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CHAPTER XVI.
India—Its People, Religion, Etc.—The Fertility of the Country—’The
Climate—The Dwellings — Punkah — Costumes — Calcutta — Dalhousie
Square—Life in the Streets.
This is India, the wonderful land of the Hindoos. Africa
had appeared strange to us compared with Europe and
America; Asia seemed still more so. The Hindoos have a
hi^h and very old civilization, but entirelv different from
e> *
that of Europe and America. The country is named after
the river Indus. It is hardly equal in area to one-half of
the United States, but contains a population of more than
two hundred and sixty-nine millions, eighty-one millions of
whom are Mohammedans, one hundred and ninety millions
Brahmins, two millions Christians, three and a half
millions, Buddhists, Parsees or fire-worshipers, two millions
Sikhs, and the rest are Jews or adherents of unknown
religions. Queen Victoria of England is Empress of India,
and the country is ruled in her name by a viceroy. It is
divided into three great presidencies, viz., Bengal, Madras,
and Bombay, and these arc again divided into a number of
districts and native principalities. In order to maintain her
supremacy in India, England keeps an army of about two
hundred thousand regulars, of whom a little over one-third
are English and the rest natives; and beside these there is a
large militia and police force. Most of the native soldiers
hail from the mountain districts. The most prominent of
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