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KORNO SiGA, 
 
 THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF; 
 
 OR, 
 
 LIKB IN ASSAM. 
 
 BY 
 
 Mrs. MILDRED 'mARSTON. f-^?..v..-L- 
 
 
 V 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE HON. JABS M. HOYT. 
 
 -■,' o- 
 
 '0/Vq, 
 
 I SFP 191889 
 
 philadelphia : 
 The American Sunday-School Union, 
 
 1122 Chestnut Street. 
 
 NEW YOEK: 8 AND 10 BIBLE HOUSE. 
 

AFFECTIONATET.Y DEDICATED TO 
 
 MY CHILDREN; 
 
 WHO DURING ALL THE YEARS OF MY WIDOWHOOD HAVE 
 BEEN BEAUTIFULLY LOYAL TO THEIR 
 
 father's memory, 
 
 AND TO 
 
 THEIR MOTHER. 
 
 [Copyright by The American Sunday-School Union, 1889.] 
 
 (3) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface 7 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 How IT Came About that I Went to India . 9 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 I AWAIT the Openings of Providence . . 21 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Our Voyage to India 28 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Assam and the Assamese 38 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Hill Tribes of Assam . . . .50 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Our Mountain Home 56 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 KoRNO SiGA, the Mountain Chief . . . 66 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Serving a Priest for Eternal Life . . 72 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Earthquakes and White Ants ... 79 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 An Assamese Fairy Tale 88 
 
 (5) 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XL page 
 
 KORNO SiGA AS A StUDENT . . . .92 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 KoRNO Siga's Bride 98 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Snake Charmers and Royal Bengal Tigers . 109 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 KoRNO SiGA Becomes a Chief . . . .122 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Hashish, Opium, and Brandy . . . .128 
 
 CHAPTER XYI. 
 
 KORNO SiGA AND THE THIBETAN BUDDHIST . 136 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Tea Cultivation, and Other Industries of 
 Assam 149 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 A Day of Darkness 157 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 Light in the Darkness 167 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 Woman's Work tor Wojian . . . .172 
 
 CIIAPTKR XXL 
 Homeward Bound 179 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 Impressions of Ameuica after an Absence of 
 Years 193 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 Why Return to Assam? 201 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 A PERSONAL acquaintance for many years 
 with the author of this book, gives me full 
 warrant to assure its readers that its recitals of 
 missionary life and experience may be implicitly 
 accepted as true. 
 
 The volume is not an imaginative portraiture of 
 characters and events, said — in the ordinary phrase 
 — to be "founded on fact/' but it portrays from 
 actual life the facts of missionary labor and expe- 
 rience as they occurred. The sole exception to strict 
 verity is that the persons acting appear under as- 
 sumed instead of their real names. For this sub- 
 stitution there were in the view of the author valid 
 reasons : First ; that as an active participant, yet 
 living, in the labors, dangers, trials, sorrows, joys 
 and spiritual achievements portrayed, the narrator 
 would be thus shielded from what might, otherwise^ 
 be deemed undue self-assertion. Second, and more 
 important ; as a missionary of ripe experience the 
 author could not otherwise present, with the warm 
 commendation justly deserved, the noble and pre- 
 cious fruits and attainments seen in the lives of 
 
 (7) 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 converts from heathen degradation to the purity 
 and liberty y/herewith Christ had made them free, 
 without hazard of possible spiritual injury to some 
 still living in the field referred to who might be 
 unduly elated by such public praise. 
 
 For these reasons I take pleasure in presenting 
 for my friend this explanatory preface ; a pleasure, 
 also, heightened by my estimate of the rare value 
 of the narrative itself. As an earnest of its prac- 
 tical usefulness I add that my own heart, I trust, 
 has been quickened by it to renewed and deeper 
 interest in Christian missions to the heathen. 
 
 The recital in this narrative of God's call to a 
 missionary life in heathen lands, and the thought- 
 ful, prayerful, and at length loyal response to that 
 call, and the precious spiritual results ensuing, sig- 
 nally verify the beautiful recognition of a divine 
 overruling in the psalm of AVhittier : 
 
 " That more and more a Providence 
 Of love is understood, 
 Making the springs of time and sense 
 Sweet with eternal good." 
 
 James ]\I. Hoyt. 
 Cleveland, 0., Aug. 12, 1889. 
 
KOENO SIGA, 
 
 THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HOW IT CAME ABOUT THAT I WENT TO INDIA. 
 
 FOR several years my children have been urging 
 me to write the story of my life in India. 
 But as I am no writer, and have all my life been 
 a hard-working woman in other fields save that of 
 literature, I have hesitated much before undertak- 
 ing this task. I have consoled myself, however, 
 with the thought that the little book may be of 
 interest to my children and personal friends, even 
 though it is never so fortunate as to appear in 
 print. 
 
 When I was quite a little girl, I thought a great 
 deal about the people of that far-off land. My 
 father was a great reader and a cosmopolitan, 
 though he was a farmer and had never travelled 
 beyond the confines of the United States of Amer- 
 ica. He used to talk with me about the books he 
 
 (9) 
 
10 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 read and tell me most interesting stories of the 
 strange peoples in foreign countries. And I al- 
 ways was especially interested in the people of 
 India. 
 
 My father was an earnest Christian man and 
 deeply interested in the civilization and Christian- 
 ization of the peoples of the earth, and I can never 
 forget the stories he told me of Xavier, Marshman, 
 Carey and Judson. And I would sit for hours 
 wondering about all these things. As I grew older 
 I read everything I could find about the people of 
 India, and when I learned how ignorant and un- 
 happy the women and children were, I wondered 
 if it would ever be in my power to help them and 
 in any way to better their condition. 
 
 At times I fancied myself embarking for " In- 
 dia's coral strand,^' and in imagination saw my 
 relatives and friends bidding me a tearful farewell 
 as I left them to sail away over the seas. IMany a 
 time did I go into my mother's bed-room and bolt 
 the door, and softly sing to myself an old hymn 
 which I found in my mother's Psalmist : 
 
 " Yes, my native land, I love thee, 
 All thy scenes I love them well ; 
 Friends, connections, happy country, 
 Can I leave them far in heathen lands to dwell ? 
 Yes, I hasten from tliee gladly ; 
 Lovely native land, farewell." 
 
 The years of my childhood passed rapidly and 
 
HOW IT CAME THAT I WENT TO INDIA. 11 
 
 happily away, and at the age of eleven I entered 
 the academy of my native town, still hoping that 
 the time might come when I could make my home 
 in India. My eldest brother, who was my teacher 
 in the academy, took much interest in my intel- 
 lectual development, and it was a sad loss to me 
 when he fell a victim to cholera on the 18th of 
 July, 1851. 
 
 My next teacher was a much-beloved pastor, in 
 whose judgment I had great confidence. During 
 the winter following my brother's death a new 
 minister, who was candidating for a church, talked 
 to the children of our Sunday-school on Sunday at 
 the close of the session. His words made a deep 
 and lasting impression upon me, and I well re- 
 member these words as he urged the children one 
 and all to " seek the Saviour early ; " for the prom- 
 ise was, that all such should find him. After the 
 Sunday-school closed I heard the deacons and 
 other members of the church criticising my good 
 minister, and calling him ^^poky.'' One of the 
 deacons remarked, that such a stupid man would be 
 obliged to travel a long distance before he would 
 find a church that would settle him as their pastor. 
 And all the while my young heart was pleading 
 for him as the one minister that had spoken words 
 more forcible and impressive than all others. I 
 have never seen that so-called "poky" man from 
 that day to this, but if I am ever permitted to look 
 
12 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 upon his face in a better world, where none are 
 "poky," and where poor ministers do not have to 
 go around candidating for churches which cruelly 
 criticise them, I shall take his hand and tell him 
 that he was the means of leading me out of nature's 
 darkness into the sweet light of a faith in a risen 
 Christ. Moreover, I shall tell him that the sheaves 
 I have gathered in India and elsewhere, have all 
 come from the seed he sowed long ago in that lit- 
 tle country Sunday-school, where the deacons 
 all thought he would never do any good. 
 
 When I was about seventeen years old, and just 
 before I left the academy, my teacher urged upon 
 me the importance of the study of the Greek lan- 
 guage, and gave me to understand that he thought 
 I would need it very much some day in trans- 
 lating languages in foreign countries. I was 
 much surprised that he should have thought of 
 such a future for me, for I had never told him of 
 what my thoughts had been with reference to this 
 subject. Indeed, I was very reluctant that any 
 one should know I had thought of going to India, 
 for I had become acquainted with a young man 
 who interested me more than did the people of In- 
 dia. He w^as handsome, good and intelb'gent, and 
 by the time I was nineteen years old had succeeded 
 in convincing me that it was more important that 
 I should look after his physical and spiritual well- 
 being than that I should go on an Indian mission, 
 
HOW IT CAME THAT I WENT TO INDIA. 13 
 
 and scatter my efforts among the Hindoos. He 
 being present to urge his claims, got the better of 
 the poor East Indians in the argument ; for they, 
 poor things, were far away in the jungles eating 
 grasshoppers and chewing the betel-nut. And so 
 I promised Theodore Osborne that I would be his 
 wedded wife provided I could quit thinking it to 
 be my duty to go to India. He said he would 
 take me to our western frontier and give me a 
 chance to work for the North American Indians, 
 if I must work for Indians of some kind, and thus 
 I could at the same time make him supremely 
 happy. In order to satisfy conscience fully, which 
 by the way has always been a very troublesome 
 part of my organization, I made a solemn vow be- 
 fore my God that if I ever had a son I would 
 name him either Carey or Judson, and train him 
 from his earliest infancy to be a missionary to 
 India. "And a man can do immeasurably more 
 good than a woman, and hence this plan will be 
 far better than if I went myself,^ ^ I argued with 
 my conscience. There were times when I would 
 be intensely angry at this Indian question for con- 
 tinually presenting itself to me. I did not see 
 why the other girls of my acquaintance should not 
 be treated to an occasional dose of it. They never 
 seemed to be burdened with such a thought, and 
 could love and wed whom they chose. 
 
 During the summer of 1859 I bade my intended 
 2 
 
14 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF, 
 
 husband a brief farewell, and. went with a dearly 
 loved sister to visit our uncle's family in the north- 
 ern part of our State. There we had a most 
 delightful visit with our young cousins and friends. 
 We scoured the country for caves and natural 
 curiosities generally, and spent pleasant days in 
 fishing and hunting. 
 
 One Sunday morning a large and gay company 
 of us went to a rude little church in the woods. 
 We had been having a very hilarious time as we 
 drove through the grand old forest, and I was in 
 no reverent nor devotional frame of mind as I 
 entered the church. Indeed, if I must tell the 
 whole truth, I had shunned churches for months, 
 fearing that I might hear something there that 
 would cause my conscience again to clamor for the 
 East Indians. How well I remember saying to 
 myself as I ascended the churcli steps that morn- 
 ing : " Well, I shall not hear anything about 
 foreign missions here : it is too far out in the 
 woods for them to know or care anything about 
 India.'' 
 
 The preacher was a young man of about thirty 
 years, a professor of Latin in a neighboring college, 
 of prepossessing personal appearance and withal a 
 fine scholar. So absorbed was I, however, in my 
 own reflections that I did not observe him until he 
 announced his text : ^' Go ye into all the world, 
 and preach the gospel to every creature," etc. 
 
HOW IT CAME THAT I WENT TO INDIA. 15 
 
 Every word of that sermon went to my heart, and 
 after this long lapse of years I can recall sentence 
 after sentence, which seemed intended for me per- 
 sonally. From that moment my old convictions 
 returned with double power, and I was compelled 
 to reconsider the subject and have it out with my 
 conscience. I almost wished that I had been born 
 without a conscience. I dared not tell any one of 
 the fearful mental struggle through which I was 
 passing, and though I frequently met the young 
 preacher, I did not deem it wise to unburden my 
 heart to him. I was glad when our visit came to 
 an end and we turned our faces homeward. My 
 sister often asked me why I was so sad and self- 
 absorbed, but I gave her no clue to my thoughts. 
 The young minister and a cousin of ours went with 
 us to our home, and it certainly was not for want 
 of agreeable society that I was silent. As soon as 
 I reached home I resolved that I would honestly 
 decide this subject. I wrote to my former pastor 
 and teacher, describing my condition by quoting 
 the first three verses of the sixty-ninth Psalm. I 
 asked him to tell me what I ought to do ; could it 
 be right for me to break an engagement with Mr. 
 Osborne, when by so doing my heart would be 
 broken in twain ? My pastor's letter in reply I 
 have before me now. It was a great help and 
 comfort to me. It begins thus : 
 
 "Amid the changing scenes of this fleeting life 
 
16 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 it is a comfort to God's children to know tliat his 
 loving kindness never fails them;" and then it 
 goes on to say how safe it is always to follow a 
 conscience enlightened by God's Spirit, and that 
 those who are thus led shall lack for no good 
 thing. How much more those words mean to me 
 now than they did then ! I have tested them and 
 found them true. To make my story as short as 
 possible, I will only add that I resolved in a few 
 days after receiving this letter that I would tell 
 Mr. Osborne all about the experience through 
 which I had passed, and ask him as a Christian 
 man what he thought I ought to do. Had I not 
 been aided by an unseen Power I think I never 
 could have borne up during that trying ordeal. It 
 nearly broke my heart to see my beloved so sorely 
 grieved as he was, when he found that I still felt 
 that I had a personal work to do in a distant land 
 which would involve a separation from him. But 
 in the midst of his sorrow this nol)le man was 
 strong enough to say : Mildred, you must follow 
 the path of duty without reference to me, even 
 though my disappointment should kill me. I have 
 no sense of personal duty to the heathen ; you have, 
 and God and your own conscience must decide 
 your course of conduct. But I would like to ask 
 you one question : has that minister who preached 
 the sermon in that country church from the text, 
 " Go ye into all the world,'' etc., got anything to 
 
HOW IT CAME THAT I WENT TO INDIA. 17 
 
 do with your present state of mind ? Is he going 
 
 as a foreign missionary ? I assured him that the 
 
 minister had long been engaged to my cousin, and 
 
 tliat he had not the shghtest idea of going as a 
 
 missionary. Moreover that if he were not engaged, 
 
 and if he Avere going to India, I should never go 
 
 with him but should go out single and as a teacher, 
 
 if I went at all. This assurance seemed to relieve 
 
 his mind, and he said that he thouglit that much 
 
 of my mental agitation about it being my duty, 
 
 arose from a nervous condition, and that he had 
 
 but little doubt I would give up India when I 
 
 had fully rested from my journey and Avas once 
 
 quietly settled down to life with him. 
 
 On the Sunday following this conversation I 
 
 took my Bible and shut myself in my room that I 
 
 might seek guidance from the All-Father, in this 
 
 important matter. I had reached a point when I 
 
 was almost desperate, and there was no earthly 
 
 being who seemed able to help me in making a final 
 
 decision. Very solemnly impressed was I that my 
 
 whole future happiness and usefulness depended 
 
 upon the course I now took. 
 
 " There is a time we know not when, 
 . A point we know not where, 
 That marks the destiny of man 
 To glory or despair." 
 
 An old proverb says : " To everything there is 
 
 a season.^^ 
 
 2* 
 
18 KORNO SIGA, THE 3I0UNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 Shakespeare words the sarae thought somewhat 
 differently : 
 
 " There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
 Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; 
 Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
 Is bound in shallows and in miseries." 
 
 And I felt most sensibly that such a time had 
 come in my own life. For hours I remained in 
 agony of grief and perplexity that I had never be- 
 fore experienced. I could not turn my heart away 
 from him whose love was my highest earthly joy. 
 I could not get strength of will to say ; " Thy will, 
 O God, be done." And so I wrestled and prayed 
 for guiding wisdom until a superhuman strength 
 and calmness seemed to come to me which enabled 
 me to say : " I can do all things through Christ 
 which strengtheneth me." Phil. 4 : 13. 
 
 I opened my Bible with an earnest desire that 
 the first sentence upon which my eyes should rest 
 might tell me plainly my duty. Judge of my 
 surprise Avhen a clause of the twentieth verse of 
 the fourth chapter of Lamentations met my gaze : 
 "Under his shadow we shall live among; the 
 heathen." The word "Under" begins with a 
 capital and the sentence is complete in itself I 
 had never before noticed the sentence, and it 
 seemed to me almost like a revelation from 
 heaven. At any rate it was the means by which 
 
ROW IT CAME THAT I WENT TO INDIA. 19 
 
 I positively decided to prepare myself for work in 
 India, provided the way should ever open for me 
 to go there. 
 
 In less than a month from this time, I was in a 
 distant city attending college and pursuing those 
 very studies which my good pastor and teacher 
 had years before urged upon me. I did not see 
 Theodore Osborne again until after he was happily 
 married to one who was in every w^ay better suited 
 to him than ever I could have been. Although 
 we thought when we plighted our troth that no 
 two people ever loved as we did, I am sure that 
 the depths of my heart's affection had never been 
 touched with the tender passion, and that he and I 
 each learned afterwards to love another person far 
 more than we had loved each other. 
 
 And I was happier from this time than I had 
 been during those years when I carried a self- 
 accusing conscience and a smothering of personal 
 obligation to my Master and his needy children in 
 India. Far better was it, to follow the leadings 
 of the Spirit, and trust to an all-wise Father to 
 right the error I had made in making a Avrong 
 promise and selling my birthright. It is the duty 
 of individuals as well as of nations to be true to 
 their highest destiny. But many of Mr. Os- 
 borne's friends and some of my own, censured me 
 severely for the course I then took. Some called 
 me an unbalanced enthusiast ; others said I was a 
 
20 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 crank and a fanatic, and that " I would see the 
 day when I would give my head to have the love 
 of such a man as Theodore Osborne ; he was a 
 hundred times too good for me anyhow." My 
 own dear relatives, however, were in full sym- 
 pathy with me and bade me a hearty " God-speed " 
 as I went away to college. 
 
 When I returned home after graduating in my 
 course of study, the way had not opened for me 
 to go to India, and I joined my sister in teaching 
 a private school, and became deeply interested 
 in the progress of our pupils, who were a delight- 
 ful class of about forty young ladies. My pastor's 
 wife, ever a true friend to me, Avrote in my behalf 
 to the headquarters of missionary operations for 
 our church, and told them of my desire to go as a 
 teacher to India ; and the good old secretary, w^ho 
 has long since gone to a better world, wrote in 
 reply : " I can only bid the young lady to await 
 the openings of Providence." 
 
 " There are some gifts that Heaven denies 
 
 More blest withheld than richly given ; 
 There are some storms that darkly rise, 
 More blest than all the cloudless skies 
 
 That make another's earthly heaven. 
 We know not till the middle day, 
 
 What tokens best befit the dawn ; 
 The clouds that weep our morn away 
 Fit oft, for heaven's serenest ray, 
 
 When the full strength of life comes on." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 I AWAIT THE OPENINGS OF PEOVIDENCE. 
 
 I CONTINUED teaching in my sister's school^ 
 but all the while I was awaiting the openings 
 of Providence. 
 
 Once I thought the door open for me, and set 
 about an outfit for a residence in India. A lady 
 of much experience in educational work in India 
 offered me a position as teacher in one of her 
 schools there, and Avished me to sail at once. My 
 father, more wise and cautious than I, insisted 
 upon a thorough investigation of the lady's mental 
 condition. From her letters to me, he had gained 
 an evidence of what he thought a vagarious state, 
 and he even suspected incipient insanity. And so 
 he bade me wait a year before sailing, assuring me 
 that if at the end of that time my estimable patron 
 proved to be compos mentis he would offer no 
 further objections. Meanwhile he made a most 
 diligent and searching investigation, and found 
 that several of her ancestors had been insane, and 
 that tAvo members of her family besides herself 
 were hovering on the border land. Before the 
 end of the year she was unmistakably insane and 
 
 (21) 
 
22 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF, 
 
 thus a door closed, instead of an opening of Provi- 
 dence, confronted me, and those who had regarded 
 me as a crank, now hoped I would be cured of my 
 wild notions and settle down at home like a sen- 
 sible girl. I was now twenty-two years old, and 
 though I was in haste to be on my way, I knew 
 that even if I was delayed several years I should 
 still be young enough to hope for many years' 
 work in India. I never seemed to doubt but that 
 I had a work to do there, and I felt sure that the 
 Lord of the vineyard would see tliat I got there 
 in his own good time and way. I continued teach- 
 ing and was happy in my work. 
 
 And now there came to me a strange letter 
 from one whom I had never seen. I copy it 
 here: 
 
 "Miss Mildred Prescott: 
 
 "Dear Madam: — The accompanying note of introduction 
 from the pen of an old friend of yours may be deemed a suf- 
 ficient apology for what might otherwise be quite intrusive. 
 You may have noticed my name connected with an appoint- 
 ment to work as a missionary in foreign lands. I have for 
 over a year had the pleasure of a somewhat intimate acquaint- 
 ance with your former pastor's wife, being permitted to enjoy 
 her hearty co-operation in most valuable labor and advice 
 during a revival of religion last winter. During conversa- 
 tions with her she has several times incidently spoken of you, 
 and your adaptation to such a work as I have chosen. You 
 will permit me, therefore, without further introduction, to pro- 
 pose the object of this note, trusting that no offence will be 
 taken, however the proposition may be considered or strange 
 
I AWAIT THE OPENINGS OF PROVIDENCE. 23 
 
 it may appear. My interrogatory proposition is this : Is your 
 devotion to our common Master's cause, its interest and ex- 
 tension, and your love for the heathen deep and strong enough 
 to prompt you to leave hallowed associations, to forsake the 
 protection and company of long-tried and well-loved friends, 
 and commit yourself to the protection and confide in the 
 fidelity of a comparative stranger in a distant land of labor 
 and trial, and doubtless of privation, and perhaps persecu- 
 tion? 
 
 "If thus you judge after mature reflection, and can consent 
 to the general proposition, you will allow me to make it more 
 specific and personal by referring you to the following gen- 
 tlemen : 
 
 [Here follows a long list of D.D. and LL.D. worthies.] 
 " If after such investigation as you think necessary, you shall 
 choose to return to me a favorable reply to the general propo- 
 sition, and to so much of that relating to me personally as 
 may be done without committing yourself, it will give me pleas- 
 ure with your consent to visit you in a few weeks, when, by a 
 personal interview, the question can assume a more tangible 
 form. I am not unmindful that this is a most momentous 
 proposal if considered affirmatively, and it has only been 
 after much thought and earnest prayer, that I have dared to 
 enter upon a transaction which involves such interests not 
 only to the parties concerned, but also to the kingdom of 
 Christ. Whether the finger of Providence has pointed me to 
 you or not, must be confirmed by the direction he shall point 
 you. I will simply add that the time is short. I am to sail 
 for India next June, but missionaries should be ' minute men,' 
 should they not? May I hope to hear from you as soon as 
 deliberate thought shall render a deliberate decision ? 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 "Henry C. Marston." 
 
 Strange letter this, and it required days of re- 
 flection before I reached a " deliberate decision." 
 
24 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 I was very strongly prejudiced against a marriage 
 for the sake of convenience, and most of all it 
 seemed to me that a marriage made for the sake of 
 getting a chance to go as a missionary was the 
 veriest sacrilege. One of my college classmates 
 had become the fifth wife of an old missionary in 
 China, and when he had proposed to her he had 
 asked her if she ^^ was willing to lay herself on the 
 altar of missions." I was so disgusted with her 
 for becoming the fifth sacrifice of that kind that I 
 vowed I would preach against such immolation as 
 long as I had power to speak. Personally, I 
 must know and love the man I married for his 
 own intrinsic worth. What a terrible thing it 
 would be to marry a man because he was a mis- 
 sionary, and find after I got to India that I despised 
 him ! I wrote to the friend who gave Mr. Marston 
 the note of introduction to me and asked her all 
 manner of questions as to his mental and moral 
 excellence, and her reply was certainly all that I 
 could desire. I did not write to any of those 
 D.D.'s and LL.D's. What did they know about 
 the kind of a husband that w^ould suit me ? They 
 might commend him to me, because they wanted 
 him to sail soon for India. 
 
 The letter Avhich I Avrote to Mr. Marston is 
 before me now written in a cramped school-girl 
 hand which I discarded more than a score of years 
 ago. It reads thus : 
 
/ AWAIT THE OPENINGS OF PROVIDENCE. 25 
 
 "Key. Henry C. Marston: 
 
 "Dear Sir : — Yours of the 9th of March came duly to hand. 
 I have perhaps delayed longer in the answering of it than I 
 should, considering how soon you must sail for India. The 
 proposition is one of such vital interest to the parties con- 
 cerned that I am still wholly unprepared to return either an 
 affirmative or negative reply. I have for years stood pledged 
 to go as a missionary to India, should the way be opened for 
 me in such a manner that I could see God's hand leading me 
 in that direction. Whether he is now opening the way for 
 me to go in company with you, it is as yet quite impossible 
 for me to say ; but in view of all this uncertainty, if you still 
 wish to visit me and talk the matter over frankly, you can 
 do so. " Yours truly, 
 
 "Mildred Prescott." 
 
 Three weeks from the date of that letter Mr. M. 
 came to visit me. We had interchanged several 
 letters, and hence did not meet as entire strangers. 
 It was Saturday afternoon at three o^clock when 
 he was announced. I had pictured him in imagi- 
 nation as being tall and of commanding appearance, 
 with a high intellectual-looking forehead and large 
 black eyes. In all these respects he was as I had 
 imagined, except that his eyes were dark blue 
 instead of black. 
 
 His powers as a conversationalist were rare, and 
 he soon succeeded in interesting me deeply in 
 himself, as well as in his chosen work. Indeed his 
 work was what I had always been interested in 
 when I would allow my better nature to guide me. 
 He told me of his sainted mother and aged father, 
 
26 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 and how these dear parents had at birth consecrated 
 him to the work of foreign missions, but had told 
 him nothing of it until he had declared to his 
 father his purpose to go as a missionary to India. 
 His mother had died while he was still a student 
 in college. The father, now beginning to feel the 
 infirmities of old as^e and his whole heart beings 
 wrapped up in this his only son, had taken back 
 the gift he had made and strongly opposed his 
 son's becoming a missionary to distant lands. But 
 within a few months past he had cheerfully given 
 his consent, and was almost as enthusiastic in his 
 son's plans as if he were himself going to India. 
 Quite needless is it that I should tell you of all the 
 conversation of that long-to-be-remembered after- 
 noon. You could not be as much interested in it 
 as I was. 
 
 He preached in our church the next day, and \\q 
 again sj)ent an afternoon together. All of my 
 relatives were delighted with him. Thus the days 
 passed until the morning came on which I was to 
 give him an answer. I had arisen early and had 
 gone for a walk in the garden before breakfast. I 
 had not expected ]\Ir. Marston to put in his appear- 
 ance before ten o'clock. I was stooping doAvn 
 over a too-spreading juniper shrub which was 
 crowding out some delicate plants, when a voice 
 clear and strong came to my ears, " Well, INIildred, 
 wliat word have you for me this morning ? " He 
 
I AWAIT THE OPEmNGS OF PROVIDENCE. 27 
 
 had come before breakfast, he said, that he might 
 learn his fate, and naively added that he might 
 never want any breakfast. AYe were both standing 
 with downcast faces looking at that juniper shrub 
 as though all our hopes were centred in it. 
 
 He waited silently for my answer which was: 
 " Oh, if you are to starve until I say what you 
 wish me to say, then I have here and now an 
 unqualified and positive ^yes' for you." He 
 smiled as only he could smile and said, " Thank 
 you : you have made me very hap^iy." 
 
 At this point my father called us in for morning 
 prayers, and my pastor being present he read the 
 Scripture about Isaac and Rebekah, and I was 
 quite sure there was mischief in his eyes when he 
 repeated the verse : " Wilt thou go with this 
 young man? And she said, I will go." Six 
 weeks from that morning we were married in the 
 village church where I had worshipped with parents 
 and dear brothers and sisters from my childhood's 
 days. And then amid tears, sobs and fond part- 
 ing words we left our friends and started toward 
 our distant home in the Orient. When Henry 
 had asked my parents for me they had answered, 
 " We know that the hand of the Lord is in this 
 thing and Ave dare not say, no. Take her and 
 may Heaven's richest blessing rest upon you both, 
 my precious children." And thus it was that I 
 awaited the openings of Providence. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 OUR VOYAGE TO INDIA. 
 
 " Dear is our native land, 
 
 And sweet the light of home, 
 And starlike is the band 
 
 In friendship's beauteous dome. 
 But a brighter morning star 
 
 Invites our footsteps on 
 To eastern climes afar. 
 
 To the land of the rising sun. 
 On, On, On I 
 Hope's bright and morning star 
 
 Invites our footsteps on 
 To eastern climes afar, 
 
 To the land of the rising sun." 
 
 ON the 20th day of June we sailed in a merchant 
 vessel for Calcutta. Four months were we 
 sailing upon the ocean without once setting foot on 
 terra jirma. I was the only woman on board, and 
 Mr. Marston and I were the only j3assengers. The 
 account which I had to settle with old Neptune 
 required almost all of my time for the first two 
 weeks. I was so deathly sick at times that I could 
 think of no better disposal of myself than to beg 
 that they would lower me into the sea until they 
 found a place where the waves no longer tossed, 
 (28J 
 
OUR VOYAGE TO INDIA. 29 
 
 and where my poor stomach might find a much- 
 needed repose. But I proved to be a pretty good 
 sailor in spite of my first dreadful experience. 
 
 From Mr. Marston^s journal I copy the story 
 of our voyage. 
 
 "Ju7ie 20. After these weeks of preparation 
 and of sad farewells we are come at length to the 
 side of the great sea which separates us from our 
 chosen work. This morning at nine o'clock we 
 are on board a ship bound for Calcutta. A steam 
 tug tows us out ten miles or thereabouts ; we pick 
 our way amid ships and water craft of all kinds 
 and fashions, from small row-boats to ocean 
 steamers. The sun with kindly rays gilds with 
 beauteous tint the last vision our eyes may ever 
 behold in our native land, and Boston slowly sinks 
 from our lingering gaze. Good-bye, dear native 
 land; to thee I owe much, but to my Saviour 
 more. While to him I owe my first affection and 
 my best service, thou shalt ever fill one of the 
 pleasantest palaces of my heart. Fair and beauti- 
 ful Columbia, a long good-bye ! The breeze be- 
 gins to freshen, the ship feels the burden of the 
 canvas and bows under the pressure of the wind, 
 as the trees of the forest. Mildred begins to look 
 white about the mouth and retires to her ^ shelf 
 for the night. 
 
 "June 23. I have been having a sore battle 
 with the angry sea-god, and so has Mildred, poor 
 
so KORNO SIGA, THE 3I0UNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 girl. Tliis perpetual rolling and rocking is enough 
 to set one's head crazy ; mine seems as though it 
 would burst, and Mildred cannot raise hers from 
 the pillow. 
 
