the "North Pole is moving toward Eastern Asia," the coffer not only shows the method of dividing the circle into degrees, and bisecting angles generally, Imt this porphyry coffer is the standard measure to-day of capacity and weight with the two most enlightened nations of earth, — England and America, — " ruling," as Prof. Smythe says, " the approxi- mate size of our British quarters, tons, and pounds. These admissions furnish the key-proofs, that, while the coffer was designed by the king for a standard measure, the hollow chambers were built for granaries, and the receptacle of treasures and records during wars and floods. Further explorations will discover other chambers, making seven, and all ingeniously connected with the King's Chamber." This Edinburgh professor, treating of his astronomical observations, says, " I have ascertained by recent measures, much more actually than was known before, that the Great Pyramid had been erected under the guidance of astronom- STUDY OP THE PYEAMEDS. 28-- ical science^ . . . and that the entrance-passage had been pointed at the star d Draeonis when crossing the meridian below the pole, at a distance of 3° 42' ; . . . accordingly this star's closest approach to the pole, and within only ten minutes thereof, occurred about the year 2800 B.C." Upon the hypothesis of the a Draeonis observation and epoch, taken in connection with the precessional displacement, the Great Pyramid was built 3400 B.C. ; but Lepsius puts it 3500 B.C.; the French Renan 4500 B.C. That learned man. Baron Bunsen, in his world-famous volumes of " Egypt's Place in Universal History," claims a duration of six thousand seven hundred years of a civilized, well-gov- erned, and prosperous Egypt, previous to their kings of the so-called Manetho's fourth dynasty. Dr. Rebold, a French archaeologist, treating of the Greek historians visiting Egypt in the fifth century B.C., makes the following observation : — "From the date 13300 B.C. until the year 4600 B.C., when the zodiac was constructed and set up in the temple of Esneh, there occurred four periods ; to the first is ascribed the reign of the gods, and to the last the consolidation of the lesser kingdoms into three large kingdoms, acting in concord with some thirty or forty colleges of the priests. . . . Hermes observing the star Aldebaran 3360 B.C., and waiting upon astrology, and the certainty of immortality, said in dying, ' Until now I have been exiled from my true country, to which I am about to return. Shed no tears for me. I return to that celestial country whither all must repair in their turn. Thei-e is God. This life is but the death." It can not be supposed that the Egyptians suddenly built their walled cities, carved and ornamented their monuments, established picture-writing, — the language of the stars, — and constructed their pyramids upon the principles of science, with a standard measure for their cities and all the adjoining countries. Did it not take a long period to invent those tools, to construct machinery for raising such im- mense weights, to establish laws to govern workmen for general concert of action ? — and profound learning too. to 284 AROUND THE WORLD. build with such exactness upon principles geometrical and astronomical ? And yet what grand results ! Those pyra- mids are perpetual light-houses in the desert, speaking histories of once marvelous civilizations ; mighty monuments, serenely, proudly overlooking the fading ruins of nearly- forgotten ages. The learned Gliddon in his " Ancient Egypt " sensibly asks, — " Can the theologian derive no light from the pure primeval faith that glimmers from Egyptian heroglyphics, to illustrate the immortality of the soul ? Will not the historian deign to notice the prior origin of every art and science in Egypt, a thousand years before the Pelasgians studded the isles and capes of the Archipelago with their forts and temples ? — long before Etruscan civilization had smiled under Italian skies? And shall not the ethnographer, versed in Egyptian lore, proclaim the fact that the physiological, craniological, capillary, and cuticular dis- tinctions of the human race existed on the first distribution of mankind throughout the earth ? " Philologists, astronomers, chemists, painters, architects, physicians, must return to Egypt to learn the origin of language and writing ; of the calendar, and solar motion ; of the art of cutting granite with a cop- per chisel, and of giving elasticity to a copper sword ; of making glass with the variegated hues of the rainbow ; of moving single blocks of pol- ished syenite, nine hundred tons in weight, for any distance, by land and water; of building arches, round and pointed, with masonic precision unsurpassed at the present day, and antecedent by two thousand years to the ' Cloaca INIagna ' of Rome ; of sculpturing a Doric column one thousand years before the Dorians are known in history ; of fresco paint- ing in imperishable colors ; of practical knowledge in anatomy ; and of time-defying pyramid building. " Every craftsman can behold, in Egyptian monuments, the progress ot his art four thousand years ago ; and whether it be a wheelwright build- ing a chariot, a shoemaker drawing his twine, a leather-cutter using the selfsame form of knife of old as is considered the best form now, a weaver throwing the same hand-shuttle, a whitesmith using that identical form of blowpipe but lately recognized to be the most effi- cient, the seal-engraver cutting, in hieroglyphics, such names as Shoop- HO's, above four thousand three hundred years ago, — all these, and many more astounding evidences of Egyptian priority, now require but a glance at the plates of Rosellini." STUDY OF THE PYEAMEDS. 285 When newsjaper scribblers, when blatant talkers, pro- noiince Egypt of "little account," pronounce the pyramids "useless piles of stones, the largest covering four or five acres of sand," they will permit me to pleasantly express a pity for their egotism, and a scathing contempt for their iffuorance. Evidences difficult to gainsay incline many to the belief that the oldest pyramids are nearer twenty than five thou- aand years old. That eminent Egyptologist, Bunsen, con- cedes to Egypt an antiquity of twenty thousand, and to China a larger period. HOW DID THE OLD EGYPTIANS MOVE SUCH MOUNTAIKOUS JIASSES OF STONE? In Sakkarah Catacombs, near the site of the present Mem- phian ruins, are beautifully polished granite slabs, consti- tuting the tombs of the kings, twelve feet in length, eight feet wide, and six feet high. Such sarcophagi are actually mam- moths. In them I could and did stand erect. And yet these are but playthings compared to some of the obehsks, granite needles, and pyramidal stones, characterizing the Egypt of remotest antiquity. This one thing is certain: either the mechanism of ancient Egypt was vastly superior to burs, or these huge stones and piUars were manufactured where they now stand. " Pliny describes some of the arrangements connected with an obelisk a hundred and twenty feet high, erected at Alex- andria by Ptolemaeus Philadelphus. A canal was dug from the Nile to the place where the obelisk lay. Two boats were placed side by side, fiUed with pieces of stone having the aggregate weight of the obeHsk. These pieces were in masses of one cubic foot each, so that the ratio between the quantity of matter in the obelisk, and that held by the boats, could be determined by a Uttle calculation. The boats were laden to t^^dce the weight of the obelisk, in order that they might pass under it, the two ends of the mighty monolith resting 286 AROUND THE WORLD. on the two banks of the canal. Then, as the pieces of stone were taken out one by one, the boats rose, until at last they supported the obelisk. They were finally towed down the canal, bearing their burden with them. So far, Pliny's account is clear ; but he tells us little or nothing of the tremendous task, performed ages before, of originally trans- porting such masses from the Syene quarries to Thebes and Heliopolis. " An account is given by Herodotus of the transport of a large block of granite to form a monolith temple. The block measured thirty-two feet long, twenty-one feet wide, and twelve feet high ; its weight is estimated to have been not less than three hundred tons. The transport of this huge mass down the Nile, from Syene to the Delta, occupied two thousand men for three years." Several comparatively inferior Egyptian obelisks have been brought and reconstructed in Rome. The Luxor obelisk, borne from Egypt by the skillful M. Lebas, at an im- mense outlay of money and men, and put up in the Place de la Concorde, Paris, 1833, weighed less than two hundred and fifty tons. This is but a babe, compared to those remaining. There are single blocks, in that land of marvels, estimated by Glidden and others to weigh nine, and even twelve hundred tons. Tell us, engineers, tell us, O moderns. How they were removed, and placed in their present positions ! CHAPTER XXIV. A2fCIENT SCIENCE Of EGYPT. — ASTRONOMY OF THE EGYPTIANS. The ancients swarming the Nile Valley seem to have excelled in astronomy, as well as in mechanics. Smythe, the astronomer royal of Scotland, sustains this position. And in a lecture delivered in Philadelphia by Prof. O. M. Mitchell, and reported for the press, he said, — " Not long since I met, in St. Louis, a man of great scientific attain- ments, who for forty years had been engaged in Egypt in deciphering the hieroglyphics of the ancients. This gentleman had stated to me that he had lately unraveled the inscriptions upon the coffin of a mummy now in the London Museum, and in which, by the aid of previous observations, he had discovered the key to all the astronomical knowl- edge of the Egyptians. The zodiac, with the exact positions of the planets, was delineated on this coffin ; and the date to which they pointed was the autumnal equinox in the year 1722 B.C., or nearly 3600 years ago. Accordingly I employed his assistants to ascertain the exact positions of the heavenly bodies belonging to our solar system on the equinox of that year (1722 B.C.), and sent him a correct diagram of them, without having communicated his object in so doing. In com- pliance with this, the calculations were made ; and to my astonishment, on comparing the result with the statements of his scientific friend already referred to, it was found that on the 7th of October, 1722 B.C., the moon and planets had occupied the exact points in the heavens marked upon the coffin in the London Museum." HELIOPOLIS. What Oxford is to England, and Yale to New England, Heliopolis was to Egypt in the fifth century B.C. It is 288 AROUND THE WOULD. only two liours and a half from Cairo by carriage. They tell me that in winter-time it is a very pleasant drive, over a splendid road bordered with orange, lemon, acacia, and olive trees. The gardens of ancient Heliopohs were famous, as the historian knows, for their balm-of-Gilead bal- sams. What think you, my countrymen, remains of this sacerdotal, this university city of antiquity, where Moses studied the "wisdom of the Egyptians," where Joseph's father-in-law officiated as a priest in the temple, where Plato the Grecian graduated, and where Herodotus, in his travels, sought counsel from the " wise men of Egypt " ? Its colleges, its magnificent temples, are but isolated mounds now ; and all that remains to determine the locality is a beautiful granite obelisk. This, fixing the site of the Tem- ple of the Sun, is thought by some Egyptologists to have been erected by the Pharaoh of Joseph's time, bearing the name of Osirtasen I., founder of the twelfth dynasty. When the geographer Strabo visited this grand old country, Egyptian scholars pointed out the residences of Eudoxus and Plato during the thirteen years they remained in Egypt under the searching tuition of the priests of Heliopohs. Though relentless time long since transformed Plato's Egyp- tian palace to dust, it has not effaced the hieroglyphics from Heliopolis's stately obelisk. The obeHsk in the Hippodrome at Constantinople, which I visited several times while in Asiatic Tui-key, is supposed to be the work of the fourth Thotmes. Those in Rome, brought from Egypt, bear inscriptions of various Pharaohs. But, of all the obelisks, the largest and most beautiful is that of Karnak, at Thebes, cut by Queen A-men-see, about 1760 B.C. It is a single towering shaft of the purest and most exquisitely polished syenite, in height about ninety feet, and in weigfht over four hundred tons. In hieroglyphical symbol- writing, Heliopolis means " tho abode of the sun ; " and, as a celebrated seat of philosophy, its hierophants and seers professed to enlighten the world ANCIENT SCIENCE IN" EGYPT. 289 After mentally and architecturally enriching other cities, the reputation of Heliopolis began to fade soon after the conquest of Egypt by Greece ; the Grecianized city of Alexandria taking its place. THE ROSETTA STONE, AND COPTS. When visiting London the first time, nothing interested me more than the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum. Rosetta, in Arabic, Rasheed, is handsomely located on the west bank of the Nile, near its mouth. This modern town, founded by a caliph, 870 A.D., is built upon the site of some ancient city. Its present archaeological celebrity was acquired by the finding of the trilingual stone, known as the " Rosetta Stone," discovered by the French in 1799, while digging foundations for a fort. This invaluable tablet contained a decree made by the priests of Egypt in honor of Ptolemy Epiphanes, 196 B.C. It was written in hiero- glyphic, enchorial, and Greek. This gave the key to the Egyptian alphabet, the old Coptic, and to the reading of the hierogiyphical inscriptions. Copt is the language written on most of the monumental walls in Egypt. The Arabic is the vernacular of the country to-day, though there are many dialects spoken in the various parts of Egypt. The Coptic Church is the national church. Its arch- bishop of Alexandria, though residing in Cairo, is said to be the direct successor of Mark the Evangelist. So run these theological threads ; the Catholics looking to Peter, the English Church to Paul, the Coptic Church to Mark, and the Greek Church to the embodied wisdom of the apostohc fathers. The liturgy of the Copts is in the ancient Coptic. Their forms of worship resemble the Catholic ; but they utterly deny the authority of the Pope. None doubt the Copts, so numerous in Middle and Upper Egypt, being the direct descendants of the ancient Egyptians. Their brown complexions, almond-shaped eyes, and heavy lips, resemble the face of the Sphinx, the ancient paintings. 290 AROUND THE WORLD. and sculptured portraits ; and, further, they are slightly under the medium size, as are the exhumed mummies. ALEXANDRIA. In the palmy days of the Ptolemies this city numbered full half a million : it has to-day about one hundred and fifty thousand. Bating Pompey's Pillar and Cleopatra's Needle ; broken columns, cisterns, aqueducts, traces of walls, unexplored catacombs, porphyry, portions of Caesar's palace, fragments of statues, and library ashes, are all that remain of this ancient magnificent city, founded by Alexander the Great soon after the fall of Tyre, 333 B.C. Strabo gives a brilliant description of the streets, avenues, libraries, museums, obelisks, groves inclosing retreats for learned men, and temples of marble and porphyry that ultimately enriched Rome and Constantinople. The same architect, Dinocratus, who acquired such fame from planning the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, was employed by Alexander in the construction of Alexandria. Upon the death of this Macedonian monarch, he became governor of Egypt, and finally assumed the title of king 304 B.C. Ptolemy Philadelphus, while adding much to the grandeur of the city, and increasing its libraries, built a marble tower, upon the summit of which a fire was kept continually burning as a direction to sailors. At this period, and long after, it was the great cosmopolitan seat of theo- logical controversy and moral philosophy. One links with it precious memories of Proclus, Plotinus, Ammonius, Saccas, the Alexandrian school, and its modifying influences upon Christianit3^ THE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY, DESTROYED BY WHOM? This massive collection of literature was shelved in the Temple of Serajeion. Most of its rolls and scrolls were originally brought from India. Ptolemy Sotor has the honor of being its founder. Ptolemy Philadelphus enlarged ANCIENT SCIENCE IN EGYPT. 291 it. Others increased it to over seven hundred thousand volumes. To further add thereto, the following unique plan was devised : " Seize all books brought into Egypt by Assyrians, Greeks, and foreigners, and transcribe them, hrtuding the transcriptions to the owners, and putting the originals into the library." Book-burning is a business common to both ancients and moderns, Christians and Mohammedans. In an article on Alexandria, " The Encyclopsedia Britannica " says, — " This structure [alluding to the Serapeion] surpassed in beauty and magnificence all others in the world, except the Capitol at Rome. Within the verge of this temple was the famous Alexandrian library, . . . containinsr no fewer than seven hundred thousand volumes. " In the war carried on by Julius Csesar against the inhabitants of the city, the library in the Brucheion, with all its contents, was reduced to ashes. The library in the Serapeion, however, still remained, and here Cleopatra deposited two himdred thousand volumes of the Pergamenean library. These, and others added from time to time, rendered the new library of Alexandria m.ore numerous and considerable than the former; but, when the Temple of Serapis was demolished under the archiepiscopate of TTieophilus, A. D. 389, the valuable library was pillaged or destroyed; and twenty years afterwards the empty shelves excited the regret and indignation of every intelligent spectator y The blinded zealots of the agone ages strove to obliterate every vestige of that historic knowledge which distinguished the nations of antiquity. John Philaponus, a noted Peripa- tetic pnilosopher, being in Alexandria when the city was taken, and being permitted to converse with Amrou the Arabian general, solicited an inestimable gift at his hands, — the royal library. At first Amrou was inclined to grant the favor ; but upon writing the caliph, he received, it is said, the following answer, dictated by a spirit of unpardon- able fanaticism : '•'' If those ancient manuscripts and writings of the Eastern nations and the Greeks agree ivith the Koran^ or Book of G-od., they are useless^ and need not be preserved , hut, if they disagree, they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed.'' The torch was applied, and a wretched barbar- 292 AROu^^> the world. ism was for the time triumphant. Sensations of sadness thrilled my being's core, while walking over ashes and ruins that were once ablaze with the literature of the East Never for a moment have I felt that " it was all for the best," the burning of the Alexandrian Library. Travelers visiting the present Alexandria naturally rush to see Cleopatra's Needle, a solid block of reddish granite, said to have been originallv brought from Svene. This granite needle is sixty feet high, having to the top three columns of hieroglyphical inscriptions. Its twin column is buried in the sand near by. Not far distant is Pompey's Pillar, a single graceful column of pink granite, one hundred and fourteen feet high, and twentj^-seven feet in circum- ference. During the reign of Tiberius, A. D. 14 to 37, these " obelisks were brought from Heliopolis to Alexandria." But how were they brought ? Ay, that's the question. It would be absolutely impossible for moderns to do it. The method is among the " lost arts." Was not this pyramidal stone estimated to weigh nine hundred tons ? were not these obelisks manufactured where they stand, historic opinion to the contrary ? Just at the dawn of, and after the initiation of the Chris- tian era, the history of Alexandria became singularly inter- mingled with that of Jerusalem, Greece, and Rome, in which the Ptolemies and Caesars, Philo Judseus, Pompey, Cleopatra, and St. Anthanasius, all play conspicuous parts. Here I am reminded of Gen. Ly tie's lines referring to Ca^.sar, Pompey, Antony, and Cleopatra : — " I am dying, Egypt, dying ! Ebbs the crimson life-tide fast, And the dark Plutonian shadows Gather on the evening blast. Let thy arm, O queen ! support me, Hush thy sobs, and bow thine ear, Hearken to the great heart secrets. Thou, and thou alone, must hear. ANCIENT SCIENCE IN EGYPT. 293 Though my scarred and veteran legions Bear their eagles high no more, And my ^^Tecked and scattered galleys Strew dark Actium's fatal shore, Though no shining guards surroxmd me, Prompt to do their master's will, I must perish like a Roman, Die the great triumvir still. Let not Caesar's servile minions Mock the lion thus laid low. 'T was no foeman's hand that slew him : 'T was his own that struck the blow. Here, then, pillowed on thy bosom. Ere his star fades quite away. He who, drunk with thy cai'esses, Madly flung a world away. Should the base plebeian rabble Dare assail my fame at Rome, Where the noble spouse, Octavia, Weeps within her widowed home, Seek her : say the gods have told me, — Altars, augurs, circling wings, — That her blood with mine commingled Yet shall mount the throne of kings. And for thee, star-eyed Egyptian, Glorious sorceress of the Nile, Light the path to Stygian horrors With the splendors of thy smile ; Give the Caesar crowns and arches ; Let his brow the laurel twine ; I can scorn the Senate's triumphs. Triumphing in love like thine. I am dying, Egypt, dying ! Hark ! the insulting foeman's cry : They are coming : quick, my falchion I Let me front them ere I die 1 Ah I no more amid the battle Shall my heart exulting swell. Isis and Osiris guard thee ! Cleopatra — Rome — farewell 1 " 294 AEOUND THE WOBLD. It is supposed that tlie two obelisks called Cleopatra's Needles once decorated the palaces of the Ptolemies. One of these has been presented to England by the Egyptian Government. It is questionable if decaying Britain has suf- ficient energy to transplant it upon her shores. When Amrou conquered Alexandria, he was so astonished at the magnificence of the city, that he wrote to the caliph, " I have taken the City of the West. It is of immense ex- tent : I can not describe to you how many houses it contains. There are four thousand palaces, four thousand baths, twelve thousand dealers in fresh oil, forty thousand Jews who pay tribute, and four hundred theaters, or places of amusement." Bidding Egypt, the Mizraim of the Hebrews, farewell, I have to say, O Egypt ! your reigning viceroy is an ambitious Mohammedan polygamist ; your government in its taxation is oppressive ; your slavery is a blotch upon the face of the nineteenth century ; your religion is a gaudy show ; your people are terribly ignorant ; your guides are shameless liars ; your donkeys are hopelessly impenitent ; your " backsheesh " crying beggars are a disgrace to any country ; and your hun« gry fleas and flies more numerous, if possible, than they were in the times of the biblical patriarchs. On the other hand, those pyramidal Titans standing in somber majesty; those hieroglyphical records, defying the wear and waste of time ; that magnificent museum of antiquities upon the bank of the Nile ; those far-stretching groves of palm ; those broad fields of cotton, coffee, and rice, dotting the Nilotic valley ; those gardens of fruits and flowers ; those gorgeous sunsets of crimson and gold, translated into myriads of flash- ing jewels, to gradually melt away like Cleopatra's pearl into a sea of purple ; and those skies so clear and golden by day, so blue and dehcately studded with constellations by night, reminding one of that city immortal with the twelve gates of pearl, as seen by John in vision, — these, all these, are to be set down to the sunny side of the Egypt of to-day. r- Mummy, Rameses II. ANCIENT SCIENCE IN EGYPT. 295 TALKERS. — EASTERN LIARS. — IVIARK TWAIN. These everlasting talkers, who run all to tongue, continu- ally put one in mind of a s"^inging sign on the hotel aban- doned. They are the Cheap-Johns of civic life. Sap drizzles and drops. Limber-lipped talkers talk what they know, and what they do not know ; talk what they imagine, what they suspect, what they infer, what they dream, what they have done, and what they intend to do, making them- selves the heroes of all tales told. Men like Alcott and Emerson, substantially great, are retiring and modest. Deep rivers roll silently. The lightnings are voiceless. God never speaks. Anything, then, but a talkative, self-conceited egotist, who, to put it alphabetically, shows off at A, spills out at B, slops over at C, runs sediments at D, and then repeats and re-repeats, commencing with the ego^ and all — all this — to seem " smart ! " If David in his " haste " said, " All men are liars," I say it deliberately of all the " dragomen " and guides employed by us in the East. Many would both falsify and steal. Charity compels the opinion, however, that some of their misstatements were grounded in ignorance, rather than willfulness. Take this sample : Standing near the dome of the Grand Mosque in Benares, and surveying the city cir- cling the bend of the Ganges, we inquired of our guide the number of the population. " Six millions I " was the prompt reply. " What ? " we doubtingly inquired. " Six — six mil- lions, sir ! " was the emphatic response. It was provokingly annoying. London, the largest city in the world, has less than three millions and a half. When looking up to the summit of Pompey's Pillar in Alexandria, Dr. Dunn inquired the hight. "Ten miles: he be ten miles high," was the ready answer. This Arab guide neither knew the real hight, nor the use of the English language. His professed guidance, therefore, was an imposition. Mark Twain does full justice to the " sheiks," to the 296 AROUND THE WORLD. " dragomen," and to the beggars generally, of the Levant and the East. Generously admitting the genius of Twain in some directions, I nevertheless feel to say that, while wit^ if original, is well ; while fiction has its place, and romance its legitimate use, — still truth and falsehood, sacredness and sacrilege, history and tradition, indiscriminately mixed, and bound between two covers with no lines of demarcation, reveal not only a silly conceit, but show a lack of solid lit- erary culture. Such " Innocents-Abroad " books of travel, read trustingly and believingly, lead the unwary strangely astray. True, their pages may excite interest : so do Gulli- ver's. They may produce laughter : so do clowns. And such volumes, too, may sell : so also does the Jack Sheppard style of novels. But is this the only object of book- making ? SPIRITUALISM IN THE EGYPT OF ANTIQUITY. The gods, the guardian angels of the ancient Egyptians, were once mortal men. Sanchonianthon, whom accredited historians place before the time of Moses, wrote in the Phoenician. Philo of Byblus translated a portion of his works into Greek. Here follow a few lines : — ' ' Egyptians and Phoenicians accounted those the greatest gods who had found out things most necessary and useful in life, and who had been benefactors when among mankind." Hermes Trismegistus acknowledged that the "gods of Egypt were the souls of dead men." And Plutarch informs us that the " Egyptian priests pointed out where the bodies of their gods lay buried." The eloquent Cicero wrote, — " The whole heaven is almost entirely filled with the human race : even the superior order of gods were originally natives of this lower world." And with these gods, angels, spirits, the Egyptians of remotest antiquity held constant converse. They also thoroughly understood psychological ANCIENT SCIENCE EST EGYPT. 297 scieuce. On their tombs, towers, and obelisks, are pictured mesmerists, in the act of pathetizing subjects. The papyrus of Sne-fiau, predecessor of Cheops, abounds in the marvels of a gifted priestess. On a papyrus^ scroll from Thebes is a symbol of death ; and just over the mummied form is hovering the resurrected spirit, with eyes turned towards the scales of justice and truth. In the dis- tance are the expected mansions of rest. Several chapters in the ritual of the " Book of the Dead " treat of magic, trance, and magnetic healing. There are also pictorial illus- trations of the different magnetic states, and operators with upraised hands mesmerizing their subjects. Aural rays are seen streaming u]3on the patient's brain ; and consecrated priests stand by, holding in their right hands croziers, warding off the psychological influences of dark-hued, undeveloped spirits. The study and practice of Spiritism must have been common in the period of the pyramid-builders. The Hebrews obtained their knowledge of psychological science in Egypt. SPIRITUALISTS IN CAIRO. The Angel of Spiritualism has sounded the resurrection trumpet of a future existence in every land under heaven. Madame Blavatsky, assisted by other brave souls, formed a society of Spiritualists in Cairo about three years since. They have fine writing-mediums, and other forms of th€ manifestations. They hold weekly seances during the win- ter months. Madame Blavatsky went on later to Odessa, Russia. The lady whose husband keeps the Oriental Hotel is a firm Spiritualist. Fired with the missionary spirit, I left a package of pamj^hlets and tracts in her possession, for gratui- tous distribution. " And, as ye go, teach,'''' was the ancient command. Madame Blavatsky, the irrepressible, several years subsequent became a Theosophist, writing huge volumes of wisdom, of sense, nonsense and undemonstrated theories heavily seasoned and spiced with ancient Hindoo mythology. CHAPTER XXV. FROM ALEXANDRIA TO JOPPA AND JERUSALEM. — THE CITY OF JOPPA. Excellent steamers leave Alexandria three times a week for Jaffa, alias the Joppa of the New Testament. The pas- sage requires two or three days, stopping only at Port Said, the northern terminus of the Suez Canal. This city con- tains hardly seven thousand, — a motley gathering of all nations, the Arab element largely predominating. It has an artificial harbor, the huge blocks of which are manufactured of limestone, sand, and cement, and then transported to their position, forming a breakwater sufficiently substantial to insure the safety of ships. Unless money were the object, few would fix a residence in this sandy city. This is Sunday morning, six o'clock, Joppa — the Joppa of my Sunday-school dreams, with its domes, min- arets, palms, and suburban orange-gardens — loomed up in the distance like an amphitheatre from the ocean. To the right and left of the city only a sandy beach was visible. Joppa — a city of fifteen thousand, literally a " city set upon a. hill," and the natural landing-place of Jews, Christian and Mohammedan pilgrims to Jerusalem — has a very insecure harbor. Remnants of an old Phoenician harbor are yet traceable ; but the precise spot where Jonah shipped for Tarshish, — probably Tarsus, — to " flee from the presence of the Lord," is not pointed out even by credulous monks. The clergy of the East, knowing the nature of the finny FROM ALEXANDRIA TO JOPPA AND JERUSALEM. 290 tribes that sport in the Mediterranean waters, consider it no heresy to doubt the whale-story of the Old Testament. It was at Joppa that the Lebanon timber from Hiram, king of Tyre, was landed for the building of both the temples at Jerusalem. It was here that the Tabitha whose name " by interpretation was Dorcas " lived, whom Peter, by his mediumistic powers, " raised to life," and where this apostle also had the remarkable vision recorded in the tenth chapter of Acts. The '''■Acts of the Apostles" should have been denominated the practices and spiritual experier^fts of the apostles. Tradition points to the very house where lived " Simon the tanner, by the seaside." Certainly we visited this spot, as do all pilgrims. The " seaside " is still there : further, " deponent saith not." Houses perish, but the good, never. Peter still remembers his vision. NEW-ENGLANDERS IN JOPPA. Considerable interest attached to Joppa, a few years since, from the attempted settlement there of some Maine and New-Hampshire " Church of Messiah " religionists, under the leadership of the Rev. G. H. Adams, well known in some of the New-England States. This colonizing movement proved, however, a complete failure. Adams — originally an actor, a Mormon, a pretender — became dissipated ; the col- onists lost their property; an officious consul (since dis- missed) took the fleece ; and the flock became scattered, only a few of the original settlers remaining in the country. The tract of land secured and taken up by these New-England enthusiasts is now owned principally by Germans. Some of these American settlers became so .poor that they actually begged bread of the Arabs. Contributions sent to them were appropriated by Adams and his wife. Only twelve of the original one hundred and fifty-six that went to Joppa remain. Adams is in England ; and Mrs. Adams, the least respected of the two, is in California. The whole story is a sad one, the details of which will hereafter be given in full. 300 AROUND THE WORLD. But how can we longer tarry in Joppa, when Jerusalem, once the " city of the great king," is only thirty-five miles distant, and that over an excellent road, considering the mountainous nature of these Syrian lands ? IN JOPPA, BOUND FOR JERUSALEM. While yet in Cairo, Egypt, we unwisely engaged an Arab dragoman, at so much per day, to conduct us through Pales- tine ; unwisely^ because better guides can be employed in Jaffa at the same price. Mr. RoUa Floyd, a very candid, competent American gentleman, and an energetic young man named Clark, both thoroughly acquainted with the whole country, will prove excellent guides. They are rem- nants of the Jaffa colony, and quite conversant with the Arabic and the Palestinian dialects. I am particular to note these facts, because, in the Egypt of to-day, famous for flies, fleas, and falsifiers, they are sure to tell travelers that no guides can be procured in Jaffa. Our Cairo guide — Ma- homet Sehm — was a failure so far as intellectual guidance was concerned, yet a good and faithful " dragoman " in other matters. It is cheaper traveling in this than in the winter season. The dry and rainy seasons remind one of California. Selim, having secured his sheik, well-armed, his mule- teers, his horses, donkeys, and tents, we were off at ten o'clock on a sunny morning, horseback, for Jerusalem. Our horses were good ones. Passing through the bazaar, the narrow streets swarming with glittering raggedness, and the walls grayed with age, we emerged from this Oriental city buried in noble groves of orange-trees, out into the main thoroughfare, which was lined for some distance with irrigated gardens, lemon-orchards, and orange-groves. Suburban Jaffa is beautiful. The roadside, for a long way toward Ramleh, is fenced with cacti, and fringed with gar- dens. Residents tell us that these gardens in March and April are literally enchanting, the air being loaded with FROM ALEXANDRIA TO JOPPA AND JERUSALEM. 301 mingled fragrance of apricot and orange, lemon and quince, plum and china tree blossoms. During the dry season, last- ing from May till November, these gardens are kept fresh and green by irrigation. " In Eastern land they talk in flowers, And tell in a garland their loves and cares: Each blossom that blooms in their garden-bowers On its leaves a mystic language bears." But we are galloping away from garden and grove over vast plains, the biblical plains of Sharon. How flash upon the mind now the poetical phrases, " Carmel and Sharon," " the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley " ! Who are these ? " Pilgrims," says Sehm, " coming back from Jeru- salem and the Jordan." Some were Catholics, some Greek Christians, and others Mohammedans, all either riding camels, donkeys, or afoot, weary and dusty. Most of the traveling at this season is done in the night-time. Sj^'ian, like Egyp- tian women, veil their faces. It is said that when the Sul- tan of Turkey was at Paris, in 1867, Louis Napoleon inquired of him, " Why don't you have roads in your country ? " adding, "The empress wishes much to visit Jerusalem." " There shall be a road within a year," was the Sultan's reply ; and so there was, a handsome carriage-road, twenty- five or thirty feet in width, the work of forced labor. Sharon has not, as Isaiah prophesied, become a " howling wilderness." Its extensive plains, rounding up now and then into swells and long ridges, are very fertile, judging from tne cultivated fields we passed, covered with corn and wheat stubble. Reapers and gleaners gather the harvests in June, or early in July. These plains, so eminently fertile, constantly reminded me of Sacramento and other rich vail e}'- lands in California. On this route from Jaffa to Ramleh, three hours distant, there are several little villages in orchards of olives, figs, pomegranates, and mulberries. These mulberry-trees, like 302 AROUND THE WORLD. those of Australia, are grown not for the silk-worm, but foi their fruit, the berries of which, while, resembling the largest blackberries, have a sharper acid taste. From the mountains of Judea and Samaria to the sea, and from the foot of Car- mel to the more barren lands of Philistia, lie spread out the plains of Sharon, in spring-time like a flower-flecked island, beautiful as vast, and diversified as beautiful, fas- cinating the eye, and enchanting the imagination. It must have been paradisaic when Israel's king sang of Sharon's rose. RAMLEH. This old city, mostly in ruins, is said by Eusebius and St. Jerome to have been the Arimathea of Joseph, the Joseph into whose new tomb they put the body of Jesus. It was and is customary for Jews in distant localities to have tombs and burial-places in the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem, the holy city. This Ramlehan city of ancient buildings, cisterns, and subterranean vaults, has a grand old tower, believed by some to have been a minaret ; others think it originally the campanile of a magnificent church. That it has an Arabic inscription, bearing date A.H. 710, A.D. 1310, proves nothing, as there are similar vaunting inscriptions on castles and temples in Syria much older than the Mohammedan religion. Among the old stone houses of this city rises a palatial Latin convent, the monks entertain- ing travelers. The kindness of these celibate monks is pro- verbial. THROUGH THE JTJDEAN COUNTRY. " We have turned us away from the fragrant East, For the desert sand and the arid waste." " Selim," our guide, announcing himself ready with horses watered, bridled, equipped, we are again snugly in the saddle under a scorching sun, on the way from Ramleh to Jerusalem. It is several miles yet across the plains of FROM ALEXANDRIA TO JOPPA AND JERUSALEM. 303 Sharon to the foot-hills that fringe the more monntainoug regions. The landscape is diversified and beautified with olive-orchards, the leaves resembling those of the willow, only more soft and delicate. This is a common tree in the south of France, in Greece, and Syria. The beautiful plain of Athens, as seen from Hymettus, appears almost covered with olive-trees. Olive-oil, quite an article of export in Syria and Asia Minor, is eaten with lettuce and other salads all through the East. The fruit is plucked by the hand, reduced to a pulp in the olive-mill, put into sacks of coarse linen, and subjected to a crushing pressure. This tree in portions of the Orient, like the oak in the West, is held in a sort of veneration. It was an olive-branch that the dove brought to the legendary ark ; while in Greece the wreaths that crowned the victors in the Olympic games were woven from the slender branches that tremble upon the leafy olive. The road winding, the country now wild and desolate, we gallop along quite reckless of the thought that this portion of Palestine, storied in song and trodden by apostles, had ffiven birth to Jeremiah, witnessed the duel of David and Goliath, and the recorded standing-still of the sun on the plains of Ajalon. Passing old stone villages and rude tombs, we meet more pilgrims. It is nearly noon, a burning August noon, and the way begins to seem long to the ''• city of the great king." Through ravines and canons, how rugged the country, and barren too, save the orchards of figs and olives that dot the valleys, or terrace the hill- sides. What strange geological formations ! Giving our panting horses a little rest, we luncb to-day in an olive- grove, and have delicious prickly pears plucked fresh from a cactus hedge, and brought us by some sore-eyed Syrian girls, living a little distance from the wayside. " Selim," our dragoman, provides well, but the day seems long. Other hills and mountains are scaled, and Jerusalem is still before us. This is novel and odd-looking, surely. " What ? " Why, this summer threshing-floor in the open field, the 304 AROUND THE WORLD. grain being trampled out by the stamping of oxen. It is decidedly primitive. The Egyptians have a similar method. Traversing these regions, one naturally asks, " How do the people live? " Only in dreams could it have been called a land " flowing with milk and honey ; " and yet when irri- gated there are tasty oases, and numerous vineyards too, burdened with white and purpling clusters. Cities and vil- lages, built upon hillsides, frequently crown their summits Thus situated, these warlike inhabitants of Scripture records could better see the approaching enemy, and defend them- selves in battle. Terraced up toward the steep hilltops, many streets are on a range with the stone houses below. And then these tile-roofed buildings are generally flat. Some are handsomely grassed over. In several places we saw goats and cattle feeding upon the housetops. But see ! here's a restaurant ! Two men come out, American dressed. They speak Enghsh. One of them, originally connected with the American colonists to Jaffa, is now employed by the Palestine Exploration Society on the east side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab. These explorations are certainly confirming Jewish history. Our horses are weary and worn : so are their riders. The sun has now dipped his disk in the Mediterranean. GLIMPSES OF JERUSALEM. There's not a cloud in sight. The skies are aflame with departing sun-rays, crimson and golden. Only " this hill to rise!" Ay, there — there it is ! the very Jerusalem OTer whifh " Jesus wept." Some poet sings, — " Jerusalem! I would have seen Thy precipices steep ; The trees of palra that overhang Thy gorges dark and deep. Around thy hills the spirits throng Of aU thy murdered seers; And voices that went up from it Are ringing in my ears." FROM ALEXANDRLY TO JOPPA AND JERUSALEM. 