HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1953-2-18, Page 6Fled From ares To
Monastery,....
- For over tive years, from 1802,
Mrs, Anna Leonowens, a young
1!atglishwuman, served as gover-
ness to the ehi1dren of ling
35ongkut of Siam and made a
Idose study of court and harem
life there.
One day she saw a strikingly
beautiful girl of fifteen lying
prostrate on a marble pavement
among offerings placed there for
the king by nobles, princes and
:merchants anxious for royal
,Savour. Two women crouched to
+either side, waiting to present her
9t, him. Her lips were betel -dyed
e deep crimson, her dark eye-
brews outlined, and she wore
enormous gold chains.
Bashful - - « Innocent
Afterwards, when the girl had
301ned the harem, Anna Leen-
ens saw her frequently, once
e'rying bitterly as the head wite
reproved her: "What shall I do
with this Tuptim?" she asked,
The moment she comes into the
?king's presence she goes down
upon her knees, appearing so
very bashful and innocent that
be is enraptured at the sight, and
declares she is the most faseinat-
fng of women. Now she says she
is ill and cannot wait upon the
fling, while the physicians declare
there is nothing the matter with
her."
Soon after this little Tuptin
f"Pomegranate") carne to Mrs.
Leonowens' school to learn to
'write her name in English, also
"Khoon P'hra Balat." Asked
whose name this was, she cast
down her eyes and said: "It is
She name of the favourite disciple
of the high priest, Chow Khoon
Sah; he lives at the temple of
etajah Bah ditt Sang, and some -
Orates preaches to us in the
palace."
Gates were Bolted
One day, a year later, Tuptim
was missing, though the palace
gates were always bolted, with
,lltnazons on guard. The king
tottered a reward of twenty caties
(about flfeen hundred dollars).
end she was found in the mon-
astery attached to this temple
and flung into a palace dungeon.
Her slave girl, Phim, begged Mrs.
Leonowens to try to save her life,
Anna Leonowens — who tells
Tuptim', touching story so vivid-
ly :n "Siamese Harem Life," pub-
lished in 1873 and now reprinted
with Rupert Forrest's superb
drawings—went to the great pil-
lared hall with dungeon trap-
doors in the floor, guarded by a
dozen Amazons in the dim light
of lanterns. But the Great Mother
of War, who was in charge, said
she could not see Tuptim with-
out an order from the king.
She next saw Tuptim at the
trial . and how piteous she
looked !
Her hair and even her eye-
brows were shaved off, her bare
fleet heavily fettered, her hands
manacled. Her Amazon guards
laid before the court the priest's
garments hi which she'd been
arrested, ani a small amulet in
the yellow silk envelope on which
was the name "Khoon P'hra
Balat" in English.
"The Guilt is Mine"
Severely examined by the chief
judge, Tuptim said: "Khoon P'hra
Balat has not sinned. All the guilt
is mine !" In the still nights,
'when she prostrated herself in
prayer before the high priest, the
thought of escaping would often
distract her. As it seemed the will
of the Lord that she should, she
dressed herself as a priest, shaved
oil her hair and eyebrows, and
when the priests came to the
palace slipped out and joined the
procession as it passed to receive
the royal ainis.
She begged the high priest tO
let her be his disciple and live in
his monastery, "Whose disciple
art thou, -my son? he asked,
thinking her a youth in the
priest's dress. At which she began
to weep, not wishing to deceive
him,
The priest then turned to Balat
and bade him take the yputb
ander his charge and instruct.
Iran faithfully In the doctrines of
Buddha, Balat took her to his cell,
not recognizing the Tuptim he'd
known in his boyhood, who had
once been his betrothed wife and
on whose account, when he lost
her, he entered the monastery to
forget his sorrow in study and
devotion.
She only wanted to be near
him, she pleaded, tor it made her
quiet and happy listening to his
teaching, But on Sunday.tnorning
two priests came to the cell to see
him, She had overslept and was
dressing when she heard a low
chuckling laugh, turned and saw
them, and felt degraded for ever.