 "June 24. This morning a feeling of gloom 
 pervades our little community. About midnight 
 one of our crew, a fine-looking sailor, went over- 
 board. The wind was piling the sea in large 
 waves and it was intensely dark, that nothing 
 could be done to save him. Poor fellow, he had 
 the ^ horrors ; ' had been made drunk by those 
 who thus entrap sailors to go on a long, undesira- 
 ble sea voyage. When he came to himself he gave 
 w^ay to despair. He talked of his family, whom 
 he had not seen for eight years; he walked the 
 deck in a frenzied state, and then with a maniacal 
 scream he threw himself into the wild, dark waters, 
 another victim to alcohol. He who despoiled this 
 man of his reason knows little and cares less wliat 
 anxious wife and children await in vain his home- 
 coming. ' Woe unto him that giveth his neigh- 
 bor drink, that putteth thy bottle to him, and 
 makest him drunken also.' Hab. 2 : 15. 
 
 "July 4. Longitude 33° 49'— Latitude 32° 
 31'. I am now so far advanced in nautical 
 ability that I can take the ship's reckonings as 
 Avell as the captain. Indeed the captain says, if 
 the ship by chance should be left in my hands, I 
 could take her safely into port. But I am not as 
 
OVR VOYAGE TO INDIA. 31 
 
 yet sufficiently nimble as a sailor to climb the rope 
 ladder to the mast head, nor can I tell yarns equal 
 to the sailors. We have no fire-crackers nor 
 Roman candles with which to celebrate this, our 
 natal day of America, but have hoisted our grand 
 old flag of the stars and stripes out here on the 
 broad ocean fifteen hundred miles from land, and 
 nearly two thousand miles from home. We have 
 just passed a British ship and a Bremen brig, and 
 we are proud to proclaim to them that we hail 
 from ^ the land of the free, and the home of the 
 brave.' 
 
 ^'July 28. To-day we have passed many of 
 those little shell-fish, the nautilus, which the 
 sailors call ^Portuguese men-of-war.' They are 
 beautiful little fellows with membranous sails 
 spotted with blue and pink, which they hoist to 
 the winds while they propel themselves by means 
 of numerous tentacles which surround the mouth 
 and stretch down into the water. A school of 
 porpoises is playing leap-frog near our ship, and 
 seem to enjoy the sport hugely. You have often 
 read of the stormy petrel, or, as the sailors term it, 
 ^ Mother Carey's chicken.' These little birds have 
 been with us ever since we got well out at sea. 
 They are about the size of our American robin, of 
 brown color ; they have long legs and a short tail 
 and are web-footed. Though we are a thousand 
 miles from land they are all about our ship, never 
 
32 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF, 
 
 alighting day nor night, except as they stand with 
 extended wings on the water as they eat something 
 thrown from our ship. In stormy weather they 
 are full of wild delight, playing antics of all kinds 
 with the waves. 
 
 ^^ Sept 3. Imagine yourself tossed and rocked 
 incessantly day and night for weeks, and with no 
 escape from it. We have just come out of a severe 
 storm, and we have realized all the terrible gran- 
 deur and greater awful ness of a storm at sea. The 
 wind coming to us from the west in ever increas- 
 ing gusts lifted up the waves in huge piles, which 
 curved upon themselves and lashed the sea into a 
 snowy white foam. As we gaze out upon the 
 angry elements, the waves seem to fall upon each 
 other like infuriated beasts roaring at their very 
 impotence to resist the fury of the winds, which, 
 as in malicious sport, snatch the foaming crests 
 from their ow^ners, and, tossing them into millions 
 of atoms, scatter them like drifting snow through 
 the air. Now we mount up on the crest of a huge 
 wave, while, beneath us on either side, yawns a 
 frightful gulf into which we shall soon slide 
 rapidly down. As we gaze upward from the 
 chasm the seas seem consulting as to the way they 
 may most effectually destroy us. One wave more 
 savage than the rest shivers our little cabin window, 
 and deluges our berths and clothing in a most un- 
 comfortable manner. We are rounding the Cape 
 
OUR VOYAGE TO INDIA. 33 
 
 of Good Hope, and we have decided to call it here- 
 after Cape Despair. In the midst of the storm, as 
 Mildred was standing in the cabin-door looking out 
 upon the terrific storm, she espied a Dutch brig 
 only a short distance from us, the storm causing 
 the atmosphere to be almost black with its gloom, 
 and the brig also in a trough of the sea so that 
 none of the ship's crew had seen it. Mildred 
 called out loudly, ^ a vessel.' And the captain had 
 barely time to turn the ship's course sufficiently to 
 escape a collision. We could almost touch the 
 brig as she passed us. But the storm with all its 
 black fury at length subsided. 'The Lord on 
 high is mightier than the noise of many waters, 
 yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.' And the 
 storm rolls by, and he stills the angry seas. It is 
 in such seas and under such circumstances that 
 faith plumes her wings, and the heart is borne up 
 above the tumult towards God and immortality. 
 
 ^^Sept 29. One hundred and one days have 
 passed since we stood upon land, and only once 
 during this long period have we even sighted land, 
 and that was in the early part of our voyage when 
 adverse winds drove us within sight of the little 
 town of Macayo, on the eastern coast of Brazil. 
 We could see the little houses covered with red 
 tiles, but we could not land, and our ship was at 
 once tacked for the southeastern seas. This 29th 
 of September is the anniversary of the one great 
 3 
 
34 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 sorrow of my youth. Twelve years ago I lost a 
 mother of rare worth and aifection. 'She was 
 not/ for her Father called her home. Years have 
 not changed nor dimmed the love of my heart for 
 that priceless friend. Few are the days even noAT 
 which do not yield to me some precious remem- 
 brance of her. Who can estimate the value of a 
 loving Christian mother ? 
 
 " Have our friends at home wondered how we 
 pass our time on ship-board ? We have finished a 
 careful reading of the New Testament in English, 
 and nearly one-half of it in Greek, besides a con- 
 siderable study of the Old Testament in English. 
 For pastime, w^e have read two volumes of ' Rec- 
 reations of a Country Parson/ ^I§hmael in the 
 Wilderness/' and one or two of our best American 
 histories. We wish to be prepared to defend 
 American policy among the English whom we 
 shall meet in India. 
 
 " We have also read with much interest ' India, 
 Ancient and Modern,^ and ' Science a Witness for 
 the Bible." We are now reading ' Man Primeval,^ 
 and are reviewing the Epistle to the Hebrews 
 in Greek. In all these, Mildred shows quite as 
 much of interest and ability as any theological 
 student of the sterner sex. Who dares say that a 
 woman has not the mental capacity of a man? 
 Henceforth I am a strong advocate for women's 
 colleges, with the same course of study as that of 
 
OUR VOYAGE TO INDIA. 35 
 
 colleges for men. Yea^ I go further ; I claim co- 
 education for them whenever they desire it. 
 
 " We have also accomplished something in the 
 way of needle work, having finished an elegant 
 rug of bunting for our drawing-room in India. 
 The various arts of seafaring life have engrossed 
 an hour or two of our time each day, and it is quite 
 a satisfaction to me to feel that I could take our 
 ship into harbor if necessary. 
 
 ^^Oct 5. To-day there is a huge shark follow- 
 ing our ship, which fact is to our sailors a sure 
 prophecy of evil. How superstitious they are ! 
 For example, not one of them, from captain to 
 cook, could be persuaded to taste of flesh upon 
 which the moonshine has rested ; for, say they, 
 ^ the moon poisons it.' And they actually stared 
 at me in amazement when I proposed to test their 
 superstitious idea by breakfasting upon ^moon- 
 struck' chops. The meat was hurled overboard at 
 once. 
 
 "Oc^. 20. Our long voyage is at an end, and 
 to-day we once more set foot upon terra firma. 
 We are in Calcutta, the city of magnificent palaces 
 and of native squalor. We at once commence 
 making our purchases for our home in JSTorthern 
 India ; but we are hindered on every hand by the 
 Doorjah Poojah, a Hindoo festival which en- 
 grosses every native heart and head. Sacrifices 
 innumerable of goats and buffaloes are daily being 
 
36 KOENO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 offered, and the noise of the ' tam-tams ' is deafen- 
 ing. 
 
 ''Oct 31. We are on board a government 
 steamer to which are attached two flat-boats loaded 
 with Coolies for the Assam tea-gardens. There 
 are about five hundred of these Coolies crowded 
 together in filth and wretchedness. The cholera 
 is raging fearfully among them, and victim after 
 victim is pushed off into the Ganges as soon as life 
 is extinct. Bloated, putrid corpses are floating on 
 the water, or are lodged among the brakes and tall 
 jungle grass which line the low banks. And 
 now as the shades of night gather the jackals 
 come forth from their lurking places of the day, 
 and howl hideously over these dead bodies, as they 
 rend them in pieces and devour them. 
 
 "The moral and physical condition of the 
 natives is simply deplorable. And yet we are 
 told that the Hindoos have a religion quite as 
 good as the Christian, and that there is no need of 
 teachers and missionaries coming from Christian 
 countries to teach these poor wretches a better 
 way. 
 
 " The English officers who are our fellow-pas- 
 sengers are fond of casting slurs upon America 
 and the Yankees. 
 
 "Mildred becoming quite angry with one of 
 them at the dinner-table to-day, asked him to re- 
 member, that insignificant and barbarous as he 
 
OVR VOYAGE TO INDIA. 37 
 
 seemed to think America to be, she had whipped 
 England once, and was quite able to do it again. 
 Whereupon said Englishman subsided. 
 
 "iVov. 28. We stayed last night in a bungalow 
 on the banks of the Brahmapootra. A tiger was 
 prowling about all night, and made several at- 
 tempts to enter the bungalow. I tried to get a 
 shot at him, but failed. The poor natives are in 
 mortal terror of these animals, and never tire of 
 sounding the praises of the white man^s Christian 
 rifle. This morning we welcome a crowd of our 
 hill men who come to conduct us on our way, and 
 we mount our elephants, hired for the occasion, 
 and make our way through the jungles to our 
 future home. 
 
 "iVbv. 30. At home; a beautiful green spot, 
 the bungalow built of bamboo and the roof 
 covered with jungle grass ! How pleasant to be 
 at rest after these months of journeying by sea 
 and by land ! 
 
 " And now welcome work for the Master, and 
 good-bye to my journal of sketches by the way. 
 I send this off at once to the loved and loving 
 ones at home, who are anxiously awaiting tidings 
 from 
 
 "Henry and Mildred Marston." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ASSAM AND THE ASSAMESE. 
 
 HENCEFORTH our home was to be in the 
 province of Assam in Northeastern India. 
 
 The word Assam is of Sanscrit origin, and was 
 originally written Ahom. This word means un- 
 equalled, and the Assamese people think there is 
 no land in the world equal to Ahom, and no 
 people who can rival the Ahoms. 
 
 The province is a rich and fertile valley with 
 mountain ranges on thi-ee sides. The great 
 Brahmapootra river, with sixty smaller streams, 
 waters the province and renders it productive. 
 Assam is said to contain more rivers than any 
 country of corresponding area in the world. The 
 soil yields abundant crops of rice and tobacco. 
 Tea is also extensively cultivated, there being 
 in 1885 over nine hundred thousand acres under 
 cultivation, with an average of about three 
 hundred pounds to the acre. This tea is well and 
 favorably known in both England and America. 
 Iron, coal, rubber, sugar and silk are also found in 
 Assam. The huge rubber trees are abundant on 
 the hills, and thrive well also on the plains. 
 (38) 
 
ASSAM AND THE ASSAMESE. 39 
 
 They as well as the banyans are a great boon to a 
 country where the intense heat of the sun makes 
 ample shade-trees so very valuable. Patches of 
 sugar-cane are seen in all the villages, as well as 
 large gardens of the mustard plant, and the every- 
 where present red-pepper. 
 
 Little was known of Assam previous to the 
 seventeenth century, up to which time its form of 
 government seems to have been largely patriarchal, 
 and the aboriginal tribes were the predominating 
 power. 
 
 The early Aryans who invaded Assam were a 
 company of herdsmen who came there from 
 Central Asia, and were a widely different people 
 from their descendants, the present inhabitants of 
 Assam. This branch of the Aryans which we 
 call Indo- Aryan, or Hindoo, drove the aborigines 
 into the distant mountains, and from this time 
 petty Aryan kings ruled the valley of the great 
 Brahmapootra. 
 
 In the beginning of the seventeenth century the 
 Mogul emperors endeavored to annex Assam to 
 their Indian domains, but Avere bravely repulsed 
 by the Assamese, who successfully repelled the in- 
 vasion. From this time until 1770 there were in- 
 ternal dissensions, and the country declined in 
 power and prosperity, being rent by civil wars. 
 In 1770 the British aided the Rajah of Assam in 
 putting down a rebellion, and as a compensation 
 
40 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 for acting as umpire they received a portion of the 
 province. 
 
 During a war with Burmah, in 1826^ the British 
 again came to the aid of the Assamese, and from 
 that date until this, the whole of Assam has been 
 nominally under British rule, though many of the 
 hill-tribes have defied the lion's power. 
 
 The " unequalled " Assamese say that they de- 
 scended from the Hindoo god, Indra, who presides 
 over the atmosphere, and to whom the other gods 
 are all subordinate. Indra, they say, placed the 
 sun in the sky and charged the clouds with water. 
 One of their prayers to Indra begins thus : " Shed- 
 der of rain, granter of all desires, set open this 
 cloud." The Brahmapootra river derives its name 
 from two Sanscrit words — Brahma, the creator of 
 man, and " pootro,'' son : the son of the creator. The 
 tradition says that ages ago there was a great and 
 sore drought in the land, and in their distress the 
 people cried to the creator Brahma, and he in 
 compassion sent down his son in the form of a 
 river and thus saved the perishing people. Hence 
 the river is sacred, and he who bathes in its holy 
 waters is made acceptable to the gods. 
 
 The Brahmapootra takes its rise north of the 
 snow-covered Himalaya mountains. "Him'' is 
 the Sanscrit for snow and " aloi " is a palace, 
 Himaloi, a snow palace. The view of this range 
 in the distance, as the rising sun shines upon it, is 
 
ASSAM AND THE ASSA3IESE. 41 
 
 one of the grandest sights eye ever gazed upon. It 
 presents the appearance of a beautiful city with 
 golden spires and domes. No wonder that the 
 common people really think it is the abode of the 
 gods and regard it with all the awe and reverence 
 of the ancient Greek for his Olympus ! 
 
 From this dwelling-place of the gods, the 
 Himaloi range, did the Creator send his son the 
 Brahmapootra. To be thrown into this sacred 
 river is to the Hindoo mind a sure guarantee of a 
 better state in the next transmigration of soul. 
 An old Assamese once told me that he would not 
 for all the gold of India be buried under ground, 
 as he would in this case surely become either a 
 worm, snake or toad : whereas if he were thrown 
 into the Brahmapootra, he stood a fair chance of 
 being a fish, or a crocodile, either of which was 
 much higher in the transmigratory scale. I have 
 counted during the cholera season in one day a 
 hundred corpses Avhich had been thrown into the 
 river. Some of them had been partially cremated 
 according to the custom of the high cast Hindoos, 
 but the greater part had been pitched into the 
 river as soon as life was extinct. 
 
 Never shall I forget the impression made upon 
 me by those bloated dead bodies as they floated in 
 the river. And when night came and the boat 
 anchored for the darkness, there was something 
 intensely torturing in the hideous yells of the 
 
42 KORNO SIGA, THE 3I0VNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 jackals as they fought over the bodies which had 
 washed ashore. 
 
 Sleep visits not the " newly arrived " in India 
 under such circumstances, and nerves and sym- 
 pathies are racked until the morning light drives 
 away the carnivorous herd. And yet long resi- 
 dence in India makes even the European some- 
 what indifferent to the ghastly sights. An old 
 tea-planter laughingly asked me if I understood 
 the w^ords the jackals used, when making a feast 
 from the dead body. " Listen/' he said, "the first 
 sentence is an announcement to the whole jackal 
 tribe : ^ Dead Hindoo — Dead Hindoo ; ' and the 
 invited guests answer back Svhere, where?' The 
 original finder replies ^ here, oh, here.' " Thus 
 instructed I listened and was surprised to find how 
 exactly their cries seemed to take on the form of 
 the planter's words. The natives regard all this 
 with supreme indiiference, and when they saw my 
 great perturbation, they would toss the head as 
 only a Hindoo can, and say, "The gods have 
 written the fate of all on their foreheads : if they 
 have written there that one is to be eaten of jackals, 
 that one is only fulfilling the destiny the gods have 
 arranged for him. Who are we that we should 
 fight against tlie gods?" 
 
 I am glad to say that the English government 
 put a stop to this custom of throwing the dead into 
 the rivers before I left Assam, and the natives 
 
ASSAM AND THE ASSAMESE. 43 
 
 either burn or bury their dead. Thus the river 
 water which every one drinks (there are no wells 
 in Assam) has become purer. The rivers of Assam 
 abound in crocodiles, among which are many man- 
 eaters. These animals are fond of basking in the 
 sunshine on the banks of the river near the water's 
 edge. Mr. Marston has frequently shot them from 
 our little boat, and finding that the ball has 
 lodged in a vulnerable spot, we have moored the 
 boat and minutely examined these monsters, which 
 often measure twenty feet in length. The natives 
 are fond of crocodiles' eggs, which they unearth 
 from the warm sand where the animal has depos- 
 ited them, trusting to the sun's rays to hatch them. 
 The crocodile's egg is about the size of a goose egg, 
 and is said to be quite as palatable. 
 
 Many natives in Assam are yearly killed by the 
 crocodiles. Yet in spite of all the risk, hundreds 
 of men, women and children daily bathe in the 
 rivers. I have often heard, in the stillness of the 
 night, the loud champing of the monster's jaws, 
 and felt the thud of his heavy body as he has 
 struck our little boat, and springing to the chil- 
 dren's bed to see if they were safe, the old native 
 nurse starting up from her sleep would cry out, 
 "Ki hoi, mem saheb?" "What is the matter, 
 white lady ? " And when I would tell her there 
 were crocodiles all about the little canoe, she would 
 yawningly reply : " Well they can't eat your chil- 
 
44 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 dren unless the gods have foreordained them to 
 become food for the crocodiles, and if these chil- 
 dren were created for that purpose you ought not 
 to fight against the gods. What is written on one's 
 forehead must come to pass/' And with these 
 comforting words she would seek her mat and sink 
 into peaceful slumber. Such is Hindoo fatalism. 
 According to their creed everybody's fate is writ- 
 ten on the forehead in letters so minute, that none 
 but the gods can read them. Every event of life 
 is chronicled there, and the infant at birth has its 
 whole future thus laid out definitely by the gods. 
 
 The classical language of the Assamese is the 
 Sanscrit, the most ancient and original of all the 
 Indo-European languages and the one which 
 throws much light upon the original roots of lan- 
 guage. 
 
 This wonderful language opens to us the inward 
 and the outward life of a people who number one- 
 seventh of the human race, for it is the sacred lan- 
 guage of all the Hindoos. The alpliabet has ten 
 distinct characters for the vowels, four for the 
 semi-vowels, five nasals, ten surd mutes, ten 
 sonant mutes, three sibilants and three aspirants, 
 making in all forty-five distinct characters. This 
 language is richer in declensions than the Greek, 
 but poorer in conjugations. Our decimal notation 
 and algebraical calculus are both derived from the 
 ancient Hindoos. The Sanscrit is, however, a dead 
 
ASSAM AND THE ASSAMESE. 45 
 
 language, and the spoken language of the people of 
 the plains is a derivation of the Ancient Sanscrit 
 which varies as widely from the original as the 
 modern Greek of to-day from the Ancient tongue. 
 
 The spoken language is called Prakrit, and is 
 written like the Sanscrit from left to right, in 
 characters which are made up of triangles and 
 straight lines with very few curves. It is guttural 
 like the German, and somewhat difficult for Euro- 
 peans to speak. It was only after I had been in 
 Assam two years, that I could make the natives 
 understand whether I was talking to them about a 
 house — ghor, a wall — gor, or a rhinoceros — gor 
 (with the nasal sound). The A ssamese is the language 
 of the entire population of the Brahmapootra val- 
 ley, and is the medium of intercourse with the 
 bordering hill tribes, hence it must be learned well 
 if a person wishes really to know the people who 
 speak it, and hopes to benefit them. The Bengali 
 language in common with the Assamese, borrows 
 its religious and scientific terms from the Sanscrit, 
 and on this account the two languages have been 
 thought identical. But the grammars of these two 
 dialects are quite different, and therefore they can- 
 not be said to be one and the same language. We 
 might as well consider the French and Italian 
 languages identical, as they both spring from the 
 Latin. 
 
 No people on the face of the earth suffer more 
 
46 KORNO SIGA, THE 3I0UNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 from evil spirits than the Assamese. I, of course, 
 do not refer to those evil spirits by which thou- 
 sands in Christian lands annually fill a drunkard^s 
 grave. Fortunately for the Assamese, the Hindoo 
 religion forbids its followers from becoming 
 possessed with this kind of spirits. The old 
 Hindoo law commands that if a man be found 
 guilty of drinking intoxicating liquor, he shall be 
 compelled to drink the same quantity boiling hot. 
 He does not often repeat the offence. And every 
 respectable Hindoo community at the present day 
 deems each drunkard worthy of being carried in 
 derision through the streets with all the oppro- 
 brium of tar and feathers. Our land might well 
 learn a salutary lesson from the Hindoos in this 
 respect. 
 
 Demonology among the Hindoos dates back to 
 the age of the Yedas. These books are believed 
 to have been written as early as the time of Moses, 
 and were collected in the fourteenth century B. c. 
 Mount Meru, w^hich stands between the earth and 
 the heavens, is the battle-ground of the demons. 
 Some of them are pictured with long tusks and 
 bloody tongues, who lurk in secret places for 
 human prey. Ogres, snakes with human faces, 
 dwarfs, dragons and vampires are believed to be in 
 every available space in air, earth and water. 
 There is not a space in nature as wide as a hair 
 which some evil spirit does not fill. The good 
 
ASSAM AND THE ASSAMESE. 47 
 
 spirits live far above the earthy and are not sup- 
 posed to concern themselves much with human 
 aifairs. The demon " Oop '' is one greatly feared 
 by the ignorant. He is said to be a huge monster 
 with a blood-red tongue a yard and a half long, 
 and with tusks like an elephant, who has a dis- 
 agreeable practice of stalking abroad every Tues- 
 day and Saturday night in search of human vic- 
 tims. I have been most solemnly told by a 
 frightened man that he had just escaped from 
 " Oop ; " that he had seen his tusks and his well- 
 known tongue, and had felt his hot breath on his 
 shoulders. 
 
 The " Evil Eye " is another demon who is sup- 
 posed to be always peering about, and many are 
 the artifices to which the people resort in order to 
 evade him. An Assamese must not be looked at 
 when he eats, lest the " Evil Eye " may be lurking 
 through human eyes, and curse the food and the 
 eater. The dining-room of the Assamese is 
 necessarily the darkest room in the house, the one 
 most retired from human gaze. You must never 
 tell the Assamese Avoman that her child is beauti- 
 ful, for the demons will hear you and carry off 
 the child. On the contrary you may evade the 
 demons and please the mother, by calling the child 
 very plain, and at the same time giving the mother 
 a wink, to let her know that you mean just the con- 
 trary to what you say, I have heard an Assamese 
 
48 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 mother call her new-born babe all manner of vile 
 epithets, that the demons may be made to believe 
 that the child is not worth their carrying away. 
 They give their children repellent names for the 
 same reason. One man who had lost several children 
 called the last born '' Ghin/' which means " Hate/' 
 and this one lived. It was hard for him even 
 after he became a Christianj to give np his belief 
 that the odious name had saved to him this child. 
 If a person rudely strikes a tree in which an evil 
 spirit resides, or spits under it, the evil one will be 
 sure to punish him sooner or later. Bamboo trees 
 must be cut only on certain days of the week, for 
 fear of offending the sj)irits. 
 
 The Assamese greatly fear the darkness, and 
 will not leave a child asleej) alone in a dark room, 
 believing a demon will carry it off. As I was in 
 the habit of putting my babe to sleep early and 
 leaving it in a dark room, I have frequently heard 
 the native women exclaim : " Hai, hai, mem lukh 
 bhutor kotha na jane ! " "Alas, alas, the white 
 ladies know not the customs of the evil spirits.'' 
 
 It is distressing to Avitness the effect of this be- 
 lief in demonology upon the children of the coun- 
 try. From their earliest childhood they listen to 
 frightful stories of the depredations of evil spirits, 
 and their young lives are robbed of half their 
 comfort by the fears which continually assail them. 
 A native quakes with fear, if by chance a vulture 
 
ASSAM AND THE ASSAMESE. 49 
 
 alights upon his house ; it is a sure omen that one 
 of his family will soon become the food of vul- 
 tures. They say a young vulture can never fly 
 until he has tasted of human flesh. A certain 
 magistrate in Assam fined one of his subordinates 
 quite heavily, whereupon the subordinate took the 
 head of a male sheep, drove seven nails in it, and 
 with many incantations buried it, at the same time 
 expressing his firm belief that in seven days the 
 magistrate's head would be in the ground. 
 
 The cholera is considered the worst and the 
 largest of the demons, Avhich walks by day and 
 by night through the land, killing whomsoever he 
 will. The name of this disease must be spoken 
 only in a whisper during its prevalence in a vil- 
 lage, and many speak of it as the ^' Great One.'' 
 
 An earthquake is caused by the shaking of the 
 elephant upon whose back the earth stands. 
 
 These and many other superstitions which I 
 have not time to enumerate are disappearing before 
 the onward march of Christian civilization. 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 THE HILL TRIBES OF ASSAM. 
 
 THE mountaineers of Assam are a widely dif- 
 ferent people from the Hindoos, whom the 
 preceding chapter describes. 
 
 These hill tribes were doubtless once the in- 
 habitants of the beautiful Brahmapootra valley, 
 and were driven thence by the invading Aryans, 
 the forefathers of the Hindoos. 
 
 The barren mountains and the wild jungles were 
 deemed good enough for these aboriginal inhabitants 
 of Assam. What if these people did prefer the 
 fertile plains and green valleys ? A stronger and 
 more cunning race decided that these aborigines 
 must go, and allow the conquerors to demonstrate 
 the beauty of the " survival of the fittest." Very 
 much after the same pattern have we Americans 
 treated our aborigines. And we are yet far from 
 perfect in following the divine precepts of the 
 Christ, who taught us both by precept and example 
 the true brotherhood of man. 
 
 Many and fierce were the conflicts, however, 
 before the hill tribes relinquished their rights to 
 their enemies. If physical strength could have 
 (50) 
 
THE HILL TRIBES OF ASSAM. 51 
 
 decided the warfare they could have been victors, 
 but when treachery and intrigue were brought to 
 bear upon them they were outwitted by the crafty 
 Hindoo. 
 
 Very few of these tribes had been reached by 
 Christian influence or western ideas of civiliza- 
 tion, when Mr. Marston and I went to live among 
 them. They had no written language, no ances- 
 tral lineage of honor, and no very definite form of 
 religious worship. They have a tradition that 
 points to a Chinese origin, and the old people tell 
 of a time when they had a literature and a name 
 among nations. 
 
 But as they neglected the tilling of the soil, and 
 gave all their time to their books, the mountain 
 deities became angry, and gathered together all 
 their books and made a huge bonfire of them, and 
 from that time they have grown ignorant and 
 barbarous. 
 
 The people among whom our lot was cast were 
 more peaceable than the others, and never fought 
 with their neighbors if they could escape it. 
 Their dialect is almost entirely monosyllabic, and 
 they use the same word for many different pur- 
 poses : for instance, hem, is a house ; hem hong- 
 long, is a house on wheels, i. e., a wagon. Their 
 houses are made of bamboo and grass, and are 
 built from twenty to thirty feet above the ground, 
 the ascent being by rude ladders which are noth- 
 
52 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 ing more than unhewn trees, with notches cut in 
 them for steps. An ordinary house costs them 
 about two dollars, and requires about ten hours for 
 its construction. The floor is of split bamboo, 
 and bends under your foot at every step. The 
 style of architecture is neither Gothic nor Ionic, 
 but exceedingly aboriginal. The houses are long 
 and narrow, and are destitute of all kinds of 
 furniture. The roof is thickly thatched, and 
 projects several feet beyond the sides of the 
 house. 
 
 The soil is not fertile like that of the plains, and 
 the quantity of rice raised is not sufficient to feed 
 the inhabitants. Cotton is, however, an abundant 
 product of their soil, and this they exchange for 
 rice when they visit the plains. 
 
 The women Aveave a coarse cotton cloth, coloring 
 it either blue, red or yellow, and of this material 
 the garments of both sexes are made. The di^ess 
 of the women is a short blue petticoat extending 
 from the waist to the knees, while the male attire 
 is even more limited, being a short apron of red 
 cotton cloth. For the cooler weather, they add a 
 red cotton shawl fringed at both ends, and worn as 
 the Hindoos wear the chuddar y i. e., one end over 
 the head, and the other falling gracefully over the 
 shoulders. 
 
 Both sexes are very fond of mustard oil as a 
 pomatum, and you can make a mountain chief no 
 
THE MILL TRIBES OF ASSAM. 53 
 
 more acceptable present than a bottle of mustard 
 oil. This use of it has, however, been learned 
 of the Hindoos. In their native state, these 
 mountain people are the most unkempt of all the 
 Asiatic races. They also use the mustard oil in 
 cooking their meats and vegetables. Yams and 
 sweet potatoes are cultivated with considerable 
 success, and are roasted in the ashes as our grand- 
 mothers used to cook Irish potatoes. Fish is in 
 great demand. The mountain streams yielding but 
 very few, the people are often under the necessity 
 of substituting grasshoppers' and elephants' flesh 
 for them. 
 
 Wild, ignorant and filthy as these children of 
 the jungle are, there are characteristic traits per- 
 taining to them which strongly attach them to 
 those who are interested in their civilization and 
 Christianization. Their trust and simple faith in 
 their teachers and superiors are at once a comfort 
 and an inspiration. They are not idolaters, have 
 never had any images of their gods, and are much 
 less superstitious than the Hindoos. They wor- 
 ship the sun, the god of disease, the spirits of their 
 ancestors, and the Great Spirit. Their mode of 
 worship is almost entirely by sacrifices of vegeta-. 
 bles, rice, chickens and goats. Often have I seen 
 a toddling infant among them carry his little 
 handful of rice, and offer it at the root of some 
 large green tree, believing as he had been told, 
 
54 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 that some god lives in that tree and will bless the 
 giver of even a handful of rice. 
 
 As we have before remarked, there is little 
 doubt that these mountain tribes once inhabited 
 the plains, and lived in a greater degree of civiliza- 
 tion and refinement. But the ancient Aryans in- 
 vading the country in the remote ages drove these 
 unsuspecting people, by treachery, back into the 
 barren mountains and cheated them of their long 
 possessed country. In the same selfish manner 
 did our most revered Puritan fathers treat the 
 North American Indians. And we, as their de- 
 scendants, have as yet learned but little more of 
 that true spirit of Christian philanthropy that 
 would lead us to love our neighbor as ourselves. 
 
 In all that pertains to the comforts and elegan- 
 cies of civilized life, these tribes inhabiting the 
 mountains of northeastern India are poor indeed. 
 
 Vermin of all kinds live luxuriously among 
 them, and often after entertaining a company of 
 these people in my drawing-room, I have seen 
 twenty and more of the species Cimex creeping 
 aAvay from where my guests have been seated. 
 Six or seven of these loathsome bugs are given 
 internally by tlie people to prevent ague. 
 
