The Game of Chess

1901

The game of chess differs in the various countries of the world. Thus, in the Hindoo game, four distinct armies are employed, each with their king, each corps counting among its fighters an elephant and a knight which slay but cannot be slain. The Chinese game of chess, which boasts of the title of choke-choc-kong-ki (the play of the science of war), has a river running through the center of the board, which their elephants, equivalent to our bishops, cannot cross, and there is a fort which their kings cannot pass.

Under the Sanskrit name of chaturanga a game essentially the same as modern chess was played in Hindustan nearly 5,000 years ago. From Hindustan the game is said to have been carried to Persia and thence to Arabia. The Arabs introduced it into Spain and the rest of western Europe during the eighth century, where it became the principal pastime about the year 1000.

Lovemaking and Practice

1910

The only way to become an expert at lovemaking is to practice. This was the information handed out to a handful of hearers by the Hindu philosopher, Sakharam Ganesh Pandit, in a lecture on "The Science of Love."

"Love is a divine discontent," said the philosopher, "and if you want to arouse love in others it can be done only by giving them love. How to develop the emotion of love in another, is the great question of today — the art of making love. It needs a great deal of study and a great deal of practice."

Bereavement in Bombay — Bad English

1906

Lady Curzon made a point of collecting any amusing attempts made by Hindus to write English that came under her notice and had many curious specimens in her scrap book.

Once she got from Bombay a letter that two brothers sent out to their patrons on the death of their father, who had been the head of the firm. It ran:

"Gentlemen: We have the pleasure to inform you that our respected father departed this life on the 10th inst. His business will be conducted by his beloved sons, whose names are given below. The opium market is quiet and Mal. 1500 rupees per chest. O, death, where is thy sting? O, grave, where is thy victory? We remain, etc." — London Standard.

The Matterhorn — Tough for Mountaineers to Climb

1907

Many mountains which long enjoyed a reputation of being absolutely unclimbable are now considered as almost ordinary excursions. The Matterhorn for many years repulsed men who were among the foremost mountaineers of the day. Professor Tyndall and Edward Whymper were foiled on more than a dozen occasions.

But on July 15, 1865, with Lord Francis Douglas, Hudson and Hadow, Mr. Whymper eventually reached the summit, and it was in descending that the fatal slip occurred which cost the lives of his three English companions as well as of Michel Croz, one of the most competent of Swiss guides.

Nowadays the peak is constantly ascended (with the help of guides) by tourists who have no pretensions to be mountaineers at all. — Dundee Advertiser.


A Hindoo Legend

A Hindoo account of the creation represents the deity as dividing himself in two and making of one half man, the other woman. The legend indicates, as many other things in the sacred books of India do, that the position of woman was once very different there from what it is today. In the laws of Manu it is said, "Where women are honored the gods rejoice, but where they are not honored all rites of worship are unacceptable."

India's New Year Days; Celebrated Frequently

1915

INDIA'S NEW YEAR DAYS

They celebrate the occasion frequently by knocking off work and holding funerals. Some bury their dead, some burn them and some feed the corpses to buzzards.

India beats the world for the number and variety of its New Year days and this is so because of the large number of races and religions.

When a traveler who expects to spend some time in the country goes to the bank with his letter of credit, usually a card is handed him on which is printed the various holidays. This is for his convenience, so that he will not let himself get out of funds and go to the bank in a hurry, only to find it closed on account of some holiday. The holiday may be Christian, Mohammedan or that of any one of the numerous Hindu sects.

"When the usual card was given me in Bombay," says a writer, "I noted the number of these holidays which were ascribed to New Year. They did not exactly bear out the humorous description of every day in the year as a New Year day, but there seemed hardly a month of the Christian calendar which did not have at least one New Year designated, and in some months there were more."

Kaleidoscopic Bombay observes all these New Year days because the stream of Asiatic life which circulates through it includes all the civilization and all the races and legions of the Orient, with some additions from the Occident. The spirit is one of catholicity.

