aass_QJV-^ Book: .Cy^ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/panoramaofnationOOcutl i PANORAMA OF ./V BY_ w NATIONS; OR, JOURNEYS AMONG THE FAMILIES OF MEN: A DESCRIPTION OF THEIR Homes, Customs, Habits, Employments and Be- liefs; Their Cities, Temples, Monuments, Literature and Fine Arts. H. G. 'Cutler, Author of "The Grimms," and Contributor to the Magazine OF American History; ,.=—.—_. y- ^^^ (.Mj(^ 13 iSb -J- / L. W. Yagoy, m. s., x!:^^%^ ' Author of "Yaggy's Graphic Record," '■ Yaggy's Anatomical Study," "Yaggy's Geographical Study," "Museum of Antiquity," " Royal Path of Life," "Our Home Counselor," "Little Gems." I LLUSTRATED. LAW, KING & law PUBLISFIING PIOUSE, CHICAGO. SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. ; PORTLAND, ORE.; AUSTIN, TEX., LITTLE ROCK, ARK.; DENVER, COL. MONTGOMERY & WILLI.OIS, TOPEKA, KANS. CUICAOO, ILL. : WESTERN PUBLISHING HOUSE. 1888. Entered according to Act ot Congress, in the year 1888, by WESTERN PUBLISHING HOUSE, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C. % 1 i LC Control Number tmp96 026218 ^. .^ FEEFACE. p.. %. In making our " five great journeys " over the world, as the reader of < our book will have done, the aim has been to picture life from the ^ human standpoint, the frame work being the surrounding conditions, such as striking physical features of a country, grand ruins and magnificent buildings. The idea has been, however, to follow no plan in a cast-iron way, but to seize upon the salient points of a people's character, as evinced by their dress, home life, religion, superstitions and government, and whether savage or civilized, present them so that the good and bad will both appear. When the traveler commences to make the rounds of European and American countries, he has, of course, left far behind him the civilization of Africa, Polynesia and Asia. The contrasts and peculiarities of human life do not stand out in such bold relief as among the ancient and savage families of mankind ; little, in fact, can be said which would throw any new light upon the habits of people whose ways are open to the world. In a certain sense, also, private life is secondary to governments, literature, art, industry, com- merce and mechanics. European and American races — that is, the •more advanced — are, as the centuries go by, coming to have general traits of character ; for their civilization is substantially the same. But their literatures, their modes of political development, their rivers, mountains and valleys, and their public and national works, are the points of contrast which appear to be especially a part of the Indo-Euro- pean order of things. The plan which has been pursued in taking our journeys, and pre- ■senting the different scenes which form the " Panorama of Nations," is to first follow the emigration of the Semitic, Ethiopic and Nigritic races into Africa, tracing their course down the Nile and the eastern coast of the continent ; to sketch the lives of the people of southern, central, western and northern Africa, as they are found grouped in ethnological families. It often happens, as in the case of Africa, that geographical and political divisions conform to distinct races and tribes, viz.: Southern Africa is the home of the Zulu Caffres, Lower Guinea of the Congo Caffres, and Upper Guinea and Soudan of the negroes ; yet, invariably, we have been careful to show how the geographical division, the country IV PREFACE. or the state, is founded upon the race or tribe, and that the fortunes of war and the advance or retreat of the world's famiHes, are all that deter- mine political boundaries. From Africa we have gone to the islands of the Indian and Pacific oceans, sailing from the Malay peninsula to Madagascar, and taking peeps into Borneo, Sumatra, Java ; have visited the cannibals of the Feejee Islands, the Sandwich Islanders, the Papuans of New Guinea, the Australians and many other tribes of less importance. In the islands of the sea, as on the African continent, we find savage life vainly oppos- ing itself to civilization, and either furiously going down before it or dying a lingering death. The third journey is taken through the countries of the " land tribes," in contrast to those of the ocean. Starting again from Asia among the Tartars, we range over a tremendous expanse, following the streams of Tartar and Mongol blood to the Arctic Ocean, in Europe, and the Arctic Ocean in Asia, across Behring Strait and the North American continent into Greenland. The countless tribes of the Rus- sian Empire, and the Esquimaux of both hemispheres are now in the "kaleidoscope." Next, during the same mighty journey, the Indians of th I Americas are passed in review. Returninor to Asia for a fourth time, the interestine task is before us of croinof amonsj the ancient Hindus, the Indo-Chinese and the Japanese, and "shaking up the Asiatic civilization generally." We do not greatly bother ourselves whether the billions of people, among whom we are moving, had their origin in Asia Minor, or the continent of Lemuria, which is now said to be under the ocean. We tell what we see, with sufficient historical information to make it intelligible. From Turkey in Asia the fifth journey lies over all of Europe and across the ocean to the United States. Before we close we would tender our sincere thanks to the authors, both in Europe and America, who have greatly aided us in this work. Many of the engravings are taken from the greatest v/orks of German, French and English artists, while others were produced with the utmost fidelity by our own special artist. -. xr>. ^^ CONTENTS^ FIVE GREAT JOURNEYS. JOURNEY NO. I. A BIRTH-PLACE OF RACES. The Plain of Mesopotamia— Floods of People Which Poured from it— Ruins of Assyrian Grandeur- Nineveh and Babylon — The Tower of Babel Located — A Journey Toward Egypt — The Suez Canal but an Ancient Work. THE EGYPTIANS. The Copts, or Ancient Inhabitants — The Priests, Clerks and Scholars of the Land — The Coptic Religion and Churches — The Nile and its Rise— Record of the Nilometer — Harvests and Harvesters — The Fellaheen — A Day in their Huts— Gliding up the Nile — A Panorama of the Land of Ruins Along the Way — Bedouins and their Villages— At the Last Cataract. THE NUBIANS. The Gate to Nubia — The God of the Nile —Scenes Along the Way — Nubian Stragglers and Their Appearance — Nubia's Aborigines, the Savage Shangailas — In the Jungle with a Hunter — Good Traits — Omens and Superstitions — A Terror to Abyssinian Travelers — Another Native Tribe, the Dongolese — Old Dongola and the Faithful Priest — Dongolese Manufactures and Agri- culture. THE ABYSSINIANS. Grand Table-Lands and Mountains of Ancient Fithiopia — A Military Nation — The Ras, or Com- mander in-Chief and his Drummers — His Troops on Parade and in Action — The Laws of the Kingdom — Plaintiff and Defendant, Prisoner and Guard Chained Together — Blood Feuds> Coptic Curiosities — Boudda Doctors — Hardy Farmers and Merchants — Their Oppressions. THE GALLAS. With the ' Tartars of Africa --A Dash at the Abyssinian Army — Warriors and their Horses — A Chiefs Idea of Life — The Galla at Home — A Fair Land — His Houses, and Wives, and Ways — Off Again to Battle — His Omens — Galla Surgeons and their Feats — Republics of the Gallas — Slaves Treated as Equals — How Transgressors are Punished. EAST AFRICANS. Coast Tribes of the People of Zanzibar — Their Unfriendliness to Travelers — Zanzibar and the Slave Trade — Suspicious Natives — The Sultan's Residence — Across the Island to a Unique Tribe - The Original Inhabitants— Their Chief's Wand of Office. MOZAMBIQUE. The Seat of an Ancient Kingdom — Cattle Better Than Gold— Remnants of the Native Empire Along the Zambesi River — ^A Kingdom Where Women Have More Than Their Rights — Economical Graves— Tribes With Clothes and Tribes Without Clothes, Side bv Side— Men Who Leave Orna- mentation to the Women. ZULrU CAFFRES. Personal Characteristics — Dancing and Courting — Live Birds for Ornaments — A Cruel Barber — Married Life — Wife-Whipping by Proxy— The Caffres' Good Traits— Superstitions —Aiding the Poor and Helping the Sick — Going for the Doctor — A Native Physician — Rain-Makers — Their Failures and Successes— Zulu Warfare —Playing With Shot and Shell— Entire Negli- gence of Family Duties, Under Defeat. VI CONTENTS. BECHUANAS AND HOTTENTOTS. Superiority of the Former — Extent of Their Power — The Bushmen — Tribal Slaves — Warfare of the Bechuanas — Pitiful Plight of the Slaves — A Bushman Hunt — Withholding Products of the Chase — Bushmen of the Mountains — South African Aborigines, the Hottentots— Servants and Cattlemen — Their Character — European-Bechuanan Civilization — Tribes of Southvv^estern Africa — Scattered Tribes of Central Africa — Large Towns and Manufacturing Villages — Courts of Justice — Good Clothes and " Caste " in Society — A Stanch Native Kingdom in the Midst of Foreign Colonists. THE CONGO CAFFRES. Ancient Kingdoms of Congo — Fetich Worship — The Great Spirit and " Its" Uses — The Spirit of the Woods — A Feminine Retaliation — Detecting Witchcraft — The Red- Water Ordeal — How They Treat the Dead^Rights of Property — A Sweeping Revenge — Coast and Interior Tribes — Their Different Habits — Bringing Ivory to the Coast — The King of Congo Inviting Homage — Native States— Their Peculiarities. THE SENEGAMBIANS (NEGROES). The Jalofs, or Nigritiau Aristocrats — The Foulahs and Fellatahs — Their Great Empire in Soudan — Its Fragments — Warriors as Well as Scholars— The Mandingoes — Combining Busi- ness with Religion — The Most Zealous Merchants and Mohammedans of Africa — Tribal Arbi- trators — True Negroes, in Certain Traits of Character. NEGROES OF UPPER GUINEA. Fetich Upon Fetich — Superstitions of the Negroes — Driving Evil Spirits from a Town — Fourth of July Funerals — Coast Tribes and Kingdoms — The Sailors of Africa— Scenes on the Grain Coast — Ashanti — Dahomey — Kings with Thousands of Wives— Human Sacriiices — Ama- zonian Warriors — Serpent Worship — A Native Republic — How it Nearly Crushed Dahomey — The States of Soudan, Boruoo and Begharmi — Their Iron-Clad Cavalrymen. THE BERBERS. The Touariclis, or Bandits of the Desert— Their Skill in Striking Water— A Warrior on His Great Dromedary — Republic of the Seven Cities — Founding a Commonwealtli in the Sahara — Artificial Oases— The Mozabites — Tlieir Sacred and Their Military Cities, Founded upon Rocks — Mild Laws — People Who Return to Their Desert Homes to Die — The Wareglas — A Singular People — Their Immense Date Oases — Deposing Their Ruler. JOURNEY NO. 2. THE MALAYANS. Spread of the Race Over the Islands of the Oceans — Tlie Madagascan Malayans — The Two Tribes — Madagascan Slavery — Ancient History — The Tribes and Their Chiefs — Degrad- ing the Court — The Queen and Her Government — The Queen's Capital —Christian Persecu- tions— The Twelve Sacred Cities— Burning of the Idols — The Benefit of No Roads — Wonderful Embankments — ^ Rice Culture — Madagascar Markets — A Conquered Rice Province — Houses and Clothes — The Queen Appears —Borneo Malayans— The Dyaks — Marriages and Funerals — Other People and Other Kingdoms— Those of the Land and of the Sea— A Bor- neo Forest — An Independent English State — Mixed Population — Sumatra Malayans— A Once. Great Kingdom — Natural and Political Divisions — Village and Home Life — Acheen, the Native State— Cannibals and Mechanics— An Engineering Feat— Rice and Sugar Cane— Buffalo vs. European — The Javanese — Houses and People — Sports — Female Fashions — Remains of Ancient Religions — The Timorese — The Commercial Tribes — Philippine Islanders — The Bughis or Commercial Tribe of the Indian Archipelago. CONTENTS. VII THE POLYNESIANS. The Feejee Cannibals' — Their Grim Chiefs and Awful Appetites— The Tongese — High Toned Society — Society High and Low— Royal Reform — The Old and the New — A Tattooed Warrior — Houses and Mats — Home Manufactures — The Samoans — The Old Party and the New — Lovers of Flowers — Tahitian Idols — War Charms — Savage Marquesans — The Hawai- iftns — The New Zealanders — How European Customs are Killing Them. THE PAPUANS. Race Characteristics — Mental Contrasts — Dress and Ornaments — Coast and Mountain Tribes— The Government — Their Idol and Fetiches — Duk-Duk Dancers — Feeding the Dead — Weap- ons and Boats — Trepang and Pearl Fishing — Ways of the Trader — Social Regulations- Pirates and Coast Tribes — Houses — The Philippine Negritos — Revenge upon the Malayans — Homeless Vagabonds — The Extinct Tasmanians — The Semangs — How they Capture the Ele- phant and Rhinoceros — Papuan Blood Sprinkled Over the Isles of the Pacific. THE AUSTRALIANS. Natural Obstacles to a Better Acquaintance With the Inhabitants of the Interior Tribes — The Great Inland Flood Breeder — Interior Savages — Native Superstitions — How They Look — The Mode of Using the Boomerang — After His Food— Native Dances — Mysteries of the "Bora" — Burial Customs — Eating Favorite Children — Spirits of the Woods and "Jumped LTp White Men"^Using Skulls for Drinking Cups — An Australian Cowboy — A Dying Race — Intem- perance and Disease Extinguishing tue Native Population — On the War Path — Aboriginal vs. Squatter — Australian vs. Australian — A Native Boy's Cool Murder of His Mother — The Native Police — Mischievous Feasts of Flesh, Fish and Fowl — Their Results — Civilized Aus- tralia — England in Australia. JOURNEY NO. 3. THE TARTARS. Turkestan, the Ancient Home of the Turks — Now it is the Country of the Tartars — The Settled Population — A Great Battle-Ground of Rices — The Xomads — ^The Kerghez, Children of the Steppes— How they Look, Dress and Live— Their Beliefs and Superstitions — The Civilized Uzbecks, Who Govern the Rest — The Way in Which They do it — Relation of the Native Gov- ernment to Russia — Siberian Calmucks — Homeliest People in the World — Shamanism, or Spirit Worship^Lamalsm, or the Corrupted Buddhism— Something About the People of Mongolia, or Chinese Tartary — How They are Incorporated into the Great Empire, etc., etc. THE ARCTICS. People who Dwell in the Frozen World of Asia, America and Europe — A Grand INIixture of Tartars and Mongols — The Samoyeds — Formerly a Great Nation — Now Split into Two Widely Sepa- rated Tribes — How They Dress ^How They Live — What They Eat — An Insight into Their Ways of Thought — Shamani.sm and its Impostor of a Priest — The Ostiacks and Voguls ^Fishing and Hunting — Their Idolatry — Native Honesty — The Finns — The Cleanly Native — Saving a Language — An Ancient City — The Lapps — A Matter-of-Fact People — A Religious Mixture — Sea-Coast and Mountain Lapps — A Lapp School and Church — Towards Behring Strait — The Buriats — The Good of Lamaism — The Lama and Shaman — The Holy Sea ^ The Yakuts — A Horse-Eating People — Yakut Manufacturers — TLc Yakuts' City — " Fallen Stars" — The Tungooses — A Native Huntsman — Mounting the Reindeer — Trapjiing and Eating — Amoor River People — Tlie Kamtchadales — A Kamtcliadale Village — Winter and Summer Huts — Wonderful Runs of Sal -non — The True Hyperboreans — Over Behring Strait into America — The Esquimaux — ■" Doctors Disagree — The Truth About Color — Uni- formity of Language — An Esquimaux Costume — How the Women Cradle Their Babies — Their Skill in Sewing — The Esquimaux, Pride — The Men ,as Sculptors — Ingenious Boats and Spears — Easy-Running Sleds — Hunting and Fishing — Esquimaux as Travelers — Feasts and Pastimes — Their Christianity — Social and Hunting Regulations. VIII . . , CONTENTS. NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. Alaska — Remnants of the Great Tribes — Present Ways of Living — The Indians' " Totem " — The Flatheads — The Apaches, the Navajoes, the Algonquius and the Chippewas — Indian Pio. neers — The Cheyennes — The Arapahoes — Other Noted Western Tribes — The Dakotas — The Sioux, the Shoshonees, the Utes, the Kiowas, the Pueblos, and the Huron-Iroquois Family — The Six Nations — The Five Nations — The Cherokees — Creeks and Seminoles— Choctaws and Chickasaws — Tribal Government — Indian Religion and Medicine. THE MEXICANS. Mythology of Mexico — Its Primitive People — The Holy Cross and Virgin —An Aboriginal Tribe — The Mexican as He Is — Miners and Muleteers — A Mexican Bonanza — Mexican Sports — City of Mexico — Holy Week — Female Beauty — In the Suburbs — The Central Americans — Remains of Kingdoms — The Hondurans — The Nicaraguans — The Guatemalans — Costa Rica — The San Sal- vadorians. SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS. The Patagonians — The Weak Terra del Fuegians — The Patagonians again — Dress and Horse Gear — Work of Both Sexes — Amusements — The Children — Entering Society — Hunting Ostriches — Guanacos, etc. — A Dreary Country — The Brazilian Indians — Phoenicians of the Amazon — Burial Jars — Botecudos-^The Amazons — Semi-Civilized Life — Kitchen Utensils — More Femi- nine Work — Human and Brute Fishermen — Reverence for the Aged — Their Religious Be liefs — The Brazilians — The Caribs and Arravraks — The Mozcas — Panama Canal — The Ecuado- rians — The Andi-Peruvians — Traces of the Empire — Some Inca Tribes — The Antisians, or White Men — The Araucanians — The Chilians — The Centaurs of South America — The Gauchos. JOURNEY NO. 4. THE TURKS. Founders of the Empire — The Apostles of Mohammedanism — Church and State One — Turkish Reforms — The Koran's Soldier — What Foreigners Have Done — Schools — The Koran's Laws— What Part the Woman Plays — The Turk at Home — The Bride of the Harem— On the Street—. The Turkish Graveyards — Outside the Mosque — Fasting and Pilgrimages — The Dervishes — The Syrians — The Druses — The Maronites — Smyrna — The Hebrews and Jerusalem— The Road to Jericho— Bethlehemites — Nazareth — The Armenians — Their Powerful Church — The Kurds — Saving Remnants. THE ARABS. Decline of Mahammedanism— The Marabouts— The Chiefs— Best Breed of Horses— Blooded Camels— The Bedouins— In the Tent— Bottomless Gulfs of Sand— As a Commercial People — Desert Travel — Town Life— Native Justice— Arabian Architecture . PERSIANS AND AFGHANS. Their Intimate Connection— Ruins and Historic Spots— The Country— Agriculture— Persian No- mads—Brave and Hardy Women— Town Life in Persia— Tlie Water Supply— Village Occupa- tions—Unattractive Architecture— Clever Women and Managers— Social and Domestic Cus- toms—Calling and Gossiping — Wives and Children— A Persian Harem— Modern Fire-Worship- ers—Persian Mohammedanism— The Nestorians— Music and Religion— Persian Superstitions— The Shah— The Shah's Time— The Independent Afghans— Geographical Position— The Clans- Religious Tolerance— The Belooches— Thieves on Principle— Brave Soldiers. THE HINDUS. The System of Caste— A Brahman— Castes and Tribes— A Native Hunt— The Tamuls— The Rajpoots— The Gypsies' Land— Other Great Tribes— The Ceylonese— Religions of India— In- fluence of Buddhism— A Mohammedan— The Fakir— A Parsee— A Sikh— A Hindu Family— A Son's Birth- He Goes to School— The Girl's Education— Marriage Ceremonies— Female Edu- cation— " The Order of Merit"- A Patriarch's Death— The Sacred City. CONTENTS. IX THE INDO-CHINESE. A Bewildering Antiquity — Neglect of Natural Advantages— The Basis of the State — The School Boy — Preparing for His Degrees — Competitive Examinations — Offices to be Filled — Manners Adapted to Intellectual Pursuits — Religious Tolerance — Chinese Doctrines — Chinese Gods — Domestic and Social Life — Loyal Dress — They Refuse to Shave Their Heads — Chinese Houses — Chinese Marriages — Filial Obedience and Respect — Agriculture — Fishing — Chinese Commerce — The Mongols — The Thibetans — Lamaism — The Two Lamas — Their Fine Woolens and Shawls — The Burmese — ^Tlie Ancient Peguans — The Government — Robbed by Officials — The Royal Capital — Classes of Society — Costumes of Ladies and Gentlemen — Ornaments and Charms — Building a House — Outside of the House — Courtship and Marriage — Villages and Agriculturists — The Priests — Monasteries and Payahs — Buddhist "Shoots" — The Siamese — The Parent Race— Personal Appearance — An Asiatic Venice — Vast Palaces and Temples — The Two Kings — One-Third of the People Slaves — Buddhism Absolute — The Anamese — The Cambodians — Aboriginal Tribes — Riches and Sloth. THE JAPANESE. Government and Religion — Corner Stone of Society — ^ Marriage and Women's Duties — Dress and Personal Adornment — Amusements — Jugglers and Acrobats — The Nobility of Gladiators — The Theatre — Bathing and Tea Houses— European Habits — Unworthy of Japan — Style of Archi- tecture — Within the House — The Last Resting Place — Agriculture and Manufactures — The Japanese as Artists — The First, Last — The Coreans — Coming From Their Shell — Why They Fear the Priests— Their Superstitions — Men and Women. JOURNEY NO. 5. THE GREEKS. The Acropolis — Temples of Jupiter and Theseus — Law and Philosophy — The Academy — A Grand Stand — A Link Between Old and New — Modern Athens — The Greek and His Costumes— Por- ters and Merchants — The Greek at Home — Life and Death — The Famous Laurium Mines — Marathon's Plain — Rocky Salamis — From Athens to Thebes — From Thebes to Mount Par- nassus — On Sacred Ground — Corinth and Peloponnesus — Agamemnon's City — The Most Ancient Greece — Sparta and Messenia — A Famous Statue — Peaceful Olynipia and Her Games — Olympia's Ruins — Arcadian Simplicity — Soldier Monks— The Greek Church — The Styx — The Waters of Lepanto — Beyond the Historic Waters— A Famous Southern Isle — Among the Vineyards — Home Life in Country and Town — Greek Weddings — Brigand and Peasant — Ancient Greece in Turkey. THE ITALIANS. Modern Rome — Capitoline Hill — The Pantheon — The Vatican and St. Peter's — Peter's Prison — The Life of To-Day — The Catacombs — The Coloseum and the Forum — The Italian Peas- ant—Florence and the Republics — The Medici Family — The City from the Medici Villa — Gali- leo's Homes — Vallambrosa's Valley — Within the City — Politics and Religion — Palaces and Gar- dens — Historic Bridges — The Genoese — Naples — The Buried Cities — The Dead and the Liv- ing — Venice Rising from the Sea — The Church of St. Mark — A Gondola Trip — Milan — Pisa — The Sicilians and Mount Etna — The Capital — Syracuse and Her Rival. THE SPANIARDS. The Basques — Ignatius Loyola — Spanish Gypsies — Cadiz — Carthage in Spain — Spanish Morocco — Seville— Cordova— The Gardens of Spain— The Gothic-Roman Princes— Toledo— Granada and the Alhambra — Southern and Eastern Coasts — Tlie Cid— Barcelona — The Romans and Celts— The Mecca of Spain— Valladolid—Sah\manca— The Escurial- Madrid— Amusements of the Native — Colonial Possessions — The Portuguese. X TON n\ rs. THE FRENCH. l''voui-l> MiUTlrtjiU"* " Tho U>Yi|ons ol I'viiuvc i>m \\\\o \\w I'iivhtlu^v \Vi>>Ui The Tcoplc >M' (ho rvn-noos Uovidty iuul KoH,s;lv>u ,\ \Vv>iult'i't\il Koiittlod city ri\o Vluoxovd of ilio K.-ivtli Knuw Nloo to OoUUs MnisotUos Oosmls niul Kutns l.vonx uml Uor Wonvovs t{li\>in\s lrm\» K»VH(on» Ki'iu\»H> — (, 'hoory Nornvomly Tlio l\uuiuoi"tM'"s llon\o Non»»«» (Jirls -Tho Appcouoh to rjols A r.inVs V\o Vlow (Mil Pni'ls N>>rth of th<> Solno South of ilu- Soino St, Vinoonl >v Uu^uo I'lu" Military ijunrlors Uoulovnnis nwd Tnvlvs riiontvos .Mini lh>lio!»to THE GERMANS, Tho t}ovtM'ns l>uols Oroat I'ulvov- sity Mj>,'hts .llotdoH)oi\i{ Loipsio A^irioult mists Tho Kotvsts of Oon»\!ii\y Tho IHjj'h ntul tho Low Uonuons Tho Uonu.'in find tho Uhino Kolk l.oit> Tho MurtK >Unii\t!»ius- Tho nvo»Kon !>»(l Uootho Tho \\:\r{- Towns Manufjxtnro (>f Oorn\nn 15oor Uovaiia ami WUt'toiuhorji'- -t,'oU\«;no Uovliu S>>nto Kaniovis liminan Oltios (tstroloh, vm' Anstria \'iinna, IHE SCANDINAVIANS. Tho Panisli IVasani ri\o UanUU Soatuon (N^ponhawn Natural and Artlt\oianV«»mlary--Uav aiiH»(t \^f tho liOiunvUt^tf!* -IVasant and Ootta^uvr Tho Swovlos --t^tookhohw I'ho T^orwt\tflaus"- Wild l.ifoontho OvWSts— A tU^^anlio Snow Klold rnv'ovtaintv of l'rv>p,s( — ^V Man and tMli.'ou— Tho loola»d<>t"s, THE nUTCH. Tl\olr nikos Assaultod Tito Zuydor Zoo (N^ntvtt'y Knilhor Uavaj^vs of tho Soa Tho IMkos, ai\d llow Thoy Look Tlvo t.'anals 0»>awin>i' otV tho Sons Tho Soa as ai\ Ally Soottos o« tho Oanals KvovyvM\o Sodato at\d (.Moan Tho Konttls and Homo -IVat Uod.^. lUjihand Low -Tho llotvtnji Fislu>(-io.s A Uttlo Utstovy-Wintor in lK»lla>\d rrv>nu>th^j; tho Ihihllo Uoovl -Tho lioltfiuus Uolj^imn's ritv, THE SWISS. Tho Swiss Uo|ntl>lU»^ l'\t»«lly HIV in tho AUv*- >Phystoal tu^d N«Uot\aHVt\tor— Atvolhov (Glorious I'ountry llnnting tho t,M»atuoi.s Land of tho Koforn\ation Tlio Swiss Capital Tho Lako l>wolUnjJ-s /.m-ioh a\nl t.\>usta<\oo Tr.aolnji- Iho KUino St iJoih.irvl's Tunnol Tho Khono VHuoUn^— 81, Uovtwtxl— Mont Hlauv- rHE RUSSIANS A t^ii^antlo Land -Tho Tnw Slavs -Tho (.\vssaoks Tho ».M(va.ssians Tho Otvixlans- Modos of Travol K\llos tv> Slhocia -U*non\tuotvt atul .Vnny Hfo Tho Swim\I and tho v'ross hna,»i~t> NWM-shiplnjj- -Typloal (.Vtvnvv^ttlals— NohlUly ft«d IVassuttvy In a IVasaut Villajiv Utvat Mi»l»llo I'lass St, lVto>~shn»\«" Tho Wintoi- l^>laoo IVtov's Stat\io Wintor Spotts ami Sivn»\s— Mosoow v>ut-sldo tho KtvntUn Ka. tho Utvat «Tho Kussian llunlot^—Ctitu TttVlttV)"— The Uu»v«;aHa«s<=-Tho lh^ho«vl»«s. THE ANGLO-SAXONS. littstsof tho Knj^llshntan Tho 1 (\ss Kvdinj; tho Vhvator K\plovln,»>: tho Thamos OxtonI Fwm OxfotHl to XVinvlsot^ Fi\MU Windsvn- to Loudotv London auvl LouvUhv '"t-Mty" Tho l^tshJvnr «hU» \V»^^l Ktul -Tho Oit,\^— Uot\dv>» Tvwor«t\d tho l>k8^-Whot>«' IVtov Wv^vkwl—WNHMwioh and Uvvonwioh Oantorhviry and Thonvas st UovKot IVvor and UastJoji?.- Tho Thalky t'UtYs unvl OUl Fottssts KiKsovn Snlts and Kaoo.s Tho l>Vi\\st of Poath Tho Islo of Wijiht- To Kdii^v- stom» H,«hlhoviso--^nw Iho Now FiMvst.lnlttud— AlonjiRvlstoirhat\«oV KU>,>t Arthur's l.«»ul— • A LItoran Latul IMwary I'Varlnvvv^r Kvvksa\>»l Klowovs Uous«\sattd Mhx^ Au»»M\«;Mlnorsa»d Klshovnion A IVad I ai\»;t»a»i«^ Bristol and Ualh- Sh( k«sp- Uunyau. l.Vw|\or ami V<^iulau\ Yarmouth Klats^^ A h^uuous r«attlo Kiold Uaok to Nottingham Uv''*^" '<»'** KoMu Uood A t,Vstlo atul Ooutitry Inns— Amorloa In Kn^iland Kn);lish W'tk Manohostor l.lvorpov^l Oladslom^ and Ills Kstatt^-Ma«. ufaoturl\>)j and Moohattloal Knjjland "^IVvorllof tho Toak"- Tho IVttorv Shhv- Tho l5onlor l.«t\d ThoSootoh, Kdlnhurjih Mohwso and AhhotsfowL Hums and tho Ay \^ Tho Oly do ami 0la^kix>vv Ulasjixnv Tho Svvttish Ul,vihlands Tho Aotual Mi>ihlauds— Tho Wolsh atul Sno\v\Km — TUo Irlsh—Ut^li OUlos a»\d Soottory— rho Uritlsh iu Aiuorlo». CONTliNTS. \1 THE AMERICAN ANGLO-SAXONS. Tlio Typloiil Aiucriciiii Mninc All I'lmt. In li(«fl, of Tlicni- Miiino Hc«n(MyTliIh- lri(;ls — Now YuiU I'liilmlclpliiii Tlic Iron iiiiil (ioiil lttip;l(ii)M 'V\w CiiinlxirlnndM niid tlir I'olonmc — OUU) Iron iiiid VVool Ciiicinimll 'rii(M,J,u('fii of tlid l/tiluiH— Wliciil niiivcHlcni I, He on llw lMiilns~'rii(^ Western Mliiinr, ( 'oiiiilry- VclldVVNlunc Niilldniil I'lirk- IMiili Ch lll/iilidi Tlio (\)lun»l)lii Itlvor -Siilmoii l''i.Mliiii)>-'rU() ()(.l(l(-ii Htiitc- Hun li'nuK'lNco- Old (!alli(.lle MlHNlonH— Nivtnre'H Wonders — Tliroujijh to tlio MIsm1mh1i)1)1— 81. LouIm— Mow OrloiuiH— Hcnuwod Lifu of the tioutli. ^ 1\)1MC\\L INDl^^X. ^ f A l,!\ml i>l' IVvny. AbyjmlnlH, TUo Tovliu-tof ,\fvlo!». 'V\w Ki>!*t Afvloaus, Tl\o /,nh\ rulYvos, Tho HvHiUuMU IU>olvuttun». TI\o Mrtlrty!U\>». 'V\w M!\(l(>,»in>;o!«v M«\uy«ns. Monu>v> Mnliiynnx, vSunvmvn MHU»y««j<. 'ri\l>.li»V!U\OSO, . - . TUo IVlyiu'slonM. T\\^ Avistrrtltrtus. Tho AivUos, •l\w«A\» UohHivtf 8lVtttt. Tho Ksq»lu\!>\>\. North Auvovloiuv IndinoN, TUt> MoxU>«iu» Hml lVv\t»'ttl A«vorlo»«s »^(H\lh A»\\orlo«u ImHsnw. T»»o TvuKts. Tl\«> Amlw. IVv!»t!»(»« iW\\ Afji>h«\\». Tho Un\>\u>«, Tho Imio Ohlnow, Tho ,ln\v»»o «nvl t.\»UMV«s* Tho v}\voU!», Tho UHllfUis. . Tho S^v«ut«\^^^<. TI>o KvvMoh, Tho ^^OV\U!n^^>> Tho 8v>H»\ Mu!>vl«t>s, Tht» Hutoh. Tho Swiss. Tho Kv\.osi«ns, Th«» A»\)!;h>-8«\vn»», Tho A«»ovloH<\ AHglo^xons, - 04 - 7>J 7«- .. SO <<»- - 80 S7 IM jm- 10« . 107 l\J8 tvM> I.VI . W UVi UW 17» . tsi 100 tlH U>\J , m\- -\JIO 'i\\ \)l.% . VM(> V>\)\} 'xVv>a- -a«8 . vntft \>ft4 v»w 78 . xvn> »I\J JUS :wo . Ml ;»M iUft :uui . ;ui7 «so rsu -410 . Ill 4\>S •rou too . 4rti -108 ■uty Ml . vM^ .V40 Ml- -.%74 . a:^ 04\) (U;i M{\ . «(U- 1\^ •;iw 7!U . 7;!«^ J 00 7fi7^ -8lH> . 801 S40 SI I SAV^ . 8.V5 sri S7.N S)>0 . SIM 1 00 1 . uuu HVJM \IV »>■ (T-^- »-. tl ^) o. ^^JV, .^..Ski.. -- ^t. ■■ ILLUSTRATIONS. ■'M(. of (lie Wnrlilu^ CongoH, . 150 A Carvod TuhIi, 151 Di'eary HeencH In Soutliwenlirrn Africa, 15a Mouidain WnrrlorH, 15(1 A Native Cup, . 1(10 In the HtoclcH, KM A Village on tlie Grain Coast, . 1(17 HeeiK^ In Houdan, IHO Madagascan Lady, . 20(1 A Mead lluntiM', 2ia A Villa/'.e MarlK^t House, . 2IH A Italia, . . . . 220 A .hivaneHe Plow, . . aaii A NmHv(^ if!;.-, aai A .liivaiiese 1 louse, , 2a5 A .Iavan(!He Kork, aa(( A .lavaiU'se Ijooni, . aa7 A Malayan i'l'au. 2ill A Native of lar/.on. , a!ia Home ManiifaelureH. aiiii A li\^e.|(;e(!lilef. . aiitJ A Chief's 1 l(iUM(5, a:!7 A Keej(!(! Cannibal, . a;iH Polynesian Hcauties, 2i)l) A l''(W')eeaii Villiigt^ Hc(!ne, , 240 A CIvlli/.ed Oiil. an Wotiien i>( Tonga, . 242 TonceHc llrnided Woik, an Niilive l''asbion. . aid A Sainoaii (lirl, a 17 Of the King's Party, . 21 H l\i-ni\ Protector, 241) Native idols, . 251 War Aniid(!(s, 252 'i^itlooed Maoris, . 25i> A PaiiMiin Warrior, 258 A Temples on Ihe (!oaHl, . 251) I)an(^lng I'Mends, 2da A Uoat Shaped (.'ollln. . 2d:i In Full Dress, 2(15 xiri XIV ILLUSTRATIONS. A Sea-coast House, Last of the Tasmanians, Two Views of the Queen, A New Ireland Boj% A New Irelander, An Australian Savage, Australian Boomerangs, On the Hunt, The Corroboree, Traveling Women, An Australian Grave, Hatchets of the Australians An Australian Camp, "Waiting for the River Fall, A West Australian Forest, A Native Victorian, A Tartar, Camel of Tartar Emigrant, Calmuck Tartars, . Calmuck Dwellings, A Samoyed Cossack, An Ostiak, An Ostiak Family, A Vogul Encampment, ■Cape Washington, Laplanders, Lapland Sledges, Fishing in Lapland, A Lapland Church, Native Siberians, Implements of Siberia, A Yakut Woman, A Tungoose, Hunters of Siberia, Siberian Dog Sledge, Winter and Summer Huts, Tchuktchis Children, An Esquimau Group, Starting on a Journey, A Greenland Housewife, Labrador Esquimaux, Indian Curiosities, Totem Poles and Indian Hutsi, Indian Grave, Muir Glacier, Alaska — Iront view, A Sioux Warrior, View of Muir Glacier, A Mexican, A Mexican Girl, Scene in Patagonia, Patagonian Dancers, Entrance to Fortescue Bay, Amazonian Indians, War Trumpet, Colossal Head Carved in Stone, Peruvian Carvings, An Araucanian Family, A Turkish Soldier, 269 274 275 276 277 280 285 289 290 293 296 301 302 303 307 308 317 318 319 322 324 326 327 330 334 335 336 3i0 342 346 348 353 356 358 361 363 364 369 374 376 380 382 384 387 389 396 404 414 421 432 436 439 442 444 455 457 460 471 A Syrian. . 486 Village in Syria, 487 A Druse Lady, . 488 An Old Turk, . 490 A Man of Jerusalem, . 490 At Jerusalem's Wall, 491 An Armenian, . . . . 494 An Armenian Bishop, . 495 A Woman of Aden, 501 A Bedouin, . 505 Bedouins, . . • 507 A Loaded Camel, . . 510 Bronze Workers, 516 Field Hands, . 518 Wealthy Merchants, 524 Smoking a Water Pipe, . 526 The Bastinado, 534 An Afghan, . 535 Burghers of Ceylon, 542 Water Carrier, . 543 Indian Tree Huts, 544 A Brahman at Prayer, . 546 Chief of a Village, 547 A Tiger Hunt, . . . 548 Women of Ceylon, 549 House in Ceylon, . . 550 Hindoo Gypsies, 552 A Baggage Animal, . 553 A Banyan Forest, 554 Bas Relief, Indian Temple, . 556 Scene in Ceylon, 558 Royal Palace at Agra, . 561 Cloth Vender, 564 Scene at Benares, . 572 River Scene in China, 576 A Scene in China, 594 The Emperor's Palace, . 616 A Burmese Couple, 617 Arrangement of Ear-ring, . 619 Priest Sounding Bell of Temple, 626 Siamese Men, 630 Laotian Houses, . 630 Scene at Bangkok, 632 Girl from Anam, . 638 A Japanese, 644 A Noble Lady, . 645 Selling Marine Animals, 645 A Japanese Girl, . 647 Nobleman and Servant, 648 Riding in a Palanquin, . 651 Interior of a Tea House, 652 Temple Garden in Tokio, . 654 A Japanese Bedroom, 658 Singers and Musicians, . 661 Temple of Neptune, . 668 Embossed Shoulder Strap, . 686 Venus of Mile, 688 A Greek Cross, . 693 ILLUSTRATIONS. XV Bas Relief, Greeks of Fifth Century, Base of Statue of Ariadne, Modern Greek Peasants, Greek Brigands, Street Scene in Rome, The Fates — by Michael Angel Design for an Ornament, Plaque — by Cellini, Bronze Helmet Ornament, Wall Painting, Pompeii, Tombs of Pompeii, Garden at Pompeii, Marble Table found at Pompeii A Gypsy Chief, A Spanish Girl, Gate of the Alhambra, Peasant of Eastern Spain, Port of Alicante, Scene in Salamanca, Spanish Water Carrier, Bull Fighters, A Farmer of Brittany, A Beggar of Brittany, Renaissance Window, Rouen, A Modern French Painter, St. Vincent de Paul, Bust of Victor Hugo, Schiller, Heine, A Village Group, . Watching the Rhine, Scene on the Rhine, Goethe, Old German Gateway, Museum at Berlin, Frederickshaven, Swedish Landscape, In a Dutch Port, 694 Renibrandt Van Ryn, . 860 696 A Neat Dutch Inn, . 863 698 Going to Baptism, 865 700 Exterior of a Dutch House, . 866 706 Reading a Condemned Book, 873 717 Swiss Scenes, . 876 718 A Cossack Family, 893 719 A Voter, . 893 720 Cossack Watch Tower, 894 723 Ready for Action, . 895 724 A Circassian Girl, 896 725 On With the Dance ! . 898 726 A Siberian Exile, 903 739 View of Omsk, . 904 745 Soldier of the Caucasus, 905 749 Cossack of the Line, 906 751 A Russian Village, 913 752 A Lady of Fashion, . 922 757 Scene in Russia, 930 760 Noted Picture of Lot's Wife, . 948 763 Piece of Statuary, 949 768 Waterloo Bridge, . 951 769 St. Andrew's Church, Holborn, 952 784 Fish Sale in Cornwall, . 966 792 Old English Doorway, 972 794 An Old English Lady, . 974 795 A Derbyshire Inn, 977 809 Old English Gateway, . 980 810 English Pottery, 984 816 In the Emerald Isle, . 1002 819 Evangeline, . . . . 1008 821 An American Palace, . lOlO 823 Carved Oak Settee, 1013 825 Sculptor's Home, . ' . 1018 884 Falls in National Park, 1022 843 A Specimen Room, . 1028 846 Carmel Mission, 1029 855 Cathedral Rock, . 1031 North America, - Africa, - - A Central African Feast, Australia and Oceakjca, South America, An Arab Warriot!, Asia, - - - Europe, - - - - The Pigeons of St. Mark — Venice, A Spanish Cobbler's Shop, A German Harvest Scene, On The Coast of Holland, A Mountain Maid — Switzerland, A Russian Wedding, An English Country Crossing, An American Home Scene, Froatispiece ^ - IT/; 136/ - 193 / y 43t'!7 ''^ - 503 1/^ - 515 \). - 667 -/. 738 i/ - 759 1^ 815 - 868' 879 '' - 901" 930' - 1033 ^ .»/ OOL-OROD PL^T^TES. Africa, - - - Types of Malayans and Negroes, - Types op Australians and ^Malayan;?, - Australia, - - - - New Zealand, . - - . New Guinea, . - - - Types of Brazilians and Patagonianf, Brazil, . - - - - South America, East India Islands, China and Japan, - - - - Types of Mongolians and Malayans, 39 103 ' 199 ' 203 •' 350 '' 361' 440'' 451^' 463 " 541 586 656 / A LAND OF DECAY. BIRTH-PLACE OF RACES. [curing through a narrow mountain gorge into the broad plains of Mesopotamia, the River Euphrates was once the patron of a most ancient, energetic and splendid civilization. With the Tigris, it is now the boundary of a prolific land of decay. From those plains once poured forth vast floods of people, and yet those left behind were the founders of glo- rious empires, the builders of Nineveh and Babylon. These mighty capitals are now little more than unsightly mounds of clay and sun-dried brick, among which dirty Arabs are delving for the building material of modern houses. From near the ruins of Babylon looms up a gigantic mound, standing alone in the midst of a vast plain — the tower of Babel ! you recog- nize it at once. Other mounds of lesser note, now scattered, now grouped, now in the form of triangles; shafts of columns; Assyrian forts; rocks crowned with ancient castles; old towns filled with Roman and Saracenic architecture ; groves of palm trees ; clouds of scorch- ing sand borne by the south winds; decaying walls of gigantic canals,, vainly appealing to Turkish "enterprise;" a tribe of restless Arabs with their camels, horses, sheep and women, their crude furniture and all their effects, seeking fresh pasture ; answering sheets of flame rising from the fertile river tracts and springing from the hatred of the harvesters who have gathered their grain and are burning all green forage to keep it from those same thievish Arabs; a wandering dervish, only interrupting his prayers to light his pipe, asks for gifts from the faithful, or to search for vermin; the sound of an Arab water-wheel in the distance; a Turkish fortress perched upon a storm-beaten mound inclosingf the ruins of centuries; narrow roads hanorino- to the mountain sides and dropping to the plain below; gorgeous mountain tints painted by a bold eastern sun and flung upon the background of a soft eastern sky; a valley in which nestles a village where Noah is said to have planted his vineyard; a dyke built by Nimrod, the mighty hunter; a griflin's 17 2 l8 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. cave, at the mouth of which the Tigris roars and foams — such is the country in which rose and fell the oldest known civilization of the world. Leaving- the Euphrates river we enter the Syrian desert, and mid- way between the great river and the Mediterranean sea, in a small oasis, find the famed ruins of Palmyra; the " Tadmor in the Desert." Across to Baalbek — grand ruins again! The omnipresent Arab is there also, as at Palmyra, sheltered by his crazy hut and raising his corn and olives .among the ruins. Striking south, we are still oppressed by ruins — some thirty of them — before we skirt the coast of the Dead Sea, and cross a desert tract of country and the Suez canal into the land of pyramids. What more natural than that we should journey from the land of ancient Assyria to the land of Egypt; for we are following in the footsteps of the races and families of men, and the ancient Egyptians are supposed to have preceded us in that little trip, overland, by some thousands of years. EGYPT. Straight toward the Mediterranean sea a black line shoots across the desert waste, binding together a chain of lakes and lagoons, and marking the threshold to the land of shadows and sunshine. Another line winds toward Cairo, and still another seems to shoot more directly and with more momentum toward that great emporium to which our journey lies. In the ship canal constructed for the commerce of the world, and in the fresh-water canal built for the convenience of the isthmus inhabitants, are repeated the performances of the ancient Egyptians and Persians, accomplished before the wild Scythians ever dreamed of crossing the Bosphorus and laying the foundation of the most advanced of European civilization. Traces of that first canal are found deep in the desert sand of the isthmus country, where Egypt's frontier was threatened by those same savage tribes who now appear as Frenchmen, as Englishmen, as Germans, as representatives of nations which have sprung from the decay of the old. Here were her fortresses and from the banks of the Nile came fresh water, provisions and reen- "forcements, if necessary, to the defenders of the civilization of those days ; and Persia had her ship canal from sea to sea ; but It was left to these days to shoot the railroad across the desert Into the very haunts of antiquity, into the very shadows of the Pyramids. But we pass them by, and the splendid mosques of Cairo, and the tombs of its rulers, and the beautiful villas in the suburbs, and ancient AN EGYPTIAN 1 liMl'LE. 20 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. glory, and present attempts at magnificence, and go into the " by-ways and hedges " to get acquainted with the people. We will have nothing to do with the Turk, for he is not a native ; although he has imposed many of his customs among the Egyptians. We shall avoid the Italians, French, English, Armenians and other nationalities, who live in the "Frank" quarter of Cairo and Alexandria, and who A COPT. are traveling up and down the Nile country, viewing curiosities, trafiic- ing in precious stones, or awaiting the return of the pilgrims from Mecca laden with the wealth of the far East ; who are the agents of commer- cial houses in their native lands, or the principals themselves in this central station of the overland route to India. For the present we EGYPT. 2 1 "have no interest in these people, except in so far 'as they have relations to a very intelligent, courteous, industrious and humble class of the Egyptians, the Copts. They number about one-fifteenth of the entire population of the country, and are the sole remnant of the ancient Egyptians. In Lower Egypt they are of a yellowish tinge, which shades into a dark brown further south. The Copts inhabit small sections of the larger cities, while in Upper Egypt they have settled whole towns and villages. What is their business ? They are clerks and account- ants in government and mercantile offices ; they are the Christian priests of Egypt, cheerful, humane and hospitable, with their convents and monasteries scattered along the Nile. They are the scribes, priests and scholars of Egypt, and an ink-horn at the girdle (for they wear the turban and flowing robe) is a masculine badge, as is the cross, tattooed upon the hand of the Copt woman, her mark of honor. The Coptic priesthood have considerably lapsed from the rigor of their religious observances as primitive Christians, although in the regular monasteries their discipline is still severe. The dress is a simple skirt of coarse woolen fabric. Only on feast days are small quantities of animal food allowed, the ordinary food being black bread and lentils. The convents, when not situated on some inaccessible rock, are surrounded by a high and strong wall which has only a single iron door, and in some cases is wholly Avithout opening, the means of entrance being a pulley from the top. The religious rites of the Copt are many and severe, the services lasting many hours at a time. Seven times daily he repeats his Pater JSfoster, and begs for Divine mercy forty-one. The churches are deco- rated with ornaments of ostrich eggs and divided into four compart- ments. Furthest from the doorway is the chancel, or sanctuary, where the eucharist is celebrated, and which is hidden behind a high screen. Next is the room where the priests interpret in Arabic the Coptic service to the singers, the leading men of the congregation and to strangers. In the third compartment are the mass of the congregation, moving round in their bare feet to pray before the pictures of the saints, or leaning upon long crutches for support. The veiled women occupy the fourth room, which is dimly lighted, and usually situated in the extreme rear of the church. The domestic life of the Copts is very similar to that of the Arabs who have settled along the Nile. They have adopted also many of the Moslem customs, such as the veiling of the faces of many of their women. Some Coptic women are allowed to go out from time to tim.e and even to visit and shop pretty freely. Others, again, are as closely 22 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. secluded as if they were actual denizens of a harem. Nearly all keep black female slaves instead of hirine servants. There are some peculiarities in the Coptic marriage ceremony. ^'^",. EGYPTIAN ORNAMENTS. however. The bride, unlike the Moslem, has no canopy to cover her in the procession to the bridegroom's house. At the preliminary feast. THE NILE AND EGYPT, 23 pigeons are released from pies and fly around the room shaking bells attached to their feet. After the marriage ceremony, the priests set on the foreheads of the new couple a thin gilt diadem. In entering her husband's house, the bride must step over the blood of a newly killed lamb. The whole pageant, after lasting eight days, ends with a grand feast at the bridegroom's house. This is the custom, of course, among the well-to-do classes, but certainly would not prevail In the hut of a poor chicken hatcher or fellah (farmer). But we shall soon be among these poor swarthy sons of the Nile and it will become evident that they could not be the originators of pageants and feasts of superlative grandeur. THE NILE AND EGYPT. It is impossible for the humblest Egyptian to omit the Nile as an element in his life ; for in her bosom lie life and death. Food, drink and clothing spring from her brooding over the soil. " May Allah bless thee as he blessed the course of the Nile ! " exclaims the poor woman on its banks to the traveler. " Mohammed would not have o-one to Paradise had he drunk of the Nile," says an Arabian proverb. She seems a living, moving thing — either a benefactor or a monster ; her benefactions, generally, make her the power for good In Egypt and an all-pervading influence of blessedness. A fcAv days In the spring and fall she rests from her labors. Then the tributaries from the mountains and table-lands of Abyssinia and from the recesses of Central Africa commence to trickle into her mighty channel and the great event, older than the pyramids and yet ever momentous, is soon recorded in Cairo. Across a branch of the river, near the metropolis, is a small island, in which Is sunk a square wall or chamber. In the center of this chamber Is a graduated pillar divided Into cubits of about twenty-two Inches each. Sometime in June the water commences to rise In the pillar, or nilo- meter, and Egyptian life again hangs upon the pleasure of old mother Nile. Every morning four official criers proclaim throughout Cairo the helofht to which the water has risen. When the sixteenth cubit is reached, It Is quite certain that there will be a harvest and the Sultan's land tax is levied— what portion of it Is collected from the shrewd natives is another thing. While the water line Is creeping between the six- teenth and the eighteenth cubits, Cairo and Egypt are breathless with interest and anxiety. A straggling street runs from the city down to Fostat, its suburb and port. From Fostat a canal of irrigation runs through Cairo and is continued some miles beyond. It is believed to 24 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. form part of an ancient canal, traces of which we found in the desert sands toward Suez. As the water hne in the nilometer rises toward the eighteenth cubit, this becomes a locahty of supreme interest. The talk even among the counting houses and government offices ; among the Europeans with their Coptic clerks ; in the public gardens haunted by French and German strollers ; in the bazaars filled with the goods and nationalities of the East ; around the mosques in the city, and the cof- fee booths and fairs in the suburbs ; among the serpent charmers and story tellers — the talk of Cairo itself is plentifully interspersed with refer- // A JEW OF CAIRO. ences to the probable outcome of the rise. Famine has already been averted, and the Sultan has his tax — on paper. It now remains to be seen whether the Nile will come up to the standard of abundance which is marked on the fascinating nilometer by the eighteenth cubit, and which determines whether the pacha shall cut the banks which confine the waters and lead it into this grand canal, and thence into six thousand other artificial channels and reservoirs scattered throughout the region. Millions of anxious fellaheen and Copts, and wandering bands of Bedou- THE NILE AND EGYPT. 25 ans and gypsies, are at the same time casting anxious eyes upon the Tbroad, swelling bosom of the Nile, or, remembering her as generally ikind, already see her muddy waters depositing their magic loam upon the parched land, and the fruits and grains of the world springing into green life. Bounty or famine depends upon what has been going on in the far-away regions of Central Africa and the mountains of Abyssinia. ISTature has been good, and the rains have fallen which bring the waters of the Nile up to the eighteenth cubit of the nilometer. The command is given by the authorities of Cairo. The pacha, attended by liis grandees, cuts the confining mounds, and another harvest and season -of plenty is assured. All classes now flock to the river side and, it may "be, the whole night is spent in festivity. Like scenes of jubilee occur for hundreds of miles alono- the banks of the grod-like river. Between September 20 and 30 the river is at its greatest height, remains stationary for about fifteen days and then usually commences to fall. Should the waters rise above twenty-four feet then the river ceases to be a "good Nile," and woe be to the little villages which lie in the level strip along iher banks should she go far above that point. The whole valley of the Nile is now a vast lake, and as the inundated country at length appears it is seen to be covered with a layer of rich loam, averaging not more than one-twentieth of an inch. The strip fertilized is only two or three miles in breadth, but the soil, thus annually replenished, has filled the granaries of eastern and western kingdoms, and as long as the Nile does ber duty, cannot be impoverished. When the waters recede, vegetation springs up, crisp and green. The beautiful date palms, which are so sympathetic, look brighter and more martial as they rise from the river side or protectingly group themselves around little hamlets or villages. The sturdy peasant, or fellah, comes from his mud hut and casts his wheat-and barley upon the loam. . Later, he drives his sheep, goats and oxen upon the "sown" grain to trample it in. In some places plough- ing is thought necessary, but is usually dispensed with. Beans, peas, Jentils, clover, flax, lettuce, hemp, tobacco and water-melons go through with much the same process, and yet the fellah confidently expects, from past experience, to harvest good crops within three or four months. In summer, chiefly by artificial irrigation, maize, onions, sugar cane, cotton, coffee, indigo and madder are brought from the bountiful soil, and tem- perate and tropical fruits vie with one another in lusciousness. April, the great harvest month, sees the fields of Egypt white with barley and golden with wheat. Later appear the tiny green oranges, which do not mature for six months. Then the corn, which crackles with dryness as it is heaped upon the camels, is carried off to be 26 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. threshed. Seated in his wooden chair the peasant drives his rude cart round and round over the grain. Some of tlie wealthy land owners have introduced modern threshing machines, but this primitive object is still as familiar a sight as the poor fellah Avho has abandoned his desert for the garden spots of Egypt. His wants are few, however, — " a draught of Nile water, a handful of lentils, or a piece of bread made like a pan- cake and tough as wash-leather " — and, since fuel costs nothing, he gets along very well. He has also various crude devices for irrigating his land. A large wheel may be run out into the river and, with its hollow paddles, turned by the current. The water is thus caught up and emptied into a trench or tank on the bank. Or our Egyptian farmer may call the creaking "sakieh" into service — a series of cogwheels brought to bear upon an endless string of leathern vessels which empty their contents into a pool. Over the wheels is a thatched roof, and under the roof camels or buffaloes are plodding around a beaten path. Thus is revealed the motive power. From the pool the water is car- ried off on its refreshing errand by a wooden shaft. Ruder, but more common than these quite-mechanical contrivances is an elevating machine consisting of a long pole working on a pivot, a lump of clay or a stone at one end and a bucket at the other, the whole arrangement being fastened to a simple framework of logs. Thousands of these "re-formed" Arabs — naked or half-naked men, women and children — virtually spend their lives before their "shadoof" in dipping water from the Nile to irri- gate the fields. The water which is thus poured into trenches on the bank runs into small channels or ridges of earth which divide the land into squares. The cultivator uses his feet to regulate the flow of water to each part. By a dexterous movement of his toes, he forms a tiny embankment in one of the trenches, or removes the obstruction, or makes an aperture in one of the ridges, or closes it up again, as the condition of the crop requires. After all their labor when the grain is about ready to be harvested the vast flocks of geese, wild duck, hawks, pigeons, and cranes which darken the sky, may threaten a complete destruction of their crop. At these times, instead of scarecrows, the fellaheen place small stands or platforms in the fields, from which young boys armed with slinofs do wonderful execution. 'b' THE FELLAHEEN. Next to the birds, the greatest enemies of the fellaheen are the tax collectors, who do not hesitate to vigorously apply the stick when they find an unusually stubborn subject; and after the application of such THE FELLAHEEN. 2'J forcible arguments, if he stil! refuses to disgorge the coin which is clearl)^ due the Sultan, as proven by the nilometer's record, his wife and his neighbors exalt him as a hero and a patriot. Their many tricks to evade the clues, which trickery they consider one of the paramount duties of life, are illustrative of their many-sided characters. Some years ago the tax upon country produce brought into cities was so increased as to be really a burden upon our rural friends. At the station where two coun- try roads meet, a poor fellah would be seen dancing about "hopping mad," because he had been forced to pay more than he expected, or had been caught at some of his evasive tricks. But after swearing and lament- ing in his native tongue, he would re-load his ass, throw off all his burdens of spirit and proceed with as unruffled a countenance as though every tax fiend in Egypt had started for Constantinople. Occasionally, however, they do escape the sharp-eyed officials, though this is not the case in the following instance. A funeral procession enters the city by the chief country road, the chanting mollahs (religious doctors) walking behind, accompanied by men carrying the coffin with a red shawl over it, as is the usual custom. But the official scents somethinsf in the wind which is not a badly preserved corpse, and orders a halt and an investiga- tion. The coffin, which in the East is only covered with a pall, is found to be filled with cheese ! If the cheese had been a corpse it would have entered the city free of duty. Neither are the fellaheen always honest in their dealings with private parties. A traveler tells the story that he once observed a large heap of little clay balls on the banks of the Nile w^hich, evidently, were not formed by nature. He asked a fellah who stood near what they were for, as there were two or three such heaps. "Oh," he coolly replied, "they are for mixing wuth corn. Many boats laden with corn stop here." A boatman added that the village was famous for a peculiar kind of clay, of a corn color, but weighing heavier than the grain. As a rule, however, the fellaheen, who comprise four-fifths of the Egyptian population, are honest, lazy, patient, merry and domestic. They are the brawn of Egypt and cling jealously to her most ancient customs, strenuously opposing the introduction of im.plements of modern invention even when the attempt is made by their Turkish masters. The men average five feet eight inches in height, and have broad chests, muscular limbs and generally black, piercing eyes, straight thick noses, large but well-formed mouths, full lips, beautiful teeth and fine, oval faces. Their dress rarely consists of more than a shirt, leaving bare the arms, legs and breast. The distinctive garb of the fellaha, or peasant'swife, is the dark-blue cotton and black muslin veil. In the towns many wear 28 _ PANORAMA OF NATIONS. prints oi various colors for trousers, and for the short waistcoat without sleeves, which is worn in winter as an additional garment. The favorite hues are orange, pink and yellow, or magenta crimson. The older women, even among quite poor people, frequently dye their grey locks a tawny orange color. When we speak of the "older women " we mean those far this side of thirty. From twelve — the usual age of marriage — to eighteen or nineteen nearly all the women are splendidly formed .and many of them are real beauties, but after that they rapidly wither. THEIR WIVES. Having introduced the fellah and spoken of his occupation and dis- position, it is no more than just that we should do the same for his wife. While he is abroad tending his cattle or sheep, looking after his crops, selling fodder, fruit, milk or vegetables, or looking after the irrigation of his land, we shall enter his home, meet his wife and family, and see how and where they live. The houses of the fellaheen are all of the same general type, the wealthier of them, of course, living in a large mud "mansion" instead of occupying one about four feet in height. The well-to-do may have carpets and mattresses, little coffee cups and some brass cooking vessels instead of a sleeping mat, a water jug and a few rude kitchen utensils ; and their daily bill of fare may include more items than coarse bread and onions, cheese, dates, beans and rice. In some of the houses of the more pretentious peasants there is a separate apartment, called " hareem," for the women ; but it is usually dirty and disorderly and a pitiful par- ody upon the magnificence of its Moslem prototype. The wife of the rich fellah displays gold ornaments, a brocaded silk vest, a black muslin veil and, on special occasions, trousers ; the poor fellaha has her silver bracelets and her dark cotton garments, often thin and ragged. As soon as it is light the poor woman gets up from her mat, spread in the low one-room hut, and shakes herself ; or, if the weather is hot, she has been sleeping outside, with her family. Having thus completed her toilet, she and her husband and children gather round a small earthen dish containing boiled beans and oil, pickles or chopped herbs, green onions or carrots. Possibly the family do not go to all this trouble, but each takes what pleases him, when he likes, the substantial part of the food being a coarse kind of bread in which is mixed some most bitter seeds which seem to immensely tickle the palate of the average Egyp- tian. The father now, in all probability, goes to his work, and the mother, if she has none to do, wanders away to gossip with the neigh- EGYPTIAN SINGER. 30 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. ■ ■■ ■ . "-^ J^J - bors, leaving the children to roll in the dust or otherwise shift for them- selves. If she has no neighbors and lives in the country, she may go off with her husband and the children to assist him in drawinsf water to irri- gate their land. If it is baking day, or she has some other simple ■ household duty to perform, she deposits her infant (in appearance a heap of dirty rags) upon the first spot which strikes herj eyes, when the idea comes to her. It may be on a heap of rubbish, with the sun beating down upon it or the flies swarming over it. If she is a country fellaha working with her husband, the infant may go down in the mud. Should she be eating an onion, or a pickle, or a raw carrot, and the baby cries — and has teeth — she will, as likely as not, fill its little mouth with- whatever she is enjoying. But bread-making day has really arrived, and approaching the windowless mud-hut, with its wooden door and huge wooden key, we find that the woman has brought the strength of the whole family to bear upon her task. Perhaps the smaller children and an old grandmother are pick- ing and cleaning the corn, the older boys or the father carrying it off to be ground and bringing back the flour. A grown daughter or a sister is siftino- the flour and with the fellaha's assistance mixing the leaven, working up the dough and shap- ing it into round cakes. These are then baked in the mud oven of the hut, or, if the fellaha lives in a village, the batch may be taken to the public oven. When evening comes a pretense is usually made to unite the family. They sit in a circle, often on the ground — mother, father, children, sister and grandmother — and dip their cakes of bread into a vegetable mess before them, contained in a coarse earthen pan. They eat in comparative silence, often, and when each is satisfied he gets Egyptian vase up and goes away. Sometimes the man eats alone, or with his sons ; and. the women finish the bowl. But this practice obtains only among those upon whom the Moslem customs have a strong hold. If the fellah fam- ily, in whose house we visit, is above the average in respectability, after supper is finished, wife, daughter or slave brings in a basin and pours water EGYPTIAN SCHOOLS. 35 over the hands. Whether the family sleep indoors or out, depends, principally, upon the season of the year. But let them sleep, for the present, wherever they are and whoever they are — whether the Mos- lem who has gone through with his evening devotions on a carpet spread on the ground, or the Coptic Christian who has said his prayers and counted his beads forty and one times during the day. EGYPTIAN SCHOOLS. In many of the villages along the Nile, Moslem and Copt dwell in comparative peace, the men working together in the fields and their children attending the same school, when one has been established in a rural district by some European missionary. The boys, however, far outnumber the girls, from the fact that maidens are more useful at home than their brothers ; that they are called away from school before they have made much prog- ress, to become wives, and that Moslem Egyptians are generally imbued with the Turkish indifference to female educa- tion and advancement. The little girls attend in loose frocks called " crellebeehs," 'with muslin or gauze veils, slippers in winter, and in summer wooden clogs which are kicked off when they seat them- selves. In the native schools little is taught besides the Koran and the merest elements of arithmetic. Though the school-master may be blind, if he can repeat the Moslem bible without stum- bling, the permanency of his position is AN EGYPTIAN CHAIR. assured. The school is generally attached to the village mosque, which is built of mud with a white-washed spire. Its locality can be ascertained beyond a doubt by the tremendous hub- bub which always proceeds from a Moslem school ; for all those who are learning to read are sitting upon the ground with the school-master, vig- orously rocking their bodies back and forth, and reciting their lessons from their wooden tablets and at the top of their voices. Before the older pupils, on little desks made of palm sticks, are copies of the Koran or some of its thirty sections. They also are going through with the same form of gymnastics, which is thought to be an aid to the memory. 32 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. In the small towns and villages the masters of the schools are nearly as ignorant as the pupils, but manage by their native shrewdness to hide: their lack of learning. Naturally the " salary " is a mere nothing. But. in Cairo, where the course of instruction is somewhat broader, the remuneration to the school-master is correspondingly greater ; from the; parent of each pupil there is sent to him, every Thursday, what would be equivalent to three cents. The master of a school attached to a. mosque or public building, in Cairo, also receives yearly apiece of white. muslin for a turban, a piece of linen and a pair of shoes. Each boy receives, at the same time, a linen skull cap, eight or nine yards of cotton cloth, half a piece of linen, a pair of shoes, and in some cases from three to six cents. These presents are supplied by funds bequeathed to the school. Although several Sultans of enlightened, views have attempted to reform the cause of education in Egypt, they have found it a graceless task, the prejudice and ignorance of the bulk of the population being as- firmly set against any innovation here as they are in the field of agriculture. So the boy continues to shout his les- sons, and the poor little maiden is often not allowed to know much of her Koran, for, when a mere child, she is hurried away from home to wed somebody whom, perchance, she has never seen. In a few short years, when she begins to fade, she fails to understand the cause of the great rejoicing which then took place ; or of the bright-hued procession which followed her red silk canopy, under which she herself walked cov- ered from head to foot with a large red shawl ; or why discordant bands of music and sweetly tinkling singers should do their best to celebrate the event, as if her world did not know that marriage was the stepping- stone to dismal, neglected old age. GLIDING UP THE NILE. In this general view of the customs, dispositions and daily life of the: Copts and fellaheen, who really are the two components of the modern Egyptians, we have failed to even touch upon salient points, which to omit, would leave the picture of the Land of the Nile and its people incomplete and colorless. We have got acquainted with some of the people, so that they do not seem like strangers to us, and now must just skim the surface of their mysterious country — another land of decay — stopping at a point or two which is typical of their modern institutions. As you pass through the delta of the Nile, the flocks of pelican, wild duck and other fowl make the waters hum and you might imagine, if it were not for that narrow strip of desert, thatyou_ GLIDING UP THE NILE. 33 had by mistake wandered into the State of Louisiana. The tremendous fields of grain which, in season, would be stretching down to the river's edge for three miles on either hand, would also soon dispel the illusion caused by the presence of these myriads of water fowl. Alexandria, a strange combination of decay and life, being left behind, the fertile strip of country grows quite narrow as Cairo comes into view — Cairo, with its dark and gloomy streets, its great mosques and its seven miles of area which is the focal point of three distinct civilizations. The slaves of Africa, the spices and fabrics of the East and the gold of Europe are all cast into Cairo, and a tremendous jumble of English- men and Germans, French and Americans, Arabs, Copts, Armenians, camels, asses, dogs, funeral and marriage processions, bazaars, veiled women, Turks, caravans and noise is the result. Opposite to Cairo, and extending along a slope to the river, are the sixty pyramids ; the ravages of time, and the depredations of Arab builders for ages, having given some of them a somewhat irregular outline as they stand up against the clear sky in their gloomy grandeur. The mountains now approach nearer to the river than they did in. Lower Egypt, and over the desert a picturesque group of Bedouins are wandering. They have been brought into subjection by rigorous governmental treatment, but still proudly cling to their nomadic ways notwithstanding their race has been abandoned by so many tribes who have settled down into the drudgery of partial civilization. They are therefore harmless to travelers. They are dressed in clothes of camel's hair, with girdles of leather, and their wives wear the dark cotton robe of the fellaha, with an additional veil of crimson or white crape. Enterino- the river's fertile strip the Arab band is seen to approach a cluster of mud huts, under a grove of palms, and connected with a farm. They talk with the bailiff in charge of the land and the fellaheen, and quickly pitch their tents beside the hut. They have returned to watch his crops and cattle, for they have been found trust- worthy before, although it is impossible to foretell when their thieving propensities will seize upon them. Wandering, like the Arab, through the pyramid section, we find that an opportunity is given them to rob us in genteel civilized fashion. The sheik of a tribe has founded his village at the foot of one of the pyramids and compla- cently levies his tribute upon curiosity seekers, who, under the hallucina- tion that they will be "conducted" are rushed up its sides at railroad speed, over steps of three or four feet in height, by his impetuous and "lungless" Arabs. Still skirting along the Nile, or through Egypt, with its mid-days of white heat, its purple mountain shadows, its cold 3 n 2 w o H W r n,,i,uV'%,kl"ii ' Hi JaU LJ_ I'l V m;,,jj jwol GLIDING UP THE NILE. 55 twilights and mellow "after-glows," its deserts and gardens, its hills pierced with pictured tombs, its bee boats stopping wherever the tiowers ijloom, its boatmen's chants heard with choruses and clappings of hands, its boats built as they were in the days of the Pharaohs with their trian- gular sails, its limestone pyramids and sandstone temples — while wonderful nature and human life cast themselves and their moods over this country of Egyptian, Grecian and Roman ruins — "our special artist" finds — what ? Another specimen village, and the Bedouins have actually so far ventured into the confines of civilization as to settle in it. The village, which is a short distance from the beach, is thickly sprinkled with palms. A plot near by is also covered with gum trees. The houses are of the vulgar mud, but the large herd of cattle in the vicinity and the rich ornaments worn by the women, who are grouped near the river bank, are sufiicient evidences that the Bedouins have gained by changing their ways of living. If you had been inclined to visit the sheik of the village he would, perhaps, have spread a Persian carpet for you under the shade of one of these gum trees, and, in the presence of his chief men, would politely have inquired as to your goings and comings. His house is also open to you. But, it may be, you had better rest content with seeing the outside of the village, especially it you have any valuables which you wish to retain. Let us now pass Siout, from which the Nubian caravans are departing, and to which some of our fellah acquaintances have journeyed to lay mat- ters before the governor of Central Egypt which are too momentous to be settled by any village authority. Let us pass the Christian town of Ekhmin, with its Coptic convent and its great ruins, and even the broad plain covered with the remains of fallen Thebes, her dark mountain tombs in the back-ground. All these wonders, of which you may read in hundreds of books and see them stand forth from thousands of bold engravings, are lightly skimmed over, only to enter a modest village beyond and see what is going on there. In Siout the governoi may dispense justice as he pleases for all the interest we takt in his grand ways — but here is a village court-house ! It would correspond to our •county court, several villages and towns bringing their legal affairs to it, and is crowded with handsome, sturdy peasants. At the door stand the keepers — two half-naked lads with long sticks. The room is small and approached by a narrow, dirty staircase. Many of the windows are broken, the panes being stuffed with rags or a ragged curtain to keep out the sun. At a number of inky, crazy-looking wooden desks in front, sit several scribes writing ; while on a ragged divan, with soiled cushions, sit a dozen more, each with paper or inkhorn of brass in his girdle or his 36 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. hand. Each head scribe chants out the contents of his paper, in a sonorous, but not very loud tone of voice, to his assistant, who copies it. The dinner hour having arrived, does the court adjourn? That would hardly accord with the dignity of the Turkish judge. A lad brings into the court-room a tray, upon which are vegetables, bread, cheese and a, watermelon ; whereupon the Court, with two of his assistants, calmly proceed to dip their bits of bread in the vegetable dishes and go through the whole course. Then, leisurely wiping their hands, they resume work. In the village, outside of the sleepy court-room, a lively scene is. found in the shape of the weekly market. We see no booths, but each seller spreads his wares before him on little mats ; cloth, wool, tobacco, butter, salt, curds, handkerchiefs, sugar, coffee, thread, etc., are displayed for sale. Veiled women, decorated according to their condition with colored glass or white shells, silver bracelets, golden coins or antique jewels, chat, examine and sometimes buy. Gentle Egyptian cattle wander- about unmolested. The fellaha even appears as a "sales-lady" beside her pile of egg-plants or gourds, and shrilly proclaims their virtues. A. Bedouin chief even appears upon his strong horse, his saddle furnished with cases of pistols. Elderly peasants, in turbans of white or crimson, sit in sunny spots, smoking and chatting over their bargains. All this animation and enjoyment and indolence are fondled by a bright Egyp- tian sun. These fairs are certainly a great institution of Egyptian peasant and village life. But adieu to the fair and to the village with its mud huts, some standing alone and some clustering around a common court-yard, some filled with vermin and others with chickens in all stages of artificial development ; to clerical, priestly Copt, to brawny, mercurial fellah, and to picturesque, thievish Bedouin. We are traveling into Upper Egypt, where the valley of the Nile so contracts that the sandstone rocks over- hang the water. From these rugged cliffs were quarried the huge stones which went into the building of the ruined monuments and temples of Upper Egypt and Nubia. Here is the home of the Copt and his villages are scattered all along the rocky banks, his convents often crowning a precipitous height or the ruins of some imposing structure. He and his priest chose these dreary dwelling places when their ways of living were more ascetic than they now are ; when the early Christians hid themselves, in caves both from choice and from necessity ; but having once planted their feet in this rocky gorge the ties of kindred and the bonds of poverty have kept them there. With the roar of the cataracts in our ears we say good-bye to Egypt, but not to the Nile. ETHIOPIA ALONG THE NILE. 37 ETHIOPIA ALONG THE NILE. The name " Ethiopia " calls up all the savage tribes, the mystery and •darkness of Central Africa. To our childhood mind an Ethiopian could be nothing but the blackest of the black ; a great, uncouth, thick-lipped beast, roaming over a vast territory which stared at us with fearful blankness from the center of Africa. Ethiopia included all the unknown, and the Ethiopian everything in man which was calculated to produce a nightmare. But the truth of the matter is that ancient Ethiopia was renowned even in Greece and Rome as a land of high civilization ; the Ethiopians were called " the blameless race " and the favored friends of the gods. In her mightiest days, Ethiopia was the rival of Egypt in all that was grand and glorious, as is attested by the ruins of her vast temples in Nubia, some of which were hewn from mountains of solid rock. Her tribes are now scattered from the northern confines of the Sahara desert, through Nubia, Abyssinia, along the banks of the Upper Nile and around the shores of its lakes, and into the most hidden recesses of the continent, where they merge with the true negroes of Soudan and Cen- tral Africa. They have scattered, and been driven, and settled in a ter- ritory stretching from Northern to Southern Africa, and from the Red Sea to the Atlantic, the best physical specimens of the ancient Ethio- pians being found in the Tuaricks of the central Sahara desert. Nubia was evidently the center of Ethiopian civilization, her present popula- tion consisting of the descendants of her ancient people, and of various tribes of Arabs, most of whom invaded the country in Mohammed's time. The first ray of intelligence which pierces the darkness enshrouding Ethiopian history and which bears upon the origin of the Nubians, as ■we find them to-day, is that in the early part of the Christian era a pow- erful tribe of Lybians appeared south of Egypt who were called Nobatae, or Nuba. The Nuba now occupy a small tract of country below the ter- ritory of the Dongolese in Southern Nubia. They are supposed to be Berbers. THE DONGOLESE. The two most distinct tribes of Nubians, however, who have least -of the Arab blood, and are the truest types of natives in the country, are the Dongolese and the Shangallas. The Dongolese are also supposed to be the remains of the Lybian tribe of Nuba to whom the Romans ;granted land south of the first cataract in return for which they protected 38 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Egypt's frontier from the fierce attacks of Southern Ethiopian tribes. At first they were a Christian people and formed quite a powerful nation, whose capital was at Dongola and whose territory covered most of Lower Nubia, now inhabited by their Moslem conquerors, the Arabs. The vicinity of old Dongola, in the center of Nubia, seems to have been the nucleus of the ancient as well as the more modern Christian civilization. Here a Christian queen reigned over the Dongolese, and at the foot of a cliff which rises four hundred feet and formed the site of her capital are found five or six rock-hewn temples of vast magnitude. Their walls are covered with hieroglyphics, in high relief, representing figures and deeds of kings and gods. The houses of old Dongola are now mostly in ruins, but on the highest part of the rocky cliff a simple Coptic church rises into view. The walls are ornamented with crude paintings, and the attendant priest in his black robes, with his long and ragged hair, is wiping their unsightly and cracked surfaces with an old rag. Services have not been held in the church for many years, but the priest keeps guard within it and reads his Amharic bible all day long, and far into the night, by the light of the stars. So he does not mind the fact that nearly all its people have crossed the river and built themselves houses, and have gone to raising grain and fruits and cotton. This latter product requiring an abundant supply of water, a rude canal has been constructed communicating with the Nile. When the canal is dry water is conveyed across country in numerous small aqueducts, built on upright tim- bers, to the cotton fields beyond. None of this cotton finds its way to Lower Egypt ; but the people along the river for many miles and thous- ands of wandering Arabs wear clothes made in Old Dongola, or opposite its former site. There are many primitive looms in the vicinity, the light-colored Dongolese women working at them and turning out strips of cloth about ten feet in length and fifteen inches wide. A strip of thi^ cloth, simply rolled around the loins and shoulders of the Arab, with a pair of drawers, completes the dress of our nomadic customer. It is said to last him five or six years. Many of the children are sent out to mind the oxen which propel the " sakieh " wheels. You have seen them in the land of Egypt but did not know that under a palm, or rock near by, a half-naked girl or boy was lying apparently asleep. But let the monot- onous creaking stop for a moment and a shrill cry would start the patient beasts on their everlasting rounds, and the water would continue to flow over the fields. If not thus employed they are seen along the river banks fishing with hook or trap for the muddy-tasting shall, bultee or kharmoot ; they are waging an exciting warfare with the white ants which sometimes threaten the scant household furnishings of their homes ; or AFRICA. THE SHANGALLAS. 39 they are out picking cotton or sewing seed. We find the Dongolese living in the same wretched huts as the Egyptians, consisting often of one room, with a court-yard for the goats and fowl. Though the fertile strip of the Nile averages ten or twelve miles through the one hundred miles covered by the territory of the Dongolese, and bears two annual crops of corn and dates, cotton, tobacco, coffee, opium, indigo, sugar- cane, beans and saffron, they are indolent by nature and prefer to collect slaves in the further regions of the Nile and sell them in Egypt. They raise fine cattle, also, which require less attention than the crops, and pride themselves on the superior breed of their horses, which are, indeed, larger than the Arabian. As has been intimated, the Dongolese are whiter than the Nubians in general. They seem originally to have been a tribe living north of the Ethiopians, and have had a slight mixture of Arabian and Mameluke, or Circassian blood. Driven from Egypt, where they were once the ruling power, the Mamelukes founded New Dongola, but finally, as a people, became extinct. The Mamelukes were driven out by the Turks who still garrison the town with negroes from the White Nile. THE SHANGALLAS. A relic of the most degraded of the Ethiopian tribes are the Shan- gallas found in the country to the west of Abyssinia and in Southeastern Nubia, although the boundary line between the two countries is very indefinite. Though savage and bloodthirsty in an extreme degree in their attacks upon rival tribes and travelers entering Abyssinia, some rays of humanity still gleam from their natures ; for they always spare women and children. They are powerfully built, from the waist upward, and so swift of foot that they scarcely ever employ beasts for riding. They use the spear and the two-edged sword common in all this por- tion of Africa, and though they are at constant war with the partially Europeanized people of Abyssinia who are armed with comparatively modern weapons, they are so fearless and hardy that their numbers do not seem to diminish. In their mode of warfare, they also evince a singular love of "fairness." They never mutilate the persons of the fallen and, except in a regular attack, two will never attack one. Let twenty Shangallas meet an enemy, and instead of a cowardly and over- powering onslaught, lots would be cast, and he upon whom the choice fell, would go forth fiercely to meet his adversary, the others looking on at the combat, with perfect indifference, even if it should end in their comrade's death. Their chief food is meat and wild honey, with which 40 ■ ' PANORAMA OF NATIONS. their country abounds, and in the rainy season they Hve often in caves, where large fires are kept hghted night and day. Many of these caves are capable of containing a whole village, and in them they often take refuge from the attacks of the Abyssinians who seldom venture into their country except in large force. The Shangallas live to a great extent on roots, and on the carcasses of elephants, slain by Abys- sinian hunters who have ventured over the border. These they frequently dispute with the lions. They eat also snakes of all kinds. When alone in the jungle the Shangalla fills his large gourd with water and wild honey, catches his snake and cuts ofT its head with his sword, lights two immense fires, roasts his snake on the embers, then he gorges himself, and stretches out his naked body between the fires. If he is not seized by a man-eating lion, or trampled upon by an elephant, he awakes, drains the contents of the gourd well fermented by the heat, and starts off in search of man or beast. His courage is fortified by the same liquor ("pale mead") which the ancient Britons drank. Strange to say, the Shangallas have a deep-rooted prejudice against making any attacks at night and they never start on an expedition with- out consulting the birds, whose chirpings they say they understand. If a bad omen encounters them on the road, they quit the prey even if in sight of it and return for the day. The hunters from Abyssinia who come into the Shangalla's country for elephants have many like notions ; they, for instance, will only descend from the hills into the jungle below for seven days at a time. Although the border people of the Shangallas have an exciting time of it with Abyssinian hunters and soldiers, ele- phants, rhinoceros, buffaloes and lions, and live as they can, those in the interior have fat flocks of sheep and herds of cattle. From these few particulars it will be seen how widely separated they are from the indo- lent and fair-skinned Dongolese with their crude cotton looms, their cultivated lands, their boats coming from the Blue and the White Nile laden with gum, senna, ivory and slaves, their bazaars and dancing girls, their negro soldiers and their Turkish officials. Here are the two extremes. Remnants also of the northern race or tribes who assisted Egypt in her continual war with Ethiopia are supposed to exist in the Bisharien, who inhabit the desert east of the river and live entirely upon flesh and milk, and the Takas who live in the mountains. A number of negro or Ethiopian tribes are scattered along the Blue and White Nile, some of them being the remnants of a crude state called the Kingdom of Sennar which gave the Egyptians an immense amount of trouble before they were brought into any kind of subjection. There are also several collections THE SHANGALLAS. 41 ■of oases In South Nubia inhabited by black warhke tribes, some of whom are clad in iron armor and are fine horsemen. Generally speaking, the Arabs proper occupy the northern third of Nubia, the majority of those who make even a pretense of having an occupation acting as guides to caravans and as camel drivers, and letting out camels for hire. The only tax which the government imposes on the Arabian population is to fix a price at w^hich their camels must be sup- plied. This is somewhat less than they can obtain from traveling merchants, and although they are allowed to roam the country at their own "sweet will" they are great grumblers when called upon by the government to fulfill their part of the agreement. The Wady-el-Kab is a large oasis with many wells, extending more than a hun- dred miles, parallel to the Nile and about fifty miles to the west of it. Here, in the dry ■season, many thousands of camels are gathered. It is therefore the general meeting place of government officials and travelers who wish to hire camels. Another class of Arabs have partially settled •down on the banks of the river, intermarried with the iixed population and devoted themselves the greater part of the year to agriculture. They are also liable to this species of mild demand on the part of the government and bear a tax in proportion to the num- ber of water wheels they run, in common with the rest of the agricultural population. The typical Nubian, as he has been formed by a blending of Arab- ian, Berber, Circassian, Ethiopian and negro tribes, is a handsome, dark- brown mulatto — bold, frank, cheerful and lazy. In Upper Nubia his villages show some evidences of enterprise, some of the houses being two stories high, and built in quite a pleasing fashion of a kind of concrete. Others are constructed in the following manner, and in Eg)-pt the fellah A NUBIAN. 42 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. or poor Copt, would consider them quite in the nature of palaces : A circle of strong posts, each a yard apart and about twenty feet in diameter, are interlaced with pliable branches of trees which are covered with stalks tied together with long river grass. The skeleton of the roof^ which is formed on the ground, is made of beams corresponding to the posts of the wall, and when raised in position is covered with a thatch of straw and grass upon a bed of plaited twigs. The roofs of these houses are in many instances occupied by storks who form their nests around the apex. NUBIAN CHARACTERISTICS. The last heard of Egypt, was the roaring of the Nile's First Cataract which ushers us into Nubia — the land of granite and sandstone ; of flowery islands and grim Ethiopian temples; of myth and music; of desert waste and wandering tribes ; of gold and slaves and the conglomeration of many- families of men. Assouan, the frontier town, is the gate to Ethiopia. Here the Nile encounters rocky islands and unyielding cliffs and protests; at the change in much foaming and rushing of waters. It has been scv peaceable heretofore, that we must call this pouring of its floods through this narrow channel, over rocks and islets, a "cataract." From Assouan we had best ascend the rapids in our "dahabieh," or native boat. We are dashed hither and thither as if our destination were nowhere and seem to be having a much more exciting time than the little brown Nubians who are coolly launching themselves into the boiling stream on logs of wood, their clothing, if they have any, being carried in a bundle over their heads. They are simply descending the cataract in their passage across the river, while we are ascending it. Having been rowed inta still water one may soon reach the island of Philse, which is implicitly believed by many of the natives to be the dwelling place of the god who. blesses the Nile and causes it to rise and bless the soil. As proof you may see his very temple there. The fertile strip is, as a rule, more nar- row in Nubia than in Egypt, three-fourths of the country being waste ; so that were it not for the fact that water wheels are as plentiful as Ethiopian ruins we should be tempted to be skeptical on the score of the power of Isis, this god of the Nile. But Isis, with the help of the water- wheels, does very well, considering the material he has to work with. The soil, however, can support but a scanty population and many of its inhabitants emigrate to the large cities of Lower Egypt to find employ- ment. Much of the work in the fields is therefore done by women and children, and it is possible that this is one explanation of the general prevalence of polygamy. In many parts of Nubia the wife is purchased 44 . PANORAMA OF NATIONS. ■of the parents with money. The standard price of a wife among the Arabs is six camels, three going to the bridegroom. As you pass along the river or the roadside near it, you have ample time to observe many clear-cut faces, especially among the girls who are in the fields or gathered about a well to draw water. The one disagree- able thing about them all is the castor oil which not only exudes from the bare skin of their body but seems about to drip from their cork-screw curls. The costume of the young Nubian girl, aside from a light veil thrown over her head, is a short petticoat of tiny strips of leather, orna- mented with shells and beads. The women wear a tunic of camel-hair, looped upon each shoulder and leaving the arms bare. The men wear turbans usually, and linen, cotton and woolen garments, their weapons a .lance and a shield, the latter being made of the hide of a hippopotamus. The Nubians and many of the tribes further south, along the Upper Nile, are much given to dancing and music, their chief instrument being a guitar of five strings with a sounding board of gazelle hide. In common with all semi-civilized nations, their commercial facilities are of the crudest kind. They have no national currency but receive the coins of Egypt and Europe, also measuring the value of their exchanges with glass beads, coral, cloth, skirts and cows. Maize is measured by the handful ; cloth from the elbow to the fingers. All these things you learn by gliding up the Nile and keeping your ears and eyes open. Ascending the White river higher and higrher, the iron-clad tribes and the warlike horsemen of Southern Nubia are left behind. The banks of the river and the shores of the lakes which lead up to its source are swarming with savage life and peculiarities. Our next excursion will be into that very country v/hich was the nightmare of our youthful days, although even there we may find traits which might cause civilization itself a momentary confusion, as we did among the savage, but fair-minded warriors of the Shangallas. UNORGANIZED ETHIOPIA. Various tribes of Arabs of pastoral-nomadic habits live along both sides of the river until the outposts of Nubia are reached. Afterwards Ethiopia comes more prominently into view in the persons of the Chilluks and the Dinkas, tribes whose worship is almost confined to the cow. The specimens which they present of their divinity are poor and forlorn and give but little milk. But they never kill them for food : firstly, because of their superstition and secondly, because the sheik of every tribe detains as slaves those who do not possess at least one cow. Whatever their condition might have been at one time, and the Chilluks CENTRAL AFRICA WAR WEAPONS. 46 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. are said to have formerly been the founders of a kingdom in Sennar, they are now a miserable people. They inhabit a country of jungles ard bogs, the haunts of swarms of huge mosquitoes, of lions, leopards, hippo- potami, buffaloes and crocodiles. They seem not to have the ambition or courage to emigrate to a more favored district and rest satisfied with keep- A TATTOOED WARRIOR. ing their enemies at a distance by setting fire to the heaps of refuse which surround their villages. Almost too timid to hunt, they live upon the detestable fish which the Nile affords, and under the curtain of the dense clouds of smoke which hang over their huts, they wander round in idleness. The only industry which they really engage in is that of UNORGANIZED ETHIOPIA. 47 faithfully smearing their bodies with muck and ashes. Their jaws are usually very protuberant and they think to add to the "beauty" of their appearance by knocking out some of their front teeth, usually two above and two below. Also by thrusting pieces of wood through their lips, which remain there as permanent ornaments, their conversation is accompanied by a lively clatter as if upon the castanets. About the -only thing in the way of an accomplishment which these tribes show is monopolized by the women or the girls, who make some pretensions in the terpsichorean art ; but even their proficiency is left far behind by the girl of the Njam-Njam nation whose country is several hundred miles to the south. The Njam-Njams seem to be a tribe of rovers. Their women are noted for their grace and beauty and are taken as slaves by the chiefs of all the tribes who so desire. It is said that their own people sell them and that the women themselves do not consider their condition slavery. They are copper colored, short in stature, with small hands and feet. Like the men, their ankles, arms and necks are encased in a perfect c lat of mail, either of steel or copper rings. The head is kept painfully elevated by the choking necklace, while the ears, nose and mouth are either brass or iron-clad. Naturally, when any of the great sheiks hold a congo, or dance, they are in great' demand and come, voluntarily, from many miles distant. The leading musical instru- ment upon such occasions is a wooden horse beaten on its sides with drumsticks, or a sort of a frame-work made of banana trees. They also have horns made of elephant tusks. Beyond a vast stretch of dreary country are found the Baris, a tall tribe of warriors and agriculturists. They have numerous villages and great herds of cattle, but are treacherous and cowardly. This tribe go naked, and shave the head and face, smearinor the skin with an oxide of iron mixed with grease, or a powder which they obtain from a certain tree. Every chief has for the sole use of his people one or more of these trees which he jealously guards. They are armed with bow and arrow and lance, speak a not unmusical language and always call each other "giglie," or friend. Their camps or villages are encircled with straw palisades to keep off lions, leopards and wild cats. The Baris are the last of the native tribes, along the Nile, who are under the jurisdic- tion of Egypt. The Njam-Njams live to the west of the Baris. The women are pleasing and the men are warlike. The tribe seems to be allied to the Caffres both in its mode of warfare and physical characteristics. In fact .traces of this people are found in tribes which inhabit the lake regions 48 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. of Central Africa, the coasts of Zanzibar and Mozambique, and along; the banks of the Zambesi river. The Njam-Njams, in common with their neighbors, manufacture a kind of cloth from the bark of the wild fig tree, which they make into waist clothes, but they are very fond of the European fabric, and are frequently hired to make war against less skillful tribes by presents of cotton cloth. They are remarkably mus- cular and agile, and engage the enemy hand-to-hand, slashing and stab- bing with a huge knife. Their assailants may be the Baris, who use poisoned arrows, but the Njam-Njams, protecting their bodies with won- derful quickness from the shower of deadly missiles, bound into their ranks and cut or stab many to death. Not content with this they pur- sue survivors into the villages, which they raze to the ground, taking cat- tle, provisions, women and everything which they consider of value. With all their bravery in the fight, they are undoubtedly cannibals and often feast, after their battles, upon the flesh of their enemies. To the inquiries of the curious who have ventured among them they usually give the outside world to understand that they eat human flesh only when other meat is scarce, and when nature craves a stronger diet than their usual one of bananas. Contrary to the general supposition, the boldest native seldom attacks the elephant with his lance. The country of the Baris and the Njam-Njams is a great "stamping-ground" for the mastodon. Con- cealed in the branches of some huge tree sits the hunter, having in his hand a huge loaded spear which he lets drop upon the back of the great beast as he passes underneath. The wound may not be at once fatal, but if the hunter is at all skillful it usually proves so, eventually. Another plan is to dig deep trenches that are covered with leaves and sticks, though this mode of capture has become so "old a story" that the wary elephant seldom falls into the trap. A large area of the tall jungle grass is selected by the sheik of the village and a wide space cleaned completely around it. When a large herd of elephants enter the jungle to feed, the grass is fired The beasts rush in all directions, and those which are not trampled to death or suffocated, meet their fate at the hands of the natives, who form a living wall beyond the fire. The blackened, though uninjured, tusks go to the chiefs ; the people have the flesh. The marriage custom of these people consists in the suitor present- ing the father of his intended with as many huge knives as his generos- ity, or anxiety, or affection, may prompt. The handle is curiously wrought, and wound with copper wire. When the warrior receives his )]3^iP||P|llf|Pfil' '^.. < •A < 1— < O OS' C/2' (-► Z O "^O PANORAMA OF NATIONS. bride, she comes to him quite unornamented, and he must go to work and make the countless rings which embelhsh her. ON THE SHORES OF LAKE VICTORIA NYANZA. The shores of Lake Victoria Nyanza and the regions roundabout simply swarm with strange savage life. One tribe who are said to be mor- PRINCESS AND WARRIOR OF UGUNDA. ally far superior to most of the natives of Africa pronounce their words like yelping dogs, which may be partially accounted for by the fact that they perforate the lip and introduce therein either a piece of copper, or a well shaped bead held in its place by a head like a nail. These peo- ple bring to bear all the powers of their mind, so far as dress goes, upon the construction of fantastic and wonderful head-dresses. The natives ON THE SHORES OF LAKE VICTORIA NYANZA. 51 in this region who make a specialty of clothes, manufacture them from the bark of a wild fig tree. This they cut into strips, beat with a peculiar wooden instrument and sew together in large sheets. The "togas" thus formed are tied over the left shoulder. Their milk jars and pots are fashioned into many curious devices and are a fine kind of ware. They arm themselves with the spear or lance and when they sally forth upon a campaign, their wives accompany them. This arrange- ment does not seem either to be entirely for " company's sake." The women form the commissary department of the army. They carry the provisions and grind the grain between two stones to sustain the soldiers on the march. Upon being attacked, or charging the enemy, the women are usually sent to the rear with the baggage. The chief is arrayed in AUDIENCE HALL OF THE KING. a dark robe, ornamented with graceful lines and rows of black dots, and wears sandals upon his feet. At length on the shores of Lake \^ictoria Nyanza we come upon a nation which has made the wearing of clothing obligatory. The land of the Ugundi, with its " M'Tse," has become celebrated as the scene of the most astounding contradictions in savage life. The roads approach- ing his dominions are broad and kept in good order. The country has a national standard, consisting of a red and white flag, from which hang three strips of long-haired monkey skin. When the column is upon the march, horns and drums keep up a deafening din ; its volume is swelled, if possible, by a vocal imitation of the crow, given by the whole army^ the whole performance forcibly reminding one of a political procession in our own country. A solid body of lancers forty or fifty front, and a 52 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. collection of skirmishers on each side of them armed with firelocks and decked with fez of flannel and black feathers, march along the broad road toward the palace of the king. A succession of hills covered with banana groves roll away toward the lake and every point of elevation is covered with a clothed native, as the king's body-guard, escorting some honored guest, go marching on to meet the king himself who stands at the outer gate of the palace. This is situated on a hill and in the center of an amphitheater formed by seven high palisades. The palace is a large pyramidal hut, supported by interior columns. It is approached by seven gates, the intervals between the palisade walls being occupied by the houses of the king's ministers. The king welcomes his guest and is followed by his commander-in-chief, body- UGUNDA HUTS. guard and procession. As they pass through each gate a huge cow-bell wildly proclaims the progress of the royal march. The king is of a light copper tint, dressed in a long cloak of blue cloth, trimmed with gold. Around his head is wound a white turban. His waist is encircled by a golden belt, from which is suspended a scimetar, and his feet are encased in sandals. Seated upon a chair over which is thrown a cloth of gold, the king receives the reports of his various ministers who throw themselves upon their faces before him. Afterwards the distin- guished guest is entertained by witnessing the most horrible scenes of decapitation, practiced by his official headsmen upon those who have come under the royal displeasure. The beating of drums and the toot- ing of horns accompany these bloody deeds. And this in a country where clothes are required to be worn by legislative enactment ; in which a regular currency is in circulation consisting of European goods, copper and shells ; where there are tanners and iron makers of modern ON THE SHORES OF VICTORIA NYANZA. 53 proficiency ; In which the territory is not only divided into districts but the government has regular departments of state, Uo-unda is the land of bananas. From the fruit is extracted an unfermented and delicious liquor of which the females are extrava- gantly fond, most of them carrying gourds around their necks filled with it and from which they drink from time to time. The water in the stock of the tree is drunk when the pure article is not easily obtained. The men extract the banana liquor and ferment it. The cattle raised in this country are of the choicest breeds. The soil is cultivated by the women, the sterner sex giving their time to war or elephant hunting. Sugar-cane is considered a great luxury, and very often one sees the Ugunda passing by, chewing the end of a long stalk that trails behind him. The walls of the huts are also made of sugar-cane, roofed with jungle grass, the interior being divided into compartments and kept very clean. Whatever may be said of the abominable practices of many of these tribes, as we approach the Equator (where the Ugunda nation is) it is remarkable how much neater their habitations are as a rule, than those of nations farther north. Even the poorer classes of Egyptians and Nubians suffer in comparison. The regulation which has been no ticed in regard to clothing may also have a sanitary bearing, the nature of which would not be suspected by those who have not experienced an equatorial climate. Except during April the atmosphere is " chronic- ally" damp and the nights are invariably cold. In the day time when the sun breaks through the clouds the heat is such as has made Central Africa a fearful charnel house for the average European. On the contrary, the lower grades of animal and all vegetable life appear at their best. The lion and elephant, the hippopotomus, the rhinoceros, the crocodile and the ourang-outang are as much products of the tpics as the gigantic baobab, or cotton tree. The ostrich, the largest of birds, grows under the encouragement of African climate as do the giant quadrupeds. The python and the asp glide among towering trees and flaming flowers, while the giraffe reaches a height which almost makes one suspect that he should after all be classed as a vegetable. Near the sources of the Nile, around the shores of Victoria Nyanza and Albert Nyanza — which both lie under the equator — there are not only several kingdoms of natives, but animal life reaches the height of its development. Hippopotami and crocodiles frequent their banks and large herds of elephants come down to their shores to drink. The Ugunda country lies on the northern and northwestern borders of Victoria Nyanza being wooded and gently sloping toward the shores, or low, grassy and fertile, and drained by channels lined with rushes. 54 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. From this region the Victoria Nile flows in a northwesterly direction toward Albert Nyanza, the country being quite hilly and rough in char- acter. About twenty miles from the second lake, the river suddenly contracts to about one-fourth its former size and shoots through a gorge and over a precipice, breaking into a torrent of foam and presenting a picture of great beauty and majesty. Having spent its force in this grand outburst of enthusiasm the Nile continues the balance of its jour- ney mildly and even sluggishly. Albert Nyanza, named in honor of Prince Albert, as the other body of water honors the Queen, abounds in mammoth fish and animals, and and the contrast between its white waters and the lofty, blue mountains which rise from its western shores is most delicate and picturesque. Much of the eastern shore is fringed with steep cliffs, but toward the north where the white Nile makes its exit it becomes level and marshy. The Albert Nyanza is also surround by negro states, but none of them have become as civilized as the Ugundi. The kingdom of Malagga is found established among the western mountains. The Nyanzas were discovered by the African travelers, Speke, Grant and Baker. With the natives Nyanza means a large body of water, but it is generally considered as a proper name applied to the equatorial lakes. R^J4Hk)^Kjli^^!^{fS ^^^^^^P^^^^^^ i^E^^^^S^ ^^S^^fe^^^^^^^^^^ ^^[J^^S^ '^!^^^^S^§?''i&^^--«=i ^'-^^^^i^^^^^^^i^'^/^^^^^^^S^ ^^^"^'^'^^^^W.x!^^'^^ /'-r^l^lJjjc;^'^-^^ ^^gj^i;<^3^"^^r^s^j^*Kgjy^^w^ ^^^^p^^ ral •^^tg'g^a£?y' ^^&?f^^?3^SSS:^l-fe^?»=rST^S^-:^-^Pf^|?=!^^»i ABYSSINIA. BYSSINIA is an immense table-land, broken up into plat- eaux, and forming a water-shed for the waters of its rivers and lakes which flow toward the Red Sea and the Nile. Toward the Red Sea the descent from the highlands is very abrupt ; toward the Nile it is very gradual. From the rich agricultural plains of Abyssinia, lying a mile or two above the level of the sea, the tributaries of the Nile receive the waters of a vast region, which, during the rainy season, wash into their channels from thousands of valleys and gorges. From one series of plateaux to another they pour, the Atbara River especially ("The Terrible," its name implies) dashing tumultuously down rocky precipices toward the sands of Nubia. From a country of beautiful lakes and springs, and flowing through a fertile grain region, comes the Blue Nile itself, carrying in its depths the precious freight for deposit in Nubia and Egypt. The climate of such a grand region of rich plateaux and valleys, pure lakes and springs, is naturally temperate and healthful. Only on the eastern coast and in the sandy regions bordering on Nubia could any excuse be offered for describing the Abyssinian country as "a seething caldron." Its purifying thunder-storms pass over waving fields of barley and oats, on the heights, and, on the lower plateaux, its lightnings reveal the plantations of wheat, rice, cotton and coffee. From its dark mountains, covered with gloomy forests of pine, deep ravines which are carpeted with long grass and moss, lead down to undulating plains on which are tethered noble horses, with here and there cottages peeping from groups of trees, fields of grain or a wild tangle of grape vine. The golden-crested crane, the scarlet-beaked heron or the lordly eagle deck out the natural features of a noble country. In the midst of this charming variety — Switzerland, Italy and England, all concentrated here — one discordant element makes of Abyssinia "^ seething caldron." Abyssinia is a kingdom in name and boasts a royal line from the 56 PANORAMA OF NATIOISTS. Queen of Sheba herself, who is said to have ruled over the northern part of the country when she visited King Solomon. Its history, however, both past and present, is little more than a succession of revolts of the independent tribes to the north, and the fierce southern people who are under the sway of the savage Gallas, the " Tartars of Africa." The ter- ritory of Abyssinia to the Galla country has seldom been under the con- trol of an acknowledged king or military governor. The tribes or the people of the tribes who have joined the Coptic Church and draw their religion and their superstitions from it, are called by the natives " Abyssinias ; " and all other Ethiopians. In other words, the country inhabited by those who have to some extent forgotten their tribal differences, is called Abyssinia. The people of Abyssinia have been divided into three distinct races. The aboriginal Abys- sinians inhabit most of the central portion of the country, called Amhara, and are also found in the northern sections. They are of middle size, with oval faces, lips not thicker than H^^^^^^^^^^^^^^l^^^^^^-^ those of Europeans, pointed ^^^^^^^^^^p^^^^i :h|^^^?~ noses and straight or slightly curled hair. A second race, abounding most in Tigre, the northernmost district of Abys- sinia, have thick lips, noses blunt and somewhat curved, thick hair verging on woolliness, and their speech betrays many marks of the ancient Ethiopian tongue. The third are the Gallas, " The Tar- tars of Africa," who have crowded into Abyssinia from the South and spread the terror of their might over the coast regions of the continent to a point beyond the equator. They are a large-bodied race, round- faced, short-nosed, with a depression between the nose and the brow, with deep-set lively eyes and thick lips. With this general introduction we must proceed to interview the tribes in the north and discuss some features of their restless life ; then come further south and learn of a AN ABYSSINIAN WARRIOR. ABYSSINIA. 57 crude and yet somewhat Europeanized power, and then pass to the South into the land of the Gallas, who, with many of the characteristics of the African still remind us of the savage warriors of Europe, upon whose ferocity the hardy virtues of civilization were built. First come the Bedouin tribes from near the Nubian plains, and the coast of the Red Sea. Their districts abound with gazelles and ostriches, with lions, hyenas and jackals. They carry on a small trade in hides with Egypt, and also export quantities of gum-arabic. Their villages are sometimes stationary, but usually these restless ones may be seen moving about in search of the best pasturage, their camels loaded with all their house- hold goods, including their huts. These are made of long canes tied together at the top. When they encamp for the niorht thev bend them in the shape of bee- hives and cover them with mats. Arrang- ingf their huts in a circular form, they dispose their flocks and herds in the cen- ter and then proceed to their simple diet of milk and maize bread. This their wives have already prepared and they are soon grouped around in various lazy attitudes, their enormous frizzled heads of hair, stuck through with long pieces of wood, bobbing in a ridiculous fashion as they drink, eat and chatter. Their head-dress stamps them as quasi-Abyssinians. The neighbors of these Bedouins are tribes who live with their cattle among the hill ranges bordering the Red Sea, and are literally ground between two millstones. Mostly converts to Coptic Christianity the Moslem governor frequently requires some token of their submission to Turkey, and as they are often obliged to descend into the Abyssinian valleys with their herds and flocks they are forced to pay the chief of Tigre something for the accommodation. Many of the tribes in this country were formerly under the rule of Abyssinia and are the purest representatives of the Ethiopian race to be found for a long AN AP.YSSINIAN KING. 58 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. distance. Covering the surface of one of their plains, for many square miles, is found one of the most curious evidences of primitive life in the world, in the form of a bewildering jumble of granite rocks. Some of them are fashioned into the shape of caves ; others are smooth and pol- ished on all sides, as if worked with a chisel, and make quite respectable houses. In some of the broad surfaces are niches large enough for seats ; others are sufficiently capacious to lie in. Ancient inscriptions are found on these rocks which have not been deciphered, although the rocky huts are thought to indicate the existence of a village settled by some primitive people ; perhaps the Troglodytes, a rude shepherd tribe from Arabia and the supposed descendants of Cush, the son of Ham, the son of Noah. Here, it may be, lived a people who saw the advance guard of the great tide of emigration which passed from Asia into Africa and became the progenitors of the Ethiopian race and the Ethiopian civiliza- tion. At other localities there are the marks of an immense fixed popu- lation, such as no doubt existed even when the Queen of Sheba ruled on both sides of the Straits of Babel-mandeb. Among other queer superstitions which have taken hold of these border tribes is that each small village or settlement must have its sacred cow, on which depends the life of the whole herd and therefore the very existence of the villagers. The cow must be of one breed and her milk drawn into vessels of earthenware, instead of into the wickerwork vases of the common cows. The milk must be drunk from these same vessels, as it would be sacrilege to pour it into any others. Should any of these regulations be omitted, the cows of the whole herd will become dry or die,°and as the people really live on milk it will be seen how calamitous would be such a misfortune. Living as they do, these tribes who are called Hababs, are well formed and graceful, an unusual quality with the women of Abyssinia. Their mourners are always women, and when a person of prominence has died they gather daily in a circle out of doors, and from a low moan work themselves up into such a frantic exhibition of grief as to leap into the air and throw themselves into all sorts of con- tortions. These " mourning bees " they continue every morning for at least a year and a month. If war or famine or disease should carry off many people of prominence it will readily be seen how busy the women would be kept. Tribes further to the west of the Hababs are more bold and war- like, making excursions often into the country of the Shangallas and taking even those hardy savages for slaves. This custom explains, in part, the extreme ferocity which the Shangallas show toward ajiything which has the least odor of Abyssinia, and the persistency with which ABYSSINIA. 59 they haunt the roads leading into that country and keep travelers in a constant state of trepidation. The Shihos, unHke the Shangallas, seem to be robbers from cool choice, and no man would venture into their country, which commands the only good road into Abyssinia, were it not that much time is saved in taking that thoroughfare and that within their territory are immense plains of salt. Abyssinian workmen, protected by a large armed force, are constantly digging out salt, with stakes, in small oblong pieces. These are carried away by men, girls or donkeys and form the currency of the country, except in Tigre where it is too plen- tiful. By the time the piece of salt money, which is in size about 8x2X1 1-2 inches, has reached the Galla country its value has greatly enhanced from loss, breakage, abrasion and the tollage imposed. Each lump is there subdivided into sixteen layers, so that the owner may make small purchases. This article is there so highly prized that the children of the prosperous tie little lumps to their girdles which they suck from time to time as choice tid-bits. The last tribe deserving mention among those who now occupy territory which has been wrested from Abyssinia by the Turks, are the Dankalis. Their country is a level plain over which roam ostriches, wild asses, gazelles and their own fat cattle and sheep. They are favored with any number of fine wells, but sometimes are not able to approach them because of the herds of elephants which kneel around them to quench their thirst. A well will often be thus encompassed for two or three days. Such are the tribes inhabiting the border country of Abyssinia, who are in reality a portioa of its inhabitants. Striking across a faintly-defined boundary line into the country which acknowledges no Turk as master, we enter the political and tribal district of Tigre. Within this district is the Mecca of Abyssinia, the royal city of the Queen of Sheba — Axum, by name. Hither come all the kings of the country, who have of late years been few indeed, to be crowned by the High Priest of the Abyssinian Church, as the suc- cessor of Menelek, the son of Solomon. The " Regfister of Kinofs" is also kept here by the priesthood and scribes. It records the expeditions against rival tribes, the uprisings of tribe against tribe and chief against king, and the extent and changes of empire, which once included the coast of Africa from Zanzibar to Nubia, and the country from the shores of the Red Sea to Kordofan. Axum also boasts of possessing the principal church of Abyssinia, built of stone and in the form of an oblong. This is said to conceal the true ark which was stolen from the Jews. The modern town is built about the church and a number of pon- ■6o PANORAMA OF NATIONS. derous obelisks. The latter rest upon large square blocks of stone, having runnels cut into them, and some antiquarians maintain that they were originally used as altars on which the atoning victim was offered. The church enclosures are a safe refuge for all criminal and political offenders. A country permeated with such legends and associations would naturally become the dwelling place of many of the Hebrew race, aside from those who have been natives of Abyssinia since " the memory of man runneth back." The Jews have, in fact, been always classified as among the aborigines of the country. In modern times they have upheld the highest civilization of Abyssinia, which has centered around Gondar, its capital, being noted especially as skilled artisans and mechanics. All the manufacturers of cotton cloth are Moslems ; all the builders and artisans are Jews. A NATION OF WARRIORS. But primarily the Abyssinians are a nation of warriors, or a collec- tion of fighters, overshadowed by priests and superstitions. Their kings must show a descent from Solomon, but the people who are Coptic con- verts flaunt the blue neck thread (the distinguishing badge of the Christ- ian) in the face of the Jew, and are even more arrogant to the indus- trious Moslem. During the many interregnums when there was no acknowledged king over Abyssinia, the " Ras," a grand military chief, and the "Aboona"or High Priest of the church, were supreme. The power of the Ras is even sometimes greater than that of the living king, whom he has often made and unmade. The drum is his great insignia of office. When the Ras is on the march with his army of gunners , spearmen and horsemen, forty-four mules loaded each with two drums and a drummer, precede the great chieftain. These eighty-eight drums comprise the "negarete," and when the drummers are taken by the enemy and the head drummer killed, the battle is counted as irredeem- ably lost. The different grades of office are also determined by the number of drums which the Ras is pleased to bestow. Should a chief- tain be privileged to beat forty-eight drums, he is held to be next in rank to the Ras himself. All proclamations are made by beating the drum. When a number of people in the chief's province are thus collected, the drummer repeats the proclamation and it then passes from mouth to mouth. This is done with faithful accuracy, for the leading chiefs pos- sess the power of life and death in their districts. Having received their territories from the Ras, they follow him to war with all the soldiers they can afford to maintain. A NATION OF WARRIORS. 61 Let us now march out the Ras and his army in Hne of battle. First comes his procession of mules, loaded with the eighty-eight drums ; then the Ras in trousers, belted war-shirt, open sleeves of handsome silk, and an outer skin of some kind bordered with red morocco and ornamented with silver. Inclosing his right fore-arm is a silver-gilt ornament, and on his head a silver coronet. On his left arm he bears a silver-gilt shield. His spears are highly polished, and his sword is a European blade^ with a handle of rhinoceros horn. Mounted on a spirited horse, this brave: figure is followed by his gun- ners, a body of some two thousand men, chiefly from the Tigre district. They use flint-locks and many of them carry bamboo rests by which to insure great accuracy of aim. Their dress consists of a pair of trousers, either ending" at the knee or a short distance below it, fitting close; a belt varying in length from 30 to even 180 feet, wound round and round the body; and a cloth or a kind of sheet. The hair is dressed in a variety of fashions, which are regulated by the deeds of valor which have been performed. His picked spearmen are stalwart war- riors. They carry round shields of buffalo hide, one or two spears seven feet in length, and small sheepskins over their shoulders. Following^ are men of distino^uished rank and brav* ery, well mounted, and the chiefs with their retainers. Some small pieces of artillery may bring up the rear. And so the army marches on, with its soldiers and camp followers, their bushy heads and all their weapons generously anointed with the freshest of butter. Although several of the kings and Ras have made attempts to introduce European modes of warfare, they have been unsuccessful. The- signal being given by beat of drum they rush pell-mell upon the enemy,. ABYSSINIAN CROWN. 62 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. hurling the spear and re-hurling the spent darts of the foe. The sword is seldom brought into requisition, except to carve raw flesh at table, and, usually is left to rust in the scabbard or get entangled in the dress or trappings of the horse. The horsemen with their lances charge fiercely into the ranks of the enemy, turn sharply and retreat with their shields behind them. The gunners with their weapons upon their bamboo rests or upon the knee seem the most demure of any of the combatants, but are said to create no little consternation, even handicapped with their unimproved weapons and methods. The supernumeraries of an Abys- sinian army far exceed the fighting force. Few of the soldiers enter on a campaign without their wives, and all who have beasts of any kind have one or two lads to cut grass and look after them. Besides these there is a large establishment for each chief. Killing is the life of the Abyssinian citizen and soldier, there being regular gradations of valor. Each elephant slain counts for forty men. A lion is reckoned as four and a buffalo as five, though in Tigre, the elephant is despised and the lion counts for ten. Men all count alike ; but if a Galla is killed the act is formally celebrated in song, for he is both a national and formidable enemy. Strange to say, although in some districts, the slaying of an elephant or a buffalo earns the warrior a ballad, the killing of a lion never does. With the Gallas, who are remark- able horsemen and lovers of the noble animal, the death of a horse is equivalent to that of a man. The number of prisoners taken or lances received upon the shield also counts in fixing the status of bravery. If the warrior can reckon up a sufficient number of these latter good marks, whenever he enters the house of a chief on feast day he can claim as his property the tender hump of the bullock. The death of ten men, or their equivalent in beasts, entitles a soldier to plait his hair to its full dimensions. The piece of a lion's mane or the lion's tail was formerly a sign of valor. Such are the rewards bestowed, for taking human and brute life, although in the case of wild beasts the custom does not seem so savage. But the death of a Galla sometimes is followed by a kind of a jubilee and festival, taken part in by all the women and men of the neighborhood wherein the hero resides. The women take the lead and celebrate the event in song and merrymaking. One of their number keeps up the song, the others, drawn up in a circle around her, taking up the chorus which is accompanied with the clapping of hands and the dis- cordant notes of the tom-tom. The bodies of the singers are in constant motion, with the exception of the head. The slayer of the Galla and the chief men of the neighborhood or tribe look on, being expected semi- periodically to present the fair singers with a bullock, or money, or THEIR LAWS. 63 Other valuable consideration. And woe be to him who does not show a becoming spirit of generosity on this festive occasion ; for he is unmerci- fully castigated with the sharp tongue of some soloist whose bitter sar- casm is taken up in an extemporaneous chorus by her companions. That man is henceforth branded as an unworthy member of the tribe. THEIR LAWS. Although the Abyssinians have laws, they must necessarily be crude, from the nature of the people who value human life so lightly. Torture, however, is not allowed. As they have no regular prisons the "chain" is brought into constant use, sometimes, as in the case of European mission aries who have been arrested for attempt- ed innovations, it being of silver. Both parties to a lawsuit must find securities or be chained to- gether. M e n ac- cused of murder are chained to a soldier of the king's guard, f -■ but unless there is some bold distinc- tion of dress, such is the careless disposi- tion of the average Abyssinian that it would be impossible to tell which was the accused or the crimina and which the keeper. They may both be drinking and laughing together as if they were the best friends in the world, whereas one may have committed a grave crime against the other, and be on the road to flogging, mutilation, or death. As they drink thus merrily together, or walk, chatting, through a village lane, each passer-by will say "God loosen you." The Abyssinians will kill a man for a drink of "arracky" (dates and honey fermented in water), but when they see a culprit about to be punished by their laws, they are all pity and tears. It may be they realize their injustice, though they have not the courage to protest against them since their code is a child of the Abyssinian Church. ABYSSINIAN HOUSEHOLD. 64 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Flogging is the punishment for very sHght offenses and is inflicted with a short-handled ox whip. It is no great disgrace to be flogged pub- licly, although each blow may strip off a huge piece of flesh. Even chiefs of high degree thus suffer for some act displeasing to the Ras. Each man of a household is privileged to flog his servant to death, if need be, to enforce discipline. Owing to the seething condition of the country the servant is usually armed, and therefore a dangerous person to get out of bounds. The kind of mutilation practiced is generally determined by the chiefs of districts, who have received at least twelve drums from the Ras. The ofl"ender, who is usually a thief or a rebel, is denied all medical assistance, though he may have his leg or his arm cut off, his eyes or tongue taken out, or his ears or nose sliced off. The head drummer of each chief is the executive, and receives the clothes of the offender. Homicide is punishable with death, no distinction being made between "malice aforethought" and hot-blooded murder. If a man has been heard to threaten another and he is found killed after- wards, it is not thought necessary to prove who actually committed the murder, but the threatener is delivered bound to the relatives of the slaughtered man for execution. They may accept the legal blood-money (about $120) or they may lead him out to an open space near their camp or town, tie him to the stump of a tree (naked from the waist up), beat him to death with stones or clubs, or hack him to pieces with their lances or swords, — but the code does not "legally" allow torture ! Accidental shootings are even punished in the same manner. In this way family feuds are perpetuated from generation to generation, and although the savage practice originated from the fact that the great chiefs of the ountry found that they could not remain in power if they did not wasii their hands of all responsibility in such serious matters, until this mode of punishment is entirely abolished the country can never be anything else than a great quarrelsome family — man fighting man, tribe opposed 'to tribe, and all killing each other and the wild beast. There are said to be other punishments inflicted by the chiefs, not even recognized bylaw, such as flaying alive, splitting down with an axe, bury- ing to the neck alive in the earth, binding the victim naked to an ant hill after anointing him with honey or butter, or sewing him up in a fresh cowhide and hurling him over a precipice. The story is told that once there was a certain wise man attached to the fortunes of a great chief, and as his master was besieged in a mountain fort he offered with a lens which he carried, to set fire to the enemy's camp, which was pitched upon a plain some distance away. Although he heartily prayed for the success of his enterprise, he did not take into account the ridiculous ABYSSINIAN FARMERS. O5 weakness of his burning-glass — and over the mountain side he went, sewed up in the hide of a cow. Small differences between the natives are usually brought before the elders of the tribe for settlement. They form a kind of jury with the nagadaras of the village, or chief of the tribe, or large land owner as judge. Seating himself on the ground, attended by his grey beards, the plaintiff, defendant and witnesses are brought into court, always with shoulders bared. The oath administered and often repeated during the trial is in this form : " May the King (or the Ras, as the ruling power may be) die if I speak not the truth." (On the contrary the Arabs always swear by the life of a person.) The plaintiff first presents his case, all parties to the controversy maintaining a decorous silence. When he has finished, he puts a period to his remarks by seizing the judge's cotton robe and making a large knot in the corner. When the defendant has concluded, he ties a like knot in the opposite corner. Dur- ing the progress of the case this tying and untying goes on, it seeming to be a part of the court procedure to mark the progress of the suit. The cause of the trouble may be a blow or a petty theft, and the award to the injured party consists of money, honey, butter, or other food. These minor judges are subject to call, night and day. ABYSSINIAN FARMERS. It requires, in fact, no great amount of perception to see that the Ras, his chiefs and sub-chiefs, the drummers of every grade and the judges are the hardest worked individuals in Abyssinia. In Abyssinia, as in many other countries, the basis of the state is the land, and its farmers stand the brunt of taxation levied for the sup- port of its military system. They furnish a tax in crops or money to the Ras, and oxen to plow his lands or those of the king. They deliver a portion of their grain to the governor or chief of their district, and hold themselves in readiness to quarter a certain number of soldiers in their houses. The governor has a right to take anything for his personal subsistence. His daily bill of fare must, truly, have a broad and delight- ful range — from the tea, coffee and dates of the East to the substantial grains and luscious fruits of the West — and he has a hundred pretexts for requiring a hundred " extras " from his agricultural subjects. Rich and influential landed proprietors are found in all portions of the country, but often they choose deep and rugged valleys in order to escape the abuses of the soldiery and also, that from the heights covering the approaches to their land, their armed and brave peasants may drive away 5 66 P.'iNORAMA OF NATIONS. the insolvent warriors who come to seize their crops and herds. The consequence is that they are held in wholesome esteem by the military ABYSSINIAN SLAVE. department, and receive the shirt of silk from the Ras himself, as an acknowledgment that he cannot get along without them. They therefore ABYSSINIAN FARMERS. . 6/ form the connecting link between royalty and the people. In seasons ■of war, because of their wide-spread influence and family connections, they can forward goods and messengers to a great distance when a soldier dare not quit his camp. Besides being chosen by the people as arbitra- tors and judges the government entrusts them with the collection of its revenue. With the enterprising merchants who brave the Galla and the Shangalla to bring the products and customs of higher civilizations into Abyssinia, these landed lords form a kind of redeeming leaven which, with the spread of better principles, may raise the country into a more perfect state of union. It is hard to say which class of Abyssinians, agriculturists or merchants, lie upon the most uncomfortable bed of thorns ; for in six of the towns of the country, judiciously scattered along the chief routes of travel, the government has stationed an official whose ■duty it is to get all he can out of the commercial gentlemen. This officer, <;alled " the chief of merchants," has minor posts, and if he and his ■assistants are not sufficiently conciliated by money and presents, they •easily trump up some charge of smuggling or trespassing upon the pasturage of a resident, and follow it up with a wholesale confiscation of goods. They keep in their pay large bodies of armed men to enforce their demands, and as the governor or chiefs generally receive a fixed compensation as " hush money," their injustice and cruelty are seldom punished. The soldier also despises the merchant for his generally peaceable disposition and feels fully justified in quartering himself in his house whenever he pleases, and acting in the most riotous and insult- ing manner. With his dangers of travel and his harassed home-life, the merchant's existence cannot be devoid of variety and spice. While the husband is away on a campaign, a mercantile journey or ploughing, or at home doing nothing, the wife is busy from morning to night, spinning the cotton for her dresses and those of her family; sifting the corn, grinding it by hand and making it into bread ; bringing water from the brook on her back, instead of head ; preparing onions and peppers ; making beer ; or trudging to market for what she lacks at home. She is dressed in a piece of cotton cloth thrown loosely over the shoul- ders, underneath which is also a cotton garment bound at the waist with a simple strip. The upper classes wear trousers when riding, and over their undergarments a silk mantle is thrown, sometimes richly orna- mented with silver-gilt bosses and drops. When abroad nothing but the eyes are seen. They wear silver chains round the neck, rings on the fingers, and oblong silver drops round the ankles that rustle when they move. The hair is plaited in various forms by all classes, though on the death of a relative the head is shaved and fresh butter is spread over the 68 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. scalp mixed with the oil of various spices. The fingers and toes, also, of the Abyssinian beauty are dyed a rosy tinge. She has servants at her command, who, although armed and ready to be called to the service of her husband, are content to perform household duties when they are not required abroad. One makes the mead, and if he is a gun- ner, keeps the house supplied with game. Another guards the corn against the thievish forays of the maid-servants and distributes it to all the domestics; others are grass cutters or wood cutters. Her maid-serv- ants grind the corn, clean the stable and cook, and perform all the other household labors of a large establishment. The relation existing between master and servant, or mistress and servant, is quite familiar and pleasant. In return for many little attentions and kindnesses, the servant is willing to abide by the law which places his person entirely in the hands of his master. Tigre is the only part of the country where the Abyssinian pays wages to his servant, though he may be sent on journeys of four or five hundred miles. On long journeys two are gen- erally sent together, so that if one falls on the way before wild beasts, wild men, sickness or accident, the message will be more likely to reach its destination. COPTIC CURIOSITIES. The Abyssinian Church is a most astounding combination of Jewish and Christian ceremonials and native superstitions. Its priests are less intelligent than the Copts of Egypt and far more powerful, standing in author- ity next to the military chiefs. When the Ras parcels out his territory, after he has selected his own, they obtain the choice bits throughout Abyssinia. The Abuna, or head of the church, who is appointed by the Patriarch of Alexandria, holds the finest landed property in Northern and Southern Abyssinia, along the tribu- taries of the Nile, and also near Gondar where is his principal residence. His person is so sacred that he is generally hidden from the public, and THE VIRGIN. COPTIC CURIOSITIES. 69. he is supposed to eat nothing but a nauseating physic called "coso," or at most, parched peas or grain. During reception days, when he blesses the prostrate multitude, he is veiled. From the most distant parts of Ethiopia the people come to him, and are content to wait for weeks in his outer court if at length he will grant them a mysterious audience. Next to him in rank is the Superior of the Convent in Shoa, within the walls of whose residence there is a holy well, the waters of which (for a consideration) will cure blindness, leprosy and all diseases. There are several "cities of refuge" in Abyssinia, Axum, the most noted, having already been described. These cities are governed by officials appouited by the Ras. They are not priests, but must know how to read and write and understand the laws. After them come the regular priests, whose du- ties consist of reading the prayers, chant- ing, administering the sacraments and danc- ing during religious processions. Their dancing consists of a peculiar swaying of the body, rather than a free use of the limbs. All church services are conducted in the Ethiopian tongue, which candidates for the priesthood must be able to read. They must also be able to sing and grow a beard. They pay two pieces of sajt ^^^^ / money for the privilege of being breathed upon by the Abuna, and having the sign of the cross made over them. The churches in the interior of the country are generally built on the summit of hills in the midst of cypress groves, each of which has a sacred ark of the covenant standing behind a curtain in the ''holy of holies." The buildings are usually after the Jewish models; round, with conical roofs. Sometimes the tolling of a bell, but in most cases the beating of kettle drums, summons the faithful to prayers, which are read in a language that few of them can under- stand. Most of the worshipers, indeed, merely kiss the floor or walls of the edifice, so that in Abyssinia they .describe a good Christian thus : "He kisses the church." Some utter extemporaneous prayers, as in the case of one overheard by a traveler, which fell devoutly from the lips of an old woman: "Oh, Lord, give me plenty to eat and drink, good clothes and a comfortable home, or else kill me !" Since wine is scarce in the countr)-, the sacramental cup is filled with raisin water. A SACRED ARK . 70 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. The calendar is full of saints' and fast days — two-thirds of the year are thus devoted — and at such times the faithful Copt will neither work nor suffer others to. In addition to the heroes of the Bible and Apocryphal books he has many local saints, who go before them all. One called "Tecla Haimanot" holds the seat of honor in the Abyssinian mind. He is said to have converted Satan and induced him to become a monk for forty days. Then the fortitude of the evil one gave way and he be- came the devil again. The same remark- able saint, wishing to ascend the perpendic- ular sides of a mountain, was accommodated by a boa-constrictor which took him up on its back. Within the priestly pale of the church may also be mentioned the "aspirants," who during the period of their preparation wear the skins of sheep for clothing and beg their daily bread. Of the monks of Abyssinia some reside in monasteries or act as con- fessors to warrior chiefs ; others make pil- grimages to Jerusalem, or dwell in the wil- derness feeding on roots. Coptic churches, many of them deserted entirely, or in charge of a priest or deacon^ are found scattered throughout the country. Some of them are but moss-grown ruins in the midst of a dense jungle or hidden in groves of cedar and olive trees, the wor- shipers having been driven away by some rival tribe, or deserted the spot on some warlike adventure. Even here they remain unmolested. The rude Galla, riding along on his stanch war-horse, lowers his harsh voice in talking with his companion ; for he^ also, though a Mohammedan, is pervaded with the superstition of the country, which fears the vengeance of some guardian spirit should axe or fire invade their sacred precincts. The Abyssinians cling both to the Saturday of the Jew and the Sunday of the Christian as holy days, and from Friday evening to Mon- day morning neither water can be drawn nor wood hewn. These weekly holy days, with the continual fast days which they observe, make their existence little over-burdened with work. Referring to his Hebrew WALL ORNAMENTS. COPTIC CURIOSITIES 7 1 customs, the contradictions in the nature of the Abyssinian are many and inexpHcable. His king, when he has one, must be a descendant of Solomon; in structure his churches are Jewish Synagogues; the hare, the o-oose and the wild boar are considered by him unclean ; he has his ark of the covenant in every church ; the Jew has erected his govern- ment buildines at Gondar and at Shoa ; has built his monasteries and convents, his churches and his houses, if they are more than mean huts; the Jew has made his ploughs, has forged his spears and has cast his cannon ; yet the Abyssinian will tell you that this useful member of society, to whose superior genius and industry he is a continual witness, is his embodiment of a most hideous conception of all that is evil and uncanny. The Jews, and particularly those who work in iron, are his "Bouddas"; those fiends in human shape, who by the power of their sinister eyes enter the bodies of men, women and children, to devour them under the guise of various diseases. As hyenas they travel far from their own country, and then, assuming human forms, they com- mence their deadly work. Their king resides on a mountain, and to him they daily bring the corpses of those who have neglected to defend themselves with charms and amulets. When a hyena is killed, the lance, sword or weapons which are stained with his blood are taken to the nearest priest to be blessed and sprinkled with holy water, in case he should have been a sorcerer. It has been asserted by trustworthy natives that they have killed hyenas with earrings in their ears, they being females who have forgotten to take them out when they assumed the brute form. Among the charms used against the wiles A the terrible "Boudda" are the tooth and skin of the hyena; writings from the Bible arranged by learned scribes in mystic circles and crosses; roots and plants and the leg bones of hawks. The exposure of the naked body when many eyes are directed against it, or of the open mouth when eating, is considered particularly dangerous ; for it is impossible to tell what malignant orbs may not be present and doing their heinous work. The person into whom the " Boudda" has entered is taken with a species of fit. followed by a hideous hyena laugh and a running about on all fours. A " Boudda" doctor having been called, he is seized and questioned as to the person who has possessed him. Sometimes he gives the name and location of the "Boudda" and dis- closes the charm that will expel the evil one ; occasionally in his frenzy- he dies. These Jewish sorcerers are also said to change the sha[)e of the objects of their incantations, and the natives of Adowa, to this day tell of a family whose mother once upon a time turned up missing. In vain they searched after her. An old Jew upon an ass often rode 72 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. past their house and his animal would as often stretch his long head and eais toward it and bray with all the strength of his good lungs. A light flashed in upon a son's mind. The Jew was seized, confessed and commenced to change the woman into her former self. The transform- ation had been completed with the exception of a portion of one leg and the hoof, when the son, unable longer to contain his anger, killed the Jew with his spear, and so to her grave did the poor woman carry with her this degrading mark of the " Boudda." With such superstitions and excrescences as these are the Abyssinian mind and the Abyssinian religion dragged into the mud. In many instances the priests cater to such beliefs in order to realize a financial harvest from the ignorance and fears of the people. THE TARTARS OF AFRICA. ^|OW and then the huge, bold Galla has dashed across our mental vision, riding his little, wiry, nimble-footed steed. His tall and broad figure, frizzed hair and small eyes, will become more familiar to us as we follow him to war against the Abyssinian. His color ranges from a light to a dark brown. He is an Ethiopian, said to have been descended from an Abyssinian princess who married her slave. For three centuries or more he has been making dashes into Abyssinia and has at length tethered his noble horses in some of its southern provinces. His chief has become Negus of his enemy's country, and certainly one woman of his tribe has married a native Abyssinian king, thereby causing a great civil disturbance. The Galla's faults are many, but he does not hide them. He believes in war and pursues his calling with such a vengeance that he is dreaded, as the Tartar of Africa, from the Red Sea to Zanzibar and far into the interior of the continent. As a Mohammedan he may journey toward Mecca, or he may make a pagan pilgrimage to the sacred trees on the banks of, the H awash, in Shoa — but whatever he does he is always a warrior, and his home is on the horse's back. His people are said to number ten million, and with all their blood-thirsty ways have the making of a nation in them, only awaiting the proper influences to bring order out of chaos. On the coast they are mostly nomads, whose caravans meet those of the Abyssinians far in the heart of Africa. Those who have possessed themselves of portions of Abyssinia and settled in the adjacent provinces, are warrior agriculturists. ON THE WAR-PATH. Said a scarred chief of the Gallas : " Fiorhtine is breakfast and supper to us. What was a horse made for but to fight on, and a man, but to die when his time comes?" — and you would not have thought his talk bombastic if you could have seen him and his followers plunging down a steep hill full of holes and stones, their unshod steeds often 73 74 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. obliged to throw themselves on their hams and "slide," and then over the honey-combed and tufted hillocks, brandishing their lances and shouting their war-cries at the bedizened Ras with his huge drums, his picked spearmen and his chosen gunners. Innumerable rills have worn the hill-side into a series of channels as smooth as ice, and the ground beyond is covered with tufts of grass one or two feet high. But down the hill the Walla horsemen plunge, their steeds leaping from mound to mound as lightly and surely as cats. Besides the simple lances each warrior has a number of short pointed stakes, which when he gets within range of the Abyssinian horsemen he throws with great precision. His object is to wound or kill the horse, which he considers a more important element in the fight than the rider. The Galla horsemen urge their steeds into the very ranks of the Abyssinians, discharge their lances, spin around like tops and are off like the wind, hanging over their horses with their shields behind them. If not pressed too closely some of them will be seen now and then, dashing away to a little distance and stripping their hide-bound saddles from their war-horses, allowing the steaming animals to roll in the grass or drink at a convenient spring. When refreshed the Galla mounts his horse and shouting his war-cry, which is often the name of his steed, dashes into the fight. The Gallas, especially those who have had generations of warfare in the border countries, are unwearied in the saddle. Their horses though fiery, are extremely docile, and will generally follow their master, if he dismounts, or remain quiet till he returns to them. They would thus describe their most valued animal : " He is a bay v/ith four white legs, white forehead knd nose, nine spans high, of a fiery spirit, in speed swift as a vulture ; he will turn in his own length with a thread ; his tail is thin, his mane a cubit long ; in turning he does not change the position of his neck and tail ; raising his legs in his gallop, he does not seem to touch the ground ; he never tires, his marks are lucky and his feet are iron." The lucky marks referred to are patches of curling hair on the forehead or on each side of the neck. Although in a level country the nine spans would not be considered a point of recommendation, in a hilly country such as the Gallas inhabit and in which they fight, their small, sure-footed animals are preferable to larger ones. GALLA HORSES. There probably is no better judge of a horse in the world than a Galla. So much of an expert is he, in fact, that although he supplies the greater portion of Abyssinia it is seldom that he lets a horse go out GALLA HORSES. 75 of his country which has not some defect. He will sell what he calls a good horse for nine or twelve dollars and an inferior one for three or seven, his markets being located in several towns of Southern Abyssinia. Leaving the field of battle, and the unequal but savage contest between even the crudest of fire-arms and the Galla spear, you cannot realize his disposition when you first come into his fertile country. It is one of undulating plains and green meadows, thousands of horses content- edly munching the crisp grass, or with intelligent eyes and arched necks looking over wide fields of barley as if to inquire the cause of your intrusion. Here and there Galla men are splitting logs for fire- wood, while beside them, perhaps, is a manly looking fellow, peacefully conversing while leaning on his spear. From thousands of clumps of trees the bee-shaped huts stand forth, in marked contrast to the squalor of Egypt, Nubia and Abyssinia. Each has its neat grass plot before the door and if the owner has a cultivated field it is well kept and dis- tinctly marked. The huts are covered with straw and have a second wall within. Once "at home " an opportunity will be afforded to dis- cover what it is like. You are now supposed to be inside the house of one of our host's wives, — for every man marries as many as he can afford to support, giving to each a certain number of strings of beads, cows, and a separate house. Each wife in turn, in her own house, prepares her husband's breakfast, supper, mead and butter. She brings water for washing his feet, and if the cry of war arises she saddles his horse for him while he arms himself with spear and shield or puts on his belt and knife. Entering one of these houses the wife is seen attired in a hand-woven cotton skirt, ornamented with pieces of blue cloth, and by way of petticoat a hide, dressed and softened with butter and ornamented with beads. Her daughter, if unmarried, wears only the skin. The wife's husband is well-to-do, which is inferred with cer- tainty from the fact that she wears many rows of beads around her waist, which is a sure index of his worldly condition. She also wears massive ivory rings on her arms and ankles. The hair is arranged in ringlets wound round little straws and falling equally from the center, except over the eyes where they reach the brows. An ivory comb, inlaid with black wood, is thrust in among the ringlets. The husband's dress consists of a kilt made of the cotton cloth, which comes to his knees. A long belt of the same material is wound round his waist, which supports his double-edged knife. Over his shoulders is thrown a large, strong mantle. When the war-cry sounds he throws this aside and mounts his horse, either bare from the waist upwards or with the skin of a panther or leopard thrown over his shoulders. If the man is 76 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. a noted chief we may find that his hut has been fortified — that is, a high stone wall, from which project stout, sharpened beams of wood rsurrounds it. This would be built as a defense against the assaults of a rival chief and his horsemen. But such outward exhibitions of the warlike character of the people are rare. The husband himself, how- ever, by his prowess in battle may have earned the privilege of wearing upon his forearm great rings of brass, or if he has slain an elephant -two or three huge rings of ivory upon his upper arm. If a man of -wealth he has usually round his neck the fat of a goat, sheep or ox. As will be inferred from the foregoing description of his wife's dress, this is the nature of the ornament worn by the Galla whom we have found at home. He is rich in cattle and horses, but in his late fight with the Abyssinians he has proven that he is a warrior equal to the T^ravest ; his hair which is frizzled in various lengths is streaming with Gutter, for he has slain one of the Ras' chosen gunners or spearmen. A portion of the wood which his servants have cut outside is burning with a warm glow on his rude hearth, but the fact dees not add any to his personal beauty, surrounded and permeated, as it is, with the fat of ■beasts. But he has laid aside his long and broad-bladed lance, his convex shield of buffalo hide and his cruel knife, and he and his wife and daughter sit around a table upon which is a wooden dish contain- ing bread, curds and peppers. A kind of thick beer which is diluted according to the taste of the imbiber, usually accompanies this dish. Bread, onions, peppers, butter, milk, beer, mead and mutton seem to "be the chief components of the Galla's food, whether he be rich or poor. Following the custom of the Abyssinians, if the family be one of any -prominence and is likely to have enemies, previous to serving each dish, the servant is required to partake of it, as a proof that he had no intention of poisoning any member. OMENS. The omens of the Gallas are almost entirely confined to the exam- ination of the stomach of slaughtered oxen and sheep. They stretch out the layer of fat or membrane, and examine carefully the numerous lines that intersect it, as the Trojans and the Greeks did before them. They see before them, as if on a map, the result of the fight : They will slay ten men or twenty; or if the unlucky membrane, or "mora," is found they will not venture forth at all. On the day of battle before -mounting their horses they frequently slay several oxen and offer them as a sacrifice ; or they drink the warm blood of sheep and goats to give OMENS. ']']' greater strength to their iron arms. One of the noted chiefs is said to- have been in the habit of placing a small kid before him in the saddle, and to sacrifice it while urging his steed on the enemy, never drawing bridle till the same lance was steeping in the blood of a foe. Urged on by the belief that they are the favored of the gods, or by the disre- gard for life which is part of the Moslem's faith, combined with the conscious power of their huge frames and their wonderful skill as horse- men, it is not strange that they deliberately reject the firearms of the less hardy Abyssinian and often drive his armies back in confusion. A favorite food of the Galla, when he goes upon a warlike expedition of any 'length, is made by taking the lean portions of a cow and poundings them in a large mortar with an equal quantity of honey and of roasted barley flour. This is all made into a paste, and softened with a little water, makes a simple and nutritious meal. As a rule, the Abyssinian Galla prefers to make short expeditions into an enemy's country,, returning to his home after each fight. Often he bears back with him the most hideous trophies, such as the entrails of his foe tied around his waist or entwined in his greasy hair. Brought up from their childhood to be familiar with blood and broken limbs, the Gallas have developed much surgical talent, although their operations are often accompanied with seeming cruelty.. A soldier fell from his horse and broke his forearm and a Galla surgeon was called. He bound the arm tightly from the elbow to the shoulder with a narrow strap. Then taking a heavy piece of iron he proceeded cooly to pound the fractured part as a cook does the beefsteak. After all the bones in the forearm had been thoroughly broken he wound around it the leaves of a medical plant and held all in place by a frame- work made of split bamboo. Then he placed his patient, who, up tO' this point, had been unconscious, on a slender diet. After a time he- feasted him on the good of the land, and the bones knitted together with entire success. For many years it is stated that the Gallas have- been in the habit of opening the stomachs of those who are too fat and removing the superfluous layers. In trepanning, pieces of gourd are used in place of silver, and some of their warriors' heads resemble noth- ing so much as these plants. Most of the tribes in the Galla country are governed by chiefs,, some of them hereditary and some chosen on account of their bravery. There are several singular republics, or democracies, however, and the theory has been advanced that, at one time, they were all of this nature. Among these communities no such word as "command" is recognized, and every man is absolute lord not only of his own land, but of the 78 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. public road which passes before his hut. This pecuHarity is not always agreeable to the traveler, as when passing through their territories he is liable at any moment to see a wild Galla horseman dashing toward him and demanding tribute in money or goods for the privilege of contin- uing his journey over the republican's land or along its borders. But if he is acquainted with the ways of the country the traveler may put himself under the protection of some influential Galla who answers for him in every difficulty which may arise. In these communities even the well-to-do farmer, who has everything he may desire, ploughs his own ground, reaps his own corn, guards his own cattle at pasture and splits his own firewood. His servant, if he has one, sits with him and his wife at table, drinks his share of beer and mead, and is in all ways treated as an equal. Slaves are so only in name, having usually a house and land of their own which descends to their children. Matters of public interest, such as difficulties with other tribes, are discussed by the elders in the open air. They stand in a circle, leaning upon their spears, but no young man is allowed to be heard in these public meetings. The laws fix the price of a wound inflicted with the point of the lance at forty head of cattle ; that inflicted with the double-edged knife is deemed of no account unless it produces death. In all cases not pro- vided by law the decision rests with the gathering of elders. They are both judges and executors and when all agree as to the punishment they combine to inflict it, even to the burning of the house and destroying the whole property of the offender. The lawsuits on account of land are few, and generally such disputes are settled before they reach the elders. The great institutions are their markets, one of which is held daily in each district of the republic. The women frbm other tribes attend these markets, passing unmolested from one to the other though they might be at war with one another. One of the most noted of these popular forms of government is Goodroo, the first Galla province reached after crossing the Nile from Abyssinia. It is estimated to average over 100,000 people, and its posi- tion as a frontier province makes the territory bordering on Abyssinia a great battle field. Its sheep and cattle are justly celebrated and it possesses springs flowing from a mineral earth strongly impregnated with salt to which they are periodically driven to drink. The owners, also, are in the habit of driving their cattle to pasture on the frontier lands which are necessarily uncultivated. Here is the scene of many fierce encounters between them and neighboring tribes. This republic, being hemmed in by foes on all sides who look with jealous eyes on its pros- perity, has need to be a nation of brave warriors. Imagine a hundred NORTHERN GALLAS. 79 or more of the horsemen of Goodroo thus leading their cattle to pas- ture. They have scores of unsettled feuds on their hands and several tribes have combined to take them and their herds unawares. Suddenly the quiet of a beautiful day is broken by a distant rumble which may be thunder, but a moment later over a rising slope of land two or three thousand wild warriors come rushing like a hurricane. They come on, in apparent confusion, with the bridles on their horses' necks, their long tresses and panther skins streaming behind them, lance points and arm- lets glittering in the sun, rending the air with wild shouts and screams. Though at first appalled by the inequality of numbers the Goodroo chiefs and men of wealth rush forward to meet their assailants, while the footmen clanging their spears against their shields frighten the cattle to the rear. It is such dangers as these that the warriors of Goodroo have to meet and overcome. NORTHERN GALLAS. The most northern tribe of the Gallas, separated from the Red Sea by a narrow strip of country, also live under some such crude republican form of government as the Goodroos. In this country cattle are bred with such immense horns that, made into drinking vessels, they will contain four or five gallons of liquid. The men are brave and numerous, but have the blood-thirsty traits which disfigure the Gallas as a people. Their province is low and hot, and though they breed no horses they import them in sufficient numbers to keep up the reputation of the Gallas as a great nation of horsemen. The Somaulies occupy the eastern peninsula of Africa which extends into the Indian Ocean, and extend their commercial operations over Arabia and far into Africa. They are a pastoral and trading people and hold the proud honor of being the only one which can live in peace with the Gallas. They are remarkable for beauty of feature and ease of address, though they have a hideous habit of frizzing the hair to resemble the fleece of a sheep and staining it yellow with ocher. Great fairs are held in their province, caravans bringing to them gum- arabic, myrrh and incense, and African princes sending them gold, ivory, melted butter, slaves, camels, horses, mules and asses. What of these valuables they cannot dispose of at their fairs they carry abroad in their own vessels. The Somauli land includes the once famous king- dom of Adel, the unrelenting and destructive Moslem foe of Christian Abyssinia. They also divide much of the coast region with the Gal- las. 8o PANORAMA OF NATIONS, The Somaulies include a number of tribes, being a mixture of the Gallas and Arabs. The western tribes, or those near the Galla country, are more like their warlike neighbors than those inhabiting the districts lying along the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea, Their principal port and mart, where a fair is held for several months of the year, is Berbera, on the Gulf of Aden. Not only do their merchants send the products of Eastern Africa across to Aden, Mocha and other points on the Arabian coast in their own vessels, jealously excluding foreign craft, but they have established houses in Arabia, and aim, if possible, to keep the carrying trade and the importing entirely under their own control. In fact, their jealousy of the Arabs amounts almost to hatred. Although more polished, as a rule, than the Gallas, the Somaulies are intensely superstitious, and live generally in mat-houses. Slavery exists among them, the mountainous regions of the interior being inhabited by one tribe which is nearly white, the women being highly prized by the Somaulies. The men are seldom taken, preferring to fall in the fight. The most important division of the Somauli country is Ajan, which extends from Cape Guardafui to Zanzibar. It was known to the ancients, Rhaptum, the capital, being the southern limit of the Greek explorations. The southern coast and interior are sandy and barren, there being a mountainous tract, and an elevated table-land in the north. -"-r^ ^ THE EAST AFRICANS. ANZIBAR, or Zanguebar, is at most but an arbitrary distinc- tion wliich has been made by the Portuguese to distinguish tlie tribes Hving along the coast from the river Zuba to Cape ^^^^^ Delgado, where their own acknowledged possessions com- mence under the name of Mozambique. At one time these tribes, called by the natives " Sawhylee " (coast people) were under the nominal control of Oman, a province in South- eastern Arabia, being governed more directly by the seyid or sultan whose seat of government is on the island of Zanzibar. The sultan is now quite independent of Oman, and the "coast people" are so independent of him that his authority is scarcely recognized beyond the towns on the island garrisoned by his troops. In the palmy days of the slave trade these coast tribes were of creat assistance to the Portusfuese in the " runnino- off" of slaves, but later since the decided attempts made by England and other countries- to suppress the abomination, the negroes of the interior boldly assault them and drive many of them from their towns. The Gallas,, also, have been a scourge to them, their ferocity increasing as their tribes stretch south. Those who have remained are more civilized, necessarily, than most of the tribes of the interior of Eastern Africa who have not had the benefit of their slicrht contact with Asiatic and European civilization. Some of these interior tribes do not bury their dead. Others still have hideous games in which men are sacrificed. Most of these savage tribes, however, as well as those more advanced are still suspicious of strangers, for notwithstanding agreements and treaties, slave hunters, under a variety of disguises, are not uncommon. No communication with a stranger or with an adjoining tribe is allowed without express permission from a"baraza, "or assembly of chiefs. The punishment of braving such a regulation is often death. Tracts of land are purposely laid waste and desolated upon the frontiers of man)' tribal territories, where armed scouts, generally old elephant hunters, are able to report the approach of strangers at the earliest possible moment. And much cause have the most savage of them for 8i 6 82 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. such fears, since a slave-dealer's raid is the synonym for desolation and death, and burned and ruined settlements mark its track. Many of the coast people and those who live quite a distance west have not only adopted some of the characteristics of the Arabian dress, but the habits of that people. They are quite intelligent and brave, and make good guides. Their huts are quadrangular, thatched with cocoanut leaves and generally surrounded by small vegetable gardens. The women wear brass ornaments, armlets and anklets, and a blue calico strip wound round the body under the armpits and flowing to the knees. Their arms are spears, a heavy pruning knife and flint muskets. They manufacture earthen cooking pots and cook in them over a fire built within three large stones. Millet and Indian corn are the staple food, and fish abound in every stream and pool One of their fishing customs is to make a huo;e roll of straw, mud and sticks, with which they force the fish into shallow water and barricade them there ; then everybody proceeds to the sport of catching his game more securely by spearing them and beating them with sticks. Along the river banks of Zanzibar and Mozambique for many miles inland are to be found thickly populated villages. Unless molested the people are industrious and peaceful, cultivating large fields of tobacco, the produce being exported to the coast districts. Getting as far west as Lake Nyassa, for instance, the tribes are more savage. They tattoo their faces, wear skin aprons, but seem to have been taught the value of flint guns. Their larger towns are laid out rudely in streets and each hut is surrounded by a fenced-in garden. This region seems to be a favorite gathering place of the great crocodiles, hippopotami and elephants of Africa, and between them and the keeping of a sharp lookout for strangers and warlike tribes, the people around the lake are generally in a state of commotion. Here is the scene of many of the labors of the lamented Livinsfstone. Even among some of the tribes who go entirely naked are found evidences of skill in various ways. The members of one of these " go- nakeds" paint the body and face with a white clay or chalk; but although they indulge in this childish fashion they have the sense to fashion from a bluish clay certain oval lumps about the size of ostrich eggs which they bake in tiie sun, and fit neatly into a framework of wood or bamboo, thus forminof a wall for their huts. These are either round or square, with peaked roofs and built and thatched with great skill. Their spears, which have long, sharp barbs, are made of very white native iron and the shafts are often inlaid with a delicate tracery of brass and copper wire. Their chief wears an enormous feather head-dress. ZANZIBAR. - 83 As a rule large villages are uncommon, but hamlets appear on all sides, surrounded by farms. The chiefs appear to have really little control of the people who live in the Lake Nyassa region, and who are among the most advanced of Eastern Africans away from the coast. Many of their farms lie in the valleys or among the mountains, and their possessors appear to breathe the air of independence, dirty, naked and lazy though most of them are. But notwithstanding all their faults they are certainly advanced, speaking from an African standpoint. They, however, hold to the universal idea that it is best to throw every obstacle in the way of travelers, and perhaps the most important function of the chieftainship is to call the warriors together for the purpose of doing a good deal of grunting, and finally, after a sufficiently vexatious delay, passing the traveler along to the next chief. Still a Avarrior will occasionally "make" himself felt, and actually consolidate a number of tribes governed only nominally by weaker chiefs. Villages are then burned by the invader or the besieged, and upon the conclu- sion of the war one of the conqueror's favorite wi^^es may be sent to him as the most aofreeable courier to tell him of the greneral reioicinff. She is escorted b)" leading men of the tribe and drummed into camp v.'ith great ceremony. The band have drums shaped like a claret-glass, with a foot to rest upon the ground. They are held with one hand and played in a most vigorous manner vnth a thin hard stick, terminating in a knob. This drumming continues all day, and really the time is good and a variety of tunes can be recognized. The great chief himself sometimes condescends to lead the band. After a sufficient season of rejoicing has passed, the army marches for his capital. This may be a large collection of huts, and surrounded by a stockade which has scores of gates through which thousands of cattle are driven every morning to pasture. West of Nyassa Lake are the Cazembe, a nation of jet-black, robust negroes with a good beard and red eyes. ZANZIBAR. Since the decline of Portugal as a commercial nation the trade of East Africa has been concentrating in Arabian hands, with the island of Zanzibar as the base of operations. Here formerly was the open market and distributing point for slaves. In a sandy square surrounded by ruined houses and high back walls, long parallel rows of haggard men, women and children, with the vacant African stare, or groups of dark eyed beauties from the mountains, decked in bright-colored garments, were exposed for sale like sheep or horses. Their mouths 84 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. were opened and teeth examined for signs of disease, their limbs handled, their hands and nails looked over. These sales were once of daily occurrence, and yet there was no diminution of the slave supply ; for the forests and plains, the villages and hamlets and farm huts were under the sharp eyes of Arabs, Gallas and Portuguese, looking for par- ticularly valuable specimens with which to meet the demands of greed and lust. THE ABORIGINES. Across the island from the town, with everything that is foreign and miscellaneous, live the remnant of the original inhabitants. They speak a dialect of their own and live by farming and fishing. On an elevated ridge, below which runs a river, stands their ancient palace, a square and massive building. Passing through a ruined gateway of the once fortified wall surrounding the mansion, one is obliged to climb over masses of rubbish before he can reach the foot of the staircase leading to a large covered verandah opening upon the inner court. From the verandah he may look across a chasm, caused by the falling in of the floor of the great reception room, at a row of enormous mirrors against the far wall. If the kindly-mannered old gentleman is still living, the last male survivor of the native royal family, he will receive his visitor and take him to the only habitable room of the palace, with its silken mattresses and pillows. Evidences are seen of the visits of the Portuguese, who made vain attempts to dislodge the luling family; these evidences remain in the shape of an immense number of wild pigs, descendants of the old imported stock, which overrun the low jungle country and do much damage to the crops. The village of the aborigines is approached through a large grave yard. It faces a large and well-protected bay, whence an estuary extends for a considerable distance inland and almost divides Zanzibar into two islands. Independence here is general. There are no slaves among this people, but they all seem to live upon a friendly equality, under the guidance of an exceedingly old sheik, whose insignia of office is a long peeled willow wand. Both he and the last of the royal family declare that the Arabs shall yet be dispossessed of the land, but their little community and their large grave yard do not warrant the supposition that theirs shall be the expelling hand. The sultan's residence, even, is not a very imposing structure. It stands at the inland extremity of the harbor. From it a line of stone houses should form an imposing crescent, but only two of the houses are habitable and the others have stopped short at the first story, A THE ABORIGINES. 85 low thatched barn does duty for the custom house, and the boldly designed streets are choked up with rank grasses and brushwood. The houses, for the most part, are not well preserved, though the bazaars are well filled with merchandise. In numbers the Rufiji are the most numerous of the natives of Zanzibar. They are intensely black. The men wear iron armlets, the women aprons of dressed hide. The latter also ornament themselves with fetich necklaces, to which are attached pieces of horn, bone and shells. The gruns used are often adorned with brass-headed nails driven into the stocks, while the spears and bows and arrows are neatly finished off with brass wire. Near every village bark beehives are fixed on cross-branches about six feet from the o^round. The villages themselves are built with one long central street, and the wattled huts are construct- ed with a circular verandah-porch over the door-ways. But enough of Zanzibar. It is a country where there is little which is unique in the native population, whose condition may be described as an incessant contest of greed, cruelty and cunning, with laziness, brutal- ity and ignorance. Slaves are not now hunted through the woods by bold Englishmen, with their native allies and slave boats blowing up all alonsf the coast, but the business has almost been legislated and driven from the island, being surreptitiously conducted on the continent. We have thus coasted along the territory of Eastern Africa, which was known to the ancients under the names of Azania, Zingis, and the " Spice-Bear- ing Region." " The Portuguese, after discovering the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, occupied all the most advantageous maritime stations upon this coast, from which they studiously excluded every other people. Their first conquest was Mozambique ; the next, Mombaza ; but after this they gradually relaxed in their efforts to subjugate the country, although at the close of the sixteenth century, they were in possession of numerous settlements along the shore. Becoming involved, however, in hostilities with the Arabs they lost their posses- sions, one after another, till after the close of the century they were stripped of nearly all their territories in Eastern Africa. The Arabs had long before planted the Mohammedan religion along the coast ; they now aimed at securing its trade, and in fact obtained a footing heie and there. But it is at Zanzibar Island and its neighborhood alone that they have succeeded in forming a permanent establishment." Much of the trade is also being obtained by Hindus, who some- times invest their own capital, and sometimes act for English and American houses. Their headquarters are usually in the coast towns, and through the tireless Arab travelers they are enabled to collect ivory 86 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. from the coasts of Western Africa, and in exchange distribute weapons, trinkets and clothing to the natives. The Hindu traders usually act as custom house officials, buying certain districts of the Island of Zanzibar and collecting the revenue due the Sultan. As has been stated, enough has been said regarding the natives of Zanzibar ; but after recording a few facts about the country itself, we propose to follow a great river into the interior of Africa and discover some of the most singular tribes of the continent. Southern Zanzibar is- watered by several rivers, and is included among those mysterious regions to which the early Hebrew kings sent their ships and brought to Israel the riches, fragrance and lusciousness of Eastern lands. Both gold and silver mines, covered with the tropical growths of centuries have been discovered in Zanzibar, and the river districts not only grow the fruits of the South, but the grains and spices, the great forests fur- nishing timber, India rubber and copal in inexhaustible quantities. Every animal common to the continent finds a home in this region, and even sheep, goats and fowls add to the bewildering variety. The country has been little explored beyond the sources of the rivers, but what is known of it excuses the reports brought back to Portugal by the early navigators, which were long considered fiction. It is somewhat singular, however, that in these stories told about the tribes of Africa little stress was laid upon anything but the savage phase of life and the riches of the land. MOZAMBIQUE. JN early times the Portuguese occupied the most favorable mari- time stations along the coast, but the Arabs have supplanted them by force of arms and commercial craft. Mohammedan- ism is therefore rapidly spreading among the East African tribes, notwithstanding the efforts of Christian missionaries. The average African, however, is more prone to believe in evil 'i spirits and the Medicine man or Rain-maker than in anythino- else, and the native tribes of Mozambique are no exception to the rule. The country formerly supplied most of the East, Egypt and the West Indies with slaves. Later it had a strong rival in Zanzibar, and now since the slave trade is being gradually extin- guished even in the country of the Portuguese, Mozambique is declining in prosperity, and its commerce is almost confined to supplying the Arabs with ivory in return for fabrics and produce from India. For the want of an energetic government, this rich country, which was one of the Eldo- rados of the middle ages, the supposed Ophir of the Scriptures, and all that is naturally splendid — this rich child of nature is given over to the same class of obscure tribes, which inhabit the regions to the north. The tale goes that centuries ago, before even the Portuguese had set foot upon these shores, the country was governed by the great tribe of Mono- motapans. The people were warlike and enterprising, their black cattle, ivory and gold being celebrated the world over. Hundreds of minor tribes were subject to their sway, the kingdom being divided into seven provinces. When the Portuguese beat around Cape Horn and com- menced to plant their standards and their colonies along the African coast they still found A POWERFUL AND RICH EMPIRE, but not strong enough to resist their ambitious aims. They overran the land and the native empire fell into fragments, which now exists in these insignificant tribes ; and the seven grand provinces of Mono- motapa are still retained, in shadow by the districts or captaincies into which Mozambique is divided by its Portuguese officials. 87 88 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. The native chiefs are the rulers of such tribes as remain. Zumbo, on the Zambesi river, was their ancient capital and at the beginning of the present century was still the seat of the most powerful of these tribes. Along the banks of the river, especially at its headwaters and far to the west, are found towns and peoples showing a far higher grade of civilization than in most portions of the continent so distant from the coast ; it seems probable that this line of travel would take us into the best that remains of the kingdom of the Monomotapa. Their affairs are transacted by an assembly of chiefs, presided over by a king or the most powerful of their number. Somie of them live in large towns, of regularly built Avooden houses plastered with mud — which, by the way, are often erected by the women, who likewise till the ground. The men tend the cattle, manufacture pottery, prepare skins, smelt iron and cop- per, and go to war. But although some of these tribes evince an under- ^ standing of the fundamental princi- ( pies of government, and some ideas ^ of justice and the conveniences of life, p they are flooded with superstition and cling to the most terrible of cus- toms. If their country is parched by continued drought, the elders of the tribe or the council of the tribes assemble and call for the rain maker, who may be hundreds of miles away, trying to relieve some other stricken community. If he fails he has a plausible reason for his failure. If he succeeds, he is held more than ever in fearful awe. A story is told of one who arrived upon the scene of action just as the storm-cloud rolled up from the distance. Performing a few magic ceremonies and mumbling to himself, he threw himself on his back and had scarcely time to point his toes at the clouds before they emptied themselves of their welcome charge. Though the superstitions and religious beliefs and customs vary, even of those tribes who speak the same dialect, a majority of the tribes along the Zambesi and its tributaries bury their dead in a sitting posture. This is especially the case with the Bechuanas, whose language is spoken almost from the Atlantic Ocean to Mozambique, ?nd whose peculiarities are at present mostly under observation. When they perceive that the moment of dissolution is near at hand, they throw a skin or net over the *f- GRAVE OF A DAMARA. A POWERFUL AND RICH EMPIRE. 89 sick man's body, which being drawn up into the proper posture, is held there until "rigor mortis" sets in. The inside of the burial pit is care- fully rubbed with a certain root which is supposed to have an embalming effect, a small bush is placed directly over the cranium for a tomb-stone, and provisions are placed near the grave. The Darmas, who have villages to the north of the river, are particular devotees of this custom, as are also the Damaras, a branch tribe, who live far to the southwest. One reason for this sinofular burial custom is said to be that althouo-h they believe in a future state, they have no respect for the body, and wish to bury it in the least possible space. They therefore bore a hole with a large auger about ten feet deep, and into this pit the body is placed. These people, although they treat the body so harshly, offer up prayers to their deceased parents, and have a deity whom they call Umerura. Besides, each tribe or family has its guardian angel, which is the prin- cipal object of worship. They believe that man is of vegetable origin, and that the races of men spring from various kinds of trees. In many of their villages, therefore, they have trees into whose trunks are fast- ened various representations of human heads, and to which they pay a kind of worship. The Darmas live principally upon milk and vege- tables. They naturally have a superstitious feeling about eating the flesh ■of animals, since they believe that the ghosts of the departed always bear the likeness of some animal. There are many peculiarities of their superstitious beliefs, which seem to stamp them as offshoots from the systems of the East ; the theory of transmigration of the soul in par- ticular. Although the Darmas are a fine race of men, many of them over six feet in height, they are remarkably short lived. Their climate is unhealthful, since their country is thickly sprinkled with extensive lagoons, and a malignant type of bilious fever creates great havoc among them. The people of both sexes go scantily clothed, and the men wear no ornaments whatever, thinking them only fit for the women. The Darmas have no intoxicating drinks ; but taking the hollow horn of an antelope, in the smaller end of which is inserted a clay cup for their hemp-seed or tobacco, they light its contents and inhaling vast quantities of the smoke, they swallow the fumes ; this produces a stupefaction which answers all the purposes of intoxication. In common with most of the Bechuana tribes the Darmas have a great regard for the cow, which feeling they perhaps inherit from their distinguished ancestors of the coast, and they have a superstitious notion that to rinse the earthen pans in which they keep their milk will prevent that lowly quadruped from furnishing her usual supply. 90 . PANORAMA OK NATIONS. MANLY SPORT. About the only kind of so-called "manly sport" in which the Darmas engage is hunting the hippopotamus which commits such ravages upon their gardens and plantations ; and this is the way they pursue their national enemy. First they construct a raft of reeds upon which five or six of the hunters fioat down the stream with their iron harpoohs; cords and other implements. The iron head of the harpoon is fastened securely to one end of a pole about ten feet in length, and a cord made of leather thongs, to the other. To the cord is also afifixed a buoy. The raft having reached the settlement of the hippopotamus, the hunters anchor and look the ground over. As soon as the snout of their victim appears above the water the harpooner lets fly his weapon to the point which he knows will reach the bulky side of the river-horse. When the harpoon has struck home the party seize the line and paddle for the shore, in case the commotion caused by the throes of the hippopotamus does not threaten to capsize the craft. Should there be that danger the buoy attached to the harpoon line keeps the whereabouts of the brute within knowledge. If the hunters keep out of the way of his yawning jaws they eventually see one more of their enemies go the way of all flesh ; but should the hippopotamus anticipate their intentions of slipping the line around a tree and hauling him to shore, and "get there" first, the harpoon still sticking in his tough side and driving him more and more frantic, his cavernous jaws with their cruel teeth and tusks may snap a Darma in two or hideously maim him. If he comes upon the hunters in the water their danger is still more imminent. The nation to the east of the Darmas is patriarchal in its form of government like most of the native tribes. The hut of each head of a family is the center of a circle composed of the houses of his sons, daughters and sons-in-law. Each circle of huts is called a "cootla," and over all the king rules. There are "little lords" or counsellors to the king, before whom minor disputes are brought, with the privilege of appealing to the prime ruler. When the case comes before the king each of the lords expresses his opinion. The king then sums up the case and generally goes with the majority. This "nation's" king, or head chief, is called "Emperor" by the Portuguese, who pay him tribute in consideration of the protection which he gives to their com- merce. He has a body-guard of five Portuguese soldiers, who pace around his hut or before its entrance with majestic steps. The king is attired in an apron which falls to his knees, and his subjects are gay dressers and great lovers of fire-arms. They do not seem particularly A CIVILIZED TRIBE. QT warlike, but love the guns for their own sakes and will sometimes pay $150 to $200 in gold-dust for an ordinary rifle not worth a tenth of that sum. Iron and copper mines are plentiful in their territory and gold is also produced. They keep the location of the latter deposit, however, a profound secret, though they may exchange it, ounce for ounce, for coffee or sugar. The Beloondas are polygamists, but every wife has a hut to herself of which she is such complete mistress that her husband, though he be the king himself, cannot enter when she is absent. A CIVILIZED TRIBE. To the west of the Darmas live a singular people, whose intelligent love of cattle and the high estimate they place upon them, as well as the wisdom of many of their institutions, cannot but recall to mind that the ancient Monomotapans valued their cattle more than they did their gold, and that they were also wise. The cattle are of an enormous breed, and they take pains that it shall remain pure. The complexion of the Kaloios is a shade lighter than even that of the Hottentots, and their hair is long, black and straight. They are tall and their forms are symmetrical and commanding, their features being of an almost Euro- pean cast. Their land is fertile and produces all kinds of grain, tobacco, watermelons and vegetables. Being a pastoral people, and yet living in a land of wild beasts, they are not gathered into towns and villages, but homesteads, surrounded by high palisades, dot the entire surface of the country. Their principal article of diet is a sort of " hasty pudding," made by boiling meal in water. This they eat with milk. Articles of crockery ware, iron and copper are manufactured by them in quite a skillful manner, and they have likewise a variety of home-made musical instruments. Polygamy is generally practiced, the king having some- times more than a hundred wives, but the nation seems to be directed by a kind hand and many of its regulations (not to give them the name of laws) are worthy of imitation. The glories of war they hold in great contempt, and they have never been known to make any encroachments upon the territory of their neighbors. No precautions are taken to prevent thefts and robberies. The secure condition of the country seems to launch one, at a bound, from the Africa of to-day into the golden age of old Sparta when Lycurgus made her laws. When a Kaloio wishes to dispose of an article, large or small, he attaches it to a sprig of palm tree and leaves it in a space enclosed by palisades. When one goes to this market-house or bazaar to make a purchase he selects the article he wants and puts in its place what he considers a fair equivalent. Their 92 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. money is a pebble, ground to an octagonal shape, about one-eighth of an inch in thickness. It varies in size according to its value. The money is "coined" under the king's authority, and he never allows more of it to circulate than is absolutely necessary to make exchanges. Coun- terfeitinor is an unknown crime. Between the countries of the Kaloios and the Darmas is the Ba- rotze nation, or Makololo. Unlike the Darmas, who have no commu- nications with the coast settlements, they are a trading people of some pretension, and, as if to shame their simple neighbors, both men and women seem determined to load their bodies with all the gaudy orna* ments they can carry. In appearance they stand between the Moor THE ZAMBESIS. and the negro, and probably belong to the diversified Ethiopian stock. The men dress in Turkish trousers and roundabout jackets, made of a calico which is ornamented with the prints of large, brilliant-hued flow- ers. The women wear petticoats made of the same material, and both are loaded down with ornaments of beads and copper, arranged on necks, arms and ankles. The canoes of the Barotze nation swarm the Zambesi river, and their gaudy merchants are bold and enterprising. These people present the strange spectacle of a nation of savages giving woman a little more than equal rights with man. A majority of the chiefs are of the female sex, and the nation has been often governed by a queen. Men and women, being reared in the same manner from infancy, engage in the same occupations and are exposed to the same hardships. A CIVILIZED TRIBE. 95 Their immediate neighbors, before the Darmas country is reached^ are a tribe or nation Avith a very long name who also trade up and down the river, and are given to finery and bright-colored calicoes, bombazines and alpacas. They are far less intelligent, however, than the Makololos, or the Barotze nation. They worship lions, elephants and serpents, and consider it impious to resist them ; so that a lion or an elephant or a huge boa may bear away one of their number or kill him before their eyes, and they will witness the sight with a joyful clapping of hands, believing that their friend has been thus selected for some sort of a para- dise. The national dances of this people are always celebrated by the light of the full moon, and a lion has been known to stalk in among the warriors and head men of the tribe and bear away his victim in his jaws. Should they molest the monster in any way they fear that they will bring down a curse upon the nation from the mighty spirit which dwells within the body of the majestic beast. Was there ever so bewilderino- a combination of io^norance and wisdom, virtue and vice, religion and superstition as we find among the tribes and nations of Africa, and especially those who have even a slight communication with the outer world of recognized civilization ! Such tribes and nations as these alono- the Zambesi River live in the debatable land of those philosophers whose lives are spent in efforts to ascertain whether savage life is really infancy or approach- ing senility; whether, upon the whole, looking the world over,, there are not as many solemn examples of retrogression, as inspiring instances of progression. The world decides that the world does move, but there is no more enticing field in the universe to the ethnologist than Southern Africa, where the brightest fragments of savagery lie- away from contact with European nationalities ; and yet the world does move, although the tribes of Southern Africa, beyond the Zambesis,. who have had the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English as masters, and teachers, show a lamentable aptness in gathering to themselves the worst vices of the immigrants. The statement regarding the progress of the world will have to be repeated, even when the spectacle is presented of civilized nations teaching their worst vices to these children — the redeeming features of the picture will be painted as the panorama moves on to Australia. Southern Mozambique is between the Zambesi River and the Transvaal, or Dutch Republic — established by the Dutch farmers to escape the clutches of the English. This country, known as Sofala, is a region as large as New Jersey, forming one of the divisions of Mozam- bique. The town by that name was formerly the capital of a. native: 94 PANORAMA (>]'• NATIONS. kinij^doin, and wlicn llu; PorUiLjiicsc cstablislic*! llicii- carllcsl, sculc- nicnts on the coast in the sixtccntli century, it was a place of considera- ble trade. At one lime lar^c r|tiantities of gold dust were sent from Sofala, which was the jtarlicui.ir section of the world decided by some scholars to be the Ophir from which .Solomon's fleets returned laden with the precious metal. 'Idle town has now a fort, a church, a few mud and straw huts, and a beautiful .sandbar at the mouth of the river, the (.-xpfjrts from the country being mainly ivory, amber and beeswax. A fewslav(,-s are also included in the exports. The coast regions (;/ .S(;fala are swampy and unhealthful, but the country stretches back toward the west until it merges into the Motapa Mountains. As in Nortlieiu Mozand)i(|iie, thenatives are governed by lh acknowledged, that he is indeed "a man without a country." Variously modified by climate, habits and mixture with native tribes, the Caffre appears in Central Africa, from the Orange river to the Nile, still warlike, a lover and often a worshiper of the cow, a tiller of the soil ; a born commander among the lower type of negroes. The Caffre seems of the same order as the Ab\'ssinian or the Galla ; the governing race which founded a kingdom in tlie modern land of Mozambique; the basis of the Bechuanas, whose habits ha\e been described as they exist in the Zaml)csi Ri\cr c;ountr\' — in short, an Ethiopian whom circumstances have dri\'en into the southern extremity of his native land. The complexion of the Southern Caffres is brown or copper colored, but as they approach the equator it becomes dark and at times a deep black. Their noses and foreheads are almost Euro- jiean in type. The Caffre of Southern Africa is ])owerfully and sjm- metrically built, the men standing from fue feet ten to six feet three inches. Their speed is surprising, a blooded horse only being a match for them. In both male and female the hair is sliort and crisped, Imt not as woolly as that of the negro. Married men wear an api'on com- 95 96 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. posed of the tails of native animals, while if they have any standing in the community their heads must be shaved and tightly bound with rings of hard clay. If they are ministers of the chief, or chiefs, they wear three or four. When the boy has bloomed into manhood the official barber takes his head between his knees and scrapes off the hair with a piece of glass. It is not a pleasant operation, but must be undergone previous to being "ringed" into distinction. Another mark, not only of honor but of superlative refinement, is to carry a snuff-box in the ear. UTENSILS OF THE CAFFRES. A hole is made large enough to admit the box, and it is a very social sight to see a company of Caffres squat upon the ground, take out their boxes and horns, and energetically push the snuff into their noses with fancy wooden spoons. Their bodies are only partially covered with clothing, but they often present a beautiful appearance since they are rubbed with the grease of the castor oil plant, -^.nd, with their well- rounded and muscular limbs, seem transformed into artistic "studies in bronze." This is particularly true of the Zulu warriors, or the Zulu youth in dancing costume; for when not in action they apparently real- DANCING AND COURTING. 97 ize their physical beauties and pose in attitudes which would ravish a painter's eye. DANCING AND COURTING. But once in the dance, neither youth nor warrior is long Inactive. The participants come from the kraals of this cattle-raising people for miles around, especially if the dance is. to be given by some great chief. The heads of the men and boys are decorated with ostrich feathers, and if they desire to appear particularly gay small birds are attached to their necks by cords or chains. Many of them also carry their assagais, or long spears, which they wave about or clang together to the evident terror of the chained songsters, but to the admiration of the plump and curd-fed girls, who clap their hands in admiration and encouragement. Their dances sometimes continue for ten or twelve hours, being inaugu- rated by the slaughter of a bullock which is cut up and eaten while the flesh still quivers with life. It is not uncommon for as many as two thousand Caffres to indulge in such festivities. The bird ornaments are retained by the boys of marriageable age, even when they are not on dress parade; they walk around as proud as peacocks, pulling the strings to which the birds are attached to make them flutter and attract the attention of susceptible maidens. Girls, however, whose personal charms are worth to their parents as many as ten or twenty cows, are kept closely watched and usually go abroad in pairs, with their arms around each other in true school-girl fashion. - When the young man has fallen in love himself, as often comes to pass with those who start out to ensnare others, he goes to his barber for personal improvement. The operator holds the head of the youth between his knees, as was clone some time ago when that same head was shaved and encircled with a ring of clay; the youth's hair is long enough to be worked into a complicated mat with a porcupine quill. When the effect has been made sufficiently fierce the young man goes off to woo. If hardy and pleasing and rich in cattle he is almost sure to succeed^^ although an enumeration of the virtues of a Caffre makes no bad showino^. But the courting days are over and the young man has somewhat modified his head-dress; the girl has been taken from her light house- hold duties, and her curds and whey, and is being brought toward the kraal of the future bridegroom. Accompanied by parents and friends she is seen to approach, and the young man sends to meet them a herd of twenty cows, driven by his servants; for he is rich and desirable. This is the gift to the father of the bride, who, stationed in the rear of his company, sedately receives the gift, his daughter squatting upon the 98 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. ground as the herd approach, and earnestly considering their propor- tions and numbers ; as upon these things really depends the estimation in which she is held by her future husband. She is apparently satisfied, for she advances with some dignity to the entrance of the kraal, where :she falls upon her knees to receive from the young man a necklace of beads which he places around her neck with his ow^n gentle hands. A band of white beads, emblems of innocence, is also clasped around her waist. She is then led into his hut, where she remains alone until sun- down, to finally decide whether she will take him " for better or for worse." If she is still favorably inclined her lover leads her from the hut, in front of a body of his relatives and friends, who strike up some song of congratulation or welcome to the bride. Then follows the dance, which is substantially the same whether prompted by the fierce- ness of war or the sociability of domestic life. MARRIED LIFE. If the bride, whom we have been marrying, had been preceded by several sisters in matrimony, one of them would have welcomed her to the home of their future lord, and after the dance was concluded she would occupy the newly built hut (erected by her brothers) which was one of the circle surroundintr the house of the husband. Should she be of a quarrelsome disposition she will be tied to a stake and receive a dozen lashes at the hands of his next brother. This humiliation she will undergo alone, for the husband has ordered his wives from the kraal and left himself. He unbinds her on his return, when she invariably falls upon her knees and promises to do better thereafter. If she persists in her fault she maybe returned to her parents. .Should she choose the better way she retires to her bee-hive hut, which has neither window nor chimney, and reflects. She closes the door, or hurdle, to keep out any poisonous snakes which may be about, and lies down upon a mat of grass with a log of wood for a pillow. When a man has many wives he elects one as his "great wife " — she is apt to be his youngest and latest — and her eldest son is the heir. Then he selects his " right-hand wife," whose son inherits some of the property of the mother. If the husband be rich, he may provide for the other children, but it is not obligatory. If he dies without making a choice either of great wife or right-hand wife, his brother does it for him. Occasions may arise when the husband feels called upon to beat his wife himself. If he knocks out an eye or a tooth, or kills her. he is fined by his chief. The same regulation holds good between parents and children who live at home. It is somewhat surpris- MARRIED LIFE. 99 ing that murder is regarded in the same Hght by the Caffre as by the Abyssinian and by nearly all partially civilized people. They seem unable to comprehend the difference between meditated and unpre- meditated murder, but fix the punishment upon a consideration purely of the injury accomplished, the latter being decided by the rank of the family whose member is killed. Theft is punished in the same way. So that if a chief is robbed, general confiscation follows, although should he Jay hands upon the finest cow in his dominion he cannot be prosecuted. His children are privileged to steal, also, and if any one is bold enough BUILDING THE BRIDE'S HUT. to whip a royal youngster for not keeping within bounds, he is liable to lose every cow in his kraal. Some years ago there was a tribe governed by a chief with so many thievish children that not a garden or a goat in the settlement was safe. A general appeal was made to the high chief, who decided that the privilege should in the future be confined to his own immediate family. There is no fine for trespass since the Caft're is a land communist ; but if he drives cattle from the tract in his im- mediate vicinity which he has been allowed to improve, and injures them in the driving, he is fined. Any man may occupy unimproved land, and lOO PANORAMA OF NATIONS. no one but the chief can disturb him ; but should he leave his land, and another occupy it, he can recover it if he desires. Returning to the undesirable wife. There is no system of divorce, but if a man repudiates his wife and can show that he does so on good grounds, he gets back his cattle from her father. Should a man die without children by a wife, the cattle given for her may be recovered by his heirs. Should only one child have been born and the woman be still young, a part of the cattle can be recovered. In a word, it will be inferred from this dissertation on cattle and wives, that a wife can be bought, but never sold by her husband. She may pass along to the next brother as so much property, but is never sold except by her parents before she is married. GOOD TRAITS. Now, what are some of the good qualities of the Caffre? He is inclined to be honest. He is cleanly, and punishes his pickaninnies if they do not go into the water four times a day instead of whipping them if they do. He is hospitable and peaceable if he does not think himself imposed upon. His people live to a great age, and old age is respected. Old men and women are generally accompanied by two boys who lead them about, give them their daily baths and supply their other wants. He is cheerful and takes "hard rubs" as they come. The loss of a cow crushes him for a day; but he is sunshine the next — he never broods. He will nurse you with the faithfulness of a mother, but, if you wince under his treatment, his sympathy and his wonderful powers of mimicry get the better of him and he puts himself in your place at once — expression, posture and everything. He is a good neighbor, and will sit around the sick man's hut for hours comforting him every way in his power; or he will start up and without a word start on a journey of a hundred miles or more. He may do that or send a special messenger who, for a shilling, will go half that distance on a run, holding the doc- tor's letter in the slit end of a stick, well over his head. Unless he stops along the road to take a spoon of snuff, nothing short of wild beasts or death can slacken his pace until he has delivered his message. The physician is an awful personage, for although as naked as the average Caffre, he has suspended from the back of his neck a small skull ; and claws of eagles, and feet of lions are hung about his person to act as charms. Upon the point of his assagai is fastened a small bunch of herbs. He also sings away disease. If the doctor is not sent for and the patient dies, the relatives of the deceased are fined by the chief. When death has occurred the family become unclean and unable to mix: GOOD TRAITS. ID I in society for a certain period. It was a former custom to cast away the dead body to be devoured by wild beasts, unless the deceased happened to be a chief, when he was given a decent burial ; but now rich and poor are placed under the ground, a hole being dug near the hut. With the body of the chiefs are buried his arms and ornaments. If he was an "Umkumkami, " (head chief) watchers attended by a number of cattle are posted by his grave for at least a year. Watchers and cattle thereby become sacred ; the watchers have certain privileges accorded them and the cattle can never be slaughtered ; nor can their progeny, until the sacred kine have breathed their last. The sub-chiefs, in the mean- time, have shaved their heads, abstained resolutely from milk, and per- formed other feats indicative of their profound grief. Furthermore the grave of the dead chieftain is considered a sanctuary for every villain in the land. Be his crime ever so heinous, let him once be able to cast himself upon it, and he is safe from all pursuers. The kindness which the Caffre shows toward his friend when he is sick or in distress is, however, a more effective medicine than all the charms of the physician. A European who lived for many months among them, and thoroughly learned their language and their ways, tells the following, as illustrating this trait of sympathy and its concomitant, helpfulness : "A poor fellow had lost all his cows with lung sickness, and three of his wives died at the same time, I believe, from eating the diseased meat of the animals. Unluckily he had not planted many mealies, so that he was in a true state of bankruptcy. But in this wild and happy condition there being no assignees, a meeting of the heads of the kraals was called, and after talking the matter over for some time, they all became silent and thoughtful, evidently considering what had bet- ter be done. Suddenly a man sprang up and claimed, 'I feel so m^any cows and calves for you.' Then another got up and said how many he felt ; a third had a like sensation, and then a fourth, and so on through the august assembly, until the man was again possessed of a very respectable herd of cattle." Notwithstanding all these good qualities, the Caffre, in a matter of business, will cheat like a professional sharper. When one is in his house as a guest he can not treat him with enough kindness and hospi- tality, — but with the Caffre, as with his civilized and unfortunate brother, ""business is business;" and that is all there is to it. There never was a man who was so tender and yet so cruel. This is particularly shown in his hunting customs. Even when he can, he seldom kills an animal outright, but seems to delight in torture and a slow death. For instance, the hippopotamus is in the habit of getting into gardens and causing I02 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. much damage. It is one of the Caffres' modes of revenge to lasso their enemy and when securely fastened to thrust the bough of a tree into his. mouth. Thus propped open the mighty cavern furnishes a fair mark for their assagais, with their curved iron blades. They kill the beast by slow degrees, but before the tortured brute is really cold they cut him up and feast ravenously upon his warm flesh. Whether hunting the wild pig which they consider (with fish) unclean ; or the powerful buffalo who disdains the lion himself, or the hideous hyena, or the king of beasts whose blood they lap up in the belief that they will inherit his. boldness, the Caffre is always accompanied by his dog, who is of a swift^ fierce and stubborn breed. SUPERSTITIONS. The superstitions rife in Caffraria, or rather among the Southern Caffres, are many but quite harmless. A snake represents the devil and, strange to say, (in a country where snakes are almost as plentiful as. jungle grass) a snake was seen to enter the hut of a person who died a. year thereafter! Or a fowl passed in front of the hut. No Caffre therefore, on pain of death, will allow a harmless hen to be driven in front of his hut; she must go round by the back way! Not one could be induced to eat a hen's egg, or sell it for less than fourpence ; if he did, he would surely meet with some crushing misfortune. A coolie is an abom- ination to a Caffre. Some evil influence is thought to reside in his very breath ; so that if a Caffre meets one on the road he not only will pass, him on the other side, but will throw over his mouth whatever skin or covering he may have upon his person. The true native whose natural superstition has not been weakened by an accidental contact with rational ideas, is firmly convinced that death never comes except by accident or through the instrumentality of witches now and then. The Caffres- pitch upon one of their number as a wizard, or " King of Snakes," and. flee from him as from a pestilence. If they are obliged to approach him they fear to look him in the eye, lest they or their cattle should be stricken. This same evil-eyed gentleman often wills it that his trembling" victim should kill a fat cow and make over to him her very best parts. After a time, however, if it is found that he is one of a family of wizards who are engaged in their wicked practices, a concerted assault is made upon them and all are destroyed. Opposed to the wizard is the " prophet" of the kraal, who, when the witch's time has come, is placed in the center of the company and immediately commences to "smell'" for the evil one. The wizard is smelt out, denounced, seized and sub- NcGRU."^ HEGRO SUPERSTITIONS. _ 103 jected to some horrible form of torture which the Caffre knows so well how to inflict. The family and friends of the wizard (for he sometimes has both) must assist in the hideous work or be suspected themselves and perhaps subjected to the same tortures. It often happens that this pro- cess of "smelling out " the wizard covers the deepest of evil designs. A chief may wish to rid himself of a political enemy, or a prominent mem- ber of his tribe has a neighbor who has cast covetous eyes upon his cat- tle. In either case the priest or prophet is called in, and after many contortions on his part, and much smelling around the circle, and great howling and beating of drums by the conspirators, the unfortunate one is named. If he persists that he is innocent he may be tortured to death as a stubborn sort of a " royal snake." Admitting that he is "possessed " in some way, his cattle are appropriated by the chief and he is beaten and purified of the Evil One. If he is merely considered to be a torment- ing wizard he usually escapes with his life ; if he is the enemy of one in power he is apt to die of his injuries. The rain-maker is also a great personage among the Caffres of South- ern Africa. In obedience to the summons of a chief he arrives and at once gives orders for the slaughtering of an ox, whose bones are burned. If rain does not come after about the third day, the " maker" commences to look wise and serious, and the chief very fierce. After deep reflec- tion the rain-maker discovers that the beast was manifestly of an unac- ceptable color and a second one is sacrificed. Another anxious waiting of two or three days, with the pasture lands burning up and the patient cattle standing about disconsolately, and the tribe commences to get in- credulous, but being told that some "witchcraft" is the matter with the second ox, they straightway proceed to smell it out. Should the drought still continue, the chief is more likely than not to order the impostor drowned. Kaffir or Caffre is an Arabic word signifying "unbeliever" and was applied to these people by the Mohammedans. Although among the tribe of Griquas, Christianity has made some progress, they have, as a whole, no prescribed forms of religion. They have, however, a general belief in a Supreme Being. Their government consists of a national council which is composed of a head chief ("The Umkumkani,") subordinate chiefs, and petty chiefs who merely have jurisdiction over a kraal or hamlet. Their laws are unwritten but are undoubtedly stowed away in the heads of the chief men of the kraal, who, when a case is brought before them, sit solemnly in a circle and place the culprit in the center. The defendant pleads his own case, uninterrupted, and may either clear himself, be sentenced to death or be mulcted heavily in a fine of cows. 1 94 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Of the unwritten laws which hold fast among the Caffres is one which is unique even in the annals of polygamy. In the division of a man's property after death the wives of the deceased go to his next brother, which may explain the custom of allowing said next brother to discipline an unruly wife during the lifetime of her husband. It will thus be seen that the death of a brother may be the fortune of the next in succession, for every wife who falls to him represents so many cows even up to the number of one hun- dred ! ^ ZULU WARFARE. But where the Zulu or the Zulu Caffre, as he is often called, goes upon the war-path he leaves far behind all ideas of human- ity, and blood and re- venge are straight before him. Painting his body with a fiery red clay and arming himself with his terrible assagai and shield of ox hide, he issues forth to carry terror into the camps of native tribes ; or with a rifle, which he may have learned to use as skillfully as a veteran sharp-shooter, arouse the admiration of the Dutch Boer and the British soldier. Even in their former conflicts with European troops, before they had the advantage of fire-arms, they seldom showed that conster- nation which usually seizes upon the savage when he firsts faces powder, shot and shell, with their roar and mysterious force. On the contrary, although the reckless warriors could perceive the havoc they created, as the cannon ball rebounded from the rocks behind which they were A NATIVE WARRIOR. ZULU WARFARE. 105 ■conducting a stubborn defense they chased them over the field and captured them, if whole, with the intention of using them to grind their ^rain. If, on the other hand, the shells exploded, they would pick up the pieces and with shouts of derision, pretend to throw them in the faces of their foes. When the fire actually became so hot as to threaten NOTABLE CHIEF AND WARRIOR. annihilation, however, the wonderful speed of the Caffre was brought out to perfection. Night attacks the Caffre is not proof against. Dur- ing the heat of the day he is as lithe and venomous as a snake, but when night comes he loses much of his energy, and all his superstitions are alive in the darkness. His two pieces of stick joined together with a strip of leather and blessed by a witch doctor seem then to avail him little and under cover of the darkness many of his stanchest warriors I06 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. have been cut to pieces and his brave chiefs brought into subjection. When his spirit is once broken his virtues seem to fade away. When he reahzes that he is defeated he will abandon wife, children and home. Should his wife be driven from her hut she will leave her baby to die by the roadside upon the first opportunity. A Caffre child will ask you to give him the beads first, before he conducts you to the hut in which you are going to shoot his own father. The incessant warfare which has been waged against the Zulu Caffres has had the effect of driving their most independent tribes far north. Those who remain have retired across the St. John's river into the dis- trict called Kaffraria Proper, or have been settled by the British govern- ment along the frontiers of the Cape Colony. The Fingoes are a money-making people, made up of various Zulu tribes, who occupy the frontier of the Cape Colony. They were for a time held as slaves by their more warlike neighbors, but rescued by the British, to whom they are closely attached. They are a saving, careful race, and much better financiers than the Caffres of the Natal region, who are in the habit of burying the money they receive from Europeans. The result is that sometimes until they can be induced to disgorge, the shops of the colony are obliged to close because there is no medium of exchange. The Fingoes, on the contrary, are so success- ful as financiers that they are called the Jews of the Caffre race. THE SOUTHERN BECHUANAS. HE country proper of this great tribe includes the central and northern portions of Southern Africa — in fact, all the ter- ritory not occupied by the Caffres, Hottentots and European colonists. Branches of the nation also spread over Central Africa. They treat as slaves the tribes even of their own nation who have not been able to stand against superior 'Q\ prowess or have not paid tribute to a powerful native chief. These native vassals are known as Bakalahari, and when the}^ show an intelligence or bravery above that of slavery they are called to enjoy the privileges of citizenship with the members of the ruling tribe. The Bakalahari are well treated by their masters, who put them to the task of tending their flocks and herds, seeming to remember that their slaves are the same as they, only weaker brothers or children. When the owner of the stock makes his appearance at the post, he speaks of the cattle as if they belonged to the Bakalahari ; and when it is his intention to slaughter one, even asks permission of his- well-pleased slave. When he goes hunting the master retains the ivory and ostrich feathers, the furs and skins, giving the meat to his vassal. When he visits the little settlement it is usually with a present of some tobacco or wild hemp for smoking, or a clasp-knife or a few beads, staying with them to hunt, or to oversee their work in a friendly way. It is sometimes with the greatest difficulty that the master can be induced to leave his slaves and cattle in order to please his chief and assist him in carrying on his wars. But although the Bechuanas are no cravens in war, they are diplo- matic by nature, and their chiefs indulge in many pretty little forms in treating with each other, or one of another tribe. Each chief has usually three or four confidential officials, or special ambassadors, to whom he entrusts all his most delicate missions. Before starting on any journey the party is assembled to hear the message of their chief. The head ambassador, or Minister Plenipotentiary, then repeats it. Should he hesitate one of his assistants prompts him, if possible. They now start 107 io8 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. on a journey of a week or more, going over the message once or twice at their evening fire, and especially reviving it in their minds the night before their arrival at their destination. Upon being received by the chief, the leader of the ambassadors commences to recite his story, and w^hen he comes to important parts of it, he pauses and turning to his attendants demands : " Am I lying? Does not our chief say so?" "You speak the true words of our master" is the reply of his companions, who thereby become his witnesses, and also as- sist him to carry back the true reply of the chief whom they are interviewing or peti- tioning. The largest of the Bechuana towns is Shoshong ; and, indeed it is one of the larsfest towns in Southern Africa, being midway be- tween the Kalahari Desert and the Trans- vaal Republic. There is a courtyard in the town, fronting which is a semi-circular row of houses occupied by the twelve wives of the chief. The headmen have from three to six wives, according to their social standing, while the common freemen of the town have seldom two. When the chief takes a wife home he agrees to furnish her a certain number of servants and cattle. In return she raises, every year, a certain quantity of corn for him. When the chief dies wailings and lamentations resound in every hut of the town, and especially those which front the court-yard. " Oh where shall we find him? who shall now provide for us? Who AGRICULTURE UNDER DIFFICULTIES. THE BUSHMEN. 109 will take his place in the council, or the chase, or the field of battle? Where shall we find him?" And then follows the wild chorus expressive of great anguish — "Yo-yo-yo!" — the mourners falling on their faces,, tearing their hair and beating their breasts. The most sincere of these mourners are often the Bakalahari who have had occasion to kindly remember some pitying attention not only from his head men but from the chief himself. THE BUSHMEN. But there is one class of slaves who have no occasion to mourn with. A GROUP OF BUSHMEN. those who mourn ; for the Bechuanas, from poor townsmen to rich headsmen and chief, have never shown any affection for the degraded no PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Bushmen. " Bushmen are great rascals," or " Bushmen are perfect snakes," are remarks which are commonly made by the governing class. If a man becomes whatever you call him, the abuse which is continually heaped upon this disgraceful species even of the Hottentot has made him what he is — so grovelling and mean, that his whole race is threat- ened with extinction. When they are not the slaves of other tribes, or are too uncivilized to act as guides, they are found living on both banks ■of the Orange river or in mountainous regions, subsisting upon roots, CAVES OF THE BUSHMEN. raw flesh, the larvse of ants and locusts, mice, vermin and snakes. They have then no fixed residence and build no dwellings, being simply aim- less, miserable roamers. They usually wear a sheepskin for clothing, and arm themselves with knives, small bows and poisoned arrows. With their broad foreheads, high cheek-bones, oblique eyes and dirty olive- colored complexion they resemble the Hottentots. But they are smaller and have a crafty look, unlike the stolid expression of the Hottentots. Both languages have the same guttural, clicking sound, but neither can understand the other. Wherever the Bushman is, he seems to be a creature of circumstances — a slave to nature or to man. He shows at THE BUSHMEN. I I I iiis best as a guide, who has been trusted by his fellows to some extent. He knows every tree and herb in the country, and- what to use them for, and if you, are sick and cannot obtain the most improved medicines, trust him to bring you out of your distress. Nothinof can exceed his skill as a hunter and an observer of the liabits of wild animals ; he seems to understand the twitter of every bird or every rustle -made by an approaching beast. In common with the Hottentot, he is noted more for his endurance than for great bodily strength, and the dogged way in which he lives for years through the really cold winter seasons of South Africa with only a small skin mantle to throw around his shoulders, is only another proof of how the most miser- able will stubbornly cling to the most miserable kind of life. Imagine a company of them lying around a log fire, asleep in the mountainous regions of the Orange River country ; or they may be sitting upright nodding over its welcome fiames, with their skins drawn around their necks. Suddenly, as if by arrangement, they stretch, yawn and grunt in concert, and walk sleepily to a pile of logs near by from which they replenish the fire. When the savages are fairly on their feet, you see that their bodies are scorched and scarred, caused by literally baking themselves at night to keep up their vital heat. They have had their backs to the flames, the first part of the night, and after they have thrown on fresh logs they methodically resum.e their places, but with their faces to the fire. By the time that side of their bodies is fairly " done," light commences to break, and they bestir themselves to look for breakfast. Their restless, hungry eyes scan heaven and earth. Sud- denly one of their number starts to his feet and seizes his spear. He points off in the distance and grunts out a few discordant words to his •comrades, and they all start in the direction indicated. After they have gone perhaps a quarter of a mile you would be able to discern the cause of this commotion in the shape of two or three huge vultures sweeping over a certain spot. Arriving at their destination they find a large lion busy over the body of an antelope or zebra, with hyenas, younger lions ahd birds of prey waiting at a distance, and biding their time. This the Bushmen do not mean to do ; so they commence to shout at the top of their voices, rattle their spears, shake their mantles, break off the branches of trees, and make such a commotion generally, that after lift- ing his bloody jaws for a moment, the king of beasts makes off with his associates, under the impression that the whole forest is about to sweep down upon him. Everything which is left is now borne away to the encampment, even if they find only bits of bone and hide and hoof. I 12 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. There is marrow in the bones, and gluten in the hoof and hide ; and this' is better food than a Bushman gets every day. The next best " treat" to getting a repast of fiesh or rich bones is to meet a Boer and be able to kill him. The Hottentot and the Boer are quite likely to stand in the relation of servant and master, but the Bushman has never forgotten that the Dutch first took possession of his A CIVILIZED BUSHMAN. country of Cape Colony and drove him away ; and although he may become the slave of a Bechuana he has sworn an interminable war against the Boer. His hatred is returned in kind, and to show to a lymphatic Boer his aboriginal enemy is like shaking a red rag at a usually peaceable cow. With actual haste he lays aside his pipe of tobacco and leaves, undrains his glass of brandy, while his buxom wife lets her cup of coffee get cold, and his daughters open their mild eyes THE BUSHMEN. II3 with interest ; for he is about to take down his gun and show that he has not forgotten how to use it. He is passionately fond of his mutton, soaked in the fat of his long-tailed sheep, but the death of a Bushman goes before everything else. He will even break into his rules of hos- pitality and leave the stranger, who has shaken hands with him and kissed his motherly wife to amuse himself as best he can, while he and his grown up sons go " a-gunning " for the Bushman. Now let us narrate the story of the Bushman's life as a slave to the Caffres, or the Bechuanas, though he is much better off with them than when he shifts for himself in the desert and the mountains. He is the hunter of South Africa, even as a slave. He knows the meaning of every sound in the air, every turned leaf or disturbed twig, and yet is always consulting his charms. When his master comes to hunt with him, he first goes through his hut, and the " bee-hives " in which his brother- slaves swarm with their families. He has no kind words for them, but is only looking to see that they have secreted no skins. If he has ven- tured to make a mantle for himself or wife, without consultine his master, he is sadly taken -to task — perhaps flogged. In former years some of the tribes even authorized a master to kill his Bushman slave for withholding the proceeds of the chase, obtained during his absence, and selling them to European hunters or natives. But such severity only seemed to rouse the Bushmen to greater deceitfulness, and the Bechuana chiefs finally were obliged to enter the field as common com- petitors in trade. So that the slaves now get a more generous allowance of skins in cold weather, and, occasionally some tobacco, while their wives and children are presented with beads and trinkets. In return, the Bushmen are expected to turn over all the skins, ivory and ostrich feathers which they obtain in the chase. But European enterprise, even with this growing leniency, is the cause of much trouble ; for the variety and attractiveness of the goods, which it sends into the country for pur- poses of barter with the natives, snatch away from the Bechuanas many articles of value on which they formerly had a monopoly. They, therefore, throw every impediment in the way of traders, to make their passage through the country as slow as possible, and give them time to gather up the spoils in advance. When the master decides to go upon a hunting excursion with his Bushmen, he enters into the sport with all the zest of his slaves. The Bushman, in addition to his native spear, bow and arrow, is often en- trusted with a gun, which he has learned to handle with remarkable pre- cision; for with all his hardships his eye is true and his nerves are steady. They then sally forth with their dogs, the master decked out with feath- 114 X m in t-' > < o > n EUROPEAN — BECHUANAN CIVILIZATION. II 5 ^rs and beads ; the Bushmen wearing plain skins, and around their necks cr in their bushy hair bits of wood or bone, to be used as medicines or charms in case of sickness or danger. Besides marks on their faces, some of them have the cartilage of their nose pierced, a survival of a tribal custom not yet dropped in their present condition of bondage. The leader of the party, who is invariably a Bushman, having con- sulted the bits of bone or ivory which are strung around his neck, announces confidently the direction in which their game will be found, and they go briskly forward, with their dogs ahead. If you ask him about his ivory charms, he will call them *' things of my god," and will add, " they tell me news." He does not attempt to explain, but evidently believes in some power outside of himself. In times of peace it is evident that these vassals of the Bechuanas are far more comfortable than if left to themselves ; for they seem to have no idea of combining into kraals and settlements for protection or con- venience, although they are thus grouped by their masters. It is the custom that a slave can appeal to the chief of a tribe if he considers him- self ill-used by his master ; but the certainty of obtaining justice depends upon the fact of whether said master is a friend or a foe to said chief. Every Bechuana cannot have his Bushman. Slaves are the property of the headmen of the tribe. These great men often get to quarreling among themselves, and the anxiety of the slaves may be imagined when it is known that if the quarrel comes to bloodshed, they may be driven hither and thither, and even butchered as so many cattle who are of value to a hated rival. In times of civil strife the Bakalahari, or native slaves, are liable to suffer the same atrocities. When one Bechuana tribe attacks another the Bushmen and Bakalahari are placed in the same category with cattle and sheep — they are to be " lifted," or killed as opportunity offers. During such troublous times, therefore, the slaves flee into the desert, the forest or the mountains, and hide themselves until the commotion is past. EUROPEAN — BECHUANAN CIVILIZATION. Hedged around by the territory of the Orange Free State is a com- munity or tribe of Bechuanas, whose position is unique in the history of African progress. They possess a territory about thirty-five miles square which supports 15,000 natives. They live under their own laws and are governed by their own chief, and as they have been allies of the Dutch in times part, they live quietly and unmolested, growing maize and corn and tending their cattle and sheep like other Caffres. The ii6 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. land is held by the chief, who apportions it as he pleases, but withdraws what has been given only for serious cause. A European has now and then ventured into the fertile territory and received a share of the land from the chief, whose sole aim seems to be to advance the prosperity of his people. The principal town of the nation, which contains about 6,000 people, is laid out in regular streets, and within the same province are smaller villages with their shops and a general appearance of life and hope. What few Europeans are living in the place have their houses low on the plain, while the huts of the natives are constructed on a hill. The king resides in a spacious hut and has his chairs, bed and settles, and dresses and walks like a European. He has his watch and chain, a round fiat-topped hat and cord trousers, is quiet and courteous and " progressive " in the best sense of the word. A court-yard runs around the huts occupied by the royal family and his min- isters, which is inclosed by a cir- . cular fence of bamboo canes, }"--;.><;/;;^ stuck into the ground perpen- "i-^i^" dicularly and bound together. ^>^*.. The way into the court-yard is " *v# open, but the circle is brought around so as to overlap the en- trance and prevent the passer-by from looking in. The king ad- A EUROPEANizED CAFFRE. ministers justice sitting outside in his court with his counselors around him; and their word is law. Their laws are somewhat similar to those of the Caffres. Death is the penalty for rebellion against the government. All other crimes are punishable by fines of cows, heavy or light according to their mag- nitude. SOUTH AFRICAN ABORIGINES. The Hottentots, which include the Bushmen, are supposed to be the descendants of the tribes which first settled in Southeastern Africa, and with the influx of the more energetic Caffres were driven into the south- ern portion of the continent. They now dwell for the most part in and about the Cape of Good Hope. In moral and intellectual caliber they have been found far superior to the Bushman and fully on a par with the Caffre. They are courageous, when occasion warrants, but are by nature SOUTH AFRICAN ABORIGINES. 117 mild and tractable, being generally emplo)ed by the Dutch Boers as herdsmen and laborers. Their eyes and complexion, and the shape of the head and face, as well as the structure of the hair have been the means of separating them from the other African races, notwithstanding they are small in numbers and decreasing. Ethnologists have even gone so far as to place them among the Mongolians, and they do bear a strik- ino- resemblance to the Northern Asiatics and the Esquimaux. When the Dutch first commenced to colonize around the cape they found the Hottentots occupying all the country now included in the Cape Colony; they were living under rather democratic forms of government, although o-overned by chiefs, and marched proudly to battle to the sound of the pipe and the flageolet. Now they have lost all national ambition and have allowed them- selves to be scattered and absorbed by the superior races. Their downfall was principally occasioned by their in- ordinate love for rum, for which they would eagerly part with their flocks and herds. Then they became slaves to the Dutch — those who were not driven into the desert and waste places, like the Bushmen. The purest remnants of the native tribes are found in Namaqua land, a sandy, mountainous tract of country, in the north- western part of the Cape Colony. North of this is Damara land, in which a few miserable aborigines drag out a savage existence among its hills and gorges and sandy plains. This is a narrow belt of drought-stricken land which they also share with the Damaras, a warlike tribe of the Bechuanas who formerly extended their depredations as far as N 'garni lake and the Zambesi river. These dreary regions of fire, rocks and famine have only one attraction for civ- ilized people; they are known to be rich in copper — some travelers assert with confidence that when developed they will be among the most e^"^ A NAMAQUA. ii8 n w t?3 t/i O a W !« > JO »— ( n TRIBES OF SOUTHWESTERN AFRICA. I I9 productive of any in the world. The Griquas, who live along the Orange river further to the east, are half-breeds, a mongrel tribe of Hottentots and Boers. The partially civilized Hottentots as they are found around the Cape of Good Hope and scattered all over the colony are docile and willing to be taught, and it is asserted that no uncultivated people have received the instructions of the Moravian missionaries more readily than they. They OAvn both oxen and sheep and, with the Bushmen, are addicted to the chase. Their onl}- manufacture is a kind of earthen- ware. Their taste for music is satisfied with a rude, three-stringed oruitar and a bark flute. Closer contact with Europeans has dispelled many of the superstitions which still thrive in the darkness of the Bushman's mind or in that of the wild Hottentot. On the other hand the "Cape" Hottentot has imbibed several which he would not have done had he never brushed up against the life of the nineteenth century. If there is one thino^ more than another which makes him shiver it is to have his photograph taken, for he honestly thinks that the process in some way draws his vitality from him and will shorten his life. The young Hottentot is remarkably symmetrical. The girls in par- ticular are models of proportion, with delicate hands and feet. But an attractive face among either sex is almost unknown, and as the boys and girls become men and women every part of the body seems determined to outdo the other in ugliness. And their language is in keeping, being compared to the discordant clucking of a hen after she has laid an egg. It has been suo^o-ested that hereon hino^es the orisfin of the Avord Hottentot; that it was given to these people to convey an idea of the peculiar clicking or clucking of their words — Hot-en-tot or Hot-and-tot. They call themselves Ouai-quae, Gkhui-gkhui. When discovered by the Dutch nearly 300 years ago they were known according to their dialects as Koi-koin, Tkuhgrub, Ouenan and Ouaquas. It seems impossible to find an explanation of the name in their own language. In years to come some light upon the mystery may be thrown from an obelisk unearthed from Egyptian sand ; for philologists have found some things in common between the two tongues, and it may be that the Hottentot io only a degraded Pharaoh after all. Who can tell ? TRIBES OF SOUTHWESTERN AFRICA. The Griquas are a tribe who much resemble the Hottentots. Their country which lies along the Orange river is fertile and yet affords fine pasturage ; so that they are both agriculturists and raise large flocks of sheep and goats. As has been observed, many of them have embraced & I20 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the Christian faith. They are so enthusiastic in their devotion that they attend church upon every possible occasion. Some cynic has made the suggestion that they do so, principally with the idea of showing off their fine clothes. However this may be, they appear in a variety of costumes. Some of the gentlemen wear roundabouts, frock coats or DAMARA WARRIOR AND MAIDEN. regimentals obtained from British merchants or peddlers. They may have vests and pantaloons, or they may be minus the accompanying gar- ments. Again they may don cotton shirts or turbans, and rest satisfied. The women appear in the most grotesque head-dresses, bodices which fit close to the waist and colored petticoats which reach to the ankles. As a rule they have been firm allies of Great Britain and have assisted TRIBES OF SOUTHWESTERN AFRICA. 121 them in their warfare with the Boers. They seem particularly attached to the Mother Country — for what they can "get out of her;" and the appearance of an Englishman on the banks of the Orange river is the signal for a concerted attack upon him in the shape of petitions for the very clothes upon his back, and especially his shirt. The Griquas are not warriors, however, by disposition, and if possible keep at a safe dis- tance from the energetic Dutch fighters. As a rule the parties are separated sufficiently so that the herds of antelopes or zebras grazing on the broad plain between them receive the brunt of the conflict. The Griquas are principally noted for possessing (under the control of Great Britain) the finest diamond fields of Africa, that is, they work in them and are paid wages. Unless it be quarreling with the Damaras, or fighting among them- selves, the chief occupation of the Namaquas appears to be hunting the . ostrich. They usually go after their prey when the sun is at its hottest, and the plan pursued is to first tire out the fleet birds by a skillful com- bination of their hunting party. The chase is generally conducted on horseback. A troop of ostriches having been espied, a number of hunters encircle them at a great distance, and then cautiously draw toward them, merely showing themselves sufficiently or making enough noise to start them in motion. As the circle ©"rows smaller and the Namaquas see that they have their quarry secure, they shout loudly and urge their horses upon them, keeping them moving from one hunter to another, until finally the ostriches commence to wave their wings heavier and heavier, and perhaps come to a stand-still, falling to the ground completely exhausted. At all events, few of them escape. Another mode is to drive them over a plain and toward a narrow defile where a party is stationed, there being also relays along the way who take up the chase when the horses of one division have become exhausted. By this latter method the number of birds captured is often so large that the hunters have more food than they can eat and allow some of the ostriches to escape, after they have plucked their wing and tail feathers. If the Hottentots discover a collection of nests containinor the ostriches' huge eggs, those who make the discovery quickly divest themselves of their nether garments, should they be so fortunate as to be w^earing them, and tying up the lower ends, pack the trophies securely within, throwing the load over their shoulders or across their horses' back. Beyond the Damaras, are the Ovampos or Otjiherero. They are given rather a " good character," seeming to be a connecting link between the best qualities of the Zulu Caff're and those of the Congo Caffre to the north, although the stout, athletic, warlike and dirty 122 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Damaras come in between them. The Ovampos are tall and well- formed, and although generally intelligent, and willing to come "in con- tact with Europeans, their thirty years' intercourse has not disabused them of the idea that they look best with the least possible amount of clothing. They buy guns and ammunition, but no cloth. The native arms are the bow and arrow, a dagger-shaped knife, and a short club with a knob on the end. With this latter weapon they can kill a bird on the wing, or a man on horseback. The men have few ornaments,. - WOODEN UTENSILS OF THE OVAMPOS. I — Bowl. 2 — Kettle. 3 — Shovel. 4— Pipe-bowl. 5 and 6 — Double Cup for Pouring Beer. but the women are loaded down with various colored beads and shells of ostrich eggs. The heavy rings around the ankles, which many tribes still consider fashionable, have been discarded by the Ovampo women, and are now fastened to the limbs of servants and slaves who are sus- pected of wanting to run away. Another practice also has been discarded by the Ovampos — the men do not allow the women to do all the field work. When not engaged in cultivating the soil or tending their cattle, they often make journeys of several hundred miles to exchange the iron and copper rings, the hoes and the spear-heads which they make themselves, for the crude ore, and for articles of food which SCATTERED CENTRAL AFRICAN TRIBES. 12 3: they do not raise. Both men and women are Hght-hearted, and deHght in music and dancing. When the labors of the day are over, they gather out-of-doors and go through with many queer movements to the sound of the tom-tom and a sort of guitar. As a rule the men take the most active part in the dance, jumping and kicking about like colts, while the women stand in a ring, singing and clapping their hands, and keeping time with their feet. It is singular how plump and healthy they all appear, since they will hardly touch a piece of meat if it is not putrid, and they do not hesitate to devour it if the animal is known to have died of disease. As the land of the Ovampos is given over prin- cipally to agriculture, it has no villages. An exception might perhaps be made in the case of the chief's werft, or kraal, which is surrounded, by a palisade half a mile in circumference. Like his humbler subjects he is the center of a numerous family of wives, children, slaves and servants, who live around him in hundreds of mud huts. The surrounding wall is, of course, stronger, consisting of two or more rows of poles, as do also the walls which enclose the pathways leading to all the principal huts of his immense household. These defenses are of a very substan- tial nature, and each member of the king's tribe contributes his quota of material and labor to make them so, the only remuneration of the workman being an unlimited distribution of native beer. SCATTERED CENTRAL AFRICAN TRIBES. Shortly after leaving the Orange river in Southern Africa, one commences to meet the tribes of a great nation which is nearly allied to the Caffres, the energetic and progressive Bechuanas. Their complexion is light, although they have short, crisped hair. Each tribe has a village with a chief of its own, and although their huts are of the prevailing style, cone-shaped and thatched with grass, those found nearest the southern coast of the continent are plastered within and without. Their dwellings have no windows; the doors are about three feet high. Each hut is fenced with wicker-work and the villao-e entire with a thick fence of thorns. They dress in skins and wear charms attached to copper chains around their necks. One of these is a bone whistle which they blow when in danger, as if to call their guardian spirits to protect them. Instead of slaying an animal and studying its internal organization, to determine what the result is to be of any of their enterprises, they shake dice and throw them on the ground. Living so near the Caffreland they are obliged to be warlike, and therefore go armed with a thick shield covered with the skin of a camelopard, a triangular-shaped battle 124 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. axe, and a javelin which is thrown to kill at one hundred yards' distance. Both sexes go bare-headed and besmear their hair with a composition of grease and glittering sand. The men engage in war and hunt. The women cultivate the fields and drudge at home. The average wife is quoted in the market at ten or twelve head of cattle ; is sold sometimes for a spade, or a string of beads. The weapons of nearly all the tribes south of the Kalahari Desert being made of iron, those natives who are the most expert blacksmiths are held in the highest estimation. A blacksmith is above the genius — A NATIVE VILLAGE. or rather, a good blacksmith is a great genius. He gets his ore by a peculiar process of smelting; his anvil is a large stone, his hammer a small one and his bellows are made of skins. The natives poison their arrows by dipping them in the juice of a certain shrub. They also impregnate springs and streams with the powerful poison so that when antelope come to drink they fall dead, and, strange to say, are used as food without bad effects. When the bee extracts the poison, however, and the natives indulge in the honey, of which they are very fond, the effect is fatal. The black rhinoceros, the fiercest of his species, eats the SCATTERED CENTRAL AFRICAN TRIBES. 125 shrub with great greediness, and comes from his repast with his ferocity unabated. Just before plunging into the great desert of Central Africa a pas- sage must be effected through the country of the Bamangwatos, a name which the reader is not expected to keep in mind, but only to consider as implying an odd sort of people burdened with an odd sort of name. It is a very rocky country; but the pods of the Acacia tree and its gum, which are eaten with relish, fatten both cattle and natives to a very A NATIVE AT LIVINGSTONE'S FUNERAL. comfortable size. The tribe is of quite a commercial turn, perferring to let braver people kill the elephant, while they are careful to lay in a goodly stock of beads and trinkets which they barter for the ivory. They, in turn, will pay preposterous prices for old muskets, powder, bullet molds and rusty iron ladles, snuff and coffee. With their "improved" firearms they occasionally kill an elephant themselves, and when the huge beast rolls over on his side, all the " savage " comes out of them. They dance around the carcass, and with shouts of joy brandish the knives with which they intend to cut it up. The leader of the party, as if unable to suppress his growing appetite, suddenly makes a dash at the head of the elephant and cuts off a nice beefsteak from the temple, which is the choiest bit of meat to be found. His companions are soon 126 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. into the body, skinning and cutting up the carcass as if on a wager, and smearing their bodies with gore. The flesh is cut into strips of from six to twenty feet in length and about an inch in thickness, hung on poles to dry and wound up in bundles. When they wish to make a meal of one of them they uncoil one of the rolls and commence to chew, as a boy does a long strip of slippery-elm. The feet of the elephant are baked in a hole which is dug in the ground, and they, with the trunk, are really delicious eating. But the Africans do not stop with the temple piece, the flesh from the body, the feet or the trunk; they crack the skull, the spinal column and all the bones, sucking out the marrow with the keen- est of enjoyment. Reaching Lake N'gami, the Zambesi River region, and Lake Tanganyika, larger and more diversified tribes or nations come under observation than those which are further south. Among them the lamented Livingstone spent the last years of his life and his faithful negro servant, Wainwright, was among the most affected mourners at his funeral. Those inhabiting the immediate vicinity of the Zambesi river are spoken of in connection with the ancient kingdom of Monoma- tapa, or Mozambique. It is not very surprising, though it may at first seem an anomaly, that some of the largest of the native towns of Africa have been dis- covered far in the interior. These people are seldom of pure negro blood, but may rather be of that Ethiopian stock which has been emigrating from the northeast, via the River Nile, since history began. A dash even of Moorish or Arabian blood appears. But it is quite reasonable to suppose that the basis of these nations, with their cities and governments and manufactures, was laid in the fact that the more powerful tribes pushed the weaker ones away from the inhabited portions of the continent but could not extinguish the memory of what they had learned. These ideas they put into practice and, unmolested in their new homes, they used the materials at hand to found cities and governments. And who shall say that many of these little fragments were not broken from the body of that great Ethiopia, which rivaled Egypt when her glory was brightest and then mysteriously dissolved into the darkness of Central Africa? Two hundred miles or more above the nations which dwell on the banks of the Zambesi river there is a large town, which is given over to the manufacture of cloth by the felting process and to the working of all kinds of useful metals. Gold and silver its inhabitants value far below copper and iron. Two hundred miles further to the north," in the Valley Londa, in the very center of the continent, is a compact little kingdom of people SCATTERED CENTRAL AFRICAN TRIBES. 127 -who hold to many of the truths of Christianity; who beHeve in the im- mortahty of the soul, religious freedom and trial by jury, and have a written language. They are also manufacturers and their trade extends to the Bechuanas in the south. The Hottentots even of South Africa often find their way to their capital with ivory and ostrich feathers, to barter for their goods. The complexion of this people is about as light as the Moors and they have straight hair and regular features. Their language is somewhat similar to the Hebrew and they have a tradition of a general deluge. Churches or temples they have none, but worship in their own houses or in groves. The priests are supported by voluntary offerings of the public. As to their government, the king may CENTRAL AFRICAN MANUFACTURES. 1-2-7— WoodeK DRt'iMS AND Drumsticks. 3-4 — Iron Bells. 5-6— Palm Wine Coolers. be deposed for cause. They have magistrates who are elected by a magisterial college, and who must be vouched for by ten good citizens. The college consists of forty-five members, sixteen of whom are selected by the chief for the trial of causes. They are not allowed to receive compensation, lest their decisions should be biased; and they need no salary, for they, as well as the king, maintain themselves by means of some handicraft. They write upon the prepared leaves of a palm tree with a pencil of red clay mixed with resin. These Bermegai manufac- ture both woolen and cotton cloth. The dress of the men consists of a long frock-like garment which reaches below the knees and is fastened behind with loops, and long striped stockings. Rank and occupation are indicated by the color of the upper garment. The royalty wear green, public men yellow, farmers blue, mechanics red and priests white. Black is w^orn by criminals and such as are under jDublic censure. The 128 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. dress of the won-'en is a loose robe of light cotton cloth, reaching almost to the feet. Their country houses are made of logs; their farms inclosed by hedges of wicker-work; their wagon wheels made of the segments of large logs with a body of wicker-work and drawn by zebras, oxen or antelope; and their plows are skillfully fashioned, the share being the breast-bone of a large bird of the condor species. THE CONGO CAFFRES. ORDERING on the Atlantic Ocean for about one thousand miles, and stretching over three hundred into the interior, a great portion of which territory is yet unexplored, is the country of the Congos, or the Congo Caffres, and once the scene of great activity in the slave trade. Through the north- ern region runs the great Congo river, whose source is now known to be Lake Tanganyika. The Congos are a branch of the Bechuanas, or nearly related to them. Planted in the very midst of the country of the negro, they have lost much of the activity and fierceness of their Caffre progenitors, and their distinguishing qualities are now indolence and good-nature. When once aroused, however, they are exceedingly fierce and reckless, as Stanley and other explorers have found in fighting their way down the Congo and through their country. At the time of their discovery by the Portuguese, the Congos were a very numerous people, and most improbable stories are told of the immense armies which they could bring into the field. One of these is that the king actually marched against a rebellious chief, at the head of 900,000 men. It is probable that this tale is on a par with the great stories which were brought back to Portugal by the discoverers of the region, and which resulted in an attempt to subdue and Christianize the country. The capital of the kingdom was situated on a high mountain com- manding a magnificent view of the surrounding country, and when most prosperous, is said to have contained at least 40,000 people. But with the grovx^th of the slave trade, the repeated invasion of hordes of Giaghi, a terrible tribe from the east, and serious civil dissensions, the country was so decimated that now it is far from populous. The Portuguese and early missionaries did much to improve the general condition of the land. They built wooden palaces for the king and his chief, planted gardens and fruit trees, and erected substantial houses both for private dwellings and places of public worship. The " upper classes " of the Congos felt the benefit of these acts, but the mass of the people, then as now, lived in 9 129 I30 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. their bamboo huts, scratched their ground with a hoe, and, if they wore any clothing, made it as scant as possible. Then as now, slavery was the penalty for all crimes except murder, the difference being that in the palmy days of the slave trade, immense numbers of Congos and other native tribes were shipped openly to the western world, whereas now the traffic is pursued with fear and trembling. It would seem that the chiefs TYPES OF THE CONGOS. themselves brought many of the horrors of the slave trade upon their country by selling into servitu-de their own people who had fallen under their displeasure, or were criminals, and also those whom they had cap- tured in war. When the supply fell short of the unrighteous demand, then the country suffered all the horrors of fiendish raids, chainings, burnings and desolations which accompanied the hunters of human prey. Domestic slavery is still common among the Congos, and if the slave THE CONGO CAFFRES. 