Part 5

Few countries are naturally so difficult of access as Tibet. It is a lofty plateau. To reach it from any side frightful mountains must be passed. Not only is the country itself difficult to reach, but the Tibetans do not like strangers. They do everything in their power to keep white men out of the country. Few travellers of our race have ever been to the heart of Tibet. Recently the American traveller, W. W. Rockhill, has visited that country and written interestingly of it, and later Walter Savage Landor claims to have had exciting adventures there. But the journey that is best known and has been most talked of was made more than fifty years ago by two French missionaries named Huc and Gabet.

Starting from China these gentlemen traversed Mongolia and Tatary and penetrated to the sacred Tibetan city of Lhassa. They returned to China over a different route. It was a fearful journey. The road led along the side of vast cliffs, over raging torrents where the bridges were composed of chains hung from bank to bank with boards laid crosswise of them, through snowdrifts, and over sheets of glacier ice.

The people of Tibet vary in stature, color, hair, and other characters, but all are Mongolic and all speak Tibetan. Some of the tribes are nomads—either herders or pillagers; others are settled and live by agriculture, notwithstanding the climate. In Lhassa itself they are tradespeople and traders. They are good weavers and make excellent woollen stuffs. They are skilled goldsmiths, and their fine wares go to decorate the temples and monasteries. They make the finest incense in the world.

The most important thing in Tibet is religion. Their religion, which is called Lamaism, is a sort of Buddhism peculiar to Tibet. Tibet might be called a _theocracy_, or a land where a god rules. For the ruler of Tibet, called the _Dalai-lama_, is considered no common man, but a real god on earth. Many centuries ago, in India, there lived a man named Gautama or Sakyi-muni. He was wise and good, and the new religion which he taught was a great improvement upon the Brahmanism of India. On account of his wisdom and goodness, he was called Buddha, but he never claimed to be himself a god. Since his death, however, many millions of people in many lands have worshipped him as a god.

All Buddhists believe that there may be many Buddhas—that Gautama was one Buddha, and that there were others before him and will be others hereafter. In Tibet, however, they think that there are always Buddhas on earth, and that when one Buddha dies his spirit at once enters the body of some little babe, who becomes a Buddha in his place. The Dalai-lama is the greatest of living Buddhas. There are many others in different parts of Tibet and Tatary, all of whom are worshipped as gods. The Dalai-lama lives in Lhassa, the sacred city, in a beautiful palace, and has many priests to serve him. He is the all-powerful being in the land.

But he does not trouble himself about governing his people. He appoints a _nomekhan_ to rule for him. The nomekhan has four _kalons_ who are appointed to assist him. These four appoint all the other officers, most of whom are lamas or priests. Really the lamas control everything in Tibet. Generally they live together in great buildings called lamaseries. These are to be seen everywhere in the land, and are often perched upon the summits of lofty mountains, from which they overlook the country for miles around. Some lamaseries contain but a few priests, others contain many thousands. The lamas are at once known from the people by their dress.

The lamas receive support from the common people, and when it is not brought to them, they go to gather it. Huc met two lamas on horseback gathering gifts of butter from the shepherds. “Their course is this: they present themselves at the entrance of each tent and thrice sound a marine conch.[1] Thereupon some member of the family brings out a small roll of butter, which, without saying a word, he deposits in a bag suspended from the saddle of each lama’s horse. The lamas never once alight, but content themselves with riding up to each tent, and announcing their presence to the inmates by the sound of the shell.”

Footnote 1:

A shell used as a trumpet.

When a Dalai-lama dies, search is made for the new one. Prayers are said in all the lamaseries, processions are made, incense is burned. Even the common people everywhere pray. There are certain signs by which a baby shows that the spirit of a lama has entered him. All parents who think their baby the one send word to Lhassa and bring their babies there. All are carefully examined, and the three who best show the signs of being Buddha are taken. After fasting for six days, the priests who decide the matter take a golden urn containing three little fish of gold, upon each of which is engraved the name of one of the three babies. The urn is shaken and one of the fish is drawn. The baby whose name is engraved on it becomes the Dalai-lama. To the unlucky babies before they are sent home a present of five hundred ounces of silver is given.

Every day near sunset in Lhassa, all the men, women, and children stop whatever they may be doing and gather in the public squares of the city. There, grouped by sex and age, they kneel and chant their evening prayer. This prayer would seem to us curious, for it asks for nothing. The commonest prayer is—_om mani padme hum_, which means “the jewel in the lotus.” By the jewel they mean divine power. The lotus is a water-lily. The prayer is about the same thing as calling on the name of God. This prayer they repeat over and over again.