Just then Balat and his other
disciples returned. from their
morning ablutions. She crawled
to his feet, confessed she .was
Tuptim, lie started back as if the
earth had quaked: "Alas 1 'Flin-
tier, thou hast committed a great
sin," he said. "But fear not. We
are innoient; and for the sake
of the greet love thou hast shown
me, I am ready to suffer even
unto death for thee."
Horror in. Court
When the judge ordered her to
say who had brought her the
priest's dress, she replied vehe-
mently: "I will not 1" "Strip her
and give her thirty blows P" he
shouted. A litter was brought in
on which lay the mutilated Balat,
who had undergone torture in an
attempt to make him confess.
They put him beside Tuptim,
hoping the sight of her under
torture would wring a confession;
and the girl, stripped to the
waist, was flogged.
On scaffolds in the open space
before her window, Anna Leon-
owens saw Tuptim and Balat
publicly tortured, their necks in
strangling levers, before the
royal party and a vast crowd. She
saw the priest's eyes, full of love
and grief, turn toward Tuptim
then the rabble hurling abuse
at her as the judgment was pro-
nounced ... and Tuptim's agoniz-
ed cry: '1 have not sinned, nor
has the priest, my lord Balat,
sinned. The sacred Buddha in
heaven knows all the guilt was
mine. I knew that I was a wo-
man—but he did not 1"
Tragic End
Anna Leonowens could bear to
look no more. It was Phim, the
slave girl whose life had been
saved by her mistress's silence—
for she it was who brought the
priest's dress and helped Tuptim
escape—who came at dusk to say
that the pair had suffered death
by burning outside the moat and
wall enclosing the cemetery, and
some of the common people had
been deeply affected by their
courage.
Every seventh day Phim put
fresh flowers and fragrant tapers
where they had suffered, believ-
ing their souls still haunted the
spot at twilight. Later, the king
told Mrs. Leonowens that he had
had a dream in which they ap-
peared to him and convinced him
of their innocence, so he would
have a monument erected to their
memory at the spot—two tall
obelisks each inscribed: "Suns
may set and rise again, but the
pure and brave Balat and Tuptim
will never more return to this
earth." And there, by the ceme-
tery, the obelisks still stand.
French Flu -Chaser --Actress Janine Moreau uses fhe inhalator pro-
vided by the flu -conscious manager of a Parisian theatre as
Monique Artur waits her turn to use the machine, The inhalator
was Installed in an effort to keep the cast from coming 'own
With influenza, which is sweeping France,
Washable Woolens : Delight Eye an
Decorative: snap closing is used on wing sleeves
by designer Caral Caldwell, Flannel blouse, un-
snaps and opens flat for ease in washing and
pressing. Skirt and jacket are of sanfortan flannel.
BY row, ,MILES
N this age a miracle #'ab,,
ries, women+ are beginning
to expect a tray remarkable,
perforinance.from, nearly anY
fashion they buy. In AMI
ens, it's the washable wools
that are making,- fashion,
Hews, ,
These new soap -and -water sari -
Corlett Weoletis wU1'not shtinkattit
oil their .origioalr'ttt.aeci th'ereferei:
need ho blockiflg or stretching.
The "wool von not ;mat, or felt,
'washea^'easier and.
faster, looks'
softer end has a more "ddtvnY'r"
feel atter w.a,silipg, ., • rr.
All of this means greater Fong
venience and less 'work for the
lady of the Imam. .:It also.means
a saying in dry teeming bills=and
this, of course, is reflected in the
budget.
-.Washable wpd'iens are naw done
in stripes, checks, plaids and in
both dark and pastel solid colors.
They're sold by the yard for home
sewersor in ready-to-wear'fash-
igns, any of the latter are ideally
suited to the active life of 5 house-
wife.
One New York'sportsivear house
has done a whole group of jer-
seys in; blouses and skirtsthat are F'
dressy but simple enough for home Hip-huggy 'middy Jacket Is used to top a tuft -
washing. Blousesrare coordinated hared skirt in this interesting design,''Fabrio is
with accordion pleated, pleated, 'sanforlan {tool flannel, and is completely 'wash-
er unpressedpleated.skirts. r,abte. Above all it will not shrink out of fit.
