Dr. Scudder's Lecture

image 1image 2image 3image 4cropped image 1

DR. SCUDDER'S LECTURES.—

Rev. Dr. Porter's¹ Church, at the corner of Fourth and South Sevond streets, was well filled with a very respectable audience on Thursday evening to listen to the Rev. Dr. H. M. Scudder's² lecture upon India. At a few minutes after eight Dr. Scudder came in accompanied by Dr. Porter, who came forward with him saying, it was scarcely necessary to introduce to this audience the gentleman who was going to address them to-night, the Rev. D. Scudder.

Dr. Scudder then commenced with a eulogy upon India,—beautiful India, where twenty-three and a half years of his life had been spent, and the lovely Island of New Ceylon, which he claimed as his birth place. He continued to keep his hearers delighted and spellbound, with his eloquently interesting remarks, until after ten o'clock.

Of course in one short evening there was not time to depict all the beauties, nor all the hideousness, of the land of his adoption, but in his quick way of speaking he went over the main points of his subject, giving a historical lecture, at once intensely interesting and instructive. He first spoke of the physical features of India, illustrating this part of his lecture upon a large Missionary map of the countries of Hindustan, Birmah, Siam, Lahore, Curwal, Delhi, Aimeer, Gundwona, Bengal, Nephal, Bootan, Burmah, &c., all parts of the East Indies, and containing millions of inhabitants. It comprises an area of 1800 miles long, by 1500 wide, with all kinds of climate and soil, the mountains presenting some of the most grand and picturesque scenery that can be found in the world, while the soil in the southern part where has been fought the bloody conflict between the English and Sepoys, is said to be one hundred feet deep. In many places irrigation is produced by means of "tanks," one of which the speaker mentioned as having seen, being twelve miles in circumference, and the life of eighteen villages. The Cocoa-nut tree under which a man can move his family, find thereon all to build him a house and supply his sustenance. Here grows in all its vigor, the Palmetto, the Bamboo growing to a height of 200 ft., the Mango, the Banyan, with its little red berries, which of itself forms houses, halls, colonades, arches, and roofs, and is a shelter sufficient for a whole army at a time are all found luxuriating in the genial clime of India. Or as you stray to the woods upon the mountain side you may sit beneath the pendent vine where hangs the juicy fruit, and listen to the shrill scream of the tiger as he sees some elephant in the distance, or to the derisive note of the peacock in the branches over head, as he looks scornfully down upon the jackal below. The coffee plants with their little flowers are seen on the plain, while the Rhododendron and the wild white rose are gracefully waving around you. All these scenes, interblending the grand, the beautiful, and the sublime, excel anything the speaker ever saw. Then the terrific grandeur of the Himalaya Mountains, upon which the clouds, wind, and snow dwell alone, and in which there are ravines that make the eye tremble down them to look.

The second topic discussed was the races of India; the Scythians the Brownies, the Toadys, &c., one tribe of which outnumbers all the inhabitants of the United States. Their style of marriage is rather the reverse of matrimony among the Mormons, one woman marrying a man and all his brothers, sometimes having as many as six husbands! When a gentleman and lady meet, the mode of salutation is for the female to bow low before the man, who lifts up his leg and touches the top of her head with his big toe, and when a friend dies they sacrifice a lot of buffaloes, thinking he will need their skins in the next world. They are a very filthy people, the Toady making his proximity known to you long before you meet him by the odor of his blanket. The language is as distinct as the English. It is much corrupted from the Scythian, which was more copious than Latin, more accurate than Greek, and more beautiful than either—in fact it is the most beautiful, the most elegant, of all languages in the earth. The question arises, who are the Brahmins? They came from the middle of Asia, and are undoubtedly the same stock as ourselves. Their being black arises from residing where they do. in the hot sun of a southern climate. The Jews living there who do not intermarry, with them are of the same color. It is but reasonable to believe that we were at one time the same people and spoke the same language.

The lecturer's remarks about the language, which he speaks quite fluently as English, and in which he says he thinks and preachers, were very interesting and amusing, and we wish we were permitted to publish them.

Next he came to the religion, when he deviated enough from India to come to the United States and give some of our modern reformers and philosophers some pretty hard hits. He made a beautiful comparison between what mothers used to teach their children,

"Hush my dear, lie still in slumber, Holy angels guard thy bed, Heavenly blessings without number, Gently falling on thy head;" &c.

and that which is now taught young ladies, quoting from Emerson:

"If the red slayer think he slays, Or if the slayer thinks he's slain." &c.

much to the disparagement of the latter. Tis worth an evening's entertainment merely to hear the speaker quote and translate from their language, ringing out the Scythian dialect, with all the music of the clear chime of a bell.

It is surprising to hear of the literature of the Hindoos. They have the most elaborate treaties on Astronomy, Philosophy, Metaphysics, &c., having no less than 126 different grammars, all in the Hindoo language, and written by Hindoo authors.

Their proverbs, many of which he quoted, were curious and beautiful, some of them causing convulsions of laughter, and others ejaculations of surprise at their deep moral sentiment.

Next he discussed the character of the Hindoos—the particulars of which we cannot follow up. We must, however, in this brief notice, speak of their caste, which is a civil, and not a religious institution. Caste there divides society into four distinct classes, and so afraid is one of the first class of being contaminated by the proximity of a Christian, that he will leave the road and make a circle through the fields and mud-puddles rather than pass by him. We would like to speak of the amusing tricks and trials of the strength of the Brahmin; of his loquaciousness as being greater than that of the Yankee, of his vanity which exceeds than that of the peacock, of his pride, than which there is none greater on the earth, and of his wit and sharpness, which are keener than a two edged sword; but we are not permitted and must close this notice with a brief allusion to the Brahmin Ladies. They are considered morally depraved, being inwardly impure, and outwardly weak and silly. But nevertheless they have their influence, and exert it in three direct ways. First, if the liege lord does ought to displease my lady, she tries the usual woman's weapon, her tongue. There is no latitude or longitude to her tongue, but it wags on so rapidly and continuously that the man must soon succumb, not being able to get in a word edgeways. Mr. Scudder said he would sooner meet a Bengal tiger than an enraged Brahmin lady swaying with piquant velocity this formidable weapon, to the full verge of its unlimited power. If this means fails she next tries starving him into subjection, which generally brings him to a just sense of his duty. But if his obstinacy withstands all this, she then goes back to her father's and stays till the husband comes and sues for peace upon her own terms.

The whole lecture was a very excellent production, which to be appreciated must be heard. We hope Dr. Scudder will pardon us for taking such liberties with it, but its beauties were so many that we could not refrain from giving a brief sketch of it to our readers.

---