Monday, May 20, 1929
Today is the Mohammedan “Xmas” in the year 1985. At breakfast Abdulla presented us with a large tray of native sweets. He then took us to see Jami Masjid Mosque, a large affair of brick on the outside, but old wooden columns on the inside, possibly near 300 in number. In the court was the usual pool for ablutions.
A box was passed for baksheesh. It is against our principles to tip these people for nothing. A church is no place to ask for tips anyway. We held tight, but Frank differed and he and Mort soon were in a fine argument. This collected a crowd and soon a larger one fell in behind when Frank got his ears boxed. On we walked with a young army following us. I was in back being neutral when I heard a man in the crowd laugh. For some reason it made me hot all over, and I walked back to him and nearly socked him one. The terrified, surprised expression on his face made me want to laugh and brought me to my senses.
Finally Mort and Frank got all ironed out and we came to a very large, grassy field on the city’s edge where stood the old palace. Here were thousands and thousands of Mohammedans gathered for prayer. Hundreds were squatted along the canal banks performing their ablutions in the brackish, stagnant water. The old palace, a low oblong building of no great size and not unlike a mosque, was full of praying men, while in front of it squatted perhaps 1,500 men in four groups. A leader of prayer sat upon a raised chair and led the prayers. It was an impressive sight to see these people praying and answering the leader, sometimes in a sort of chant. Everywhere were rams and lambs, all printed with red, green, vermilion, saffron, and yellow streaks along the back, all there to be blessed I guess, then to be sold to the people, who would take them home and sacrifice them. The Islam faith requires that when animals are killed, their neck must be cut and then let bleed to death. The meat was to be cut into handfuls and passed around to the poor. Later in the day we saw a ram being bled to death, and farther on a man with a large basket of this meat, passing it to all the poor people. A friend of Abdulla’s said he paid 12 rupees for his ram. $4.45 for a ram!
At eleven there were approximately 20,000 people gathered for prayer. They lined up from one end of the palace, facing west, toward Mecca, and the line was 300 yards long and near a hundred feet in depth. A leader on the wall of the palace led them as they recited parts of the Koran, but in unison raised up, and knelt, placing their foreheads on the ground. It was really impressive to see this sea of men, voluntarily gathered, raise up and sink like a huge wave, to hear them speak.
In ten minutes all was over and the gathering broke up. Imagine a group of 100 Christians, from a much larger town, meeting in an open field to pray! Followers of the Islam faith and Hinduism are anything but backward about their religion. When the time comes to pray, be it in a crowded railway train or station or in the open fields, they pray, and sincerely too.
Lussoo had a big dinner and we ate plenty. Then walked down through the bazaars three miles to the Bund. Two-thirds of the businesses were closed. Spent some time fooling around shops and photography places and finally decided to go to the theatre and see “Dawn,” the story of Edith Cavell. So at six we were parked in our 8-anna seats in the pit, along with a handful of natives. On wooden benches we were quite at home and we didn’t even have the cheapest seats at that for the first two rows of benches were 4 annas—but we didn’t know it till too late. At a higher level were the more classy seats, 1, 2, and 3 rupees, some ten or a dozen rows in all, and that is the Universal Cinema in Srinagar. An impossible comedy of about 1909 make started things off. The feature was rather chopped up and out of focus much of the time, but was impressive. They would have intervals between each act and a long one after the third, breaking up things at just the wrong times. A gramophone furnished the music.
A storm with lightning was coming up as we started back to Xanadu, but failed to materialize. Abdulla was out looking for us when we came in after nine for supper. On the way back we could hear music and children singing from different directions, but could not find any dancers.