Wheels Across India, 1940

[Music] a beautiful old house it was built nearly 200 years ago it still stands as dirty as the New England farmer who built it and it has the grace and dignity of a period when life centered around a family a home a garden full of flowers Orchards full of apples the house seems unoccupied but it is not deserted the voices of children are heard this the pond back of the house the perfect place for two sturdy boys to play with boats but this boat is no New England boat it is no Gloucester Dory or Cape Cod catbat it is roughly heun out of a single piece of wood it has Outriggers like the native craft of the South Seas it has a lump of Coral Rock on a rope of vines for an anchor who brought a native Outrigger boat all the way from the South Seas to New England as a play thing for these [Music] boys the girls are content to watch after all boats are toys for boys girls prefer to play with dolls or perhaps with pet kittens pet kittens these are hunting leopards whose children are these who have hunting leopards for [Music] pets two cars and a heavily loaded truck near the barn you've seen pictures of these cars before you have read about them in the papers they are the cars of the Dennis Roosevelt Asiatic Expedition and they have just returned loaded with trophies from an amazing journey of 16,000 Mi across Asia you know the people who live in this house and whose children you saw you have seen their famous films gonaa dark Rapture Wheels across Africa Arman Dennis has traveled and made films in almost every country on the globe his wife Leela Roosevelt once drove a truck around the world in 14 months they've driven cars more miles across the jungles and deserts of wild continents than any other man or woman alive they are modern explorers and they explore the Modern Way in automobiles these mag [Music] built for incredible speed in Pursuit faster than analou or gazelle faster than any other living thing they are restless remembering perhaps the Swift hunting across the Great Plains of tanganika if you don't know where tanganika is or any other place almost ask the children the children of this house are good at geography tonight dad and mother are telling the story of the trip they have just completed with them let us leave New York on a freighter Bound for England in Liverpool we trans ship through Gibralter the blue Mediterranean suaz the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean to far away India Beyond India and silon across the Bay of Bengal lies a remote and little known land hemmed in by mountains to get there we sail again from Columbo to a great populous sea port whose very name has the sound of romance rangon rangon is in Burma the Land of 10,000 pagodas some of these pagodas are enormous 300 ft of gleaming gold Ted by a crown of huge rubies and sapphires they cover Acres of ground contain Treasures Beyond calculation are themselves among the finest achievements of Oriental [Music] architecture [Music] to this day the burmes build the world's largest fluid Drive Wheels to lift water to their rice fields the wheels are built entirely of bamboo without a nail or a piece of metal there is no moving part except the enormous wheel itself the current pushing against woven bamboo paddles turns the wheel bamboo buckets fill when they dip on the stream are carried to the top and empty themselves into wooden gutters and the water runs down to the field the whole marvelous Contraption is carried on an axle of Teakwood in wooden berries the engineer in charge is a common villager but he has charge of a dozen of these wheels and every day makes a tour of inspection casually riding the wheel to examine the axles and to clear the gutters every year these wheels have to be entirely rebuilt because the monsoon floods carry them away and they are built right in position according to an exact and immemorial art as soon as the floods begin to subside the gutters which collect the water all lead to a central Channel which carries a surprisingly heavy stream of water to the broad Rice Field the district where we found these wheels is very small no more perhaps than 10 or 12 miles across they are not known elsewhere so little is the communication from Village to Village and from District to District we never saw any other irrigation wheels of this [Music] type we have traveled many hundred miles from rangon where we landed and are now far in the interior we have come to a dead City Pagan a thousand years ago was the capital of Burma a busy and flourishing City the largest in the land from 128 ad to 1284 ad it grew fairer and richer over 5,000 pagodas some among the largest in Burma were built in Pagan during that time and then hordes of Mongolian Invaders came from the north with Kuan they massacred sacked and burned and Pagan ever since been a dead city of pagodas and temples every year more invaded by jungle we had a reason for going to pagan we knew that among the thousands of ruined pagodas four had been built for snake worship and dedicated to the snake God we knew that living like Hermits among the ruins of the deserted City there were a few old priests to guard the old pagodas and preserve the