131 'Commits a crime, he may be transferred, or, in other words, sold. In a "word, slavery is held over the Congo as a cattle-fine would be over his cousins, the Bechuanas and Caffres ; his is not a country of cattle, but it always has been a country where slavery was an institution, and this is therefore made the basis of his criminal code. A man who cannot pay his debts may become a slave, and places his children also under bondacje. If he is found guilty of witchcraft, he is re- duced to slavery. A pris- oner of war has the choice of death or slavery, and there are scores of other loopholes through which he may escape from mis- fortune and death into serfdom. It must not be inferred, however, that the slavery of Congo or of Southern Guinea is an in- stitution which is attend- ed, as a rule, by the abom- inations which have dis- graced it elsewhere. The master has no right to sell a slave, after he has proved faithful, from the sordid motive of gain ; and if he punishes his servant un- justly, he exposes himself to all the horrors of witch- craft which the slave can command. He puts the children of his slaves at some kind of lijjht work, such as bringing wood and water, or taking care of the younger ones, Avhile the man is called upon to do everything that a man servant should. The master treats the slave almost as he would his own child. They both call him father, work with him, eat with him, and sleep with hini ; cases are not unknown of the slave rising to a greater portion of wealth than his master, and yet preferring to be his servant. A slave, also, is A CONGO KING. 132 ■ PANORAMA OF NATIONS. sometimes the owner of slaves. So that the word and the institution do not carry with them the odium which is attached to them in countries where even domestic slavery means cruelty. When the slaves are under the arbitrary power of a chief, the case is somewhat different ; for his rank in the state is based upon slavery, and when he dies he is allowed to sacrifice the number which fixes his station, that he may have attend- ants in the other world. There are royal families from which the king must be chosen, but there is no regular order of descent. The people elect their king in-so-far as they decide what particular member of the family shall rule them ; and before the king is crowned, everybody has a right to say exactly what they think of him. His character is "raked over the coals" as thoroughly as if he were running the gauntlet of a political campaign. If he is miserly he hears of it. If he is deceitful, or cruel, or oonceited, or has stolen, or cheated, or lied, or swindled, he hears of it from some- body. Every sharp tongue does its best ; but when the king is once inaugurated, the clatter ceases, and the royal arm cannot thereafter be lifted to chastise the offender. After he becomes king he is sacred. Lower Guinea is a country where there are no taxes. Its revenue consists of voluntary offerings made by the captains of the vessels who come to trade at the different ports. If the captain wants merely a load of wood, he pays about thirty dollars, ten of which go to the king and the balance to the head men. If the vessel comes for a cargo of ivory and is obliged to make a long stay, something like one hundred dollars is presented to the king and his chiefs. Besides these offerings, which are considered somewhat in the nature of royal rights, if the business proves quite successful, the captain of a vessel may make an additional donation to the king of a piece of cloth or something else of value. FETICH WORSHIP. The superstitions of the Caffres of this region are more gross, if anything, than are found among the tribes further east. They brought with them their own ideas of witches, fetiches, rain-makers, spirits and mysterious agencies, and upon these have been engrafted the supersti- tions and practices of the negro. Further south and east they were more in the nature of ideas, but the negro fashion was to embody those ideas in some material shape ; so we find that the Congos have a great spirit who pays visits to their different villages and lives for a period in a large, flat house which has been provided for him, and from which he disciplines and overawes all the women and children, by rolling forth FETICH WORSHIP. ^33 Strange noises and keeping them in a constant state of terror. He is supposed to dwell in the bowels of the earth, but comes forth by request of the wise men. \Mien he desires to make a solemn vow, the Caffre will swear by "the spirit of his ancestors ;" the Congo has his images, skulls or b^nes in a small house built for them, to which he takes food and drink and a share of his profits, and where he goes to make his vows or narrate his troubles. Although the people have ostensibly several kinoes, with reeular seats of o-overnment, and the Portuo^uese have often a word to say, there are as many independent communities as there are chiefs, and neither kings, chiefs nor Portuguese have any authority com- pared to the power which the " fetich " exercises over them. The fetich A PRECIOUS PAIR. is sometimes a horrible figure set up in the v.'oods or in a small house built for it, and is supposed to represent something which will detect the evil doer and punish him. Those who know of crimes and do not give information are also in the power of the monster. The Congos have their laws, and some of them very severe against stealing and other crimes, but these have no perceptible weight when compared to the effect which "fetiches" and other superstitious notions have to prevent the commission of crime. Their custom is to erect a hut in the middle of the street for the convenience of the priest, who exorcises evil spirits. The process is often stretched out to a great length, requiring two weeks or more to be perfected. Day and night dancing, drumming, feasting and drinking are continued, and all at the expense of the relatives of the invalid. If she is a female her face, bosom, arms and legs are streaked 134 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. with white and red chalk, her head adorned with red feathers, and usu- ally she can be seen pacing in front of the shanty wildly brandishing a sword, gnashing her teeth, foaming at the mouth and exhibiting other horrible symptoms. If the patient recovers, she is required to build a little temple near her own house in which her evil spirit is supposed to reside and to which she regularly takes offerings to keep it at a safe distance from her. The house erected to the Great Spirit in some of the Congo villages, is also an object of terror to those who have not been initiated into the mysteries of the interior. The term of initiation is the- period in the boys' lives between fourteen and eighteen, and even after they grow to manhood their respect for the Great Spirit does not seem to have weakened. Upon any matter of grave importance, such as an agreement between different tribes, he is invoked as a witness, after which the covenant is binding. The Great Spirit also gives sanctity and authority to the laws. The Congos have a spirit of the woods who comes out at night bundled up from head to foot in dried plantain leaves and accompanied by young men. The party dance through the streets of the village upon the occurrence of any unusual event, such as the birth of twins or the inauguration of some one into office, and the women, children and slaves hurry away to hide themselves. It is suspected that this spirit is used principally to keep the weaker portion of the community in proper sub- jection. None but males are admitted to his company. The women, in turn, have a secret order whose meetings are held in the woods. They march there in regular file where mysterious ceremonies are conducted to the sound of a crescent-shaped drum and by the blaze of a fire. Some- times they spend whole nights in the woods. As they pretend to detect thieves and other wrong doers, and also to perform wonders, they undoubtedly feel that they have gotten even with the gentlemen Congos and their Spirit of the Woods. For the detection of witchcraft a powerful drink is used. Small sticks are laid down at a short distance apart, and if the suspected per- son, after he has swallowed the medicine, can step over them without staggering, he is pronounced innocent ; if he reels or otherwise shows that his brain is affected he is either put to death or heavily fined and banished from the country. Sometimes the test is made by requiring the accused to pass under a row of bent twigs stuck in the ground. The drink which is called " Casca" has been analyzed by scientists and found to invariably affect the limbs so that one loses all power over them ; if the dregs only are taken the effect is different, and this the " fetich " man who prepares it, and gives it, probably knows. He therefore holds the fT'li'TllH ii|iiiiriri|iiiiTiff '. r I V < u < in a t/j a u o z 136 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. life of the' person in whose hands, though this is not known either by the ignorant women and children who have been dancing around the hut beatine their drums and shaking their rattles, nor do the men who sur- round the poor fellow while he is undergoing the ordeal, armed with knives, hatchets and sticks. It would not be surprising if he should stacrgfer with- out having tak- en any power- ful drink under such circum- stances; but should he so much as stum- ble, the howl- ing multitude set upon him and cut and hack him to pieces in a few minutes. The V il- lage house, in charo^e of the fetich man, is generally a small square hut, with mud walls w h i c h are painted white, and cov- ered with the figures of men and beasts in red and black colors. Here the guardian spirit of the town resides. This hut is also the place where the fetich man deposits his charms which bring health and rain, andAvard off all misfortunes ; and from his hoard he supplies the men, women and children of the entire region. You see them everywhere — bits of wood, with a carved head protruding from a pouch ; a bundle of filthy rags; or small antelope's horns and land shells, suspended from the neck, waist A FETICH MAN OF THE COAST. HOW THEY TREAT THE DEAD.- 13^ and shoulders of little children. In the huts and ovet their doors hano- hideous images of clay or wood, but always colored red, black and white. The tribes on the Congo river are considered the most proficient manu- facturers of fetiches, and their fetich men are in great demand, sometimes carrying their ugly figures for long distances, accompanied b}' their attendants beating drums and chanting a dismal song as they go along. Besides the fetich msn of the interior, there are those who live on the coast and make a specialty of controlling the surf, and regulating it according to the wishes ol the natives who may, or may not, wish to fish. When on duty they usually station themselves on a high cliff, and, covered with shells and sea-weed, wave their arms about, mumble to themselves, and go through with other mysterious motions calculated to keep up their weird reputation. Their knowledge of natural signs enables them usually to delay a trial of their powers until everything is propitious; until the wind dies away, and the power of the surf weak- ens, when the native remunerates the imposter for his services. Notwithstanding that they are far above the bulk of the population in acuteness they are sometimes exposed and killed by the infuriated natives. Not many years ago a native village was destroyed by fire, the inhabitants refusing to lift a finger, as they relied upon the protection of their fetiches, which had been given them by one of the greatest men in the land. When the fetich man returned to the ruined villaoe, he found not only his house gone but his occupation, and was nearly beaten to death by those who previously would not have dared to look him in the eye. The Cono^os show the same reverence for old acre, and the same crude ideas regarding legal justice as the Zulu Caffres, only modified by their different "habitat." If a person, besides having reached a good old age, has become noted in trade, tribal affairs, or war, he is ahr.ost worshipped as a deity on earth. The youth must not pass his dwelling without bending low. If they hand him anything, they do it on their knees, and address him as "father;" while if they venture to sit in his presence, they must be separated a distance proportionate to the differ- ence in their ages and station in life. A reproof or a curse from such a person is deemed a great misfortune. This feeling which we see evinced to a degree which almost runs from the pathetic into the ridiculous is carried forward in their worship of ancestors. HOW THEY TREAT THE DEAD. The burial customs of some of the Congo tribes are so singular as to merit attention, the treatment of the dead as of the living depending 138 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. on the social or tribal station of the deceased. If he Is a stranger, two men take the body, tie the wrists and knees together, and then, by means of a long pole, carry the pauper to some point outside the town, and bury him anywhere. If the corpse is that of a man, his staff is laid, on the grave ; if that of a woman, a basket marks her burial place. Should the death be that of a king, or chief, however, the case is quite different. The body is placed in a shallow pit, dug in the floor of the hut, where the deceased breathed his last, and covered with a thin layer of earth. For a month fires are kept burning over the grave, the hot ashes being continually spread over it. The body is then uncovered and smoked in a frame work of sticks, the whole operation being wit- nessed by the family of the deceased, the women keeping up a dismal wailing day and night. With the hut full of smoke, the foul atmosphere caused by the emanations from the body and lungs of those who crowd the scene of the "wake" and the superstitious excitement attending the ceremonies, it is a wonder that any members of the dead chief's family pass through the ordeal alive. But the body being at length com- pletely desiccated, is wrapped in cloth and stood upright in the corner of the hut, where it may remain for several years ; for it is necessary that every surviving relative should be present, when the body is wound in hundreds of yards of cloth, and the last rites of burial are performed. These consist of dancing, firing of guns, drinking the native beer made: from Indian corn, and eating roast pig. It is the custom in some of the coast districts to place boots and shoes on the feet of free men when they are buried, and the spirit of the deceased is thereby thought to imbibe some of the advanced ideas of the white man, for which these people have unbounded reverence. In some places there are regular burial grounds, the mounds being ornamented with broken crockery and bottles, but, as a rule, the body is buried in a private spot, and after a time may be resurrected and the bones used as fetiches. Paradoxical as the statement may seem, the Congos, naked though they be, assume a mourning habit of black. They first roast a species of oily ground-nut, and grind it into a black paste, which is smeared over the whole or a portion of the body. In short, the reverence for old age and ancestral worship, bloody sacrifices, the observance of new moons, purifications and various other Hebrew customs, exist among the Caff res of Africa, as among nearly all the Ethiopian tribes of any prominence. The Congos show the same eagerness for a numerous progeny as did the Jewish patriarchs. Upon the birth of twins they rejoice exceedingly, some of the tribes having processions and regular jubilees in honor of the event. A public crier proclaims the fact of the birth of even a single little one, the pop- BAPTISMS AND DANCES. 139 ulation turn out en masse, and the new-born infant is brought forward for inspection. Its Httle head is then sprinkled by the chief man of the town, and most of those present add their quota of water, with their pledges of friendship, to the blessing invoked upon it by the head man of the village. It has thus been given a name, and been formally received into the community. The people have no idea where this form of baptism originated, but everything points to the belief that most of A GROUP OF MUSICIANS. their customs, distorted now by a long separation from the best intelli- gence of the world, had their birth in the land of Canaan, and in their journeyings across the continent, via Christian Abyssinia, have been metamorphosed into their present forms. The Congos seem to have two kinds of dances. Possibly one may be the fashionable dance, the other that of the countrv ; for one is mostly indulged in by the coast tribes, and the other by those of the 140 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. interior. In tlie former a ring is made of the participants and specta- tors, and all assembled clap their hands in time with the drums and other musical instruments, which should be described before the dance commences. First comes the marimba, a flat, hollow piece of wood, upon which are fixed a number of thin, iron tongues, which are snapped upon a wire on which some glass beads are strung. The instrument sometimes has a gourd attached to the under part. All in all, it is to the Congo what the guitar is to the Spaniard. Then there is an instru- ment made by a palm stem, split and grooved, and rubbed upon with a stick ; another is a combination of a bow and a gourd, the string being struck with a stick, and the gourd rapped gently against the stomach. Where the tribe has advanced beyond the simpler forms, and has been able to obtain a small powder barrel from traders, or make a hollow Avooden cylinder, a more complicated sort of 'instrument is manufactured by stretching over this a piece of sheepskin. A piece of wood is inserted with a knob at the end to prevent it slipping through, and the performer's hand is wetted and thrust into the cylinder (open at both ends). The piece of wood is then grasped and pulled lightly up and down, the result being a booming sound not unlike that proceeding from our own big bass drum. These instruments, and others, may be brought to give eclat to the dance. They strike up, those assembled clap their hands, and soon the dancers, both men and women, jump yelling into the ring. The dancing consists chiefly of a slight motion of the head, feet and arms, and a great swaying of the body, and a tremendous twitching of the muscles above the hips. The two or three who commence are soon covered with perspiration, and give place to several others, the dancers apparently being applauded according to the rapidity with which they can make their muscles quiver. The dancing is kept up all night, or if there is no moon, as long as the great heaps of dried grass last, which furnish illumination for the occasion. The other dance has the same accompaniment of musical instruments and spectators, but is taken part in by one man and woman. The pair shufifle their feet with great rapidity, pass one another backward and forward, and are gener- ally more boisterous, reminding one of the plantation dancers of the South. RIGHTS OF PROPERTY. Regarding the rights of property, there seems to be a marked differ- ence in the disposition of the Congo Caffres and the Zulu Caffres. In a certain sense, supposing he is not suspected of being uncanny, the Zulu's person is sacred ; but in Congo the most common way of collect- RIGHTS OF PROPERTY. - 141 ing debts is to seize the person of the delinquent or make prisoners of his friends, and retain the body or bodies until the matter is settled. It is but justice to the Congo Caffre, however, to say that he usually notifies the person or persons, through the elders of the village, that unless his claim is satisfied, he shall proceed to extremities. Similar to this practice is the method pursued by the husband whose wife has deserted him, and married another man. Poylgamy is much more general amonof the sea-coast tribes than amonor those of the interior, the former being, as a rule, in far better circumstances, and their members able to support numerous wives; for ability to support is the sole measure of a man's responsibility. The Bushmen, or bush tribes, however, are poor and usually have but one wife. When she, therefore, is taken from him, he puts into practice an unusual but not (in his country) a disreputable mode of revenge. Shouldering his musket, he starts for the first village near him, and shoots anybody — it matters not whom. He then proclaims his reasons for the action, and asserts that the villagers must hold as responsible the man who stole his wife. Gunners are started out from this villacre, who in turn shoot some innocent party in the next ; and so blood continues to flow until the whole country is aroused, and it is no longer possible for one village to be revenged upon another. Then the chief of the last village where a murder has been committed, summons a council, and the relatives of the man who has been slain agree to accept a certain sum of money from the guilty one who was the prime cause of all the trouble. He pays his money, but is ostracised from even African society. Another case in point. The member of a sea-coast tribe purchases a wife from a Bushman. She runs away, because of cruel treatment, and secretes herself with her relatives. If they refuse to give her up, the husband may seize not only the persons and property of the rela- tives, but, if they are poverty-stricken, the bodies and chattels of any fellow townsman. If the woman flies to a distance and becomes the Avife of another man, her friends are still held responsible unless hus- band number two should see fit to pay the original purchase money. Among the maritime tribes, wives are not bought, but sisters and daughters are exchanged. There is no marriage ceremony, but the groom marches to the residence of the bride's father at the head of a noisy procession, with drums and fifes playing and banners waving, and after a season of drinking and dancing, returns with the bride to his house. His arrival is heralded by the firing of muskets and cannon. If the bride comes from a bush tribe, much of this ceremony is dispensed 142 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Avith. She is at once placed under charge of the " head wife " to be refined into a poHte member of society. COAST AND INTERIOR TRIBES. From what has already been said it will probably be inferred that the coast tribes and interior tribes are widely separated in material HEAD DRESSES OF THE CONGOS. prosperity and general attainments. They are, in fact, as diverse as a Hottentot of the Cape of Good Hope, who is master of several languages, and the Bushman of the mountains, who grubs for worms, and eats them when he finds them. The houses of native tribes along COAST AND INTERIOR TRIBES. 143 the coast are usually quadrangular in form, constructed of bamboo and covered with mats made of the bamboo leaf; divided into five or six rooms with raised clay floors, if the occupant is well-to-do; neat, clean, dry and airy. You see chairs, sofas, tables and clocks, and the native trader who receives you has on a large square cloth which trails on the floor. His wife is also decently clad, but the massive rings around her limbs greatly detract from the grace of her movements. The women CONGO HEADS. show real skill in dressing' their hair, and when, unluckily, they become bald, they are in the habit of covering the defect with a wig made from the fibres of the pine-apple leaf, which, as a counterfeit, leaves little to be desired. Such civilized customs as this are^only in vogue with the bon-ton of even the maritime tribes. And speaking of the appearance of a Congo's head, it varies from a smooth scalp, to the hair which is fashioned into the semblance of a Roman helmet with a round horn projecting in front, Those who shave the head clean or in various complicated patterns, are often provided with neither razor nor scissors. If nothing else comes handy, they 144 . PANORAMA OF NATIONS. skillfully split a piece of glass from the bottom of an ordinary bottle, and use that upon the head of the luckless victim. The coast tribes are quite apt to treat their hair in some way. The interior tribes often let it grow into a tangled mass of wool, dirt and palm oil, or comb it straight up and ornament the front with a cock's feather or a red flower. Some of the tribes shave their hair all round, letting the hair in the middle grow upright. Some plait their hair in little strings, twisting them round and round until they end at the top in a round knot, looking as if they had baskets in their heads. The Congo seldom indulges in the excitement of the chase. As a rule he is too indolent. He will occasionally shoot an antelope or a hare, but it is an event in his life. You find him at his best, however, when he starts out with the other villagers upon a hunt for field rats and mice, which he considers great food dainties. The party are armed with hoes and little bows and arrows to dig, cut and shoot their prey. Wickerwork traps, into which the rats and mice run or by which they are caught around the neck, are placed across the field paths. Then the bushes are beaten with sticks, and the little tender bodies are soon strung on a pole and roasted over a fire. There is also a large white grub of which he is very fond, which is roasted and used as butter. The interior tribes build their houses in a much more primitive style than those of the coast, many of them having a fashion of arrang- ing them in two parallel rows, varying in length from a few hundred yards to a mile or more. They are often situated on high hills, and the end of the street is barricaded, the walls of the houses being protected by piling against them brushwood on the outside, and thick blocks of wood inside. At intervals the long range of common houses, or parti- tions, will be broken by a more pretentious structure, occupied by a chief or head-man. The whole appearance of the villages indicates that they were built for defense. Hidden as they often are in the midst of a dense forests of plantain trees, they are a novel and picturesque sight ; but one's feelings will be rudely shocked if he does not give notice of his approach ; for otherwise he will be considered an enemy, and a well- directed shot from a native gruard will make him realize tliat tlie Conoco' Bushman is on the alert. The interior furnishings are what might be expected, consisting of a few sleeping mats, some blocks of wood to sit on and some rude cooking utensils. The men and women are clad only with strips of bark, the women ambitiously striving to see who can make the largest holes in their ears and noses, and wear the biggest piece of fat meat therein. But a maritime tribe does not necessarily imply an opulent one; it COAST AND INTERIOR TRIBES. 145 would be manifestly absurd to consider any whole tribe of West Africa in that category. The most ambitious interior tribes eventually reach the sea-coast, and their most worthy members usually become traders. It is singular also how soon they take to the ocean life. The most noted canoemen on the coast, the people who occupy the coast near Cape Lopez, descended from the mountains of the interior not many years ago, and now they shoot over the roughest sea in their feather-weight canoes, perched upon a narrow strip of wood thrown across the sides; now using the feet to bail out the water, while their hands are busy with the paddles ; and again using their feet as paddles while they rest their arms ; now skimming around a sailing ship like a sea-gull ; again tirincrof the amusement and climbing up the side of the boat with their lisfht canoes to visit the captain and crew. They make also a long boat of very hard wood, capable of seating thirty or forty, in ^| which they make excursions . I of fifty or one hundred miles. .: i-l In this reo-ion, or the Poncjo country, live the remnants }^. of the Giaghi, who ravished "S the kingdom of Congo when J3 the Portuguese were the lords of the coast and pat- ^^'^ "^^^^^iii;=. rons of the Congos, and who were so instrumental in depopulating the whole country. The appearance of the Pangwes who have not adopted coast manners, indicates an origin far to the East ; perhaps they are a tribe from the Gallas country of Abyssinia — a shoot- ing meteor from the restless body of the Tartars of Africa. Their com- plexion is several shades lighter than that of the neighboring tribes, and their features are comparatively regular. Their hair is softer than the negro's, and is generally plaited into four braids, two short ones in front, and two lone ones which are thrown over the shoulders. A red oint- ment covers their bodies; they are almost naked, and armed with a huge 10 CONGO SHIELDS. 146 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. knife in a sheath of snake or guana skin; a hatchet is carried on the shoulder, and usually a bundle of long spears. When on the war-path they use cross-bows and poisoned arrows, and have shields made from the skin of the elephant. They are workers in copper and iron, their skill in the manufacture of the latter metal supplying a large extent of country with a circulating medium. They are ad- dicted to hunting, and excel all others in killing the elephant. One of their methods is to first draw around a browsing herd a kind of forest vine which is exceedingly distasteful to the animals, and over which, if unmolested, they will not go. A strong fence of upright posts is then constructed outside this H // / rmg mm§. A COLLECTION OF ARROWS. cordon, and poisoned plantains scattered within. Of these the elephants are very fond, and soon become weak from the effects of the poison. The natives now mount into trees, and with their spears finish the work. It is from this region that large quantities of India-rubber are exported, and the manner in which the blacks collect it is indicative of their crude methods generally. India-rubber is the milky juice of a giant tree- creeper. It dries very quickly, however; so the negro makes a long gash in the bark with a knife, and as the milky juice gushes out, it is wiped off continually with his fingers, and smeared on his arms, shoulders and breast. At length a thick coating is formed, and this is peeled off, cut into small squares and boiled in water. COAST AND INTERIOR TRIBES. 147 South of the Congo country is the kingdom of Loango. Since the decHne of the slave trade, the people have devoted themselves to export- ing ivory and wax and to the manufacture of baskets, boats and canoes. Their boat building is especially excellent. Trade is free to all, but is NATIVES OF LOANGO. transacted through the king's chief minister. The king himself is sacred, and eats and drinks alone. Any person who should dare to look upon him would be put to death, and the statement is made upon authority, that a dog was put to death who looked up into his master's face when he was eating; also that a little child who was accidentally left in the royal banqueting hall, went to sleep, and upon waking saw the king eat — whereupon it was put to death, and its blood sprinkled on the king's 148 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. fetich. Dwarfs and albinos who are born in Loango are regarded as the king's spirits, and therefore as his sacred property. From the sacred king who has his collection of hideous fetiches down to the humblest Loangoan, idol-worship is faithfully practiced. Fetich houses disgrace every village and disfigure every forest and stretch of country. The Congo Free State, which adjoins the kingdom of Loango, is If 'M .■« ■• ■'■■f'J.T'e ' t ' If Si A ROYAL PAIR. ostensibly governed by a " lindy," but his chiefs show no great respect for his authority, though he is attended by a royal guard, who are dressed in stiff, round hats, in skirts and sandals, and are armed with huo-e swords which depend from bands thrown over their bare shoulders. The chief of the province, or of the town even, is a ruling power com- pared to the "lindy." When a chief dies his son does not succeed him, but his brother or uncle whose age and experience would, as a rule, COAST AND INTERIOR TRIBES. 1 49 carry more weight. The "chenoo's" insignia of office is a small staff of black wood, inlaid with lead or copper. In addition to these divisions of society, there are those who collect the revenue and carry on the trade ; the farmers, who own property and wives and slaves, and fisher- men and laborers who possess not even a portion of a fowl or hog. In times past the king of Congo might be called the ruler of the territory now occupied by the Congo Caffres. Under his protection the Portu- guese established sugar-cane plantations, manufactured indigo and smelted iron. With the decline of that power, however, he fell from his high station, and Is, at the present time little more than chief of San Salvador, and a few other small towns. There are so many smaller chiefs and kings than the potentate of Congo, however, that even now he cuts quite a figure when he takes a notion to go abroad and visit the country. He attires himself in a white shirt, fastened round the waist, a blue velvet coat edged with gold lace, and a cap of the same material and color. The king is furthermore attended by his royal guard of 300 blacks and his private band, consisting of about a dozen horns made of elephant tusks, and drums hollowed out of pieces of wood covered with sheepskin and rubbed over with beeswax. A piece of beeswax is left sticking in the middle, and when the band gets ready to play, the drums are warmed before a fire and the operators smartly tap the sticky cen- ters with the fiats of their fingers, which produces a resonant sound. Thus he proceeds, and many of the chiefs through whose towns he passes, drop on their knees to him, bow their heads to the ground and clap their hands, remembering that he was once great, though they now refuse to pay him tribute. Others present him offerings — gourds of palm wine — as he proceeds on his tour through his provinces. Some of this homage which is shown him is also due to the fact that the king of Congo is known to have in his possession a most powerful fetich, which has descended to him from his ancestors. Some of the blacks in this part of the country are armed with flint muskets of the heaviest pattern, and ornament the stocks with brass tacks. They usually load them to the muzzle, and notwithstanding the rebound, they persist in firing them from the side without much regard to aim or the distance they may carry. An amusing story is told of a tribe along the river, who captured a cannon from some traders, who were on a commercial trip. The natives became involved in a dispute with a neighboring village, and being warned of an attack, planted the cannon In the path along which their enemies would march. This they loaded to the muzzle with powder and stones, and laid a long train of powder to It. When the assaulting party appeared, the besieged fired I50 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the train, and took to their heels, while the enemy fled, terrified, in the Opposite direction. Next day the enemy sent proposals of peace to the town which had so tremendous a fetich. Angola adjoins the kingdom of Congo. It is the only colony on the western coast, of all the early settlements made by the Portuguese, over which the natives acknowledge they have not still control. It is opposite Mozambique, on the eastern coast, and it has long been the dream of the Portuguese to connect the two colonies by a continuous chain of forts. There are several fortified places in Angola ; the first links in the chain have been forged in Mozambique, and one or two expeditions have crossed the continent between the two points ; but it is probable, since now their richest source of revenue, the slave trade, is being surely dried up, that the Portuguese will never carry their original A BOAT OF THE WARLIKE CONGOS. plan into effect. The capital of the colony was for nearly three cen- turies the principal depot on the coast for the supply of slaves. For hundreds of miles great herds of slaves were marched down to St. Paul de Loando, each able-bodied man bringing with him an elephant's tusk. Such sights are no longer seen, but the Portuguese still engage in a little of that trade, and their commerce is also considerable with the natives, from whom they obtain ivory, skins, gum-copal, turtle-shell, cocoa-nut oil, and a little sugar-cane and coffee. The mountains of Angola abound in iron and copper, gold also being found in consider- able quantities ; but although prospecting parties of Americans, Eno-Iishmen, Germans and Frenchmen are not uncommon, neither the Portuguese nor the natives seem thoroughly to have realized their value. COAST AND INTERIOR TRIBES. 151 The natives of Angola were formerly quite celebrated for the fine quality of iron which they smelted; yet they and the Congos generally now seldom smelt from the ore. They are usually satisfied to take the iron hooping from bales ob- tained from traders and transform them into the simple hoe which they use in scraping the ground, or into their spear heads. Their furnace is a hole in the ground, but their bellows are identical with that used by the ancient Egyptians. What is quite singular also, is that those tribes who do not speak the same language, but who belong to the same great sub- division of the Caffre family, should use the same kind of bellows in the smelting of ore. Although in most districts of the colony the Congos still cling to their savage ways, some of them along the coast are remarkably intelligent, havinof learned to read and write and to success fully manage a large share of the trade of the country. Aside from a few natives who have thus lifted themselves from the prevailing state of ignorance and laziness which pervades the col- ony, the only Congos who have any regular occu- pation are those employed by the government as burden carriers. As there are no public roads in the colony, all the traffic which passes to and from the coast is conducted by means of these beasts of burden, whose endurance, as they toil over rugged mountains and through dense for- ests, is something which is almost superhuman. There are thousands of Congos thus engaged. They are furnished by the head men of the dif- ferent villages both to the grovernment and to Europeans who may be abroad on exploring expeditions. As all of these provinces, in fact with few exceptions the whole of Guinea, is given over to' the ivory trade, it may be interesting to know how the article reaches the coast. It is carried a carved tusk. from points as far as four or five hundred miles from the ocean by great 152 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. squads or caravans of natives. They generally travel in the dry sea- son so that they will not be impeded by the great number of streams and gullies which they have to cross. The tusks are carried by the natives on their heads and shoulders, being fastened in a cage of four short pieces of wood. Very heavy teeth (for they sometimes weigh i 75 or 180 pounds) are slung to a long pole and carried by two natives. Some of the native traders of Angola collect and deal in hides, skins and other articles, traveling long distances in pursuit of their com- mercial ventures. They are averse to manual labor, however, preferring to rely on this spirit of enterprise and their sharp wits. Others, on the DREARY SCENE IN SOUTHWESTERN AFRICA. other hand, who are also of the educated class, do not even stir far from home, but trade a little in wax and other produce. Once a year the owner of the hives climbs the baobab tree, in whose branches they are placed, and draws up a basket for the wax and honey. His hives are made by splitting a large branch of a tree in two, hollowing it out and afterwards fastening the halves together. Taking with him some dry grass and fire he proceeds to smoke out the bees and take advantage of their industry. But whether lazy or industrious, when the natives are once seized with the educational fever, their pursuit of wisdom is indeed COAST AND INTERIOR TRIBES. , 1 53 absorbing. It is no uncommon sight to see children of both sexes, early in the morning, squatted on the ground, wrapped in their cotton clothes, lazily but contentedly learning their letters. A man is never so happy as when, in exchange for some article of produce, he receives from a trader a sheet of foolscap. This he rolls up carefully and hangs by a bit of string to his pack, and when he arrives at home he is pretty sure to sit down and with his quill pen and chircoal ink write a letter to a friend or a high-sounding petition to a cliirf. Beyond Angola the traveler soon reaches the rocky and barren country of the Damaras and Nemaquas, which is being quite generally entered by practical Germans, who brave the wastes for the rich mineral deposits which are known to exist there. The province of Benguela, in Angola, which borders upon that country is also a mineral region, but the tribes of the mountains are so fierce tiiat scarcely any attempt has been made to take advantage of the knowledge. They are said, natur- ally, to be harmless, but contact with slave-traders has made them suspicious, brutal and dangerous. " The land along the coast is low and flat, but it rises in a series of terraces toward the interior, and fur- ther back into mountains of considerable heitrht. The low grround near the coast, especially during the rainy season, is extremely unwholesome. On the high ground and among the moantains the air is pure and healthful. Numerous rivers descend from the mountains, amonor which sulphur, copper, petroleum, gold and silver are found. Vegetation is luxuriant, and both tropical fruits and European vegetables grow Avell. Elephants, buffaloes, zebras and antelopes are common, hyaenas and horses even venturing down to the city of Benguela. This, the capital of the province, is on the coast, and is so unhealthful that no Europeans can withstand the climate. It is especially fatal to women. The most unwholesome months are March and April, the rainy months, and next to them January and May. The harbor is commodious and safe, but difficult of access. Ivory, panther skins, and the other productions of the country are brought into the city, and it is visited occasionally by Portuguese and Brazilian trading vessels. The city was formerly the principal slave market foi the trade with Brazil. It is under the juris- diction of the Governor-general of Angola, who resides at St. Paul de Loanda." Benguela comprises the southern districts of Angola, and some idea of the extent of this country may be gained when it is stated that it is larger than California. It is also similar in shape to the American State, although its eastern boundaries are not definitely fixed. The natives, who are estimated to number between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000, speak a dialect of the Bantu or Caffre tongue. 154 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. In the desolate region beyond we meet those tribes whicli connect Congo Caffres with the Hottentots. It seems as if they were the weak- est and most degraded of both races who have been driven into this terrible country. From Cape Negro to the Orange River, a distance of 900 miles, there is no fresh water and nothing green, with one unimport- ant exception, which only serves to make the fact more evident. The coast is a low desert, which runs into a rocky ridge, and beyond the sandstones is a more elevated and rocky desert. But as if to recom- pense man for the blight that she brings upon the vegetable kingdom, Nature has been careful to make rich deposits of the useful metals in this sterile region. Upper Guinea, to which our next voyage of discovery tends, pre- sents, in some respects, a complete contrast to Lower Guinea. The natives are negroes proper, and their states and kingdoms are either compact and powerful in arms, or vital forces in the commercial and Mohammedan world. They may not be more civilized than some of the Central African kingdoms, but whether their people are bloodthirsty, aristocratic or commercial, they evince a masterly command of their resources, which seems almost lacking in the Caffres of Lower Guinea. ^m^ ►i*^ " t * ^ — ^V^ - ^ T /^^V— ^ * A -^' THE LAND OF NIGRITIA. :FTER we had completed our tour of Lower Guinea we found that we had traversed the ereat continent of Africa east of the Sahara desert and south of the Mountains of the Moon, and felt that we had become quite well acquainted with the Ethio- pian under his most diverse forms of civilization. In the cen- tral portions of the continent we discovered quite a smattering of negro blood, but had only touched upon the borders of the Land of Nigritia. It lies now before us, embraced and held W together by the wide-spreading arms of the Niger river. Like T an immense bar of iron Soudan lies firmly below the Great Desert, pressing Guinea and Senegambia into the ocean. This vast region is the home of the negro — indolent and passionate, dull and intelligent, brutal and^affectionate. He was thought so low and degraded, so devoid of all manly spirit, that the greedy eyes of the slaver and the pitying eyes of the philanthropist have rested upon him for four centuries as the most fit object of their attention. The representatives of all nations have set foot upon the coast of Nigritia, and there assisted to drain from the interior its ivory, its gold, its slav^es and its riches of every description, or have bravely attempted with their weak levers to pry the tremendous land from its mire of ignorance and superstition ; but still it lies there with its savacje kingdoms, its fierce tribes of the mountains, its milder people of the coast, its republics, its human sacri- fices, its superstitions and its idolatries. Fragments of the race have broken off into the desert, such as the Tibboos in the east, and an alien tribe now and then has established itself in their midst, as the Foulahs of Senegambia, but it would be speaking within bounds to say that West Central Africa is purely the land of the negro. A little Moorish and Arabian blood oozes in from the north and a little Ethiopian blood drips in from the south, but the type is there in greater purity than can be 155 156 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. found in any other race — the negro with his unctious skin, his thick lips and protruding jaws, his broad nose and small ears, his woolly hair, his retreating forehead and his thick skull. MOUNTAIN WARRIORS. Notwithstanding the protection which European powers are giving to the milder negroes of the coast, the fierce warriors of the interior are supplanting them. Toward the ocean the native star of empire takes its way, as will become more clear when we come to speak of the negro kingdoms of the coast. SENEGAMBIAN TRIBES. THE JALOFS. ENEGAMBIA is the western-most country of Nigrltia, and although the smallest political division, its people represent three tribes, who seem already to lead the race in commercial talent and intellectual force. The Jalofs occupy the delta formed by the Senegal and Gambia rivers. Of all the negroes they are the handsomest, being tall and graceful in form, but glossy black, with the woolly hair and thick lips of their race. Their lano^uaoe is soft and as^reeable, and in their conversa- tion as well as their personal bearing, they evince a realization of their claim that they are the most ancient people of West- ern Africa, and were formerly the dominant race. They are generally mild, hospitable, generous and trustworthy, but remembering their descent, they will not intermarry with other African tribes. Among themselves also they have a marked species of caste. They prostrate themselves before an autocratic emperor, proud though they be, because this has been the custom handed down to them from their powerful ancestors. Their nobles are the "good Jalofs." The smiths are called the "tug;" tanners and sandal makers, the "oudae;" fishermen, the " moul ;" musicians and bards, the "gaewell," and wanderers or tramps "saobies." The "gaewell," though they faithfully chant the praises of their ancestors and materially assist the nobility to keep alive the spirit of pride which so distinguishes the Jalofs — the faithful and useful "gae- well" cannot live within town walls, keep cattle, drink sweet milk, or be buried. They are refused interment on the ground that nothing will grow where they are buried. The Jalofs do not even seem to have that respect for European advancement which marks the most of the negro tribes, and except with the agents of trading stations, have little com- mercial intercourse with foreigners. They are easy and polite, but have a cool indifference for all pretensions but their own. Notwithstanding which, they manufacture cotton cloth of a firmer texture and a more 157 158 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. durable color than any other tribe in Western Africa. With this they clothe themselves, both men and women wearing two square pieces, one around the waist and the other thrown around the shoulders. Although fearless and expert in hunting, and splendid horsemen, they are quite domestic in their habits, and do not wander abroad in quest of advent- ures and gain, as do their more enterprising neighbors, the Mandingoes. They live simply and their houses are small, but a man of any standing will have two houses — one in which he sits and sleeps, the other in which his cooking is clone and in which he eats. The Jalofs occupy four provinces, number over one million souls, and are under the rule of an emperor, who traces his dynasty back to the most ancient of the royal houses of Western Africa. The penalties for a violation of his laws are very severe, but there are few of them which any one would care to violate. Any one, for instance, who sleeps under a certain kind of mosquito netting which is peculiarly royal, is liable to be sold as a slave. To come into the presence of the emperor without prostrating one's self is a serious crime ; but there are no William Tells among the Jalofs, for they are glad to prostrate themselves before so august a personage. A portion of this tribe are strict Mohammedans, and others have never become adherents to any faith, but whatever they are, and wherever they are, they are pagans in the matter of fetich worship. In conformity to the general exclusiveness of their dispositions, they observe their religion quietly and faithfully, but unlike the vigorous Mandingoes, they do not attempt to spread its tenets. They are firm believers in witchcraft, and, strange to say, wear the same kind of charms to ward off its evils, and resort to the same ridiculous ordeals to detect it, as the most ignorant of the tribes of Central and Southwest- ern Africa. THE FOULAHS. The Foulahs of Senegambia and the Fellatahs of Central Soudan are believed to be a branch of the Nubians, who eniigrated westward at a very early day. Some ethnologists have attempted to trace their origin to the Malayan stock. Their complexion is a brownish black, their hair soft and curly, forehead good, lips thin and nose of the Ethiopian but not the Nigritian cast. In stature they are of the medium size, and limbs delicate but well formed. They are Moham- medans, but have engrafted upon their religion the pagan superstitions and worship of the negro. They have a tradition that they are the descendants of Phut, the son of Ham, and hence wherever they settle, THE FOULAHS. I 59 they seem desirous to perpetuate the fact. The Foulans are the largest and most powerful of the three great families of Senegambia, occupying Futa-Torro, near the Senegal river, Futa-Boudu and Futa-Jallon to the north of Sierra Leone. Manv of them are good Arabian scholars and have a remarkable knowledge of the Koran. They are peo- ple who seem to possess the faculty in a remarkable degree of doing as Rome does. They are industrious and enterprising in their dealings with the European ; courteous and gentle with the Asiatic ; cunning and sel- fish with the Moors ; but in whatever position they are placed, show a strength of mind, superior even to the Jalofs, who are their neighbors and the aristocracy of the negro race. One thing also which stands greatly to their credit, is that they have never participated in the slave trade, except that in a few cases they have sold criminals into servitude instead of putting them to death. By many of the negro tribes it is considered infamous to injure a Foulah ; thus highly are they respected ; and a blessing is said to rest on any territory which contains one of their villas^es. Until the early part of the present century the Fellatahs had been living a roving life in the forests of Central Soudan, tending their cattle, and keeping out of the way of the warlike people of Borneo, They were governed by their chiefs, who held also the position of religious teachers to them ; for they were strict Mohammedans. One of these, a prophet as well as chief, so effectually aroused them that the people, scattered as they were, flocked to his standard and under him subjugated seven or eight rich provinces, the empire of Bornoo to the east and that of Yarriba to the west. He extended his conquests even to the shores of Senegambia ; many of the Foulahs joining him, he assigned them a province and formally incorporated it as a portion of his empire. The emperor-prophet died insane, through religious fanat- icism, and his son succeeding him, the conquered states made an unsuccessful attempt to shake off their yoke. The empire continued to flourish, the son fortified his capital (Sockatoo) which his father had built and was able to bring into the field a larger army than any prince of Africa. Sockatoo itself, surrounded with walls and spacious gardens, and embellished within by mosques, public squares and market houses, stood on a gentle eminence which overlooked a branch of the Niger, and was second to Cairo in population. With the exception of Alex- andria it would probably still occupy that position, but the empire is now divided into several states. Bornoo early regained its indepen- dence, and the powerful empire of the Fellatah was eventually dismem- bered. Its people, however, remain as the representatives of a race i6o PANORAMA OF NATIONS. different, in many respects, from the Nigritians, who hem them about, and the great empire is divided among a number of princes. Ganda, about forty miles from Sockatoo, is the seat of a powerful prince, and Timbo is the capital of the S( negambian state. The lujulahs first appear in history about the middle of the four- teenth century, when two of i members of the tribe are recorded as journeying from the borders reliofious mission. It is held seat of their kincj^dom, and ti race, however, they have co many people, that it is nc dispute, with any of the easi considered the typical Foula .enegambia to the king of Bornoo on a -lany that this region was the original hey spread east into Soudan. As a 'cd so many states and absorbed so impossible to identify them, beyond milies, or even to say what should be he best that can be done is to take the statements of their own people and consider the traditions which have come down to them, which all point to the j)rob- ability that th(;y came from the East, bringing with them the tastes and aspirations of t h c ancient Ethi- UO SECTION OK SAME. . .... opian civilization. They have a tradition, among others, that their ancestors were white and certain tribes call themselves white men. Certain it is that their appearance, and methods of thought in many respects, stamp them as intellectual. Their language is neither African nor Semitic, and although they are in a continual .state of warfare with the Arabs, the children of the better classes are taught to read and write the language of their enemies. They have schools and mosques scattered throughout their provinces, are workers in iron and silver, are skillful manufacturers of woodenware and leather, are dairymen and cattle breeders, and intel- ligent traders, although they cannot be considered as being .so purely a commercial race as the Mandingoes, Although under the rule of princes, they are immediately governed by republican chiefs, and virtu- ally manage their own domestic affairs. The usual dress of the men is a red cap with a white turban, a A NATIVE CUP. THE MANDINGOES. l6l short white shirt, a large white robe, white trousers trimmed with red or green silk, and sandals or boots. The women wear a striped gar- ment falling as low as the ankles, a rosette or ribbon is placed in the hair, which is neatly dressed, and bracelets and ear-rings usually com- plete the list of ornaments. Although commercial, and the most scholarly of the West African races, the Foulahs are warriors of no mean standing. The men wear swords at all times, and even go armed with bows and arrows on horse- back. A few years ago the princes of the Foulah, or Fellatah states, could bring into the field a well-disciplined force of 25,000 cavalry, and a proportionate number of infantry ; but the people have so diffused themselves throughout Western Africa that their influence is more as a race than as a civil or military power. Their population is estimated at 6,000,000, and with the Mandingoes they divide the honor of supremacy amonw the tribes of Western Africa. *& THE MANDINGOES. Outside of Turkey and Arabia this great tribe, whose home is between the sources of the Senegal and Niger rivers, are the most ener- getic propagators of Mohammedanism in Africa. Like most people whose native country lies among the mountains and higher regions, they are hardy, enterprising and ambitious. They are the travelers and merchants of the continent, and in the pursuit of their operations after ivory, gold dust and slaves, have penetrated into more of its hidden nooks than any other people alive. The valleys of the Senegal, Gambia and Niger see throughout their length and breadth their three- cornered cotton caps and their leather pouches, filled with scraps of Arab- ian writing, while Upper and Lower Guinea and Central Africa itself draw upon the Mandingoes for articles of commerce and potent charms written in an unknown tongue. They are a people who seem to most closely connect their religion with their pleasure. As they go traveling through the continent, conducting caravans, acting as agents between native tribes in their commercial dealings, or in pursuit of their own schemes, they are ever on the alert to establish schools for the purpose of teaching the Arabic language and spreading the truths of the Koran. At the same time they are busy trying to get good value for the charms Vv'hich they carry in their leather pouches, in doing which, however, they believe they are conscientiously laboring to capture the soul of the pagan. Their black faces have not the peculiar rayen gloss of the Jalofs, but are sufficient, with their general features, their cheerful, gay natures 1 62 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. and their great love for music and dancing, to place them in the Nigri- tian group of tribes. It may be said that from the equator to the Sahara Desert, the Mandingoes control the trade of the continent. They have extended themselves over Western Soudan, and small communities of them have located around many European settlements along the coast and along -the rivers, where they manufacture sandals, bridles, whips, sheaths and various other articles out of their own leather, and sell amulets to the natives. But it must not be thought that the Mandin- goes are mere wanderers and a race of traders. They are most success- ful agriculturists and raisers of cattle, sheep and goats. They are often not only good Arabic scholars, bnt proficient as extemporaneous speak- ers, and make some pretensions to being poets. The regular education of the average child, however, consists, as among all Mohammedans, in being able to read and write a few passages from the Koran, and to recite their prayers. The six million, or more, Mandingoes whose pres- ence is felt in Western Africa, acknowledge the authority of their chiefs, Mandingo itself being divided into a number of petty states nearly inde- pendent of each other. Each free man, however, may appear before the general council of his tribe and speak as he pleases. Freedom of speech is certainly a recognized plank in their system of government. Notwithstanding the people are independent and frank in their conduct with each other, society is divided into castes, as it is among the more exclu- sive Jalofs. Next to the king or chief stand the teachers of the Koran, then artisans, dependent freemen, native-born domestic slaves, and slaves who were prisoners of war or criminals. Their Mohammedan education has severed them neither from pagan superstition nor native custom. They persistently cling to " Jumbo," that monster who comes out of the woods clad in plantain leaves, to maintain proper discipline among the women and children ; their funeral ceremonies are attended by the same wailings and beatings of drums as we find in Lower Guinea and Central Africa, and the grave is dug in the floor of the house where the deceased lived. Occasionally the burial place is under the shade of a favorite tree and the spot is always marked by a rag flying from a pole. NEGROES OF UPPER GUINEA. N the Jalofs, Foulahs and Mandingoes, of Senegambia ana Soudan are found the higher types of the negro race, if, indeed, the Foulahs may even be considered a type of the race. In the people of Upper Guinea we meet representatives of the race whom no one could doubt to be a concentration of all the broadest features of the negro, as he would be recognized by the veriest infant. His paganism has not been diluted by the faith of Mohammed, and fetich worship prevails In as exagger- ated a form as in Southern Guinea, with the lamentable difter- ence that human sacrifice has become quite common. There seems to be a more general belief in one god than among the tribes to the south, but the evil spirits appear also to have obtained a firmer holdupon the world, and therefore require more cruel forms of propitiation. Most of the tribes have names for God, and some of them are descriptive of his nature, as maker, preserver, benefactor. In the barbarous king- dom of Ashanti, whose people are noted for their bloodthirsty sacrifices and the general cruelty of their natures, he is called " My Great Friend." At the death of a king, a large number of his wives or favorite slaves are put to death to be his future attendants. The same practices are com- mon in the kingdom of Dahomey, east of Ashanti, although of late }'ears the sanguinary nature of the sacrifices has been somewhat modified, throutrh the efforts of missionaries and the Powers of the West. Not- withstanding the reforms which have taken place, it is said that the present king of Dahomey, upon the death of his father, sacrificed five hundred human victims. Despite these abominations the Ashantis and the Dahomans are courageous, intelligent, and far above most of the tribes ■of Upper Guinea in general morality. SUPERSTITIONS OF THE NEGROES. Believing as they do that the world and all its affairs are in the keeping of either good or bad spirits, they do not always wait for their 163 164 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. priests or fetich men to drive away the evil ones, but, upon stated occasions take matters into their own hands. At a criven sio^nal a whole village will start up with torches and clubs, rush around their huts, yelling and beating here and there; then out into the streets, howling and waving their weapons, until some one in authority announces that the evil spirits have fled through the gates of the town. Pursuit does not end here, but the spirits who have brought sickness, or scarcity of food, or some other form of misfortune upon the community, are chased and scourged far into the woods, where they take up their abode in hollow trees, preat "^^^l,ife.^^^^^^^ii<^ rocks or deep riv- ers. Tree, rock, river and mountain are the dwelling places of both good and bad spirits and are never passed by the true negro without beinof of- fered some propi- tiation, such as a leaf or a shell. He 1 approaches a deep cavern with fear ^^ and trembling that he may receive spiritual advice. If he brings a suita- ble offering in the shape of food or drink, he receives an oracular answer to his queries, and although he may suspect that his priest is the spirit of the cavern, he dare not investigate for fear of the legion of spirits in whom he does believe. The negroes of Upper Guinea also have a very definite faith in the transmigration of the soul. Monkeys, crocodiles, snakes and sharks are the favorite dwelling places of the human soul, and are considered sacred. The consequence is that the crocodile, in certain localities, has been so pampered that he will follow a man for a long distance like a dog; the snake will bite or harmlessly lick the hand, as the keeper desires ; or the shark will come to the water's edge and wait for IN THE STOCKS. SUPERSTITIONS OF THE NEGROES. 1 65 his food like a tame trout. They beheve in the unity of the human race, and have a saying that God offered the two sons of its first parents the choice between gold and a book; the elder son, and the progenitor of the black race, seized upon the gold, leaving the book to the younger. The latter was immediately transported to a colder country, retaining his book (his wisdom) and his white skin, while the son who seized upon the eold, retained his riches and his black skin, but lost wisdom. The neoToes have also ridiculous traditions of a deluge which have become distorted in being handed down either from ancient times or from Portuguese missionaries, who may have visited their forefathers three or four hundred years ago. An African funeral in Northern Guinea is tantamount to a Fourth- of-July celebration in the United States. A bullock is slaughtered, ostensibly for the dead, but really for the living, and, except the value of the presents which are laid upon the grave of the deceased, the respect which can be shown their dead is commensurate with the amount of powder which is used in the discharge of musketry. If the deceased is a person of quality, sometimes a hundred men will be discharging their muskets over the heads of the mourners, enveloping everything in sti- fling smoke. After these ceremonies, two persons take up the cofiin, which is often the section of a canoe, and proceed to the graveyard. They may not be allowed to go far, but may be cast hither and thither by the spirit of the dead man, and finally propelled toward the residence of a certain villager, who is thereupon accused of murder. He is confined in a hut built for the occasion, and, after the burial, is brought fonvard to undergo the "red-water" ordeal. The man is formally accused of murder, when invoking the name of God three times to pun- ish him in case he is guilty of the crime, he steps forward and drinks the Avater freely. \^irtually the same ceremony is gone through with in South- ern Guinea to detect witchcraft; "red-water" is also so employed in Northern Guinea, with a like understandino^ that if the drinker is taken Avith vertigo, his life is forfeited. Children even are encouraged to hoot at him, pelt him with stones and spit upon him in case he does not pass through the ordeal. In many instances the men and women then seize him by the heels and drag him through bushes and over rocky places until there is no life in him. Again, there is the "hot-oil ordeal," through which the innocent will pass unscathed. Ridiculous as these tests seem to be to the more rational ideas of the Western World, they bear a striking similiarity to those applied not long ago in England and America. The old story of fetich upon fetich is repeated in Upper as in Lower 1 66 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Guinea. In a word: "One of the first things which salutes the eyes of astrangerafter planting his feet upon the shores of Africa, are the symbols of its religion. He steps forth from the boat under a canopy of fetiches not only as security for his own safety, but as a guaranty that he does not carry the elements of mischief among the people ; he finds them sus- pended along every path he walks; at every junction of two or more roads;: at the crossing place of every stream ; at the base of every large rock or over-grown forest tree ; at the gate of every village ; over the door of every house and around the neck of every human being he meets. They are set up on their farms, tied around their fruit trees and are fastened to the necks of their sheep and goats to prevent them from being stolen. If a man trespasses upon the property of his neighbor in defiance of the fetiches, he is confidently expected to suffer the penalty of his temerity- at one time or another. If he is overtaken by a formidable malady or a lingering sickness, twenty, thirty or forty years afterwards, he is knowa to be suffering the consequences of his rashness." COAST TRIBES AND KINGDOMS. The tribes which have settled along the coast of the colony of Sierra Leone present few features of interest, with the exception, perhaps, of the Veys. Although their manner of living was not materially different from that of other neighboring tribes, they not only conceived the idea, but carried it to a successful conclusion, of inventing an alphabet for writing their own language. It is said that the characters are all quite new and that the invention was entirely their own, although the idea was no doubt suggested to them by the Mandingoes, who had labored among them as among all other tribes of the coast to induce them to learn the Arabic language, and become converts to Islamism. About twenty years were spent by their leading men in bringing the language to a fair state of perfection. The Liberian, or Grain Coast, is so named on account of the great quantity of Malaguette pepper, or Guinea grain, which was formerly raised in this locality. It was exported from the coast to England, and used in the manufacture of malt liquors until it was thought to be harm- ful. It is used as a medicine by the native doctor, and' highly prized. The principal article of commerce at the present time is palm oil, while forty years ago it was almost unknown in this region. The representa- tive people of this coast are the Kru, whose beautiful country is covered with little villages. They are a progressive tribe, with a manly, frank and courteous bearing and noble in physique. Although they have the COAST TRIBES AND KINGDOMS. 167 narrow and peaked forehead of the negro, they have proven their capacity in more wa)'s than one. A majority of the men speak the Enghsh language, and have quite an extensive knowledge of civilized customs, though they refuse to abandon many of their own. But they have greatly improved in the construction of their houses and it is nothing unusual to see modern articles of furniture in their huts. They have less intelligence than the Foulahs and Mandingoes, but are, as a rule, more straightforward in their dealings. They are the sailors of A VILLAGE ON THE GRAIN COAST. Guinea, and may be found on all seas; even in London, Liverpool and New York a Kru seaman is no remarkable sight. They are often absent from home for three or four years, shipping on one voyage after another. If the young Kru is fortunate enough to reach home with a stock of goods intact, the fatted sheep, goat or bullock is killed, and he is marched around the streets of his native villaofe to the sound of the firing^ of oruns and the acclamations of his fellow townsmen. He is con- sidered a fit subject for matrimonial honors and married off at once. 1 68 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Soon he is restless for another voyage, which is taken ; perhaps with Hke results as to the collection of property and being rewarded with a wife. By the time he has reached middle age our Kru sailor has accumu- lated quite a collection of wives and children, and settles down to domestic bliss. By the death of a brother or uncle he also has the possibility of inheriting a group of wives and children, and becoming a regular patriarch of the village, with the reputation of being a great man. There he lives in his peaked, tent-like hut, having a small gar- den in front planted to corn, peas, beans and bananas, his farm being some distance away so as to be beyond the reach of his cattle. This is sown to rice, which he both uses for his family and puts upon the market for sale. When the grain commences to head, he marshals his numerous children and posts them in different parts of the field, armed with sticks, stones, brass pans and anything which can be thrown, shaken or rattled, for the purpose of driving away the myriads of birds which threaten his harvest. Some of these youthful negroes, more ingenious than the rest, make a net-work of cords which connect with dry bushes to which bells are attached, so that they can lay around in lazy enjoy- ment, taking care, however, to keep their machines in rapid motion, and the birds in a constant flutter in all parts of the rice field. In four months from the .time of planting, the grain is harvested, each head of rice being cut with a small bladed instrument no larger than a pocket knife, and the large bundles are carried home on the heads of men. This is a season of great excitement, and the roads leading into the villages are lined with the burden-bearers, some cheerfully trotting along, single file, but the majority of them screaming and shouting in a mad race for the village. When the rice of our well-to-do Kru is brougrht to his house, it is tied to the rafters in his attic (which is his granary) and there left to be dried and cleansed by the smoke from his household fire, which, in default of a chimney, passes through the roof. After- wards the women remove the chaff in a small wooden mortar. In the upper part of the house are also stored earthen jars filled with palm oil, which has been extracted from the nuts of the palm tree. If the Kru sells his oil, it will go into the manufacture of soaps and candles, in England or France, but it is probable that he has other designs upon both rice and palm oil than to sell them for filthy lucre. The rice being nicely dried and cleaned, one of the wives boils a large quantity of it and places it on the floor in a wooden bowl. She then calls in her hus- band and the party of friends from a distant village whom he may be entertaining, and they seat themselves on the floor around the bowl, while she pours over its contents a generous quantity of fragrant ]3alm COAST TRIBES AND KINGDOMS. - 1 69 oil. Each man now thrusts his hand into the dish, and taking up a goodly allowance of the mixture rolls it into a ball, which he pitches into his mouth. Even strangers who visit a Kru village, have food and lodging provided for them free of expense ; unless the townsman is thus honored, he has no regular meal, but he and his families eat when they are hungry. At the conclusion of a regular repast, the hostess brings in a jar of palm-wine and having removed the tuft of leaves which •covers its mouth dips up a little of the wine and drinks it. This is to convince the company that there is no poison in it. We have observed the same custom among the Abyssinians and Gallas Avhose country is across the continent. Their habits at table no doubt seem filthy, biit in other matters they are extremely cleanly, and perhaps using the hands so indiscriminately would not be considered so gross a practice if it Avere known how persistently the Kru performs his ablutions and rubs all parts of his body with pure palm oil. Clothing is not esteemed of more value than knives and forks, but a Kru would barter his rice or his pepper field for a quantity of large blue beads or a large string of ticker's teeth. The government of the Kru is not substantially different from that of other people along the coast, there being one singularit}' to be noted, however, and that is that certain tribes have, from time immemorial, divided themselves into families, and certainly one of these has retained a division of twelve as did the children of Israel. The families have each a head man, or. patriarch, and the property is held in common. The head man is responsible both morally and materially for the con- duct of his family. When any object of public interest is to be considered, those who are entitled to take part in the deliberation gather in the "palaver house " or the open air. The representatives of the soldier element are the most powerful, next to the high priest of the nation who takes care of her fetiches, and guards her health and pros- perity, and the general of all the forces ; both of the latter being presiding ofificers over the deliberptions of the palaver ; then come the. old men of the tribe. The soldiery are middle-aged men who have proved themselves in times of war. Young men, also, who aspire to become members of this influential body, form a portion of the circle Avhich gathers around the two presiding officers, each member thereof having brought his stool and sat down with dignity in his proper place. A long staff is handed to the speaker who is to open the discussion by the high priest or generalissimo. The orator stands in the center of the circle and says, with an impressive motion of the staff, Listen ; To which the people respond. We do listen. He then states the I/O • PANORAMA OF NATIONS, object of the gathering, and when he has concluded, in case he has not become excited, he hands the staff to the next speaker. If his remarks have become very forcible, he uses his staff for emphasis and concludes by casting it violently upon the ground — as though he were speaking from the rostrum and had thouo^ht best to brino- down his fist with a crash upon the desk. These popular assemblies make the laws and execute them, elevate the deserving humble, and confiscate the property of those who become too arrogant ; they are common to most of the tribes of Upper Guinea, which have not been consolidated into such autocracies as Ashanti and Dahomey, and are the scenes of many bursts of native oratory which might arouse the emulation of the better edu- cated and more refined. ASHANTI. What is called the Ivory Coast extends frortj Cape Palmas to the kingdom of Ashanti. Quantities of ivory were formerly collected here by traders, but it might now with greater propriety be called the Palm- oil coast. There are no striking tribal peculiarities until we reach Ash- anti, or Ashantee, which is the seat of the most powerful state in West- ern Africa. Formerly the Fantis occupied the coast and the Ashanti kingdom lay almost among the Kong mountains ; but notwithstanding an English protectorate, the Ashantis power continued to extend until it has now virtually absorbed their rivals. The language of the two tribes is nearly the same, the Fantis being milder in their manners, as they have been long a coast people, and enjoyed a more intimate acquaintance with European civilization. The history of the Ashanti kingdom commences when the tribe appeared beyond the Kong mountains, whence it no doubt was driven by the more powerful and numerous Foulahs, when the empire of the Fellatah was spreading over so great a portion of Soudan ; its history has been one of war and blood-shed, the chief objects of pursuit being the Fantis, whom they drove to the coast, and whose territory they repeatedly desolated. At the commencement of the eighteenth century their implements of warfare were but the bow, arrow and spear ; but when their troubles with England commenced at the commencement of the nineteenth, they learned the value of powder and guns. The awful cruelty, or it may be fanaticism, which separates the Ashantis even from the cruel and fanatical tribes of Western Africa, was first brought forcibly to the attention of the world, when, to protect their own commerce and the Fantis, the English entered into one of their many campaigns of subjugation. The English force had greatly under- estimated the strength and determination of the Ashanti army, so that ASHANTI. 171 when the war horns of their barbaric foes were heard one winter day in 1824, they marched confidently forward to meet them. Although the English brought several field pieces to bear upon the howling Ashantis, and defended themselves bravely with bayonets, their ammunition having been exhausted ; and though they were heroically supported by their allies, the Fantis, the combined forces were overwhelmed, cut to pieces, and their English commander killed. Others were taken prisoners and were spared, to sleep nightly in the same room with the heads of their chief and companions in arms, which were carried to Coomassie, the capital of the kingdom. The heart of the commander-in-chief was devoured by the great warriors of the Ashanti kingdom, and his flesh eaten by those of the lower rank, that they might imbibe the courage which he showed upon the field of battle, and which they could not but admire. His bones were preserved for a long time as national " fetiches," while one of the bravest of his officers was sacrificed to the protecting idol of an irnportant native town. Two years afterwards the Ashantis were subdued, as they have been several times since ; but though repeat- edly subdued, both they and the Dahomans to the east, still control the coast, and are a perpetual menace to the trade of Great Britain, Portugal, France and other nations whose commercial representatives venture into their disputed dominions. Moderation is an unknown word in the vocabulary of the Ashanti. His king is absolutely despotic and is very likely to cut off his head, if he suffers defeat on the field of battle. He, therefore, does not fight with moderation, but with the desperation of despair. It is said that after several unsuccessful engagements with the English, many of the king's nobles met their death by applying matches to kegs of powder upon which they were seated, knowing their probable fate should they return to the capital. He rules over them as they do over their slaves, who compose the bulk of the army. Should they by the slightest word reflect upon the character or policy of their royal master, so complete is his system of espionage that, in some mysterious way, he hears of it, and calls them to account. Some of these nobles have as many as one thousand slaves, and although they lead their men to battle and place all their other property at the disposal of the king, their privileges are as limited as those of the most common subject. Provided he has behaved himself (according to the idea of good behavior entertained by the king) each noble is allowed to display his wealth once a year in the streets of Coomassie. If he thinks it politic, he loads down his children with all the jewels and gold he can collect, and with them parades the streets to the sound of music. He may not, however, wish to exhibit to the 172 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. king the extent of his possessions, especially if he has much pure gold in his keeping ; for, at his death, the latter is the royal property — and death may come to him at any moment if he make too great a display. The consequence is that most of the gold, quantities of which are found in Ashanti, is promptly manufactured into ornaments. But the king still retains his clutch upon the property of the nobility by levying a heavy tax upon all gold ornaments, as well as all metal taken from the mines, which belong to the crown. There are a few exceptions to the latter rule, certain mines being sacred to the spirits and divinities. The royal treasury is also replenished by the tribute which the king levies upon a score or more of conquered provinces. Since the partial sup- pression of the slave trade, however, one of his most prolific sources of revenue has been running dry ; although the institution of domestic slavery is conducted on the same tremendous scale which marks every other institution In Ashanti. The king of Ashanti being a polygamist, is not satisfied to be a moderate one, but for some inscrutable reason has drawn the line at 3^233 wives ! When the grains of the kingdom are being harvested, or the fruits being gathered, the wives are dispersed over the royal planta- tions, laboring as if they were the meanest of slaves. This, in fact, is their condition. A man's importance is measured by the number of wives whom he can bring into the harvest field to work for him and the number of slaves he can bring Into the field of battle to fight for the king ; but the king only is allowed to reach the sacred number of 3,333. When his wives return from the harvest field, headed by the wife whom he most trusts, his whole capital runs to cover ; for should even one of his noblemen set eyes upon one of them, the head of that man is in danger. Any one who is caught in the way must fall upon the ground and hide his face. When once they are housed in the two streets reserved for them in Coomassie, the king's female relatives, or special messengers, may communicate with them through their bamboo walls. The wives of the more common Ashantis are also poor, degraded creatures. They do not eat with him, but each brings her portion of the repast to her lord, and either retires, or remains with the children to receive in her little wooden bowl such morsels as he may see fit to dispense. This performance Is said to give the lord of the household much manly satisfaction. It would be as unbecoming a true Ashanti to carry any spirit of mildness to the family meal as to show it In war. The houses of the nobles and rich men of the kingdom often have many rooms, and are so constructed as to leave a square or court In the center, Into which the apartments of all the wives open. They receive DAHOMEY. • 1 73 their visitors in a sort of portico, built from the side of the house, which is furnished with louncres and other conveniences. War is the great occupation of the kingdom, but agriculture, com- merce and manufactures have their part. It has a large trade with the interior provinces, such as Borneo and Sackatoo, and caravans even come from Cairo and Tripoli for its gold dust and ivory. When it is not quarreling with Europeans, much of its trade in these articles, how- ever, goes to the forts on the sea coast, where they are exchanged for manufactures. The Ashantis make a beautiful kind of cotton fabric, richly finished earthenware and highly tempered sword blades. They have made some advancement as manufacturers of agricultural imple- ments, and otherwise show an intelligence and ingenuity, which is all the more surprising when we consider their moral turpitude and the fiendish lengths to which their pagan fanaticism carries them. DAHOMEY. Adjoining the Ashanti country on the east is the kingdom of Dahomey, or the Land of Horrors. Its autocrat even rivals the king of Ashanti in the power which he exercises over his subjects, for his gov- erning power is not so much fear of personal injury as the greater dread of spiritual destruction. His subjects all consider him a demi-god, and not only put the property of the whole realm into his hands, but their very daughters. They grovel before him and throw dust upon them- selves as if they were in truth worms of the dust. They esteem it a favor to send their young girls to him every year and have him parcel them out to his guards or nobles, retaining the most pleasing for him- self. This custom nets him a large revenue (which is the more appreci- ated since the decline of the slave trade); for the king does not give away these maidens as rewards for bravery, but sells them to his sub- jects as so much merchandise. There are no freemen in the kingdom, each subject not only paying a head tax, but a tax upon everything which he eats, drinks and wears. The principal part of the revenue is now derived from duties on palm oil and ivory exported, and a duty levied upon every import. When a chief dies the king inherits his possessions absolutely, and is not even so kind as to make an exception of the furni- ture and household goods of the deceased; but as he has provided the chief with wives, and everything that the chief has had during his life- time has been upon sufferance, so upon his death he takes everything back. The king of Dahomey does not even limit himself to 3,333 wives as I 74 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. does his neighbor, the king of Ashanti, but he takes as many as he chooses. His bodyguard is composed of women who are chosen from amonof the most muscular females of the land and brouofht to him from outlying districts. They are tall and commanding, are put through a course of private and severe training, and are considered by him the fiower of his army, as they are fierce as tigers and cruel as wolves. These Amazons have the greatest contempt for the male warriors, and when they desire to reproach one another with cowardice, say, Avith a sneer, "You are nothing but a man." Most of them are furnished with bows and arrows, swords and clubs, though some are armed with muskets. Each of them is also furnished with a rope to bind prisoners. As they parade through the streets on public occasions, dressed in their sleeve- less blue and white tunics and short linen trousers, with hideous scalp locks dangling from their belts, or cowry shells fastened to their guns with coagulated blood (one for each man slain) it is like getting a glimpse of the three furies, repeated again and again. Dahomey is saddled with two kings, each absolute in his particular province. Europeans hear most of the city king, for he rules the cities, makes war, regulates the slave trade, and always appears to the outside world when scenes of cruelty are being enacted. He it is who makes the raids upon neighboring tribes, seizing the women and children for slaves, who are destined for sacrifical victims upon the occasion of his own death or that of a relative ; and once every year some hundreds of them are slain that the king may have blood to water the graves of his -ancestors. His loyal subjects express their homage to him by drinking the blood of the victims thus offered, intermixed with a plentiful supply of rum. The unfortunate slave is led to the king by the official heads- man. This omnipotent ruler then whispers in the ear of the victim a message which is to be conveyed to his ancestors who have passed away, after which the headsman performs his duty. After decapitation and the collection of a sufficient quantity of blood for the purposes named, the bodies are dragged out of town and left to be devoured by beasts and birds of prey. Their skulls are cleaned and used as building mater- ial for palaces, as ornaments to public buildings, and as the heads to banner staves. The city king is the only one whom the traders meet, but there is another royal autocrat who rules the country districts, who regulates tillage and commerce. He is called the "bush king," and has a palace about six miles from the palace of the city king in Abomey. The skeptic who smiles when told that there are people who believe in a Supreme Deity, and yet who bow down in worship to the snake, would shudder and grov/ sick at heart could he but visit some Dahomey DAHOMEY. ■ . 175 town ; for it is usually provided with a house, which is centrally located, and in which sacred reptiles dwell. They are in charge of a priest who feeds them and guards them tenderly and carries them about with him. If a person is suspected of witchcraft or other crime the priest is sum- moned with his charges ; the guilt of the suspected party is determined by whether or not he is bitten by the writhing monsters. In this, as in other ordeals, the fetich man undoubtedly holds the^ reputation, the life and the death of the " defendant" in his own hands. If a reptile escape from his house, the people first prostrate themselves before him and then carefully bear him back, even at the expense of their lives. To kill or to injure one of them is a capital offense. The origin of this hideous form of worship is found in their belief that although there is a Supreme Deity, he must be reached and propitiated through the minor gods. The most important of the minor deities is the snake-god, who has 1,000 snake wives. The tree-gods, of whom the "poison tree" is the most powerful, have also a like number of help-mates. The sea-gods are rep- resented by a high priest at the seaport of Whydah. This individual ranks as a kiuQ^ and has qoo human wives. The immediate agents of the sea-gods are the sharks, who snap up the sacrificial victim as he is cast into the water. Sharks are therefore sacred. When a person has been killed by lightning it is not lawful to bury him — he is the victim of the thunder-gods. The dead body is placed on a platform and cut up by women who hold pieces of flesh in their mouths and pretend to eat them. This is supposed to intensify their power as fetich women, and nearly one-fourth of all the females in Dahomey belong to this order. There was a time, and that not a century ago, Vv^hen the king of Dahomey was lord of the coast of Guinea. But the desolating wars which he has waged to keep up the supply of skulls for his court-yards and temples, for his national fetiches, for his periodical and ancestral sacrifices ; to fill his coffers with tribute money and to collect wives for sale ; the slaughter of his own people whom he charges with crime, reduces to servitude and sacrifices to the gods ; the death of thousands of wives who must follow the king to his grave and the hereafter ; the fiendish raids upon native tribes for hundreds of miles around to supply the demands of the slave trade ; the decline of this, his most profitable traffic ; and finally the ruinous system of taxation which he imposes — all of these things have combined to impoverish the surrounding country and reduce almost to impotency the internal organization of the kingdom. Tracts which were formerly cultivated are now a desert, and the population is but a fraction of what the territory might support. 176 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. A NATIVE REPUBLIC. Between Dahomey and the Niger there are two loosely-jointed negro kingdoms which were the powers of the coast before Ashanti and Dahomey acquired the ascendancy. Yoruba was ruptured by an invasion of the Foulahs about sixty years ago, but still contains more populous cities than any other one kingdom of Western Africa. The Yorubas are an industrious race of people, with clear, brown complexions and rather incline toward the European cast of features. Many of them are good mechanics. Palm oil is their principal article of export, which they exchange for powder, brandy and European fabrics. In the eastern and northern portions of the kingdom, the Foulahs are in the ascendant, but the southern and western parts are in the hands of native tribes. The manner in which they consolidated and formed a government of their own, evinces an independent spirit which is rare. Not only was their kingdom conquered by the Foulahs, but their tribes were being continually decimated by slave hunters. The remnants of the country, the discouraged and intimidated inhabitants of many towns, finally abandoned their territory and took refuge in an immense cavern near the banks of the Niger, about seventy-five miles from the coast. At first they did not venture far beyond their hiding place, but collected berries and roots and dwelt in their cavernous home. As they increased in numbers, however, they built houses, engaged in agriculture and other industries, formed a government, and named their town or colony Abeokuta, or " Under-Stone," in remembrance of the great stone roof which had sheltered them in the time of their misery and weakness. The founding of Abeokuta was as much a protest against the enormities of the slave trade as Sierra Leone or Liberia; and it was a more remark- able protest, as coming from "home talent," unprotected and unpatron- ized by any Western Power. The city received accessions from Sierra Leone, even. Slaves who had been recaptured and placed under the protection of the British flag preferred to sojourn in the rich and power- ful city of Abeokuta. At one time its population is said to have num- bered nearly one hundred thousand souls, and its people were spread- ing over to the coast and to the west. Such prosperity was so distasteful to the slave-power, Dahomey, that its brutal king determined to destroy the city and reduce its inhabitants to bondage. But the Abeokutans became aware of his designs and before he had set his large army in motion, they had been so trained under the leadership of an American missionary, that when it appeared it was driven from the walls, despite the frantic assault of the king and his Amazonian soldiers. The king THE STATES OF SOUDAN. 1 77 himself was nearly captured, and his defeat seriously imperiled the exist- ence of his kingdom. Thus Abeokuta became the capital of the native kingdom of Yoruba. It is still so considered, although the kingdom itself is little more than a collection of independent communities, which form a close union only in times of war. " Benin " was the name formerly applied to the whole coast of Guinea, and the kingdom ruled over many tribes. It is now chiefly noted for what " it has been," the kingdom being an unimportant factor even in native commerce, notwithstanding its population is dense. Its king is worshiped as a fetich. THE STATES OF SOUDAN. This vast country has for many centuries been the battle-ground of the Arabs, the Moors, the Foulahs, the Mandingoes and the Berbers. It is rich in cotton, tobacco, indigo, wheat, rice, maize, gold-dust and iron. Ivory and ostrich feathers are also largely exported. The com- mercial races of Africa have therefore concentrated much of their energy upon this valuable expanse of land, and where they have found it possible to absorb a native tribe or wrest a tract of country from one another, they have not hesitated to do so. Remnants of the great Fellatah Empire are scattered over the country in the shape of independent states governed by native chiefs, but each is so powerless that he is unable to maintain himself against any combination of his rivals. The result is that, especi- ally in Western and Central Soudan, the Foulahs and Mandingoes are called upon to settle all disputes, and besides being numerically in the majority are so superior, intellectually, that these portions of Soudan may be said to belong to them. They are both the commercial and political powers, and with the Moors, have founded many towns which do not even make a pretense of being subject to any native jurisdiction. Bambara and Borgu, west of the Niger river, have nominal monarchs, but are thus under the dominion of these energetic races. They carry on an active trade, the Mandingoes principally exporting ivory by way of the coast, and the Moors dealing in gold and slaves through the great Sahara Desert. The Touaricks, or Berbers of the desert, obtain their share of the riches of Soudan by constantly swooping clown upon the border states, and exacting tribute from them, or by attacking the richly laden caravans which wend their way across the Sahara sands toward the Barbary states. The pivotal point of their plundering opera- tions has always been Timbuctoo, which is situated on the great north- western bend of the Niger, and the center of this immense trade. To 12 178 PANORAMA OF NATIONS protect the caravans, which make Timbuctoo the commercial mart of Western Africa, the city pays an immense annual tribute to these robbers who were driven by the Arabs from their Mediterranean homes, and continually seek to avenge themselves upon the race which expelled but never conquered them. In Eastern Soudan the Arabs seem to be the dominant race. Three or four centuries ago, when Timbuctoo was the center of a vast empire, with seven kingdoms dependent upon it, this fiery people ruled the whole country. Since the rise of the Foulahs and Mandingoes as a political power, they have been confined to Eastern Soudan. Here, in the vicinity of Lake Tchad, is to be seen a wreck of their former might in the "Empire of Bornoo." This name has a very large "sound," and in the days of its glory meant Eastern, Southern and Central Soudan ; to-day it signifies a small state, somewhat stronger than the weak ones which surround it. Most of the inhabitants are called Bornoose or Kanowry. They are genuine negroes, peaceable and lazy as when the Arabs conquered their kingdom. The government is nominally vested in a native sultan, but really is in the hands of the Arab sheik. The sultan is surrounded by a bodyguard of nobles and chiefs, clad in the most grotesque garb ; the military of the empire to the strength of 30,- 000, and consisting mostly of cavalry, is at the beck and call of the sheik. The troops are armed with huge spears, and both men and horses are clad in armor. The Begharmis are a powerful negro tribe to the east of Bornoo, who engage the cavalry of their neighbors in thicker iron armor than their enemies are able to don. They have a sultan who has several petty states tributary to him. At last accounts Begharmi acknowledged the supremacy of Bornoo, although the following correspondence lately passed between the Mohammedan sheik and the pagan sultan, upon the occasion of a rebellion from his authority by the Begharmis. Halt- ing his army about half a mile from the capital of his enemy, the ruler of Bornoo sent the following : " Ruler of Begharmi, deliver up your country, your richss, your people and your slaves to the beloved of God, without reluctance on your part ; for if you do not suffer him quietly and peaceably to take possession of your kingdom, he will shed your blood and the blood of your household ; no one shall be left alive ; while your people he will bind with fetters of iron to be his slaves and bonds- men, forever : God having so spoken by the mouth of Mohammed." The reply : " The sultan of Begharmi does not know you or your prophet ; he laughs your boastings to scorn and despises your impotent threats. Go back to )'our country and live in peace with your people ; THE STATES OF SOUDAN. 1/9 for If you persist in the foolish attempt to invade his dominions, you will surely fall by his hands; your slaves shall be his slaves, and your people his people. Your chiefs and warriors and mighty men will be slaughtered without mercy, and their blood shall be sprinkled on the walls of his town ; even your priests and princes shall be thrust through with spears and their bodies cast into the woods to be devoured by lions and birds of prey." Mohammedanism has been introduced among the Begharmi, but they are still pagans as a people. Physically they are a fine race ; their women being especially handsome. The men, however, are subject to a peculiar disease in the little toe, which eats it away. The disease is supposed to be caused by a worm, and it is said that one in every ten of the male population has lost his little toe. ^^-^ i8o I/) n B o o II, :;';'':',fi la'iiifr^fPiiiiiiP^ THE BERBERS. THE TOUARICKS. RIVEN from " pillar to post;" scourged by the Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals and Arabs ; crowded from their fertile ter- ritories alonor the Mediterranean Sea into the Atlas Mountains and the s^reat Sahara desert — is it to be much wondered at that the Berbers of Northern Africa are suspicious, cruel and treacherous, and that many of them, as the Touaricks, are robbers by trade, whose hands are against every man ? Is it to be wondered at that they, especially the settled Berbers near the mountains, are a proud people ? They have seen the ships of Phoenicia rotting for centuries, and the great Roman fortresses which were thrown alono- the Atlas ranores have crumbled into ruins, while they are still a distinct people with a government of their own. They call themselves "Amazirghs" (noble or freemen), and although they are but a shred of their former selves, they have still as distinct an existence as when the Vandals had swarmed over into Europe and were hovering over the decaying carcass of Rome. The Arabs have spread themselves over Northern and Eastern Africa, mix- ing with negroes, Egyptians, Abyssinians, Gallas, Caffres and Mada- gascans ; but the Berbers have kept their blood pure and are proud of it, though they have nothing to show but a few villages, sundry herds of sheep and cattle, some fertile land and fine fruit trees, water mills and oil presses, imperfectly developed mines of iron and lead, rude agricultural implements, swords, guns and powder (their own make), some horses and a motley collection of plunder, comprising all the prod- ucts of Africa. Why they are called Berbers is a somewhat mooted question; some say from their word "berberat," which expresses the murmuring sound which runs as a common harmony through all their dialects ; others from " Ber," one of the shepherd kings of Egypt, from i8i * l82 ■ PANORAMA OF NATIONS. whom some of the tribes trace their origin. That branch of the Berber family which has firmly planted itself near the Atlas Mountains, south of Morocco, is believed to be identical with the ancient Numidians, who were mature in their strength when the Carthaginians were in their infancy, and whose empire included a part of Tunis, Algiers and Beled El-Jerid. The latter country, or the "land of dates," is a narrow strip of sterile land, sprinkled with oases, and stretching along the borders of the desert from Morocco to Tripoli. The Lybians have been identified in distinct tribes of Berbers, who have settled in a chain of oases near the Touarick's country ; while the Touaricks themselves, in the moun- tains and desert south of Algiers, are believed to be the Northern Gae- tuli of Pliny and Ptolemy. Though this vast stretch of ccmntry may be called their rendezvous, their home is the Great Desert. They claim that no one is so well acquainted with its natural features as they; that it is not so destitute of water as the ignorant generally suppose ; that they can detect water in the most sandy districts by boring into the soil with their long lances. By slightly lifting the points and allowing them to remain in the holes, a little moist- ure will have collected at the bottom if the survey has been success- ful. The Touaricks have their well districts in every portion of the great Sahara desert, so that they can dig for water as they require it, and then cover up all traces of their discovery. To reveal this secret to any foreigner is punishable by death — thus has their king decreed. Many of these robber nomads camp in small leathern tents which are peculiar to them. They seem to be made of the untanned hides of goats or antelopes. The Touarick's bulwark of strength as a successful robber is in his great white dromedary, which is as peculiar to him as his tent. Its head is small, its hair fine, its limbs as long as a greyhound's, and its chest as deep as that of a thoroughbred race horse. In fact it is the swiftest of its kind, and the Touarick is as proud of his " mahari " as the Arabian or Galla is of his steed. The mode of training- this noble war-horse of the desert is kept as close a mystery as the existence of the well districts ; but it is as docile as a dog, obeying the voice but being guided by a bridle. The saddle is placed on the neck and shoulders, and is shaped like a chair with a high back, with a peak in front around which the rider crosses his legs. Then over the desert he rushes, the mahari going at a swinging trot from sunrise to sunset, covering with ease eighty miles a day. The Touarick's long tuft of hair streams out from under his high red fez cap, and his blue sleeveless cloak, with the rapid motion, puffs out behind him. He has on cotton trousers coming REPUBLIC OF THE SEVEN CITIES. 1 83 down to the ankles and, if he is well off in the world, wears no shoes ; for he maintains that it is only those who are too poor to ride who need to protect their feet. Over his trousers he wears a loose robe of black cotton, which, with his nether garments, are confined by a broad leather girdle. The blue cloak goes over this. There is a black turban around his red fez cap, and one end of the folds is brought over the face and fastened with an ivory pin, so as to expose only the eyes. Even in eating, this black veil is never removed, but held from the mouth by the left hand. To expose the face is considered a degradation. The women are never veiled. Although the Touarick evidently thinks she is not thus degraded, he seems, on the whole, to treat his wife with considera- tion, and his life is remarkably free from vice. The common weapons are a lance seven feet in length, and a large, straight, double-edged sword slung over the left shoulder. A short dagger is sometimes worn in the girdle. To bear fire-arms is the privilege of only the wealthiest chiefs. Besides the weapons aforementioned, the rank and file carry on the left arm a round shield made of elephant hide, stretched on a wooden hoop and studded with large-headed nails. Thus towering above the horseman on the highest of steeds, the Touarick robbers, as they swoop down upon the caravan, are dreaded foes. They seldom kill, however, except in self-defense. In appearance the Touarick is of a dark-brown complexion, tall and slender-limbed, with thin lips, aquiline nose and remarkably small hands and feet. The language of the Touarick is stated, on good authority, to be the purest existing dialect of the Ber- ber family, it being quite unintelligible co the Kabyles, the Berbers of the Atlas Mountains, or to the inhabitants of the oases who have set- tled between the Touaricks and the mountains. They are not pagans ; neither are they strict Mohammedans. They are lax in the observance of forms, but seem, all in all, despite their loose ideas of property, to be moral, straightforward and fearless. REPUBLIC OF THE SEVEN CITIES. North of the Touaricks, in Beled El-Jerid, is the Republic of the Seven Cities of the Mozabites. Their own tradition is that their founder was named Messab, the fourteenth in succession from Noah, They were driven from the northeastern shores of the Red Sea, remained for sev- eral generations in Upper Egypt, when they emigrated to the shores of the Mediterranean, the main body settling on the frontier of Morocco and Algiers. A portion of the race settled on a small island between Tunis and Tripoli, where they still remain. They remained for several 184 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. generations on the Morocco frontier under the rule of the king being, at that time, Christians. About ^^'] a.d., having by this time also inter- mingled considerably with the aboriginal Berbers, they adopted a form of Mohammedanism from a Persian priest who settled in their metropolis, which was located in the modern province of Ovan, Northwestern Algeria. Their Berber neighbors who belonged to another and a stricter sect, drove them from the country in which they had resided for two centuries; but establishing several artificial oases further to the south, they founded a new state in company with the aboriginal inhab- itants who were settled at WareMa. The relio-ion of the Mozabites was also a cause of offense to the Wareglas, and the immigrants were so harassed that they sent out scouts to spy out another land in which they could dwell in peace. This they found still far to the south, and in a rugged, mountainous region surrounded by the Algerian desert of the Great Sahara, secure from the attacks of the Arab and Touarick cav- alry, they have dwelt for nearly 900 years, irrigating their land and draw- ing from it the necessities of life, building houses and cities and found- ing their snug little republic. They afterwards extended their republic both to the north and the southwest. The Mozabites hold the Jews in as great contempt as they are held by the Arabs, and where the Hebrews have settled in the cities of their republic they are strictly confined to their own quarters. The great cause of this animosity is found in the assertion which the Jews have made for ages, that the Mozabites are the Moabites who conquered Israel and w^ere conquered, in turn, by the Babylonians whom they assisted to subdue Palestine, who were worshipers of Baal — both the religious and national enemies of the Hebrew people — a portion of whom emigrated to the west, and with the other idolatrous foes of the Jews, the Ammonites, disappeared for a time from the light of history. Among the coast tribes of Zanzibar, also, there is a numerous people called the " Weled Hammam," whom the Jews assert to be the children of Ammon. It has been a custom of the Mozabites, for several ages, after performing the pilgrimage to Mecca, to go to this country in order to visit their acknowledged brethren. But although the feud between the Jew and the Mozabite stretches back, indefinitely, the Hebrew is a useful member of the industrious republic, being a skillful worker of metals and a merchant. Most of the cities of the republic have been built on bold emi- nences, the houses of the inhabitants being mostly of mud. The walls and gateways of the towns and the structure of their parliament houses and other public buildings are decidedly Egyptian in style. After the REPUBLIC OF THE SEVEN CITIES." 1 85 fashion of the Egyptian temples the porticos of their mosques and tow- ers lean inward, and their marabouts, or great buildings in which are the tombs of their dead, instead of having their tops domed as among the Arabs, are brought to a point. All the graves are covered with urns, and many of them have a ram's horn stuck upright in the neck. This latter peculiarity seems certainly to point to them as worshipers of Ammon (who is represented as a human being with a ram's head) whose greatest temple was in Thebes, and from which country they claim to have emi- grated. Whatever may have been their former religion, they are now known as the fifth sect of Mohammedans and treated as schismatics. When they are abroad and worship in the regular mosque of Islam, they are separated from the true followers as though tainted with leprosy. Every species of luxury is forbidden among them, tobacco, snuff and coffee being banished. They have a distinct priesthood, but scorn a dervish. The priesthood elect the sheik, who is president of the repub- lic. Each city or republic is under the government of a popular assem- bly, which consists of from four to twelve members, according to the number of families in the district. The Mozabites have only one paid official in their government, he being a negro who is paid to execute orders and to see that strangers are properly entertained. The people are hospitable and generous — within bounds. They are lovers of home and they guard their houses with the utmost care. No man ever goes abroad without a ponderous polished key or brace of keys in his hand. In default of iron he uses a yard of wood, his wives being safely locked up at home. They delight in music with all their austerity, and from their seven cities the tones of the pipe, tom-tom and zickar are inces- santly arising and mingling with the echoes of the drum. They are peaceable, reserved to strangers, honest in their commercial dealings and truthful in their conversation. Any immorality is punished by the assembly, presided over by the priest. The man is first warned of his fault, and if he persists in it, sentence is passed upon him incapacitating him from entering the mosques or voting in the civil elections; otherwise any man may cast his vote who has a house and establishment of his own. The offender against virtue can be restored to his religious and political privileges only upon proof of his repentance and good behavior. If he repents, the nails of his fingers and toes are pared very close. He Is shaved, rubbed all over with warm grease and washed from head to feet. With his hands crossed over his breast, the penitent then presents himself before the assembly and exclaims : " I am one of the children of God, and of the children who repent." The priest thereupon reads a chapter 1 86 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. of the Koran and absolves him. Punishment by death is unknown to the laws of the Mozabites, perpetual banishment being the heaviest pen- alty recognized. To the average native this punishment is severe enough, for although most of the young men go abroad upon commer- cial enterprises, traveling at times for years without returning perma- nently to their desert homes, their aim is, when age comes upon them, to be able to live and die within the domain of the peaceful republic. If a citizen finds himself in distress, his natural heirs or his clan are bound to support him ; begging is a crime. If a man dies without heirs, his property is divided by the state. Should a citizen not be able or willing to respond to the demands of the government upon him for work upon the city walls, wells or aqueducts, he may deposit, in lieu of his labor, a certain sum in the money chest of the mosque. Taxation is levied upon houses, gardens, palm trees and camels, every man who pays a house tax being exempt on six palm trees and six camels. In every city of the Barbary States, this industrious well-governed people are found, usually formed into societies or guilds, in which each member is responsible for the debts and good behavior of all the rest. When at home the principal occupations of the people are the cultiva- tion of their gardens and weaving. Their towns are usually perched on the steep side of a rocky eminence, behind which, in a ravine or artificial oasis, are the gardens of the villages. The walls which surround them are of stone, plastered with mud-colored lime, and are strengthened with four towers on each side. On each side of a town commonly appears a cemetery, the graves being cut from solid rock. Near one of their most ancient cities is a vast cemetery in which is a tomb building containing the remains of 27,000 human beings, respected citizens of the kingdom and republic, whose lives stretch over a thousand years of time ! But we started to say something about their industry and modes of cultiva- tion ; then we shall see how they look, take a stroll over their seven cities, and depart for another community of peculiar people, as distinct a race as they. The soil is all artificial, vegetable and animal contributing to its slow formation. The city groves or gardens are hedged with palm trees. At the foot of each palm is a trench to hold water, which is con- veyed to the soil by neat channels formed of hard lime, the land being divided into squares as it is in Egypt. Each garden is daily watered,, and every inch of space is utilized, being sown to capsicums, pumpkins, carrots, turnips and barley. Vines are trellised from palm to palm, and fig trees, quinces and pomegranates give the stately hedge the beauty of their pale green. The plow by which the soil has been turned up is devoid of iron, being merely a long piece of wood sharpened at one end, REPUBLIC OF THE SEVEN CITIES. 1 8/ to which are fastened two beams, one for drawing and the other for guid- ing. The camel who furnishes the motive power is led by one boy and driven by another. Wheat is almost unknown in the republic, and the use of meat is confined to festivals. The Mozabites are expert dyers and tanners of morocco leather. They use the rind of the pomegranate for tanning purposes. After bleaching the wool with water mixed with the powder of a soft lime- stone, they use the roots of various desert plants for yellow, primrose and red dyes. The women do not appear much in public, spending most of their time on the tops of their houses. Four of them are allowed one husband, at least one man is allowed to marry four wives. Their hair is twisted into a huge knot on each side of the forehead, and there is another knot behind on the left side. The whole arrangement is fastened with large gold or silver skewers, and powdered with red and white beads. On the right knot only they wear such ornaments as gold stars and coins. These ladies are very dark, and yet have red or black patches of paint on the forehead, and a black patch on the end of the nose. Rings, bracelets and anklets are plentifully worn. The men, however poverty- stricken, always wear a signet-ring of silver. More ornaments are some- times tolerated by the Jews, but otherwise there is no distinction in dress between them and the Moslems, except in place of the red fez under the turban they always wear a black one. Each of the seven cities of the republic has a distinctive air and although the people are united, there is so much that is different in architecture, in local laws and customs as almost to leave the impression of a passing into another country. The military city of the confederacy is Beni Isguen. Surrounded by a double line of fortifications, it stands upon the side of a hill at the summit of which are the ruins of the first settlement of the Mozabites, made more than a thousand years ago. The space between the w^alls is covered with Arabian tents. This privilege is not even accorded the Jew ; for the inhabitants of Beni Isguen boast that they are of the purest Mozabite blood, part of them having come from the Arabian shores of the Gulf of Bab-el-Mandeb, and the others from the Berbers of the mountains. None but members of these two clans are allowed to hold land. Every fortnight one hundred of the citizens are summoned to practice ball firing against the face of a rock. Their military faithfulness has worn it into a cave twelve feet deep, so that little of their ammunition is lost. Everything is ancient and impressive in this city, although its population does not exceed ten thousand ; it has two massive mosque towers, one for the upper and old 1 88 . PANORAMA OF NATIONS. town, and the other for the lower city. After pointing these out to the stranger, the Kadi (civil jDresident of the corporation) will lead him proudly to the city's register, in which, for nine hundred years, are recorded its chief events and the names of its distinofuished visitors. The capital of the republic is Ghardaia, a city, as usual, " founded on a rock," its flat-roofed huts built in terraces, tier upon tier. A taller hill, on one side, is crowned by the oldest of the Mozabite fortified towns ; on the one hand loom the ruins of another ancient town. Enter- ing through the gateway, overshadowed by the square tower of a mosque, you are met by the "mayor," who is also president of the republic, and who carries in his hand three enormous keys with which he ushers you into the " guest" house. This is apt to be a small windowless hut, with only the door through which you enter; upon the floor you find spread for your reception a long carpet of some thick material, a basket of dates, a dish of pomegranates, and perhaps a huge water-melon. The great cem- etery of the republic is located at the capital, and here is the immense, marabout, or tomb building, to which reference has been made. This hallowed ground is not only the scene of mourning, but of one of the most joyous, simple festivals which can be imagined. It is known as the "death-feast" of the founder of the Ghardaia. Once every year, in a large open space in the cemetery, the poor of the city gather to receive a bounteous feast from the hands of the rich. Underneath the open space is the grave of the man whose name is revered in so tender- hearted a manner. Trade is comparatively so brisk at the capital that quite a commer- cial atmosphere surrounds it. Windowless, one-story houses front the streets, and some of them have holes in the wall through which cotton cloaks, burnooses, handkerchiefs, etc., are sold. The market is an irregular space, surrounded by rows of venders with their wares on their knees on the ground, the buyers sitting beside them. A negro acts as auctioneer, having an assistant who carries the article to be sold around the square. Among other strange valuables disposed of is a large heap of date stones, which are cracked between stones, and fed to camels. The Jews are here allowed the freedom of the city, though they are confined to one quarter, where they work as jewelers, silversmiths, farriers, and blacksmiths. Mellika is the sacred city of the republic, which contains more mosques than its sister towns, more ruined houses outside the walls, more tumbled-down gates, and boasts a large cemetery in which are buried many of the republic's revered founders. Beyond this is a city so small and jumbled together that it does not even have a house for the THE WAREGLAS. . 1 89 entertainment of guests; it has seen better days, however, for the top of the hill is covered with a mass of ruins. El At'f has a double wall like the military city, and is the oldest city which stands upon its former site. You see again the same holes in the wall through which cottons and fruits are being vended. There is also something which looks like a mass of loose sand. It is really a desert lichen and not considered bad eating by the hungry Touarick, though to any one who has a liking for the dainties of this life, it might just as well be a section of the Sahara for all the attraction it would have to him. The entire site of the city is a polished rock, and its gardens are choked with sand — but the Mozabite is proud of it, too, with its white-washed houses, built of good stone, and its palm trees within instead of without the walls. Guerara, the seventh city of the Mozabite republic, wonderful to relate, occupies an almost level site, being situated in an isolated oasis, and havinof little intercourse with the balance of the commonwealth. The houses stretch from both sides of the usual tower, and are of mud- brick and stone. Small eminences surround the town, each crowned by the tomb of a holy man ; this is a complete little house with many cham- bers, but all closed and dark, in which prayers are offered by the family on stated occasions. On the anniversary of his decease, the virtues of the departed are extolled and a largess doled out, as in the death feast we have described. THE WAREGLAS. A three days' march from the Seven Cities brings one to the Wareglas, with whom it will be remembered the Mozabites attempted to form a union. As you approach their city the " Peace be with you" which greets you on every hand makes you imagine that you are among the faithful people of the Prophet. The people are of a different race from those among whom we have been living — very dark, often with a strong dash of negro features ; the women with frizzed hair curled into cork- screws, plaited at the back and oramented like Nubians with red beads and gold coins. Instead of the long cord of camel's hair worn around the fez by the Arabs, the Wareglas wear a simple twist of fine grass matting. In other ways they show the independence befitting a people who claim to have founded the most ancient city in the Sahara. Although Waregla boasts that it has never voluntarily submitted to Dey or Porte, it was, at one time, unable to choose a native prince and called upon the Emperor of Morocco for a ruler. He sent his son, who agreed to levy no taxes, but to be content with as many gardens as there were days in the year. The extravagance of the royal family induced the IQO PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Wareglas to stipulate that the sultan should receive a camel-load of dates for every one hundred trees of the 60,000 in their oasis. This generous provision, however, did not long keep the foreign ruler within bounds, and the indolent people therefore aroused themselves, and put into effect their prerogative of deposing the sultan at will. Their resolve was delicately conveyed to him, as had been previously understood, by neglect- ing to furnish him a band of music at the time of morning prayer. The band did not play before his chamber door, and he retired to private life, only to give place to a powerful chieftain of the Southern Sahara, who agreed to protect the city against the raids of the Touaricks. These marauders have more than once attacked the place, and laid waste the gardens and palm groves which extend for several miles in all direc- tions. The trees are irrigated by salt water, which is said to be con- ducive to their fruitfulness. Be3^ond the gardens is a marsh swarming with wild duck and abounding with rank herbage. The city has a triple circuit of crumbling walls, the outer enclosing a wide space where cattle are driven in, camels loaded and unloaded, and caravans arranged. The middle walls are built of sun-dried brick. A forest of palms envelops the whole city. The mosques with their lofty, square towers again appear, but instead of the clear-cut features of the Mozabites, we are confronted with the broad nose and coarse mouth. There is a Jewish quarter in Waregla, also, given up almost entirely to the workers of metals. The Hebrews have their own streets, a separate municipal organization, and if they pay their taxes, may be greeted with the " Peace be with you " of the lax Wareglan, who seems to have forgotten that the salutation should only be given to the faithful Mohammedan. THE MALAYANS. ROM the southeast of Asia, in the dim past, there came a fierce, active race of men, driving the aborigines into the islands of the sea. First they crowded them into the interior and sometimes off tlie islands entirely. The race of Papuans finallv concentrated themselves on the o-reat island of New Guinea, from which the v.'ar-like Malayans were unable to drive them. This with the Philippines and a few small groups of islands in direct communication with New Guinea, or Papua, were virtually all that remained to the overwhelmed aborigi- nes. From Borneo and the Celebes Islands the hardy and •enterprising conquerors shot out in all directions. Describing curves of thousands of miles, the race swung round the oceanic territory of the Papuans, when they could not break through it, until the}^ had in their embrace nearly all the islands of the ocean from South America to Africa and from Australia to the Sandwich Islands. At quite an early day in their history of savage colonization there occurred a gigantic split or emigration. For fifteen hundred miles east of the Celebes Islands the Malayan language, both in its structure and traditions, shows many admixtures from the Indian or old Sanskrit. With the Samoan, or Tonga groups of islands which are then reached, commences to be heard both a distinct language and a new order of traditions. Physical development has also been progressing. The pure Malayan t)pe shows a native of small stature; skin a copper brown, with a tint of yellow; straight, coarse and dark hair ; long and broad head ; protruding cheek bones ; flat nose and large nostrils ; small eyelids, but not as narrow as those of the Mongolian ; large mouth, but the lips not puffed up ; black, but not brilliant eyes. Progressing eastward the body increases both in height and muscularit)' ; the javr, cheek-bones, mouth and nose are ;shaded more toward the European cast, and the hair does not tend toward the Papuan ^■ariety (which grows in tufts) but is inclined to be curb'. We are now among the Polynesians — those tall athletic cannibals, and igi 192 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Christians, who are regarded as the purest remnants of the. race which was crowded out of Asia by the more vigorous Aryans, and which, in turn, pushed the Papuans out into the broad Pacific and hemmed them round about in their island prisons. The Polynesian languages, there- fore, are among the most primitive forms of speech. As those gigantic " South Sea Islanders," the Polynesians, come up before us all, with their black skins and their bluish black hair, divided from them by thou- sands of miles, their geographical as well as personal extremes are the Madagascans, who are a branch of the Malayans proper. THE MADAGASCAR MALAYANS. NLY two hundred and fifty miles from the African coast, oppo- site Mozambique, is a great island which it is natural to suppose would be peopled by the tribes of Africa; but with a few unimportant exceptions on their western coasts, the Afri- cans have never been navigators. Not even to escape the persecutions of war or the pressure of population, do they seem ever to have ventured far from the coast, but rather to have trusted themselves to the great unknown interior of their continent, when circumstances have forced them to "move on." So that the two hundred and fifty miles lying between the continent of Africa and the great island of Madagascar have barred out the Ethiopians, and left the way open for an influx of population via the Indian Ocean. In what way and when the adventurous Malay found his home in this far-distant island, has been one of the problems which has most puzzled the ethnologist ; but find him. we do, with the speech, eyes, hair and features of his brethren so far to the east. THE TWO TRIBES. The Madagascans are divided into two distinct races, the black tribes inhabiting the western or African slope, and the olive-colored natives the eastern. Since the country came into view as a historic land, the great conflict has been between representative people from these races. Though the texture of their lana^uao^es — ■ even the names of towns, mountains and rivers, east and west— makes itclearly evident that they were originally united, their animosity has been implacable since the world has known anything of them. During the last century a black tribe called the Sakalavas held the fairer natives in subjection. They now hold the western and northern portions of the island, wher&, with their tall and robust frames, black crisped hair and dark eyes, they look with disdain upon the diminutive Hovas, with their soft ' hair afttl their hazel eyes. They call them "vagabonds." and are perpetual^j' 1.3 iq3 194 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. showing their contempt by carrying off their cattle and plundering their homesteads. But their fair-haired enemies, "vagabonds" though they be, have become the dominant race of the island by trusting to their 'intellectual force, combined with European weapons and tactics, instead of to personal bravery and physical strength. They respond to the Sakalavas by dubbing them "the tall cats," both on account of their fierceness and great stature. The Hovas occupy only a central prov- ince of Madagascar, and the Sakalavas with other tribes of less strength are independent of their actual dominion. Their kingdom is called Imerina, and is united and powerful ; all outside is confusion and disor- ganization. So that it has been customary to consider their government as that of the whole island. ANCIENT HISTORY. The Hovas are the only people of Madagascar who possess any traditions in regard to the aboriginal inhabitants of the island, whose ancestors they claim to be. It is from them that the supposition is drawn of a far more primitive people than they whom the ancient Hovas found dwelling in their present territory, about eight hundred years ago. This tribe they call Vazimba. The two tribes united to produce the Hovas of the present. Their traditions pictured the Vazimbas as of so heroic and godlike a cast that, when the Hovas were pagans, their ancestors were worshiped as gods, and even now, as Chris- tians, their tombs are among the most sacred objects in the country. After they had lived together for over a century, a quarrel arose, how- ever, which resulted in the Vazimbas being driven out of the country with the iron spears of the Hovas, which their wooden weapons were not able to resist. Their traditions have it that for five hundred years thereafter the Hovas continued to flourish. They built fortified towns. They had their tribal governments, their orators and their heroes, and neither Arab nor Portuguese knew of their continued growth into a united and powerful people. At the beginning of the eighteenth century one of their great chiefs (" Andriamasinavalona") by the power of his name and arms, brought every town under his sway. He also built embankments along the river Ikopa, which watered his province, to prevent the annual flooding of the great rice plain along its borders, which was, withal, a source of much wealth to the kingdom. The cultivation of rice was extended, the smelting of iron and the manufacture of cloths were encouraged, and, later, the thin spear and round hide shield gave way to the musket and cannon. The ruder tribes became subject to the Hovas. ANCIENT HISTORY. 1 95 A king ascended the throne who was a Madagascan of the old school; who sat on the floor and ate with his hands out of a silver dish, who worshiped idols and who believed in divination with the help of beans, rice, straw and sand; but this king abolished the slave trade in liis dominions, in return for the privilege of being supplied with British .arms and British ofificers, and became master of the island. The native language was reduced to writing and thousands of the people learned to read and write. European blacksmiths instructed those of Madagascar, Infanticide was abolished, and other cruel customs of paganism. A pagan queen ruled over the Hovas, and destroyed all the good Avork which had been accomplished. Persecutions of the Christians and of civilization followed ; thousands of persons were massacred, and sub- jected to most horrible forms of death. Other rulers came, some good and some bad, but the advance was sure, until with the accession of the present ruler, an enlightened woman, the firm foundation of a progress- ve state seems to be laid. MADAGASCAN SLAVERY. Although slavery has been abolished in so far as that the natives are not sold and exported, it still exists in various forms under the generally intelligent reign of the queen. The descendants of prisoners of war are still slaves. There are slaves who have placed themselves in ■servitude on account of debts ; and in Madagascar slavery is not only imposed upon the criminal, but extends to his wives and children. In the service of the queen, as of her predecessors, are also a class of workmen who are slaves, to all intents and purposes,, although not so in name. In the great forests are hundreds of woodcutters, felling timber ■for government purposes, who receive no pay, and yet toil there all their lives and rear their families in darkness and privation. Their toys follow in their footsteps and their girls are given in marriage to •other woodcutters, who drag out the same monotonous existence, their only privilege being to cultivate enough land to keep body and soul together. A certain quota of artisans, such as workers in iron, gun- ■smiths, spearmakers and carpenters are also bound in perpetual serfdom to the government. Such arrangements as these bring the expendi- tures of the government down to a very low figure. THE GOVERNMENT. The queen's advisers in the government are a prime minister, commander-in-chief, and a chief secretary of state. The offices of 196 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. prime minister and commander-in-chief are sometimes held by the same individual. A certain noble family called Rainiharo has for several generations retained the confidence of both the queen and her prede- cessors. Its members have invariably thrown their great influence against heathenism, in favor of a constitutional monarchy, and have placed several rulers upon the throne. Measures of state are discussed by the queen with her immediate council, old and honored officers of the army, and a unique domestic cabinet called the " Twelve Wives." Every king is authorized to have that number of mates, because twelve is a cabalistic number with the Madagascan. He has his twelve sacred cities, and what better evidence of its power is required ? This inner council is not supposed to have much influence, since all these ancient superstitions are on the wane, but the relic may be retained as a conven- ient method of keeping the first ladies of the land in good humon There are several noteworthy instances, however, which go to show that the queen is a believer in the political and civil ability of her sex. Female chiefs have frequently been greatly honored by her, being entitled to the highest rank in the government, and on the east coast a Betsimasaraka princess was, for many years, one of her most trusted counsellors. THE TRIBES AND THEIR CHIEFS. Although the Hovas and their subject tribes acknowledge a central government in the queen and her cabinet, they are still a federation. At the head of each tribe are the nobility, who are descended from the great chiefs of former ages, and the common people are enrolled as their •followers rather than the subjects of the queen. Taxes are levied by these chiefs, but they are paid in service or in rice, sugar-cane, lambas,, fire-wood, beams for building, bundles of thatch, stones, pork, beef, etc. If the Malagassy had a currency this awkward form of payment would not be necessary. In their larger towns the French five-franc piece is used and chopped up into smaller pieces, as required, every household as well as shop having its weights and measures. Upon a message from the queen asking for some special service, the tribes meet and decide upon the details. When any great question agitates the kingdom, the tribes meet and express themselves freely^, before the queen renders her judgment. DEGRADING THE COURT. The judges are chosen from, the nobility, and hear complaints and examine criminals in open market or close to some public road. The THE TRIBES AND THEIR CHIEFS. IQ/ Strange custom of thus exposing the judicial dignity to the gaze of the masses is reported to have originated from the fact that once upon a time, not many years ago, a great king of the Hovas passed a house wherein the judges were assembled, and they neglected to arise and pay him the usual homage. It was thereupon decreed that the house should be razed, and the judges thereafter hold their court in the open air, where they could see and be seen. So now they sit upon a bank of earth, or a pile of stone, with principals, witnesses and spectators crowd- ing around. They write their depositions upon the knee ; but their duties are lightened in other respects, for no advocates are employed, the principals being their own lawyers. In difficult cases the judges retire to deliberate ; but the bulk of their business is transacted accord- ing to the royal mandate. Formerly the poison ordeal was employed in criminal cases to determine the verdict, or, in minor cases, two fowls or dogs representing plaintiff and defendant were pitted against each other. Trial by a jury of twelve is a provision of the constitution, but seems a dead letter. Under the judges are the revenue officials of the country, who collect the rice and other productions which fall to the queen in place of taxes and government fines, besides taking charge of all the revenues which are covered into the royal treasury for the running expenses of the state. Another class of civil officers are the royal couriers, who send messages from the government to the head men of the villages on public business, and form a sort of constabulary in the preservation of the peace. Below them are the centurions, who have immediate oversight over '' one hundred," who actually deliver the messages to the head men, or proclaim them to the people after the subjects have been brought to the great markets by the firing of a gun. The head men are appointed by the sovereign to preserve order in their residence villages, and to act as district representatives. The punishments inflicted for crimes seem to be the worst relic of barbarism allowed to exist under the Hovas' government. For political offenses, as for the non-payment of debts, not only is the person's property confiscated, but himself and family are sold into slavery. Many crimes are punishable by death. The criminal may be thrown upon the ground, and spears be driven through his back, or he may be stoned, flogged or burned to death, crucified or thrown over a precipice. If he is a noble, it is deemed unlawful to shed his blood, and he may take his choice of being smothered, starved or burned. In actual rank, the nobles or judges, come next to the royal family. Then come the officers of the army, who are divided into thirteen igS PANORAMA OF NATIONS. grades, the field marshal being the highest. The policy pursued by- many of the sovereigns of obtaining the most modern of military ideas has borne fruit in a large and well-disciplined army, but has had the evil effect of inclining the ruler of the kingdom much more to autocracy. THE QUEEN'S CAPITAL. In fact, situated as her kingdom and capital are, on a high table- land backed by noble hills and dense forests, with a large army at her command, she may well feel herself secure not only from domestic dis- turbance, but from an invasion of foreign enemies or outside tribes. Antananarivo is her capital, as it was the city of the Vazimbos. It is built upon a high ridge of land, having three elevations. Between two of them is the plain where the sovereigns have been crowned. On the highest point stands the palace of the queen. Upon a level piece of ground on another hill the laws of the kingdom are promulgated. Lower elevations than those upon which the capital is built are utilized as picturesque suburbs of the great city. CHRISTIAN PERSECUTIONS. A church now and then comes into view, while near it may be steep and frowning cliffs, over which the martyrs were thrown when the heathen monarchs raged against the Christian missionaries, thinking that these foreigners not only came to destroy their gods, but to put in the places of their sacred ancestors the names of God and Jesus Christ. The proud memories resting upon the twelve sacred cities in which once resided the twelve revered king's of the ancient Vazimbos were to be obliterated ; and they were to no more cast their eyes from their lofty portals and with one sweep of their royal heads witness those ruins by which they swore, and which kept alive in their minds great and ambi- tious resolves. The rude mounds of earth and stone, in which were laid the bones of some Vazimba demigod, were no more to be used as altars by their subjects, but were to be looked upon as so many common heaps- of refuse. Those sacred obelisks of stone, set up as memorials of the. great chiefs of ancient times, were to be unhallowed. The three hills upon which dwelt three of their most famous idols, through whose agencies they were to reach the Prince of Heaven, were to be leveled,, figuratively speaking, and the kingdom torn from their embraces. A dozen miles to the north upon a bold ridge of rock, which rose from a great plain, their ancient capital, with the ancestral tombs and royal houses, appealed to these heathen monarchs to stamp out this new AUSTRALIA MM LAV/, 11 CHRISTIAN PERSECUTIONS. 199 force which threatened to tear up their hoary superstitions by the roots; and with the uprooting- of the old would be destroyed much of the sanc- tity which hedged their own persons about. And horribly did they acquit themselves. Those of the nobility who had joined the new order of things were burned to death at the summit of the northern ridofe of the capital hill, as it begins to slope toward the plain. A precipice frowns from the western side of the city. Toward this awful descent fifteen persons were carried, bound and gagged ; a rope was firmly tied around the body of each, Avhich was lowered a short distance down the cliff. Within a stone's throw was the royal palace. A great multitude gathered on the adjacent elevations, with various emotions, awaiting to see the officer give the executioner the word of command to cut the rope with the knife which he held raised over it, and to witness the awful plunge and the sickening wreckage of humanity. But though the Christians were killed by hundreds, and banished by thousands, and driven to worship in rice pits or in those very tombs which they had been taught to believe were deified, the spark was kept alive which kindled into a flame under more auspicious reigns ; and from the tolerance of one pagan queen sprang the fostering care of a Christian sovereign. So that to-day the spectacle is presented of a ruler who has cut away from the ancient superstitions of her people, has herself done most to eradicate the religion of her forefathers, and yet who seems firmly planted in the public confidence. BURNING OF THE IDOLS. . The Sakalavas, and other tribes which have not embraced Chris- tianity, have as many strange superstitions and customs as the negroes of Africa. They have a supreme god, whom they call the Prince of Heaven, and various tutelary gods. Their two great idols were lodged in common huts, there being no temples, and there were no priests except the men who had charge of them. The queen ordered these hideous monsters to be destroyed, when the pagans of the kingdom demanded that she return to her native faith. The long cane which preceded the chief idol, Rakelimalaza, in the heathen processions was first cast into the fire ; then the twelve bullocks' horns which were used as sprinkling vessels ; the three scarlet umbrellas, the lamba which concealed the idol when its keeper was travelling with it, and the idol's case made of the trunk of a hollow tree — all these follovv^ed, the people standing around, awe-struck but quite silent until 200 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the idol itself was revealed ! Upon which they exclaimed to the officer and his soldiers : " You cannot burn him; he is a god ! " Astounding it is that the idol-worshipers did not all abandon their faith when their eyes beheld what they had been revering as the Great Unknown ; for it con- sisted merely of a piece of wood, about four inches long, wrapped in two thicknesses of scarlet silk some three feet long and three inches wide. The other great idol which was made of three round pieces of wood, of about the same length, and bound together with a silver chain, suc- ceeded Rakelimalaza. He was called Ratsimahalahy — the names were enough to frighten any one. It is well that the idols were kept under cover ; for the Madagascans have no talent as sculptors, their very idols prove their deficiency. With the Africans and races of the East, the reverse is the case, their hideous representations of powers which are only known to be quite awful and mysterious, serving to keep alive the most degarded of superstitions. Sometimes the pagan of Madagascar wears the rude figure of a bullock as a charm against evil, but that is the extent to which native art goes. This fortunate deficiency in the artistic nature of the Madagascan may account, in part, for his lack of cruelty in the manner of making his offerings. He comes as near being the worshiper of ideas, hideous and ridiculous though they may be, as an idolator possibly can. So far as the habits of the people are known, the natives of Mada- gascar, with one minor exception, have never practiced human sacrifice. The " sampy " or household god has greater influence over the average Madagascan than his larger or national god. Even this is usually a mere piece of wood, stone or glass, kept in a straw basket, and hung from the north wall of the house, near the bedstead. When the people wish to make an offering to the village god, it is brought from its house in the middle of the town, snugly laid away in its box, and the ceremonies are gone through with upon sacred stones, or the grave of a Vazimba, under the direction of the priest. Sometimes the keeper calls the people together and they wait around the idol-house until he has offered prayers and anointed the god with the oil of the castor-oil plant ; after which the audience is considered to be blessed. Fortunes are told and fortunate days are foretold by observing the phases of the moon. If a child should be born on an unlucky day, it is at once killed. Trial by ordeal, by taking a nauseating drink, is also practiced, as we have seen it among the negro tribes of Western Africa. Among the Hovas, however, the savage custom has disappeared. The step may be considered in the light of a measure taken to preserve the kingdom itself ; for it was computed that by the ravages of the so-called BURNING OF THE IDOLS. . 20I "'tangena" a fiftieth part of its population had been killed ; that three thousand people were annually sacrified upon the altar of this all-pervad- ing superstition. THE BENEFIT OF "NO ROADS." There probably never was a state whose natural defenses were so impregnable as this one of the Hovas. From the sea coast to their very capital, whether you advance from the north, south, east or west, the country consists of lofty terraces or natural fortifications. Dense forests also cover the land, and as if to make their position more secure, with all their advance in modern civilization, the}' have persistently refused to build passable roads from the coast to the interior. Mere paths run around noble hills, through valleys and woods, and skirt great rice swamps to the queen's province ; yet they are wide enough to accomo- date the Tankays, who inhabit a plain which occupies the second ridge of terraces (when they are at home) ; but they have been conquered by the Hovas and brought into the service of transporting government goods to all points of the kingdom. The universal mode of personal conveyance is by the palanquin, which is a frame work borne on the shoulders of men, fixed up with various conveniences proportionate to the length of journey to be under- taken. The traveller is carried over the country at a brisk dog-trot, the tearers shifting their burden from one shoulder to the other without stopping, or taking an extra breath. As for horses in such a country, they would be useless, and with the exception of a few employed by the military at the capital upon the occasion of a review of troops, they may be said not to exist in Madagascar. A wheeled vehicle of any de- scription is also unknown. Thus Imerina is intrenched, suffering only an occasional attack of the Sakalavas upon her cattle who are in charge of the domestic slaves of the nobility, who pasture them in the rich valleys, lower hills and open plains below. WONDERFUL EMBANKMENTS. But the great bulwark of the Hovas, as a people, is their rice. Its tall green reeds cover hundreds of square miles along the rivers and streams, and from the broad fields spring countless pretty hamlets and villages. In many of the most fertile rice districts the land is divided into "hetia" or holdings, and the villages are perched thickh' on the terraces of the hills above. A remarkable geological formation has been the means of retaining 202 ■ PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the waters of the rivers which, 4,000 feet above the level of the sea, fer- tilize these vast tracts of country and sustain the lives of over a million people. If some barrier were not interposed they would rush with resist- less force toward the ocean, ploughing up the red clay hills into deep valleys and making level plains, loamy soil and vast fields of rice an impossibility. This natural dam is formed by a reef of hard gneiss, on the western side of Imerina, where the Ikopa river would otherwise leap unimpeded to the terraces and the ocean far below. Its waters are retained at a certain height, fertilizing the plains on either side, which were formed and held in their mountain fastnesses by the interposition of these adamant barriers. A similar reef of rocks stays the waters of two other streams which overlook the richest rice fields of Madagascar. This natural protection, in addition to the artificial embankments of the river Ikopa, constructed nearly 200 years ago by one of the* energetic kings of Madagascar, has made the plain of Imerina what it is. Each side of the stream for many miles is skillfully inclosed, and through innumerable sluices its waters are conducted by canals to thousands of rice fields. The works would be creditable to a civil engineer of modern times, but so rapid is the cur- rent of the river during the rainy season that the greatest care is taken to detect any weakness in the embankments. The whole population of the plain are sometimes summoned at a moment's notice to assist in stopping a gap and preserving their rice fields from inundation. RICE CULTURE. ^^ But it should not be imasrined for a moment that all the agfricultu- rist has to do is to flood his field from the river and then turn upon the rich soil his herd of cattle, driving them round and round to mash it into soft mud — a very lazy kind of plowing for the benefit of the prolific rice plant. These terraces which we have seen descending in all direc- tions, from the kingdom of Imerina to the sea, although not watered directly by the streams and rivers, are clothed by the ingenuity of an industrious people with the fresh green of the young rice plant and the golden harvest of maturity ; the streams and rivers are tapped, the waters are drawn from one level to another through long channels and spread upon hundreds of fields which would otherwise be mere pasture land over which herds of cattle would wander at will. The rice is usu- ally sown inthe valleys, which run down to the plains, a series of ter- races being formed and so protected that the earth and seed will not be washed away. AUbTRALlA RICE CULTURE. ■ 203;, When the plants are about six inches high, the business of trans- planting- begins. All are engaged in this work — the slaves, male and female, in preparing the ground and bringing the plants, and the owner and his wife and family in superintending the operations. The young" plants are tied in small bundles, and being brought to the rice fields in the plain, which have been flooded to the depth of a few inches, they are fixed in soft soil, one by one, but with astonishing rapidity. When har- vest time comes the plains are yellow with grain, which is still growing in water, now kept standing to the depth of a foot or more. The men wade into the water and cut the rice with large straight-bladed knives, after which they pile it into small canoes and bring it to dry land. There the women receive it, lay it out on the ground to dry and then thresh- out the grain on large pieces of stone or a surface of prepared clay. After being further dried the rice is stored in a round pit dug in the hard clay soil. This has been the custom from time immemorial, and. the consequence is that it is the height of folly for one not acquainted with the ground to commence to build upon a plain anywhere in the kingdom without first making a thorough search for concealed rice pits. Until the next planting comes round, the long-horned Madagascan cat- tle, with their camel-like humps, monopolize the fields. MADAGASCAR MARKETS. The manufactures, as they are exhibited at the markets, held in the towns of the provinces, are somewhat primitive, although in some districts cotton and silk are woven into handsome fabrics, and elegant carpets are made. As a rule they consist of lambas made of rofia fibre; coarse but strong iron spades, spade handles, timber rafters, clumsy- window shutters with the hinge pin projecting above and below, wooden spoons, leaf plates, grass baskets and earthen plates, hinges, cocks, pin- cers, hatchets, choppers, hammers and trowels, all of native work. Boots and shoes are neatly made, but the sole-leather is badly tanned. A would-be purchaser of food at one of these markets would find that about the following scale of prices prevailed : Beef, two cents per pound; pineapples, five for a cent; potatoes, twelve cents a bushel; eggs, a cent apiece ; a large turkey, eighteen cents ; a fat fowl, three cents ; a bushel of maize, five cents, and rice, nothing to speak of. Wages also are the same as rice ; so that the cheapness of provisions cuts little figure in the poor Madagascan's life. This market system is a prominent feature in the social life of the Madagascan. The markets are usually held weekly, but in the large 204 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. towns do not frequently fall upon the same day, so that if the queen or governor, or any functionary or personage of lesser degree, has any mat- ter which he wishes to bring before the people, he makes proclamation in the market place. Here is the rendezvous of merchants, politicians, gossip-mongers, buyers and sellers, and it is a good place to see all grades of life. In the days of the persecutions those who were convicted of Christianity were exposed in chains every market day for months together as the surest way of heaping upon them the greatest torrent of abuse in the most public manner. At the capital and in the large towns the markets are divided into departments. From the timber or wood market can be selected every portion of a house from the framework or flooring of the more modern, to the rushes or bamboo used in the con- struction of huts. Then there are the provision stall and the manufac- turing department. A CONQUERED RICE PROVINCE. One of the rice swamps, which has become so justly celebrated, covers an area of over six hundred square miles. This is in the pro- vince of Sihanaka, which has become subject to the Hovas, though the resistance was brave. It is a vast basin set down in the midst of high hills, having a clear lake and this immense rice field in the center. The Sihanakas made their last stand on an island in the lake, and though the king of the Hovas was armed with cannon and muskets, their defense was so determined and the rain fell in such torrents that, for the time, he abandoned the assault ; or rather his soldiers fled, and the leader of the flight, according to military custom, was burned to death. Evi- dence? yet remain, in the shape of old fortresses and the "Prince's Town," that the people were at one time warlike and independent. Although they have deserted their fortresses for the fertile plains, and enjoy their rice and gravy in security, one of their first inquiries of astrano-er is in regard to the cannon which guards the stockade of the towns occupied by their Hova rulers. This people belong to the great tribe of Betsimasarakas, who inhabit the eastern portions of the island, and next to the Hovas are the fairest natives of Madagascar; but they are sadly addicted to rum, made from the sugar cane which they grow, and little sheds containing their stills are conspicuous deformities of the landscape. The larger towns of the people are laid out with great reg- ularity ; the houses, however, being built mostly of light wood and reeds, so that destructive fires are of frequent occurrence. Outside of many of them are larcre enclosures for the enrich the soil. After the harvest has been gathered the ground is-, broken up with a spade, hoe or plow, and harrowed with a rake, water being let into the field through artificial dikes. Though ingenious, as; we have seen, the Javanese have never invented a water-wheel, or other apparatus for flooding their fields. The Malayan's field is often assailed by huge flocks of birds. His- method of frightening them away is similar to that which we have A NATIVE "RIG." noticed as beine in vo^ue on the African grain coast. He erects a bamboo house, placed on long poles, and from this watch-tower run rows of stakes to all parts of the field. These are connected by strings in such a way that he can vibrate the sticks and frighten away the pests in any particular part of the field which he desires. Land that is planted to sugar cane is quickly exhausted, as the Malayan farmer never thinks of manuring his field ; consequently two-thirds of a planta- tion are devoted to rice, which plan supplies the laborers with food and RICE AND SUGAR CANE. 225 keeps the ground fresh. When cut the sugar cane is bound into bun- dles containing about twenty-five stalks each, which are then hauled to the long, low white factory buildings in clumsy, two-wheeled carts. After the sugar has been extracted from the cane, a mixture of clay and water is poured over it. The water thus impregnated, filters through the brown sugar, and washes the crystals white. This process is said to have been suggested by the birds, it having been noticed that, when they stepped upon the brown sugar with their muddy feet, those places which were touched became white. The inference was thus drawn that there was some chemical affinity between the sugar and the clay. After the sugar has been extracted, the molasses which drains off is fermented with rice, palm oil is added, and the result is an intoxicating drink called arrak, which is very popular with all the natives of the Archipelago. The liquor is even shipped to Sweden and Nor- way, where its effects are not so destructive^ as in warmer climates. BUFFALO VS. EUROPEAN. land, a bamboo hut and a buffalo and cart "avouM be the usual way in which a poor Javanese would list his property. In both their plows and carts the animals are led or driven singly. The reins pass thro' Ir="-J^'°' the buffalo's nos- trils, and are at- tached to his horns. And so the Malayans, with their house-like carts, go plodding along, stopping now and then, if it is warm and the jour- ney is long, to allow their bovine friend a chance to wallow in one of theartificial ponds which are constructed for his benefit by the road- side. The Malayan buffalo, thinly covered with hair, is larger than the American species and usually so docile with the natives that children can drive him ; but for some reason he has an unconquerable aversion 15 A JAVANESE HOUSE. 226 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. to Europeans, which he manifests by breathing heavily throuo-h the nose ; and when he so expresses himself it is well for the European to get away, since a buffalo is more than a match for a tiger. HOUSES AND PEOPLE. In some of the interior villages the houses are built with special reference to the ravages of the tigers. They are placed on posts twelve or fifteen feet high, a ladder leading up to a landing which is inclosed by a strong fence and a gate. The natives keep hens, and except for the tigers, Avould have dogs. The ordi- nary dwellings of the people are built of a rough frame of timber, thatched with grass or palm leaves, and with walls and partitions of split bamboo. The Malayan uses the oil of the cocoa- nut for lighting purposes, and he is a faithful illuminator. His common lamp is nothing but a glass tumbler, in which floats a small quan- tity of oil upon considerable water, and in the oil are two small splints that support a piece of pith for a wick. SPORTS. The Javanese seem to be the only tribe of Malayans who do not systematically gamble. Their passion is cock-fighting, and the vice has even taken such a hold upon their language that " there is one specific name for cock-fight- ing, one for the natural and one for the artificial spur of the cock, two names for the comb, three for crowing, two for a cock-pit and one for a professional cock-fighter." Music is a passion with the Malayan, and especially the Javanese, who have arrived at really a high degree of perfection in the manufac- ture of their instruments. They have their kromo, or series of gongs set in some kind of a framework and struck with sticks which are coated with gum to deaden the sound ; the gambang, consisting of wooden or brass bars placed over a trough and struck with knobbed sticks ; their flutes and triangles. The Javanese have about two dozen musical instru- A JAVANESE FORK. SPORTS. 227 ments of various kinds. On the Peninsula of Malacca a bamboo thirty or forty feet long has its partitions removed and holes cut in the sides, after which it is placed upright in a tree for the breezes to play upon. The notes which proceed from this unique instrument vary, of course, with the strength of the wind, but they are extremely sweet and weird. FEMALE FASHIONS. Unmarried females wear silver on their forearms and broad bands A JAVANESE LOOM. of that metal on their wrists. Large rings made of hollow tubes are even worn, so as to cover both arms from the wrists to the elbows, or sil- ver chains on the neck and less hideous ear ornaments than those above noticed. 228 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Young girls ofter wear a lace garment bespangled with thin pieces of silver, combing their hair back and fastening it in a knot behind ; in this are stuck long, flexible pins that rapidly vibrate when they dance or are in continual motion. They stain their lips a dull red and some of them bang their hair. Their dance consists of slowly twisting the body and shifting its weight from heel to toe, and vice versa. The dance is accompanied by a song and lightly beating upon a number of small gongs. REMAINS OF ANCIENT RELIGIONS. Near the northern coast of Java is a mount famed in Javanese mythology and history. It resembles a native boat or prau turned upside down, and is therefore known as Mount Prau. Upon its sum- mit was the supposed residence of the gods and demigods. The ruins of temples and metal images of their divinities, some of them nearly covered with lava, indicate that it was very holy ground. Near the very center of the island stands a pyramid loo feet high, which has been constructed from a natural hill-top, terraced and adorned with many images of Buddha, which are set into niches. At the summit of the pyramid, which consisted of quite an area, is a mighty dome- shaped building surrounded by seventy-two smaller ones. One of the most imposing groups of temples in the East, even in their decay, is that of the Thousand Temples. They are really less than a third of this number, built on terraces, a large central building overlooking all the rest, and the entire group forming a quadrangle 540x510 feet, exactly facing the cardinal points. These mighty ruins are less than eighty miles apart, and furnish astounding evidences of a great civilization which existed before Brahmanism and Buddhism were expelled by Mohammedanism. The Javanese are as far advanced toward rational worship, perhaps, as any branch of the Malayan race. But, even among them, old customs and superstitions stubbornly refuse to die and give place to new ones. In the southern part of the island is an active volcano which rises 7,500 feet above the sea and boasts one of the largest craters in the world — three and a half by four and a half miles from rim to rim. " Its bottom is a level floor of sand, which in some places is drifted by the wind like the sea, and is properly named in Malay the Sandy Sea. From the sandy floor rise four cones, where the eruptive force has suc- cessively found vent for a time, the greatest being evidently the oldest, and the smallest the present active Bromo or Brama, from the Sanscrit Brama, the god of fire. On these Tenger Mountains (among which REMAINS OF ANCIENT RELIGIONS. 229 is the volcano) live a peculiar people who speak a dialect of the Javan- ese, and, despite the zealous efforts of the Mohammedan priests, still retain their ancient Hindu religion." In the islands of Bali and Lombok, south of Java, the Hindu relig- ion also flourishes, with its invariable accompaniment of caste. First come the priests, then, in order, the soldiers, merchants and common laborers. The women frequently stab themselves as sacrifices to their religion, and their bodies are afterwards burned. The princes them- selves often require such sacrifices. These people and those of adjacent districts make an annual pil- orimage to the Sandy Sea. They spread themselves over its barren surface, some of them erecting rough stands for the sale of amulets, charms, volcanic stones and provisions ; some are eating, singing, laugh- ing ; some are praying ; a compact line of young priests have before them boxes of myrrh, aloes and other spices which they are selling for offerings ; at right angles to them is a line of older priests; old men and women, children in arms are there in the sandy basin of the great crater, the earth groaning beneath them and the pit in the center sending forth its sulphurous smoke and vapors. Finalh', the offerings are all laid upon bamboo stands and sprinkled by the priests with holy water, prayers are offered up, and the oldest rises and exclaims, his companions joining in chorus: "Forward, for- ward to the Bromo ! " The whole multitude hasten toward the vol- cano, many stopping on the way to pray. Arriving at the summit, with the priests in advance, the people again present their offerings to their relisfious teachers, who bless the trinkets a second time and then hurl them into the brimstone pit. As they disappear down the crater each j)erson repeats some prayer or wish — and so both the volcano and the people are blessed. After the exercises the participants descend from the mountain to engage in games and pastimes, have a grand, good time, and depart for their homes. THE TIMORESE. The Timor Islands are a group which lie southeast of Java and stretch toward Australia, They seem to be a bond of union between the vegetable and the animal life of the Archipelago, Australia and Polynesia. Especially is there found a most perplexing combination of humankind. Malayans, Chinese, Papuans, Portuguese, Dutch, Pohne- sians and Australians appear in such various degrees of mixture that it is hard to tell where )"ou are from an ethnological point of view. 230 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. In the second island from Java, however, Lombok, the Malay- ans have made themselves famous, as they did in Sumatra, for their skill in manufacturing guns. The manufacturer establishes his works in an open shed, his apparatus consisting of a mud forge, bamboo bellows, a piece of iron imbedded in the ground for an anvil, a vise fastened to the stump of a tree and a few files and hammers. Although but 300 miles in length and in 40 breadth, Timor is divided between the Dutch and Portuguese. It is surrounded by rocks and coral reefs, and is a great fishing ground for trepang, the fish, or sea-cucumbers, which the Chinese so esteem. The natives are assisted by the Bughis or Macassars in this industry, the plan being either to spear the fish one by one or dive for them. After the fishermen have landed their cargoes another squad or company proceed to split open the cucumbers and clean them, after which they are plunged into iron pans filled with boiling salt water and arranged outside the long smoking and drying sheds. This process requires from eight to ten hours, when the trepang are taken within, spread on a platform of bamboos running through the shed at the height of the eaves. The ground having been excavated two or three feet below the outside level, the fire can be kindled without danger of ignitinor the bamboo walls. The bees of Timor furnish the natives also with employment, the wax being an important export. Their honey-combs, which are not unlike a bee-hive in shape and three or four feet in diameter, are attached to the under side of branches of very lofty trees. The bee hunter works his way up the trunk of the tree by means of his feet, and a small flexible creeper, which he grasps in each hand and uses as a counter-force. He is armed with a torch, a knife tied to a stout creeper and a thin cord ; when he has worked his way up so as to be within proper distance, he proceeds first to smoke out the swarm and after- ward to slice off the honey-comb and lower it to his companions. Not- withstanding his body is partially protected, he is sometimes terribly stung. The Timorese are believers in the system of "tabu." Gardens and farms are protected from trespass by a native priest or chief, who per- haps sticks a few palm leaves outside to indicate that the ground is sacred or guarded by the "pomali." 'The propensity of the natives is toward theft, and some play upon their superstitions is said to be necessary for the security of any kind of property. One trick of theirs, in this connec- tion, is to seize upon the person of an unprotected native, if he is of another tribe, and retain him as a slave. The Timorese seem to be of mixed Malayan and Papuan blood, THE TIMORESE 231 and are taller and more striking than those of pure blood. The Malay- ans proper show no traits peculiar to this island. Their women dye their lips with the betel and dress the same as in the islands further north. Their huts are of the common bamboo style, thatched with palm leaves, but are level with the ground. THE COMMERCIAL TRIBES. From Celebes, east of Borneo, go out the most enterprising traders and navigators of the seas. Their boats average forty or fifty tons bur- den, and some of them are twice as large. In these junk-like praus they visit every island of the Archipel- ago as far as Australia to barter with the natives ; in what manner will be told when we come to speak of the natives of New Guinea, who are among their most profitable customers. The Bughis and the Macassars of Celebes are what the Malayans formerly were as a people — restless, darincj navirators. The form- er have a literature as well as a commerce of their own, and the latter claim a divine origin, hav- ^ ing a tradition that a goddess came down from heaven to marry their fore- father, a mighty chief. From Sumatra or China direct the Macassars were introduced to cannon and gunpowder, and with their improved arms and good swords, they were able to spread their Mohammedanism over nearly the whole of the island. Their attempt to subjugate the Moluccas resulted in the defeat of their 700 vessels and 20,000 warriors by the Dutch. The Bughis then assumed the lead by becoming tributaries of the Nether- lands government, and have since retained it. The other natives of the island are the Minahassas, who are a powerfully-built people, sometimes approaching the Europeans in complexion. Intellectually they are infe- rior to the Bughis and Macassars. A MALAYAN PRAU. 232 TAXORAMA OF NATIONS. THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDERS. Of the 4,000,000 natives who inhabit the 1,200 islands which com- pose the group, one-quarter are governed by native princes. Luzon, the largest of the number, is to the north and has a population of 2,500,000. The greater part of the island is governed by the Sultan of Mindanao, who, with his minor chiefs, can bring an army of 100,000 men into the field. Far to the south are the Sooloo Islands, which are also governed by a native sultan. The inhabitants are brave and extreme- ly warlike. Their warriors, in fact, are considered the fiercest and best disciplined of all of the Malayan tribes. Sooloo, the capital of the kingdom, situated on the island by that name, extends out into the ocean, its houses b e in or built in rows and far enough apart to admit the pass- ao-e between them of a man-of-war. The town is also defended by two strong batteries, and is designated the Alo^iers of the East. The amusements of the Sooloos partake of their warlike dis- position, their principal sport being cock-fighting. The natives not only build canoes but ships of considerable tonnage. The Tagals and Bisayers are the most numerous native races, dwelling in the cities and cultivating fields of rice, wheat, maize and plantations of sugar-cane, cotton, tobacco and coffee on the \wlands. A NATIVE OF LUZON. THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDERS. ■^00 The industrial occupations of the natives, says an Eastern tourist, include a very ingenious method of working- in horn, the manufacture of eold and silver chains, of cigar cases, and fine hats in various vegetable fibres, of beautifully colored mats embroidered with gold and silver, the dressing and varnishing of leather, ship- buildino- and coach-buildino-. The manufacture of cigars gives employment to a large number of hands. The cord age of the Philippines is held in good repute. The textile productions are said to be fifty- two in number; from the deli-| $, cate and costly shawls and handkerchiefs made from the fibre of pine-apple leaves called pinas, and sold at the rate of one or two ounces of gold apiece, down to coarse cotton and stout sackino-, wrought from the fibre of the abaca and gomuti palms. As seen in the illustration, their dress, of home manufacture, is de- cidedly picturesque and becoming, and worn with a wild sort of coquet- tish grace which quite sets off the dusky beauty. HOME MANUFACTURES. 234 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. POLYNESIAN WEAPONS. 1.— Hawiian Ax. 2.— Carvrd Club from Tahiti. 3, 4.— Hammers from the Friendly Islands. 5. —Knife from Easter Island. 6.— Boar's Tusk— A War Ornament. THE POLYNESIANS. HE Society, Marquesas, Hawaiian, Feejee, Samoa, Friendly and Caroline Islands are the best known localities where good specimens of this muscular, warlike, cannibalistic race may be found. They differ somewhat in personal appearance, although as a rule they are above the average height, symmetrically built — in fact, superb specimens of physical manhood. THE FEEJEE CANNIBALS. The group takes its name from the island to the windward, and its people have acquired a decidedly unenviable reputation as possessing all the worst 'characteristics of the blood-thirsty savage. They are described as tall, sleek and portly, with stout limbs and short necks, with bushy hair joined to a round beard to which mustaches are often added. The men dress in a sort of sash of white, brown or figured cloth, using generally about six yards, though a wealthy man will wear one nearly one hundred yards long. The women usually wear their hair short, or done up in little twisted bits, that hang down like pieces of string ; occasionally they go to the other extreme and dress the hair in huge and grotesque forms. The men do not tattoo their bodies but paint them, especially their faces, which they ornament with blotches, bars and stripes of red and black. Some of them only cover the forehead with a shiny black paint. They particularly pride themselves on the huge boar's tusk which hangs from the neck and falls over the breast. The Feejeeans make a business of catching young boars and knocking out the front teeth of the upper jaw so that a free field may be given for the tusks to grow. The nearer the tusks approach to a circle the more beautiful they are considered. The native man of any standing wears a gauze- like turban. Both sexes paint their bodies and besmear them with oil, besides 235 236 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. wearing enormous ear ornaments. In former times neither sex wore any clothing to speak of, but now near the settlements, in addition to the garments which extend from the waist to the knees the women are attired in a little loose jacket. Women are tattooed, but only on parts of the body which are covered. HIGH-TONED SOCIETY. A native chief squats upon the ground, like a common Feejee, but his person is sacred and often believed to be divine. He tills the ground and works otherwise with his hands, but he must be addressed in a peculiar language which is chanted by his subjects. They must approach him crouched or creeping and even worm their way over the floor of his house. It would be as -much as one's life is worth to cross him from behind. When at sea the canoe is required to pass the chief's boat on the inside. If a chief stumbles or falls, his at- tendants must do the same. A dreadfully amus- ing story is told of one of these grim old chiefs, wlio boasted, no doubt, of the number of persons he had eaten, but did not ^t-^^^^^^'' '^'^^^^^^p^ relish the idea of beini%?^'*%'* BURIAL CUSTOMS. 297 carries the spear with which the deed was done. The latter is oblige to hold out his right arm and receive a severe thrust in it at the hands of one of the near relatives of the deceased or a head man of the tribe. The punishment seems inadequate, but the black who executes it weeps and wails as if his sorrow were as much for the criminal as for the widows, w^ho are seated on the ground ostensibly racked with uncontrollable grief. Their appearance, however, is rendered ludicrous by the caps of pipeclay which are upon their heads, these being the chief features of a widow's mourning habit. These extreme manifestations of grief do not touch the tender spots in many hearts, when it is remembered how depressed the woman is among the aborigines ; that although delicately molded she does all the hard work, such as preparing the food, bringing the wood for the fire and carrying the burdens ; that she shivers beyond the radius of the fire in cold weather, and in the heat of the day she toils on, her only relief beincr a bunch of wet orrass on the head ; that her choice in the matter of marriage is not consulted, but that she is promised in infanc)' and Tvhen the proper time comes is borne away and considered a wife, or gin ; that her body, if it is comely, is covered with the scars of spear Avounds made by former wooers and those inflicted by her husband ; and now that she is a widow, she descends as so much property to the nearest male relative of the deceased. When these things are remem- bered, and more abuses also, the poignancy of her grief may be ques- tioned ; but it is more than likely that if she acted as she felt, she would be suspected as ha\-ing, directly or indirectly, caused the death of the brute. So she shrieks and raves, scratching her nose and cheeks and tearing her body with shells and pieces of flint, while the deceased is being buried, and as if still fearful that the tribe will look upon her man- ifestations as luke-warm, she returns to the crrave alone to lacerate her- self afresh. AUSTRALIAN COW-BOYS. If the Australian has an occupation in the line of civilized life, it is in tending stock. Blackboys take readily to the saddle, and like their cousins the Bushmen, in Africa, have remarkably acute senses. Their bump of locality is as wonderful as the cattle they tend, who will strike across country for hundreds of miles and bring up with cer- tainty at their own station or ranch. The native stockman can track a man or beast for days when a white man could see no footmark or trace. He is laz\- and fond of tobacco ; with this supplied him and a good horse to mount, he is happy — unless he takes it into his head to return 298 ■ PANORAMA OF NATIONS. to orrease and a kancraroo's skin, which is not an unusual resolve. His chief duty is to train the cattle so that they will know the limits within which they may graze. If they are new arrivals, before they are thoroughly broken in, they may take a notion to start for their former camp, seven or eight hundred miles away. They may have been taken along circuitous coast roads, 1,000 or 1,200 miles, and upon attempting to fix them to a new camp or run, some of them will escape the vigil- ance of their keepers. Through the thick forests of the West and over its arid plains they head, straight for their old home, two or three hun- dred miles inland from the route by which they were driven. The in- stinct which draws them unerringly to their far destination is one of na- ture's great mysteries. To prevent this breaking away for a deserted camp, the herdsman keeps the new arrivals well in eye and daily drives them on the run, and when camped they are kept there steadily for some hours ; so that after a few weeks the brutes are weaned from their old run and wedded to the new. Droughts and floods may now scatter them over hundreds of miles of country, but with the return of better times the majority of them will surely find their way to their own camp. The stragglers will be gathered, if possible, by the native herdsman ; in the great inland country where thousands of herds of cattle are pas- tured on one immense plain there can be no boundaries to the runs and the keepers' duties are increased. His work is not heavy, unless you except the time when the owners of the cattle agree upon a general muster, for the purpose of separating one man's herd from all the rest. Plains and woods are then scoured ; through thickets, alongbelts of shady timber, from one pool of water to the next, the cattle are driven by the herdsmen ; as the limits of each run are reached they know that most of the cattle they find are their own, for their neighbors ha-^/e had due warning and started their herds to camp. Finally all of these scattered lots are collected and driven rapidly toward the camp whose owner makes all this commotion. The Australian cow-boy may now be called upon to assist in "drafting" the cattle. First the fat ones are driven out of the mob; then the cows and calves to brand, and then the "strangers" who, with all possible care, will get mixed in with the drive. A DYING RACE. Sudden changes of temperature, insufficient food and shelter, with filthy habits, have made of the Australians a weak and decreasing race. In South Australia more is being done for the natives than in any other colony, and yet, as an example of the rapidity with which the tribes are dying out, the Sub-Protector of Aborigines states that the Narringerie A DYING RACE. 299 who in 1842 numbered 3,200 persons, are now nearly extinct. Tliis diminution cannot be accounted for by wars with other tribes, or with whites, for the Narringerie have been affected more b}- civihzation than any other tribe, and Hve at peace with the whites. It has been deter- mined that tlie laro-est ratio of deaths and tlie smallest of births are to be found among those blacks who have definitely settled. Consumption is their great scourge ; consumption, intemperance and other causes are so thinnincr the ranks of the aborio-ines that authorities are slow in allowing 50,000 as the entire native population of Australia. Fifty thousand people spread over a continent as large as the United States! The race is dying out, and what is most sin- gular is that the mortality does not perceptibly diminish when the Aus- tralian becomes partially civilized ; the seeds of decay seem to have been firmly implanted in the whole race, and in spite of alleviating conditions, they persist in bearing continual and bounteous harvests of death. It often happens that a tribe which is comparatively strong in its native forest adopts many of the habits of the Avhite man, and yet retains enough of the old to make the change a positive detriment ; such as wearing clothes in the day time and leaving them entirely off at night, without much improving the means of shelter. Medicine and other assistance are furnished sick natives by the Government, but they either refuse to take the medicine or, having taken it, they neglect all sanitary precautions. Next to consumption, which carries away more than one-half their number, measles and small-pox, which they have received from the whites, create the greatest havoc among them. Fevers are quite unknown to them. The time is not far distant when all the tribes of Australia will follow in the footsteps of the extinct Tasmanians and of the fast disappearing Maoris of New Zealand. The attempt to reclaim the aborigines from their savage life has been only partially successful, partly because of their degraded physical condition and partly because of the vast territory through which the sparse population is scattered. Both the government and religious denominations have established hospitals, poor houses and schools for their benefit. But even the most promising of the natives seem quite isolated in a civilized community. They cannot marry. They have no certam means of subsistence. They have no real companionship. When they have become apparently civilized, therefore, many return to the bush. A sample case : The officers of a British ship took away with them a briirht native who remained with them for several months. He was a waiter at the gun-room mess, never tasted spirits, was atten- tive, cheerful, and remarkably clean. When the vessel returned to 300 , PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Swan River, after a voyage along the western coast, the Australian, who had seemed quite civilized, deserted the ship, and the next seen of him was a savage — greasy, almost naked, painted all over and the hero of several murders. The most effective work of reclamation is going on among the children of natives as well as those of mixed blood. The condition of the latter is particularly hard ; for they are outcasts of both blacks and whites. Remembering the exalted opinion which the Australian has of the white man, it is probable that his custom of sacrificing a half-caste at his corroboree has a religious sig- nificance. He would kill and eat the luckless one, just as it is the rule in some tribes for fa\-orite children who have died a natural death to be devoured by their parents ; by thus eating fiesh in which coursed the blood of a white man, he would honor the memory of some one of his tribe whose soul was embodied in the jumped-up. ON THE WAR-PATH. Students of Australian life have never attempted to discover whence this Avide-spread notion that the white man is a higher order of the native race. Certain it is that when the squatters first commenced to establish themselves in the eastern provinces they did not find that a universal feeling of awe prevaded the minds of the aborigines. It is true that they gazed with fear upon the first mounted stockmen, looking upon them as a new kind of animal : — the native cattle are as terrified when a herder dismounts in their midst, not knowing what manner of beast he is. At first the nati\'es retreated before the whites^ spearing a cow and a calf nov/ and then. But as the squatters multi- plied and brought, many of them, fat herds of cattle, the Australian's taste for beef became more insatiable ; and he was treated often to a taste of cold lead, which he did not so much relish. In this great country each stockman's hut was leagues distant from any other, standing in a clearing, as far as possible from any forest or thicket in which the gliding Australian might be concealed. The squatter trusted to his good gun, steady hand and keen senses, and the blacks' dread of darkness, and hardly barred his doors. The natives commenced to get bolder, and once crept down the chimney of a squatter in order to batter his skull while he slept. Other murders followed. The squat- ters for miles around arose in their wrath, surrounded a camp of the enemy, killed some outright and burned others in a huge bonfire — destroyed them all, men, women and children. By this time the gov- ernment had taken the matter in hand. Supposed murderers of squat- ON THE Y\'AR PATH. 301 ters were taken to the sea-coast towns and tried, but it was impossible to prove the crime. Even if it could have been done in their native undress, it was impossible after they had been covered with European Snoods. So blacks were discharo^ed and whites were hanoed. Thus encouraged the Australian showed his respect for the white man less than ever, and murder and depredations were the order of the hour. Then the government supplied the country with mounted soldiers, policemen, under the command of British officers, who engaged the services of the nati\'es as trackers. Afterwards they formed bodies of native police who did not seem greatly averse to shooting- down their kind if they were given plenty to eat and drink, f A small black boy, but a good !l( tracker, who was thus emplayed, ;|i| assisted a squad of soldiers to surround the camp of a tribe which had committed some cold blooded murders. Penned up in a gorge they were fired upon by the police. Some leaped over a Avaterfall which was the onlv outlet, others were shot — and the boy^ || what had he been doine? He |i had been lost siorht of; but after the fra)' was over, he appeared with a blood-stained sword which he proudly held up to the commander, savino- ^'' with a laugh : " My word, this a good long knife. I've killed my woman's head"; — the above being a translation of a lot of Australian English which the )-oung fiend had picked up. This kind of warfare continued for many years, especially in Queens- land and New South Wales, and is one explanation of the terrible thin- ning out of the native population. A squatter came to believe that he was justified in killing an Australian as he would a dog or a rat ; in fact a case is on record in which a squatter, suspecting a premeditated attack from some blacks near his hut, called them to his door and told them that it was Christmas time, when all should feast ; that therefore they HATCHETS OF THE AUSTRALIANS. old mother. I took off the old \02 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. should eat a pudding of plumbs and flour and every good thing, which he would give them. They believed him, and taking the pudding away to their camp, distributed the precious stuff to their women and children. The pudding was sweetened with arsenic, and a score or more blacks were taken away from the fast-decreasing population. MISCHIEVOUS FEASTS. But thousrh there were atrocities on both sides the strono^er race, of course, triumphed. The blacks themselves came to understand that no matter how many whites they killed others would come to fill their places. As one of their leaders ex- 2 pressed it in his best English: ■^ "Suppose blackfellow go bong, baal more; but sup- R pose blackfellow altogether g numkull white, plenty more sit down along a Sydney." I In other words: "Suppose ^ a blackfellow is killled, there are no more to take his place ; but suppose the black- fellow kills all the white, there are plenty more wait- ing in Sydney." At one time Sydney was supposed to be the grand depot of supply of the white man. Consequently the blackfel- lows who came in contact with the whites, became more and more subdued. If the bunya season was good, however, they Avere apt to get without their bounds, as they still do. The bunya tree, which is of the fir species and oTows to a lieiLrht of over one hundred feet, thicklv clothes some of the mountain ranges, and when its cones are plentiful, which contain quan- tities of rich, resinous nuts, the tribes gather from hundreds of miles around to enjoy a feast and a dance. In the bunya forest they camp for weeks, gorging themselves with nuts and game, fighting, feasting and corroboreeing. They scour every thicket grope into every log, climb every tree where they see traces of game ; but after a time animals get scarce. They have had enough bunya ; they want meat now. Before the white man came with his beef and mutton, they used to fall upon AN AUSTRALIAN CA MP. WAITING FOR THE RIVER's FALL. 303 each other, or to butcher young Avomen fatted for the purpose With the advent of the squatter they killed either him or his beasts as an offer- ing to the corroboree. When the whites had so increased in numbers WAITING FOR THE RIVER'S FALL. that there were several "Sydneys" on the continent, and their settle ments med_ the eastern and southern coasts, they contented themselves generally with spearing a cow or sheep. 304 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. WAITING FOR THE RIVER'S FALL. As great an excitement as a bun)'a feast is caused by the rising of a river to any considerable height. Gum trees are stripped of their bark, large pieces of which are bound together with kangaroo or opossum ten- dons and the ends stopped with clay. These are the boats. The natives make their nets of animal tendons and fibres of plants. Tribes from all the interior country gather on the banks of the river and, for the time being, hunting operations are suspended for miles around ; they have witnessed the heavy rains in the mountains and know that the drought will be succeeded by a flood. The flood comes, the tribes scatter to higher ground and impatiently wait for the falling of the waters. Soon all is bustle and confusion. The little stream has become a broad, foam- ing river, but still shallow. At convenient places men are stretching their nets from bank to bank, squirting water upon them for luck. Others who are more modest in their plans have waded out into the stream and are sliding their small nets under the fish, which, when secured, they bite with their teeth and throw to their wives and children waitine on the banks to receive them. Some of the women, however, are enter- prising and are using the nets themselves, or are catching the fish with their hands. Delicious frogs and cray-fish are also captured, the women wading for them in the swamps. Rats scamper over the ground, also, being driven from their holes by the floods, and are pounced upon by man, woman and child. At night the river is illuminated by thousands of fires which flame from the canoes of excited fishermen, and its bosom is continually pierced and crushed, as showers of long spears are cast into it, followed by the bodies of the natives in quest of their prizes. Each canoe has two occupants, one to keep up a fire of resinous wood, which Is built on a bed of wet bark and mud, and the other to do the spearing, land the fish in the boat and continue the good sport the whole night through. The women are not left behind, even at night, but sally out in large parties, and throw the spear and dive with the most skillful of the men. So the slaughter goes' on for weeks, every other day .being devoted to general gormandizing. There is no thought of laying up a supply for the future, but though they starve in the future, for the pres- ent they will gorge themselves like prize pigs. The general custom is to throw the fishes upon hot ashes and broil them ; but when the design is to serve up a dainty bit to a headman or a warrior, the fish is wrapped in a piece of bark, nicely fastened together with grass, and slowly baked in the ashes. Teeth and fingers are the most common instruments for WAITING FOR THE RIVERS FALL. 305 dividing the food, although a native of more than average manners will cut his food with flints fastened into sticks. If a brisk breeze should spring up (which, by the way, the Austra- lian believes he can sing into existence) those who have not eaten so much fish that they are stupid, arm themselves with long rods, to which are attached nooses, and place upon their heads bunches of grass or reeds. Thus equipped they go forth in search of wild fowl. Espying a flock of wild duck or widgeons, they commence a low whistle and slowly advance through the water, leaving nothing exposed but their grass clad heads. Pushing their long poles through the water until they are underneath the birds, the fishermen cast the nooses in a quiet way around the necks of their unsuspecting victims, and pull them under water without alarming the rest of the flock. At the gathering of tribes upon some festive occasion a kangaroo hunt is generally organized, and tons of the meat obtained. The prey belongs to him whose spear has first touched it, however slight the wound may be ; and if, according to law, he is too young to eat it, it is given to his nearest male relative, of proper age. After the hunt comes the feast. After these many feasts, during which flesh, fish and fowl disappear with such tremendous rapidity, it is the rule, as during a great bunya season, for the tribes to become very pugilistic. Their long fasts followed by these mighty feasts, bring on indigestion and a terrible state of ill humor. They become like a lot of quarrelsome children, who unfortunately are arm^ed with dangerous weapons. Some of the elderly men of the tribes sometimes manage to patch up an armistice until the trees are stripped of their nuts, or the waters have returned to the sand, or the kangaroos are scarce, and the hot-blooded young men are fairly started toward their own countries ; but often tribe falls upon tribe and slaughter ensues, with a final feast of human flesh. Frequently, also, two members of different tribes are determined to fight out their differ- ences with spear and club. If they are evenly matched, after they have parried each other's strokes for a time each receives a thrust from the other in the thigh ; then each receives a blow from the other's club, until one or both fall insensible to the ground. It is during these feasts that the natives forget themselves, even in these latter days, and commit atrocities upon the whites which need to be punished. The native police, therefore, which is still in existence, has its uses, and it is owing almost entirely to its members that the country is in as good order as it is. Their impedimenta is a blue shirt, forage cap with a red band round it, double-barreled carbine and pistols, hand- 306 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. cuffs, blankets, hobbles and necessaries. When they go into action they strip, leaving only their ammunition belts and forage caps, so that they will recognize each other. Giving their horses in charge of one man, they glide into the scrub and soon the crack of a carbine indicates that they have not been idle. If any maidens are members of the families whose male defenders they slay, they fall to them, as the rewards of valor; they place the dusky maidens on the saddle before them and henceforth the fair captives become part of their establishment. It is said that at the end of a month their gins will freely give any informa- tion that will lead their troopers to other members of the tribe who have committed depredations, or who meditate mischief, in return for which assistance in the line of duty the poor wives are belabored wath the waddy until they are black and blue. Their piccaninnies, however, find great favor in their eyes. The fathers will amuse them and even watch with interest the various steps of the process by which, with charcoal and grease, the little animals are started in the way of their ancestors. So that now in the sections of Australia which may be said to be inhabited, there is virtual peace between the native and the immigrant. Fierce tribes of blacks with pointed beards and more pointed spears still bar the passage of explorers through the central and northern countries, while the dense forests of the west hide an occasional bevy of skulking savages, who venture to make hostile demonstrations. But the intelli- gent will of three million immigrants opposed to the ignorance of fifty thousand enervated savages is as an Australian flood to a drop of water in its path This state of affairs warrants a short review of the Australia of the white man. CIVILIZED AUSTRALIA. That vast expanse of country known as North and South Aus- tralia, and stretchinor throuo^h the continent for two thousand miles, from ocean to ocean, is controlled by the government of the latter colony. From Port Darwin in the north to Adelaide in the south is strung the transcontinental telegraph ; despite hostile savages, dense forests (rather than plains) of kangaroo grass, deserts of hard, sharp plants called spinifex, and drought and flood, England and her colonies were thus bound too^ether. Of this slice taken out of the middle of the continent — nearly one-third of its body — little need be said, except of the southern division, or South Australia proper. Her people are among the most vigorous and enterprising of the colonists, and besides connecting the central portions of their territory with railroads and CIVILIZED AUSTRALIA. 307 telegraphs, have already commenced the construction of an iron line northward, which is designed eventuall)' to follow the electric current across the continent. All the colonies are connected with each other by telegraph, except Western Australia ; immigrants are now coming into this colony more thickly than during previous years, and ere long 7. n.v,.;- ■•¥!} •t Vraf ■;'.'H'S1-' A WEST AUSTRALIAN FOREST. it will be brought into the community of states, via the telegraph and railroad. South Australia is especially interested in bringing this about; for in the furtherance of her broad schemes of public improvement, the inexhaustible forests of Western Australia are invaluable. The jarrah, a tree whose timber is as hard as mahogany, is there found in boundless forests, and several lines of railroad have been constructed to the coast ?o8 PANORAMA OF NATIONS, whence the wood is shipped to India in the form of sleepers or piles for her railroads ; there seems to be no limit to the durability of this wood. Taking the country as a whole, with its natural advantages and splendid harbors, South Australia will compare favorably with any other portion of the continent. The territory is particularly favored with several lakes of some size, and its soil is fertilized with small rivers and streams. Thousands of square miles of land are covered with wheat, which ranks among the finest in the world ; and this too when the soil is merely turned up by the plow and the seed thrown in, year after year. Nothing like a rotation of crops is ever attempted. Its wheat, sheep and copper are what has made South Australia a prosperous colony. Its people have an occasional gold flurry, but its wealth has rested, as a whole, upon the basis of wheat and wool. The population of- South Australia has never been con- taminated by convict blood, which cannot be said of any other colony in the coun- try ; in fact, one of the principles of its charter was that convicts were never to be admitted within its domain. The smallest, most populous and rich est of the Australian colonies is Victoria,' which was formerly a penal colony in New South Wales. The discovery of I gold in 185 1 marks the period of its sep- aration from the mother colony, and of its first strides towards preemince. As would be expected, the railroads of Victoria are more complete than those of any other colony, and points which are not yet reached by rail are connected by stage lines. It has the me- tropolis of the continent (Melbourne), and about a fifth of the 100,000 Chinamen who are inhabitants of the country. New South Wales is the oldest of the colonies, being organized just a century ago. Subsequently Victoria and Queensland were split from it. The famous Captain Cook brought the land first to the notice of Englishmen, naming the country, and bringing back such favorable reports that the government established a convict station at Botany Bay, a few miles south of Port Jackson. Its mineral resources are great. Besides gold and silver, extensive coal deposits have been developed. The country is particularly adapted to sheep raising, the salt bush which covers so great an extent of land to the west being very fattening. A NATIVE VICTORIAN. CIVILIZED AUSTRALIA. 3O9 but rendering the soil worthless for agricultural purposes. With Sidney as a nucleus, New South Wales has of late years made great strides as a railroad colony, and in connection with Queensland to the north, is fast getting to a point where it may control the system. Its line is complete to Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, and a road is being projected across Queensland to the northern coast, or the Gulf of Carpentaria. When this is completed and the connection is made between Melbourne and Adelaide, the whole of Eastern Australia, as far inland as is necessary, will be tapped with railroads, and the northern and southern shores of its most developed colonies will be in communication. The central railroad, then, by way of the great trans- continental telegraph, would be the prime factor in the development of of Central and Western Australia. Queensland is divided by the Australian Cordilleras, from north to south ; these mountains also constitute a line of division for the chief occupations of the colonists. Rich plains and valleys, watered by numer- ous streams, lie in the strip of country between the range and the coast. In addition to wheat, the farmer cultivates maize and potatoes, sugar and cotton, coffee and tobacco ; the horticulturist has from which to choose, the fig, peach, plum, lemon, orange, pomegranate, pine-apple, banana and a score of other lesser fruits, of both a tropical and temperate nature. It is also a fine cattle country. For a thousand miles to the west of the mountains the country is found to roll away in vast swells of herbage over whose tender roots millions of sheep are nibbling their way into usefulness. Queensland alone is an evidence of the tremendous increase in this element of Australia's wealth, she having nearly as many sheep as the whole continent had twenty-five years ago (16,000,000). The advance guard of this wooly population arrived in New South Wales less than a century ago, in the shape of a flock of eight merino sheep. Wool as an article of export is now closely pressing gold for first place. It is in Queensland and New South Wales that the Australian forest is seen in its greatest beauty and diversity The forests of the west and southwest are composed chiefly of gum trees, with their leathery leaves and stately trunks, and of different varieties of oak, some of which are quite leafless. As a rule the leaves of both tree and shrub are ever- green, and of a firm texture, being perfectly adapted to meet the pre- vailing dryness of the climate. Toward the north some of the character- istics of Asiatic scenery appear, to give more variety and delicacy to forest life. All along the coasts are streams of considerable breadth, runnino; oarallel with the ocean, alone: whose banks and over whose 3IO PANORAMA OF NATIONS. waters are matted together the tropical luxuriousness of Southeastern Asia ; their head-waters are in the mountains, springing from the juice- less vegetation of a dry, rocky country, but as they reach the lowlands they flow placidly and warmly through the tropics of Australia. On descending from a mountain of the Cordilleras into one of these forests, a government surveyor was so struck with the contrast that he exclaimed: " We had passed into another climate ; the dry, arid soil of the stringy- bark forest, with its stunted vegetation, was exchanged, as if by magic, for a damp, humid region, sheltered from the wind by colossal barriers of rock, and presenting a wealth of foliage almost inconceivable. The graceful cabbage-palm towered to a height of seventy and even a hundred feet; the Indian fio- reared its tortuous branches hio;h into the air, clothed with rich draperies of curious and spreading parasites, and the graceful tree ferns, thirty feet high, flo'jrished in the warm and damp atmosphere of these windless dells. In short, nothing can exceed the beauty of the scenery as the traveler descends the difficult and winding path that leads dowm the mountain to the rich pastures below ; here and there a group of palms shoot upwards toward the sky ; and on either side the forest is so rank with creepers, ferns and vines as to be quite impassable. Here we gathered wild raspberries, and beheld the gigan- tic staof-horn fern o-rowinof from the trunks of the loftiest trees." Fancy the lofty Cordilleras with hundreds of miles of grassy plains stretching away to the west ; numerous streams flowing down the eastern watershed, and pushing their way sluggishly through this tangle of wild nutmeg trees, huge banyans, fig-trees and palms which skirt the base of the range for many miles, finally veering toward the coast, and after watering a fertile region of grains and fruits, dropping quietly into the sea. This, in miniature, is Queensland and New South Wales. But the secret of rapid settlement of ocean colonies is found not alone in richness of soil. Good harbors of refuge are a necessity. Queensland is rather unfortunate in this respect, since fourteen hundred miles, or nearly one-half of her coast line, is made dangerous to naviga- tion by a continuous coral reef, called the Great Barrier. It is the largest formation of its kind in the world — and that is all the honor which is attached to it. The only vessels which are seen in the vicinity of the reef are those which go nosing around in the nooks and crannies, like some sly animals, in the search for huge sea-slugs. These ugly-looking but tender animals are about two feet in length, and lie buried in the coral sand, their presence only being denoted by their long feathery tentacles, which appear above the surface. The Kanakas are a tribe of natives of the CIVILIZED AUSTRALIA. 3II northeastern coast regions, who have made themselves remarkably pro- ficient either in spearing the slugs when found in shallow water, or diving for them down the perpendicular sides of the reefs, underneath them, and far under water, fighting the shark and other ocean monsters in their search for the repulsive-looking things, and in the interest of their masters. The voyage along the great reef may last for years. The usual plan is for the owner of a vessel to hire several good native divers, and choosing some island as his headquarters, plant a patch of eround to vesfetables as a safeo-uard ao-alnst scurvy. As the fish are caught they are split open, boiled, pressed flat and dried in the sun. They are then smoked over a wood fire and packed for shipment to China. The crews work on shares, and if the trip is fortunate they may return with their boats heavily laden after a lapse of a few months only. There are some good ports on the extreme southeastern coast of Queensland ; but New South Wales from one extremity of its coast line to near the other, boasts not of big coral reefs, but of the finest harbors in the world, chief among them being that of Port Jackson, at Sydney. Victoria is likewise favored ; and South Australia to the Great Austra- lian Bight. The bight, which is lined with steep and rugged cliffs, makes useless for purposes of navigation or refuge the southwestern coast of South Australia, and half of the southern coast of Western Australia. Then comes a passable harbor or two before you reach the southwestern extremity of the continent, and not another one along the low and sandy western coast and the high and rocky northwestern coast of Western Australia. In fact, it is this natural defect more than all else combined which has retarded the growth of the colony. The coast of Northern Australia, especially along the Gulf of Carpentaria, has some of the best harbors of the continent, though they are not so w^ell known as the southern ports. They lie principally on the western shore of the gulf, the eastern side formed by York Peninsula being low and dangerous. The first well authenticated discovery of the continent was made by the Dutch during the early portion of the seventeenth century, while one of their yachts was out in a voyage of investigation to the coast of New Guinea, from the Dutch possessions in Java. The Gulf of Carpen- taria was named in honor of Peter Carpenter, the Governor-General of the Dutch Colonies in the East Indies. The Dutch discovered Western Australia and called it Endrach's Land. The continent, in fact, was considered so honestly a Dutch discovery, that it was called New Hol- land, Australia being a later christening. New South Wales was the discovery of the great Yorkshire navigator, Captain Cook, and from the 312 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. eastern coast spread the Australia of England. The Dutch never colo- nized the island, because they did not first enter its richest fields. Had they done so, it would probably be the old story repeated, of Dutch pioneering and English grasping and holding. Australia is a land of which any people might be proud. Its riches have been intimated. As far as the continent has been explored, gold has been discovered in some form — mixed with quartz, ironstone or clay. Copper, coal, tin, lead and silver, have merely been neglected for the gold. The land is a vast curios- ity-shop. Not only are its natives so different from the Papuans and Malay- ans and negroes, that they are separately classified, but it has an ani- mal kingdom peculiar to itself. It is said that nine-tenths of the 8,000 species of plants found in Austra" lia are unknown elsewhere, and are entirely unconnected with the forms of vegetation of any other division of the world. Here, also, are the bird of paradise, the black swan and the lyre bird, the tail feathers of the latter being shaped like an ancient harp. The house is being swept of its first owners, and is beinor refurnished with a new order of thingrs, by a new people, for a future great civilization to enjoy its riches and revel in its wonders. d^^ia THE TARTARS. RO!\I the earliest times Turkestan, or the country of the ]/Turks, has been a battle-ground between the Iranian and Turanian races. First attached to Persia, then to Greece, then to Turkey, Arabia, the Mongol Empire, finally under Timiur, or Tamerlane, it rose to power as an independent empire, bringing under its sway the immense territory stretch- ing from the Black Sea to China and from Moscow to the Ganges. This great Tartar, in his younger days, had passed a peaceful life in his native country as a hunter and skillful horseman, and his powers were not known even to himself, until his uncle, a chief of Mongol blood, retreated before a fierce invasion of the Calmucks, leaving his young nephew the alternative of fleeing with him or fighting for his country. Tamerlane chose the latter course, expelled the invaders, punished various predatory tribes, and, although he never assumed the rank of sovereign, became the ruling power of the great empire which he founded. He died Avhile on the march for the invasion of China, although his favorite wife was the daughter of the Chinese Emperor. His tomb is in a mosque of Samarkand, his splendid capital. It occupies the exact center of the building, the tombstone being a slab of greenish-black stone. In a small building near by are the tombs of his wives. After Timur's death his empire commenced to fall to pieces, until finally the Uzbecks became the ruling tribe of modern Turkestan ; a family of that people being in power when Russia snatched away nearly all the country of Independent Turkestan not in the hands of the Turkoman robbers. THE SETTLED POPULATION. The Tartars who have settled within the bounds of Turkestan mav be divided into two principal tribes — the Uzbecks and the Tajiks. The Turkomans, Kirghiz and other tribes of minor importance are migratory. The Uzbecks and Tajiks are representatives of the Turkish and Persian tribes, the former succeeding the latter, and in many instances driving them into the mountains, where whole villages of them are found. 313 314 PAKORAMA OF NATIONS. These mountaineers are usually called Galtchas. In Bokhara, Samarkand and other cities in the central states the Tajiks form the main element of the metropolitan population. The word Uzbeck means independent. The Uzbecks, however, are under strict Russian rule and their beks, or native rulers, are dependent upon the good graces of their conqueror. Some of them have joined the fortunes of the invaders, and give the authorities due warning of any plots or threatened insurrections ; others are neutral, no doubt abiding a tim.e which may never come. According to native authority, the Uzbecks are divided into ninety-two clans, or families, which are also subject to a subdivision. Many of these people are settle'd in the cities north of the Syr river, and in northeastern Turkestan ; many, also, under certain restrictions are nomads. The city houses "are in general built of sun-dried clay bricks, covered with plaster and washed with some light color, and are seldom more than one story high. Owing to the scarcity of wood and the dearness of iron, the roofs are very peculiar. Between the rafters which compose the ceilings, pieces of small willow branches are closely fitted together, the whole is then thatched with reeds, and on this is placed a layer of clay and sods, it being necessary to put on a new layer of clay each year to render the roof in any degree waterproof. During the summer when it does not rain, the roofs are excellent and very pretty, as they are often covered with wild poppies, capers and other flowers. Furniture and household goods of all kinds have to be brought from Russia or Siberia, for there are no cabinet-makers or upholsterers in Central Asia. Still the houses are comfortable in spite of their fragility, and the great wide divans, the profusion of Turkoman carpets, armor and utensils give them an air of elegance and luxury." 'The streets of a native town are rarely straight, and in rambling about we go up and down hill, turning to this side and to that, some- times between high walls, sometimes beneath the wooden portico of a mosque which mounts high in the air, now along the edge of some deep ravine, and now crossing some rushing stream on a low wooden bridge. Everywhere trees are leaning over the walls, for everewhere there are gardens, and we can leave the street and take a by-path up the edge of some stream where an old wooden mill-wheel is busily turning, and feel ourselves almost in a country nook." In many towns the Uzbecks have their own quarters and do not deign to venture into the Russian haunts. At Tashkend, where the Governor-General has his headquarters, this line of demarkation is especially clear. THE SETTLED POPULATION. T,l'^ -The natives are not manufacturers to any great extent ; silk and cot- ton stuffs, sabers, knives and other weapons about covering the ground. Russia, Persia, Afghanistan, India and the Chinese Empire, however, pour their products into the bazaars of Turkestan. Some of these are rented by the Russian government. The bazaar of a large city is really a village in itself, divided into streets, each one of which is given up to a particular trade or class of manufactures. Whole days may be spent in them and the whole not yet be seen : " Here are the silk shops, there the jewelers, here the brass-workers, while occasionally a large gateway with a court beyond marks the place of a caravanserai for the accommodation of guests and the storage of goods. Here and there are open spaces, in the center of which are small booths, sheltered for the most part by umbrellas and mushroom-like awnings of woven reeds, while all about perambulatory venders collect in groups. Here is a small kitchen with cabobs and patties cooking over the coal fires, here a tea-shop, there the stand of a baker, and next perhaps a man, sitting cross-legged on a high platform, deals out spoonfuls of snow and sugary syrup to the boys." One street is devoted to dye-stuffs, another to leather goods, another to the productions of the Kirghis and Turkomans, others to Chinaware, cotton goods, silk goods, etc., etc. The home life of the settled populace is Turkish in the extreme. The favorite drink is green tea thickened with cream or melted tallow, the kumys (liquor made from mare's milk) being also drunk. The tobacco which is used is in the form of a fine, dark-green powder. Their amusements vary considerably, although the strict Mussul- man will tell you that his only enjoyment is in saying his prayers, riding, shooting, and dancing at special festivals. The boys have their games, one of them being called knuckle-bones, small pieces of bones being used in place of marbles. The girls have rough dolls and play ball. Chess and even gambling is indulged in by adults. A very common gambling game is for a group of men to sit in a circle, each placing before him a copper coin, and bets are then made as to whose coin will first have a fiy on it. Dancing by boys, wrestling matches and antics of comedians, add to the list of amusements enjoyed by the Sart, or town native, whether Uzbeck or Tajik. Their religious observances and regulations are substantially the same as those found in other Mohammedan countries. About the onlv native institution which is left intact, even in Russian territory, is the court, presided over by the Kazi. This judge has charge of civil suits, marriages, divorces and all family matters ; criminal cases of importance coming before the Bek, or native ruler. 3l6 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. The Uzbecks are tall, muscular, well formed, ruddy in complexion, with broad noses flattened at the end, receding foreheads and but little beard. When they become agriculturists, their wives not only look after household matters, collect fuel, spin and sew, weave, dress, tan and dye skins, but plough, reap, carry the sheaves of corn to and from the threshing-floor, and winnow them. In these labors the men assist, but do not lead. The consequence is that marriages of the young are not so frequent among the poor Uzbecks and farmers as among the city people. The agriculturists seek in their wives merely patient oxen. In some of the tribes the married sons live apart; in others they remain with their father for a long time, and have a common cooking-pot with him. If this is the arrangement, a household is reckoned as ten sons with their families. Good friends or poor men are not obliged to pay kalym or marriage money ; or if the man prefers to purchase his wife, he can work for her relatives or father and earn the stipulated sum. The amount of the kal)'m is determined by the eldest members of the two families who desire to become related ; they, unknown to the principals, assemble for that purpose, and also to fix the day of the wedding. THE NOMADS. Over the vast steppes and desert tracts east and southeast of the Caspian Sea, to the northern frontier of Persia, wander the Turkomans and other nomadic tribes. They have retained all the fiercest blood of their ancestors and are the scourges of Persia, swooping down upon the exposed districts of that country and carrying away women and children into slavery. Their raids have always been accompanied with the most terrible atrocities, and the Shah has, several times, punished the brigands as they deserved. Once, however, he left 15,000 Persians vv'ith them, as prisoners, and thirty guns. The northern routes of travel from the Caspian Sea to India, via Herat, are still in the hands of these Tartars, who may well be the descendants of the savage Huns who spread desolation over so great a part of the ancient world. They are generally above middle stature, powerfully developed, with a white skin, round head, small nose and chin and scanty whiskers. Although haughty and irascible, when not aroused they are friendly and hospitable. Although considered as a nomadic tribe, the Turkomans have several fortified cities which are sometimes subject to the ruler of Afghanistan, and raise a revenue by taxes on passing caravans. The Persians who are captured by the Turkomans are employed in THE NOMADS. 0^7 their cities, or those of the Uzbecks of Khiva, in the most severe of labor. The brand of slavery is effaced only in the third generation. Many captives, however, who buy their liberty, remain and become influential citizens. There are now forty thousand Persians in Khiva. Before the Russians conquered the Khanate of Khiva, it is reported that the Khivese, or Uzbecks, with the assistance of the Turkomans and Kirghiz, seized their countrymen on the steppes, and their fisher- men on the shores of the Caspian Sea, and publicly sold them as slaves ; that %, at one time there were as § many as one thousand ^c:l=^f^ V^k^^A Russian captives in Khiva. ^ The Turkomans are variously divided, and no two authorities agree as to their number. They themselves say that they dwell in 350,000 tents, and that their souls therefore number nearly 1,750,000. The Turkoman tribes are governed by elders, just as long as the elders suit them. When their actions become distasteful, they becom.e "a people without a head, which is not necessary, for every man governs himself." They profess to be devout Mohammeaans, and when asked how they can sell fellow-believers into slaver)^ reply: "The Koran is a divine book, and consequently nobler than man ; yet it is bought for a few crowns. And better still, Joseph, the son of Jacob, was a prophet, and yet they sold him — did that hurt him in any way?" The Turkomans cultivate a few grains, whose straw will serve also as fodder to their few camels, horses and sheep. A felt tent and miserable clothes complete the worldly property of the race. They prepare a honey from the juice of a huge water-melon, and manufacture jugs and powder horns from pumpkins. They make a little butter, they fish a A TARTAR. 3iS PANORAMA OF NATIONS. little, they manufacture a little bad powder, and cotton and woolen cloths, and the only thing they do much of is to rob. In the northern and eastern districts of Turkestan are the steppes of the Kirghiz, who in Khiva acknowledge the government authorities. They with their stunted frames, flattened noses and prominent cheek bones much resemble the Calmucks, an ugly-looking tribe to the east. The Kirghiz may be called nomadic Uzbecks, changing their quarters summer and winter, with their flocks and herds, and usino^ both horses and camels in their caravans. They have intermarried considerably with the Calmucks, which accounts for their decidedly Mongolian type. They eat mutton princi- pally, and upon important occasions, horse flesh. Tea and kumys are their drinks. T h e i r natures are simple and unsuspicious. They are generous, curi- ous and lazy ; but fond of receiving any choice item of news which they will bear, like lightning, to neighboring camps that JYi they may enjoy the good thing. Though light- minded, they respect age and authority. They are merr}' and devoted to music and song. The men give their attention to their horses, sheep and cattle — the women do all CAMEL OF TARTAR EMIGRANT. ^J^g j-gg^ . ^hgy ^re nCVer known to plunder or fight for the mere love of it, but merely to reim- burse or revenge themselves on account of previous losses. The Kirghiz are polygamists, but the first wife is mistress of the tent, and outranks the others. Marriages and funeral feasts are the sicrnals for these sociable wanderers to gather for a hundred miles round- about, and eat and drink for days at a time, at the expense of the parents or mourners. Before a marriage takes place, the suitor passes into the hands of the happy father two or three dozen cattle and some horses, THE NOMADS. ,19 while with the bride must go a certain dowry, including a kibitka, or tent. An agreement is sometimes made between friends that children who may be born to them of different sexes and of suitable age shall be given to one another in marriage. Such children, if they do marry, are exempt from paying the kalym, or marriage price. In case the Kirghiz is rich he engages a priest from some town who, CALMUCK TARTARS. for a stipulated salary in sheep, horses and camels, accompanies him in his journeyings as religious and secular teacher and secretary. Every Kirghiz, however, whether poor or rich, is aristocratic. The first thing he asks when meeting a stranger is, "Who are thy seven fathers?" mean- ing your ancestors for seven generations. Even if the question is put to a child and not promptly answered, the person is considered to be of 320 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. vulgar blood. He looks upon the townsman or citizen as an inferior being, and has but one word for a " husbandman " and " a poor man." The Calmucks are both Turkomans and Kirghiz in many of their characteristics. It has been noticed that they answer the exact descrip- tion given of the Huns, many centuries ago: short in stature, with broad shoulders and a large head; small black eyes, always appearing to be half shut, and slanting downward toward the nose, which is fiat with wide nostrils; hair black, coarse and straight; complexion deeply swarthy. They live in the saddle, restlessly roaming over a great territory in Chinese Tartary and Siberia. What religion they have will fall under the head of Shamanism, or spirit worship. This immense conglomera- tion of superstitions rests upon the tribes of Siberia from Turkestan and China to the Arctic Ocean, and will be revealed in succeeding pages in all its curious and hideous details. The East Mongols, as distinguished from the West Mongols, or Calmucks, inhabit Mongolia or Chinese Tartary; another family of Mon- gols being the Buriats of Siberia. The Mongolians still retain their tribal distinctions and are governed by hereditary princes, many of whom claim descent from their great emperor, Genghis Khan. The tribes are divided into standards; there is a recognized Mongolian aristocracy; and to retain a weak grasp upon the country China gives, materially, as much as she receives, in the shape of annual presents to the chiefs and priests who constitute the real government. The Mongols are devotees of Lamaism, a corrupted Buddhism, and their spiritual ruler is the Grand Lama of Thibet. China, therefore, must conciliate not only the Mongolian aristocrats but the Lamas, the latter even having more influ- ence with the people than the Chinese Government. It is still, however, an integral part of the empire, and further dealings with its people must be deferred. THE ARCTICS. TRIP through the frozen regions of the world is a mighty journey, but it is to be taken all the way by land, after a pas- sao^e of Behringf Strait has been effected. The races and tribes of men which are met in this overland trip are of the Mongo- lian types, the ugliest of them all being the Calmucks, who divide their allegiance between the Russian and Chinese Empires and Turkestan, their tribes roving from the Don to the western borders of China. They are descendants of the Scythians of antiquity, and proudly place themselves among the Mongols and Tartars of more modern date. THE UGLY CALMUCK AGAIN. The Calmucks are generally of a medium height, robust and broad in the shoulders, but with bow legs, and feet which turn inward. This latter peculiarity may be caused by the fact that they are a nation of horsemen and spend most of their lives in the saddle. Their skin is naturally quite white, but exposure to all sorts of weather, and to cabin smoke and soot in winter, have given it a swarthy tinge. The fine black hair of the women, and the white regular teeth of both sexes, are about the only claims to beauty which the people have as a race. They have the oblique eyes of the Mongolian, black and thin eyebrows, nose flat and broad at the point, head and face very round, ears large and promi- nent, and lips thick and protruding. Where they have intermarried with the Cossacks of Russia some of this ugliness has been shaded down, but the pure Calmuck glories in being as ugly as the Scythian of the plains or the Hun of Atilla's time. They are the connecting link betvv'een the Mongolians of the South and the Mongolians of the North, or the frozen regions. Their native home they claim to be the barren regions of Eastern Thibet — which, it is true, is cold enough, but cannot be considered a frozen country. 321 21 322 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. THE SAMOYEDS. North of the Siberian Calmucks is the bulk of the Samoyeds, once a very numerous people who occupied the vast Siberian plain bounded by the Altai Mountains, Turkestan, the Ural Mountains and the Arctic Ocean. Various tribes of Turks, Tartars and Mongols split and scat- tered this great body of people, leaving one portion of it lying on the Yenisei and Obi rivers, in Southern Siberia, and the other near the Arc- tic Circle in Russia. Fracjments of the tribe are found scattered alone CALMUCK DWELLINGS. the dreary shores of the Arctic Ocean from Archangel in Europe to the Lena River in Eastern Siberia. SHAMANISM. The Samoyeds have been very little influenced by the civilization whose borders the)- touch. Neither Russia nor China have been able to wean them from the old manners of their ancestors. In the frozen regions of the Arctics they still cling to their ancient religion, which is a bewildering combination of beliefs in witchcraft, spiritualism, idolatry . and bloody sacrifice. A man or a woman is appointed a priest by the soul of a deceased member of the clergy, who appears to the individual in a dream, and appoints him or her his successor. The ceremonies are not performed at any stated time, but rather upon some such important occasion as a death ; the appearance of some wonder in the heavens ; SHAMANISM. 323 the approach of famine or pestilence. Then dressed in a long robe of elk-skin, hung" with brass and iron bells, and carrying staves tipped with figures of horses' heads, the priest goes leaping along, or performing frantic gestures calculated to awe the superstitious. Having arrived at the hut where he is to propitiate the evil demon who has brought calam- ity upon the communit)-, he finds a reindeer ready for him, as a sacrifi- cial offering. After all the persons have assembled the priest commences a weird chant, and sprinkles spirits and milk upon the sides of the hut and over the fire. He then orders the animal to be killed. It is there- upon seized by some of those present, and its heart literally torn from , its body, after which the skin is stripped off, and its flesh, with the excep- tion of a few pieces which are thrown into the fire, is consumed by the persons assembled. When the priest is about to commune with the spirits, a great fire is sometimes built in the open air, and those who are to take part circle around it, shriekinof and beatinsf drums and tom-toms, and twistina^ them- selves like snakes possessed with devils. The priest is the most furious of them all, his o-reat fur robe, covered Avith bones and the metal images of birds and beasts, waving around him, and his stave of ofifice assisting him to outdo the best of the common worshipers. After a time he falls to the ground, ostensibly seized by some mysterious power, foaming at the mouth and writhing in torture. His people then cast a heap of skins upon him, having previously slipped a noose around his neck, and when they think that he has been in communication with the spirits long enough, pull at the cord with all their strength. At this juncture the priest is believed by non-devotees to slip his hand or arm in the noose, and thus protect his precious neck. He makes a sign, at all events, that the spirits have left him and that he is ready to divulge their communi- cations. The people tell of instances where the evil spirits have stran- gled their priest. The antics and tricks of this priest of the so-called Shaman religion var)' Avith the people among whom he lives. He will therefore appear in many transformation scenes, as he is found among 'nearly all the tribes of Siberia. Where the Greek Church even has made converts they cling stubbornly to their ancient idols and charms ; but when one of these partially Christianized hyperboreans is questioned as to their presence he passes them off as household ornaments. In the mind of the unadulterated idolater, the idol and the sacred bear or reindeer can scarcely be separated ; as witness the following discovery, lately made on the shores of the Kara Sea, which indents the coast of both the Russias : " Traces of men, some of whom had gone barefoot, and of 324 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Samoyed sledges were visible on the beach. Close to the shore was found a sacrificial altar, consisting of about fifty skulls of the ice-bear, walrus and reindeer bones, laid in a heap. In the middle of the heap S < u Q s C/J of bones, there stood, raised up, two idols, roughly hewn from drift- wood roots, newly besmeared in the eyes and mouth with blood ; also two poles, provided with hooks, from which hung bones of the reindeer HOW THEY DRESS. 325 and bear. Close by was a fire-place, and a heap of reindeer bones, the latter clearly a remnant of a sacrificial meal." HOW THEY DRESS. The Samoyeds do not greatly differ from the Calmucks in personal appearance. When equipped for hunting or for a long journey, the native is not much to be seen ; he seems but a huge bundle of reindeer skins, aiid yet the weight of his garments is said to be so scientifically distributed as to offer slight impediment to his motions. He has on a pair of drawers made of curried reindeer skin, which reach to his knees ; soft stockings, made of the pelts of a reindeer fawn, with the hair next to the skin ; boots of reindeer hide, with the hair outside, both on leg and sole ; a sack-like garment of }-oung deer skins sewn together, open in front, with sleeves and gloves, the hair of the blouse being next to the skin, and of the gloves invariably outside ; over this garment is another reindeer jacket with the hairy side out, so that the body is pro- tected by a thick covering, with fur on both sides, which is the beau- ideal of a cold-resisting garment. Attached to all this is, of course, the close-fitting hood, which leaves the temples, cheek bones and chin exposed. The women are distinguished from their lords by wearing a short pelisse, or cloak, and also by choosing various colored skins of the wolf and fox, leaving the tail to dangle at the back of the dress. Their long black hair is braided into a queue and ornamented with pieces of metal which tinkle, musicallv, as the vain creatures o-o walking- alono-. These metallic ornaments are of brass and iron, and among them may occasionally be seen such curiosities and valuables as the old lock of a musket. When it is remembered that the tame reindeer is the Samoyed's means of locomotion as he moves from place to place in search of game, and that the wild reindeer forms his chief supply of meat, the sugges- tion may be offered that the Samoyed is the product of the reindeer ; althoutrh the name Samoved is said to mean salmon-eater and was given to him when the most that was known about him was that he was much given to eating that fish. His sledge is ornamented with walrus tusk and furnished with dolphin-skin traces and seal-skin chairs ; and as a salmon-eater, pure and simple, his time is past. In early Rus- sian chronicles the word Samoyeds is also translated, "persons who devour each other," which points to a time when they were cannibals. THE OSTIAKS AND VOGULS. The branches of the widely-extended Finnic race in Northwestern 326 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Siberia, commence to interlock with the shoots of that MongoHan stock which are seen in every portion of Asiatic Russia. From the Ural Mountains to the Baltic Sea pieces of drift-wood lie scattered along the route taken by the great body of Huns, which after it had broken itself against the Chinese Empire, moved westward, recruiting- its streno-th as It wen^ Four centuries after this emigration, when the empire of the Huns was at the height of its power, and wave after wave of barbaric warriors swept over Europe, Persia and India, the races of the north crushed the center of its power, which was on Russian soil, and the mighty fabric, M'ith Atilla's death, went to pieces. In the Finns proper, of European Russia, are believed to be embodied the purest representatives of that race which made the circuit of so large a portion of the civilized world in its career of conquest. But that historic ground must be ap- proached through the territory of two tribes of people, who either were left be- hind by the great body of Hunnish emigrants, or at a very early day were driven up from the South. Reference is made to the Ostiaks and the Voguls. North of the Ostiaks are the Samoveds, and to their west the Voguls. They occupy the country between the Obi and Yenisei rivers. Their villages consist iof four or five tents of felt and the in- ''f; mates are peaceable, jovial, honest, in- [' genious and poor. The Ostiaks resemble the Calmucks, being short in stature, with flat faces and AN osTiAK. reddish hair ; and as men and women dress in reindeer skins they seem to be quite a monotonou-s sort of people. Some members of the race use the skin of eels for clothing. When well rubbed with fat it is said to be more impervious to cold than fur itself. Their skins are also used as windows to their square wooden huts. In the neighborhood of the Obi they have ceased to wear their native costume and have partially adopted the Russian dress. Here also they possess no reindeer, their wealth consisting of light canoes and fishing tackle. A native who has property valued at $ioo would be placed among the capitalists of his people. With how much truth it is impossible to say. but the report runs that an Ostiak father is not averse FISHING AND HUNTING. ;27 to selling his daughter to any native in. search of a wife. The average prices given are from $ioo to $150 in money ; a horse, a cow or an ox ; from seven to ten pieces of clothing ; a measure of meal, a few hops and some brandy for the wedding feast. FISHING AND HUNTING. In their methods of fishing and hunting they show much ingenuity. To capture the huge sturgeons- which, during the winter. He in the muddy hollows of the rivers, bunched together in huge masses for the sake of warmth, he sets a tempting bait, and then cutting a hole in the ice, down stream, he drops into it red-hot balls of clay. When the fish feel the water orettingr warm around them they bestir themselves and, as is their habit, commence to swim up stream. Thus one or more soon falls a victim to the Ostiak's ingenuity. For buildinof their large boats the Ostiaks use the Siberian cedar, which is firmly grained, but free from knots and easily worked. Having no saws they take a tree two or three feet in diam- eter, split it in two, and of each half make a wide thin board, or the side of the craft The poplar furnishes them with their canoes, which are hollowed from its trunk. Their bows, which are taller than themselves, are made by joining a flexible slip of birch to a species of hard pine wood, fish-glue being used to cement the pieces together. The arrows, which are finely feath- ered and four feet in length, have blunt heads of iron so that the ermines, sables, squirrels and other animals are killed without injury to their skins. The reindeer or elk is brought to earth with an arrow which AN OSTIAK FAMILY. 328 . PANORAMA OF NATIONS. has a heavier head made in the form of a lozenge. The bows are very powerful and the recoil of the string is so heavy that strong plates of horn are worn upon the left forearm as a precaution against bruised and bleeding flesh. Wonderful stories are told of their feats of archery, as witness : An Ostiak marked an arrow in the middle with a piece of charcoal and discharged it into the air, whilst a second man, before it reached the ground, shot at the descending shaft and struck it on the mark. The Ostiak's clock is the constellation of the Great Bear ; his nap- kin a broad shaving from the larch, from which tree also he makes laths for his hut ; his snuff, of which he is passionately fond, a fungus of the birch tree, pounded and mixed with tobacco. The manner of taking his nip is the same as that of the Chinese, viz : — pouring a small quantity of the snuff" upon the right thumb. The Ostiak plays upon an instru- ment of five strings, shaped like a boat and improvises and dramatizes his songs as he goes along. Sometimes an exciting local incident, such as the eating of a child by a bear, will furnish a community with material upon which to exercise their musical and dramatic talents for many years, THEIR IDOLATRY. The Ostiaks are pagans and idolaters of the most uncompromising description. They have four gods, who are represented by their idols as creatures without legs, one of them having especial charge of the healing arts. One of their deities is Ortik, the same Ordog (or Evil One), which is found amonor the Hunoarians, who are also a Finnic tribe. They also have their great sword dances in honor of one of their gods, over which the Shaman presides and who collects the weapons after his people have waved them about and screamed long enough. The dance takes place near some of the great fair towns, and is enlivened by the antics of professional buffoons and posture-makers. Both sexes join in the dance and bow themselves periodically before their legless idols. The Asiatic Ostiaks and the European Hungarians, or Magyars, have another band of union and indication of their common origin in this hideous sword dance. It is of such a nature as one imagfines would have delighted the Huns who worshiped the god of war, under the symbol of a sword set in the ground, and bowed down as to a god before Atilla, their leader, who was wont to proclaim to his army of wolves that he alone possessed the sword of Mars. The Ostiaks maintain that they believe in one Supreme God whose likeness cannot be reproduced. As a type of this deity they venerate NATIVE HONESTY. . 329 the black bear, as certain African tribes do the hon ; but the Siberian does not go as far as the negro and irresistingly allow his type of Omnipotence to make a meal of him. Rather, he kills and eats the bear, but shows respect for the carcass in not allowing a woman to taste of its head. In a court of justice he swears upon the head of a bear, and by a dramatic motion of the jaws intimates that he invites an awful fate to overtake him if he does not tell the truth. NATIVE HONESTY Honesty is a prevailing virtue of the Siberians, and in this connec- tion it is a pleasant duty to notice a practice which the merchant of Tob- olsk has so lono- followed that it has become a custom. When he goes north in the summer to purchase fish he takes with him quantities of flour and salt, for the purpose of barter. These articles he places in store-houses from which he distributes them to the Samoyeds and Osti- aks who flock to him for miles around. Upon having completed his tour of stations, if provisions still remain he leaves them unprotected, feeling confident that if a hungry Siberian passes that way, and wants flour and salt, he will not take them without leaving a due-bill in the shape of a notched stick. Sometimes during the coming season its du- plicate will be presented to the merchant of Tobolsk by the honest native, who comes promptly to liquidate with a finny load. The coming gen- eration, if they cling to the occupation of their fathers, will not be obliged to fall back upon notched sticks under such circumstances, since for a few years past the Russians have been opening schools for the natives, one having been in operation in Obdorsk for the Ostiaks and Samoyeds since 1879. THE VOGUES. The Voguls are a much smaller tribe than the Ostiaks, some author- ities placing their number as low as five or six thousand. Then" camp- ing-ground lies between the Northern Ural Mountains and the Tobol River, the northern boundary being the Obi. They are a roving people, and from the broken and barren nature of their country they are obliged to depend upon the spoils of the chase for their subsistence. Hunting regulations are therefore strictly observed. Eike their neighbors, the Ostiaks, their encampments are never to exceed five tents each, and no encampment is to be pitched within four miles of another, since the great clouds of smoke which issue from their huts are as distasteful to the game as to the swarms of gnats which are thus kept at a distance. Thft 330 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. atmosphere of the ulterior of their dwelhng-places would be considered by a European as a sure instrument of death; but the Vogul Hves in it and thrives; and farther north, where the chmate is more severe and the yurt has no hole for the escape of the smoke, the native women spend weeks and months in such confinement and live to a good old age. The Voguls, who live to the south, near the Bashkirs, are somewhat given to agricultural pursuits ; but as a rule their time is divided betweea the care of their reindeer, fishing and hunting, and taking their peltry to the fair at Obdorsk, to which place also repair many of the Samoyeds and Ostiaks. THE FINNS. The Finns are classed as among the primitive races of the worlds their lano^uacre bearing a strong" resemblance to that of the Tartars, Mon- gols, Turks, and the Tungooses of Siberia. That their language is of a primitive struc- ture may be in- ferred from the fact that many of the words and a greater part of the grammatical forms of the in- scriptions which have been de- ciphered from ex- cavated Assyrian A voGUL ENCAMPMENT. monuments are virtually Finnish. Evidences are at hand to prove that the system of writing then used (cruciform or cross-shaped) was the invention of a. people north of the valley of the Mesopotamia. As the philologists would make the Egyptians and the Hottentots one people, it is no more strange that Assyria should have been preceded by Finland, when its- people were Huns, or Tartars, or Mongols. By ancient historians they are noticed in Europe as Fenni and Phinnoi, and horrible tales are told of their savage natures and actions. Their cousins, the Laplanders, still retain some of the traits given to them, but the Finns are mild and peaceable, though possessing great bodily strength and a splendid physique. In fact, they are far from being Ogres, by which name they were known before the Teu- tons, or Slavs, cam^i up fro n the south and drove them toward the Arc- THE CLEANLY NATIVE. 33 1 tics, leaving a numerous body of tlieir race behind in the persons of the modern Hungarians. THE CLEANLY NATIVE. Like most races of Mono^ohan extraction that for centuries have been deprived of a mild Asiatic climate and habits of life, the blood has been brought to the surface of the body, where through a dark skin it shows as a ruddy glow of health. Even the rosy cheeks of the Swede, with his fair skin, are of not so rich a tint as those of the hardy Finn, both of whom, unlike the stunted Laplander, believe in the religion of soap and water. The Finn is much addicted to the use of the vapor bath, and, all in all, Avith his high cheek bones, square jaws, low, broad fore- head and dark eyes and hair, he is a living illustration of what genera- tions of cleanliness might do for the natives of both Asia and Europe, who have been pushed north by stronger people. The vapor bath may now be said to be a Sclavonic institution, though it is found to perfection among the Finns. The bath is heated to the height of some i6o degrees, the vapor being produced by pouring boil- incr water on red-hot stones. When the bather is heated to an immense perspiration, he runs out of the bath and rolls upon the grass or snow, according to the season in which he finds himself. Intimate contact with the Swedes and Russians, with such diverse national characteristics, has been the means of somewhat diluting native individuality ; but on the whole, although Finland is a grand- duchy of the Empire, its dependency upon Sweden for four centuries has had most to do with modifying the native crudeness of its people. Russia saw with uneasiness the stronof hold which even the Swedish language had upon the people, long after the first part of this century, when she snatched the province from Sweden ; but, by imperial dictum, since 1883 the Finnish has been the of^cial language, so that now all persons intending' to enter the • public service must learn the native tongrue. SAVING A LANGUAGE. The autocrat of the Russias Is sustained in his efforts to rehabilitate the native tongue of Finland by the peasantry of the country, who form the bulk of the population. They have clung to their musical language throughout all the centuries of Swedish and Russian dominion, have had their Bibles printed in it, and have prayed in it. From them also the beauties of the language flowed out to the world through the pen of one of their university professors, Elias Lounrot. For years this scholastic 332" PANORAMA OF NATIONS. patriot wandered around the country, living with the peasantry and gath- ering from them all their most popular native songs. This, however, must have been more of an agreeable task than otherwise, for the Finns are poets and musicians by nature. This characteristic of the race has already been noticed among the Ostiaks, an allied people whose home is across European Russia and beyond the Ural Mountains. For generations past the Finns have had their runolainen, or song men, who to the sound of their national instrument, a five-string harp, poured forth melodies of both a mythological and heroic nature. The magic songs were slowly and solemnly recited by the bard, who sometimes lived alone in a hut surrounded by forests and marshes. Every Finlander, also, was his own poet, and no striking event, public or private, but had its delineator. As was the ancient custom, when verses are to be recited two poets stand in the midst of a circle, and repeat lines alternately, every second line beginning with the last word of the preceding. The result of this universal aptitude for poesy and song was to bring the professor a very large grist from which he could cull the best ; the result was 23,000 verses, which contain an epitome of the ancient superstitions of the Finnic race, with heroic deeds and legends, love- makings and songs. Kalevala, the ancient name of Finland, was the title of the poem which is regarded by scholars, generally, as a remarka- ble addition to the epic literature of the world. Professor Max Miiller, for example, says that Kalevala possesses merits not dissimilar from those of the Iliad, and will "claim its place as the fifth national epic of the world, side by side with the Ionian songs, with the Mahabarata, the Shananich and the Niebelunge." This great heroic poem was published fifty years ago. Some time afterwards Professor Loiinrot gave to the world 7,000 Finnish proverbs and 2,000 charades, and since then the Russian, English, Swedish, French and German scholars have joined the Czar and the yeomanry in insisting that the language shall be main- tained in its purity. Another native professor was the first navigator to pass from the Arctic to the Pacific ocean via Behring Strait — the northeast passage around Asia prophesied over three hundred years ago. Other native Finns have made their marks as poets and scientists, the literary life of the country centering around the university at Helsingfors, the capital of the Duchy, and of whose faculty both of these professors were mem- bers. The university was founded at Abo, with the introduction of printing into Finland, two and a half centuries ago. The library was subsequently removed to the capital. When founded it contained AN ANCIENT CITY. 2)33 twenty-one books and a globe ; it now numbers over 150,000 volumes. Helsingfors is on the Gulf of Finland. It is protected by a huge for- tress, built on seven islands and known as the Gibraltar of the North. The streets of the capital are broad ; the houses large ; public build- ings, cathedrals and opera houses appear to convince the skeptical that Finland is not entirely a dreary country lying on the shores of a gulf, soaked with bogs and marshes, and covered with a lot of good-natured know-nothines on snow shoes. & AN ANCIENT CITY. Before proceeding to more intimately investigate the people, as peasants and home people, a glimpse should be taken of Finland's most ancient city, Abo by name, and founded near the Gulf of Finland on the River Aurijaki, more than seven hundred years ago. In 1827 a destruc- tive fire swept away all the old landmarks except a ruined castle on a hill, placed there when the authority of Sweden was somewhat unstable. At Abo resides the Archbishop of the Lutheran church. For miles around the Finns flock on Sunday, some on foot, some in two-wheeled rigs, and others in long boats which accommodate parties of thirty or forty. The women do the rowing, and the men lounge smoking in the stern of the boat. The costumes of the women are gay in the extreme, at all times. The men make a special effort to appear well on Sunday, but the every-day attire of the Finns is about as follows : A coat of coarse woolen stuff, made with little regard to shape and tied around the body with a band ; a pair of coarse linen trousers, straw shoes, and bits of woolen cloth, or ropes of straw around their legs. In Russian Finland the natives seem to be more hardy than their conquerors and seldom wear the sheep-skin. In more important ways the two people are radically different. The Finns do not support a nobility ; but they uphold a species of caste in that the peasant, though far in the majority, allows the citizen or mer- chant to take precedence of him ; and he does this although he is manu- facturer as well as aafriculturist. *t>' THE FARMER. In Finland the farmer prepares his own tar, potash and charcoal, builds his own boat, makes his own table and chairs, and in his cot- tage are woven the coarse woolen and other fabrics of which his dress is composed. Much tar, pitch and potash are also exported. But a great 334 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. ■source of wealth is the immense quantities of fir and pine which are cut from the forests in the southern part of the country. They are fast dis- appearing, however, since not only is an abundance of firewood exported, but the peasant, when his land has become impoverished, resorts to the -extravagant policy of selecting a finely timbered piece of ground and then burning off the trees that the soil may be enriched with the ashes. The yeoman's hut contains a single room, warmed by a large stove, the smoke of which goes out either at the windows or through a hole in the roof. Pine knots furnish him with light, and whether he live in the marshy, mossy East, or the mountainous North, he is pretty certain to be, both at home and abroad, an affectionate, honest, hospit- able sort of a fellow, inclined to be lazy, deliberate in speech, but good at heart, and ever verging upon the melancholy. The Finns in the southwestern ince call them- selves F"lama- laiseth. They are breeders of cattle as well as agriculturists, but are poor and rude compared to the eastern tribe of Ka- r eli a ns. The former number 600,000 and the latter over 1,000,000 people. From Finland east of the Ural Mountains, and as far south as the middle Volga River, the branches of the Finnic race interlace with those of the Slavic, so that the two people seem often as one. But for the present we must 'leave these interspersed Finns, who number two million and a half of people, and go among a really uncivilized and peculiar people — real hyperboreans — Finns, also, and yet not the poetic, musical, hand- some Finns of Finland. THE LAPPS. CAPE WASHINGTON. The true Laplanders do not number more than thirty thousand people, and inhabit the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Russia. Their dreary country of rock, snow and moss will probably remain their A MATTER-OF-FACT PEOPLE. oo. own as long as they exist as a people, and this in spite of a few fertile spots and its poetical nights. The climate is extremely cold for nine months of the year. July and August are excessively hot, the sun being- above the horizon for several weeks. These extremes of heat and cold are separated by a rainy spring and autumn of about two weeks. Win- ter is night and summer is day, and although the gulf-stream makes existence upon the coast more bearable than in the interior, the Lapp is a poor, monotonous, ignorant creature of circumstances; driven from the south by the Finns and Scandinavians, he barely exists, physically and intellectually unfortunate. A MATTER-OF-FACT PEOPLE. The Lapps are supposed to be the Cynocephali and Pygmies of PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Herodotus, and with their squat body and bow legs, yellow skin, and head poised on a short round neck, bear a decidedly unfavorable contrast to the Finns. They are agile, but quickly exhausted by active work. The severity of their climate and the exposure which they undergo test their powers of endurance to the utmost ; but everything is taken in the most matter-of-fact way. If a Lapp gets overtaken by a snow storm on the mountains, such as would appall the heart of the bravest foreigner, he simply gets under his sledge, and when the trouble is over commences to dig his way to liberty. He will not starve, for he has been filling himself full of raw fish, meat and blubber, while he could ; besides he has a stock on hand. His reindeer are as fitted to the country as he, and will take care of themselves. Ordinarily his steeds are docile and make no trouble; but during the fall and winter they sometimes become furious to free themselves, and turn upon the little Lapp like wild beasts. The driver is powerless to withstand them; so he quietly but expedi- tiouslygetsoutof 1 his snow sledge, crawls under it and allows the reindeer to have it out to their hearts' content. The Lapp shows ingenuity, as well as coolness, in accepting his sit- uation and mak- ing the best of it. The women are very skillful in making garments, and the men cut out of wood, with astonishing ingenuity — considering the imperfect tools they employ — all the utensils they need. Many still hunt with the bow and arrow, but some have gained possession of fire-arms, which they use with effect. In the Sagas, or national songs of Scandinavia, the Lapps are repre- sented as a treacherous, deceitful race and addicted to every heathen practice ; these national songs also admit them to have been the original inhabitants of the entire peninsula of Scandinavia. Whatever their dispositions in ancient times, they seem at least to be honest. Those who know them best, however, make a distinction between the Sea Lapps and the Mountain Lapps. The Mountain Lapps, or those of the interior, best answer Tacitus' description of the Fenni, who, in his LAPLAND SLEDGE. A RELIGIOUS MIXTURE. 2>2>7 time, inhabited Finland ; and they seem to still- harbor an animosity toward all their ancient enemies of Scandinavia and Russia, being haughty and morose. The Lapps who live on the coast, on the other hand, are hospitable and light-hearted. A RELIGIOUS MIXTURE. The superstitions of the Lapp have, to a great extent, been coun- teracted by the efforts of the Norwegian Lutherans on one side and the Russians, or adherents of the Greek church, on the other. The Bible has been translated into their own language. But even with the Christian rites which they have adopted, they retain some of their old superstitions,, many of them regarding the sacrament as a powerful charm to preserve them from evil spirits. Others practice a species of necromancy with the Runic drum. This is a wooden instrument hung closely round with brass rings. The head is covered with mystic figures, and the instruments are esteemed accord- ing to their antiquity. If any important matter is to be determined a ring is placed upon the drum head, which is repeatedly struck with a deer horn, and the omen is considered good or bad according to the figures the ring touches. There are private drums and public drums, the latter being manipulated by an official soothsayer, who drinks enough brandy to make him drunk ; when he comes to himself he tells the people how he has been to one of their holy mountains, and what explanation one of their deities gave him for the prevalence of the sick- ness amonof themselves or their reindeer. Those who have not been converted to Christianity worship four orders of divinities — celestial, atmospheric, manes and demons. They have one Supreme Creator, assisted by his virgin wife and their son. There are gods of beasts and fishes ; of the rainbow and lightning ; of the air and mountains ; of death and of the souls who are passing to the shades below. The immortality of the soul and a future state of rewards and punishments are a part of the heathen belief. Several of the gods are of Teutonic origin, some of the ancient historians, indeed, placing the Lapps among the Teutons. There also seems to be among them remains of Druidical institutions. The very name of Lapp signifies a wizard, and considering how for centuries their dark minds were filled with all manner of gods, evil spirits, charms and omens, and the aversion with which they were viewed by both Scandinavians and Russians, it is remarkable that they have cast away so much that is useless. Since they have become partially Christianized, the Norwegians allow them 22 338 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. burial privileges in their villages, but will not let them settle in their midst. Many of the Lapps are baptized when young, and their weddings take place in Norwegian churches ; but the great, healthy, clean Norwe- gian and Swede do not amalgamate with the dwarfish, greasy, smoky Lapp. SOCIAL PICTURES. Polygamy is not prohibited among the Lapps, but the high price of a wife virtually confines the practice to those who are the owners of many reindeer; it is a question whether polyandry is not more common than polygamy. The daughter of a rich man costs sometimes as much as a hundred reindeer, while a poor girl is seldom sold for less than twenty. This price they consider as a repayment of the expenses incurred in bringing up a daughter, and also as a remuneration to the father for losing her services. In his turn, the dowry which goes with his daugh- ter consists of reindeer proportionate in number to his wealth ; so that if he should be the owner of five thousand reindeer, as sometimes happens, and should sell his daughter for one hundred, passing her dowry over with her, it is difificult to see how he would make much out of the transaction. A native wedding solemnized in a Norwegian church reveals the bride and groom before the altar, each a trifle over four feet tall, and nearly as broad, and thus attired : The woman in a dark blue woolen tunic, with orange and red trimmings, her boots fastened with a vari- colored ribbon which is wound round them, extending half way to the knee ; over her shoulders a small, gay-colored shawl ; up.on her head a brilliant cap, with a huge bunch of narrow ribbons streaming behind. The man is dressed in a similar style, except his tunic is shorter and his turban more simple. After the service presents are exchanged, con- sisting of rings, silver cups, silk neckerchiefs, and sometimes, if the parties are very rich, silver girdles ; then comes the brandy drinking, which, with eating and hunting, constitutes all which the Laplander calls amusement. Men may marry at eighteen and women at fifteen, and divorces are unknown. The contracting parties lead in the festivities, seated side by side upon a box or rude stool. A great dish stands upon a small table, and from this the company take lumps of meat, cut them into smaller, pieces with the large knives they wear about their waists, and swallow them at a gulp. Friends continue to pour in to offer their congratulations, and stay to eat the pieces of meat, and drink the brandy, or finkel. The smiling and chatting change to boisterous laughter SEA COAST AND MOUNTAIN LAPPS. 