leave
this body for another."

These were the words of a man who was educated to a certain extent, and
very well read. When we pointed out that no gift of Nature is aimless,
and that the human teeth are all devouring, he answered by quoting whole
chapters of Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection and Origin of Species.
"It is not true," argued he, "that the first men were born with
canine teeth. It was only in course of time, with the degradation of
humanity,--only when the appetite for flesh food began to develop--that
the jaws changed their first shape under the influence of new
necessities."

I could not help asking myself, "Ou la science va-t'elle se fourrer?"

The same evening, in Elphinstone's Theatre, there was given a special
performance in honour of "the American Mission," as we are styled here.
Native actors represented in Gujerati the ancient fairy drama Sita-Rama,
that has been adapted from the Ramayana, the celebrated epic by Vilmiki.
This drama is composed of fourteen acts and no end of tableaux, in
addition to transformation scenes. All the female parts, as usual, were
acted by young boys, and the actors, accord-ing to the historical and
national customs, were bare-footed and half-naked. Still, the richness
of the costumes, the stage adornments and transformations, were truly
wonderful. For instance, even on the stages of large metropolitan
theatres, it would have been difficult to give a better representation
of the army of Rama's allies, who are nothing more than troops of
monkeys under the leadership of Hanuman--the soldier, statesman,
dramatist, poet, god, who is so celebrated in history (that of India
s.v.p.). The oldest and best of all Sanskrit dramas, Hanuman-Natak, is
ascribed to this talented forefather of ours.

Alas! gone is the glorious time when, proud of our white skin (which
after all may be nothing more than the result of a fading, under the
influences of our northern sky), we looked down upon Hindus and
other "niggers" with a feeling of contempt well suited to our own
magnificence. No doubt Sir William Jones's soft heart ached, when
translating from the Sanskrit such humiliating sentences as the
following: "Hanuman is said to be the forefather of the Europeans."
Rama, being a hero and a demi-god, was well entitled to unite all
the bachelors of his useful monkey army to the daughters of the Lanka
(Ceylon) giants, the Rakshasas, and to present these Dravidian beauties
with the dowry