Roving East and Roving West

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

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Title: Roving East and Roving West
Author: E.V. Lucas

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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,