To write this prayer where it will be seen is a good act. One may see it everywhere. It is printed on the flags that fly above the buildings. Pious rich men pay lamas to go through the country and chisel these sacred words on rocks and cliffs.

Tibet is the land of prayer wheels. Prayer wheels contain the prayer written many times: every time the wheel is turned, so many prayers are supposed to have been said. Prayer wheels are of all sizes. The commonest stand near lamaseries, and are set to turning with the hand. Some lazy lamas, however, find it too much work to turn the wheels themselves and so arrange them that they are turned by wind or water.

On the twenty-fifth of each month pious lamas “send horses to weary travellers.” On the roads there are many hardships, and travellers often become weary and perish. To help them the lamas send them horses, and the way they do it is this. Going to some lofty summit where the wind blows heavily, they throw strips of paper bearing pictures of horses into the air, and the wind carries them away. The lamas believe that by this sacrifice of paper horses they supply real ones to the needy travellers.

XVI. JAPANESE.

It is a great mistake to think of the Chinese and Japanese as much alike; they are really vastly different. The Japanese is smaller, more delicately built, quicker, and more lively than the Chinese; he delights in novelties and borrows them from everywhere and from everybody. The Chinese language consists chiefly of words of one syllable; the Japanese have many long words of many syllables. While unlike in body, disposition, and language, the Chinese and Japanese are alike in many customs, arts, and ideas. For long centuries the Japanese borrowed much from China, or from Corea, which had learned from China. The Japanese owe their writing, the cultivation of tea, silk raising and weaving, lacquer work, porcelain, metal working, and many religious ideas to China. But lately, in their hurry to borrow all sorts of things from the European and American whites, they have become ashamed of many of their Chinese ideas and customs.

On the seventh day of a Japanese baby’s life, the little head is shaved clean except for a tuft on the nape of the neck. From that time on, the head is shaved until the boy goes to school, but tufts are left here and there, according to the fancy of the mother. After a boy begins school, his hair is left to grow. Japanese children have many sports and games, but they are quiet and gentle in them all. The older children carry their baby brothers and sisters strapped firmly on their backs. There are many interesting things for Japanese children to see on the streets. There is the sand painter; he sweeps a space clean and then opens several bags of different colored sand; he sprinkles handfuls of it here and there on the ground until he has made a pretty picture. There is the man who moulds and blows rice paste into all sorts of queer shapes, while the little buyers look on with delight; his sweet stuff is shaped into rabbits, foxes, monkeys, flowers, jinrikishas, fans, umbrellas, etc. There is the man who sells sugared peas, candied beans, and other sweets; he beats a drum and sings a song as he walks, so as to attract a crowd of children, and when he stops he tells a story, or does some trick, to amuse them. Then there is the little old woman of the batter cakes; she carries a little earthenware stove with a fire of charcoal in it; this she hangs at one end of a pole balanced upon her shoulder, and at the other end hang a griddle, ladles, cake turners, a jar of batter, and a sauce of salt and beans to eat with the cakes; the children pay five cents, and the old lady sets everything down, whereupon the children have great fun making their own cakes and eating them on the street.

Japanese children are ever gay and happy, but there are two days in the year of especial joy. The third day of the third month is _the Dolls’ Festival_. This is the day for the little girls. At that time dolls and all sorts of toy tools, implements, vessels, and dishes are for sale. The Japanese are fond of dolls, and in some families they have dolls that have been kept more than two hundred years. In some families they will have dozens or scores of dolls. Among these there is always one that represents the Emperor, another the Empress, and others the courtiers. At the time of the festival all these dolls are carefully arranged on a stepped platform. The Emperor and Empress are given the seats of honor, and the rest are grouped around them. With these are arranged all the toy objects. The fifth day of the fifth month is the Boys’ Festival. Then they are selling bows and arrows and other toy weapons everywhere. Everywhere they hang out great paper fishes, shaped like carp, and brightly painted. These are hung to tall bamboo poles of which there is one set in front of every house where they have a boy in the family. One fish is hung for each boy, and it is a gay sight to see the hundreds of bright fish waving and tossing in the wind. The reason why the carp is represented is because it swims _up_ the river against the current; so it is hoped “the sturdy boy, overcoming all obstacles, will make his way in the world and rise to fame and fortune.”

