aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

236 ABOUND THE WORLD.
kets, silks, brocades, &c., are but a repetition of those in
all Asian cities.
Bombay, built upon a cluster of islands connected one
witli the other and with the mainland by causeways, forming
a sort of peninsula, and fanned by invigorating seabreezes,
is considered the most desirable residence for
Europeans in India. The city is supplied with excellent
water from Vehar Lake, some two miles out, at the foot of
the Salsette Hills. Rich Europeans, and some of the missionaries,
reside at the fashionable suburb, Malabar Hill,
from December to February ; but during the rains and hot
weather, from June to September, they migrate to the
highland
plateaus and cool mountains.
Jesus, worn and weary under Syria's scorching skies, went
up on to the mountains, not to escape the heat, and do a bit
of cozy lolling around champagne-tables with Peter, James,
and John, but to pray, and- to heal the sick. It is deHciously
comfortable to be a " Christian " in the nineteenth century.
But what about that old apostolic word, the "cross"?—
" bearing the cross," and suffering for the " truth's sake " ?
ORIGIN OF BRAHMANISM.
The Aryans, more properly Aryas^ meaning, in the Zend
language, honorable men, — occupying the
high table-lands
of Central Asia, known in later times as the Plateau of
Iran, —left in the pre-historic past their ancient
agricultural
seats, traveling westward and southward in the character
of emigrants, explorers, and conquerors.
The Aryan conquest of Hindostan, effected before and
during the period treated of in the Mdh^bhdratd, and the
Ramayana, was mainly accomplished in the palmy days of
those kingly chieftains known as the Mdhardjas. These in
the pre-Vedic period were their own priests, kindling their
own altar-fires. As Thales, Solon, and Socrates were called
Sophoi, — knowers, — the wise among the Aryans were
denominated Rishis, and, in a much later period, Gymnosophists.