305 The fading light throws over the city a gray, somber, shad- owy appearance ; and yet you see around its entire circuit a lofty wall with beautiful parapets ; and within, white roofs, balustrades, domes, minarets, majestic churches, and the Mosque of Omar crowning Mount JNIoriah. Though situ- ated upon a mountain-top, Jerusalem is surrounded by still loftier mountains. It surprised us, however, that a city so historically famous should be so small. Pictures and Sun- day-school teachings had impressed us with the belief that it must be marvelously great, because built and adorned by King Solomon. Nevertheless it is large and rich in Semitic associations. Here Abraham dwelt. Here patriarchs and prophets had their pastures, their wells, their tents, their tombs, and their altars. Here Jesus performed many of his spiritual marvels. Here apostles sat at the feet of their divine Teacher. Here disciples learned the commandment, " Love ye one another." And here the tender, sweet-hearted John lovingly leaned upon Jesus' bosom, giving to all these hills and mountains an associate sacredness. Well might Whittier write, — " And throned on her hills sits Jemsalem yet, With dust on her forehead, and chains on her feet; For the crown of her pride to the mocker hath gone, And the holy shekinah is dark where it shone. ' ' others' EMPRESSIONS op JERUSALEM. Lieut. Lynch, of the navy, approaching Jerusalem, writes, — " I rode to the summit of a hill on the left, and beheld the holy city. Men may say what they please ; but there are moments when the soul, casting aside the artificial trammels of the world, will assert its claim to a celestial origin, and regardless of time and place, of sneers and sar- casms, pay its tribute at the shrine of faith, and weep for the sufferings of its Founder." Prof. Osborne observes, — " Though weary from the day's ride in the saddle, and exhausted as were the pilgi-ims by the way, it was near night when we obtained the 306 AROUND THE WORLD. first view of the city with its mcsques and towers. How unspeakably charming was that moment's vision! Never did silence and loneliness appear so gratifying. ' ' Believing as firmly in Jesus' suffering, bleeding, and dying a martyr to a principle, as in Socrates' draining the hemlock draught, the sight of Jerusalem had for me a thou- sand charms. " Here circling vines their leafy banners spread, And held their green shields o'er the pilgrim's head; At once repelling Syria's burning ray, And breathing freshness on the sultry day." To Strauss, Jesus was a wise rabbi; to R^nan, a moral teacher; to Fourier, a warm-hearted socialist; to Fenelon, the most rapt of mystics ; to Paine, the most sincere of philanthropists ; to Miiller, the harmony of all history ; to Emerson, a true prophet seeing the mystery of the soul ; to Parker, a fellow-brother and self-sacrificing reformer ; while to me he was the marvel-working medium of the East, the baptized of Christ, and the great Syrian Spiritualist sent of the gods to bear " witness to the truth." Previously I had looked upon the Isle of Samos that gave birth to Py- thagoras ; I had stood upon the spot where Socrates was imprisoned for corrupting the youth ; I had wandered over the fields of Sarnath, where Buddha's feet had pressed the soil ; I had traversed the land where Plato taught in the Athenian groves ; and now I was at the gates of the city where Jesus had toiled and taught, healed and suffered, wept, and died with the prayer upon his piu-phng hps, *' Father, forgive them ! " The sainted John Pierpont sweetly wrote, — " A lonelier, lovelier path be mine; Greece and her charms I'd leave for Palestine; There purer streams through happier valleys flow, And sweeter flowers on holier mountains blow; I'd love to breathe where Gilead sheds her balm; I'd love to walk on Jordan's banks of palm; FROM ALEXANDRIA TO JOPPA AND JERUSALEM. 307 I'd love to wet my foot in Hermon's dews; I'd love the promptings of Isaiah's muse; In Carmel's holy grots I'd court repose, And deck my mossy couch with Sharon's blooming rose." This is Aug. 24. We enter Jerusalem by the Jafifa Gate; and follow " Christian Street " to Mount Zion. JERTJSALEM AS IT NOW IS. How often in life does sunshine fade away into cloudland, poetry into dullest prose ! So Jerusalem, which was so beau- tiful an hour ago in the softening, fading light of the setting sun, shrunk away to a trafficking Turkish city the moment we entered within the gates. The city has at present a popula- tion of some twelve thousand, of whom three thousand four hundred are denominated Christians, three thousand Jews, and five thousand Mohammedans ; each class largely occupy- ing separate quarters. The streets are narrow, dirty, and poorly paved. The houses, built of stone, look like for- tresses, presenting in front little more than blank walls. Morning and evening they are crowded with Turks and Arabs. The bazaars were sparsely supplied, with the exception of fruits. The principal trade of the city consists in beads and coins, crosses and relics. There are no gas- lights, as in Alexandria ; and therefore it was impossible to see much of the city in evening-time. Stopping at the Mediterranean Hotel on Mount Zion, kept by Mr. Hon- stein, — a Free-Mason and a free-thinker, — we had a dehghtful night's rest. Waking rested and refreshed, we could say most heartily, " Pray for the peace of Jerusalem ; they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces." OUR FIRST DAY EST THE CITY. Out in early morning upon the housetop I saw the sun rise from beyond the Jordan. After a delicious breakfast of sggs, bread, honey, and several kinds of fruit, we started, 308 AROUND THE WORLD. with a guide, for the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Front- ing it is a neatly paved square, reached from the street by descending a flight of worn stone stairs. This area is usually thronged with Syrians, Abyssinians, Armenians, Greeks, Copts, and Turks, as well as Europeans. Monks and tradesmen also frequent the place daily to sell amulets and cheap rehcs. The Holy Sepulcher is open to all reh- gionists except the Jews. These, with an intolerance unpar- donable, are excluded. There is little doubt but that the "new tomb " of Joseph of Arimathea was in this mountain- ous eminence. It was so designated in the first, and con- firmed by the fathers of later centuries. The magnificent dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher has been erected directly over this white-marble sarcophagus under which is the veritable rock-hewn " tomb." Near the sepulcher is a marble slab on which it is said they anointed the body of Jesus ; and to the east of it is a small door, requiring a stoop- ing posture to enter, made, in all probability, to harmonize with St. John's account, "■ And, as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulcher." About the tomb and the altar are gifts of precious stones, wreaths of pearls and diamonds, fi'om the Christian sovereigns of Europe, and lamps of gold and silver kept continually burning. These, glittering with the smoke of the incense, the perfume of spices, and the attar of roses, induced in us a strange, weird sensation. Silently we said, " Jesus and the poor ; Jesus and the beggar by the wayside ; Jesus, once treading the wine- press alone, without ' where to lay his head,' now a god with a costly, garnished sepulcher, and the poor of the nine- teenth century begging, starving, dying ! " Jesus was gen- uine : Christianity is a sham. The crucifixion upon Calvary, the stone of anointing, the burial sepulcher, and other holy places, to say nothing of the Greek, Latin, Armenian, and Coptic departments of worship, are all included under the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Mount Calvary, within a stone's-throw FROM ALEXANDRIA TO JOPPA AND JERUSALEM. 309 of the sepulcher, is reached by climbing a flight of eighteen stone steps, introducmg us into a richly decorated chapel. In this chapel is quite a rock with a hole therein, said to have received the foot of the cross ; and a tablet, showing where the " mother of Jesus stood " during her son's agonv. Descending a rugged stone stairway, we entered the Chapel of St. Helena, mother of Constantine ; where, three hundred years after the crucifixion, it is pretended were found the " three crosses " in a state of perfect preservation. It is claimed that the Armenian Church covers the site where John was beheaded ; and close by they pointed us to Adam's grave, and a picture of his skull. They also showed where the cock stood and " crowed three times " before Peter's denial ; showed us the Judgment Hall ; the place where Jesus, leaning against the wall when weary, made an indentation in the rock ; the spot where he fell under the cross, calling upon Simon of Cyrene ; the place where they scourged him ; the cleft in the rock, made when he yielded up the ghost ; and, what is more, they identified the exact locality where the angel stood that appeared to the Maries. Further, they pointed to the tomb of Melchisedec, the pal- ace of Herod, the place where Stephen was stoned, the house of Dives, the dilapidated stone shanty of Lazarus, and the prints of Jesus' footsteps where he stood when confounding the " doctors of the law." Naturally incredulous, the fixing of these localities with such cool precision disgusted me. Tradition and supersti- don are the handmaids of ignorance. The truth is, the most imaginative genius can not reconstruct Jerusalem as Jesus saw it, and Josephus and other Jewish writers describe it. The demon of war, crimsoning its streets, too often sacked the citv. It has been burned, built, and rebuilt. The localities of towers and tombs, pools and sepulchers, therefore, are mostly hypothetical ; and yet the general topo- graphical outlines of the city and immediate country are as clearly marked as they are ineffaceable. 310 AROOND THE WORLD. " THE WALL, AND THE GATES THEREOI ." The present wall, with its five gates, surrounding Jerusa- lem, is about two and a half miles in length ; and portions of it evidently occupy the line of the ancient first wall. Some fifteen feet thick, and from twenty-five to forty feet high according to the location of the ground, this wall has sahent angles, square towers, battlements, and a breastwork run- ning around upon the top, furnishing a fine promenade foi tourists. Standing upon the topmost stones, and survey- ing the scenery, we were shown a horizontally projecting column upon which Mohammed is to " stand when he comes to judge the world." It was interesting to examine the excavations of Capt. Warren, who, commencing some fifty yards outside the walls, pushed a shaft under them, discov- ering the foundations of the old Temple^ the piUars and arches of which are marvels. Visiting the gate that is called " Beautiful," and then passing out of St. Stephen's Gate, we descended the steep hillside to the vale of Kedron, just by the Valley of Jehosha- phat. No water flows along the bed of the Kedron, save during the rainy season. Previous to beginning the ascent of Mount Olives, we come to the garden of Gethsemane, a pleasant bit of level ground about fifty yards square, sur- rounded by a high wall, and containing, besides several old, scraggy olive-trees, some flowering shrubs, plants, and semi- tropical flowers, carefully cared for by Latin monks. Over this " Garden of Agony," Greek and Romish monks, fired with rivalry and jealousies, have not only wrangled, not only fought with their tongues, but they have several times actually come to blows and bloodshed. Turkish officials, in the name of the Allah of the prophet, were compelled to interfere. Behold how these Christians "love one an- other " ! FROM ALEXANDRIA TO JOPPA AND JERUSALEM. 311 THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. Though the stones were rough and rolling, the nimbleness of our Arab steeds made us feel safe while climbing up the Bteep hillsides of Mount Olives from the Garden of Geth- semaue. Jesus and the apostles must have often left the passing imprints of their bare feet along this winding way. Upon the summit we had reached, is a miserable, dirty vil- lage, whose dark-hued inhabitants greatly resemble, both in dress and appearance, the Mussulmans of India. The women, sitting at the doors of their low stone houses, partially cov- ered their faces as we passed by ; and the chUdren chased us, calling for money as a matter of right, rather than charity. Upon the top of this uneven mount, guides, showing the impress of a large foot legibly stamped upon the face of a stone, declare that the indentation was there made when " Jesus ascended to heaven." Saying nothing of the unnat- uralness of the imprint, the alleged ascension was not from Mount Olives, but from Bethany. Accordingly, the Evan- l^elist Luke says, " Jesus led out his disciples as far as Bethany, and blessed them ; and, while he blessed them, he «vas parted from them, and carried up into heaven." " ' Peace I leave with you ! ' From days departed Floats down the blessing, simple and serene, Which to his followers, few and fearful-hearted, With yearning love, thus spake the Nazarene, — ' Peace I leave with you ! '" y CHAPTER XXVI. CITY OP PROPHETS AND APOSTLES. — JESUS AND JEBU- SALEM. " The panting pilgrim's heart is filled With holiest themes divine, When first he sees the lilies gild The fields of Palestine." Jerusalem, literally the city of peace, built and d jstroyed, buried and resurrected, was plundered by tlie Egyptian con- queror Shashak ; besieged and taken by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon ; robbed by Syrian kings from the north ; subjected, with all Judea, to Roman rule 63 B.C. ; destroyed by Titus ; devastated by crusaders ; and savagely sacked by the Saracens in the seventh century. Standing on Mount Olives, perhaps near where John leaned upon Jesus' bosom, and reflecting upon the above historical events, while an Arab lad was gathering some olive-branches as evergreen symbols of the angel-song " Peace on earth," my thought flashed backward o'er the waste of nearly twenty centuries, to the occasion that called forth Jesus' plaintively tearful appeal to his kinsmen. As a psychometrist knowing the "uurderous persecutions of the past, and as a seer foreseeing the future of the city of the prophets, he wept, saying, — " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem ! thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee ! how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, CITY OF PROPHETS AND APOSTLES. 313 and ye would not ! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." As the summit of Olives is some three hundred feet highei than Jerusalem, the prospect, especially from the Bethany side, is magnificent. Eastward nearly twenty miles are the Jordan and the Dead Sea : the surface of the latter is said to be the lowest point of water upon the face of the globe, being one thousand three hundred and twelve feet lower than the Mediterranean Sea. Travelers accustomed to the wide distances of America are astonished to find how near together nestle the Pales- tinian cities, so famous in the Scriptures. Bethlehem is but six miles south from Jerusalem ; while Bethany, the place with which are associated many of the sweetest and tender- est memories of Jesus, is but two or three miles from the city. It was from Bethany, then embowered in olive and palm, acacia, fig, and pomegranate, that the Nazarene com- menced his triumphal march over the rising hills on which " much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm- trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna ! " Monks here show the cave-like grave from which Lazarus, who had fallen into a deep, unconscious trance having the appearance of death, was raised. Deep and damp, it was reached by several descending steps. Naturally skeptical touching " sacred spots," we did not care to enter. Here in Bethany lived Martha and Mary, whom Jesus so loved. "BUT DID JESUS EXIST?" It is too late in the day of historical erudition to raise such an inquiry. Intelligent spirits without exception, — so far as I am aware, — thinkers and savants in all countries, admit that Jesus lived and taught, was persecuted, and martyred upon Calvary. Gerald Massey, in commencing his lecture 314 AROUND THE WORLD. upon the " Birth, Life, and Marvels of Jesus Christ," in Music Hall, Boston, Jan. 18, said, — " The question of the real personal existence of the Man is settled for me by the references to Jesus in the Talmud, where we learn that he was with his teacher, Rabbi Joshua, in Egypt, and that he wrote a MS. there which he brought into Palestine. This MS. was well kno^Ti to the rabbis ; and I doubt not it contained the kernel of his teachings, fragments of which have floated down to us in the Gospels." Aaron Knight, one of my spirit teachers, assured me, sev- eral years since, that from conversing with the apostolic John, and other ancient spirits, he had learned that Jesus, between the years of twelve and thirty, visited Assyria, Egypt, and Persia, there studying spiritual science. In con- sonance with this, " The London Human Nature " of 1872 (published by James Burns) has a picture (through the artistic mediumship of Mr. Duguid) o/, and a communication from^ the Persian spirit who on earth was the traveling com- panion of Jesus during his pilgrimage into Persia and India. The narration is thrillingly interesting. While in Jerusalem, we visited a learned and venerable rabbi, to ascertain what the Talmud said of Jesus. He kindly read and translated for us, and also loaned us for the day a portion of the translation. From this " Talmudic pile " we gathered the facts that the 3Iishna, or repetition of the law, relating to governments, laws, customs, and events, transpiring long before and after the Christian era, contained the opinions of one hundred and thirty learned rabbis. The compilation of this was finished in A. D. 190, and is consid- ered by the Jews in all Oriental lands as divine. Certain comments annexed to the Hebrew text of the Mishna con- stitute the work known as the " Jerusalem Talmud." But the Neziken of the Mishna in one of its seventy-four sections (Order IV. chap. 10) while treating of the Sanhe- drim, or great Senate and House of Judgment at Jerusalem, makes speciil mention of Jesus of Nazareth, — his "mdif- ference to tlie law of Moses," his "pretended miracles," his HTY OP PROPHETS AND APOSTLES. 315 •• stubborn waywardness," his " kingly ambition," and "repeated blasphemies." These testimonies are befitting addenda to " Jesus : Myth, Man, or God ? " * THE MOSQUE OF OMAR. It is common for Arabian and Indian Mussulmans, after visiting Mecca, bacred to the birth of Mohammed, and Medina, holy because holding the ashes of Araby's apostle, to visit Jerusalem, praying in the Mosque of Omar. This famous edifice, as an architectural structure, is unique, massive, and eminently rich in consecrated antiquities. Its overshadow- |ing dome, its porcelain, blue enamel, crimson canopies, elab- orately gilded texts from the Koran, and weird shrines of the patriarch, give the building a grand and imposing appear- ance. Mohammedans, ever hating Christian leather, require " infidels " from the West to enter their temples of worship with bared feet, or in slippers presented at the vestibule. But as workmen, last autumn, were repairing this mosque, — the crown of Mount Moriah, and original site of Solo- mon's Temple, — we were allowed to enter well shod ; when our guide, recounting the old and silly myth, pointed to the " stone," the rock of El Sakara, a large, irregular, limestone rock surrounded bv an iron railing, and said to be " miracu- lously suspended." Passing by (without a thought) the load- stone suspension, this is declared to be the rock upon which Abraham sacrificed the " ram," the one that Jacob used for a " pillow," and the one, say Mussulmans, from which Mohammed made his miraculous flight to heaven upon Ms celestial steed Barak ; and, as proof, they point to the marks of the horse's hoofs in the rock. This mosque has parted with much of its past splendor. Ibn Asdkir saw it in the twelfth century. Then it was a * TLis volume referred to by Mr. Peebles, " Jesus: Myth, Man, or God ? " giv- ing tbe historical evidences of Jesus' existence, as well as drawing damaging comparisons between the results of sectarian Christianity, and the moial effects of the "heatheu philosophy" so called, is for sale at the "Banner of Light" office. — Ed. Banner of Light. 316 AROUND THE WORLD. building of beautiful proportions, having fifty doors, six hundred marble pillars, fifteen domes, four minarets, and three hundred and eighty-five chains, sustaining five thou- sand lamps. Not until 1856 were Jews and Christians allowed to enter this mosque. Mohammedans believe that angels keep nightly watch about the lofty dome, bringing with them, to breathe, the air of Paradise. THE jews' WAILING-PLACE. Admitting, which seems reasonable, that the present western wall, and a portion of the northern wall circling Jeru- salem, occupy the very line of the ancient first ivall, it is per- fectly natural that Eastern Jews should meet at the base of the wall upon the west side to weep and wail over stones there placed before Herod's time. Though there are some present each day, Friday is the great wailing-day. Assembled, — The rabbi begins, " On account of the Temple which has been destroyed, and the glory which has departed ' ' — " We sit here and weepy " Because our prophets and holy men have been slain, because Jerusalem is a desolation, and because our Messiah long promised has not come " — " We sit here lonely iveeping a7id praying.'''' Both sexes were present. The aged women, bowing, sighed and wept ; young maidens bathed the hallowed walls m their tears ; old men tottered up to the stones, prayers trembling on their lips ; while others wailed aloud as though their hearts would break. Seeing them made my soul sad. And oh ! how I wanted to tell them, Messiah has already come. Your Messiah, like the kingdom of God, is within you ; while the Christ-spirit has been coming during all the cycling ages ! This locality along the outer wall may well be termed " the Jews' wailing-place." CITY OF PROPHETS AND APOSTLES. 317 IN HELL AS PROPHESIED. Leaving the close-communion Cahdnistic craft while my cheeks were yet crimson, and hair flaxen, the clergyman, iu a rage over my irrepressible infidelity, told me I would " go to hell." And it was true, — infinitely truer than his Sunday preaching, for I went, yes, went to hell ; and that, too, while seeking Jesus, or, rather, his footpaths round about Jerusalem. After passing for half an hour under a scorching sun along the brow of Mount Zion, dotted with here and there an olive-tree, I suddenl}^ found myself in the Valley of Hinnom, G-ehenna, Hell ; the place referred to in Mark ix. 45, 46, — " And, if thy foot offend thee, cut it off : it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched ; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." This Valley of Hinnom, on the south-east side of Jerusa- lem, is nearly one mile and a half in length ; and in ancient times there was an image here standing dedicated to Moloch, to which idolatrous Jews offered human sacrifices, even their own children. After King Josiah had partially purged the land of idolatry, this valley became the common recep- tacle of rubbish from the city, and of the dead bodies of notorious criminals, upon which festering filth worms reveled. And to stifle the stench, and prevent pestilential diseases, a fire was there kept continually burning ; hence this place of fire, or hell-fire. The term Gehenna (Hell), composed of two Hebrew words, G-ee, a valley, and Hinnom, the name of the man who once owned it, was used by Jesus figuratively to describe a state of deep, conscious misery. I do not agree with Theodore Parker that " Jesus taught the eternity of future punishment." The whole di'ift of his moral teachings and parables is against such a conclusion. True, he employed the phrase, " The fire that shall never be 318 AROUND THE WORLD. quenched ;"" but he used it in the limited sense of the Orien- tals. Strabo the geographer, treating of the Parthenon, a temple at Athens, says, " In this was the inextinguishable or unquenchable lamp," and yet this lamp was quenched ages since. Josephus, speaking of a festival of the Jews, writes, " Every one brought fuel for the fire of the altar, which continued always unquenchable ; " and yet the fire was long ago quenched, with altar and temple in ruins. So in this valley of Hinnom, — this Gehenna-^e?^ of the New Testament, — the grass in spring-time is green, and the flowers bloom ; olive and fig trees bear their fruit ; while near by bubbles the Pool of Siloam. Hell, theologians io the contrary, is more a condition than a locality. bethesda's pool and medicines. This Pool of Bethesda, literally the " house of mercy," pointed out as within the city, near St. Stephen's Gate, is thus spiritually referred to in John's Gospel : — "Now, there is at Jerusalem by the sheep-market a pool, which is called, in the Hebrew tongue, Bethesda, having five porches. . . . " And an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. ' ' There are strange traditions connected with this pool. In Old-Testament times David, walking upon the housetop, saw the beautiful Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite, bath- ing in Bethesda's limpid waters. And this "man after God's own heart," being touched with the infirmity of " affectional freedom," sent messengers, and " took her." The remainder of the story need not be told. This reservoir of sanative waters was " troubled," that is, magnetized by an angel, or band of spiritual presences, something as certain modern media will, by holding, so " trouble " a goblet of water that the color will change, and medicinal properties be imparted. The spirit-world is, in a measure, made up of the CITY OF PROPHETS AND APOSTLES. 319 invisible essences of roots, plants, and minerals. Divine physicians know their uses. When the angels spiritually magnetized Bethesda's waters, the " blind, halt, and with- ered " stepped in, and were healed. Give intelligent spirits the conditions, and I dare set no bounds to their power. Intermittent springs, pools, and reservoirs, owing to earth- quakes and other frequent convulsions of nature in tropica, climates, often spasmodically rise and fall, and occasionall}- for ever cease to flow. Septem*ber last, Bethesda was a dirty, sunken cesspool, with simply a show of shallow, turbid water. THE DATE OF THE CRUCIFIXION. A London critic has recently given Disraeli the Israelite, and present leader of the Tory party in Parliament, a ter- rible flagellation for the chronological blunder of putting the crucifixion in the reign of Augustus Caesar, when the event transpired in the twentieth year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, son-in-law and successor of Augustus CoiiSar. Herr Kaib, the great German savant^ in a lately published work, shows that " There was a total eclipse of the moon concomitantly with the earth- quake that occurred when Julius Csesar was assassinated on the 15th of March, B.C. He has also calculated the Jewish calendar to A. D. 41; and the result of his researches fully confirms the facts recorded by the Evangelists of the wonderful physical events that accompanied the cru- cifixion. Astronomical calculations prove, without a shadow of doubt, that on the fourteenth day of the Jewish month Nisan (April 6) there was a total eclipse of the sun, which was accompanied in all probabil- ity by the earthquake, ' when the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rock rent' (Matt. xxxii. 51); while St. Luke describes the eclipse in these words : 'And it was the sixth hour (noon) ; and there was a darkness over all the land till the ninth hour (three o'clock p. m.), and the sun was darkened ' (Luke xxi. 44). " This mode of reckoning corresponds perfectly with the result of another calculation our author made by reckoning backward from the great total eclipse of April, 1818, allowing for the difference between the old and new style ; which also gives April 6 as the date of the new 320 AROUND THE WORLD. moon in the year A. D. 31. As the vernal equinox of the year fell on March 25, and the Jews ate their Easter lamb, and celetrated their Frih Passoh, or feast of the passover, on the following new moon, it is clear April 6 was identified with Nisar 14 of the Jewish calendar, which moreover was on Friday, the Paraskevee, or day of preparation for the sabbath; and this agrees with the Hebrew Talmud. Thus by the united testimony of astronomy, archseology, traditional and biblical liis- tory, there can be but little doubt that the date of the crucifixion was April 6, A. D. 31." Jesus, the Syrian seer, a radical reformer and diTine teacher, died a martyr to the sublime principles he taught, — died with a prayer of forgiveness trembling upon his quiv ering lips. May we not say with the Revelator, " Worth} the Lamb " ? "THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM." " The star in the east took its place in the choir ; While the seraphs sang alto, the angels sang air; They sang, and the cadence is lingering still, — ' Be our peace evermore to the men of good ivilL' " As melody marries the words of a song, so truth marries the cycling ages. The priest officiating at the altar is his- tory, — the issue, wisdom. But was this Bethlehem star a new star ? Was it a comet ? Was it a transient meteor ? Was the brilliancy caused hj planets in conjunction ? Was it an atmospheric luminosity ? Was it an angel assuming an astral appearance ? Or was it a sudden stellar eruption sim- ilar to that witnessed by Tycho Brahe in 1572, when a star appeared suddenly, and increased to such an astonishing magnitude that it was visible at noon, maintaining much of its splendor for seventeen months ? The French Academi- cian, Alphonse De Lamartine, said that — " Chinese astronomers, whose observations are noted for their accuracy, and extend back thousands of years, record that a bright comet did appear in the year 4 B.C., and remain visible seventy days during the vernal equinox. This is a curious fact, and it corroborates the assertion made by most chronologers, that the nativity occurred fom- years before the time usually assigned to it; bO that we should now be in A. D. 1878, instead of 1874." CITY OF PROPHETS AND APOSTLES. 321 Though accepting the fact of the star on that auspicious evening, we utterly repudiate the theories of both astrono- mers and miracle-believers. Those philosophers and astron- omers who saw the star were, according to Matthew, " wise men from the East," — Magi; and the term " Magi," from Mag iu the Pehlvi language, implies a mystic, a visionist, a dreamer of dreams. Pliny and Ptolemy mentions Arahi as s^Tionymous with Magi. Accordingly the more learned of the second century believed that the Magi who brought the offerings of " frankincense and mj^rrh " came from Southern Arabia, where these productions abound. But, whether they came from Arabia or Persia, those " wise men " were media gifted with clairvoyance ; and the star was a brilliant psy- chological presentation guiding them to the birthplace of him who, when mediumistically developed, spiritually edu- cated, and baptized of the Christ, " went about doing good." BETHLEHEM THE BIRTHPLACE OF JESUS. Biblical commentators to the contrary, it is of little con- sequence whether the Nazarene was born in a peasant's house, a cave, or a dismal grotto. Along the Nile in Egypt they build of mud, but in Syria of stone ; a limestone rock underlying, if not overtopping, most of the country. Beth- lehem, a city of six thousand inhabitants, built of stone, has many houses hewn in the rocks, cave-like. It stands upon a hill, the sides of which are terraced with vineyards. The suburbs are bleak and wild. As i whole, the city is more tidy and cleanly, however, than most of the Syrian villages. Reaching Bethlehem about noon, we hurried to the Church of the Nativity, said to have been constructed over the cave-stable in which Jesus was born. The edifice is shaped hke a cross, and was erected A. D. 325 by the Em- press Helena. We rested and lunched in the Latin convent. The monks were very kind, and their rooms cozy and quiet. These Franciscan monks entertain travelers free of charge, 322 AROUND THE WORLD. — a common practice in the East. At one o'clock we saw these monks feed a flock of poor children gratis. It was a beautiful sight ; and in our soul we said, Heaven bless these Roman- Catliolic moyiks ! The country surrounding Bethle- hem is full of interest. It was around these hills that the youthful David learned to make the lute and the harp. Here were the border-lands of Boaz ; here Ruth gleaned th 3 barley-fields ; here was the wilderness of Judea, in which John preached repentance ; here were the plains where shepherds were abiding when they heard the angel-song of " Peace on earth; " and here, too, was born Jesus, the Shiloh of Israel, and the " Desire of all nations." When crossing these unfenced " shepherd hills," so called, said our spirit-friends, in Jesus' time, we noticed flocks feed- ing on a dry, hay-like substance, and shepherds watching them. Observing and meditating upon this, I thought of the hymn, — the fugue my mother used to sing in those sunny days of a New-England childhood, — " While shepherds watched their flocks by night, All seated on the grouud, The angel of the Lord came down, And glory shone around." Oh the Hngering melody of that mother's voice ! its tender echoes can never die away from my soul. Further reflec- don brought to memory the sweet lines of our Quakei Whittier : — " Lo ! Bethlehem's hill-site before me is seen, With the mountains around, and the valleys between ; There rested the shepherds of Judah, and there The song of the angels rose sweet in the air. I tread where the twelve in their wayfaring trod ; f stand where they stood with the chosen of God, — Where his blessings were heard, and his lessons were taught ; Where the blind were restored, and the healing was wrought. GITY OF PROPHETS AND APOSTLES. 323 Oh, here with his flock the sad Wanderer came ! These hills he toiled over in grief are the same ; The founts where he drank by the wayside still flow ; And the same airs are blowing which breathed on his brow." WHY DID NOT CONTEjVIPORARY GREEKS AND ROIMANS REFER TO JESUS ? This inquiry has little force. Why did not contemporary Hindoo historians choose to notice the presence of Alex- ander the Great in India ? Why do prominent European writers deny the existence of the Grecian Pythagoras; alleging, among other reasons, that the name is traceable to the Sanscrit Pitha-gura, the schoolmaster? Why did not Homer, the contemporary of Solomon, make mention of him or of the Hebrews ? Why do the writings of Thales, Solon, Democritus, Plato, Herodotus, Xenophon, and others, contain no references whatever to the Jews? Do such omissions prove the non-existence of patriarchs and proph- ets ? It should be remembered that those were not the eras of a world-wide toleration and appreciation, nor of special telegrams and morning newspapers. Saviors are fated to non-recognition by their fellows. Prophets have never had where to lay their heads. The proud and the erudite do not notice them. Thorns leave crim- son kisses upon their pale foreheads. Jesus " the Galilean " was of this number. Neither rabbi nor Roman helped him to "bear the cross." But Greek and Roman writers of the second century make direct mention of him and the " superstitious vagaries " of the Christians. Historians of the coming century may deign to make records of the present exponents of the Spiritual philosophy. SOLOMON'S POOLS. These, by the winding road we went, are ten miles from Jerusalem. The place is called El Burak. The dilapidated old castle here standing was built upon Masonic principles. 324 AROUND THE WORLD. The two pillars, the arch, the breastplate, the trowel, ami the star inclosed in the circle, are j)lainly visible. The con- struction of these three gigantic pools, or cisterns, is ascribed to Solomon, If he was not the builder, who was ? The one farthest east is six hundred feet in length, two hundred in width, and fifty feet deep. The proudest man-of-war that ever plowed the ocean might float thereon. The fi:*sl of these pools is fed from a living fountain. During the rainy season the upper pool, overflowing, fills the others. The water from these immense reservoirs, carried through an underground aqueduct around the hills a little to the east of Bethlehem to Jerusalem, and used originally in the various services of the sanctuary, is at present used by the Mohammedans about the Mosque of Omar, who bathe their hands and faces before worshiping. FROM JERUSALEM TO THE JORDAN". Rising early from a good night's rest upon Mount Zion, breakfasting upon eggs, bread, grapes, figs, and honey, — minus the locusts, — and finding our sheik, and guide Selim, well armed, the muleteers and tenting apparatus in readi- ness, we were speedily in the saddle, wending our way through the vale of Kedron, by the tomb of Zechariah, the tomb of St. James, and the battered tomb of Absalom, which to this day, when the Jew, passing, especially upon a funeral occasion, picks up and hurls a stone thereat, exclaiming, " Cursed be the son who disobeys the father's commands ! " The hills in this vicinity are literally honey- combed with graves and old tombs. Reaching a rugged eminence a little distance from the city, Mr. Knight, a spirit-friend, spoke to Dr. Dunn's clair- audient ear, saying, " Along that valley to the right, Jesus and his discij)les used to come into the city from Bethlehem ; . . . and farther, on that palm-crowned hill, lived a warm personal friend of Jesus, with whom he frequently tarried over night." Spirits of the apostolic age, accompanying CITY OF PROPHETS AND APOSTLES. 325 directed us to such localities as were yet magnetically aflame with ancient marvels. Not a spoken word of Jesus was lost ; not a touch dies away into nothingness ; the universe knows no annihilation. To this, psychometry is a living witness. While Mr. Knight was conversing with us, this passage flashed upon my mind like a sunbeam : — " Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures ? " (Luke xxiv. 32.) MAE SABA AND THE DEAD SEA. Journeying Jordan-ward, we met crowds, with their heavily-laden donkeys and camels, on their way to Jerus^.- lem. The morrow was market-day. Syrian women stiil bear burdens upon their heads. Late in the afternoon we came to our tenting-place in a grassless, shrubless valley, rimmed around with sharply-defined hills. Near us was Mar Saba, a weird convent castle. No pen-picture can do justice to this Oriental edifice, with adjoining gorges, per- pendicular cliffs, and rock-hewn chambers, where monks nightly mouth their midnight prayers. Within this half- martial, half-churchal structure are not only numerous small chapels, covered with old pictures and Greek inscriptions, but St. Saba's sepulcher, and a vault filled with fourteen thousand skulls of martyred monks. The country is indescribably rough, ragged, and moun- tainous ; the results of terrible convulsions are everywhere visible. Repairing to our tent-apartment from Mar Saba, just at dark, an Arab lad, nearly naked, brought us speci- mens of bituminous rock ; it seemed filled with a species of petroleum. These dark, dismal, pitchy cliffs, with the bitu- men, sulphur, niter, and phosphoric stones found in all this region, account for the plains of fire, or the destruction of the "five cities of the plain," — Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Zoar, — upon purely natural principles. Hav- ing seen burning jEtna, stood upon sulphurous Vesuvius, walked upon Solfatara's cooled yet tremulous crater, as well 326 ABOUND THE WORLD. as utterly extinct volcanoes in different countries, I discover no satisfactory evidences that the Dead Sea was once the crater of an extinct volcano : rather should I consider it originally a fresh- water lake. But, reflecting upon the mill- ions of years that have rolled into the abysmal past since the beginning of earth's mighty geological upheavings, who dare define conditions, or fix bounds to ancient rivers, seas or oceans ? Immutable law governs all things. Explorers, as well as roaming Arabs, tell us that along the southern extremity of the Dead Se-a are several bubbling hot springs. Notwithstanding the nasal music, the multitude of fleas, and the doleful shriek of night-birds, we slept comfortably well in our tottering tent, guarded by sheiks and their heavily-armed attendants. Tuesday morning, Aug. 26, four o'clock found us approach- ing the Dead Sea upon the north, near the entrance of the Jordan. It was yet starlight. Never did the stars appear so brilliant. We felt the presence of spirits. It is cool and comfortable traveling at this hour, even in half- tropical Palestine. Riding our jaded horses to another frowning summit, we caught a full view of this memorable sea. Its crystal waves, lying tremulously at our feet, were bathed in the sun, now rising gorgeously over the brown hills of Moab. The Dead Sea, resembling externally a beau- tiful American lake, is some seventy miles in length, and from three to twenty in width. Its waters presenting a sil very, transparent appearance, are a little bitter, and salt even beyond the ocean. They act something like alum in the mouth, and cayenne in the eye. Birds sail over its blue depths ; while rank slirubbery, graceful reeds, and flowering- plants, grow down to the very sands upon the brink. If there are no abrasions upon the skin, bathing in the Dead Sea is exquisitely delicious. Owing to its great specific gravity, twelve hundred, — distilled water being one thou- sand, — effort to remain upon the surface is needless, sink- ing impossible. Coming out from our swimming excursion % CITY OF PROPHETS AND APOSTLES. 