Japanese houses consist of a light framework supporting a heavy thatched or tiled roof. The sides of the house are wooden slides, which are usually removed in the daytime, leaving the sides open. In cold weather, slides consisting of frames covered with paper can be fitted in to form walls. The house is divided into rooms by sliding screens of paper, which can be easily removed so as to join two, three, or more rooms into one. There are no tables or chairs. The floors are covered with thick mats. At night quilts are brought in and laid down for beds; in the morning these are rolled up and stored away.

Japanese gardens are curious and beautiful. They may be small, and frequently they contain no flowers. Sometimes a pretty landscape is built of rocks and water: there are little mountains and hills, valleys, streams, waterfalls, lakes. Wonderful in such gardens are the dwarfed trees. They may be pine trees, fifty or one hundred years old, flourishing and perfect in form, but not more than a foot in height.

While Japanese gardens frequently contain none, the people are wonderfully fond of flowers. Among the favorites are the chrysanthemum, plum blossoms, and cherry blossoms. When these are in bloom every one goes to the places where they grow and delight in their beauty. These flower picnics are looked forward to for months. The cherry and plum trees are covered: “You see no leaves—only one great filmy mass of petals. Japanese chrysanthemums are wonderful; there are many strange or beautiful varieties. At one place in Tokyo, these flowers are wrought into all sorts of curious compositions—men and gods, boats, bridges, castles, etc.”

The Japanese love to hear stories. There are fairy stories for the little people and tales of adventure and history for the larger ones. There are men whose business is story telling. Some of these wander about until they find a good spot, when they will stop and begin the tale; a crowd soon gathers to listen. Others are hired to tell their stories in a story-telling house, where people gather every evening, just as at the theatre.

We have said so much about amusements and festivals that you may think the Japanese are always playing. No indeed, they are hard workers. They cultivate their fields industriously; they have many trades; they are great traders; they are fine artists. Their silk weaving, their metal work, their lacquer work, and their porcelains are famous.

In these last years Japan has made great changes. She has borrowed so much from the whites that they have little left to teach her. To-day she has all our great inventions—telegraphs and telephones, electric lights and railroads; and in borrowing so much that is new she has lost and is losing much—very much—of the happy old life.

XVII. AINU.

Before the Japanese entered what is now Japan that country was occupied by the Ainu, among the most interesting people of the world. There are not many of them. In Yezo, the northern island of Japan, there are about seventeen thousand, and in the island of Saghalien, formerly Japanese, but now Russian, there are others. They are not like the Japanese, but are considered whites, not Mongolians. The men measure about five feet four inches; the women not more than five feet two inches. Their color is flesh, with a tinge of red or yellow; their eyes are large and do not appear to slant like those of the yellow peoples; their hair is abundant and tangled and they have much beard. Their body is very hairy. They are filthy and rarely wash themselves.

The women tattoo, beginning in girlhood. The patterns are cut in the flesh with a razor and soot is rubbed into the lines; to render the color permanent, water in which ash-tree bark has been steeped is rubbed over the part tattooed. The tattooing first done is at the centre of the upper lip; later the lower lip. The marks are added to from time to time until they cover the upper lip and reach from ear to ear. Such women appear to have a great moustache. After marriage a woman’s forehead may be tattooed, also patterns may be made up the backs of the hands and on the arms, and rings may be tattooed around her fingers.

Ainu clothing is generally made of elm bark, and that worn by men and women is much alike. The bark is stripped from the tree in spring, when it is full of sap. It is soaked in water to separate the inner and outer bark. Fibres are secured from the inner bark, which can be woven like thread into cloth. The men’s garments of this fibre cloth are adorned with patterns embroidered with colored threads; those of women are generally plain.

The Ainu house is rectangular, with a rather frail support and a substantial thatched roof. The roof is built first; then the chief posts of the walls are set and the roof is lifted up and put on them. Ainu houses grow as the family grows. A young married couple build a small house; as they have children a new and larger house is built behind the old one, which remains as a sort of hall; when the family is still larger and richer, the hall is torn down and a larger house is built behind the second one, which now becomes a hall or porch to it. There are two windows and one door in these houses. The windows are on the south and east sides, while the door is at the west end. The east end of the house and its window are sacred; people must not throw things through this window nor spit out of it. Sometimes the men worship the rising sun as they see it through this east window.

