People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1897 — THE QUEEN AS AN IDOL. [ARTICLE]

THE QUEEN AS AN IDOL.

British Protection Held to Be Divine Power In Thibet. In addition to being Queen of England and Empress of India, it appears that Her majesty is a goddess. An Englishman named Stuart Majoribanks has recently returned from a five years’ Bojourn in Thibet and Bengal, and he is the authority for the following remarkable story. When he was Journeying in Thibet in 1893, Mr. Majoribanks says that he heard through the natives of a white goddess worshipped by a sect whose place of habitation was in the most mountainous section of that rugged country. With two guides and a native servant, Mr. Majoribanks started for the mountains that had been described to him, and, on reaching them, found that he was the first white man known to have made his way to this spot. The treatment accorded him by the members of the sect for whom he had been searching was amazing. He had been told that he was going to certain death, and that no man’s hand could save him. To his surprise he was treated as a most welcome visitor. He was received with profound salaams, and with his escort was assigned quarters in a hut for the night. In response to his request for information he wan courteously told that all he wished would be made clear to him in the morning. The villagers kept their word to the letter. After the morning meal the visitor was escorted to the house of the principal official of the town, who is termed the Khan. Two priests appeared by order of the Khan, and conducted Mr. Majoribanks to a building located on the crown of a high hill. Entering, the traveler found himself in a dimly lighted apartment furnished with all the evidences of a barbaric religion. But the most amazing thing of all was that, seated in a delicately carved chair was the figure of a woman, wearing a golden crown, apparently attired in European costume, and looking not unlike a specimen from Mme. Tussaud’s. Closer inspection, necessarily of -a very respectful nature, disclosed the fact that the figure was intended to be a representation of Queen Victoria. Careful scrutiny showed that the imitation, so far as the clothing was concerned, was very crude indeed, but the likeness of the face to the original was startling in its faithfulness. After leaving the temple, Mr. Majoribanks had another interview with the Khan, and from him learned how the Queen of England came to be the goddess of a heathen tribe. It seems that a few years ago the tribe was sorely beset by enemies, and a deputation was sent from the village to Calcutta to appeal to the English government to interfere and cause the Indian marauders to rema'in at home. The mission was entirely successful. When the Thibetans returned from Calcutta, one of the men had secured a photograph of Queen Victoria, and apparently out of gratitude, as good an imitation as it was possible for them to construct of the Great White Queen was fashioned, placed in the temple, and worshipped as the chief of all the tribe’s gods.