Here one finds a creditable park, good driveways, shade trees and large lawns in front of Europeans' homes. These dwellings are bungalows, one storied, high roofed, with wide verandas, and often covered with grass or reeds. The kitchen is not inside, but a building in the rear is used for that purpose. Nearly every one owns a horse and trap of some sort, and there is a stable included in the buildings. A fence generally surrounds the grounds, and the inclosure is called a "compound."
Agra has a population of 200,000, and the articles manufactured are gold and silver embroidery, carving in soapstone and imitation of old inlay work on white marble.
The Mohammedan place of worship is a mosque, and the Hindu place of worship is a temple.
A Mohammedan may have four wives, besides concubine slaves. The celebration of a Mohammedan marriage costs the father of the bridegroom about $150, which is used to buy presents for the bride and to furnish a feast for friends. Any prospective father-in-law attempting to shave that sum would be thought little of by the bridegroom's acquaintances. Mohammedans bury their dead, but use no coffin. They place the corpse on the bottom of the grave, build over a frame, which is covered with timber, cloth or stone, and then fill in earth. Prayers are offered five times a day--at sunset, nightfall, daybreak, noon, and afternoon. All work is abandoned at time for prayers. Mohammedan priests use their voices to summon worshipers to prayers, because Jews and Christians use bells and trumpets for the same purpose. Mohammedans believe in a resurrection, heaven, and hell, but also believe there is a separate heaven for women. The Koran forbids the drinking of wine or eating of pork. This sect wash their hands, mouth, and nose before eating or praying. Mohammed, the prophet of Allah, was born in Mecca, Arabia, 570 A. D., his father being a poor merchant. Sixty-three million of the population of India are Mohammedans, and the Mogul dynasties prevailed from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries.
Unlike Mohammed and the mountain, if one does not go to the Indian bazaar the bazaar is brought to him. On a visitor leaving his room, there will be spread before his door on the wide veranda silk shawls, silk dress goods, and souvenirs of the place; also waiting are snake charmers, jugglers, photographers, "dobeys," tailors, shoemakers, barbers, guides, hackmen, fellows offering themselves as servants--all making salaams--speaking in a low voice, but persistently following their business instincts. One never finds himself at a loss for some one to do whatever he wants done. An Indian may not be within sight or sound, yet if one should make his wants known, the man he requires will immediately appear as if having come out of the ground. It is said that no secret can be kept from the native--he seems to have the power of extracting any treasured thought from the mind of a European.