clap their hands and do not stop until I rise and nod again. The President and myself walk down the platform and the girls follow us. I find that the girls have one more question to ask. We stop at the end of the hall. What question is that? I guess what it is. I was wondering all the while why they did not ask it in the very beginning. Here it comes at last— "Your headgear is very pretty. Is that what you call a turban? Does the colour of it signify caste, rank, or anything else?" I answer : "No, it does not. The different shades and hues of our turbans are simply meant for adornment. A Hindu would choose the colour of his turban according to his own individual taste. He would also wear turbans of different hues at different times instead of always sticking to any particular colour, just as you would do with your neckties." The analogy satisfies their scientific mind, and they are fully pleased with my explanation.

CHAPTER VI.

RANDOM NOTES.

The girl of the south-A southern girl's letter-The western girl-Home-builder and country-builder-A great matrimonial market for western girls-A widow and her two daughters-Leap-year and marriage -Merry Widow hats -Extra berth for a hat-"Does your fur mew ?"-Hindu's power of grasping jokes "I do not know how to swim"-"His ticket was of the same colour as mine."

In the United States, the girl of the south figures as the heroine in many novels and dramas; and she is looked upon as a model of poetry, romance, and love combined. The influence of the scenery around her and the climate of the country have made her so. She is the product of the sunny south,—that is why she is so warm-hearted. She reminds one, who comes to know her, of the lines of Wordsworth :

"Three years she grew in sun and shower,
Then Nature said, 'A lovelier flower

On earth was never sown;

This child I to myself will take;

She shall be mine, and I will make
A Lady of my own.

She shall be sportive as the fawn
That wild with glee across the lawn,
Or up the mountain springs ;

And hers shall be the breathing balm
And hers the silence and the calm
Of mute insensate things.

The stars of midnight shall be dear
To her; and she shall lean her ear
In many a secret place,

Where rivulets dance their wayward round
And beauty born of murmuring sound
Shall pass into her face." "

She is part and parcel of the nature around her. The following extracts from the letter of a southern lady friend will give an idea of the natural scenery and life in the south much better than any humble efforts of mine. She writes how "the flowers give forth their sweetest perfume at the touch of a pure atmosphere, and the sunshine and the dewdrops hang the diamond necklace about the rosebud." She says further, "In the early

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morning I go for a canter, and in the afternoon we either go for a fish, or I take my own little boat and go for a nice long row all by myself. In the evening we sometimes go for a moonlight sail, and only those who have lived in southern countries (that includes you) can understand and appreciate what an enchanting scene it is, as we drift slowly along in the shadow of the overhanging branches or in the full glow of the Full Moon. The forest songsters have ceased their lay, and naught but the katydid's lament disturbs the stillness. From the far distance come the plaintive, melodious songs of the happy, careless negroes borne to us upon the soft perfumed air. As we float slowly onward, the Moon's rays dallying with the laughing, murmuring waters, we only dream of purity, peace, and happiness."

The western girl is the product of an undeveloped country. The country around her is vast, but the hands are few. Her function is not only to make the home, like that of women in general, but her function is also to build up the country. She is not only a factor in home

making, but she is also a factor, and by no means a less important one, in country-building. Her manly desires have free play, her powers are not smothered by the conventions of society. She is as free as the air, she is not tied down by the restrictions of her sex. Although she can manage her own farm and can shift for herself in various phases of life, yet she is not left alone without a mate. Her sex forms a minority in the west, and she is always in great demand by the other sex. In the west the supply of brides is much smaller than the demand; large numbers of eastern women, therefore, go to the west to replenish the supply. During a voyage from Bombay to Marseilles, an old lady from San Francisco who was in the boat told me in the course of conversation that the west was really a great matrimonial market for eastern old maids; and pointing to a couple a few paces ahead of us, continued in a low voice, "I would not, however, make that statement aloud on board the ship, because that young lady over there is from Connecticut, and her husband is a