All the races and all the religious sects observe the New Year of the Christian calendar, because British rule of India is reflected in this day; but they also observe the New Year of the different races and religions among themselves, at least to the extent of knocking off work.

Whether in Bombay or Benares, the monkey temple has its throng of Hindu worshipers, and the Mohammedans often are not unwilling to share in the observance to the extent of foregoing their business activities. The Hindus on their part are apt to think it a shame to work on a Mohammedan New Year day when the Moslem population may be thronging the Jumma Musquid mosque. So it goes all round the circle of New Year holidays.

There is a simple arithmetical method of calculating the time from the Hegira in the terms of the Christian era, but the easier way is to accept Without question the fact that such and such a day is the New Year of the Mohammedan era. Similarly, the New Year of the Buddhists and the Brahmins and the Jains and the Sikhs may be accepted without bothering about the calendar.

The British New Year in Bombay or Calcutta, or Delhi is much the same as in England

While the Christian New Year is formal and stately on account of British authority, it has less standing than the New Year of the Parsees, because it is a single day's observance, while the Parsees take two days. The year I happened to be in Bombay was the Parsee Yazdezardi, 1276, and the New Year days came on September 13 and 14.

On this day I was afforded the opportunity of witnessing the Parsee religious observances, or Zoroastrian services. It was in the Allbless Bagh, on the Charni road. Their churches or temples of worship are free from architectural pretensions without and within. They are more like an ordinary hall.

In this temple the women were gathered at one end of the room and the men at the other and in the space between was a stand holding a lamp with the eternal fire under glass. The flame was very clear. A venerable bearded priest stood beside the lamp. His discourse was earnest and solemn. Both man and woman hearers were very attentive.

The ceremonies of worship are quite simple, but the mysteries of the faith may be less so. The Parsees who have been educated in England and many of those whose English education has been obtained in Bombay resent the designation of fire worshipers.

One of them gave me a monograph, written by a Parsee barrister in London, which explained the creed of the followers of Zoroaster as one of good thoughts, good words and good deeds, with the sacred flame as a symbol of the effulgence of the deity. It is not denied, however, that contact with Hindus and Mohammedans has caused corruptions to creep into the creed. The Hindus and Moslems regard the Parsees as fire worshipers.

It was on a New Year day that I drove out to Malabar hill, where are located the Towers of Silence, or the Parsee cemetery. Every traveler takes his drive. It is past the other cemeteries, Christian and Mohammedan burial grounds and the Hindu burning ghat. The cemetery of the Christians is no longer used, but on almost any day there will be Mohammedan funerals and Hindu cremations.

On this day there were two Mohammedan funerals and three parties of Hindu mourners, with their respective burdens at the burning ghat.

Malabar hill is the choice spot overlooking the Arabian sea. Within the cemetery grounds are flagstone steps, shaded walks and arbors and bowers, luxuriant vegetation covers the rocks, and there is everything that goes to make a beautiful garden of flowers.

The towers of Silence, of which there are five, are hardly towers at all. They are about 275 feet in circumference and perhaps 25 feet high. The material is whitewashed stone and cement or mortar. A near approach to the towers is not allowed strangers to the Parsee creed, nor entrance permitted to the fire temple, where the sacred fire is kept alive and seven kinds of incense are burned.

A model of the towers is shown in the registry room and an attendant explains them to visitors. The attendant explained to me the circular rows which the bodies were placed — one for the children, one for the women and one for the men. When the bodies have been stripped of their fleshly covering by the vultures, which takes perhaps half an hour, the bones remain for a while, and are then dropped into a well in the center, which is provided with drains and water flushes. Charcoal is the chief purifier.

On this New Year day there was a Parsee funeral, which could be observed only at a respectful distance. There were the four professional body bearers, with the bier on their shoulders, and a procession of perhaps fifty mourners in their white robes walking two abreast, each pair holding a handkerchief. The Parsee accounts say that the body is received by two bearded attendants at the entrance to the towers, and that by them the shroud is removed and then vultures do the rest. This is probably what happened that day.