327 in these clear yet bitter, briny waters, there was a saline crystallization upon the beard, and an irritable, uncomfort- able feeling upon the cuticle, till, galloping away over the plains six miles, we bathed in the soft, rippling waters of the Jordan. " On Jordan's stormy banks I stand, And cast a wistful eye " to America, — the noblest, grandest country in the world. " Breathes there the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, — ' This is my own, my native land ' ? Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned. As home his footsteps he hath turned From wandering on a foreign strand ? ** What changes in this country since the time of the apos- tles I There's now a railway from Joppa to Jerusalem, owned mostly by the French. Its speed is fifteen miles per hour. It is but three hours from Joppa, now called Jaffa, to the once city of King David. Thirty years ago there was not a wheeled vehicle in Palestine. Jerusalem has one good hotel— "The New Hotel." Within the walls of the city are nearly 50,000, and about 28,000 of these are Jews. These are rapidly increasing in number. Soon the cry may be realized " Jerusalem for the Jews ! '' CHAPTER XXVII. PRESENT GOSPELS. All countries have had their insph-ed chieftains, all dispen- sations their prophets, and all recurring cycles their apostles. Many evangelists besides those of the New Testament have written gospels, — good messages of peace, love, and "good will to men." It is perfectly natural that Renan, while traveling in Pal- estine, should exclaim, " I have before my eyes a fifth Gospel, mutilated, but still legible." Though the Ganges is sacred to the Hindoo, the Nile to the Egyptian, and the Jordan to the Christian, the liberal and the more intelligent of this century, rising above the special into the beautiful border-lands of the universal, see in every flowing stream a Jordan, in every sunny vale a Kedron, in every day a sabbath day, in every soul a tem- ple for prayer, in every tomb a forthcoming Savior, in every healthy country a Mount of Transfiguration, and in every heart an altar of religious devotion, where the incense of aspiration is, or should be, kept continually burning. WHY JESUS WAS BAPTIZED IN THE JORDAN. All the Oriental religions had their regenerating rites. Egyptians were washed from their iniquities in the Nile. Upon sarcophagi and hieroglyphical scrolls Osiris is lepre- sented pouring water upon candidates in a kneeling position. The Avesta ceremonials of the Persians abound in directions PRESENT (iOSPELS. 329 for baptismal ceremonies. Even proud Romans practiced the rite; and accordingly Juvenal criticised and sat'rized them for seeking to wash away their sins by " dipping their heads thrice in the flowing Tiber." Jesus, a Palestinian Jew, born subject to the law of Moses, must needs be circumcised and baptized for the washing-away of sin according to the Israel- itish understanding of ordinances in that era. But if Jesus was not consciously imperfect, was not a sinner, why should 'he submit to baptism by water ? Matthew says, " Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins ; " while Mark assures us that " John preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." And John baptized Jesus in the Jordan. There- fore, as baptism was understood to be the " washing-away of sin," it is clear that Jesus was considered a sinner. Noth- ing upon theological grounds could be more absurd than the baptism of a saint ! Jesus, conscious of his imperfections, said, " Call not thou me good." The New Testament further declares that Jesus " learned obedience by the things he suffered," that he was " made perfect through suffering," and that he was called the " first begotten from the dead; " but how begot- ten from the dead unless himself once dead in trespasses and sins? After Jesus confessed, and was baptized, — the water being a symbol of purification, — the " heavens were opened," and the Christ-spirit from the heaven of the Christ-angels descended upon him, and a voice came saying, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Now we have Jesus Christ " our exemplar," Jesus Christ standing upon the basis of eternal principles, Jesus Christ the anointed and illumined, ministering the tenderest sj^mpathy and love. Those parables are inimitable ; the Sermon upon the Mount stands out unparalleled ; while that pleading prayer upon the cross, breathing forgiveness toward murderers, proves the Nazarene divine. 330 around the world. Jordan's source and scenery. The Jordan of the Evangelists, originating at the base of snowy Hermon, passes through the Galilean lake ; through a rich vallej^-strip of land southward some two hundred miles ; through shaded banks of willow, sycamore, and such reeds as were shaken by the wind when the mediumistic John there stood baptizing Him who afterwards baptized with the Christ-spirit; and finally falls quite precipitously into those crystal depths of brine and bitumen, the Dead Sea. Though vineyards, balsam-gardens, and palm-forests have disappeared ; though the climate is bleaker, and the face of the country considerably altered, — still this saline sea, with river and mountain, sufficiently mark these Meccas of biblical history. Easily fording the Jordan, we should call it in America an ordinary stream, nothing more. Tasting, I found the water soft, of an agreeable flavor, and great limpidity. Drinking freely, it wanted but one quality, — coolness. After quench- ing our thirst, cutting canes, gathering specimens, wading, bathing, and splashing in the waters, we lunched in the cooling shadows of rose-laurels and junipers, probably the same species of juniper as that under which Elijah sat when the angel came, and touched him (1 Kings xix. 4). WHAT SPmiTS said OF JORDAN AND JERICHO. Accompanying us in this wild region were exalted spirits tvho lived in the Nazarenean period, — royal souls then, angels now. These assured us that, during the past twenty centuries, rightly denominated a cycle, terrific convulsions had left their footprints upon the face of all that country known as Assyria. The Jordan itself is a much smaller stream now than then. Anciently it had two series of banks, one of which was annually overflowed from the molting of Hermon's and Lebanon's snows with the heavy ra^ns of the winter season. The channel, deepening, especially near the PRESENT GOSPELS. 331 Dead Sea, has also changed its course. This the old bottom- land gravel-beds abundantly demonstrate. Portions of these flat lands have at the present time an exceedingly rich soil ; and it only requires industry, irrigation, and cultivation to make the plains of the Lower Jordan fruitful as the orange- gardens of Sharon. Dr. Thomson, after thoroughly exploring the whole Judean country, says : — " Thus treated, and subjected to the science and the modern mechan- ical appliances in agriculture, the valley of the Jordan could sustain half a million of inhabitants. Cotton, rice, sugar-cane, indigo, and nearly every other valuable product for the use of man, would flourish most luxuriantly. There were, in fact, sugar-plantations here long before America was discovered ; and it is quite possible that this plant was taken from this very spot to Tripoli, and thence to Spain by the crusaders, from whence it was carried to the West Indies. Those edi- fices to the west of 'Ain es Sultan are the remains of ancient sugar- mills, and are still called Towahin es Sukkar." Near sundown, pitching our tent Aug. 27, adjoining Rihi, a village of squalid Arabs, Ave sat down for journal- writing and reflection. Squads of curious Arabs continually prowled about our camp. These Bedouin-tenting denizens of the desert are coarse, rough, and often high-handed robbers. Many shades darker than the same class on the mountains, they subsist largely upon plunder, as do gypsies in some portions of the East. JERICHO AND THE GOOD SAJMARITAN. Early rising is both commendable and healthy. The morning of Aug. 28, five o'clock, found us in the saddle approaching Jericho, anciently called the city of palm-trees : but the last palm, that a generation since stood by the old tower, a solitary sentinel, fell at last, and not a vestige of the date-palm now appears in the vicinity. Riding over hues of ancient walls, feet-worn pavements, mounds, fallen aqueducts and arches, bits of brick, and moldering piles, a 332 AEOTJND THE WORLD. feeling of sadness brooded over my entire being. Is it pos- sible that this was the magnificent Jericho of antiquity ? — the Old-Testament Jericho, whose walls fell before those echoing ram's-horn blasts sounded by seven mediumistic priests ; the Jericho that many times saw the weary Naza- rene on his way from the Jordan up to Jerusalem ; the Jericho that takes in the great fountain of '-4m es Sultan, and so famous in religious memory as connected with the parable of the "■ Good Samaritan," and the lesson of univer- sal brotherhood ? Is this teaching practiced by either Spirit- ualists or sck. larists ? Is there simplicity, confidence, purity, peace, and brotherhood in the ranks of fashionable Chris- tians? Why, Christianity has become the synonym of pride, fashion, plunder, persecution, and war I When the blood of seventy thousand Mohammedans by the hands of crusading Christians had crimsoned the streets of Jerusalem, the prayerful murderers, in the name of religion, went and kissed the cold stone that covered the tomb of him termed " The Prince of peace ! " Hate of Christian priests for philoso- phers kept the Roman Emperor Julian with the old Pagan religions. " Ere I leave the worship of the gods," said he, " let me see a better state of society emanating from Chris tian teachings." RETURNING TO JERUSALEM. Our spirit-friend Mr. Knight — referring, as we passed along, to Jesus' aptitudes at teaching from nature, and then commenting upon the sheep and the goats, the barren fig- tree, the lilies of the field, and other Nazarenean illustrations — said that twenty centuries had wrought marvelous changes upon the face of Palestine. Volcanic countries were ever Uable to sudden commotions. The topographical, climatic, and electric conditions were all considerably different. Some- thing like two thousand years constituted a cycle ; and a cycle had passed since the later Hebrew seers and j^oets, standing upon the mount of vision, foretold the desolation PRESENT GOSPELS. 333 that should come. The causes were then in operation. All prophecy, however, is within the realm of causation. Poetically speaking, Syria was once a land flowing with milk and honey. Its undulating valleys rejoiced in waving fields of corn ; its crystal streams were bordered with palms and roses ; its mountains were covered with olives, figs, mul- berries, pomegranates, and clustering vines ; and its rocky chifs with grazing flocks and herds. The present population of Palestine, estimated at two hundred thousand, is scattered over mountains dotted with mingled masses of rocks and ruins. It seems impossible that this country, now under the sultan's rule, once sustained three millions of prosperous people. And yet it is evident that there have been great natural and desolating convulsions since the days of Hillel, Philo, Josephus, and Jesus. Agri- cultural pursuits were abandoned for war, denuding moun- tains of their woody vestures, and hills of their figs, olives, and grazing herds. Shortly after the crucifixion, the country was wasted by famine, cursed by civil dissensions and foreign wars instigated by ambition and a merciless cupidity. But we are again approaching the city so holy to Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans, — the seventeen times be- sieged, rebuilt, and re-ruined Jerusalem, which to-day is little more than a gathering of rival bishops, ecclesiastics, monks^ artisans, and traders, selling relics, and supplying the tem- poral wants of religious pilgrims, who thither flock to see the magnificent sepulcher and costly shrines dedicated to an inspired reformer, — a reformer who, when on earth, was con- sidered by arrogant Pharisees as a wandering, sabbath-break- ing, blaspheming, false "prophet of Galilee." Draining the cup of sorrow, drinking to the dregs the chahce of agony, he sadly said, " Tho foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests ; but the Son of man hath not where to lav his head." 334 AROUND THE WORLD. EXPLORING PALESTrSTE. Why not, in a broad cosmopolitan spirit, explore Palestine, Tyre, Troy, and the once peopled isles of the ocean ? In 1848 Lieut. Lynch was duly authorized by our Gov- ernment to go down the Jordan from Galilee, through the windings of that river to the Dead Sea. Capt. Warren's excavations in Jerusalem, and discoveries relating to ancient localities, entrances to Solomon's Temple, subterranean pas- sages, winding aqueducts, wells, tanks, canals cut in solid rock, pottery, weights, seals, gems, and inscriptions in the Phoenician characters, and historical sites mentioned by Jose- phus, are exceedingly valuable to archteologists. Prof. Palmer of Cambridge, and Mr. Drake, have recently explored the country lying between the peninsula of Sinai and Palestine, — desert of the Exodus, — in which the "Isra- elites wandered forty years." The country was covered with a brown, parched herbage. The route was interesting from the discovery of ruins, mounds, fortresses, and locali- ties retaining the names they had in the days of David. The American Steever's Expedition reached Beirut in 1873. Mr. Paine there discovered important Greek inscrip- tions. In March they went to Edom and Moab. Here was found the celebrated Moabite stone, shedding more light upon ^he invention of our alphabet than any thing yet discovered. The learned Dr. Deutsh said, " It illustrates to a hitherto unheard-of degree the origin and history of the art of alphabetic and syllabic writing as we possess that priceless inheritance." The purpose of this company is to determine traditionary places, discover inscriptions, secure relics, and make an accurate map of this whole Sp-ian country. Be- sides the usual surveys, they also take astronomical observa- tions. They have already discovered the famous Mount Nebo and Mount Pisgah. Those who have read " The Book of Moab" will be deeply interested to know what they say about Zoa of Pentapolis memory. It is to be hoped that PRESENT GOSPELS. 335 this expedition, considering the growing demands of science, will not be used in the furtherance of sectarian interests. When will our American Congress furnish funds to equip expeditions to unearth the treasures hidden in the mounds of the south-west, to penetrate the non-explored ruins of Yucatan, and the dust-buried temples of Peru ? NON-PRACTICABILITY OF REFORMERS. Apollonius, the rival of the Nazarene, was a mediumistie *' mendicant ; " Cleanthes was a " vagrant ; " Jesus " im- practicable.'' These are the frisky judgments of pert, mole- eyed men. Seen from the slough of selfishness, and measured by a miser's standard, Jesus was decidedly impracticable. Listen : " Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth." " When thou makest a dinner or supper, call not thy friends, thy brethren, thy kinsmen, nor rich neighbors to the feast, but call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind." Nothing to a vain externalist could be more unnatural, nothing more egregiously impracticable to fashion- able, Pharisaic worldlings. The beautiful h3^mn of Cleanthes to Jupiter, from which Paul quoted this to the Athenians, " For we are also his offspring,''' will live on the page of poesy for ever. And 5''et poor, kind-hearted Cleanthes, who gratuitously taught philos- ophy and religion, was, upon the complaint of an envious and pompous Greek, brought before the tribunal of Arcophagus, and charged with having no visible means of support. Shadow-days have their compensations : justice is ultimately done. The moral teachings of Jesus, and Cleanthes' hymn, are in literature immortal ; while the names and memories of their persecutors are rotting to nothingness in a resurrectionless oblivion. CHAPTER XXVIII. THE CnRISTIANITY OF THE AGES. — PLATO AND JESUS IN CONTRAST. The Grecian Plato was the prince of philosophers ; the Syrian Jesus, of inspired religionists. What a vivid contrast of birth, education, and country, these celebrated chieftains present to the rational thinker ! Plato was well born, his mother a descendant of Solon. Among his ancestors were several erudite and wise Athenians. His birth occurred in the palmiest period of the most distinguished country of antiquity. His education was the best that Athens could afford. Neither body nor mind was neglected. Muscle, imagination, taste, and reason were equally cultivated. While yet a youth he became a disciple of Socrates, meeting the most brilliant spirits of the age. That splendid yet extravagant genius, Alcibiades, the solid, clear-headed Xenophon, the keen, sophistical Protagoras, the logical and philosophical Crito, and other eminent scholars and statesmen, could but educe all that was divinest in man. The very air of classic Athens seemed to breathe the genius of art, science, and poetry ; while the wit of Aristophanes, and the tragedy of Euripides, moved the masses as do the winds the forest-trees. Then Plato traveled, studying under Euclid at Megara, under Theodorus at Cyrene, under the Pythagoreans at Tarentum, and under the Hierophants and Egyptian priests twelve years at IleUopolis. He ate but once a day, or, if the second time, THE CHRISTIANITY OF THE AGES. 337 very sparingly, abstaining from animal food. He maintained great equanimity of spirit, and lived a celibate life. Return- ing to his native country, laden with the intellectual riches of the East, he opened an academy at Athens, in the Gardens of Colonus, where he lived in contact with the greatest men of the period, and died at a ripe old age, leaving a school of thinkers and orators to perpetuate his philosophy. Clad now in the shining vestures of immortality, he walks a royal soul in the republic of the gods. Jesus was born a peasant. Mary was good and pure- minded. Joseph was a country carpenter. Judea, geo- graphically insignificant, and numerically small, was at this time in a condition of political and religious decadence. The whole land had nothing to inspire faith. Its shekinah was eclipsed, its prophets dumb, and its very memories like the embalmed mummies of Mizraim. An alien race sat upon the Syrian throne. A Roman oflBcial presided in the judgment-hall. Roman soldiers paraded the streets, Roman officers levied and collected the taxes, and Roman coins circulated in the markets. The Jews at this period were narrow, selfish, proud. Hatred of Gentiles was a virtue ; help for suffering foreigners, little better than a crime. Religion was a form ; fasts fashionable ; and a broad cosmo- politan charity unknown. Jesus lacked early culture. John and James were scholars. Though uneducated in dialectics and the classics, Jesus was nevertheless clairvoyant, clairaudient, and mar- velously intuitional. Accompanied by a legion of heavenly angels, he stood above human laws, a law unto himself, unique, emotional, incomparable. The schools of the rabbis being but conservatories of traditions, Jesus, inspired by his spirit-guides, traveled in foreign countries, Eg^^pt, Assyria, Persia, studying the mj^steries of the seers, and listening to the voices of ascended gods. He sat at the feet of rehgious mystics. Magi, and gymnosophists ; Plato, at the feet of orators and logicians. Jesus, whose daily psalm was love, 338 AEOUND THE WORLD. whose touch was a blessing, and presence a benediction, cultivated the sympathetic, tlie self-denying, the religious faculties; but Plato the perceptive and the philosophical. Centuries have rolled into the abysmal past. Now millions march under the banner of the cross, made memorable by the martyrdom of that religious enthusiast and radical Palestinian reformer. The once thorn-crowned Jesus Christ is now companioned with those celestial angels, the presence of which make radiant the kingdom of God. The pre- eminent greatness of Jesus consisted in his fine harmonial organization ; in a constant overshadowing of angelic influences ; in the depth of his spirituality and love ; in the keenness of his moral perceptions ; in the expansiveness and warmth of his sympathies ; in his unshadowed sincerity of heart ; in his deep schooling into the spiritual gifts of Essenian circles and Egyptian mysteries ; in his soul- pervading spirit of obedience to the mandates of right manifest in himself ; in his unwearied, self-forgetting, self- sacrificing devotion to the welfare of universal humanity, and his perfect trust in God. CHKISTIAN TEACHINGS BEFORE THE TLSIE OF JESUS CHRIST. The patriarch Abraham, when returning from the " slaughter of the kings," convicted of the sin of war, met Melchisedec, King of Salem, priest of the most high God, and received his blessing. Abraham, conscious of the superiority of this so-considered " heathen " King of Salem, King of Peace, paid tithes, giving him at once " a tenth of all." But " who was Melchisedec ? " Why, he was the king of some contiguous nation, the peace-king of Salem, the baptized of Christ ; in a word, a Christian. This Christ- spirit, or Christ-principle, is truly " without father or mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, a continually abiding priest." There were Christians in those pre-historic periods, Christians in golden ages past. Christians long before the THE CHRISTIANITY OF THE AGES. 339 Old Testament patriarchs traversed the plains of Shinar, and Christians who spoke the ancient and mellifluous Sanscrit. Many of the most genuine and self-sacrificing Christians on earth to-day are Brahmans and Buddhists. All great souls, under whatever skies, and in whatever period of antiquity, baptized by the Christ-spirit of peace, purity, and love, and illumined by the divine reason, were Christians. Dean Milman admits that " If we were to glean from the later Jewish writings, from the beauti- ful aphorisms of other Oriental nations which we can not fairly trace to Christian sources, and from the Platonic and Stoic philosophy, their more striking precepts, we might find, perhaps, a counterpart to almost all the moral sayings of Jesus." * Bigandet, the Roman Catholic bishop of Ramatha, and apostolic vicar of Ava and Pegu, says, — " There are many moral precepts equally commanded, and enforced in common, by both the Buddhist and Christian creeds. It will not be deemed rash to assert that most of the moral truths prescribed by the gospel are to be met with in the Buddhistic Scriptures. ... In reading the particulars of the life of the last Buddha, Guatama, it is impossible not to feel reminded of many circumstances relating to our Saviour's life, such as it has been sketched out by the Evangelists, "f St. Augustine, treating of the origin of Christianity, afl&rms that — "The thing itself, which is now called the Christian religion, really was known to the ancients, nor was wanting at any time from the beginning of the human race, until the time when Christ came in the flesh; from whence the true religion, which had previously existed, began to be called Christian ; and this in our day is called the Christian religion, not as having been wanting in former times, but having in latter times received its name. " * Dean Milmau, Hist. Christiauitj', B. 1. i.. >v. § 3. t Bisaauet, Life of Buddha, p. 494. 340 AROUND THE WORLD. The Emperior Hadrian, writing to Servianus, while visit ing Alexandria, and referring to the religion of the old Egyptians, assures us that — " The worshipers of Serapis are also Christians; for I find that the priests devoted to him call themselves the bishops of Christ." Clemens Alexandrinus, so eminent in the early Church, admitted that — " Those who lived according to the true Logos were really Christians, though they have been thought to be atheists, as Socrates and Heraclitus amonsr the Greeks." •^& The Rev. Dr. Cumming of London, in his discourse upon the " Citizens of the New Jerusalem," says, — " It is a mistake to suppose that Christianity began only eighteen hundred years ago: it began nearly six thousand years ago: it was preached amid the wrecks of Eden." The Rev. Dr. Peabody (Unitarian) pertinently asks, — " If the truths of Christianity are intuitive and seK-evident, how is it that they formed no part of anv man's consciousness till the advent of Christ ? " The learned Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen, whom I had met several times both in London and Calcutta, said in a discourse just previous to leaving England for India, — "The Hindoo, therefore, who believes in God, is a Christian. If purity, truth, and self-denial are Christian virtues, then Christianity is everywhere where these virtues are to be found, without regard to whether the possessors are called Christians, Hindoos, or Mohammedans. Hence it comes that many Hindoos are far better Christians than many who call themselves so. The result of my visit is, I came as a Hindoo, I retm-n a confirmed Hindoo. I have not accepted one doctrine which did not previously exist in my mind. " This ra'ional position lifts the Christianity of the ages out of the slough of sect, out of the realm of the partial, and THE CHRISTIANITY OF THE AGES. 341 places it upon the basic foundation of the universal. Seen from this sublime altitude, all true Spiritualists are Chris- tians, recognizing the evangelist's affirmation, that " Christ had a glory with the Father before the world was ; " and, furthermore, that " Christ is the chief among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely." THE MEDITERRANEAN AND ITS ISLANDS. The sapphire waves of the Mediterranean, ripphng under cloudless sliies in star-lit hours, lift the thoughts to the " isles of the blest." A shade deeper than the sky, the islands that stud these waters called to mind early readings of the East. Rhodes, — " Laudabant alii claram Rhodon," as Horace •sings, the sunny Rhodes of which Pliny records that the Rhodians never lived a day without seeing the sun ; and Scio, that may have been the birthplace of Homer as well as any •other of the nine cities that contend for the honor, — these., and other isles, gladdened my vision. In Cyprus, held by Egyptians and Iranians before the time of Greece, excavators have recently discovered a colos- sal statue of Hercules, holding before him a lion. It was found at the old town of Amathus, said to have been colon- ized by the Phcenicians. We anchored off Syra, a beautiful isle, set in a sea smooth and green as polished malachite. Here was born Pherecydes, one of the oldest Greek writers. Rhodes will remain ever connected with the Knights of St. John, and the Colossus, one of the seven Avonders of the world. Overthrown by an earthquake, it remained where it fell for over nine hundred years ; ultimately it was cut up for old metal, and -borne away by the Mohammedans. Its size was doubtless greatly exaggerated by Greek visitors. This island has much to interest antiquarians. Syracuse, founded in 734 by the Corinthians under Archias, upon the ruins of an ancient Phoenician settlement, is all aglow with 342 AROUND THE WORLD. classical memories. It was the most extensive of the Hellenic cities. Strabo states that it was twenty-one miles in circumference. Connected with its history were such men as ^schylus, Pindar, Epicharnius, Thrasybulus, Dionysius, Demosthenes, and Archimedes, slain by a soldier who did not know his value either as mathematician or philosopher. The modern Greeks, peopling these islands, have the rep- utation of being the worst exaggerators on earth. They are generally tall, having fine complexions, sharp noses, and still sharper eyes. Their perceptive are much larger than their reflective brain-organs. Like the Jews, and not very unlike Americans, money is their god. On deck are a few Nubians, dark as night ; Syrians, with Jewish visages ; several Cretans ; one Arab trader, tall, thin, and withered ; and two or three Armenians, who are more European in their characteristics. The strange garments of these people are more diversified than their complexions. To a travel- ing pilgrim, how frail and fickle seem fashions ! Who are those that summer and winter under the fez, the turban, or pointed hood, under those flowing trousers, embroidered vests, red sashes, and multiformed cloaks, sacks, and robes ? What are their aspirations and life employments ? These are the practical questions that throng the mind. They are brothers of Oriental lands, brothers with the same beat- ing, pulsing hearts as ours, and destined to the same immor- tahty. SIMYKNA. ' ' And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write, These things Kaith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive: I know thy works, and tribulation and poverty. . . . Behold, the Devil shaU cast some ot j-ou into prison that ye may be tried. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer : but be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. — John the Revelator. Smyrna, golden with the memories of early Christian teachings, sits to-day like a queen upon the border-lands of the Orient. THE CHRISTIANITY OF THE AGES. 343 Our entrance into the broad, beautiful bay was just before sunset. The city lies at the very extremity, and partly upon the hill-side to the right, as you approach the shore. The site of ancient, historic Smyrna was on the left, at the foot of the mountains, and some little distance from the modern. Earthquakes have effected serious changes in much of the topography of this country. The Mediter- ranean at this and other points is continually receding. Excepting Constantinople, Smyrna is the most important commercial city in the Turkish Empire. Though sending large quantities of opium yearly to the United States, most of its export trade is carried on with Great Britain, consist- ing of cotton, carpets, wool, fruits, and opium. This latter article is raised extensively in the back country, and brought in upon camels for exportation, after inspection. How, in what way, is so much of it used in America ? Passing the Greek church, a modern structure, the Arme- nian houses, and a drove of burdened camels, to the sub- urbs of the city, I commenced ascending the hill towards the old castle, accompanied by a dragoman. It was nearly noon when I reached the tomb of Poly carp, the ancient Smyrnian bishop, the good Christian martyr, the acquaint- ance and fervent admirer of the Apostle John. This tomb,^ held semi-sacred by both Mohammedans and Christians, overlooks the one hundred and fifty thousand souls that constitute the present city of Smyrna. Every thing in this country — cloths, fruits, potatoes, vin- egar, firewood — is bought and sold by the pound. The figs and grapes oi Smyrna are famous for size, quality, and aliun- dance. It seemingl}^ adds to the exquisite flavor of olives, oranges, and figs, to pluck them fresh from the trees. This I was privileged to do in several fields and gardens in Smyrna and the Grecian Isles. Doubtless the best figa lever see America. There are a number of j)rominent Spiritualists in Smyrna. Among the most active are C. Constant and M. E. H. Rossi 344 AROUND THE WORLD. Calling at Mr. Constant's palatial residence, in front of which is a beautiful garden fringed with fig, lemon, and orange trees, we were, after taking our seat upon a most inviting divan, treated to a cup of Turkish coffee, fruits, and delicious preserves. This is the Oriental custom. Every- where in the East, hospitality is as profuse as commendable. The Smyrnian bazaars, though much inferior, are very similar to those in Constantinople. One Turkish city typi- fies all others, — dirt, filth, decay, narrow streets, and a mixed population. How sad that such a profusion of fruit- age, that such a clear atmosphere and sunny sky, should Look down upon so much stagnant, dozing shiftlessness ! When Americans have peopled the prairies and the broad millions of the Far West, they may safely turn their eyes towards Asia Minor, and the over-estimated desert-lands of the Orient. CLIMATE AND COSTUMES. The Smyrnians, like multitudes in the East, seem to live out of doors. The warm climate invites to a free and easy life. They eat but little meat, subsisting almost entirely upon vegetables and fruits. Dining at the hospitable home of Consul Smithers, there came upon the table, after soup, fish, and other courses, seedless sultana raisins, different varieties of nuts, grapes, pomegranates, figs, apricots, and delicious oranges. Asia Minor is certainly the paradise of fruits. The variety of costumes renders a walk in the streets exceedingly interesting. With the national Greek or Alba- nian, the costume consists of a high fez, with a long blue tassel, red jacket with open sleeves, and richly embroidered ; shht with wide and flowing sleeves ; a leathern belt, with a pouch ; short pantaloons and white fustanella. The Turk- ish costume is somewhat similar, only they wear short, wide trousers, dark-colored jackets, and shoes with buckles. The fez is almost universal. The old style of turl^an is seen only engraved upon tombstones, or worn on the heads of THE CHRISTIANITY OP THE AGES. 345 old men in the back country. Some of the young Turks wear the French style of hats. The Persians wear tall, pyr- amidal-shaped turbans ; and all wind sashes around their waists. Strangers generally engage a " cavasse," — that is, a sort of Turkish guide, having a certain police power. Going back into the country, these are necessary, as there are Greek brigands lurking in the mountains. The " ca- vasse," clothed in full authority, doffs a tall Turkish fez, sack-legged trousers, mock jewelry, flowing mantle lined with fur, a belt with three pistols, several knives and dirks, and a sword dangling by his side. One far away from the city is in doubt which to most fear, — the guide, or the mountain brigands. Nothing, for a time, more attracted my attention off in the country from Smyrna, than the camels, — patient, faithful creatures ! Sometimes there were hun- dreds in a train, each following the other, led by a lazy Turk astride a donkey, and all heavily burdened with cotton, madder-root, olive-oil in goat-skins, opium, figs, and other products from the interior. The caravans farther east are more extensive, and exceedingly profitable in their line of traffic. EPHESUS, AND THE APOSTLE JOHN. " Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks : " I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil : and how thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars. " Thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate. . . . " To the angel of the church in Thyatira write, ... I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants. . . . " Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out : and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which Cometh down out of heaven from God : and I will write upon him my new name. " And I will give him the morning star." — John the Revelatob 346 AROUND THE WORLD. Sailing up the Mediterranean I saw Samos, — literally *' sea-shoie height." This island, at an early period of his- tory, was a powerful member of the Ionic Confederacy. Pythagoras left it, to travel in foreign countries, under the government of Polycrates. A future view of this classic isle from St. Paul's prison and Mount Prion, around which was grouped ancient Ephesus, famed as the seat of the most eminent of the old Asian churches, was very fine. Not far distant was the beautiful island of Cos, with its mountainous peaks, vine-clad hillsides, and pleasant-appearing homes, embowered in evergreen foliage. And there peered above the horizon Patmos, sainted Patmos, seat of John's visions and revelations. Banished from the world's bustle, and fre- quently in the " spirit on the Lord's Day," he became the recipient of truths and illuminations that streamed in glory down through all the sunrise hours of the Christian dispen- sation. Determined to see the ruins of this old Ionian city, Ephe- sus, once noted for its commercial prosperity, for its stadium, theaters, and Temple of Diana, as well as for the place where the Apostle John spent his last years, I left Smyrna Nov. 7, 1870.* It was sixty miles distant to Isaalouke, a disagreeable Arab town. The English own this railway. An hour's ride on wretched horses dropped us down with a party of pilgrims to the rim of the Ephesian ruins. The original city was evidently built around the base of Mount Prion. Crumb- ling remnants of custom-house and ware-houses are yet visible. But the Mediterranean waters have so receded, that bay, harbor, and landing have given place to a broad basin covered with grasses and weeds, through which winds a small serpentine stream. The employees of J. T. Wood were putting down shafts between Prion and St. John's * Descriptions in this volume relating to Smyrna, Ephesiis, Ct)nstantino- ple, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Hercnlaneum, &e., are taken from notes made iiiring a previous \Tlsit to Europe, Turkey, and Asia Minor. THE CHRISTIANITY OF THE AGES. 347 Church, in search of Diana's Temple, which was in process of completion when Alexander passed into Asia, 335 B.C. This temple was erected to succeed the one set on fire the night of Alexander's birth, 356 B.C. The labors of Mr. Wood were crowned with success ; and portions of those magnificent columns may now be seen in the British Muse- um, with the gods and goddesses of that period, beautifully modeled and chiseled. THE apostle's BURIAL-PLACE. A pilgrim under a scorching Asian sky, resting, I leaned upon one of the pillars that Christian and Moslem tradition unit€ in declaring marks the Apostle John's tomb. It was a consecrated hour. While standing by his tomb, on the verge of Mount Prion, looking down upon the marbled seats of the Ephesian theater, — relic of Hellenic glory, — with my feet pressing the soil that once pillowed the mortal remains of the " disciple that Jesus loved," ere their removal to Rome, no painter could transfix to canvas, no poet con- ceive suitable words to express, my soul's deep emotions. The inspiration was from the upper kingdoms of holiness ; the baptism was from heaven ; the robe was woven by the white fingers of immortals ; while on the golden scroll was inscribed, ' Tfie first cycle is ending : the winnowing angels are already in the heavens. Earth has no secrets. What of thy stewardship? Who is ready to he revealed? Who, tvho shall abide this second coming ? Who has overcome ? Who is enti- tled to the mystical name and the tvhite stone ? Gird on thine armor anetv, and teach in trumpet tones that the pure in hearty the pure in spirit only^ can feast upon the saving fruitage that burdens the tree of Paradise.