Traveller.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 413, 14 April 1904, Page 7

Traveller.

THE HINDU WOMEN. IN spite. of the number of pchools established by the British in India r it is only here and thera that one finds a Hindu woman possessing any sort of education,, in-the scholastic sense of the word. The utmost ambition of Hindu girls apparently is boimded by household duties, first to help their mothers, and later on! their husbands, for there is no question but that they will marry. Love doeß not play any part in the marriage of Hindu girls, matches are made for them by their parents and for no cause whatever can marriage beset aside.

Before she has reached her early teens the maiden becomes a wife. She does not forthwith leave her parents'house, like an Europsan bride, but remains there, only occasionally visiting her husband's family, until she ceases to feel a stranger to them. If they are good and kind, her lot will be, in all probability, a happy one ? if they are the reverse, she has nothing but mis9ry to which to look forward. At the best hers is a life of service, for she is expeoted to do the entire indoor work of the family. It will be readily seen that time for study is lacking to the child wives of India, and even Hindu girls of the higher olasaes are very scantily equipped mentally, four or five years been considflred ample time for their education. Until a girl weds she takes part in the various games played in the different provinces. Up to the age of ten or eleven years she may join the boys in all their ordinary gamas. but after that she is sufficiently «grown up' to be considered unmaidenly should aha veatare to do bo.

ON THE NILE,, I know few more picturesque sights than those presented in Upper Egypt after the Nile has overflowed its banks and retired to its normil limits, leaving the priceless deposit of wet mud in whieh the crops thrive so well. ' From all sides in and round Cairo we see the natives at work, positively revelling in their labours At that season of the year the heat is not too great, the climate is mild, and the task is pleasant because each man is working for himself. Even the Arabs, in their mud honsss that rise in little clusters along the Nile banks, soem to be working hard. All day long endless files of camels pass along the banks heavily laden with goods; now and.again a 'dehabroh' gees down stream with youth at the prow and pleasure at the helm, under the te|is of Thomas Cook. People of all nations pass to and fro, riding, driving, and walking, and there are always a few soldiers in khaki uniform to be seen. I cannot recall any plac? that is so entirely cosmopolitan, and yet the natives go on with their work in a state of oompiete indifference; they have, and even own to, a sense of security that they never knew in the early days. Beggars and flies are the only drawbacks to the pleasure of being in Egypt at this the spring-time of the year; the winter season is over, the hotels have reduced their pi-ices to reasonable limits, and pith helmets are greatly in demand, because the summer heat is not very far away. In a very little while I expeot that Cairo will have a season all the year round, and will spread its borders on all sides—thanks in no small degress to the success of the Sirdar. It is hardly surprising that the English occupation of Egypt should offend other nations more anxious to share profit than risks.

FAITHFUL UNTO DEITH. , Devotion to spiritual superiors seems deeplj rooted in the Hindu fakirs of Bajpootana, who are ready to sacrifice their lives for their chief. Thus the Mohunt, or chief priest of thsa fakirs, or Sidds, in the State of Bioaneer, was onoe imprisoned by the local authorities, and on heads g of his arrest some seventy or eighty Sidds, full armed, rushed into the compound of ihe British Agent, and declared that they would kill themaelveß before his very deor if their chief were not immediately released. Thsir request was refused, an i for two days they sat in a body on'side the compound making a great noise. On the third day it was found that the Sidds had prepared four excavations, in each of which a man was Beated ready to be buried alive, while the others declared they were about to destroy themselves.. At first they refused to desist, but eventually became qaiet, though they would tike no food, and about ihe fifth day some were dying of hunger, On the sixth day they gained their cause, and the priest was released on bail, so next day the Sidds partook of food, and on the following day broke np their encampment.

FROM CHINA. An ordination priests is held every year at Kooshan,"iar O&na,. on the eve of the great teacher's supposedbirthday, and a correspondent of the ' Pooohow Herald' notes the CBremoaiea on the occasion. The candidates for Holy Orders, each attended by two priests, knelt bofore tables which stood about the temple, and on their shaven heads were placed from three to. a dozen lighted pastilles of incens?; which wora left to burn into the flesh. Meanwhile the priests recited texts, and in twenty minutes the ordination was over. Another priest, anxious to become a Buddha himself, was standing before the three graat imges of the deity, quietly burning his anger off, and hoped that when two more of his fingers had been consumed by slow degrees he would have obtained hia object, Bice-pap eb. and - Artificial Flowses.

Chinese rice-paper, ho called, familiar to Eaglish eyes si the material oa whioh the Japanese pictures are painted, is not made from rice at all, bat from the pith of a tree, Fataia papyrifera, which grows abont twenty feet high, and furnishes pith for toy and flower-making. The ' rice papar' is cut ia thin sheets from the stem of the tree, sad after the sheets have been pressed diy and any little hole filled up, the best ate given to the artists to work npon. Smaller sheets are dyed for the flower-makers, and the refuse and sjraps staff pillows. Chinese artificial flower fairs are among the most interesting sights of the Celestial Empire.. In a certain street of Peking an exhibition of pith, paper, and silk flowers is held daily, the stalls of the flowermakers extending for over half a mile. E»ch maker is provided with glue, wire pincers, and some vari-coloured paper, and in a few moments he will manufacture any given flower from a read model, his skill in shaping the blossoms being only equalled by his eye for accurate colouring. Like their neighbours in the Mikado's empire, the Celestials. are .wcnderfnl flower-lovers, and the women, wearing no hats or bonnets, generally ornament their hair with flowers, Indeed, in 66me parts of China it is always shown whether the ladies are single, married, or widowed by the colour of their floral adoramenta.