339 and shouts, and the happy couple commence their married Hfe, inva- riably, as two unblushing bacchanals. The fact that the young woman is rapidly approaching her mother in hideousness will, however, have no effect in making the girl treat some other old woman with due respect. She may behave decently toward her mother, but the tend- ency of the race is to look upon the old as so many useless append- ages, and it is not uncommon, when they fall sick upon a journey, to provide them with a scanty supply of food and leave them behind in the snow. The young people, living so much in the open air and in such a temperature, will not at first show the effects of imbibing such quantities of finkel — a native brandy distilled from corn, and which has been described as a mixture of turpentine, train oil and bad molasses. But the life they lead may account for the appearance of the average Lapp face which has withstood the rigors of a quarter of a century or less. The faces of young and old are deeply lined and furrowed, so as to resemble rough masks. In a few years the girl's old mother, with her deer-skin frock reaching below her knees and patched with gay Scotch tartan ; her rough reindeer-skin boots, with fiaps like an oxford tie, well turned up at the toes and stuffed with hay ; her high blue woolen cap in stovepipe shape, beneath which straggle her shaggy, black locks, and peers forth the expressionless mask — this unearthly-looking, dried-up being, still clinging to the gaudy tastes of her race, will in a few years commence to look more like a sister than a mother to the girl. The Swedes are a very imaginative people and quite superstitious, and, by looking at these uncanny Lapps, it can well be seen how these Northern pygmies should have stood in their minds for the trolls, or dwarfs, who are supposed to bring misfortune and gloom to their unusually cheery homes. SEA COAST AND MOUNTAIN LAPPS. The division of the Lapps into those of the sea coast and those of the highlands has been incidentally noted ; but after you have witnessed a few general characteristics of the people, you will see that to intelli- gently reach the particulars you will find yourself making a clearly marked distinction. They were originally all nomadic ; but the difficulty of finding sufficient food within the area to which they had been restricted compelled some of the tribes to settle near the larger rivers and lakes, where they hunt and fish regularly to supply the markets of Stockholm. The mode of bartering is somewhat peculiar. When the merchant arrives who wishes to make purchases, he finds that, as a rule, each Lapp 340 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. is attended by a bwede. Both stand motionless until he bids them advance. The Swede makes the bargain, and, when it is completed, with a quick movement each grasps your hand, and with the universal " Tak- tak," departs. In making exchanges the Swedish note is generally used ; but when the Lapp comes from his fishing and hunting grounds, and desires the more direct process of barter, he receives for his skins and bird feathers, his fish and reindeer venison, such articles as brandy, gun- powder, cloth, coffee, sugar and meal. Hammerfest, the most northerly town, is a great mart. In summer the wandering Lapps of the interior are driven to the coast by swarms of mosquitoes and gad-flies. It is somewhat singular that the farther north one goes the more vicious the pests become — longer, bigger and bolder ; consequently the poor inland Lapps, with their herds of reindeer, emigrate to the western coasts of Norway, occu- pying the lofty hills which the Norwegian farmers cannot use, and, pitch- ing their encampments in lots of half a dozen tents, turn their herds out FISHING IN LAPLAND^ to feed upon the moss. It is estimated that more than one hundred thousand reindeer annually make these journeys. Summer is therefore the only season of the year when the mountain, or reindeer Lapp, and the sea coast Lapp, do not strictly observe their respective habitats. Much of the produce of the fishing Lapp goes to Northern Russia, by way of Archangel, and the northern and northwestern coasts of Nor- way swarm with a motley collection of Lapps, Norwegians and Russians. In Hammerfest itself the drunken of all these nationalities forget their distinctions and go reeling along together. There is great rejoicing when the monotony of their lives is broken into by the capture of a whale, and when seals and codfish give way to the leviathan. When the monscer is sighted chase is at once given, and if the fishermen are so fortunate as to fix a harpoon in his body, they break it off and go about A LAPP SCHOOL AND CHURCH, 34I their regular business. The wound, however, usually proves fatal, and in a few days the whale's body is cast upon the shore. But the harpoon is marked upon the barb, and though by law the finder of the treasure gets one-third of the booty, he must notify the owner of his discovery. The dwellings of the maritime Lapps are built of wood, or of sods, and sometimes have several apartments. They are roofed with birch-bark ; the floors are strewn with branches of trees, and on these are spread deer-skins. The Mountain Lapps dwell in tents consisting of bent sticks covered with a coarse cloth, or in huts covered with bark and turf. Their beds are often birch-leaves covered with seal or rein- deer skin. Reindeer horns form their spoons. Children are tied securely in leather cradles which swing from hooks in the roof, just be- yond the reach of the fox-like dogs who share the couches of the elders when the reindeer are safe in the corral, which is fenced off around the hut. When the herds are driven to their moss pasturage in the vicinity, or to the distant coasts of Norway, or are brought to their nightly shel- ter, these shepherd dogs are the mainstay of the Lapp. Upon such occasions the deer seem to lose all idea of individual responsibility, and merely go where their intelligent guardians drive them. Except to take care of their reindeer — two hundred of which are sufficient to support an average family ^ — the Lapps consider themselves excused from work. They lie around most of the time smoking and chatting, while the women and boys make horn spoons or moccasins with which to bar. ter for brandy and tobacco, or for bright colored woolen goods, ribbons, silver earrings and finger rings. Even in the huts and temporary tents of the Mountain Lapp, however, one occasionally meets with books. LAPP SCHOOL AND CHURCH. Both Norway and Sweden send their missionaries among the Lapps and take to them not only the Bible but school-books. A church and school combined, in Swedish Lapland, is an unusual sight. The edifice is usually built of pine wood and painted red, standing on a knoll of the httle clearing in which the village stands. The wooden belfry is apart from the rest of the building. The space between the rafters and ceil- ing of the church room below the kind-hearted pastor allows to be used in summer as a storehouse for sledges, snow shoes, etc. Occasionally a missionary, more energetic than usual, squeezes a school-room out of this attic, where he patiently teaches reading, writing, arithmetic and natural history to a dozen Swedes and Lapps. In this cubby-hole he places the desks, ink-pots, maps and globes, with which the educa- 342 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. tional authorities of Sweden supply him, and proceeds cheerfully to the task of pushing a few facts into the benighted minds of half a dozen tall young Swedes and perhaps as many more chubby Lapps. On Sunday he dresses himself in a gown, and, standing before a plain, board altar, faces a congregation of thirty or forty men and women, indistinguishable, except that the sexes are separated as in a quaker meeting. Strict attention is paid to his ten-minute sermon, and every- body joins in the singing whenever he pleases and goes on at his own pace. The choir is composed of Lapp youths who are led by an anxious- looking man of their nationality, armed with a forest stick which he osten- sibly carries for the beating of time. The leader of the choir becomes more anxious and alert than ever, when the sermon commences. But woe be to the young Lapp who has eaten too much reindeer venison, reindeer cheese, rein- deer butter, or has k drunk too much rein- I deer whey, or has otherwise had so inti- S mate an association I with reindeer as to j succumb to a fijll ^^^— = ^ stomach and a heavy ^^^p^ "=S head, and go to sleep in church. The stick carried by the leader of the choir chucks the youth smartly under the chin, and when he awakes he is given a look of indigiiant reproof These nomadic Lapps wandering over fells and moors in search of the white moss or lichen, on which the reindeer depend, a dozen persons of both Sexes crowding into tents of half a dozen feet square, aad sharing these quarters, with their dogs — these are the true descendants of the ancient Lapp. These are they who are so proud, and who, remember- ing the extent of their ancient territory, are so callous to civilizing influ- ences. But the reindeer furnishes them with all that they require in the way of locomotion or food. The skin of the animal's legs, which has to with- stand the sharp ice and crusts of snow, as he drags his burdens over the A LAPLAND CHURCH. A LAPP SCHOOL AND CHURCH. 343 country, is thick and tough ; his hoofs are as if they were shod with iron. In Lapland one will readily travel ten miles an hour all day ; and it is recorded that a reindeer (now dead) once drew a government mes- senger, who was in a great hurry, eight hundred miles in two days. The portrait. of the deer is still preserved in a royal palace in Sweden. The meat of the dear is cooked fresh and made into soup, when it is eaten right from the kettle scalding hot ; it is dried and smoked and cut into thin slices, or pounded into a paste and made up into cakes. The Lapp drinks the milk fresh, makes it into a rich cheese or butter, and extracts from the cheese an oil which prevents bad results from the freezing of his limbs. He distils a drink from the whey which is highly intoxicating, but not so raw as the vile finkel. The reindeer's skin is shelter and clothing, and his tendons are thread. The women prepare this by rolling the tendons upon their " cheeks," and the result is a thread which is wonderfully strong and durable. And the sale of articles which are made from different portions of the deer's anatomy and are not wanted at home, is a means of supplying the Lapp with outside luxuries such as sugar, coffee and bread. The deer needs no housing and does not even require to be fed ; for once driven to a favorable locality, the animal seeks the snow line, beyond which he wall find his starchy, nutritious food, even if it is six or seven feet beneath the surface. Antlers, hoofs and nose all assist him to uncover the fodder, and the Lapp's work is merely to direct his dogs to keep the animal in sight. The colder the country the more tender and nourishing the moss. Moss, reindeer, country and Lapp are adapted to each other, and the mainstay of this poor little man can never be transported. But during the winter it is sometimes difficult to find moss, even though the Lapp himself does not hunt for it; and, with the reindeer, perishes the owner. So that, with all, the Laplanders are dying out as a tribe. They have no idea of sanitary precautions, either in eating or drinking. They are filthy and: lazy. They are dead, though living. The Lapps have been crowded into the most dreary portions of that rugged European peninsula, which hangs out like a hammer of Thor ready to drop into the raging, icy oceans. Between the barriers of ice and those of stronger races they are firmly imprisoned in their graves. The tribes of Northeastern Siberia were pressed to the Arctics as were the Lapps but many found an escape open to them across the strait or by way of a chain of islands which is all but a neck of land connecting the two hemispheres. Many who find the original country of the Lapps in Finland also derive the origin of the name from the Finnish "lappi,"' or runaways. Furthermore in the word they discover a fragment of 344 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. their history, reasoning that the Lapps, at an early day, deserted the Finns for their northern homes. But whatever the. cause of their separa- tion from the mother country, the Lapps seem to be even purer creatures of circumstance than the majority of Arctic peoples. Certain learned men who have an intense longing to enunciate startling generalties conclude that Lapps, Samoyeds, Esquimaux and Greenlanders, who inhabit the same frozen latitudes, were originally the same people. They suppose the Lapps to have descended from the White Sea toward Norway and Sweden, while the Finns ascended from Esthonia. TOWARD BEHRING STRAIT. THE BURIATS. HE central portions of Southern Siberia around Lake Baika and toward the Upper Lena River are occupied by the most numerous of the MongoHan races outside of the Chinese Empire. Though chvided into a number of small tribes, collectively they number nearly a quarter of a million of souls, and are substantially one people in their customs and intellectual peculiarities. They are unflinching adherents of Lamaism, and fought like wolves against the Russians, in the middle of the seventeenth century, as much to retain their religion as their national freedom ; even to this day they are uncommunicative and suspicious, seeing in every stranger, especially a Russian, some emissary of a religious sect sent out to draw them away from the faith of their fathers. How long they have been Buddhists (for Lamaism is but a form of Buddhism into which have been grafted many Mongolian superstitions) history saith not ; but it is known that Buddhism was introduced into Thibet, in the seventh century, by a wise prince of that country who had two wives, one from China and one from India, and both devotees of that faith. A RELIGIOUS CENTER. The head of the Lama religion dwells at the capital of Thibet, and the head of Siberian Lamaism is found at the holy village of Souggira, in the Buriat province of Irkutsch. He is supposed to be the incarnation of a former saint of religion, and when he dies the infant into which his soul passes is taken to a monastery and educated by the " kharpo," or master, in the mysteries of Lamaism. There are so many orders of the religion and so many members of these orders that fully one-eighth of the population of the Buriats are Lamas. With the exception of the begging Lamas (virtue beggars) all are monks or nuns, vowed to celibacy. The female Lamas are called 345 346 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. sisters-in-law, venerable aunts, etc. The Lama determines when is the auspicious day for marriage, and when the body of the deceased is to be exposed. Interment of the dead is forbidden. When the coming demise of a wealthy or distinguished person is reported to the Lama,, his duty is to assist the departure of the soul by making a small hole in the scalp. The breath having left the body, the priest says countless masses for the departed soul until it has been released by Yama, the infernal judge ; after which the corpse is burned. Bodies of the com- mon people are either devoured by beasts and birds of prey, or by sacred dogs kept for the purpose. The Lamas also make and sell idols^ amulets, relics and consecrated pills. Fasts and religious festivals are numerous, and in the streets of the villages and all along the highways small chapels, wheels for grinding NATIVE SIBERIANS. out prayers, flags inscribed with prayers and hoisted upon consecrated poles, with other like paraphernalia, keep the religion of the country constantly before the people. These praying machines consist of a sort of hollow barrel, which turns on an axis and in which the prayers, written on a great many little scrolls, are turned about. Some are colossal and move by wind or water, or are operated by special turners, or merely kicked into motion by passers-by ; others are small and carried in the hand. At sunrise, noon and sunset the Lamas assemble to recite prayers and sacred texts, the worship being accompanied by hideous braying of horns and trumpets and a beating of drums. The Lamaic temples which may be seen throughout the country are square and always face THE GOOD OF LAMAISM. 347 the south. Entering the main hall, with its two parallel rows of col- umns, one sees beyond, first the chief idol, then the altar, and lastly the Lama on his throne. Gods are not worshiped, but the essence of all that is holy is comprised in the three precious jewels, the Buddha, the doctrine, and the priesthood. Beneath these are the good and evil spirits, the Lamas standing be- tween them and the laity. The unpardonable sin is to ridicule the Lama and his holy office, and persist in the offense. Impediment of speech, giddiness, loss of reason and death is the portion of such in this world, and in the next their souls will never know rest. Any offense to a Lama annihilates the merit acquired by a thousand generations of holi- ness ; but if one sincerely implore, during a whole day, the benediction of a Lama, all the sins committed during innumerable generations are effaced. Women are regarded as 'unclean, and are not allowed to ap- proach the temple altars. THE GOOD OF LAMAISM. But with all the superstitions attaching to Lamaism it has its good parts. In a way it encourages the people to strive after education. Every Buriat Avould like to see at least one member of his family enter the priesthood, and this wish creates a desire that his children shall learn to read and write. It is this desire more than any other cause that has lifted the Buriats above their Mongolian-Tartar neighbors ; and though there is no literature, several of the natives have acquired considerable eminence in science. Neither are the Lamas to be considered of no benefit to the country, except in an indirect way. Many of the princi- ples of morality and charity inculcated by them are productive of gooc^ and their own abstemious habits and precepts are much needed among a people who, like all the tribes of Siberia, are given to drunkenness and excess. Besides the teachers of the faith and the priests who officiate at the ceremonials and take charge of the forms of religion, the church sends forth among the people a class of Lamas who devote themselves entirely to the study and practice of medicine. At the same time that they en- deavor to heal the sick they extend an influence over his spiritual nature, which is not to be compared to that which is cast over it by the Shaman sorcerer ; for Shamanism still has a following even among the Buriats, THE LAMA AND SHAMAN. The Lama, also, Is an example of industry ever before the Buriat, while the Shaman lives purely by the exercise of his wits in throwing a spell of terror over the ignorant. In cases of illness the Shaman caters 348 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. to the taste of his people, and a quantity of intoxicating liquor, added to his incantations and sacrifices, is his principal remedy. If his howlings and ceremonials to propitiate the evil spirit who has created the disease have no effect, and the man dies, he falls back upon the excuse which is always in stock with the sorcerers of all lands — that the sacrifice was inappropriate. If the Sha- man is called in to decide upon the guilt of a person, he places his drum, and his leather apron, which is covered with metal plates, before a fire. The defendant is stood near the sacred things, facing the sun, and swears to his innocence with the Shaman's sharp eyes upon him. Butter is then thrown upon the fire by the sorcerer ; the accused steps over the drum and the apron, at the same time taking great gulps of the smoke as he looks up at the sun- to express a hope that he shall never more receive from it light or heat if he has sworn falsely. As if this were not enough,Mr. Shaman produces his official bear, which he leads up to the party on trial and requests him to bite the head of bruin. The bear returns a verdict of not guilty if he suffers this indignity in patience ; if he resents it the man becomes a criminal. BURIAT BEAUTIES. In general appearance the Buriats re- II semble the Chinese, their complexion, how- ever, having more of a ruddy tinge. Attired 1 1 in close-fitting dresses, their figures tall and graceful, with dark, sparkling eyes, the women are not beneath the notice of mod- ern society beauties. Those of the wealthier classes allow their thick hair to fall from the temples in two long braids, the forehead being bound with a fillet which is studded with pearl beads and coral ornaments. The priests are allowed to shave their heads; otherwise the men wear the Mongolian queue, cutting the Lair short except on the crown of the head. Many of the wealthier THE HOLY SEA. 349 Buriats live in houses, which exhibit a curious mixture of modern civiHza- tion and ancient savagery. There is the hole dug in the ground for the fireplace, with fine mats and cushions arranged around it for'sleeping, and a piece of unique Russian furniture pushed up against the walL The huts of the poorer classes are some twen-ty feet in diameter, being made of a lieht framework covered with leather in summer and with thick felt in winter Tn certain lines of work the Buriats are considered by the Russians more skillful than the Europeans. They make a tinder bag of velvet, to which are attached finely-tempered plates of steel, which is considered superior to those imported from Europe. Their riding furniture is also beautifully ornamented with inlaid plates of iron, copper and silver ; while their silver pipes, adorned with reliefs and inlaid with pink coral, would do credit to any workman. THE HOLY SEA. Lake Baikal, which is the center of the Buriat's country, is called by the natives the Holy Sea ; and it no doubt received this appellation when Shamanism held a tight rein over them. Many stories are told of its wonders : how it has no bottom, and how no one has ever sunk into its holy depths, for when a person is drowned his body is always cast upon its shores. It abounds in fish, but not of the common sort. There is one, called the golomain, which is never caught by man ; but when the tempests rage — and Lake Baikal is truly tempestuous — it is thrown upon its shores, and at the first approach of the sun's rays it melts into oil, leaving only the skeleton and the skin. Although Lake Baikal is the largest fresh-water lake in the Eastern Continent, in it are found and killed thousands of the ocean seal. Its shores in many places are precipitous and wild. Steep cliffs rise from the water's edge a thousand feet and pitch another thousand into its clear depths. Gaping ravines run down to its shores, filled with great masses of lava, and hot springs gush from the mountain sides as if to warm its cold bosom. It imprisons many rivers; only one escapes — the An- gora — and that with such impetuosity that its outward current is never stayed by the icy clutch of the most rigorous Siberian winter ; when the lake and all adjacent waters are locked fast in six feet of ice, the wild duck is floating upon its rapids. Beyond is a gloomy succession of sandstone cliffs and forests of pine, stationed along the river on either side in solid phalanx. Soon the valley becomes wider, and the cliffs grow into mount- ains, and the forests get blacker, and the waters of the river gather 350 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. themselves and bound along in mightier torrents. Just as they are about to shoot and seethe down a steep incline, four miles in length, they are met midway by a mighty mass of rock — the Shaman Kamen, or Spirit's Stone. Full half a mile from either shore, with his hands tied fast, the victim of Shaman superstition was tossed into the waters which foamed around its base, and as his cries were lost in the river's bed, the deluded Buriats turned away from its overhanging heights, satisfied that the anger of some evil god had been fully appeased. THE YAKUTS. Along the Lena River from its source to its mouth, and for a great dis- tance both east and west, are the Yakuts, most of whom have been made members of the Greek church by a ukase of the Czar of Russia. Strange as it may seem to thus attempt to adopt a people' into the body of a church by autocratic action, the attempt was a success, insomuch as the Yakuts as a people abandoned the gross forms of idolatry which had been their portion for generations. Human sacrifice had even been common among them, and it was also customary for them to bury the favorites of a great man, alive with him, that he might have as good service here- after as in this life. But these horrors are now abandoned, although a belief in Shamanism still exists amonor some of them. A horse-hair attached to the bough of a forest tree in the days of the old dispensation, was thought to be a sure charm against bad spirits, and these evi- dences of the old faith are occasionally seen even now. A HORSE-EATING PEOPLE. The horse, in fact, is as much their mainstay as the cow is with the Caff re of Africa, or the reindeer with many of the Hyperboreans, Though they have large herds of cattle, they use them more for riding than for food, while the horse is most prized as a meat creature. The strongest evidence which can be given a newly-made husband that his bride will be acceptable during their future life, is for her to present him at the wedding feast with a horse's head, nicely boiled and garnished with horse sausage. So fond are they, in fact, of equine flesh, it is an ancient saying that four Yakuts will eat a horse ; and yet they have the same feelinor for their domesticated beasts as other tribes have for the tame reindeer. Not understanding this distinction, a European who was travel- ing with a party of them, finding their stock of provisions reduced to a few cranberries and nuts, suggested that they kill one of their horses. YAKUT MANUFACTURERS. 35 I The Yakuts replied that they never so far forgot themselves, until no morsel of food had passed their lips for five whole days. They are often seen with their arms around their horses' necks, embracing them as if they were human beings ; but while journeying they keep them on such slender rations as to appear to have no regard for them. They explain this treatment on the theory that they are more animated and really stronger when given just enough to keep them from starving ; at least, that this treatment is far preferable to a generous diet. Should one of their horses be injured on the journey so as to become permanently use- less, however, they throw aside their girdles and proceed to the feast. When unable to obtain the fiour which the Russian merchants barter for their furs, they peel the bark from the fir or larch tree, and taking the inner portion pound it in a mortar, mixing the "meal " with milkordried fish. Melted butter is also drunk in enormous quantities, often prepared in such a way as to produce intoxication. Potatoes, turnips and cab- bages form about the entire vegetable diet of the Yakut, and the cultiva- tion of these articles is almost confined to Yakutsk and vicinity. The Yakuts prize the milk they obtain from mares much more highly than cow's milk, and, in truth, it is said to be far more nourishing. From this milk they make a fermented drink which is highly intoxicat- ing. At certain seasons when the milk can be obtained in abundance, they indulge in a regular jubilee, draining huge bowls of the stufi^, while the weaker sex look jealously on, or smoke themselves into a state of semi-consciousness. This drink is called "aruigui," or milk brandy — the same word which is in use by the Turkish Tartars. Their words for the Deity, for their fishing gear, for iron and many other things, are also Turkish, which, in addition to traditions of a southern origin which are common among them, make it quite probable that they were driven north by their fierce Tartar neighbors. In short, their language has so much of the Turkish element in it that it can be generally understood in Constantinople. These facts bearing upon their apparent origin, coupled to their good-nature and mild disposition, seem to license the Russian to take every possible advantage of them and domineer over them to his heart's content. YAKUT MANUFACTURES. Notwithstanding their lack of independence the Yakuts are, undoubtedly, the most thrifty and industrious of all the nations of Northern Asia. They make beautiful ornamental work out of' deer- skins, sewing into them the most intricate and tasteful figures. The felt floor-cloths which they make up into mosaic patterns are so skill- 352 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. fully manufactured that the Russians purchase them to send into Europe. They are also noted as workers of iron, and the steel blades which they manufacture are so finely tempered that they will cut through copper or pewter as easily as the best European blades. The handles of their knives are ornamented with figures, which are first cut into the wood and then filled with tin. The sheaths are of birch-bark, covered with leather on which are also metallic ornaments. It is quite certain that these arts were not learned from the Russians, but rather from the nomads of the steppes and mountains. The Yakuts have the low stature and the complexion common to the Mongolian; but, unlike either Mongols or Tartars of pure blood, some of their women are quite pretty. When riding his ox or horse the Yakut wears a yellow leather robe. His water-proof boots are made of horse skin, steeped in sour milk, smoked and thoroughly rubbed with fat and fine soot. The sole is made from the same leather, and the point of the toe turns upward. These boots, which are greatly prized by the Russians, are called " torbosas,'' and form a not unimportant source of the Yakut's revenue. When the Yakut is at home he lives in a " yurt," with a flat roof through which is cut a smoke hole. His fire-hearth, opposite the low door, is made or clay raised above the floor. The wooden walls of his hut are also cov- ered with a thick layer of clay. Round the sides of the room the floor is elevated for a width of six feet or more ; here the Yakut sleeps and works at his various occupations. Those who are not employed are sit. ting on rude stools before the fire, and although they thoroughly enjoy that occupation, they are very hospitable, and are not loth to give up their seats to the stranger or friend who comes in from without. The furnishings of an average yurt consist of these stools, an iron pot in the fire-place, a few skins to sleep on, and any quantity of fishing-gear. A half a dozen dogs or more complete the picture. The industrious habits of the Yakuts make them more retiring than' most of the tribes of Siberia, and they do not rove for the mere love of moving about, but only to find pasturage for their horses and cattle. Those who live in the reo^ions of the far north have neither of these animals to depend upon, and are obliged to hunt and fish in order to exist, using their great packs of dogs to drag them to and fro. THE YAKUTS' CITY. The province of Yakutsk, to which these people give the name, is as large as half of Europe, and its capital (which also goes by that name) THE YAKUTS CITY, 353 they proudly call the city of the Yakuts. In their city are the govern- ment buildings, the Avooden houses of the Russians, and their own winter huts, which are more metropolitan than those already described. The temperature at Yakutsk takes freaks occasionally of dropping to 60 degrees or 70 degrees below zero, and these are the times when the Yakuts' houses of ice come into good service. They are thus described by an eye-witness : The winter dwellings of the people have doors of rawhides, and log or wicker walls calked with manure and flanked with banks of earth to the heieht of the windows. The latter are made of sheets of ice, kept in their place from the out- side by a slanting pole, the lower end of which is fixed in the ground. They are rendered air-tight by pouring on water, which quickly freezes round the edges. The flat roof is covered with earth, and over the door, facing the east, the boards project, making a covered place in front. Under the same roof are the winter shelters for the cows. The fire-place consists of a wicker frame plastered over with clay,, room being left for a man to pass between the fire-place and the wall. The hearth is made of beaten earth, and on it there is at all times a blaz- ing fire of larchwoodlogs. Young 'calves are often brought into the -^' house to the fire, while their moth- ers cast a contented look throueh the open door at the back of the fire-place. Behind the fire-place, too, are the sleeping places of the people, which in the poorer dwellings consist only of a continuation of the straw laid in the cow-house. The summer huts of the town natives are formed of poles about twenty feet long, which are united at the top into a roomy cone, covered with pieces of bright yellow birch-bark, which are not only joined together, but handsomely worked along the seams with horse-hair thread. Yakutsk has the questionable honor of being the coldest town in the universe. In the winter the earth freezes to the depth of fifty feet. And yet in what, in a temperate climate, would be considered the sever- est weather, the Yakut women will go about the streets with bare arms. A tourist says that one day when the thermometer stood at 9 degrees, he 23 A YAKUT WOMAN. 354 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. "found the children of both sexes running about quite naked, not only in the houses but in the open air. In fact, the great cold is not thought a grievance in Siberia, for a man clothed in furs may sleep at night in an open sledge when the mercury freezes in the thermometer ; and, wrapped up in his pelisse, he can lie without inconvenience on the snow, under a thin tent, when the temperature of the air is thirty degrees below zero." FALLEN STARS. Roaming along the shores of the Arctic Ocean far to the north of the metropolitan Yakuts, is a degraded tribe called the Yakughirs. They have a legend which says that at one time their hearths on the banks of the Kolima River were more numerous than the stars in the heavens, but now they are reduced to a few hundred. On the banks of other rivers which water their ancient territory are great burial mounds, from which have been dug corpses armed with bows, arrows and spears ; so that, in contrast with their present weakness, the above hyperbole is allowed when dwelling upon their former greatness. During the spring and autumn, clouds of gnats and mosquitoes drive the reindeer from the woods into the streams of the Yakughirs' country. Now is the time for them to issue forth and prove their ancient prowess, as well as to reap a harvest of food and clothing. Concealing themselves in their canoes on both sides of the stream, they await the approach of the reindeer squads, each headed by an antlered chief. When the pestered brutes have fairly taken to the water, the Yukaghir warriors unmask their batteries of long spears, and, cutting off escape from either shore, slaughter them by the hundreds. What portion of the animals they do not use for food, clothing and shelter they dispose of to traveling merchants or at district fairs for tobacco and brandy. Men, women and children smoke and drink, THE TUNGOOSES. Between the Yenesei and the Lena rivers in the north, and along the northern slopes of the Alta Mountains to the Sea of Okhotsk, in the south, dwell the Tungooses. They may be said to occupy most of South- eastern Siberia. Of the tribes of Siberia they are among the most inde- pendent and hardy, and for centuries gave China no end of trouble ; a branch of their race, in fact, are rulers of that great empire. A thousand years before Christ's time these people, whom the Chinese called Tung- hoo (Eastern barbarians), were living in the forests and mountains north of the Celestial Empire, feeding and eating their swine ; greasing THEIR FOREFATHERS. 355 their bodies in winter, the better to repel the severe cold ; in summer going virtually naked ; covering themselves with hogs' skins when forced to wear a little clothing ; dwelling in subterranean caverns, deep or shallow, according to the standing of the dweller as a member of the tribe ; stamping with their feet upon the meat to make it tender, and sitting upon it to thaw it out ; burying their dead at once, and sacrificing a hog to the manes ; or using the corpses as a bait for martens, thus gathering many soft and beautiful furs — a terror to their savage neighbors, and a menace even to the Empire of China. But for more than a millen- nium the barbarians and the Celestials had intercourse with each other, the Tungooses .sending, now and then, tributes of arrow heads, bows, cuirasses and marten skins as evidences of their friendship and depend- ency. China was busy gathering into her embrace the Mongols and Tartars who surrounded her, and about twelve hundred years ago suc- ceeded in unitinof the hordes or tribes of her barbarous neiofhbor into one nation. But it afterwards slipped from her control, and as an inde- pendent kingdom, extended its sway over part of Corea. Now subject to China, now to Kussia now independent, the Tungooses got so that they could read, fatten cattle, work in iron, build fortified cities, cultivate silk and hemp, and continued industriously in the ways of war. THEIR FOREFATHERS. The northern tribes, however, from whom most of the Tungooses of the present are descended, continued in their savage ways, and never were incorporated into the Mantchoos of the Chinese Empire. They were ten days to the north of their more civilized brethern, and lived in an excessively cold country. In the winter they retired to the caves of the mountains. Those who could not raise swine, on account of the severity of their climate, lived by fishing and dressed in fish skins. Many of the characteristics of these diverse tribes are seen in the Tungooses, as they are now found in Southeastern Siberia. As we have stated, they are very independent, and although many of them have been brought into the pale of the Greek Church and pay a willing tribute of furs to the Russian Government, they cannot be driven, even by an overbearing Cossack official. They are brave and robust, fine archers and excellent horsemen ; of good form and agile, with small well-formed noses, thin beard, black hair and an agreeable expression of countenance. Their senses are wonderfully acute and their memory for the natural objects they meet in their wanderings, is truly wonderful. It is said that they will minutely describe these through a journey of a hundred miles, so as to point out the road. Like the 356 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Indian, they follow game by the slightest marks left upon the moss, grass or leaves. Over nearly a third of Siberia, they pitch their rein- deer tents, both riding the deer and using him as a pack animal ; travel- ing over such a vast expanse of country, their memory must constantly be in exercise. There are settled rearers of cattle among the Tungooses, but as a race they are nomads. Some prefer to wander in the forests and sel- dom venture upon the treeless wastes ; they are called Forest Tun- gooses. Those who choose the opposite life are known as Tungooses of the steppes, and are divided, according to the animals of draught they employ, into the Reindeer, the Horse and Dog Tungooses. When dressed for a journey, they do not differ greatly in appearance from other fur-clad Siberians, except that their fur hood, which often hangs loose from the neck, is apt to be of quite an artistic pattern — made of the legs of red, black and silver-grey foxes, sewed together in alternate stripes and bordered with sable, beaver or otter. They cut their hair short, with the excption of a lone lock on either side, of which the )Oung are very proud. THE NATIVE HUNTSMAN. When the household provisions are exhausted, the Tungoose points out to his wife the direction of his journey, and their ultimate camping place. This may be scores of miles across the dreary steppes. But" they have every foot of the country mapped in their minds. So shouldering his clumsy Siberian rifle, and calling his dog, he leaves his better half to pack the tent, the property and the children on the reindeers' back. Arriving at the proposed camping place, the wife pitches the tent and awaits the return of her husband. The man has donned his birchwood snow shoes and entered a forest. Taking his hand for a moment from his fur glove, the hunter runs it into a deer track in the snow, and decid- ing that the animal has lately passed, proceeds cautiously on his way, restraining his too eager and obtrusive dog. Arriving at length to an opening in the forest, he cautiously peers through the branches of a tree, and sees a noble animal with its head' down, scarping the snow from the litchens with its long horn, or tearing up the crust with its feet A TUNGOOSE. MOUNTING THE REINDEER. 357 and rooting around in the soft snow, underneath, Hke a pig. It is a welcome sight to our Tungoose, and silently breaking two forked sticks from the tree, he places his weapon, upon the rest, and waiting until the animal presents a fair mark, speeds his tiny bullet to a vital spot. Though the wild reindeer is a standard article of food among the Tungooses, the tame reindeer is never killed except under the severest stress of circumstances. The rule is that the native must go at least eight days without food, before he can slaughter his household god. And though he should be starving he would long hesitate before he laid violent hands upon another's property ; for if the Tungoose be convicted of theft or robbery, he is an outcast from the race. MOUNTING THE REINDEER. When the Tungoose uses his reindeer foi riding, he is obliged to be very careful how he mounts his steed, which has very strong shoulders and a remarkably weak back. Whether the deer is a pack animal or a riding one, the saddle is always placed close to the neck, and girthed from the back part just behind the fore-legs of the steed. The saddle is nothing but a flat cushion, bent upwards behind so that the rider will not slip down upon the Aveak back of the reindeer. The rider takes a pole about five feet long, and holding the bridle in his right hand and the staff in the other, he places his left foot in the saddle, and vaults into it from the right side of the animal. Whether man or womsin, the rider is obliged to mount in this fashion, for should an attempt be made to get into the saddle by using the shoulder as a support — which is the only part of the reindeer capable of bearing a weight — the unavoidable jerk Avill displace the whole apparatus. Without doubt, the Tungoose has studied the subject in all its bearings, and hit upon the only possible way of mounting a reindeer without breaking its back. Once mounted, an equilibrium is maintained (to sa)' nothing of grace) by keeping the heels in motion, like two trip-hammers, behind the animal's shoulders ; the mounting staff also being used as a balancing pole. TRAPPING AND EATING. When the Tungooses set out upon a trapping excursion, they often leave their families hundreds of miles away. Each man harnesses him- self to a light sled, upon which he places his provisions, and scant baggage. After the company have built a )'urt, each man starts out to set his traps, and dig pit-falls in the frozen earth. These are visited daily, and within a couple of months, foxes, squirrels, sables, beavers, 358 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. wolves and bears have all become a prey to their ingenuity. An ingen- ious method of capturing the bear is to fasten a wooden platform, covered with barbed iron spikes, to a tree, placing at the farther end a piece of meat. The trap is placed so high from the ground that the bear is obliged to stand on his hind legs to reach even its middle, to say nothing of the tempting piece of meat beyond. But the animal is sure to make the attempt, and to become so impaled that he is easily killed by the huntsman. The season being over the party disperses, the provident going to one of the numerous town fairs which are being held, and bartering the skins for food, weapons of the chase or other necessaries. The improvi- dent, who perhaps will be in the majority, end their season of hardship and danger by days of carousal and brandy-drinking, and return home as empty-handed as when they left, with the exception, it may be, of a goodly supply of meat which they and their families immediately pro- ceed to devour en masse. The quantities of food which these natives will devour at a sitting is almost incred- ible. Equally re- markable is the ^2 length of time HUNTERS OF SIBERIA. during which they will go without a mouthful. A moderate meal of three healthy Tungooses is thus enumerated by a veracious traveler: A gallon kettle of hot tea ; a four-quart pailful of boiled fish and soup ; the same pail twice filled with boiled beef — all eaten and bones eagerly cracked ; the pail again filled with a native mash and also emptied ; an unmentionable quantity of dried fish, skin and all. The traveler then records the fact that the arrival of others made it necessary for his dainty friends to betake themselves to a camp-fire outside his tent, and that the last he heard of them they were busy preparing other food, and loudly cracking other beef bones to get at the marrow. If they are able to keep awake after such a meal, one of their number is likely to bring forth a greasy pack of cards, or a chess board — evidences of both AMOOR RIVER PEOPLE. 359 Russian and Chinese civilization — and if they can find sufficient shelter, they will play far into the night, their hearty laughter being interspersed with strong puffs from their pipes of tobacco. Both men and women are passionately fond of the weed. AMOOR RIVER PEOPLE. Allied to the Tungooses are the Lamuts, Monzhurs and Gilyaks of the Amoor River, whose principal prey is the rich salmon and the beautiful sable. The most striking feature of their physiognomy are their cheek-bones, which sometimes protrude to such an extent as to hide the remainder of the face, when viewed in profile. In their excur- sions up and down the river in their light, carved canoes, the women do the paddling, and, of course, do it gracefully and well. The man sits in the stern, guiding the craft and dreamily smoking his long- stemmed pipe. Literally speaking, he treats his dog with more tender- ness than his wife ; the former he considers a sacred animal, uses him with consideration during his lifetime, and knows, after he himself dies, that his favorite dog will be sacrificed, and his own soul released from the body of the brute. On the other hand, upon his wife he shifts all the burdens, and when she is about to give birth to their child, she is thrust out of his hut, and left, for months, to herself and her fate. Winter's snows or blasts have no effect in relaxing the hideous severity of this custom, and it is made the more unpardonable from the fact that all are forbidden (by whom, the people do not pretend to know) to furnish the unfortunate woman any shelter or assistance. However it comes about, it is nevertheless true that both children and adults seem weather-proof, and go roaming about barefooted in a temperature which would make any other people wrap their furs about them. THE KAMTCHATDALES. The entire peninsula of Kamtchatka, 100,000 square miles in area, was at one time inhabited by this tribe ; but disease, intemperance, Rus- sian oppression and suicide are fast placing them in the category of extinct races. They have the Mongolian features, with the flat face of the Tartar. The climate of the peninsula is quite severe for nine months of the year, although the temperature is seldom what could be called Arctic, since twenty degrees or twenty-five degrees below zero is an unusual fall of the mercury. Along the Kamtchatka River the soil is fertile, and the Russian settlers here raise oats, barley, rye, potatoes and garden vegetables ; 360 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. no tea and sugar have been introduced by the Russians. Bread is now- made of rye, which the Kamtchatdales raise and grind for themselves ; but previous to the settlement of the country by the Russians, the only native substitute for bread was a baked dough made from the grated tubers of the purple lily. Wild cherries, blueberries and cranberries are picked in the fall, and frozen for winter consumption. A dish com- posed of sour milk, baked curds and sweet cream, covered with pow- dered sugar and cinnamon, is worthy of a place on an American table. In every river and lake in the peninsula are myriads of ducks, geese and swan, which are driven by organized squads of men into some narrow stream, across which is spread a net. Into this they rush, helter-skelter, where they are killed with clubs, and cleaned and salted for winter use. A KAMTCHATDALE VILLAGE. Unlike the Koriaks, who live to the north of them, the Kamtchat- dales have fixed habitations and live principally b)^ fishing. Their villages are few in number and widely scattered, whilst their only means of transport are dog-sleds, pack-horses or canoes, the country being absolutely without a road throughout its 800 miles of length, and 250 miles of breadth. These settlements are usually situated on an eleva-, tion near some river or stream, surrounded by scattered clumps of poplar and yellow birch, and protected by high hills from the cold northern Avinds. Here and there, between the log houses are the conical struct- ures, elevated out of the reach of the dogs' noses, and used for storing the fish ; while sprinkled around indiscriminately are the square frames of horizontal poles, in which salmon are piled and drying. Half a dozen canoes, turned bottom upward, and covered with fish nets, on the beach ; dog sledges leaning against every house, the canines them- selves tied to heavy poles and snapping viciously at flies and mosquitoes ; a domed and gaudily painted Greek church in the very center of these fishy odors and fishy things — this is the general mould into w^hich all the native villages of Kamtchatka are run. Until recently the inhabitants supported themselves almost entirely on the products of the chase, but since animals partially disappeared, and the people have declined in vigor, they devote most of their atten- tion to the milder amusement of catching herrings, cod and salmon. They depend mainly for subsistence upon the salmon, Avhich every sum- mer run into the rivers of the North to spawn, when they are speared, caught in seines, and trapped in weirs by the millions. These fish, which are dried in the open air, are the staple article of food for the Kamtchatdale and his dog. A KAMTCHATDALE VILLAGE, ?6i The mean annual temperature on the eastern coast of the peninsula IS twenty-eight degrees, and on the western forty-three degrees, the average temperature of summer on the eastern coast being fifty-live degrees, and that of winter .nineteen degrees. As a result of this not disagreeable division of summer and winter temperature, the natives have changes of clothing and of dwellings. In winter they dress in fur and wear nankeen in summer; while in cold weather they live in very low or subterranean cabins and in summer raise their huts on poles some thirteen feet from the ground. The roofs are covered with a rough thatch of long coarse grass, or with overlapping strips of tamarack bark, and project at the ends and sides into wide overhanging eaves. The SIBERIAN DOG SLEDGE. window frames, although occasionally glazed, are more frequently covered with an irregular patchwork of translucent fish bladders, sewn together with thread made of the dried and pounded sinews of the rein- deer. The chimneys are long, straight poles, arranged in a circle and plastered over thickly with clay. It is the natives of Northern Kamtchatka who have the "zininia," or winter settlement, composed of low, sheltered houses away from the coast, in which they reside from September to June; and the "letova," or summer fishing station, located near the mouth of the river or stream, and consisting of the elevated huts to which they remove in June, and around which, in the salmon season, the usually inert natives ply their 362 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. avocations with actual vigor. Here the fish are plump, fat and hard, while those who ascend nearer the source of the stream, sometimes working their way in water which scarcely covers them, are lean, dry and almost colorless ; and further on, propelled* by their destructive instinct they choke the streams and rivulets with their decaying bodies. As a rule, the natives live a peaceable, lazy life, being nominally governed by their own chiefs, who are under the jurisdiction of a Russian commissary. The chief duty of this official is to collect the small annual tribute of furs which is due the imperial government A lofty range of volcanic mountains traverses the country in a southwesterly direction, and earthquakes are frequent and violent. The Kamtchatdales have reason to stand in dread of these internal forces, and therefore sacrifice dogs to the evil spirits of the mountains. They believe in the immortality not only of man but of all creatures; that crimes punished in this world are passed over in the next ; that in the hereafter the rich are to become poor and the poor rich ; that Katchu, the Creator, left heaven after he had made the earth, and came to Kamtchatka, where his son and daughter married, and became the parents of offspring. These Divine children clothed themselves with the leaves of trees and fed upon bark. The son of Katchu invented nets, and took to fishing to meet the wants of a rapidly increasing family. Of all these gods the pagans have idols, although as a people they profess to be members of the Greek Church. THE TRUE HYPERBOREANS. In the Tchuktchis and the Koriaks, who hold the extreme north- eastern regions of Siberia against all efforts of the Russians either to subdue or dislodge them, we .find the vanguard of that people who are scattered alono- the Asiatic and North American coasts for a distance of nearly six thousand miles, the most widely extended nation in the world. The Asiatic tribes appear to have in their constitutions far more of the fierce blood of Tartary than the kindred people across the strait, and it requires no great stretch of the imagination to understand how, from their ancestors might have sprung the fathers of the North Ameri- can savage, who wandered down the coast of the Western Continent and spread themselves throughout the vast expanse of their adopted country. Ethnologists have even attempted to trace a similarity in some of their present customs with those of the North American Indian, instanc- ing their remarkable proficiency in the use of the bow and arrow (com- mon also to the ancient Tungooses); the shaving of the head, punctur- EACH MAN HIS 0\VN MASTER. 363 ing of the body and the wearing of huge earrings. They are tall, vigorous and athletic, and their lower limbs are not so short as those of the North American Esquimaux. Impatient of restraint, bold and self- reliant, they wander over their country's wilds with their great herds of reindeer ; now stopping to give them welcome pasturage and pitching WINTER AND SUMMER HUTS. their circular tents on the steppes ; now braving the howling storm form the Arctic seas, and the famished Arctic wolves who furiously cast their shadowy forms into the midst of their terrified herds ; or creeping into their tents, covered with reindeer skins fastened together with lono- thongs of seal or walrus hide, they crawl into their pologs, or tightly- sewed compartments, and breathing the fumes from the flaming moss and oil of their wooden lamps and from the large fire which is throwing forth as much smoke as heat, they enjoy the howling winds outside, and proceed to sleep the hours away. EACH MAN HIS OWN MASTER. So far as can be learned, these people have no laws, no institutions, no acknowledged leaders. They sometimes club together for mutual protection and convenience and are temporarily guided, as to their route of travel, by an esteemed member of the community, but if they are unable to agree, the company breaks up and each man, taking his wives, 364 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. reindeer and baggages pursues his separate way. Each man among them is as good as another. Rank or caste is unknown, and the ingenious Shaman is put to his best tricks to overawe them. Akhough they sacrifice dogs, they have few superstitions compared to the majority of the pagan tribes of Siberia. One of their most singular customs, or superstitions — or call it v/hat you will — is that which makes it an actual impossibility to obtain from them a live reindeer. They .a,Eft passionately ipnd of liquor, especially of that produced from a species of toad-stool and called muk-a-mur. The natives can not cultivate it themselves, as the growth of the fungus requires a greater shade of timber than can be afforded by their barren steppes, and as its effects are so shattering to the system that its sale is made a penal offense by even Russian law, they find it very difificult to obtain the muk-a-mur. But for neither this drink nor for quantities of tobacco, of which also they are great lovers, was a Koriak or a Tchuktchis ever known to exchange a live reindeer ; once killed, however, the most insignificant trinket will tempt him. This feeling is on a par with that which is evinced by the Tungoose, further south, who would almost starve to death rather than kill a tame reindeer for food. The people who are settled along the shores of the ocean support themselves chiefly by killing whales, seals and walruses. As to their amusements they are TCHUKTCHIS CHILDREN. ' narrowcd down to trials of skill with the bow and arrow, wrestling bouts and marriages. The young Koriak who has soft designs upon a maiden must serve her father a number of years, chopping the gnarled cedar from the frozen ground and cutting it into firewood, watching his herds of reindeer, making sledges, hunting and doing anything to make life more easy and pros- perous for the head of the family. Then he is summoned to learn his fate and undergo a barbarous ordeal. He and his intended are brought to a large tent containing many apartments, or pologs, ranged round it inside. In the center is a fire, around which are a number of men and women who are busily engaged over such delicacies as marrow, frozen tallow, etc., and in a lively discussion of the probable outcome of the trial. They cease their eating, drinking and jabbering, at the regular EACH MAN HIS OWN MASTER. 365 beating of a large bass drum, and the tall master of ceremonies enters, with an armful of willow switches which he proceeds to distribute in all. the pologs. The music continues, it being varied by a wild chant sung by the drummer, when the curtains of the pologs are thrown up and the women divide their forces so as to guard the entrance of each. The musician now redoubles his exertions, and the men, who remain around the fire, take up the chant and work themselves into a state of wild excitement over whatever is to come. The master of ceremonies gives a signal, and the girl, who is the center of attraction, raises the curtain of the first polog and passes in ;. reappears almost immediately, and raises the curtain of the next, and so on around the tent, working in and out like an angleworm. But the eager young Koriak does not have so easy a passage around, for the women who have been stationed at the curtain of the pologs do every- thing they can to impede his progress— tripping him up and smothering him in the curtains and beating him with the switches. The drum is booming, the men are shouting, and the women screaming, as the dark- faced girl dashes round the tent followed by her luckless wio-ht. She at last brings up in the last polog and all eyes are strained to see if she lifts the curtain and emerges, for if she does, that poor youno- man is. a discarded lover. But all is still as he plunges madly on, and aniid shouts of laughter and applause rejoins his bride, breathless but happy. If, in generations to come, the descendants of this young Koriak couple, or the children of those Tchuktchis children should be found in. North America, their personal appearance will be found to be similar,, although they will have acquired many habits and beliefs which develop- from climate, experience, soil, mountains, seas — in fact, from anvthincr capable of producing a strong impression upon an ignorant but observino- nature. They will retain faint memories of their Asiatic origin, which, as they descend from father to son and from mother to dauo-hter and become weakened as they spread from tribe to tribe, will be desio-nated by the more lofty title of tradition. Singular to relate, this is what has actually happened. The tradi- tions of all the great American tribes of Indians, such as the Iroquois, the Algonquins and the Ghoctaws point to an Asiatic orio-in. Amoncr the Hyperboreans of Asia there are several tribes, now nearly extinct, which have quite disappeared from history, leaving behind only mounds of earth along the banks of Siberian rivers, in which are buried the bows, arrows and spears of the lost peoples. Pressed north and east by hordes of Tartars and Mongols, who in turn were crowded on by more powerful tribes, the Arctics were crushed into the extremity of 566 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the continent, and there was nothing for them to do but to venture across the strait and see what lay beyond. They crossed the Rubicon and henceforth were known as Americans, whether Esquimaux or Indians. They swarmed over the northern coasts, around Hudson Bay, Labrador and the Gulf of St, Lawrence, and down the western coast of British America into the interior. Ere long- the two waves met; the straight, tall, athletic warriors, with their generally regular features, having passed to the south, met the broad-shouldered, massive and slow people from the north and drove them back into the icy regions. Thus the Algonquins pressed back the Esquimaux and the Dakotas, or "men of the salt water." But, as the novelists say, we anticipate. We have crossed the strait when we merely should have reached it. S ^^B S ^ItS^M^ /■^^l4^^^^^^^^^Kl1 jTr^jjC-ii^ftS'^ '^t- ^M^^^^-'^^^^'-^^^I^^^^wy^^J ^^tVy^ t'^^^ i^ THE ESQUIMAUX. |HE Hyperboreans of the Western Continent were given a name by the Algonquins, that great tribe of British-American Indians who disputed with them the country around the Gulf of St. Lawrence and finally expelled them. By them the Esquimaux were known as eaters of raw meat and fish ; hence the name Esquimaux, or raw eaters. They call them- selves Innuit, or men, and are divided into Greenlanders, Labrador Esquimaux, the Iglulik or central, the Western, and the Tchuktchis in Asia. The early Scandinavians called them Skroellingar, or wretches, and they were reconfirmed in their opinion of the Esquimaux Avhen a body of raw-meat eaters came over from Labrador, some time in the fourteenth century, and expelled the Norwegians from Greenland. DOCTORS DISAGREE. Nearly every traveler will differ in his description of the Esquimaux. If he happens to first see them in a boat, with their long bodies (from the waist up) and their broad shoulders, he will always fancy them as above the medium height ; whereas if he catches his first glimpse of them on the land, done up in their great furs and waddling toward him, or rolling along on their short legs, he pronounces them to be, as to size, about on a par with the diminutive Lapps. The truth is they are of medium height, and might be above it if they did not squat so much in their low ice houses, or sit cramped in their long canoes and sledges, and thus retard the growth of their legs. There are as many disagreements about their color as in regard to their size. Some say their skin is brown, others say it is copper-colored, others that it is of a bluish tinge, and others still that their bodies are dark gray and their faces brown or blue. A close investigation into their filthy habits has led more than one authority to insist that the Esquimau, when in a state of nature, is nearly white ; that the child is as white as others ; but eating and handling grease and living in smok)i 367 368 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. huts, without knowing the use of water as a cleansing agent, are calcu- lated to give the skin a variety of shades. Notwithstanding this differ- ence of opinion as to what is the complexion of the true Esquimaux, there are probably no people in the world who have so little intermixed with other races and whose features and general physique, as well as language, is s,o uniform. One interpreter who can speak the language can guide a traveler from Alaska to Labrador, and from Labrador to Greenland, holding communication with all the tribes, and always find- ing them with broad egg-shaped faces, and arched cheek-bones with few angular projections, even though the face is furrowed and weather- beaten. The other distinctive features of the face have been thus given : " The greatest breadth of the face is just below the eyes; the forehead tapers upwards ending narrowly but not acutely, and in a like manner the chin is a blunt cone ; both the forehead and the chin recede, the egg outline showing in profile, though not so strongly as in front view. The nose is broad and depressed, but not in all, some individuals having prominent noses ; yet almost all have wider nostrils than the Europeans. The eyes have small and oblique apertures like the Chinese, and from fre- quent attacks of ophthalmia and the effects of camp smoke in their winter habitations, adults of both sexes are disfigured by excorated or ulcerated eyelids. The sight of these people is, from its constant exer- cise, extremely keen, and the habit of bringing the eyelids nearly together when looking at distant objects has in all the grown males produced a striking cluster of furrows radiating from the outer corner of each eye over the temple." An Esquimau infant, with its red cheeks and comparatively regu- lar features, could easily be mistaken for a European ; but the sooty smoke of the winter hut, the atmosphere close and hot, alternating with Arctic blasts when the family move off on a hunting or fishing excursion,, and the blinding rays of a spring sun, soon spoil the red cheeks and the presentable complexion, and as youth or maiden the Esquimaux face and figure are early fixed. If it is a boy his constant exercise in hunt- ing the seal and walrus give him when quite young a powerful set of arm, back and shoulder muscles. AN ESQUIMAUX COSTUME. The outer dress of the natives, both male and female, consists of breeches which come below the knees with a long-sleeved jacket, and a. hood with a hole in the middle, but no side openings. The winter gar- ments are usually of seal-skin, the summer ones of reindeer — although AN ESQUIMAUX COSTUME. 369 all kinds of fur are used. Sometimes even the skins of birds and fishes furnish the material, and the Polar hare skins are employed for orna- ments. The white fur of the deer may even border the hood, so that when it it drawn up over the head the contrast makes the native look like a very unangelic figure going around with a halo. Both sexes also wear boots which come up over the hips and are water tight. The distinction to be made in the costumes of male and female is '^H'^'-'^^- AN ESQUIMAUX GROUP. one purely of quantity. The woman's hood is large, because she uses it for her infant's cradle ; while her boots are so constructed, with pockets and pouches, and a large sack near the thigh in which her child may also be safely stowed away, that her limbs look as large and clumsy as elephants' legs. She usually puts them to the ground with the same caution and deliberation as the great-eared beast. When our lady reaches a trading 24 370 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. settlement, the assertion is made that she unloads all superfluous baggage from hood and boot, and frequently departs with trinkets gnd necessi- ties of life which neither she nor her husband thought to pay for- Although the woman is treated more as a chattel than a human being by the man, she is otherwise conscientious in providing for his wants ; she makes all his clothes, being especially skillful in dressing the hair of the reindeer-skin so as to render it soft and pliable. She is also a remarkable needle-woman, and spends the long winter in making fur garments which are both air-tight and water-proof. Knowing her lord's hatred of water, she makes, among other things, a water-tight shirt from the intestines of the whale or the skins of young seals, which he puts on when he launches his canoe and starts on a hunt. Although put in the background as far as social position is con- cerned, and being, furthermore, but one of several wives, she is never- theless allowed a latitude in personal adornment which is denied to the Indian woman ; for while her lord merely cuts his hair on the crown and lets it hang as it will over cheek and neck, she may fashion hers into a large bow on the top of her head, plaiting her side locks, tying them tocrether with strino^s of beads, and allowino' them to hang down in a club-shaped form to the shoulder. Fashions somewhat differ, but there is a general similarity of mode to which the above description will apply. The women also tattoo their faces, and in this line each tribe has its own ideas of beauty, many of the customs reminding one of the abominations practiced upon the human face by the most degraded of the southern tribes in all parts of the world — in Africa as well as South America. In Greenland the women take a fine needle, the thread being smeared with lamp-black, and stitch their faces with beautiful lines ; while west of the Mackenzie River is a tribe whose men cut a hole in each corner of the mouth, which they fill with fancy pieces of bone, stone or metal, sometimes fashioning a combination ornament consisting of a small green pebble neatly set in wood or bone. THE ESQUIMAUX' PRIDE. The Esquimau draws his life from the sea, and is, par excellence, the marine hunter and fisherman of the world. He therefore devotes much of his attention to his boats. These are of two kinds, the kayak, or men's boat, and the umiak, or women's boat. The former is sixteen feet long, the frame being covered with seal or walrus skin, except a hole in the center, and the entire boat fashioned very much like a modern "shell." The whole idea is to provide an entire shelter for the seal hunter, with the exception of the face, and protect him against THE ESQUniAUX BRIDE. 371 the water. The frame of the kayak is built of wood, whalebone or other bone, is flat above and convex in the bottom. No Indian has ever constructed a similar boat, which is roofed, and calculated to ride a stormy sea. In short, being protected himself from the water, the boat- man is fearless as to personal safety, and if he is capsized, rights him- self with his paddle, and proceeds on his way to give battle to the polar bear or the walrus. The umiak is larger and much broader, being regular in shape and built to accommodate ten or twenty persons. It is often furnished with a sail formed of the intestine of the walrus. This is the family boat, or it may be the common property of two families who live in the same house ; in it are therefore sometimes loaded the tent and lamps, pots and wooden dishes, and one or two sledoes with dog's attached. The umiak is so constructed that it floats only a few inches deep, and can be used either as a boat or a sledge. When launched upon the water it is usually propelled by the women, there being benches provided for those who row or paddle. The pride of the Esquimau is in his kayak, his weapons and his sledge. Now as to his weapons. A bladder filled with air is often attached to the harpoon, so that if struck the animal will be retarded in his motions ; or should the hunter miss his aim his weapon will not be lost. When the seal or walrus is struck the Esquimau has so contrived it that the head of the harpoon is bent out of the shaft, and only the head, with the line and bladder, remains attached to the animal. With- out this precaution the animal in its struggles would be likely to break the shaft or make the barbs slip out of the body. The harpoons and lances used in killingr whales or seals have lonor shafts of wood or of the narwhal's tooth, the points of these Aveapons being made of horns and bones of the deer ; or of iron, if the hunter is lucky enough to fish out a piece from a wreck or obtain it by barter. Among the Esquimaux of the Mackenzie River and Alaska region native copper is used, which they also manufacture into ice chisels. The point is so constructed in these spears, also, that it is disengaged from the shaft when the animal is struck, and the latter becomes a floating buoy attached to the head by a string. . The native bow is a most powerful weapon, and, propelled by the strong arm of the Esquimaux, will bring down the great musk ox or break the lea- of a reindeer. The sinews of the ox or deer will furnish the strings to other bows, or be rolled into cords with which to make nets or snares. The weapon itself is formed of three pieces of spruce fir carefully split with the grain, the two end pieces having a curve in the opposite direction to that of the central one. Along the back fifteen or twenty nicely twisted sinews are firmly bound. 372 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. EASY-RUNNING SLEDGES. The sledge of the Esquimaux is made of drift-wood or bone firmly joined with thongs. The bones of the whale are fitted together with neatness and then sewed together by the women, to make the body of the sledge, or a number of salmon are packed together in the form of a cylinder about seven feet lontr, encased in skins taken from canoes and well corded. Two of these cylinders are pressed into the shape of run- ners, and, having been left to freeze, are secured by cross bars made of the legs of the deer or musk ox. The bottom of the runner is then covered with a mixture of moss, earth and water, upon which is depos- ited about half an inch of water, which congeals in the act of applica- tion. These sleds travel more lightly than those shod with iron, but as they cease to be of service when the temperature rises above the freez- ing point, they are taken to pieces, and the fish being eaten, the skins are converted into bags and the bones given to the dogs." This prac- tice of coatinof the runners of the sledsi'es with ice is also common in Siberia, and so anxious are the Esquimaux that the surface shall be quite smooth that in cold winter nights, after the water has been applied, the native will use his naked hand to polish it, viewing the result of his work with as much pride as the greasy apple-vender when he looks upon the shiny cheeks of his fruit. HUNTING AND FISHING. The dwelling of the Esquimaux consists of the summer tents and winter huts. In the months of June, July, August and part of Septem- ber they use their tents, generally adapted for less and rarely more than twenty persons. They are peculiar in shape, being formed of from ten to fourteen poles, with one end raised high and leaning on the frame which forms the entrance, the whole covered over with a double layer of reindeer skins. During the summer the Esquimaux are generally on the move, carrying all their goods with them in the family boat, hunt- ing and fishing as they go. They choose their routes, however, with reference to their objects — whether they wish to hunt reindeer, seals or whales, or to fish or trade. One of the most exciting sports in which the company (or band of five or six families) engage, is hunting the deer, which migrate to the south to escape the blasts of winter. The plan usually is, as the great herds of deer approach, to drive as many as possible upon a narrow neck of land between two bodies of water. Upon the land they are met by huntsmen with their powerful bows and arrows, who drive them into the water where they are received HUNTING AND FISHING. 373 upon the sharp points of the spears wielded by th€ Esquimaux in their kayaks. If more deer are killed than can be consumed, part of the meat is dried and the other portion is left in clefts of rocks out of the reach of wild animals. Should it become tainted before cold weather comes on, it is all the better to the Esquimaux's taste, who eat it raw or after it has been a little cooked. Another delicacy which they greatly enjoy at this season of the year is the half digested lichens, or moss, which they find in the bodies of the dead deer. They also drink the warm blood, and eat the entrails when they have become crisped by the frost. Flocks of geese, salmon, trout and other fish, and berries of half a dozen varieties, are enjoyed during this feasting season. The killing of whales, on the coast, in August and September, must also be undertaken semi- periodically to furnish oil for their lamps and winter feasts. Taking their dogs with them, having built a snow hut at a conve- nient distance, the hunters start out toward the sea in quest of seals or walruses. Their useful brute assistants g-uide them to the breathinsj holes of their victims. Having erected a wall of ice to protect himself from bitter winds, for the winter is yet scarcely passed, the hunter with spear uplifted waits patiently. for the first rise of the air bubble which tells him that the wary seal is coming to the surface. No sooner is its smooth head above water than the weapon flies to a vital spot, the hunter throws a loop of his harpoon line around his body and braces his feet against a notch which has been cut in the ice for that purpose. If all this is done in proper time, well and good ; but if his antagonist happens to be a great walrus, or even a great seal, and he has not planted his feet so that the strain will come upon his body longitudinally he may be dragged into the air-hole and drowned before assistance can arrive, or be thrown across it and have his back broken. Such accidents are not uncommon. The sport of seal hunting is usually attended with little danger. When the sleek animals mount the cakes of ice to bask in the spring sun, they allow the Esquimau to approach them with his awkward, sprawl- ing motions which they take to be their own. ESQUIMAUX AS TRAVELERS. These summer expeditions, however, are not undertaken solely for the purpose of hunting and fishing. The Esquimaux not only take long journeys t5 barter with other tribes, but to points along the coast where Asiatic merchants have established a trade with them. The greatest territory for this species of barter is Alaska, or rather its coast opposite to Asia, such as Kotzebue Sound, Point Barrow and Cape Prince of Wales. To such points as these come from the Asiatic Hyperboreans 174 PANORAMA . OF NATIONS. and merchants iron and copper kettles, women's knives, double-edged knives, dolphin skins, tobacco, arrow heads, guns and ammunition, plumbago, feathers for arrows and head-dresses ; from the East come sledges and boats laden with whale and seal oil, whalebone, walrus tusks, thongs of walrus hide. The Asiatic Tchuktchis, or Esquimaux, find this trade so important that a settlement of 200 people has been formed on a rocky island in Behring's Strait for carrying on the traffic. Upon other adjacent islands, traders have established themselves and have been entrusted by these commercial Hyperboreans with furthering their interests in exchanging tobacco, clothes and other articles, for furs, fossil ivory, etc., collected on the banks of Alaskan rivers. The natives STARTING ON A JOUR^fEY. seem to be pleasure-seekers in their travels, for as they move along from settlement to settlement, several of which are permanent, stops are con- tinually being made, that the parties may combine in a dance or other- wise enjoy themselves. It is not surprising, then, with their passion for barter and their love of travel, that Russian knives should be passed from hut to hut until they are found nearly as far east as Hudson's Bay. WINTER HUTS. Many islands, capes and sounds along the shores of the ocean are therefore almost deserted during the summer months, but the huts are reoccupied in the winter. The winter huts are varied in structure, WINTER HUTS. 375 Generally they are built of stones and turf, the spars and pillars which support the middle of the roof being of wood. Only the Esquimaux of the middle resfions have vaults of snow for their habitations ; whilst the western Esquimaux build their houses chiefly of planks, merely covered on the outside with turf. Some of the very far northern Esquimaux are obliged to use bones or stones instead of wood. The passage leading into the houses is long and very narrow, con- sisting of two inclined planes pitched toward the middle, so that in entering you first go down, then up, which is a double protection against cold draughts. The interior consists of a single apartment, and the sleeping or resting ledge, at the side, is divided into separate portions for the families who occupy the house. Each of these stalls is separ- ated from the other by a low screen, its lamp standing on the floor in front of it. In Greenland these compartments are sometimes divided by skins attached to the posts that support the roof, and each room has a window of dried, transparent seal skin. The snow huts, being circular in form, are, of course, arranged differ- ently. This is also true of the western Esquimaux, who have a cook^ ing place in the center of the floor; while in the hut of wood the passage leading to it has generally a small side room, with a cooking place, and also provision or store houses. More than three or four families seldorn occupy one dwelling. In South Greenland, however, houses have been discovered over sixty feet in length, with accommodation for ten families. FEASTS AND PASTIMES. In the larger settlements, especially among the western Esquimaux the community often unite to build a public hall, the floor and inside, walls being formed of dressed logs. The building, called a Kashim, is larger than a dwelling house and is used for a variety of purposes. Here the men feast and both sexes dance. The able-bodied males of some of the tribes retire to the Kashim at sunset and occupy it as a sleeping apartment, leaving the old men and children with the Shaman (native magician or priest) to sleep in the common huts. The Shaman appears early in the morning and performs his charms, which shall protect the Esquimaux huntsmen and bring them good luck. At the close of the hunting season a grand feast is held, to which the successful hunters liberally contribute. Their great deeds are there lauded, and they appear as heroes indeed. The women are not admitted to these festivi- ties until they have been initiated with certain formalities. The Kashim is not in common use, either, among the Labrador or Greenland Esqui- maux, but the latter know of it by tradition and both they and the 376 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Labrador natives have words for it in their own languages. It is cahed a place of assembly for council, and points to the time when the Esquimaux were a people with quite complex rules of society. When the Esquimaux house is tightly closed for the winter with a slab of ice, and the lamps, fed with whale oil and trimmed with wicks of moss, commence to add their sickening fumes to the emanations from the bodies of a score of people, naked to the waist, and to the odors of rotting skins and putrefying fish, it ceases to be a wonder that the infant grows old very rap- idly. During their long confinement what time is not passed i n eating and sleeping is mostly occupied by the women in mak- ing garments, and by the men in man- ufacturing fish- hooks, spear-heads, knife-handles and in making orna- ments for their ca- noes. They are very ingenious in making the appa- ratus for certain games with which ^ they pass their time and their models of boats, sledges, deer, men, A GREENLAND HOUSE-WIFE. women and chil- dren carved from ivory and walrus tusks are surprisingly accurate The models are cut by continually chopping with a knife, one end of the ivory resting on a soft stone ; after which the figure is pol- ished by being rubbed with a gritty substance, a constant flow of saliva keeping the ivory wet. Human figures thus carved show an intimate knowledge of anatomy. The natives on the coasts of Labrador are said to evince the greatest talent in this accomplishment. There is no evi' dence to prove that they worship these figures, since they barter them as freely as their fish and oil. THEIR CHRISTIANITY. 377 This practice seems to have originated in the ancient cus- tom, when the tribes were continually at war with the Indians and with each other, of sending out artificial animals for the purpose of destroying their enemies. In their old tales we meet with bears and reindeers of this description. Common also was the belief in the " tupilak," composed of various parts of different animals, such as the teeth of the bear and the tusks of the walrus, and which, if smuggled into an enemy's country, were supposed to be particularly dangerous. Even to this day, upon the occurrence of any calamity, the afflicted people are ready to accuse another tribe with hav- ing caused the trouble through their Shaman, and retaliation is made by slaying one or more of the enemy. When the desire for barter or travel overcomes the passion for blood, the matter is compromised by the people who have killed the most men paying blood-money for the sur- plus. THEIR CHRISTIANITY,. Within the past century Christianity has made decided progress among the Esquimaux, especially among those of Greenland ; but Sha- manism, the heathen superstitions which are scattered from Lapland to Behring's Strait and personified in the Shaman, is still alive in their midst. Even those who have become Christians have engrafted the new upon the old. The ancient belief was that there were two great spirits and many lesser ones. The Supreme Ruler was termed Tornarsuk. Their heaven was in the under world, to which access was obtained by various en- trances from the sea and through mountain clefts. The abode beneath the land was heaven, because it was conceived as a warm place, rich in food. Those who went to the upper world would suffer from cold and famine. They were called ball-players, on account of their sport with a walrus-head wich gave rise to the aurora borealis. Tornarsuk dwelt, of course, in the warm heaven beneath. Some of the natives represented him as the size of a finger, others as a bear ; but as a general rule, they attempted to give him no description. Another great spirit, though a minor one, was an old woman who sat in her dwelling in front of her lamp, beneath which was placed a vessel receiving the oil that kept flowing down from the lamp. From this vessel, or the dark interior of her house, she sent out all the food animals ; at certain times she withheld the supply, causing want and famine. It was the task of the priest to induce her to again send out the supply. His journey was across horrid abysses, in which a gigantic 378 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. wheel was revolving as slippery as ice ; having safely passed a boiling kettle with seals in it, he arrived at the house, in front of which were terrible watch-dogs ; within the very passage of the house, he had still to cross an abyss over a bridge as narrow as a knife edge. The Angakok, or priest, or Shaman, had his familiar spirit which he could employ, except upon very special occasions. This was sup- plied him by the Supreme Being. His education commenced with, childhood, and before his Tornak, or spirit, was given to him, he had to repair to a certain deep cave and rub two stones together until he heard the voice of his Deity arising from the depths of the earth , or to allow vermin to suck his blood until he or she (for women were admitted to the priesthood) became unconscious. The Angakok had other assistants to lighten his duties, called Innuae, those of a marine nature who fed on fox-tails, the inhabitants of rocky shores who carried off the natives, pigmies and giants, with scores of dogs, weather spirits and those who controlled the diet ; these, with hundred of others, which the Angakok called to his aid in expelling witches, curing diseases, bringing luck to the hunter, protecting the boatman from harm, etc., etc. When the priest's assistance was required, the company assembled in a dark house, he was tied with his hands behind his back and his head between his legs, being then placed on the floor beside a drum and a suspended skin. The auditors then sung a song, after which the Angakok invoked his spirit, rattling the skin and playing upon the drum at the same time, although his hands were tied. The arrival of the spirit was said to be accompanied by a peculiar sound and light.. Then questions were propounded by the Shaman, the answers seeming to proceed from without. If the priest desired to make a flight, his own spirit and that of his guardian were believed to shoot through the roof of the house. After a spell of unconsciousness the Shaman nar- rated his communications, which might be either in the way of infor- mation or advice, and showed that he had been entirely released from his bonds. During the following day no work was allowed to go on in the house. This art was principally exercised in discovering the causes of accidental disasters; in ascertaining the whereabouts of missing persons; in giving counsel as to rules of abstinence, travel, hunting, etc.; in pro- curine favorable weather and in curing- sickness. The education of children was rhanaged without any corporal punishment, but to threaten them with the vengeance of evil spirits was enough to keep them in check. SOCIAL AND HUNTING REGULATIONS. 379. The milder features of the old belief are still in existence even among those Esquimaux who have embraced Christianity. "Through their tales," says one, "they still preserve a knowledge of their ancient religious opinions, combined somewhat systematically with the Christian faith. Tornarsuk, in being converted into the devil by the first mis- sionaries, was only degraded, getting, on the other hand, his real exist- ence confirmed forever. In consequence of this acknowledgment, in part, of Tornarsuk, the whole company of Innuae, or spirits, were also considered as still existing. The Christian heaven coming into collis- ion with the upper world of their ancestors, the natives very ingen- iously placed it above the latter, or, more strictly, beyond the blue sky. By making Tornarsuk the principle of evil, a total revolution was caused with regard to the general notions of good and evil ; but in the same way as the ancient belief in the world of spirits has been kept up, many of the Esquimaux also maintain their old faith respecting the aid to be got from, it and have habitual recourse to it. The kayakers in their hazardous occupation still believe themselves taken care of by their invisible spirits." The Greenland and the Labrador Esquimaux have the Gospels ; many of the old tribes are still adherents to the old faith, a few general features of which have been given above. SOCIAL AND HUNTING REGULATIONS. The Esquimaux when untouched by Danish or other foreign in- fluence, seem to have no ideas regarding courts of justice and although custom has apparently established certain rules of conduct and regula- tions of society, no laws have originated in their midst ; that is, their tales and traditions, which extend back over a thousand years, show no such evidences, neither does their present life reveal anything of the kind. There are no Esquimaux chiefs, although trading companies often select some native who is recognized as a leader, on account of his wealth and superior management, to direct the hunting operations of the tribe and act as an agent. The constitution of society is patriarchial. Except in Greenland it is not customary for more than one family to occupy the same house, although the head of a family has often to pro- vide for a large collection of widows, and orphans of deceased relatives. When his vigor fails him and he is no longer a successful hunter, he is placed with the women in the social scale and must row with them in the family boat. Polygamy and the exchange of wives is approved of, under certain conditions. In cases of divorce it is customary for the son to follow the mother. When a man dies, the oldest son inherits the 38o PANORAMA OF NATIONS. boat and tent and is considered the family provider. If no grown up son exists the nearest relative takes his place and adopts the children of the deceased. If anyone picks up pieces of driftwood, or other goods lost at sea, he has only to carry them up to high-water mark and put stones upon them, in order to make them his property ; the right to a seal is lost when the hunting bladder becomes detached; if two hunters should, at the same time, hit a reindeer it belongs to the one whose bullet or arrow reaches nearest the heart, the owner, however, giving the unlucky hunts- LABRADOR ESQUIMAUX. man a part of the flesh ; in South Greenland, where bears are rarely seen, it is said that if a bear is killed it belono^s to whoever first discov- ered it. Except in the introduction of firearms and such articles as bread, coffee, sugar and tobacco, the hunting customs and food of the Esqui- maux are essentially the same as they were a thousand years ago. They, however, show a great aptitude in learning, and where schools have been established, particularly in Greenland and Labrador, both old and young are anxious to attend. In these countries and on the coasts of Alaska, they also seem to be acquiring some notions regarding the benefits of regular laws ; so that before long Esquimaux states and kingdoms ma]- arise in the frozen resfions of North America. NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. ALASKA. HE regions of Alaska which are really known are confined to the coast, and the district inhabited by others than the native Indians is virtually included in the region about Sitka, or New Archangel. What has been learned of the interior of the country has come through rather indefinite native sources. Fort Yukon, at the junction of the Yukon and Porcupine Rivers, is the most northerly station of the Hudson Bay Com- pany, and some 900 miles east of the coast. The traders occasionally obtain information, with furs, from the natives, but the former is scant indeed. Sitka, as capital of the territory, and St. Paul, on Kadiak Island, as the main depot of the seal fisheries, are where tourists mostly seek news of the country. The Yukon and the smaller rivers have been explored, and it is safe to say that no stories told about the salmon can be too large. Geologically, Alaska will prove a pregnant field for scientists, and lovers of the grand and the beautiful will be attracted even more strongly. All along the Pacific Coast there are glaciers filling the mountain gorges, and terminating at the sea in magnificent masses of overhanofine ice. One of the most remarkable of these o-rand exhibi- tions, of which nature is so wonderfully lavish, is the Muir's Glacier, of Glacier Bay, a product of the Sitka Mountains. The swiftest and strongest pen falls far behind the reality in describing this frozen river, which stands as high as the loftiest cathedral, is two miles across and forty miles in length. REMNANTS OF THE GREAT TRIBES. The Athabascans compose a great family which has left its mark all over the western portions of British America, in the names of rivers and lakes, although its own name was given it by the Algonquins. The tribes of Alaska and British America are mild and industrious, greatly 3S1 PRESENT WAYS OF LIVING. 383 resembling the Esquimaux in their mode of Hving,. especially in the skill which they show in the construction and use of their fishing weapons and their taste in carving their ornaments. Unlike the Esquimaux, however, who are most unsatisfactory as historical subjects, they retain traditions of a journey from the icy regions and islands of the great northwest. Another peculiarity which distinguishes them both from Esquimaux and other Indians is a heavy beard ; otherwise they have square heads, short hands and feet, and greatly resemble a Siberian Tungoose. The tribes of this family, comprise the native interior population of Alaska ; the Esquimaux occupying the northern coasts, and the Aleuts the Aleutian and adjacent islands. The latter have been classed both as Esquimaux and as Indians, but have been in contact with the Rus- sians for so many years as factors, or traders, that they have lost their national characteristics. In Alaska, the Athabascans are known as Ke- naians, a tribe by that name dwelling on the peninsula of Kenai, between Cook's Inlet and Prince William Sound. These tribes are principally settled along the Yukon River, which, from the Rocky Mountains, cuts through the country for eighteen hundred miles and empties into Behr- ing Sea. PRESENT WAYS OF LIVING. The waters of all the rivers and streams abound in salmon. They are caught and dried by the Indians, some of whom use the typical birch-bark canoe in their journeys up and down. The work of catching salmon in Alaska rivers is not difficult ; during the spawning season the streams are simply black with them, and it is no uncommon sight to see the banks piled up with dead fish to a height of three feet, the waves having cast ashore those which were weak and injured. Even now the Esquimaux and the Athabascans come into conflict, although their habits and beliefs are in many ways similar ; but, as a rule, they are mostly employed, either individually or by traders, in col- lecting fossil ivory, hunting the fox, beaver, marten, otter, mink, lynx and wolverine ; occasionally also fishing for the ulikon, which Is abundant in some sections and celebrated as the fattest of known fish. Other ocean game engages their attention and taxes their ingenuity, which seems never to be found wantine. The most original of their hooks, and which was especially photo- graphed from the real thing for us, is so constructed that when the fish snaps at his bait he not only gets hooked, but finds his head wedged into a sort of framework, so that he can not break away in either TOTEM POLES AND INDIAN HUTS, FORT MANGELL, ALASKA. THE Indian's totem. 385 direction. The fish Hne, or rope, is made from a number of strands which consist of tough wood fibre, all twisted together in the neatest and most substantial fashion. The hook is fastened into a piece of wood which is grotesquely carved to represent a man playing a flute. . The Alaska Indians are as fond of playing cards as many of their Siberian ancestors, but most of the American natives show Yankee skill in making their own implements of the game. They consist, in some cases, of little round pieces of hard wood, in shape like a finger, which are smoothed and polished and carved into faces and figures. The man- ner in which they play their games has not yet transpired, but the form of their cards would preclude much shuffling. The center of the fur-seal industry is 1,400 miles west of Alaska, on the Pribylov Islands, in the very heart of Behring Sea, but within American waters. It is monopolized by the Alaska Commercial Com- pany of San Francisco, and by Act of Congress seals may only be killed in June, July, September and October; firearms may not be used, or other means employed to drive the seals away ; neither female seals, nor those less than one year old, can be killed. The act also limits the num- ber to be killed, in addition to those required for food by the natives, to 100,000 annually. St. Paul and St. George are the two islands of the above group where the seals resort for breeding purposes, the shores being well drained and gently sloping, and peculiarly adapted to the habits of the animals. The males usually arrive early in June, as many as possible selecting and defending a few square feet of land upon which to establish their families when the females appear, about a month later. Only to the brave, however, flock the fair, the result being that more males are bachelors than heads of families. The bachelor seals have their separate grounds, and they are the ones who are the victims of the hunter. Armed with thick clubs about five feet in length, and with knives, the natives drive the seals from their hauling grounds which the animals have themselves selected, to the killinor grrounds which the men have laid out. The next process is simply to knock them on the head, stab them to the heart, and skin them. The skins are then salted, piled in bins where they are allowed to pickle for several weeks, and then rolled into bundles of two skins each, with the hairy side out, ready for shipment. THE INDIAN'S "TOTEM." Returning to the continent, it is found that among the Kenai Indians there are more distinct traces of Asiatic blood than among the Aleuts. They have their Shaman as do the Siberian tribes, and uphold 25 386 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. a species of caste. After burning the dead, the ashes are generally placed in a leather bag, which is suspended to a painted pole ; some of the tribes, however, put the corpse on a staging, or even bury it decently and erect a wooden tomb over it. Marriage is not allowed between members of the same clan or family, the children belonging to the mother's clan. Trousers and shoes are fastened to a kind of leather tunic ; which latter is worn of greater length by the women, rounded in front and trimmed with shells. The men paint their faces and wear shells in the nose, while the women tattoo lines on the chin. Personal beauty is said to favor the men, who, however, are in the minority. When girls arrive at a marriageable age they are separated from the rest for. one year, and wear a peculiar bonnet with fringe over the face. The winter houses of some of the tribes are underground, as are the Esquimaux, and they are all given as much to barter as the Arctic race. Their money is either shells or beads. The Alaskans are divided into many tribes, and each tribe has its peculiar totem, or symbol, as was the case with the Iroquois of New York, or the Six Nations; and the totem is still an institution with many of the tribes of the United States. There are Beaver, Crow, Rat, Turtle and all other kinds of Indians among the Alaskans, and each tribe has in front of its village a totem pole, on which is carved the figure or combination of figures which constitutes its coat-of-arms. These may even be seen in fascinating variety along the coast in the neighbor- hood of Sitka. The totem originates in the wide-spread Indian tradition that the red man's creation results from the union of a spirit v/ith some of the lower animals, and the bird, beast or fish which he fixes upon as one of his parents becomes his totem. There are tribal totems and family totems. As to the latter, the skin of the totem is " carefully stuffed, bedecked with ornaments and ' feathers, is tied to a staff and carried about in the hand on grrand full-dress occasions. In orood weather it is stuck up in front of the door of the lodge, and when the head of the family dies it is suspended to the top of a strong, high pole, which is firmly planted beside his grave. It is the family crest, the title of honor, the symbol of its ancestry and descent, and whatever may be the name of the individual of that family, his signature is a rude representation of the creature to which he believes he owes his origin." The above applies more particularly to the tribes of the Western plains. THE FLATHEADS. Upon their reservation in Washington Territory is a small band < ►J < W O < o > < > o < Q 388 PANORAMA OF NATIONS, of Chinooks, a tribe of Indians who, at one time, lived on the coasts of Oregon and Washington and the banks of the Columbia River. They would be unworthy of mention were it not that they still conform to a custom which was in vogue with the ancient tribes of Mexico, Central America and Peru, and with the mound-builders whose skulls have been excavated in the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio. Either by bind- ing a piece of board or tightly braided grass upon their infants' heads, and suspending them so that the feet are the highest portions of their bodies, the Chinooks manage to flatten the soft, little craniums out of all natural shape. These Indians are small and unprepossessing, are filthy in their habits, but are shrewd and intelligent, ingenious in the construction of their household utensils and fishing weapons, as well as being of quite an artistic turn of mind. The Indians known as Flat- heads are not flatheads, in fact, they having never adopted the cus- tom of thus disfiguring themselves. They are located on a reservation in Western Montana, and are a remarkable instance of instinctive elevation. When they were half starved and naked, they voluntarily sent for a missionary and invited others to settle among them who could improve their condition. Willing to work, they made rapid progress in agriculture and industrial pursuits, obtained horses and cattle and, what was better, schools and churches. The Flatheads are naturally peace- able, but they have fought bravely against the Sioux when attacked. They belong to the Selish family. A few hundred of the Athabascans live on the banks of the Colum- bia River, Oregon, and they and other small tribes, although thej^ do not attempt to fix the time, have traditions, which are borne out by geological evidences, that several of the peaks of the Cascade Moun- tains were active volcanoes. The Nez Perces, the Wallawallas, and other minor tribes occupy reservations or native grounds in Idaho and Oregon, on the Columbia or Snake River. THE APACHES. To set a fierce Apache against one of these fishing, hunting and trading Indians is a wonderful contrast, and remarkable when it is con- sidered that they are of the same stock. Only a few hundred of the 15,000 or 20,000 who have fortified themselves in the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains, along the rivers of the United States and Mex- ico, periodically issuing forth to harass settlers and give the national troops a brisk campaign, have been brought under government control. For fifty years previous to the war one of their wonderful chiefs brought imposing forces into the field, but with his death the tribe has scattered, < <; < < < o S < o D s O > c 390 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. although the fragments are still troublesome enough. The Apaches fight upon the fly, being mounted upon small, wiry ponies, which are guided by a simple cord passed under the jaws. Their principal weapon is a very long, iron-pointed arrow, which they shoot with the most unerring precision. The chief, or captain of a band, in addition to the breech-cloth, or blanket, wears a buckskin helmet, ornamented with a feather. The common warrior goes dashing at his enemy bareheaded, and if he kills him disdains to take his scalp. Both sexes ornament themselves with pearl shells or rough carvings of wood, and wear high buckskin moccasins. Their feet being thus confined are so small that- art Apache's trail is easily recognized. When in their mountain retreats the Apaches live in lodges built; of light boughs and twigs, resting from their labors of the field and allowing the women to do all the work of collecting fuel, besides per- formino^ the reafular duties of the household. Their sonsfs are not: weirdly sweet, and their card-playing, of which they are very fond, is probably not according to Hoyle; but their smoking is sedate and quite proper. The women as they move about, perhaps carrying infants in osier baskets at their backs, are seen to wear short petticoats and no ornaments. The African, the Polynesian, the Australian and the Esquimau, however much they may abuse their wives, generally allow" them the feminine luxury of adorning their persons, but the Indian even cuts off this enjoyment. When the Apache travels he loads his wife with provisions, upon a horse, fastening the basket cradle of his papoose to the saddle. Should the warriors not return from battle the Avomen cut off their lono- loose hair as a sio-n of mourning;. Montezuma seems to be an Apache deity, although the savage pro- fesses a belief in a Supreme Being. White birds and the bear are sacred to them, and the hog they consider unclean. The Lipans were formerly the most powerful of the tribes in the present state of Texas, with the possible exception of the Comanches. They have figured prominently in border troubles, being generally friendly to the Texans. Although both Texas and the General Govern- ment attempted to fix them upon reservations, they were too restless to settle down. Now they were in Texas, now in New Mexico and at last accounts they were without the jurisdiction of the United States. ' THE NAVAJOS. The Navajos are as bitter toward the Mexicans as all the Apache tribes, but some of their bands have always been friendly to the United THE ALGONQUINS. 39I States, They occupy a tract of country between the San Juan and Little Colorado Rivers, in Northeastern Arizona, the government reser- vation of 6,000 square miles, lying in part within the boundaries of New Mexico. Even those who are not under guardianship, cultivate the soil of the table-lands, raise live-stock and make beautiful woolen blankets. This manufacture is so highly prized that a blanket will bring as high as $150. From a very early day the Navajos have possessed sheep, cattle, goats and horses, and were spinners of cotton and wool. They weave their own cloth, choosinof to attire themselves in red and other bright colors. Bows, lances and rawhide shields are the weapons of the Navajo when he goes upon the war-path, his head dress being the same as that of the Apache. THE ALGONQUINS. Hundreds of nomadic tribes belonging to the Algonquin family scoured the country now included in the British possessions east of the territory of the Athabascans, up and down the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers and around the shores of the Great Lakes. The Algonquin tribe, which gives the name to the family, is supposed to have been par- ticularly partial to the region adjacent to the Ottawa River, and there is now a remnant of them at the Lake of the Two Mountains. The chief band of the Algonquin tribe was called Kichisipirini, " men of the great river." The Iroquois Indians early came in conflict with this great family, and were driven south of Lake Ontario where they formed the confederation of the Six Nations. As the Chippewas, Menomonees and Pottawattamies, the family appeared on the shores of Lake Michigan and paddled their canoes in the lakes, rivers and streams of the Northwest. The Chippewas are now living on reservations in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Kansas and Indian Territory, numbering, with the Ottawas, nearly 20,000. The Menomonees occupy a reservation in Northeastern Wisconsin. About 1,000 of them remain. The Pottawattomies are in Indian Territory and Kansas, and number 1,700. There are less than 1,000 representatives of the Foxes, Sacs, Miamis and other tribes who formerly counted their thousands, and ranged over the garden States of the West as their hunt- ing grounds. With other wTecks of the Red Man's race they have been gathered into the Indian Territory. THE CHIPPEWAS. The Chippewas, or Ojibways, comprised one of the great Algon- quin nations, driving the Sioux from the headwaters of the Mississippi and the Red River of the North, warring with the Sacs, the Foxes and Iroquois, firmly establishing themselves on the lands north of Lake Su- 392 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. perior, and then spreading southward over Northern Wisconsin and the northern peninsula of Michigan. Some of the tribes moved east to Lake Erie, where they joined the Miamis, others moving southwest and wrest- ing vast tracts of land from hostile bands along the Chippewa and Mis- sissippi rivers. Numbers of the Chippewas have not been gathered to any reservation, their principal country lying on the southern shores of Lake Superior and the western shores of Lake Huron. A historic spot is Madeline Island, a small tract of land opposite Bayfield, Northern Wisconsin; for here the great Chippewa chiefs signed away all their lands in Wisconsin and Michigan to the General Govern- ment. Upon it were also located the headquarters of the American Fur Company and the Jesuit missions, Father Marquette himself living there, for a time, to labor with the Chippewas. Only a few fisherman now remain upon the island, although on the opposite shores of the lake the natives still roam about, hunting and fishing, guiding sportsmen and the pleasure seekers, making canoes, mats, baskets and maple sugar. The ancient religion of the Chippewas, and which is still held by a few thousand of the children of the woods around Lake Superior, con- sists in a belief in the Manitous, or the Good and the Evil Spirits. They have a priesthood called the Medas, whoare the veritable sorcerers found among the Siberian tribes; for each of their priests has his manitou, or spirit, revealed to him in a dream. The Chippewas are tall and well-developed, and their power as forest fighters was celebrated all over the Northwest, their weapons being superior to those of most neighboring tribes. At a suprisingly early day they obtained firearms, and even their arrows and spears were pointed with good steel. The name Odjibewa, or Chippewa (although the accent really comes on the second syllable), signifies the dwellers in a contracted place. Many of the descendants of the wild Odjibewas have settled in Northern Wisconsin and Michigan, being engaged principally in the lumber trade. The Menomonees, unlike most of the western tribes, increased in power from the middle of the eighteenth to the beginning of the nine- teenth century, and even as late as 1830 they held a large portion of Northeastern and Eastern Wisconsin. But little by little they ceded their lands to the United States, and in 1852 removed to their reservation on the upper Wolf River, in the northeastern part of that State. INDIAN PIONEERS. And where are the Pequots, the Narragansetts, the Powhatans, the Pampticoes, and other tribes of the New England States and the South, THE CHEYENNES. 393 "who SO warmly welcomed the white immigrants? There is a little settlement of Narragansetts near Charlestown, R, I., and the last heard of them they had not yet decided to become citizens. Wisconsin, however, has to tell another story. Early in the " 20's" remnants of Narragansetts, Pequots, Mohicans and other tribes of former power, who had emigrated from the land of the Oneidas, near Utica, N. Y., removed to Green Bay, and afterwards to the shores of Lake Winnebago, southwest of that locality. Here they formed the Brothertown colony, proceeded to clear land, and established churches and schools. Since then the inhabitants have generally kept pace with other portions of the county (Calumet) in material and mental improve- ment, having sent several representatives to the legislature, and developed educated and refined citizens. Others have become wealthy and, have sent their children to colleges and universities. With the Brothertown Indians also came the Stockbridges, a New York tribe, who had been granted a small tract of land by the Oneidas, but who sighed for inde- pendence. The story of their advancement and incorporation into the body politic of a great State is similar to that of their friends and co-workers. THE CHEYENNES. West of the Mississippi River were two great isolated tribes of the Algonquins — the Cheyennes and Blackfeet. The Cheyennes are divided between Indian Territory and Montana reservations, being, in both cases, intermixed with their auxiliary tribe, the Arapahoes. In personal appearance the Cheyennes meet all the romantic ideas regarding the noble red men, exceeding in stature all of the tribes of the plains except the Osages. The wars which they have waged with the Government are the most costly, both financially and in the loss of human life, which have been experienced of late years ; the campaign of 1864-65 is said to have cost the United States $40,000,000. The Cheyennes were first known as living on the Cheyenne River, a branch of the Red River of the North. They were driven away by the Sioux, and in the early part of the century were camping near the Black Hills, on the Cheyenne River. From the first the Cheyennes were great horsemen, and to-day they are noted dealers. Finally the tribe split, the northern portion joining their old enemies, the Sioux, and the south- ern the Arapahoes of Arkansas. The Blackfeet are scattered from Hudson's Bay to the Missouri River. The Kena, or Blood Indians, are a northern branch of the same nation, the two separating on the Saskatchewan River, British 394 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. America, and the Satsika, or Blackfeet (as the Crows dubbed them), going south to the Missouri. Other difficulties in the northern body brought another spHt, the seceders following a chief named Piegan. And so it comes to pass that about half of those who remain of the original Blackfeet are in Montana. They number some 7,000, of whom 1,500 are on their Montana reservations, being divided into Blood and Piegan Indians and Blackfeet proper. THE ARAPAHOES. The Arapahoes have, for many years, resided near the headwaters of the Arkansas and Platte rivers. They are a member of the Blackfoot confederacy, but are going out with the buffalo. Some of them occupy reservation land adjoining the Cheyennes, in the Indian Territory. The Gros Ventres, said to be of the same stock as the Arapahoes, occupy, with a number of the latter, a portion of the Blackfeet reserva- tion in Montana. Their chiefs are chosen for their valor, and the women are the workers, building large and comfortable lodges capable of accommodating 100 persons. One part is assigned to their horses,, dogs, cattle and chickens, and another is divided into sleeping and living apartments. OTHER NOTED WESTERN TRIBES. The vicissitudes of the Shawnees, a war-like Algonquin tribe, form the experience of the average Indian, and make one wonder that he is not more stolid and hopeless than he actually appears. They seem to have first appeared as a distinct tribe in Southern Wisconsin, going toward the east. Having infringed upon the territory of the Six Nations (over two centuries ago), they were driven south, some going into Florida. Fifty years afterward bands of them commenced to appear in Pennsylvania and New York, having returned to the north. They fought with the French, the English and the Spaniards, having now ranged as far west as Missouri. In the war of 18 12 they endeavored to unite the tribes of the west against the Americans but were unsuccessful. It is possible that at the present day they could muster seven hundred individuals from the Indian Territory, but it is doubtful. The great and warlike tribe of the Illinois is now reduced to about one hundred souls, who occupy a few acres on their reservation in the Indian Territory. Two of their powerful chiefs, father and son, were called Chicago, the former visiting France in 1 700, where he received much favorable notice. The French missionaries had converted them, and in their wars wi.th the Iroquois, Sacs and Foxes, they rendered France THE PAWNEES. 395 valuable services, although they were driven frorn their villages and suf- fered terrible losses. Peoria and Kaskaskia, in Illinois, received their names on account of tribes who belonged to this family. The Foxes and Sacs, kindred tribes, first came into view in the vicinity of Detroit, but they were driven west by the Iroquois, warred against the Sioux and French, settled on the Fox River, Wisconsin, and at Prairie du Chien (the name of one of their chiefs), but finally, after having ceded immense tracts of land on the Missouri and Wisconsin rivers, located west of the Mississippi River. They hunted and fished, cultivated land, and were the bone and sinew of the Black Hawk War, which they waged against the government for the possession of Rock Island. The few hundred who did not choose to be removed from reser- vation to reservation bought a tract of land in Iowa, and became indus- trious farmers and farm laborers. THE PAWNEES. The Pawnees, a noted tribe in the annals of Nebraska, fought many a pitched battle with the Arapahoes, the Sacs, the Foxes and the Sioux. Finally they forgot their wild ways and located north of the Nebraska River and west of the Loup, and under the guardianship of the Govern- ment built houses and schools and cultivated farms ; but their old enemies, the Sioux, came down upon them, burning their villages and massacring their people. The Sioux, with devastating epidemics of small-pox, and cholera, almost swept the Pawnees out of existence. Until their crops were swept away by locusts, however, they continued to reside stub- bornly but peacefully upon their native soil. In 1874, a general council of the tribe determined upon removal to the Indian Territory and there 2,000 of them now are, with manual-labor schools and day schools, culti- vating their lands and governing themselves. They are under the especial charge of the Friends. THE DAKOTAS. The traditions of the Dakotas are more pregnant in thought to the student, who is forced to trace the progenitors of the American Indian to Asia, than those of any other of the Indian families. Their language^ also, is Mongolian in its structure. According to their traditions they were driven back from the Mississippi River by the Algonquins, after they had slowly advanced from the Pacific Coast and the Northwest. Only one tribe, the Winnebagook (Winnebagoes), pushed through the ranks of their enemies, settling on the shores of Lake Michigan, where 396 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. they were held in check. There, in the regions adjacent to Green Bay, they lorded it over many of the tribes with such a high hand that they were attacked and nearly exterminated by an allied Indian force. Yet they were still warlike and troublesome, and after they had ceded over two million and a half acres of their lands to the Government, they were removed west of the Mississippi, then hither and thither, to Dakota, Minnesota, Ne- braska — and where not? There,as in other States, they com- menced to culti- vate land, build cottages and schools, and dress and live like white men. It was formerly the practice of the agents to de- pose and appoint their chiefs at will ; now they are elected. The Winneba- goes left in Wis- consin are self- supporting and peaceable. Other tribes of the Dakota family have given us the following- greo- graphical names: Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Osage, Omaha and Sioux. There were also the Upsarokas, or Crows. A few of the family yet remain within the British possessions, but the majority of them are on reservations in the northeastern part of Indian Territory, in Eastern Nebraska, in -Southern Dakota and Montana. A SIOUX WARRIOR. THE SIOUX. 397 THE SIOUX. The Sioux are still the powerful tribe of the family, as they always have been, and were the arch enemies of the Algonquins, especially the Chippewas. The fortunes of war were various, the Sioux preferring to fight upon the plain and the Chippewas in the woods, but, as has been stated, the Sioux were, after a century or so of warfare, driven from the headwaters of the Mississippi to the south. By the early part of this, century the bulk of the nation was upon the Missouri River, although native villaees were scattered from Northern Minnesota to the Black Hills. During the first part of our civil war the Sioux commenced to prepare for a general uprising, on account of dissatisfaction with the way they were being treated by the Government and its agents, and eventually the whole of Minnesota and the res^ions borderino- on the Missouri, with the Western Plains, were the scenes of their massacres and hos- tilities. The discovery of gold in the Black Hills, and subsequent troubles with Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and Spotted Tail, on account of their reluctance to part with their grounds, are matters of recent record. Some of the most warlike bands fled to British territory, others agreed to go to their immense Dakota reservation. There 30,000 of them are supposed to cover 34,000,000 acres of land. Churches and schools have been established among them, and the younger generation show aptitude and patience. The settled bands have their tribal form of government, and are raisers of live-stock, and agriculturists ; notwith- standing which, the Sioux may yet be called an uncertain quantity in the Indian problem. When first known, the Crows occupied territory in the basins of the Yellowstone and Big Horn Rivers, Southern Montana, and they now hold a reservation on the site of their old camping-grounds. Like the Northern Cheyennes and Sioux, with whom they often came in conflict, they were expert horsemen and brave warriors, although not great in numbers. In personal appearance they are tall and remarkable for the extraordinary length of their hair. They are so cleanly in their habits that a Crow lodge is easily recognizable, it being generally made of buffalo skins so dressed that they are almost white. THE SHOSHONES. This is both the name of a tribe and of a family. Various mem- bers of the family have roamed from Idaho to New Mexico. The tribes which are best known are the Comanches and the Utes, or Utahs. The Comanches call themselves "live people"; their modes of warfare 398 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. and the extent of territory they have covered in their wars with the Spaniards, with the Osages, Pawnees and other Western tribes, as well as with travelers crossing the plains, certainly entitle them to that appellation. Being almost constantly mounted, the Comanche has become somewhat heavy of foot, but, with the Apache, he is the ideal warrior on horseback. Only a few of the troublesome tribes have been collected upon reservation lands. THE UTES. The Utes roam over a great portion of the southwestern sections of the United States, hunting and raiding. In districts where game is plentiful they are, physically, noble looking, but are miserable in appearance and pitiful specimens of the race in other localities. Their arms vary with their territory, some using a primitive club, bow or lance, others an improved rifle. As a rule, in dressing the hair the men wear braided queues, and the women cut their hair short. It is said that their wives and children are often sold into slavery to neighboring tribes. The Utes have a small reservation in Southern Colorado, and the Shoshones proper have one in Wyoming, but the whole tribe and family of Utes and Shoshones seem to be irreclaimable. THE KIOWAS. The Kiowas are a branch of the same family, being wild, restless and troublesome ; but they have been assigned lands in the south- western part of Indian Territory, which was leased from the Chicka- saws. They share their reservation lands with the Comanches and Apaches — that is, when they are not off on raids. The hair is worn the same as that of the Utes, except the men do theirs up in three or four long plaits, instead of one. The Kiowas long hunted on the Platte, had immense herds of horses, and were at constant war with the Paw- nees and Sioux, their weapons being the bow and arrow, lance and war club. They also carried shields. When they were not pasturing their herds on the grassy bottoms of the Red River, hunting the buffalo between the Canadian and Arkansas rivers, or fighting furiously with their powerful enemies of the plains, they were uneasily shifting their quarters from point to point, carrying their skin lodges as they went. They have given the Government untold trouble, having several times invaded Texas and murdered many settlers. Two of their chiefs are now under sentence of imprisonment for life, but it seems impossible to effectually quell them. THE PUEBLOS. 399 THE PUEBLOS. The villages of these semi-civilized Indians who form the native population of New Mexico, are called pueblos ; hence the name which has become attached to the tribe. The Spaniards occupied the country during the latter part of the sixteenth century, established schools and churches among them and supplied them with cattle and sheep. They were citizens under the rule of Mexico, and the Supreme Court has decided that they are now citizens of the United States, although the State laws deprive them of their rights. They have never strenuously insisted upon their rights, however, and seem satisfied to be left in the enjoyment of their ancient village government, which consists of a gov- ernor and a court of three elders. The Pueblos are still semi-civilized and have shown no marked improvement within the past three hundred years. They raise grain, vegetables and cotton, and manufacture pottery, spin- ning and weaving with rude machines. " Their houses are sometimes built of stone, laid in mortar made of mud, but more generally of sun-dried brick or adobe. These buildings are generally large, of several stories, and contain many families. In some of the pueblos the whole com- munity, amounting to from 300 to 700 souls, are domiciled in one of these huge structures. The houses are sometimes in the form of a hol- low square ; at other times they are on the brow of a high bluff or mountain terrace, difficult of approach. The first or lower story is invariably without openings, entrance to the house being effected by ladders. Each upper story recedes a few feet from that below it, leav- ing a terrace or walk around or along the whole extent of the structure, from which ladders lead to those above. The upper stories have doors and windows, but no stairways. In most instances a single family occu- pies one apartment, and as its number increases another apartment is added where there is sufficient space, or it is built above and reached by a ladder. This mode was practiced by these Indians three centuries ago. In every village there is at least one room large enough to contain sev- eral hundred persons, in which they hold their councils and have their dances." THE HURON-IROOUOIS FAMILY. The Hurons occupied a tract of country about as large as Delaware, near Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, when the French first penetrated into their country. Within this space, however there were 30,000 Indians living in bark lodges, and separated into many villages. But the Iro- 400 Panorama of nations. quois invaded their territory, killing a French missionary and his con- verts, destroying their largest towns and dispersing those of the tribes who did not join their confederation of the Six Nations. A number of the Hurons fled to several islands in Lake Huron, and, through the the assistance of the French, the remnants of the once powerful family were removed to the banks of the River St. Charles, a few miles from Quebec. There their descendants quietly reside, being faithful Catholics and numbering two or three hundred people. A few miles southwest of the Hurons proper were the Dinondadles, another tribe which belonged to the Huron-Iroquois family. They cultivated tobacco, and with such success that the French called them Tobacco Indians. They were scattered with the Hurons, wandering to Lake Superior, then to Detroit and finally to the headwaters of the Sandusky River, Ohio. In 1832 they sold their lands and, as the " Wy- andots," were removed by the Government to the junction of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. The descendants of the larger band are still liv- ing in Kansas, their fathers having become citizens, founded a city, organized a county, and, in many cases, intermarried with white pioneers. A few are on reservation land in the Indian Territory, and in Canada, on the Detroit River. THE SIX NATIONS. At a very early day the Tuscaroras separated from the six nations of Iroquois, and penetrated into the Carolinas, where they made no end of trouble, but finally, in i 713, were completely routed and most of them rejoined their kindred in New York. Thus the confederation was again complete. Besides the Tuscaroras were the Onondagas, the Mohawks,, the Oneidas, the Cayugas and the Senecas, the confederation being the most formidable and permanent which ever threatened the whites of the United States. The league was called " Hodenosaunee," or " they form, a cabin." The Onondagas were at the head, their chief being presi- dent of the council of fourteen sachems ; and at Onondaga the council . fire, or the fire of the cabin, was kept burning. Far to the east the Mohawks held "the door." This tribe called itself the She Bear, which the Algonquins translated into their language as Mahaqua and the Enoflish into Mohawk. The Onondagas were " men of the moun- tain," the Oneidas "tribe of the granite rock," and the Tuscaroras " shirt wearers." Each tribe was divided into the Turtle, Bear and Wolf families, and occasionally the division went further. To further cement the union it was forbidden for one to marry within his own tribe. In the conflicts between the English and French, the Iroquois. THE FIVE NATIONS. 4OI ' usually sided with the former, as the French had generally been allies of the Algonquins, who were the inveterate foes of the Six Nations. Upon the outbreak of the Revolutionary War the confederacy was split asunder, a portion of them adhering to the English, the Oneidas and Tuscaroras being generally friendly to the Americans. In 1777, therefore, the council fire at Onondaga was extingruished forever. Previous to the o o war of 18 1 2, when the Iroquois tribes were again arrayed against each other, the Mohawks, and a portion of the Cayugas, went to Canada, and subsequently they were followed by other members of the Six Nations, lands being granted to them on Ouinte Bay, Grand River, the Thames, Sault St. Louis St. Res^is and Lake of the Two Mountains. In con- ncction with the present condition of the Iroquois, a remarkable fact is noticed — viz. : that there has been little, if any, decrease in their num- bers since they were the most prosperous. Their 15,000 people are nearly divided between Canada and the New York reservations, with a band of over 1,000 Oneidas at Green Bay, Wis. The Six Nations may be called converts to Christianity. THE FIVE NATIONS. The Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws and Seminoles, all Southern tribes who previous to the war held slaves and were in arms ao^ainst the United States Government, constitute now the Five Nations, of the Indian Territory. They had previously developed quite a com- plete system of self-government, and generally retained their old con- stitutions when they were removed to the Indian Territory after the war. THE CHEROKEES. The Cherokees have their peculiarities of language and organiza- tion which entitle them to be considered a distinct family. They for- merly occupied portions of Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama in the valleys of the Allegheny Mountains, the Upper Tennessee and the headwaters of the Savannah and Flint Rivers. They consist of seven clans, and members of the same clan are forbidden to marry. They fought with the English against the French with such effect that Louisiana made great efforts to obtain their friendship. With the capture of slaves, in their wars, the Cherokees com- menced to give more attention to the cultivation of land and less to war. The nation divided, a portion crossing the Mississippi and the balance remaining on their own lands. They were aided by the United 26 402 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. States Government, which furnished them with agricultural implements and mills. As the white population clamored for their lands, however, they gradually ceded them to the Government until they were in pos- session of but a mountainous tract of 8,000 square miles in the States of Georgia and North Carolina. Gradually they were crowded out of these States and removed to the Indian Territory. Different factions of the eastern and western divisions prevented a union of the nation until 1839, but by the commencement of the war it was very prosperous. Printing presses were at work, turning off newspapers and books both in English and Cherokee ; grain, cotton, salt, cattle and horses were all elements of their wealth. At the break- ing out of the civil war the nation's warriors, who numbered over 15,000, divided their allegiance, and their territory was ravaged by both armies. The slaves of the Cherokees were, of course, emancipated, but they themselves gained in habits of industry. Their territory now comprises about 5,000,000 acres, two-thirds of which is unfit for cultivation. The chief of the nation is elected for four years. The country is divided into eight districts, and the citizens are governed by a National 'Committee and Council, elected for two years. The Cherokees lead the five nations in the cultivation of wheat, corn and oats. They have neat villages, schools, churches and public buildings, and are a noteworthy evidence of Indian civilization. CREEKS AND SEMINOLES. The Creeks are allied to the Choctaws, Chickasaws and Seminoles, and occupied a territory which was bounded on the north by that of the Cherokees, but stretched south into Florida. Not being able to trace their origin beyond a certain point, they claim to have sprung from the earth and emigrated from the northwest. They settled principally along the streams of Georgia and Florida, where they were found by the Enelish and called Creeks. Two bands of the Creeks who remained in Florida and intermarried with negroes and Spaniards form the Seminole Indians. The Creeks called them Seminoles, or Wanderers, and it was the latter's refusal to be bound by a treaty made by the Creek nation with the United States which precipitated the war in Florida which was so disastrous both to them and to the United States. The Creeks were divided into a num- ber of distrinct tribes, including the Alabamas and Natchez, Avho figured for years in Southern troubles, but fifty years ago the Government succeeded in removing, all but a few hundred, to Arkansas. The civil war split them asunder as it did the Cherokees, and they suffered severely. CHOCTAWS AND CHICKASAWS. 4O3 After the war both sections were removea to their reservation. Their form of government is not so repubHcan as that of the Cherokees retaininor- more of the tribal features. Notwithstanding all efforts to consolidate them, the Seminoles have retained their individuality and form one of the most progressive of the nations. They have missions and district schools, are steady and industrious. CHOCTAWS AND CHICKASAWS. The Choctaws and Chickasaws speak the same language and have a tradition that they came with the Creeks from west of the Mississippi. The Cnoctaws attained more to the dignity of a nation, for, with their allied tribes, they formerly occupied nearly all the coast territory from the Mississippi to the Atlantic. When the French first came among them they were in the habit of flattening the heads of their children with bags of sand, and therefore became known as Flatheads. They were allies of the French, and did splendid service for them against the Natchez, Chickasaws and other hostile tribes. The State of Georgia offered them the rights of citizenship, but they preferred to cede their lands and move with the Chickasaws to Arkansas. They were already a nation, in fact, as in name, and are still governed by a written constitution, substantially adopted in 1838. They are governed by a chief elected for a term of four years, by a National Council and a regular judiciary. Trial by jury is also a feature of their government. Besides exhibiting other evidences of the white man's civilization, the Choctaws comprise a distinguished member of the Five nations as being the principal lumbermen of the group. The Chickasaws at first formed a part of the Choctaw nation, but, subsequently organized a government of their own, consisting of a Governor, Senate and House of Representatives. The Chickasaw nation embraces a decided negro element ; for instead of giving up a proportion of their lands to the Government, the proceeds of which Avere to go to their former slaves, the nation adopted them as members of the tribe. TRIBAL GOVERNMENT. In the tribal form of government few measures originate solely with the chief. He is to execute the decrees which are discussed and adopted in the council, and is the head warrior of the band. Not alone such momentous matters as peace or war, the removal of the camp, or the initiation of a large band of warriors, are eloquently considered in council, but orators are not found wanting to discuss in all their bearings INDIAN RELIGION AND MEDICINE. 4O5 a proposed hunt, or a medicine dance. Every band is provided witli a council lodo^e and all warriors are members of the council. The vote is taken by acclamation, and though eloquence and personal magnetism have a certain sway in the council chamber, the real power lies with the chiefs, sao^esand medicine men. The " doo^-soldiers " of the Indians of the plains are the young, active warriors, who have no standing as wise men, but they elect their own leader and maintain a strong organization outside of the council. This is a special feature of Cheyenne govern- ment, although in some of the tribes, since the tendency has been toward a popular form, the dog-soldiers have become subordinate to the chief and form merely his body-guard in war. INDIAN RELIGION AND MEDICINE. The Indian believes in the Good God and tne Bad God, and he speaks of the latter deity with the greatest disinclination. Gods and spirits of the plains, rivers and mountains also play a bold role in his faith. He does not apply morality to his religion, but whatever thwarts his aims he attributes to the Bad God. The Good God helps him to kill his enemy, steal the wife of a friend or raid a white settlement. No prayers are necessarily offered to the Good God. Death by strangulation bars the Indian out of the Happy Hunting Grounds, for his soul is supposed to escape through the mouth, which opens at the moment of dissolution. It was formerly a universal belief with the Indians of the plains that scalping an enemy annihilated his soul. This is now quite a general superstition ; also one that each per- son killed by them, and not scalped, will be their servant in the next world. They have their good omens and their bad. One of their most common ways of preparing medicine, which they use as it turns out good or bad, is to take earth, sand, ashes of plants or bones, and, mixing them in a shallow dish, stir the ingredients. If by the combination of colors and figures the Indian is convinced that his Good God has charge of his affairs, he places the mixture in tiny deer skin bags and ties them in his hair, upon the tail of his war horse and around the necks of his women and children. Should the mixture prove to be bad medicine, or an indication that his Bad God has the upper hand, the stuff is taken outside the camp and secretly buried. The exact nature of this mixture is a close secret between the individual and his eods. He is forever making the medicine, and takes not the smallest step without consult- mg It. The Indic.n.5 '.:ave different ways of propitiating the Evil One. 406 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. When he brings them into great danger a common vow is to consecrate a pony to his service, should he allow them to escape. When this is. done the animal is never again mounted, is treated with care and even tenderness. When the warrior dies the pony which is killed for him, and the weapons which are laid on his grave, will appear as phantoms and serve him in the Happy Hunting Grounds. If he falls in battle, cut or shot to pieces, his shade, in the next world, will appear mutilated and imperfect. In fact, in every particular, he commences his spirit life in the beyond under the conditions which govern his material life. If a body is pierced with arrows, the Indian, particularly the Sioux, believes that the soul will ■be always tormented with ghostly arrows. Should a warrior, or his- enemy be killed in the dark, darkness will be his eternal portion. The fear of meetinsf this fate has deterred more than one savao-e from murderous midnight attacks upon the wagon trains of the plains. There is hardly a tribe which agrees with another as to the length of time which it required for a soul to pass from this earth to the Happy Hunting Grounds ; the ideas vary from one to two days, to as many months. If the period is long, food and water are brought to the grave,, generally by the female mourners. The entire journey is conceived to lie over a dreary space, devoid of all the necessities of life; hence the provisions, the phantoms of food and water to supply the needs of the spirit traveler. The Medicine Chief of a band of Indians divides the honors with the war chief, obtaining, if anything, more than an equal share. He is always dignified, the owner of the most attractive wives and ponies, holds no social intercourse with any except the principal men of the tribe, is the spiritual head of the tribe and the recipient of the confidences of the women, is the all-powerful physician of both body and soul, and when the fighting force takes the field, he proves his faith in his own power and religion by entering into the heat of the fight and the thick of the carnage. With the weakening of the authority of the head chief, the Medicine Chief has, if anything, gained in influence. The Medicine Chief is assisted in his work of exorcising evil spirits by a band of women, who howl to the drone of his incantations. Their wails and howls draw the women of the other lodo-es to the scene of action, and this deafening chorus is intensified by a muscular young priest who beats a tom-tom over the head of the poor patient. Whea the Medicine Chief dies, his successor steps into the coveted position only by coming forward with the claim that he has found the medi- cine which will keep away the Bad God, and then proving it by obtruding himself into every danger and coming out unscathed. THE MEDICINE DANCE. 407 Many of the western tribes of Indians have a mysterious some- thing, which is in careful charge of the head chief or Medicine Chief, it being wrapped in a number of comphcated coverings. Its influ- ences are all good, and it is always carried in war, or on important expe- ditions, by the Medicine Chief. Each tribe, as well as each Indian, has, of course, a particular medicine; but this thing is different — it goes withou t a name. The tribal medicine of the Cheyennes is a bundle of arrows, wrapped in skins and placed in a small case of stiff raw-hide. It was captured by the Pawnees, some years ago, and the whole tribe was thrown into a panic, expecting instant annihilation. Runners were dispatched ; but the medicine was not regained until the Cheyennes had paid the Pawnees three hundred ponies. The Utes attribute many of their late troubles to the capture by the Arapahoes of a little squat stone figure which they had adopted as the " tribal medicine." THE MEDICINE DANCE. In former days the Medicine Chief had power of life and death over the actions of the dancers, each of whom was placed in a large ring, his eyes fixed upon an image suspended from above, and hav- ing in his mouth a small whistle ; as he danced hour after hour, he con- tinued to blow upon the whistle and keep his head painfully thrown back upon his shoulders. Eight or ten hours of this distressing per- formance would generally throw some of the warriors into a faint. They were then dragged out of the ring, and if not revived by the mystic figures which the priest painted upon their faces arid bodies, cold water was thrown over them. He might order them back until they actually danced themselves to death. In case the dance progressed to the end of the appointed time without the occurrence of any misfor- tune, the tribe were assured of good medicine, which generally induced them to Q-Q to war. If the exhausted warriors could not be revived, the dance was broken up in confusion. The women shrieked and inflicted ghastly wounds upon themselves. The men howled and rushed off to kill their horses for the use of the warriors who had preceded them to the Happy Hunt- ing Grounds, Bad Medicine had been proclaimed ; the Bad God had them well in hand. The Indians still have their medicine dances (in lodges which the women construct), but the Medicine Chief is no longer autocrat, and whether the omen is good or bad is determined, in a general way, by the conduct of the different bands toward each other, by the attitude of the elements toward the festivities and by the fervor displayed in this 408 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. aboriginal revival. The dancers, however, gaze at;, the same dangling image — the Good God (painted white) on one side, and the Bad God (black) on the other ; some enter to display their costumes, some to show their powers of endurance, and others from pure religious fervor or because they hope to thus propitiate the Had (jod for some evil he has brought to them. lUit all are at liberty to withdraw when they see fit, the duration of the dance being fixed at four clays. A United States officer, who lived for over thirty years among the Indians of the West, is authority for the statement that some of the dancers keep in motion before their image, blowing constantly upon their whistles, for seventy-five hours without sleep, food or drink. Succeeding the medicine dance, and occasionally as a portion of the proceedings, is the self-torture of the braves. Here the Medicine Chief also is master of ceremonies, and with his own hand makes the incisions in the muscles of the breast, through which horsehair ropes are passed and tied to pieces of wood ; or he uses his broad-bladed knife on the muscles of the back, lifting them from the bones and passing a rope underneath, with a stick at the end so as to keep it fast. The free ends of the ropes are either attached to poles of the lodge or to heavy mov- able objects, and the aim is to tear the sticks from the wounds and obtain freedom. Sometimes the Indian is unable at once to do this, and must remain without food or water until the tissues soften ; but it is good medicine to tear loose at once. As soon as freed, the warrior is examined by the Medicine Chief, and if all is right, religious cere- monies are gone through with and his wounds are properly attended to. He is honored and suno-. Should one, however, durincr this fearful ordeal, which has been known to last several days, show any sign of weakness, he is sent away a disgraced man. BURIAL PLACES. Indian tribes who live in somewhat permanent villages select reg- ular burial grounds, often placing the corpse upon a scaffold which is roofed over with a frame work covered with skins. If the body is that of a warrior, it is dressed in the most gorgeous apparel, and hanging froni his neck is his medicine bag. His weapons are by his side and his totem bag is tied to his lance or riile. At his girdle, or on his lance or shield, are hung all the scalps he has taken in life. Pots, kettles and other utensils which he will need in his spirit journey are fastened to the platform outside, and o\'er all are hung streamers of red and white cloth to frighten away beasts and birds of prey. INDIAN ANTIQUITIES. 4^9 Caves and the forks of trees are favorite burial places for wander- ing- tribes. Women and female children of common people are put out of sight with as little ceremony as scalped warriors, or those who die except in the tight. Indians near the agencies frequently use for cof- fins the boxes which are sent to them filled with soap orcrackers. The burial customs of nearly all the Western tribes, except the Utes, have been quite carefully investigated by travelers and army officers. After the burial of one of their number, these Indians care- fully erase every footprint which may lead to a discovery of the place of interment. Although several army officers were present at the funeral of Ouray, the great Ute chieftain, they were ordered back when they attempted to accompany the body to the grave. The corpse was wrapped in a blanket thrown across a horse and taken away. When, a few weeks later, it was removed to Ouray's own country, the officers managed to be taken along by the Indians and found the body in a natural cave which had been walled up with rocks. Another Ute grave, discovered by accident, was found to have been excavated in a hill and lined with walls of stone, cemented with mud. INDIAN ANTIQUITIES. Scattered all up and down the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys are those remarkable earth mounds, covering areas of from a few feet to square miles in extent. Some of them form simple hills or pyramids, while others are portions of a general design which was evidently thus fashioned upon the earth's surface to convey an idea. Thus in Adams county, Ohio, is a series of embankments representing a serpent, over 1,000 feet in length, which is disgorging' an oval figure, supposed to bean egg — a delineation of the creation of the earth. Fissures of animals have also been traced in mounds in Wisconsin ; in fact, it seems to be a peculiarity of the antiquities found in that State that they generally represent something more animate than mathematical figures, either the bear, the buffalo, the raccoon, the lizard, the turtle, the tadpole, the war eagle, or man. From these mounds, as in those of other states, skulls, stone carvings, silver and copper ornaments, etc., have been excavated. Metal from the Lake Superior regions, mica from the Alleghanies, and shells and porphyry from Mexico have all been found in the same mound, indicating that the civilization of which these remains are an index was widely extended. They seem to have been used either as temple sites, burial places, observatories or for purposes of defense. 4IO PANORAMA OF NATIONS. It is noticeable that the mound-builders have been influenced by the same considerations as the later order of city-builders ; "hence St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee and other cities of the West are founded on ruins of pre-historic structures. River terraces and river bottoms seem to have been the favorite places for these earth-works. In such localities the natural advantages of the country could be made available with much less trouble than in portions of the country lying at a distance from the water-courses." Geology, naturally, comes to the aid of the student who is curious to approximate to the era when the mound-builders flourished. Their works never appear upon the lowest of the river terraces of the West. The earth of the mounds is usually of the driest description, and yet the skulls and skeletons which have been unearthed are in the last stages of decay. Putting the two facts together, scientists conclude that the mounds were constructed when the rivers occupied the higher levels, and place the builders in, an era at least 200 or 300 B.C. In the Titanic birds, beasts and reptiles which they laid upon the earth, may be traced the existence of the totem, an institution which has been noted as still alive among the Indians of this country and Alaska. THE MEXICANS. MYTHOLOGY OF MEXICO RADITIONS disagree as to even the direction from which the aborigines came who settled upon Mexican soih The first historical race were the Toltecs, who left a written account r of their government. Their capital was Tula, a short distance north of the present City of Mexico. The Toltecs afterwards united with a ruder tribe from the north. Immigrations from the north were thereafter continuous, and with the influx came often improved methods of agriculture, the mechanical arts, and a hisjh order of civilization. From various unions of the immigrants with the settled population, republics, nations and king-doms were founded, previous to the arrival of the Aztecs, or Mexicans, the most important of them all. The supposed period of their wanderings varies from fifty to one hundred and sixty years. Traces of their journeyings exist in the remains of vast fortresses, houses and granaries in New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico. The most noted ruins are those found near Casas Grandes, a town in Chihuahua, the most northern district of Mexico. The largest edifice was built of mud mixed with grave, land seems originally to have been from three to six stories in height. For fifty or sixty miles there- from, the plain and banks of the streams are covered with similiar war- like ruins and artificial mounds. From the latter have been excavated stone axes, corn grinders and fine pottery. ITS PRIMITIVE PEOPLE. The doorways of these structures have the form of those noticed in the ruins of Central America ; and antiquarians are not wanting who would give the Aztecs a southern origin. At all events, various tribes who spoke the same language settled in the vicinity of Lake Tezcuco during the thirteenth and first part of the fourteenth century, and the Aztecs established a city therein, approached by long and narrow cause- 411 412 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. ways and defendecT by powerful fleets. They absorbed not only the first settlers, but the tribes of their own nation, and under the lead of their great military chieftain Mexi assumed a new name, and eventually gave it to millions of people. The Aztecs were cruel in the extreme, but held the reins of government with an able hand, so that when the Spaniards came their empire extended over the whole territory of the present Republic. The judicial system was very complete, but the laws were most sanguinary. For embezzlement of the taxes, the offender was put to death with all his kindred to the fourth degree. Drunkenness in youth was a capital offense. The penalty of death was the rule. The Aztecs had no system of writing. The laws, however, were few, and were represented by paintings, the judges being attended by artists who pictorially described the suits and the parties thereto. Prisoners of war were devoured or enslaved, and thousands of human victims were sacrificed to their god of war, who was at the head of their thirteen deities. Their god of the air, peaceable and benign, is said to have been driven from the country, the ruins of one of his temples being seen to this day at Cholula. The inferior deities of the Aztecs numbered several hundred. In every house, however poor, their hideous images were worshiped. Mountains, plains and cities were covered with temples erected to the gods of high and low degree, and within them were thousands of schools and colleges taught by the priests. The system which the Aztecs had for the reckoning of time was received by them from the Toltecs. Their year of 365 days was divided into eighteen months of twenty days each, with the odd days added to the last month. After the termination of a cyclfe of fifty-two years they added thirteen days, to allow for the six hours by which the tropical year exceeded their civil year. The year, month and day had each its hieroglyphic sign, and at the end of every cycle a solemn astronomical festival was held. Other features of their system of reckoning time indicated that the ancient Mexicans had some correct ideas of the revolu- tions of the sun and moon, as did the Hindus, the Persians, the Chal- deans and other Asiatic people. Agriculture and the manufacture of metals and cotton were at a high pitch of excellence. Their cotton cloth was interwoven with rabbit hair and feathers, their substitutes for wool and silk. '■ For the rapid transmission of news, towers were erected at Intervals of s'x miles along the high roads, where couriers were always In waiting for dispatches, which were transferred from hand to hand at each stage. Dispatches were thus carried 300 miles in a day." THE HOLY CROSS AND VIRGIN. 413 THE HOLY CROSS AND VIRGIN. " It is strange, )'et well authenticated and has given rise to many theories, that the symbol of the cross \Yas already known to the Indians before the arrival of Cortes. In the island of Cozumel, near Yucatan, there were several; in Yucatan itself there was a stone cross; and there, an Indian, considered a prophet among his countr)'men, had declared that a nation bearing the same as a svmbol, should arrive from a distant country. More extraordinary still was a temple dedicated to the Holy Cross by the Toltec nation in the City of Cholula. Near Tulansingo also is a cross engraved on a rock, with various characters, which the Indians, by tradition, attribute to the apostle Saint Thomas. In Oajaca also there existed a cross which the Indians from time immemorial had been accustomed to consider as a divine symbol. By order of the Bishop Cervantes, it was placed in a sumptuous chapel in the Cathedral. Information concerning its discovery, together with a small cross cut out of its wood, was sent to Rome to Paul the Fifth, who received it on his knees, singing a hymn." It is likewise remarkable that the Aztec god of war was said to have been born of a Holy Virgin, who Avas in the service of the Great Temple, and that when *-he priests would have stoned her to death, having knowl- edge of her disgrace, a voice was heard saying: "Fear not, mother, for I shall save thy honor and thy glory." -Upon which the god was born, as he is represented, with a shield in his left hand, an arrow in his right, a plume of green feathers on his head, his face painted blue and his left lee adorned with feathers. 'to AN ABORIGINAL TRIBE. In Yucatan and the adjoining districts of Mexico and Central America, the Maya Indians decidedly predominate. They retain their ancient language, which is distinct from the Toltec of Mexico, although their former system of reckoning time was the same as that which was passed down by the Toltecs to the Aztecs. The ruins of the Mayas' great temples are supposed to be found at Palenque, Mexico, although certain archaeologists insist that they are of Toltec origin ; the truth of the matter seems to have been that the two races were closely associated at one time, that they were both civilized and retained their own dis- tinctive alphabet and language, but absorbed from each other many features of their national life. The Mayas cultivated the soil and were of a commercial turn, having sailing vessels, and money consisting of shells, beans and copper ; but they flattened the heads of their infants, painted 414 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. and tattooed their bodies, filed their teeth, wore pieces of amber in their noses, and in outward appearance were savages. Their religion was bar- barous, the victims being slain with arrows and thrown into a sacred pit. Arrows, spears and copper hatchets, and an armor made of quilted cotton, with salt inside, were their war accoutrements. They had drums and wind instruments, and were fond of dancing and drinkincr a kind of mead. THE MEXICAN AS HE IS. Although the Indian population of Mexico was distributed among the Spaniards as slaves it was of so hardy a fibre that it was not crushed. Under priestly leadership, the Indians revolted from Spanish tyranny, and finally, in national congress assembled (1813), they' declared Mexico independent. The quarrels of ambitious leaders were followed by a re-establishment of Spanish authority, and by the proclamation of the Republic, in 1824. The present population consists of Indians, descendants of the early Spanish settlers and Spaniards of European birth, and mestizos or half-breeds. Two-thirds of the population is of Indian blood, and probably one- half of the descendants of the Toltecs and Aztecs now roam among the mountains of the north, without fixed habitations. The native population of the City of Mexico devote themselves to vari- ous menial occupations, such ^s those of water carriers, domestics, muleteers, and public venders. A traveler who has been there, states that the street cries of these venders are simply ear- splitting. At dawn the coal man and the grease .'^J^^ man start the concert, beingf joined somewhat later by the butcher. Then follows the woman who buys kitchen stuff, and she who proposes to exchange fruit for any hot peppers which the householder may have in stock. Their cries are drowned by a peddler with needles, pins, shirt buttons, tape, etc., and behind him stands an Indian with tempting baskets of bananas and oranges. A little woman offers "little fat cakes from the oven, hot" ; while at midday, cheese and honey and lottery chances have their noisy advocates, and towards evening " chestnuts hot and roasted," "clucks, oh my soul, hot ducks," and maize cakes. These latter are mixed with a little lime and "have been in use all through this country since the earliest ages of its history, without any change in the A MEXICAN. MINERS AND MULETEERS. 415 manner of baking them, excepting- that, for the noble Mexicans in former days, they used to be kneaded with various medicinal plants, supposed to render them more wholesome." " One circumstance must be observed by all who travel in Mexican territory. There is not one human being or passing object to be seen that is not in itself a picture, or which would not form a good subject for the pencil. The Indian women, with their plaited hair, and little children slung to their backs, their large straw hats, and petticoats of two colors — the long strings of arrieros with their loaded mules, and swarthy, wild-looking faces — the chance horseman who passes with his sarape of many colors, his high ornamented saddle, Mexican hat, silver stirrups and leathern boots — all is picturesque." MINERS AND MULETEERS. Mexico is an elevated plateau, formed by the expansion of the Cordilleras of Central America. Its climate is both tropical and tem- perate, and its products partake of both zones. Wheat, oats and corn, sugar-cane, pineapples and oranges, the ash, the mahogany, and the palm trees are all found. The chief natural wealth of Mexico, and which is being gradually re-developed by American and European enterprise, consists of its gold and silver mines. The gold mines are on the west side of the Sierra Madre Mountains, north of Durango. Silver abounds in the western declivities of most of the mountains and in the "Vela Madre" lode at Guanajuato, it has been discovered in beds of from ten to fifty yards in depth, being mixed with sulphur, antimony and arsenic. Carbonate of soda, used in smelting silver, is plentiful on the surface of many of the lakes and table lands. The common miners are, for the most part, of the Indian race. They work nearly naked, and sometimes go together in bands, taking their equal share of the "find," besides being paid a small sum by the company which is operating the mine. On issuing from the mouth of the mine, the Indians themselves divide the lumps of ore, rich and poor, into a certain number of heaps in the presence of an overseer, who determines which portion shall be given to them. There are subter- ranean offices where the tools and lanterns, or tapers, are kept. These are regularly distributed and reclaimed. The arriero, or muleteer, is an institution of Mexico, or New Spain. He is the t^'pe of honesty in a country where that commodity is at a dis- count, the most precious freight being unhesitatingly delivered to his 41 6 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. care. The Indian occasionally rises to the dignity of a proprietor, as well as a driver of mules. He has his assistants, or mozos, in whom the Indian blood always predominates. The whole cavalcade are armed with such weapons as are at hand, as a protection against bandits, who are still not unknowm. This, of course, is when the journey is to be of some distance. It sometimes happens that the arriero, when expecting to pass through a particularly dangerous- country, thinks best to engage the services of a bandit as guide and protector, and when the good silver dollars have been fairly passed over to " the gentleman of the road " the party has really no need of further uneasiness. A MEXICAN BONANZA. The American agave, which is often confounded with the aloe, is found and cultivated on the highlands of Mexico, and is especially pro- lific around the city. The plant often shoots up to a height of thirty feet, along the stem being branches of flowers, and at its summit is a crowded head of large fleshy leaves. After flowering, the plant dies, but the root continues to send up new shoots^ The leaves are from five to seven feet long, and from their fibres are made thread, paper, oakum, ropes and hammocks. Cut into slices they are also used for feeding cattle, and the juice of the leaves, or of the roots themselves, makes a very good soap. The thorns which terminate the gigantic leaves were the means by which the Aztec priests tore their bodies for religion's sake ; they were, furthermore, the nails and pins of Mexican antiquity. But, in the eyes of the natives, its chief value consists in its proper- ties as a producer of " pulque." " The moment the experienced Indian becomes aware that his maguey (so he calls it) is about to flower, he cuts out the heart, covers it over with the side leaves of the plant, and all the juice which should have gone to the great stem of the flow^er runs into the empty basin thus formed, into which the Indian, thrice a day and during several months in succession, inserts his gourd, a kind of syphon, and applying his mouth to the other end, draws off the liquor by suction. First it is called honey-water and is sweet and scentless ; but easily ferments when transferred to the skins or earthen vases where it is kept. To assist in its fermentation, however, a little old pulque is added to it, and in twentj^-four hours after it leaves the plant you may imbibe it in all its perfection. It is said to be the most wholesome drink in the world, and remarkably agreeable when one has overcome the first shock occasioned by its rancid odor. At all events the maguey is a source of unfailing profit, the consumption of pulque being enormous, so that MEXICAN SPORTS. 417 many of the richest families in the capital owe their fortune entirely to the produce of their magueys. Besides, there is a strong brandy distilled from pulque. Together with the maguey grows another immense pro- duction of nature, the ' organos,' which resembles the pipes of an organ, and being covered with prickles, and about six feet high makes the stronofest natural fence imaginable." MEXICAN SPORTS. Though no more elevating than a prize fight, a bull fight is the nat. ional sport in Mexico as it is in Spain, A greater variety of classes countenance it, or rather thoroughly enjoy it, than in the United States applaud the brute contest of man with man. Mexican bulls are much smaller than those of Spain, but when one bounds into the ring, lashing his tail, rolling his wild eyes, finally fixing them upon the matadors and picadors, armed with their colored scarfs and their lances, and with head down dashes furiously at them, now pricked with their weapons, now maddened by exploding fire-crackers, now lifted off his feet and rolled in the dust by a mounted picador, now crushing a horseman to the ground, bellowing, covered with blood, fran- tically charging at nothing, at bay, waiting for renewed strength, stuck full of darts, stabbed to his death, still fighting off the darkness, stag- gering, dead — when a Mexican bull is thus goaded, and so desperately and hopelessly strives for life and revenge, few would wish for a mam- moth brute of Andalusia or Castile to prolong the contest. . The ceremony of stamping the bulls with the owner's name is a great treat for the country people, and especially the Indians, who assemble for miles around to see the sight. They occupy every tree and point of ground overlooking the enclosure, while within, out of harm's way, a platform is erected for agents and small farmers, with their gayly dressed wives and daughters. The men themselves, who are the principals, are not averse to show, as witness the silver rolls and gold linings of their hats, new deerskin pantaloons and embroidered jackets with silver buttons. Well, sometimes nearly a thousand bulls are driven in from the plains, and then three or four at a time are forced into the enclosure, where the men are impatiently waiting with their lassoes to receive them. Although the bellowing brutes frequently wound or kill their men, their ultimate fate is inevitable. They are thrown to the ground, and although they dash their heads against it in rage and despair, they are branded with the evidence of their serfdom. Some of the bulls, when fairly conquered, seem too proud to utter a 4l8 - PANORAMA OF NATIONS. sound ; others, when the iron enters their flesh, burst out into roars \vliich start the echoes for miles around. After a great number of the bulls have been caught and branded, it is customary for the spectators to be treated to a bull feast. The dead animal is given by the proprie- tor to the torcadores, and buried by them in a fire-hole. It is then covered with earth and branches, and left to bake. Cock-fighting is as fashionable a sport in Mexico as bull-fight- ing. The exhibition is attended by ladies of the highest society, who sit in boxes around the pit, betting with the gentlemen on their favor- ites. Their toilet is brilliant, and the men promenade around the circle, attired, whatever their station, in short jackets. " The President of the Republic, his suite and a sprinkling of foreign ministers were in attend- ance"; — this would not be so remarkable a truth to state. As a small knife is fastened to the leg of each bird, the fights are sometimes short and most bloody, the spectators clapping their hands and otherwise giving way to their enthusiasm when a more than usually brilliant stroke is delivered. THE CITY OF MEXICO. The approach to the city, which stands on an extensive plateau surrounded by lofty mountains, is grand in the extreme. The general figure of the valley of Mexico is an irregular oval, sixty by thirty-five miles, and in the center is the city itself, around which cluster so many memories of the ancient empire of the Aztecs. Its area of more than 1700 square miles, includes five lakes. Once within the city, the most striking features are the great Plaza Mayor, pronounced one of the finest squares in the Western world, and its broad, raised, paved streets, lined with double rows of trees, extending far out into the country and all converging at the public square. In the times of Montezuma three causeways led from his capital to firm land, the streets were intersected with canals and all around were thousands of skimming canoes, which were the principal means of com- munication with the outside empire. Only one of the canals — that of Chalco — is now maintained. The causeways remain, enlarged, and there are several other new ones, some of them being lined with pop- lars. They became, in fact, the groundwork of more than one grand thoroughfare, for which the city is noted, and along two of them, those of Tacuba and Chapultepec, fresh water is brought from the mountains. The aqueduct of Chapultepec is over two miles in length and that of Sante Fe six miles. The hill of Chapultepec formerly sprung from near the margin of the lake, and at its foot are still the remains of an ancient garden, now a tangled labyrinth of myrtle, jessamine and sweet HOLY WEEK. 419 peas, from which peep out stained marble fountams, fish-ponds and baths. The garden encircles the base of the rock, which is about a mile in circumference, and is, all in all, a sad but beautiful memento of the days when Montezuma retreated to its solitudes, even when the Spanish invaders were marching- rapturously toward his Venetian capital. Within the Plaza Mayor of the city is a magnificent cathedral, erected on the ruins of the wonderful temple of the Aztec God Mixitli. It is adorned with the " Kallenda," a circular stone covered with hiero- glyphics representing the months of the year. This is a mass of por- phyry, 24 tons in weight. The ancient temple included not only the site of the cathedral and the plaza, but much of the outlying territory, for its massive stone walls are said to have included five hundred dwell- ings and colleges for the priests and seminaries for the priestesses, mys- terious minor temples and sanctuaries, consecrated fountains, gardens •of holy flowers, towers built of human skulls, and squares designed for religious dances. We are told that " five thousand priests chanted night and day in the great Temple, to the honor and in the service of the monstrous idols, who were anointed thrice a day with the most pre- cious perfumes, and that of these priests the most austere were clothed in black, their long hair dyed with ink, and their bodies anointed with the ashes of burnt scorpions and spiders." The Christian cathedral is gothic in form, with two lofty towers, the ■entire structure being richly ornamented with gold, silver and precious stones. Inside is a quaint balustrade of brass and silver, which was brought from China. This, with a few kneeling I ndian women and beggars, some of them lepers, includes the usual sights of the interior. In the courtyard, without, is a large stone, hollowed in the middle, upon which the ancient Mexican was held by six Aztec priests, while the seventh cut open his breast, and, with a golden spoon, put his heart into the mouth of the idol. It has been surmised that this is the " exceedingly great stone " which was found by the Mexicans as late as the reign of Monte- zuma, when it was recorded that it was brought to the capital with great labor and pomp for the sacrifices, on which occasion 12,210 victims were immolated. The stone is a cylindrical mass of porphyry, twenty-five feet in circumference, covered both on the surface and sides with sculp- tures in relief. The palace of the Cortez, in the same square, is a vast irregular structure containing goverment offices, schools and public institutions of various kinds, but is falling into decay. Nearly a hundred churches and convents, theaters, and a circus for bull-fights, Avith memories of b)'e-gone ilays clinging to every square mile of the city and its suburbs, deserted 420 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. houses, gardens and chapels, and miraculous Spanish tales springing up from countless spots of holy ground — such is the region which is so filled up with strange contrasts of the old and the new, of worldliness, religion and superstition. HOLY WEEK. Holy Week in Mexico collects every element of the republic's population. Inside the great cathedral, on Palm Sunday, a dense for- est is gently waving ; for an army of half-naked Indians have brought their branches of palms with them, and are swaying, expectantly, under the knowledge that the priests will soon approach. Each palm, which is dried and ingeniously plaited, is about six feet high, and when it has been blessed, will be carried home and placed reverently upon the wall of the little hut. On Holy Thursday all of Mexico is in the streets, showing its best clothes ; for no carriages are permitted abroad. There are rich sefioras in velvets, satins, diamonds and pearls ; women of lower rank in richly embroidered muslins, lace trimmed petticoats and white satin shoes ; others showing their Indian blood in feature as well as by their gay- colored petticoats and garments; handsome peasant women, attired as richly as any ; graceful children, with their masses of hair plaited and falling down their backs, their costumes determined by diverse tastes ; men of all nationalities, French, German, American, Spanish ; the Mexican with his large hat and embroidered jacket ^ — -all are at the capital to enjoy themselves, and most of them to suspend their jabberings, quarrelings and flirtations, and fall upon their knees at the approach of anything which is considered holy. Around the great square the scene is bewild- ering, especially at sunset of Good Friday, when the Procession of the Cross attracts tens of thousands of devout Catholics from all the huts and palaces of the country. The poor Indians appear again in force; the men in their blankets, the women trotting along, their black hair plaited with dirty red ribbon, a piece of woolen cloth wrapped around them, and a little mahogany baby hanging behind, its face upturned to the sky and its head jerking vigorously, but escaping dislocation. The same scenes, only on a smaller scale, are repeated In the country villages. They have their market-places and little churches, monasteries and high-walled gardens, narrow lanes, Indian huts, roses and trees, and the scenes in Christ's life portrayed by living actors in the most public places. The holy dramas and the festivities are accom- panied by good music; which would not be expected of every American village, though It Is true of every Mexican town. Music, It has been said, is a sixth sense in Alexico. FEMALE BEAUTY. FEMALE BEAUTY. 421 Those who have investigated the subject of female beauty are posi- tive that the most comely Indians are not found in the towns but in the country. Even those who come to the city with their fruit and vegeta- bles, although very gentle and polite, are not as a rule beautiful. Occasionally, however, there flashes out from this general monotony a face and form, soft and yet dark-hued ; wonderful black eyes and hair, pearly teeth, and delicately molded hands and feet, arms and bust alive with lines of beauty- — such a vision as might have captivated Cortes himself, and which may be a modern wit- ^^_ ness to the far-famed beauty of the ancient Aztec women of noble blood. It is said that the Indians (men) near ^^B the City of Mexico, are, many of them, of J noble Aztec blood, although, outwardly, they seem as degraded as the natives of the country districts. The existence of enormous hidden wealth is even reported J: among some of these rag^ored and-bare- K footed specimens. i- The wives and daughters of farmers, %_ who ride into market on horseback sitting ^— in front of their servants, are, at times, ^- charming types of bright, healthy beauty, but it is seldom that one is startled with w an apparition of beauty. Usually the women of the better classes acquire a coarseness and a corpulence in early life because of the quantities of meat and sweatmeats which are consumed in so mild a climate. Indian women can not afford it. Their diet is mild and more suited to the country, and they take sufficient fresh air and exercise to shade down any natural tendency to cor- pulency. The native woman is etherialized, also, by her love for flowers which seems to be an undying passion born in the Mexican blood. In the market-places she often loads her little stand of green branches with bright-hued flowers, which she sells if she can, and with which she be- decks herself if she does not find a purchaser. Many of the Indian A MEXICAN GIRL. 42 2 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. women bring their fruit and vegetaoies by way of the canal, and their canoes, as they ghde along, seem moving gardens of sweet peas, poppies and roses, each with a flower-goddess in the center. In the evening, after they have disposed of their regular "truck," they crown themselves with garlands, and start, singing, on their homeward journey. In the village churches, floor, walls, and altar are decorated with these fresh trophies, and a christening, a marriage and a funeral are occasions where the Indian woman buries herself and all around her in nature's choicest eifts of the earth. t>' IN THE SUBURBS. Before the Aztecs nad acquired dominion over the other tribes and states they were obliged to live not only upon the natural islands of Lakes Tezcuco and Chalco, but upon land which they formed by weaving to- gether the roots of plants and twigs, placing upon this soft soil, which they drew from the bottom of the lake, and upon this ground sowing their maize, chili and other necessary plants. Flowers and herbs followed, and the lakes were soon dotted with floating gardens, which became gems of pure beauty, when Tenochtitlan was the mighty capital of the Aztec empire. The once floating gardens have now become fixtures in the marshy grounds between the two lakes. They are covered with cauliflowers, chili, tomatoes, cabbages and other vegetables, intermixed with flowers. The gardens are separated by narrow trenches of water, and each has its small Indian hut and flower-loving, musical occupants. Tinkling guitars, children and adults, garlanded with roses and poppies and gaily dancing, jars of pulque and long festoons of dried and salted beef, are elements which may be combined in various ways to make up home and out-door pictures of life in this vicinity. Unfortunately, the stronger brandy is apt to succeed the mild pulque, and the music, sing-r ing and dancing. A drunken brawl, the flash of a knife in one of the little huts, or on the sward outside, a cry of pain and a corpse, is fre- quently the finis of this Arcadian picture. These Indian huts have usually mud floors, and small altars, with palm leaf branches or leaves (which have been blessed) in one corner. The Virgin is generally represented by a collection of daubs on one wall. The other decorations are earthen vessels, a few tough, half- naked children and some dirty dogs. The Indian woman is within, or she may be off to work, having left her pots, children and dogs to take care of themselves. The hut of the Indian who lives far from the city is often built of THE CENTRAL AMERICANS. 42 -> light bamboo frames, thatched with palmetto leaves, not only on the roof but on the sides, and divided into two or three compartments by coarse screens of grass matting. THE CENTRAL AMERICANS. The republics of Costa Rica, Gautemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and San Salvador, and the English Colony of Balize, or British Hon- duras, constitute Central America. The population of the country is similar to that of Mexico, and aside from its charming birds and hid- eous reptiles, interest has centered in the territory as a field of investiga- tion for the antiquarian, and the civil engineer prospecting for a route for an inter-oceanic canal. Central America was subdued by one of Cortes' lieutenants, and the five colonies did not become independent until 1823. REMAINS OF KINGDOMS. The ruins whose structure stamps them as the most primitive of those found in South America are those of Copan, Honduras. They are in the form of terraces, or pyramids, upon which were erected mas- sive buildings, approached by broad staircases. When these structures were several stories in height, each story was smaller than the preceding one, so that the building itself had the form of a pyramid. The fronts were covered with stucco, or carved into elaborate figures and designs, while the interiors were divided into narrow corridors and chambers, richly ornamented with stucco work and carvings, and containing mys- terious tablets, idols and altars. Grand monoliths, or upright stones, arise from the areas between the temples. In the islands of Lake Nicaragua, like evidences of a pre-historic worship and civilization occur, as do also more primitive marks of life, such as rude mounds of earth and uncut stones. The general appearance of all these ancient structures from Mexico to Chili, forces the conviction upon one's mind that they were built not only as temples and dwelling-houses, but as fortresses. At Palenque, near the Central American frontier, is a series of remarkable ruins, consisting of terraces of cut stone, surmounted by edifices whose walls and interior are covered with figures in stucco and hieroglyphics. The Palace, which stands on a terraced pyramid, is faced with cut stone, being 310 feet long and 260 feet broad. Its face was evidently once covered with stucco, and brightly painted. In the large courts are numbers of tablets, and one of stone which represents a figure seated cross-legged like Buddha. The pavements are skillfully constructed of large blocks of stone. 424 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. THE HONDURANS. The proportion of Indians among the Hondurans is not as large as that of Guatemala, and they show no such encouraging advances. The whole of the eastern portion of the Republic is given over to aboriginal tribes, who are believed to be related to the once blood-thirsty and powerful Caribs who resisted the Spaniards with such ferocity in the Lesser Antilles and on the mainland of South America. Numbers of them have embraced the Catholic faith, and now devote themselves to agriculture. The " Black Caribs " are a tribe who have largely inter- married with negroes. Formerly held as slaves by the Spaniards, they broke away from their bondage, and, in early times, combined into bands which were as great a terror to the country as the pure Caribs themselves. The western portions of Honduras are generally occupied by the descendants of early Spanish settlers, who live upon the sea coast or on extensive estates in the interior. Here cattle, horses and mules upon the plains find good pasturage, but both live-stock and land are neglected on account of the scarcity of laborers. The most attention is given to the mules, as they perform almost all the carrying trade of the country. Honduras is rich in the precious metals, her silver mines being found in the west, in combination with iron, lead and copper. Gold is in the east and in the west, but few mines are now worked. Copper mines are numerous. Beautiful marble abounds. But the same old story must be told. Civil disturbances and a lazy people have retarded the development of the country, materially and intellectually. Honduras has upon her coasts, especially those of the Caribbean Sea, the most commodious harbors of Central America. THE NICARAGUANS. The population of the Nicaraguan Republic consists of a mixture of whites and Indians, negroes and Indians, whites and blacks, and of pure-blooded Indians. The Indians of pure blood outnumber all the rest, their special country being the basins of Lakes Nicaragua and Managua and the Pacific coast. A number of uncivilized tribes occupy the river basins of the Atlantic slope and have a reservation along the coast. Those who have settled along the Pacific coast are of Aztec descent. Unlike many other American republics, the mainstay of Nicaragua is its Indian element, the natives being sober and industrious, tending the large herds of cattle, mules and horses which are raised, and also THE GAUTEM ALANS. 425 cultivating- the large plantations of cocoa, sugar-cane and coffee, which are principally owned by Europeans on the Pacific slope. Two or three crops of the small but juicy sugar-cane are raised annually. Maize is the principal food of the civilized natives, and two bountiful harvests are gathered from their own lands every year. A favorite article of food with the wild Indians who live along the rivers and in the swamps of Eastern Nicaragua is the iguana, a lizard Avhich grows to be four or five feet long, the tail being two-thirds of its length. Its flesh is delicate but said to be unwholesome. It passes most of its time in trees, where it is caught by the sly Indian with slip nooses. When the Spanish conquerors entered the country they found a powerful chief on the borders of Lake Nicaragua, named Nicarao. The lake was named after him " Nicarao agua," and from the combination of the two words we obtain the present name. The Nicaraguans are Roman Catholics, and their republican form of gQy,ernment does not materially differ from that of other Central American States. Their most serioys disturbances were with Great Britai.nt-and on account of civil wars. England wished to obtain a protectorate over the eastern coast, and had obtained a foothold in the territory formerly occupied by native tribes under the name of the Mosquito Nation. This is now the reservation, of which mention has been made. One of the chiefs who died as king of the nation passed over his scepter to the English agent at Balize, or British Honduras. The Central American republics protested against Great Britain extending its protectorate over this territory and were joined by the United States. Nicaragua thus became the protector of the Mosquito Nation, with the understanding that she was not to interfere with the administrative authority of the native king and chiefs, who were in turn to acknowledge the government of the republic. Civil war once (1855) divided the Nicaraguans into two parties, each having its own capital, and they have not been backward in participating in the many quarrels between sister republics. THE GUATEMALANS. Guatemala has about a million and a half of people, and two-thirds of its population is Indian. When the Spaniards came to conquer the country they found the greater portion of the present territory occupied by the powerful native kingdom of the Quiches. For six days the invaders fought with its army of more than 200,000 warriors, who only yielded with the death of their king. The City of Quiches is now 426 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. in ruins, but the district which the Quiches occupy is the most populous in Guatemala and the inhabitants as intelligent as any in the republic. Their ancient language is still in use. The Quiches are described as an " active, courageous race, whose heads never grow gray, persevering in their industry, skillful in almost every department of art, good workers in iron and precious metals, generally well dressed, neat in person, with a firm step and independent bearing, and altogether constituting a class of citizens who only require to be better educated to rise equal to the best." And it would seem that the grovernment had taken the matter in charge throughout the republic. The public-school system is in force- although until of late years the educational institutions were generally supported by the private contributions of wealthy citizens, and were mostly confined to the capital. Well-to-do citizens of other states were in the habit of sending their children to Guatemala City to be educated- This is more or less the case at the present time. The government- however, is giving its own money to the cause, so that the public schools have become a part of it. Education is compulsory, and parents or guardians who do not allow their children private instruction are required to send them to the o^raded schools. No such diversity of costume is found among the people of Guate- mala as among the Mexicans. The higher cl,'\sses, so-called, dress like Europeans, the garb of the men of Indian and mixed blood being chiefly a short woolen jacket, cotton pantaloons, a palm-leaf hat covered with oilcloth, and a shawl of many colors. The Indian women draw a piece of blue cotton cloth around the body above the hips, and occasionally a white embroidered chemise; and their hair, which is wound around the temples, is interbraided with a red cord. Guatemala is considered the finest city in Central America, stand- ing upon a plateau which occupies the extremity of a broad plain, upon each side of the town being a volcano. As earthquakes are frequent,, the houses are of one story. Fronting on one side of the largest square is a large cathedral and archiepiscopal palace. In the center is a foun- tain, one of many which are supplied with water from a distance of nine miles. Much of this square is occupied by rows of little huts, in which pottery, agave thread, iron utensils and other native manufactures are displayed for sale, the renting of the booths forming a portion of the municipal revenue. Guatemala abounds in churches and other religious structures, and although the better classes of private dwellings are low, they are tastefully decorated and surrounded by large courtyards, with fountains, orange and oleander trees. In the center of another of the COSTA RICA. 427 city squares is an elegant theater, surrounded also by statues, fountains and flowering trees. Old Guatemala was destroyed in 1 541, by a flood of water from the volcano at whose base its ruins exist. Later the rebuilt city was de- stroyed by an earthquake. The work of reconstruction is still progress- ing, as the town is situated in the midst of a rich cochineal district. But both new and old Gautemala are evidences more of Spanish than of native life, and, as such, we must leave them. COSTA RICA. This, geographically, is the last of the Central American republics, and more than any of the other four is a Spanish state, there being only a few thousand Indians in the entire country. Most of the inhabitants are of pure Spanish descent, the first settlers coming from Galicia, in the north of Spain. The Indians chiefly occupy the Atlantic coast and are, probably, of the Carib stock. There are also small tribes at the headwaters of the San Juan and in some of the unexplored districts. The Costa Ricans are enterprising, and enthusiastic advocates of railroads, telegraph lines and other public works, which exist in various stages of completion. The revenues of the government have not been sufficient to successfully prosecute their enterprises, and the country is considerably in debt. THE SAN SALVADORIANS. The natives of this brisk little republic are more than half of Indian blood; many of them are. debarred from, exercising the right of suffrage, however, by the provision of the republic's constitution which makes a non-voter of a domestic. Other disqualifications consist of being with- out legal occupation, contracting debts fraudulently, owing money to the State, entering the service of a foreign power, or being of a notori- ously bad character. The president, representatives and senators must own a certain amount of property. The geographical position of San Salvador has been the means of forcing her into nearly every quarrel which has agitated the republics of Central America, but she has ad- vanced in spite of her many disturbances so that she is really a very pros- perous little state. The foreign trade of the country, especially in coffee and indigo, is rapidly growing ; she is improving her cart roads throughout the territory ; encouraging railroads and agriculture ; throwing open her unoccupied lands, which have been held by municipalities, to settlers ; and establishing schools and colleges for both sexes, as well as nicrht schools for tradesmen. 428 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. San Salvador, the capital of the republic, is in a very active vol- cano district. In 1854 the city was almost completely destroyed, many of its 30,000 people perishing. Most of its public buildings and dwell- ing houses fell into the cruel jaws of the earth in 1872, and when the plucky natives decided to rebuild on the site which had been chosen 350 years previous, they were about to make the eighth attempt to keep above ground. The city is still the center of the republic's political and educational life, containing a university and a well-organized sys- tem of public schools. In the neighborhood are extensive sugar and indigo plantations, and numerous hot springs. SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS. HE foundation of all the countries of South America is the native Indian population. The conquests and colonizations of the Spanish and Portuguese reared upon this a superstructure of civilization, the foreigner intermarrying, to a great extent, with the Indian. When these countries declined in power the native blood asserted itself, and with the added strength of European life, republics and kingdoms have been formed which are marching on with vigor and intelligence. The purest type of South American Indians is now found in Patagonia and Brazil. THE PATAGONIANS. Patagonia, in fact, can hardly be said to have a history. Early voyagers represented the inhabitants as of gigantic size, insisting that they averaged eight or nine feet in height. But later investigations have proved that although they are among the tallest races in the world, the men average only five feet eleven inches. They are powerful in proportion to their size, with large heads, high cheek bones, black eyes and straight, coarse, black hair, separated in front by a band and falling over the shoulders and back. The men go nearly naked, except in the south where they wear a mantle of skins sewed together, with a hole for the head and extending below the knee. Naturally the women are smaller than their lords. Their head-dress is a beaded patch of cloth, from which the hair falls in two long braids. Huge earrings, armlets, and anklets and a woolen garment, hanging from the shoulders to below the knees, complete their costume. Like many North American Indians the Patagonians paint their bodies with earth and eradicate every hair from the face. In a country of stunted vegetation, with the exception of huge marine weeds ; in a country where wheat and barley will not germinate within less than three years, — it is natural that the Patagonian should greatly depend upon the bountiful water for sustenance. Whales, otters, seals, shell fish and salmon, and, above water, all kinds of fowl, tax their 42y 430 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. ingenuity and activity ; and when they hunger for meat, and have no sheep themselves, they make a descent upon Argentine territory. In the north the Patagonians not only are admirable horsemen but own herds of their own, which they lasso on the great central plains of the country. Wild cattle and ostriches, which roam the same tracts, are not only brought to earth with the lasso, but with the bolas. This mis- sile consists of two balls covered with leather and united by a thin plaited thong, varying in length from six to eight feet. The Patagonian holds one of the balls in his right hand, whirls the other round his head, and when sufficient momentum has been obtained sends them whirling like chain shot through the air: Striking the legs of an animal, the thong is tightly wound about them, rendering escape impossible. The balls may be of stone, iron or wood. Those of iron, usually small, are projected an amazing distance. The other weapons used by the Pata- gonians are the lance, sling, bow and arrow. THE WEAK TERRA DEL FUEGIANS. As the dreary regions of the South are approached, cattle and horses even commence to disappear. The latter are extinct long before you reach Terra del Fuego, the island across Magellan Straits. And not only this, but human beings themselves do not thrive in this inhos- pitable clime, becoming small and weak. So we find that the Fuegians, or natives of Terra del Fuego, although of the same race as the Patagonians, are mere patch-works of humanity. They have no ambition or energy, and barely subsist on the shell fish which are caught in the gigantic sea-weed which clogs every indentation of the coast or straits. A seal or guanaco skin is their cloth- ing. Their huts, built near the shore, consist of branches of trees stuck in the earth, about eight feet in diameter and half that in height, with a small hole for a door. Although broad-chested, their limbs are withered and emaciated, and on account of the squatting position which they always assume when at rest, the skin over the knee joint becomes permanently stretched, and, when they stand, hangs in unsightly folds. It is strange that although they exist in so severe a climate they should neglect to provide themselves with necessary coverings. A guanaco or a sealskin thrown over the shoulders, or perhaps confined around the Avaist by a girdle, with slight fillets about the head, comprise the clothing of the men. The females are covered a little more com. pletely, and carry their infants In a loose fold of their guanaco robes above the belt. THE WEAK TERRA DEL FUEGIANS. 43 1 Their canoes are roughly constructed of bark, and in the center of e^ch a fire is ever kept burning, upon a bed of sand or clay. Fire is obtained by striking sparks from iron pyrites, with which the island abounds, upon a tinder of dried moss, but after the flame is once obtained the aim is to keep it alive in the boat, which is, virtually, the home. They raise no vegetable food and all that the Fuegians can procure to vary their animal diet of fish, seals and shell fish, are the sea weed we have mentioned, a few berries, such as the cranberry and the berry of the arbutus, and a fungus, like the oak-apple, which grows on the birch tree. With the exception of these spontaneous productions, and dead whales thrown occasionally upon the coast, the remainder of their food must be obtained by their own perseverance, activity and sagacity. The natives of Terra del Fuego use bows and arrows, short bone- headed lances, clubs and slings, in war or in the chase. In hunting the guanaco, otter, etc., they are assisted by a breed of dogs which they have domesticated and trained. Being perpetually in motion, in order to barely sustain a miserable existence, the Fuegians have neither houses (which warrant the namie) nor storehouses in which to keep provisions for times of famine. When great storms cut them off from the sea, all that they may have to depend upon, in the way of substantial, is a quantity of blubber which, fortunately, they have buried in the sand. A story is told of a party of natives, who were in a famishing state, being relieved by certain mem- bers of the tribe who had secretly buried some blubber four "sleeps," as they say, or four days' journey away. The succoring party returned, ready to drop with exhaustion, each man wearing two or three huge pieces of half putrid blubber as necklaces. The Fuegians are physically and intellectually degraded, but, as is apt to be the case with the lowest savages, their powers of mimicry, and the kind of memory which forms its basis, are wonderfully developed. Though they fail to comprehend a single word they will repeat whole sentences correctly, and they have been known to follow the tones of the violin through a long series of cords with the utmost precision. They are remarkably sensitive to loud sounds, fire-arms are terrible to them, and they usually address each other in whispers. The belief in a Being embodied in a great black man, who wanders about the woods and mountains, sends them weather accordingf to their deeds, and who is acquainted with their smallest action, is the extent of their religion. They have mysterious dreams and omens, with official interpreters, and are, as a race, like a collection of ignorant, half-starvedj timid children. 432 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. THE PATAGONIANS AGAIN. The Patagonians proper, on the other hand, beHeve in the Author of all Good, and the Evil One, who wanders to and fro on the face of the earth. Both men and women are diviners, but are gradully losino- ground ; the natives are becoming more in- telligent and are com- mencing to doubt their ability to see through the surface of the earth into its bowels. They have two festivals a year, one in honor of each of their divinities. The Good Spirit of the Patagonians is believed by them to reside in a certain hill, ricar the Cordillera Mountains, which they will point out to you, and from which he dispersed all the Indians and animals of the world. But, as has been stated; 'their idea is that he has be- come careless of their welfare, while Gualichu, or the Evil One, is wide- awake and actively seek- ing whom he may get into his toils. In camp, the Devil is always wait- inof behind each toldo, or house, hoping to be able to create some mischief. They have their sacred animals and those of evil repute. There Is a bird which is common on the slopes of the Cordilleras, and which utters a weird cry. If the sound is heard over a house, it is dreaded as n 13 > > o o •z DRESS AND HORSE GEAR. 433 the forerunner of sickness or death. This bird is considered sacred. A two-headed guanaco (llama) also holds the same place in their minds. On the other hand, when they see a certain lizard, which mysteriously lames their horses, they kill it as coming from the Evil One, The tick- ing of a watch is regarded as the voice of the hidden Gualichu. Superstitious as they are, they do not rely upon the wizard, impli- citly, to drive out the household devil, or sickness. They have an intimate acquaintance with the properties of many herbs, and practice blood-letting, not only to cure complaints but to prevent them. Unlike the Fuegians, the Patagonians are vigorous livers and have plenty of meat to eat. They are excessively fond of horse-flesh, which they eat with salt, almost raw, and sustain their vigor by habitual draughts of animal blood. In a word, two more startling physical con- trasts of the same people, and living side by side, can not be found in the universe. The Patagonians evidently expect totake their tremendous appetites with them, for not only do they slaughter the horse of the deceased that the pleasures of the chase may be continued, but they leave upon the o-rave several animals to be used as food. Their funerals are conducted with great solemnity, and their festivals and dances with an equal degree of hilarity. A reed fife is their principal musical instrument, although the women play upon a sort of tamborine and sing a few measures ta encourage the dance. The men also beat a rude kind of drum. DRESS AND HORSE GEAR. The men's heads are thickly covered with long hair, which is care- fully brushed and dressed by some female at least once a day, and bound with a colored fillet. This practice obtains principally among the south- ern tribes. The performance of the men's toilet is a very important part of home life, and the wife, daughter or sweetheart who does the sweet duty is careful to burn every hair that is brushed out, that no enemy shall obtain it and work a bad spell upon her hero. She then paints his face black or white, according as to whether he is a mourner or a fighter. Tattooing the forearm is accomplished by puncturing it with a bodkin and inserting a mixture of blue earth with a piece of glass. The women's hair is not as long as the men's, and is worn in two braids. Upon special occasions they weave into it horse hair, blue beads and silver pendants, which make it both longer and more attractive than it would naturally be. With all their rough traits, Patagonians, both male and female, 28 434 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. have a strong sense of decency, which they evince in the matter of wear- ing apparel. They both wear their great mantles, with cloth under-gar- ments, and boots made of horse's skin or from the leg of a large puma, drawn on as hig-h as the knee and fastened around the foot. In wet or snowy weather hide overshoes are worn, and the apparent size of the ex- tremities, thus attired, may account for the name which the Spaniards gave them — Patagon, or "big feet." Boots are seldom worn in camp and in riding they are secured with bright colored garters of woven material, or with bands of hide with hug-e silver buckles. Very young children run about naked; the older ones wear the uni- versal mantle, and some of them have tiny boots made of the fore-legs of the guanaco. A baby's cradle is made of wicker work, strengthened with hide thongs, is covered, and rests upon the saddle-gear of the mother when the tribe are on the move. It is often ornamented with bells or little metal plates. Both sexes are fond of ornaments, the women wearing huge ear- rings, and the men necklaces, besides decorating their weapons and rid- ing gear with silver. The paint which is smeared over their faces, and sometimes the entire bodies, is not invariably in the line of decoration but is employed as a preventive against chapped and raw skins. The Patagonian saddle consists of two side pieces of timber, fash- ioned with a hand-adze to the shape of the horse's back, to which are lashed two angular limbs of trees, and over all is sewed a guanaco hide divested of its wool. The stirrups are suspended by strips of hide from the holes bored in the front saddle-trees, being generally made of a piece of hard wood fixed into a raw-hide thong, or sometimes of wood bent into a triangular shape. The bit in common use is a simple bar, of either wood or iron, covered at either end with two flaps of stout hide, from which two thongs extend under the horse's jaw, the reins also being secured to the hide flaps. Two pieces of hard wood, with sharpened nails in the ends, are the spurs. " Caligi " are straps used by the Pata- gonians for securing the legs of horses not thoroughly broken, so that they will stand. WORK OF BOTH SEXES. Although not so common as in the olden times before the introduc- tion of fire-arms, chain and hide armor is still often worn by Patagonian warriors. The latter is thickly studded with silver. If the warrior is wealthy he has his silver buckles, garters and beads, all made from the silver dollars which have been received at the settlements in exchange for native goods. Knives and axes are made by the Patagonians out of AMUSEMENTS. 435 any piece of metal of requisite size which falls into their hands. Their tools generally are files, small adzes, and perhaps a pair of scissors or an old chisel, obtained by theft, barter or from a shipwreck. A woman's most continuous occupation, when in camp, consists in the preparing of mantles. The skins are first dried in the sun, scraped with pieces of flint or glass fixed into a handle, smeared over with g'rease and liver kneaded into a pulp, and after being softened by hand are cut into pieces, and nicely dovetailed. The pieces are sewed together so as to form halves of mantles, and painted with red ochre, dotted and lined with black and blue paint. The parts are all joined together after the skin is perfectly dry. When a young man is married this work of manufacturing his mantles or trousseau is more than usually brisk. Besides the guanaco mantles, which are most generally worn, others are made from the skins of the fox, puma, skunk, and wild cat, the fur of the last two animals being the most valuable. These, however, are intended for barter, not for use. There are also the fillets, made from the threads of stuff obtained at the settlements, scarfs for the waist, and • garters ; all of which the women make, besides sewing the skins together for the tents, scraping and painting horses hides for the beds, fashioning the reed bolsters for the high saddles, cooking the food, smashing the marrow bones, extracting the grease, fetching wood and water, taking care of the children, and many extras when the band change their ■encampment. AMUSEMENTS. The amusements of the Patas^onians are almost confined to horse- racing, card-playing and gambling with dice. They do everything in earnest, and their gambling debts, whether a dozen fine mares or a bit of tobacco, are scrupulously discharged. The women, even, play cards, staking their clothing, horse gear or husband's property on the result of the games. The game called Knucklebones, which the boys so thoroughly enjoy, and in which their elders sometimes take part, is our game of marbles, played with bones and "for keeps." The young men have a game of hand-ball which they play with a sphere of hide stuffed Avith feathers. THE CHILDREN. The education of Patagronian children, which commences almost from infancy, is calculated to keep their minds active and their bodies healthy. Both girls and boys learn to ride almost as soon as they can Avalk. The boy commences to practice- with his little lasso and bolas 436 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. upon the hunting dogs and other domestic subjects almost as soon as he can talk, while his sister imitates the women, and when yet in her lisp- ing period is able to sit under her own small tent, which she has made out of stray bits of skin and sewed together with a sharpened nail. As PATAGONIAN DANCERS. infants the chief allots to them their own horses and gear, which their own parents can not take away from them. Should a child die, its steed, fully caparisoned, is strangled with a lasso, and its saddle, cradle and all belonging to it are burned. The women cry and sing during the ceremony, while parents often add many of their own valuables to the ENTERING SOCIETY, 437 fire. Upon the occasion of the death of an only child of rich parents, fourteen horses and mares were once slaughtered, in addition to the one it had been accustomed to travel on. On the death of an adult the same wholesale destruction of personal property goes on, the body being sewed up in a mantle, or coat of mail, and buried in a sitting posture with its face to the east. With some of the tribes it is a religious duty never to mention the name of the deceased after he is buried. ENTERING SOCIETY. Among some of the tribes, when a girl arrives at the marriageable age the event is celebrated by knocking several horses on the head with a hand bolas, and cooking their blood mixed with ostrich grease. The feast progresses during the day and a dance is inaugurated in the eve- ning. A tent has been made, guarded by lances placed in front, and adorned with brass plates, bells and streamers ; within the tent is the maiden who is to be brought out into society. Toward dusk a fire is made near the maiden's tent, and a number of chiefs, daubed over with white paint, dance around and almost into the fire, the spectators of both sexes looking on. Before the exercises are completed all the men and boys are allowed to show their most fanc)^ steps, four or five drums keeping up the necessary music. The maiden is supposed to witness the performance from the sacred precincts of her tent, choosing from the participants her future husband. The damsel is not obliged to marry until she has secured some one entirely to her liking. Even then the parents retain the right of veto, if they are not satisfied with the suitor or his proffered gifts of horses and silver ornaments. If all is satisfactory, gifts between the suitor and the parents are exchanged, and the girl is escorted by the bridegroom to his house. The event is celebrated by more slaughtering and eating of mares, and in this case the head, backbone, tail, heart and liver are offered to the Evil Spirit from the top of a neighboring hill. HUNTING OSTRICHES, GUANACOS, ETC. Even when an encampment is moving through the country the hunting goes on in a systematic manner. At daylight the leader of the band comes out of his toldo, or tent, and in a loud tone of voice delivers an oration, intermixed with commands and exhortations, describing the order of march, locating the hunting grounds, and la)'ing out the pro- gramme generally. Then the young men and boys lasso the horses ; 438 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the women load some with tents, blankets, babies, pet dogs, and with the various household implements ; mount by means of a sling around the animals' necks, and start off, in single file, across the plains. Their line of march is the base line of the hunting operations. Having seen the cavalcade well on its way, the men start out and gallop around a certain area of country, lighting fires at regular intervals,, that the exact path of the journey may be known to those who follow. The circle gradually closes, and finally when the area is confined enough, the horsemen beat up the herds of ostriches and guanacos, and attack them with their bolas. The dogs also assist in the chase, although unless the horses are weary or the hunters are short of weapons their services are little required. Cougars, or American lions, are frequently started up, and when driven to bay they are dangerous foes. But they are particularly hateful to the Patagonians and all Indians of the plains, for they create great havoc among the wild cattle, not killing them and making a clean meal, but sucking a little warm blood from each animal and often leaving its fat carcass untouched. They are powerless, how- ever, to withstand a bolas, which is so thrown that it usually catches them around the neck, the balls crashing into the skull. This, however, is more a hunt for revenore ; for besides beino^ wholesale butchers of meat the lions thoroughly enjoy surprising the setting ostriches and eating their eggs by the dozens. The guanacos and ostriches having been brought to earth, the Patagonians proceed to the agreeable task of dividing the game and eat- ing a portion of it. There is a regular law of division, the man who balls the ostrich or guanaco, continuing the chase, leaving the one who has been hunting with him, to bag the game. At the conclusion of the hunt the fore half of the ostrich and the guanaco belongs to the man who has done the killing. The bird is considered most desirable game» for, besides its feathers being valuable, nearly every part of its body is considered good eating. The fat over the eyes and between the thigh joints, the heart, gizzard and blood being especially sought after. While fires are being built and stones being heated, the birds are plucked of their wing feathers, which are tied together with sinews and packed away. The leg bones and a portion of the back-bone are taken out, and the body, divided into halves, is filled with hot stones, a light blaze being kindled to roast the outside meat. The gizzard, which would fill both hands, is roasted by the insertion of a hot stone, the eyes are sucked and the tripe is greedily devoured. In winter the Indians have an easier way of capturing ostriches than that previously described. Although they swim well enough to A DREARY COUNTRY. 439 pass a river, In winter they are quickly chilled. So the hunters drive them into a river, and the ostriches' legs become so benumbed that they drift helplessly ashore, where they are dispatched. During September, October and November they are at the height of their laying season, and the Indians almost live upon the eggs. The young guanaco's meat is excellent, but it lacks the profuse fat of the average ostrich. When the animal is old, even, the haunches may be sliced, dried, salted and roasted, then pounded between two stones and mixed with ostrich grease. This forms a very condensed and nutritious food and is taken on long journeys. The guanaco is, however, of great use in other ways than as food. The skin of the adult forms the covering of the Patagonian's tent ; that of the young is used for mantles. Thread is made from the sinews of the back, thongs for the bolas and bridles are cut from the skin of the neck, shoes and coverings for the bolas come from the skin of the ENTRANCE TO FORTESQUE BAY. hock, and musical instruments and dice from the thigh bone. On attaining the age of about two months, the coat of the young guanaco becomes woolly. The skin is then useless for mantles, but makes good saddle cloths. The guanaco has been described as that queer animal with " the neigh of a horse, the wool of a sheep, the neck of a camel and the feet of a deer." He is remarkably swift of foot and defends himself somewhat like the kangaroo. In taking wild horses and cattle the Indians either lasso them, or throw the bolas so that the animals will be caught around the hind legs. A DREARY COUNTRY. A great portion of Patagonia is covered with only a kind of coarse grass, or with thorny shrubs, the country rising in a series of terraces 440 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. from the sea coast to the Andes. Across the Straits of Magellan, the country is rocky and mountainous, cold and dreary.' Why it should be called Terra del Fuego, or the Land of Fire, has puzzled not only more than one school boy, but many adults. The reason is not because the country is volcanic or has any natural heat, but because early navi- gators noticed that upon the coasts fires were always seen burning. They were doubtless the fires of half-frozen natives, kindled in their crazy lodges, or those which they were keeping alive in their hundreds of boats. The territory has been long in dispute between Chili and Argen- tine Republic, but the former is now virtually in possession, having established a colony at Port Famine, which has been in existence for many years. Argentine Republic founded another at Port Santa Cruz, which is younger, but which amounts to little more than a fish-oil fac- tory, with the few laborers engaged in the industry. Efforts to intro- duce Welsh and Scotch colonists have met with failure. Chili's offer to a private individual to grant 75,000 square miles of territory, embrac- ing both coasts, in consideration for the favor of keeping four steam tugs in the Straits to relieve vessels, did not come to anything, and the probability is that the country will never be considered of enough con- sequence to be generally occupied by European or South American colonists. THE BRAZILIAN INDIANS. The Tupi-Guaranis is a widely extended Indian family in South America, its members being the native tribes of Paraguay, Brazil, and of the whole Orinoco region. The Brazilian Indians are generally of a bright yellowish, copper color ; are robust rather than tall ; with small noses, round faces and small eyes. Their dispositions seem to partake somewhat of the light-heartedness of Southern climes, and even in the presence of others they are not uniformly so grave as the Indians of the North. The tribes formerly dwelt almost entirely along the coast, but with the advent of Europeans were driven into the interior, where some of them still reside in their savage state. In the northern provinces the Indian blood prevails, but the negroes are the most num- erous of the unmixed races in Brazil. There were many other tribes which were not included in this fam- ily, when the missionaries, traders, slave hunters and adventurers first commenced to push their way into the country, and singular to say they were able to so co-operate that a language was formed out of all these diverse tongues which became the common vehicle of communication BRfiin . "^ PHCENICIANS OF THE AMAZON. 44I from the Orinoco to the La Plata. The basis of the language is, however, the Tupi-Guaranis tongue. And where are the Tupi-Guaranis, who once numbered nearly a hundred tribes along the Atlantic coast, occupying the country back to the Parana River ? The Portuguese slave hunter followed the missionary who had partially civilized the Indians of South Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, and broke up their tribes, carrying many away as slaves and, in short, almost exterminating them. Remnants of two of the most numerous tribes started out under an eminent chief and journeyed for three thousand miles from their homes, near Rio Janeiro, to the country along the Amazon River, near its confluence with the Madeira and Purus. These tribes are now known as Mandru- cus, and are the most warlike Indians of South America. They live in villages, in each of which is a fortress where all the men sleep at night. This building is adorned within with the dried heads of their enemies, decked with feathers. The similarity of some of their habits to those existing among the savages of the great Pacific Islands is noticeable. The Mandrucus have a blowpipe, through which they discharge small darts as do the natives of Borneo ; their great village houses resemble the " head houses " of the Dyaks of Borneo, while many small baskets and bamboo boxes from Borneo and New Guinea are so similar in their form and construction to those of the Amazonian Indians that they might have been made by adjoining tribes. Like the Dyaks, the Man- drucus hang up the dried heads of their enemies in their houses. A tribe of Indians on the Purus use, instead of the bow and arrow, the Australian boomerang, or so close a copy of it as to warrant the state- ment. PHCENICIANS OF THE AMAZON. The first glimpse of the Amazonian Indians is obtained at Para, the growing city at the great river's mouth. Although trading centers have been established along the main river and most of its principal branches, many of the natives prefer to do their own business, and so take their wives and children in their canoes, and with added cargoes of nuts, cocoa, dried fish, mandioca meal, crude rubber, turtles, monkeys, parrots, etc., they sometimes make journeys of five or six hundred miles. The monopoly of the immense interior trade of Brazil, which flows through her great river arteries, is in the hands of the Amazonian Steamship Company, which has established innumerable trading-posts and sends its vessels at stated intervals to collect the products which its agents, or private traders, have received from the natives, both Indians and negroes. Traders depend for much of the interior produce upon the Mandrucus and allied tribes. 442 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. The Indian of Brazil is not a property owner, as a rule, though one of them, now and then, amasses quite a little fortune as an agriculturist or as a brick manufacturer. He clings, however, to his palm-thatched house, extending its dimensions into several rooms and gathering a herd of half a hundred cattle. Generally the Indian has not the faculty of AMAZONIAN INDIANS. keeping steadily to his work, or of saving when he earns a little some- thing. He would rather go off hunting or fishing, or, sad to add, on a spree, than to work upon a plantation, day after day and week after week. When it comes, however, to labor which has excitement in it, such as dragging canoes through seething rapids, and overland to other navi- gable waters, the Indian, whether he be savage or semi-civilized BURIAL JARS. 443, doggedly pushes his way through all difficulties. Picturesque scenes of this nature can be witnessed where the headwaters of the Tapajos, a branch of the Amazon, approach the Paraguay River. An elevated plain divides the two great rivers, and when the waters are highest canoes have even passed over the shed. The fierce Mandrucus, next to fighting rival tribes, enjoy this conflict with rapids and waterfalls. They divide into two crews, part of them jumping into the water near the boat, and the others going ahead with long lines which they attach to rock or trees along the bank. The men in the water drag and lift the canoe slowly along, sometimes being under water and all but washed away by the rushing current. Most of the freight which is brought to the Paraguay and Amazon rivers, and which finds its way to the coast through the efforts of these Indians, consists of gum and the guarana drug. The Mandrucus Indians are the principal gatherers of rubber gum, which they give to the traders in exchange for knives and fish-hooks. Another Indian tribe, the Maue, are almost exclusively the gatherers of the drug, which grows wild between the Tapajos and the Madeira, and which they also cultivate in their forest gardens. It grows in the nature of a fruit, the seeds of which are hulled, reduced to powder and after- wards, by adding water, formed into long chocolate-colored rolls. The natives show their bent of mind by often making the rolls or cakes into- the form of fishes, birds or turtles, and thus throwing them upon the market. When used in Brazil, Bolivia and other South American countries these charming figures are ruthlessly grated and the powder employed as a substitute for tea. It has decided medicinal properties, of which the Indians avail themselves, having a soothing effect and being especially good in head and stomach troubles. Many white families have engaged in this rubber and"^drug trade, and get along very well with the Indians. These two tribes are, however, continually fighting with one another. The tradition is that, although they are both allied to the Tupi, the Maue were disinherited by the family because of their gfeneral worthlessness. & BURIAL JARS. Many powerful Indian tribes formerly dwelt along the Tapajos- River, or rather they selected a line of bluffs which follow it and the Amazon River for hundreds of miles, a short distance inland. Among other objects which have been dug from these bluffs are stone axe heads, flint arrow heads, ornamental pottery, and jars which contained calcined human bones, mixed with charcoal and ashes. These burial jars have been. 444 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. elsewhere discovered in Indian territory, whicn hasledtothe supposition that the ancient tribes cremated their dead. It is known that many of the Brazihan Indians were in the habit of burying the dead in the floors of their houses, and "among the Mandrucus of the present day, the bones of dead warriors are kept for three years in the houses ; then they are placed in a jar and buried." THE BOTOCUDOS. Among the degraded tribes of Indians of Brazil there is one for which a proper place has not been found in South America. In language and personal appearance, in habits of life and bodily adornment, it is quite distinct from the Tupi-Guaranis family, which includes scores of tribes scattered throughout the empire. But the Butocudos, with pieces WAR TRUMPET. •of wood in their ears and under lips, with their broad shoulders and weak legs, seem unlike any other Indian tribe in North or South America. Their hair is thin, they have low foreheads, black or blue eyes, aslant like those of the Mongolians, small noses and mouths, with usually thick lips, and cheek bones much less prominent than those of other Brazilian tribes. The Butocudos seem, to take none of the average Indian pride in decorating their bodies with feathers and gaudy colors, and the terrible ferocity which they formerly exhibited when they approached the eastern ■coast from their interior country, in connection with their other peculiari- ties, gained for them among the milder coast tribes the reputation of a THE AMAZONS. 445 race of maniacs. Their weapons are mighty bows and arrows, the latter being sometimes barbed with a bamboo head hardened in the fire. They usually attack at night, and although their numbers have been reduced by the way in which they have been hunted down by the whites, like wild beasts, many of them still roam through the forest and along the river banks, eating lizards, alligators, monkeys and boa constrictors, or lie in ambush for human victims. It is certain that at one time they alL were cannibals, and that many of them now are. Some of the tribes have been partially civilized. These are divided into small bands, each living in a separate village, and when they visit the plantations on the coast they cover themselves with a little clothing and plug up the slits in their lips with wax. Many of the children of these: village bands do not follow the barbarous disfigurement of their parents. These little ones were often sold to the planters for slaves, but they sel- dom reached maturity. In fact not only the Butocudos, but all Indians, were early found to be unprofitable as slaves, which resulted in the im- portation of such swarms of negroes from Africa. THE AMAZONS. On the upper branches of the Amazon are numerous tribes whose male members do most of the ornamenting of the body, and otherwise attire themselves in so feminine a manner as to partially explain the origin of the story carried back to the Old World that fierce female warriors (Amazons) lived and fought in this country. Says a trav- eler who penetrated into their territory, by a liberal use of that univer- sal lanofuaore of Eastern South America, to which reference has been made : " The women wear a bracelet on the wrists, but no necklace, or any comb in their hair. They have a garter below the knee, worm tight from infancy, for the purpose of swelling out the calf, which they consider a great beauty. While dancing in their festivals, the women: wear a small apron, made of beads prettily arranged. It is never worm at any other time, and immediately the dance is over it is taken off. The men, on the other hand, have their hair carefully parted, combed on each side and tied in a queue behind. In the young men it hangs, in long locks down their necks, and with the comb, which is invariably carried stuck on top of the head, gives them the most feminine appear- ance. This is increased by the large necklaces and bracelets of beads and the careful extirpation of every symptom of beard." They use shields which cover the entire length of their bodies. And yet, if the Amazons did not exist, the delusion is one of a 446 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. most general character, for Columbus, Sir Walter Raleigh, and other more modern travelers have given credence to reports which they received from Indian tribes that the Amazons were a reality and that they associated principally with the Caribs ; that they killed their male children or returned them to their consorts and retained only the females. The stories of the Amazons are current among all the Indian of Guiana, and similar reports have been received from Paraguay, from the tribes along the Amazon, New Granada and the West Indies. The latest theory is that the whole story had its origin in some aboriginal myth and has been distributed over all the vast territory in which the Tupi-Guaranis language and its dialects are spoken. In fact, several myths which have for their theme the separation of a band of women from the men of their tribe and a subsequent periodical reunion, have been discovered in definite form among the Amazonian Indians, The fathers of female children are reported to have received from the Amazons, as a mark of honor, a precious stone called the Muiri- Kitan. The stone is of a hard crystalline nature, and is so esteemed that it has been given a mysterious origin. It is related that it was created by a goddess who lived in a certain lake, and that, having celebrated her praises, the Amazons would dive for the stone and receive it from her hands. When it was exposed to the sunlight it hardened into per- manent form. Another legend is that the stones were caught like fish, the Amazon putting a drop of her blood in the water, over the precious Muiri-Kitan which she coveted. These stones are still worn as charms by various Indians, one tribe on the upper Rio Negro spending most of its time in making them into rough imitations of birds and beasts or into bead-like forms, SEMI-CIVILIZED LIFE. The village life of the semi-civilized Amazonian Indians is daily inaugurated by a bath in the river or the nearest spring. Then is com- menced a busy round of duties, as not only must food be provided, but everything except a few articles of clothing, iron and steel. The huts are constructed of roughly hewn logs, and beams of hardwood (for the frame-work), the joints being secured with pegs or strips of bark. The roof and sides are of palm-leaf shingles ; windows there are none ; the doorways are closed with palm-leaf mats, and other mats, under the hammocks, are spread upon the ground within. Another style of Indian hut, often seen on the banks of the Amazon, consists (as to the walls) of lumps of clay, plastered and whitewashed. Even those Indians who live in villages, however, seem to have an instinct to hide KITCHEN UTENSILS. 447 away, and it is almost impossible to say, sometimes, how large a settle- ment really is. Each house is built in a little clearing, which is kept conscientiously clean and free of weeds, but it is invariably fenced in with a thick hedge of some tropical growth, so as to be completely hidden until one fairly stumbles upon it. Men and women are dressed in light cotton clothes, and some of them are possessors of shoes, which they often wear "in their hands." KITCHEN UTENSILS. The kitchen of the house is always separated from the main struc- ture, the fireplace being formed of three stones, and the cooking uten- sils sometimes consisting of an iron kettle and a tin coffee pot. As a rule, however, the kitchen implements are made out of clay by the women. Their tools are pieces of gourd, shells, corncobs, round peb- bles, jaguar teeth, and rough fungi to serve as sand paper. A dish of water and a square piece of board complete the apparatus. A quantity of fine bark ashes is mixed with the clay, and a lump of it, having been thoroughly kneaded, is flattened upon the board. The bottom of the pot is made by turning the board in front of the woman, the edges being rounded off with the unoccupied hand and the shell. The potter then forms long rolls of clay, which she uses to build up the vessel from the bottom, the latter being first allowed to harden in the sun. The rim of the pot is nicely marked with a tooth, the pieces of gourd, the shells, the corncobs, and the improvised sand paper all coming into play to mould and smooth. The whole affair is then baked over a hot fire, polished with a pebble and varnished with a sort of resin. Pans and bottles made of shells and gourds, wooden spoons, native baskets, clay lamps for burning fish-oil and plates of earthen ware are a few of the other kitchen accompaniments which bear witness to the Indian woman's industry. Whole settlements along the Amazon River are devoted to the manufacture of baskets, spoons and jars from calabashes. All about the houses are planted calabash trees. The great fruit is cut in two, thoroughly soaked and cleaned, painted with a solution of bark, and exposed to ammonia fumes which bring out a durable black color. The vessels may then be painted with various yellow and gray clays, annatto and indigo, the designs representing figures, landscapes, or the Brazilian coat of arms. Often the surface is left plain, or a pattern scratched upon the white shell beneath. This, again, is woman's work, which truly, in Brazil, seems never to be done. Even the hammocks, which swing so invitingly in the Indian's living room, are the products of her hands. She first beats the cotton into a fleec)' pile by means of 44^ PANORAMA OF NATIONS. two Sticks and then twists it into hammock thread, either with a simple spindle or a crude spinning wheel. After dyeing some of the threads for the woof of the pattern, she sits upon a mat in front of a frame- work, passing each thread of the woof through the white warp, and in the course of a few weeks completes a very substantial, prettily checked hammock. MORE FEMININE WORK. The native bread is made from the root of the yuca, which the women raise ; while maize, yams, potatoes and cassava are included in their vegetable diet. The cassava is prepared by grating or scraping the root, and by subsequent pressure in a receptacle of basket-work. This strainer is constructed in the form of a long tube, open at the top and closed at the bottom, to which a strong loop is attached. The pulpy mass of cassava is placed in this, which is suspended from abeam. One end of a large staff is then placed through the loop at the bottom, the woman sits upon the center of the staff, or attaches a heavy stone to the end. The weight stretches the elastic tube, which presses the cassava inside, forcing the juice through the interstices of the plaited material of which it is made. This liquor is carefully collected in a vessel placed beneath. It is at first a most deadly poison, but after being boiled it becomes perfectly wholesome, and is the nutritious sauce called casareep, which forms the principal ingredient in the " pepper-pot," a favorite dish in the country. Even if some of the milky juice, in which lurks the poison, should remain in the meal, there is no danger after the cakes have been dried on a hot iron plate or in the sun. These cakes are kept in store to be mixed with water and baked into bread. When left to stand some time the juice which is pressed from the root deposits a very delicate starch,, which, when washed and dried, is exported as tapioca. The Indian does not prepare his ground in any way in raising his crop of mandioca roots, but simply clears away a space in the woods,. digs some holes and places therein a bunch of cuttings. When the roots are fully grown, weighing from twenty to thirty pounds each, they are thrown together in a pool of water, where they are allowed to ferment for a time. The women then carry them to sheds, strip off the tough outer skin and grate them into the mass of pulp and fibre which we have seen run through the wicker-work sieve or bag. To obtain the farina grain, the lumpy substance which remains after the poisonous juice has been nearly extracted is broken and roasted in a large earthen pan. The grain or meal, is then put into pots and baskets and stored away for family use, or made into cakes as we have stated above. HUMAN AND BRUTE FISHERMEN. 449 HUMAN AND BRUTE FISHERMEN. Neither is the masculine head of the family idle, although the brunt of the work does not fall on him. He makes the new clearings in the forest ; he works for traders ; or guides exploring parties, for miles up and down the river or through the forests ; he hunts, and he will stand any length of time in his canoe or on a bank overhanging the water, with his long spear poised or his arrow drawn to the head, waiting for his ideal of a fish to pass within range of his weapon. In shooting fish, the Indian must take into account the refraction of the water. But in hunting his game, the native has far more wonder- ful feats to be placed to his credit. One of them is thus described : "The turtle never shows its back above the water, but, rising to breathe, its nostrils only are protruded above the surface ; so slight, however, is the rippling that none but the Indian's keen eyes perceive it. If he shoots an arrow obliquely it would glance off the smooth shell ; there- fore he aims into the air, and apparently draws a bow at venture ; but he sends up his missile with such wonderfully accurate judgment that it describes a parabola and descends nearly vertically into the back of the turtle." The Indian has fastened the head of the arrow to the shaft so that, like the Esquimaux' harpoon, when the weapon strikes the game the string which binds the two portions together unwinds, and the shaft is left floating upon the water. This the huntsman seizes, and by it draws the turtle into his canoe. Nearly all turtles which are bought in Brazilian markets are captured in this way, and the hole made by the arrow head may generally be seen in their shells. To shoot birds at a distance, one of the Indian customs is to lie on the back, elevate the feet and brace them against the bow at its center, then rest the arrow upon the toes, drawing it to the chin. The animal stories which make up so much of the Indian folk- lore nearly all represent the jaguar as being thoroughly outwitted by various beasts of the forest ; which must have been a way the aborigines had of showing their jealously of his ingenuity ; for the Indians of to-day are forced to admit that his schemes and tricks to capture game are fully equal to their own. There are certain fruit-eating fish of which the jaguar is very fond ; so he sits on a log and raps gently upon the surface of the water with his tail, to imitate the sound of falling berries. When the fish rise for their fruit they are quietly hooked out with the lonsf claws of the fisherman. He catches and eats turtles, and it is said that he even attacks the cowfish, which grows to be as large as an ox, and drag-s it to the land for a errand feast. Another of his tricks is that 450 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. of being able to imitate the cry of any bird or animal upon which he has designs. REVERENCE FOR THE AGED. A beautiful reverence for old age is seen among these semi-civilized Amazonian Indians. " Many a touching picture one sees : a gray-haired patriarch, sitting before his door in the crimson sunset, and gravely giv- ing his hand to be kissed by sons and daughters who come to honor him ; village children stretching out their palms for blessings from a passing old man; young Indians bringing offerings of fish and fruit to decrepit old women. On moonlit evenings the old people sit before their doors until near midnight, while the younger ones stroll around from house to house, gossiping with their neighbors and carrying on sly flirtations under the orano^e trees." THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. Even those Indians who are nominally Roman Catholics have no very definite ideas constituting a system of religious belief. In fact, the new and the old are so confused in their minds that they seem to have fallen into a state of indifference. Previous to the coming of the mis- sionaries they had a faint idea of a Supreme Being whom they called Tupan, which the Jesuits used as the name of the Deity. The sun they conceived to be the creator of animals, the moon of plants, and there was a god of love who promoted the reproduction of human beings. Under these were inferior deities who protected birds, game and fishes,' the plains and the forests. The full moon and the new moon served the god of love. An old superstition which has comedown to the present generation of the Tupis, is that the moon grows from " thin to fat," by eating like a human being, and that she then goes into a state of decline and dies to give place to another. When the moon is eclipsed some evil spirit has stolen her farina and she is dying ; so the Indians beat drums, and fire guns and rockets as their forefathers did, to frighten away the evil spirit — although most of them profess to know better. Their grand annual festival in honor of their patron saint is a part of their Catholic training, and is made the occasion of much ceremony and hilarity. On Saturday evening the village in which there is a chapel is crowded with guests, many swinging their hammocks to the trees. The next day the chapel, which has been decorated, is filled Avith men, women and children, who bow to the saint and devoutly take part in the services. The dancing, which begins as soon as possible in two or three BRAZIL. THE BRAZILIANS. 45 I of the village houses, is continued as long- as the sweetmeats and man- dioca beer last, usually for several days, with few intermissions. On Sunday a roasted ox is eaten by the villagers, during which performance there is a necessary interlude, and they then return to their waltzes and quadrilles. The young people do not forget the aged, who have been looking on quietly, but with deep satisfaction, at their sports ; more cor- rectly speaking, the early Jesuits did not forget how much these uncivi- lized Indians revered the aged, and that this lovable trait should be encouraged. They therefore established a custom by which three old women, bearing an ornamented frame surmounted by a cross, pass from house to house as honored o^uests. After beino; served with refresh- ments they rise, and to the slow beating of a drum, begin a chant, and also keep time by going through with a sort of dignified dance, or march. THE BRAZILIANS. It is impossible to get at anything like a reliable statement of the population, by races, of the great Empire of Brazil ; but striking a balance of many estimates it is safe to say that civilized and uncivilized Indians, and Brazilians of mixed Indian and white and of Indian and negro blood, would constitute one-half of the population, which has been placed all the way from 8,000,000 to 14,000,000. The ruling nationality is, of course, the Portuguese, and since the royal house of Portugal was driven from its throne and took refuge in Brazil, which subsequently declared its independence, the South American Empire has been the sovereign state and Portugal the dependency. The internal commerce of the country is conducted generally by private navigation companies. The principal one of the twenty-eight which now ply Brazilian waters is the English Amazon Company, of which men- tion has been made. Besides following the main stream of the Amazon up to Tabatinga, on the frontier of Peru, a distance of 1,800 miles, it ascends some of its greatest tributaries, employing four steamers on the Madeira, four on the Purus, and two on the Negro. During one year its boats touched at 120 stations, conveyed 14,000 passengers and 20,000 tons of merchandise. The same service is performed by various com- panies on other tributaries of the Amazon ; also on the San Francisco and other streams flowing into the Atlantic, on the Plata, the Parana and the Paraguay. The most precious stones, the most valuable metals and the finest woods are all natural products of Brazil. Maize, rice, cotton and coffee are great crops — that is, with proper management they could be made 452 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. SO. Here are somes tatements, well authenticated: Maize yields from 150 to 400 fold ; rice as much as 1,000 fold ; wheat from thirty to seventy fold ; an acre of cotton gives four times as much as in the United States ; on an area of five acres one man can easily cultivate 2,000 coffee trees, which will give him an average crop of 6,000 pounds, worth about $400. For field and plantation labor, Brazil depends upon the negro. But since the emancipation of the slaves they have been flocking to the cities to serve as domestics, and the former trade in staples, which never was in any proportion to what nature intended, is on the downward grade. THE CARIBS AND ARAWAKS. When Columbus first visited the West Indies a fierce tribe of Indians occupied the islands extending from Porto Rico to the main- land of South America. He heard of their warlike natures throuorh the milder tribes of Cuba. The Greater Antilles had been invaded by them and the very name of the Caribs was a nightmare. According to tradi- tion they had their origin among the Rocky Mountains, or in some great mountainous district west of the Mississippi. From Florida they ad- vanced to the continent, step by step, and island by island. When South America became generally known to Europeans, the Caribs had been widely diffused over the northern portions of the continent — princi- pally along the shores of the sea and the banks of the Orinoco River. Their descendants still live in the river districts, but their disposi- tions are not what they were four centuries ago. There are, in fact, few Caribs remaining. Streams of blood from many races have crossed their own. The Caribs stoutly resisted the Spaniards, and in one of their terrible battles two thousand of the natives perished. They retreated to the mainland, where they also for many years were the most dreaded savage foes of the Spaniards. This powerful race is now reduced to a few insignificant tribes in Guiana and mingled with other Indian nations of the interior. About the upper waters of the Pomeroon is one of their laro-est fraorments, consistinsf of a few hundred savages livinor in almost as primitive a state as when their forefathers saw Columbus sail along their island coasts. The Arawaks are ancient enemies of the Caribs, and are said to have been so powerful as to have repeatedly repelled their incursions into the mainland. They have now dwindled to a tribe, which is, how- ever, powerful. The Arawaks inhabit a large extent of territory in Gui- ana, back of the cultivated strip on the sea coast. The only records of their history are rude figures marked upon the rocks in certain localities THE MOZCAS. 453 of their wilderness. These natives were the first seen by Cohimbus when he discovered the continent in 149S, and he was greatly surprised to find, instead of a black race, that they were of lighter complexion than any aborigines he had yet met. Their figures were graceful, and their onlv clothincf was a sort of turban and a waistband of colored cotton. The Arawaks of the present are mild and peaceful, but are armed with modern weapons, besides the club, bow and arrow of their fore- fathers. On the banks of the streams which flow through their territory, the country of the Caribs and even weaker tribes, missionaries have established little settlements as a basis of their labors, and among the Arawaks they have made no little progress. They have not yet been able to effect a material change in the native costume, which consists, as of old, of a cloth about the loins, with ornaments upon state occasions. The Guiana Indian retains more Asiatic features than even the North American Indian, his e}-es being black and piercing, and slanting a little upward towards the temple. The expression of the mouth is good. The forehead recedes in a less degree than the African, and in some individuals it is well-formed and prominent. THE MOZCAS. A few bands of the once great Indian nation of Mozcas, or Muys- cas, live in the United States of Colombia, on the upper Orinoco River. They were an empire of two million people at the time of the conquest, having subdued the tribes from that river to the southern part of the present Ecuador. In common with some of the other Indian nations and the Esquimaux, the Mozcas call themselves "men"; that is the translation of their name, as if they considered themselves the only true specimens of mankind in the world. They offered human sacrifices to the sun and worshiped a number of minor deities, throwing their offerings into the lakes. The natives dressed in square mantles of cot- ton cloth, dyed and painted, and were skillful workers in wood, stone and metals. They used money and traded in mantles and other articles of their own manufacture, lived in wooden and clay houses with peaked roofs, furnished inside with comfortable mats and benches. The ancient language is now only spoken by these tribes of the United States of Colombia. Of the origin of the coast Indians, who are mostly savages, nothing is known except that they bear no resemblance to any of the other families. THE PANAMA CANAL. The project of uniting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by means of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama was first put on foot by the 454 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. king of Spain over 360 years ago, but it did not advance, perceptibly^ until within the last century. Scores of surveys were made, and finally the government of the United States of Colombia approved of a con- tract with " Lucien N. B. Wyse, chief of the scientific exploring expe- dition of the isthmus in 1876, 1877 and 1878, and member and delegate of the committee of direction of the Civil International Interoceanic Canal Society," by which the canal was to be finished in twelve years from the time of the organization of the construction company, -and, if absolutely necessary, an extension of six years was to be granted. In 1 88 1 the Interoceanic Canal Company was formed in Paris, with M. Ferdinand de Lesseps at its head, and France subscribed to 994,00a of the 1,200,000 shares of stock. An agreement with the United States Government having been reached that the neutrality of the canal should be maintained, seventy engineers, superintendents, and doctors were sent to the isthmus, and thousands of Indians, negroes and China- men were engaged as laborers. M. Blanchet, who had active charge of the undertaking, died from the effects of the climate and overwork in November, 1881, the surveyors, having been in the field for only nine months. Notwithstanding his advanced age, M. de Lesseps has assumed the general management, being often in the field in person, and notwithstanding the unhealthful climate of the isthmus, and serious drawbacks caused by the periodical inundations of the Chagres River, it is quite possible that he may add the Panama canal to his other great engineering triumphs. THE ECUADORIANS. The Indians of Ecuador are the bone and sinew of the population — the miners, herdsmen, farmers and manufacturers of the country. Panama hats, brilliant quilts and carpets, and the most durable earthen ware in South America are placed to their credit. They build the bridges of Ecuador, and are noted for the rafts which they construct, and in which they take long sea voyages. Shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, blacksmiths, lawyers and doctors are discovered in the ranks of the Indians, although white blood is usually found to be an incentive to join the professions. The so-called " free Indians" (although none are held in actual bondage) often act as mule drivers and guides. Those who are employed by Spanish planters are usually paid insufficient wages and are brought so deeply into debt, however, that most of them are all but slaves In name. Some of the natives have never settled down to any employment, but hunt and fish along the great rivers east of the Andes, cultivating THE ANDI-PERUVIANS. 455 enough maize for their own subsistence, and exchanging the products of the chase and a certain powerful arrow poison, for tools and ornaments. The most numerous of the aboriginal tribes, descendants of a race, which at the time they were conquered by the Incas had its noted painters and architects, are the Quitus, who gave their name to the capi- tal of Ecuador. The Indians are divided into eleven families, which, in turn, have their distinct tribes. THE ANDI-PERUVIANS. The glorious empire of the Incas, which the Spaniards found firmly COLOSSAL HEAD CARVED IN STONE. rooted when the love of gold lured them to South America, extended from Patagonia to New Granada, the center of the government being the great temple of the Sun, at Cuzco, in the interior of Peru. Here on an elevated table land, between two branches of the Amazon River, were also great fortifications, it being the capital of the empire and the center of its religious system as well. The principal buildings of the 456 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. capital were constructed of huge masses of stone, transported from quar- ries many leagues distant and then elevated to their lofty sites. The stone was hewn with copper tools, and although cement was seldom used, so nicely was the work done that the blade of a knife could not be introduced between the blocks. The Temple of the Sun was where the Inca, as head of the church and high-priest of the Sun, presided. It was built of stone, but thatched with straw. Within was a huge golden sun, which had a human face delineated upon it, and it was so arranged as to receive the first rays of the heavenly luminary. Vases of gold, filled with offerings of maize, stood in the open space of the Interior, and all the vessels used in the celebration of religious rites were made of the precious metal. The building itself sparkled with golden ornaments ; even upon the out- side a heavy belt of gold was let into the stone wall around the entire edifice. The royal palaces and temples were adorned with like magnifi- cence. The empire had no money ; everything of value was collected in the coffers of the Inca. The government owned the soil and the people tilled it. It fixed a man's place of residence, determined his employment and even the amount necessary to support him. The government owned immense herds of llamas, and the people received their garments of wool and hair, after a certain proportion had been devoted to royal and religious purposes. All females were required to marry at eighteen and males at twenty-four years of age. The Inca always married his sister, that the royal blood might remain pure, but such a connection was forbidden between those of lower rank. TRACES OF THE EMPIRE. The empire was warlike and the military system was complex, including a draft of troops proportionate to population and dependent upon the hardihood of the people of the district. Throughout the extent of the vast empire were great roads carried along the mountain ridges or over the plains of the coast. Of the most famous of these Mr. Prescott, in his Conquest of Peru, thus speaks: " It was conducted over pathless sierras buried in snow ; galleries were cut out for leagues through the living rock ; rivers were crossed by means of bridges sus- pended in the air ; precipices were scaled by stairways hewn out of the native bed; ravines of hideous depth were filled up with solid masonry ; in short, all the difiiculties that beset a wild and mountainous region, and which might appal the most courageous engineer of modern times, were eucountered and successfully overcome. The length of the road TRACES OF THE EMPIRE. 457 of which scattered fragments only remain, is variously estimated from fifteen hundred to two thousand miles." Stations and storehouses were established on the main roads, under the care of army officers. Ruins of the Incas' civilization which was so ruthlessly crushed by the Spaniards, have been found in the shape of gold and stone figures, monuments, temples of all descriptions, acqueducts, bridges and paved roads, scattered from Chili to Central America. In Peru, besides the imposing remains of the Temple of the Sun, are the ruins of a supposed citadel of the Incas at Cannar, which is a regular oval in form. Within this is a square edifice, E^gpiKji.- containing two rooms. Among the most I ancient monuments and believed even to ante- date the period of the '^_ Incas, are those which have been discovered on the southern shore of &;1 Lake Titicaca, in Bolivia. ^^ They are situated on a broad, arid plain, and con- sist of rows of hucre erect stones, sections of massive walls and foundations, stairways, fragments of cornices, carved blocks of stone, etc., etc. From the center of a bewildering mass of ruins, of which a description is here im- possible, rises a rectang- ular, irregularly terraced mound, 50 feet high, 650 feet long and 450 feet wide. The temple, another great rectangular mass, is near by, and the hall of justice, a mighty ruin, contains a structure which is composed of massive stones beautifully cut and held together by bronze clamps. World-famed antiquarians have traced in those vast areas surrounded by upright stones, .which are seen in this great Bolivian plain, the earliest efforts of human art, and on the bare mountain tops of High Peru, PERUVIAN CARVING. 