 Fleas also abound, and during the months of 
 March and April, they seem literally to take 
 possession of our houses. On arising from our 
 beds an armed host seemed to attack our feet, cov- 
 
THE HILL TRIBES OF ASSAM. 55 
 
 ering them so thickly that we could hardly discern 
 by sight, whether they were human flesh or para- 
 sitic fleas. The dust of the earth during these 
 two months swarms with them, but as the rainy 
 season sets in they disappear as if by magic. 
 
 The mountain jungles abound with mammoth 
 trees : oaks, chestnuts, and birches thrive on the 
 higher ranges, and lower down we find the rubber, 
 the teak and the /la/.* Here and there all over the 
 hills are acacia trees, and the use of the bark is 
 well recognized by the natives. 
 
 Wild animals abound in the dense jungles, and 
 human life is not 'safe while travelling even short 
 distances. The huge man-eating Bengal tiger has 
 found his way into these mountains, and is ever 
 on the alert for human flesh. The elephant, 
 rhinoceros, the buffalo and the bear are numerous, 
 and leopards, jackals and monkeys are as thick 
 as peas in a pod. Birds of gorgeous plumage 
 abound, but we miss the sweet singers of our 
 native land ; the only singers I have met among 
 the birds of India being the mina and the Mm 
 raja. 
 
 *The hal or sal (for the natives use "h" and "s" inter- 
 changeably) is a hard wood. We used to call it the Assamese 
 mahogany. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OUR MOUNTAIN HOME. 
 
 SHOULD I live to be a hundred years old I can 
 never forget the day when we reached our 
 home on the mountains. 
 
 Fifty swarthy, robust hill men came to meet us, 
 and to conduct us on our way. When the moun- 
 tain paths became too steep for our elephants, 
 these men carried us in baskets, on their shoulders, 
 with a strap passing across their foreheads. The 
 hill men are wonderfully strong, and can climb 
 the mountains with the agility of the wild goat. 
 
 Thus at length we came, after perils by sea and 
 by land, to our chosen home among the hill people 
 of Assam. We were the first white people that 
 had ever attempted to make a home among them, 
 and I was the first white woman they had ever 
 seen. 
 
 Our hearts were deeply touched by the warmth 
 and kindness of our reception. They had cut 
 bamboo and thatch and with their own hands 
 built us a dwelling-house and also a chapel and 
 school-house. And though in our eyes they were 
 (56) 
 
OUR MOUNTAIN HOME. 57 
 
 rude, empty structures, they were palaces to these 
 ignorant people. 
 
 We at once set about learning the language by 
 making use of every word we heard, and putting 
 it into a vocabulary for future use. A missionary 
 who had travelled through this section had made a 
 list of words, and this we found very useful. And 
 having no interpreter we were quite astonished to 
 find ourselves in a few months successful in con- 
 veying instruction to the ignorant ones about us. 
 They were entirely ignorant of the most common 
 laws of health and cleanliness, and we had need of 
 much patient endurance in well-doing. 
 
 At the end of the second year among them, we 
 had gathered a flourishing Normal School in which 
 were taught young men of seven different tribes. 
 These were all preparing to go out as teachers and 
 Bible readers among their respective tribes. I had 
 found it almost impossible at first to get the 
 parents^ consent for their daughters to be instructed. 
 They would laugh heartily at the absurdity of the 
 idea and exclaim, " Teach the girls ! Why you 
 might just as well gather in the goats and the 
 wild hogs and seat them on benches, and teach 
 them the alphabet." But by means of attractive 
 music, bright-colored jackets, and a bottle of mus- 
 tard oil, I at last won my way into their hearts 
 and thus started my first girls^ school. What 
 pleasure I found in opening to them the doors of 
 
58 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF, 
 
 knowledge, and how good and true they were to 
 me! 
 
 A savage, warlike tribe inhabited the hills north 
 of our peaceable tribe, and as we daily looked out 
 upon these blue ranges we longed to carry to 
 them also the message of peace and eternal life. 
 English officers one after another had been mur- 
 dered by them, and hence every one warned us as 
 we valued our lives to keep away from these 
 savage people. In spite of all these warnings my 
 good husband resolved to make the venture. The 
 English magistrate offered him an escort of sepoys 
 and the protection of the English army, but he 
 politely declined this assistance, saying quietly, 
 " For me ^ it is better to trust in the Lord than to 
 put confidence in princes.' " The voice of his 
 Master seemed plainly to say to him, " Go teach 
 them also," and he dared not disobey the heavenly 
 vision ; indeed he Avas eager to obey it. An event 
 which was of momentous interest to us occurred 
 about this time, and hence Henry delayed his 
 hazardous journey to those northern savages. I 
 will copy from Henry's letter to his home circle 
 describing this important event. " The Lord has 
 been pleased to send to us a missionary associate 
 in the person of a baby-boy. There being no 
 physician within several days' journey of us, you 
 may imagine that we felt much anxiety about the 
 issue of the event, especially as we have no trusty 
 
OUR 3I0UNTAIN HOME. 69 
 
 old women nor nurses. So I took my Bible and 
 read, 'What time I am afraid I will trust in 
 thee/ and then I took my ^Household Practice 
 of Medicine ' and tried to follow out the directions 
 given there, and the results were all we could have 
 wished or asked for. As for the boy himself, he 
 is a fine young fellow and asserts his claims most 
 vigorously. They say he looks like his father, 
 but I think he is more like Mildred. We call 
 him Paul. 
 
 " That God should make over to us in trust such 
 great interests as cluster about an immortal spirit 
 reminds us most forcibly of what he expects us to 
 be and to do. How honored every parent is ! and 
 yet I shrink from the responsibility. But now 
 there is no option. Already by our command, 
 under God, a frail bark has been launched on the 
 great sea of an endless life ; the immortal spirit 
 waiting by the shore, the moorings cut, sails 
 unfurled, anchor weighed, waiting for our hand to 
 take the helm and pilot it through the straits of 
 infancy and youth, over the quicksands, and by 
 the rocks out into the open sea with a well-planned 
 chart for further guidance and direction. Oh, 
 for wisdom and patience to do all this aright ! " 
 
 And now I will go back to my history of 
 Henry's trip to the tribes north of us. Our little 
 Paul was three months old, and as the natives all 
 about me were very kind and attentive, Henry felt 
 
60 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 that baby and I would be cared for during his 
 absence. How sad I felt that morning when he 
 said, good-bye ! I feared that I should never see him 
 again. I dared not go with him on account of our 
 baby. And so with tearful eyes I gazed after him 
 and his faithful band of school-boys. What might 
 not those savage people do to him ? How would 
 they receive him and his strange message of a 
 crucified Christ? 
 
 After two weeks' journey he came to a narrow 
 pass between two rugged mountains. And as he 
 attempted to enter that defile and thus set foot 
 upon the soil of the savages, he was confronted by 
 a band of twenty warlike chiefs painted with 
 hideous colors, each wearing a necklace of human 
 skulls. These chiefs instantly ranked themselves 
 into two squads of ten each, and standing in a line 
 at the entrance of the defile they lifted their long 
 spears above their heads and defied the missionary 
 and his little unarmed band. For one moment 
 only did Henry hesitate ; then taking his violin, 
 which he had called during all our residence in 
 Northern India his second assistant in missionary 
 work, he drew the bow and in a calm and clear 
 voice accompanied the instrument in a language 
 understood by the chiefs, and sang, "Am I a 
 soldier of the Cross," etc. The savages listened 
 with rapt attention until he had marched slowly 
 through the defile and past them and their uplifted 
 
OUR MOUNTAIN H03IE. 61 
 
 spears, and as he sang and played, one after 
 another of the spears were dropped and their 
 owners seemed completely under the magical spell 
 of the music and the man. As the music ceased 
 an old chief, who was their leader, exclaimed ; " It 
 is a god and not an Englishman, and see, the in- 
 strument he carries is alive and has a voice like 
 the him rajah.''^ The him rajah is their sweetest 
 bird songster. 
 
 " Stranger, wherefore come you amongst us ? " 
 is the question they finally ask. 
 
 The missionary realizes that his life probably 
 depends upon his answer to that question, and he 
 carefully chooses his words. 
 
 " I come to teach you to sing and play on this 
 violin with which you are so much delighted. I 
 come to help you to be wise men and to live as 
 other great nations live ; to give you a written 
 language and books, and a better religion than 
 what you now have." 
 
 "Are you an Englishman ? " they ask. 
 
 " No, I am an American, and have nothing to 
 to do with the setting up of a new government 
 among you." 
 
 "What is that strange creature you carry about 
 that sings so sweetly ? " 
 
 " It is a musical instrument which in Christian 
 countries is called a fiddle or violin." 
 
 " Well, stranger, you may come and live here 
 
62 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 among us if you will bring that ^ Christian fiddle ' 
 and teach our sons how to use it/' 
 
 And thus it was that the missionary, by means 
 of a violin, gained an entrance among a people who 
 before this had cruelly slain every Avhite man who 
 had ventured among them. He stayed two months 
 among them, and taught them the words of eter- 
 nal life, and the story of the Son of God. When 
 he returned home six of the young men of that 
 tribe came with him to study in our Normal 
 School, and to go back as teachers and Bible 
 readers among their people. And thus it was 
 that a wide door was opened for us among that 
 hitherto barbarous tribe ; a work Avhich has been 
 developing and widening during all the succeed- 
 ing years. 
 
 My husband went from place to place among 
 the people of the villages and in the jungles much 
 of the time, while I remained at home to look 
 after the schools and our little family. When 
 Paul was three years old a winsome little daugh- 
 ter whom we called Ruth came to us. We were 
 very happy in our home life — happier, I think, 
 than four-fifths of the families in America and 
 England — though we lived in a bamboo house, 
 with mudded w^alls, and had no carpets and no 
 " interior decorations.^' For, we felt that we were 
 doing a work which was benefiting humanity, and 
 which would never have - been done but for us. 
 
OUR MOUNTAIN HOME. 63 
 
 Our lives were counting for something, and we 
 were polishing rough stones for the temple of the 
 living God. 
 
 It is true we were exposed to hardships, and the 
 plague was often rife in our midst. We minis- 
 tered day and night to the sick and the suifering 
 during the cholera epidemics, and felt no fear. Is 
 not man immortal until his work is done? And 
 did not Christ our example thus spend his life as 
 he went about doing good ? And should the ser- 
 vant be more chary of his service than his Mas- 
 ter? We came very near losing our precious 
 Paul with that dreadful disease of India, jungle 
 fever. None but parents can know our anxiety 
 as we watched beside him day after day, fearing 
 that the sweet young life was going out. Hoav we 
 longed for a good physician, who would advise us 
 as to his medical treatment ! Brain fever set in 
 after the jungle fever had lasted three weeks, and 
 the poor little fellow's screams were most pitiable. 
 Never shall I forget the night when the crisis 
 came. He fell into a quiet slumber, and when he 
 awoke his fever was gone, and he recognized us. 
 Henry and I both fell upon our knees, and 
 breathed out our hearts in grateful thanksgiving. 
 Our young men of the Normal School, after three 
 years' instruction, had gone out to teach among 
 their people, and as Mr. Marston travelled from 
 place to place he found many who were ready to 
 
64 KORNO SIGA, THE 3I0UNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 be taught, and these one after another entered the 
 school, so that we always had as many pupils as 
 we had funds to provide for. 
 
 jMany were the perplexities I had in getting a 
 girls' school on a firm footing. The parents did 
 not realize the importance of educating the girls 
 in book knowledge, and I was hence obliged to 
 teach needlework, spinning, weaving, and the cut- 
 ting and making of garments. Often a crusty old 
 father could be induced to send his daughter to me 
 for instruction, by looking at a handsomely em- 
 broidered pair of slippers, and learning that if he 
 would only let his daughter Kache come to school, 
 she could make him a pair just like those. Many 
 a faithful native worker in India to-day owes his 
 or her Christianization to a slipper ! " Upon 
 
 Edom will I cast my shoe Who will 
 
 bring me into the fenced city ? who hath led me 
 unto Edom?'' (Ps. 108 : 9, 10, Revised Aversion.) 
 
 Early one morning there came to our bungalow 
 a man of imposing figure and noble bearing. He 
 led by the hand a little child, a boy about six 
 years of age. On seeing us he advanced, and with 
 a low salaam addressed us thus : " I am a chief. 
 I live far away in the jungle. I have heard that 
 you have come from the setting sun to teach us 
 hill men about the great God. I am now old, but 
 my children can learn the true religion. Here is 
 my youngest son. I give him to you. Take 
 
OUR MOUNTAIN HOME. 65 
 
 bim. He is no longer mine, but yours. Where 
 you go, he shall go ; where you stay, he shall stay ; 
 your religion shall be his religion, your God be 
 his God. But he is a little child. Be kind to 
 him for his parents' sake, for we love him 
 dearly." 
 
 Thus saying he quietly turned to his child for a 
 last fond embrace, and in a moment, without wait- 
 ing for a reply, was out of sight on his way back 
 to his distant jungle home. I mention this inci- 
 dent to show how the people were coming to have 
 confidence in us, and in the work we were doing for 
 them. This boy proved to be one of our brightest 
 pupils in the Normal School, and a great comfort 
 up us. 
 
CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 KOENO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 MR. RUSKIN in his preface to " The Story of 
 Ida" says: "The lives we need to have 
 written for us are of the people w^hom the world 
 has never thought of, far less heard of, who are yet 
 doing most of its work, and of whom we may 
 learn how it can best be done." The hero of our 
 story, though an unknown man of the jungle, comes 
 under this class, and this is my only apology for 
 attempting to write some of the incidents of his 
 Hfe. 
 
 Korno Siga was born in a small rude village on 
 the mountains. His name is derived from the 
 Assamese language and means, '^split-ear." His 
 father was a mountain chief, but very poor in this 
 world's goods. 
 
 When his mother bored the ears of her baby-boy 
 according to the custom of all respectable aborig- 
 ines, the instrument slipped and cut through the 
 entire lobe of his right ear. As she knew nothing 
 of surgery the ear was left to heal in its divided 
 condition and he was named according to the 
 deformity, a custom which prevails largely in 
 (66) 
 
KORNO SWA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 67 
 
 India. If a baby cries a great deal, he is apt to 
 be called Kandoora, a cry-baby. If one smiles 
 often, he is called Milihia, a smiler. The ear 
 ornaments worn by these people of both sexes are 
 enormously large and are often of the rudest char- 
 acter. They are made of wood, colored glass, or 
 wads of cotton-wool, into which some large flower 
 has been inserted. They are often so heavy as 
 to pull the lobe of the ear until it touches the 
 shoulder. 
 
 But little is known of Korno Siga's early years. 
 When about eighteen years of age (these people 
 keep no record of their children's ages and hence 
 we never knew positively their age), he came to 
 our mission station and learned to read and write. 
 When he had been with us four months he became 
 a convert to Christianity. The manner of his 
 coming to us was as follows : one sultry afternoon 
 during the prevalence of the Southwest monsoon, 
 my husband and I were seated on the verandah, 
 surrounded by a group of natives whom we were 
 instructing. 
 
 Suddenly there appeared from the jungle near 
 our house a wild, unkempt boy who rapidly urged 
 his way through the crowd of mountain men on 
 the verandah^ and came to us. His first words 
 were, "Are you the white teachers ? " Being an- 
 swered in the affirmative he made a low salaam 
 and seated himself on the floor. In reply to our 
 
68 KORNO SIGA, THE 3I0UNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 questions as to who he was, and what he wanted, 
 he told the following story, which I give as nearly 
 as possible in his own words : 
 
 ^' My name is Korno Siga. I come from the 
 distant hills. I wish to know what the religion of 
 the white man is and Avhat it can do for a rude 
 mountaineer. Mine has been a sad, hard life. 
 When I was an infant I was swaj)ped for a kid, 
 because I was a frail child and my poor father 
 and mother feared that I never could be of much 
 service to them, either in cultivating the cotton, or 
 working in the rice-fields. So they gave me to 
 the family of another chief that was childless, 
 and who preferred me to the kid. My foster- 
 parents taught me to worship the mountain spirits, 
 and to take my little handful of rice each morning 
 and lay it at the root of some large green tree. 
 They told me that the spirit who lived in the tree 
 would thus be pleased with me, and keep the evil 
 spirit of disease from me. I was taught to pay 
 the highest respect and veneration to these trees. 
 They were mostly the huge rubber trees with 
 which our mountains abound. I was taught that 
 it was very wicked to mar the trunk or branches 
 of these sacred trees, and that if I spit underneath 
 one of them, it was a direct insult to the gods who 
 lived in their branches. 
 
 "Many hours did I spend under these trees 
 trying to catch a glimpse of a god, and to learn if 
 
KORNO SiGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 69 
 
 lie was pleased with my offerings. But as I grew 
 older I became more and more dissatisfied with 
 myself and my mode of worship, and with the 
 rude life of the mountaineers. I felt that there 
 must be a manner of life higher and better than 
 this, and I longed to visit the plains and talk with 
 the Hindoo priests and religious mendicants and 
 fakirs of whom I had heard. Perhaps they could 
 tell me of a better way of living and of worship- 
 ping. About this time my foster-mother died, and 
 her corpse was placed on the chang (a bamboo 
 frame on which the dead are kept for a number 
 of days before cremation or burial) for thirty days. 
 The first fifteen days of this time her disembodied 
 spirit was supposed to be roaming over the earth 
 seeking a place of rest, and during this time hired 
 mourners wept and wailed for her. The last fif- 
 teen days were spent in feasting and dancing, 
 because the weary spirit was supposed to have 
 found an abode in some other form of existence. 
 Many a night did I go and sit in the darkness 
 near my mother's chang until the day dawned. 
 How I wished that she would speak to me and 
 tell me what she had learned since she had left 
 me ! But no voice came to me through the still- 
 ness of the night, and I was unhappy and desolate 
 in spirit. And hence I sought a Hindoo high 
 priest, who lived at the foot of our mountain, and 
 who claimed that he could make unhappy people 
 
70 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 happy. The journey was long and perilous, for 
 the way was through a pathless jungle infested 
 with wild and savage animals. 
 
 "The 'Great One of the Earth/ as he styled 
 himself, did not receive me graciously, nor did his 
 aspect impress me with a confidence in his purity 
 and holiness of character. I told him the whole 
 story of my life, and of my desire to obtain some- 
 thing higher and better than I had yet found. I 
 asked him if he could tell me of some good thing 
 I could do, whereby I might be able to forget all 
 the wrong things I had ever done. He answered 
 that all power and all knowledge were his ; that 
 being sinless himself he could forgive the sins of 
 others ; but that I must first commit to memory one 
 thousand Hindoo Slohas (wise sayings of the 
 Shasters), which he would daily rehearse for me ; 
 and immediately afterwards make two long pil- 
 grimages to holy shrines. When all this had been 
 done I must become his cow-boy, and be obedient 
 unto him all the days of my life. I cheerfully 
 promised to do all he had asked of me, if he would 
 in return give me peace of mind and make me 
 truly happy. 
 
 " Our people have wonderful memories, and it 
 was not many weeks before I had the thousand 
 Slohas so that I could repeat them in consecutive 
 order, as given in the Shasters. But the pil- 
 grimages were hard indeed. The first required 
 
KORNO 8IGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 71 
 
 that I should have nails driven through the soles 
 of my wooden sandals, and at every step the blood 
 flowed from my pierced feet, and I could only 
 take a few steps at a time, and then wait days for 
 the wounds to heal before I resumed my journey. 
 Thus I was months making my first pilgrimage 
 and at length reached the spot sacred to all Hin- 
 doos, where I threw myself prostrate before the 
 idol, and begged that he Avould give me an 
 assurance that all I had done was acceptable to 
 him. I tore my hair and smote upon my breast 
 and cried yet more loudly, but no voice spoke to 
 me and no smile of compassion lighted up the 
 grim visage of the god. Weary and discouraged, 
 I made my way back to the priest, and asked him 
 what more I should do. He ordered my second 
 pilgrimage to be made by measuring my length to 
 another shrine. I would that I could have 
 escaped another weary pilgrimage, but the priest 
 assured me that this one would surely bring me 
 comfort, and so I undertook it. I lay down and 
 with my da (a large knife used by all the natives 
 of this tribe), marked the place where my head 
 rested. Rising I placed my feet on this mark and 
 lay down again, repeating this process over and 
 over until I reached the shrine. This pilgrimage 
 was quite as useless as the first so far as I was 
 able to judge, and when I once more reached the 
 priest's house he put me in charge of his cows. 
 
CHAPTEE yill. 
 
 SERVING A PRIEST FOR ETERNAL LIFE. 
 
 ^^T FOUND my new master very exacting and 
 JL unmerciful. The more I watched his every- 
 day life the more I was convinced that he was not 
 sinless. One day a company of devotees were 
 bowing down in most abject posture worshipping 
 him, and he gave them assurance, as he had given 
 me, that he could forgive sins because he l^imself 
 was sinless, when I overheard a com]3any of dooms 
 (low caste people) bitterly denouncing the ^ Great 
 One of the Earth,' because he had cheated a poor 
 woman out of all her little property, and had also 
 taken possession of a poor man's cow. The widow, 
 they said, had gone to him when her husband died, 
 and begged him to take charge of her pecuniary 
 aifairs. He consented, and took so good care of 
 her money that she never saw an anna of it her- 
 self. (An anna is a coin of about three cents 
 value.) The man Avho lost the cow had gone to 
 the priest to have him reveal the whereabouts of 
 the animal, little dreaming that the wily priest had 
 it in concealment. He paid a good price to have 
 the priest tell him where he could find the cow, 
 (72) 
 
SERVING A PRIEST FOR ETERNAL LIFE. 73 
 
 but for a Avonder that day the priest was not all- 
 wise and could reveal nothing. 
 
 " One very hot day while watching the cows as 
 they grazed near the edge of the jungle I fell 
 asleep, and while I slept a huge Bengal tiger 
 carried oif one of the cows. I knew the priest 
 would be wild with rage when he came to know 
 of his loss, and I was tempted to run a^vay and 
 leave the rest of the cows to the mercy of tlie 
 tigers, rather than to encounter his burst of temper. 
 However, my conscience would not allow me to do 
 this, and I drove the herd home and frankly told 
 the priest what had happened. He seized me by 
 the hair, and holding me firmly against a banyan 
 tree, he deliberately rubbed red pepper in my eyes. 
 In vain did I plead for mercy — his eyes glared 
 like those of a savage beast, and he rejoiced over 
 my intense suifering. After this event nothing 
 could induce me to remain longer as a learner of 
 the Hindoo religion. For how could a man so 
 cruel and brutal know anything about the mercy 
 and forgiveness for which I had so long worked 
 and waited ? I had heard of a Mohammedan 
 teacher living some miles west of the priest's 
 home, and I made my way to him. When he 
 told me that he did not believe in idol worship, 
 but that the prophet Mohammed was his teacher, 
 and as he had given up five years of his life to 
 holy contemplation in a cave, at the end of which 
 
74 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 time the angel Gabriel had appeared to him in 
 visions and revelations ; surely this one leader must 
 be a safe guide to follow. ' There is but one God, 
 and Mohammed is his Prophet/ devoutly re- 
 marked this, my new-found Mussulman teacher. I 
 was rejoiced to hear words from the Koran, for 
 they were more like what a true god might say to 
 me, than all the sloJcas of the Hindoo Shasters. 
 And so I stayed with this teacher three months. 
 Alas ! I was obliged to witness the wicked and 
 licentious lives of the followers of Mohammed. 
 I heard the teacher tell them that it is right to 
 steal from those who would not believe as he and 
 they did, and even to murder them in order to 
 advance the Mussulman religion. How could these 
 people help me to find a higher and a better life, 
 when they themselves were worse in their conduct 
 than the Hindoos? And I was convinced that 
 the simple hill peo2)le among whom I had been 
 brought up were kinder hearted and lived far 
 better lives than either the Hindoos or Moham- 
 medans. AVlien I reached my home on the moun- 
 tains I found that my foster-father had long ago 
 left for parts unknown. I sat down on the 
 ground where my mother's chang had stood during 
 the days of her funeral, and thought of her as the 
 best example for me to follow, of any I had yet 
 found. I was completely discouraged with the result 
 of my investigations for the truth. That night I 
 
SERVING A PRIEST FOR ETERNAL LIFE. 75 
 
 slept under the great tree where I had so often 
 made my offerings in the days of my childhood. 
 And I dreamed that a man came to me and said, 
 'Korno Siga, I have a book for yon.' That 
 dream impressed me so forcibly that I went through 
 the village inquiring of every one if he or she 
 could tell me of any one who had a book. They 
 all laughed at me and asked sarcastically, ^and 
 what would a monkey of the forest do with a 
 book?' But I was seriously in earnest in this 
 matter, and went from village to village, every- 
 where making the inquiry, * Have you a book ? ' 
 At length on the outskirts of one of the villages I 
 came upon a man who lived alone in his little hut. 
 He sat in the open door, and ere I had put my 
 question to him, I saw that he held in his hand a 
 book. 
 
 " ^ What book is that ? ' I eagerly asked ; Ms it 
 for me ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes, it is for you and for every one. It is the 
 Shaster of the white people.' 
 
 "Saying this he opened the book and read, 
 ' God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
 should not perish, but have everlasting life.' And 
 ' Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy 
 laden, and I will give you rest.' 
 
 " I asked the reader who it was that had spoken 
 such precious words. 
 
76 KORNO SIGA, THE MOtfNTAIN CHIEP, 
 
 " He replied, ' These are the words of Christ, the 
 Saviour of the world. He revealed himself to us 
 by leading a sinless and holy life here in our 
 Orient ; he showed us God in human flesh, offered 
 up his own life for us, and has now gone to get 
 mansions ready for his children, i. 6., those who 
 obey and love him; and he is coming again to 
 receive us and welcome us to those mansions/ 
 
 " I asked him to read over and over again that 
 cordial invitation, until I could repeat the words 
 as Christ had said them. 
 
 ^^ Then I begged him to let me have the Shaster 
 for my own, but he said that a hundred rupees 
 could not buy that precious book from him, for he 
 loved it better than his own life. He told me 
 also that his name was Phrang, and that he had 
 been a student in a Christian school, and had been 
 taught by the white teachers. His wife and all of 
 his relatives had forsaken him because he had 
 ])ecome a Christian. He was in the village trying 
 to induce other young men to enter that Christian 
 school, and he should return with four such on the 
 morrow. I begged of him a native primer, which 
 had in it some quotations from the Christian Shas- 
 ter. Many times during that night I arose from 
 my bed and prayed to the primer, hoping that in 
 this way Christ might speak to me through the 
 little book, and tell me how I might come to him 
 and find his promised rest. 
 
SERVING A PRIEST FOR ETERNAL LIFE, 77 
 
 "Early the next morning I went again to 
 Phrang's house, hoping that he had not yet started 
 for the mission station. Alas ! I found him in 
 the last stages of cholera. He had been attacked 
 during the night and had not been able to call in 
 any one to help him. Indeed, there were fcAV of 
 his friends who would have helped him if they had 
 known of his illness, for was he not in their esti- 
 mation a Christian dog? 
 
 "As T entered the room he pointed to a little 
 bamboo shelf where lay his precious Shaster, and 
 when I handed it to him he clasped it to his heart, 
 and handed it back to me, signifying that it was 
 mine, and raising his hand heavenward, he died. 
 I went in search of the young men who were to 
 have gone with him to the mission school. But 
 when they heard that he had died of cholera, they 
 decided that he must have been a bad man because 
 the cholera god had killed him ; and they refused 
 to learn the white man^s religion lest they too 
 should be killed. And so I have come alone 
 bringing with me Phrang's Shaster.'^ Saying this 
 he slowly unwrapped the book from many folds of 
 his turban, and asked if he might be allowed to 
 have it for his own. When told that he was now 
 its rightful owner he made his salaam and said : 
 " O teachers of Christ's religion, give me a place 
 among you, that I may learn the truth." 
 
 All present were deeply moved at his e'arnest 
 
78 KORNO SIGA, THE MOVNTAIlSr CHIEF, 
 
 plea. One aged man went eagerly forward and 
 lifted Korno Siga's arm and carefully examined it, 
 exclaiming, " This young man is my adopted son, 
 for here on his arm is the mark by which I shall 
 always know him, as my successor to my office as 
 a chief among the hill men." Korno Siga had 
 indeed found his foster-parent, and they were now 
 both seeking the truth as revealed by Christ. 
 
 Through what devious ways had they been led 
 during those years of separation ! Who of us 
 shall say there is not a divinity that rules over the 
 inhabitants of India as well as of our own fair 
 Columbia ? 
 
 " For God through ways they have not known 
 Shall lead his own." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EARTHQUAKES AND WHITE ANTS. 
 
 THE two destructive agents to houses and all 
 household goods in Assam are earthquakes 
 and white ants ; and I propose in this chapter to 
 tell you something about them. 
 
 One Sunday afternoon a large company of our 
 people were gathered in our compound, and we 
 were talking to them of the wonders of nature and 
 the wisdom and love of nature's God. 
 
 The Bible lesson for the young men of the Nor- 
 mal School that day had been in the book of Job 
 at the thirty-seventh chapter, and this theme had 
 interested not only them, but also the large number 
 of visitors from the surrounding country. 
 
 Suddenly our conversation was interrupted by 
 a death-like stillness which seemed to pervade all 
 things.. Not a leaf quivered and the air seemed 
 destitute of all vitality ; a stillness so awe-inspiring 
 that dumb creatures as well as human beings 
 gazed helplessly about with a nameless fear. This 
 was followed by a rumbling noise like a heavy 
 freight train in the distance; finally came the 
 majestic quaking of mother Earth. Huge forest 
 
 (79) 
 
80 KOBNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 trees swayed to and fro and vast sides of the 
 mountain were broken off, and fell with a thunder- 
 ing crash into the valley below. Houses reeled 
 like drunken men, and the ground rose in undula- 
 tions like sea-waves during a calm. The current 
 in the little river near our bungalow set up stream, 
 and the earth in places opened up and sent forth a 
 strong sulphurous odor. The natives far and near 
 had fled from their houses when the first warning 
 of the earthquake came, and many hundreds 
 gathered in our mission compound, whither we 
 too had gone when the house began to rock. It 
 was ever thus in times of danger with this people 
 of Assam : they would seek protection of the mis- 
 sionary with an inward feeling that the Great 
 Spirit was in sympathy with us, and that they 
 Avere safer on mission ground than elsewhere. 
 
 It soon became impossible for any one to stand, 
 and as we sat upon the ground, each looked at the 
 other wondering what would come next. Our 
 native nurse, Padma, had taken little Ruth into 
 the nursery and was singing a weird lullaby song 
 to her when the earthquake began. We called to 
 her to run with the baby into the compound with 
 us, but when she got as far as the verandah she 
 stood paralyzed with fear, and I was obliged to 
 take the child from her, while Mr. Marston con- 
 ducted Padma to the bottom of the steps just as 
 they fell. She too fell near a tree and clasping its 
 
EARTHQUAKES AND WHITE ANTS. 81 
 
 roots she began praying to the Hindoo gods. And 
 this was the form of her j)rayer : " O Ram, 
 Krishna, and Shiva, have mercy upon us and make 
 the elephant stop shaking himself ! '^ The Hin- 
 doos of Assam believe that the earth is flat, and 
 that it stands on the back of an elephant. He has 
 never given himself a good thorough shaking up 
 since the earth was created ; when he does, then 
 the end of all things will come. The present 
 quaking was only a moderate shaking of his head, 
 and all of the little earthquakes are simply a 
 winking of his eyelashes and a tremor of the hair 
 in the centre of his forehead ! The last named 
 are used by the native jewellers in India to sur- 
 round their ornaments of silver filigree work and 
 lend quite a pretty effect to their jewels. 
 