Holy Ground from desecration and we hoped that from these priests we might hear of the cult of the snake and where it might still be found the priests knew they were to send us across the whole width of Burma from west to the east to the mysterious region of high mountain mountain ranges where Burma China Indochina and sayam all meet and where Frontiers are still uncertain one of least known corners of the [Music] globe on our way was the country of the giraff neck women where they wind heavy collars of brass around the necks of the girl children and thereby cause an almost unbelievable lengthening of the neck we knew that some of these giraffe necked women had been on exhibition in freak shows in the United States and in Europe and we didn't not plan to spend any time taking pictures of them but we remembered how often we had heard the question raised by doctors and by Layman as to what would happen to the neck of one of these women if the collars were to be removed would she be able to hold up her head or would the neck muscles supported and held So Long by the collar and the vertebrae completely separated from each other proved too weak it took days to persuade one of the girls to allow the collar to be removed in our presence there is only one old woman left who knows how to coil the mass of heavy fire again the way it should be done moreover it is a great shame for a woman to allow her neck to be seen and I may say that if my neck had been as dirty as this girls proved to be after the color was removed I would have been ashamed of it [Music] too [Music] very painful for a few weeks but as you see the head can be held [Music] up we met two of the girls who had been to the United States returned now to their Village sophis at enough to have had the cery moved and to wear modern dresses they talk gbly of hot dogs of ice cream and of Coney Island we met them on their way to Market they were carrying pretty heavy loads the weight of them supported by a band worn across the forhead and quite obviously bearing on the muscles of the neck we have crossed most of Burma and the Shan States and us are the first slopes of the great mountain range for days our cars have pushed on across country we have left all roads behind behind us and we must now leave the cars themselves we have a lake to cross we have ordered one large boat to take us across but the natives have sent three and they fight for the honor of carrying us so we decided each to get in one boat and keep everybody [Music] happy these large boats carry 98 rars a piece and they are to me one of the wonders of the East it has never occurred to these men that the arms and hands are the proper way to operate a boat and to handle a [Music] paddle all handle a paddle with one leg or the other there are left leg roarers and right leg roarers and you can tell at a glance by the unsymmetrical development of their legs on which side of the boat they are accustomed to roll we had started out sedately enough but before along the paddlers in my boat started to look over at the men in the other boats and trying not to attract attention added a little speed soon the men in the other boats noticed it and in turn speed it up and before long we were in the middle of a headlong race the boats are lightly built and have clean smooth lines at each powerful stroke of the paddles they would Leap Forward my back still hurt when I remember it and soon we were moving as fast I should think as any humanly operated boat can move across water we were racing full speed and traveling at a better rate than a racing shell but the boats have only about an inch and a half of freeboard and although several of the men gave up paddling and were busy bailing out soon water was coming in faster than it could be taken out all three boats were flirting with disaster and soon it happened the victim in the middle boat our companion Hassel Davis now Hassel Davis's life is valuable he writes books good books Hassel Davis his life was particularly valuable to us he was to write a book on this Dennis Roosevelt Asiatic expedition in which he was taking part drown the book would never be written I should have tried to make the men turn back and rescue our author but the spirit of racing was upon all of us nothing could have stopped them anyway and we kept right on going I won that race in a spectacular photo finish as you see in the meantime small boats had come from the shore to the rescue the big boat had been WR it and was being emptied of Water by the simple method of rocking it from side to [Music] side this shot shows clearly the operation of the paddle when the men are rowing the smaller boats there is nothing for them to hang on to balanced on three toes of one foot on about an inch and a half of the edge of a small boat they handle the paddle with amazing ease and Grace don't let anyone tell you it is easy I tried it we stayed several days with these people and I never tired of journeying on the lake with them and of watching their miraculous balance and their effortless graceful actions that paddle does not push the water backward it is brought in towards the paddler then twisted and pushed away from him a