From Adam's peak to Elephanta: sketches in Ceylon and India

Front matter

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Preface

If asked to write a book about his own country and people a man might well give up the task as hopeless — yet to do the same about a distant land in which he has only spent a few months is a thing which the average traveler quite cheerfully undertakes. I suppose this may be looked upon as another illustration of the great fact that the less one knows of a matter the easier it is to write or talk about it. But there is, it is sometimes said, a certain merit of their own in first impressions ; and I trust that this may appear in the present case. Certainly though there are many things that are missed in a first glance there are some things that stand out clearer then than later.

In the following pages I have tried to keep as far as possible to the relation of things actually seen and heard, and not to be betrayed into doubtful generalisations. It is so easy in the case of a land like India, which is as large as Europe (without Russia) and at least as multifarious in its peoples, languages, creeds, customs, and manners, to make the serious mistake of supposing that what is true of one locality necessarily applies to the whole vast demesne, that I must specially warn the reader not only against falling into this error himself, but against the possibility of my having fallen into it in places.

As far as actual experience of life in Ceylon and India is concerned I have perhaps been fortunate ; not only in being introduced (through the kindness of local friends) into circles of traditional teaching which are often closed against the English, and in so getting to know something

V

VI PREFACE

of the esoteric religious lore of South India; but also in obtaining some interesting glimpses behind the scenes of the Hindu ceremonial. I have too had the good luck to find friends and familiar acquaintances among all classes of native society, down almost to the lowest ; and I must say that the sectional view I have thus obtained of the mass-people in this part of the world has made me feel with renewed assurance the essential oneness of humanity everywhere, notwithstanding the very marked local and superficial differences that undoubtedly exist.

The spectacle of the social changes now taking place in India is one that is full of interest to any one who has studied and taken part in the Socialistic movement at home ; and the interest of it is likely to increase. For though the movement in India is not the same as that at home, it forms a curious counterpart to the latter ; and being backed by economic changes which will probably persist for years to come is not likely to die out very soon.

For the rest the book must rely on the description of scenes of nature and of ordinary human life, whose unexpected vividness forced me to portray them — though to begin with I had no intention of doing so. The illustrations are many of them taken from the excellent photographs of Messrs. Scowen of Colombo, Messrs. Bourn of Bombay, and Messrs. Frith of Reigate.

Contents

CEYLON,

CHAPTER I. Colombo

The Suez Canal— Port Said— Gulf of Suez— The Red Sea- Colombo — Its streets and population — Picturesque glimpses — Tommy Atkins in a jinrickshaw — The Tamils and the Cinghalese — Costume and Character — Language and Literature — The British and the Eurasians — Social arrangements and amenities — " Spicy gales " — The coco-nut palm — A catamaran .

CHAPTER IL

Kandy and Peasant Life.

Primitive habits of the Cinghalese — "Ajax" arrives from England — A peasant-cabin near Kandy — Marriagecustoms— Devil-dancing — Kalua and Kirrah — Their rice-fields and mode of life — The great Buddhist temple at Kandy — The tooth-relic — Ancient MSS. — A Librarian-priest — The talipot palm — The British and the natives — The "oyster" — Nuwara Ellia . 26-39

Chapter III. Kurunegala

Cinghalese views on Politics — Kornegalle — The Elephant-rock — The general landscape in Ceylon — Tanks and

VIU CONTENTS irrigatioti — The Paddy tax — Modern Commercial policy — Poverty of the people — The village bath — Decorum and passivity in manners — The bazaar and the shops — My friend the opium-seller — The policeman — The gaol and the prisoners — A Tamil official and his mode of life— The Bungalow — Mosquitos — Vegetable curries — The Hindu priest in the household — Native servants, their relation to British masters — The pariahs, and our slum-dwellers . . . 40-59

CHAPTER IV. Adam's Peak and the Black River

Ascent of Adam's Peak — A night on the summit — The unclad natives endure the cold — Advantage of sun-baths — A society for the encouragement of nudity — Moonlight view from the summit of the Peak — History of the mountain — Sunrise — The shadow on the mist, and other phenomena — Adam's foot-print — The pavilion on the summit, and the priests — Caliban doing poojah — Descent by the pilgrim-track — The great woods — Fauna and Flora^Ratnapura, the city of jewels — Boat-voyage down the Kaluganga to Kalutara — Descent of rapids — Kalua enjoys the voyage — A teaplanter at home — Wage-slavery on the tea-plantations — The tea-factory — Letters from " Ajax " about the coolies 60-85