All I could note on this occasion was a sudden movement of the vultures in the palm trees. There seemed to be hundreds of them. They paused for a minute on the outer edge of one of the towers and then disappeared within. In a few minutes they reappeared.

The Parsee method of disposing of the dead is, perhaps, as the Parsees say, more sanitary than the Christian burial in the earth, or even than the Hindu cremation. It meets the tenet of their faith that fire, water and earth are too sacred to be polluted. But the western mind cannot become accustomed to it.

In conclusion, it may be said that there are other New Year observances in India besides the New Year of the Christians, Mohammedans, Hindus and Parsees. There is a Chinese colony in Bentinck street, Calcutta, and the Chinese there observe the New Year as they do in the United States, or in any other section of the world in which they are found.

India Feels the Effect of Woman's Forward March

1895

Dropping Old Forms

In an interesting article lately written Mrs. Ernest Hart says: "I had the pleasure of meeting a large number of Brahmo-Somaj ladies in Calcutta and seeing a great deal of them. They are highly educated, many of the younger women having been trained in England, and some of them having passed the ordeal of university examinations. At home they live like English women.

"My husband and I were entertained at parties at their houses and I attended the service of their church on Sunday. They interested me deeply, and I sincerely trust that the acceptance of an exalted faith and a high civilization will not separate them in sympathy from their Hindu sisters, of whom they are the natural leaders in matters of reform, education and in the bettering of the position of women in India.

"In the Brahmo-Somaj church in Calcutta there is a screened gallery where sit unobserved ladies who have not yet made up their minds to 'come out' of the zenana. The step is a great one for them to take, and even when the husband and father approve, there is much hesitancy. Some women have been influenced by Christian teaching, others by the doctrines of the Monotheistic faith, but I was informed in Calcutta that every year ladies come out of the zenana and join no church. I met several of these ladies; they had a self-assertive manner which was not pleasing.

"The ladies of the Brahmo-Somaj wear a graceful dress. Over a close-fitting bodice and straight skirt, the soft silk or muslin sari hangs in folds and is gathered up on one shoulder. Out of doors a low bonnet or toque is worn, which is frequently trimmed with gold lace.

"There are a large number of native women studying medicine, midwifery and nursing in the medical schools of India. Of the two hundred and twenty- four women returned as studying for the year 1893 no less than one hundred and thirty-six are native women. Among these are eighteen Hindus, twenty-eight Bengalis, sixty-five native Christians, seven Karens, nine Burmese and one Shan." — London Queen.

Gypsy Oracle Arranges Ego Transference for Brothers As One Dies

1901

CHANGED SOULS AT DEATH-BED

Queer Story Comes From Budapest

Evidence Bears Out the Fact that Something Queer Was Done But it is Believed by Experts that it Was a Hypnotic Trick

BUDAPEST, Dec. 28. — Vienna is not to be outdone by Paris in the production of remarkable canards.

Last week Paris correspondents recording the resurrecting of the dead in leading Paris hospitals. Today we have, perhaps, an even more absorbing story here.

How far it is true I cannot say, but the old philosophers averred the performance recorded here was a matter of no uncommon occurrence in ancient Egypt.

From a small village in the neighborhood of Budapest comes the following remarkable story:

"The horrors of the death-bed have apparently been added to in a new and unexpected manner and the question of the raising of the dead has assumed a new phase.

"Modern surgery has hitherto stopped at the limits of the physical being and has been content to consider the transfusion of blood as the greatest miracle which it was capable of accomplishing.

"An old and wealthy Czech named Rageli, had two sons, Rudolph and Jean, and the latter, who was his favorite, lay at the point of death. In his despair over the threatened loss of his favorite son Rageli had recourse to the assistance of a well known gypsy oracle and between these two a plot was arranged, it is alleged, which will possibly send both of the plotters to the gallows. Rageli betrayed to the oracle the fact that his distress would have been minimized if it had been his other son's life which was attacked by disease as his whole hope was based upon the assistance of his younger son Jean.