^^ From the summit of Mount Prion, the Isle of Samos may be distinctly seen. Gazing at this in the distance, and nearer to the winding course of the little Cayster towards the sea, at the scattered remnants of temples, mar- ble fragments, broken friezes, and relics of every description, 348 AROUND THE WORLD. I could not help recalling the prophetic warning of John, in the Book of Revelation, " I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent" (Rev. ii. 5). It is generally admitted that the Apostle John lived to one hundred and four years of age ; and all we know of his later days is linked with Ephesus, — accurately described by Herodotus, Pausanius, Pliny, and others, — outside the records of the Church fathers. It is not known how long St. John resided in this portion of Asia : suffice it, that his memory still lingers here, enshrined even in the Turkish name of the squalid village about two miles from the ruins of the old Ephesian city, " Aya%olouke^'' which is a corrup- tion of the Greek " Agios Tlieologos^'''' the holy theologian, the name universally given to this apostle in the Oriental Church. The mosque here, which is magnificent, even though in partial ruin, was undoubtedly an ancient Christian church, probably the identical one which the Emperor Justinian built on the site of an older and smaller one, dedicated in honor of St. John, who at Ephesus trained the disciples Polycarp, Ignatius, and Papius to preserve and disseniinate apostolic doctrines in Smyrna and other cities of Asia. In the erection of this church edifice by Justinian, upon the spot where the venerable apostle preached in his declining years, were employed the marbles of Diana's temple. Vis- iting these scenes, Asian cities, and churchal ruins, strengthens my belief in the existence of Jesus, the general authenticity of the Gospels, and the profound love-riches of John's Epistles. It is the land of inspiration, of j)rophecy, and of spiritual gifts. Even the skeptical Gibbon, writing of the "seven churches in Asia," virtually admits the fulfill- ment of the apocalyptic visions. (Gibbon's " Decline and Fall," chap. Ixiv.) Eusebius and others tell us of the profound reverence that all the early believers in the doctrines of Jesus had THE CHEISTIANTTY OF THE AGES. 349 for this aged and loving saint, who sorrowed with Christ in the garden, stood by him at the cross, received in charge Mary the mother of Jesus, and clairvoyantly beheld him ascend to the homes of the angels. This sentence from his pen will live for ever: " God is love." When he had become too weak and infirm to walk to the old jDrimitive church edifice in Ephesus, his admirers, taking him in their arms, would bear him thither : and then, with trembling voice, he could only say, *'• Little children, love ye one another." These and other well-attested historic recollec- tions, rushing upon my mind, lift me on to the Mount of Transfiguration. The sun of the New Testament epistles is John, — the sainted John, that lovingly leaned upon Jesus' bosom. In youth he was my ideal man. To-day He is that angel in heaven whom I most love. Not Arabia, then, nor Pales- tine, but classic Ephesus, is my Mecca. The poet Joaquin Miller sings thus oi the " Last Sup- per : " — " Ah ! soft was their song as the waves are That fall in low, musical moans ; And sad, I should say, as the winds are That blow by the white gravestones. What sang they ? What sweet song of Zion, With Christ in their midst like a crown ? While here sat Saint Peter, the lion ; And there, like a lamb, with head dowji, — Sat Saint John, with his silken and raven Rich hair on his shoulders, and eyes Lifting up to the faces unshaven Like a sensitive child in surprise. CHAPTER XXIX. TURKEY EN" ASIA. — IONIA AND THE GREEKS. The ancient cities of Ionia were wonderfully well situated foi the growth of commercial prosperity. The Greeks of 'o-day have superior talents for finance, and all else that relates to sharpness and downright persistency. They cher- i^ih ardent expectations of becoming some day the masters of the Mediterranean. To this end, with an eye on Constanti- nople, they are busy in devising schemes for the more com- plete consolidation of their empire. For acuteness, shrewd- ness, and exaggeration, the}' are said to excel any people in the world. It is a common saving in Levantine cities, " He I/O ' lies like a Greek.'* The modern Greeks are handsome. They step quick, are gay and airy, have clear complexions, classical faces, fine frames, and a noble carriage, that constantly excites increas- ing admiration. Their national costume, a seeming blending of Scotch and Turkish, is quite indescribable, though, on the whole, decidedly Oriental. They are fond of heavy cloaks, long gaiters, close-fitting trousers, fancy colors, and all picturesque effects. Proud of their past history, they delight to remind the citizens of the Occident that the great- est man the Teutons ever had tells us, " The sun of Homer shines upon us still ; " and another eminent man of the Anglo-Saxon race informs us that " it is Plato's tongue the civilized world is even now speaking, and Plato's landmarks that fix the boundaries of the different provinces TURKEY IN ASIA. — IONIA AND THE GREEKS. 351 of art and science." During the past forty years the Greeks have built over three thousand villages, fifty towns, and ten capitals. In Athens, in all the isles of the Archi- pelago, where the Greeks have either a governmental foot- hold or influence, strenuous efforts are being made to revive the written lano-uag^e of the country, — the old Hellenic. The Greek language they now use bears far more resem- blance to ancient Greek, than does the present Italian to Latin. The periodicals printed in Athens to-day may be read with perfect ease by such scholars as are well acquainted with the Greek of Xenophon and other classical writers of that period. The Greeks and Turks are implacable enemies all throucfh the East. In the Levantine cities, each reside in their own quarters. If they mingle, it is for trade and trafi&c. Both need to learn that "in Christ Jesus," — that is, the Christ-principle of brotherhood, — " there is neither Jew nor Greek," but all are heirs of a common Father's care and inheritance. " God," said the apostle, " is no respecter of persons." CONSTANTINOPLE. It was in the gray of early morning that we sailed calmly along the Dardanelles. Oh the glory of that October morn- ing ! The ideal becomes the real. The sun now colors the eastern sky with gold. Rising, it tips and turns the mina- rets to fire. The buildings, the vessels, the mosques, are all illuminated. Surely we may exclaim with Byron, — " ' Tis the clime of the East, 'tis the land of the sun." If Genoa has been called the proud, and Naples the beau- tiful, Constantinople may rightly claim for herself the title of magnificent. Seated in gardens upon one of seven hills, it is not strange that Constantine should have desired to move the capital of the Roman Empire to the site occupied by the imperial city. No soul alive to the beautiful in na- ture, or the exquisite in art, could fail of admiring its lofty 352 AEOUND THE WORLD. and imposing position, its domes, its minarets, its sheltering groves of cypress, its hills in the distance, now crimsoning into the sear of autumn, and the blue waters that lie at the feet of these Moslem splendors. The Golden Horn is all that pen painters have pictured it. The Sea of Marmora is deep and beautiful. Hardly a ripple danced upon its surface during our passage over its crystal depths. What a magnifi- cent harbor it would make, with Constantinople for the central capital of Europe, Asia, and Africa ! How rich in historic association is this city crowned with mosques ! Belisarius sailed from here into Africa, and along the Italian coast, while Justinian in 553 was erecting the present St. Sophia. On the opposite Asian shore, at Scutari, the Persians, after their conquests in Egypt and Sjrria, sat for a dozen years threatening the city. Here Tartars, Turks, and Croats first planted their unwelcome footsteps in Europe, inspiring the beginning of those fearful crusades. The first passed through Constantinople in 1097, Alexis reigning. About the year 1200, Baldwin conquered the city ; and in the fourteenth century the Ottomans in Asia Minor laid the foundations of the empire that now extends so far into Eu- rope. In 1453 Mohammed II. entered this Christian city in great triumph, and transformed it as if by magic into a Moslem capital. It is said by the historian, that, entering the gates, he steered straight for St. Sophia, to discover the priests who were hiding in the cathedral. They having escaped by a subterranean passage, he hacked off the head of the brazen serpent with his sword, to manifest his hate of images, and all forms of idolatry. WALKS IN THE CITY. How true of this great cosmopoHtan city of a million souls or more, that " distance lends enchantment to the view " ! On the deck of the ship in the harbor, the gigantic tower at Pera, the flotilla upon the Golden Horn, the Bosphorus with its suburban viUiges, the palaces of the sultan, the archi- TURKEY IN ASIA. IONIA AND THE GREEKS. 353 te< coral effects of the mosques shooting up like marble pillars, the dark plumes of the cypresses, the peopled hill sides upon the Asian coast, and the stately, massive hospital, scene of Florence Nightingale's noble, womanly work during the Crimean war, thrilled my soul with intense delight. But landing, and seeing the ruin, the filth, the dogs in the streets, the mixture of races, the crowded, dirty bazaars, our poetry speedily chilled to rigid prose. Surely, — " Things are not what they seem." DecHne and decay characterize the sluggish Turkish na- tion. A deathly torpor has seized its vitals. It is truly the " sick man " of the Orient. Russia wants the vast domain. England and France say, " Hands off! " Germany and the central nations of Europe, think it well to maintain the bal- ance of power as it is. May not the modernized phase of Turkish theology have something to do with this stupor ? The Moslems are fatalists. One article of their faith reads thus : * — " It is God who fixes the will of man, and he is therefore not free in his actions. There does not really exist any difference between good and evil; for all is reduced to unity, and God is the real author of the acts of mankind." " The old Turk residing in the interior of the empire," said Mr. Brown, secretary of the American Legation, "is a very different man from these modern Turks that linger around the capital. The former wears his full trousers and flowing robes, surmounts his head with the old-fashioned turban, winds his shawl or girdle around his waist, carries his pipes and pistols, prays to Allah five times a day, and, despising trick, treachery, and duplicity, is sincere and truth- ful." In ])oint of honesty, truthfulness, and self-respect, nearly all travelers unite in saying that the Mussulmans of the Ori- ent are superior to Christians, — the Christian masses of * See J. P. Brown's Derv.; p. 11. 354 AROUND THE WORLD. Italy, Spain, Russia, or even England. " Behold the cres- cent ! " fiay the Mohammedans : " see how it has triumphed over the cross. Is not Allah great ? " For nearly twelve cen- turies Mohammed and the Koran have held the religious and political destinies of the East ; and at this hour Islamism is rapidly extending in Northern Asia, Central Africa, and along the borders of the Caspian Sea, affirming there is " one God^ and Mohammed is his apostle ! " TURKISH HOSPITALITY. It requires little physical labor to live in these Eastern countries. Hills and plains are burdened with fruits. The climate invites the people to out-of-door life, which cheapens home, and renders them content with slovenly and ill-fur- nished accommodations. The Turks are justly famed for their hospitality. Enter- ing one of their low, flat-roofed houses in the country, they immediately bring a cup of coffee, and exclaim with great earnestness, " My father is your slave, my mother your bondwoman, my wife your servant : my home is yours, — all I have is yours." This, of course, is Eastern, and to some degree figurative ; but they really mean by it generosity and hospitality. Besides the dragoman and donkey, it costs little or nothing to travel in Asia Minor. Expenses, however, are increasing each year. Europeans are teaching the Orientals shrewdness and selfishness. LANGUAGE. — SOCIAL CUSTOMS. — WORSHIP. The Turkish language is made up of some two parts Ara- bic, one Persian, one Tartar, and the remainder from the Turkistan dialect, a difficult language to learn. The Arabic, a magnificent language, is termed by linguists the Latin of the East ; the Turkish is compared to the French ; and the Persian to the Itahan, liquid and flowing. The Turk never eats with his wife. " Man was first made, then woman,'^ says Paul. This the Mohammedan quotes as TURKEY IN" ASIA. — IONIA AND THE GREEKS. 355 glibly as the Christian minister produces other passages from this apostle to bear against woman. No good Mohammedan touches swine's flesh, or wines of any kind : these alcoholic diinks he terms " fire-draughts of hell." If you reprove them for polygamy, thej- at once refer you to the practices of Abraham, Jacob, Solomon, and other biblical characters praised by Christians. The government of Turkey is an absolute monarchy. The sultan's will is law. He is the supreme head of the Mohammedan faith. These Mohammedans believe that the Koran came direct from heaven, through the Angel Gabriel, and that divine inspirations came to Mohammed from Allah the same as in past times to Jesus and Moses. I visited a large number of mosques. Taking off the shoes before entering is expected and demanded. The imams (priests), facing Mecca, lead in the prayers to the one God, — Allah. Their sermons are highly moral, explaining the Koran, and its relation to the Old and New Testaments. Mohammed, though permitting aplurahty of wives in imitation of the Hebrew patriarchs, recom- mended but one. Extravagance is thinning the ranks of the harems. Few Turks care to support more than one wife to display her richly-colored garments in the bazaars. Though silks, satins, and fine plain merino cloths, are worn, the Levantine women, as well as those of the extreme East, are as fond of gay trim- mings as they are of their ease. French styles are rapidly creeping into all Turkish countries. The muezzin's calls sound from the minarets of the mosques five times a day, — at the break of morning, at twelve o'clock, at two hours before sundown, at the going-down of the sun, and again two hours after sunset. We recollect ascending the minaret of a mosque, that, like most of the ancient structures of the East, had long passed its age of beauty. The Oriental coloring had faded ; the pavements were sunken, and the mosaics crumbling, and dropping from 356 AROUND THE WORLD. the wall. Still the lofty higlit, the majesty of the columns, the immense dome, deeply impressed us, and will other beholders for centuries to come. It was near the hour of twelve. Soon the muezzin came out from near the summit of the minaret, summoning to pra^'er in these words: '■'• Allah ahhar, Allah akhar. La illah il Allah, 3Iohammed resoul Allah, Allah akhar^ (God is great. There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God. Come to praj^er ; come to security and peace. God is most great : there is no God but God.) They intone these prayer words of invitation in a plaintive, half-singing style, often varying them to suit the occasion. In the morning they usually cry, '• Awake, awake and pray. It is better to pray than to sleep. There is but one God, AUah." At noon the piteous, pleading voice falls upon them, " God is great ; the world is wicked. Come to prayer. There is but one God, Allah the merciful." It is almost an absolute impossibility to convert a Moham- medan to evangelical Christianity. They can not subscribe to the Trinity ; can not comprehend how Jesus Christ can be " ver}^ God," and yet the " Son of God ; " can not understand how Jesus existed before his mother, and is of the same age as his Father. It is not quite plain to us ! TURKISH WOMEN". Polygamy, or any form of " social freedom " involving promiscuity, is a practical hell in any country. Envies and jealousies abound. The caliphs have for weary years main- tained more or less eunuchs as attendants in their harems. The general characteristics of Turkish women may be best studied on Moslem festival-days. They are not so reaUy dressed as draped in a flowing robe, over which hangs a loose mantle, nearly covering the lower portion of then- trousers. Their feet are small, and show very distinctly while walking. Over their yellow slippers they wear an ugly-looking overshoe, which they slip off • TURKEY IN ASIA. — IONIA AND THE GREEKS. 3")7 when going into a mosque to worship. Indulging in the luxuries of the Turkish bath, they have the appearance of being exceedingly neat. Notwithstanding their veils, and professed seclusion from society, there is no difficult}' in seeing them or their faces. Their features are generally small and delicate. Their veils are made of very trans- parent muslin, covering all but the eyes and upper por- tions of their neatly-painted cheeks. As a rule it is safe to infer this : the more symmetrical and beautiful the features, the more thin and gauze-like the veil. The time was when the facial veils of Turkish ladies were really opaque : now, unless the woman is exceedingly lean and ugly, they are as thin as those through which the blushes of American brides may be seen, really enhancing the beauty they pretend to conceal. Silly vanity is seen in all countries. Though these women's eyes are hazel and handsome, they sparkle with no great life-purpose ; their motions in walking are ungraceful ; their figures resemble bundles of foreign drapery ; and they are said by those who know them the most intimately to be exceedingly ignorant, helpless, insipid, and shiftless. Since polygamy is the rule, since they are the slaves of men's pleasures and passions, what otherwise could be expected? And these wives, these women, are to be future mothers. As the Turk, who can have many wives, can have but one mother, the sultan's mother is virtually queen. The mis- tress of the treasury is next in honor to the queen, filling an intermediate place between the sultan and women of the harem. The Turks are very fond of the blonde Circassians. Purchasing them is now forbidden. MOHAMIVIEDAN DERVISHES. What Shakers and Quakers are to evangelical Christians, dancing dervishes are to Mohammedans. They believe in A.llah, and in present inspirations and revelations. The 358 AROUND THE WORLD. elders are seers and celibates. Their lodges are retired homes. Their worship is unique ; their so-called dancing being more properly whirling. The healing dervishes, reducing themselves physically by subsisting upon two and three olives a day, perform the most remarkable deeds dur- ing their holy month of Ramazan. We saw them form their circle for the healing of the sick. When prepared by gesticulation, whirling motions, chants, and prayers, the sheiks, that is the elders, — healed by touch, by the use of " Mohammed's brass hand," and by treading, literally treading^ in this state of ecstasy, upon the crippled limbs and diseased bodies of the sick, some of which were infants. If disease were located in the eyes, throat, or brain, they pathetized them. The Crown Prince of Prussia stood by our side " unshod," after the Mohammedan custom, while witnessing the healings, and the magnetic and instrumen- tal .feats, of this primitive people in their consecrated room. Through my interpreter, who spoke Arabic and Syriac, as well as Turkish and English, I held long conversations with the sheiks concerning the origin of their orders, their worship, their visions, their knowledge of the spirit-Avorld,^ and their gifts of healing. SPIRITUALISM IN TURKEY. There are excellent mediums and many Spiritualists in Constantinople. During the winter season they hold regu- lar circles in Pera, the European part of the city. Writing and trance are the usual forms of manifestation. These spirits, with a few exceptions, teach re-incarnation. In- vited, we addressed the Spiritualists in the hall of the Chambre de Commerce. The attention they gave, and the interest they manifested, were truly inspiring. The Hon. John P. Brown, connected with the legation, and a thirty -years' resident of Turkey, I found to be a TURKEY IN ASIA. — IONIA AND THE GREEKS. 359 firm Spiritualist. In a letter written to the " Universe,'* he said, — "Many Moslems also fully believe in a power or faculty of the spirit of man to see, behold, or have an intuitive perception of, things invisible by the ordinary organs of sight. This assertion they sustain by the frequent examples of individuals having the most correct and exact knowledge of events occurring at a vast distance from them, — of visions in which they behold, like pictures passing before their eyes, scenes of which they have never had any previous knowledge or percep- tion. . . . These Turkish Spiritualists are always people of well-known pm-ity and virtue, animated with the highest degree of benevolence, and deeply interested in the spiritual welfare of others. This belief ia often acted upon and exercised in such a manner by others as to lead some persons to suppose that Spiritualism and animal magnetism are one and the same thing; for the pious Moslem believes that he can effect ciires, or at least give relief from bodily siifferings, by prayer, and the imposing of his hands on the invalid." TURKISH CHARACTERISTICS. Human nature is naturally good, yet subject to the influ- ences of environment. While there are good Turks — good in spite of their sectarian ecclesiasticism- — the majority of them, especially in cities and populous centres, are ignorant, selfish, bigoted and fanatical, hating both Hindoos and Chris- tians. They are slave-holders, polygamists and fatalists, believing in the Calvinism of predestination. Appointed b}^ Gen. Grant U. S. Consul in 1869 to a post in Asiatic Turkey, I write what I knew. Seeing and living in a given nationality is knowing. The stale story tossed about by atheistic jesters, that parcels and property left by the &treet-side or by shop-windows are perfectly safe in Turk- ish cities as " there are no Christians near," is as silly and spongy as it is false. No baser thieves live than the thieves of Mohammedan countries. No one having lived in Turkey, or traveled extensively in Northern India or Africa, will dis- pute this statement ; they are zealots and delight in Avar ; their motto is " down with the infidel " ; their recent Ar- menian butcheries reveal their real characteristics. Hindoos infinitely prefer English to Mohammedan rule. CHAPTER XXX. ATHENS. " Dream on sweei souls in purpling seas Till we reach the land of Pericles." In life's golden time, when listening to the acaderaic dec- lamations of students upon the heroism of the ancient Greeks, we dreamed of treading the shores of the classic land, — land once pre-eminent in poetry, philosophy, paint- ing, and the fine arts, and whose repubUcs voiced the heaven- winged words of equahty and freedom. But the Greeks of to-day are ancient Greeks no more. Civilizations move in cycles and epicycles. The Grecian mind has been tending downwards for full two thousand years. Its present glory consists of its ancient ruins. A wizard hand, grayed and grim, ever points backward to lost arts, lost grandeur ! Do we not remember Byron, whose lamp of life faded under the Grecian skies he so enthusiastically loved ? How musical his lines ! — " Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime, — Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle, Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime ? 'Tis the clime of the East, — tis the land of the Sun : Can he smile on such deeds as his children have done ? " Piraeus is the prominent port of Greece. Athens is five miles distant from this landing. There is a railroad. But here, Aere, is the once classic city. ATHENS. 361 Never can we forget our sensations when casting a first glance at the Acropolis. Passing up the Propillion, or srrand entrance, we had a fine view of Mars Hill, where Paul preached the "Unknown God" to the Athenians Two massive pillars of the Temple of Bacchus are still standing. There was a subterranean passage leading from this temple of mystic rites into the vast amphitheater. The Temple of Minerva and the Temple of the Winds are nearly piles of ruin. The Temple of the Muses, nine figures of choicest marble, must have been very beautiful. To the right of the Acropolis, massive and stately, is the Temple of Jupiter Olympus, many of whose proud columns, having defied the storms and devastating forces of time, remain as standing signals of architectural splendor and per- fection. England has rifled some of these old temples to supply its museums with models for modern sculptors and artists. AmonsT the most celebrated of the ancient oracles was Delphos. Princes and philosophers flocked thither for con- sultations. Upon the hights of Mount Parnassus stood the magnificent Temple of Apollo ; while at the foot was the spring of Castalia. Of this fountain, the Pythia, or priest- ess, drank : and in its crystal waters siie bathed before invoking the presence of the gods. Then clothing herself in white, emblem of purity, she was magnetized by spirits, and spoke under their influence. Nestling near the base of Mars Hill is the prison-cave where superstitious Greeks confined that ancient Grecian philosopher and Spiritualist, Socrates. The coarsely con- structed iron gate, nearly wasted away, is still shown the traveler. The dingy, chalky apartment seemed cut into the side of the hill, — a gloomy den to converse with a Crito and an Alcibiades. Greece and Judea awarded to their inspired teachers crosses and hemlock-draughts. Such was gratitude. Have the times, only in methods, materially changed ? 362 AROUND THE WORLD. It was our purpose to have visited the plains of Mara- thon ; the ruins of Corinth; the isle of Salamis, memora- ble for the great battle in which the Persian fleet of Xerxes was defeated by the Greeks 480 B.C. ; and Eleusis, which introduced the famous Eleusinian mysteries into Athens as early as 1356 B.C. ; but brigandage presented a formidable obstacle. Political outlaws are a perpetual scourge to the country. The government, though practically absolute, fails to institute and perpetuate law and order. In sorrow we turn from modern to ancient Greece. NAPLES. The Bay of Naples lifts the soul in thought to such shim- mering seas as are said to dot the summer-land scenery of angel realms. The city itself, crescent-formed, is backed by an amphitheater of hills and mountains, the rocky slopes of which are covered with sunny villas, and sprinkled with orange and lemon, with fig and oleander. Fanned by invigorating sea-breezes, and walled in the distance by the Apennines, Naples sits a very queen upon the edge of crys- tal waters, unrivaled for the beauty of her situation. The streets are paved with lava, and in the winter season thronged with strangers. Traveling the narrow sidewalks, one feels continually cramped, and sighs for the roomy promenades of prairie cities in the West. Terraced toward St. Elmo, some of the houses seem cling- ing to rocky cliffs. Certain streets actually lie hundreds of feet above their immediate neighbors. The dearth of fresh, handsome buildings, and modern works of art, creates a soul-longing, for which the magnificent discovery of Hercu- laneum and Pompeii, with their matchless treasures of antiquity, only in some measure compensate. The narrow, dingy streets, the high, palace-shaped, yet badly constructed dwelling-houses, with huge ii-on gates in fi'ont, flat roofs, and balconies projecting from nearly every window ; the never- rjeasing noise, the interminable ratthng of wheels during the ITALY. 363 hours of day and night ; the insolent importunities of cax- riage-drivers, with hordes of pitiable beggars combining the most cringing manners with malicious attempts and devices at extortion, — all present a life-picture any thing but attractive. GARIBALDI AND THE MONKS. Standing in the Palace Square one day with Signor Damiani, he pointed us to the balcony from which Garibaldi, in 1860, uttered this stirring sentence to an immense multi- tude : — " Brothers, believe me, the greatest foe to freedom, the greatest enemy of Italy, is the Pope of Rome." This liberator of the people, Garibaldi, drove into Naples, Sept. 6, in an open carriage, directly past the fortified barracks of the Carmine, where soldiers were still holding out for Francis II. Not a hair of his head was harmed. Victor Emmanuel offered to make him a duke, and give him a large pension. He declined the dukeship, declined ail honors, only caring to see Italy free, united, and happy. Moping, brown-garbed, barefooted monks, a class of men that neither work nor wash, are as thick in Naples and the adjoining country' as office-seekers in Washington. Ital}? was a clover-field for gowned monks, and a veritable para disc for priests, till Garibaldi, a few years since, partiallj aroused the people from their dream of submission. Thant God ! say students and the young Italians of to-day, the number of these churchal orders is lessenijig each year Many of these monks literally live by begging. Lifting their greasy caps, and exposing their shaved heads, thej plead by the wayside for a penny. Beggars and priests are the products of Roman Catholic Italy. Papal Rome is the hub of this ecclesiastic wheel. Out of between twenty and thirty millions of Italians, hardly seven millions can read and write ! The bare state- 364 AROUND THE WORLD. ment of such a fact, in connection with tlie stupid ignorance and wretched beggary of the middle and lower classes, is of itself a scathing condemnation of Roman-Catholicism. I had the honor of being present at the Anti-Council, or Congress of Free-Thinkers, called by Count Ricciardi, a Neapolitan deputy in Parliament, at Naples, on Dec. 8, 1869, the day on which was convoked the Council of the Vatican. Noble and high-minded as was this body of men, the police, interfering, dispersed the delegates. They met afterwards in secret. The Pope shorn of his temporal power, speech is now free in Naples. THE MUSEUM IN NAPLES. This massive building, commenced in 1587 as a university, was finally adapted by Ferdinand I., in 1790, to a museum. Enriched with Etruscan vases, papyrus manuscripts, and Egyptian antiquities, as well as recently excavated treasures from Pompeii and Herculaneum, it is one of the most inter- esting museums in the world. The library contains about two hundred and fifty thousand volumes, and nearly three thousand manuscripts, some of which date to the eighth and tenth centuries. What interested us more intensely was the antiquities found in Herculaneum and Pompeii, buried for nearly two thousand years. The surgical implements, agri- cultural implements, ear-rings, brooches, chains, combs, gold lace, and ornaments of every kind, show clearly to what a high state of civilization the Pompeiians had attained before the Christian era. Not only these, but loaves of bread with the baker's name thereon stamped, honeycomb, grains, fruits, eggs, bottles of oil and wine hermeticall}^ sealed by the Vesuvius eruption of 79, are now exhibited in a wonderful state of preservation in this museum. In the Royal Library attached to this building are more than seventeen hundred papyri found in Herculaneum. These, with nearly as many found in Pompeii, are being unrolled and deciphered, prepara- tory to pubhcation. ITALY. 365 POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM. Cinder-shingled Vesuvius buried these cities on the 24th of August in the year 79 of the Christian era. Their origin is lost in the misty regions of mytholog}^ They were prosperous and famous more than two thousand years since. Livy speaks of their harbors as " magnificent naval stations." Fifty years before the advent of the Nazarene, the geographer Strabo praised the excellence of Pompeii's grain and oils. Roman patricians had embellished adjoining landscapes with splendid villas. Marius, Pompej^, and Caesar had residences in these cities. Here, too, Cicero had a charming villa. He speaks of its beauty in a letter to Atticus, associating it with Tusculum. Pliny, the naturalist, was in charge of the Roman fleet stationed at Misenum when the catastrophe transpired. Striving to save others, he lost his life. To the younger Pliny are we indebted for a most graphic description of the scene. Ruthless as was this destruction, an index finger pointed to a compensation ; for, if Vesuvius destroyed, it also shielded and preserved. Beautiful are the paintings and statues Iaj)iUi-entomhed for nearly two thousand years. The excavations were commenced in 1748. During the exhumations, about one thousand bodies have been found, and with them papyrus, coins, cups, keys, necklaces, brace- lets, rings, seals, engraved gems, beautiful lamps, gauzy fabrics, and even well-preserved blonde hair. Pompeii is now almost completely unearthed. The res- urrection is quite perfect. It was good for me to be there. Walking its Roman-paved streets, I felt introduced to the citizens and customs of an ancient civilization. And yet Pliny characterized this period as the age of " dying art," — dying as compared with those artists, Apelles and Pro- togenes, living nearly five hundred centuries earlier. Pompeii and Herculaneum are bridges spanning the gap of centuries, and holding together as with a golden link 366 AROUND THE WORLD. two civilizations. Studying the wisdom of the ancients compels us to recognize the spiritual unity of the race, that grand central truth around which the moral world revolves. ITALIAN CHURCHES. The real pride of Italy is her relics and churches. They are certainly rich in the artistic work of the masters. These paintings excite the most lively feelings of taste and fancy, as well as intensify reflections of a deeper nature, connected with the illustrious of past centuries. Still for devotional purposes they do not compete with the Gothic structures of Northern Europe. Churches exhibit national character. Floods of sunbeams through stained glass, mosaic pavements, variegated pillars, costly ornaments, priestly robes, smoking incense, airs that breathe of gayety, and " Light quirks of music, broken and uneven, That waft the soul upon a jig to heaven," — are among the indispensables of joyous, impressional Italians. Italy's church-edifices to-day are absolutely magnificent ; but with the decline of Roman-Catholicism, and the increase of knowledge, they will gradually assume the Protestant type, ultimating into elegant places of resort for educational pur- poses and scientific lectures. ROME. And this is Rome, — proud, seven-hilled Rome ! The prin- cipal street is Corso. To the left of the Pincian Hill is the Tiber, rolling along its muddy tide as in old historic periods. Not far from its banks is the column of Trajan, and also that of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus one hundred and twenty-two feet high, and crowned with a statue of St. Paul; while there rises the dome of the Pantheon, and the cupolas and towers of costly churches. On the other bank of the Tiber, just over the bridge, is the massive tower of Hadrian's Mau- soleum, or Castle of St. Angelo ; and, beyond, the grand old ITALY. 36T Palace of the Vatican, ffom whence have gone edicts shak- ing kingdoms, and making crowned heads tremble. The population of the Eternal City is about one hundred and eighty-five thousand. Of this number, nearly ten thou- sand are ecclesiastics of some kind. Only think, — one to every eighteen of the people ! The streets are thronged with cardinals in scarlet, priests in shining black, and barefooted monks in hideous brown. On Christmas Day, 1869, there were seven hundred and sixty-five church dignitaries in the city, connected with the Ecumenical Council. Of these, there were fifty-five car- dinals, eleven patriarchs, six hundred and forty-seven pri- mates, archbishops, and bishops, six abbots, twenty-one mitred abbots, and twenty-eight generals of monastic orders. Never will the scene fade from our memory, of standing, and seeing these seven or eight hundred fathers of the Church reverently bow, and kiss the brazen toe of that ugly- visaged, speechless statue of Jupiter, christened St. Peter. Around Peter's tomb lamps are kept perpetually burning. Devout visitors to the Vatican, from America even, fre- quently kiss the genuine, though elegantly slippered, toe of the pope. The act is said to symbolize obedience and sub- mission. The kisses of the faithful have worn the cold foot of the bronze statue of St. Peter to the thinness almost of a knife's edge. Praying and kissing continually abound in St. Peter's, while without the templed walls beggars are plead- ing for crusts of bread. WANDERINGS IN" THE ETERNAL CITY. Rome must be judged by its own standard. It can not be compared with other great cities. It has no commerce, no manufactures, no enterprise, — nothing of what is considered essential to life in London or New York. It is the home of Popery, the center of a Judaized Christianity ; and hence its very life is death, —-the " second death," so difficult of resurrection. 368 AROUND THE WORLD. Roman mauufaclures consist of ecclesiastic bulls, edicts, commentaries, and creeds ; of mosaics, cameos, scarfs, and copies of pictures. She imports her cloths, cottons, railway materials, cutlery, china, carriages, and military weapons. Teeming with the accumulated treasures of ages, she encour- agingly allows her destitute children to be assisted by infidel foreigners, whose heretical books she confiscates, and whjse souls she consigns — or would, had she the power — to eternal torments. The Pantheon is one of the best preserved monumental buildings of this ancient cit}'. On the day of our visit, the Piazza was dirty, and crowded with market-women. Rome would do well to wash her devotees. The edifice has sixteen columns of granite ; each surmounted by a frieze and entab- lature, containing an inscription, wliich informs us that this " heathen temple " was founded by Agrippa, the friend of Augustus, 27 years B.C. The Coliseum is considered the greatest wonder of Rome. Its magnitude surpassed all my previous conceptions. The circumference of its area is over one-third of a mile. It has four stories, each of a different order, — the Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and the Composite, — terminating by a parapet. It is estimated that it would comfortably seat ninety thou- sand people. Masses of stones have been taken from these ruins to build palaces in the modern city; and yet the structure is so immense, their absence is hardly noticeable. The Coliseiun and Forum should be seen by moonlight, say travelers. Midnight hours might throw a mysterious drapery around these ruins, concealing their imperfections, and hightening their grandeur ; stillT am sufficiently practical to prefer sunlight and daylight. The Coliseum was com- menced in A.D. 72, by Vespasian, and comj)leted eight years after by Titus. Much of the work was done by cap- tive Jews. The opening festival scene, say historians, lasted a hundred days. Almost two thousand years has it stood a monument t3 Roman enterprise and muscular barbarity ITALY. 369 And yet recent excavations reveal pavements, marble statues, and finely finished granite columns, thirty feet below the level of the arena. Evidently there was a previous building of massive dimensions on this site, the constructors of which were pre-historic. ST. Peter's and the beggars. The first sight of this most gorgeous of earthly temples strikes the traveler with a sense of unspeakable grandeur. This increases with each succeeding visit, till you stand under the firmament of marble, and cast your eye along the richly-ornamented nave, along the statue-lined transepts, and up into that circling vault, — that wondrous dome, sup- ported by four piers, each 284 feet in periphery, and then you feast upon the fullness of its magnificence. The build- ing stands on a slight acclivity in the north-western corner of the city. It is built in the form of a Latin cross, the nave being in length 607 feet, and the transept 444 feet. The east front is 395 feet wide, and 160 feet high ; whilst the pillars composing it are each 88 feet high, and 8i in diame- ter. The hight of the dome, from the pavement to the top of the cross, is 448 feet. In front of the church there is a large piazza. The church occupies the place of Nero's circus, and is erected on the spot where St. Peter was martyred. It occupied a period of one hundred and seventy-six years in building, and required three hundred and sixty years to perfect it. It cost ten million pounds ; it covers eight English acres ; and is kept in repair at a cost of six thou- sand three hundred pounds per annum. Raphael's " Transfiguration " is in the Vatican. The great master put his soul into this production. It was his last work; and, while executing it, he seems to have been con- scious of standing upon the very verge of the summer-land. He died before finisliing it, at the early age of thirty-seven years. After the departure of this great master-painter, the "■ Transfiguration " was suspended over his corpse. He now canks a star in the art-galleries of heaven. 370 AROUND THE WORLD. But who are these ? Why such a troop of beggars at oui heels ? Is this not a Christian city ? Does not the vicegerent of Christ here reside ? Did not Peter and Paul here preach ? Was there not a special epistle addressed to £he Romans ? Did not Jesus command his followers to sell what they had, and give it to the poor, and follow him ? Is this the fruit of nearly two thousand years of Christian teaching and practice? When among the heathen Indians of the great north-west, with the Congressional committee, I saw little bes-dns : but here, near the feet of the visible Christ, Pius IX., I am surrounded by filth, beggars, and rags, or the scarlet of cardinals. While working for the downfall of Antichrist, my constant prayer is, " Thy kingdom come, and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Just under the shade of Pincian Hill, in a magnificent park, musical from flowing fountains, and dotted with palms and flowering-plants from the tropics, I took leave of Prince George de Solms, the personal kindnesses of whom I can never forget. Rome, its ruins and relics, its glory and its shame, I leave with the prayer of faith. If the pope has been pronounced " infalhble," his temporal power is o-one forever. Roman-Catholicism is waning in Europe ; and Rome, city of the Caesars, is dreaming of a resurrection. FLORENCE. Southern Europe is grim with the ghosts of dead cities. Florence, the glory of the middle ages, and formerly capital of Tuscany, is built in the form of a pentagon. Its popula- tion is something over one hundred and thirty thousand. This city was for a season the scene of the brave yet fiery Savonarola's labors. A kind of second Calvin, he was called the Catholic reformer of Florence. The pope trem- bled under liis thunderbolts. Through the city flows the Arno. The suburban eminences are crowned with charming villas interspersed with clumps of olive-trees. These grow in such luxuriance that they called out one of Ariosto's sweetest songs. ITAIiY. 