Pocketbook
TABLE TALKS
Here's a real old-timer, folks—
a recipe that's supposed to have
been handed down from early
pioneer days. But its flavor and
tempting qualities haven't aged
in the slightest, and you'll find
it well worth the time spent in
making it
a o
CROCOLATE APPLESAUCE
CAKE
1 eup sugar
Ir cup shortening
1 egg, slightly beaten
I cup thick sweetened apple-
sauce
1 cup sour milk
21S cups sifted flour
3 tablespoons cocoa
2 teaspoons nutmeg
I4 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons soda
4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1e cup chopped walnuts
?� cup raisins (soak 3n hhot
water 15 minutes) •
Cream shortening and sugar
and add applesauce, Sift a small
amount of flour over nuts and
raisins. Sift dry ingredients to-
gether and add to sugar -shorten-
ing mixture alternately with the
sour milk. Add vanilla, nuts and
raisins. Pour into greased layer
tins or a 9x13 loaf pan. Bake at
350° F. ler 40 minutes. When
cake is cool, ice with the follow-
ing frosting.
FROSTING FOR CHOCOLATE
APPLESAUCE CAKE
2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 tablespoons cream
las teaspoon salt
Mix thoroughly and spread
aver cake, (Add more sugar or
cream is necessary for light con-
sistency).
° 5 a
Here's a recipe which is easy
to make, inexpensive and gives
you the sort of cookies that you'll
be happy to serve.
MY OLD-FASHIONED
COOKIES
1 eup lard or vegetable
shortening
2 cups brown sugar, firmly
packed
6 cups sifted flour
2 tablespoons baiting powder
1 tablespoon vanilla
to teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs
Cream shortening, sugar and
vanilla until light and fluffy,
Beat in eggs, one at a time, Sift
together dour, baking powder
and salt and add alternately with
milk to sugar mixture. Dough
should be soft and is easier to
handle if chilled for an hour or
more. Roll about Vs inch thick
and cut withh large round cutter.
Sprinkle with sugar and bake
light brown at 375° F. A band
of frosting around the edges,
sprinkled with coconut may be
added if desired.
* Y 4
if your family itkes "Johnny-
cake' and other good things made
with corn meal, they'll surely en-
joy this --
CORN CAKE
4 tablespoons flour (very
full)
3 tablespoons corm meal
(very lull)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon butter
I egg, beaten
1 teaspoon soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
Cream butter and add sugar
gradually: add milk and egg et-
'trnately wit' the mixed and
sifted dr;' ingredients. Pour in
shafluw, buttered pan and bake
for 20 minutes.
•
Gold candy recipes are never
amiss, especially at this time of
year, and 1 coo highly recom-
mend these two.
ORANGE WALNUTS
3* pound shelled walnuts
l cup sugar
34 cup boiling water
Pinch cream of tartar
?fir teaspoon vanilla
Grated rind .it 1 orange
Combine water and sugar and
cook to soft ball stage. Add cream
of tartar and beat until stiff. Add
vanilla and grated. orange rind.
Stir in nuts. Spread on waxed pa-
per. Pull apart, Keep in airtight
tin,
*
MAPLE FUDGE
3 cups tight brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
ii, cup light corn syrup
1 cup milk
es eup butter
Nuts(, if desired
Combine sugars, syrup, milk
and butter and cook to soft ball
stage; beat until consistency to
pour. Add nuts just before pour-
ing. When almost cold, cut into
squares. Makes about 2 pounds.
When All Europe
Was Really Scared
The usual list of anniversaries
of notable events falling in the
year 1953 contains ane unusual
item. This year, a line reads,
is the 500th anniversary of the
fall of Constantinople—an event
which shocked and frightened
all Western Europe as much as
any event since then. Yet the
effect was largely symbolical.
The Turks, Seljuks and Otto-
mans had been undermining the
old Eastern Roman Empire for
four centuries: The Ottomans
held most of Asia Minor, both
sides of the straits, and were
firmly established in the Balkans.