CHAPTER V. British Law-Courts and Buddhist Temples

The courts a great centre of popular interest — A means of wreaking personal revenge — The district court— A case of burglary — The British ideal of life does not appeal to the natives — A Tamil student of philosophy — To DambuUa in a bullock-cart — A coterie of Eurasians — The cave-temples of Dambulla — A boy-priest and his cook — Other Buddhist temples .... 86-97

CONTENTS IX

CHAPTER VI. Anuradhapura : a Ruined City of the Jungle

A night in the "mail-coach" — The present village of Anuradhapura — " Pools of water and a habitation for the bittern " — The remains of the Brazen Palace — The oldest tree in the world — Ruins of enormous ddgobas — Specimens of early sculpture — Temples, porticos, stone troughs, cisterns, bathing tanks — A fine statue of Buddha— The city as it was in the 7th century — Its history — View to-day from the Abhayagiria dagoba — Moral and sentimental reflections . . . 99-115

CHAPTER VII. A Night-Festival in a Hindu Temple

The festival of Taypusam — The temple, the crowd, and blowing up of trumpets in the full moon — Image of Siva, the raft and the sacred lake — Hymns and offerings to the god — Fearful and wonderful music — Temper of the crowd, and influences of the ceremonial — Interior of Temple — The lingam and the worship of sex — The bull Nandi — Great procession of the gods round Temple — Remindful of Bacchic processions- - The Nautch girls, their dress, and dances — Culmination of the show — Revelation of Siva . . . 11 6- 134

CHAPTER Vin.

A Visit to a Gnani.

Two schools of esoteric teachers, the Himalayan and South Indian — A South-Indian teacher — Three conditions for the attainment of divine knowledge or gfidnam — The fraternity of Adepts — Yogam the preparation for gndnam — The yogis — Story of Tilleinathan Swamy — Democratic character of his teaching — Compare stories of Christ — Tamil philosophy and popular beliefs concerning Adepts — The present teacher, his personality and habits— "Joy, always joy " .... 137-152

X CONTENTS

CHAPTER IX. Consciousness without Thought

What is the nature of a Gnani's experience ? Answer given in modern thought-terms — Slow evolution of a new form of consciousness — Many a slip and pause by the way — A consciousness without thought — Meaning of "Nirwana" — Phenomena of hypnotism — Theory of the fourth dimension — The true quality of the soul is Space, by which it is present everywhere— Freedom, Equality — The democratic basis of Eastern philosophy 153-163

CHAPTER X. Methods of Attainment

Physical methods adopted by some of the j^^/i-— Self-mesmerism, fasting, severe penance— The Siddhi or miraculous powers — Mental methods, (i) the Concentration, and (2) the Effacement of Thought — Difficulties of (i) and (2), but great value for the Western peoples to-day — Concentration and Effacement of Thought are correlative powers — They lead to the discovery of the true Self — Moral methods, gentleness, candor, serenity — Non-differentiation— The final deliverance — Probable difference between Eastern and Western methods of attainment — Through the Will, and through Love . 164-182

CHAPTER XL

Traditions of the Ancient Wisdom-Religion.

Difficulty of giving any concise account of Indian teaching — Personal rapprochement to the Guru, but alienation from the formalities of his doctrine — Mediaeval theories of Astronomy and Geology — Philosophy of the Siddhantic system — The five elements, five forms of sensation, etc. — The twenty-six tatwas, and the Self which stands apart from them all — Evolution and Involution — The five shells which enclose the soul — Death and Birth— Crudities of Astrology, Physiology, etc. — Double signification of many doctrines — Resem-

CONTENTS XI blance of modern Guru to a Vedic Sage — His criticisms of the English and of Enghsh rule — Importance to the West of the Indian traditions .... 183-203

INDIA.

CHAPTER XIL

The South Indian Temples.