458 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. it is said, " are hundreds and thousands of enclosures or fortresses, ante- dating all history, which were built according to Peruvian traditions when the country was divided up into warlike and savage tribes, before the sun shone or the Incas had established their beneficent rule. They are held in great reverence, as the works of giants whose spirits still haunt them, and to whom offerings of various kinds are still made." In addition to the ruins which have been mentioned, the fortress tnat comands the ancient capital of the Incas, and in the storming of which Juan Pizarro lost his life, is almost as perfect as it was three cen- turies ago. Near the town of Truxillo, Northern Peru, is what is known as Grand Chiniu, the ruined capital of a great coast nation which was sub- dued by the Incas. Over at least twenty square miles are spread the ruins of public buildings, massive walls, temples, palaces, houses, tombs, prisons, work-shops, etc., etc. A vast temple of the Sun also appears, being pyramidical in form, 812 by 470 feet at the base and 150 feet high. There is a second of nearly equal size. Three centuries ago the Spaniards were digging treasure from the ruins and the work of excava- tion still goes on. SOME INCA TRIBES. The Ouichuas are the most prominent of the ancient races of Peru and Bolivia. They have large acquiline noses ; generous mouths and fine teeth ; short but not weak chins ; a brown-olive complexion ; soft, thick and flowing hair, but scant beards and are generally low in stat- ure, with tremendous chests, caused by more frequent and greater respira- tions than are taken in a less rare atmosphere than that in which they live. The Quichuas differ in appearance from all other South American nationalities, and from the figures which appear upon various Peruvian antiquities it is evident that none of their ancient physical peculiarities have changed. The Aymaras are an ancient people whose history centers around Lake Titicaca, between Peru and Bolivia. They still inhabit adjacent districts in both of those countries and look, with sad eyes, upon the monuments of their forefathers which are in ruins upon the many small islands of the lake. The center of their government and their religion was a sacred isle, from which they believed the sun first arose. The worship of this luminary was part of their religion. Some of the pyra- midical structures, with door-ways and pillars elaborately sculptured, and fragments of colossal statues, are of great antiquity and only the vaguest traditions exist of their origin. They evidently represent a prior civilization to that of the Incas which absorbed, or conquered that of the Aymaras^ THE ANTISIANS, OR WHITE MEN. 459 and received from them a more perfect knowledge of the arts, of agri- culture and astronomy. They now number some quarter of a million of people and are principally engaged in agriculture. Most of the tribes of Peru and Bolivia have embraced Christianity, and in the tracts covered by the missions chiefly dwell the remnants of many ancient nations. They form by far, the majority of Bolivia's popu- lation, and are generally advancing in civilization, being a credit to their forefathers of the Incas. They are generally mild and passive, and are the foot-travelers of South America, performing the longest journeys at a dog trot and going for days at a time with no sustenance except cocoa leaves chewed with lime or ashes, and, perhaps, a small quantity of pounded maize. The civilized tribes dwell in houses or huts constructed of sun-dried bricks, rushes, or maize stalks thatched with grass. The Chiquitos are a tribe, which was once very powerful, and were employed by the early Jesuit missionaries to convert neighboring tribes and educate them. They also cultivated fields, were manufacturers and artisans, and traders of high standing. But when the missionaries were expelled, their beautiful churches and large factories were destroyed and many of them fled to the forests and relapsed into barbarism. At the time of their prosperity the Chiquitos had been consolidated into a won- derful nation, a bright example of native capability. THE ANTISIANS; OR, "WHITE MEN." There are five tribes who live on the eastern declivity of the Andes, in Bolivia. They are the Yucacares, or White Men, so called from their remarkably light color ; the Chuncos, Tacanas, Marapas and Apolistas. These tribes have their own languages, although they have been classed as one family. In Bolivia the Cordilleras divide into two ofreat rido^es, called the Cordillera of the coast and the Cordillera Real, between which is the great walled table-land which contains Lake Titi- caca, the source of one of the great branches of the Amazon, and the site of the famous Potosi, famed for its silver mines and for being the most elevated city of the world. From Potosi, in a northwesterly direc- tion through Bolivia, are those wonderful ruins and sections of the stupendous military roads ; and it is east of this historic region that the Antisians dwell. THE ARAUCANIANS. The natives of Chili and Patagonia, bold, warlike, tall and muscular, belong to this race. The mountaineers are very light in complexion, the 460 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. tribe of Boroanos in Chili being little darker than Europeans. They have broad faces and heavy features, but their bright eyes save them from the stamp of dullness. Some of them have heavy beards but generally the Indian custom is followed of plucking out the hair. When the Western coast of South America was first visited by Europeans a portion of Chili was subject to the Peruvians ; but the bulk of the natives were divided into tribes, each governed by its " ulmen ' or "cacique." Four of the original fifteen tribes had been subdued by the Peruvians* when the pro- gress of t h e lat- ter's arms was permanently checked. The Spaniards came and found a foe worthy of their prowess. They discovered that these tribes had already confeder- ated and were working under a ^ crude system of government ; that the country was divided into four sections, each governed by a " toqui, " or su- preme cacique, with the real pow- er still in the hands of the ulmens ; that the Araucanians were a compact, patriotic nation of great warriors. For over a century the Spaniards brought their iron-clad soldiers and their improved artillery to crush these brave and military Indians, with their swords and lances, slings, bows, pikes and clubs. Many battles are recorded in which the invaders were utterly routed, and finally they were obliged to abandon the enterprise of conquering an independent Indian race ; and, the proud distinction of being the only aboriginal Americans who have maintained their inde- AN ARAUCANIAN FAMILY. THF ARAUCANIANS. 46 1 pendence when brought directly in contact v/ith Europeans, still belongs to the Araucanians. They occupy much of their old territory within the modern republic of Chili." The provinces of Arauco and Valdivia have been especially the native districts of the Araucanians. This native state within the repub- lic of Chili lies between the Biobio and Valdivia rivers, and is 130 rniles in length by 150 in breadth. The natural divisions of the coun- try have been made the political ; that is, the sea coast, the plain, the territory running along the foot of the Andes, and the mountainous region, is each under the rule of a toqui. These districts are sub- divided into what would be called, in the United States, counties and townships. The toqui's badge of office is an axe of porphyry or mar- ble. The four governors form the Federal Council, which decides upon grave national matters and may convene the General Assembly consist- ing of the subordinate rulers and chieftains. If the matter before the convention is war, the commander-in-chief is chosen from among the four toquis, if possible, and the chiefs, or ulmens, raise the troops from among their clans. A great plain between the Biobio and Dun- queco rivers is the meeting-place of these governing bodies. The Araucanians, like the Pampas Indians, rely principally upon their long spear when in action, trusting for finab success upon the impetuosity of their charge. When in war paint they are nearly, or quite naked, but in times of peace they dress in loose, flowing mantles, with dark blue and red skirts, having crimson cloths round their heads turban-fashion, and low down on the temples. If not aroused, they are peaceable and hospitable, hold free intercourse with the whites, and even serve as scouts in the Chilian army. Marriages have even occurred between Europeans and their women of high rank, at one time a French adventurer being raised to the dignity of King of the Araucanians ; but his character being exposed he was driven out of the country in dis- grace. Whole crews of shipwrecked vessels are known to have been merged into the race, so that white skins and straight faces are not uncommon. " The chief wealth of the tribes is cattle, which they rear with some care and diligence ; and some of them, or their women, engage also in agricultural and industrial pursuits, part of their produce, as well as their tanned hides, tissues and silver trinkets, stirrups, curbs, etc., bringing good prices as curiosities." They make also blankets which are much valued by the Patagonians. Between the two races, however, there is usually a stirring feud which prevents much inter- course, even with those Araucanians who have abandoned their tribal relations and live in trading settlements. 462 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. The Araucanians have gods of War, of the Good, of Mankhid, of Evil, but build no temples to them, make no idols and support no priests. They carry their ideas of political independence into their religion, and scarcely pay their deities due respect. The Araucanian heaven is beyond the Andes. They are so intensely national that no foreigner is allowed to settle among them who retains his own name. The Spanish language — anything which has the least suggestion of Spanish — is barred out of Araucania. Their own language is spoken throughout Chili and Pata- gonia to Cape Horn, and east to Buenos Ayres, and is among the most harmonious of South American tong^ues. The women of Araucania "do all the home and field work; the men hunt, fio^ht and tend the flocks. Thev live in wooden or reed plastered houses, well built and often sixty feet b)- twenty-five in size, not in villages but in the center of their plantations. They raise wheat, maize and barley, peas and beans, potatoes, cabbages, and fruit, as well as flax, and keep numbers of cattle and horses. Before the arrival of the Europeans they wove ponchos and coarse woolen cloths of very good workmanship," THE CHILIANS. The constitution of Chili is far less democratic than that of Arau- cania. Although its deputies and senators are ostensibly elected by popular vote, property qualifications are imposed which confine the voters really to the wealthier classes. Yet the republic is the most prosperous of any in South America, for the country contains an unusually large proportion of European blood and the Europeans constitute virtually the governing power. The National Legislature is composed of a House of Deputies, whose members sit for three years, and a Senate, one-third of which retires at the end of a like period. The Roman Catholic is the State Church and the offspring of mixed marriages must be educated in the national faith. Chili was among the first of the South American States to develop a railroad system, its capital, Santiago, and its metro- polis, Valparaiso, being connected by a substantial line, which has branches to some of the principal towns. THE CENTAURS OF SOUTH AMERICA. In Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentine Republic are hundreds of Indian tribes who have their peculiarities, but seem equally at home upon the horse's back, and who are never truly themselves unless they are scouring their great pampas. They are usually of the most ignorant type, like the Abipones, who are east of the Parana River in Paraguay, THE CENTAURS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 463 and although they are such wonderful horsemen, can count no further than three. They go nearly naked and practice tattooing. The numerous tribes of Indians who scour the plains of Buenos Ayres are members of the Araucanian race and of the Puelche family, to which also belong the Patagonians. They live, move and have their being upon the horse's back. Whenever they shift their quarters for better pasturage, they drive before them great herds of horses, which they 4.1 se both for fresh mounts and for fooci. They are warriors from the pure love of excitement and danger, and they declare "that the proudest attitude of the human figure is when, bending over his horse, man is riding at his enemy." Their most formidable weapon is a .spear, fully eighteen feet in length. They charge without saddle or bridle, hanging under their horses, with their great spears far in advance, yelling and shrieking in a way which throws into a panic any but the coolest horsemen and the best trained horses. On the other hand, their cries have the effect of urofinof on their own steeds, which are further transformed into irresistible tornadoes by a peculiar motion of their bodies. Between them and the Gauchos, a race principally of Spanish descent, the most implacable hatred exists. The Gauchos are magnificent riders, themselves, but admit that on the open plain they are not the equals of the Pampas — and of those long spears they are in constant fear. "In exposed districts, the white settlers are subject to raids from the Pampas, and often protect themselves by digging ditches around their frail fortifications. The Indian's horse will not leap such a startling thing (to him) as a ditch, and the Indians would as soon think of wear- ing a silk hat as of fighting on foot. But if the raid is successful, no lives are spared except those of comely girls. These captives become so fascinated with their wild, free life that a French officer of the Peru- vian army, who was passing through the Pampas' territory to chastise a- hostile tribe, found it impossible to induce some of them to return to their country, even offering them large sums of money if they would, in the meantime, act as interpreters. The only tim.es when the Pampas Indians come in close contact with European life are when they visit the towns and settlements to dis- pose of their peltry and ostrich feathers for knives, spurs and liquor. The preliminary step is to pass over all their dangerous weapons to their chief, and then get ingloriously drunk. They have neither money, nor any idea of weights and measures, but designate, by some mark of their own, the quantity of the commodity they require in exchange for their own stock. Before the introduction of horses and cattle by the Spaniards, the 464 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Pampas were mountaineers, living in the eastern districts of Chili. They w ere even then more rude and savas^e in their manners than the Arau- canians, but were held in high esteem by their more civilized neighbors, on account of their fidelity and bravery as allies. They were called by them the Puelches, or eastern-men. With the possession of their horses and cattle, and the prolific increase of the wild herds, both subsistence and power were assured them, and they spread over the plains east of the Andes ; so that when the Spaniards built their first town, upon the site of the present city of Buenos Ayres, the Indians destroyed it and caused such terror that a second attempt at settlement was not made until nearly fifty years afterwards. THE GAUCHOS. The Gauchos are of pure Spanish origin, but their ways of life are so similar to those of the Pampas Indians, that it would be almost impossible to speak of one without the other. Their chief occupations are tending, marking and slaughtering cattle, and they have become as skillful with the bolas and the lasso as the wildest Indian of the plains. They often wield a bolas consisting of three stones, each fastened to a strap about six feet long, which is a fearful weapon. The three straps join in a center, and when the Gaucho throws the bolas he gives the balls a peculiar rotary motion, so that they fly asunder and go spinning through the air in the form of a triangle of about eight feet in diameter, or like some terrible devil fish of the air. If it meets with any resistance, the stones which are free, continue the rotary motion, the straps wind around the object, whether it be a man's body, a horse's or a bull's, and finally strike the victim with crushing effect. The use of both the bolas and the lasso is one of the earliest accomplishments of the Gaucho ; and little children armed with their miniature weapons make war upon the chickens, ducks and geese of the farmyard. In throwing the lasso the rider is obliged to be assisted by an intelligent and a trained horse. " Sometimes in the case of a furious ani- mal, the rider checks the horse and dismounts, while the bull is running out the length of his raw-hide rope. The horse wheels around and braces himself to sustain the shock which the momentum of the captured animal must inevitably give. The bull, not expecting to be brought up so suddenly, is thrown sprawling to the ground. Rising to his feet, he rushes upon the horse to gore him ; but the latter keeps at a distance, until the bull finding that nothing is accomplished in this way, again attempts to flee, when the rope a second time brings him to the ground. Thus the poor animal is worried until he is wholly within the power of his captor." THE GAUCHOS. 465 " When cattle are caught by the lasso, which Is so thrown as to fasten on the horns, they will sometimes gallop round and round in a circle ; and if the horse be not well broken, being alarmed at the strain, he will not readily turn like a pivot, in consequence of which men have often been killed ; for if the lasso once takes a twist round the rider's body, it will instantly, from the power of the two opposed animals, almost cut him in twain." Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost province of Brazil. It bor- ders upon Uruguay, and, like that country, consists principally of vast plains, over which great herds of cattle roam, from which is drawn so much of the meat supply of the empire ; and here the Gauchos and their lassoes are at the height of their glory. The women, also, are great "horsemen," often wearing a European riding habit, with body and sleeves. When not on horseback they wear a short skirt, tightly-fitting bodice, a shawl over the head, neck and shoulders, their arms being bare. Both sexes are tall and graceful, polite and hospitable, but give little heed to home life, preferring to sleep in the open air and live on horseback. Their dwellings are simply willow and mud huts, and, within, there are usually little more than a wooden bedstead with a skin mattress, over which are stretched two ropes to which the small children are lashed, a tea kettle and a few cups witli tin suction pipes. They live chiefly upon beef. Their lives, in fact, are like those of all the centaurs of South America, whether of Spanish or Indian blood. Although their Spanish blood makes them polite, the Gauchos are given to intemperance, are revengeful and blood-thirsty; so that as many murders are placed to their account as to that of the Indians. That they both have much blood to answer for is evident from the many crosses^ made by simply tying two pieces of wood together with straps, which are planted near the roadways of all the pampas; these rude crosses always mark the spots at which strangers or natives were murdered. In Uru- guay the Gauchos have virtually exterminated the aboriginal population. Yet there is leaven in their rudeness and wickedness ; for they are not only the Republicans of South America, but have steadily upheld democratic ideas for the past century. Especially the Basques are noted for their uncompromising independence, which has marked them amono- the Spaniards of Europe since the early years of Rome. The Basques who are considered the aborigines of the Spanish peninsula, form a large proportion of the Gauchos and of the entire population of the republics south of Brazil. From their ranks have come many able rulers and mil- itary leaders of the country. Perhaps the most noteworthy among them was General Rosas, of a noble family, who led the cattlemen of the 3o 466 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. pampas against the Indians and subdued them ; then conquered all his rivals, became governor of the province of Buenos Ayres, and refused further preferment until the dictatorship of the republic was offered him. This position he held for many years, his rule being cruel in the extreme, but able, as ability is gauged in such mixed communities. It is certain that under the guidance of his strong hand the country learned to walk, although the aristocratic, wealthy and refined classes were depressed. The Gauchos as a distinct class, or caste, are decreasing. For many years their blood was almost pure Spanish ; but they are now intermarry- ing, more or less, and others than Spaniards are assuming the duties of drivers and branders of cattle. Their rude, republican nature, however, has permeated the body politic, and, combined with the conservatism of the French wine merchants, the Italian mechanics and river men, and the Irish and English farmers, may eventually form a more stable gov- ernment than the Argentine Confederation has enjoyed. San Salvador, the capital of the Republic, is situated in a beautiful valley, far above the sea level, with extensive indigo and sugar planta- tions all around it. Oranges, lemons and pine apples also abound in the vicinity. The streets are broad and clean, and the comparatively modern appearance of the churches and public buildings, as well as the smallness of the city, is explained by the very conclusive fact that eight times it has been rebuilt upon its present site, because of ravages by earth- quakes. It was first founded in 1528. The volcano which has also been so destructively active is situated only three miles northwest of San Salvador. The Republic is foremost of the Central American States in the cause of education, and its capital has a prosperous university and a well-organized system of public schools; but the city and the country, as a whole, have not regained the standing which they enjoyed as a province of the Spanish Kingdom of Gautemala. THE TURKS. HE Turks are Tartars, and now exist in their purity in Turk- estan. Two or three of their great Asiatic empires have gone to pieces before the onslaught of the Mongols, the greatest one being that of the Seljuk Turks, which extended from the frontiers of China to Constantinople. Before the Christian era various Turkish tribes had wandered as far west as the Don. When the Seljuk empire, partly by the partition of its territory and partly by the power of the Mongols, went to pieces, in the thirteenth century, Othman, the son of the leader of a tribe of Turkomans, succeeded his father as chief, and afterwards received from the Sultan a portion of the province of Bithynia, south of the Black Sea. With this territory as a pivotal point he boldly led his forces into the Byzantine Empire, conquering several important provinces from the Roman Empire of the East, and, with his son, laying the foundation of the Othman, or Ottoman Empire. THE FOUNDERS OF THE EMPIRE. The Turkish writers have found almost a demi-god in Othman. He is said even to have had a vision of the future extent and glories of the empire, with the fall of Constantinople, which occurred 127 years after his death, although the Byzantine Empire, some time before, had been reduced to the limits of its capital and suburbs. The vision is thus reported : "As Othman reclined in slumber, the crescent moon appeared to rise above the horizon. As she waxed she incHned toward him ; at her full, she sunk, and concealed herself in his bosom. Then from him sprang a tree, which spread its boughs, so that they shaded the Cau- casus, and Atlas, the Taurus and the Him.alaya Mountains, which stood up as great pillars to a boundless, leafy pavilion. From the roots of the tree flowed forth the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Nile and the Dan- ube. All was Eden. Cities crowded with domes and cupolas, with pyramids and obelisks, with minarets and turrets, sprung from fertile 467 468 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. valleys, and the waters of the mighty rivers were covered with barks. Living fountains leaped from the mountains, which were covered with mighty forests, each leaf of which was a sword. Then arose a wind and drove all the points of the swords against the imperial capital, which at the conflux of two seas and two continents, like a diamond set between two sapphires and two emeralds, forms the most precious center-stone of the ring of universal empire.' " The successors of Othman were worthy of their father in warlike and administrative power, and nationalities and religions of the most diverse character were slowly welded into the body of the empire, or at least were content to rest under its powerful protection. His grandson was the founder of the janizaries, the famous royal body-guard of Greek soldiers who were originally taken in the wars of the Byzantine Empire and educated as Mohammedans and according to the military discipline of Turkey. To increase their number a law was afterwards made that every fifth year the children born of Christians living in the empire should be given up to the government. The law was enforced, and soon a splendidly drilled body of troops was in existence, some to guard the Sultan, others the palace, and the remainder to constitute a portion of the regular army. The troops were christened by a dervish, who in obedience to the commands of the Sultan blessed the army by passing his sleeve over the face of the foremost soldier and speaking these words : " Let them be called janizaries [new soldiers]. May their countenances be ever bright, their hands victorious and their swords keen. May their spears hang always over the heads of their enemies ; and wherever they go, may they return with a shining face." The new soldiers subsequently acquired such power that adventurers all over the world sought to enter their ranks, and as the regulations became more lax the janizaries became a dangerous body of men, plundering cities which they should have guarded and revolting against the Sultans themselves. At length, during the first portion of this century, those of them which were not massacred by the royal guards were sent into exile. THE APOSTLES OF MOHAMMEDANISM. Mohammedanism was carried into Asia Minor by the Arabian arms and extended far to the east, and, singular to relate, when the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks overran and conquered the same territory, they received Islamism from the subdued, instead of trying to impose their Tartar superstitions. The fascinating combination of religion and war which they found in Mohammedanism seemed to have been just what the Turks CHURCH AND STATE ONE. 469 craved, and they therefore soon surpassed the Arabs themselves in the vigor with which they extended the faith. From the time of Mohammed II., who conquered Constantinople and was surnamed the Great and Victorious ; who brought beneath his sway two empires, twelve king- doms and two hundred cities, the world of Islamism has tacitly consented to the claim of the Turks that their Sultan is, in very truth, the successor of the prophet. He is superior to all law except the Koran, and to interpret that the muftis, mollahs and other priests form a body called the Ulema, at whose head is the Grand Mufti who is the only dignitary holding a life office. In all affairs of state concern, or grave importance, the Sultan is an autocrat, the province of the Ulema being almost confined to recom- mendations to the Porte, and to authority in private and family matters. Civil questions which come before them are decided, but such decisions can not be enforced except by the state. CHURCH AND STATE ONE. The power of the Ulema is not as great as it was in the first days of Mohammedanism ; in fact, the greatest privilege of the members con- sists in the exemption of their bodies and properties from punishment and confiscation. The Grand Mufti girds the Sultan with the sword when he ascends the throne, which is supposed to make that monarch truly the successor of the prophet. The Mufti's decision is also attached to the imperial decrees, although it is said to impart but little additional Aveight to them. It is as Lord of the faith, which is the basis of Turkish civilization and Turkish institutions that he is so powerful, and although many of his former temporal prerogatives have been taken away, the Ottoman Empire is still a subtle combination of Sultan, Grand Vizier and Ulema. Church and state are still one. The Grand Mufti ranks next to the Grand Vizier, who is president of the Council of Ministers, a body which corresponds to the European Cabinet. There is also a Council of State where new laws are discussed and which consists of fifty Mohammedan and Christian members chosen by the Sultan. The Chief of the Guard of Eunuchs is equal in rank with the Grand Vizier. The executive officers of the empire are governor-generals, gov- ernors, lieutenant-governors, mayors of villages (mukhtars), etc. Pro- vmcial governors, who generally hold the rank of oachas, formerly had the power of sentencing persons to death, but it has been taken away from them. The title pacha, pasha, or bashaw is applied to the governor of a province, a minister, or a commander of high rank in the army or 470 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. navy. The grade of office was at one time determined by the number of horse tails which were carried before them in pubhc, this being their insignia ; but except in some of the African provinces this custom has been discontinued. TURKISH REFORMS. The Koran being the authority in government, reHgion and life, the average Turk is not prone to accord any privileges to non-believers, look- ing upon them as lawless characters as well as heretics. So, although the Sublime Porte has established mixed courts for settling cases between Mohammedans and non-Mohammedans, allows the latter to hold local offices, is establishing national schools, and has otherwise shown a slight regard for the broad ideas of the age, the Turkish officials, especially those who are far removed from the influence of foreign ambassadors, are as fanatical as ever. Foreigners, of whatever sect, can now hold real estate in their own names, some of the Armenians being among the most extensive land owners in the empire. Neither are non-Mohammedans liable to military service, but pay an exemption tax. The first decided impetus to the reformation of Turkish laws came from the efforts of Reschid Pacha, a native who was sent as ambassa- dor to France and England and afterwards became Grand Vizier. Many reforms had been inaugurated by the Sultan, but through the exertions of the Grand Vizier the sovereign agreed to give a constitution to the empire based upon a European model. On November 3, 1839, ^ S^^' eral congress was convened on the Plain of Roses, near Constanti- nople, and here, under the shelter of many pavilions, were collected all the pachas of the Ottoman Empire, the patriarchs of the Greeks and Armenians, the foreign ambassadors, the chief rabbi of the Jews, and numerous other persons of high distinction. In presence of the vast assemblage Reschid Pacha read the state paper which embodied the bill of rights granting, among other privileges, security of life and prop- erty to all persons of whatever religion. The successor of one Sultan, however, does not always feel bound to carry out all the reforms promised by his predecessor, and since these great promises were made there is hardly a Christian district of either Turkeys which has not revolted or protested, or appealed to some European power to see that justice was done. Sometimes the non-fulfillment of promises could be traced to the Turkish penchant for tortuosity, as exhibited in the Sultan, and often to the laxity or premeditated careless- ness of his governors. But the impetus was given in 1839, '^"^ each promise of the Porte to correct the abuses in the empire, which is put THE KORAN S SOLDIER. 471 upon record, is an additional lever placed in the hands of European powers to force the Ottoman Empire to advance the cause of religious toleration. The present Sultan is the thirty-fifth in descent from Othman and is intensely Mohammedan. THE KORAN'S SOLDIER. Although revengefulness is inveighed against in the Koran, and lib- erality, forbearance and love of peace are enumerated as among the virtues of the true believer, war against infidels is enjoined. He who is thus slain is a martyr. A deserter from the holy war has forfeited his material life and life eternal. Modern expounders of the law have based their teachings, more or less, on the humanitarianism which gleams from so many pages of the great book. Formerly enemies taken in battle by the Mohammedans were murdered. Then they were given a choice of embracing the faith or paying a tribute. The Koran nowhere teaches that man's end is foreor- dained from the beginning — that doctrine which has somehow taken hold of the Turkish nature and made it so reckless on the field of ^ battle — caution, in fact, is urged; foolhard- iness prohibited. WHAT FOREIGNERS HAVE DONE. The Turkish troops are divided into the regular army, the first reserve and the sedentary. The imperial guard at Con- stantinople hold the same rank as did the Janizaries before they disgraced themselves A TURKISH SOLDIER. But through the wise policy of the Porte in taking advantage of the best European ideas it can gather from English, German, American and French officers by employing them in the army and navy and advancing them to the high- est stations, the rank and file of the military are arriving at a good state of discipline and proficiency. The various military schools are also continually adding solidity and intelligence to the desperate courage of the Turkish soldier. The military, naval, artillery and medical schools, with their pre- paratory institutes, are all gratuitous. The present Sultan seems to trust much to German skill in the 472 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. carrying out of reforms in his military organization, having engaged experts of that nation, also, to assist him in arranging reforms in other departments "which would develop the Mohammedan character of the Ottoman state, and at the same time satisfy Europe, and preclude future interference." Whether this can be done remains to be seen ; but it is not going too far to say that foreigners have made the modern army and navy of Turkey what they are, and are still improving them. SCHOOLS. The Mussulman public schools are of three classes, the primary or district schools, the rushdiyes, or high schools, and the schools of the mosques. The alphabet and reading of the Koran in Arabic are taught in the first, which are supported by private contributions, but open to all ; in the second the scholars learn to write in Turkish and are taught arithmetic, geography and Turkish history. From the schools or uni- versities of the city mosques are graduated, at thirty-five or forty years of age, the muftis, cadis, mollahs, and other Mohammedan teachers, who are usually proficient in Turkish, Arabic and Persian. THE KORAN'S LAWS. The Koran urges strict faithfulness in the discharge of private con- tracts, but recommends the creditor to remit all debts. Bankruptcy or inability to work ccmpletely discharges the claim. Usury is prohibited and the drinking of wine. All games of chance are forbidden and a gambler's testimony is not received in a court of law. Chess and games of skill are allowed, if they do not interfere with religious devotions. Murder is either punished by death or a fine, except the slain be a child or an infidel. The Koran orders theft of no less value than half a crown to be punished by cutting off the chief offending limb, the right hand ; next in order are the left foot, left hand, and the right foot. An unchaste woman is to be imprisoned for life, the man to bring four witnesses to the fact, and, in case he can not, to receive four-score stripes. The letter of the law, as promulgated in the Koran has not been strictly followed, but modifications have been made to meet a different order of things than that which existed in Mohammed's time. As to the drinking of liquor many Moslems are intemperate, but the bulk of them refuse even to make use of the proceeds of the sale of wine or grapes, and some are so strict as even to include opium, coffee and tobacco in the prohibition. Under the Turkish law the murderer is punished with death, whether his victim be a child or a Christian. There is no cutting WHAT PART THE WOMAN PLAYS. - 473 off of limbs for theft, but the bastinado, imprisonment, fine and hard labor have been substituted. Many of the punishments for crime which the Koran orders should consist of stripes are still in force. The bas- tinado is therefore a product of the Koran. WHAT PART THE WOMAN PLAYS Like all other institutions of Turkey the Harem has its authority for existence in the Koran. Mohammed claimed, and the Koran speci- fied that a true believer miorht have four wives and a number of concu- bine slaves ; that God allowed him more as a special privilege. The decree of divorce is promulgated by the husband who need only say, " Thou art divorced"; but if he ventures to pass this sentence three times he can not receive his wife back until she has become a widow, or been divorced from another man. Mere dislike is a sufficient ground for divorce, on the man's part. The woman, on the other hand, unless she can prove some gross abuse, is bound to the man forever ; if she legally and justly obtain a divorce she loses a part or the whole of her dowry. A legal marriage consists merely in a declaration of intention by persons of suitable age before two witnesses and the payment of a portion of the dowry, to the amount of at least five shillings. A Mos- lem man may marry a non-believer ; a woman never. Whatever the wife's faith the children are Mohammedans; if she is a non-believer she cannot inherit at her husband's death. With such regulations as these in force it seems a mockery of every- thing sacred in family life when we learn that the harem isthe "sanc- tuary"; and this without taking into account the degradations and cor- ruptions of the life there passed. But the Koran furnishes a pretext for its establishment in the following passage : " And speak unto the believing women, that they restrain their eyes, and preserve their mod- esty, and discover not their ornaments, except what necessarily appear- eth thereof ; and let them throw their veils over their bosoms, and not show their ornaments unless to their husbands, or their fathers, or their husbands' father, or their sons, or their husbands' sons, or their brothers, or their brothers' sons," etc., etc. It is the testimony of many Mohammedan women that they con- sider their seclusion a tribute to their value ; but they are gradually set- ting their faces against polygamy, although " in frequent instances the wife who will not tolerate a second spouse in the harem will permit the husband to keep concubines for the sake of having them wait upon her." This statement gives the clue to the position of the average Mohamme- 474 * PANORAMA OF NATIONS. dan woman in the Turkish world. Centuries of education have forced her to the conclusion that she is a creature merely to be amused, waited upon, bathed, perfumed, kept from the world's gaze, hoarded for her hus- band. So she is often placed in the upper rooms of a building which is shabby enough below, but fitted up above with baths and fountains, rich couches and silk draperies ; everything which can please her senses and those of her luxurious and aesthetic lord. THE TURK AT HOME. Once a week the Turk's araba, or family coach, drawn by white oxen whose foreheads are dyed red or pink, appears at his home and the negro duennas conduct his wife, painted also and veiled, and his children with their small red fez, to the strangfe lookino- vehicle with its canopy which is likewise of red. The araba has a scaffolding of poles around it and is cushioned within, so that when it commences to slowly bump along over the abominable streets something will be left of the precious freight, which appears from without like a great jumble of veils, silks, fans, negresses and fezzan. The ridiculousness of this solemn airing is intensified by the meekness of the steeds, who, besides drawing the load, being weighed down by huge wooden collars, are covered with great black and red tassels and steel ornaments, and with red cords which run to the oxen's tails where they are artistically looped. If the Turk is of very high standing he will have in attendance a mounted black eunuch, dressed in a costly fez, handsome cashmere clothes, patent leather boots and overalls— with swollen, pale black lips, lusterless eyes, and a savage looking face. To tell the truth, although a division of the matter has been made to designate the time when the Turk Is not away from his house, if he is a gentleman of high degree he has no such place as home, in the Anglo-Saxon sense. The poor Mussulman has only one or two rooms for himself and family, and is obliged to stay with his wife and children. Those of the middle class commence by setting off two or three rooms from the women's quarters, which they call the selamlik — the apartment for the men and place of reception. As the ascent is made, socially, into the ranks of the pachas, ministers or army officers, the line of demarkation and the severe separation of the husband from his wife, becomes more marked. The selamlik of a grandee is a separate building from the palatial harem, with its iron gates, grated windows and a garden surrounded by a high wall. A passage way, inclosed with iron gratings, often connects the two. This is closely guarded by a eunuch who allows no one to THE BRIDE OF THE HAREM. 475 pass into the harem but the proprietor, his sons or other near relatives. The women, on their side, have their own receptions, intrigues and private affairs, and the pachas, with their friends and domestics, live their own lives also. During the day the husband is out visiting his friends and retainers, or engaged in political discussions. Toward eve- ning he repairs to his harem, being accompanied to his own building by his aides-de-camp and gentlemen of his suite, and is admitted to the •'Dwelling of Bliss" by a eunuch, who throws open the door with much ceremony. In the hall he is received by his favorite wife, or directress of the harem, and introduced to the inner chambers where he usually remains long enough to put on his dressing gown and pelisse of ermine fur. He then returns to the selamlik, reclines upon a divan and is ready to have the hem of his robe kissed by his friends and flatterers who take their places in line before him. After drinking his bottle of " raki," eating his dried raisins and filberts, and smoking several pipes, he con- ducts his troop to the dining hall. There they do him continuous reverence and he is ever crying in a loud and patronizing voice, " Eat my friends, eat!" After dinner they all return to the reception room, coffee and pipes, social and political gossip follow until late in the evening, when the pacha returns to the harem to sleep. The eunuch watch-dog receives him again, and, with lights in his hand, precedes him to his wife's apartment. Late in the morning he is dressed and bathed by his slaves and then remains for a few minutes to talk to the members of his harem, hastily departing to rejoin his sycophants. THE BRIDE OF THE HAREM. Having determined upon the marriage of their daughter, the betrothal ceremony is inaugurated by the parents of the girl, who order their Circassian slaves to surround her like a prisoner of state. The maiden disappears into the inner apartment, and is soon brought forth attired in a rich robe, her head and neck covered with jewels, and con- ducted into a large room, where are assembled friends and relatives of the contracting parties, but not the principal himself. He sends instead splendid cashmere shawls and embroidered carpets, which are laid at the feet of the future bride. This is succeeded by a prayer and the reading of the marriage contract, to which two witnesses of the future husband require the girl's assent. Whether the maiden, or one of her parents, or a relative gives consent to the marrriage, these convenient witnesses do not care to know, so are usually placed behind a folding door or a screen. The future mother-in-lav/ next steps forward and 47^ PANORAMA OF NATIONS. crowns the future happy or unhappy bride wi a diadem of jewels, after which the guests attack the sweets and sherbets, fruits and other refresh- ments which are placed before them. Upon the eve of the marriage a grand reception is given in the harem, at which are assembled her friends and acquaintances, and, it may be, the sister wives. She is conducted by them to the bath and the tips of her fingers are painted, which ceremony is supposed to indi- cate her joy at her approaching change in life. Around the harem she is then led, with lighted candles, and the rollicking females conclude the festivities with a supper. In the morning of the great day the girl is again loaded with a richly embroidered dress, a diadem, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and shoes are placed upon her feet, sometimes sparkling with pearls and diamonds. All this is done that she may be conducted to her father, that he may clasp a belt round her waist, give her his blessing and invoke the protection of Heaven upon her. As she leaves his presence the spectators are showered with money, which is supposed to bring her good luck, financially. From her father she goes to her mother-in- law elect, who covers her face with a rose-colored veil. In the meantime relatives and invited guests of both families have assembled either in the selamlik of the father or future husband, and the priest has said his prayers and particularly blessed the bridegroom. Scarcely have the last words left the lips of the holy man before the groom has broken away from his friends and been pursued by many of them toward the door of the harem. He usually allows them to over- take him and receives, laughingly, several blows upon the back — their way of bidding him adieu as a bachelor. Being admitted to the harem he finds awaiting him a veiled and dazzling figure, which he conducts to the nuptial chamber, with its divan of red velvet embroidered in gold, its doors and windows draped with silk curtains, and richer than all else a rose-colored canopy, sparkling with golden stars and surmounted with a wreath of flowers. Having seated " it " upon " its " throne, the Turk retires, for the time has not yet arrived when he can raise the rose-colored veil. After his departure the crowd press around the girl and also enter a second apartment, ''the chamber of the trousseau," wherein are spread her riches, such as toilet- table, massive silver dinner service, linen embroidered in gold, mirrors, slippers, cups covered with diamonds, clocks and costly velvets. Before the bridegroom can lift the veil from the face of the figure he is oblieed to follow the invitation of the " mistress of the ceremonies of the nuptial chamber," who spreads before him a praying carpet, gold- ON THE STREET. 477 embroidered and magnificent. His short prayer finished, he approaches the figure upon her divan throne and beseeches her three times to grant him the favor of seeing her face ; having accompHshed his object, he rewards her by presenting her with a rich gift, often fastening in her hair some jeweled ornament. The bond is not considered firmly cemented until gifts have been exchanged, after the marriage, between father-in- law and son-in-law, and between mother-in-law and bride ; and usually the next day succeeding the marriage, the bride is introduced into mat- ronly society by means of the " Fete of legs of mutton," of which feast all the married ladies of her acquaintance partake. Lying side by side with his peculiar ideas of sanctity and the mar- riage relationship, is the unaffected veneration and love of the Turk for his mother. Wife and children are quite secondary. . " But there can be but one mother," he says ; and wdien she dies, Turk though he be, he does not attempt to dissemble his grief. ON THE STREET. Before the Turk returns to his home, it matters not what his occu- pation or errand, he will invariably lounge at some favorite fountain, and in Constantinople they are a legion. They stand in the court yards of the mosques, at the river sides, in the public squares, and the smaller ones, which often descend to the modesty of mere water taps, from every con- venient wall. The larger ones always have a broad overhanging roof, which furnishes the deep shade in which bathe the beggars with their alms-dishes and brisk tongues ; soldiers chatting with water carriers or the keepers of the fountains in their cool inner chamber ; red-sashed Greek servants watching the water slowly rise to the rims of their copper vessels ; black nurses with their little charges ; pigeons, street arabs, stupid opium eaters ; old dreamy Turks seated on the stone benches and leaning on their canes, and fruit venders with their baskets of peaches and grapes, whom our Turk patronizes if he has not his pockets full already. The fountains of Turkey, and especially of Constantinople, are a striking evidence of that humanity and kindness of heart which are found in the Turkish nature side by side with so much natural cruelty. It is on a par with their treatment of dogs and pigeons, and seems to be a universal and delicate way of bestowing pleasure and alms upon the world and the beggar. In all the villages of the Bosporus they also abound, covered with inscriptions and carvings, but no human figure is ever outlined — the Koran forbids that. The fountains even are a part of Mohammedanism, and inscribed upon a panel in front of the building 478 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. may often be read something like this : " Rest, O traveler, for this is the fountain of enjoyment ; rest here, as under the shadow of the plane tree, for this roof casts a shade as deep as that of the cypress, but with more of joy. Sultan , he whose glory is as the sun, and his gener- osity perpetually increasing, like the tree of life, has reared this kiosk and stamped it with his signet ring. The water flows unceasingly like his benevolence, as well for the king as the beggar, the wise man and the fool. The first of all the blessings of Allah is water." If our Turk has far to travel over the uneven, loosely paved streets of the city, he will stop before a little stand near the fountain, whose presiding genius is a grave Armenian vender of sherbet and iced lemon- ade. Over his crushed cherries and currants, his lemons, ice, funnels and tumblers, is spread a green umbrella, and there in a tight white jacket, brown breeches, bare arms and dirty fez, the merchant sits on a low stool dispensing his drinks, methodically and calmly, as if his sole desire were to do his duty without thought of self. The Turkish letter-writer is near by, if our Turk upon the street has some particularly delicate piece of correspondence of which he wishes to acquit himself with credit, he will sit down beside the open-faced professional, state his case and see his letter written. If his errand is to purchase a pipe or a pair of slippers, or anything under the sun out of that booth, behind the sloping counter of which sits a cross-legged Turk, he will be detained for many a long minute ; for although the proprietor is assisted by either a Greek or an Armenian boy, who hauls clown the goods from the shelf, leaving the Turk to do the heavy financial work, if he consider that his sale is doubtful he will send out for cooling drinks, or offer his customer a fragrant pipe of tobacco or cup of coffee before proceeding to business. Near by this scheming Turkish financier are shops where the wanderer (whose busi- ness we can not ascertain) may buy wooden clogs, to be used by his wife or wives in his bath rooms, a crimson fez with a blue tassel for himself, or a cup of coffee and a single "smoke " out of a long Turkish pipe. The Turkish bazars, as all those of the East, are divided into sec- tions occupied by different trades. All the shops are under one roof, and the whole city of trade is divided into streets, with the fountains, coffee booths and fruit stands which are seen outside. Entrance to the bazar is through a low stone archway, which, when the day's business is over, is closed with cumbrous iron doors. If our Turkish wanderer enters here he will not reach home before nightfall. And when he is fairly on his way, such bowlders as he has to walk over ; the streets are like the dry beds of mountain torrents, which he is obliged to traverse ! This THE TURKISH GRAVE-VARDS 47g is not the greatest of his trials, either, although being a thorough-going Turk, he will not suffer such bewilderment as the uninitiated. " Imagine a continuous stream of ox-carts, water carriers and oil carriers, ass drivers, bread sellers, carriages with Turkish ladies, pachas and their mounted retinue, pack-horses, children and Circassian loungers. Then on every vacant spot strew praying dervishes, sleeping, couchant or rampant wild dogs, melon stalls and beggars, throw up above a ball of solid fire and call it the sun, and you have some small idea of the delight of walking in the "Dying Man's City." THE TURKISH GRAVE-YARDS. And as one speaks of the " Dying Man's City " he is forcibly reminded of that "dead man's city," which with its dark cypress trees encircles the whole of Constantinople. In this belt of grave-yards the Turk is buried as a Mohammedan, not as a private individual, and famil}^ lots and family vaults are unknown. His grave is left open, or, at least, only loosely covered with boards, the body, uncoffined, being lightly covered with earth. This apparent carelessness is religiously observed, that the angels who examine him as to his faith may not be delayed in reaching him, If he prove a believer they depart and he sinks into Paradise, while if his tendencies prove to be heretical he is beaten with iron maces, and his great sins and little faults change respectively into dragons and scorpions which torture him throughout eternity. That his fate may be decided as soon as possible, and also that the pall-bearers may perchance have several of their sins forgiven (which is promised to him who carries the corpse of a true believer but forty paces), the body is borne to the grave eagerly and with great haste ; often the bearers run with their burden. The grave-yard seems an interminable expanse of white stones, crowned with stone turbans or painted red fez, tipped at all angles and in all stages of decay, and cut by wide dusty roads, with the gloomy cypress minarets rising everywhere and pointing to the sky. New graves are being dug ; veiled mourners are bowing over earthen mounds, watching the jasmine flower or the rose Avith its "paradise of leaves," set in the little chiselled-out water saucers or the tombstones that are scooped out for that special purpose; the omnipresent coffee shed is near by, for the refreshment of the mourners ; over other tombs dervishes are writhing and praying ; and along the dust)' roads go travelers of all nations on their way to Constantinople. WITHIN THE MOSOUE. In religious ceremonials the Koran is followed to the letter. Im- 480 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. mersion upon special occasions and ablutions before prayer, either with water, dry dust or sand, are strictly enjoined. The ground or the carpet, upon which the Mohammedan kneels five times a day, must also be clean. His seasons of prayer are about sunset, at nightfall, about day-break, about noon and after noon. We specify "about" in the case of sunset, day-break and noon, for if the believer were to pray exactly at these times he is fearful that he would be confounded with those who worship the sun. The worshiper's face is turned toward Mecca, the interior wall of the mosque marking that direction being distinguished by a niche. Women are not actually forbidden to enter the mosque, but their presence is considered harmful to true devotion and they are practically excluded. The times of prayer are announced from the minarets of the mosques by the mueddins, or officials appointed for that purpose. " Their chant, sung to a very simple but solemn melody, sounds har- moniously and sonorously down the height of the mosque through the mid-day din and roar of the cities, but its impression is one of the most strikingly poetical in the stillness of the night." At intervals the mued- dins chant these words : " Allah is most great. I testify that there is no God but Allah. 1 testify that Mohammed is the apostle of Allah. Come to prayer. Come to security. Allah is most great. There is no deity but Allah." In the morning is added, " Prayer is better than sleep." The mueddins are generally blind, as, otherwise, they would have too free a view of surrounding terraces and harems. The five daily prayers are said at home on week days. Friday is the Moslem Sabbath and on that day the mosque is crowded by all classes. Within are no seats, the floor being covered with mats or carpets. Sentences of the Koran are inscribed upon the whitewashed walls, and in the direction of Mecca is the niche toward which all faces are turned in prayer and before which the congregation arrange themselves in par- allel rows. Toward the southeast is a pulpit, and opposite the pulpit a desk upon which is placed the Koran. On entering, the Moslem removes his shoes, carries them in his left hand, sole to sole, and placing his right foot first over the threshold, performs his ablutions, and con- cludes by putting his shoes and any arms he may have with him upon the matting before him. He is faithful in his devotions, but having prayed he is authorized by his faith to engage in trade, if necessary, and it is even not required that he should conduct his business outside of the mosque. When services are not in progress a group of Moham- medan merchants will often be observed trying to turn an honest penny. OUTSIDE THE MOSQUE. 48 1 OUTSIDE THE MOSQUE. In the center of the outer court is usually a square solid fountain basin, guarded by slender pillars and a tent-like roof, which is also crowned with a star or crescent. The water escapes by taps, and the water-carriers are sitting- upon the steps to gossip, while the pigeons which make their homes in the thousand cornices and niches of the mosque, are flitting round the fountain. Near by will sometimes be seated a ragged old Turk, and beside him a chest of millet seed. For a slight consideration he dips out a cupful and rattles the iron hasp of the chest ; dark clouds of the birds respond by dropping from every dome, minaret, crescent and niche of the mosque and fountain, and crowding and pushing for their spoils. Another beggar, before the mosque is left behind, obtains his point by pure Mohammedan eloquence. "Alms quench sin," he cries, "as water quenches fire. Alms shut the seventy gates of hell. At the gates of paradise stands an angel crying continually, ' Whoso giveth alms to-day shall be rewarded of God to-morrow.' Generosity is a tree by which men climb into" — FASTING AND PILGRIMAGES. None are exempt from fasting except the sick, travelers, and sol- diers in time of war ; in other words, every one is to fast whose health will not be injured by it. The great season of fasting is during the month of Ramadan, which often falls in mid-summer, so that it is espe- cially hard for the devotees to abstain from eating, drinking, smoking, bathing or inhaling refreshing perfumes from daybreak until sunset; after that time until morning they can feast to their satisfaction. At the end of the sacred month it is customary to bestow a measure of provisions upon the poor. There is also annual alms-giving of cattle, money, fruit and wares. The duty of giving alms is next to prayer ; then comes fasting and the pilgrimage to Mecca. Mecca, the holy city, is in the midst of a desolate country forty miles from the Red Sea. Within its great mosque is the " Kaaba,'' a square stone temple said to have been built by Abraham, and within the Kaaba is the black stone which the true Mohammedan believes was brought by the angel Gabriel. When the pilgrim has arrived at the goal of his desires, he passes seven times round the Kaaba, reciting verses and psalms in honor of God and the prophet, and kissing each time the sacred stone. The pilgrimage to Mt. Ararat, thirty miles south of the city, is also undertaken by the truly zealous. 31 482 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. It was formerly the custom after the great fast of Ramadan for three immense caravans from Cairo, Damascus and Arabia to set out for Mecca. During some years these pilgrims have numbered 100,000 souls, with 150,000 camels. They have always combined business with their devotions, carrying with them camels loaded with the choicest of goods to exchange for the spices and riches of the East. Mecca has therefore been a city of no small commercial importance, although since the mosque was stripped of its magnificence and the tomb of Mohammed destroyed by the Arabian dissenters, the Wahabees, it has declined both as a sacred and a commercial city. THE DERVISHES These singular and fraudulent monks of Mohammedanism, the der- vishes, are found wherever the faith is. The dancing or whirling der- vishes are said to have had as their founder a Persian poet, who spun around for four days without nourishment, while his companion played the flute. The howling dervishes howl, writhe, and foam at the mouth during their religious paroxysms, in remembrance of a crazy sheik some- body who did the same thing centuries ago. They gather in communi- ties, monasteries, or villages, in charge of a sheik, and twice a week throw open their churches to whoever wishes to come in and see the per- formances. A wire gallery or apartment is often reserved for Turkish ladies who may wish to attend. Loungers and curiosity-seekers, Per- sians, Americans and Englishmen, repair to the dancing dervishes, and enjoy a season of Punch and Judy. The flute furnishes the music, and the dervishes, who twirl, and twist, and glide about in their church arena, continue this kind of worship until the music or their breath ceases. " Deeper grew the mystery, deeper the expectation," says a witness of the spectacle, "as the Koran reader above the gallery began the appointed chapters of Mohammed's fervid rhapsody, half ejaculation, half hymn ; and the brotherhood commenced slowly pacing procession- ally round the enclosure, past the sheik, who gave them each his bene- diction as they went by. But before this each of the dervishes had peeled off his dressing-gown robe, untwisted his scarf-girdle, and handed them to an old brother, who seemed to act as master of ceremonies ; and they appeared lithe and active, though differing in age and degree of corpulence, from the mere stripling to the heavy twelve-stoner, already perspiring by mere anticipation. Now crossing their arms on their breast, placing the right hand on the left shoulder, they began to file past the sheik, bowing as they passed him ; then turning to bow to the THE DERVISHES. 483 next comer, who, in his turn, bowed too, both to his predecessor and successor. Now, the master of ceremonies having, collected on his arm piles of cloaks, the barefooted men prepare for the dance by tucking one flap of their white jackets within the other, and stretching out their arms horizontally, the right hand pointing downwards, and the left stretched upAvards for balance and counterpoise. Then slowly pivoting round, one after the other, the dervishes began to get in motion, their naked feet performing skillfully a sort of waltzing step, which increased in speed as the music of the flute grew faster and faster. The most astonishing part of the mystical circling dance was that, although the dozen or fourteen men twirled all around the enclosure, they never touched each other — no, not even the fringe of each other's garments." One order of the dervishes either dress in costumes of many colors, or in sheepskins about the loins, the upper part of the body being painted in a way to inspire curiosity or awe. The dervishes mortify the flesh, pray and rave on the corners of the streets, or take the parts of jugglers and mountebanks, and wander from country to country, being lodged and fed in convents of their order. They are always bare-breasted and bare-legged and wear coarse robes, as badges of their poverty and liumility. Begging is generally forbidden among the orders, one of their rules (which goes somewhat lame) being that each dervish must support himself by the labor of his own hands. In some respects the dervishes are like monks ; in others the distinction is sharp. With the exception of one order they may all marry and reside with their families, being only required to act with their religious fellows two nights in the week. Their dwelling places may be within or without the monasteries, l)ut they are always grouped' into companies under charge of sheiks. In addition to the Ramadan, they observe a weekly fast, peculiar to them- selves, " Religous orders similar to the dervishes are traced in the East beyond the Christian era, and tradition assigns many of the existing brotherhoods to the earliest days of Islam, the foundation of some being sttributed to the caliph Ali ; but it is doubtful if any of them are older than the ninth century. The Marabouts among the Mohamme- dans of the Barbary states (and Arabia) are similar to the dervishes." Wherever Mohammedanism holds sway in Western Asia the dervish is found working at his trade. He is as easily recognized on the shores of the Mediterranearf Sea as of the Indian Ocean. And the Turk is a Turk the world over, certain statements applying to him whether he is a European or an Asiatic, 484 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. SAVING REMNANTS. But within the Ottoman Empire there are races which have traits pecuHar to themselves. They are not Turks and never will be. They have faces and ideas of their own and are merely living in the empire ; they are no part of it, considered as a Tartar despotism. They are peo- ple who descend from the primitive Semitic stock ; who cleave to one wife and punish impurity with decapitation ; who are among the earliest followers of Christ as they understand his teachings ; who worshiped their God and believed in their prophet thousands of years before Jesus or Mohammed came to the world ; who have seen mighty empires and races of men sifted over the face of the earth and yet are able to hold up their heads as strong people, albeit they are politically nothing. They are the saving remnants of the Semitic race, representing the survival of the fittest and the weather beaten rocks which have withstood their worst storms. Wherever the original home of the race may have been, the events which prove most momentous to Indo-European civilization were enacted on the shores of the Mediteranean Sea, within the present limits of Syria. THE SYRIANS. HEN Greece was young and Rome was not born, Syria was a M'ealthy land, her coast cities being centers of a vast commerce and civilization. Tyre and the Phoenicians include their greatest features. Berytus, or Beyrout, was among her famous ports ; and although Sidon and Tyre have disappeared, and her ancient prominence has been dimmed by the ruth- less hands of many conquerors, the city bids fair to rise to eminence now that the Suez Canal is drawing the trade of two hemispheres through the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf. Nineveh and Babylon are fallen, but the Tigris, the Euphrates and the Jordan remain as possible arteries of trade, while all around is the country which the Turks say is " the odor of Paradise," the Hebrews, "a garden planted by God for the first man," and the Arabs, a land "where the mountains bear winter on their heads, autumn on their shoulders, spring in their bosoms, while summer is ever sleeping at their feet." Beyrout is the natural commercial port of Syria and a favorite city of the Roman emperors. It was called the Nurse of the Law, for the Roman jurisprudence was ably taught in its schools. Portions of beau- tiful pavements and columns are still seen in its gardens and on the sea shore. It was destroyed in the Roman wars and rebuilt by Augustus, who still considered it a gem of his empire. It was from Beyrout, also, that the vir^rin was sent to the drasfon, whom St. Georgfe slew about ten minutes' walk from the city. Out in the sea is Cyprus where the lovely goddess rose from the ocean. Spots of historic interest, better authenti- cated, are grouped all around. Tyre and Acre are on the coast. Opposite is Carmel, and a few hours away Nazareth, Mount Tabor and Genes- areth. The Druse and Maronite villages cover the mountains for many miles east and north of it. Twelve hours distant is Damascus, and Baalbek is forty miles away. The modern city is built upon the slope of a hill which overlooks the sea, having as a background the bold peaks of Mount Lebanon, Mulberry gardens, orange and citron groves, palms, mosques, light flat- 485 486 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. roofed houses painted in lively colors, terraces filled with flowers, blend into a charming picture. Its bazars are filled with goods of the East and the West, and Armenian, Druse, Maronite, Turk, Greek and Arab are all there or strolling along their favorite sea-shore walk. Besides being a commercial point of no mean standing the city is becoming quite a resort for tourists and invalids. Its citizens are wide-awake, metropoli- tan and always picturesque. The accompanying cut gives a good idea of their average appearance. The plain of Beyrout stretches out to the east, covered with every variety of foliage — the orange, date, fig, pine, — and sweet with hyacinths and gillyflowers ; and still beyond it is Mount Lebanon, cut up into deep ravines and charming valleys, the particular home of those mysterious peo- ple the Druses and Maronites. One of their mixed villages called Beit-Miry is a summer resort for many of the Europeans of Beyrout. Other villages, more distant, are frequently visited by tourists ; but those occupied by the Druses alone are not so often entered. THE DRUSES. In the northern and central portions of Syria are the Druses, who are supposed to be a conglomeration of Kurds, Persians and Arabians. They hold exclusive possession of about 1 20 villages and share 200 more with the Maronites. Among the mountains of the Lebanon a religion slowly grew, which, in the eleventh century, was personified in a caliph of Egypt, who proclaimed at Cairo that the spirit of God was incarnate in him. The new faith was not wel^ received outside of Syria, and the caliph's confessor and one of his dis- ciples, a Persian, retired to the mountains and deserts of the Lebanon, and there established the religion Avhich the Druses now profess. It i$ a strange combination of Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedism,^ but is founded upon the unusual basis of strict exclusiveness, separa- tion from heretics, veracity to each other only, and mutual protection and assistance. The unity of God is the great tenet of their faith. They call themselves, in fact. Unitarians. For eight hundred years they have retained a distinct religion and nationality, not seeking to extend their power, but to hold fast to that A SYRIAN. THE DRUSES. 487 which they have. They are, however, divided into two classes, those initiated into the mysteries of the faith and the uninitiated. The former are moral and abstain from all luxuries and personal adornments. The latter are free from all religious duties and are, if anything, prone to dress. Polygamy is unknown, and the general morality of the Druses is said to be above the average of eastern sects. The. wife's rights are maintained. She can own personal property, chooses her own'^husband, and if divorced retains her half of the dower. The Druses have their princes, chiefs and common people. They pay a stated sum to the Sublime Porte, but are as nearly independent as any people who live in the empire. Their villages are usually placed at the entrances, to passes, the houses rising tier upon tier, sometimes one village almost overlapping another, and the whole mountain side being covered with habitations and artificial gardens. Their churches are usually some distance away, jealously guarded from intrusion, and their u k k a 1 s (who are the initiated, or religious teach- ers) see to it that neither stranger nor infidel pene- trates the mysteries of their worship. The people are simple in their habits and generally well educated and industrious. The sheiks often labor with the common people, but sometimes live in state. Some of them are artisans, but the bulk of the population cultivate the mulberry, olive and vine upon their terraced hill-sides, and the women spin and weave at home. Silk is the chief manufacture. The Druses are divided into a number of tribes who are often at war with each other, but when danger threatens from without they unite under the leadership of the emir, or prince, and from their mountain homes bid defiance to the Sultan himself. Questions of peace and war are determined, in a way, by popular vote, the prince calling a general VILLAGE OF SYRIA. 488 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. assembly on some mountain height, in which every sheik and peasant of any standing is entitled to a voice. When war has been determined criers often ascend the summits of the mountains, shouting in aloud voice : " To war ! to war ! Take your guns. Take your pistols. Noble sheiks, mount your horses. Arm yourselves with lance and saber. Gather to-morrow at Dair el-Kamar (once their capital). Zeal of God ! Zeal of combat ! "• The hardy peasants, with their muskets and little bags of flour, their legs bare, and wearing short coats, promptly assemble under their chosen leaders. They are skillful marksmen, intrepid when brought to close quar- ters, but fighting mostly from behind rocks and bushes, and trusting to their success in skillful ambuscades. The common dress of the men is a coarse black woolen cloak, with white stripes, thrown over a waistcoat, and loose, short trowsers of the same stuff, tied around the waist by a white or red linen sash. On the head is worn a flat, turnip-shaped turban. The women wear a coarse blue jacket and petticoat, without any stockings, and a sort of winding hood and veil, their hair being plaited and hang- incr down behind. The Druse women generally have fair complexions, dark blue eyes, long black hair and white teeth. The dress of those of high standing who have no religious scruples, as well as that of Maronite ladies, is very striking and elegant. The most prominent ornament is the tantoor, a conical tube of silver from a foot to two feet in length, secured to a pad on the head by two silken cords which hang down the back and termi- nate in large tassels or knobs of silver. It supports a long white veil, which falls over the shoulders or the face, as required. The tantoor is worn by only married women. Other items of dress are a silk pelisse, fringed with gold cord, over an embroidered silk vest, a rich shawl bound around the waist, a diadem of silver and gold, earrings and necklaces, loose silk trowsers and soft leather shoes. The life which they lead in the mountains gives them a vigor and anima- tion, which add to their natural charms of form and feature. The men marry at from sixteen to eighteen years of age and the ■women generally three or four years earlier. After the consent of the A DRUSE LADY. THE MORONITES. 489 parents has been obtained and the dowry decided upon, the bride pre- :sents her future husband with a dagger. With this he binds himself to protect her during Hfe, if she prove a true wife to him. Should she prove unfaithful he sends her back to her father's house, and with her the dagger without the shield. She is tried for her offense by her father and brothers at her husband's house, and, if found guilty, one of the brothers usually acts as executioner. The tantoor and a lock of bloody hair are afterwards sent to the husband, as an evidence that the awful duty has been performed and the family dishonor wiped out with the deed. THE MARONITES. The Maronites, who dwell in the same district as the Druses, are •Christians who have invariably supported the Roman Pontiff, and the patriarch of their church is subject to his confirmation. They were friends of the Crusaders, and, with the Druses, have always been enemies of the Mohammedans ; they both, however, have been so far reduced by the Porte as to pay tribute to a Turkish governor who resides at Dair el- Kamar. They have even had their bloody conflicts with the Druses, the difficulty between them having been that the Maronites were too tardy in fighting for their independenee to suit their more energetic neigh- bors. The villages which the Maronites solely occupy are chiefly situated in the country east of Tripoli and Tyre to the lake of Genesareth. They formerly held the entire chain of mountains from Antioch to Jeru- salem, and their homes were long the asylums of the Christians who were persecuted and driven away by the Saracens. Their ways of living are similar to those of the Druses. As with the latter, property is sacred among them. Their priests marry as in the early days of the Christian church, their dress being a black cossack, with a hood and leather girdle. The communion is celebrated by throwing the pieces of bread into the wine and feeding them to the communicants with a spoon. Among the relics of barbarism which the Maronites have retained is that of retalia- tion — the custom by which the nearest relative of a murdered person is bound to avenge him. SMYRNA. Most of the nationalities and religions of Turkey are represented at Smyrna, on the western coast of Asia Minor and, perhaps, next to Constantinople, the most important commercial port of the empire. There are Greeks and Turks, Jews and Roman Catholics, Armenians 490 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. JiT AN OLD TURK. and Americans. The city 'runs down the gentle slope of a hill to the water's edge, the Armenians living upon the lower ground, while be- .^r--- ------ - — ^ tween them and the Turks is the Jewish. quarter. Smyrna is the Christian city of the Ottoman Empire, and here reside Arch- bishops of the Greek, Armenian and Roman Catholic churches. THE HEBREWS AND JERUSALEM.. The Hebrew, or Jew, is to be viewed' merely as a native of Palestine, or as a pil- grim to the Holy Land and to Jerusalem. Frum all quarters of the globe the people of a great, and yet almost invisible, nation come to wail over their fallen state. Of ancient Jerusalem little remains. Warriors of Europe, Asia and Africa, and representa- tives of nearly every religion, have besieged and devastated it, and were It not for the mountains and valleys which are so associated with Christian remem- brances and surround it, the identity of the Holy City might almost be questioned. Within, are crumbling Avails and dirty narrow streets, and various unsatisfactory reasons are adduced for fixing upon spots where were the scenes in the life of Christ with which the Christian is so familiar. Constantine, for example, is reported to have recovered the Holy Sepulcher, over which the pagans had heaped a mound of earth, and to have erected a basilica to mark the spot. But while the Christians were ban- ished from Jerusalem there is no evidence to show that the locality was allowed to be thus marked, or that the present Church of the Holy Sepulchre was erected therein. The site of Solomon's Temple, on the other hand, has been fixed with tolerable certainty as being to the east of the modern city, upon a ridge guarded) by valleys on every side. Still further east is the Golden Gate, su A MAN OF JERUS.A.LEM. THE HEBREWS AND JERUSALEM. 491 double passage way, through which the Mohammedans are convinced that the King of the Christians may ride victoriously into Jerusalem. The gate is therefore walled up with solid masonry. Running from one of the ruined walls of the Temple area have been excavated a series of piers upon which were arches, the remains of the bridge mentioned by ancient historians as spanning the valley and connecting the Temple with Jerusalem. Within the Temple area is the Mosque of Omar, or the Dome of the Rock, a magnificent structure rising in its dome-like grandeur from a great marble platform. There are other mosques within the area, but none equal to this, " next after Mecca the most sacred, next after Cordova the most beautiful, of all Moslem shrines." Beneath the foundation of the Temple area are various subterranean chambers, one of them, according to Mohammedan AT JERUSALEM'S WALL. tradition, being the birthplace of Jesus, and used as a chapel, which is dedicated to him. The site of the Temple, itself, is a matter of warm dispute. Some incline to the belief that the Mosque of Omar stands over the altar of the Temple and that its marble platform marks the site. Another theory is advanced, and voluminously supported by cir- cumstantial evidence, that a certain cave in a mysterious rock which the mosque incloses is the Holy Sepulcher. It will thus be seen how the 492 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. minds of the Hebrew and the Christian must be torn with conflicting emotions in their vain endeavors to fix upon the exact locaUty of the :spot which each considers so holy. At the western wall, near where the piers and bridge arches were discovered, is the wailing place of the Jews; and here gather the pil- grims from all lands, as well as the residents of Jerusalem, to bewail their national misfortunes, and especially their exclusion from the Tem- ple where their fathers worshiped and which is now in ruins. This locality is near the squalid quarter of the city which is occupied by the Jews, and they seem to have chosen it because of the fine state of pre- servation in which they found the wall, retaining as it does a trace of the massive and perfect character of the Temple's architecture, and bringing to their minds something of its past glories and sanctities. " Many of the stones are twenty-five feet in length, and apparently have remained undisturbed since the time of the first builder. Here the Jews assemble every Friday to mourn over their fallen state. Some press their lips against the crevices in the masonry as though imploring an answer from some unseen presence within. Others utter loud cries of anguish. Here is one group joining in the prayers of an aged rabbi ; yonder another sitting in silent anguish, their cheeks bathed in tears. The stones are in many places worn smooth with their passionate kisses. The grief of the new-comers is evidently deep and genuine, but with the older residents it has subsided into little more than a mere ceremonial observance and an empty form." Lying north of the Temple area is the Valley of Jehosaphat, on the other side of which is the garden of Gethsemane, and, beyond, the Mount of Olives. Both Jew and Mohammedan believe that the valley is to be the scene of the final judgment ; the Mohammedan that his prophet will stand upon the Golden Gate, and Jesus upon the Mount, of Olives, and together judge the world. The valley is therefore a con- tinuous grave-yard. The garden is about 80 yards square, contains a number of neat flower beds and gnarled olive trees, and is fenced with sticks. A rambling church building is perched upon the summit of the mount. THE ROAD TO JERICHO. Taking the road which carries us past the Mount of Olives, in a northeasterly direction, we journey along the bases of wild mountains and robber-like glens, toward Jericho and the plains of the Jordan. We have, in fact, a guard, for the Bedouins are frequently desperate. In the middle of the journey are the ruins of an ancient "khan," a resting place BETIILEHEMITES. 493 for trav^elers, and which has stood in the same- place from time im- memorial, the only one on the road ; in fact, the inn where the Good Samaritan, who so tenderly cared for him who had been wounded and. robbed. Jericho, the ancient, a great commercial city, stood upon the plain of the Jordan. Joshua destroyed it when he entered into the promised land. Three times more it became mighty and the residence of kings, and was thrice leveled to the ground, by Romans and Mohammedans.. A Turkish hamlet next sprung up, and of this there only now remain a few wretched mud huts and a ruined Saracenic tower. BETHLEHEMITES. The men, many of whom are shepherds tending their flocks, usually- are seen with their musical pipes of reed with mouth pieces of hardwood^ all of home make. But the truth must be told, the words being bor- rowed from an English traveler and Christian, that although the Bethle- hemites are all professedly Christians, they are a turbulent, quarrelsome set, ever fiorhtin<.r amonsjst themselves or with their neisfhbors. In the disturbances which take place so frequently at Jerusalem, it is said that, the ring-leaders are commonly found to be Bethlehemites. About five miles from Bethlehem, in the side of a limestone mountain, andi approached by a narrow path through a rugged ravine, is a black slit through which one person can crowd, only to find before him a series of vast vaulted chambers. This has been fixed upon as the retreat of David and his followers, the cave of Adullam. Just outside of the village is the Church of the Nativity, situated upon the limestone hill which is the site of Bethlehem, being a noble structure with stately columns. The inn, or khan of the East, is gener- ally without the town, and that of Bethlehem, upon whose site the church stands, was upon ground which had descended to David and to David's adopted son, Chimham. Long after the time of David it was known as the khan of Chimham, being the first resting place from Jerusalem on the road to Egypt. The chapel of the Nativity is a grotto, and there is strong evidence to prove that the Saviour was born in a cave which might have served as a stable to the inn. NAZARETH. Rapidly passing over the steep hills that encompass Nazareth the little village itself is reached. Before a visit is paid to the Church of the Annunciation, supposed to have been built on the site of Joseph's work 494 PANORAMA OF NATIONS, shop, it is proposed to glance a moment at the women of Nazareth. As of old they are still bearing jugs of water to their homes, washing their clothes in little streams, engaging in the fields or in household duties. They are tall, erect and handsome, with Grecian features, seeming to have a touch of pride in their carriage, although they are courteous and pleasing. They do not veil their countenances, and instead of wearing gold and silver coins in their hair their faces are framed in a sort of cap to which is attached a pad covered with the coins, the lower row of which usually falls over the forehead. A similar fashion prevails among the Kurdish maidens. The chief attraction, artistically speaking, of the Church of the Annunciation is a painting which hangs over its altar. The central figure is Joseph, the carpenter, with his axe upon a block of wood, but his fatherly and wondering eyes are fixed upon the child Jesus, who sits on a low stool by the bench and is reading to him and to Mary, who likewise is seated and forgetful of all but her love and her wonder. THE ARMENIANS. Armenia is a province of indefi- nite extent, whose original inhabi- tants occupied a region lying within the present limits of Turkey in Asia. They call themselves Haiks, from Haig, a traditional great grandson of Noah, who was one of the directors of the Tower of Babel ; but being dissatisfied with the Babylonian form of worship he went north and founded cities and established a kingdom. His successors conquered a large part of Asia Minor, and one of them was sought in marriage by Semiramis, the great Queen of Assyria, who defeated him in battle and killed him on account of his refusal. The Armenians became subjects of Assyria ; afterwards acquired their independence under powerful monarchs ; fell under the Roman, Persian and Arabian yokes, and were split into little kingdoms, which were cut into smaller fragments by the Turks, Mongols, Kurds, Persians and Russians, until they cease to exist as a nation. But as a people they are strong, commercially as well as intellectually, and are respected throughout Turkey and Russia AN ARMENIAN. THEIR POWERFUL CHURCH, 495 as are no other race who are without a government or poHtical power of their own. Not only have the wars for the possession of their terri- tory caused thousands of them to emigrate to Europe, Asia and Africa, but the Assyrians carried them into their kingdom as slaves, and as cap- tives they were borne to Constantinople, to Persia, to Greece, to Arabia, and to Russia, while the Tartars, who repeatedly overran their territory, dragged them to the four quarters of the ancient world. Like the Jew, when the Armenian has once left his native land, his taste runs to finances. Thousands, even now, migrate from their moun- tain homes to the large cities of Turkey, where, if they start as porters, water-carriers, or mechanics, they are almost sure to develop into mer- chants, or, better still, into bankers It matters not how distant the scene of their transactions, they prefer to conduct their business in person, so that almost every important exposition, fair or market, from London and Paris, to Leipsic, St. Peters- burg, Bombay and Calcutta numbers among its customers or visitors the Armenian mer- chants. It is said of him that "he differs materially from a Greek. As in his national character there is more sense and less wit, so in his trade there is more respectability and less fraud." THEIR POWERFUL CPiURCH. The Armenians claim to have been the first Christian nation of the world, their pre- vious religion having been a jumble of Scythian, Indian and Grecian superstitions and idolatry. The Arme- nian church has been anathematized by both the Greek and Roman Catholic churches. A branch of the church, however, acknowledges the Pope's supremacy, and there is still another split, of fifty years' stand- ing, by which a faction severed themselves from the main body because of its errors. They are known as Protestant Armenians. Three or four million communicants yet remain with the parent church. Services are conducted in their ancient tongue, one of the oldest of the Indo- P2uropean languages. The head of the church is the Catholicos, who resides in the Rus- sian province of Erivan. Beneath him are the four patriarchs, the most powerful of whom is the Patriarch of Constantinople, who is virtually at AN ARMENIAN BISHOP. 496 ANORAMA OF NATIONS. the head of the Turkish Armenians and independent of the CathoHcos.. The Patriarchate of Constantinople embraces eighteen archiepiscopal dioceses. In general the Armenians agree with the doctrines of the Greek. Church. Unlike the latter, however, they are not Trinitarians, but be- lieve in the doctrine of the two natures made one in Christ. They there- fore make the sign of the cross with two fingers. The mode of baptiz- ing infants and those converted from other religions is the same, viz.: by partial immersion and pouring water upon their heads three times. The church rejects purgatory, but regards confession and absolution as essentials to salvation. Their feasts and fasts number at least five hun- dred. They adore the Host, and worship saints and their pictures as well as the cross. Proud of their nationality and their church, and yet possessed of a worldly character which is thoroughly saturated with finances and trade, the Armenians are a strong and united people, dispersed though they be. The Patriarch at Constantinople is highly honored by the Sublime Porte, and through him the whole people. He ranks as a great pacha, being elected by the ecclesiastics, Afmenian bankers and merchants, and higrh Turkish officials, residents of the citv. The Armenians, however, do not confine themselves to the drudgery of trade for a livelihood. They have considerable musical talent, and often form traveling companies, both for pleasure and profit. THE KURDS. Kurdistan, or the country of the Kurds, is a great tract of Central and Eastern Turkey, even extending into Western Persia, which lies principally in the valley of the Tigris. The Kurds are the descendants of an ancient warlike people who, for centuries, bid successful defiance to Persia. Both men and women are elegant in form and feature, with dark, intelligent eyes and beautiful mouths. The people are still war- like and retain the same character for boldness and dash which they possessed when Xenophon was obliged to fight his way through their country in conducting the famous retreat of Ten Thousand. The men wear a cloak of black goat's hair, and a red cap from which a silk shawl falls upon the shoulders. They have mustaches, handsome hands and feet, athletic frames, are expert horsemen and generally frank and noble in their bearing. The women are treated with marked respect, and unless of very high rank go unveiled. Unlike the Druses, the Maronites, and other people who live m the mountainous districts, the Kurds have their villages and fortifications THE KURDS. 497 separate, retiring to the mountains when there is a quarrel between rival chiefs, or they are threatened by Turkish or Persian forces. The peasantry, who are distinct from the warriors and the villagers, give much attention to the breeding- of horses, the animals being small but remarkably hardy, and in great demand for the Turkish and Persian cavalry. Their long-tailed sheep yield the finest wool. Cotton is raised to some extent and mulberry trees are cultivated for silkworms. Thus are obtained the raw products upon which the villagers work. "A remarkable vegetable production is found here, answering in most respects to the manna which fed the children of Israel in the wilderness ; it is collected from leaves of trees and occasionally from the ground, and is dried, pounded and eaten as a sweetmeat. Medicinal plants, especially gall nuts of superior quality, are largely exported byway of Alexandretta and Smyrna." The forays of the Kurds into Persian territory have several times threatened to cause war between the Sultan and the Shah. A few years ago one of their most powerful sheiks, who had nearly captured the Persian city of Tabreez, upon the summons of the Sultan, went to Constantinople as a hostage and an earnest of peace. After a year's stay he returned to his tribe, but afterwards consented to live in retire- ment at Mosul. But the Kurds did not propose to lose so valiant a. leader without a struggle, and while he was being conducted to his new home, a band of them, led by his son, pounced upon the guard and carried him off to one of their mountain strongholds. The country of the Kurds is especially adapted to their style of warfare and living, for the: northern districts are covered with mountains, some of which are 12,000 feet in height and covered with snow for half the year. The southern portion of Kurdistan, on the contrary, is generally low and the soil fer- tile, the grains and fruits of the temperate zone flourishing ; so that Southern Kurdistan is their garden and granary, and Northern Kurdis- tan their fortress. This combination of great fertility and repulsive ruggedness has made Kurdistan a country which is well nigh impregna- ble. Their store houses, those of the wealthy being surmounted by towers, have the appearance of tiny castles. Xenophon, whom they so harassed when marching through their country, gives an account of the Carduchi, who are supposed to be their ancestors. In his time the bow and arrow constituted their national weapon, and with this they were as skillful as the Parthians. The story told by the Greek histo- rian and leader of the sufferings of his little army, many of whom died in drifts of snow, being assailed on all sides by the barbarians, recalls the equally famous retreat of modern times over European wastes of ■i-i 498 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. snow. The loss to the Greeks, however, was hght compared to that suffered by the French, and also in proportion to the number who under- took the desperate enterprise. In the Kurds are seen some of the purest specimens of the Indo- European or Iranic race which the world can show. They are Persians in the rough. But as they are Mohammedans, their language has been corrupted by both Turkish and Arabian words. The Persian-Arabic alphabet is in use by a very small number of the Kurds, either reading or writing being considered a superfluity. There have, however, at rare intervals been poets and scholars of the race. Although nomadic, the Kurds do not wander far from home, and in their proneness to bind themselves to a country which they may call their own, is found the dividing line between them and the Semites, the Hebrews, the Phoenicians, the Armenians and the Arabs. Partly from necessity and partly by nature they are at home with all people ; and among the branches of the Semitic race none has shown more wonder- ful adaptability and the power of extending religion, literature and individuality over the world than the Arabs. The career of the Moors, or the Arabs, in Spain, is particular evidence of their genius for prose- lyting, establishing as they did a new civilization among a distinct race which endures in a noteworthy degree to this day. .. . .^r^^^g^i^zL,, ,. THE ARABS. DECLINE OF MOHAMMEDANISM. HERE is little doubt that the country which gave birth to Mohammed and his religion exhibits less zeal and more skep- ticism than any other eastern land which professes the faith. Some of the mountain tribes even go to the length of givinaf their allegiance to a prophet who preceded Mohammed and cursed him and his followers. With the decline and fall of the idea that religion can be spread over the world by the sword, the i\rabs, and particu- larly the wandering tribes of Arabia and Syria, have gradually been losing interest in the Faith. They have fallen from their position as the scourges of Europe and Asia, and although they have never been conquered they are divided into tribes of a few hundred to 20,000 or more, wandering about with their flocks and herds, sellinor their horses and camels to the " dwellers in clay houses," or falling upon a caravan for plunder; but they are without organization or great leaders, and their roving lives have influenced their religious beliefs. Although the Koran lays down a fragmentary code of laws as well as morals, the Bedouins do not even acknowledge them in their lives. The only law which they acknowledge is that of retaliation, which is also found among many of the African tribes. It rages most fiercely among the Abyssinians, and under it the relatives of a murdered person take the punishment of the murderer into their own hands. The offense, however, is often condoned by the payment of blood money. Amono- the Arabs the price varies, a sum from $150 to $1,500 being- paid for the murder of a man and about one-third as much for that of a woman. Thouoh the Bedouins are naturally fierce and blood-thirsty, the existence of this law has operated in a way to curb their propensities ; for they know not but that one act of theirs may result in the extermination of whole fami- lies. The Koran sanctions both the avenging of blood by the nearest kinsman and the pecuniary commutation. But what has been said of the decline of Mohammedanism among the Arabs has no bearing upon its 499 500 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. wonderful spread over Africa and the islands of the sea, it having pene- trated the peaceful natures of the Chinese, so as to be an established religion in the empire. THE MARABOUTS. These form a class of Mohammedan priests who are especially numerous in Africa, having much influence with many negro tribes of Soudan and the Bedouins of the Great Sahara. They are also found among the wandering tribes of Arabia, and even work upon the super- stitions of the settled population so that they often have dome-like temples erected over their tombs. Great chiefs believe that they owe their power to the influence and charms of these priests. They travel over the deserts with their talismans of beads, or of paper upon which are magical figures and Koran verses, selling them to the Bedouins as protections in war and in the chase. Wives and children, horses and camels, are decked with them and the fetiches of Africa are repeated among the Arabians. The Arabian women are not excluded from the ranks of the Mara- bouts and are the gypsies of the country — old and wrinkled fortune- tellers, discoverers of secrets, workers of miracles and encouragers of all forms of superstition. The Marabouts cling to certain forms of Mohammedanism even among the children of the desert, but have seen the folly of attempting to propagate it, systematically or faithfully. As one of them once said to a traveler who found him with a Bedouin tribe, "Our horses are our lives and our religion"; and the Bedouin masses add : " In the desert we have no water; how then can we make the prescribed ablu- tions? We -have no money, and how can we bestow alms? Why should we fast in the Ramadan, since the whole year is with us one con- tinued abstinence ? And if God be present everywhere, why should we go to Mecca to adore him?" THE CHIEFS. Not only are the Bedouins of Arabia split into many tribes, but the territory which contains permanent inhabitants, cities and villages, is ruled by military chieftains. The most extensive of these districts and one of the most powerful of the native states is that of the Wahabees, a sect of Mohammedans, who, during the last of the century, became apostates from the true faith, denying the divine nature of Mohammed and the inspiration of the Koran, prohibiting the worship of the prophet's tomb as a form of idolatry, and propagating these doctrines THE CHIEFS. 501 greatly by the power of the sword, so that under the leadership of powerful chiefs they subdued Mecca itself. The Holy City was after- wards surrendered to the Porte, but the empire of the Wahabees still includes the central and eastern portions of Arabia, several hundred towns, and villages, and with the Bedouins, who have been subdued, a million and a half of people. The land of pilgrimage, through which millions of Mohammedans have passed along the shores of the Red Sea to Mecca, is bounded east by the great Arabian desert and by a fierce tribe of Bedouins who levy contributions on the pious pilgrims. Their profitable occupation is, however, greatly curtailed since the open- ing of the Suez Canal and the consequent running of vessels and steam- ships from Turkish ports to Mecca. This is also said to have had the effect of increasincf the number of pilgrims of late years and caus- ing quite a revival among the Mohammed- ans of Turke3^ South of the land of the pilgrims is the district of Yemen, in which is Mocha, the center of the famous coffee country. Here is also Aden, now a British port. The country of frankincense and myrrh is Had- ramaut, a great district Ij'ing on the shores of the Indian Ocean and stretching into the interior to the desert. The Sultan of Oman is the most powerful chief of Arabia, and has tributary to him a number of other sheiks. The efforts of the Sultan to extend not only the foreign trade of Oman, but of the whole country, have made him known more generally than any other Arabian leader. Besides claiming authority over this district, he has extended his sway over the islands of the Persian Gulf, a portion of the Persian coast, and the extensive tract of Eastern Africa known as Zanzibar. Beyond Oman, on the Persian Gulf, are the pearl fisheries. Farther to the north the territory of the Wahabees is reached, a country of grain, dates and fruits, and horse and cattle-raising, its broad plains, which are covered with grass and shrubbery, lying between mountain ranges. Beyond this and including the whole of Northern Arabia is the great desert, which stretches also into Syria, and whose fertile spots are par- celled out amoncf the wild Bedouin tribes. The sheiks are the leaders of bands which form tribes, and select A WOMAN OF ADEN. 502 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. from their number one whom they call Sheik of sheiks. Their leader is expected to lead them in war and maintain the independence of the tribe against all others. He may be deposed any moment or abandoned by his allies to the mercies of his bitterest rival. Families, even, may desert a band in the same manner. There is no bond of union, and the most insignificant thing may cause a rupture. In disputes which arise between members of the same tribe the sheik and the elders are usually resorted to as arbitrators, although the most that they can do is to advise. THE BEST BREED OF HORSES. Next to the spices of "Araby the Blest," which come from the shores of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, its horses are famous,and, in the minds of people generally, arouse the most enthusiasm. They com- bine fieetness with endurance and docility, and their blood is in the most valued breeds of Persia and Turkey, Europe and America. The Arabian horse may be seen in his perfection in Nejed, the district of the Wahabees. The "kochlani" are the horses whose genealogy has been carefull}r preserved since even the days of Solomon ; the "kadeshi " those whose pedigree is unknown. The former are reared with the Arab's children sharing their master's tent, are fed with bread, milk and dates, and petted arid treasured as honored guests. Barley and pounded straw is the kochlan's principal food. He becomes both the friend and companion- in-arms of his master, and shares with him the honors of the song and. ballad. In their meetings outside the tent the elders of a tribe always have some wonderful stories to tell of the bravery and faithfulness of their blooded steeds, which do not desert . them even with the death of those who have so tenderly cared for them. In one of the stables of a pacha of Egypt stands a noble looking animal, covered with scars. His master was a renowned Arabian sheik, who, with a hardy band had rushed upon a camp of the Egyptians who had marched into their country to chastise them. The last to fall in the mad charge against such overwhelming numbers was the sheik, who was beheaded in the fight by a Turkish soldier. When he felt his back lightened of its pre- cious load, the horse's eyes seemed to flash fire, and despite the fact that he was covered with wounds he dashed at the slayer of his master with, such resistless force that he bore the soldier to the ground and trampled him under foot The unvarying care which the horses receive has the effect of AN ARAB WARRIOR. BLOODED CAMELS. 503 making them gentle as well as affectionate. The sheik possessed of a first prize in horse-flesh can not forbear to show off these good points whenever he is at leisure. A dozen times a day he will suddenly mount his steed, dash across a valley, up the sides of a hill, down again, come toward the camp at full gallop with his long spear poised and his head- dress flowing out behind him, rush round and round like a whirlwind, and with a touch of the hand, or a whisper, bring the beautiful animal to a walk or a stand-still. BLOODED CAMELS. Nejed likewise produces the best camels of Arabia, Bedouin and merchant journeying thither to obtain their supply. The district is called by the Arabs " the mother of camels," and the natives are as careful to maintain the purity of their breeds as in the case of their most valu- able horses. The camel is one of the family as long as his education is incomplete. As soon as the young dromedary will stop when his master dismounts and plants a lance in the sand, and not renew his gallop until the weapon is removed, then he is considered competent to engracre in travel. This blooded camel has been both refined and hardened, when compared to the common stock, being cleaner limbed and better able to endure hunger and thirst. If grass is abundant he will pass the winter and spring without drinking. In autumn he drinks but twice a month. In summer it is enough, even on a journey, if he drinks once in five days. He will maintain a pace of eight or ten miles an hour for twenty hours in succession ; but his pace is so rough that the rider is obliged to secure himself from serious injury by tight bandages. Unlike the horse the education of the camel does not stir in his breast any feelings of affection, and he remains throughout life a stupid, groaning, selfish, revengeful beast; loudly complaining when the load is placed upon his back ; going on and on, seeking his own pasturage, and never stopping should the rider fall off and not have time to fix a spear in the sand ; committing murder — deliberate, cold-blooded murder — if he feels that he has been unjustly beaten. Some Arabs of this region tell of a horrible sight which they witnessed — that of a huge camel, who had been whipped by a boy on a previous trip, calmly facing his perse- cutor in the middle of a great plain, making a sudden stoop forward, seizing the unlucky youth's head in his monstrous mouth, lifting his enemy up in the air, and flinging him down again upon the earth with the upper part of his skull completely torn off and his brains scattered on the ground. They had no compunctions in killing such a fiend ; for, dead or alive, the camel is wealth. 504 PANORAMA OF NATIONS, As an Arabian prince once said : " Living he carries the tents and provisions ; war and trade are carried on by means of him ; he fears neither hunger nor thirst, heat or fatigue ; his hair supphes our tents and our burrows ; the milk of the female supports rich and poor, and nourishes our horses — it Is a well that never fails. Dead, the flesh is good ; his skin makes bottles, proof against wind and heat ; shoes which can tread on the viper without danger and protect the feet from the burning sands of the desert ; stripped of the hair and welted, it adheres to the wood of the saddle, without nails or seams, like the bark to a tree, and makes the whole so solid as to endure war, the chase or the fantasias." THE BEDOUINS. We have already caught glimpses of these restless Arabs in the ' deserts of Africa, from the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, but have reserved a more intimate acquaintance until they could be met at home. They scorn all ways of living but their own, and pride themselves on the purity of their Semitic blood, which first flowed in the veins of Ish- mael. From hard living and constant exposure their persons are lank and thin, and during their plundering expeditions their clothing is often reduced to a single cotton shirt, bound around the waist with a leather girdle, in which are stuck the light arms, pipe and apparatus for striking a light. When living in their tents their common dress consists of a skull- cap and slippers, with a striped woolen or cotton garment, which, cover- ing the whole body, reaches to the calf of the leg, and has a hood for the head, and holes for the arms to pass through. The sheik, however, cuts a far different figure, with his long scarlet gown, silver-mounted dagger and pistol in his girdle, and sword swung across his shoulder, boots of morocco leather, and for a head-dress a woolen or silken shawl embroidered and fringed with gold lace. Place him on a gallant Ara- bian steed and he cuts a great figure. A loose wrapper completely covers the women, over which, when they go abroad, they wear the same kind of cloak as the men ; if they can afford it they string gold and silver coins across their foreheads, and if they can not, they substitute lead. They stain their eyelids with a lead pigment, color their hands and feet with henna, and decorate their arms and legs with rings. The Bedouins are all for war and adventure, and their domestic duties are almost confined to milking. Boys and girls tend the camels^ sheep and goats, and the women and slaves do all the rest, even to dress- THE BEDOUINS. 505 ing the beautiful locks o. the warriors. Their wives, however, are not made to labor in the fields or at other heavy occupations, for, with the proceeds of their forays, and from their legitimate sources, some are enabled to engage peasants from neighboring villages, boarding the laborers while they are cultivating the land or gathering the crops of millet, wheat, barley and other grains, besides paying them one-third of the produce. Others derive their food almost entirely from their herds, eating only a few vegetables and not hesitating to devour locusts and lizards. A common substitute for bread are cakes made of millet, mixed with camel's milk and slightly baked. The Bedouins are poets and fictionists, and a thousand and one Arabian Nights' Tales are still current among them. Each tribe has its bard, who celebrates the deeds of its robber chief and great leaders, and every Bedouin is an aspirant for the position. Their pastimes include story-telling, singing, dancing, ball- playing, feats of horsemanship, drinking coffee and smoking. Their favorite amusement is throwing the "djereed," or the fantasia, which is a heavy, blunt spear made of hard wood. The sport consists in casting this by no means harmless toy at a rider, who shows wonderful address in avoiding it, and then pursues his |! adversary. Their manner of fencing is for the combatants to first rest their spears in the sand, and then ride round and round, using them as a pivot, and keenly watching for an opening to strike. Occasionally the spears are raised, crossed and struck together ; then there is chasing, turning and circling around again, with their long weapons as pivots. When the Bedouins decide to indulge in the recreation of chasmg the ostrich, they put their horses, for a week or more, upon a slender diet of barley and water, and exercise and wash them well. Then lightly dressed, and armed only with a stick, they assemble at the resort of the birds and simply run them down with their fleet horses, knock the game on the head and cut their throats. The wandering habits of the Bedouins makes it impossible for them to seclude their wives, as do the more settled nationalities of the East. They often appear before strangers, and even in the villages, with little or no covering to their faces. Like the Persians the women have great power A BEDOUIN 506 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. in their families, and if ill-used they have a right to demand a divorce. As a rule the Bedouins do not practice polygamy, although it is said they have established in its place the custom of a constant interchange of wives. IN THE TENT. The spirit of hospitality is as much a part of the Bedouin's religion, as his horse and his love of war. Outside of his tent he will rob a stranger whom, within, he can not serve too much. As long as you are the Arab's guest you are safe. When the shadow of his dark cloth tent, woven of goat's or camel's hair, falls upon you, you should call with a loud voice, " tarike " (retire), as a signal that the women may withdraw behind the carpet which divides the house into two apart- ments. Without ceremony the traveler unloads his camels at the first tent of the first encampment he reaches, although the Arab's spear is planted before his door and his war-horse stands ready to mount, gives this notice of his arrival and sits down by the fire. If the proprietor is at home he courteously greets his guest and, without question, offers his pipe to him, replenishes the fire, and commences to roast and pound coffee. Bags of grain and other provisions stand near the carpet parti- tion, with saddles and weapons not in use. The apartment in which he finds himself is furnished with mats and sheep-skins, with crude looms, earthen vessels, goat skins of water and sour milk, and if the master is quite enterprising, he exhibits a coffee-mill, formed of two stones, one within the other and turned with the hand. The coffee which the Arab grinds forms an important item of the meal which is being prepared beyond the partition. As soon as all is ready the wife brings in the result of her labors — coffee, a large wooden bowl of camel's, goat's or sheep's milk, boiled corn and milk, lentil soup, or melted butter with bread to dip into it. She then decorously retires, leaving her husband to do the honors of pouring the water with which the guest washes his right hand, and of heartily repeating, throughout the entire meal, " Eat all, eat all." If the stranger is an Arab he knows better than to eat all, for his host eats only what remains. If the master happens to be out when the stranger arrives at his tent the wife or daus^hter receives and entertains him with the same courtesy. From all accounts they are not only courteous, but kind hearted and ever ready to relieve the needy. The sheiks themselves entertain with the same faithfulness as their humblest warriors. How truly they consider it a duty is illustrated by IN THE TEXT. 507 the touching deception ot one, who, after warmly welcoming a friend and serving him to rice, boiled camel's meat, and the best his table afforded, was asked as to the whereabouts of a favorite son. " My son is asleep," quietly replied the host; and continued to do the honors of his position, notwithstanding that his boy was lying dead in an adjoining apartment. Quite a triumph in the culinary line is a sort of a rice pyramid, surmounted by a piece of camel's meat, which Arabs of standing often place before their guests. This is placed in a gigantic wooden bowl upon a mat, and, the company having seated themselves — the feast is commenced by the most aged or honored of them usually — a patriarch with a long white beard dyed red, who scoops out a hollow in the rice with his hand, pours therein some sour milk, and drops into the milk small bits of the meat, which he divides with his fingers. Each goes throuo^h with the same motions and the conclusion of the matter is that the whole pyramid is eventually moulded into rice-balls, through which are scattered bits of good camel's meat and which furthermore disappear with great rapidity. Either previous to the hearty meal, or to the drinking of coffee, without sugar, the smoking of pipes, singing, or music upon tam- borines and native violins of camel skins,and listening to the professional BEDOUINS. story-teller who stands in the center of a large circle of rapt Arabs — either previous to the feast or to the dessert and amusements, the guests are expected to wash the hands, mouth and beard in a large trough of camel's skin which is provided for them ; this ceremony, of course, is indispensable if the sheik is a true Mohammedan. The Bedouins retire early and do not trouble themselves to remove their clothing. That of the desert tribes is never washed except by the rain nor changed until it falls to pieces, and night in a large encamp- ment is anything but a season of repose to any but those initiated to its distractinor sounds. "The laucrhter and chatterinsj of the women mingles with the neighing of the horses, wuth the baying or rather the furious howling of those abominable dogs who guard the door, and with 5o8 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the bleating of the flocks. At daybreak, when the wearied dogs cease their clamor, all the varieties of fowls take up the chorus. And if one of the hungry dogs finds his way into your tent in search of the bones remaining from a feast, you may have the pJeasure of hearing the crunch- ing of his jaws within a few feet of you, in addition to all the rest of the disturbances." BOTTOMLESS GULFS OF SAND. In the country of the Bedouins, in Central Arabia, have been dis- covered strange natural phenomena in the shape of great pits or gulfs of th^ finest sand. They are not the common variety of quicksands, but appear in regions which were formerly volcanic, and, it may be, extinct craters. The sand is as fine as powder, and a weight sinks in it as rapidly as in water. Attempts to find bottom have so far failed. AS A COMMERCIAL PEOPLE. The character of the Arab inclines him to commerce rather than to the more patient domain of manufactures. One town only in Arabia, Loheia, on the Red Sea, can be said to possess manufactories. Here silk and cotton turbans, sashes, canvas, arms, and gunpowder are made by machinery, forming the exception to the general rule. But her mer- chants are in every land. They travel into Egypt for her oil. They scour the Eastern coast of Africa for slaves, ivory and amber. Their caravans creep across the Great Sahara Desert, laden with the gold dust, ivory, grain and palm-oil of Western Africa, and bound for the Barbary States. Their operations extend to the rice fields of Madagascar, and the coffee and sugar plantations of Java and Sumatra. They are the nomads of the Eastern commercial world. Their turbans are seen in every desert of Asia and Africa, and their barks are upon every Eastern sea. Much of the " Mocha" coffee which they export to Europe they buy in Egypt, Nubia and Abyssinia. Arabia also sends from Muscat wheat, horses, raisins, fish and drugs, Hindu merchants monopolizing her pearl trade. Silver, iron, copper and lead, and a large proportion of her firearms and gunpowder come from Europe. For ages Arabian merchants were the mediums by which the pro- ducts of India reached Egypt, and were the principal means of commu- nication between Europe and Asia ; and from the days of Sinbad the Sailor up to the present time, the lives of Arabs, vho engage in mer- cantile pursuits, have been full of variety and adventure. When they monopolized so much of the inter-continental traf^c they were considered DESERT TRAVEL. 5O9 the wealthiest class of people in the world, and their luxurious habits and surroundings would seem to uphold the supposition. They cooked with scented woods. The pillars of their houses glistened with gold and silver, while the doors were of jeweled ivory. Their furniture, man- tles, bracelets, armlets and utensils of all kinds were lavish combinations of inlaid wood, the finest of silks and furs, gold, silver, brass and iron. The days when they were the richest and most enterprising merchants of the world, have gone by, although they are the same untiring crea- tures, glorying in their profession. Even in our days there are Arabian merchants who have bank accounts of a million dollars. DESERT TRAVEL. Merchants engaged in the inland trade combine to the number of a dozen or thousands, and, at stated period's make the journey across the desert to Cairo, from Egypt to Soudan, usually to Khartoum or Tim- buctoo, where they purchase attar of roses, gold-dust, indigo, ivory,, ostrich feathers, skins, etc., with their cotton goods, cutlery, wea- pons, etc., and then, it may be, strike across the great desert for Algiers and Morocco, braving storms, Bedouins and Touaricks with equal fearlessness. Having chosen a leader, or conductor of the caravan, and the camels being loaded partly with merchandise and slaves, and partly with provisions, the party start on their long journey, and, if they are good Mohammedans, have not forgotten the mueddin to call them to prayers at the proper times, or the " iman " to offer the prayers. The " khebir," or leader, has under him many subordinates, both to protect the caravan and to spy out the best route, and, if many merchants have combined in the enterprise, a secretary to record their commercial transactions as they stop at regular stations and marts. The khebir must be able to direct the general course by the stars ; must know where are the principal roads, wells and oases along their route of a thousand miles, or so, and avoid the favorite haunts of maraudings tribes ; must be acquainted with all the chiefs through whose districts it is necessary to pass ; must determine when to fight and when to com-^ promise ; and be acquainted with the best remedies for the bites of ser- pents and the stings of scorpions. If the stars fail him, he must be so intimately acquainted with the country that the examination of a hand- ful of earth, the taste and smell of a handful of grass, will tell him the locality in which they are. Besides arming themselves with guns, pistols and sabres, each man takes with him one hundred and eighty pounds of "kouskous," a dish made of a sort of highly seasoned rice and mutton, two hundred and seventy pounds of dates, a skin of butter, one 5IO PANORAMA OF NATIONS. of dried meat, two skins of water, a leather bucket for the camels, two pairs of shoes, needles and thongs for repairing, and a steel and tmder. When encamped for the night, the leader appoints a certain num- ber of guards, the tents and baggage being disposed around his tent. But he does not sleep. From hour to hour his voice will be heard in the vast solitude of the desert, " Ho, guards are you asleep?" As they proceed on their journey they are often obliged to pass near the resort of tribes of desert robbers. As they approach a dangerous locality, the khebir orders a halt to give these instructions: " Speak only in a whisper or not at all. Bind the mouths of your camels, and if possi- ble, do not pass by them, lest they groan at the sight of their masters who have loaded them. We must neither make fire, nor fetch water, nor smoke. The marks of our feet mioht be discovered — and the odor of tobacco is, on the desert, carried to great distances — some men can smell it ten miles off. Have your arms ready and' be on the watch." If the caravan is laro^e it is divided into sections ^ loaded camel. of forty or fifty camels each, which miove across the desert in parallel lines, like a disciplined body of troops. Despite all these precautions, seldom it is that a journey is ended without a dash being made into the caravan, and rich m.erchandize or valuable slaves seized from off the camels' backs, or the animal themselves, under cover of some dark night, mysteriously spirited away. And when the caravan reaches an oasis, or a series of oases, which, for ages, has been held fast by Touaricks, the tribute is paid, it matters not how strong the force of armed men ; for if the merchants neglected to do so, their enemies would thereafter give them no rest, day or night. The caravan is first stopped by small parties of Toua- ricks, who, being assured by the khebir that he- is on his way to their chief, allow a free passage, but usually hang upon its outskirts prepared TOWN LIFE, 5 I I for mischief in case the tale is false. The tribute thus exacted for passing through their country is for each person three Spanish dollars, some tobacco and various articles of dress. This being paid, the cara- van is often accompanied for the balance of the journey which lies through the robbers' country, by an armed Touarick escort. TOWN LIFE. After our merchant has accomplished his journey of seven or eight months', or even a year's, duration, we must imagine that he returns to his native town ; or he may have many vessels at his com- mand, being a resident of a Persian Gulf, Red Sea, or Indian Ocean port. At all events his is a substantial stone house ; and if he resides at the capital of one of the native states, it may be situated within the walls of a fortified town. It is built around a court and approached by a high horse-shoe gateway, on either side of which are seats of beaten earth or stone. These are occupied by persons who are seeking admis- sion to the outer court, and, through a second entrance, to an inner court, on one side of which is a stable and on the other two or three rooms for servants. Opposite the inner entrance is the reception room, a large hall, perhaps 50x20 feet, the walls being painted brown and white, and the floor strewn with sand. Around the sides are placed strips of carpet, upon which are cushions for the accommodation of visitors and coffee drinkers, who are synonymous. Furthest removed from the large door is a large square stone, hollowed out and filled with charcoal. This is brought quickly to a high heat by means of the tube which runs in below, and which is supplied with a bellows blast. On the stone fur- nace, or in an open fireplace furnished with wood, is placed a great array of copper coffee-pots, of every conceivable design, their number and elegance being an index to the wealth of the householder. If the mer- chant has no black slave to make and serve his coffee, he does it him. self, often assisted by his sons. The roasted berry is pounded in a stone pestle, and after it is boiled, the master drinks the first cup, to show that it is not poisoned, this portion of the lunch having been preceded by dates dipped in butter. Commencing with the guest near- est the fireplace, the host then makes the rounds with his large tray of tiny glasses, filled about half full ; for this is Arabian as well as Amer- ican etiquette. As the cup, or any article of food is presented, the Mohammedan says, " Semm " (" Say the name of God"); whereupon the guest answers " Bismallah." Beyond the Arab's reception room are the private apartments of 512 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. his family, which are Turkish in their appearance ; but the Arabian him- self is far more of a family man than the Turk, and it is not only among the higher classes that the woman has influence, but among the middle ranks of society. Family ties are also strong, especially between mother and son and brother and sister. " Sisters, when unmarried, reside, after their father's death, with their brothers, and so well established is this custom, that a young Arab being asked what would become of her if a brother did not choose to keep a sister with him, did not understand the question, and on its being repeated still did not comprehend it, looking to his companion for an expia- tion. When at last he took in its meaning, he answered, with a look of wonder: ' It is impossible ; she is his own blood.' The question was pressed in various forms, and the possibility suggested that the brother's wife might dislike her, but still the answer was the same : ' It is impos- sible; she is his own blood.' " The Arab's important meal is eaten a little before sunset and the chief dish is similar to the pyramidal conglomeration which has already been dissected (by hand) in the tent of the Bedouin chieftain. The Arab of means adds to the boiled rice, or wheat, and meat, vegetables, cucum- bers and hard boiled eggs. After supper comes the smoking of a quiet pipe under a soft sky, the houses of those in comfortable circumstances having large gardens and plantations attached to them. If the city is the residence of an emir, or prince, in the center is the royal palace, a stone structure thirty or forty feet in height, five hundred feet square, and pierced near the top with narrow, unglazed windows. It fronts upon a square, around which are also the mosque, the market place and the residences of the government officers ; also the govern- ment warehouses and small apartments for guests. The prince himself receives distinguished visitors, being attired in a white Arabian shirt, over which is a delicately-worked cloak of camel's hair, fastened by a broad belt of the same material, and a gold-mounted sword by his side. His head-dress is a silk handkerchief embroidered with gold thread. The valley in which the capital is situated, with its twenty or thirty thousand people, contains smaller villages and many modest houses, each with its fruit or vegetable garden, which is industriously cultivated. At sunrise hundreds of the peasants issue forth and drive their asses before them, laden with watermelons, gourds, egg plant, fruits and other pro- duce, being on their way to the market of the capital. The loaded camel is also seen stalking along with his measured pace, loaded with rice, flour, coffee and spices, whose destination is also the market. The shoemakers and blacksmiths of the city will soon be at work in their little shops, and NATIVE JUSTICE. 513 a group of Bedouins are already standing about in the square, forced to make some purchases of grain in town, and looking decidedly uncom- fortable and out of place. Later, the market-place is crowded from end to end with villagers, townsmen, Bedouins, merchants and sheiks ; negro slaves, gaily dressed, and making purchases for their master's table ; court officers on their way to the palace ; camels loading and unloading before the warehouses and booths ; purchasers standing or sitting at the doors, " arguing the point " with the proprietors within ; everybody is independently jostling everybody else. Here in the market-place the democracy of the Arabian character is brought out in strong colors — a characteristic which separates the Arab from other Mohammedan people, and which makes the hold of Islam rather weak upon him. NATIVE JUSTICE. If you wish to see how justice is administered in an Arabian town, you will direct your steps to the court of the mosque. In the center is the invariable fountain, with two pavilions, the whole surrounded by shrubs and banana or palm trees. Approaching the larger one, you remove your shoes and sit upon the steps which lead up to the court house, awaiting your turn to be heard by the kadi, or iman, who pre- sides over the lower court. You may look in through the folding doors and see at the back of the small, whitewashed hall, the Court seated at his desk, on a raised platform, over him a low canopy of green cloth. On each side of him is a row of benches, at which sit the clerks. The kadi is dressed in white, black and gray, his body covered to the waist with a muslin scarf which falls from his turban. His scribes wear globular caps of white cotton, which bob around in a ridiculous fash- ion if clerical duties are pressing, and their figures are completely envel- oped in robes of silk. The suitors enter the court room together, sit down upon some mats before the judge, and state and plead their own causes— this statement to apply when both of them are men. If there be a woman in the case she must lay her matter before the iman through a barred window, the unfortunate complainant or defendant standing in a gallery built in the audience hall adjoining the court room, and, being closely veiled, she has no means of making her story dramatic, except by skill- ful inflections of the voice and the thrustincr of her finsfers through the bars of the grating. Should suitors not be satisfied with the decision of this court, they may appeal to the mufti, the expounder of the Koran and the law-giver of high rank, who sits in the next pavilion. He is apt to be a venerable Arab, dreaming under a canopy, withdrawn like a hermit into his small, 33 5H PANORAMA OF NATIONS., dark, cool retreat, and attired in yellow slippers, a green pelisse and a purple head-dress — these, at least, are the most prominent articles of his costume. But the coffee house is a much more common place of resort to the town and city Arab than either the iman's or the mufti's court. It is often an elegant building, covered with vines and shaded with trees, cut up into secluded alcoves, and is the resort of young and old. Friends go there to gossip, merchants to quietly drive their bargains, boys to drink their cool sherbet, others to play games of chess, to listen to singers or the meddahs (professional storytellers), who often appear in the character of bards as well as reciters. ARABIAN ARCHITECTURE. Not only do laws and governments hang upon the Koran, but it has given birth to a style of architectural ornamentation. By the Mohammedan's creed he was forbidden to represent either human figures or those of animals, lest he should be tainted with the sin of idolatry. But his love of the beautiful was strong and his great mosques, which at first were built by Christian architects from Constantinople, must have some innocent form of decoration. He had obtained hints from Greece, Rome and Egypt, and finally there was developed that style of ornamentation known as the Arabesque, which employs leaves, fruits, flowers and tendrils, artistically blended with geometrical figures, and in the case of the Mohammedan, with inscriptions from the Koran. To the Arab, or Moorish Mohammedan, is the architectural world also indebted for the beautiful horse-shoe arch, which is still a distinctive feature of his mosques and gateways. Otherwise Mohammedan, or Arabian architecture, is a combination of Grecian and Roman styles — that which was generally prevalent in the Byzantine empire. ss^sag s^ BS^ ^Pf (PN^ ^ ,W^^>!ai«i Iwfe^r^ ^^m ^^ V!j^ ^gfe? 1^7-^ fi! i^'*^^^f ^rSwlt ^^^ m ft ^ S ^', t^^l 2 ^"^P ^ ^ 1 ^ ® fli^'yTSfi^-' ^ ^ % p^d ^^ ^ ^^^g ^ ^A^ ^p i^ ^ ^^k S?^3 i^fSi i^ ^^u -^ ^^^P^^ W^i '^^1% 1^ ^ ^^^''^ k^0 m ss sS^sjO •^i^ "SSSSiiK^c^ y?f^ «^^# ^^ PERSIANS AND AFGHANS. THEIR INTIMATE CONNECTION. HE Persians and Afo^hans form the connectinor link between the Indians and Europeans. They are the Iranians of the Aryan famil)'. The Belooches, or tribe which inhabits Beloochistan, are a less important division of the family, who may be called the connecting link between the Indians and Iranians, or the Hindus and the Persians. At an early age the Iranians and Indians probably formed one family, and the Iran- ians afterward emig-rated and extended their dominion to the Caucasus mountains. The Medes separated from the Per. sians, as a tribe or people, and after being subject to Assyria for many centuries, established an empire. The Persians afterward became dominant, and Media was incorporated into the empire as a province. Persia was overrun by Arabian, Mongolian and European powers, but continued to maintain a secure foothold upon her lands. These convulsions, however, probably separated her from the fair Cir- cassians in the north. The Kurds, the Armenians and the Tajiks are also her children by right of blood and speech ; and wandering over her desert places and through her few fertile valleys are numerous tribes of nomads, who are Persians of the old days. RUINS AND HISTORIC SPOTS. In an extensive and beautiful plain surrounded by lofty mountains, stood Persepolis, with the great palace of Xerxes and the residences of Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes and Artaxerxes near by. Few traces of the ancient capital, which, in wealth and magnificence, stood next to the far- famed Susa, now remain to protest against the desolation caused by Alexander the Great. The ruins usually spoken of as those of Persep- olis are those of the royal palaces which lie in the plain at the foot of the mountains. They all stand upon an immense platform, or super- structure, 1,500 feet long and nearly 1,000 wide, supported on three sides 515 5i6 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. by walls, the fourth side abutting on the hills. Of the three terraces which compose this platform, the central is the longest and highest, being over 40 feet high and measuring 770 feet in front. Colossal stone bulls, fluted columns, and sculptures of chariots, warriors, priests and kings ornament the staircases or lie upon the platform. Back of the ruins, among which may clearly be traced the walls of the palaces, are seven tombs cut from the rock, that of Darius only having an inscription. Of the city itself, two miles north of the royal palaces, there only remain several enormous blocks of stone, supposed to be portions of one of the city's fortified gates. Near the western boundary between Persia and Turkey are the ruins of Susa, anotherevidence of the severity of Alexander's hand. It was the treasure city of the Persian empire, but its ruins are chiefly uni nteresting mounds of bricks and colored tiles. At the foot of one of these mounds stands the tomb of the prophet Daniel, guarded by a number of der- vishes who are the only inhabitants of the city which was once one of the grandest of the earth. The town of Hamadan, in Western Persia, has many times been the capital of the empire. It is picturesquely situated, its approach from the west being over a great mountain, which holds numerous glaciers in its hollows ; from them descend several clear streams, which are warmed to the proper temperature as they descend to the great plantations and choice gardens which surround the town. Villages have sprung up in the fertile plain, and within the town the caravansaries, bazaars, mosques and public baths testify to its present importance. Its manufactures of BRONZE WORKERS. THE COUNTRY. - ■ -; 5 I 7 copper and bronze are held in' favor, and from the mountain streams the inhabitants, particularly the Jews, collect quite a little gold in skins, the contents of which they wash. These few particulars are stated merely to give the reader an idea of the country in which are the tombs of Esther and Mordecai. They are near the center of the town, are, made of hard, black wood, and are so low that the huge stone-like structure; in the interior, occupies nearly the entire space to the ceiling. . The monument was erected twelve cen- turies ago by "the two benevolent brothers Elias and Samuel, sons of the late Ismael of Kachan" ;so says a'n inscription on the dome over the tombs; and not an iftch of. space is 'left on the whitewashed walls on which Jewish pilgrirns have not inscribed their names. t THE COUNTRY. I A-matter-of-fact Scotch traveler who visited the country describes it as being divided into two portions — " one being desert with salt and the other desert without salt." Three-quarters of the surface of Persia is desert land and salt marshes, destitute of rivers and streams. The greatest of the salt deserts is in the province of Khorassan, in Central Persia, being 400 miles in length by 250 in breadth. The level country is principally along the shores of the Persian Gulf, and consists of grav- elly plains or downright desert tracts. The regions which may be hon- ored with the name of fertile lie between the mountain ranges, in the west and north, and the provinces along the/Caspian Sea. In the latter districts, mountain rivers and streams are plentiful, and the climate being hot, so great a moisture prevails that trees and plants take on almost a tropical luxuriance of growth. The coasts are low, and it therefore unfortunately happens that the most fertile tracts of Persia are breeders of fevers and general sickness. Here the mulberry tree is cultivated, the basis of silk manufacture, which is also the basis of what commercial prosperity Persia possesses. Thousands of laborers, both peasants and manufacturers, repair to the Caspian provinces, but return to their houses when the deadly heats and fogs of summer set in. Satins, brocades, velvets, plain and striped silks in every conceivable combination of colors, are produced. A pure silken garment is considered unlawful by the Musselman, and there- fore large quantities of goods are manufactured in which cotton is inter- woven with the silk. In almost every habitable part of Persia silk is produced, and the wealthiest merchants of the country are engaged in the trade. Most of i8 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the silk is sent to Russia and Turkey, since the careless way in whic{^ the thread is made, being uneaven and knotty, and the manner in which the skein is wound, the material is considered inferior in Euro- 2 r D X > •2. D t/5 pean markets. The rich and durable Persian carpets are made in man- ufactories, as well as by the villagers and nomads. Tea, sugar, jewelry, cutlery and glassware come from Europe, and from the East, muslin, AGRICULTURE. 519 leather, nankeen, china, precious stones, saffron, indigo, etc. The interior trade of the country is carried on by means of caravans, and, hke the Arabs, the Persians travel into all countries in the furtherance of their enterprises. They are a numerous class, and form as a whole the most wealthy and cultivated element in the empire. AGRICULTURE. The climate of Persia is a constant succession of fierce heats, with unhealthy vapors or blasting winds, and dreary, penetrating cold. The fertile districts are the most unhealthy, except a tract now and then in the mountains of the west ; the unproductive parts are where the people must live, thoroughly enjoying their gardens a few months of the year and the balance of the time seeking protection within doors. With such an unfavorable climate to contend with, and with so small a portion of the country capable of cultivation, it would logically follow that agri- culture would not reach a high state of perfection. Yet in those sections which are fertile, the profits of the husbandman are high, food is cheap, and the wages of the field hands are good. Rice, wheat, barley and maize are the principal cereals grown. The plow usually consists of two pieces of board, on which is fastened a stool, and is drawn by an ass, horse or camel. After the grain has been threshed,, it is taken by the laborers, put into sieves and cleaned. Most of the fields are irrigated by streams which are led down from the mountains, and a water privilege commands exorbitant prices. Where the irrigation is plentiful two crops a year may be raised. PERSIAN NOMADS. These are known as "iliyats," or the " clans," and consist of Turko- mans, Kurds, Leks and Arabs. Each tribe is governed by its hereditary chief and when one knows the Turkoman of Turkestan, the Kurd of Asiatic Turkey and the Bedouin of Arabia, he has no need of a second prolix introduction to the same people of Persia. The Leks, however, are of nearly pure Persian blood. In their annual migrations some of the tribes travel hundreds of miles to reach their favorite pasturage grounds. The Kashkai is the most powerful tribe, numbering over 30,000 tents. These nomads pitch their tents on the shores of the Persian Gulf in winter, and in the spring, pasture their great flocks and herds near Ispahan. They do not move in a body, but in divisions whose size depends upon the luxuriance of the pasturage which is reported by the advance scouts. When a 520 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. company finally decide to remain, they pitch their encampment in the form of a square, with the tent of the chief in the center, and their camp often presents the appearance of a city of tents. Many of the clans which form this great tribe of Turkomans winter on the low land of the coast. During this season of the year many of the famous Per- sian carpets and rugs, the only manufacture for which the country is noted, are made in the tents of these nomads by the women and chil- dren. Four stakes fixed in the ground, which serve to twist the woolen thread, comprise the machinery for their manufacture. Some of the Turkomans go to Laristan, or Looristan, the country of the Loors, who are a clan of the Leks and also live on the gulf in winter. Others dwell among the Bakhtiarees, another clan of the Leks, who live in the mountains, especially on Mount Padina, which is always covered with snow. In summer, as has been seen, these nomadic tribes, representatives of the primitive races of Turkestan and Persia, separate and move northward. Although thus temporarily combined, the two races have little in common, either in appearance or disposition. The Turkoman is grave, Yugged and manly in looks ; the Lek has been com pared to the wild cat, being wild, restless and ferocious in appearance" They both call themselves Old Persians, and it is possible that the Turkomans did emigrate eastward to the present territory of Turkestan. Of all the Leks, the Loors, whose winter homes are among the mountains of Laristan, in Southern Persia, are the most ferocious. Many years ago an Englishman took a notion to find out something about these savage robbers, who have killed several European curiosity seekers. So he courted a Loor woman, married her, became a Mussul- man dervish, and not only lived among them, but wandered all over the East in his disguise. He says: "In Looristan proper there are no houses. Half the year the people live in the higher mountains in arbors formed of twigs and bushes, the other half is spent in tents below the mountains in the germseer, or hot region, during winter; six months of the year they live on acorn bread, steeped in mud to remove the acid taste," Their condition has improved somewhat since then, though they are still the wildcats of Persia, When on the march nothing is at first observed but a mob of loaded camels, men on horse-back, or camel-back, women on foot, dogs, sheep, cattle, cats and children. Closer observation indicates that the camels, from a few hundred to thousands, are carrying tents and cooking utensils ; that the dogs are large and shaggy and cling to the women ; that the girls are masculine and wiry, and the matrons ugly, with their faces unveiled and showing an unfeigned indifference to observation ; and that, in fact, the wild,free nomadic life is not a paradise. BRAVE AND HARDY WOMEN. 521 BRAVE AND HARDY WOMEN. It is not the invariable rule, however, that the women thus humbly tramp along on foot, followed by the dogs. They often exhibit a bold and skillful horsemanship, and when danger threatens the tribe use the gun and the spear with masculine effect. Many of the Iliyat women, among the Kurds especially, do not wait for war in order to show their independence, bravery and intelligence, but take a leading part in the affairs of the tribe. In Mazanderan, one of the provinces bordering on the Caspian Sea, was a powerful tribe v/hich was governed by the wife of its former chief. They dwelt in their summer residence, or yeilak, which was a town built into the side of a great mountain, except from October until late in the spring, when they emigrated to the warm shores of the Caspian Sea, to live in their winter abode — a village lying in a plain, at the foot of other mountains, and surrounded by dense woods and groves of oranges and lemons. It was in this strip of country, even nearer the sea, covered with morasses, jungles, rice plantations, mulberry trees, and dense forests of timber, and lying beyond the province of Mazanderan, that the Kurd- ish tribe of Kadjars, or Kajjars, had their origin. But few remain in that locality, although one of their powerful leaders became the first Shah of the reigning dynasty of Persia, under whose sway Persian women have played no minor part. But the rugged outdoor life of the Kurds has left its impress upon the descendants even of the Kadjars and the Persians are only civilized and modified Iliyats. The walls of the Shah's harem are frescoed. One of the pictures represents an encampment in a green plain ; with goats and sheep graz- ing, women carrying water, milking and cooking. The Shah's mother, who had charge of his establishment, once conducted the wife of an English official around the palace, and stopping before this picture, of all others, said to her visitor: "Ah, there is a happy life — there is a charming picture." " Yes," added in effect all the wives of the Shah's harem, " life under a tent, with fine air and good water, and fresh lamb, is the best of all things." The capitals of Persia have been founded with special reference to their location as a central point from which to summon the hardy soldiers which the Shah was in the habit of draftinp- from the nomadic tribes of his empire. With the formation of a regular army, the location of the capital with reference to this consideration became of secondary import- ance, although at the present time about the only tax paid by the Iliyats consists in the quota of troops which they furnish the Shah. To secure some sort of internal tranquility the tribal system had to be suppressed, 522 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. and with its suppression the Persian cavalry lost its reputation. The great kahns of the Iliyats have disappeared, and with them the immense studs and bodies of superb horsemen which they maintained. The scattered tribes remain, governed by hundreds of minor chiefs — that is all. Gipsies form quite an element in the floating population of Persia Gipsies are gipsies everywhere. They pay a heavy tax to the Shah, heavier than he levies upon Christians or Jews. They are therefore called "slaves" in Persia; also "fortune-tellers" and "sieve-makers.' The latter name gives a clew to their principal occupation, the women, selling the sieves from, door to door. The men often indulge in sleight- of-hand tricks and gymnastic feats when they meet a caravan or band of pilgrims who look prosperous in worldly goods. TOWN LIFE IN PERSIA. Nearly everybody sleeps on the ground, whether in house or tent, and this notwithstanding the prevalence of scorpions and tarantulas. Nervous foreigners guard against these dangers in various ways, one young lady being mentioned who hired a Cossack, with sword in hand, to watch her room all night. During the daytime the bedding is tied into a bundle and piled up in the corner of the room, covered with a gaudy silk sheet. When the weather is cold the Persian family in moderate circumstances resort to a very simple but effective means of keeping warm. A quantity of charcoal is burned so as to exclude the gas and placed in a flat copper dish, which is covered with a large wooden frame, open at the sides. A large wadded quilt is thrown over the whole arrangement ; also over the legs and arms of the family, who sit around their " Koorsee" during the day and lie around it at night. The better class of houses have fireplaces over which are hung texts from the Koran or the Persian poets. The living-room of the family is covered with felts, one corner being given up to the bedding; another to chests, and jars of grain, peas and beans. Grapes, apricots and onions hang in festoons from the ceil- ing ; and the shelves which are cut into the earthen walls hold stores of apples, pears, quinces and melons, besides the family crockery. THE WATER SUPPLY. Most of the villages are furnished with water from a series of artifi- cial wells and shafts, the source of the supply being usually in the hills or mountains, which are often thirty or forty miles distant. The whole VILLAGE OCCUPATIONS. 523 system is called a "kanat," and takes the place of the fountain in Turkey As "water is the greatest gift of Allah," rich Persians who desire a place in Paradise, construct these kanats and place them under the protection of priests. They are offerings to God, which fact, however, does not prevent them from being prolific sources of contention between the villagers who desire to purchase them, or to divert the stream to their own gardens and fields. A fight usually follows which often leads to bruised bodies or mortal wounds. Some of the cities and larger towns have wells, but the kanats form the main dependence. A lord of the water is appointed to over- see the distribution of the precious fluid to the householders, and special days are often appointed for supplying extensive gardens or public in- stitutions. The stream enters one side of the town and passes quite through, with manifold taps and conduits to private and public cisterns. Not only is there the lord of the water, but numerous guards are stationed along the line to see that no man gets more than his share, or, upon these special days, that the whole supply reaches its destination But these precautions are useless. The watchman may be absent or bribed, and, for a few minutes, nearly the whole supply will be turned into some rich man's cistern or garden; or some cunning scoundrel will dig an underground passage from his house to the main pipe, and, when the stream is turned on, will rapturously hear his "blessing from the mountain" as it pours into his secret reservoirs and wells, and trickles weakly on toward its intended destination. VILLAGE OCCUPATIONS. Gardening is one of the great occupations of townsmen. They either are in the service of a noble Persian, or have gardens of their own. Roses are grown in profusion, from which is made rose water. In winter the villagers are also fond of cultivating tulips. But there are many difficulties in the way of gardening. In the spring and summer the Persian sun is intense, so that the season of roses is only about a month ; the rapidity with which they blow and wither soon draws away the vitality of the bush. And then, the earth is first baked and next flooded from the kanats. For two months of the year the ground is covered with snow, which really leaves only a few months of the early spring and winter when cultivation can be carried on to any advantage. In a word, neither the climate nor the country is what fiction makes it out to be. In nearly all the large towns of Persia much wine is also made, despite the prohibition of the Koran. But the common report is that 524 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. it is made for Armenians and other Christians. Those who can afford it, however, import European wines, remembering, no doubt, how the native article is crushed from masses of sound and decaying grapes and stems, with dirty naked feet. There is one district, however, in Southern Persia, situated in a fertile valley near ancient Persepolis, which has been celebrated even in poetry for the excellence of its wines. Shiraz is the center of the dis- trict, and the products of its wines are powerful and astringent, but con- sidered by many Persians rich in flavor. Its grapes are extensively cul- tivated for raisins, and its dates are celebrated for their flavor. Tobacco, opium and roses also add to the fame of Farsistan, in which Shiraz is located, as the most fertile of the mountain districts. ' UNATTRACTIVE ARCHITECTURE. Farsistan is preeminently the vineyard of Persia. Unlike the dis- tricts of the Caspian Sea it is a healthful, delightful region in which to reside, and being the center of the wine trade it is the home of many wealthy and cultivated merchants. But even here, the flat, unattractive style of Persian architecture prevails. The following will give an idea of the arrangement of an averasfe house : "The interior court is entered through a narrow corridor from the 'k'^irBHWif f street, and usually contains a small ^SBJ^rnl' /mRB flower-bordered water tank. Simple blank walls enclose two sides of the court ; the other two sides, opposite one another, are occupied by the two dis- tinct buildings which make up the house, one beinor devoted to the use of the master and the men in his household, and the other being the harem. Each consists of a large saloon, separated from the courtyard by glass windows, with two smaller apartments on the WEALTHY MERCHANTS. ground floor, and a balcony chamber above. The flat roofs arereached by an uncovered flight of steps, and are places of frequent and favorite resort in the warm season after nightfall." The bazaars of Persian cities and towns contain the only thorough- fares that deserve the name of streets. " Some of them are spacious, lofty, solidly built, and, comparatively speaking, magnificent. A paved ^sru CLEVER WOMEN AND MANAGERS. 525 pathway, from ten to sixteen feet in width, runs between two rows of small shops or cells, where the venders of commodities sit on a platform with their goods beside them. The vaults contain the rest of their stock. The whole is arched over with masonry or clay, or, in very inferior establishments, with branches of trees and thatches, to keep out the sun. Smiths, braziers, shoemakers, saddlers, potters, tailors, cloth-sellers, etc., are generally found together. Attached to the bazaars, in the larger towns, are usually several caravansaries for the accommodation of travel- ino; merchants." The exterior of Persian houses is in fact as unattractive as the huts of the poorest peasants. They are seldom of more than one story, and have the same appearance of muddiness. Inside, however, many of them are the perfection of elegance. One court leads into another, the floor of the reception room being covered with fine cashmere shawls, with gold-embroidered cushions placed around the wall. All the rooms are on the ground floor, and underneath are the " zeerzemeens " — immense, dark, cool apartments, where the family live in warm weather. High mud walls usually surround the most elegant of mansions, and around them, even to the very entrances, are clustered the hovels of the poor. Outwardly Persian towns are generally alike, the difference lying principally in the faithfulness or carelessness with which the gardens are kept. It may be, also, that one village will boast of a more imposing mosque than another. CLEVER WOMEN AND MANAGERS. Persian women are often more restless, energ-etic and ambitious than the men, and not only manage their own private affairs, but are deep in political wiles. They are extremely self-possessed and courte- ous, and in the higher circles of society are known through life by some grandiloquent or descriptive title, such as " the Lady of the Era," "the Lady of Sweetness," or "the Lady of Courtesy." Unlike the women of Turkey, although the amusements of the harem are much the same, Persian ladies have frequently an intimate acquaintance with the lite- rature of their country, and are experts in the culinary department. A very dainty dish which they prepare for their lords when especially solic- itous to gain a point, if they can not do it with their eloquent tongues, consists of a young lamb, roasted whole, decked with flowers, with a rich stuffino- of chestnuts. This contrast has been well drawn between the Ottoman and the Persian courtier : " Both are perfectly like gentlemen, but in a dif- erent way. The Osmanli is calm, sedate, polished, perhaps a little eftem- inate ; the Persian is lively, cordial, v/itty and amiable ; perhaps a little 526 PANORAMA OF NATIONS, boisterous, for he is still an Iliyat. The Turkish courtier spends his time in roaming up and down the Bosporus, leading a life of luxury and ease, never quitting the capital. The Persian courtier is constantly on horse- back, hunting with his sovereign in weather of all kinds, or accompany- ing him in journeys from one end of Persia to the other. The Osmanli may be more refined, the Iranee is more original." SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC CUSTOMS. Persian women of quality are dressed with much magnificence, although the costume has little grace about it. Their trousers are many, sometimes a dozen pair ; as they have no crinoline they are obliged to fall back upon this substitute. They are very wide, the outer ones made of stiff gold brocade so that they serve every purpose of the petticoat. They are fastened at the waist with a running string and edged with pearls or other gems. Persian women who are thrown in con- tact with Europeans, for the first time, evince much curiosity to see these strange sisters who wear " trousers with one leg," which is the way they describe their proper skirts. To continue a description of the ladies' costumes : A small velvet jacket reaching to the waist ; shawl pinned under the chin ; hair plaited in small bands ; handsome neck- laces and bracelets ; gloves with spreading wristbands, or hands exposed, with the palms and the tips of the fingers dyed red ; the inner part of the eyelids colored with antimony to increase the size of their naturally large eye- brows ; cheeks painted a bright red ; and their small feet encased in •cashmere stockings and daintily resting upon a rich Persian rug — this is an average picture of ladies of high degree who are waiting to receive company. The pipe is an invariable accompaniment of social and domestic life in Persia, as well as Turkey. Its importance may be appreciated when it is stated that in the courts of royalty there is an officer of the hookah, who keeps this complicated pipe in repair, and, at the proper time, presents the amber mouth-piece to his master. The bowls of the SMOKING A WATER PIPE. CALLING AND GOSSIPING. 527 Persian pipes, or hookahs, are of large size and rest upon water vessels which stand upon the sitting-rug, or carpet, the long stems being made of wire covered with a thin coating of leather or other flexible substance. The bowl of the pipe is set upon the air-tight water vessel, into the side of which the smoking tube is inserted, a small tube connect- ing the bowl with the water vessel. By this arrangement, when the air is exhausted the smoke is forced down under the water and entering the space above it passes into the stem, freed by its contact with the water from the nicotine and, other deleterious properties of the tobacco. The hookah is often richly ornamented with silver chains, or strings of precious stones, especially if it is the pet of a favorite Persian wife. CALLING AND GOSSIPING. It is the custom of Persian women to sleep in all their clothes. The bedding is untied and drawn out from the wall, and into the wadded quilt, which serves them for a blanket, they roll themselves, veil and all. The only time they undress themselves is when they bathe, or after they have ^one out calling, attired in their best clothes. The unaccountable energy of Persian women would make it impos- sible for them to endure the stricter seclusion of their Turkish sisters. They go abroad closely veiled, but it takes very little encouragement, if none of their own people are near, to induce them to reveal their rouged faces and stupendous eyebrows. They have many pretexts by which they escape the monotony of their home life, such as visits to friends, to the doctor, or to the shrine of some saint outside of town. The lady of rank often mounts a tall Turkoman horse, and, with lier female attendants around her, and her servants before and behind, likewise on horseback, she canters away with much bustle. A remark was made concerning the doctor. The lady is not apt to visit a native physician, if she can avoid it, for he gives the most sickening draughts and in tremendous quantities. In the capital and the larger cities there are European physicians, and to them and their mild remedies hundreds of fair dames and damsels resort, suffering under no malady under the sun, except with an inextinguishable fever to meet each other outside the doctor's door, squat upon a soft rug and gossip and chatter. WIVES AND CHILDREN. Persian marriages are of two kinds. That sanctioned by the Koran, which allows the taking of four wives, is called " akd." In the other the marriage is for a certain period, which can be renewed, but is 528 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. never to exceed "ninety years." The so-called " seegha" wives are the servants and slaves of the harem. The sons, however, of the second- ary wives are equal in rank to those of the akdee wives. The ceremony consists in the bridegroom elect, with his family and a mollah, going to the house of the bride and having the priest ask the woman if she is willing to marry him. Behind a curtain are the lady and her female relatives. Etiquette requires that the "yes," which is given by somebody, shall be preceded by a long delay. The marriage contract is signed, the bride receives a lot of sweetmeats, and in the evening she is conducted in procession, with pipes and drums and all her earthly goods, to her husband's house. If she is one of several wives, her coming is the cause of many uncomfortable thoughts in the minds of her sisters ; for, if the husband, has not great wealth, he will, on New Year's day, cut down the allowances of his other wives, both of money and of clothing. And then the new one is generally the young- est one and is always viewed in the light of a rival and an interloper. But the most shocking phase of Persian family life is the way in which children are treated. When they are of tender years their mothers turn them over to the care of nurses, who have a habit, when their charges are troublesome, of feeding them with bits of opium. A poor woman will also resort to this dangerous practice with her own children. None but the strong survive, and a French physician, who was for years in attendance upon the Shah, expresses his conviction that not above three children in ten outlive their third year. A PERSIAN HAREM. The Turkish harem and the Persian harem are as dissimilar as the people. The Persian, as he goes, is a family man, and enjoys the society of his wives and children. They are not even guarded abroad with the same police-like severity which stamps the conduct of the Turk towards his wife. A Persian lady, closely veiled, it is true, will often be seen on the streets alone on her way to the public bath, bazaar or mosque. Except for enjoying her husband's company to a more becoming extent, life withintheharem is much like that already described as being led by the Turkish lady. With her hookah, her tea, coffee, fruit, ices and cakes, she has also her books, and is able to correspond with her friends with- out the assistance of a secretary. She is not hemmed around by forbid- ding black eunuchs, but is surrounded by comely maids and slaves, dressed often in home-like flowered calico, and having their hair "banged " like brisk American servants. The harem usually fronts on a spacious court MODERN FIRE-WORSHIPERS. 529 (supposing the Persian to be wealthy), in the center of which is a tank of water bordered with flowers. The apartments of the women open upon the court. There is a general reception room, furnished with chairs and sofas, for it must not be imagined for a moment that Turkey and Persia have nothinor but rus-s and divans within their dominions. MODERN FIRE-WORSHIPERS. There are, perhaps, no people in the world who have retained their national unity through so many ages and vicissitudes as the Persians. Egyptians, Babylonians, Grecians, Romans, Arabs, Turks, Mongols and Afghans have come in contact with the Persians, and nowithstanding that some are dead as nationalities, and others have been merged and almost lost in various peoples of the world, the Persians still go sailing along over the ocean of time, a distinct people, upholding the same old despotism which existed more than two thousand years ago. Even the fiery zeal of the Mohammedans was unable to destroy the ancient relig- ion of Persia, and Zoroaster still lives in several thousands of Guebre priests who are found all over the empire and have a famous temple at Baku, on the Caspian Sea. They are generally known as Parsees, both here and in India. • Baku is now a Russian province. It is traversed by the eastern- most ranges of the Caucasus mountains and abounds in mud volcanos and naphtha springs, many square miles of the country around Baku being impregnated with inflammable matter. Below is a graphic de- scription of the region and the temple of the fire-worshipers : "About fifteen miles northeast of the town is a fire temple of the Guebres a mile in circumference, from the center of which rises a bluish flame. Here are some small houses and the inhabitants, when they wish to smother the flame, cover the place inclosed with walls by a thick loam. When an incision is made in the floor and a torch applied, the gas ignites, and when the fire is no longer needed it is again suppressed by closing the aperture." " Not far from the town there is a boiling lake which is in constant motion and gives out a flame altogether devoid of heat. After the warm showers of autumn the whole country appears to be on fire, and the flames frequently roll along the mountains in enormous masses and with incredible velocity. The fire does not burn, nor is it possible to detect the least heat in it, nor are the reeds and grass affected by it. These appearances never occur when the wind blows from the east. In former times the burning field was one of the most celebrated ' ateshgahs ' (shrines of grace) among the Guebres." .^ 530 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. " Previous to its occupation by the Russians, a voluntary human sac- rifice was annually offered here — -a youth v^ho leaped with his horse into one of the fissures. A few adherents of this sect still make pilgrimages to the great ateshgah to worship the fire and perform penitential exer- cises, chiefly by night. The place is a walled quadrangle with an altar raised on a flight of steps in the center. At each of the four corners stands a chimney twenty-five feet high, from which issues a flame three feet long. Round the walls of this sanctum are a number of cells in which the priests and Guebres reside." The Guebres of Persia maintain a connection with their brethren of India. They are represented as an industrious people, but crafty from oppression and somewhat given to the theft of fat turkeys and fresh vegetables. Their mode of burial is to expose the body, at the summit of a hill, and after birds of prey have stripped the flesh from the bones to throw them into a common pit. PERSIAN MOHAMMEDANISM. The Sunnis are the Orthodox Mohammedans, who believe not only in the Koran but accept as second only to it the oral sayings and tradi- tions of Mohammed, his wives, companions, and the successors to the caliphate. The Turks, and the African and Arabian Mohammedans, are Sunnis. But the Persians believe that Ali, Mohammed's son-in-law, should have succeeded him ; whereas he was the fourth in succession. They therefore ignore the sayings and teachings of the first three caliphs and to the Mohammedan formula of faith that "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet," they add " Ali is the vicar of God." Hussein was the son of Ali and was murdered by the Caliph Yezid — he, and his wives and children were attacked by the Caliph's soldiers as they were marching through the desert and all perished, some by the sword and some, who escaped into the sandy wastes, from hunger and thirst. The event is commemorated, as part of the religion of the Shiahs, or the party of Ali, as the Persian Mohammedans have become known. The performance is in ten acts and takes place in a large tent, or a temporary building erected by the Prime Minister in the public square Te heran. It is in the month of Moharrem, or December, that ten days are devoted to the dramatic representation of the tragedy, which ends with the death and beheading of Mohammed's grandson, his true successor. Every day the great building is crowded, part of the pit being given up to women of humble circumstances, decorously veiled, but who often THE NESTORIANS. 53 1 Strike each other upon the headwith the iron heel of their sHppers to obtain a favorable seat upon the ground. The Shah and his family are in their private boxes, and as the realistic scenes are enacted by which Hussein and his party are cut off from the Euphrates river and from hope, and after several clays of brave fighting perish so miserably, both royalty and the immense concourse of people give vent to their grief in loud lamentations. The spectators are sometimes vi^orked up to such a frenzy of grief and rage that the Persian representing the foul fiend who cuts off Hussein's head barely escapes from the stage without bodily injuries. THE NESTORIANS. In the northwestern districts of Persia, among the mountains of Kurdistan, are all that remain of this religious sect which, before the establishment of Mohammedanism, was the dominant one of the empire. Once they not only were in the majority in Persia, but were spread over Mesopotamia in Turkey. The Jews and Kurds, of both countries, have traditions, in common with the Nestorians, that they form a relic of the ten tribes of Israel, carried into captivity by the King of Assyria ; they are said to have spread from C ha Idea, and were long- known as Chaldeans. The Turkish Nestorians early united with the Church of Rome, -while those of Persia cling to their ancient faith, which they claim to Jiave received from Saint Thomas and which was re-confirmed in Nes- torius. Bishop of Constantinople, from whom, in the fifth century, they received their present name. Kurds and Mohammedans have attempted to crush them, the former as late as 1843 killing or selling 10,000 of them into slavery. But over 100,000 of them still live, and though so ignorant and suspicious that it is almost impossible to obtain a clear idea of their religion, they still worship in their dark, little churches, with their dwarf -like doors. They swing the incense, applying the vessel to the Syriac bible, which few understand, to a figure of the cross, the Bishop's beard or the priest's face, and to the faces of members of the congregation as they arrive. A Nestorian bishop is described as wear- ing " an enormous red-and yellow pair of trousers, an immense red-and- black turban and a tattered camel's hair cloak." MUSIC AND RELIGION. The Persians play upon musical instruments, but they are not musicians. They aim to keep correct time, but have little idea of melody, allowing voices, fiddles, guitars, harps and dulcimers to enter 532 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the concert lists together and force them to keep together. Their fav- orite musical sound is the imitation of a nightingale by the human voice, and if they can find an accommodating youth who is an expert, they make him warble for hours, listening with the keenest enjoyment. Another musical note which is listened to with much pleasure by townsmen is that which heralds the chant of the Persian master-mason, as the bricks are cast to him along the line of workmen who serve under him. Religion even takes a part in his song ; and there is noth- ing in Persia or Turkey which is not touched in some way by Moham- medanism. A great portion of the song is devoted to showering curses upon Omar, one of the caliphs who seized upon All's birthright. PERSIAN SUPERSTITIONS. The Persians are superstitious, from His Excellency, the Prime Minister, who consults the astrologers, to the poor neglected wife who endeavors by charms and talismans to regain the heart of her husband. If "the hour is good" the high functionary undertakes his business. The wife attempts to deck her cool mate with charms, unbeknown to him, or to administer a love potion, one ingredient of which must be a frog. If all these fail she offers a sheep to God, by dividing it among the poor; she supplicates Hussein, the martyr. A superstition which is the first to come to the attention of travelers in Persia — at least to those of distinction — consists in the public sacri- fice of cattle and sheep, that all possible misfortunes may fall upon their heads. As the party approaches a town, the cow or sheep, which is held close to the roadside, is decapitated by a man with a huge knife who crosses the path of the distinguished person with the dripping head of the brute in his hand. This blood is supposed to work the potent charm. THE SHAH. The Shah of Persia comes last under our pen, because he is the antipodal to everything American, Anglo-Saxon, European even, and humane. He possesses the divine right of levying upon the land and products of the poor man, upon his camel and his horse, upon the water (Allah's greatest blessing) in his well, or of cutting off the head of his Grand Vizier. In conversing one day with a British envoy, he wished to illustrate the difference between a European and an Asiatic monarch. Near by were his officers. "There," said he, "stand Solyman, Khan Kajar and several more of the chiefs of the Empire ; I can cut off their heads, if I please — can I not?" suddenly addressing them. "Assuredly, THE SHAH. 533 Point of the World's Adoration, if it is your pleasure," was the reply. "Now that is real power," continued the Shah ; "but it has no perma- nence. My sons, when I am gone, will fight for the crown, and it will fall into the hands of the best soldier." Persia is governed by the Shah and the Koran, or the priests ; there are no regular civil laws except those which have become a part of Mohammedanism. Fines, floggings, decapitations, stranglings, stab- bings, and tortures which would make the North American Indian jeal- ous, are the different forms of punishment which are in vogue. Upon the perpetration of some such extraordinary offense as an attempt upon the Shah's life, the autocrat of Persia has been found ready to originate other forms which are not even authorized by custom. A party of religious fanatics, in the early part of the Shah's reign, attacked him in his capital and slightly wounded him, their intention having been to kill him, seize the reins of government and inaugurate the reign of the saints on earth. About thirty of the conspirators were put to death in various ways by the priests, members of the Shah's cabinet and household, and by the high officers of his army. The Shah's French physician was invited to show his loyalty by becoming an execu- tioner, but offended his majesty by declining to assume the office. The chief of the conspirators was bored full of holes, into which were placed lighted candles, and when they had burned down to the flesh, was cut to pieces with hatchets ; others were cut in parts and blown from the mouths of mortars. One of them who thus suffered death was a mollah, who had abandoned Mohammedanism for the strange faith, and he was turned over to the mollahs and priests of Mohammedanism. The princes. Minister of Foreign Affairs, secretaries of the department, brothers and sons of the Prime Minister, nobles of the Court and the Shah's personal attendants all took part in the bloody work, which was designed to dis- tribute the vengeance among them which would fall upon the Shah alone had his regular executioners performed the task. The Shah has a way also of putting out the eyes of his rivals or otherwise mutilating them, which indicates what "real power" is. He is truly a law unto himself, and were it not for the fact that he is obliged to give his personal attention to so many affairs his power for mischief would be incalculable. His religion obliges him to rise early, and his affairs of state, as well as judicial duties, occupy nearly every hour of the day. One of his principal duties is to hold a morning levee, or session, receiving petitions and deciding cases in his hall of audience. The bastinado is the most common form of punishm.ent, and for- merly none were exempt from it ; officers who were defeated in battle, 534 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the Shah's own cousin, and delinquent governors were bastinadoed either in the royal presence or the public square of the capital. Now it is chiefly reserved for more common offenders. The punishment is often continued for hours, and although the culprit often faints there is no case on record of a death caused by it. The bastinado is simply a long pole, which is held by two officers, the prisoner's ankles being attached to two loops in the middle ; he is thus thrown on his back with his feet turned up. Two other ferashes, or officers, then flog him on the feet with thin wands, which are replaced by fresh ones as needed. The Shah draws his principal revenue from the land, and, if he had set deliberately to work, he could not have perfected a more complicated and oppressive system. Ihe 1iJi5vj-_''" *- rate of assess- ment is not uni- form, nor the na- ture of the arti- cles assessed, but, all in all, they include taxes on gar- dens, vineyards, shops,melon, cot- ton, rice and to- bacco lands, sheep, asses, buf- faloes, bullocks, c a m el s , wells, kanats and mills. In one province a poll-tax is the bastinado. levied for males over fourteen years of age ; in another there is a house tax ; in another military service is required. The nomads pay no land tax. Land dedicated to religious purposes is exempt. The system of "teeool" is similar to that existing in Abyssinia. By it the Shah has exclusive right over eggs, fowls, firewood, fodder, fruit, and other property and products which may be found with the peasantry. Everything is his by royal might, and he may sell the privilege of levying upon a district or a village upon any of his nobles or great men. Sol- diers and tax collectors are quartered upon the sections which have thus been farmed out, so that the peasantry, as in so many other lands, bear much of the burden of the nobility, besides the regular taxes. THE SHAll S TIME. 535 When a governor, or other public official, is' traveling through the country, with his enormous retinues, he has the same right to extort food and other favors from the long-suffering peasantry. An officer and his troops may also quarter themselves upon them. To add insult to injury, by custom it has become almost law that these oppressed " ryots" shall present these parasites with valuable gifts. THE SHAH'S TIME. The government of Persia has a very singular fashion of reckoning time, which is said to have been introduced from Tartary, but is obsolete in both Turkistan and Turkey. Illustrations of this method will be found in firmans and grants which issue from the Shah. Time Is divided into cycles of twelve years. The cycles are not named, but the years are, viz. : — the years of the Mouse, Bull, Leopard, Hare, Crocodile, Snake, Horse, - Ram, Monkey, Cock, Dog and Hog. The name of each year represents a cycle. So that if the object were to designate an event which occurred 156 years ago, "the Hog" would be named, which would be equivalent to twelve cycles and twelve years. THE INDEPENDENT AFGHANS. The Afghans are the Arabs of the Iranian stock. They are bold and straight- forward, even brutal in their manners. In character and religion they are directly op- posed to the Persians, with whom they have been at constant war. Persian history is prone to accord them a Jewish origin, claim- ing that they owe their name to Afghan, son of Eremia, son of Saul, King of Israel, whose posterity were car- ried away at the time of the captivity and settled in the mountains of Afcrhanistan. The Afghans call themselves "Ban! Israil." Four distinct ranges of the Hindu-Koosh system fortify the country on every side but the Persian. In their mountain strongholds the Afghan tribes bid defiance to absolute monarchy, and except they have united to cast off the Persian yoke, conquer that empire, or resist an European army, have always acknowledged a general ruler, in a very unsatisfac- ory manner. AN AFGHAN. 536 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. In person the Afghans are usually of a robust frame, lean and mus- cular, with high cheek bones, long faces, and a brown velvety skin. Their hair is generally black, and they wear long, thick beards. The common masculine attire consists of loose trousers of dark cotton stuff, a large shirt like a wagoner's frock, and a low cap or a loose turban. Over the shoulders is thrown a cloak of soft gray felt, or tanned sheep- skin, with the wool inside. Boots are almost universally worn. The woman's costume consists of jacket and pantaloons of velvet, shawl cloth or silk, and, as to ornaments, gold and silver chains and earrings. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION. To the great outside world, the Afghans are only known as a col- lection of rude tribes, holding a mountainous country and rather barring the way to India. Their four chief cities, Cabool (the capital), and Jelalabad, in the north, and Candahar and Herat, in the south and west^ command the only feasible internal routes of travel. These are the keys to India, and if the character of the people were not so independent and turbulent, so that they could unite into a compact nation, they might hold them quite securely. The kingdom is divided into provinces, over which is placed a tax collector, but his duties are not onerous, and the tenure of his office is most unstable. THE CLANS. Of the fourteen clans into which the Afghans are divided, the Dur- ranis, the Ghilzais and the Yusafzai are the most important, numbering too-ether over 2,000,000 souls. The former, a distinctively military tribe, holds Southwestern Afghanistan, and is forever fighting with its rivals, the Ghilzais who are intrenched in the east. The death of Dost Moham- med, in 1863, a skillful, politic ruler, and who left seven sons and many nephews, resulted in almost continuous civil warfare, in which these two tribes have taken the leading parts. The last decisive struggle, seven years ago, between a claimant to the Ameership, who was supported by the Durranis, and the Ameer who was of the Ghilzais party, resulted in upholding the ruling chief. The Durranis are the tribe of Afghans who give a name to the entire people of Afghanistan. The Ghilzais, who belong to the so-called Pukhtun tribes, which have given the language of Afghanistan its name, are also known as " Povindia," or packmen ; for they are the people who drive the caravans and monopolize the whole carrying trade of the country, as well as being a martial race. A large portion of this tribe is THE CLANS. 537 Still nomadic, their winter quarters being on the borders of the Sistan •desert in the southwestern part of the country. Thither they emigrate with their large flocks. In Western AfQ^hanistan are a number of Mono^ol tribes who are independent and are called collectively Hazarahs. They are worthy descendants of a warlike Kahn, who subjugated Afghanistan and planted them there as military colonists. Although this people have occupied their present territory for six hundred years, so isolated is their position that they retain the strongest features of their race. They are naturally undersized, but their proportions indicate great strength and they are b>rave to the verge of rashness. The women, too, are proud of being .able to mount a horse and use firearms or a sword with an intrepidity ■equal to that of the men. In times of peace they do the housework, •cultivate the fields, and weave a cloth called " barek " from an exceed- ingly fine silky wool which grows on the stomach of the camel. It is not dyed, but is so soft and warm that it is made into robes and worn in -winter, by both Afghan and Persian nobles. This manufacture, with the profits arising from their blooded horses, and fine flocks and herds of :sheep, goats, buffaloes and camels ; occasional attacks upon rich cara- A-'ans from and to Persia, the capture of Persian women from the villages, for the purpose of selling them to various Tartar tribes — from these -sources the Mongols of Afghanistan have become quite prosperous. The Tajiks of Afghanistan are the inhabitants of Persian origin, who are everywhere devoted to the cultivation of the soil, and in the towns and cities carry on most of the mercantile business of the country, as well as providing the handicraftsmen and scribes for all the usual pursuits and trades of domestic industry — neither the Afghan or other Pukhtun engaging in any occupation but that of the farmer, the soldier and the merchant. In fact, throughout the country to the west of the Suleman range — where he is principally found — the Tajik is the ser- vant of the Pukhtun ; and his place on the east of the range is filled by the Hindki, the descendant of Arab settlers, of early Mussulman con- •verts. He is confined almost entirely to the Indus provinces of Afghan- istan. It will thus be seen how widely diversified are the different tribes and races which dwell in Afghanistan. But the prevailing character of the natives is military, and the soldiers are robbers from instinct. The result of this condition of the country is that every hamlet has in its neighborhood the castle of a Khan, in which are the apartments for his family and dependants, storehouses for his property and stables .for his horses. At one of the ffates is a lodo^e where travelers are enter- 538 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. tained and where the villagers assemble to gossip and hear the news. Neither is the Khan absolute ruler of his tribe ; he must bow to the will of the " jeerga," or representative assembly. Beneath the Khan is the " speen zerah," or "white beard," who is at the head of a tribal branch. RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE. The Afghans are Sunnis, or Orthodox Mohammedans, as opposed to the Persians who do not admit the authority of the three caliphs who succeeded the Prophet ; but, unlike the Persians and the Turks, they have not persecuted those who profess other faiths. They are, in fact,, more bitter against the Shiahs, or Persian Mohammedans, than against other religious sects. Hindus dwell in their towns unmolested, upon the payment of a slight tax, and Christians are also allowed perfect freedom. The priesthood — the Ulema — are supported by individual donations. In this turbulent land they are often fierce leaders of the tribes, raising troops, taking sides with contending factions, and arous- ing their forces by playing upon their superstitions as well as their mili- tary pride. In the mountainous country formed by the prolongation of the HinduKoosh, in Western Afghanistan, are a number of Mongol tribes who are Shiahs of the strictest kind. They are entirely independent of Afghanistan, except that they have been known, under pressure, to pa}r a slight tribute to Cabool, Candahar and Herat. Whether these Mon- gols are tolerated because they can not be dislodged is a point open to^ discussion. Directly to the north of Cabool, on the southern slopes of the mountains, is " Kafir country," the country of the pagans. It s entirely independent and has always remained unmolested. It is. inhabited by descendants of the ancient Indians, who are divided intO' small communities, speaking different dialects of the Sanskrit. THE BELOOCHES. Their appearance and language stamp them as a mixture of the Tartars and Persians, although they themselves claim to be the descend- ants of the earliest Mohammedan conquerors of Central Asia. Their tribes have not even the unity of the Afghans, and they can not be truthfully divided into the settled and the nomadic. They are ever shifting from place to place and are never so happy as when they can be striding over the country under a burning sun, at a pace which would tire the best horse. Their complexion is olive ; they are impulsive, well-formed, nervous ; have no law but the vendetta, and will pursue THIEVES ON PRINCIPLE. 539 an enemy with the swiftness of a falcon and the patience and ferocity of a blood-hound, through a thousand miles of desert and mountains, and for generations of time ; and if unarmed enemies accidentally meet they will tear each other like tigers, with nails and teeth, or strangle each other without a cry. THIEVES ON PRINCIPLE. They claim to be robbers from principle rather than instinct, and reason that as God divided the good things of the earth, some thousand years ago, in an unequal manner, sending them into the world with vir- tually nothing, they have the right to equalize matters by taking what they can now get of their just share. Neither is this all tradition, they say, their very name, whose origin they can not trace, proving their state- ment. For does not "be" in Persian signify "without" and "leuct," "naked" or "stripped"? These words have drifted mysteriously into their vocabulary, been corrupted, and they have become doubly branded as " Belooches " — people who came into the world without anything "naked," " stripped." The Belooches are firmly persuaded that Europ- eans have been taught by the Devil how to make gold and how to find it in the ruins of old cities. They are therefore particularly eager to strip any European Avhom they find on the southern roads of Afghanistan or in their own arid country. And among them that trite saying that there is honor among thieves, does not hold good; for in traveling together friends and relatives, even, w^hen the time for sleep arrives, will be care- ful not to cast themselves upon the ground within a'hundred feet of one another. When traveling on dromedaries, especially if they are on a foraging expedition, they sit back to back that they may sweep the coun- try in all directions, and as they are so keen of sight few good sub- jects will escape them. BRAVE SOLDIERS. The weapons of the Belooches are the lance, sabre and, occasionally, firearms. They are braggarts of great power, but unlike most of that class back their words with their deeds ; for there are no better soldiers, in Asia than they. They are not only brave in the assault, but are firm, in withstanding it. When fighting under native leaders they attack in small parties of about a dozen soldiers, who tie their cotton tunics together, and in case one of their number is wounded, those behind untie his tunic, fasten the front file together again and remove the injured to the rear. In their conflicts with the Afghans, British soldiers have had ;540 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. ■occasion to test the metal of the Belooches ; since their country is on the direct route from India, and Bolan pass in Northwestern Belo- chistan is the only open gate, of convenience, to Afghanistan. This and the pass of Gundwana are the only doors to both Beloochistan and Afs^hanistan from the lower Indus. Upon one occasion the British spent six days in forcing Bolan pass, which is a series of ravines rising gradually for fifty-five miles, the last one being nearly six thousand feet above the level of the sea. Both passes guard the approach to Kelat, the capital — notwithstanding which, the British have several times occupied it. The capital is a city of 12,000 or 15,000 people, built on a hill and ■surrounded by high mud walls. Spears, swords and muskets are the chief manufactures, its trade and that of the country in general being monopolized by Afghan merchants. The Khan of Kelat rules the city and the province, and is usually acknowledged as the leader of the Belooches in time of war. He is a mere feudal chief when lance, sabre and gun are put away, his authority beyond Kelat extending only to his personal retainers. Neither Belooche nor Afghan, with all their intre- pidity, will be a serious obstacle to either England or Russia, until some Khan arises who is an organizer, a tyrant, a general and a ■diplomat. EAST INDIA ISLANDS. THE HINDUS. HE claim is made, based principally upon physical character- istics, that the Hindu, or native of Hither India, is an amalgam- ation of the Mongol and the Aryan. On the other hand those who place paradise and a submerged birth-place of races in the Indian Ocean start a great emigration from the south- west, rolling through Ceylon and Southern Hindustan and leaving in its track the Dravidas, or aborigines ; the Aryan stock spreading northwest from the Himalaya Mountains. But whether the Aryans came down from the north, mixing with such of the natives as they could and driving the balance into the jungles, or whether they came up from the south, to found a civilization on the shores of the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, certain it is that in the regular features, the brunette skin, the black hair, the long head and oval face of the Hindu stands confessed the- Indo-European. The aboriginal tribes number about twenty million people and exist- in the mountainous districts, in jungles or the outskirts of towns. Although they differ from the refined people of the higher castes, in physiognomy and cranial development they are quite distinct from the Indo-Chinese Mongolian. In their dispositions they are his antipode. British influence has somewhat subdued their ferocity — put it, perhaps, in irons — but although they have been drafted into the English army they are still the tigers of the jungles, with their claws cut off ; and although, they have had Brahmanism, Mohammedanism and Christian- ity near them for centuries, many of them persistently hide in the wilds of Hindustan and worship the Devil, as they did of old. Their human sacrifices, mostly of captive children, are offered to the malignant deities who alone are supposed to rule the world. But the Hindu proper, the Aryan-Indian, has not been in hiding, all these generations. He has developed a religious system which once was noble and has spread over the greater portion of Asia, modified by race and geographical peculiarities. He has been a gigantic manufacturer of 541 54^ PANORAMA OF NATIONS. rich and delicate fabrics, silver and gold ware, furniture, swords — every- thing, in fact, wherein could be exercised his artistic taste, his manual skill and his indomitable patience. The hand of the Hindu was as cun- ning when Imperial Rome purchased the products of its skill as it is to- day. He works with the same rude tools as his father did; they are members of the same caste, and methods and tools are alike handed down from father to son. The Hindu farmer is supposed to be the first to rotate his crops, but the mechanism by which the rotation is accom- plished is crude in the extreme. The manure of cattle he will not use upon his land, as it is considered holy, and devoted to religious purposes. As architects the Hin- dus have showed great genius ; but their temples, distinguished for size and splendor, were built before the Christian era, and the structures erected by the Mohammedan emperors are of the Saracenic style of architecture, and therefore devoid of originality,though finely executed. The na- tives have constructed im- mense numbers of reser- voirs, massively built of stone, and the princes of ^^ former days undertook to "^"^ put m operation a system of canals. They built a number which fell Into dis- use and the work has been energetically taken up by the British Government, both to the end of furnishing the country with irrigating facilities and improving its navigable rivers, the Jumna and the Ganges. THE SYSTEM OF CASTE. BURGHERS OF CEYLON. The entire population of India was originally divided into four great castes. First there was a division which the Aryans made, by which they separated themselves from the Sudras, or aboriginal tribes SYSTEM OF CASTE. 543 which they found occupying the country when they invaded it. Caste, in the Sanskrit, signifies " color," the aborigines being of a darker com- plexion than the Aryans. The Suclras remained a distinct caste (ser- vants), and there were also the divisions of Brahmans, who were expounders of the Veda, and conducted the sacrifices ; the Kshatriyas, warriors and subordinate priests, and the Vaisyas, comprising the peas- antry and merchants. These great divisions were subject to further separations into specific trades and professions, and into the unclean castes of the aboriginal population. Although there is still a system of caste which is all-embracing, through the influence of Western thought the sharp lines of division are being gradually obscured. A man of high caste was formerly justified In slaying one of a lower one, who even -^^ _,«=^ touched him accidentally, and the lower t: ^ castes were so unclean that it was consid- ^ "'^ ered both sinful and criminal for a Brah- man to instruct them. Far beneath the uncleanliness of the aboriginal castes were those who had lost color in so- ciety. Eighty years ago, even, the system was at the height of its glory. V^ ersons who abandoned the Hindu religion, traveled into foreign countries and ate forbidden food, or food cooked by an inferior caste, a union Avith women of a lower caste or a foreigner, the non-per- formance of the minutest religious rites, made the offenders and the offenses things to be spurned and spit upon. To give a few instances : A Brahman of Calcutta Avas forced by a European to eat flesh and drink spirits, and another ate with a Brahman of a prescribed caste ; to get back into good standing they were obliged to pay thousands of dollars to their brethren. A number of Brahmans, who secretly performed the funeral rites over the body of a lady who had lost caste by associating with Mohammedans, were themselves excommunicated when their oft'ense was discovered. In vain they applied for re-instatement, and at last, in despair, one of their number tied himself to a jar of water and drowned himself in the Ganges. Three brothers lost caste through the indiscretion of their mother; one poisoned himself and the other two fled the country. A Brahman, in a moment of rashness, married a Avasherwoman's daughter. WATER CARRIER. 544 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. \J^. His act was discovered, he sold his property, fled to another city and his wife became a maniac. A Mussulman nobleman seized the daughters of some Brahmans. They complained to the judge, but were irreclaim- ably disgraced, and poisoned themselves. The outcasts of Hindu society are therefore forced to form a Ciass of their own. Those who are cast out of the lower ranks are put to the _ most menial tasks. All over Hindustan are found a people who are sprung from a mixture of castes, from the marriage of a sudra, or servant, with a Brah- man woman. Their occupations are those of the lowest day- laborers. They carry the dead to their graves, and deceased dogs to their last resting-places. They act as public executioners and perform other offices which usually devolve upon slaves or criminals. These outcasts are called Chandalahs, and are de- scribed by the sacred books : " The abode of the Chandalahs must be out of town. They must not have the use of entire vessels. "^'."A" 'i' j£ '■»•' 4. ^*t ^ —^ Their sole wealth must be dogs and asses. They must wear only old clothes. Their dishes 'for food must be broken pots, and their ornaments rusty iron. INDIAN TREE HUTS. They must continually roam from place to place. Let food be given to them in potsherds, and not by the hands of the giver, and let them not walk by night in cities and towns." In Southern India is a body of outcasts, inhabiting the Tamul country, or the land of the Dravidas. The people are called Pariahs, and the name has been applied, collectively, to the thousands of outcasts who still adhere to the country which treats them so cruelly. Formerly the Pariah was obliged to wear a bell, in order that the Brahman might be warned of his approach, and escape from the very contamination of his shadow. So utterly are they detested by Hindu society, that the most disreputable mongrel dogs, roaming about the streets and suburbs, or hunting in packs upon the plains, are called Pariah dogs. THE SYSTEM OF CASTE. 545 It has been urged that caste was estabhshed for the practical good of separating society permanently into trades and professions, that per- fection might ultimately be attained. But we have seen how the system has worked in this particular, and it may be added, on the authority of a Hindu author, that "native carpenters, shoemakers, tailors, engravers, lithographers, printers, gold and silversmiths now-a-days turn out articles which in point of workmanship are not very much inferior to those imported from Europe. Of course they are materially indebted to Europeans for this improvement." Looking at the evil effects of the system from a higher point of view, it is a drag upon charity, mutual love and the true ideas of a religious life ; for the strange anomaly exists of being able to wash away the sins of a lifetime by simply washing in the sacred Ganges, and of being savagely cast out of the pale of fellowship, sometimes beyond re- call, because of the violation of certain arbitrary rules whose origin is yet in dispute. Where European influence is paramount, however, especially in Bengal, the system of caste is dying. Superior castes engage in the occupation of the lower ; Brahmans hold government offices, act as soldiers, enter the service of Europeans, Mohammedans, and even Su- dras ; and under the British government, an actual loss of caste can not be punished by disinheritance or a forfeiture of property. Aside from European influence, two native forces are breaking down this hoary and evil institution. Over fifty years ago a religious sect was formed, composed of Christians of educational institutions, Mohammed- ans and Brahmans, whose tenets are the fatherly and brotherly love of one God, with Christ as His most holy and spiritual representative, the rejection of miracles, and the abolition of all distinctions of caste and religion as contrary to the broad, human character of their faith. The sect has been established in all the large cities of India. A nabob, named Peeralee, succeeded in destroying the caste of many noble and rich families of Calcutta, and from them have descended the Peeralees, a people who are scattered over the country. They have risen to power as philanthropists, reformers and patrons of literature, and although still Hindus in religion, they are outcasts from society. Brahman priests administer the religious rites for them, and they have tried to buy their way back to their former caste, but without avail. One of their number started an English paper called the " Reformer," which has done much to hasten the downfall of caste, and the general elevation and refinement of the Hindu community of Calcutta are principally due to them. 35 546 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. A BRAHMAN. For ages the Brahman upheld his title as "the twice-born," by his religious purity and moral excellence ; but from the worship of one God he has degraded himself to the adoration of 330,000,000 of gods and goddesses, and instead of studying how he can develop his spiritual nature that he may impart it to the world, he has become a mercenary, deceitful, scheming worldling and beggar. In short, some irreverent hard-headed statistician has taken the trouble to analyze the criminal records of Bengal, where the Brahmans greatly flourish, and he has found that representatives of this caste in the jails of the province far outnumber those of any other class. As a relic, however, of something pure and noble, it is of interest to learn how the Brahman is born into the privileges of his order, which consist of being feed, fed and feasted upon every possible occasion and of being accorded all outward honor. The sacred office of priest may be bestowed upon the boy, at from nine to fifteen years of age. Upon the day fixed, if the weather is fair, the candidate for sacerdotal honors, havinof abstained from the use of fish and oil, shaved his head, bathed his body and donned clothes of red, is furnished with a tall tinsel hat, and appears before the priest. His spiritual superior reads certain incan- tations, and after worshiping Vishnu, one of the Brahman Trinity — who is represented by the household god (a small, round stone) — the boy is covered with a cloth to keep him from the contaminating gaze of a non-Brahman ; under the protection of the cloth he is invested with the mendicant's staff, the branch of a certain tree, at the top of which is tied a piece of dyed cloth. He afterwards receives the sacred thread of his caste, other incantations follow, the father even taking part, whispering the mysterious words to his son, lest some one of an inferior caste should hear them. Dressed as a beeear, with a staff upon his shoulder and a wallet by his side, the youth solicits A BRAHMAN AT PRAYER. CASTES AND TRIBES. 547 alms of his relatives, who give him a small quantity of rice and some money. Burnt sacrifice is then offered by the father, and other forms are exhausted, after which the youthful aspirant, who has been squatting upon the fioor, rises in ecstacy and declares his intention of leading the life of a religious mendicant. But the boyish actor is persuaded to abandon a pretended determination, and which all parties to the comedy know is not sincere, by being reminded that the holy Shastra inculcates the cultivation of a clean heart and a religious spirit rather than outward humiliation. Casting down his beggar's staff, the boy assumes a thin bamboo staff, which he throws over his shoulder as an evi- dence that he has decided to remain with the world. He is taught to commit certain ser- vices, fasts, and for three days is prohibited from seeing the sun or the face of an inferior beinor. On the morningrof the fourth day he goes to the sa- cred stream of the Ganges, throws the two staves into the water, bathes, repeats his pray- ers, returns home, and resumes his ordinary occupations. This is the ceremony which transforms a Hindu into a Brahman; but as the system of caste bars out the majority of natives from being thus "twice born," it is evident that many natives of Hindustan are strict adherents to w4iat has come to be known as Brah- manism without having ever become Brahmans. They are simply Hindus. CASTES AND TRIBES. In the separation of the Hindus into castes, tribal lines have gener- ally been observed. Brahmans, artisans and servants, however, must be distributed throughout society. In some cases whole tribes seem grad- ually to have changed their occupations, so that the agricultural caste of CHIEF OF A VILLAGE. 548 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. to-day may have been originally a military caste, and the greatest pride is taken in tracing the tribal genealogy back to one of the original four great castes. The tribes which have been fixed upon as the aborigines are the smallest in the pop- ulation, and usually live among the hills of Central and Southern India. One of the most noteworthy are the Gonds of Central India. They num- ber over 800,000, it is true, but that is small for an In- dian tribe. The Gonds are almost diminutive in stat- ure, but are hardy and brave. Near the Hindu bound- aries they are agri- culturists ; in the interior they are wild and savage in their social and re- li gi ou s customs. Universally, the men are great hunt- ers, their peculiar weapon being a small axe, which they throw with such skill and force as to kill both birds and animals. This they also use to fell trees, which they burn, plant- ing grain in the ashes. The chief hunters of the village also use matchlocks in the place of bow and arrow. The women are drudges, and > o w X z A NATIVE HUNT. 549 wives are bought and paid for in money or in services to their parents. The Gonds have intermarried with the Hindu tribes near them, espe- cially with the noble Rajpoots, in which case their physical characteristics are greatly modified. In Southern India are a variety of tribes whose occupancy of the hills antedates history. Some of them have dwindled to a few hundred. They live generally in communities, but one of the more populous tribes dwells in villages, with regular streets. The houses are of stone and mud, thatched, divided into separate apartments, and otherwise above the average hut, but strange to say the doorways are not more than 40 x 25 inches. A NATIVE HUNT. In the vast jungles lining the sacred Ganges, especially in the province of Bengal, lie in wait the most destructive to human life of any of the wild beasts — the royal Bengal tiger. In thickly set- tled districts the rifle has sup- pressed His Royal Highness, but in many parts of Bengal he still is the terror of the J ■^.vi.Avf<*..^^u5r:_n\,m,v>..t^.sr._^>^^..,.Tf > villages, attackmg cattle and human beings with equal ardor. At night the villagers protect themselves with noisy drums and with torches ; by day they sometimes insti- tute a great hunt, in which the natives for miles around par- ?\ ticipate, some on foot and oth- ers on the backs of elephants. THE TAMULS. The chief of the Dravidian races, or aborigines of India, are the Tamils, or Tamuls, inhabiting a country in the southeastern part of Hindustan and por- tions of Ceylon. They are restless, lithe and dark brown, being the sailors of India, wandering along the coasts seeking employ- ment in English ships. Their language (the " Kuli ") has given a name to Indian laborers as a body. A coolie is known the world WOMEN OF CEYLON. 550 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. over. The Tamuls are social and energetic, and have not that exchi- siveness which is a trait of several minor Dravidian tribes, who will have nothing to do with foreigners but live in walled villages and only inter- marry with their own people. The whole group of Dravidas is some- times called the Tamulian family. The Tamuls number over icoooooc souls. Near them are the Telugus, a populous tribe who are agriculturists, but were formerly of a commercial turn, holding, at one time, several HOUSE IN CEYLON. slands in the Indian Archipelago. They are tall, fair and commanding^ in appearance. In contrast to them are a hill tribe, in Central India, who, instead of numbering 14,000,000, as do the Telugus, muster not more than 1,400. They are the Kotar, but are models of industry ; for not only are they agriculturists, but carpenters, smiths, basket-makers and menders of plows. They, are in fact, a little inclined to be parsimonious, and dead cattle and carrion of every kind are promptly eaten by them. THE RAJPOOTS. This tribe claim to be descended from the original Kshatriya caste mentioned by Menu, who were to protect the people and serve as war- THE RAJPOOTS. 55 I riors, as well as offer sacrifice. The conflict seems to have been severe which established the supremacy of the Brahmans over them ; but while the latter have fallen from their high estate, this remnant of the primi- tive military caste maintain the ancient dignity. The territory o£ the Rajpoots is in Northwestern India, and includes fifteen states allied to the British government. Their history is made up of Mohammedan and native invasions which, for centuries, they resisted, but finally to be safe from the encroachments of neighboring states they placed themselves under the protection of Great Britain. The Rajpoots are not supposed to be pure Hindu, but show such force of character that their people have given chiefs to most of the tribes of Rajpoota. One of their tribes also dwells in Cashmere, and its chief is lord of that important state. The appearance of the Rajpoot does not belie his commanding char- acter, he being tall, vigorous and athletic. Woman is treated by him with a romantic gallantry which, with his other qualities, stamps him as the Norman of India. The Rajpoot lady is well informed and an illus- tration of the leaven which is to raise the female condition throucrhout India. THE GYPSIES' LAND. There are no other people in the world who have done so little for it, about whom so many theories have been advanced, as the gypsies. They received their name from the fact that the majority of early inves- tigators settled upon the theory that they were Egyptians ; but they have, by turns, been called Egyptians, Hindus, Nubians, Tartars, Assyrians, Ethiopians, Armenians, Moors and German Jews. The most learned linguists of late years have, however, found in the words and structure of their language evidence which proves, beyond reasonable doubt, that it is a branch of the Sanskrit, corrupted by additions from the vocabula- ries of the many countries to which they have wandered, and that they are the descendants of some of the lower tribes of Northern Hindustan. The language is necessarily split into a multitude of dialects, but there are certain forms common to all, and It contains such evident mixtures from the Persian and Greek that the course of their first emi«:ration has been traced. Persian and Arabian authorities identify them with a tribe of Northern Hindustan, 10,000 of whom were Invited into Persia to satisfy the passion for music which is so marked in that country ; this was about 400 A. D. Wave after wave followed the first and the wanderers soon passed from Asia Minor into Europe, besides spreading into other parts of the continent and Africa. They refrain from eating certain 552 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. animals and are believers in transmigration of the soul ; but, if necessary to their well-being, they conform to the religion of the country in which they live. Notwithstanding the ease with which they adapted themselves to the views of others, on account of their modes of life and the irmysteri- ous callings they were from the first a proscribed race. Both Saracens and Tartars drove them out of Asia, and they were shrewd enough to pose as persecuted Christ- .jB» ia"s, when from the twelfth to the fifteenth centu- ries they made their appearance in hordes of thou- "^^ — ^^'^ - ■" sands each, and begged, thieved and humbugged their way into Greece, Russia, Austria,Switzer- land, Italy, Ger- many, Scandi- navia, England, Fran ce and Spain. It seems to have been durincr this period that they s o effectually aroused the curi- osity of the civ- lized world as to their identity and real character. The whole race which had wormed itself into the most obscure cranny of Europe succeeded in adver- tising itself and its magic arts in a way which might make an enterpris- ing merchant blush for shame. They had been conquered in Egypt and forced to renounce Christianity. They had been reconquered by the Christians, and were now doing penance by their wanderings for having abandoned the true faith. Earlier still their forefathers had ill-treated Joseph and Mary, and they were all penitent, sorrowing, wandering Jews. Finally the ignorance and superstition of the middle ages conspired against these dealers in the black arts, who had so thoroughly adver- HINDU GYPSIES. OTHER GREAT TRIBES. 553 tlsed themselves, and further interest in them for several centuries was swallowed up in an all-absorbing passion to crush them out of exis- tence. An illustration of the severity of the laws enacted against them is that which remained in force in Germany down to the i8th century, providing that every gypsy more than eighteen years of age found in the kingdom should be hanged. Later they were more humanley treated, Maria Theresa, of Austria, being specially active in efforts to improve their condition. Steps were taken to educate their children and induce- ments were offered for them to cultivate the soil. They settled in large numbers in the villages of Hungary and Transylvania, special streets being laid out for them and buildings erected. But these attempts to A BAGGAGE ANIMAL. plant them in the soil, or bind them to any settled ways of life, proved generally abortive, as they always have done. In a more literal sense than of any other people it may be said that they are wanderers upon the face of the earth. In Europe, Asia, Africa, America and in the islands of every sea, they show their dark soft skin, large brilliant eyes, exquisitely shaped mouths, cherry lips, snow-white teeth, and elegant forms so picturesquely draped, being pronounced by critics to be among the fairest physical specimens of humanity which were ever createid. If their morals were as perfect as their bodies, it were well that they thus displayed Them- selves to the world. OTHER GREAT TRIBES. The Cashmere, of Northwestern India, are claimed by many to be 554 PANORAMA OF NATIONS, A BANYAN FOREST. THE CEYLONESE. 555 the purest specimens of the ancient Hindus. TKey are tall, vig'orous. and industrious, the women being famed for their fine complexions and beauty. Their kingdom of Cashmere is enclosed by mountains, the valleys of which are wonderfully fertile. Rice is the common food of the inhabitants, and the lakes yield thousands of tons of a water-nut which may be ground into a flour, cooked or eaten raw. The valley of Cashmere is a picture for an artist, with its little vil- .lages, all containing groves of poplars planted centuries ago by Mogul Conquerors, and its thousands of cattle, sheep and goats grazing on the hill-sides and fertile plains ; and near its center the city of Cashmere, lying for four miles on both sides of a tributary of the Indus, bound togfether with numerous canals and called the Venice of Asia. The city contains a gigantic Mohammedan mosque in which 60,000 people can worship and near it is a charming lake, with floating islands, sur- rounded by beautiful scenery and the gorgeous palaces of former Mogul emperors. This is the locality which Moore selected for the closing scene of Lalla Rookh. Cashmere is the center of the shawl industry and quite a commercial point. The kingdom is a portion of the terri- tory which the Sikhs transferred to Great Britain, but was sold by the latter to a rajah, and is independent. The Mahrattas for a century were the most powerful of the Hindu tribes, being for many years in possession of Delhi, the center of the Mohammedan power and capital of the Mogul empire. Their states which were finally united stretched quite across Hindustan, but after their defeat by the Afghans in 1761, they commenced to decline in power. A long war with England completed their subjugation as a military power, although they are still turbulent and predatory, and remarkable horsemen. They are scattered over portions of Central and Western India. THE CEYLONESE. Their island is chiefly noted for its natural scenery and for the stupendous ruins of a Buddhist civilization, which are buried in the depths of its dense forests. The primitive inhabitants are the Vaddahs, a tribe of outcasts who live in the caves and jungles of Eastern Ceylon or in mud huts near European settlements. A few words constitute their lano-uage ; they have not even a mythology, eat lizards and monkeys, and seem irreclaimable. The Singhalese are supposed to have emigrated from the valleys of the Gano-es about the middle of the sixth century, and either brought Buddhism with them or were converted through the personal teachings 556 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. of its great master. They founded a monarchy, and were in continual warfare with the Tamuls, or Dravidas of Southern Hindustan, whose kings often ruled the island and introduced the worship of Hindu deities into Buddhist temples. The Buddhism of Ceylon has, therefore, been greatly corrupted, notwithstanding the existence of its many sacred shrines to which thousands of pilgrims repair. Upon the summit of Adam's Peak will be shown the imprint of Buddha's sacred foot. His tooth is presented in an elegant shrine. In the north of the island was the ancient capital of Ceylon, and its mighty ruins indicate what must have been the power of the Singhalese, after they had obtained supremacy over the Tamuls and established Buddhism as the national faith. The most remarkable of these remains is a vast rockhewn- temple, at the right of its entrance beingf a reclining^ fig-ure of Gautama (Buddha), forty-five feet in length. The mere ruins of a bell-shaped temple, or dagoba, tower to a height of 250 feet, with a diameter of 360, and, from base to pinnacle, the monument is covered Avith gigantic trees. At another point is the sacred Bo tree (whose pedigree has been traced to 288 B. C), and scattered over the island are colossal reservoirs and tanks which were parts of a general sys- tem of irrigation. The Singhalese are yet the most numerous of the natives, being devoted to that corrupted Buddhism which the Burmese are seeking to bring back to the original purity. RELIGIONS OF INDIA. The trinity of Brahmanism consists of Brahma as Creator, Vishnu as Preserver, and Siva as Destroyer. They are priestly developments, having no existence in the Vedas, the collection of hymns which formed the basis of the early Hindu religion. Brahma was originally the Eternal Essence of things ; something to be contemplated, immaterial and invisible. After the Vedas came the Brahmanas, an expansion of some portions of the first religious BAS RELIEF FROM AN INDIAN TEiMPLE. RELIGIONS OF INDIA. 557 books, by which the priests were set aside from the world as holy and divine, and Hindu society divided into castes. Prayer had ever been the all-important power, and without it the gods who are created in the Vedas could not rule the world. Brahman- aspati was the god of prayer, and therefore became the great god, his. priests, the Brahmans, being little below him. There is a Vishnu in the Vedas, but he is rarely mentioned, and is named as a minor sun god. But he has been developed into the creator of the earth and the: preserver of its unbroken order. Siva is god of the destructive forces, and has his minor gods. His forerunner in the Vedas is supposed to be Indro, the god of storms. Siva, however, was actually adopted from the mythology of the Dravidas, who were thus bound closer to Brahmanism. The very creation of the trinity of Brahmanism is ascribed to the opponents of Buddhism, who wished thereby to unite all the elements of the Aryan and the aboriginal population which were opposed to the new doctrine. A symbol, so to speak, was then formed, represented by the image of a body with three heads cut out of a single block of stone. The separate images of the gods which form the trinity seem to vary. Brahma is represented with several heads, each one of which is crowned. Siva Is usually four-handed, and has three eyes, one in the middle of his forehead. In one hand is a trident, in another a sling, while his other hands are either empty or contain an antelope and a flame of fire. Around his neck is a necklace of skulls, and on his head is a cap of elephant or tiger skin. In different images, Siva's hands vary from four to thirty-two. Vishnu is generally represented as attended by an eagle, and having four hands and a nurrber of heads, emblematic of his omniscience and omnipresence. One of the Vedic hymns makes the creation of the world to consist of three acts — first, love which was born of religious meditation ; second, the impulse which love gave to the creative element, fire ; and third, the act of creation. Manu, the first ancestor of mankind, was the father of the Aryans ; and this fact gave rise, later, to their separation from the darker tribes, and the establishment of the first system of caste. Vishnu assigned Manu to the earth, and the latter was the author of the most famous of the social and public laws of the Hindus. The only trinity which is authorized by the Vedas is that of " om" — a mysterious syllable which in the Sanskrit is formed with three letters; three letters and one sound — this is the real trinity of the ancient Hindu religion. One of its religious text books is entirely 58 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM. 559 •devoted to showing how " om " is immortal. Among its most lucid passages are these : "Om is immortal. Its unfolding is this universe, is all that was, is, and shall be. Indeed, all is the word om ; and if there is anything outside of these three manifestations, it is also om. For this all is Brahma ; this soul is Brahma." . Fire, as has been seen, is pronounced a divine and creative element ; hence itis Agni, thegpdof fire, who burns the body that he may recreate a celestial form which he allows another god to endow with immortality. The goddess Doorga, wife of Siva, is the Minerva of the Hindus, and even of greater power than she, for Brahma, Vishnu and Siva are all said to have propitiated her, and she was the terror of the other gods. Her image represents her with three eyes and ten arms, in the act of piercing a giant with a spear and with the fangs of a huge serpent which she grasps by the tail. Her other hands are filled with weapons of war. In honor of this monster is held the greatest of the Hindu festivals, com- memorative of the day on which a great king of India, now deified, marched against a prince of Ceylon who had stolen his perfect wife. Other festivals are celebrated in honor of the goddess, but this is the greatest of all, because superstition and national pride join hands to give it eclat. Sudra, the king of heaven holds the first place among the infe- rior deities, his' position being maintained only by constantly warring against the giants of India. He may be ejected by a Brahman. Tama, the holy king, judges the dead, he being a hideous green man in red garments who holds court in the mountains. The rivers of India are divinities, particularly the Ganges, which descends from heaven, and whose waters purify sin. Krishna was one of Vishnu's incarnations. Another of Krishna's titles is Jagannatha, or lord of the world. To him is dedicated a great temple, that of Jagannatha, or Juggernaut. The town situated in Bengal is called by the same name. But the great car of Juggernaut, forty-three feet high, with its sixteen ponderous wheels, no longer crushes any human victims. The temple, however, is still the most holy of the shrines of Hindustan, and is visited annually by 1,000,000 pilgrims. So, through the centuries, the gods went on multiplying. Every physical principle and force of the earth had one, and to cover the in- finity of the heavens hundreds of thousands, — yea, millions — of gods, were created, although not called by name. INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM. Although Buddhism has been all but confined to Ceylon, "The Divine Island," which tradition assigns as the scene of many of Buddha's 560 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. priestly labors, it threatened, at one time, to supplant Brahmanism, and has in spite of its persecutions, had much influence upon Brahmanism, and has spread over the vast empires to the east. Buddhism abolished caste as a religious institution and carried its religion to all people. Purity of conduct was inculcated — " to eschew everything bad, to perform everything good, to tame one's thoughts." All sacrifices were rejected. Nature was an illusion. The final object is Nirvana, the deliverance of the soul from all pain and the body from all passions by right view, right sense, right speech, right action, right position, right energy, right mem- ory and right meditation. Buddhism left to Brahmanism the doctrine of the incarnation of the gods, which has been, for ages, an important feature of the Hindu religion. This incarnation is called by the Brah- mans an Avatar, Vishnu having been especially favored in this respect. He is said to have passed through' seven different incarnations, in all of which he destroyed the enemies of the human race, A MOHAMMEDAN. An Indian Mohammedan does not essentially differ from that of Turkey, being principally distinguished from a Hindu for his restlessness under restraint of British rule. He is proud and arrogant, remembering when he was the conqueror of India and occupied the magnificent city of Delhi, as the capital of his great empire. This he still calls the city of the King of the World, in remembrance of one of the most powerful Mogul emperors of India. He looks upon the great mosque, built by another emperor, who quelled both Persians and Afghans and further solidified the cause of Mohammedanism, and then he scowls upon the Englishman. In Mohammedan eyes this mosque is one of the wonders of the world. It stands on a rocky height near the center of the city, being built on a paved platform. The mosque is approached by broad stone steps, is lined and faced with white marble, surmounted by three domes of the same material, striped with black, and having at each end of the front a high minaret. Scattered through and around the city are more than forty other mosques and tombs of the emperors and Mussulman saints. In the center of the Northwestern Provinces of British India is the province and city of Agra, once the capital of the Mogul Empire. Its ancient walls embraced an area of nearly twice that of the modern city. Within the English fort, which limits the latter, is the palace of a former Great Mogul, and a pearl mosque, while near the Jumna River, a short THE FAKIR. 561 distance east, is the mausoleum erected for himself and wife upon which 20,000 men were employed for twenty-two years. It is built in the form of an irregular octagon, is of white marble, and so lavishly decorated that the whole of the Koran is said to be written in precious stones on the interior walls. The tomb of another Mogul emperor is six miles from the city ; so that Agra is almost as much a lasting humiliation to the Mohammedan as Delhi itself. The Hindus greatly predominate, and venerate the city as the scene of one of Vishnu's incarnations. THE FAKIR. The Fakir of India is a re-appearance of the Dervish of Turkey, Persia and Arabia. It is an Arabian word, and this mendicant monk is much more of a Mohammedan than a Hindu. Mendicancy, with the accompaniment of personal degradation, is no part of Brahmanism There seems, how- ever, to be a cer- tain class of Fakirs, who are partial subscribers to Brahmanism, and who believe that, by great austerity, complete isolation and intense medi- tation, they may even obtain power over the invisible world ; stories are related of mortals who have thus ex- pelled divinities from the very heav- ens. Some hide themselves in the woods, allowing royal palace at agra. their hair and nails to grow, and their bodies to become covered with filth until they are more repulsive than wild beasts. Others remain with their arms raised above their heads, or their bodies bent double, until they assume these positions permanently ; or they go naked, sleeping upon the ground without shelter of any kind, never kindling a fire, but using the excretions of cattle for fuel, considerino- 3^ 562 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. this a holy act, since the cow is one of India's sacred animals. Another form of penance is to lay fire upon the scalp and allow it to burn to the bone ; to tie the wrists to the ankles, cover the body with filth, and then roll along, from village to village, begging and giving advice to the awe- stricken. Those who believe in a more passive kind of self-torture have been known to bury themselves in the ground and take their food and water through narrow tubes, for unmentionable periods. The primary requisite in a Fakir is, of course, abject poverty, and some of those who travel over the country wear robes rent into tatters, such as the Mussulmans fondly believe were worn by the prophets of old. They often carry a cudgel, a battle axe or a spear, on which are hung rags of various colors ; but it is said that these weapons are put to more wicked uses when the bearers meet travelers upon a lonely high- way. In the towns, they appear as religious teachers. The Fakir, who has a long chain attached to one leg, which he clanks as he prays, becomes a superior being before whom the superstitious Indians grovel and tremble, and to whom they come to be cured of their diseases. A PARSER. In Hindustan his home is Bombay, the western capital of British India. In Persia, the native land of Zoroaster, whose follower he is, he is oppressed and degraded by the Mohammedans as a " guebre," or infi- del. There, also, he is wedded to the worship of fire, and has lost sight of its symbolic character. This is so to a great extent in Hindustan, temples being built over subterranean fires and sacred flames, which Zoroaster is said to have brought from heaven. Priests tend the fire on altars, chanting hymns and burning incense. But the Parsee of India is not content to rest here, and a great effort is being made to restore the religion to its original purity ; to follow the simple faith of the Persian prophet to this end : — that the two principles of good and evil animate the universe,and are found in every created thing ; that the good is eternal and will prevail over the evil, and that God has existed from all eternity. From Bombay as a center the sect is increasing quite rapidly. Next to the Europeans, also, the Parsees have built not only some of the largest vessels in the service of the East India Company, but have even constructed frigates and men-of-war. But, although commercially, politi- cally, intellectually and socially they take rank with the Europeans, and are adopting many Western customs, they have not yet abandoned their peculiar way of treating the dead. On the summit of Malabar Hill, the most fashionable suburb of the city, is the Parsee cemetery, walled and guarded. It contains five round towers, each about sixty feet in dia- meter and fifty feet ,in height and surmounted by a large grate. The A SIKH. 563 A SIKH. bodies of the newly dead are placed upon these towers, and when the vultures have removed the flesh from the skeletons the bones fall through the ofrate into the inclosure beneath. Between the Indus and the Ganges, in Northwestern India, are a race of people called the Jats, who are supposed to be of a northern origin, either descendants of the Scythians or Huns. They are of the agricultural caste, are tall and robust, with clear-cut features, and the finest specimens of physical manhood in India. Besides leading in husbandry, their history has shown that they are second to no tribe as brave warriors. A Sikh is a Jat who has adopted the best portions of Mohammedan- ism and-Brahmanism. The founder of the sect was of the warrior caste, who in his youth had been educated as a Hindu and afterwards was adopted by a Mohammedan dervish. He therefore imbibed the prin- ciples of both religions, and when he came to promulgate his own doctrines, toleration and the brotherhood of man were naturally its lead- inor tenets. Those whom he drew to his relioious standard were called simply "Sikhs," or "disciples." His successors as heads of the sect were able and bold, and were looked upon as the arch enemies of both Mohammedanism and Brahmanism. One of them was tortured and put to death by the Mussulman government. Then commenced a fierce war against the Mohammedans. The Sikhs were driven into the mountains of the Northern Punjaub where they formed a state of a decidedly democratic turn. All caste was abolished. The Sikhs, irrespective of social standing, wore a blue dress. Every man was a soldier and constantly carried his steel blade. The contest against the Mohammedans was renewed, periodically, and the Sikhs became so powerful that the Shah took the field against them personally, and almost annihilated them. This was after they had fought the fight for conscience' sake, for two centuries. But fifty years there- after ( 1 764) they had so recovered as to be able to drive the Afghans from the Punjaub, and for seventy-five years more existed as petty states and as one powerful kingdom, known as Lahore. The English subdued them, and they remained faithful to their conquerors during the Sepoy rebellion. A few states continue to be independent, situated in South- eastern Punjaub, THE HINDU FAMILY. As to the duties of the male and female heads of a Hindu household they do not essentially difter from those of the American husband and wife. From all accounts the women are usually models of economical management and the men are careful to lay in a' month's supply of 564 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. provisions at a time. In the upper and central provinces it is customary, at harvest, to buy a year's supply. Little Hindu children with their light brown skins, dark eyes and hair, acquiline noses, high foreheads and intelligent faces are sheltered, loved and educated with true devotion; to be without children is counted not only a misfortune, but a sin for which religious atonements are required. It is in the painful seclusion which the Hindu women suffer and in their separation from their older sons and their husbands that the difference between Eastern and Western households is mostly observed. The houses are so constructed that the court-yard is always reached through a tortuous passage way which is closed by a low door. There is an outer and an inner apartment, below. The rooms above are reached by small contracted staircases. Not satisfied with shut-' ting them out from fresh air and sunshine, when meal time comes custom requires that the women shall eat separately from the men. In the morn- inof the children are served first,that they may go to school. Then the adult male members are favored, the mother and wife squatting with them on a bit of carpet. She sees that everybody is properly waited upon by the servants, and although she participates in the conversation she can not eat. The cooking is generally left to Brahman servants, but It is not uncommon for wealthy Hindu ladies to take a pride in preparing the evening: meal of their sons and husbands. The Hindu woman is separated from her husband's elder brothers as by walls of adamant. She can not speak to her husband, or lift her veil, in the presence of her mother-in-law. In a word she is neither to be seen nor heard when elder members of the family are around. After the family have separated she changes her clothes and retires CLOTH VENDERS. A SON'S BIRTH. 565 of stone and metal, placed on a gold or silver throne, upon which are a silver umbrella and household utensils dedicated to it. She prostrates herself, invokes its blessing and takes her breakfast, which like all other meals is simple, consisting principally of vegetables, fish and milk ; then she enjoys a nap, chewing afterwards a mouthful of betel to color and strengthen her teeth. After she has changed her garments for secular robes she bathes, as a religious duty. If she is poor and lives near the Ganges, she goes to the sacred stream, and, as the sun rises and sets, washes her body and clothes at its banks. In the upper provinces, at all seasons of the year, hundreds of women can be seen daily walking toward its waters, with baskets of flowers upon their heads, chanting in chorus the praises of the sacred river of India. In the Hindu household, also, ladies are not permitted to participate in domestic occupations unless they bathe their bodies and change their garments, morning and after- noon. Morning and evening, also, the priest visits the house to worship its god, bless the members of the family and carry away the offerings of rice, fruits, sweetmeats and milk. For the support of the household god the Hindu sometimes sets apart an endowment fund of landed pro- perty. A SON'S BIRTH. The birth of a male child is announced by the sounding of a conch or large shell, and when the mother hears the welcome note she is con- vinced that she has been under the kind charge of the goddess Shashthi, who has charge of children. Her heart sings for joy; for she knows that a male child will be welcomed by her husband ; while, if the shell is mute, she raves in a double agony, for a little daughter is at first an interloper of the Hindu world. "The family barber bears the happy tidings of a son's birth to all the nearest relatives, and he is rewarded with presents of money and clothes. Oil, sweetmeats, fishes and curdled milk are presented to the relatives and neighbors, who, in return offer their congratulations. A rich Hindu, though he study practical domes- tic economy very carefully is, however, apt to loosen his purse string at the birth of a son and heir. The mother forgrettinof her trouble and agony, implores Bidhata (the god of fate) for the longevity of the child." The goddess Shashthi is, on the sixth day after the great event, worshiped in front of the room where the child was born, the officiating priest making offerings of food and clothes. There are deposited in the mother's room a palm leaf, a pen and ink and a serpent's skin ; the arti- cles beinof to aid the sfod of fate in writino- on the forehead of the child to a room in which is the tutelar god, usually an image of Krishna made 566 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. its future destiny. On the eighth day, the children of the house and neighborhood, after being feasted, repair to the door of the room, beat- ing upon a fan with small sticks, asking, " How is the child doing ?" and shouting, upon a favorable reply being given, " Let it rest in peace on the lap of its mother." The boy has in the meantime been blessed by his father and rela- tives, gold coins (for good fortune) have been forced into his baby hands, and he has been visited by the family astrologer, who has noted the day, the hour and the minute of his birth and cast his horoscope. He maybe named after a god, which is common. If the child is a daughter, on the other hand, she may go through life, eventually loved and petted, but burdened with such a name as Ghyrna (despised). The ceremony of christening occurs when the child is six months old, upon which occa- sion it is fed with a little boiled rice which has been sanctified ; the baby being shaved, clad in a silk garment and adorned with gold ornaments. HE GOES TO SCHOOL. The boy grows like other babies, and besides the care he receives from his parents may likewise be protected by a metal charm, which is strung upon a string tied around his loins. At the age of five, if the as- trologer pronounces the day propitious, the youngster is bathed, put in a new garment, and taken to the image of the goddess of learning, where the priest is again found waiting to intercede for him and bear away the offerings, as well as his own gift. He is then introduced to the master of the infant school, where he writes his letters upon the ground (five at a time) with a soft stone. As he advances, he writes upon palm leaves, slate and paper, with a wooden pen and ink, and each step is marked by a gift of food, clothes and money made by his parents to the master, the regular fee being from one penny to three pence a month. Reading and a little arithmetic are also taught. To ensure an early attendance a master resorts to the practice of giving the first comer one rap with a cane, the second two, the third three, and the last boy, or a truant, is made to stand on one leg and hold out a brick in his right hand until he is completely exhausted. Another native mode of punishment is to apply the leaves of a stinging plant to the back of the naughty boy. When the boy is six years old, if his parents have become imbued with Western ideas and they can afford it, he is sent to one of the public schools of Calcutta, where he receives an education in both his own and the English language, and may eventually undergo a university training. But social and family duties may call him into other fields. THE girl's education. 567 THE GIRL'S EDUCATION. The education of the girl as a wife commences when she is httle more than a baby. When she is five years old she is not brought before the goddess of learning, but before the goddess Doorga. This divinity, under the instruction of some elderly woman, the little girl represents by two tiny images of clay, which she makes and sprinkles with water from the Ganges, repeating as the drops fall, "All homage to Siva"; this being the name of Doorga's model husband, whom she worshiped before and after marriage. The innocent child is then required to offer flowers and leaves to the goddess, and flowers and sandal paste to Siva, to the god and husband. To a supposed question from the god as to her wishes, the baby replies that she desires the prince of the king- dom for her husband ; that she may be beautiful and virtuous and the mother of "seven wise and virtuous sons and two handsome daughters"; that she may have good daughters-in-law and sons-in-law and a well-filled granary and farm-yard ; that her dear ones may enjoy long life and pros- perity and that she may eventually die on the banks of the sacred Ganges, Within the next few months the Hindu maiden makes various vows or " bratas," all accompanied by painting upon the floor with rice paste the images of gods, men, ornaments of gold and precious stones, houses and granaries, her prayer being for an affectionate husband, and only one. Her last performance (still a child of five years), after invoking a blessing from above, is to curse her possible rival of bed and board. The rival wife is called a "sateen," and she is to become "a slave," be exposed to infamy, have " her head devoured," and die — if she ever live ; but her prayer is to " never be cursed with a ' sateen' " — this is the life- long prayer of a Hindu female from babyhood to old age. j^ MARRIAGE CEREMONIES. The girls are married at from eight to thirteen years of age — in the opinion of the Hindus, the earlier the better. At the age of seventeen or eighteen the boy is a subject for matrimony. Sometimes the children are pledged to each other in infanc)^ or the marriage may be arranged by professionals, called "ghatucks." The strongest point in favor of the youth, now-a-days, supposing that his social standing is good, is that he has passed successfully all the ex- aminations of the university and has been honored with a degree. The parents of such a boy demand of the parents of the girl that they shall be guaranteed a long list of gold ornaments, which constitute the 568 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. wealth of the bride. The expense to the maiden's parents, who are de- termined to marry their daughter, is increased to almost a ruinous extent by many feasts both before and after marriage ; it is estimated that a tolerably respectable marriage will cost at least $i,ooo. The prelimi- naries having been arranged, the youth is examined in the presence of his future father-in-law and a university graduate as to his literary acquirements, and the girl is put through a course of questioning by relatives of the boy's family, after which, if all is well, a written agree- ment is drawn up, written by a Brahman on Bengallee paper with Ben- gallee pen and ink. This makes the document sacred and binding ; it must also consist of an odd number of lines. When the contract is signed and ratified, the females of the party sound two conch shells — one for the bridegroom and another for the bride. Subsequently the boy puts on a red bordered cloth, stands on a "grindstone surrounded by four plantain trees, while five women (one must be of the Brahman caste) whose husbands are alive, go around him five or seven times (an odd number is lucky), anoint his body with tur- meric, and touch his forehead at one and the same time with holy water, betel nuts, rice paste, and twenty other little articles." A bit of the tur- meric paste with which he has been anointed is sent by the family barber to the bride in a silver cup, and her body is also anointed with it. A long and ridiculous series of feasts and formalities precede the celebra- tion of the nuptials in the chamber of worship of the bride's house. The priest first ties around the bridegroom's fingers fourteen blades of grass, seven for each hand, pouring a little holy Ganges water into his right ; this hand he holds while the father-in-law repeats an incanta- tion. Rice, flowers, grass, water and sour milk, with prayers intermixed, are showered upon the young man (figuratively speaking), and he is finally directed to put his hand into the copper pan of holy water which stands before the priest. Having done so, the priest places the hand of the bride on that of the bridegroom, and ties them together with a gar- land of flowers. The father-in-law gives his daughter away, naming, as he does so, the fine clothes and jewels which she wears. The bridegroom says: "I have received her"; after which the father-in-law unties the hands of the couple, pours holy water upon their heads and blesses them. The bride is all this time closely veiled, and has, in fact, never been seen by the bridegroom ; but now a silken cloth is thrown over their heads and, underneath it, they are r.sked to look at each other. Parched rice and grass are then offered to Brahma, and a small piece of cloth decorated with betel nuts, is tied to the scarf of the bridegroom and the FEMALE EDUCATION. ^^' 569 silken garment of the bride — symbolic of a perpetual union. It would be tiresome to enumerate the successive steps which the young couple take before they are formally wedded, consisting of religious rites, feasts, practical jokes played upon them, little ceremonials calculated to bring them joy and allay their bashfulness, as well as actions on the part of the females which should not be described. FEMALE EDUCATION. The great obstacle in the way of elevating Hindu women, and thereby society, is the custom of withdrawing them not only from the world when they are married, but from all educational influences. In those parts of the country which have never been under the dominion of Mohammedan conquerors, this fact is not so evident. But they estab- lished themselves, and their peculiar ideas of preserving the virtue of woman, throughout the plains of the holy Ganges, from which they spread, more or less, over the whole country. Before their advent, education was prevalent to a considerable extent among women. Even in our days among the great tribes of the Punjaub and Rajpoo- tana, in the northwest, as well as among the Mahrattas, of the south- west, who are noted for their strength, intellectually and bodily, there are not a few accomplished and scholarly women. Formerly every respectable female of Rajpootana was instructed to read and write. One of the latter people, an excellent Sanskrit scholar, lately visited Calcutta, the center of modern education, and astonished all by her wonderful acquirements. And even in the Bengal districts, which are particularly Mohammedan, since the establishment of British power, Hindu women are making great advances. Many of them after they withdraw into the "zenana" (which corresponds to the Mohammedan harem) engage teachers to instruct them, not only in needle work, but in those branches which lay the foundation of an intellectual mind. Some of them have passed commendable examinations even in the University and Normal School of Calcutta. "THE ORDER OF MERIT." The hatred of polygamy, which is inculcated into the female's mind, almost from infancy, does not prevent its existence in Hindu society. Manu authorized it, as did God through Mohammed. Not only was it said that women had " no business with the text of the Veda" and " no evidence of law," but they must be held by their " protectors in a state of dependence"; and that the sateen may be brought into the house 5/0 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. if a prior wife is childless for seven years, if she has lost all her children by the tenth year, if for ten years she has borne only daughters, or, if she speak unkindly, " without delay." Great teachers of Brahmanism have even added to the various pretexts by which the Hindu has carried polygamy into his household, despite the life-long protests of the woman. Polygamous Brahmans are known as "koolins," and native investi- gators, who have had the best opportunities to look into their family affairs, assert that their numerous marriages are made generally for pur- poses of worldly gain, or for bare support. When money is required for themselves or wives they pounce upon their father-in-laws for it. "Among the Turks," says a Hindu author, "seraglios are confined to men of wealth, but here a Hindu Brahman, possessing only a shred of cloth and a piece of thread, keeps more than a hundred mistresses." The custom is furthermore said to be productive of crimes on the part of the women too horrible and unfit to relate, and from the abandoned wives and daughters of the koolins come most of the Hindu females of ill-repute. The parents of daughters who thus place their children in such jeopardy usually seek to have them married to Brahman koolins on account of the caste of the bridegroom and in order to keep up the honor of their families. The children of these marriages invariably remain with their mothers and are maintained by the relatives of these females. The pictures which have been drawn of the inner life of these harems are composed of constant quarreling between the wives on personal grounds and on account of their children, screaming and cursing, and forcibly expressed wishes by each that she may "eat the head" of the other, — viz,, cause her death. Even separate cook rooms, separate apartments, and giving the same set of ornaments to each do not bring peace, especially if one of the wives has received the usual education of being- taught to hate a rival. An attempt is being made by native reformers, with which Hindu- stan is swarming, to abolish the Order of Merit, as the koolin system was first known. The British Government was even memorialized to take a legislative hand in its destruction, but refused to interfere with the social customs of the nation. The practice of burning widows with the dead bodies of their husbands, which has been a most ancient custom, has been abolished within the limits of British India (which comprises two-thirds of the area and five-sixths of the population of Hindustan), not by legislative enactment, but by gradually throwing many obstacles in the way of the horrible practice. It would never, in all likelihood, have had so long an existence, were it not for the pious austerity which Manu enjoins upon the widow, as A PATRIARCHS DEATH. 57I a passport to paradise. She is to emaciate her body by living volun- tarily on pure flowers, roots and fruits, not pronounce the name of another man, and to abstain from the common pursuits of life. She may not even take part in any good work which will bring her into contact with society, but is expected to remain with her mother, or grandmother, perhaps in the holy city of Benares living upon one coarse meal a day, fasting regularly twice a month and upon every religious celebration ; to strip herself of even iron and gold bangles, earrings and bordered clothes ; is not permitted to daub her forehead with vermilion, and is denied every feminine pleasure. If she has not children to solace her, in despair she shaves her head and pines away neglected, or, recklessly severs every tie, throws behind her all feminine honor and leads the worst life of which a Hindu woman is capable. A PATRIARCH'S DEATH. A Hindu family is patriarchal in its composition, husband and wife, sons, daughters and daughters-in-law dwelling under the same roof. Their own daughters may be married, also, as on account of the tender age of Hindu husbands their wives usually live at home for several years, and during this period the father-in-law is expected to support them all. When the head of the household therefore takes to his bed, laying aside all considerations as to natural affection, it is a season of great anxiet)', and when the native physician announces that he is no more destined to have rice and water, torrents of grief are released from the men, women and children. If possible, the sick man is borne on a cot to the banks of the Gan- ges and is told to look upon the sacred stream, and as he opens his eyes he sees scores of bodies, in all stages of life and death, brought thither to be stamped with the sacred seal. The person who is thus hurried to the Ganges is often entrusted to the care of servants, who, if he persist in living, " get tired of their charge and are known to resort to artificial means, whereby death is actually accelerated. They unscrupulously pour the unwholesome muddy water of the river down his already choked throat, and, in some cases, suffocate him to death. The process of Hindu 'antarjal,' or immersion, is another name for suffocation." ' In the case of an old man the return home after ' immersion ' is infamously scandalous, but in that of an aged widow the disgrace is more poignant than death itself. Scarcely any effort has ever been made to suppress or even to ameliorate such a barbarous practice, simply because religion has consecrated it with its holy sanction." The above are the words of a former Brahman, who has seen the errors of his native religion. 572 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. He instances cases in which the aged of both sexes were returned to their homes, after they had undergone this murderous process a dozen times ; anxious to die, having looked upon the Ganges, but unable to n z > W > W C/5 pass away, so vital is the spark of life. Disgraced beings, they dragged on a miserable existence, and one of them, a widow, at length drowned her- self in the divine river,which is thought to flow from the throne of the gods. THE SACRED CITY. 573 If the man dies, with the names of the gods whispered in his ears, by his attendants, his body is burned at the Nimtollah Ghaut, the most, noted river terrace at Benares, the son setting fire to the pile, if he luckily is present. A portion of the body, which is not burned, is thrown into the Ganges, and the funeral pile is watered from the sacred stream, the son also bathing in it. Upon returning to the stricken home, he is greeted by the doleful cries of the females who are beating their breasts and tearing their hair. For a month the son goes unshaved, with unpared finger nails,, dresses in a simple white garment and lives upon a very slender diet- To fully carry out Hindu regulations, consisting of presents of money brass pots, silver utensils, sweetmeats and sugar, to the Brahmans, the- Pundits (professors), and so on down the grade of castes, with special entertainments, after the funeral, to the Brahmans, the " Kayastas " (writers) and other classes, a fortune is required. A late Rajah of Calcutta celebrated the demise of his illustrious father at an expense of $250,000. At the funeral services the distribution of garlands, accord- ing to caste, is an important feature of the proceedings and the cause: of bitter jealousies. The "Gooroo," or spiritual guide, and the "puno- hit," officiating priest, are always mos thonored, the only question being as to how much. At the feasts given to the Brahmans, and others, the guests place themselves on grass seats in long rows, in the court yard, and if the householder is wealthy they do not commence to eat until the number reaches two or three hundred. Each guest is provided with a piece of plaintain leaf and an earthen plate, and upon these receptacles are- placed their fruits and sweetmeats. In spite of the utmost vigilance Hindus of the lower castes, decently dressed but poor, and willing to strive after a free lunch, often enter the court yard and obtain shares destined for the privileged class. They are not killed, however, as of yore, but are simply ejected ; and, says a native, "some of the Brah- mans who are invited do not scruple to take a portion home, regardless, of the contaminated touch of a person of the lowest order, simply be- cause the temptation is too strong to be resisted." THE SACRED CITY. Next to the river, Benares is the natural object of the Hindus, greatest veneration. Ruins found in the vicinity of the city, of palaces, mosques and temples, indicate that there was a Benares of far greater- antiquity than the present; the Hindus believe it to have been founded. 