371 Just out of this city, under cypress-trees shading a plain brown-marble monument, reposes all that is mortal of one who, not only in America, but in all enlightened lands, lives on earth immortal. The slab has only this : — THEODORE PARKER. Born at Lexington, Mass., U. S. A., Aug. 24, 1810. Died at Florence, May 10, 1860. Standing by the grave of this man, who was too broad for a sect, and too noble for a priest, strange and deep emotions thrilled my being's center ; and I was proud that I had per- sonally known him in life. Near by is the monument of Elizabeth Barrett Browning with simply the plain initials, " E. B. B." The inscription, exceedingly unassuming, seems a veritable prophecy from herself in these lines : — " A stone above my heart and head, But no name written on the stone." Among other distinguished Italians, I here met Girolamo Parisi, the editor and publisher of the " Aurora," a well- conducted periodical, printed in Florence, and devoted to Spiritualism, psychology, phrenology, and moral philosophy. Its pages are rich in sound, substantial teachings. In doc- trine, it accepts the re-incarnation system of the French school. Happy were the hours I spent in the society of Baron Kirkup. Encircled by distinguished men of rank, having a massive library of books treating of magic and the unsys- tematized philosophy of the mystics, and being a practical mesmerist withal, the baron was brought into the fold of Spiritualism over eighteen years since ; and he has never shrunk from a frank avowal of his principles. His daughter is the principal medium he consults. Some of the manifes- tations he has witnessed are absolutely astounding. 372 AROUND THE WORLD. Our poet Longfellow, attending a seance at Baron Kirk- up's residence, avowed himself a believer in the present ministry of angels. Appreciating the baron's labors in the restoration of the painting of Dante, there was conferred upon him by royal decree, La Corona cV Italia. He had previously been " knighted " by Victor Emmanuel. Spiritism is a fact, and so acknowledged by psychic re- search societies and the most erudite men of the age. It is a fact freighted with many frauds and fraudulent mediums. Let them be exposed — all of them be exposed. Let the tares be pulled up and -cast into the fire. I repeat, let them be exposed, wliether fraudulent mediums or fraudulent Christians in pulpits wearing the livery of Heaven. Li this matter we are a unit, dear brethren. But as the heavens are higher than the earth, so is Spirit- ualism higher than Spiritism. Spiritualism is a truth, and all truth is immortal, " I am the way and the truth and the life," said the Christ of Nazareth. Spiritualism is also a religion and a philosophy. It is the complement of primitive Christianity and tlie antidote to materialism. CHAPTER XXXI. EUROPE AND ITS CITIES. Oriental life has a never-ending charm ; the charm of beauty, of tropical freshness, and perpetual summer. Hum- boldt declares in his " Cosmos," that a man once residing in the spice-lands of the palm and the banana, the cactus and the orange, can never be content to live again in the colder latitudes. We reached this Austrian city, Trieste, the 15th of September. The cholera was prevalent, and the American consul absent in Vienna. Next to Naples, the harbor of Trieste is the most beautiful in Europe. The city is eminently commercial. Italian is the language most spoken. Nearly all nationalities may be seen in Trieste. The Greeks retain their turbans and flowing robes. Dark-haired, black- eyed Italians do the shop-keeping. Occasionally a German blonde threads the streets. The wealthier class of citizens reside in beautiful villas high up the mountain-side, and a little north of the city. Leon Favre, the Consul-General of France, and a devoted Spiritualist, resides in Trieste. Unfortunately he was absent. Happy were the hours we spent with this gentleman and scholar, several years since, in Paris. Signor G. Parisi, another eminent Spiritualist, whom we first saw in Florence, meeting us in the street, embraced us with a love paternal and fraternal. It is as customary in Southern Europe for men to embrace and kiss as for women. " Greet ye one another with a holy kiss " (2 Cor. xiii. 12). 374 AROUND THE WORLD. Capt. Richard Burton, noted in literature, known as a visitor to Mohammed's tomb, and a traveler in Africa, is the British consul in this city. So far as the captain has any- religious bias, it is towards Spiritualism. If he visits America next season, we may accompany him on a tour to Yucatan, and various ruins in South America. VENICE, QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC. " I heard in Venice sweet Tasso's song, By stately gondola borne along." This is decidedly an odd city, a city built upon over a. hundred little islands, a cit}^ with canals for streets. Only think of being taken from the depot, and rowed about the city in search of a hotel ; think of seeing front-doors open on to the water ; think of the queer taste that could select such a site for a city. Byron's ecstasies over Venice puzzle us. The Venetian Republic elected its first doge, or president, A.D. 697. Its armies ultimately conquered the Genoese. The hundred Catholic churches of Venice, though rich in paintings, look interiorly dark and gloomy ; the streets are narrow and tortuous ; the marbled palaces are grayed and grun ; and the " gay gondoliers," who propel those four thousand licensed gondolas, are very much like other men that Avork for money. By a Venetian law dating back three hundred years, the gondolas are painted black. This gives them a hearse-like appearance. The aristocratic classes have their palaces on the Grand Canal, and keep their gondolas as our wealthier citizens keep their carriages. The city lias three hundred and seventy-eight arched bridges of either iron or marble, and high enough for the passage of gondolas under them. To rehgionists, St Mark's Cathedral is the charmed center ; to poets and sentimentalists, the Bridge of Sighs, rendered famous in Byron's " Chikle Harold," — " I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs, A palace and a prison on each hand." EUROPE AND ITS CITIES. 375 The hundred old palaces gracing the Grand Canal are named after their founders. Many of them are magnificent even in decline. By paying a small fee, the doctor and self were permitted to stroll through one of these splendid palaces, so unique, so rich in furniture and paintings, golden mirrors, and specimens of antiquity. Venice boasts the largest painting in the world. Venetian ladies, going to church, wear veils upon their heads. The}'" are exquisite singers. Guides and gondoliers show the house from which Desdemona eloped with the Moor, and the residence of Shylock, who dealt so mercilessly with the Merchant of Venice. Enough of fiction : give us facts. JUL AN. Northern Italy is transcendently beautiful. Most of the distance from Venice through Verona to Milan presents a continuous scene of luxuriant vegetation. The fortified towns, the chain of mountains on our right, terraced with vinej^ards, the lovely Lake of Garda linking Italy to Austria,, and the irrigated lawns and landscapes, made our soul all the day sunny with gladness. Milan, considering the state of civilization and progress, is evidently the finest city in Italy, and the best-paved city in Europe. It is walled, with the gradings, gardens, and ornamental shrubbery so arranged that it seems surrounded with a park. The center of attraction to strangers is the world-renowned cathedral, a full description of which is impossible. To be appreciated it must be seen. Built in the form of a Latin cross, its length is four hundred and ninety feet, and its breadth one hundred and eighty feet. Its rich marble tracery, its forest of spires, its seven thousand statues, its aisles, pillars, and lofty arches, present a wilderness of magnificence absolutely indescribable. From the summit the Alps, with Mont Blanc in the blue distance, are clearly visible. As a monument of elegant and costly architecture, it must for ages stand unrivaled ; and yet it is but a pygmy compared with St. Peter's at Ro.ne. 376 AROUND THE WORLD. PARIS AND THE COMMUNE. Our route from Milan lay through Turin and Mont Cenis. Does not this Alpine tunnel — marvel of enterprise and engineering — prophesy of tunneling the English Channel? Paris, proudest city of Europe ! Previous visits to the French capital under Napoleon only fanned the desire to see it since the Prussian victories, and the reign of that Com- mune which raised its spiteful hand against palaces, monu- ments, works of art, and rare old libraries, — a Commune that madly fired its own city ! Strange way to actualize the grand theories of "liberty, fraternity, and equality," by obhterating all evidences of former genius and culture ! Arriving at Paris in early morning, the first glance showed no signs of the war, nor of Communistic vandalism. A longer stroll lifted the veil, and revealed the reality. The Tuileries, Hotel de Ville, Chateau du Palais-Royal, the Louvre, the library of the Louvre, and hundreds of other buildings, were either fired or burned to ashes. Men and women of the baser sort vied with each other in scattering petroleum and mineral oils. Parisians proved themselves worse enemies of France than Prussians. The Hotel de Ville was famous not less for its antiquity and architectural beauties than for having been the place where the mayor of Paris handed the tricolor cockade to good King Louis XVI. ; where they arrested Robespierre July 27, 1794 ; and where the festival was held of the mar- riage of Napoleon I. with Marie Louise. The pen that writes of Paris between the 18th of March and the 28th of May, 1871, should, to correspond with the scenes, be dipped in blood. Barbarians have burned cities, and annihilated the books and art-treasures they could not understand. But the Commune outdid this, destroying indiscriminately museums, libraries, and granaries. The burning of Paris was discussed and openly decided upon in the councils of the Commune. The decree was published EUROPE AND ITS CITIES. 377 in " The Official Journal." Rigault, Billivray, et al.^ spent their leisure with their mistresses ; while even Pascha! Grousset, appointed delegate for foreign affairs, gave him- self up with other leaders to bacchanalian excesses. While shouting, " Down with the house of Thiers, and confiscate his property," decrees went forth, " Use petroleum," " Re- peal all law," " Fire the churches," " Suppress the news- papers," "Abolish marriages;" and all this in the name of liberty, fraternity, freedom, — "social freedom," par excellence ! Doubtless the Thiers government was in some respects oppressive ; but did this justify the atrocities of the Com- mune ? Burning a barn to kill a weasel, demolishing a costly edifice to get rid of a wasp's nest under the eaves, would be a ranting diabohsm paralleled only in folly by French Communism. Excepting Flourens, the leading members of the Com- mune seemed inflated with ambition ; inspired with the love of money and pleasure, wine and women. The Franco-Prussian war, and the Commune, quite effec- tually ]3aralyzed Spiritualism. It is now re-gathering its scattered forces. At Mrs. Hollis's seance, held in the apart- ments of Mrs. Mary J. Holmes, near the Champs-Elysees, I had the pleasure of meeting that gifted author, Victor Hugo. He wept like a child when receiving a communication from a loved friend in spirit-life. ILLEGITIMATE CHTLDKEN. Official returns from Parisian hospitals last year showed, that, of the births in the city, fifteen thousand three hun- di-ed and sixty-six were illegitimate. Boxes called tours are established in various parts of Paris, each of which revolves upon a pivot, and, on a bell being rung, is turned around by the proper person inside, to receive the child that may have been deposited. No attempts are made to ascertain the par- ents. These children never know a father's care, a mother's love. Nurses are secured from the country. 378 AROUND THE WORLD. The suburban villas of Paris send into the foundling hos- pitals annually over four thousand of these illegitimate children, a largo portion of which are received by the Hos- pice des Enfants Assistes, founded in 1640. Virtually twenty thousand illegitimate children, abandoned by their parents, plead yearly in Paris for paternal recognition, and mater- nal tenderness, — plead in vain. This is the legitimate out- come of French socialism. GOETHE AND BARON GTJLDENSTUBBE. Neither genius nor true greatness can be entirely discon- nected from angel ministrations. Poets, philosophers, all, are inspired of the gods. The following, from " Lewes's Life of Goethe," refers to the poet's last hours : — " The next morning he [Goethe] tried to walk a little up and down the room, but after a turn he found himself too feeble to continue. Re- seating himself in an easy chair, he chatted cheerfully with Ottilia on the approaching spring, which would be sure to restore him. He had no idea of his end being so near. It was now observed that his thoughts began to wander incoherently. ' See,' he exclaimed, ' the lovely woman's head — with black curls — in splendid colors — a dark background ! ' Presently he saw a piece of paper on the floor, and asked how they could leave Schiller's letters so carelessly lying about. Then he slept softly, and, awakening, asked for the sketches he had just seen. They were sketches in a dream." An eminent professor, intimately connected to Goethe's family, refers to noises, whistling sounds, and voices, heard near the close of this great man's life. These are his words : — " It seemed as il, in a less frequented part of the house, a door either unknown, or long forgotten, slowly opened, creaking on its rusty hinges. Then a beautiful female spirit-figure appeared, bearing a lamp burning with a light-blue flame ; her features were surromided by a halo of glory. She gazed calmly upon the the terror-stricken witnesses, sang a few stanzas of some angelic melody, and then disappeared ; the door, closing behind her, presenting the same sealed appearance as before. In solemn EUROPE AND ITS CITIES. 379 silence the observers retraced their footsteps to the chamber of mourn- ing, and there learned that the spirit had returned to God, who gave it. The last words audible were, " More light ! * " When in Pans the first time, guest of Mr. Gledstanes, the French Consul Leon Favre accompanied me to the resi- dence of the Swedish Baron Louis Guldenstubbe. This gentleman, a distinguished Spiritualist, was related to a Scandinavian family of great renown. " Two of his ances- tors, Knights of the Order of the Grand Templars, and of the same name, were burned alive in 1309, in company with Jacques de Molay, by order of Pope Clement the Fifth." If it be true, as is sometimes asserted, that the country of one's birth and hereditary descent are not without influence upon mediumistic qualities, the baron was favored in both these respects. The mother who gave him birth in the country of Swedenborg, the mystic Scandinavia, prone to Spiritual belief, early initiated him in this kind of reading. When quite young he was remarkable for presentiments and visions. He jDublished several volumes relating to his researches in the science of positive and experimental pneumatology, besides a deeply interesting contribution upon " direct spiiit writing." Both himself and sister were mediums. The baron recently passed to spirit-life, esteemed highest by those who knew him best. ALL CITIES REPUDIATED. As wens and warts to human bodies, so are cities to a countr3^ Unnatural, they are the cesspools of crime, competition, and avarice. While Nature has lavished her gifts with prodigal hand, men should make community-villas, and gardens of hill and dale, each and all earning their bread by honest toil. Rome, grim and grand, unites the dead past and hving present. The Papal Church is the most logical of any. It has an infallible God, an infallible Lord Jesus, an infallible Church, an infaUible Douay Bible, and an infal- 380 AROUND THE WORLD. lible Pope ; and all communicants have to do is, to attend mass, confess their sins, pay their priests, and go to glory ! Threading the streets of Naples, and the suburban villages, one wonders how six hundred thousand inhabitants can here live. Lazzaroni are thick as flies around pools. Jews, Qua- kers, and Shakers take care of their own poor. Lyons, the Lowell of France, is alive with silk manufactories. Paris is handsome and proud, showy and sinful. Berlin is rich in historic and artistic attractions. The cathedrals are open at all hours of the day in these cities. On their feet-worn floors, prince and peasant meet as equals. Gardens in Euro- pean cities and hamlets are enjoyed by the people as by the proprietors. Visitors do not presume to meddle with plant or flower. The citizens generally are better mannered and more polished than in America. Our caste is based upon wealth. Our boasted individuality has degenerated into a selfish rascality. Our laws punish little, and pardon great criminals. New-York City only a year since had sixty thou- sand children of school age that had never been inside a schoolroom. American self-conceit and English caste are both abominable. As nations they are antichrist. GRAND OLD LONDON. Crossing the English Channel from France to Dover, a few hours through the fertile fields of Merry England brought us to the heart of London, the city of cities, with a population almost equal to that of the whole State of New York. Individuals may drive twenty miles in a straight line upon any one of London's diameters. The seven parks have been termed, not inaptly, the lungs of London. They lie chiefly at the West End. The Richmond Park, owned by the crown, has two thousand two hundred acres, and is eight miles in circumference. Hyde Park claims four hun- dred acres. Victoria Park, named in honor of the Queen, is comparatively new, but exceedingly beautiful with lake and pleasure boats. Tl.e Parliament Buildings, Gothic in form. EUROPE AND ITS CITIES. 381 and covering over seven acres, are as queer as magnificent, AVestminster Abbey, venerable structure where have taken place all the coronations since Edward the Confessor, is visited more for a sight at the tombs of ShaksjDeare, Milton, Addison, Campbell, Dickens, and other distinguished authors, than for worship. Crystal Palace, embracing several hun- dred acres, with broad avenues, extensive gardens, floral em- bellishments, and within the building statues, paintings, and unique marvels, presents rare attractions. Madame Tussaud's wax-works are not as admirable as have been represented. The Tower of London is stern and gloomy, — the traditions repulsive. In one of these towers is a large iron cage, containing a collection of jewels estimated at twenty million dollars. The great Koh-i-noor diamond is among this col- lection. " The crown of her Majesty Queen Victoria is a cap of purple velvet, inclosed in hoops of silver, surrounded by a ball and cross, all of which are resplendent with diamonds. In the center of the cross is the ' inestimable sapphire,' and in front of the crown is the heart-shaped ruby said to have been worn by the Black Prince." Remembering the teaching, " Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth," why not dispose of those jewels and diamonds at once, using the proceeds to procure homes for the homeless, and bread for orphans? The British Museum is an institution of itself. Blessings upon all old book-shops ! English parsons think Oxford the mother of the best English. Americans quote Boston as authority. The English excel in justice, simplicity of faith, and solid friendship ; Americans in tact, originality, and audacity. The Latin race is bad at colonizing ; but, wherever Englishmen go, they create a new England. Their individ- uality, like the sponge, excels in absorbing. Their houses are their castles. I admire the English. The English have more German characteristics than we. In their travels they go to Germany, Italy, or the East. Americans rush to Paris. A gulf separates the working 382 AROUND THE WORLD. people of England from the nobility. The latter clutch dead bones to knock the life out from progressive souls. And, further, boasting of a titled ancestry, they search at the roots of trees for fruits, — bucJi fruits as burden only the topmost branches. Though the Nile has many mouths, it has no discoverable head. A privileged few own nearly all the soil. These have 3'et to learn that legitimate pro- duction is the only basis of ownership. What men by faith- ful toil make to grow or produce is theirs, and nothing more. There's a tendency in London and throughout England to co-operation and a practical communism. THE SPIRITUAL OUTLOOK. Belief often blossoms out into knowledge. Traveling west- ward as a missionary, I circumnavigated the globe, and know the world to be round. Progress is the key-word of all na- tionalities, and Spiritualism God's witness of a future exist- ence, in the Pacific Isles, and all portions of the Orient, as in the Occident. Believe me, it was joy unbounded almost, after this last, perplexing voyage, to be dropped down in London, to walk familiar streets, look into friendl}^ faces, clasp cordial hands, listen to the ringing accents of good solid English, and receive such a cordial public reception at the fine Florence Hotel under the supervision of Mr. J. J. Morse. English Unitarianism is icy, arrogant and cultured. Or- thodox theology is a spent force. Spiritualism is a living gospel power; and the English are making rapid strides in the dissemination of its heavenly principles. I could l)ut exclaim. How chanofed since James Burns and self strolled through London's labyrinthine streets in search of the Cav- endish Rooms, to commence a series of Sunda}^ meetings ! Competent editors, erudite essayists, eloquent speakers, and superior mediums for demonstrating the reality of the phe- nomena are now all doing substantial work upon the temple of truth. I was the first Spiritualist lecturer in London. EUROPE AND ITS CITIES. 383 Books, journals, Spiritualist literature of all kinds and gradations, are rapidly increasing in England and the British Empire. Under this head, the most unique, and the most wonderful too, in some directions, are a series of books by , entitled the " Book of God," " Book of Enoch," " Apocalypse," &c. For acquaintance with Brahmanism, Buddhism, and other Oriental reHgions, together with re- search into the mysteries of the East, these volumes stand quite unrivaled. SUGGESTIONS TO TRAVELERS. As a tourist, have some higher purpose than mere pleas- ure. " happiness ! our being's end and aim," though good poetry, is wretched philosophy. Happiness should be no man's " aim." It would be the quintessence of selfishness. While packing your trunk (owe is enough), store away in your soul's silent chambers a choice stock of good temper and patient forbearance. Passports are no longer necessary, even in Turkey or Egjrpt. In case of accident or trouble, however, they might be convenient for identification. Take as little clothing as possible ; it is cheaper in most countries than America. Guide-books are indispensable ; while guides are often a pestilence and a prey. The Bank of England is best known in the East ; but a " circular letter of credit " from any responsible house in New York or Boston is nego- tiable in the prominent cities of foreign countries. If there should be any difficulty, our consuls will remedy it. In the Asiatic cities secure, for sleeping, an uppermost room : you will find better air, and less fleas. Fire-arms of all kinds should be left at home : it is gener- ally the most cowardly that carry them. Dogs fight because they are dogs. Few men are sufficiently brave to run, rather than fight. That Miltonian war in heaven was a myth ; and all fighting is anti-Christian. The cost of travel 384 AROUiro THE WORLD. depends altogether upon tourists. Bating the beggars, and the to-be-expected fleecing of travelers, the average hotel charges are much cheaper in some parts of Europe, and equally as cheap in Asia, as America. SmSTRISE AROUND THE WORLD. It is no marvel that sun-worship was once common in the East, nor that modern Parsees look upon the sun as the sym- bol of universal light, the divine Intelligence of the uni- verse. How true that, in the modified language of another, the " morning dawns on the isles of the Pacific, where the palm-grove, the coral-reef, and the lagoon are to be seen. Westward it moves, irradiating at once Australia and Japan, the gold-diggings of the Briton, and the summer gardens of the Tycoon. Next Java seas and Chinese waters reflect the morn ; the one studded with spicy isles, the other teem- ing with ships of antique form. On it goes, lighting up the poj)ulous cities of China, the shrines of Siam, and the tem- ples of Burmah, until the tops of the Himalayas reflect the first rays of coming day. Brighter grows the light upon its lasting snows, and wide it spreads on either hand, o'er ocean's waves and Tartar land, ' O'er many an ancient river, O'er many a palmy plain,' until jungle and city, deep defile and Hindoo temple, are flooded with the light of day. Onward still it moves, over Afghanistan and Persia, until the snows of Ararat are suf- fused with a crimson glow. Brighter grows the light, until surrounding seas reflect the day, until the camel's shadow is projected on the sand, and the mosque and the minaret are revealed on Zion's Hill. Onward still it advances in cease- less march, illumining the classic shores of the Mediter- ranean, and spreading far away to Caffre hut and Lapland burrow ; embracing at once Zambesi and Nile valleys, Gre- cian isles, and Russian steppes. At length the Alps are all EUROPE AND ITS CITIES. 385 aglow, and the shadows of night chased from the valleys. Darkness retires from the scene, and reveals the rolling Rhine, the plains of France, and the hills of Spain. The British Isles, too, are all in view, — the greensward of Eng- land, and Scotia's rugged strand. Having lighted up the Old World, westward it moves to seek a New. The waves of the Atlantic are irradiated from pole to pole. Ten thou- sand sails mirrored on the deep, or rocked by the tempest, reflect the day. A New World comes in view, from the shores of the Amazon to Labrador ; wide savannas, emerald isles, populous cities, mighty rivers, and pine-clad hills, em- brace the day. On marches the morn over fertile plains and dark primeval forests, over the banks of the Amazon, the windings of the Mississippi, the network of railways, and the waters of the great lakes, until beyond green savanna and rolling prairie it glows on the snows of the Andes, and the tops of the Rocky Mountains, where the condor trims his plumage, and the grizzly bear skulks to his lair. Down the mountain-side it pours, until Chilian cities and Californian sands are mirrored in the waters of the Pacific. Again its march is o'er the deep, until, amid the beauteous isles where day began, it resumes its glorious course of sunrise round the world." TRAVEL EDUCATIONAL. Travel is a school of trial ; and traversing Oriental lands requires considerable pluck, perseverance, and determina- tion. Though passing through diverse experiences, though subjected to strange mixtures of diet ; though often swelter- ing in torrid climes ; though scattering Spirituahstic litera- ture among missionaries and mandarins, Brahmans and Buddhists ; though resorting to donkeys, camels, and ele- phants in the Une of locomotion, as well as sedan-chairs, palanquins, railways, and ill-ventilated steamers, still we met — thanks to God and ministering spirits — with no serious disaster by land or sea. And, further, if we except custom- 386 AROUND THE "WORLD. house annoyances, and the begging proclivities of pariais and other lower classes in the East, all the races and tribes with whom we had to do, Maoris and Malays, Hindoos and Arabs, treated us with considerations of kindness and good wiU. Sitting quietly now in my library-room, and retrospecting the year and a half's absence consumed in tliis round-the- world pilgrimage, it seems hardly possible that I've seen the black aborigines of Australia, and the tattooed Maoris of New Zealand ; that I've witnessed the Hindoos burning their dead, and Persians praying in their fire-temples ; that I've gazed upon the frowning peak of Mount Sinai, and stood upon the summit of Cheops ; that I've conversed upon antiquity and religious subjects with Chinamen in Canton, Brahmans in Bengal, Parsees in Bombay, Arabs in Arabia, descendants of Pyramid-builders in Cairo, and learned rab- bis in Jerusalem ; that I've seen Greece in her shattered splendor, Albania with its castled crags, the Cyclades with their mantling traditions, and the Alps impearled and capped in crystal. Cej'lon, too, in all its glory. The Spiritual seance that we held upon Mount Zion, in Jerusalem, when ancient spirits that personally knew Jesus after the " days of Herod the king " came and conversed with us, was to me the most consecrated hour of life. It was the door, the very gate to heaven, and that ajar ! The particulars and preparations for the stance, with the teach- ings, the inquiries, and responses, wiU be written out in the future. The time is not yet. We are living in the Second Coming, the continuous coming of Christ, a coming in judgment, in " power and great glory ! " As midnight hours are lighted by starry hosts ; as grasses and grains, fruits and yellowing harvests, first freshen, then come to maturity through the warmth and light of the sun, so comes the soul's salvation through Christ. " We are saved by his life" (Rom. v. 10). Christianity — that is, the Christ-principles enunciated by Jesus Christ — standa EUROPE AND ITS CITIES. 387 upon an imperishable basis. With its everlasting arms of tenderness, it infolds the world, and pours forth a crystal flood of love as boundless as inexhaustible. It is difficult to realize that I've been in Bethlehem, walked in the Garden of Gethsemane, stood upon Mount Olives, bathed in the Jordan, breathed the air that fanned the serene face of Jesus when weary from travel under the burning skies of Palestine, looked thoughtfully upon the same hills and valleys clothed in Syrian spring-time with imperial lilies, and had the same images daguerreot\^ed upon my brain that impressed the sensitive soul of the " man of sorrows," — the teacher sent from God. As the voyage of mortal life must end some time, so must the record of these travels. If those who have followed me have been edified, and morally benefited, then am I satisfied. The " greatest word," said Confucius, "is ' reciprocity.' " Writing in haste, we may have committed some minor errors, or expressed opinions without sufficient research ; but the endeavor has been to treat the subjects referred to can- didly, bringing to our aid the most reliable information , and all to impart correct ideas of the millions peopling the East. Though each nation has its individuality, and each zone its peculiar attractions ; though there are choicer antiquities, and more classical lands ; though there are sunnier skies, and tropical fruits mellowing in one eternal summer, — still I ad- mire my native land. And yet standing upon the mount of vision, illumined by the principles of the Spiritual philoso- phy, I know no rich, no poor, no Asia, no America, no caste, no country ; but one divine humanity^ resting upon the beating, loving bosom of God. CHAPTER XXXII. CEYLON AND ITS BUDDHISTS. Bright is the world to-day ! But there are souls void of celestial fire, Benumbed to apathy, who in the mire Have fallen by the way. Shall I not rouse them to behold the light 1 It was no more true in Bishop Heber's day than now, that " spicy breezes blow soft o'er Ceylon's Isle." I reached Co- lombo, the Capitol of Ceylon, from Australia, April 5, 1897, and stopped at the Grand Oriental Hotel, near the landing. But brief was my stay, as Mr. P. de Abrew, a cultured Bud- dhist gentleman called,' and, accompanying him, I was taken in a rieksJimv, a tidy, two-wheeled little carriage drawn by a Tamil coolie, to the Musaeus school for Buddhist girls. This is a splendid brick building in the cinnamon gardens. The school is conducted by Mrs. Maria M. Higgins, formerly a resident of Washington, D. C. Much of the financial pros- perity of this school is due to the generosity of Wilton Hack, Esq., of Western Australia. It was a 2:)leasure to me to wedgfe a brick into this masrnificent structure dedicated to the education of Buddhist girls, many of whom were orphans. Here I was a ofuest — feeling' at home. Mr. Abrew donated the land for this school-building, surrounded by tropical shrub- bery and semi-shaded by evergreen, bread-fruit and cocoanut palms. If I could say but one impressive word to Ceylon, Burmali and India, that word should be education. CEYLON AND ITS BUDDHISTS. 389 Be it said in honor of Col. H. S. Olcott, a noted American writer and author whom I well knew a quarter of a century since, that he has organized over one hundred schools in Cey- lon for elementary instruction in English, for the propagation of the hiofher education and for the elucidation of the doc- trines of Buddhism. Sectarian missionaries are not deeply in love with the Colonel, nor his Theosophical Buddhism. It was in Chittendon, Vt., the home of the Eddy mediums, that I first met Col. Olcott. Madame Blavatsky was there also - both flaming Spiritualists known as " investigators." Though a Theosophist now, he has never ruthlessl}' smitten the rock, Spiritualism, from whence he was hewn. All true Theosophists are Spiritualists, and very many Spiritualists are Theosophists. The phenomena of both demonstrate a future existence ; and they both toil to overthrow supersti- tion, bigotry, Athanasian and Calvinistic creeds, and to usher in the reign of reason and the acknowledged brotherhood of all the races. Upon introducing me to an audience of Priests and Bud- dhist students for an address in the Ananda College, Colombo, Col. Olcott very appreciatingly said : " It was Dr. Peebles' book of ' Buddhism and Christianity Face to Face,' published after his first tour around the world, that gave me an introduction to the Buddhist High Priest, Sumangala : ultimating later, in my visit to, and subsequent educational work, upon the island." Often do we write wiser than we know. No good thought dies — no truth perishes. Ceylon's characteristics. This lovely island in remote antiquity was called in Sans- krit, Lanka^ and seems to have been first mentioned in that famous Hindoo poem, " Ramayana." Its length from north to south is less than 300 miles. It has an area of something over 25,000 square miles, and may well be called the gem of the sea and the pearl of the ocean. Ceylon was doubtless peopled in a later period from India, 390 ABOUND THE WORLD. the legends of antiquity testifying that at one time the island was accessible from India by land at low water. In the Sing- halese we plainly see a blending of two or more races, the majority coming from northern India, bringing with them the Sanskrit ; while the Tamils came from South India. Col- ombo, the capital, has a population of about 130,000, a mixt- ure of Singhalese, Hindoos, Parsees, Arabs, Afghans and other races, clad in almost every costume conceivable. The lowest race, the Rock Veddahs of the island, are nearly extinct. They do not live or build houses in trees as has been reported, but they live in grass-made huts and caves. They are very shy of civilized people. They use only the bow and the arrow to kill their game. They eat bats, rats and lizards ; roast wild pigs and monkeys are equally con- sidered by them the choicest delicacies. The Valley Ved- dahs are a higher class, yet verj'low in the moral scale. They intermarry. These aborigines will soon fade away in conso- nance with the law — the survival of the fittest. Saturday, April 10th. Called in the morning upon the United States Consul. His wife is a Singhalese. In the after- noon went to a Buddhist funeral. The deceased was a young lady connected with the higher classes. The cemetery was about one mile from the Musaeus school. There was a very large concourse of people, and among them, twenty-three Buddhist priests clad in their yellow robes. The mourners followed the corpse borne by friends to within some thirty yards of the grave, when they stopped and commenced weep- ino-, mourning, groaning and agonizing in a most pitiable manner. When ! Oh, when I will mortals learn to differen- tiate the body from the risen and immortal soul ? A corpse is only a lifeless shape of disorganizing putridity — a deserted shell — a vacated house to be speedily burned. The grave was rimmed around a foot or more with beauti- ful flowers on each side. The priests upon reaching the grave formed a circle around it, holding in their hands many yards of soft white muslin, a portion of it resting upon the metal- Megeituwatte, the Controversialiat. CEYLON AND ITS BUDDHISTS. 391 lie coffin, glittering like silver under shimmering sunbeams. Then the high priest offered prayers in the ancient Pali, the other priests responding. Then followed chants — chantings of life, of death and the consolations of tli« future. Perfumed sacred water was poured into all of the priests' hands, and two earthen bowls of water were broken at the head and foot of the grave, symbolizing as the water poured out, the release of the spirit from the broken, buried body. Several of the priests as well as Col. Olcott made short speeches. The friends of the deceased filled up the grave with their uno-loved hands and covered it with flowers. All Buddhist priests are cremated ; while the masses both cremate and bury. Sunday, 12th, went with Mr. de Abrew and the Musaeus school teachers out to the Kotahena temple — the temple of Migettuwatte, the famous preacher and debater. Standing in his pulpit just outside of the unique, yet gorgeous temple, in which the image of Buddah, twenty-seven feet in length, lies reclining on the right side with a circled aureola of golden rays around his head, such as we see around the heads of Christian saints and martyrs, I tried to picture to myself the discussion that this Buddhist priest Migettuwatte held wdth the Rev. Mr. Silva, upon the comparative merits of Buddhism and Christianity. It was the consensus of opin- ion that the Rev. Silva was signally routed. The priest was the best scholar and far the most eloquent. The alleged miracles connected with Buddhism are almost infinitely more numerous and astounding than those connected with Chris- tianity. Why, when Buddha made his reported third visit to Adams Peak in Ceylon, he left his footprint upon the rock — and it remains unto this day. TEMPLES IN ROCKS. Accompanied by a Singhalese youth, I went out to Aluxi- hara, meaning dwelling-place of monks. It was at Matal^, the terminus of the railway leading from Colombo up through 392 AROUND THE WORLD. Kandy. It was some three miles from the station to this famous rock temple. We rode in springless bullock carts, draAvn by large hump-shouldered bullocks. They go on a good trot. We passed many poor-looking, palm-thatched cottages ; saw natives by their huts, eating their dried fish and I'ice with their fingers ; jogged along by vacated coffee- tree plantations and rice paddies. Now we have passed the gate from the main road, and following the winding waj-, Ave are at the foot of the great rock temple, the crevices of which shelter a million bats. Here is what corresponds to a church edifice cut into an immense granite boulder, the workmanship of which would do honor to the sculptors of ancient Greece. In this stone temple of worship is a massive image of Bud- dha, with a sevenfold rainbowed circle around his head. The walls are covered with old religious carvings and paint- ings of Buddha's conflicts with demons, of his fast friend Ananda, of many saints and their temptations by demons. There were several priests in this stone temple and they kindly showed us the nine points of bending and bowing in Buddhistic worship. On the highest point of this rock is the legendary imprint of Buddha's foot, fully six feet in length. ANURADHAPURA. Ceylon abounds in buried cities and ruins, some of which are pre-historic. Among these are remnants of antiquity near the Aluxihara temple at DambuUa. But these pale away into insignificance compared with those at Anuradha- pura and vicinity. Approaching, you first see the so-called brazen palace, which is a " vast collection of monolithic granite pillars 1,600 in number, standing about 12 feet out of the ground, and arranged in lines of 40 each Ava}*. The corner pillars are massive in size. Thej" were probably all " coated with chunam and covered with copper." The foun- dations of this palace were laid by King Dutugemunu in the second century, B. C, and supported a building nine stories in height, containing 1,000 dormitories for priests and some CEYLON AND ITS BUDDHISTS. 