Elephant dance (1937)

was too amazing. Indians love to get B.A.'s and Another A.B.'s, etc. — educational tags. It gives them a coveted wedding standing and prestige. But they never think of applying what they learn to their daily way of living and doing things, which may be thousands of years old and almost as primitive. It is the season of weddings. Yesterday we took a long drive to see one of the monumental sights of Mysore, a colossal Jain statue, about sixty to seventy miles from Mysore City. We passed through many villages and stopped to eat in a dak bungalow. This village, like the others we had passed through, was full of pipings, thin, translucent pipings. There were three little groups of people circling in among the houses, each with a band of musicians. Our driver said More they were wedding parties. Would they, one of them, Weddxn&~ come over to the bungalow? They came readily, the young bridegroom and his bride, shy and solemn, almost expressionless (he was eighteen and she was twelve) led by three musicians playing on a drum and two pipes and a little crowd following behind. After taking pictures I put the silver pieces that Gul Khan gave me into the two cupped hands of the little bride. She folded her hands, put them to her forehead like a temple priestess and bowed. Then suddenly an old man stepped forward and began to jabber something and his voice broke and 67