Colombo to Tuticorin — The plains of the Carnatic — Thirty great Dravidian temples — The temple at Tanjore — Colossal monolithic bull — The pagoda, a fine piece of work — " It casts no shadow" — Subsidiary temples and frescoed arcades — A regiment of lingams — The Tanjore palace — The temple at Madura — The Choultrie, the Eastern gate, and the Hall of a thousand Columns — Crowds in the temple precincts, gloom and stillness of the interior — Juggernath cars in the streets — The Temple of Chidambaram, a goal of pilgrimage and a den of Brahmans — The weird hall of a thousand columns, haunted by bats — A cranky Brahman — Goldsmiths at work for the Temple — A truculent pilgrim 209-226

CHAPTER XIII.

Madras and Calcutta.

The streets of Madras— Comparison with Ceylon — Impositions of drivers, boatmen, hotel managers, etc. — A straggling dull city — A centre however of Hindu political and literary life — Visit to Adyar and the Theosophist headquarters — Blavatsky curios — Scenes of native life — The river Hooghly — Calcutta city and population — Festival of bathing in the Ganges — A Circus — Poverty of the people — Meeting of the Dufferin Fund — British philanthropy in India — A native school — A group of Bengalis — Their love of long yarns, and of music — Panna Lall and his gymnast friends — Chundi Churn performs on the sitar—T\\e Indian music 227-251

XU CONTENTS

CHAPTER XIV.

Benares.

The plains of the Ganges — The crops, and the peasant Kfe — Sentiment of the great expanse — Sacredness of the river — Far-back worship of Siva — Benares a centre of Hindu Hfe — The streets and shops — The Golden Temple— The riverside, characteristic scenes — A spring festival — A talk with a yogi — The burning ghauts — Panna Lall wants to bathe— Religious ablutions— A self-mutilated fakir ...... 252-267

CHAPTER XV.

The Anglo-Indian and the Oyster.

Allahabad — Difficulty of really knowing India — The great gulf of race- difference — The Hindu does not understand " Duty " — The duty-loving Englishman does not understand the Hindu — Race-divisions in the United States — We came to India as conquerors — The gulf remains, and will remain — Criticisms by an educated ' ' oyster " — Aligarh affords an instance of friendly feeling between the two sections— The M.A.O. College — A convivial dinner-party — Sir Syed Ahmed and the Mahomedan influence — Horse-fair at Aligarh — Cabulees, and a native wrestling-bout . . . . 268-281

CHAPTER XVI.

Delhi and Agra.

Approach to Delhi — The Fort and the old Palace — The town and population —The Jumma Mosque — The environs of Delhi, a waste of ruined cities— The Kutab Minar and the old fortress of Lalkab — Agra, the Fort and the Palace — The Jessamine Tower — Lovely marble and mosaic — The Taj at twilight — A fairy scene — Flocks of green parrots — Moonlight on the Jumna — " Do we not respect our women ? " — A coterie of professors — The population of Agra — Scenes at the railway stations — A favorable specimen of Young India — An incident in the train 282-208

CONTENTS XIU

CHAPTER XVII.

Bombay.

The native Bombay a wonderful spectacle — Workshops, saleshops, opium dens, theatres, temples, mosques — The population, Mahrattas and Parsees — The modern city and the manufacturing quarter — The Parsee nose — Justice Telang, a Mahratta — The Bunya Caste — Tribhovan Das at home — View from the Malabar Hill — A Bunya wedding — Native theatres — The Salvation Army — Across the harbor to Elephanta — The great cave-temple — Sculptured panels, the Hindu Trinity — The human-divine life of Siva — Impressive eifect of the whole — An opium den — Various sorts of " ecstasy " produced by these and other drugs — The proletariat at home — Music and conversation — Dream of a " United India " — Bombay at night — On the way to Aden — A calm and starlit ocean — A beautiful panorama . 299-324

M THE OLD ORDER

^ AND THE NEW INFLUENCES.

I

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Old Order : Caste and Communism.

Remarkable social movement in India — Complexity and corruption of Caste system — The Brahmans — Defence of caste from native point of view — Specimens of caste regulation — Caste tyranny — Story of a widow re-marriage — Pharisaism of respectability — Caste in its other aspect as a Trade-Guild — Tempering competition — Instances of this — Communism, the second great feature of social life — Village, Caste and Family communism — The last still flourishing — Anecdotes — Old sanctions being destroyed by commercialism— Sacredness of Family tie 327-344

XIV CONTENTS

CHAPTER XIX.

The New Influences : Western Science and Commercialism.

