"
"And don't they do so now?" asked Hope.
"No, it is abolished by law--British law.
"But they burn their dead yet, don't they?" was Faith's question, as
she listened with sympathetic shivers.
"Yes. Some day, when I get time we will go to the Ganges and see some
of their strange burial ceremonies--that is, if you can stand it,
daughter."
"Oh yes, but I do think there are some dreadful things in this world,
papa!"
"True, darling, and there would have been more dreadful, if the blessed
Son of God had not come to teach us better ways. Man, left to himself,
is always a savage. God and good women, both, have helped him to be
better."
He spoke reverently, touching the visor of his cap involuntarily. When
he thought of good women, memory always recalled the wife he had loved,
and his soul blessed her memory.
They had now left the new town far behind them, and were slowly passing
between expressionless house walls, with soiled awnings stretched above
the lane-like street. The whole population seemed to live out of
doors, and the cooking, hammering, tailoring, baby-tending, and
lounging, was all done at so close range that the horses could scarcely
keep from stepping on the merchants, and the carriage was in danger of
making a wreck of his stock of goods. The houses, which seemed only to
serve as backgrounds to all this teeming life, were of all colors--red,
green, orange, and blue--and between the queer, many-shaped roof-tops
waved the feathery crowns of date trees, the glossy foliage of the fig,
and the stately fronds of the palm--but these were of scanter growth
just here, though what there were, swarmed with kites, crows,
parakeets, and even squirrels, while dogs "by the million," as Hope
remarked, and cattle, and monkeys, and goats, were on every spot where
babies and larger children had left an inch of room.
Pages:
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215