 As shock after shock came in quick succession, I 
 began to fear that the final great shaking had 
 indeed come. The goats, cows and ponies were 
 running in frantic alarm from one point of the 
 compass to another, and it w^as quite frightful to 
 hear their cries of distress. The natives were 
 moaning and praying all about us. Of all the 
 people gathered there, only two were perfectly calm 
 and self-possessed, Mr. Marston and Korno Siga. 
 Mr. Marston said quietly, '^We will read from 
 God^s word to his children, for he is saying to us now, 
 ^ Be still, and know that I am God,' '^ and turning 
 to the ninetieth Psalm, Korno Siga read in clear 
 6 
 
82 KOBNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 full tones : " Lord, thou hast been our dwelling- 
 place in all generations. Before the mountains were 
 brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth 
 and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, 
 thou art God." 
 
 Thus reassured, the young men of the school 
 and all the converts so far overcame their fears as 
 to join in that grand old hymn, " God moves in a 
 mysterious way," etc. 
 
 Christianity seen thus in contrast with the wild 
 and frantic cries of the heathen, convinces the most 
 skeptical that there is a sustaining inherent power 
 in Christianity such as characterizes no other 
 religion. 
 
 We could not sleep in our own bungalow that 
 night, but took refuge in a native hut. During 
 the night we had seventeen more shocks, and dur- 
 ing the following fortnight we had forty-eight 
 earthquakes, more or less severe. Weeks passed 
 before we dared to disrobe ourselves for a good 
 night's rest ; we expected any moment to be obliged 
 to seek the open air for safety. Our little ones 
 asked pleadingly : " Can we never go to bed like 
 white folks any more? Have we turned into 
 natives since the earthquake ? " To one who has 
 never experienced the sensations produced by an 
 almost constant tremor of the earth, it is quite im- 
 possible for me to describe our feelings during that 
 ever-to-be-remembered fortnight. I often found 
 
EARTHQUAKES AND WHITE ANTS. 83 
 
 myself quoting, " If the foundations be destroyed, 
 what can the righteous do ? " 
 
 But at length the feeling of security came back 
 to us and we resumed our former habits of life, 
 thankful that the " elephant had stopped shaking 
 himself." 
 
 Personally, there is nothing that so thoroughly 
 frightens me as an earthquake. I have experienced 
 many perils by land and by sea, but none of them 
 moves me like an earthquake. One of our aged 
 Christian converts used to say, ^^The Marston 
 Mem Saheb is a brave woman and can face almost 
 any danger, but when an earthquake comes along 
 she can run as fast as anybody.'' This old man 
 was having prayers at our house one evening and 
 during his prayer an earthquake shook the house 
 severely. When he arose from his knees, he found 
 that his whole audience had run away and left him 
 praying alone ! 
 
 He did not know the unsafe condition of our 
 house as we did. Every bungalow throughout 
 that whole section of country was more or less in 
 ruins after that severe earthquake, and it required 
 much labor and expense before our house was 
 again a safe retreat. Besides we had lost nearly 
 all of our dishes and glassware and bottled medi- 
 cines, as our almwahs (or cupboards) had all been 
 thrown down and badly demolished. 
 
 Our white ants, termites or wood- worms as they 
 
84 KORNO SIGA, TKE 3I0UNTAIN CBIEF. 
 
 are variously called, are capable of devouring any- 
 thing except metals and stones. We have in 
 Assam the usual five classes among the termites, 
 viz. : males, females, workers, neuters and soldiers. 
 The males and females also have four long wings 
 nearly equal in length. Eighty thousand is the 
 estimated number of eggs which one female lays in 
 twenty-four hours. The workers are wingless and 
 are by far the most numerous. The neuters have 
 four wing-cases on the thorax. This class waits 
 upon the king and queen and takes care of the 
 young ants. The soldiers are similar in appearance 
 to the neuters, but are more fully developed and 
 have very large jaws, and are the military force of 
 the white ant tribe. 
 
 The houses built by the termites are of great 
 size and have long spiral passages connecting with 
 a subterranean abode. Their cones are often ten 
 or twelve feet high, relatively as large for them as 
 buildings five times the height of the Egyptian 
 pyramids would be for human beings, and are 
 built of earth which has been softened in the jaws 
 of the workers. This quickly dries and forms a 
 most substantial ant structure. Their habitations 
 abound everywhere in the jungles, and every avail- 
 able article which is consumable falls a prey to 
 these destructive creatures. They will devour any 
 soft wood tree, root and branch. They are quite 
 as industrious as the bee and quickly rebuild their 
 
EARTHQUAKES AND WHITE ANTS. 85 
 
 structures if they are allowed to do so. Snakes 
 and birds devour these ants with a relish, and the 
 natives consider them quite a dainty dish after 
 they have been roasted. When our rainy season is 
 about setting in, we often see myriads of the 
 winged ants filling the air, but most of them are 
 destroyed when the rain commences. The workers 
 are always on the lookout at this time for a king 
 and queen, and if a pair of these winged or perfect 
 ants escape death from the Avaters, they become 
 henceforth the royal pair and the founders of a 
 new colony. It is exceedingly interesting to watch 
 the founding of a colony of Avhite ants. There 
 are many chambers and galleries in their houses. 
 In one, the queen is imprisoned, where she is waited 
 upon by numerous neuters whose apartments open 
 from the queen^s. These attendants carry oiF the 
 eggs as soon as they are laid, and for this alone 
 eighty thousand trips are required in twenty-four 
 hours. The eggs are stored in rooms, and when 
 the young ants are hatched the neuters take care 
 of them. There are various perforated passages 
 leading to the nurseries, store-rooms, ground-floor 
 and underground entrances. The pregnant female 
 is five inches long and two-thirds of an inch wide, 
 ^. e., she is very many times as large as the workers. 
 (See note, p. 87.) The bite of the soldiers is severe 
 and painful and much dreaded by residents in 
 Assam. These insects are fearfully destructive to 
 
86 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 our houses and furniture, and they will secretly 
 eat out the interior of the legs of our furniture and 
 the posts of our houses until nothing but a shell is 
 left. They also devour clothing of all kinds. 
 During the first year of our sojourn in the country 
 we stored our clothing for the cold season in large 
 trunks and boxes which were not tin-lined ; and 
 when we came to examine them we found not a 
 Vestige of anything that we could recognize. A 
 few scraps of blankets and cloaks were left, but 
 were so covered over with the new earth and saliva 
 of these white ants that we could recognize neither 
 color nor texture. We resolved that we would 
 ferret out their habitations and miserably destroy 
 their city. After digging twenty feet in the 
 ground we came upon her royal majesty, the queen 
 of the colony. She was an ugly white worm five 
 inches or more long, and bore no resemblance to 
 her numerous progeny except in the shape of the 
 head and fore-legs. After killing her the colony 
 rapidly dispersed and doubtless went off to join 
 themselves to some other queen. I need not add 
 that we did not go into mourning over the queen 
 and the dispersion of her subjects. 
 
 It is not an unusual thing for a piece of furni- 
 ture which has all the outward appearance of 
 solidity suddenly to sink to the floor, and upon 
 examination prove to be nothing but a thin shell 
 from which the whole interior has been gnawed 
 
EA R THQ UA KES A ND WHITE ANTS. 87 
 
 out by these termites.* Houses fall in the same 
 way, unless we select the very hardest of wood for 
 the posts. In Assam we use the hal, or the teak- 
 wood for posts, all other kinds being too soft. 
 The natives use the bamboo for their little huts ; 
 this is a hard wood, but not large enough for the 
 European houses. 
 
 * " The Termitidse are almost all inhabitants of the tropics, 
 only a few comparatively small species being found in 
 temperate climates. These species occur in southern Europe, 
 one of which (Termes lucifugus) is abundant in some parts of 
 France. . . . Another [T. flavicollis) is a North African spe- 
 cies, . . . and the third (T.fiavipes) appears to have been in- 
 troduced from South America." They are found in Ja- 
 maica, and a ground-living species, the celebrated 2h'mes 
 bellicosus, of South Africa, are very destructive. 
 
 In the egg-laying season the eggs are developed in such 
 enormous numbers that the abdomen of the insect becomes 
 quite helpless, merely consuming food and producing eggs. 
 See Prof. P. M. Duncan's ''Natural History," Vol. VI., pp. 
 136-138. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 AN ASSAMESE FAIRY TALE. 
 
 PADMA, our children's nurse, whose name, by 
 the way, means a lily, though she was the 
 blackest lily I ever saw, was never weary of tell- 
 ing fairy tales. Some of them were very foolish 
 and hardly worth writing out for the children of 
 a civilized country, as they had to do mostly with 
 the exploits of the million of gods and goddesses 
 of the Hindoos. We always insisted upon hearing 
 these stories ourselves before our children should 
 be regaled by them, as we well knew that the 
 Hindoo children were told most frightful stories 
 iu order to make them go quietly to bed. I have 
 often heard a Hindoo mother tell her child, that if 
 it opened its mouth to say another word, a jackal 
 or a tiger would eat it up at once. 
 
 The following fairy tale is one of her best, and 
 its lesson is good enough for children of every 
 land. 
 
 Ram Singh was a very selfish boy, who would 
 
 always take the best of everything for himself. 
 
 Early in life he decided that he would live for 
 
 himself alone and never do anything to help 
 
 (88) 
 
AN ASSAMESE FAIRY TALE. 89 
 
 another person, whatever the need might be. He 
 worked very hard indeed, but his labor was all 
 for himself, and the more he toiled the poorer he 
 grew. At the age of forty he found himself with 
 a wife and twelve children, and not a single rupee, 
 anna, nor pice to buy food and clothes for them. 
 " The gods are unjust,'' he said, ^' and I will go to 
 the wise man of the temple and learn my fate." 
 And so he made his way through the dense jungle 
 filled with wild beasts, to the temple where the 
 wise man lived. On the road he met a camel 
 with two sacks of treasure on his back. The 
 poor animal seemed utterly exhausted, and leaned 
 heavily against a rubber tree to rest. He had 
 been wandering twelve years, having been lost 
 from a caravan, and during all these years had 
 found no one to direct him. 
 
 ^^ Where are you going ? " asked the camel. 
 
 " To seek my fate,'' the selfish man replied. 
 
 "Ask mine too," begged the camel. " Woe is 
 me." 
 
 Then the selfish man travels on until he comes 
 to a great river in which is a crocodile. 
 
 " Take me over the river," said the man. 
 
 " I will," said the crocodile, " but first tell me 
 whither you are going." 
 
 " The gods have been cruel and unjust to me, 
 and I go to the temple to ask why my fate is so 
 hard, and I so very, very poor." 
 
90 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 "Ask my fate too, for I have had a burning 
 pain in my stomach for twelve years, and I can 
 get no relief. Woe is me/^ moaned the croco- 
 dile. 
 
 " I will ask your fate too/' said the man, and he 
 hurried on. 
 
 And as he journeyed on he came to a tiger, a 
 royal Bengal man-eater, lying in the thicket in 
 great pain, and there were precious stones and rare 
 treasures strewed all about him, which had belonged 
 to the man he had eaten. 
 
 " Where are you going ? " 
 
 " To the temple of fate, to talk with the wise 
 man." 
 
 "Ask my fate too, for I have had this thorn in 
 my foot for twelve years, and I can find no com- 
 fort or help anywhere. Woe is me." 
 
 " I will," answered the selfish man as he started 
 on to the temple of fate. 
 
 There the w^ise old man asked him, "What 
 seek you here ? " 
 
 " I seek my fate. I have a poor wife and twelve 
 poverty-stricken children, and I am very, very 
 poor." 
 
 " Then you must have been living for yourself 
 all these years. Go home and think only of mak- 
 ing others rich, and you will surely become rich 
 yourself." 
 
 Then he asked the fate of the poor camel. 
 
AN ASSA3IESE FAIRY TALE. 91 
 
 "■ Take the sacks off his back, and both of you 
 will be relieved. Why did you not do it before ? " 
 " I was thinking only of myself 
 Then he asked the fate of the crocodile. 
 ^^ Give him herb tea, and both of you will be 
 relieved. Why did you not do it before ? " 
 " I was thinking only of myself 
 "And what shall be the fate of the tiger ? " 
 " Take the thorn out of his foot, and both of 
 you will be relieved." 
 
 The man returned, took the thorn from the 
 tiger's foot, and as compensation received all of 
 the precious stones and treasures which were 
 strewn about him. He gathered herbs and made 
 a tea, and gave to the crocodile for the pain in his 
 stomach. The crocodile threw up the tea, and 
 along with it a diamond of priceless value, the 
 celebrated diamond of India, and this became the 
 property of the once selfish man. He lifted the 
 two sacks from the camel's back, and they also 
 were bestowed upon him. And the poor man 
 went back to his family a rich man, for he that 
 helps others is sure to be helped himself. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 KOENO SIGA AS A STUDENT. 
 
 NEVER have missionaries welcomed to their 
 school a more earnest, persevering student 
 than Korno Siga proved to be. After he had 
 learned all he could about his own language, he set 
 about the ancient Sanscrit, which is the classical 
 language of India. He learned to read the Hin- 
 doo Shasters in that language, that he might better 
 compare them with the Christian Bible. Often I 
 have gone during the small hours of the night and 
 found him still poring over his books, and when 
 I begged him to put them aside and go to bed, he 
 would reply, " let me foUoAV out this subject a lit- 
 tle further, for it is more interesting to me than 
 any other on earth." He wrote out a long list of 
 moral sayings of the Shasters, and opposite each he 
 placed the infinitely higher moral precepts of the 
 Bible. He wrote out also the history of Krishna, 
 the Hindoo incarnation who is claimed to be one 
 and the same as Christ. 
 
 Ivor no Siga also made a careful study of the 
 Koran and Moliammedanism as he saw it exem- 
 plified in the lives of the Mussulmans about him. 
 (92) 
 
KORNO SIGA AS A STUDENT. 93 
 
 He made frequent trips to his native village, and 
 returning brought other young men with him 
 from the hill tribes to enter the Normal School. 
 This school was now well established, and was 
 generously aided by the English government. 
 During the second year of Korno Siga's stay in the 
 school he was attacked with cholera, that scourge 
 of India, which finds its origin in the valley of the 
 Ganges, and from thence spreads over all India. 
 Henry and I did all that human care and kindness 
 could accomplish for him. Our knowledge of 
 medicine was considerable, and we were exceed 
 ingly anxious that it should be effectual with 
 our beloved mountain chief. He suffered intensely 
 from the contraction of the muscles and could only 
 get relief by being most thoroughly rubbed with 
 stimulating liniment. After giving him freely of 
 '^ Squibb's Cholera Medicine," which every mis- 
 sionary ought to be supplied with in India, we 
 succeeded in checking the disease. But having 
 lost so much of the watery portion of the blood we 
 feared that he could not rally. Hence we gave him 
 copious drinks of salt water, and when he was 
 threatened with collapse we gave large doses of 
 calomel. We did not then know of the tannic 
 acid treatment. 
 
 After his recovery he was so grateful that he 
 seemed unable to do enough for us. He realized 
 that his life had been spared that he might be use- 
 
94 KORNO SIGA, THE 3I0VNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 ful to his countrymen, and he finally decided that 
 he ought to come out boldly and confess his alle- 
 giance to Christ's religion, and the day was ap- 
 pointed for his baptism. 
 
 The evening previous to that day he came to me 
 and asked if he could talk with me alone. ^^ You 
 are a mother, and perhaps you can understand 
 what I shall now tell you better than any one else. 
 I have been thinking a great deal lately about my 
 foster-mother. She was a good woman, and I 
 believe that she lived just as near right as she knew 
 how. She taught me to be truthful, honest, and 
 kind, and I am sure that if she had heard of the 
 Christian religion, she would have believed in it. 
 But she never had an opportunity of hearing one 
 word about Christ. If she has gone to the place 
 of unhappiness and punishment, I think I ought 
 to go there also and try to make her as comfortable 
 as possible ! It would be very selfish of me, to 
 enter eternal bliss and leave her alone in eternal 
 woe. Hence I have decided not to be baptized, 
 nor be a Christian, so that I may go to her and 
 help her all I can." 
 
 *^ My dear brother,'^ I replied, " do you suppose 
 our kind Heavenly Father would ever treat your 
 foster-mother unjustly? Eternal wretchedness 
 after death arises from a sense of sin committed 
 during life and a consequent remorse of conscience. 
 If your mother lived up to all the light she had 
 
KORNO SIGA AS A STUDENT. 95 
 
 and kept the whole law, how could she suffer from 
 remorse ? You must leave the future condition of 
 your mother in the hands of One who is too wise to 
 err and too good to be unkind. ' He will order 
 all events so that you will be abundantly satisfied.' 
 The Apostle Peter said to Cornelius and his com- 
 pany : ' Of a truth I perceive that God is no re- 
 specter of persons, but in every nation he that 
 feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted 
 with him,' and then he declares to these seekers 
 after the truth, Christ and the remission of sins." 
 
 I assured Korno Siga, moreover, that with the 
 instruction and additional light which he had 
 received, if he should refuse the Saviour and his 
 proffered atonement he would be far more sub- 
 ject to punishment than his good foster-mother. 
 And so on the following day he was baptized and 
 was one of the most joyful of converts. He was 
 the first of his tribe baptized by my husband, and 
 we hoped for great usefulness from his faithful 
 work among his people. Personally, I will add 
 that I have never known a heathen who lived up 
 to all the light he had received. Who has ? 
 
 The Normal School opened at ten o'clock every 
 morning, excepting Sunday. The opening exer- 
 cises consisted of reading of the Scriptures in the na- 
 tive language, a careful exposition of the truth read, 
 and questioning with reference to the lesson of the 
 preceding day. Then all bowed in prayer while 
 
1)6 KORNO SIGA, THE 3I0UNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 my husband led them audibly. The young men 
 were all very fond of music and were never tired 
 of singing our sweet Christian hymns. Geograj^hy, 
 arithmetic, grammar and history were the studies 
 usually pursued during the ordinary three years' 
 course. 
 
 But the people of Assam are naturally a religious 
 people, and much of the time was spent in study- 
 ing Christianity as compared with Vedaism, Brah- 
 manism and Hindooism. This last named religion 
 like Buddhism is a protest against Brahmanism, 
 but differs from Buddhism in that it is theistic, 
 while Buddhism says, '^ There is no God : the hope 
 of humanity is in itself 
 
 ^' The Indian mind/^ says Leighton Parks, in 
 his ^ Star in the East,' " has always shrunk from 
 materialism, because it leads to atheism ; Hindooism 
 is saturated with theism.'' It is impossible for the 
 Hindoo mind to see any beauty in annihilation, 
 and the question is ever being asked, '^ If a man 
 die, shall he live again f " 
 
 Korno Siga, although a mountaineer, was in- 
 tensely interested in the study of the religions of 
 the world, and the more he studied, the more 
 firmly rooted was he in the belief that God had 
 not left himself without witness among the nations 
 of the earth ; and when a group of hill men or of 
 Hindoos came to talk with him, he was very fond 
 of taking for his text, " The unknown god. Whom 
 
KORNO SIGA AS A STUDENT. 97 
 
 therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I 
 unto you." And the secret of his success in lead- 
 ing his countrymen into the light was the deep 
 religious experience he had himself undergone in 
 coming to that light " which lighteth every man 
 that cometh into the world." If we would win 
 souls to Christ we must ever follow his methods 
 of work, and with an infinite love and pity put 
 ourselves in the place of the ignorant and benighted, 
 and reason with them from their own standpoint. 
 Lyman Abbott beautifully expresses this thought : 
 ^' The missionary movement is not merely a 
 philanthropic movement; it does not derive its 
 power from a mere sentiment of pity for men and 
 fear for their future. Its inspiration lies in a 
 spiritual sense of Avhat it is for a child of God to 
 live in ignorance of his Father and in isolation 
 from him, and in the hopefulness caught from 
 faith in and communion with a God whose faith 
 in the possibilities of man and whose hope for and 
 love towards him are infinite and inexhaustible. 
 As the church has studied the life and character 
 of Christ it has caught his spirit ; it has imbibed 
 his life and followed his example." 
 7 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 KOENO SIGA's bride. 
 
 AMONG the girls who had come to me from 
 the hills for instruction was a bright, pretty 
 one whom we called Kache. She was from one 
 of the remote villages of Korno Siga's tribe, and 
 was of an independent family who had never been 
 slaves. 
 
 When the Burmese invaded Assam, there were 
 certain families among the hill tribes who rendered 
 such valuable service to the Assamese army, that 
 they and their descendants were made forever ex- 
 empt from slavery. As a sign of their independ- 
 ence a blue line of India ink was traced from the 
 vertex of the frontal bone to the bottom of the 
 chin. Since 1826, when the English government 
 took possession of the country, the slavery system 
 has been abolished, and the blue line only tells the 
 story of former cruelty and barbarism. But the 
 descendants of these independent families still re- 
 tain the blue line. Kache had the blue line most 
 clearly drawn upon her face, but she certainly bore 
 no other mark of aristocracy. Her hair had 
 never known the comb nor brush ; indeed she had 
 (08) 
 
KORNO SIGA'S BRIDE. 99 
 
 never seen a comb. Her fingers had always served 
 her in that line, so far as keeping rnbbish and 
 twigs out of her hair was concerned. Her cloth- 
 ing was meagre and filthy, when she put in her 
 appearance at the mission bungalow. She had 
 travelled in company with an old woman of her 
 tribe, and their journey had been through dense 
 jungles infested with wild animals. She had 
 heard of my school for girls through one of Mr. 
 Marston's preaching tours on the hills. He had 
 spent tw^o days at Kache's village, and had told 
 the people of our desire to have them educated 
 and christianized. He had urged the parents to 
 send their girls to school as well as their boys, 
 that they too might know a better life than the 
 mere animal existence which was then theirs. 
 
 Kache listened to the strange words of the white 
 man, as she stood behind one of the little bamboo 
 huts, and she rejoiced to hear that there was a 
 religion which recognized the worth of woman, 
 and permitted her to learn from the sacred books. 
 She resolved that she would some day seek the 
 missionary's school, and learn to be something 
 more than a wild animal of the jungle. The 
 journey from her home to our mission station re- 
 quired eleven days, and the road was only a foot- 
 path through the dense jungle. 
 
 At night she and the old woman Avere obliged 
 to climb the trees, and tie themselves to the limbs, 
 
100 KORNO SWA, THE 3I0UNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 lest they should fall while asleep, and be devoured 
 by the ravenous beasts of prey. All night long 
 the Bengal tigers roared, the jackals howled, and 
 the bears growled in the forest about them. When 
 the morning light came, however, they hied them- 
 selves away to their lairs in the depths of the jun- 
 gle. There are no hotels in that wild country, 
 and Kache must needs carry with her, her mat for 
 her bed, and dishes in which to cook her rice and 
 dahl (split peas). And thus through many hard- 
 ships and dangers did she reach the mission sta- 
 tion and the bungalow of the missionary. I was 
 seated on the broad verandah which surrounded 
 our bungalow, when she came up the steps and 
 announced herself in this fashion : " I have come 
 to learn to be somebody." The filthiest of all 
 filthy creatures, with vermin creeping over her, she 
 certainly looked as though she was quite a nobody. 
 Seating herself upon the verandah floor (what did 
 she know of chairs ?) she commenced shaking out 
 her coarse black hair, while ever and anon she would 
 seize a piece of cotton, a leaf, stick or one of the 
 vermin, and fling it from her. 
 
 Changing my position so that I might not come 
 witliin range of her missiles, I asked : "And you 
 wish to be somebody, do you ? AYhat do you 
 mean by that ? " 
 
 " I want to learn to read and write, and become 
 a white Christian." 
 
kORNO SIGA'S BRIDiJ. lOl 
 
 " Cleanliness is next to godliness, and if you 
 want to be a wliite Christian, the first thing for 
 you to do, is to bathe and put on clean garments. 
 When you have done that we will talk about your 
 being somebody." 
 
 But Kache most vehemently protested against 
 making so complete a change in her personal 
 appearance. ^' I cannot bathe ; neither my mother, 
 grandmother, nor any of my ancestors ever did 
 such a thing ; and how can I depart from the cus- 
 toms of my forefathers ? " 
 
 I assured her that I should never receive her 
 into the school unless she complied with these 
 requirements. I threw open the door of the 
 school-room and showed her my neat-looking class 
 of girls who had come to me looking just as she 
 looked ; and soap, water, and clean clothes had 
 wrought the difference, I assured her. 
 
 " If I should go back to my village looking as 
 they do, every one would make sport of me and 
 drive me out of the place. Besides I did not 
 come all this long way to hear such words as you 
 speak. I came to hear about the white man's 
 religion. May I not sit on the verandah every 
 day, and listen as you teach the people who come 
 to you each day ? '' 
 
 I assured her that she might do this even though 
 she was so filthy, but that she must not enter the 
 school. Day after day she came and sat with the 
 
102 KORNO SIGA, THE 3I0UNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 village people and listened to the words of Jesus, 
 that oriental Teacher who taught as never man 
 taught ; but she still strongly refused to bathe or 
 put on the clean clothes which I had in readiness 
 for her. 
 
 One day she came to the bungalow and as I 
 was not on the verandah to meet her, she made 
 her way to my dressing-room. Facing the door 
 of the room was a large mirror, and w^ien Kache 
 saw her image reflected there she started back and 
 seemed much frightened. 
 
 ^^ What Avild beast do you keep in that place ? " 
 she asked, looking towards the mirror. 
 
 I assured her that there were no wild beasts 
 about our house — that she was looking into a 
 mirror which showed her just what she looked 
 like. I asked her if she had not often seen her 
 image in tlie water. 
 
 She said she had, but it did not look half so 
 frightful as that creature in the mirror. 
 
 I told her if she would take the bath and put on 
 clean clothes, she could quite materially improve 
 " the creature in the mirror ; " that wild animals 
 of the jungle looked better than she, for they are 
 clean. I urged the matter upon her in the 
 strongest of terms, assuring her that she would 
 always be glad she took the step after once the 
 decision was made. After much argument and 
 hesitation, she made the decision I so ardently 
 
KORNO SIGA'S BRIDE. 103 
 
 hoped for, and went to the little river near our 
 house for her bath. An old Hindoo woman who 
 had become a Christian went with her, and after the 
 bath, she cut Kache's hair and combed it for her. 
 It was utterly impossible to get a comb through it, 
 on account of the accumulated debris of years. In 
 a couple of hours Kache returned to the house 
 clad in her clean white garments ; lier hair had been 
 wet in mustard oil, after the custom of the Assam- 
 ese Hindoo women, and plastered tight to her 
 head. She was so entirely transformed tliat I 
 Avished her to see herself again in the looking- 
 glass, and I led her to the dressing-room, and bade 
 her look once more upon the wild creature she had 
 feared. She was more than pleased with the 
 apparition before her, and with a broad grin ex- 
 claimed, "How pretty I am now ! Surely I am 
 a Christian, for I am clean." 
 
 I tried to explain to her the difference between 
 physical cleanliness and soul purity, and told her 
 that she could never be a true Christian until she 
 had received as thorough a cleansing of her heart, 
 as she had just had of her body ; that the Bible 
 and God's Holy Spirit could show her the con- 
 dition of her heart more thoroughly than the 
 mirror and the sunlight had shown her physical 
 uncleanness. " The Christian religion makes one 
 clean inside as well as outside, and the soul soiled 
 with sin must be washed in that fountain which 
 
104 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 Christ has opened for sin^ and must put on a robe 
 of Christ's righteousness before one can be a true 
 Christian.' ' Kache did not comprehend all these 
 words at that time. She entered the school the 
 next day and showed an eager desire for a knowl- 
 edge of books, and was a most persevering student. 
 When she had been only four months in the 
 school, one Sunday morning she heard a sermon 
 which Mr. Marston preached from the text, " If 
 any man he in Christ, he is sl new creature,'' etc. 
 This sermon made a deep impression upon her, and 
 during the afternoon she came to me and asked 
 me to explain it to her more fully. I reminded 
 her of her looking-glass experience, and how little 
 she realized her need of a bath until she caught 
 one good view of herself. " God's word of truth 
 is the looking-glass of the soul, and you have had 
 a view of your spiritual condition in that looking- 
 glass this morning, and when one sees the need of 
 a heavenly cleansing, the Bible points to the 
 fountain of Christ's righteousness and says, * Wash 
 ye, make you clean.'" Is. 1 : 16. 
 
 ^' But where is that fountain, and who will take 
 me to it ? " she eagerly asked. Long and patiently 
 did I talk to her during the hours of that Sunday 
 afternoon, of him who is the Way, the Truth and the 
 Life ; of his divine power to generate in the sinful 
 heart a new and holy purpose ; of that wisdom 
 which comes from above and is known only by 
 
KORNO SIGA'S BRIDE. iOK 
 
 those who are obedient to the heavenly vision. Christ 
 himself has plainly said to us, that if we will do his 
 will we shall know of the doctrine. No wonder 
 that so many grope in darkness, and wander into 
 materialism and agnosticism, when they try, by 
 their own weak reason, to find out a truth which 
 can only be known by obedience. At length 
 Kache seemed to catch a glimpse of Christ's 
 mercy and loving kindness, and asked me to pray 
 with her that she might be an obedient child of 
 this wise and loving Friend. 
 
 " What does he want me to do first for him ? " 
 " You have repented of all your past sins ; you 
 believe his holy word — that word says ^believe 
 and be baptized.^ Baptism is the public sign by 
 which you say to the world that your heart has 
 had the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Is not this 
 your first step ? '^ 
 
 That evening, as our little band of Christians 
 met for prayer, Kache told them of her experience, 
 and how she believed that she was now a new 
 creature in Christ. One old deacon in the church 
 who believed in bodily suifering and penance for 
 sin, and who had absorbed a great deal of Hin- 
 dooism into his Christianityj asked Kache if she 
 had spent three days and three nights wrestling in 
 agony for her forgiveness, and he assured her that 
 unless she had spent as long a time at least as 
 Jonah was in the whale's belly, she could not be a 
 
106 KORNO SIGA, THE FOUNTAIN CHIEf. 
 
 Christian. Mr. Marston and I were obliged to 
 laugh heartily at this novel statement, and Mro 
 Marston asked the old man if his father kept him 
 three days and three nights in torture, before he 
 would forgive his boyish disobedience. "Carlyle 
 says, ^ repentance is the noblest emotion of AN'hich 
 a human being is capable,"' said my husband; 
 " and is our God a vindictive being who delights 
 in torturing his children ? Xo, no, he is like a 
 kind, loving, forgiving parent, who is delighted to 
 forgive an erring child and receive him into the 
 fullest confidence." When Ivache made her 
 public espousal of the Christian religion, a glow 
 of heavenly peace and joy shone in her face, as 
 one after another of the native church members 
 gathered about her to welcome her to their Chris- 
 tian brotherhood. 
 
