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INDIA

taineers are recruited from the hill districts of Kumaon
and Nepal, and, with the Sikhs, they form the flower of
the native army. They are a people of Indo-Tibetan or
Mongolian extraction, small in stature, sturdy in frame,
broad chested and broad shouldered, with the facial characteristics
 that distinguish all the Mongol race, and endowed
 with an aptitude for fighting and a spirit of
enterprise that removes all surprise at the astounding
successes of Chenghiz Khan and his successors in the
Central Asian empire of six or seven centuries ago."
The Sikh is allied to the Hindu by religion, and, as a
soldier, he is as important a factor of our military strength
as the Gurkha. He is of the Skythic race called Jat, and
is usually of finer physique than the majority of north
country plains men. Tall, straight, and manly ; gifted
with perfect manners and an unassuming address, a wellsored
 Sikh is, in the best sense of the word, a native
gentleman. With the Sikh the profession of arms is
hereditary ; the traditions of the Khalsa uphold his pride
in centuries of honourable warfare waged against his
national foe, the Pathan; and we have ourselves found
the Sikh soldier a sturdy enemy in the field, every whit
a match for the best troops that the British army has
aver placed in line against him.
The Sikh religion is a comparatively modern offshoot
of Hinduism, with none of its debasing superstition and
demonology. Its centre, or headquarters, is at Amritsar,
in the Punjab, where is situated the “Golden Temple,”
founded in 1574 by Ram Dass, the Guru, or high priest,
of the Sikhs, upon a site granted by the Emperor Akbar
on the banks of a sacred tank, from which the city takes
its name. Within this temple one may usually find the
high priest reading the Grunth (the sacred book of the
Sikhs), whilst pilgrims cast their offerings into a sheet
spread on the marble floor before him. A copy of the
Grunth is carried in front of the Sikh companies of a
native regiment, placed on a cushion, with bearers waving
# chowries” above it to preserve it from contamination.
We must now reckon with the Muhammadan popula-1
 Or of the Japanese in the present age.