Page:ER Scidmore--Winter India.djvu/93

Rh in sonorous passages descriptive of his country and his people. Even the untutored blacks of the crew crept close to hear the foreign language roll from his tongue in such unctuous streams. He told of the temple jewels we had not seen; of the stores of the finest old Indian jewels which the Nautch girls everywhere own, since the women of the great families are continually robbed by degenerate sons, who have learned only more forms of vice and extravagance with Western education. Then of the Brahmans and their "hereditary heirness" he said with a sneer: "Those Brahman priests say they are the gods visible in the world. Once they may have taught truths, but now they only humbug the poor people." Buddhism as it flourishes in Ceylon? "More humbug," he averred.

The palm-trees grew darker than violet against the rosy west, until they were black skeletons against a steely blue, star-spangled firmament, where Jupiter shone like a small moon and Orion's three great belt-jewels streamed golden tracks across the lagoon. We could hear the boom of the Coromandel surf; dark palm groves stopped the gentle sea breeze; the sail, spread to catch any breath, dragged and flapped against the mast, then filled with the soft sea air when the star-dotted horizon was visible again, and drew canal-boat No. 1350 along through the enchanted night.

In the middle of the darkness came the clatter of the falling sail and an angry colloquy by the bank-side, David and Daniel together venting their strongest language at invisible retorters.