 Korno Siga was among this number, and I 
 observed that he welcomed her a little more cor- 
 dially than the others, with which fact I was well 
 pleased, though I kept my thoughts to myself. 
 The morning after her baptism, Kache came to me 
 and asked if she might start for her native village 
 that day, as she was in a hurry to tell her parents 
 and friends of this " wonderful religion which 
 makes one clean outside and inside.'^ I gave my 
 consent for her to go in company with the same 
 old woman who came with her, and who had been 
 helping me in the care of household mnllcrs 
 
KORNO SIGA'S BRIDE. 10^ 
 
 during the time Kache had been in school. 
 Korno Siga objected to the two women going 
 alone, and was on the point of offering to go him- 
 self, when I anticipated him and appointed Rong 
 Bong and his wife to go with them. Kache took 
 her Bible and hymn-book with her, and faithfully 
 did she use them during the weeks she remained 
 in her native village. Great was the surprise of 
 the villagers at her changed personal appearance, 
 and greatly did they wonder at the new strange 
 words she spake to them. She told them how she 
 had learned of Christ, and urged them also to be 
 obedient to this divine preacher who had become 
 her personal Saviour. So great was her influence 
 among her people that she persuaded a number 
 of the other girls of her village to accompany her 
 when she returned to the school. In this school tliey 
 not only learned of the Christian religion, but were 
 taught all of the common branches of knowledge, 
 and were trained in housekeeping and needle-work. 
 About a year after her visit to her native village, 
 Korno Siga came to me, and begged that she might 
 be given to him in marriage. I asked him how 
 he knew she loved him and would marry him. 
 
 " Oh, I know she loves me ; for she always 
 blushes and looks down when I offer her the betel 
 nut.'' The next time I met Kache, I asked her 
 what she thought of Korno Siga as a teaclier 
 among her people; would they like him, and 
 
108 KORNO SIGA, THE 310 UH TAIN CHIEF. 
 
 would he be useful among them if I should send 
 him to live among them ? Kache's manner told 
 the whole story, and I gave permission to Koruo 
 Siga to wed her. They went after their marriage 
 and lived in Kache's village, and spent their time 
 in teaching the ignorant people knowledge, useful 
 and practical. Above all, the good tidings of 
 salvation and an immortality beyond the grave 
 was the theme of their constant conversation, and 
 much good did they accomplish by their faithful 
 work. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SNAKE-CHARMERS AND ROYAL BENGAL TIGERS. 
 
 THE boa is the largest and most powerful of the 
 serpents of Assam. Some of these serpents 
 are thirty feet in length, and can masticate and 
 swallow a buffalo. They first crush the bones 
 thoroughly and then covering them with saliva 
 they lengthen the carcass until it is small enough 
 for them to swallow. Frequently in our travels 
 through the jungles, did we come within hearing 
 of the agonizing cries of some poor beast which was 
 being crushed to death by the coils of this power- 
 ful serpent. When the beast is large, the boa con- 
 trives to get it between himself and a tree and thus 
 more readily crushes it into swallowing dimen- 
 sions. Occasionally a human being is caught in 
 the coils of the serpent as he is taking his bath in 
 the riverc The boa winds his tail about a tree 
 growing at the water's edge, and thus floats out to 
 his unsuspecting victim. 
 
 The following snake-story was told me by a 
 native who solemnly assured me that it was true 
 in every detail. Two men and a woman were 
 travelling through the jungle, and as the universal 
 
 (109) 
 
110 KOBNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 custom in Assam is for the woman to follow in 
 the rear, she was the one to fall into the coils of 
 the boa who laj coiled near their path. She, as 
 most Avomen would have done under like circum- 
 stances, set up most vigorous feminine screeches. 
 The men told her to keep quiet and they would 
 rescue her, and one of them who carried a coop of 
 young pigeons at once offered one to the serpent 
 Avhich greedily devoured it. Another and another 
 were given in quick succession ; mean^^•hile the 
 second man liad made his way with all speed to 
 the bazaar where he bought two hundred more 
 pigeons, and they continued to feed the boa until 
 the third day after he had embraced the woman. 
 By this time he was thoroughly gorged and releas- 
 ing his hold of the woman fell to the ground and 
 was quickly despatched by the natives, who had 
 assembled for this purpose with immense clubs 
 and other implements of death. Perhaps this is 
 too big a snake-story to believe, but a native 
 policeman told it to me and I repeat it to you. 
 
 There are many water snakes in Assam, and 
 some of them are very venomous. One night, 
 when travelling by boat, I lifted my pillow to 
 place my bunch of keys underneath it, and found 
 a huge snake coiled there against which my hand 
 struck. He quickly slid away and I could no- 
 where find him, and I was under the necessity of 
 retiring without knowing his whereabouts, though 
 
SNAKE- CHAR3IERS AND BENGAL TIGERS. Ill 
 
 he had doubtless found his way into the river. I 
 was not then as intimately acquainted with the 
 snake family as I have since become, and must 
 confess to a feminine nervousness which somewhat 
 interrupted my slumbers. I dare say this form of 
 nervousness dates back to that affair in the garden 
 of Eden, when mother Eve met a snake and was 
 worsted in the encounter. 
 
 The russelean and the whip-snake are both ven- 
 omous and are quite common in Assam. But the 
 most fatally poisonous is the cobra de capello, or 
 hooded snake. It frequently makes its way into 
 houses, and many natives die annually from its 
 bite. More than once have I heard a thud on my 
 floor at night, and found it was caused by the fall- 
 ing of a cobra from the thatch-covered roof, and I 
 have found its slough two or three times under my 
 children's bed. 
 
 One night a terrific storm coming up suddenly, 
 I hastened to close the doors and windows which 
 had been left open on account of the stifling heat. 
 As I entered the bath-room I heard the hiss of the 
 cobra, and hastily sprang backward and went in 
 search of a lamp. On returning I found a large 
 cobra with uplifted trunk and widespread hood 
 confronting me. I called in the chokedar (night 
 watchman) and we soon succeeded in killing the 
 snake. We found on closer examination that he 
 had swallowed a toad, and this had made him less 
 
112 KORNO SIGA, THE 310UNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 agile than usual, and hence he had not struck me 
 with his fangs when I entered the bath-room. 
 Thus my life was saved by a toad. 
 
 The Indian jugglers make various uses of this 
 snake, in the wonderful feats with which they as- 
 tonish the uninitiated. We had not been long in 
 Assam before we were visited by the snake-charm- 
 ers. Two of these men came to our door and very 
 kindly informed us that the Hindoo gods had told 
 them that our premises were infested by cobras ; 
 and moreover, as they were the brothers of the 
 cobra and servants of the gods, they had only to 
 call their brothers and they would come to them. 
 
 Mr. Marston replied, " Very well ; I will give 
 you a rupee for every cobra you catch for me on 
 my premises." 
 
 The charmers took their bamboo fifes and played 
 several weird airs, which made me feel that all the 
 minor strains were concentrated in the fife and in 
 those airs. Then ceasing their music they said in 
 a sing-song tone, ^^ Come, my brother of the jungle, 
 hasten to me ; I wait for you ; I avoo you with my 
 music ; I call you with my voice. Come, my 
 brother of the jungle, come.'' 
 
 Very soon a large cobra came gliding from the 
 edge of the grass, and lifting his head he seems to 
 keep time to the music of the fife. He makes his 
 way to the musician and is caught in the hands of 
 the charmer. The snake strikes angrily at the 
 
SNAKE-CHARMERS AND BENGAL TIGERS. 113 
 
 man's hand, and blood seems to flow freely from 
 the wound. The charmer takes a little box of 
 medicine from his girdle and rubs some of it on 
 the wound, and, wiping away the blood, says, 
 " The gods do not permit me to be poisoned by my 
 brother." This performance is repeated until four 
 large cobras are caught, and safely stored in the 
 charmer's baskets. Then the two men came for- 
 ward to tlie verandah where we were seated, and 
 making a low salaam asked Mr. Marston for the 
 money. 
 
 " Give me my snakes and I will at once pay 
 you for them,'' is the answer. 
 
 To this arrangement the charmers are much op- 
 posed, and rather than give up the snakes they turn 
 away from the house without tlieir money. 
 
 I need scarcely explain this proceeding by telling 
 you that they were trained snakes whose fangs had 
 been extracted, and the charmers had only a few 
 moments before let them out of their baskets that 
 they might make money by again catching them. 
 The blood which seemed to come on the man's 
 hand was Indian vermilion, which Avas concealed 
 in a little bag in his hand. I have seen a juggler 
 apparently thrust a knife through the palm of his 
 hand and the blood flow most profusely. He will 
 wipe it thoroughly, and shoAV the hand without a 
 scratch or wound of any kind. The knife was 
 made with a spring which would allow the blade 
 
114 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF, 
 
 to sink back into the handle, and press upon a bag 
 of vermilion in such a manner as to cause the ap- 
 pearance of a stream of blood flowing over the 
 hand. In the sleeve of his garment he had another 
 blade, shorter by the width of his hand than the 
 one attached to the knife, which he at once glued 
 to the back of his hand, and in this adroit manner 
 deceived the lookers-on. 
 
 The cobra is of brownish -yellow color from three 
 to four feet in length. People err who think it a 
 large, powerful snake. It is feared on account of 
 its venom and not for its strength. Its bite is not 
 always fatal. AYe have had an opportunity of 
 testing pretty thoroughly the various antidotes for 
 the bite of the cobra. Our plan finally adopted 
 was to ligate and cauterize at once, at the same 
 time administering repeatedly large doses of whis- 
 key and small doses of ammonia. The famous 
 Tanjore pills, which contain each about one-fif- 
 teenth grain of arsenious acid, are also very effica- 
 cious in treating cobra poisoning. This pill is also 
 much used in the malarial fevers of India, and is 
 very happily named, as far as the Assamese are 
 concerned, ^Han^^ meaning severe, and ^'jor,^ a 
 fever. The name is, however, derived from the 
 district in the Madras Presidency which bears 
 this name. The one other remedy which has been 
 conceived to be effectual is Bibron's remedy, but 
 in order for this or the Tanjore pills to reach the 
 
SNAKE-CHARMERS AND BENGAL TIGERS. 115 
 
 case, it must be administered immediately after the 
 bite, as the poisoning is very rapidly introduced 
 into the blood. 
 
 Many hundreds of the natives of Assam die 
 annually from the effect of serpent poisoning. 
 The mongoose is erroneously supposed by some to 
 be proof against the poison, and Europeans in 
 India often keep one of these little animals about 
 the premises to destroy the cobras. The fact with 
 reference to this matter is, that the mongoose is so 
 very agile that it can destroy the cobra before it 
 can bite him, by seizing it by the back of the neck 
 and destroying it instantly. The cobra has been 
 known to live seven months without food. 
 
 Adders were one of my greatest causes of 
 anxiety in Assam, as some of them are of the 
 exact color of the trees and shrubs, upon the limbs 
 of which they are partial to basking themselves 
 in the sunshine. And as my children were play- 
 ing in the garden, the nurse has several times 
 been startled by the sight of an adder stretching 
 out its head from a limb towards the children. A 
 lady friend of mine, on taking down a dress from 
 her wardrobe, found an adder in the sleeve of it 
 as she was putting it on. But she escaped un- 
 harmed. 
 
 The most exciting of all sports in Assam, both 
 among the natives and Europeans, is the hunting 
 of the tiger. The royal Bengal tiger is found in 
 
116 KORNO SIGA, THE 3I0UNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 all the jungles, and fearlessly prowls about our 
 houses at night seeking its prey. The man-eater 
 is never satisfied with anything but human flesh ; 
 but the other tigers are content with goats, deer, 
 cows and ponies. The native mode of hunting 
 the tiger is to surround him in his lair during the 
 period of day when he is most droAvsy, and with 
 very long-handled spears pierce his body through 
 and through from every direction, leaving him no 
 possible chance of escape. 
 
 A company of natives came to our bungalow 
 on an average of twice a week to secure Mr. 
 Marston's assistance in destroying these powerful 
 creatures. In a village near us a man-eater de- 
 stroyed, in one week, three human beings, and the 
 natives were unable to find his hiding-place for 
 the daytime. They entreated Mr. Marston to go 
 with them and put a ball from his trusty rifle into 
 the tiger. This rifle had three separate barrels : 
 one was used for small game and carried shot ; the 
 second was for medium-sized animals, such as cleer, 
 jackals, leopards and wild hogs ; the third carried 
 an immense bullet for tigers, buflaloes and croco- 
 diles. 
 
 Mr. Marston mounted his elephant and started 
 for the village. After a most careful search for 
 traces of the tiger's lair they tracked him to a 
 sugar-cane patch about a quarter of a mile from 
 the village. IMr. Marston ordered the natives to 
 
SNAKE-CHAJRMERS AND BENGAL TIGERS. 117 
 
 thrust in their long spears from three directions, 
 and drive the man-eater from his bed, while he 
 would take charge of his exit from the side 
 whence no native spears were obstructing the way. 
 Mr. Marston remained seated on the elephant ; this 
 animal apparently as much interested in the sport 
 as was the Salieb himself. Korno Siga and two 
 others of our Christian people were also on the 
 back of the elephant, and Korno Siga had carried 
 a shot-gun, remarking, " it will make a noise at 
 any rate." I quote from Mr. Marston's account 
 of the shooting : 
 
 " As soon as we arrived at the location of the 
 tiger, the natives poked vigorously here and there 
 through the sugar-cane stalks, which were thickly 
 matted together in places, affording a good lair for 
 the ugly beast. At length the monster was dis- 
 turbed, and made a tremendous leap towards us 
 and our faithful elephant. As soon as his eye 
 caught sight of me and my gun, he seemed to 
 realize that a desperate struggle must be made for 
 his life, and crouching for another leap, which 
 would bring him upon the back of our elephant, 
 his eyes glared like balls of fire, and his counte- 
 nance had an expression of all vindictive and 
 demoniacal emotions combined. I knew only too 
 well that my life depended upon my rifle, and 
 lifting an earnest prayer that the ball might be 
 directed by an unerring wisdom, I aimed at tlie 
 
118 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF, 
 
 frontal bone of the monster's skull. With a 
 terrible roar, which quite put at discount Korno 
 Siga's report from his shot-gun, the cavernous 
 depths of the huge beast seemed quite exhausted, 
 and he rolled over on his side and was dead. We 
 examined the skull, and found the hole where the 
 bullet had penetrated deep into the brain sub- 
 stance. He was the largest of royal Bengal tigers, 
 a magnificent fellow, measuring eleven feet from 
 the nose to the tip of the tail, his body being eight 
 feet long. I hired ten natives to carry him to our 
 bungalow, that the children and Mildred miglit 
 see the fruit of my spoils. They tied his feet to 
 long bamboo poles, and ST\Ting him from these 
 poles as they bore him on their shoulders. The 
 natives came from all the country round about to 
 rejoice over the death of the man-eater. His 
 skull I am keeping to carry home to my father, 
 and his skin makes a royal rug for our drawing- 
 room. I am sure the Lord steadied my nerves to 
 make that splendid sliot. Henceforth the natives 
 will look upon me as a blessing to their country : 
 they can appreciate such help as this better than 
 tlie good they may get from a sermon. 
 
 " Sj^eaking of sermons, let me tell you a story 
 of one of our American missionaries who was in 
 great haste to preach a sermon of the typical sort 
 to the natives. He did not know the language at 
 all accurately, but he had a ravenous zeal to do 
 
SNAKE-CITARMEES AJVD BENGAL TIGERS. 119 
 
 good. After annouDcing his text, he attempted 
 to tell them that he would open up the subject 
 before his audience in three parts or headings. 
 The word for part or portion in the Assamese 
 language is ^Bhag/ and the word for tiger is 
 ^Bagh.' Our good preacher clearly, and in a 
 most preacher-like tone, told the native audience 
 that he should let loose or open up before them 
 three tigers, and then he went on to enlarge about 
 those tigers ; and when he came to the time when 
 he wished to dismiss the congregation, he used the 
 word ' Khedai,' instead of ^ Bidai,' and so said he 
 would drive them all out. One of the natives 
 told me that he did not know at all why he should 
 come to this country to let loose tigers, and drive 
 the people out of church. Zeal is a good thing, 
 but zeal and knowledge should always go to- 
 gether. 
 
 ^^ Korno Siga and I were out upon a jungle tour 
 yesterday, and came suddenly upon a solitary wild 
 buifalo. He had been driven away from the herd, 
 and was fury itself infuriated. As soon as he 
 saw us he pawed the ground, and tossed the grass 
 and dirt upon his long horns and started for us. 
 There was not a tree within sight for us to climb, 
 and we saw no means of escape from the dreaded 
 animal. It is not a pleasant thought that you may 
 be tossed and gored by an animal like the buffalo, 
 whose horns each measure five feet in length, and 
 
120 KOBNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 hence we ran our level best^ and I prayed as I 
 ran, and ran fast as I prayed, but knew not where 
 I was going, whether into greater danger or to 
 a place of safety. The angry beast was so near 
 me at times that I fancied I felt liis hot breath on 
 my shoulders, and feared that in spite of all my 
 praying and running I should fall a victim to 
 buffalo fury, when suddenly I came to the bank 
 of a small stream. Korno Siga and I both leaped 
 at once down the steep bank, and found ourselves 
 resting on a projection of rock some five feet 
 above the water edge. We crept down and found 
 that we were safely covered from the sight of the 
 buffalo, whose bellowing and angry pawing we 
 could still hear on the banks above us. This was 
 indeed finding ^ the shadow of a great rock in a 
 weary land.' 
 
 ^^A native boat coming along shortly, took 
 us on board, and we reached home in safety. 
 Travelling by boat in this country is a snail-like 
 process. The native rowers are very inert, and 
 insist upon taking their own time, never minding 
 what may be our haste. A native is never in a 
 hurry. As we crawl along the banks of a stream 
 skirted by dense overhanging jungle, which teems 
 with wild buffaloes, elephants, tigers and the rhi- 
 noceros (one horned) — the stream itself abounding 
 with hungry crocodiles — compelled as we are to 
 sleep in a dug-out moored to such a shore with 
 
SNAKE-CHAR3IERS AND BENGAL TIGERS. 121 
 
 only the protection of a bamboo mat : our surround- 
 ings are not well fitted to induce calmness of mind 
 and blissful repose. But we get used to it after 
 a while, and after these years of residence in 
 Assam, we can say that no real harm has ever 
 come to us. To the true sportsman this kind of a 
 life is apropos, and I who so intensely enjoyed 
 sporting in my youthful days should not complain 
 of my many opportunities for exhibiting my skill 
 as a marksman. Yet there are times when there 
 comes an element of unpleasantness even in hunt- 
 ing for the royal Bengal tigers and buffaloes. 
 
 " Yet, as a missionary doing earnest work for 
 these, my beloved people, I am always happy, and 
 with my priceless rifle and a hatchet at my pillow, 
 and the Lord of all the earth ever with me, I feel 
 but little fear. And I am truly thankful to be 
 doing a work that, but for me, would never be 
 done. My life is counting for more here than it 
 could possibly count for in my native land. 
 Hence, I will gladly spend and be spent for the 
 good of others." 
 
CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 KORNO SIGA BECOMES A CHIEF. 
 
 WHILE Korno Siga and Kaclie were thus use- 
 fully laboring among their people, Sar Po, 
 the venerable father of Korno Siga and chief of 
 his tribe, was attacked with small-pox and died. 
 According to the laws of the hill tribes, Korno 
 Siga, who previous to this had been a nominal 
 chief, became acting chief in his stead, as this foster- 
 parent had no children of his own. In vain did 
 the missionaries and native Christians urge that 
 the old chief, who in his heart was a believer in 
 Christianity, should be given Christian burial. 
 The heathen were in the majority and their opinion 
 prevailed. And Sar Po's corpse was placed on the 
 bamboo dicing, and a little roof built over it to 
 protect it from the vultures and jackals. Mourners 
 were hired to weep and wail, and beat their chests, 
 and tear their hair for fifteen days, during which 
 time the spirit of the dead man was supposed to 
 be seeking an abode. But when the fifteen days 
 were over, the people feasted and danced for yet 
 fifteen days more, because they believed the spirit 
 had found a resting place. At the end of the 
 (122) 
 
KORNO SIGA BECOMES A CHIEF. 123 
 
 thirty days the corpse was covered with pitch and 
 straw, and cremated, the ashes being carefully 
 gathered up and kept in a memorial urn that 
 future generations might look upon them and 
 remember the chief, Sar Po. 
 
 Though Korno Siga was now chief, he was none 
 the less interested in the Christianization of his 
 people, and he was able to wield a wider influence 
 for good than before. One day when he had gone 
 to look after some of the business interests of his 
 tribe with an adjoining tribe, he sat down under a 
 hal tree to eat his rice, and a landholder of con- 
 siderable note came and talked with him, asking 
 him many questions about his tribe, his religion, 
 and his business interests. Korno Siga, always on 
 the lookout for benefiting the people, took his 
 Testament and read from it some of the words of 
 Jesus. The man, whose name was Habe, listened 
 Avith much interest, and asked for a tract as Korno 
 Siga left. The tract was a portion of the gospels 
 of the New Testament, and Habe, who had learned 
 to read in a Hindoo school, read it closely while 
 he kept it concealed for six months. At the end 
 of that time he very suddenly put in an appearance 
 at our bungalow. He sought Mr. Marston's study 
 and told him how Korno Siga had given him the 
 sacred book, and how he had studied it for the 
 months previous, until he had decided to visit the 
 missionary and ask for Christian baptism. 
 
124 KORNO SIGA, THE 3I0UNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 The missionary asked him if he realized how 
 much he must suffer by way of persecution if he 
 became a Christian. " Your tribe have taken the 
 Hindoo religion^ and if you become a Christian 
 your people Avill cast you out, calling you a 
 Christian dog. Your family will forsake you ; 
 your property will be confiscated, and you will 
 become a homeless wanderer. Can you endure 
 all this for the sake of a religion of which you 
 only heard six months ago, and which none of 
 your tribe have embraced ? '^ 
 
 Habe replied : ^^ I have enjoyed such happiness 
 and such liberty of soul during these months 
 since I believed in Christ, that I can endure 
 all you have mentioned and even more for his 
 sake." 
 
 And so he was baj^tized and went back to his 
 village. The results were just as the missionary 
 had predicted. His brothers took his land from 
 him, his wife and children forsook him, and he 
 was obliged to build him a little hut and live by 
 himself. Often was he spit upon and called a 
 Christian dog, by those who had formerly treated 
 him with deference. Quietly and conscientiously 
 did Habe endeavor to live out the principles which 
 Christ inculcated before his people, and whenever 
 opportunity offered, he earnestly besought them to 
 study Christ^s word and life, and see for themselves 
 what this new doctrine could do for them. When 
 
KOENO SIGA BECOMES A CHIEF. 125 
 
 the time came for the gathering iu of the rice crop 
 every available person in the villages was called 
 into service. The rainy season was fast coming, 
 and the rice must be gathered and stored quickly. 
 The villagers did not ask Habe to help them, feel- 
 ing that after persecuting him as they had, he 
 would never lend them a helping hand. But un- 
 solicited, he worked day and night for the saving 
 of their crops, though his brothers had defrauded 
 him of all his land. When at length it was all 
 gathered, the people gathered about Habe's hut, 
 and asked him to tell them of his religion. They 
 had never before known a man among them to 
 work day and night for his enemies and persecu- 
 tors, and they had decided that Habe must have 
 some spirit moving him, of which they were 
 ignorant. Gladly did the good man open to them 
 the beautiful life and doctrines of the divine 
 Christ, and they heard and believed until one after 
 another joined him, and a brotherhood of Christians 
 was organized, and finally the whole village where 
 Habe lived became Christians. They built a 
 church and a school, and Habe became their 
 preacher and teacher. His wife and family came 
 back to him and embraced his faith, and thus his 
 home and all of his surroundings were more com- 
 fortable than they had ever been. 
 
 Mr. Marston had supplied Habe with American 
 implements of agriculture, so that much larger 
 
126 KOENO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 crops were now raised^ and the villages about wished 
 to learn the secret of Habe's successful farming. 
 
 One of the gong huras (head men) of a Hindoo 
 village begged to use one of the American ploAvs, 
 that he might turn up the soil deeper than the 
 forked stick used by the Hindoos for plows could 
 possibly do. A Hindoo priest seeing him plowing 
 with the Christian plow, commanded him to " put 
 it up at once/^ telling him that he was ^^ plowing up 
 the sacred religion of the Hindoos with that 
 Christian plow.'' 
 
 Korno Sigo's influence for good among his people 
 was felt all through his tribe. One day when Mr. 
 Marston and myself were travelling with him 
 through the jungle, we came upon an image of a 
 Hindoo god, which a priest had left on the hills, 
 hoping that the people there would become wor- 
 shippers of idols. Korno Siga threw the image 
 face downward to the ground, and stamping upon 
 it before a large number of his people, said : ^' Let 
 no one worship this image until it arises and shows 
 its face. This god is more helpless than a babe ; 
 who wants to worship such a thing ? Our God is 
 eternal and all-powerful, and can save to the 
 uttermost." One night during our journeyings 
 among the hill people we arrived at a late hour in 
 a lieathen village where we supposed the people 
 knew nothing of us, nor of the Christian religion. 
 Being exceedingly weary we pitched our little tent, 
 
KOENO SIGA BEC03IES A CHIEF. 127 
 
 and at once retired to rest. We had scarcely fallen 
 asleep when we were awakened by the voices of 
 singers breaking the stillness of the night air, and 
 as we listened we heard the sweet hymns of our 
 childhood, sacred to us by association with loved 
 parents and relatives in our beloved native land : 
 " Jesus, Lover of my soul," " Rock of Ages cleft 
 for me,'^ and others equally familiar. Wearied 
 and homesick we had laid us down to sleep, and 
 now listening to these familiar words we seemed 
 once more surrounded by our loved absent ones. 
 Mr. Marston went out in search of the singers, 
 and found not one familiar face among them. 
 " Where did you learn these Christian hymns ? " 
 he asked. " Korno Siga and Kache taught them 
 to us once when they sojourned a few weeks in our 
 village,'' was the reply. These hymns became 
 texts for sermons often afterwards among this 
 people. 
 
CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 HASHISH, OPIUM AND CHRISTIAN BRANDY. 
 
 THE Hindoos of Assam are all inveterate 
 smokers. Men, women and children all 
 smoke tobacco and chew the betel nnt. It is not 
 an uncommon thing for a toddling infant to leave 
 off nursing and run to its father for a smoke. 
 
 Most of the adults also use opium in some form. 
 The hill tribes have never until recent years been 
 opium eaters, nor have the Hindoos known of the 
 use of brandy as a beverage until Christian coun- 
 tries taught them the use of it. Among our peo- 
 ple in Assam the common name for all of the in- 
 toxicating drinks was Christian brandy. The hill 
 tribes make a fermented drink from rice, and are 
 in the habit of drinking it daily as the German 
 does his lager, but they seldom become intoxicated 
 with this drink. The curse of the Hindoo is 
 opium, and it is exceedingly difficult to break one 
 from this terrible habit. 
 
 Hashish, the Indian hemp, is called Bhang by 
 the Assamese. India is the native country of this 
 plant, and when it is cultivated in northern lati- 
 tudes it does not produce the resinous exudation 
 (128) 
 
HASHISH, OPIUM, CHRISTIAN BRANDY. 129 
 
 that characterizes it in India, which is known by 
 the medical term of Cannabis Inclica. The large 
 leaves and seed vessels are also used by the com- 
 mon people for the manufacture of this drug. Its 
 eifect upon different individuals varies widely. 
 Some are soothed and made serenely happy ; others 
 are moved to immoderate and boisterous mirth ; 
 while a third class become wrathful and violent 
 and attempt to destroy the lives of others as well 
 as of themselves. Bajan, a Nepaulese servant 
 whom we had in our employ, was of this latter 
 clasSj though a most valuable employe when not 
 "Bhanged.^^ When in his frantic state from the 
 effects of hashish, he would endeavor to choke 
 himself, and everybody else, seeming to have a 
 mania for catching at necks, and it would require 
 two or three men to control him. The delightful 
 hallucinations produced by this drug give reason 
 to believe that it is the nepenthe^ or "grief as- 
 suager'' of the ancients. One of its names in 
 Assam is " causer of the reeling gait," and another 
 ^' the laughter-mover." 
 
 Our word assassin is derived from this word 
 hashish. Hassan ben Sabah founded the eastern 
 branch of assassins. His creed was : " Nothing is 
 true and everything is lawful." He had a fine, 
 well-fortified castle called Alamut, surrounded by 
 walled gardens filled with beautiful flower beds, fruit 
 trees, rippling streams and luxurious halls. Charm- 
 9 
 
130 KORNO SIGA, THE 3I0UNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 ing maidens and handsome boys were kept in these 
 gardens to entertain visitors. Those whom he 
 considered strong and brave enough to be initiated 
 into the order of assassins, were invited to the 
 banquets of the Grand IMaster Hoben ben Sabah, 
 and when well intoxicated with liashish they were 
 carried into the beautiful garden and laid upon 
 couches that they might sleep off its effects. On 
 awakening they thought that they were in para- 
 dise, and henceforth became most devoted servants 
 of the Grand Master, and willingly undertook all 
 the desperate deeds of violence which he exacted 
 from them. These desperadoes were then called 
 Hashashin, and this word was afterwards corrupted 
 by the Crusaders into assassin, and has continued 
 to this time to be the English term for a cruel, se- 
 cret murderer. This order of Hashashin was found 
 only a few years ago to have an existence in India, 
 a suit being brought into the English court by a 
 Grand Master who thus sought to recover posses- 
 sion of the records of his order. 
 
 The Thugs of India were for a long time the 
 terror of all travellers. These were a sect of as- 
 sassins who were worshippers of the goddess Kali, 
 the divinity of sensuality and death. She is rep- 
 resented as always thirsting for human blood, and 
 the victims — buffaloes and goats — which are con- 
 tinually sacrificed to lier in India are legion. 
 Formerly many human sacrifices were offered to 
 
HASHISH, OPIUM, CHRISTIAN BRANDY. 1^1 
 
 this bloody goddess, but the humanity and Chris- 
 tian principle of the English government has long 
 since forbidden human sacrifices. The Kalika 
 Purana, one of the sacred books of the Hindoos, 
 gives most minute details about the way the Thugs 
 are to conduct their deeds of violence. Each gang 
 had a leader, a guru, or teacher, and learners. Among 
 the latter were stranglers, entrappers and grave- 
 diggers. They assumed the garb of travellers, and 
 they used a handkerchief for strangling their vic- 
 tims. The plunder of this cruel sect was divided 
 into thirds — Kali receiving one-third, the widows 
 and orphans of the sect one-third, and the remain- 
 ing third to the assassins themselves. We are all 
 familiar with the story of the extermination of the 
 Thugs by the English government. Between 1826 
 and 1835 nearly two thousand persons in India 
 were condemned as Thugs, and their families were 
 taken under the protection of the government, their 
 children being taught trades and educated to a 
 moral and useful life. Hashish Avas the drug that 
 these Thugs used, to nerve them up to their deeds 
 of violence. The burglar of America gets along 
 successfully in his vocation of plunder and murder 
 without hashish. 
 