574 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. at the creation of the world. To die within its Hmits is to be sure of heaven. The waters of the Ganges are far hoher in Benares than else- where. Along the terraced river-side fires are continually burning, on which smolder the bodies of the recent dead. Sacred bulls roam throuo^h its narrow streets, and from the temples dedicated to Doorga, troop forth hundreds of sacred yellow monkeys. THE INDU-CHINESE. N China, Thibet, Siam and Burmah are to be found the purest specimens of that Mongol race whose branches spread over Asia and Eastern Europe. As Medes, Scythians, Huns, Mongols and Tartars, this people have appeared in history spreading their names and their individualities over the world. The blood of the race courses in the veins of wanderinQf tribes 'J\ from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean, and of permanent empires of which it is a basis two still exist which are among the most widely extended of the world — the Turkish in the west and the Chinese in the east. A BEWILDERING ANTIQUITY. The Turks are the result of various mingling of races, with the Mongol predominating, but the Chinese seem to have shot east at once, and to have been the flourishing and peculiar people they are to-day, nearly four thousand years ago. As a nation they have been traced into such remote periods of time as to fairly bewilder the ethnologist, and force him at times to rest unsatisfied in his labors. The one theory is that they are an offshoot from the parent stem which grew in Western Asia, and the other that they emigrated, before history was, from the suppositious continent of Lemuria, now sunk beneath the waters of the Indian Ocean. Upon the latter supposition the Mongols would have spread into Siam and Burmah and China, and while some of the race settled in Southeastern Asia, the restless or weaker portion commenced to wander west and north. Certain it is that here, and especially in China, is the pure type of a distinct race. As has been well said: "It is inhabited by more than 400,000,000 of the human race, living under the same goverment, ruled by the same laws, speaking the same language, studying the same liter- ature, possessing a greater homogeneity, a history extending over a longer period and a more enduring national existence than any other people whether of ancient or modern times; indeed when we consider its 575 576 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. high antiquity, its peculiar civilization, its elaborate administrative ma- chinery, its wondrous language and classic literature, its manufacturing industry and natural productions, China is perhaps the most remarkable country in the world." Here then, in their native land, packed closely into a territory two-thirds as large as the United States, this mysterious people, with their yellow skin, coarse hair, thin beard, depressed nose, oblique eyes, thin eyebrows, large ears and lips, and low, flat forehead, calmly live and thrive ; passionless yet industrious; practical yet literary; peaceable, domestic, frugal-their existence flowing on and on, compa- ratively unrufifled by outside storms, like their beloved river, the Yang- tse-Kiang, or Son of the Ocean. NEGLECT OF NATURAL ADVANTAGES. The two great rivers of China come tumbling down together from the table-lands of Central Asia, where each of them meets a range of RIVER SCENE IN CHINA. mountains, and one is diverted to the north and the other to the south. Their acquired impetus seems to force them to describe an immense cir- cuit, so that they are separated by an interval of over one thousand miles, one directing its course toward the cold north and the other to- ward the tropics. But suddenly they again approach each other, almost join hands, and finally empty into the Yellow Sea only a hundred miles apart. The area of their two basins is estimated at nearly a million square miles, the Yellow River being useless, however, for purposes of navigation. The grand canal traversing Northeastern China, the grand wall along its northern borders — both of these are immense but imperfect. BASIS OF THE. STATE. 577 From Pekin in the north to Hangchow in the south is the great plain of China, six hundred by three hundred miles, and which has suffered, from time immemorial, from the floods of her great rivers. Nature has done her work on a grand scale, and the people, had they the mechanical genius of the American or the European, would promptly bind the loose- jointed empire into one stupendous, compact body. The Chinese, however, have been devoting themselves to the task of building up a system of popular education and establishing the social structure of their great country, and have neglected to perfect the material advantages of the empire. Such neglect may be excusable in them, when the historic student remembers that when Western civiliza- tion was unborn they were using the compass, gunpowder, paper and printing; that though divided into three religious sects, each vies in charity with the others; that among all classes courtesy is the study and practice of life ; that since they were known to history they have been setting to the world a continued example of temperance in eating and drinking, and finally, notwithstanding their neglect of natural and artificial water-ways, that there is probably a greater amount of tonnage belonging to the Chinese than to all other nations combined. BASIS OF THE STATE. Education is the sure passport to distinction in China and, if desired^ to public preferment. So it matters not what the future career of the youth is to be, his first aim is to pass his examination. The result is that a knowledge of the common branches is all but universal, althougrh there is not such a general diffusion of knowledge as in many other countries whose districts would show a lamentable number who could not read and write. Each Chinese word has its symbol, and many a mer- chant who may be at home when dealing with his own articles would not be able to read an ordinary book. The number of adult males who can read the classical books, it is said, is not more than three in a hundred ; of women one in a thousand. The province of literature is open to women, so that authors among that sex are not rare. Although fostered by the state in every possible way, the cause of education is not left to run alone at this point ; but the "sons of high officers of state, and Mantchoos of noble birth resort to a national institution established for them at Pekin. They receive instruction in the Chinese, Mongolian and Mantchurian languages, and when their education is complete they are dispatched to various parts of the empire, to serve as attaches until more important offices become vacant for them. Distinguished students amons: them are instructed for the astronomical 37 5/8 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. board, the chief duties of which are to inform the Emperor when an echpse of the sun or moon is Hkely to take place." THE SCHOOLBOY The schoolmaster is held in the same veneration by the Chinese as the priest is in other countries where Brahmanism or Buddhism is all in all ; and while the Burmese or Siamese boy is getting his mind filled with forms and ceremonials and a perplexing religious system, albeit with much good thrown in, the Chinese lad is being taught his first lessons in morality and moderation. When he is six years of age his schoolmaster is selected and he may commence his education upon any day which is not an anniversary of the death and burial of Confucius, or that of Tsong-Kit, the inventor of letters. These are considered as unlucky days by the fortune-teller. Carrying with him a present of money for his instructor, the little boy enters the school, worships at a shrine of Confucius, salutes his teacher, presents his gift and is conducted to his desk and chair. The school is usually held in a temple or in the spare room of a guild, the scholars study their lessons aloud and early are tauo'ht the use of the rod. The primer, or first book, consists of sentences of three char- acters, each of which is committed to memory and explained; or the beginning of learning may consist of a mere committal to memory of surnames, with their meanings, as the basis of history and literature. Next a thousand different characters, classified, and divided into rhyming couplets, are committed to memory. Already the boy's mind has been filled with fragments of wisdom, but now he commences a more systematic study. He enters upon the study of the four "Shoos" or books compiled by the disciples of Con- fucius, and containing his conversations with them, and an original production by one of his later followers, in which is expanded the •doctrine of the mean, or as we have been taught in English, the Golden Mean. Thus early does the Chinese teacher commence to mould the national character, which is preeminently one of moderation and conserv- atism, bordering upon timidity. In accordance with law, the themes for the essays upon which depend future degrees and prosperity, are taken from the four Shoos. PREPARING FOR HIS DEGREES. When the boy buds into the youth of seventeen or eighteen, he commences to prepare for his first degree, which, translated, is that of THE SCHOOLBOY. ■ 579 '" flowering talent," or " elegant shoots." He now seeks more seclusion ; for the course of intellectual discipline which he must undergo is severe. In the higher schools each pupil has a separate apartment for study, and there is a common hall where the principal lectures upon the four Shoos to the room of silent, rapt scholars. Even the servants of the building suspend their work while the sacred words flow, and it is only as a spe- cial favor that one is allowed to approach near the hall. Many students, instead of receiving this important preliminary edu- cation in cities and towns, in order that their minds may be wholly concentrated on their work, choose pagodas, temples and secluded spots in the country, shut away from the world by groves and mountains. One of their most famous retreats is the Sichu Mountains, in Southern China. Many of these educational shrines are founded upon spots which have become sacred as having been the resorts of noted Confucian sages, centuries ago, before the fair retreats of learning were dreamt of. One of the colleg^es is at the foot of a mountain and at the head of a picturesque ravine, through which rushes a wild stream to a beautiful lake. It is called White Deer Grotto, because near it, in a cave, once lived a Chinese sage, who was so enveloped in his philosophy that he could not spend the time to walk to the neighboring village for provis- ions, but sent, instead, a white deer, which was his constant companion. Attached to the college is a temple, which contains an idol of Confucius in place of the usual tablet, this being contrary to all his teachings. Having mastered the four Shoos, so that he has them by rote, the student passes to the classic on Filial Piety. This work is attributed to Confucius. The Five Kings, in which he next must perfect himself, is a compilation by the great sage of the traditions and records of wise Chinese emperors, acollection of national poemsand ceremonials, enriched by the elucidation of Confucius. All of Chinese civilization, ancient and modern, is embodied in these books; Confucius thus crystallized the national character. The study of history, general literature, and of the essays of the Chinese masters, with frequent examinations as to the rational ground of the system upon which he stands, precedes the grand event of the youth's examination for the degree of "flowering talent." Certain classes, however, are excluded from the privileges of striv- ing for the degree and honor; viz., brothel keepers, actors, policemen, jailors, domestic slaves, barbers, chair-bearers, watermen, musicians, and their descendants to the third generation, as well as " tse-min " (degraded people) forever. These latter are the descendants of subjects who for over a century threatened the stability of the reigning dynasty. • Every student, also, who is admitted to the privileges must undergo the 580 ■ PANORAMA OF NATIONS. ordeal in his native province. The number of successful candidates, is furthermore, fixed according to population. It therefore would appear that there are several restrictions and clogs upon the action of the inhab- itants of China who desire an education and public preferment at the same time. There is no restriction as to age, however, a case being mentioned of an examination in Canton where a hoary-headed China- man stood on the lists, side by side with his son and grandson. COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS. After the various candidates have been examined as to their qualifi- cations to take the examination, and their age, lineage and description of person (a record for future generations) have been recorded on the lists, the competitors assemble, soon after daybreak, in a large hall. The examiners are the district rulers, the prefects and the literary chancellor. Each student carries with him a small basket containing his pencil, ink- stand, stick of ink, and a little refreshment to tide him over the following fifteen or twenty hours of close application. Within, he purchases his paper of a government official, and then seats himself at one of the long tables with his companions. He may have for company five or six thousand anxious students, of all ages, but usually gaily dressed and" eager. After every pocket, shoe and wadded garment have been searched to see that no "pony" has been smuggled, a gun is fired without, and doors and windows are closed and guarded. Every opening is posted over with strips of paper containing these words: "No sealed dis- patches for the presiding examiner can be handed in, as he is examining the essays. You must retire and keep out of the way." With every precaution, however, the sharpest board of examiners are sometimes deceived. The name of an ambitious individual may be assumed by a thorough, but mercenary student, who, for a liberal reward passes over the coveted degree to his patron. W^ell. everything being as secure as human precaution can make it, the themes are given out and the candidates commence on their two essays, terseness as well as elegant penmanship being requisites. This is followed by the composition of a poem of twelve lines, and a recitation or a written extract from the sacred edict. At the close of the day a gun is fired, and the students who have not finished their essays are furnished with lamps, at government expense. Several days thereafter the list of successful candidates is posted on the walls of the hall. Seven examin- ations are altogether conducted, the literary chancellor having charge of the last four. The students fall out by tens and hundreds, so that at the final competition not more than a hundred remain of the five or six COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS. 58 I thousand who entered the Hsts, and of these not more than sixty are invested with the order of merit ; whose badge is a golden flower placed on top of the cap or hat, a richly embroidered collar being also placed on the shoulders. When the ceremony of obtaining the B. A. degree is over, the happy recipients dine with the literary chancellor. In their respective towns they are the heroes of the day, one of their most important duties being to worship at the ancestral hall, and present offerings of pork, cake, fruits and flowers at the ancestral tablets. The successful " shoots" can not rest from other examinations before taking the next degree, if they wish to stand well in the community. At intervals during the following three years the government examiners place them under fire to prove their mental calibre, and they are divided into three ranks, the highest being "lingsang" — "at the top of the tree." Slothful candidates who have shunned these tests, have even been severely bastinadoed by the authorities of proud districts. The other literary degrees are " Keujin" (elevated men ), " Tsinsze" (advanced scholars), and " Hanlin" (pencil forests). The Keujin ex- aminations are conducted in provincial capitals, as at Canton, and the other two at Pekin. Even greater precautions are taken that all shall be fair and above board than during the contest for the lower degree, each student remaining in a cell, by- night as well as b}' day, until the trial is over. The examiners are appointed by the Emperor, who sends two of them to each province. On the morning of the sixth day of the eighth month of every third year, the learned examiners are escorted to the large hall surrounded by students' cells, and in the center of which is a spacious building, where they are lodged ; the mandarins who form the escort being headed by the governor-general himself, who rides in an open chair on the shoulders of sixteen men. The student whose name leads all the rest, in this second competition, is invested with the proud degree of " elevated men," and the rejoicings of his family and towns- men are repeated. Thus he progresses toward the height of his literary ambition, the degree of " pencil forests," or LL.D. "The examination for the des^ree of Hanlin is conducted in the Imperial Palace by the Emperor himself. The test is a written answer to any question which the Emperor may propose. The successful candi- dates are divided into four classes. Those of the first class have the degree conferred on them and are reserved for important vacancies. Graduates of the second class become members of the inner council ; those of the third class obtain situations in the six boards; and those of the fourth become district rulers. The newly-made Hanlin are enter- tained at dinner by the Emperor, and, as a mark of great honor, each 582 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. guest sits at a separate table, upon which the most recherche viands are spread. The graduate at the head of the list is called ' Chwang- yuen,' and his reputation extends to all parts of the empire. Wander- ing heralds carry his name to remote villages as well as populous towns, and both high and low make a point of becoming acquainted with some particulars of his family and early training. When he travels, the vari- ous hostelries at which he lodges consider themselves highly honored by the presence of so distinguished a visitor." "The Hanlin hall in which the degree is conferred, is in the form of a parallelogram, and on each of the four sides there is a cloister. Against the walls of the cloisters are placed marble slabs on which are inscribed the original text of Confucius. In the center, under a pavilion, is the throne on which the Emperor sits when called upon, in the dis. charge of his imperial duties, to explain the doctrines of Confucius to his ministers. When the degree is conferred, the approved candidates arrange themselves around the throne, and as the name of each is called, the Emperor makes a mark against it with his vermilion pencil in a list which he has before him." OFFICES TO BE FILLED. The latter is the Emperor's official pencil, his sanction to all laws and edicts requiring, of course, the imperial seal. He is assisted in the general administration of the government by a council of four ministers and by six boards ; the first selects the district and provincial officers, affixes the seal to all government papers and keeps a record of the most meritorious acts of both public functionaries and distinguished citizens ; the second is the treasury department ; the third has charge of the religion of the people and the government temples ; the fourth is the department of war ; the fifth, of criminal jurisdiction ; the sixth, of public works, such as mines, manufactures, highways, canals and bridges. Each department has its head minister, who lays its decisions before the inner council of four, who, in turn, submit their decisions to the Son of Heaven and the Lord of Ten Thousand Years. Besides these, which may be said to comprise the immediate impe- rial government, are two singular boards of espionage, one of which has for its province the entire field of official action, and the other is con- fined to the princes of the royal blood and their relations. The first named board of censors has its spies and emissaries in every nook of the mighty empire, ferreting out possible conspiracies and bringing corrupt officials to justice ; the last keeps a record of births, deaths, and marri. ages, besides examining into the personal conduct and ability of the Emperor's sons. At frequent intervals reports are submitted to the six MANNERS ADAPTED TO INTELLECTUAL PURSUITS. 583 great boards, or departments, which reach the imperial father and are supposed to have a weight in his choice of a successor. These high officials are but a drop in the great ocean of mandarins which covers the Chinese empire. China is divided into nineteen provinces and each province has a governor general, a treasurer, a sub- commissioner, a literary chancellor, a chief justice, " tautais," prefects, scores of district or county rulers, with their boards, besides the the offi- cers and governing bodies of the towns and villages, each of these official grades resting upon the other, the higher acting as a parent to that beneath, and over them all the divine paternity of their earthly god, the Emperor. Salaries are small ; and herein lies the cause of great cor- ruption, notwithstanding this permeating spirit of paternity ; — salaries are small, and yet many of the mandarins of China retire from office wealthy men, though they may have previously been endowed with little else than their degrees. The examination for military honors is sufficient evidence of the value which the Chinese attach to the army as a bulwark of the empire. It is usually conducted by the city provost, who sits on a dais with writ- ing materials placed on a table before him and gives the competitors their proper marks. On horseback and on foot the competition is almost confined to an archery contest, the targets being cylinders of mat with centers of red. Shooting on the fly, at too yards range, the bending of heavy bows requiring a force of from eighty to one hundred and twenty pounds, the wielding of ponderous swords and the casting of great stones and mallets (as in Scottish games) virtually decide the fate of the aspirants for military preferment. Although the Chinese have their god of war, they have deified a man and not a principle or a trait. All their teachings divert them from war, and their military organization is very defective. There is a standing army, and the military establishment is cumbrous ; but the infantry are armed with old-fashioned matchlocks, spears, bows, swords and bucklers, and the cavalry with helmets, cuirasses of quilted cloth covered with metal plates, bows and arrows, and shields of wicker- work. The artillery scarcely know how to use their heavy iron and brass guns. They are too moderate to be war-like ; although they esteem personal prowess in a worthy cause, a resort to force they have always held as a mark of inferior civilization. MANNERS ADAPTED TO INTELLECTUAL PURSUITS. The teachings of the Chinese from the earliest times have tended to develop in them those manners in life which are particularly adapted to intellectual pursuits. Moderation in all things has ever been their 584 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. watch-word — a simple diet and a simple life. Although they have been the pioneers in some of the true inventions of the age, they have left them to more practical people to perfect. Two or three centuries before Christ they built the most stupendous work of defense which the -world ever saw. Since the erection of the great wall, with its fifteen hundred miles of brick and granite, they have done nothing of moment in this line. The Tartars did not fairly make their way over the wall until fourteen centuries after it was built, but although at one time the empire was divided into three kingdoms and convulsed with civil and religious dissensions, the bulk of the Chinese were not affected, but continued to study Confucius and other philosophers, leaving the quarreling to the distinctive military classes. A Buddhist priest overthrew the Mongolian dynasty, and for nearly three centuries his successors ruled with a steady hand. In the middle of the seventeenth century the Mantchoo dynasty, which is now in power, overturned the Chinese and imposed the pig-tail upon them, which had long been one of their characteristics. The Mantchoos are the Southern Tungooses, the northern branch, the wanderers of Siberia, evincing little of their ability. They occupy their old country (Mantchooria) which is now a province of China, and also constitute the military class of the empire. The Mantchoos divide the •civil government with the conquered race, who are ostensibly satisfied "with the arrangement. As long as the new Mongolian dynasty is mod- ''erate in its views, the Chinese will revere the Emperor as "the only man," as he designates himself, or, perchance, the Son of Heaven. They will philosophically accept the ruler who is sent them, continue their study of Confucius, and glide along a few more centuries without marked change. Rulers may change and dynasties may overturn one another, but, to judge from the past four thousand years, it is impossible to con- ceive of the Chinese being under any other form of government than a monarchical and a patriarchal, which is best adapted to their literary habits. Under their form of government, connected with education, the Chinese have become a most good-humored as well as a peaceable people. As a race there is perhaps no other that comes so near applying the one rule of life laid down by Confucius : " Do not unto others what you would not have them do to you." Of the sixteen lectures from his Sacred Institutions, periodically delivered to the people, the second is "On Union and Concord among Kindred" ; the third " On Concord and Ao-reement amonsf Neighbors"; the ninth "On Mutual Forbearance"! the sixteenth "On Reconciling Animosities." CHINESE DOCTRINES. 585 RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE. All that the government requires of any religious sect is that it shall acknowledge the civil supremacy of the empire ; this obtained, and Bud- dhists, Mohammedans, Roman Catholics, Nestorians and Protestants are allowed the privileges of free worship. Religious tolerance is shown, also, in the peculiarly inipartial attitude which the government assumes toward the different sects in the matter of an official worship of some ofods common to Buddhism and to Taoulsm, and in the wav of the finan- cial patronage which it bestows upon Lamaist, Buddhist and Taouist temples as well as upon the heads of the churches. In fact, the tolerant, peaceful spirit of Confucianism has been brought to bear upon the posi- tion of the orovernment toward the sects and of the sects toward each other. The majority of people would apply the word indifference to such an attitude ; and it is true that the Chinese have no such word as religion. They have doctrines but no religions. CHINESE DOCTRINES. The cursory view which has thus been taken of the scholar and the politician of China indicates how thoroughly Confucianism has permeated society in the state. The doctrine most prominent in this practical sys- tem is that of filial piety. Confucius founded the state upon the family; in reverencing the father the Chinese youth reverences the Emperor, and disobedience to parents is the first step toward rebellion against the government. Acts of self-denial on the part of the child are, therefore, equivalent to acts of patriotism, which uphold the entire grand structure. Sons go to prison and into banishment for offenses committed b}- their parents and grandparents. In pursuance of native medical practice children allow pieces of flesh to be cut from their bodies and prepared with various ingredients, which are given to their sick parents that they may be restored to health. The government itself takes advantage of this sentiment, and when it is unable to capture offenders, endeavors to seize upon the bodies of their parents, and even though the criminals may be of the most hardened character, it is seldom that they will allow the aged ones to suffer for them. Ancestral worship is a similar element of Confucianism, which has clone much to maintain the Chinese structure of society and state. It matters not how humble the dwellings, each has its shrine to which the members of the family repair to worship, or invoke the spirits of those who have gone before. To either the ancestral hall or the tomb, all repair to seek guidance or to obtain commendation for past deeds. 586 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. The most splendid exhibition of ancestral worship is of course given by the Emperor and his mandarins when they congregate in the temple of imperial ancestors at Pekin. Sages, heroes and benefactors are also canonized and brought into the large congregation of gods, whom the Chinese worship upon all occasions. Confucius, "the most holy holy teacher of ancient times," has thus become a god. Confucius himself, intensely practical though he was, brought many gods of nature into being, conspicuous among whom was the Dragon King. His Great Extreme has been resolved by the Chinese into their Supreme God, of whom they have never made an image. However the Chinese may disagree as to religious systems, they are unanimous in their worship of Confucius. Twice a month services are held in his honor throughout the empire, and twice annually every officer of the government, including the Emperor, attends special services in the Confucian temple which is found in every provincial, prefectoral and district city. The temples are all alike, each being approached by a triple gateway, at either side of which is a pillar. Within the court yard is a pond of pure water, emblematic of Confucian doctrines. Passing through another triple gateway one enters the temple, divided into two quadrangles, in the first of which stands the altar of Confucius, with his name engraved upon a red tablet above it. On either side of the quad- rangle are shrines and tablets, in memory of his seventy-two disciples and others who have made themselves famous as expounders of his doctrines. Beyond the altars of the sage and his disciples is the shrine which honors his parents and grandparents. Attached also to each temple are halls whose tablets are of a local character, recording the names of great benefactors, sages, virtuous women, good officials, and sons and grandsons renowned for their filial piety. Occasionally an unworthy name will creep in, but it is not allowed to rest in peace. In the hall of one of the temples the tablet of a man had been placed who was more noted for his mercantile than his scholarly or pious character. The city officials refusing to remove it, upon a petition of learned men, the griev- ance was brought to the attention of the government, who dispatched a commissioner to the scene of disturbance. Upon investigation, the commissioner agreed with the learned gentlemen that the name dishon- ored the shrine, and ordered the removal of the tablet. A cord was therefore tied around it, as if it were some disgraceful being, and it was dragged far beyond the precincts of the temple of wisdom. The Confucian temple at Pekin is a magnificent structure, elabor- ately decorated, with a vaulted roof of blue. Rows of cedar trees, cen- turies old, adorn the court-yard. But more ancient than these, by nearly ChlNA &JAPHIN. CHINESE DOCTRINES. 587 two-score centuries, are ten stone drums, or tablets, upon which are engraved stanzas of poetry, said to have been written in the days of Yaou and Shun, 2357 and 2258 B. C, and who are among the most rev- ered founders, of Chinese civiHzation and progenitors of Confucianism. So sacred are they that they have always been kept in the royal city. Taouism is a form of religion which has been developed by the power of Buddhism. Its founder was Laou-tsze, the son of poor parents, and in manhood keeper of the government archives. These practical duties were ill suited to his contemplative disposition, and he retired to his native hills to reflect and philosophize. His celebrated work, Taou-tih- King, contained both traces of the ancient Hindu religion (before it had degenerated into Brahmanism) and of Buddhism. The author was mystical as to whether his Taou was to be considered as a Supreme Principle or a Supreme Being; but made himself plain in expounding his doctrine that virtue consisted in losing sight of one's self in the uni- verse and, by contemplation, of returning to the bosom of Eternal Reason. He taught the hollowness of worldly things ; that virtue is all ; that man should go through life as if he owned nothing, and love his enemies as well as his friends. Laou-tsze was a remarkable philoso- pher, providing for the spiritual wants of man ; he commenced where Confucius concluded, and as he had listened at court to the teachings of that wonderful worldly sage, his thoughtful mind penetrated to the defects of his system. But the Taouists, in their ambition to hold their ground against the Buddhists, shamefully perverted his doctrine. They not only deified Laou-tsze and opposed him to Lord Buddha, but provided a god to meet every want of the people. Did they worship wealth and longevity, the Taouists made gods representing them. Did they fall down in admira- tion before a great warrior they found in him the incarnation of the god of war. They were ready to go to the depths of Chinese superstition, and provide priests to drive ghosts from haunted houses or evil spirits from human bodies. Did the ghost or ghoul disobey the commands of the priests, although they set before it tables heaped with pork, fowl and rice, they threatened to despatch a letter to the gods of the infernal regions. The Archabbot, who is at the head of the Church, is second only to the Emperor in actual power and is much the same mysterious creature as the Grand Lama of Thibet. The Taouists afifirm that upon the death of their generalissimo, his successor is chosen by the Trinity of their faith ; the officer is chosen from the members of a certain family, the names of the survivors being engraved upon pieces of lead, which are 588 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. placed in a vase filled with water, and that which is divinely favored rises to the surface. Candidates for the priesthood devote five years to study, but usually confine their labors to works on astrology and alchemy ; few of them are acquainted with the philosophical writings of Laou-tsze. The corruptions of Buddhism are even more strongly marked in China than elsewhere; the field of investigation is so vast — and throughout its length and breadth idolatry is its most marked feature. If Buddha (or "the Buddha," as devotees fondly call their Incarnation) is cognizant of the lengths to which his religious system have gone he will not desire to return in the great cycle of being to his former state — or, it may be, that he would long to return that he might lay about him with the ponderous axe of a giant reformer. The Chinese Trinity of Buddhism is Buddha Past (represented by Gautama himself), Buddha Present (the perfect state of Heaven upon earth, such as many true Buddhists attain), and Buddha Future (the coming Messiah, or Incarnation of the Supreme Essence of Buddhism.) Few there are who can hope to attain to Buddha Past ; but many strive after that state of being by secluding themselves in caves and giving their whole being over to meditation, or by submitting themselves to terrible forms of bodily mutilation. The Buddhist monasteries are constructed upon a uniform plan, the two outer gates being in charge of two huge gods ; under the second gateway are four figures representing the North, South, East and' West of China and are supposed to assist Buddha in his various plans for the good of the people — to give him free entrance to the empire ; and beyond, in the main hall, are the idols of the Trinity. In the rear of the hall, in the center of the temple, is the " dagoba," or depository for the relics of Buddha, a hair, a tooth, a portion of his dress, etc., etc. On each side of the large court yards in which the principal halls of the temple are erected are rows of cells for the monks, a visitors' hall, a refectory, and, sometimes a printing office, where the services used by the priests, new works on the tenets of Buddhism and tracts for general distribution are printed. " In some of the temples the idols are very numerous, and in Yang- chow-Foo there is one in which there are said to be no fewer than ten thousand. The idols, which are very diminutive, are contained in one large hall, and in their fanciful, but orderly arrangement, present a very singular appearance. In the center of the hall stands a pavilion of wood, most elaborately carved, upon which is placed a large idol of Buddha. The pavilion within and without is literally studded with small idols which are, I believe, different representations of the same deity. On CHINESE DOCTRINES. 589 each of the four sides of the hall are small brackets supporting idols of Buddha, and a still larger number of these are placed on the beams and pillars of the vaulted roof. Two are full-sized figures of the sleeping Buddha. At Pekin and Canton there are halls precisely similar." Attached to nearly every monastery or temple of prominence is some sort of an enclosure for the preservation of animals which have been presented to idols of Buddha, the devotee having made a vow to preserve their lives and then placed them in the keeping of the monks. The animals thus become sacred. They may consist of a large sty of sleek pigs ; a large poultry yard of fowls, ducks and geese ; a pen con- taining sheep, goats horned cattle, or horses and mules ; an artificial pond of fish rescued from the market; a tank of huge tortoises — but in every case they are tenderly cared for, and when death comes their remains are religiously consigned to mother earth and their souls go climbing up the ladder of existence. This feature of the religion Buddha himself would commend. As has been stated, Mohammedanism has also obtained a foothold in China. The degraded forms of Taouism and Buddhism are, in fact, losing their hold upon the Chinese. Confucianism and Taouism sprung up in the sixth century B.C., Buddhism was brought from India during the first, and Mohammedanism did not come in until the seventh century after Christ. Christianity can not be said, as )'et. to be firmly established in China. Whatever may be said of the comparative merits of the religions which have obtained a foothold, it is certain that Mohammed- anism has been best^ maintained according to the original standard. Five times daily does the Chinese Mohammedan pray looking toward Mecca, he washes his hands before presuming to handle the Koran, he observes the great fast of Ramadan, and Chinaman, though he be, abstains from the use of swine's fiesh. His mosques are numerous, though they are Chinese in their architecture. The maternal uncle of the prophet is supposed to ha\e introduced Mohammedanism into China. After a residence of fifteen years in his adopted land, he died in Canton, where his tomb may be seen in one of the great mosques which he built. Confucianism, having for its prime object the establishment of the principle of submission to the father and the Emperor upon the basis of virtue, no outward assurance is required of its loyal tendency. Buddhism and Taouism and Mohammedanism, however, with their grand lamas, their grand archabbots and their grand muftis, are obliged to furnish evidence of their good intentions by placing in each temple or mosque a tablet, near the high altar, upon which is inscribed in large letters, "May the Emperor reign ten thousand years." 590 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. CHINESE GODS. As the military and the learned classes are the two distinct bodies of the Chinese people, there must be gods who stand as the representa- tives of their spirit. Kwan-te, a distinguished Chinese general, had been dead nearly 800 years when the salt wells of a large province dried up and caused millions of people much distress. The Emperor and his ministers, in their helplessness, consulted the Archabbot of the Taouists who suggested an appeal to Kwan-te who reigned, it is true, as a king in the world of spirits. His Imperial Majesty sent a dispatch to him, and the spirit hero appeared in mid-heaven riding on his great red charger, and insisted as the price of his assistance that a temple be erected to him. The structure was thrown together with great haste, and the salt wells at once yielded their welcome supplies. From that day on Kwan-te was elevated to the rank of a god, who leads the imperial troops in war and protects the millions of Chinese homes. His worship is con- fined to government officials. Mau-chang, a pre'cocious literary character, as well as a lover of virtue has been deified into the god of learning, who keeps a divine record of the learned and the virtuous. His temples and idols are in all the principal cities of the empire, and collegiates anxious about their degrees -and parents ambitious for the welfare of their children offer him bundles of onions to obtain his favor. Through the priesthood, also, he prophesies regarding national calamities. The Dragon King holds in his keeping the wind, rain, thunder and lightning of nature. In seasons of drought the district ruler supplicates his idol. If the King fails to respond, the prefect tries his persuasive powers, and if the god will hear neither, the governor-general, dressed in sackcloth and his neck and ankles humbly fettered, heads a sorrowful procession which moves toward the temple. The four banners of yellow silk, inscribed with the words wind, rain, thunder and lightning, are placed upon the altar of the god, after which the governor-general con- signs his written supplication to sacred flames, and retires amidst the firing of crackers, the beating of gongs and cymbals and other unearthly noise calculated to influence the tumultuous god of nature. If after all this homage he is implacable the Archabbot is called upon to offer prayers, and if welcome rain is still withheld the Archabbot's salary is also withheld by the Emperor. The temples erected to the Dragon King are often thronged with peasants, who appear, with wreaths of weeping willow bound around ;their heads, that the god will grant them a few satisfactory showers. DOiMESTIC AND SOCIAL LIFE. 59 1 Shing Wong is a great idol who annually recefves a new silk gown from the government or some wealthy family and has his face washed by the prefect himself. The god has a stone and a copper seal, and when his votaries come to do him homage, clothes of the sick or sheets of yellow paper are stamped with them that the feeble may be strength- ened and evil spirits warded off. Shing Wong employs some cruel implements of torture upon evil spirits, which are exhibited in several of his temples, and both they and his judicial proceedings are very similar to those which are in vogue in the criminal courts of the empire. The ten kingdoms of the Buddhist hell are each presided over by a god, who punishes certain classes of offenses with a variety of tortures such as the imaginations of men have created from Greece to China and from Rome to America. Pih-te, or Pak-tai, is the beneficent god of the Chinese, who existed before the world was, became incarnate, and, after a probation of 500 years, ascended to heaven to sit in a chariot of many colors and be at- tended by angels and fair women. It was after this, in the reign of Taou (2357 B. C.) that, according to Chinese annals, the earth was destroyed by a deluge. Twice thereafter Pih-te reappeared to guide the people and the state, and to wage war against the spirit of evil. Merchants about to take ventures, partners about to make important business statements, master and servants wishing to ratify their agree- ments, persons desiring to declare their innocence of crimes charged against them, all repair to his temple for advice or to make their most solemn and bindino" oaths. The Queen of Heaven is a canonized girl who protects fishermen and sailors from the fury of the storms, and the Goddess of Mercy pro- tects the souls as well as the bodies of mankind. Kum-fa is the tutelary goddess of women and children, and she has twenty attendants who at- tend to the details. The Five Genii preside over fire, earth, water, metal and wood, and the Great Sage of the Whole Heavens, of whom there is an idol in their temples, is a canonized monkey who was hatched from a bowlder, and became first human and then superhuman ! DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL LIFE. From the character which centuries of education have developed in the Chinese, it would follow that their domestic and social relations would be accompanied with much ceremony and apparent coolness. But they are not a cold people, although they have been taught to restrain their feelings. Custom confines the women quite closely to their homes, and the practice of unnaturally contracting the feet, which was originally 592 PANORAMA OF NATIONS, adopted to stamp them as a superior order of beings from the large- footed women of Tartary, prevents them from moving around much in their houses. The ladies of the better classes principally employ them- selves in embroidering and painting on silk. Music is also a favorite accomplishment. Chinese music is, however, most painful to Western ears. Upon the occasions of native weddings in American cities, specimens of it have been heard, which accord with the following description : " The gong is the type of Chinese music ; a crashing harangue of rapid blows upon it, with a rattling accompaniment of small drums, and a crackling symphony of shrill notes from the clarionet and cymbal, constitute the chief features of their musical performances. Their vocal music is generally on a high falsetto key, somewhere between a squeal and a scream." The Chinese are extremely fond of the drama, a branch of which, to their minds, is dancing. Elevating it, as they do, to such a height, they consider it presumptuous to dance themselves, but allow that honor only to professionals. The drama proper, although popular, is not of a very elevating nature. Women are excluded from the stage, their parts being taken by boys or eunuchs. In the northern and eastern provinces perma- nent theatres are to be found, but usually the actors are invited to private houses and paid for each performance. In every large dwelling and in nearly every inn there is a hall set apart for this purpose, and along the rivers and great canals, numerous strolling parties live in barges. As a rule the actors are the slaves of the manager ; for to purchase a free child for the purpose of educating him as an actor is punished by a hundred strokes of the bamboo, and no free female is allowed to marry into that: class. One of the most common causes for the punishment which the son of China brings upon himself is gambling. It is all but universal. The youthful mChinaan is often found attired in very scant costume, having pledged his articles of clothing in some game of chance ; and when the foreigner sees a struggling urchin being dragged through the streets by his stern father,the reason for his predicament may be inferred with tol- erable certainty. Next to gambling the Chinese are addicted to processions, public shows and festivals, with accompanying feasts. The new-year's time, the festival of the dragon boats, the feast of lanterns, the fisherman's festi- val, etc., are occasions of general rejoicing and merry-making. Friendly contests of strength, such as elevating or tossing heavy weights, they also enjoy ; but it would be considered quite beneath their dignity to THE LOYAL DRESS. 593 countenance prize fights or wrestling matches, and .even to place profes- sional gladiators among the nobility, as do the Japanese. THE LOYAL DRESS. The native Chinese costume, although not graceful to European eyes, combines warmth with ease. Silk, cotton and linen in summer, with padded cotton garments for the poor, and furs and skins for the rich in winter ; the robes usually light but compact, the shoes with thick felt soles to exclude moisture and cold — what more common-sense ideas could be combined in dress? The garments of the two sexes do not differ materially, except in color. The tail is now universally worn by Chinese males, the only general exceptions being found among the Buddhist priests, who shave their heads, and the Taouist priests who let their hair grow long, as do also many of the independent tribes of the mountains. The pig-tail has become the symbol of loyalty, and when, during the present century, a defeated literary candidate and a fanatic headed the Taiping rebellion against the government, the first of his many complaints was " that the Chinese from the outset had their own style of wearing the hair ; but these Mantchoos have compelled them to shave their heads and wear a long tail, so as greatly to resemble the commonest beast," THEY REFUSE TO SHAVE THE HEAD. The aboriginal tribes whom the Tartars could not conquer are scattered in the mountainous districts of the entire empire. Some of them acknowledge the authority of the Emperor sufificiently to receive his mandarins as their principal officers, but they are always selected from among the most prominent members of the tribes. It is a custom of most of these primitive people to select New Year's Day as the day when matrimonial alliances are to be entered into. The fairs, which are held in the court-yards of temples, are thronged with young men and maidens, who are continually pairing off, resorting to the temples to worship the idol and then hastening to the girl's parents to sign the necessary documents. From seven to ten years after marriage the young man resides with his father-in-law. The first-born is presented to the parents of the husband as a sacred offering and the second-born goes to the father-in-law. Among some of the tribes it is the duty of the father to attend to all the children and grand-children to the extent of his means, and when he is buried the face of the corpse is twisted around to indicate that he is still watching over their welfare from the Great Beyond, g 594 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. The body will not be allowed to rest in peace for any length of time, for the relatives will be anxious to ascertain their future fortune by its state of preservation ; or they will desire to carefully clean the bones of the corpse, that their health may be preserved. The tribe which follows this latter custom is called bone-washers. A few of the tribes burn the bodies of the dead, and the widows ascend the pyre with their husbands as did those of India in the old days. To avert pestilence and ^^^Ktii other misfortunes from the tribe various measures are adopted. Ml One of them is for the wealthy yi|]M members to pay a certain sum to a poor family, in consideration for which the father agrees to offer himself as the regular yearly sacrifice to the idol of the dog. A great banquet is given, every one drinks freely of wine, and the victim, after getting more intoxicated than the others, is put to death before the altar. Another practice is for the man, who has besmeared himself with paint, and by his contortions, with priestly assistance, attracted pesti- lence, disease and misfortune, to be driven from the village as a scapegoat. The remembrances I and bad effects of the past year are j'l annihilated throughthe agency of vJ}"^' a largfe earthenware jar, which is ilia i . ij^V filled with gunpowder, stones and ,'^ pieces of iron, buried in the earth, •i'^' and exploded in the midst of much rejoicing and convivialtiy. The aborigines are not all savages, although as superstitious as their civilized brethren who wear the pig-tails. They are good agricul- turists, breeders of cattle, manufacturers and dyers of cloth. The wildest of the tribes are found in the island of Formosa, northeast of Canton, and the island of Hainan, southwest of that city. In the north of Formosa the savages cover only their loins, and Indiscriminately A SCENE IN CHINA. CHINESE HOUSES. 595 siaugnter all Chinese and foreigners who cross their paths. The boldest tribes of Hainan are not only as cruel and quarrelsome as they, but are the most expert thieves living, so that when they visit the markets, at certain hours of the day, the grounds more resemble a military encamp- ment than a mart of trade. Soldiers armed with spears are quartered in barracks not far distant, and when the market is closed the aborigines are ordered home. The laws in force for the suppression of this turbulent element of the empire, and its eventual absorption by the law-loving bulk of the population, consist of provisions against extortion by the Chinese mer- chant ; forbiddinof the aboriorines to bear fire arms or the Chinese black- smith to make arms for them ; promising free pardon to any Chinese Avho shall kill an aboriginal who does not conform to the law by which, if protected by the government, he shall throw aside his rude orna- ments, shave his head, and adopt civilized dress and manners ; and obliging the native rulers to teach the aborigines the arts of industry and to report monthly to the ruler of the district within the frontiers of which the tribe is located. Many of the primitive tribes are also found in the district through which the upper Hoang cuts its way. This is called the "loess" country, the name being given to it by a German Baron, who thus designated the peculiar yellow deposit through which the river pours, and which has caused it to be called the Yellow River, The table-lands have been cut into deep gorges, and at the foot of the vertical cliffs, far below the level of the plain, the people build their houses and villages, rear their families, their swine and chickens, live and die. CHINESE HOUSES. " Chinese architecture is entirely different from that of any other country. The general form of the houses is that of a tent ; those of the lower classes are slight, small and of little cost. All are formed on the model of the primitive Tartar dwellings ; but even in the great cities a traveler might fancy himself — from the low houses, with carved, over- hanging roofs, uninterrupted by a single chimney, and from the pillars, poles, streamers and flags — to be in the midst of a large encampment. The fronts of the shops are covered with varnish and gilding and painted in brilliant colors. The streets of Canton, and of most of the cities, are extremely narrow, admitting only three or four foot-passengers abreast ; but the principal thoroughfares of Pekin are fully one hundred feet in width. The rooms — even those occupied by the Emperor — are small and little ornamented," 596 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. CHINESE MARRIAGES. As a people, the Chinese are not polygamists ; where polygamy does occur, among the wealthier classes, it may be said to almost invariably spring from the motive of the man to have a numerous offspring who shall do his name honor in the ancestral hall. His desire also is that his children shall be sons, for, at each stage of their literary and worldly advancement, they do not fail to present the customary offerings and inscribe their new honor upon the family record. The premature death of a son is therefore not only the occasion of profound grief, but is looked upon as a contraction of the family greatness. The wives, on the other hand, though as proud of family honors as their husbands, are said to be strenuously opposed to polygamy. In short, there are whole families, in the upper grades of life, in which the ladies positively refuse to marry, for fear that they may be called upon to suffer the pangs of envy, jeal- ousy and hatred occasioned by this state of married life. To avoid marriage some become Buddhist or Taouist nuns, and others prefer death itself to marriage. During the reign of a former king, fifteen virgins, whom their parents had affianced, met together upon learning the ■fact, and resolved to commit suicide. They flung themselves into a trib- utary stream of the Canton River in the vicinity of the village where they lived, and their tomb is still called " The Tomb of the Virgins." At another village, in 1873, eight young girls clothed themselves in their best attire, bound themselves together and threw themselves into the Canton River in order to avoid marriasfe. Another cause of this dread evinced by girls for the married state,, is that parents do all the match-making for both sons and daughters. How great a misfortune this distastefulness is considered may be realized when one learns of the eagerness with which marriage is pressed by the parents; in short, the most delicate and sickly children are looked upon, as the fittest subjects for early marriages, for their days, in all proba- bility, will be short, and there is all the more necessity for haste in the matter. And where parents are old and feeble, and have marriageable children, they are in constant trepidation lest they shall close their eyes in death upon bachelors and old maids. It often happens that marriages occur so early in life that the couples are separated and live with their respective parents until they arrive at a proper age. A shocking case of one of these forced mar- riages, which was prompted by a desire to comply with the parental wish, is that of a young man and woman in the humble walks of life, which was solemnized at the house of the bridegroom's mother, who, at the c^ FILIAL OBEDIENCE AND RESPECT. 597 time, was lying at the point of death. The couple were made man and ^wife, but when the wedding garment was removed from the bride it was discovered that she was a leper. "^ Before the parents consent to the betrothal of a couple, they con- sult the spirits of their ancestors by placing upon the family altar the documents which set forth the date of their births and the maiden names of the mothers. If the blessing of the departed is obtained, the services of the astrologer are next engaged. There are afterwards many passings to and fro, by those who are conducting the affair, bearing let- ters from father to father, and live pigs or wild geese and ganders, which are placed upon the ancestral altars, as offerings to family pride and bonds of union. The significance of the wild goose and gander is that the same pair of birds is said to remain united through life ; they are therefore emblems of marital constancy. A presentation of silks to the bride-elect by the parents of the youth, followed by banquets, precedes the selection of the marriage day. In the case of the com- mon mortal, a single astrologer is consulted, but if the Emperor is to be married the naming of the propitious day is referred to the Royal Board of Astronomy. When the day has been fixed, presents of sheep, geese and pots of wine are exchanged, in accordance with the rank of the parents of the contracted parties. The month previous to the marriage is de- voted by the lady and her female friends and attendants to lamentations at her coming removal from her father's house, the night immediately preceding being especially set apart for weeping and wailing. '' Notwithstanding this precaution of taking time by the forelock, and -mourning for possible misfortunes, the life of the average Chinese family is peaceful and happy, and there are few disobedient sons to be punished , with the severity for which the parents of the empire have become noted. The first wife controls the household, if polygamy is one of its features. She is "the moon," the secondary wives are "the stars," and they all revolve around the "sun." The first v/ife, or "tsy," is distin- guished by a title, espoused with ceremonials, and chosen from a rank in life totally different from the " tsie," or handmaids, FILIAL OBEDIENCE AND RESPECT, All foreigners have noticed that filial obedience and respect, not to say love, are prominent traits of the Chinese character. When the social customs of the people, however, are carefully examined, consider- able doubt arises as to how much of this feeling comes from fear or natural affection. The Chinese have not only absolute control over their youngest children, but exercise a sort of police supervision over even 598 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. their elder sons and daughters. This pecuHarity is evinced more strongly in the case of daughters than of sons. One will see not only mothers throwing their disobedient children into the river, and sometimes drown- ing them in their anger, but parents beating their married daughters ; and it is a not uncommon sio^ht to see mothers chastising; drunken or otherwise disreputable sons who have arrived at almost middle age. Further than this, the punishment inflicted upon men and women by their parents is often continuous and partakes of the nature of prison discipline. In the residences of those of wealth and standing, a son whose propensities are distasteful will often be found shackled, and heavy weights attached to his ankles, being kept for days in solitary confinement. When parental discipline does not avail, the father seizes the son, and, with the assistance of his servants, drags him through the streets to the "cangue" or gaol. The sons are frequently banished to distant provinces, and, if the mother does not intercede for their pardon (for mothers are the same in all lands), they often live and die in remote parts of the empire. The punishments meted out to children who abuse or murder their parents, sometimes extend to many generations. The laws in this regard are very similar to those which prevailed among the Israelites ; among them children convicted of cursing or assaulting their parents were put to death. A case is mentioned in China, where a son, aided by his wife, severely beat his mother, and both offenders were decapi- tated. The mother of the son's wife was flogged and sent into exile, for she had committed not only a sin but had outraged the teachings of all the founders of Chinese civilization, since she had not effectively instilled into her daughter's mind the principles of filial piety. Furthermore, the punishment extended to the magistrates of the district, who were banished from the country. The innocent students, even, were forbidden to attend the literary examinations for a time, and thus their chances of preferment were seriously delayed. The house in which this unfilial couple resided was razed to the ground. The wide-embracing and severe punishment of families and whole communities, of the heads of clans and literary classes to which such offenders belong, even extend- ing to numerous floggings, deaths, exiles, etc., seems quite unjust, but has the effect of making every man, woman and child, a guard, not only over his own actions, but even over those of his neighbors. When the crime reaches the magnitude of murder, the punishment sometimes includes a lingering death for the parricide, and a decapitation for the schoolmaster who had the misfortune to instruct the unnatural child; AGRICULTURE. 599 and what is more to be deplored, disgrace is heaped upon the ancestors of the family. The bones of grandfathers are scattered and dishonored, and the ancestral hall is closed. Offenses of this nature are conse- quently rare. Another picture : "A pleasing anecdote in relation to filial piety is told of a certain youth. Having lost his mother who was all that was dear to him, he passed the three years of mourning in a hut, and employed himself, in his retirement, in composing verses in honor of his parent. The period of his mourning having elapsed, he returned to his former resi- dence. His mother had always expressed great apprehension of thunder, and when it was stormy requested her son not to leave her. Therefore as soon as he heard a storm coming on, he hastened to his mother's grave, saying softly to her, ' I am here, mother.'" AGRICULTURE. It is fortunate that the Chinese are so naturally adapted to agriculture, since their four hundred million bodies so much depend upon the soil for existence. Next to education the government is a patron of agriculture, exempting from taxation all those lands which are reclaimed by their owners, or in case the waste lands are in remote districts and not thought worthy of attention by the proprietors, trans- ferring the title to those who will cultivate them. The Chinaman's love of quiet industry and the government's continual encouragement of it have left few barren spots of the empire untouched. The slopes of their hills even are terraced, and thereby made to retain sufficient water to irrigate the crops. When encouragement does not have its intended effect force is unhesitatingly applied. Each village has its agricultural board, and if a farmer shows negligence in realizing the greatest possible yield from his land he is simply and thoroughly flogged by the magistrate, upon the suggestion of the board. If he has left much uncultivated he receives many stripes; if little, only a few. The property of landed pro- prietors which is allowed to lie unimproved is confiscated to the crown. The lands in China are held by families, upon the payment of an annual tax, which is not levied in case of a failure of the crop ; that is the law of the land, but needy mandarins often exact it. There is another general law to the effect that the provincial government may advance money to farmers whose crops have been destroyed, for the purchase of fresh seed. As a rule, the Chinese farm does not exceed one or two acres, and is separated from the next by a narrow embankment. To draw the greatest possible amount of good from his land the farmer allows mounds 600 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. of a certain form to remain in the middle of his small field, and plants rows of cedar trees, variously combined, across the rice plains. These mystic fo.rms and figures are calculated to obtain the favor of the gods. Upon the clay walls of his house he also paints a circle or other effective figure, recommended by a Buddhist or Taouist priest to keep wolves, panthers, foxes, wild cats, badgers and other pests away from his few cattle and sheep. The elders of some of the villages even pass laws against injuring either the surrounding trees or the birds which lodge in them, as both are believed to have a good effect upon the adjacent rice plains. Having thus seen by what means the government and the gods are expected to assist the peasant of China we will see how he aids himself. The plow consists of a beam handle, a share with a wooden stem, and a rest behind instead. of a moulding board. It is so light that he often carries it home on his shoulders. A large wooden hoe, tipped with iron, often takes the place of the plow, being universally employed in the cultivation of the hill lands. The harrow has three rows of iron teeth. The ceremonies which usher in the agricultural year in China are conducted at Pekin, by the Emperor in person ; in the other provinces the various officers, headed by the governors, worship the god of spring, who is represented by an idol holding a branch in his right hand, his left resting on the horns of a huge buffalo made of paper ; thus indicating that it is time for the farmer to put his buffalo to the plow and bring forth his crops. After the land has been plowed and harrowed, fortune tellers name the lucky day when the seed is to be sown. At the ap- pointed time the seed is cast into a corner of the field, and when the shoots have grown a few inches they are transplanted. The irrigation of the land is not accomplished in so crude a manner as in Egypt, with merely buckets, chain pumps and horizontal wheels, but steam power is often applied where the land is high above the surface of the river. With the regular manure which is used are also mixed feathers of birds, bone dust, bean cake, Peruvian guano and human hair, which is preserved by the barbers. In June the rice is usually reaped with sickles, in some districts the tops of the ears only being gathered, stacked into small bundles, and rapped against the inside of tubs so that the grain will be thereby col- lected. Other kinds of rice are threshed with flails upon an asphalt floor with which every farm is provided, or the grain is trodden out by oxen. It is then, perhaps, gathered on trays and thrown into the air, or taken up on pitchforks that the wind may perform its primitive func- tion of winnowing. Toward the end of July another crop is sown. AGRICULTURE. - 6oi When the rice is finally stored in the granary, it is mixed with the ashes of the husks, which contain the necessary amount of carbon to drive away all destructive insects. Even with this preservative farmers are not allowed to withhold their grain in times of scarcity, hoping for extrava- gant prices ; this is the law, but the mandarins come in again, with their small salaries, often wink at the statute and realize a handsome fortune by colluding with equally unprincipled farmers to take advantage of a public calamity. The tea plant flourishes not only in Southern China, or the tropical regions, but as far north as Mongolia, where the winter is severe. The seeds are alternately dried and soaked until they begin to sprout, when they are planted in a thin layer of earth, spread over basket-work or matting. Like delicate children, the shoots are not at first exposed to the night air, but finally they get strong enough, when they are four inches high, to be planted out of doors. At the end of the third year, the plant has reached a height of from four to eight feet ; and a tea plantation, ready for the harvest, resembles a great field of evergreens. The leaf is similar in form to that of the myrtle. Three crops are gath- ered, usually in April, June and July. One leaf is plucked from the stalk at a time, and deposited in a clean wicker-work basket. The leaves are then spread out in the sun to dry, trodden under foot to expel any lurk- ing moisture, and then heaped together and covered with cloths for the night. When uncovered in the morning, the generated heat has changed the green color to black or brown. The laborers now rub them between their hands to twist or crumple them, and they are exposed to the sun, or placed in a wicker-work frame and baked over a charcoal fire. Before finally getting into the channels of trade the leaves are subjected to another baking, and are cleaned and packed by the middleman be- tween the planter and the tea merchant. The leaves of green tea, while being subjected to the charcoal heat, are constantly fanned, in order to retain their color. Brick tea, which is so much used in China, Thibet, Mongolia, Mant- chooria and Siberia, is made from leaves, stalks and stems, which are heaped into baskets and placed on iron pans of boiling water. Under- neath the pans slow fires are kept burning, and the steam reduces the contents of the baskets to a proper consistency to be placed into moulds and pressed. The "bricks" average 10x5x1 in. They are purchased principally by Russian merchants, who ship them to Siberian markets, where they are bought by Tartar and Mongol tribes. The silkworm was indicfenous to China, the silk trade beino- carried on between that empire and Persia for many centuries before it was in- 602 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. troduced into Europe. When Alexander the Great conquered Persia, during the first portion of the fourth century B. C, the silks of China were exposed for sale in all the marts of Greece, but the material was supposed to be a vegetable down or a fine wool. But twenty-three centuries previous to the first sight which Europe obtained of the mysterious stuff, an Empress of China reared a number of silkworms, and succeeded in weaving some beautiful webs. She is worshiped as the goddess of silkworms, and set the style which every imperial lady has since followed of thus interesting themselves. During October of each year, the Empress, accompanied by her attendants, re- pairs to the altar, and, with golden and silver implements, gathers mulberry leaves for the imperial silkworms, and winds a few cocoons of silk. The garments which they weave are to cover the principal idols of the empire. Well, the delusion under which Europeans labored was dissolved by two Nestorian monks, who, eight centuries later, arrived at Constan- tinople from China and told the Emperor what they knew about silk culture. They were persuaded to further prosecute their investigations, returning to China for the purpose. Collecting a quantity of eggs they packed them in bamboo tubes, and thus the industry was introduced to the West. It is reported that these pioneer eggs were hatched by the heat of a manure heap. A moth will lay five hundred eggs in three days, after which sne dies and the male does not long survive her. The eggs are carefully washed in spring water, when about two weeks old, and during the autumn and winter months are preserved on pieces of paper or cloth. In the spring they are placed upon bamboo shelves, which are devoid of any harmful fragrance, and soon a hair-like worm appears, which, when young, is fed almost continually; but, like other babies, the time between meals is gradually extended. Besides mulberry leaves the flour of peas, beans and rice is given to insure strong and glossy silk. The worm matures in thirty-two days, having had during that time four periods of sleep, each of which was accompanied by a casting of its skin ; while the new covering was forming the worm slept. For a few days previous to " the great sleep," as the Chinese call it, the worm has a voracious appetite. Having attained to maturity, about two inches in length and as thick as a man's little finger, it changes from a grayish to an amber hue, and com- mences to move its head from side to side and spin the thread around its body, which forms the cocoon. In a few days it has accomplished its object, falls into its last sleep, and, casting its skin, becomes a chrysalis. This is destroyed by placing the cocoon near a slow fire, and then the manufacture of the silk commences by unwinding the thread. AGRICULTURE. 605 Next to the work of rearing silkworms and manufacturing silk, there is no branch of manufacturing industry which affords more employ- ment to the Chinese than that of making porcelain and chinaware. From the preparation of the clay to the decoration of the ware the pro- cesses are simple, and, in marked contradistinction to the tendency of Western lands, machinery seems never to be employed when the work can be done by hand. In fact, it is possible that the Chinese do not desire labor-saving machinery in their thickly-populated empire, which is hemmed about either by rocky, barren and hostile countries or by those almost as populous. Wheat and barley are also good crops, and in some districts the grain is sown as soon as the second crop of rice is harvested. In the northern portions of the empire wheat, barley and corn are sown and reaped at the times prevalent in temperate climates. The grinding mill consists of two circular stones, the upper one concave and the under one convex. A bar is fastened to the upper stone, and a bullock, or buffalo, is attached to the bar. The grain is poured into a funnel which sets into the upper stone, and falls down over the lower one as flour. Water mills are also known, although not common. Their inventor has been elevated to the position of a god, and each mill contains an altar in his honor. The peanut crop is harvested in December, January and February. The nuts are exposed for sale in all fruit shops. Farmers value the oil which they extract from them very highly ; the residuum, or cake, is used as manure for rice lands and food for cattle, while the shells are burned for fuel. Sugar cane is grown both for the sugar and as a raw article which is sold by the fruiterers. Indigo is raised from the island of For- mosa to Mongolia, three or four crops being gathered from one root. The plants are cut with sickles, bound into sheaves and placed in vats,, where they are allowed to ferment for nearly a day. The liquor is then drawn off into other vats and beaten with paddles, which hastens precipi- tation. The precipitate, after being boiled, strained and exposed to the sun. is cut into cakes, in which form the world sees them. Beans and peas are also raised for food crops, for the oil which is pressed from them, and for the cakes which are used as cattle feed and manure. Chinese cotton is the crop which follows wheat and barley, in rota- tion. The seed which is not required for next year's crop is sold to oil merchants, or used as food and medicine. It is said to operate upon the kidneys. The stems of the plant are used for fuel. After being cleaned the cotton is spun into yarn, and eventually appears as nankeen, 604 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. linings for dresses, cotton velvets, etc. Tobacco is another prolific crop. After it has been forwarded to the factories, the leaves are trodden under foot by men, well sprinkled with oil, subjected to a great pressure, taken out in cakes, and afterwards planed into "fine cut." FISHING. The Chinese being a nation of fish-eaters as well as rice-eaters, the government has imposed very strict regulations upon fishermen, dividing the waters into districts and the vessels into companies, placing over each old and honest "salts." There are salt-fish vessels and fresh-fish vessels. Many of the latter are provided with great cisterns into which the fish are cast as they are caught, and others are simply reservoirs from stem to stern, in which fish are artificially reared on a paste made from the flour of wheat and beans. Artificial ponds are common through- out the empire, and the Chinese have made so close a study of the science of pisciculture that they place plantain trees around them, for the rain which falls from their leaves, after copious showers, is said to be impreg- nated with a solution which promotes the health of the fish. Other trees are placed on the banks, that the fruit may fall into the ponds and fatten the fish. Willow trees are harmful. Grass growing at the water's edge is avoided lest it should have attached to it the ova of fishes of prey. Many other like precautions are taken, the result of the combined expe- rience of an observing people for many centuries. In capturing fish upon their own ground, the Chinese show tlie same ingenuity and close powers of observation as in rearing them arti- ficially. For instance, it has been noticed that, when terrified, fish invari- ably shoot toward the light. So the Chinese fisherman fastens a long, white board to his boat, inclining toward the water, and also a large stone which he lowers over the side, so that when he paddles along at night, the stone making a rushing noise, the fish will jump toward the reflec- tion and in most cases overleap It into the boat. On the same principle is the plan of forming two squads of boats into an inner and an outer circle, to the inside boats being fastened a circular net. In the center of the circle formed on the surface of the water by the corks to which the net is attached, is a boat in whose bows is kept burning a bright fire. Teh crews of the outer ring of boats furiously beat the water, and the fish in terror dash toward the central fire, which lights up the night all around, and thousands of them are entangled in the net and drawn into the inner circle of boats. Along the banks of the rivers will be seen tiny huts occupied by CHINESE COMMERCE. 605 fishermen, and near each hut a large dip net worked by a windlass. To many of the nets live fish are bound by cords to serve as decoys, or pro- vided with a pocket or well in which the finny attractions swim about uninjured. Fish are also speared, caught with the hook and line, with the hands and by means of cormorants. Each bird has a ring around its throat to prevent its swallowing the fish and is so trained that it shows great humiliation when it dives and misses its prey. When fatigued the cormorant rests awhile in the boat, and at a signal from the fisherman resumes its occupation. Fresh water turtles, shrimps, and oysters, are objects, also, of the Chinaman's industry and in- genuity. Oysters are never eaten raw, being considered too cold for the stomach. They are either fried or preserved in salt. The shells are used in building walls or converted into lime. Oysters are also put to- other uses. Small images of Buddha, or of other popular deities, are jDlaced inside the shell and the mollusks are thrown back into the pond. There they remain until they have had time to deposit a layer of mother- of-pearl over the idol, which is then extracted and sold as a miraculous creation. CHINESE COMMERCE. From a bare mention of an imperfect list of China's natural products. it will be realized how extensive must be her dealinQ^s with other lands. The Chinese have no ambition to ascertain in actual fio-ures the extent of the internal commerce of their country, which is half as large as- Europe ; and it would be an endless task for a foreigner to attempt to- collect such information from a territory not traversed by a comprehen- sive system of public roads and virtually unbroken by railroads. But despite all drawbacks, floods of treasure pour down her imperfect water and canal ways, and are collected by native merchants and borne over- land tothe sea-coast ports, while opium, metals, sheetings, trepang, bird's- nests, precious stones, furs, gold, silver, umbrellas, clocks, telescopes,, cutlery, snuff, etc., are imported. "Foreigners can acquire land and houses at the free ports, and may travel in the interior for purposes of pleasure or for trade, but must use the conveyances of the country. Produce may be brought from the interior by paying at the port of destination a duty which is equal to one-half the duty upon exportation.. This half duty is a commutation of the native levies exacted in the several provinces, and comprises a part of the provincial revenue. Foreign merchandise may be sent into the interior under a similar system." 6o6 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. THE MONGOLS. Next to Thibet, Mongolia, or the land of the Mongols, is the holy land of Lamaism ; after Lassa where the Grand Lama resides, Urga, the chief town of Mongolia, is most sacred. It is on the direct line of travel from Lake Baikal, Southern Siberia, whose wonders in connection with Lamaism have been already narrated, and here resides the " Kutukhtu," or chief Lama of the great province. He is generally brought from Thibet, an immense caravan of fanatics accompanying him to his future capital. The nomads speak of Urga as Bogdo-Kuren, or "sacred encampment." The Russians called it Urga, or palace, on account of the large temple which the Lama occupies. It is high and square, with flat roofs, and accommodates 10,000 priests, A brass image of the future Buddha, manufactured at Dolon-nor, a famous town for the con- struction of idols, sits in the center of the temple, looming up thirty-three feet in height. Before the idol is a table for ofTerings, and numbers of lesser gods are ranged around the walls. The Kutukhtu is said to have become immensely wealthy by accepting as personal favors the offerings of the faithful, being the owner also of 150,000 slaves, who inhabit the environs of Urga and other parts of Northern Mongolia, All these slaves are under his immediate authority and form the so-called Shabin class. The town is divided into two parts, the Chinese portion being separated three miles from the Mongolian, and called the place of trade. The inhabitants of the Chinese quarter consist of traders and officials, who, by law, are forbidden to settle lest they should enter into collusion with the natives. The Mongolian town is little more than a collection of temples with little Chinese houses or felt tents grouped together and a market square in the center. The inhabitants seem to be chiefly priests and beggars, who assemble on the market place, covered with rags, vermin and, perhaps, drifts of snow. Packs of hungry dogs wait near the rough shed or den which some of them occupy ; for death comes as a welcome relief at times — and when these miserable beings pass out of the world of Lamaism, their bodies are literally cast to the dogs. This custom even prevails among the so-called higher classes, who peaceably live and die in sight of the beggars. If the body be not quickly devoured the priests proclaim the ungodliness of the deceased, so that every funeral procession which passes through the streets of the sacred encampment is accompanied by intelligent dogs, sniffing and licking their chops in anticipatioa THE MONGOLS. 607 The government of Urga is a portion of a province of Northern MongoHa, which is ruled over by a Mantchoo sent from Pekin and a native prince ; and this is the general plan which is followed to preserve peace. Much of the southern and eastern portion of Mongolia is desert land, the western part of which is unexplored even at the present time. The country through which one passes from Urga toward Pekin, previous to reaching the desert, is a great steppe on which the flocks and herds of the Mongols are grazing. A number of public roads cross the desert and converge at Kalgan, wells being dug and tents pitched by nomads who beg from passing caravans as they slowly toil over the six hundred miles of dreary country. Herds of antelope are also seen like the nomadic Mongols, seeking pasturage in the desert, and when drought drives them from the plain, they avoid the settled districts and sometimes emigrate in vast herds to the rich lands of Northern Mongolia, Being armed with such crude weapons, the natives have to resort to stratagem to approach the timid animals, one of their favorite plans being to near them by quietly walking upon the farther side of a camel which is led by a bridle. The antelope are also snared in traps of tough grass, which lame the animals when they struggle to get free. The skins are usually sold to Russian merchants. It is along this line of travel that the countless caravans of brick tea pass into Siberia, In early autumn long strings of camels may be seen drawing toward Kalgan, over rugged hills and elevated table lands toward the fertile valleys and plains and mild climate of China. It is like going from Switzerland into Italy. The town commands the pass through the great wall, and toward it are coming 200,000 or 300,000 chests of teas by steamer and cart. Four chests, weighing about 100 pounds apiece, the Mongol will load upon each camel, .receiving his pay from a Chinese agent who acts for the Russian tea merchant. His destination is either Urga or Kiakhta, in Southern Siberia ; if to the latter point, he starts on a journey of forty days' duration, with the possibility of contending with formidable drifts of snow beyond Urga. From Urga to Kiakhta the tea is transported in two-wheeled bullock carts. But it would be far from the truth to state that the Mongols carry most of the brick tea into Siberia. They are passionately fond of it them- selves, and not only drink it as a beverage but season their food with it. Ten to fifteen large cupfuls is the daily allowance of a girl, but full- grown men imbibe twice as much. The Mongols live in tents, eat like wild beasts, consider fowl or fish unclean, are lovers of mutton, especially of fat sheep's tails, are owners of horses, camels, oxen and sheep, and 6o8 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the carriers of Central Asia, going north and south. Not only do they transport tea, but salt from the lakes of Mongolia to China, and supplies between the Chinese forces situated on the borders of the empire. Dur- ing the autumn, winter and early spring their camels are all employed* and "with the return of April the transport ceases, the wearied animals are turned loose on the steppe, and their masters repose in complete idle- ness for six or seven months. The men, as a rule, do nothing but gallop about all day long from tent to tent, drinking tea or kumys and gos- siping with their neighbors. They are ardent lavers of the chase, which is some break to the tedious monotony of their lives, but they are, with few exceptions, bad shots, and their arms are most inferior, some having flint and steel muskets, while others have nothing but the bow and arrows. An occasional pilgrimage to some temple and horse-racing are their favorite diversions. The Mongols of Mongolia do not in fact greatly differ from the Mongols of Siberia, except that their dress has been fashioned after the Chinese style and the men wear the pig-tail. They therefore acknowl- edge the supremacy of the Mantchoos dynasty, which is Mongolian itself. The Mongol princes receive salaries from the Emperor, who also promotes them from one rank to another, and princesses of the Imperial family are given in marriage to both Mongolian and Mantchoorian princes. Three times in ten years the princes travel to Pekin to bring gifts of camels and horses to the Emperor as pledges of their allegiance, and receive in return elegant silks, dresses and caps of far greater value. Once in ten years the Emperor's daughters-in-law are allowed to visit the court. The Mongols pay a cattle tax to their own princes, but no tax to China. They are liable to military service, but the government pro- vides them arms. Obviously they get from China far more than they give to her. THE THIBETANS. The origin of the Thibetans is lost in the shadows of time, savage tribes of nomads with their flocks of sheep and goats inhabiting the great table lands of the Himalaya Mountains when the Chinese themselves first commenced to have a history. The country lies between the lofty Himalaya and Kuen-Lun mountains and is also traversed by ranges of less elevation. This mighty Alpine plain, the surface of which is lifted as high into the clouds as the summit of the Alps, bore the name among the Chinese of the Land of Demons, or of Western Barbarians. The Thibetans themselves claim to be the most ancient race in the world, and proudly boast of their descent from a large species of ape. Middle: THE THIBETANS. 609 Thibet is still called Ape-land, and a writer who -lived long among the Mongols declares that the features of the Thibetans much resemble those of the ape, especially the countenances of the old men, sent out as religious missionaries, who traverse Mongolia in every direction. For twenty centuries, more or less, the various tribes made war on the surrounding territory, penetrating into Hindustan and snatching away Chinese territory, invading Parthia and establishing one of their capitals near Khiva, and coming into conflict with Persians and Tartars. They were nomadic in their habits, following the courses of rivers with their cattle, and living in tents as they fought their way over Central Asia. Those of the east founded several obscure kingdoms, and finally, in the latter part of the sixth century, one of the rulers, whose residence was on the stream which runs near Lassa, became so powerful that he extended his dominions on the southwest to India. He afterwards fixed his capital at Lassa. By common consent this king, who is known to the world as " Ssrong-bTsan-sGam-po," introduced Buddhism into the country. He sent his prime minister to India to study the new religion in all its purity, as his wife was a Buddhist and an Indian princess. Then having asked the hand of the daughter of the Chinese Emperor in marriage, and been refused, he marched to the frontier of China and was defeated, but received the lady as his bride. These two princesses brought wnth them books and idols, and for their preservation temples were built at Lassa, or "godland." A commission was appointed of an Indian pundit (pro- fessor) two Nepaulese (Indian) teachers, one Chinese and one Thibetan to translate the books of doctrine and the ritual of Buddhism. Notwithstanding the marriage, a series of fierce wars between China and Thibet lasted for eighty years. A peace w^as then concluded, and a stone monument commemorating it was erected in the middle of the capital. This still exists in the inclosure of the Lama's great temple, but did not prevent a renewal of war and the fall of the Thibetan power, forty-five years thereafter (866) — that power which had dominated Cen- tral Asia for four hundred years. In the meantime other enthusiastic Buddhist kings had arisen, monasteries were built, and learned men were introduced from India to teach the faith. In the eleventh century, the first Grand Lama, or head of the faith in Thibet, appeared in the person of an abbot of the monastery of Ssa-skya; in the twelfth, Thibet acknowledged the sovereignty of China ; in the thirteenth, China was included in the empire of the Mongols, under Genghis Khan. Genghis was not a Buddhist, but a shrewd monarch who desired through the spiritual head of the church to keep Thibet in subjection. 39 6lO PANORAMA OF NATIONS. He therefore, elevated the Lama to the rank of a sub-king, and sent an ambassador to him with the following order : " Be thou the Lama to adore me now and in the future. I will become master and provider of the alms-gifts and make the rites of the religion a part of the state estab- lishment; to this end have I exempted the clergy of Thibet from taxa- tion." The grandson of Genghis made the Grand Lama of Thibet, " king of the doctrine of the three lands." After the decline of Buddhism in India, the patriarch of the religion transferred his seat to China and the Mongol emperor shifted the honor to Thibet. In the fourteenth century the Mongol dynasty was expelled by the Chinese. LAMAISM. The logic of events, therefore, would make Lamaism a form of Buddhism, which is Indian in its constitution, Mongolian and Chinese in its tendencies. In drawing their inspiration to so great an extent from India, the kings of Thibet obtained deep draughts of Brahmanism. The priesthood became as supreme a caste as the Brahmans, and from thence also were received the seeds of Sivaism. The Sivaits are those who worship Siva, or the god of destruction, as superior to either Brahma or Vishnu. Lamaism also adopted other gods of the Hindu faith, but the power of their religion is in the priesthood, who are the visible congre- o^ation of the saints, the higrhest orders of whom claim to be incarna- tions of previous saintly souls. Little inferior in rank to gods and spirits are these incarnated saints. Lamaism has its trinity, as does Buddhism, in the "three most pre- cious jewels " of the Buddha, the law and the congregation of the priests ; its festivals commemorate the great events in the life of the Buddha, and injury to life, as a portion of the ladder of existence, is strictly forbidden. Joined also to Hinduism, Brahmanism and Buddhism is Shamanism, or spirit worship. This is the ancient religion of the Tar- tars, and the four " isms,-" ingeniously bound together, constitute Lamaism. THE TWO LAMAS. Lama, in the Thibetan language, signifies spiritual teacher, or lord. At the head of Lamaism are two lords who with their priesthood govern Thibet and hold the spiritual supremacy over Mongolia, Southern Siberia and portions of China. Both of them have, theoretically, the same authority, but the " Dalai-Lama," or " Ocean-priest," who resides near Lassa, rules over a much broader territory than the other, and is in reality more powerful. THE TWO LAMAS. 6ll Their followers believe that they never die, but when the body of one perishes the soul passes into the body of a small boy, and it is the official duty of the surviving Lama to interpret the oracles and determine upon whom the incarnation has descended. Sometimes the deceased has confidentially mentioned to his friends in whom he would re-appear, or the statement is contained in his will. These transmigrations are believed to occur from the bodies of all the priests of the first three de- grees ; but of late years it is noticeable that the Emperor of China can invariably place his finger upon the heads of those little boys whose bodies are to be endowed with priestly souls. Women sometimes attain to the rank of " Khubilo^hans," or incarnations of former saints. The architecture of the temples is a mixture of Chinese and Indian styles, and their construction in Thibet seems to have been affected by the Mohammedanism which entered the country when the Thibetans, dur- ing the eighth century, were in alliance with both the Arabs and Turks ; for the native temples always face the east, in Mongolia the south. The rule is also followed that the temple may look toward Pekin and the Emperor. In this connection, also, it should be remembered that Genghis Khan, the founder of the great Mongol Empire, was a Moham- medan, if anything. The temples are usually square and divided into entrance hall, main hall and sanctuary, and all around are the dwellings of the priests, which together form the lamasery. The personal residence of the Grand Lama stands on Buddha's Mount near the city of Lassa. It is over 300 feet high and contains 10,000 rooms. Numerous other temples of enormous extent are scat- tered over the plain on which the capital of Thibet is built. These edifices are thronged with priests, 20,000 of whom are in attendance upon the Lama. "Vast numbers of pilgrims come to him from distant countries every year. He is never seen except in a remote and secret part of his temple; here, surrounded by lamps, he seems absorbed in religious revery. He never speaks, or gives a sign of respect, even to princes. With an air of sublime indifference, he lays his hand on their heads, and this is regarded as an inestimable privilege." This mysteri- ous and divine creature, the incarnation of the patron saint of Thibet, sits cross-legged, like all the deities of India and the incarnations of the Buddha, and is clothed in fine woolen and silken robes wrought in gold. Near the Lama's sacred residence is a Chinese garrison, whose temples are ablaze with precious stones. Lassa itself lies in a fertile plain encircled by mountains and hills. It is the largest town in Central Asia, containing some 25,000 people exclusive of the 50,000 lamas who reside in the vicinity. It is the 6l2 PANORAiMA OF NATIONS Rome of Buddhism. The immense priestly estabhshment of Lamaism is supported by revenues from great landed estates, and by gifts from the people whose superstitions are continually being made lever- ages for extortion. In Lassa itself there are hundreds of professional sorcerers, and hundreds more are continually departing to practice their arts upon the Mongolians and the more ignorant tribes of Siberia. Another prolific source of revenue is found in the sale of idols, which are manufactured by the lamas themselves. THEIR FINE WOOLENS AND SHAWLS. The Thibetans as a people are celebrated in the modern world for their fine woolens and shawls. The material for shawls is the fine, soft fur beneath the long hair of the goat of Thibet. Another considerable article of trade is the glossy, waving tail of the yak, which is used as a fiy or insect brush. In the midst of a vast plain in Southwestern Thibet is a great encampment, consisting of black tents made of blankets fastened to stakes by ropes of hair. Flags of colored silk and cloth flutter about on all sides. This vast encampment, or town, is surrounded continually by thousands of goats, sheep and yaks, grazing on the plains and feeding far away over the hills. Here is the chief market for shawl wool, and the native herdsmen, buyers and sellers are seen to be attired in what has come to be the national dress — thick woolen cloth, and prepared sheep skins with the fleece turned inward. THE BURMESE. HE Burmese are Mongolian in all their features, but unlike the Chinese are generally athletic and excel in wrestling, boxincr, rowine and foot ball, the latter beino- almost a national sport. They are a social, happy, domestic people, notwith- standing the despotic form of government under which the people of Independent Burmah live. The general name, Burmese, embraces a number of races, such as the Moans, who are descendants of the ancient Peguans, a people far mightier than the present, and the Laotians, or Shans, who are believed to constitute the parent stock of the Siamese. The eastern Shan states are divided between the Burmese and Siamese go\'ernments, but in so indefinite a way that it is said few Laotians can tell to which country they owe allegiance. The ruling race, the Burmans, or Mranmas, as they style themselves, claim to have descended froni celestial beings, who fell from their spiritual state during their life upon the earth. THE ANCIENT PEGUANS. The ancient kino^dom of Pegfu centered near the mouths of the Irawaddy and covered nearly the present territory of British Burmah. It was in a peculiarly favorable position to get into quarrels with the Burmese and the Siamese, and all parties improved their opportunities. The early history of Siam is little else than a series of wars with the Peguans and the Burmese, sometimes for dominion around the Gulf of Bengal and at other times because there w^ere disputes about the posses- sion of white elephants or idols. One of their longest wars is said to have been occasioned by the theft of a handsome idol from a small Siamese temple by a crew of unprincipled Peguan sailors. A dearth of provisions occurred that year in Siam, which was imputed to this impious act, and the kine of Peeu refused to deliver the stolen idol to a Siamese embassy. The Peo;uans were obliored to call the Portuguese to their assistance before they could expel the invaders. Both of the native kingdoms were almost exhausted by this " war of the idol," and hostilities 613 6l4 TANORAMA OF NATIONS. were suspended until the middle of the seventeenth century. Another invasion of his territory by the Siamese forced the king of Pegu to form an alliance with the king of Burmah. The invaders were expelled, the king of Pegu was assassinated by his ally, the Peguan army disbanded, and the kingdom incorporated with the empire of Burmah. THE GOVERNMENT. The Burmese government consists ostensibly of the King, the four ministers of state forming the High Council, and the household ministers who execute the royal orders. When the King sanctions the decisions of the High Council they become laws. These officers are also remov- able at the King's pleasure. It is said that there are no regular salaries attached to government officers ; that the land is divided into districts, parcelled out to the lords, and that every officer regards his office or district as his field of gain, practicing every art to make it profitable. The power of the King decreases with the distance from Mandalay, his capital, so that in distant provinces the people elect their own governors. In the districts bordering on China both Chinese and Burmese take a hand in self-government, and the state of affairs is as complicated as in the country of the Laotians. ROBBED BY OFFICIALS. The government employs a system of taxation, or extortion, very similar to that of Persia, by which the ro)'al revenue is raised, and the expenses of the army are borne by the peasantry. ^First, there is a house tax levied upon the villagers, from the payment of which farmers who have taken up royal land and artificers employed on the public works are exempt, they being liable to military duty. The soil is taxed five per cent, of the crops. Fishing privileges are let by the government, all these taxes and revenues being farmed out to officers of the crown, who live well or poorly according to their ability to extract money from the community. The King also sells monopolies, such as that of cotton, by which the farmers are forced to deliver their crops to the officials at very low prices, who sell the produce to European or native manufacturers and speculators at an enormous profit. The farmer receives a certain number of acres from the government free of the regular tax, but this land, with the like tracts of his neighbors, must help maintain a soldier and pay him a certain sum in money ; and other families, who have tax- free land, bear upon their shoulders doughty captains and centurions. The colonel raises his salary from his officers and men. As a great part THE ROYAL CAPITAL. 615 of the income of officials is derived from law suits, litigation is encour- aged. Trial by ordeal is sometimes practiced outside of Mandalay and British Burmah. The parties are made to walk into the river, and he who keeps longest under water gains the cause. Capital punishment seldom occurs. Althorsfh the written code of laws is derived from the Institutes of Menu, every monarch has added or amended as he pleased, and the result is a curious jumble. Among the laws which have thus sprung up are those which make the inhabitants of a whole town responsible for the theft of property proved to have been lost therein, though the thief him- self be not discovered, and which hold wife and children responsible for an absconding debtor. As in the most barbarous of the African states, so in Burmah a debtor may be enslaved, and a female in such a case often is taken as a concubine. In other respects woman's legal status is not so bad. Fortunately the present King of Burmah is reported to have the promptings of a reformatory spirit. He is easily approached, and does not require that his feet, his ears, his nose and all his features and acts shall be characterized as golden. But white umbrellas and white elephants are yet the royal insignia. The Lord White Elephant has a palace, a minister and numerous attendants. THE ROYAL CAPITAL. During the war between the Burmese and the Peguans the capital of the kingdom was changed many times. Pugan, where imposing ruins are still found, remained the capital for twelve centuries, when the Chinese invaded Burmah and a removal elsewhere was found necessary. It was after this that the Burmese and Peguans fought for the supremacy and until the middle of the last century it seemed probable that the ancient race would maintain themselves in power. They had captured the Burmese capital and the last king of his race. But a brave village chief threw off their yoke, recovered Ava, the capital, became King of Burmah and founder of the present d)'nasty. Mandalay, the modern capital, was founded and built between 1856 and 1857, the royal house having previously shifted its official residence. Twice its troops conquered Siam and repulsed the Chinese. The city has still an unfinished appearance being laid out in three parallelograms, the two innermost ones of which are walled. The center one contains the Emperor's palace and government offices. Beyond the inner wall are the military quarters, protected from the outer world by a massive 6i6 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. m W O ?3 > r > n CLASSES OF SOCIETY. 617 wall, towers and gates and a deep ditch. Within this inclosure are also the houses of the civil officers ; but beyond the great wall are the exposed merchants, mechanics and common citizens. CLASSES OF SOCIETY. It would be contrary to Buddha's teachings for the Burmese to have instituted caste ; notwithstanding which, their society is divided into classes which are thus enumerated : The royal family ; great officers ; priests ; rich men ; laborers ; slaves ; lepers ; executioners. All except slaves, lepers and executioners may aspire to the highest offices. The slaves are the servants of the pagodas, the executioners being reprieved felons who are dead in law. The latter are marked by a tattooed circle on the cheek and often by the name of the crime stamped upon the breast. They are not allowed to sit down in any man's house and all intimacy with them is forbidden. COSTUMES OF LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. The dress of the Burmese is very simple and picturesque, and is thus described by a native lady: The " pasoh " is a silk cloth 15 cubits long and about 2^ cubits wide. It is wound around the body, kilt fashion, tucked in with a twist in front, and the portion which remains gathered up is allowed to hang in folds from the Avaist, or thrown jauntily over the shoulder. The body is covered with a white cotton jacket, over which a ,' dark or colored cloth one is often worn. .' Elderly people and the wealthy of all ages, when they are paying a visit of ceremony or going to worship at the 5^ pagoda, wear a long white coat, open ^ in front, except at the throat, and ^J reaching almost to the knees. Round the head a flowered silk handkerchief is loosely Avound as a turban. The ^ Burmese couple. old v\'ear a simple narrow fillet of white book-muslin round the temples, showing the hair. The woman's "tamehn" is a simple piece of cotton or silk, almost square, 5^^ feet long by about 5 feet broad, and woven in two pieces of different patterns. This is worn tightlv over the bosom and fastened 6l8 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. with a simple twist of the ends. The opening being in front, the sym- metry of the thigh is displayed in walking, but a peculiar outward jerk of the heels which the girls acquire, prevents any suggestions of immod- esty. Then there is the loose cotton jacket, and over the shoulders is thrown a bright silk handkerchief, the same as that used by the men for turbans. Nothing is worn on the head, except flowers twisted into the hair. These are national costumes, and except in quality of material differ little whatever the occupation. It is not woman alone who is proud of her long hair. Both sexes allow it to grow to its full length, the young men wearing it on top of the head and the women on the back. The Burmese hair is Invariably black, so that the general practice of adding false tresses to the natural is not expensive. ORNAMENTS AND CHARMS. The Burman undergoes the painful process of tattooing because the girls have stamped it with their approval, and because he has been taught to believe in it as a charm. His favorite localities are the loins and legs, so that when he has been decorated he seems to have drawn on a most delicate pair of dark blue trunks. Lizards, birds, mystic words and squares, rings, images of Buddha, etc., are tattooed not only on these parts of the body, but even upon the top of the head, which is shaved for the purpose. A tattoo of a few dots made with a peculiar mixture and placed between the eyes ensures a successful love-suit. ^A woman sometimes resorts to the custom of tattooing, which in British Burmah is said to distinctly indicate that she desires an Englishman for a husband. Gold, silver, lead, curious pebbles, pieces of tortoise shell, etc., covered with mystic characters are let into the flesh of soldiers, robbers, and others exposed to danger, as charms against death. Some of these characters who have become inmates of English prisons are found to have literally a chest full of such amulets ; long rows and curves of them appear, which show underneath the skin of the chest as little knobs. Necklaces and bracelets of them are worn by reputable Burmese to ward off evil spirits. There are also tattooes which guard against snake bites ; most potent ones which have to be pricked into the body while the patient chews the raw flesh of a man who has been hung ; and those which are said to prevent drowning, though there is some doubt as to the efficacy of the latter, since a young man who insisted upon being put to the test, was thrown into the Rangoon River, with his hands and feet tied. The BUILDING A HOUSE. 619 result prompted the government to arrest his tattooers, and they were convicted of manslaug-hter. The ear-borinor is to the Burmah orirl what the tattooing is to her brother. It makes her a woman. The ceremony is usually performed before a large invited company, and when the professional borer passes his gold or silver needle through the lobe of the girl's ear, her shrieks are drowned by a band of music outside, engaged for the occasion, which also is a sign that the important act has been accomplished. The hole Is gradually enlarged until it can receive the huge cylinder of gold, amber or glass, which is a characteristic of the Burmese women. The custom of thus destroying the shape of the ear is going out of fashion. Men, except those of very high rank, do not wear the ear-cylinders, while women discard them when at home. The ear lobes are often put to other uses, both damsel and matron being in the habit of tying cheroots thereto which they design presenting to admirers, or smoking them- selves. BUILDING A HOUSE. Unlike the religious edifices of the Burmese, their private dwellings are humble in appearance, being never more than one story high, except the occupant Is a distinguished noble and the monarch has Q-ranted him the favor to add a spire-like roof as an index of his rank. The houses are simply bamboo or wooden huts, as a rule. No Burman is allowed to build a brick house, for fear he might turn It Into a fort. Ornamentation is also generally forbidden by the government, and an arch is never allowable over the door of a house. The mean appearance of the native domicile has therefore been forced upon him, presumably to permanently fix the marked contrast between sacred and secular architecture. The house stands on posts and a veranda runs along the front. In building his house the Burman always consults a soothsayer, who helps him select lucky posts, lucky ground, and lucky side pieces to the steps which lead up to the veranda. The six posts which support the main part of the hut are named, the south post being the most Important one. It is adorned with leaves and otherwise marked as the dwelling-place of the household spirit. People of Avealth build their houses of teak, which white ants will not attack, and their roofs are tiled. Poorer people thatch their roofs with leaves or coarse bamboo matting. ARRANGEMENT OF EARRING. 620 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Of course, in British Burmali wooden slabs and other approaches to modern conveniences are in use, such as chandehers, bookcases, chairs, tables, bedsteads, etc.; but in the house in the districts, or a "jungle house," a few bamboo mats and pillows, with bedding, rolled up together ; two or three earthen pots ; a round wooden dish in the middle of the floor, to be filled with ice, and close at hand a jar of water, in which is a ladle, consisting of half a cocoanut, with a handle through it — these are the inside appliances of the true Burmah hut. In fine weather cook- ing is done behind the premises. OUTSIDE THE HOUSE. Land is so cheap that the Burman has a good yard as well as a farm of a dozen acres for the cultivation of rice. When not in use he pastures his buffaloes and oxen on a village plat, and pays the proprietor a small sum for taking care of them. His cart, with its solid, wooden wheels and boat-like body, and his rude plow, with its three teeth of tough wood, stand in the court-yard ; also a hand rice-mill, composed of wooden cylinders, which perhaps leans up against a little bamboo granary. The rice is husked and winnowed by the women, who, in the native districts, merely throw the grain into the air and let the chaff blow away. A small garden, fenced off from the yard, is filled with flowers, vegetables and medicinal plants. The Burman's favorite is a red flower, whose seeds are used for the beads of the rosary, and which is said to have sprung from the blood of Budda's toe, a few drops of which were shed by an angry cousin who cast a rock at him. Furthermore, there is a loud-mouthed pariah dog outside, the cousin of a great pack of outcasts who haunt every village, to devour the offerings at the pagoda or receive tid-bits at the hands of mendicant monks. Naturally he takes to his legs, but can be trained to watch the house, or fasten on to a tiger or wild boar. His companion is the Burmese cat' upon the end of whose tail is a horny hook. Hens, game cocks, pigeons, etc., are given free range ; for Buddhism condemns keep- mcr animals in confinement. If the jungle hut is in a tiger district, the house and land are sur- rounded by a substantial fence of sharpened bamboos. COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. Manu enumerates three ways by which marriage may be brought about : When the parents of the couple give them one to another; when they come together through the good offices of a go-between ; when COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 62 1 they arrange the matter between themselves. The latter is the way usually chosen in Burmah, and runaway marriages are not uncommon. A favorite place of meeting between lovers is at the bazaars, where even well-to-do girls will be seen presiding over stalls and selling cheroots, fried garlic and other dainties. When the courtship is authorized by parents, the swain makes it a point to come late, after the parents have retired, when he finds his sweetheart dressed in her best, with flowers in her hair and powder on her cheeks and neck. The courtship is formal, consisting of visits and the presentation by the youth of gay handkerchiefs covered with amor- ous verses and by the maiden of green cheroots, which she rolls herself, or a brilliant woolen muffler. Before the marriage comes off the dowry must be fixed, and the astrologers pitch upon the fortunate day and hour. The ceremony has nothing of a religious nature about it. Previous to it, and afterwards, several practices are followed in the nature of jokes but they all partake of the character of extortion. The son-in-law usually lives at the house of his father-in-law for two or three years ; and in Upper Burmah, where labor is scarce, this is not an unwelcome arranoement to the head of the family. Well, as the young man journeys towards the bride's house, in procession with his friends, carrying a bundle of mats, a long arm-chair, a teak box, matresses, pillows, sweetmeats for the feast and presents for the lady, he finds stretched across his pathway a string ; those who have placed it there threaten to launch a curse upon him and his bride as they break what is called " the golden cord," unless some money is given them. This demand having been complied with, after the youth has become a proud benedict the house is pelted with stones and sticks, sometimes as a matter of amusement, in order to disturb the equanimity of the young couple, and often to extort money or a portion of the feast as the price of a cessation of hostilities. Various marriage rhymes have been woven into the minds of Burmese maidens and youth, which really have much effect in furthering or preventing marriages. Those who are born on certain days of the week should never marry those who were born on certain others. One of the popular warnings has been thus translated : Friday's daughter, Didn't oughter Marry with a Monday's son ; Should she do it. Both will rue it. Life's last lap will soon be run. Saturday and Thursday should never marry. But there are elabo- 62 2 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. rate geometrical figures and combinations showing what days can marry. There are also lucky months, during which, if other conditions are followed, riches and love, slaves and children, money and buffaloes, cattle and furniture will be the happy portion of the couple, the bless- ings to be bestowed in various combinations. Burmese women, after marriage, are remarkably independent of their husbands in financial matters. All the money and possessions which a girl brings with her are kept separate for the benefit of her children or heirs, and if she is divorced she carries not only her prop- erty with her, but anything which she has added to it by trading or in- heritance. If she has a complaint to make, also, she can go before the village elders and state her case with the assurance of being justly treated, unless the husband gets there before her, and places his bribe. VILLAGERS AND AGRICULTURISTS. The average life of a Burmese villager is smooth and happy. When he has tended to his patch of paddy land, he strolls out, smoking a cheroot or munching betel nut, to visit his neighbors. In the lower part of his house, is usually a little shop, in which his wife sells dried fish, betel nuts, cocoanuts, knives, looking-glasses, colored tumblers and perhaps a few dry goods. Like all his other arrangements, the shop is another aid to his easy-going life, it being not conducted for profit, but merely to give his wife a little pin money and neighbors an excuse to •drop in at all hours of the day. Two meals in the day, breakfast in the morning and dinner late in the afternoon, is the rule with the Burman. The staple article of food is boiled rice, which is heaped upon a platter, round which the household arrange themselves, sitting on their heels. The curry, placed in little bowls, consists of a thin vegetable soup, spiced with chillies and onions. Knives, spoons and forks are considered useless. After the meal, each •one goes to the jar of water on the veranda, and rinses his mouth, after which, whether he be man, woman or child, smokes his cheroot, a cigar made of chopped tobacco leaves covered with the leaf of the teak tree and six or eight inches long. Chewing betel accompanies the smoking, the expression chewing being somewhat misleading ; for the Burman, after splitting the nut in two, and smearing the leaf with slaked lime, puts with it a little piece of tobacco, rolls everything together, stows away the quid, and now and then squeezes it affectionately between his teeth. Until he chews betel, it is the common saying that no one can speak Burmese. After dinner, when the sun o-oes down, the villao^e Burman goes THE PRIESTS. 623 down to his well and has some water poured over his body. If he is pious he repeats a charm over the first bucketful. Having performed his ablutions, our friend puts on his good clothes and seeks amusement in the dance, or some dramatic entertainment, taking his family with him. One of the most favorite forms of amusement is to listen to the impro- vising of a professional poet, who may give his exhibition at a house or on the street. The spectators are asked to choose a subject, and taking this as a theme he chants out his poems. Some of the poets repeat from memory, and when their theme is some incident in the life of Buddha, such as his departure from his father's palace to wear the yellow robe, great crowds are always collected. The Burmese of the low lands cultivate their rice as do the Egyp- tians, even to the lazy process of driving buffaloes and oxen through the soft soil to plow it. Laborers from Upper Burmah are the harvest lands of British Burmah. When they leave home they are obliged to pledge a piece of property, or some member of their family who remains behind, that they will return to their country, so fearful is the king that he will lose his subjects. After the grain has been loaded into his big riceboat, supposing he is in British Burmah, the farmer starts for Rangoon, the capital, and in a few weeks returns with fine Chinese handkerchiefs and silks for his family. To insure a prosperous journey, and a safe return from the robber boats which infest the streams and rivers of Burmah durino;- the rice season, and from the many sharks who lie in wait at Rangoon and other cities to pounce upon his receipts — to escape these dangers and others of a less definite nature — the Burmese farmer resolves to provide a feast for the monks of the village monastery. He therefore invites the young men and women of the neighborhood to his house, upon an evening which the astrologers pronounce propitious, and together they hull the rice, prepare it for boiling, sing love songs, and conduct themselves as civilized boys and girls do in every land. The next morning the farmer and his family carry the offering to the monastery in a great box and deposit it before the superior, who looks on calmly without a word of thanks, but says before they go, that, " if they keep the Ten Precepts and live virtuously they will escape the Four States of Punishment and be delivered from the Five Enemies." THE PRIESTS. Buddhism is supposed to have spread into Burmah from Ceylon, and it has been preserved here in great purity. The priests live mostly in monasteries and confine their ministration to the preaching of sermons, 624 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. allowing the people their own forms of worship. Their yellow robes (the color of the morning) were originated by Buddha himself. Their heads are shaven and their feet bare. A Buddhist priest may at any time be released from his vows of celibacy and poverty and return to secular pursuits; hence nearly every youth assumes the yellow robe for a time, as a meritorious act, or for the purpose of stud)'. These novices who thus "obtain their humanity," must have reached the age of twenty years and have obtained their parents' permission to assume the robe. They must be free from scrofula, asthma, leprosy and other diseases ; unincumbered with debts; the bondsman or underlinsf of no ereat man r and must also appear with vestments and sacred begging bowls already prepared. The young man is instructed " to gain his subsistence by the labor of his feet," but not to work with his hands or beij with his toneue ; is told what food he may accept, and that he may receive from his bene- factors cotton and silk, or cloth of red or yellow wool, though he must first wear, "through humility, yellow clothes made of rags thrown about in the streets or amonsf the tombs"; though it is well to dwell in a " house built under the shade of lofty trees," the yahan may accept from the hands of benefactors dwellings of " bamboo, wood or bricks, with roofs adorned with spires of pyramidal or triangular form " ; he is warned against indulgence in carnal pleasures, covetousness, the killing or wish- ing the death of any being, or arrogating to himself " extraordinary gifts or supernatural perfections." The priest who examines and instructs the candidate, according to the Burmese or Buddhist ritual of ordination, then adds : " Sooner the lofty palm tree that has been cut down can become green again, than an elect guilty of such pride be restored to his holy station." If Buddhism had done no more than to inculcate this doctrine in the superstitious East, it would not have lived in vain. The above are the four cardinal sins,, and if any of them are com- mitted the young man is expelled from the monastery, stoned by the people, and in Upper Burmah is put to death. Other offenses may be atoned for by confession and by undergoing such penances as to water the sacred trees, sweep out the rooms of the monastery, to walk for a stated time in the heat of the sun, to carry heavy baskets of earth from one place to another, to sleep without a pillow, or to watch by night in a churchyard. If, instead of returning to secular pursuits, the Burman should con- tinue to lead a holy life and by his virtue and zeal induce a benefactor to build a monastery for him, he must see that its foundations are not laid so that they will crush many insects of worms. Neither must he defile THE MONASTERIES AND PAYAHS. 625 green grass or fresh water, or ruthlessly destroy any vegetable substance; for they are necessary to the support of animal life. The period of man's life, both in the present and in the future state, is shortened by the amount of animal existence which he has destroyed. "In return for this self-denial the Buddhist monks are bountifully honored by the people, from the sovereign on the throne, who vacates his seat for them, to the beggar in the street, who prostrates himself in the dust when they pass. In Upper Burmah all make obeisance when the mendicant passes, and the women kneel down on each side of the road. In Lower Burmah such outward marks of respect are not usual in the larger towns, but there is no lack of veneration. The oldest layman assumes the title of disciple to the last inducted monk, and, with clasped hands, addresses him as 'payah,'the highest title the language affords. The highest officials impose upon themselves the greatest sacrifices both of time and money, to build splendid monasteries for them and minister to their wants. Finally the monk's person is sacred and inviolable. Nothing he does can subject him to the civil law." Nor does this reverence cease with his death, his body being embalmed, while the limbs are swathed in linen, varnished and even gilded. The mummy is preserved, sometimes for months, until the grand day of the funeral. ^r THE MONASTERIES AND PAYAHS. A layman considers it an indignity to have any one over his head in his house, and the feeling is carried even into the architecture of the monasteries. They are never but one story in height, though they are raised eight or ten feet from the ground, and sometimes surmounted by three, five and even seven tiers of roofs — the number being propor- tionate to their sacredness. A bishop's monastery may have seven roofs, and also the royal palace. The monasteries are usually of plain teak wood, with few ornamentations ; but in Mandalay the Royal Monastery represents the extreme gorgeousness with which an enthusi- astic monarch may surround the religiously simple habits of Buddhist priests. There is a plain of many acres between Mandalay Hill and the city walls, covered with brick monasteries, with their lofty zinc roofs, golden bells hanging from the gables, every square inch of wood-work elaborately carved and the whole ablaze with gold leaf and mosaics of looking glass. But in the midst of this crhtter and blaze of royal and religious fervor rises a high, brown teak-wood tower to which the monks often withdraw for contemplation. Each monastery of this collection, which (in bulk) is called the Royal Monastery, is separate and presided 4o 626 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. over by a bishop. The interior frescoes and decorations correspond to the outward magnificence. Most of the representations are supposed scenes in Buddha's hfe, especially the ones where he is passing, in a chariot, through the abodes of hell and the six heavens ; or receiving the Buddhaship under the banyan tree. The sinful fisherman is often delin- eated dangling by the tongue on a fish hook, and falling back into a lake of burning pitch from whence the demons have caught him. PRIEST SOUNDING BELL OF A TEMPLE. The magnificence, however, of the ecclesiastical architecture of Burmah is best exhibited in its pagodas, or " payahs " as they are called by the natives. Formerly a payah could only be erected over some relic of Lord Buddha — a piece of his flesh, a tooth, a hair, a fragment of bone, shreds of his yellow robe, his staff, alms-bowl and rosary. Now, however, images of holy things or sacred books are enshrined. In the center of every payah, and built into the foundation, is a square chamber in which are the objects of veneration, most of them having been given BUDDHIST SHOOTS. 627 by Buddha to his relatives or disciples, and religiously preserved until they could thus be protected. The payah and pagoda have been expanded far bej'ond the original intent, if we may believe that Buddha merely said that a small mound should be raised over his bones in the form of a heap of rice. There is nothing regarding their construction in the holy books. The payah, so it will be explained by the Buddhist, resembles, besides a symmetrical rice heap, the devotee sunk in meditation ; the temple is also like the sacred lotus-bud enclosing its treasures, and by an extension of the lines it gets the form of a bell or spire seen in some structures. The names of various parts of the building recall the idea of the fiower bud with its young leaves folded in adoration. Thus the rounded swelling just below the slender spire is called the palm bud, and on the extreme summit is the diamond bud. There are payahs which rise up to a plain cone, those Avhich are shaped like a bell, and those which are called " inverted begging pots." * These shrines, of diverse form and springing from cities and forests, valleys and mountain tops, are what forcibly impress one with the all- pervading influence of Buddhism. All the wealth of the country is lavished upon sacred and religious things, Avhile roads, bridges and works of public utility are neglected. BUDDHIST "SHOOTS." The space between the ground and floor of the monastery is always kept open and is a favorite resort of the boys who attend school and want to have a quiet game of " gohn-nyin-hto," which is played with the big flat seeds of a jungle creeper. The youthful Burmese yell out their letters, when in the hall above, and chant their lessons drawn from the teachings of Lord Buddha. They learn the formulas of the religion, are taught to imitate the deportment of the monk, afterwards are told the meaning of the yellow robes and the ceremonials, and every door is thrown open to them by which they can gain humanity or the religion of Buddha. When the youth is twelve or thirteen he usually prepares to be bap- tized and receive the name which stamps him as a Buddhist. He had his worldly name, and now, by means of a certain ceremony and with- drawing, for a period at least, to the quietness and meditation of the monastery, he receives a spiritual title. If he returns to the world he drops the latter, but to have received the "bwe," as it is called, is to have become the " twice-born " of Brahmanism. Upon the appointed day the boy is loaded with fine clothes and family jewels ; then, mount- 628 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. ing a pony or getting into a richly decorated car, preceded by a band of music, he pays all his relatives a farewell visit. As he progresses, friends and relatives, lively young men and girls with powdered faces and bright dresses, all lauafhingr and sino-ino- and dancing-, crowd around him and accompany him back to his parents' house, where the monks are waiting for him. Here the fine clothes and jewelry are stripped from his body, and his long hair, of which he was so proud, is cut close to his head. His head is shaved and washed with a purifying decoction of seeds and bark, a bath is taken, once more he puts on his bright clothes, and then, returning to the presence of the monks, he is formally initiated as a "shin," being robed in his yellow garments and the begging pot hung around his neck by a strap. THE SIAMESE. HESE people now form the most powerful kingdom of Indo- China, or Further India. They are supposed to be descended from the Laotians or Shians, who occupy the territory to the east. The Laos races are divided into a number of states, those of the north paying tribute to Burmah and those of the south to Siam. The Cambodians, at the southern extremity of the peninsula of Cochin China, or Anam, also pay tribute once in three years, acknowledging the same allegiance to Anam, The Siamese themselves are tributary in the same loose way to China, from which, however (as is the case with most of her dependencies), they receive more than they give, since their vessels are free of duties in Chinese ports. The Siamese are called the Thai race, the free race, and Siam is the Kingdom of the Free, though why they should embrace that name so affectionately is a mystery to Western nations, who have their own ideas of independence. They form about a third of the population, the Chinese another third, and the Laotians, the Malays (who occupy the peninsula of Malacca) the Cambodians, Peguans, etc., the balance. THE PARENT RACE. The Siamese trace their descent from the first disciples of Buddha. Their descendants having established themselves in a province of what is now North Laos, were so annoyed by their enemies that they deserted their country and founded a city in Western Siam. They conquered Southern Siam, then held by the Cambodians, and changed their seat of government to Ayuthia, a short distance north of the present capital. The Laotians, the Cambodians, the Peguans from the west, Chinese cap- tives and Hindus, were all brought together in the capital city; and this period (1350) marks the commencement of Siam's authentic history. The Laotians, as the parent race of the Siamese, are entitled to prominent notice. They are a gentle, unwarlike, superstitious people, the northern tribes tattooing their bodies and the southern ones leaving 629 630 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. them unadorned. They thus divide themselves into distinct famiHes. The Laos people are agriculturists, raising maize, sweet potatoes, rice and melons. A great portion of their territory is mountainous or consists of plateaus cut by ancient watercourses in- to gorges and valleys. The soil or soft rock is sometimes worn away into ter- races or other regular forms, at the bottom of which the natives build their low houses and cultivate their gardens, besides having a few fowls or swine. Though not warlike, the natives are intrepid hunters. Perched in a tree or in a little hut raised on bamboo stakes they lie in wait for the tiger, or track the wild boar through the forest, their only weapons often SIAMESE MEN. LAOTIAN HOt'SES. being a cutlass or a bow. From the latter they launch, with tremen- dous force, balls of clay which have been hardened in the sun. PERSONAL APPEARANCE, 63 I PERSONAL APPEARANCE. The Laotians differ slightly from the Siamese, being more slender, with more prominent cheek bones and darker complexions. They wear their hair long, while the Siamese of the male sex shave the head. In the case of the man of Siam the head is shaved every two or three weeks, a tuft being left on top five inches broad and two inches high. The priests shave their heads entirely. Women have theirs closely cut and often encircled by a thin band of bare skin, from which they faithfully cull the hairs. The dress of the Siamese consists of a cotton waist-cloth, a jacket and a straw hat. To this simple attire the women often add a silk scarf crossed over the breast. They are fond of bracelets, necklaces and finger rings, but reject the hideous ear cylinders of the Burmese. Turbans are not worn, but in the sun a light palm-leaf hat is set upon an elastic bamboo frame, which allows a refreshing circulation of air to pass beneath. Small children are clad in fig-leaves, flowers, and the resinous tumeric. Silk, gold brocades and high conical hats compose the costumes of the nobility. Of course, on state occasions dignitaries and wealthy individuals wear rich suits, consisting of drawers, vest, belt and a large tunic. But they usually are barefoot. When the king is receiving Europeans he is dressed in large trous- ers, a short jacket of some thin material, a shirt caught at the throat with a precious stone, a skullcap and slippers. The second king of Siam appears in military costume with broad sash, epaulettes, sword and all. AN ASIATIC VENICE. Along in the seventeenth century foreign ideas commenced to be kindly received in Siam, and a European merchant who had become a great favorite with the people and the king, on account of his practical abilitv and the interest which he took in the national welfare, was appointed governor of all the northern provinces. He also suggested to His Majesty the' propriety of erecting a fort, on European principles, to protect his capital. Mr. Faulkon (or as he had been dignified with the title by the king, Chau Pyya Wicha-yentra-the-bodi Faulkon) accordingly selected a plat of garden ground on the west bank, near the mouth of a canal, and constructed a fort. The garden-ground became a portion of the site of the unique city of Bangkok, and the fort still stands close to the residence of His Royal Highness. Ayuthia was destroyed by the Burmese when they conquered Siam in the latter part of the eighteenth century. The fort had been erected for a cen- 632 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. n 2: > D3 > o o ?5 VAST PALACES AND TEMPLES. 633 tury, and the city of Bangkok had so far advanced in magnificence that a few years after the destruction of the old capital, it was occupied by the royal family. The first king to hold his court in Bangkok was of Chinese origin, he having delivered his country from the Burmese. The present capital is situated a little above the mouth of the Menam river, on an island, extending along both shores for many miles. Its streets are canals and ditches, which extend in all directions and reach almost every house. The houses of the lower classes consist of neat wooden huts, thatched with palm leaves, which are eight or ten feet from the banks, to Avhich they are fastened by long bamboos. In front of many of them are little platforms, on which are exposed art- icles for sale. The central apartment of the house contains the house hold god ; each house has its boat, or the family may combine house, shop and boat in one, and go rowing up and down the river, with vege- tables, goods or fish exposed for sale. Thus living continually on or near the water, the citizens become entirely fearless, so that children of not more than five years old have their tiny boats which barely set above water, and in which they go out to play with their mates. The Chinese are the traders of Bangkok ; they and the Armenians may be said to monopolize the commerce of the country. The former pay a tax of three dollars when they enter the kingdom, and a like sum every three years for their commercial privileges,but are otherwise exempt. Sometimes a triple row of the smaller houses will extend along the river for miles. There is a reason, of course, for the people thus build- ing their houses into the river, when there is much land on the island and on the banks which might be utilized. The cause of it is found in a royal mandate which forced them to live over the water that they might obtain ventilation and drainage, and ward off cholera epidemics, which raged so fatally when the capital was first established at Bangkok. So that now only people of high rank, who are supposed to be intelli- gent enough and able to take hygienic precautions, are privileged to build upon the shores. Few houses in the city are built of brick or stone, but are generally of wood, raised upon piles, to keep them beyond the tides and the annual inundations of the river ; they are reached by rude ladders. Ex. cept in the neighborhood of the palaces, horses and carriages are rarely seen. VAST PALACES AND TEMPLES. The vast palaces of the Grandees and the Buddhist pagodas, which cover the shores of the island and river, are of brick, being ornamented 634 PANORAMA OF NATIONS with beautiful gilded work, and with mosaics fashioned into the forms of flowers and animals, the materials being China cups, plates and dishes of all sizes, broken and whole. They, with the habitations of the nobles, are raised on posts above the swampy ground. The temples or wats, usually rise from cool, dense groves, and adjacent are the dwelling houses of the priests. White walls, domes and lofty spires are every- where seen gleaming and glistening through the leaves. Bangkok is the constant residence of the two kings of Siam and their respective courts. The palace of the First King is surrounded by high walls, and is nearly a mile in circumference. It includes temples, public offices, accommodations for thousands of soldiers with the neces- sary equipments, a theatre, and rooms for about 3,000 females, six hun- dred of whom are the wives of the king. "On one side of the royal palace are the temples and monasteries dedicated to the sleeping idol, and on the other the palace and harem of the Second King, The sleeping idol is a reclining figure 150 feet long and forty feet high, entirely overlaid with plate gold, and the soles of its feet covered with bas reliefs, inlaid with mother-of-pearl and chased with gold, each separate design representing the many transmigrations of Buddha. Near this temple is the palace of the white elephant, and, fur- ther on, the temple of the emerald idol. The latter is a remarkable and beautiful structure, with Gothic doors and windows richly ornamented with gold, and the roof supported by lofty octagonal columns, the ceiling covered with mythological symbols and figures ; the altar is a pyramid 100 feet high, terminating in a fine spire of gold. The emerald idol is about twelve inches high and eight inches in width. The gold, of which its hair and collar are composed, is mixed with crystals, topazes, sap- phires, diamonds and other precious stones." THE TWO KINGS. The Second King is an official peculiar to Siam, Cambodia and Laos. The full title of the First King is " His Majesty the King encir- cled with the Great Crown"; that of the Second, the Youngest King, He is consulted by the real monarch before any important step is taken, has his court, his madarins, his little army, receives about one-third of the revenue and instead of prostrating himself before the King he salutes him by raising both hands in the air. This is a privilege accorded to no other native. All others prostrate themselves before the Lord of Life, and pronounce themselves slaves — liars — little beasts. The same groveling homage is paid by every inferior to his superior. ONE-THIRD OF THE PEOPLE SLAVES. 635 Siamese rank, is, in fact, represented in the law by figures, the First King being beyond representation ; below him the ranks range from 100,000 for the Second King down to five for the slave. The royal seal and the national standard consists of a white elephant on a crimson back- ground. When one of the sacred animals is captured it is always con- sidered the property of the King, and, by the way, the elephant is not white but is of a dark cream color, an albino. Buddhists believe white animals, such as albino deer, monkeys and tortoises, to be particularly the abodes of transmigrating souls. The two kinofs have their seracrlios, althouo-h the lower classes are not polygamists. The Queen Consort does not take part in political affairs, but is head of a separate court, and has her female guards who are uniformed and armed, their costume being not unlike that of a native Scotchman. This arrangement applies to the royal families of both Siam and Cambodia. The laws of Siam are founded upon an ancient written code and upon traditional usage, subject to royal revision. Nearly the only crime whose nature and mode of punishment have been unmistakably fixed is treason ; for that, one is tied into a large sack, nearly beaten to death and then thrown into the river. In their social life the Siamese resemble their neighbors, the Bur- mese, the intercourse between husband, wife and children being affection- ate and their habits simple. The wives, as a rule, are the financiers. Their education is the same, their houses are the same and their, priests are the same. ONE-THIRD OF THE PEOPLE SLAVES. As has been observed, however, they are more inclined to artificial distinctions in society than the Burmese, and "one-third of the common people, it is largely estimated, are slaves by birth, by gambling or other debts, by redemption from the penalty of crime, by capture, etc. Men sell their children, their wives or themselves ; convicts in scores clank their chains about the streets; villages of thousands are made up of foreign captives. Yet Siamese life is in the main comfortable, and is moreover gladdened by many sports, amusements and holidays. On all great occasions the coffers of kings and nobles are opened widely for merry-making for the people and merit-making for themselves." Around Bansfkok are whole villasfes of Peguans. The native annals state that in one of the wars with the Shians they took 120,000 captives. Wild tribes along the Burmah frontier also lie in wait for the inhabitants of that country, and if they effect a capture find a ready market for their prisoners. 636 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. BUDDHISM ABSOLUTE. There is probably no country in the world where Buddhism has so absolute a sway as in Siam. Even more profusely than in Burmah is the wealth of the kingdom lavished upon temples and priests. In Siam, also, there is a famous shrine to which numberless pilgrims bring their offerings of fancy paper cut into fantastic shapes, cups, dolls and gold and silver toys, it being no less than the footprint of Buddha, on the side of a mountain, and sunk into solid rock. It is believed to have been made by the great being in his passage over the mountain, during one of his miraculous flights, and on its summit, in the crevices of the rocks, in the valleys, in the caverns, are what resemble the footprints of elephants, tigers and other wild beasts which formed his cortege. The temple, which is erected around the footprint, is built of brick, is approached by a broad flight of steps, and the walls are covered with glistening figures of colored glass. The panels and cor- nices are of gilt and the massive doors of ebony inlaid with mother-of- pearl. The interior of the temple is blackened by time and smoke; the floor is covered with silver matting ; a catafalque rises in the center surrounded with stripes of gilded serge, and therein is Buddha's famous footprint. According to some accounts it is a very square, clumsy sort of a footprint. This is but one of a thousand, to describe which would be unprofit- able and a repetition of the Burmah picture and of what has been wit- nessed in Bangkok. But the fact that Buddhism is supreme in Siam will be impressed, when it is stated that in the capital alone there are 20,000 priests supported by voluntary contributions. i ^ ^ s B ^ ^^^ ^ i & P 8 ^ Ji^'" V^ i^ ^ m ^1 m ^^ fe^ ^ ^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ ^i ^^ hVv H^»^5^Rk. '^^^^ rf^ •""^^X^ 3^«^^^ •^ b^^P *^^^^^'^^K ,^^^J 'M ^^^ ss^ mi^ vS^S?^ a«;:^v-j ^M ^^??rr^ v:*;S«i?H:^ J^JS^ THE ANAMESE. HE Laotians claim to be the aborigines of Anam, or, as it is sometimes incorrectly called from one of its provinces, Cochin China. The Anamese more nearly resemble the Chinese in their manners and customs than any other natives of Further India; but, like the Burmese and the Siamese, they are indolent and pleasure-seekers, leaving the Chinese to carry /j on their commerce. They are more courteous in their manners than the Siamese and have the same remarkable control over their passions and their features as the Chinese. The men wear frocks and wide trousers, and dress to a considerable extent in silk, the manufacture of which forms almost their only in- dustry. Both sexes carry fans and never uncover their heads by way of salutation. The dress of the Anamese is the old costume of the Chinese before the Tartar conquest, when Tonquin threw off its allegiance to the mother country. The inhabitants of the province of Cochin China are principally descendants of refugees from Tonquin. The government is founded upon the Chinese model, the officials being divided into military and civil or literary mandarins. From the former the Emperor selects his chief executive officers — ambassadors, governor-generals and viceroys. The bastinado is the common form of punishment for political and social offenses. As in Siam the enslaving of the debtor and his family by the creditor are among the legal forms of restitution, and the poor sometimes sell the children whom they can not afford to keep. The Anamese also pattern after the Chinese in the laxity of their religious observances, being in this respect far severed from the Siamese and Burmese. Although polygamy is practiced among the wealthy, women are allowed full liberty and often engage in commerce and agri- culture. Cochin China (so called by the Portuguese to distinguish it from Cochin on the western coast of Hindustan) formed, in ancient times, one state with Tonquin, the province adjoining China. The two provinces 637 6.^,8 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. separated and before the king of Cochin conquered Tonquin he had also subdued Cambodia. The first kings of the reunited empire ruled more as patriarchs than as monarchs and by their example prompted their subjects to habits of simplicity, industry and frugality. But with the discovery of gold and silver, free communication with the enterprising Chinese, a fertile soil and every convenience for maritime operations, the country grew rich and prosperous and effeminacy crept into the empire. The capital of Anam, situated about ten miles from the China Sea, on a small river, is, perhaps, the most skillfully fortified city in Asia, and is a standing proof of the empire's former power. The city is built within two high walls, the outer one being approached by numerous bridges and gates and being sixty feet in height. Within this are the palaces of the nobility, the prisons, magazines, granaries, dwelling-houses, etc. The inner wall protects the palace of the Em- peror and his mother, his seraglio and the government offices. Hue is a naval station, has several ship yards, its streets are traversed by navigable canals and it is, in fact, quite a city. THE CAMBODIANS. Near the center of their coun- try, which is southwest of Cochin China and northwest of French Cochin China, was formerly situated GIRL FROM ANAM. ^^^ Capital of their ancient kingdom of Khmer, or Cambodia. Almost the only tradition preserved in the country mentions that the empire had twenty tributary kings, an army of five million soldiers, and that the buildings of its royal treasury covered many square miles. On the banks of the Kekong, in the province of Ongcor (which still bears the name of their mighty capital), and further east in Cochin China, are great ruins which are the admiration of archaeologists and witnesses that tradition is not entirely mythical. The most splendid is that of the temple of of Ongcor, which the Cambodians say is either the work of Pra-Eun, the king of the angels; or of the' giants ; or it made itself , or was built by the Leprous King. This is a temple erected to Buddha, and ABORIGINAL TRIBES, 639 ■even in its ruins, resembles a chain of lofty hills, made up of huge dome- like towers, galleries, porticoes, gateways, pavilions, terraces, staircases, columns, etc., covered with has reliefs, sculptures, mouldings and statues. Amonof the most striking of all the statues of lions and king-s is that -which is said to represent the great monarch called the Leprous King. It is on a sort of esplanade, the figure seated in a noble and dignified atti- tude. From forehead to crown the long hair is dressed in a number of rolls and falls down the back. The head is grand enough to have con- ceived the temple. The features are regular and possess a manly beauty seen ilow only among the Cambodians of unmixed race, living in seclu- sion at the foot of the mountains, or among the savage mountaineers who occupy the border country between Siam, Cambodia and Cochin China. The Cambodians of to-day are ostensibly under the protection of French Cochin China and are governed by two kings,'but are gener- ally jonsidered as dependents of the Anamese monarch and their coun- try as a province of Anam. ABORIGINAL TRIBES. Bordering on Cambodia is the country of a mysterious tribe called the Thiames. They are descendants of the ancient Tsiampois, who are held, by tradition, to have been masters of most of Further India and a portion of China. But when the Anamese came down from the north, after the Tartar conquest of China, the Thiames were driven south, and finally away from the coast, toward Cambodia. Surrounded by their enemies, and separated from them by character, religion and language, they have never intermixed with other races. They seem to be of a Malayan type but observe many Jewish cus- toms, such as circumcision and abstaining from the flesh of swine. One of their traditions teaches that the founder of their relis^ion was a great man and famous warrior, who worked marvels with a rod which is care- fully preserved among them. "It is about ten feet long and is covered with a kind of red stuff, studded with yellow stars, having at one end an iron blade about an inch in length. With this rod in his hand, the founder of their faith controlled the elements, divided the waters, and calmed the tempests ; and it is pretended that this instrument still pre- serves its virtue of working miracles. They have, they say, a precious volume left them by their great chief. They scrupulously observe a seventh day of rest and preserve a remembrance of certain days on which it was not lawful to work, or even to leave their houses before sunset. Their prayers end with the word 'amin,' much the same as the amen of the Hebrews. They seem to have lost the idea of a Creator of 640 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Heaven and Earth, but worship the sky and the stars ; there are, how- ever, no idols in their temples. The priests who officiate there light candles on a table, burn incense, and, at certain times of the year, as in April and May, pass a month without going out of doors." Thus writes a Catholic father who would find in the Thiames either remnants of the Ten Tribes, or a native people who have received fragments of the faith of Israel from her sons who, in pursuit of their commercial ventures, have placed their feet and set their religious mark upon nearly every known country of the world. In the forests and mountains bordering Siam and Anam, south of the Laos country and north of Cambodia, are a number of savage tribes, known collectively as Stiens. Their long twisted hair is fastened with a bamboo comb, in which is often inserted, for ornament, a piece of brass wire, surmounted by the crest of a pheasant, their only dress being a \oncr scarf which is bound around the loins and carried over one shoulder. The Stiens are above the middle height, well proportioned and robust, with regular features, thick eyebrows, and heavy beard — when they allow it to remain. The forehead is well developed and the face intelli- gent. The women seem as powerful as the men. Like the Thiames the Stiens are exclusive, although hospitable, and their personal appearance, their customs and superstitions point to them as a people of Indian or Malayan blood which has been diluted by slight contact with the Chinese. They pierce their ears, which they ornament with pieces of ivory; they go into ecstacies over bright glass beads; the men wear bracelets above the elbow and at the wrist, and the women wear them on leg and arm. Every Stien of any substance owns several slaves and a field, some distance from the village, in which are raised rice, maize, tobacco, vegetables, bananas and oranges. The slaves are usually those who have been taken in crime and fined by the village. Being unable to pay, the fine constantly increases until the offender is finally sold. If he pays his fine of a pig, an ox or several jars of wine, the whole village partake. The Stien hunts with across bow and poisoned arrows. His chief amusement is to send up a kite, to which is attached an yE^olian harp in the shape of a bow. He is naturally peaceable, and rather than fight retires into the forest, and places in the paths sharp- pointed stakes of bamboo. The villages sometimes quarrel among themselves, but their conflicts seldom come to pitched battles , rather, the natives lay in wait for each other in the fields and pathways of the forest and the captor is sold as a slave to the Laotians or Cambodians. Rice is the staple article of food and at the conclusion of every har- RICHES AND SLOTH. 64 1 vest the Stiens indulg-e in a series of feasts and festivities. One villao-e will often entertain another, many oxen being killed to grace the occa- sion. Rice, wine, vegetables, pigs and fowls add to the interest of the feast ; as it is etiquette to eat everything placed before them, and as the natives undergo many privations, daily, these feasts occasion consider- able sickness, especially as the country is naturally damp and unhealthful. Previous to the rice harvest, for several months they are often reduced to bamboo shoots, wild roots, serpents, toads and bats, the latter being found in great numbers in the hollows of the old bamboos. If this style of living produces any internal complaint, the invariable remedy, as in Cambodia, is to place a hot iron to the pit of the stomach ; in truth, there are few Stiens without unsightly scars on this part of the body. They are very cleanly in their personal habits, however, and there are no lepers among them. Like the Papuans, and some Malayan tribes, the Stiens have one Supreme Being, the author of everything both good and evil ; diseases they attribute to an evil genius whom they are obliged to propitiate with a pig, an ox or even a slave. The dead are burned near their dwellings, and beneath the roof of branches covering the tomb they place gourds of water and sow grains of rice for the sustenance of the deceased. Before each meal they spill a little rice for the benefit of their ancestors, and in the fields and forests they make offerings to them of rice and tobacco, which are placed in little bamboo frames. They believe in the transmigration of souls, and when they kill an elephant, ornament its head with crowns of leaves and flowers, dance and sing, ask pardon for the deed, and when seven days have expired the whole villao^e falls to with a vengeance. RICHES AND SLOTH. A country Avhose riches lie right at hand is as much a disadvantage to its people as a great inheritance to an individual Indo-China is wonderfully productive, by nature, but the Indo-Chinese are by disposi- tion so slothful that they do little more than reach out their hands and eat to live. Precious fruits, grains, minerals and stones are deposited for them, but they are found in such profusion that their value can not be appreciated ; they are the property of jealous monarchs who will nei- ther assist nature in her increase nor allow others to do so; or the indus- trious Chinese have seized upon a treasure and developed it according to their modest ideas of grrowth. Of the three political divisions, Burmah, Siam and Anam, the first- 41 642 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. named has the most land incapable of being cultivated. British Bur- mah, the territory acquired by Great Britain, monopolizes the sea-board and the most fertile tracts of the former kingdom. The valley of the Irrawaddy is one continuous rice field, while the streams of the south- ern districts contain larger quantities of minerals, tin being actively mined. The immigfration from China and Further India to British Bur- mah is continually increasing ; for the government is stable and not oppressive. The land and fresh water fisheries are leased directly from the government, which thereby derives considerable revenue. Burmah Proper, the territory held by the native ruler, is mountain- ous in the north, the valley of the Irrawaddy being rough and the hills covered with forests. It is chiefly a pasturage country, the great rice crops being gathered from the plains of the south. On the northern hills the tea plant is raised to some extent, the leaf being eaten with oil and garlic. In the forests are found great trees, each of which stores forty gallons of oil annually, and on the banks of the Irrawaddy, in Southern Burmah, are several hundred petroleum wells, from which the oil is drawn in buckets. The petroleum is used for lighting purposes, and is rubbed upon the body as a protection against insects. There are ruby and sapphire mines, and the, waters of the rivulets sparkle over the topaz and amethyst. The precious stones are monopolized by the Crown. Iron ore is found in abundance, but is carelessly mined and smelted. The fruits and grains of the tropics grow wild by a mere coaxing of the earth. Sugar cane is a standard crop, but little sugar is made. Coal is spread in thick strata over the land, but it lies almost undisturbed. Cotton is raised, but Britifh cotton cloths, imported from England, are generally worn. The same state of affairs is found in Siam and Anam. The for- mer kingdom is well watered by large rivers, which annually overflow their banks and fertilize the plains and broad valleys. Iron, tin, lead, copper, gold and silver exist, most of them nearly pure, and in large quantities ; but on account of government greed and jealousy of for- eigners they have been virtually untouched except by the Chinese. Although the United States and several of the European powers have consuls at Bangkok, the trade of Siam is mostly with China, conducted in junks built and navigated by the Chinese. The Cambodia River, which is the Nile of Anam, brings sugar, rice, spices and fruits, ebony and other valuable woods growing in her mountain forests. But the French have seized her largest sugar and rice plantations, and the Chinese carry on her trade, while the Anamese lie around in their cool silken and cotton garments, laughing or asleep. THE JAPANESE. HE native of Japan is a modification of the Mongol type as seen in the Chinese. He has eyes which are set less obliquely than those of his southern cousin ; but his eyebrows are heavy, his face oval, his forehead high and his complexion is not uni- form at all. He has even been classed as a Malayan, who in his bold voyages over every Asiatic sea settled in the " Land of the Rising Sun " and adopted the Mongol, or was by him adopted, the two forming the Japanese type. The native of this empire, since his country has been un- locked to the outside world, is commencing to be known and appreciated as an intelligent, animated, enterprising gentleman ; but it has long been a wonder how so mild and good-humored a people as they evidently are, can live under so sanguinary a code of laws. Death is the one general penalty. They are a proud people, though they acknowledge a supreme ruler, a spiritual monarch, the Mikado, who makes their laws. There is no middle class. GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION. The government is the Mikado and the hereditary princes who form the imperial cabinet and govern the principalities of the empire. Japan allows no competitive examination for appointment to the ciA'il service as the Chinese do, but all power is inherited. And not alone are the lines of caste so strictly drawn that it is only lawful for men of rank to enter a city on horseback ; but so proud a people as the Japanese sub- mit to a system of espionage which runs through every grade of society. These and other burdens to which they cheerfully submit are perhaps borne for the sake of their religion, which is so woven into the structure of their government that to tear at the fibres of one would be to injure the other. The Mikado is the spiritual head of Shintoism, or their ancient and national religion, the essence of their worship being reverence for their ancestors and sacrifice to departed heroes ; and the great aim of their 6J.^ 644 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. religion is obedience to the edicts of the government. The three great commandments issued by the Department of Religion a few years ago, and intended to be the basis of a reformed Shinto, are as follows : — "Thou shalt honor the gods and love thy country; thou shalt clearly understand the principles of heaven and the duty of man ; thou shalt revere the Emperor as thy sovereign and obey the will for his court." The Shinto temples are made of pure wood called " sunwood," and in them are seen mirrors and strips of white paper, emblems of self- examination and purity. The sun and moon are worshiped. Cleanli- ness of person and cheerfulness of heart are cardinal virtues. The heroes of the country are canonized and worshiped, the most popular of the minor deities being the god of war, one of their brave emperors. The forms of worship are simple: "The devotee approaches under the gateways until within a short distance of the door. He then stops, flings a few coins in the box or on the floor, folds his hands in a posture of rev- erence, mutters his prayers and departs." Buddhism,however,isthe popular religion of Japan, while many of the higher classes reject all worship of idols and accept the Confucian philosophy of life and mo- rality. But the Mikado cares not what religion is professed so long as they acknowledge his divinity ; whence has come about the persecution of Christians — not because they held to any distasteful religious beliefs, but because their creed made them rebels to the government. THE CORNER-STONE OF SOCIETY. Among the Chinese, politeness is inculcated as the outward mani- festation of an equable and moral character; with the Japanese polite- ness is scarcely distinguishable from morality itself, and actions are looked upon as bad if they grate upon their keen sensibilities. Eti- quette is the study of rich and poor. It is a great science, clearly defined, systematized and taught in the school from divers text books. Five years of study, among the educated classes, are devoted to it, both theoretically and practically, and until Japanese scholars and the Japan- ese government brought back from England and America a knowledge of modern institutions and countries, the scope of the higher education A JAPANESE. THE CORNER-STONE OF SOCIETY, 645 A NOBLE LADY. covered the ground of Confucian classics, social and court forms and Jap- anese and Chinese history. But, although the scope has been enlarged, etiquette is still the polished corner-stone of Japanese society and the japanning is carried over the lower structure itself, so that even the servants and coolies bow and bend to one another and use a formal and courtly language which would even give pleasure to a Lord Chesterfield. The contrast between the Eastern forms of etiquette and those of the West is too well known to warrant an ex- pansion of the theme. One peculiar form of Jap- anese table etiquette, however, has not often been exposed. When a cup of rice, beer or tea has been emptied at a feast, it is quite a delicate mark of attention for the guest who desires more to throw it across the table to a brother guest, Avho, in turn, hands it to the damsel in waitino-. If one desires to introduce himself to another at a banquet the proper way is to offer his cup to the person whom 'he wishes to know ; if the o-uest would honor him with his acquaintance he drinks and returns the cup. The Japanese are the greatest eaters of marine animals in the world, and their fish markets are found everywhere. Raw fish is even a favorite article of food. River, lake and sea are frequented by thou- sands of fishermen and women. Many of the latter are expert divers, remaining in the water for hours and swimmingfor long distances with heavy bags of shell-fish on their shoulders. No meal would be complete without fish. " The visitor is always served with tea, sweetmeats laid on white paper on a tray and a little bowl with a live coal in it to light his pipe with. It is etiquette to carry away the remnants of the cake or candy, folded up in the paper and put in SELLING MARINE ANIMALS. 646 . PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the wide sleeve. Meat, venison, poultry, game and large vegetables are cut or sliced before being brought on the table. Food is eaten out of lacquered wooden bowls and porcelain cups, chop-sticks taking the place of the knife and fork. A feast is accompanied by music and dancing and the last of the merry courses is rice and tea." M MARRIAGE AND WOMEN'S DUTIES. The Japanese do not approve of such early marriages as most of the Orients — twenty years for the man and sixteen for the woman are considered proper ages. Betrothals are not entirely in the hands of parents, either. The young man himself, when he desires to marry, sends a third party, it is true, to arrange the affair ; but it is usually one of his married friends, and he is seldom rushed into matrimony without having had a chance to meet the lady. The will of the parents has its weight,, but it is not supreme as in Corea and China. When the wedding day has been fixed, the trousseau of the bride and her wedding gifts are sent to the house of the groom. They are followed by the little woman her- self, dressed in white, borne in a palanquin and escorted by her parents. The gayly attired bridegroom receives her, escorts her to the hall, where before the altar of the domestic gods, decorated with images and symbolic plants, they are betrothed and married by the same ceremony. No priest is in attendance, but the forms are simple and touching, the final one consisting in the young couple drinking together from a two- mouthed bottle, thereby pledging themselves to drain the waters of life together. The above is a mere outline of the formalities required by Japanese society to unite a couple in marriage. To conscientiously observe them all is to incur a greater expense than many of the people can bear. It is therefore a favorite plan, in order to evade these responsibilities, for the youth and maiden to collude with the parents and feign a runaway match in which the ceremony is necessarily brief and inexpensive. The education of women in all the walks of life consists, almost entirely, in forming her into an expert housewife. The Woman's Great Study is an immense volume, which may be said to contain the national standard of excellence toward which all females are instructed to strive. Obedience to parents, husband, and if a widow, to the eldest son, is the grand injunction. The study of etiquette, which is such, an important part of popular education, does not cease during the lifetime of the Japanese lady. There are few more affectionate mothers than the Japanese. They treat their children as infants until they are two years of age, carrying" them constantly with them. DRESS AND PERSONAL ADORNMENT. 647 DRESS AND PERSONAL ADORNMENT. A very short time ago it was considered the height of temerity for a foreigner to travel outside of the five open ports of Yokohama, Naga- saki, Hiogo, Niegati and Hokodadi. The danger did not come from the hostility of the common people so much as from the jealousies of the princes and nobles of the empire. Although they have become recon- ciled to the existence of another order of civilization than their own, it is still best to engage the services of a native policeman, especially if one is about to venture into the streets of a large city. This functionary, in uniform, resembles a gaunt woman with a gaudy umbrella tied to her head, dressed in a loose jacket and skirt and armed with two swords carried underneath the outer crarment. If the yakonin is mounted, in masculine fashion of course, his appearance is all the more ludicrous. Should the journey be a long one he would be escorted by runners, naked except for a cloth around the loins. From a distance this latter statement would scarcely be credited, for the en- tire bodies of the escorts are tattooed, beino- often covered with figures representing jackets and breeches, seamed and checked, with buttons and all. So, supposing that the services of the yakonin have been engaged, the stranger pro-i ceeds to examine the costumes and personal ap- pearance of the Japanese, whether old or young, high or low. Japanese women have become noted for their striking and coquettish dress. They take especial pride in arranging their glossy hair, it being usually divided into three great sections, fastened with large ornamental pins or pretty ribbons. Both sexes wear a large open dressing gown, the women cross- ing it in front and tying it behind with an enormous sash. As the little women trot along in their wooden sandals, they are truly pleasing objects to contemplate. A lady of high standing is often attired in a garment of rich silk, beautifully decorated with flowers and vines, wearing over her shoulders a sack or shawl of plain but rich material. That hideous practice, which was formerly well-nigh universal, by which women above twenty years of age, and all who were married, shaved off their eyebrows and blackened their teeth, is gradually dying out. The reform originated at court twenty years ago and is rapidly A JAPANESE GIRL. 648 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. spreading. The custom was rooted in the Oriental idea that a married woman belonged, body and soul, to her husband ; and her husband chose to make her unattractive, to the outside world at least. The Japanese maiden, wife and widow, are now distinguishable in society by the style of their coiffure. If it were not for the immoderate use of paint the women would be as attractive as those of any country, with their glossy dark brown hair, oval faces, slender graceful forms, and elegant manners. In the young, the natural complexion is seen to be fair, and when a lady of the upper class who is not exposed to the weather, leaves all her paint in the box, she often appears with a face as white as a European's. Usually, head coverings are not worn, except broad screens to keep off sun and rain, and a simple cloth cap and face protector in winter. Oiled paper or straw overcoats are worn in rainy weather, and the fan is carried by men and women. Loose trousers are the distinguishing mark of the nobility, but the hideous panta- loons formerly worn at court, which completely covered the wearer's feet and spread out far to the side, and the upper garment with its enormous, flapping sleeves, have given place to European attire. The higher classes, however, have their rank indicated by the crest of the family or clan, which is worked upon the breast and back of the outer robe. The carr)ing of swords- — two or more for the no- bility, and one for the common people is — a custom which is almost obsolete. The higher class of medical practitioners, such as the court physi- cians, shave their heads completely, as do the priests ; but the common masculine fashion is to shave off the hair about three inches in front, comb it up from the back and sides and glue it into a tuft at the top of the head, where it is confined by pins of gold or tortoise shell. NOBLEMAN AND SERVANT. AMUSEMENTS. The Japanese have not the staid, placid dispositions of the Chinese. They are more light-hearted, and even at table often enliven the simple courses with music upon the guitar. Yeddo has a permanent fair, and JUGGLERS AND ACROBATS. 049 here may be witnessed the diverse forms of amusement \7hich tickle the lively minds of these people. In the center is an immense temple, sur- rounded by groves and tea houses. A wide, well-paved road, which passes through the grounds, is planted to maples and covered with mer- chants who squat upon their mattresses and proclaim the virtues of their goods. One has a heap of dead rats beside him — he sells rat poison. Another fondles the head and claws of a bear — he vends bear grease, for the skin. Bank lotteries, stereoscopes and telescopes are temptingly displayed for trial. The astrologer and the professional story-teller and news-a^ent are also here. The latter tells about the last murder and the way in which the villain was punished, and for a little money distributes leaflets containing the account to his auditors, that they may bear the exciting" tale to absent ones. & JUGGLERS AND ACROBATS. The uproar of the crowd is pierced Avith the cries, songs and dis- sonance of the mountebanks, players and jugglers ; they are balancing sticks, swallowing swords, whirling bottles and cups, making flowers crrow from nothinor crushino;- birds and revivinor them, breakino^ es^CTs and bringing cart loads of silks from them, and the climax of every wonder is being made more startling by the shrill note of fife, the clang of drum or the rattle of tambourine in the hands of able assistants. The music is not calculated to educate one's taste, but rather to distract the atten- tion of the lynx-eyed native at critical points. A group of Japanese acrobats, who perform beneath a great shed on the fair grounds, draw an immense crowd as they do everywhere. Their balancing poles are very long false noses, upon which children may perch with safety, or stand thereon upon their own shorter p7'odos- cides. Another difficult trick is where the performer places an e'g o R H O o JMIMiiiiiaiillMiMiliMiliililiM EUROPEAN HABITS. 655 the city one of the most alluring spots in the world. The residences of the daimios surrounded the palace of the Tycoon, but with his degrada- tion and the entrance of foreigners to the empire many of the nobles deserted their homes and retired in disgust to the country. Space which was formerly monopolized by such useless magnificence is now covered with government buildings, cotton, woolen and paper mills, colleges, schools, arsenals and foundries. In the imperial university are 100 foreign instructors, and the schools and colleges are attended by 60,000 or 70,000 pupils. The youth of the land are bright and ambi- tious, as several of the universities of America know full well. Elementary schools are being established throughout the empire ; the law of 1872 providing for 53,000 of them. Forty per cent, of the chil- dren of school age are receiving instruction, and among the youth and manhood of the land the fever to imbibe European ideas is at its height. Not only are the higher schools and colleges thronged, but private tutors of standing are besieged on all sides. One of these mas- ters at Tokio is an author of political and social Avorks and a translator from the best Western writers. His students already fill many important government offices, and others have established a newspaper which vigorously criticises all public acts. Throughout Japan there are between 300 and 400 newspapers and periodicals, and school books, and works on political, scientific, ethical, historical and poetical subjects are constantly issuing from the press. Outside of the district which may be considered as under the im- mediate patronage of the Mikado and the government, is the business and residence territory. Within this are miles of stone and brick build- ings in the modern style of architecture, with miles more of open booths. A horse vehicle is not so great a wonder in Tokio as in other portions of the empire, and carts piled high with goods of all descriptions are being dragged through the streets in endless procession. Bathhouses, fire- proof warehouses, mounted policemen ; natives in black coats and leather shoes as well as in native costume ; newspaper offices using the metal types and running off their sheets on cylinder presses ; telegraph wires, connecting not only the police districts, but the other chief cities of the empire with the capital ; locomotives running to Yokohama, the foreign mercantile settlement seventeen miles away, and others nowbuilding to run over lono^er lines ; sewinor and knitting machines and banks are thrown too'ether — the old and the new broutrht tosjether in strikinof contrast. But sufficient is seen to place the Japanese in the list of decidedly pro- gressive and remarkable people. In one of the most thickly settled districts of Tokio is a massive 656 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. wooden bridge spanning the river Okawa. It is not a remarkable en- gineering achievement and only interesting as being the center of the empire and the point from which distances are reckoned — so many ri (two and one-half miles) from the " Nipon-bas," as the bridge is called, north or south. Tokio is the most noteworthy illustration of the spread of European ideas ; for here are manufactured from foreign models such articles as watches, clocks, globes, thermometers, barometers, microscopes, tele- scopes, knives, spoons, looking-glasses, rugs, carpets, clothing, etc.; but in all the large cities and towns, the new is crowding out the old, and even pickles, condensed milk, fancy soap, patent medicines, wines and brandies, are swinging into line. UNWORTHY OF JAPAN. Legalized suicide is an institution peculiar to China and Japan. It is called " harri-kari " in the latter empire, and the mode of legalized procedure is to disembowel one's self with a sharp knife ; this is pecul- iarly Japanese. Efforts are being made to suppress the disgrace, which is still a hideous instrument employed by cruel and autocratic daimios to punish those who have offended them ; the unfortunates are ordered to commit harri-kari, and such is the power which the princes often have over their subjects, that the self-murder is generally committed. On the other hand, it is often considered a privilege of which the nobility them- selves take advantage. STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE. The common Japanese houses have frameworks of wood, to which are fastened reeds or bamboo, and the interstices filled with mud, with wooden door and window frames covered with paper, broad eaves and a veranda running completely around. The rain doors, or outer shut- ters, protect the inner ones during stormy weather. Within are paper partitions, which can be slid' out of sight, and the whole house thrown into a hall to accommodate the pleasure-seeking people. No house is without its gem of a garden. It matters not how tiny it is, the ground is laid out in beautiful groves of dwarf shrubs which surround miniature lakes, little streams over which green arches are thrown to represent bridges, or leafy bowers which would scarcely accommodate a company of Lilliputians. The houses are often loaded with blue lilies and other flowers, while these artificial landscapes are enclosed with bamboo fences over which creep trailing vines and plants. # i: vionboliaim. jAPflNESE.t MONGOLIAN cSQU,MAUA.i V.-'tl' bUliILM WITHIN THE HOUSE. 657 The palaces of the nobility are simply several of these houses, united by corridors of stone or wood, roofed over with cement, and sur- rounded by a continuous rampart of smaller whitewashed structures, in which the domestics reside. The Mikado's palace is a "yashki" of larger dimensions, comprising many courts and streets, and scores of houses, pavilions and corridors, with beautifully varnished, gilded and sculptured roofs. When the sound of the tocsin is heard from the fire tower there is naturally great alarm ; for fires in all the cities of Japan are des'tructive. It is estimated that Tokio is burned all over once every seven years. When the flames fairly get a headway the most that can be done is to pull down a great area of buildings, and remove the goods in their imme- diate pathway to the nearest fire-proof warehouse. This is shaped like a tower, built of wood and encased with cement or mud, sometimes a foot in thickness. The doors and windows are built of the same mate- rial, are closed upon the approach of a conflagration and the cracks plas- tered up with mud. Candles have been lighted inside to convert the oxygen of the air into carbonic acid gas, so that the building is made absolutely fire proof. These warehouses, or low towers, are also used upon the approach of the typhoon or hurricane. Fire, wind and earthquake are the three forces of nature with which the Japanese are obliged to contend, and their houses, which are seldom more than thirty feet in height, are constructed with reference to the latter. If they are two stories high, the second is built more substan- tially than the first (experience has taught them that this is the safer plan) — the upper one comprising the living rooms and the lower the cellar for the storage of provisions. WITHIN THE HOUSE. The same delicacy of taste and sense of propriety are noticed in the interior as in the exterior arrangements. Simplicity, cleanliness, harmony of design and coloring, and comfort are the uppermost feat- ures. Thick mats of rice straw cover the floor, over which members of the family walk barefooted. Writing is done by kneeling before a table about a foot high When the letter is finished the table is put away in a cupboard. The family eat sitting on their heels around a small table. After dinner every person takes a nap of several hours In the evening comes another meal, and after the table is cleared men, women and children produce their pencils, brushes, paints and papers, and give exhibitions of their skill. The height of the artist's ambition is not so much to excel in delineatingf Nature's moods as to draw and ^ 42 658 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. paint in the most surprisingly ingenious methods. He will put in ahead here, a tail there, a tree in one corner, a house in another, a leg in the air, an arm beneath, an eye glancing out of space, and when all have tried themselves in guessing what it all can mean, a few rapid strokes of pencil and brush will join everything together and form a tolerable picture. Other games succeed the artistic efforts, and they are enjoyed by son, father, grandfather, even to the fourth generation ; and the same universal love of diversion is witnessed out of doors, where the natives fly kites and indulge in feats of skill, everyone entering heartily into the sport, from the infant who can hardly walk to the sire who can just totter around. When night comes, they envelop themselves in large, warm night robes, placing their day clothes either in an open cabinet or upon a frame which stands near,and repose upon a straw matting covered with a quilt, with a wooden block stuffed at the top for a pillow. It is cus- tomary,also,to have a teapot with cups beside the bed, with conveniences for heat- ing, so that the day may be " ushered in with one or more cups of the favorite bever- age. Day and night the brazier is kept burning, and if the Japanese is not drink- A JAPANESE BEDROOM. jj^g tga, he is usually some- where in the vicinity of the teapot, smoking and gossiping with his friends. THE LAST RESTING PLACE. Regard for the dead is manifested by the Japanese in the same way as by the Chinese. The ancestral tablet is placed with the household gods, and the family altar is their most sacred shrine. If the body is interred, it is buried in a sitting posture, with the hands folded. The coffins are invariably circular. The ceremonies at the grave are con- ducted by priests, and even here there is little of that depressing spirit of mourning manifested, which, with some, is considered a religious as well as a social duty. The nearest relatives are dressed in grayish white, AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURES. 659 the men wear coarse straw hats, and the women discard their elaborate ornaments, merely wearing a comb in the hair. The cemetery is bright with flowers, and each family has its own enclosure, marked with simple stones or massive granite monuments. If the deceased has expressed a desire to have his body burned, after the ceremonies have been performed in the temple, the corpse is carried to a small house, placed upon a stone scaffold, and being con- sumed in the presence of priests, the bones are carefully drawn from the fire by men armed with sticks. The remaining ashes are placed in an urn, and carried to the tomb by the relatives. AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURES. Government and people combine to make Japan a garden, and to utilize every possible acre of ground. The land is divided into small holdings, irrigated, enriched and cultivated according to the Chinese methods. The plough generally in use is a heavy piece of wood fastened obliquely to a beam, and hollowed out so as to receive a piece of iron which serves as a share. When the land has been inundated from the canals in early spring, it is broken up into a liquid paste and the rice is cast into the ground by hand. It is then harrowed; when the young rice begins to shoot it is transplanted and reaches maturity in October. The transformation of the tea plant into commercial forms is accom- plished through the same processes in Japan as in China. When you are Intimate with the agriculture of either country you can "farm it" in the other. As horticulturists, however, the Japanese stand alone in certain specialities. They seem even to carry their feats of legerdemain into this department. They will grow you a cedar many feet in circumfer- ence or only a few inches ; a head of lettuce larger than a bushel basket or smaller than a rose, but healthy and productive in either case. Among other wonders in this line a sight-seer mentions the vigorous appearance of a fir, a bamboo and a cherry tree, which were growing in a box 5x2 inches. It is by the application of this remarkable skill that the Japanese are enabled to delineate upon the tiniest pieces of ground, the boldest and most charming landscapes. With the introduction into Japan of steam power and modern machinery the native manufactures are already undergoing many changes, not always for the better. It is an open question, therefore, whether in certain lines of work the Japanese have not reached their greatest per- fection. Their lacquer work and their bronzes are the finest in the world. For the former they have become so noted as to have given a 66o PANORAMA OF NATIONS. common word to the English language — japanning. The varnish which they use is mixed slowly and smoothly upon a copper palette with the coloring matter, and after being applied five or six times, being allowed to dry after each application, is scraped and polished with a stone or bamboo utensil. The mother-of-pearl figures are cut out and colored underneath, placed upon the varnish and undergo the same process as the wood. The bronzes are not only noted for the fineness of the metal but for the beauty of the finish. They are richly decorated with figures representing national heroes, mythological personages, and historical events, as well as birds, animals and landscapes. The swords of Japan are almost as famous as the Damascus blades. In short, as workers in iron, copper and brass they are unexcelled. Their paper, which they make from the mulberry tree, is tough, glossy and fine, and is used for napkins. The bark of the tree is boiled in an alkaline composition, washed, and mixed with a preparation of rice ; being thus reduced to a smooth paste, the mixture is formed into sheets by being pressed between bamboo laths. The Japanese tend their s ilkworms as carefully as their children. The art of weaving is, by legendary account, of celestial origin, and is con- sidered as of as royal a nature as it is in China. Thelovely maiden who brought the art to earth returned to her home in one of the heavenly constellations, and upon the seventh day of the seventh month, as the stars appear, Japanese women and girls spread beneath their kindly rays silken threads of various colors, offering fruits and flowers to the divini- ties who control the cunning of human hands. THE JAPANESE AS ARTISTS. In the decoration of their fans, houses, metal and wood work, and the arrangement of their beautiful parks, the Japanese exhibit their artistic talents to the best advantage. Birds, flowers and fruit are their favorite themes, and they delineate them in perfect forms and exquisite colors. But when they come to the representation of landscapes, where perspective is required, their efforts are crude in the extreme ; in fact, they are such masters of detail that they can not conceive how it is that every feather and shade of color should not be distinctly brought out of the bird upon the wing in the far distance as well as every line of the palace which stands in the foreground The Japanese have made a close study of anatomy, but Japanese artists slur the "human form divine" most shamefully. It is generally draped and properly attired in THE FIRST, LAST, 66l native costume, when appearing in their pictures, and a Japanese sculp- tor would be a curiosity indeed. Like the Chinese the Japanese are persistent musicians, although they produce but little music. Music is part of every woman's education, her favorite instruments being a three-stringed banjo and a larger instru- ment which is placed up- on the ground and played with slender strips of bamboo. THE FIRST, LAST. There is one entire race of people who en- gage in fishing — the Amos, who inhabit the island of Yezo, to the north of Niphon. They are the aborigines of the archipelago. In appear- ance they are small and thick set, with wide fore- heads, black, horizontal eyes and fair skin. The women dress in zouave style, wear broad- brimmed hats with a conical center, or simply cloths tied over the head. The men have tieht-fit- ting pantaloons, with a cloak fastened with a sash, the cloth for which is made from sea-weed. The Ainos have no traditions of their origin, but they believe they came -from the west, although they differ from all the tribes of Eastern Siberia. They worship the fish and the wolf and make I— ( u D < 1/1 w o 662 , PANORAMA OF NATIONS. no attempt to cultivate their land. The Ainos were formerly masters of the archipelago, north of Niphon, and after being driven from that island fought stubbornly for many years and were not reduced to com- plete subjection until the fourteenth century. They are rapidly decreas- ing in numbers and are being crowded into the northern districts of the only island which remains to them ; so that before long it is probable that they will be extinct. THE COREANS. It seems probable that the Coreans are of the great Tungoosic stock to which the Mantchoos belong and which has spread over so great a portion of Northern Asia. Their language is Mongolian, and they are both taller and stouter than either the Chinese or Japanese. But although they have been conquered by the Mantchoos, the Japanese and the Chinese, the latter have retained the supremacy, and they render even a less tribute to the empire than does Mongolia. Their religions, however, are borrowed from China and the nature of the government is Confucian. Literary attainment is the basis of political preferment. The examinations all take place in Saul, the capital of the kingdom, the preliminary one being conducted annually, and those of higher grade when His Majesty is in need of government officers. The king is abso- lute, although there are near to him the Counsellor of the Right, the Counsellor of the Middle and the Counsellor of the Left. The six Chinese departments appear in Corea, the Interior, the Treasury, the War, the Public Works, and the departments of Justice and Religious Rites. Each department has its head, whose title, translated, is " deci- sive signature," and he is assisted by several " helps-to-decide " and " helps-to-discuss." The provinces into which the kingdom is divided have each a gover- nor, who has six assistants ; these assistants, who are rulers of districts, are aided by six other officials upon whom, in turn, depend six other functionaries. Three and multiples of three seem to be considered magic numbers. The audience hall of the King's palace, which is of the Chinese form of architecture, is faced by three gates ; the approach from the gates to the first flight of steps is flanked on either side by eighteen granite slabs upon which are engraved the different ranks of His Majesty's sub- jects and which mark also the precise point to which they may advance toward his divine presence, when a royal reception is on hand. These COMING FROM THEIR SHELL. 663 slabs do not indicate government grades of honor, particularly, but the social ranks of Corean society, A nd here we stumble against the magic number again — thirty-six ranks or castes. In Saul, the capital of the kingdom, are two royal palaces, the Old and the New. The former was erected five hundred years ago, when the capital was laid out, and occupies the cardinal point of honor, facing sou,th. The New Palace was built a hundred years later for a crown prince, and when he became king he did not choose to abandon it. So the old one was deserted. The New Palace faces the north, the second cardinal point of honor. Upon state occasions the king of Corea always faces toward the sunny south and his most honored subjects are placed opposite him. COMING FROM THEIR SHELL. After the Japanese opened the gates of their sea ports the Coreans were the most secluded people in the world. Until brought to it by force of arms they refused even to have commercial communication with China and Japan. For many years maritime intercourse was not allowed between Corea and China, but communication was by way of a narrow road along the sea coast, which was given up principa lly to wild beasts. Until quite recently there was little intercourse save on occasion of the annual embassy and of the periodical fairs in Mantchuria. The dread of Russian invasion and annexation, however, has, of late years, induced Corea to rather encourage friendly relations with Western Powers, that she may have friends to protect her in a possible hour of need. In 1876 Japan relinquished her traditional claim to trib- ute and was granted commercial privileges. Corea was thrown open to American and Chinese commerce in 1882, and the result of such action by the progressive party was the massacre of the Queen, the heir appar- ent and his bride, and thirteen ministers who favored foreigfn intercourse. The Japanese legation barely escaped a like fate and fled from the wrath of the Corean conservatives. A month afterwards, however, they returned to Saul, under the protection of a military escort, and Japan made preparations for war. The usurper who had overturned the gov- ernment surrendered to a Chinese force, the king was restored to authority, and Corea can no longer be called the Hermit Nation, although she can more fittingly lay claim to the title than any other. Soon after the success which attended the efforts of America and China to enter her doors, Great Britain and Germany were favored with commercial treaties. 664 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. WHY THEY FEAR THE PRIESTS. A singularity of this very singular people is that religion, in the cities, has no hold upon them. Not a single temple or church spire points the way to heaven in Saul or any other walled city. For this wonderful absence of sacred edifices two explanations have been given. One is that three centuries ago a body of Japanese soldiers gained admittance to several important Corean strongholds, disguised as Bud- dhist priests, which was the important step toward the subjugation of the country, and that when the invaders withdrew, after having ruled for many years, the Coreans passed a law that hereafter no priest should set foot within the gates of a walled city ; the second theory, or native state- ment, being that the Buddhists had become so corrupt in the cities that they were expelled by the Confucians and relegated to their monasteries in the country districts, which still exist. So that although Buddhism, Taouism and Confucianism have their votaries, and nearly all the state gods of China are worshiped, the uniform and dreary appearance of the low Corean buildings is not broken by the graceful lines of temples and pagodas which relieve the monotony in neighboring lands. THEIR SUPERSTITIONS. The Coreans are honey-combed with Shamanism, although their exclusive disposition keeps out the Shamans. Below the gables of stately royal palaces, may be observed a row of bronze figures, resem- bling nothing, and everything hideous, which are placed there to scare away evil spirits. This mode of frightening them is patented by the King. His humbler but still prominent subjects are allowed to post upon their outer doors colored placards representing the figures of two famous generals, who are reported to have had great success in captur- ing and destroying demons of disease. The common people rest satis- fied with fastening a wisp of rice-straw to their doors, or a piece of cloth, thereby deluding the demon into the belief that he has got satisfaction when he seizes upon these articles. Upon New Year's day, the good spirits are supposed by the Coreans to call upon the Lord of Heaven, and to so engage His attention, that the evil spirits come to earth to see what damage they can accomplish there ; to keep them away from their homes, the people take the cuttings of hair which they have collected during the year, and burn them in front of their houses. The Coreans have their household spirits and a deity, who is sent by the Supreme One to bless little children, and keep them out of the clutches of the demons. MEN AND WOMEN. 665 The people accredit the naming of their country — the land of the Morning Calm — to a great spirit, and claim that their first king was de- scended from a dragon who changed himself into a man, ascended to heaven and married the daughter of a god. Afterward "they came down to Corea where the king was born. MEN AND WOMEN. The woman of Corea is simply the property of either her father or her husband. Her seclusion before marriage, the negotiations preced- ing marriage, the marriage feast and the closely veiled bride whose beau ties are unknown to the bridegroom, are true Oriental features. The separation of man and wife after marriage is Turkish. The man is everything in Corea, even to the point of being made to legally suffer for his wife's faults. The prevailing color of the Corean costume, whether of man or woman, is a bluish white. Short jackets, loose trousers and tunics are the chief garments, the number of the latter being proportionate to the rank of the wearer. " It is perhaps unfortunate," says a traveler, "to have fixed upon so delicate a hue, as it would require more than human- ity to preserve it. The faint blue of the land of the Morning Calm soon fades, by contact with the dirt of the world, into the the gray of com- mon day." Officials wear the same style of garments, but throw into them the brightest colors of the rainbow with the most reckless extrava- gance. Soldiers have dark blue uniforms, dashed with crimson, decked with ribbons, and over the breasts are their badges of valor. The men's tunic is confined at the breast and the women's petticoat is also fastened at that point. The sleeves are about two feet wide, partially sewed up at the ends, so that they serve as pockets and travel- ing bags. A tobacco pouch always hangs at the waist of both man and woman. On the inner side of the tunic around the neck is a white band of cotton, which stands in place of our collar. The materials of dress are silk, cotton and grasscloth, the latter being made of hemp. Grass- cloth is used for every-day wear by the lower classes and as a badge of mourning by all, as it is in China — a kind of sackcloth of the Hebrews. The mourning costume is also distinctive in cut from the regular one, that of the man consisting amonor other thino^s of a hat which curves down like an umbrella around his face and of a cloth screen before his face. With this species of blinders the poor man wanders around society, it being incumbent upon the members thereof to let him alone. For three years he is shut out of all communion with his fellows, if he is in mourning for his father, and for two years should he grieve over the 666 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. loss of a mother. If the man is a love-sick swain it sometimes happens that he pines away for a dozen years, one death of a relative following another and keeping him from marriage. As the upper classes dress in the grasscloth of the lower when they go into mourning, so all classes are privileged under the burden of grief to assume the face screen which, ordinarily, is the badge of office, or the mark of distinction of the government official, Corean shoes resemble those worn in China, except the soles are studded with nails. The men's hats consist of the skull covering and the superstructure of silk woven upon a bamboo frame ; so that a Corean with his hat on — and he wears it every moment except when he is sleeping — resembles a man who has turned the lining of a modern hat down over his forehead. The betrothal hat is made of yellow straw and usually appears on the Corean's head when he is seven or eight years of age. The court hat has a high oval crown, fits tightly over the forehead and has two wings which extend from the sides. They are said to signify that the wearers are "all ears" for the royal commands. Rank is measured by the thickness of these artificial ears, the Emperor being particularly honored by having his placed upon the top of the hat — he is supposed to listen to nobody. There are also special in-door hats, but underneath them all are the tails of the men twisted around a stick of coral or amber. There is no great variety of female hats, as the Corean woman is debarred from the privilege of showing off her fashions, but those of the higher classes occasionally appear on the street or borne along in a palanquin with a low structure upon the head which resembles a parasol, beautifully and deeply fringed. THE GREEKS. HETHER the first Grecians were Asiatic Hellenas, or Phoe- nicians who founded a colony across the sea as many years- before Christ as we are hving after, does not much concern us. We know that the Greeks were for centuries the nucleus of the world's best thought, and that they have passed down to us a grand literature and a beautiful architecture. We know that they are Aryans, and that they were the first of the Indo- European stock to found a state ; that they were subject to Rome, to Venice, and to Turkey, and for half a century or more have been independent. They even objected to be directed in the establishment of their modern kingdom by England, France and Russia, the Powers which had assisted them to throw off the Turkish chains. Foreign princes, however, were appointed to direct Hellenic affairs, and revolt followed revolt, until the son of the King of Denmark was chosen to take the helm of state. That was a quarter of a century ago, and more than twenty-five years after Greece had revolted from Turkey, and had seen her olive and fig trees cut down and burned and her territory devastated. THE ACROPOLIS. Athens, anciently decorated with innumerable master-pieces of arch- itecture and sculpture, still retains in ruins some traces of her former splendor. Ragged outlines exist of that ancient citadel, the Acropolis, from which the people could see magnificent evidences of their genius spread over the plains below ; temple upon temple arose in sublimity, and their ruins are still grouped around that square, craggy rock, 1,000 feet long, 500 feet broad and 1 50 feet high, upon which stood the Acrop- olis in all its majesty. Within its great walls are the remains of the Par- thenon, or the temple of Minerva, a pile which even now stands among the wonders of the world. Forming the entrance to the Parthenon was a wonderful temple of white marble ; all that remains of this are six columns with lofty arches^ 667 668 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. V- l!iiii:i-:i i I"! 9 f w o ni C TEMPLES OF JUPITER AND THESEUS. 669 Of the Parthenon itself, the interior of which was for some time used as a Turkish mosque, there remain eight cokimns in front, with several colonnades at the side, and the mutilated figures of magnificent groups of statuary representing conflicts between the gods and other mytho- logical tales. But ruined as it is, the general aspect of the temple is sublime. The Temple of Neptune, another theatre belonging to the Acrop- olis, is in a better state of preservation than the Parthenon, and though grain is now growing in its broad arena, enough of the structure is still in sight to give the observer a grand idea of what it once was. North of the Acropolis are the ruins of the Erechtheum, the most venerable of all the religious temples of Athens. TEMPLES OF JUPITER AND THESEUS. Sixteen grand columns still stand of the Temple of Jupiter, which was seven hundred years in building, and at the time of its completion one of the most magnificent structures in the world. The exterior was decorated by about 120 fluted columns, sixty-one feet in height, and more than six feet in diameter. It was 354 feet long, 171 feet broad, and contained the celebrated statue of Olympian Jupiter, in ivory and gold. This great temple stood southeast of the Acropolis on the right bank of the Ilissus. Northwest of the city is the Temple of Theseus, the best preserved of all these architectural monuments. It was the tomb of the King ; to its walls the slave fled for refuge, and once within was safe from harm. The large plot of ground in its center was worn smooth by the feet of thousands of Athenian soldiers, called to muster. LAW AND PHILOSOPHY. But a Turkish burial place occupies the hill of the Areopagus where the Athenian court expounded the laws, and from which Paul preached the new doctrine. The Lyceum, in which the learned Aristotle lectured and taught his philosophy, consists of a few broken walls ; and a modern house and garden occupy a portion of Plato's and Socrates' Academy. THE ACADEMY. The simplest and most affecting pieces of Greek art are to be found among the graves of the old heroes and philosophers, statesmen and politicians, which are reached by passing through a squalid district of modern Athens, westward toward this famous Academy, or public pleas- 670 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. ure grounds and groves in Avhich Socrates and Plato taught. It became in time a suburb of Athens, and along one of its most beautiful avenues the famous dead were laid. The collection of dense poplar, olive and elm groves from a moun- tain to the north of Athens, sweeps down the plain of Attica a few miles to the west of the city until it reaches the insignificant remains of the foundations of the vast walls of the Piraeus. This cool band, watered by a narrow river which throws out numbers of refreshing branches, is ten miles long, by two in width, and it must have been a great relief for the perplexed philosophers and agitated statesmen to have escaped from the bustle and plots of the city and the dust of the plain to its shades and accompanying songs of birds. The brooding of its calm beauties upon a great reflective spirit, might reasonably have produced a broad, unimpassioned philosophy. Here also the athletic youth of Athens run their races, along the public thoroughfares strolled the beauty and nobility of the city, and, as if to further impress the fact that the world is deter- mined to obtrude itself upon the most godlike thoughts, the majestic Acropolis, in the distance, speaks of wordly glories from its framework of green as one looks toward the capitol down a vista of mighty trunks. To reach the tombs and the groves you are obliged in these days to encounter filth and rags, a smoky railway station resonant with disagree- able sounds, and the pleasanter sights of classic faces, with, now .and then, the graceful figure of a peasant, clad in the national costume of red, white and blue colors. The ruins lie far below the present surface of the ground, and where an excavation has been made are covered with a wooden door to protect the sculptured faces of the monuments. When we say that the parting scenes between father and mother, mother and son, at the bed of death, or the heroic suffering of the warrior, breathing out his soul in the field of battle, are treated with classic simplicity, the general reader will recognize the fact that Greek art speaks to the world in noble and unexaggerated forms and does not attempt by bold strokes to depict heart-rending griefs and stormy passions. Over an abrupt hill, a few minutes' walk from this hallowed spot, is a long deep gorge running parallel with the road which leads to Athens. This was the Barathrum, where criminals were executed, refused the rites of burial, and whose bodies were watched by their grim sentry until they fell into decay. A late visitor to this spot draws the following striking sketch : " In the present day, all traces of this hideous history have long passed away and I found a little field of corn waving upon the level ground beneath. But even now there seemed a certain loneliness A GRAND STAND. 67 1 and weirdness about the place — silent and deserted in the midst of thoroughfares, hidden from the haunts of men and hiding them from view by its massive walls. Nay, as if to bring back the dark memories of the past, hawks and ravens were still circling about as their ancestors did in the days of blood attached, I supposed, by hereditary instinct to this fatal place, ' for where the carcass is, there shall the eagles be gath- ered together.'" A GRAND STAND. A short distance to the west of the Acropolis is a low hill, at the base of which is a limestone wall, from which projects a pedestal carved out of the rock and ascended by steps. " This interesting place has been preserved almost in its integrity, and, as we look around," says a late visitor, "we are carried back to the times when some six thousand Athenian citizens were here assembled ; when the orator, standing upon the pedestal, could survey the Acropolis with all its temples, the venera- ble Areopagus and beyond the city the extended plains and villages of Attica with corn fields, olive grounds and vineyards." A LINK BETWEEN OLD AND NEW. As might be expected, the museums of Athens are rich in antiqui- ties, but that care is not observed in their arrangement and the restora- tion of fragmentary works of art which makes the museums of Italy of such satisfactory interest ; so that if one is not an expert himself, or can not obtain the services of some member of the University or other learned Greek, he will wander about bewildered and dissatisfied. There is one class of figures which have been excavated from cemeteries in Megara, Cyrene, Tanagra and other localities west and north of Athens, viz. :^ — terra-cotta figures, often delicate in form and color, averaging nine or ten inches in height. They represent ladies and shepherds, usually gracefully draped, but some of them are badly modeled, as if the work of inexperienced hands. The old Greeks mention a class of tradesmen who made toys for children, and scholars have compared their descriptions with these figures and conclude that they fit one another. The dresses of the ladies are often pink and blue, with golden fringes, the hair is fair and drawn back from the forehead, while the styles of costumes might have been copied from the Greek ladies and peasants of to-day. This terra-cotta work, which, in its coloring resem- bles the modern Bisque ware, is chiefly found on cupboards and in cabinets of private houses at Athens, although the museums are not without them. In one particular the collection of antiquities is remark. 672 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. ably complete. Attic vases, lamps and inscriptions have been indus- triously collected, studied, deciphered and classified, and much precise historical information has been thereby gained. MODERN ATHENS. Such ruins and evidences of ancient life as these, with a few new wooden houses, one or two solid structures, and two lines of planked sheds which formed a bazaar, is a sketch of Athens as it was several years after Greece had become independent of the Turks. Her great harbor of Piraeus, once connected with the city by broad walls five miles in length, was a piece of deal boarding projecting a few feet into the sea, to serve as a landing stage for small boats, and a wooden hut for a guard. The walls have not been rebuilt ; but Athens contains a population of over 85,000 people, and Piraeus is a flourishing manu- facturing suburb, containing an imposing array of steam factories. The miserable wooden buildings and crooked streets, which at first disgraced the city, have given place to broad and clean thoroughfares, and impos- ing edifices devoted to learning — the University, whose faculty con- sists of about fifty professors and tutors ; the Academia, the observa- tory, the school of Technology, the Museum, the Zappeion and the Arsakeion (a college for the higher education of women). In point of beauty the institutions of learning take the lead. The University stands out in classic outlines, its white columns contrasting strangely and strikingly with its deep red interior wall. The Arsakeion is a great structure of white stucco, with marble portal separated from the boulevard by a handsome iron railing. The Greek and French academies are superbly constructed of Pentelic marble, the latter costing over a million dollars. Other institutions, which have been named and which show the tendency of the modern Greek, are equally grand and durable. A plain, square palace for the King ; a splendid edifice for the Young Ladies' Institute — that tells the story. And "not one of the least interesting of street sights in Athens are the long files of children of both sexes from the public schools and orphan asylums, as they take their afternoon walk through the boulevards — the boys in gray or blue uniforms, and the girls in homespun frocks and spotless white pinafores. They are the ever moving sign of the ever progressive educational life in Greece." The zeal which is observed in all classes of the Greeks must be genuine ; there is nothing like a hot-house growth about it. Education is not compulsory, and yet the state expends more, proportionately, in the cause than any other nation in the v^^orld. The very children are said MODERN ATHENS. 673 to cry for books and run away, later, from their country homes, and heroic- ally deny themselves almost the necessities of life, that they may enter the gymnasia or University of Athens. The ambition to enter the latter may be also tainted with aspirations of a political nature, for the Univer- sity has had many eminent men connected with it, patriots and states- men as well as scholars, and its wide-awake professors do not allow any national movement to pass by without having a voice and taking a hand in it. The popular system of education nas four grand divisions. First come the communal, or elementary schools, in which are taught the com- mon branches, the history and geography being trimmed to Grecian tastes. The Hellenic schools are devoted to French, Latin and Greek and the gymnasium to Latin, Greek, French, English, German, the nat- ural, mental and moral sciences. The University is expected to cover the ground of colleges in other countries. A Virginia gentleman, who sees certain weaknesses in these eager, ambitious Greeks, thus relieves himself : "At present one sees a nation of school children, satchel in hand, going to the newest sciences to be fed with the latest develop- ments — hearty, winsome, eloquent and obliging children withal, but entirely too much given to gongs and pancakes. A sound castigation now and then from reasonable people, a decided set-down of national conceit, some glimmering intuitions of the geographical proportions and importance of other countries, a little logic of events, and economy both political and private, both in word and in deed ; these are elements toward the realization of that pining for nationality which has become a malady with the Greeks." Modern Athens lies on a plain, spreading out from the Acrop- olis like a fan. Around it are the other historic elevations which have been mentioned, overlooking the new city with an air of boldness and dignity. The famous olive groves near the city, in which the old phi- losophers walked, and the Queen's garden, which half encircles the King's palace, and which has not inaptly been called "the city's leafy crown," are welcome reliefs to the gray old hills and ruins and the houses of yellow stucco. South of the garden rise the ruined columns of the Temple of Jupiter. The King's palace is in need of the beauties of the flowers, lakes and winding walks of the lady's garden, for it is a plain building of white marble, without any pretensions to architectural comeliness. A broad boulevard passes in front of the palace, garden, square of Olympium (where Jupiter's Temple is), the Acropolis, and the Temple of Theseus, after which it swings around Athens entire. The principal hotels of the city are in the Square of the Constitution, sepa- 43 674 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. rated from the King s palace by a small grove of orange trees. The street of Hermes extends from this square toward the Piraeus road, over a mile away. Other streets which cross the square penetrate this busy quarter of the city, with its hotels, coffee houses, politicians, tobacco shops, book stores, cheap jewelry booths, and gaudily dressed citizens. The Cathedral or Metropolitan Church is large, and colored outside with red and yellow stripes ; there is no other religious edifice in Athens so imposing, although several small Byzantine churches hold the attention because of their quaint style of architecture. THE GREEK AND HIS COSTUMES. In Athens and other large towns the jacket and white skirt of the old-fashioned Greek, with leather pistol pouch, are giving place to Anglo- Saxon and French costumes. The blue trousers and crimson sash of the Cretan, however, are being more slowly discarded. They are quite becoming and constant attention to cleanliness is not so necessary as when a man is wearing the short white petticoats which were character- istic of the national dress. The peasant woman in the national costume is now seldom seen in the streets of Athens, even in the vicinity of her busy market place, but the shepherd often wends his way to that point, dressed in his hooded cloak of sheepskin, and driving before him his goats or turkeys. From shepherd to lady is not so great a stride as it would be in many other countries ; for even in the highest society her dress and deportment is quiet — classically quiet — and there is little of that ostentation which in many countries makes the gulf so wide between the rich and poor. PORTERS AND MERCHANTS. Here, in fact, will be gathered representatives of most of the clear- cut Grecian types of the humbler people. The peddler pushing his cart before him, or the prouder proprietor of the little stall, are both crying up their goods and apparently attempting to drown the newsboy's shout. They may all be incipient samples of the coming Greek merchant, who has in his nature the cunning and enterprise of his ancient forefathers, but finds his country too small a field for his talents. It may be best that they remain in Athens, as many of their countrymen in Asia Minor, in Africa, in Arabia, India and the islands of all the Eastern seas, who have engaged in larger ventures have spread the impression over the world that Greek merchants are personifications of shrewd unscrupulous- ness. The most earnest of the street characters, after these small trades- THE GREEK AT HOME. 675 men, are the Maltese porters, who with coils of rope over their shoulders are on the look-out for travelers, or purchasers of heavy goods who may wish to have them transported. "If the purchaser is furnishing a house," say.s one who knows, "the scene becomes amusing; for unless the shop- keeper knows his customer's residence and an agreement is made with him to send the articles home, the stranger as he passes through the fashionable quarter of the town may be surprised to find himself followed by a procession of Maltese porters, in single file, the first shouldering a bedstead, the second a wardrobe, the third a washstand, the fourth a centre-table, while chairs, pots and frying pans bring up the rear." The sight-seer notices that even in the hubbub of the market-place ■every one is polite. Men take off their hats to each other when they meet and when they part. The customer even observes the same courtesy in entering and leaving the shop of the tradesman who, he knows, will swindle him if he can. Bearded friends are even more demonstrative. They kiss each other on the cheeks, pressing each other's hand the while, as if they had not met for half a lifetime. When finally they are free of each other it is observed that they commence to finger strings of beads, and this they do, not that they are saying their prayers, but merely for want of something to do with their hands. There are dishonest Greek merchants as there are dishonest commer- cial orentlemen in England and America, but the wholesale slauofhter of their characters, in which crime many Europeans indulge, is quite unjust. Their ways of dealing are often not as direct, as blunt, as those of Western nations, and their shrewdness — often merely employed as a chess or a checker player would his nimblest wit — has gained the advan- tage of many members of the commercial world. Their ideas are also offensively republican, and in all territories where Turkish influence is felt it is useless to expect anything but the blackness of the foulest char- acter to fall upon the Greek. THE GREEK AT HOME. What they are at home, what the Greeks are in Athens and in other large towns ought to be an assurance that, abroad, they are not entirely delivered to the Evil One. Classical scholars, who are also historical students, find that the Greeks of 2,000 years ago are the Greeks of to-day — oftentimes with the same features, virtually speaking the same language, subtle, vain of dress and of martial bearing, proud, ambitious, intellectual, inquisitive, restless and patriotic — both man and woman, priest and layman. The family relation is sacred. Fathers 676 ^ PANORAMA OF NATIONS, sacrifice themselves to give their children good educations. Brothers will not marry until their sisters are provided for; and the daughter or sister is expected to "listen to reason," and, if she does not find the gentleman really distasteful, to abide by the judgment of her elders. The Greeks are emphatically a chaste people- — so say they who have lived among them. They are a temperate people; for though they drink wine made from pure grape juice, fermented in barrels, they leave rum and brandy to foreigners and sailors. Of the foreigners. English- men and Americans are reported to be the hardest drinkers. The Greeks are hospitable as in the ancient days — they feed a beggar before they listen to his story. The majority of the dwelling houses are found in the newer por- tion of Athens, as compared to the district whose nucleus is the King's palace and the Square of the Constitution. They are generally built of cobble stones, with an entrance through a gate and courtyard for the first flat family and another front door for the second flat people. Each house has its balcony, which is generally occupied by the lady of the house and her friends, who, during pleasant weather, visit each other out-of-doors and enjoy the sights. Inside, the furnishings are so plain as to make the rooms seem almost bare. A few rugs on the floor, chairs and sofas, with gaily colored ceilings, however comprise the chief addi- tions to plain boards. Behind the house, again, is the garden, where the average Greek lives when at home, if he is not smoking or gossiping in his balcony. "In very many of the gardens, or in the court yards of private dwell- ings, the visitor notices small fragments of ancient sculpture set up against the wall or inserted in it ; portions of vases, bas-reliefs, a trunk- less head, or a headless trunk, inscriptions, etc., which were discovered for the most part on the spot where they are now seen, having been turned up in the excavations during the progress of the building. The removal of antiquities from the country is now forbidden by law, but the discoverer is permitted to retain them as his personal property." LIFE AND DEATH. It will be during the winter and early spring months that the aver- age Athenian will most revel in the charms of his climate. The rains of autumn are followed by a soft, glorious sunlight, and though a brisk northern zephyr may occasionally stray into the city and snow may whiten the summits of neighboring mountains, all in all Old Probs is a god who rules with wonderful discretion. During the late spring, summer and fall, hot blasts sweep over the plains of Attica and the THE FAMOUS LAURIUM MINES. 677 Athenian is covered and choked with dust without, or driven to his house by swarms of insects to undergo partial suffocation, to the baths near the city, to his country estate, or to the islands of the seas. Necessarily, the social season of Athens is confined to the winter and spring months. Society is exclusive, although its entertainments are on a small scale. The royal dinners and balls, enjoyed several times monthly, are given in the palace — in one of the finest halls of Europe — and at these gatherings the men and women of the best society reveal the fact that the former are the lovers of dress ; for no gentleman who can appear in a gaudy uniform with a decoration neglects to make him- self prominent. The season is closed with the carnival, the upper classes maintaining the same good breeding which marks their conduct in sea- sons of unlicensed conviviality ; the mass of people, however, throng the streets attired in fantastic costumes, and act as common mortals always do during the carnival season. Toward this scene of boisterous gayety comes a Greek funeral pro- cession, the priests, or it may be, a single priest, in front, chanting his service. Loud voices are hushed, grotesque head pieces are removed and the sign of the cross is upon every breast. The corpse is borne in a light, open casket, and is attired in every-day garments ; the head is ele- vated as if the shut eyes were gazing in adoration at the picture of the Virgin, which is placed upon the breast. Should the deceased be a female, her cheeks and lips are painted red. A peculiarity of the Greek procession is that the mourners do not follow the coffin in solemn couples but group around it, as if loth to leave the side of their dear one. " When a person of distinguished position dies," says a late U, S. Minister to Greece, " the funeral procession becomes an imposing spec- tacle, with the bishop and priests in their gorgeous sacerdotal robes, numerous lighted candles and martial music. I once saw the body of a venerable bishop of the Greek Church carried in procession through the streets of Athens. He was seated in his bishop's chair, elevated above the people, and was clothed in his canonical robes with mitre on head and the crosier uplifted in his hand. A cloth around the forehead bound it to the back of the chair, but not sufficiently close to prevent the head from bobbing up and down, as if the dead man's pale and rigid features were saluting, for the last time, the people among whom he had exercised his holy office for over three score years. In this position he was placed in the grave, a peculiar honor to his ecclesiastical rank." THE FAMOUS LAURIUM MINES. The district south of Athens, in Southeastern Attica, is a collection of mountains with a few villages, the only one of historic interest being 678 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Ergasteria ; and that village is only famous for the mines near it. To- the left of Athens is Salamis, to the right, but further north, the plain of Marathon, and to the south the mines of Laurium. Silver, lead, zinc and antimony have been taken from the rocky promontory from remote antiquity. They are known to have been successfully worked in Themis- tocles' time up to the commencement of the Christian era, and tradi- tion even makes the founders of the industry to be the ancient Phoeni- cians. They were a very important source of Athens' wealth, supplying her with money with which to build her fleets and maintain her power;: in fact, there is reason to suspect that many vessels were constructed by the Athenians as much to obtain a firm possession of the mines, which were more than a score of mountainous miles away, as to maintain her political freedom. Nicias, the Athenian general — the cautious, the pious, the super- stitious Nicias, who, with Demosthenes, was put to death because his fleet was destroyed by the enemy, the gods through an eclipse of the moon having ordered him to risk an engagement — Nicias, the pious cap- italist, worked the mines of Laurium, and drove his thousand slaves under ground into the stifling atmosphere laden with the poisonous smoke from the lead furnaces. This was the fifth century B. C. During the Pelo- ponnesian War there appear to have been some interruptions in the workings, and in the first century of our era, Strabo says that these, once celebrated mines were exhausted ; that new mining did not pay, and that people were smelting the poorer ore and the scoriae from which the ancients had imperfectly separated the metal. From that time until the latter portion of the present century operations were conducted in a heartless fashion. In 1863 Marseilles capitalists purchased the mines, with the privilege of working them or using the scoriae from which the ancients had not completely separated the ore. The modern enterprise was so successful that the Greek government repented of its bargain and complications arose which overturned several ministries and caused France and Italy to interfere to protect the interests of the Marseilles capitalists. The government claimed that they attempted to evade pay- ment of ground rent. The chasm was bridged, however, by the sale of the mines to a Greek company. The town which modern companies have built is occupied by about 3,000 operatives. The refuse which the ancient miners threw from the bowels of the mountains and piled near the openings of the pits in im- mense hillocks, is much of it covered with earth and vegetation ; but neither French nor Greek company has found it profitable to open up new veins of ore, but continues to excavate the refuse and truck it down marathon's plain. 679 to the port of Ergasteria, where it is smelted. The result is much lead and little silver. Many of the old pits — centuries old — are still open, and entrance into the earth is effected by means of good steps, the passages being two or three miles in length ; they are on a colossal scale, well arched and carefully supported according to the strict injunc- tions of Athenian law. It is said that in some of these vast passage- ways are many inscriptions, in which the name of Nicias appears. MARATHON'S PLAIN. A crescent-shaped strip of land by the sea-shore, looking toward the east and surrounded by hills, on the direct line of travel across a bold peninsula to Athens — this is the famous plain of Marathon. When the Athenians marched through a broad valley to the southwest and came upon the plain, the Persians had landed at its northern extremity, where the water was deep, and there was no swamp land along the shore. The Grecian army marched out to meet them, for had the Persians been allowed to gain the village of Marathona, they would have rounded a. mountain spur, descended into the plain of Attica, and put themselves between the Greeks and their capital. But marching along the crest of a chain of hills, the Greeks covered Marathona, and ventured out into the plain to give the host of invaders battle. The central point of the conflict is fixed by a mound of clay, thirty feet high, upon which formerly stood a lion of victory ; but the lion has mj'steriously disappeared and the mound has been honey-combed by antiquarians. It is half a mile from the sea, and a mile from the steep slope of one of the hills. The plain is treeless, but a few small fields of grain, in season, cluster around the battle mound, and herds of cattle wander along the peaceful shore which was once alive with hosts of proud and then affrighted Persians. There are a few silent herdsmen about, either sleepily watching their charges, or bathing in the blue waters ; but, it may be, that there is no other sign of life on land or sea. The Italian beggar, though he has penetrated to most historical spots, does not disturb the serenity of the picture. The plain is six miles by two, and Lord Byron tells us that the Greek government offered him this entire tract of land for a sum which would be equivalent to less than five thousand dollars. ROCKY SALAMIS. Ten miles west of Athens is " Rocky Salamis," with its lofty moun- tains and rocky hills. It was the key to the harbor of Piraeus, which, in turn, covered glorious Athens. Li the seventh century B. C. it became 680 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. a portion of Attica, for although it contains only thirty square miles it had been made a kingdom by the father of the mighty Ajax. Solon was born within its barren limits and so was Euripides, but most of all is the stanch isle famous for the victory which Themistocles gained over the fleet of Xerxes, near its rocky shores. In modern times it has been a place of refuge to which the people of Attica have retreated when pressed by the Turks. On the bay of Salamis, north of the island, is a wretched village con- taining a great marble pavement and around whose huts lie vast frag- ments of pillars and capitals. To this wretched village of Eleusis cling the most sacred memories of ancient Greece, and these fragments of ruins mark the sites of the grand temples in which were celebrated the religious mysteries in honor of Ceres, the goddess of agriculture and the representative of the procreative power in nature. From gross mytho- logical representations the festivals were gradually so refined that they were believed to be symbolic of the unity of God and the immortality of the soul. The religious exercises were free to all, but in the secret alle- gorical representations no one participated except the initiated ; we say free to all, but an exception was made in the cases of murderers, bar- barians, slaves, epicureans and, later, of Christians. But notwithstanding these exclusions, the broadest minds of Greece and Rome, from Plato to Cicero, were enthusiastic in praise of the purifying influences of the Mysteries. Cicero, who was one of the initiated, has this to say of them : "Much that is excellent and divine does Athens seem to me to have produced and added to our life, but nothing better than those Mysteries, by which we are formed and moulded from a rude and savage life to humanity; and indeed in the Mysteries we perceive the real principles of life, and learn not only to live happily but to die with a fairer hope." FROM ATHENS TO THEBES. If the Athenians retain any of their ancient animosities toward the Thebans, they must take a grim satisfaction in the low estate to which their city is fallen. The road between the two places is good, and although a great semi-circular fort, built of square hewn stones with its massive towers, still commands the passes of the mountains which separate Boetiafrom Attica, it merely frowns upon the traveler, but is harmless. It is a relic of the time when Attica was obliged to protect every approach to Athens, and especially when Sparta and Thebes were banded against her. This fort was a garrison, capable of accommodating not merely an army, but, in case of a sudden invasion, many shepherds with their flocks and herds. The straight wall is perfect, the curved side having fallen to FROM THEBES TO MOUNT PARNASSUS. . 68 1 pieces in many places. The chief point of defense must have been where the fort passes over a huge rock which bars the one path toward which the roads from Boetia converge to pass the crest of a mountain on their way toward Athens. From the fort, two or three miles distant, can be seen the mountain pass which commands a complete view of the plain of Thebes and the whole of Boetia, the scene of so many great battles, — Plataea, Leuctra, Coronea, Chaeroneia and others, the latter being the battle ground upon which Philip of Macedon crushed the liberties of Greece. After the death of Philip, the Thebans attempted to regain their freedom, but the son, Alexander, was even to be more feared than the father, for he took their city, leveled it to the ground and sold its inhabitants into slavery. It was rebuilt, destroyed by the Romans, and, as if man were not stern enough, nature has opened its jaws to swallow it and has many times shaken down its walls. So that there is, perhaps, no city which stands upon its ancient site having so few fragments to show of its past life. With the exception of a few foundations in the ground and several inscribed slabs stowed away in a rough shed, ancient Thebes has disappeared from the face of the earth, architecturally speaking, and is known principally as a city which furnished many bold warriors the poet Pindar and the brave and virtu- ous Epaminondas. Modern Thebes contains a few thousand people, and near by is pointed out what purports to be the tomb of St. Luke. Its water sup- ply is excellent, being led from adjacent springs through conduits of marble, which are, by the way, one other remnant of ancient days. FROM THEBES TO MOUNT PARNASSUS. From Thebes, toward the west, toward Mount Parnassus and Del- phi, is through a rich country, in many places marshy. The famous battle sites in this region are passed by, some of the towns surrounded by faint outlines of ancient walls. Skirting around the shores of Lake Copias splendid specimens of the hill forts are seen, the walls, as were those of Athens' maritime port, being constructed of square hewn stones, clamped with iron and lead. In fact, remains of these wonderful fortifications are so common among the mountains which separated for- mer rival states that they have often escaped particular mention. From the lake toward the three-peaked mount, covered with the snows of heaven and sacred to Bacchus, Apollo and the Muses, the journey lies through Chaeroneia, which has its grand acropolis, a huge fort upon a rock which commands the country around the lake and toward 682 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the northwest — toward Thessaly and ancient Macedonia, from whence marched the great conqueror of Greece. Although the fort wall is but a few feet in height, it is placed upon the edges of sheer descents or natural fortifications, and even now shows an outline of fully a mile running over the rock. A curiosity which no traveler misses, albeit there is nothing historical about it, is the little open-air theatre cut out of solid rock, a copy of the enormous structures in other parts of Greece and Italy. But from Chaeroneia came the industrious and wise Plutarch, and the great historian and biographer was wont to sit in this little rocky theatre and enjoy what hours of leisure he had. Near the theatre is a beautiful Greek fountain ; beautiful maidens, wearing neck- laces of gold and silver coins and garments of rich embroidered wool, are working in the gardens of the houses, a marble lion, in whose upturned face as he crouches upon a mound of earth is expressed the heroic grief of fallen Thebes and conquered Greece, are a few contrast- ing pictures which meet the tourist who lingers at Chseroneia. But sooner or later, every traveler in Greece, as every native did in the olden times, reaches the oracle of Delphi. The scenery along the different routes which lead to Mount Parnassus (or as modern geog- raphers have it Mount Liakura), is calculated to draw one away from himself into the region of the gods — and the shepherds and mountaineers have a firm faith in their existence, especially if their native town has rocked and heaved, or a milder earthquake has sent a boulder into their midst from an insecure height. Many of their songs and ballads bear witness to the honesty of their beliefs. They are a vigorous and long- lived people and bear the greatest animosity toward Charon, their god of death, when he claims the life of the young. The story goes — where it comes from no one knows — that one of these simple shepherds was in the habit of feeding his flocks near the base of Mount Parnassus, where two of its peaks come so closely together as to form a dark, mysterious gorge ; from the fissure burst forth a mighty fountain, or stream. Near by was a small opening in the ground from which arose a cool vapor. It was a charming place for the shepherd's goats, and they quietly browsed and nibbled, unless by chance they approached too near the issuing vapor. Then they sprang about as if they were mad. The shepherd investigated, breathed the divine vapor and immediately commenced to prophesy. The wonder spread from shepherd to shepherd, from hamlet to hamlet, until the oracle of Apollo became established and the inhabitants of a neighboring town, upon one of the slopes of the mountain, united to form the town of Delphi. Nobility joined with peasantry, and the next we notice is FROM THEBES TO MOUNT PARNASSUS, 683. that the fame of the oracle has extended over Greece, and that the fountain which issued from the cavern between the sacred peaks was confined in a great square basin cut from the rock, and the vaporous fissure was surrounded by a grand temple of marble. Within the tem- ple was a golden statue of Apollo and 3,000 exquisite works in bronze and marble. Over the chasm from which arose the inspiring vapor was a three-legged seat — a bronze tripod, formed of three intertwined ser- pents. . Upon the tripod was an awe-stricken woman, and before her were gravely attentive priests, and men and women whose heads were bound with olive garlands or fillets of wool. The vast temple was thronged with silent spectators and worshipers at the shrine of the god. Those whose heads were bound had come to consult the oracle upon matters of state, war, adventure, or private moment. The priestess was of low birth ; the priests, or interpreters, were nobles. As the woman breathed the ascending vapor she began to writhe and at last to rave incoherently to the multitude. Her words, however, were interpreted by the attending priests, the oracle being immediately delivered in verse, or handed over by them to the poet of the temple. The fame of the oracle spread from Greece over the civilized world, and pilgrims from many lands were attracted to Delphi. The priests were thus able to collect information of a truly cosmopolitan range, and the responses which issued from the shrine in answer to the inquiries of warriors, statesmen, and even kings, were to the world divinely wise and prophetic. The fame of the oracle made Delphi a wealthy city, but in the many subsequent wars through which she passed, her people were obliged to witness the destruction of their own town, and the denuding of the famous temple. With the rise of Christianity, also, the power of the oracle decayed, and the priestess of the temple, through her far-seeing attendants, thus confessed it when the Emperor Julian, in 362 A. D., came to receive divine instruction: "Tell the Kingr the fair-wrouo^ht dwelling has sunk into the dust ; Phoebus has no longer a shelter or a prophetic laurel, neither has he a speaking fountain ; the fair water is dried up." A few years thereafter, the Emperor Theodosius closed the pagan oracle. The marble temple fell into ruins, the cleft from which issued the inspiring vapors was filled up by Christians, and after time and piety had done their work, the huge hand of the earthquake fell upon the scene, tumbled the ruins down the cliffs, and cast a mighty boulder into the basin of the fountain in whose sacred waters the pilgrims purified themselves before approaching the shrine of Apollo. But the spring still gushes from between Parnassus' peaks, and upon a small plateau 684 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. far above the modern town of Castri, are marks of a race course where the public games were celebrated as early as the sixth century B. C. ON SACRED GROUND. Climbing one of the off-shoots of Parnassus by a steep, rocky path, a table-land, usually covered with green, is reached ; on one side towers the gray, round peak of Apollo and the Muses and the smaller white peak sacred to Bacchus. The word sacred is used with a reservation, for the orgies which were held in his name near this peak were so shameful that they were celebrated by the women of Attica and Delphi at night. They were clad in fawn-skins, danced about with wildly streaming hair and swung about the thyrsus, the staff entwined with ivy and surmounted by a pine cone, or a bunch of vine leaves, which was Bacchus' godlike wand of office. The ox, which was sacred to the god, was, by some illogical freak, always torn to pieces, and in very ancient times human sacrifices were not uncommon. In a hill opposite to Parnassus is an immense cavern ; its roof thick with stalactites and its floor with huge, snowy stalagmites. It was a favorite place of refuge in both the Persian and Turkish wars, but its classical interest lies in the story which makes it the birthplace of Hero- phila, the first sibyl who prophesied at Delphi. CORINTH AND THE PELOPONNESUS. As Corinth was the key to the Peloponnesus, in a military sense, so it is the natural starting point for the tourist in his travels. No great masters of literature lent their names toward its adornment, but it ever maintained the commercial character with which it was endowed when the Phoenicians, or some other mercantile colonists, gave it birth. Its wealth furnished the means by which Athens was so harassed during •the Peloponnesian war, and until it became jealous of the growing power of Sparta, its sympathies and fleets were with the latter as against both Thebes and Athens. Corinth was the center of the league formed .against the Romans, who, in revenge, during the second century B. C, utterly destroyed it. A century thereafter, it was rebuilt by Julius Csesar, .and for 1800 years was alternately in the hands of Romans, Venetians and Turks. During the Greek revolution the latter burned it to the ground and in 1858 the straggling efforts of a new city were swallowed by an earthquake. The most of modern Corinth is built around the ruins of the ancient city, and is already a busy town. Old Corinth exists only in a few broken walls and seven giant pil- Agamemnon's city. ' 685, lars, each formed of a single stone. But the supreme attraction is the great citadel or acropolis, called the Acrocorinthus. It is an isolated hill, 2,000 feet high, separated from the mountain range on the north by a wide plain. At its foot lie the ruins of Old Corinth and the new town_ Anciently, the city was surrounded by walls which included her gigantic watch-tower. She had two harbors, one on the ^gean coast, the other on the Gulf of Lepanto, which opens into the Adriatic sea, the latter being connected with the city by two strong walls. The approach of an enemy from Rome or Persia, from Athens, Thebes or Sparta, could be discerned miles away; Grecian foes, in fact, could scarcely have vent- ured out from their cities before they would have been discerned by the watchman upon the acropolis. According to military authorities the Acrocorinthus is the most gigantic natural citadel in Europe, not except- ing Athens or Gibraltar. The surface of the rock is a mile square, and inside the wall which bounds it are the ruins of a large Turkish town, its poor deserted houses having been built almost entirely from the marbles and stones of Old Corinth. About the middle of the plateau, where it descends quite abruptly, is the famous well of Pirene, which Grecian mythology makes out to have formerly been a broken-hearted mother, weeping crystal tears at the death of her son. The water averages twelve feet in depth and is absolutely colorless, or so nearly so that it is impossible to discover where its surface touches the marble steps by which one descends. A ruined marble structure stands over the fountain, covered with Greek inscriptions. The well of Pegasus is also worth drinking from, although, the statue of the famous steed, which formerly surmounted it, is gone. AGAMEMNON'S CITY. South from Corinth, passing between chalky hills, with goats and bees on every side, one comes upon the ruins of Mycenae, the city of King Agamemnon, the stately king who led the Grecian forces against Troy to avenge his brother's insult. The walls of the city may be traced running along the backbone of a ridge which rises from a plain,, beyond which are a deep ravine and a chain of high mountains. They are built of enormous blocks of stone, and the principal gate is of a like style of architecture, over it being two stone lions who seem about to. dispute the passage of any one beneath them. Outside of the city walls, or the citadel, is a hill, within which are situated two chambers, circular in form and constructed in the titanic style, which has given rise to the story that Mycenae's walls were built: by the Cyclops. The largest of them is 40 feet high and 50 feet broad. 686 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. The lintel-stone of the entrance is 27 feet long, and from above it grows a fig tree, which throws a soft shade over the blackness of the doorway. The chambers, or structure, have been called "the treasury of Atreus" — Atreus being the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus. But the position of the subterranean chambers, outside the walls of the city and separated from it also by a ravine, has led thoughtful investi- gators to consider it as a tomb — as the tomb of Agamemnon. THE MOST ANCIENT GREECE. Beyond Mycenae, nearer the sea, is Tiryns, and Argos lies upon the shore. These three cities, Tiryns being surrounded by a fortress of more primitive construction than that of Mycenae, were the scenes of the very earliest Greek settlements. Per- seus, the son of Jupiter, is, in fact, said to have lived at Argos, to have ruled over Tiryns and to have founded My- cenae. The walls of Tiryns, which are covered with thistles, are built of rude stones and occupy a low hill. The ruins seem to consist of a small fort with an outer wall, several towers and a remark- able covered gallery. Unlike Mycenae and Tiryns, Argos is a modern town, exhibiting many marks of prosperity. Its manufactures of silks and carpets are not unimportant, and, in promise and performance, it ranks perhaps next to Athens. Ancient Argos, upon whose site it is built, has always been considered the oldest settlement in Greece, its history stretching so far back into mythology that its early portion is valueless. In the peninsular of Argolis, if not near Argos, Hercules himself is believed to have been born. Argos was at one time the head of a powerful Doric league, and was a city of famous musicians, of artists and of priests. Latterly, Sparta robbed it of its supremacy, as Argos crushed Mycenae. The most noteworthy remains of its former magnificence are those of its vast open-air theatre, cut from the rock, and overlooking the blue bay of Argolis, with lofty mountains all around. Some seventy tiers of seats are still to be counted, and there are doubtless many more at the foot of EMBOSSED SHOULDER STRAP. SPARTA AND MESSENIA. 687 the hill covered with rubbish. The town's little museum has several striking pieces of statuary illustrative of ancient Greek art. A relief of the head of Medusa, on a square block of white marble, is a memento of the adventures of the mighty Perseus. Near Argos, where the plain opens upon the sea, is the Lernean marsh where Hercules obtained his victory over the hydra-headed mon- ster, and not many miles away is where he conquered the Nemean lion. The entire plain of Argos, in fact, is so famous, and the natives were of so heroic and adventurous a spirit, that other nations often spoke of the Greeks themselves as Argives. SPARTA AND MESSENIA. The next point of great interest, going south from Argos, is Sparta, and on the road between the two places, a rugged hill is passed, where Epaminondas, the great man and general of Thebes, received his death- wound and died in the moment of victory, with the names of his two daughters upon his lips. There is also an ancient town called Tegea, containing a church with five domes, which is erected upon the site of the temple of Minerva ; in this latter structure was long preserved the skin of the Calydonian boar — another of Hercules' victims. Modern Sparta is a fresh-looking town, with broad streets, sur- rounded by groves of olive trees and fields of corn, and beyond are ■clayey hills and snowy mountains, flecked with patches of bright green. The substantial looking houses, with their bright gardens and orchards of orange trees, are enclosed by white-washed walls. Naturally, the old acropolis stands near the site of old Sparta, of which virtually nothing remains. The museum contains among its small array of antiquities a head, found in the neighborhood, and supposed to represent Lycurgus. Still swinging in an irregular circle around Peloponnesus, and leaving Sparta for the west, another locality must be noticed, for it was made famous by the battle of Leuctra in which Epaminondas broke the power of the tyrannic Spartans and founded a city as a place of refuo-e for all who were oppressed. The modern town of Sinano, built upon a plain fringed with high hills, occupies the site of ancient Megalopolis, into which were drawn the people from forty towns of Arcadia, but which was finally burned by the Spartans and its inhabitants slaughtered. A few miles west of Sinano is the rude village of Leondari, which lies uoon the edge of the old battle-ground. Beyond, toward the Adriatic Sea, are the fertile plains of Messenia, whose beautiful cities and bounteous harvests of wheat, the Spartans coveted and conquered. For three centuries the Messenians exiled 688 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. themselves to Sicily, where they founded Messina, but at the end of that period the descendants of the conquered people joyfully responded to the invitation of Epaminondas (369 B. C), returned to possess their native land and built the new city of Messene. Here it is, or at the foot of a mountain peak near their city, that the ancient Messinians made their last stand for their country, un- der the brave Aristomenes, and whose shield, three centuries later, Epaminon- das set up as a standard on the battle- field of Leuctra. The ruins of the second Messene, built under the direction of the Theban patriot to the sound of the flute, are still visible on the plain and over sev- eral bold ridges of land. "The walls must have been thirty feet high. Their huore stones are fitted totjether without mortar. One of the high towers still stands, and you can trace portions of others and mark the course of the walls over the crest of several hills. But most surprising is the central gate, called the gate of Arcadia. It is double, containing a circular court sixty-two feet in diameter. This court is all lined with masonry of gigantic stones, and has niches which once contained statues." From the summits of the surrounding hills, the monks and villagers of the plain ^ saw the mighty flames which announced the destruction of the Turkish navy by that of the allied powers, at Navarino. VENUS OF MiLo. f hc samc bay of Navarino, over twenty- two centuries ago, witnessed the great sea-fight between the Athenians, under Cleon, and the Spartans, in which the latter were defeated. A FAMOUS STATUE. At this point we leave the Peloponnesus, for a short time, to visit an island of the sea, some seventy miles east of Lacedsemonia, of which Sparta was the capital. Milo, one of the Cyclades, was early colonized by the Lacedaemonians, and, at the time of the Peloponnesian war, its PEACEFUL OLYMPIA AND HER GAMES. 689 capital, which was called by that name, was a great city. But it was cap- tured and ruined by the Athenians, its adult males put to death and the balance of the populace sold into slavery. The works of art, which, within the past century have been found in and about Milo, indicate that the city partook largely of the enthusiasm which Phidias and his school inspired for both the sublime and the beautiful. The great mas- ter was in the height of his fame a few years before Milo was destroyed, and among other works of art which were discovered near the city, dur- ing the early part of the present century, the Venus — the Venus of Milo, in the palace of the Louvre, Paris — is believed to be, at least, the work of one of his imitators. PEACEFUL OLYMPIA AND HER GAMES. We now travel north toward a beautiful valley, into which the fierce wars between the states of Greece did not enter for several cent- uries more than a thousand years — Olympia, the scene of the great games celebrated in honor of the father of the gods. Their origin antedates history. The first firm step upon which one can stand is the recorded fact that they were revived by the King of Elis in 776 B. C. At first the contestants were confined to Peloponnesus, but the favor was afterward extended to the whole of Greece and to Rome. For ten months previous to the celebration of the games the combatants trained in the great gymnasium, and when the month of July came around heralds started out to traverse every state of Greece and pro- claim the cessation of hostilities ; and whether in peace or war the ter- ritory of Olympia was held inviolable. The most sanctified spot of the sacred valley was the grove, which enclosed a level space about 4,000 by 2,000 feet, in which were the tem- ples, monuments, altars, theatres and grounds for the celebration of the games. On two sides the sacred grove was bounded by clear streams of water, on the north by rocky hills and westward it looked toward the Ionian sea; a broad way crossed the grounds from east to west, along which the processions passed in honor of the proud victors. The two most magnificent buildings were the "Olympium," which contained a colossal statue of Zeus by the renowned Phidias, as well as other splen- did figures and paintings, and the Heraeum, dedicated to Hera, the wife of the god, and the queen of Heaven. In the latter temple was' the table on which were placed the garlands of wild olive twigs cut from a sacred tree of the sacred grove for the brows of the Olympic victors. There were also great buildings erected to preserve the thousands of offerings which poured in from wealth and genius throughout Greece. 44 690 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. At the eastern end of the grove were the stadium and hippodrome, where the contests took place. The stadium was the foot-race course and measured 606 feet 9 inches ; and from this circumstance was estabhshed tlie Greek unit of measure, a stadium. Upon the games themselves, which were celebrated every fifth year, the Greeks founded a system of chronology which con- tinued in force from 776 B. C. until 394 A. D. The Roman emperors commenced the " New Olympic Era" in 131 A. D. It will thus be seen that for nearly twelve centuries, at least, the Grecians indulged in these contests of strength and skill, the victors being as much honored as if they had carried a great battle for their country. They w^ere generally exempt from public taxation, statues were erected to them, poets of the land celebrated them in song, and they became, in fact, not only the favorite children of their native states, but the heroes of Greece. Emperors, even, entered the lists, that their names might shine with a greater lustre. With the exception of the priestess of Ceres, women were excluded from the games. They were even forbidden to be present, on pain of being thrown headlong from the Typa^an rock. Several of the priest- esses came off victors in the games, but the women, as a rule, when they had aspirations beyond the household, devoted themselves to politics^ art or poetry. One of the most noted of these women flourished nearly a century before Pindar, the Theban, arose to celebrate in verse the glories and triumphs of the national games and victors. Sappho, although born in Lesbos, off the coast of Asia Minor, formed a school of poetry, gave birth to the Sapphic metre, and gathered around her the bright minds of her own sex from many distant islands, and from Greece itself. OLYMPIA'S RUINS. A faint reflection of the glory of the games shines through history, and only a few traces of the great temples have been brought from the ruins of an earthquake. Broken segments of columns mark the site of the Temple of Zeus, and several blocks of stone tell where w^as his altar in the central part of the Olympic grounds. Opposite Zeus' Temple was that of Hera, his wife, standing in the corners of the grove ; her temple is likewise buried almost from view. Phidias' great statue of Zeus in ivory and gold has disappeared, but the grand creation of Hermes (Mer- cury) by Praxiteles, which was placed in the Temple of Hera, has been partially recovered, and, with other broken fragments so incompletely illustrating the magnificence of the past, is stored away in an unworthy ARCADIAN SIMPLICITY. 