THE ABOMINABLE HOLI FESTIVAL.
By Rev. T. E. F. Morton
Of all the festivals that are celebrated in India the Holi, in my judgment, is the most horrible. A trip to the post office a few days ago gave me an opportunity of witnessing some of the doings of the uncontrolled participators of the feasts. Large tubs of colored water could be seen at different points in the city, into which the rollicking scamps would plunge their brazen, tin, or bamboo syringes and then freely discharge their crimson contents on the Hindu passers-by. In the absence of syringes and paint, some would descend to the office of scavengers, by scraping up gutter filth and bedaubing their friends with it. Men and children would be forcibly seized and their persons abundantly supplied with red powder, and those who managed to extricate themselves, would have a red shower bath in flight. Hindu women would make themselves scarce on those wretched festival days, but those who dared to venture out received no little of the worst of abuse. Rich and poor, great and small, old and young, strong and weak, men, women, and children—all participate in the filthy feast. The grogshops are freely visited by the men. Madak (betel leaf mixed with opium), charas (a kind of intoxicating drug), and bhang (the leaf of the hemp plant) are constantly smoked; and under these maddening and intoxicating stuffs, they sally forth with country cymbals and drums, singing monotonously all over the place, to the infinite disgust of the Christian ear. The place overrun with the rowdy crowd is a perfect pandemonium. These are high days for the old devil. Certainly there are many and cogent reasons for the immediate stamping out, by the government, of this heaven-accursed festival. Such high license as has been above reported is destructive of life and property. Under the maddening influence of opium and drink a quarrel ensued the other day at Undilla, a village near by, in which eighteen men were wounded and one almost killed. While seated at the civil dispensary last Friday an old man was brought in from a village, who, from the nature of the wounds sustained, must have been severely belabored with a club; for he had three broad gashes on the head. From a small station like this such cases as the above are reported, but what must the large centers furnish? Drunkards and opium eaters and smokers are no respecters of persons; they are devoid of those nice, tender, filial feelings which are the heritage of the sober and the righteous, and are in danger any day of ruthlessly destroying others and themselves. I was indeed glad to read in the Guardian the other day of the move in the right direction which some of the educated Hindus had taken with reference to the modification of the Holi evil. I was also pleased to hear of the efforts in that direction even in the Punjab. There are educated Hindus all over this great empire who are verily ashamed of the outrageous doings at the Holi, who, I have not the least shadow of doubt, would rejoice should the government rise in all its strength and authority to wipe the evil out of existence. The officer in charge of the civil dispensary here, an educated Brahman, regards the Holi as a nuisance, and would be glad if the government knocked it on the head.—Gospel in All Lands.