 The poppy fields of Bengal are one of the beau- 
 tiful sights which meet the traveller on his journey 
 through the country. There are two varieties ; 
 one with either red or white flowers and black 
 
132 KOEJVO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 seeds, and the other with pure white flowers and 
 white seeds. The white variety has crimson stripes 
 and lines upon a pure white ground ; it is very 
 beautiful and ornamental, and these peculiar traits 
 can be secured bj planting only the best seeds from 
 the best flowers. In India the opium poppy is 
 sown in winter, and the soil is highly enriched and 
 abundantly watered. The word opium is derived 
 from the word "opion/' meaning poppy juice. 
 In India, incisions with a knife of three or more 
 blades are made in the green capsules ; this is done 
 during the hottest part of the day, and the next 
 morning the white juice which has exuded and 
 thickened is scraped off, and put into jars and sent 
 to the opium factories, where it is purified and 
 sent to the market. 
 
 The English government still monopolizes the 
 opium trade in India, for though any one may 
 engage in the cultivation of the plant, the opium 
 must all be sold at prices fixed by government ; 
 and as India furnishes at least 11,000,000 pounds 
 annually for the market, the revenue realized by 
 the government is enormous. The opium-eaters 
 and smokers are numerous in Assam, a large 
 majority of the Hindoos using it daily in one form 
 or another. To this fact their weak and feeble 
 physical condition is largely owing. 
 
 The hoohah or hubble-bubble is the native 
 apparatus for smoking. This pipe has a long 
 
RASHISH, OPIUM, CHRISTIAN BRANDY. 133 
 
 stem which carries the smoke through a cocoanut 
 shell filled with water, and as it is being drawn 
 through it produces a bubbling sound ; hence the 
 name hubble-bubble. 
 
 The wizened appearance of the Assamese is a 
 painful sight to the European newly arrived in 
 Assam. It is exceedingly difficult to persuade a 
 Hindoo to give up either his betel nut, his tobacco, 
 or his opium, although he knows that the opium 
 at any rate is fast destroying his noblest powers, 
 and rendering him a poor sleeping imbecile. Espe- 
 cially is this true of the older people. And yet 
 the most heroic efforts are made by those who are 
 converted to Christianity to leave off the habit. 
 Some of them even begged that they might be 
 kept in close confinement and suffered to die, 
 rather than be allowed to partake of the accursed 
 drug, which they knew not only ruined their own 
 moral and mental capacities, but also disgraced the 
 pure religion which they had espoused. The 
 young people of Assam are not using it as much 
 as formerly, and our hill people as a rule do not 
 use it. One evening during a religious service I 
 observed Korno Siga dozing in such a manner 
 that I felt quite sure he had been taking opium. 
 I sent for him the next day, and put the question 
 directly to him : " Have you contracted that 
 dreadful habit of smoking opium?'' He burst 
 into tears and confessed that he had been using it 
 
134 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 for six months, and, furthermore, that he had also 
 been partaking of Christian brandy. 
 
 I was astonished that one who had seemed 
 morally and religiously so strong should have 
 taken on these dreadful habits, and I entreated 
 him as he loved his own soul and cared for the 
 good of his people, that he would at once resolve 
 to " taste not, touch not, handle not," either of 
 these poisons. 
 
 At our next meeting of the church-members he 
 made a most penitent confession, and asked that 
 his name be taken from the list of membership, 
 for, said he, " It is not just to the good fruit that 
 the decayed and imperfect should remain in the 
 basket,'' and ringing his hands and smiting upon 
 his breast, he exclaimed, " Oh, how weak I am ! 
 just like a little cliild who is constantly falling 
 down, and needs some one to help it on its feet. 
 Can I ever be strong and true like the Marston 
 Saheb?" 
 
 Mr. Marston refused to have his name stricken 
 from the church list, for, said he, " if Korno Siga 
 is weak he all the more needs the help of the 
 church, and that is what the church is for — to 
 raise the fallen and to strengthen the weak and 
 instruct the ignorant." It was a long time before 
 Korno Siga would trust himself to go into the 
 bazaars or other places where opium was being 
 
HASHISH, OPIUM, CHRISTIAN BRANDY. 135 
 
 smoked or whiskey being sokl, and he did break 
 himself of these habits. 
 
 In order truly to benefit any people we must 
 bear with them in their infirmities, and never 
 despair of them even though they sin against them- 
 selves seventy times seven. What a lesson of in- 
 finite patience has Christ taught us in his dealings 
 with poor weak humanity ! ^' In all their afflic- 
 tions he was afflicted/' etc., "and he bore them all 
 the days of old.'' These Assamese converts do 
 really learn to make sacrifices for the good of others. 
 They who know not what real self-denial is may 
 learn a lesson from the following incident, which 
 occurred during the days of famine in Assam. 
 The little body of Christians who had been sorely 
 pressed for food, being obliged to gather the grass 
 seeds and subsist upon them, as there was no rice, 
 had kept up their weekly offerings for carrying the 
 word to the reo^ions bevond durina: the absence of 
 the missionary from the station. And when the 
 famine abated they brought their money, and put- 
 ting it into the treasury were about to depart, when 
 they were asked why they had not taken that 
 money and sending to Calcutta bought rice for 
 their hungry families. The reply was, " Teacher, 
 do you think we could eat the Lord's money ? '^ 
 
CHAPTER Xyi. 
 
 KOENO SIGA AND THE THIBETAN BUDDHIST. 
 
 OUR liero's faith in Christianity was assailed 
 most vigorously by a Buddhist from Thibet, 
 who had come to Assam to sell woollen cloths, 
 shawls and blankets. For the first time, Korno 
 Siga had come in contact with an educated Buddh- 
 ist, and he found himself quite unable to answer 
 the arguments brought forward to prove that 
 Christianity was only a kind of second edition of 
 Buddhism. He therefore invited the Buddhist to 
 accompany him to Mr. Marston's study, and as he 
 introduced him to Mr. Marston, he franklv 
 admitted that the arguments brought forward by 
 the Thibetan were beyond his ability to answer. 
 
 Buddhist, "Our Buddha, Sakya Muni, was 
 born at least four centuries before Christ ; he came 
 from heaven ; was born of a virgin ; was Avelcomed 
 by angels; received by an aged saint, who was 
 endowed with prophetic vision ; was persecuted in 
 the temple ; baptized with water, and afterwards 
 baptized with fire. He astonished the most 
 learned doctors by his understanding and his 
 answers. He was led by the spirit into the wilder- 
 (136) 
 
KORNO SIGA AND THE BUDDHIST. 137 
 
 ness, and having there been tempted by the devil 
 and resisted him, he went about preaching and 
 doing wonderful works. He was the friend of 
 publicans and sinners; was transfigured on a 
 mount; descends to hell and ascends to heaven. 
 With the exception of Christ's crucifixion, almost 
 every incident in the life of your Christ is found 
 narrated in the Buddhistic traditions of the life 
 of Sakya Muni Gautama Buddha." 
 
 M7\ Marston. "My Buddhist brother, do I 
 understand you to assert that our Christian Scrip- 
 tures, which we call the New Testament, owe their 
 origin to the legend of Buddha ? '' 
 
 Buddhist. " Yes, that is my assertion, Saheb." 
 Mr. Marston. "You think that our New 
 Testament writers had in some way become 
 familiar with the Buddhistic legend, but I think 
 I can show you that this could not have been the 
 case. There is no historical record, nor can it be 
 proved that Buddhistic doctrines were at all circu- 
 lated in Palestine previous to the writing of the 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ. Buddhism, so far as we 
 can learn, was still confined to India, until the 
 reign of Asoka, b. c. 250. It was during the 
 first century of the Christian era that Buddhism 
 reached China. None of the Buddhist authorities 
 make any claim that their missionaries undertook 
 to convert the people on the shores of the Medi- 
 terranean. (Dr. EiteFs three lectures on Buddh- 
 
138 KORNO 8IGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 ism.) Moreover, I think you will find that the 
 alleged similarity between your original Buddhis- 
 tic legend and our Scriptures does not really 
 exist." 
 
 Buddhist. " But, Saheb, I have here one of 
 our own legends ; read for yourself." 
 
 Mr. Marston. " That is one of the more 
 modern legends written after our New Testament 
 was written. I have the most ancient history of 
 Buddha extant, and with your permission I will 
 read to you the sketch of this wonderful man's 
 life. ^ Sakya Muni was born in an Aryan village, 
 about one hundred miles north of Benares. His 
 father, Eaja Suddhodana, was king of the Sakyas. 
 His mother's name was Maya, and she was forty- 
 five years old when Buddha was born. She 
 died when Buddha was seven days old, and his 
 aunt Prajapatni became his foster-mother. Con- 
 cerning his childhood and youth the Buddhistic 
 history is silent. When twenty-nine years of age 
 he married his cousin Yasodhara, by whom he had 
 one son, Bahula. At this time, being weighed 
 down by a sense of human misery everywhere 
 visible about him, he determined to renounce 
 home, wife, child, kingdom and all, and give him- 
 self to the work of understanding the mystery of 
 sorrow, and removing it if possible. This step is, 
 by the Buddhist authorities, called the " Great Re- 
 nunciation." He went from one to another of the 
 
KORNO SIGA AND THE BUDDHIST. 139 
 
 Brahmin teachers seeking to learn the way to the 
 cessation of pain, but failing to get relief he gave 
 up all teachers, and took up a life of penance and 
 self-mortification. Then comes that final struggle 
 of Gautama with the spirit of evil, when he dis- 
 covers the "Four Noble Truths," viz. : 1, The 
 Fact of Sorrow ; 2, The Cause of Sorrow ; 3, 
 The Destruction of Sorrow ; and 4, The Way, 
 the eightfold path that leads to the quieting of 
 pain. From this time Buddha began with mis- 
 sionary zeal to preach the way to others. But the 
 way which he prescribed was not popular with the 
 people, as it involved the adoption of celibacy and 
 the leading of a mendicant life, and thus broke up 
 families, and if reduced to practice would put an 
 end to society. The end of all this was Nirvaua, 
 the end of pain, the absence of all desire. 
 Buddha died at tlie age of eighty, and one of the 
 records says that his death was caused by eating 
 unsuitable food. Many of the humane and pliilan- 
 thropic measures which are attributed to Buddha 
 were really instituted by Asoka, who lived 
 between two and three centuries later.' " 
 
 Buddhist. " But, Saheb, you have not yet an- 
 swered my argument respecting the likeness be- 
 tween Buddhism and Christianity : how do you 
 account for it ? " 
 
 Mr. Ifarston. " I think it can be positively 
 shown that the things in Buddhism which Chris- 
 
140 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 tianity, according to your idea, has borrowed, were 
 on the contrary borrowed from Christianity by the 
 latter Buddhistic legends. For instance, the idea 
 of an infinite, self-existent, omniscient Buddha 
 does not appear in any of the old Buddhistic 
 authorities, but was invented several centmies 
 after the birth of Christ, and in its present full 
 form did not appear until the tenth century of our 
 era, fifteen hundred years after the days of 
 Buddha. Thus do we find by most careful in- 
 quiry and research, that the original Manual of 
 Buddha does not so much as teach the existence of 
 a God. On the contrary, it says, ^ All being 
 exists from some cause ; but that cause is undis- 
 coverable.' Buddhism then is agnosticism, and 
 agnosticism is virtually atheism. The differences 
 between Christianity and Buddhism are wide and 
 radical ; Christ was born in poverty ; the 
 Buddha in the palace of a king. Christ was 
 born of a virgin ; Buddha was the son of the 
 Rajah and Rani of the Sakyas. Christ was never 
 in need of salvation himself, but proclaimed him- 
 self the very God. The Buddha is represented as 
 in sore need of salvation, and ignorant how to 
 obtain it, until by long penance and self-sacri- 
 fice he found the way to Nirvana, Avhich we can 
 hardly call salvation, since Buddha says, ' If 
 thou keepest thyself silent as a broken gong, thou 
 hast attained to Nirvana.' The Buddha died at 
 
KORNO SIGA AND THE BUDDHIST. 141 
 
 a ripe old age; the Christ in his early manhood 
 gives himself to crucifixion that he may save the 
 world. Of what avail are a few seeming agree- 
 ments between religions which present such wide 
 and radical contrasts ? Let me urge upon you, my 
 Thibetan brother, the further investigation of this 
 most interesting of subjects, and come again and 
 let us talk it over.'^ 
 
 From this conversation Korno Siga saw how 
 •necessary it was that he should thoroughly study 
 the religions of the world, if he would be able to 
 defend his Christian faith successfully with those 
 who sincerely differed from him. 
 
 All that could be found relative to the religion 
 of Buddha he now gathered together, and com- 
 menced a most careful investigation as to its claims 
 upon the world as a religion sent from God. In 
 this search he most cordially invited the Thi- 
 betan Buddhist to join him, and they took for their 
 first investigation the ten commandments as given 
 by Buddha, viz. : 1. Not to deprive any living 
 thing of life. 2. Not to lie. 3. Not to steal. 4. 
 Not to commit adultery. 5. Not to drink what 
 can intoxicate. 6. Not to eat at prohibited sea- 
 sons. 7. Not to wear wreaths ; or use dentifrices 
 or perfumes. 8. Not to sleep on a high or broad 
 bed. 9. To abstain from dancing, music, and 
 stage plays. 10. To abstain from the use of gold 
 or silver. 
 
142 KOFKO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 "As to the first commandment," said the Buddh- 
 ist, "the Sakya Muni tells us that ^ye break it 
 whenever we kill a louse, bug or tick/' 
 
 " But/' said Korno Siga, " you are breaking that 
 law every time you eat a mango." 
 
 " Not so," replied the Buddhist, " for I always 
 eat them in the dark so that I cannot see the 
 worms." 
 
 " You ^vell know they are there, however, and 
 you are not a good Buddhist if you thus evade the 
 teachings of your law. Moreover you are de- 
 stroying life in immense quantities in every drink 
 of water you take, for the missionaries have often 
 shown me myriads of little creatures, called in- 
 fusoria, in a drop of the river water placed upon 
 the object-holder of a microscope. And they say 
 the little animals are always present in ponds, lakes 
 and rivers." 
 
 " But I carry always with me a lota of water 
 from the sacred Brahmapootra, and surely the Hin- 
 doo gods keep that free from animal life." 
 
 Korno Siga put a drop of the water from the 
 lota under the microscope which stood on the table 
 in the Saheb's study where they were seated, and 
 when the Buddhist saw that it literally swarmed 
 with life, he smote his breast and exclaimed, " Hai, 
 hai, moi pani arn pibo nuarun — Alas, alas, I can 
 never more drink water. Who knows how many 
 of my ancestors I may already have swallowed ? " 
 
KORXO SIGA AND THE BUDDHIST. 143 
 
 The doctrine of transmigration of souls is a 
 source of endless worry and concern to Buddhi.st 
 and Brahmin alike. They fear to kill a snake or a 
 flea, lest their great-grandfather's soul may have 
 taken up its abode in these forms. 
 
 HoAV wonderfully different all this, from the 
 liberty of the Christian doctrine and the hope of 
 immortality beyond the grave ! 
 
 That there are many beautiful moral precepts 
 found in both Buddhist and Brahmin Shasters, no 
 one acquainted with these books will for one 
 moment deny. Indeed is there not something 
 good in every religion and among every people ? 
 But when one has lived among a people until he 
 has learned to think in their language, and when 
 he has learned to reason from the Buddhist's and 
 Brahmin's standpoint, and sees things as they really 
 understand them, and not as a beautiful poem like 
 ^' The Light of Asia " represents them, then indeed, 
 and then only can these ancient religions be justly 
 comprehended. The desire to exalt Buddhism 
 above Christianity seems to me to arise from a de- 
 sire to escape the heart-searching command of 
 Christ : If any man will do the will he shall know 
 of the doctrine. Did the Thibetan Buddhist be- 
 come a Christian after the long talks with the 
 missionary and Korno Siga? Oh, no, he went 
 back to his praying wheels which he considered 
 more efficacious than vocal prayer, and to the 
 
144 KORNO SIGA, THE MOIWTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 lamas^ hojDing that he might sell enough -woollen 
 cloths and blankets before his death, so that he 
 might have riches sufficient to hire tlie lamas when 
 he was about to die to pull the skin from his skull, 
 and make a hole large enough to let out the soul, 
 that he may next become a toad, a snake, or a flea, 
 and thus go on in the transmigrations. Buddha is 
 derived from the Sanscrit word ^^to know/' "to 
 have wisdom/' "to understand.'' The Thibetan 
 Buddhists differ in many respects from those of 
 Burmah, Ceylon and China. In the cold high 
 regions of Thibet, one Buddhist woman may have 
 ten husbands. The praying machine is a little 
 wooden drum covered with leather, and decorated 
 with texts and charms. These are found every- 
 where among the Thibetan Buddhists ; often they 
 are fitted into niches in the walls, and generally 
 arranged in rows of eight or ten. The worshipper 
 has simply to turn the machine with his hand, as 
 inside of it are many prayers written on little 
 scrolls, and each revolution of the wheel counts to 
 the religious credit as many hundred prayers. Some 
 of these praying wheels are small enough to be 
 carried in the hand, while others are of colossal 
 size, and require wind and water to move them. 
 I have somewhere read of one plate in a praying 
 wheel which contained several thousand open 
 dots ; and each dot to be filled, when the name of 
 Buddha had been repeated a hundred or a thousand 
 
KORNO SIGA AND THE BUDDHIST. 145 
 
 times^ with paper, which when burned is supposed 
 to pass into the other world {i. e., his next trans- 
 migration) to the credit of the devotee. The 
 Brahmins often name their children after the Hin- 
 doo gods, and each time they call the child by 
 name they believe that they are credited with a 
 prayer to that god. The kindness to animals, which 
 is quite characteristic of Brahmins and Buddhists, 
 is largely due to the belief that their friends at 
 death pass into animal forms, and in hurting or 
 killing one of these animals they might be de- 
 stroying the habitations of grandfathers and 
 uncles. A company of these people when about to 
 seat themselves on their mats, will brush away 
 carefully every vestige of dust from them, lest 
 perchance they might sit upon ants and destroy 
 their aunts. 
 
 In pure Buddhism, no god is mentioned, and 
 this religion has never yet advanced a nation 
 higher than China or Siam. One has very aptly 
 said of it : " The highest conception of Buddhism 
 is to be unselfish for the selfish end of attaining a 
 solitary Nirvana in which one shall desire neither 
 existence nor non-existence.^' And yet who shall 
 say that this religion has not, like all those pre- 
 ceding Christ's advent to the earth, been a looking 
 forward to, and in some measure a preparation for, 
 the highest and best in the revelation of the im- 
 
 10 
 
146 KORNO SIGA, THE 3I0UNTAIN CHIEF, 
 
 maculate and divine Son of God, the world's 
 Redeemer ? 
 
 Prof. Max MuUer, in his ^' Science of Religion/' 
 says : " We have ignored or wilfully narrowed 
 the sundry times and divers manners in which God 
 spoke in times past unto our fathers, the prophets. 
 If we believe there is a God, and that he created 
 heaven and earth, and that he ruleth the world by 
 his overseeing providence, we cannot believe that 
 millions of human beings, all created like ourselves 
 in the image of God, were in their time of ignor- 
 ance abandoned by God ; so that their religion was 
 a farce and their whole life a mockery. An 
 honest and impartial study of the religions of the 
 world will teach us that it was not so ; that there 
 is no religion which does not contain some grains 
 of truth. It will teach us to see in the study of 
 the ancient religions more clearly than anyw^here 
 else, the divine education of the human race.'' 
 
 This all being pre-eminently true, are we not, 
 nevertheless, in danger of overestimating Buddli- 
 ism in this our day ? Let me quote here a note 
 of warning from Robert Burdette : ^^ Who is 
 Buddha ? Did you ever notice, my son, that the 
 man who tells you he cannot believe in the Bible is 
 usually able to believe in almost anything else ? 
 You will find men who will turn with horror and 
 utter disbelief of the Bible, and joyfully embrace 
 the teachings of Buddha. It is quite t\\Q thing 
 
KORNO SIGA AND THE BUDDHIST. 147 
 
 just now for a civilized, enlightened man, brought 
 up in a Christian country and an age of wisdom, 
 to be a Buddhist. And if you ask six men who pro- 
 fess Buddhism, who Buddha was, one of them will 
 tell you he was an Egyptian soothsayer who lived 
 two hundred years before Moses. Another Avill tell 
 you that he brought letters from Phoenicia and 
 introduced them into Greece ; a third will tell you 
 that she was a beautiful woman of Farther India, 
 bound by her vows to perpetual chastity ; a fourth 
 will, with a little hesitation, say he was a Brahmin 
 of the ninth degree, a holy disciple of Confucius ; 
 and of the other two, one will frankly admit that 
 he does not know, and the other will say, with 
 some indecision, that he was either a Dervish of the 
 Nile (whatever that is), or a Felo de se, he can^t be 
 positive which. Before you propose to know 
 more than anybody and everybody else, my son, 
 be very certain that you are abreast of at least 
 two-thirds of your fellow-men. I don't want to 
 suppress any inclination you may have towards 
 genuine free thought and careful honest investigation. 
 I only want you to avoid the great fault of atheism 
 in this day and generation. I don't want you to 
 try and build a six-story house on a one-story 
 foundation. Before you criticise, condemn and 
 finally revise the work of creation, be pretty con- 
 fident that you know something about it as it is, 
 and don't, let me implore you, don't turn this 
 
148 KORNO BIG A, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF, 
 
 world upside down and sit on it and flatten it 
 entirely out, until you have made or secured an- 
 other one for the rest of us to live in while you 
 demolish the old one/^ 
 
CHAPTER Xyil. 
 
 TEA CULTIVATION, AND OTHER INDUSTRIES OF 
 
 ASSAM. 
 
 SCATTERED throughout the province of Assam 
 are many tea gardens, superintended ahnost en- 
 tirely by Europeans from England and Scotland. 
 But few Yankees have as yet entered that line of 
 work. The plant is indigenous to the country, 
 and before the advent of Europeans the natives 
 were in the habit of frying the green leaves in 
 mustard oil and eating them as greens. The great 
 " boom ^' in tea cultivation took place while I was 
 living in Assam, and though there followed a re- 
 action from that unhealthy period of tea excite- 
 ment, the enterprise has been a success, and the 
 tea annually sent home from Assam by the planters 
 is an excellent article, very favorably known in 
 commerce and bringing a good price. One of the 
 great difficulties which the tea planter has to con- 
 tend with is the necessity of importing coolies 
 from Calcutta to work the tea gardens. This is 
 very expensive, and the coolies are often dissatis- 
 fied and sickly, and give the poor planter any 
 amount of duhh, trouble. It seems to us that the 
 
 (149) 
 
ISO KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 English government has not been in sympathy 
 with the tea planters, as would be naturally sup- 
 posed it would. On the contrary, the sums re- 
 quired for the lease of lands, which one would 
 think the government would only be too glad to 
 have cultivated without receiving tax money, are 
 enormously high and exacting, and we wonder 
 that the planters are able to realize any gain after 
 their heavy expenses. 
 
 The planters are in many ways a blessing to 
 Assam as well as to the tea-drinking world. Their 
 hardships and privations are many, and being 
 obliged to live on their gardens they have but 
 little European society, and live very lonely lives. 
 In the early days of the tea cultivation a planter 
 might sicken and die without an European know- 
 ing of his fate. One planter, but twenty miles 
 from us, was attacked with cholera, died and re- 
 mained in his bed two weeks before his European 
 friends knew aught of it. I verily believe that 
 the missionaries have a much easier life in every 
 way than the tea planters of Assam. And the 
 planters have it in their power to do real mission- 
 ary work among their employes, if they are so 
 inclined ; and they do occasionally show themselves 
 both philanthropic and truly Christian in their 
 eiforts to benefit the miserable coolies who work 
 for them. The planters have been much censured 
 for not observing the Sabbath on their gardens 
 
TEA CULTIVATION AND OTHER INDUSTRIES. 151 
 
 more generally. Their plea is that they must 
 lose two days' work if they keep the Sabbath, as 
 the leaves picked on Saturday cannot wait until 
 Monday to be dried. Still when there comes to 
 be an earnest desire to observe the Sabbath, there 
 will be some way found out of this difficulty. It 
 is no small matter to clear the land of forest trees, 
 thoroughly break up the soil, and get ready for the 
 tea planting. The money required is considerable, 
 and the work quite similar to clearing a farm in 
 New England. 
 
 After the young plants are set out, the w^eds 
 must be carefully cleared away, the soil frequently 
 stirred to allow^ the plants to get all possible 
 nourishment from mother earth, and even then it 
 takes three years to get a plantation in condition 
 to produce tea. The tea plant, if left to grow 
 without pruning, will become a tall tree, but the 
 planters find that the yield of leaves is better 
 when they are kept to about five feet in height. 
 The plant is much like the English myrtle bush, 
 and has white blossoms w^hich resemble small 
 dog-roses. Teas are black or green, according to 
 the age of the leaf and the manner in which it is 
 manipulated. If a plant is sickly, the leaves are 
 not picked from it. Indeed, all the leaves are not 
 taken at one time from a plant. It is customary 
 to make nursery beds every year so that there 
 may be a constant succession of new plants. The 
 
152 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 slopes of the hills are the sites usually chosen for 
 the gardens iu Assam. The soil here is free from 
 stagnant moisture. Most beautiful to my eyes 
 were these gardens in appearance as I travelled 
 through the hills. I have spent hours in their 
 study and admiration, and often thought that I 
 would like to be engaged in this work, and make 
 my plantation a wholesale missionary centre, 
 having a school, a church and a hospital conducted 
 on a thrifty Yankee plan. The finest teas are 
 made from the half-open buds, which are always 
 the first gathering, the younger the leaves the 
 more delicate their flavor. The finest teas of 
 Assam are but rarely seen in America. The 
 maximum yield of the plants is in their eighth or 
 tenth year. There are five or six gatherings in the 
 course of a year, and each time the leaves are 
 coarser than the preceding gathering. The 
 gathering can only be done in clear weather, and 
 the best teas are from leaves gathered in the after- 
 noon, when they are thoroughly dry and warm. 
 The hill tribe women are the best pickers in 
 Assam, and if I remember correctly, gather on an 
 average forty pounds a day. It takes four pounds 
 of leaves to make one of tea, and I believe the 
 usual estimate is that ten thousand pounds of tea 
 can annually be marketed from one hundred 
 thousand plants. Green tea is made from leaves 
 which have been roasted immediately after they 
 
TEA CULTIVATION AND OTHER INDUSTRIES. 153 
 
 are gathered, and are then rolled and dried. 
 Black teas are from leaves which have been ex- 
 posed to sun and air for half a day or more for 
 drying, and, if the weather is damp, artificial heat 
 is used. The roasting is done over a sort of stove 
 which is heated by charcoal, and a man manipu- 
 lates ihQ leaves constantly, so that none may stick 
 to the pan and burn. The rolling has formerly 
 been done by the hands (or feet) of the natives, 
 placing as much tea as the hands will cover on a 
 mat. The motion is such that it gives each leaf a 
 twist on itself as one rolls them from right to left. 
 Then there is a second roasting and a second roll- 
 ing. Shallow pans are used for roasting black 
 tea, but the green tea requires deep pans. The 
 teas are put into a long basket after the final 
 roasting, and submitted to the heat over a charcoal 
 fire for several minutes, when they are poured out 
 and receive another rolling. Then the leaves are 
 sifted, and winnowed, and fried once more to re- 
 move every vestige of moisture, and finally packed 
 in chests and sent away to the market. 
 
 The native industries are confined almost alto- 
 gether to the cultivation of rice, tobacco, sugar- 
 cane, and mustard oil. Something has been done 
 by them also in the way of gathering the caout- 
 chouc which exudes from the rubber trees, and 
 sending it to Calcutta to market. Our hill people 
 did considerable of that work and realized fine 
 
154 KOBNO SIGA, TEE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 remuneration. The caoutchouc as it first exudes 
 from the incisions made in the trees, is of a white 
 color, and as they wind it into balls it takes on a 
 brownish red appearance as it is exposed to the 
 air. 
 
 The silk-worm thrives in Assam, and all of the 
 better clothes of the Assamese of the plains are 
 made by the women, who cultivate the plants on 
 which to feed the silk-worms, and also spin and 
 weave the thread into clothes for their families. 
 
 Cotton clothing is their more common apparel. 
 Their embroidered borders and fringes are quite 
 beautiful, and a native high-caste woman in full 
 dress presents a very graceful and pretty sight. 
 
 The implements for cultivating are of a rude 
 kind, and the priests forbid them to adopt modern 
 improved machinery of all kinds. The plows 
 merely scratch the surface of the soil. The relig- 
 ious prejudices of the people forbid them to use 
 the manure of cows for enriching the soil ; the cow 
 being a sacred animal, the manure is largely de- 
 voted to religious purposes, the Fakirs (religious 
 mendicants) covering their heads and bodies with 
 it, to render themselves acceptable to the gods. A 
 well-regulated Assamese hut must be lipped, plas- 
 tered over, with the cows' manure every morning, 
 in order to keep it pure and acceptable to the Hin- 
 doo deities. 
 
 Rice is the staple grain, and two crops are 
 
TEA CULTIVATION AND OTHER INDUSTRIES. 155 
 
 raised annually, viz. : the dry and the wet season 
 crop. Millet, peas and many varieties of pulse 
 and grain are also raised. The manner of express- 
 ing the oil from the mustard seed is primitive 
 among the villagers. I have seen a whole family 
 make weights of themselves for six or seven con- 
 secutive days, as they have the mustard seeds under 
 a huge log, and they all seat themselves upon it. 
 The much enjoyed hookah keeps up its hubble- 
 bubble constantly, as it is passed from one member 
 to another of this happy family. 
 
 I have ventured at times to suggest that a 
 weight of less importance than human flesh might 
 be employed. But my suggestion has usually been 
 answered by the head of the family, " Etu dostur 
 amar," " This is our custom,'^ which is with him 
 considered an unanswerable argument. How 
 different this from American ways ! 
 
 You ask if it would pay a young man to go 
 from America to engage in business in Assam. 
 Yes, if he can get a position as superintendent of 
 a tea garden, or take charge of an ice manufacturino: 
 establishment, or if he has a little capital ahead so 
 that he could engage in the lumber or coal business. 
 There are vast resources of this kind awaiting 
 Yankee energy and perseverance ; but it does not 
 answer for us to depend upon the natives to any 
 extent in earning one's livelihood. The time will 
 come, however, is indeed near at hand, when the 
 
156 KORNO 8IGA, THE 310UNTAIN CHIEF, 
 
 English government will open up all the province 
 of Assam to railroad and telegraphic commnnica- 
 tion, and this will work wonders in the develop- 
 ment of all kinds of business advantages. 
 
 At present the only means of reaching the 
 mineral products of the hills, the coal, iron, gold- 
 dust, and petroleum, is by long and dangerous 
 journeys through dense jungles infested with 
 beasts of prey and reeking with malaria. The 
 steamers which ply the large rivers do not ap- 
 proach near enough to many of these storehouses 
 of nature, for men to avail themselves of this 
 means of transport. But the day of railroads 
 draws on apace, and we will await with patience its 
 advent. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 A DAY OF DARKNESS. 
 
 I CANNOT re-write the details of this darkest 
 of all days, and hence copy from letters 
 written during that period to my home circle in 
 America. 
 