Great spread of Western education — Euclid and Political Economy at Tuticorin — Schools and Colleges throughout India — Cricket and golf — Young India — " We are all Agnostics now " — Similar spread of Commercialism — Interior of a cotton-mill at Bombay — Large profits, conditions of labor — Numerous trading posts and clerkships — The National Indian Congress — Its ideals and influence — Disliked by the British — The social gulf again — Our future in India — The break-up of village life — Problem of pauperism, Sir Henry Maine — Incongruity of Commercialism with the genius of India — Probable ascendancy of the former for a time— But only for a time . . . . . . . 345-363

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Seashore near Colombo . . . Frontispiece

CiNGHALESE MAN 1 4

A Jaffna Tamil . , . . . . . -15 Jinrickshaw . . 17

CiNGHALESE GIRL -19

Kalua . .27

Ploughing in the rice-fields 32

Buddhist librarian-priest 34

Kandy, general view full page 36

Native hut 42

Native street, with shops ...... 47

Veddahs, aborigines of Ceylon . . . . ■ S^

Rice-boats on the Kaluganga 76

Group of Tamil coolies 80

Tamil girl plucking tea . . . . . -83

Bullock-hackery, or light cart . . . -87

cinghalese country-cart . . . . . .92

Jetawanarama Dagoba ..... full page 98

Thuparama Dagoba 104

A ruined bathing-tank, Anuradhapura . . . 108 Small guardian figure, Buddhist sculpture . . 113

A Tamil man 119

Great Pagoda at Tanjore .... full page 208

Temple at Tanjore, general view . . . .211

Temple and tank at Mylapore . . . ^ .224 Chundi Churn B. ....... 240

XV

XVI

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Panna Lall B

Woman playing sitar .

The Ghauts at Benares The Dewan Khas at Delhi .

The Jumma Musjid at Delhi Marble screen-work The Taj at Agra ....

Street in Bombay, native quarter Parsee woman ....

Parsee merchants . .

The great Cave at Elephanta .

Panel sculpture, Siva and Parvati Interior shrine at Elephanta .

Side-cave, Elephanta .

full page full page

CEYLON

^OM ADAM'S PEAK TO ELEPHANTA.

Chapter I. Colombo

Imagine a blue-green ribbon of water some 60 yards wide, then rough sandy dunes to or 20 feet high, and then beyond, the desert, burning yellow in the sun — here and there partly covered with scrub, but for the most part seeming quite bare ; sometimes flat and stony, sometimes tossed and broken, sometimes in great drifts and wreaths of sand, just like snowdrifts, delicately ribbed by the wind — the whole stretching away for miles, scores of miles, not a moving form visible, till it is bounded on the horizon by a ridge of hills of the most ethereal pink under an intense blue sky. Such is the view to the east of us now, as we pass through the Suez Canal (19th October, 1890). To the west the land looks browner and grayer ; some reeds mark a watercourse, and about 10 miles off appears a frowning dark range of bare hills about 2,000 feet high, an outlying spur of the hills (Jebel Attakah) that bound the Gulf of Suez.

In such a landscape one of the signal stations, with its neat tiled cottage and flagstaff, and a few

FROM ADAM S PEAK TO ELEPHANTA.

date palms and perhaps a tiny bit of garden, is qiViite an attraction to the eye. These stations are placed at intervals of about 6 miles all along the canlal. They serve to regulate the traffic, which is uqw enormous, and continuous night and day. great ships nearly fill the waterway, so that^ has to be drawn aside and moored in ord( let another pass ; and though they are not allo^ to go faster than 4 miles an hour they create ;i considerable wave in their rear, which keeps washing down the banks. Tufts of a reedy grass hav(\ been planted in places to hold the sand together but the silt is very great, and huge steam-dredges are constantly at work to remove it. Here and therej on the bank is a native hut of dry reeds — three sides and a flat top — just a shelter from the sun ;, or an Arab tent, with camels tethered by the leg around it. At Kantarah the caravan track from Jerusalem — one of the great highways of the old world — crosses the canal ; there are a few wood and mud huts, and it is curious to see the string of laden camels and the Arabs in their unbleached cotton burnouses coming down — just as they might be coming down from the time of Father Abraham ■ — and crossing the path of this huge modern steamship, with its electric lights and myriad modern appliances, the Kaiser Wilhelm now going half-way round the globe.