The city founded by Constantine
the Great which had withstood
all attacks for 1,100 years, ex-
cept that of the piratical Fourth'
Crusaders in the year 1204, had
imposed Roman law, spread Hel-
lenic culture and its own form of
religion over a vast part of Eur-
ope and Asia, collapsed, in a
single day under the assault of
the huge polyglot army of Sul-
tan Mohammed II, called the
Conqueror. The " date was May
29, 1453,
Gibbon tells the story as the
tragic last act of a great drama
which began: "In the second cen-
tury of the Christian era the
Empire of Rome comprehended
the fairest part of the earth and
the most civilized portion of
mankind," By the middle of the
fifteenth century the last of the
Caesars was making a hopeless
stand in his beleaguered capital,
"Amidst these multitudes the
Emperor (Constantine. XI) who
accomplished all the duties of o
general and a soldier, was long
seen and (Melly lost; * °' " his
mournful exclamation was heard.
'Cannot there he found a Chris-
tian to cut off my head?' and his
tact fear, was that of falling
alive into the hands of the infi-
dels. The prudentdespair of
Constantine cast away the pur-
ple: amidst the tumult he fell by
an unknown hand, and his body
was buried under a mountain of.
the slain, After his death resist-
ance andorder were no more."
The shock of thefallof Con-
stantinople. to Western Europe,
one can easily imagine, was
much greater than the shock
caused. by the Russian Com-
munist' coup d'etat in Czechoslo
vakia.in 1948. Both events, how-
ever, illustrate the recurrent
crises which pressure from the
vast heartland of Eurasia have
brought ' upon the peninsula
known as Western Europe over
the last twelve centuries; In a
long backward look, Arnold J.
Toynbee in the current issue of
Foreign Affairs recalls that Eur-
ope's present feeling of being
under siege from the East is one
that she has experienced three
times before in the years since
the fall of the Roman Empire:
Arabs, Mongols and Turks, each
in their own expansive era,
have thrown the Continent on
the defensive.
Since the Turks were turned
back from the walls of Vienna in
1683 Western Europe has been
able to take the offensive. in
this brief modern period West-
ern civilization has been carried
around the world. This modern
period is the only one we are
intimately acquainted with.
Memory of old struggles when
the West was on the defensive
has quite died out, to be revived
only by history books. Hence
the amazement and sense of un-
reality when along about the
Ides of March, A. D. 1946, the
West found itself confronted by
another offensive from the East
from a totally unexpected source,
viz., the Russia of Peter the
Great, of the reforming Czars,
and an ally of the First and Sec-
ond World Wars.
Communist Russia has some-
thing of each of the three great
forces which have assailed the
West since the fall of the Ro-
man Empire in the West. Like
the fanatical Arabs it has a faith
that it feels bound to impose on
the world by fire and sword. or
by "purges" and prison camps.
Having virtually annexed China,
Moscow now rules almost the
same vast domain as the Great
Khans of the Mongols. Like the
conquering Ottoman Turks it
hascreated a system that must
be continually expanding and
on the offensive. The Turks, after
taking Constantinople 500' years
ago, pressed on to swallow the
Balkans and Hungary -'as the
Russians have done in our time.
The Turks reached the outskirts
of Vienna — where the Russians
lord it over the Austrians today
But there the Turks were' stop-
ped and their .decline began. We
cannot say the same of the Rus-
sians.
For five hundred years Con-
stantinople has been Istanbul. It
is no longer a capital. Its superb
position for commerce means
little, since trade with Black
Sea ports has dwindled. It is
still the guardian of the narrow
strait bbetween Europe and Asia
and it has a definite place in the
defensive strategy of the West
against the offensive of the East
— a place which Emperor Con-
stantine,
onstantine, its founder, or Sultan
Mohammed II, its conqueror,
never dreamed of.
—From The New York Times
Happy Hatti:ude, American
comedienne June Richmond is
tickled with the feathered head-
gear which she wears as the
star of the Casino de Paris floor
show, in Paris.
