Carrie Chapman Catt - Diaries, India, January - February? 1912 (Box 1, Folder 5)

29

I think it must be naked or nearly so. Men only come and they in groups are connected by handkerchief, each having hold of one end. It is a symbol of unity. The body of a man is lain on the outside row, the women in the middle one, the children next. In the center is a deep well. The body is left, and in two hours the vultures, which have been sitting in rows on all the walls of the towers waiting, and which began a terrible shrieking when the funeral appeared, have picked the bones clean. A few days after the sun has done its work and they are swept off into the center. Here sun and water disintegrate them and there [illegible] the material...

30

...is carried out, but filters of sand and charcoals are prepared and thes pick up the impurities and the water is rendered pure. Thus they say "earth to earth". The description sounds horrid, but its was far more pleasing than the burning ghats. The Parsees are called fire worshippers, but they only do so as an emblem. They regard fire as a sacred power of God. They are clever, educated, advanced people and surely could not literally worship fire altho' their ancestors undoubtedly did. In a small temple within the grounds a fire has been burning since the place was established. We drove over the Malabar Hill [illegible] of Bombay and...

31

...were back for dinner. Meanwhile I am reading some books on India which are increasing the interest in the country but which demonstrate completely the impossibility of entering into the spirit of it in a [illegible] stay. Even those who have lived here long freely admit they do not understand it and every author assures his readers that no one ever has understood it. The tremendous number of castes and the rules laid down for them seems to be the trouble. The people of one caste may not marry into another, nor eat with those of another. Each caste is governed by its own rules which are too numerous for any human to know or understand. Surely it is the most complicated society in the world.

32

Friday, Feb 9, 1912 Bombay This was the Dr's birthday 58 yrs old. She looks not more than 45. On my birthday a month ago, she presented me with a bag of her own making. I went into her room which adjourns mine and prosecuted here with a few trifles before I was dressed and presented her with my good wishes. After breakfast we leisurely made ourselves ready to start at 10:45 for the Caina Hospital for women and children. Upon our arrival we found Dr. Enson performing an operation. The Dr. staid to see it, and I took our carriage and went off in search of a hat. I had sent some on to Batavia and thrown some away and the only one I had was my solar topi. We had received an invitation to a Purdah...

33

...party in the afternoon and I could not go without something different. After turning two shops bottom-side up, I found several little [illegible] who rigged me up a head gear suitable to the occasion. I hurried home for lunch and drove back to try on the creation to make sure it was right. I went by way of the bank and got my mail which had just come in. There were two letters from Mollee, which had been only a month in coming. In one she told of the dreadful cold in New York. It sounded strange for I read it in the milliners shop, sitting under an electric fan, and was in the midst of the hottest of hot flashes. In the other letter she feared I was growing careless in my dress.