The motion is decidedly peculiar, and, until one
becomes used to it, I should think very fatiguing; but we enjoyed
our elephant ride greatly, and the Rajah has our hearty thanks.
We are in the land of the cheapest labor in the world. It is
doubtful if men can be found anywhere else to do a day's work for
as little as they are paid in India. Railway laborers and coolies
of all kinds receive only four rupees per month, and find
themselves; these are worth just now forty cents each, or, say,
$1.60 (6s. 6d.) in gold for a month's service. Upon
this a man has to exist. Is it any wonder that the masses are
constantly upon the verge of starvation? Women earn much less, and
of course every member of a family has to work and earn something.
The common food is a pulse called gran; the better class indulge
in a pea called daahl. Anything beyond a vegetable diet is not
dreamed of.
Before leaving Benares I must speak again of the scene at the
river, which far excels any representation I have seen of it or
any description I have read. Photographs cannot be made to convey
a just idea of its picturesque beauty, because the view is
enlivened by such masses and combinations of color as Turner alone
could do justice to. Indeed, my first thought as I saw the
thousands on the ascending banks--one tier of resting-places above
another, culminating in the grand temples' towering at the
tops--was that I had seen something akin to this in a dazzling
picture somewhere.
Pages:
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244