69 I museum. The temples which protected the votive offerings to the gods are yet to be explored. The gymnasium and the stadium are partially excavated, and the hippodrome hides its curiosities. The river Alpheus, upon whose banks Mercury is said to have slaughtered the sacred cattle which he stole from Apollo, has somewhat changed its course since the sacred grove was abandoned and is eating its way toward the hippo- drome, which is immediatel)' above the stadium. ARCADIAN SIMPLICITY. In order to reach the gulf of Lepanto, after viewing the ruins of Olympia, you journey in a northeasterly direction through a country bordering upon the far-famed Arcadia. This country is believed to have given birth to the Grecian Hermes ; more particularly, Mount Cyllene is said to have had the honor of being his birthplace ; four hours there- after he invented the lyre, at nightfall filched the sacred cattle from Apollo, and thus commenced his wonderful career in the fields of ad- venture,^ music, letters, gymnastics, agriculture and general ingenuity, generosity and rascality. The mountain is in the northeastern part of Arcadia and is the highest in the Peloponnesus. Arcadia was an elevated tract of country, girt and intersected with mountains, and almost isolated from the rest of Greece. So that when civilization had advanced to high and complex forms in the remainder of the country, the people of Arcadia were dancing and singing, tending their cattle and flocks in the fertile valleys of the east and hunting in the dense forests of the west. It is believed these "Arcadian" customs were accompanied by human sacrifices as late as the time of Alexander the Great. Although poets of all ages have grown rapturous over the beau- tiful simplicities of life which ruled in fair Arcadia, its inhabitants were rather so notorious for their ignorance that the Greek synonym for a blockhead was, for ages, an Arcadian youth. SOLDIER MONKS. In the mountainous region between Arcadia, Elis and Achaia in Northern Peloponnesus, was originated the revolution of 1821 against the Turkish government. From the Convent of St. Laura, upon a wooded hill, the Archbishop Germanos, of the Greek Church, first raised the standard of revolt wlrich was productive of so much ill and so much good to the people of his country. Further north is the great Convent of Megaspelion, which is built against the mouth of a great cave, and above it towers a high hill, upon 692 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. whose rocky face are stamped three crosses by nature and by God ; withhi the cave is a church and a number of cells. The convent itself is built solidly beneath, the upper portion of the massive pile consisting of several square towers, toward which many terraces of lighter buildings seem endeavoring to reach their summits. The monks of Megaspelion endeavor to prove that St. Luke wrote his gospel in Achaia and that the Virgin Mary appeared to two of their brothers, directing them to seek for her portrait in the Peloponnesus. By Divine guidance a goat was led to the cave and back again to its shepherdess. The animal bleated pathetically in the face of the maid, and appeared, furthermore,, with its beard dripping with cool water; so she returned with it finally to the miraculous cave, where, beside the crystal spring, she found a radi- ant image of Mary, modeled in wax and resin. The shepherdess was guided to the two brothers, and together they took possession of the treasure, which is still exhibited, dirty but entire, as the handiwork of St. Luke. But superstitions are not all which give interest to the convent. Its monks not only have furnished Grecian refugees with shelter but have fought the Turks in at least one pitched battle, upon a terrace named the Great Cross beyond the monastery. Here the holy men will point out, with open pride, a ruined building and portion of a tower, the remains of the Turkish garrison ; and among the treasures of the con- vent are two badges of the Order of the Saviour conferred by the King; upon soldier monks. THE GREEK CHURCH. Since the revolution the Greek Church has been a national institu- tion, incorporated into the constitution of the kingdom. In fact, so important a feature of its composition is it that the first article of the Hellenic constitution proclaims the " Orthodox Oriental Church of Christ " to be the dominant religion, and that " proselytism and all other interferences prejudicial to the dominant religion are forbidden." During" Turkish dominion the Greek Church was left untouched, as something which it was policy to leave untouched. Perhaps this policy of non- interference would not have been followed could the Porte have seen a. Greek bishop blessing the banner of revolt, and Greek priests opposing their own good swords and guns to Turkish and Egyptian soldiers. The Greek Church, therefore, which split off from the Church of Rome, on both doctrinal and ceremonial points, is itself split into three sections on the sharply-divided lines of race conflicts. Russia, Turkey and Greece has each her separate religious head. The supreme tribu- THE STYX. 69: nal in Greece, as in Russia, is the Holy Synod, consisting of archbishops, bishops and one or two priests, appointed b}- the Crown. Two officers of the government have also the right of assisting, although they do not vote at its deliberations. The synod elects the bishops, but the Crown confirms and invests them ^vith the powers of office. So interwoven is the power of the Church with the structure of the state that the Greeks can not understand how one can fall without the other. Each priest, therefore, is a warrior, each bishop a general, and each monastery a castle, not to be taken without a fierce assault. The above being a diver- sion from the mountains of Achaia into the by-paths of history, w e continue our classical and historical jour- ney. THE STYX. From Megaspelion to the Styx is a ride of a few- miles through deep valleys and over pine-clad hills, un- til you come to Mount Chel- mos, with its three peaks. From the eastern one, over lofty and precipitous rocks, ■often covered with snow, fall the waters of the Styx to the depths below ; they issue from a frowning cliff", the scenery around is weird and desolate, and it is no wonder that the Greeks associated them with the waters of the infernal river over which Charon presided. "By the Styx !" was their oath of most terrible earnestness. The waters of the Styx were believed to be poisonous and destructive to all metals, gold not excepted. Alexander the Great was reported to ha- e been poisoned by them. The waterfall has lost its A GREEK CROSS. 694 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. name of the Styx, but the ancient horrors are reflected in the modern appellations — the " Black Waters," the "Terrible Waters." THE WATERS OF LEPANTO. From the summit of any of the hills in this region one may look over the Gulf of Corinth, or Gulf of Lepanto, and see on the opposite side the snowy peaks of Parnassus. We have visited Parnassus but must linger long enough on the southern shores of the gulf to call to mind one of the greatest naval conflicts ever fought ; blocking the Gulf of Lepanto, and spreading out for three miles, vi^as the Christian fleet commanded by Don John of Austria — Spaniards and Italians loaded into 300 vessels, 80,000 strong, while majestically moving over its blue waters was the Turkish armada, with 120,000 men who believed them- BAS RELIEF— GREEK OF FIFTH CENTURY. selves to be invincible. Among the allies, after Don John, if not before him, the person in whom we take most interest was Cervantes,' who was nothing then but a common soldier. He lived, however, to see the Turkish fleet destroyed and to write himself o.ie of the kindest-hearted satirists who ever became famous. Don John lived to have the Pope weep for him and to say of him, " There was a man sent from God and his name was John." BEYOND THE HISTORIC WATERS. The Island of Corfu, or ancient Corcyra, lies off the coast of Albania, Turkey, formerly the Epiius of old Greece. It is a moun- tainous country, cut up by fertile valleys, and blessed with a mild cli- mate, the favorite summer resort of the King and Queen of Greece, and hallowed by many associations. Corfu was colonized by the Corinthians twenty-five centuries a^o, and a few short years thereafter became so- A FAMOUS SOUTHERN ISLE. 695 powerful that she vanquished her parents In the first naval engagement vi^hich history records. It has been a kingdom ; the property of the Romans, Normans, Venetians, French, Russians and Turks ; finally fell by treaty under the protectorate of Great Britain, and was ceded to Greece, its rightful owner. Ulysses is said to have been cast upon the island when tossed about by the gods on the stormy ocean, and from which he sailed home to his faithful Penelope, who had been so beset with suitors during his absence. Here Themistocles and Aristotle spent a portion of their exile, and Octavia and Antony were married, "^itus after the conquest of Jerusalem ; Helena on her way to Palestine in search of the true cross ; Augustus Caesar, who gave peace to the world ; Diocletian, the persecutor of the Christians; and poor blind Beli- sarius " are some of the illustrious persons who are said to have landed or sojourned on this island. It was near here, also, that the allied powers met to form their armada in battle array and move on toward the Gulf of Lepanto and the death of Turkish supremacy on the waters of the Southern seas. The city of Corfu and capital of the Greek monarchy is on the eastern coast of the island, only five miles from the opposite shores of Turkey, toward which its citadel boldly opposes itself, firmly planted upon a rocky point which projects out into the sea. At the west end of the town is another fortress, and still another on a small island one mile distant. It is the residence of a Greek archbishop, a town of tall, white houses and beautiful bays. " Less state!)' than Malta, and without the majesty of Gibraltar, Corfu surpasses both in its union of strength with softness of repose." Opposite Corfu are what were once the Epirus, Thessalia and Macedonia of ancient Greece, now Turkish territory A FAMOUS SOUTHERN ISLE. Far to the south — to the southern limit of the Grecian archipelago and the southernmost point of European land — ^is the Island of Candia, or Crete, in whose mountains which line the coasts was the famous labyrinth, or cave, of the Minotaur. Minos, the King of the island, is said to have been instructed by Jupiter, his father, in the government of his kingdom, and Lycurgus, again, to have founded the Spartan laws upon those of Crete. To Crete and the Minotaur came the tribute of seven youths and seven maidens from Athens, whom the Minotaur de- voured in his labyrinthine grotto until he was killed by Theseus. Even then the Grecian hero would have fared badly had he not in his posses- sion the clew of thread given him by Ariadne, the King's daughter, who 696 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. ^ y :-.. .-jr '^_ > s. \ '/i^^ . had fallen in love with him, and who thus furnished him with the means by which he found his way out of. the labyrinth. The Pelasgians, who were abo- rigines of Italy and Greece, and the Phoenicians settled Candia, which, 1000 B. C, was conquered by the Dorians. Afterwards a number of democracies arose upon the ruins of the Dorian government, and in the first century B. C. it was conquered by the Romans. When the crusaders conquered Constantinople, in the thirteenth century, Candia fell under the able sovereignty of the Vene- tians, who held it against Turkish invasions for over four centuries. Since then some portion of the Chris- tian population has been in rebellion against Turkish rule, although the island forms a province, or vilayet, of the Ottoman Empire, which is gov- erned by a pacha and two counselors — one Turk and one Christian. There are eight dilapidated forts on Candia built by the Venetians. An arch- bishop and six bishops of the Greek Church have their residence on the island, this being the prevailing reli- gion. ^i-MW*MI*i*#W*T AMONG THE VINEYARDS. In ancient times Greece was famous almost as much for her vine- yards as her battle-fields, but her wine-producing territory has contin- ually been contracted under the deso- latlne ravao^es of war. From the neiofhborhood of Athens comes a del- icate wine, but there are few famous HOME LIFE IX COUNTRY AND TOWN. 697 vineyards on the main land until you reach the Peloponnesus. The vineyards on the slopes of the Gulf of Arcadia, in the western portion of the peninsula, and on the Gulf of Argolis, in the east, although they suffered greatly in the Greek w^ar of independence, produce several brands of wine which connoisseurs esteem ; from the latter locality come the malmsey wines. But it is upon the islands of Greece, as in the days when Bacchus was so popular a god, that the most luscious grapes are gathered and thrown into rough vats to be trodden under foot by men and women. The Island of Santorin, among those farthest distant from the mother country of the archipelago, is the most noted for its vineyards and wines. It is of a curious formation, consisting of a circle of land surrounding a volcanic crater which is filled by the sea. The external slopes furnish the wine lands, and every available piece of soil is under cultivation. The yields are so highly esteemed as to be branded, metaphorically speaking, with such stamps as " Wine of Bacchus," and " Wine of the Night." Byron has celebrated the wine produced in the Isle of Samos, and that which Tenedos yields is the comm.on table wine of the Orient. The Ionian isles are rich in vineyards, Cyj^rus being still a leader. The wine of the commandery of the Knights Templars has a bitter-almond flavor, being made in the vicinity of Paphos — that ancient Phoenician city near Avhich Venus is said to have risen from the sea, and in which a famous temple long stood erected to the memory of the foam-sprung goddess. There are other varieties of wine, but they are all fermented and matured in earthen \'^ssels, which are of exactly the same shape as those used by the ancient Greeks, being long, with two handles near the top, and tapering almost to a point at the bottom. HOME LIFE IN COUNTRY AND TOWN. In m.aking a tour of the historical spots which stud the stanch, rocky little kingdom, one finds everywhere around him the same strik- ing mixture of the ancient with the modern ; or, rather, it might more truthfully be said, outside of the larger towns is ancient Greece herself. The shepherd wanders over the hills with his flocks, carrying his crook and playing upon his lute. Ugly dogs are as anxious to tear a stranger in pieces as to assist him in keeping his sheep and goats together. The peasant is there in his feminine dress, and perchance he has graduated into the proprietor, not only of a vineyard, but of a house for the accom- modation of travelers. This latter building is two or three stories in height, with balconies on eA"ery side, from which the most glorious views of the classical land can be obtained ; for there are few inns, on the line 698 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. of travel, which do not stand on high ground. On the first floor of the house is a great array of wine barrels, standing in a cool room. There is also a spacious kitchen, whither the dozen or more sunburnt laborers, with their picturesque red caps, short skirts and straight-cut features repair for their noon-day meal. A table cloth is spread for them in the middle of the floor, upon which are placed simple food and a jug of wine. Each man is entitled to as much as he can eat and drink, besides about a dollar a day. The huts of the village in which they reside are grouped near the inn of their master. Having finished their generous repast they repair to the vineyard on the sunny slope of a hill and continue their work of dressing the vines. First, however, they must stop to have a chat with their wives, sisters and friends, who, in a clear, deep spring, which h as been gathered into a great basin or trough, are washinor their linen and beating it with heavy wooden clubs. The women wear head-kerchiefs of yellow or some light color, and are coarse- ly but neatly dressed. Some of them have acquired Turkish customs, and will retreat alf sight of a man, or cover their mouth and eyes with a handkerchief. A favorite occupation of the Greek peasant women is the rearing of silkworms and the making of embroidery. Hospitality and health beam from every eye, and it is truly a pretty sight, after having viewed old ruins and gray and snowy mountains, to suddenly come upon a little village roofed with red tiles and a group of fresh-looking women and girls, attired in scarlet flannel aprons, holding their distaffs in their hands with the bunches of wool upon the ends, who pleasantly wish you health, or present you with roses " for luck." The married women are recognized by the black trimmings to their scarlet aprons ; the unmarried ones wear red trimmings as well as aprons. MODERN GREEK PEASANTS. GREEK WEDDINGS. 699 When a feast of the saints comes around their simple attires are discarded for gold-embroidered red aprons, white dresses, silk chemise fronts, and Mitterino- necklaces and g^irdles. If the weather is fair a dance takes place out-of-doors, upon a grassy plot or even slope. The men seldom dance. The girls generally dance before an admiring rustic crowd, the leader being distinguished by an apron of delicate silk. They are often ranged according to their height, a dozen mere infants bringing up the line. They move slowly in a circle, with gliding motions, some of the graceful steps and figures having descended to them for centuries ; one of the dances, " trata," has obtained a national character, for to its measure eighty women of Greece, with their chil- dren, once glided over a steep cliff to avoid being captured by the Turks. To see these beautiful peasant girls in their national dances, the valleys below, the mountains around, and health and grace proclaiming them- selves in every motion, one can imagine Terpsichore herself looking down from old Parnassus in admiration. The fact is not recorded, how- ever, that the goddess of the song and dance was a patron of false tresses , for Greek peasant girls nearly all wear them, and always of the opposite color from the natural hair. GREEK WEDDINGS. •^ Religious feasts and wedding feasts have their special dances, although at the latter, of course, men, married women and girls all par- ticipate in the festivities. The married women dance in groups near the men and the Q^irls also rino^ all around. The weddinof o-uests are, some of them, attired in handsome costumes, and it is not unusual for the husband and his orroomsman to be dressed accordino- to the latest European styles. The elders usually wear blue or red jackets, snowy fustanellas, leo-o-ing-s and shoes. The marriage, which takes place in a church, is attended by the whole country. The chief priest of the monastery, the archimandrite, dressed in black with a high cap, is assisted by several brothers, especially if the parties are of some prominence. In these quiet Greek towns, every one, from priest to peasant, makes the most of any event out of the ordinary course of placidity. The assistants appear in gorgeous robes of blue, yellow and red, or any other color which strikes their fancy. Very often their dresses are donated by pious ladies of the church, who have no further use for them. The marriage ceremony is simple, and includes the blessing of the , couple by the archimandrite, who touches their foreheads and cheeks 700 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. with his official ring. He then takes a ring from the finger of each and places it on that of the other. He solemnly consecrates two large wreaths of orange blossoms, lifting them to his lips and placing one on the head of the bride, the other on that of the bridegroom. Several times the bridal procession, consisting of the priests, boys with lighted candles and the wedded couple, marches around the communion table, the bride and bridegroom bowing to their friends in the church. Three times the bridal couple receive the communion cup from the archimandrite, who presents it once to their near relatives. He then gives the bride and GREEK BRIGANDS. brideo^room the kiss of benediction and is himself saluted on the hand. The usual kissing succeeds, after which the procession marches to the scene of the feast and dance, showers of rose leaves falling upon all heads. In the small hamlets the marriage services and subsequent proceedings are devoid of any of the above metropolitan accompaniments, they being a specimen of what might be expected in a large town. BRIGAND AND PEASANT." The most corroding spot upon the modern body politic of Greece is briofandaare. Reckless and ad\enturous bands, at first formed to resist ANCIENT GREECE IN TURKEY, 70I Turkish rule, are now robbers by trade and make the lives of travelers a constant uncertainty. Adventurers, vagrants, outlaws from justice, and deserters, swell the roll continually. The brigands may have friends and relatives among the peasants and villagers, or may overawe peaceful communities so that they will be fed and protected. The chiefs of bands are even said to have their friends among statesmen and politicians who use them as agents and ropers-in. It frequently happens that prominent citizens and leaders of the people keep on good terms with these out- laws that their own relatives and friends will be safe from capture and molestation. Thus the brigands are protected by the high and the low. When an atrocity has been committed which the government can not possibly overlook, troops are sent into the region where the robbers were last seen. For their own safety the shepherds and peasants are obliged to warn their predatory associates of the approach of law and order. This they accomplish by many ingenious methods. They have: agreed with the brigands upon certain marks which may be cut upon sticks or marked upon rocks which are left in secret places. If the peasantry do not have an opportunity to repair to these places of deposit before the military detachment enters their village, they take their sticks- and begin cutting marks upon them, both to remember the conversation and to enable the brigands — some of whom are generally posted on a hill in the vicinity with excellent field-glasses — to observe what is going on. There is one other cause for the continued existence of this disgrace, and that is the protection afforded it in the districts bordering upon Turkey ; or at least the indifference evinced by the Porte in bringing to justice those who commit crimes in Greek territory. ANCIENT GREECE IN TURKEY. Ancient Epirus and Thessaly include the Turkish districts now bordering upon Greece ; and to the northeast was the great Macedonian monarchy. The northern boundary of Ancient Greece was in the same latitude as is Constantinople, but its eastern limits did not reach to its present longitude by about one hundred miles. It is also somewhat of a coincidence that those provinces which fell first to Rome and then to Turkey were inhabited by a mixed race of Pelasgians (aborigines of Greece) Grecian immigrants, Illyrians and Thracians — the latter two tribes springing from the same stock — which were never considered as Hellenes, or pure Greeks, but rather as a mongrel and an alien race. Yet these countries gave birth to some of the strongest states and 702 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. characters which figure in ancient history. King Pyrrhus, monarch of this country, was one of the early giant kings of the barbaric world Avith whom the Roman Empire contended and the mother of Alexander the Great was a princess of Epirus. Thessaly was the most fertile province in Greece, consisting chiefly of two plains between lofty mountains with two clear, beautiful lakes set into their green surfaces. But the people were not as peaceable as in its physical appearance the country seemed to be. Rich families de- scended from the original conquerors of the soil, held the land, which was cultivated by serfs. Besides the slaves of the soil, who preserved no rights, there were several subject tribes which had votes in the Amphictyonic council. This was an association of tribes for mutual protection and for the worship of one deity, which originally inhabited Thessaly or the neigh- boring country. It was the special patron of the Delphic oracle, and as the fame and the power of the oracle spread the influence of the council likewise extended. Philip of Macedon used the league as a weapon with which to murder the liberties of Greece, and, although organized for peace, it was the cause of many conflicts, even between the tribes and cities which were members of the council. In one of these wars, which the league called sacred, many cities of Phocis, a province of the association south of Thessaly, were entirely destroyed. The council had two places of meeting, one being at Delphi and the other at Anthela, near Thermopylae, in the temple dedicated to Ceres. This latter was in the Phocians' country, and they were charged with various sacreligious acts against property dedicated to the gods and visitors to the oracle. How long this council endured is uncertain, but the two principal wars in which it engaged were separated by two centuries and a half. Notwithstanding the leas^ue the Phocians built a wall from the western gate of Thermopylae pass to keep out the Thessalians, the remains of which may be traced from near the Polyandrium (a monu- ment to the Greeks who fell before the Persians) to the Gulf of Corinth on the western coast. This was in ruins when the Spartans defended Thermopylae. The eastern gate of the pass was formed by a mountain and the shores of the Maliac Gulf, the ground between being impassable because of the morass on the edge of the bay and the hot springs which had been led to the soil, which mio^ht otherwise furnish a footing-. This gate of the pass is now a broad swampy plain. THE ITALIANS. [HIS people is a family of the great Graeco-Roman group, which comprises the natives of Greece, Italy, France and Spain. The Latin branch, or tribe of the Italian race, early attained r the sovereignty over their own people, over the Gauls in the north, the Greeks in the south and the aborigines (Etruscans ^(| and lapygians) in the east and extreme southeast. On the Palatine Hill, probably as a frontier defense against the Etrus- cans, commenced to rise the first crude buildings which were to form the nucleus of the great City of the Seven Hills and the mightiest empire of the ancient times. When this infant Rome was finished, it is said to have consisted of about a thousand dwellings, irregularly arranged. Strangers were invited to the new settlement, and the next we hear of it, it is the city of the Latin confederacy, or of Latinum, where the Senate meets and metropolitan life is at its best. MODERN ROME. After some twenty-six hundred years we find a city inclosed by some twelve miles of walls, one-third of which area only is inhabited. One- half is strewn with ancient ruins, and the balance is laid out in eardens or vineyards. The city occupies a marsh on each side of the Tiber and the slopes of the seven hills, the greater portion of Rome being on the left bank. CAPITOLINE HILL. The center of interest is the Capitoline Hill, the smallest but most famous of the group. On the summit of this rocky mountain were built three magnificent capitols, which were destro}-ed by fire, the modern structure being erected partly on the foundation of the ancient temple. From the Capitoline Hill, or that portion of it called the Tarpeian Rock, state criminals were thrown. The remains of the ancient capitol, in whose spacious portico the people feasted when their Emperor returned to celebrate a triumph, are confined to a small section of the superstructure 703 704 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. and wall, and a portion of the great flight of steps leading to the temple. Besides the capitol, or the great Temple of Jupiter, were the Temple of Jupiter Tonans and the magnificent Tabularium, wherein were stored the public records of the empire, which contained its treasury and served as a library and lecture building. The remains of the latter structure still have an imposing appearance. From the south of the capitol to the city walls are cultivated land, beautiful gardens and vineyards. From the great northern entrance of Rome to the foot of the .hill runs the Corso, a street about a mile long^ passing through the site of the ancient Campus Martius, an open space of many acres, where the ancient Romans were wont to assemble and indulge in games and other amusements ; this is now the most densely populated portion of Rome and given up to trade. On each side of the Corso are palaces and churches, while to the right, about half way up, branches off a noble street leading to the immense Jesuit convent and church. THE PANTHEON. The strip between the Corso and the Tiber, is densely populated by the smaller classes of traders, the poor and the beggars of Rome ; market places and shops are there galore. In this quarter, however, stands the Pantheon, one of the grandest remains of all Rome's great- ness. It is also the best preserved. Standing near the center of the ancient Campus, and erected nineteen centuries ago as a temple to all the heathen gods, it was consecrated twelve centuries ago as a Christian church, under the name of Sancta Maria ad Martyres. But the name of Pantheon yet clings to it, and the huge rotunda with its lofty dome rises above the surrounding squalor in all the impressiveness of Roman architecture. Its portico, over a hundred feet m length, with triple rows of mighty granite columns, the capitals and bases of which are marble, is one of the most remarkable productions of artistic genius to be seen in Rome. Much of the bronze roof, which these pillars support, has been removed by various Popes to be used in the interior decoration of the Vatican, as have also many fine marbles from the body of the Pan- theon. But the monument stands in its general features of gran- deur. Once within, you seem to stand beneath a miniature heavenly vault, your illusion being only dispelled when, upon glancing upward, you see the floods of light pouring through a large opening in the dome and scattering itself, as if by magic, to every altar and niche of the interior. Originally, the exterior of the dome was covered with plates of silver, but these were removed and bronze ones substituted. A modern copy THE VATICAN AND ST. PETER S. 705 of the Pantheon is the world-famed St. Peter's, and thus there is a double bond of union between the ancient and modern religion of Rome. THE VATICAN AND ST. PETER'S. The Upper Town, so called, lies on the slope of the Pincian and Quirinal Hills, consisting of palaces, villas, churches and convents, gar- dens and beautiful walks. In this locality were the favorite promenades of the Romans. On the summit of the Quirinal is the famous pontifi- cal palace and garden. From it is obtained a striking view of the castle of St. Angelo, with its great circular tower, mounted with cannon and protected with ramparts and ditches. It commands the bridge which forms the principal means of communication between the two portions of the city. St. Angelo looms up like a ponderous warrior guarding the approach to the Vatican, consisting of the palace and the basilica of St. Peter's. This wonderful creation of architectural genius and religious fervor can not be described in a few, or many, words. St. Peter's must be seen and felt — the approach through the great circular court, its palatial front and mighty dome, the grand central nave, with its gorgeous ornaments and many statues, and its chapels, tombs and altars ! Then passing from the right to the Piazza of St. Peter's, up the wonderful staircase called Scala Regia, we turn to the left and enter the Sistine chapel of Michael Angelo, for it is next to impossible not to associate him with it in the sense of ownership. His genius looks down from the ceiling in The Creation, The Fall of Man and The Deluge, while The Last Judgment, pronounced by some the greatest of all paintings, has drawn the eyes of the world to the end wall, which is a little more than forty feet across. " Upon this work Michael Angelo spent seven years of almost incessant labor and study. To animate him in the task Pope Paul III., attended by ten cardinals, waited upon the artist at his house, an honor," says Lanzi, who records the fact, " unparalleled in the history of art." PETER'S PRISON. The old Mamertine prison, whose walls are built of such enormous stones as to prove the structure a relic of Rome's ancient monarchs, is supposed to be the gloomy work of Martins, or Mamertius, the fourth king of the city who flourished 600 B. C. There is a Catholic legend to the effect that St. Peter or St. Paul was confined in one of its damp cells, and, having converted the jailer, a spring of water sprang up from the stone floor to enable him to baptize him. Beneath the floor is a dungeon 45 7o6 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. which has been found to be of great size and in which the conspirators of CataHne were strangled to death, THE LIFE OF TO-DAY. The Vatican is divided from the Trastevere, or the portion of the city on this side of the Tiber which is not within the province of the Church, by an inner wall. This district is bounded by the river and a STREET SCENE IN ROME. ridge which rises 300 feet above it. Along the northern half of the heights is carried a broad street which is a favorite promenade of the Roman youth ; and the largest fountain of Rome graces a commanding site, its torrents of water seeming, from a distance, to rush through three mighty arches. Many other fountains beautify the modern city. Col- lected in these refreshing localities may occasionally be seen the beau- THE CATACOMBS. 707 tiful Roman maidens of the artist, dancing and singing "for a bit," or seated about in careless grace. In the squares also where the fountains play and to which the tired curiosity seeker instinctively repairs to bring before his eyes something besides ruins, the Roman beggar is at his best — there and at the doors of the great churches. But even the plague of mendicancy is being somewhat alleviated through government efforts, and it may be that these characters which have made Rome noted will disappear as effectually as the old-fashioned, mild and romantic Roman peasant. Something, or somebody, to satisfy artistic cravings, however, may be found in the dreary Campagna, that great pestilential tract which sur- rounds the city and includes the greater portion of ancient Latium. The ground is low and often flooded from the Tiber. The small lakes are formed by craters of extinct volcanoes. Wars, pestilences (especially the Black Death in the fourteenth century) and the overflow of the Tiber may account for the present unhealthfulness of the Campagna, which according to Livy always had that reputation in some degree, al- though it once was well cultivated and adorned with, such villas as those of Domitian and Hadrian. The Campagna is deserted except by the poorer classes of peasants and shepherds, and in summer, when the most dangerous vapors arise, they, too, flee to Rome or neighboring localities. But in autumn the pasturage is in many places rich and abundant, and then the herdsmen and shepherds descend from the Apennine mountains with their cattle, goats and sheep. They are the figures for the artist's pencil — shep- herds with broad-brimmed hats, great cloaks, their feet swathed in rags, their hair and beard long and profuse. THE CATACOMBS. As the shepherd of the Campagna pipes along over the morasses and fields of sward to his pasture grounds, with his dogs and fiocks, he is quice likely to be walking over whole streets of the dead. The cata- combs of Rome, those subterranean vaults which line the dark passage- ways for many dreary miles, are outside the city walls and approached by stone steps, which descend to openings in the rock from the famous Appian Way. Within these labyrinths, whose rocky walls are so many sealed tombs and which occasionally expand into wide and lofty cham- bers, are deposited the bodies of countless Christians of the primitive church — bishops and laymen, but martyrs almost invariably, as the inscrip- tions upon the tombs eloquently and pathetically testify. These impos- ing chambers were, no doubt, churches. In the repeated wars which 7o8 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Rome suffereei many of the catacombs were clestro)'ed, and to circuni- vent future ravages the Popescaused thousands of bodies of the ihustrious dead to be removed to pUicesof safety. It is possible that from this city of the dead, whose inhabitants have been reckoned by the milhons and the length of whose streets is hundreds of miles, although its pollution has been sealed from those who pass along its rock)- ways, may still arise inllu- ences which have their effect upon the marshy, steaming Campagna above. THE COLOSSEUM AND THE FORUM. But we now return to the Capitoline Hill, having crossed the river to explore the Vatican and the freshest district of modern Rome. B)' a steep descent from the hill we reach the Colosseum in what is now known as the Campo Vaccino, or cattle market, thus indicating the purpose to which the great Roman Forum has for centuries been devoted. In ancient times, also, the markets formed an important feature of the Forum, a great portion of which was devoted to the assemblies of the people. Here were hung up for the benefit of the public the laws of the Twelve Tables, and afterward the calendars of the courts, written upon white tables, that the citizens might be informed as to legal proceedings. One portion of the Forum was, in fact, devoted to trade and the other a public assembly ground and the scene of banquets and gladiatorial sports, the two being divided b)- the platforms from which the Roman orators addressed the citizens. After Caesar's time the Roman Forum lost its political and popular character, and with the erection of the Colosseum it became almost entirely the center of those cruelties called sports. Triumphal arches were also erected by the Emperors, such as those of Constantine and Titus, and splendid monuments and temples, some of which still stand. On the east and south the Forum was bounded by the Sacra Via, upon the highest point of which stood Titus' arch, and which connected the Colosseum with the other wonders of the Forum. It was the original intention of Augustus to build a great amphi- theatre in the center of Rome, and Vespasian and his son Titus realized the former's bright hopes with the help of the vast number of Jewish workmen which he brought as captives from Jerusalem. The site selected was in a hollow between two hills which Nero had caused to be made for an artificial lake. The great structure, which was 615x510 feet, was in four stories and in three different styles of architecture. It was dedi- cated by Titus 80 A. D., with a brilliant programme of games and gladia- torial shows, numbers of men and thousands of wild beasts being killed to satisfy the 80,000 spectators who are supposed to have been present. Later this was the arena where many of the early Christians suffered THE ITALIAN PEASANT. "JOC) martyrdom. Otherwise the Colosseum has few historical associations. It is supposed to have remained entire until the eleventh century, when Rome was sacked by the Normans and the Colosseum partiall)' demolished to destroy its utility as a fortress. In the fourteenth century it was a favorite arena for bull-fights and it afterward became a hospital. Its walls were used as building material for Roman palaces and attempts were made to transform it into a bazaar and a saltpetre factory. Then a cross was planted in the center of the still grand ruin, with small chapels around the walls, and once every week it was customary to hold exercises in memory of the saints and unknown martyrs who suffered for their faith. Subsequently these were removed and the excavations which followed revealed a multitude of chambers and passages whose uses are unknown. From a point beyond the Colosseum, the Palatine Hill and the ruined Palace of the Caesars, and beyond the present city walls, Ijut which was once not far removed from the very center of Rome, stands a long procession of fragmentary aqueducts. The most noted of these are the aqueducts of Marcia and Claudia. The water supply of modern Rome is along much the same course; in fact, the works of Marcia and Claudia have been partially utilized. THE ITALIAN PEASANT. The Italian is not a peasant from choice and no Italian who is wealthy enough to own a farm would think of occupying it. The owner graces his property long enough to collect his crop moneys, leaving it the rest of the year in charge of hired laborers, who are crowded together in little villages. Here and there throughout the country are great tracts of land, upon which are masses of buildings, surrounded by high walls and deep moats, mementoes of the days when hordes of bar- barians might sweep down from the North at any moment, burn the vine- yards and destroy the grain ; the bandits came later to terrify the life of the prosperous farmer and make it more agreeable for him to live in town with his wife and family. Much in the same way the country population have got into the habit of emigrating to the cities and towns. They usually have acquired trades such as those of masons, carpenters or house painters, and from their busy hands came many of the superb structures which grace both the ancient and modern cities of Italy. Many of them gather not only competencies, but fortunes. Yearly they return to their beloved fields and valleys to spend their idle months, and finally, perhaps, to live. A case in point is that of a gentleman of Piedmont who became chief 7IO PANORAMA OF NATIONS. director of the great tunnel, on the Apennines, above Genoa, at the time of the construction of the railway there. At length he retired to his country home, and employed several hundred villagers to transform his hut into a palace and his bare rocks into a park. Other young men, especially of the Northern districts, turned up their noses at the plow and sought their fortunes in Austria and Germany ; so that, as an observer of this feature of peasant life once remarked, "in Italy are to be found boors who for half the year are, at Vienna, bankers,barons and even counts, of the Holy Roman Empire." Those whom circumstances force to stay at home and till the soil are apt to ape metropolitan ways. They are social by nature, and would rather live huddled in a squalid hamlet than out in the country where each man may have his own vineyard and plenty of pure air and fresh Avater. "In their dingy provincial towns they huddle together, land owners, farmers and most of the laborers ; and every town gives itself the airs and revels in the light gossip of the capital ; every town has a cafe, or a score of cafes in which to idle away time, all with their tawdry, smoky, gilt and mirrored rooms." It is a common plan in Italy for the land owner and his laborers to share the profits in kind, the proportion varying with the fertility of the land. The peasant furnishes the implements of husbandry and half of the laboring cattle. If he is so poor that the land owner is obliged to do this for him, to support him while he tills and also furnish him with seed, his position becomes most unenviable. The primitive plows, rakes and harrows which Virgil would recognize are plentiful, but, through the exertions of the as^ricultural collecres and societies of the larfje towns and cities, they are being replaced by modern implements. FLORENCE AND THE REPUBLICS. Ancient Florence was completely destroyed by the Ostrogoths, but was rebuilt by Charlemagne. While the foreign rulers of Italy were busily looking after their own crowns they allowed the cities to rebuild their ancient walls and granted them various popular rights, as a means of keeping out other invaders and making the people contented. The German Emperors had their own representatives who acted in concert with parliaments and councils, and collected the imperial tribute, but republican seeds were thickly sown from necessity. As wealth increased the cities became more anxious to defend their possessions, and every citizen was proud to contribute nearly his entire wealth to his native place, which, as it took into its embrace weaker towns or cities and extended its popular form of government, became eventually a republic. FLORENCE AND THE REIT HLICS. 7II Under the o^uidance of the Lombard Leao^ue, the chief cities of Italy threw themselves against their Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, and for the first time in modern Europe forced despotism to treat with republicanism. One of their gifts was the office of the podcsta, a foreign knight or imperial representative, chosen by the people of each cit}', to act as criminal judge and executioner. He was assisted by two native judges, and accountable to the people and their laws for his con- duct. In seasons of tumult between the Guelphs and Ghibellines (the national and imperial parties) and between the nobles and the people, the great middle classes of citizens placed almost absolute power in his hands. The republicans of Florence were among the first to scent the dangers to their liberties which lurked in the office, and soon lopped off its worst functions. Even then, by the thirteenth century, they were noted throughout Europe for their enterprise and wealth, their proud spirit of freedom and their intellectual vigor. Their city was known as the "Athens of Italy," and therein was already seen one of the most har- monious unions of wealth and art in the world. But the ereat stumb- ling block in the way of her political freedom was the podesta, a creature of the Emperor and his party. In 1250, therefore, the citizens, repre- sented by fifty groups of militia, assembled in the square of Santa Croce and chose a council under which the podesta was to act or be deposed. The militia next razed the towers which were the strono-holds of the Ghibelline nobles, and recalled the Guelphs, who had been exiled ; under the latter party the republic attacked half a dozen neighboring towns, among them Pisa, and forced them to sign a treaty of peace fav- orable to the Church and Italy. Soon after the establishment of the republic the government also reformed its finances (and virtually the monetary system of Europe) by coining its florin of a certain weight and fineness and maintaining it thus, through its great commercial power, as long as the republic endured. With the exception of a few )'ears, when the imperial party was in the ascendant, the republican spirit of Florence was not seriously depressed. She was the head of the national party in Italy, and often defended the free cities of the country against the designs of the nobles, and, later, of the Church of Rome. The citizens of Flor- ence were divided into arts or trades. Some of the lowest, particularly the woolen trade, were unrepresented in the government. They therefore rose in rebellion and besiecfed the Palazzo Vecchio, where the si<)fnoria, or council, met. But after a few short months the power returned to the nobles, rich merchants and citizens of the major arts, and the leaders of the popular uprising were mostly banished or beheaded as rebels. 712 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. THE MEDICI FAMILY It was at this juncture that the Medici commenced to come into notice. For fifty years various members appeared as champions of the people against the nobles, holding high offices and being preeminent in the field of commerce. Cosmo de Medici owned banking houses in all the great cities of Europe, and immense and productive farms, and held a monopoly of the alum mines of Italy. Rivaling in wealth most of the princes of Europe, he spent vast sums in the erection of public edifices, the encouragement of artists and poets and the introduction of Grecian and Eastern literature. The Albizzi faction, or family, were not as wealthy as the Medici, but for fifty years controlled the republic, and native historians give them the credit of bringing it to the grandest height of glory in wealth, arts, science and literature without infringing upon a single popular right. The two parties came into conflict, and Cosmo exiled his rival and followers. During the' latter years of his power the active leadership of Cosmo's party was assumed by the bold-spirited Luca Pitti, who built two great palaces from the gifts of the people. To the last, Cosmo lavished his wealth upon the public, and obtained such complete control of the republic that its offices became party gifts, to be divided between his friends, or bought and sold like merchandise. But his munificence was so great that at his death Florence went into deep mourning and upon his tomb was inscribed the "father of his country." Cosmo's son was an invalid, and his rule being by proxy, met with little opposition, but when Lorenzo assumed the leadership — the grand- son of Cosmo, as wealthy as he and greater in intellect — the ancient bit- terness of the Pazzi returned ; Lorenzo and his brother barely escaped assassination, but the Pazzi were killed, crushed or exiled. The masterly steps by which Lorenzo advanced to such a height of popularity as to be hailed with one accord as " the Most Magnificent Lord " belong to history ; how he carried by storm the heart of the King of Naples, who had him in his power; how he fought with the Pope and then had his son made a cardinal ; how by these unions with the auto- crat of Naples and the Church of Rome, both hostile to the republic, and his destruction of popular institutions at home, he murdered his country's best interests — these are purely historical subjects. Lorenzo's claim to the admiration of posterity rests upon the splendid work of his grand- father, which he continued with the greater wisdom of his broader nature ; for, besides being the most courtly man of his times and a patron of native and Grecian arts and scholarship, he was himself a poet and a scholar, continuing, through his financial agents, the collection of rare THE CITY FROM THE MEDICI VILLA, 713 manuscripts, begun by Cosmo. He reckoned among his intimate friends Poliziano, Puici, Demetrius the Greek, and Giovanni della Mirandola ; the latter being described by Machiavelli as "a man of almost supernat- ural genius who, after visiting every court of Europe, induced by the munificence of Lorenzo, established his abode at Florence. It seems, however, as Lorenzo's end approached, the wealth and prodigality of his family, and most of all his own, had seduced the peo- ple from an honest love of pure liberty and plain morals. Savonarola had already appeared — "mighty, mystic, in the midst of a vast sensual- ity, with a holy vehemence, converting the soft Italian tongue into a very judgment trumpet of denunciation." He preached not only against the abuses of the Church, but against the abuses of the state, for which the Medici were mainly responsible. The tall, robust and dignified Lorenzo was so struck with the holy passion of the diminutive monk that when his last sickness came upon him he desired to receive absolution from him. "Savonarola," it is said, "refused him neither his consolation nor his exhor- tations ; but he declared that he could not absolve him from his sins till he proved his repentance by reparation to the utmost of his power. He should forgive his enemies ; restore all that he had usurped ; lastly, give back to his country the liberty of which he had despoiled it. Lorenzo de Medici would not consent to such a reparation ; he accordingly did not obtain the absolution on which he set a high price, and died still possessing the sovereignty he had usurped." THE CITY FROM THE MEDICI VILLA. The most perfect picture of the City of Flowers is obtained from Fiesole, the site of the ancient market-place or town which was the parent of the stately Florence. Upon these heights, overlooking the city, the elder Cosmo built him a villa and laid out beautiful gar- dens, to which resorted the stately and royal Lorenzo to muse, to plan, to plot, to suffer and to repent. From this point Florence, her populous suburbs and outlying villas, vineyards and gardens, appear to be one vast city, its majestic form, garlanded with flowers and wreaths of green, lying prone upon the ground and shaded by a circle of gently sloping hills. The Arno is her yellow girdle. It was in Lorenzo's neighboring villa at Careggi that the interview with Savonarolo is said to have taken place. GALILEO'S HOMES. The villas in which Galileo resided are more famous, in this age of the world, than any which were glorified by the magnificence of Lorenzo. 714 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. His own villa, the one to which he repaired to pass the last dark years of his harassed life, is situated beyond the hill Arcetri. " It is an ivy- draped, gloomy, desolate-looking abode." His observatory, a rude tower, is not far away. The father of astronomy passed his younger, hopeful days at the villa of the historian, Guicardini, perched upon a beautiful height called Bellosquardo. Near the northern entrance of the quaint old building is a bust of Galileo with a tablet chronicling his residence of fourteen years within its walls. The grounds are laid out in pretty gardens, the present owner retaining a remembrance, no doubt, of the fact that its former illustrious guest was a passionate lover of flowers. From the roof of the villa, the center of which is railed off and furnished with sofas, tables, chairs, etc., may be obtained another glori- ous panorama of Florence and its historical buildings and spots, and the beauties of the surrounding country. "There is the vine and olive-clad valley of the Arno ; the Cascine, the favorite promenade or drive, the Hyde Park of Florence ; the Poggio Imperiale, and, leading to it, that '" abrupt, biack line of cypresses Which signs the way to Florence,' and Fiesole, the ever beautiful ; and San Miniato, with Michael Angelo's fortifications ; and the encircling Apennines, the hills of Vallombrosa and Carrara ; and all down the undulating slopes of the Bellosquardo Hill, the greenly fertile farms displaying their treasures of grapes, and olives and figs." IN VALLOMBROSA'S V-ALLEY. The groves and convent of Vallombrosa (Shady Valley) are about fifteen miles east of Florence. The spot is of such romantic interest that it has left its impression upon the world of poetry. The divine Milton, Ariosto, Italy's poet of chivalry, and, later, Mrs. Browning, through "Aurora Leigh," have tasted of the solemn delights of Vallom- brosa. It is approached from Florence by way of the Valley of the Arno, and notwithstanding the forests of oak, chestnut and pine, the rugged hills and the long reaches of refreshing green, "thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks in Vallombrosa," after one reaches the village of Pelago, which is about five miles from the mon- astery, he must make the rest of the journey on foot, in the saddle, or in a sort of rude wicker basket, placed on sledges and drawn by oxen. The entire trip on foot is a constant delight to a healthy body, but the latter end is not pleasant to the lady invalids who may desire to drink of Vallombrosa's charms. WITHIN THE CITY. 715 The massive convent building, with its great courts and towers, vi^as erected in the seventeenth century, but is now occupied by the royal school of forestry. The monastery was founded by the son of a noble- man. On a certain Good Friday in the eleventh century he went forth with his followers to attend mass at San Miniato al Monte, and on the way met a young man who had recently killed his beloved brother. Revenge and the code of honor then in force forced him to draw his sword upon his foe, his retainers doing likewise. His brother's murderer threw himself before him on the ground and begged for mercy. By a Divine miracle not only was mercy granted but forgiveness, and it is said that when the re-born nobleman and his former foe repaired to the church together for worship, the lips of the Saviour's image smiled and the head bowed in approbation. These facts so impressed themselves upon the mind of the young man that he became a monk, and, retiring to the solitude of the "shady valley," built himself a small cell, and, with two hermits who had already retreated from the voluptuous world of Florence, became the nucleus of the famous order of Vallombrosa. WITHIN THE CITY. There is no other city in Italy whose architecture is of so gloomy and massive a nature ; and to the solidity of her structures is due the fact that they are now in such an interesting state of preservation, having with- stood the sieges and attacks of contending parties for centuries. First among the glorious monuments to Florentine genius is the Cathedral, the greatest wonder of which is its grand cupola, planned and erected by Brunelleschi. This was taken by Michael Angelo as his model for St. Peters, the two, with the campanile near the cathedral of Florence, forming perhaps the most wonderful combinations of grandeur and grace among all the noted structures of ecclesiastical architecture. The cathedral, baptistry and bell tower are covered with a mosaic of black and white m'arble. The baptistry is an octagon in form, support- ing a cupola and lantern and guarded by three great gates of bronze, the two by Ghiberti being called by Michael Angelo the Gates of Para- dise. The cathedral, campanile and baptistry look upon the Piazza del Duomo and on one of the stone benches which faces their magnificence was wont to sit a man of classic features, large-eyed and majestic — Dante, the poet, reformer, afterward the exile, and, with Michael Angelo, the most revered of the many geniuses of Florence and Italy. Dante died at Ravenna, just beyond the Maritime Alps and the boundaries of the republic which exiled him. His bones have been 7 1 6 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Stolen several times, once to keep them from a cardinal of the Church, who wished to burn them as those of a heretic, and again by certain ones who "would not have the precious remains removed to Florence, which has made repeated efforts to honor the poet in death; Finally, 500 years after his decease, a great cenotaph was built in Santa Croce, but the little dome-like shrine in the Ravenna chapel still treasures the remains. From 1677 to 1865 Dante's bones remained hidden in a rough wooden box which was found deposited in the walls of the chapel while the building was being repaired in anticipation of the celebration of the 600th anniversary of his birth. The day was observed with great mag- nificence in Florence, a statue of Dante being unveiled in the Piazza Santa Croce, ■ Among modern Italians of note there assembled were Ristori, Salvini and Rossi. Grouped around the cathedral are other religious edifices which elsewhere would appear of almost unrivaled grandeur, that of Santa Croce, being known as the Pantheon of Florence, containingmonuments to Galileo, Dante, Machiavelli, Michael Angelo and Alfieri. The Church of San Lorenzo was rebuilt from an ancient one consecrated by St. Ambrose. The architect was Brunelleschi. Within this grand casing is a memorial monument to Cosmo, with the popular title inscribed upon it of Paier Patria. Lorenzo de Medici is honored, monumentally, in the New Sacristry, his statue being a model of manly beauty. The Medicean chapel, gorgeous with the rarest marbles and most costly stones, stands behind the choir and contains the tombs of the Medici and those of the grand dukes, their successors. The Laurentian library, founded by a Medici, adjoins the church. POLITICS AND RELIGION. The Palazzo Vecchio, so long the seat of the Republican govern- ment, is an imoosing pile, surmounted by a tower 260 feet high, whose great bell used to warn the citizens of danger and call them to arms. The adjoining square contains magnificent groups of statuary. Michael Angelo's great fame rests in St. Peter's and the Sistine Chapel, but in the judgment of some his statue of David Confronting the Philistine, standing in the square which fronts the Palazzo Vecchio, is his greatest work as a sculptor. In this square, also — the Piazza della Signoria — were laid the scenes of Savonarola's triumph and death. As an offset to the scandalous public amusements which were encouraged by the Medici and their party, under his direction a pyramid of carnival dresses, obscene pictures and POLITICS AND RELIGION. 717 portraits, cards, dice, gaming boards, etc., was formed in the square. The interior of the pyramid was filled with combustible materials and. on the top was a monstrous image representing the carnival. A great proces- sion of citizens, monks and children, bearing red crosses and olive "THE FATES," BY MICHAEL ANGELO. branches, marched to the "pile of vanities," the little ones sang, the great bell of the Palazzo tolled, the multitude shouted and the pyramid, went up in great clouds of smoke and sheets of flame. The same square; 7i8 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. witnessed his martyrdom, with two of his fellow monks, and there also his enemies saw him narrowly escape the " ordeal by fire " which was to prove him a child of God or of Satan. " The convent of San Marco, in which Savonarola lived during his protracted conflict with Rome, stands almost unchanged from his day. The walls are covered with exquisite frescoes by Fra Angelica, an artist of so devout a spirit that he is said always to have painted on his knees. In the cell occupied by Savonarola are shown his Bible, the margin filled with annotations in his own hand, and a volume of his sermons." PALACES AND GARDENS. Next to the Palazzo Vecchio is a great palace founded by Cosmo I., in the first floor of which are deposited the public archives and a library of 150,000 volumes and 12,000 MSS. The famous Florentine gallery of paint- ings, engravings, sculptures, mosaics, etc., occupies the second floor. The Pitti Palace, fronting upon a charming park containing marble fountains, green gardens and stately drives, is the mod- ern residence of the Grand Duke, and, while Florence was the capital of Italy, the home of the King. This is the un- , finished monument commenced by Brunelleschi to perpetuate the greatness of the family which fell before the power of the Medici. Behind the palace are the Boboli gardens, with their solid avenues of trees and hedges, waterfalls, grottos, flowers and statues. " The city is seen through a line of solemn cypresses which stand out against the dazzling walls and towers beyond." The Strozzi palace is a noteworthy type of Tuscan architecture — but the list is too great to exhaust in detail. Besides famous palaces, villas and churches, Florence reveals the fact that she lives in the active present ; for hospitals, lunatic asylums, theatres, academies, museums, colleges of medicine and agriculture, DESIGN FOR AN ORNAMENT. PALACES AND GARDENS. 719 etc., etc., are not only flourishing but growing in number. The Floren- tines are to-day witty and eloquent, shrewd and industrious, educated, and stable lovers of good government and inclined to reform. Among the geniuses of Florence must be placed Benvenuto Cel- lini, who was intended for a musician, but chose himself to become one of the most eminent engravers of his day, if not of any age. He w^as stamped both as a genius and an incorrigible youth before he was sixteen years of age, and was banished from his native town for having PLACQUE BY CELLINI. taken part in a duel. He entered the service of the Pope, having pleased him with the die which he made, from which that magnate's gold medal was struck, and helped defend the castle of San Angelo against the imperial troops. Having become noted both as a soldier and an engraver, he was received back into the good graces of the Florentines, continued to increase his reputation as an artist and a quarrelsome fel- low, fled from the city, returned to Rome, got into more trouble, went ^^20 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. to France, appeared again in his native town, secured as a patron Cosmo de Medici, executed his " Perseus with the head of Medusa," and his "Christ," and estabHshed his fame' for all time. The best part of his smaller artistic works are his productions in metals, the embossed decor- ations of shields, cups, salvers, ornamented sword and dagger hilts, clasps, medals and coins. HISTORIC BRIDGES. The bridges which span the Arno are picturesque and historical. Farthest to the east is the Ponte alle Grazie, there being a chapel at its foot dedicated to Santa Maria delle Grazie. It was here that Pope Gregory X., from his temporary wooden throne, with the dignitaries of the city around him, ad- dressed the multitude who were assembled below in the dry bed of the Arno, and decreed that the Guelphs and Ghibellines should be- come friends. But though the leaders of the rival fac- tions kissed one another, they were not so ready to "make up," and, beginning to quar- rel ao-ain in less than a week, brought the ban of excom- munication upon Florence as a city. The Ponte Vecchio is called the Jeweler's Bridge, because it is lined with shops representing that craft. From the Ponte Vecchio the ashes of Savonarola and his brother martyrs were cast into the Arno by order of the Signoria, that they might work no miracle detrimental to the city's interests. The Ponte a Santa Trinita is the most artistic of the bridges, its angles be- ing adorned with gems of art. A shocking and sad interest attaches to the Ponte alia Carraja. In 1304, a great May day fete was given in honor of a cardinal, and among other pageants, one had been prepared for him by which the horrors of hell were depicted by men, women and children, representing demons, who rushed about in flames of artificial fire, writhing and yelling, and punishing the BRONZE HELMET ORNAMENT. THE GENOESE. " 72 1 wicked, the scene of the terrible picture being laid upon a fleet of rafts and barges which covered the river below the bridge. The wooden structure gave way under its human load, and the spectators were pre- cipitated upon the performers, the resulting casualty snatching away some member of nearly every family in Florence. Dante, it is related, upon this occasion, conceived his idea of the InfeT-no. Not far from this bridge stands a house bearing an inscription to the effect that it was once the dwelling of Amerigo Vespucci. THE GENOESE. The ancient inhabitants of Genoa, long before they were incorpor- ated with the Roman Empire, were Celts or Greeks ; this is as near as historians can get at their origin. In really historical times the Genoese were noted as brave and vigorous soldiers in the Roman legions and as untiring and enterprising merchants. When Genoa became a separate Italian state, she combined her military with her commercial strength, sturdily defending her galleys laden with rich merchandise, which covered the Mediterranean Sea, and carrying on wars with Pisa and Venice, which were her greatest rivals in trade. Pisa she crushed, while she was discomfited by Venice. In alliance with Pisa she drove the Saracens from Corsica and Sardinia and vigorously sustained the Crusades. She was torn with civil dissensions between Guelph and Ghibelline factions, democratic and patrician leaders, but in the sixteenth century the republic was restored by her great citizen, Andrea Doria. Her foreign rulers were expelled, German and Austrian influence was broken, and she, with other cities of Sardinia, became finally a portion of the kingdom of Italy. But whether ruled by Lombards, Turks, Germans, native citizens and princes, or the French, whatever her fortunes, she has wonderfully maintained her commercial standing. The city, Avhich is so picturesquely situated on the Mediterranean Sea, reveals its ancient warlike and com- mercial character. Palaces, churches, hotels and private dwellings, ter- raced gardens and groves of orange and pomegranate trees, cover the slopes of the hills down to the shore, " while the bleak summits of the loftier ranges are capped with forts, batteries and outworks which con- stitute a line of fortifications of gfreat streng^th and extensive circuit." But incorporated into the body of United Italy, the Genoese no longer dis- play their former bitterness toward sister cities. A few years ago, a portion of the huge chain which was drawn across the port of Pisa by its citizens to keep out the invading fleet, and which had been carried off by the Genoese when they blocked up the harbor and destroyed the com- merce of their rivals, was returned to the Tuscan port as an evidence of 46 72 2 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. good-will. But the sting of those bitter contests still rankles in the memories of the states of Northern Italy, especially of Tuscany, where a proverb still crouches under the tongue of every citizen to the effect that Genoa has "a sea without fish, mountains without stones, men with- out honor and women without modesty." If the proverb had omitted most of its irony and had continued, "buildings without streets," the as- sertions would have contained more truth. From the sea and the splendid harbor, with its lighthouse 300 feet in height, the city and shores of the gulf form a grand panorama, but entering the port, it is seen that the streets are so narrow that foot passen- gers and mules, loaded with merchandise, pack them from side to side. They are dark, gloomy labyrinths, lined with tall marble buildings, many of them having been the elegant, spacious palaces of merchant princes, doges, and powerful families who ruled the state. The two most famous are the Palazzo Ducale, formerly inhabited by the doges (those supreme magistrates of the city for two centuries), and in which the senate now meets ; and the Palazzo Doria, presented in the sixteenth century to the great citizen who threw off the French and foreign yoke, and became President of the new republic. Other palaces contain large galleries of paintings, which are shown for a fee, but most of them are occupied as public buildings. Few persons, even of distinction, in modern Genoa, can afford to occupy these stately marble piles. They have, therefore, been transformed into hotels or business establishments; and it is a forcible reminder of the instability of worldly affairs to enter one of these imposing palaces, and find its noble porticos or lobbies supported by marble columns and occupied by hucksters and petty traders. Genoa has one of the most elegant theatres in Italy, and a statue of Columbus which is well worthy of notice. The Cathedral of St. Lorenzo, among her noticeable churches, is a grand old pile in the Italian Gothic style. And there is one line of streets — the Strade Balbi, Nuovissima and Nuova — which would be a credit to any European city; but the same decay of the nobility is here as in the lanes of Genoa. The stately palaces rise magnificently on either hand " built with a central quadrangle, bright with fountains, flowers and orange groves and open to the public view through a wide and lofty gateway," but the lower stories have, many of them, been transformed into mercantile establish- ments. NAPLES. Naples is famed for its beautiful bay, its noisy people, its historical associations, its ancient and excavated environs and the castles of Nor- NA.PLES. 723 man, Bourbon and Saracenic origin scattered in and around it. The city is divided into two portions by a range of hills, the eastern division being the oldest and most thickly populated. It contains the chief public structures, but many of the streets are very narrow and paved with lava, the houses being of such great height that they appear to overhang the pathways. The western or modern section is intersected by broad and splendid thoroughfares, among the most famous being the Quay, which curves around the bay for three miles, on one side being a row of palaces and on the other a strip of beautiful parks, adorned with temples and fountains, groves of acacias and oranges. The architecture of Naples is brilliant rather than impressive. Of its 300 churches the Ca- thedral of St. Gennaro r#!! ^J^ // is interesting as con- tammg of the tombs Pope Innocent IV. and Charles of Anjou. Next to its museum, and com- ing before it in the minds of the populace, are the Opera House of San Carlo, one of the largest and most fash- ionable in Italy, and the "Teatro di San Carlina," where all classes flock to witness the perform- ances of Pulcinella, the Italian " Punch." The fashionable promenade of Naples is the Villa Nazionale, be- ing nearly a mile long and two hundred feet wide, planted with evergreens and oaks, and containing temples dedicated to Virgil and Tasso, winding paths, grottos and a ter- race extending into the sea. Of the most famous castles, Nuova, is near the port and consists of massive towers and fosses. Be- tween two of the towers is the triumphal arch erected in honor of the entry of Alfonso of Aragon into the city. Within the castle are the barracks and armory, and the whole structure is connected with WALL PAINTING, POMPEII. 724 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the royal palace by a gallery. The arsenal and dockyard, at which frequently lie the great iron-clads of the Italian navy, adjoin the castle and the palace. In the southern portion of the city is the Castle dell' Ova (of oval form), now used as a prison, and the castle of St. Elmo, situated on a bold point and said to be honey-combed under ground with mines and passages. The castle has been dismantled, however, and is now a military prison. Other castles, once occupied by the Swabian, Anjou and other reigning dynasties, have been transformed into prisons and courts of law. The municipal palace is a great structure, covering 200,000 square feet of ground, in which all the city business is transacted, Several of the most noteworthy of the churches of Naples stand upon the sites of ancient temples, erected by the Greeks in the days of their prosperity in Sicily and Southern Italy. The Cathedral is said to stand on the foundations of a Temple of Apollo ; and others on the ruins of Temples of Mercury and Diana. In fact, the pillars and marbles of the heath- en structures have often- times been built into the later churches. The Ca- thedral itself is supported by more than a hundred columns of granite, which belonged to the edifice over which it was erected. In a subterranean chapel under the choir is depos- ited the body of St. Janu- arius, the patron saint of Naples. Two phials, said to contain his blood, are kept in the treasury of the cathedral. Upon occasions of public calam- ity and certain festivals devoted to him, the phials are brought forth and when, amidst the most solemn ceremonials, they are borne near the head of the saint (for he was beheaded) the body having been laid in the TOMBS OF POMPEII. THE BURIED CITIES. 725 shrine beneath the high altar, the coagulated substance is said to liquefy, bubble, rise and fall, the miracle lasting" several days and being the means of averting plagues and the eruptions of Vesuvius. THE BURIED CITIES. Naples is a contraction of Neapolis, the Greek for " new city." The original city is supposed to have been located on a ridge called Posilipo, in which were the residence and tomb of Virgil, the latter being at the entrance to a dark, romantic grotto. This ridge separates the Bay of Naples from the Bay of Pozzuoli, or Baiae. Around the shores of the latter beautiful sheet of water were the villas of the wealthiest of the Romans, and in its depths a corn-laden ship, which had barely escaped wreck, cast anchor and at the massive pier, which then stretched into the sea, discharo^ed its o-rain and human freight. Its most pre- cious human burden, in view of subsequent events, was the rugged, manly, eloquent Paul, Avho was on his way to preach the gospel at Rome. On the eastern shore of the bay fickle and fierce Mount Vesuvius towers over little towns and villages, which seem drawn to its fertile slopes by some unac- countable fascination. Its ancient crater, at one time partly filled with water, was the fortress of the rebel chief, Spartacus ; that was before it had buried Herculaneum and Pompeii, the former in mud, the latter in ashes. After eighteen hundred years of darkness, Pompeii is being brought to light, while a modern village stands over the mountain of mud which covers Herculaneum. The site of Pompeii remained long unknown, for the fearful convul- sion which destroyed it raised the sea beach to a considerable height and diverted the stream which formerly skirted its walls far from its ancient course. Finally, however, about the middle of the eighteenth century, operations were begun in earnest by the Neapolitan government, and owing to the fact that in many places sand, as)\es and cinders liad been GARDEN AT POMPEH. 726 PANORAiMA OF NATIONS. mixed with the immense vohimes of water which poured from the crater and formed a Hght covering of mud, the theatres, palaces, baths, houses, temples, with their statues and mosaics, were found in a remarkable state of preservation. Few skeletons were found, this circumstance going to show that most of the inhabitants were able to escape the general destruc- tion of the city. One remarkable exception to the comparatively small number of skeletons or casts, which have been excavated from the superb town or suburb, is the discovery made in excavating a Temple of Juno, From the position of the bodies it is evident that the deluded devotees had fled to their goddess for protection, and two hundred of her children there offered their last prayer to their divinity. The mi- nutest details of daily life and the most touching acts of heroism are revealed in the progress of these excavations. Taverns and bake- houses are entered, and the fruits and fish of the season are re- vealed, while loaves of bread which were never baked by arti- ficial heat are taken from ancient ovens. A sentinel at the city gate, young men and women clasping each other's hands, wo- men with their children, all escap- MARBLE TABLE FOUND AT POMPEII. [^^ f j-Qm the Streets of the city to the life beyond — some courting death and others fleeing from it — such are faint gleams of the hundred tragedies which are drawn from buried Pompeii. THE DEAD AND THE LIVING. Within the Museum of Naples are the majority of all the curiosities and treasures which have been brought from Pompeii and Herculaneum ; and in many cases the similarity of the domestic life of those days and the present is most striking — even the shape of the Pompeiian loaves is the same as the Neapolitan. ^ Pompeii, however, was the elegant suburb of Naples, the resort of the wealthy Romans who had villas in the suburbs, and whose palaces and gardens stretched from it for miles around the bay. So that we must not imagine that the streets of Pompeii ever resounded with the noise and bustle of Naples. The Neapolitans live in the streets, and of all the thoroughfares in VENICE RISING FROAI THE SEA. 727 the world for shouting, jamming, screaming, singing, cursing ; for idlers intermingled with asses, mules, hand-carts and tradesmen working at their benches — for gesticulating, quibbing and throwing society into endless forms of confusion, the Street di Toledo, which intersects old Naples, stands without a rival in the world. Of late years, however, the mendi- cant classes have been decreasing and monks are not allowed to beg in publico VENICE RISING FROM THE SEA. If Venus rising from the sea was a subject over which ancient poets lavished their choicest colors, "Venice rising from the sea" has been an equally favorite theme with more modern writers. Though threadbare, It is an ever fresh and romantic topic — this rude tribe of Venetis fleeing, from the Goths to the marshes and islands of the Adriatic and in two centuries building a large city, and in three a magnificent one, which covered eighty of those Islands with arsenals, ship-yards, palaces, churches and great mercantile buildings. At first the people made salt and fished, then they traded in all parts of the world and established their commer- cial houses and factories in Rome and Constantinople. With the In- crease of their wealth their political power extended, and the Crusades made Venice the most powerful city in Lombardy, where almost all the riches of the East was concentrated. In the eighth century she be- came a republic, governed by a doge (duke). She was the acknowledged mistress of the Adriatic Sea, which for six centuries she annually "wedded" by casting a ring into its blue depths. " It is the only capital city of Europe that was not entered by an enemy from the downfall of the Roman Empire to the period of the French revolution." From Its origin to that time it bore the name of a republic ; when the govern- ment was overthrown in 1797, it was the most ancient republic, even in name, which history records. With the discovery of the passage tO' India by way of the Cape of Good Hope, Portugal snatched from Venice the commerce of the East. The Turks took away Cyprus, Candia and her possessions in the Archipelago and Greece. Thus Venice was clipped so that she no longer soared, but was limited to her Italian possessions and European trade. These, in turn, contracted more and more, so that now, unlike Genoa, she Is little else than a beautiful marble-like corpse. The Grand Canal divides Venice into two unequal parts, its tortu- ous course being intersected by 146 smaller channels. Over 300 bridges are thrown across these waterways, the most famous being the RIalto, a stone structure which spans the Grand Canal. Marble palaces, mighty church domes and public structures rise from the borders of the canals, 728 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. both great and small, but in summer and autumn, when the tides are highest and their green waters so distinctly reflect these architectural charms, Venice is a double vision of wonder and beauty. The center of attraction is the shrine of her patron saint, the Square of St. Mark. It is said that during the first part of the ninth century a fleet of Venetian merchantmen was driven by a storm into the Egyptian port of Alexandria. In gratitude to Heaven for their deliverance the crews obtained the supposed body of St. Mark and transported it to their city. This apostle thus became the tutelary saint of Venice. THE CHURCH OF ST. MARK. Upon the east side of the great square is the Church of St. Mark, built in the form of a Greek cross. Above the doorway are four famous bronze horses, brought from Constantinople, and great domes tower above the cathedral spire and minarets. The most stately of them all is the campanile, or bell tower, which rises over the cathedral " like a huge giant guarding the fairy creation at its foot." The tower is surmounted by the figure of an angel, which is thirty feet in height. St. Mark's cathedral is constructed of brick, incrusted with richly colored marbles ; the statues and profuse carvings are exquisite. Buildings for the accom- modation of the Patriarch, trustees of the church property, etc., etc., stand in stately array around the square. Ruskin gives this rich coloring to the interior of St. Mark: "The church is lost in a deep twilight, to which the eye must be accustomed for some moments before the form of the building can be traced ; and then there opens before us a vast cave hewn out into the form of a cross and divided into shadowy aisles by many pillars. Round the dome of its roof the light enters only through narrow apertures like large stars; and here and there a ray or two from some far-away casement wanders into the darkness and casts a narrow phosphoric stream, upon the waves of marble that heave and fall in a thousand colors along the floor. What else there is of light is from torches, or silver lamps, burning cease- lessly in the recesses of the chapels ; the roof sheeted with gold, and the polished walls covered with alabaster, give back at every curve and angle some feeble gleaming to the flames ; and the glories round the heads of the sculptured saints flash upon us as we pass them, and sink again into the gloom. Under foot and over head, a continual succes- sion of crowned imagery, one picture passing into another as in a dream ; forms beautiful and terrible mixed together ; dragons and serpents, and ravening beasts of prey, and graceful birds that in the midst of them drink from running fountains and feed from vases of crystal ; the pas- THE PIGEONS OF ST. MARK— VENICE. A GONDOLA TRIP. 729 sions and pleasures of human life symbolized together, and the mystery of its redemption." South of the Piazza is the Piazzetta, or Little Square, containing two great red granite columns, one surmounted by a figure of St. Theodore, who preceded St. Mark, as the city's guardian, and the other covered by the Lion of St. Mark. On one side of the Little Square is the Doge's Palace, which displays the ancient Venetian, the Gothic and the Renais- sance styles of architecture, as the original structure was erected in 813, and enlarged, rebuilt and redecorated for seven or eight hundred years. A GONDOLA TRIP. From the landing place of the Piazzetta a gondola, in gliding west along the Great Canal, would pass a great number of palaces, formerly the warehouses and business houses of merchant princes. Every con- ceivable style of architecture is represented. The best hotel in Venice was at one time a grand palace. We glide under the Rialto, that majes- tic stone arch ; and if we stopped to examine it we should find that it is divided above into three streets and that several rows of shops are established thereon. At the foot of the Rialto is a celebrated church, which occupies the site of the first religious structure erected in Venice, in 421. The " Frari " is famous for its colossal monument of Titian and its rare pic- tures. But to enumerate all the churches of Venice and the master- pieces of art found in the Fine Art Academy would be foreign to our purpose, for the Venice of to-day is but a ghost of the old Venetian Republic. " The Bridge of Sighs stretches across the canal called the Rio Palazzo and communicates between prisons on the east and the Doge's palace on the west bank. It is a covered gallery, and prisoners, when led to execution, passed from their cells across this gallery to the palace to hear the sentence of death passed upon them, and then were conducted to the scene of death between the red columns." MILAN. In opulence and enterprise Milan yields the palm to no city in Italy. Although its position is inland it lies in the way of the important Alpine lines of travel and by its thorough canal system is placed in communi- cation with the principal rivers of Italy. Silk, ribbons, cutlery, porce- lain, grain, rice and cheese are the chief articles of its great inland trade, and they blossom out into broad, well-paved, clean streets, elegant dwell- ings, and substantial business houses ; art palaces illustrative of the 730 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Bolognese and Lombard schools; into public and private libraries, cele- brated conservatories of music, great hospitals and schools of every description — public, normal and technical The places of amuse- ment are on as grand a scale as the public buildings, and the Corso, or chief promenade of the city, is simply Parisian in its brilliancy. One of its arcades, with its bright shops and cafes and gay attractions, is the most favorite place of evening resort of this glittering thoroughfare and has been called " Little Paris." Milan, in "fact, is a modern city. Roman, Hun and Goth have assisted in obliterating nearly every trace of its ancient power and elegance. The most ancient of Milan's monuments is the Church of St. Am- brose, Bishop of Milan, founded by him in the fourth century. In this church the German Emperors were crowned Kings of Italy. In the Dominican Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie is Leonardo da Vinci's " Last Supper," one of the greatest of the world's sublime paintings. Milan Cathedral, with its 4,000 statues, forests of pinnacles, and its great dome 355 feet in height, which has taken five hundred years in building and is not yet completed, is the magnet which draws most irre- sistibly toward the city. The church is in the form of a Latin cross, but pinnacles, statuary, carvings, fretwork, niches and every form of profuse ornamentation are so worked into the general design that it is difficult to see in the magnificent structure anything but a bewildering mass of details. Monuments of princes, prelates and saints rise toward the vaulted roofs within. The Church of San Carlo Borromeo has a dome second only in size to that of the Pantheon, and contains a wonder- ful marble group of the Saviour and Virgin. Among the public institu- tions of Milan the Lazaretto, the plague hospital outside the walls, is the most imposing. The buildings comprise four ranges, each nearly 1,200 feet long, and cover an area of thirty acres. Milan is the book center of Italy, and its newspapers and periodicals further mark it as a city which has a future before it as well as a past behind it. Its libraries are renowned over Europe, and one of them at least, the Ambro- sian library, is famous throughout the world of scholars for its remark- able collections of manuscripts. Among others may be mentioned fragments of Cicero's orations and letters of Marcus Aurelius ; a manu- script of Virgil, with marginal notes by Petrarch, who refers to his first meeting with Laura. There are studies by Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci. Connected with the library is a printing press, and its rich treas- ures are constantly being sifted, classified and digested by classical pro- fessors and editors. PISA. 73 1 PISA. Pisa is a provincial town of Tuscany — Pisa, the rival of Genoa and Florence, whose merchant vessels were seen in every nook of the Medi- terranean Sea, whose navy destroyed the power of the Saracens in Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearic Isles, and whose soldiers were among; the bravest of the gallant crusaders — Pisa, one of the most powerful republics of the middle ages is to-day hardly a first-rate provincial town, surrounded by an ancient wall, with grass growing where once trod thousands of ambitious merchants and warriors. The marble bridge which spans the Arno has few rivals in Europe. The only other note- worthy objects of interest are the cathedral, baptistry, leaning tovv^er and Campo Santo. The cathedral, long without a rival in architectural beauty, and still uniting majesty with grace, was erected from Saracenic spoils and is a monument to the success of the religious war which the Pisans waged against the infidels. The baptistry was built later, being in the form of a gigantic dome, surmounted by an unimposing cone. Below the roof and extending to the cornice of its first marked division is what might be termed a rich central band of dormer windows, crosses, statues, carvings and graceful pillars. The leaning bell tower, or cam- panile, was completed subsequent to the baptistry. . Its eccentricity of deviating from the perpendicular was discovered in time to guard against its destruction by so distributing the pressure of stone in the upper stories and the weight of its seven huge bells that a firm equilibrium was main- tained. Between the baptistry and the campanile on one side and the old city walls on the other is the cemetery called Campo Santo, the enormous mound of earth in the center beinor the soil which was brou<>-ht from the traditional site of Calvary ; which was loaded into fifty-three vessels under the direction of an Italian Archbishop who was expelled from Palestine by Saladin. The cemetery is a beautiful oblong court surrounded by lofty arcades of white marble, placed there by John of Pisa and frescoed by Giotto and other eminent artists. Both ancient Greece and Rome have contributed rare bas reliefs, which stand the ravages of time much better than the paintings, many of which have faded or peeled from the walls. Within the sacred inclosure are a number of striking monuments of modern times, one of the most superb being that of Algarotti, the Venetian scholar who was so honored by Frederick the Great in life and in death. THE SICILIANS AND MT. ETNA. The natives are of a light olive complexion and of middle stature. 732 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. consisting of the aborigines who are supposed to have emigrated from the continent of Italy, the Greeks who formed their earhest settlements at Messina and Syracuse, and the Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Goths, Arabs and Normans who overran the island in wars of conquest. Their lanofuaofe shows decided traces of the Saracenic invasion. The fisheries and vineyards of Sicily furnish employment to the majorit}^ of the inhabitants. In visiting some of the noted historical and mythological localities of Greece we have noticed the emigration of the inhabitants of the state of Messene to escape the arms of the ambitious Spartans. The founding of Messina, in Northeastern Sicily, originated from this emigration. It grew to be a great city, and although destroyed by a Carthaginian army it was rebuilt by Dionysius, one of the " tyrants of Syracuse," who ex- pelled the invaders. Messina was the first Roman dependency beyond Italy. The city is of strictly modern construction, one single colonnade remaining of what is known to be of ancient architecture. It has a splendid harbor, wide streets paved with blocks of lava, and all the ac- companiments of a city of 125,000. The city is about twenty-five miles northeast of Mount Etna, which is a feature of its rugged background. The largest volcano in Europe is apparently increased in size by being cut off from the northern chain of mountains by a valley. It rises from a plain on the land side, and directly from the Mediterranean Sea on the eastern side. Mount Etna is nearly one hundred miles in circum- ference, and from this stupendous mass rises the principal cone nearly 1 1,000 feet above the sea. Eighty minor cones are seen to group them- selves around the giant, some of them being hills of considerable size — bare, covered with dark pine forests, or the lighter foliage of the beech and hawthorn. Rising from the center of a dreary plain, which itself is above the secondary cones, is Etna herself, bearing upon her head a snowy covering or a gray covering of lava and ashes. Below is the woody region and rich pasturage grounds and around the base of the mountain are vineyards and corn fields. The grandest view of Mount Etna is obtained from the sea, thirty miles of thecoast line being formed by streams of lava. Its side Is gashed by a gigantic gully, five miles across and surrounded by vertical precipices ranging from 1,000 to 5,000 feet in height. Upon their faces are seen the courses of lava streams, and other evidences which force the observer to form In his mind a pic- ture of the wild primeval scene when the interior force burst its way through the mountain's frame. Etna has given vent to her fury many times within historic periods, her greatest season of activity being from 1 664-1 673, when whole villages THE CAPITAL. y;^^. with their inhabitants were covered with her gulfs of lava and water, the latter being either ejected from the crater or formed by the melting of immense fields of snow on the summit of the mountain. The last great eruption of 1852 started on their journey toward the villages of Zaf- farana and Giarra two streams of lava, one of them being two miles broad and one hundred and seventy feet deep. As it broke over the abrupt sides of the mountain, like cataracts of fire, the sight was one of which to dream for a lifetime. THE CAPITAL. Palermo, the capital of Sicily, was originally a Phoenician settle- ment, but after the Carthaginians captured it in 480 B. C, it fell succes- sively into the hands of the Grecians, Romans, Goths, Saracens and Normans. The kingdom of Sicily was founded by the latter, who retained the capital at Palermo, where it had been established by the Saracens. Palermo is picturesquely situated on a lovely plain between two mountain ridges and the sea, or, as it has been poetically called, in the "Golden Shell." Its harbor is well protected, but the city is sur- rounded by falling walls. Palermo is divided into four parts by two broad streets which intersect, the longrer of them running from the sea to the royal palace, before which stands a bronze statue of Philip IV. of Spain. The whole city is paved with lava blocks, and the water supply is drawn from the reservoirs at the corners of the streets, placed there by the Saracens who thus preached in this foreign land their gospel of pure water — "the greatest gift of Allah!" Palermo has numerous palaces and churches, but the most noted of the religious edifices is the cathedral which contains mausolea of Frederick II., and of Roger, the founder of the kingdom. St. Rosalia, the patron saint of Palermo, was a Norman princess who forsook the court for a wild cave in a rocky hill near the city. The cave is a holy shrine to which an annual pilgrimage is made, and the bones of Santa Rosalia are treasured in a chest of solid silver which is deposited in a magnificent chapel named after her. Pal- ermo's nunneries and monasteries have been suppressed. There was one to which an awful fascination attached — the Capuchin monastery — from the fact that underneath it were lonsf subterranean vaults in which the dead were placed in a standing position. The city contains numerous institutions of learning. The observatory in the royal palace is noted as being the point from which Piazzi discovered Ceres, the first of the asteroids, and made his other observations for his valuable cata- logues of the stars. 734 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. SYRACUSE AND HER RIVAL. Syracuse, on the eastern coast of Sicily, was anciently the largest city of the island, being originally a Corinthian settlement. Its population has been estimated all the way from 500,000 to 1,200,000, including really five towns, inclosed by a wall and fortresses which extended for a considerable distance inland. The modern city is fortified, being com- manded by the heights of Achradina, which was within the limits of ancient Syracuse. The Syracuse of to-day is a city of narrow streets and ruins, of amphitheatres and paths. Its cathedral, as that of Naples, is built of material which once formed a portion of a heathen temple, the church resting upon the site of the structure dedicated to Minerva. Near the borders of three of the towns is the famous theatre hewn out of the rock, which could accommodate 24,000 spectators. It is much overgrown with bushes, but the lines of its vast proportions are still vis- ible, it being 440 feet in diameter. The prisons of Syracuse, hewn from the rocky hills of Achradina to the depth of eighty feet, are perfect, but the great palaces of the tyrants of Syracuse, who ruled the city with so cruel a power, with several short interregnums of popular government, for more than 250 years — the temples which they filched from the people are in ruins. In the third century A. D., after having remained independent of foreign rule for 90oyears,the city was conquered by the Romans, though •defended by the greatest mechanical genius of antiquity, Archimedes. Subterranean tombs have also been discovered at Syracuse — a gloomy city of the dead, in which those of all nationalities and relig- ions, worthy of the honor in the eyes of the ancients, have found burial. Southwest of the city are the ruins of the Temple of Jupiter. Other •evidences are at hand of the former power of the great city which joined vessels with the Spartans and destroyed the Athenian fleet under Nicias, the pious, and Demosthenes, the eloquent. Syracuse's rival was the Doric city of Agrlgentum, on the southwestern coast. Architecturally it was a beautiful city and was famous for its great trade in corn, oil and wine. It was ruled by tyrants, was destroyed by the Carthaginians, rebuilt by a tyrant, and became subject to the Romans and the Saracens. The modern town of Girgenti occupies the site of the flourishing city,exhibiting dirty lanes, wretched houses with fine balconies, many works of art, vast ruins of the ancient temples of Concord and Jupiter, immense granaries hewn from the rock, subterranean stone quarries from which building ma- terial was taken for the ancient city, magnificent painted vases taken from ancient sepulchres,the petroleum spring noticed by Pliny and the mud vol- cano described by writers of antiquity. Girgenti has many odd churches, but only 20,000 people, the population of Syracuse being about 300,000. THE SPANIARDS, THE BASQUES. HERE are many speculations afloat regarding the Basques, who principally inhabit the three provinces which form a tri- angle in Northwestern Spain, its base being the Bay of Biscay on the north. At least several groups of scholars have settled upon a common theory that the gypsies originally came from Northern India, but although the Basques have never been really dislodged from their mountain homes and have seen the barbarians of Europe moulded into such peoples as the Germans, English and French, and have withstood tides of conquest which have swept over their country from the three conti- nents, the knotty point as to their origin is so far from being settled that scarcely half a dozen philologists and historians have reached the same conclusion. The provinces which they now occupy in Spain constitute the ancient Cantabria, which native historians claim had as its pioneers Tubal, the son of Japhet, and his family. From this point spread the aboriginal population of Europe. They furthermore claim that they speak the very language which Noah received from Adam. Certain it is that their language is peculiarly their own. They call themselves " Euscaldunac," their country "Euscaleria" and their language " Eus- cara." The Basques have been named as remnants of the people of the Lost Atlantis, as Tartars, Huns, Finns, Phoenicians, Berbers, Latins, and Iberians, who occupied the peninsula of France and Spain when the Celts invaded the country 1600 B. C. From the fusion of Iberians (whoever they were) with the Celts arose the Celtiberians, who often were the enemies and sometimes the friends of ancient Rome, With them the mountaineers, or Basques, found it convenient to league them- selves. Augustus Caesar directed his troops against the Cantabrians. One of his armies was nearly starved, and a second narrowly escaped an ambuscade among the mountains. He was harassed on all sides by the hardy aborigines, and at one time retired in disgust. But Rome 735 736 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. was Stubborn as well as great. The towns of the Basques were burned and they retreated to the mountains to watch the con- flagrations and wait for the Romans to attack them there. They fought like wild cats in the mountains, those who were captured submitting with grim determination to the most fearful tortures. The Romans built their forts among the mountains and the Basques at- tacked from them their natural fortifications. No Roman force could sally forth without being surprised by their unconquerable enemies. New confederations of the native warriors were formed. A whole Roman army was destroyed. The confederation was crushed for the time being, and thousands of prisoners carried in chains to Rome. Many of them escaped, returned to the Pyrenees and formed a new league. This was dispersed by Agrippa. At length the Celtiberians became subjects of Rome, leaving the Cantabrians still intrenched in the Western Pyrenees. They assisted the Romans against the Gallic tribes and were defeated by the Goths on the plains of Navarre. But neither Goth, Vandal nor Moor dare pursue them to the mountains as did the Roman. They cut the Saracens to pieces and when Charlemagne's victorious army retired from the Ebro, his rear guard was attacked in a rocky valley and many of his bravest noblemen killed by the Basques. This brought upon them a series of conflicts, but the great King of the Franks could not crush them. The Basque provinces became allies of Castile and Aragon, and were incorporated into the kingdom, but they formed a confederation of small republics and with Navarre insisted for eight centuries upon retain- ing \}i\^\x fueros, or charters, from the imperial government, by which they were guaranteed home rule and exempted from duties on imported merchandise and all royal monopolies. They were not subject to con- scription for the royal army and no royal troops entered their land with- out the permission of the home authorities. Even during the reigns of Charles V. and Philip II. these provinces, in spite of imperial encroach- ments upon popular government in other provinces, stood forth as a brave democracy within a kingdom. Until they organized the Don Carlos rebellion against the reigning house, the Basques continued to enjoy their bill of rights, but this act resulted, by the war which closed in 1876, in its final abolition. When these distinguished sons of the Pyrenees (for each Basque is a noble) are not proudly and unflinchingly defending their homes and their rights, a variety of occupations are open to them. They are said to be the first of the Europeans who went fishingfor whales, and even now their fisheries upon the coast employ many people. It was from this coast that THE BASQUES. '] l'^ the fishermen and explorers went forth (so claim their descendants) to discover Newfoundland. The assumption of the Venetian Cabots, father and son, whom history has credited with the discovery, is boldly scouted by the proud Cantabrians. Metals and marbles of various kinds vein their hills, and they are miners. A simple spade or fork is about the only agricultural imple- ment with which they cultivate their small farms of four or five acres. Wheat, barley and maize are harvested. Although the soil of the valleys even is not very rich, the Basque peasant is industrious and his lands will compare favorably with those in other portions of the kingdom. His hills are covered with oak, beech and chestnut, generally to the very sum- mit. The climate is mild and salubrious, and the country is picturesque. Besides being unlike any of the dialects of Southern Europe, the Basque language is so difficult to learn that there is a popular legend to the effect that Satan spent seven years in studying it and thoroughly mastered but three words. One might believe the story and admire his ability after being confronted with such native monstrosities as these : Izarysaroyarenlurrearenbarena, or "the center of the mountain road," and Azpilcuetagaraycosaroyarenbcrecolarrea, or "the lower ground of the high hill of Azpilcueta." The Basques are of a poetic turn. Their bards attend the huskings and salute the washerwomen on the banks of the streams and the peasants at their plows, improvising pastorals and tell- ing stories and legends. Their theatres are built out from the mountains,^ and native tragedies and comedies are acted, which are pronounced remarkably vigorous and fresh. The poets also are honored with fes- tivals, in which they are escorted by a procession of horsemen in rich uniforms and great bear-skin caps, by musicians and dancers, to a plat- form or theatre, where they are happy to show their powers. Their amuse- ments, such as their pastoral dramas, are of a national character, the sub- jects being taken from the Bible, from Grecian mythology and even from Ottoman sources. Their dances, also, are institutions of the coun- try, such as the Olympian games in Greece. Formerly the priests took part in the excitements of the dance and the women were excluded; now their positions are reversed. Such gatherings as these draw the Basques from plain, valley and mountain — the women with their superb masses of brown hair, their small hands and feet, and the men with their massive features, firm mouths, black eyes and dignified bearing. The peasant appears in his gala dress — a blue cap, dark velvet breeches, a red scarf around his loins and a gorgeous vest, while his pear tree-stick, pointed with iron, is slung by a cord to his wrist. 47 738 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. The most favorite manly sport is hunting the wild pigeon. " High up in the tallest trees of the forest, huts of branches are constructed. These huts, around which are arranged decoys, which are made to flut- ter whenever a flock of pigeons is signaled, accommodate from four to six huntsmen, each one stationed in front of a loop-hole made so as to afford an enfilading shot, which will kill a number of birds at once. At the sound of the chief's whistle, there is a simultaneous fire and great is the carnage. In some quarters great nets are stretched among the trees, and the birds, scared by the rattles and by the decoy hawks of wood and feathers which are thrown at them, quicken their flight and rush help- lessly into the snares." IGNATIUS LOYOLA. It is in the land of the Basques that Ignatius Loyola, the ardent, brave and worldly soldier, first saw this strange world so filled with transforming influences ; for the young soldier, fighting against the French, was wounded in both legs and was borne to his ancestral castle near the modern town of Azpeitia. Having exhausted his large supply of romances, the incapacitated soldier, in sheer desperation, fell back upon the " Lives of the Saints." But his active soul was fired, and from that time on, by a thorough course of study, by a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, traveling generally on foot as a mendicant monk, by every possible course of thought, self-denial and industry he prepared himself to become the founder of that military order of Jesuits whose motto, P. A. C, indicates the complete submersion of the individual into the body; for P. A. C. {Perinde ac Cadaver) is "just like a corpse" and every Jesuit is sworn to obey the orders of his superior, as though he were clay in the potter's hands. The scene of Loyola's conversion is now a vast monastery, whose great dome is brought out with severe distinctness against a rocky mount, a short distance beyond. The unfinished wings of the mass of buildings give the imaginative, from a distance, the impression of a huge, imperfect eagle. Entering the vestibule from the peristyle, which has a semi-circu- lar front of black marble, plaster statues of Loyola, Xavier and other prominent Jesuits are observed. Passing into the church beneath figures of the Virgin and cherubs, one finds himself in a square, cold marble hall. " From the vestibule a door on one side opens into an arched passage, one side of which is formed by the house of Loyola, built of rough brick, and bearing over the door the inscription in gold letters on a black mar- ble slab: ' Family house of Loyola. Here St. Ignacio was born in 149 1. Here, having been visited by St. Peter and by the most Holy Virgin, SPANISH GYPSIES. 739 he gave himself to God in 1521," The apartment in which they are said to have appeared to Loyola forms an inner chapel of the church and is a shrine to which thousands of the devout repair. Besides the inscription which has been noticed, the escutcheon of the Loyola family appears upon another marble slab, it being two wolves disputing over a cauldron suspended by a chain. The unfinished portion of the left wing of the monastery consists of a simole wall, which is built in front of the castle or house of the Saint. SPANISH GYPSIES. From the Pyrenees to Granada the Spanish gypsy is on his travels^ camping by Phoenician, Carthaginian, Iberian, Roman, Gothic and Moorish fortresses ; pene- trating to Madrid with smug- o'lers and horse- thieves, but not of them ; wandering from Madrid to pick up the great mules of Western Spain and sellingand trading them over again , curing men and horses of various distempers ; dancing, sing- : ing in Seville ; camping in r the rocky caves within a stone's throw of historic Granada ; tinkering, pilfer- ing, fortune-telling — the Spanish gypsy is the gypsy of the world,the professional tramp who is not a vagrant, for he always has some osten- sible means of support. Seville, the birthplace a gyfsy chief. of Murillo, the greatest of Spanish painters, whose masterpieces adorn the walls of its grand churches, is also the headquarters of the gypsy musicians and dancers. Here will be found many set- tled people of their race, as in other towns of Spain. But the gypsy dancing girl is the interesting member of their community — she who exhibits to the eyes of Spain the motions of the Hindu maidens and the Egyptian guitar, and glides about to the strains of old Grecian and Phoenician melodies. Little children are brought up to the same 740 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. perfection by ambitious elders, sometimes venerable grandmothers, who encourage their tiny bare feet with the guitar or castanets. It is not always for show and gain that the gypsies exhibit their accomplishments. Their marriage festivals are particularly boisterous and devoted to merry-making — music, song and dance. They have, also, their rude poets, whose themes are not always such as would com- m.end themselves to classical tastes. Cattle-stealings, prison adventures and other incidents of wandering gypsy life, with tender bits of love ditties and pastoral scenes, quaint scraps and catches, are various themes and elements of their verse-making. On account of the disorganized condition of society in Spain, much of the time, her gypsies, when they permanently take to travel, are among the most reckless and unprincipled of their race. They fre- quently encamp near remote villages, and when they have consumed and stolen everything they can, pass on to the next. Frequently they are driven away by the authorities. Then the women and children mount the lean asses of the band, ragged and long-haired men goading and beating the poor animals to increase their speed, the rear of the uncouth cavalcade being guarded by a small party on strong horses, armed with guns and sabres, and now and then defiantly blowing a hoarse blast upon their horns. CADIZ. From the Basque provinces to Cadiz, on the Southwestern Spanish coast, is from ancient land to ancient city ; but as Cadiz is the great starting point of foreign colonization and foreign conquest, and as here was taken the next chronological step in the settlement of Spain, it is well to rest awhile at the little city by the ocean, standing there square, trim and clean. It is surrounded by a wall, its houses are built of white stone, and from the water sides, for it is upon a long narrow isthmus of an island, nothing can be more fresh in the shape of a city. Cadiz has strong sea and land fortifications, and its fine harbor has been the scene of conflicts between the Spaniards, English and French, between the Spaniards, Moors, Goths, Romans, Carthaginians and Phoenicians. The Phoenicians founded it over three centuries before the founding of Rome and the ruins of one of their temples is there. From Phoenician to Carthaginian, from Carthaginian to Roman, from Roman to Vandal, from Vandal to Goth, from Goth to Moor, before they all were merged into the Spaniard, is the usual order of ownership for the sea-ports of Spain and for most of the country, varied somewhat by the position of the district. CARTHAGE IN SPAIN. 74 1 CARTHAGE IN SPAIN, Across Southern Spain, on the Mediterranean is another fortified town, built on a plain surrounded by hills, the city stretching down to the sea. The entrance to its spacious harbor is narrow and is commanded by the fortifications on an island to the south. Its old streets, its old cathedral and its ruined castle on the hill are Moorish in the extreme, but the Moors only restored that city to something of its former magnifi- cence, which was the stronghold of the Carthaginians on the northern coast of the Mediterranean, and which was stormed and captured by the Romans 210 b. c. Thirty years previous it had been named New Carthage, and was designed as the Carthaginians' base of opera" tions in Europe against the Romans. Before that time Phoenicians had planted a fortress and a lighthouse upon a rock overhanging the city, in whose sides these bold colonists had found numerous caves in which lived the savasfe aborig-ines. Under Rome it was a city of wealth and importance, 40,000 men being employed in the neighboring mines of Tharsis, which formed the attraction of the Phoenicians. The Goths sacked the city, and even under Spanish rule it was the largest naval arsenal in Europe. But now the place is dilap- idated, its dockyards and arsenal are deserted, and only a few walls remain of the Carthaginian fortress held by the family of Hannibal, or of the lighthouse v/hich guided the ships to the Tarshish of Scripture, lying at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River. " Local tradition declares that a superb piece of tapestry in the old dismantled cathedral was brought back from the Indies by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage, and was suspended there by him as a grateful recognition of God's mercy, in the presence of Ferdinand and Isabella. This is not quite exact. The truth seems to be that the tapestry was paid for by the gold which Columbus brought back with him, and that it represents the birds and beasts, the fruits and flowers of the New World, as far as he could describe them. That it was sus- pended by Columbus seems certain, attested as it is by the familiar escutcheon and legend which are placed over it. It will scarcely be credited that the cathedral is rapidly falling into ruins, and that the tapestry is rotting from the walls." SPANISH MOROCCO. The territory lying between these ancient towns and between the Guadalquivir River and the Mediterranean Sea is what may be called the Morocco of Spain. In Granada (which was the last of the Moslem 742 PA^TORAMA OF NATIONS. kingdoms to fall) and Castile are, in fact, to be found about 60,000 people who have kept their Moorish blood singularly pure, being known as Modejars. Despite the Inquisition, the banishments and burn- ings, the Moors not only remain, but they have impressed many of their customs upon the country. "In Toledo, in Cordova, in Granada, or in the older parts of Seville, it would be easy to believe oneself in a Moorish or Egyptian town. The narrow streets are inclosed by high walls, almost windowless, and perfo- rated by only a single low door. Everything looks gloomy and sombre. But peep through the iron grating which protects the doorway, and you will see 2^ patio bright with flowers and fountains and greenery. The windows of the chambers open into this quadrangle, and the inmates can enjoy light and air, bright sunshine and cool shade, without leaving the seclusion of their houses or being exposed to the gaze of any not belong- ing to the family. This style of architecture has been handed down directly from the Moors. And in numberless details of dress and daily life the same influence may be traced. The mantilla which forms the head-dress of almost every v/oman in Spain, is simply a relic of the veil universally worn by the wives and daughters of the Moslem. Wander into the outskirts of any town in Spain, and you will hardly fail to stum- ble upon groups of ragged, picturesque varlets, lying at full length upon some sunny bank, sunning themselves just as a group of Bedouins would do. Go out into the country, and you will hear the creaking of the waterwheel and see the patient oxen treading their ceaseless round, turning the ponderous machine, which has come down unchanged from the days of the Moors. The peasants of Andalusia, Murcia and Granada are seldom to be seen without a long staff, which they grasp and carry exactly as an Arab does his spear. The velvet hat of the Spanish majo is clearly a reminiscence of the turban. In private houses, hotels and cafes servants are summoned by clapping the hands as in the Arabian Nights." In the mettle, grace and docility of the horses of Andalusia, also, are seen the strong points of the Arabian steeds. Since the country was stocked by the Moors with their finest breeds they have somewhat degenerated ; still enough specimens of the famous stock remain to remind one of the Moorish rule. Since the decline in wealth and mag- nificence of the Spanish nobility, the demand for blooded horses has decreased. The celebrated breed of the sovereigns of Spain at Cordova is nearly extinct, and the wealthiest Andalusian nobles have only a few saddle horses. The noble Arabian steed, the pride of the Moor and the native sheik, is disappearing before the mules and asses which are used for SEVILLE. 743 domestic, agricultural and transportation purposes. Immense droves of these animals are continually passing from Old Castile, where they are bred, to the rich pastures of Estremadura, where they are reared, and supplied to the rest of Spain, principally for transportation purposes. The asses even rival those of Egypt, being sure-footed, strong and docile, and nearly equal in size to the mules. SEVILLE. In fact, from Seville and the banks of the Guadalquivir to the Mediterranean Sea, the Arabs of Morocco have buried Phoenician, Roman and Gothic civilizations. Although the native place of the Roman Emperors Trajan, Adrian and Theodosius, called by Caesar Little Rome, and adorned by great edifices worthy of a favorite child of the empire, Seville is a purely Moorish city. The capital of Southern Spain during the ascendency of the Vandals and the Goths, it is still dis- tinctively Moorish. A few miles away are the ruins of a magnificent Roman amphitheatre — all that remains of the palaces and ambitious structures of half a dozen Roman emperors and conquerors. Time has not buried Rome completely out of sight, here in Moor- land. Massive stones of the amphitheatre now confine the waters of the Guadalquivir and appear in the walls of a neighboring convent, while during the five centuries that the Moors held Seville the city was rebuilt from the materials of former Roman edifices. Certain quarters of the city have not been changed, and one may there find cool shadows cast across the narrow, crooked streets, from spacious mansions, with ample courts and gardens. Attached to the mighty Spanish cathedral of Seville is a remarkable Moorish tower, to which a lofty pinnacle has been added since the city came under the Spanish rule. The tower formerly was part of a great Mohammedan mosque. It is now a portion of the Catholic church, within which are paintings by Murillo, whose house may be seen from it. Surmounting the pinnacle, 350 feet from the ground, is a female figure in bronze, fourteen feet high, which serves as a weather- vane and which is so nicely poised that it is swerved by the slightest breeze. The Alcazar, originally a Moorish palace, has been remodeled until it is a rival of the Alhambra in delicate ornamentation. It is the royal res- idence, and a royal one, truly. At a little distance from the palace is an octagonal tower, partly Moorish and partly Roman in its architecture; it is called the Tower of Gold. One story is that Columbus stored therein the first American gold ; on the other hand, it is alleged that the name was given to it long before Columbus ever set sail from Palos. 744 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. But the Seville of to-day is not the capital of a Moorish kingdom with half a million people. Although when Ferdinand of Castile passed in as a conqueror, 300,000 Moors passed out, bound for Granada and Africa, it continued a great city until the discovery of America, when it almost reached its fornier plane of prosperity. Cadiz afterwards seized its trade, and with the decline of Spain as a commercial power Seville fell with it. It is still a beautiful city, surrounded by Moorish walls and Moorish towers. Seville was, furthermore, the headquarters of the Inquisition In Spain, but it was not until the Reformation, from Germany, commenced to send its New Testaments into Spain and make converts that it was brought to bear with such shocking cruelty upon the people. Single executions were thought inadequate to suppress the heresy, and the autos da fd, or public burnings, were inaugurated at Valladolid and Seville, and spread over the land. Barcelona, Cordova, and others had also, their gloomy prisons of the Inquisition filled with her etics until emptied by the atitos da fd. Ten years of such vigor- ous war stamped out Protestantism. CORDOVA. Ascending the river from Seville, a mass of sad-looking buildings is occasionally seen through the intervening groves of palm and olive trees. The road to the city is through gardens of roses, oranges, oleanders, with all the foliage of the Orient to give them a rich shading. As Cor- dova is approached — so long the capital and center of the great Moorish empire — its wall even has a patched and dejected air, traces of Roman, Gothic and Moorish workmen being discovered in it. Cordova was for three centuries one of the grandest centers of commerce and of a civil- ization far in advance of the rest of Europe ; a sublime city of mosques, hospitals, schools and palaces, the banks of the Guadalquivir being lined with extensive gardens in which were innumerable fountains, palm trees, and Oriental pavilions. Cordova was the metropolis of the industrious race which made Southern Spain bloom like a garden ; which laid out her rich plains into sugar, rice and cotton plantations; which brought in chemistry, paper, elegant manufactures, and the numerical system which we use to-day. Each garden whose orange and citron groves were reflected in the clear waters of the Guadalquivir was the haunt of the botanist. Like the Jews, the Moors were famous physicians. They taught medicine, astronomy, mathematics and philosophy when the rest of Europe was just emerging from primitive ignorance, so that the schools of Cordova educated the Christians of all nations, who sought the CORDOVA. 745 learning of the East which the Arabs had brouglit from Egypt, India, Persia and Asia Minor, via Morocco. The expulsion of the Moors and the Jews was a blow to Spain whose effects can never be entirely coun- teracted. The only striking architectural monument of this great empire which remains in its now lifeless capital is a superb mosque, which was built by the first caliph of the Spanish Moors after they rebelled against the rule of the Damascus princes. This able and amiable monarch, shel- tered by the Bedouins of Arabia and Africa from his Damascus enemies, was chosen by the sheiks as the leader of the Moors in Spain. It was in the middle of the eighth century that he landed on the coast of Andalusia, and commenced his tri- umphal march to Seville and Cor- dova. In his person were united the performances of the future. He it was who transplanted the palm into Spain. His mosque ab- sorbed the talent and skill of the most expert architects, masons and workmen among the Arabs and Jews — -in fact, the genius of the age was lavished upon its interior. To inspire enthusiasm, as well as to instill a spirit of humility and piety into the work, its princely founder is said to have daily labored with hod and trowel. Marbles came to form its beauties from the ancient temples of Europe, Asia and Africa, and when all was ready the Islam monarch looked upon what might be a stately grove of palm trees, their trunks taking every hue of the rainbow and their branches and A SPANISH GIRL. leaves lost w the profusion of the Arabesque decorations and vault- ed roofs. From the center of the buildino- naves run in all direc- tions. The Holy of Holies, where the Koran was deposited, was a recess roofed with a carved block of marble, lined with rich mosaics, and the cornices inscribed with Moslem texts in letters of gold. This inde- scribable sanctuary has not suffered at the hands of later architects, and is all the more impressive standing out in its ancient perfection from the 746 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Catholic cathedral whose founders have generally covered the ornamen- tations and inscriptions of Islam with thick paint and whitewash. Other appropriate alterations have been made, which, however, greatly mar this grandest of the monuments of Moorish Mohammedanism. THE GARDENS OF SPAIN. Not only did the Moors bring the palm tree into Spain ; but soon rice and sugarcane were products of the country ; groves of mulberry and banana trees were waving ; and the almond, fig, orange, citron, pomegranate and pineapple were flourishing like native growths. The cactus also was given root, and not only run riot in the south, but became a striking garden ornament. It is in the gardens of Spain, in fact, as much as in the architecture, that the Moors have left their impress. Even without the flat-roofed buildings, the fountains and the arabesque work, when one wanders in these gardens which are in and around nearly every old town of Central and Southern Spain, and which are profusions of tropical foliage and fruit, the air laden with fra- grance, dates overhead, oranges and lemons within reach, he can scarcely believe himself in Europe. In some cities which are but ghosts of their former greatness, broad tracts which have been deserted and which once supported palaces, mosques or manufactories, are now planted, not only to tropical fruits, but to the apple, peach, plum and pear. But they flourish equally well as do wheat, maize and barley, with the grains of the tropics In fact, nature has made Spain one of the most productive of coun- tries, but the Spaniard, since the exit of the Moor, has not improved his opportunities. His neglect is partly owing to the fact that the Spanish nobility own immense tracts of land, which they are unable to cultivate, but hold from greneration to oreneration. The farmers them- selves are generally so poor that even the smaller holdings are covered with mortgages. As an instance of the disregard in which their rig-hts are held by the government, it is said that the proprietors of large flocks of Merino sheep, passing through the country, are privileged to drive their animals not only over village pastures but over private lands. The farmers are obliged to provide a broad passage way for these lordly sheep owners, " and no new enclosure can be made in the line of their migrations ; nor can any land which has once been in pasture be again cultivated until it has been offered to them at a certain rate." Improved methods of agriculture, however, are being introduced by foreign capi- tal, and the fertile plains of Granada, Murcia and Valencia, in some THE GOTHIC-ROMAN PRINCES. 74/ places still irrigated through the old Moorish water works, are being carefully and intelligently cultivated. Another branch of husbandry in which the Spaniards engage, but with their usual carelessness, is the cultivation of the vine. Yet, to a great extent, the natural advantages of the regions adjacent to the ocean and sea coasts of Southern and Southeastern Spain have counter- acted Spanish laxity. The most famous wine is the sherry, which comes from the district around Cadiz. Nearly all the brands which leave that port for Great Britain and this country are light, dry, table wines, containing naturally considerable alcohol and made more spirit- uous by additions from other fermented vintages, pure spirits, and decoc- tions and preparations drawn from over-ripe grapes. The choicest wines of the Cadiz district never reach the palates of foreign consumers, but are generally mixed with poorer sorts, which are thus mellowed and col- ored into all the outward appearance of the finest grades. There is a " mother of wine " as there is "a mother of vinegar," which is used to impart bouquet and color to cheap liquors, and although when it has been years in preparation, the stock being always kept up, it is abso- lutely disgusting to the taste, it becomes so potent in imparting the best qualities of " the true sherry " that a butt of it commands from ^800 to ;^ 1,000. The country between Malaga and Granada, in Andalusia, is the home of the Malaga raisins and the Malaga wines. Three crops of grapes come annually from the vineyards of the Sierra Nevada moun- tains, the first being worked up into raisins and the other two into dry and sweet wines. Strong, dark wines are made from the grapes of Mur- cia and Valencia, the latter province having the best reputation. Of the Valencia wines, the Alicante stand at the head, being sometimes almost as thick and rich as syrup. Northern Spain is a wine-raising territory, but has no more than a local reputation. No, the wines of Spain can not be attributed to the* Arabs ; for the Koran prohibits wine. The Goths, however, were drinkers of wine, and into the land of the Goths we now go. THE GOTHIC-ROMAN PRINCES. The Moors drove the Goths far beyond Cordova, far beyond the great chain of Sierra Morena mountains, which stretch a mighty barrier across the whole of Southern Spain. This they surmounted, and through the rocky passes of the Sierra Toledo they also swept, besieging mighty Toledo itself, the capital of the kingdom of the Goths. Their victorious course lay from the battle-fields northeast of Cadiz over half a dozen 748 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Stupendous mountain chains to the plain of Tours, where the Franks turned them back into Spain. For three centuries the Moors flourished, except in extreme Northern Spain, the Guadalquivir River, however, marking the center of their greatest glory ; but the rival Mohammedan factions in Morocco continually carried their wars into Spain, and by the early part of the eleventh century they broke the caliphate of Cordova into pieces, the fragments reappearing as small kingdoms. Although driven north the Christian princes were left to fight among themselves, the Moslems giving their strength to the country of the Franks and the islands of the Mediterranean to the east of Spain ; it was, without doubt, the dream of the Mohammedans of the West to join hands with the Mohammedans of the East and establish a mighty kingdom around the shores of the Mediterranean. But while the Mohammedans of Spain were a prey to internal dissensions the Gothic-Roman princes of the North buried their differences under the cover of a common cause. In the latter half of the eleventh century the King of Castile (now known as Old Castile) recovered Toledo, making it his residence and naming his territory New Castile. The capital of New Castile then became the base of operations for the Christian princes of the North against the Mohammedan states of the South, and afterward was the capital of Spain. TOLEDO. Between high and rocky banks the Tagus rushes around the rugged hills upon which the city stands, leaving only one approach by land. When Alfonso took the city he found this closed by a sturdy wall repaired four centuries before his time by the Gothic King, Wamba, the original structure being Roman. Beyond this he placed another wall, both of which stand with the ruined fortress of Alcazar — haunted by the ghosts of Roman, Moorish and Spanish architects — to tell of the rise and fall, the retreat and advance, of the races of men. From the center of the silent, gloomy city, rises the massive cathedral, surrounded by churches and convents, nearly all of which occupy the sites of old Mosques or Jewish synagogues. Many historians, in short, claim that Toledo was founded by Jewish colonists six centuries B. C, and at the time of the invasion of Spain by the Moslems, it is said that in the neighborhood of the city an Arab general found the original table of shewbread, adorned with hyacinths and em^eralds, made by Solomon and secreted by the Jews when the treasures of the temple were carried by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon. The oldest of the synagogues now stand- ing, was built in the ninth century under the tolerant rule of the Moors; GRANADA AND THE ALHAMBRA. 749 other synagogues have been transformed into churches, but this one, whose ceihno- is beHeved to have been constructed of the cedars of Lebanon, was used as a cavalry stable during the French occupancy and is now quite deserted. Two miles from the city walls, with their remarkable towers and gates, stands a great building, the royal sword manufactory, a remem- brance only of the days when the Toledo blades were so famous as to be thought worthy of the pen of Livy. About a century after Toledo became the capital of Castile, another Alfonso, joined by the Kings of Aragon, Navarre, Leon and Portugal, marched southward across La Mancha, which Cervantes was to make famous, and met on the plains of Tolosa, in the Sierra Morena, one of the greatest armies which the Mos- lems had ever sent against the Christians. The Mohammedan dy- nasty which had built its power upon the dismembered caliphate of Cordova was crushed, and from its death sprung into life the last of the noted Moorish kingdoms — that of Granada. GRANADA AND THE ALHAMBRA. The succeeding history, before the country was united, consists of a gradual absorption by Castile and Aragon of the Moorish and Christ- ian states, a healing of their jeal- ousies by the marriage of Ferdi- nand and Isabella and the final conquest of Granada, which had sustained the assaults of Christian foes for two hundred years. The gateway into the fertile kingdom is from the west across the broad plain of Vega, bordered on. the south by the snow-capped Sierra Nevadas, which cool the hot breezes from the south into delightful freshness. One of the mountain spurs stretches out into the plain, at the foot of which, upon two hills, rests the last stronghold of the Moors, the center of that last grand civilization from which even the opulent cities of Italy drew much of their prosperity. Upon one of the hills which formed the city's site rose: the royal palace and fortress of the Alhambra, surrounded by gardens. GATE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 750 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. and containing everything which might enable the monarchs of Granada to enjoy themselves in fancied security. Although since the year's siege by the King and Queen of Spain, which resulted in the fall of Granada, the Alhambra has been disfigured and pillaged, remodelled, many of its ancient towers blown up, etc., etc., in ruins it has aroused the enthusiasm of the lovers of the beautiful from every land. Without, a city of towers and massive walls ; within, still a succession of marble, alabaster and cedar halls, ornamented with arabesques and stucco-work of mother-of- pearl, ivory and silver, beautiful fountains within playing musically to the soft breezes without — the Alhambra is all that the fair pens of a score of Washington Irvings could picture it. The Alhambra is divided by a narrow glen from the Generalife, another Moorish palace surrounded with gardens and fountains. Its towers are taller and lighter than those of the Alhambra and it stands upon a loftier height; for it was the summer palace of the Granada Kings. From the Alhambra and the Generalife the grand panorama of Granada is spread in all its variety ; the rich plain formerly teeming with the riches of the temperate zone and the tropics; the mountains with the ruins of fortified towns and solitary castles stretching toward the west ; the Xenil winding through orchard, garden and grove, and from the south bright streams coming down the Sierra Nevada. It is the Granada of old with the life of man grone out of it. SOUTHERN AND EASTERN COASTS. Skirting the coast of Spainfrom Cadiz, the first port of interest going east is Palos, a sleepy enough little town, but in 1491, when Colum- bus stopped at the convent of La Rabida, near that port, it boasted the most enterprising mariners in all Spain. The great discoverer had determined to start for Cordova, on his way to France, being weary of the delays with which he met in Spain, but stopping at the gate of the convent to ask for some bread and water for his boy, the prior became interested in him and his dazzling enterprise, obtained for him a personal interview with Ferdinand and Isabella, and the Spaniards, instead of the French, were enabled to claim the discovery of America as their honor. Columbus sailed from Palos. The dilapidated town is still there, and between it and the sea shore is the old convent whose prior played so important a part in the discovery of America. With its galleries tunneled through the rock on the north front, through which hundreds of huge guns frown at the bay and command the SOUTHERN AND EASTERN COASTS. 751 sandy isthmus which connects EngHsh with Spanish soil, looms the huge promontory of Gibraltar. Barracks, fortresses and batteries on the summit and west side, on which are the bay and town, the descent being precipitous on the remaining sides, is a matter-of-fact, dry description of a very matter-of-fact sort of an institution. It would be useless to describe more fully that great fortress Avhich stands as an index of the English character, and upon which thousands of English writers have cast their artillery of adjectives. During the prevalence of the southwest winds vessels compelled to leave Gibraltar often sail to the fine port of Malaga, a dazzling city of white houses, commanded by one of those massive Moorish castles which become tiresome in the mere telling but are ever fasci- nating in the seeing. Some say Malaga was founded by the Ibe- rians. Others suppose the name to be the Phoenician for salt fish, which was one of its most famous exports, Malaga is now best known as the city from which go out the muscatel raisins, as fine as any the world knows about. Olive oil and sugar are also largely exported. Malaga, in fact, despite her Moorish air and ancient castle, is in the active current of to-day. Coastinor alono- the shores of PEASANT OF EASTERN SPAIN. Granada,with the Sierra Nevadas in the distance, and passing numbers of villages which formerly saw the vessels of many nations bound for their prosperous capital, Cartagena is reached, and, if the traveler desires, on this former border land of Moorish territory he may take a trip inland by railway to Murcia, the capital of the province. " Lying out of the route of travelers it is almost unvisited, and having little commerce except with the peasantry of its fertile JiJierta, it retains its old costumes, manners and customs with even more than Spanish tenacity. The men wear a tartan plaid, like that of a Scotch shepherd, only more brilliant in color. The women greatly affect bright yellow and scarlet, and even the poorest contrive to interweave a few flowers into their hair. The costumes through the whole of the eastern 752 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. O -i o > n > H THE CID. 753 provinces are very strange and very Moorish. Hempen sandals take the place of shoes ; the legs are either bare or covered by a footless cotton stocking. In many districts the peasantry wear very wide calico drawers, reaching down to the knees and looking like a short petticoat, and a close-fitting jacket covered with spangles and embroidery. The plaid is commonly substituted along this coast for the mantle patronized by the Castilians." THE CID. Northward from Murcia to the river Ebro and clear across Spain to Portugal is the broad scene of action of Spain's greatest national hero, the CidCampeador,or Lord Champion. The " Cid" he obtained from the Moors and the " Campeador" from his own countrymen ; for in the course of his romantic life he fouoht with and arainst the Moorish kingrs. But with whomsoever he cast the weight of his mighty arms that mon- arch triumphed. At length, banished by a Christian king, he joined the Moorish kings of Saras^ossa, in whose service he fougrht as^ainst both Moslems and Christians. Though his fame spread over Europe and the brilliancy of his exploits was such that he became in imagina- tion a modern Hercules with an invincible sword, in order to maintain his family and his followers he was forced to turn against his former allies, and, after a stubbornly contested siege of ten months, he wrested Valencia, from the Moors. The Cid was promptly besieged, in turn, by a great army of Moors. As they lay encamped beneath the walls of Valencia, tradition represents him as coolly leading his terrified wife and daughters to one of the towers, where they could see the Moslem host below, and all around them a misfhtv o-rove or Qrarden of citrons, oranges, and palms. Assuring his family of victory he collected his handful of followers and giving battle to the Moorish army he defeated them and drove them from the city. The tower of Miguelete is pointed out as the point from which he looked over his fair and newly-acquired prov- ince, covered with grain and rice fields and thick with palm and mul- berry trees, and so confidently predicted his usual victory. The city is still the center of a fertile region, ingeniously watered by a system of pipes and rivulets, perfected by the Moors eight centuries ago. It is a pleasant walled city with macadamized streets, with old gloomy houses and new bright ones painted blue, rose and cream color, with picture galleries illustrative of the famous Valencian school, and, all in all, one of the several Spanish cities which is wideawake. Both the Cid and his wife ruled over ancient Valencia, which was an old city before Pompey took and destroyed it and it was rebuilt by the 48 754 . PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Romans. Alicante, although an important and picturesque port of the province of Valencia, is not of interest, historically. For some distance above Valencia, along the coast, Roman settle- ments are constantly obtruding themselves. A short ride from the city is a modest enough looking town, standing upon a hill near the mouth of a small river. Its site was the ancient, opulent Saguntum, whose heroic citizens, having beaten off, for many long months, Hannibal's great army of 150,000 men, at length in despair placed the women and children around a vast heap of valuables. When, from their elevated post the wives, sisters and daughters saw their famished protectors being cut to pieces by the fierce, well-fed Carthaginians they set fire to the pile, and, with their children, cast themselves into the welcome embrace of the flames. The siege and destruction of Saguntum brought upon the Carthaginians the Second Punic war. Few traces of its former great- ness remain, the Temple of Diana (relic of its Grecian founders) and the Roman amphitheatre having been used for fortifications during the Peninsula war. BARCELONA. All along to Barcelona are scattered fragments of Roman works, indicating where were once imperial cities, overrun by Vandals, Goths and Moors, and used by Spaniards for the building material of modern towns and farm houses. Next to Cadiz, Barcelona is the most import- ant sea port in Spain, and during the middle ages, except by Genoa, it stood unrivaled on the Mediterranean. Barcelona has also been called the " Athens of the Troubadours," as an evidence that it was a favorite resort of the courtly poets and scholars of the middle ages, as well as the princely mercantile classes. It was a favorite resort of Ferdinand and Isabella, and here they received Columbus after his discovery of America. The most im.portant manufacturing city in Spain, Barcelona is also a beautiful place, the old and nev/ districts being separated by the Rambla, a dry river bed, which has been planted with flowering shrubs and made into an attractive promenade, THE ROMANS AND THE CELTS. From Barcelona west, through Northern Spain, is traversed the stronghold of the old Gothic power, which, at last, became the basis of the Spanish state. We are now within sight of the Pyrenees, spurs from the main body running down into the provinces of Catalonia and Aragon to form green, pleasant valleys. In the western part of Cata- lonia is a military stronghold, Lerida, which guards the approach from THE ROMANS AND THE CELTS. 755 the north to the districts of Eastern Spain, and from the south to some of the most convenient passes into France. It is a gloomy-looking town, with the usual accompaniments of a fortified place, but even before the time that Scipio Africanus defeated Caesar in the neighboring plain, it was considered by the Romans an important strategic point in the possession of their Spanish conquests. Before the Romans came the Celtiberians had discovered the advantages of the position, and it was undoubtedly the site of one of their primitive towns. Lerida is on a branch of the Ebro, and further west, in the center of old Aragon, and upon the muddy river itself, is Saragossa, the Celti- berian Salduba and the Roman Caesarea Augusta. The Moors took it from the Goths, and although they held it for three centuries they re- tained it during a continuous siege of five more years, during which famine nearly depopulated the city. Seven centuries afterwards Sara- gossa, defended by the heroic Duke Palafox, sustained for eight months one of the most bravely and brilliantly contested sieges of modern times, the French being the investing parties. It has been a city of sieges, and seems to have exhausted its strength in sustaining them so stubbornly. Its palaces are ever crumbling away, having been partially destroyed or weakened by the heavy ordnance of modern guns, and those which show evidences that they are substantial have been deserted by the nobility. " These buildings, rich in finely carved decorations and magnificent cor- nices, are now mostly inhabited by agriculturists of a rude class, their spacious courts converted into farm yards and filled with manure." Massive and elegant churches and convents are yet standing, however, to give the city an imposing appearance from the distance, which impres- sion is not borne out by a nearer inspection. One of its cathedrals — the Church of Our Lady of the Pillar — commemorates the pretended miracle by which the Virgin Mary was brought from Heaven upon a pillar of jasper that she might encourage St. James, whom she had sent to Spain to preach the Gospel. The pillar and her heavenly image are still shown to the crowds of pilgrims who press from all parts of Spain toward the jeweled church and the sacred relics which it incloses. When we cross the bounds of Aragon into Old Castile we enter a district made memorable by the stubborn stand which the Celtiberians made against the armies of Rome sent to subdue the troublesome aborigines. Near the site of the present town of Soria the Roman leo-ions under Scipio assaulted and besieged their chief town. This was but the last scene in a series of bloody conflicts which its citizens had sustained for twenty years. For fifteen months 60,000 disciplined 756 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. soldiers stormed, besieged and starv^ed these ancient heroes, who from 8,000 slowly melted into a pitiful band, before the town was taken, and destroyed. The traveler has also set foot upon the native land of the Cid and begins to enter the territory wherein, after Napoleon's disastrous campaign in Russia, were enacted the closing scenes of the Peninsula War between his lieutenants and the Duke of Wellington. The birth- place of the Spanish hero was Burgos, the capital of Old Castile, where his remains, with those of his heroic wife, are laid. Their sculptured figures lie together upon a square sarcophagus at San Pedro de Cardena, while, for a small fee a wooden box and a bottle will be exhibited at Burgos, in which are kept the bones of the Cid and the ashes of his wife. This city, which was so long the center of the shifting league against the Moors, which, with the Cantabrians to the north, held Northwestern Spain against their Moslem foes, is now a dull and gloomy city, with a noble Gothic cathedral, picturesque and stately beggars, and various chapels rich in fine sculpture and tombs. Across Old Castile and Galicia to the northwest of Spain is a long run, and only to reach a bustling, fortified seaport on the Atlantic coast ; but it has a monument to Sir John Moore, who fell while fighting the French on the heights behind the town, being buried on the ramparts in his military cloak. First Philip sailed from Coruna, this seaport town, on his way to marry Mary of England, and over thirty years thereafter he embarked with the great Armada to conquer the country which he could not obtain by marriage. THE MECCA OF SPAIN. A short distance from Corunna was a cathedral which was, for cent- uries, an even greater shrine than the Church of Our Lady of the Pillar at Saragossa. It is declared that after St. James was beheaded he set sail from Joppa, the seaport of Jerusalem, either in a boat or his stone coffin, and landing on this coast his body was mysteriously deposited in a cave, where, after remaining for half a dozen centuries or more, it was drawn to the city of Santiago, where the cathedral was built and pilgrimages were instituted. He therefore often came to the assistance of the Spaniards in their wars against the infidels, and to the battle-cry of St. James w^as added " Santiago." The archbishop's palace, cloister and cathedral form the most imposing of Santiago's structures. They cover nearly four acres of ground, and into the foundations of the cathedral are believed to be built the bones of St. James. Besides those occupied the town contains numbers of convents and nunneries in ruins. VALLADOLID. 757 VALLADOLID. Had it not been for this side trip to the Mecca of Spain, after leav. ing Corunna our way would have laid toward Valladolid, Philip's birth- place, and, strangely enough, the scene of the first auto da fe, which the cruel monarch witnessed from a balcony overlooking the Plaza de Campo. This famous square was devoted to tournaments, bull fights and such other exhibitions as the Inquisition brought forth. Here also Napo- leon reviewed his 35,000 troops who had succeeded in seriously dam- aorino- the interior of the Convent San Pablo and the Colegrio de San Uregorio, which stood near the royal palace, and whose ruins are among the grandest of Gothic ecclesiastical edifices in the world. But greater than her ruins, her galleries of statues and pictures, her deserted palaces of royalty and the In- quisition, and even her extensive > university, are the houses of Co- 1 u m b u s and Cervantes — the scenes of death and of the final revision of " Don Quixote." The house where Columbus died was, at last accounts, a small shop for the sale of woolen oroods. SALAMANCA. Salamanca is the next famous town as we near Madrid, as beino- for so many centuries the univer- sity center of the Catholic faith, having from an early period con- tained a college for the special education of Irish students. It is still in existence. It is said that SCENE IN SALAMANCA. " one of the most highly-prized works in Roman Catholic divinity is the great collection of controversia and moral theology by the members of the college of Carmelite friars." The Plaza Mayor is the largest square in Spain, and will, upon occasion, accommodate the 16,000 or 20,000 who pour toward it from a radius of a score of miles when a great bull fight is announced; for such are the contrasts of Spanish life! Salamanca was almost destro)ed by the French in 181 2, and most of its splendid ancient edifices are in ruins or worked 758 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. into the fortifications which the invaders, when they possessed the city, threw up against the British. Twenty colleges and as many convents thus fell victims to the stern necessities of war. Avila, another step nearer Madrid, is a small town about fifty miles northwest of the capital, and although one of the many places which the wonder-loving Spaniards ascribe to Hercules, it is now chiefly noted as being the birthplace of the country's lady patroness, " Our Seraphic Mother, the Holy Theresa, Spouse of Jesus," born March 28, 15 15. It was at one time one of the richest cities of Spain. About the same distance from Madrid is Segovia, frequently the residence of the kings of Castile and Leon, where they laid their schemes to lower the pride of the Moorish monarchs. It is perched upon a rocky knoll, high above the sea level, surrounded by picturesque walls and round towers. Segovia's importance as a Roman city is indi- cated by the most stupendous Roman structure left standing in Spain — an aqueduct half a mile long and one hundred and two feet high. Under the Moors it was the seat of immense cloth manufactures, and the modern town reflects its old prosperity in the shape of a few small establishments which scour wool and manufacture woolen cloths. On a rocky promon- tory is one of those fortress palaces — the Alcazar — ^ which the Moors seem to have planted upon every bold height of the districts in which they lived. The Alcazar of Segovia, long after the Moslems were driven out of Castile, was used by the kings of Spain as a prison, both for state offenders and the pirates of the Barbary states, who retained few of those qualities of intelligent industry which made the Moorish dominion in Spain one which was not devoid of great blessings. THE ESCURIAL. Looking toward Madrid from the barren and elevated sand plateau which surrounds it, it is seen that the capital lies in a basin, encircled by plantations, gardens and boulevards. Within this band of green, almost startling from its contrast with the arid plains of Castile, rises the city of palaces, spires and domes. If you come up from the south, this pict- ure, set in a frame-work of green, has a background of snow-capped mountains ; if you come down from the north by way of Segovia, you can not miss that gigantic gridiron, the Escurial, which lays with upturned feet upon the southeastern slope of the Sierra Guadarama. St. Law- rence was broiled on a gridiron, and in accordance with a vow that he would build a monastery to his memory if he gained the battle of St. Quentin, Philip built the Escurial in its present form. Many ranges of buildings represent its body, crossing each other at right angles, form- A SPANISH COBBLER'S SHOP. MADRID. 759 ing numerous courts with a tower 200 feet in height at each corner of the immense parallelogram. The towers are the upturned feet, and the handle is a wing nearly 500 feet long, containing the royal apartments, picture galleries and a library. The mausoleum of the kings of Spain fronts one side of a court, in the form of a massive church built like St. Peter's, its grand dome rising above the mighty altar over 300 feet. Under the altar is the tomb of the kings of Spain, built of jasper and black marble, in which their precious remains are packed away like so much treasure. Two score marble chapels, marble and porphyry pillars on all sides — red, green, white and black — the walls incrusted with marble, the floors paved with it, give a rich and solemn effect to the interior ; while without are the massive dome and towers, the six granite and marble statues, called the kings of Judea, sitting in royal state upon the broad staircase, and the sculptured portal through which the bodies of the kings of Spain are borne for baptism, and never again except as corpses. MADRID. There is nothing now to prevent our passing through the triumphal gate of the Puerta de Alcala, seventy-two feet in height, into the city of which the Spaniard says " See Madrid and live," but whose three months of winter and nine months of blasting heat have prompted for- eigners to hold out no inducement but speedy death to a resident. Four streets traverse Madrid from northeast to southwest, and one of them, Alcala, is pronounced the handsomest in Spain and one of the widest and finest in the world. The principal commercial thoroughfares radiate from one street, and they are more European than Spanish. But in the southwest district, particularly in the streets south of the Plaza Mayor, the wide and regular thoroughfares of modern Madrid give place to the crooked, dirty lanes of the ancient city. Open shops or bazaars, like those of Morocco, Egypt, or Turkey, line them and they are crowded with beggars, smugglers and gypsies. Within the square were many fine buildings which were repeatedly destroyed by the flames of the autos da fe, although the victims were led to the stake outside the gate. But the danger in which the surroundino- buildinors stood could not have been small, for the water supply of the city was formerly almost confined to drinking purposes, and the portentous flames were continually as- cending to heaven. In opening new streets from the Plaza Mayor, es- pecially one in 1869, terrible evidences of the magnitude of these human bonfires were discovered. A number of strata of charcoal and cinders were upturned, mingled with bones and entire portions of the human 76o PANORAMA OF NATIONS. body, and, for a time, while the excitement of the large foreign element of Madrid ran high over the disclosure, the beggars and gypsies and street arabs of the district south of the square reaped a welcome harvest of small coins by delving in the refuse and selling the relics of martyr- dom to curiosity seekers. There are other smaller squares in which crimi- nals and heretics were executed and in the center of one of the most dimin- utive is a cross which marks the spot where the last heretic was burned in Madrid. The center of the modern capital is the Puerta del Sol, as we have intimated. Not only do the principal business streets run from this SPANISH WATER CARRIER. square, but magnificent hotels and cafes, cosy club and reading rooms, are centered around it, so that it is the natural point toward which re- sort the French, English and German business men and the Spanish pleasure seekers. Newsboys, water-carriers, honey-sellers, musicians with their bagpipes and guitars, and at night the private watchmen who lustily cry out the time and the state of the weather, make this vicinity a second Naples for din and good-natured bustle. Of the great palaces of Madrid the residence of the royal family is the most imposing. It. is 470 feet square, 100 feet high, built of granite and white marble, incloses MADRID. 761 a great square, is between beautiful gardens and a magnificent plaza decorated with statues of kings and queens, and contains extensive libraries, and a royal armory wherein are the armors of Cortes, Colum- bus and Don John of Austria, with the crowns of Gothic kings brought from Toledo. The whole of this magnificent pile was occupied during the reign of the Bourbons. Queen Isabella, the mother of the reigning king, lived there in especial state. She flaunted rich robes of state on which were the arms of Castile, her jewels were royal and her entertainments. The princess had palatial apartments and her husband and sister's family also quartered themselves in this splendid home. Their retinues, receptions and all, despite the family jars, were on a par with the munificence of the ancient sovereigns. Her successor, King Amadeus, and his modest wife, followed after Carlist insurrections and scandalous events. He seemed worthy of the position. The palatial pile was almost deserted. The royal pair lived in three rooms, Avith their children, like a sensible, simple couple — Queen Isabella had occupied those very apartments alone. The king went out like a private gentlemen, sometimes accom- panied by his wife or a servant. Having dined with his wife, smoked a cigar and tended to his affairs of state, he went into the Alcala to see the siohts and talk to the children. "The ministers cried out aoainst it ; the Bourbon party who were accustomed to the imposing cortege of Isabella said that he dragged the majesty of the throne of San Fernando through the streets." At the court dinner on Sunday, to which govern- ment officials and scientists were invited, the queen appeared with the king, simply dressed, having spent much of the week at hospitals and at such institutions as the" one she established where children were sent for safe-keeping whose mothers were out at work. She spoke Spanish well, although it was not her native tongue. She was a kind-hearted, sensible woman, and her husband was like his father, Victor Emanuel. But though as approachable as the most democratic might desire, they were not Spanish, and so they gave place to Isabella's son, the mother having fled in disgrace, and the young prince of Asturias, Alfonso, is now the master of the royal palace. He seems to pursue a middle course between his mother's habits and those of his predecessor, evidently intending, if possible, to please both conservatives and republicans. South from the magnificent Alcala is the first of Madrid's numerous promenades, the Prado. For several miles it stretches along, between stately houses from whose balconies, protected by screens or curtains, the famous Spanish beauties smile upon the gay throng of carriages, horse- men and pedestrians. Here are seen the graceful Spanish cloak and the 762 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. national veil and mantilla, although French styles are getting to be prev- alent among the higher classes. The northern limits of the Prado proper are fixed by the fountain of Cybele, the proud mother of the gods being seated in a triumphal car drawn by two great marble lions. In the center of the boulevard is another beautiful fountain dedicated to Apollo, and Neptune is honored in the south. Minor fountains, gardens and pieces of statuary are scattered along the way, and the beauties of this enticing drive and walk are prolonged, both north and south, into the charming suburbs of the city. It is in the way of this constant stream of beauty, fashion and cult- ure that the royal museum lays, in which is treasured, according to artistic authorities, a collection of paintings " not only the greatest in the world, but the greatest that can ever be made until this is broken up." The gallery comprises works of Murillo, Velasquez, Raphael, Rubens, Teniers and Titian. Murillo's " Martyrdom of St. Andrew," the instru- ment of whose death shaped the great Escurial, is here, and the most wonderful works of Velasquez enable the artist to study the master here as nowhere else. Madrid was the scene of his greatest triumphs. Here the king himself so appreciated his genius as to become his inti- mate and to confer upon him the Cross of Santiago, an honor never before accorded to any but the highest of the nobilitv. AMUSEMENTS OF THE NATIVE. Just outside the Alcala is the bull ring, built upon the site of an ancient one. No great Spanish town would be complete without it. The bull ring is a great open amphitheatre, which was inherited from the Romans. The huge animals which furnish the blood and the sport of the occasion, mostly come from the Sierra Morena mounuains of Anda- lusia ; the very name, " Andalusian bull," sounds like a great body pro- pelling itself forward with mighty force. The participants in the fight at first are usually unmounted, and show proverbial agility in avoiding the rushes of the infuriated monster. But this sport is merely to whet the appetite of the gay crowd for the more exciting contest, in which the mounted picadors also participate. Having partially exhausted his strength in vain charges at his glittering, nimble foes, the bull is now confronted with mounted spearmen as well. As his strength fails, more and more, if he has not yet maimed a man or disemboweled a horse, it is needful to import a new company of tormenters to thrust him with darts. When the beast refuses the contest the matador gives him the death-blow with his short sword. Trumpets sound, flowers are showered AMUSEMENTS OF THE NATIVE. 76: into the arena by excited ladies, and the matter-of-fact, unromantic mules are driven in to drag away the dead bodies of bull and horses. The king has his private box, as of old. Even Amadeus, his prede- cessor, of the simple, homely manners, patronized the exhibition, although his tender-hearted queen, not hardened yet to the sights, stayed away. If the " torero" is fortunate enough to have given the bull his death wound in a skillful manner, the thousands of spectators, as he makes the round of the arena, almost bury him beneath piles of cigars, purses, hats, canes — anything which comes to hand — while the ladies shower him with praises, not to say loving words. The king himself rewards the bloody hero with a purse of money, and the same performance is repeated as long as the festival of the bull fights lasts. Cock-fights are less popular, because fewer grades of society patron- BULL FIGHTERS. ize them ; but there are regular theatres where the cruel sport may be witnessed, and the excitement there evinced, if not so grand in its quality and quantity as shown at the bull amphitheatre, is fully as intense. The conflict of the birds usually takes place in the daytime, so that among the various spectators the principal actors in the bull arena often appear dressed in their red sashes and gaudy clothes. The theatre itself is bright with color — the circular tiers of chairs are often red and flowers are painted on the walls. The pit is a circular box in the centre of the hall, surrounded by a high wire screen. But why describe a cock-fight ! It is more brutal, if anything, though not so destructive of life as the other ■764 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. sport; for a true Spanish fight must end in the death of one or the other of tlie combatants, and if the birds are game the conclusion of the conflict sees one or both of them simply bunches of feathers, blood and bones, with the flesh stripped from the skeleton and the e^'es out. Ladies and the higher classes, who would eagerly grace a bull fight, do not attend such small exhibitions of bloodshed. It is only where horses, bulls and men shed their blood that they care to go. Madrid contains nearly a hundred public squares, large and small, and a vast number of churches, but having no cathedral, strictly speak- ing, it ranks in Spain merely as a town within the bishopric of Toledo. Under the Moors it was a mere fortified outpost of Toledo, and the Royal Palace stands upon the site of the ancient Alcazar, or fortress. When it was stormed and captured by Alfonso of Castile, the castle and town were called Majerit. As we have stated he made Toledo his capital and Madrid did not come into real prominence until Philip II. declared it to be " the only court," the royal residence having been shifting around from place to place ever since Ferdinand's time. So that the foundinof of Madrid dates from about the middle of the sixteenth centurv. It has been a city of memorable treaties and insurrections, the most seri- ous uprising being that against Murat and the French in 1808. An imposing group of edifices now occupies the site of an old church, which stood east of the great square of Puerta del Sol, the scene of the blood- iest conflict between the French and the citizens, while in a park of the Prado called "the field of loyalty" is a memorial shaft, surrounded by mourning cypresses. COLONIAL POSSESSIONS. Spain still retains the Cuba that Columbus discovered, and it Is the most Important of her colonial possessions. The population which the Spaniards found has disappeared, with the exception of a few families around Santiago, and the people are now a conglomeration of blacks, Creoles and "peninsulares," or natives of Spain, Most of the latter class, or Cuban Spaniards, originally came from Aragon, Catalonia, Navarre, Castile and other districts of Northern and Northeastern Spain, being traders and mechanics, and so sturdy and energetic that they not only obtained control of the wealth, but the government of the island. " For a time after the conquest in 151 1 none but Castillans were allowed to settle in Cuba ; but after the prohibition was removed, colonists from all the provinces, and even from the Canary Islands, came thither. The Biscayans hire out as mechanics ; the Catalans, who are numerous. THE PORTUGUESE. 765, devote themselves to hard labor ; the Asturians, Castilians and Anda- lusians occupy clerkships and the learned professions." Between the Creoles and the peninsulares there is the greatest bitterness. The western portions of the island, in which are the immense sugar and tobacco plantations and factories, are the most pop- ulous and fertile districts. The metropolitan center of Cuba's best life is Havana, through which flows so large a revenue to needy Spain. The city is almost as well known as New York, having about half the population of Madrid, and presenting, besides its immense commercial activity, one of the finest opera houses in existence. Porto Rico is Spanish in the same way as Cuba, presenting no distinct type of national life, and therefore is not exhibited as a proper picture of our Panorama. In the Philippine Islands of the East India group, we have caught and given glimpses of Spanish rule, but the main object was to present the native and not the emierant. The aborio-ines of the West Indies have disappeared or been driven along the pathway of the Antilles to South America. THE PORTUGUESE. The basis of the Portuguese is the Lusitani, an ancient tribe of Celtiberlans, whose country Emperor Augustus erected into one of the three provinces of the peninsula. It did not include the northern provinces of the present countr\-, but extended east into the modern territory of Spain. The chief city of the tribe was Olisipo, the present Lisbon. The Goths from the north and the Moors from the south over- whelmed this Roman province as they did the other two, but the most important battle-grounds after the coming of the Saracens were located beyond the country of the Lusitani. The Portuguese, as a race, rest more upon their language than their personal appearance. In the south they are dark, tall and lithe, almost Arabs in their general features, while in the north they greatly resemble the natives of extreme North- western Spain, who have a greater proportion of primitive blood than those of the south. The Portusfuese tonoue, on the other hand, has found eulogists amiong all nationalities, having been variously described as a language of flowers, the eldest daughter of the Latin, and the soft and voluptuous dialect. What few harsh and gutteral sounds are heard, it inherits from the Arabic which, while the Moors were in power, was spoken throughout the county The Portuguese language Is a most admirable aid to the courteous and insinuative manners of the higher classes of the country. These, in fact, are more pleasing In their address than those in the same plane of Spanish society, while the lower- 766 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. classes are more ignorant and degraded. But whatever else may be said of him, the Portuguese is brave, patriotic, hospitable and cheerful, and hates the Spaniard, and especially the Castilian, for his attempt to subjugate him completely ; and yet, speaking in general terms, the Portuguese is but a Spaniard with a softer tongue and a harder body. The Portugese, either as an agricultural or a commercial race, show little of that spirit of revival from their present lethargy which is seen in so many parts of Spain. Since the French threatened to swallow them during the Peninsular War they have transferred their energies to Brazil, and if they ever again achieve the greatness which culminated with the passage round the cape, it will be with that great kingdom as a center. Portugal has retained an unstable grasp upon a few of her ancient insular and colonial possessions in Africa and Asia, as we have noticed in gliding along the coasts of the Dark Continent and among the islands of the Indian Archipelago. THE FRENCH la 5yiig^^i5^aj ITHIN the veins of the French run streams of blood from Gallic (or Celtic), Prankish (Teutonic) and Roman sources. The aboriginal inhabitants were the Gauls who were conquered by the Romans, and the Gallo-Romans were, in turn, subdued by the Franks, a confederation of the German tribes whose country was in the vicinity of the Lower Rhine. It was not until the eighth century that the Frankish monarchs were able to bring beneath their sceptre the Britons, the Burgundians and the Visigoths of Spain, and thus united all of modern France in one empire. Their rule was afterwards extended so as to include not only France, but Northeast Spain, a large part of Italy, and Germany to the Elbe. In fact, as is well known, the ambition of Char- lemagne was to re-establish the Roman Empire, with France instead of Italy as the center of power. His successors were unable, however, to keep the empire intact, and from it were formed France, Germany and Italy. Thus the Germans and the Italians retained their national char- acteristics, and a new people and a new language were permanently formed, a union of Gallic, Teutonic and Italian elements. FRENCH MARRIAGES. It matters not in France if a man is old enough to be a grandfather, should he desire to marry he must either obtain parental consent, prove the opposition is irrational or that he is an orphan. The object of this outside supervision is to prevent hasty marriages ; to put a balance- wheel upon love's reeling brain. These marital regulations are really based upon the laws of the nation, and the process by which couples Avho think they are old enough and of sound enough judgment to know their own minds, call upon parents or guardians to show cause why the mar- riage should not proceed is legally known as "a respectful summons to consent." With all these legal and private precautions in the matter of marriages, the matrimonial alliances of the French are not productive of greater happiness or worldly comfort than those of other countries, where 767 768 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. more is left to the heart and the instincts of men and women than to personal worth. And it is undoubtedly the many formalities required in the various stages of introduction, acquaintanceship, courtship and be- trothal which has so decreased the number of marriages of late years. The birth-rate of France is also not only the lowest in Europe but in the world. THE BRETONS OF FRANCE. The extreme northwestern departments of France form a bold pen- insula, which extends Into the Atlantic Ocean. A foggy, windy country, covered with stretches of moorland, cut up by well- watered and fertile valleys, with masses of granite ris- ing from the northern and southern districts and stretching into the sea — this, in brief, is Brittany. Peasants and fishermen, dressinpf and living as did their forefathers three cen- turies ago, many of the peo- ple still speaking the ancient Cimbric, or Welch^ language, as they did when their brethren left them, in pre-historic times, and emi- grated across the English channel — these are the Bre- tons of Brittany. So slow are they to change that some of them even hold to the superstitions of the Druids, those savage and mysterious priests who, when the Romans landed upon the coasts of Great Britain, had obtained so tyrannical a sway over the Bretons and the Welch, and who were offering up human sacrifices in their sacred and gloomy groves. Remains of the Druidical monuments, altars, and sepul- chres, are still found in Brittany, which was once subject to the same A FARMER OF BRITTANY. OUT INTO THE FIGHTING WORLD 769 dominion. They are chiefly located in Soutnern Brittany, and are inter- mixed with Roman antiquities, mementoes of Caesar's conquest prepar- atory to his invasion of Great Brittany, or Britain, The most remarkable of these remains is at Carnac, near Vannes, and consists of three groups of upward blocks, each separated from the next by the distance of about half a mile, yet with isolated blocks between showing that the series was once continuous. " In fact, the destructiveness that has for centuries been at work on these monuments makes it difficult to reconstruct the series, even in imagination. The inhabitants of the district have regarded them as a standing quarry of building materials, available without the trouble of excavation, and vil- lages, churches, farmhouses, all around, are massively constructed of the Celtic spoils. At length, however, the spoli- ation has ceased, the remains are classed among 'historical monuments' and are henceforth comparatively safe. What they meant, what they were, no man can tell. The tradition is hardly surprising that repre- sents them as an army of heathen warriors, stiffened into stone at the adjuration of the patron saint of the sea. Some have seen in them the long drawn aisles of Druidical wor- ship ; but most modern investigators think that they were ranges of sepulchral monu- ments ; and the disinterred relics from be- neath seem to confirm the supposition," In this same department of Morbihan may be seen remains of Roman villas and bath, houses, great broken pillars, and in an island near the coast, is a wonderful cave containing a stone gal- lery of fifty feet in length, whose roof and sides are covered with engrav- ings and inscriptions which antiquarians have, so far, been unable to decipher. Cromlechs and avenues of upright stones, likewise mysteri- ously sculptured and attributed to Phcenicians, Egyptians, Carthaginians and Celts are found on ".ne sea coast; and at Vannes, the principal town of the department, is a museum of antiquities which, although of great variety, throw no light upon the mysteries. A BEGGAR OF BRITTANY. OUT INTO THE FIGHTING WORLD. - Brittany seems to be the hermitage of ■ France. Except that past ages are there petrified it furnishes few connecting strands with the 49 770 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. present. It has little historic ground. The land generally is so destitute of everything but rugged strength — which does not invite invasion, generally — that it has not been stained with any great battles, and the conflicts upon its soil are almost confined to those with Norman dukes, who had been given Brittany by the kings of France, and took a pride in actually possessing it. But down the coast to Nantes and La Rochelle, and along the banks of the stately Loire we commence to glide into territory fertilized with the blood of Catholics and Huguenots. The home of the Edict which so raised the hopes of the Protestants and the center of that disastrous emigration of skilled labor from France after its revocation, is an elegant city beautifully situated on the Loire, some of its modern districts being Parisian in their finish and brilliancy. For nearly a century the royal assurance that Protestants might worship and spread their faith, except in Paris, was a shining light to their souls ; although they could not print religious books In cities where their tenets were not held and were obliged to observe the festivals of the state religion and furnish their share toward its support. Nantes was the Vatican of their faith, but La Rochelle was its Castle of San Angelo. Rochelle was truly the Little Rock of the Protestant cause, but under the blows of Richelieu's genius and the royal troops It was split in twain, and the French Reformation was temporarily crushed. Its old fortifications were destroyed and the present ones subsequently erected. The principal streets and squares of Rochelle are adjacent to its great harbor. Of the scores of boats which are annually launched from its ship yards the majority of them are built for the Newfound- land fishing trade. Continuing the route by the Loire, one finds on either hand restful hills of verdure, ruined castles, vineyards and villages. This is the route by rail to Tours, near which Asiatic civilization was effectually expelled from Western Europe. Tours happens also to be on the direct southern route from Paris toward Bordeaux and Spain, so that when the Saracens were defeated the capital escaped an invasion of the warlike Mohammedans. Upon the plain of Tours is said to have fought the soul of brave St. Martin, within the texture of his holy cape, which, in its shrine, was borne to the battle-field. Four centuries previous, having converted the idolaters of Gaul, he now drove back the hosts of southern infidels from the soil of France. At Tours the warrior bishop had founded a Christian cathedral, which the Saracens left to be pil- laged by the Huguenots and to be totally destroyed, with the exception of two towers which now stand — the towers of St. Martin and of Charle- magne. "The former of these stood at the western entrance of the OUT INTO THE FIGHTING WORLD. 771 church, the latter at the end of the northern transept ; and their dis- tance apart shows what must have been the size of that building to which, for centuries, the people of France resorted as to a Delphic shrine." Other triumphs than those recorded on the field of battle are found in a small square village, of small square houses, surrounding a small square or park which Is fronted by a small, neat church, and all hemmed about by shade and fruit trees and cultivated land. This is the colony, or reformatory of Mettray, about five miles from Tours on the opposite bank of the Loire, and founded by a Parisian lawyer and a viscount, for the purpose of training, educating, reforming and "keeping reformed" indigents and delinquents of Irresponsible age, who were formerly com- mitted by the courts to the prisons of the state. Sevenpence a day is paid by the government for the support of the children whom It sen- tences to the strict but fatherly care of these philanthropists, the additional expenditures found necessary being met by the members of the " Pater- nal Society of Mettray." We do not mention the names of these faith- ful friends to each other and to the youth of the world ; for If one has not heard of Mettray and Its founders he will assuredly become familiar with them when told that this movement is " the true joarent of all institutions Intended to reform and restore to society, and not merely to punish, juvenile delinquents." Between Tours and Orleans Is the town of Blois, whose streets are flushed with water from public fountains which are supplied by a splen- did Roman aqueduct. But that is not enough to waste words upon, In this land of Roman aqueducts. There is a palatial castle, however, standing upon a hill and looking down In royal magnificence upon the little houses and crooked streets of the town. Within its walls was born Louis XII., and here Henry of Navarre was married. Four kings held their courts at the Castle of Blois, which witnessed, also, the murder of the duke of Guise, who held the reins of government Avith Catherine de Medici, mother of the young Charles. It was the scene of that same Catherine's death. As the dense and mighty oak forest of Orleans comes Into view and the magnificent plain sloping toward the Loire, upon whose verge it stands, and then Its walls and dry ditches, now softened by pleasant, shaded boulevards, the Maid appears In imagination, her slight form clad In armor leading the royal troops on to victory.. Inspired as they were by some mysterious electric current which went out from her young soul. Orleans has its commercial advantages and fine Gothic churches, but to the world Joan of Arc is all there is of It, The town contains three statues erected to her memory, one of them being of the equestrian order. J']! PANORAMA OF NATIONS. THE PEOPLE OF THE PYRENEES. Having thus taken a quick journey through the western districts of France we have a Httle to say about the people of the Pyrenees, the shepherds and mountaineers and those residing in some of the neigh- boring villages. More particularly those aborigines, the Basques, merit attention. The general gate to the Pyrenees district, especially to the Basque country of both France and Spain, is the city of Bayonne, in the extreme southwest of the former country. In Bayonne French, Spanish and Basque mingle their distinctive tongues — the latter being as much distinguished by his harsh accents as by his national costume, his colored sash and his drooping cap. The city has, furthermore, a Jews' quarter (Saint Esprit) whose first citizens were the exiles from Spain, sent away by Ferdinand and Isabella, soon after the discovery of America. In the year of American independence they became citizens of France. Bayonne is strongly fortified, and, though besieged many times, it has never been captured ; hence its people fondly speak of it as the "vir- gin city." It was here, eighteen miles from the Spanish border, that Napoleon made the arrangement with Ferdinand VII. by which the crown of Spain was placed upon the head of his brother Joseph. And at the corner of the city wall stands a little stone structure, surmounted with a cupola, under which plays the fountain of St. Leon. The water first sprang from the ground under the stimulus of the precious drops of blood which fell upon it from the head of the decapitated saint, which he bore in his own hands to that spot. Bayonne has now one of the finest arsenals in France ; as is fitting, some may say, for the city which gave the name to the bayonet. But like many popular tales this one has wagged for long years, only to be at last arrested if not stayed com- pletely. " The French cross-bowmen were anciently called boionniers and bayna is Spanish for the sheath of a small sword. The sheath may have given name to its contents ; a supposition which seems to be con- firmed by several facts. The earliest bayonet sheaths were very elabo- rately ornamented, and the rules relating to military costume have a great deal to say about the position of the sheath." A short ride by rail from Bayonne is Biarritz, on the shores of the Bay of Biscay. In the month of August, before most of the tourists have arrived, the Basques of Basse Pyrenees assemble in its streets, crowned with flowers and ribbons, bearing with them the violin, tam- bourine, flageolet and drum, and busily preparing to perform their national dance, the " mouchico." This ended, they march to the shore of THE PEOPLE OF THE PYRENEES. 773 the bay, and men and women, joining hands, rush out to meet the mighty surf, with songs and wild native cries. From Biarritz a few miles is a little village which is near the bound- ary of the two countries and at the angle of the eastern point of the bay. It was once quite a commercial port, but the waves of the Atlan- tic raged across Biscay for a week and destroyed its harbor and its pros- pects. Within sight are wooded and vine-clad slopes, the advance guards of the dignified Pyrenees. The red and white houses of the Basque peasants dash the quiet color here and there with cheerful con- trasts, and from hill and valley they swarm to the small Catholic church in the little village. The church is devoid of ornament, but once within, the worshipers arrange themselves in so quaint, not to say prim- itive, a fashion that no decorations are required by which to rivet the stranger's attention. The two ranges of galleries which run around three sides of the room are furnished with comfortable seats, all occu- pied by men. The women sit upon the floor of the nave, being accom- modated with simple cushions of black cloth embroidered with crosses. In a way, this church is historical, for in it occurred the marriage of Louis XIV. and the Infanta, Maria Theresa, daughter of Philip IV. of Spain. The door by which the royal couple entered is now walled up. This marriage was in fulfillment of treaty between the two monarchs, concluded the previous year, the conference taking place on a little island in Bidassoa river, which marks the boundary line between France and Spain. This bank of mud has been the scene of several royal confer- ences and treaties. A panoramic view of the French and the Spanish sides of the Pyrenees would make one imagine that the scenes were laid in lands which were thousands of miles apart. The northern slopes of the moun- tains are divided into charming valleys. Beautiful lakes and fine pasture lands lie below, while orchards and forests stretch far up the slopes. The Spanish side presents a series of abrupt, rugged terraces with scanty vegetation. The valleys of the Pyrenees cross them almost invariably, forming numerous passes, which are historically famous and from whose great heights the remarkable contrast which has been noticed above can be enjoyed in reality. The inhabitants of the mountains are, as might be expected, rugged, cheerful and independent. In many pleasant vales nestle pretty villages. The only disagreeable feature of the whole land- scape, in fact, are the large and fierce shepherd dogs, who consider every object not entirely familiar a deadly enemy to their herds and flocks. The cattle and sheep often have no other guardians than these faithful 774 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. brutes except children, who will often be met far from any habitation, knitting contentedly, or engaged on some lace work. Near the summits of these lofty passes, sometimes all but buried in the shade of the upper valleys, are famous mineral springs to which the fair-faced ladies of France and gouty noblemen resort by the hundreds. The traveler thus meets modern styles as an offset to the brightly-clad peasants, the rough goat-herds and the Spanish muleteers. ROYALTY AND RELIGION. There are many interesting and picturesque little villages scattered along the line of the Pyrenees, but the beauties of the mountains com- pletely absorb them until one commences to investigate their historical attractions. Pau, for instance, in the Basque province of Basses Pyrenees is pretty enough, but the eyes are drawn from it to the soft dis- tant mountains and a sharp blue cone which pierces the sky, called the Pic du Midi d' Ossau, or the Bear; but the village contains the chateau of Henry of Navarre, and the chateau the chamber where Henry IV. was born "and where hangs the royal cradle under a canopy — a single tor- toise shell suspended from a tripod." Within sight of the peak is Lourdes, a shabby town among the mountains. Overhanging it is a great rock upon which stands a ruined castle said to have been built by Julius Caesar. But that never could have attracted hundreds of thousands of people to it. The town Is built upon a plateau and contains convents and churches. Near the center of the plain is a great statue, representing a white-robed girl, standing in an attitude of religious ecstasy, her feet resting upon a rock wreathed with vines. Extending along the bank of the river Gave, and at the foot of the plateau upon which Pau is built, is a park, and within this, near the river, is a mass of rock containing a grotto crowned with a beautiful church. Above the rocky mound and the church is a higher ridge bearing a great crucifix upon its crest. The statue in the plain is that of " Our Lady of Lourdes," and the grotto is where the sickly child of the poor peasant, according to her declaration, repeatedly was visited by the Holy Virgin, who caused a stream to gush forth from the cave. The bishop declared the miracle authentic, and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims have since repaired to the shrine, to have their bodies healed and their souls cleansed. The sacred spring is covered with a wire netting. In front of the grotto is a paved court extending toward the river which is covered with pilgrims seated upon wooden benches, standing or kneeling upon the stones. Near by is a stone tank, from which a priest draws the healing waters, which are brought from the grotto in pipes, and A WONDERFUL FORTIFIED CITY. 775 close to the cave is a ragged niche filled with crutches, canes and other proofs of its miraculous powers. The town has the appearance of a com- mercial mart, for no one of the thousands of devotees who journey to Lourdes neglects to carry away with him a photograph or image of the Lady, a water can, cross or rosary, and the winding street is filled with shops piled to the roof with these souvenirs. A WONDERFUL FORTIFIED CITY. In direct contrast to the attractions of Lourdes are those of Carcas- sonne, an important manufacturing and commercial center of Southeast- ern France. The river Aude divides the place into the new city and the old, and although ,the brilliant cloths of Carcassonne go even to Africa and South America, it is to the mass of fortifications in the ancient section that most steps are directed. Briefly stated it occupies the site of an ancient city of Gaul belonging to a Celtic tribe of Asia Minor, and in the fifth century a. d., the Visigoths took it from the Romans and held it. It commanded the most convenient routes into Spain over the Eastern Pyrenees and the fortifying of Carcassonne really commences from this period. During the thirteenth century the French kings added the style of fortifications prevalent in the middle ages to the rugged defences which the Visigoths had erected during their three centuries of occupancy. So that by the towers, portcullis, ditches, loop- holes, openings in the walls through which stone and hot oil were poured upon besiegers, battlements etc., one is able to trace the style and devel- opment of the science of fortification for many centuries. The walls of the Visigoth, the Moorish and the French periods show the effects of mighty sieges, their huge foundations being in places battered as if by the shells of modern mortars. Above the principal gate of the fortress in a niche is the "defaced figure of Carcas, a Saracen woman who, according to the legend, alone remained in the city after a siege of five years by Charlemagne. The versions of the legend differ. One is to the effect that she capitulated and presented the keys of the city to Charlemagne ; another that Charlemagne was about to raise the siege in despair, when a tower gave way and opened a breach for his troops." No rthwestof Carcassonne, fifty miles, is Toulouse, in reaching which one at length departs from the wedge-shaped district whose base is the Pyrenees and Spain. By the careless brushing up of his history any one will remember the massacres and persecutions which its citizens have suffered, and how, long ages previous to that, it was the capital of the Visigoths. Its principal church is said to contain the skulls of ']'](i PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Thomas Aquinas and St. Barnabas, and relics of St. Bartholomew, the two Jameses and Philip of Spain, a thorn from the sacred crown, pieces of the true cross, the robe of the Virgin and a stone on which she laid the infant when he was born. The first bishop of Toulouse is, further- more, reported to have been born in Greece, to have journeyed to Pal- estine, to have sat at the feet of John the Baptist and of Jesus, to have followed Peter to Rome and to have been dispatched by him to his charge. THE VINEYARD OF THE EARTH. Leaving behind us the country of the Basques, descendants of the most ancient race of France, we strike across country from Toulouse, and traversing a dreary waste of sand, fir trees and thistles, we suddenly approach one of the most prolific vine-bearing districts of the world. Its border lies upon the western banks of the river Gironde, and in naming Bordeaux as its center the story is partly told. From near the city to the sea stretches a long, narrow plain, thickly covered with vine- yards. This strip, which is as famous as any in " the Vineyard of the Earth," supplies a strong, red wine which is the favorite article for export, sea voyages even seeming to improve its flavor. Many people imagine that when they drink " claret" it comes direct from this strip of country known as Medoc, but the truth is that the French do not recognize any such variety, and the claret, or clarified wine, is a mixture of several kinds " the strong-bodied varieties of Spain and Southern and Southeastern France being mingled (at Bordeaux) with the ordinary growths of Gironde to suit the English and American palate." Many of the wines receive their names both from the commune in which they are produced and the particular estate from whose great vineyards they come. The warm slopes of the Pyrenees, in the extreme southern part of France are covered with vineyards from which are obtained such famous wines as the Muscat. North of this section is the historic region from which we have lately traveled, forming a portion of an ancient province with Toulouse as its capital. The wines drained from the luscious grapes which grow from the 650,000 acres of vineyards are rich, but not as delicate as those of the Gironde. One single department of this section is said to yield more wine than the entire kingdom of Portugal. The Valley of the Rhone also appears as a rich section of the earth's vineyard. In the old province of Dauphiny, now Drome, is a lofty hill which rises from the river's edge like a great dome. Bacchus, could he have viewed its terraced sides, upon which the bright, warm sun is ever FROM NICE TO CALAIS. "J"]"] playing, would never have left its great vineyards, which seem to lie over it in a lazy, not to say mellow attitude of enjoyment. The wines are called the Hermitage, from the fact that the richly-laden hill was formerly sur mounted by a structure which served as the retreat of a Castilian courtier Throughout the length of the sunny valleys of the Rhone and Saone, clear into the districts of old Burgundy, the hillsides are simply matted with vineyards. The true Burgundy wines are raised in the department of Cote d' Or, which is situated in the upper valley of the Saone, where it turns toward the German boundary. Through this department runs a range of hills, on whose southeastern slopes and spreading far over the plain below are the vineyards and rich estates which produce the wines of Burgundy. There are few more cheerful sights in the world than these hills of sunny France when their thous- ands of tons of grapes are ripe for the harvest. The sun floods them with so golden a light that the department itself has perpetuated the glorious sight in its very name — the "golden side." The methods of the manufacture of Burgundy wines are, however, rude and often filthy, and it is rightly said that the " golden side " produces some of the best as well as some of the worst varieties in the world. One department intervenes between the Burgundy and the Cham- pagne district, which lies among the, headwaters of the river Seine, in Northeastern France. The ancient province of Champagne adjoined Burgundy on the north. Of the modern department, which is the par- ticular center of champagne manufacturing, the arrondissements of Rheims and Epernay produce the best article. Upon the slopes of a wooded mountain in Rheims and over an undulating plain on the Marne river, in Epernay, the champagne vineyards sun themselves. In Septem- ber and October the grapes are collected and selected. The first three pressings are placed in vats, and after the froth and fine, pulpy matter have separated, the juice is run into barrels and left to ferment. Within two months the clear wine is drawn from the dregs, and being skillfully mixed with the vintages of previous years, is allowed to rest until spring. The " sparkle " comes from a second fermentation, which occurs after the liquor has been bottled, and to obtain which it is sometimes found necessary to add sugar or brandy. Champagne is rarely exported until it is two years old, having to undergo other minor processes. FROM NICE TO CALAIS. We have a plan now to retrace our steps southward, down the val- leys of the Saone and Rhone to the sea and then journey north from Nice to Calais, taking a wide sweep of country as we go. 778 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. The first point on the Mediterranean coast going west towards Marseilles, which receives the attention of travelers (and it is often the last) is a dense group of buildings upon a bold promontory which extends defiantly out into the sea. It is the town of Monaco, a portion really of a small Italian principality governed by a prince who established an abbey in his province, abolished all taxes, and, as an offset to this gener- osity extended the operations of his gambling establishments from which he derived a truly princely revenue. As a watering place Monaco is almost a rival to Nice. Nice lies upon the shores of the Mediterranean, quietly sunning herself, her ladylike moods being thoroughly enjoyed by the invalids who resort to her for consolation and strength. Her sur- roundings are as pretty as herself. She is the petted French child of England. A sister to Nice is Cannes, a little to the west. Lord Brougham made it fashionable to Englishmen by living there and dying there. The grave is in the town's cemetery, marked by a large granite cross. The citadel of the " man in the iron mask" stands upon the Island of Ste. Marguerite, opposite Cannes. And Toulon, still west, is the great military stronghold of the repub- lic, with vast floating docks and arsenals. The fortifications were originally constructed for the benefit of the pirates of the Mediterranean. The English forces once held Toulon, but were driven out by Napoleon. MARSEILLES. As the tourist will have guessed, we touch at these minor ports merely to prepare him for Marseilles, the ancient Massilia founded by Ionian colonists from Asia Minor, 600 b. c. Whenever history has recorded her acts they have been opposed to despotism. She declared for Pompey against Caesar, and when annexed to the Roman republic became noteworthy as a champion of popular rights, as she had become famous as a commercial and colonizing city and a seat of learn- ing. The old motto of the city was " Liberty under any government." This was engraved in golden letters over her city gate. Louis XIV. had it removed. " Under previous kings that may have been possible, but not under me," he said ; and the motto was removed from the gate, but not from the popular heart. Marseilles, of all the cities in France, seemed authorized to baptize her grand national hymn, which has worked so much good and so much ill. It was born in the brain of a young officer of Strasburg, it was sung by the author to the mayor's family, it flew from town to town without a name, it entered Marseilles, DESERTS AND RUINS. 779 whose Girondists seized upon it and bore it with them to Paris, scatter- ing its trumpet-Hke notes throughout France. Thus it was named after the natives of the repubHcan city, "The Marseillaise." Even the Ter- rorists, who guillotined the Girondists, shouted it as their bloody cry. To the north of the modern city lies ancient Marseilles, with crooked and dirty streets and lanes, several squares, a singular public hall and the ruins of Roman ramparts. It is separated from the great commercial port by a broad avenue which bounds the city on that side and leads to a delightful promenade on the sea shore. DESERTS AND RUINS. Above Marseilles to the Rhone is a desert of small stones, and be- yond the river for some distance west is a plain of salt. This strange tract of Southern France, extending nearly to the Cevennes mountains, has been pithily called " Africa in Europe," and it lacks neither the mi- rage nor the fowl of lower Egypt to carry out the delusion. Aries, once a Roman city of importance, may stand as a Cairo in ruins, being at the apex of the Rhone delta and containing an obelisk of gray granite fifty feet in height, which was taken from the bed of the river in the seven- teenth century. Aries boasted one of those immense amphitheatres whose ruins are scattered so thickly over the Roman dominions. Re- mains of temples, a triumphal arch and an aqueduct, the Byzantine cathe- dral dedicated to Paul's companion, St. Trophinus, the town hall de- signed by Mansard and the great pagan burying ground (the ''Elysian Fields") make it worth one's time to loiter at Aries. When these at- tractions, and others, are exhausted it may be noted that its sausage fac- tories are famous throughout France for the excellence of their products. A few miles inland from the left bank of the river, on the borders of that salt plain to which reference has been made, is the city of Nimes. The city is unattractive except for its Roman ruins, which surpass in grandeur and preservation those of any other locality outside of Italy. Its stupendous amphitheatre in which 2,000 people were living previous to its restoration, and which has been used as a fortress by Visigoths, Saracens and Franks ; the museum of paintings and antiquities occupy- ing a beautiful and ancient Corinthian temple ; the remnants of Roman towers, gates and baths, not to mention the graceful three-storied aque- duct near the city, the fountain within the public garden which supplied the baths with water, and modern cathedrals and edifices — these studies in ancient and modern architecture make Nimes one of the most attrac- tive places in Southern France. Returning to the river, the walled city of Avignon, over which looms 780 I'ANORAMA OF NATIONS. the vast palace of the popes is seen ; the scene of twenty-one great coun- cils of the church, the undisputed papal residence for seventy years and the home of the rival popes of Rome for fifty more. This sombre Gothic structure is no longer sacred to ecclesiastical purposes, it being devoted to the uses of a prison and barracks ; a sequence to the con- finement therein of the ambitious and unfortunate Rienzi, the last of the Roman tribunes, who had laid the astounding scheme before the King of Spain for the conquest of Italy. It was at the Church of Ste. Clara that Petrarch met his Laura. On the way from Avignon to Lyons, which lies through the ^' Hermitage " wine district, are Orange and Vienna. The former exhibits an out-of-doors Roman theatre, a hill-side cut into many tiers of seats, and opposite a lofty wall which served as the background for the stage scenery. The bright little town has also the remains of a triumphal arch to show, and is celebrated in history as the center of the principality of Orange, founded by Charlemagne and passing into the hands of noble houses, the last one being that which became extinct with William III. Frederick I. of Prussia and a prince of Holland laid claim to the principality, but by treaty it was ceded to France although the princes of Nassau-Dietz are allowed to assume the title of "Princes of Orange." The approach to Lyons is through Vienne, the country from Orange being a succession of rugged landscapes in the valley of the Rhone, "bordered by mountains and limestone cliffs in the distance. Vienne was the capital of Burgundy, and has the inevitable amphitheatre and aque^ duct which accompany all ancient cities of importance. But when Pontius Pilate was exiled to this city from Rome, whither he had been sent in disgrace because he had ordered an unjust massacre of the Samaritans, Vienne was an obscure town of Gaul ; here he committed suicide, six or seven years after the crucifixion of Jesus ; and a century after Pilate's death the Christian churches of Vienne suffered the most shocking persecutions. LYONS AND HER WEAVERS. As the Gulf of Lyons is said to have been so named from the fury of its gales, which frequently rage and roar across it like wild beasts, so the city of Lyons might justly have been christened with reference to the turbulent character of its people. Notwithstanding the blood and floods of water which have flowed through its streets, the serene Virgin, from the lofty dome of Notre Dame, which crowns the hill upon which the ancient city stood, appears to be dispensing her blessings over the great city stretching from the opposite river bank over an undulating LYONS AND HER WEAVERS. 78 1 peninsula, its outlying suburbs and villas being lost in the foot-hills of the Cevennes Mountains, while far to the east are seen the outlines of the mighty Alps. When the air is clearest Mount Blanc even rises in a mightier serenity and spirit of benediction. The city which stood upon this hill dates from before Christ's time,. and became the center of the four great Roman roads which traversed Gaul. It was pampered by the emperors, destroyed by fire and by one of the Roman monarchs because it declared for his rival, was the scene of Christian persecutions and the martyrdom of St. Irenseus, and was razed by Attila and most of its Roman monuments destroyed. But from the time the four Roman roads were made to center at Luedunum the locality was marked by nature as the center of a Avorld-famed trade and commerce ; and its modern sieges and insurrections have resulted from the radical character of its manufacturingr laborers. A line of fortifications and forts is drawn around the city and car- ried over the hills which command its suburbs. To the north of the fortifications are two villages in the commune of La Croix Rousse, which were the centers of the labor uprisings of the past fifty years and which caused the authorities to protect the city with strong walls and cannon. They are principally inhabited by silk weavers, who also are scattered in other suburbs and throughout the city. This class of the population would probably number 150,000 hands, but they are not crowded into smoky, greasy factories whose tall chimneys disfigure the city. The dwelling of the master weaver is his factory, and here, with a few looms, himself, family and such hired operatives as he needs conduct the busi- ness. Raw silk and patterns are supplied him by the silk merchant, Avho really rents the looms and pays the wages of the hands. The Palais des Beaux Arts, formerly an ancient convent, is devoted to museums of art and science, chambers of commerce, schools of agriculture and pattern designing for silks. It also contains an establishment where the un- wrought silk from thousands of looms is brought to be reduced, by heat, to an equable weight and dryness. This system of silk manufacturing is cumbersome in the extreme, although the beauty and cleanliness of the city are enhanced, but it is forced upon the merchants of Lyons by scarcity of coal. The beauties of this principal manufacturing city of France, with her stupendous quays, her great bridges, churches, commercial societies and labor tribunals, her squares which witnessed the dark shadows of the guillotine, her gardens, villas, majestic river and distant wonders of sky and mountain- — -upon these we need not dwell ; for our interest in Lyons is founded upon her silk, her silk weavers and the gigantic efforts 782 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. which are being made by arbitration, under the shadows of great ramparts and a score of substantial forts, to quiet the waves of discon- tent which are continually arising from the confined and generally deformed body of the people. GLEAMS FROM EASTERN FRANCE. The distant view of the Alps obtained from the Church of Notre Dame, at Lyons, reminds one that from that commercial center went forth an influence which pervaded its valleys and was felt all along the banks of the river which spring from its heights and flow toward the Rhone. Peter Waldo, one of Lyons most wealthy citizens, sold all his goods and gave them to the poor. To the poverty-stricken of the city he then commenced to preach, for which he and his followers were excommuni- cated by the Pope. France, Italy and Bohemia took up his cause, and the sufferings of the Waldenses or Vaudois, in the valleys and mountains of Southeastern France, were but just begun when they were slaughtered by combined French and Italian armies and their children distributed in the villages of their foes. During the first portion of the present cen- tury Turin, and later Florence, became the center of their religious activities, which are now unshackled. The river Isere and the equally furious Durance river cut through the land of this hunted people, who, in France were driven to take ref- uge among the rocks and caves of half a dozen valleys. Even there they had no time to build fortresses, like that of Briancon which sur- rounds the village. The town itself stands on a rock which descends abruptly, on one side, to the river below, and is protected by a mountain from enemies in the rear. A sight of this rugged little town, with its rugged surroundings, is sufficient evidence of the truth of the statement that the stronghold has been besieged but never capitulated. West of Briancon is a grand mountain whose peaks and glaciers have witnessed amid their glooms, and glistenings thousands of refugees for conscience' sake. Briancon is the principal arsenal of the French Alps, command- ing the route to Piedmont, but Mount Pelvoux, to which the hunted Vaudois fled is mightier than it. North of the Isere river, in almost a direct line across the province of Isere from Vienne, in a wild and romantic valley, surrounded by mountain forests and rocks is an ungainly collection of sharp-roofed buildings which compose the monastery of La Grande Chartreuse. This is the headquarters of the celebrated order of monks which has remained unmolested since the eleventh century, when it was founded by St. Juno, not the patron saint of Prussia, but another St. Juno, born. GLEAMS FROM EASTERN FRANCE. 783 however, in Germany. Amid these solitudes the fathers and brothers labor, watch and pray, living a life of self-denial. Tea, coffee and meat are even excluded from the monastery. Opposite the monastery build- ing is a rude structure in charge of some sisters of charity, used as a house of entertainment for lady visitors. But, whether to the male or female sex, hospitality is not distributed gratis, regular charges being made for meals and lodging. The Grand Chartreuse is about thirteen miles northeast of Grenoble, a charming town smiling on the river banks at the glaciers in the distance, and hemmed in by natural and artificial fortresses. Every mile of country from Lyons to Calais, along the Jura Moun- tains, the tributaries of the Saone river and the Meuse, has some natural beauty or historic significance. The Moselle from Germany dips gently into French territory and Vassy, Chalons, Metz and Sedan tell of fierce fields of contention and disputed territory. Strasburg, on the Rhine, and the province of Vosges, a little to the west but a portion of France, teach the lesson that, though national boundaries may divide, the work of philanthropists is a common heritage. The labors of John Oberlin among the peasants and mountaineers of Alsace, by which he not only touched their consciences but taught them how to plow, plant and reap, have not only made whole communities and villages prosperous, but spread his name over Europe and America. In this region of war and philanthropy, where the Meuse has become almost a rivulet, is a little village in which stands a rude stone cottage which is treasured by France, for it was the birthplace and home of Joan of Arc, religious enthusiast and inspired warrior. " With touching characteristic sentiment she had asked as her only reward that her native village should be released from taxation, and the boon was freely accorded for many generations, the entry in the tax-register opposite Domremy being, ' cancelled on account of La Pucelle.' " An excursion through the picturesque country of the Meuse, with a divergence to the west, will bring one to Rheims, where the modest Maid saw Charles the Victorious receive the holy unction from the sa- cred " ampulla," or flask. It is said to have been brought down from heaven by a dove, that Clovis might be anointed, in the fifth century. For many centuries the kings of France were thus honored by the arch- bishop of Rheims. The beautiful Gothic edifice and famous cathedral of Notre Dame was built during the early part of the thirteenth century; in it the kings of France were crowned for nearly six centuries. Charles, the last of the Bourbons, was anointed, and the oil then failed ; although there is some doubt as to the genuineness of the article since the revo- 784 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. lution, when the ampulla was broken and thrown away. A pious indi- vidual, however, is reported to have recovered a fragment, with a small quantity of the Clovis oil, which he presented to the archbishop. Amiens, in the department of Somme, is on the borders of old Normandy. It is an ancient Roman city, containing the ruins of a for- mer citadel, but it is chiefly noted for its gorgeous cathedral and as being the birthplace of Peter the Hermit, who led so many knights of Normandy on disastrous crusades. CHEERY NORMANDY. Perhaps the reader will already have penetrated our design, which has been to rapidly encompass France and approach its superb capital by way of Normandy, which embraced the Seine and held the key to RENAISSANCE WINDOW, ROUEN.. Paris. The Northmen, or Normans, during the ninth century, repeat- edly ascended the river with their great fleets to carry consternation to the city. One of their greatest chiefs finally married the king's daugh- ter, and received a tract of land north of the river to the sea, which was the foundation of Normandy. The chief Rollo became first duke of Normandy and the ancestor, six generations away, of William the Conqueror. Other accessions followed, until the dukedom included that part of Northwestern France embraced in the present departments of Seine-Inferieure, Eure, Calvados, Orne and Manche. Normandy was joined by Brittany on the southwest, and two more dissimilar districts or people seldom came together. Rouen and Caen were the chief cities of Normandy, the former being its capital; and the most satisfactory and cheery approach to Paris and to France is by way of the coast of Normandy, with its sunny THE conqueror's HOME. 785 watering places and fresh, quaint looking people. . Rouen, even to its churches, is bright with sunshine and the cheerfulness of its citizens. There are no gloomy cathedrals in Rouen. Notre Dame, profusely ornamented and surmounted by a dome 470 feet high, still has its inte- rior flooded with sunlight from 1 30 windows. And yet it contains tombs, including that of Richard Coeur de Lion ; the dust into which the " iron heart" has mouldered is now in the Rouen museum. Near the cathe- dral is the Abbey Church of St. Ouen, its light, lofty tower terminating in a crown of fieurs de lis, and its bright aspect being charmingly softened and mellowed by its two great rose-windows. Public squares are not the boast of Rouen, but it contains one which attracts thousands of travelers. It is the scene of the burning of Joan of Arc, and where her body was given to the elements is a drinking fountain without water and an unworthy statue of La Pucelle. THE CONQUEROR'S HOME. Before finally starting Paris-ward it would be a sad neglect of duty not to take a run into the native land of William the Conqueror. Caen is ten miles from the English Channel and about twice as far west of the Seine's mouth. A quaint combination it is of modern life surrounded by an ancient atmosphere. It has fine promenades, broad streets, large, buildings and beautiful churches. At one extremity of the town is a massive, severe, but noble looking structure, the Church of St. Etienne,. built by William and in which he was buried. Saint Trinite, an elegant, light and restful church, stands at the other end of Caen. This was either founded by Queen Matilda, or erected for her, according to her plans, by William the Conqueror. What a gulf between the mighty William and Beau Brummel, the leader of the London fashions ! Yet, in death, they were joined at Caen, although separated by centuries of time. Twenty miles or more inland from Caen is a picturesque country of river and wooded cliffs. Built upon such cliffs is a quiet manufacturing village, over which, on a bold ascent, towers the old Norman castle of Falaise. From its tower a sweeping view of Normandy may be obtained, but no one mounts into the gloomy castle chambers for landscape see- ing — rather to view the room in which William the Conqueror is said to have been born. The castle consists of two portions, the large, square Norman keep, standing at the highest part of the rocky eminence, and a circular tower, of later construction, connected with the former by a passage. Around all is a line of fortifications following the irregular out- 50 786 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. lines of the hill. In the keep, so it is said, the Conqueror was born, and the guides pretend to show the very room where the event took place and the identical window from which his father, Duke Robert the Magnifi- cent, first saw Arlette, the daughter of the Falaise tanner. The older portions of the castle show marks of the sieges which it has withstood, a breach being still pointed out which was the result of seven days' can- nonade by Henry IV. Nearer the channel than Caen and west of it is the town of Bayeux, which has been made historically famous by the most elaborate and gigantic piece of needlework in the world. In a large room adjoining the public library, preserved under glass, is displayed " a piece of picto- rial needlework supposed to have been done by Queen Matilda and the ladies of her court, representing the events connected with the conquest of England. It is worked, like a sampler, in woolen thread of different colors, is 20 inches wide and 214 feet long and has 72 divisions, each with a Latin inscription designating its subject. It is of great historical value, since it not only exhibits with minuteness Norman customs and manners at the time of the Conquest, but pictures events of which no other record exists — among others the siege of Dinan and the war between the duke of Normandy and Conan, earl of Brittany." The remarkable thing about this remarkable piece of tapestry is its fresh, bright appearance, notwithstanding that it has been exhibited in Paris and nearly every town of France. The cathedral which it was originally intended to adorn has been leveled with the ground. Of the historical events which it portrays the most important is the invasion of England, by which it can be learned better, than from any description in words, how William's cavalry was transported and the very construction of the Norman weapons and their spades for use in earthworks and forti- fications. The horses are being swung out of the ships in cranes and pulleys, and the spades, on account of the scarcity of iron in those days, are only tipped with that metal. A great banquet precedes the battle of Hastings, which is depicted with spirit and vigor, considering that most of the figures are coarsely worked in green and yellow colors ; but the whole story is told — the great cavalry charge, the Conqueror in the lead, sitting like a rock on a gigantic black horse, the consternation of his followers at his reported death, the rout of the enemy and Harold's death and the stripping of the wounded after the fray. The figures in the tapestry often suggest an entire ignorance of anatomy, and the per- spective is Chinese in its character, but the attitudes and facial lines are frequently worthy of a Nast. As with everything of interest which originated long ago, doubt has been thrown upon the authenticity of the NORMAN GIRLS. 787 tapestry , but whether Matilda and her ladies did work it or not is of secondary importance to the fact, which is firmly established, that it was made soon after the Conquest by somebody who was directed by an intimate, at least, of the royal couple, and the artist was a close observer, if not a genius. There is evidence that the date of its construction was near that of the Conquest, and also that Odo, bishop of Bayeux, the Conqueror's half-brother, ordered and arranged the work to the exact length of the walls of the church round which it was to have been placed. Still another delay is in order before starting toward Paris — caused by a desire to visit Mont St. Michael, which is a singular cone of granite rising from the English Channel at the angle where Brittany and Nor- mandy come together. The mount, which shoots from a level expanse •of shifting sands, is surmounted by a castle and a church ; and lower down clusters of houses hang to it, occupied by fishermen. The castle was a great Norman stronghold during the middle ages, and for three hundred years the magnificent spire of the church, surmounted by the image of St. Michael, the patron saint of the coast, has been a beacon to mariners approaching the shores of France. Monks and dukes have made their pilgrimages to this stronghold of arms and religion. It is from St. Michael that William the Conqueror and Harold marched on Dinan, the strongest fortified town of Brittany ; and the treacherous white sands around the mount which the warriors skirted on their way to Brittany are faithfully depicted in the Bayeux tapestry. Within the great castle is the spacious Gothic hall of the Knights of Mont St. Michael, "with its carved stone-work and lofty roof, supported by three rows of pillars, beautiful in proportion and grand in effect, although the Revolution, as usual, has left us little but the bare walls ; but as we look down upon it from a gallery it is easy to picture the splendor of a ban- quet of knights in the twelfth century, with the banners and insignia of chivalry ranged upon the walls." NORMAN GIRLS. Again, before returning to Rouen, the tourist must not fail to visit a few of the quaint Norman villages, with their tall, peaked-roofed houses and neat women, wearing their lace caps, chatting and eating in the market-place. The caps bloom, like flow^ers, into every conceivable form, from that of a helmet to that of a Turk's military cap, a starched funnel or a modern bonnet. Wanderinor from the market as^ain, we find " houses built out over rivers, looking like pieces of old furniture, ranged side by side, rich in color and wonderfully preserved, with their 788 PANORAMA OF NATIONS, wooden gables, carved in oak of the fifteenth century, supported by massive timbers, sound and strong, of even older date ; many of these houses, with windows full of flowers, and creepers twining around the old eaves, and long drying poles stretched out horizontally, with gay- colored clothes upon them flapping in the wind — all contrasting curi- ously with the dark buildings." But the little villages, like the larger towns, are attractive as much for the many delicate threads which connect them with Paris and modern life as for the unaffected air of their people and their historical glamour. Nearly every house is a manufactory ; and though its inmates keep their hearts with the days of simple, merry Normandy, their eyes look toward modern Paris and their fingers clasp considerable of her money. From Cherbourg often wander wide-awake, finely-mustached, loosely-dressed French marines, who leave their gloomy iron clads at anchor in the great harbor to gossip with the pretty maidens of Normandy in the market places. The girls may have walked in from the country with their baskets of vegetables, or from the sea shore with their shining captives. Their eyes are brighter than their fish and their cheeks fresher than their vegetables, and yet they will tell you that though many of their products of sea and land reach Paris, they never have been there, but, some day, hope to reach the beautiful city; and their hope is not unreas- onable, as one will see by glancing at any good map of France, for no matter how small the town there is the railroad which runs to Paris. THE APPROACH TO PARIS. Having encompassed Paris we are now at liberty to approach it from any direction. If we come from the southeast we must stop at the town of Fontainebleau, with its royal pleasure palace and gardens embedded in its solid square miles of forest. The artificial and natural charms of this royal retreat date from the tenth century, when the chateau was founded. Two centuries later it was rebuilt, subsequently enlarged, fell into decay, repaired and embellished and from the sixteenth century all the monarchs of France added something to it. Historically it is fa- mous for scenes which are guide posts to the domestic happiness, the miseries, the supposed necessities of state in the life of Napoleon,and it was from Fontainebleau that he signed the act of abdication. Here also the emperor had detained Pope Pius as a prisoner for nearly two years. Treaties and important state transactions and magnificent fetes under the Louises and Napoleons have, after Versailles, made Fontainebleau the most fitting approach to that great city which so fascinatingly com- bines stupendous historical events with irrepressible gayety. A bird's-eye view. . 789 "The gardens of Fontainebleau," it is pithily said, "will fascinate the lovers of elaborate arrangement and orderly primness, but are not other- wise remarkable except for their great fish ponds. On the whole, they scarcely repay a walk round, especially when outside them stretches the magnificent forest, with its heathery slopes, dark fir woods, vast expanses ■of green sward, planted with beech and oak, and a surface broken into •wild picturesque gorges by the scars and rocky projections of the sand- stone." A score of miles nearer Paris, going in the same general direction, is Vincennes, a fortress where are trained the best marksmen of the French army, and which has likewise a chateau and park. The castle, a repre- sentative of the middle ages, is rectangular in shape, and was once sur- rounded by nine great towers. Only one now remains, 170 feet high, with walls seventeen feet thick. From the time of Phillippe de Valois until the days of Louis XV. the chateau was a royal residence. It then became a prison for such personages as Henry IV, the Prince of Conde, Cardinal de Retz, Mirabeau and the Due d' Enghien who was shot in the moat of the castle. We may still verge to the west and enter the city by the Orleans railway or still further west by way of Versailles. Without another delay, except to dwell for a moment upon the attractions of Versailles and its kingly palace, we shall approach the environs of Paris from the southwest. The road from the capital, ten miles distant, becomes an avenue in Versailles, dividing the miniature Paris into two parts. The palace, formerly priory and castle, under the princely treatment of three Louises reached its present state of magnificence and down to the time of the Revolution was one of the residences of the court. The Revolu- tion was born in the palace of Versailles by the meeting of the states — general therein. With the passing over of the blackest clouds of that storm the palace became a museum, filled with pictures of French heroes and monarchs and scenes in their careers. The gardens, terraces, aven- ues, squares and public fountains of Versailles are stately rather than picturesque. In Versailles King William was proclaimed Emperor of Germany and the capitulation of Paris signed ; to escape the fury of the revolutionists of the capital the sittings of the National Assembly were also transferred to Little Paris, A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW\ It Is from the direction of Versailles that one obtains the best bird's- ■eye view of Paris. The city lies in a hollow, encircled by two ranges of hills,, the inner ones being the lowest and occasionally falling within the 790 " PANORAMA OF NATIONS. municipal limits. The outlying heights are from two to four miles from the city walls and upon them are posted the forts, or their ruins, which command every approach to Paris. Mount Valerien to the west, over- looking one of the railroads to Versailles, is the highest point from which Paris may be viewed. The Seine is seen entering from the southeast, winding among its great buildings, boulevards and parks, and divid- ing its bewildering magnificence into two unequal parts, the northern being much larger, and then sweeping boldly, so as almost to wash the heights of St. Cloud, it flows northeast past scores of pretty suburbs and villages. Just as it seems destined to pursue an unvarying course toward Calais it bends like the neck of a stately swan toward the green fields and kind people of Normandy. OLD PARIS. In his Commentaries, Julius Caesar is the first historian to notice a collection of mud huts built mostly upon two islands in the river which we now call the Seine. This was the chief settlement of the Parisii, a Gallic tribe, which he conquered. Those islands are still where Caesar saw them, but their mud huts have given place to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Palais de Justice, a grand hotel and other beautiful religious, and secular edifices. An elegant bridge connects the two islands, from which may be seen that Notre Dame, the most impressive of Parisian churches, with its ancient rose-windows and massive towers. Near by rises the arrowy spire of Saint Chapelle, a blazing and glittering pile, built by St. Louis to contain the relics which he had brought from the Holy Land, but which was chiefly devoted to royal marriages, christen- ings and coronations. This church is within the precincts of the Palace of Justice, an immense structure containing various courts of law, and upon this ancient ground of mud huts, within hailing distance of the Palace, is the prison of the Conciergerie, scene of the sorrow and rage of Marie Antoinette, Danton and Robespierre, and of the heart-rending suspense which racked the bodies and souls of the prisoners during the Reign of Terror. Here prisoners are still confined, pending their trial, and La Force is yet the greatest of the prisons of Paris. NORTH OF THE SEINE. It is but a short walk from the nucleus of ancient Paris to the cen-^ ter of the modern city. On the opposite or northern bank of the river, where Caesar found scarcely a hut of mud, are the modern palaces of the Tuileries and the Louvre, in the famous gardens of the Tuileries, witk NORTH OF THE SEINE. 79 1 the restored Hotel de Ville which is directly across from the upper end of the Island of La Cite. In the vicinity of the Tuileries is the Palais Royale, the extensive court which it surrounds having echoed to the trumpet tones of Desmoulins, who cast that vast wave of fury against the Bastile, whose former gloomy walls are now remembered by the handsome public square which is opposite the Place Royale. It is known as the Place de la Bastile, and is a short distance directly east of the Place de I'Hotel de Ville, for many ages the scene of public executions and the spot at which some of the bloodiest deeds of the Revolution were perpetrated. The Place de la Concorde connects the gardens of the Tuileries and the thousand feet of ruins composing the old palace with the Champs Elysees, that grand popular avenue, at the western extremity of which is Napoleon's Arch of Triumph, the largest and grandest of its kind in the world. It is also the boundary of the magnificent district of Paris in that direction. The Place de la Concorde is worthy of facing this arch of architect- ural triumph, but like all the other ambitious and successful works of beauty which grace the city, the Revolution has cast its shadow and dashed the blood of Paris over its marble monuments and into the waters of its fountains. In the center of the square is an obelisk covered with hiero- glyphics which stood, over thirty-three centuries ago, in front of a great temple of Thebes. It was placed there by Rameses II., one of those hoary monarchs whose greatness we only feel through all the mists of ages, and may have been brought almost face to face with the monument to Bonaparte's fame in order to teach the lesson of the weakness of human achievement. The shaft of the Egyptian king marks the site of the guillotine which cut short the lives of Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, Philippe Egalite, Danton, Robespierre and a host of others. On the Champs Elysees, within sight of the Place de la Concorde is the Palace of Industry, or the Paris Exposition, constructed originally for the world's fair of 1855 ^^^ i^ow a permanent exhibition. The ex- position of 1867 was held on the Champ de Mars, the military parade ground on the opposite side of the river, just around a bend. The city residence of the President of the Republic, the Elysee Palace overlooks the avenue, while further away from the river than we have been, north of the Tuileries and Louvre, are the most convenient, tasteful and magnificent theatres of Europe, and just on the outskirts of this center of comedy and tragedy, tears and laughter, music, song and dance, is the center of no insignificent section of the financial activity of Europe, the Bourse and Tribunal of Commerce — a square, Roman-like 792 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Structure, supported by a stately array of pillars and approached by a grand stairway. In the theatre district between the Palais Royale and the Grand Opera House is the Place Vendome, with a second column of Trajan in its center, commemorative, however, of Napoleon's campaign of 1805 ; the before-mentioned place of amusement also fronts upon a square which would seem more magnificent, if admiration were not drawn from it to the structure which outshines it as the sun does the moon. Not far north of the Champs Elysees is an imposing structure raised upon an ponderous platform, surrounded by a colonnade of pillars,carved, frescoed and gilded. If it was not built by some of the old masters of Greece, it is a wonderful and mod- ern imitation of their best work. The Madeline is a Christianized Grecian tem- ple, one of the triumphs of modern architecture, although not original in its character. SOUTH OF THE ^ SEINE. The district which lies on the southern bank of the Seine opposite the islands which were the nu- cleus of old Paris, and A MODERN FRENCH PAINTER. which corresponds to the modern city from the Place de la Bastille, or Ouartier St. Antoine, to the Arch of Triumph, is covered with gardens, military grounds, scientific institutions and churches. The immense wine market is near the river on the opposite shore from the arsenal. A short distance from the Seine but directly south of the great church of Notre Dame, on the Island of La Cite, is the College of France, one of whose objects is to apply science to industry, and for that purpose furnishes the public with ST. VINCENT DE PAUL. 793 gratuitous lectures. Another stratum is also reached by its free lectures in the departments of philosophy and letters. The Institute of France, across the river from the Tuileries, is the result of two centuries and a half of the country's best thought, being a combination of five academies, whose specialties are the maintenance of the native tongue in its purity ; the study of universal history and com- parative philology, of the sciences, of the arts and of moral philosophy and affairs of state. The parent of the Institute was the French Acad- emy founded by Richelieu. This, and the other academics Avhich were merged into the Institute, continued until abolished by the republican convention of 1793, but were consolidated under the different names, National, Imperial, and France, by the Directory, Napoleon and Louis XVIII. respectively. The Pantheon, or Church of Ste. Genevieve (Paris' patron saint) ]ooms up from beyond the College de France and the other educational institutes and edifices in this vicinity. It is in the form of a mighty Greek cross, united under the dome which rises nearly 200 feet. The Pantheon was originally built as a monument to celebrated Frenchmen, and still contains the tombs of Rousseau, Lagrange, Lannes and Vol- taire, with many others. ST. VINCENT DE PAUL. Among the scores of other churches which it has been impossible to describe is that of St. Vincent de Paul. To worthily commemorate the grand character of Vincent de Paul it could not be too stately or too beautiful. Although patronized by cardinals and royal families, he chose to labor among peasants, convicts and beggars, endeavoring to relieve them bodily, mentally and spiritually. In this field, also, so disinterested, able and tender were all his ministrations that he received the assist- ance of counts and nobles in establishing missions among the poor and liospitals for the sick. In much of his ecclesiastical work he was the adviser of Cardinal Richelieu ; but the proximity of such a lumi- nary did not dim him. He continued to be the apostle of thieves and sinners. Wherever sin, famine and sufferingf were creating the greatest havoc, there was Vincent de Paul. The crowning "work of his life was the founding of the order of Sisters of Charity and a hospital for the poor of Paris. A royal edict obliged every beggar to enter this institution or to work for a living. This great and good man was canonized seventy years after his death- 794 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. ST. VINCENT DE PAUL. VICTOR HUGO. VICTOR HUGO. 795 There was another mighty man of Paris and of France, whom the world claims as one of her geniuses, and who was as different from St. Vincent de Paul as the rushing whirlwind is from the broad, steady- BUST OF VICTOR HUGO. flowing river. Victor Hugo was precocious, and not the only exception to the saying (which no doubt issued from the jealous soul of some average, disappointed mortal) that he who is early ripe is early rotten. Before he was thirty years old he was famous, and continued to add to his 79^ PANORAMA OF NATIONS. :fame for over half a century. His mother was a native of La Vendee; his father was high in the good graces of Napoleon. He lived a por- tion of his time with his mother in Paris, the balance with his father in Italy and Spain, or followed his own inclinations ; that is, he was his own master until, as an outspoken member of the Assembly, he offended Napoleon and was banished from France for life. He took up his res- idence in the Isle of Jersey, and although he did not return to his native land for twenty years, he flooded Europe with political pamphlets, phil- osophical dissertations, poems, novels and dramas, which, in turn, enraged, bewildered and charmed the world. Whatever he did created -a sensation, and, genius though he was, he perhaps strove too often after the sensational at the expense of leaving a less enduring mark than if he had been less conscious of himself. As a lyric poet and a novelist, he has been crowned as king by the French people. His death, in May, 1885, extinguished a living light, both bright and warm, whose influence will be felt for generations to come. THE MILITARY QUARTER. The western portion of this district of churches and colleges (where also are the magnificent Luxembourg gardens and palace, with the Archiepiscopal palace) is the military quarter of Paris. Next to the Archiepiscopal palace near the Seine is the soldiers' asylum, with its spacious courts, the Hotel des Invalides. Within the limits of the Invalides is the great porphyry sarcophagus of Napoleon Bonaparte, standing directly under the masterly dome of the Church of St. Louis. To the south of the asylum is the military school, and adjoining its grounds and fronting on the river, is the famous Champ de Mars, scene of historical events and grand military reviews. For one week after July 7, 1790, an army of men and women was seen day and night, upon the grounds, working like maniacs in their eagerness to get all in readi- ness for the grand festival in honor of the king who was to bow to the constitution of the people. BOULEVARDS AND PARKS. The Paris Observatory is the rear guard of this vast district, which is a union of church, school and arms. With even this imperfect sketch of the wonders of Parisian glory in all the departments of modern civil- ization — not even mentioning her scores of great hospitals, hotels, manufactories, libraries and museums — we must say a word about her boulevards, parks and theatres. THEATRES AND DELICATE ECONOMY. 797" The most famous of the boulevards are within the hmits of the old city walls and cover the district already described from the Church of the Madeline to the Place de Bastile. Here are the most beautiful Par- isian stores, the banking houses, theatres, centres of gossip and of trade. We have already noticed the avenue of the Champs Elysees and the triumphal arch standing in it, or rather in the Place de I'Etoile, into which the stately thoroughfare expands. From this square radiate ten broad avenues, the most magnificent of which is the avenue Bois de Boulogne, divided into road ways, bridle paths, footwalks, bordered with bright and ingenious gardens and fringed with villas and private grounds. The avenue leads to a park of the same name, in which art and nature seem to strive for the prize of beauty and which is one of the most fav- orite resorts of all classes. It is outside of the fortifications. Other popular places of resort are the zoological gardens, near the wine market, with their wonderfully perfect menagerie, which are on the direct route from the Place de Bastile on the other side of the river, and the park of Vincennes, east of the city. This is in line with the greatest attractions of the city, and is not an ignoble conclusion of the pleasure seeking. Besides its historic and military attractions it contains a race course, a large artificial lake and numerous other means of recreation. For miles along the Seine on either side the quays are paved and beautified, and afford noble promenades. Even the sewers of Paris have within the last thirty years been transformed into things of wonder, not to say magnificence, as the mains generally follow the chief thoroughfares of the city and the connections correspond to the minor streets. THEATRES AND DELICATE ECONOMY. We already know where the theatres of Paris are., The Theatre Francaise leads all the rest, not only in the magnificence of its appoint- ments but the brilliancy of its companies. Moliere, or the company which he directed, founded it two centuries ago. The Opera House stands close behind it, the two being under the direct patronage of the government ; other places of amusement are also assisted from the national treasury, the government, on its part, levying a generous tax upon all the receipts for the benefit of the public charities. So that if Paris is gay and spends her millions in amusing herself, her gayety becomes a continual blessing to the poor, which can be said of few great cities. Another peculiarity has been noticed of the Parisian. Although he is fond of good clothes and dies upon " all work and no play," he has 798 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Studied the science of economy in every phase. There is perhaps no one in the world who looks better and appears to live better on a smaller sum than the Parisian. Nothing goes to waste, and yet though he may have to count the cost of every cent there is little of that heart-rending "pinching " to be observed among the proud poor which is seen in other cities. Just so many vegetables served up in their dainty dishes, nicely seasoned and cooked, so much meat and so much wine. A great deal of chatting and laughter makes the meals go further and accomplishes more than if rushed down with the rapacity of the Englishman or the speed of the American, As proficients in the art of practicing a delicate economy the French, and the Parisian in particular, are unapproachable. The assertion has been made by some-^that the French are not hearty enough to fight the battle of civilization against Englishmen, Germans, Russians and Americans, but the monuments of greatness which they have reared in Paris alone would seem to indicate that so far they have possessed considerable stamina. It may be that their lightness of spirit and the peculiar faculty they have of making everything so appetizing, turn the smaller quantities of food which they consume into more than the average amount of blood and brain. The Parisian bread carrier is ofttimes enough to make one long for one of her tremendous loaves — not an uncouth, dirty man, with black hands, is the bread carrier, but a dainty girl in a frilled cap, a neat bodice and a pretty, clean apron, the latter being filled with the fresh loaves, which are also loaded into a basket strapped to her shoul- ders, like so many sticks of cordwood. Next in demand to the bread carriers are the wine merchants. They are of all grades, although since the Bastile is gone, St. Antoine is no more, and the other squalid and criminal quarters have been cut up into great streets and squares, and connected with aristocratic Paris, there are few Defarges such as Dickens described in his Tale of Two Cities. The trade is getting into more respectable hands ; the Defarges are growing less in number, while the mirrored restaurants and cafes on the streets off from the central boulevards of Paris, and frequented by the fashionables, artists, scientists, students and business men of the city, are becoming more and more the mainstays of the wine merchants. The great center of the wine trade is the market, which we have already noticed and in which 500,000 casks of wine can be stowed. It is one of the most bustling places in all this bustling city. Across the river, perhaps half a mile from it, forming a triangle with the Hotel de Ville and the Tuileries as the base, is the Central Market. It covers twenty acres of ground and consists of a dozen immense pavil- THEATRES AND DELICATE ECONOMY. 799 ions, connected by covered streets. Underneath the pavihons are great tanks for Hve fish and cool vaults for the storage of vegetables and fruits. Underground railways connect them with railroad termini, so that the produce can be conveniently delivered and the garbage removed. The business man of Paris is usually circulating somewhere in the vicinity of the Bourse or the Bank of France. Here are found the other financial institutions and the railway offices of the great trunk lines; the headquarters of national financiers, the bondholders, the capitalists, the schemers, where such enterprises as the Suez and the Panama Canals are launched upon the money market of France and the world. The Bank of France has branches in all the departments of the republic and in Algiers, and from it issue all the government notes. The Bourse and Chamber or Tribunal of Commerce are also so closely connected with the government that they are considered national institutions. Members of the latter body are elected by the chief rrer- chants of the city or town who are named by the mayor or perfect. There is a chamber of commerce in every city and considerable town in France, which Is consulted by the government on all matters of public interest, such as taxation and the improvement of land and water ways. When not volunteered such advice can be demanded, so that a member of the Tribunal of Commerce becomes, in a certain sense, an integral part of the government, bound to further its aims toward public prosperity. SUPPLE AND MUSCULAR PEOPLE. The predominating trait of the French is suppleness — which never excludes strength. The Italian and Celtic elements predominate in their character, their language being the most important of the Romanic tongues. The Celtic elements were lost, however, in the flood of Prankish words which poured from the north and those of Latin origin which came from the south. It is the unison of the Teutonic muscul- arity with the Italian suppleness which has made French people and the French language what they are. The rise of the troubadours, who sung their songs of chivalry in the southern, or Provencal dialect, had much effect in molding the tongue into graceful lines. The crusades introduced some Arabic terms and when Frenchmen began to cultivate the natural sciences Greek and Latin terms crept in. But it was not until the mid- dle ages that the Franko-Romanic dialect of the north and the Provencal tongue were welded into one harmonious language, which has no super- ior as a medium for communicatinor the most diverse of ideas and cover- ing the greatest range of sentiment. In the province of light literature 800 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. French writers are unrivalled ; and yet Calvin is not the only divine of France who has illustrated the weight of his native language as a judg- ment trumpet and inspirer of awe. Balzac and Descartes show the French as careful and profound philosophers, Voltaire and Rousseau as versatile geniuses capable, with their supple language, of touching every phase of human life except that in which reverence is crowned as king. Montesquieu was broad, masculine and keen. After placing the Dumas, Hugos, Sues, Vernes, Corneilles, Racines and Molieres in a group, imagine opposite them Lamartine, Guizot, Thiers and Taine, as histor- ians, Comte, the Positive philosopher, Cuvier, Laplace, Lagrange, Bastiat, DeTocqueville and a host of others, eminent in scientific and. social questions ; and then answer the question whether the French are. not intellectually muscular as well as versatile. One of the most conclusive evidences of their healthfu] elasticity as. a nation is the wonderful vigor with which they rebounded from the crushing defeat of the Franco-Prussian war ; not only evincing nO' depression of spirits but, while repairing their losses at home, lifting a. great debt from their shoulders and continuing to increase in nationali wealth in a ratio which excited the admiration of the world.. THE GERMANS, HE origin of the name German is somewhat doubtful, althouo-h for several centuries about all that was known of the Teutonic tribes was that a warlike people lived beyond the Rhine who fought with spears, viz.: "ger" (spear) "mann" (man). Sub- sequently, when the Romans came to know more of them, it was learned that they were light-haired and powerfully built, blue-eyed, independent, tireless in war, industrious agricultur- ists, lovers of chastity and superstitious. They had bards and priests, sacred groves, and worshiped gods and giants. The God of War was their chief divinity. They elected their chiefs, who were often believed to be descended from Woden. The Franks, the Goths, the Vandals, the Teutons and the Burgundians were all Ger- man tribes which are intimately connected with the history of Germany, France and Rome. It is not our purpose to go into details regarding the mythical and ancient history of Germany, or to trace the gradual steps by which her small states were united into one empire. The Germans are not the result of a conglomeration of races but are a combination of kindred tribes, some of which have always given rulers to the country. When Charlemagne, the great Frank, ruled over them, their empire was con- solidated by the subjection of the Saxons, the last of the German tribes which refused to submit to him. He also compelled them to become Christians. But during the weaker reign of subsequent rulers the power of the king depended on the dukes who elected him, and their influence has ever since been great. To this must be added, during the last cent- ury, the gradual advance of the cause of popular government. Yet the strong traits of the German Empire and the German people are the same as when they were yet unwelded tribes ; a love of discipline and thoroughness, combined with a love of independence, and a genius for war were added to a stern family affection, 8oi 51 802 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. THE GOVERNMENT AND THE ARMY. The Bund, or reunion of the German States, which was consoli- dated in 1 87 1 by the King of Prussia accepting the sovereignty of Ger- many, was formed for the protection of the territory of the Bund and for the care of the welfare of the German people. The Federal Coun- cil, or the Upper House of the empire (Bundesrath), is composed of members who are annually appointed by the governments of the various states. Unless the territory of the empire is attacked the Emperor is required to obtain the consent of the Bundesrath before he can declare war, make peace or enter into treaties with foreign countries. He is, however, the commander-in-chief of the army and navy and superintends the execution of the laws. The Emperor appoints the committees for the army and navy, except one who is appointed by Bavaria ; all the other committees are elected by the Federal Council. Each committee consists of representatives of at least four states of the Empire. The members of the Reichstag, or Lower House, are elected by the people for a term of three years, at the average rate of one deputy for every 100,000 inhabitants. All imperial laws must receive the sanc- tion of both of these bodies and the Chancellor of the empire. The Reichstag may be dissolved by the Federal Council with the consent of the Emperor, but not oftener than once during each session. A new election must take place within sixty days after such dissolution. The Imperial Chancellor is president ex officio of the Bundesrath, and he is also the disbursing officer of the imperial revenues. He is required to make an annual statement to both the Bundesrath and the Reichstag. — The military system of Germany is that which was in force in Prus- sia. Every German, capable of bearing arms, must serve in the stand- ing army from his twenty-first to his twenty-eighth year ; and for five years more he must be in the landwehr. In war, every soldier is bound to obey the Emperor, unconditionally. In times of peace the Bavarian troops have their own organization and are not subject to the Emperor's orders. The sovereigns of the other states select the lower grades of officers, while the higher ones are appointed by the Emperor, EDUCATIONAL DRILL. Army discipline is carried into the educational domain and for at least five years every German child is obliged to go through with a course of mental training which in many countries would be considered unbearable. The system of instruction is much the same as that of the EDUCATIONAL DRILL. 8o J United States, there being common elementary, schools, Latin schools, Real school sintended to educate those in the higher branches who can not take a university course, the gymnasiums covering the ground of our high schools and lower colleges, and the universities to which students graduate from the gymnasiums. The conflict in the system comes as to the precise relation of the Real schools to the gymnasiums and univer- sities ; the former are divided also into higher trade schools and higher common schools, the chief distinction between them and the gymnasiums being that more attention is given to the natural sciences and practical .arts than to classical training. The features most prominent in these departments of the German system are found in the scientific and classi- cal courses of our collesfes and universities. The order of advancement for the German who is designed for a university training is through the common school, Latin school and gymnasium. The foundation of the popular schools of Germany is always accorded to Charlemagne. This great King was a stern but a good father to all classes, and a monk who wrote in his time says that upon a certain occa- sion he visited one of the schools he had founded and saw that the sons of the nobles were far behind the children of poor parents in schol- arship. Dividing the poor children from the rich,' he first addressed the former, thanking them for having obeyed his commands and promising them bishoprics and abbeys if they continued in their industrious ways. To the already abashed scions of nobility he turned with an angry coun- tenance : " Ye high-born sons of my most illustrious nobles ! " he roared, " Ye asses and coxcombs ! In the pride of your birth and your posses- sions, you despise my commands, and give yourselves up to idleness, riot and disorder; but " — and here he raised his hand with a threatening gesture — " by the King of Heaven! if you do not straightway make up by diligence for your former neglect, you have little good to expect at the hands of Karl." The first German university was founded at Prague, within the present limits of Austria, in 1348. To the Hapsburgs isdue the univer- sity of Vienna and the Palatine Elector Rupert made Heidelberg possible. But Charlemagne made the system possible which, in its rounded proportions, came from the patient hands of Frederick William HI., King of Prussia. The gymnasium student commences to ape the manners of the university student, beginning to smoke and drink, and being unhappy unless he can be the member of some mysterious society. He is no longer subject to corporeal punishment and looks exultantly forward to 804 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the time when it is something of an honor to brave not only the univer- sity laws but those of the state. The gymnasiast who aspires to be a typical German student* has already a score of songs at his tongue's end, as no university gathering is complete without them. Students' songs are students' songs the world over, but one rests upon safe ground when he asserts that in no country in the world is so large a proportion of them patriotic and fit to be sung in private parlors as those poured out by hearty German students over their wine and beer; and, though no defense is attempted of drink- ing customs, it should always be remembered that German wine is very gentle, and (as a student writes) "that their beer is far more mighty of the hop than of the malt." There are meetings within doors and meetings without, and special " Commers," which are celebrated by an excursion on rafts, or on horse- back and in carriages, to some neighboring town. The revelers are at- tired in their most fantastic colored costumes, with their naked swords in hand, and their long pipes in mouth, and as they approach their des- tination are usually welcomed by the discharge of artillery, for the vil- lagers are aware that as long as the students are in their midst fun and money will freely circulate. The usually sleepy waiters of the village inn are bustling to and fro, preparing viands, the cooks are ruthlessly slaughtering bird, beast and fish, every house filies a flag or is hung with a festoon, while the pretty girls show their beaming faces and their bright- est ribbons as the noisy cavalcade rushes past. For twenty-four hours the whole village is turned upside down and inside out ; not a drop of blood runs stagnant in man, woman or child. People who have a tendency to pick flaws in anything which has a reputation for comparative perfection often sneer at the liberty which is allowed the student of the university, making, among other hypercritical statements, the one that the higher educational institutes of Germany are merely mediums by which the professors advertise their learning ; in a word that the universities are more for the professors than the students. The preliminary drill is as strict as if the student were a soldier ; all at once his bonds are loosened, a feast is spread before him, made up chiefly of substantial, and he can eat or not, as he chooses. Philosophical, scientific and historical pabulum, taken from world-wide sources, is offered,, and the student may take it or go off and drink beer or fight a duel. It is true enough that the Germans have come to the conclusion that after one has arrived at man's estate he ought to know what he needs in the way of education, and if he does not choose to avail himself of the best privileges which the nation can offer, it Is quite certain that EDUCATIONAL DRILL. 