The Ainu are hunters and have ingenious ways of capturing or killing animals. In hunting deer they use a little squeaking whistle, the sound of which attracts the animals. They set bows, with arrows on the stretched cord, near trails over which deer and bears pass; in passing, the animal strikes a cord which lets loose a trigger, and the arrow flies. They also set a trap consisting of a stout bow, which, when sprung, shuts two boards tightly together; the foot of the animal is caught between these and held fast. Formerly the Ainu used poisoned arrows in hunting. These had a broad, hollowed point, in which a little of the poisonous paste was stuck. The poison was made from the root of aconite mixed with tobacco, peppers, and poisoned spiders. These, and other substances, were carefully mixed into a gummy paste. At present the Japanese government forbids the Yezo Ainu to use these poisoned arrows.

The bear hunt is looked forward to with anxiety. It is in the spring while snow is yet on the ground. Before starting the hunters pray to their gods for help and direction. Dogs accompany them. When a den is found, there is great excitement. They try to draw the animal out by teasing him with long poles. If he will not come out, one of the men draws his knife, enters the den, and faces the bear. The animal pushes him aside, when the hunter pricks him from behind with his knife. The angry animal then rushes forth, growling and snarling. The hunters and dogs waiting outside soon despatch him, though frequently some one is hurt or killed. The hunters then sit down near the dead bear and say all kinds of pretty things to him, pretending that they are sorry to have killed him, and asking his forgiveness. They then skin him, cut up the meat, carry it home, and have a feast.

At Ainu feasts the men always become dreadfully drunk from drinking rice wine. When he drinks, the Ainu uses a little stick to lift his moustache and keep it from the wine. These moustache lifters are made for the purpose and are frequently neatly carved.

Sometimes Ainu hunters secure a little bear cub, which they carry carefully home. It is fed with the best of food, and treated as a great pet. When it is so big as to be rough and troublesome, they put it in a cage. When it is quite grown, a bear feast is planned. Many guests are invited. The men eat millet-cakes and drink rice wine. After feasting for some time two men noose the bear with ropes and drag him around; the whole company then worry and tease the poor creature, finally choking him, after which they eat him.

The Ainu have many gods. In praying to them they use _inao_. These are little sticks which are so whittled with knives that curls of shavings hang from them. There are several ways of cutting these, and they are believed to please the gods. They are stuck up in the ground and left where prayers are made. Ainu men spend much time whittling these inao.

XVIII. HINDUS.

The Hindus are but one of the many peoples living in India. They are considered a Caucasic, white people, though their skin is a dark brown and they have black hair and eyes. Their language belongs to the Aryan family, to which most European languages belong.

The dress of the Hindus is too well known to need description. Hindu women are fond of jewelry, and wear rings, arm-rings, ankle rings, earrings, and nose rings of many kinds and made of gold, silver, or brass. The Hindus bear marks stamped upon themselves. Thus a round spot in the middle of the forehead, horizontal lines across the forehead, or perpendicular lines from the root of the nose to the top of the forehead, show to which of the great religious sects the man belongs. These marks are made fresh every morning.

The Hindus are divided into four _castes_, or classes. These are named Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras. There is a yet lower population called Pariahs. The Brahmans are the highest; they are priests or religious men; everybody must yield to them. The Kshatriyas come second, and are soldiers or warriors. The Vaisyas are the traders, or merchant class. The Sudras are the lowest, and are the people who have trades, or are laborers. The Hindus say that these different classes of men came from the body of Brahma, their great god; that the Brahmans came from his mouth; the Kshatriyas from his arm; the Vaisyas from his thigh; and the Sudras from his feet. As for the poor Pariahs, they do not seem to have come from Brahma, and no one has anything to do with them. Each of these castes was so much higher than the next one that they might not even be touched by them without being defiled and needing to be purified. People of different castes might not drink from the same vessel or eat from the same dish. One writer says: “I saw a high-caste Hindu dash an earthen jar of milk upon the ground and break it to atoms, merely because the shadow of a Pariah had fallen upon it as he passed.” Under English government many of these notions in India are passing away. The Pariah’s lot, however, is perhaps as hard as ever.

Many trades are practised in India, some of them most skilfully. Whatever trade a man follows will be that of his son after him, as it was that of his father before him. Hindus are fine weavers, and some of their muslins are delicate and costly. They are glass-makers, potters, carpenters, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, brass founders, shell workers, shoemakers, barbers. These trades are carried on in the open streets; the men carry tools with them, and when they secure an order they set up their outfit and fall to work. Among pretty things sold in India are figures in clay representing all sorts of tradesmen at work.

Hindus tame and train elephants as beasts of burden. The native princes, in particular, use them. A palanquin in which the prince sits is mounted on the elephant’s back. These royal elephants are gorgeously decked out, and the palanquin is brilliant with metals and precious stones. Elephants are also employed in caravans and in the exciting tiger hunts.