BED CE'S SCENES AND SIGHTS IN THE EAST. *
Tins volume is the result of a sojourn by Mr. Bruce in the Presi- dency of Madras, and a return passage by the overland route. It wants the continuous narrative and consequently the seeming pur- pose or story of a book of travels ; incidents, "sights," or trips, are presented in separate chapters, so that the reader has a series of independent sketches rather than the connexion of a regular jour- ney. The plan, on the other hand, enables the author to drop the commonplaces and insignificant personal details of travel, as well as those descriptions of scenery that so encumber books of travels in general.
Egypt, its peculiarities and its antiquities, are noted with some fulness. The greater part of the book is devoted to the natives of India, either directly, or in their relation to Europeans. The re- ' ions festivals of India, the practices of self-immolation and self-torture, to which their religion leads the Indians, and the general state of morals, feeling, and conduct, which Hinduism in- duces, are described and discussed. The native and Portuguese Christians, together with the missionaries and " serious" Anglo- Indians, are handled, the last two not very tenderly. A Maho- metan observance or two is briefly noticed ; antiquities and art are shortly touched upon ; and a few subjects of natural history are mentioned, but chiefly in reference to some superstition.
The observations of Mr. Bruce have rendered him favourable not only to the character of the Indians, but to the influence of their religion. He denies the indecency that is charged upon their religious festivals or dancing festivities, and speaks highly of their social and domestic virtues. His character of the Anglo- Indians, especially of those professing religion, is the very re- verse ; he paints them as harsh, and indeed cruel, in their treat- ment of the natives, while professing the utmost concern for their souls. We suspect the author to have that strong onesided or partisan disposition which renders him an unsafe ,judge. He de- fends too much. The policy, or the public faith, if there has been any stipulation against preventing the self-burning of widows, may be a fair topic of discussion, but the practice itself does not admit of defence, or of some ceremonies connected with idolatry that Mr. Bruce admires.
The question of nervous sensation—the faculty of bearing pain, or more properly of some constitutions not feeling pain so much as others—is a curious and difficult subject. Some physiological writers hold that civilization renders the nerves more sensitive : that what would be the most exquisite torture to a civilized man, is not much to a savage. Mr. Parkyns,1- during his travels in Abyssinia, bears testimony to the effect which abstinence, exer- cise, and the open air, have on the curing of wounds. Lieutenant Burton gives an instance to the same effect in the case of Lieu- tenant Speke, wounded in eleven places in the night-attack at Berberah.t The endurance of 'the Red Indians under torture is known to every one ; it is said that they bear with little inconvenience surgical operations that are dangerous to Eu- ropeans. In point of civilization the Hindus are ancient enough ; their appearance is delicate and sensitive ; yet the volun- tary tortures they undergo are well known. Mr. Bruce, with many other persons, seems to resolve the endurance into re- ligious feeling ; which we should doubt, save in the case of ob- vious fanatics. It is a sounder opinion that asceticism, open air, and constant exposure to weather, may so indurate the system that the saint suffers less in martyrdom than the sinner would. Mr. Bruce seems to have had a taste for these physical exhibi- tions, and to have never missed one of the most severe. He does not throw any new physiological light upon the subject. His remark upon the old appearance of the apertures through which the hooks passed raises a question whether the devotee is not a species of acrobat brought up to the business of martyrdom.
" The most curious the most apparently cruel, and the most common re- ligious martyrdom in India, is that which is called the churruk pujah. The idea of torture is always more horrible than that of death in any form. The word pujah,' as any one resident in India knows, signifies worship,' and churruk pujah,' I believe, means the wheel worship.' This exhibition has also been called by some English travellers, the festival of hooks.' The worship is confined to the followers of Siva the destroyer, and is cele- brated in honour of the bloody Kali. Its institution is by some authorities traced to the Rajah Vann, the son of the great Bali celebrated in Indian le- gend. I have repeatedly seen this singular spectacle, which is one of the most ordinary religious exhibitions in India. My servant would give me intimation of one in the neighbourhood, and with the greatest joy in his face, being a worshiper of Siva, invite me, nothing loath,' to be a specta- tor. I have never seen this spectacle produce any other effect on the thou- sands of men, women, and children witnessing it, than wonder, delight, andjoy—just the effect that a circus performance produces on young people in England. I have a sickly sense of suffering at seeing pain inflicted on man or beast; but in the case of this self-martyrdom, in which the martyr
Scenes and Sights in the East. By James Bruce, Author of " Classic and is- tork .Portraits," 4.c. Published by Smith and Elder.
+ Spectator for 1853; Supplement to December 17.
Spectator, 2d August 1853 ; Supplement.
appeared to feel quite comfortable himself, I could never help catching the infection of the prevailing gladness around me, and I never missed attend- ance on one of these exhibitions when I had time to spare and the perform- ance was within a reasonable distance.