393 other apartments. These were the palmy days of Buddhism. The roof of this magnificent monastery was of brass, the walls, says the native historian, were eml^ellished and resplendent ■\^'ith gems, the great hall was supported on golden pillars resting on lions ; in the centre was an ivory throne, with a golden sun and a silver moon on either side, and above all gleamed and glittered tlie imperial " Chatta," the white canopy of dominion and peace. This monastery was recon- structed and reduced to seven stories in height in the year 140 B. C. Just south of the brazen palace is the "sacred " road along which the pilgrims have come for over two thou- sand years with their offerings to the shrine of their religion. The offerings are mostly flowers and gifts for the poor. Near this road is the celebrated Bo-tree, the oldest historical tree in the world. It was planted 245 years before Christ, and accord- ingly is now 2,130 years old. This tree, though bearing no fruit, has a very beautiful foliage. The tree is considered sacred, because under it in India, Gautama sat when he attained Buddha-hood. The chronicles of this tree are con- sidered authentic, all dynasties considering it sacred. It is surrounded by a grove of palms. The leaves that fall from it are highly esteemed as relics by the thousands of pilgrims who come here to worship during the full moons of June and July. All about are figures of Buddha, monolithic pillars, medicine baths, clagobas, statues leaning or fallen, ponderous cisterns, ancient shrines crumbling with the weight of weary centuries, and costly carved ascetic cells — clustering acres upon acres of ruins, revealing the ancient grandeur and glory of Ceylon. THE ANTIQUITY OF CIVILIZATION. There are written characters in Ceylon antedating the Pali and the most ancient Sanskrit. Professor Sayce is forced to admit that the language spoken in Chaldea was the parent of the Egyptian, proving that a high state of civiliza- tion prevailed in that region three thousand years before the 394 AROUND THE WORLD. date assigned by Archbishop Usher to the Mosaic so-called creatipn of the world. Pity be to our Bible worshippers ! In the Nippur explorations there has been found a library containing no fewer than thirty thousand cla}' tablets, these records having been inscribed nearly five thousand 3^ears ago, and Professor Hilprecht, who has been engaged in decipher- iuCT these enduring- records, declares that he can no lono-er " hesitate to date the founding of the temple of Bel and the first settlement in Nippur somewhere between 6000 and 7000 B. C, possibly even earlier." Sargon and his son, Naram Sin, can be shown to have reigned in Babylon as far back as 3800 B.C., and these two monarchs, it is now proved, " come at the end of a long preceding historical period," and their annals " have been verified by contemporaneous documents " ; so that " henceforward, Sargon and Naram Sin, instead of be- longing to the gray dawn of time, must be regarded as repre- sentatives of the golden age of Babylonian history." There is valid evidence to show that " the temple of Mul-lil (in the city of Nippur) must have been founded at least as early as 6000 B. C." ; and it is impossible to say how far back in the history of the world later discoveries may carry us. It is now clear, however, that " for unnumbered ages Babylonia had been the centre of culture for the whole of Western Asia, and that at times it had been the political centre of Western Asia as well." These tablets elucidate the history of the world eight and ten thousand years ago. " The American expedition," says Professor Schlesinger, " was fortunate enough to exhume the library at Nippur^ and the thirty-two thousand tablets have gone to the United States. The nature of the collection may be inferred from the following list of its contents : Syllabarias, letters, chro- nological lists, historical fragments, astronomical and reli- gious texts, building inscriptions, votive tablets, inventories, tax lists, plans of estates, contracts, etc." A Buddhist Priest. CEYLON AND ITS BUDDHISTS. 395 PECULIARITIES OF BUDDHIST PRIESTS. The Buddhism of Cejdon is not in perfect accord with the Buddhism of Japan and China, although they agree in what ma}^ be denominated the essentials. Before a Buddhist stu- dent can be ordained he must go before the chief priest and twenty elders, all robed in white garments, and answer the following questions : 1. Are you afflicted with leprosy, ulcers, cutaneous erup- tions, consumption, or possessed with demons ? 2. Are you free from the bonds of slavery? Are you involved in debt ? Have you obtained the consent of your parents ? Have you completed your twentieth year ? Are you provided with a cup and a priestly garment ? If answered in the affirmative, then his hair is shaven off, his body perfumed with sandal powder and other deli- cious odors. Priests dress in yellow robes — a cloth around their loins to the ankles, and another of deep j^ellow, several yards long, thrown over their left shoulders and reaching nearly to the ground. Generally they wear no shoes ; a very few wear sandals. They shave each other. They take no money for services. They live by alms-asking. Their feet are hand- some and their eyes expressive and bright. They are celi- bates. They eat but twice a day. It is considered great merit to feed or give to a priest. They bless the giver. The Buddhists' Sundays are governed by the moon, hence they assemble four times a month, or at the moon's changes, for religious instructions. They have one yearly season of devotion that corresponds somewhat to Lent. This lasts three months, the priests leaving their temples and going among the people preaching the gosj^el of Lord Buddha. In all temples there are one or more images of Buddha. Lights are kept burning. They also burn incense upon cer- tain occasions, sprinkle holy water and tinkle a little bell. Generally a Buddhist priest has a palm-leaf fan in his. 396 AEOUND THE WORLD. hand. In travelino- he must not see more than the length of a bullock before him. Gazing: about is considered irrelio'ious. Mo priest must sit j^rivately on a seat with a woman secluded from sight. He must not address a woman in more than five or six sentences without an intelligent witness present. Every fifteen days the priests assemble for a lecture from the High Priest. Their rules of discipline are rigid. For drunk- enness, eating at night, sleeping on high beds, accepting gold or silver, wearing jewelry, or using perfumes, they are liable to discipline, and, if persisted in, expulsion. A priest never bows to persons, as he is supposed to be superior to man. Priests never worship the gods ; but when they preach they invite the gods to listen. jNIany of them understand medicine as tauo-ht in their Pali books. No one must sit on a higher seat in a congregation than the priest. He sits while preaching, the people standing. Buddhists have no fixed creed. The northern and southern sections of Buddhism agree in all essentials. E:A]SrDY, RUMBUKKANNA AND THE JUNGLE. It is seventy miles from Colombo to Kandy, the old capi- tal of the Kandian kings. This city of twentj'-five thousand inhabitants is half embowered in tropical foliage, and sur- rounded by evergreen hills, mirrored in an artificial lake. Its famous Dalada Temple was built to hold Buddha's tooth — a sham tooth, as every scientist and pathologist knows. Adams Peak may be seen from the Kandian Hills ; while the fine sanitarium of Neura Eilij^a, nearly three thousand feet above the level of the sea, is only fifty miles distant. This is a noted resort of the rich man and the artist, the sick, the lame and the lazy. The climate here is not only temperate but cool and bracing. Left Kandy for Rumbukkanna on the 16th, to meet Col. Olcott, who was to address a school by a noted temple out in the jungle. When the colonel reached the station there was a crowd awaiting him. When he alighted the people shouted CEYLON AND ITS BUDDHISTS. 397 and the elephants were made to kneel down, then rise up and trumpet in his honor. A Singhalese crowd followed him to the Government Rest House, where I was breakfasting. In the mean time deputations came in from districts ten and fif- teen miles distant. They met in front of our hotel, a motley crowd, and entertained us with native music — I think they called it music, certainly it was noise. Mr. Subasinnah, a gentlemanly Singhalese, brought his Buddhist Sunday-school class before us, the calistlienic and gymnastic exercises of which very much resembled the children's progressive lyce- ums of America. These native children, though brown- skinned, are bright, active and handsome. The exercises at the Government House concluded, with their accompania- ments of flags waving, tom-toms, hand-drums and devil- dancings, the full procession was formed for a five miles' march into the jungle. I was dumped into a seatless, springless bullock-cart with the colonel and three Buddhist priests. The packing was too close for comfort. We move on, led by waving banners, elephants and donkeys, now over a hill, now under a decorated arch, now through a grove of wild cocoanut-trees, devil-dancers with jingling bells upon their ankles before, devil-dancers behind and cheering all along the line. No artist could have transferred this scene to canvas. MOUNTED UPON AN ELEPHANT. Weary of the jolting, uncushioned cart, it was gravel}^ proposed that I take refuge upon the largest of the ele- 2)hants in line. It was agreed to. He was a monster of an animal. Lying down, as commanded by his owner, I mounted him with some native assistance. Already Avas he burdened with five passengers all riding astride — no houdah ! The march continues. We are in the thick of the jungle. The elephantine movements of this great animal were onl}- com- parable to a steamer rocking, struggling in a howling mon- soon. It was soon a question of bullock-cart or elephant, which ? Sitting astride his nearly square back and fearing 398 AROUND THE WOULD. there might possibly be two of me soon, I dismounted, and betook myself to the cart again ! Here we are now at an old, gorgeously-decorated temple out in the jungle. Met at the door-way and blessed by the priests, we passed on and out into an emerald-carpeted field, where, under the waving boughs of a majestic Bo-tree there had been erected a platform festooned with wreaths and flow- ers of seemingly a thousand hues. There was an audience before us of some two or three thousand. All were sitting. The scene was entrancing. Col. Olcott, at his best, deliv- ered an eloquent address upon education, brotherhood and the beauties of ethical Buddhism. It was loudly cheered. To make practical his address, the colonel drank from a bowl of water brought to him by one of the lowest caste persons present, to show the true, fraternal spirit of Budd- hism. What do you say ? — caste among the Buddhists, when one of the first teachings of Guatama Buddha was, " Down with caste ! " But remember that Ceylon was conquered by the Hindoos, who introduced and enforced the caste system, the remnants of which have not yet been exter- minated. Introduced by Colonel Olcott as an old American friend of his, imbued with the ethics of Buddhism, the brotherhood of man and all humanitarian reforms, I addressed this great mass- meeting of Buddhists upon the schools, manners, customs and religions of America, and never did I address a more quiet or appreciative audience. The meeting was continued till the next morning, two Buddhist priests preaching and chanting alternately all the long night. Asiatics are anxious to know the truth. On our way back to Rambukkanna, near evening-time, we were overtaken by a terrific thunder-storm, the rain pouring in torrents and leaking down through our palm-thatched bullock-cart ; one of the bullocks balked ; one of the rude vehicles upset ; another broke down because of the flooded CEYLON AXD ITS BUDDHISTS. 399 road-way. Oh, the times and terrors of these pilgrims ! Dripping, hungry and weary, we felt like singing : " Our crosses are many, our crowns are few." THE PRINCE-PRIEST. Seldom does royalty become humility. Seldom do princes assume the garb of beggars and go about doing good. In a palm-embowered suburb of Colombo is the temple of the prince-priest of Siam. He speaks fine English. He shrinks from no argument with missionaries. He is very social and wears his Buddhistic robe of yellow very gracefully. A prince, a scholar, an ambassador to St, James and nearly half the courts of Europe, he had seen enough of the folly, decep- tion, illusion and hoUowness of the world ; and coming to the conclusion that he was a soul, he renounced the world — the world and its illusions, and became a Buddhist monk. He is now calm, serene, happy — consecrating his life to the diffusion of Buddhism, to doing good, to begging of the rich to give to the poor ! TEAS OF CHINA AND CEYLON. "Which are the preferable teas" is a common inquiry — " those of China, or of Ceylon ? " The coffee plantations of the Ceylonese have been largely suj^planted by tea-plants and slu'ubs, owing to a disease among the coffee trees. Tea-rais- ing is very profitable in the warm, humid climate of Cejdon. The tea-plant would grow ten or fifteen feet higli if left to itself ; but the shrubs are kept clipped down to within one and two feet from the ground. Only the young and tender- est top leaves are picked. Poor Tamil coolie women do the most of the picking. A large basket is suspended upon their backs, and the leaves are nipped off and tossed behind them into these baskets. Their only dress is a loin-cloth. They sweat profusel}-. The manufacturing establishments for preparing, drying, sorting and boxing interested me 400 AROUND THE WORLD, deeply. Many are tlie processes, one of which is the fer- mentation of the moist tea leaves ; another is passing them over and through a copper screen ; another is the stirring with the coolie's hands while drying ; another is the stamp- ing them down (when dried) in boxes and chests by the Tamil coolie boys' bare, perspiring feet. At the Matale manufactory the tea leaves ready for sorting and packing were scattered over the floor, half an inch deep in some places, with half-naked, barefooted, feet-sweating coolies treading around in them, soon to be steeped and sipped as a delicious beverage by Western nations. Tea leaves as a drink are useless, expensive, astringing, stimulating and medicinal. Theine is used as a medicine. Paris has a large hospital for old, nervously broken-down tea-topers. " Which of the Oriental teas, then, is the best ? " The answer is, those that are the least injurious, unhealthy, dirty and nasty. Take your choice, and tan your stomachs with theine ! O ye tea- toper slaves of the nineteenth century ! THE KING OF SIAM IN CEYLON. As fate or fortune would have it, I was in this evergreen isle of temples and spices when the Siamese King on his way to the Queen's Jubilee visited Ceylon. Great prepara- tions were made for his reception. Through the kindness of my old-time friend whom I first met at the " Eddy mediums," in Vermont, and who stands very high among the Buddhists of Ceylon and the Brahmins of India for the impetus he has given to education and free thought. Col. Henry S. Olcott, I was secured a seat within the magnificently decorated pavil- ion (by paying ten rupees) only a few feet from the king's chair. He walked up under the handsomely trimmed and flowered-covered arch with the strutting English officials, dressed in a plain, American-like suit. No sword, sash or epaulettes, not even a finger ring. Sensible king, said I. Conducted to his chair upon the platform, amid the music of Buddhist priests' chanting, he performed some religious cere- CEYLON AND ITS BUDDHISTS. 401 monies, received addresses and replied to them in both Pali and English. I had a pleasant five minutes' chat with him in the queen's bouse. Upon leaving, and telling him that I was travelling around the world gathering materials for a book, he most courteously said : " If you come to my country I will give you every facility for collecting such mate- rials." The king is a genial, sunny-faced gentleman of, sa}', forty years of age, with not a bit of swell or starch about him. He is as popular in his kingdom as was President Lincoln in America. Educated in London and Paris, he speaks fine English, is straight as an arrow, yellow-skinned and exceed- ingly affable. ASOKA BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY. What relation does Buddhism bear to Christianity ? is an ever-recurring question. The numerous inscriptions of King Asoka, who, reigning over forty years, died at the ripe old age of eighty, 223 B. C, unquestionably was the best and the wisest of the old Indian sovereigns. The inscriptions of his time — a Bible on rocks — are affording a rich harvest for archeologists and antiquarians. Some of Asoka's edicts remain to this day chisel-imprinted on pillared rocks and in old stone caves. Explorers and archeologists have just dis- covered among the ruins of Rampuwar two Asoka pillars, nearl}^ imbedded in soil and sand, one of which contained important inscriptions. These inscriptions, in either Sanskrit or Pali, have been largely copied and translated. Some few were too defaced to be clearly read. The translations relating to govern- mental commands, with moral and religious advice to both Brahmins and Buddhists, are of a most interesting character. No interpolations can here be charged. Defying the canker- ing tooth of time, these inscriptions are genuine. 402 AROUXD THE WORLD. WHAT IS THEIR MORAL IMPORT? They breathe the spirit of toleration to unbelievers and brotherly love to all. Buddhists have never persecuted for religious opinion's sake. In this, Buddhism puts Christianity to shame. These Asoka edicts prohibited the sacrifice of ani- mals either for food or for religious ceremonies. They or- dered shade-trees and fruit-trees to be planted along the great thoroughfares, and wells to be dug along such and such distances to quench the thirst of travelers along the highways. They enjoined obedience to parents, respect and reverence to the aged, kindness to animals, frequent bathings, and forbearance to all other religions. Query — How much has the world advanced ethically since the Buddhistic era of Asoka? WHAT IS THE HISTORIC IMPORT OF THESE EDICTS ? Much, very much I To use the language of Hon. P. C. Chatteryii, judge of the High Court, Calcutta, author of "■ Asoka and His Edicts," " this Indian king, fired with the missionary spirit, sent missionaries to preach the doctrines and moral precepts of Buddhism to all the civilized nations of the West. Egypt, Syria, Cyrene, Epirus and Macedon were visited by them, as the thirteenth rock inscription edict shows. The Western kings with whom Asoka made treaties were Antiochus of Syria, Ptolemy of Eg3-pt, ]\Iargus of Cyrene, Antigonus of Macedon and Alexander of Epirus. These kings, over 200 years before Christ, permitted Budd- hists to preach and teach in their countries, the fruits of which appeared in the rise of the Therapeutse of Egypt, the Essenes in Syria and Palestine, and the Neo-Zoroastri- ans and Neo-Pythagoreans — all of whom were Buddhists under different names. Thus the teachings of Buddha were carried to the remotest corners of the ancient civilized world." And so Judaism and Buddhism formed the menstruum — the religious and ethical soil out of which grew primitive Chris- tianity. In this there was no miracle. CEYLOX AND ITS BUDDHISTS. 40 Q Mail}' of the rock edicts of Asoka, chronological, ethical and religious, are still standing, and can be seen by any one who will take the trouble to visit them. They have not been revised and re -revised by priests, like the Christians' Bible. Already thirty-nine of these edicts have been discovered and translated. Some have partially perished by the cor- roding action of time. Others were defaced by the vandal Mohammedans. Arabs by descent, wherever they con- quered they destroyed temples, inscriptions and manu- scripts. They forced their religion by the sword. When conquering Northern India they compelled thousands upon thousands of old men to submit to circumcision. They are to-day fanatics, bigots, fatalists and polygamists. True, there are good men among them — good in spite of their Islamism. I write what I know, for as a United States Con- sul I lived among them for years and know them thor- ouglily. They are the Jews — the baser sort of warlike Jews — of Asia and Africa. Explorers and archeologists expect to find, in the near future, more of these Asoka edicts in Afghanistan, and the countries north of the present India, that this Buddhist king once governed. Just recently they found and deciphered one of these inscriptions in Mysore. And so, step by step, the long half-hidden past is yielding up its treasures ; and, being resurrected into the living present, solving many of the knotty problems of history. Those wishing to know the genius, status and progress of Buddhism should procure Col. H. H. Olcott's " Buddhist Catechism," the thirty-third edition of which, approved by the High Priest Sumangala of Cejdon, has just been pub- lished. In the suburbs of Colombo I visited the temple and stood in the pulpit where Priest Mitteguttawate used to preach, and Avhose discussion with the Rev. de Silva formed the foundation of my book on " Buddhism and Christianity Face to Face." 404 AROUND THE WORLD. BUDDHISM AS IT IS. Theology, in an ecclesiastical sense, bears little or no rela- tion to the life and teachings of Guatama Buddha. Budd- hism is benign and ethical, rather than dogmatic. It is based upon four " noble truths," so called : 1. The existence of suffering. 2. The cause of this suffering. 3. The cessation of suffering. 4. The eightfold path that leads to the cessation of suffering. This eightfold path consists of these steps upward : 1, a right comprehension of life ; 2, right and high aspirations ; 3, right and appropriate speech ; 4, upriglit moral conduct ; 5, a befitting way of earning a livelihood ; 6, endeavor in doing good ; 7, intellectuality to enlighten others, and, 8, purity of life. Birth, say Buddhists, is suffering, old age is suffering, disease is suffering, and death is suffering. The causes of this suffering are desire, selfishness, lust. This seeking for happiness, this craving for worldly enjoyment, this strug- gling for satisfaction, for power, for fame — in brief, this heart-clamoring for existence. It is these selfish lusts for worldly gratification that lead to and necessitate incarnation after incarnation back into human bodies. Those who wisely enter the path and persistently follow it make an end of sin — an end of suffering, and so avoid re-births back into mortality. This is the formula in which those Buddhists take ref- uge who follow the path by practising the precepts of Loid Buddha : " I take my refuge in the Buddha. — [The Enlightened One.] I take my refuge in the Dharma. — [The pure religion.] I take my refuge in the Sangha." — [The Buddhist Church.J There are, say Buddhist priests, three sins of the body, four sins of the tongue, and three sins of the mind. " The CEYLON AND ITS BUDDHISTS. 405 sins of the body are murder, theft and adultery; of the tongue, lying, slander, abuse and gossip ; of the mind, envy, hatred and error." The ten commandments condensed are — I. — Kill not, but have regard for all life. II. — Steal not, neither rob, but help every one to have the fruits of his labors. TIL — Abstain frona impurity, and lead lives of chastity. IV. — Lie not, but be truthful. Speak the truth fearlessly, yet in a loving heart. V. — Invent not evil reports, neither repeat them. Carp not, but look for the good in your fellow-beings. VI. — Swear not, but speak with propriety and dignity. VII. — Waste not your time in idle gossip, but speak words of wisdom or keep silent. VIII. — Covet not, nor envy, but rejoice at the good fortune of others. IX. — Cleanse your heart of malice, and cherish no hatred, not even against your enemies. X. — Free your mind from ignorance, practise kindness and seek to learn the truth — these lead to life eternal. Further quoting from the ^Nlaha-Bodlii publication, the seven jewels of the law which united form the bright dia- dem of Nirvana are j)urity, calmness, comprehension, love, wisdom, perfection and divine enlightenment. The most prominent priest of Ceylon is High Priest Wel- ligama, Shri Sumangala. He is a most genial and courteous old man. delighting to aid one in solving the knottiest prob- lems connected with Buddhism. There is a revival of Budd- hism in Ceylon and other Oriental countries. Some of her monks are afire with the missionary spirit. Already H. Dharmapala, Secretary of the Maha-Bodi Society, is in America teaching that gospel of gentleness and mercy that distinofuishes Buddhism from other Oriental religions. Buddhism and Brahminism are becoming better under- stood continually by the Western world. The exponents of each are also on better terms. Hence that progressive Hin- doo, P. C. Moozomdar, in an address delivered last year in 406 AROUND THE WORLD. Galle, Ceylon, said : " I do not ask 3-011, my Buddhistic friends, to forsake Buddhism, but to give it a new spirit and bring" it under a new dispensation. There must in the future be a new Hinduism, a new Ishimism, a new Clnistian- ity, and a new Buddhism, that all these religions may mix and mingle to form one universal fresh progressive religious disj^en- sation, wherein all sects may beliold what is best in their own faiths, and above all behold the eternal countenance of the Giver and Father of all truth, all goodness and all humanity." CHAPTER XXXIII. THE INDIA OF TO-DAY. " Afar down I see the Infinite Past ; I know I was even there. I waited unseen and always, and slept through the lethargic mist, And took my time, and took no hurt from the fetid carbon. Long I was hugged close — long and long. Immense have been the preparations for me. Faithful and friendly the arms that have helped me ; Cj'ck'S ferried my cradle, rowing and rowing like cheerful boatmen. For room to me stars kept aside in their own rings ; They sent influences to look after what was to hold me. Before I was born out of my mother, generations guided me. My embryo has never been torpid, nothing could overlay it, For it the nebula cohered to an orb, The long slow strata were piled to rest it on, Vast vegetables gave it sustenance. Monstrous sauroids transported it in their mouths and deposited it with care. All forces have been steadily employed to complete and delight me : Now I stand upon this spot with my soul. I am soul." " Which is the finest country in the world ? " " Which would you prefer to live in?" are the ever-recurring ques- tions that I have to answer. The matchless Max Miiller in his " What can India Teach Us ? " says : " If I were to look over the whole world to find out the country most richly endowed with all the wealth, power and beauty that nature can bestow — in some parts a very paradise on earth — I should point to India. If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choic- est gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems 408 AROUND THE WORLD. of life, and has found solutions of some of them which well deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato and Kant — I should point to India. . . . But I am thinking of India as it was. two thousand, it may he three thousand, years ago." Nations, empires rise and fall like the waves of the ocean. Of this fact, India is a standing demonstration. The India of the present, famine-scourged and plague-stricken, was the poorest country I saw during my travels. " The English," say these struggling millions, " have by taxation and Ijad legislation squeezed the financial life out of us. We are helpless in the hands of a giant." British India, including the French, Portuguese and other settlements, numbers about three hundred millions. The southern regions of this immense country are intensely hot a portion of the season ; but in the northern elevated regions the climate is temperate. Here, and especially in Southern India, there are three seasons : the hot, the rainy, and the par- tially temperate. I was there this last season in June, at the beginning of the rainy season. The missionaries had fled to the mountains. During the southwest monsoons the rains fall in torrents on the western coast; while the northeast monsoons bring rain to the eastern portion of the countr}-. If the monsoons fail to bring rain, famine is sure to follow. Rain-falls in the Deccan are about 20 inches, Madras 52 inches ; while up on the Khasia hills there is an average of 610 inches per year. Trees and vegetation in this country are unrivalled in variety, richness and beauty. It is not strange that there were originally tree-worshippers in this land of eternal verdure. RELIGIONS AND LANGUAGES OF INDIA. This country is so extensive that a description of one por- tion will not always fit that of another — hence the seeming contradictions of travelers. THE INDIA OF TO-DAY. 409 Hindooism with its different gods is professed by some- thing like three-fourths of the population. Jainism, a com- pound of Brahmanism and Buddhism, and numbering five million, abounds mostly in Western India. The Jains had a representative to the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago. The Brahmins, the Orthodox Brahmins, had no representative. No Brahmin priest can leave India without losing caste. About one-sixth of the people of India are Mohammedans. They are far the most numerous in the northern part of India. When conquering a portion of India tliey destroyed the sacred books of the Hindoos and demolished some of their most mag- nificent temples. Arabs in origin, they are religious bigots, zealots, fatalists, polygamists and political vandals. The sect of IVlanaks live on the banks of the Satlaj and number about two millions. They are declining. The Parsees, descendants of the fire-worshippers of Persia, and believers in Zoroaster, are found mostly on the western coast of India and especially in the regions of Bombay. There is a sect in Southern India called Jacobite Christians ; possibly a million of Roman Catholics, mostly on the Malabar coast, descendants of Syrian Christians ; and in all some- thing like five hundred thousand Protestant Christians in all India. It is safe to say that Christianity, notwithstanding its immense financial expenditures, has scarcely produced a ripple upon the religious consciousness of India. There are as many as thirty languages spoken in India. These branch out into many mixed dialects. Ancient Hin- doo settlers in this country — the Aryans — introduced the Sanskrit. The Assam, Nepal, Kashmir and others are de- rived from the Sanskrit. There is a revival of the study of the ancient Sanskrit at the present time in India ; and the same may be said of the English. Every Hindoo boy of ordinary intelligence is anxious to learn the English tongue, hoping for employment and better pay. The languages of Southern India are grouped under the 410 AROUND THE WORLD. name of the Dravidian. This was the Language of the origi- nal inliabitants. Tlie Tamil, Telegu and the Kanarese, spoken generally in jVIadras and throngli the ]Madras Presi- dency, are outputs from the Dravidian. The Gondi is spoken by a rude tribe called Gondes. in Central India. The Snidi and the Kacli tongues come largely from the Persian and the Arabic. The Pushtu is the language of the Afghans in India. The Tamil is spoken through almost the entire country south of ]\Iadras. The Dravidians were a darker-skinned j)eople than the Aryans. Babel is the proper word to apply to the languages of India. A dozen different interpreters are necessary in traveling through this vast country. About three-fourths of the population of India are sub- jects of the British Crown. There are several feudatory States under British protection, paying tribute ; and there are three Independent States : Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim, The more intelligent people of India everywhere from the cool mountains north to the torrid heat of the south are politically restless. They have aspirations for more liberty, and for national unity, with the privileges of self-govern- ment. THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. Madras, the largest city in Southern India, has a popula- tion of five hundred thousand. The government buildings are grand and imposing. Under their shadow is the most abject poverty. The city with its suburbs extends nearly nine miles along the coast. It has no good harbor. Certain lines of steamers do not stop during the monsoon months. Blacktown, the crowded portion, is within the old city walls. One of the main roads leading out of the city con- ducts one to Saint Thomas Mount, where, according to tra- dition, St. Thomas, the Apostle of India, preached, and, later, was martyred. Being one of a party from Adyar, we richly enjoyed a visit to this historic mountain. Riding down from Adyar, through the city, and especially through Blacktown, one sees women working side by side THE INDIA OF TO-DAY. 411 with the men, toiling upon tlie roads, digging post-holes, clearing away street-filth, shoveling up newl}^ dropped cow chips, and doing all kinds of the lowest drudgery. In another portion of the city you see milk-and-water carriers with great jars suspended from an elastic bow over the shoul- ders ; men dressing their hair, cleansing their ears, cutting their toe-nails, scouring their teeth, rubbing their bodies with oil, or being shaved, before everybody's gaze. The bathing in tlie tanks, of men, women and children, the washing, by pounding the garments across great stones, the half-naked bodies and uncovered heads of over one-half of the native population, the entirely naked children and the bullock carts, where the driver sits on a projection between the heads of the little hump-shouldered animals — all present a living and most interesting, if not uplifting panorama, to the American traveler. BURIED FAKIRS. If the dormouse can go into a torpid, lethargic and seem- ingly lifeless state for the winter, if the common housefly can hibernate for several months, why may not man ? Both noted Englishmen and Hindoos assured me that certain per- sons, first hypnotized and prepared, had been buried for months — dead to the world — and then resurrected to their health and their homes. These j^eople are called Fakirs. Few have not heard of the Lahore fakir who, as recorded ])y Dr. W. L. McGregor (surgeon in tlie English arm}^) in liis history of the India Sikhs, was buried in a coffin-like box some two months, and then revived upon being exposed to the air. The history lies before me. The affair was verified by other physicians who speak of the " suspension of respira- tion, digestion and assimilation while in this trance." " It is well known," says Dr. McGregor, " that native Hindoos can train themselves to go without food for a long time, that they can refrain a while from breathing and can put them- selves into a death-like trance, in which, as in cases of asphyxia, both respiration and circulation cease for a time." 412 AROUND THE WORLD. This fakir was born in Ivunkul, a place famous for fakir phenomena. He dechired that his trance sleep was delight- ful, lie was about forty years of age. One of the gentle- men who witnessed this burial feat is still living in Lahore. The place was well guarded, so as to admit of no imposition or fraud. '' Outside of the whole," says Dr. McGregor, " there was placed a line of sentries, so that no one could approach the building. The strictest watch was kept for sixty da3^s and sixty nights. At the expiration of the time the Mahara- jah, his grandson, several of his sidars. General Ventura, Captain Wade and myself proceeded to disinter the fakir. The box was unlocked, opened, the white sheet removed, the wax taken from his nose, mouth and ears, and warm water poured upon his head — when his pulse began to beat, and his lungs to expand. Soon he became conscious. This and similar cases are well authenticated by physicians, Maharajahs, English officers and others of the highest re- spectability." Asking for the philosophy of this, the reply was : the body is only a bit of machinery that the Atma^ the inmost soul, manipulates and runs. And under proper conditions it can leave its tenement returning to it at will. THE YOGI THAT I LAST SAW. Hearsay incites to investigation, while seeing is knowing. Accompanied by Dr. English and Mr. Kneudson, of Adj-ar, with two intelligent Brahminical interpreters, the one the president of the Hindoo Triplicane Society, to which I had previously lectured, we rode down through Madras and on through Blacktown, out into a retired suburb to see a famous Yogi. He had been a traveling Swami Yogi for ten j^ears ; but for twenty years he had sat in this mud-walled hut, back from the wayside, connected with which was neither chim- ney nor window. He keeps a fire or light of some kind con- stantly burning. Conducted by our Brahminical friends, and stooping, we entered the low doorway and squatted down, 'J ,e ^..A.ik.. Togi MeditatioD. THE INDIA OF TO-DAY. 413 there being in his hermitage neither chairs nor seats. The Yogi approached us witli a pan of ashes, sprinkling them upon our foreheads. The ashes were from the burning of dried cow chips. The Yogi's feet and lower limbs Avere naked. There was a string of indescribables around his neck and the turbaned hood partly concealed the matted hair and ashes upon his head. The close, smoky atmosphere was almost insufferable. The surroundings were dreary enouo-h to delisfht a den of demons. This Yogi eats but one meal a day, and that is rice with a little milk. He looked lean, pinched and skinny. All of the fixings in his hermitage were smok}', sooty, dirty, repulsive. He talked glibly with the interpreter about the teachings of the Yedas, the Upanishads and other Hindoo literature, but gave no proof of telepathy, clairvoyance, levitation, psychic phenomena or of any approach towards the Supreme Soul. The Yoga state is called Samadhi, and in this state it is said that fire will not burn, water will not drown, nor will a deadly cobra bite Yogis. I should think not — if they are all as lazy and dirty as this one. Sitting in this old Yogi's hut, I felt like saying : " Push an opening up through this thatched roof and let in God's fresh air and sunlight ; go and wash yourself ; go and put on some nice clean garments ; eat at least two good meals a day ; stand up straight instead of squatting on the ground like a toad ; Avork six or eight hours each day at some useful manual labor, and the rest of the time, if you so choose, meditate, and repeat Om, the ' word of glory.' " The India of three thousand jea,rs ago is not the India of to-day. India with its magnificent Vedanta philosoph}" — almost the equivalent of the Spiritual philosophy in America, has been on the decline for a thousand years, or longer. During its fading glories it has been the great hatching maw of metaphysical monstrosities, such as this : " the age of Brahma, or one hundred of his divine 3-ears must equal 311.040,000,000,000 of our mortal years." Buddhism is con- 414 AROUND THE WORLD. siclered by the philosophically inclined infinitely preferable to Hinduism. Colonel Olcott went to India a firm believer in the occult powers of the Yogis. He has been in India over seventeen years. In his search for Yogis, he found, so he said in one of his addresses, " only a crowd of painted imposters who masquerade as Sadhus, to cheat the charitable, and secretly give loose to their beastly natures." THE HINDOO SWAMI VIVEKANANDA. Americans are sensationalists, say the phlegmatic-inclined Germans. They are certainly fond of new toys if labeled foreign. It greatly amused the Theosophists and the cult- ured Brahmins of India, as well as interested myself to see how Unitarians, Universalists, Free-thinkers and some Spir- itualists got wild over this Swami, " the great Hindoo Brah- min," who, by the way, was not a Brahmin ; and, further, he cannot become a Brahmin except through death and re-birth into a Brahmin family. His real name is Norendra Nath Dutt. His father is a lawyer in Calcutta. And this Swami Vivekananda, otherwise the sensational ]\Ir. Nath Dutt, was educated at the Church of Scotland Institution, and studied law for a time. He attended the Brahmo churches, acted upon the stage at the residence of B. K. C. Sen. Babu P. C. Mozoomdar in his life of Chunder Sen, says, " Mr. Dutt was introduced to me as the Paramhansa, great devotee of Dakshineshwar. He discoursed in a sort of half-delirious state, becoming now and then quite unconscious." This shows him to have been a Spiritualist medium. It was in 1889 that Mr. Dutt with several other Bengalese, agreed to become Sannyasis, wandering Hindoo monks. The old original Sannyasi were supposed to abandon all worldly concerns, and to depend upon alms for supjDort. They were ascetics. Some smeared their heads with ashes. Others, until the British police interfered, went entirely naked ; . . . But Mr. Dutt, believing in progression, founded a sort of new THE INDIA OF TO-DAY. 415 order, one more gay and festive. His early asceticism failed to follow him to England and America. His Oriental garb of orange, crimson girdle, turbaned head, and gorgeous outfit generally, though unauthorized, if I am credibly informed by his order of monkhood, would with his fluent English naturally attract crowds in America. Ascetics of his school abjure beef, wine and all animal food. Their food is generally rice and one meal a day. What the Swami's diet was in America I do not know. The word Swami, by the way, means Lord. The " Calcutta Indian Mirror," writing of Mr. Dutt, alias Swami Vivekananda, says : " We have no objections to the publication of such American panegyrics on the Sannyasi, but since he came to us to act on the stage of the Nava-Vindavan theatre, or sang in