The desert does not seem quite devoid of animal life ; at any rate along the canal side you may see tracks in the sand of rabbits and hares, occasional wagtail- like birds by the water, a few crows hovering above, or a sea-gull, not to mention camels and a donkey or two, or a goat. Near Port Said they say the lagoons are sometimes white with flocks of peHcans and flamingoes, but we passed there in the night. It was fine to see the electric light, placed in the bows, throwing a clear beam and illuminating the banks for fully half a mile ahead, as we slowly steamed along. The driven sand looked like snow in the bluish light. The crescent moon and Venus were in the sky, and the red signal lights behind us of Port Said.

The canal is 90 miles long, and a large part of it follows the bed of a very ancient canal which is supposed to have connected the two seas. It appears that there is a very slight movement of the water through it from south to north.

We are now nearing Suez, and the heat is so great that it reverberates from the banks as from a furnace ; of course the deck is under an awning. The remains of a little village built of clay appears, but the huts have broken down, split by the fierce sun- rays, and some light frame-houses, roofed and walled with shingles, have taken their place.

Gulf of Suez. — The town of Suez is a tumbledown little place, narrow lanes and alleys ; two-storied stone houses mostly, some with carved wooden fronts, and on the upper floors lattice-work, behind which I suppose the women abide. Some nice-looking faces in the streets, but a good many ruffians ; not so bad though as Port Said, where the people simply exist to shark upon the ships. In both places an insane medley of Arabs, fellahs, halfcastes and Europeans, touts, guides, donkey-boys, etc., and every shade of dress and absurd hybrid costume, from extreme Oriental to correct English ; ludicrous scenes of passengers going on shore, ladies clinging round the necks of swarthy boatmen; donkey-boys shouting the names of their donkeys — " Mr. Bradlaugh, sir, very fine donkey," " Mrs. Langtry," " Bishop of London," etc. ; fearful altercations about claimed baksheesh ; parties beguiled into outlying quarters of the town and badly blackmailed ; refusals of boatmen to take you back to the ship while the very gong of departure is sounding ; and so forth. Suez however has a little caravan and coasting trade of its own, besides the railway w^hich now runs thence to Cairo, and has antique claims to a respectability which its sister city at the other end of the canal cannot share.

Now that we are out in the gulf, the sea is deep blue, and very beautiful, the rocks and mountains along the shore very wild and bare, and in many parts of a strong red color. This arm of the Red Sea is about 150 miles long, and I think not more than 20 miles wide at any point ; in some places it is much less. We pass jutting capes and islands quite close on the west of us — great rocky ravinecut masses absolutely bare of vegetation. On the east — apparently about 10 miles distant, but very clear — stands an outlying range of Sinai — Jebel Sirbal by name — looks about 5,000 or 6,000 feet high, very wild and craggy, many of the peaks cloven at the summit and gaping as if with the heat ; farther back some higher points are visible, one of which is probably Jebel Musa. A most extraordinary land ; at some places one can discern — especially with the aid of a glass — large tracts or plains of loose sand, miles in extent, and perfectly level, except where they wash up in great drifts against the bases of the mountains. Across these plains tall dark columns can be distinguished slowly traveling — the dreaded sand-clouds borne on eddies of the wind.

Indian Ocean, Oct, 2^tk, — Much cooler now. In the Red Sea, with thermometer at 90° In the cabins, heat was of course the absorbing topic. Everybody mopping ; punkahs in full swing. I believe the water there frequently reaches 90° F., and sometimes 95°; but here it is quite cool, probably not much over 60°, and that alone makes a great difference. It is a queer climate in the Red Sea : there seems to be always a haze, due to dust blown from the shores ; at the same time the air is very damp, owing to the enormous evaporation, clothes hung up get quite wet, and there are heavy dews. When the wind is aft the oppression from the heat is sometimes so great that ships have to be turned back and steamed against the breeze ; but even so casualties and deaths are not uncommon. Owing to the haze, and the breadth of the Red Sea which is as much as 200 miles in parts, little is seen of the shores. A few rocky islands are passed, and a good many awkward reefs which the passengers know nothing of The Straits of Bab-el- Mandeb are curious. The passage between the Island of Perim and the Arabian mainland is quite narrow, only a mile or two wide ; tossed wild-looking hills on the mainland, 3,000 or 4,000 feet high, with French fortifications. The island itself lower and more rounded, with English fort and lighthouse; but looking very lo FROM Adam's peak to elephanta.