"Sunday, July 28.—This evening I drove to a great festival at Roy.a- puram. I saw two men, one after the other, elevated in the air. The saint has two large iron hooks fastened into the fleshy parts of his back imme- diately below his shoulder-blades. A rope attached to the hooks connects them with the point of a very long polo formed of two palm-treesjoined to- gether. In the centre of a large platform, elevated a considerable height from the ground, there is a high wooden post erected. On the top of this the long pole is placed with a pivot, so that as the lower end is depressed, and by means of a rope attached to it is moved round by the persons on the platform, the saint is elevated to a fearful height in the air, and made to describe a wide circle in his gyrations. Each of the two men on this occa- sion was suspended and moved at this apparently painful sublimity forimbout twenty minutes. From his exalted eminence the martyr threw down flowers and limes which he had in his girdle to the crowd around. These the mul- titude, but especially the women, eagerly caught in their hands or in um- brellas inverted to receive them, all the while screaming and shouting with
delight and bursting with laughter. • •
" As I was the only person in the crowd present on this occasion in any- thing like an European garb, or having the least external appearance of being a Christian, the first martyr, after being lowered down, came up to me with a pretty child in his arms. He appeared to be noways exhausted, or in the least excited, but had about him all the cheerfulness becoming a religious hero, who had fought a good fight and secured a rich heavenly reward. The iron hooks were hanging in his back. The large holes through which they were passed were not raw-looking, but appeared to be of some standing, and not lacerations made for the occasion. * * • • My astonishment in regard to this exhibition is not at all that religious enthusiasm enables the votary to go through the feat, but that the flesh does not give way from the weight of the body. During the time that I was in India I read in a Calcutta paper that this fearful accident had actually befallen a man there. As a matter of course he was dashed to pieces. Excepting in this case, I have never heard of the calamity, which appears to me to be so natural, taking place. It may be worth mentioning, in connexion with the fact that the accident is not even dreaded, that all the devotees whom I have seen suspended in the air were slender light-made persons."
The ill behaviour of Britons abroad is a common topic of re- mark with travellers, as well as with persons who have not tra- velled. That some ill-conditioned individuals, freed from the restraint of their own public opinion, should run riot, is to be expected. The relaxation of a stiff uniformity in dress has among us certainly passed from the simple to the mitre ; though it has often been charged as a sort of crime against Englishmen, that unless people were well-dressed and according to their standard of pro- priety, they were always looked down upon. Some remarks on this topic of national ill-behaviour are so far exaggerated that ex- ceptions are put for rules. Sufficient consideration is not allowed for difference of manners, and the absurdity that would follow if a a man suddenly attempted to change those of his country. Foreign- ers in this way are as conspicuous if not as offensive as English- men : in coffeehouses and similar places of public resort, if the quiet of the company is disturbed, it will be done by foreigners nine times out of ten. In what we think theatrical display, they will invariably be the actors. Mr. Bruce adopts the general opinion in his account of the English at Alexandria; though, except in a story at Malta, his instances do not affect anything substantial, being confined to manners, and one charge against the country going no further than refusal to taste a dish.
" In the course of my stay in Alexandria, there was one thing that much surprised and disappointed me. I had confidently expected that the foreign influence which I should find predominating in that important quarter would be English influence. I thought that the country to which the Mus- sulmans of Egypt would look as the representative of European intellect and the European spirit of improvement would be England. With these feelings I was much disappointed, even with some comparatively insignifi- cant circumstances.
" It struck me painfully to find, that on seeing that I was an European the Egyptian Mussulman always addressed me first in French, and often was unable to do so at all in English. In fact, the tastes and habits of the Ma- hometan population, as far as they are in the course of being changed by foreign influences, are Frenchified and not Anglicized. Where there is an admiration it is of France and the greatness of France, not of England and the greatness of England. That this should be so is a great pity ; but there need be no hesitation in at once admitting that the blame is our own, and that the evil is like to go on increasing. In spite of the positive as- surance of Philosopher Mill that we are the most civilized people now ex- isting or that ever existed, it is impossible to impress this belief upon those Easterns who are brought closely into connexion with us, and see us taking every opportunity of outragino.° the feelings of all men of other countries, other faiths, and other fashions than our own ; ar- rogantly i and ignorantly assuming that all customs and practices pre- vailing n England are right, and that all customs and fashions prevailing in other countries are wrong. It has already been noticed by these quiet observers, that the vulgar slang, That's not the way we do m England,' is quite a sufficient argument with an Englishman to resist any improve- ment which he might adopt with advantage from his neighbours. But, above all, the personal rudeness which the Englishman imagines is a proof of the honest manliness of character which he attributes to himself, creates a deep though quiet repulsion to English influence. I must again refer to what may be considered trifles, as illustrative of the English character as it is ostentatiously presented before polite nations. A very intelligent Mus- sulman, who had visited England and France for the purpose of observing men and manners in these lands, gave me a detailed and minute account of his experience in the hotels and other places which he had frequented in both countries ; and, like all other travellers whom I have met with, was obliged to contrast the usage which he received in England most unfavour- ably. with what he received under the same circumstances in France. In Paris he had occasionally, as a variety to the fare of the tables at which he sat, introduced some dishes of his own country's cookery, and had always found that they were readily partaken of, or at least tasted. In London he had a pillau prepared under his own direction, and brought to the table of the house at which he was in the habit of dining ; but, though it was extremely improbable that an English table d'hdte exhibited anything more delicious than a really Eastern pillan, not one Englishman would condescend to taste it, or even to express his regret at declining an intended compliment."
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