one of the Bramo Somajes of this city, we know him so well, that no amount of newspaper writing could throw any new light on our estimate of his character." THE SWAMI AND THE YOGA PHILOSOPHY. There has just fallen into my hands away here in India, a new book by this Swami Vivekananda, entitled " Rajah Yoga ; or, lectures on the Yoga Philosophy." Heartily do I wish that my American countrymen could hear some of the learned pundit's criticisms of this book. Any honorable author in writing of a philosoj)hy would include both theory and practice. What practical Yogaism is you will see presently. The Yoga philosophy is attributed to Patanjali, and Yoga originally meant " the suppression of the transformation of the thinking principle " ; but now it has come to mean union, teaching how the human soul may attain union with the Supreme Soul. This Hindoo Swami in treating of the "Yoga philosophy" — a massive bundle of metaphysical non-demonstrable propositions and archaic assertions — wittily skipped through it and over it, picking out the plums and quoting some of the aj^horisms Avith comments. The work 416 AROUND THE WORLD. was shrewdl}-, cunningh-, takingly done. This book looks well, reads well, and is chiefl}' valuable for its omissions of the Yoga practice, the ridiculous Yoga postures and the filthiness connected with it. YOGA POSTURES AND PRACTICE, The " Hartha Dipika," in describing the proper place for a Yoga location, says a cave, a dwelling, or small monastery in an out-of-the-way place, not larger than a cube of six feet, will do. The cell or mattrilla should have a small door, and no window ; it should be free fj-om holes, cavities and inequalities. Of the eighty-four postures that Yogis must assume, the following are among the more important : In this Yoga cave or hut, the right foot should be placed on the left thigh and the left foot on the right thigh ; the hands should be crossed and the two great toes should be firml}" held thereby ; the chin should be bent down on the chest, and in this posture the eyes should be directed to the tip of the nose. This is called Padmassana, the lotus pos- ture. Hold the great toes with the hands and draw them to the ears as in drawing a bow-string. Look at a point between the eyebrows and cut off the inspiration and expiration of the breath as far as possible. Other postures, according to Manibal and R. C. Bose, con- sist in the mixing of the prana with the apana, tlie lower breath ; inhaling at the left nostril, and letting the breath out at the right nostril. Some of these Yogis had long nails and matted hair ; some gazed at the sun, like the one I saw in Benares ; some went naked ; some gazed for days, months and years at the " navel- wheel of the body"; some inhaled smoke; some ate grass, leaves and cow's dejecta (see Col. Olcott's " Asceticism," p. 3), and others still posed on one foot. But enough ! There is evidently no danger, notwithstanding the Swami's eloquence, of Spiritualists accepting the Yoga philosoph}', or engaging Hindoo Peuance. I THE INDIA OF TO-DAY. 417 in Yoga postures to come into union with the Supreme Soul. The noted author, J. Murdock, of Madras, in criticising the Swami's lectures upon the Yoga philosophy, quotes from him the following passage relating to God : " Starting from son>e fungus, some very minute, micro- s'copic bubble, and all the time drawing from that infinite storehouse of energy, the form is changed slowly and slowly, until, in course of time it becomes a plant, then an animal, then man, ultimately God " (page 42). This may be Yoga philosophy, but it is not reason, science, or common-sense. SPIRITUALISM IX INDIA. Though there is no organization in India under the dis- tinctive name of Spiritualism, yet if Spiritualism means conscious communion with the so-called dead, then the Hin- doos have been Spiritualists for ages. Their old religious books abound in converse with Devas (Sanskrit), celestial beings — invisible beings also good and bad, and with Pitris (Sanskrit) departed ancestors. These latter the}' propitiate. A Hindoo pundit informed me only a few days since that all Hindoos believe that the invisible spaces are nearly filled with different gradations of spirits, one class, connected with our solar system, being estimated at 330,000,000,000. These spirits as well as the stars are believed to exercise mighty potencies in influencing human beings. Throughout the whole of the Sanskrit literature, from the Vedas to the Puranas, mention is made and that frequently of Bhutas, Pretas, Pitris, Devas, Pisachas — the invisible spirits of Hindoo ancestors. India's sacred books speak of their abodes, describe their distinctions and general charac- teristics — their power, their obsessing influences and how to avert their control by mantras, or invocations. Swami Vivekananda, made a hero of at some of the Spir- itualist camp-meetings in America, said to the Rev. Mr. Flagg, of New York, that — " Our Hindoo ancestors all be- 418 AROUND THE WORLD. lieved in spirit return and spirit converse ; and they continne to believe that they are our unseen helpers. . . . Spiritualism like the Yoga philosophy is very old in India." He attended Mrs. Williams's materializing stances in New York, and expressed great delight at the privilege ; under date of March 11, 1895, he wrote her : "I shall soon have a class on the Spiritualistic basis of the Hindoo religion, and I shall bfe highly pleased to have you one of my class." Brahmins generally oppose Spiritualism in tlie English and American sense of the word. They do not discrimi- nate between or differentiate Spiritualism from Spiritism with its concomitant obsessions. The stock in trade of Spiritism, the equivalent almost of Pitrisism, is phenomena ; while the basic foundation of Spiritualism is Spirit — pure, changeless, infinite Spirit. Spiritualism is the direct anti- thesis of materialism, and it incites to the study of man's intellectual, moral and spiritual nature — to the psychic forces that influence sensitives ; and it encourages the development of the spiritual in man, as well as demon- strates a future progressive existence. Spiritualism is the foe of bigotry, persecution, superstition and sectarian Chris- tianity. Certain Theosophists have been instrumental, I fear, in leading many thoughtful and cultured Hindoos astray, touching the merits and moral grandeur of Spirit- ualism. The aims of Theosophy and Spiritualism are one and the same — the uplifting of humanity. THE ADYAR MANSION. Ad3ar is the head-centre of Theosophy. " Are you a Theosophist, doctor ? " Yes, if allowed to define Theosophy for myself. The real loyal Theosophical society, founded b}- Madame Blavatsky and Col. Olcott, is located at Adyar, five miles from Madras, on the river Adyar near its entrance into the ocean. The Adyar building is palatial in appearance and Oriental in style. A portion of this unique, imlace-like THE INDIA OF TO-DAY. 419 structure is three stories high, the lower portion of the front part supported by piUars is all open, with a raised ros- trum for lectures, receptions and a general reading-room. Sitting and reading or musing, I frequently saw little squirrels, toads and lizards hopping or playfully running across the marble floor. IS'o one disturbed them, so they had become both trusting and friendly. There are twenty- five acres connected with this Theosoi^hical Mecca, planted and decorated with bread-fruit, mango and other trees of richest foliage. The house, half-buried in climbing, ever- blooming vines, facing the river, has doors wide and ponder- ous. The windows are exceedingly large and uncanny. The rooms are capacious with high ceilings. The floorings are stone or marble upon which rest heavy pillars, and the walls are hung with the shields of the different Theosophi- cal branches in all lands. The library is absolutely massive, containing many very valuable, unpublished manuscripts. The shrine is located directly in rear of the lower library, and in which are paintings of some of the Mahatmas, the existence of which is not yet fully settled. Adyar is not only restful, inviting to study and medita- tation ; but, the centre of Theosophical culture, research and authority for the enlightened Theosophic world. Happy were the days and weeks that I spent in this palace of books, companioned with Col. Olcott, the only living founder of modern Theosophy ! CAN EUROPEANS AND AMERICANS LIVE IN INDIA? Eniphatically, Yes ! if they behave themselves and even decently obey nature's divine laws. India is not antagonistic, either from a j^hysical or moral point of view to the European races. True, if men go there and drink liquors, walk the streets at late hours, and dive into dens of dissipation as too many of them do, their health fails. Only a miracle could make it otherwise. If young soldiers going from England to India become 120 AROUND THE WORLD. the victims of disease — a loathsome disease, the fault is their own, and should not be accounted to the hot climate, but rather to tlie heated passions of animal-flesh-eating civili- zation. People have been theologically taught so long to lay their personal sins to climate, to poor old Adam in the garden, or to some other cowardly palliating device, and then, that the consequences of their sins can be blotted out by belief in the blood and merits of the Lord Jesus, that their addled brains whirl and swing, doubtingly, between Eden and Calvary. Christians, and especially missionaries, rising- above creeds and Calvinistic confessions, should teach Oriental nations — if anything — that the universe is gov- erned by immutable laws, cause and effect ; and if they vio- late nature's laws, they must suffer the consequences, regard- less of any Adam, Krishna, or Jesus. Ensflish women and American missionary women also, who, when in their native countries walked a good deal, and on their feet superintended and took a part in their household work, when reaching India, drop down too often into a pitiable indolence. They employ a small army of servants. They take no exercise except to go down a stairway for their meals and step into a barouche for an evening's drive. They do their shopping from the carriage, or sitting in a chair — in brief, they are literall}^ lazy ! And laziness tends to ill- ness, for which India's climate is held responsible. It is said also by a class of pessimists, that the children of Europeans deteriorating in India, must be returned to their native countries, early, or early as possible for recupera- tion. This is not only misleading, but physiologically unjust, untrue. If English, Indian-born chikb-en were relieved of an abnormal hot-bed existence — if they were properly bathed, dieted, lightly clothed and properly educated in the laws of hygiene, their shoulders would broaden and their cheeks red- den with the crimson blush of health. English soldiers transferred to India, gratifying their lower propensities, feasting upon the corpses of cows, sheep and THE INDIA OF TO-DAY. 421 hogs boiled or broiled, and, washing down the half-cooked, half-masticated flesh of the above-named dead animals with strong coffee or brandy and soda, sow to the whirlwind of disease and death. They reap what they sow. This is Karma. It is not the hot, debilitating climate of India, but their depraved conduct that so early kills them. WHAT THE HINDOOS SAY OF THEIR CLIMATE. A prominent India journal says : — " If the natives of our country led such lives as do the English and even many of the missionaries, they, too, would deteriorate. It is accepted as an axiom that Europeans born in the country and reared here, as well as Eurasians, are steadily deteriorating from the stamina and vigor of the original stock. A greater error could not be fulminated. The finest specimens of manhood physically, are represented by Europeans who have been in the country for three generations. Among the Eurasians, splendid specimens of physical manhood can be shown. Of course, city-bred men are always inferior to those who are country bred, and so it is in India. . . . If it was generally known that Europeans can live as safely and as healthily in India as in any part of Europe, that is, if they live sensibly and hygieni- cally, many Europeans would settle in India and invest capital, for India is a grand country. The resources of India awaiting development are im- mensely great. European enterprise, European capital, would make India a masrnificent country. Crude materials are lying throughout the length and breadth of the land, awaiting capital and intelligent enterprise, to turn them into manufactures yielding handsome returns. It is necessary for India's welfare that the truth regarding the Indian climate should be gen- erally known." IS THERE MUCH LEPROSY IN INDIA ? Not very much. It is not as prevalent as it is in China, Singapore, or the Sandwich Islands. In Ceylon, I employed a leprous Kandian youth to write for me, that because of his leprosy had been dismissed from Government Service. I had no fear of the disease. If contagious at all, it is only feebly so. It was after nine years of continuous contact with lepers that Father Damien of Honolulu memory died. Yqvj few women are lepei's. It is the general opinion of physicians that syphilitic persons, upon exposure for a certain period, 422 AROUND THE WORLD. are more apt to have the disease than the otherwise healthy. The period of incubation of the disease is placed from three to twenty years. Often a husband may have it for nearly a lifetime and none others of the family. Hered- ity is a certainty, however, and yet it sometimes skips one and two generations. A young and very intelligent Hindoo of Madras, upon whose person the sluggish swellings had just appeared and who consulted me, said that his grandfathers on both sides had succumbed to the disease, but there was not a vestige of its appearance in either of his p)arents. The eti- olog}^ of this disease is at best but poorly understood ; still, it is certain that a syphilitic soil contains just the qualities that if the leprous bacillus be introduced, it will develop this terrible disease. Many Oriental lands are yet but partially explored and geographically mapped. On my second tour around the world, I spent some time in poor half-unknown Cambodia. Here, one of the hospital physicians at the Capital in- formed me that there " were many lepers in the country ; but the people neither avoid, nor refuse to eat with them, nor even to sleep with them." Dr. Coltman writes that the reason of this was that because the " ruler of the country in one instance was a leper, and the people ceased, on this account, to feel dislike to it." Leprosy is not painful. Often the first symptom is a numbness of the part attacked. In Northern China there is no segregation of the leper class. They are seen mixing about among the healthy, buying, sell- ing and in no way deprived of their freedom. It is a mistake to say that leprosy is an incurable disease. But neither calomel, iron, quinine, strychnia, cod-liver oil, nor the mineral acids will cure it. The remedy lies in the use of grains, vegetables and fruits for foods, pure, distilled water, pure air, medicated steam baths, and massage with the touch of the magnetic hand. Medically speaking, one of the best constitutional alterative tonics is the syrup of the iodide of iron in small doses. Dr. Cantlie uses the ointment THE INDIA OF TO-DAY. 423 of Uniia, composed of chrysarobin five per cent., salicylic acid two per cent., and iclithyol five per cent. When used on the face it should be much reduced. Dr. Coltman says : " I have used an ointment of carbonate of zinc for the ulcerative process. I have also used with good success hydrarg. ammoniat, zinc oxid and plumbi acet. made into an ointment with cosmoline." But, besides keep- ing tlie excretory organs active, diet, steaming, rubbing — massage is indispensable. Let no leper despair of a cure. IISTDIA'S progress under BRITISH RULE. Child marriage constitutes one of the dark spots to-day on the fair face of India. I will not describe it. It will not well bear description, from either a physiological or social stand- point. It is quite possible that Mrs. Dr. Ryder has greatly magnified its mischief. Brahmins and intelligent Hindoos unitedly so affirm. But, be this as it may, it is certain that she does not care to have her book circulated in India — the very place where it should be circulated, if just and criti- cally authentic in statement. Suttee, the self-immolation of the widow by burning alive upon the same funeral pyre of the dead husband, was popu- lar and considered justifiable in India for hundreds of years. Priests justified and encouraged it as they did hundreds of other superstitions. The sources of priestly revenues in nearly all lands are superstitions and donations. Priests are the temple beggars. Brahminical writers of the agone centuries asserted that widow-burning was authorized by their sacred books ; but deeper researches by more competent Sanskrit scholars, dis- covered no authority either in the Vedas or Manu for the murderous practice. Akbar, so far as his rule extended, par- tially prohibited it in the sixteenth century. The burning of widows was very prevalent in India long after the East India Company came into power. This Com- pany tried to prohibit it, by forbidding it unless voluntary 424 AROUND TFIE AVORLD. on the part of tlie widow. This did not materiall}^ diminish the nunihur biinied, " for in the twelve years between 1815 and 182(3, there were 7,154 officially reported in Bengal alone." In the year 1829, Gov. Bentinck enacted a law, declaring all aid, assistance or participation in any act of suttee, to be murder and punishable with death. The Brahmin priests denounced this law with o-reat vensfeance as interferinof with their religion. Priests, always conservative, lag behind jDrophets and people. Rammohun Roy, be it said to his credit, discouraged and preached against the suttee practice. He was an inspired Hindoo, as was Chunder Sen. Superstitions necessarily decline before the march of science and culture. The sacredness of the Ganges as a river for penances, immersions, swearing by, and for the depositing of those of the dead not burned, is going out of date with many other old-time superstitions. Once 1 counted, in years agone, four dead, decaying human bodies floating on the placid Ganges, while taking a Ijoat-ride before sunrise, down along the river by Benares, city of sacred shrines and temples, in several of which were kept and religiously cuddled — if not worshipped — elephants, bulls and monkeys. The Palestinian Nazarene said, " God is Spirit, and they that worship Him, should worship Him in Spirit and^in Truth.'' Caste, if anything of the kind is admissible, should be based upon intelligence and moral worth and not upon blood as in Britain, nor upon sordid wealth as in America. Social caste initiated and instituted in the East by a schem- ing priesthood, is at best a scourge, a pretension, a vile moral pest. It cannot long stand before railways and the sturdy tread of science. Already it is softening, broaden- ing, among the more enlightened of the Indians. Brother- hood as taught in the Vedas — as taught by the Hebrew prophets and later by Spiritualists and Theosophists — is becoming an inspiring watchword in India's progress. One THE IXDIA OF TO-DAY. 425 of Lord Buddha's first teachings was — " down with caste ! as death levels all, so a true and holy life must equalize all." Unwisely flattering the caste Hindoos, Mrs. Besant (a recent outgrowth from materialism) lialf apologized for the Indian caste system in her published lectures. It was neither west- ern nor womanly. Our real friends do not flatter us. It is the lame that require crutches, and the egregiously bad that need apologizing for and bolstering up with honeyed words. Another travailing birth of Mrs. Besant up out of archaic legends, Upanishad mysticisms, impossible miracles and incarnated monstrosities christened gods, into the golden sunshine of Spiritualism — that divine Spiritualism whose corner-stone is Spirit — pure, boundless, changeless — O infinite Spirit, and she will find rest for her weary, wander- ing feet — rest within the temi^led gates of the true '• wisdom religion," Spiritualism, that Spiritualism which implies spirit meditations, spirit communications (not with invented " shells "), but with our loved in the higher spheres of intelli- gence, and the leading of a calm, serene, spiritual life. SLAVERY IN IXDIA. Not only previous to English rule had the plague, famines and devastating Avars prevailed among the Maharajah, rajahs and tribal kings and chiefs, but slavery, recognized alike by Hindu and Mahomedan law, was perpetrated " in India by the four unfailing sources of birth, war, debt, and famine." " On the British acquisition of the country, slavery of a firm type existed everywhere, chiefly in the form of domestic servitude and agricultural bond- age. The early English manuscript records refer to it without any hint of blame and simply as an existing fact. What is to be done with a boat- load of slaves which had got into the hands of the police ? what is to be done about recruits who have enlisted in one of our battalions, but are reclaimed by the local landholder as his slaves ? what is to be done with a deceased nobleman's retainers, 'the majority of whom are slaves?* Those were the commonplace questions to which slavery as an accepted institution gave rise in the last century. As late as 1841 the Commission- ers are said to have found in a single tract over two hundred landholders 426 AKOUND THE WORLD. each in possession of two thousand slaves. Their report shows that the number of slaves varied in different districts from one-sixth to one-half of the entire population. Sir Bartle Frere estimated, if we remember rightly, that tliere were nine million slaves in India in 1843. " The Maratha misrule in Orissa, for example, led to horrors scarcely less terrible than those of the ' middle passage.' The Ganjam records dis- close miserable gangs of peasantry who had been shipped from Orissa for sale in Southern India. The frail crafts that carried them were often driven ashore on the Madras coast. Wretched, footsore parties, rescued by the compassion of our officers, were passed northwards from one British factory to another, till they reached the Orissa frontier, leaving a trail of their sick and dying along the route. A proclamation by the Madras Gov- ernment against this abuse of the system proved in the last century inef- fectual. The whole system is so completely forgotten that the local annal- ist remarks, ' But for the original papers which I here cite in support of my statements, its existence at any time would now be denied.' " Two chief sources of the slave population were the enslavement of families for debt and the sale of women and children during famine. It must be remembered that local scarcities, often deepening into famine, were almost of yearly occurrence in India before British roads broke down the isolation of districts. Such scarcities acted as a constant cause of the sale of women and children. In 1769-70 a native officer indicated the severity of the Bengal famine by the fact that buyers of children could no longer be found. In 1 790 the peasants in the Maratha district of Cuttack gave themselves and their families away for food. During the famine of 1813 half the free population in the district of Agra was reported to have disappeared, a boy being sold for a single meal. In the scarcity following the floods of 1834 children were hawked about the streets of Calcutta. Male adults, women, boys and girls had their regular market rates — girls fetching four to ten times the price of boys, according to their good looks. The sale of his family formed a normal resource of the peasant during famine. " So deeply rooted was slavery in the customs of rural India that the first British attempts at interference proved vain. After earlier measures against the importation of slaves by sea, a local order in 1820 forbade the actual sale of slaves in the districts which we had conquered from the Peshwa; a legislative enactment in 1827 required that such sales, to be valid, must be duly registered before a magistrate. The status of slavery was clearly recognized and Lord William Bentinck's effort in 1834 to liber- ate the slaves who passed to the British Government among the other chat- tels of the Raja of Coorg obtained but partial success. Of 1,115 slaves thus set free, only thirty families took to cultivation on their own account and 250 accepted service under peasant proprietors. Hereditary thraldom THE INDIA OF TO-DAY. 427 had worked so deeply into the minds of the rest that they re-entered of their free will the class of bondsmen and ' were treated exactly as if they had remained slaves, many of them destroying their certificates of free- dom.' "The Indian law of 1843 is sometimes spoken of as an Abolition Act and it is inferred that slavery could have had little vitality in India because the Act aroused no overt resistance. As a matter of fact, when the law was first proposed, even after the Parliamentary report and with the powerful advocacy of Mr. Bird's minute, it met with such opposition that it was laid aside. It was only the accident of the whole power of the Government passing into Mr. Bird's liands, while Lord Ellen borough was playing the stage-conqueror in Northern India, that enabled the Act to be passed. Nor did the Act venture to abolish in express terms the status of slavery in India. It refused the aid of the Civil Courts to enforce the sales of slaves or to enforce rights of property in them, or to dispossess holders of prop- erty on the plea of its having been derived from a slave. The Act also made offences against slaves punishable by the criminal law as if committed against free persons. The great wars from which the Company had just emerged and the new wars on which it was about to enter, left little leisure for internal politics. But economic causes were at work against the old- "world slavery of India, and the people were slowly prepared for its total prohibition by the Penal Code of 1860. Forty years elapsed between the local executive order against slave sales in 1820 and the time at which the British-Indian Government ventured to make slave dealing in India a criminal offence." The above from the " Weekly Times," Feb. 19, 1897, with previous liberal and confirmatoiy quotations from Hindoo journals, very clearly proves that India was by no means a paradise previous to British rule. That she has always ruled wisely and beneficentl}^, I neither affirm nor believe. My con- victions are to the contrary. Too well do I know of the brusque, overbearing and almost brutal characteristics of cer- tain English officials in the East. Seemingly strangers to the fact that themselves and the Hindoos are of one original stock, the Aryans, they seem blind to the nobler instincts of fraternity, and half-dead to that sweet spirit of gentleness and tenderness that becomes such a professedly high degree of civilization. Queen Vic- toria is as deservedl}- as decidedly popular in India. Her 428 aeou^;d the woeld. officials are not. It is the feeling witli multitudes of the natives that English rule partakes largely of despotism and tyranny over the masses that have little or no means of re- dress — no Parliamentary voice. Deprived, they say, of the " ballot — of home rule — of fire-arms and other inalienable rights, we are taxed down to the verge of starvation." The English having abolished the suttee practice and slav- ery, they should now grapple with and ultimately abolish the child-marriage system. Very many Hindoos are already op- posed to it, realizing that true marriage — the life-long union of two loving souls can be arranged and should be consum- mated only b}" the intelligent and the reflecting involved in the union. Love is the soil, subsoil and cement of mar- riage. And Hindoo parents might just as well eat or drink for their children as to love for them, and marriage without love is only another name for lust, and lust leads to social death. It has been said by certain fanatics that puberty prompts to speedy marriage and " nature must not be med- dled with." Then do not cut the nails, trim the hair, clothe the body, fell the forests, nor pull the weeds from your gar- den. Down on all such rubbish and moral rottenness ! Woman is not physiologically mature till twenty-two or four years of age, and man some two years later. Maturity, health and wisdom are the indicators of marriage. Infantile betroth- als and child-marriages are abominations to be abrogated. BRITAIN AND INDIA FACE TO FACE. Never before in the annals of time have two great civili- zations, differing so widely, been brought face to face. The struggle for supremacy commenced years ago. It continues. It is the struggle of the mad north-lands against the milder- mannered and warmer south-lands — the struggle of physical force and push, against a quiet and more restful intelligence — stern materialism against a mystic Spiritualism — physics against metaphysics, and science, an ever-changing science against myth and religious tradition. THE INDIA OF TO-DAY. 429 A scholarly Bralimiii recently wrote as follows in the " Madras Mail " : " That Hindoo life is now being deeply affected by contact with the Western civilization and the ideas which Western education aided by the railway, the telegraph and the telephone brings, goes without saying, and it can hardly be doubted that though it may not be entirely replaced by European civilization, it will in the end be considerably modified by it. There are many among us who deplore the fact that the good old institu- tions should now, under the influence of these new ideas, be in danger of destruction or alteration. In the case of some this feeling is to be explained by the tendency which is found to exist at all times and in all countries, to admire the past and to regard all change as deterioration. But there are others who think that the civilization of the West has not on the whole con- tributed to the happiness of a nation, that while it has certainly led to the production of immense wealth, it has also brought about a selfish, sordid spirit and much misery, and that under it, the difference between him who hath and him who hath not is getting more and more accentuated. It is urged that in the unrestricted competition which forms a very essential feature of this civilization, the rich man is getting richer and the poor man poorer, and that in the struggle between capital and labor the latter neces- sarily gets worsted, with the result that side by side with the accumulation of large wealth in the hands of a few, you have a very large portion of the community in an abject state of poverty and utterly at the mercy of the moneyed classes." Speaking in general terms, India, one of the grandest coun- tries on earth, rich in soils, rivers and forests, summering under an eternal sun, peopled with intelligent Aryan millions, among whom are men of the deepest research, profoundest thought, exalted attainments and aspirational desires for political free- dom, the development of their fatherland, the physical, mental and moral welfare of their countrymen — and yet is stricken with famine, with the plague, burdened with a merciless taxa- tion and staggering under an ever-accumulating, unbearable load of poverty. God and good angels lift the cloud and has- ten the day of India's redemption. Hindoo life is pre-eminently village life. Though toiling off on farming-lauds during the day they flock into the villages at night-time. This great country is not dotted with farm- 430 AROUND THE WORLD. houses and school-houses as in America. And yet the Hindoo, whether of the higher or lower caste, is exceedingly anxious for an education. Brahmins are naturally great students. There are schools in some localities for even the pariahs. Col. Olcott established one of this character near Adyar. Tennyson and Carlyle, Emerson, Darwin and Wallace are well-known amoncr the higher classes of India. American literature, too, is rapidly finding its way into the more distant villages away out from the crowded cities. Many of these people prefer Longfellow ; prefer, I cannot tell why, Ameri- can to English works of histor}-, poetry and medicine. Last month I received five letters from Madras, Tinnevelly, Lahore and Madura, asking for American journals and books treating of science, history and Spiritualism. Just as I was leaving Madras last May, a Hindoo journal- ist handed me quite a pamphlet entitled " Chromopathy," a sort of a compilation from the works of my erudite fellow- countryman, Dr. E. D. Babbitt, author of " Principles of Light and Color," " Human Culture and Cure," " Religion as Revealed in the Material and Spiritual Universe," etc., all or which are scholarlj^, up-to-date works, Avith visions of the bej-ond — works of deepest research and broadest range of thought as touching originality, science and philosophy — life, health and iramortalit}^ These books and others treating of sunlight, massage, elec- tricity and the finer forces generally, together with tlie instru- ments used by the doctor in treating and curing diseases, may be obtained by writing Dr. E. D. Babbitt, 253 South Broadway, Los Angeles, Cal. CHAPTER XXXIV. HINDOO DOCTRINES OF THE DEAD. "Tell me, Icried, O prophet, Thou shade of the miglity past — What of the truth m the future ^ Is its horoscope yet casf?" In the gray of antiquity, Solon, a Grecian sage, buckled on his sandals and traveled afar into Egypt in search of truth — and while he traveled he also taught. There are no higher aims in life than teaching and being taught. Learned Brahmins of to-day often travel the length and breadth of India, teaching as they go. These are not fakirs, but Sanskrit-versed sages. If the}^ — -if any Brahmin goes into a foreign countrj" to settle, or as a traveler eating the foods of foreigners he forfeits his caste. Hindooism in some of its phases was represented at the " World's Parliament of Religions," but Orthodox Brahminism was not. No true Brahmin presumes to leave India, nor will he till caste dies out into the better, broader faith of brotlierhood. The Arjnna of Lahore, writes as follows of a traveling sage : — During the last week Lahore had the good fortune of seeing a man who might rightly be considered a model of the ancient Hindu and a worthy inspirer of the rising generation of the modern Hindus. Mr. D. Subba Rao belongs to a very respectable family of Maharatta Brahmans now residing at Madura, Southern India. Being an elderly gentleman, he has given up his home and family, wife and children, and is traveling all over India visiting the national sacred shrines and coming into personal contact 432 AROUND THE WORLD. with the intellectual lights of the Native India of to-day. Like many of his countrymen (the IMadrasis), lie has an extraordinary command over the English language ; in fact he uses it so simply, correctly, eloquently and without a show of effort, that one cannot but admire. His simple mode of living, his noble features, his high thinking, his wealth of experience, his intellectual strength to deal with and speak extempore on almost all the subjects of human concern, do not demand but command respect from any educated person who has some interest in the intellectual advancement of his countrymen. And over and above all this he is a master of some of the occult sciences of divination, Phrenology, Physiognomy, Psychology, Palmistry, moles, etc., and not at least. Mantra Shastra. He holds a con- siderable lot of autograph letters, photographs, medals, rewards, and other tokens of regard from the highest men of India, intellectually and politi- cally. . . . His secular qualities not less than his occult acquirements, have given him a very remarkable and unique position in the life of the modern India, as he is in possession of the most private secrets of, as well as the public information about the leading natives of India and not only of their present and past state but even of their future ! He is a great scholar and he is very fond of examining every character in the light of his divine art. Those who have had the occasion of examining him in it must have been agreeably startled at his proficiency in spiritual gifts ; he told us of a mole which was on a private part of the body of the present writer, a knowledge of which must have been impossible to an ordinary mortal ! We wish him every success in his patriotic ambitions. Such a man traveling in America would be considered a Spiritual medium, although it would not be tliought a very high phase of mediumship to be pointing out " moles " on the bodv. Continental, English, and American Spiritualism and Spiritualists were shamefully misrepresented in India a number of ^^ears ago by Madame Blavatsk}'^ and some of her biologized subordinates. The future will rectify all this ; for " Eyer the trutli comes uppermost, And ever is justice done." R. B. J. Sukharam, Gadgil, L. L. B., a Hindoo of some attainments, informs us that the " Pishachas spoken of in their sacred books refer to gross, depraved human souls, which, after the death of tlieir bodies, are earth-chained as a HINDOO DOCTRINES OF THE DEAD. 433 result of their utter lack of Spirituality and purity. It is these disembodied human beings that do the communicating with the living." He further informs us tliat, according to the Hindoo belief, " very selfish men, men of mere intel- lectual endowments, who lack Spiritual intuitions, may become pishachas equally with the vicious — pishachas beiuCT the returning^ souls of demon men." He continues: " In this invisible state, the soul, being deprived of the means of enjoyment through its own physical Ijody, is perpetually tormented by hunger, appetite and other bodily desires, and can have only vicarious joys by approaching within the aura, or by entering into the living physical bodies of others, or by absorbing the subtilest essences of the depraved and the oblations offered for their own sake." Not all pishachas can enter the " living human bodies of others ; and none can enter the body of a holy man — an ascetic." "Hindoo funeral ceremonies, from the first to the eleventh and twelfth daj-s after a person's death, are little more than methods to prevent the hungry earth-bound soul from becoming a pishacha. If the pishacha, or deceased friend, begins to manifest itself, there are special ceremonies, called jnshacha-machini, intended to emancipate this soul from the state of desire." Indians, as do Christian sectarists, regard all influences from the spirit-world as abnormal and dangerous. Religious ecclesiastics always connect such manifestations with the devil, or with the demons of the under-world ; while Hindoos generally consider the return of spirits, especially if occurring in their own families, as a great misfortune ; and yet, singular as it may seem, they make scarcely an effort to study hyp- notism, psychic vibration, will-force or the trance, but, crj'- ing pitris, pishachas, obsession, they rush wildly off to the priests in some of their temples to have the spirit-intruder expelled. And, probably from experience, these priestly adepts are vastly more expert in exorcisms than the Christian missionaries. 434 AROUND THE WORLD. Often did I witness, while traversing India, their rude methods of dispossessing the obsessed. Not only did I see camphor and various gums burned, but women beaten to '•drive the devil out." In obsessional cases, decision of character, a positive will and a high soul purpose are inva- riablv more successful than uncouth fio-ures and the mutter- ing of priestly mantras. And this — all this is an admission of the fact, the stubborn fact of Spiritualism. But is it not dangerous? Yes, much as the fire is that may burn homes and cities — much as water is that may flood the streets and the fields. What then ? Shall the fires that cook our food be forever quenched ? and shall rains no more fall upon our grasses and groves ? Shall love, because not differentiated from lust, and so abused, be crushed out of humanitj^'s great sympathetic soul ? How disgracefully pitiable this chop-logic of the semi-idiot and the bigot ! The great Swedish seer, Swedenborg, truthfully taught that the heavens and the hells, the upper and lower kingdoms of conscious intelligences, are all open to the different races of earth. And, whether admitting or not, we are all, through the finer forces and the laws of vibration, influenced by the unseen auras, by the thoughts and the spirit intelligences of those that dwell in the invisible spheres about us. Phenomenal Spiritualism, old as antiquity, is a fact ; and all history and all sacred books confirm th© fact. It is the antithesis of a hopeless, dreamless materialism. It is God's living witness of a future conscious existence. Religious Spiritualism is a f act j^Zi^-s truth — Divine truth — that touches, and transfigures the soul into the divine image. And tliis Spiritualism, already cosmopolitan, is on earth to stay in some form and under some name ; and all the combined potencies of superstition and bigotry, of hells and devils cannot drive the blessed truth of angel ministries out of human hearts and souls. It is as firmly rooted there as is the intuitive conviction of immortality itself. Leaving Ceylon again, April 23, for India, crossing the '^^^^M J?