black and bare, though owing to the moisture there is some kind of stunted heathery stuff growing on it. There are a few EngHsh here, and a native town of waggon-like tents clustered round the fort ; some little fishing and sailing boats along the shores. Turning eastwards along the south coast of Arabia the same awful land meets the eye as In the Gulf of Suez. A continual cloud of dust flies along It, through which one discerns sandy plains, and high parched summits beyond. There must however be water in some parts of this region, as it is back from here in this angle of Arabia that Mocha lies and the coffee is grown.

Colombo. — I fear that the Red Sea combined with mutual boredom had a bad effect on the passengers' tempers, for terrible dissensions broke out; and after six days of the Indian Ocean, during which the only diversions were flying-fish outside and scandalmongering inside the ship, it was a relief to land on the palm-fringed coast of Ceylon. The slender catamarans — or more properly outrigged canoes — manned by dusky forms, which come to take you ashore, are Indeed so narrow that it is Impossible to sit inside them ! They are made of a *' dug-out " tree-trunk (see frontispiece), with parallel bulwarks fastened on only lo inches or a foot apart ; across the bulwarks a short board Is placed, and on that you can sit. Two arms projecting on one side carry a float or light fish-shaped piece of wood, which rests on the water 8 feet or so from the canoe, and prevents the vessel from capsizing, which It would otherwise Infallibly do. Impelled by oars, or by a sail, the boat bounds over the water at a good speed;

COLOMBO. I I

and the mode of traveling- is very pleasant. There is no necessity however to embark in these frail craft, for respectable civilised boats, and even steamlaunches, abound ; we are indeed in an important and busy port.

A great granite mole, built five years ago, has converted an open roadstead into a safe and capacious harbor, and there is now probably no place in the East better supplied with mails and passenger boats than Colombo. It is the calling place for the great lines of steamers en route for Australia, for China and Japan, and for Calcutta and Burmah, not to mention smaller coasting boats from the mainland of India, and so forth. The city itself has only the slightest resemblance to a European town. There is a fort certainly, and a Government House, and barracks with a regiment of infantry (part of whom however are generally up country) ; there are two or three streets of two or even three-storied houses, with shops, banks, mercantile offices, etc. ; a few hotels and big goods stores, a lighthouse, and a large engineering works, employing some hundreds of Cinghalese and Tamil operatives ; and then you have done with the English quarter. The land is flat, and round about the part just described stretch open grass-covered spaces, and tree-fringed roads, with the tiny booths or huts of the darkies on both sides of them. Here and there are knots and congeries of little streets and native markets with multifarious life going on in them. Here is a street of better built cottages or little villas belonging to Eurasians — the somewhat mixed descendants of old Dutch and Portuguese settlers — small one or seldom two-storied houses of stuccoed brick, with a verandah in front and a little open court within, clustering round an old Dutch church of the 17th century.

Here is the residential quarter of the official English and of the more aspiring among the natives — the old Cinnamon Gardens, now laid out in large villa-bungalows and private grounds. Here again is a Roman Catholic church and convent, or the grotesque facade of a Hindu temple; and everywhere trees and flowering shrubs and, as one approaches the outskirts of the town, the plentiful broad leaves of coco-palms and bananas overshadowing the roads. Nor in any description of Colombo should the fresh- water lake be forgotten, which ramifying and winding in most intricate fashion through the town, and in one place coming within a hundred yards of the sea, surprises one continually with enchanting glimpses. I don't know any more delightful view of its kind — all the more delightful because so unexpected — than that which greets the eye on entering the Fort Railway Station at Colombo. You pass through the booking-office and find yourself on a platform, which except for the line of rails between might be a terrace on the lake itself; a large expanse of water with wooded shores and islands, interspersed with villas, cottages and cabins, lies before you ; white-sailed boats are going to and fro ; groups of dark figures, waist-deep in water, are washing clothes ; children are playing and swimming in the water ; and when, as I saw it once, the evening sun is shining through the transparent green fringe of banana palms which occupies the immediate foreground, and the calm lake beyond reflects like a mirror the gorgeous hues of sky and cloud, the scene is one which for effects of color can hardly be surpassed.