their art. Only two of the men had flutes, but one went into my garden
and one took up his post on another side of the house, and began to
play. It wasn't long before one called out, 'Cobra!' and sure enough
there was the snake, which he captured; but on coming back he declared
that he had been bitten. In fact, he showed a bruise, but I knew that
snake-charmers counterfeit these bites, so I would not believe him.
Then the other charmer also cried {260} 'Cobra!' and captured another
snake. They showed me the fangs of each serpent, and I gave them four
annas. 1 also offered them four annas more if they would kill the
serpents; but of course they would not. 'Man kill cobra, cobra kill
man,' is one of their sayings. And so they left, but the man who
captured the first snake hadn't gone twenty steps before he fell in
convulsions and died. He had really been bitten, and that is his grave
which you see there."

Madura, India.

{261}

XXVI

WHAT THE ORIENT MAY TEACH US

But, after all, what may the Orient teach us? The inquiry is a
pertinent one. Perhaps it is all the more pertinent because, while
acknowledging that the old East may learn much from the young West, we
are ordinarily little inclined to look to the Orient for instruction
for ourselves. In fact, we are not inclined to look anywhere.

That the germ and promise of all the new Japan was in the oath taken
by the young Mikado in 1868, "to seek out knowledge in all the world,"
we are ready to admit, and we are also ready to admit the truth of
what Dr. Timothy Richard said to me in Peking last November. "This
revolutionary progress in China has come about," he remarked, "because
for twenty years China has been measuring herself with other
countries. It is a comparative view of the world that is remaking the
empire."

In our own case unfortunately, certain natural conditions as well,
perhaps, as the excessive "Ego in our Cosmos," conspire to keep us
from this corrective "comparative view of the world." We are not
hemmed about by rival world-powers, whose activities we are compelled
to study, as is the case with almost every European nation. Barring
the Philippines (and their uncertain value) we have no far-flung
battle line to lure our vision beyond borders. And thus far our
growing home markets have been so remunerative that not even commerce
has induced as to look outward, with the incidental results of {262}
bringing us to realize our defects and remedy