^nl3.fr>=:t^ Old Hindoo Temple. HINDOO DOCTRINES OF THE DEAD. 435 narrow strip of Avaters, ever rough in tlie monsoon seasons, with no decent harbor for landing, I reached Tuticorrin the next day, seeing a gathered conglomeration of Indians in their primitive type of naturalness. The raihva}- station was crowded with these poor pariahs from drought-smitten dis- tricts, excitedly chatting and clinging to their bundles, wait- ing to ship for Colombo, then pursuing their way back to the great Ceylonese tea-plantations. It was nearl}^ night when we reached JMadura, a city of eighty thousand, and originally a great religious capital, old as ancient Jerusalem, or Rome in her palmiest period. Here resided that once powerful monarch Tirumai Nayak. And here maj^ be seen a magnificent temple, covei'ing an area of over fourteen acres, unique as ancient — that the vandal Mohammedans failed to destroy. Making little mention of its images, its lighted altars, its sacred elephants, its gold-leaf covered gods, with its hall of a thousand pillars — the whole structure is M^eird, grand, gorgeous and peculiarly Oriental. Some of the architecture is absolutely exquisite. Once Madura was the center of great learning and political influ- ence. "It was," says a noted English- writer, "the seat of a universit}' long before Cambridge or Oxford had come into existence, a university which united in itself the functions of an academy and a royal society of letters, which dispensed fame to poets and conferred immortality on works of genius." Strange as it may seem, Brahma has no temples in India, and receives no worship. Gods have their day and die away into oblivion. Madura is a great center of Saivaite worship, each worshipper bearing upon his forehead three horizontal paint-lines ; while the Vishnuites have one straight line of jDaste or paint drawn down the forehead to the nose. Others have different marks to sjnnbolize the sect to which they belong ; the Brahmin wearing his three-plied string over his shoulder. Exceedingly pleasant are my memories of several cultured Brahmins in this city, and also of a distinguished Parsee physician — all Theosophists. Fortunate is the trav- 436 AROUND THE WORLD. eler that meets such friends iind courteous guides along life's checkered pilgrimage. . . . On Monday evening, May 4, 1 lectured before the Hindoo Triplicane Literary Society of Madras. It was decidedl}^ a learned audience, the majority being graduates of the Madras Presidency College. This institution has nearly two thousand students. It faces the ocean. Passing it one day in a car- riage I observed many of the students out under the tamarind and orange trees engaged in their studies. Such energy can scarcely fail of being crowned with success. Leaving the carriage I went over to the Vishnu Temple, musical in one dej^artment with chan tings in the Tamil and responses by the priests. On the outside of the temple I saw the elephant belonging to it, and the great uncouth several-storied car, decorated with gods and religious devices, and drawn around the square enclosing the tank on festival days. It requires probably a thousand people to draw this car. Music precedes the march and flowers are sometimes thrown under the wheels — but enthusiastic worshijjpers do not thrust themselves under these ponderous wheels to be crushed, as missionaries have falsely reported in Chnstian lands. Madame Blavatsky in her will requested that the annivers- ary of her death be kept by readings from the Bhagavad Gita and from Arnold's '' Light of Asia," with appropriate addresses. It is called the White Lotus Anniversary, and was punctually kept in Adyar. Tlie platform was tastefully ornamented with palms and tropical foliage. An empty cliair was placed upon the platform decorated with white lotus blossoms. The pillars in the rear of this palatial building were trimmed with tropical foliage shaded by waving palms. Pundits read from the Bhavagad Gita in Sanskrit. Colonel Olcott, myself, and several Brahmin Theosophists delivered short addresses. Whatever be said of Madame Blavatsky's eccentricities and wilderness of writings not always carefully thought out, nor logically presented, nor positions proven, she was neverthe- less a wonderful woman — a marvellous, inspirational and HINDOO DOCTRINES OF THE DEAD. 437 materializing medium ! What a pity that one so active and talented should now be imprisoned (Mrs. Besant being author- ity) in the physical body of a dark-skinned Hindoo bo}-. Can- didlj^ I think her the freed and deserving subject of a higher and far nobler destiny. THE PLAGUE. Under some name the plague during past centuries has swept millions into eternity. Especially may this be said of India and China. Other countries have been similarly smitten. It is not difficult for the educated physician to divine the causes of this disease, which should have been called the glandular plague, rather than "bubonic." Briefly summed up, the causes were dirt, dampness and germ fungi. This plague-epidemic, as was generallj^ conceded by the Bombay press, attacked the rats first. These live and thrive best in low, dark, underground places. Multitudes not only died with this disease, but they soon carried the in- fectious germs along their dark, hidden runways to old tiled or palm-thatched shanties, but in time to the better residences. The rats died first because nearer the damp, filthy soil-surface. It is positively certain that filth and dampness were the chief determining factors in each local outbreak. Cleanliness, pure air, hygenic foods, in a word, sanitation metliods will readily destroy the mad depredations of the plague. Personally I have a deep interest in everything that tends to the physical, mental and spiritual upbuilding of India's thronging millions. Naturally, as the needle to the pole, do my fraternal affections flow out to the Aryan Indians far over the seas. Keeping you in remembrance, oh. Brahmins, I ever clasp you to my heart ! Standing upon the mount of vision I see still farther — see that there are ties between us which we sliare in common with all the world. To saj-, with Terence, " Humani nihil a me alienum puto," is to rej)eat a truth, confirmed by the ripest experience, and to which modern science attaches the pro- foundest significance. The superstitions and politics, the 438 AROUND THE WORLD. aspirations and the glories of the Brahminized races are not without their analogies in our midst to-day. May the inter- national blending of the Occident and tlie Orient prove a joy and a blessing to each and all. Pilgrim as I am — afloat on the ocean of being as we all are, circumstances affect us, and unseen powers a great cloud o witnesses, influence us. We did not choose our birth-land, nor time of coming into this objective existence ; nor the govern- ment under Avhich we Avould be born. Fate and forces be- yond our control placed us here. And all is well ! Regard- less of color, clime or nationality, humanity has a common origin, a common |)ulse-beat, a common heart-throb and a common uplooking towards a gloriously progressive immor- tality. One God. one life-influx, one law, one brotherhood, and ultimatel}^ one destiny for all human intelligences. CHAPTER XXXV. THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA. EGYPT AND ANTIQUITY. Whatever disappointment may befall me In plans or pleasures in this world of doubt, I know that life at worst can but delay me, But no malicious fate has power to stay me From that grand journey on the Great Life route. June 11, and homeward bound, we are now steaming and struggling along in the Indian Ocean in a terrific monsoon. For nearly two days the rain poured down in torrents, light- nines flashed, thunders howled and the winds reached the rapidity of a furiously-rushing land cyclone. It was really a fearful clash of the elements for a time. The steamer " Aden " that I originally designed to take passage on, succumbed to the storm on the Arabian coast and went down mth nearly her entire crew. Our stop at Aden, Arabia, was brief — but none too brief, considering that we could only see a unique village squat in the sand with barren hills and mountains rising up in the background. One poor forlorn-looking Arab approached our steamer in a rickety boat with ostrich plumes for sale. None purchased. It is scarcely safe to clasp too closely Ishmael's hand. The blood of Palmer, linguist and scientist, still cries from Araby's sands. June 14 ; the days are lengthening. We enter the nar- row passageway to the Red Sea. The heat, as usual here, is pitilessly oppressive. The passengers, mostly English, have their daily game of cricket. Some pitch quoits ; others smoke 440 AROUND THE WOllLD. and play cards, two Roman Catholic priests joining them. The Southern Cross now hangs upon the horizon's verge afar down in the southwest skies — and the North star is rising higher and higher each night. A cricket player, from overheating the blood yesterday, died this morning of apoplexy. He, the shell, the tent that he dwelt in, will be buried in the sea to-morrow morning — the fifth sea-burial since leaving Ceylon. Another passenger, our ship doctor informs me, is dangerously ill with inflamma- tion of the stomach. What are the causes ? doubtless, exces- sive eating : fruit, coffee and biscuits at 7 A. M. ; regular breakfast at 9 A. m. ; lunch at 1 p. m. ; dinner at 6 p. M. ; and supper at 9 o'clock in the evening. Besides these five meals, tea and cakes are served at 3 o'clock p. M. — and people have indigestion and inflammation of the stomach. Quite likely, and quite deservedly ! Few die from starva- tion, many from gormandizing. CITY OF SUEZ. This is an old, dull, Egyptian town, constituted principally of a Custom House and a cluster of ordinar}^ buildings. The real city is a little distance from here, and far from being imposing. The street people seemed poor, and many of them were suffering from sand-caused sore eyes. The Suez Canal is about ninety miles in length. It is not wide enough for two steamers to pass, or move along abreast. Financially, this canal has proved a marvellous success. What of the proposed Nicaragua Canal ? Will it be built — and with American capital ? We are at Port Said to-day, the largest coaling station in the world. Here is where the steamers enter the Mediter- ranean Sea. Egypt has changed little since my previous visit. Her pedestals and pyramids defy the bony finger of Time. In Ceylon, as before mentioned, I met the exiled Arabi Pasha, He was charged with a military revolt, demanding from the MEDITERRANEAN SEA. — EGYPT AND ANTIQUITY. 441 Khedive an immediate change of ministry and the increase of the army to eighteen thousand. The Khedive 3'ielded. Arabi rapidly became popular, owing to his strong dislike to Euro- peans. He soon defied the authority of the Khedive, and became, practically, militar}- dictator. English and French fleets were sent to put down the rebellion. Arabi's army was defeated at Tel-el-Kebis, and Cairo was occupied. Arabi Pasha was tried, convicted and banished to Ceylon, where, as a political exile, he continues to pine for his native land. His residence is upon the side of a mountain in the suburbs of Kanda. He receives a small yearly annuity. One encour- aging word from England would return this old patriot to his native country, that his bones might sleep with those of his kindred — but Briton is dumb. SLAVERY IN AFRICA. The Koran justifies slavery. And African Mohammedans, originally from Arabia, j^ersist in bujdng, selling, hunting and holding the black men of Africa in slavery. Nations more enlightened than Arabs have encouraged slave-holding. It was as early as 1620 that Africans were purchased by selfish men to labor in America as slaves. Even " eminent Christian ministers (see Rev. Blyden's " Negro Race," page 33) held negroes in bondage." William Penn, the Quaker, though very kind to the Indians, held, at one time in his life, slaves. Rev. George Whitfield and President Edwards, author of several standard woi-ks on Theolog}^ were slave- holders. The British Government brought these slaves in her merchant ships to America. For a number of years Africans were shipped to North America as cattle and sold. Preachers not only held and worked slaves, but the Right Rev. William Meade, bishop of the diocese of Virginia, pub- lished a book in defence of slavery. Here's an extract (page 35) : " Almighty God has been pleased to make you slaves, and give you nothing but labor and poverty in this world, which you are obliged to submit to, as it is his will that it 442 AROUND THE WORLD. should be so. Your bodies, you know, are not your own. They are at the disposal of those you belong to," etc. Bishop Ives taught that slavery was right, saying that when " Ones- imus ran away from his master, Paul sent him back with a letter." So the " man of to-day ought to send runaway slaves back to their masters." These were the teachings of many bishops and priests as late as the ^ear 1840. The Bishop of Abyssinia published a letter in the ''London Times," just after the Queen's jubilee, defending the right and justice of slavery in Zanzibar, over which the English hold a sort of a protectorate. The above references to slavery remind me that when, iii 1854, I was preaching universal sal- vation by grace, universal salvation anyhow, in Baltimore, ]\Ir. Ironmonger, one of the deacons of my church, took a slave- girl, seven-tentlis white, as security for a debt. The demand not being met, this nearly white slave-girl was put upon the slave-market block and sold to the highest bidder. My re- proofs to the deacon, together with the further facts that I had become a Spiritualist, that I circulated Fremont anti- slavery tracts in the congregation, and recommended Horace Greel3^'s " New York Tribune," raised such a political and religious cyclone that I was quite in danger o^ my life. The party of " plug-uglys " was active in those days, especially by night. Soon I resigned, yet preached two months after my resignation. The society, upon my leaving, voted resolu- tions of love and confidence, and pronounced me both a " de- voted pastor" and a " Christian gentleman." The resolu- tions I still retain. From this time, freed from creeds and all churchianic conventionalities, my real success in life began. THE GRANDEUR OF ANTIQUITY. Journeying in the East and studying the civilizations of explored, unearthed antiquity, the inquiry still is, which country was first in what we denominate a great civilization, Babylon, China, India, or Egypt ? Authorities still differ. MEDITERRANEAN SEA. — EGYPT AND ANTIQUITY. 443 The erection of the great pyramids, which so many writers regard as an indication of the highly civilized state of Egypt at the time of their erec- tion, is, in fact, a striking j)roof that before this period the nation had made very considerable progress in the arts and sciences. The people who built the pyramids had already long since fallen from their highest civilization. The origin of our sciences and many moral precepts still taught by the wisdom of nations is found recorded on the papyri and on the bas-reliefs of the monuments of upper Egypt ; while many a dogma on which existing reli- gions are based may be traced to its original form in the documents dis- covered in the tombs of Thebes and Abydos. The Egyptians were a race of builders, as the pyramids testify, and they built with a resolve for permanence which has never since been ap- proached. Upon the walls of their edifices they inscribed their annals. Here, in characters as sharp in outline and as vivid in color as on the day they were engraved and painted, we find the record of their creed, their exploits, their manners and customs. But the key to the ancient writings had been lost, and until within the last 100 years the records were inscru- table. With the discovery of the Rosetta stone in 1799 the secrets of the Egyptian writers were unlocked to us. Rosetta is forty-four miles north- east of Alexandria, with which it is connected by a railway. We are now able to read what the ancient Egyptians wrote, but we cannot say we wholly comprehend it. The genius of this wonderful people was wholly foreifrn to our own. Kings were garbed as deities and demi- gods ; history was sheathed in myth and allegory, and involved in symbol and metaphor. The fundamental maxim of Egyptian philosophy seems to have been this : " Mortal existence is brief ; beyond death lies the only true life ; man's duty is to make ready for it." The earliest inscriptions are perhaps 7,000 years old, in the era of the second Egyptian dynasty. From the third dynasty, about 3700 B. C, direct writings abound. The translation of the heiroglyphic and cuneiform inscriptions of Egypt and Mesopotamia has already thrown a broad light upon the half-told stories of the early peopling of the valleys of the Nile and Euphrates, and as additional historic relics are being constantly brought to view, and there seems to be no limit to the deciphering capacity of minds schooled in the subtleties of translation, still stranger developments in the future may be confidently expected. These discoveries have not only exposed the errors of written history in referring to events, conditions and individual charac- ter, but they have brought into prominence great political powers and dynasties, feared and respected before Nineveh or Babylon appeared and known heretofore only as unimportant dependencies. The earliest and greatest of these nations unrecognized by history were the people of Akkad. They were of the Turauean stock, and their origi- nal home was in the uplands of Armenia, and northward where, some 444 AROUND THE WORLD. 6,000 years or more before the Cliristian era, they attained a high civiliza- tion. They invented the cuneiform letters used in Babylonia and Assyria, and were far advanced in the arts vhen they spread over Chaldea and the Mesopotamian basin. There, mingling with the Semite races, they created the great empire of Babylonia, and in time lost their distinctive charac- ter by imparting it to the Assyrio Semitic races with whom they were thrown in contact. It has also been discovered that the Hittites were for centuries a warlike and conquering race, rulers over a large empire embracing many different peoples, and not only vastly superior to the Hebrews in martial powers, but capable of successfully co[)ing with the military strength of Kgypt or Babylonia. The Old Testament speaks of the Hittites. It is supposed that the Israelites, semi-barbarous, knew of but a small colony of the race occupying lands south of Palestine. At the height of their power the empire of the Hittites extended over Northern Syria and the whole of Asia Minor, with a fortified capital on the Euphrates. To the north it stretched to the Black Sea, and its southern capital was on the Arontes, the principal river of Syria. The Hittites were also of Turanean or Tartar stock, and were finally subjugated by the Assyrians 717 B. C. Concerning the erroneous manner in which history has dealt with the characters of many of the prominent actors in the past, we will give but a single example — that of Sardanapalus. It is now shown upon the tablets that he was far from being the weak and sensual sovereign described by the poets. It is in clearest proof, on the contrary, that be was the most power- ful and enlightened monarch of his time, distinguished alike for energy, sagacity and appreciation of art and literature. He founded a library and school of learning " for the instruction of the people of Nineveh," as expressed by the tablets. " The discovery of this storehouse of national records," says the author, " almost compensates the literary world for the loss of the Alexandrian Library." As he was the grandson of Sennacherib, " the Assyrian " who, as told by Byron, " came down like a wolf on the fold," and tlie flower of whose army was destroyed by the Lord, we will mention, in conclusion, that the cuneiform records make no reference to that event, although they tell the story of the return of Sennacherib to Assyria with " 200,000 captive Hebrews and other Syrians " in his train." ^ MALTA. On the Mediterranean several days we reach Malta, a city 1 Those wlio wish to pursue exhaustive studies of the recent explorations at Nippur and through the regions of ancient Babylon should procure the two large volumes of J. P. Peters, Ph.D., Sc.D., D.D., just from the press of Putman & cons, price $5.00. They contain a mint of information. MEDITERRANEAN SEA. — EGYPT AND ANTIQUITY. 445 standing npon a limestone rock, built largely of rocks and into rocks. The dust is intolerable, the few trees and shrub- ber}^ live by irrigation. Goats have the right of way, as do dogs in Constantinople. The guides that I had to do with in this little City by the Sea wej'e either robbers, liars, or beg- gars ; and yet, they were eminently religious, belonging to tlie Roman Catholic Church. The priests here stalk through the streets in their long black robes, the head-gearing being a queer three-cornered cocked hat. Their conspicuous presence is repulsive. Conducted to the Governor's palace I found him a most courteous gentleman, taking pleasure in showing me the beautiful paintings of the Grand Masters of the Knights of Malta — being a Knight myself they interested me most intensely. In ancient times, this island was occupied by the Phoenicians, and now by the English. It has had, upon the whole, a most remarkable history, being held at different times» by Phoenicians, Cathagenians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs. The footj^rints of each may be traced to-day in varied ruins. The Romans, while here, constructed and dedicated a magnificent Temple to Apollo, some of the scattered pillars still remain- ing. It is recorded that St. Paul was shipwrecked here, A. D. 58. The bay bears his name. The Maltese language is com- posed largely of the Arabic. Old residents here informed me that the climate was uni- form and delightful, being quite a health-resort in winter- time. The soil back from the seashore is sufficiently fertile to produce two crops a year. The summer sets in about the fii-st of June, and the hottest days are tempered by the north and northwesterly winds. Rains in wintertime are frequent. While the ghastly chapel of bones repelled me, and the Capuchins' Convent, where several skeletons of deceased monks are placed in niches, dressed in the ecclesiastical robes they wore during their church-life, disgusted me, I richl}- en- joyed the catacombs — these underground excavations con- sisting of long, dreary passages, out of the walls of wliicli were cut sepulchral niches for men, women and children. 446 AROUND THE WORLD. Some of tlio bones seem almost perfect, but they crumble to dust at the first touch. Abela, Ciantar, Gart-Said, and other historians inform us that these catacombs were dug- into the rocks by the early Christians to avoid the fierce persecutions of the pagans. Recent discoveries of picture paintings, sculj)ture and inscriptions, confirm this opinion. MUSING ON THE MEDITERRANEAN. Sea captains and sailors are neither misers nor bigots. The seas lengthen the golden chains of friendsliip, enlarge human nature and widen the horizon of faith and fraternal sympathy. Yesterday, June 18th, we halted in our voyage at Brindisi, under Government regulations. All passengers from India were obliged to go through the farce of a medical examina- tion. No symptoms of the bubonic plague were seen or scented. At sea again ! The Mediterranean waters are smooth as polished glass — too placid for a rippling wave or silvery crest. In the hazy distance Mount Etna lifts its volcanic head. Looking down upon it are Sicily's burning skies. Scientists are not united yet as to cause of volcanoes. Opin- ions and theories concerning these internal fires are not dem- onstrations. June 20th — another burial at sea to-day — a woman long crushed with a brutal, drunken husband. They were Welsh, with a family of three small children. He had been seen to beat this poor consumptive woman aboard the steamer. Her sickness had excited the deepest sympathy of the passengers — and the husband's long years of abuse, when intoxicated, had broken her spirit, wrecked her happiness and hurried her to a grave down among the green seaweeds of the ocean. These people made a mistake in their marriage. And now, why should legal enactments have compelled these parties to continue this mistake till "death did them part"? — compel them to continue the mistake, increasing the population of the world the meantime, with poor, illy-begotten and pitiable MEDITERRANEAN SEA. — EGYPT AND ANTIQUITY. 447 possibilities of humanity, to later fill jails, poorhouses, or penitentiaries ? Love is not lust. A forced "love," a forced continu- ance in a loveless mai-riage, a forced increase of children, and forced injuries in married life, mental or physical, may be legal and respectable ; but they are, nevertheless, de- grading and damning to posterity. Does not the power, in intelligent persons, to make a contract, imply the moral right to unmake it? Are human contracts infallible and eternal? If the parties themselves cannot amicably adjust their matri- monial differences, let parents and friends be called, consti- tuting a friendl}'' court of family advisers ; if this does not succeed, let the matter be referred to a board of arbitration, the parties mutuall}' selecting the arbitrators — if this fails appeal to the court of equity. Do anything, almost, rather than live in a, marriage-hell of suspicion, of jealousy, of inhar- mony, of incompatibility, of drunkenness, peopling the world with mental dwarfs and blood-thirsty criminals. Love is of God — and that only is love which is clean, pure, unselfish — and that onl}' is law Avhich is based upon the immutable princi- ples of right and justice, and which conduces to the highest good and haj)piness of its subjects. THE queen's jubilee. June 22, 1897. Off from the coast of Portugal, once a country famous for discovery, and rich in gold ; but now poor. And Spain, also, once proud and immensely rich from Inca and Aztec robberies, but now comparatively poor and seldom noticed in the international affairs of Europe. The law of eternal justice exercises sooner or later judgment in the earth. Oar passengers celebrated the Queen's Jubilee by a great dinner and a shipboard dance in the evening. The Captain's response to the principal toast was painfully incoherent ; its chief virtue being its brevity. He ought to read Emerson, Holmes and Longfellow, and then sit a student at tlie feet of Gladstone, before further attempting public speaking. The 448 AROUND THE WORLD. toast was drank to a ringing " God Save the Queen." The speeches all were sufficientl}' British and self-congratulatory to arouse German ire and Italian anger. These nationalities aboard not only showed their displeasure in several ways, but openl}^ expressed delight — that while England had largely lost her former prestige, Russia now wielded the dominating sceptre of influence over the Continent and all through the great East. Greece and Turkey were discussed with consid- erable acrimony, in connection with the slaughter of a hun- dred thousand Armenians by the great assassin of the nine- teenth century, the Sultan of Turke}'. Considering that I was the only American passenger, I was asked, half in jest, I at first thought, to respond to a toast in- volving international commerce. I did so, deprecating war and recommendinsr universal arbitration. I further assured my fellow-passengers of America's good-will towards England and her colonies, and that I took very great pleasure in the jubilee celebration, not from any special admiration of the Queens and Kings constituting the unhapp}' reigning families of Europe — the Czar traveling in an iron-clad car from fear of assassination — but from the higher, diviner consideration, that humanity is one. Some of these crowns were already worm-eaten and tottering. The trend of the world's thought was towards governments by the peoj)le and for the people — governments in which brains rather than blood should rule. Queen Victoria as a woman, as a mother, as a royal-souled grandmother, as a discreet and honored widow, as the reign- ing Empress not onl}'- of India and millions of English-speak- ing people, but of portions of Africa and other countries, and whose sceptre is the symbol of civilization — calls forth my profoundest admiration. Oh, that there were more enthroned women in the world ! As a physician and hygienist, I further honor the Queen for ordering each autumn American apples and graham grits ; for having kept a clean court ; for having, from her own bosom, nursed her babes ; for never having painted nor pow- MEDITERRANEAX SEA. EGYPT AND ANTIQUITY. 449 clered her face ; for never having worn corsets nor peaked- toed shoes ; nor followed the Paris fashions of French demi- mondes, as do many giddy, light-headed women of both England and America. Hail, all hail, then, to Queen Victoria ! A London writer says : — " Imagine what it must be for this old lady, this venerable grandmother drawn slowly along in her little wicker carriage by a mild, docile donkey, to be able to say ' My son, will, one day, doubtless reign over the United Kingdom; my grandson is the German Emperor and King of Prussia; one of my granddaughters is Empress of all the Russias ; I have a son who reigns over the modest Duchy of Saxe-Coburg Gotha ; one of my daughters was Empress of Germany ; one of my grandsons is Grand Duke of Hesse ; I have granddauffhters who will reign over Roumania and Greece ; the King of Belgium and the King of Portugal are my cousins ; the whole of Germany is filled with my descendants and their connections and, leaving out of consideration some few Catholic dynasties, there exists not one Royal house on the earth that does not look towards me as the venerable grandmother, the source of that perennial stream of Majesties and High- nesses.' " In truth, this simple enumeration has in it something dazzling and the pages of the 'Almanack de Gotha' have a brilliancy that is almost blind- ing when one views, stepping out of them, this long procession of the powerful of the earth all coming on this jubilee occasion to bow the knee be- fore the daughter of the House of Hanover and render her homage as the typical Sovereign of this century." IN LONDON. Gladly leaving the steamer this day, July 26th, I press the soil and the streets of London for the seventh time. London is the city of cities, the Mecca to which all civilization and culture naturally flock ; and, by common consent, it is the best governed city in the world. Beginning with the British Museum, I confess to a profound admiration of it and its people ; never forgetting, however, my Scotch ancestry. Millions from the Continent and the far-away Orient, having witnessed the Jul^ilee exercises, are now on their winding ways homeward bound. If some are financiall}' the worse for 450 AROUND THE "WORLD. their jonrnevings and for partaking- of the festivities with nnavoidable discomforts, they are the wiser also. Experience is often a very expensive school. Moral justice, merciless in penalties to phj'sical law, will not loosen its grip till the uttermost farthing is paid. " What wilt thou have," said Emerson ; " pay for it and take it." Do not complain ; do not worr}- ; what is legiti- mately your own 3-ou will ultimately get. What is not your own by the divine law of right, if you get, you will lose, and the loss can never be quite regained. The vicarious atone- ment is, at best, but a clumsy misfit to partially rectify an archaic blunder — a bit of buttonhole theology to shield vil- lains from justice and comfort the lazy — afoul blot upon the back chapter of Christendom. Jesus did not die for Socrates or Plato ; did not die and " pay it all " ; all the debts for anybody. No, no — each and all must pay their own debts, cultivate their own corn-fields, chew their own. bread and butter, earn their own heaven ! I would sooner have Jesus masticate my food for me than to have him atone for, and pay by his blood, my passage to heaven. How mean any decent saint would feel to enter the New Jerusalem upon the merits of some one else! "Work out your own salva- tion,"' was a command of Paul — and a very commendable command. THE TYRANNY OF FASHION. Fashion is comparatively headless and heartless. It is also a merciless tyrant. To follow its freaks is to die the death, not of the true and the noble, but the early death of the unwisely wicked. Oriental people do not become bald- headed. Among other reasons is this, they do not wear the hard, stiff hat. liemembering well nry first visit to London, over thirty years ago, and a dinner given me by Benjamin Coleman, a very estimable man and pioneer Sj)iritualist, I recall as among the guests present William Howitt, the noted author, and other distinguished gentlemen. Our theme of conversation MEDITERRANEAN SEA. — EGYPT AND ANTIQUITY. 451 was Spiritualism and its progress in all enlightened countries. When about leaving, Mr. Coleman, handing me my easy- going, soft hat, said, in a kindly undertone, " You will have to change this to a regulation hat ; all gentlemen with us wear the tall, silk hat." It crimsoned my face for a moment, but, I'allying, I replied, " Hats ai-e made for the protection and comfort of heads. They do not grow, but heads do." Inde- pendent, and possibly perverse by nature, I clung to my com- fortable felt. In the meantime, English heads liave grown. The following extracts are from the " London Times," July issue : — Lord Ronald Gower, in a second letter to The T'anex on this subject, says that he does not for a moment hope for a sudden cessation of the tall hat ; but if men of sense and good taste would only have the courage to cease to appear in London in the tall hat and in its place wear some simple, soft and sensible hat, then we might hope to see the bright day when the tall hat would only be worn by mutes and bagmen, scarecrows, and fossil- ized old fogies. " Thomas Bowler " writes from Brighton, saying the high chimney-pot hat, he is thankful to say, is almost a thing of the past in that enlightened borough, although it is still adhered to by a few Sunday cockneys and ultra- Sabbatarians. It has been almost displaced by the round or the short soft hat, which, if not more graceful, is far more comfortable. " A Man about Town " says that " Gracchus " may take heart of grace, for since last jubilee the young of all classes have abjured the tall top hat. In our most frequented thoroughfares on any Sunday night not one per cent, of the crowds of middle-class men will be found wearing a silk hat. The " Johnnies," too, of the Upper Ten and the lords are also rapidly emancipating themselves, for in the Park or Piccadilly they now usually disport themselves in soft, or straw hats. Those who declare that only a tall hat can be worn above a frock coat seem quite oblivious of the regula- tion dress for a naval officer — viz., frock-coat and cap. Fancy the cap- tain of an ironclad appearing on duty in a chimnej'-pot, stove-pipe hat. "Equal rights, equal duties, special privileges to none, Are the only grand attainments that ever can be won." LONDON. There is not, tJiere could not be, but one London. It is a world in and of itself ; a living sample of an inextinguishable 452 AROUND THE WORLD. identity; a compact unity in diversity. Its j)opulation, though decidedly English, is, to a certain extent, a conglom- eration of all races, tribes and tongues. One may drive twenty miles in a straight course across any of London's diameters. And never have I seen more obliging shop- keepers, more polite policemen, or real genuine gentlemen than in this great mammoth city. The English, while more cautious and conservative, are also more fixed and substantial than Americans. This is everywhere manifest in the solidity of their institutions and in their massive architecture. Every bridge, every archway seems to have been built for eternity. A Briton's house is his castle, once invited into it, and ever afterwards you have a substantial friend. Arriving in London on a Saturday, I repaired quickly to the Florence House, kept by Mr. J. J. and Miss Florence Morse, where I found every possible comfort as well as hand- clasps warm with friendship. Mr. J. J. Morse is one of the most energetic workers as well as strong pillars in the temple of English Spiritualism. Sunday evening, expecting to be un- recognized, I quietly slipped into the Cavendish Hall, where I had lectured some thirty years ago, to listen to Mrs. E. W. Wallis, announced to answer questions under spirit control. Her work was done admirably and satisfactoril}-. She was frequently cheered. My old friend, Thomas Everitt, occu- pied the chair. Mrs. Everitt's mediumship is still afire with demonstrations of immortality. This same evening I met Mr. and Mrs. Watson of Jamestown, N. Y., Mr. and Mrs. Hill and Mrs. Cadwalleder of Philadelphia, Pa., and other Americails. What a contrast in appearance, this audience, with those I had so recently addressed in Ceylon and India ! The week following my arrival in the city, Mr. and iNIrs. J. J. Morse, opening their commodious parlors, decorated and festooned for the occasion, gave me a splendid reception. The rooms were packed and among them many of my old friends, such as the Everitts, the Tebbses and many others. Mr. Morse presided. Miss Florence Morse and other musi- MEDITERRANEAN SEA. — EGYPT AND ANTIQUITY. 453 cians gave us excellent music. Addresses were made hy the Rev. John Page Hopps, Mrs. Watson, Mrs. Cadwalleder, Mr. Everitt and several others. A choice collation was served of coffee, cake, ice-cream and fruits. It was a most enjoj-able season. Lecturing a Sunday evening in the Cavendish Hall by invitation of E. Dawson Rogers, the very able editor of " London Light," I met J. Enmore Jones and others of my old and highly-esteemed friends. All pure friendships are eternal. Mrs. Watson supplied the Cavendish Society a Sun- day evening later. She is a very clear and attractive speaker and, what is more, a most admirable woman. Invited to Glasgow and other places to lecture, I greatly desired to go, but home associations Avere calling, urging me back to my native land. Life is only another word for activ- ity. For m^^self there seems to be no rest this side the crystal river of death. I paced, with restless feet, the shores of time, With fever'd brow and aching lieart. And when I gazed across the vast expanse outspread And pondered o'er what it might mean, a voice Came from the bosom of tli' eternal deep. And, answering my silent pray'r, it said "Thus art thou, mortal — moving on and on From Infinite to endless Infinite, In constant, ever-fluctuating, flow." Frequently asked, Is there any advantage in traveling under the auspices of Thomas Cook and Son ? I have to say decid- edly — there is! The traveler gets better service and cheaper hotel rates, and then. Cook and Son's agents in all the civil- ized countries of the world are polite and courteously atten- tive. Tliey meet you at the Custom Houses of the various ports and assist in the examination of your luggage. They see to your getting the proper interpreters and give you gra- tuitously all needed advice concerning side routes and seasons of the year best adapted to different climates of the East. Heartily do I wish that I could speak as flatteringly of the P. & O. line of steamers, but I cannot. Often, though you 454 AROUND THE WORLD. have first-class tickets, you get only second-class attention. They thrust three or four into a cabin and allow them to half suffocate if the weather is a little stormy. The stewards are often unaccommodating and the bell-boys often take their own time to respond, and yet they expect regular " tips." They employ cheap Hindoo deck labor, because these poor coolies will work for a song. Take passage by the Orient, a competing line, or by almost anj French or German steamer, and you will get better table fare and far more attention from servants. Human life is a pilgrimage, a pacing-ground for experi- ences. Along the way are smiles and tears, sunshine and shadow — life and death. " I think of death as some delightful journey That I shall take when all my tasks are done. Though life has given me a heaping measure Of all best gifts and many a cup of pleasure, Still better things await me farther on. " This little earth is such a narrow planet, The distances beyond it so supreme, I have no doubt that all the mighty spaces Between us and the stars are filled with faces More beautiful than any artist's dream. " I know that I shall surely behold them, When from this waiting-room my soul has soared — Earth is a wayside station, where we wander. Until from out the silent darkness yonder. Death swings his lantern, and cries ' All aboard / ' " I think death's train sweeps through the solar system And passes suns and moons that dwarf our own, And close beside us we shall find our dearest. The spirit friends on earth we held the nearest, And in the shining distance Love's white throne." Works of J. M. Peebles. Immortality, And our employments hereafter, with what a hundred spirits, good and evil, say of their dwelling-places. Cloth $i.oo; paper 50cts.; postage I5cts. 5eers of the Ages. Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern Spiritualism. This volume, nearly 500 pages, traces the phenomena of Spiritualism down through all the ages. Price $1.50; postage 12 cts. Magic. One of the series of lectures delivered by Dr. Peebles before the medical class of the College of Science in San Francisco. Price 10 cts. Critical Review Of Rev. Dr. P. E. Kipp's Sunday night Sermons against Spiritualism. Price 15 cts. Hell. A critical review of Rev. Dr. P. E. Kipp's sermon upon " What and Where is Hell?" Price 10 cts. How to Live a Century, And grow old gracefully. 109 pages. Price 52 cents. 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