The oracle at once saw a way to enrich himself and lessen the distress of Rageli, and told him that if he desired to have such a plan consummated it would be possible for him at the critical moment when death was taking place to bring about a transference of egos so that the soul of his favorite son could be transferred to the healthy organism of his brother whilst the latter's would assume the place of the one which left the defunct body.

In order to accomplish this mysterious feat the gypsy claimed that the brother must absolutely be present.

"There was no difficulty whatever in bringing such an arrangement about, as Rudolph naturally desired to be at the bedside of his brother at such a solemn occasion as his death. The gypsy oracle was there, of course, for the avowed purpose of trying to prevent the fatal catastrophe.

"What weird scene actually transpired in that remarkable death chamber no earthly tongue has yet told and but for the strange stories which have floated out of the quiet village to the world beyond the gossiping of peasants and chatter of servants, nothing would ever have come to light, for those who made the guilty compact are naturally silent on the subject.

"Both of the brothers were married and it is to this fact that the really tangible evidence which has been found in support of the extraordinary story has been forthcoming.

"The brothers were both affectionate, devoted and faithful husbands, and among the many freaks attributed to Rudolph since his brother's death is that he has deserted his own wife and is now living with the widow of his brother, showing the most passionate devotion for one another.

"In reply to the expostulations of his wife Rudolph solemnly avers that although he retains the outward semblance of his former self he is in reality Jean.

"This story, which was at first received with ridicule by the villagers and servants, has been coupled with the fact that the old gypsy was around the Rageli house so much at the termination of the younger son's illness and his well founded reputation as a sorcerer has furnished the necessary link in this most sensational story.

"To add to the mystery of the situation the old father has shut himself up in his lonely mansion and refuses to see anybody. The servants aver that he is haunted by the spirit of Rudolph, which is trying by every means in its power to avenge the diabolical act that caused its disembodiment in favor of Jean.

"They aver and state themselves as being willing to bear witness to the fact and ready to face any court of law, that they have seen the apparition of Rudolph a dozen times in the old chateau since the death of Jean and that its countenance is so disfigured by hatred and despair that it resembles a fiend more than it does the only happy brother.

"Another rumor credits Jean with being so horrified by the strange tales which are afloat and which so peculiarly corroborate his own belief that he acts at times like a demented person.

"The rustic population are firm believers in the supernatural and it is difficult to find any of them who do not firmly believe the story.

"Their superstitions are so firmly rooted that they would not dare to molest the gypsy or the elder Rageli, although it is said that the police have investigated the case under the belief that the stories which have gone abroad were only a cover invented to hide a murder growing out of jealousy on the part of the brothers over the love of Jean's wife.

"They have abandoned the murder theory, however, and are at a loss to know how they can possibly take any action in the strange matter.

Psychologists say the changes of identity, or the transposition of egos are by no means impossible and that many well authenticated cases of such happenings have been recorded.

"These, however, have always been accidental so far as the record shows.

"Hindu fakirs, who claim to be able to withdraw their own egos from their bodies and traverse space at will say that one of the principal dangers with which they have to contend in these experiments is the possibility that some disembodied ego may attempt to establish itself in their own physical shells whilst they are absent from them.

"This is the supreme danger they apprehend when passing into what Western people call the trance state.

"There are many cases on record familiar to every newspaper reader in which living persons have been other than themselves for a number of years, afterward again assuming their own identity. It seems possible that these may have been due to the transference of egos.

"Some of the more thoughtful persons here who have devoted their attentions to the subject do not hesitate to aver their belief that Rudolph was hypnotized by the old magician at the time of his brother's death and made to believe that he was Jean so that the old magician could obtain money from his father.

"This would not, according to the hypnotic authorities, be at all an impossible feat and therefore there may be truth in the main part of the story to the effect that Rudolph and the father had been led into such a remarkable delusion." — VALERIE DELAMAR.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, December 29, 1901, page 16.