propeller-like motion of extraordinary efficiency these men easily keep up this paddling for 4 hours without a rest or a pause or a faltering of the powerful stroke we have traveled with the big boats and the leg roarers as close to the mountains as we could now River has become too narrow and twisty to maneuver the long boats and we have changed to Bamboo rafts we go through some of the most beautiful jungle I have ever seen a tangle of vegetation in which the stream makes clearings drenched with [Music] sunshine [Music] even the rafts could go no further and we started climbing on foot through the great Tik Forest te Burma's greatest wealth the hardest densest and most precious of the tropical woods every few miles We Came Upon an old giant of the forest with a ring cut through the bark all around the tree and its leaves already yellowed the tree is left to die and dry out for 2 years before it is filled the green wood would not float on water and floating down the rivers is the only way the lumber can be brought out this tree has been Dead 2 years it takes a team of men 48 hours or more to cut through the hard [Applause] wood as soon as the big log has fallen it is cleaned and the smaller branches are removed it is cut into three or four lengths each weighing about 4 tons every form of tractor and of mechanical transport has been tried in vain for the dragging these logs to the river the trees old enough to be cut are comparatively scarce in the forest they may be 2 or 3 miles from each other mechanical transport would mean the cutting through of some sort of track to each individual tree nothing has yet been found which can compete economically with the elephant several thousand trained elephants work in the seek forest and they are the finest working elephants alone an elephant can drag a 4ton log across flat ground when a log has to be dragged uphill or across a ditch other elephants are brought up to help by pushing a good working elephant in Burma is worth several thousand a vast Fortune is invested in these hundreds and hundreds of animals the elephant works almost by himself gets few commands from his mahoot whose job is mainly to keep the elephant amused and in the logs all converge toward one Trail covered with sticks to make the dragging easier and leading to the lumber camp in this Camp they are accumulated by the hundreds and each log is measured and marked the camp is on the edge of a riverbed but like the aoos of California the river beds are mere beds of dry gravel for 360 days out of every year then the rain falls in the mountain the level suddenly r Rises and a raging turrent races down the mountain and fills the dry riverbed this whole Camp may be carried away in the floods the will float and start their 3 to 5year Journey Down the rivers to the ocean A Thousand Miles and more away to rangon or to mulain the logs have been inspected and marked the elephants have been taken off the work in the forest and brought into Camp to push the logs into the riverbed they do their work practically without orders with a more uncanny Instinct than a man could ever have in deciding how many are needed on a particular log and how it should be handled they seem to know exactly how much strain Ivory can stand and the instances of a Tusk breaking in the course of work are rare sometimes when the strain on the Tusk threatens to be too great The Elephant inserts his trunk between the Tusk and the hardwood and uses it as a resilient cushion to even out the strain there are a number of babies in the camp the capturing of wild elephants has been practically given up in Burma there are two few wild elephants left breeding is now encouraged a slow process 22 months for an elephant to be born 4 years before he is old enough to begin training 10 years before he is big enough to do any heavy work the baby's nursed for several years a constant interference with the work of the mother not only of the mother whenever a baby is born always one of the old made elephants decides that she wants to be a mother's helper she attaches herself to the baby and fusses over it as much as its own mother she gets official recognition in her job and is known as the baby's auntie and for a term of several years baby mother and Auntie never be separated and if baby wants something or gets himself into trouble and squeals both mother and Auntie will drop whatever they are doing and rush to his [Music] assistance [Music] [Music] yeah [Music] at the end of the day's work the elephants are taken to bathe and soak in water in the pools left here and there in the riverbed after the last flood a 2-hour soaking is the elephant's reward for a good day's work without this daily bath working elephants cannot be kept happy and in good health they get more than a soaking they get scrubbed from Head to Toes with coconut husks the babies do not go in with the big ones they might get hurt they have been waiting on Shore squealing with impatience but now their turn has come and they Plunge in fearlessly out of their depth and sometimes disappear from sight so long that the mother gets anxious she starts looking all over for the baby with her trunk when she finds him she