Thousands of half-starved coolies, nearly naked, with a squatty basket made of bamboo strips in their hands or on their heads, may be seen in any section of India. That basket is his "work-box," in which he carries anything required.
An umbrella is the sign of authority in this section of the world where a group of natives are engaged at work. Whether the weather be wet, cloudy, or clear, the Indian foreman is known by his holding an umbrella.
A finger bowl is placed at the side of every plate when serving food in India.
The word "calico" had its origin in India. The city of Calicut, whence the word calico is derived, was a cotton goods manufacturing center in early times.
Madras, the third largest city in India, is composed mostly of Hindus, and where that sect is found the sacred cows and bulls will be in evidence, as well as the miserable widows, the burning ghats; the mothers who give their young daughters to depraved priests who persuade the parents they will gain special favor in the sight of the gods for so doing; the goat-slaughtering places, the idols of monkeys, snakes, and other characters, and juggernaut cars. The Hindu has little to recommend him in either person or religion, and yet the best-fed things we saw in that country were connected with the church—the sacred bulls and cows.
The native quarters and the temples were the same as have been touched on in our Indian notes. The bazaars were the same, and there seemed to be more nearly naked people, owing to the weather on the Coramandel coast being warmer than that further north. One wonders how Europeans stand the heat, as few cool breezes blow in the hot sections of that country to refresh the jaded.
Mention has been made on several occasions of the appalling mortality from fevers and pestilence. A considerable portion of the mortality may be accounted for, however, when the reader learns that there is practically no sewerage from east to west and from south to north in this thickly populated country. With no sewerage, and the habits of the people as a race being the opposite of clean, together with all of the Hindus holding in reverence venomous snakes and mad dogs, and some sects bedbugs, mosquitoes, and vermin, the wonder is not at the great number that fall victims to these various causes, but how to account for so many being alive.
Madras was the last stop in India, as a train was boarded for Tuticorin. We passed through a country that is celebrated for its splendid temples, which are strange to understand when one sees the crude tools and archaic methods employed to do ordinary kinds of work. In the artistic designs and richness of construction of some temples and mosques one sees the acme of art, and in mechanism the mien. Judging from the latter, it might seem that some skilled race of people had made their abode in that country during the period of construction of some of the buildings, and then had passed out, unseen, as it were. The people of India, as they appear to Europeans, with their marble and gold buildings, seem to be a contradiction. The country was flat to Tuticorin, half of it being under water, the monsoons just having ended.