Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/266

 They discard even eggs. They may take milk, but in Natal we were told they could not get it cheap. The sisters are allowed meat four days in the week. Asked why they put up with such an anomaly, the obliging guide said, "Because the sisters are more delicate than the brothers." Neither my companion who is almost a Vegetarian, nor I could see the force or logic of the reasoning. Cetainly both of us were very much grieved to hear the news which was a surprose to us, for we expected the brothers and the sisters to be Vegetarians.

They take no intoxicating liquors except under medical advice. None may keep any money for private use. All are equally rich or poor.

We saw no wardrobes, chests of drawers, or portmanteaus, although we were allowed to see every inch of the place. They may not leave the limits of the settlement, except those who are permitted to do so on business. They may not read newspapers or books that are not religious. They may not read any religious book, but only those that are allowed. It is this hard austere life, that caused our friend with the pipe in his mouth, whom we first met, to remark in reply to a question, whether he was a Trappist - "No fear, I am anything but a Trappist." And yet the good brothers and sisters did not seem to consider their lines to have fallen in hard places.

A Protestant clergyman said to his audience that Roman Catholics were weakly, sickly, and sad. Well, if the Trappists are any criterion of what a Roman Catholic is, they are, on the contrary, healthy and cheerful. Wherever we went, a beaming smile and a lowly bow greeted us, we saw a brother or a sister. Even while the guide was decanting on the system he prized so much, he did not at all seem to consider the self-chosen discipline a hard yoke to bear. A better instance of undying faith and perfect implicit obedience could not well be found anywhere else.

If their repast is the simplest possble, their dining tables and bedrooms are no less so.

The former are made on the settlement of wood, without any varnish. They use no table cloths. The knives and spoons are the cheapest to be had in Durban. Instead of glassware they use enamelled things.

For bedrooms they have a large hall (but none too large for the inmates) which contains about 80 beds. Every available space is untilised for the beds.

In the native quarters they seem to have overdone it in point of beds. As soon as we entered the sleeping hall for natives, we