 " For five days I have tried in vain to tell you 
 the sad, sad news of my bereavement. It came 
 upon me so suddenly and I was so weak that I 
 could only lie still and cry to God. I seemed all 
 alone and in the dark, till the loving Saviour came 
 and spake such sweet comforting words, that I 
 opened my eyes and found that there was yet light 
 for me in heaven, even though my earthly light 
 had gone out. And since that hour I have grad- 
 ually come back again to life. Henry has gone 
 to meet the Saviour he loved and served so faith- 
 fully here. On Tuesday morning he was awakened 
 from a quiet rest and sleep, with symptoms of 
 cholera, which disease has raged fearfully in our 
 district during the past month. Our little Henry 
 being only three weeks old, I was not allowed to 
 know that my dear husband was ill until about an 
 hour after he was attacked. Remedies for cholera 
 
 (157) 
 
158 KOENO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 were given at once and tlie symptoms abated for a 
 while^ but only to set in with renewed violence, 
 when cholera in its worst form was unmistakably 
 claiming him for its victim. The English doctor, 
 his wife, and our deputy commissioner all came 
 and most kindly assisted in every way possible, 
 and in a few hours the dreadful pains and cramps 
 had ceased and he lay quietly resting, only being 
 disturbed that we might administer stimulants and 
 nourishment. 
 
 '^ He seemed so free from pain, that I said to 
 him : ^ I will go and look after our babe, for he is 
 very hungry.^ He drew me doAvn and kissed me, 
 and held my hand for some time. 
 
 " I asked : ^ Have you any pain ? ' 
 
 " ^ None at all,' was the reply. 
 
 ^' ^Are you at peace in your mind ? ' 
 
 "He looked up, and with a beaming face re- 
 plied, ' Perfect peace.' 
 
 " I had left him but a moment when the deputy 
 commissioner came to me to say that he wished I 
 would come and give Henry his medicine, as he 
 would not take it from his hand. I went at once, 
 and as soon as I looked into my dear husband's 
 face, I knew that the arrow of death liad pierced 
 his heart, and that the kind-hearted commissioner 
 had not the courage to tell me all the truth. Henry 
 did not recognize me, and in less than five minutes 
 he had breathed his last. He sank away as calmly 
 
A DAY OF DARKNESS. 159 
 
 and as sweetly as a little child goes to sleep in its 
 mother's arms. He leaned his head on Jesus* 
 breast, and breathed his life out sweetly there. 
 
 " Soon after he was attacked in the morning he 
 had noticed my anxious look, and said, ^ Don't 
 feel anxious, my dear ; I have committed you and 
 our sweet babes to God. He will take better care 
 of you than I can.' 
 
 " Henry lias not been well for several weeks. 
 His anxiety for me, his constant ministrations night 
 and day to the poor natives, the dead and the dying 
 demanding his care, and the whole burden of church, 
 school, and family being upon him, were too much 
 for him. He has seemed very near to the heavenly 
 world for many months. His talk of heaven and 
 his ardent longing to be absent from the body and 
 present with his Lord, has told me only too plainly 
 that my angel guide was not long to be with me. 
 Oh, that I may be as ripe for the heavenly garners 
 as he ! 
 
 " I beseech you to break the sad tidings gently 
 to his aged father. Tell him that the angel of 
 death came to me on Tuesday morning, and asked 
 me for his only son, and that I fell before him and 
 besought him if one must go that I might be that 
 one, and that Henry, so capable, so noble and so use- 
 ful, might be spared. But the messenger of death 
 sadly shook his head. And then one after another 
 I offered him my precious children. ^ No,' he 
 
160 KORNO SIGA, THE 310 UN TAIN CHIEF, 
 
 said, * the Master calls for this cliosen one ; lie is 
 ripe for heaven.' He died at four in the afternoon 
 and was buried at the same hour the day following ; 
 the beautiful burial-service of the English church 
 being read by our commissioner. 
 
 "And so I am alone in a heathen land, with 
 three little ones clinging helplessly to me. Alone, 
 and yet not alone, for the Saviour is with me by 
 day and night and has taken from me the bitter- 
 ness of death. He will be a father to my children 
 and will be the widow's God. I have written to 
 two of my missionary associates, a hundred miles 
 distant from me, asking them to come to our 
 station, should the plague take me away, and care 
 for the children until they go to America. Were 
 it not for these little ones, I should only be too 
 glad to go and join my beloved on the other side 
 of the river. But for their sakes, I am willing to 
 live and wait patiently the time when God shall 
 pronounce my life-work done and gather us an 
 unbroken family in heaven. 
 
 " It will be a source of comfort to all at home, 
 to know that all that human love could do was 
 done for Henry. You know how every one loved 
 him who knew him, and that was quite as true of 
 him here as at home. The beautiful flowers of 
 Assam of which he was so fond were all about the 
 precious corpse and little Ruth says : ' Papa is 
 sleeping in a nice box.* 
 
A BAY OF DARKNESS. 161 
 
 '^Paul has grieved himself ill for his father. 
 After trying in vain to comfort him I said : ^ Paul, 
 you know your father has gone to a brighter 
 and ha2)]3ier place to live, and we must not grieve 
 for him, but live so that we may go to live with 
 him/ 
 
 " He replied : ' Mamma, that is just what I feel 
 so sad about. I am afraid papa has not gone to 
 the happy land.' 
 
 " ^Why, Paul, how can you have such a fear?^ 
 
 " ^ Well, papa told me himself that when good 
 people die the thinking part goes to heaven and 
 that which cannot think is buried in the ground. 
 And I looked so closely when they fastened the 
 lid of the casket, and his forehead — papa said that 
 was the thinking part — was still there, and oh, 
 they have buried dear papa's soul.' 
 
 " I tried to explain to him that the soul was in- 
 visible, and only lived in the body just as Ave lived 
 in our house, but did not form a part of the house, 
 and the dear little thoughtful boy seemed comforted 
 and has since been quite cheerful. 
 
 " Our little band of native Christians are incon- 
 solable and the young men of the Normal School 
 mourn as for an own parent. The native mer- 
 chants and the people from all the villages far and 
 near have come to express their sympathy and to 
 mourn with me, saying, ^This man was one of the 
 best friends our country ever had.' All have 
 11 
 
162 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 rallied about me and endeavored to comfort me, 
 but how can I be comforted when my dearest 
 earthly friend no more walks with me the path of 
 life? 
 
 " I was deeply touched the night after Henry's 
 burial, to see fifteen of our native Christian women 
 come with their mats and their babies and take 
 their places for the night on my verandah, that I 
 might not feel lonely through the long, sleepless 
 hours until the daybreak. 
 
 " God has given to Henry some precious fruit 
 in this far-off vineyard, and were it not that my 
 first duty is to my fatherless children, I should 
 have no greater joy than to remain here and carry 
 on his work for these people. 
 
 " They have laid him to rest in the unconse- 
 crated part of the cemetery of the Episcopal church ; 
 not being a member of the Church of England it 
 was not thought proper that he, a dissenter, should 
 lie in the consecrated ground. There is a line of 
 earth cast up between that which the bishop has 
 consecrated and the other portion. When I ven- 
 tured to express my regrets to our good deputy 
 commissioner that Henry should lie in unconse- 
 crated ground Avhile the many godless English 
 officers were in the more favored portion, he kindly 
 remarked that ^all the consecration those poor 
 fellows ever had was in their present surroundings, 
 
A DAY OF DARKNESS. 163 
 
 and that Mr. Marston did not need consecrated 
 ground for he was consecration itself ! ' " 
 
 That you may know in what esteem my dear 
 husband was held, I copy here a few of the many 
 testimonials which came to me during those dark 
 days. The dear old Secretary of our Missionary 
 Society, Avho once told me to await the openings 
 of Providence and who has long ago gone home to 
 heaven, wrote thus : 
 
 " The announcement of the death of Mr. Mars- 
 ton is exceedingly painful to us all. We prized 
 him highly for his personal qualities and for his 
 work wrought for the hill tribes of Assam. A 
 manly man was he and a fully developed Christian. 
 In missionary character he stood pre-eminent ; few 
 equalled and none, so far as my range of vision 
 extends, surpassed him. He had breadth, tact, 
 facility of movement, persistence and genuine 
 force. I think he possessed an uncommon power 
 to lay hold of men and mould their character. 
 His crowning excellence was his Christian spirit, 
 running through all, giving tone to all and never 
 forsaking him. His devotion was whole hearted, 
 exclusive, a fire that burned to the last moment of 
 his life. His letters had an originality and fresh- 
 ness that always charmed me. He could not write 
 a common-place. Such an eyesight and heart-sight 
 of religion ; such a profound view of sin and salva- 
 tion ; such a knowledge of his own heart, its needs 
 
164 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 and its supplies ; so clear and compreliensive ideas 
 of the work before him, and such a grasp on the 
 resources in the gosj)el ; all these came to me as a 
 refreshing solace." 
 
 MEMOEIAL. 
 
 " -With morning's earliest beam, 
 
 In a far Orient land, 
 A dream, or more than dream. 
 
 Fell on a sleeping band. 
 'Twas shadow, yet 'twas light, 
 
 Like morn's mysterious strife ; 
 'Twas day, and yet 'twas night, 
 
 'Twas death, and yet 'twas life. 
 
 " A man of God, and she 
 
 Who wrought life's psalm with him, 
 And tender oflfspring three — 
 
 Five bars for their sweet hymn ! 
 For days among life's strings 
 
 An unseen hand had felt. 
 And there were sounds of wings, 
 
 Whene'er in prayer he knelt. 
 
 "His last words, 'perfect peace,' 
 
 Those heavenly beaming eyes, 
 Proclaim a soul's release, 
 
 That ne'er in dying dies ! 
 Raise not a wailing note 
 
 For him who now is free 
 A banner well might float 
 
 With shout of victory. 
 
 " He fought the Christian's fight 
 And wears the victor's crown, 
 
A DAY OF DABKNESS, 165 
 
 And on a throne of light 
 
 Is with his Lord set down. 
 Not for himself alone 
 
 Truth's banner he unfurled, 
 The conflict was his own, 
 
 His victory for the world. 
 
 " But who are those that stand — 
 
 Those stalwart men in tears? 
 Ah, 'tis his much loved band 
 
 Of swarthy mountaineers : 
 He won them for his Lord, 
 
 And tamed each savage breast 
 By Christ's all conquering word, 
 
 And led them to his rest. 
 Yea, weep, oh mountain men, 
 
 Around tliat marble brow : 
 Ah, who o'er hill and glen 
 
 Shall light your watch-fires now?" 
 
 IN MEMOEIAM 
 
 OF 
 
 HENEY C. MAKSTON. 
 
 " Let the hills bow in grief for the minstrel departed, 
 Whose viol and voice could the savages tame ; 
 The wildest of the tribes may lament broken-hearted, 
 
 The friend of Assam they can never more claim. 
 Yet joy to those hill men whose spirits he gladdened j 
 
 His feet on the mountains had beauty to them ; 
 Though his flight for a season their hearts may have sad- 
 dened 
 In his * crown of rejoicing ' will each be a gem. 
 
166 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN- CHIEF. 
 
 *' He could not grow weary of work for the Master, 
 
 While the heathen around him were shrouded in gloom, 
 And the plague with its terrors was pleading the faster 
 
 For aid to the dying and hope in the tomb. 
 He could not grow weary, for love, the evangel, 
 
 Eefreshing his zeal, it could never abate ; 
 And death could not conquer, but came like an angel, 
 
 To post him to heaven and open the gate." 
 
 On his tombstone are inscribed the following 
 words : 
 
 " If life be not in length of days, 
 In silver locks or furrowed brow, 
 But living to a Saviour's praise — 
 How few have lived so long as thou I " 
 
CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS. 
 
 *' It is not dark, that's dark alone 
 For this our little earthly while ; 
 It is not bright, whose smiling sun 
 Illumes the day it shines upon 
 With else than an immortal smile. 
 
 " We know not till the middle day, 
 What tokens best befit the dawn ; 
 
 The clouds that weep our morn away 
 
 Fit, oft, for heaven's serenest ray, 
 
 When the full strength of life comes on. 
 
 " Oh, say not that the life is blest. 
 
 That brightens most our earthly years ; 
 Deem not that life is sorely pressed, 
 That wrings not from a changeless breast 
 An immortality of tears ! " 
 
 SIX months after Henry's death I wrote this let- 
 ter home. I had stayed on with the " much- 
 loved mountaineers." Indeed, I could not find it 
 in my heart to leave them : 
 
 "God has in tender mercy remembered his 
 precious promises to the widow and the fatherless. 
 This season of thick darkness has revealed to me 
 
 (167) 
 
168 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEf. 
 
 worlds of light I never saw before. Stilly at times 
 the sense of loss and loneliness is almost over- 
 whelming, almost too heavy to be borne, exiled as 
 I am from the loved ones of mv native land. 
 
 " I regret that I have been unable to write to 
 you oftener. But my hands have been very full 
 of work, for the whole care of the mission has 
 been upon me. I have assisted the native preach- 
 ers in planning and arranging their sermons, have 
 had the charge of the Bible scholars on Sunday 
 and twelve week-day schools, besides caring for 
 the sick and suffering among us. 
 
 " I am happy to tell you that I and the children 
 have been perfectly well, and I have had a most 
 excellent ayah to take care of them. 
 
 " Forty young men are now holding scholarships 
 in our Hill Tribe Normal School and are receiving 
 each 52 rupees ($25) per annum. From this sum 
 they clothe and feed themselves and buy their 
 school-books and stationery. They cannot live lux- 
 uriously on this sum, and they economize closely on 
 food and clothes that they may have money to buy 
 books. They are wonderfully eager to learn, and 
 Henry seems to have imparted his own ardent 
 love for knowledge into every one of these young 
 men. In the midst of all their poverty they al- 
 ways manage to have a few pice for those who 
 have never heard of Christ our Lord. 
 
 " The government inspector of schools made a 
 
LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS. m 
 
 careful examination of the standing of these pupils 
 last week, and thus reports his opinion of it : ^ I 
 visited the Hill Tribe Normal School on Monday. 
 You are aware that this was my second visit to the 
 school this year. As before, I was very much 
 pleased with the school : the numbers had increased 
 considerably since my previous visit, and there was 
 evidently great interest taken by the lads in their 
 work. I have formed a good opinion of the 
 teacher's attainments and of his power of teaching. 
 Allow me to suggest that more attention be given 
 by the pupils to dictation and geography. Permit 
 me to assure you that as long as I am at the head 
 of the educational department of this province, any 
 assistance you may need shall be afforded by my- 
 self and my subordinates.' 
 
 " I hear on every hand good reports from the 
 young men who are teaching and preaching on the 
 hills around about our mission station, and one 
 after another is being gathered into the fold of the 
 Good Shepherd. All the young men of the Nor- 
 mal School are now professing Christians. When 
 they saw their beloved missionary teacher die, 
 they said : ^A religion that can make a man live 
 as he lived, and die as he died, is the religion for 
 us.' And six of these young men have taken upon 
 them the work of preaching the gospel that they 
 may in some measure fill the wide gap left here by 
 
170 KORNO 8IGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEP, 
 
 Henry's death. And Habe and Korno Siga seem 
 to have been consecrated anew. 
 
 "As for my own plans for the future, I can only 
 say to you, that so long as God gives health to me 
 and to my children, I do not see how I can leave 
 this my chosen work, until I must do so in order 
 to attend to the education of my children. At 
 least my path of duty is plainly set before my eyes 
 to remain until some one shall come to take up the 
 work here ; and I am sure I am happier in this 
 work, so dear to my beloved one, and the work to 
 which my own heart has been solemnly pledged 
 even from my childhood's days. So please say to 
 all who are interested in these hill tribe people, that 
 I hope they will not withhold their hearts from 
 praying nor their hands from giving, because the 
 voice of Mr. Marston is silent. Remembering 
 the sore bereavement which has come upon this 
 mission, let more earnest and unceasing prayers be 
 offered for its prosperity, that God will adopt all 
 these orphaned ones into his own family, and get 
 to himself a great name among his people." 
 
 I trust I may not be regarded as egotistical if 
 I quote here the testimony of the secretary of our 
 Missionary Society in regard to my work at this 
 period : " Mrs. Marston was at first completely 
 overwhelmed by the death of her husband, but, 
 rising from her great sorrow, she grasped with a 
 steady hand the helm of the mission, and she has 
 
LIGHT m TEE DARKNESS. 171 
 
 Wisely and bravely held it ever since. This work 
 with a woman at its head is at once unique and 
 beautiful in every respect." 
 
 " I said once, * Dark and cold, 
 Ah, cold and dark, the grave to which we tend. 
 Where lover parts from lover, friend fiom friend, 
 
 And life's brief tale is told. 
 With its pathetic ending, " Dust to dust." ' 
 
 " Now, with a new-born faith and loving trust, 
 
 I say, * The grave is blest : ' 
 Oh, call it dark no more, since he is laid 
 In its still depths, whose life a sunshine made, 
 
 In good deeds manifest. 
 To cheer the gloom of sorrow and despair, 
 And pour its bright beams round him everywhere. 
 
 His blameless life from mean ambitions free, 
 What loved the right it dared to do and be, 
 
 Lessons sublime did give 
 
 Of a true nobleness," 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 woman's work for woman. 
 
 IN the spring of 1870 there came to my home in 
 Assam one of those sweet angels of mercy sent 
 out by the Woman's Missionary Societies of 
 America. Miss Margaret Brown was the daughter 
 of a most honored missionary, and she came to us 
 filled with a woman's tender pity for the seckided, 
 degraded women of India. 
 
 She was bright and intelligent, highly educated 
 and truly consecrated to her work. Most heartily 
 she entered into all earnest plans for reaching the 
 high-caste women in the Zenanas, and she had 
 breadth and tact sufficient to make an effectual 
 entrance there. These women are graceful and 
 attractive in appearance and exceedingly fond of 
 ever}i;hing pretty and attractive, and INIargaret 
 took advantage of this trait in offering to teach 
 them all kinds of beautiful needle- work and fancy 
 articles. And as she went from house to house 
 among them, she always carried her Bible and 
 liymn-book, and faithfully taught these ignorant 
 ones the way of eternal life. 
 
 Her presence in our girls' schools was a benedic- 
 (172) 
 
WOMAN'S WORK FOR WOMAN. 173 
 
 tion, and her pure unaffected love of all good 
 things was to these poor girls an inspiration and an 
 example. Daily did I "thank God that there was 
 such a society of women, to send out such valuable 
 lielj)ers to those who were already overburdened 
 with an accumulation of work. How much my 
 children loved this beautiful woman, who was to 
 them both teacher and companion ! 
 
 I think our people in America can hardly 
 realize ^vhat a good work there is to be done among 
 the women and girls of India by educated, Chris- 
 tian ladies. Fully to realize the imj)ortauce and 
 magnitude of this work one must live in India, 
 and know the social status of East Indian life. I 
 could not believe, until I entered the high-caste 
 home and saw how the women were treated, that 
 human beings brought up in the nineteenth century 
 could think it right to treat women so cruelly. 
 The Brahmin Shasters are largely to blame for 
 this state of things ; there is nothing so unreason- 
 able and stubborn as a false religion, and a corrupt 
 priesthood can give almost any meaning to a com- 
 mand which in itself may be harmless. For in- 
 stance, in the ancient books of Vedaism and Brah- 
 minism there is no command for the burning of 
 widows, but the text says, " When a man dies let 
 his widow or widows put on the dun-colored gar- 
 ment peculiar to the widow ; let her also put off 
 all her jewels, and ascend up into her house and 
 
174 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 consecrate herself to the memory of her husband." 
 But a corrupt priesthood have changed the word 
 housCj which in the Sanscrit language is very simi- 
 lar to the word fi^^e, and have made the command 
 that she shall ascend up into the fire, i. e., offer 
 herself upon the funeral pile. The priests used to 
 stand by and receive the jewels as these poor 
 women ascended the pile ; and when the English 
 government forever put a stop to this most cruel 
 religious rite, the priests Avept and wailed, for the 
 hope of their gain in filthy lucre was gone. 
 Women in India are punished by their husbands, 
 by divers beatings and by the rubbing of red 
 pepper in their eyes. I have often had my 
 righteous soul vexed within me by the cool indif- 
 ference with which the men would regard the 
 agonizing screams of their wives under such tor- 
 ture. 
 
 If a Hindoo woman suffers much in giving 
 birth to her child, her husband and all of her 
 family take that as a positive evidence that she has 
 not been a virtuous woman, and Avith cruel blows 
 they will stand over her and command her to con- 
 fess who her guilty paramour is. More than once 
 have I known a woman under such circumstances 
 to confess to a sin of which she has never been 
 guilty. No gentleman physician is ever allowed 
 to see these high-caste women in their times of 
 sickness and suffering. Hence the great need of 
 
WOMAN'S WORK FOR WOMAN, 175 
 
 lady physicians who may minister to these much 
 abused but lovable women. That there should be 
 such a physician at every mission station in India 
 is a most needed arrangement, and Lady Duffer in, 
 realizing the great need of Hindoo women, has 
 nobly organized an association in which the Hin- 
 doo gentlemen of wealth are now co-operating by 
 contributing generously to its support. Such 
 measures as these will work great good in India, 
 and will call forth the profound gratitude, to a 
 Christian nation, of all Hindoo women. 
 
 One night as I was encamped in a Hindoo vil- 
 lage, I heard at midnight the wailing of a woman, 
 and taking one of the Christian men with me I set 
 out to ascertain the cause of her sorrow. I found 
 one of the low-caste Hindoo women seated on the 
 ground with a dead baby clasped to her breast, 
 while she rocked herself to and fro. These were 
 the words of her lamentation : " Oh, Ram, 
 Krishna, Shiva and all Hindoo gods, can you not 
 tell me where my child is gone ? It smiles no 
 more upon me ; when I call it, it answers me not 
 again. Whither has its spirit fled? Into what 
 form of beast or reptile has its spirit entered ? Is 
 there no power, good or evil, that can tell me 
 where to search now for my child ? Has it entered 
 into a toad or a snake ? " With this last question 
 she shuddered with fear and beat upon her breast 
 and tore her hair in agony of despair. I sat down 
 
176 KORNO SIGA, THE 3I0UNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 beside her and told her of the Christian woman's 
 hope : that when our little ones die, we think of 
 them as forever happy, as being in a lovely home 
 where a Father moi-e tender and loving than any 
 mother on earth can be, provides for their every 
 want : where they shall hunger no more, neither 
 thirst any more, and where the intense heat of the 
 sun shall never more trouble them. I told her 
 too of the Christian woman's faith that she shall 
 meet her child, who is called dead, in that beauti- 
 ful country. 
 
 " How can that be ? " she asked with a wonder- 
 ing look in her dark eyes. " Our Hindoo religion 
 teaches that women have no souls until they are 
 honored by transmigration with a man's body. 
 How, then, can a woman enter by death into such 
 a beautiful spirit-land ? " 
 
 I tried to tell her of what Christ's religion had 
 done for woman — how Christ had called her, 
 daughter, and given her positive assurance that 
 she had a place in the paradise of the good where 
 they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but 
 are as the angels. 
 
 " How long has it been since the women of your 
 country knew of such a religion ? " 
 
 ^^ More than eighteen hundred years have passed 
 since Christ was made manifest in the flesh," I 
 replied, "and our women have heard the story 
 from their earliest infancy." 
 
W03fAN'S WORK FOR WOMAN. 177 
 
 " What have they been doing this long time that 
 they have not sent teachers before to tell us poor 
 Hindoo women of such a blessed religion — ^a re- 
 ligion that allows mothers to hope to see their dead 
 babies again, and does not send their spirits into 
 snakes and horrid beasts ? '^ 
 
 How glad I was to tell her that the women of 
 America and England were at last earnestly en- 
 gaged in sending teachers everywhere to women 
 who had not heard of this better way. 
 
 Miss Brown and I spent happy, useful years to- 
 gether, until the time when I was compelled to take 
 my children from a climate where they no longer 
 could thrive, and place them where they could have 
 the bracing air of a temperate zone, and the educa- 
 tional advantages of a civilized and Christian coun- 
 try. Other workers, noble, earnest men and women, 
 came to take Mr. Marston's and my place, and I 
 bade a tearful farewell to that much loved band of 
 native Christians and ^^ swarthy mountaineers." 
 
 Our gentle Margaret Brown stayed on at her 
 post until the " cholera god " came and claimed her 
 too as its victim ; and a friend of hers thus beauti- 
 fully writes of her death : 
 
 " God's angels keep 
 His watch o'er those who wake and sleep ; 
 E'en death, through his providing care, 
 Will plant the seed whose fruitage fair 
 Of ransomed souls in years to come 
 Shall swell the reaper's ' Harvest Home.' 
 
178 KORNO SIGA, THE 310 UN TAIN CHIEF. 
 
 " Yet land bereaved, beloved, for thee 
 Thy children's tears fall silently. 
 The sickle dropped, the grain unbound 
 Stands whitening all the fertile ground, 
 While scattered laborers strong in faith 
 Toil on through sufferings unto death. 
 
 "Oh, shall the anguish and the tears, 
 The martyr lives of other years, 
 Whose agony of soul was given 
 To lift thy sons from earth to heaven, 
 Bring forth their future fruit in naught 
 But tender memory, reverent thought ? 
 
 " No, the dear ashes scattered wide 
 By Orient and by Western tide. 
 Cry, * Speed the torch from hand to hand, 
 Till hut and fane illumined stand : 
 Till warrior, priest and devotee 
 In one glad worship bend the knee.' 
 
 " And let the sound of Sabbath bell 
 Over thy mountain barriers swell, 
 ' Till eastward meet the westward wave. 
 
 And in far isle and desert cave 
 That faith be held, that praise be sung, 
 Which knows no bound of clime or tongue." 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 
 
 A the years had passed, my heart had become 
 S more and more bound up in my work for the 
 people of Assam. 
 
 Their weakness and frail moral composition had 
 all the more aA^akened my lively sympathy and 
 tender affection ; even as a mother often finds her 
 heart going out most to the sickly or wayward 
 child. But I loved my own flesh and blood 
 better than all else of an earthly nature, and I 
 knew that I had no right to sacrifice my children's 
 highest interests for the sake of helping the 
 Assamese. Neither Mr. Marston nor Christ 
 would ask or desire me to do that. For two hot 
 seasons Paul had suffered greatly from a disease 
 which seemed impossible to cure, and I feared it 
 might become chronic if I did not get him away 
 from Assam before a third hot season came on. 
 European children thrive well in Assam until they 
 come to be ten or twelve years of age. 
 
 When our dear people of Assam learned that 
 we were about to leave them, they gathered for a 
 farewell meeting. They came from the hills and 
 
 (179) 
 
180 KOENO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CBIEF, 
 
 plains^ and stayed about the mission compound for 
 days. They wrote poems and farewell letters, and 
 offered resolutions of regret. I have these poems 
 and letters yet, and shall always keep them as 
 legacies of affection from a people I worked for. 
 Some of these are in the hill people's language, 
 some in Assamese and a few in English. One of 
 the English letters from a young Brahmin whom 
 I had instructed for a time in English, commences 
 thus : " Most venerable Madam : One of your 
 ancient pupils, Moses, whom you so graciously 
 taught the English language, writes to tell you 
 how sorry he is that you are to leave our Assam 
 country." 
 
 For the w^ord venerable he meant respected, and 
 for ancient pupil he meant former pupil. 
 
 One mountain chief brought his son and wished 
 to give him to me that I might have him educated 
 in a Christian country, saying that he himself was 
 too old to change his religion, but he wanted 
 Sarlok to be just such a man as Mr. Marstonwas. 
 The dear native converts and the pupils of my 
 school wept as though their hearts would break, 
 and Korno Siga, as spokesman for all the rest, 
 said : " We shall miss you and mourn for you, and 
 every cold season we shall go to the brow of our 
 highest hill and look far off* on the plains to see if 
 you are returning to us. AVe shall never lie down 
 to sleep at night or arise from our beds in the 
 
II03IEWARD BOUND. 181 
 
 morning without thinking of you and your 
 precious children, and offering a prayer for your 
 happiness and safe return to us. We shall watch, 
 as the weeks pass away, for your footsteps on the 
 mountains. The Father above took the Marston 
 Saheb to live with himself; surely he will not 
 think best to bereave us forever of the presence of 
 Mem Saheb and the babes.'' 
 
 Another of our native people addressed me in 
 the following parting words : " Beloved teacher : 
 From the land of the setting sun did your 
 husband and yourself come to teach us of the 
 divine Christ. After eight years of earnest 
 work in our behalf the much beloved Saheb, Mr. 
 Marston, went to heaven. His grave shall be 
 tenderly watched and cared for during your 
 absence, and month after month shall we gaze far 
 down the Brahmapootra river to see if you are 
 returning to us. It was a sore trial for us to lose 
 our father, and now our mother goes from us. 
 May your children grow a foot a day so that you 
 may soon leave them in America and return to 
 your sorrowing and more needy children of 
 Assam.'' 
 
 At length the parting words were all said, and 
 as far as we could discern the figures of our friends, 
 they waved their adieus to us as they watched our 
 boat from the banks of the river. None but a 
 missionary can understand the deep affection 
 
182 KORNO 8IGA, THE 3I0UNTAIN CHIEF, 
 
 Avhich binds the converts made from heathenism 
 to their Christian teachers. And the missionary 
 grieves over the fall of one of these little ones 
 almost as deeply as over his own flesh and blood. 
 
 We took passage on a steamer to Golunda. 
 Here the children for the first time saw a locomo- 
 tive, and little Henry was much frightened at it. 
 Clinging to my hand he asked if that was an 
 Assamese devil. 
 
 \Ye remained in Calcutta two weeks and en- 
 joyed sight-seeing in the City of Palaces, and 
 spent several evenings in the Eden gardens ad- 
 miring the beautiful variety of tropical plants and 
 the ornamental architecture of the beautiful 
 Burmese pagoda, which was brought from Prome 
 and reconstructed in the Eden gardens in 1856. 
 
 The Post-office on the west side of Delhousie 
 square is a magnificent building, and the Govern- 
 ment House is of very imposing appearance. 
 Commodious galleries connect the four wings. 
 This is the residence of the Governor-General, and 
 affords ample accommodation for public entertain- 
 ment, levees and all official business. Every one 
 who has visited Calcutta has doubtless noticed the 
 Adjutant birds standing for hours on the top of 
 this building. The Ghauts, the Musjeeds, and 
 the monuments of Calcutta aid very materially in 
 making it a city of beautiful appearance. The 
 bishop's palace and the imposing cathedral of St. 
 
HOMEWARD BOUND. 183 
 
 Paul are also fine buildings. Here we heard the 
 grand organ, which cost about eight thousand 
 dollars, and looked upon the colossal statue of 
 Bishop Heber, which occupies a place in the 
 northern transept. As we enter under the organ, 
 the choir in its whole dimensions, with the window 
 by Benjamin West, representing the Crucifixion, 
 bursts upon our view. 
 
 After attending service at the cathedral, our 
 Paul expressed himself thus emphatically : '' I 
 don't like that kind of church service ; it is six 
 times and five times, and five times and six times, 
 and I can't keep run of it.'' He was confused 
 by the frequent kneeling and arising, and this was 
 his manner of expressing his dislike of such a 
 service. As for myself, I enjoyed it most 
 thoroughly. 
 