pushes him to the surface to breathe and sometimes gives him a great wall up with her trunk just to teach him not to scare [Music] mother we spent I think the most Pleasant week of last trip here at this Lumber camp in the Burmese Forest our hosts were an Englishman and his wife Mr and Mrs Bell they had no word of our coming but their whole camp and their whole time were ours as long as we cared to use them Mr Bell had about 200 men 100 elephants thousands of Acres of this beautiful Forest under his absolute control the nursery full of elephant babies was Mrs Bell's particular care they would not hear of course of our continuing our trip the way we had arrived on foot a most undignified way for a white man to travel they insisted on stopping all work at the lumber camps and putting all their elephants at our disposal the next stage of our trip was going to be done with comfort and dignity on elephant P also at last we had a guide Mr Bell had heard of the worship of the snake God the village we were looking for the village of the priestesses of the snake was now only 3 days journey away on [Music] elephants the morning of our departure the elephants are being loaded cameras films tents and camping equipment Food Supplies medical kits all the formidable paraphernalia of an expedition and the two biggest elephants of course for the Expedition Le I wish however that every elephant I ever climb on would not choose to get up when I'm halfway between the ground and the top it's disconcerting but they always do [Music] it the most glamorous Majestic and impressive way to travel to you who think nothing of 500 m in a day in your modern cars this may seem a little slow we traveled about 12 m a day but they would have been 12 hard and exhausting miles if we had had to travel them on [Music] foot the moment the babies got into the water they wanted to stop and play but you will notice how the mothers pushed them along saying come on now this is no time to fool we are doing a job of work get along with [Music] you [Music] for and at last above the forest we have come to the village and we are here with the priestesses of the snake this picture represents four generations of these women the old great grandmother spoking her sherut has served the living snake God all her life her granddaughter is a priestess and handles snakes but she cannot do so now she is nursing a baby daughter and the aura of the snake God would enter her milk and poison the child the president Priestess is the child's grandmother she is pulverizing softwood on a piece of rough Stone the sacred powder with which every burmes or Shan woman covers her face and her neck before any religious ceremonial we are close to the scenes which we have sought so long and so far she is preparing to leave the village to go up the mountain to the cave where the snake God lives for over a year there has not been a male child born in the tribe the snake God is the god of fertility and the snake God is angry so the villagers have come in the old traditional way to beg her to go and work her power upon the snake and intercede with the god watch the most Fearless woman I have ever met about 45 perhaps slight and wiry with coarse features and coarse hands yet I never saw I think a more graceful woman we have started with her now up the mountain there are about 20 of us in bullet carts without Springs on a trail so rough that before long I wish I had gone on foot the axles make a deafening streaks they are left unlubricated so that their screeching will scare and keep away the evil spirits we climb on as far as the bullet carts can go then we climb on foot up wild Rocky Ravines toward the top it's getting cold appear here 6,000 ft up from the plains a strange procession drums and gongs which will play ceaselessly while the Priestess is with the [Music] gods another man carries a platter full of offerings the Priestess herself unconcerned completely fearless and yet the snake which you will see her handle is the terrible ham or king cobra the largest and most vicious of the cobras its bite contains enough Venom to kill a 100 men two of her sisters have been killed by the bite of this snake her husband is blind blinded as the result of a scratch from the Cobra's fangs here she is at the mouth of the cave making offerings to the god the snake of course will not consume bananas and coconut this is a symbolic [Music] offering rice seed symbolic of fertility scattered to the Four Winds of [Music] Heaven now she is calling the god what magic she uses to call the God out of that cave I don't know she is murmuring incantations in a voice too low to be heard and there comes the god you will see her in turn yield and again dominate The Snake a terrifying performance the snake struck at her repeatedly you will see its gleaming fangs when she got through the front of her dress was covered with splotches of yellow Venom where the snake had struck between her knees or to the side of her knees to assert her domination and to obtain the favor she wants three times she must lean over the snake and kiss it on top of the head [Music] [Music] I'm [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] a [Music] a