805 he has not the necessary enthusiasm and strength of will to be a credit to himself or the university. The average age of German university students is also greater than in most other countries, so that anything but freedom would be doubly ridiculous — freedom, within limits. Each university has its governing bodies, such as Select and Great Senates, with the rector at the head. There are regular professors and those who are privileged to lecture upon special topics ; from the latter body are often recruited most valuable members of the salaried faculty. The oldest professor of each faculty is the dean. Universities have not only their governing boards but their courts of justice, their magis- trates and beadles, all, however, conforming and in direct connection with the laws and officers of the empire. The chief beadle lives near the college, and the prison is in the upper part of his house. If neces- sary he can arrest without a warrant, but must report at once to the magistrate of the university. Various offenses against academical and state laws are punishable by reproof, fine, incarceration, and expulsion for from one year to five years, with a publication of the nature of the disgrace in every university of Germany. The university court of jus- tice may in its discretion also have the offender confined in an ordinary state prison. The student is given great latitude as to attending lectures, but he is made to feel that he is still amenable to a double set of laws ; and the penalties are especially severe if he joins a revolutionary union, which is not of great rarity. The secret university societies have made the government much trouble, but upon several occasions have united in one grand spirit of patriotic action, which has made it possible for the true German to forget a hundred rough pranks in the splendid vigor and heart of the student. In fact, the association of the university " burschenschafts " had no small part in giving direction to the movement of national independence which resulted in the freedom of Germany from Napoleonic dominion. It was during the few years preceding the great battle of Leipsic that German students betook themselves so feverishly to gymnastics and sword exercises. Each student, in becoming a member of the great Burschenschaft, bound himself to become a soldier, and at once went into training. A broad patriotism for the German Fatherland and the German speech rested upon faithfulness to the Prince. But revolu- tionary tendencies in the shape of such constitutional declarations as "the law of the people shall be the will of the Prince" soon gave birth to bolder utterances and even to bloody deeds. In 1819 a university student murdered the Russian Counsellor of State, persuaded that the deed was justified by patriotism ; unsuccessful attempts of a like nature 8o6 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. were made ; mistaken ideas of liberty beclouded the moral natures of thousands of German youth ; a republicanism such as even America might be proud of also walked forth from the university associations ; but even the average of the utterances of German students turned so far away from the conservatism upon which the country's institutions were founded that the governments of both Prussia and Germany destroyed the Burschenschaft, and thereafter exercised an untiring; censorship over the university societies. Yet, even in the matter of attending lectures the student is bound by certain general rules. It is optional with him what course he will at- tend, but he must give notice to the professor who has it in charge, when he has determined. In the German states the student mustattend a cer- tain number of lectures in order to be entitled to the state examination ; and his so-called departure certificate which accords him that privilege^ not only vouches for his scholarship, but has something to say of his moral conduct and as to whether he has ever participated in any unlaw- ful combination of a political nature. The professor is not only bound to the state to deliver a certain number of lectures per week, but it is his duty to deliver special lectures within his department, whenever a suf- ficient number of students assure him of an adequate remuneration for his trouble. STUDENTS' NICKNAMES. The German universities are as particular as the American colleges to make a freshman feel his inferiority. He is called a fox and is made to perform many little services for the " old moss heads," as they call them- selves. The seniors are also known as "old houses." It was formerly the custom of the seniors to require the foxes to black their boots and to write out their college notes. "The student receives different names according to the duration of his abode at college. While he yet vegetated in the gymnasium he was a Frosch — a frog. In the vacation which lay between the time of his quitting the gymnasium and entering the university he chrysalized him- self into a mule, and on entering the university he becomes a Kameel — a camel. This happy transition-state of a few weeks gone by, he comes forth finally, on entering a Chore — a fox, and runs joyfully into the new student life. During the first half-year he is a gold fox, which means that he has rich gold in plenty yet ; or he is a fat fox, meaning that he yet puffs himself up with gold. In the second half-year he becomes a Brand-fuchs, or fox with a brand, after the foxes of Samson. The fox is then over, and they wash the eyes of the new-baked young student^ DUELS. 807 since during the fox-year he was held to be blind, not being endued with reason. From young Bursche (student) he advances next to old Bursche, and then to Be-mossed Head, the highest state of honor to which man can attain." The student is dubbed a brand-fox because of a certain ceremony through which he is put by his superiors. DUELS. One of the most common forms of oppression by which the Old Houses assert their superiority over the foxes is to pretend to discover cause for a duel in something which is said or done ; and if the fresh young man should be worked into such a state of defiance as actually to accept the challenge, he may be coolly ignored as being unworthy of attention. If equals desire to bring a duel one has only to call the other "dummen Junger," or "stupid youth " and the business is done, unless a retraction follows. If the offense or injury calls for some graver form of insult, " Infamen," or "infamous fellow" is the applied epithet. The weapons usually chosen are long, flexible, two-edged swords with square ends and basket hilts. Pistols or heavy, crooked sabres are employed when one of the parties is not a student, or the cause of dis- pute is very serious. If the student fights with a military man he uses the straight sabre. Most of the duels between the students are hatched at their general meetings, which are held weekly. It is customary for them to divide into corps, or companies, according to nationalities or provinces, and few meetings will be concluded without a whole table being pitted against another, not only in the display of wit over their beer, but in the more exciting display of flashing blades. But duels are unlawful ; so these differences- are usually settled in a large rented room of some suburban inn. When the floor of the room is found marked with a certain chalk character, it is known by any subsequent comers that the quarters may be occupied by rival swordsmen for at least two duels. At the appointed time each participant is conducted into a cham- ber by his witness and second, and clothed in the dueling costume, which consists usually of a cap to protect the face, a glove and quilted cover- ing for the arm and high stuffed leather trousers. Before hostilities actually commence the duelist also puts on a neckcloth, which sometimes reaches to his nose, so that a small portion of his face and his breast is the only part of his body really exposed. Being equipped, the swordsmen are conducted into the hall, and while the seconds are marking out the lines within which they must 8o8 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. v fight and arranging the other preliminaries, the principals march up and down,, each supporting his mighty sword arm upon his witness. The duelists may decide to fight with small caps or with large caps, with cravats or without cravats, with bandages or Avithout them ; they may also have the contest terminate with a certain number of rounds, if the surgeon does not decide that a wound is too serious to warrant further action, or the trial may end with a wound which draws blood within a definite number of rounds. The students are closely attended by their witnesses and seconds, the "umpire standing some distance away between the combatants, scoring and the end of each round on a chair which stands before him. The seconds are armed with short, strong rapiers, with which they strike the swords apart when a stroke has been delivered, give advice and encouragement and see that the opponent presents his sword at such an angle that his champion will not fall upon its point when he lunges forward. They must, in fact, be remarkably skillful themselves, their object being to protect their combatant without inter- fering with the strokes of the adversary. The duties of the witnesses, who stand on the right side of the rivals, are confined to arranging dis- ordered costumes and supporting weary right arms when a halt has been called. Except the duels with the crooked sabre, in which the heavy, keen weapon, having reached its point, is drawn suddenly downward with great force, these contests seldom result seriously. But as we have noticed, there are strict academical laws against them, and as a neat reward is offered to those beadles who have prevented and detected the greatest number of them, the most secret chambers and grounds are often rudely invaded by these hounds of the law. Upon their approach the outpost whom the students have engaged gives notice of the threatened danger, and the dueling costumes are torn from the bodies of the students, there is a great scattering through doors and windows, into the woods, and each one finds his way back to the university as best he can. The beadles, however, often approach in disguise, as peasants and sportsmen, and not unfrequently a wholesale capture is made and the delinquents are marched off to the university prison in the attic of the chief beadle's house. In some universities the confinement is not so strict but that the prisoner may drink, smoke, and chat with his acquaint- ances whom the magistrate admits, and after a few days he may attend lectures, returning to his prison at night ; in others books and visits are denied, the student can not leave the prison and during the daytime his bed is even carried away so that he can not lie down and smoke his sen- tence away. DUELS. 809 Sword bouts and drinking bouts do not comprise the student's life neither is all said when he makes one of the great throng which pours forth to the dancing garden. He is invited to the homes of professors, becomes a welcome member of a city family, and joins reading- circles, musical and social clubs. He takes long walks and rides with his com- panions through the surrounding country and in winter enjoys one of the sledging processions, which issue fortli from most university towns to ^^^/^^ the thundering cracks of heavy whips, lighted on their way by a mass of torches. And lastly, life at a German university is not child's play. While the student is at his work his brain buzzes with the strain ; from liis necessities spring many of his uproars and pranks, and although he is not called upon to be a boor or a rough there is a fascination in the irrepressible height which his spirits reach when he has once set out to scour the rust of study hours from his variegated nature. 8io PANORAMA OF NATIONS. GREAT UNIVERSITY LIGHTS. 8ir GREAT UNIVERSITY LIGHTS. Although a native is received into the university through the gymna- sium, only foreigners are admtited without examination. When the stud- ent has received his certificate of maturity, he not only can enroll himself in any university, but can continue his course at any number where he thinks he can obtain the most benefit. He can board and lodge where he pleases, and is virtually his own master. The regular course of stud}^ is four years, some of the universities requiring five years to complete the medical course. Dismissal from one university does not bar one out from another, but expulsion is final. Most of the great literary lights of Germany have availed them- selves of the privilege, studying, gleaning and experimenting at several universities before returning to enter the world of letters. The mighty Goethe went to Leipsic and Strasburg to study law, but found that love, philosophy, architecture, anatomy and anything but legal studies took hold of him. He also fled to Wetzlar that he might, if he would, drain the law libraries there ; but instead he wrote the " Sorrows of Werther." There is nothing like the free range of university life in Germany to teach a young man wherein his strength lies ; for the best of everything is spread before him in one university or another. Bonn, Berlin and Gottlngen succeeded in imposing the degree of Doctor of Law upon Heine, Germany's greatest lyric poet, but he met Schlegel at the former university and discovered that he could not live outside the charmed circle of literature. Furthermore he became a violent democrat, and on account of some letters addressed to Count Von Moltke found it advisable to spend the balance of his life in Paris. Next to Goethe, Schiller is recognized as Germany's greatest poet. Under the patronage of a duke he tried to press his soul into legal and medical fetters, but could not. Although he passed the examination for a military surgeon by the time he was of age, the publication of "The Robbers" during the same year told where his enthusiasm had been. A few years thereafter he was drawn to Leipsic, in which famous university town he met contemporaries worthy of his friendship. Schiller was after- wards invited to Weimar by the Grand Duke, Karl-August, and formed,, for many years, one of a famous quartette, having as companions Goethe, Herder and Wieland. The ducal palace, the town church and public library still show frescoes illustrating their works, and striking busts which add a charm to the frescoes. Herder's tomb is in the town church and the bodies of Goethe and Schiller lie in the grand-ducal burial vault. 8l2 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. HEIDELBERG. The university of Heidelberg is the oldest of the German institutes after those of Prague and Vienna. It stands in the center of the town which wanders for nearly three miles along the banks of the rushing Neckar River, gleaming waters and the vine-clad hills on the further shore to attract the eyes on one side and the beautiful suburban gar- dens and lightning-rifted castle of the Electors Palatine on the other. The university is a plain structure, the library comprising over 200,000 volumes, and the museums being contained in two separate buildings. The university has a world-wide reputation for the completeness of its departments, the castle, is almost as celebrated as the university, and the beer tun, in the cellar of the deserted castle, has become as notorious as either. The castle ruins almost throw their fantastic shadows down the face of the rocky hill upon the houses of the town. The castle proper has as companion pieces two towers which show that the engines of war are almost as mighty as those of nature, and behind it, upon the same broad terrace, are masses of older palaces and towers, the entire pile rep- resenting different styles of architectures prevalent during three or four centuries. Next to the Alhambra of Granada, the Castle of Heidel- berg has been pronounced the most magnificent ruin of the middle ages. In the valley below rushes the Neckar. The mountain of All Saints, with its ruined convent for a head dress, rises from the farther bank. Eastward the valley is shut in by hills ; westward the sweep over the plain of the Rhine is free. Beyond rise the blue Alsatian mountains. The dark paths of the castle gardens and their shadowy glens lead through valleys, fields and vineyards to the dense beech woods of the Odenwald and beyond the mountains themselves. These are fascinating and favorite walks for the students and villagers, and once upon the heights the picturesque and historical plain of the Rhine is before you. In the distance is Worms where the mythical Siegfried sought the hand of Kriemhild and where the unquestionable Luther fought a greater bat- tle than the " Nibelungen Lied" ever recorded. Toward the south is ancient Swabia, and now the German may look boldly over into France. LEIPSIC. Around Leipsic, the university city of Saxony, circled many of the whirlpools of the Reformation. Luther, the intellectual general of the movement, was a native of Saxony, and his first disciples were the students of the Wittenberg university, in which he taught as the professor of LEIPSIC. 815. scholastic philosophy. The text of the Latin theses which he nailed oa the door of the old Schlosskirche now appears on the bronze doors of the new church, while heroic statues of himself and the scholarly, more gentle Melanchthon stand near the town hall. In the church the two are buried together, the two intellectual leaders of the Reformation in Ger- many — and if any of the princes of the German states can claim the questionable honor of defending religious liberty with the sword they are surely those of Saxony. Maurice of Saxony established the principle of liberty of worship for all the states of Germany, and, while the first- bursts of public passion were raging, Luther owed his safety to Frederick the Wise. Under his protection he was lodged in a castle, and given that security and quiet which enabled him to translate the New Testament.. The university of Wittenberg, afterwards merged with that of Halle, welcomed him when he again entered actively into the fight and over her he always hovered as over a favorite child ; but the learned profes- sors of the Leipsic university took up his work, and brought as power- ful weapons to bear as any of the royal protectors of Lutheranism. The university of Leipsic was founded during the first part of the fifteenth century, and having retained its landed estates in the city, it is a very wealthy landlord, and is enabled to support hundreds of poor stu- dents who are found worthy of assistance. It is great in all its depart- ments, and its professors have been among the most eminent scholars of Germany. The university buildings form an imposing pile, the most prom- inent being the Augusteum, which contains a great hall, lecture room, mu- seum and libraries. The structure is 300 feet in length and three stories hig^h. Hahnemann studied in the university, and after he had practiced his profession for several years, he returned to Leipsic, with his confi- dence shaken in the old system. His family were suffering with disease, and he was obliged to prescribe for them according to methods in which he did not believe. Virtually abandoning his profession, although he was struggling with poverty, he devoted himself to translating foreign medical works. It was while thus enoraored that he obtained the clue to the law of Similia similibus, which is the foundation of the system of homoeopathy. Leipsic feels that he is one of her sons, and has a monu- ment erected to him. Of all the great men who have been citizens of Leipsic, John Bach,, the musician, is among the greatest. He died in Leipsic, and his mon- ument commemorates the blessed fact that he lived to inspire more peo- ple than the most eloquent of orators. The city which so long has been a treasury of genius a:nd learning is one of the leading book cen- ters of Germany, as well as the foremost of its commercial marts. ;8l4 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. The downfall of Napoleon dates from Leipsic, 1813, rather than from Waterloo, 1815. Here he was overpowered and smothered by the overwhelming forces of Prussia, Austria and Russia. Though the Old Guard fought with a dash which will always inspire enthusiasm as long as there is a history of war, and the entire army of France were heroes worthy of being defenders of their own soil, the- invaders were expelled and Germany became free. AGRICULTURISTS. Perhaps, next to her soldiers and her scholars, Germany is most noted for her peasantry. The government earnestly supports agricultural colleges and the people have made of farming a scientific study. It is singular how, even among the most ignorant of the peasantry, the latest methods of irrigation and rotation of crops have been disseminated. The holdings are generally so small, however, that the most improved of farming implements do not cut a figure. But when each agricultural village sends its representatives to Leipsic, or some other city where the annual congress is held, it receives, with the return of its honored citizens, the result of the combined experience of thousands of farmers and scientists. The consequence is that not a square foot of land which can be cultivated goes to waste ; as the majority of the young men serve in the army the women form the bulk of the peasantry, which fact, also, accounts for the care which is taken that the profits of husbandry do not leak away in driblets of waste. Every province, furthermore, has it general society, consisting of members from all the rural districts: They are publicly questioned by a general committee as to lay of land, methods of irrigation, ways of ;managing cattle, results obtained from various methods of grafting, etc., etc. Statements are compared, discussions are in order, changes and improvements are suggested, and the farmers go home to discuss the discussions among themselves and in their local gatherings and instruct their wives and daughters — or, likely enough, give orders to them. Although, as he runs, the German agriculturist is a remarkably intelligent, industrious citizen his home Is not what it should be. On account of the value of land he can not afford a garden, his yard being monopolized by the cows, and, within, his house is dark and contracted, it being one of many which are crowded into the narrow lane of a dirty, old town. But his floors are white and sanded and he can offer you coffee, black bread and rolls in the early morning, a cold-meat luncheon in the forenoon, and a dinner of meat, vegetables and dessert. In season, lie furnishes his table with apples, plums, grapes and pears ; for there o in 03 O AGRICULTURISTS. 8lS are few farmers, however small, who have not their orchards, and nearly every village has an experimental nursery of fruit trees. If the cattle and pigs, geese, hens and chickens were not so near, and the dining room table were not put to so many uses, and the drink- ing vessels corresponded to the mouths, the fare of the average German farmer would be appetizing enough ; but though there is plenty there is not freedom. The cattle, sheep and pigs are obliged to be penned, as a rule ; there is no room for them to roam. In summer the children and women go daily to the pasture and cut green fodder — grass and clover. Most of the land is devoted to pasturage. It is carefully sown to clover and the best of grasses, and tended with the same regard to individual blades and leaves as the florist gives to his most \'alued hot- house products. Occasionally it happens that the pasture land is irregular and does not incline at a convenient 'angle for irrigation. Then the men and women remove the entire turf and layer of good earth. Next they take away enough unproductive subsoil to obtain the proper pitch, so that the water may run over the field. The meadow is graded, the fertile soil thrown over it, the turf relaid and the trenches formed through which the water is to be distributed. Sometimes a well is dug on the upper side of the inclined plane from which the water is run into the supply- ing canal which crosses the field, whether of grass, grain or vegetables. At the bottom of the field is the receiving canal. Between the two, crossino- at rio-ht angles, are the narrow furrows for distribution. There is a science of grading the land so that the water will reach every part without disturbing the soil ; there is a science in knowing when to flood a field, so that the crops will not be chilled ; there is a science in the entire industry. Snow water should not be used, as it has a tend- ency to dissolve the earth and carry away its richest particles. "After the crops are gathered and the land clear, the water overflows two or three times a week during the autumn, till frost comes. In spring it is done in the night, two or three times a week, when it is dry and warm enough not to freeze, as this would injure the grass ; again, in June, just before haying time, as thus the stems are rendered softer and the mow- ing easier. Then for the fourth and last time, fifteen days after the mowing is finished, and when the stubble is dry and decayed, so that it will not take in nourishment which is destined for the new shoots, the whole is overflowed quite often till fifteen days before the grain harvest commences." A meadow thus coaxed and cultivated will yield enormous crops of feed, many fold greater than if left to the tender mercies of the cattle 8i6 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. and sheep. The number of animals which it will support is increased enormously, and with this increase another advantage is derived.. Not only are the animals housed and all manures carefully preserved to fer- tilize grain-field, orchards and gardens, but the rich fluids from the heaps, which most husbandmen allow to run to waste, are collected into trenches, drawn by suction pipes into carts and employed as an inval- uable fertilizer. There are few exceptions among the German agriculturists to this ceaseless round of bringing feed to the animals, and fertilizers to the fields ; in short, they allow nothing to take care of itself. But in some of the villages the cattle of the poor are allowed to crop the grass by -Siiite^ A VILLAGE GROUP. the w^ayside for a few hours daily, the balance of their sustenance being obtained through the efforts of the children and the women, who scour hill and vale with knives and sickles, cutting blades and tufts of grass which have been overlooked by the harvesters and putting them into baskets or cloths. In the forests they may be seen gathering the cones, which fall from the fir trees, to use for fuel. THE FORESTS OF GERMANY. The peasants and villagers are very particular what they do in the forests, for if not actually government property they are under its super- THE FORESTS OF GERMANY. 817 vision and control. The preservation and cultivation of timber lands have been as carefully studied as the science of agriculture, and there are few timber tracts of any extent in the empire through which one can pass without discovering miniature forests and groves, neatly fenced, which are destined to take the place of the giants which are constantly being felled. The most extensive forests are found in Central and Southern Germany, and, at different times and by different writers, they have all been merged into the depths of the Hercynian Forest, the bug- bear even of old Rome. The blackest member of this dense Hercynian Forest is the Black Forest, which for ninety miles throws a mighty covering of pine, beech and fiir trees nearly to the summit of a mountain chain. The forest stretches from near Heidelberg, in Northern Baden, along the valley of the Rhine almost to the Swiss boundary. Within it rises the great Danube, and the black woods of fir, whose branches are so intertwined that the very twitter of the birds has a muffled sound, have given birth to more giants, hobgoblins and robbers to frown upon the dreams of childhood than all other localities upon the surface of the earth. But the Black Forest is not all shadow, from which horrors issue. For eight months in the year the summits of the mountains above it wear their caps of snow, and from its feet creep pretty valleys clad with grass and vines, for as many months. The Rhine side of the forest pitches the rivers, down the steep rocks with tumult and roar of waters ; its eastern slopes shed them off so gently that they flow through the cool shades of the fragrant woods with just murmur enough to prove them alive. The Black Forest spreads out from the mountains for several miles on either side, and openings in it are planted to small fields of rye, oats or potatoes, with here and there a saw-mill humming and screaming on the bank of a picturesque stream ; or a farm house, with its wide project- ing roof and balcony beneath, appears ; or a whole village containing factory buildings where the rye straw is being turned into hats and some of the forest timber into clocks. Most of the strength of the Black Forest, however, goes into the masts and timbers of ships. But the important manufacturing processes go on in the little forest houses. Whatever the denizens of the Black Forest mieht have once been, they are now as harmless as the canary birds which they raise in the aviaries beneath their porcelain stoves. This is a great business with the foresters and can almost be included among the manufactures. But while the birds are trilling in their tropic heat, or hopping merrily about, the women are braiding straw or making and polishing different parts of clocks and watches. When the straw has been braided it will be taken 52 8l8 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. to the factory, thrown into a vat, boiled in the dye and dried and ironed by men. In such a factory also can be seen flowers, wreaths and bouquets, fashioned and colored most beautifully by these forest peasant women. In the clock and watch factory it is noticed that the women and men there employed are merely putting the pieces together which are made in the cottages. Neither are the clocks all common in appearance, many of them being placed upon fine bronze and marble stands. When it is stated that about 180,000 of these wooden clocks are exported yearly from the Black Forest to all parts of Europe and America, no one will say that we have wasted words upon a very insignificant topic. Furthermore, the busy women and children of the Black Forest send out many of those wooden sets of villages, with those pyramidical fir trees, which have pleased the children of all lands. The spinning wheel, with wool or flax upon the distaff, is busy, when the women can snatch time from their farm and household labors ; the men give much of their attention to the raising of cattle, the country being better fitted for that branch of husbandry than for agriculture. And yet, not- withstanding there are few people who are more industrious and cheer- ful than these dwellers in the Black Forest, their houses are meanly fur- nished and their bill-of-fare rests upon pork, black bread, coffee and potatoes. The lace makers of Saxony, and many of the industrial classes all over Germany, are home manufacturers. Cotton and woolen fabrics, glass and iron manufactures and other branches which flourish in the large cities, have been drawn into the whirl of machinery. The toys of the Black Forest and the Hartz Mountains have their uses, and so do the gigantic guns of Herr Krupp. Their manufacture has founded a city. In the works and in the mines over 20,000 men are employed. A railway system, a telegraph system, printing and lithographic establishments, a fire brigade, hospi- tals, mansions and good dwelling houses are parts of Herr Krupp's wonderful machine. He speaks of his furnaces in four figures and the engines which supply the blasts which run his four-score giant hammers, and are behind the roaring, belching, hissing and deafening monster which we call works, are pushing the whole grand machine forward with the power of ten thousand horses. His foundries are at Essen. THE HIGH AND LOW GERMANS. It was in the vicinity of Essen and Miinster and westward along the Rhine that the old Saxon sprung up as a written dialect, which was spoken in the lowlands of Central Germany from the Rhine to the Elbe. THE GERMAN AND THE RHINE. 819 The Saxons were, and still are, the most prominent representatives of the Low Germans, or those inhabiting the lowlands of Germany. North of them were the Frisians, who were also Low Germans, and who formed so important an element in the composition of the Dutch. The most ancient confederation of Germanic tribes was called the Suevi. They were mentioned by Caesar as living between the Elbe, the Vistula and the Baltic, in what would now be Northern Prussia. Sub- sequently they appear in Southern Germany as the Swabians. The Bavari were also settled east of them on the Lower Rhine. The Swab- ians, Bavarians, Alsatians and Swiss belong to the High German division. There is still a modern Low German, but from Luther's time the High German of the south, and the middle High German, which closely WATCHING THE RHINE. resembled the Saxon, have been formed into the language which is now recognized as classical. His translation of the Bible had its effect in making of the various German tribes a united people, and since his day the distinction between High and Low Germans has not been so marked. Perhaps in Luther and the Rhine may be found the two influences which made United Germany possible. THE GERMAN AND THE RHINE. The Rhine is the national cord which binds Germany more firmly together than even her constitution. There are High and Low Germans, Bavarians and Hanovarians, but they are all agreed that the Rhine is the dearest river in the world, and if only one thing could be left to the Fatherland every strong native voice would shout, " The Rhine ! The Rhine ! Take all but the Rhine ! " The river is like the most pleasing type of the national character — broad, deep, rugged, tender, impetuous 820 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. yet controllable. Primarily it draws its life from the glaciers and cold streams of the Alps. As it rushes along toward the Fatherland it receives hundreds of tributaries, until, no longer able to contain its vast supplies, it spreads out into the fickle Lake of Constance. Somewhat subdued in its impetuosity, it flows steadily toward France, but as if suddenly determining upon another course, turns abruptly to the north and becomes the loved one of Germany. If there is any one part more than another to which the national heart clings and over which it swells, where "The Watch on the Rhine" will burst forth from German lips and echo along steep rugged banks, among ruined fortresses and heavily laden vineyards, it is that portion of the splendid river which lies between Mainz and Bonn. But others than the Germans have become drunk with the glories of the Rhine. One' of the greatest of our American poets and most mellow of scholars exclaims : " O, the pride of the German heart is this noble river ! And right it is ; for of all the rivers of this beautiful earth, there is none so beautiful as this. There is hardly a league of its whole course, from its cradle in the snowy Alps to its grave in the sands of Holland, which boasts not its peculiar charms. By heavens ! If I were a German I would be proud of it, too ; and of the clustering grapes that hang about its temples, as it reels onward through vineyards, in a triumphal march, like Bacchus crowned and drunken. Bnt I will not attempt to describe the Rhine ; it would make this chapter much too long. And to do it well, one should write like a god, and his style flow onward royally with breaks and dashes, like the waters of that royal river, and antique, quaint and gothic times be reflected in it." FOLK LORE. To every old castle which hangs fondly over the banks of the Rhine, as if loth to give up the ghost, some weird tale of genius or giant, or of bold knight and fair lady, is attached. There is scarcely a foot of ground which does not add its mite to the folk lore of Germany ; and since many good people have become religious, the old ideas of sprightly dwarfs and helpful fairies have been strangely entangled with the God and Christ and angels of their faith. The Lord himself is supposed to come to earth and in various forms, during the silent watches of the night,, mysteriously repair the leaking roof of the godly widow, caulk and paint the old boat of the good fisherman and put together the barrels of the pious cooper. The ghosts still haunt the castles, the fairies hide in the forests and the gnomes delve in the mountains, but the number of charac- ters is increased. Each city also has its wonderful story to tell. For FOLK LORE. 821 instance there is Mainz, that massive, warlike city, which has presented a grim, stern front ever since Drusus built his castle before Christ lived. There is still to be seen a mass of stones, supposed to be his monument, and the remains of a vast Roman aqueduct. The town, with its ponder- ous fortifications, might remind one of how much that is Roman lies at the base of the German character. Gutenberg was born here also. But the quaint old German frau will tell you that Mainz is noted because when the Emperor Constantine was marching from it the Holy Cross appeared to him; that the city is famous, not that Charlemagne should have been born in it and should have built his palace of " Ingelheim" just within its walls, but that an angel should have visited him. and given him warning of an attempt upon his life. The tale is spiced with magic herbs which enabled the king to understand the language of birds, with contests with mysterious knights in dark forests and all the etceteras. Charlemagne SCENE ON THE RHINE. made the hills and valleys, opposite to the palace which he called Angel's Home, to glisten with vineyards, and filled immense cellars with their rich products ; and another story runs that from his mighty tomb in Aix-la-Chapelle the great king steps forth annually, when the harvest is at hand, and blesses the villages, the cottages and the vineyards which he loved so well and which sleep so peacefully on the banks of the Rhine. The tomb from which Charlemasfne's griaantic orhost is said to stalk is in a beautiful cathedral in Aix-la-Chapelle, which is in Rhenish Prussia near the Belgium boundary, and at the time of the great monarch's death was a convenient point from which to survey his mighty dominions. Charlemagne's chair, his portrait, and the pictures of other German em- perors who were crowned here previous to the middle of the sixteenth cent- ury, are also on exhibition in the cathedral or the town hall. Once in seven years it is customary to expose to public view a collection of 822 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. relics which Charlemagne received from the patriarch of Jerusalem and a Mohammedan caliph. They are usually preserved in a tower at the west end of the church. THE HARTZ MOUNTAINS. Leaving the Rhine to creep between the high embankments of the Netherlands, or to break through them with its cruel vigor of the spring- time, we pass to another region which is redolent with gnomes and fairies. The Hartz mountains are not even recorded on many maps, but who does not know of the Brocken, upon which the witches, under the masterly leadership of Goethe, celebrated their annual meeting during Walpurgis Night. From their sides of granite, limestone and sand- stone are shed the waters of the Weser and the Elbe, and the Brocken,^ as the pivot of the range, has been washed into those swelling lines which give it the appearance of a stupendous ant-hill built up in the clouds, or a distant world which might, any moment, set out to roll in space. • THE BROCKEN AND GOETHE. When Mephistopheles suggests the desirability of a broomstick to ascend the mountain, where a visit was to be paid to the witches, Faust replies : While fresh upon my legs, so long I naught require Except this knotty staff. Besides, What boots it to abridge a pleasant way? Along the labyrinth of these vales to creep, Then scale these rocks, whence, in eternal spray, Adown the cliffs the silvery fountains leap: Such is the joy that seasons paths like these ! ' Spring weaves already in the birchen trees; E'en the late pine-grove feels her quickening powers; Should she not work within these limbs of ours? In other words, Faust not only desired to drink in the beauties of the Brocken, but he could see no reason why they should not use their own good German legs. Readers of the immortal tragedy know what they found, and there are few of a fanciful, wonder-loving disposition who have not met the gnomes of the Brothers Grimm, which little misshap- pen workmen originated to so great an extent in the folk lore of the natives of the Hartz. Even these delving philologists, one of them, at least, among the greatest of his age, could not exclude from their literary life the quaint conceits and honest beliefs of the common people. The Brocken is ascended from the pretty mountain village of Ilsen- THE BROCKEN AND GOETHE. 823 berg, with the black pipes of the foundries pouring forth smoke and flames in defiance of the trees which cluster around. The climb is usu- ally made without even the staff with which Goethe was assisted and brings one through glades and pastures, forests of pine, over carpets of moss and fir cones and wild gardens of roses, forget-me-nots and purple heath, with moss and creepers covering the rocks which overhang the pathway. Black charcoal burners, both men and women, are seen working near masses of felled trees, and further along, it may be, there will be found a miniature forest of fir trees, a few inches in height, which in years to come will furnish their grandchildren with work. The tiny trees are surrounded with little fences, and as they grow will be placed further apart. Much of the course of the Brocken is determined by the windings of the Use, but as we approach the Blocksberg, a spot haunted by witches and spectres from time immemorial, the path leaves the stream and the 824 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. scenery becomes wilder and grander. Great blocks of granite and mossy boulders shut out the keen air, which comes to us with a touch of relief when we reach a more exposed point. Of course Hans Christian Ander- sen has had his story about the Brocken, especially about the Blocks- berg, which enormous rock looks with such a secure air over the sur- rounding country. He says that the beautiful maiden Use fled to it with her bridegroom when the Deluge carried the waters of the northern seas to the very base of the Brocken. At the summit of this famous rock is an inn, and in the hostelry is a visitor's book which contains verses and sketches by not a few noted men and by thousands of would-be wits. The genial Danish poet and story-teller left his mark in it himself and did not disdain to carve his name on the pine trees of the mountain. He also drank in, with quiet enjoyment, as thousands have done before and since, stories about those immense granite blocks, the Witches' Altar and the Devil's Pulpit. In a few simple words Andersen describes the summit of the Brocken : " It gives me an idea of a northern tumulus on a grand scale. Here stone lies piled on stone and a strange silence rests over the whole. Not a bird twitters in the low pines ; roundabout are white grave flowers growing in the high moss, and stones lie in masses on the sides of the mountain top. We were now on the top, but everything was in a mist ; it began to blow, and the wind drove the clouds onward over the mountain top as if they were fiocks of sheep." In a clear day, when the clouds have condescended to float among the lower forests of pine like a lot of white clothes thrown down there to dry, the towns of Brunswick and Hanover appear as dots on the dis- tant plains ; but pine hills and mountains hide most of the watering places and mining villages of the Hartz, and a descent must therefore be made to see what they are like. THE HARTZ TOWNS. The Hartz, in fact, is being recognized as a delightful collection of charming associations and invigorating scenes. There are Goslar, and Clausthal, and Harzburg, making with the Brocken almost a paral- lelogram, but all different. In Goslar once lived German emperors and sat the German Diet. It was a commercial city with its guilds, and massive warehouses and breweries, and later a famous mining center. One of the imperial palaces, erected by Henry III., in the eleventh cent- ury, is partly in ruins and partly used as a granary and store-house. The streets are roughly paved, but the old houses bear upon their front- ages and gables, their doors and heavy timbers, carvings of vines and THE HARTZ TOWNS. 825 flowers, mermaids and dragons, which stand out clear and quaint while stone and brick are crumbhng. Neither must the building be large in order to be artistically embellished. The gables of a small dwelling house are as likely to be scrolled and fringed with elaborate designs as the front of an imposing old town hall, or an ancient royal palace transformed into a hotel. In the suburbs of the town are public gardens where patients take exercise, breathe good air, and, last of all, drink some kind of wonderful water. Near it is one of those old mines whose chambers reach grandly out and down, and which, when they were worked at their best, made Goslar great and famous. Within a few miles are ex- tensive fields of slate. Burly German offi- cers, dreamy meta- physicians and poets, ponderous mer- chants, lank students with knapsack and song, and ailing no- blemen and ladies, brush against grimy miners, iron-workers, and charcoal men and women coming from the mountains, or young girls in OLD GERMAN GATEWAY. clumsy wooden shoes, laden with huge paniers of fire wood. Here, as at Harzburg and other villages in the vicinity, the artist has lingered long enough to notice the similarity in the outline of peasants, houses, children, pigs and dogs to those old-fashioned toys which have failed to charm few of us — those villages in wood and paint which come so nicely 826 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. packed and stand so squarely on theground when we put them together. Even the fir trees of the Brocken are larger types of the green wooden trees of our childhood. They were, in fact, carved by the German children of the Harz mountains for other children, the world over, and they find their models at home, as evidently do other artists for more skillful work. We should call the manufacturers of these toy villages, the artists who turned the country into stiff wood and bright paint, among the most wonderful of the fairies — they have brought such floods of joy to the little ones from such dry miaterial. The little forest which we saw fenced around as we ascended the Brocken is not much larger than our toy trees, but it is royal property, like the mines, and will not change its general form ; and when our children who are now playing with the toys in other lands travel as men and women to the valleys and villages and mountains of the Hartz they will understand the felicitous expression which has been applied to this region, "the toy country of Northern Germany." Though the mountains of the Hartz have fertile valleys, with clinging herds of fat cattle, their fairies, spirits, gnomes and mines are what have made them famous. Rich deposits of iron, copper, silver, zinc and lead have been worked for over nine hundred years, but most of the mines date from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The veins of ore spread over a great area and penetrate to an unknown depth, for one of the mines, at least, has been worked into the earth for half a mile and is still productive. To reach the silver ore, on account of the extreme hardness of the stone, fires are built against the face of the vein, so as to act upon the arsenic and sulphur, and decom- pose the rock. The mines of the Hartz region, which are provincial property, employ between 30,000 and 35,000 persons. The mining towns are given over entirely to this industry, and no business is conducted in them but that connected with mining and metallurgy. One of them, where the council meets which has general charge of the mines, has a mint and a school of mines. The representative mining town of the Hartz is Clausthal, contain- ino- the Government School of Mines and the Museum. A visit to the latter, with its collections of minerals, models of machinery, and its tiny shafts and galleries, illustrates the geological formation of the land and every process required to get the ore from the ground and smelt it. Everything is run by water power and every rill of the region is put to use. To master the entire system the students who attend the school are THE HARTZ TOWNS. 827 obliged to work with the miners, learning the use of their tools by actual practice. The descent is down steep ladders for several hundred feet, side galleries leading out at intervals, from the small shaft. Lanterns flash, sparks of light fall from specks of silver ore and the sound of ham- mer and pick is mingled with " Gliick auf," or " Good luck to you." The wish may come from a woman ; for there are women miners in this region, as well as charcoal women and woods-women. In one of the rest- ing places, or caverns, of the galleries there is (or was not long ago) a chamber about ten feet long, hewn out of the rock, carefully proportioned and in the center of which is a chair or throne made out of rough silver ore, in memory of an English duke who once visited there. But such a tour as this, underground, gives one very little general idea of the workings of the mine. One flash of the lantern reveals in an opening several half-naked men, some of them in pools of water, work- ing in the most cramped of positions ; another lights up the gloom of a second shaft as far as the rays will penetrate and there seems to be an infinity of space beyond. Echoes and shadows are dancing around in the most weird confusion. There is a mental conflict between the desire to appear unconcerned, the wish to be wholly interested and the instinct to feel oppressed as one creeps along through slippery passage ways; and peace does not succeed this war of emotions when, in order to breathe the upper air, he is obliged to take his stand upon a small piece of wood attached to an enormous beam, and grasping an iron ring above him, be drawn into a narrow slit of earth, which he is assured leads to the regions- above. Descending from the Brocken, and going toward the east, a mac- adamized road, with the not unusual accompaniments of fine carriages, houses and grounds, points the way to Wernigerode, the resort of many a wealthy merchant and nobleman and the summer residence of not a few who go there to enjoy the mountains and the old town which is fast disappearing in the new. Beyond this aristocratic place are the smoky valleys of a mining territory and the great caves of Riibeland. One of these magnificent chambers is entered through an opening in the rock, high above the roofs of the town, and descending by staircases and ladders an excursion of miles may be taken underground, the chief attraction being the stalactite formations whose curious shapes can be tortured into the resemblance of everything under the sun. From the caves of Riibeland to a promontory of the mountains is not far, but from this point the telescope brings Berlin itself into the range of vision and indeed much of Northern Germany. 828 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. MANUFACTURE OF GERMAN BEER. Beer is a fermented but not a distilled liquid. It is among the most ancient of drinks, and has been made from beans, peas, rice, wheat and barley. The Egyptians were manufacturing a wine from barley in the fifth century b. c, and that seems to have been the grain generally em- ployed by the Celts, Germans and Britons in the manufacture of their beer, which is virtually the same thing. In ale the yeast of the liquid is sent to the surface; in beer it falls to the bottom. Ale is the Enorlish drink ; beer is the German drink — all of which, and much more, the reader probably knows. But so much of a general nature is due an article which is of such wide-spread consumption and whose froth, in Ger- many, is almost as common as air. Like everything else which she undertakes to do, Germany has made a thorough study of beer-making. Whatever may be said of its consumption the skill shown in its manufacture is something to be ad- mired. Bavaria leads in the industry. It is a state which is founded upon beer, for two-thirds of its revenue is derived from that source. The true lager beer originated in that kingdom, and, in some respects, is still a monopoly. Lager beer is literally "store beer," and in Bavaria it acquires the right to that title by being allowed to slowly ferment in cool cellars. The liquor which is generally sold in this country is "draught beer," and contains less alcohol than the Bavarian varieties, and most of those made in Germany. Much of the popularity of the German beer is due to the fact of the excellence of the water employed. It must contain much salt and lime, so as to counteract the tendency toward decomposition of any animal or vegetable matter which it may hold. So that two things must be aimed at : the presence of these purifying and preserving agencies and the absence of anything liable to putrefy. The waters employed in the most extensive breweries contain at least sixty grains of earthy salts dissolved in each gallon. BAVARIA AND WURTEMBERG. As Bavaria perhaps leads the world in the manufacture and con- sumption of beer (per capita), so does she stand in the front rank of states in the province of education. The university of Munich stands third in importance, the polytechnic school leads them all in point of size and the Bavarian newspapers are able and independent. She has one of the most extensive picture galleries in Europe. In a certain sense, Bavaria stands alone among the German states. COLOGNE. 829 Catholicism has always been the dominant relig'ion, and until 181 2 Bavaria was frequently an ally of France against both Prussia and Aus- tria, She stood between Austria and Prussia as Belgium stood between Germany and France. But when French rule became distasteful, she joined the Germanic leagues, and during the Franco-Prussian war, to the surprise of the Emperor of France, she supported the King of Prus- sia and entered actively into the campaign. Even now, Bavaria is a kingdom within an empire. West of Bavaria is Wiirtemberg, one of the leading states of Southern Germany and its capital, Stuttgart, has a considerable book trade, numerous paper mills, type foundries, etc. Its old palaces, its town hall built in the fifteenth century, its schools and museums, its manufactories of wool, cotton and scientific instruments mark it as another of those old German cities, flourishing materially and intellect- ually. A large public garden, one of the finest in the empire, and the King's summer palace and gardens make it a royal place for pleasure seekers. COLOGNE. While pursuing this subject of manufactures in rather a desultory fashion, mixing toy-making and mining with fairies and romance, and beer with education, we must rest a moment at Cologne, which is sepa- rated from Bavaria by only a few little provinces. Now we imagine that an uneasiness is working in the reader's mind, born of the fear that the thread-bare tale will be expanded to cover the intricacies of the manufacture of cologne and the glories of the gigantic Gothic cathedral. But it should be of more interest to learn that Cologne was once a Ro- man camp and afterwards a town where was born Agrippina, the daugh- ter of Germanicus and the mother of Nero. Upon the present site of Cologne she induced her husband, Claudius, to found a colony, during the first century of the Christian era. " The town then received the name of Colonia Agrippina, which it still retains in part. The founda- tions of the Roman walls remain and may be traced through the heart of the city. Some suppose that traces of the Roman descent of its in- habitants may be found in their features and complexion. Down to the time of the French revolution the leading citizens were styled patricians and the tAvo burgomasters wore the consular toga and were attended by lictors." When the city fell into the hands of the French, during the revolution, it was found that one-fourth of its people were beggars, although Cologne had once been an important commercial link between the north and the south of Europe and the far East. This evil was par- 830 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. tially corrected before the city was restored to Prussia, and since it has been voted a member of the railroad world some of its former prosperity has returned ; but the great number of churches which survive the French occupancy and the Roman Catholic faith which is breathed from the very air, carnival celebrations and all, still uphold its claim to the title of the Northern Rome. FAMILY LIFE. The German who has served his time in the army brings a military spirit to bear upon his private affairs. It is with him either order or obey. Army life also throws the uncultured man in contact with edu- cated superiors, who make their calling a stepping stone to political and civil honors. But whether in army, private or civil life the same dis- cipline is maintained, plentifully enlivened with seasons of recreation. Heretofore the German has been viewed as a man of the world — as the soldier, student, farmer, manufacturer, traveler and the miner. His life at home is the simplicity of his character spread out in detail. His greatest horror is that he shall do something which is artificial and the result is that he is often artificially brusque and rude. He is prone to eat with a knife when a fork is at hand and would serve his purpose better. He talks loudly and uses violent expressions, not always because that is his individual tendency but because he is a German, with the national character to uphold. For the same reason he lets his wife drudge at home when he could afford to make life easy for her ; it would not become the German to make any lot an easy one. His is a world of discipline and why should not hers be ? Though her social station may be high the woman, in order to be a model German wife, must be an expert at wrangling with the butcher and the grocer, a frequenter of the kitchen, and a wielder of flat irons. The result is that she, too, is often disagreeably plain and simple. Her duties call for loose wrappers, not over-clean, and except she dresses for a promenade or a ball she thinks it affectation to strive to please by dress- ing in a becoming manner at home. As she grows older she becomes even more defiant. It would be unbecoming the simple German wife of a German husband to hide the bald patches of her scalp or her red, gaunt throat. The German woman fades at a comparatively early age ; she has enjoyed none of those bold exercises of sword, parallel bar, walking, army drill and open air life which have given her husband so splendid a physique. In this regard she is far behind the English and American woman. Even to the table, where most nationalities have agreed to appear FAMILY LIFE. 83 1 better than they are away from it, the husband, wife and children bring all their boisterous ways and loud talk. In whatever costume the lady of the house appears, the man, especially if it be an after-breakfast meal, will have dressed himself in uniform. But it is not at all certain that the family will eat together ; that will depend greatly upon the occupa- tion of the man and the school hours of the children. The dinner some- times lasts three or four hours. Notwithstanding the family provisions are kept strictly under lock and key by the mistress who acts under the exacting eye of her general-in-chief, there is always a bountiful supply of hearty food. Bread, butter, eggs, milk, coffee, vegetables, soups, meats, dumplings, beer and wine, all march to their graves to the tune of loud voices and laughter. The servants are noisy and are apt to be too familiar, or abject under the treatment of the master of the house ; but in their dress, their language and their ways they conform to the national standard of studied simplicity or inherited brusqueness. To do anything un-Germanlike would be to have the whole town laughing at you, as a native nurse once told a foreigner who desired to have her child treated according to her own notions. Coffee is served at four o'clock and supper between seven and nine. The latter is the pleasantest meal of the day, being usually a re-union. It is a lunch of bread and butter, meats, cheese, sardines, hard-boiled eggs, with tea, beer or wine — sometimes with all of them. "All the housewives as autumn wanes, lay in a goodly store of vegetables to last through the winter months, when nothing of the kind is to be pro- cured for love or money. Potatoes are banked up in the cellars ; cab- bages, carrots, turnips and onions are buried in layers of mold, whence your cook will extract them, uninjured by damp or frost, for the daily meal. Vegetables of the finer sort, such as French beans, peas, etc., are, as they come into season, preserved for winter use in tins, which are hermetically sealed by a man who comes to solder them down." All this hearty food, spiced and greased and vinegared, and washed down with Rhine-wine and Bavarian beer, nourishes the vigorous body and brain of the German fighter, but it plays havoc with the woman, who never gets the start in health which her brother does in his younger years. So much is his food a part of the German that the pertinent question to those who return from a ball, dinner or supper is not as to what was worn, but what was eaten. The common form of inquiry is, " What did you get ?" — a blunt, German question. Aside from the clubs, theatres and other amusements common to other people, the true German has his own enjoyable garden. He erects a summer house in his yard, on some prominent spot, and Sunday after- 832 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. noon he is sure to be found there, with his spouse and daughters, contem- platively smoking while his wife knits, or presides over the coffee table. At times the prosperous citizen will have established his summer house in the suburbs of the city. As the family food is usually cooked in town and has to be brought out in baskets, along hot dusty highways, when applying for a position the common query of the maid of-all-work is, " Have you a garden?" If you have, the bargain is off. In these garden scenes, during the family rambles and Sunday excursions, home life is seen in its most agreeable forms of simplicity. The big German is not abashed at being discovered hand in hand with his matronly wife. Though they speak harshly to their little ones, or rap them smartly on their backs (as they may consider dutiful), they have the most charming words of endearment, in the uttering of which there is no hypocrisy. "My little heart," "my beautiful one," "my pretty one," " my little love," " little mother," " sweetheart " and a score of other caressing terms are bandied about from parents to children, from lover to lover, in such a graceful, unaffected fashion as to make one forget the gutterals and hissings of the language. Wherever an elderly German woman or a couple is, there also, or within hailing distance, will generally be a youth and maiden, enjoying their betrothal period, as other lovers do when outside eyes are not upon them. They have become so used to affectionate demonstrations, with- out privacy, that this characteristic will follow them through life. On a Rhine steamer, on the cars, on the street, love-making and love-talking go on with a coolness which is startling to many. Before the mar- riage is arranged, the "caution " must be decided upon, which is a sum of money which the man must deposit as a guaranty that his wife shall live in a becoming style in case of his death. If foresight is shown for the possible widow, the probable maiden lady of high standing is also provided for. The Protestant nobles of Germany have instituted retreats for maidens of their standing who are thought beyond the pale of matri- mony. Lands have been purchased and houses built, fisheries, forests and farms contributing to support the institution. Each noble who has contributed his share toward the original investment is entitled to pre- sent his maiden as a member of the retreat. The inmates are uniformed in black silk gowns, with the sign of their order across the breast, and can obtain leave of absence from the superior to enter society for three or six months annually. They have a standing in the community, and marriage is not quite out of the question when they can appear stamped with the badge of nobility. These retreats, or " Stifte," as they are BERLIN. 833 called in German, often become very wealthy and prove fortunate finan- cial investments. It is said that the ladies of these retreats evince a pride of blood which is not shown in so marked a degree in many cir- cles of German society. But despite the ceremonials of a noble and courtly circle, now and then, the German character, whether dissected within the walls of the private house or the palace at Berlin, is one of simplicity — sometimes, as we have ventured to say, offensively rough. The men of standing in Germany, from the Emperor down, despite their political views, have never seemed far away from the people because of this very trait. Her great scholars, poets and scientists, even her statesmen of iron purpose, although they may be learned, mystical, analytical and cruel, still exhibit to the world beneath the outer crust a certain ruQfgred childlikeness, which is a refined form of that earnestness which often deteriorates into rudeness. BFRLIN. The German life, in all its diversity and intellectual muscularity, is portrayed in Berlin, a massive, square city, set down on a sandy plain and cut in two by a sluggish river, and further divided by broad streets which stretched regularly through the city, as if made for the majestic tramp of the imperial army. Unter den Linden, a splendid street with a double avenue of linden trees, is where the majority of visitors are taken to see the most of the empire's capital. Nearly opposite the great university is the royal palace, and directly opposite a magnificent bronze statue of Frederick the Great. The names of Fichte, Hegel and Schel- ling cling to the university, their fame going along more modestly than that of Frederick upon his great horse. On each side of the royal palace are the fine public squares called Lustgarten and Schlossplatz. Opposite the Lustgarten is one of the hundreds of institutes in which the German people take a just pride ; it is the old museum, built upon a former bed of the river, the entrance being through a number of imposing porticoes, ornamented with statues and bronze figures. Its col- lections of vases and coins and its sculpture and picture galleries are celebrated over Europ'i. In the rear of the old museum is the new one containing antiquities of the northern nations and of Egypt, an entire hall decorated with pi "ntings by pupils of Kaulbach, casts of famous statues and art collections of all descriptions. The Egyptian depart- ment is not only very complete but is unique in its arrangement, it being exhibited in a court which is modeled after an Egyptian temple. In the Linden is also the national gallery of paintings and other famous col- 53 834 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. lections. The Royal Theatre, the ItaHan Opera House, the stately parks, and elegant pleasure-gardens both within the city and its suburbs, show the pleasure-loving side of the people. In one of the most charm- ing of the suburban parks, is a monument to the memory of Humboldt, who was a native of the city. The city is adorned, from one extremity to the other, with masterpieces of architecture and art by the famous Schinkel. whose genius took a remarkably wide range ; for he not only excelled as a historical painter and sculptor, his works being collected in a special museum, but he was the architect of some of the finest public works of Berlin. The capital is, preeminently, the imperial city of Germany, not only in the narrow but the hroad sense of the word. Kings, artists, scholars MUSEUM AT BERLIN. and poets appear in their marble pallor in the parks, on public buildings and in palaces and private houses. There are royal libraries, royal pal- aces, royal theatres and streets named after the kings. On King's street is the Commercial Exchano-e of Berlin, one of the world's o^reat centers of trade. It is near the postoffice, and is a square, massive building, presenting a grand front of pillars and groups of statuary. The churches of Berlin are many, but perhaps the most noteworthy is the Roman Catholic Hedwigskirche, situated in the rear of the Italian Opera House, and built in imitation of the Roman Pantheon. Berlin is a worthy subject for a book, but it should be added, as a tribute to its enterprise and the national unity of the empire, that since it became the capital of United Germany no city in Europe has taken SOME FAMOUS GERMAN CITIES. g35 greater strides in every direction, and no people have evinced greater pride in their governmental center than have the Germans for the best representative of their greatness. SOME FAMOUS GERMAN CITIES. Frankfort-on-the-Main, formerly the capital of Germany, is rich in historic associations, as well as the center of a portion of the Rothschild activities. The founder of the great banking house and his children after him were born in Jews street, most of the old buildings of which have been pulled down. Goethe square contains a statue of Frankfort's illustrious citizen and Germany's great, man. Frankfort once led the German cities in the publishing business, and possesses among its artis- tic attractions a monument in honor of the art of printing. Schiller has been commemorated in marble, several times, in the squares and public gardens, the most noteworthy representation being the superb bust in Berthmann's pleasure grounds. The council house where the German emperors were elected, the Church of St. Bartholomew where they were crowned for 150 years, and that of Katharine, where the first Lutheran sermon was preached more than three centuries and a half ago, are places of interest, while the promenades and watering places around the city delight as well as interest. The belt of promenades and parks connect the old gates of the city and furnish a picturesque view of the river and distant mountains. They alone would make Frankfort a delightful pleasure resort. The picture galleries, museums and libraries, and its financial importance as being the scene of operations of many of the wealthiest Jewish houses in Europe, bring to it a great variety of nationalities. Business, pleasure, scholarship and art meet together most harmoniously in Frankfort ; of all American cities it most resembles Boston. Dresden, the capital of Saxony, has received many baptisms of fire, but is still a beautiful city. It is celebrated as one of the greatest art centers in Europe. The Academy of Fine Arts is near the bank of the Elbe River. The Japanese palace was built as a summer residence by one of the kings, but is now used as a museum. It contains a gallery of paintings, in which all the European schools are represented by their greatest masters ; collections of antique sculpture, coins and pottery, a museum of natural history and the public library, especially com- plete in historical works. In^the royal palace is a collection of rare and costly carvings, jewels and relics, gathered by the princes of Saxony. Michael Angelo's magic art is seen in some wonderful specimens of carv- ings. Dresden has few monuments, and perhaps its most noteworthy architectural work is the great bridge across the Elbe, which connec s 836 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the old and the new cities and from which an impressive view of the city may be obtained. Breslau, in Southeastern Prussia, on the Oder River, is the most important wool market of Europe and one of the greatest in the world. The river is navigable from the city to the sea. Breslau is also connected by railway with Saxony, Bohemia and other districts famous for their wools and woolen goods, as well as with Berlin, Vienna and all the im- portant cities of Germany, Austria and Russia. It is in fact, second only to Berlin as a commercial city and is the natural emporium for the products of the agricultural, manufacturing and mineral districts in whose midst it lies. Breslau is, in short, a prosperous, well lighted, well paved, well built city — one of the university cities — and although Polish in origin is now German to the core. Hamburg is one of the three free cities of Germany and just in the position to be a great marine port. The Elbe River which commences to expand at this point into the North Sea receives the Alster as a tributary, and numerous canals connect the rivers, thus enabling barges to dis- tribute goods to every warehouse in the city. Hamburg's railway connections with the cities of the empire are very complete, and her steamship lines communicate with European, North and South American ports. The city is an important manufacturing pointy ship-building being one of its leading industries. From this grand city of canals and ships came Mendelssohn, the genius with the sweet soul which so aptly came forth in the solemn beauty of sacred music. Bremen is the twin-sister of Hamburg, a free city like it, a marine port and the greatest ship-building point in Germany. Although Ham- burg is the larger and wealthier city, Bremen is the more important port of emigration. Bremerhafen, at the mouth of the River Weser and thirty miles distant from the city, is the real port, as the stream has become too shallow for vessels of great draught to ascend. OSTREICH, OR AUSTRIA. In Charlemagne's time most of Western Austria south of Bohemia- was called Ostreich, the East Mark, the East Country, or the eastern frontier of Germany. The Great Karl drove back an invading tribe of fierce Huns and annexed this district to his dominions as a shield between them and the empire. This frontier land was further extended, and although it was at one time conquered by the Hungarians, with the exception of a period of fifty years, the Emperor of Germany held it OSTREICH, OR AUSTRIA. 837 for 260 years, appointing princes to rule over it either as a margrave or a duchy. The rulers of the duchy were continually quarreling with tlie Hungarians, who were infidels and of an alien race, and finally with the extinction of the ruling line, the last member of which fell in battle with the enemy, the province floated around for a time outside the con- trol of the German Emperor. The states of Austria and Syria were next ruled by a son of the Bohemian King, who, in turn, ruled his coun- try as a state of the German empire. But the empire of Austria did not commence to assume its present shape until the German Emperor seized the provinces of the Bohemian King and placed his son over them, the first of the famous House of Hapsburg. The imperial family of Austria derives its name from che castle of Hapsburg, or Hawk's castle, which a member of the house built in a Swiss canton during the eleventh century. The princes of the family, before they became of royal blood, held, at different times x'\lsace, Breisgau, Alemannia, Swabia and Aargan, the Swiss canton in which the castle was erected. Their Swiss possessions were the cause of many misfortunes to the House of Hapsburg, two members losing their lives while attempting to regain them. By marriage the thrones of Hungary and Bohemia passed into the possession of the family, other provinces were ceded to them, and not only did the great state become an arch- duchy of Germany, but the House of Hapsburg grasped the imperial scepter of the empire itself, of the Netherlands, Spain and the Indies. The Hungarians and Bohemians, however, were as distinct from the Germans in their race characteristics, as the Dutch were from the Span- iards whom the Spanish-German Philip desired should rule over the Netherlands. The Huno^arians are of the Finnic and the Bohemians of the Slavic race, and, as such, belong by natural right to the people who compose the Russian empire. The Slavs alone number over fifty per cent, of the population and the Hungarians over fifteen per cent. The Germans form a quarter of the population. The balance are Italians, Armenians, Jews and representatives of all races under the sun. They form merely a collection of people within certain geographical limits. The same tyrannical measures were taken in Bohemia as in Holland to crush the spirit of the Reformation, but John Huss left a martyred name and founded a new literature. Bohemia and Hungary are, in fact, treated merely as conquered provinces and never since they were incor- porated with the empire have their people ceased to strive for separate governments. But we shall treat the Bohemians and Hungarians, hereafter, as allied to the families which go to make up the Russian character. 838 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. VIENNA. In the fifth century the Huns drove the Romans away from a town which they had founded beyond the Alps, several centuries before, as a station for legions, as a base of operations against the German tribes. This station and town was called Vindobona, and when Charlemagne established the East Mark, or Ostreich, it was the principal city of the new country. It became the residence of the princes whom he placed over the duchy ; and under the House of Hapsburg it obtained its start as one of the finest of the European capitals, becoming the seat of the German emperors. But through the arms and intrigue of Napoleon the German states were organized into a confederacy, and Austria was alone left to Francis. Much of Vienna's fame as a modern city rests upon work accom- plished during the past century. The unsightly walls which surrounded the old city have been torn down and thirty-six suburbs admitted into the corporate territory. Within ancient Vienna, however, are the grandest squares and edifices, and the limits of the old city are retained by a belt of boulevards nearly three miles in length. The present municipal limits are also indicated by another belt, which is sixteen miles in length and follows the line of low ramparts erected during the beginning of the eighteenth century. The Ringstrasse, or that street which marks the bounds of the old city, is lined with palatial residences, as are also the streets which intersect it. In this locality are the opera house, archducal palaces, academies, museums, the imperial theatre, the military head- quarters and other edifices and interesting localities, which, to mention, would be tiresome and to describe impossible. The center of this area is St. Stephen's Square, which is also the geographical center of Vienna. Many of the leading streets converge here, and the grand St. Stephen's cathedral and the Episcopal palace are worthy ecclesiastical monuments to this stronghold of Catholicism. In the church are numerous monu- ments and underneath it vast catacombs. There are numerous squares, all worthy of notice, but perhaps the Franzensplatz is most visited by foreigners since it is formed by the four wings of the imperial palace. The outer palace square is the largest in Vienna, containing statues of Arch- duke Charles and Prince Eugene ; the inner square, the Franzensplatz, con- tains the monument to Francis I. Within the palace are not only splendid treasures, among other valuable curiosities the regalia worn by the Ger- man emperors when they were crowned, but cabinets of antiquities and of zoology and botany. Under royal patronage are also fine art galler- ies, a truly imperial library, not only of books but of engravings ; a print- VIENNA. 839 ing office of vast appliances and the University of Vienna. The uni- versity has a world-wide fame, being founded in the fourteenth century a few years previous to Heidelberg. Its medical school has long enjoyed celebrity. Connected with the University are museums, observatories, botanic gardens, and collections of every description. The Oriental academy which prepares candidates for diplomatic service in the East, is peculiar to Vienna. A great assistance to them in their studies is the oriental collection of manuscripts in the library of the academy, pro- nounced by some the richest in the world. Vienna's reputation as a city of magnificence and of grand propor- tions, a diversified pleasure resort for all nationalities and tastes, is enhanced by her theatres, gardens and out-of-door resorts. An island in the Danube, several miles in length, called the Prater, is laid out in parks, avenues and promenades, and may be called the fashionable resort. This was the scene of the Exhibition of 1873. Besides the thea- tres, some of them unrivaled in Germany, and the gardens adorned with works of art and frequented by a greater diversity of nationalities than any other localities in Europe, there are most picturesque surroundings to be enjoyed. The imperial gardens, menagerie and summer resi- dence are a few miles from the city. There are old castles and ruins for the artist and antiquarian, and bold heights from which a grand view of the Alps and Carpathians may be obtained. A combination of natural grandeur, quaint picturesqueness and historic charm is the mountain of Kahlenberg, upon which are an old ruined castle and a church. It was from this height, overlooking an impressive expanse of mountainous country, the mighty Danube and Vienna itself, that Sobieski, the fiery warrior King of Poland, saw the great army of the Turks entrenched before the imperial city, and it was in the church of the ruined castle that he prayed for success in the coming conflict. The Hungarians were in rebellion ao^ainst their German rulers and had invited their blood relatives to assist them. The battle before Vienna was as effectual in pressing back the Mohammedans from Christian Europe as the battle of Tours ; so that Sobieski, who had repeatedly saved Poland from the Turks, was now hailed as the savior, not only of the German empire, but of Christianity. BUDA-PESTH AND PRAGUE. Buda and Pesth, on the opposite banks of the Danube, were both originally Roman camps, and ever since the Hungarians formed a king- dom, or a nation, one or the other of them has been the seat of govern- 840 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. ment. The capital of Hungary is therefore spoke, of as Buda-Pesth, although at present the smaller city of Buda contains the palace of the Austrian Emperor and the government offices and residences of the ministers. In a Gothic church adjoining the government buildings, which was both a Turkish mosque and a stable, the Emperor of Austria was crowned King of Hungary over twenty years ago. In the palace square is a large cross erected to the memory of the Austrian commander, who fell at the bloody and successful siege which the Hungarians con- ducted against Buda, and near by a chapel in which are preserved the Hungarian national regalia. The city is built around a rocky hill which is surrounded by walls, and upon which are the structures previously mentioned, its summit being capped by a castle erected by Maria Theresa. Beyond this hill is a loftier one, upon which is a fort com- manding both Buda and Pesth. The two cities are connected by a magnificent suspension bridge, as well as other minor structures. Pesth is much grander in appearance than Buda, although its foundations are upon the sand. The broad quays along the river, large warehouses and business edifices, improved public squares and parks, large railroad accommodations and extensive flour and iron manufactories, give it a life which is missed in Buda. Pesth is in fact a railroad center, the granary of Austria, a book empo- rium, and a seat of the university which ranks next to Vienna. Its national museum contains many interesting and important collections. The building in which the Hungarian Diet meets is one of the most ele- gant structures of the city, and is an indication of why Buda-Pesth Is the capital of Hungary rather than Buda alone. Prague, the capital of Bohemia, lies in the valley of the river Mol- dau, a branch of the Elbe. The city is upon both sides of the river, the east bank marking the bounds of the old town and the business and Jew- ish quarters. In the latter section is the oldest synagogue in Europe; in the old town a church which contains the tomb of Tycho Brahe. On the opposite bank are the former palace of the Bohemian kings, the palaces of the nobility, the government and the Diet houses. The Uni- versity of Prague still m.akes the city a shrine of learning, although it has never again reached the prosperity which it enjoyed when Huss, the reformer and martyr, was its ^resident and lecturer of philosophy and theology. THE SCANDINAVIANS. HE Cimbri are said to have been the first inhabitants of Den- mark. After they had emigrated to Great Britain the Goths took possession of the country^ and the son of Odin, their god of war, is reputed to have been their first monarch. The people seem to have been divided into two classes : " freemen," who were the warriors, pirates and governors of the land, and "bondsmen," who were the huntsmen, fishermen and peas- ants. While the Danish monarchs were firmly seated on the throne of England, Denmark itself was torn with civil dissen- sions. Finally, however, the country was not only consoli- dated, but Norway and Sweden were united to it, the three forming a great Scandinavian kingdom. This union, however, was of compara- tively short duration. Sweden was erected into a powerful state in the sixteenth century, and Norway followed during the first part of the present. Germany had for centuries claimed the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, which originally comprised South Jutland. In i864Schleswig- Holstein v.'as annexed to the kingdom of Prussia, and is now, therefore, a portion of the United Kingdom, while Denmark has been so dismem- bered that she retains but the northern part of the peninsula of Jutland, with some neighboring islands, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and insignificant possessions in the West Indies. THE DANISH PEASANTS. For over a century the peasants were serfs to the crown and to the German nobility, and their disabilities were not entirely removed until the commencement of the nineteenth century ; and this, notwithstand- ing that more than half the population are devoted to agriculture. The Danish peasant is the type of bodily health, strong and muscular, of middle height, fair complexion, light hair and blue eyes. He is open and unsuspicious, not easily aroused to action, and rather yielding in disposition. His home is not only cleanly, but indicates that the Dane is aesthetic in his tastes. Flowers and pretty little decorations, both 841 842 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. without and within, make the cottages gems of art and comfort. The peasantry not only cultivate their small farms, but raise horses and cat- tle. The horses are especially valued for cavalry or draught purposes, and the cattle in connection with the dairy. Sheep, also, are kept more for their milk and for their flesh, than for their wool. The Danish peasant does not stop at cultivating his farm, tending his live-stock and making butter and cheese, but manufactures his own wearing apparel and domestic utensils. THE DANISH SEAMEN. Though individually bold seamen, the Danes are not the warriors of the seas that they were when they were the scourge of European coasts and the conquerors of England. Other nations have even usurped their fisheries, which in the middle ages were of great importance. They are more apt, in short, to be the sailors for other countries than to independ- ently navigate their own vessels. At home many of them are employed in the oyster beds lying near the northeastern coast of the peninsula, being a portion of the royal domain. Many Danish seamen find employment in Greenland, where their nation has established a dozen or more different colonies or factories along the coast. Here they may be said to have rather a monopoly of the employment, for each settlement is little more than a government station, presided over by a trader and his assistant, who receive their salaries from Denmark. Iceland became subject to Denmark in the fourteenth century, but its natives are more Norwegian than Danish and their institutions and language were imported from Norway when its people were pagans ; so that Norway must have the honor of preserving the ancient tongue of the Northmen in its purity. Danes, Norwegians and Swedes meet here as upon common ground and sing their ancient sagas. Fishing is the chief occupation, although the cod-fishery is prosecuted here to such an extent by the French government as to exclude many native seamen. From two to three hundred vessels and about 7,000 seamen are engaged, more than anything else to train themselves for the navy. COPENHAGEN. The center of this grand central point of Denmark is a large square on an island, from which radiate broad streets, also leading to a second island, upon which is built a division of the city called Fred- erikshavn. The finest thoroughfare is Broad street, which connects the COPENHAGEN. 84J. square directly with the fortress of FrederiTtshavn. Tlie old city of Copenhagen is called West End, being situated at the extremity of the principal island, the ancient royal pal- ace havinof been converted into a his- torical treasure house, separate apart- ments being set aside for collections bearing upon the reign of each king from Christian IV. The famous old palace of Christiansborg, which was destroyed by fire, was rebuilt during the first por- tion of the century. It is on a little island, being now the parliament house, contains a spacious banqueting hall ornamented by four of Thorwaldsen's splendid bronze statues, and is, perhaps, the city's most imposing structure. Other palaces, formerly occupied as royal palaces, are devoted to military instruction, the fine arts, etc. The principal royal residence consists of four palaces, erected by different nobles and ^ purchased by the King after the de- ^^^v struction of Christiansboro-. While a \ royal guest, Thorwaldsen, the great Danish sculptor, died suddenly of heart frederickshavn. disease. His magnificent marble work, "Triumphal. Entry of Alex- 844 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. ander into Babylon," adorns the palace, and other evidences of his genius are seen in the churches and public build'ngs of Copenhagen. The body of the modest man lies in a fitting mausoleum, in a museum which the city >erected to contain the works which he bequeathed to it. The museum of Northern antiquities, representing the stone, bronze and iron ages, is unrivaled in the world, and the royal library is among the largest in Europe. In a word, Copenhagen is a magnifi- cent city, and the most of Denmark's commercial and intellectual ac- tivity is to be found in it. Although born in what is now German territory, Tycho Brahe, who was of true royal blood, received his education in Copenhagen, and as the father of practical astronomy Denmark has the honor of giving him to the world. NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL BOUNDARY. The natural division between Norway and Sweden is a mountain chain covered with forests; the artificial division is "a broad avenue cut in the forest and having at certain intervals stone monuments. This avenue is maintained with great care by the Norwegians, and its condi- tion regularly reported to their Legislature." The Norwegian side of the chain is generally rocky and precipitous, while in Southern Sweden it consists more of a plateau, from which rise lofty peaks and which declines gradually toward the seashore. The southern extremity is a fertile plain. Northern Sweden is rocky and bleak, and Central Sweden essentially a forest country. In the regions toward Lapland the wild reindeer are met with, while the brown bear is found in the dense forests and is shot and trapped. RAVAGES OF THE LEMMINGS. A greater enemy to Sweden than the bear or any other beast is an animal of the rat species, not more than five inches in length. Period- ically vast troops of these animals, called lemmings, come down from the north where they have been feeding on moss, lichens and grass, and emi- grate toward the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Bothnia. Hawks and owls above them, and bears, wolves and foxes behind them, and in their very ranks, do not so diminish their mighty numbers as to prevent a wholesale devastation of crops and pastures. Huntsmen and villages turn out and wage war against this invasion of the beasts of the field, but armies of the lemmings find their way to the warmer coast regions. After having spent a* winter there the experience through which they PEASANT AND COTTAGER. 845 have passed does not deter the old ones from migrating again to their northern grounds, being reinforced by milHons of the younger genera- tions. These migrations southward are said to be occasioned by a pressure of population in the northern mountains of Scandinavia, for lemmings breed almost as rapidly as rabbits. The Lapps eat the lemming. In ancient times the Scandinavian peasants, seeing these animals descendinof from the mountains and from the north, like clouds from above, imagined that they fell as plagues from heaven, and they were often exorcised by the priests as troops of evil spirits. PEASANT AND COTTAGER. These are representatives of two distinct classes, the peasant being one who owns his land and house, while the cottager hires both and may be called a farm laborer. Although the tendencies of the Swedes are toward democratic ideas, the cottager is far below the peasant socially. The agriculturists are crowding out the nobility, many of whom are now extemely poor, though so proud that they will not labor to retain their property. They formerly owned one-fifth of the lands of the kingdom. Those engaged in the manufacturing industries, such as making cotton and woolen cloths, silks and leather, and the metal workers are called burghers. Although the Swedes as a people still drink considerably, the legislation of the kingdom has checked this vice very perceptibly, so that the distilleries within thirty years have decreased from nearly 90, ")00 to a few hundred. There is still much to be accomplished in this line, however, since many of the Swedish peasants, cottagers, and working- men give both Sunday and Monday to dissipation ; the latter especially, which with other people is called " Blue Monda)'," being the first work- ing day of the week, is usually set aside for such a decided jubilee that it has been dubbed in Sweden " Free Monday." And yet though so many thus strike out a laboring day from the week, the nation is thrifty, industrious, progressive and independent, gradually absorbing the prop- erty formerly held by the nobility merely by right of birth. • There is one class of householders, however, which stands if any- thing above the peasantry. The military colonists form a very important body of the army. This grade was established by Charles XI., and consists of select soldiers, who are distributed in military districts, and each provided with a house and a piece of land. This he cultivates for himself, but is actually provided for by the holders of crown lands in the district to which he is assigned, receiving his pay in money or in kind. The military colonists comprise about 21,000 infantry, and 4,000 cav- alry, and as their entire annual period of drill does not exceed a month. Z\6 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. and a half, the service is not much of a hardship. The regular reserve is drawn from the whole male population, between the ages of twenty and twenty-five years, and no substitutes are allowed. Besides these are the conscript troops, composing the Royal Guards, -Artillery and Engineers ; the hussars, the flower of the army, who are enlisted for six years and, with the military colonists, comprise the active soldiers ; the militia of Gottland, who are not obliged to serve out of the island, and the volunteer rifle association. THE SWEDES. The Swedes are a law-loving people, but are more prone than the Danes to stubbornly resist dictation from royal sources. The law which regulated the costumes of servants, peasants and, in fact, those of all the SWEDISH LANDSCAPE. lower classes, nearly caused a revolution. Now every one dresses as he pleases, the peasants being particularly fanciful in their tastes. Wooden shoes, or leather shoes with wooden soles, are a general feature of dress. " Men, women and children labor together in the fields ; women do various kinds of outdoor work in the towns, such as the mixing of mortar and the tending of masons, and most of the drudgery in factories. By law no children under twelve years of age can be employed in a factory and none under eighteen can be required to work after dark." Reference has been made both to the Swedes' loyalty and their independence. Their attitude toward the Queen is a fair illustration of their temperament. She shared the general dislike shown to her hus- band, who was struggling against the national parliament of Norway and seeking, also to subject Sweden closer to royal authority. The Norwegian peasants, who really constitute the nation, despite their STOCKHOLM. 847 jealousy of the Swedes, added their voice in protest against his acts, and with the concession of the royal pair to some of their most important demands, their attitude became more friendly. The marriage of one of the young princes to a girl of comparatively humble standing has also had its effect. In connection with this affair a little incident is related, which is worthy of notice. The Queen was obliged to submit to a serious surgical operation, and upon what she thought would be her death-bed, gave her consent to the union. While the surgeons were plying the knives the palace was besieged by a dense crowd of anxious subjects, and when the Queen had passed the ordeal she was so affected by the general solicitude that she expressed her feelings in public print. The royal family, in fact, seem to make the newspaper as com- mon a vehicle for the conveyance of their sentiments and of in- formation as any of their subjects. It was reported, not long ago, that one of the King's sons was about to marry a certain lady, whereupon the prince inserted a card in a newspaper, which read thus concisely : "I never saw that lady but five minutes." — Oscar. Such little incidents as tV"~.Le make one realize the small distance which lies between the peasant and the King of Sweden and Norway. STOCKHOLM. The pride of Sweden is Stockholm and it is undoubtedly one of the most attractive of European capitals. The city proper is built upon three islands, the surface of which has been raised by piles far higher than the natural level, and connected by massive bridges. The royal palace, a massive structure of granite, stands upon the central island and the most elevated, which is further adorned with orovernment buildings and great mercantile houses. Upon another island are most of the ele- rant stores and mansions and the national museum. The workine classes occupy the third island. All around, upon the islets which stud adjacent waters, are extensive pleasure grounds, monuments, royal palaces, and everything which can please the eye and gratify the national taste. The tombs of Sweden's royal soldiers and of Bernadotte, her adopted king, and the founder of the present dynasty, are in the churches of Stockholm. In the city is also shown the house where Swedenborg was born. Hun- dreds of manufactories send their clouds of smoke over the fair expanse of waters and great vessels and steamers move majestically past her har- bor fortress and moor at her quays, upon which the royal palace fronts. The city is connected with the mainland by railway. 848 PANORAMA OF NATIONS, THE NORWEGIANS. The Danish language, with unimportant modifications, is generally spoken in Norway as in Sweden ; but the mountaineers and sailors of the north who do not frequent the towns use a dialect more like the old Norse tongue. As the language of the Northmen was exported from Norway to Iceland nearly a thousand years ago, so within the past cent- ury an attempt has been made to revive the Icelandic tongue, or the Norse, in Norway. The different dialects now in vogue away from those parts of the kingdom which were subject to Danish influence, when the country was a dependency of Denmark, not only conform quite closely to the old Norse, but the very costumes of the people seem to belong to another aQ-e. The women wear immense woolen skirts and bright colored knit bodices, fastened and adorned with silver or brass clasps and buckles. WILD LIFE ON THE COASTS. On the western coasts of Norway, amid the rocks, precipices, cata- racts, maelstroms, glaciers, pine forests and icy fiords, the strong, yellow- haired Norwegian, daring the awful storms of that wild region in his weather-beaten fishing smack, is the true son of the Northman. From the crest of the waves he can witness some of the wildest sio^hts in the world. Sea and land are wild and bold, and he clings to them both until flesh and blood cry out — and then he emigrates. Although fish is caught in every lake and stream of the interior, the salmon, herring and cod fisheries of the coast are the most impor- tant. The latter, alone, give employment to about 25,000 men. The chief grounds are the Loffoden Islands, which lie above the Arctic circle. At tlie southwest end of this group is the famous m.aelstrom. From this point the coast of the Arctic ocean trends northeast toward the Russian frontier, and is so cut up into rocky islands, solitary rocks, peninsulas and promontories, that it is simply a tremendous jumble of sea, land and mountain. At places the stormy waves beat into the fiords through desolate gorges nearly to the Swedish boundary, while all of the land not dashed by the sea is heaped with mountains which send their great glaziers to the water's edge. It is Switzerland set down on the sea-shore in the Polar regfions. The influence of the sea and of the Gulf Stream, however, greatly modifies the climate, so that it is more mild than any other country in so high a latitude. Norway contains' the highest point of land, and the most northerly town in Europe, and yet many of the western and north- A GIGANTIC SNOW FIELD. 849 ern fiords are nearly frozen. Those of the south, on the contrary, are filled with ice, as they escape the direct influences of the Gulf Stream. A CxIGANTIC SNOW FIELD. It is in Southwestern Norway that the hig-hest mountains, the greatest snow fields and the vastest grlaciers are found. Borderine the shores of Sogne Fiord, which extends for many miles inland, are peaks which shoot 8,000 feet above the sea. At a lower level of about 1,000 feet is the snow field of Justedal, the largest in Europe, covering an area of 600 square miles. From this and other plains of snow vast gla- ciers slowly fall toward the sea, but are often arrested by more level land, in which have been formed deep lakes. The upper valleys and heights, as in Switzerland, are covered Avith forests of pine, and pastures to which cattle are driven. These famous pines also fringe the fiords, and are, next to the fisheries, Norway's greatest source of revenue. Among the industrial arts ship-building is almost the only one which is extensively cultivated, the people being generally their own manufact- urers. The most extensive forests of pine and fir stretch along the rivers which flow into the southern fiords, in the vicinity of Christiania. Not only are the woods alive with lumberm.en, but the industry has built up whole villages, and the timber merchants of Norway are among her sub- stantial citizens. The scene of the greatest activity is Drammen, a small city in direct water communication with the capital, and to which most of the lumber is sent for export. Drammen also has manufactories for rope, sails, etc., and may be considered the most important out- fitting point for vessel-men in Norway. The wood is not only converted into ship-material, much of it also being sent to France, but is used for fuel in Vv^orking the copper and iron mines. UNCERTAINTY OF CROPS. On account of the sandy texture of the small area of arable land more attention is given to the raising of cattle, horses, sheep and goats, than to agriculture. There are vast pasture lands of rich quality scat- tered all along the mountain ranges, and the small farm in the lower lands is often but a mere shelter for the stock durino- the winter and a source of supply for their feed. As a rule the cultivators own their own land, the laborers on an estate usually hiring a small tract from the proprietor that they may keep a few cows and sheep Rent is paid in labor, much of which falls to woman's lot. The principal crop is barley ; the other grains, with fruits, are raised almost entirely in Southern 54 850 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Sweden, But the inferior nature of the soil and the crude methods employed make the crops so uncertain that, in the best of seasons, they are insufficient for home consumption and corn and potatoes are imported in large quantities. Rye and barley also come from Denmark and Russia. To a limited extent, the government has provided for this uncer- tainty by establishing corn magazines throughout the country. When the season is good the farmer deposits his surplus and is guaranteed 12^^ per cent annually for it. If times are bad, however, he is obliged to pay 25 per cent, in order to borrow the grain. In times of great dis- tress the peasants are sometimes reduced to the necessity of resorting to the pine forests for their bread, tearing away the bark from the great trees and grinding the inner substance into a kind of meal. AS MAN AND CITIZEN. The Norwegian sailors, peasantry, lumbermen and kindred workers take away so much of the population from the towns that there is only about one-tenth left for them. The result is that the voters belono;- to the rural classes. Even Christiania, the capital and principal city, has only about 70,000 people, but here is centered their independent national life ; here, in its own home, sits the native parliament, or Stortling, which represents the sovereignty of the Northmen over the King. The suffrage is based upon property qualifications. Voters choose their deputies, the proportion being one in the towns to two in the rural dis- tricts. The deputies elect the Stortling representatives, who assemble annually. That body may overrule the King's veto, as it has repeatedly done. It may keep the Swedish army out of its dominions, or keep the Norwegian army in, just as it pleases. The King must spend a por- tion of his time in Norway, and while he is in Sweden the Norwegians have their ministers near him at Stockholm. For all practical purposes, in fact, the Norwegians are an independent people, governed by their own representatives. They preserve their own official language, their own flag, their own government, and at the fortress of Aggerhuns, erected in the middle ages, they guard their national archives and regalia. The Norwegians have never quite forgiven the Swedes for accepting from Russia the present of their country, which she had no right to give away, and the remembrance of repeated invasions of Swedish armies is still keen. Within the past forty years, however, under the most conciliatory rule of the monarchs, the wounds show signs of healing ; but the uncom- THE ICELANDERS. 85 I promising Norse spirit of the rural population will crop out, and although the Norwegian voter and citizen may be peaceable enough under the decrees of his Stortling, when it comes to voting extra supplies to the royal family, he often says " nay" in a voice which comes down to him from the fierce ol^ sea-kings. THE ICELANDERS. Politically, the Icelanders are related to the Danes as the Norwegians are to the Swedes. They are nominal subjects, merely, possessing home rule in every particular. As stated, the Icelanders are descendants of the Northmen. They carried their language with them, and through their national songs, which commenced to appear shortly after they settled the island, they have retained it. Their sagas are not only outbursts of poetry, but have historical value, in that they treat of events in the reigns of famous kings of Norway and Denmark and of such home affairs as the introduction of Christianity. The world of philology, history and literature is therefore far more indebted to the Norwegians of Iceland than to the Norwegians of Norway. Although a land composed of outer masses of active volcanoes, and beyond a tableland of rocks, lava and mud, with occasional fertile valleys, the Icelanders are proud of their country and of their history. Their- volcanoes may spout, their precious meadow land sink into a crevasse, or huge islands shoot up from the bot- tom of the sea. They may have scurvy and elephantiasis and live in turf and lava huts. They may wash their clothes in boiling springs one day and find nothing but rocks and ice there the next. They may have no roads, no vehicles, and few means of communicating with each other. They may live upon mutton, sour butter, fish and the like, with what they can afford to import, but still they are a proud people. In this dreary country coal is an article of luxury, and in some dis- tricts the dried refuse of sheep and sea fowl is the only fuel which can be obtained, so that a fire is seldom made, except in the small kitchen, even in winter. And yet the women knit their stockings and gloves, and the men tend their cattle, if they have any, and fish and hunt, bartering their home manufactures, skins, feathers, eider-down, oil, etc., for hoarded treasures of grain, flour, coffee, sugar, tobacco and liquor. Their children are as industrious, but what makes the Icelanders proud and almost contented is that they have their literature. They have few primary schools, but it is rare to finei an Icelander who can not read and write. For the sake of their literature and their lansfuacje each com- munity is interested in the education of every child. " Parents, besides 852 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. teaching their children all they know themselves, are careful to send them for further instruction to better informed neis^hbors. All the books and manuscripts in the house, as well as those to be found within a radius of fifty miles, are read aloud over and over again to the family and discussed by them. Moreover, there is a law enabling the pastor or overseer of the parish to remove the children of careless parents and board them with others who will teach them. This is done at the ex- pense of the parish when the parents are too poor to pay." With the Icelanders amusement and education walk hand in hand ; for the pe- rusal of the " Edda," in which is incorporated their ancient mythology, the readinsf of the sao^as and the recitino^ of tales and lesfends constitute a large part of their diversion. THE DUTCH THEIR DIKES ASSAULTED. HE world knows that Holland was snatched from the sea and that the Dutch should have the credit of almost creatino- the soil upon which so much of their prosperity rests ; that gran- ite, wooden and sand dikes, great and little canals, windmills and hydraulic machines, in the hands of a plodding, brave, sen- sible people, have, in some way, accomplished the task of planting a land far below the level of the sea and making it teem with riches ; and that with all their stupendous labors, the natives must never rest day or night in fancied security. The rivers and the sea are still persistently fighting for the mastery — the sea to tear away the coast and what land the rivers make, and the rivers to burst their banks and cover the fertile fields, the vil- laofes and cities which the Dutch have created. Even within historic ages the course and level of the Rhine have changed ; it is said, in fact, that there is a general rise of all the river levels, which the dike-builders are obliged doggedly to follow. The rivers are no longer able to bear German soil against the currents of the ocean, but rather drop it, in apparent exhaustion, at the entrance to the sea, making it difficult for a small vessel to pass out where great fleets were once crowded. The result has been that the danger from inundations of the rivers is increased ; they can not flow freely to the sea, and with the advent of a severe winter they are firmly locked near the ocean. When the spring thaw sets in, from the south comes a moving body of water and tremen- dous ice cakes, which crash against this solid wall. On from behind comes pressing a mighty procession of assaulting forces ; huge cakes and pinnacles of ice grind each other in their rage, the waters from behind rushing and roaringf over them until such a barrier is formed that the irresistible forces of nature strain and tear outward at the mighty dikes. The waters heave at the foundations, gigantic battering rams and titanic spears assault the banks, there is a moment of indecisive trembling, a roar which the ravenous sea, in its uncontrollable fury, 853 854 panorama" of nations. might have given, and the country is under the waves ; men, women and children are flying to the hills and church steeples, the wild bells of alarm are pealing, grain fields and houses are beneath the foaming water and seething ice, cattle, sheep and human beings are struggling and groaning together ; and when the Rhine, the Meuse and the Scheldt have once again had their way, the patient Hollanders collect their dead and repair the wrecks of fortune. THE ZUYDER ZEE COUNTRY. Latin authors make mention of several inland lakes in Holland, the largest of which was formed by the overflow of the Rhine. An isthmus separated it from the sea. The ocean burst this barrier in the thirteenth century, and advancing step by step formed Zuyder Zee, which opens such a great gap in Northern Holland. In the body of the sea are three islands and upon them are the descendants of the primitive Batavians and Frisians, members of that same stubborn, sturdy, tireless, stout, broad-shouldered family which made Germany and England possible. Their features, characters and even customs remind one of the ancient Germanic tribes and above all of the Saxons. On the western coasts of Zuyder Zee are now dull villages which, in the times when the submerged district and Friesland, on the other shore, were portions of a fertile coun- try dotted with hamlets and waving with .fields of wheat, rye and barley, were flourishingf centers of trade. The destruction of villaQ^es and fertile lands, with the consequent decline of the towns which escaped the devas- tation was the cause of the rise of Amsterdam. This city is farther in- land, yet nearer the North Sea and sheltered from the storms by lying around an abrupt peninsula of North Holland upon the southern shore of Zuyder Zee. It is in one of these towns, on the edge of this submerged ancient Holland, that William Schouten was born who first rounded America's cape. The port is called Hoorn, and the South American cape should therefore be Cape Hoorn, The old town is the center of the dairy pro- ducts of Holland. Further south are towns and cities Avhich have no prosperity, having had their life drained by Amsterdam. Opposite lie some of those islands upon which dwell such primitive people. Their houses are built upon simple mounds of earth, as in ancient days, and connected by small piles of earth. From the roof of one of the churches are hung two models of the fi.rst fishing boats employed by the islanders. Few houses have chimneys, " but before the principal window there is a large flat stone surrounded by a row of bricks. A piece of iron is fast- FURTHER RAVAGES OF THE SEA. 85; ened at the back of this stone, against which the fire is kindled. An opening in the roof allows exit to the smoke, which, before emerging, spreads through the loft where the nets are dried. The house belongs to the wife ; but the fly-boat, the external house, belongs to the husband. He displays the same coquetry and zeal in adorning this floating abode as his wife does in cleaning the cottage ; and on Sundays and holidays the fishing boats collected in port seem rather a squadron of yachts arranged for the pleasures of the eye than a fleet of toil and utility." FURTHER RAVAGES OF THE SEA. North of Zuyder Zee, and all along the shores of the North Sea from the mouth of the Scheldt to that of the Ems, the most startling IN A DUTCH PORT. changes have been traced in the configuration of the country, not since ancient times only, but since the middle ages. Hundreds of villages have disappeared as so many Pompeiis ; the sea has burst in and out, making islands of peninsulas, making gulfs of lowlands and seaports of inland towns. From the western shores of Zuyder Zee to the German coast is a chain of islands, undoubtedly marking the former bounds, 856 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. of Holland, and, since the first century a. d., seven of the twenty-three islands which Pliny noticed have been beaten into the ocean. As late as the thirteenth century a new island was formed from a detached por- tion of North Holland, and in the fifteenth, thirty-five out of seventy- two villages which stood on a group of islets in the broad mouth of the Meuse, were buried out of sight by the rising of the ocean tide and the bursting of a sluice. "Not a trace of them can be discovered save an old, gloomy, solitary tower called the House of Merwed. At a later date, in order to fix the spots where the fishermen might be permitted to cast tlieir nets, the course of the old Maas, which traversed the coun- try before the submersion, was conjecturally reconstructed. The spot where the villages were destroyed still bears the name of ' Biesbosch,' or the wood of reeds." The Dollart is a bay which indents both the coasts of Holland and of Germany. In the thirteenth century it was the triple mouth of the River Ems, a promontory stretching northeast toward the German coast. Upon this tongue, of land were half a hundred villages. The fierce North Sea deluged the land and swallowed up thirty-three of them, blotting out the mouths of the river and forming the gulf " Furious," or Dollart. Within the last century, in fact, both sea and river have spread over nearly every fertile district of Holland ; and still the Dutch love their country. Death and disaster, their unceasing struggle with nature, have bound them to it as closely as the Swiss is wedded to his Alps. THE DIKES, AND HOW THEY LOOK Having drawn the character of the foe, what are the human weapons, defensive and offensive, employed against it } It is said the Cimbri, before they started for Great Britain, built the first dikes, and that these were destroyed before the Frisians and Batavians came. The first dike which we hear of was constructed near Leyden, on the old Rhine. The Meuse was next attacked, and early in the Christian era the Romans even took a hand in digging a canal or two to connect the rivers, of all the barbarians the Batavians being their favorites. Whatever of nobility there was in these old times was overshadowed by the officers appointed by the land owners to watch the rivers and dikes. These officers were called the Counts of the Dikes, and in seasons of inundations and dis- tress their power was supreme. From their time to the present the whole architectural and mechani- cal genius of the country has been concentrated upon hydraulic works. THE DIKES, AND HOW THEY LOOK. 857 First in order of time and simplicity come the dikes. In some cases they are merely earthworks. On the sea coast, in places, the ocean casts up ridges or hills of sand, which are sown with plants, chiefly rank grasses. These reeds or grasses while they are taking root have to be protected, sometimes for miles along the coast, by coverings of straw ; otherwise they would be lifted out of the soil by the strong sea winds. When the grasses have taken root, however, and escaped the inroads of the Dutch rabbit, which is as great an enemy to them as the wind, the shifting masses of sand are cemented and a natural dike is formed. These ridges .are called sand dunes, and where they exist at all they line the coast in three parallel series, the outer one touching the sea and being of most recent formation. These partially natural protections, which on a Hol- land level look like mountains, are sometimes strengthened with brick, wood or stone work, while every point of the coast which is not guarded by the sand dunes is covered by a dike. The most massive of these works is the Great Dike, in the vicinity of the Helder, where the north- ern peninsula of North Holland is exposed to the full fury of sea and wind, and which would otherwise be soon cut off into the southernmost of the long chain of islands which stretches toward Germany ; it is six miles in length, twenty or twenty-five feet wide, and strengthened by massive bulwarks of granite projecting far into the sea. Many of the dikes are smoothly paved on the top with small yellow bricks and form excellent carriage roads, and from an elevation of twenty-five or thirty feet one may obtain broad views of the country, with its handsome villas and farm houses, green fields, and numerous canals whose courses can be traced by long lines of willows and other trees which intersect each other like a tracery of veins. In place of the road a canal is sometimes dug along the dike. The sides of the embankment are often covered with willows, which are planted, and interwoven like wicker-work, so that from a distance it resembles an immense green ridge. Still outside of the dikes, in exposed places, walls of masonry are built or solid rows of piles driven into the river or ocean bed. Although every point of danger along sea and river seems to be guarded, engineers are constantly employed to make repairs and watchmen patrol the dikes by day and night, to give timely warning of a strain, a break or a rising of the tide. The people repair to the scene of danger with mats of straw and rushes, sail cloth and bags of sand, w^ith which to stop the leak or build up the embankment in a temporary manner. Millions of dollars are still spent annually for strengthening old works, building new dikes and canals, and in reimbursing the army of ofifi- cers and employes conected with this stupendous system of fortifications. 858 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. As in military tactics, it has been found by the ablest of the Dutch engineers that it is often best to yield a point to the powerful enemy for the sake of the general result ; so that sluice gates are constructed at the mouths of rivers, and when the sea is very tempestuous one or more of the gates are opened that the waves may partially spend their force before they assault the inner line of fortifications. The untiring vigilance of the people (notwithstanding which they have been so often circumvented by the tireless foe) may be better appreciated when it is remembered that during the howling tempests which sweep upon the coast of Holland from the northwest the tide of the Rhine rises eleven feet above Amsterdam, that of the Meuse nearly as much at Rotterdam, while the river Leek, some distance from the latter city, towers seventeen feet above. The Amsterdam level is the standard of the country. THE CANALS. But the system of dikes does not embrace the whole wonder — for despite the casualties which have already buried a country under the waves, the dikes, sluice gates, the pumping machines, the canals form a more stupendous monument to the patience and industry of man thaa all the pyramids of Egypt. A dense forest which formerly covered South Holland and extended over a portion of North Holland has disappeared in the piling of the dikes and in the foundations of Amsterdam. Hav- ing exhausted their own country of wood, the people dug out great beds of peat for fuel, which at once were converted into marshes and lakes. The Dutch saw with alarm that they were thus making thousands of acres of waste land — that land which had been bought at such a price — and they perseveringly set to work to drain the hollows. Then it was that those ponderous arms commenced to rise aslant against the sky and to christen Holland "the land of dikes and windmills." At first they were constructed so as merely to take the wind from the northwest, the prevailing quarter. '" From this period date the regular diking of the low-lands, the formation of trenches to discharge and guide the water^ the construction of sluice gates to establish the level between the reser- voirs ; in a word, a scientific system of desiccation. Through this dis- covery the internal state of the country was changed and agriculture could spring up. At the present day, mills of all shapes and dimensions stand in the middle of rich plains, whose superfluous waters they draw off ; their busy wings are in the distance blended together in a tranquil sky and give the landscape a singular character. Some of these mills are true edifices, which seek the wind at a considerable height ; others DRAWING OFF THE SEAS. 859 smaller and built of wood and brick, are very prettily finished off. This rustic coquetry ; these huge sails which flutter in the air like the wings of gigantic and fabulous birds ; this tic-tac blended with the rustling sound of the waters, spreads over the calm nature of Holland an undefinable charm and movement. Elsewhere, these monuments of a pastoral life are only employed in' one way ; but here, on the contrary, they are hy- draulic machines, saw and flour grinding mills. Formerly efforts were limited to draining ground at no great depth ; but since science has. progressed the wind is called upon to exhaust deep marshes." DRAWING OFF THE SEAS. The first extensive tract drained was in the eastern portion of North Holland, during the first part of the seventeenth century, by which some thirty lakes were converted into fertile gardens and grazing grounds, the former beds being intersected with pretty avenues bordered with trees and canals lined with green banks, while numerous hamlets sprung up as briskly as all vegetation. The pioneer in the work which has spread over Holland is said to have been a seafaring man who had seen the mighty fleets of Philip H., which had been scattered on every coast. He had witnessed the sinking of a gold-laden vessel, a mere piece of drift-wood from the great Armada, upon the coast of Ireland, and, after making several voyages to that localit)', found the treasure, and with the proceeds of his rich discovery drained the Purmer. From the scene of his labors a magnificent canal, massively pro- tected, furnished with great sluice gates and all other appliances, is cut across the peninsula from Zuyder Zee to the North Sea and connects with the canal from Amsterdam, which traverses it from north to south. With the application of steam to these stupendous drainage enter- prises they became bolder in their nature. Haarlem Meer, a sea which in a century had been formed by the coming together of four lakes, which had drowned three villages and rose to the very gates of Amster- dam, this ra\'enous body of water was drawn into the sea, after several pumps were kept constantly at work for fifteen or sixteen years. The project had been proposed more than two centuries previous, when steam was not at hand to make it practicable, but the first gigantic engine which commenced to draw the life blood from Haarlem Meer, in 1847, was named after the originator of the idea, Leegh Water. If this could be accomplished during the "sixties," it is quite likely that during the " nineties" from the various propositions to reclaim Zuyder Zee will be sifted the wisest ideas and that the audacious enterprise will be inaugurated. 86o PANORAMA OF NATIONS. THE SEA AS AN ALLY. In describincr this contest of the Dutch with water and wind, how- ever, the friendly traits of these foes should not be entirely passed over. They have utilized the wind for- drainage purposes, and against human enemies they summon the floods as their allies. During the invasions of the Spaniards and the French the flood gates of their rivers and canals were more effective than cannon, and fortresses and fierce assault- ing columns. How, even with- out the presence of William of Or- ange, Philip's grim warriors, under the bloody Duke who had never been defeated, were driven out of Leyden by the floods which were sent against them, and welcome relief rolled up to the gates of the city on the return bil- lows — these are matters of dra- matic history, pic- tured by the mas- ters. The old walls of Amster- dam are down, but she has her canals from the Rhine, REMBRANDT VAN RYN. and Zuyder Zee, with their massive flood gates, and the great hollow of Haarlem Meer, the country round about the city herself, could be flooded before a hostile army could ravage the territory. The connection between the famous defense of Leyden and the founding of the great university, is that when the Prince of Orange appeared to the distressed citizens, he gave them the choice of two SCENES ON THE CANALS. . . 86l rewards for their heroism — the remittal of their heaviest taxes, or the estabHshment of such an institution — and with -one voice they shouted "The University, the University!" So it was founded, — one of the greatest monuments to the cause of education in Europe. Its other glory is that, in one of the windmills which surround the clean, antique city, Rembrandt is said to have been born, and its greatest curiosity is a ruined tower, situated on a mound in the centre of the town, whose builder is said to have been Hengist, the Saxon. The tower has been con- verted into a sort of inn, and the grounds about it are used as a tea-garden. SCENES ON THE CANALS. But whether you go to the Hague, where the King and his palaces are, which contains prisons and squares where Dutch patriots were con- fined and executed, splendid collections of paintings by the Dutch masters; which is the birthplace of William III. of England, and long the residence of the hardy stadtholders ; or to Utrecht, the scene of the formal establishment of the great political and religious league, and of memorable treaties in which vast territories in Europe and America were shufifled around by the Powers as a pack of cards ; or to the com- mercial centers, Amsterdam and Rotterdam — it matters not where you go, — the cities will be cut into districts by numerous canals, upon whose broad embankments are laid out wide and clean streets. Facing the streets, or (as they become in Rotterdam and Amsterdam) the quays, are lofty houses which overlook the bustle upon the water and the land. Their sites are cut into many islands, and to their great wharfs come ves- sels from all parts of the world, their masts protruding above the lofty ■dikes, but their bodies hidden behind the huge ramparts ; and away from river and sea the same movement is seen on the water. The sails of little boats glide apparently over the face of the country, or o^listen throug-h the grreen trees which line the banks of the canals and rivers. Holland has its railroads, but its canals still reign supreme. Large cities in America have their milk-trains. To the large cities of Holland come processions of boats, laden with oaken buckets of milk from the surrounding farms, attended frequently by pretty girls, with great straw hats turned up before and behind, and with very red cheeks. The water-boats of Holland are distinct from the milk-boats, the Amsterdam supply being brought from Utrecht, or pumped from the sand of the ocean dunes, where the rain water collects. There are regular companies organized for the distribution of Avater, but many private individuals gain a livelihood by selling water, which they carry about the town in casks placed upon carts. 862 • • PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Upon the boats constructed for passenger travel the character of the typical Hollander will be revealed in as quaint a light as in Amster- dam. He makes himself at home as much in one place as the other. The little cabin, with its glazed windows and colored curtains, its looking- glass and mat, and, if it is winter, a foot-warmer for the ladies, with cush- ioned benches on either side and a small case or shelf acrainst the wall holding a modest library, everything bright and neat ; this is an index of the Hollander. If his journey is long he has his own table, where he can write, and opens a regular business office, preparing necessary cor- respondence or even carrying on trade with some brother merchant who may chance to be going his way. The women sew or knit, the length of the journey being often reckoned in stockings. There is much smoking and tea-drinking, the girls sing soft choruses at night, which float more calmly over Holland than any other land and water on earth, and when it is time that all honest people were abed the cabin is divided into two parts — the saloon, and the sleeping room, which occupies the width of the cabin, composed of simple mattresses and counterpanes all smacking of fresh air and good, honest soap and water. So these thousands of boats, usually about thirty feet long, glide along the Dutch water ways, being drawn by horses upon which are mounted postilions. In front of each boat is a mast, which is lowered at the bridge, and to the top of which the long rope is fastened which drags the craft along. The master of the boat is placid, polite and quiet, but the postilion lustily blows his buffalo horn, or shouts at the top of his lungs wlien he approaches a bridge or a boat. But should he urge his beast along every canal in Holland and drag the boat after him in which the writer is supposed to be, there would come before him one continuous chain of evidence that , despite their centuries of disasters, the Dutch are a uniformly pirosperous people. Near the towns, which are so numerous that their limits can scarcely be traced, are built upon the banks of the canals Chinese pavilions, where the women take their needlework and knitting and the men their pipes, and from soft clouds of smoke or over their cups of tea and coffee calmly watch the flow of industry along the watery thoroughfares. EVERYONE SEDATE AND CLEAN. Sedateness and cleanliness seem to be the outward manifestations of the Dutch character. The present generation inherits these tenden- cies from the past. Such struggles with nature and man as the people have had for their country have engraved themselves upon the persons ■of children yet unborn ; with the Dutchman, life has been no laughing EVERYONE SEDATE AND CLEAN. 863 matter. But though sedate he is far from being sad or gloomy, as the roses, the hyacinths, the tuHps, the gay houses and the placid happiness of his women and children prove. Even the maidens of the Netherlands are sedate. Whether in the country or the city it is not customary for them to look boldly at passers-by. They hide themselves behind vines and green frameworks, and if they wish to look upon the crowded street the objects below them are reflected in two mirrors, set at the proper angles, and placed outside the window, so that they may see without being seen. Why the Dutch are clean as well as sedate it may be impossible to explain on any philosophical or historic grounds. Perhaps the abundance of water and the crowded condition of their land may have had something to do with it. Existence in Holland would be impossible without cleanliness. As it is there are no healthier people in the world. In the laroe cities the hours before 9:30 a. m., daily, are devoted en- tirely to cleaning, this matter being reg- ulated accordinor to law. This is all the more necessary, since, if the build- ings do not face canal embankments, the streets, especially in the old quar- "L\ ters, have been raised as high as the /r| dikes to improve the drainage ; so that access to the structures is obtained by descending a flight of steps, and when mistresses and maids, having no yards in which to perform such duties, take possession of the streets to beat car- "^ - ^ pets, shake mats, throw water upon a neat dutch inn. the houses from little brass hand engines, wield window washers attached to long poles, and, in fact, to brush and wash and dry their dwellings inside and out, then the pedestrian who ventures upon a Dutch street before 9:30 is miserable indeed. Though the vigor with which the women conduct this siege against dirt transforms them for the time being into a species of maniacs, they still maintain their reputation for cleanliness, being generally dressed in pale lavender bodices, with a black petticoat below, a white apron in front and a snowy cap over the head. 864 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Go to a Dutch farm house, visit the cow shed even, and everything is as neat as wax. The cow herself is clean, and the brass milk pails, arranged in racks outside the shed, seem to actually add light to the landscape. The house is before you, painted green and white, the flower pots are red, the vegetable and flower gardens are trim and fresh, and the farmer's wife and daughter are the neatest of them all. It is not hard to understand why the Dutch love their homes, such types of order and purity. Another explanation has been given to account for the native passion for cleanliness and that is the fact of the humidity of the atmosphere which would produce mildew, rust and other destructive agencies, if the people were not constantly painting, rubbing and polish- mg. THE KERMIS AND HOME. There is one occasion, however, which completely submerges every trace of native sedateness, and that is the Kermis, which was formerly a Catholic festival following a season of penance and fasting. As long as the season of festivities continued red wooden crosses stood in the churches, before the city gates and bridges and at the district boundaries. This custom continued until after the Reformation and the Kermis was the excuse for much disorder, drunkenness and crime. Then, as now, the foundations of the national character seemed overturned. Notwith- standing the efforts of the clergy to have the Kermis suppressed, both for its bad effects and because it is a relic of Catholicism, it flourishes as a national institution, although in Amsterdam it has been abolished. In Rotterdam it continues for a week, and in towns and villages the festiv- ities are boisterously sustained for several days. The Kermis is of the nature of an average country fair, but the participants, especially in prim- itive Friesland, move about from town to town, singing, drinking and dancing day and night, seeing the sights, having their fortunes told, and eating very small pancakes ("broedertjes ") and pickled vegetables. The Kermis is the best place in the world in which to observe the many varieties of Dutch costumes. The islanders of the north of Hol- land do not seem to belong to the countrv, the men wearing enormous wide breeches and jackets, made of the coarsest stuffs. On the other hand, the Zeeland farmers of Southern Holland appear in natty jackets and knee breeches of black velveteen, grey stockings and scarlet waist- coats, a row of silver buttons running down the front to a belt, in the center of which flare two immense bosses of the same metal. In many of the towns modern costumes are crowding o ut the picturesque old, and often there is a quaint blending of the two. F or instance, over the " head- THE KERMIS AND HOME. 865 iron," as it is called, will often be drawn not only a linen or lace cap but a modern bonnet, with artificial flowers, feathers, ribbons and all. The "head-iron ' is a skull cap made of finely polished gold or silver, and its orio-in is uncertain. When made of the baser metal it might have been a badge of servitude ; now it is an ornament and heirloom, being pre- sented to the girl when she is confirmed at church. At the top there is a hood for ventilation, a fringed lace hood falls to the shoulders and pendants of gold hang from the edge of the cap, or a broad band is worn across the forehead almost in a line with the eyes. Over all this, as stated, is sometimes worn a bonnet of modern con- struction. Kermis over, however, the Dutch Boer returns to his round of duties and faithfully performs them until the next season of national relaxation comes round, his machinery being kept in smooth running order by his pipe, his tea cup, his church and small social affairs. If his worldly affairs are not prosperous the interior of his cottage will be found divided off by wooden par- titions into a number of rooms, with a loft for corn and hay above. Racks for dishes are fixed against the wall. If his home is particularly exposed to inundations, the family bed con- sists of a huge square box, raised six or seven feet from the floor, approached by ladders and filled with warm grasses or sea weed. Like the Turk coming into the mosque, the Dutch peasant takes off his shoes when entering his house ; but the Boer leaves his without. They may be painted white, black, red, white and blue, and artistically carved ; but in the true rural districts the number of shoes ranging near the cottage door will indicate the extent of the company to be found within. One of the first things which a stranger notices when entering a Dutch house is that it has no fixed gfrate or stove. The stoves are ^ 55 GOING TO BAPTISM. 866 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. usually portable and may be hired, like a carriage, of regular dealers in the property. The invariable fuel, however, is peat or a coke made from peat. In summer, stoves are generally removed from the houses and much of the fire which cooks the householder's food and boils his tea and coffee, is sold to him. In some street close at hand is an industrious Dutchman, who at breakfast and tea time sends out a force of boys with small iron vessels containing a kettle of water upon a red-hot turf to be delivered at the houses in the neighborhood. The same individual, also, often contracts to wake persons who are obliged to rise early, and over his shop is a sign which, translated, means, " Here they knock and wake per- sons." But it was of peat that we intended to particularly speak ; for peat is used not only in the house but in many factories, and there are as many grades of it in Holland as there are of coal in America. The con- sumption of peat has increased, in a greater ratio than coal, and, perhaps, next to the EXTERIOR OF A DUTCH HOUSE. fisheries, its excava- tion, preparation and transportation employ more, people than any other industry of the country. The fuel cut from the low beds of Hol- land is preferable for its compactness and fineness, although much of the peat is now compressed by machinery and transformed into char- coal. For running machinery regular coal is undoubtedly preferable. PEAT BEDS, HIGH AND LOW. Whole villages and districts in Holland owe their prosperity to the acres of peat beds which have been exposed in the course of centuries. Whether the beds are high or low, they have to be drained of water, with this difference : From the high beds the water is first drained before the peat is cut, while that which lies on a lower level is spaded PEAT BEDS, HIGH AND LOW. 86/ and removed under water, the stratum of clay having first been laken away. The process of draining the high lands sometimes requires seven or eight years before the bed can be worked at all, trenches being dug and gradually deepened, which run into a central canal, where great barges wait to receive the fuel. After the peat has been cut into squares, lifted and piled so scientifically that every side is exposed to wind and sunshine, each piece is turned by women and children, that which is least dry being placed on top. When the whole yield is dry it is stored in sheds, arranged on laths or planks, and is ready for shipment. But before it gets under cover an unusually rainy season may cause the owner great loss by transforming the entire product into almost a liquid consistency. The carelessness of a workman, or of a villager who lives in the peat district, may be the means of destroying hundreds of acres of the fuel bed before it even sees the light of day. A stray match, a piece of lighted sod thrown upon the ground which has been used for boiling a tea kettle, may start such a smoldering conflagration in the drained mass of fuel as will hollow out the bed of a pond or a lake. This danger has also been used as a weapon in the course of the Hol- lander's unique campaigns against national enemies. One strikingly effective move of this nature was made against the Spaniards, by which their only practicable road was undermined, gouged into enormous hol- lows, flooded and made useless, gulfs and lakes being thrown across their military pathway. It was the working of the low peat beds for so many years which filled Holland with lakes and marshes, to drain which the windmill pumps arose and her great canal system was perfected. When the soft sods are cut and lifted from beneath the water, they are thrown into barges and carried to land. There they are placed in large circular troughs and trodden into a doughy consistency, stones and roots being thrown out as the work progresses. This mass is allowed to dry in the trough, after which the workman fastens a plank to either foot and enters his tread- mill again to smooth the surface. The peat is then cut and dried and loaded on to the long, ancient-looking turf boats, which in no mean pro- portion form in line with the milk and passenger boats which enliven the highways of Holland. The boats are provided with wooden houses in which the boatmen live with their families, and when one is loaded with these vegetable blocks, piled with the utmost precision and only a few inches above water, it is in appearance a new order of Merrimac transferred to Holland waters. Women often assist in the unloading, the final transfer being accomplished in clumsy hand-carts of the same pattern, it is said, as those in which the Spaniards brought their muni- 868 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. tions of war into the country. The Spanish carts, of course, were drawn by horses, but it was made unlawful to construct hand-carts according to this model, although old ones might be repaired. The utility of peat does not end with its burning. In place of piles, it is used as a foundation for houses built in marshy districts. Its ashes constitute a valuable fertilizer, its soot cleans steel or tin, its smoke prepares salt meats and herrings, and the substance is employed in the manufacture of ink and paper. THE HERRING FISHERIES. Holland obtained its first real start as a commercial nation from the privileges which it obtained from England to fish for herring on her coast ; this was during the latter part of the thirteenth century. The fisheries became a great source of prosperity to Vlaardingen, which is still the principal depot, and to other towns, especially when a peculiarly fine way of curing herring was discovered and kept a close secret. The fishermen who lived in a collection of huts on the south shore of an arm of Zuyder Zee, called Damsluij's, were especially enterprising, — sell- ing their fish in all parts of the world and bringing back produce for home consumption and for export. This was the basis of Amsterdam's foreign commerce and opulence, and, to some extent, the colonization^ schemes of the Dutch and her boldness in foreign lands and waters had an inception in the greater prosperity which the herring brought to Hol- land. Having added to their stern contest with floods at home this broad experience on the high seas, the Dutch became the most success- ful navigators in the world, contesting the palm with the bold and hardy Portuguese. The war with France and the rivalry of England greatly embarrassed their fisheries, and their commerce during the last part of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries greatly declined. Both herring fisheries and foreign commerce are improving, although the Dutch never again reached the height of power which they attained in the seventeenth century. A LITTLE HISTORY. During the latter portion of the sixteenth century the republic of the Seven United Provinces was formed. Flanders and Brabant refused to join the confederacy, remained under Spanish and Austrian rule, and were subsequently annexed to Holland as a shield against France. But the two people could not assimilate, and Belgium was erected from the two Catholic provinces. WINTER IN HOLLAND. 869 The next important historic event after the formation of the repub- lic was the death of WiHiam of Orange. His son succeeded him, that brilhant general, Prince Maurice of Nassau, who made Holland one of the foremost military powers on land. Within thirty years after his death the Dutch expelled the Spaniards from many of their possessions in South America and the East Indies and forced them to formally ac- knowledge the independence of the United Provinces. Thus the herring, the sword and the ship made Holland the great power which we find her in the seventeenth century. She has retained, despite her subsequent reverses, her possessions in the East Indies, and has even extended them. In Sumatra, Borneo, Java, the Celebes, New Guinea and other islands of the Archipelago we have seen how the Dutch are firmly established on native soil. They were early driven out of Brazil by the Portuguese, but have important possessions in Guiana and South Africa. Wherever they have gone, east or west, they have found their old rivals, the English, either there before them or close upon their heels. The East India Company formerly monopolized the rich trade of the Asiatic islands, it being a combination of several companies which, under a charter from the State, was granted exclusive privileges for twenty-one years. This gigantic monopoly was extended by the gov- ernment, from time to time, for two hundred years, but its course became so tyrannical toward both natives and Europeans, in its efforts to rule the markets of the world, that it fell into disrepute. The establishment of the Batavian Republic in Java was the fatal stroke delivered after it had been weakened by English arms and commercial rivalry. The Netherlands government took possession of its affairs in 1 795 and the government trading association succeeded it in many of its features. This company is the selling agent and carrier of the government produce in Europe, but attempts to exercise no such arbitrary power as to dic- tate to producers how much or what they shall raise. WINTER IN HOLLAND. Winter in Holland is not all gayety — not composed solely of warm furs, red cheeks, gleaming skates, and love on ice. The canals are utilized, it is true, as in no other land, for both pleasure and trade. There are laughing skaters, lovers gliding along arm in arm, and long lines of young men, Indian file, bound together with a long pole, shoot- ing between town and city. There are also the women bearing their €ggs and butter to market, with long, regular, strong strokes ; and much 870 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. darker pictures of suffering among the fishermen and artisans of the country, notwithstanding the general prosperity. Sleighing parties go dashing along in odd, gilded sledges lined with furs, the horses adorned with colored plumes and silver bells, but seem almost stationary as they are approached by the ice-boat with its huge sail and excited occupants. The more severe the winter the more of life the rivers and canals of Holland bear, but hundreds of poor laborers look out over the ice which bars the vessels from the great ports and snatches away their bread. Artisans and their families are thrown out of employment, and suffer from long winters and dearness of food, as they do in other countries. But the Dutch are extremely practical, and see that it is cheaper to give the unoccupied employment than to punish and support them as crim- inals. Their sense Qroes with their benevolence. PROMOTING THE PUBLIC GOOD. Holland has her soup kitchens and her pauper colonies, where heads of families are allotted cottages, land and live-stock. She has every possible public institution for the relief of the sick and needy ; but her brightest glory is a private institution, which has thrown its broad spirit over the country like the great warm coat of a whole-souled man around the bent, trembling shoulders of a poor woman. Within a century, from an association consisting of a Protestant minister, his son and a few friends, the Society for the Promotion of the Public Good has grown into a body of 15,000 or 16,000 members, divided into more than 300 depart- ments. Each town or parish where there are only eight members who wish to join the Society has the privilege of organizing a branch, and sends a representative to the general assembly, which meets once a year at Amsterdam. With their heads, their hearts and their pockets this great body of philanthropists labor in the establishment and mainte- nance of schools for the poor, industrial homes for the temporary indi- gent, hospitals and asylums. The Society, in fact, laid the foundation of the present excellent system of public education which has made Holland famous, the members of its central committee actually assisting" to draw up the law of 1806. In a word, the object of the Society of Public Utility (for its title has been variously translated into English) is to found all institutions, from the contributions of its members, which it decides are for the good of the public, and to keep them on their feet until they can run alone, or until private individuals or the state will support and lead them. It also wisely directs the streams of charity which otherwise would flow wide of the mark to which they were directed. THE BELGIANS. 87 1 One of the wisest as well as the most profitable of the works in which the Society has been engaged is in reclaiming the sandy borders of the ocean and changing them into cultivated fields. The government, which stands far down on the debtor side of the account, by request, turned over a large district of sand dunes, and without removing the necessary coast protections, the Society, with the assistance of those whom hard seasons have stranded, has converted the land into vegetable gardens which not only have supported the indigent but realized some- thing for the market. Every winter hundreds of workmen who would be idle in the cities, are engaged in lowering the sand hills, manuring the ground and preparing for the spring planting. The sand, also, frequently covered with moss and lichens, is sold to mix with clayey soil or as ballast for ships. THE BELGIANS. The large Celtic element found among the Belgians is what parti- cularly distinguishes them from the Dutch. The Flemings are Teutonic and the Walloons, Gallic or Celtic. The Dutch are Protestant, the Belgians Catholic, but the races and nationalities which are found within the confines of Belgium have done nothing more than to group them- selves together. They have never been moulded into a people, with national traits, such as the Germans, the Dutch, the French and the Encrlish. The Austrians bear much the same relation to the Germans and Russians as the Belgians do to the French and Dutch. They occupy a certain country, but they have not a distinct nationality. The political parties into which the Belgians are divided are formed upon religious grounds, which also are generally laid out upon race characteristics. Celtic blood is the strength of the Catholic, and Teutonic blood of the Liberal party. The Walloons are descendants of the old Gallic Belgae, and are related to the French in race and language ; in. fact, their tono^ue is a dialect of the French, containinor the jyreatest number of Gallic words. The Walloons not only inhabit the country in France which borders upon Germany, but predominate in all the provinces of Belgium except those lying adjacent to Holland. They are what remain of the ancient stock which held their own in the moun- tains of Gaul when the country was overrun by the Germans. They are the agriculturists and the manufacturers of Belgium, the revolutionists to whom the country owes its independence of Holland, and the states- men, also, of the kingdom. The Flemings mostly give their attention to commerce. The Walloons are of average height, with powerful limbs, dark hair and dark brown or blue eyes. They have the earnest- 8/2 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. ness, perseverance and diligence of the Flemings, or Dutch, with the impulsiveness and adroitness of the French, After the fall of Napoleon the Belgian provinces were severed from France and attached to Holland. The Dutch or Flemish element then attempted to impose its language and its very character upon the Walloons, planting the seeds of the revolution of 1830, which made Belgium an independent State. The Flemish language, however, is spoken not only in the provinces bordering on Holland, but to so'great an extent in the Walloon districts that it may be said to be the national tongue of Belgium. It is essentially modern Dutch, containing more of the ancient forms, especially of the Frisian tongue. The Flemish language has a literature extending back into the thirteenth century ; and to-day the literary talents of Belgium are with the Flemings rather than the Walloons. Upon one point, however, the Belgians are agreed as a people — their country must be developed internally. The Dutch province of Zealand, which extends into their geographical territory, covers the mouths of the rivers which form their principal water communication, and 'Holland was not generous in granting them privileges. Conse- quently Belgium proceeded to build a system of railroads, which not only follows the courses of the navigable waters of the interior, along which hundreds of villages have sprung, but runs between them, connect- ing her large cities with every necessary point. The system which the country is still perfecting is the most complete of any on the continent, and Belgium gets along very well without the mouths of the Scheldt, the Maas and the Rhine. It not only binds her own territory closely together, but places her in convenient communication with Germany and France. BELGIUM'S CITIES. The tendency of the Belgians to sink everything in trade is strik- ingly illustrated in the appearance of Brussels. The portion of the city which lies along the Seine River and the Scheldt Canal is the old part, and was formerly occupied by the nobility, who lived in great fortresses and palaces. Under Charles V. Brussels was the capital of the Neth- erlands, and his son made it the principal scene of Inquisition horrors. The old town also contains several grand Gothic churches, but the palaces of the former nobility are now occupied by great merchants. Linen, paper, soap and carriage factories throw their shadows upon the walls of famous old churches. What of the carpet manufactories ? They are chiefly found in Tournay, forty-five miles southwest of the BELGIUM S CITIES. 873 READING A CONDEMNED BOOK. 874 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. capital, and the products are sent to Brussels. The city manufactures many mathematical instruments, to remind people that the celebrated Quetelet once had charge of her observatory. The Upper Town, on a hill side, is the residence of the King and government officers. It contains his palace and that of the Prince of Orange, a great number of fine parks, squares, churches, fountains,, statues, public and private buildings. In one of the squares is a memo- rial to' those who fell in the revolution of 1830. The Palace of the Fine Arts contains the finest specimens of the Flemish school of painting to^ be found and a great public library in which are thousands of manuscripts, adorned with beautiful miniature paintings from the hands of Van Eyck's. scholars. The new Palace of Justice is a superb structure. The Belgians have never forgiven Antwerp for defying the revolu- tionists of 1830, but the city had a commercial reason for doing it. Her fortunes were joined to Belgium, instead of to Holland, her natural ally,, and her prosperity declined. Her trade went to Amsterdam and Rot- terdam, but her greatest treasure remained. The interior of her noble Gothic cathedral exhibits two of Rubens' grandest pictures and another church contains the monument to his family. Ghent, northwest of Brussels, was the birthplace of Charles V., father of Philip II.; but manufactures of cotton and wool, and great religious paintings by the Dutch masters, such as Van Eyck, again divide the attention. The churches of Belgium, in short, like those of many other countries, are best known to the world by the works of art which adorn them and become a part of religious teaching. The field of Waterloo is twelve miles south of Brussels, and the ofreat conflict there fousrht was but the conclusion of a longr series of troubles into which Belgium had been drawn by being attached tO' France, Spain, Austria and Holland, and being drawn into their quarrels. Whenever a treaty of peace was signed between any of the great Powers a slice of Belgium was passed over to France, or an old piece taken back by Spain or Austria ; or, it may be, that Holland was allowed to get a fresh hold upon the little state or was forced to loosen an unfair one. The secret of all these shiftings and turnings lay in the. desire to erect a state of some power to counterbalance France and Germany, and the result was that for over a century Belgium was the battle-field of Europe. On the map of Europe it resembles nothing sO' much as a little triangular wedge driven in between the two rival Powers, standing in the most convenient path for the invasion or retreat of hos- tile armies. THE SWISS. WITZERLAND is the most elevated and mountainous coun- try of Europe. Five-sixths of its surface consist of glaciers, rocks, forests, lakes, gorges and other unproductive elements which make it the most rugged and picturesque of all lands,, but valueless for all practical purposes. The origrinal inhabitants of Switzerland are believed to have been of Celtic origin. Collectively, the tribes were called Helvetii. But the country first became a Roman province and finally the Alemanni, the Burgundians, the Goths and the Franks overran, devastated and subdued the land, stamping out nearly every vestige of the Roman and Celtic civilization. Although the Helvetii were incorporated into the empire of the Franks, Swiss lib- erty was lying dormant in the three ancient cantons of Schwytz, Uri and Unterwalden, the inhabitants of which are believed to be descended from Swedish immigrants. They had never been conquered, Schwytz was the most powerful of the cantons and the whole people assumed its name — the Schwytz, the Swiss. Two centuries later Germany relinquished all claim upon the Confederacy and during the French revolution two French armies marched into Switzerland and forcibly erected " the indivisible Helvetii republic." The first constitution, however, which was adopted by the people was promulgated in 1848 and revised in 1874, although a federal compact had been in force since 181 5. This, in brief, has beea the progress of the Republic of the Alps. THE SWISS REPUBLIC. The government consists of the National Council and the Council of States or Cantons, which correspond to our Senate and House of Representatives. All Swiss are equal before the law ; but the Jesuits are forbidden to hold office, as being a mischievous element in the coun- try. The confederacy may send away dangerous foreigners. Liberty of conscience is guaranteed and no one is bound to support a church to- which he does not belong. The age of the voter is fixed at twenty ■876 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. years, and all except clergymen are eligible to the National Council The maintenance of a standing army is forbidden, every able-bodied citizen being considered a defender of his country in time of need. Trial by jury is not universal, but it has been introduced into many of the cantons. The Fed- eral Court is chosen by the SWISj SCENES National Council for a term of six years. In order to place before the people a revision of the constitution, the two Councils must agree to such FAMILY LIFE IN THE ALPS. 877 action, or 50,000 citizens demand it ; and, to become law, the revision must be adopted by a majority of tiie voters and a majority of the can- tons, FAMILY LIFE IN THE ALPS. The peculiarly wild nature of the country has not only made its peo- ple rugged and independent, but has been the best possible instructor in all the branches of industry and has formed them to those habits of sim- plicity which the most artificial can not but admire. Its pastures are comparatively few, but they are mown with care. Switzerland is not rich like our own Texas in cattle, but to the Swiss herdsman every cow and calf has an individuality, and amid the howling blasts of an Alpine- storm he goes from one charge to another, encouraging the terrified animals as though they were frightened children. The majority of the Swiss agriculturists are, in winter weather, en- gaged at their crude looms or in making lace. In the north nearly every family has its piece of cotton or silk upon which it is engaged, or, if re- siding on the borderland of France, its members are busily employed in^ fashioning the various parts of musical boxes. Here also is the district where the Swiss watches are made and great quantities of fine jewelry.. The six or seven months of winter are therefore not joyless ones, for the Swiss farmer, although he shares his house with his cattle. They often occupy the lower floor, himself and family the second story, and the great attic is packed with fodder which serves the secondary purpose of furnishing a warm covering for them. If he is not so fortunate as to- have a three-story house, animals and people are brought a little nearer- together — that is all. As the spring suns commence to melt the snow from the highlands, members of the family drop their winter's work more and more often and consult together about some important matter,, passing frequently back and forth to the neighboring houses. At length the emerald green of the crisp, young grass appears on the slopes of the uplands, and the villagers put on their best clothes and brightest rib- bons, decorate their cattle, goats and sheep with ribbons, summon the town band, receive the blessing of their pastor, form in procession (al- though it is most difficult to restrain the buoyant spirits of the brutes, mad with fresh air and sunshine and a sense of freedom) and march to their summer grounds. There the men take up their quarters in moun- tain huts, several miles from the village and often separated from their wives and families. The cattle frisk and eat, eat, ruminate and frisk, and are only required to report two or three times a day, in order ta deliver the raw material for cheese. This is the source of greatest -878 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. revenue to the Swiss mountaineer. He sometimes, however, varies his money-making labors by one of pure love ; for it is a custom in some of the mountainous regions for two related families to unite in making a stupendous cheese, on which are carved the names of the latest betrothed couple connected with them. When married they receive the cheese, and it may even pass down to their married children. Swiss courtships are conducted in quite a romantic manner. Sat- urday nights are the favorites with lovers, and the swain sings under the window of his lady as if he lived in the middle ages. "As it is visiting night, and she expects company, she is at the window neatly dressed, and admits or rejects the petition which is always drawn up in regular form, generally in verse and learned by heart. Permission being granted, the young man climbs up to the window, which is commonly in the third story; and as the houses are furnished with conveniences for this pur- pose he runs little risk of breaking his neck. He sits on the window and is regaled with gingerbread and cherry bounce. According as his views are more or less serious, or he proves more or less acceptable, he is allowed to enter the room or is forced to remain outside." / The distinctive feature of the Swiss house is its immense projecting roof, which succeeds in maintaining the unity of the structure despite the many improvements which the proprietor is always making ; as it has been more felicitously expressed " the original picturesque building, with its immense projecting roof sheltering or shading all these succes- sive additions, looks like a hen setting with a brood of chickens under her wings." The owner's pedigree often appears over the doorway, or .a motto, or a long text from Scripture. The wealthier peasants have sometimes two or three houses or "chalets" at different elevations in the mountains, so that as the lower -pastures are exhausted, the herds of cattle are led up to the higher levels. The women themselves are often thus employed and also gather hay on the mountain sides. But wherever they go they exhibit the :same love of flowers and of nature, their staffs being adorned with rib- bons and wreaths and their wide hats and beautiful hair covered with them. Their large, meek companions, who follow after them, are also decked as gayly. The horses which come to the villages from the mountain dairies, loaded with boxes of cheeses, make the clear air tinkle with their bells and seem proud of the colored tassels attached to them. And up near the dark forests of pine, where are the fresh, green ■pastures, both below and above, there are millions of twinkling wild flowers, which, with the bright sun, fresh air, and water falling from the • cool rocks above, assist in sweetening the milk and butter of the sleek A MOUNTAIN MAID— SWITZERLAND. PHYSICAL AND NATIONAL CENTER. 879 kine. The same landscape which offers you flowered meadows, cas- cades from the clouds, distant Alps and dizzy gorges, will press upon you the riiilkman with his one-legged stool strapped behind, his baker's hat and short pants, the savage dog which guards the chalet, and the indignant bull which charges at you as you are considering what course you had best pursue with the dog. There is no way by which one can so efTectually reach a contrast between animal and God-like nature as by tramping through the cattle districts of Alpine Switzerland, with their million of horned cattle. Wood-cutting is an important occupation of the mountaineers. In the uplands the trees are stripped of their branches and pitched into the valleys below until they reach a navigable stream, when they are rafted into France and Germany. PHYSICAL AND NATIONAL CENTER. Schwytz, Uri, Unterwalden and Lucerne are called the Forest Can- tons, and inclose as a jewel the Lake of Lucerne. One of the most mag- nificent peaks around its shores is the Rigi, which may be ascended either by rail or by foot. To the majority of healthy tourists the latter mode is preferable — the gradual rising from the shadows of its base, through forests of pine, beneath gloomy rocks, into the pure, upper air, leaving the tinkling of bells and village noises farther and farther behind; the grand view of lakes, villages and mountains getting broader and broader, until, as the summit is approached, it seems as if with one exultant bound one might leap out into God's universe. For each hour of the day and night a different picture would be painted ; each season of the year and change in weather bring their peculiar tints, mists, clouds and glories. The following is a morning picture which has been painted by an artist — a picture which embraces a range of 150 miles from the Rigi : " In all this region, when the upper glory of the heavens and moun- tain peaks has ceased playing, then as the sun gets higher, forests, lakes, hills, rivers, tree and villages, at first indistinct and gray in the shadow, become flooded in sunlight, and almost seem floating up toward you. There was for us another feature of the view, constituting by itself one of the most novel and charming sights of Swiss scenery, but which does not always accompany the panorama from the Rigi, even in a fine morn- ing. This was the soft, smooth, white body of mist, lying on most of the lakes and in the vales — a sea of mist, floating or rather brooding like a white dove over the landscape. The spots of land at first visible in the midst of it were just like islands half emerging to the view. It lay over the Bay of Kussnacht at our feet like the white robe of an 88o PANORAMA OF NATIONS. infant in the cradle, but the greater part of the Lake of Lucerne was sleeping quietly without it, as an undressed babe. Over the whole of the Lake of Zug the mist was at first motionless, but in the breath of the morning it began slowly to move altogether toward the west, dis- closing the village of Arth and the verdurous borders of the lake, and then uncovering its deep sea-green waters which reflected the lovely sailing shadows of the clouds as a mirror. Now the church bells began to chime under this body of mist, and voices from the invisible villages mingled with the tinkle of sheep bells and various stir of life awakening from sleep came stilly up the mountain. And now some of the moun- tain peaks themselves began suddenly to be touched with fleeces of cloud, as if smoking with incense in morning worship. Detachments of mist begin also to rise from the lakes and valleys, moving from the main body up into the air. The villages, chalets and while roads, dotting and threading the vast circumference of landscape come next into view. And now on the Lake of Zug you may see reflected the shadows of clouds that have risen from the surface, but are them.selves below you." The Rigi towers between Lake Lucerne and Lake Zug, and around its base lies the most interesting historic ground of Switzerland. Near it is the meadow, the Griitli, on which the distinguished patriots of Schwytz, Uri and Unterwalden met to form that league which expelled the Austrians and razed their castles. A few miles away is the village where Tell (we insist there was such a man) refused to bow to the cap of the Austrian tyrant and where he made that historic shot. A fountain in the middle of the town marks where he stood, and a rude tower, where his boy was placed bound to the linden tree. What better evidence is required that Tell lived and cut the apple in twain which rested upon his boy's head? We refuse to abandon either William Tell or Robin Hood. From the Rigi glances may be shot over Eastern and Northern Switzerland into the country of her former enemy and beyond the Jura mountains into the ancient duchy of Swabia, the land of their faithful German friends. Far to the west also, over the canton of Berne, the vision can range almost to the territory which once belonged to France. From this mighty observatory, also, commanding a view of over 200 rocky and snow-capped peaks, may be traced the battle-ground of the fierce civil wars between Catholicism and Protestantism. The Rigi rises from the center of the Catholic stronghold, the four Forest Cantons. ANOTHER GLORIOUS COUNTRY. W^e can not see all of Switzerland from the Rigi, but so much of its northern half that we will take a closer view of what partly comes HUNTING THE CHAMOIS. 88l before us in the distance. But thousrh we leave the beauties and olories of the lakes of the Forest Cantons, others as charming come up before us, and on the border of each lake is a city or a locality which is a religious and a patriotic shrine to some Swiss or other. Where the Rhone contracts into a stream, shortly before it enters the Lake of Geneva, a bridge is thrown across the narrow gorge. The bridge is commanded by a fort. This point, St. Maurice, was the scene of many struggles during the long conflicts which the Swiss had with the dukes of Savoy. Dent du Midi, sloping majestically up toward heaven, its snowy peaks set off so vividly against a dark foreground of rocky and pine-clad hills, has been left behind, but all the way around the shores of the lake there are peaks and massive mounts, some of them nameless, but of almost equal grandeur. Perhaps the most bewildering of sublime attractions are concen- trated at the Creux des Champs, a great amphitheatre in a mountain's side, surrounded by glaciers, rocks, forests and green pastures. From the heights arc seen the Burnese and Pennine Alps, far east and south to Mont Blanc, and the bright waters of Lake Geneva, whose farther shores reflect so much of the Reformation. The hills to the north of this prodigious amphitheatre (which is often used by the Protestants as a temple dedicated to God) command a view of fertile valleys, little vil- lages and scattered wooden chalets, quaintly carved and ornamented with good texts from Scripture. Little churches stand in the shadows of the mountains, on green slopes, or almost hidden by coverings of flowering vines. There is human and brute life on every mountain side and stretch of meadow, and the incessant tinkling of bells, and the occa- sional crack of a rifle, bear to the ears the information that we are in a great dairy country and a district famous for its hunters and marksmen, HUNTING THE CHAMOIS. Owing to the scarcity of the game and the difficulties of the pur- suit, chamois hunting is a sport which is now little engaged in by Swiss mountaineers. Occasionally, however, these very difficulties and dangers will make a hardy, keen-eyed peasant passionately fond of the hunt. In summer the chamois are now usually found in very small flocks near the snow line, and in Avinter they descend to the forests and mountain mead- ows. Their haunts may often be discovered by curious hollows in the stones made by the tongue of the chamois in their eager lapping for the saltpetre with which they abound. But this knowledge will generally be of little avail, for their sense of smell is very acute, and one of their number is usually posted on some rocky pinnacle to give warning, by a whistle, 56 882 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. of the enemy's approach. Then the most remarkable leaps to be observed in the animal kingdom are witnessed, not only across ravines six or seven yards wide, but over walls a dozen feet high, and down perpendic- ular precipices of twenty feet. The manner of conducting this last species of gymnastics is worthy of particular mention. During its descent the animal strikes its feet against the side of the rock in order to guide its course. There may be a narrow ledge of rock at the bottom, and an abyss beyond, but by a peculiar turn of the body the chamois alights firmly upon its hind feet, brings its fore feet together and then is ready for another sure leap. Such a mark is worthy the bullet of the most skillful Swiss marks- man, and the hunter of the Vaud, who leads them all, takes a pride in venturing out alone to bring back a trophy of his prowess, as well as skill. LAND OF THE REFORMATION. The northern or Swiss shores of the Lake of Geneva are pictur- esque in the extreme ; the French shores are "solemn and stern, with the mountains of Savoy in the background." Rounding the southern extremity of the lake, past Byron's Castle of Chillon, the prosperous town of Geneva comes pleasantly into view, with its broad quays and streets, its handsome hotels, its famous watches, music boxes and jewelry and its historic interest. The Rhone rushes through the town, form- ing two islands on its way, and it is noticed how the lake has transformed the turbid, yellow waters which entered at the upper end, into the deep, blue crystalline stream which pours from the Geneva side. In coming upon Geneva the mountains and hills fall away, but looking across the lake from a less elevated position Mont Blanc becomes, if possible, more impressive than from any other standpoint. Not only is the view less obstructed than usual, but, although sixty miles away, the snows and rosy tints of the mighty mass are often reflected in the fair Geneva crystal. Monuments to the leaders of the Reformation are found in Geneva in the shape of colleges, universities and libraries, Farel, Calvin and Beza are stamped upon the town as they are upon the age, A substan- tial memorial hall of the- Reformation appears as one of the principal buildings of Geneva, as do also the cathedral in which Calvin preached and the museum which holds many of his manuscripts. The house in which he lived is also pointed out to the curious. Geneva was Rous- seau's native town and one of the islands in the Rhone is laid out in beautiful pleasure grounds which contain an elegant statue of the French eccentric, whom Carlyle compares to " a man in convulsions" all through life. . THE SWISS CAPITAL. 883 Voltaire, like Rousseau, found an asylum in Geneva from his ene- mies ; and Madame de Stael came there, and Knox, and Casaubon, and Sismondi, and a host of others of the most startling mental and moral diversities. The town on the lake became one of the greatest centers of religious education in Europe, the Protestant youth of all countries resorting thither to be educated in its schools. From it at the same time shot forth the most brilliant shafts of atheism which were ever leveled at the world ; for here was the grand center of free speech, and the man or woman whose tongue was curbed in other parts fied to Geneva as to a fortress from which the enemy could be assaulted. From Geneva along the slopes of the Jura mountains the vine is cultivated, and the type of scenery is softer than among, the Alps of Southern and Central Switzerland. The canton of Neufchatel, into which we now enter, is the scene of the labors of William Farel, who was the father of the Reformation in Switzerland and the adviser and friend of John Calvin. Ruskin has dipped his pen in "the deep tenderness pervading that vast monotony " of the Jura mountains, and finds that " no frost-ploughed, dust-encumbered paths of ancient glaciers fret their soft pastures ; no splintered heaps of ruin break the fair ranks of her forests ; no pale, defiled or furious rivers rend their rude and changeful ways among her rocks. Patiently, eddy by eddy, the clear green streams wind along their well-known beds ; and under the dark quietness of the undisturbed pines, there spring up, year by year, such a company of joy- ful fiowers " as he knew not the like of amongf all the blessino-s of the earth. THE SWISS CAPITAL. By following the windings of the River Aar eastward from this can- ton of mountains, lakes and streams, one would pass nearly around a lofty sandstone promontory upon which stands an imposing city of stone houses, promenades, gardens and fountains, the supply of which runs through the beautiful streets. Looking southward across the bright valleys of the Aar and Emmen, and the Bernese Oberland, over corn fields, orchards, and pastures covered with fat herds of cattle, the line of vision is bounded by the mighty front of the rugged Bernese Alps, which we shall presently visit. This is the view from Berne, the capital of the republic. To those who can not always enjoy the picturesque there are a collection of huge bears which afford the usual amount of amusement, and to whom there is a tale attached. There is a tradition that the city derives its name from the German baren (bears); firstly, because these ani- mals used to be killed in the vicinity, and, secondly, that a man gave the 884 TANORAMA OF NATIONS. village which he founded the present name because he killed a bear upon the very spot. Consequently bears have been maintained at Berne for several centuries, and a fine collection of them may now be seen in the Botanical Gardens in Paris, whither they were borne by the French army when it captured the city in 1798. In the middle of the town is a clock- tower, in which, every hour, appears a procession of puppet bears. The fountains have figures of them made of every material and represented in every attitude. THE LAKE DWELLINGS. On the Lake of Bienne, further west, is one of these pre-historic set- tlements in which not only stone, clay and wooden utensils were dis- covered but manufactures of bronze, iron and gold. At one place the very moulds for casting the bronze hatchets were found. Along the shores of the neighboring Lake of Neufchatel a wonderfully perfect col- lection of iron implements was gathered, with colored glass balls and beads, which remind us of the fondness which the savages of Africa and the Eastern islands evince for such trinkets. In the east of the lake we also meet with more of those lake settle- ments. In the same canton, near Lake Pfaffikon, are several acres of piling and the remains of a bridge. The piles were sharpened with stone hatchets, and the timber platform is fastened to the substructure with wooden pins. It was found that these three systems of piles, and the grain, nuts, bread, hearthstones, flaxen cloth, pottery, weapons, long bows and canoes which were dug up were suggestive of the very life which we have described as being led by the coast tribes of New Guinea. The charred timbers and household provisions and the beds of charcoal which were noticeable at both of these lake settlements in Switzerland bore evidence of a destruction of the dwellings by fire. There is a little lake near Berne which is not particularly picturesque, but it has attracted a great many scientists and curiosity-seekers, for here, some thirty years ago, were discovered what have been decided upon as the most ancient of the so-called "lake dwellings." Their pile foundations were uncovered by an extraordinary fall of the lake, caused by drought, and a few years afterward artificially lowered several feet, so as to bring- to light the bridges which connected the two settlements with the shores of the lake. A harpoon made of a stag's horn, a flint saw, various bone implements, such as needles and fishhooks of boar's tusks, wooden combs, fragments of pottery, charred grain and unfinished instruments of flint, were found in the soil above the ancient lake bottom. With all these interesting discoveries, only a few human skeletons ZURICH AND CONSTANCE. 885 or skulls have come to light, although the remains of many distinct animals have been examined. The bed of nearly every Swiss lake has yielded up its quota to the archaeologist, but few definite results have been reached. It is only certain that there was a diverse, though not very advanced, civilization among the lakes and mountains of Switzer- land before the Celts, Helvetii or Romans came upon the scene. ZURICH AND CONSTANCE. As we pass north of the Forest Cantons to enjoy the calm beauties of Lake Zurich, the air is filled with an unceasing hum and clouds which are not the soft mists of Lake Lucerne float over its waters. The city of Zurich is the chief manufacturing point of the country. Cotton and silk factories, locomotive works and machine shops make one forget, for the time, the distant Alps and the Rhine and the struggles of Zwingli and the other Reformers. Within sight of the Lake of Constance, whose very name is associated with the martyrdom of John Huss, the Reforma- tion of Switzerland merges into that of Germany. The Rhine enters its dark green waters from the east, its hilly shores of sand being lined on both the Swiss and German sides with pastures and groves, orchards, vineyards and corn-fields, with the ruins of old castles thrown in to give a sombre feature to the landscape. The same mysterious rise and fall of the waters have been observed in the Lake of Constance as of Geneva, while the spring thaws sometimes bring such vast quantities of water from the Alps that they rise twelve feet above the ordinary level. When high winds toss this swollen body back and forth between its confines, the lake reaches a truly appalling height of rage. There is one case recorded in which during one hour it rose twenty-four feet. Above the Lake of Constance the Rhine, commer- cially, ceases to be of any value, but it sweeps along with such majestic strength that its birthplace is well worth seeking. TRACING THE RHINE. In following the Rhine to its source you travel the muslin cantons of St. Gall and Appenzell, and then the western portion of the Grisons. Many of the peasants and woodsmen whom we meet in the valley still wear a gray home-spun cloth, which gave the canton its name ; the cas- tles, which are seemingly about to pitch from the Alpine heights, are mementoes of the Gray League, formed by the natives against the for- eign and domestic nobility. In their own tongue this was called " Lia Grischa," and the canton received its name from the French. The 886 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Grisons is a mountainous country, and gets to be extremely rugged as the Rhine commences to be contracted ; in fact, it would be hard to con- ceive of an expansion of its waters against such imprisonments as it undergoes in narrow gorges and between closely-bound moun- tains. Through the Grisons, it should not be forgotten that the river takes us into the country of an ancient tribe who have been connected with the Etruscans. The land was conquered by the Romans, who established a camp upon the Rhine where Chur (which means camp) is now located. A railroad runs from this capital of the canton to the eastern districts, whence some of the most sweeping views of mountainous scenery may be obtained which the world affords. The ascent to the summit of Piz Languard, one of the loftiest peaks, is through pine forests, level past- ures and rocky gorges to a final and towering pyramid. There, from a few square yards of surface, the tourist sees a forest of peaks to the east; looks over the water-shed into Italy; turns to the west and finds himself sweeping along in spirit to Monte Rosa, toward Mont Blanc and over the Bernese Alps : fronts the northwest and imagines that he gazes at the sky which hangs over Lake Lucerne, while to the north there are still peaks, masses and chains of mountains. In fact the naked eye may range over the whole of this land of mighty mountains and glaciers, having as points of observation Piz Languard, the Rigi, and the hills of Creux des Champs. Though hemmed in by mountains it always seems possible to lift yourselves above them, and keenly enjoy a sense of freedom — a sort of triumph over nature. Returning to Chur, the H inter Rhine is ascended and a few hours' journey from its sources in the mountain glaciers, the Via Mala is reached. Its rocks and cliffs and mountains grasp the infant Rhine and, at times, press its rushing waters out of sight and almost of hearing. " You enter this savage pass from a world of beauty, from the sunlit vale of Doms- cleg, under the old Etruscan castle of Realt, spiked in the cliff like a war club, four hundred feet above you, and totally inaccessible on every side save one, and are plunged at once into a scene of such overwhelming power that you advance slowly and solemnly as if every crag were a supernatural being. The road is carried with great daring along the perpendicular face of crags, cut from the rock where no living thing could have scaled the mountain, and sometimes it completely overhangs the abyss a thousand feet above the raging torrent. Now it pierces the rock, now it runs zigzag, now spans the gorge on a light, dizzy bridge ; now the mountains frown on each other like tropical thunder clouds about to meet and discharge their artillery, and now you come upon mighty ST. GOTHARD TUNNEL. 88/ insulated crags, thrown wildly together, covered with fringes of moss and shrubbery, constituting masses of verdure." ST. GOTHARD TUNNEL. As we leave the glaciers of the Rhine behind and near the Bernese Alps, great sights are in store for the tourist. He not only will see some of the most stupendous exhibitions of nature but one of the greatest works ever performed by man. Before he visits the glaciers of the Rhone, and those in its vicinity, he comes to the St. Gothard tunnel, a course for the iron steeds which is driven for nine miles through the mountains which raise their ineffectual barriers between the cantons of Uri and Tessin. The work was eight years in execution, and the railway which passes through it now forms the most direct route between the North Sea and Italy ; so that both tunnel and railway are rivals of the similar feat at Mont Cenis. THE RHONE GLACIER. It is on the western side of Mount St. Gothard, not far from the sources of the Rhine, that the Rhone bursts from a great glacier which fills a valley and rises up against an overhanging mass of rocks. Many a traveler would say — this is a great, a magnificent, an indescribable sight ; this is how our own Longfellow saw it : "A frozen cataract, more than two thousand feet in height and many miles broad at its base. It fills the whole valley between two mountains, running back to their summits. At the base it is arched, like a dome ; and above, jagged and rough, resembling a mass of gigantic crystals, of a pale emerald tint, mingled with white. A snowy crust covers its surface ; but at every rent and crevice the pale green ice shines clear in the sun. Its shape is that of a glove, lying with the palm downwards and the fingers crooked and closed together. It is a gauntlet of ice which, centuries ago, Winter, the King of these mountains, threw down in defiance to the sun ; and year by year the sun strives in vain to lift it from the ground on the point of his glistening spear." Above the glacier and all around it are grass, bushes and flowers, and higher still, surrounded by cliffs of snow and ice, a black lake which hides the bodies of many an Austrian, for this is the scene of one of their conflicts with the French. This is the region of glaciers and icy water-falls as well as bright mountain flowers, which fact is one of the striking singularities of Swiss scenery. There are Wellborn, and Wet- terhorn, and Aletchhorn and dozens of other "horns," and each horn 888 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. pours forth its glaciers and water-falls and now and then gives birth to a roaring, crashing, devastating avalanche. We know that each crystal of these rivers and gulfs of ice is as white as a drop of water, but accord- ing to their depth the color passes from a light blue to an indigo. The traveler not only sees the living glacier, but in the glazed and lined sur- faces of huge rocks he traces the action of some ancient body of ice which is now dead and buried ; and the charm of companionship is all about him also— cattle clinging to the mountain pastures, vil- lages standing at the convergence of the wildest passes, chalets and churches rising from the least expected localities, tourists like him- self dragging each other up peaks not far distant in a straight line, yet miles away, and little inns pitched above the icy beds of infant rivers. A companionship at a distance is what the majority of Alpine wan- derers desire, but in this region where the mountain horns rise so thickly as sometimes almost to interlock, the frequented roads are beset with beggars and horn blowers. For a slight compensation, a dozen boys and men, in the course of as many miles, will toot their horns that the echoes may bound along from peak to peak, from valley to valley, over glacier and dark icy lake until nothing is left but remembrance of the weird result. These pests who so vigorously ride a wonder to death, in order to vary the performance a little, will favor you with a deaf- ening discharge from a rusty cannon. Fruit sellers also are on hand who do not pretend to appeal to anything but the most sor- did appetite ; and, to tell the truth, after having returned from a long tramp up the mountains to meet one of them is often far from objectionable. By ascending any of the branches of the Rhone to the Italian front- ier other groups of horns will be reached. The central point of some of the grandest scenery of the Pennine Alps is at Zermatt, near the headwaters of the Saas, the first important tributary which the Rhone receives from the glaciers of the south. In the upper part of the basin in which it lies are a number of glaciers from which the torrents of water pour, but as they approach the town they become almost as calm as her own meadows. From a bold elevation overlooking the basin, or valley, a grand view of the slowly advancing glaciers is obtained, and of the gigantic tower-like Matterhorn, lifting its head a cool 5,000 feet above its snowy bed, with Monte Rosa and a score of other wonders in the distance. There is, perhaps, no mountain of the Alps which has been so fatal to adventuresome travelers as the Matterhorn, ST. BERNARD. 889 ST. BERNARD. Near Monte Rosa is the Great St. Bernard pass, at the summit of which is the hospice in which the dozen monks consecrate their hves to the rehef of suffering. Although fifteen years complete the period of their vow, such are the terrible exposures to which they subject them- selves that the performance of their vow is to offer themselves a living sacrifice. Celts and Romans have reared their temples to the mountain god upon this dreary spot which commands a world of suffering and death, and through the pass have marched great armies of Romans, Franks, Germans and Frenchmen ; but they are forgotten in admiration of the dozen monks and their world-famed doo^s — a breed of brutes who are only known for the good they do ! The substantial stone hospice will comfortably shelter 300 persons, and during the sudden storms which descend in winter, filling gorges and valleys with snow to a depth of forty or fifty feet, it is filled with besieged travelers. Attached to the building is a storehouse of sad sights, entering which one will always remember — the morgue of the hospice. In the marble figures which there appear, as many stories of love and of grim struggles against death are told, as were written in the faces and postures of the uncovered victims of Pompeii. MONT BLANC. Beyond Monte Rosa one enters Italian and French territory, in which he makes the circuit of Mont Blanc, ever doubtful as to which view of the European giant is the most imposing. Whether approach- ing the vales of Chamouni and Mountjoie on the west, or those of Ferret and AUee Blanche on the east, Mont Blanc stands before you unrivalled in its intoxicating beauties and absorbing impressiveness. It carries sixteen glaziers upon its northern side and twenty upon its southern, their waters shedding into the Rhone and into the Po. There are other crystals amid the gorges of Mont Blanc than the perishable ones of the glaciers. Many of the higher valleys or gorges consist of limestone formations turned up against the granite and other primitive rock. These often take the form of a calcareous spar, or calc spar, which, although a common mineral, are found in such a variety of beautiful forms, sizes and colors, that climbers of the mountain find it a favorite amusement, as well as a source of some profit, to spend whole days with their hammers and knives in procuring them, tying ropes to their waists and being let down into the most frightful depths, in their search for rare and beautiful crystals. The spar is quite readily cut with 890 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the knife, so that it can be shaped according to the fancy of the finder. In its crude state it is pure white, but mixture with foreign substances imparts to it many beautiful shades. It is found in masses, varying from a few ounces in weight to many pounds. Not only in the villages which cluster in the valleys near the moun- tain do the travelers of the world linger to collect a dozen mental pict- ures of it, but they ascend the highest points opposite the monster and still find themselves thousands of feet below his summit. But gradually the fever seizes them to actually place foot upon those rocky peaks and masses, and look into the depths of the Mer de Glace, and even to stand upon the very summit of the highest of the three principal peaks. This roadway in the clouds is a ridge about 150X 50 feet, and since a French guide, a century ago, first planted human feet upon it, others have stood there and wondered. Although not a Swiss mountain, with Mont Blanc ends Switzerland, by right of nature. By almost Divine right Switzerland should possess Mont Blanc, as a stupendous pivot upon which the whole little republic might turn. ^^^ '0^^^^ ^j^F^a^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^fc ^J^^fWV ^^^^^.s^i^^^^^^^^^m ^^^ ^^m K^' ^^^^^^^H ^ i'^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^w^i ^^ Blj^^^^^^^f ^^^^^'^2 B'^^^^^^^O^^gy.^^^KSaSg'^^^K ^^/ H pStH^^^^ ^^^!^Sf?i ^???^*?^ -ft^'%=?%frCSS4^I^'»^f!fSSa^^ ^^@fl| THE RUSSIANS. THOUSAND years ago the Slavs consisted of a number of tribes who had settled near the sources of the great rivers of Southern Russia and had for neighbors the Finns, who- occupied the country nearer the Baltic Sea. These races were continually harassed by the warlike people to the west, the Teutonic tribes attacking them by land, and the Scandinavian giants rushing up the shores of the sea and falling upon them from that direction. Like the ancient Britons they sent for foreign aid. The Normans therefore came to rule over them and to protect them. From this union resulted the modern Russian and the greatest empire, in continuous extent, in the world. The country was often parceled out to rival princes who quarelled, was con- solidated, was oppressed by the Mongol Khan for more than two cent- uries and a half, but at last threw out its mighty arms and firmly grasped one-seventh of the globe's solid land. A GIGANTIC LAND. The country of the Slavs can not be spoken of except in mighty figures. Its boundaries, if extended in one continuous line, would nearly encircle the earth. When the Slav has passed from the eastern to the western limits of his dominion he has traveled more than a quarter round the globe. Russia is a giant, with arms extended from ocean to ocean,^ with head lifted into the eternal frosts, and with a sword dangling from his belt he watches, from under his shaggy brows, the Turks, the Per- sians and the Mongolians, who lie at his feet. The Russian is now attempting to digest, in his capacious stomach,, scores of Tartar and Mongol tribes, the Pole who is the purest represent- ative of the Slavic tribes, the Finn, the Lapp and the Circassian ; at the same time girdling himself with railroads and telegraph lines ; keeping an eye upon China, India, Afghanistan and Turkey, and, by way of diver- sion, periodically sharpening his sword and cleaning his gun. 891 ■892 PANORAMA OF NATIONS.' THE PURE SLAVS. In treating of the Russians as a people, as the Slavs of history, the first place, as before intimated, must be given to the Poles. Until twenty years ago they did not even become Russians, having retained their individuality in spite of the hostile tribes who surrounded them, in spite of the rule of the Norman princes and the dissensions of the petty Russian rulers, in spite of the invasion and triumph of the Mongols. Prussia, Russia, Sweden and Turkey have all felt the heavy hand of the Pole, and have been made to respect the prowess of the Slav. As early as the fourth century four Slavic tribes dwelt between the Oder and the Vistula Rivers, and of these the Polani gave the name to the modern Poles. They were, during the middle ages, the sole cham- pions of Christianity against the Turks, and their national existence, until their kingdom was dismembered, was one of incessant war and tur- moil. The result has been to fix their character, which may be described as one of impatient independence. Since the transportation of so many of the bravest of the Poles to Siberia, on account of their insurrection, and the eradication of the kingdom even as a duchy of Russia, the sharp lines of their character are not so evident ; so that an unromantic picture of them, as they now are, shorn of their high-spirited, patriotic nobility is thus given : " The populations of the towns is largely employed in wool-spinning and the manufacture of woolen cloth, paper, beer and porter, and cotton and linen spinning and weaving. A large proportion of the country popula- tion employ themselves in the rearing and breeding of horses, cattle and pigs. Sheep are not so common, but swarms of bees abound, and there is a large export trade in honey." Formerly, the soil was the property of the hereditary chiefs, the minor nobles attached to their fortunes and the clergy ; while merchants, tradesmen and agriculturists were reckoned as serfs. The latter were not attached to any master, but to the land ; hence they had an interest in defending it against all invaders. It was an easy bondage, and their pride in the warlike deeds of their Slavic forefathers bound them closer to the soil and to their country. THE COSSACKS. The oriein of the Cossacks is obscure. The movements of the vari- ous Mongolian tribes previous to the middle ages were so rapid and so eccentric that their courses run into each other like the figures of a kaleidoscope. To this day it is impossible to determine whether the THE COSSACKS. 893 A COSSACK FAMILY. Cossacks are one tribe or a combination of many tribes. They first ap- peared about the middle of the four- teenth century in their present strong- hold on the vast steppes west of the Don. At first they were subject to the Kinof of Poland who g^ave them a military organization. They were members of the Greek Church, how- ever, and rebelled against Jesuit per secutions. They submitted to Russia, both the Cossacks beyond the Dneiper and the Cossacks of the Don, and although their revolts have been the fiercest and most danoerous with which the empire has had to contend, they have for the past century formed an invaluable body of the Czar's army. But before they had become the the servants of the Czar they accomplished the task of conquering Siberia. Yermak Timofeyeff fled to its wilds before the fury of Ivan, and after a year of successful warfare as^ainst the scattered tribes of fish- ermen and hunters, he forced them to acknowledge the superiority of his band of warriors, and, as payment for his pardon, presented the vast country to the Czar, In times of war every man from eighteen to fifty years of age mounts his small, hardy horse, and arm- incf himself with lance, pis- tol,carbine and sabre, holds himself in readiness to obey the orders of his grand chief, the Crown Prince of Russia. As light-mounted warriors; as musquitoes harassing the rear or flanks of an army, the Cossacks have no equals. They are as A VOTER. «94 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. o o in > n > n H O JO untiring as their horses, and their great bear-skin caps and trousers were nightmares to the weary troops of Napoleon as they struggled homeward over the snow fields and icy rivers of Russia. Except that they pay this military service to the Czar the Cossacks are almost independent within the country as- signed to them. The chief of the Cossacks was formerly called the Attaman, and he was elected by being buried under a heap of their great fur caps ; these massive votes were cast at the candidates in pub- lic meeting, and he who had the largest heap was proclaimed Attaman. The office was abolished when the Cossacks re- volted under Mazeppa, a Polish refugee — he of Byronic fame — but it was restored, and by the Emperor Nicholas vest- ed in the Crown Prince. The Cossacks are chosen by the govern- ment as specially fitted by their bravery and ac- tivity to guard the front- iers of Southern Russia and to keep in check the fierce tribes of the Cau- casus country. In their strongest positions they therefore establish forts, called kreposts,the most prominent features of which are the watch-tow- ers, from which they can signal, by means of fire, when threatened with attack, and call assistance for many miles around. It is stated, how- ever, that this duty is so distasteful to the free tastes of the Cossacks THE CIRCASSIANS. 895 that suicides are not unconmmon among those consigned to such con- finement. The strategic part which the Cossacks play in the actual military system of Russia is to unite an army on the march with its base of supplies, or with the empire itself. In times of war this irreg- ular cavalry is supported by Calmucks, Buriats, Tungooses and other Siberian tribes. Most of the Siberian tribes pay merely a tribute of furs to the im- perial government, this being the only mode of taxation which their cir- cumstances would allow. The whole of Siberia is ostensibly divided into civil districts but really into military departments, governed by mili- tary men. An invaluable aid to the Russian officials are the Cossacks, who are often placed in responsible posi- tions themselves, where they are peculiarly useful in enforcing the fur tax and other- wise in bringing the power of the imperial government home to the Siberian tribes. THE CIRCASSIANS. The great wedge of territory which Russia has driven down between the Black and the Caspian Seas is the Caucasus country. The Caucasus mountains stretch through the region from sea to sea, and in their deep valleys ripen the fruits of the tropics, while on the higher lands temper- ate fruits and grains are grown. Rice, tobacco, sugar-cane and cotton are raised, and fine timber stretches almost to the snow line. The Caucasians who dwell in this region, so varied in its fer- tihty, are divided into agreat number of tribes of the Indo-European race. They have always been bold and resolute, shepherds and agriculturists among themselves,and robbers and guerrillas to the Persians, Russians and Turks. Their last decisive struggle for national life was made against the Russians, during the first half of the present century. A Mohammedan priest organized a movement in 1823, and it was enthusiastically upheld by the military chieftains of the tribes. By the death of several import- ant leaders the conduct of the war finally fell into the hands of a young man named Shamyl, who for a quarter of a century resisted the Russian arms. He not only became a military leader of renown, but organized a government among the diverse tribes, establishing a capital and a code READY FOR ACTION. 896 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. of laws. Buf he could not hold the confederation together, and being taken prisoner at the siege of one of his mountain forts in 1859, he was taken to Russia and held as a prisoner of state for twenty-one years. He afterwards went to Mecca. The bravest of the hostile tribes during this last long war were the Circassians, who denied the right of Turkey to cede their country to Rus- sia. They lived between the Kuban river, the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea, south of the Cossack country. Their land was rugged, except near the river, but they wished to hold it as subjects of Moham- medan Turkey. The Circassians are called robbers by the Tartars ; they call them- selves the noble, and are divided into numerous families governed by princes of blood. Below the princes are the nobles middle class, retainers and serfs. The princes and nobles constitute a landed aristocracy, and are allowed the privilege of regulating even the marriage and edu- cation of the villagers. The middle class are the elders and wise men of the vil- lages, who stand in place of the laws, while the retainers and serfs are the com- mon soldiers and laborers. The Circas- sians are democratic in regard to their food and residences, but the nobility only can wear red and appear in war with costly equipments of mail, sword and rifle ; and though there are princes, nobles and retainers, the princes may be deposed for misconduct and the retainers may leave the service of their lord and transfer their allegiance to another. The Circassians are polygamists, but the wealthiest seldom have more than two wives. They are absolute masters of their wives and children, and notwithstanding the Russian government forbids thern sellinor their dauo-hters to Turkish harems, considerable of the nefarious business is carried on. The majority of the Circassian girls, however are obtained from the thousands of emigrants who left Russia for Turkey in 1864, when they found that they could not retain their coun- try and be independent of the Czar. To prevent the traffic in slaves within her dominions Russia has built a number of forts on the coasts of the Black Sea. A CIRCASSIAN GIRL. THE GEORGIANS. 897 The beauty of the Circassian girls has not been exaggerated. They have fine forms, beautiful eyes and hair, and their complexion is made simply dazzling by their open air life, their exemption from hard labor and their careful diet. When they marry, and are no longer subjects for the Turkish harem, then they do the household work as their mothers did before them. The men shave their heads and dress in the tunic and trousers of the East. Their garments are confined at the waist by a leather belt and on each side of the breast is a row of cartridges kept in small pockets. They wear round fur caps, smaller than those worn by the Cossacks. THE GEORGIANS. Georgia, or Tiflis, is in the center of the Caucasus country, being a grass country shut out by mountains from the other provinces. The mountain valleys are also fertile, and in them the vine is successfully cul- tivated. The Georgians manufacture much wine and they drink nearly all they make. It is said that six bottles is the daily consumption of the average inhabitant of Tiflis, the capital of Georgia. The Georgians are poor agriculturists, but bold soldiers. Formerly the greatest source of revenue which the nobles enjoyed was from the trade in slaves, which they sent to the harems of Turkey and Persia, the slaves being beautiful women from the lower walks of life, over whom the nobility had supreme control. At the present time Georgian girls are undoubtedly sent to the seraglios of the East, but ostensibly as servants. The beauties have oval faces, fair complexions and black hair, with beautiful lips and rounded forms. While they were being raised for the slave market it was cus- tomary to keep the waist tightly laced almost from girlhood, which had a tendency also to develop the bust. A small waist is, in fact, generally considered a mark of beauty in both men and women, and the higher classes of either sex wear tight-fitting belts or stays in order to come up to the requirements of the fashion. The men themselves were formerly sold as slaves for service in the Egyptian armies, as both they and the Circassians are remarkably athletic. Tiflis, the capital of the government by that name and of the former kingdom of Georgia, is where the beautiful women, the Armenians^ Persians, Cossacks, Russians and other nationalities of Europe and Asia come together. It is a busy place. The manufacture of Persian rugs, carpets and shawls is briskly carried on, and it is the headquarters of the army of the Caucasus. The Russian quarter is St. Petersburg on a very small scale. Palaces, government buildings, great mansions, 57 898 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. o H X H X > o MODES OF TRAVEL. 899 broad streets and airy squares, give it a decidedly European aspect. The native quarter contains diminutive houses and irregular streets, with a line of bazaars extendinor alone the river. Where beauty and wealth, soldiers and officers, meet in one city, we in America even know that gayety reigns queen most of the time. So at Tiliis it is not unusual for Georgian beauties, Persian women and officers of rank to be brought together under the magic charms of music and the dance. MODES OF TRAVEL. We have already given panoramic views of Lapps and Finns, Poles and Caucasians, Cossacks and Siberians. The vastness of the empire must have entered the consciousness of the reader, and a natural desire be awakened for further information as to the means of communication between these people separated by thousands of miles of steppes, moun- tains and snowy plains. First as to the cities, and we take St. Petersburg as a type. In summer the common vehicle of conveyance is the drosky, which is a four-wheeled vehicle, setting very near the ground, the seat being so arranged that the weight of the passengers is thrown upon the hind wheels, the driver towering above them. The harness of the horse Is very light, and the high collar which rises over his neck Is a part of the thills. W^hips are not used, but driver and horse seem thoroughly to luiderstand each other, and though a Russian was never known to drive moderately, it Is seldom that an accident occurs. The city drivers, or ishvoshtnlks, have no regular abiding place. They carry their oat bags with them and feed their horses when they feel disposed or have leisure. Small shops sell them hay in little bundles. There are mangers for them in every street, and convenient approaches to the canals or river so that they can water their steeds. Many of them sleep In their sledges. Among the nobility the styles are as various as among the wealthy of any other European capital, and there is perhaps no city in the world where finer specimens of real live, beautiful, intelligent, docile horseflesh can be seen than In St. Petersburg. The streets are kept clean by being swept and sprinkled from the hydrants, but are poorly paved with cobble stones. In the winter the thoroughfares are cleaned after every snow- fall, leaving a couple of Inches for sleighing. The population of the Russias is so scattered, and much of the empire Is so Incapable of supporting population, that it is impossible to conceive of railway service being general. It is a country also in which the springing of rails and snow blockades would play altogether too 900 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. frequent a role. But the government horse-service, or post-service, is rapid enough for ordinary travelers. It is such an effective way of get- ting over the country, that not only government officers take advantage of it but private individuals. Three passengers are usually carried, and the first difficulty is to obtain the " padaroshna," or government order, for the supply of horses. This obtained, a fresh relay is assured every thirty miles or so. Applying to the nearest post-station, a drosky on a large scale, a driver and horses are furnished, usually after sufficient delay to draw from the travelers an extra stipend to hurry up matters. In winter a broad sledge, filled with warm furs, is supplied, in place of the heavy, jolting tarantas. Whether the horses are three abreast or more, will depend upon the pressing nature of the errand. The animals are driven abreast, there being no pole to the wagon or sledge, but the horse between the thills guides, and his companions are fastened to the whiffletree. The collar, which resembles a horseshoe, is the duga, to the top of which is attached the bearing-rein, and underneath the highest part is fastened a big bell, to warn other furious drivers of the approach of the tornado. A most picturesque grouping of the horses is obtained from the manner in which they are harnessed, for the bearing-rein forces the animal within the shafts to hold his head high, while those to either side of him have their heads turned outward and their necks gracefully arched, having their intelligent eyes fixed upon the driver. The vehicle which the Imperial Government provides has been de- scribed as a cradle upon wheels. An armful of hay is spread over the bottom of the wooden box and you sit with your legs under the driver's seat. It should be no disappointment if the horses produced are lean and ungainly, for, under the generalship of a master, they may do wonders. Suppose the race commences — eight, ten, twelve miles an hour, for hundreds of miles. If the road is between important points, such as St. Petersburg and Moscow, it will be found in good order, the little station houses a few miles apart being occupied by retired soldiers, who see to its repairs. On each side are tall poles which mark the width of the winter road. Seated on his high seat, with his hands and arms full of reins, the driver urges on his steeds with shout and curse, encouragement, sarcasm, angler and affection beincr thrown at them in the various intonations of his voice. Now he draws his rushing children together, now spreads them over the entire width of the roadway, zigzaging from side to side, bounding over little bridges with only an inch to spare on either side, playing with his pets as if they were a pack of hounds in leash and he was only concerned in getting them over the ground. O P D « MODES OF TRAVEL. 9OI Travelers, even on the public roads, are not numerous, but it will sometimes happen that a whole procession of little government carts (telegas) will be met or overtaken, laden with hides, tallow, provisions and goods, or bearing merely messengers burdened with imperial orders flying along at the top of speed of which their little horses are capable. This is the opportunity for which the Russian postilion craves. If any- thing, he increases his furious gallop and winds in and out, in and out, taking the greatest pride in narrow escapes from total annihilation or from totally wrecking the smaller fry. In taking a journey of any length, it is often found a physical necessity to sleep at a post station. A wooden bench and a possible bundle of hay, furnished by the keeper, if sufificiently feed, are the accommodations which may be expected, with the further expectation of being disturbed several times during the night by 'beetles (and worse) and travelers, who, waiting to change their horses, smoke, laugh, chat and drink tea. Whether in Russia in Europe or in Siberia, the Russian driver is the same — tireless, brave, proud of his horses and his horsemanship, reckless because so skillful, and as impervious to cold as the Arctic bear. Traveling by steamer on the Volga and the Don does not repay one by offering any scenery, but rather by enabling one to come in. contact with so many of the races which go to make up the great empire. The Finns are rather silent, but the Tartars, who usually carry bundles of goods for sale which they have perhaps bought at the Nizhni-Novgorod fair, are communicative and lively. Whatever the temperature the Tartar wears a fur cap, and toward sunset he retires, with other good Mohammedans, to a quiet spot on deck, to kneel on his square of carpet and say his prayers. If the passage is by way of the Don, a number of burly Cossacks are always on board and when the steamer runs aground the discovery is made that they have their uses. They are dead-heads, in American parlance, and pay their fare by jumping overboard when- ever the steamer grounds and pulling it out of the mud. It is not at all likely that the empire will ever become netted with railways, but already the western half of Russia in Europe, with St. Petersburg and Moscow as the principal centers, have fair facilities. Strictly speaking St. Petersburg is the head of the system and Moscow is the center, the travel to the Black Sea ports and the Caucasus country being chiefly from the latter point. From St. Petersburg to Moscow the line is straight as an arrow, because the Czar ordered it so ; and if the autocrat of the Russias should decide to build a line from St. Petersburg to Behring's Strait it would undoubtedly be constructed, but considering the question economically, Siberia is not destined to be a 902 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. land of railroads. The cars are heated with small stoves, few stops are made, and if the aim is to get from point to point twice as fast as by horse conveyance the modern steed will be patronized. Whether traveling by rail or river, however, there is one peculiar custom which is constantly obtruding itself upon the native's pocket- book. In Russia the bedding does not go with the bedroom. Pillows^ blankets, bed-linen and towels are extra, and are borne around as lug- gage by the Russian traveler. The bedrooms are thoroughly heated in cold weather, so that a blanket and a pillow are all the bulky articles which are required; but it causes the foreigner to smile internally, when stopping at railway stations or hotels, to see men and women carrying their pillows. Tea is as much the popular beverage in Russia as beer is in Ger- many. At the eating stations on the line of the railroads, in each private house, the invariable brass urn is on hand filled with hot water. A charcoal fire is kept burning beneath and whether it is the train of pas- sengers or the master of the house that arrives, tea is the first considera- tion. The boiling' water is poured over the leaves in the porcelain or earthen tea pot. The liquid is not allowed to steep but is quickly trans- ferred to glasses or cups, and drunk with lemon and sugar. Counting houses, cafes, street booths, all have their tea urns. Not only does the mode of preparing the tea give the delicious drink its fragrant first strength, but the overland journey through Mongolia and Southern Siberia prevents the salt sea breezes from extracting any of its vigor ; a sea voyage, in fact, is said to have a deleterious effect, so that few Euro- peans outside of Russia really know what good tea is, EXILES TO SIBERIA. Exiled to Siberia ! The very sentence has a hopeless, weary sound to it. Yet, except to the very worst classes of offenders, the sentence is not so much a living death as an escape from the wearing delay of the Russian courts. To exiles, however, who are sent to the mines for life, there can be nothing surrounded with such terrors as the portentous words of the Russian court. After being tried, the offender is removed from the common prison to a plain building, where all those destined for Siberia, of whatever sex, age, or degree of wickedness, are huddled together. The friends of the prisoners are allowed free access to them, but escape from the empire, as every one knows, would be next to an impossibility ; consequently escape from the prison would be useless. The rendezvous for exiled criminals is Moscow. Before their departure EXILES TO SIBERIA. 903 on their long journey they are visited by a committee of citizens who inquire if there is any reason for delay. If there is a good one, such as sickness or the expected coming of a relative, the respite is granted ; but everything being at length in readiness active preparations are made for the departure. " The scene is then transferred to a yard, where the parties are all collected ; several barrels of qvass and abundance of bread are provided for their refreshment, and a priest furnishes each person with a book of prayers and other religious works ; what little money they may have is taken from them, to prevent their losing it or being plundered on the road, and a receipt is given them for the full amount which they are en- titled to reclaim on their arrival. All this is excellent and praiseworthy, but the worst is to follow. Piles of chains and an anvil tell the tale of suffering to be endured on the weary march, and as the men are arranged in little squads of six or eight individuals the manacles are fixed and are not to be removed until the journey is accom- plished. Single individuals have irons riveted round the ankles connected with chains fastened round the waist, and thus are comparatively free in their move- ments ; but others, being handcuffed and linked to a long chain passing from one to the other, are entirely dependent on each other's will as they walk in file. The day's march is about ten miles, and thus the journey occupies at least four months, during which time the chains are not removed nor the arrangements altered. It is worse than hard ship ; it is torture. The women prisoners are without bonds, and bring up the rear of the procession with the little carts containing the bag gage of the party and the wives and children who have selected a volun tary exile. The caravan is accompanied by a guard of soldiers, whose responsibility is of so penal a character that they are made to take the place and suffer the sentence of any prisoner who may escape." The average journey of the exiles is ten miles daily, and the average weight of chains upon the hands and feet, four pounds. They have regular sleeping places, and many of the exiles are accompanied by their families. The weary journey lies due east, through the city of Kazan, and if the prisoner is wealthy his chances are decreased of dying upon A SIBERIAN EXILE. 904 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the road. The exiles are much less in number than in former years, and whereas over thirty per cent, formerly died upon the way, now fif- teen per cent, fail to reach the mines of the Ural Mountains and Eastern Siberia, or the various towns of Southern Siberia. Before starting, the convicts are inspected by a surgeon, and those who can not walk are placed in carriages, with many of the wives and children. It sometimes happens that male relatives, who are not crim- inals, accompany the squad on foot. The journey lasts seven or eight months. The prisoners are allowed to talk and sing, if they have the heart to do it, and if they are not bound for the mines they know that their condition will not be bad when they settle as colonists in the not unfertile tracts of Southern Siberia. They generally pass through the towns at night, but the peasants of the villages on the way feel such pity for them that they usually bring the weary tramps jugs of liquor, im- mense piles of bread, and even better food. The contributions are so liberal that the guards sell the ex- cess and purchase additional cloth- ing for the con- victs. Thouo^h VIEW OF OMSK. the prisoners may speak among themselves no outsider is allowed to converse with them, so that all these good offices are done amid perfect silence. The Asiatic portion of the journey is the most trying, and if winter weather has set in the mortality is shocking. Upon their arrival in the country beyond the Urals, the worst criminals are sent to the mines. In former days they never again saw the light of day, but now they are not kept underground more than eight hours a day, and have their freedom on Sundays. The next grade are employed on public works for a time, and afterward are allowed to become colonists. The colonists of Southern Siberia are politically dead, but are gen- erally prosperous, the descendants of the early convicts being especially fortunate; some of them are very rich. The convict colonist commences GOVERNMENT AND ARMY LIFE. 905 an entirely new life in a community which is under military surveillance, it is true, but in which no one is allowed to remind him of the past. Both in the public reports and in conversation, if he is designated in a general way, he is simply called " the unfortunate." Within a few )'ears he can establish a good home and be the owner of a field which will suf- fice for the wants of his family. Omsk, in Western Siberia, is one of the best known of the convict towns. Colonists, convicts to the mines and voluntary exiles, such as wives and children, are estimated to compose over 100,000 of the population of Siberia. GOVERNMENT AND ARMY LIFE. As one would be able to gather, by putting together certain facts already given, the government and army of Russia are one. Whether in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, the Don country, the country of the Caucasus or Siberia, attempt to place your hand on a civil official and you will touch an army officer, or there will be one within reach. The vast extent of the empire and the restless character of its numerous semi- civilized tribes make military rule, to a great extent, a necessity. St. Petersburg is covered by the imperial guards as well as the police. The active army faces the frontier of Europe, with head-quarters at Warsaw, a separate corps being reserved for Mos- cow and Novgorod. The army of the Caucasus includes the Cossacks, the Cir- cassians, and Tartars, with many Poles who are being gradually drawn from their old kingdom. A division of infantry occupies Finland, and another is scattered over Siberia, subject to the call of the governors. In the government of Nov- gorod, east of St. Petersburg, and in soldier of the Caucasus. various governments of Southern Russia, are whole brigades and squadrons of infantry and cavalry who are outwardly tillers of the soil. Lands belonging to the Crown are divided among reliable peasants, who are furnished with stock and implements, and each must maintain a soldier. When not engaged in the service, the soldier assists the peas- 9o6 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. ant. Both colonists and soldiers are deprived of their beards, and uniformed, the peasants being entitled to the surplus of their produce after they have contributed to the common magazine of the village and done their share toward keeping the roads in repair. Soldiery and peasantry intermarry, and the children generally enter the army. In addition to the principal soldier, each peasant retains in his cottage a substitute, usually his own son, so that if the regular limb of the army dies the vacancy can be at once filled. The Guard of the Interior and the gendarmes are the police of the army, the political police and spies, and form the con- nection between the widely-extend- ed secret service and the milicary — the stone wall against which nihi- 1 i s m commonly dashes itself. The Russian soldiers are care- fully drilled, and for blind obedi- ence, wonderful en- durance and un- flinching courage have not their su- periors in Europe. The great aim seems to be to teach both infantry and cavalry to fire rapidly. Capital punishments are rare. They are occasionally inflicted in times of war, but the usual forms of punishment are transportation to Siberia or corporal dis- cipline. Formerly, nobles, magistrates, clergymen, students, and mer- chants and traders, enrolled in the different guilds, were exempt from service. The noble could nominate his serf to fill up a quota, the slave becoming a free man when he entered the army. A COSSACK OF THE LINE. THE SWORD AND THE CROSS. 907 If he deserted he was again enslaved. Now there is an annual con- scription to which all able-bodied men are liable who have completed their twenty-first year. If they so desire, however, educated young men may enter a short period of service from their seventeenth year. Fifteen years is the period of service in the army, six in the active and nine in the reserve. During the latter period the soldier is liable to service only in time of war. Under the general law, however, the Cossacks, the Finns and the non-Russian tribes are not liable, mili- tary service with them being regulated by special enactments. Neither army officers nor soldiers save fortunes from their salaries. Besides a few allowances and mess money the officer is entitled to a servant or two from the government, whom he must equip at personal expense. The pay of the common soldier consists of a few dollars in money, a new uniform and a stock of flour, salt and meal On fete days an Imperial Guard is enabled to eat butcher's meat at govern- ment expense, but the soldier of the line has no such allowance. With all this niggardly treatment the Czar spends over $100,000,000 on his army and as much more for his navy ; but it is quite likely that if the pay were not so inadequate there would be less jobbing and thieving in the service. THE SWORD AND THE CROSS. The great ally which the Czar possesses in the Church is never so for- cibly shown as when his armies are turned toward Constantinople. Then, it matters not what the real pretext, the conflict is held up to view as a holy war. Never was this truth so evident as when the last imperial proclamation of war issued against Turkey. At two o'clock in the afternoon a solemn service was ordered to be held in each church of the Russian empire, the declaration of war having been read in these thousands of holy places. Moscow, especially, that superb, church- laden city, which in the Kremlin alone contains almost a city of churches, was stirred to its depths. Within the massive gates of the FZremlin are cathedrals and churches where the Czars have been baptized, crowned, married and buried. The Cathedral of the Assumption was the most abandoned scene of warlike and religious fervor. Its entrance was kept clear by soldiers, and soldiers kept open a passage for the carriage of the Gover- nor-General and the plumed generals and officers, with swords and spurs. At length the civil and military leaders of the people were assem- bled and the services commenced. The royal proclamation was read,. •908 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. iDlessings were bestowed upon the imperial arms, prayers were said, noble and peasant knelt together In a common cause and the bells in all the churches of Moscow and the two Russias lashed and clanged the empire into fury. The dense crowds without in vain attempted to breathe the incense within the temples, and then shouted and reeled through the streets, intoxicated with war and smothered beneath war- like flao^s and emblems. In speaking of the Greek Church we usually have in mind the Russian Church. There is no Patriarch of the Church, as there was before Peter's time. The first step towards the founding of the State Church was to make the see of Moscow a patriarchate, with jurisdiction over the empire, and to cut clear of the Patriarch of Constantinople, This was the doing of the Church, however, and the father of Peter the Great did not like the pretensions of his bishop. But when Peter ascended the throne he proposed to have no one the head of the mighty National Church but himself. So when he had matured his plans he waited for the death of the Russian Patriarch. He died, and the Czar appointed an acting director of the Church, whom he called the Exarch. When the people had forgotten to miss their Patriarch, the office was form- ally abolished, and the affairs of the Church were placed in the hands of the Holy Synod, comprised of high ecclesiastics, and forming a grand department of the government. The Minister of Public Worship is ex officio a member of the Synod. The liturgy of the Greek Church is the same as that of Constantinople, but in the State Church it is cele- brated in the Slavonic language. As the Czar appoints all the members of the Holy Synod, the Russian Church is both imperial and national in its character. The Emperor can not modify the dogmas of the Church, but the entire org-anization is under his autocratic control. & IMAGE WORSHIPING. In nearly every peasant's house, in a corner of the room facing the door, will be seen a representation of the Saviour or Madonna. Sometimes the figure is embossed and covered with a metallic sheet, the face and hands being painted. On entering the hut orthodox Christians bow to the representation, which may be an inch or a foot square, and cross themselves. Before and after eating the same cere- mony is performed. If the day is a noteworthy one in the Church calendar, the icon, as it is called, is honored and illuminated by a special lamp placed before it. The Czar himself has his icon Icons are scattered from one ex- tremity of Russia to the other, whole villages busying themselves in their TYPICAL CEREMONIES, 909- manufacture. The pretentious icons are ornamented with gold work^. pearls and precious stones of great value. Besides these simple or symbolic pictures, many of the churches and monasteries of the Russian Church have in their possession icons which have been pronounced by the Holy Synod to be of divine origin and of miraculous properties. They are found in the ground, in caves, in trees, and other out-of-the-way places, the priest or peasant who discovered them having been guided to the treasure by supernatural agents. These so- called divine manifestations are common to the Greek Church and the: Roman Catholic, and costly edifices are erected from the offerings which pious pilgrims lay at the shrines of the visible objects. As at Lourdes, in France, the people flock to the scene of the manifestation, bringing- with them their diseases and departing whole; so proclaims the Holy Synod for the Russian Church as does the Pope for the Catholic Church. Such icons become so famous that the anniversaries of their discovery are celebrated by the whole Church, and it becomes almost a matter of dispute as to which city or church shall be blessed by their presence- One of the most famous of these miracle-workers is the Kazan Madonna. It was brought from Kazan, that Tartar stronghold, in the fourteenth century, and afterward transferred from Moscow to Peter's new capital. It had a cathedral built for it; and now, at any hour of the day, the: devout will be found kneeling on the polished marble floor, with their foreheads pressed to the cold stone, praying before the mother of the. carpenter's son, whose image is decorated with jewels said to be worth $75,000. In the center of her crown is a large sapphire. The screen around the image as well as the balustrades are said to be of pure silver being an offering of the Cossacks of the Don after they had returned from their harassing pursuit of the French army. TYPICAL CEREMONIALS. The burial of a priest of the Greek Church is eminently character- estic of its ceremonials. We describe an actual scene. The church, was filled to suffocation with perspiring peasants, the heads of most of the women being bound with thick shawls. All carried lighted candles. In the center of the edifice lay the body of the deceased, clad in his ecclesiastical robes and reposing in a white gilded coffin, while the face and hands were half buried in white lace. Tall lighted candles draped with white crape surrounded the dead priest, and the officiating brothers were clad in magnificent robes in which appeared no sombre color. Everything was bright or pure white. The head of the deceased was- bound with a fillet on which was written "The Thrice Holy," 9IO PANORAMA OF NATIONS. After many chants had been intoned for the repose of the soul, priests, relatives and friends came reverently forward to receive the last kiss, some being allowed to kiss the cold clay, others contenting them- selves with a pressure of the lips upon the cold coffin. Both forms of salutation are thought to be equivalent to the bestowal of a blessing. While this affecting ceremony is progressing, a service is being read, impressing upon those present the uncertainty of human life, after which the absolution is pronounced and a paper is placed in the dead priest's hand — "The Prayer, Hope and Confession of a Faithful Christian Soul." Then an attendant took away the lighted tapers from the mourners, the coffin was removed to the hearse without, which was hung with white silk and purple and gilt draperies, a gilt crown surmounting all. Two priests, robed in ^^ellow garments, stood upon the bier facing each other and watching the dead — who is never left alone while the body is unburied — while censer-bearers, singing men and boys and the attendant holy brothers completed the procession, which slowly passed along the street crowded with figures whose every head was bare. As the mourners approached a church, the bells were rung, the procession halted, and did not again proceed until the receiving priests had laden the air with incense and sent the pageant, blessed, on its way. Thus it was passed on, from one holy church and brotherhood to the next, receiving a con- tinuous benediction from the spectators on the streets and at windows of houses, who crossed themselves and took part in the funeral service as the procession moved on its way to the cemetery. The baptism of a Russian infant of noble blood is usually a matter which is in the hands of his god-parents. The god-father stands with the god-mother in front of the baptismal font and presents a small golden cross which the baby is expected to thereafter wear. The ceremonies comprise a blowing in the infant's face three times, signing its name on forehead and breast, immersion, and anointing the various parts of the body with the holy unction prepared during Holy Week, within the walls of the Kremlin, and consecrated by the Metropolitan. There is considerable marching around by the god-parents and an impressive service. The concluding act is for the priest to cut off a small portion of the child's hair in four different places on the crown of the head, inclose it in a mor- sel of wax and throw it into the font. NOBILITY AND PEASANTRY. The nobility form a separate body in every province, being gov. erned by a marshal of their choosing. They pay no poll tax, but are no longer free from conscription. After them comes the clergy, which for NOBILITY AND PEASANTRY. 911 twenty years has not been an hereditary class. The sons of clergymen, irrespective of their preferences, are not obliged to follow the service of the church. The merchants are next in the social scale, and then the burghers and peasants. Since the abolition of serfdom in Russia there are no castes, and since then social distinctions are less marked than they formerly were. A peasant may become a merchant or a noble. He may enter the church and all government preferments are open to him. The son of a priest may become a peasant or a noble. The fences are down, although the fields are still staked out ; but the classes are social rather than political. The slavery of the Russian peasant was of a double kind. He was bound to the soil and to his master. The Tartar composition of his blood made him prone to wander, and to wander at pleasure meant to rebel. Therefore the slavery of the Russian peasant was, primarily, a matter of state policy. The noble was the Czar's police of^cer, though unappointed. He was a task-master, and often a hard one, and he was also an unofficial preserver of the peace. In a way he accomplished his mission ; for the peasantry, as a class, were never the Nihilists of Russia. They cultivated the great estates of the nobil- ity and were allowed to get a living from a certain piece of land as long as they remained rooted to the soil. How the nobles abused their position to crush manhood and degrade womanhood has been told in whole libraries. The strongest protests, however, came from a numer- ous outside class. The Emperor freed the 22,000,000 serfs and gave them land to cultivate. He issued the imperial decree two years before Lincoln signed the Proclamation of Emancipation, but Alexander of Russia only changed one form of slavery into another. That of the later days is not quite so grievous, which is the best that can be said of it. Once the peasant was bound personally to the noble ; now he is bound financially to both the Czar and the noble. The government assumed, when the serf became a freeman and received the hut and the garden patch as his own and was an authorized member of the com- mune which holds the villas^e lands, that he was indebted to his former master to a certain amount. He had no freedom of choice ; the land was thrust into his Jiands, and he was made a financiah slave. The gov- ernment advances four-fifths of his debts to the noble, and the remaining fifth he still owes to his former master. The government also receives its five per cent, interest on the sum it advances, this being paid to it by the village or commune of which every peasant is a member. The com- mune is the local government, in which every peasant has a voice. To 912 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. it the government granted lands in common, which are apportioned every three years according to the number of laboring men and women which the family can muster. The commune is responsible as a whole for the government interest, the fifth of the debt due the-nobility and all other taxes and duties. In some communes the soil is poor ; in others there are too many idlers — sometimes the peasants manage to meet their liabilities, and at other times they can not see how Alexander the Czar did them so good a turn. Under the old serf system when an estate was not profitably cultivated it was customary for the landlord to allow his peasants to seek other more profitable employment ; such a course of action was designated " for the good of the estate." It is for a simi- lar reason that the communes throughout Russia are granting leaves-of- absence, by the thousands, to the manufacturing and commercial towns of the Empire. The peasant could run away if he had a noble master; so now he can flee from his commune : but if he has not made up his mind to cut all Russian ties, he is obliged to pay into the treasury of his commune a percentage of his extra earnings, as he was when he had a noble for a master. In many cases, also, the peasant works for his old master, cultivating the smaller estate with his own communal field, and, with the aid of a whole family, faithfully striving to lift a galling burden of debt which was placed there by imperial hands which were supposed to be friendly. He is almost as much a slave to the soil as he was pre- vious to 1 86 r, when he was politically a serf. It is against such a state of affairs that a large class of educated Russians is growing up between the Nihilists and the government. Their blood boils at the abuses, but they are not blood-thirsty. There are many Count Tolstois in spirit, but few so bold and none so able. The Nihilists compose the visible opposition to nobility and royalty, and their dark- red organization is one of the wonders of the century. How PTeat or how little it is no one knows. But it raises its head in the o most unexpected quarters. Now a student, now a carpenter, here a Jewish peddler, there a noble lady are pounced upon by the secret ser- vice. Though the Czar station an official before the doorway of every lodging house in St. Petersburg, suspicious persons prowl in and out and secret meetings are held. Those whom he trusts as his agents are Nihilists themselves. His very lackey may be meditating a bomb. An unpopular police official is shot. The woman is tried by jury " for attempt" and is acquitted. There must be Nihilists on the jury! Letters are mysteriously sent to the Czar and his officials and revolutionary posters ap- pear on thewalls of public buildings. The letters are torn up, the posters are taken down, extra spies are placed around and in the royal palaces, and NOBILITY AND PEASANTRY. 913 keen policemen"patrol the streets night and day. While a spy nods or a patrolman turns a corner another letter falls upon the Emperor's pri- vate table or an incendiary sheet flares from a blank brick wall. The Nihilists compose the visible-invisible opposition to the imperial gov- ernment of Russia. To resume : The communal land is of three kinds. First is the village plat, including the house gardens ; second, the arable land ; and, third, the meadow land. The arable land is divided into a number of long, narrow strips. " Sometimes it is necessary to divide the field into several portions, according to the quality of the soil, and then to sub- divide each of these portions into the requisite number of strips. Thus, A RUSSIAN VILLAGE. in all cases, every household possesses at least one strip in each field ; and in those cases where subdivision is necessary, every household pos- sesses a strip in each of the portions into which the field is subdivided. This complicated process of division and subdivision is accomplished by the peasants themselves, with the aid of simple measuring rods, and the accuracy of the result is truly marvelous." "The meadow, which is reserved for the production of hay, is divided into the same number of shares as the arable land. There, how- ever, the division and distribution take place annually. Every }'ear, on a day fixed by the Assembly, the villagers proceed in a body to this 58 9 14 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. part of their property, and divide it into the requisite number of portions. Lots are then cast, and each family at once mows the portion allotted to it. In some communes the meadow is mown by all the peasants in common, and the hay afterward distributed by -lot among the families ; but this system is by no means so frequently used." "As the whole of the communal land thus resembles, to some extent, a big farm, it is necessary to make certain rules concerning cultivation. A family may sow what it likes in the land allotted to it, but all families must at least conform to the accepted system of rota- tion. In like manner a fam.ily can not begin the autumn plowing before the appointed time, because it would thereby interfere with the rights of the other families who use the fallow field as pasturage." IN, A PEASANT VILLAGE. A Russian village is as different from a German, Dutch, English or American villaore as the Arctic Ocean is from the Mediterranean Sea. Some little distance from the road stretch two rows of mud or log huts, with not a school-house in sight. There is a gilded church, with a grand spire, and a beautiful altar and many rich decorations within. This costly church is drawn from the home of the peasant — one-third of his earnings go to it. The result is that in summer the hut of the average peasant is too close and squalid to be occupied, and whole villages sleep in the street or in the balconies of their houses. Few of their homes boast the luxury of a bed, and in winter they stow themselves around the stove. The stove is of brick and whitewashed, and an enormous shelf is often constructed from it to the wall, upon which a portion of the family sleep. In very cold weather even some of the members may sleep upon it ; for there is no limit either to the heat or the cold which a Russian can endure. This fact is most evident when the peasant takes his regular vapor bath, every Saturday afternoon. With him it has a religious significance, symbolic of spiritual purification. Some villages have public or com- munal baths, but many peasants take their steamings in the great house- hold oven in which the family cooking is done. From a temperature which we should hesitate to designate in fio-ures thev rush into the extreme of cold and roll in the snow. The houses outside, are some- times adorned with bright colored carvings, the cracks between the logs being stuffed with moss and lime. But the peasant pays two-thirds of his substance to the church and to the crown, eats his cabbage soup and drinks his tea and liquor, and THE GREAT MIDDLE CLASS. 915 worships thankfully in the grand church. When the tax collector comes around, once a )'ear, he has his money ready and sees it go into the bag of the Czar's representative, without a murmur. But the Russian peasant is far from cheerful ; he is merely resigned under a despotism. The women do not show the attractive weakness of their sex for per- sonal adornment. They wear a loose robe, fastened at the neck and buttoned down the front, and over this an apron fastened over the shoulders by two short braces. Those of the better class wear boots reaching to the knee, but the majority of them are barefooted. THE GREAT MIDDLE CLASS. The merchants belong to the town population, and they have, as fellow-citizens, divided into separate guilds, burghers and artisans. Any one may engage in mercantile pursuits by joining the guild and paying his dues ; strictly speaking, lie will have the standing of a merchant by so doing. When he ceases to pay his dues he ceases, officially, to be a merchant and returns to the class from which he came. He might have been a peasant, or a burgher — which latter is a permanent resident who has not joined the guild of artisans or merchants. The peasant often joins the trade corporation, although maintaining his connection with the commune or the landed corporation of which he is a member. The Russian merchant is at the head of the town classes, but he is not, as a rule, an educated man. It would be nothing unusual if he could not read or write. He is the conservative of the empire, as are his brethren in all lands. A disturbance of the existino- order of things would be likely to disturb business. He therefore stands midway in the scale between imperialism and nihilism — first the Czar, second the noble, third the merchant, fourth the bloodless agitator and fifth the nihilist. The merchant mounts upon the shoulders of the bankrupt noble. He buys his house, or builds a fine one himself as near like it as possible. He places in his mansion the same order of great mirrors, grand pianos and rich furniture. His floors are marble and his curtains are of the most costly material. But with him ever^'thing is merely to have, sometimes not even to show. The educated noble entertains royally. He is a linguist, a musician, a politician, a traveler, a man of the broad world and a fascinating gentleman with all his faults. He gambles, he spends his money recklessly, but he throws himself and his establishment open to society and revels in publicity and the fruitfulness of his resources. Except the merchant has something to gain by it he shuts up the best rooms of his mansion and lives in the shabbiest. His life, experiences 91 6 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. and reading having been confined, and not wishing to expose any of the secrets of his business, conversation is naturally circumscribed. The merchant dresses according to his rank, owns and exhibits fast trotters, and is proud of the patronage of government officers, but scouts the hereditary nobility. He subscribes liberally to churches, monasteries and benevolent objects, but the price of his subscription is often a decoration. ST. PETERSBURG. St. Petersburg is worthy of the vast empire which it represents ; its vastness, the width of its streets, the area of its public squares, the gigantic dimensions of its palaces, churches and houses are simply oppressive. There is a self-conciousness about the city that its architect had deliberately set out to build the most magnificent monument to kingly ambition in the world. St. Petersburg was raised from the marsh on the graves and shoulders of slaves, but it no doubt impresses the world as its founder meant that it should. He also wanted a port on the Baltic Sea, and he obtained it, although there was not a square rod of the site which he had chosen which would support a massive structure. The nobles, the criminals, the men, women and children of the two Russias all contributed toward the furtherance, of this mammoth work. The nobles were obliged to build palaces and the proceeds of the sale of lands to them helped erect the government structures. Every boat upon Russian waters and every cart on Russian soil fur- nished timber, stone or brick. But the city was founded, fairly lifted above the mud, within a period of nine years. Succeeding monarchs seemed inspired with the determination of Peter the Great, and, though the foundations of bridges and buildings might periodically disappear, a new set of pilings was driven upon the old and the work of extending the city went on. Hare Island it is called where Peter laid the first walls of his spacious capital. He superintended the building of one of the fortress bastions himself, his chief officers taking charge of the other work. "At first the fortifications were only built of wood, but three years afterwards they were reerected in stone by masons from Novgorod, who were assisted by the soldiers. The first fortress was begun May i6, 1703, and finished in five months. Wheelbarrows were unknown, and the workmen scraped up the dirt with their hands, and carried it to the ramparts in their shirts or in bags made of matting. Two thousand thieves and other criminals sentenced to Siberia, were ordered to serve under the Novgorod workmen. Peter constructed a little brick cottage ST. PETERSBURG. 917 just outside the fortress which he called his palace. Every large vessel on the Neva was forced to bring thirty stones, every small one ten, and every peasant's cart three, toward the building of the new city." St. Petersburg stands but fifty-six feet above the level of the sea, and every year when the ice breaks up the lower part of the city is threatened with inundation. Warnings of any threatened danger are given from the citadel which stands upon an island in the Neva; but even the prompt discharge of guns has not always proved effective in giving the citizens timely warning. Evidence of this fact is still found in some quarters of the city in which red plates are seen affixed to various houses, twelve and fourteen feet above the street, and marking the point to which the flood reached in 1824, when thousands of persons perished. Little attention is given to the firing of the first gun, that indicating merely an inunda- tion. At the second gun people bestir themselves in the lower town and commence to move the horses from the stables. The third gun produces a panic. The canals of St. Petersburg, although furnished with broad granite quays, are little used for commerce. The primary object was to drain the marshes, and that object has been principally kept in view. Immense barges, however, pass back and forth, laden with firewood, building stone and rubbish, so that the streets are less encumbered with heavy wagons and carts than in other large cities. As in Holland, the women of St. Petersburg find the canals convenient for washing purposes. Most of the produce and merchandise, also, which comes from the interior of the em- pire is distributed to the great markets and warehouses by means of the canals. Much of the fruit and grain comes up on these barges from the Odessa region ; also hay, in great stacks, is piled upon them and floated from the interior. The firewood, which is mainly of birch, is cut in lengths ready for the stove, and the barges themselves, which are little better than rafts, are often broken up for fuel. The felling of trees, the construction of barges, and the transportation of flesh, fish and fowl to the great Frozen Market occupy much of the peasant's time during the winter months. The Neva does not connect St. Petersburg directly with the marine world, for though broad it is too shallow at its mouth to admit large ves- sels. Cronstadt is the port of entry and the great vessels whose hulls are built in the city's dock yards are floated to its port to receive masts, rigging, cargoes or armament. The harbor of Cronstadt is divided into three sections — the outer, or military, for ships of the line ; the middle, for repairing vessels, and the inner, used only by merchant vessels. The town, built on the island of Kotlin, opposite the mouth of the 91 8 PANORAMA OF NATIONS, Neva, is strongly fortified, being entered by three gates. It contains a marine hospital, barracks, cannon foundry, and the small palace in which Peter resided, in the gardens of which are several oaks planted by his own hand. Between the two canals which intersect the well-built town is a naval academy, formerly a palace built by Prince Menchikoff. The city of St. Petersburg is divided by the River Neva into two great sections, the northern portion being built upon half a dozen islands and the southern upon the mainland. The latter is called the Great Side, and exhibits most of the grandeur which has rrade this youngest of European capitals so famous. THE WINTER PALACE. Perhaps the most prominent architectural feature of the capital is the Winter Palace, standing in a vast open space in the heart of the city. On two sides is the great Admiralty Square, on another the river, and on an opposite island the massive fortress, while the fourth side over- looks the Hermitage, once the favorite residence of Catherine II., with which it is connected by covered bridges. This palace, which, in dimen- sions, if not in magnificence, leads the world, is 700 feet square, and contains numerous great halls, saloons and suites of apartments, lavishly adorned with porphyry and marbles, and magnified into a hundred vast palaces by the immense mirrors of its lofty rooms. St. George's hall, in which are held the chapters of the different orders, is among the most brilliant. During the former residence of the Emperor the palace was occupied by six thousand people. The palace is used principally for ceremonials by the present Czar, who is not prepossessed with the great structure which furnishes so many opportunities for the Nihilists. About a year before his father was assassinated, near the Catherine Canal, an attempt was made upon his life at the Winter Palace; so that Alexander the III. prefers the palace on the Neva Perspective which he occupied while Crown Prince. The Winter Palace is painted a sort of an orange color, while yellow and blue are not unusual tints ; the prevailing color, however, is an imi- tation of sandstone. The main entrance looks upon the river. It is a marble vestibule of stately proportions and from it great stairways, adorned with historic figures in marble, lead to the throne room, reception rooms and splendid halls above. The hall of St. George, the reception rooms of the Empress and scores of other magnificent apartments, thrown open to the public, are blazing with golden decorations and oppressive with silks and tapestry, but the living rooms of former imperial families are unat- THE WINTER PALACE. 919 tractive in the extreme. This is particularly true of the room in which the late Czar died and that which was the scene of Emperor Nicholas' death, whose heart is said to have broken over the capture of Sebastopol. " It is the smallest, plainest room in the whole building, and was at once his library and bedroom. Everything remains just as it was when he died, and a sentinel always stands at the door. Before the window is a small writing desk, upon which are his portfolio, pens, and paper exactly as he left them. The plain furniture is worn and dilapidated. The iron bedstead, nothing but a camp cot, on which he slept for years, is in the corner of the room, with the great military coat he always used as a coverlid lying upon it. His patched slippers are beside the bed, and upon nails driven in the wall hang his uniform. In a chest of drawers near by is his coarse underclothing, and his cane and sword are hanging from a hook, with his hat above them. On the walls are portraits of some of his generals, and on his little table at the head of his bed, with a candlestick and a prayer book, well used, are the pictures of his wife and children. Adjoining the little chamber is an ante-room in which his ministers awaited an audience, and they had to sit upon an ordinary wooden bench. A spiral staircase leads to the rooms of the Empress above, so that he and she could go back and forth without pass- ing through any other room, and there was a concealed entrance by which he could reach the street and return without being observed by any one." The candle light which has heretofore flickered and gleamed upon the magnificence of the Winter Palace has given place to the electric glory. It should be added that the Winter Palace is not alone honored with electric lights. Nearly all the places of public resort — theatres, hotels, government buildings, gardens — have them, as well as many of the splendid palaces along the Neva River and the Perspective. The merry ring of the telephone is heard in all the land ; the telegraph wires are strung on ornamental brackets along the houses, and the only thing that is not modern about St. Petersburcr is her ancient fire tower, with its watchman, signal balls and lanterns. The Hermitage connected with the Winter Palace contains a gallery of paintings, which is noted for its specimens of the Spanish school, and has a fine library as well. But the Imperial library exhibits an array of over 1,000,000 volumes, and is one of the greatest libraries in Europe, as the Winter Palace is among the first of her palaces. Before ceasing to wonder at the magnitude of the Czar's former home, it should be remembered that the first Winter Palace was destroyed by fire half a century ago, and that this one was erected and occupied within two years. 920 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. PETER'S STATUE. From the Neva, this locahty presents a superb appearance. The Admiralty Square is a mass of grand buildings — -the Admiralty, with its lofty spire ; the ponderous cathedral of St. Izak, with its great bronze domes and massive pillars of red granite, and other structures of impres- sive size. Adjoining the Admiralty is the Palace Square, in which stands the monolith of red granite, erected to the memory of Alexander. An equestrian statue of Peter the Great, eighteen feet high, occupies Peter's Square. Then there is the Field of Mars, where the Gzar can review 50,000 troops at once. This stupenduous architectural array is all drawn up in mighty battalions, like the Russian troops massed for an attack upon the Turks, or waiting silently for the approval of their mighty monarch. Upon the enormous mass of granite which forms the pedestal to the statue is inscribed "Peter I., Catherine II., 1782." This pedestal is said to be the rock upon which Peter stood to witness a naval victory over the Swedes. It was brought from Finland, and in surmounting a few of the obstacles to get it to the Czar, a swamp was drained, a forest cut down and a long road constructed. The horse which Peter rides is represented as laboring up a steep ascent, horse and rider being one in fire and determination. They have nearly reached the top, and the Czar points with his right hand in the direction of the citadel which was the nucleus of his capital. He is seated upon a bear's skin and is clad in such simple garments that he might be either Russian or American The sculptor. Falconet, explains that Peter wished himself to abolish the Russian dress and that the skin on which he is seated is emblematic of the nation he refined. The artist put no sabre into his hand, because he wished to symbolize only the better nature of the Czar. He said, however, nothing about the animal which the Emperor bestrode ; the horse should represent the people striving upward with Peter the Great upon its back, its muscles strained and quivering in its endeavors to reach the summit of his ambitions. The suggestive figure of Peter looks toward the tombs of the Kings ; for within the citadel is the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, whose lofty, slender spire marks the locality wherein are gathered the remains of all the monarchs of 'Russia since his day. A bridge crosses to the island. Near the northern entrance to the bridge which leads to the fortress is the most ancient church in St. Petersburg, where the Czar used to pray. It contains numerous relics, one of its chandeliers being turned by his own hand One of the boats which he built is preserved O t-i i-( CO n o o d SI 1^ Q o PETER'S STATUE. 