 The shipping of Calcutta presents a very fine 
 appearance. During a severe cyclone while I Avas 
 in Assam sixty-five large vessels were washed 
 ashore, and great destruction of property was the 
 result. The name Calcutta is written Kali Ghautta 
 in the Hindoostani language, and means the land- 
 ing place of the goddess Kali, the wife of Shiva, 
 the god of destruction. Her temple formerly 
 stood on the river bank. Fort William is the 
 largest fort in India, and will accommodate fifteen 
 thousand soldiers, and cost about $10,000,000. 
 There are over six hundred cannon kept here. 
 
184 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 The dungeon of Fort William, called tlie Black 
 Hole of Calcutta, where one hundred and twenty- 
 three brave British soldiers were suffocated in 
 1756 by Surajah Dowlah, the Indian ruler of 
 Bengal, is a place familiar to history, and all phil- 
 anthropic hearts throb with sympathy as they 
 recall the days of the birth-throes of the British 
 empire in India. 
 
 Below Calcutta, on tlie right bank as we descend 
 the Hoogly, is Garden Eeech, one of the beautiful 
 suburbs, with its elegant gardens and handsome 
 European residences ; while on the left bank are 
 the famous Botanical Gardens, with the celebrated 
 banyan tree of immense size, whose ever increasing 
 branches spread themselves, taking fresh root. 
 
 We took passage in one of the fine steamers of 
 the Peninsula and Oriental line via the Suez Canal 
 to Southampton. The first stopping place was at 
 Madras, a city of four hundred thousand people, on 
 the Bay of Bengal. This city was founded by the 
 English, and hence there are but few Hindoo tem- 
 ples to be found here. But there are cathedrals, 
 colleges, a museum, and an astronomical observa- 
 tory. Our steamer was obliged to anchor two 
 miles from the shore, as Madras has no harbor, 
 and we could not get ashore, as the surf was so 
 high that we did not deem the light, flat-bottomed 
 boats (native name, masulahs) in which all must 
 
HOMEWARD BOUND. 185 
 
 land, safe to intrust ourselves for such an ad- 
 venture. 
 
 Madras, like Calcutta, has its native town of 
 squalor and narrow streets, but the streets of the 
 European part of the city are wide and handsome, 
 and there are many elegant private residences on 
 each side of these boulevards. This city carries 
 on a large trade, but not so large as Calcutta. The 
 favorite evening drive of the foreign residents of 
 Madras is called Mount Eoad, and leads from the 
 city to Mount St. Thome, where the apostle 
 Thomas is said to have been buried. The Gov- 
 ernment House of Madras is a half oriental, half 
 European palace, with spacious verandahs and 
 Venetian blinds shutting out the heat of the sun. 
 
 Point de Galle, at the extreme southern point 
 of Ceylon, was our next sj^opping place. Here we 
 took a carriage and drove through the spice groves 
 and inhaled the '^ spicy breezes which blow soft 
 o'er Ceylon's isle.'' There is a high cone among 
 the mountains of Ceylon called Adam's peak, 
 which is visited by many pilgrims, who climb the 
 steep sides by means of a chain fastened at the 
 top. On the top of this steep rock there is some- 
 thing which looks like a footprint, and which the 
 Buddhists say is a track of Buddha when he 
 stepped from Ceylon to Siam. The Mohammedans 
 think it is Adam's foot-mark when he was driven 
 from the garden of Eden, hence the name Adam's 
 
186 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 peak. The uneducated Hindoos of Assam call 
 the isle of Cejlon Loiikadeep, from the fact that 
 they believe that Lonha, a great evil spirit, lives 
 there, who devours every Hindoo who sets foot 
 on its soil. The satin wood and the ebony are 
 among the choice varieties of wood found in Cey- 
 lon. The most useful of all the trees is the 
 cocoanut palm, which supplies the native with food, 
 drink, house utensils, garden fences, torches and 
 oil. The cinnamon groves are numerous, and the 
 bark is a chief article of export. The cinnamon 
 plant W'hen growing wild is twenty or thirty feet 
 high. Coffee is extensively cultivated. The inhabi- 
 tants are Singalese, and the men have a curious cus- 
 tom of wearing round tortoise-shell combs to keep 
 their long hair from falling over their faces. 
 Point de Galle is quite a, mart for turtles ; we had 
 some twenty of the monsters on board our steamer, 
 and it was wonderful the enormous quantities of 
 w^at^r they required to be thrown over them every 
 day. Our captain said he was taking them to 
 England to be made into soup. I did not measure 
 them, but think they must have averaged three 
 feet VA width. All kinds of turtle-shell ware were 
 brought on our steamer for sale, and eagerly bought 
 by our passengers. Some of the combs and chains 
 were very delicate and artistic in their mechan- 
 ism. 
 
 We next touched at Aden, a strongly fortified 
 
HOMEWARD BOUND. 187 
 
 town belonging to Great Britain. It is in the 
 southwest part of Arabia. Our ship dropped 
 anchor at this port early in the morning, and the 
 first sound we heard was the voice of a little boy 
 in the adjoining cabin crying out to my little 
 Henry : " Halloo, Henry, wake up ! there are lots 
 of little boys in the water with hair just like 
 yours." We looked out of the window and saw a 
 number of native boys, black shiny little fellows 
 with hair bleached by water and sun until the color 
 was nearer like taify than anything else. Henry 
 indignantly resented the assertion that his golden 
 curls were to be likened to taffy, and very soiled 
 taffy at that. The little taffy-headed boys come 
 out in canoes and greet every steamer in order that 
 they may dive for coin which the passengers throw 
 to them in the water. They dive with wonderful 
 agility, and often go underneath the large steamer 
 and come up on the other side, displaying the new- 
 found coin with exultant joy. It is an amusing 
 sight, as these little glistening savages dive, to see 
 for a while only the soles of their yellow feet, and 
 after quite an interval their woolly pates emerging 
 from the surface of the pale green water while the 
 successful boy shows the shining coin between his 
 teeth. For some reason, I know not what, the 
 sharks never touch these little fellows. 
 
 Aden was produced by volcanic eruptions. Its 
 highest peak is about one thousand feet. The 
 
188 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 harbor is good, and large depots of coal and 
 other supplies are kept here for the British navy 
 and passenger vessels. Rain falls but seldom, 
 most of the water supply being condensed sea- 
 water. There are tanks for receiving the water in 
 case the rain falls. Aden is the gateway of the 
 Red Sea, and our captain told us that the English 
 were only one hour ahead of the French in taking 
 possession of this, to them, important place. The 
 heat was intense in the Red Sea, which we now 
 entered, and as the full rays of the sun rested 
 upon the water the play of colors was beautiful 
 indeed. In the Gulf of Suez, the water is green, 
 and the bay is edged with a border of bright 
 yellow sand, and the top of the mountain ranges 
 is red. Beautiful, indeed, and grand was the 
 effect of these three colors so artistically arranged. 
 The Suez Canal, after ten years labor by thou- 
 sands of workmen under the general superintend- 
 ence of the distinguished engineer, M. Ferdinand 
 de Lesseps, had but recently been opened, and our 
 steamer made its way slowly, averaging al)out five 
 miles an hour only. At Ismaila is a ferry across the 
 canal to accommodate travellers from Jerusalem. 
 Tliis road may have been the path Avhicli Joseph 
 and Mary and the infant Jesus, took when fleeing 
 into Egypt. Along the banks of the canal were 
 many loaded camels driven by Arabs. I was 
 much pleased with the little French cottages along 
 
H03IEWABD BOUND. 189 
 
 the route of the canal, Avhich were occupied by 
 those caring for the canal. Though surrounded 
 by the wide waste of sand these French people, 
 always remarkable for their love of the beautiful, 
 had flowers and vines growing about and over 
 their cottages. It was a sight most restful to the 
 eye wearied by the arid waste. While making 
 our way through the canal we had a splendid 
 opportunity of witnessing the wonderful decep- 
 tiveness of the mirage. Gazing out over the wide 
 waste of burning sand, lovely lakes of water 
 seemed spread out before us, and it was difficult 
 to dispel the illusion. Even the most experienced 
 camel-drivers are sometimes deceived by it, but 
 our captain says the animals are never cheated in 
 this Avay, as their sense of smell and other animal 
 instincts always lead them aright. The Arabs call 
 this illusion of the mirage the "sea that is not 
 water." In India the mirage is sometimes called 
 "the picture,'^ and the "minstrel's white lake.'' 
 There is an old Indian legend which tells of a 
 minstrel who, being deceived by the appearance of 
 sparkling fresh water, emptied out the contents of 
 his water-bottle that he might fill it from the 
 limpid stream. As a consequence he perished 
 with thirst, and the moral is expressed in our 
 English proverb : "A bird in the hand is worth 
 two in the bush." 
 
 Port Said, with its long breakwater made of 
 
190 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 artificial boulders of concrete, is next reached. 
 Here the soil is all sand, and the coast low and 
 monotonous in the extreme. A crowd of bare- 
 legged turbaned natives and a few ugly dogs 
 were all the signs of animate life to be seen, and 
 we were glad to strike out to sea and breathe 
 the invigorating air of the Mediterranean. Here 
 we laid aside our thin clothes, and wrapped our- 
 selves in flannels and blankets. 
 
 The city of Alexander the Great, bearing his 
 illustrious name (Alexandria), next looms up be- 
 fore us. Cleopatra's needles then stood in bold 
 relief, marking the place where the temple of 
 Csesar, the Csesarim, stood. In 1877 one of these 
 was presented by Mehemet Ali to the British, and 
 was taken to London. The other Ismail Pasha 
 gave to the United States of America, and in 1880 
 it was taken to New York. The red granite 
 column known as Pompey's Pillar is Corinthian 
 in its style of architecture, and is ninety-nine feet 
 high, and makes a fine display as seen from the 
 harbor. I have been told that a party of eight 
 rollicking English sailors once flew a kite over the 
 pillar and let it come down on the other side so 
 that the string might fall from the top. They 
 pulled up a rope with this string, and then the 
 whole eight climbed to the top and drank punch 
 and had a gay time, while the astonished Arabs 
 
HOMEWARD BOUND. 191 
 
 gathered in a crowd to witness the strange and 
 daring exploit. 
 
 We spent one day at rocky Malta, and went to 
 the old church of the Knights of St. John. We 
 were told an amusing story of a young man who 
 was overquick in arriving at conclusions, who 
 when he visited this church saw the women all 
 dressed in black, and concluded that the men had 
 all been killed in the Crimean war, and their 
 widows, clad in the weeds of mourning, Avere at 
 the church praying for the repose of their 
 husbands' souls. He berated the English govern- 
 ment roundly for thus drafting into military ser- 
 vice so large a portion of the male population of 
 Malta. He was quite taken aback when he was told 
 that the costume of all the native women was the 
 black one he had seen every woman in the church 
 have on. This old church is grandly beautiful, with 
 its special chapels for each country which sent out 
 Crusaders. The floor is paved with marble slabs, 
 on each of which is the name and title of a 
 knight. The pictures on the walls are many of 
 them the work of the French nuns, and are ex- 
 quisitely embroidered on canvas. We were shown 
 one that was said to be made from the broken 
 threads which were cast aside from the embroider- 
 ing of a larger picture. The work was very fine, 
 and the general effect very pleasing, showing that 
 
192 KORNO SIGA, THE 3I0UNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 even broken threads can be used by one who has a 
 wise and good plan from which to work. 
 
 " God takes our broken threads, 
 And works them in 
 With his own grand design ; 
 And in his sight 
 All is complete 
 Because begun with him." 
 
 Malta had an additional interest to us as being 
 the island w^here the apostle Paul landed, and 
 w^here the barbarous people showed him " no little 
 kindness." 
 
 Great Britain's fortified rock, Gibraltar, en- 
 gaged our next attention, but has been too often 
 described by travellers to need any comment from 
 me. This is said to be the only place in Europe 
 were wild monkeys are found. 
 
 Six weeks from the day w^e left Calcutta we set 
 foot on British ground at Southampton, and were 
 soon seated in the coach for London. We had 
 enjoyed a pleasant voyage ; the cuisine, service and 
 general attendance of our steamer were excellent. 
 Ten days more passed and we were in our beloved 
 native land, surrounded by friends from whom we 
 had been long parted, and breathing in the June 
 air made fragrant with roses. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 IMPEESSIONS OF AMERICA AFTER AN ABSENCE 
 OF YEARS. 
 
 PAINFULLY impressed was I upon reaching 
 America, with the nervous haste which 
 seemed to characterize every man, woman and 
 child. I felt inclined to stop every one whom I 
 met and ask if a house was on fire, and, if not, 
 why such desperate speed and restlessness? It 
 tired me to see no calm people ; nobody that had 
 time for a social chat nor even time to eat their 
 meals as they should be eaten. 
 
 Another thing that impressed me was the vast 
 increase in the number of patent medicines, and I 
 was forced to the conclusion that my native people 
 were either a very "unhealthy people, or a very 
 unhappy people, for their ills are either real or 
 imaginary.^' 
 
 The immense foreign immigration which had gone 
 on during my absence made me feel that our 
 country was fast becoming the "pandemonium" of 
 all nations. As I looked over the list of officers 
 of our labor organizations I could find few 
 English or American names, but Teutonic and 
 Hibernian names everywhere abounded, and I was 
 1? (193) 
 
194 KORNO SIGA, THE 3I0UNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 forced to ask the question : " Do our American 
 people look upon manual labor as a disgrace?" 
 "Wlien the great railroad strike came on, it seemed 
 to me but a just punishment to our people for 
 having given over their great labor organizations 
 into foreign hands. 
 
 The increased number of suicides was a con- 
 viction forced ujdou me, in spite of all my deter- 
 mination to see only good in my dear native 
 people. If the masses of our graduates from our 
 public schools insist upon following after the pro- 
 fessions, and a day dreaming idealism of wealth 
 and high social position, how can we expect any- 
 thing but hobbyists, cranks and insane hypochon- 
 driacs ? Honest labor is the salvation of any race, 
 and we can never expect to be a perfect people 
 until we give up our wild pursuit of wealth 
 gained by speculation and trickery, and learn to 
 respect labor and the skilled artisan, and no longer 
 give the highest social position to the millionaire, 
 whether he has brains and morality or not. 
 
 I look upon the opening of numerous schools 
 of technology all over our land at the present time 
 as the daAvning of an auspicious day, and hope 
 that they may be crowded with pupils, while our 
 law, medical and political aspirants may be re- 
 duced to the few who are adapted to their pro- 
 fessions, and who will do their work faithfully and 
 v.ell. The disposition of the young people to take 
 
IMPBES8I0NS OF AMERICA. 195 
 
 their marriage affairs into their own hands, and the 
 consequent increase of divorce cases in our courts, 
 was another thing that impressed me unfavorably 
 on my return to my country. 
 
 But there were also bright and cheering impres- 
 sions ; the broad and liberal attitude of our 
 churches in the way of frowning down human 
 creeds and denominational bigotry, and the show- 
 ing of true love and sympathy for all who bore 
 the image of Christ, was one of the most inspiring 
 of all these favorable impressions. My country- 
 men had come nearer realizing the true idea of the 
 Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man. 
 
 This spirit showed itself in philanthropies 
 broad and far reaching, extending even to the 
 uttermost parts of the earth. " The kindly feel- 
 ing, the desire to help, the increased skill which 
 springs up under Christianity, as flowers and fruits 
 grow in the sunshine,'^ were to me at once a refresh- 
 ing and a solace. These things "are not miracles, 
 but are better than miracles, as the prolonged sun- 
 shine is better than the flash of lightning." I 
 found the day laborer of my native land enjoying 
 more books, libraries, railroads, telegraphs and 
 newspapers, than the Rajahs and Ranis of India. 
 At the present time the philanthropies of our 
 United States amount to $120,000,000 annually, 
 and care for orphans, waifs, insane, sick, little 
 wanderers, cripples, drunken outcasts, and children, 
 
196 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 and those needing reformations; while we have 
 forty-three institutions for the deaf and dumb 
 which average 5,743 inmates annually; thirty 
 blind asylums, with 2,178 annually taught and 
 cared for ; and eleven institutions which care for 
 idiots, with 1,781 yearly inmates. In New York 
 city alone the charitable societies expend each year 
 $4,000,000. Surely this is a showing of liberality 
 such as no un-Christian country could ever 
 exhibit. Add to these all that is being done in 
 heathen lands through the instrumentality of 
 American money and American workers, and we 
 have reason to be proud of the record, and should 
 strive still to further increase our philanthropic 
 and Christian efforts. God forbid that our be- 
 loved land should ever prove recreant to her high 
 trust, and place herself on the side of agnosticism 
 and atheism, for : 
 
 " Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide 
 In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil 
 
 side; 
 Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the 
 
 bloom or blight. 
 Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the 
 
 right, 
 And the chance goes by forever, 'twixt the darkness and the 
 
 light." 
 
 My children enjoyed the new and beautiful life 
 that came to them with the June roses, under a sun 
 
IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA. 197 
 
 that did not light upon them with a tropical heat, 
 and the lovely Autumn tints, and with the frost 
 and snow. 
 
 Our national holidays were times of great in- 
 terest to them, as they had known nothing of 
 fire-crackers, Roman candles and sky-rockets in 
 Assam. Their efforts at the English language 
 were amusing, for, in spite of all my efforts, I 
 had never been able to get them to speak English 
 in Assam, and even when I would tell them a 
 story in that language they would beg of me to 
 talk to them in their own Assamese tongue. The 
 termination for the future tenses in the Assamese 
 language is ^6o, and when they wished to say " it 
 will rain, snow or hail,'^ they would put it in the 
 form of " rainibo," " snowibo '^ and " hailibo." 
 And even after they learned the English words 
 they would cling to the Assamese idioms and order 
 of expression. Instead of saying, " Please, give 
 me a drink of water," they would form the 
 sentence thus : "To me, w^ater give, please." 
 And instead of saying, "I don't like the cold 
 weather," they would say, " I like cold weather, 
 no, not so." The first anniversary of George 
 Washington's birthday after our return excited 
 little Henry's curious interest, and he asked me 
 why it was that they did not have school that day. 
 I told him because it was George Washington's 
 birthday. He inquired in return if "George 
 
198 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 would have his washing done every day," adding 
 that he hoped he would^ as he liked to play better 
 than to go to school. When I explained to him 
 all about the illustrious " father of his country/' 
 and told him that he had long been dead, but that 
 a grateful people loved to honor his memory, the 
 little fellow only remarked, that George must have 
 had a great deal of soiled linen if it had not all 
 been washed yet. He could not get the name 
 Washington into his little head, for he had never 
 been used to hearing two names given to one 
 person. 
 
 The sensation of cold from handling ice and 
 snow my children invariably called heat, and said 
 they were " burnt with the ice.'' Before the end 
 of the first winter at home, however, they had ad- 
 justed themselves to their new surroundings, and 
 had acquired the language so as to speak it with- 
 out a brogue. 
 
 As I review the years of my residence abroad, I 
 am persuaded that they have been the golden days 
 of my life as far as true usefulness is concerned ; 
 and if you ask me to tell you in detail why the work 
 of a missionary in India is grand and noble, let 
 me answer you in the language of the British 
 House of Commons : 
 
 "Apart from their special duties as public 
 preachers and pastors, the foreign missionaries 
 constitute a valuable body of educators ; they 
 
IMFBESSIoks OF AMERTCA. 199 
 
 Contribute greatly to the cultivation of the native 
 languages and literature ; all who are resident in 
 rural districts are appealed to for help of a medi- 
 cal character. They have prepared hundreds of 
 works suited both for schools and for general 
 circulation in the fifteen most prominent languages 
 of India, and in several other districts they are 
 the compilers of several dictionaries and gram- 
 mars. They have written important works on 
 the native classics and the system of philosophy ; 
 and they have largely stimulated the great increase 
 of native literature prepared in recent years by 
 educated native gentlemen. A great increase has 
 taken place in the number of converts the last 
 twenty years. They number now at least five 
 hundred thousand. The government of India 
 cannot but acknowledge the great obligation under 
 which it is laid by these benevolent exertions of 
 these six hundred missionaries, whose blameless 
 lives and self-denying labors are infusing new 
 vigor into the stereotyped life of the great popu- 
 lations placed under English rule, and are prepar- 
 ing them to be in every way better men and better 
 citizens of the great empire in which they dwell/' 
 And to this let me add the testimony of one who 
 is well prepared to speak on this subject: "The 
 wide diffusion of Christian knowledge; the 
 arousing of the Hindoo mind from its long torpor 
 to the earnest discussion of the merits and claims 
 
200 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIER 
 
 of Christianity ; the abolition of Suttee, of female 
 infanticide, and hook-swinging ; the loosing of the 
 bonds of caste, the diminished influence of Brah- 
 minical powers, and the earnest desire and prac- 
 tical efforts put forth for the education of women, 
 all show that India's long night of superstition 
 and moral ignorance is passing away, and the 
 dawn of a glorious day already at hand/' 
 
 It is an honor to any human being to have had 
 a hand and heart in this great work of saving a 
 nation. 
 
CHAPTEE XXIII. 
 
 WHY RETURN TO ASSAM? 
 
 WHEN I left my home in the beautiful green 
 valley of the Brahmapootra river, I little 
 thought that more than a decade and a half of years 
 would pass away before I should return thither. 
 
 But finding that my children required my pres- 
 ence and care, and fully realizing that no higher 
 and nobler life could possibly engage my heart 
 than a mother^s mission for her children bereft of 
 a father, I have stayed on, year after year, and 
 have been very happy in my work and my 
 surroundings. The time has come when my 
 fostering care is no longer needed for my children, 
 since they have come to fill their own places in 
 the busy world, among the bread-winners, where 
 they are serving Christ and his cause ; and they 
 cheerfully consent for me to go back to my un- 
 finished work in India. 
 
 When one has for years pursued a certain line 
 of work, amid surroundings pleasant and satis- 
 factory, in their own beloved land, the question very 
 naturally suggests itself, " Why make a change ? 
 Why go to a foreign land and to a heathen 
 
 (201) 
 
202 KOENO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 people ? Are the reasons which lead to this change 
 sufficiently weighty to warrant such a step?" 
 Many times have these questions been put to me 
 since I decided to return, and I deem it but due 
 to the dear friends of my native land to answer 
 them honestly and frankly in this closing chapter 
 of my book. 
 
 First. My presence is desired there ; T have the 
 confidence and affection of the natives ; and their 
 language is almost as familiar to me as my 
 own mother tongue. 
 
 When I was left alone in the mission after my 
 husband^s death, a company of native women, 
 fearing I would be lonely, came night after night, 
 bringing with them their babies, and stayed with 
 me. It was their way of showing their affection 
 and sympathy, and I most thoroughly appreciated 
 their motives. Nor could I feel alone with a 
 dozen babies in the house besides my own little 
 children. Many incidents such as the following 
 also go to prove that these poor Assamese women 
 loved me and wished me to live among them. A 
 hill tribe woman whose son had been in our 
 Normal School, and who had heard INIr. Marston 
 preach Christ's words on the mountains, on hearing 
 of the death of the preacher, came eleven days' 
 journey through dense jungles infested with wild 
 and savage animals, that she might mingle her 
 tears with mine. On reaching my bungalow she 
 
WS:r BETtJRN TO ASSAM? 203 
 
 said, with tears streaming down her cheeks, '^I 
 know what it is to lose one's right arm. I, too, 
 am a widow, and I have come from my mountain 
 home to tell you how deeply I sympathize with 
 you.'' 
 
 When I bade adieu to the company of native 
 pupils, Bible women, school-teachers, native 
 preachers, and Hindoo and hill people wlio had 
 been about me during the twelve years of my so- 
 journ in Assam, they were sorely grieved at the 
 parting, and Korno Siga was spokesman for the 
 whole company in words which I have given you 
 in a previous chapter. Sixteen years have passed, 
 and month by month he and his waiting company 
 ask almost piteously : "Are you not coming back 
 very soon?'' 
 
 Second. I am needed in Assam a hundredfold 
 more than here in my own land. Teachers and 
 physicians crowd against each other here on every 
 hand. There I shall have the consciousness that 
 I am doing a work which would otherwise be left 
 undone, for the harvest is great and the laborers 
 are few and scattered. I could tell heart-rend- 
 ing stories of the sad condition of our dark 
 Hindoo sisters who are compelled to live on in 
 sickness and suifering because the custom of the 
 country forbids them to be seen by gentlemen 
 physicians. The Christian lady physician has, 
 therefore, a wider field of usefulness in India than 
 
204 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 in America. When I left Assam there was not, in 
 all that province, a Zenana in which I was not 
 cordially welcomed, and I was free to talk to those 
 poor, ignorant, though beautiful women, of the 
 grand truths of a saving Christianity. By kind 
 and patient attention to their physical needs, by 
 attending them in their hours of sickness and 
 pain, and by an expressed practical interest in 
 their homes and home life, one may so gain their 
 confidence that they will listen to the more im- 
 portant things which pertain to their souls' eternal 
 welfare. Lady Dufferin is doing a most noble work 
 in India in establishing lady physicians who shall 
 take charge of hospitals for women and children, 
 and train a corps of native nurses to care for the 
 sick of their own sex. 
 
 Our lady missionary physicians are doing a still 
 more important work, caring for both soul and body. 
 And our Indian sisters begin to appreciate the 
 value of this work which meets a long-felt need. 
 I candidly believe that I am needed there for just 
 such work as this. 
 
 Third, I return to Assam because I believe it 
 to be the duty and privilege of individuals, as well 
 as of nations, to work out their highest destiny. 
 Service for the divine Christ is, I believe, the 
 highest destiny of mortals, as well as of angels. 
 " Life is the exertion of power,'' and spiritual life, 
 which is the highest form of life, is the exertion 
 
WHY RETURN TO ASSAM? 205 
 
 of spiritual power to benefit humanity. This 
 spiritual power is generated in the heart of every- 
 one who drinks of the fountain of eternal life, and 
 is made a new creature in Christ. Feeling as- 
 sured that my life will be of more service to the 
 Saviour's cause in Assam than it can be here, and 
 believing that the line of my highest destiny lies 
 in this direction, I again turn my face to the 
 Orient. 
 
 Fourthy and most important of all my reasons. 
 I return to Assam because I believe that Chris- 
 tianity is the vital power for the salvation of her 
 sons and daughters. Assured that Christ's re- 
 ligion has in it an infinitely higher morality and 
 spirituality, and consequently an infinitely greater 
 power to save humanity than Buddhism, Brah- 
 minism, or any New Brotherhood of Robert 
 Elsmere, I count it a joy and a privilege to bear 
 the news of a crucified and risen Jesus to those 
 who grope in thick darkness. 
 
 Not that I think that God has left himself 
 without witnesses during all these years in India. 
 I cannot believe that. But as Buddhism, the so- 
 called " Light of Asia," is agnosticism and athe- 
 ism, surely this religion has not been God's best 
 manifestation. And as Brahminism is gross idolatry 
 and licentiousness, we can hardly call this, God's 
 chosen means of manifesting himself to India. 
 The apostle Paul tells us plainly in the first 
 
206 EORNO SIGA, THE 3I0UNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 chapter of Romans, that God's eternal power and 
 Godhead have been clearly shoAvn to them, so that 
 they are without excuse. And we are told also in 
 the first chapter of John's Gospel that the true 
 light lighteth every man that cometh into the 
 world. But it is a sad fact, made very manifest 
 to those who have lived among heathen peoples, 
 that the truth of God has been changed by thena 
 into falsehood, and their hearts have been darkened 
 by sin until the " unknown God " needs to be de- 
 clared to them with the earnest power which 
 Christ's life and atonement can alone make 
 effectual to their salvation. 
 
 The missionary work is not simply a philan- 
 thropy, nor is it simply an inspiration caught from 
 the life of a pure noble man who lived eighteen 
 hundred years ago, and suffered martyrdom for his 
 principles by death on the Roman cross. If I 
 believed that Christ was only a good man, I should 
 not consider it my duty to leave my children and 
 my beloved native land to go to Assam. Sacredly 
 and reverently I believe that " God commended 
 his love toward us in that while we were yet sin- 
 ners Christ died for us," and that " whosoever 
 believeth on him shall not perish but have ever- 
 lasting life." 
 
 This Jesus who is the " Light of the World," in 
 whom is the hope of all nations, has said, ^' go teach 
 
WHY RETURN TO ASSAMf 207 
 
 all nations/^ and it is for us to obey the heavenly 
 vision. 
 
 We would esteem no man a true patriot who 
 would refuse to represent his country in a foreign 
 court ; we would consider no man a true lover of 
 his country who would refuse to fight his country's 
 battles when her voice called loudly for his help. 
 Even so, should the soldiers of Christ hold them- 
 selves ready for any service their commander may 
 demand of them, whether that service be at home 
 or in a foreign country. The true missionary 
 spirit is one of lowliness and ready service. 
 
 By obedience to the divine will, by an earnest 
 sympathy with the common people, by going on 
 his missions, by giving freely our property and 
 ourselves to advance his cause, thus can we show 
 forth the true missionary spirit, in whatever land 
 we are called to do our life-work. 
 
 And lastly. I return to Assam because I ear- 
 nestly desire to add my mite toward carrying on the 
 work so nobly begun by our martyr heroes who 
 have fallen in the battle. From the days of the 
 sainted Thomas, who died when but within sight 
 of his mission field in Assam, down to the present 
 time, there have been noble men and women who 
 have joyfully given their full ten talents, their 
 time, and their most faithful service to this work, 
 and have laid down their lives for it. They have 
 accomplished a great work, but that mission is 
 
208 KORNO SIGA, THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 
 
 now in a very needy condition and calls loudly 
 for reinforcement. I cannot call the work of these 
 Assamese martyrs an unfinished work, for is not 
 "man immortal until his work is done?" But we 
 have an unfinished work there, and a divine ob- 
 ligation rests upon us to do what we can do 
 toAvards its completion. 
 
 Scattered laborers strong in faith are toiling on 
 amid the whitened fields of Assam, while ever and 
 anon one falls by the way, and there seem no 
 workers ready to seize the fallen sickle and gather 
 the grain. Pray ye the Lord of the harvest to 
 send forth more laborers into this most needy field. 
 
 " Hark, the voice of Jesus calling, 
 Who will go and work to-day ? 
 
 Fields are white, the harvest waiting, 
 Who will bear the sheaves away? 
 
 Loud and long the Master calleth, 
 
 Rich reward he offers you : 
 
 Who will answer, gladly saying, 
 
 Here am I, O Lord, send me." 
 
 " Why return to Assam ? " 
 
 First. My presence is desired there. 
 
 Second. I am needed there. 
 
 TJiird. Service for Christ in that land lies in 
 
 the line of my highest destiny. 
 •Fourth. Christianity is the vital and saving 
 power of all nations, and Christ bids 
 us, " Go teach all nations." 
 
WHY RETURN TO ASSAM? 209 
 
 Fifth. The noble army of martyrs who have 
 begun a great work in Assam call 
 upon us to carry that work to a 
 glorious completion. 
 
 To the beloved friends who have made my stay 
 in America so delightsome, I commend my chil- 
 dren and my lovely little grand-daughter, while I 
 turn my face to the land of the Rising Sun, to my 
 husband's grave, to my unfinished work, and to 
 that faithful company, who, with Korno Siga, wait 
 and watch for me on the brow of the hill. 
 
 From thence I may send back some notes of 
 "Assam revisited/' 
 14 
 
 THE END. 
 
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