Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 147, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1918 — CURIOUS CUSTOMS OF INDIA [ARTICLE]

CURIOUS CUSTOMS OF INDIA

Dancing Girls Married to idols Representing Gods, Is One of the Oddities. Parrots are taught in India to spend a large portion of their time in repeating the names of gods, and such a spokesman brings a good price, especially among business men, who imagine that by owning such a parrot -their spiritual treasures are accumulating while they attend to their usual occupations. Many of the dancing girls in India belonging to the temples are called the wives of the gods. At an early age they are united in wedlock to the images worshiped in the temples. , This strange matrimonial connection is formed in compliance with the wishes of the parents, who believe it to be a highly meritorious act to present a beautiful daughter in marriage to a senseless idol. The only foreigner who ever saw the inside of the great temple of Juggernaut was an English officer, who succeeded in gaining admission by painting and dressing himself like a native. When the Brahmins discovered that i their holy place had been thus deI filed they became so enraged that all the English residing at the seation were obliged to flee for their lives. Suspecting their pursuers to be more desirous of gratifying their avarice than their revenge, they strewed silver money by the way, and while the natives stopped to pick it up they gained time and succeeded in reach--1 ing a place of safety.