92 I in his cottage which, in turn, is encased by a larger structure. Here also is the gigantic staff which he wielded. Since the death of the great, cruel Czar, part of the cottage has been used as a chapel. In his first modest palace, as well as in the more imperial buildings of the city, evidences are continually given of how, despite his gigantic works, Peter loved to labor with his own hands. One of the most elaborate is the sledore in which he used to travel thousands of miles, deposited in the Museum of Imperial Carriages. From the Admiralty spire, where the whole city is seen in a bird's eye view, one realizes how perfectly the emperors and empresses of Russia have developed Peter's idea to make his capital the prototype of the national character. If Berlin stands for Germany much more does St. Petersburg — a cold, gray, vast, massive city — stand for the empire of the Russias. Opposite our point of view is an island on which are the. Bourse, Academy of Sciences and various military establishments ; to the north the citadel island and other islands which resemble wardens and groves springing from the water for the purpose of sheltering the palaces and villas which they can not hide. The Great Side of St. Petersburg has the Admiralty spire as its center. The great canals which Catherine dug divide this portion of the city into several sec- tions, and the three principal streets radiate from the square. The Neva Perspective, as it stretches from the center of the city, increases in breadth and magnificence. Palaces, churches and splendid business ' structures tower above its dense bordering of foliage; for four miles it continues its triumphal march, and concludes by taking the first prize among the thoroughfares of Europe for unvarying grandeur. There are other streets founded upon the same plan but not upon the same scale. On the Neva Perspective are the military headquarters and the great bazaar in which 10,000 merchants are engaged in business. Greek, Cath- olic, Protestant and Armenian churches are strewn along this wonderful street, and at its extremity, also marking the city limits, are the convent and church of St. Alexander Nevskoi, containing the body of the saint in a silver sarcophagus, and the palace of the Metropolitan, a high priest of the State Church. The monastery was founded by Peter, to com- memorate the victory of Grand Duke Alexander over the Swedes in a battle fought upon the very spot. Centuries afterward the duke was canonized. Aside from the Church of St. I^ak, the only other fine religious edi- fice in St. Petersburg is the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan. The lady is believed to have the empire under her particular charge, and the cathe- dral was built to enshrine her picture, which is said to have the power of 922 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. performing miracles. The monarchs of Russia worship at her shrine, both before they undertake anything of importance and after it is ac- comphshed, and therefore their coming is a portentous sign to the com- mon people. WINTER SPORTS AND SCENES. St. Petersburg is almost deserted, in summer, by the fashion and nobility of the city, but in winter it is the gayest of European capitals. Not only are there theatres especially fitted up for Italian, French, Ger-' man and Russian companies, but the peculiar winter sports which the people patronize have made the city like no other during the winter fes- tivities. It was then that the Winter Palace was once seen at the height of its glory. But although the great palace is not thrown open to the gayety of the winter season, as of yore, the residences of the nobility on the river front are flooded by brill- iancy. Each proprietor attempts to outdo the other in executing some original idea to entertain his friends and spread abroad the magnificence of his hospitality. By nature the Russians are hos- pitable, but it is foreign to their disposition to combine simplicity with it. One of the most ambi- tious of the hosts of St. Peters- burg flooded the lower part of his palace ^nd turned it into a magnificent skating rink, deco- rated with evergreens and lighted by thousands of wax candles. When the brilliant company of ladies and gentlemen, wrapped in rich furs, had skated to their hearts' content, they adjourned to the apartments above, removed their wraps and appeared in full dress to enjoy an elegant banquet. The typical St. Petersburg is out of doors in the winter. The river is, in places, a gay race course, over which the wealthy Russian merchants and noblemen speed their horses in harness, the sledges used being often mere shells not weighing more than fifty pounds. Unless the ice is perfect, skating is not so favorite a pastime as racing or coasting on the ice hills. /■•> A LADY OF FASHION. WINTER SPORTS AND SCENES. 923 There are private hills patronized exclusively by Russian nobles, or by the fashionables of France, Germany, England and America. Elegant gentlemen and ladies, who live in palaces and to whorn precious stones are as common as cut-glass to the majority, keenly enjoy the exhilarating sport for hours at a time. There are immeube numbers of public slides for the masses, so that no one need pass a winter unsatisfied. Usually two slides are nearly opposite each other so that the end of one run is near the tower to the summit of which one must ascend in order to be prepared for another rush. Ice-boats, also, are competing for public favor, but as more skill is required in their management, the sport is not so popular as sliding. Skating is getting to be more popular, since long stretches of the river have been illuminated by electricity and bands of music are engaged to add elegance to the spore. The elderly people enter into the current of brisk life by being pushed along on chair sledges, cushioned and warm. As the winter season draws to a close and many of the visitors have departed, the opening of the river becomes a matter of interest and pro- lific subject for wagers. "As regards the opening of the river, it is made a matter of official ceremony ; and, although there may not be a particle of ice visible in the stream, still no boat is allowed to be launched till the governor of the citadel has made his official report to the Emperor. He carries to His Majesty a cup filled with water from the Neva and announces the freedom of the stream. The Emperor, after drinking the contents, returns the cup to the governor filled with ducats ; and a gun being fired from the citadel, proclaiming the completion of the ceremony, the river is almost instantly covered with boats." But before the river is formally opened by the Czar and his gov- ernor, its waters have to be blessed by the Metropolitan. The ceremony,, which is one common to the Greek Church, commemorates the baptism of the Saviour, but the State Church gives it a peculiarly Russian char- acter by making it a safeguard against the floods of the Neva. A temple of ice is erected on the river, and the baptisms take place either by sprinkling or immersion, a hole being cut in the ice for that purpose. The date of the ceremony is January 6. It may be of interest to know that both Peter the Great and his grandson, Peter II., caught the colds which caused their deaths attendino^ the ceremonies of the Benediction of the Neva. Another sight is usually in store for the visitor to St. Petersburg, which is almost peculiar to that city and Moscow. When winter sets in, from hundreds of miles around, even from the shores of the White Sea, sledges by the thousands are converging towards the capital, laden with 924 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. frozen carcasses of pigs, goats, reindeer, oxen, hares, grouse and cod- fish. This army of peasants and huntsmen aim to reach the capital before Christmas, for that day inaugurates the Frozen Market, which is usually held in a large field at the entrance to the city, or in one of the public squares. The immense meat harvest is exposed in great piles, but if the weather continues good, deer and oxen, grouse and fish dis- appear in the cellars of rich and poor. The meat, which at first can be •only chopped and sawed, is thawed for eating by being plunged into cold water. Should a thaw set in, however, while the sledges are mak- ing their journeys of from a few hundred to a few thousand miles, or while the pyramids of grouse and the hillocks of deer are awaiting to be leveled by purchasers, the supplies are seized by the sanitary authorities and burned as unfit for food. The misfortune cuts like a two-edged sword ; for the peasants depend greatly upon their sales to tide them over the winter and the consumers suffer greatly for lack of their usual meat supply, so necessary to health in this climate. MOSCOW. If St. Petersburg represents modern Russia, Moscow is the personi- fication of ancient Russia. The bulk of the city lies on the north bank of the Moskva River, south of it being that portion which is built upon a series of small elevations called the Sparrow Hills. The fantastic city of spires, domes and minarets is surrounded by an earthen rampart, and the most prominent of all its attractions is the Kremlin. It stands forth grandly from its high position in the northern section of the city, its gigantic walls with their curious towers inclosing a mass of palaces, public buildings, monasteries and churches. The streets and lanes of Moscow radiate from the Kremlin, around which also run several broad boulevards ; the gates, above which rise great towers or spires, are among the most sacred localities of the sacred city. Especially is the Redeemer gate revered. Above it is a faded picture of the Saviour. Once within the Kremlin walls the tower of Ivan the Great is the most impressive object, looking down from its height of over 300 feet upon the surrounding structures. At the base of the structure is a chapel which, perhaps, is more frequented than the great bell. It is dedicated to St. Nicholas, and ladies about to be married repair faithfully to the shrine of their patron saint and say their prayers with more or less trep- idation. If war has been declared or victory perches upon the Rus- sian arms, Ivan the Great roars, clashes and thunders over the event with his three dozen ponderous bells, the largest of which weighs sixty- four tons. Near the foot of the mighty tower, upon a granite pedestal. MOSCOW. 925 Stands Tsar Kolokol, the largest bell in the world. .Its summit is nearly twenty-five feet from the ground, and entrance to it is effected through an opening which was broken from its side by some heavy timbers which fell upon it during a fire. Tsar Kolokol has been converted into a sacred chapel, and no true Russian neglects to religiously cross himself when approaching it. Of the four cathedrals within the Kremlin the most famous is the Archangel Micliael, where members of the imperial family were buried for four centuries, until Peter the Great transferred his capital to St. Petersburg; the most interesting, from its great age, is the Church of the Redeemer in the Wood. The principal palace is comparatively modern, much of the city, in fact, dating from the time of the great fiire preceding Napoleon's dis- astrous retreat. Within the palace are magnificent halls in which meet the different knightly orders, and near it a treasure house containing royal and national arms and relics. The hall of St. George, which here^ as in the Winter Palace, is the most magnificent feature of the interior,. opens directly from the principal staircase which leads from the grand vestibule. Upon its marble walls, in letters of gold are inscribed those who have been knighted with the highest of the Russian orders. The ancient palace of the Czars is now in ruins. What remains of it after the French occupancy consists of two singular looking buildings, of Chinese architecture, one of which contains the old coronation hall. They are connected with the Great Palace erected by Alexander upon' the site of the main body of the old structure. Adjoining the Great Palace is the Little Palace, simple in construction and decorations ; here the Emperor Nicholas resided previous to his elevation to the throne. In one of the rooms is a musket with which the Czar used to exercise and put his sons through the drill movements to teach them the rudiments of war. Near the ancient palace is the Treasury wherein is written in arms,, crowns, thrones and other curiosities much of the history of the empire. The crowns of Kazan, Astrachan and Georgia speak of the conquest of the last of the Tartar kingdoms governed by the Khan of the Golden Horde, of the submission of the Mogul State on the Caspian Sea, and of the overwhelming of another of those brave, mysterious and beautiful races of men and women who have so long held the country near the Caucasus that ethnologists are not rare who seek in that region the original home of the Aryan race. Though Russia never wrested a crown from Siberia there is one in this bewildering collection which is made to represent the mastery of her semi-savage tribes. Poland's. 926 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. bloody crown. is also in the imperial treasury and the book of her con- stitution. The litter upon which Charles XII. was borne at the battle of Pultowa, where Peter crushed the power of the Swedes, is one of the most treasured articles of this collection designed to perpetuate the memories of hideous war and the humiliations of defeat and enslave- ment. There are globes and sceptres, banners of all nations and the arms and equipments of the ancient and the modern army ; the ward- robes of all the dead Russian sovereigns from the days of Peter the Great ; crown jewels of inestimable value resting upon velvet cushions and havincr as a background the throne of the monarch who once wore them and everything suggestive of the empire's remorseless grasp for power and the instability of individual might. In front of the massive arsenal building, which is near the Treasury, are many batteries of captured cannon — those taken from the French in their retreat, making a large collection — three hundred and sixty-five pieces in all. OUTSIDE THE KREMLIN. East of the Kremlin is the business district, surrounded also by a wall and containingr an immense bazaar and market and the exchanges. The Romanoff house, where the founder of the present dynasty was born, is in this locality. Between the boulevard and the Kremlin are the governor's palace, schools and academies, public buildings, the famous foundling asylum, sometimes having the care of twenty-five thousand children, theatres, nunneries and churches. The Temple of the Saviour is a grand church in the form of a Greek cross, being both sacred and national in its char- acter, the outside being ornamented with bas reliefs of a religious nature and commemorative of the campaigns of 1812-15. In front of it is a large stone platform from which the Czars once proclaimeci their ukases, and the block in the center was the public place of execution. The criminals were privileged to say their prayers before the gate of the Redeemer, then marched across the Red Place to the block of execution, and when they were guillotined their heads were exhibited upon the spiked wall of the Kremlin opposite. The church is sometimes called the Cathedral of Kazan, because it was built by Ivan over the remains of St. Basil to commemorate the taking of Kazan, the center of the Tartar khanate, which, for centuries, was a terror to the Russians. The Church of St. Basil the Idiot, one of the patron saints of the Greek Church, is a series of towers and domes, differing in architecture and color, and unlike any other ecclesiastical structure in the world. KAZAN. 927 This was the intention of Ivan the Terrible, who built it. The church is outside the Kremlin walls. From the midst of a jumble of chapels a tall steeple rises, terminating' in a cross. 'Below the cross is the crescent. Every other church in Moscow exhibits the same peculiarity ; or rather, it is one of the thousand ways which the empire has of keeping the power of its arms before the world, for thus the fact is perpetuated that the Mohammedan Turk is no longer master. Between the two boulevards of which mention has been made, and in the suburbs beyond, are numbers of great public buildings and private residences; several immense monasteries, embracing within their walls, churches, cloisters and gardens ; the most extensive hospitals and two im- perial residences. Without the St. Petersburg gate are the elegant summer palace and gardens where Napoleon retired when the flames drove him from the Kremlin. The schools of Moscow are almost as celebrated as its palaces. It not only has a large university, commercial schools, theological semina- ries, military academies, theatrical and agricultural colleges, but such institutes as those which educate young ladies of noble birth only, or the female orphan children of servants of the crown. Museums, libraries, scientific societies and art institutes are as numerous as the churches and schools, and indicate that the ancient capital of Russia is not lagging behind the world. Moscow is the commercial center of the empire, and her Frozen Market, if anything, rivals that of St. Petersburg. There are many per- manent markets in the city, while industrial exhibitions are frequent. Moscow is a large manufacturing center, and such exhibitions reveal the great variety and excellence of her work. All the fabrics are manufact- ured, gold, silver and glassware, paper, leather, beer, brandy, etc., and by the most improved machinery. KAZAN. This city, the old portion of which is Tartary itself, is on the direct line of orreatest travel between Russia and Siberia. It was the center of the Golden Horde, a Tartar khanate, but since its conquest by Russia in the fifteenth century, the old, unattractive part of the town has been occupied by the Tartars. The first Kazan was founded by a Tartar Khan, about forty miles from the site of the modern city. One of his followers, while dipping water from the river with a caldron, in the course of preparing a meal for the hungry hunting party, let his vessel slip into the stream and it sunk out of sight. This accident made so lasting- an 928 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. impression upon the chief, especially as he was far from any other cal- dron, that he named the river Kazan, or Kazanka ; the word means " river of the caldron," When he built a town upon its banks he called it Kazan. The town prospered and grew into a considerable city before it was captured and completely destroyed by Moscow warriors, sent by a Russian grand duke one hundred and forty years after its foundation. The inhabitants of Kazan were massacred without mercy. Another Tartar prince founded the second Kazan, the present city, which was twice captured by the Russians, few of the city's defenders surviving the last siege. The conquerors have destroyed most of the grand features of the Tartar occupancy, the Kremlin, or citadel, having even been greatly changed. Many of its former entrances have been closed up, and its towers converted into chapels. Over one of the gateways is suspended a miraculous image of the Saviour, and near by is, or was, a small, strange- looking church which commemorates the capture of Kazan, and is reported to have been built by Ivan the Terrible upon the very day that he carried the Tartar stronghold. On a considerable eminence near the city is the Convent of Our Lady of Kazan, consisting of the building proper and a winter and a summer church. From the convent there is an annual procession to the Kremlin, bearing along a representation of the Madonna, or patroness of the city, which is believed to be possessed of miraculous virtues. Adjoining the Kremlin is the middle town, with many grand private houses and the extensive bazaar. These are evidences of the importance of old Kazan, and since it has obtained railway connections with the western govern- ments they are again coming into use. The manufactures in which Kazan peculiarly excels are those of leather and soap, the Tartars being particularly expert in the preparation of Russia leather. The city is renowned in the empire for its educational institutes, the university giving especial attention to the study of the Eastern languages and of the national history. To obtain a precise knowledge of the various steps by which the Tartar and Russian elements throughout Russia have been consolidated and scattered^ there is no surer way than to delve in the rich library of this university, established in a city where race peculiarities may be so conveniently compared. Kazan is still a Tartar city upon which has been placed a Russian stamp. The suburbs are occupied exclusively by the Tartars, their dwellings consisting principally of two-story wooden houses, the upper portion being occupied by the owner and the lower serving as a barn or store-house. The women of the higher classes are secluded as they are NOVGOROD THE GREAT. 929 in Turkey and marry at a very early age. The. men shave their heads, trim their beards and periodically are bled by their barbers. They wear calico shirts, wide drawers and often leather stockings, generally red or yellow in color. The long wide robe which covers all is usually of blue cloth and attached to the body by a scarf. NOVGOROD THE GREAT. The territory through which the railroad passes from St. Petersburg to Moscow is the historical nucleus of the Russian empire. The Slavs founded the town of Novgorod there, probably in the fifth century, and an independent State soon grew around it. It was invaded by a tribe of Northmen, whom its inhabitants called the Rus ; this was after Novgorod had been a powerful principality for a century or more. But troubles at home, with the invasion of these fierce northern warriors, induced the Slavs and the Finns to invite Rurik, a prince of the Rus, to become their ruler in 862. First he made it the seat of his orovernment, but the capital was removed to Kieff, in Southwestern Russia, when his son succeeded him. Kieff was also a Slavic town, and disputes with Novgorod the honor of being the father of the empire. For a cen- tury Novgorod was a dependency of Kieff, ruled by governors, or dukes, and the empire of the Rus dynasty extended south to the sea of Azov. Gradually, however, Novgorod was granted such great privi- leges, commercially and politically, that she became stronger than Kieff and finally independent. First she was governed by grand dukes, then assumed a republican form of government, so that by the twelfth cent- ury her territory extended north a hundred miles beyond the present site of St. Petersburg, south to near the limits of the Government of Moscow (founded by a prince of Kieff), east to the Ural Mountains and west to the Baltic Sea. Therefore it was that a Russian proverb arose to express infallibility : " Who can contend against God and the great Novgorod?" Novgorod the Great was long the political power of Northwestern Russia, and the opulent commercial link connecting Europe with the East. Thousands of merchants flocked to the great mart and had their particular quarter in the city, the Germans even enjoying a separate government. Its bazaar was a town in itself, with its lonof, covered o-alleries and accommodations for foreign g^uests. The city had its great Kremlin, within whose walls were eighteen churches and 150 houses and its inner and outer circle of boulevards. The bazaar buildings and galleries exist, but the thousands of visitors do not crowd them. The trade of the former commercial power is almost con- fined to icons, or sacred pictures of the Holy Trinity, the Saviour or 59 930 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Virgin. Within the walls of the Kremlin, rebuilt by Ivan the Great who destroyed the liberties of the republic, is a magnificent bell-shaped monument, rich with statuary and ornamental work and surmounted by an angel and the Greek cross ; it is to commemorate the one thousandth anniversary of the Russian Empire, and was erected in 1862. The church of Ste. So- phia, a low-domed ca- thedral, frescoed and gilded, is the burial- place of Russian saints ; this is also within the Kremlin v/alls. I The princes of r I ' Novgorod were chosen by a popular council ' called the Veche, which could also depose them at will. Near the pal- ace of the Archbishop, ] : in a pretty green court- I yard, is the tower in I I which once hung the 1:5 Veche bell, which sum- '" moned the citizens to 'J council, and when the Grand Princes of Russia moved from Kief to Vladimir, thence to Moscow, the Eternal, as the great bell was called, was a persistent discord to their autocratic tastes. At last, in the fifteenth century, a woman was n >0 c/i C/) 'W' elected mayoress of Novgorod, and although the princes now claimed sovereignty over the republic, she negotiated an alliance with Po- land, Russian arms and famine crushed the independence of Nov- THE RUSSIAN HUNTER. 93 1 gorod the Great, and the Eternal was carried in triumph to Mos- cow. The KremHn was rebuilt, its first stone being laid on a living child. Even with the greatness of Moscow the city of Novgorod was able to contend, until Ivan the Terrible, a century after the republic was destroyed, discovered that the citizens had again conspired with Poland against the reigning dynasty. He shut the inhabitants up in their city and slaughtered them without mercy ; some say that 30,000, others that 60,000, people were tortured, drowned and butchered, out of a population of 400,000. A plague followed, and though the people devoured the carcasses, the ravages of man and disease were so great that the river was choked and overflowed its banks. From these hor- rors Novo-orod never recovered, and when St. Petersburof was built her ruin was completed. Below the bridge of Novgorod there is to this day a strange disturbance of the waters, so that ice is never formed. By the Russians credit for the commotion is given to the spirits of those drowned here by Ivan the Terrible, and drivers, peasants and beggars, as they approach the chapel which is at the entrance to the bridge, cross themselves, and, if possible, leave a penny or a candle for the good of the church. An offshoot of Novgorod the Great was Nijni-Novgorod, where the immense fair is held, so longf considered one of the wonders of Russia. It may be called a village of sheds, standing upon a plain on the northern bank of the Volga. The fair is approached by dusty or muddy roads, and Armenians, Turks, Chinese, Tartars and Muscovites are all there, displaying their goods, as they have been pictured ; and the Chinese houses are there with their projecting roofs and yellow bells at the corners ; but since the railroad came to Russia the race representa- tives are getting" to be less picturesque and the fairs and bazaars of either St. Petersburg or Moscow have greater attractions. The fair in January is held on the river and is for the sale of wood. The horse fair is in July, and during August and September occurs the general exhibition. The sales sometimes amount to nearly $100,000,000. THE RUSSIAN HUNTER. The field sports of Russia are no child's play. Hunting in Russia means danger and fatigue. No soldier who ever started on an uncertain campaign takes life more completely in his hands than the hunter who starts out in winter to track and fight the elk, the bear or the wolf. The wolf may be ridden down by men on horseback, or he may be drawn within gunshot by the sportsmen who drag a bundle behind their 932 , PANORAMA OF NATIONS. sledge, inducing a young pig, which they have bound, to send forth the most enticing squeals. This is safe enough sport unless a ravenous pack should scent the bait, both porcine and human, when the huntsmen are apt to think seriously of home. The peasants are usually the winter huntsmen after the elk and the bear — that is, they find them and acquaint the sportsmen with the local- ity of their haunts. While engaged in felling trees they come across the tracks of their prey and trace them to cover. If it is a bear they have tracked they may start for St. Petersburg, or any other city, a hundred miles distant, and sell the information to a party of sportsmen, accom- panying them to the spot. The place is then surrounded by peasants and hunters and the dogs are loosened. If they can not dislodge the sluggish brute, the gunners themselves have to do it ; and this again is a dangerous proceeding, especially if the bear is with cub. Occasion- ally a hunter of real grit, or considerable recklessness, ventures into the woods alone and starts in pursuit of Bruin. One gentleman who had a record to make in this line, discovered a bear asleep under the fallen, trunk of a tree. In order to approach the beast noiselessly, he took off his shoes and stockings, and, walking over the snow, found that its paws were so nicely drawn over the head that a decisive shot would be impos- sible. So he poked the sleeping animal with his gun and obtaining a good exposure, shot it in the head — not a very thrilling hunting adven- ture, but one which might have resulted fatally. The elk is never asleep, and therefore his capture is considered an- honor to the hunter. He is timid, and although awkward shows tre- mendous speed. He is both a great runner and a great swimmer, and as he frequents swampy places in the woods — for those are his favorite haunts — it is extremely difficult to capture him. If shot at all, he must be taken on the fly, when dashing across a narrow opening in the woods. The elk was formerly used in Russia as a draught animal, but his extra- ordinary powers of speed and endurance were taken advantage of by criminals when they wished to escape justice or evade suspicion, and his employment in this capacity is now prohibited. In decided contrast to the lonely, adventurous huntsman is the noble of the west of Russia. Many of the large landowners, particularly in the German provinces, organize parties among themselves. No one is excluded from the forest of another, and for many days the merry sports- men range over vast tracts of country on horseback, and in sledges or coaches, accompanied by peasants and dogs, and sometimes a band of musicians — the latter playing after the regular sports of the day are over. Bears and wolves, deer, elk and foxes are all objects of the chase,. CRIM TARTARY. " 933 and the party manage to add romance to the occasion by taking their meals in a den, or some haunt which was the scene of a brute's death. Many of these noble families are hunters throughout their lives, the boy graduating to manhood only after he has shot his first elk or bear, and the last beast slain by the old man being considered an event worthy of thorough discussion when he dies. CRIM TARTARY. The Crimea, although subject to the Ottoman Empire for three centuries, was a Tartar kingdom for two hundred years ; when in the eighteenth century it fell into the jaws of the Russian bear, the last ves- tige of the power fell which was felt so heavily from the Ural mountains to the Black Sea. The Tartars overran the peninsula in the thirteenth century when Genghis Khan laid Southern Russia at his feet, and the bulk of the population still represents a fragment of the great Mogul Empire. The first people of the Crimea were the Cimmerians. The Scyth- ians invacied their country and they were driven to the mountains where they were called Tauri, Its ancient name was therefore Chersonesus Taurica. The Greeks from Miletus came in the sixth century b. c. and founded a city which exists in Caffa (Southeastern Crimea), besides establishinof other colonies. Mithridates drove the Greeks from the peninsula in the second century, making Panticapaeum his capital. The site of the old city is occupied by Kertsch, a town on one of the penin- sulas between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. A mound in the vicinity is said to be the tomb of Rome's barbaric enemy, the great Scythian, the King of Pontus. The modern town is chiefly noted as an important point for the exporting of salt, which forms an important product ■of the Crimea. The Genoese and Venetians were expelled by the Tar- tars, the Tartars submitted to the Ottoman Turks, although retaining their own Khans, and in 1784 the Crimea was- annexed to Russia. The northern portion of the peninsula is occupied by nomads with their cattle, while the southern and more fertile slopes contain marks of the Grecian, Genoese, Tartar and Russian civilization, and the popula- tion is accordingly divided. But although a portion of the Russian gov- ernment the Crimea is essentially Crim Tartary. The old capital, Bakt- chiserai is situated in the southern portion of the peninsula. It is con- cealed in a narrow valley, terminating in a narrow gorge. The town •consists of a single street built along the side of a rivulet, hemmed in by Tock} cliffs, and a number of houses built into the hill sides. There are 934 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. several mosques, with fountains, standing out from the Hne of shops, bazaars and Httle houses. At the extreme end of the street is the former palace of the Khans, standing at the side of a neglected court and con- sisting of a rambling collection of brightly-painted buildings, with trellis work, over which vines are luxuriatingr and lattice windows looking out upon pretty gardens ; of structures having wide verandas supported by light, decorated pillars, and, above all, a wooden tower of Chinese con- struction and decoration. Near by are a mosque, with two minarets, a fountain shaded by willows and the mausoleum of the Khans, covered with vines ambitious to hide the crumbling- walls. The narrow valley which hides the old Tartar capital first contracts into a gorge and then opens into a glen, heavily wooded with oak and beech trees and heaped with tombstones. This is the burial place of the Karaites, a mysterious sect of Jews who are scattered over the Crimea, Poland, Turkey and Austria. They hold to the strict letter of the Script- ures and reject the Talmud, tracing their descent from Shalmaneser's- time. But wherever they go their aim is to have their bones deposited in this Valley of Jehoshaphat. A short distance beyond the vale a grand old fortress rises so naturally from a rugged height that both seem one. This was the Jewish stronghold from the earliest days, and although the Tartars occupied it as their first capital, before they removed to Bakt- chiserai, the Karaites yet cling to it as their Jerusalem. " There are only two entrances to the fortress and the massive gates are locked every night, Down a long flight of steps, cut out of the living rock, is a well of delicious water which supplies the inhabitants, the situation of which would render the impregnable position of the fort utterly valueless in time of war." When the Russians obtained the Crimea they found on the south- western coast a small Tartar village which had so magnificent a harbor, naturally, and was in such a favorable locality from which to watch Tur- key and Constantinople that they made Sebastopol of it. But though their defense was heroic, Sebastopol, with the true Russian, is always another name for humiliation, and since the allies destroyed those great docks, ship-yards and arsenals the Russian cheek has always flushed at mention of the year 1855. Since the war the city and fortresses have been rebuilt and it is again to the empire what Cronstadt is on the Baltic Sea. Simferopol, the capital of the government of Taurida, of which the Crimea forms a portion, was built by the Russians upon the site of a Tar- tar town, which was the second in importance within the Mongol khan- ats. The Russian part of the town is laid out in wide streets and large THE HUNGARIANS. 935 squares ; the Tartar portion is irregular, the houses are huts with parch- ment windows, the women occasionally wear loose drawers which fall over tiny yellow boots and the men appear sometimes in the turban and flowing robe. Odessa, west of the Crimea, is modern in every way. It is the principal commercial port of Russia, and as a wheat market is noted the world over. Wool, tallow and timber are also largely exported. The principal promenade is the Boulevard. A French emigrant, Duke de Richelieu, whom the Czar appointed governor, was the founder of the city's prosperity, and in the center of the Boulevard is a bronze statue erected to his memory. He laid out the streets, encouraged the com- merce of the port, and, at last, although he might have been a wealthy man, he left Odessa with a portmanteau containing his uniform and two shirts, having disbursed the greater portion of his income among the needy. THE HUNGARIANS. This much has been settled — that the Hungarians are akin to the Finns and the Turks and not to any of the so-called Indo-European races. A similarity in some of the customs of the Siberian tribes with their own has been already found, and their language is decidedly Tartaric in its structure. In their language they are called Magyars, and proudly claim descent from the Huns. Though kindred to the Turks they hold themselves above them, and have resisted every effort at assimilation. The Mao^vars dwelt for a long time near the Caucasus mountains, but as they became powerful commenced to migrate toward the west, and during the ninth and tenth centuries conquered their present territory. During the tenth and eleventh centuries Christianity was introduced into Hungary and the country became a nation, the clergy and nobility constituting the ruling classes. Still there were national parties which uplield the people's rights. But though the Hungarians fought so bravely against becoming a dependency of the German Empire and the House of Hapsburg, the people were, for many centuries, slaves to the ruling powers at home. Some of the kings of Hungary figure as saints in the Roman calendar, and the Pope, feeling that he had a certain claim upon the country, disputed the right of suzerainty with the Emperor himself. In the thirteenth century Hungary was ravaged by the Tar- tars. Subsequently she extended her territory, but persecuted the Jews and put heavier chains upon the peasantry. Wars followed with the Turks, the people repeatedly arose in rebellion and the thrones of Poland and Hungary were united. The nobles fought among them- 936 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. selves, the peasantry rebelled against the nobility, the Turks destroyed the Hungarians in battle and the House of Hapsburg and the Sultan sat upon the ruins of the kingdom. But though defeated, they were not subdued, and through every conflict of arms or civil commotion they bore away certain charters of liberty which sanctioned the rights of the Protestants and of the kingdom. The fall of the Turks before Vienna made the House of Hapsburg the sole object of Hungary's opposition. Maria Theresa, for a time, allayed their bitter spirit by her able and womanly reign. But the real spirit of reform was slowly taking shape and the nobil- ity became the champions of the people. The peasants and Jews were to be treated as men, and freedom of speech and religious worship guar- anteed. Measures looking to these ends were carried at the national diets. Counts, barons and citizens kept the agitation alive which cul- minated in the revolution and war in which Kossuth appeared as one of the heroes of history. The Russians and Austrians together over- whelmed the Hungarians, but complications with France and Italy which ended with Austria's defeat at Magenta and Solferino, gained the day for the patriots after their condition as conquered rebels threatened to be more unbearable than ever. The Austro-Hungarian monarchy was formed, the constitution of Hungary including the reformatory princi- ples for which its best leaders had striven. THE BOHEMIANS. The proper name of this people (for it is the one they accept them- selves) is the Czechs. They claim to be the oldest family of the Slavic race, and the word Czech implies tlie beginning. Their language is strong, and pronounced by linguists the most completely developed of any Slavic tongue and the one of all European languages which can best render the Greek and Latin. John Huss' translation of the Bible did for it what Luther did for the German ; it established a literary standard and orthography, and his disciples, the Hussites, continued to make the Czech so Qrreat a lang-uagre that at one time it threatened to become the general Slavic tongue. That of Prague was the first of the German universities to be founded, and numbered, during the latter part of the fourteenth century, 30,000 students. This great educational institute was a power in spreading the knowledge of the national tongue, until in the seventeenth century the Bohemians rebelled against the ruling powers and their literature and language were abolished. Books by the thousands and libraries by the hundreds were burned by the government THE BOHEMIANS. 937 and by the Jesuits, until it seemed as if the work of John Huss and his followers would be annihilated. Men were destroyed with the books. The Bohemian heretics were banished from the country. The Swedes •who were expelled carried off with them many treasures of the Czech literature, which are now in the Stockholm library, and books in the native tongue were printed in Germany and Holland, indicating that the Bohemian language was not born to die. The result of the Thirty Years' War, the efforts of native scholars for the past century and the liberal attitude of the central government, first fixed by Maria Theresa, have revived the former vitality of the Czech nationality. The univer- sity of Prague is mostly attended by Czech students and its rector is a member of the Diet ; the Diet elects delegates to the Austrian Reichsrath. So that this institution represents, in a way, the Bohemian race, politi- cally and intellectually. Not only is the Czech literature a feature of the Bohemian University, but since the year of American independence it has had a chair in the University of Vienna, But the national Slavic spirit can not be allayed, even with fair treatment, and the political lines are determined by German and Czech blood. The contests between the two nationalities o^row, if anythino-, more and more intense. As early as the tenth century, to protect themselves against the Hungarians the Bohemians sought to be incor- porated into the German empire, but have never given up their hope of some time establishing a great Slavic empire in Austria. They are to- day the most intelligent and industrious of the Slavic tribes. They are the manufacturers of Austria, their glassware being noted the world over, while their cotton, linen and woolen goods are of a very superior ■quality. Their iron works and paper factories are famous. They are snot only manufacturers and agriculturists, but musicians and poets of no mean order. The Bohemians even claim a share in the invention of printing, on the ground that Gutenberg was originally from their coun- try, and that the press was freely developed in it without the aid of the Germans. So that, considering the Bohemians as Slavs, they must be placed in the lead of the tribes of that race. The earliest occupants of their land are supposed to have the Boii, a Celtic tribe, who were driven away by the Germans, who in turn pre- ceded the Czechs. Thus from the first historical times we see certain races opposed instinctively to each other, like dogs and cats, being gov- erned by inherited prejudices which centuries of war have kept alive, and which may have originated in a single bitter quarrel between two rival, primitive animals ; and this conflict between the Celtic Boii, who gave Bohemia its name, and the Germanic Marcomani, reminds one how 93« PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Celts and Goths — Celts and Anglo-Saxons — could never live at peace together. One or the other must give way, and if an ocean bars the avenue of escape, so bitter is the feud that the weaker are forced to seek a home beyond the sea. To further iilustrate this fact we shall cross the German ocean to the islands, which form its western shores^ and to which the Celts were driven by the Goths. THE ANGLO-SAXONS. OMMENCING with Herodotus, down a long line of ancient historians, modern English writers have industriously collected the evidence which goes to prove that the Kimmerians, or Kelts, from whom the ancient Britons were descended, about the sev- enteenth century before Christ, were driven out of Asia into Europe by vast hordes of Scythians, from whojn in turn have been traced the Goths, the Germans and the ancient Saxons. The Kelts, once in Europe, dashed again and again against Greece and Rome. Shadowy records of these mighty conflicts are found in the ancient traditions of Wales and in the songs of her bards which have come down to us. In Caesar's time they had almost ceased to exist on the continent, but had crossed from France into England and had obtained much power. Their old enemies, the Scythians, or (as they became generally known in Europe) the Goths, came pouring after them, and followed in their footsteps of warring; against Rome. BASIS OF THE ENGLISHMAN. One of the tribes farthest removed from the scene of bloodshed were the Saxons. They dwelt on the sea coast from the mouths of the Rhine to the Baltic Sea, and soon became a terror to all the maritime: tribes and colonies. The Saxons were at the head of a confederation which was finally formed for protection against Rome, and the brave Jutes and Angles were their neighbors. The Jutes were those who were first called to England by the Britons to drive back the wild tribes who were threateniuQf them from the north. One race of Kelts, the Hiofhland Scotchmen, were about to pour down upon the southern tribes, the Britons ; and now came over a tribe of their ancient enemies, the descendants of those Scythians who had driven them out of Asia, to save Kelt from Kelt. Thus prodigious are the cycles of history. Angles and Saxons followed, and Danes also. These are the tribes which are the foundation of the great island kingdom. Every school- boy knows it. But what manner of people were these who came to the: 939 940 BASIS OF THE ENGLISHMAN. island, partly by invitation and partly by invasion? Taine, the English historian, thus tells us: "As you coast the North Sea from the Scheldt to Jutland, you will mark in the first place that the characteristic feature is the want of slope, marsh, waste, shoal ; the rivers hardly drag them- selves along, swollen and sluggish, with long black-looking waves; the flooding stream oozes over the banks and appears further on in stagnant pools. In Holland the soil is but a sediment of mud; here and there only does the earth cover it with a crust, shallow and brittle, the mere alluvium of the river, which the river seems ever about to destroy. Thick clouds hover above, being fed by ceaseless exhalations. They lazily turn their violet flanks, grow black, suddenly descend in heavy showers ; the A^apor, like a furnace smoke, crawls forever on the horizon. Thus watered, plants multiply ; in the angle between Jutland and the Conti- nent, in a fat, muddy soil, the verdure is as fresh as that of England. Immense forests covered the land even after the eleventh century. The sap of this humid country, thick and potent, circulates in man as in the plants. Man's respiration, nutrition, sensation and habits affect also his faculties and his frame." " Over the sea, flat on his face, lies the monstrous, terrible north wind, sighing and sinking his voice as in secret, like an old grumbler. Rain, wind and surge leave room for naught but gloomy and melancholy thoughts. The very joy of the billows has in it an inexplicable restless- ness and harshness. From Holland to Jutland, a string of small, deluged islands bears witness to their ravages. In winter a breastplate of ice covers the streams; the sea drives back the frozen masses as they de- scend ; they pile themselves with a crash upon the sand banks and sway to and fro ; now and then you may see a vessel, seized as in a vise, split in two beneath their violence. Picture in this foggy clime, amid hoar- frost and storm, in these marshes and forests, half naked savages, a kind of wild beasts, fishers and hunters, but especially hunters of men ; these are they, Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Frisians; later on, Danes, who during the fifth and ninth centuries, with their swords and battle-axes took and kept the island of Britain. A rude and foggy land like their own, except in the depth of its sea and the safety of its coasts, which one day will call up real fleets and mighty vessels; green England — the word rises to the lips and expresses all." When the Norman brought his softer ways to Great Britain he found the Anglo-Saxon "a magnificent animal," broad-shouldered, deep- chested, a tremendous eater; hardy, independent, even stubborn; a native with a splendid physique and a hard head ; a lover of his snug kingdom and his adopted home. The Anglo-Saxon was broadened in THE LESS RULING THE GREATER. 94 1 his ideas by the new comer, without being ahenated from his countr)^ He commenced to look beyond Great Britain, and the spirit of adventure and conquest which he had as an Angle, as a Saxon and as a Dane, took possession of him and has never left him, A healthy brain in a healthy body has pushed his name and power around the globe. THE LESS RULING THE GREATER. Great Britain presents one of the most remarkable, instances of intellectual achievement, in the matter of conquest, which the world has ever known. The Russian Empire is great, but the Russians are in the majority, at least three to one. The Empire of Great Britain is greater in square miles, its population is nearly three times as great, and yet the people of the dependencies outnumber the inhabitants of the parent country at least in the ratio of five to one. Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and America have seen the fleets- of England, and been colonized or conquered by people from her shores. The Engrlishman is the universal traveler, and there is not a desert in Africa or a forest in Australia, or a field of ice in the Arctics, where man has gone, that his feet have not trod; and in this connection we mean not only the Englishman of Great Britain, but that other great repre- sentative of the race, the American of the United States. The telegraph- and the railroad have done for Great Britain what could not otherwise have been accomplished if every Englishman had been a walking arsenal. Submarine cables and trans-continental telegraphs and railroads not only bind her distant dominions to herself, but make each a unit in itself. EXPLORING THE THAMES. Englishmen are the greatest though not the most unbiased travelers- in the world. They will penetrate Africa and Australia, but one of their number makes the confession that few have ever attempted to explore the Thames to its source. Those who have are almost as much in doubt- whether they have found it as the African explorers were regarding the source of the Nile. Two screams rise in the Cotswold Hills, in Glou- cester, and the one which has been called the Thames runs more in the general direction of the river, but its source is not as distant from the mouth as the rivulet which is called the Churn. But they forget their differences, like sensible streams, and join for the good of the common river. A few miles further on two other tributaries are received and the Severn's waters also flow into the Thames through a wonderful little canal which pierces the Cotswold Hills by means of a tunnel. The 942 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. river here commences to earn its title of the Broad Water, running through a pleasant, hilly country, with the dignity of a young man who has cast his first vote. Its course is toward Oxford by way of the village of Shifford, where King Alfred once held his parliament. Near by is a substantial bridge thrown across the Thames six hundred years ago. It is named the New Bridge and is the oldest one on the river. Numerous locks and weirs, with a tow path on either side, show the former impor- tance of the river as a navigable stream, but the line of smoke and steam which is frequently drawn across the neighboring landscape and the triumphant whiz of a train of cars are sufificient explanations.of the almost deserted appearance of the river. It is peculiarly appropriate to approach the calm, stately and vener- able Oxford, by way of the slowly-moving Thames. The spires of its churches and the great university buildings give the impression, from a ■distance, that one is approaching a large city. But the university is all. The streets are narrow and crooked, but the noble colleges and churches Avhich go to make up the university, and the quaint old houses form a striking scene. The distracting hum of machinery and the vexatious smoke of manufactories do not disturb its serenity ; but against the coming of the railroad, and its necessary stir, the authorities of the university could not plant their English feet and set their square English chins firmly enough. OXFORD. Before there was any England there was an Oxford. When the kings of the Heptarchy were fighting like crows, the university of Oxford was a collection of monasteries, religious and secular schools. The teach- ers formed an association that might settle questions of general interest, and the university was conceived. Alfred the Great liked to reside in •Oxford and visit her schools, and by the ninth century the Church itself recognized it as a seat of learning. Bloody Queen Mary acknowledged its importance, also, in the persecutions which she waged against the Protestant lights of both Cambridge and Oxford universities. Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer, all fellows of Cambridge University and high in favor with Henry VIII., were brought to trial by the Catholic Queen and burned, opposite Baliol College. As long as the Church of England stands, to say the least, the message of brave old Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, will be quoted to posterity. Turning to Ridley, his fellow martyr, he exclaimed in homely style : " Be of good comfort. Master Ridley, and play the man , we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out." Master Ridley, FROM OXFORD TO WINDSOR. Q43 the Bishop of Rochester, was as brave as he, and Archbishop Cranmer of Canterbury died a penitent that his mortal fears had swerved him from the faith he professed. The Martyrs' Memorial, which marks the place of execution, is a monument both to personal bravery and the ■Church of England. Of the twenty colleges which compose the university of Oxford, Ba- liol is the most democratic, refusing to admit anyone who claims any privilege on account of rank or wealth. Christ Church is the most mag- nificent and supports the greatest number of students; it is a cathedral as well as a college, and was founded by Henry VIII. The oldest insti- tution is University College, founded in the thirteenth century upon a school which is said to have been established by Alfred the Great. The governing bodies of the University are the House of Congre- gation, consisting of heads of colleges and halls, masters of schools, professors, deans, etc., etc., which grants the ordinary degrees ; the House of Convocation, composed of regents, which confers honorary degrees and fills the university offices ; the Congregation of the Univer- sity, including the chancellor, heads of colleges and halls, the canons of Christ Church College, a portion of the members of the Convocation, etc., etc., which body acts as a sort of Upper House to discuss and amend the statutes proposed by the Hebdomadal Council ; the Heb- domadal Council has as its members the chancellor, vice-chancellor, proctors, and a certain number elected from the heads of colleges and halls and from the House of Convocation. The chancellor, who is the head of the corporate body of the University, is elected for life by the House of Convocation, the honor being conferred upon noblemen. All matters of legislation originate in the Hebdomadal Council, pass to the Congregation of the University, and are adopted or rejected by the House of Convocation. FROM OXFORD TO WINDSOR. Between the counties of Oxford and Berks the river makes a bold bend, and at the southern point of the loop meets the Thames, a stream from the west. In controllino^ the course of the Tnames this was con- sidered quite a strategic point by the old warriors of England, and con- sequently they erected earthworks at this point which are still visible. This is the neighborhood, also, of Roman camps, the head-waters of the river flowing from the region of quite a system of Roman roads ; but south of Oxford the spots of history commence to touch more closely the modern times. Among the most interesting localities is Chalgrove 944 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Field, where Hampden was slain. Soon, however, the beauties of the landscape draw one's mind from brave men and their brave ends. The little islands covered with trees or reeds, the wooded or grassy banks^ with picturesque cottages and inns creeping down to the very edge of the sunny waters ; the mill-dams over which the bright waters foam, the horses and plowmen in the fields, and the absorbed angler on the shore, make the English landscape the restful and yet animating influence which it is. It was in this school that many of the English poets were educated,, and even so bad-humored a wit and man as Pope could not resist the temptation to retire to the lovely banks of the Upper Thames, hide himself in a mellow old castle, forget his deformities and write transla- tions and pretty verses. Before your boat reaches Reading you will also pass a pleasant village to which Warren Hastings retired while Burke was thundering at him for his doings in the East. At Reading the Kennet flows in from the south, and upon its banks the courtly, scholarly and earnest Falkland fell in battle, fighting for his King against the people. His home was a few miles from Oxford and he died not far from it. The waters above Reading in the estimation of Young England are as historical as any in the world, for here were rowed many of those famous university matches, the results of which are flashed over the Western world. It is unaccountable how those university students for so many years could have shot by the beauties lying along Henley Reach, looking only straight ahead to the stake boat. Above the old university course for a dozen miles the scenery is even more lovely, the chalky cliffs bearing upon their seamed sides thick groves of beech trees,, the swelling hills clothed in rich verdure meeting them half way ; or from the low banks of either shore great trees, tangled shrubbery and matted reeds all bend gracefully forward in continual salutation. FROM WINDSOR TO LONDON. As the cliffs and hills and cool shadows of this charmed stretch of the Thames are left behind, the towers of Windsor Castle appear over the trees. The castle, forest and grounds form one of the most magnificent royal domains in the world. The buildings, which cover twelve acres, overlook the Thames, and from the tower twelve counties pass under the eye. The great park is nearly three square miles in area and the forest west of it is fifty-six miles in circuit. The Saxon kings loved the beauties of this locality. William the Conqueror built the castle, which has been repeatedly enlarged and several times almost rebuilt. King John dwelt at FROM WINDSOR TO LONDON. 945 Windsor while the barons were preparing Magna Charta at Runnymede, and James of Scotland was a prisoner here. In the vaults of St. George's chapel lie the bodies of kings, queens and dukes. Prince Albert is buried in the beautiful park of Windsor where Queen Victoria passed many hours with him during their wedded life. On the other side of the river, standing somewhat back from its borders, is Eton College, a substantial-looking building which from a distance resembles a combined fortress, monastery and church. It was founded by Henry VI. four centuries and a half ago, who established King's College, Cambridge, at the same time. The royal plan of making Eton a preparatory school to King's has been followed to this day and provision is also made at Oxford for two of the graduates who are not elected for admission to Cambridge. A little nearer London and the Council Meadow, Runnymede is' reached. Opposite is Magna Charta Island, where King John signed the instrument which was the basis of the English constitution. The barons and their followers camped upon the meadow within plain sight of the King, and a delegation carried the paper for him to sign. King John was aware that this meant sign or resign, and when the charter was laid upon a stone for his action he did not long hesitate, A rock, which is said to be the historic one, is preserved in the little cottage to which many curiosity seekers repair. A bend in the river between Middlesex and Surrey, as one descends the stream toward Kingston, is called Coway Stakes. On arriving at the south bank, Julius Csesar found that the Britons were drawn up on the opposite shore, which they had fortified by a palisade of sharpened stakes. There was^a similar fortification in the bed of the river. But Caesar's legions dashed, into the water, which was up to their necks, and surmounting all obstacles, put the enemy to flight. The Roman was invading the territory of the British general, Cassivelaunus, and this was the only point where the Thames could be crossed on foot. Past the house in which Garrick once resided, the palace and gardens of Hampton Court, past villas and villages, the river sweeps which was never destined to be the pride of a Southern race ; past Kingston, where the Saxon monarchs were crowned, the Thames washes the estate which Pope adorned with temple and grotto and made so famous that kings, statesmen and noble ladies sought him there. The villa is gone, A few fragments of the grotto remain. The sensitive, diseased poet and wit is gone, and the mother whom he cherished as the only one on earth he could love without reserve. The Thames flows by them all, and the church at Twickenham, which contains 60 946 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. his tomb, may cast a shadow over its margin. The inscription on his monument proclaims that he " would not be buried in Westminster Abbey." At this point the Thames brings us near the suburban parks of London and the outlying villages. Having left the gracious parks around the pretty suburbs of Richmond and Brentford, the distant stir of the mighty city is almost felt in the air. LONDON AND "LONDON CITY." By entering London from the west the mighty metropolis is approached from its most favorable direction ; few Londoners would agree, however, as to the limits of their city, for the pcstoffice, the par- liamentary, the police and the Metropolitan Board of Works districts are all different. London City, officially, lies partly within the limits of the old Roman walls, which have disappeared. Gates were subsequently added to the walls, and, for many years. Temple Bar was regarded as the site of the ancient town's western gate, being the official boundary between the fashionable and magnificent West End and the city. This supposition has been dispelled, but the boundary remains. Memories of the old times are kept green by retaining such names as Newgate for the oldest London prison, and London Wall for a street in the northern part of the city. From the east the walls commenced at the Tower of London, which has the credit, with some, of being built by Julius Csesar, and they were afterwards extended along the Thames, the western point being Ludgate, which has long since disappeared, but Ludgate Hill still stands. There were seven gates when the wall was carried around the northern districts of the city, as is supposed, by Constantine the Great. London City is governed by the Lord Mayor and the Corporation, its extreme eastern and western limits being the Tower and the City of Westmmster, with the River Thames as its southern base. Its area is less than a square mile, of which 370 acres are "within the walls." Within this area the metropolitan police and commissioners of public works have no control, the city sustaining its own departments and being accountable to Parliament. This independent corporation, the wealthiest in the world, has authority for its existence in charters which were granted by William the Conqueror after the battle of Hastings and by Henry I. in 1 100. The chief magistrate received the official title of Lord Mayor in 1 191. But when the registrar obtains his figures for the population of THE FASHIONABLE WEST END. 947 London he does not rest satisfied with the city and its 80,000 people, but, as stated, includes the territory subject to the Board of Works. This comprises the city of Westminster and Southwark, a borough south of the River Thames; the Tower Hamlets and Greenwich, to the east; and a dozen northern and western suburbs, among which may be men- tioned Marylebone, Kensington and Chelsea. There are many popu- lous parishes in the center of London but west of the City. This is the London which contains 5,000,000 people and is the largest and most opulent city in the Avorld. , THE FASHIONABLE WEST END. In the West End are the fine squares and club-houses for which London is noted, and here also is the brilliant Piccadilly street in which so much of the wealth and fashion of Enorland is congres^ated. Reg-ent street, the handsomest perhaps in London, where the ladies shop and which promenaders of both sexes greatly frequent, crosses Piccadilly. Belgravia, the southern portion of the West End, is a mass of great squares, in which grow beautiful trees, and which are surrounded by mansions of nobles and merchant princes. The northern division of the West End is known as Tyburnia, professional men, artists, and the less wealthy class of merchants having their residences here. The outer districts of the West End are beautified, also, by the g-randest of London's royal parks, and in pleasant weather Regent's and Hyde Parks, and Kensington Gardens, with their museums, palaces, lakes and wide drives, collect more high breeding, princely men and women, gorgeous and elegant equipages and costumes than can be shown elsewhere in the world within a like space. On the site of the Crystal Palace, in Hyde Park, is the splendid memorial to Prince Albert. He is represented as seated under a canopy, the richly-carved and minaret-like roof terminating in a cross. The main exposures of the monument present a multitude of marble portraits of illustrious Englishmen, while at the four corners of the inclosure Europe, Asia, Africa and America are symbolized in stone. The Albert Hall is oppo- site the Memorial, and the Kensington Museum buildings near by. In Reagent's Park are the laro-e botanical and zoological gardens. East of Kensincrton Palace, one of the Oueen's town residences and where she was born, are the unrivalled gardens. A bridge over a charming arti- ficial body of water, called the Serpentine, connects Kensington Gardens with those other royal grounds, Hyde Park. East of Hyde Park is Green Park, entered beneath a triumphal arch surmounted by an eques- 948 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. trian statue of Wellington, Upon the road connecting Hyde Park with St. James Park is Buckingham Palace, with a magnificent ball-room and throne-room, but an architectural eye-sore to most of the English mon- archs. The Queen seldom visits it. The royal receptions are usually held in St. James Palace, fronting the park by that name. The palace is at the end of Pall Mall, in which club-house thoroughfare is Marlbor- ough House, the residence of the Prince of Wales. THE CITY. Trafalgar Square, within easy walking distance of Charing Cross (the official headquarters of the cab service) the Houses of Parliament, art galleries, club rooms, etc., besides the imposing statue to Nel- son and other works of art, is a favorite resort for pleasure seekers, politicians and mer- chants passing back and forth between the West End and the City. The Houses of Parliament consist of a vast structure lying between the Thames and Westminster Abbey and having a river front of 900 feet. Its central spire and its belfry are each 30a feet in height. West- minster hall, over 100 feet in height, with an area in proportion, occupies the hall of the old royal palace where some of the first parliaments were held. The House of Lords is finely propor- tioned and gorgeously finished, containing the Queen's throne, the Prince's chair, the Lord Chancellor's wool-sack (a chair cushioned with wool), and statues of the barons who brought the charter to King John at Runny- mede and compelled him to sign it. If the Queen is to arrive, two hours before her coming the cellars underneath the House are carefully l:r:. i-fv ■4i, h- r \' X2. \ NOTED PICTURE OF LOT'S WIFE. THE CITY. 949 examined in fear of another gunpowder plot. The House of Commons is comparatively plain. Of the other vast government buildings, Somer- set House is perhaps the most noticeable, it being a quadrangular struct- ure with a river frontage of 600 feet. Soon after leaving Parliament street Westminster Abbey comes into view, with its square towers and majestic stretch of buttresses and '^^•:'::'i^'^^<''^<^<^::-:rf^:?<^:>'/if.'^^^ ^ PIECE OF STATUARY. pinnacles. Here the monarchs of England were crowned for centuries, and many of them buried. Clustered around the east end of the Abbey are several chapels, those of Henry VH. and Edward the Confessor being the most noticeable. Edward was the first monarch crowned in Westminster, and his shrine appears in the middle of his chapel. Queen Elizabeth and Mary Stuart have their monuments in Henry's chapel. 950 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. while within calHng distance are the mortal parts of those souls whom England delisjhts to honor, St. Paul's Cathedral stands upon the highest ground in the city, on Ludgate Hill. The old church was burned in the great London fire,, the present cathedral being built in 1675-1 710 by Sir Christopher Wren one of the world's great architects. It would not, in fact, be honoring him too much to call him the builder of modern London, for no one else accomplished so much to restore it after the disastrous conflagra- tion of 1666 ; not only was he the architect of St. Paul's, where he is buried, but of fifty other churches, of the Royal Exchange, the Custom House, the monument near the foot of London bridge commemorative of the fire, the Greenwich Observatory, and hospitals, colleges and pal- aces, which make a list fit for a directory. St. Paul's is built after St. Peter's, and besides being a monument to genius itself, contains memorials of Nelson, Dr. Johnson, Wellington, Napier and John Howard, and the tombs of such illustrious persons as the artists Turner and Reynolds. At the foot of Ludgate Hill is Fleet street, which is the Newspaper Row of London, and the London Times, with its foundries and tele- graph system, its army of employes and military precision, is printed not far away in Water lane. The western bounds of the Hill are at Temple Bar, and beyond is Lincoln's Inn Fields, a great square and resort for the legal profession. The British Museum dates from the latter part of the eighteenth century and the great solid building, with its columned porticoes, from: the commencement of the nineteenth. The noble dome, which covers the reading room of the library is larger than St. Peter's and only a few feet smaller than the Pantheon. Among the other features of the library which has made it almost unrivalled — the national library at Paris being its competitor — are the collection of manuscripts and the department of Hebrew literature. Of greatest value in the department of antiquities of the Museum are, perhaps, the Egyptian and Assyrian collections. The collection of natural history is remarkably complete, having an only- rival in that of the Museum of Paris, which institution, as a whole, is the only one in the world which compares with the British Museum. The centers of the city's vast political, commercial and financial activity are around the Bank of England, Threadneedle street, the Royal Exchange, the Mansion House and the Custom House. Thames, Cornhill, Cheapside, Fenchurch, Leadenhall and Victoria streets are solidly packed with pedestrians and vehicles for nine hours of the day. The Mansion House, the residence of the Lord Mayor, is connected with Blackfriars Bridge by Victoria street. Perhaps the most continu- THE CTTV, 951 ous, the densest traffic, is between the Bank of England and the Man- sion House. It is said to average 60,000 persons in a day of nine hours. A street from Cheapside, in the heart of the city, leads to the Guildhall, where many of the societies of tradesmen meet. They are the organized voters of London, and as such are intimately connected with the Corporation. The organiza- tion of some of the guilds dates back a thousand years, many of them be- ing very wealthy and owning beauti- ful halls, where they give lavish en- tertainments. The Guildhall is used by those who have not their own place of assembly, and is the cen- ter of as much political life as the Mansion House of the Lord Mayor. The traffic over the brido^es of the Thames, particularly over Lon- don Brido;e. is tremendous. The river is tunneled, but the pressure of travel is so great that it is hardly relieved. The south side of the Thames is bordered by a magnifi- cent embankment called the Al- bert ; across the river is the Vic- toria. The Albert embankment is lined with stately residences and other buildings, but terminates among the manufactories of Lam- beth. The great streets of London generally follow the Thames, and the embankments, of comparatively recent construction, are broad quays along the river banks sim- ilar to those of Paris. The Vic- toria embankment runs from Westminster to Blackfriars Bridge, with Waterloo between. The latter is over 1,200 feet in length, one of the finest structures of the kind in existence, and was opened to the public upon the second anniversary of the battle of Waterloo. 952 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. LONDON TOWER AND THE DOCKS. One of the most interesting of the many excursions which may be taken from London City in all directions, is that which terminates at the London and India docks by way of Tower Hill. The Tower Hamlets, east of London, and other suburbs in the vicinity, are to the poorer classes what the West End to the aristoc- m IS racy ; the two ex- tremes of London life may be studied in the t^wo ex- tremes of London. Within sight of much of the pov- erty of London are the forests of masts and the huge bod- ies of steamers, representing her ceaseless trade with every quarter of the globe. Be- t w e e n the great bridsfes are a score <_> of steamboat piers for the accommo- dation of river pas- sengers. Just be- low London Bridge is the Pool where the coal ships or ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, HOLBORN- collicrs most Con- gregate. Between the Pool and Blackwell is the Port of London, occupied by ships of greater burden, and for the convenience of these LONDON TOWER AND THE DOCKS. 953 giants have been constructed extensive docks and massi\'e warehouses. Extensions are constantly progressing and tunnels being built to connect the docks on the northern bank of the Thames with those on the south- ern, so that eventually they will form one vast system. Below the Tower are St. Katharine's docks, and also on the northern shore, the London docks, with their extensive wine vaults, the Limestone docks, the West India docks, the East India docks, and the Victoria docks; on the :southern shore the grand Surrey and Commercial docks are devoted to the timber and corn trades. The East India docks are at Blackwell, and as the shores are flat on either side of the river the greatest of English merchant ships which lie there appear more gigantic than they are. London Tower overlooks the most cosmopolitan, if not the busiest section of the River Thames. This historical fortress and prison is an inharmonious mass of towers, forts, ramparts, batteries, barracks, armories and other structures, covering an area of nearly 900 feet square. North west of the Tower is the hill upon which the scaffold stood. Each of the towers included in the Tower has its particular recollections. Lady Jane Grey, Pvaleigh, Sidney, Russell, the young sons of Edward IV., and other ghosts, haunt them. One tower was built by William the Con- queror, and on one side of it is a large structure occupied as barracks and erected by the Duke of Wellington, who was once Constable of the Tower. Of late years the authorities have made strenuous efforts to provide parks, or "lungs," for the working people of the east and northeast of London. Victoria Park, 300 acres in extent, is one of the greatest of these blessings. We have hardly touched upon the attractions of London. If one should say but a dozen words about each of the 2,000 churches he would have written a chapter. He would commence by saying: Opposite St. Bartholomew's, bloody Queen Mary burned her victims at the stake ; in St. Saviour's, Southwark, are buried Gower, Beaumont, Fletcher and Mas- singer ; Temple Church, near the Bar, contains the body of poor Oliver Goldsmith; the Duke of Wellington attended the fashionable St. George's Church, Hanover Square ; Whitfield's Chapel is where he first preached to a large indoor congregation ; Spurgeon's Tabernacle, Christ's Church (Rev. Newman Hall), and the picturesque St. Andrew's, must be lightly passed ; the ancient St. Giles, Cripplegate, is where the majestic Milton is buried, etc.,. etc. This also would be the very unsatisfactory way in which one would be obliged to treat the great charities and benefactors, past and present; the hospitals for men, women and children, for the insane, the lame, the 954 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. epileptic and confirmed invalids ; the universities, colleges, ragged schools and select schools, medical and surgical schools, libraries, museums, fine art galleries and underground railways. In one word, and finally, there is no civilization in any part of the world of which a trace can not be found in London. WHERE PETER WORKED. On the south side of the river, opposite the dock district, are Deptford, Greenwich and Woolwich. At Deptford was formerly the great royal ship-yard, in which Peter the Great worked at his trade. This is now removed to Chatham, thirty miles southeast of London. Adjoining the deserted yard at Deptford are the victualing establish- ments of the royal navy, consisting of cattle pens, slaughter houses, bakeries, a brewery, etc., etc., and which partially cover the former grounds of the mansion in which Peter resided while working for his. empire. WOOLWICH AND GREENWICH. Woolwich really lies on both sides of the River Thames, but the arsenal and grounds where the ordnance of the army and navy is proved are on the south side. Until twenty years ago the royal dock-yard was- located here, where it had been established for three centuries. The foundries and magazines, with other buildings connected with the arsenal, cover over one hundred acres of ground, and the famous range where ordnance and new guns are tried is three miles in length. Con- veniently situated to get the advantage of every experiment and a thorough, practical education is the military academy for artillery officers and engineers. At North Woolwich are turned out hundreds of miles of telegraph cables. Greenwich is five miles from St. Paul's, and three from London bridge. Since the seventeenth century the Greenwich observatory has been fixing the longitude for a great portion of the world. Greenwich time is also standard throughout England. It is a manufacturing town, having large yards for the building of iron steamboats ; but Greenwich has another attraction besides its observatory, of which there is no pro- totype in Great Britain. The hospital for seamen is a large, quadrangu- lar building, containing libraries and a hall adorned with portraits of naval heroes and representations of naval victories, besides the regular offices and apartments. This institution supports thousands of British seamen, many of those who were formerly inmates, but not seriously CANTERBURY AND THOMAS A BECKET. 955 incapacitated being now allowed a choice of residence. At present it con- tains a few hundred bed-ridden pensioners, but the bulk of the hospital is reserved for use in case of war. The site of the building was at one time occupied by the royal palace in which Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary and Henry VIII. were born. Gravesend is the limit of the port of London, It has ship-yards and a church where Pocahontas is buried. Ships leaving port get their outfits, provisions and clothing at Gravesend, and the Custom House officers examine vessels when they are about to enter. Chatham, where the royal ship-)^ards are, is beyond Gravesend, toward the sea, and Canterbury is still east of Chatham. It is a good point from which to sweep the whole of England, south of the Thames. CANTERBURY AND THOMAS A BECKET. From the time of St. Augustine, who received Ethelbert and his whole kingdom of Kent into the Church, Canterbury has been the seat of the highest ecclesiastic of England. From the rising to the setting of a single sun, ten thousand Saxons were baptized in the river Stour, which flows through Canterbury. This was the first formal acknowledg- ment of the power of the Christian religion in Great Britain, and it was upon this occasion that the old Saxon priest smote the images of his gods to see if there was really any virtue in them. He had served them long, he said; they had brought nothing but misery to him, and he was a willinor convert to the new faith. Thouofh the great cathedral at Can- terbury has suffered several times by fire, and has been beautified during the present century, it is in substantially the same condition as it was when completed in the twelfth century. Henry IV. and the Black Prince have monuments in the cathedral. The city contains other interesting memorials of the introduction of Christianity into England. The immense Augustinian monastery, so long used as a brewery, is now a missionary college, having been restored to something of its former appearance. It was before the hiofh altar of the magfnificent cathedral at Canter- bury, that Thomas a Becket, the Primate of England, was murdered because he pronounced the Church greater than the King ; for which deed King Henry II. did penance by allowing the monks to lay the lashes upon his own bare back, besides erecting several castles throughout the king- dom and doing other useless things. Now, beyond Dover, near the coast, is a little old town, with middle-century churches and houses. Once it was an important sea-port and furnished the king with many a vessel for defense of England. There is now quite a tract of land between it and 95^ PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the sea. Hythe was, furthermore, a smugglers' port, and one of their picturesque lighthouses, with a blunt, square tower, rises innocently from the middle of the town, a legitimate store underneath, and an honest family of Kent for inmates. It was about a mile from this town that the Knights met who stabbed Thomas a Becket before the high altar of Canterbury, Saltwood Castle, where the conspirators agreed upon their villainy, was claimed as Church property by Thomas a Becket. Only a portion of the structure, looking from such a romantic situation upon the Channel and the coast of France, is left to tell of its former strength and magnificence. Its deep windows, groined roofs and rich carvings are built into a farm house, some of its large •Upper room being occupied by laborers. DOVER AND HASTINGS. The road from Chatham to Canterbury is delightful, and passes on to a pleasant little town, which once had a good harbor, and was, with Hythe, one of the powerful so called'" Cinque Ports," or those lying opposite France which were accorded particular privileges in return for which they furnished whole fleets of ships to humble the people just across the way. Sandwich's harbor, however, commenced to fill up with sand and in an unlucky day a vessel sunk at its entrance and com- pleted the blockade. Dover is the next Cinque Port, going down the coast, and it still enjoys that distinction, it being only twenty miles from France and the most convenient port of landing from the continent. Both Normans and French have laid violent hands upon it, and Caesar would have landed his invaders there, but the shore was too abrupt, and he entered England from a point a little further west. The Saxons looked upon it as the key to Kent and the Englishmen as the key to the kingdom. The Castle of Dover, posted upon a great chalk cliff guarding the town, contains a Roman watchtower, which is one of the most ancient pieces of military work in Great Britain, and exhibits also both Saxon and Norman styles of architecture. Upon the borders of what was then a forest, not far from Dover, another adventurer in arms landed from the French coast, nearly a thousand years from Caesar's time. The battle which gave England to the Normans, however, was not fought at Hastings, but six miles west of the port. Two years afterwards William the Conqueror founded Battle Abbey, which yet stands, a rugged stone structure with four central towers and two unequal wings. THE CHALKY CLIFFS AND OLD FORESTS. 957' THE CHALKY CLIFFS AND OLD FORESTS. The physical peculiarity of these extreme southeastern districts of the country is the chalky formation of the land, which throws it into two pleasing series of undulations called the North and the South Downs, which extend to the coast, the former beyond Canterbury to North Foreland (the extremity of Southeastern England) and the latter to Beachy Head, the grandest of the southern chalk cliffs. The Downs inclose the Weald, a rough plain from which geologists have drawn val- uable specimens of sea monsters, amphibians and ferns. Ironstone was also found, and Briton^ Roman and Saxon are believed to have worked in it. In the middle ages iron manufacturing prospered in the Weald, or forest, and the Sussex iron works were called upon not only b)r neighboring hamlets and villas, but by London itself. Cinder Hill, Furnace Place, Hammer Ponds, with the forest gone and the manufac- tories transferred to such coal districts as Birmingham, tell of past industry and the cause of its decadence. A ridge runs through the center of the Weald, from which its fertile and flowery surface, roughly broken and with a fir tree left here and there, may be viewed as far as the Downs on either side. In a little town on the northern edge of the Weald, Richard Cobden, the free-trader, was born, and Sir Charles Lyell, the geologist, passed his early days there. Farther west is Leith Hill, the highest point of land in Southeastern England, from whose summit can be indistinctly traced a varied and charming landscape 200 miles in extent. A ramble through the Surrey hills would be well repaid by the charming country residences which peep out so unexpect- edly from groves of beech and oak trees. Then there are cool dales, bright hills, and pleasant lanes and villages to enjoy. If a ridge or an elevation has such a queer name as the Hog's Back it must be walked, for such brands were placed there by the early Saxons, and their homely- words are stamped upon many hills and vales of this region. EPSOM SALTS AND RACES. The Weald and Surrey hills also bring one within about twenty miles of London, and upon the northern edge of this varied landscape is a representative town of England — old and yet new; for although the Epsom salts were known two centuries ago, the race-course is less than half of that age. Epsom is on the edge of the North Downs and it is on the Downs themselves that the great race-course is located. The races for the Derby stakes are the most exciting which take place in England. Epsom seemed once destined to become a famous health 958 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. resort, the salts vvhich were obtained from evaporating the waters of her mineral springs becoming so famous that the name Epsom salt is now applied to a like mineral obtained from the sea, from quarries in France, the Mammoth Cave in this country, and many other localities. But the races overshadowed the salts and during the week succeeding Whitsuntide a hundred thousand people pour out of London and gather from the surrounding country to see the famous English runners. THE FOREST OF DEATH. Just beyond the South Downs is the New Forest, in whose dense shades a few timid deer still wander, and wild ponies and swine find their homes there. It is the largest and most picturesque tract of wooded land in England, the noblest vantage ground being a knoll upon which is a country house marking thesiteof the keep from which the Red King went forth to hunt for the last time ; from this point cool avenues stretch over vast reaches of the forest, and open to view the refreshing waters of the Channel and the distant Isle of Wight. The spot where Rufus was found pierced with arrows is marked by a stone appropriately inscribed and protected by an iron casing. Beeches and oak predomi- nate among the monarchs of the forest, and in the oldest portion of it two of the " twelve apostles" — gigantic trees — still stand. In the very center of this primeval scene is a little town, from which man)^ excursions are made. Groves whose gnarled sentries and massive groups make one dream of the Druids and their sacrifices are separated by fertile strips and great farms. Elegant mansions and pretty villages are both scat- tered through the Forest and stand around its edges as if enjoying its great repose and varied aspects. The New Forest was one of the sixty-eight royal domains enjoyed by William the Conqueror and his court, and when he burned the peo- ple's churches and drove the worshipers away, the country was well set- tled. The persecuted peasants and foresters looked grimly on while one son was gored to death by a royal stag ; another son, the Red King, mysteriously met his fate, and a grandson was accidentally shot to death by an arrow THE ISLE OF WIGHT. The tourist can not do better, if he comes to England to see inspiring sights and breathe invigorating air, than to follow one of those avenues through the New Forest which lead toward Southampton Water and the Enorlish Channel. It is a short sail to the shores of the Isle of Wight, with its bold cliffs of chalk, its dark sea caves, its beauti- TO EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE. 959 ful waves of land, its sheltered vales and soft inland breezes, and the resort of literary men with temperaments ranging from Tennyson to Hugo. The yachts are more apt to frequent the Solent, the strait between the forest and the island. The Palace of Osborne rises serenely from a gradual elevation, a graceful stretch of wooded land coming down to the water's edge, like the royal deer themselves whose sleek forms adorn the grassy slopes. Thousands of British subjects hover around the beau- tiful place as around the memory of Prince Albert. In the vicinity of Os- borne House, at East Cowles, Dr. Arnold of Rugby was born, and this might beaquestion hard toanswer : Do more Englishmen worshipatthe shrine of the late Prince Consort than at the shrine of Dr. Arnold of Rugby ? A stroll through the interior of the island develops many localities of interest. In the downs have been found subterranean burial passages and regular Saxon grounds. Near Newport is a ruined fortress called Carisbrooke castle, where Charles I. was imprisoned after his flight from Hampton Court, and near the castle is a Roman villa and the remains of a costly pavement. The children of the king were also imprisoned there, the Princess Elizabeth dying in the castle and being buried at Newport church. The chalk downs which make the backbone of the Isle of Wight extend from Culver Cliffs in the east to the Needles in the west. Culver Cliffs terminate in a stupendous headland of chalk called the White Dove, while the Needles might have once been as massive, but are now worn away, so that they appear as pillars of chalk. A second and a higher range of chalk hills is formed in the southern part of the island and ex- pands into a broad promontory, whose scarred, furrowed and stern face is the Undercliff. For several miles it is evident that immense slides of land once fell at the base of the exposed cliff, having been loosened by the many springs ; these gradually subsided into a series of terraces, which now appear as a long rock garden, in which grow clumps of trees and a profusion of wild flowers, and whose coast line is sometimes broken by sunny bays and valleys. This district of the island is a favorite resort for invalids, and notwithstanding that many go there in the last stages of consumption the figures of the registrar-general prove that its death rate is actually the lowest in the kingdom. Railway communication has been opened between the various health resorts, Newton, the capital, and other towns. TO EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE. In skirting along the sea shore, from opposite the Isle of Wight, the first point of interest is old Portsmouth, with a great royal dock-yard 960 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. and fortifications. Even as early as Alfred's time vessels sailed from: this port to defeat the Sea Kings. Then we visit Exeter, the ancient capital of the West Saxons, and once strongly fortified, but taken by Dane and Norman. Before the Saxons came it is believed to have been a Briton town. Northeast of the city, on a hill, is the castle in which ihe West Saxon kings resided, and within it are large squares, a Nor- man cathedral of rich and massive appearance, and numerous educational institutes. The city is on the River Exe, a few miles from the Channel. And beyond is Plymouth, thriving and handsome, with a naval dock- yard, arsenal and productive fisheries, receiving its water supply from the moor of the River Dart, thirty miles distant. That dreary tract of swamps and rocks, and granite hills, and Druidical altars, should be approached from the north in order to thoroughly saturate the traveler with gloom, and a detour will therefore be made from the Channel by way of Bristol. A few miles south of the entrance to Plymouth Sound is the Eddy- stone lighthouse, on a reef, which has been photographed and described more often than any other similar structure in the world ; but that we may entertain, like the father who tells the same story time and time again to an ever-attentive audience, we will remark that the building of the last Eddystone lighthouse might form material for a romance, and that the waves of the channel have several times broken the thick plate-glass m its lantern, nearly seventy feet above the average sea level. FROM THE NEW FOREST, INLAND. One of the most remarkable remains of antiquity in the world are those imperfect circles of huge monoliths, but still traceable, which for many years have drawn thousands of antiquarians to Stonehenge, in Salisbury Plain, Southern Wiltshire, north of the New Forest. Even though the temple has been restored beyond reasonable doubt, it is still uncertain whether it was erected by the Druids, was a Temple of the Sun or a monument in honor of the dead. One legend ascribes it to the last of the British kings, who, with the assistance of the magician Merlin, built it in memory of 460 Britons who were murdered by Hengist the Saxon. Northwest of the New Forest, in the same count}/ of Wilts, is Savernake Forest, said to be the only one in England belonging to a subject. " It is especially remarkable for its avenues of trees. One, of magnificent beeches, is nearly four miles in length, and is intersected at one point of its course by three separate walks, or forest vistas, placed ALONG BRISTOL CHANNEL. 96 1 at such angles as, with the avenue itself, to command eight points of the compass. The effect is unique and beautiful, the artificial character of the arrangement being amply compensated by the exceeding luxuri- ance of thickset trees and the soft loveliness of the verdant flowery glades which they inclose. The smooth, bright foliage of the beech is interspersed with the darker shade of the fir, while towering elms and wide-spreading oaks diversify the line of view in endless, beautiful variety. At one point a clump of trees will be reached — the veterans of the forest, with moss-clad trunks and gnarled, half-leafless branches — the chief being known as the King Oak, but sometimes called the Duke's, from the Lord Protector Somerset, with whom this tree was a favorite." ALONG BRISTOL CHANNEL. Bath and Bristol are in our way beyond the forests of Wiltshire, but it is the orderly way to first visit the picturesque spots in Somersetshire, which command Bristol Channel and the south of Wales, and which gradually merge into the vast moors of Devonshire, the wilds of Corn- wall, the adamant cliffs of Land's End, and finally the very prom- ontory itself, which lies prone at their feet, defying the incessant shock of two seas. The little village of Cheddar is not far from Bristol, and in its neighborhood is much of the most striking of that transition scenery which connects the southern and the southwestern sections of Eneland. The Mendips is a fantastic ridge of rocks, massive at the base and broken into graceful shapes above, the scant soil which it bears giving life to every creeping thing (in the vegetable world), and to radiant wild roses and other flowers. The caves are numerous and mysterious, some of the passages extending for long distances underground. We are now in the region of John Locke's birthplace and of the philanthropic labors of Mrs. Hannah More, while farther to the southwest is the marshy, woody country where King Alfred bided his time to drive the Danes from the land. The site of the neatherd's cottage, where the King let the cakes burn, while sorrowing and scheming, is approximated by a small stone pillar. KING ARTHUR'S LAND. On the shores of Cornwall and from Channel to Channel the legends of good King Arthur are thick as the great rocks which stand out to sea. The slaty and granite cliffs oppose themselves to the growing fury of the sea and form a fitting bulwark to the country which constituted the last stronghold of the Celts of England. In Cornwall, tradition places the 61 962 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. last great battle in wnich he fought, which also represents him as being borne from the battle-field mortally wounded and being buried at Glas- tonbury. It is further reported that by order of Henry II. his tomb was opened and the bones and good sword of the monarch were found. Arthur's Court is placed on the River Usk, in Southern Wales, where he lived with his beautiful wife. The scenes of his doubtful conflicts cover England from Lancaster, Bath and Portsmouth almost to Land's End. South of the Mendip Hills, on the River Brue, is Glastonbury Abbey reputed to have been founded by Joseph of Arimathaea, and the scene of the labors of St. Patrick and St. Augustine. Of the great church and its five chapels there yet remain three large crypts where Arthur, the early kings of England and founders of the English Church, were buried. A little westward from the ruin stands the beautiful chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathaea. Glastonbury was the reputed scene of St. Dunstan's conflict with the Devil, in which the Evil One, who came to tempt him from his forge and his cell, was seized by the nose with a pair of red-hot pincers. A LITERARY LAND. In the charming Ouantock Hills, not far away, are treasured mem- ories of the home life of Sidney Smith, Coleridge and Wordsworth, Toward the west and Bristol Channel, stretch a greater range than the Ouantocks, and if one ascends their heights the Welsh mountains may be dimly seen across the waters, while the land view is as majestic as any in the west of England. Famous watering places along this coast are a continual invitation to rest and not to make sight-seeing so tiresome a business. There are also many modest ones, not the less charming for being so. "Westward Ho !" is one of the bold kind, receiving its name from one of Charles Kingsley's novels — the one which Humboldt admired for its sublime description of South American forests which he had seen but Kingsley had not. A few miles of an appetizing walk finds one before a quaint village, buried in a wooded hillside — just throwing out a hesitating stone pier into a small bay, to let the world know that it is there. This is Clovelly, Kingsley's early home, and his first and last love. A little farther on is Hartland Point, a small grassy head of land, a few feet across, which is said to have an exact counterpart on the Welsh coast directly opposite. DREARY DARTMOOR. A direct and depressing contrast to the hills and downs of Southern England and the Isle of Wight, to diversified wealds and forests, are ROCKS AND FLOWERS. 963 the dreary, grim moors of Southern Devonshire. The mossy, soggy moors are broken into many jagged outhnes by great masses of granite, and numerous streams descend from the heights to the River Dart, which flows into the Channel. In its upper regions Dartmoor is so deso- late that when ore first enters its solitudes his imagination might well delude him into the belief that some unfriendly power had placed him in some of the rocky deserts of Southwestern Africa, hundreds of miles from the coasts ; but as he follows a stream through the moor, and down its sloping borders toward the lowlands and the valley of the Dart, the sweet woods and dales and sunlit villages which greet his tired eyes, refresh his nature and bring back the bright side of life. ROCKS AND FLOWERS. The change from Devon to Cornwall may be over a great railway viaduct which spans the River Tamar. A more impressive approach is from the sea by way of Plymouth Sound. Here the Tamar presents a majestic appearance, and it is dii^cult to believe that it has its rise only sixty miles away. But whether you enter Cornwall by rail, on foot or by water, a great difference is at once noticed in the character of the country from that of Devon. With the exception of the moor country Devonshire is a softly outlined, fertile region, but suddenly as England gets ready for a final contest with the Western seas, she throws off her pleasing drapery and opposes to the elements a stern front — mostly ponderous granite and steely slate. The trees so nearly disappear that the natives of Devon say that the Cornish people have not enough timber to make a coffin. On some of the steep hills are a few stunted oaks, but, to draw a parallel in order to save a geological explanation, Cornwall is where Enorland's backbone of hills runs down into the tail and therefore the appendage was not clad in rich moldy soil, or the flesh of the land. The valleys which lie between the black heights of Corn- wall are, however, clothed with as green a verdure as can be found in England, and the orchards, gardens and farms thus sheltered seem, from their surroundings, more beautiful and more fruitful than they really are. " In various parts of the country, but always near the sea shore, we are astonished at finding in the front gardens of the houses ornamen- tal plants, which remain out of doors all the year and do not belong at all to the general flora of England. Myrtles, laurels, fuchsias and pom- egranates attain a remarkable size, flourish bravely in the open air and form hedges, clumps and fragrant screens which elegantly adorn the -windows and walls." 964 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. The effect of the Gulf Stream upon the western coasts of Cornwall is to make the seasons in this extremity of the island more forward than in any other locality. So that while frost is king in other parts of Eng- land, at the holiday season, the warmed and sheltered spots of Cornwall are bringing forth flowers, vegetables, bees and birds. Vegetation has been found more advanced in Southwestern Cornwall than in Northern Italy, so that this locality has been called the winter kitchen garden of London. Many of the early vegetables which reach the markets of the Metropolis come from Cornwall, and in nearly every town there is a cot- tage gardening society for the encouragement of this branch of agricul- ture. HOUSES AND MINES. Returning again to the stern side of Cornwall (and that, after all, is the one which is forced upon the world — it has to look for the flowers; the architecture of the old towns is massive and rugged. Cot- tages and even pig pens are built of blocks of granite, of which a castle might be proud. Often the stone is left in the rough, so that the beau- tiful colors and sparkling crystals make a diversified and striking picture. Frequently, however, their picturesqueness is spoiled by common coats of whitewash. The interior of one of these cottages is described thus : "A single ground-floor room serves at once as kitchen, dining and draw- ing-room. A wide open chimney, without a grate, proves that it was not originally intended to burn coals. The combustible formerly in use was roots, prickly furze and dried turf, which when raised in slabs forms a species of peat. A wooden or stone bench placed in the interior of the chimney serves as the family seat during the cold winter evenings. The laborers frequently obtain from the farmer their supply of gorse and dry grass, on condition of returning him the ashes. A deal table without a cloth, but carefully scrubbed, receives, the coarse and substan- tial dishes which have been cooked in front of the fire on a hot plate of iron. The whole family sit around this table on massive benches gen- erally fastened to the wall." Other cottages are more comfortably fur- nished and, even in secluded places near the tin and copper mines, will sometimes be seen quite elaborate stone structures, or houses of modest proportions, supplied with all the interior decorations which prosperous proprietors could wish to enjoy. The mines are not radically different from those worked in this country, except that the machinery is often more crude and there are many chambers which run under the sea. The most famous subterra- nean mine is the Botallack, some of its galleries running more than half a HOUSES AND MINES. 965 mile under the stormy waves and at places approaching so near the bed of the sea that the heavy rocks can be heard rolling and grinding above. Near Penzance a mine was worked for many years whose mouth was not in the dark cliffs or moors of the coast, but in a deep ocean bay. The upper part of the shaft was a caisson, which rose a dozen feet above the level of the sea, and the water which trickled from the ocean into the mine was pumped out by an engine which stood on the shore over 700 feet away. Pipes which were carried along a platform connected the mine with the engine, but the connection was severed by a storm-driven vessel, and, on account of the heavy expense already incurred, the bold enterprise was abandoned. The mines of Cornwall are, some of them, located amid green valleys and farms ; others have bare hills and moors for their surround- ings, and great rocks, in mysterious forms, lie near them. If there is any specially remarkable or weird formation, there are two explanations open — the wonder may be attributed to the Druids, to the Devil, or to the Archangel Michael, who (the latter) is the patron of the coast. The headquarters of the Archangel is supposed to be the rocky St. Michael's Mount, which lies adjacent to the Land's End district, and, like its mate off the coast of Normandy, is peninsula or island, according to the tide. It is well worth climbing for the mas^nificent view of sea and land, obtained from its sum.mit. Historically, it is supposed to be one of the islands to which the ancient Britons bore the tin in their boats, at high water, and in their chariots, at low water, the Phoenician ships carry- ing the precious metal to Tyre and Sidon, from whence it may have gone into the bronzes of Assyria and Egypt. On the mainland tin mines have been discovered, which are little more than burrows — those presumably worked by the Britons. Nearly midway between the eastern bounds of Cornwall and Land's End is one of the most remarkable districts of England for the quarry- ing of the kaolin, or fine clay, from which the wonderful porcelain ware of the country is made. The deposits result from the decomposition of feldspar, thus giving the clay a peculiarly pure and white appearance. In some cases the substance has to be dug out and disintegrated by the action of running water. Then by being received into a series of tanks the finer particles are at length deposited. After the water has evapor- ated or been drawn off, the pure white deposit soon hardens so that it can be cut with a spade into cakes and carried off to sheds, or the sur- rounding hills to further harden. This is often the work of women who appear in white costumes, bonnets, wide sleeves and aprons, and bear away the gleaming porcelain substance which is white as snow. There 966 I'AiNORAMA OF NATIONS. are harder deposits of kaolin which are blasted like stone, the bulk of the product being conveyed in carts to the nearest port and shipped to Staffordshire, which is in Central England and also the center of the pottery manufactures. AMONG MINERS AND FISHERMEN. A miner seldom appears to notice either the beauty or the barren- ness of his surroundings. The life is essentially a sad and an anxious one, the world over, and the Cornish native seems naturally of a more sombre, but not desponding disposition, than any other nationality ; the Cornish giant who works in the mines is intelligent and proud, but not FISH SALE IN CORNWALL. boorish. When at home he cultivates his flowers and vegetables in summer and, if he lives on the coast, ventures out upon the sea to catch his winter supply of fish with as much confidence as though the water^ not the land, were his element. Although girls and Avomen are not employed in the mines as frequently as in former years the practice is still common in Cornwall. Their work is to break and prepare the mineral, and although their labors have a tendency to make them far too masculine, their figures are often perfectly developed and they are noble specimens of womanhood A DEAD LANGUAGE. 967 and girlhood. Both they and the daughters of the sea are fond of rib- bons, pretty veils and lockets, and although the granite Cornish men protest, they know in their rough hearts that they love to see the bright flowers among the rocks. On Sunday the flowers appear particularly fresh. Yet Sunday in Cornwall is as John Wesley would wish it to be. Old and young are dressed in their cleanest, and their best includes silks and laces. But whether by miners or fishermen, Sunday is observed as a holy day, and some of them will exhibit, as an evidence that they had need to reform, various circles and groups of stones which were once ball-playing men and dancing girls. Traces of the first Methodist revi- val which Wesley led among the manufacturing and mining districts of England are yet observed in Cornwall, where he met with the greatest success. Thousands of the Cornish miners were both converted and re- formed. The work did not end there, but to this day, the Wesleyans and the Methodists are the strong sects of the country. The actual toilers of the sea are seen in their most characteristic at- tires when the boats have returned to port laden with their precious freio-hts. The wives are there to meet their husbands and usually several hawkers are on hand, as soon as anybody, to purchase for the markets. One of their most common vehicles is a truck, to which is fastened an immense basket. If the place is a considerable village there is a long line of trucks along the beach, and the buyers stand on rocks or jetties, with whips in hand, examine the contents of the boats, which are drawn up along the pier, and, in a stentorian voice, shout out their "highest fio-ure." "Women with bent backs loaded with a dorser called a cowl, doubtless because some resemblance was found between it and a monk's cowl, bear the enormous loads of fish from the boats to the beach. All the people push and elbow each other, with an immense quantity of talk- ing, performed in that singing voice peculiar to Cornwall." A DEAD LANGUAGE. The voice is peculiar, and some of the long faces, black hair and large noses and mouths are not English ; the language, however, is get- ting to be almost identical with the English, although the majority of the Cornish people were once Celts. Until the close of the seventeenth century they spoke their primitive language, those who lived nearest Land's End clineine to the dear old dialect with tbe grimmest determina- tion. There is something almost as pathetic in the struggle of a people to keep their native language in the world as of a dying race to struggle 968 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. against extermination. A Cornish clergyman who taught the Word not more than fifty miles from Land's End preached the last sermon in Cel- tic at about 1687. As a spoken language the Cornish may be considered devoured by the English. Many rocks and promontories retain their ancient names, and a phrase or a few words will occasionally crop out in familiar discourse between Cornish miners and fishermen ; but as the English have so crowded their way into Cornwall that there is little pure Celtic blood, so it is likely that the Celtic dialect of Cornwall is dead beyond resurrection. The most important written remains of the tongue are deposited in the Cottonian library of the British Museum. Sir Robert Cotton, an English antiquarian, made a valuable collection of ancient manuscripts during the early portion of the seventeenth century, obtaining among other curiosities a vocabulary of the Cornish-Celtic which is still preserved. Returning toward Bristol and Bath by way of the northern coast of Southwestern England, the formations of the cliffs are generally of a slaty texture. After leaving these two cities, up the River Severn we pass into an imaginary division of the empire called Educational and Ecclesiastical Enorland. The Thames bounds it on the south CD and Shakespeare's Avon, extended to the North Sea, is its northern boundary. BRISTOL AND BATH. These were Roman stations on the great military road from London to Wales. Both cities were towns of the Britons before the Romans invaded the island. At Bath coins, vases and baths, and remains of a temple have been found, but within modern tiijies the hot springs have made it famous. Bristol, on the contrary, at the head of the Channel by that name, stood next to London for many years. But the metropolis built the West India docks, and drew the monoply of the trade from Bristol, and Liverpool, from its position nearer the best coal and iron fields, usurped her supremacy as one of the most important manufactur- ing centers of England. Yet Bristol remains a great city. SHAKESPEARE'S AVON. Bristol and Bath are on the Avon, but it is not Shakespeare's stream. That river branches off at Tewkesbury, where the party of the Red Roses triumphed over the White, and flows gently toward the cas- tle of the gigantic Earl of Warwick, who fell in battle a few weeks previous to the final defeat of his army. The River Avon is a branch of the Severn, and where it first enters SHAKESPEARE'S AVON. 969 "Warwickshire, the quiet country town of Stratford rests upon its banks. The house where Shakespeare was born is a two-story stone building, with antique-looking gables fronting the street. In the room where he is said to have been born is one of the many portraits of the poet, and the walls and window panes bear traces of Scott's and Wordsworth's admiration, whil^ the visitors' book, which has been removed from the house, is filled with sentiments and autographs of statesmen, poets and novelists. Back of the house is a garden once crowded with old English flowers. About a mile away is the cottage of Anne Hathav/ay; a long, straggling, simple cottage, with an irregular roof and rough doors and windows. Man and wife, genius and common clay, are buried in the Gothic church approached through such" a majestic avenue of limes. The Avon runs but a short distance from the walls. Up the river a few miles are Kenilworth and Warwick castles. Kenilworth Castle is a grand ruin, covered with ivy and banked in foliage. Tradition connects it with the romances of King Arthur, and history with the gallantries of the Earl of Leicester to Queen Elizabeth, his sovereign having presented the castle to him. For seventeen days tilts and tournaments, dramatic representations, ban- quets, songs and dances succeeded each other, during the most famous of his entertainments in honor of the Queen. But now the walls are broken and little birds flit and chirp among the weeds, vines and rocks wiinin the grand banqueting hall. Warwick Castle, on the contrary, is well preserved. for an old country seat. It is the principal residence of the Earls of Warwick, situated on the banks of the Avon. The approach is a winding road cut through the solid rock, and the castle itself is on a rocky elevation forty feet high. The pictures, specimens of armor, tapestries, inlaid furniture, and interior decorations are interesting and elegant, and the gardens without are magnificent. The trees are of most stately proportions, some of them being from Lebanon. The visitor who comes to the castle will be expected to receive — at least with an open mind — all the stories about the mighty Guy, Earl of Warwick, who slew so many people that he retired with the blues to a dismal cave. There he lived for thirty years, and Guy's Cliff can be shown to prove it ! The giant's porridge pot, which holds 120 gallons, is on exhibition at the castle, as well as the rib of a mighty cow which the Earl killed on Dunsmore Heath. While speaking of celebrated localities, it should be remembered that Rugby Grammar School is fifteen miles above Warwick Castle, on the Avon. Foot-ball and cricket are still being played, and the same manly discipline is maintained as when thousands of American youth were devouring " School Days at Rugby." The chapel of the school con- 970 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. tains a monument to Dr. Arnold, the revered head-master. But we must hurry eastward, beyond the Avon. A SECOND HOLLAND. Much of the country which Hes between Cambridge and the Wash — the arm of the North Sea which comes over the great hump of South- eastern England — was once aland of swamps. Most of the land has been reclaimed and drained, but it is still a drearv reof-ion covered with rank grass and reeds, intersected with ditches, canals and streams, and boast- ing, in places, a farm house or struggling village. Game is still abun- dant, despite the disappearance of so much favorite water, and between sportsmen in summer and merry skaters in winter the land is the most dreary looking of the two elements. In the days when the flat grass and reed lands were the bottoms of lakes and marshes and the elevated points, the islands, great abbeys were built upon these beautiful, secluded spots. Their ruins of walls, towers and gigantic arches are the most interesting features of the country. Some of them go back to early Saxon times, the Crowland Abbey having been devastated by the Danes and nearly all the inmates massacred. "All the islands in the great inland sea appear to have been settled by recluses. They had nothing to look out upon but ' a sea in winter without waves, and in summer a dreary mud swamp.' Each island had its duck decoys and the wild fowl abounded to such an extent that 3,000- ducks, have been taken by one of these in a day. [An English duck story.] Stilts were used by the inhabitants of the Fens, as they are: now in the low lands of Brittany and Normandy, to spy out game ; and the Fenlanders were, as might be expected, subject to all kinds of low fevers and ague. Chatteris, Soham, St. Ives and other places that are now considerable country towns, appear as little islands in the sea where all now is rich farming land." The former extent of this old inland sea, or marsh, was about twO' thousand square miles. The Romans had attempted to save the country, and their dikes along the sea coast, or the Wash, are traceable in some sections. The early English tried to drain the country and finally called in the aid of the Dutch. James I. employed Sir Cornelius Ver- muyden, who brought Dutch workmen with him, and his countrymen did most of the work. The channels of the rivers which flowed through the country were deepened and their mouths cleared so that there would be a free passage and a good current to the sea. When the English Admiral Blake defeated the Dutch, some of the prisoners were CATHEDRAL CITIES. . 97 1 set to work draininof the fens. Other Hollanders continued in the same course, and some of them became settlers. The result is that many words and faces which are found in the Fen country are unmistak- ably Dutch. CATHEDRAL CITIES. The old religious edifices are not all in ruins, however. On the reclaimed sea, called Bedford Level, is the old city of Ely with a very ancient cathedral. The cathedral at Peterborough was founded by the King of Mercia in the seventh century and grandly combines the Normart and the early English in its architecture ; for the first church was des- troyed by the Danes. Catharine of Aragon, wife of Henry VIII., is buried here ; and so once was Mary, Queen of Scots, but her bones were removed to Westminster Abbey. Lincoln is also a town hoary with ao;e but ali^'e with manufactories and contains one of the finest cathedrals in the kino;-dom, with three towers and that hearty old bell, the Great- Tom of Lincoln. There is furthermore the splendid structure at Norwich which was founded in the eleventh century. The town flourished in the time of Edward the Confessor. Fragments of its ancient wall still sur- round it. Norwich gave the language also a common noun. The Flemings who early settled in it used to send to the village of Worsted, a few miles distant, for a kind of yarn spun from long wool. These manufacturers of Norwich called it worsted. Harriet Martineau was born in Norwich, her parents being French refugees. CAMBRIDGE. Cambridge is also in the reclaimed country of Southeastern England. It was a famous seat of learning as early as Oxford, but, if anything, has shown a greater leaning towards aristocracy. The students are at the present time divided into classes according to their social rank and the amount of tuition they pay. The noblemen pay ^50 caution money, and are the highest, while the poorest class of students, the sizars, con- tribute but ;^io. Formerly the position of the sizars was humiliating, but of late years there has been a great reform in this particular. No one who is not a member of the Church of England can take the degree of B. A. The most famous of the colleges which form the university is Trinity, with which the names of Newton and Milton are intimately- associated. The library contains manuscripts in both the handwritings of these diverse geniuses. Connected with the university are botanical gardens and museums, and a fine observatory. Every institution has a superb building, the appliances being on a scale which could direct the ■972 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. minds of such scholars as Chaucer, Bacon, Harvey, Spenser, Milton, Dryden, Newton and Pitt. Of the architectural poems the Gothic chapel of King's College is the grandest and most beautiful. Of the buildincrs Queen's College is the most venerable in appearance, as it has not been rebuilt within modern times. In its principal court may still be seen the sun-dial made by Isaac Newton. The town has a much more ancient appearance than Oxford, the houses having queer gables and antiquated chimneys, while the very ivacrons and farmers, appearing on market day, seem to belong to the middle ages. The Cam, a stream which passes through the college ^■»i^ll!» OLD ENGLISH DOORWAY. •grounds, often bears along, almost under the windows of some of the university buildings, the coal, wood and grain destined for neighboring towns. It carries one through the fenny district to Ely, to which point many of the nobles fled to escape the cruelty of William the Conqueror after the battle of Hastings An authentic picture has been drawn of ■earls and knights capturing wild duck, eels and pike, and feasting with the monks of Ely, their lances standing against the wall ready for use should the Normans seek and find them in their marshy stronghold William finally found these flowers of Saxon knighthood, and, to crush them, built a road twelve miles o"."er the marsh to Ely. But the road "was poorly constructed and sunk many ambitious Normans to their slimy BUN VAN, COWPER, AND YERULAM. 973, graves. The next attempt made would have been successful, had not the leader of the Saxon force disguised himself as one of the army of laborers which was collecting brushwood for a solid roadway and set fire to the enormous pile before it could be used. But the King confiscated the lands of the abbey, and one clay, when the Saxons were away looking for provisions, the monks paid the Norman King a certain sum to get back their property besides giving the foreign soldiers entrance to the stronghold. Both Danes and Normans ravaged the Fen country. BUNYAN. COWPER AND VERULAM. Before leaving this portion of the kingdom for the country north of the Avon, there are two shires above Middlesex, in which London is situated, which deserve more than a brief notice. The Ouse, a stream which meanders through them, waters the home ground of Cowper and Bunyan. The author of Pilgrim's Progress was born near the town of Bedford and was wont to visit the locality where, in prison, he spent twelve years of his life. The monument to the great and conscientious man which is erected in Bedford represents him as a preacher. In Hertfordshire was born the insanely sensitive poet. The rectory of Great Berkhamstead where he first saw the uncertain light still stands, and the house at Olney where he enjoyed, so many years, the friend- ship of Mrs. Unwin. Although Cowper's father w.as a royal chaplain, the son is buried in a church in Dereham, Norfolk, while the son of the tinker died and was buried in London. Due east of Cowper's birthplace is St. Albans, that famous borough near which two great battles were fought in the War of the Roses. It is near the site of an ancient town called Verulam. From this circumstance Lord Bacon's royal title was of a double nature — Baron Verulam and Viscount of St. Albans — and there is a monument to the great thinker in the borough, YARMOUTH FLATS. Any admirer of England's most genial, if not her greatest novelist will not fail to travel a little nearer the North Sea — in fact, to reach its very coasts and stroll around the quaint, flat Yarmouth, with its ship- yards and great quays and smell of herrings. It is in just such a place as one would expect to find Peggotty, and Em'ly, and Uncle Dan, and Mrs. Gummido-e, and all the others. Yarmouth was not reclaimed from the river until the eleventh century, and although its mouth has been diverted several miles to the south, the Flats still seem a fair invitation to the sea to come in and cover them, as of old. And althoup-h we have left London, the mind can not but revert to 974 PAxVORAMA OF NATIONS. the old-fashioned, comfortable home of the handsome, impulsive, im^ pressible and not altogether unlovable Steerforth, in Highgate, within sight of the city. The few glimpses which Dickens has given of the stately Mrs. Steerforth are indescribably tender. The picture of her dignified figure bending and her hair whitening under the weight of her son's disgrace, and that other scene of stony and passionate grief after AN OLD ENGLISH LADY. the body of Em'ly's unprincipled lover had been cast by that fearful sea upon Yarmouth flats, are both associated with this portion of the Eng- lish coast. In years to come we imagine some such face as that above. A FAMOUS BATTLE-FIELD. Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Lincoln and York form a compact group of shires, in which may be found matters of absorbing interest, BACK TO NOTTINGHAM. 975 especially to Americans ; but, boy-like, we reserve the best for the last. Leicestershire is famous in English history as the scene of the final battle between the Red and White Roses, where Richard III. was slain and the line of the Plantagenets disappeared from history. Henry, Earl of Richmond, came from France to try conclusions with him, only a few weeks previous, collecting an army as he advanced from Wales straight across country to Leicester. Among other places he stopped over night at Shrewsbury — separated by one shire from Bosworth Field — and the house at which he slept is still perfect, being at the present time occupied by two shops. Another one of the Earl's sleep- ing places, after he had heard that Richard was at Leicester, was the inn of the Three Tuns, at which man and beast may still be enter- tained. In the meantime Richard III. had been advancing from Nottino^- ham. This was one of his favorite court residences, the view from his castle being grand indeed. He marshaled his forces in the market-place and lead them toward Leicester, following the first column of his troops on a white horse and wearing the imperial crown. The King rested at the "Blue Boar Inn," which has been pulled down, and on the fourth day thereafter the armies came in sight of each other on an uneven marshy field, in the western part of Leicestershire. The immortal Bard of Avon is considered the most precise historian of the battle which rung out the Plantagenets and rung in the Tudors. Richard's crown, Avhich was found near a hawthorn bush, after the fight, was j^laced upon the Earl's head, and therefore upon King Henr}''s monument at Westminster Abbey there appears a crown in a bush. The center of Bosworth Field is marked by a spring, over which is a small stone structure of pyramidal shape. Even the well shares the ignominy of the fallen king ; it has never been called King Richard's well, but King Dick's well. From the field have been dug artistic crossbows, and spurs of steel, and gigantic spear heads, some of which are deposited in the Bosworth church and in the Liverpool Museum; that bloody ground placed a red seal upon a thirty years' civil war and the slaughter of one hundred thousand Eng- lishmen. BACK TO NOTTINGHAM. From Bosworth Field to Nottingham, with quaint country inns all along the way, is suggestive of Richard's triumphal march in the other direction. Though these interior hostelries retain their picturesque and antiquated appearance and their homely names, as a rule they furnish good fare and comfortable beds and keep pace with the times. In England, as in this country, however, the tourist or summer guest has a 97^ PANORAMA OF NATIONS. few complaints to make about that magician, the commercial traveler,, who always gets the very best the inns afford. A stop at Leicester should not be neglected, for its castle, of which a few traces only remain,, was once a royal residence, and in the Abbey of St. Mary Pre, also in ruins, died the princely and too ambitious Cardinal Wolsey. Nottingham is getting to be quite a modern town, with a great market-place surrounded by lofty buildings, and numerous manufactories are in brisk operation. Richard's old castle has long ago given place to the present structure — but perhaps young and old would like to be acquainted with the fact that Nottingham is noted for being near Gotham, where originated the story of the Seven Wise Men who went to sea in a bowl. The inhabitants were Saxons, and so hated King John that they felled trees across the road which he was to take, to make a visit of state to the town. This so enraged him that he sent a sheriff to cut off their noses. But the citizens had deliberated, and when the officer returned he bore word to the King that they were all a set of fools and not accountable for their actions. From that day until the true story came out, the Wise Men of Gotham was said in derision. BYRON AND ROBIN HOOD. It is a short ride by rail to Mansfield, and a walk from that venera- ble town leads one to Newstead Abbey, a most picturesque ruin founded by the Henry through whose thoughtlessness, at least, Thomas a Becket was murdered. Itwas built as a propitiatory offering and became the home of Lord Byron. The rooms of the poet, it is said, remain as he left them ; his bedstead, with gilded coronets, his pictures, portraits of friends, writing table and all. The abbey forms a portion of the old forest of Sherwood, the haunt of Robin Hood and his band. The new growth of the forest is fine and the ferns are seemingly exhaustless; but the old oaks are the most interesting. Parliament oak boasts of a green old age, for, although it still bears leaves, one of the kings held his parliament under it in the thirteenth century. Another veteran is pointed out which is supposed to be seven hundred years old. These pioneers of the forest are twisted, and gnarled, and rifted, and most of them have local tales attached to them as. well as timber braces and crutches, to keep them from caving in or falling to the ground. There is the same pride shown in keeping them above ground as if they were very aged people who had passed through many memorable scenes. A CASTLE AND COUNTRY INNS. A CASTLE AND COUNTRY INNS. 977 The still noble ruins of Ashby Castle are reached by taking a short trip from Leicester northwest to near the border line of Derby- shire. This was in Richard's time upon the grand estate of the unfor- tunate Lord Hastings, murdered by that king through the executioner. Around the castle, which was one of the grandest in England, was a stately park five square miles in extent. Oliver Cromwell besieged it, reduced it and imprisoned several noble dukes and earls in it, who . supported the royal cause. Afterwards, when the army of the Lord Protector triumphed throughout England, a committee of Parliament de- termined what castles should stand and which be destroyed. Ashby was too dangerous to be passed over and it was accordingly un- dermined and brought to its pres- ent condition. In the town of Ashby the same quaint old inns appear — the Queen's Head, the Bull's. Head, etc., etc. These inns ex- hibit their noble proclivities ini A DERBYSHIRE INN. various ways, the latter flying the Hastings coat of arms as a sign and symbol. Throughout Derby, also, it is inn upon inn, and every one is an added charm to the beau- tiful country. AMERICA IN ENGLAND. East of Nottinghamshire, beyond the River Trent, there is a con- tinuation of the Fen country, whose general features have been already described. In its midst, near the sea, at the mouth of a river, is Boston, England, the parent of Boston, U. S. A. Rev. John Cotton, one of our Boston's first clergymen, preached there for many years. From him have descended such families as Everett, Grant, Hale, Jackson, Froth- ingham, Lee, Mather, Thayer, Tracy, Whiting, etc. Residents of the United States have erected a chapel to his memory near St. Botolph's church, in which he preached for twenty years, the Latin inscription being by the Hon. Edward Everett. This beautiful church, with its tower nearly 300 feet in height, is 580 years old, and retains the original name from which Boston was corrupted. " St. Botolph was a Saxon saint who lived in the seventh century, and was almost contem- 62 978 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. poraneous with the more celebrated St. Cuthbert. The common pro- nunciation in the eastern countries is St. Bottle; so the transition from Bottlestown to Boston is comprehensible." Boston is like a Dutch town — her warehouses, wharfs, vessels and buildings remind one of Holland — and in the matter of contests with the sea she had the experience of her neighbors on the other shore of the North Sea. In the days of King John, Boston merchants were taxed according to their wealth. London yielded ;^836 to the King and Boston was second with ^780. Her population may now be 20,000. At about the time her great church was built she was of such power and wealth that her vessels comprised the bulk of the navy which carried the troops of Edward to the battle of Crecy, France. Cromwell made Boston his headquarters for a time. Improvements in the channel of the river are restoring its trade to some extent, but the chief interest attaching to it is its connection with American history ; for Cotton's friends named new Boston. From Hartford another English clergyman went to America to found a church, and gave the American city a name. In fact, the Fen country of East- ern and Southeastern England became the stronghold of the English Puritans as it was that of the Saxons ag-ainst the Normans, and much of the best blood of New England flowed from that marshy, foggy, plague- stricken and unattractive country. The county of Lincoln, in which is Boston, was the native place of John Wesley, founder of Methodism, Yorkshire adjoins Lincolnshire on the north and from this land of moors and wolds came forth such families as Washington, Penn and Winthrop. The Washington family fled from Cromwell because it was a champion of Charles II. and the Stuart dynasty. John Washington and his brother Lawrence escaped to America. A few miles from the railway which runs between Hull and York is a massive structure, surrounded by a pleasant park in which elms pre- dominate. In a corner of the park is a venerable little church. " Of course, a private path leads into the chancel where the family pews are. There is a fine collection of paintings here, one of President Washing- ton, on which a great value is set. The little church has the dignity of being a parish one, and possessing a rector, and here the parish records are kept. Unhappily, they are very imperfect ; those relating to Wash- ington's great-grandfather, John Washington, are not to be found and there are others of later dates which are very puzzling." THE ENGLISH YORK. Both the city of York and the county of York are among the most interesting and picturesque districts of England. The capital is near THE ENGLISH YORK. 979 the center of Great Britain, and by Britons, Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normcvis was considered the key to a successful invasion from the north. From the earHest times it was a chief town of the Northern Britons. Then it was a Roman station and the chief city of the imperial power in the north. Fortresses, temples and palaces arose, ruins of which exist, and late excavations, which have been made near the railway station, have unearthed rich jewels of silver and gold, delicate jars and lamps of glass, cameos and statuettes of bronze and ivory, great squares of intri- cate pavements of Mosaic work and other evidences of the magnificence which reigned when the Emperors Hadrian and Severus lived in York. Here Severus died, as well as the father of Constantine the Great, and many believe that Constantine himself was born in York. At the time of his fathers death Constantine was in the city, and in York the Sixth Legion proclaimed him Emperor. Britons and Picts fought for the possession of the great northern capital, and the savage tribes from beyond Hadrian's wall overran and destroyed it. The Saxons re-established its importance and it became the capital of the powerful kingdom of Northumbria, out of which York was finally carved. The first King of all England held his Witenage- mot, or popular parliament, in York ; and three weeks before the battle of Hastings, Harold, the last of the Saxon monarchs, defeated a united force of Danes and Norwegians only a few miles from the capital. The Danes captured the city, after it had fallen into the hands of the Nor- mans, and put the garrison to the sword, and then the Normans laid waste the country for miles around and butchered one hundred thousand people. The first English parliament was held at York, and for five cen- turies thereafter it met there, occasionally. The highest courts of the kingdom even had their seasons of sitting at York. But when Plantag- enet went down at Bosworth Field, York declined and fell. It became one of the greatest ecclesiastical centers of England. The first metro- politan church was built there. In the eighth century the magnificent Anglo-Saxon church was built which was enlarged into York Minster. This ranks as one of the largest and finest specimens of Gothic architec- ture in the world, being longer than St. Paul's Cathedral. Some portions of St. Mary's Abbey, completed in the Conqueror's time for the Bene- dictine monks, stand in the midst of stately gardens shaded by a belt of elms, wonderfully graceful in their old age. Within these gardens is also the " King's Manor House," built from the walls of St. Mary's Abbey and the residence of the Stuarts. It is a rough stone building, two stories in height, with many gables and chimneys 98o PANORAMA OF NATIONS. and covered with vines from its foundation to the peaks of its dormer windows. The arms of the Earl of Strafford are emblazoned over the door, for when he was made Lord President of the North he took up his residence in King's Manor. The building is now occupied by the York- shire School for the Blind, dedicated to William Wilberforce. But York lies mostly in the past. It is the most ancient-looking city in England. The streets are narrow, the houses are high, with very pointed roofs, and on market day when the farmers appear with their broad-wheeled carts, their gaily-decorated blouses and their broad Yorkshire dia- lect, modern times are forgotten. Some of the houses are massive piles, with only a few windows in front, the upper two stories not only bulging out over the lower, but the third beingr hig-herthan the second and project- ing farther over the street. In one of the most ancient streets are the remains of the parliament house, and near by the coach-house, which is at least four hundred years old. The many Jewish faces seen in York remind one of poor Isaac and his Rebecca, in Ivanhoe. Until comparatively of recent date the principal quarters of that people were called Jubbargate and Jewbury. When York was great, they were as powerful as Scott represented •them, and in the royal city they were often attacked by armed mobs and sometimes murdered. It was their custom, at one time, to keep a OLD ENGLISH GATEWAY. MANCHESTER. 981 record of their loans in the York Minster, but they discontinued the practice after the populace had broken into the cathedral and burned the documents. MANCHESTER. It is the county of Lancaster, York's old rival, which is now at the height of prosperity ; and we need merely mention Manchester and Liv- erpool to make the contrast forcible. Manchester is only about twenty miles west of the romantic Peak District, which will be hereafter noticed. It is the most important manufacturing city of Great Britain, its cotton works leading the world. The city has been noted for the excellence of this line for centuries. It is the center of a great canal system, and many canals intersect its streets. It was the home of many famous inventors, but has acquired the most prominence, perhaps, as being the rallying point of the free-traders of England. Cobden and Bright and the " Manchester School " are known wherever industrial questions are discussed. Statues of these leaders, with their convert Sir Robert Peel, and the inventor Watt, adorn the public parks. The present free-trade hall, erected on the site of the old one, is unattractive but holds five thousand people, and is already marked as an historical building. LIVERPOOL. Liverpool from its long dealings with this country, as the greatest cotton market of the world and one of the largest grain centers, has imbibed the true American spirit of pluck, perseverance and push. Nearly all the emigrants who leave Great Britain and one half her exports pass through Liverpool. She is rapidly capturing the wool trade of Australia, and with all her strides in cosmopolitan trade the city has found time to improve her appearance and consider the health of her citizens. The sewerage system is being extended and improved, and the water supply perfected, so that, although the m.ost densely populated city in England, she is rapidly leaving behind her former record of being one of the most unhealthy. Liverpool has thirty miles of dockage, the yards within the city and the ones which the Corporation owns in Bir- kenhead having a world-wide fame for their massive character. The shipping in the docks is protected by a sea wall five miles in length, and forty feet in height, entrance being effected through numerous gates, some of which open a passage 100 feet wide. Liverpool is almost as great a railway center as London. The first line in England run from Liverpool to Manchester and was opened eight years before the London railway. 982 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. The center of commercial activity in Liverpool is the town square, the hall being upon one side, and the American and Liverpool chambers of commerce, cotton sales rooms, and mercantile offices upon the remaining three sides. GLADSTONE AND HIS ESTATE. It is appropriate that Gladstone should have been born in Liver- pool, not far from free-trade Manchester. His father was first a wealthy merchant in the West India trade and afterwards a baronet. Gladstone is manly Manchester and liberal Liverpool in himself, just as the more meteoric Disraeli was, in one, radical and conservative London, where he enjoyed his triumphs of literature and politics. The peninsula upon which Birkenhead is situated divides the Mer- sey from the River Dee. On the left bank of the latter stream runs a good highway overlooking a beautiful country and the estuaries of both the rivers. A few minutes' walk from the main road brings one to the country town of Hawarden, and fronting on the main street are the gates of the castle which lie in the broad Gladstone estate. The village also runs along the walls of the park for a long distance, so that when the Prime Minister retires to his estate to chop trees and superintend improvements — to rest by plunging into another grade of work — he may be in the world and yet not of it. The estate has descended to Mr. Gladstone's wife from William I., through a long line of nobles and Sergeant Glynne of Cromwell's army. Mrs, Gladstone's maiden name was Glynne. Before reaching her from William it twice reverted to the Crown. The original castle in bare outline has been uncovered, and from its lofty tower the beautiful Hawarden park and the rich features of the surrounding country, which are spread out like a feast, cause the wonder to increase more and more that the venerable statesman can ever tear himself away and return to the turmoil of public life. MANUFACTURING AND MECHANICAL ENGLAND. From the Cheshire hills, which are further inland than Hawarden, the view of rivers, villages, castles, parks and gladsome stretches of landscape can not be surpassed. There are scores of old towns in this region worth visiting, but in the midst of everything romantic, historical, picturesque and charming, figuratively speaking, one stumbles into the greatest salt mines of England. The center of the district is the old tpwn of Northwich on the River Weaver, which comes from the Mer- sey. Along the entire valley of the' stream, huge deposits of rock salt PEVERIL OF THE TEAK. 983 are found and quarried, and such is the recklessness of the money-makers in the old town itself that its foundations are being carried away, and its buildings are sinking so that they incline to every degree of the circle. And thus it is from Central to Northern Eno^land — from Birming-ham to Newcastle-on-Tyne — the English delve and reap, with history and poetry scattered in the hills around them and worked into nearly every village and hamlet throughout the length and breadth of the land. Verily the Englishman is insular, and well he may be with so much to bind him to the soil. The manufacturing towns of Central and Northern England, the iron and coal districts naturally are where the inventors flourished. There was Watt, a Scotchman, but he manufactured his improved steam engines near Birmingham. He also first invented steam apparatus for heating houses. Then, later, came George Stephenson, the Northumberland collier, who became engineer of a mine, and made such ingenious inventions as constructing inclines by which loaded wagons descending to the vessels drew up the empty ones. When he was thirty-three he constructed the first smooth-wheeled locomotive ever built, and the next year invented a miner's lamp which is still used in the collieries. Ten years afterwards he established a manufactory for locomotives at Newcastle-on-Tyne and was appointed the engineer of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. Upon this line he placed the Rocket and seven other locomotives, not- withstanding that wise engineers recommended the use of stationary engines which should drag the trains by ropes. It is from Birmingham to Newcastle, principally on either side of the Pennine chain of hills and mountains, which runs down into Cornwall as the backbone of England, that the mineral and manufacturing districts lie. PEVERIL OF THE PEAK. Between Sheffield and Birmingham is the Peak District of Derby- shire and Staffordshire, a tract of country made up of sandstone and limestone hills, glens, waterfalls, and streams, where Walton and Cotton often fished together. Impartially distributed through such a romantic region, which Sir Walter Scott has especially favored in the " Peveril of the Peak," are the great manufacturing centers of Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham. You should buy your clothing at Leeds, your cutlery at Sheffield, and anything in the world which comes in metal at Birming- ham. Manufacturing cities are of a stamp, everywhere, the peculiarity of those of Great Britain being that the surrounding country is incom- parable. 't> 984 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Near Castleton in the upper portion of the Peak Region is Peveril's Castle and The Peak. The former is, of course, a sombre ruin. But Chatsworth, or the Palace of the Peak, arises, stately and beautiful, with a solid background of rocks and dense foliage. The grand conser- vatory, three hun- dred feet in length, and extensive Qrar- dens are among- the most famous in England. The es- tate has descended from William the Conqueror, who gave it to Will- iam Peveril, his natural son. The principal building was nearly com- pleted in the sev- enteenth century, being nearly i8o feet square. Draw- ings and paintings by Titian, Rem- brandt, Murillo and Landseer and pieces of sculpture by Thorwaldsen, Canova and other masters make the -if^s^^ i„ji.r-^^ .' ' rooms of state val- ENGLisH POTTERY. uable storehouscs of art as well as intrinsically beautiful. Mary Stuart was a prisoner at Chatsworth for thirteen years. THE POTTERY SHIRE. Litchfield is a few miles east of the southern portion of the district, in the county of Stafford. It is an old manufacturing town, with a cathe- dral which sends up three great spires, whose foundations were laid seven centuries ago. Litchfield was made an Episcopal see in the seventh century, but visitors go to the handsome old town to see the THE BORDER LAND. 985 liouse where gruff, practical, uncouth Dr. Johnson was born ; that rugged thinker who went to one root of things and could not understand how idealists even could find any other. The house is there on one side of the market square, and not far away are statues erected to his memory and that of Garrick and Lady Montagu. The pottery manufactories which have made Staffordshire the cen- ter of the industry in England lie in this region, along the River Trent. The manufacture was brought from Delft, Holland, which had been supplying Northern Europe for many years with its famous household ware. Two centuries ago several brothers came from the Netherlands and established a pottery in Staffordshire, but it was not until seventy years thereafter that the Wedgwood family introduced not only new and superb decorations for old pottery, but several new kinds of ware, the best known being, perhaps, Queen's ware. "Wedgewood was imi- tated and copied throughout Europe. He employed good artists to make designs and moulds for his works, among whom Flaxman was •conspicuous; he borrowed antique gems in immense number {ox fac- simile reproduction, and his taste and skill were exercised in supplying thousands of varieties of artistic productions. The art advanced rapidly in England and numerous potteries became famous. One immediate result of Wedgwood's discoveries was the introduction of new pastes, ■called stonewares, which occupy a position between pottery and porce- lain, and for which English potteries have become especially known. The division of porcelain into two classes, soft and hard paste, becomes, in examining English wares, impracticable, since the pastes are but dif- ferent classes of pottery, running up from soft pottery to hard porcelain in one direction and to opaque glass in another. The most important modern addition to these pastes is one the invention of which is claimed l)y two great houses, Minton and Copeland, known as Parian biscuit." THE BORDER LAND. Above Lancashire, pressed in between the Pennine chain and the Irish Sea and extending to Solway Firth, is the Lake Region of England, and there are few more restful, serene and inspiring havens on earth. It is not Switzerland. It is not the poetry of Byron, but of Wordsworth. He was the foremost of the school of " lake poets." Both Southey and Wordsworth lived by the lakes and were buried there. Scott, also, was drawn to the beautiful region, and with Wordsworth ascended many a peak and breathed in the beauties of sky, lake, mountain, valley, sunrise and sunset. 986 PANORASDfOF NATIONS. It is here that we approach the borderland of Scotland, where the conflict between Northern and Southern Celt ragged with such stubborn- ness. The course of Hadrian's wall, built by Rome to keep back the Celts of the north, is from Carlisle to near Newcastle-on-Tyne, on the opposite coast. The scenery along the line is magnificent, but the north and northwest of England so teem with picturesqueness that the chief interest should be centered in the still perfect nature of these military remains. There is the wall proper, consisting of a ditch, a stone rampart, a space between this and the earthworks for the military road, and three earthen ramparts. Every few miles there are fortified encampments, and, nearer still, castles and watch-towers. " Moreover there are roads and bridges, traces of villas, gardens and burial places, making almost every inch from sea to sea classic ground. A stranger might suppose that after the lapse of long centuries, all these works, granting their ex- istence once, must have disappeared. It is not so ; save in the western portion there is scarely an acre without distinct traces ; in many places all the lines sweep on together, parts in wondrous preservation, while many of the recent excavations present structures several feet high, giv- ing one the idea of works in progress, so fresh that we are tempted to think of the builders as away for an hour, perhaps to the noonday meal." Carlisle had a part in all the wars between the Romans and Britons and the Saxons, Picts and Scots. It was a Roman station in the early days of Christianity, being the more ancient seat of the kings of Cam- bria. Around Carlisle lie both Druidical and Roman remains. At Pen- rith the Druid temple, formed of sixty-seven immense stones, is known as Long Meg and her Daughters. The Druids early established their altars in this region, and after the Romans defeated the Britons multitudes of the priests and priestesses gathered on the Isle of Man. The Romans followed them, and put to the sword, without mercy, the long-haired priests and the torch-bearing priestesses. Newcastle-on-Tyne is yet a thriving city which contains car and locomotive works ; a great establishment for the manufacture of the Armstrong gun, iron bridges and ship armor, as well as other important manufactories. The bridge across the river, built by Stephenson, has both a carriageway and a railway viaduct, the latter being 1 18 feet from the water. The Cheviot hills mark the boundary between England and Scot- land, being the natural wall between the two countries. Upon Flodden,, the last of the hills in Northumberland, England, the great battle was fought between James, the Scottish King, and the Earl of Surrey, in which the Scotch were slain to a man, the royal leader falling within a THE SCOTCH. 987 few feet of the noble. The flower of Scotland, nobiHty, gentry and clergy, was crushed on Flodden Field, and to this day it is her greatest national grief. It was well that her greatest romancist and heroic poets, should immortalize it. The battle was fought but a few miles from the Tweed, which is so associated with Scott and his beloved Abbotsford, THE SCOTCH. The Highland Scotch, those who live in the mountainous reofions of the north, are of the same Celtic stock as the Irish. Their lan^uaee is nearly identical, although the Lowland Scotch could no more make themselves understood by the primitive native of the Isle than the typical Londoner could enter into conversation with the Irish farmer. The division between the Highland and the Lowland Scotch is becom- ing less distinct, however, year by year, and the former are discarding to some extent their plaids and petticoats for the dress of the Lowlanders, or the English. Their clans and chiefs have disappeared, except in the records of the family Bibles, but their former prowess is still upheld by the record which their regiments have made in the history of the Eng- lish army. The Lowlanders were as brave, but more intellectual, and defended their liberty with all the military ardor of the Highlanders and the firmness of the Anglo-Saxons. The Picts were both Lowland and Highland Scotchmen. It was ao-ainst the Picts that the Romans erected the wall in Eno^land and also one in Southern Scotland between the friths of Forth and Clyde. After they left the country to attend to troubles at home a strong Pictisli kingdom was formed between the two walls, by the consolidation of a number of tribes. The Scots, a Celtic tribe from Ireland, invaded and held the western coasts during the early part of the sixth century, the Saxons having preceded them about fifty years on the eastern coasts, where they had seized the lowlands from the Picts and founded Edin- burgh. The Pictish kingdom had a shadowy existence for nearly four centuries, but it was gradually absorbed by the stronger Scots as well as the Saxon tribes of the east. The whole country at length took the name of the dominant race. The Danes could make no headway against them, and the Scottish kingdom grew in territory and power, even snatch- ing away some of England's northern districts. The Malcolms and the Alexanders are specially noted among the early kings of Scotland, but the difficulties, with England commenced, seriously when a Malcolm, who had married the sister of the legitimate Saxon King, ravaged the north of the country in retaliation for the bat- tle of Hastings. The kings of England interfered in the disputes. 988 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. between claimants to the Scottish throne. Wallace and Bruce arose, and the battle of Bannockburn established the independence of Scotland notwithstanding Flodden Field, long afterwards. During the same cen- tury the first of the House of Stuart sat upon the throne, he being the son of the royah steward. For a century the great earls of Douglas ■defied the kings, though one was stabbed by the royal hand and the whole house was finally driven into exile. After the death of Queen Elizabeth, James VI., of Scotland whone great-grandmother was Mar- garet Tudor, the daughter of Henry VH., ascended the throne of Eng- land, thus uniting the two kingdoms. This fortunate circumstance, in connection with their stubborn resistance to English oppression, raised the Scotch to an equality with their more numerous and opulent neigh- ibors and assured them political independence. When James became King of England he attempted to force the Established Church upon Scotland, but the Covenanters bound them- selves to uphold Presbyterianism, and even hoped to extend their relig- ious discipline over England and Ireland, They united with the Eng- lish Puritans, and the result was that Cromwell bound them in chains, and the Presbyterian Church did not become established as a State institution until during Queen Anne's reign, when England and Scotland were formally united into one kingdom. The name most prominent in the incipient stages of these fierce religious conflicts, is that of John Knox, who imbibed the spirit of the Reformation at Geneva, and his History of the Scottish Reformation is, perhaps, the first great prose work which the country produced. It is an earnest, rugged piece of English, and speaks forth the national character. His native town was Edinburgh, and in that kingly city, "throned on crags," his house stands, a grotesque building -with a gallery reached by a flight of stairs, and having two small, gabled chambers on its roof. &' EDINBURGH. The city, which was formerly a single parish under the pastorate of Knox, is principally built on three parallel ridges, the old town running along the central one and terminating on the west in the great rock or hill upon which is Edinburgh Castle. At the eastern extremity is Holyrood, the palace of Mary Queen of Scots. Upon the sides of this ridge are the most ancient houses many stories in height. The different parts of the city are connected by bridges, hundreds of paths winding through the valleys and over the ridges. Parks and gardens, monuments and great public structures are pitched upon the rocks or almost buried in deep ravines. The architecture of the city is noble in the extreme. EDINBURGH. 989 The great castle, which stands upon a rock three hundred feet high„ approachable from the city from only one side, is Scotland symbolizecL In it is a small room, once a portion of the apartments of Mary Queen of Scots, where James was born. Scotland's national regalia — the crown,, sceptre, sword of state and lord treasurer's rod — is in the crown-roorrt of the castle. Within its walls Robert Bruce held the parliament which ratified the treaty acknowledging the independence of Scotland, and James made his preparations here for the disastrous field of Flodden. Along High street, which leads through the most interesting parts of this ancient Saxon city, also marched Cromwell's invincible Ironsides. Descending from Castle Hill one passes into Grassmarket where many of the Covenanters became martyrs, and in an old churchyard, near by„ they have a monument erected to them. Queen Mary's palace is a short distance from Calton HtO, from which the most imposing view of Edinburgh and the country around is; obtained. Part of the palace was burned down in Cromwell's time, and what remains is a plain, sombre structure of stone, flanked by towers. The room is shown in which Rizzio, Mary's Italian favorite, was stabbed to death by Douglas, and the very stain of his life blood is pointed out; upon the floor. The palace contains a picture gallery of legendary and historical kings, and back of it are the ruins of an abbey in which are the. tombs of several Scottish monarchs. The University of Edinburgh is a stately building of modem con- struction, and a renowned institution of learning, especially as, to its medical departments. Crossing a bridge from the University,, one finds, himself in a metropolitan street, with great buildings and Scott's mag- nificent monument on one side and beautiful gardens spread ©vera deep ravine on the other. Across the ravine is the massive Bank of England. And so the bewildering contrast goes on, man weakly struggling to over- take the sublimity of nature. It is strange not that so many of the great men of Scotland have been drawn to Edinburgh, but that so many have escaped her. To this day the literary activity and vigor of the Scotch find their only effective outlet in Edinburgh, her periodicals taking rank with the best English journals. On High street, one of the noble thoroughfares of the old city, is Parliament Square, in one angle of which is the House with its, magnifi- cent hall arched with dark oak. The gloomy jail, known as the " Heart of Midlothian," stood in one corner of the square, but was taken down the year previous to the publication of Scott's novel. "The only memo- rial of its position is a figure of a heart let into the pavement ; but its massive door and huge padlock are preserved, with many other relics of old days, at Abbotsford." 990 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. MELROSE AND ABBOTSFORD. Beyond the Cheviot hills, from England, is Roxburghshire. A fair chain of hills passes through the county, and between them and the Tweed are Melrose and the ruins of its abbey. There are only a few fragments of the cloister, but the carved, sculptured and lavishly decor- ated church is almost entire ; the figures of which, from the hardness of the stone, are remarkably clear in outline. But Scottish poets have laid their choicest colors upon Melrose Abbey, both without and within ; told also of the kingly tombs therein, and of Bruce's heart which is sup- posed to be mouldering in somesecret place within its walls. The Tweed runs musically through a meadow and wooded country to Abbotsford, and a few miles away is Yarrow Water, upon whose banks Wordsworth and Scott walked together a few days before the mighty Scotchman sought the gentle climes of Italy as a shield against death. But he returned to Abbotsford, for which he had worn out his life, and after being wheeled about his beautiful garden he was taken to his library, being placed where he could look upon the Tweed. He died, a few days thereafter, with his children around him, that gentle stream mur- muring in his ears which flows past his tomb at Dryburgh Abbey. BURNS AND THE AYR. The ancient town of Ayr, near the sea, is across Scotland from Ab- botsford. It is a bright place, the capital of the county, and is on the peninsula between the Rivers Ayr and Doon. There are castles near by and locky precipices, but the poet found his muse with the birds, among the trees and fields, along the pretty banks and " among the braes o' Ballochmyle." Ballochmyle is one of the most beautiful por- tions of the river, and Burns has not lavished his fragrant genius upon an unworthy subject. In the village are the " Twa Brigs" ; the old one is said to have been built six centuries ago by two maiden ladies, whose effigies were carved on one of the parapets. It is but a step from the modest country of the Ayr to the literary Edinburgh, which then, as now, was the center of Scotland's best thought. From gloom and despair the rustic passed to fame. Scott himself, then an Edinburgh boy, looked upon the lion and trembled. There is a monument erected to Burns' memory at Dumfries, the shire town of the first county over the English border. Here he died and, long after, Jean Armour, his wife, breathed her last under the same roof. The house was purchased by one of his sons, a colonel in the English army, and with the garden was THE CLYDE AND GLASGOW. 99 I deeded to the local educational society, for school purposes, the agree- ment being that the premises should be always kept in repair. In the most dreary spot of this most dreary shire of bleak hills and black morasses Thomas Carlyle welded and polished those splendid specimens of thought and rhetoric which made him the foremost essayist of Great Britain. THE CLYDE AND GLASGOW. The Clyde rises in the same chain of uplands from which the Ayr flows, but further southeast. " Gathering strength from romantic burns and musical rivulets, the river flows in long curves, splashing over boul- ders, singing merrily to quiet hamlets, lending genial influence to meadows and cornfields, and taking into its clear waters many a picture of bosky hill and hazel-clad bank. Augmented in bulk by the Douglas, it sweeps onward to the cliffs and ledges which break it into a rapid, foaming torrent." During the upper portion of its course it rushes through chasms and between rocky precipices and breaks into thundering cascades. Falls and bridges there are, closely associated with the strug- gles of the Scotch for political and civil liberty. A tower rises near the Falls of Clyde, dedicated to Wallace. Below is a castle, without a roof, overlooking the river from a steep bank. It is Bothwell Castle, one of the strongholds of the Earl of Bothwell, in Queen Mary's time the most powerful noble of Southern Scotland and (by the historic murder of Lord Darnley and the divorce from his own wife) the husband of the Scottish monarch. Near by is Bothwell bridge, where, a century after the disgraced Earl's estates had been confiscated to the crown, a bloodv battle was fouo;ht between the Scotch Covenanters and the Enolisli, in which the former met with a crushing defeat. On the opposite bank of the river, upon a rock nearly hidden by trees, stand the ruins of a priory which overlooked David Livingstone's native village. As it approaches Glasgow the river becomes dark and turbid and the great ship-yards of the city give forth their unpoetic din ; yet this is the native soil of Thomas Campbell, his home being upon the banks of the Cart, a small stream which falls into the Clyde. GLASGOW. Glasgow is the metropolis of Scotland, and second to London in wealth and population. It presents a strong contrast to Edinburgh, for its site is level, lying on both sides of the river, and its streets are broad and regular. Finely ornamented parks, with imposing statues, theatres, 99-2 ' PANORAMA OF NATIONS. museums and libraries, with immense manufacturing establishments of different cloths, iron and chemical works, tell the story of present pros- perity and future greatness. The cathedral of the Scotch Church is the finest Gothic edifice in the country, and overlooks the city from the northeast. For more than four centuries and a half the University of Glasgow has had an existence, and is among the leading colleges in Great Britain. The city's wonderful growth, however, comes from her com- merce and manufactures, which had their origin in natural surroundings,, Glasgow lying in the midst of a rich coal and iron country. Her yards for the building of iron ships are famous the world over. Her chemical works (the St. Rollox) are the most extensive in the world, covering over sixteen acres, and having a chimney more than 450 feet in height. The magnificent city grew around the church founded by St. Mungo,, or St. Kentigern, in the sixth century. It is said he was born of royal blood on the Firth of Forth, but removed to Western Scotland and established a monastery on a hill sloping toward the River Clyde. He was driven into Wales by a hostile Scottish king, but was recalled and renewed his Christian labors. St. Kentigern was visited in his beautiful resort by St. Columba, another noted Christian missionary who was laboringr amontj the savages of the north and west. The ravages of the Danes swept away the church, but the old bishopric reappeared after five centuries, a chaplain to one of the Scottish kings was installed in it,, and the ruined Cathedral was repaired and beautified. Many other changes followed. The see became an archbishopric. Scottish reformers were burned near the orrand cathedral. The blood of the Reformation was kindled, the Papal Archbishop fled to France and the Presbyterians are in possession of the stately Gothic edifice, whose combined tower and spire rises from the center of a lofty roof. To reach the University one traverses streets, lined with royal buildings, and passes through squares adorned with statues and monu- ments of great beauty. Walter Scott, Robert Burns, Lord Clyde and Sir John Moore (whose memorial we have noticed at Corufia, Spain), all have monuments in George's Square. Sir John was a native of Glasgow.. John Knox, Nelson, William of Orange and the Duke of Wellington appear in stone and indicate the breadth of the Scotch admiration. To the western suburb of the city the walk is charming, the street being adorned with stately terraces and residences, green lawns and bright gardens and parks. Beyond the last park, over a pleasant stream, is Gilmore Hill, from which rises the University. Returning to the Clyde, from the university, we still pursue a north- ward course toward the Firth, passing churches, villages and picturesque THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. 993 Stretches of lawn and meadow, and a striking range of hills — the Kil- patrick. They mark the western extremity of the Roman wall, built across Scotland, and a little village at their base is pointed out as the birthplace of St. Patrick. Nearer the North Channel and the sea, as we move toward the more open water of the Firth of Clyde, is the old Castle of Dumbarton — the prison of the fated Wallace, the point where Mary Stuart em- barked for France, and the fortress of both the soldiers of Bruce and Cromwell. As one gets more and more into the open sea the rugged highlands of Argyle and the gentler lines of the Isle of Bute — the orig- inal home of the Stuart family — merge into a single tract of land which combines them both — the island of Arran. Rugged mountain peaks and shadowy glens strike the pilgrim with profoundest awe in one direc- tion, while in another sunny bays and gentle beaches, fertile slopes of green and quiet, level moors produce a pleasant and soothing influence on the spirit. Within the compass of a few hours' walk the wanderer may see, in swift succession, the "hoar and dizzy cliff, and the fiercely- dashing cataract, the wave-lashed headland and the far-sounding shore, the dark mountain tarn, which ever seems to frown, and the merry, wind- ing streamlet that ceaseth not to play." From the highest mountain of the island, which terminates in a granite pyramid, this diversity of beauty is spread out as in a romantic picture, with cattle and sheep, neat cot- tages and hamlets scattered over the face of nature ; far beyond, stretch the rugged coasts of Argyle, with their rocky islands, while in the other direction, if the weather is friendly, the coasts of the Emerald Isle struggle dimly into view. THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. The strip of country between Edinburgh and Glasgow, or, more strictly speaking, between the Firths of Forth and Clyde is the border land between the Scottish hio-hlands and lowlands. From the Firth of Forth to Moray Firth, far to the north, there are many level tracts, so that many Scotchmen prefer to draw a more careful line from Moray Firth, through the central part of Northern Scotland to Dumbarton, on the Clyde, and call the country west of it, including the Hebrides Islands, the Highlands. A few words, now, regarding the debatable land east of this imaginary line beyond which, until within a comparatively recent day, were buttressed the purest specimens of the Celtic race in Scotland. Within this strip of country between the eastern and the western Firths, through which the first of the old Roman walls was built, there are 63 994 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. two specially interesting localities. Sixteen miles west of Edinburgh is an old town down in a hollow, which contains among its other buildings a beautiful Gothic church and the magnificent remains of a palace. In the church it is said that James IV. was warned by an apparition not to march to Flodden Field, and in one of the royal apartments, whose ruins are grand indeed, was born Mary Stuart. Sterling Castle, rising from a majestic rock is further west, including another kingly palace, from which, within the glorious range of scenery there obtained, the Gillies Hills are seen which shut out a sio^ht of the battle-field of Bannockburn. On the south are steep, wooded hills ; on the east, beyond the town and several abbey ruins, the Forth wanders and curves through a glorious country of verdure to romantic Edinburo-h. On the northeast are orrand hills again. " But on the north, northwest and west who shall describe what lies unfolded to the eye; the vales of the Allan, the Teath and the Upper Forth leading away through expanses of the most ornate loveliness to such scenery as that of the Trosachs and to the combinedly grandest and most graceful forms of highland landscape? All the foreground and the middle view are of surpassing loveliness ; and all the background towers aloft at a great distance in peaks which are clad in snow or wreathed in clouds and which rest like a vast blue rampart against the sky." There is not a square mile of land between Stirling Castle and Moray Firth in which the traveler would not grow subdued at the view and enthusiastic in the description. There is a mass of shattered towers and walls, near the entrance to the Firth of Forth, which for centuries was held against the King and the people by the proud house of Doug- las. In " Marmion " is a powerful description of it — ^Tantallon Castle, hanging over the margin of the deep. In front of it is a gigantic boulder, rising from the water. It is a mile in circumference, and is believed to have once been the dwelling place of a disciple of St. Kentigern who watched and waited for a favorable opportunity to reach the mainland and preach the gospel. The promontories which here jut out into the ocean before you come to Edinburgh have more than one ruined castle to make them the more portentous, and more than one rugged spot where the English troops spilled good Scotch blood upon the rocks. Across the Firth are enticinor scenes of highland and lowland character, and in a beautiful in- land sheet of water, diversified with mysterious islands, there is found a fair reason for loiterino^. On one of the islands is a castle in which Mary was imprisoned by her lords, the same piece of land, not more than two acres in extent, having once been a military station of an early Pictish king. Nearer the coast again is St. Andrew's, a town placed THE ACTUAL HIGHLANDS. 995 upon a rocky shelf which hangs above a wide bay, but whose history goes back into tradition. Perhaps St. Andrew's bones are here, as the people say, and that a pious monk brought them from Greece, converted the Pictish king who held the land and built a stone chapel and tower, which are still solidly upon their foundations. The town is the seat of a university in which Thomas Chalmers was educated, and after he had made a name he returned to it as a professor. The scenery toward Perth and far into the country is among the most beautiful in Scotland. From Loch Katrine in the south, whose waters are beautified, if possible, by the "Lady of the Lake," to the masses of the Grampian hills all is romance ; with dark mountains towering around bright lakes and streams and waterfalls dashing down gorges, whose rocks and trees strive for the mastery. Then upon the plain of the Tay is Perth, a fair city founded by the Romans, after they had returned from the Grampian hills and their victorious campaign against the savage tribes of Caledonia. When they retired from the island, Perth became the principal capital of the Pictish kings, and, under Bruce was the center of the Scottish Government. But we must pass the highlands of Perthshire, with their lordly castles and dark passes in which Highlanders and Lowlanders met in bat- tle ; just nod to busy Dundee, once the residence of some of Scotland's noblest families; leave the bold masses of the Grampian hills behind and approach the wild coast of the German Ocean which lies below Aberdeen. The immense mountain of ruins upon a precipitous rock which stands so boldly out to sea are the remains of a castle where nearly two hun dred Covenanters were imprisoned in a muddy vault, some of them tor- tured and most of them abused. The granite city of Aberdeen is a fit- ting incident of the country, and a road toward splendid views of the Grampians, along the banks of the River Dee, leads to the magnificent seclusion of Balmoral Castle. Byron's bold genius has soared over the wild and majestic mountains and crags of this region, Aberdeen being his early home. THE ACTUAL HIGHLANDS. Much of the country between Aberdeen and Moray Firth is hilly and bleak — a corn, grass and cattle district — it being a prelude to the actual highlands' of Northern and Western Scotland. Inverness is the very gate to the highlands, it being encompassed by gardens, woods and hills, while in the distance are their large brothers, gigantic mountains. Six miles away, upon a desolate moor, are several green mounds and a rude stone monument. They mark the battle-field of Culloden, where 99^ PANORAMA OF NATIONS. the royal troops crushed the Highland army and buried the hopes of the Stuart family. Inverness is not only the gateway to the highlands, but is the north- ern extremity of the Caledonian Canal, which is a number of lochs arti- ficially connected, stretching from Moray Firth, southwest, to the oppo- site coast of Scotland. "It may be generally described as along, narrow gallery, having the water for its floor, the mountain for its walls and the sky for its roof." The western entrance to the canal is guarded by a fort built in Cromwell's time, and over fort, valley, loch and hill towers Ben Nevis, Britain's highest rrountain. In fact, the glories of highland and lowland, from ocean to ocean, lie before one from the summit of His Majesty. The route along the Caledonian Canal is furthermore blessed by the Fall of Foyers, on Loch Ness, which lies near Inverness. It is shut in by savage cliffs and precipices and pronounced by many the most magnificent cataract in Britain. From Inverness around the opposite shore of the Firth an unbroken line of precipices runs to a narrow bay which stretches quite a distance toward the seemingly endless chains and masses of hills and mountains. At the bay the solid rampart is broken. A tongue of land projects into it, and on the other side the promontories continue their stately course as far as the eye can trace it. The town of Cromarty is built upon this peninsula — Hugh Miller's native place. A noble river which flows through the mountainous region, through gorges and over ledges of rocks, en- tering gloomy lochs and receiving tributaries on its way, also passes the scene of Miller's labors as a stone mason. Within walking distance for one as vigorous as he, were also interesting forts and castles, as well as mystic mounds and circles of stones whose construction is attributed to the Druids. The shires of Sutherland and Caithness, with their dark forests and hills, lead toward the Orkney and Shetland islands. Those wild, rocky, mountainous remains of the ocean's fury are, many of them, uninhabita- ble. What few people subsist from the stormy sea, and their scant patches of land, on which they raise cattle and ponies, are of the old Scandinavian stock. This country of the vikings is not included among the highlands of Scotland, as the people are not of the Celtic race. The Hebrides Islands, on the contrary, which is the name given to the various groups lying along the entire western coast of Scotland, were originally settled by Norwegians, and held by them until the mid- dle of the fourteenth century, when the chief of the Macdonalds con- quered them, becoming the first Lord of the Isles. The Scandinavian element has almost disappeared, Gaelic being the language generally THE WELSH AND SNOWDON. 997 spoken. As a rule, the condition of the people is miserable, agriculture being followed with some success, however, in the islands of the Firth of Clyde. The raising of Kyloes, or black cattle, is followed to some extent; but cattle, horses and sheep are small, almost diminutive, the latter not weighing more than twenty pounds. The scenery of the Heb- rides is of a most unusual character. Off the coast of Mull, an island forming a portion of the shire of Argyle, is the smallest of the Heb- rides. It is merely a dot on the map. But Fingal's Cave, Nature's wonderful marine temple, is one of the most picturesque works in the world and a portion of that island. The next isle south of Staffa is almost as small, but is one of the hallowed spots of the world. On it landed St. Columba, the missionary descended from an Irish king and a Scottish princess, having, with twelve disciples come over from the Emerald Isle in a wicker boat. The island had been presented to him by a British king, but, as it was the chief seat of the Druidical worship, his landing was opposed by the priests, who pretended to be Christian monks in rightful posses- sion of the land. But a foothold was obtained, a monastery founded, and Christianity introduced to the savage Picts and Scots. In the thirteenth century Rome drove out the primitive forms of worship, the islands having previously suffered from the piratical Danes. From the earliest days lona was considered a sacred isle, and in an old cemetery, near a Norwegian chapel, are the tombs of Scandinavian, Irish and Scotch kings ; the last of the royal bodies deposited is said to have been that of the historic Macbeth. The islands and mainland of Argyleshire present some of the most impressive of the highland scenery, and it is hard to realize that the dark, columned caves, the granite mountains, the cool, bright lochs, the deep, green valleys, and the broad moors are the property of half a dozen great nobles of Scotland. One of the largest of the land owners, who are removing their tenants that their sheep may have more room, is the Duke of Argyle, whose eldest son is the Marquis of Lome, Queen Victoria's son-in-law. THE WELSH AND SNOWDON. The natives of Wales do not accept the term Welsh as applied to themselves. They speak of themselves as the Cymri and their language as Cymraeg. The Cymri separate it, with great positiveness", from the branch of the Celtic tongue spoken in Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Scottish highlands. This brave and hardy people who take such pride in the antiquity 998 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. of their race are undoubtedly the purest of the Celts. The original three tribes, which also occupied the Isles of Man and Anglesea, received the Britons in their mountain homes, as they were driven from the wooded and fertile tracts of England by both Romans and Saxons. They are not given to emigration, and even when they settle in demo- cratic America prefer to intermarry among themselves. The Welsh possess one of the most copious languages in the world. It contains at least eighty thousand words, among which are many derived from the Sanskrit. By means of comparative philology some of their scholars have traced the home of the Cymri — at least to their own satisfac- tion — to Southern Hindustan. At all events, the Welsh are as jealous of the purity of their blood as the proudest royal family, and their clan- nishness is an excusable weakness. Their earliest literature goes back to the first years of the Christian era and arose from the bards of the Druids. Three was a mystic num- ber with this religious sect whose human sacrifices, fire worship, knowl- edge of the heavenly bodies, astrology, and divination from the flight of birds and the entrails of animals, bespeak for them an Eastern origin. They are said to have come into Europe with the Cimmerians, or Celts, and their bards, who composed one of the three classes into which they were divided, pretended to pass down from one generation to another songs commemorative of their struggles with Rome. From Gaul they probably passed with the Celts to England, Wales, the Isle of Man, Scotland and Ireland. Their religion was conveyed to the people orally, and to the depths of the great oak forests of England and the solitudes of the Welsh mountains the youth resorted to the priests to be instructed in their lore. The most that we know of their dark rites and the principles of their religion and morality, which were often of the most elevated stamp, is gleaned from the Welsh triads, a species of verse, in three limbs, dwelling upon some historical or spiritual fact, and sung by native bards until the printing press snatched the verses from their lips. The best historical account which we have of them is from the pen of Julius Caesar. Ele and his successors saw that the Druids had bound the Celts in chains of steel ; for the priests were not only their religious teachers, but were their judges. The Romans, therefore, as a long step toward conquering Britain, entered into a campaign of exter- mination aa^ainst the Druids. The last strong^hold of the ancient wor- ship was the island of Anglesea, on the northwest coast of Wales, in the Irish Sea. The strait which separates it from the mainland is spanned by two fine bridges, a suspension and a railway tubular bridge. Over these triumphs of modern science the traveler passes to the island THE WELSH AND SXOWDON. 999 which contains the remains of an arch-druid's palace, surrounded by the college buildings of his subordinates. The Romans drove out the Druid priests and overran Wales, but did not conquer the people. Neither did they devote themselves en- tirely to war ; for both in the northwestern and the southeastern districts of the country are galleries running into the mountains and remains of aqueducts, employed in the digging and washing of gold. Beau- tiful ornaments fashioned from the precious metal have also been found. Wales is rich in nearly all of the minerals. The immense coal fields are in the south, some of the measures being estimated to be two miles thick. There are copper, lead, iron, zinc and silver in the north; also immense quarries of slate and limestone. Welshmen are miners, colliers, quarrymen and iron workers, almost to a man. Snowdon, the grandest and loftiest mass in Southern Britain, is being yearly undermined for roofing slates. Snowdon is a mountainous region, the highest point of which, Y Wyddfa, is 4,000 feet above the sea. The English called the district Snowdon from its appearance in winter, but the Britons spoke of it as Eryri because it was a great eyrie, or breeding place for eagles. Its lakes, groves and cataracts have witnessed Eng^lish armies marchine aorainst the irregular bands of Wales and marching away again before Welsh arrows, cold, rain, sleet and starvation. Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Merlin and other lesrendarv characters are associated with Snowdon ; and it was the stronghold of the patriotic Llewellyn, the last native Prince of Wales who stood bravely for his country's independ- ence. The son of the Edward to whom he owed his death was born in . Carnarvon Castle, a orrand old structure which fronts the Isle of Ano-lesea. When an infant, it is said, the King "induced the Welsh chieftains to ac- cept him as their prince without seeing, by saying that the per- son whom he proposed to be their sovereign was one who was not only born in Wales but could not speak a word of the English lano-uao-e." The Wyddfa, the pinnacle of Snowdon, is the embodiment of Wales, as Ben Nevis is of Scotland. It is about thirty feet in diameter and sur- rounded on three sides by a low wall. On three sides are dizzy precipices. In the hottest of weather the atmosphere is cold and brac- ing and the spirits are joyously carried over much of the mountainous land of Cambria, across an arm of the Irish Sea to the Lake Region of Northwestern England and in the opposite direction to faint outlines on the horizon — the hills of Ireland. lOOO PANORAMA OF NATIONS. THE IRISH. The Irish, notwithstanding their misfortunes and oppressions, are among the greatest races of antiquity. Since Cromwell's time, when the English first really established their supremacy in arms over them, they have fought for the establishment of their independence bravely, though not always cautiously and wisely. Their line of kings goes back into the dim ages when many of the Celtic tribes were being driven out of Asia by the Scythians — the future Goths and Englishmen. The resi- dence of these almost mythological monarchs was a spot called the Hall of Tara, at Teamor, County Meath, in the eastern part of the island. Here the chief priests and bards met triennially to form the laws which were to govern the five principalities, afterwards consolidated into one kingdom. The kings of Ireland married into the royal families of their race in Gaul, and were connected by ties of blood with the great chiefs of the Picts across the water. Schools of astronomy, philosophy, poetry and history were founded by the Druids and protected by the kings. Tara continued the center of the educational and military life of the island, and from, the four districts into which the kingdom was divided a province was formed, which surrounded the national capital. Later the warlike monarchs of Ireland not only joined the Picts in their wars against the Romans, but penetrated into Gaul, one of their kings being killed on the banks of the Loire and another, the last of the pagan rulers, at the foot of the Alps. In the second century a. d. the central portions of Ireland were inhabited by the Scoti. There is a tradition among the Irish that they emigrated from Spain under a great warrior named Mileagh. At all events, when the Irish were at the height of their military power this tribe and the descendants of the hero predominated in power, the in- habitants were called Scoto-Milesians and for many centuries the kingdom was called Scotland. When the Scots conquered the Picts and gave a name to the other land the island was called Ir, Eri or Erin. The Greek geographers spoke of it in ancient times as lerne and the Romans as Hibernia, It was during one of their incursions into Gaul,- in the fifth century — so runs the tradition — that the Irish warriors carried off as a captive a youth named Patrlcius, or Patrick. After living a few years in Ire- land as a shepherd he escaped to France, was educated for the Church, and his glorious work as St, Patrick is a stupendous fact, well authenti- cated by history. Through him and his zeal, his adopted country became the Isle of the Saints, and from this land, which should ever be IRISH CITIES AND SCENERY. lOOI revered by Christians, went forth St. Columba, a century later, to carry the simple faith of the primitive Church to the pagans of Great Britain. Ireland escaped the Romans, but was invaded by the Anglo-Saxons and the Scandinavians, who, previous to the beginning of the eleventh century, had done all in their power, by burning churches, schools and books and killing the natives, to stamp out Christianity. After the ex- pulsion of the Danes, the five old kingdoms, which in war had been united, fell to fighting each other. They were disciplined by Rome, and the whole country, which had been so proud of independence, acknowl- edged the Papal supremacy. It is from this period that the religion of Ireland ceases to be revered by Protestants ; in fact, the successors of St. Patrick and St. Columba, in Scotland, suffered the most grievous per- secutions by the Church of Rome. The quarrels of the petty kings of Ireland encouraged the invasion of some Norman adventurers, and their successes gave the English king an excuse to recall them, as persons exceeding their authority, and to establish his protectorate over the country. From this time on the his- tory is one of Ireland's wrongs; the story is the old tale of a cold, cautious, strong people, of poised mind and abundant resources, obtain- ing the unenviable mastery over an impatient, brilliant, patriotic race. But with the rise of Gladstonian sympathizers in England, and of Par- nellite leaders in Ireland, the future days of the Emerald Isle have each a brighter sunrise. IRISH CITIES AND SCENERY. Dublin, the successor of Tara, as the capital of the coufttry, is somewhat shorn of its importance since the Bank of Ireland has occu- pied the former House of Parliament. But its public buildings are grand, its streets wide and its squares very imposing. The city is surrounded by a delightful boulevard, nine miles in length. Within these bounds, perhaps the most imposing locality is Trinity College, standing in the midst of an elegant park and several squares, which cover forty acres of ground. Clinging to this stately seat of learning is so much of the irresistible eloquence, delicious humor, keen wit and searching sarcasm, in which the Irish nature glories, that Trinity Col- lege, or the University of Dublin, is the embodiment of the genius of the land ; Burke, Grattan Goldsmith, Sheridan and Swift form a galaxy of stars, or rather a five-pointed star, which ever gleams over Dublin and Trinity. That picturesque city, in the center of the valley of the Lee, with its old red sandstone houses, approached through one of the noblest har- I002 PANORAMA OF NATIOI^jS. bors in the world, past great batteries, fertile islands and splendid villas alono^ the river's bank — this is Cork, so close to the heart of the true Irishman. Then there are Limerick, on the Shannon, and, in the north, the great city and port of Belfast, which is the Liverpool of Ireland — a rushing and bustling, a commercial and manufacturing city of which Great Britain is proud. It is outside of the cities of Ireland that the hard struggle for physical and national life is progressing. From the western and northern coasts, which are of Scandinavian wildness, to the flat, sandy coasts of the east, one-half the surface is bog, water, rock and poor soil. The richest farming country is the broad belt from west to east included between Galway and Limerick. Nearly one-seventh of Ireland is covered with peat. The equable and mild climate of the country is, to some extent, IN THE EMERALD ISLE. an offset to the generally unfavorable character of the soil. The temper- ature ranges only a few degrees the }-ear through, the extremes being forty and sixty degrees. The prevailing westerly winds come laden with the warm vapors of the Gulf Stream, so that vegetation is always green, and the Emerald Isle is not poetic license. The spots of supreme freshness in Ireland are, therefore, very many. The loveliness of Irish scenery, so the world has decided, is concentrated in the Lakes of Killarney, in the extreme southwestern part of the island. The country around them receives not only the charm of their waters but the gentle influences from the western ocean, so that the wooded shores of the lakes and the gracious mountains beyond are THE BRITISH IN AMERICA. IOO3 painted with all the shades of color from the light green of the arbutus to the dark firs of the highlands. From Killarney lakes to the Giant's Causeway is through Ireland, in a diagonal line, and no two pictures could present a stronger contrast. In place of the rounded lines of the Killarney hills and the green shadows which fall over the lakes is a dreary coast piled thick with rocky col- umns, presenting the appearance of a stupendous array of piles, stretch- ing out into the sea in rows and masses. The Causeway proper is a platform of these rocks which extends between rugged mounds and groups of pillars from a cliff down into the sea. The name is given to it because of the Celtic tradition that the walk was built by giants as the commencement of a causeway to the opposite coast of Scotland. The remains of antiquity which are found in every part of Ireland make it a most interesting country to the curiosity-seeker and the stu- dent. They consist of mounds and burial stones, earthen ramparts, round towers and castles. Bronze weapons and gold ornaments are continually being turned up from under the soil. Of later date are houses built of stone and earth, like beehives, and religious buildings of various styles of architecture. The warlike spirit of the middle ages is also shown in many huge fortified castles. But from mysterious, pict- uresque, unfortunate and never-despondent Ireland we cross the ocean to a land which has thankfully received many of her bright and noble sons. THE BRITISH IN AMERICA. The French explored the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, and founded Montreal and Quebec. The English coveted New France, and after the fortunes of war had for many years swung back and forth before Quebec, the French concluded that the colony was not worth holding, and made it over by treaty to their rival. This magnificent fortified city, guarding the entrance to the St. Lawrence River and the Dominion, contains fair memorials to the gallant Englishman and the brave Frenchman who lost their lives on the lofty Plains of Abraham. Where Wolfe conquered and died there is a plain, round column, and in the garden of the fortress a monument stands to the honor of both Wolfe and Montcalm. Up the broad river, hardly ever less than two miles in width, the passage to Montreal is one of the most invigorating of fresh water voyages. This gray, growing city is built upon an island, where the Ottawa comes down to join her more stately sister from the handsome young capital of the Dominion above. The metropolis of Canada I004 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Stands at the head of navigation for the great se.a ships, and h-er massive stone wharfs extend through the city to the entrance of the Lachine Canal, which is the first of those fine artificial works which avoid the rapids and falls otherwise obstructing the free navigation of the lakes and the river to the ocean. The Lachine and other rapids are circum- vented by several canals, so that Montreal is in communication with the thriving American ports of the lakes, and by means of the Victoria bridge (two miles in length), the property of the Grand Trunk Railway, she holds commerce with New England and the United States. - A further ascent to the headwaters of Lake Ontario spreads out to view as wonderful a panorama of fresh water scenery as the world affords. The Thousand Isles are a thousand wonders of fantastic stone formations clinging wealth of foliage, dark caves, and every striking comoination of earth, stone, water and vegetation. The vast cataract of Niagara, whose thunders and whirlpools represent the power of four inland seas carried on to the ocean, is divided politically between two of the mightiest nations in the world ; but it is as difficult to sepa- rate the Falls of Niagara in reality, and say, "This b'elongs to England, this to America," as to divide the Americans from the people of Britain. The region around the lakes is the garden of Canada, and within this term is included the country beyond Superior, whose clear, bracing airs give a wonderful freshness and soundness to the wheat berry. The fisheries and fur companies of Newfoundland, Labrador and the vast stretches of country around Hudson's Bay, form also rich mines of wealth. Manitoba is the chief agricultural province of Canada, its capi- tal, Winnepeg, being a flourishing little city, with water and sewerage works, railroads and well-graded streets. It is the headquarters of the Hudson Bay Fur Company, and the executive center of the Northwest Territories, or all of the Dominion of Canada outside of the eastern provinces. THE AMERICAN ANGLO-SAXONS. iNLIKE the Anglo-Saxons of Great Britain, the Americans have found their own land to be large enough and diversified enough to engage, virtually, their entire attention in its develop- ment. Seventeen hundred miles from north to south and over three thousand from east to west ; with a soil fitted in some sections to nearly every known product in the world ; with natural water-ways, barring a few miles, from its northeastern boundaries to its southern extremity, via the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River ; with three splendid transcontinental railways and innumerable minor lines spreading out from every~ large city like the rays of a sun ; with whole States of wheat, of corn, of sheep, of coal, of silver, of cotton ; with chained lightning flashing- over the telegraph wires and binding together a seething people of divers individual interests, and yet all working for the nation's advance- ment ; a country with as many literatures as there are idioms of the lano'uage ; a wonderful digestion of Europe, Asia and Africa ; a grand combination of mechanical and financial genius — this is the United States, and these are its people. THE TYPICAL AMERICAN. Periodically, some newspaper or magazine starts the discussion and Invites the opinions of the public, as to what is, or will be, the Typical American. No two persons agree, except in saying that he will com- bine those qualities of the German, the Englishman, the Frenchman, the Scotchman and the Irishman which are to endow him with the most powerful nationality of modern times. How long the amalgamation will go on before the immigrant will be fashioned into the native, and all the natives have a general type of character and physique, is merely a speculation. The most that can be done, under existing cir- cumstances, is to present some pictures of the United States and its people as we find them from Maine to California and from Washington; Territory to Florida. 1005 IOo6 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. MAINE. Much of the best blood of Maine which can make of it a great State has been drawn to the West, Michigan and Wisconsin, with their great forests so similar to those of the Pine Tree State, being especially favored. Two-thirds of Maine is still primeval forest, and a tenth of it is ornamented with picturesque inland lakes. The sturdy lumbermen who spend half their existence in her vast forests, and appear in her settlements in the spring with their pockets full of money and nearly blinded by the glistening snow, have seen more than once a lonesome wigwam with the smoke struggling through the trees, or a stolid Indian plodding through the snow, followed by a gaunt-looking squaw with a pappoose upon her back. ALL THAT IS LEFT OF THEM. There was hardly a settlement on the shores of her beautiful lakes or rivers which did not, until within late years, receive a periodical visit from a roving band of Penobscot Indians, the pitiful remains of the once famous tribe of Canibas who once ranged so destructively along the New Enpfland coast and carried desolation to the settlements of Maine. There is now at Norridgewock, on the Kennebec, a granite obelisk, erected by the Catholic Bishop of Boston, in memory of Father Rale, who was murdered at the foot of his altar by these savages, who also burned his church. He was the first missionary to venture into their domain The few families who are the sole representatives of the pow- erful Penobscots have been collected by the State on an island in the river by that name, just below Oldtown. There they have a govern- ment of their own, at the head of which is a descendant of a former Can. iba chief; they are well educated, peaceable, and conform to all the best customs of such a staid place as Oldtown. They have left the marks of their former occupancy upon the rivers, towns and lakes of the State, There are Lakes Mooselucmaguntic, Welokenebacook, Mollychunka- munk, etc., etc. MAINE SCENERY. Moosehead Lake, the largest and most picturesque of all the inland waters, is a reminder of the time when the huge antlered kings of the forest ranged through its forests of pine and spruce trees, or over its frozen surface and beneath the overhanging cliffs of the great granite hills v/hich rise from its shores. There are several lines of approach to the lake, but they are all over rugged hills and mountains partially THE SCHOLARLY DISTRICTS. IOO7 clothed with the everlasting pine spruce. Mount Katahdin, the Squaw Mountains which appear blue and mysterious in the distance, still press the fact upon us that we are treading on the hunting-ground of the Indian. Halfway up the lake, on a peninsula, is a great mass of rock which pushes out into the waters, and at its base, separ- ated from it by a fringe of forest, is a large hotel. This stamps the present character of Moosehead Lake. It is one of the famous summer resorts of New England, and when the substantial Bos- ton merchant or the industrious manufacturer of Maine tires of his count- ing-room or his looms, he takes a run up to Moosehead Lake, and breathes the spice of its hemlock forests, or views the beauties of the little wild waterfalls of its numerous inlets ; or takes a guide and goes deer and moose hunting and fishing. The eastern coast of Maine is also rich in attractions for seekers after vigor and rest. Mount Desert, with the caverns of the sea, and the rocky islets of Passamaquoddy Bay, all swarm with tourists, though unfit for a great settled population. As one of the most gifted and enthusiastic of the lovers of the locality has said, " to come hither is to find in one both Newport and the Catskills." But in and out, in and out, for twenty-five hundred miles the coast line winds, and every cove has its schooner and every little settlement its fleet. In Southern New England you strike a new order of old things. The country is on a direct line of travel with the great interior of the United States, and it seemed to be a foregone conclusion that the first great courses of development should be Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and so on to the West, down the Atlantic coast, and up and down the Mississippi Valley. THE SCHOLARLY DISTRICTS. It is while traveling through the old, mellow, scholarly districts of New England that the fact comes home with force that this section of the country is so appropriately named. You have left Portsmouth behind, on the ocean, and manufacturing Manchester inland, products of " New" Hampshire. Two Dovers and a Bath might also have been visited before Southern New England would proclaim its English origin in its Boston, Dorchester, Cambridge, Plymouth, Worcester, Sheffield, Yarmouth, Tewksbury, Lynn, Birmingham, New Haven, Norwich, New London (on the Thames), and a host of other cities, towns and suggest- ive localities. Simply as a matter of curiosity, it would prove a most fascinating work to trace back the origin of every New England town ioo8 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. and also to see how, as a rule, the physical surroundings and locations of its English prototypes are very similar. A portion of the site of Boston proper, or old Boston, was one© overflowed by the tide. A few years after John Cotton, John Winthrop and their friends settled in the vicin- ity, Cambridge or Har- vard University was founded, and as to the beauty of its elm-shaded grounds, the magnificence of its buildinors and its educational advantao-es it does not shrink from a comparison with either Cambridge or Oxford, England. Harvard is synony- mous with Lono-fellow and Emerson — cultured, philosophical, scholarly and classical, without ponderosity. They are as American in spirit as Whittier, yet broader. Wherever national litera- ture — American scholar- ship—is mentioned, the names of Lono-fellow and Emerson will be pro- nounced with the same breath ; wherever the pure, homelike, religious, moral and political spirit of New England is con- sidered Whittier's mild, earnest Quaker face will pass into the mental vis- ion. But Whittier was not of Harvard, nor of Boston, although as truly in its current of thought before the war as any of the Harvard scholars or philosophers. Everett and Evarts, Holmes, Hale, Channing and Parker — they were Harvard students EVANGELINE. NEW YORK. 1009 of whom the land is proud. If Boston and her ^reat university could only claim a Hercules, whose sweep of patriotism and ponderous blows were self-taught and self-inspired, it would be glory enough ; but Webster did not come within the shades of the Harvard elms, as a stu- dent, although his glory shines as brightly around the Hub as the national capital. In Boston, and throughout Massachusetts, there are scores of law, medical and theological schools. Among those which are denominational, but also of a general character, may be mentioned Amherst College, Williams and Tufts. Unlike the college and university towns -of Eng- land, those of Massachusetts and America are usually within walking distance of stirring city or town life ; so that even the scholar breathes the vibrating atmosphere of commerce and trade. After Harvard comes Yale in point of importance and time. It is the Oxford of America, New Haven, the city of its location, being set tied by a company of Englishmen, principally from London. The uni- versity laws are founded partly upon those of Harvard and partly upon those of Oxford, England. The buildings of Yale College cover several acres of ground near the city park, or the " green." This latter is six- teen acres in extent and seems, from a distance, but a solid forest of stately elms. The king of shade trees also stretches his arms over the delightful avenues of the whole city, being one of its greatest attractions. A walk under the elms of New Haven has cooled many a student's hot brain. He is, furthermore, in the center and primary city of the clock and carriage manufactures of New England. An invigorating dash over the salt water is that from New Haven to New York by steamer through Long Island Sound. The Connecti- cut shore slopes gently toward the water and is beautified by many charming summer and country residences, the coast of Long Island being the broken base of a line of hills which extends almost through it. Numerous bays and inlets cut the shore into the most picturesque forms, and the boldest scenes usually have stanch and defiant lighthouses as practical center-pieces. During much of the course these features of the landscape are diversified by forests of pine which extend along a comparatively level tract of country. Beyond the hills and forests are the fertile tracts which slope toward the ocean and toward the sandy beaches which, in the west, have become so well known as bathing resorts. NEW YORK. Long Island was claimed by both English and Dutch, the western portions being settled by the Hollanders a few years in advance of their 64 lOIO PANORAMA OF NATIONS. rivals. The English did not crowd out all the Dutch names when they destroyed the power of Holland on the Hudson River. It is true that in approaching the metropolis, past Long Branch, Sandy Hook and the New Jersey coast we find Gravesend at the very entrance to New York bay, and we remember that Gravesend is the official gate to the port of London ; but, choosing the approach, by way of Long Island Sound, there is Har- lem to remind us of the Hol- land flats and sea. Harlem River connects with Spuyten Duyvel Creek, the two sepa- rating Man- hattan Island from the main- land. Brooklyn, is to New York what the West End is to London, although separated by a river. It is even more difficult to de- termine what should be legitimate- ly considered the population of New York than of London, for although the bounds of the Amer- ican city are a matter of legal record, hundreds of thousands of people reside in Brooklyn, Long Island City, Hoboken, JerseyCity -'' -' \ ^ AN AMERICAN PALACE, and outlying territory and yet depend for their support upon the metropolis. As the suburbs, towns and cities are separated by bodies of water and State lines it would be difficult to cover this great and populous territory by any such con- venient body as the London Board of Works or Metropolitan Police ; yet, short of a common name, the gigantic settlements at the mouth NEW YORK. lOII of the Hudson are connected by every tie of mutual interest and some of the crrandest mechanical and enorineerino- works of the aee. The city, located on Manhattan Island, is connected with the main land by a number of magnificent bridges for passenger and railway traffic ; while the Brooklyn Bridge is thrown across East River for over a mile, Waterloo and all similar structures in London being cast into the shade by its mighty foundations, spans and towers. The largest vessel passes beneath it. Until this gigantic work was com- pleted the communication was by numerous steam ferries, whose move- ments were often impeded by fog and ice. On a like scale of grandeur was the removal of a mountain of rocks, at Hell Gate, which obstructed navigation between East River and Long Island Sound. The work of honeycombing the rock progressed for many weary months, and at its conclusion everything appeared on the surface as before. The touch of an electric button released a volcano ; the mountain heaved at its foun- dations and was pitched into the sea. Within the city the restless streams of people are carried on the ground and above ground by the most effective of known railway sys- tems, though still inadequate to relieve the pressure of travel. The Croton aqueduct, which brings pure water to Harlem River from a small stream (artificially formed into a lake), does not compare with those old Roman monsters found in Italy, France and Spain, but it is a great public work for this age of the world. The water, in iron pipes, is carried across the river over a massive granite bridge, and then the aqueduct takes it again and brings it to the Central Park reservoir. The public works of New York stand for the practical advancement of the country, and the European immigrant as he lands at Castle Garden finds himself, without introduction, in the midst of the most complex form of American city life. New York, in its general charac- teristics, is Paris and London thrown together. Paris is Celtic in its lightness and brilliancy ; so is New York, with its Fifth avenue and other gorgeous exhibitions of wealth — with its Irish Stewarts, its German Astors, its Dutch-American Vanderbilts, and its English and American merchants by the scores. There are stores, hotels and residences which are palaces in the old world. There are districts which are packed closer and are more squalid than the populous haunts of the poor classes in East London. The two extremes meet. You see the Charles O'Con- nors on one side of the street and the newest arrivals from the Irish bogs on the other. But a passing glimpse is all that we can take of this most substan- tial evidence of the republic's greatness. With a regretful gaze up the IOI2 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Hudson, that we can not enjoy its magnificent mountain and highland scenery, its rapids, its paHsades and pleasant banks and villages, we give a look of admiration at the Government fortresses on the islands of the harbor and at the last of the world's great works of art, the Goddess of Liberty (which they are obliged to accompany), and skirting the sandy shores of New Jersey, enter Delaware Bay. PHILADELPHIA. By following the river, we find, in Philadelphia, the same narrow, quaint and scrupulously clean Dutch houses, which are washed, like childrens' faces, in Holland. Although founded by the English Quaker, Penn, during the first few years of its establishment the Dutch immi- grated to Philadelphia in great numbers, being drawn to it, as were the German and the English Quakers, by the principle of universal tolera- tion upon which the colony was founded. At Kensington, within the city limits, is a plain stone monument which marks the site of the elm tree under which Penn made that oral treaty with the Indians which he never violated and which is the large white spot in the history of our dealinors with the natives. The most momentous of the ante-revolu- tionary events circled around Philadelphia, Carpenters' Hall, where was held the first Continental Congress, is open to visitors in substantially the same condition it was during the rebellion against England. Inde- pendence Hall, in the old State House, is where the declaration of inde- pendence was adopted. Its walls are hung with the portraits of patriots, and other historic relics placed there make it, with Faneuil Hall, Boston, the most precious structure in America. Within the past century Girard College has arisen to exhibit to the world what has been pro- nounced the finest specimen of Grecian architecture in the world, and also to exhibit in its founder the combination of the miser in private and the prodigal philanthropist in public. Philadelphia is unique. It is old and wealthy like Boston, but its people and its capital are more intimately associated with the West. It is less an Eastern and more an American city. THE IRON AND COAL REGIONS. Many of the Dutch who came to Pennsylvania, drawn thither by tolerant spirit of the Quaker colonist, settled in the fertile valleys of the Alleghany Mountains, where thousands of their mild, comfortable descendants are now located. The English, Welsh and Scotch are in the coal and iron mines and manufacturing districts. Both in Central THE IRON AND COAL REGIONS. IOI3 and Eastern Pennsylvania, the deposits of iron ore are so rich that most of the blast furnaces upon the banks of the rivers depend upon them for their products. The anthracite coal beds are simply inexhaustible, and the entire range of mountains is being honey-combed by the industry and capital of the country. The life of the miners is such as it is in other countries. The villages will generally be found on the banks of runs, as they are called — small creeks coming down from the moun- tains — and are dreary enough. They look as if they were placed there for a day only. The mining companies own many of the houses, and also most of the general stores at which the miners trade. Provisions and articles of clothinof are held firmly to the mar- ket price, and it is not unusual, with a large city only a few miles away, for the proprietors to virtually force their wares upon them at prices higher than those quoted in town. The immense coal fields of Penn- sylvania first came into general use during the Revo- lutionary War, the product being tak- en from near carved oak settle. Wilkesbarre, down the Susquehanna, to near the Government Arsenal at Carlisle. Since then, mining for coal and iron and boring for petro- leum, with the dependent industries of transporting and manufacturing, have built up one of the most prosperous States in the Union. Pennsylvania is a repetition of the manufacturing districts of Eng- and, with the ancient villages, ruined castles and Roman walls omitted. Pennsylvania, also, has the clear sky and air which often are not to be found around the picturesque manufacturing centers of the old country. But from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh — especially in the autumn — the scenery is purely American. The ponderous machinery IOI4 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. of the mines, gigantic petroleum tanks, square miles of smoking char^ coal houses, like large ant hills, thousands of tramways running out from the hills to the railroad track, whole cities covered with smoke and the banks of the great rivers flaming as if they were afire with the labors of iron mills and manufactories, are a few of the works of man which appear on the surface. As if striving to add to the impressive- ness of the scene, or at least to conform to its general character entire valleys and mountain chains are aflame with the red and yellow of the dying year, the oak trees and the maples marshaling their colors in huge rriasses and battalions. Nestling in the valleys are also fertile farms and comfortable houses, many of them furnished with old and quaintly carved furniture. In fact, in this central and broadest portion of the great Alleghany, or Appalachian system of mountains, which extends from the Upper St. Lawrence to the Tennessee River, are combined the beauties of the granite hills of New England and the streams of the Adirondacks with the rich treasures which they do not hoard. THE CUMBERLANDS AND THE POTOMAC. The Cumberland range is the next important link in the system going south, and at its head is the commencement of a magnificent coal field, extending west to the Ohio. There are fewer fertile spots within the Cumberland region than in the Alleghanies, the scenery being most severe ; but the Tennessee River and its many tributaries draining the eastern slopes of the mountains, and finally cutting through to the west, draws a green ribbon through the rugged hills of the Cumberland and is a sight never to be forgotten. For river scenery, which is as varied as it is noble, the Potomac rivals the Hudson. It possesses the additional charm of being the historic stream of America, near whose banks were enacted some of the most momentous events of the war, from first to last. From Harper's Ferry to the Rappahannock, sweeping one hun- dred and fifty miles on either side, would include ground not unlike that lying along the Rhine between France and Germany ; but the American soil is consecrated to peace, and North and South look upon the clear waters and the broad sweep of the Potomac with reverence and love. The headwaters of the river boil among rugged mountains, with little green valleys playing in their shadows. At Harper's Ferry where the Shenandoah joins it, it breaks through the Blue Ridge Mountains and becomes grand in its character. The cliffs and rocks hang over it, as if loth to allow it to escape, and at the feet of some of the loftiest of them is the village of Harper's Ferry. This passage of the river through the THE CUMBERLANDS AND THE POTOMAC. IOI5 mountains Thomas Jefferson pronounced "one of the most stupendous scenes ui nature, and well worth a voyage across the Atlantic to witness." and, as proof that his admiration was honest he indulged in the romantic and boyish occupation of carving his name on one of the grandest of the rocks. The lower course of the Potomac is tranquil and majestic, and it is little wonder that George Washington marked such scenes for life and death. Mount Vernon came to him from his elder brother, Lawrence, and his was merely one of the fine old mansions and plantations which still make the Lower Potomac the dearest spot on earth to the descend- ants of those grand old Virginia families whom American history has embalmed. The house is a two story wooden building with a welcom- ing portico in front, supported by great pillars and reaching to the dormer windows. Washington's librar)^ and bedroom have not been disturbed since his death. The ground in front of the house slopes to the river in a rich lawn of several acres, the body of the patriot being laid within view of his restful home and the fair river, in a cool, wooded dell. Let us here mention, in admiration and reverence, without fear of being misunderstood in these days, the name of Washington's great- est descendant who lived and died a Virgrinian — Robert E. Lee. Beyond Mount Vernon is Washington, as grand in its proportions as St. Petersburgh, without being oppressively stupendous. The capitol, covering nearly four acres of ground, sends up its splendid dome nearly 300 feet, and its statue of Liberty looks serenely toward Europe and the rising sun. The great department buildings, the monument, the Gov- ernment institutions — such as arsenal and navy yards — the magnificent boulevards and palaces along them ; the bustle, life and gayety and the freshness and picturesqueness of the surrounding country, advance Washington's claim to be the most perfect city for national legislation in the world. Before its geographic location is raised against it seri- ously, it would be well to see how many of the capitals of the world from China to Russia and England are centrally placed. One is inclined to linger too lono- on the banks of the Potomac. Virginia has hundreds of other natural attractions. The Cumberland Mountains, in the west of the State, exhibit a number of wonderful caves, some being brilliant and grotesque with stalactite formations, and others filled with crystal bodies of water. From one of them a strong current of cold air issues during hot weather, and in winter the outer air is drawn into it as through a suction pipe. Then there is the natural bridge, near Lexington, whose one arch is one hundred and sixty feet in height and sixty feet in width. A little stream flows through it, and gigantic IOl6 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. forest trees grow underneath, which are nearly a hundred feet below the roadway which passes over the bridge. The many mineral springs in the vicinity, with their high temperature, and the position of the rock strata, suggest the force which fashioned this gigantic arch out of the flint-like ridge. • . OHIO IRON AND WOOL. Beyond the Potomac River, the Cumberland Mountains and the Ohio was considered, not many years ago, the far West, Just a cen- tury ago Dr. Manasseh Cutler located the first colony at Marietta, start- ing from Connecticut. He had a large wagon built and covered with black canvas, on which were painted in white letters the words " Ohio, for Marietta or the Muskingum." The circumstances under which it left New England and reached that then uncultivated wilderness have placed this exploring wagon historically by the side of the Mayflower. This was the basis of Ohio and the frontier State of the East. It is not now even in the Middle West. It is rather the connectinor link between the manufacturing East and the agricultural West. The coal deposits and petroleum wells of Eastern Ohio rank with those of Pennsylvania. Iron is obtained, but her extensive manufactories depend for their sup- plies chiefly upon the iron country in Northern Wisconsin and Michigan, near the shores of Lake Superior. There are entire ridges and ranges of iron, and rivers whose waters are red with their rust. Chicago, Mil- waukee and Cleveland have immense mills and iron manufactories, and are also distributing points for quantities of ore. Although Ohio is second in America as an iron-producing State, she is first as a producer of wool, California standing almost shoulder to shoul- der with her. She pastures about a sixth of the sheep, and sends to market a fifth of the wool. The oil of her coal lands, which has not run into her petroleum wells, seems to have penetrated the land and made it rich and productive to animal and vegetable life. That expression, " the fat of the land," is particularly appropriate to both Pennsylvania and Ohio, whose oils are not only collected in reservoirs and carried to dis- tant cities in pipes, as so much water, but the land yields most abund- antly to animal life those elements which cover the farms with plump sheep and cattle. Ohio is a great dairy country, the Western Reserve, in the northeastern part of the State, being the banner section. CINCINNATI. Naturally the growth of Ohio's cities has been rapid, especially of Cincinnati, which is one of the great commercial centers of the country. THE QUEEN OF THE LAKES. IOI7 Its location is one of grand beauty, the plateaux upon which it is built lying a hundred feet above the Ohio River (which divides the plain), and being surrounded by a circle of hills. The hill-sides are covered with houses, and the suburbs of the city are picturesque and clean. Cincin- nati is no exception to the rule that all the populous cities of the country, lying on the great lakes and rivers between Buffalo and St. Louis, have a very large German element. The flood commenced to pour over the western country at the time of the Revolution in Germany of 1848, and to this cause the States between the Ohio and the Mississippi owe a vast proportion of their unexampled growth and present prosperity. In fact, with due regard for the mental and physical influences of other national- ities, the ethnologist is forced to the conclusion that the descendants of the English and German colonists of the East and South, with those of the West, are the strongest and most vital elements in the American type; and this consideration led to the adoption of the topic title, Amer- ican Anglo-Saxons, there being little difference between the English and German types. THE QUEEN OF THE LAKES. The site of Chicago was not worse than that of other large cities of the world, and her geographical position in the center of the grain fields of the Northwest ; at the foot of a lake which heaves at the borders of four States, and in the direct line of travel westward from the old New England States — these advantages predestined her present standing, as second to New York, in commercial importance. New York is King, and Chicago is not only Queen of the Lakes but of America. If the parallel is allowable, she is New York's great middle-man for the staples of the West from the Ohio to the Pacific Ocean. She is the general store- keeper for the Northwestern States. From the time Chicago was a garrison, a few families and a canal town, to the present, whatever may have been the fortune of its individual people, no one thought that Chicago would fail. In the history of cities there has been no such sublime confidence in the possibilit}^ of the supremest height of achieve- ment, as has marked the career of Chicago. A dozen Chicago fires could not quench it. Chicago is as grasping a city as the universe knows anything about. There is no parallel to her generosity when flames, floods or hurricanes sweep the land. Whatever wickedness can be found in any city, is in Chicago ; but her charities cover it. Her busi- ness houses, commercial and financial structures and public buildings are vast. Her hotels rival those of New York, and there is now in course of ioi8 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. construction a square block of architectural stateliness for the use, prim- arily, of national conventions, which is one of the most magnificent works of the century. The continual sound of the saw and the hammer is heard not only in the centers of population, but the reverberation is carried along from building to building, until the seeming echo dies in the distance. For a dozen miles north and south there are charming, populous and growing suburbs which will eventually be a part of the city. South of Chicago are her great iron districts, and this outlying territory is growing so rapidly around the foot of the lake, that the time may not be far in the future when the city will have no important body of water between it and the Eastern sea-board. No one who has taken the trouble to investigate will be misled by the trite remark that Chicago is merely wheat and pork; a city whose SCULPTOR'S HOME. whole existence is in trade. Her literateurs, painters and sculptors are legion, many of them with national reputations. Yet as long as Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas continue to raise wheat and cattle, the Queen will live. In years past Milwaukee, further north on the western shore of the lake, rivaled Chicago as a primary wheat market, and St. Paul and Minneapolis have drawn from much of the far northwestern territory. They are beautiful, prosperous cities, but of late years have concentrated their energies upon various lines of manufactures. WHEAT HARVESTERS. lOig- WHEAT HARVESTERS. On the great prairies of the States of the Northwest lying along the Mississippi and Missouri valleys are conducted the most extensive agri- cultural operations in the world. Here machinery takes the place of manual labor almost entirely ; for the soil is so soft and free from stones, that not only can the land be plowed for miles at a stretch without meet- ing a foreign substance, but the grain may be reaped and threshed by horse and steam power without the possibility of anything being caught up which could injure the most delicate machine. When the harvest is ready for the reapers the wheat-fields of Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Wiscon- sin and Dakota, resemble so many encampments, and the systematic way in which the armies of laborers prepare for the campaign adds strength to the impression. When operations commence the very machines seem to have life. The grain falls in wide swaths before the sharp teeth of the mower, and is laid nicely upon the platform behind from which it is either raked and gathered into bundles by the harvesters, or cut and bound into sheaves by the machine itself. The wonders of wood, steel and iron do not end with this. At times the driver will mount his little- iron seat, give his steeds the word, and the grain will not only fall before him, but will be threshed at the same time. Usually, however, the threshing is an after-work, and steam-power is called into play. At this stage of the operations the square miles of land which have been shorn of their wavinof wealth are transformed into a species of outdoor manufactory. The rattle and clangor of the machines fill the air. Thousands of tons of refuse go upon a moving,, inclined plane and disappear. The buzz, rattle and clangor progress,, the refuse falls into a sort of revolving drum and a moment later a confused mass of straw and wheat falls upon a rack below% The straw is carried off by an endless platform and carefully placed in a mow or rack, the grain sifting through into an apartment where it is winnowed by a strong air blast, which, strange to say, is already there to do its work. With all this improved machinery, which accomplishes the labor of armies of men, the wheat harvesters of the Northwest are not only drawn from the immediate country, but many of them are wanderers over the face of the land who, from the south, follow the line of verdure and the harvests of the country through the Mississippi States into the wheat districts of British America. LIFE ON THE PLAINS. Life on the plains, such as adventurous boys used to dream about, is a thing of the past since the Pacific roads have gone beyond the Mis- I020 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. sissippi, and the Missouri, and the Platte, and Salt Lake, and the Colorado to the Pacific coast. By stretching a point and going down into Indian Territory, Texas or New Mexico, a taste of the old excitement may be obtained, but the life upon the plains of Nebraska and Kansas is of another kind in our day. It is the same existence as the pioneers of Illi- nois enjoyed fifty years ago. Along the banks of the Missouri River, which forms the eastern boundary to Nebraska and a portion of Kansas, are the most enterprising of the manufacturing and receiving points for much of the grain and cattle of the plains. They also make the cars, the engines, and even the bridges of the old and new roads which connect the States beyond the Missouri River and the cities, towns and hamlets of this newest West. Life on the plains is now what the railroads make it. They plat a town and build a station on the plain with not a farm- house in sight; but their agents are at New York, Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, and by and by there comes along a train loaded with burly Russian farmers, red-faced Swedes or heavy-browed Germans. The immigrants get out at the little wooden house on the plains, with their rope-bound trunks, their wives and children, and proceed to occupy the rough houses which have been erected for them. When the train returns, everybody is housed in some sort of shape, and the heads of families have selected their farms under the guidance of the railroad agent, or one of those sharp, omnipresent land agents, who was already on the ground, having scented his prey from afar. Many of the towns which are blessed with fifteen years or -more of life contain substantial manufactories — principally flour-mills — large public buildings and blocks of stores, and as polished and warm a grade of society as is met with in the country. The great ambition of the new places is to get to be either the county seat, or a section town. In the latter case machine shops are established, the town becomes the head- "\^uart^rs"df many railroad employes and officials, good hotel accommo- 'dMiohs are required, additional stores start up, commercial travelers abound, and the place becomes that most desirable of all things to a child of the West — "a live town." Of course such cities as Kansas City, Topeka, Lincoln and Omaha have graduated into the metropolitan class, showing an enterprise and exhibiting magnificent business and public structures as an evidence of their permanent prosperity. Kansas City is rapidly gaining the position of the most important commercial point between Chicago and the Pacific coast. Her railroad connections are masterly, Kansas being not only tributary to her, but large portions of Missouri, Texas, Colorado and New Mexico; and yet Kansas City is built upon rocks and sand, as Chicago originally rested upon a bed of mud. THE WESTERN MINING COUNTRY. 1021 THE WESTERN MINING COUNTRY. After crossing the plains of Nebraska and Kansas, the great mining country of the West is entered by way of Colorado. The entrance to this sublime region is by gradual steps. First there is a vast elevated plain, cut up by the streams of the Platte and Arkansas Rivers, and diver- sified by valleys. A lofty ridge sheds the waters of these rivers, disap- pearing in the great masses of the Rocky Mountains near Pike's Peak. In other localities the furrowed plain merges into the foothills of the mountains, which, in Colorado obtain their greatest altitude. The mounds, pyramids, pinnacles, towers and monuments lifted two or three miles into the pure air, some of them rifted by ragged gorges from summit to base, inclose a number of fertile tracts of land whose physical characteristics are similar to those of the plains to the east. The differ- ence, if anything, favors the mountains. The hills and mountains sur- rounding them are clothed with pine forests, and the valleys which follow the headwaters of the noble rivers breaking from their prisons, east and west, are green and flowery. Some idea of the extent of these domains, which Nature has walled about with such grandeur, may be obtained by a statement of the fact that three of the Colorado parks are larger than Delaware, and one of them is equal in area to Massachusetts. The parks are splendid pasture lands. They are, in fact, the oases of this great region of rocks and canons, and lie almost within sight of the extensive mining operations of the State. Northwest through Wyom- ing, Idaho and Montana into Canada, south through New Mexico into old Mexico, and westward to the coast is the territory which com- prises the Western mining country. Since the discovery of the fa- mous Comstock lode, thirty years ago, the Sierra Nevada Moun- tains have been the dividing line between the silver and the gold regions. These minerals are generally found together, but in the ores extracted east of the mountains, silver, as a rule, greatly pre- dominates. It would be a waste of words to enter into a detailed description of the various processes of mining for gold and silver — to take one to the streams and mountains, to the long drainage tunnels, the ponderous crushing mills and furnaces, the enormous iron pans where the chemical changes are made to take place by which the silver bullion is obtained, to be afterward melted and cast into ingots ; or to visit the gold wash- ings and tell, step by step, the various processes by which from streams, hills and the shores of the ocean is separated the precious stuff which men call gold. .I02 2 PANORAMA OF NATIONS.- YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. The tourist whose aim is to inspire the saHent features of the •country will lightly pass the gold and silver, and return to the feast of Rocky Mountain scenery. Other countries, from J apan to South America, have boasted of immense deposits of gold, the fabulous hoards displayed FALLS IN NATIONAL PARK. by the Incas of Peru even shaming the productions of California — but there is but one chain of Rocky Mountains and it can have no parallel. This would stand secure, as a solemn truth, were the Rocky Mountains but the one series of spurs which they strike out into Northwestern YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 1023 Wyoming to grasp Yellowstone, or the National Park. The mountain ranges, which are covered with perpetual snow, tower above the valleys, through which run the headwaters of the Missouri, Mississippi's brother, and child of the Gulf of Mexico; the Columbia which Avinds to the Pacific, and the Colorado which finds its way to the Gulf of Mexico. The Yellowstone River, the Missouri's tributary, repeats the vault-like canons of the Colorado for those who can not see the stream, which makes a specialty of furnishing these wonders ; and, if there were not startling phenomena in another direction, the falls of the Yellowstone would be absorbing attractions. The Great Falls are 350 feet in height. Yellowstone Park is in the path of a volcano district which includes Western New Mexico and Colorado and portions of Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. Lava rocks, hot salt springs, mud volcanoes and geysers, scattered throughout these States, with earthquake shocks in the upper districts of the region, make the Rocky Mountains one of the most pregnant fields of investigation for the geologist ; but he may con- centrate all his earnestness in Yellowstone Park, which holds out to him the most active evidence of the earth's interior forces which can be found on itssurface. The geysers of Iceland and New Zealand are humbled in comparison. There are water-falls, hot mineral springs (some of which are over 200*^ in temperature), caiions and sulphur hills along the Yellow- stone River and Lakes ; the geysers are found further west, near the Madi- son River. They are of all varieties — those which are tranqu il, those which are always boiling and those which periodically spout vast columns of boiling water to a height of 200 or 250 feet. Around the rim of the crater are often seen the most fantastic and beautiful deposits. Some- times the diameter is only a few feet ; at other times from thirty to sixty. The basin may be circular, or shaped like a shell, or ragged and shape- less ; almost level with the ground or built up so that it appears like the stump of a gigantic tree. The water may be blue or colorless, and in one instance the deposit around the rim of the basin is black instead of white. Some of the geysers maintain the water at a uniform level ; others spout to an enormous height at regular intervals, the water receding into the fearful cavern and disappearing with a hiss and a roar. One remarkable geyser sends tons of water into the clouds and nothing returns — the evaporation is instantaneous and complete. There are also boiling mud springs, the color of the contents being white, blue, brown or black. Acres of mineral springs may be visited, but with hundreds of geysers boiling, steaming, hissing, gurgling, roaring and spouting like so many infernal monsters — the ground seeming to tremble as with the vibra- tions of hidden engines — little time is devoted to the milder mani- 1024 ' PANORAMA OF NATIONS. festations of the earth's anger. If that grand natural park, upon the side of Pike's Peak, ornamented by the hand of nature with castles and cathedrals of bright red sandstone, may be called the Garden of the Gods, what fanciful name shall be given to this region? It is the battle ground of gods and devils. UTAH CIVILIZATION. As if the sights of Colorado and Wyoming were not sufficiently unique, Utah, the next political division to the west, furnishes a desert and the Great Salt Lake. This most concentrated deposit of salt water in the world is over four thousand feet above the sea. To the southeast is a small fresh water lake, and the river Jordan connects them. It has other fresh water inlets, but no visible outlets. The country around is impregnated with salt, a decided crust being frequently seen upon the surface. A ridge of the Rocky Mountains — the Wahsatch — follows, at a little distance, the eastern shores of the lakes and rivers, and between it and Great Salt Lake has sprung up that civilization which redeems the country from being a Dead Sea district, but places a greater burden upon the Nation than if it were still a wilderness. The Mormons and Salt Lake City constitute an Eastern civilization within a Western, the Prophet having very much the same visions as Mohammed, in order to launch upon the world a " reformed " marriage system. The difference was that Mohammed's tendency was to limit, and, if anything, to reduce the number of wives. The ingenious methods of irrigation by which the clear water of a mountain stream flows along both sides of the broad city streets, and the orchards and gardens which smile from every yard, might lead the traveler to believe that he had, in truth, blundered upon a country of the Moors. Even the gigantic tabernacle, with an inverted bowl resting upon pillars for a roof, has an Eastern air to it. Many of the houses are of one story, with separate entrances for the different wives. They are built of adobe, or mud, and not materially different from the huts of the Egyptian Mohammedans. Public schools are more at a discount than they are in Turkey, education being synonomous with Mormonism. There is a large Gentile element — probably a third of the population — but in the conduct of public affairs the Latter-Day Saints completely overshadow it. Besides its Tabernacle and stupendous temple block, erected at a cost of $10,000,000, Salt Lake City has many imposing public edifices and private residences. But the chief object in going to Salt Lake City SALMON FISHING. IO25 is not so much to see a large, refreshing settlement in a desert, as to see a Mormon city — the City of the Saints upon the banks of the Jordan. THE COLUMBIA RIVER. A short distance from the northern bend of the Bear River, which flows into Salt Lake, the Upper Snake River takes a grand sweep toward the west, on its way to join the Columbia, in Washington Terri- tory. In this portion of its violent passage through Southeastern Idaho the river casts itself over several steep precipices, the falls being com- pared to those of the Yosemite and Niagara; the last noteworthy one called the Great Falls, being especially compared to the cataract of the East. Above the falls the river is divided by a number of islands, and descending with great rapidity the volume of water is soon reunited and pitches over a precipice, two hundred feet, into its bed below. The river has cut its channel through a region of volcanic rocks, whose per- pendicular walls stand hundreds of feet above the water, and in places its tributaries, which run down from the mountains, have worn their way beneath the strata of lava rocks and come spouting out of the sides of the canon into the main stream. The Snake River flows north between Idaho and Oregon, being navigable below the falls to the Powder River, which it receives from the Oregon side. For one hundred miles farther, or to the Washington boundary line, the river rushes over stones and through gorges at almost railroad speed. At the little town of Lewiston steamers are found lying at their docks which have ascended from the Columbia River. From the point where the Snake and Columbia join forces the cur- rent is powerful, and, broken by cascades and cataracts, continues its wild career between perpendicular walls of rock. The limit of naviga- tion for small steamers is Cascade City, where the Columbia forces its way through the Cascade range of mountains. Fifty miles below, the ocean steamers lie at the wharves of Vancouver, 115 miles from the mouth of the river, where the noble body of water is a mile from bank to bank. The effect of the ocean tide is seen at the cascades, at Cascade City, but the current of the river is so powerful that water dipped from it at Vancouver is fresh and pure. SALMON FISHING. During the summer and early fall, when the vast shoals of salmon are ascending the streams to spawn, the Columbia River is a scene of great activity — activity both on the part of the fish and the fishermen, 65 1026 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. for a salmon will stem the strong current and surmount a cascade which is fourteen or fifteen feet in height. The females ascend first, the males following. They spawn late in the autumn, most of them returning to the sea before cold weather sets fairly in. Hundreds of fishermen, with rods, lurk for the delicate fish at the foot of the water- falls and rapids, and the violence of the water does not detract from the advantageousness of the locality ; for if the cascade can be leaped the salmon will make any number of attempts to reach higher water. By night the rivers for hundreds of miles are lit up by torches, which guide the boats of the spearing fishermen over the restless waters. This Is perhaps the most exciting of fishing sports, Indians and white men vie- ing with each other in the chase. The fisheries, however — those which produce the bulk of the canned salmon which is sent from the northwestern districts of the United States and from British Columbia-^ are generally conducted at the mouths of rivers, by means of gill nets. What is considered the mouth of the Columbia River is an expansion of its channel into a bay or harbor fully five miles across, and here are the great salmon fisheries of the West, the canning establishments and other evidences of the prosperity of this extensive industry. The chief point for the shipment of salmon is Portland, a beautiful little city on a branch of the Columbia River in Oregon, flowing from the south between the Cascade Mountains and the ocean, Oregon has a few fertile valleys, but her chief features are, in the east, a desert of sand, ashes and lava terraces, and in the west, dense for- ests of pine, fir, cedar, maple and ash, which creep up the steep sides of the mountain chains to the perpetual snow fields at their summits. The climate of Oregon is variable, but that west of the Cascade range is more like that of California. THE GOLDEN STATE. The climate of California is also variable, the two lofty mountain ranofes, which traverse the State northwest and southeast, and the natural differences of temperature occasioned by the degrees of latitude over which California stretches, produce many varieties of climate In the Kla- math Valley, Northern California, there is sometimes sleighing during a month of the year, and some of the mining towns of the Sierra Nevada fight with Colorado drifts. In the interior valleys, such as the Sacramento and Colorado, which are shut away from the ocean breezes by the Coast range, the dry heat sends the mercury as high as 1 20 degrees. Yet, as a rule, the summers of California are cool and the winters warm, and SAN FRANCISCO. 102/ although, even on the coast, the temperature may vary 30 degrees in twenty-four hours, the mean temperature of the winter and the summer months will differ but a little. The nights are always cool, whether they are passed on the coast or away from it. But the climate, which has made California a western heaven to the weary and sick, is that delicious product of ocean, sun, mountain and valley which hovers over the land south of San Francisco. For six or ten months of the year steady winds blow from the ocean, and they are always warm and dry. Roses bloom and trees are green the year through. In the San Joaquin Valley, and along the coast at Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San Diego, and other localities, frost is a fearful dream. The tropics are brought to America without their miasmas, unwholesome vapors, serpents and uncouth beasts. The vineyards of France, the pomegranates of India, the cypress, the orange and the lemon groves stretch down the valleys and up the hill-sides, encircle houses and villages and venture with their wealth of color and fragrance into lawns and gardens. There are fat flocks of sheep in a thousand valleys and crop- ping the tender grass of a thousand hills. Even the autumn winds do not need to be tempered to them. The wheat fields of California are other gold mines, while the splendid, happy, cultured people who find their way to her smallest and her newest towns, make stronger her claim to the title of the Golden State. The riches of the temperate zone flow from the valley of the Sacramento, in Northern California, and the pro- fusion of the tropics swells from the valleys of the Pacific and San Joaquin, in the south. SAN FRANCISCO. The San Joaquin and the Sacramento rivers are supposed to be all that remain of an inland sea whose bed was between the Sierra Nevada and the Coast ranges. Flowing through the State from opposite directions they meet and force their way through the intervening barrier to San Francisco Bay. Sacramento, the state capital, is north of this point of juncture. It is protected from the river, which sometimes rises twenty feet, by a levee. Sacramento is well worthy of such protection, if for no other reason than on account of the state capitol, which with its beautiful grounds covers eighteen acres of land. But the starting point from which to visit the natural wonders of California should be San Francisco, one of the metropolitan prodigies of the country and the age. At the time of the gold fever of 1848 it was a miserable village of 1,000 people, the houses being built upon low sandy hills lying at the foot of steep and lofty elevations, into which run I028 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. deep ravines. In front of the principal settlement was a cove, contain- ing forty feet of water, and extending one-half mile inland. With the gold excitement came the emigration overland and, by sea, from the world over, so that great ships rode at anchor in the cove. But the hills were thrown into the gullies, and the cove and broad, paved streets have taken the place of the ocean's waters. San Francisco stands upon a sandy A SPECIMEN ROOM. and rocky peninsula, at the Golden Gate of the Golden State, a magni- ficent city of 400,000 people ! Like New York she has extended her territory to several islands of the noble bay, having also reached out into the ocean for thirty miles and taken a plat of land into her domain. The lofty hills which overlooked the miserable village of 1848 have their wrinkles and irregularities smoothed away and embrace the populous sections of the city. There is but one road which leads from the penin- sula out of the city. SAN FRANCISCO. 1029 But there are attractions which might keep one upon it for many a day. The Palace Hotel is the largest and handsomest in the world, with superb appointments. Two of its nine stories are below the ground and the foundation walls are twelve feet thick. Its most strik- ing architectural feature is the court, roofed in with glass, guarded around by handsome balconies, accessible from every room of the hotel. The banks, theatres and public buildings are on a par with the CARMEL MISSION. Palace Hotel. Not far from the great business centers of the city are French, Spanish, Mexican, Italian and Chinese quarters. The latter is especially one of San Francisco's drawing cards. In this American city the Chinese theatres and the temples, with Buddhist and Taouist idols, are fac similes of those found in the parent country. Opposite to the Chinese rookeries and gambling and smoking dens are the palaces of the bonanza and the railroad kings, on " Nob Hill," California street. The cable road ascends the elevation and the sig-ht is well worth the ride — this sight of the palaces of the West, some of 1030 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. them among the most costly, without, and the most luxuriously fur- nished in the country. The suburbs of San Francisco recompense one for its unattractive site, the drives along the bay and ocean affording marine views of sur- passing magnificence, in which hundreds of seals snorting and gliding in the sparkling waters or basking on the rocks form a unique feature. In an outer district of the city is the adobe church of the old Catholic Mis- sion, built in 1778. Adjoining it are other buildings nearly as old. OLD CATHOLIC MISSIONS. From the shores of the Gulf of Mexico to those of the Pacific, through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, are strewed remains of Spanish civilization, in which Catholicism held a leading part. Some of the ancient cathedrals, with their heavy walls, square towers, arched bodies and mosque-like domes, present striking character^ istics of Spanish-Moorish architecture. One of the grandest ruins of the Mission buildings are those of San Jose, near San Antonio, Texas, and one of the most picturesque those at Monterey, eighty-five miles south of San Francisco, on the coast. The town, which is decrepit and sta- tionary, was the capital of California previous to the rise of San Francisco, and Carmel Mission was the center of great religious activity. NATURE'S WONDERS. From the petrified forest north of San Francisco — about seventy miles — to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, causes for wonder and admiration spring up at every step ; but as the range throws out its advance guards in the shape of foot-hills, the stupendous curiosities come thick and fast. In the very region of those mammoth oaks whose areas are those of fair- sized houses and whose heights are those of great cathedrals — 30 feet through and 350 feet high — we approach the panorama of the Yosem- ite Valley, which only requires Mount Shasta, standing sentinel at its entrance, to be to the Sierra Nevadas what the Yellowstone Park is to the Rocky Mountains — the essence of their character. The enchanted and enchanting region has been transferred to paper and canvas so many times that the long Bridal Veil, caught by the trees at the base of the cliff, its upper part swaying with every breeze ; the cathedral of granite which needs no bell to call to the worship of its three thousand feet of massive architecture; the granite Spires and Senti- nels ; the Virgin's Tears opposite the Bridal Veil, which fall a thousand feet to the base of an adamant wall ; and beyond them all the Yosem- THROUGH TO THE MISSISSIPPI. IO3I ite Fall which, with two brief rests, makes a plunge of 2,600 feet — all these, and the tints of the sky lying like a shell behind the grayish- white rocks, have made Yosemite Valley not the property of California but of a universe of enthusiasts. It is not only the Valley of the Gods but the Valley of the Angels of Light. Throughout nearly the entire length of the Yosemite one walks as if on a Brussels carpet, but the figures are real flowers and shrubs. They creep to the very feet of the stately pines which fringe the valley ; then come the cliffs towerino- into the fra- grant air and the bright sky, throw- ing and scattering the light from their veined sides, which are often colored and mapped into stupendous geogra- phies by the waters coursing from their summits to their foundations. THROUGH TO THE MIS- SISSIPPI. A straiofht line drawn from Sac- ramento to the Mississippi River would fall about ten miles south of St. Louis, and if the State of California were placed on its banks it would lay from near Vicksburo^ to the northern boundary of Illinois. Commencing the journey eastward from Southern California the most interesting route is through Northern Arizona and New Mexico, traversing the great canon country of the Colorado River and passing through the old Spanish settlements of Albuquerque, San Marcial, Santa Fe, etc., etc. Santa Fe, is, in many respects, the most interesting town in America; it is the oldest, and CATHEDRAL ROCK, docs uot desirc to take on any new ways. Its streets, its houses entered by ladders at the top, its brick and mud churches, its Spanish and Mexican costumes, its plaza shaded with cotton- 1032 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. wood trees and surrounded by mercantile houses and the Gov- ernor's palace mark it as belonging to the middle ages, as irreclaim- ably as any town in old Brittany^ France. The Governor's palace, one story in height, contains the mansion of the chief executive, the legisla- tive hall and the court room. For 300 years it has been the meeting place of governing bodies, being erected in 1582. It is the oldest build- ing in America. In the northern portion of the town are two unfinished stone buildings which would have constituted the Territorial headquar- ters, if Congress had not for thirty years neglected to send on the nec- essary appropriations to complete them. Yet the streets of Santa Fe present signs of animation, for the town is the center of Fupplies for the surrounding country and the freight wagons, oxen and donkeys, or bure ros, generally monopolize the thoroughfares. If one has any desire to taste the bitter and the sweet of life on the plains, from the famous summer resort and springs of Las Vegas, south- east of Santa Fe, he may leave behind the border land of the mountain country and soon touch the northwestern rim of the vast Staked Plain of Texas. The entire western portion of the State is given up to the herd- ing animals — cattle, sheep, horses, buffalo and deer. Savages, also, who have not tasted the delights of reservation life, scour the plains. From Las Vegas to Atchison, the Santa Fe road skims over the northern plains. The journey from Kansas City to St. Louis by way of the Missouri Pacific is along^ the southern bank of the Missouri River. The unsightly clay bluffs which stretch along the Kansas and Nebraska boundaries are left behind for bold, wooded elevations, cultivated and adorned with spacious, modern residences. SAINT LOUIS. The metropolis of the Central Mississippi Valley, and one of the five largest cities in the country, is old and rich, dignified and prosper- ing. It probably ranks third as a manufacturing city and its wholesale trade extends into every town of the western country. St. Louis is largely a German community and its growth and present financial condi- tion show the evidences of solid substance. The bridore which connects it with East St. Louis, across the Mississippi River, is not only an archi- tectural and engineering triumph, but has brought the railroad termini to the western shore. St. Louis' trade is national in its scope. She is a large grain market and first in the manufacture of flour. Not only do live stock and provis- ions pour into her channels of trade, but as a port of delivery in the New o o w ;?