Mathematical "Oarac"-AL—Connie Hodgson, above, dropped a
one, and made an error of a trillion while trying to compete
with General Electric's new computer, "Oarac," She multiplied
8,645,392,175 by itself, in nine minutes. Oarac did the job in
four one -Thousandths of a second, "Oarac" stands for "Office
be Air Research Automatic Computer," and the 1400 -tube
machine will be used by the Air Force's Research and Develop-
ment Command, Try the problgm. The correct answer le
74,742,805,859,531,2 3 0, 62 5,
Cat Women On
The Prowl Again
Aegth stalking through the
Jungle on silent cat -like feet
. , the merlins and moans of
dying men and women wise
mutilated bodles bear stark Wife, a
inony to ' vjolent and painful
death.
Such le the trial et terror left
in the wake of the Cat Wonsan,
For this mysterious and savage
cult still flourishes in Africa to-
day and all attempts by the au-
thorities to suppress It have met
with failure,
The dark continent has always
been the home of strange cults
^nt societies In Kenya,
tltt Governsnent is struggling
ti .erately to stamp out the
cult known as Mau Mau, which
threatens to massacre the entire
white community ih the terri-
tory. But though Mau Mau . is
political and is directed primari-
ly against the whites, not all
such cults are so definite, in their
aims. The Cat Women are quite
Indiscriminate in their choice of
victims! ,
It is mainly natives who 'fall
victims to these'faritale beasts of
prey. They are held in such su-
perstitious fear by the blacks
that all attempts to apprehend
them and bring them to justice
are futile, They first . came to
the notice of the British admini-
stration in the 1890s, when a
series of . particularly violent
crimes were found to be the
work of these fanatics,
„ Lately, they have become very
active again and natives have
been disappearing at an alarm-
ing rate. Some of the lacerated
bodies have been found, and near •
them have been discovered
sti-anged cat -like tracks,
At Dead of Nights,
Recently, a British surveyor.
Richard Wright, reported that a
Cat Woman actually invaded his
bungalow at dead of night and •
attempted to kidnap his young
daughter.
Wright told the police how,
soon afted midnight, he heard a
scratching noise outside the win-
dow where his daughter slept.
Picking up his pistol and flash-
light, he went to investigate. He
was almost paralyzed with fear
by the sight that met his eyes.
"1 saw a creature with a tall,
beautifully proportioned body,"
he said. "She looked human
enough—but there was some-
thing about her that made one
think of a cat's sinewy grace,
When she saw me her lip curled
in a fierce snarl and I could see
her teeth. They were long and
filed to narrow points. Her *eyes
were baleful, and the irises
seemed to be uncommonly
large,"
Terrified Scream
He stood translbeed by the
sight of the strange and fear-
some creature. Only his daugh-
ter's terrified scream roused him
from stupor. As the Cat Woman
turned and sprang back to the
open window, Wright fired. Des-
pite his agitation the bullet
found its mark, for the creature
uttered a blood -curdling yell be-
fore she disappeared into the
darkness.
When the slightly sceptical offi-
cials examined the bungalow
next morning for footprints they
fotuid--not human prints—but
the marks of a large cat's paws,
The worried officials then real-
ized that the Cat Women were
black stalking the Ba-Ronga
territory, thirsting for blood.
And most disturbing of all was
the fact. that .one of their num-
ber had come so close to 8 civil-
ized community, for usually they
keep strictly to the jungle.
The only conclusion that the
authorities could draw was that
.tile, Cat Wonsan had wished to
(kidnap the young girl in order
to initiate her into the rituals
of their cult,... perhaps to make
some seat of White High Priest-
ess out of her. 11'or, in the past
young native girls had been
spirited away for similar pur-
poses. " •
The cult of the Cat Women is
believed to have originated in
Egypt and in the worship at
the Egyptian Goddess Raster,
from whom they derive their
fierce pagan rituals. Students at
African anthropology believe
that they trent their body hair
with a vegetable sulwuinee.
which ultimately malleo 11 re-
semble fur. They also shrink
their feet and allow them m"ls
to grew until ihry are as Ione
as a eat's claws.
•1'o -day, they still prowl The
jungle, their only thoughts t0
torture and kill
And the authorities realize
that they are up against an
enetny quite as elusive as a rat
-hut infinitely more deadly