Volume III: India

Each part to this album began with a note about the location where the photos in that part were taken.

Part A contains c. 60 unidentified photos, mostly of scenery and people.

Note: A. The Valley of the Brahmaputra Out of the high Himalayas the Brahmaputra sweeps into Assam, giving it life and sustenance. Along its banks, from Dibrugarh to Goalundo, rice and jute and tea are grown to be sent to the far corners of the world, and thatch gatherers sit in the late evening singing their songs. Tiny boats of every description drift by hundreds on the broad bosom of the river, and the countless folk who live in thatched houses and raise their little plots of mustard, are chiefly busy with thoughts of crops and thoughts of babies, with the realities of life. The Temple of Kamakhya, where the goddess Kali is worshipped, looks down from its high hill upon a beautiful city of Gauhati, the City of Eastern Astrology, where now there is a University. Here is the center of the intellectual life of the province. The valley of the Brahmaputra is broad and very flat. During flood season the river often reaches a width of nine to ten miles, while in the winter it recedes and becomes very shallow. In modern days there is a good steamboat service all the way to Calcutta, and a railroad connects the very northeast corner with Bengal and the outside world. The peoples of Assam are of varied origin, being chiefly of Indo-Chinese stock. There has been, however, an incoming of Aryan Hindus from the south, and these have given the language spoken in the plains, Assamese, which is derived from the Sanskrit.

Part B contains c. 40 photos, mostly of people performing what is assumed to be every-day tasks, although the photos are unidentified.

Note: B. The Nagas. The hilly tract east of the Brahmaputra valley is inhabited by tribes known collectively as the Nagas, which in the Assamese means 'naked '. They belong to the second wave of emigration into Assam, that of the Tibeto-Burmans, from the traditional cradle of the Indo-Chinese race inNorth [sic] Western China. There are six chief tribes, the Angamis, the Aos, the Lhotas, the Rengmas, the Kachas, and the Semas. Generally speaking they are tall, fine looking people, especially the Angamis, and being a hill-top folk they have precerved [sic] a certain air of freedom and distinction. They grow rice as their staple food, and the Angamis have the art of terracing the hill sides. The Lhotas are cotton growers, and all the tribes are meat eaters and drinkers of what the Angamis call 'zu', a liquor made from rice. In 1866 the British took possession of the village of Kohima and spread its control throughout the whole territory. Before their coming the Nagas were a head hunting race, but this has been changed during the last years, although frontier tribes still practice the art of taking their enemy's scalp. The Nagas are a genial folk and extremely hospitable though below their rather happy exterior there is a melancholy which arises from a rather profound realization of the brevity of life, and from the fear of death.

Part C has c. 10 photos, which are unidentified but clearly show the Durga Puja (festival), and one photo of a waterfall.

Note: C. The Durga Puja. The word Puja in Hindi means festival. Each year the greatest of all the pujas is a land of continuous festivals is that held in honor of the goddess Durga. In the Hindu pantheon Durga is the Shakti or wife of the god, Siva, the Destroyer. In Shillong, the capital of Assam, the Gurka troops of the Bristish-India army stationed there, held a great puja, for they are Napalese and most devout. Great crowds gathered in an amphitheater-like place near the city where the sacrifice took place; there was dancing by those specially trained; and after the dao had been blessed by the priests, the mantras said, and all made ready, twnety [sic] buffalo were offered to the goddess. The costumes of the women were brilliant for the Napalese like much color, and each one appeared with all of her jewelry upon her. Surely the goddess must have been pleased by so great a display of devotion, by so great a sign of joy.

Part D consists of c. 10 photos, all unidentified and somewhat distant shots of people, a few of scenery.

Note: D. Manipur. Manipur is the only large feuditory [sic] state in Assam. It is ruled over by a Maharaja at the will of the British Government, and a political agent, residing at Imphal, is the representative. A military force is kept within the frontier. The Manipuries are Indo-Chinese folk, though there is a certain fusion of Aryan Hindu blood. They, like many of the peoples who have lately come into India, have only recently been brought into the Hindu fold. And because they are recent converts they are particularly bigoted. The women are fine looking, with high, firm, almost Athenian brests [sic]. They carry their burdens on the head as plains people do, for Manupur is a plateau land, and each day one sees long lines of white clad folk streaming toward Imphal, the capital, to buy and sell in the great bazaar. And this bazaar is wonderful with its many colors, its different types of people, and its varied sights and smells. Often there is dancing, for Manipur is famous for its dancing girls; and sometimes there is polo for this is the traditional home of that sport of Maharajas and Raj Kumars.

Part E contains c. 15 unidentified photos of people and scenery.

Note: E. Shillong. Up in the dry Khasi Hills of the Assam Shillong has become the capital of the province. It is a beautiful place with its pine forests and its surrounding hills, and here to come many people from the plains to escape the frightful heat of the dry season and oppression of the late monsoon. For Shillong is five thousand feet high and thus is termed as India's Hill Stations. Her Highness the Maharani Mourbhanj has her summer home in this cold retreat. She likes its quiet, she likes its cold, running streams in the pine jungles, to which she escapes on crist [sic] autumn mornings to paddle and feel the nearness of the trees, and stones, and birds. She is altogether Indian in her love of nature, and she could altogether the example of Indian womanhood at its best.

Part F contains c. 55 unidentified photos, of one or several gatherings with a crowd of seated people, small groups lounging or working in front of buildings, and scenery, including mountain horizons.

Note: F. The Khasis Up in the pine forests of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills southeast of the great Brahmaputra valley, there live a folk whose chief claim to distinction is that the basis of society is the reverse of ordinary humanity's way of life. Their's [sic] is a matriarchate of which there are but few other examples in the word: women inherit, women are the heads of homes, clans take their names from the female ancestors, and in the mythology of the land women are the dominant theme. The Khasis are probably the most advances in modern culture of all the hill tribes of Assam, far surpassing the Nagas to the east, and their neighbors, the Garos, to the west. Christian missionaries and the British government at Shillong have been the chief causes of this. One wonders is the coming of European customs and prejudices along with the simple teachings of Christ is not causing too great a loss of the native, naive qualities of a primitive people.