Roving East and Roving West

E.V. Lucas
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Roving East and Roving West, by E.V. Lucas

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Title: Roving East and Roving West
Author: E.V. Lucas
Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7237] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 30, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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[Illustration: TWO MEN ADMIRING FUJI FROM A WINDOW From Hokusai's "A Hundred Views of Fuji"]

ROVING EAST
AND
ROVING WEST

BY

E. V. LUCAS
TO
E. L. L.
MY HOST AT RAISINA

"Yes, Sir, there are two objects of curiosity, e.g., the Christian world and the Mahometan world."--DR. JOHNSON.
"Motion recollected in tranquillity."--WORDSWORTH (very nearly).

CONTENTS
INDIA
NOISELESS FEET THE SAHIB THE PASSING SHOW INDIA'S BIRDS THE TOWERS OF SILENCE THE GARLANDS DELHI A DAY'S HAWKING NEW, OR IMPERIAL, DELHI THE DIVERS THE ROPE TRICK AGRA AND FATEHPUR-SIKRI LUCKNOW A TIGER THE SACRED CITY CALCUTTA ROSE AYLMER JOB AND JOE EXIT
JAPAN
INTRODUCTORY THE LITTLE LAND THE RICE FIELDS SURFACE MATERIALISM FIRST GLIMPSE OF FUJI TWO FUNERALS THE LITTLE GEISHA MANNERS THE PLAY MYANOSHITA FUJI
AMERICA
DEMOCRACY AT HOME SAN FRANCISCO ROADS GOOD AND BAD UNIVERSITIES, LOVE AND PRONUNCIATION FIRST SIGNS OF PROHIBITION R. L. S. STORIES AND HUMORISTS THE CARS CHICAGO THE MOVIES THE AMERICAN FACE PROHIBITION AGAIN THE BALL GAME SKY SCRAPERS A PLEA FOR THE AQUARIUM ENGLISH AND FRENCH INFLUENCES SKY-SIGNS AND CONEY ISLAND THE PRESS TREASURES OF ART MOUNT VERNON VERS LIBRE DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE BOSTON PHILADELPHIA GENERAL REFLECTIONS
INDEX

INDIA
NOISELESS FEET
Although India is a land of walkers, there is no sound of footfalls. Most of the feet are bare and all are silent: dark strangers overtake one like ghosts.
Both in the cities and the country some one is always walking. There are carts and motorcars, and on the roads about Delhi a curious service of camel omnibuses, but most of the people walk, and they walk ever. In the bazaars they walk in their thousands; on the long, dusty roads, miles from anywhere, there are always a few, approaching or receding.
It is odd that the only occasion on which Indians break from their walk into a run or a trot is when they are bearers at a funeral, or have an unusually heavy head-load, or carry a piano. Why there is so much piano- carrying in Calcutta I cannot say, but the streets (as I feel now) have no commoner spectacle than six or eight merry, half-naked fellows, trotting along, laughing and jesting under their burden, all with an odd, swinging movement of the arms.
One of one's earliest impressions of the Indians is that their hands are inadequate. They suggest no power.
Not only is there always some one walking, but there is always some one resting. They repose at full length wherever the need for sleep takes them; or they sit with pointed knees. Coming from England one is struck by so much inertness; for though the English labourer can be lazy enough he usually rests on his feet, leaning against walls: if he is a land labourer, leaning with his back to the support; if he follows the sea, leaning on his stomach.
It was interesting to pass on from India and its prostrate philosophers with their infinite capacity for taking naps, to Japan, where there seems to be neither time nor space for idlers. Whereas in India one has continually to turn aside in order not to step upon a sleeping figure-- the footpath being a favourite dormitory--in Japan no one is ever doing nothing, and no one appears to be weary or poor.
India, save for a few native politicians and agitators, strikes one as a land destitute of ambition. In the cities there are infrequent signs of progress; in the country none. The peasants support life on as little as they can, they rest as much as possible and their carts and implements are prehistoric. They may believe in
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